Books by T. Austin-Sparks

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Did you notice one thing about the vine that we read in the Old Testament? We read, in Ezekiel 15, that the vine has no other purpose in its existence than to bear fruit. Have you ever seen anything made of vine? You have never seen a table, or a vessel or even a walking-stick made of vine! Ezekiel says that you can do nothing with the wood of the vine - you cannot even make from it a peg on which to hang things. The vine is absolutely useless apart from the fruit. The grapes are the only purpose of its existence, and if it does not bear them, then, says Ezekiel, you just cast it into the fire. There are no by-products of the vine, no secondary use. It exists for one thing, and one thing only, and that is fruit.

God raised up the old Israel to bear His divine fruit of life and light for the nations, but they failed to do that. God had no other use for an Israel like that, so He said 'Cast it into the fire.' He did that nearly twenty centuries ago and that is where Israel is now.

We can see from that what the Lord Jesus means when He says that He is the true vine and we are the branches. The TRUE vine is that which fulfils the one and only purpose of its existence.

So Jesus brings this illustration over to Himself and His Church, and it is perfectly clear what is the nature of the Lord Jesus. He is reaching out to all men, embracing the whole world. He asks ALL the nations into His heart. ALL men are His concern and not any one nation. He said to His disciples: "Go ye therefore, and make disciples of ALL THE NATIONS" (Matthew 28:19). It is the very nature of Jesus to do that. It is quite foreign to Him to be exclusive, small and narrow and self-occupied.

Our salvation is to have our hearts enlarged so that they are bigger than ourselves. Anyone who turns in on himself or herself, and those who are always occupied with themselves, are dying while they live. It cannot be avoided. Let a little company of the Lord's people live just to itself, become wholly occupied with itself, and its days are numbered. They are living a living death. Their destiny is to fade out. That is true of any one Christian or of any company of the Lord's people, because Christ is in the believer and His very nature is to reach out like the vine. He would draw all men unto Himself, and for His people to be otherwise is a contradiction to His very nature, which is the nature of the true vine.

Jesus says: "I am the vine, ye are the branches". The branches of the vine make one vine - they partake of the same nature. Do you notice that it is the very branches themselves that do the expanding work of Jesus? Yes, this expanding work is manifested by the branches.

That, of course, is what happened in Jerusalem right at the beginning, when some troubles sprang up in the Christian church there. It was the first bit of trouble that the Christian church had! Some of the first Apostles wanted to stay in Jerusalem and build up the church there. Forgetting the commandment of the Lord, they were just settling down to make Jerusalem the center of everything and the church an exclusive body. Then there rose up in their midst a young man "full of faith and of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 6:5), and his name was Stephen. If you listen to what Stephen said you will recognize that what he is saying has this meaning: 'This will not do. We have been called for the nations. We are not to be an exclusive people. We are called to a world mission and must not settle down in the old Judaism.' Some of the first Christians and Christian leaders did not agree with him. Of course, the old Israel did not agree with that! And so they stoned Stephen on this very issue of the world mission of the Church. I cannot help asking the question: Where were James and Peter when Stephen was being stoned? They were in Jerusalem, but were not present. Why was it that Stephen was stoned and not Peter or James? Because at that time they were not taking the line that Stephen was taking. They were making Jerusalem everything, and, of course, the old Israel would not stone them for doing that, so they were quite safe somewhere in Jerusalem. But Stephen was stoned.

Do understand that there is something here of which to take note: that this new Israel is given a mission to all the nations, and there is a great price to pay for that. The whole kingdom of Satan is against it. If you will just become a little, quiet, compromising local sect you will be all right. The devil won't worry you if you are just living within your own walls and closed doors, and the world will not trouble about you. It will leave you alone... but if you go out on this heavenly level of things and embrace all men in Christ, you will find that the world is against you and the devil is against you. You and I ought to see this in our day as no one has ever seen it before. Do you not see what is happening in the nations? There is not a missionary left in China! It is no longer possible for one to go into that country; and that same thing is happening in other parts of the world. They have tried to drive them out of Africa. Why is this? Oh, the kingdom of Satan does not want Jesus to get into his world. There have been literally many thousands of martyrs for Jesus Christ in China, and many others in Africa, and in other parts. It has never been quite like this before. It is a new phase of things. Satan knows that his time is short and that he must do all he can to close the nations to Jesus Christ. So there is a great price bound up with this world mission. Stephen is the great example of that.

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The purpose, then, of Christ and His Church, of the vine and the branches, is to bring life to men all over this world.

I wonder if that is altogether true of the church today! Do you not think that even the Christian Church is failing in this matter? It is not really bringing life to the nations. Many a place called a 'church' is not bringing life even to its own little locality. This is a contradiction of Christ!

But it is all very well to think of this objectively. It has to come down to every one of us. What is the proof that Christ is in you and in me? How can it be known that Christ is in us? Only in one way - that others are receiving life through us, that we minister the life of Christ to others, that when hungry and needy people come into touch with us they feel the touch of life. They may express it in different ways, but it amounts to this: 'That man, that woman, has something that I have not got and it is something that I need. There is something about them that I feel, and it is what I really need.' That should be true of every Christian because Christ is in us, expanding Himself through us and ministering His life through us.

Oh, do pray, dear friends, every day as you get up: 'Lord, make me a channel of life to someone today. Lord, minister Your own life through me to someone today. May I bring life wherever I am.' The Lord has no other purpose for you and for me. We may try to do a lot of things, but if we belong to the Vine we are no good for anything but to bear fruit; and that is to bring life to others. We are not even to be a peg upon which to hang something, or a walking-stick to help someone to stand up straight. No, God has no use for us other than to bear fruit, to bring life.

Jesus said here in this chapter: "Every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit". Of course, we understand that in nature and agree with it. Perhaps if you have had anything to do with grape vines, you have done it yourself. It is strange that we believe in it as a law of nature and say: 'It is the right and the best thing to do to cut this piece off so that it will do better', but we do not agree with the Lord doing it to us. When He begins to do it we are full of grumbles and complaints! When for a little while He calls us to do less in order that He might fit us to do more, we do not agree. When it seems that the Lord is taking away some of our fruit, some of our work, we are full of problems. We do not understand the Lord and begin to ask questions about His love.

Jesus has laid this down as a positive truth. Here is some branch that is bearing fruit (not one that is bearing no fruit: that, He says, will be cast into the fire) and it is THAT one that He prunes. Here is a branch that is fulfilling its vocation and the Lord looks at it. He says: 'That is very good! I am very pleased with it, but I can do better, and there is better that that branch can do.' So He takes the knife, and He disciplines us, He reduces us in order to increase us. He cuts some away in order that there might be more.

What a lot of history there is in that statement! The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews said: "All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous, but grievous: yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness" (Hebrews 12:11). That is only saying in another way that the Husbandman does sometimes take the knife and He cuts deeply into our souls, but afterward there is more and better fruit than there was before.

Now we come to this last word. The wine comes from the grape through the winepress, which is the symbol of pressure. What pressure is brought to bear upon that fruit in order to get the wine! The winepress is the symbol of breaking, and that fruit is broken to pieces. The wine is wrung out of its agony.

The Lord Jesus said "I am the true Vine", and it was prophesied of Him that He would tread the winepress alone. The Cross was His winepress. How He was pressed in the Cross! He was crushed and broken, but out of that breaking has come the life which you and I have, and which so many in all the nations have received. That is true, in a measure, of His Church. It was out of the breaking and crushing of the Church that the life came to the world. And that is true of every member, every branch of the vine. If we are to fulfil this true, living ministry, it will only be through suffering, through the winepress, through pressure and through breaking. Paul said: "We were pressed out of measure, above strength" (II Corinthians 1:8 - A.V.) - but what life has come out of that man's pressure! It is like that. We are not talking about preaching and Bible teaching, but about this great ministry of Christ giving His life through us. It may be passed on to others through preaching, or through teaching, or through living, but if it is His life it will come out of experiences of suffering. A preacher or a teacher who has never suffered will never minister life.

Well, this may not seem a very pleasant outlook, but it is true. The best doctors and nurses are those who know something about suffering themselves. Some are just professional, treating you as a case - you are just case No. -. But, ah! there are others who treat you as a person, a human being, who care for you. If you ask why, you may find that they have a background of suffering themselves. They know just a little of what you are going through. We have read in the Letter to the Hebrews: "We have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are... he is able to succour them that are tempted" (Hebrews 4:15, 2:18). He has been the way of the winepress and we have received the benefit.

