Books by T. Austin-Sparks

[Shammu]

In the First Letter to the Corinthians, the Cross is applied to the natural and the carnal man inside the Church. The natural and the carnal man has come in where he has no right to be. This unrighteous man has slipped in through the gate, and so the apostle BRINGS CHRIST CRUCIFIED OVER AGAINST THE NATURAL AND THE CARNAL MAN. The Cross in I Corinthians had to do with that man, not outside the Church as in Romans, but inside the Church.

The Second Letter to the Corinthians sets the Cross in relation to ministry. That letter shows us that ministry flows out of a broken and humbled vessel. I can only say these things and leave the full explanation of it.

In the Letter to the Galatians, the Cross is brought down upon making Christianity into another legal system, and bringing Christians into bondage. How strong the apostle is in that letter, but see how he uses the Cross. He uses the Cross tremendously against that effort to make Christianity into a legal system, and to bring believers into bondage again.

In the Letter to the Ephesians, the work of the Cross is to put the Church on heavenly ground. The Cross in Ephesians completely cuts the Church off from all earthly ground. It puts the Church outside of time. It puts the Church outside of the world.

In the Letter to the Philippians, the Cross is applied to that which is spoiling the harmony of the Lord's people. There is a painful dislocation inside the Church. There is a spot where things are unhappy, and that is because of personal interest and pride. Some people will not let go their personal interest. Some people will not let go their pride. They have been offended, and they are not going to forgive. So the apostle brings the Cross in there over against this discord, and dislocation; and he points out that if only the Cross were in those lives, everything would be put right.

The Letter to the Colossians - this letter shows that the Cross delivers from all false spirituality. The Cross sets aside all that is mere mysticism, and everything that would make Christ less than He is.

Then we have the Letters to the Thessalonians. Here the Cross is the strength for suffering - an inspiration unto the coming of the Lord. There may not be much said about the Cross actually, but the principle of these letters is the principle of the Cross. The people were suffering for Christ's sake. They were suffering the loss of all things, and they had thought that the Lord would have come to deliver them, and the Lord is delaying His coming. So the apostle tells them that their sufferings will issue in the coming of the Lord and glory. The sufferings of suffering with Christ. They are suffering for Christ's sake: it is fellowship in the Cross, but the sufferings issued in the glory. The Lord is coming, and then it will be all right. The Cross has a very real message for suffering believers. And then we just conclude with the Letter to the Hebrews.

In the Letter to the Hebrews, the Cross shows how everything is brought to fullness and to finality. Now all of this relates to the House on its inside. It touches conduct. It touches character. It touches order. It touches ministry. If the Cross is in its place, everything will be effective.

Now I have not just given you some Bible teaching. The Cross is the key to everything. Then what is true on the inside is also true on the outside. It is the Cross which effects the whole range of the Church's influence. The river comes by way of the Cross, that is, the influence that goes out from the sanctuary to the whole land. It is the Cross which gives effectiveness to the ministry to the whole world. So the apostles preached everywhere Christ crucified.

The Cross Is The Defense Against The World

And then we note another thing, the altar was the great defensive against the enemy. If you look in the Book of Ezra in chapter three, at verse three, you have this: "so they set up the altar on its foundation, for they were terrified because of the peoples of the lands..." Because fear of the peoples of the lands was upon them, they put the altar in its place. The Cross is a great defensive - the Cross defends us from the world. The world is the great enemy of the Church. The spirit of the world has always been the Church's great enemy. Satan has always tried to get the world into the Church and so wreck the Church and its ministry, to destroy the influence of the Church in the world. It is a very clever and subtle move of the enemy to destroy the influence of the Church in the world by bringing the world into the Church. For Paul said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal 6:14).

A truly crucified people are never in danger of the world. It is only when the Cross has not done its work that the world has a place. The world has no place with a crucified man or woman, or a crucified company of believers. The Cross is a great defensive against the world. IF YOU WANT TO KEEP THE WORLD OUT, PUT THE CROSS IN ITS PLACE. If the Cross is truly in its place in fullness, then everything else will come into order. THE CROSS is the great defensive against the world. THE CROSS is the great defensive against evil powers. THE CROSS makes everything safe; it makes everything safe for the Lord.

You see, the Lord wants to commit Himself. He wants to trust Himself to His people, but if the Cross is not there at work, the Lord cannot trust Himself to them. The Lord says, "It is not safe for Me to give Myself there, or I should be involved in their un-crucified condition." The Cross makes everything safe for the Lord, and the Cross makes everything safe for the Church. If the Cross is really at work in all of us, we can trust one another. It is quite safe to trust yourself to a crucified man or woman.

Now I close this morning by emphasizing that the Cross is not a doctrine to be taught. It is not a subject to be preached. Of course, it will be taught, and it will be preached. But in the first place, it is not a subject to be taught. It is not just a doctrine. The Cross is power. The Cross is an experience. The Cross is an event in our lives. The Cross is a crisis. The Cross is a revolution. The Cross is an earthquake. There was an earthquake when Jesus was crucified. If the Cross comes into our life, there will be an earthquake. Everything will be shaken, everything will be overturned. The Cross is an earthquake. It is something tremendous. The Cross is not just a theory, not just a doctrine: THE CROSS GOVERNS EVERYTHING. Well, that is our message about the centrality and universality of the Cross.

The Lord grant that we shall all be crucified men and women. The assemblies to which we belong - may they be crucified assemblies. The Lord grant that His whole Church may see and view the meaning of the Cross.

[Shammu]

Chapter 12 - A River That Could Not be Passed Over: The Fullness of the Spirit

We are coming to the end of our time together, and that means that there is a very great deal in Ezekiel that we shall not be able to consider. So this morning I suggest that we give our attention to chapter forty-seven. As you know, this is the chapter of the river. I think that this chapter is well enough known by you that we shall not have to read it right through. However, we ought to read the second chapter of the Book of the Acts, because I feel that Ezekiel forty-seven and Acts chapter two go together. The second chapter of the Acts is the New Testament fulfilment of what we have here in this chapter in Ezekiel. But there is a passage of Scripture between these two chapters, found in the seventh chapter of John's Gospel, and we will read that. John, in chapter seven:

    Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'" But this He spoke of the Spirit, Whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (verses 37-39).

Now strict interpretation demands that we observe one point, for that which the Lord Jesus was referring to in John seven, "the last day, the great day of the feast," was not strictly what we have in Ezekiel forty-seven, but related to the Feast of Tabernacles, and that takes us a long way back before Ezekiel; it takes us back into the life of Israel in the old days. You will remember that the Feast of Tabernacles was the commemoration of Israel's coming out of Egypt and living in tents in the wilderness. We need not dwell with the details of that feast because that is not our subject, but it was to that that Jesus was referring.

Ezekiel forty-seven is not a celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, but there are some common features which are in Ezekiel forty-seven, John seven, and Acts two. We know that when Jesus spoke those words He was in the temple at Jerusalem. It was in the temple that the Feast of Tabernacles was being celebrated, and at that time the priest went down to the pool of Bethesda and brought water back and poured it out over the threshold of the temple. Jesus took hold of that and applied it to Himself.

The Source Of The River Is The Man Hidden In The Sanctuary

Now the common feature in these three places - Ezekiel, John, and Acts - is this: the waters are flowing out from the House. And then there is another common feature in these three places: in the House, as we have seen, everything related to the Man Glorified in the Throne. The Man Glorified in the Throne governed everything. Now here in John seven, John makes that comment. He said, "This He spoke of the Spirit, Whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." So that pointed on to the future when Jesus was Glorified. Undoubtedly, that was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost. Jesus was Glorified and the waters came out from the House. So, you see, we do have some common features in these books.

Now we come to some details of Ezekiel forty-seven, and to begin with, we must note that this whole situation is one that sets forth a condition in this dispensation. As we know, many believe that all this belongs to the Millennium. Well, the situation in this chapter is not a situation in the Millennium. Neither does this fully correspond to the end of the Book of the Revelation. It is true that in Revelation we have the river flowing out from the Throne of God and of the Lamb, and there are many features there just like these features in Ezekiel. However, what we have here in Ezekiel is neither in the Millennium nor in the Coming Age, but it relates to the dispensation in which we are living. As you see, in Ezekiel it is a situation of need, it is a scene of death and disease. These waters are to overcome death, and the leaves of these trees are for medicine to heal disease; it is a scene of great need. In the Millennium death will be suspended for a time, and at the end of the Book of the Revelation, death is no more. Here in Ezekiel death has to be met and overcome. Here an unhealthy condition has to be dealt with. It is important to realize that this chapter in Ezekiel applies to the present dispensation.

