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)
Saturday, December 30, 2017
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)
Saturday, November 25, 2017
The Potter and the Clay # 1
The Potter and the Clay # 1
Read: Jeremiah 18:1-6
"He was making a work on the wheels."
This little parable issuing in its message, has bound up with it some of the foundation truths which run throughout the Word of God and which are the laws which govern all God's activities in relation to man. Although they are very simple and elementary, we might do will to look at them again briefly and concisely.
God's Desire to Express Himself
The first thing that is clearly set forth here is the fact that God desires to express Himself, and when you think about it, that is found everywhere in the Word of God and outside of the Word of God. God's desire to express Himself; for we must conclude that in the case of God as a potter, He does not just shape things willy-nilly without any thought, concern,or care. He does not just throw a mass of clay upon the wheel and begin to manipulate it and see what will come out. We must conclude that before ever the clay comes to hand, the finished vessel is in the mind of the Potter, and that vessel as a finished thing answers to something very deeply in His heart. It is really a part of Himself and is the expression of Himself: His mind, His heart, His will, and God has ever been actuated in His undertakings by the desire to have something which will be the expression of Himself.
The whole created universe came from the hand of God with that object in view. When God undertook creation, it was for no less a purpose than to put Himself into expression, that by His own works He should be known. The apostle Paul makes that statement quite positively in his letter to the Romans - "The invisible things of Him...are seen...through the things that are made...His everlasting power and divinity" (Romans 1:20). It is God in what He is, symbolized, represented and expressed in visible form. And if man has one explanation, it is that; and that is proved by the fact that the Man, God's great representative Man who is according to His own heart and satisfies Him, is, as the apostle says elsewhere, "the very image of His substance, the effulgence of His glory" (Hebrews 1:3). The Lord Jesus is God manifest in the flesh.
So you may see everywhere this great fact set forth in the Word of God. God has, from eternity, desired to put Himself into expression in a manifest, visible form and that lies at the heart of this parable - the potter and his vessel; the Potter in the very substance and form of His vessel, that when you see what God is like morally.
That surely carries us on beyond the created universe around us, beyond Israel as an elect nation to the church and to the individual believer's life - God making a work upon the wheels. And you ask, "What is God making? What is He determined to make?" and the answer is He is making that which will answer His own desire for self-expression, and in the end when God's work is done, His universe will have nothing in it but the expression of God. We have to come back to that and stress that all the way through our meditation, but let us see where things begin. Of course, there is a very great deal more than I have said in that first principle, and it could hold us for quite a long time - God's desire to express Himself. Behind everything that God has set His heart upon and is doing, is the desire of His heart to bring Himself into expression, to have a vessel which is the revelation of Himself.
God's Sovereign Rights In His Own
Now we must get inside that grand circle and see the next thing which arises here - that is, God's sovereign rights in His own. That carries with it this, that God can never make a start upon His purpose, He can never take the first step in that great desire of His to express Himself until He gets the material into His hands. He must be able to say of those concerned, "This is Mine", and of course that can only be now on the grounds of His rights in redemption. God is not acting merely upon His rights in creation now. He has His rights in creation, but they will work out very largely in judgment because the creation as such does not acknowledge God's rights, and does not give Him His rights. Nevertheless, He claims those rights and will assert them in judgment eventually, but in this work of satisfying His own heart in His creation, it can only be on the ground of His rights in redemption as ceded to Him; that is, we have to come to the place where we acknowledge what the Word says - "Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price" (1 Cor. 6:19-20). You belong to the Lord. Now there can be nothing whatever of God's Divine purpose realized until that position is secured, that on the ground of the great redemption which is in Christ Jesus, we become the Lord's. His property, and accord Him His rights in our being, His sovereign rights in redemption.