Is this why Paul said: "That I may know him... and the fellowship of his sufferings" (Philippians 3:9)? He knew quite well that the sufferings of Christ meant life, and if there was one thing which Paul wanted for others, it was that they should have this life, and have it through him. So he said: "That I may know... the fellowship of his sufferings".

That may not be our ambition, and we may not like the idea very much, but may the Lord help us to look at things in this way: 'The Lord is putting me in the winepress. He is putting me through a time of great pressure. I am being broken and crushed. Therefore the Lord intends to have more fruit, more life, and more people to have the life.' It is the very nature of this thing to reach out to others. That is the TRUE vine. Anything that is not like that is the false vine.

"I am the vine, ye are the branches."

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Chapter 18

(16) The High Priest of the Israel of God

Reading: John 13:1-16

If there were space I would turn you to the Old Testament and we would read together four passages which relate to the making and setting up of the laver in the court of the tabernacle. You will remember that the Lord commanded Moses to make a laver of brass and it was to be placed right at the center of the outer court. It was to be filled with water and there the priests were to wash their hands and their feet before they entered into the holy place. Although it does not say so, it is very probable that they washed one another's feet. Whether that was true or not - and I think it was - this laver was for such washing in relation to the sacrifice.

Here in the thirteenth chapter of John the Lord Jesus is acting in the capacity of the priest; in the seventeenth chapter is what is universally called the high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus. There is so much in that prayer which is taken up from the thirteenth chapter - "Sanctify them in the truth... for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth."

So in chapter thirteen we have the Priest taking the water and washing the feet of His brothers - His brother priests. He is doing it in the light of a coming day. He said: "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt understand hereafter", and afterward it became quite clear that all the Lord's people are priests. All are called into the sacred ministry of priesthood.

That is a very large subject, and I can do no more than just state the truth and leave it there for the time being.

What is the very heart of this chapter? It is in verse eight: "Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." Now we are back with our word in the Letter to the Hebrews which is rightly translated 'Companions': "We are become COMPANIONS of Christ". These words "part with me" are from the same root as that word "companions". Jesus is saying here: 'Unless I wash you, you can never become My companions. It is those whose feet I have washed who are My companions of the heavenly way.'

The companions of Jesus must have clean feet. In His prayer He made it perfectly clear what that means: "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17:16) ... "I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15). The companions of Jesus are those whose feet symbolically are separated and cleansed from the world.

This world lies under a curse, under the judgment of God. It is an evil world and the Lord does not want His companions to be entangled in it, so His work for us is to separate us from it. Feet mean contact with the earth, and the Lord Jesus would break that contact where His own companions are concerned. If we want to be companions of Christ, we must be delivered from this present evil world. Contact with it means death, defilement. It is a world that is against the Lord Jesus. The Lord is saying here in this symbolic act: 'My companions are not of this world.' He has done it in Himself once for all.

Of course, there is far more in this than I am able to say at present, but we all know how true this is. Jesus has not taken us out of the world. We are here and surrounded by defilement. It is indeed a sinful world! The Lord Jesus would have us delivered from it, and He has done the work by which we can be separated from its evil.

That opens up the whole subject of sanctification, but for our purpose it just explains that word in Hebrews 3:1: "Wherefore, HOLY brethren" ... 'Brethren who are sanctified', which means separated, 'unto God'. Such are the companions of Christ and of the heavenly calling.

But the Lord Jesus also instituted a ministry for His companions. He said: "I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you." He was saying, in other words: 'You must help one another to keep clear of the spirit of this world.' The word which explains that is: "Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness" (Galatians 6:1). The meekness of Jesus in this act offended Peter: 'You, Lord and Master, getting down on your knees and washing my feet! I could not think of it - I could not allow it. I cannot let you humiliate yourself like that!' ... "Ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness."

You and I have to learn more about this. It is a spiritual ministry that is very much needed. There are bodies of Christians in this world who practise this literally and have it as part of their service to wash one another's feet. Well, we will not discuss whether they are right or wrong. I think, though, that you might wash someone's feet literally and not do it spiritually. You might wash someone's feet literally and then go away and talk about their faults and their weaknesses to someone else. I think we are too much accustomed to pointing out the dirt that is on people's feet rather than removing it. Our criticisms and our condemnations of one another! It does not need an expert to see the spiritual uncleanness of people and the touch of this world upon them. Anyone can see their faults.

What are we going to do? Talk about them? Point them out to other people? Keep them always in view? Allow our attitudes toward them to be influenced by these faults?

If you read through these Gospels you will see that the disciples had plenty of uncleanness on their feet. They quarrelled as to who should be greater in the Kingdom of Heaven and strove together to have the first place. It is all an unpleasant story! They had plenty of faults and failings. Their feet were indeed tainted by this world, but what does it say here about the attitude of Jesus? Such men as they were, yet... "Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end", and to show His love He humbled Himself. He laid aside the garment of His own glory and took the form of a bondservant. He girded Himself with a towel - the symbol of humble service. He did not say: 'Oh, what a lot of dirt you have on your feet!' - He washed it away.

Then He said: "I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you" - 'You are priests unto God. Take the water of the laver and wash one another's feet. Only thus can you be companions of the holy place, of the heavenly calling.'

Do you notice that there is a blessing attached to this? It is in verse seventeen: "If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them." So there is a blessing attached to washing one another's feet!

The End

Up next; The Persistent Purpose of God

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In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given, his writings are not copyrighted. Therefore you are free to use these writings as you are led, however we ask if you choose to share writings from this site with others, please offer them freely - free of changes, free of charge and free of copyright.

The Persistent Purpose of God
by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 1 - God's Full Intention Governs Everything That He Does

We are going to occupy the first part of this morning with preparation for what we are going to consider later, and I want to speak now about some principles of Biblical interpretation. It is very important for us to be able to know how the Bible is to be interpreted, and this will be especially seen in what we have to consider later on. Unless we do understand the principles of the interpretation of the Bible, the Bible is not an open book; we may know what is in the Book as a book, but we do not understand it until we have the principles of interpretation. So I ask you to try and remember what I am going to say now and bring it over into our later study. We will consider five important principles of interpreting the Bible:

    1. The Eternity of God;
    2. The Comprehensiveness of Christ;
    3. The Interpreter of the Bible is the Holy Spirit;
    4. The Final Mention;
    5. The Only Real Value is the Spiritual.

(1.) The Eternity Of God

The first principle of the interpretation of the Bible is the eternity of God. We must always remember that all time is present time with God. There is no past and future with God: all that is past and future with us has been present with God always. At any moment in what is time to us, eternity is present with God.

The architect always has the completed plan before him. If he is the designer of a ship, he has a model made of that ship before anything is done. He sees in the model the completed object, that is, exactly how the thing will appear when it is finished. If it is a great building, or even a city, it is the same. The architect draws what we call a scale model, and he sees in that model exactly how the building, or the city, will be when it is finished. The builder works day by day according to that completed plan. Those who only see the parts cannot understand, and must not take the parts as being the whole. Sometimes when you look at the parts of a building, you cannot for the life of you understand what it is going to be. It is only as the completed thing is seen that you can understand the parts.

Now the Bible is just full of parts, but they are all the parts of something that God sees in completion. God is the Great Architect, He has the completed and perfect plan before Him before He begins any work. God's eternity is in every part. So we must realize that God has His full Mind behind everything that He does! GOD'S FULL INTENTION GOVERNS EVERYTHING THAT HE DOES! You must realize that God's Mind never grows - God Himself is incapable of development.

The temporary form of anything contains the eternal and full thought of God. You must realize that there are always TWO MEANINGS in anything that is in the Bible. There is the present meaning, that is, how that applies to the present situation; but there is also the future meaning. Everything in the Bible, while it has a present application, has a fuller meaning in the future. That is the first law of interpretation: it is the eternity of God.

(2.) The Comprehensiveness Of Christ

The second law of interpretation is the comprehensiveness of Christ. Christ is the interpretation of all the Bible, to know Christ is to understand the Bible. Men like Peter and Paul knew the Bible, but they did not understand it until they knew the Lord Jesus. We first know the Lord Jesus, and then we take Him back into the Bible, and He is the interpretation of the Bible. Therefore, we cannot really understand the Bible until we know the Lord Jesus. That results in this - that the Bible is really a Person, and not a book. The Bible is a Living Person, and not a dead letter. Because this Person is inexhaustible, He makes the Bible inexhaustible.

