austin sparks trees

7/28/2019 Austin Sparks Trees

1/64

Horizoned by Lifeby T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 4 - The Criteria of Livingness - Reproduction4. Reproduction

Having noted that essential evidence of life which is organic relatedness, wenaturally move to the law of reproduction. When God united man and woman in"the grace of life", He immediately said "Be fruitful, and multiply".

Reproduction is the law, the object, and the evidence of organic, living, relatedness.

Someone has said that 'Any organism that refuses right-of-way to life by denying itfacilities for transmission commits a breach of trust. Nowhere is life a possessionsimply to be enjoyed. It is a stewardship to be sacredly worked so as to be a centreof transmitted energy.' A barren fig tree was taken by Christ as a symbol of Israel's

failure in trust, and was cursed. Israel received, but did not pass on, and thereby

lost its right to continue. Over against the barren fig tree is set the Vine, the chiefconcern of the Husbandman for which is "that it bear much fruit". The trust wasgiven to Israel as "children of Abraham" to whom God said "In thy seed shall allnations of the earth be blessed". All nature cries with a loud voice that the God ofcreation is no believer in a 'No thoroughfare', 'Cul-de-sac', 'Dead end' way ofexistence. Whether it be the individual, the group, or the nation, 'No exit' is a

contradiction of a fundamental natural and spiritual law. An open highway for life isthe law of organic livingness.

Exclusivism is, sooner or later, death and disintegration. The history of exclusivismis the history of unending divisions, and those divisions have always meantlimitation and self-centredness. Strangle a limb and it will die. Stop circulation and

mortification will ensue. Be an end in yourself, and you weave your own shroud.

The New Testament with its supreme characteristic of newness is so clearly markedby world-vision. If there is a tendency to become exclusive and self-sufficient, thenHe who had said "Unto the uttermost part of the world" will sovereignly order that"They (were) scattered abroad everywhere". A veritable rising from His throne (as

seen by Stephen) will be to apprehend a "chosen vessel... unto the nations",Heaven's battleaxe against Judaistic prejudice, bigotry, and exclusivism. Theswinging of that axe meant hard hitting for carnal selfishness at Corinth, and

wrathful anathemas for Galatia. While, on the other hand, the glorying and rejoicingover Thessalonica, Philippi, Ephesus, etc., was because that through them the wordand testimony went into "All Asia" and Europe. It is not enough to have interest in

the nations, whether by praying, and reporting, and reading. It is a matter of whatwe have to give. What can we transmit? What will the nations get if they come tous? Is there reproduction in the nations?

There can be no reproduction without travail. This is the spirit of sacrifice. Self-centredness, whether individual or collective, means selfishness. There can beplenty of missionary interestborn of many various incentives, but rather

pleasurable and romantic, and not travail, anguish, and unto blood. There is a greatconflict for the universal, and this battle is often against that pernicious, inveterate,incorrigible tendency to lower levels, smaller measure, mediocrity, collectiveintrospection.

The livingness of the individual Christian, the local church; or any institutionbearing the name of Christian will be determined by what is found through it of vitalvalue beyond itself. A very successful manoeuvre of the devil is to get a local
http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001904.htmlhttp://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001904.htmlhttp://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001904.html


2/64

company (or an individual, for that) wasting long months or years, and greatspiritual vitality in occupation - if not obsession - with its own affairs, and in sodoing limiting its reproductiveness, its 'being fruitful and multiplying'. It reallymeans loss of the dominating and emancipating vision of the immensity of Christ.

The Risen Lord and the Things Which Cannot be Shakenby T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 11 - The Essential and Vital Outworking of an Adequate LifeWe have been occupied with personal things until now. It is very important that weshould have that side of things put before us first of all, but we do not stop there.When we have come to the place of our own personal appropriation of theresources which are in Christ for us, then we have to recognise that bound up withsuch appropriation there is a purpose that reaches far beyond ourselves alone. It is

at this point that we begin to turn our eyes outward rather than inward, while stilloccupied with the same supreme matter, Christ risen, and the things which cannot

be shaken. So we are being led to meditate upon the reproduction of an adequatelife in the Church, to its essential and vital outworking.

Adam and Eve have often been set forth as types of Christ and the Church, andperhaps rightly so. The injunction given to them was that they should be fruitful

and multiply, and that law in a spiritual way is also carried over to the anti-type,Christ and the Church. The law of this one life, of this oneness in life into whichChrist and His own have been brought, is fruitfulness, increase, reproduction.

We should remember that life is a trust: by it a stewardship is created. Life is not

something to be received, and, so to speak, pocketed, appropriated just for thegood of the recipient. Life is a trust with which we are called upon to trade, and bymeans of which we are under an obligation to secure increase. Life demands a rightof way for transmission, and to deny that right of way is to violate life, to bedisloyal to the greatest of all trusts.

In the history of peoples Israel stands out as perhaps the most conspicuous

example of this law. Israel, of course, was chosen to be a representation of greatDivine, spiritual laws amongst all the peoples of this earth, and Israel's national lifewas therefore the embodiment of a spiritual principle, the outward representationof something deeper, something heavenly, Divine. You will probably not have failedto recognise in your reading of the Old Testament how in the life of Israel the

family had a very large place, and the larger the family the happier the people. Notto have a family was a tragedy and a shame; if that were not possible, then thewhole life was regarded as being blighted, spoiled. That was a ruling fact in Israel.

The fact is one which lies near the surface, and, as we have said, you can hardlyfail to recognise it; but as you do so, you will see that in that particular, as in manyothers which perhaps are more obvious, there is embodied a spiritual law. Israelwas chosen for the reproduction and propagation of the things of God. The Lord

deposited His heavenly things with Israel, not that Israel should appropriate themand shut them up within herself, but should trade with them, and regard them as astewardship. The oracles were for a stewardship. The Divine blessings were astewardship entrusted to Israel for the world. The great word to Abraham was

that allthe families of the earth should be blessed in his seed. The covenant with


3/64

Abraham, therefore, was for the general good and blessing of mankind, and therewere the elements of a stewardship deposited with the covenant of promise.

Israel failed in the trust, and in so doing sealed her own doom. That is shown bythe barren fig tree. The Lord Jesus, suffering hunger, came to the fig tree expectingto find fruit thereon, and He found nothing but leaves. We know that that fig tree

was a type of Israel. It represented Israel. He cursed the fig tree, and it witheredaway. So, with the close of the life of the Lord Jesus here, Israel passed out of theplace of the Divine stewardship, and has never occupied it since. The trust wasremoved and transferred. "The kingdom of heaven shall be taken away from you"

said the Lord, "and given to anation bringing forth the fruits thereof". That is butanother way of saying, You have failed to bring forth the fruit of that which wasoffered you, which was entrusted to you; you have defaulted in the matter of yourstewardship; you have been barren when you ought to have been fruitful; you havesealed your own doom. The doom of an instrumentality is sealed by failure to fulfilthe vocation for which it was raised up.

An organism is never an end in itself, and is never something for itself. It is a

means to a larger end, a channel for larger purposes, and the object of an organismis to reproduce itself by life. That reproduction is always sacrificial. It always costs.

It is always by the vessel's yielding up of itself in some way. That is to say, deathis the way to increase. Reproduction is sacrificial.

That brings us to the passage of Scripture in which the Lord summed up everythingwith regard to His future relationship with His own, and the result of His havingcome into this world. The passage, you will note, is John 12:24: "Except a grain ofwheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it bearethmuch fruit". Verse 25: "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth hislife in this world shall keep it unto life eternal". That embraces and embodies all

that we have been saying. Unless a life propagates it remains without being marked

by any purpose. It is an end in itself, and God never meant any organism to bethat. It saves its own life by letting it go, that increase may be the result. The lawof increase is sacrifice - "Except a corn of wheat fall into the earth and die...". There

is no propagation, there is no increase, there is no reproduction except by letting allthat is merely personal go, in the interest of what is other and more.

This then leads us to several things. The first is:

The Meaning and Value of Christ Risen as an Inward Life

Christ risen is shown to be a reality for inwardexpression, experience. The risen lifeof the Lord is to be in us. Christ is to be in us by His life, and by His Spirit of life.The inward meaning and value of Christ risen is the reproduction of His life in all

those in whom He is, that all such as have Him dwelling in them in the power of Hisrisen life should be an expression of Christ in life, should manifest Him in the powerof that life. It is reproduction of the Christ life in us. The law of that reproduction in

us is that we ourselves should die, should accept the place of death, so that allpersonal life, personal interest is entirely put away, is shed, is parted with, andChrist becomes all. That is what Paul meant when he said, "I have been crucifiedwith Christ; yet I live, and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me". Here is theexpression of Christ produced because all life which is not of Christ has beenyielded to the Cross, has died. It has fallen into the grave of the Lord Jesus, andout of the grave of the Lord Jesus there has come an expression of Him.

