Favorite Pastor Quotes
God's love-tokens!
(Thomas Brooks, "Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod")
"It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees!" Psalm 119:71
A gracious soul secretly concludes: As stars shine brightest in the night--so God will make my soul shine and glisten like gold, while I am in this furnace--and when I come out of the furnace of affliction. "He knows the way that I take; and when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold!" Job 23:10
Surely, as the tasting of honey opened Jonathan's eyes--so this cross, this affliction, shall open my eyes. By this stroke, I shall come to have a clearer sight of my sins, and of myself, and a fuller sight of my God!
Surely this affliction shall proceed in the purging away of my dross!
As surely as plowing the ground kills the weeds, and harrowing breaks hard clods--so these afflictions shall kill my sins, and soften my heart!
As surely as the plaster draws out the infectious core--so the afflictions which are upon me shall draw out . . .
the infectious core of pride,
the infectious core of self-love,
the infectious core of envy,
the infectious core of earthliness,
the infectious core of formality,
the infectious core of hypocrisy!
Surely by these afflictions, the Lord will crucify my heart more and more to the world--and the world to my heart!
Surely by these afflictions, the Lord will keep pride from my soul!
Surely these afflictions are but the Lord's pruning-knives, by which he will bleed my sins, and prune my heart, and make it more fertile and fruitful. They are the means by which He will rid me of those spiritual diseases and maladies, which are most deadly and dangerous to my soul!
Affliction is such a potion, as will carry away all soul-diseases, better than all other remedies!
Surely by these afflictions, I shall be made more a partaker of God's holiness!
As black soap makes white clothes--so does sharp afflictions make holy hearts.
Surely by these, God will communicate more of Himself unto me!
Surely by these afflictions, the Lord will draw out my heart more and more to seek Him! "In their afflictions they will seek me early!" Hosea 5:15. In times of affliction, Christians will industriously, speedily, early seek unto the Lord.
Surely by these trials and troubles, the Lord will fix my soul more than ever upon the great concernments of the eternal world!
Surely by these afflictions, the Lord will work in me more tenderness and compassion towards those who are afflicted!
Surely these afflictions are but God's love-tokens! "As many as I love--I rebuke and chasten!" Revelation 3:19. So says the holy Christian, "O my soul! be quiet, be still--all is sent in love, all is a fruit of divine favor."
Afflictions abase the carnal attractions of the world, which might entice us.
Affliction abates the lustiness of the flesh within, which might else ensnare us!
By all of the above, affliction proves to be a mighty advantage unto us.
______________________________________
A man after the devil's own heart!
(George Lawson, "A Practical Exposition of the Book of Proverbs")
"A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit! Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart!" Proverbs 26:24-25
An angry man is dangerous--but, if you are on your guard, the danger will soon be over.
The malicious man is far worse, and much more dangerous, for his hatred ferments in his heart, and in the mean time, he is projecting methods for wreaking his malevolence in such a manner as will be safest to himself, and most hurtful to its object. He is not like the dog that barks before it bites--otherwise you might stand to your own defense. But he is a dog that fawns upon you, and, when you are never dreaming of it, viciously attacks you, and inflicts an unexpected and dangerous wound.
Solomon warns you that your safety lies in refusing to trust him, even when he makes the largest professions of friendship. When he speaks charming words, believe him not, although he should swear to the truth of all he says. If you have any reason, from your knowledge of a man's character, or from his former behavior, to think that he is one of this stamp, and capable of such wicked conduct--his ardent professions of love should rather confirm than remove your suspicions of him. For the darkest designs are always covered under the greatest shows of virtue and friendship.
You may as safely believe the devil himself, as one who joins malignity of heart with flattery and caresses--for he is a man after the devil's own heart! His character is a compound of all those vices of the blackest and the vilest kind, which make a consummate villain, and render a man a disgrace to human nature, by his exact resemblance to those infernal fiends who are to be dreaded equally for their malice and subtlety.
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Saturday, January 13, 2018
Living By Christ
Living By Christ
"And Elisha came again to Gilgal. And there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage; for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot" (2 Kings 4:38-41).
With the sons of the prophets, we have the matter of the preserving of the Lord's testimony, the knowledge of the mind of the Lord for His people. With the pot, we have the preserving of that testimony, sustenance for that testimony and its vessel. With the wild gourds or vine, we have that life of nature which lies under the curse, for with the curse, thorns and briers and all such things came into the world, wild foreign lawless things, the life of a fallen creation, the life of nature. There is death there, and no official position can save you from those consequences, if you resort to, or try to draw in, the life of nature. In the meal which Elisha had cast into the pot, we have clearly, unmistakably, that which speaks of the Lord Jesus in His Divine humanity. The word which so evidently explains the meal is in John 6:50-51.
"This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; yea and the bread which I will give is My flesh, for the life of the world."
Now, while there are many valuable lessons in this little incident in the life of Elisha, the uppermost lesson and message for us is just this. You and I will never be able to preserve a testimony to the Lord unless we know what it is to continually feed upon Christ's heavenly, divine and perfect humanity. That is a difficult thing, I know, but it means this. If you and I, as the Lord's people with whom the Lord's testimony is supposed to rest, as in the case of the sons of the prophets, in any way or at any time, revert to ourselves in our natural condition, the testimony will at once pass from us, that is, death will intervene. The testimony will be at an end, it will only be as we continually transfer by faith from ourselves, what we are, to the Lord Jesus, and live as on Him by faith, that the testimony will be kept alive, will be a living testimony. That is a very simple lesson and yet the most difficult lesson for anyone to learn the most difficult thing for anyone to continually do. Of course, the doctrine is all right, we believe in the doctrine, and we are ready to say it at any time, that the Lord Jesus is our life. We say that with great emphasis, but the point is, Do we live there? Is that our abiding position? A little later in John 6, the Lord Jesus says, "He that eateth My flesh...abideth in Me, and I in him", and the word there - "eateth" - is the continually active word. 'He that keeps on eating My flesh abides in Me and I in him.' Something to be maintained continually.
Now, for the livingness of the testimony, we must abide in Him in this way: that we refuse to live on our own ground of what we are by nature. We have discovered, and everyone here will agree, that in that field there is nothing but wild gourds and thorns and briers and all that sort of thing. Have you ever known any beautiful thing in your own nature? Some people seem to think that they are finding them, and they are talking all the time about living in their better selves and their best selves, but that is the fullest possible evidence that they have never had their eyes opened, that they know nothing whatever about the Cross of the Lord Jesus. People who have no place for the Cross, the Cross in its real meaning, talk like that, but to those who have had their eyes opened by the Holy Spirit, the field of their natural life is just full of these poisonous berries, these wild things, and that is a field of death, its fruit is death. We had better get out of that field and keep out of it, and there is a fruitful field of living things, and that is the Lord Jesus.
I do wish that I could convey to you that inner thought in this matter, that the Lord Jesus has really come, sent by God the Father, right into our midst, and God says, "you are one thing and He is an utterly different and altogether Other! You are that, and naturally in your own natures, you will never be anything other than that, so it is no use you trying to improve that!" The only hope for you is that by faith - by living, continual faith - you transfer your center of life to Him, and, as you take your bread for your body, you in faith and in spirit take Him to be that upon which your hope rests, your confidence rests, you rest on what He is! "This is My body which is given for you." This loaf, this heavenly, Divine, sinless humanity, is our humanity by faith. We by faith are identified with Him as we put our faith into act. You see, you are in need, you are hungry, you may die of hunger. Someone comes and puts bread in front of you and says, "That will save your life, that will be life to you; that is what you need, you will find in that everything for your salvation!" And you look at it; "Yes, I believe what you say, I believe that that will save me, that will deliver me from death, that will be life unto me!" - and you leave it there, and you die. That is doctrinal apprehension, you see, but if you really believe according to New Testament ideas of belief, you do not only say, "Yes, I believe what you say!", you take it, you act upon your belief, and you take it and you live.