Now that is a more important principle than perhaps you realize. It is possible to exhaust the Bible as a book. We have known great Bible teachers who went through the Bible teaching it again and again, but at the end of their lives they were having difficulty in finding something fresh; and they were only repeating again and again things that they had said in past years. The reason for this is that they dealt with the Bible as a book. That will never happen if you know the Lord Jesus and see the Bible in Him, and Him in the Bible. I repeat that the Lord Jesus can never be exhausted. As the Holy Spirit reveals the Lord Jesus to us, the Bible is always more alive. So, we have our first two principles of interpretation: (1) The Eternity of God and (2) The Comprehensiveness of Christ.

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(3.) The Interpreter Of The Bible Is The Holy Spirit

Now we come to number three: the interpreter of the Bible is the Holy Spirit. I have said that Jesus is the interpretation of the Bible. I am saying now that the Holy Spirit is the INTERPRETER of the Bible. We are familiar with the words in the Letter to the Corinthians, but let us just look at them again now. The First letter to the Corinthians, chapter two and verse thirteen: "Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words."

Now I do not know if you have marginal references in your Bible but the more correct translation of those words is this: "interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men." Let us read the whole passage again in that way:

    Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men.

That scripture is a very important statement, and it definitely affirms the principle that we are now setting forth - the interpreter of the Bible is the Holy Spirit. First of all then, the Bible is the Holy Spirit's Book. The Bible is not firstly man's Book, it is not our Book, we have not got the Book. We have got certain writings which are called Scripture, but in truth we do not possess the Book.

You remember the case in Acts of the Ethiopian eunuch. When Philip came near to his chariot, he heard the Ethiopian reading. He was reading the Book at Isaiah 53. Philip said to him, "Do you understand what you are reading?" and he said, "Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?" Here is a man who had the Book in a certain sense, but in a real and profitable sense he did not possess the Book. We can have the Book as a volume, and yet we may not possess the Book, because the Bible is the Holy Spirit's Book first. The mind of man and the Mind of the Spirit are two altogether different things!

Do you know that there are many, many Christians who do not recognize that! There are many Bible teachers who do not recognize that! And this is the cause of very much confusion, and the reason for very much spiritual smallness and weakness. I think this may lie at the bottom of most of the controversy. THE BIBLE IS A CLOSED BOOK TO ALL BUT SPIRITUAL MEN. This is the principle that the Lord Jesus set before Nicodemus: You must be born from above before you can see what is above.

Our measure of understanding of the Bible will be just in accordance with the measure of our spiritual life. This is why the Lord takes us through experiences in order to bring us to understanding. The measure of our death to the natural mind will be the measure of our understanding of the things of the Spirit. Please remember that in these days which are before us - something has got to happen IN US before we understand the Scripture. We cannot understand the Word of God by just deciding that we are going to have a training course, that we are going to have some classes for Bible teaching. No, that is not the way in which we come to understanding of the Word of God. We shall only understand according to the measure of our spiritual life. That is the third principle of Biblical interpretation. Now we come to the fourth.

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(4.) The Final Mention

The final mention of any particular matter in the Bible is usually a key to all its meaning. That is something that we must think about! We find certain things mentioned again and again in the Bible; but when we come to the final occasion where that thing is mentioned, we usually find the key to all that has been said about that matter before. If you take a particular matter, where it is mentioned for the last time, and then note the setting and the context and the relationship, you will get the full meaning of all that has been said about that before.

Now that is a statement that I have made, and you will need to think and to work on that, but I will help you by taking just one illustration. In the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation twenty-two and verse two, we have the last reference to "the tree of life." Now when we go right back to the beginning of the Bible, we have "the tree of life" mentioned, but we are told nothing about it - it is just referred to as something that exists. We have no explanation, we are not told what that tree is, or what it means; it is just referred to as "the tree of life." We have to go to the end of the Bible for the explanation, and when we come to this last chapter of the Bible, by the context and relationship, we have a very large explanation.

Let us look at the passage. Revelation 22: "And He showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb," - note the context, 'the throne of God and of the Lamb.' you have got to read the whole book of the Revelation to understand that! There is a tremendous amount in the early chapters of this book about "the throne of God and of the Lamb." And you need to understand what the throne of God is and what is the significance of the throne of the Lamb - in the midst of the throne is a Lamb!

Now in relation to "the throne of God and of the Lamb," there is "a river of the water of life... in the midst of the street thereof. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner (kinds) of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and His bondservants shall serve Him." There is "the tree of life." It bears immortal fruit. THERE IS NO PLACE FOR DEATH HERE. Its fruit is born every month: this is fruit immortal, or fruit without death. The leaves of this tree are for the HEALTH of the nations. I am sorry that in most versions the word "healing" is wrongly translated. I do not know what the word is in your translation, but the original is not for "the healing of the nations," but for "the health of the nations." You may ask, "What is the difference?" Well, one is THE REMOVAL OF DISEASE and the other is THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE.

In Revelation 22, we have come to the time when the spiritual diseases of the nations have been healed, but the health of the nations needs to be preserved. It is a state that is to be maintained. Thus, the leaves are not for healing, they are for preservation. And so it says: "And there shall no longer be any curse."

You see, you have got the whole history of the Bible in those words. You have got all that came on the nations through Adam's sin. You have corruption and death - moral disease - the result of a curse. All that is now cleared up, and "the tree of life" represents VICTORY OF LIFE over all that, Life Triumphant, and Life Abundant. Here the full meaning of "the tree of life" is revealed. And it is like that with all other matters. When you come to the last mention, you have the key to the whole subject. That is a principle of the interpretation of the Bible.

(5.) The Only Real Value Is The Spiritual

Now I come to the last principle for the present, number five: the only real value is the spiritual. We must remember this when we are reading and studying the Bible, and we must keep this in mind in these times in which we are together. We must not come here just with a thirst for more information or a craving for more knowledge. There are people who just want to get more and more knowledge and education. Now that constitutes a danger. That is exactly how Adam was caught. You see, Satan said: "If you take of this tree, you will know"; it was "the tree of knowledge." And there is always a danger in eating of that tree. It might just lead us into death and not into life. So, I repeat this principle of Biblical interpretation: the only real value is the spiritual. And spiritual value is just how something affects our life with God! I do wish that Adam had recognized that! When Satan tempted him to take of "the tree of knowledge," if only Adam had said, "How will this affect my life with God?" he, and we, should have been saved all the trouble.

So, let me say this again, spiritual value is just how something affects our life with God. Shall I put that in another way - spiritual value is just how much something increases the measure of Christ. If Christ is the interpretation of the Bible, then the spiritual knowledge of the Bible results in an increase of Christ. If our days together do not result in an increase of the measure of Christ, we have missed the Way. If we do not go away more Christ-like men and women, with a larger measure of the Lord Jesus, this training course has failed. So I beg of you to pray all the way through that this time together may mean SPIRITUAL INCREASE and not intellectual enlargement, but SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE.

Everything has got to be judged by how much it contributes to the Ultimate Purpose of God. We have to ask, "Where does this lead us? Is it leading us anywhere? What is it leading us to?" All spiritual knowledge leads to an increase of Christ; it contributes to the ultimate purpose of God. The question always is "How much of Life is there in it?" It is not a matter of interest; it is not a matter of fascination with Bible truth; it is not a matter of making us more important people, by the enlarging of our natural stature, but it is just a matter of the measure of Christ. That is the real spiritual value.

Now, let us go over our five principles of the interpretation of the Bible. In our second hour together we shall take them over into our special subject for study, just as we will continue to do in the coming days: (1) The Eternity of God; (2) The Comprehensiveness of Christ; (3) The Interpreter is the Holy Spirit; (4) The Final Mention of Everything Containing all its Meaning; and (5) The Real Value is the Spiritual.

Also, brethren, before the next session, I would like for you to read the first three chapters of the Prophet Ezekiel. You will have to read them more than once in these coming days, but it would be a help if you will refresh your minds with what is in those three chapters.

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Chapter 2 - God's End is Always Present in His Beginnings

The principles that we were considering this morning are the key to the Book of Ezekiel in a special way. We begin this evening by indicating one of those principles in another way - God's end is always implicit in all His beginnings. Thus, we have Genesis in the Book of the Revelation and the Book of the Revelation in Genesis. Let me repeat this principle again: God's end is always present in His beginnings. Perhaps you would like an illustration of that. We have it in the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Exodus. Chapter fifteen, verses thirteen and seventeen:

    In Thy lovingkindness Thou has led the people whom Thou hast redeemed; in Thy strength Thou hast guided them to Thy holy habitation... Thou wilt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thy dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.