"O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?" (Jer. 18:6). That is only saying, in other words, "Have not I the right to do as I like with My own?" And that is a challenge. "Do you, O house of Israel, acknowledge Me as your Lord, your God, your Jehovah?" and that challenge, of course, comes to us. If we acknowledge the Lord as our Lord, then that carries with it His absolute right to do what He wants with us - God's sovereign rights with His own. Very often there is a controversy with the Lord on that very thing. We do not get over all our difficulties easily on that matter. When the Lord takes up His work and we are not able to see His end and we are called upon to repose implicit faith in Him when it would appear that, rather than make something which is the expression of His own Divine nature, every other kind of nature but the Divine is coming out, we revolt. When we feel the pressure of His hand, the discipline, the chastening, the breaking, the softening, sometimes the crushing and all that is bound up with the realization of His end in us, we do not easily acquiesce in the sovereignty of God. Sometimes it is difficult, but it is a position of peace, of rest of heart, and of spiritual strength when we are able, either as a whole, or on any given question or matter, to really say, "it is the Lord, let Him do as seems good to Him", that is when we are able by the grace of God to say, "The Lord has a right to do what He likes and I do not challenge those rights". That is necessary to God if He is going on with His work to secure His end.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 2)
Read: Jeremiah 18:1-6
"He was making a work on the wheels."
This little parable issuing in its message, has bound up with it some of the foundation truths which run throughout the Word of God and which are the laws which govern all God's activities in relation to man. Although they are very simple and elementary, we might do will to look at them again briefly and concisely.
God's Desire to Express Himself
The first thing that is clearly set forth here is the fact that God desires to express Himself, and when you think about it, that is found everywhere in the Word of God and outside of the Word of God. God's desire to express Himself; for we must conclude that in the case of God as a potter, He does not just shape things willy-nilly without any thought, concern,or care. He does not just throw a mass of clay upon the wheel and begin to manipulate it and see what will come out. We must conclude that before ever the clay comes to hand, the finished vessel is in the mind of the Potter, and that vessel as a finished thing answers to something very deeply in His heart. It is really a part of Himself and is the expression of Himself: His mind, His heart, His will, and God has ever been actuated in His undertakings by the desire to have something which will be the expression of Himself.
The whole created universe came from the hand of God with that object in view. When God undertook creation, it was for no less a purpose than to put Himself into expression, that by His own works He should be known. The apostle Paul makes that statement quite positively in his letter to the Romans - "The invisible things of Him...are seen...through the things that are made...His everlasting power and divinity" (Romans 1:20). It is God in what He is, symbolized, represented and expressed in visible form. And if man has one explanation, it is that; and that is proved by the fact that the Man, God's great representative Man who is according to His own heart and satisfies Him, is, as the apostle says elsewhere, "the very image of His substance, the effulgence of His glory" (Hebrews 1:3). The Lord Jesus is God manifest in the flesh.
So you may see everywhere this great fact set forth in the Word of God. God has, from eternity, desired to put Himself into expression in a manifest, visible form and that lies at the heart of this parable - the potter and his vessel; the Potter in the very substance and form of His vessel, that when you see what God is like morally.
That surely carries us on beyond the created universe around us, beyond Israel as an elect nation to the church and to the individual believer's life - God making a work upon the wheels. And you ask, "What is God making? What is He determined to make?" and the answer is He is making that which will answer His own desire for self-expression, and in the end when God's work is done, His universe will have nothing in it but the expression of God. We have to come back to that and stress that all the way through our meditation, but let us see where things begin. Of course, there is a very great deal more than I have said in that first principle, and it could hold us for quite a long time - God's desire to express Himself. Behind everything that God has set His heart upon and is doing, is the desire of His heart to bring Himself into expression, to have a vessel which is the revelation of Himself.
God's Sovereign Rights In His Own
Now we must get inside that grand circle and see the next thing which arises here - that is, God's sovereign rights in His own. That carries with it this, that God can never make a start upon His purpose, He can never take the first step in that great desire of His to express Himself until He gets the material into His hands. He must be able to say of those concerned, "This is Mine", and of course that can only be now on the grounds of His rights in redemption. God is not acting merely upon His rights in creation now. He has His rights in creation, but they will work out very largely in judgment because the creation as such does not acknowledge God's rights, and does not give Him His rights. Nevertheless, He claims those rights and will assert them in judgment eventually, but in this work of satisfying His own heart in His creation, it can only be on the ground of His rights in redemption as ceded to Him; that is, we have to come to the place where we acknowledge what the Word says - "Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price" (1 Cor. 6:19-20). You belong to the Lord. Now there can be nothing whatever of God's Divine purpose realized until that position is secured, that on the ground of the great redemption which is in Christ Jesus, we become the Lord's. His property, and accord Him His rights in our being, His sovereign rights in redemption.
