A Message as Spoken
The Theme is "The
Holy Spirit and the Cross, the Church, and the Coming
Again of the Lord." As to the first part, the Holy
Spirit and the Cross, we can see that the one great and
inclusive question in view was, and is, the securing of
God's rights in the universe for Him. God, as the Supreme
and Sole Object of all worship or worth-ship; the
breaking in before this world was created of another will
and thought, to divide that worship, to rob God of it, a
disputing of God's sole right in the universe; an
uprising to ascend into the heavens above the clouds to
be equal with the Most High on the part of one, Lucifer;
bringing about his downfall and the casting out of heaven
of a company of "angels which kept not, their first
estate," and who are now, we are told,
"reserved in everlasting chains," in chains
unto everlasting perdition and darkness: the reappearing
of that one upon this earth, and assailing the citadel of
God in the soul of man, and therefore dividing the rights
of God, the worship of God, and securing recognition,
acknowledgment, obedience, thus worship. Then right down
through the ages, the two Gods, the true God and the god
of this world - the false god; the two worships; the
worship of God and the worship of this other, in many
forms, by many systems, in divers manners, but always the
one thing behind to take away from God, to divide the
rights with God. It does not matter how it is done, it
will be done always in the way which is most calculated
to succeed.
At one time, it will
appeal to the dominant faculties of that time, which may
be psychical along the line of superstition, fear, dread,
especially in the realms of little enlightenment, great
darkness; and in another time, in another realm, perhaps
along the line of intellect and reason and considerable
enlightenment. Anyhow; it does not matter so long as the
end is attained, that God has not His place, and is not
allowed to be supreme in His universe, having undivided
and unrivalled sway. The persistence of this other thing
at times is manifested in - one was going to say, - an
impertinence, the impertinence that it will even assail
the Son of God, and say "if only THOU wilt worship
me" - Thou wilt worship me! It stands at
nothing, pays a great price for that recognition. All
this we have seen, or gathered up in the Cross of the
Lord Jesus, and we no longer look upon Calvary as merely
the crucifixion of the Jewish Messiah, we no longer talk
about the crucifixion of Christ, we no longer
talk about this Calvary scene as an historic human
tragedy, we look back on it and see this whole realm and
range of contrary worship, the thing which had its own
strategy against the Throne of God. That was involved,
and it was there that Calvary's meaning had its full
significance, and in that Cross the Lord Jesus met the
whole of that thing, gathered it up in His Own Person by
one all-inclusive sacrifice, whole-burnt-offering,
because He, He alone could do it - God and man united in
sinlessness. Such a One was required, such a One alone
could do it. He did it in this whole-burnt-offering.
He
Secured in His Person the Entire Universal Rights
of God
for Him, and in that
typical offering and that literal offering of Himself He
offered Himself to God, as representing many sons whom He
would bring to Glory - a new creation which He would
bring into being, and in that Person there is previsioned
and secured a sacrifice out of which shall be ultimately
plucked the last remnant of that false thing, and in
which God shall be All and in all, worshipped without a
rival. He secured that in the Cross. The Cross,
therefore, represents God's rights secured in Christ, and
when we speak about the Cross let us always have a large
enough vision and background to see why the Lord calls us
into fellowship with Himself in death, burial, and
resurrection.
It is of such a range
that Satan should never again, so far as we are
concerned, have a vestige of ground upon which to work
against God. That is the meaning of it, and when we are
called into the fellowship of His Cross it is to wipe out
the ground of Satan's rights and claims and activities,
and Satan's hand against the Throne of God. Oh that men
saw that every bit of flesh uncrucified is the hand of
the Devil against the Throne of God! It is that, beloved,
when we choose our will against the Will of God, it is a
hand against the Throne; it is an expression of the
enemy's attitude, who said "I will be equal with the
Most High." When He calls us into fellowship with
Himself in the Cross it is not only to remove the ground
of the enemy's operation and activity, but it is a
declaration that in our risen union with the Lord Jesus
we are wholly unto the Lord. Calvary represents utter
consuming unto the Lord. No one dare talk about the
Cross, sing about the Cross, no one has a right to speak
of the Cross of the Lord Jesus as being anything to them
who will not go the whole way. That Cross is the brasen
altar upon which utterly, without a vestige left, they
are consumed unto God, that, in the intention of God,
there should not be one fragment or atom upon which
the enemy should have a claim. As a whole that is the
Cross, that is what it meant in the Person of Christ
representatively, and that is what it meant for us as
included therein, so that in that Person, that Ascended,
Exalted, Glorified Person of the Lord Jesus everything is
secured unto God. Oh do get the sufficient emphasis upon
that; everything is secured unto God. Take the little
phrase itself "unto God," or "unto the
Lord," and trace it through the Word and see.