We must have something more than a doctrinal faith, we must have an appropriating faith which says, "I am this, and the Lord Jesus is that, altogether Other, and God says that if I will but transfer my basis of life from myself to Him deliberately and continuously every day, I shall be delivered from death and I shall live", and the testimony will be there! Let us ask the Lord more and more to strengthen us in this matter of our continuous living upon what the Lord Jesus is from God to us, and to cause us to cease forever from hunting in the field of our accursed fallen nature for some good.
I know what it is you want as you are searching. It is to be good yourselves, to be altogether free from nature, from that nature and all its marks, to be free from that, and really what you want is sinless perfection in yourselves. Well, if ever you do get it in this life, let me tell you, you will be in a deception which will mean that the whole door to spiritual development and growth will be shut, because the consciousness of our own utter unworthiness and sinfulness as in ourselves is an essential to our growing appreciation of the Lord Jesus. You come to finality in any of these matters as in yourself, and that is an end of your spiritual development.
How will we come to know the Lord in ever-growing fullness? How shall we have an enlarging revelation and a deepening appreciation? We shall come to that as we more and more, by the work of the Holy Spirit in us, recognize how much we need the Lord. When you have got finality in any matter, you have ended need and need is essential to growth. So the Lord says, "Stop hunting in that field! This is the fruitful field, this is the living field - My Son! Live in Him, abide in Him by faith!"
I know the problem that arises at once. Is there to be no change in us at all? I am naturally very bad-tempered. Am I to say, "Well, I am bad-tempered by nature, I always shall be bad-tempered by nature, but the Lord Jesus is very good-tempered, and I believe His good temper will be accepted by the God for me?" That is the kind of problem. I use temper as an illustration, it may be any other thing. That is not the point at all. The point is this, that you and I will never be changed in ourselves, but as we live on the Lord Jesus, what He takes the place of ourselves, and if at any time after fifty, sixty or seventy years of Christian life you leave the ground of the Lord Jesus, you will find your old bad temper there. You never do get to the point where you can cease to be bad-tempered if you leave your ground of Christ, and our only way of escape from what we are is to live on Him. He becomes that, He gets on top of these things, but we are never other than we are in ourselves. But here, of course, arises the great difference between soul and spirit which we will not go into now. The point is the way of sanctification, is faith in the Lord Jesus. It is a case of bringing in the meal where death is and death is turned into life through faith in what He is. The Lord help us to see and know the meaning of living by Christ, not existing, not dragging out a miserable existence in doctrine, but living by Christ.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(The End)
"And Elisha came again to Gilgal. And there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage; for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot" (2 Kings 4:38-41).
With the sons of the prophets, we have the matter of the preserving of the Lord's testimony, the knowledge of the mind of the Lord for His people. With the pot, we have the preserving of that testimony, sustenance for that testimony and its vessel. With the wild gourds or vine, we have that life of nature which lies under the curse, for with the curse, thorns and briers and all such things came into the world, wild foreign lawless things, the life of a fallen creation, the life of nature. There is death there, and no official position can save you from those consequences, if you resort to, or try to draw in, the life of nature. In the meal which Elisha had cast into the pot, we have clearly, unmistakably, that which speaks of the Lord Jesus in His Divine humanity. The word which so evidently explains the meal is in John 6:50-51.
"This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; yea and the bread which I will give is My flesh, for the life of the world."
Now, while there are many valuable lessons in this little incident in the life of Elisha, the uppermost lesson and message for us is just this. You and I will never be able to preserve a testimony to the Lord unless we know what it is to continually feed upon Christ's heavenly, divine and perfect humanity. That is a difficult thing, I know, but it means this. If you and I, as the Lord's people with whom the Lord's testimony is supposed to rest, as in the case of the sons of the prophets, in any way or at any time, revert to ourselves in our natural condition, the testimony will at once pass from us, that is, death will intervene. The testimony will be at an end, it will only be as we continually transfer by faith from ourselves, what we are, to the Lord Jesus, and live as on Him by faith, that the testimony will be kept alive, will be a living testimony. That is a very simple lesson and yet the most difficult lesson for anyone to learn the most difficult thing for anyone to continually do. Of course, the doctrine is all right, we believe in the doctrine, and we are ready to say it at any time, that the Lord Jesus is our life. We say that with great emphasis, but the point is, Do we live there? Is that our abiding position? A little later in John 6, the Lord Jesus says, "He that eateth My flesh...abideth in Me, and I in him", and the word there - "eateth" - is the continually active word. 'He that keeps on eating My flesh abides in Me and I in him.' Something to be maintained continually.
Now, for the livingness of the testimony, we must abide in Him in this way: that we refuse to live on our own ground of what we are by nature. We have discovered, and everyone here will agree, that in that field there is nothing but wild gourds and thorns and briers and all that sort of thing. Have you ever known any beautiful thing in your own nature? Some people seem to think that they are finding them, and they are talking all the time about living in their better selves and their best selves, but that is the fullest possible evidence that they have never had their eyes opened, that they know nothing whatever about the Cross of the Lord Jesus. People who have no place for the Cross, the Cross in its real meaning, talk like that, but to those who have had their eyes opened by the Holy Spirit, the field of their natural life is just full of these poisonous berries, these wild things, and that is a field of death, its fruit is death. We had better get out of that field and keep out of it, and there is a fruitful field of living things, and that is the Lord Jesus.
I do wish that I could convey to you that inner thought in this matter, that the Lord Jesus has really come, sent by God the Father, right into our midst, and God says, "you are one thing and He is an utterly different and altogether Other! You are that, and naturally in your own natures, you will never be anything other than that, so it is no use you trying to improve that!" The only hope for you is that by faith - by living, continual faith - you transfer your center of life to Him, and, as you take your bread for your body, you in faith and in spirit take Him to be that upon which your hope rests, your confidence rests, you rest on what He is! "This is My body which is given for you." This loaf, this heavenly, Divine, sinless humanity, is our humanity by faith. We by faith are identified with Him as we put our faith into act. You see, you are in need, you are hungry, you may die of hunger. Someone comes and puts bread in front of you and says, "That will save your life, that will be life to you; that is what you need, you will find in that everything for your salvation!" And you look at it; "Yes, I believe what you say, I believe that that will save me, that will deliver me from death, that will be life unto me!" - and you leave it there, and you die. That is doctrinal apprehension, you see, but if you really believe according to New Testament ideas of belief, you do not only say, "Yes, I believe what you say!", you take it, you act upon your belief, and you take it and you live.
We must have something more than a doctrinal faith, we must have an appropriating faith which says, "I am this, and the Lord Jesus is that, altogether Other, and God says that if I will but transfer my basis of life from myself to Him deliberately and continuously every day, I shall be delivered from death and I shall live", and the testimony will be there! Let us ask the Lord more and more to strengthen us in this matter of our continuous living upon what the Lord Jesus is from God to us, and to cause us to cease forever from hunting in the field of our accursed fallen nature for some good.
I know what it is you want as you are searching. It is to be good yourselves, to be altogether free from nature, from that nature and all its marks, to be free from that, and really what you want is sinless perfection in yourselves. Well, if ever you do get it in this life, let me tell you, you will be in a deception which will mean that the whole door to spiritual development and growth will be shut, because the consciousness of our own utter unworthiness and sinfulness as in ourselves is an essential to our growing appreciation of the Lord Jesus. You come to finality in any of these matters as in yourself, and that is an end of your spiritual development.