In our union with Christ in His death we cease and He begins, and from thebeginning He becomes the all. That is a progressive thing, as well as a basic thing.


4/64

It is a thing all-inclusive in its meaning, in its intent, but it is also progressive. Wehave to accept the fulness of that thing in an act. We have to take the positionquite definitely and consciously that now, in accepting our union with Christ in Hisdeath, this is to work out in our having no more place at all, and that whenever we

come into evidence we shall be smitten, we shall be put aside, we shall not beallowed to go on. We have to accept that once for all in a definite act of

commitment, that from henceforth everything that is of self is going to be smittenunsparingly with that Cross, and whenever self comes in it will not be allowed to

have a standing. We had better settle it once for all, and have a dealing with theLord on that inclusive, comprehensive, and utter ground, that He will make His ownmeaning in that real; not our understanding of it, not our grasp or apprehension ofit, not what we think to be the "I" which is to be forbidden, but what He knows to

be the 'I'; not the measure of our knowledge of ourselves, but His knowledge of us.There will be revealed a very great deal more that is "I" than has ever entered intoour thought or imagination. Self, then, not as we know it, but as He knows it

through and through, is to be brought under the power of that Cross, and this weaccept in an act.

Then it becomes progressive. To die daily, to be always bearing about in the bodythe dying or the deadness of the Lord Jesus, so that His death is a working thingevery day by which self is denied, is the issue of our initial acceptance. But as that

takes place, that sacrificial yielding over to the Cross, the life of Christ is beingreproduced. By the power of His own life He is increasing while we decrease. Weshall never meet a challenge to set ourselves aside but what, in meeting thatchallenge, and answering to it, there will be the occasion for an increase of Christ.Everything which demands that we accept a fresh measure of the meaning of Hisdeath means that, as we accept it, there will be a larger measure of Him in risenlife.

So that the meaning and value of Christ risen as an inward life is reproduction. And

there is no other way. There is no way to make Christians according to the NewTestament but that way. The increase of the number of the Lord's own is not by

joining something from the outside; it is by coming to the Cross and dying. That isthe only way. There is no Christian on any other ground than that he died withChrist, and has been raised together with Him.

The Necessity for Everything to be of a LivingCharacter

That is the second thing. This takes us back to the first things which were said inthese considerations, that it is contrary to the mind of God to systematiseChristianity, Christian truth, Christian order, and appropriate it or apply it as asystem. It must be the issue and outcome of life. Reproduction is only by life. It is

not by truth as a system of doctrine. Reproduction is not by the setting up of someChristian order. It is by life. And herein is the necessity for everything to be of aliving character. If Christ is to be multiplied, using that word in the right sense -and not one of us will think that we mean that there will be a multiplication of

Christ in any literal sense - if that is to be so, it can only be through everythingbeing living, of a vital order.

That brings us to the third thing, which will, to some extent, elucidate and explainwhat we have just said.

The Nature of the Church(a) Constitution


5/64

What is it that constitutes the Church? The Church is not constituted upon theChristian creed; nor upon a set of beliefs; nor by assent to certain doctrinalpropositions. The Church is not constituted by asking people to join it, becomemembers of it, adherents, but the Church is constituted by the transmission of therisen life of the Lord. Reproduction is its law of increase.

Increase may be brought about in two ways. One is the way of imitation. You canturn out so many things as by a mould, that is, by making so many things on thesame pattern, and thus increasing, multiplying by imitation. It hardly needs sayingthat such is not the New Testament way with regard to the growth of the Church.

That is not the New Testament way of reproduction. The other way is byconception, that is, the out-growth of life from within, the form which life takeswhen it expresses itself, when it has its way. It is inward rather than outward. Thedifference between imitation and what is conceived is the difference between whatis dead and what is alive. One is made, the other is born, and the constitution ofthe Church is the result of the activity and energy of a life, the Lord's own risen life,being transmitted, passed on. Whatever you may develop, you will never get a

development of the true Church unless the risen life of Christ is operative and is

there in sufficient measure to be transmitted by the Spirit.

(b) Order

The same law holds good as to the order of the Church. It is the result of His life.Again, two kinds of things are possible. You can appoint to office, and set apartwith certain titles and names, which represent certain spheres of activity or kinds ofwork and responsibility. You can elect or vote into such office or position, andproceed along that line, setting up the Church order. Or you can follow another line,and be ruled by the law of life, whereby account is taken of the working andexpression of the Lord's life in the members of the Church, of the way in which the

members, by that life, begin to show marks of certain spiritual ability. Ability is

coming out and manifesting itself in this way, or in that way, and in due course, bya spontaneous expression, and by the result of the life of the Lord having its way insuch members, the Church is compelled to take account of the fact that such-and-

such in its midst are spiritually qualified, and that as spiritually qualified they arealready, by the very operation of this Divine life, the fit and proper persons forsuch-and-such ministry. The expression of life comes out perhaps in a ministry ofteaching, or in a ministry of administration. It is not just natural ability. It is not theresult of natural advantages, of training and so on, but there is the spiritual markabout it. Then the Lord's people take account of it, and say: Well, evidently theLord has gifted so-and-so in this way, and we must take account of it, and allow

that to have its expression. Thus the Church comes into its order along the line oflife.

A question may present itself to us in connection with the familiar passage inEphesians: "He gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists;and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of

ministering..." When the Lord did that, did He announce to the Church what He haddone? Did He say, Now I have definitely given into your midst so-and-so as yourapostle, as your prophet, as your evangelist, as your pastor and teacher? Did Hesay, Now so-and-so is an apostle in your midst, and so-and-so is a teacher in yourmidst? Or was His gift in the first place secret, only manifesting itself as thesebelievers respectively went on with Him, and it became noticed that they weredeveloping in certain ways? Was it like that? I think that is the truth, speaking

generally. As the fruit of obedience the perpetuation of His heavenly order was not

mechanical, not official, not ecclesiastical, but vital, living, spiritual. True order isthe expression of life.


6/64

That is tremendously important. The Lord does not leave it in our hands to appointour ministers, to make either the ministry or the minister. The Lord developsministry by life, and where the Lord develops ministry the Church has to takenotice. It may be perfectly true that the appointment has been made by God, but it

may be equally true that it has to be made manifest by life before it comes tofunction. I believe that is partly why Barnabas and Paul were detained at Antioch so

long. Paul was definitely called, chosen. There was no doubt whatever that heavenhad ordained him as an apostle, and all the signs of an apostle were in him, the

supreme sign being that he had seen first hand the risen Lord. Yet, with thesovereign choice, and with the personal commission to him, he had first to go intoDamascus to be told what he should do as one in the church, the assembly, andsubsequently he had to tarry at Antioch as a member of the assembly there for

over a year. Even then the Lord did not come to Saul or to Barnabas, hiscompanion, and say, Now go out to the work to which you know I have called you,the work of which I have told you, the work for which you were chosen! Go out and

get on with it! The Lord gave direction through the leading members of thatassembly: "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have calledthem". And the Church was able to do that, not simply on the basis of a command,

but because it had been proved in their own midst that these men were called forthis ministry. They had revealed in the assembly by life that they were called to aministry. That is the way by which the Lord reveals His ministers.

That brings us to this point. You do not know what your ministry is, save as you goon with the Lord. You may have been Divinely ordained, sovereignly chosen. Theremay be related with your life a ministry of great value. You may not know anythingabout it yet, but it may be perfectly true that the Lord could say that you are achosen vessel unto Him; but you will only discover what your ministry is as you goon with the Lord in life. As the Lord's life increases in you, and your communion

with the Lord goes on unhindered in all its meaning and value, then you willdiscover that the Lord is moving in you in a certain direction, and that you are

becoming exercised unto a certain ministry. None of us really discerns his ministryby being told beforehand. We only know it as we go on with God, and His life hasits way.

That is an important thing, for ministry hangs upon life. It does not rest uponmechanical appointment. We cannot make ministers. It is only the risen Christ Whocan make ministers, and He makes them in the power of His risen life. Disaster liesbefore the man who tries to be a minister without the risen life of Christ. The Lorddeliver us from ever trying in any way to be ministers without its being theoutcome of His life in us. The life of the risen Lord takes its own form, expressesitself in its own way, according to the mind of Him Whose life it is.

