The Burning Fire of the Spirit
by
T. Austin-Sparks
Chapter 1 - A Seven-fold Expression
Will you read with me from the first chapter of the book of the
Revelation. Book of the Revelation, chapter 1. Read the first clause
and then pass to verse 4:
"The Revelation of Jesus Christ... John, to the seven churches
which are in Asia: Grace to you, and peace, from Him which is, and
which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which
are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful
witness, the first born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of
the earth. Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins in
His blood, and He made us a kingdom, priests unto His God and
Father; to Him be the glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
"Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and
they which pierced Him: and all the tribes of the earth shall
mourn over Him. Even so, Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega
saith the Lord God, which is, which was, and which is to come, the
Almighty. I, John, your brother and partaker with you in the
tribulation, and kingdom, and patience which are in Jesus, was in
the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and the
testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I
heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, What thou
seest, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches; unto
Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira,
and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. I
turned to see the voice which spake with me. And having turned, I
saw seven golden lampstands; and in the midst of the lampstands
one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the
foot, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. His head
and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and His eyes
were as a flame of fire and His feet like unto burnished brass, as
if it had been refined in a furnace; and His voice as the voice of
many waters. He had in His right hand seven stars; and out of His
mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was
as the sun shineth in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at
His feet as one dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying,
Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was
dead; behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of
death and of hades."
Chapter 4, at verse 5: "And out of the throne proceed lightnings
and voices and thunders: and there were seven lamps of fire
burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God".
Before we proceed with the message itself, dear friends, may I
repeat something that has so often been said in times like this, as
to this ministry. Firstly, it has always been our aim, and does
still remain our aim, to see that the messages given lead to very
practical issues and that those who hear them are really faced with
those practical issues. That is, we are not at all concerned with,
or interested in, just teaching as an end in itself. If it cannot
lead to something quite definite, then we realise that we are
wasting our time. While that is true, and is always our aim, of
course no teacher can ever make actual in his hearers the things
which he imparts, the intention of his ministry. He gives what he
believes to be the message that God has given him, commits it to the
Lord in much prayer, the rest is with the people and with the Lord. I well remember Dr Campbell Morgan once saying with emphasis, "God
help the preacher whose hearers do not fulfil his ministry!" That's
just what we feel about it.
Now, as to this message, you see, we've
come back to this book of the revelation of Jesus Christ. In keeping
with what we have just said about the essential, practical nature of
ministry and of a message, we come to a book which, I fear, has
resulted not in too much that is of practical value, for there is no
book in the Bible perhaps, that has resulted in more confusion than
this book. This book has produced a considerable number of
conflicting schools of interpretation. To mention them by name would
be only to open the door to the confusion; it is not my intention to
do so. But this is quite certain: that God never intended any part
of His Word to lead to confusion. Confusion is not a characteristic
of the Lord, He is not the God of confusion. Therefore, it becomes
necessary that we reduce the whole matter to some quite simple
conclusion, or conclusions.
I think the first three chapters of this book, as forming a distinct
section, are an excellent example of how the whole book can, and
should be, reduced to a simple conclusion. You are at liberty to
leave the place-names if you like, you can forget Ephesus, and
Smyrna, and Pergamum and the rest as names and as places. You can
indeed leave quite a lot of the symbolism; not all of it, because
some of it is so obvious, but what you cannot understand, you can
leave. And you can resolve this section in this way.
Firstly, we are here, in these first three chapters, in the presence
of timeless spiritual principles. They are truly being applied to
particular conditions, situations, and places, but there is
something more than the place and the time and the particular
situation, there is a spiritual factor that is governing
everything and we are in the presence of
those factors which are more than local, more than
geographical, more than of a time setting - they are age long, and
more than that: they are eternal. So that the very first
thing that we have to recognise and grasp as we come to this book
and to this section as an example is this: here we are being
presented with something that is in the mind of God which touches
this situation, or all these situations which are set forth
here, and what we have to do is
to get hold of what that is in the mind of God. It is one
thing; it may have many aspects, but it is one thing. And to get
hold of that one thing is the key both to this section and to the
whole book. I'll not mention for the moment what it is, we are
coming to that presently.
Secondly, we are in the presence of one of those crisic points, it
may be the last, when the Lord calls to account for all that He has
given. Is that clear? That is, of course, quite clear in this
section, it governs all the rest of the book, but keep to this
section; the Lord had given much to the church and to the churches.
They had received a lot through His apostles, through His servants.