How will we come to know the Lord in ever-growing fullness? How shall we have an enlarging revelation and a deepening appreciation? We shall come to that as we more and more, by the work of the Holy Spirit in us, recognize how much we need the Lord. When you have got finality in any matter, you have ended need and need is essential to growth. So the Lord says, "Stop hunting in that field! This is the fruitful field, this is the living field - My Son! Live in Him, abide in Him by faith!"
I know the problem that arises at once. Is there to be no change in us at all? I am naturally very bad-tempered. Am I to say, "Well, I am bad-tempered by nature, I always shall be bad-tempered by nature, but the Lord Jesus is very good-tempered, and I believe His good temper will be accepted by the God for me?" That is the kind of problem. I use temper as an illustration, it may be any other thing. That is not the point at all. The point is this, that you and I will never be changed in ourselves, but as we live on the Lord Jesus, what He takes the place of ourselves, and if at any time after fifty, sixty or seventy years of Christian life you leave the ground of the Lord Jesus, you will find your old bad temper there. You never do get to the point where you can cease to be bad-tempered if you leave your ground of Christ, and our only way of escape from what we are is to live on Him. He becomes that, He gets on top of these things, but we are never other than we are in ourselves. But here, of course, arises the great difference between soul and spirit which we will not go into now. The point is the way of sanctification, is faith in the Lord Jesus. It is a case of bringing in the meal where death is and death is turned into life through faith in what He is. The Lord help us to see and know the meaning of living by Christ, not existing, not dragging out a miserable existence in doctrine, but living by Christ.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(The End)
Saturday, January 6, 2018
Crowns Won and Crowns Lost # 4
Crowns Won and Crowns Lost # 4
1. An undivided heart.
I trust this is a word to everybody, but you will realize that my heart is going out to younger brothers and sisters particularly just now. This is a day of very great trial for the younger folk; our hearts are very much with you. This is a new phase of things. We are going to be scattered, called upon to do what no previous generation has had to do. I do want them to take a word for these coming days that may help them in the time of trial when the crown is at stake.
May I say this to you? If only you will eliminate, or ask the Lord to enable you to eliminate, every element of mixture in you life, so that your flame is one clear pure flame, it will save you an enormous amount. I think it will save you 99% of the trouble. If you have got a double motive, if your heart is divided, if you have got two things working at the back of you, if there is internal conflict, if there is civil war, you are going to lose, and therefore, in the light of the glorious issue, it is always the wisest thing right from the outset to take a clear and unmistakable position so that everybody knows exactly where you are, they have not got to find out, they know that is where you stand right at the beginning. No mixture - get rid of any double element at work in your life - that you want to stand well with both sides, you do not want to let the lord down secretly on His side, at the same time you want to stand well with others, you do not want to have them against you. Well, there is a wisdom that God can give which will save us from doing that sort of thing in a way that leads to unnecessary trouble. I think we can be foolish even in that matter.
It says about the Lord Jesus that He grew in favor with God and man, and you say, Well, can a Christian do that? I think probably the explanation is that there was a wisdom which did not unnecessarily and foolishly put peoples' backs up. A lot have done that sort of thing in an unnecessary way, and they have done mischief quite unnecessarily. You understand what I mean. There is a wisdom which may save from a lot of that sort of thing. Ask for that wisdom. Read the eighth chapter of the book of Proverbs, read and reread it, and go to the Lord and say, Give me that wisdom! Ask for wisdom, but at the same time, while asking for and seeking to be governed by real wisdom in your position and relationships and attitudes, do at the same time have no double interest, no doubt motive. Let it be clear as to the line you are taking, as to where you stand, and that from the outset.
2. Endurance to the End
Well now, we must draw this homily to a close. Here is this word which helps us. "Hold fast that which thou hast that no one take thy crown." Hold fast! That is only another way of saying what is said to very many times in the New Testament, Be steadfast, hold fast or endure. Crowns are so often lost just for want of a bit of real "stickability", holding on, letting go too soon. Oh, how much this matter of the divine crown, the reward at the end, is bound up in the New Testament with that word - endure. "He that endureth to the end..." (Matt. 10:22) "If we endure...". Endurance is a great test. There are many who can make a great spurt at the outset, make a show on the first lap, and you would think by their beginnings they are going to carry it on. We know quite well it is not always those who get ahead at the beginning. It is usually those who can hold on to the end, who hold fast. This word, you notice, is to the church at Philadelphia, and the Lord is saying - "...the hour of tribulation which is coming on all the earth...hold fast". Yes, it is just that holding fast in tribulation that is the great factor of the crown.
You know, I have been having a good deal of time in recent weeks for thinking and reading, and I have been reading a number of very interesting things. I read Admiral Byrd's story of that wonderful advance camp in his Antarctic expedition; the story of the salving of the American submarine, Squallus, thirty men out of fifty trapped over two hundred feet deep, and several things like that I have been reading, and I have been moved to my depths, as probably you have, with stories like that, moved to the very depths. What men will do, what they will endure, just to add a little bit more to the knowledge, the information and the usefulness of such information, in the great store of scientific research in the history of this world. What they will do - the unspeakable suffering! No one could read that story of Admiral Byrd's without feeling that we do not know anything about suffering. A man will go through all that just to give a little more information to the world as to currents and wind force and so on. You cannot think of their sufferings. But the thing that has impressed me is this. I expected before I got to the end of those stories, I expected Byrd to say, "Let me get out of this, you will never catch me on this again! All those men trapped down there two hundred and forty feet in the ocean in a helpless submarine, shivering in the intense cold with hope slowly dying and never being recovered. Let us get out of this, you won't catch us in a submarine again!" The thing that impressed me was that Byrd must have another expedition. Practically dying, collapsing, such cold as to touch something meant to strip the very flesh off your hand, yet he is no sooner back than he is working a new expedition. The men down there in the Squallus, no sooner having been rescued just when they were losing consciousness and beginning to view the last hours, no sooner rescued and their submarine salved after three months' hard work than they say, "We want no other life than a life on a submarine, we choose to go back!"
That is something that you and I have got to stand up to, and I have to think, "Hello, where are we Christians?" Don't we often feel, "If only I could get out of this, oh Lord, deliver me from this, and I will never put myself in the way of it again!" Are we like that over our Christian life or, as Paul evidently did and as these men looked at their work, "We are on the business, the great business, we are on a line that matters in the long run, it is something which, added to the whole, is going to be of tremendous value and we are in it to the end, to the last drop; we get out of one scrape, well, we will get into another, but we are going on, we are not going to quit!" That is the point. We are not going to quit and seek a softer job. So Paul says, "Thou, therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Tim. 2:3). It is only another metaphor for the same thing. Hold fast, do not quit, do not let go, hold fast that which thou hast that no one take thy crown.
Will you just sort this out a bit at a time? Thy crown; no one take thy crown; hold fast and watch all those ways, those subtle ways, by which crowns are lost. I hope that every one of us here at any rate, in the great day, whether we are known here as being of any account or of no account, may receive at the Lord's hand that crown for which He apprehended us, and while we do not want to take other peoples' crowns, let us be faithful that where the Lord is not being satisfied in others, He may be doubly satisfied in us.
The Lord help us to hold fast that which we have. Amen
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(The End)
1. An undivided heart.
I trust this is a word to everybody, but you will realize that my heart is going out to younger brothers and sisters particularly just now. This is a day of very great trial for the younger folk; our hearts are very much with you. This is a new phase of things. We are going to be scattered, called upon to do what no previous generation has had to do. I do want them to take a word for these coming days that may help them in the time of trial when the crown is at stake.