Now do you recognize what that has said? Israel is just out of Egypt, they are just over the Red Sea; this is the song of Moses and all Israel when they escaped from Egypt and Pharaoh. They had only just begun their journey. But here it says: "In Thy strength Thou hast guided them to Thy holy habitation... the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thy dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established." That takes us right on to the end of their history. Hundreds of years would have to pass before the Temple was built, before Jerusalem - the holy mountain - was secured. They had to go a long way, for a long time, before they came there. But here, right at the beginning, it is spoken of as though it were already accomplished. So we can see from this instance what I mean by God's end always being right there at the beginning. Heavenly things always govern ALL the earthly things. Invisible things govern ALL the visible things. Spiritual things govern ALL the temporal things. Universal things govern ALL the local things. That is something you must always remember when you are reading the Bible. And that is something which must be kept in mind as we approach this book of Ezekiel.

Human history is not just human history, but it is God's history! This book of Ezekiel seems to have a lot of earthly history in it, but the truth is that it is all governed by the Divine End and Purpose. Now the big question which we meet right at the beginning of this book is "Does this book have a message for the Church in this dispensation? - Does it just relate to a period in the past history of the people of Israel? Does it relate to the future dispensation in the matter of prophecy? - Or is its main message for the Church in this dispensation?" We shall be compelled to face those questions as we move into this book, especially in those parts of the book which we are going to particularly consider. The answer is found not in the earthly, but in the Heavenly; not in the temporal, BUT in the Spiritual.

So we come to the setting and reason for this book: we must recognize when the book was written, and why. What is in this book happened at a time when a whole system had broken down and failed. The reason for that breakdown and that failure was because that system became something in itself. It lost its Spiritual and its Eternal meaning. We must recognize that this is something that constantly recurs in the history of the things of God. It happened in Israel. It has happened in Christianity generally. It has happened in many movements and in many pieces of the work of God. Such began with a great testimony, just as Israel began. It was a wonderful testimony to the Lord with which Israel's history began, but then that whole thing broke down. It completely failed because it lost its Spiritual meaning and became something in itself. The same is true of Christianity. It had a wonderful beginning, but, speaking generally, Christianity has broken down and failed because it has become an earthly system - something in itself, and has lost its Heavenly meaning.

Now we return to this book of Ezekiel, and we find God moving away from Jerusalem; and God is found outside and not inside, and the thing in which God once was has now become an empty shell. That which was once vital and effective, and was greatly used of the Lord, has become a merely formal and empty thing with God on the outside. That is the setting and the occasion of this book.

A Prophet Represents The Full Mind Of God

Now let us look at the prophet himself. You know that Ezekiel did not begin by being a prophet. Ezekiel was a trained priest and not a prophet. You notice verse three of chapter one tells us that. And then at the beginning, verse one refers to "the thirtieth year": "Now it came about in the thirtieth year" - the thirtieth year was most probably the thirtieth birthday of Ezekiel. It was at the age of thirty that the priests finished their training and entered upon their ministry. You remember that it was when the Lord Jesus was thirty years of age that He entered upon His ministry. His preparation was finished and His ministry began. So, at the age of thirty, Ezekiel ought to have commenced his priestly ministry; but instead of fulfilling his ministry as a priest, he was called to be a prophet. His whole life and training and vocation were changed.

A prophet is one "who represents the full Mind of God when that Mind has been lost." It is impressive to note that Ezekiel had to take up something altogether different from that for which he was trained. The situation which existed required that. We shall come back on that again later.

Now when God moves in relation to His full Mind - which has been lost amongst His people - there are always things essential in the instrument of His movement. And if this is going to be done, it is only God Who can do it! You know the course of men is quite different from that. The way of men is to take men and train them and make them able to do the work, so that when they come out of the college, or the Bible institute, they feel that they are equipped for the work; and now, of course, they can do it. They have been trained for it. However, Ezekiel was not qualified for his work. He was qualified to be a priest, and he was called to be a prophet. And what we find is that all through his life, he never found it easy. You see how difficult Ezekiel found his work: he realized that it was only by the help of God that he could fulfill his ministry.

We all have to begin there if we are really going to minister in heavenly things. There has to be this tremendous change where we come to realize that we cannot do this work of ourselves. Only the Lord can do it. There was this great sense of disappointment with things as they were, the overpowering sense that things were wrong, and this state of things had to be made the business of Ezekiel's life. You will have to begin there if you are really going to be used of God. You will have to be overwhelmed with the sense that things are all wrong in this world, that things are not as they ought to be, and that you have no ability to put them right. You sense that God has called you to this, and that your ability to do anything must come from God Himself.

That is where we begin with Ezekiel, and, of course, we take the spiritual principles as we go along. I think I need not go back over that ground. There is a breakdown in things, they are not as God intended them to be. God calls men and women in relation to this situation, and the call changes the whole course of their lives. And in the call is the consciousness that they have no ability in themselves to meet the situation. But God, Who has called them, will be their sufficiency. I have read the first three chapters of Ezekiel into what I have just said.

Let us take one little fragment out of these chapters, which is the commission of Ezekiel: "Son of man, I send thee not to a people of a strange language, whose language you do not understand. If I sent you to them, they would listen. But I send you to the house of Israel. They will not hear you." (Ezekiel 3:4-7; paraphrased). That is a difficult commission, and only the Lord could carry a man through that. But then notice what the Lord says as to Divine equipment: "...I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads" (Ezekiel 3:. In other words, the Lord is going to be the strength of this difficult work.

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Ezekiel Saw What The Lord Wanted

Then we notice another thing. With this sense of disappointment, this whole change in the course of life, this having to take a way for which there was not natural equipment, there goes this second great factor: "Ezekiel saw the Lord." He was given a vision of the Lord, a vision of what the Lord wanted. Now it is very important that these two things that I have just mentioned always go together. If we have disappointment and dissatisfaction without vision, that is negative. There are plenty of people who are dissatisfied with things as they are. They are the people who can always see what is wrong. They can point their finger at the weaknesses and the faults; they are experts in criticizing everything. That is negative, that does not get us anywhere. With dissatisfaction, there must go vision. But vision must rest upon travail. Vision without travail and suffering of heart is mere mysticism. These two things, vision with travail and suffering of heart, must go together. If you or I feel dissatisfied, and feel that things are all wrong, we ought to be in possession of the knowledge of what the Lord really does want. We ought to have a positive vision of the purpose of God.

Now I want to stop here and say a word to you. Let us read these first verses in Ezekiel:

    Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's exile, the Word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans... and the hand of the Lord came upon him (me).

I want to say a word at this point to you about ministry. You notice that what Ezekiel was about to do had a special date for its beginning. It is very impressive how particular Ezekiel is about dates in his prophecies. If you really read through these prophecies, you will see that he is very particular about dates. That gives us our first point for ministry. A minister according to God's Mind must have a message for the time. It will not do for us to be giving out things just in a general way. Our Bible teaching must not be just of a general character. What God needs more than anything are those who have a message for the present hour. When we have finished our life, and our ministry, it ought to be possible for it to be said of us that we had a message for our time, that we were not just one in the general mass of teachers but that we had God's Word for the hour - that our ministry related to a special time in the purpose of God.

Now you servants ask the Lord to make that true of you, that it can be recognized that your ministry relates to the present time - WHAT GOD WANTS TO DO NOW. That is a very important factor in ministry. What does God need at this time? We must pray that we shall be the Lord's instrument for the present time - that there shall be a very clearly defined time factor in our ministry. So the date is a very important thing in ministry. When God really raises up servants, He raises them up for a time.

Ezekiel Was Raised Up In Relation To The Situation

And then the next thing to note: Ezekiel was raised up in relation to the special situation at that time. What we have just read shows that Ezekiel was right there in the situation: "...I was among the captives by the river of Chebar." (ASV). Ezekiel was not preaching to a situation that was distant from himself. He was not preaching to a situation that he had imagined to exist. He was not preaching to a situation that had been reported to him to exist. He was right in that situation. He was in the closest personal touch with the need. The need was his need; he was put right into the heart of the situation, and his ministry came out of that. He said: "I sat where they sat." And that takes ministry out of the realm of the merely theoretical and puts it into the very practical.

