Books by T. Austin-Sparks

[Shammu]

It seems that it was necessary for the disciples to break down, and to be allowed to break down. Some of us have bitterly complained to the Lord that He has allowed us to break down, but there is another point of view. All these disciples had a very close association with the Lord Jesus in the days of His flesh, and yet every one of them broke down: “They all forsook him and fled.” “It is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.” They all broke down, and it is a sorry picture that meets our eye after Christ had been crucified and buried. It is a sorry picture of those disciples, but it would seem that it was necessary. Peter had a good deal of confidence in what he could do, and how far he could go. He was very sure of himself. They all had to come to the place where it was perfectly clear to them that there was nothing in them that could go through, that they could not stand up to things, that they were as weak as water when it really came to the crucial test. That had to be demonstrated in their very experience. It was essential to the afterward. If we have complained that we have known weakness and failure and breakdown, there is a divine providence in that. It is the Lord’s way of bringing us to the place where we may know power, because power is not in us, it is in Christ, and we can never know power in Christ until we have discovered the depth of our own impotence, the reality of our own worthlessness. We have to be humbled in order to learn humility, dependence upon the Lord.

You notice that afterwards the Spirit makes perfectly clear the change. There were the marks of power, the marks of triumph. Where was the secret? In the Name of Jesus. It was all Christ, it was all in the exalted Lord that was the basis, and they had learned their lesson and knew that in themselves there was no power, no strength. There was a wonderful change after the emptying of those men by the cross, and then the bringing of them to the place where, not in themselves but in Him as exalted, it was possible to go on and to triumph.

The Name, with all its glory, and all its majesty, and all its power, is based upon humility. It derives its strength, its gain, on the very ground of humility, self-emptying. If you and I did know and realise it, humility is one of the greatest, if not the greatest and most important thing for any life that is going to be used by God as a witness to the power of Christ. Unless God has that basis it is a desperately dangerous thing for us to know power. There is all that in us which will use power and turn it to our own glory and our own exaltation. It is a terrible thing to taste of the heavenly gift unless there is a right foundation, and the only foundation which makes us safe is that of self-emptiness, humility. Let us seek from the Lord continually much humility, true humility, the meekness of Christ. This is the moral basis of power. The opposite of that was the pride of Satan, and the pride of Adam, and that was the moral (or the immoral) basis of the ruin.

When we talk about power we must not think of God just baptizing us with something we call power, or with the Holy Spirit for the purpose of power, but we must remember that God must have His foundation, and that foundation is provided by the cross, the cross which smites us, and smites all in us that would take hold of the things of God to use them for ourselves, unto our own ends. The cross must do that work and bring about a true humility. We must, therefore, ask the Lord to keep the cross operative continually in our life: “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus...”. “I die daily.” This cross of Christ was a continuous thing with Him. It operated by various means: “Lest by reason of the revelation I should be exalted above measure, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me...”. It is the work of the cross, the principle of the cross, to break that “I”, and to keep it down so that no pride should mar the vessel and destroy the power.

In the humility wrought by the cross we are brought into oneness with the exalted Christ, and oneness with the exalted Christ means that God is committed to man. That is a tremendous thing. Two or three, on the basis of the cross, on the moral basis of Christ’s exaltation, who are emptied, weak, but confident in Him, should mean that when they bring God into a situation, that situation encounters God, the men involved encounter God. It is a tremendous thing to realise God is committed to us. That is what union with Christ means, and the moral basis of union with Christ is death to self and the centre of self: that is, pride.

May the Lord teach our hearts anew with His Word.

I am quite sure that the emphasis is a very necessary one upon the matter of humility, as the way of exaltation, the basis of divine power. May the Lord speak it to our hearts.

[Shammu]

Chapter 4

"And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader. And David said unto all the congregation of Israel, If it seem good unto you, and that it be of the LORD our God, let us send abroad unto our brethren every where, that are left in all the land of Israel, and with them also to the priests and Levites which are in their cities and suburbs, that they may gather themselves unto us: and let us bring again the ark of our God to us: for we enquired not at it in the days of Saul. And all the congregation said that they would do so: for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people. So David gathered all Israel together, from Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hemath, to bring the ark of God from Kirjathjearim. And David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kirjathjearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up thence the ark of God the LORD, that dwelleth between the cherubims, whose name is called on it. And they carried the ark of God in a new cart out of the house of Abinadab: and Uzza and Ahio drave the cart. And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets. And when they came unto the threshingfloor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, because he put his hand to the ark: and there he died before God. And David was displeased, because the LORD had made a breach upon Uzza: wherefore that place is called Perezuzza to this day. And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me? So David brought not the ark home to himself to the city of David, but carried it aside into the house of Obededom the Gittite. And the ark of God remained with the family of Obededom in his house three months. And the LORD blessed the house of Obededom, and all that he had." 1 Chron. 13.

"Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath the LORD chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him for ever... And said unto them, Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it. For because ye did it not at the first, the LORD our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order." 1 Chron. 15:2,12-13.

The whole of this incident, with all its meaning, has as its pivot the fragment in verse 6 of chapter 13: “...the ark of God Jehovah, that sitteth above the cherubim, that is called by the Name”. That last clause is the pivotal point of the whole matter. The margin gives a slightly different rendering, but whether it should read “that is called by the Name” or as the margin has it “where the Name is called on”, the practical issue is not in the least affected. What is meant is that it is the place where the Name is in supreme control, where the Name is the supreme factor. It is because of the Name having its seat there, because it is there that the Name of Jehovah is found, that everything converges at that point, and it becomes the pivotal point of the whole incident.

The ark and the mercy-seat, combining as they do the symbols of the human and the divine, set forth Jesus Christ as the meeting-place of God and man. We know what this ark was made of, and how it was made, and its constituents. We know of the gotcha2tim wood, which is always a type of humanity, manhood; overlaid with gold, which is always a type of Divinity; and the plate of gold resting upon it, which was the mercy-seat with its crown of gold. These are symbols of the human and the divine brought together in one object, and there the Name of the Lord is found.

Quite clearly it is one of God’s many pictures, illustrations, object-lessons by which in a symbolic way He has set forth His great truths and realities. The Old Testament abounds with these types, and symbols, and illustrations of great New Testament realities, and the ark, which I think we shall not be wrong in regarding as the supreme type and symbol of the Old Testament, brings Christ clearly before us. On the one side there is His humanity, on the other side His Deity, and these are joined in one. Then, as we have seen in the Word, upon Him the Name of Jehovah rests: “...has given unto him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, things on earth and things under the earth”.

This little clause, bringing the ark into view, and the mercy-seat, and the covering cherubim, says to us that where the Name is called upon, where the Name is, the Name is there in virtue of the blood of the atonement. You will remember that once every year the high priest went in within the veil to the place where the ark and the mercy-seat were, with blood of atonement for the sins of the people, and sprinkled this blood upon the mercy-seat, and there God communed with him from above the mercy-seat.

The precious blood shed and sprinkled is the basis of the operation, the effective working; the mighty power of the Name of the Lord resting upon His Son, Jesus Christ. The Name functions by reason of the blood. The blood gives the Name its meaning and its value. Here God is found. We meet God in Christ on the ground of the atoning work of Christ, on the ground of the efficacy and virtue of the blood of Jesus Christ, and if we meet God in Christ as sinners, penitent, confessing our sin and sinfulness, we meet God in mercy. It becomes to us the place of mercy. It is the mercy-seat.

But there is another fact. You remember that there was a time when the Philistines captured the ark, and they put it in the temple of their god, Dagon. They looked into the ark to see what was in it. Here is fleshly curiosity, and approach, and interference with the things of God; not the approach of a penitent sinner, not the approach of a worshipper, not the approach of those who recognise the meaning and value of the blood of Jesus Christ, but simply the approach to this which represented Christ on the ground of no sense of sin, no confession of sin, no acknowledgment of the fact of cleansing by the precious blood. To those Philistines who so approached the ark it meant judgement: they were smitten with plagues, and their god Dagon came crashing down to the ground, broken to pieces in the presence of this ark.

The Lord Jesus is thus in type set forth as having a twofold effect according to our attitude towards Him. If our attitude towards Him is that of sinners recognising the value of His blood for our salvation and our cleansing, penitent, confessing, then we meet God and all the power of the Name of God in mercy, it is to us a mercy-seat where we find grace to help in time of need. But if our attitude toward Christ is that which is marked by an absence of the sense of sin, and need of salvation and cleansing, then Christ must mean judgement and destruction to us sooner or later, for He must be effective. God will see to it that, having sent His Son, He will be effective and sooner or later He will be our Advocate or our Judge.