Now let us take note of a few other details. First, the Source of the river. The Source of the river is somewhere hidden under the threshold of the House. The Word says that the waters issued from under the threshold of the House, they came out from under the threshold. Perhaps we should conclude that they came out of the threshold and moved toward the side of the House, because it says that they went down toward the east. This seems to have been the movement. Now we shall come to that again in a minute. For the moment, the waters issued from some secret place under the House.

Now we know that the Lord had said the Sanctuary was the place of His Throne and the place of His Glory, the place where the Lord dwelt. I think we are to conclude that the waters came from there. Of course, this is all type and symbol. We are not told exactly where the waters started, but we are told that they came "out from under the threshold." I think that we can conclude that they started in the place of the Throne and the Glory, and that is a hidden place in the presence of God, for we know that God was hidden in the Sanctuary.

[Shammu]

The Man in heaven is hidden in the Sanctuary. He is the Heavenly Mystery. He is on the Throne. He is Glorified, and then the Spirit comes out from Him as in that position and in that condition. We remember that Jesus said, "afterward He would not manifest Himself to the world, HE would manifest Himself to witnesses whom He had chosen." After His resurrection, He did not show Himself personally to the world. So far as the world is concerned, Jesus has gone right out. The world does not know of His personal existence. He is a mystery to the world. He is an unreality to the world because He has hidden Himself from the world. He is hidden in Heaven. But there is a manifestation of Himself, and that is in the Spirit of Life which comes out from the Sanctuary. Christ is not only personally in heaven, He is enshrined within the heavenly Church.

For the world, in this dispensation, Jesus is still a mystery and the Church is a mystery. The Church is not understood, but this is the mystery: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." And perhaps you Bible students know that the literal translation is: "Christ in the midst of you, the hope of glory." Of course, Christ is in us personally and individually, but the Word in Colossians is "Christ in the midst of you" - the Church is the context of those words. The mystery which is great among the nations is Christ in the midst of the Church. That is the hope of glory. So Paul said, "Unto Him be the glory in the Church by Christ Jesus." The world can only know the mystery by the Life which flows out from the Church.

That is what happened on the Day of Pentecost. By the river (the Spirit) which came out from the Church, the world became aware that Jesus is alive; Christ is the only Way in which the mystery is made known. The waters come out from the Sanctuary. That is what it says in Ezekiel 47:12: "because the waters thereof issue out of the sanctuary." In the Sanctuary, they are a mystery. The mystery is made known when they come out of the House. This is all so true to the teaching of the New Testament.

The River (The Holy Spirit) Makes All Things New

So we see that the first detail of the House is the Source of the river, and then the second is that the waters flow toward the east. It says there that the temple was toward the east. So the waters moved by the south to the east. Now that is also an interesting point! Why was the House built with its gate toward the east? Why does everything look toward the east, and why do these waters move toward the east? Well, of course, the east is always the symbol for a new day. The sun rises in the east, the world's day begins in the east. Therefore, the east is the symbol of a new day, and it is quite clear that this River meant a new day for everything and everybody: it is that new day of the Spirit to which the Lord Jesus referred. "But an hour is coming, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit." When Jesus was speaking about the coming of the Holy Spirit He said, "In that day." How often He used those words, "In THAT day," that is, the day of the Spirit; that is, the new dispensation - the dispensation of the Holy Spirit.

It is in this dispensation that God is offering a new day to everyone. Of course, it is new in many respects. All the old things of that past generation are gone - the old things of types and symbols, the old things of forms and ceremonies. Those old things are passed away: "Behold, all things have become new," and this is the river that makes all things new. It is the day of the Holy Spirit. So it flows toward the east, and the Spirit brings in a New Day.

Then the next thing. "Wheresoever the River cometh, everything lives":

    When the Man went forth eastward with the line in His hand, He measured a thousand cubits, and He caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles. Again He measured a thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees. Again He measured a thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the loins. Afterward He measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed through (verses 3-5; ASV).

This Man of brass measured "a thousand cubits" four times. He measured a thousand, and the waters were up to the ankles. He measured another thousand, and they were up to the knees. Another thousand and they were up to the loins, and He measured another thousand and there were waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. Well, I think the symbolism is very simple. This sets forth the progressive fullness of the Spirit, or the progressive fullness of Christ. In the beginning there is immense intrinsic potentiality. It may be small in Jerusalem, it may be small at its beginning, but that is only a comparative matter. Of course, it was a very great thing that happened on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, but compared with what came afterward it is but small. The beginning is small in comparison with all Judaea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. But in that small beginning, there are all the potentialities to meet the whole world. The scope of this river increases. It grows fuller and fuller and wider and wider, but what is here in the waters is sufficient to meet all the need, however great. The Spirit of Jesus is sufficient for all. That is what it says, or that is what it means. There is sufficiency in Christ ministered by the Spirit to meet the greatest need. There is no need, however great, which cannot be met by this river. It does not matter where the river comes: "wheresoever the river cometh, everything lives." If you study Ezekiel forty-seven, you will see that there is no situation for which these waters are not equal. And yet one must make a reservation in that statement. It says later in the chapter that there is something that will not be healed but will be given over to salt. There is such a thing as resisting the Holy Ghost. Judas did not come into the good of the day of the Spirit; and that is in the New Testament, this possibility of sinning against the Holy Spirit. Where that is deliberately and persistently done, then there is not Life but death. But provided there is no deliberate and conscious refusal of the Spirit, the Spirit is equal to every situation. How great is the Spirit, He is altogether incomprehensible!

The prophet said it was a river that could not be passed through. This is something that is altogether impossible to cope with. How true that is in Acts two. The coming of the Spirit is likened to a mighty, rushing wind. The Spirit came like that on the Day of Pentecost. This thing cannot be managed by man. You cannot bring the Holy Spirit within the compass of your ability. Ezekiel said: "a river that could not be passed over." This is too much for man. Oh, that we knew the Spirit like this! And yet in principle, this is what the Spirit does. He refuses to be tied up to our human systems and our human measure. He refuses to be limited to our natural man. He refuses to be limited to our traditions and our prejudices. That is what we find in the Book of the Acts. The Holy Spirit is too much for the people in Jerusalem. He is too much for Peter, and all Peter's prejudices. He is too much for Herod the king. He is too much for everything that gets in His Way - a River that you cannot control.

[Shammu]

Now for the Spirit to be like that, to be expressing Himself in that way, two things are necessary; and this is a very true principle. There will only be this fullness and power of the Spirit if these two things exist. The first is the absolute authority of the Throne, that is, the absolute authority of the Man in the Throne. We have said again and again that the Man in the Throne governs everything. Everything in the whole Book comes under The Man in the Throne. In the Book of the Acts, we see the Man in the Throne governing everything. - It is the absolute Lordship and Headship of Jesus Christ.

Now God will not give His Spirit in fullness and in power to something that does not correspond to His Mind. So this thing is essential: the Man governing in the House. Therefore, what this increasing measure says to us is this: the Lord never desires to leave His people ankle deep in the Spirit. It is not the Lord's Will that we should have the Spirit and Life just up to our ankles, neither is it His desire that we shall have the Spirit up to our knees, nor yet up to our loins. The Lord's desire is fullness, waters to swim in, but waters that are too much for us.

Of course, this is rather a terrible situation. I think that you might detect in Ezekiel that he was a bit frightened. To him, this was a terrible situation, and when it gets like this, of course, it is terrible. - We want to keep our feet on sure ground. - We do not want to be swept off our feet; the Church wants to have its feet on this earth, to be quite sure of its ground. Well, you know what that means spiritually, but the Lord's thought is that we should be swept right off our feet, that we should be carried out into depths for which we have no measure. Let us think about that. There are two little words here, "a river that COULD NOT be passed through." There is the great "could not" of the Spirit. That "could not" stands over all human capacity.

He Caused Me To Go

The second thing necessary for fullness is represented by the banks and the trees. The banks of the river are referred to. This is a river that is flowing between banks. It is not just a flood spreading itself all over. This river is running between banks. You know the Holy Spirit has a way, He has a way that He will take, He has His Own Mind as to which way He will take. If the Spirit says, "I am going this way," it is no good our saying, "Well, we are going another way." You have a lot of that in the Book of the Acts. Paul spoke about assaying to preach the Word in Bithynia, and going toward Asia, but he said, "The Spirit of Jesus suffered us not, " and it turned out that the Spirit was going to Macedonia at that time. Now if Paul had gone to Bithynia, or Asia, he would have gone away from the Spirit. The Spirit was saying, "I am going this way at this time. If you want to be with Me, you must come My way." And that is what happened to Peter. The Spirit was moving toward the Gentiles, but Peter wanted to go his way. The Spirit said in effect, "If you want to go with Me, you must go My way. I am not coming your way. I am not coming the way of your tradition and your prejudice. Today this is the way that I am taking." And when Peter went that way, he found the Spirit in greater fullness than he had ever known before.