The Growth of the Church

We have already touched upon this, but let us repeat and re-emphasise that thegrowth of the Church is on the principle of life. We can never go about this world

gathering people together, asking them to accept certain things which we say aboutChrist, and then forming them into churches. The Lord has not called upon us toform churches. That is not our business. Would to God men had recognised thefact. A very different situation would obtain today from what exists, if that hadbeen recognised. It is the Lord Who expands His Church, Who governs its growth.What we have to do is to live in the place of His appointment in the power of Hisresurrection. If, in the midst of others, the Lord can get but two of His children, in

whom His life is full and free, to live on the basis of that life, and not to seek to

gather others to themselves or to get them to congregate together on the basis oftheir acceptance of certain truths or teaching, but simply to witness to what Christ

means and is to them, then He has an open way. As witness is simply and livingly


7/64

borne in this way, one and another will be provoked at length to say: I do wish Ihad what they have! And another will say: I covet that one's experience. It is justwhat I have been seeking for! Such as these will either come to inquire the way ofsalvation, or opportunity will be found to lead them to the Lord. It is in this way

that the Church grows. Its growth may be furthered at a street corner as youpreach Christ and someone responds, and believing on Christ with the heart and

confessing Him as Lord with the mouth, life is given by the Spirit, and that onebecomes the Lord's. The Church is not increased by your going and taking a

building and trying to get people to come to it, and to your meetings, and thenforming them, by a church roll, into a local church. That is not the way. Growth isby life, and this, to begin with, may be by the entering into life of but one soul, andthen after a long waiting time of another; or it may be more rapid. But the point is

that it is increase because of life. That is the growth of the Church. For the growthof His Church, the Lord must have life channels, life centres. I believe that, given alife centre, sooner or later one of two things will happen, that it will be abundantly

manifest that Christ is fully and finally rejected there, or else there will be anadding, a growth. There is tremendous power in life, and the life of the Lord eitherkills or quickens. It depends on the attitude taken toward it. He is a savour of life

unto life, or of death unto death. Things can never remain neutral. What the Lordneeds is life centres.

The irreducible minimum, and yet the adequate means, to begin with, is two; twowho are one in His life, two in whom there is co-operation in that life. He sent themforth two by two. That is the nucleus of the Church. It is such as these that theenemy will endeavour to kill, to quench, or to separate, and thus to ruin themspiritually, so far as their value to the Lord is concerned for propagation. Rememberthat! The Lord's advantage is bound up with a fellowship of two in the one life.

We can see now why in the main issue it is so important that all the resources ofthe risen Lord should be tapped by us, should be lived upon, drawn upon, why

these spiritual, secret, heavenly resources of His life, His fulness, should thusbecome the basis of our lives. Their purpose does not end with ourselves, nor is itsomething for ourselves, and if we turn them to that end we shall die. Thatprovision is for the Lord's end, which is reproduction, the reproduction of His ownrisen life.

"That They May All Be One, Even As We Are One"- Volume 1

by T. Austin-SparksMeeting 12 - "This Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom

Twelfth Meeting

(February 8, 1964 P.M.)

As this is the last meeting of these series this week, it will benecessary for us to do a little reviewing of what has been said. Notvery much, but just enough to be able to go on from where we left

off last night. But before we come to that I want to take you backto the Old Testament. Those of you who are familiar with the Bookof Daniel, will remember that in the second chapter of that bookwe have the account of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of

Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which he saw a greatimage. The different parts of the body of that image from the headdownward to the feet were made of different materials. The head


8/64

was made of gold, and the other parts of the body were made ofother materials, until the feet and the toes were made partly ofiron and partly of clay.

When Nebuchadnezzar woke up from his dream, he wonderedwhat it all meant, for people in that part of the world always

believed that dreams meant something. Perhaps you do that. Ifyou have an unusual dream, you wonder what it is all about. Thenext morning, you tell somebody about it, hoping that they will beable to explain your dream. Well, that is what Nebuchadnezzar did.

He called all his wise men, but he did not tell them his dream. Nowhe said, 'You tell me what is the meaning of this dream.' But noneof them could give the interpretation.

Then at last Daniel was brought in and Daniel prayed to the Lord,and the Lord explained the dream to Daniel, and Daniel said this:

'These four parts of the image represent four great kingdoms. Thehead of gold is great Babylon, your kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar.

After you will come another kingdom, and then that will passaway, and another will come; and then that one will pass away,

and another one will come.' Daniel told him the names of most ofthese kingdoms, but the last one he did not name. Well, Danielexplained all that, and then he said this: 'In the days of thosekingdoms, the God of Heaven shall set up a Kingdom. And thatKingdom, unlike all these others, will never pass away.' TheKingdom of the God of Heaven - what the New Testament calls theKingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven - and, beloved, we areliving in the days of that Kingdom.

Now that is what we have been talking about this week. We are

just going to leave that for the present and come back to wherewe were last night. It is rather impressive that in the days ofDaniel, Daniel said that the God of Heaven would set up a

Kingdom even while Israel still existed. The kingdom of Israel hadnot yet passed away at that time; although Israel was in captivityin Babylon, it was not finished with. A remnant did come back toJerusalem, and rebuild the city and the temple, and for some fourhundred years Israel went on. It was having a bad time with theseother kingdoms. But what we have been seeing is that when theGod of Heaven did begin to set up His Kingdom, the kingdom of

Israel began to disappear. This great kingdom of Israel was alsoset aside by the God of Heaven. And what we have been seeing is

that the God of Heaven brought in a new Israel, a heavenly and aspiritual Israel, to take the place of the older one. The God ofHeaven, Who had dismissed the others, now brought in His newspiritual Israel. We, who are the Lord's true born-again people, arethe new Israel. And this Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom. It will

never pass away. Everything is being done in the world to destroyit. The world powers are seeking to destroy this Kingdom. But assurely as those other four kingdoms had gone, and the Kingdom ofthe God of Heaven remains, so they are doomed to failure. THISKINGDOM IS FOREVER.

Now we are coming over again to where we left off last night. We

come into the Gospel by John. I think you know that John wrotethis gospel toward the end of the first century of this dispensation.

All the other apostles had gone to be with the Lord. John had had


9/64

a long life, and through long years, he had meditated much uponthe relation between Jesus and the Old Testament. John knew theOld Testament very well, and through all those years of his life, hethought about it. More and more clearly, by the light of the Holy

Spirit, he saw the connection between Jesus and the OldTestament. John knew that the old Israel of the Old Testament had

been rejected by God, and he knew that Jesus had come to form anew Israel.

This new Israel was not something of this world. It was a heavenly

Israel, a spiritual Israel. Everybody knows that the Gospel by Johnis the most spiritual of all the Gospels. John had come to see thatthe new Israel embodied all the spiritual principles of the old Israel- although the Old Testament Israel had been put away. God'sthoughts in Israel were eternal thoughts and John saw that allthose thoughts of God, which were represented by the old Israel,were now taken up by Jesus in a spiritual way in a new Israel.

John saw that when God began with the old Israel, He appeared as

the God of glory unto Abraham. "The God of glory appeared untoour father Abraham," and that was the beginning, the first step ofGod toward the old Israel. Then John took that over into the new

Israel, so that when he began to write his Gospel, he spoke aboutthis coming of the God of glory. "And the Word was God... and webeheld His glory"(John 1:1,14).

So John began the new Israel where God began the old. And thenhe knew that God promised Abraham a son, and through that sonHe would make a great nation, and through that son all nations ofthe earth would be blessed. He introduced a new idea. This wasnot creation. He was not creating a new man; He was bringing one

to birth. There is a difference between being created and beingborn. The new idea was sonship. Isaac was to be Abraham's son.

Now John begins in his first chapter all about the Son, God's Son.And then God was going to have a new Israel of sons in His Son.So John says, in His birth. Isaac was on supernatural ground, hewas "Which wereborn, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,nor of the will of man, but of God."And then John knew anotherthing about the beginning in the Old Testament. He knew that theGod of glory had appeared to Abraham, he knew that He had

spoken about the son, and then he knew that that son was quiteimpossible along natural life. Isaac could not be born in the natural

way. Probably you know all about that. We simply make thestatement. Isaac was a natural impossibility. Nevertheless, Isaacwas born.

Now John takes that over, and he knew quite well that Jesus wasnot born in a natural way. JESUS WAS THE RESULT OF A DIRECTINTERVENTION OF GOD. Isaac was a miracle. Jesus was a miraclenot on natural ground. Jesus was on supernatural ground from Hisbirth. But then we saw that even Isaac had to go into death andresurrection. You know the story quite well. I am having to take itfor granted that you know your Bible. If you do not know what I

am talking about, go back and read your Bible (Genesis 22). You

will find it all there. Isaac had to be offered as a sacrifice, and then


10/64

as in a figure raised from the dead.