You will probably have heard the story of a great English judge, Sir Monier Williams. There was a time when he was one of the most clever advocates of the British Bar. A man who was in serious trouble came to him when he was advocate, and asked him to take up his case. Sir Monier Williams took up his case, though it was a desperate one, fought the case in the courts and got him through. Some years afterwards the advocate had been exalted to the place of a judge, and the same man got into trouble again and went to him and said, Sir Monier Williams, you remember me, and how years ago when I was in trouble you took up my case and got me clear. I am in trouble again, and I have come to you to do the same thing again. But Sir Monier Williams turned to him and said, My friend, in those days I was an advocate, today I am a judge, and that makes all the difference. I cannot take up your case now: I have passed beyond the stage of an advocate, I have come to be a judge.

You see, the Lord Jesus now is our Advocate with God, He that lives to make intercession for us in virtue of His precious blood. Today it may be grace, it may be mercy; the day is coming when He will be judge. It will be too late then for an Advocate, He will stand to judge in that day. You see there are two facts dependent upon our attitude toward the Lord Jesus as set forth as the ark and the mercy-seat, where God and man are brought together in oneness.

cont'd next post

[Shammu]

Having said that word concerning salvation, we pass on to the fuller meaning and value of that which is before us in relation to the Name and the testimony of Jesus. This testimony of Jesus in the power of the Name is deposited in the church; that is, the Lord’s people according to His intention are meant to be the repository, the vessel, in which this testimony to the Name of the Lord is placed. Just as the ark was placed right at the centre of the whole multitude of Israel, and everything was focused upon that ark and concentrated there so the testimony of Jesus in the power of the Name of the Lord is committed, is deposited in the midst of the Lord’s people, and is intended by the Lord to be an effective, a vital thing. There is all the difference between the truths about the Lord Jesus, both as to His person; that is, as to the union of humanity and deity in His person, and all other things about Him as to His work, His atonement, His blood, His Name; as teachings, as parts of a Christian doctrine and creed held by Christian people; and the fact of the living Christ in the power of the supreme, the transcendent Name operating actively in the midst of the Lord’s people. These are two different things.

The Lord never intended just to deposit so many truths with His people, so that they should recite them, and say they believe this, and that, and something else, though they may all be quite true, and all relative to Christ and to God. What He intended was that the living, vital, active, energetic testimony of the Lord Jesus should be in the midst of His people, that there should be this thing in power, so that any Philistine approaching should meet the impact of God in the church, and penitent sinners coming should find mercy, salvation, deliverance. God has deposited the testimony of Jesus in the power of the Name with His people, and His intention is that His people should be the vessel in which the power of the truth should be found: an active thing, an energetic thing, a thing which registers something of influence and effectiveness amongst the people of God.

Having said that we are able to look again at this story, and understand it, and allow its message of warning to come to our hearts.

First of all note David’s mistake. David’s mistake has been the mistake of Christendom, and is the mistake of so many of the Lord’s people at different times. What was David’s mistake? David’s mistake was this, that he proceeded as though the testimony of the Lord was an organised movement to be carried forward by natural energies. He started with a consultation with men. They agreed, and then they made a new cart. They put the ark of the testimony thereon, and two men to drive it. The illustration is a perfect one. It is quite obvious as to what the mistake was. The cart was a contrivance of man to carry that which was of the Lord. Men are constantly seeking new carts for the things of the Lord; that is, a new method, a new piece of machinery, a new movement, a new organisation, a new enterprise, into which, or upon which to place the things of God, and it is a provision made by man for the things of God. That was David’s mistake, and that is our mistake very often, and that has been the mistake of Christendom. That danger is an abiding danger, never very far from the things of God. There is no doubt that the Lord would have the ark brought into its right place. There is no question of the Lord’s will for having His testimony where it ought to be, placed and not displaced. In other words, there is no doubt about it that He would have His Son, Jesus Christ, in all the power of the Name established at the heart of the life of His people. That is all right, but so often running very close to what is really a divine desire, a divine purpose, the will of God, there is this peril of bringing it about by man’s means, in man’s ways, according to man’s ideas, as though it were something that man could really arrange and organise, just as they arranged that cart. They put it together, they brought its parts into an organised whole, and that is how we have been mistaken, and that is the danger which is always near a true work of God. It is just arranging it, that is all, just planning it, just organising it, just providing something out of our own minds, our own thinking, our own counselling, our own judgement for the carrying of this thing of God, this testimony of the Lord, something ordered and put together by man.

There is no question regarding the zeal, the motive, but does it not strike you very, very forcibly, does it not pull you up with a start as you read that David played before the Lord with all his might? With all their might they played and sang before the Lord in this movement, and then the Lord smote the whole thing.

We may be tremendously energetic, we may be putting ourselves with all our might into something for the Lord, but that does not justify our own method, and that does not mean that the Lord overlooks a violation of principle. Oh, surely if we mean well and if we put ourselves with all our heart into the thing for the Lord, that is all the Lord wants, we are bound to get the blessing of the Lord! Not at all. The Lord is very jealous about His principles, because God’s principles are not just arbitrary laws. He does not stick to a thing simply because He has laid it down, and will not move for anything or anybody. No! There lies behind every point that the Lord has marked some great spiritual meaning, something which is eternal. It is not just a profession for the moment, but there is some great spiritual divine factor there, to violate which would mean to upset the whole order of God. We shall see that in a moment. Zeal, and passion, and doing something for God with all your might, is not a guarantee that the Lord will bless it, and that it will be successful and go right through triumphantly. David and the men of Israel played and danced before the Lord with all their might, and not long afterward the whole thing was brought to a standstill, under arrest, death had entered in violent contradiction, death even in the presence of this zeal for God. It is terrible, it is startling.

This was all the fruit of zeal, of impulse for the Lord. It was the fruit of consultation with men. David consulted. Yes, and David discovered that he had started in a wrong way. In chapter 15 he makes it perfectly clear as to where his mistake was, where he went wrong: “For because ye bare it not at the first, Jehovah our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not according to the ordinance” (verse 13). We did not seek Him according to His ordinance. What then did we do? We consulted together. There is all the difference between seeking the Lord according to His ordinance, and consulting together as to how we may serve the Lord’s interests. There is the difference of life and death. The one is life, the other is death. Surely that is a big enough difference to make us pause and ask a question, not as to whether we are zealous for the Lord, not as to whether we have right motives, not as to whether we have seen that we must do it with all our might, but are we sure we are on the right lines. Are we sure that we are doing it according to God’s ordinance? Are we sure that it is God’s method? Not just that it is God’s desire, but God’s way of reaching His desire. That is always a peril which is near to anything that is of God.

cont'd next post

[Shammu]

When men consult together about the things of the Lord and the work of the Lord, it will not be long before they will need a cart to carry out the result of their consultation, and the cart may be any one of a thousand things that men employ — a committee, a movement, or an institution; something that men bring together for the carrying out of all their own counsels, their own judgements for God, when all the time God has His method and His means settled, only waiting to be consulted.

This peril is very often something that creeps in unconsciously, comes in and operates unwontedly. It is not always just as this story would seem to make it appear. Things seem to be so deliberate here, so clear-cut, it was almost like an act, it was done. Very often it comes in unperceived, it gradually works in to something which is of God, and it comes in quite contrary to the wish and desire of those responsible. They find that almost without knowing it, and certainly without desiring it, they have become involved in a way of doing things in an order which was not God’s, and is not what they intended, but there they are, they are in it, it has come about. And inasmuch as that is so, whether it is in an act or whether it is in a process, it is a movement away from the power of the Name. It means that the testimony works rather against than for such who are in that responsibility, that they are rather broken by it than established, lifted, energised by it. It is just possible that the testimony of the Lord may break those who carry it, because they have got on to wrong lines, because they have departed from the Lord’s way of bearing His testimony.

We have to watch not only that we start well, but that we keep things clean all the way through, from man, from man’s judgements, man’s ideas, man’s ways, by much prayer that the principle of the Philistine cart does not creep in and take the place of God’s way. The things of God in this case meant death, because God’s method was not followed or employed.

God’s Instrument of Testimony

What is God’s instrument of testimony? David came back to it: “Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath Jehovah chosen to carry the ark of God and to minister unto him for ever” (verse 2). God chooses men, spiritual men, living men. God is never found looking for things, for machines, for organisations; God is always looking for living men, spiritual men. The Levites were those who represented God’s thought for His people. We know that the tribe of Levi was chosen to take the place of the firstborn of Israel, and they became the firstborn tribe, so that the firstborn of every family in Israel, which represented before God the whole family, was gathered up in a representative tribe, and in the Levites it is as though all Israel were before the Lord in spiritual ministry.