All that which is
redeemed by His Precious Blood is redeemed unto God. It
is for the Lord. Do we hold everything unto the Lord?
Hold our business unto the Lord? hold our home unto the
Lord? hold all our money unto the Lord? hold our children
unto the Lord? hold our friendships unto the Lord? hold
our bodies unto the Lord? hold all our opportunities unto
the Lord? Everything unto the Lord, and everything that
we cannot hold unto the Lord let go! No longer a
question, "is there any harm in it?" that is
negative. There is nothing negative in this life, the
question is, is it unto the Lord positively. That is the
meaning of Calvary - "unto the Lord," the whole
burnt-offering unto the Lord. That is what it means to be
in Christ. He is the whole burnt-offering. To be in Him
is to be offered wholly unto God. "Henceforth,"
says the Word of the Spirit, "henceforth not unto
ourselves but unto Him." He secured it all. He
secured the earth in His Own Person for the Lord. He
settled the dispute as to who should be the prince of
this world, who should be the God of this world, who
should hold sway of this world, who should sit upon the
throne of this world? That is the dispute of the ages. He
secured the world unto God in His Own Person. Beloved,
this world by right of Christ's Victory belongs to God.
Therein is our vocation found, to take it for God, to
stand on it, put our feet down and say "we stand
here for God." He secured the world, "all
authority has been given unto Me in heaven and in
earth." He secured man. Man, that disputed thing,
made for the glory of God, but meddled with by Satan, so
that even man gave his consent to Satan's will and
authority and right. But in His Own Divine Person as Man
(oh the wonder of the incarnation), as Man God and man
joined in one Person. As Man He secured man
representatively for God, for "as by man
came death, by Man also came the
resurrection of the dead" - the God-Man. He
secured man in that Cross as free, utterly free from the
power of Satan. It is in that sense that God has secured
man in Christ. He has secured the world, He has secured
man, He has dealt with Satan and He has dealt with death,
all in this Cross of Christ.
The issue now for the
world is to recognise the rights of God, to recognise the
rights of God as secured in Christ, to take sides, to
acknowledge that. Now that sets up a testimony, that is
the testimony of God in Christ, which becomes the
testimony of Jesus. That is the testimony, all this
secured in the glorified Person of the Lord Jesus by
means of the precious Blood. That is the Testimony of
Jesus. That testimony has been taken and settled in the
heavens. The Holy Spirit thereupon is sent forth to find
some place on this earth in which to establish that
testimony, and thus you come to
The
Holy Spirit and the Church.
The Spirit constitutes
the Church, which is the true Church according to the
mind of God. Not what we call the Church, but what God
calls the Church. He constitutes that and He constitutes
it - as we have seen - a thing in which that testimony is
placed in trust. The Church is here left on the earth but
having a heavenly Life, in order that that Testimony may
be here borne and upheld on the earth, that God has
universal rights, these rights are secured in the Person
of Jesus Christ, and that the Cross of Calvary was the
scene and is the power of the establishment of that
Testimony; the message of the Cross, Christ crucified,
the power of God, the wisdom of God. The Church is here
in trust for that purpose. The Testimony of all that
Calvary secures in Christ is deposited in the Church, and
in as much as God has not wiped the adversary out of the
universe yet, but let him remain and given him so much
liberty, is explained along this line that God is going
to work out all the content of that Testimony in and
through the Church. That explains why immediately there
is an entering into the Testimony of Jesus in the power
of the Holy Ghost, not in mind, thought, doctrine,
teaching, human association, but in the power of the
Holy Ghost, the enemy at once begins his terrific
onslaughts and goes over the ground again to, by any
means, device or scheme, wipe that Testimony out of the
earth by wiping the Church out - if he can. Immediately
God brings the Church to light other things are brought
to light. The dark things are brought to light, the enemy
is brought to light, the devices of the enemy are brought
to light, and it is in the face of that the Church
stands. Oh, beloved, we are here, if we are really
members of His Body, not merely to present to men the
gospel, that is a part, a great vital part of this whole,
but we are here that "Now unto the principalities
and powers in the Heavenlies might be made manifest the
manifold wisdom of God by the Church,"
"NOW"! We have heard that many times that the
vocation of the Church is not limited to flesh and blood,
it reaches far beyond to other spheres. The testimony is
universal, not local, even as to the earth, but beyond
the earth. Otherwise, how are we to explain things? I
think I can safely say that nine-tenths of the terrific
spiritual conflicts through which we pass have no direct
effect upon men and women. They seem to be without any
virtue so far as people are concerned. It seems that men
and women are only touched in a manner far short of
commensurate with the terrific conflicts that go on.