Now here is a rather impressive thing! You are not far into the

Gospel by John in the first chapter before this Son of God comes tothe river Jordan. He comes to be baptized by John the Baptist. Youknow the meaning of baptism; it is a figure of death and burial and

resurrection. But the impressive thing is this: John has beentalking about the eternal Son of God, through Whom all thingswere created. And now, before he had got much further, he callsHim "The Lamb of God."There you have it repeated, "Behold the

Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world"(verse 29).The Lamb has to be slain. When you come to the Book of theRevelation, the Lamb is in the midst of the throne, and all areworshipping the Lamb (Rev. 5). This great Isaac has gone intodeath and into resurrection.

Now we must just stop in this course for a moment to make theapplication. You see, we have said that believers in this

dispensation are God's new heavenly Israel. What is it that makesus members of this heavenly Israel? In the first place, it is that we

have seen the greatness of the Lord Jesus. We are able to say in ameasure, "We have beheld His glory."Every true believer ought tobe able to say that I have seen at least something of the greatnessof the Lord Jesus. You may not put it in these words, but this iswhat it means, "that the God of glory has appeared to me." "Ihave seen the Lord of glory." We may put it in different ways, butthat is what it amounts to. Something of the greatness of the LordJesus as God's Son has been revealed in our hearts, that is thefirst step toward the new Israel. I wonder how many of you in thishall tonight can say, I am a member of that Israel; I have seen the

Lord! The Lord of glory has appeared in my heart. If not in thesame words as Paul, you could say the same thing. "For God, Whocommanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in ourhearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the

face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 4:6). That is the beginning of the newIsrael.

The next thing is, we have become sons of God through faith inJesus Christ. We are amongst those of whom it can be said, ourreal spiritual life is not by the will of man, it is not by natural

blood. We have not inherited it from anybody. We have not got itbecause some people persuaded us into it. Not by the will of man,

not by natural blood, but we have been born of the Spirit of God.We are children of God by the will of God. Now all that is verysimple and very elementary, I know, but we have not finished yet.

The next thing in this new Israel is this: You and I have got tocome through death unto the ground of resurrection. We have gotto know something of the power of His resurrection in our life.What Paul calls, "being in the likeness of His resurrection"(Rom.6:5). This is a very important thing, not only at the beginning ofthe Christian life, but this is something that has got to characterizethe new Israel all through history. Just look at the history of the

people of God during these two thousand years. Before God finally

destroyed that great Roman Empire, that Roman Empiremassacred ten million Christians. How many Christians there must

have been? That mighty iron empire determined to destroy this


11/64

new Israel, that was the first great historic baptism into the deathof Christ. You wonder that anybody remained. But it was theRoman Empire that was destroyed. The only thing you know aboutthat Empire today is to go to the city of Rome and see a few ruins.

But where is the heavenly Israel? It is everywhere in the world.

You see, this Israel is indestructible. But since that first baptisminto death, it has had many others, right up to our own day. Theheavenly Israel has been baptized into death in China, has beenbaptized into death in Russia, and it is the same in other parts ofthe world.

Well, what is going to be the end of this? It is a great pity thatthose people who do this do not read history; if only they wouldread history, this is what they would see. The Jewish nation triedto kill Christianity and the Jewish nation has been set aside. The

far greater Roman Empire determined to kill the heavenly Israel,but it is the great Roman Empire that has been killed. The

heavenly Israel just goes on and many other great powers havetried to do that. But where is the heavenly Jerusalem? This

spiritual Israel just goes on. THE GOD OF HEAVEN HAS SET UP AKINGDOM WHICH SHALL NEVER BE DESTROYED.

Now this baptism into Christ's death and resurrection is not only ahistoric thing, it is not only a thing in history, it is a thing inpersonal experience. The Lord, again and again, takes us into anexperience of death - an experience when we feel that the end ofeverything has come, and it looks as though we are never going toget through. It may be for one reason or another, but there it is. It

looks as though we are at the end. And that has happened to us

many times. But we are still alive. We are still going on.

The Apostle Paul spoke of his own experience of this when he said,"I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of what befell us in Asia.We were pressed beyond our measure. We had the sentence that

it was death. We despaired of life, that we might not trust inourselves, but in God Who raiseth the dead" (II Cor. 1). When theapostle wrote that, that was an experience in the past, and he was

now writing in resurrection. Sometimes, it is like that in the workof the Lord. Things seemed to go right into death. We feel that theend has come - there is no more. We go through deep experienceslike that. Why does the Lord allow this? Why has He allowed it in

the history of the Church? Why does He allow it in His own work?And why does He allow it in our own personal experience?

Well, why did He allow it in the case of Isaac? You rememberwhere we finished last night, we said that it was in order thateverything should be kept on supernatural ground, This new Israelis a supernatural thing, and it has got to be kept on that ground.Because resurrection is something which belongs to God alone,and it has got to be said about everything that is God's. "Thisis of

God, and not of man."Our lives have got to bear the mark of Godin them. While we have strength, we feel we can go on. Butsometimes the Lord takes away our strength, and we feel that we

can go on no more, and then His strength comes in. His strength ismade perfect in weakness. Resurrection of the Lord Jesus is not


12/64

only something which happened 2000 years ago. It is somethingthat has got to be continually happening in all of us. The ApostlePaul had lived a long life. He had lived a very full life. I doubtwhether there was anyone else who had a fuller knowledge of the

Lord than he did. But right at the end of that life, he wassaying, "That I may know Him, and the power of His

resurrection"(Phil. 3:10). Right to the end, there is still more inthe power of His resurrection for us to know. That is the nature of

the new Israel. You see how John is following the course of the oldIsrael in a spiritual way?

I wonder if I have time just to take you one step further. Do younotice the next thing that comes in John's Gospel? You will find itat the forty-third verse of the first chapter. Now note how true toprinciple John is keeping. At that point Jesus is calling His twelveapostles. He is saying to this one and to that one, "follow Me."Heis selecting twelve. That is the number of the tribes of Israel. So,

He is constituting the new Israel on the principle of twelve. But as

He is doing this, He calls one man, and that man's name isNathaniel. One of the others brings Nathaniel, and as Nathaniel iscoming and Jesus sees him, Jesus says, "Behold an Israelite

indeed, in whom is no guile! Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom isno Jacob!" Nathaniel said, "Master, how do You know me?" Jesussaid, "Before your friend called you to come, I saw you under thefig tree." Why had Nathaniel gone under the thick fig tree? Hewanted to pray, and he did not want anybody to see him. Hewanted to be alone, quiet, where no one would see him anddisturb him, and so he went under the fig tree. Jesus said, "I saw

you when you were under the fig tree." It must have been a verythick fig tree, because Nathaniel was so surprised, so surprised

that anybody could have seen him that he said, "Master, Thou artthe Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel." Now listen to what

Jesus said to him. "Because I said, I saw you under the fig tree, doyou believe? You shall see greater things than that. Afterward thoushall see the heaven open, and the angels of God ascending anddescending upon the Son of Man."

Starting with Abraham, we went to Isaac, now we come to Jacob.Everybody knows the story of Jacob's dream - how he journeyedand when the sun went down, he lighted upon a certain place, andhe went to sleep, and he had a dream. He saw a ladder set up on

the earth. The top of it reached into heaven. And he saw the

angels of God ascending and descending upon the ladder. And theLord was above the ladder. And the Lord spoke to Jacob. Now Johnhas taken that over also. Perhaps we would be better to say the

Holy Spirit is taking it all over. So we come to Jacob. Where dideverything of God begin with Jacob? What is the great thing aboutJacob? There are many things about him that we can forget for themoment. And we just remain with this dream because Jesus putHis finger upon that. He said to Nathaniel, "an Israelite indeed, inwhom is no guile!" And then to him He said afterwards, "Thoushalt see the heavens open, the angels of God ascending anddescending upon the Son of Man."

Of course, that was all type and figure. We will see in a minutewhat it meant. We have got to go back to the Old Testamentagain. You know right from the day when Adam sinned in the


13/64

garden, the presence of God was shut and closed to him. Allthrough the Old Testament, God is so separate from man that mancannot come near God. Everything in the Old Testament says toman, "Keep out! Come not near, this is holy ground." That court

around the tabernacle said to man, "Keep out. You cannot come inhere, only the priests can come in here, you keep out." You see,

man was excluded from the Presence of God. It was a terriblething to come into the Presence of God. If ever anybody felt that

God had come near, they would have been afraid for their life.Heaven was closed. The old Israel had a closed heaven. "Thoushalt see the heaven open." A WONDERFUL FEATURE ABOUT THISNEW ISRAEL IS THAT IT HAS AN OPEN HEAVEN IN JESUS CHRIST.