I think you see the principle. The banks represent a definitely and clearly defined Way that the Spirit is taking. He may change His direction from time to time. The River may not be just one straight line, but it will always flow between banks. The Spirit always knows exactly what He is doing and what He is after. How important it is for us to be in the banks with the Spirit!!

And then we have the trees on either side of the river. Of course, these trees in the New Testament are the living witnesses. I suppose a passage which best sets that forth is this one in Ephesians four:

    And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ; till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (ASV).

Here are living witnesses on the banks of the river. Here are those along the banks of the New Testament, and God has had His trees all down the centuries. They are the living witnesses bearing testimony to the fullness of Life in Christ, leading on toward spiritual fullness, the fullness of Christ.

There is a rather interesting thing to note here in verse nine of Ezekiel forty-seven: "And it shall come to pass, that every living creature which swarmeth, in every place whither the rivers come, shall live." I do not know whether you have got a mark in your Chinese Bible against that word, however, in the Hebrew it says, "whither the two rivers come." It is in the plural in the Hebrew, and my Bible gives me a reference in the margin which says, "whither the two rivers come." That is the Hebrew.

Now that seems to upset everything, does it not? But I think again, it is a symbol. Perhaps this river did divide into two, but "two" in the Bible is the number of adequate testimony. Wherever you find the number two, you find sufficient testimony - "In the mouth of two witnesses everything shall be established... Whatsoever two of you shall agree... He sent them forth two by two." You see, two is the number of sufficient testimony. So what we have here by the Spirit is sufficient testimony in the witnesses. So, you see, the effect of it all is Life. Of course, I would like to say a lot about that, but we must leave it. THE TEST of everything is Life. THE TEST as to whether Jesus is Lord is found in the Life. THE TEST as to whether the House is in order will be in the Life. THE TEST as to whether the spirit is having His way will be the Life. The Life is the testimony. Thus the testimony is this, that God has given unto us eternal Life.

And so we close for the time being. Ezekiel had been told to show all this to the House of Israel. In order to show it all to others, the prophet had to be caused to go that way himself. You notice what Ezekiel said, "He caused me to go." You and I must be caused to go this way before we can show it to anyone else. This is not just objective truth for teaching: this is the experience of the servant of the Lord.

[Shammu]

Chapter 13 - "The Lord is There"

Now this morning we have to bring these studies in Ezekiel to a close, and I think we cannot do better than come right to the end of the book itself. The last clause of this book reads like this: "And the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there." We might just put alongside of that some words from Ephesians, chapter two, verses nineteen to twenty-two: "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in Whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in Whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." -

And the name of the city from that day shall be,
The Lord is there.

And, again, in Ephesians, at chapter three, verses seventeen through twenty-one: "So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him Who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations for ever and ever." -

And the name of the city from that day shall be,
The Lord is there.

The end to which all God's works move is this End. Everything that we have in these prophecies of Ezekiel points to the ONE END, "The Lord is there," but that is also true of the whole Bible. The whole Bible moves toward one end. It is the end for which all things were created, and that is the presence of God in fullness and in finality. The purpose of God is that He shall fill all things. So then the end is "The Lord is there."

Now there is one particular thing which is necessary for this end to be reached. God must be able to commit Himself to man. That is what God wanted to do at the beginning. It is perfectly clear in the beginning of the Book of Genesis that God wanted to commit Himself to man. He wanted to be with man. He wanted to trust man. He wanted to put all His interests into the hands of man; in a word, God wanted to trust Himself to man.

So the great question that is now before us is this, "To what kind of man will God commit Himself?" The whole Book of Ezekiel is the answer to that question. In the first place, the answer is given in a negative way. God will not commit Himself to that in which Satan has a place. From the beginning, Satan has always tried to put man in God's way. Satan had gained a place in the nation of Israel and in the nations outside, but man was made for the very purpose that God should be with him. However, Satan captured man, and he has made man the greatest hindrance to God; therefore, the glory is removed, and it goes right outside. Man as he is now defeats God's purpose. God cannot commit Himself to that kind of man. God will not commit Himself to that in which Satan has a place. Satan and his works had to be destroyed before God would commit Himself. The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil in order to make way for God, in order that God should have His place and reach His End, because God will not commit Himself to that which has not been judged in righteousness.

Now you will recall all that we have said about brass in these prophecies: the brass in the cherubims, the brass in the Man of brass, the brass of the great altar. God will not commit Himself to anything that has not been judged in righteousness. That is the negative side, but there is the positive side to our question. - To what will God commit Himself? - The positive answer has several aspects. Firstly, it is where Christ is on the other side of judgment. The Man in the Throne represents Christ as on the other side of judgment. There is a rainbow around that Throne. That rainbow is the symbol of redemption. In the Book of the Revelation, it is represented by the Lamb in the Throne. The Lamb is the Man and the Man is the Lamb. He is there as on the other side of judgment, and that is the first thing related to God committing Himself. I say, again, that God will commit Himself where Christ is on the other side of judgment - that is, where all judgment has been fulfilled.

Now you must study that with your New Testament in your hands. When Jesus went to His baptism, He said to John the Baptist: "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." His baptism was, as we know, a type of His Cross. Therefore, His baptism and the Cross represent the fulfillment of all righteousness - that is, through judgment the death of one man and the putting of a New Man beyond the reach of judgment. That is where we are by faith in Jesus Christ. That is where the Church is. In the beginning of the Letter to the Ephesians, the Church is seated together with Him in the heavenlies. The Church is seen as on the other side of judgment because it has been raised together with Him. For the Church, all judgment is fulfilled. That is the first thing that makes way for glory in the Church. All judgment fulfilled, and that makes The Way for God to commit Himself.

Now to another aspect of God committing Himself: it is where Christ is Glorified. God will commit Himself where Christ is glorified. Here is a law of God. If God is to give Himself by His Spirit, then Jesus must be Glorified. When the glorifying of the Lord Jesus is our only object, then the Father will come in by the Spirit.

[Shammu]

Then there is this third aspect. God will commit Himself where Jesus is enthroned in government. Where His Man is on the Throne and is Himself Governing, then God will commit Himself. Where all the authority committed to His Son is recognized and accepted, then God will commit Himself.

And then there is a fourth thing. God commits Himself where things are "according to Christ," where things take their measure from Christ. You see, these things are in this book of Ezekiel. We have been just looking at the House. We have not studied it in any detail, but what we do know about the House is that it was measured by the Man of brass. Where things take their measure from Christ, there God will commit Himself.

And then just one more thing: God will commit Himself where the Cross governs. We saw how the altar governed everything within and without the House. So where the Cross governs, God will commit Himself, The Lord Jesus is the great example of all this. God committed Himself to His Son. The Word says that God did not give His Spirit by measure to Jesus; that is, He gave His Spirit fully without any reserve to Him. When the meaning of the Cross has been laid down and established, then God commits Himself. That is God's ground.

You notice how Jesus measured everything according to heaven. We have so often pointed this out. Jesus would never be governed by the mind of man - He would never do anything, say anything, or go anywhere at the advice of man. He was all the time pushing away from Him the suggestions of men and women. He did that with regard to Satan, He did it with regard to everything. He pushed back everything that would come from man. He would only take His way and His words and His works from the Father. He measured everything according to Heaven. His was the closest walk with heaven. For every detail in His life, He took the government of heaven. Therefore, the Father committed Himself to the Son of Man.

And then we have His perfecting. He said: "I must work today and tomorrow, and the third day I must be perfected." We are told that He was made perfect through sufferings. Of course, we understand that this was not moral perfecting, for He was already perfect. It was not the making perfect of His nature, it was bringing Him to fullness, the fullness of the Will of God. He was walking every day in the Will of God. He said: "Lo, I come to do Thy Will." But the Will of God was making ever greater demands upon Him until, at last, the Will of God requires that He should drink the cup, that He should go through Gethsemane to the Cross. He was being made perfect or complete as to the Will of God; and when he was made perfect as to the Will of God, God gave Him that fullness for the Church. "God gave unto Him the Name which is above every name." God committed the Fullness of Himself to Him. I think that is all quite clear. Jesus Is The Great Example!