There is something more involved. Surely the nine-tenths
are counting somewhere! Yes,
God
is Doing a Thing Out of the Sight of Men
in this matter and
displaying His manifold wisdom. One has to conclude that
upon the mere ground of logic or righteousness, but one
comes to see that it is definitely stated to be so in the
Word of God. We might refer to the Book of Job. Where is
the drama of the Book of Job set? Oh, in the realm where
Satan appears before God and challenges Him concerning
the faith and the faithfulness of one of His servants,
and God says I will prove to you by that very man that he
does not serve Me for what he can get out of Me, I will
prove to you that there is such a thing as a faith in the
universe which believes in Me for what I am. And Job is a
type of the Church, stripped and led into affliction and
adversity, and the hand of the devil is allowed to be
against him as against it. It might seem that Job's faith
is shaken, but the strength of God comes in at a critical
moment and triumphs, and the issue, the ultimate issue,
is that God has exhibited to principalities and powers
His grace, His glory, and the thing which speaks of
Himself, His testimony.
That is the story of
the Church, but God is not only doing that on the dark
side, He is doing it on the light side, and angels desire
to look into these things; angels and archangels are
being instructed by the Church, the testimony is a very
wide testimony. The explanation, beloved, of our
spiritual conflicts is far-reaching, it goes a long way,
you will see it in that day. That is the Church. The Holy
Spirit constituted the Church for that. Is that the
Church we know? Is that the Church to which we belong? Is
that the nature of the vocation which we are fulfilling?
Are we in that or are we engaged in trying to hold people
together into some human association, an organised thing
on this earth that we call the Church, and trying to get
them to live more decent lives, and to give some
recognition to God one day in the week, and get them how
we will? An entertainment, a bridge party, a dance? Is
that the worship of God? Nay! but that, of course, is a
long way off from this. There are many grades, but oh,
God wants the true thing where Calvary means for every
member of Christ's Body that there is only one thing to
live for, and that is the glory of God. So the Church is
set up as an earthen vessel to enshrine the Heavenly
treasure, the testimony, and the Church is set up to
minister to the glory of God, to His pleasure. There to
be displayed the riches of His grace, the manifold
wisdom. But there is the myrrh, the myrrh with which
Esther was prepared for the intercessory work before the
throne - six months of myrrh; but it is there that the
beauty of the Lord comes in. You know what I mean. The
Lord leads us into suffering, into trial, into
heart-break, into the place where humanly there is
nothing to get us through, and then His grace comes in.
Thus after the myrrh the frankincense, the beauty of the
Lord. And so He displays the riches of His grace through
the Church in the fire. Shall we not make it personal,
and say when the Church is in the fire, the one thing
that attracts attention is that there is Another in the
fire, and that One like unto the Son of Man. That is it.
That is our calling, beloved, a holy calling, a sacred
calling, if you like, a costly calling, but a worthwhile
calling. It is bringing God into His place; it is
unveiling His glory. The Church is here for the
glorifying of God. "He that overcometh shall sit
with Me on My Throne as I have overcome and sit with My
Father in His throne." "If we suffer we shall
reign with Him."
The
Church an Intercessory Instrument.