You will notice that this was true of all the prophets. They did not speak to the Lord about the Lord's people as THEY - "THEY are in this situation; THEY have done these things; THEY have these needs." The prophets always spoke to God, "WE are in distress." Read the prayer of Nehemiah in chapter one at verse 2-11, and read the prayer of Daniel in chapter nine at verse 3-19. They were a part of the situation. And for you and I to be effective servants, we must be there.

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The Word Came Expressly To Ezekiel

And then the third thing: this ministry has to be very personal. You notice what it says in chapter one, verse three: "The Word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest." That means TWO things. Firstly, it means that Ezekiel did not get his ministry out of books. He did not fulfill a second-hand ministry. His ministry was not the result of study. This came to him personally. These visions of God were his own. His message was original and not second-hand. It must be like that. Our ministry must be like that: it must be the result of something that God has said to us personally.

Secondly, the meaning of the Word of the Lord which came expressly to Ezekiel is that THERE WAS AN URGENCY ABOUT IT. You know the meaning of that word, "expressly." You speak about an express train. Well, what do you mean by an express train? One that must get there quickly, it is very urgent. You remember the word of the Apostle Paul: "...the Spirit speaketh expressly" (1 Timothy 4:1; KJV) - there is urgency about this! "The Word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel." There is something very urgent about this. You have got to get there as soon as you can. There is very serious business on hand. All your energy must be concentrated upon this object. That is how it has got to be with us. There has got to be a tremendous urgency about our message. There are very great issues at stake. I would say to you one thing before you deliver your message. Stop and say to yourselves: "What is God's Mind for His people - because you are going to influence lives, PERHAPS, FOR ALL TIME AND ALL ETERNITY."

Now the things that I have just said are the things which make up the kind of servants God needs. I would like for you to go back over them again. Remember that Ezekiel is a man whose whole life has been revolutionized by the purpose of God. GOD'S NEED has changed the whole course of his life! GOD'S NEED has disappointed him so far as his natural life is concerned! Something of the disappointment and dissatisfaction of the heart of God has entered into this man's life!

And so on that very thing God moved all the way along through history. I suppose Abraham was, or most of his life was, very satisfied with "Ur of the Chaldees." He had all that he wanted there, but then there began to come into his heart a great dissatisfaction with that life; and his heart was reaching out for something that he did not know. All he could say was, "This is not what I was made for. I am sure there is something more in life than this. There must be some greater purpose and meaning than this. This does not satisfy me." It was on that ground that God moved in his life. It was God working into Abraham HIS OWN DISSATISFACTION! And when that dissatisfaction was there, God could give the positive side of what really was His purpose.

And that was true of all the great servants of God. I believe it was true of Moses. I am quite sure it was true of Ezekiel. It was true of Paul: I believe that we can detect even in Paul (Saul) of Tarsus, something of dissatisfaction. GOD PREPARES HIS WAY LIKE THAT. We must have this in us before God can do anything else. In order to bring His Great Positive Purpose In, He must write the negative in our hearts. This is the way of service - on the one side, it is disappointment; on the other side, it is God's appointment - and then the consciousness of having no natural ability, and all the ability having to come from God Himself. A work that no man could do, and certainly a work that no man would take on himself - that was Ezekiel. But God had taken hold of this man, and everything that happened to him was because "the hand of the Lord came upon him."

For this evening, I am going to finish there. It is a matter of the hand of the Lord being on us; if the hand of the Lord is upon us, then we cannot help ourselves. While it may be difficult, the disappointment may be great, the demands may be beyond our ability, nevertheless, we just cannot help it. We have got to go on!

You remember what Jeremiah and other prophets said about this?! Because the people would not listen, and because his ministry meant so much suffering, Jeremiah said that he decided never to speak again. He was going to give up the work of God. But then he said: "While I kept silent, the fire burned. The Word of the Lord was as a fire in my bones, and then I broke all my resolutions. I began to speak again. I just could not do otherwise" (Jer. 20:9; paraphrased). That is what Ezekiel meant by: "The hand of the Lord was upon me." You see what that meant afterwards, how that "the hand of the Lord" moved Ezekiel everywhere?! He was a man under "the hand of the Lord." Do pray that you may be like that. That it will not be your choice one way or the other, but that your lives will just be because "the hand of the Lord" is upon you. The Lord needs men and women like that. Pray that you may be like that. You are not in the thing because you like it, because you choose it, because you have any qualifications for it. You are in it because "the hand of the Lord" is upon you. And to take yourself out of this work, would be to take yourself out of "The hand of the Lord."

Now, if it is like that, something is going to happen. You will have a message for the time. You will have a message for the situation. You will feel the urgency of this message. "The word will be like a fire in your bones." The Lord make us ALLmessengers like that!

Now you can see what I meant at the beginning. It is spiritual value that matters. It is not the intellectual knowledge, but that we are men and women like this - that is SPIRITUAL EFFECTIVENESS. Do ask the Lord to make you like that: that everybody is able to recognize that you have a heart that is burdened by the Lord - that, on the one side, you have seen what is wrong, and that, on the other side, you have seen what God wants, and that you feel that He has laid HIS HAND on you in relation to that!!!

LORD MAKE THAT TRUE OF ALL OF US!

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Chapter 3 - The Persistent Energies of God Toward His End

Let us turn to the Book of the prophecies of Ezekiel. To begin with, I am just going to give you a very broad outline of this book; however, let me say here that it is not my thought to study the whole of this book. I am just going to take out some of the great features. There is a large middle section that we shall hardly consider at all.

Now this book of Ezekiel is one of the most difficult books in the Bible to understand. I suspect that you have discovered this in reading only the first three chapters. So, I will just give you this very broad outline of the whole book; you can fill in the details.

First of all, you will want to know what the whole book is about. Can we see on the first page of the book anything that sums up the meaning of the whole book? I think we can! This is the book of the persistent purpose of God - the Divine energies in relation to Divine purpose. If you want a New Testament fragment that will explain that, you have it in Ephesians 1:11, "...according to His purpose Who works all things after the counsel of His will." Ephesians 1:11 is the key to the Book of Ezekiel. That word in Ephesians 1:11, Who works (Who worketh), is a strong word. The Greek word is energeo, which means "energy," so that God is energizing "all things after the counsel of His will." In a special way that is what we have in this book of Ezekiel - you must read the whole book in the light of Ephesians 1:11. I think we shall see that as we go on.

Now for the broad outline of the book. We begin with the prophet himself, and his preparation for his ministry. That covers the first three chapters: the prophet himself, the prophet's vision and the prophet's commission. These are covered in chapters one through three. The next section is from chapter four to chapter twenty-six. That section has to do with the nation of Israel. There are three things in that section about the nation: firstly, their departure from God, secondly, their denunciation by God; and thirdly, their judgment. Then the next section is from chapter twenty-five to chapter thirty-two. This section has to do with the nations. There are first of all four nations that are dealt with: - Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia. And then there are two: - Tyre and Sidon. There is a very brief interval referring to the restoration of Israel in chapter twenty-eight, verses 25, 26. And then the judgment of the nations proceeds, and Egypt is judged.

Then we come to section four. This brings us back to Israel the nation. This section is from chapter thirty-three to chapter thirty-nine. This section deals with the watchman, the shepherds, the new order, the vision of dry bones, and the last enemy.

Then we come to the fifth and final section, that is, the restoration found in chapter forty to chapter forty-eight; and in that we have: the temple, the Lord, the service of the temple, the river, the land, the inheritance, and the city. Now as I have said, we are not going to study all that. That is only given to you to help you get a grasp of the whole of the book.

Now let us come back to our part of the study, for we are still going to spend some time in the first section. I think that it is most important that we should spend much time with this section. I suspect that from time to time you will be saying, "Well, I do wish that he would get on with the book," but I am in no hurry to cover a great deal of ground. I want to make sure that we really do get hold of these fundamental truths.

So, let us come back to the first three chapters and see the prophet's preparation for his ministry. This is a matter which concerns us very much - how the prophet was prepared for his ministry - for what was true of Ezekiel is true concerning us spiritually. Yesterday we saw the time factor in his ministry, the situation to which he was called to minister, and the expressed Word of the Lord to him personally.

Now this morning we come to the "visions." You notice what this says: "...I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God." And I want to say right here that while the form of these visions will not be repeated in the case of the Lord's servants, the spiritual principles and meaning must be true of us all. Our purpose is to get behind what is objective to the meaning of things, and we shall all the time be trying to get at the spiritual meaning. You see, the objective side is only the temporary method; it is just the means that God employed for the time being. The spiritual meaning is the permanent and the real.