Now we bring this study to a close. We do so by noting three necessities for the end of God to be fully and finally reached. The Church must have three things. First of all, it must have a clear apprehension of God's purpose. It is absolutely necessary that the Church sees what God's purpose is. That is why Paul prayed that great prayer for "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him," that the Church might have "the eyes of (its) heart enlightened." It is absolutely necessary that we have a clear apprehension of God's purpose, that purpose being that the Church should be the fullness of Him that filleth all in all, that God should have a full place in the Church. That is the first necessity - that we should see that, and that we should be governed by that vision. So it is a matter of spiritual vision or spiritual understanding, a revelation of God's purpose concerning the Church. This is why we read those scriptures at the beginning that the Church should be "a habitation of God through the Spirit," that God should be resident there and that it should be said, "The Lord is there," a dwelling of God. Unto that, we must see what God's purpose is.

The second thing is a clear apprehension of God's Way to His End, which is a clear apprehension of His House, a House suitable to Himself. That is an absolute necessity for God's End. And, thirdly, it is essential that the Church has a clear apprehension of the Cross. These three things are essential to the end that God shall be there!

Further, there are two aspects of those three things: there is the present progressive and the future perfect. Just at this present, this is not all fully true, and yet, what is in the Letter to the Ephesians has a present application. At present, this is only progressively true. That means that the Lord is more or less present as these things are true. Where there is a clear apprehension of His purpose, where there is a clear apprehension of His House, where there is a clear apprehension of the Cross, there you will find the Lord! At present, these things determine the measure in which the Lord is present, but the time is coming when these things will be complete, when He shall come to be Glorified in His saints. Then He will be manifested in His Church in fullness. And so you notice that at the end of Ezekiel, it is the city that is mentioned: "The Lord is there." The city represents the vessel in and through which God is present in government.

Well, we have given a broad outline. We have tried to make these lines as clear as possible, but comprehended in this outline there is a tremendous amount; and as I pass it over to you, I do say to you, "Go away and pray over it, do not just take it as some Bible study. Everything must have spiritual and practical value. So I say, brethren, pray over it, think over it, and ask the Lord to make it all true where you are."

The End

Up next; The Greatness and Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ

[Shammu]

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

The Greatness and Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 1 - The Function of the Son of God

"Who being the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power" (Hebrews 1:3).

"The god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them" (2 Corinthians 4:4).

"Who is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15).

Our subject is the Greatness and the Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and these passages are amongst many which declare that greatness and glory. In Hebrews it is: "Who being the effulgence of his glory"; in Corinthians it is: "The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ"; and in Colossians it is: "Who is the image of the invisible God".

We begin by noticing the function of the Son of God, and that function is to be God's supreme representative of Himself. Those Scriptures state His function to be the very effulgence of God's image, the image of the invisible God, and that in Him is the glory of God. The all-governing truth of the Scriptures is that by the greatness and glory of His Son, God designs to show that He is God alone. To put that in fewer words: Jesus Christ, as God's Son, is the revelation of God. This defines the nature of Jesus Christ, and sets forth His greatness and His glory.

If we want to know the greatness and glory of Jesus Christ we just have to look at His vocation. When everything else is said about His coming into the world, this is the full, final, supreme thing: He came to reveal the invisible God. That is the function of God's Son, and everything for us rests upon our appreciation of Jesus Christ. For us our knowledge of Christ governs everything in time and eternity. You must weigh these words very carefully. For us, in this life, everything depends upon our appreciation of Jesus Christ, and in all eternity that will be our occupation.

If I were to ask you if you believe that the Apostle Paul had a large knowledge of Jesus Christ, I am quite sure you would say 'Yes!' For two thousand years men have been trying to get into the teaching of that Apostle about Jesus Christ and they are still at it today. More and more books are being written and published on Paul's teaching about Jesus Christ. Some of us have been studying that teaching for more than fifty years, but we are quite prepared to say that we know nothing about it yet. The Apostle Paul had a knowledge of Christ far, far beyond our comprehension. And yet, at the end of his life he was writing: "That I may know Him" (Philippians 3:10). Paul went out of this world saying: "That I may know Him", showing that it would take eternity to know Jesus Christ.

If that is true, then we are surely ready to say: "How great Thou art!"

This knowledge of Jesus Christ is inexhaustible and unending. It begins when we are born again, and is intended to be the education of the Christian throughout all his life here. The one desire and quest of every true Christian ought to be continually: "That I may know Him". Sometimes in speaking to some unsaved person we have asked: 'Do you know the Lord?', but if they knew what we were talking about, they would say: 'Who can know the Lord?' So we have to revise our phraseology and say: 'Have you begun to know the Lord?' And to Christians we have to say: 'Are you going on to know the Lord?'

If we did but know it, the purpose of all God's dealings with us is to bring us into a greater knowledge of His Son. You see, we never know anything about greatness unless we have a great need to know it. For the Christian, 'greatness' is not just a subject for the mind. For the child of God, 'greatness' is a matter of the heart, and we are therefore brought into situations where we must know something much greater than we do know. That is why God brings His children into impossible situations - that they may learn how great Christ is. It is those people who have had the deepest and the greatest trials and difficulties who know how great is the Lord. They know the greatness of the Lord Jesus more than others.

We must understand that the very object and purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit was to make us know Christ. No one can "by searching find out God". You may spend all your life and all your energy trying to find God, and you will never find Him. There is only One who knows God, and that One is the Holy Spirit. He has come, therefore, to reveal Christ in our hearts. When the Apostle Paul said that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God... and he cannot know them" (1 Corinthians 2:14) he does not leave it there. He tells us that "unto us God revealed them through the Spirit".

The very purpose, then, of the coming of God's Son into this world was to make God known. There are many parts of the purpose of His coming. For instance, Jesus said: "The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10), and "I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly" (John 10:10). The Apostle John says that the Son of God was manifested "that he might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:. These are parts of the purpose of His coming and they take their value from the whole purpose. That whole purpose, which includes all the parts, was to reveal God the Father.

We have, therefore, to get behind Jesus to God, and there we come to the whole comprehensive truth of the Bible. That is that God, Jehovah, is God alone. The Apostle Paul gives us that in one comprehensive statement. When God had raised Jesus from the dead and set Him at His own right hand, He "gave unto him the name which is above every name" (Philippians 2:9). If His name is above every name, then there is no name higher. If "in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth", if in His name the whole universe should bow, then Jesus must be God. God manifest in the flesh.

[Shammu]

We are saying that the Bible has one object, and that is to show that God is God alone, and that truth has been taken up by God's Son to be proved as right. The Bible approaches that fact, that truth, from many standpoints, but there is only one truth in the Bible, and that is: Jehovah is the Lord.

Now the Bible throughout is dealing with a challenge to that truth. In the unseen, spiritual realm there is a great battle going on to put God out of His place in this world. Whatever men and systems may do to displace God, it does not begin with men. It begins in that unseen world. It commenced there before this world was created. The Bible reveals that there was one with a great many followers who said: "I will be like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:14). It is as though that one said to God: 'Move over on your throne. I am going to be your equal.'

Now the impact of that challenge to God's sovereignty is registered upon men. We have read: "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the fight of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them." There is a much greater power behind the power of world systems which try to dethrone God, and this power against God is at work in every part of this world. In one part it is directly to repudiate the very existence of God, and in another part it is to put everything else in His place - money, pleasure and a thousand other things. It is very important that we should have our eyes open to exactly what is happening.

Just look at the realm of nature. Perhaps never before in history have there been so many upheavals in nature. Yes, catastrophe is the word. Every day, when we open our newspapers, we see something fresh of those disturbances in nature. What does it mean? God was the Creator of this world, and all things were created through and for Jesus Christ, and the mighty spiritual powers of this universe are trying to destroy God's creation. They are trying to say that God is not the master of this creation. There is a great schism in the whole universe. The powers of evil are concentrated upon breaking up everything. We can see it in the nations, for everything is breaking to pieces in the nations. We can see it in nature, and, perhaps most tragically of all, we see it amongst the Lord's people. There never was a time when there were more divisions amongst the Lord's people than there are today. This great work of schism is spreading over everything.

What does the Bible have to say about this? It shows that there is a necessity to demonstrate that God is the Lord after all, and that necessity was taken up by God's own Son. The Lord Jesus has come into the world to answer that challenge. That is exactly what He was doing when He was here on the earth. Was it in the realm of nature? The winds and storm were raised to tempest height by the evil powers to destroy Him, and He was lying quietly and restfully asleep in the back of the boat. The disciples came and woke Him, saying "Carest thou not that we perish?" He arose and rebuked the wind and the storm, and in doing so He used the very words that He used in casting out demons. It says: "And rebuking them, he suffered them not to speak" (Luke 4:41). In the original that is the word used here: "He... rebuked the wind and the raging of the water" (Luke 8:24). Do you think that He was only speaking to the sea and the wind? No, He was speaking to the evil powers out to destroy the Creator. He said to the disciples: "Where is your faith?" and they said to each other: "Who then is this, that he commandeth even the winds and the water, and they obey him?" The answer to that is: This is the One who created all these natural forces and is Lord over them.