Now we must also see
that the Church is here to be an intercessory instrument
for the Holy Ghost for two purposes. Here we have got the
Book of Esther very much in mind. And just to mention
that will explain to you what we mean. In the first place
we have the intercessory instrument as represented by
Esther for the purpose of preserving the Life of God's
people; preserving the testimony to that Life of the
Lord's people. Oh, that is a big calling and vocation.
Here is this satanic scheme as illustrated in Haman who
is out to blot out the people of God as the instrument of
the testimony of God in the earth, though at the time a
poor, decadent instrument, nevertheless the people of
God; and Esther comes into relation to the throne in
order to have that foul plan of the enemy reversed,
destroyed, and the testimony of life maintained. That is
the Church's vocation, that is what God is after
securing, a company who will be to Him an instrument in
this day to save the testimony of God in a decadent
spiritual age and day; and many of the Lord's people are
failing, are in captivity, weakened, robbed of their
place, robbed of their witness, robbed of their power by
the evil one because of their own idolatry, because they
have been guilty of dividing God's rights and not giving
Him His whole place. Idolatry is not merely the falling
down and worshipping of gods of wood and stone. Idolatry
is anything, beloved, anything in all the universe which
detracts from God. If a young man takes to the smallest
degree the place of God in a young woman's life, and the
other way round as well; husband and wife, parent and
children, business, home, anything that comes in to take God's place. We can be idolators with our
time, with our money, with our affections. If God's place
is interfered with by another consideration, that is
idolatry, and it was idolatry which brought about this
spiritual condition amongst the people of God, and it
always does. Oh, God would bring back His people, bring
back His people into a relationship with Himself that
they shall truly be His right representative on the
earth. To do that, He must get those into relationship
with Himself Who will become an intercessory instrument
like Esther to save the testimony of the Life of the
Lord's people. For that, He calls us, and such must take
this thing upon their hearts as a tremendous burden; that
is, the state of the Lord's people must become a
heart-ache, a heart-break. The spiritual condition of
those who are the Lord's must ever be a tremendous burden
upon the heart of the instrument that God would have for
saving the situation, and in order to save that situation
He must put that burden upon some hearts. Esther took it
on her heart, she took her people before the Throne, and
to such an extent, that she took her life in her hands,
saying "If I perish, I perish," "but I
give myself to this business without any personal
interest or consideration whatever; in this matter, I
live or die." Oh that God would find a company of
men and women today like that, so burdened, so weighed
down, so distressed by the spiritual condition of His own
people, by the fact that the world is not having
registered upon it the testimony of God through His own
people. Oh for such an instrument. Would that the Holy
Ghost would light upon us and turn us into at least a
part of that instrument for today. This instrument is to
be God's instrument, by the Holy Ghost, of bringing about
the overthrow of Satan. Oh, wonderful work, oh, wonderful
work, "God shall bruise Satan under your feet
shortly." Within the decadent Church, Laodicea today
- overcomers, through whom the Lord will bring about the
undoing and the overthrow of Satan. Solemn business,
terrific business, but it is the Lord's decision, not
ours. He has chosen to do it, and if He has chosen to do
it, He is well able to do it, and if the Holy
Ghost constitutes the instrument, it will be done.
The
Exaltation of the Lord Jesus.
Now, beloved, I would
very much like to put in here a little about the Church's
appreciation of the exaltation of Christ as we have it in
the Book of Esther. Mordecai, who was there, sitting in
the background, at the gate, unrecognised,
unacknowledged, despised, nevertheless, watching,
bringing to Esther the information, giving her the urge,
telling her how to do things and laying the great
responsibility upon her, and then as, inspired by
Mordecai, she goes into this solemn and tremendous
business through deep preparation, and the thing is done.
But what is the issue? The greatest issue of all is, not
that the Lord's people are saved, not only that Haman is
overthrown, but Mordecai is exalted to the throne. That
in type is the greatest thing, and, beloved, the greatest
thing that will ever happen in this universe will not
merely be the salvation of the Lord's people, it will be
that as an inseparable part of the rest, and it will not
only be the overthrow of Satan, but it will be the
exalting of Jesus Christ to the Throne. The whole Church
rejoices in the appreciation of that. You notice how all
the land rejoices in the appreciation of Mordecai's
exaltation to the Throne. Oh, they had a special feast,
the feast of Purim. You might look at that feast of
Purim, in which we find that the people of God are called
together to rejoice in the wonderful character of the
work of God by Christ, in virtue of which they, the
Lord's people themselves, are set free from the power of
the enemy, from the presence of evil, and they walk in
the fulness and in the joy of the Lord Jesus Himself.