"O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?" (Jer. 18:6). That is only saying, in other words, "Have not I the right to do as I like with My own?" And that is a challenge. "Do you, O house of Israel, acknowledge Me as your Lord, your God, your Jehovah?" and that challenge, of course, comes to us. If we acknowledge the Lord as our Lord, then that carries with it His absolute right to do what He wants with us - God's sovereign rights with His own. Very often there is a controversy with the Lord on that very thing. We do not get over all our difficulties easily on that matter. When the Lord takes up His work and we are not able to see His end and we are called upon to repose implicit faith in Him when it would appear that, rather than make something which is the expression of His own Divine nature, every other kind of nature but the Divine is coming out, we revolt. When we feel the pressure of His hand, the discipline, the chastening, the breaking, the softening, sometimes the crushing and all that is bound up with the realization of His end in us, we do not easily acquiesce in the sovereignty of God. Sometimes it is difficult, but it is a position of peace, of rest of heart, and of spiritual strength when we are able, either as a whole, or on any given question or matter, to really say, "it is the Lord, let Him do as seems good to Him", that is when we are able by the grace of God to say, "The Lord has a right to do what He likes and I do not challenge those rights". That is necessary to God if He is going on with His work to secure His end.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, November 18, 2017
The Blessings of Bereavement # 1
The Blessings of Bereavement # 1
At first we would be disposed to say that no blessings can come out of bereavements. But the grace of God has such wondrous power, that even from the saddest desolating of a home - good may come.
One blessing from the breaking of a home circle is that thus we are led to think of our better home. If things went always smoothly with us here, if no flowers ever faded, if there were never any interruption in our earthly joys - we would not think of the enduring things of the eternal and invisible world. It is when earthly good fails us - that we learn to set our affections on heavenly good. Many a man has never found his home in God - until his human nest was desolated by the storms of sorrow!
A bereavement in a household, draws all the family closer together. Love never reaches its sweetest and best, until it has suffered. Homes which never have been broken, may be very happy in love, and very bright with gladness; but, after sorrow has entered as a guest, there is a depth in the love which was never experienced before. It is a new marriage when young parents stand side by side by the coffin of their first-born.
Grief is like a sacrament to those who share it with Christ beside them. It brings them into a holier fellowship than they have ever known in love's unclouded days. Many homes have been saved from harshness of spirit, and sharpness of speech, from pride and coldness and heedlessness - by a sorrow which broke in upon the careless life. The tones were softer after that. There was a new gentleness in all the life. Most of us need the chastening of pain to bring out the best of our love.
A bereavement ofttimes proves a blessing to those who remain, through the laying upon them of new burdens and responsibilities.
Many a son has become a man - the day he saw his father's form lowered into the grave, and then turned away to take up the mantle which had fallen at his feet - the care of his mother, and the management of home affairs.
Many a thoughtless girl has become a serious woman, as in a day - when she returned from her mother's funeral, and put her hand to the duties that now must be hers, if the home is to be maintained.
Many a father has grown almost instantly into beautiful gentleness, when the taking away of the mother of his little children compelled him to be to them henceforth, both father and mother. Heretofore he had left all this care to the mother. He had never done more than play with his baby when it was happy. Now he has to be nurse to it, soothing it when it cries, crooning lullabies to hush it to sleep, often walking the floor with it nights. It is hard - but the new care brings out in him beautiful qualities never suspected before.
Many a mother has been transformed from weakness to strength - by the bereavement which took her husband from her side, leaving her with little children to bring up. It seemed as if the burden would crush her; but it only brought out noble things in her soul - courage, faith, energy, skill, love - as she took up her new double responsibility.
The the breaking of a home - is often the making of the lives on which the sorrow falls.
Few bereavements cause more sorrow and disappointment, than when little children die. But even in these, there are consolations. That the baby came at all, was a blessing. Life was never the same in the home after that, never could be the same; it had in it a new element of blessing. Then its stay, whether it was for one day, one month, or a year, was like the tarrying of a heavenly messenger. Nothing can ever rob the home of the blessing it left there - in its brief stay. Ofttimes the influence of the beautiful life even for a few days or weeks - is greater in the home and upon the lives of the household - than that of another child who stays and grows up to mature years.
Another blessing of bereavement, is the preparation for sympathy and helpfulness which comes through sorrow. We have to learn to be gentle - most of us, at least. We are naturally selfish, self-centered, and thoughtless. Sympathy is not a natural grace of character, even in most refined natures. Of course we all feel a momentary tenderness when a friend or a neighbor is in any trouble.