May I say this to you? If only you will eliminate, or ask the Lord to enable you to eliminate, every element of mixture in you life, so that your flame is one clear pure flame, it will save you an enormous amount. I think it will save you 99% of the trouble. If you have got a double motive, if your heart is divided, if you have got two things working at the back of you, if there is internal conflict, if there is civil war, you are going to lose, and therefore, in the light of the glorious issue, it is always the wisest thing right from the outset to take a clear and unmistakable position so that everybody knows exactly where you are, they have not got to find out, they know that is where you stand right at the beginning. No mixture - get rid of any double element at work in your life - that you want to stand well with both sides, you do not want to let the lord down secretly on His side, at the same time you want to stand well with others, you do not want to have them against you. Well, there is a wisdom that God can give which will save us from doing that sort of thing in a way that leads to unnecessary trouble. I think we can be foolish even in that matter.
It says about the Lord Jesus that He grew in favor with God and man, and you say, Well, can a Christian do that? I think probably the explanation is that there was a wisdom which did not unnecessarily and foolishly put peoples' backs up. A lot have done that sort of thing in an unnecessary way, and they have done mischief quite unnecessarily. You understand what I mean. There is a wisdom which may save from a lot of that sort of thing. Ask for that wisdom. Read the eighth chapter of the book of Proverbs, read and reread it, and go to the Lord and say, Give me that wisdom! Ask for wisdom, but at the same time, while asking for and seeking to be governed by real wisdom in your position and relationships and attitudes, do at the same time have no double interest, no doubt motive. Let it be clear as to the line you are taking, as to where you stand, and that from the outset.
2. Endurance to the End
Well now, we must draw this homily to a close. Here is this word which helps us. "Hold fast that which thou hast that no one take thy crown." Hold fast! That is only another way of saying what is said to very many times in the New Testament, Be steadfast, hold fast or endure. Crowns are so often lost just for want of a bit of real "stickability", holding on, letting go too soon. Oh, how much this matter of the divine crown, the reward at the end, is bound up in the New Testament with that word - endure. "He that endureth to the end..." (Matt. 10:22) "If we endure...". Endurance is a great test. There are many who can make a great spurt at the outset, make a show on the first lap, and you would think by their beginnings they are going to carry it on. We know quite well it is not always those who get ahead at the beginning. It is usually those who can hold on to the end, who hold fast. This word, you notice, is to the church at Philadelphia, and the Lord is saying - "...the hour of tribulation which is coming on all the earth...hold fast". Yes, it is just that holding fast in tribulation that is the great factor of the crown.
You know, I have been having a good deal of time in recent weeks for thinking and reading, and I have been reading a number of very interesting things. I read Admiral Byrd's story of that wonderful advance camp in his Antarctic expedition; the story of the salving of the American submarine, Squallus, thirty men out of fifty trapped over two hundred feet deep, and several things like that I have been reading, and I have been moved to my depths, as probably you have, with stories like that, moved to the very depths. What men will do, what they will endure, just to add a little bit more to the knowledge, the information and the usefulness of such information, in the great store of scientific research in the history of this world. What they will do - the unspeakable suffering! No one could read that story of Admiral Byrd's without feeling that we do not know anything about suffering. A man will go through all that just to give a little more information to the world as to currents and wind force and so on. You cannot think of their sufferings. But the thing that has impressed me is this. I expected before I got to the end of those stories, I expected Byrd to say, "Let me get out of this, you will never catch me on this again! All those men trapped down there two hundred and forty feet in the ocean in a helpless submarine, shivering in the intense cold with hope slowly dying and never being recovered. Let us get out of this, you won't catch us in a submarine again!" The thing that impressed me was that Byrd must have another expedition. Practically dying, collapsing, such cold as to touch something meant to strip the very flesh off your hand, yet he is no sooner back than he is working a new expedition. The men down there in the Squallus, no sooner having been rescued just when they were losing consciousness and beginning to view the last hours, no sooner rescued and their submarine salved after three months' hard work than they say, "We want no other life than a life on a submarine, we choose to go back!"
That is something that you and I have got to stand up to, and I have to think, "Hello, where are we Christians?" Don't we often feel, "If only I could get out of this, oh Lord, deliver me from this, and I will never put myself in the way of it again!" Are we like that over our Christian life or, as Paul evidently did and as these men looked at their work, "We are on the business, the great business, we are on a line that matters in the long run, it is something which, added to the whole, is going to be of tremendous value and we are in it to the end, to the last drop; we get out of one scrape, well, we will get into another, but we are going on, we are not going to quit!" That is the point. We are not going to quit and seek a softer job. So Paul says, "Thou, therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Tim. 2:3). It is only another metaphor for the same thing. Hold fast, do not quit, do not let go, hold fast that which thou hast that no one take thy crown.
Will you just sort this out a bit at a time? Thy crown; no one take thy crown; hold fast and watch all those ways, those subtle ways, by which crowns are lost. I hope that every one of us here at any rate, in the great day, whether we are known here as being of any account or of no account, may receive at the Lord's hand that crown for which He apprehended us, and while we do not want to take other peoples' crowns, let us be faithful that where the Lord is not being satisfied in others, He may be doubly satisfied in us.
The Lord help us to hold fast that which we have. Amen
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(The End)
Saturday, December 30, 2017
Crowns Won and Crowns Lost # 3
Crowns Won and Crowns Lost # 3
How Crowns Are Lost
1. The danger of compromise
But now, how are crowns lost? Well, of course, in many ways, and one can only draw upon the experience of temptation and what has been not only felt, but seen in one's own experience and in the lives of others as to how crowns are lost as well as how crowns are won. I think one of the ways in which crowns are more frequently lost perhaps than any other is by compromise, keeping strictly, of course, to the spirit of the word. I am thinking of this great master of crowns, Paul, and if there was one thing about Paul more than another thing, it was this, that he was a man of no compromise.
Compromise, you know, has many forms and many shades and it can be found under many very good names. For instance, what a lot of compromise is hidden behind that phrase - "broad-mindedness". Broad-mindedness is one of those great big trees spreading in all directions and great dimensions, and any bird of heaven can find a home in that tree, Compromise. It means calling things by other names than their rue names. You know how, in the world, they cover up evil by wonderful phrases. The whole terrible iniquity of gambling in horse-racing, for instance, is breed of horse, and that is the way in which all this iniquity ruined lives by the millions, devastated homes, hungry children - passes as something noble. We have got to be careful that we call things by their right name, and especially the younger people have got to be careful. You get out in the world and you know what the world thinks about Christians and Christianity,and then the temptation at once is in some way to be broad, not to be too particular, too singular and different from everybody else - be broad-minded! That broad-mindedness is the curse of compromise which has robbed many a young Christian or his or her crown for all eternity.
We are not going, of course, to go to a wrong extreme, you understand that, in the other direction, but let us be careful. Compromise has many forms, but the essence of it were Christians are concerned is an ashamedness of Jesus. Oh, let us call it by its right name - ashamed of Jesus!! That is the right name for it. Call it anything else and it comes down to that. "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in His own glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26): crown gone, Jesus ashamed of us. Why? We were ashamed of Jesus, but we would not call it that. We would call it by some name of compromise, broad-mindedness, being all things to all men - the wrong application of a right principle. Oh yes, crowns are lost like that, but I do urge upon you, especially my younger friends, this word - "that no one take thy crown", have no compromise, no letting go for anything whatever; no advantage that you can gain by any form or degree of compromise can ever bring you that which will deliver you from terrible shame and remorse in the day of Jesus Christ. Well, compromise is one thing and I say it works out in so many ways and it has so many connections with it.