That is Mordecai translated into the realm of Jesus
Christ - the feast of Purim, the Church coming into its
rejoicing in the exaltation of Christ. That is the main
end in view. Oh, but does it appeal to our hearts? Does
it so appeal to our hearts that we say yes, that is more
than my salvation, more than my glorifying, or having
riches of the Kingdom. It is more than the overthrow of
the devil. That Jesus Christ shall be exalted high over
all! Is that the thing that stirs and warms our hearts?
Do we walk in the light of that prospect, that great
anticipation? Oh it is a blessed thing to hear those
"Amens," I am sure they are recorded in Heaven.
There is nothing that Heaven delights in more than that
it should be true, that when a proposal of this kind is
made that the greatest thing that should be in the
universe is the exaltation of Jesus Christ in the Throne,
His people say "Amen." Beloved, it brings us
back to the practical out-working; what about the
instrument which is going to bring that about? It comes
back to the practical. If He is to be exalted, then,
beloved, we have got to enter into this thing, a matter
which, in a sense, seems a matter of life and death, but
I dare not stay with that longer, nor for the other thing
in this Book (Esther) which is a very blessed thing,
namely, the anticipating of the full display of the glory
of God in Christ. There is a prophecy in this Book, the
full display of the glory of God in Christ is here seen
and there is an anticipation of it, but I must leave that
at present. But I do want to touch in closing
the
Holy Spirit and the Coming Again of the Lord
Jesus.
I am not going to speak
along the line of prophecy or the signs of the times so
much, but I want you to see the connection of all these
things. I want you to recognise that when we speak of the
Holy Spirit and the Coming again of Christ, the Holy
Spirit's work is one work, whether it be by the Cross in
that Christ "through the Eternal Spirit offered
Himself to God," or whether it be in constituting
the Church for the Testimony of God, the instrument for
the overthrow of Satan, or whether it be the Holy Spirit
and the Coming again of the Lord, it is one work. It is
not three works, they are all one work.
The Cross is always
related to the Coming again: the Church is always related
to the Coming again. When the Lord Jesus sits down and
takes the Jewish Passover and translates it into the
"Lord's Table" what is He doing? Why, He speaks
of His Blood shed, His Body given, and says "As oft
as ye eat this Loaf and drink this Cup you do proclaim
the Lord's death till He come." He is saying, in
effect, that that Passover is eaten with loins girded and
sandals on the feet and the staff in the hand, ready to
take a journey, the end of which was the Glory. The
Cross, beloved, is the beginning of a journey, and it is
the beginning of a journey which is conducted by the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit begins at the Cross, and His eye
is on the goal, the Glory, the divine Glory, the Coming
of the Lord all the time. This gets over all the problems
of the questioners which even existed in the days of the apostles, for we read that some men were saying then
"where is the promise of His coming, for since the
fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from
the beginning," and how much more ground in that
realm, on that plain have men for talking in that way
today. Two thousand years, and it seemed that even Paul
was expecting the Lord in his lifetime. What is the
explanation? Oh, this, beloved, there is no time with the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Spirit lives in eternity, the Holy Spirit has
brought the two ends together in His work, and whenever
you come on the Cross you have the witness of the Spirit,
and whenever you come on the Advent, whether 2,000 years
ago or today, the thing is still alive, and it is the
very life of the thing by the Holy Spirit that is here in
the Book. It is just as much alive after 2,000 years as
it was then. The explanation is this, the Holy Spirit has
this thing as an abidingly living thing in His Mind and
intention, it is never dead with Him. Is it not
remarkable? Argue as you like, question as you like, and
we have all done it. I turned right away from the
"Second Coming" because in my infancy I heard
people say day after day "the Lord may come
tonight," and at last I got so scared, and He never
came. I said, "well, now, they have been talking
about this for centuries, and here are people living in
this thing, and it has made them very happy, and they
rejoice in it, and they die, and they said they would
live to see the Lord come." And so I turned away
from the whole thing, but I missed the secret of it. Why
is it that you cannot sing a hymn about the Lord's
Coming, amongst the Lord's people, without the Holy
Spirit making the thing become marvellously alive? Why is
it? In spite of their reasoning, arguments, in spite of
the mystery of the postponement, sing the hymn, and if
the Holy Ghost is in them they are all alive. It is the
Spirit's witness to the thing which is always in His
Mind. The end of the Cross is the Advent. Let no one ever
say you are always strumming on one string, you are
always on the Cross. Beloved, you cannot isolate the
Cross. Get the Cross, and you get everything that is
involved in it. The Coming is on the ground of the Cross,
the Cross demands the Coming, for it is the consummation
of all its content, and so at the Cross the Church has
its birth, its beginning of its pilgrimage, the end of
which looms immediately upon the horizon - the Rapture!