That is God’s thought for His people, a people in touch with Him, ministering to Him, a living people, a spiritual people, separated unto God, in intelligent cooperation with God. These are the Levites. That is God’s method, God’s means, to have men in living fellowship with God, spiritual men. That is the church according to God’s thought, to bear the testimony. As the writer to the Hebrews says: “The church of the firstborn ones, whose names are written in heaven” (Heb. 12:23). The living church, born from above, in living union with God, is to be the vessel of the testimony of the Name, the mighty, the Almighty Name, of the Lord. That is God’s means.

Now that is very testing, very searching. It means this, that you and I, to bear the testimony of Jesus in the power of God, in all the value and virtue of the Name, only have to be in living union with God, only have to be spiritual men and women. We cannot bear this testimony by being associated with some Christian organisation, whether we call it the church or anything else, by being attached to something of an organised character here on this earth called “Christianity”. That is not the way. So many people think that to have a living ministry they have to belong to this or that or something else, be in a certain movement. God’s way is living union with Himself, spiritual men and women, and when that obtains, when that is the case, then His testimony is there.

It is spontaneous. Read the book of the Acts again, and you will find nothing whatever about a constituted movement, an organised campaign, a church ordered by men. What you find is men and women brought into living union with God in Christ, and then the mighty power of the Name at work in a spontaneous way. That is the Lord’s method, and that is very simple, and quite enough. For men and women to be in living, spiritual fellowship with God, that is God’s way, God’s means of expressing the power of the Name, of maintaining the testimony of Jesus, such as have come to spiritual and intelligent fellowship with God. That is the essential, the indispensable means of God for His testimony.

How we have departed from God’s simple basis—and because of that what has happened? We are discovering, and Christendom is discovering, that God is jealous. When God smote Uzzah it was God showing His jealousy for His Name, His jealousy for His testimony. First of all God’s jealousy for His testimony is shown by His refusal to take responsibility for anything that is not according to His own mind and order. You produce your mission, your cart, your organisation, and you begin to take up the things of God. Very well, you have taken responsibility; you will have to provide the two men to drive it; and you may take it that you are involved in a very responsible business, and will have to carry that responsibility, because God will not do it. God did not prevent the oxen from stumbling, He did not prevent this thing from getting into a precarious situation, He did not step in to save the thing from collapse. They had provided the cart, and they had to take responsibility. God does not do it. Mark you, there is bound to be a point where things reach a crisis, and where man has to seek to save the whole situation which he has created. God will see to that. I do not think it is a mere incident, a mere hap, a mere chance that the oxen stumbled. God’s sovereignty is behind a good many of the crises that arise, and in the long run we thank God for those crises. We thank God that our oxen did stumble; we learn the big lesson of our lives.

Here it is, a thing which man has tried to do for God by his own means and methods, in his own way, and it is bound to reach a crisis, and is bound to come to the place where everything becomes very precarious for his undertaking, and God is not there to protect, to save; it is discovered that God is not taking responsibility for it.

But more than that. When that crisis comes, when that situation arises, and man tries to save the things of God, he finds that he meets God, and God shows him there and then that he cannot handle the things of God in this way, to run them, and to preserve them; and God smote Uzzah there, and Uzzah died “before the Lord”. This is death coming in on the whole project, the whole thing coming under death. Dare we again think back? They were singing, playing, dancing before the Lord, with all their might, and God smote the whole business with death. It is hardly realisable. If it were not in the Word of God we should hardly dare to say this. This is God’s jealousy for spiritual principles. Living men and women; that is, men and women who know the Lord in a living way, and are in living fellowship with Him, should be His instrument of testimony; not dead, cold things made by man, not things driven by natural energies, represented by the oxen and the men who drove them, but spirituality, life; these are the basic factors in God’s way.

This incident has some deep and strong lessons for us all. I know quite well that the Lord is speaking to all our hearts on this matter, and it is for us to safeguard in these days. You cannot make something to carry the testimony of the Lord. You cannot make people carry the testimony of the Lord. You cannot gather them into Bible institutions and make them vessels of testimony. Only God can make spiritual men and women, living men and women, men wrought for this purpose. We must take our hands off one another, and leave them to the Lord. If it were something else we could get together and take counsel together, and we could arrange a scheme, an enterprise, and get beautifully organised, and launch it, and carry it on; but that is like a Philistine cart, and in the testimony of Jesus that cannot be done with the guarantee that God will sponsor it and take responsibility for it. God must constitute us a vessel on the basis of life and knowledge of Himself, and no man can do that, no man can make that sort of thing, only God.

So we stand back from one another and let the Lord do it. Much as we would like to help we can do very little; we have to let the Lord do it, and make men and make women, and when the Lord has made them there is the power of the Name. You cannot fit men to bear the Name, only God can fit men for that. It is a matter of the testimony of the Name in mighty energy and power being borne by men and women who are alive unto the Lord, and in intelligent fellowship with Him. Anything other is bound to break down, to go wrong, and what is more to come under the judgement of God sooner or later.

May the Lord save us from that tragedy, and keep us in that close touch with Him where, not consulting together, but enquiring of the Lord, we are made vessels of the testimony according to His order.

The end

[Shammu]

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The Things of the Spirit
by T. Austin-Sparks

Part One

The Dispensation of the Holy Spirit

It is common knowledge that God has arranged the course of this world's history in what we call ages or dispensations, which simply means that at certain different times a particular distinguishing, character is given to the period. There were the past dispensations, which had their own character and nature and regime. There will be future dispensations, called in the New Testament "the ages of the ages"; they, again, will have their own special characteristics. We ourselves, at the present time, are in one of these particular arrangements of God.

It is also common knowledge that the advent of the Holy Spirit, on that particular occasion which has come to be known as 'The Day of Pentecost', marked a change in the nature of the ages. That day saw a change of dispensations. That day brought in the dispensation in which we still live, which has its own particular and peculiar characteristics, different from all the others.

This, of course, is a commonly accepted truth, but the failure to recognise adequately the nature of the change which took place on that day has resulted in very much that is dishonouring to the Lord Jesus, and to Christianity. There is a great deal that does not honour the Lord Jesus in the present state of Christianity as we know it. There is that about the present condition which almost everyone deplores. For instance, there are very few people who do not deplore the divisions amongst Christians. These and many other things have brought about a state which really does not glorify our Lord, and makes room for much that would not exist if He had things according to His own mind. That is due in the main to an inadequate apprehension of the change which took place on the day of Pentecost - the advent of the Holy Spirit - and what it was intended to mean for this world and for the people of God.

The Holy Spirit's Work in This Age

There are four great features of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in this age.

(a) The Relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Man in Heaven

Firstly, the Holy Spirit is related to the perfected Man in Heaven, who is His - the Holy Spirit's - vision, objective and passion. In other words, the Holy Spirit has come as committed to that One at God's right hand, the perfected Man, God's Son, to work everything in relation to Him. He is the inclusive objective of the Holy Spirit's work in this dispensation. The Holy Spirit's passion is Jesus Christ in Heaven, as God's Model for a new creation. That is the first thing.

(b) An Alteration in Man's Being

The second great matter with which the Holy Spirit is connected in this age, and intimately linked with the first, is the alteration of man's very being. He is concerned to make a fundamental difference in the very being of man, initially and progressively. This is a very great thing.

(c) Calling Out a People into Life-Union with Christ

The third thing is the calling out from the nations of a people into life-union with Christ, whereby His Church - the Church which is His Body - is formed. That is the commitment made by the Holy Spirit to the Lord Jesus Himself: to bring into being His Body for Him, to make that Body suitable to Him, and to take that Body back to Him. The energies of the Holy Spirit are Churchward, related to the forming of the Body of Christ by gathering and building up. That is simply the fulfilment of the Lord's own words: "I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18). Seeing that so soon after saying those words He went back to glory, it is evident that it was handed over to the Holy Spirit to fulfil the thing that He had said He would do.

(d) The Commissioning and Empowering of the Church for World Ministry

And fourthly, the Holy Spirit has as His work the commissioning and empowering of the Church for a world mission and ministry. I underline the Church. It is very important to underline that, because it takes us back to what we said at the beginning, that an inadequate apprehension of the meaning of the coming of the Holy Spirit has led to many weaknesses and defects. It is the Church that is the anointed vessel for a world commission and ministry. It is the Church that is called to do that. But that has been missed. If only the Church as a whole had stood into the anointing and the commission, we should have seen a continuance of what was at the beginning. But that has been largely lost; it has slipped away from recognition, though there are signs of a return to it now. But the truth is that the connection of the Holy Spirit in this dispensation is with the Church for its commissioning and empowering for a world mission and ministry.

Now, within those four things, as you will realise, many other things will be found. I am not going to take up those four now, but only a small fragment from the second.