They had a great wealth of spiritual inheritance. And when the Lord
has done anything like that, at any time in history, it is as though
at given points He comes back and says, "Now, what about it? What
about it? I have given, I have revealed, I have made known. I have
entreated, I have implored, I have besought. I have exhorted, I have
warned... now the time has come when some reckoning has to be made
and an answer given." You will see that the Lord has done that more
than once in history, but here we are in the presence of such an
occasion. I say, it may be the last, because this book does stand in
relation to the end, doesn't it, the Lord's coming. But here is a
principle as well as a time application of the principle, and it is:
we are here in the presence of a crisis, the nature of which is just
this. The Lord is saying, "How do you measure up to all that I have
given? How do you stand in the light of the whole deposit that has
been made with you?" And this crisis is a very serious one. It is
critical indeed, as you notice, because the issue is the alternative
between continuance or discontinuance; the vessel, the lampstand
remaining, or being removed. That's the crisis. It's that of the
whole future.
Thirdly, we are here made aware that the Lord's desire is to bless.
His is a positive attitude, not a negative. While He has to put His
finger upon the things that are lacking, the things with which He
does not agree, you'll notice that He invariably ends His
quest with, "To him that overcometh will I grant..." "Will I grant..."
The Lord's desire in every case, in every situation, however bad it
is, His desire is to bless. He is on positive lines. There may be
rebuke. There may be exposure and uncovering. There may be warning,
there may be exhortation, but there's a promise suspended
before everybody. A wonderful promise. Everybody is faced
ultimately, not necessarily with doom, but with the good pleasure of
the Lord. His desire is to bless. He may condemn, but His
condemnation is to clear the way for blessing. He may have to judge.
He may have to break, but that is to provide the ground for
blessing. He may warn with a solemn voice, but His warnings are
coupled with His desire that these people should come into something
more of His grace, of His goodness. And you cannot read these
promises to overcomers without being tremendously impressed
with this: that it seems that the greatest delinquents, those who
have failed most, are offered the highest blessing. So it was with
Laodicea. You cannot get any further than to sit with Him in His
throne, and that's the offer to Laodicea. All the things that are
judgeable are found there, but the highest reward is offered. It is
from the very depth to the very height. That's His thought for His
people.
Finally, and supremely, we are confronted with that for which the
Lord is looking. That's going to be the point on which the message
turns: that for which the Lord is looking and, it has to be said,
without which He cannot justify the continuance of a vessel of
testimony. That is, dear friends, what we have got to focus upon.
What is it that the Lord is looking for? Now, many things were thought
to be, by these churches, were thought to be the things that
the Lord was looking for, and they were not. They were not; turned
out that they were just not the things that the Lord was
looking for. He had His own object before Him and He could not be
satisfied with anything less or other as an alternative to that.
Now, that is the summary of this first section in the first three
books. I hope you have been able to grasp it, that I have simplified
the interpretation, and that you can see, even if only in the last
thing that I have said, the supreme thing, that, that only,
that essentially for which the Lord is looking when He has
given so much to His people.
From that point we come to:
The Method.
The method employed by the Lord, by the Holy Spirit for reaching the
end upon which the heart of God is set. The method employed... that
is, of course, comprehensively and inclusively seen in the
presentation of the Lord Jesus which we have in chapter one. That is
always God's method, is always the method of the Holy Spirit: to
bring Christ in His supreme fullness into view.
No one, meditating upon that vision of the Son of Man given in that
chapter, could doubt that you have there a presentation of the
fullness of Christ. How full! I confess to you, dear
friends, that in meditating on this for many days, for a long time
now, I have found my greatest difficulty, my greatest difficulty to
be to comprehend the fullness of every fragment. I'm not
exaggerating when I say that into almost every fragment of
this presentation of Jesus Christ you could crowd a mass of
what is in the Bible. What to leave out is the difficulty!
Here the Holy Spirit's method comprehensively is to bring back
Christ, not partially, but in fullness. Christ in fullness.
And as you look at it, you will find that it is a seven-fold
characterisation of the risen and governing Son of Man.
It's into those seven aspects that so much is crowded; that
everything is crowded. We may just mention what they are: the
garment with which He is clothed down to the foot. The girdle of
gold about His breasts. The head and the hair: white as wool. The
eyes: as a flame of fire. The feet: as burnished brass. The voice:
as the sound of many waters. And the sword: sharp and two-edged
proceeding out of His mouth. Who can comprehend all that? The
seven-fold characterisation of the Son of Man. That is presented,
projected, before, in this case, the churches; if you like, the
church in its fullness represented. And this seven-fold
characterisation is the basis of the examination which is
going to take place, and of the judgement which is going to be
declared. It's according to what is here at every point that
everything is going to be tested and determined.