2. The Danger of 'Success'
Crowns are lost imperceptibly in the beginning of things. For instance, there is the terrible peril of success. If there are dangers in adversity, I think the dangers of success are infinitely greater. I am speaking out of knowledge in certain directions. I am thinking of certain people who have lost everything of God's great calling which I knew to be theirs, and concerning which they gave such wonderful promise at one time, so bright and promising for the Lord, and it all turned upon this - they got promotion. It brought them into a new circle where they were made a fuss of, where they were something, you had challenged them, "Look here, you are losing something, you are losing out!" they would not have listened, would not have had it. Not at all: it was working subtly, imperceptibly, slowly, but it did work. The crown was gone, gone for ever. Maybe the majority of us here will not have to stand that awful test, the test of prosperity. I am not anticipating that peril myself! Perhaps most of you will not be put into that fire, but there are some of you younger folk who may yet, and before long, be in that real testing where you will be in a position of influence, where you will be made something of. That is your hour of peril, and the hour when your crown is in peril. I would like to be faithful with you in the light of a lot of tragic experience. Remember the perils of becoming something, being something, being made something of, having a position of importance or any kind of success.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 4 - How Crowns Are Won)
How Crowns Are Lost
1. The danger of compromise
But now, how are crowns lost? Well, of course, in many ways, and one can only draw upon the experience of temptation and what has been not only felt, but seen in one's own experience and in the lives of others as to how crowns are lost as well as how crowns are won. I think one of the ways in which crowns are more frequently lost perhaps than any other is by compromise, keeping strictly, of course, to the spirit of the word. I am thinking of this great master of crowns, Paul, and if there was one thing about Paul more than another thing, it was this, that he was a man of no compromise.
Compromise, you know, has many forms and many shades and it can be found under many very good names. For instance, what a lot of compromise is hidden behind that phrase - "broad-mindedness". Broad-mindedness is one of those great big trees spreading in all directions and great dimensions, and any bird of heaven can find a home in that tree, Compromise. It means calling things by other names than their rue names. You know how, in the world, they cover up evil by wonderful phrases. The whole terrible iniquity of gambling in horse-racing, for instance, is breed of horse, and that is the way in which all this iniquity ruined lives by the millions, devastated homes, hungry children - passes as something noble. We have got to be careful that we call things by their right name, and especially the younger people have got to be careful. You get out in the world and you know what the world thinks about Christians and Christianity,and then the temptation at once is in some way to be broad, not to be too particular, too singular and different from everybody else - be broad-minded! That broad-mindedness is the curse of compromise which has robbed many a young Christian or his or her crown for all eternity.
We are not going, of course, to go to a wrong extreme, you understand that, in the other direction, but let us be careful. Compromise has many forms, but the essence of it were Christians are concerned is an ashamedness of Jesus. Oh, let us call it by its right name - ashamed of Jesus!! That is the right name for it. Call it anything else and it comes down to that. "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in His own glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26): crown gone, Jesus ashamed of us. Why? We were ashamed of Jesus, but we would not call it that. We would call it by some name of compromise, broad-mindedness, being all things to all men - the wrong application of a right principle. Oh yes, crowns are lost like that, but I do urge upon you, especially my younger friends, this word - "that no one take thy crown", have no compromise, no letting go for anything whatever; no advantage that you can gain by any form or degree of compromise can ever bring you that which will deliver you from terrible shame and remorse in the day of Jesus Christ. Well, compromise is one thing and I say it works out in so many ways and it has so many connections with it.
2. The Danger of 'Success'
Crowns are lost imperceptibly in the beginning of things. For instance, there is the terrible peril of success. If there are dangers in adversity, I think the dangers of success are infinitely greater. I am speaking out of knowledge in certain directions. I am thinking of certain people who have lost everything of God's great calling which I knew to be theirs, and concerning which they gave such wonderful promise at one time, so bright and promising for the Lord, and it all turned upon this - they got promotion. It brought them into a new circle where they were made a fuss of, where they were something, you had challenged them, "Look here, you are losing something, you are losing out!" they would not have listened, would not have had it. Not at all: it was working subtly, imperceptibly, slowly, but it did work. The crown was gone, gone for ever. Maybe the majority of us here will not have to stand that awful test, the test of prosperity. I am not anticipating that peril myself! Perhaps most of you will not be put into that fire, but there are some of you younger folk who may yet, and before long, be in that real testing where you will be in a position of influence, where you will be made something of. That is your hour of peril, and the hour when your crown is in peril. I would like to be faithful with you in the light of a lot of tragic experience. Remember the perils of becoming something, being something, being made something of, having a position of importance or any kind of success.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 4 - How Crowns Are Won)
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Crowns Won and Crowns Lost # 2
Crowns Won and Crowns Lost # 2
Here are our words. "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown." "Thy" crown. Now, you have only got to take the words singly and you get all the thoughts that I have suggested. Crown; thy crown; one take thy crown; that no one take thy crown; thy crown; one take thy crown; that no one take thy crown. Crowns won and crowns lost. We have seen a lot of people lose their crowns as we have gone through this life. I can go back over years and I can just array a number of people whom I know positively have lost their crown; I know they have lost it. There is no doubt about it, and they can never recover it. I think of a young man who I know, if ever I knew anything, was called of God to serve Him in a distant part of the earth. His whole being was consumed with that thought; he gave himself in every way to be prepared for that. You could never meet him but what that was the one thing. He was the authority on that one thing. He could have well said, For me to live is Christ! It was so. A young woman came into his life who had so such sense of divine call, but who had interests on this earth, ambitions here, and gradually that relationship twined round him. He never went to China, he lost his vision, steadily lost his spiritual life, gave himself to business, got on fairly well in business, but the Lord had gone out, and there is nothing there for the Lord, all gone, his crown lost. I could go right on like that touching so many who I know have lost their crown. It is a terrible truth that is set forth here: that there is a crown and that it can be lost.
But, on the other hand, there is that side which has the shadow and dark background to it, which nevertheless has its own glory. How often have we seen someone stepping in and in that double measure of faithfulness and devotion to the Lord, you could almost see that one taking the thing that you knew was the thing that belonged to someone else. The Lord was calling, was working, and the Lord desired that one for such and such a thing, in such and such a way, and you could almost see the Lord cherishing that tree, doing all that He could to get that tree to respond, and you had a sense of what it was called for. No, careless, slothful, unresponsive, not taking the matter seriously at all. Then you saw someone coming, and you could almost see it happen, the preparation of another earnest out-and-out life, one that meant business with God, meant to go the whole way themselves, and you almost could see, in the realm of spiritual, that one take what this other one was called to,and in the outworking the one has gone out and the other has gone on. All you can say is, Well, the interpretation of those two lives is that this one took that one's crown! You saw the Lord offering this one a crown and the other one taking it, while the one dallied. It is possible, if this word means anything, that you and I should take a crown that is not intended for us in the first place, but it is available. We are not shut out from it, it is available, but what a warning it is and yet what an exhortation - double glory, glory more than was really meant for us, but yet open to us.