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The Alteration of Man's Being

The alteration in man's being is a work to which the Holy Spirit has committed Himself, and for which He has come. The first aspect of that great change, by the work and power of the Holy Spirit, is the effecting of a vital union between man and God in Jesus Christ; aliveness to God in a very immediate, a very real, a very full, conscious way; something altogether new as to man's consciousness of God, and God's aliveness to man. That is the first phase and stage of this work of the Holy Spirit with regard to man's very being.

New Birth: A Lamp Re-lit

This aliveness to God involves what the New Testament speaks of as 'new birth', being born anew. But what is that? It is the re-birth of a certain faculty by which man is able to have this aliveness to God. The Word of God has this phrase: "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord" (Prov. 20:27). Now a lamp is a very definite and concrete object. A lamp is something in itself. It is not just something abstract. A lamp is a definite object. "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord." When Adam was disobedient, that lamp went out. The spirit of man was no longer the lamp of the Lord in that man. The light went out.

And so right through the Bible it is assumed and declared that man by nature is in darkness, man by nature is blind, man by nature is without understanding, man by nature has not the knowledge which is life. The Lord Jesus built His whole coming and ministry upon that fact. "I am come a light into the world" (John 12:46). "(I came) into this world, that they which see not may see" (John 9:39). "This is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ" (John 17:3). It is assumed and taken for granted that man is in the dark, blind, without knowledge, and without understanding.

The Deep Things of God

Now, the great passage which gathers all that into itself is the verse from which we have taken the title of this message - 1 Corinthians 2:14.

"Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things".

We ought really to read the whole chapter, and I suggest to you that you read this chapter very carefully as soon as possible. What have we here? Well, in verse 10 we have this phrase: "For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God". Now that is said in connection with what has just gone before. "Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."

Now the statement broken up is just this. There are the deep things of God. Those deep things of God are "things which no eye hath seen, no ear hath heard, things whereof no vision ever dawned on human heart, all those things which God hath made ready for those who love Him." That is how Wey puts that verse very beautifully. And the covering statement is that the natural man is shut out of all that. He just cannot know the deep things of God, for the natural eye has not seen, the natural ear has not heard, the natural heart has not conceived or perceived anything of this. All that was closed down to man when Adam disobeyed God. The natural man is utterly at a discount, entirely incapacitated, in the realm of the things of God. That is a very thorough-going, very drastic, very comprehensive statement.

A Renewed Faculty

Something, then, has got to be done in man, if he is to come back into the realm where all that is open to him, where to him the deep things of God are an open book - a marvellous thing to say: where the things which eye never saw, ear never heard, heart never perceived, are all open, the heritage and the inheritance of man. Something has got to happen to change that state and make that true. But here it is! It is stated not as something that is going to be later on. This does not belong to the Hereafter, to Heaven, when we shall see. No, this is something which came in on the day of Pentecost. "God hath" - not is going to - "God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit": 'unto us', says Paul, 'did God unveil them by His Spirit.' The lamp has been re-lit, the light has been re-born; the faculty, which is the lamp of spiritual life, light, understanding, knowledge, perception and inheritance, has been brought into new life.

That is the new birth. It is the spirit of man, which lost its power of knowing God and the things of God, brought back into life as from the dead, brought back into the light as out of darkness, brought back into knowledge as out from ignorance, brought back into sight as out from blindness. This, dear friends, is the very beginning of the Christian life. Oh, if that were entered into and apprehended, and really were true of every Christian, am I not right in saying that much of that which exists would not exist? and that is putting it very mildly. So we begin in nature with a man incapacitated in regard to God and all His things, and then, with the coming of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit in new birth, the incapacitated man is capacitated. He has a faculty that he never before possessed in nature; he is quickened and made alive.

Now, this whole matter, as I suggested, relates first of all, initially, to a faculty. We have got to realise this, for it is a point upon which so much hangs. It concerns a faculty, renewed, quickened and energized by the Spirit of God, for knowing the deep things of God. It is not just a matter of information from without. It is not just a matter of what you get in addresses, teachings, ministries, messages and books. You can cram yourself with information about God and the things of God, you can read it up and get all that kind of knowledge and give it out as though it were your own, and yet it is secondhand. What the Spirit of God does is to make everything original, firsthand, in us; and if it is not that, we are simply living on something objective, outside of ourselves, whether it be sermons, addresses, churches or what not. There has to be a lighted lamp within us to illuminate the things of God.

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Vital Union With God

But we spoke of a 'vital' union with God. That is indicated in further words in this chapter from 1 Corinthians. "Who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him?" May I illustrate by addressing my male readers for a moment? You and I, brethren, can understand one another - up to a point at any rate! - just because we are fellow-men. We know how men think and how men feel and how men act; and if we know other men, we know what to expect from men and what not to expect from men. We are men, and there is something in us which we have in common which is a man's life, which gives us ability to understand one another.

"Even so", says the Apostle, "the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God." Only the Spirit of God understands the things of God, because They have everything in common. Now the natural man does not understand God or the things of God. We know that. Even though we are Christians, how our own natural life limits our understanding of God! We have got to have some knowledge and understanding of God that we do not possess naturally, otherwise we are fogged and defeated and baffled. Only the Spirit of God understands God, because They are God in common.

Now, if the Spirit of God comes into us and begins to operate in us, we are lifted on to a higher level altogether than the 'natural man' level. The Spirit begins through this renewed faculty to make us able to understand the things of God, and that is the experience of every one to whom the Spirit reveals. It begins with a faculty in us. Oh, it is a wonderful thing, a wonderful thing, this faculty - I think the most wonderful thing in the whole Christian life, apart from the grace of God. It is a tremendous thing to have the key, the secret; in union with the Spirit of God to have a faculty in yourself for seeing through - for grasping the things of God. It is a wonderful thing to have that faculty, the greatest thing that we can possibly have. Just think of all this that is closed to the natural man - the deep things of God and all that is said about the deep things of God - and then follow on and say, "God hath revealed them unto us". And it is because He has done something in us.

Are you in the good of that? Oh, it is not perfect. I said that it is initially by a faculty being renewed, so that man is a changed being with this very faculty. But it is also progressive along two lines or in two ways.

'Revelation' and 'Apprehension'

These two words occur in that part of the New Testament which is the consummate presentation of God's mind as to the Church - the Letter to the Ephesians.

The first is in the prayer in chapter 1, at verse 17: "a spirit of... revelation".

The second is in the prayer in chapter 3, at verse 18: "...strong to apprehend... the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ".

So that - this being for those who have already known the definite basic change by new birth - the way of progress in spiritual knowledge and understanding is by revelation and apprehension.

When we speak of 'revelation', let it be understood (and we say this with all the emphasis that we can command) that we do not mean something extra to the Scriptures, but what God means by the Scriptures * (see note at the end). It is surely unnecessary to take time to argue that it is one thing to have the Book and another thing to understand it. Further, the mind of man - even Christian man - cannot understand Scripture unless the Holy Spirit reveals its meaning. There are many overwhelming proofs of this, perhaps preeminently the fact that there are so very many absolutely divergent and opposing interpretations given, and positions held, by very devoted servants of God. The Spirit of God is not of two or more conflicting minds - He is of one mind, and in inspired Scripture He urges believers to "be of the same mind". This may be regarded as an impossible hope or expectation, and such a reaction only proves the extent of the departure that has taken place from the government of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, this is just one - the main - aspect of the large issue that the Lord does not abandon His primary principles, but will - within the general declension - seek to have a true expression thereof. It has ever been so.

But to return to 'revelation' and 'apprehension', which are two aspects of the one thing - the Spirit showing, and the spiritual person being able to take hold of what is shown and to turn it to account.

The very heart of this matter, and that upon which so very much hangs, is just this principle of 1 Corinthians 2:14. It is no more possible for a Christian - a very devoted, earnest, diligent Christian - to arrive at the mind of God, in the Bible or out of it, by means of any natural faculty, than it is for an unsaved person. Natural intellect, brain-power, acumen, training, are unavailing here. The same is true of psychic powers, the extra things of 'sixth sense' and mystical insight.

'Soul' and 'Flesh' Helpless in Spiritual Things

We have only to look at the word used in our Scripture - "the natural man". That is a descriptive word. It not only refers to an unconverted person who knows nothing of new birth, but it defines or describes a particular kind of person. "Natural" is our translation of the Greek word which means 'soulical' or 'man of soul'. The soul comprises the reason (intellect), feeling (emotion), and will (volition). So, the man who approaches, and proceeds to give a judgment or arrive at a verdict on any Divine matter, by means of any or all of these, is said to be out of court where the Holy Spirit and "the things of the Spirit" are concerned. This is fairly drastic, deep-cutting and far-reaching, but it is the teaching of all the Scriptures and is demonstrated very powerfully in them.