There is a sympathy which every gentle heart feels with sorrow. We cannot pass a funeral procession, and not, for an instant at least, experience a subduing, quieting sentiment. But the power to enter really into sympathy with one in grief or pain - comes only through a schooling of our own heart in some way. While my home is unbroken - the sorrows of other homes do not find responsive echoes in the love which dwells in my heart. Love which has not suffered, cannot fully understand another's heart's pain. The mother who has never lost a child, cannot deeply comfort another mother, sitting by her little one's coffin. But when a home has been broken, its inhabitants have a new power of helpfulness. A neighbor's mourning clothes, means more after that.
Thus it is, that sorrow in our own home - makes all the world kind to our hearts. A bereaved heart, is a wonderful interpreter of other people's griefs. The power to be a true helper of others, a binder-up of broken hearts, a comforter of sorrow - is the most divine of all gifts! Surely, then, it is worth while to pay any price of pain or suffering, to receive the divine anointing to such sacred ministry. It was in suffering, that Jesus Himself, was prepared to be in the fullest sense and in the deepest measure - our sympathizing Friend.
~J. R. Miller~
(continued with # 2)
At first we would be disposed to say that no blessings can come out of bereavements. But the grace of God has such wondrous power, that even from the saddest desolating of a home - good may come.
One blessing from the breaking of a home circle is that thus we are led to think of our better home. If things went always smoothly with us here, if no flowers ever faded, if there were never any interruption in our earthly joys - we would not think of the enduring things of the eternal and invisible world. It is when earthly good fails us - that we learn to set our affections on heavenly good. Many a man has never found his home in God - until his human nest was desolated by the storms of sorrow!
A bereavement in a household, draws all the family closer together. Love never reaches its sweetest and best, until it has suffered. Homes which never have been broken, may be very happy in love, and very bright with gladness; but, after sorrow has entered as a guest, there is a depth in the love which was never experienced before. It is a new marriage when young parents stand side by side by the coffin of their first-born.
Grief is like a sacrament to those who share it with Christ beside them. It brings them into a holier fellowship than they have ever known in love's unclouded days. Many homes have been saved from harshness of spirit, and sharpness of speech, from pride and coldness and heedlessness - by a sorrow which broke in upon the careless life. The tones were softer after that. There was a new gentleness in all the life. Most of us need the chastening of pain to bring out the best of our love.
A bereavement ofttimes proves a blessing to those who remain, through the laying upon them of new burdens and responsibilities.
Many a son has become a man - the day he saw his father's form lowered into the grave, and then turned away to take up the mantle which had fallen at his feet - the care of his mother, and the management of home affairs.
Many a thoughtless girl has become a serious woman, as in a day - when she returned from her mother's funeral, and put her hand to the duties that now must be hers, if the home is to be maintained.
Many a father has grown almost instantly into beautiful gentleness, when the taking away of the mother of his little children compelled him to be to them henceforth, both father and mother. Heretofore he had left all this care to the mother. He had never done more than play with his baby when it was happy. Now he has to be nurse to it, soothing it when it cries, crooning lullabies to hush it to sleep, often walking the floor with it nights. It is hard - but the new care brings out in him beautiful qualities never suspected before.
Many a mother has been transformed from weakness to strength - by the bereavement which took her husband from her side, leaving her with little children to bring up. It seemed as if the burden would crush her; but it only brought out noble things in her soul - courage, faith, energy, skill, love - as she took up her new double responsibility.
The the breaking of a home - is often the making of the lives on which the sorrow falls.
Few bereavements cause more sorrow and disappointment, than when little children die. But even in these, there are consolations. That the baby came at all, was a blessing. Life was never the same in the home after that, never could be the same; it had in it a new element of blessing. Then its stay, whether it was for one day, one month, or a year, was like the tarrying of a heavenly messenger. Nothing can ever rob the home of the blessing it left there - in its brief stay. Ofttimes the influence of the beautiful life even for a few days or weeks - is greater in the home and upon the lives of the household - than that of another child who stays and grows up to mature years.
Another blessing of bereavement, is the preparation for sympathy and helpfulness which comes through sorrow. We have to learn to be gentle - most of us, at least. We are naturally selfish, self-centered, and thoughtless. Sympathy is not a natural grace of character, even in most refined natures. Of course we all feel a momentary tenderness when a friend or a neighbor is in any trouble.