When did Nathaniel come to experience what Jesus said he would?You open your New Testament at the beginning of the Acts of theapostles. You will read the names of the people who were gatheredtogether after the resurrection of Jesus. It says now there were so-

and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so, and Nathaniel. Oh, Nathaniel is

there! And they were all gathered together in one place. Andsuddenly there came from heaven the sound as of a mightyrushing wind. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). The

heaven is open. Why? Because Jesus has gone through andopened it. And on that day, and from that day, they lived underthe open heaven. That is, they had a freeway through to God. Nolonger were they kept outside. The Holy Spirit says now you cancome with boldness to the Throne of Grace. It is no longer a closeddoor to God. The heavens are open. That is the inheritance of thenew Israel.

I think we are having a little bit of the experience of that today.

We have an open heaven here tonight. We know something aboutthe Lord speaking to us from heaven in the Lord Jesus. God'smessages are coming to us from heaven. I trust that is true. Thatis our great privilege as the new Israel. Now I have got to stop.

And I only got to the first chapter of John, and that goes rightthrough the whole Gospel of John to the end. All that which is inthat wonderful gospel has to do with this new spiritual Israel. Weare brought into a wonderful thing through the Lord Jesus, to theGod of glory, to the wonderful miracle of spiritual sonship. We arelearning to know the power of His resurrection and we are comingto experience more and more of the meaning of the open heaven.

This is not just Bible teaching. This is wonderful spiritual

experience. IT IS ALL THE INHERITANCE OF THE CHILDREN OFTHIS NEW ISRAEL!

We Beheld His Glory - Volume 2by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 5 - The Glory of Christ the VineREADING: John 15.

Considering the subject of this part of our Lord's discourse on the way from the

upper room to the Cross, we have to bring into the foreground the governing objectof all these discourses, and indeed of all that is reported and recorded in thisGospel. It is an object that is seen in a peculiar way to govern the early part of this


14/64

chapter - the discourse on the vine. Before we can understand all the rest -everything that the Lord is saying here - we must see the object for which the vineexists. That object is clearly shown to be nothing less than the glory, pleasure, andsatisfaction of God.

We have previously defined the glory of God as being His Divine nature satisfied in

seeing His purposes realized: His very nature in its peculiar requirements satisfied -satisfied in the realization of its objects. But we must not just take that as adefinition or a statement in words; we must feel it. It is the very being of God -what He is in His nature - finding an answer in kind, as embodied in purposes of His

heart. When there is a correspondence between God and the object - the sentientobject - of His work, there is a sense of glory; it may express itself in worship, joy,rest, gratification, a burst of praise. But this is something rather to feel than tograsp mentally.

Thus, it is the glory or the glorifying of the Father for which the vine corporately

exists. He is glorified in that which is the fruit or issue of the existence of the vine.So we let the glory of God interpret every statement of the Lord Jesus in this

remarkable, wonderful discourse. We cannot just now go through the whole,sentence by sentence, statement by statement. But if we take this matter of God

requiring to be satisfied in His nature, and bring it alongside of each utterance ofthe Lord Jesus throughout this discourse, it will explain everything. It will evensolve some of those long-standing problems which this chapter holds. For themoment we must confine ourselves to the statement that the governing object ofthe existence of the vine is the glory, or the glorifying of God: that is to say, Hissatisfaction in the realization of His purposes.

Christ the True Vine

Having established that, we proceed to consider the way to that object, the way to

the glorifying of God, as it is revealed in this chapter. As we should expect, right atthe very beginning we are confronted with His Son, and the first thing we meethere is a statement which signifies the exclusiveness and uniqueness of the Son ofthe Father. In words of comparison and contrast, He begins, almost abruptly, itwould seem: for, rising from the supper and the upper room, and saying, "Let us go

hence," He just proceeds. It sounds almost an abrupt continuation. But there is nointerruption; He just goes on talking. "I am the true vine." "I" and "true" are wordsof comparison and contrast. They follow in the line of many such things already

said. "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:14); that is comparison and contrast. It isinvidious. "My Father giveth you the truebread out of heaven" (John 6:32).

This comparison of the vine is, of course, with Israel who was the Lord's vine. He

"brought a vine out of Egypt" (Psa. 80:8), but that vine failed to produce the fruitfor the glory of God; that is, the satisfaction of God's nature in the realization of His

purpose. It proved a false vine - false to the Father's nature, false to the Father'sexpectations, false to the Father's purposes; still remaining in the earth for thetime, still in a way growing, developing, making a show, making a profession, butnow set aside as a false thing, in no way corresponding to the intention of God inits existence.

The Son says: "I am the true vine." What He is saying is that everything now forGod's satisfaction, for the satisfaction of the Father's nature in the realization of Hispurposes, is centered in the Father's Son; everything now is summed up in theSon. "I am." When we gather together all those "I ams" of this Gospel, how many

there are of them, and how tremendously emphatic they are, even in the languageitself. The "I" is emphatic. If we had heard the Lord say it, in familiarity with the


15/64

language used, we should have heard the emphasis there: "Iam the true vine." So,everywhere in this Gospel, He brings things away from all other connections,centers them in Himself, and says: "Everything now of God's expectation, God'spurpose, God's satisfaction, and therefore God's glory, is centered in His Son." "I

am." As I said just now, that is what we should expect, when we are looking forGod's satisfaction and God's realization of heart-purpose. It is in His Son we know

that so well.

The Branches

But then a wonderful thing about that - about the glory of God, the satisfaction ofGod in realized purposes - is carried by the next statement. "Ye are...." "I am thevine, ye are the branches" (vs. 5), and in between "my Father" (vs. 1). We mustalways keep the terms clearly before us: the husbandry is that of the Father; thishas come as from a Father. It is something begotten of God, something born ofGod; something with which He, as Father, is bound up in a heart-relationship, for

which He is jealous with the jealousy of a Father. This is not just a proprietor, anowner. This is something of an inward relatedness, not merely outward. The

Father's heart is bound up with this. It is pre-eminently a matter of love.

Identity of Life

"Ye are the branches." In this statement there is at once struck the note which isfundamental to the whole New Testament revelation: the note of identity of life.What a dominant matter that is in the New Testament, as well as in our ownexperience! Of course, we are now able to read into this the so much greaterrevelation which came afterward as to its meaning, that of which this was but anillustration. We "know it all" now; it is one of the most familiar truths to us; and yetit is the matter upon which the Father is concentrating every day of our lives, and itis the matter which gives rise to by far the greater measure of our troubles and

difficulties.

There is not an adhesion to Christ; there is not a "coming to" Him. There is a sense

in which we come to Him, in the sense of His words "Come unto me" (Matt. 11:28);or else "ye will not come to me" (John 5:40); but no one would ever say, in thelight of the New Testament, that coming to the Lord Jesus makes us an organic partof Him. We need all those other illustrations that are in the New Testament really toexpress this, e.g. "planted together," "born anew," "buried-raised with Christ," andso on. We do not just come as people, and range ourselves at the side of a certainOne, and then go on together. That is not the teaching of the New Testament. Wecome to Him and then are plunged into His grave, and out of that grave we do not

rise in our old life, separate and different. "I have been crucified with Christ; yet I

live; and yet it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20).

Now we are familiar with that truth, but that is what the Lord here lays down as theessential and indispensable basis of any satisfaction to the Father and realization of

His purpose. It is basic to that; for only the Son can satisfy the Father, and only inthe Son can the Father's purposes be realized. Therefore, if that is to be in any wayfulfilled through a corporate instrument, there must be an absolute identity of life.We know now how that takes place: whatever there is going to be will not be fromus - it will be from Him.

But I do want specially to underline that point, that it is not our coming unto Himthat has this result; it is what arises from His life within. It is the rising out from,

and not the coming unto, that makes all the difference. We can adhere, we cansponsor, we can attach, we can take up a position; we can "come just as we are"


16/64

and go on just as we are. We can still be in a kind of relatedness to the Lord whichdoes not bring with it any rising out from the Lord, and it makes all the differenceto what kind of life ours is going to be in the matter of God's glory. That is what theLord is saying here, in more words. He is pointing out that there can be a kind of

relatedness to Himself which does nor bear this fruit to the Father's satisfaction andglory; something somewhere is lacking. Whatever the function of the branches -

and that function is to bear the fruit of the vine - they can do nothing in that matterapart from this identity of life. This is a deep inward oneness with the Lord, which is

not two things, but is only one thing; and that one thing is the Lord Jesus as thelife.