The usual appeal for verdicts, judgments, and guidance in matters of conflict is to 'scholars' or 'students'; to those who have studied and learnt in the schools, or who have intellectual qualifications. The Word of God just sweeps the board of all this, as something in itself, and passes the judgment that the soul of man is in itself wholly without authority in spiritual matters, and that therefore the man who operates only upon the basis of his soul just cannot know the things of the Spirit.

The only ones who are safe and whose judgment should be sought and trusted are spiritual men, who derive their knowledge from a close walk with God, a truly crucified life, a life of much referring and deferring to God by prayer. Nothing but confusion and distress can result from any other course. This places a very solemn responsibility upon all who would help others and influence lives for God.

The context of 1 Corinthians 2:14 throws much light on all this. The conditions being dealt with were those of spiritual limitation, childishness, quarrelsomeness - all tending to be destructive. This is all put down to a 'soulical' level or basis of life impinging upon Divine things. By contrast, the categorical message is that, for constructiveness, unity, growth, maturity and effectiveness, another basis is essential - life in the Spirit by really spiritual people. Later the Apostle introduces another word, "carnal". This does not necessarily mean a third species. Carnal - or 'of the flesh' - just means the positive factor of self-hood in the soul; it is the 'I' principle, as the context shows.

The trouble lies not in the fact that man has a soul, but that when the soul is made the basis of attempted ingress into Divine things it is exceeding its province, and will create trouble. When, however, the soul is actuated by personal motives, selfish interests, and unworthy considerations, that is 'carnality' - fleshliness - and is positively evil.

Having said that, we imagine that some may still not be clear as to what - from the practical standpoint - is meant by "revelation". How does it come? Well, let us say emphatically that we do not mean hearing voices, sitting in a passive state and receiving impressions, communications, getting ideas, and all that sort of thing. The real key to this is a spirit alive and sensitive to the Spirit of God. The outworking of that is what the Apostle calls the witness of the Spirit. "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit" (Romans 8:16).

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The Witness of the Spirit

How does the Spirit bear witness? "The mind of the Spirit is life and peace" (vs. 6). The Spirit is "the Spirit of life" (vs. 2). Our spirits have been made alive with Divine life, which is different from natural life. We know that we are alive in a new way. So when things accord with the Spirit we have a real witness or sense of life. When they are not according to the Spirit we miss that witness, and if they run contrary to the Spirit we sense - or ought to sense - His reserve, veto, disagreement, and that is death, a cold dead registration upon our spirit.

Again, the Spirit is "the Spirit of truth" (John 16:13). It ought to be impossible for a child of God - much more a servant of God - to receive, accept, and pass on something that is not true, without the Holy Spirit witnessing to his or her spirit that that is not the truth. If at the moment they are not sufficiently alive to the touch, if they are given to times of waiting upon the Lord for fellowship and communion (not just to bring a lot of requests), that doubtful thing will come back and it will have to be faced. This is true spirituality, and this is what it means to walk with God.

It can easily be seen that, if this were more generally true of the Lord's people, a vast amount of ground would be protected from the Devil's work of mischief-making and divisiveness. One of the most poignant problems in evangelical Christianity is that of how people who know and teach the doctrine of the indwelling Spirit can accept, believe, and pass on things that are untrue about other people of God, and yet the Holy Spirit be unable to give them a bad time over it inwardly.

What we have said about the Spirit bearing witness is the basis of all revelation. The Word of God has got to come alive in us. We may know the Bible in its content, and know it very well. So did the Jews and their teachers. But, all the same, they killed God's Son! It is only as the Holy Spirit takes the Word and just brings it alive, so that it makes all the difference to us in life, behaviour, understanding, and strength, that we are able to say, 'The Lord has made that live in me, and I can never be the same again.'

Spiritual knowledge is of a different order from merely intellectual knowledge, even of the Word of God. The intellect is a servant of the spirit, not the master. The spirit tells the intellect, not the other way round. The intellect is the organ of the self-conscious existence, just as are feeling and will. The spirit is the organ of the God-conscious life, and this links with realms of knowledge that are closed to intellectualism by itself.

We hope that what we have said will throw some light upon two things:

(1) The way of spiritual progress after new birth.

(2) The cause of the confusion and bewildering contradictions amongst the most well-meaning Christians.

In closing this part of our consideration there are just one or two things to add briefly.

The answer to any question, the end of all argument, and the truth about any matter is never the best opinion or judgment of men - however influential or devout. It is - Where does the matter in question put the Lord Jesus? Does this mean that He has the only place, and will our going any given way mean more of Him in our lives? Are we likely to make progress in the knowledge of Christ and be enlarged in Christly stature by any presented course? This is how Paul settled the debate in Galatia and the quarrels over teachers in Corinth.

Then, let it be understood that the gift of the Holy Spirit is the birthright of every true child of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit within is meant to bring us under an open Heaven and into a constantly enlarging apprehension of Christ. But remember that Romans 6 precedes Romans 8, as Romans 8 most surely issues from Romans 6.

* Note on the Meaning of 'Revelation'

An illustration taken from the life of Martin Luther.

'I was seized with a marvellous burning desire to understand what Paul said in his epistle to the Romans: but there was one passage that stood in my way, and it was in the first chapter. It read (verse 17): "The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel". I hated that phrase, "the righteousness of God", as was then usual among scholars, I understood it in the sense of a righteousness that 'gives each one his due'; it meant that the righteous God simply punished sinful and wicked men. But I felt that, even if I lived blamelessly as a monk, I was still a sinner in God's sight, and I had a very uneasy conscience. I felt that I had and could have no certainty of finding reconciliation by any atonement which it lay in my power to make. I had therefore no liking for a righteous God who punished sinners; rather, I hated Him: and, if not with silent blasphemy, at least in many a rebellious mood, I complained against Him in a dreadful way, and said, 'Was it not enough that a poor sinner should be lost to all eternity on account of original sin, and that they should be punished with all sorts of pains and penalties by the Mosaic law and the Ten Commandments? Whereas now, God must use the gospel to pile up punishments and threaten us with His righteousness and wrath!' I raged against it all with a wounded and confused conscience, and I was constantly coming into collision with that phrase of Paul's, and thirsting eagerly to know what he meant by it.'

'Luther rose to his feet and strode to and fro... After a time he sat down again and once more read the text in its context. Suddenly his vision cleared; he felt as if a veil had been taken away; he could see what Paul meant; the righteousness of which Paul spoke was not the righteousness of God seeking retribution, but that which was imputed to the believer; it was therefore a profound expression for the grace of God: God presents His own righteousness to the believer. By His grace God regards him as if he were already righteous, even though he is not so... The righteousness of Christ is something belonging to me.'

It was at that moment that Luther was delivered. He sprang up from his chair. 'It seemed to me as if I had been born again and as if I had entered Paradise through newly opened doors. All at once the Bible began to speak in quite a different way to me. The very phrase "the righteousness of God" which I had heard before, was the one that I now loved best of all. That is how that passage of Paul's became for me the gateway to Paradise.'

We could cite better examples of our meaning of 'revelation', but we have chosen this because it may serve more than one purpose.

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Part Two

"The things of the Spirit" (1 Cor. 2:14)

In our first part, we noted seven things:

Firstly, the fact of the existence of a vast realm of what the Apostle calls "the deep things of God", which he says God has "prepared for them that love Him", and then that they have already been "revealed" by His Spirit.

Secondly, the fact that the "natural man", as the Apostle describes him, is totally incapacitated for receiving or knowing these things.

Thirdly, the fact that, by new birth and the incoming of the Holy Spirit, the faculty for such receiving and knowing is re-born and linked up with the Holy Spirit, so that what was impossible, now becomes possible. The spirit of man - "the lamp of the Lord", as the Scripture calls it - has been re-lit.

Fourthly, that this new birth and union with the Holy Spirit is the basis of all the Holy Spirit's activities in revealing, in teaching, in leading, in transforming, and in constituting everything according to Christ.

Fifthly, that this work, being wholly spiritual, requires that the believer has his or her life in the spirit, as distinct from in the soul - 'soulical' being, as we pointed out, the original meaning of the word translated 'natural'. That is, the believer is to have his life, not, in the first place, in the realm of intellect or reason, nor in the realm of feelings, nor in the realm of will, but in the realm of the spirit. And the Apostle further emphasizes that it must certainly not be in the flesh, in the 'carnal' realm - that is, in the positive self-element of the soul, that element which is always drawing to itself, seeking its own satisfaction, fulfilling its own desires. That is certainly not the way of the Spirit.

Sixthly, that if Christians approach or take up the things of God on the mere basis of their souls - intellect or reason, or feeling, or their own will - that is the way to deception, that is the way to confusion, and to many other troubles, both for themselves and for all whom they influence.