There was a poor man full of evil spirits. His home and all his relationships were broken to pieces, for no man could tame him, or bind him with a chain. Here, then, is the evil power destroying human relationships. Jesus rebuked the evil spirits and cast them out, and perhaps that man's home and family was one of the happiest in the country. Such people want to go and follow Jesus wherever He goes, but Jesus says: 'Go home! I am not interested in broken family life.' That is the work of the devil, and never in history were there so many broken families as there are today. The evil powers are seeking to destroy one of the most sacred things that God has created - the family - but some of us here could tell wonderful stories of how broken families have been reunited by Jesus Christ.

There are many other ways in which we could illustrate this, but the one great truth is that God's Son is going to reunite all things in Himself. That is what the Apostle Paul definitely stated: that God has intended to gather together into one all things in Jesus Christ. To 'gather together' is to 'reunite in one'. The last book of the Bible gives us a glorious picture of that having been done. Gathered into one, singing one song, will be people out of every nation. Yes, Vietnamese and Americans singing one song together, and Congolese and the missionaries from other countries singing one song. All the nations which have been at war in this age will have representatives singing together in glory. There will be a gathering together into one in and by Jesus Christ in the ages to come.

It was this great controversy in the universe that God's Son came into this world to settle. Jesus already has the victory in His possession and He is going to bring His Church into that victory. We look for that glorious day when all the divisions among the Lord's people will be healed and Jesus will have established the great truth: God is all and in all.

That is just the doorway into our theme. From now onward we shall move through the door into the reality of these things.

[Shammu]

Chapter 2 - An Ark of Acacia Wood

We are occupied with the greatness and the glory of Jesus Christ. So far we have been looking at this matter in a comprehensive way. We have been considering the immense vocation of the Son of God in this universe, and from the greatness of that vocation we have come to see something of the greatness of the Person. For so great a vocation a very great Person is necessary, and never has so great a purpose been entrusted to any other being. It demanded God Himself in the Person of His Son to do what Jesus Christ came into this world to do.

Now we are going to break that up into fragments.

There are many ways in the Bible by which the great truth of the greatness and glory of Christ is brought before us. This week we are confining ourselves to one of these ways by which God has chosen to reveal His Son, and that way is by means of the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle of the Old Testament. That ark was God's temporary method of representing the greatness and glory of His Son.

Now I want to safeguard this matter very carefully. There will be a great deal said about that ark as we trace its history through the Old Testament. But this sounds like a contradiction - I am not really talking about the ark. It will be mentioned perhaps very many times during this week, and you might think that I am giving some messages on the tabernacle and the ark, but what I am really speaking about is what the ark represents. The ark is only a symbol, after all. It is one of the types in the Old Testament, and we are only doing here what God did, and what Jesus Himself did. God took an earthly object by which to teach heavenly truths. The object is not an end in itself, but only a means to an end, so that in order to understand and appreciate typology we have to stand back from that which is used in order to see what purpose it serves. We have to see what it is that God is trying to say by using this object. So we must get behind the type to that which it typifies.

What we are going to see as we look at this ark and its history is the absolute supremacy and exclusiveness of Jehovah as God. This ark is going to say to us, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see, that God is God alone in this universe. This ark is the symbol of the rights of God in this universe.

I wonder if you have ever been impressed with the way in which the Psalmist so often addressed God? He was addressed as the 'Creator of the heavens and the earth', which was just one way of saying that God has by creation supreme rights in heaven and on earth. We shall find as we go on that this ark is set up against all other gods, and all these other false gods of the nations have to bow in the presence of this ark. Those of you who know anything about its history are at once realizing how true that is. Whether it be the gods of the seven nations in Canaan, or whether it be Dagon, the god of the Philistines, down they will come from their thrones when this ark comes into their midst. There are many gods in this universe, but they will all have to bow the knee when the ark comes into their presence. All these gods represent rebellion against the absolute supremacy of Jehovah. Therefore, in principle, all these other deities embody the law of lawlessness. They are against Jehovah. Lawlessness is in the heavens and in the earth, and we know that today more than ever. Lawlessness has reached its highest point in our time, but we can see it so much in the Old Testament. Very well, then: bring in the ark and see what happens when it appears on the scene!

You see, it is not just the ark: it is what the ark represents. We shall see that the ark is a type of Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. It is the function of Jesus Christ to establish the uniqueness, the perfect holiness, the almighty power and the wonderful grace of God. All these things were features of the ark, and the Lord Jesus Christ takes them all up in Himself. The uniqueness of God - there is no other - the absolute holiness of God, the supreme power of God and the unspeakable grace of God. These were features of the ark which point to the Lord Jesus.

It may be that there are some of you who are a little sceptical about Old Testament typology. Indeed, you may be sceptical about the place of the Old Testament in our life today, but I think I shall have to bring you right to the real point.

Are you sceptical about the Old Testament? Have you no place for Old Testament typology? If that is your attitude, then you must close your New Testament as well as your Old Testament. You will have to tear your New Testament to pieces and throw a lot of it away. That is why, in this special connection, I asked you to read the ninth chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews. We will just look at it.

"And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holy of holies; having a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was a golden pot holding the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat; of which things we cannot now speak severally" (Hebrews 9:3-5).

Now that looks backward, but in verse 8 it is brought forward to the present time: "The Holy Spirit this signifying, that the way into the holy place hath not yet been made manifest, while as the first tabernacle is yet standing; which is a parable for the time now present; according to which are offered both gifts and sacrifices that cannot, as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect, being only (with meats and drinks and divers washings) carnal ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation" (verses 8-10).

I want you to note several little fragments in that passage. "Not yet." Now, as you know, the writer of this Letter is saying that that 'not yet' is finished - now it is all finished... "which is a parable for the time now present". If you look at verse 23, it says: "It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens...", and verse 24: "For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true." Now put all those fragments together: Not yet while the old tabernacle was standing. The 'yet' is a later time. That was a parable of the things now. That was a copy of things in the heavens, and the writer is saying throughout the Letter: 'We are living in that time of reformation.' This is something much bigger than the Reformation under Martin Luther! This is the re-forming of everything from types to realities, from the earthly type to the heavenly truth.

Now I am sure that has wearied many of you, because you have no difficulty in this matter, but I want you weary people to remember two things. There are here a large number of young Christians who have yet to learn all the meaning of the Bible, and there are a few present, who, because they come from a certain part of Europe, have little place for the Old Testament. So it is necessary for us to see that we cannot understand the Old Testament without the New Testament, and to understand the New Testament we must have the Old Testament. The New Testament is illuminated by the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is explained by the New Testament. Forgive me for taking so much time on that, but I think it is important.

[Shammu]

Let us come back to this ark. You know that it goes by a number of different names, which we will just mention, and then explain them afterward. Fifteen times it is called 'The ark of God'; fourteen times it is called 'the ark of the testimony'; nine times it is called 'the ark of the covenant'; five times it is called 'the ark of the Lord'; twice it is called 'the ark of the glory' and once it is called 'the ark of God's strength'. Let us, then, look at some of these names more carefully.

Firstly, the ark of the covenant. The covenant is the basis or ground upon which God is willing to be with us. Perhaps the greatest thing that man needs is to have God with him, so it is important to know the ground on which God is willing to be with us. So the covenant is an agreement which God makes. It is a contract made by God, a charter provided by God. In the covenant God says: 'These are the terms upon which I will be with you.' God has made a covenant and says: 'This is the covenant that I make: that I will be with you on this ground. If you will keep on this ground I will remain with you.' That is the covenant, and the ark is the ark of that covenant.

In the next place it is called 'the ark of the testimony', and in the Hebrew language the word 'testimony' is a different word from the word 'covenant'. The testimony is a declaration made by God, a statement and a proclamation that God makes to man. God is a speaking God, not a dumb God. He makes a proclamation. If we were using New Testament language we would say 'God is a preaching God'. You see, the Gospel is a proclamation. It is the speaking of a speaking God. "God hath spoken" is the great proclamation of the prophets. God has made Himself known in word. You must store all this up for what we are going to say in a few minutes.

The third name is 'the ark of the Lord'. This declares that He is Lord, and by means of this ark men are going to meet God. They are going to know that it is the Lord with whom they have to do, and the name 'the ark of God' carries with it a very similar meaning. By means of this ark a relationship with God is created. They truly did learn in the old days that this ark meant that men came into touch with God.

Now we need not enlarge upon the other names, 'the ark of God's strength' and 'the ark of God's glory'. We are going to see that as we go on with the history of the ark.