Ah yes, well in the earthly races or competitions, one man can take all the prizes. Some of us have seen that sort of thing happen. We remember in our school days how one fellow seemed to take all the prizes; if there was any prize going, it went his way. Those prizes were for the rest of us, everybody, they were for all.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 3 - How Crowns Are Lost)
Here are our words. "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown." "Thy" crown. Now, you have only got to take the words singly and you get all the thoughts that I have suggested. Crown; thy crown; one take thy crown; that no one take thy crown; thy crown; one take thy crown; that no one take thy crown. Crowns won and crowns lost. We have seen a lot of people lose their crowns as we have gone through this life. I can go back over years and I can just array a number of people whom I know positively have lost their crown; I know they have lost it. There is no doubt about it, and they can never recover it. I think of a young man who I know, if ever I knew anything, was called of God to serve Him in a distant part of the earth. His whole being was consumed with that thought; he gave himself in every way to be prepared for that. You could never meet him but what that was the one thing. He was the authority on that one thing. He could have well said, For me to live is Christ! It was so. A young woman came into his life who had so such sense of divine call, but who had interests on this earth, ambitions here, and gradually that relationship twined round him. He never went to China, he lost his vision, steadily lost his spiritual life, gave himself to business, got on fairly well in business, but the Lord had gone out, and there is nothing there for the Lord, all gone, his crown lost. I could go right on like that touching so many who I know have lost their crown. It is a terrible truth that is set forth here: that there is a crown and that it can be lost.
But, on the other hand, there is that side which has the shadow and dark background to it, which nevertheless has its own glory. How often have we seen someone stepping in and in that double measure of faithfulness and devotion to the Lord, you could almost see that one taking the thing that you knew was the thing that belonged to someone else. The Lord was calling, was working, and the Lord desired that one for such and such a thing, in such and such a way, and you could almost see the Lord cherishing that tree, doing all that He could to get that tree to respond, and you had a sense of what it was called for. No, careless, slothful, unresponsive, not taking the matter seriously at all. Then you saw someone coming, and you could almost see it happen, the preparation of another earnest out-and-out life, one that meant business with God, meant to go the whole way themselves, and you almost could see, in the realm of spiritual, that one take what this other one was called to,and in the outworking the one has gone out and the other has gone on. All you can say is, Well, the interpretation of those two lives is that this one took that one's crown! You saw the Lord offering this one a crown and the other one taking it, while the one dallied. It is possible, if this word means anything, that you and I should take a crown that is not intended for us in the first place, but it is available. We are not shut out from it, it is available, but what a warning it is and yet what an exhortation - double glory, glory more than was really meant for us, but yet open to us.
Ah yes, well in the earthly races or competitions, one man can take all the prizes. Some of us have seen that sort of thing happen. We remember in our school days how one fellow seemed to take all the prizes; if there was any prize going, it went his way. Those prizes were for the rest of us, everybody, they were for all.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 3 - How Crowns Are Lost)
Saturday, December 9, 2017
Crowns Won and Crowns Lost # 1
Crowns Won and Crowns Lost # 1
Reading: "I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown" (Revelation 3:11).
First of all we ought to look at these words and get hold of their implications, for things are implied here which are rather impressive, certainly very serious.
A Crown Offered
There is first, if not a positive statement, it is as good as a positive statement, that there is something related to the life of the child of God which is called a crown, his crown, her crown. You notice that the application of the exhortation is personal - "He that hath an ear, let him hear." It is not just a general application even to a local church. The thing is brought down to the individual, and therefore we are permitted, at least permitted, to reach this conclusion, that with every individual child of God there is bound up something in the mind and purpose of God which is called his or her crown, the crown of his or her life. That brings into view a time when every child of God should, in the will and purpose of God, have that great seal set upon their lives which was God's intention, when He will say, 'This is the thing for which I marked you out, this is the thing which I had in view for you, this is the thing for which I called you, this is the end for which I laid My hand upon you, this is the very crown of all my thoughts, desires, intentions, where you are concerned!' Now that is not straining what is here,k it is not exaggeration, it is stated here that to him that overcometh, there is that which is his crown, her crown.
So first of all we want to allow this to come right home to our hearts. You and I, each one of us individually in God's thought, is marked out for something which is called our crown. What that crown is, we will not stay to try and inquire. Paul speaks of several crowns, but we will leave exactly what the crown is, only reminding ourselves that Paul himself was one who recognized this truth in those great words in Philippians 3. You remember he said, "That I may apprehend, that I may lay hold of, that for which I have been laid hold of by Jesus Christ." "I press toward the mark of the prize of the on-high calling." The prize of the on-high calling - I press toward that! We may come back to that passage again presently, but Paul saw this that, in that day on the Damascus road it was as though the hand of the Lord Jesus came and took hold of him - he called it being apprehended, the hand of the Lord came on him - on that day it was with a purpose in view, a crown in view, an on-high calling, a prize, and he said, "I have been laid hold of, I have been apprehended by Christ Jesus and now my one business in life is to lay hold of the thing for which I have been laid hold - the prize.
Let this come home to your hearts very strongly. I remember what a strength and help and inspiration these words were to me as a young Christian when I first, as a young fellow, took a very definite stand for the Lord in the midst of surroundings which were anything but spiritually helpful, very much to the contrary. In the midst of a great many difficulties and a good deal of cost, I took a stand for the Lord. These very words, in the light of what I am saying now, were a tremendous strength to me. There is a crown which is your crown, which belongs to you in the purpose of God. Now then, it is your business that no one takes your crown. Well, that is the first thing.
The Possibility of Losing Our Crown
Then, of course, the second thing which does so clearly arise from this statement is that it is possible to lose our crown. I am not thinking now of losing our eternal salvation but that which is called the crown, the prize of the on-high calling. It is possible; these words, if they mean anything, mean that. "That no one take thy crown." It is possible for us to have our crown taken by someone else, for us to lose it. It is terribly and really possible that we should reach that day which should be our crowning day and there not be the crown for us that the Lord intended.
Now, Paul lived in the light of that possibility also. As you remember, he said on one occasion - "lest having heralded others (our version is "preached to others", but the word is "heralded") I myself should be rejected", turned aside, cast away, I myself should miss (1 Cor. 9:27). "Lest..." - that is a word of precaution.
Well, the second thing is the terrible possibility that we should lose the thing for which the Lord has laid His hand on us.
Then another thing which runs with that is this - someone else can get what we were called to. God intended something for us, He called us in relation to something. Someone else was not in the first place called to that particular crown, that was not their crown, but by double faithfulness on their part, that is, by faithfulness to their own calling and by faithfulness where we were unfaithful, they have got their own and ours as well. That is implied here, isn't it? Someone else can get the crown we were called to. That is terrible. I will tell you how that happens. We will not go to the application yet. Just look at the text. There it is.
The next thing, of course, putting that round the other way, is this, that we can get someone else's crown as well as our own. That is, we can get a double reward; we can excel in this matter. We are not wanting other people to lose their crown, I am sure we do not want to take another's crowns, we would sooner everybody had their crown. We are not ambitious in this sense that we want to do anybody out of their eternal glory, not a bit of it, but there it is. Here is the word, and there is a great deal that supports it, that there are those who are forfeiting what the Lord meant for them and someone else is taking that. The word here is so clear and so simple, so precise - "that no one take thy crown." Cut it right down if you like - "one take thy...". Well, we can come in for something of double glory by faithfulness where the Lord is being disappointed in others. Whether that appeals to us or not, in outworking that is a very great reality.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with# 2)
Reading: "I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown" (Revelation 3:11).
First of all we ought to look at these words and get hold of their implications, for things are implied here which are rather impressive, certainly very serious.
A Crown Offered
There is first, if not a positive statement, it is as good as a positive statement, that there is something related to the life of the child of God which is called a crown, his crown, her crown. You notice that the application of the exhortation is personal - "He that hath an ear, let him hear." It is not just a general application even to a local church. The thing is brought down to the individual, and therefore we are permitted, at least permitted, to reach this conclusion, that with every individual child of God there is bound up something in the mind and purpose of God which is called his or her crown, the crown of his or her life. That brings into view a time when every child of God should, in the will and purpose of God, have that great seal set upon their lives which was God's intention, when He will say, 'This is the thing for which I marked you out, this is the thing which I had in view for you, this is the thing for which I called you, this is the end for which I laid My hand upon you, this is the very crown of all my thoughts, desires, intentions, where you are concerned!' Now that is not straining what is here,k it is not exaggeration, it is stated here that to him that overcometh, there is that which is his crown, her crown.