Seventh, and last, that growth in knowledge and spiritual stature is governed by spiritual revelation and apprehension, according to Ephesians 1:17 and 3:17,18: "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him", and: "that ye... may be strong to apprehend". We were at pains to explain that what is meant by "revelation" now is not something extra to the Scriptures, but the Spirit's meaning in the Scriptures.

The Difference Between Information and Spiritual Knowledge

We are now going to resume at that point, for a little further enlargement and emphasis, focusing upon one point in relation to the things of the Spirit, namely, the difference between information and spiritual knowledge. That is a point upon which very much hangs, as to consequences. There is a very great and real and definite difference between information and spiritual knowledge. It is possible to have a vast amount of perfectly accurate information acquired through reading, through study, through hearing, and through all those ways and means by which information is accumulated, and yet, withal, however great that information may be, it may still have no transforming influence or effect upon the nature and character of the person who possesses it.

To illustrate, consider an astronomer, whose whole life is taken up with the contemplation of the immensities of space, the vast expanses of the universe. Yet it is possible for such a man, with his vast accumulation of information about the universe, after a whole lifetime of such occupation, to be a very petty man in himself, a little man, a man of jealousies, a man of pride, of conceit, and all those things which speak of littleness of character. It is a strange anomaly, but it is true. And that is true of any other of the realms of natural and physical science, and of other departments of knowledge: it is possible to have an immensely informed mind, and yet for the character to be untouched, the nature to be unchanged.

And what is true in secular or natural realms is equally true in the realm of Christianity. We may be possessed of a tremendous knowledge of the Bible; we may be very widely informed on all that the Bible contains and teaches - all its themes and subjects - and upon Christian doctrine and history and practice, and everything else that that word 'Christianity' encompasses: I say, we may have the most extensive information, and yet the whole thing may fail to effect any real transformation in our characters. It is possible to be exceedingly well-informed on all matters of Christian evangelical truth, and still be very small as to spiritual stature.

That is a tragedy. It is terrible to find such contradictions. It is a terrible thing to find it in the natural realm, such as that of the hypothetical astronomer to whom I have referred - to find such a little man in such a big world. But it is far more tragic to find a Christian - well-informed, but still spiritually small in stature. You see, the realm of Christian knowledge may be one thing, and the realm of spiritual knowledge quite another. They may be worlds apart, entirely different in their nature and in their effects. This indicates the difference to which we are referring between information, though it be large and accurate, in Christian things, and real spiritual knowledge, the knowledge to which Paul refers when he says: "I cease not... making mention of you in my prayers, that God... may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him".

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Spiritual Knowledge Firstly Life

Spiritual knowledge is therefore something which touches the life, and that is the difference. Spiritual knowledge is as it were something that happens. The obtaining of any one little bit of genuine, pure, spiritual knowledge is always an event, a happening. It is almost like a fiat. To put it in this way - once our eyes have really been opened we can never again be the same as we were before. That is the difference. When once we have come genuinely to the place to which that man born blind came, when the Lord gave him his sight, and are able to say, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see" (John 9:25), we can never be the same again. Once we are able to exclaim, against the background of the teaching of the Spirit of God, 'I see! I see!', we are free, we are liberated; we are in life, we are in assurance. The end of all argument is just there - 'I see!' Spiritual knowledge is an effective thing - it does something; whereas all the other leaves us in ourselves just where we are naturally.

Spiritual knowledge, then, is firstly life; and, dear friends, we must examine our whole accumulation in the light of its effect in the matter of life. Just how much does all that we know - or think we know - work out in us in terms of life? Spiritual knowledge is firstly life. "This is life eternal", said the Lord Jesus, "this is life eternal, that they should know..." (John 17:3) - that they should know. There is a knowledge which is life, and all true spiritual knowledge is life.

You do not need that I attempt to define life. Life itself is a thing altogether outside of human possibility to define or explain; and yet we all know life when we meet it, or when we experience it. What is life? No one can tell you, but you know it when you meet it. And spiritual knowledge is of that order: something which, while it may be inexplicable, is potent - is a force, an energy, a power - the power of life. And for life to be triumphant over death - spiritual death, working all around and upon us - for life to conquer all its enemies of whatever kind, we need spiritual knowledge, not information. We cannot just use information in this matter; that does not get us anywhere. We must have inward knowledge by the Spirit. The first mark, then, of spiritual knowledge is life.

Spiritual Knowledge the Way of Growth and Fulness

And then the way, and the only way, of spiritual growth and fulness is spiritual knowledge. This surely is what lies behind the words of the Apostle, whether you take this wonderful chapter, this profound chapter, this immensely practical chapter - the second of the first letter to the Corinthians - or whether you go over to Ephesians, to the two wonderful prayers of Paul in the first and the third chapters. This is all set against spiritual limitation and immaturity. It was obvious in the case of the Corinthians - the Apostle says so in actual words. He could not speak to them as to spiritual, but only as unto babes (3:1): there was spiritual arrest, smallness, with all its terrible marks, as we read in that letter. In the case of the Ephesians, there seems to have been nothing of that which was at Corinth, positively set against spiritual growth, but just the simple fact that even those who are going on with the Lord have yet a long way to go; those who have some knowledge of the Lord have yet far more to know of the Lord. For the Lord's people, wherever they may be, there are immensities beyond, and the Apostle says that the way, and the only way, of spiritual growth unto spiritual fulness is spiritual knowledge, knowledge of the kind of which we have spoken.

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How Spiritual Knowledge Comes

(a) By the Vital Hearing of Faith

Now, how does spiritual knowledge come? Shall we put it in the first place in this way: it comes by vital hearing of the Word of Truth - vital hearing or receiving. The Thessalonians, we have often pointed out, were a model people, who from spiritual beginnings went on and became 'an example to all them that believe', and the Apostle lets us into the secret of their spiritual advance and growth. He tells us that when they heard the word, they received it 'not as the word of man, but, as it is indeed, the Word of God' (1 Thess. 2:13). They received it in faith, and faith is the vital factor in hearing. The Apostle has elsewhere said: "The word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard" (Heb. 4:2, R.V. mg). It profited them nothing, not being mingled with faith. Faith is the vital factor in hearing.

Perhaps that is not very explicit. You can hear critically, you can hear with prejudice and bias, you can hear cynically, you can hear indifferently, you can hear in many other ways, and it can all come to nought and mean nothing to you; but if you hear in faith, it gives the Holy Spirit an opportunity to bear witness to the truth, and that witness of the Spirit to the truth causes us at once to react in a right way. That is the reaction of faith. It is not the reaction of unbelief, of doubt, of questioning. It is the attitude of faith, and it is a vital thing. You look at your whole New Testament in the light of that, and you will see that it is a most discriminating thing. Faith simply means this: that, if there is something of God here, I am going to have that; if there is something from the Lord for me in this, no prejudice, no bias, no suspicion, no criticism, nothing else, is going to bar the way to my having that. That is a spirit of faith.

The whole of the Jewish world in the days of our Lord's flesh were debarred from the very knowledge of who He was, because they did not listen in that attitude which said 'With all the difficulties that this involves, if this man Jesus, has something from God, then we will have it.' You see, it is faith, and it is a vital thing, and the Holy Spirit looks for that: and then, on the basis of that, He reveals, brings spiritual knowledge, and something happens. It happens!

This, of course, is the difference between what is merely objective and what is within: not imitation, but inward revelation. We cannot stay with that, although it would be, I think, to great advantage to consider the meaning of that difference. If you take even the Bible and the New Testament, and from it constitute some kind of model and pattern, and then try to create that or work it out, it does not get anywhere, other than setting up a lot of things which you are sorry afterward that you ever did set up, But when the thing comes by revelation of the Holy Spirit, then it comes about organically. There is all the difference. But we must leave that. Spiritual knowledge comes by vital hearing.

(b) By the Obedience of Faith

And it comes by the obedience of faith. Dear friends, why is it that we can receive so much information year after year, almost to the point of saturation, where we can hardly bear any more, and yet there is so little vital consequence? Why? Such a situation can be. It is because we do not do something about it. I do not think we are alive to one fact: that there are spirits that are ever on the alert to dissipate all that we have heard, and before we reach home the thing is more or less forgotten. Now it is necessary, when the Word of the Lord comes to us, for us immediately to do something about it - that is, make a committal, either before we leave the place, or as our first business when we get home; to say: 'Now, that thing has got to become true - I commit myself to that'. Have a transaction in your spirit with the Holy Spirit about the Lord's Word, and you will see things happening. I said, at the beginning, that the difference between information and spiritual knowledge is great in the matter of consequences: and really we are concerned with consequences, are we not?

(c) By a Deepening Experience of Christ's Death and Resurrection

Spiritual knowledge comes, in the third place, by the deepening work of the death and resurrection of Christ in us. Do not forget that - it is always so - that the meaning of Christ's death has to come ever more deeply into us, and the meaning of His resurrection correspondingly; and as that is being wrought into us - the meaning of the Cross, our death with Christ and our risen life with Christ - as that is being wrought into us, so we grow in knowledge. It comes that way. You will find that it is through deeper experiences of death with Christ that you come to a fuller knowledge, a real knowledge, a living knowledge.