A
Hebrew Idyll.
You remember that
beautiful romance of the Old Testament (pardon me for
referring to it, it is so well known now, but it is a
perfect illustration of this thing). Abraham and his
servant, and the vow of the servant, going to a far
country, another country, to find a bride for Isaac. The
servant setting out, taking with him the treasures of
Abraham's house, arriving at his destination and putting
God to the test, and the seal of God coming upon his
quest, and there he discovers the bride, and then all
kinds of things set to work to try and cause delay, to
keep the bride back. They want to detain, or entertain,
the servant rather than respond to what he is after. So
today, we want to keep, to entertain, to have the Spirit,
and the Spirit is here for a purpose. They tried to
entertain him, to hold back the thing for which he had
come, to be nice to him. But the Holy Spirit has none of
it, Eliezer has none of it, he says "Look here, I am
not going to stay here, I want to know if you are going
to accede to the thing for which I have come," and
in spite of all the manoeuvring, he comes to the point,
and says "now about the business," and they
have to put the question straight to Rebecca, "wilt
thou go with this man?" and, without any hesitation,
she said "I will go"; and he brought out the
treasures of his master's house, and adorned her and led
her away. Now, beloved, the Spirit has come on behalf of
the Lord, He has come here to get the Bride for Christ.
He has come with the riches of His grace to adorn that
Bride, to speak of the glories of the Bridegroom and His
inheritance: but the Holy Spirit is not going to be
entertained or detained, He is come on business, and He
is saying "Are you coming, are you coming with
Me?" His business by a covenant with God is that He
will do His work thoroughly, present the issue clearly.
And so, the Holy Spirit is here to get us on a journey,
the end of which is to find the Lord Jesus coming out to
meet us as Isaac went out from the house; out on the way,
doubtless anticipating, expecting, scanning the horizon,
waiting, eagerly waiting.
The rapture! That is
the issue of the Cross in the Church, for all these
things are one. Oh, it is not possible to accept the Lord
Jesus in relation to the Cross without seeing that it is
going to issue in the rapture and the Coming again. The
things are one, they are all one, and so the Spirit
brings them all to birth. I want you to notice this as we
close.
Primarily,
the Glory of God.
It is the testimony of
God in the earth. This involves the very life, the
spiritual life of God's people: and then back of that the
overthrow of Satan: and then as through all that the
exaltation of Jesus Christ. These are the things which
are all at stake, so to speak, the things which are in
view. Are they not immense things, tremendous things? The
Glory of God in the universe, the exaltation of Jesus
Christ, the testimony of God on the earth, the spiritual
life of God's people, the overthrow of Satan. Why, what
more tremendous things could you think of? These are the
things which are before us, in a sense, committed to us,
entrusted to us, to which we are called. Now then,
beloved, do they not give an adequate motive for the
Cross? Do they not make the Cross worth while? Do they
not constitute a sufficient basis of appeal for
identification with Christ? Surely they do. Surely,
beloved, this is a ground good enough for our presenting
our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God!
Surely that is ground enough. What greater appeal to your
or to my heart for letting God have us altogether. Well
then, that gives the strength of the motive for an
uttermost surrender, but that also presents to us
the
Urgency and Necessity for a Life in the Fulness of
the Spirit.
All that is only going
to be realised by the energy and power of the Holy
Ghost. Oh, then we must seek that, being emptied by the
Cross of all else, we shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.