So first of all we want to allow this to come right home to our hearts. You and I, each one of us individually in God's thought, is marked out for something which is called our crown. What that crown is, we will not stay to try and inquire. Paul speaks of several crowns, but we will leave exactly what the crown is, only reminding ourselves that Paul himself was one who recognized this truth in those great words in Philippians 3. You remember he said, "That I may apprehend, that I may lay hold of, that for which I have been laid hold of by Jesus Christ." "I press toward the mark of the prize of the on-high calling." The prize of the on-high calling - I press toward that! We may come back to that passage again presently, but Paul saw this that, in that day on the Damascus road it was as though the hand of the Lord Jesus came and took hold of him - he called it being apprehended, the hand of the Lord came on him - on that day it was with a purpose in view, a crown in view, an on-high calling, a prize, and he said, "I have been laid hold of, I have been apprehended by Christ Jesus and now my one business in life is to lay hold of the thing for which I have been laid hold - the prize.
Let this come home to your hearts very strongly. I remember what a strength and help and inspiration these words were to me as a young Christian when I first, as a young fellow, took a very definite stand for the Lord in the midst of surroundings which were anything but spiritually helpful, very much to the contrary. In the midst of a great many difficulties and a good deal of cost, I took a stand for the Lord. These very words, in the light of what I am saying now, were a tremendous strength to me. There is a crown which is your crown, which belongs to you in the purpose of God. Now then, it is your business that no one takes your crown. Well, that is the first thing.
The Possibility of Losing Our Crown
Then, of course, the second thing which does so clearly arise from this statement is that it is possible to lose our crown. I am not thinking now of losing our eternal salvation but that which is called the crown, the prize of the on-high calling. It is possible; these words, if they mean anything, mean that. "That no one take thy crown." It is possible for us to have our crown taken by someone else, for us to lose it. It is terribly and really possible that we should reach that day which should be our crowning day and there not be the crown for us that the Lord intended.
Now, Paul lived in the light of that possibility also. As you remember, he said on one occasion - "lest having heralded others (our version is "preached to others", but the word is "heralded") I myself should be rejected", turned aside, cast away, I myself should miss (1 Cor. 9:27). "Lest..." - that is a word of precaution.
Well, the second thing is the terrible possibility that we should lose the thing for which the Lord has laid His hand on us.
Then another thing which runs with that is this - someone else can get what we were called to. God intended something for us, He called us in relation to something. Someone else was not in the first place called to that particular crown, that was not their crown, but by double faithfulness on their part, that is, by faithfulness to their own calling and by faithfulness where we were unfaithful, they have got their own and ours as well. That is implied here, isn't it? Someone else can get the crown we were called to. That is terrible. I will tell you how that happens. We will not go to the application yet. Just look at the text. There it is.
The next thing, of course, putting that round the other way, is this, that we can get someone else's crown as well as our own. That is, we can get a double reward; we can excel in this matter. We are not wanting other people to lose their crown, I am sure we do not want to take another's crowns, we would sooner everybody had their crown. We are not ambitious in this sense that we want to do anybody out of their eternal glory, not a bit of it, but there it is. Here is the word, and there is a great deal that supports it, that there are those who are forfeiting what the Lord meant for them and someone else is taking that. The word here is so clear and so simple, so precise - "that no one take thy crown." Cut it right down if you like - "one take thy...". Well, we can come in for something of double glory by faithfulness where the Lord is being disappointed in others. Whether that appeals to us or not, in outworking that is a very great reality.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with# 2)
Saturday, December 2, 2017
The Potter and the Clay # 2
The Potter and the Clay # 2
But then, you see, that means such an utter position. In the clay represented in this parable, there was evidently something that rose up, that rebelled, that defied Him, that resisted Him, that had a mind of its own, a way of its own, a will of its own, an interest of its own, a desire of its own; something which, being of itself, was not in accordance with the thought of the Potter - and it was marred in the hand of the Potter. What is called for, if God is going to pursue His work to His full end of glory and self-expression, is the utter position of unreserved acquiescence. God requires that; a yieldedness, a surrender; no argument, no controversy, no rebellion, but a perfect response to the Lord in the most complete surrender to His hand. That is the Divine requirement if the thought of God from all eternity in us, concerning us, is to mature and have its full expression. He is to be the Master in every part of our being, and we have to have nothing in heart, or mind, or will that is contrary to His own.
That is a law written here so distinctly and written through history - God setting out to do a great and a glorious thing in a life, or in a people, or in a creation, and then something rising up contrary to God, other than God, and presenting God with difficulties, making it necessary for the Lord to say, "I cannot go on with what I intended. I cannot do what I meant to do". Yes, it is a remarkable thing, but it is quite true that even God Almighty, for the realization of His end, requires our acquiescence and our full acquiescence. He is not going beyond the point where we comply with His will. In this way we can set back the purpose of God in our lives; we can arrest the hand of God; we can defeat the Divine intention. It is a solemn thought, but it is true. So the Lord calls to us for this yieldedness to Himself in implicit faith where we find difficulty in understanding what He is doing. Well, that is remarkable, but these are the simple laws of Divine purpose in any life.
God's First Or Second Best?
Then, out of that, issues this: we can miss God's first best and only have His second best. "The vessel that he made...was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it another vessel." I wonder what that meant in the case of Israel? I wonder if that is not explained in the words of the Lord Jesus to Israel many years after this, when He said, "Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof"(Matt. 21:43). And Peter, still many years later than that, said of the church, "Ye are an elect race, a holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9). I wonder then if Israel lost that high purpose of God which the church has come into? It is a thought. A heavenly thing - for you remember God showed Abraham his seed not only as the sane of the seashore, but as the stars of heaven,but undoubtedly Israel has lost the heavenly side. If Israel is recovered, as prophecy would seem to indicate, it will only be the earthly thing. The church has the heavenly side. Israel has God's second best. The turning-point was here in prophecy and actually in the days when the Lord Jesus came.
Yes, it is possible to miss God's first best and only have His second best. Are you going to be content with that? Some of us know many who have made that choice, who have missed what we knew was God's purpose for their lives, and they knew, but for some mess of pottage, for some temporal interest, because of some earthly relationship or because of the difficulty of the way, they accepted something less. They went to something else. They let go the heavenly vision. We know that, so far as God's first thought is concerned, it is no longer possible for them - and they know it too, that heaven is closed to them.
Talking to a young man in Glasgow recently, telling me about his school life, he said this, "Well, the thing that mattered to me while I was there was no so much that I should excel either in my academic life, nor in sports. The thing which concerned me was that in my life I should come to God's first best." That is where he is and that is where he was, even at school. You say that that is unusual. Yes, but God's seal is on that life, and such a declaration is a challenge to us all.
God presents to us His first best, but it is the way of the potter's wheel, and that is not always an easy and comfortable way. There is a good deal of letting go to be done, a good deal of yielding to be made, a good deal of compliance with a will not our own - that higher will. There is a lot of that. We can, be refusing, by not acquiescing, shall I say it positively - by not setting our hearts wholly upon God's first best, miss it, and be one of those who, in the end, have only got God's second best.