(d) By Fellowship with Christ in His Sufferings

And finally, for the present, spiritual knowledge comes along the line of our experiencing the sufferings of Christ, our accepting fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. If Paul was a man of large spiritual knowledge, as certainly he was, it was because he could say: "I... fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church" (Col. 1:24). Or again: "That I may know him... and the fellowship of his sufferings" (Phil. 3:10). It is our reactions to, or our attitude toward, Christ's sufferings, into the fellowship of which we are brought, that decides whether we are going to have more light or spiritual knowledge, or not.

You see, a reaction to suffering, if it is bitterness, rebellion, murmuring, can close the door. That is what it did with Israel. They murmured at their trials and their adversities - and it closed the door. If, on the other hand, by the grace of God, our attitude toward the sufferings of Christ which are come upon us is a right one: one of faith and not of unbelief, one of submission and not of rebellion - I hesitate to say, one of joy instead of sorrow: if we can come, by the grace of God, to a right attitude toward suffering, it opens the door for the Lord to reveal a great deal to us, through that very suffering. Sufferings can be wonderfully profitable in our getting to know the Lord: but everything depends upon our attitude toward the sufferings.

The Lord teach us more of "the things of the Spirit".

The End

Up next; Union With Christ

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Union With Christ
by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 1 - The Meaning of Christ

1. HIS GREATNESS IN THE SCRIPTURES

He is

(a) The meaning of all things.
(b) The Heir of all things.
(c) The Idea or Nature of all things.
(d) The final test of all things.

2. HIS PLACE - BY THE LOVE OF THE FATHER INFINITE DIVINE LOVE THE MOTIVE AND POWER

This is revealed

(a) In all the Scriptures.
(b) By the opposite of love to all Divine activities.
(c) By the Father's demand that the Son be honored.

3. THE GREATNESS OF CHRIST IS SPIRITUAL AND MORAL

(a) Heaven knows it.
(b) Man senses it.
(c) Hell attests it by attempted corruption.

It is implicit in

(a) His satisfaction to God.
(b) His redemptive work.
(c) The Spirit's operations.

"These things spake Jesus; and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father..." (John 17:1).
"That they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us" (John 17:21).
"I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one" (John 17:23).

Introductory

Union with Christ is the heart or center of all that has been revealed of God's thought concerning man and of man's relationship to God. Union with Christ is like the hub of a mighty wheel. There are many spokes to that wheel - election, creation, redemption, salvation, sanctification, glorification; and then, like a series of subsidiary spokes - repentance, faith, justification, conversion, regeneration, and so on. These are the spokes of the wheel, but they all center in Christ and radiate from Christ and reach the rim, which is God. They unite us in Christ with God.

To give all this its true and full value, it is necessary to contemplate or have revealed to us the meaning of Christ, to see what an immense thing has taken place by the Son of God becoming the Son of man, by God becoming incarnate. It is a question of our being taken, not into Godhead or Deity, but into God's Son incarnate.

Now, the first preachers of the Christian evangel preached Christ. They did not, in the first place, preach salvation or sanctification or forgiveness or judgment or heaven. That does not mean that they did not preach those things they did; but not in the first place. They preached Christ, and all those things were included in the preaching of Christ, Christ as inclusive of all and as transcending all; for, after all, such things as salvation and sanctification, forgiveness, justification, are subsidiaries, they come afterward. Christ was before them all and Christ will be after them all. They are inside of Christ, but He vastly outstrips them all.

The Meaning of Christ

We come, then, to consider the meaning of Christ. Understand that we are underlining the title CHRIST. That very title carries the significance of a mission. It is not the title of His essential Godhead. Anointing, which is what the word means, is unto a mission. "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth" (Acts 10:38). Let that govern all that will be said, otherwise it might be easy, if you were so inclined, to raise your eyebrows at different points and scent, as you might think, false doctrine. In our consideration of union with Christ, we are keeping a very distinct line between His Deity and His Christhood as Son of man. Having said that, let us think now for a little while of His greatness.

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1. His Greatness in the Scriptures

His greatness as in the Scriptures is seen in several relationships.

(a) In His Relationship with God

Firstly, His greatness is seen in His relationship with God. Here we have only to cite several familiar passages, but always with new inspiration and stirring of heart.

"Who is the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15).
"The effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance" (Heb. 1:3). Quite remote from our comprehension and understanding, and certainly from our explanation; sharing the Divine glory before the world was. We commenced to read of it. "Father... glorify thy Son"; and then just a little further on, "Glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (John 17:5). I say, we can never begin to understand or evaluate the meaning of union with Christ until we have sensed something of that stupendous thing which has happened in His coming forth out of such a state and, in the form of man, going the way of the Cross. The most amazing thing that has ever happened in the whole history of the universe is found in the combination of the words which I have just quoted from the Scriptures. And then, that this Man who was the effulgence of God's glory, and the very image of His substance, "the image of the invisible God," sharing the Divine glory before the world was, should be spat upon, mocked, jeered at, and meet all that terrible sin. It is wonderful that we should be called into union with Him; not just to be His friends, not just to be fellowworkers or partners in some Divine business, not just to have some kind of formal relationship with Him which we call a Union, but to be one with Him in an utterness which we are going to see later. "We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones" (Eph. 5:30. A.V.) "Joined to the Lord... one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17). Something has happened to make that possible, and therein is the whole story and wonder of the infinitude of God's condescending love. Well, the Scriptures, in the first place, set forth His glory, His greatness, in His relationship with God, and many hours could be spent in tracing it out. We pass on.

(b) In His Relationship With All Created Things

Next, His greatness is seen in the Scriptures in His relationship with all created things. Our analysis divides this into four heads.

(1) The Meaning of All Things

Christ is the meaning of all things.

"All things were made through him" (John 1:3).
"The world was made through him" (John 1:10).
"One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things" (1 Cor. 8:6).
"In him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him" (Col. 1:16).
"Of the Son he saith... Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands" (Heb. 1:8,10).
"It became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things..." (Heb. 2:10).

The meaning of all things; that is, the "why" of all things, the answer to the question, What does it all mean? Go abroad in the earth, plunge down into the ocean, soar into the constellations, compass the created universe, comprehend all celestial intelligences and say, "What does it all mean?" and the answer will be in a perfected universe showing forth and expressing the glory of the Son of God, Son of man, and so you will know what it all means. That is no flight of imagination. That could easily be tested and proved up to a convincing point. Given that we had the ability and a certain mass of data, with Divine enlightenment resting upon it, that is capable of substantiation now. If we knew the inner meaning of the created things, we should see Divine meanings, eternal, spiritual meanings, all of them finding their explanation in Christ. That, of course, is a universe of inexhaustible wonder, but that whole universe, the Scripture says, is going to be filled with Him and manifest Him eventually, and when this universe, redeemed and perfected, reaches the end for which it was brought into being, it will be one mighty, comprehensive and still inexhaustible expression of God's Son. That is the meaning of it. He is the key to everything that is happening.

Oh, that we had eyes to see and understanding to grasp the significance of things that are happening! Christ is the explanation, He is the meaning of all things.

(2) The Heir of All Things

Christ is the heir of all things. "God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things" (Heb. 1:1,2). The question immediately arises, When did God appoint Him heir of all things? Well, if all the former passages are right, Christ was appointed heir of all things before ever He made them. If all things were made through Him and unto Him, there was a point at which the Father made Him heir of all things, and it is just on that very matter of His heirship that history turns. Firstly, then there was the marvelous conception of this universe as constituting the inheritance. You do not need that I should strain at trying to say anything about the universe as a conception. Then there is the conception projected, with a view to its being brought into execution, followed by creation, and immediately, or very soon it would seem; the inheritance disputed and marred, but instantly its redemption revealed. Redeemed, reconstituted, perfected, possessed: that is the history of the inheritance, and what a lot that history contains. I said a minute or two ago that if we understood all that is going on, we should see that it centered in and raged round Christ. Why? Because He is heir of all things, and this disputing of His inheritance is the reason for all that is going on. Oh, how much Scripture could be crowded into that. The destroyers of the earth, what are they doing? Well - blindly, of course - but through their evil inspiration and instigation, they are seeking to destroy the inheritance of God's Son, and because spiritual men and women are the best evidence of that fact, they know the concentration of more than ordinary forces upon them for their destruction; for they are the redeemed of the Lord being reconstituted and perfected unto a presentation to Him as His rightful inheritance at last in glory. We know that this is true, that it is the inheritance of God's Son which has involved us in this long, long story of destructive intention from evil powers.