All this was concentrated into a small chest. I used to think that the ark was about the size of a man's coffin, and that when they carried it through the wilderness they were carrying something like a coffin - something about the size of a man. But that, of course, is not true. The ark was a comparatively small box, only just a little longer than this reading desk here, about as wide and also about as high. It was really quite a small thing.

As you know, it was made of acacia wood, a wood chosen for its strength and incorruptibility. That ark would never be troubled by woodworm or dry rot. That is not just a joke - I am thinking all the time beyond the ark. But there it was - quite a small cabinet with a basis of acacia wood.

Then it was overlaid with gold, and on the top of it was a slab of pure gold. That was called the mercy seat, and over the mercy seat were the two cherubim of glory.

Inside the ark there were three things. There were the tables of the covenant, the golden pot with a specimen of the manna in the wilderness, and Aaron's rod that budded and bore fruit.

We have to turn over from the type to the reality to understand all these details, but before we do that let us mention one other thing: the place that the ark occupied.

The ark was right at the very heart and centre not only of the tabernacle but of the whole nation of Israel. The whole system which gathered around that ark was governed by the position which it occupied. It was there that God had His place as the centre of everything. It was there that He was heard to speak and it was there that He made Himself known.

Now we turn over. We have said that this ark was a type of Jesus Christ, and we begin with the incorruptible nature of the Son of God. He could say: "Which of you convicteth me of sin?" (John 8:46). If He were not the Divine Son of God, how dared He say such a thing? There is not another human being in all God's universe who dare say: 'You cannot find any sin in me'. Mark you, we are now speaking about His humanity - we are referring to the acacia wood. No sin could register its power in His life. That is what I meant by 'no woodworm and no dry rot'. Neither sin nor death could affect Him. The testimony concerning Him was: "it was not possible that he should be holden of death" (Acts 2:24), and Peter, quoting the Psalmist, also said: "Neither wilt thou give thy Holy One to see corruption" (Acts 2:27). His humanity was a sinless, perfect humanity, and yet it was true humanity.

Do you not wish that you were like that? Do you not wish that sin could have no power over you? Do you not wish that you had an incorruptible nature? Do you not wish that death had no power over you?

Dear friends, we are chosen to be conformed to His image that all that shall be true of us. Paul says that even these corruptible bodies are going to be changed and "conformed to the body of his glory" (Philippians 3:21). The Word of God teaches us that we are not going to be just disembodied spirits floating about in the air. We are going to have resurrection bodies, from which all sin and corruption will have been removed for ever. We are chosen for that, and for that very purpose Jesus Christ, God's Son, came in the form of a man. Every time we take the loaf at the Lord's Table we are really testifying to this fact that by faith we are made partakers of that incorruptible Body of Christ. We are secured in Him unto a body that will overcome death.

We are launched out into the beginning of a mighty ocean! So far I have only just touched a little upon the acacia wood, but the ark will go through all the wilderness trials. It will overcome all the difficulties and adversities of the wilderness life and, as we shall see, it will lead the way right through into the promised land of the inheritance.

[Shammu]

Chapter 3 - Overlaid with Pure Gold

Now we come to the second thing about the ark. We have seen that the ark was made of acacia wood, and that it was overlaid with pure gold. If you make a study of gold in the Bible you will see that it always speaks of glory, and you will also see that God was always jealous about the gold. He claimed the gold, and said: 'That is Mine. It belongs to Me.' It was that which represented the glory of God, about which He is very jealous, and Satan tried from time to time to steal the gold away from Him.

When Moses remained in the mountain forty days and forty nights the people said: 'Well, we don't know what has become of this Moses. Let us make us gods', and they called upon the people to bring their gold and out of that gold they made a golden calf. Then they said: 'This is thy god, O Israel', and they worshipped the calf.

You see, Satan had stolen the glory from God - God's glory was taken from Him by Satan. There is so much in that incident about which we have no time to speak, but there was one man who discerned the meaning of it, and it is that man's connection with the ark that we are going to look at more fully. When Joshua heard the noise of shouting in the camp, all this noise of worshipping the calf, he said: "There is a noise of war in the camp" (Exodus 32:17). There was registered upon the spirit of Joshua a conflict that was going on. That was how he interpreted the situation, and he was more right than he knew, for it was a battle between the glory of God and the glory of Satan. You know that Joshua was a man of war. His whole history, as you will see, had to do with warfare, and that warfare was in relation to the ark. This spirit of conflict in Joshua was for the jealousy of God's glory.

You will remember that later on, when they were in the land, they came to the city of Ai, and there Israel met their first defeat. Joshua fell down before the ark of the Lord and asked Him why this defeat, and it was as though the Lord lifted up His finger, and that finger came down upon a wedge of gold. Achan had stolen a wedge of gold and hidden it in his tent. He had taken what had belonged to God alone and made it his own. In another way, you see, Satan had taken the glory of God and given it to man, and God says: 'My glory will I not give to another.'

Satan always has his eye on the gold: that is, he is always concerned to take the glory from God to himself. Oh, what a lot there is in the Bible about this! I am tempted to spend hours on the gold in the Bible, for it is a wonderful revelation of what belongs to God alone.

This ark, then, is covered with pure gold, and that speaks of how very precious Jesus Christ is to God, and how jealous God is for His Son, Jesus Christ. The Scripture says that all should "honour the Son, even as they honour the Father" (John 5:23). If we want to be in the good pleasure of God we must make everything of the Lord Jesus. If we want to know why it was that God was so wonderfully with the first Christians and Apostles, the explanation is that they only had one Person in view, and everywhere at all times, they were magnifying the Lord Jesus. They knew something about the value of gold in God's sight. Wherever they went people glorified Christ. The Apostle Paul was able to say about certain Christians: "They glorified God in me" (Galatians 1:24).

Now will you notice that this gold of the ark and of the tabernacle was only seen from the inside. There was very much gold in the tabernacle. It covered all the boards, there were crowns of gold upon the pillars, there was the golden altar of incense, there was the golden lampstand, there were the gold vessels, and then there was the golden ark, the golden mercy seat upon the ark and the golden cherubim over the mercy seat. There was much gold, but it was all covered over by the many curtains and you could see none of it from the outside. If you had looked at that tabernacle from the outside you would have seen something very plain and ordinary. The outermost covering was just made from skins of porpoise, and if you had looked at it from the outside you would have said: 'There is no beauty that we should desire it.' Do you know where those words come from? "And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised, and rejected of men... and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised" (Isaiah 53:2,3). You know those words were spoken about the Lord Jesus, and that is exactly how He was to the world outside, but, thank God, that is not the whole story. Let us get inside. Let us go into this place where God is, and what a changed scene! Wherever we look it is sparkling gold. There is that golden altar, that golden table of shewbread and that gold lampstand with its seven branches. From the inside we can see the gold upon the boards of the tabernacle and there are all the golden vessels. And right at the centre, and more than all, is the golden ark. But the gold can only be seen from the inside. What a lot of meaning there is in that!

See how the world looked at Jesus! See what value the world placed upon Him! See how they despised and rejected Him! And then hear John crying: "We beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). But you have to be on the inside to talk like that. That is the privilege of the Lord's people. There is now no veil between - it has been taken away, and we are all privileged to enter within the veil and to behold His glory. Are you on the inside? Have you come to see the glory of Christ? Are you seeing more and more as life goes on of that glory in Christ? Can you join with John and say: "I behold His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth"?

Dear friends, as we go on in the Christian life we ought to be seeing more and more of the glory of Jesus Christ. You see, the gold was that which was mostly to God's pleasure; it was that which gave God His true satisfaction, and the thing which satisfies God most of all is the glory of His Son.

You know, the last picture in the Bible of the new Jerusalem describes it as having one street which is all of gold. It is the last picture in this dispensation, and the street is not just something to look at. It is something to walk in, and this symbolism is just saying: 'In the end you and I will be walking up and down in the glory of Jesus Christ.'

Well now, you can see that that opens the door to the great subject in the Bible of our being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Peter says that 'the trying of your faith is more precious than gold'. True faith which has been tried and purified in the fire is the most precious thing to God, because it is the faith of the Son of God. It is reproduced in us from Christ through fiery trials. I think that of all things precious to God faith is the most precious, because unbelief is the thing which is most against God.

Abraham is the embodiment of gold tried in the fire. He was the 'father of the faithful' and a man of gold, that is, when God had finished with him. And you and I, through the fires of trial, difficulty and suffering, are being made precious to God.

Well, I did not expect to take so much time on that one thing, but I should not be exaggerating if I said that I could spend more than this whole week on gold alone. However, there are many other things to say - but not tonight.