I remember someone telling me years ago, a dream they had had. In their dream they saw a number of crosses and they were all different sizes. There was a small cross, and a large cross,and a larger and a larger, until there was a very large cross. And they were asked to choose their cross. They looked at those crosses and chose, not the smallest, that was too mean, but also not the largest, that was too big - they chose an intermediate cross. Then they said that in their dream they were transported to heaven and in heaven they saw a number of crowns, and they also varied in size and glory. There was a small one, and a large one, and a larger and a larger, each crown corresponded to the cross in glory, in magnificence, and an intermediate crown was brought. But the Lord said, "My child, that was the crown that I intended for you, but you chose something that did not correspond with it: a smaller cross than that crown warranted". That is a dream, but it has its message.
The way of God's first best is a hard way, a difficult way, a costly way. We can have a lesser way, but oh! then there is the glory. Listen again to the apostle - "This one thing I do...I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ" (Phil. 3:14). No one can say that that attitude of the apostle Paul was necessary in order to get into heaven, to be saved, to get blessings that are in heaven. Not at all, those were secured to him through faith in the Lord Jesus, but this prize of the upward calling corresponded to what? "I fill up...that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ...for His body's sake, which is the church" (Col. 1:24). I think that is the balance of things; the prize and - not what we must do in order to get to heaven and to get the blessings of heaven and of eternal life - but the prize because of that upon which our hearts are set, the satisfaction of the Lord's own heart in seeing the realization of what He had purposed: the expression of Himself.
Are we going the way of God's first best? Oh, God forbid that we should miss God's first best, should fail to set our heart upon that. The message is clear. He made a work upon the wheels, and the vessel that He made was marred; He made it again another vessel. We must ask the Lord, in a new act of abandonment to Him, that it may never be true of any one of us that we are another vessel than He intended, that we might have grace to be that which God intended. We must seek grace to go on through the difficulty, the adversity, the suffering entailed in God getting His first best and not draw back.
Here, then, is the message of the potter's house. God desires to express Himself; God can only begin to realize His eternal purpose as He is in possession of our lives; God can only proceed with His work as He has absolute acquiescence on our part. It is possible to miss the first best and only have the second best. The Lord write His word in our hearts!
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(The End)
But then, you see, that means such an utter position. In the clay represented in this parable, there was evidently something that rose up, that rebelled, that defied Him, that resisted Him, that had a mind of its own, a way of its own, a will of its own, an interest of its own, a desire of its own; something which, being of itself, was not in accordance with the thought of the Potter - and it was marred in the hand of the Potter. What is called for, if God is going to pursue His work to His full end of glory and self-expression, is the utter position of unreserved acquiescence. God requires that; a yieldedness, a surrender; no argument, no controversy, no rebellion, but a perfect response to the Lord in the most complete surrender to His hand. That is the Divine requirement if the thought of God from all eternity in us, concerning us, is to mature and have its full expression. He is to be the Master in every part of our being, and we have to have nothing in heart, or mind, or will that is contrary to His own.
That is a law written here so distinctly and written through history - God setting out to do a great and a glorious thing in a life, or in a people, or in a creation, and then something rising up contrary to God, other than God, and presenting God with difficulties, making it necessary for the Lord to say, "I cannot go on with what I intended. I cannot do what I meant to do". Yes, it is a remarkable thing, but it is quite true that even God Almighty, for the realization of His end, requires our acquiescence and our full acquiescence. He is not going beyond the point where we comply with His will. In this way we can set back the purpose of God in our lives; we can arrest the hand of God; we can defeat the Divine intention. It is a solemn thought, but it is true. So the Lord calls to us for this yieldedness to Himself in implicit faith where we find difficulty in understanding what He is doing. Well, that is remarkable, but these are the simple laws of Divine purpose in any life.
God's First Or Second Best?
Then, out of that, issues this: we can miss God's first best and only have His second best. "The vessel that he made...was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it another vessel." I wonder what that meant in the case of Israel? I wonder if that is not explained in the words of the Lord Jesus to Israel many years after this, when He said, "Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof"(Matt. 21:43). And Peter, still many years later than that, said of the church, "Ye are an elect race, a holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9). I wonder then if Israel lost that high purpose of God which the church has come into? It is a thought. A heavenly thing - for you remember God showed Abraham his seed not only as the sane of the seashore, but as the stars of heaven,but undoubtedly Israel has lost the heavenly side. If Israel is recovered, as prophecy would seem to indicate, it will only be the earthly thing. The church has the heavenly side. Israel has God's second best. The turning-point was here in prophecy and actually in the days when the Lord Jesus came.
Yes, it is possible to miss God's first best and only have His second best. Are you going to be content with that? Some of us know many who have made that choice, who have missed what we knew was God's purpose for their lives, and they knew, but for some mess of pottage, for some temporal interest, because of some earthly relationship or because of the difficulty of the way, they accepted something less. They went to something else. They let go the heavenly vision. We know that, so far as God's first thought is concerned, it is no longer possible for them - and they know it too, that heaven is closed to them.
Talking to a young man in Glasgow recently, telling me about his school life, he said this, "Well, the thing that mattered to me while I was there was no so much that I should excel either in my academic life, nor in sports. The thing which concerned me was that in my life I should come to God's first best." That is where he is and that is where he was, even at school. You say that that is unusual. Yes, but God's seal is on that life, and such a declaration is a challenge to us all.
God presents to us His first best, but it is the way of the potter's wheel, and that is not always an easy and comfortable way. There is a good deal of letting go to be done, a good deal of yielding to be made, a good deal of compliance with a will not our own - that higher will. There is a lot of that. We can, be refusing, by not acquiescing, shall I say it positively - by not setting our hearts wholly upon God's first best, miss it, and be one of those who, in the end, have only got God's second best.
I remember someone telling me years ago, a dream they had had. In their dream they saw a number of crosses and they were all different sizes. There was a small cross, and a large cross,and a larger and a larger, until there was a very large cross. And they were asked to choose their cross. They looked at those crosses and chose, not the smallest, that was too mean, but also not the largest, that was too big - they chose an intermediate cross. Then they said that in their dream they were transported to heaven and in heaven they saw a number of crowns, and they also varied in size and glory. There was a small one, and a large one, and a larger and a larger, each crown corresponded to the cross in glory, in magnificence, and an intermediate crown was brought. But the Lord said, "My child, that was the crown that I intended for you, but you chose something that did not correspond with it: a smaller cross than that crown warranted". That is a dream, but it has its message.
The way of God's first best is a hard way, a difficult way, a costly way. We can have a lesser way, but oh! then there is the glory. Listen again to the apostle - "This one thing I do...I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ" (Phil. 3:14). No one can say that that attitude of the apostle Paul was necessary in order to get into heaven, to be saved, to get blessings that are in heaven. Not at all, those were secured to him through faith in the Lord Jesus, but this prize of the upward calling corresponded to what? "I fill up...that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ...for His body's sake, which is the church" (Col. 1:24). I think that is the balance of things; the prize and - not what we must do in order to get to heaven and to get the blessings of heaven and of eternal life - but the prize because of that upon which our hearts are set, the satisfaction of the Lord's own heart in seeing the realization of what He had purposed: the expression of Himself.
Are we going the way of God's first best? Oh, God forbid that we should miss God's first best, should fail to set our heart upon that. The message is clear. He made a work upon the wheels, and the vessel that He made was marred; He made it again another vessel. We must ask the Lord, in a new act of abandonment to Him, that it may never be true of any one of us that we are another vessel than He intended, that we might have grace to be that which God intended. We must seek grace to go on through the difficulty, the adversity, the suffering entailed in God getting His first best and not draw back.
Here, then, is the message of the potter's house. God desires to express Himself; God can only begin to realize His eternal purpose as He is in possession of our lives; God can only proceed with His work as He has absolute acquiescence on our part. It is possible to miss the first best and only have the second best. The Lord write His word in our hearts!
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(The End)
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