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(3) The Idea or Nature of All Things

Further, Christ is the Idea or Nature of all things. I think here we only need two brief quotations.

"Whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom. 8:29). The Idea or Nature of all things is expressed in those words, "the image of his Son." The other passage which is from Ephesians 4:10, I think bears that out. The object of His ascending up on high was "that he might fill all things." Those two complementary statements answer this Idea or Nature of all things. What is the Idea behind, what is the Divinely intended nature of all things? Well, just the image of His Son. Of course, that embraces the whole of that comprehensive teaching of the New Testament of likeness to Christ. It is a far-reaching and all-governing idea in the New Testament, likeness to Christ, or, as it has often been put, Christ-likeness. That is the Idea of the existence of all things, that is the Nature of the being of all things; to be filled with Him and conformed to His image. You never will be conformed to His image unless you are filled with Him. How much New Testament teaching you can put into that. It is everywhere.

(4) The Final Test of All Things

Lastly, Christ is the final test of all things. In Acts 17:31 we have these words: "He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." The literal rendering is not, by a man, but "in a man whom he hath ordained." That word "ordained" means horizoned. God has made His Son the horizon of everything. Everything has to come within the horizon of this man and be judged according to Him. You see the point. Christ is the criterion, Christ is the standard, Christ is the measure of that great judgment of the world which God has fixed, the final test of all things.

That means that the judgment of the world will be according to how it measures up to Christ, its standing in the light of Christ, as to its attitude toward or relationship with Christ. God will not judge on any other ground. That is a very simple formula for judgment. If God had to take us one by one and judge us on the numerous things which belong to us by our inheritance, our birth, our upbringing, by the fortunes or misfortunes of our lives, well, He would have His hands full, speaking after the manner of men, and it would be something that would require a standard of righteousness so infinitesimal, so exhaustive, as to be almost unthinkable. God is not going to judge us upon the number of our sins, whether few or many, or upon our temperaments, or upon anything like that at all that comes down to us in the bloodstream. His one simple solution is, What is your attitude to My Son? What is your relationship to My Son? How do you stand here in the horizon of Christ, not just as a person, but in relationship with Him as a kind, what He means in Himself? What is your attitude, relationship and measure where the Son is concerned? On that all judgment will be based.

And notice, that is a very righteous judgment. It says "he will judge the world in righteousness." Thank God, that takes in the very thing that so many complain of through their lives, the disadvantages of their inheritance, of heredity, of early training and so on. My dear friends, take heart from this, that on none of those matters is God going to judge at all; it would be unrighteous. He brings us all down to the one issue of our relationship to His Son. Where do you stand with Him? What have you done with Him? What are you making of Him? How are you progressing in your conformity to His image? That is the basis of judgment, and the only one. Christ is the criterion, the final test of all things.

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Christ in the Old Testament

Well, let us return again to this contemplation of His greatness as seen in the Scriptures. If we take the Scriptures as a whole, we find that the Old Testament is shot through with expectation and anticipation. From the very beginning someone is demanded, someone is foreshadowed, someone is proclaimed, and someone is manifested in the midst of the nations; for this Someone was manifested in Israel whom God planted in the midst of them.

Let us look at that for a few minutes. Someone is demanded, demanded because of a calamitous failure which has brought the whole creation under arrest, into what the Bible calls vanity. Failure has made of the whole creation an abortion. Someone is demanded by reason of that failure, someone is required to repair it. Someone is demanded by intuition. Man feels intuitively that someone must come sooner or later.

This expectation and this demand can be traced in very remote civilizations. Universally we find the evidence of this waiting for something, this expectation that someone must come to answer the enigma of life and the world. The whole thing is an enigma, a problem, a puzzle. Man is an abiding quandary, everything is a great contradiction. Many of those who have probed the most deeply in order to try to explain the problem have been driven into blank, terrible despair. Yet man MUST solve this problem. The Bible is just full of that.

But by continuous intimations someone is demanded. It seems as though there is a reaching of a certain point, and now there is an intimation that something is going to happen, and then it recedes, and after a time it comes on again like a tide, only to recede once more. These successive tides in history intimate all the time that something will happen, or someone will come; until you reach the day when He did become incarnate, and the spirit of expectation was ripe in just a nucleus, a remnant. They were waiting, expecting. "The HOPE of Israel" (Acts 28:20). That hope was not only the hope of Israel, it was the hope of the whole creation. Paul tells us that the creation was subjected in hope (Rom. 8:20); it was there throbbing throughout the centuries. Someone is demanded along every line, and that demand is revealed in the Scripture.

Someone is shadowed forth. The Old Testament is full of the shadowing forth of someone in personal types and in symbols, and, although typology and symbolism and the figurative aspect of the Old Testament has perhaps been a bit overdone and sometimes discredited by exaggerations and straining, there does lie right on the face of things, without any straining at all, a whole system which speaks of something other than itself. It demands that which it signifies, typifies, symbolizes, for men cannot live for eternity on symbols, on types, on figures, on foreshadowings. Someone must answer to all this!

Someone is therefore proclaimed. The whole of the Old Testament contains the proclaiming of a someone by the Spirit of prophecy. Immediately Adam falls and the tragedy of sin occurs, the seed of the woman, who should put all this right, is brought into view and proclaimed. He is again proclaimed in Abraham - "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 22:18). In Jacob: aged and dying, Jacob, in blessing his sons, came to Judah, and proclaimed those beautiful and classic words - "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be" (Gen. 49:10); a bringer of peace looked for out of Judah. Did He come of Judah, He whose Name is Peace, Shiloh? All that while ago was He proclaimed. In Moses - "Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me" (Deut. 18:15). Ours is an unfortunate translation in its use of the words "like unto me." It just gives a wrong turn to what Moses actually said. "Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee, of thy brethren," not "like unto me," but, "as he raised me up." You can think about that. How did He raise Moses up? But here is the prophecy of the coming of this prophet. Then you want to read the whole statement in Deuteronomy 18 and 34. In both those chapters you will see that the reference is to a greater than Moses. Well, we cannot go on. All the prophets prophesy of Christ, they were all proclaiming Him.

We close with what is perhaps the most difficult aspect and most difficult thing to say, but I believe it is here. This someone was manifested personally in the midst of the nations, that is, in Israel. You will recall the many theophanies, Divine appearances in man-form in Israel, and you will recall that in not a few instances it is impossible to discriminate between the one who is called the angel and the Lord Himself. They are interchangeable terms, synonymous words. Of the same person, first the word "angel" and then the word "Lord" is used. The angel, as it seemed, took up the conflict with Jacob, and he eventually cried, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Gen. 32:30). That angel of the Lord appeared to Abraham and was confessed to be the Lord. The Lord said to Israel, "Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Take ye heed before him, and hearken unto his voice: provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgression: for my name is in him" (Exod. 23:20,21). Who is this? Paul said about the smitten rock, that the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). But do you remember this, and this is the point of the whole incident, that when the Lord was giving commandment to Moses about smiting the rock, He said, "I will stand before thee there upon the rock" (Exod. 17:6). It was the Lord who was the rock, says Paul; it was the Lord who was smitten to save the life of His people, and you cannot smite the Lord twice. Once smitten, and, blessed be God, that is enough. Then it is said that the rock followed them (1 Cor. 10:4), meaning, I think, that the waters of the rock, the values of the rock, the efficacy of the smitten rock, went with them on their way "and that rock was Christ," it was the Lord. "I will stand before... the rock." So I could gather up many other of these instances, where the identifying of the one called the angel of the Lord cannot be made without saying that it was the Lord Himself, and, seeing the connections, you cannot but see the Son of God. If that wants proving, go to the last book of the Old Testament, where mention is made of the messenger of the covenant. "The Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple" (Mal. 3:1). That word translated "messenger" is the same word translated elsewhere "angel." Who is this angel or messenger of the covenant? "The Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple... But who can abide the day of his coming?" It is none other than the Son of God. But there He was manifested in Israel, again and again personally present, not as yet incarnate, but in manifestation nonetheless.

Well, there is the Scripture. Now, you see, that is the Old Testament. It is shot through, we have said, with expectation, and anticipation. Someone must finally and fully come to answer to it all.

We know that the New Testament, on the other hand, is just brimful of testimony that all this related to and was fulfilled in Christ. The Bible says, in a word: HE, CHRIST, MUST BE MADE EVERYTHING OF. When we have glimpsed something of His greatness, we are at least in the way of glimpsing the wonder of union with Christ. Oh, what a great thing it is! Surely we can now confirm that with which we started. It is the hope of everything. Everything centers in Him and radiates from Him to the bounds of God's created universe. Union with Christ is the heart of all the revealed thoughts of God concerning man and man's relationship with God.