May I ask you, please, before tomorrow morning, to read the first chapter of the Book of the Revelation. I am not sure that we shall get to that tomorrow - those of you who know me best wonder when I shall get anywhere! However, sooner or later we shall reach that chapter.

[Shammu]

Chapter 4 - The Mercy-Seat

We go on with the next thing about the ark, and that is the mercy-seat. There rested upon the ark this solid plate of gold which was called the mercy-seat. It is mentioned twenty-three times in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament it is taken up as referring to the Lord Jesus. It is so set forth in the Letter to the Hebrews. The mercy-seat on the ark of the Old Testament is one other aspect of the glory and greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You notice that it is called 'the seat of mercy', and that word 'mercy' in the Old Testament is a very rich and strong word. It means 'the loving kindness of the Lord'. A new translation of the Bible has translated that word 'mercy' into 'steadfast love', and that is the nearest definition to the Hebrew word that we have. It is covenant love, loyal love, a covenant of love made in the blood which was sprinkled upon the mercy-seat. Because we are so familiar with the old versions, which give this word simply as 'mercy', we love that constant repetition of the statement: "His mercy endureth for ever", or "How great is Thy mercy!", or from the prophet: "He delighteth in mercy" (Micah 7:18). Perhaps we do not easily take to a new translation, but when we stay to think about it, the new translation is still richer. Perhaps, as we come more deeply to understand it, we shall be willing to accept this translation 'His steadfast love'.

It is a very impressive thing that, right at the very centre and heart of this whole great system of the Old Testament, represented by the tabernacle, is the mercy-seat. Everything else pointed toward the mercy-seat, and it gave its value to everything else. The mercy-seat governed and gave character to everything. It is a wonderful thing to think of that. Yes, the mercy-seat governs everything for the people of God. We turn to a little phrase in Psalm 84. You know that that Psalm is the Psalm of the House of God. It begins with: "How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord". It is sinful man saying that! This is poor, failing man who is speaking. Why is it that the poor, sinful, failing man speaks like that? Why is it that he so longs for the courts of the Lord's house? The answer is found in this little phrase: "The Lord will give grace and glory" (verse 11). The throne of grace, the mercy-seat, was right at the centre of the House of the Lord. The gold of the glory was there at the mercy-seat, but it was not a throne of judgment; it was a throne of grace.

We pass from the type to the Lord Jesus Himself. We said that the Lord Jesus takes the place of the mercy-seat in the New Testament. Now look at the Letter to the Romans, chapter 3, verse 25: "Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, by his blood". We can understand the difficulty of the translators, but their difficulty has deprived us of something very precious. It would have been difficult for the translators to have put: 'God hath set forth Him as a mercy-seat'. In the original it is not what God has done, but what Christ is. In that literal translation it would not be: 'God has set Him forth as a propitiation', but 'as a propitiatory'. It is what He is, although it is also true of what He has done. So it ought really to read: 'God hath set Him forth to be the mercy-seat'. Jesus occupies the central place in the whole scheme of redemption, and that place is the mercy-seat. It was there at the mercy-seat that God met the people in the representative person of the high priest. You will remember that when Aaron, the high priest, went in to the ark, he had the breastplate on him with the names of all the tribes of Israel, so that in the person of the high priest all the people of God were present, and there, at the mercy-seat, God spoke and made Himself known to His people. Aaron went in with the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled it upon the mercy-seat, making an atonement for the people, and by that covenant in blood God made Himself known. It was a perpetual testimony to the grace of God. In that regime it was every year. It was maintained throughout all their generations, but with our Lord Jesus it is once and for ever. All who come unto God by Jesus Christ stand on the ground of His steadfast love, and for such people it is everlasting love.

The Apostle Paul had a great knowledge of these Old Testament types. He was perfectly instructed in all the things of the tabernacle of old, and in ways which we do not always recognize he was alluding to that Old Testament system. I believe that those words which we love very much, but understand very little, are an allusion to the mercy-seat. Let us read them in the light of the mercy-seat, for they will throw much light upon it.

"Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." That is the High Priest who has gone into the heavenly tabernacle with His own blood to make intercession for us. Now the next words explain the mercy-seat, that is, the steadfast love: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:33-35, 37-39).

That is the mercy-seat, the steadfast love of God for His own. That is the greatness and glory of Jesus Christ; and surely we can speak of that as grace and glory. That is what Jesus Christ has been made unto us.

[Shammu]

Are you not more and more amazed at the steadfast love of God for Israel? You have only to read that long record of their history in the Book of the Psalms - Psalms 106 and 107. They are very long Psalms, but it is a long, long story of the steadfast love of God, and that love is set over against the long story of Israel's failures. Oh, how those people disappointed the Lord! They never had one little trouble but they turned against Him. It seems that they only wanted some little occasion to grumble at Him. When we come to the Prophets we are greatly impressed with the love of God for Israel. Indeed, it was steadfast love. How loyal God was to His people! His love for them often made Him close His eyes to their wrong. When I remember what Israel was really like I am amazed at those prophecies of Balaam. Balak, of Moab, called for Balaam to come and curse Israel, and perhaps you might think that if there were any people who ought to be cursed, those people were Israel! Balaam came to try to curse Israel, but the curse would not come out of his mouth, and he had to say: 'God has commanded me to bless. How can I curse?' But what did Balaam say, or rather, what did God say through Balaam's mouth? "He (God) hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel" (Numbers 23:21). Oh, what does this mean? There was plenty of iniquity in Israel, but God says: "I have not beheld iniquity in Jacob". Why did God speak like that? He was looking at Israel through the mercy-seat, and was being true to His covenant of steadfast love.

If you really love someone, you usually make a lot of excuses for their failures. If someone else points out the failures and the wrongs of the one you love, you always say: 'Well, perhaps that is true, but... but...'. You cover up the faults of the one you love because you are loyal to them. Loyalty is a great virtue. I wish that we Christians were more loyal to one another, simply because we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We have to go a long way to be like God in this matter. There is an old saying that love is blind. Don't you believe that! Love sees everything, but love loves in spite of everything, and that is like the love of God.

We are poor sinners and we cannot accuse Israel. We are a very poor lot in ourselves, and God knows all about that, and much more than we know about ourselves, but with all His knowledge of us He loves us.

What do you think of this world? What do you think about those Congolese people who have done all that wicked work? They are only representative of humanity. What do you think of this world? Well, we are saying that this is a poor kind of a world. Man is a poor kind of creature. Do you think God does not know anything about that? He knows far more about man than you or I know, and yet it still stands - "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son", and God has set Him forth as a mercy-seat. We shall never exhaust the wonderful fullness of this mercy-seat! We find all the patience and the long-suffering and the forbearance of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is not a low kind of love, that is, a kind of love that does not care whether a person is bad. That is why there are two cherubim over the mercy-seat, and if you study the history of the cherubim you will see that they always relate to one thing - the holiness of God. The first time you meet them is at the gate of the Garden when man has sinned. Those cherubim say: 'Man in his sinful state cannot dwell in the presence of God. Something must be done about it.' When you get to the end of the Bible you find redeemed man in the midst of the Paradise of God. Yes, he is back in the Garden now, but God has done something about it. The Mercy-Seat has attended to this whole matter. The precious Blood has made a full atonement for man's sin.

The point is that the cherubim always speak of the holiness of God's love. The cherubim in Isaiah's time are heard chanting: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts." His love is a holy love, and by the mercy-seat He lifts us from our own unholiness to His holiness. That blood on the mercy-seat always speaks of the great price that God paid to redeem man from his unholiness.

Forget the mercy-seat and remember Jesus Christ. He is all and more than ever the symbol represented.

We said that this is just one other aspect of the greatness and glory of Jesus Christ. May God give us a new appreciation of our Lord Jesus as our Mercy-Seat!

[Shammu]

Chapter 5 - The Ark of the Testimony

"Who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 1:2).
"I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" (Revelation 1:9).
"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgement was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast" (Revelation 20:4).

In our consideration of the greatness and glory of Jesus Christ we are seeing how God used the ark in the tabernacle of old to set forth that greatness and glory of His Son. Among the number of names by which that ark was called is "The Ark of the Testimony". The 'testimony' there referred specifically to the tables of the covenant within the ark, but it came to have a much larger meaning than that. The testimony related to the ark itself as well as to all that which was in it, so it was a very comprehensive thing. We saw that when we looked at the many names by which the ark was called.

There is a link between the ark of the testimony in the tabernacle and this phrase which repeatedly occurs in the Book of the Revelation, and which we have just read three times: "The testimony of Jesus". That was what the ark of the Old Testament represented. It was in very truth the testimony of Jesus.