The fulness of the Spirit - the Church must begin to pray
for that incoming fulness of the Spirit to restore its
testimony, to save its life, to constitute it God's
instrument for His glory and the exaltation of Christ. It
requires the Holy Ghost to do that, but He is not going
to do it apart, He is going to do it by the Church, that
is His instrument. Oh, we must pray, pray that in this
day of decadence, God will yet again fill an instrument
with His Spirit and make it His effective instrument at
this time. It is true, we are in the last of those Church
ages, the Laodicean age. What are the characteristics of
the Laodicean age? Well, mediocrity - neither one thing
nor the other, neither hot nor cold, nothing outstanding,
nothing conspicuous on the spiritual side. It is a very
ordinary level, a compromise, yes, that, but oh, worse
than that - self-satisfaction, complacency, lack of
vision, a feeling that it is alright, "I am enriched
and increased in goods, and have need of nothing,"
it is alright. Plenty of good work being done, plenty of
enterprise, plenty of organisation, plenty of machinery,
yes, plenty of people busy. What have you got to grumble
at? Oh, but there are other eyes, and you note what it
says "Saith the Amen." It is a significant
introduction. What is the meaning of that
"Amen"? "Saith the Verily," which
means "Saith the One who is positive," and you
are negative, and you are not in oneness with Me in
spirit in this age of complacency and contentment amongst
those who call themselves the Lord's people. I am
speaking in a very broad way about this. It is true, and
worse still, the awful blindness to the condition by
reason of this compromise "Knowest not that thou art
blind?" You talk to many Christian people about
spiritual matters, and they do not know what you are
talking about. Talk about spiritual needs, and they gape
at you, and really do not know what it is you are getting
at. I have talked to ministers, many of them, and
multitudes of Christian workers, and when I have used the
phrase "spiritual things," I have discovered
that they thought I was talking about mysticism or
metaphysics. They may be extreme cases, and there are
different levels of that, but we do not have to come out
to a very wide circle to discover that there is an awful
blindness to spiritual matters, and to spiritual needs
amongst the people of God, and the tragedy is that they
do not know that they are "blind and naked and
poor," and that is the trouble. It is the age, the
condition of the age. You see one characteristic of the
whole thing, and the explanation is that things have got
big. When they had to fight for their very existence
their spiritual condition was different, but when they
became successful and big, they lost their spiritual
power; and that is the position of many, and many a thing
which once had a testimony for God. When it succeeded on
an extensive scale it discovered or recognised that no
longer had it to fight for its life, and losing its
fighting force, it lost its vision and its testimony. It
is a good thing to be kept in a place where you have to
fight for your life if it means spiritual power, drawing
upon God. God save us from ever getting to the place
where we feel it is no longer necessary to fight: but it
is the spirit of the age, the Laodicean age. There is an
appeal made. What is the appeal? "What the Spirit
saith." Oh, the Spirit is saying something. What is
the Spirit saying in the midst? "Him that
overcometh," overcometh what? This state of things,
this awful state of things, this tragic spiritual
weakness, this decline, this blindness, this
indifference! "To him that overcometh," the
Spirit says in effect, "I want, in the midst of
this, some to rise up to throw this thing off, to get to
God in desperation to save the situation." Oh, will
it have our response? The Spirit saith "To him that
overcometh," the Spirit saith - do we respond? Have
we an ear to hear what the Spirit saith? Is all this
falling merely upon our brains as special teaching,
doctrine, idea?
Oh, GOD FORBID!
Beloved, believe me, this is not something got up for an
article. This thing has been wrung out almost like blood.
The assaults of the enemy in relation to this, have been
almost unspeakable. Oh, this thing has been withstood up
to the last moment. The enemy has tried to stop this, to
hinder these words, to get us right out of this thing
altogether. There has been an awful conflict, day and
night. Now, if that is true, surely you are not going to
regard it as a mere discourse; surely the Spirit is
saying something. What is He saying? God wants
that Company who may be called overcomers, who, in the
power of the Holy Ghost take upon them the burden of the
Lord's interest in the universe, to see that He gets His
rights, to bring about the overthrow of the enemy, to
save the spiritual life of many of His people, to
maintain His testimony in the earth. Shall we consecrate
ourselves to that? May the Holy Spirit aid us.
First published by Witness and Testimony Publishers, 1929.