The whole teaching of the New Testament is that union with Christ implies the endof any separateness of existence as apart from or other than Christ Himself. It isexistence now as from a birth, not from an attachment; from a life imparted whichhas never before been possessed. It is something quite new, quite fresh, quiteother than there was hitherto. That is the uniqueness and exclusiveness of Christ.So the branches become a part of something unique, something different from allthat we know of mankind and creation, something that has not been before.

The Purpose of the Vine's Existence

We come now to this matter of fruit, and we note that, so far as the glory of God is

concerned, it is a governing matter. It is impressive that the Lord should havechosen the vine as the symbol of this means of reaching His end. You know so wellthat a vine has no other use in all the world but to bear fruit. It has no by-products.There are some things from which, if the main object is realized or even has failed,you can get other things, byproducts; there are secondary uses. But you cannoteven make a walking-stick out of a vine. If it does not bear fruit, it is good fornothing. There is no other purpose to which you can turn a vine except to make abonfire of it.

The whole object of the existence of Christ and His members is this matter of fruit.The Lord expresses Himself here in strong terms. If fruit is not forthcoming, Hesays, such branches are cast out, gathered, thrown on the fire, burned. Men do notsay, Oh, well, it is not bearing any fruit, but we can turn it to this use and to that,

we can make it serve some purpose. There is no alternative for a vine. And there isno alternative for your life and mine, in relation to Christ, but the glory of God. Godhas no secondary purposes for us, saying, Oh, well, they are not bearing any fruit -

we will make some other use of them. No: the glory of God in satisfaction, in therealization of His purpose - His purpose - is the only justification for our existencein relation to Christ.

That is precisely the reason why Israel was cast off and burned. An old doctrinal ortheological question arises here; but I am not going to follow that out. Is Israel in

the fire? Have men cast Israel into the fire, since God cast Israel off? Well, we knowthe answer to that. But, leaving that aside for the moment, you see the point: it isthat, with God, this vine is only justified in having an existence in the satisfaction ofHis nature and in the fulfillment of His purposes. "Herein is my Father glorified, thatye bear much fruit."

Fruit the Evidence of Life

And it is the fruit which is the evidence of the life. That is what the Lord comesdown upon. He does not say that branches and leaves justify the existence or prove

anything. It is the fruit which proves everything and it is the fruit which proves thelife. He fastens upon that: the fruit proves the life. And Christ's life is essentially


17/64

fruitful. An unfruitful Christian is a contradiction of Christ, a contradiction of the lifeof Christ. Christ did not have to make efforts to be fruitful; there was no effort inHis fruitfulness. It was spontaneous. The life itself is spontaneously, inevitablyfruitful.

Was it not just there that Mr. Hudson Taylor came to his life crisis, when, after

years, he was brought to a complete standstill on this question of fruitfulness? Thewhole crisis turned upon his struggling, his agonizing, his taking the strain andburden of this matter of fruitfulness, until he fretted himself into despair. And thenhe came upon this chapter of John's Gospel, and the Lord, so to speak, stood by

him and opened it up to him, and showed him that He was the life of the vine, andthe branches had to do nothing by way of struggle to bear fruit. All they had to dowas to let the life have its way unhindered. It came as a revelation to him; youhave it in that great chapter in his autobiography, "The Exchanged Life." If the lifeof the Lord is not frustrated, is not hindered, or, to use the Lord's word here and itsreiteration, if we abide in Him, that is, keep on Christ's ground and do not take ourown or any other ground, the life proves itself spontaneously in fruitfulness withoutany effort.

The Bearing of Fruit Is Service

And inasmuch as this fruit-bearing is the service which is rendered to God and

includes all that is meant by Christian service, the service of the Lord; inasmuch asthe fruitbearing is the service of the believer and the Church: then it is quite clearhere that service and union with Christ the right kind of union with Christ, the kindthat we have mentioned are the same thing. It is a union that means identity of lifethrough losing our own and having His yielding up our apartness, our independentlife, and taking His. That union is spontaneously service.

We have thought of the service of God as a matter of preaching and teaching and

doing a multitude of things for the Lord. They may only be the framework; theymay only be the outer casing, like the bark of a tree. The Lord may pour His lifethrough such methods and means, or He may not let us do any preaching orteaching. In the case of some, He may have the greatest measure of fruit withoutever any preaching being done at all. Fruit is the spontaneous expression of a

deep-rooted oneness with Christ, and there may be very much satisfaction andglory to God through people who are never allowed to preach or teach or do any ofthose things which we call Christian work. But to express Christ, to live Christ, to

manifest Christ, to let everything around feel Christ and be touched by Christthrough our presence - that certainly is to the glory of God and the satisfaction ofHis heart, and that is service.

For what is this fruit? It is the life of Christ manifested, and God help both thepreachers and the teachers and the workers, and those to whom they preach, if

there is not a manifestation of Christ coming through what they are saying anddoing. The real heart of it is this deep union of life with the Lord, and it is this kindof service which satisfies God.

The Pruning Knife

"Every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it," or "purgeth it": by which weunderstand Him to mean that He is pruning, and there are one or two things which

we must conclude from this procedure of the Lord. He does not say that if a branchbears no fruit, He prunes it to bear fruit - no, He cuts that off; but if it bears some

fruit, He "cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit." The point here is that, for theFather's full satisfaction, it is not merely size that weighs with Him, it is not just


18/64

bigness, it is not the expansiveness of the branches. The thing which counts withthe Father ultimately is the quality and amount of fruit - in other words, themeasure of Christ, the essential qualities of Christ. Other metaphors or figures the"Body of Christ" pre-eminently - will be used in the later New Testament to setforth this principle, but here it is the measure of Christ that the Father is seeking.

We can press that even more closely. Even in that which comes from the Lord - forthe fruit comes from the Lord; it is the expression of His life - even in that veryvine, the Lord takes measures of curtailment in order to get intrinsic values. Pauland the churches might well have thought that it would be of far more value to God

if he had been kept at liberty, kept free to travel about over the world and meet thesaints; but God's pruning knife decided that it would be of greater intrinsic value ifPaul's liberty were curtailed and he were put in prison. We know the wisdom of Godin that now. Thank God for what came out of that prison in those letters - intrinsicvalue indeed! Sometimes the wisdom and the love of God operate in what looks likelimitation, in certain ways and certain directions, in order to get intrinsic value. Aseed-plot is an intensive thing, not necessarily an expansive thing; but it may be

that presently the whole world will be sown from that seed-plot: that plant or that

crop will be reproduced everywhere. And the Lord is saying here, "I am not first ofall interested in how big and expansive you are, in what you are doing, eventhough it may be for Me, and even though it may be, in measure, by the life which

I have given you. What I am primarily concerned about is the richness of the fruit,the quality of the fruit and the real measure of intrinsic value." You can havegrapes andgrapes, and the Lord is after the first quality. It means that there is agood deal of saying "No" when that life is at work. Here are these branchesspreading, and the knife says, "No, not that, not that, not that." The pruning knifeis a great instrument for God's "No" - but it is governed by God's "Yes." The "Yes"lies hidden behind. The "Yes" relates to the quality and the intrinsic value of the

fruit, the measure of Divine satisfaction, and it is that which governs the "No,"which lops off.

The Object of the Pruning

Finally, the work of the Husbandman, the Father, with His pruning knife, has as itsobject the preserving of true character. That is true in all pruning, as you know.You go along the path there in the garden. You will see some grafted rose busheswhich once bore beautiful roses. They were not pruned. Now they have run wild:the wild stocks have been allowed to supplant the beautiful grafted forms, and theyare only bearing what we call dog-roses. They may be pretty, but we know that theplant has run wild for want of the knife. The result is not the real thing - it is a wild

thing; it is something inferior, it is not what it might have been. It is so easy for us,if the Lord spares the knife and leaves us alone, to lose distinctive character. Just

let us get out of the Lord and run free, take our own way for a bit, and we losedistinctiveness of character. There is a wildness, a foreign element that comes in,and the real pleasure of the Lord is lost. It is not until that knife comes back anddoes some pretty hard work, saying, "No, no, not that way, not that way," that theLord recovers the thing which He first intended as His own satisfaction. But what is

the result? "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, andthat your joy may be made full." We have to admit, after all, that it was not in thatindependent way that we really found our joy; our joy is being in the way of theLord's first appointment and choice, and our joy is restored very often by the knife."That my joy may be in you."