Now it will be noted, as we follow the history of the ark, that its progress was always connected with conflict. As it went forward through the wilderness and into the Promised Land it was always an object of conflict. There is a great word by both Moses and David, the Psalmist, about this. It says that when the priests took up the ark the word went out: "Arise, O Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered" (Numbers 10:35; Psalm 68:1). The testimony was always an object of opposition, and the very presence of the ark of the testimony caused opposition. Then, when you come to this Book of the Revelation, you will notice that every time the testimony is mentioned it is connected with persecution. John says: "I... was in the isle that is called Patmos... for the testimony of Jesus." He was in exile because of the testimony of Jesus. He was in the isle of Patmos under one of the great Roman persecutions of Christians. Then, in chapter 20, he says: "I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus".

So it will be noted that the testimony of Jesus is connected with persecutions and martyrdoms, but we shall understand that phrase 'the testimony of Jesus' better if we know the cause of the persecution.

There is no doubt whatever that the cause of all the persecution of the Christians was emperor-worship, and here, in this Book of the Revelation, we are in the presence of the persecutions which arose over emperor-worship. The Roman emperors were worshipped as deities. They posed as gods, and did the work of the devil. One of the titles of the Roman Caesars was 'our lord god', so that right over that vast Roman empire, over all the world, Caesar reigned as god. Only Jews and Christians were persecuted by the Romans, and the reason for that was that they would not acknowledge any other god than Jehovah. The Jews would worship no other god than Jehovah, and the Christians would acknowledge no other god than the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Roman world said of Caesar: 'Our lord god'. The Christian world said of Jesus: 'Our Lord God'. That explains the phrase 'the testimony of Jesus', for the testimony of Jesus brought the Christians into immediate and direct conflict with the whole Roman conception of who was God.

So the 'testimony of Jesus' is the testimony concerning the truth as to who and what Jesus is. History is repeating itself. If you are saying: 'Of course, that was long centuries ago. That belongs to the time of the Roman Empire and the Christian persecutions, many hundreds of years ago', I would remind you that that same thing, in principle, is spreading like a great wave over the world today. The systems and ideologies may not take the name of God, but they are taking the place of God. They are in opposition to all that is His right, and in a very great part of the world you dare not speak of Him. It is forbidden, with great persecutions, to worship God. Even the great world of Islam may recognize Jesus as a good man and a prophet, but you mention Jesus as God and see what you meet! We have reason to believe that this anti-God movement is far more widespread than we know. Even the Western nations are undermined with it, and those in the movement are only waiting for the day when they can spring up and put God out of this Western world.

We are all, in some way or another, in some measure or another, involved in the testimony of Jesus. If the outward persecutions and martyrdoms are not yet our experience, every truly devoted Christian knows that it is becoming more and more difficult spiritually to be true to the Lord. We are all involved in the conflict of the testimony of Jesus in one way or another. There is an antagonism to Jesus Christ in the very atmosphere. If you are not conscious of that, there is something wrong with your spiritual life. The more utterly consecrated to Jesus Christ you are, the more conflict will there be in your life.

The ark of old times is a wonderful foreshadowing of this conflict. It is the ark of testimony, and it is the testimony of Jesus. Of course, if you are not prepared to testify to the Lord Jesus, you may have an easy time. Many Christians are afraid to testify because they know it will bring opposition. It will bring opposition in business, or in the home, or in social life. There is a mighty opposition in the very spiritual realm, and because of that opposition, many Christians keep their mouths closed. Do you think that makes them neutral Christians? It may look like that, but, really, they are defeated Christians already.

[Shammu]

Now let us look at this testimony of Jesus more closely. It is the testimony as to who and what Jesus is. What did these Christians of the New Testament believe concerning Jesus? The first and basic thing that they believed and declared was: Jesus is the Son of God. That, of course, brought them at once into conflict with the Jews, who persecuted the Christians on that one point. You have one instance of this in a parable of the Lord Jesus. He said: 'A certain man planted a vineyard and let it out to husbandmen. At the time of the fruits he sent his servant to receive the fruit of the vineyard, and the husbandmen cast him out of the vineyard. So he sent another servant, and they treated him in the same way. After he had sent a number of servants, whom they killed, the Master of the vineyard said - "I will send my son. They will honour him." They saw the son coming and said: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours."' The Lord Jesus spoke that parable in the presence of the Jewish leaders, and whatever else you may say about their intelligence, on this occasion they saw the point, and the writer says: "They perceived that he spake of them" (Matthew 21:45). You would have thought that they had been discovered and so would go away and do nothing, but "they sought to lay hold on him". They did the very thing that the Lord had said about these wicked husbandmen. They would not have it that Jesus was the Son of God, and anyone who claimed to be that must die. That was the basis of all the persecution by the Jews.

We have seen how true that was in the case of the Romans. If anyone was said to take the place of Caesar, he must die. So the Christians were persecuted because of their testimony that Jesus was the Son of God.

However, that is only one of seven things.

The Christians believed and preached that Jesus, as the Son of God, was the destined Lord of creation. Both John and the Apostle Paul, put that into words: "In him (Jesus) were all things created... through him, and unto him" (Colossians 1:16).... "All things were made by him" (John 1:3). The wicked husbandmen of the spiritual world sought to take His inheritance from Him, but although they killed Him on the Cross, the Apostles and the Christians went through the world preaching that Jesus was the destined Lord of creation. If they had had our hymn-book, one of their favourite hymns would be:

    "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
    Doth his successive journeys run..."

Yes, they would sing that most heartily!

    "His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
    Till moons shall wax and wane no more."

Jesus is God's Son, appointed to be the heir of all things.

But the Christians believed something even deeper than that. They believed and taught that Jesus, as the Son of God, was the pattern of all the creation. We have often said that if we understood the spiritual principles of the material creation we should understand Jesus Christ. The sun, the moon and the stars are used as symbols of His kingdom. The sun is Jesus Christ Himself reigning high; the moon is His Church living and reflecting His light over the world in a dark night; the stars are the local churches showing His light in a dark world. And where shall I stop if I go through the whole universe? If we understood all the sciences and their spiritual laws, we should see Jesus. He is the spiritual pattern of the whole material creation. That is why the Apostle Paul used the human body as a model of the Church.

Now go out into a pagan world of unbelief and begin to preach those things! Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of the living God; Jesus of Nazareth is the destined Lord of creation; Jesus is God's eternal pattern for the creation, and eventually the whole creation will reflect Him. Well, say those things in a pagan, hostile world, and see what happens! You are not surprised that Caesar rose up against Jesus. Jesus said: "I am." Caesar said: 'The world is mine. It was made for me. I have conquered the world, and I make it according to my mind.' I said that because Caesar claimed that position he did the work of the devil, for behind the rulers of this world is Satan. Satan says: 'I am the god of this world. I am going to make this world according to my mind. I am going to take possession of the whole creation.' This is not fiction; it is spiritual reality, and this is the conflict of the testimony of Jesus. You notice that the sole object and the theme of testimony by the early Christians was: 'Jesus is Lord'. The preaching of that brought them into conflict with the lord of this world.

Now I said that there were seven things that the Christians believed. I do not think that it is necessary for me to overstep my space by dealing with all of them, but there are two things which we must mention as we close.

The Christians proclaimed that God had attested Jesus Christ on all these points by raising Him from the dead. They said: 'You killed Him, but God raised Him', and they went everywhere preaching Jesus and the resurrection. The raising of Jesus from the dead was God's seal upon all that we have said as to the testimony of Jesus.

The last thing for the present is this - and it is something that we must all take very careful notice of. All this was the meaning of Christian baptism. Baptism was baptism into Jesus Christ. It was baptism into the Name of Jesus, and that meant into all that was true of the Lord Jesus: into Him as the divine Son of God, into Him as God's destined Lord of the universe, into Him as the pattern of the creation that is yet to be, into Him as Lord. Is that what baptism means to you? Baptism has lost very much of its meaning in our time. In many realms it is just a ceremony, a part of Christian practice and teaching, but, as God sees it, it is an immense thing, and anyone who goes to this matter of baptism really seriously knows that there is a conflict related to it. The testimony of Jesus is the cause of all the trouble, the suffering and the martyrdom, but it is the testimony of the glory. The greatness and the glory of Jesus Christ is the testimony of Jesus.

I must close, but I am quite sure that you all feel that the immensity of this demands a great deal more time. I was speaking in India once, and after I had been speaking for one and a half hours, I looked at my watch. An Indian in the company shouted: 'Throw that watch away!' Well, we are going where there will be no clocks or watches, and when we are where time shall be no more we shall still be talking about the testimony of Jesus.