There is a sympathy which every gentle heart feels with sorrow. We cannot pass a funeral procession, and not, for an instant at least, experience a subduing, quieting sentiment. But the power to enter really into sympathy with one in grief or pain - comes only through a schooling of our own heart in some way. While my home is unbroken - the sorrows of other homes do not find responsive echoes in the love which dwells in my heart. Love which has not suffered, cannot fully understand another's heart's pain. The mother who has never lost a child, cannot deeply comfort another mother, sitting by her little one's coffin. But when a home has been broken, its inhabitants have a new power of helpfulness. A neighbor's mourning clothes, means more after that.
Thus it is, that sorrow in our own home - makes all the world kind to our hearts. A bereaved heart, is a wonderful interpreter of other people's griefs. The power to be a true helper of others, a binder-up of broken hearts, a comforter of sorrow - is the most divine of all gifts! Surely, then, it is worth while to pay any price of pain or suffering, to receive the divine anointing to such sacred ministry. It was in suffering, that Jesus Himself, was prepared to be in the fullest sense and in the deepest measure - our sympathizing Friend.
~J. R. Miller~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, November 11, 2017
The Gospel According to Paul # 27
The Gospel According to Paul # 28
Christ In Us, continued -
Now, here is something fundamental. Oh, how long we take to learn this! It is simple, I know, but it is fundamental, and it is a thing on which we are always tripping up. If we begin to try to go on on the ground of what we are, God stops. If we get on to our own ground, what we are in ourselves - our miserable, wretched self, that God regards as a corpse and a stinking corpse - forgive me for saying that - because it has been dead for two thousand years (that may sound amusing, but really it is exceedingly serious): if you get off the ground of "Christ in you" on to what you are in yourself, God says, 'I am going no further.' All Divine operations cease. We can only continue as we began. We began in faith that Jesus Christ was our substitute, took our place with God and answered to God for us. That was our faith that brought us into Christ. We have to go right on to the end with the same faith in the Lord Jesus, and no faith in ourselves, and God will go on if we go on on His ground. The good news is that God is ready to go right on with increasing blessedness if we will only keep on His ground. His glory is in His Son, and He has no glory in man apart from His Son.
So Christ is our sphere. Christ is our center, and Christ is our model, and we are being conformed, says the Apostle, until Christ is fully formed in us. Simple, basic: God's glory in Christ being manifested in believers, in the Church, because believers are resting upon God's satisfaction with His Son. That and that only is the way of the glory of God and the expression of God's blessedness, God's happiness. That is the gospel.
You see, it all comes at last to focus upon this. What is the gospel? When you have said all that you can about it, it is included in, and compassed by, this - God's perfect satisfaction, rest, tranquility,concerning His Son, made available to us. Oh, that you and I might live without conflict with God, because we abide in Christ! Brother, sister, when you begin to feel miserable about yourself, repudiate it. 'Yes, I know all about that. If I do not know all about that now, it is time that I did. I know all about what I am. I know where that will lead me if I begin to take that into account. I set that aside. It is a fact - God has done it - that, so long ago, in Christ I was crucified in Christ, I died, in Christ I was buried,k in Christ I have been raised. It is all in Christ. That is where I stand.' Maintain that position, abide in Christ. Get out of that on to any other ground, and the glory departs, the blessedness, the happiness, is arrested.
Good News For Young People
Paul was speaking to Timothy about the gospel, and Timothy needed good news, good tidings. To begin with, Timothy was a young man. A young man who is a Christian has his own personal problems - he has many difficulties and problems in himself. A young man represents the sum of a life at its beginnings: all the problems of life are resident there. Timothy was a young man. To such a young man, the Apostle says: 'It is all right, Timothy: you may be beset by all these problems and these difficulties, you may be having all this trouble spiritually in these different ways, but Jesus Christ is equal to the whole situation!' Do remember, young man, young women, that the Lord Jesus is God's answer to all the problems of youth. That is good tidings, is it not?