The Prophet Was Given To See The Way

So, we come to the visions. Ezekiel said: "I saw visions of God." That had two meanings: (1) that means that the visions came from God, they were visions which God gave him, and (2) it meant that they were the visions of the goings of God. God was on the move, God was taking a certain course, and the prophet was given to see the ways that God was taking: that is the meaning of "visions of God." But before he saw visions of God, it says "the heavens were opened." I am going to speak mostly about that this morning. But before I come to that, there are one or two things to say.

The visions that were given to Ezekiel varied in time, in nature, and in method; that is, they varied at different times - they did not all come to the prophet at the same time. The Lord gave something to the prophet, and this had the effect of bringing the prophet down on his face before the Lord. That is what it says at the end of chapter one. Then the Lord put him on his feet, and this kind of thing happened from time to time. My point is that there were intervals in the prophet's life, and in those intervals the prophet had to think about what had been shown to him, and to adjust himself to what the Lord had shown. Now, brothers and sisters, I want to put a line underneath that. We must have such intervals in our life before the Lord. If the Lord shows us something, we must take a time to consider it, to face what it means and what it implies. That is a necessity! A very great deal of value is lost by our just continually going on, and not giving those periods for quietness with the Lord over what He is saying. There must be a kind of Sabbath-quiet to meditate upon what the Lord is showing, and to adjust ourselves to it.

The Lord says something, and then we go and give it out, and we go on and on like that, and we do not pause to think about what the Lord is really saying - what this really implies, and to adjust ourselves to it. I believe that a very great deal of the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul came out of his two years of silence in the desert. He had the vision of the Lord on the way to Damascus. It was a tremendous vision that brought him down on his face. It required two years of silence to adjust himself to the meaning of that vision. I have often tried to imagine what was going on during those two years - what it was that Paul had to adjust himself to, how he had to read all his Bible over again in the light of that vision. He had to reconstruct his whole theology in the light of that vision: he had to think things all over again in the light of that vision. And I believe that a great deal that we have from Paul came out of those two years.

Now I am not suggesting that after this training course you go away for two years. But, you see, here is a principle. The Lord spoke to Ezekiel, and Ezekiel was silent for seven days. He could not go on with his ministry until he had spent those seven days thinking about what the Lord had shown to him. My point is that the Lord does not give us everything at once. He waits until we have really understood what He has said, and He waits until we have adjusted ourselves to that. We are touching a very important principle here - this matter of periods between revelations. So it was with Ezekiel, he had his quiet times. Not just an hour in the morning, but from time to time he was silent, he was saying nothing, he was alone with the Lord.

Then the second thing, these visions varied in their nature and not only in their time. So you have the various kinds of visions. We are not going to stay with these just now, we only mention them: there was the vision of the Throne; the vision of the valley of dry bones; the vision of the Lord's House; the vision of the great river; the vision of the land; the vision of the people in their inheritance; and, finally, the vision of the city.

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Ezekiel Was Instructed By The Spirit

In the third place, the visions varied in method, and this is something we must stay with for a minute. The visions that came to Ezekiel came in two different ways. Firstly, they came in an objective way - things were presented to him in vision, he was like John on the isle of Patmos, he saw things in an objective way, but the visions were not always in that way. There was a second method by which the visions came to Ezekiel, and that method was by the instruction of the Spirit, and that was the larger method. Of course, these two methods were not always separate, but they do mark a distinction.

In our dispensation, the first method is very uncommon. Paul did have some visions and revelations in the first way, in 2 Corinthians 12, he said: "I will go on to visions and revelations... I knew a man... whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows - such a man was caught up to the third heaven... and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak." Well, that was the first method for Paul. He had those objective visions. The Apostle John had the same, but these visions were the exceptional; and there are very few of us in this dispensation who have that kind of thing. Such visions usually belong to the beginning of things: the objective side usually relates to beginnings.

Paul and the other apostles were laying the foundation for this whole dispensation. Therefore, they had the exceptional, and what we might call the abnormal, side of things. However, what is the normal way in this dispensation? It is the second method that the Lord employed with Ezekiel, which had to do with the development of the purpose of God. When you come to such a great thing as the House of God, and the inheritance, and the city, it is the Spirit Who is doing it all the time. You notice it is "The Spirit led me in, the Spirit sat me down, the Spirit took me out, the Spirit showed me." It is all the movement of the Spirit! That is the normal way for this dispensation. The Lord Jesus Himself said that that would be the normal: "When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth... He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you." And the rest of the New Testament is along that line: the normal way is the Spirit teaching us all things.

The Heavens Are Opened To Him

That brings us back to this first part of the vision: "The heavens were opened." Now you have heard me say quite a lot about the open heaven, but I want to say a little more about it this morning. We all know that in the symbolism of the garden at the beginning, the heaven was closed to the man who sinned. The garden stands to represent the kingdom of the heavens. It is an order which God Himself has created. It is the true representation of heavenly things. But when Adam sinned, he was turned out of that realm, and the door was closed behind him; and that door has remained closed to all the sons of Adam. BEHIND that door is the place where God is, BEHIND that door is the place where Life is, BEHIND that door is the place where Divine order is. Outside of that door is death, outside of that door God is not, outside of that door is no Divine order; and that door is closed, it is closed to all the sons of Adam.

But that door has been opened again. We know when it was opened; it was opened to 'the Son of Man.' You remember His words right at the beginning, His words to Nathanael? He said to Nathanael, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Of course, that was a picture. It was a picture taken from the Old Testament. Nathanael knew what it meant. He knew it was taken out of the life of Jacob. Jacob was in the place of the closed heaven; at Bethel, he saw the heaven open, he saw the angels of God ascending and descending. Nathanael knew all about that.

Now Jesus said, "I Am that ladder. It is over Me that the heavens are opened; all communications between heaven and earth and earth and heaven are related to ME: no one comes to the Father, but through ME, no man gets anything from the Father but by ME." And so, on the banks of the Jordan, the heavens are opened to Him; and Jordan is a figure of His Cross. In the Cross of the Lord Jesus, one man has been put to death and buried, that is the man to whom the heavens are closed. On the other side of the Cross, a New Man rises and to Him the heavens are opened: it is over the Lord Jesus as a new kind of Heavenly Man that the heavens are opened.

We know that that is exactly what the Lord was saying to Nicodemus - to Nicodemus, the very clever man; Nicodemus, the very educated man; Nicodemus, the very religious man. But there is another aspect, and that has to do with ministry. There is the opened heaven for ministry, and that is what we are talking about in the case of Ezekiel. For him, the opened heaven related to his ministry, and this is a matter that you and I need to understand. This is a special aspect of the Holy Spirit. We receive the Holy Spirit when we are born from above, but THE ANOINTING OF THE SPIRIT RELATES TO MINISTRY. Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit, but He was anointed of the Spirit for His ministry. I do not want to draw too great a distinction between being born of the Spirit and being anointed, but there is a difference!

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Here it is the effect of the Holy Spirit in us in relation to ministry. This is what the Apostle Paul meant in Ephesians when he prayed for the Church. You are so familiar with the words that I hardly dare read them; nevertheless, let us look at them again. You notice that the apostle has been saying these tremendous things about the calling of the Church. It is the great vocation of the Church that is in view. It is not just the salvation of believers - that had taken place; but now he is dealing with the matter of the Church and its great ministry, its ministry now and its ministry in the ages to come. That is what we have in this letter to the Ephesians. Do recognize that what is in this letter is not something to individual Christians. It only applies to individual Christians in a related way. None of the things that are in this letter can be fully true of any individual; no individual Christian can be blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. It takes the whole Church to have all the spiritual blessings. And you will only come into all the spiritual blessings in a related way; that is, by your fellowship with all the other members of the Church.

What are these spiritual blessings for? Are they just for our satisfaction? Just that we should be blessed? You look at this letter, and you see that it is for the purpose of ministry; it is that the Church shall fulfill its ministry. I did not intend to move out of Ezekiel into Ephesians at this time, but perhaps the Spirit is leading us also! Now you see what the apostle says here: "When He ascended on high... He gave gifts to men... He gave some, as apostles; and some, as prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, as pastors and teachers." What for? - "For the equipping of the saints, for the work of service" - for making the Church complete that it may fulfill its ministry. The object of everything is the ministry of the Church. And it is because of that ministry that the apostle prays in this way: "For this cause I also... cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him" - that is, the knowledge of Christ. And the word "knowledge" here is full knowledge,"a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of HIM; having the eyes of your heart enlightened that ye may know" (Eph. 3:1a; 1:16,17; KJV; ASV). Then the things that you "may know" are mentioned.