If you go to Hebrews 12, you will see the fuller interpretation and explanation. It is

the Father's hand that is upon us to get that which, firstly, justifies our existence -the satisfaction of His nature, the fulfillment of His purpose - and in so doing brings


19/64

His joy into our hearts. It is not our joy in the first place, but His. Then our joy isHis joy - and our joy is fulfilled.

In God or Outside of God?by T. Austin-Sparks

(A message given at a conference in Switzerland in 1964)

Reading: John 15:1,2,4; 1 Peter 3:18.

There are two words to be underlined in the fifteenth chapter of John. The one wordis 'true' - "I am the true vine" - and the other is 'abide'. which occurs eleven timesin the chapter.

If you look at these three chapters in John's Gospel, chapters 14, 15 and 16, youwill be impressed with one thing. (This is one way of obtaining the real message ofany part of the Bible: try to sense the atmosphere of what is being said.) How do

these chapters impress you? In them there is an atmosphere of crisis anduncertainty. There are questions in the atmosphere, and there is doubt and there isfear. Look back in chapter fourteen and you hear Thomas saying: 'Lord, we do notknow where You are going. How can we know the way?' Philip says: 'Lord, show usthe Father and that will be sufficient'. You see, there are questions in the air. Thedisciples are uncertain, not knowing the meaning of things. They want to knowwhat it is all about. In their hearts they are saying: 'Where is it all leading us?'There is the feeling that a great upheaval is about to take place and that everything

is about to be shaken. And they were right. In a few minutes the Lord Jesus will besaying: "They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, thatwhosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God"(John16:2).'They will put you out of their whole religious system, and when they have done

that they will kill you. Having killed you, they will think they have done a good thingfor God.' Of course, that was their way of looking at it, but there was another wayof looking at it, and it was this that was really causing the tension in the air.

What Jesus was really pointing to was the repudiation of that whole historicreligious system. That whole system of Judaism was about to be put away. These

disciples had already begun to lose faith in that system, but their trouble was: Whatis going to take its place? Judaism may be a poor thing, but perhaps a poor thing isbetter than nothing, and here is Jesus saying that He is going away and leaving us.

What shall we have left? It is rather impressive, is it not, that Jesus says: 'I amgoing away; yet abide in Me.' The disciples were asking: How can we abide insomeone who has gone away and left us? That will be worse than our Judaism!

That, you see, is the setting of these chapters, and chapter sixteen is the answer tothose questions and doubts.

Before we go on with this, may we not say that there is something very much like

that in the atmosphere today? If you were living in any other part of the world thanSwitzerland, you would be full of questions as to what is going to happen next. Thewhole world is full of that question, and even Christians feel that we are coming toa great crisis. Many Christians have already lost faith in the religious system. Much

that they were brought up in, much that they believed in and hoped in, and muchthat they thought for a long time was the true thing, has disappointed them. Thereare very many Christians who are disappointed with Christianity, and they are

seeing that it is something that is going to be shaken and perhaps removed. Thebig question that is in the heart of many Christians is: Where are we going to?What is it all leading to? What really are we going to have in the end?
http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/002057.htmlhttp://www.austin-sparks.net/english/002057.html


20/64

That is exactly how these disciples were feeling. Israel had been called 'God's vine'.The Psalmist said of God: "Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt"(Psalm 80:8), andat the time that the Lord Jesus was speaking to His disciples, that vine had provedfalse. It was not giving fruit to God or to man. It was disappointing everyone. It

only had the name of being a vine, and was not a true vine. Jesus said: "I am thetrue vine". Everyone was asking: What is truth? The common people were asking

that, and Pontius Pilate will presently say: "What is truth"(John 18:38). Theanswer of Jesus is: "I am the true vine". 'Abide in Me and all your questions will be

answered and all your uncertainty will be removed. Abide in Me and you will knowwhat is true.' That is the immediate setting of these words.

But there is a much bigger context to these words than perhaps you recognize. Andhere is another thing that you must always try to discover when you are readingany words of the Lord Jesus. Anything that He says is not just something for animmediate local situation. What Jesus says, even though it just be one thing, hasthe whole counsels of God in it. It comprehends all the ages. I venture to suggestthat you never saw that in these three simple words: "Abide in Me"! When Jesus

said that, He was getting right back behind everything to the great eternal factor,

and in those simple words He was taking up the one thing for which He came intothis world. It is the question with which the whole Bible is occupied from beginningto end, and the one question which comprehends everything that Jesus came to

answer. The question: In God or outside of God? That sounds very simple, but itcomprehends all the ages. It is the question of all time and eternity.

We must open that up a little more. In the beginning, when everything came freshfrom the hands of God, the whole creation, including man, was in God. God was thesphere of everything. He was man's sphere - man lived and moved and had hisbeing in God. I often wish that we had a fuller account in the Book of Genesis ofwhat things were like at that time, but we have to draw our conclusions about thatby seeing what they were like afterward. We have enough there, however, to show

us that it had been a very blessed condition. God was man's environment - andthat is a very blessed condition. It is like a beautiful garden, the Bible says. Manwalked in a beautiful garden with God, and there were no weeds or thorns there.Man did not have to fight adverse things in that garden. You know, there are some

gardeners who are very particular. You take them to gardens that you think arewonderful, and they are not a bit excited about them. They have such a highstandard that they are bound to find some fault somewhere. Jesus says here: "MyFather is the husbandman", and God is a very particular gardener. If He says 'Itis verygood', then it mustbe verygood. We are told: "God saw every thing that hehad made, and behold it was very good"(Genesis 1:31), and that is how it waswhen all things were in God. We do not know how long it was like that, but while allwas abiding in God, it was all very good.

But then came the tragedy: Man and the creation fell out of God. We speak about'the fall', but have we ever realised what a terrible thing that fall was? Man and thecreation fell out of God - and they fell into Satan. So, the New Testament says, "thewhole world lieth in the evil one"(1 John 5:19). In God? Or outside of God? InGod? Or, not just out in a vacuum, but in Satan?

Now that is the great question that Jesus came to answer in His own Person, andthat is why we read that little fragment from Peter's letter: "Christ also suffered forsins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God"... backinto God!

We have pointed out that there are two sides to the Person and work of the LordJesus. There is the one side of the Man in God. Jesus lived His life on this


21/64

earth in the Father - He said: "I and the Father are one"(John 10:30). He alwaysabode in God, and that was a lifelong battle for Him, for Satan and all his kingdomset themselves to drive a wedge in between Christ and His Father. We will not stopto look at all the ways which Satan employed, but the whole earthly life of Jesus

was one continuous battle to prevent a gap coming in between Him and His Father.Satan did not trust this business to his demons - I don't think he couldtrust any of

them to do this. I think Satan had said: I must do this, so it was always Satan whowas mentioned in this connection. No doubt he drew upon all his forces for this, but

he set himself personally at the head of them to try to open this gap between Christand His Father.

Jesus triumphed in this battle. On the one side, as the Man in God, Satan could notseparate Him from His Father. I do want you to recognize that this is somethingthat you and I have to know about, for there is just one thing that Satan wants todo with you and me. It is to separate us from God, to get us away from Him, andhe will use anything in our lives to do that. On the one side he will use oursufferings and our adversities. When we are going through a bad time he is always

very near to whisper: 'You see, God does not love you. He is not with you - He is

against you. You have evidence that He is against you, for if He loved you youwould not have to suffer like this.' If we allow a doubt about God to come into ourhearts when we are having a bad time, we shall find ourselves away from the Lord,

and it is much easier to get away from the Lord than it is to come back to Him. It isa lifelong battle to keep our fellowship with the Lord unbroken. If Satan cannotbreak it in our sufferings he will sometimes try it in our prosperity and blessings. Heoffered Jesus all the kingdoms of this world and said, in effect, 'I can make yougreat and prosperous in this world.'

But we must get over to the other side of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus -the Man out of God. When Jesus was 'made sin for us' - and He was made sin for usin the end - He went out from God. I never fail to be more and more impressed

with that terrible thing that happened. Here is this Man who had fought a lifelongbattle to abide in God. It had been His one great object never to be separated fromHis Father, and He had won that battle in Himself, but here at the end He is crying:'My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? I am where I have fought the battle so that I

should never be. I am outside. I am forsaken of God. I am separated from MyFather. I am like that scapegoat away back in Israel, upon whose head the priestlaid his hands and transferred the sin of all the people. He then led the goat faroutside the camp, away until it had gone right out of sight. Then the priest drove itaway and it was alone in the wilderness, where it died in its loneliness. I am likethat now. I am not only forsaken of men, but I am forsaken of God.'

But that is where all men would be but for Jesus Christ. He suffered, "the righteous

for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God".