Timothy was not only a young man,but he was a young man in difficulties of a specific kind by reason of his position in Christian work. Difficulties were coming at him from three directions. Firstly, there was the pagan world. What a challenge that must have meant for a young man in those days! It was a world that had no place for God, no place for the Lord, no place for the things of God, and all the opposing force of that world must have seemed concentrated upon this young man. Secondly, there were all the difficulties of the Jewish world. Paul hints at them here. These Judaizers were pursuing Paul over the whole world, with the determination: 'This man shall be brought to an end - this man's work shall be utterly wiped out!' By every means these Judaizers were set upon destroying Paul and his work and his converts, and Timothy was associated with Paul. Paul says: "Be not ashamed...of me". Association created a good many difficulties for Timothy" The answer is: 'All right, Timothy; there is good news for you! The Lord Jesus is equal to that - He will see you through it all.'
And then Timothy was a young man in great responsibility in the work of God - in the Church of God. If you know anything about that, you know that you need a fairly sure ground of confidence. He came up against some very difficult Christians. But Paul said "Let no man despise thy youth." There were certain wiseacres - people who thought themselves to be something - who were inclined to say, 'Oh, Timothy is only a young fellow, you know - you must not take too much notice of him.' They were despising his youth. That is rather a difficult thing to endure. It takes the heart out of you if you happen to be in that position. I remember so well, when I commenced ministry and became responsible for a church, where most of the church officers were old men, one of them was heard to say, one day, 'He is so young, you know!' But I had a champion among them over that every day!' Well, that is very kind and nice: but that sort of attitude among fellow workers may well take the heart out of you, when you have to carry the responsibility. Timothy was in that position, but this is the gospel for Timothy: 'It is all right: the Lord Jesus is equal to that situation - He an see you through that too.'
After all, it is really just this. It is what the Lord Jesus is "made unto us...from God": God's satisfaction. Oh, thank God that the Lord Jesus covers our faults and weaknesses and defectiveness. I once read a story - I think it was true - of a certain hotel on the Continent, where people used to go and stay for rest and quiet and detachment. One day a mother arrived with her little girl, and that little girl was just beginning to learn the piano. Every morning, first thing, she went to the piano and strummed and strummed, and all day long she strummed. Morning, noon and night she strummed, until those people became almost distracted, and they were counseling together as to what they should do, when a famous pianist arrived to stay at the hotel. He at once sensed the atmosphere, took in the situation, and when the little girt went to the piano, he went up alongside and sat down, and put his hands over hers and guided them, and there began to come forth the most beautiful music. The people came down from their rooms into the room where the piano was, and sat down and listened. When the recital was over, the pianist said to the little girl, 'Thank you so much, dear: we have enjoyed it so much today' - and all the trouble was over.
Yes, the Lord Jesus just puts His hands over ours. We might make a mess of things; we do, if we are left to ourselves. We upset a lot, do a lot of harm; we are so imperfect, so faulty: and then the Lord Jesus comes, in this blessed way, and corrects our defectiveness, answers to the Father for us, makes good our deficiencies - how? Himself, just Himself.
That is the answer; that is the good news - "the gospel of the glory of the blessed God."
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(The End)
Christ In Us, continued -
Now, here is something fundamental. Oh, how long we take to learn this! It is simple, I know, but it is fundamental, and it is a thing on which we are always tripping up. If we begin to try to go on on the ground of what we are, God stops. If we get on to our own ground, what we are in ourselves - our miserable, wretched self, that God regards as a corpse and a stinking corpse - forgive me for saying that - because it has been dead for two thousand years (that may sound amusing, but really it is exceedingly serious): if you get off the ground of "Christ in you" on to what you are in yourself, God says, 'I am going no further.' All Divine operations cease. We can only continue as we began. We began in faith that Jesus Christ was our substitute, took our place with God and answered to God for us. That was our faith that brought us into Christ. We have to go right on to the end with the same faith in the Lord Jesus, and no faith in ourselves, and God will go on if we go on on His ground. The good news is that God is ready to go right on with increasing blessedness if we will only keep on His ground. His glory is in His Son, and He has no glory in man apart from His Son.
So Christ is our sphere. Christ is our center, and Christ is our model, and we are being conformed, says the Apostle, until Christ is fully formed in us. Simple, basic: God's glory in Christ being manifested in believers, in the Church, because believers are resting upon God's satisfaction with His Son. That and that only is the way of the glory of God and the expression of God's blessedness, God's happiness. That is the gospel.