Here is the work of the Holy Spirit in relation to ministry. In relation to the ministry of the Church, THE CHURCH must have the eyes of its heart enlightened (v.18), THE CHURCH must have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Christ (v.17). This ought to be the normal life of the Church in this dispensation. That it is not the normal life means that things are all wrong. THE CHURCH OUGHT TO KNOW "what is the hope of His calling,"; IT OUGHT TO KNOW "what (is) the riches of the glory of His inheritance." (v.18); IT OUGHT TO KNOW "the surpassing greatness of His power" (v. 19). This ought to be the normal knowledge of the Church for its ministry! This is the meaning of the open heaven: "the spirit of wisdom and revelation" has been given, the eyes of the heart have been enlightened; and we are enabled by the Spirit TO KNOW the movements of God, TO KNOW the Way that God is taking, TO KNOW the End that God has in view, and TO KNOW that God is working "all things after the counsel of His Own will."

That is what Ezekiel came to see by the opened heaven. God has an End! God is moving toward that End! All the mighty energies of God are directed towards that End! All these things in heaven and in earth are being governed in relation to that End! This is what Ezekiel saw! The Book is the Book of the persistent energies of God towards His End. We, brothers and sisters, OUGHT TO KNOW that in our own experience!

It was a tremendously costly way for Ezekiel. And that opens up quite a new line. Read through this book and see what it cost the prophet. There was a time when this vision cost the prophet his wife. His young wife died as a sign to Israel, and many other things happened to him which were very painful. It is a costly thing to have the open heaven. The cost may not come to us in the same way, but, believe me, an open heaven involves us in a great deal of suffering. It involves us in the impossibility of being understood by those who have no open heaven. It involves us in persecution from other people of God. That is what it meant to Ezekiel; and, yet, it is worth while! Anybody who has the open heaven would not give it up for anything. They would not give it up for all the popularity in this world. An open heaven is the most precious thing that any man or woman can have - an open heaven is to have this kind of fellowship with God - where God is going on and on showing ever new things.

If you are prepared to accept the cost, then ask the Lord to make it real, but do not be surprised if you have what Ezekiel had very soon after his first vision. He said: "I sat for seven days astonished." When anyone died, no one was clean for seven days. They mourned for seven days, and they were as dead for seven days; (the eighth day is always the day of new life in the Bible), but Ezekiel was like a man dead for seven days - the tremendous effect of vision - it took him through a very painful time. So, do not be surprised if you begin to have a difficult time; now what I mean is this, when we have undertakings with the Lord like this, the Lord usually begins to take us through deep experiences to make it very real. Oh, our flesh does want the vision, our flesh does want the ministry, our flesh wants all the glory, but the Lord takes action against our flesh; and we go through a period in which the flesh is brought to death, and then it is quite safe for the ministry. This is true to experience, and this lies right there at the heart of the ministry of Ezekiel.

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Chapter 4 - The Man Upon the Throne Governs Everything

Now we return to the prophecies of Ezekiel. You will remember that yesterday morning we began to consider the preparation of the prophet for his ministry, and we spoke about the opened heaven: "the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God." Now this morning we come to the second half of the statement, "visions of God," and we take this first great vision that was given to the prophet. This occupies verses four to twenty-eight of chapter one. You have carefully read these three chapters so that it is not necessary for us to read this section again this morning.

The first thing that we must note is that this vision is all one thing; it has various parts, but it has just one object in view. The last verse of the chapter tells us that this is so. Verse twenty-eight, the second part of the verse, reads: "This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." Everything in the chapter is included in that, "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord."

The inclusive factor of this whole vision was the Throne of the Lord. All the other things in the vision are just a part of the Throne; they all go to make up the Throne of the Lord. It is very important for you to recognize that. You are not dealing with a number of different things in this vision: you are dealing with only one thing which is made up of many parts. There is fire, there is lightning, there is terrible power, there is irresistible progress, there are the living ones, there are the wheels, there is the likeness of a man. All these things are parts of the Throne. They all go to make up the meaning of the Throne of the Lord. They are all included in this final statement: "This (all this) was the appearance of the glory of the Lord."

Now I do want you to grasp the appearance as we have it in this chapter. We must not think of the Throne as something separate, away up in heaven, and then the cherubims as down here. What we must see is that these are all one. Here is the Throne above, then under the Throne there is a firmament, and then immediately under the firmament there are the cherubims. But they are all one, and they are all moving together. It seems that the Throne and the cherubims move together. You will see that they come from the north. This is all one thing, and that is the point that I want to make just now. Now, before we consider what is under the firmament, we will consider that which is above. Perhaps we had better read verse twenty-six again:

    And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a Throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the Throne was a likeness as the appearance of a Man upon it above (ASV).

So we begin by noting that the all-governing factor is the Man upon the Throne. Until you have grasped the meaning of that, you do not understand the whole of the prophecies of Ezekiel. ALL that is in this book, both of history and the future, must be viewed in the light of the Man on the Throne. There is a Throne above the firmament, and there is the likeness as of a Man upon it. ALL government is vested in the Man on the Throne. That is not only the key to the Book of Ezekiel, that is the key to everything in history, and particularly to this dispensation. It is government vested in the Man on the Throne. That is the key to everything. From that everything else comes, up to that everything else goes.

We asked a great question when we started these studies, "Has this book a message for the present dispensation?" The answer can be given in THREE fragments from the New Testament. One is found in John 6:62 (ASV), from the lips of the Lord Jesus Himself, "What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where He was before?" You see, that introduces the question about THE RIGHT PLACE OF THE SON OF MAN. "What... if ye should behold the Son of Man ascending where He was before?" The second passage comes from the lips of Stephen in Acts 7:56: "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God." This reveals that the words of the Lord Jesus have been fulfilled: - "I see... the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God." The question has been answered.

Now the third passage includes both of those and goes beyond them. That is in Hebrews, chapter one, verse eight: "...of the Son He says, 'Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever.'" You see, that passage goes back to where He was before, the Son of Man ascending where He was before. Thy Throne is from evermore, and it carries on to eternity - "Thy Throne... is for ever and ever." This is said of the Son, but Jesus speaks of Himself as the Son of Man, THE SON OF MAN UPON HIS ETERNAL THRONE - "Above the firmament a Throne and the likeness as of a Man upon it above."

The Man In His Rightful Place

First of all, God has His Man. We spell that with a big "M." God has His Man, The Man that He ever wanted and intended to have, and now that Man is in His rightful place, The Man is where God intended Him to be. Just keep hold of those two things because, as I have been saying, they govern everything. At last God has His Man. There is a sense in which God has been seeking for that Man all through the past. God created Adam to be such a man, and God has been in quest of the man after His Own heart all through history. God has found The Man in His Own Son. That is the full meaning of the Incarnation. God has provided Himself with a Man, and that Man is now in the place of God's appointment. He is in His right place. He is in the place of government. This answers to Psalm 8:6, "Thou madest Him to have dominion." All the dominion and authority is vested in this Man! He is the Son of God, but He is also the Son of Man. Now we must note that EVERYTHING IS GOVERNED BY THAT! The preparation of the servant of the Lord is governed by that! The ministry of the servant of the Lord is governed by that! All ministry must take its character from that Man in the Throne!

Then you move right through this great book, and you come into the judgments of God, the judgment upon the Lord's people first and then the judgments upon the nations; and all these judgments are governed by the Man in the Throne. After the judgments, you come to the recovery of God's testimony. The recovery of His testimony is according to The Man in the Throne. Now we could stay a long time with that, but we must leave its greater fullness until later on.

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But this question arises, "What is the testimony that God wants, and that God wants to recover?" - It is the testimony of Jesus. It is the testimony that God has The Man after His heart, and that The Man after God's heart is a certain kind of Man, a Man that is different from all others, and that all authority is vested in that Man Jesus Christ. That is the testimony that God wishes to recover. We shall find later on that the House of God is the place where that testimony is to be found. The House of God is constituted according to that Man, and it is the meaning of that Man that is expressed in the House of God. That is what we shall come to, for, you see, it is the testimony of God in Jesus Christ in the House of God.