When Jesus was crucified all His disciples were scattered abroad everywhere. Youmight have had great difficulty in finding them if you had tried to. Two of them

went down to Emmaus. Where poor Thomas was hiding himself we do not know,nor where Peter had gone to after denying His Lord. They were all broken andscattered.

Do you notice what happened after the Cross, when Jesus was raised from the

dead? He knew where every one of them was and He brought them all backtogether. He reunited them in Himself and the last picture we have of them is thatthey are all together in Christ. They would agree that it is nothing but desolation to

go out from God. It is not a garden, but a wilderness. Peter would agree with that,and so would Thomas. When the Prodigal Son went out from his father's house, he


22/64

went out to bankruptcy, from a garden to a wilderness. When he came home hecame to a life of fruitfulness and of rest.

Do you see something of what the Lord Jesus meant when He said "Abide in me"?'Outside of Me it is just a wilderness. There is no fruit there. If you abide in Me youbring forth much fruit'... "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much

fruit"(John 15:8). God's satisfaction is the one great thing through all the Bible. Hissatisfaction is now in His Son, and if we abide in Christ we abide in God's goodpleasure and shall bring forth much fruit. If we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us -as we are supposed to have - we shall know in our hearts whether we are out of

fellowship with the Lord or whether we are abiding in the Lord and we shall knowbecause we shall feel that we are in the wilderness when we are out, and that weare in the garden when we are in. Jesus was very emphatic about this. He knewwhat a tremendous thing it was and so, eleven times in a short chapter, He said"Abide... abide... abide in Me."

May the Lord keep us abiding in Christ! All other things will prove to be false andonly what is true will stand us in good stead to the end. "I am the true vine... Abide

in Me".

That is only one way of saying: 'We must know the Lord and our place in the Lord'.What are you abiding in? Are you abiding in people? Are you abiding in

conferences? Are you abiding in a religious system? Well, all these things will pass,and the time will be when there will not be any more conferences and when you willnot be able to depend upon any people. The whole religious system will disappointyou, but if you know and abide in the Lord Jesus, it will be all right to the end.

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Nov-Dec 1964, Vol 42-6

The Dispensation of the Holy Spiritby T. Austin-SparksChapter 2 - Its Nature

In the first message of this series we laid the Scriptural foundation with John4:21,23, Matthew 18:20, Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 15:17. We concentrated ourattention upon the very great significance of three words spoken by our Lord to the

Samaritan woman in the context of the great transition: "The hour cometh, andnow is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth...God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth."In that

context Jesus used these three words: "Neither" (in Samaria), "Nor" (at Jerusalem),

"But" (in spirit and truth).

We pointed out that this indicates, and postulates, first, a change of dispensations;second, a change of order; and third, a change of nature. "Neither... nor" dismissesone dispensation with its form and order. "But" introduces a new and other orderand nature.

Before proceeding to the new nature of worship inaugurated by the coming of God'sSon, Jesus Christ, we must lay further stress upon this change. To a very largeextent this challenges Christendom and Christianity as it exists now. The verywords used by Jesus above carry with them such a challenge: "Spirit and truth".

Can we deny that He implied - at least implied that what had obtained as

represented by the Samaritan temple in Mount Gerizim, and the Jewish temple inJerusalem, was not "Spirit and truth", but, at most, a type, a figure, and a man-made representation? It was form, not spirit; it was artificial, not true. An immense


23/64

amount of the New Testament opens up when we get this John 4:21,23 keyintelligently into our possession by the Holy Spirit. Our minds faint in the presenceof so much, and we feel confronted with an impossible task as we contemplatecoping with it. We can do no more than give hints and indications. May the HolySpirit do the rest!

In the first place, we must remind ourselves that Jesus said of Himself that He isthe Truth. He said also: "To this end have I been born, and to this end am I comeinto the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of thetruth heareth my voice" (John 18:37). By implication He said that He was the true

Temple (John 2:19). In contrast with the Jewish 'false shepherds' He said that Hewas the true Shepherd. In contrast with the old Israel as the Vine (Psalm 8:8-16,Isaiah 5:1-7, Jeremiah 2:21) He said "I am the true Vine."

This conception of truth in relation to His own person and work is one of the majorfeatures of His coming into the world. If we take up this word in its seventeen

occurrences in John's Gospel alone we cannot fail to be immensely impressed. Thenfollow it through into John's Letters; and finally see it in the great consummation in

the Revelation - "The faithful and true". Paul speaks of the truth - "As truth is inJesus" (Ephesians 4:21). Jesus, as the Truth, is contrasted with Satan, the liar. But

He is also contrasted with all representations, types, symbols, outward forms, etc.,which were - and are - not the true, the real. When our Lord spoke of His body asthe Temple, deliberately refraining from the fuller explanation because of the fixedprejudice of His hearers, He introduced the great truth of the transition from onedispensation to another, and the complete change in the nature of temple andworship. It was because Stephen saw this and declared it that he was murdered bythese very people. Said he: "The Most High dwelleth not in houses made withhands" (Acts 7:48). Paul said the same to the Athenians (Acts 17:24). This doesnot mean that God never came into representations when they wholly correspondedwith His thought. Both the Tabernacle and the Temple were "made with hands" and

God came into them in power and glory, but not to commit Himself tothe thing. The time came when He forsook both and He was no longer found there.They were only temporary representations and His presence was conditional. The"true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man" (Hebrews 8:2) is "not of this

creation". The whole Letter to the Hebrews has to do with this change from theearthly and temporal to the heavenly and spiritual. Hence, He is no longer in"temples made with hands".

To come right to the point: the New Testament teaches that the Temple in thisdispensation is a Person, and persons incorporated into Him through death, burial

and resurrection, and 'baptized into one body by one Spirit' (1 Corinthians 12:13).We must also remember that Jesus foretold the passing away of that entire

temporal system, with Jerusalem as its centre and representation. This actuallycame to pass, and it has not been recovered so far as Jewry is concerned. ThatLetter to the Hebrews takes up the prophecy of Haggai (Haggai 2:6,21) wherein ispredicted a two-fold shaking of all things with a view to testing their temporal oreternal nature; and Hebrews 12:27 says that only the things which cannot be

shaken will remain. This is a kind of summary of the Letter. The things which can -and will be - shaken are the figures, representations of heavenly things, the "thingsmade with hands". The things which cannotbe shaken are the spiritual, theheavenly; which are the true!

May it not be (and we put it in question form just to draw consideration), may it not

be that we are now really in the universalshaking? There are large realms in which

it is being said, and believed, that Christianity has failed. In Christendom there aremany who have abandoned faith in the old teaching and beliefs of Christianity.

There is a great sifting and falling away. There is an intense testing of all who are in


24/64

any way connected with Christianity. Yes, 'shaking' is the right word, both as tothings earthly and things heavenly. The issue will be just as to what is true, andwhat is otherwise; what is really of the Spirit, and what is of man, tradition, andoutward form.

If this great shaking is going to head up to what Peter said, with prophetic

illumination as to the nuclear age, "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the worksthat are therein shall be burned up... these things are thus all to be dissolved..." (2Peter 3:10-11) (a thing which we know to be all too possible in our time) what will

remain but what is "spirit and truth"? This issue is being forcibly pressed in thenations, in Christendom, in evangelical Christianity, and in the experience of theLord's own people.

This is the first and basic thing as to the fact and nature of the presentdispensation, and of the great transition from the past. It will be intensified as the

next transition of dispensations get nearer. With His foreknowledge of the passingof the earthly, temporal and material things; places, systems, fixed locations, and

outward forms, the Lord Jesus put the whole matter of survival upon Himselfas the constituent of a spiritual structure against which the very powers of hell

would not prevail. Against fixed localizing and systematizing of Himself and Hispresence He was emphatic, and history is evidence of how right He was. If,according to John 3:16, salvation is a matter of "whosoever", the Lord's presenceand true worship, according to Matthew 18:20, is "wheresoever". The Lord is nomore sympathetic toward being boundto this or that location than He is to makingPaul or Apollos, or Cephas a gathering centre. Over against this very tendency inCorinth Paul wrote: "...with allthat call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ inevery place, their Lord and ours" (1 Corinthians 1:2). Exclusiveness, with its tragicentail of endless divisions, can only result - sooner or later- from a violation of thisfundamental principle! That is all on the negative side, as warning and admonition;

but what blessedness there is when - all things apart - it is only the Lord as thedefinite and consistent gathering object and delight! "Neither" ... "Nor" ... "But" inspirit and in truth.

Let it not be thought that, in dismissing one tight legal system governing Hispresence, He was putting

austin sparks trees

Documents