You see, it all comes at last to focus upon this. What is the gospel? When you have said all that you can about it, it is included in, and compassed by, this - God's perfect satisfaction, rest, tranquility,concerning His Son, made available to us. Oh, that you and I might live without conflict with God, because we abide in Christ! Brother, sister, when you begin to feel miserable about yourself, repudiate it. 'Yes, I know all about that. If I do not know all about that now, it is time that I did. I know all about what I am. I know where that will lead me if I begin to take that into account. I set that aside. It is a fact - God has done it - that, so long ago, in Christ I was crucified in Christ, I died, in Christ I was buried,k in Christ I have been raised. It is all in Christ. That is where I stand.' Maintain that position, abide in Christ. Get out of that on to any other ground, and the glory departs, the blessedness, the happiness, is arrested.
Good News For Young People
Paul was speaking to Timothy about the gospel, and Timothy needed good news, good tidings. To begin with, Timothy was a young man. A young man who is a Christian has his own personal problems - he has many difficulties and problems in himself. A young man represents the sum of a life at its beginnings: all the problems of life are resident there. Timothy was a young man. To such a young man, the Apostle says: 'It is all right, Timothy: you may be beset by all these problems and these difficulties, you may be having all this trouble spiritually in these different ways, but Jesus Christ is equal to the whole situation!' Do remember, young man, young women, that the Lord Jesus is God's answer to all the problems of youth. That is good tidings, is it not?
Timothy was not only a young man,but he was a young man in difficulties of a specific kind by reason of his position in Christian work. Difficulties were coming at him from three directions. Firstly, there was the pagan world. What a challenge that must have meant for a young man in those days! It was a world that had no place for God, no place for the Lord, no place for the things of God, and all the opposing force of that world must have seemed concentrated upon this young man. Secondly, there were all the difficulties of the Jewish world. Paul hints at them here. These Judaizers were pursuing Paul over the whole world, with the determination: 'This man shall be brought to an end - this man's work shall be utterly wiped out!' By every means these Judaizers were set upon destroying Paul and his work and his converts, and Timothy was associated with Paul. Paul says: "Be not ashamed...of me". Association created a good many difficulties for Timothy" The answer is: 'All right, Timothy; there is good news for you! The Lord Jesus is equal to that - He will see you through it all.'
And then Timothy was a young man in great responsibility in the work of God - in the Church of God. If you know anything about that, you know that you need a fairly sure ground of confidence. He came up against some very difficult Christians. But Paul said "Let no man despise thy youth." There were certain wiseacres - people who thought themselves to be something - who were inclined to say, 'Oh, Timothy is only a young fellow, you know - you must not take too much notice of him.' They were despising his youth. That is rather a difficult thing to endure. It takes the heart out of you if you happen to be in that position. I remember so well, when I commenced ministry and became responsible for a church, where most of the church officers were old men, one of them was heard to say, one day, 'He is so young, you know!' But I had a champion among them over that every day!' Well, that is very kind and nice: but that sort of attitude among fellow workers may well take the heart out of you, when you have to carry the responsibility. Timothy was in that position, but this is the gospel for Timothy: 'It is all right: the Lord Jesus is equal to that situation - He an see you through that too.'
After all, it is really just this. It is what the Lord Jesus is "made unto us...from God": God's satisfaction. Oh, thank God that the Lord Jesus covers our faults and weaknesses and defectiveness. I once read a story - I think it was true - of a certain hotel on the Continent, where people used to go and stay for rest and quiet and detachment. One day a mother arrived with her little girl, and that little girl was just beginning to learn the piano. Every morning, first thing, she went to the piano and strummed and strummed, and all day long she strummed. Morning, noon and night she strummed, until those people became almost distracted, and they were counseling together as to what they should do, when a famous pianist arrived to stay at the hotel. He at once sensed the atmosphere, took in the situation, and when the little girt went to the piano, he went up alongside and sat down, and put his hands over hers and guided them, and there began to come forth the most beautiful music. The people came down from their rooms into the room where the piano was, and sat down and listened. When the recital was over, the pianist said to the little girl, 'Thank you so much, dear: we have enjoyed it so much today' - and all the trouble was over.
Yes, the Lord Jesus just puts His hands over ours. We might make a mess of things; we do, if we are left to ourselves. We upset a lot, do a lot of harm; we are so imperfect, so faulty: and then the Lord Jesus comes, in this blessed way, and corrects our defectiveness, answers to the Father for us, makes good our deficiencies - how? Himself, just Himself.
That is the answer; that is the good news - "the gospel of the glory of the blessed God."
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(The End)
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