So the work of recovery, as we have it in the prophecies of Ezekiel, is governed by The Man in the Throne. And when I speak of it being governed, I do not mean just official government - I mean that it is the character of that Man that governs everything. Then we do move to this House of God. It occupies a very important place in these prophecies. It is a very wonderful House. When we come to it, we shall see that this House is governed by The Man on the Throne. Then we shall come to the river, beginning in the House, flowing by way of the altar out through the court and down through the country, with everything where the river cometh being made to live. We shall see that that corresponds to what we have in the Book of the Acts, for there we see the river flowing out of the sanctuary from spiritual Jerusalem to all Judaea to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Everything where the river comes is made to live. That is a very long river. It is the longest river in the world. It has reached to China. It has flowed through India. It is a river that flows over the whole earth, and wherever the river comes it makes things live. But remember, this river takes its rise from The Man in the Throne. It is all governed by God having His Man in His right place.

Then we shall see the people of God coming into their inheritance. That is another great truth of the New Testament, the Lord's people coming into their spiritual inheritance. That is one of the last things in these prophecies. Again, the Lord's people only come into their inheritance when the Lord Jesus is in His right place. Let us put that around the other way. When Jesus is in His right place, the people of God come into their inheritance. We can never come into our inheritance until He has His right place!

Now look at the Book of the Acts - what fullness the Lord's people came into! What a large inheritance came to them! Why did it come, and how did it come? Because the great message of that book is Jesus Christ is Lord! God hath raised Him far above all rule and authority! When Jesus has His place, the Lord's people get their inheritance.

The last thing in these prophecies is the city. We know that the last thing in the Bible is the city, and there is the river flowing out of the city; but it flows from the Throne of God and the Lamb. Jesus at last is in His Full Place, and the city is the vessel of His fullness, and that fullness goes out as from the city to all the nations. All this is here in type and symbol in the prophecies of Ezekiel. Have I answered our first question? - "Has this book a message for the present dispensation?" I think we can now see that it has, but our point just now is that all this is governed by The Man in the Throne.

We see TWO things about that, for God to have His Christ in heaven is a very great thing. I would have you think much about that! What a great thing it is for God to have His Christ in heaven! That could occupy us for a long time. We are told by Paul that God exercised the exceeding greatness of His power to bring Christ there. That meant that every other power in this universe had to be OVERCOME to get Christ there. It is a very great thing to God to have Christ in heaven! And then, secondly, it is a very great thing for the people of God - that Christ is in heaven.

Judgment Comes From The Throne Of Christ

Now let us come back to what we were saying a minute or two ago. All judgment comes from the Throne of Christ, and He is judging His people and the nations from His Throne. You notice that judgment begins with the people of God in the prophecies of Ezekiel. That brings us to the beginning of the Book of the Revelation. It is the churches which are first judged by the Lord Jesus in glory. It is a principle with God 'that judgment must begin at the House of God.' Of course, that is necessary for the very character of God. Supposing God were to judge the world, and then the world could point to Christians and say, "But look at them, look what a contradiction they are; and, yet, You let them go on. You come and judge us but You do not judge Your Own people." That would be all wrong. So as a matter of principle, "judgment must begin at the House of God." We, as the Lord's people, must come under the judgment of that Throne.

Let me take great care to explain what that means. I have said it more than once already this morning. You see, it is a kind of Man that is in that Throne, and God judges everything according to the character of that Man. That is what you have at the beginning of the Book of the Revelation. You have a full-sized portrait of the Lord Jesus at the beginning of that book. His Person and His Appearance are described in detail. He presents Himself like that to the churches; and then it is as though the Holy Spirit was saying, "I am going to judge you according to that Man." So the message to every church is: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says." The Holy Spirit's work is all related to Christ. You know that as a great New Testament truth. Now the challenge to the churches is "How do you measure up to that Man? How does your life, your character, and your work answer to that Man?"

The Man is the basis of the judgment. The churches are judged according to The Man; that is the meaning of judgment - the measuring line of God is His Son. The question is always "How do we MEASURE UP to Christ?" That is the meaning of judgment. When the Church has been judged, then God turns to the nations. That is what we have in Ezekiel, and that is what we have in the Book of the Revelation. All judgment of the people of God and of the nations is according to The Man.

The Recovery Of The Testimony Of Jesus

Then you will see the second movement of God. It is so clear in the Book of the Revelation. It is the movement for the recovery of the testimony of Jesus. John says, "I was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus." And that phrase, the testimony of Jesus occurs several times in the Book of the Revelation. It is that which is the basis of God's activity.

Now in the churches the one issue is this: "to him that overcometh..." The overcomers represent the recovery of God's testimony. The recovery movement of God is found in the overcomers. The overcomers are those who have put away what is not according to Christ and are now an expression of that Divine Man, so that when we come to the end of the book, both Ezekiel and Revelation, we have the city. We all know that this is not a literal city; it could not possibly be that. You would have to get rid of a great deal in order to have this city on the earth. This city, of course, is a figure. It is a figure of the Church, and now that Church, as the city, answers to the Divine description. Paul put it in this way, "Christ... loved the Church, and gave Himself up for it... that He might present the Church to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Eph. 5:25,27; ASV). That fully describes the city at the end of the Book of the Revelation: "The Spirit... showed me the holy city Jerusalem... having the glory of God: - a glorious Church - her light was like unto a stone most precious" (Rev. 21:10,11). Light is always the symbol of purity - "Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." "Christ... loved the Church, and gave Himself up for it" - in the midst of the city is the Throne of the Lamb. You see the symbolism. You see the spiritual meaning - this final state corresponds to the Man in the Throne!

The Book of the Acts is the great beginning. It begins with Christ in the Throne. Before we get to the end of the apostolic age, things have begun to go wrong. We can detect that in the letters of Paul, and especially in his last letters which were to Timothy - things have begun to go wrong. The testimony is being lost. We come then to the Revelation, and God begins judgment at the House of God as seeking to recover that testimony; and in the end of the Revelation, we see it fully recovered!

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The Energies And Goings Of God

Now we come back to Ezekiel. In this book, as we have already said, we see the energies and goings of God. This first vision is a representation of that. Look at the symbols that are used. Firstly, "burning fire" - who can stand before the burning fire? When the fire begins to sweep across the earth, no one can stop it. Fire is irresistible. And then, "flashing lightning" - it is like a great electric storm here. It is a terrible thing. Who can stand before the great electric storm? You cannot resist that, you cannot sweep that aside. In this book, you have all the symbols of tremendous energy, and all this is connected with the movement of God, for it was that Throne that conquered in the long run!

I say that the great consciousness of the Church at the beginning was that Jesus is in the Throne. Satan is not on the throne, Caesar is not on the throne - JESUS IS ON THE THRONE! The Church moved forward in the energy of that great fact! The Church prayed on the basis of that fact! Its appeal was to the Throne, and it prayed in confidence because it knew that He was on the Throne! You remember one instance of that - they were in a time of great opposition, the rulers had risen up against them; and the Church gathered together for prayer, and in their prayer they quoted the Second Psalm. You know what is in the Second Psalm: "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, are gathered together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed... He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: The Lord shall have them in derision... I have declared the decree. I have set MY Holy One upon My holy hill of Zion." And then the kings and the rulers are appealed to: "You had better kiss the Son lest He be angry." You can see that that was what they used in prayer in the Book of the Acts (4:25,26). What confidence it shows that they had in that Throne and in that Man on it! They prayed on that basis! They preached on that basis! They sang on that basis!

Yes, they were a singing people. Listen to two men singing. Where is the singing coming from? It is coming from a prison! There are two men who have been beaten and bruised, and they have been cast into an inner dungeon. Their feet had been made fast with chains, and they are singing. How could they sing in such a situation? Only because they knew and believed that Jesus was on the Throne! Their song was a song of faith and confidence; and in a few minutes there was a great earthquake, and all the doors were opened and their chains fell off. Jesus is on the Throne, and they sang because of that!

They suffered because of that! Yes, they suffered very much, but the strength to suffer came from their consciousness that Jesus was on the Throne. And they died on that basis! Stephen is dying, and he says, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God." That was his testimony, he died on that basis.

Now I have got to stop there this morning because our time is gone. We have only come to the beginning of this great vision, but I am sure you see that this book has a message for our time. But I cannot close without reminding you of this - all this had to do with the preparation of a man for his ministry. If Ezekiel had not seen that, he would never have been able to fulfill his ministry. Everything in his ministry came from that first vision. We must see the meaning of this. There must be that which grips us as it gripped him. The thing that grips us must be "Jesus is Lord, Jesus is on the Throne; therefore, I can go on. I can meet the difficulties, I can suffer, I can die, I can pray, and I can sing!"