These are the features that constitute His quest. You ask,
"What is it the Lord is after, is seeking?" The answer is: that
which corresponds to these features of Christ. If you can understand
what they signify, then you know exactly what He is after.
This presentation of Christ is first of all, personal. And then you
find that it becomes corporate: He is holding the churches in His
hand, He is moving to and fro amongst them. He and they are, in a
sense, identical, and what He is really seeking is that what is true
of Himself, shall be true of His church in every place, in every
location, in every expression.
Now, in chapter 1 verse 4 you have this phrase: "The seven spirits
which are before His throne". And if you pass over to chapter 4, at
verse 5 you have another reference to those seven spirits, but in a
particular form, "There were the seven lamps of fire burning
before the throne which are the seven spirits of God". Seven
lamps of fire burning before the throne. Of course, 'seven spirits'
is another symbolic way of speaking of the Holy Spirit - the Holy
Spirit, we may put it, (and we have authority for so doing) in a
seven-fold expression.
A Seven-fold Expression of the Holy Spirit
It is one Spirit mentioned here, as in the symbolism of seven
spirits before the throne. The throne, we know and understand, is
the symbol of government, of authority.
Lamps of fire... the throne functioning as lamps of fire by the Holy
Spirit. We know what lamps of fire are, originally the word is
"torches" - we know what that means. The function of a lamp of fire
is first to reveal, then to test, and then to determine values. The
throne is in action here in that way, quite clearly: to reveal, to
test, and to determine. I'll have more to say about that presently.
This is, to come back to chapter 1, the expression of Christ by the
Holy Spirit in a seven-fold characterisation. They are before the
throne; it is the throne that is here in action, let us keep
that in mind. It's the throne that has come into action here by the
Holy Spirit in relation to the fullness of Christ in all the
main features of His character. The picture is quite simple, even
through the intricate symbolism: the throne is the seat of
government.
The ministry of the Spirit is the seven-fold, "what the Spirit
saith to the churches". Notice that: seven times, "what the Spirit
saith". And what the 'Spirit saith' He is saying as from or before
the throne of government. And what He is saying is that this One who
is brought into view is this, and is that, and is that. Seven major
characteristics of Christ. Christ is that! The throne of government
stands by that! The Spirit challenges concerning that. "What the
Spirit saith..." seven times over. It's that. The seven lamps of
fire which are the seven Spirits of God. It is what that throne is
looking for, requires, and demands. So that the ministry relates to
those Divine features which are the features of the Son of Man.
Time to hurry on, much as we want to we're brought up short by that
title at once: "One like unto the Son of Man". The margin corrects
it, because the same writer, the same writer wrote in the gospel
chapter 1:51 and there you can't mistake the fact that he says, "the
son of man". Jesus saying to Nathanael, "Hereafter you shall see the
heavens open, the angels of God ascending and descending upon..." it
cannot be a son of man, "THE Son of Man". And so it is here, this
One presented.
Does it not impress you, dear friends (I hope I'm not wearying you
with too much detail), does it not impress you when you read this
description of the Lord? Look at this description in all its detail
and then hear what He says about Himself. Does it not impress you
that this one is described as, "the Son of Man"? Why, you would
expect that of all places in the Bible, that here you would find
"the Son of God". He is the Son of God, but that is not what He is
called here in this particular connection. Son, the Son of Man. What
does that mean? It's a title which comprises firstly, God's
original, first thought as to this special creation called
"man". When God said "Let us make man..." He was doing a new
thing, He was embarking upon a particular kind of creature; a
special creation. And in so doing, He had a thought bound up with
that, or large thoughts, bound up with mankind. The Son of Man
embraces that thought of God originally: man. It embraces, in the
case of the Lord Jesus, God's loss as to His purpose, desire,
thought, in man. God's loss. Oh, when man departed from the way of
God, God lost in that man what He had intended. And in this Son of
Man, that is taken up - God's loss! That of which God has been
deprived by man's sin and willfulness and satan's interference. But
this term also embodies God's redemption of man! "Son of
Man", that's related to God's redemption of man and
therefore of that which He had lost. Further, 'Son of Man' includes
the Divine perfection of the man which God made. Getting very near
to the vision now, aren't we? And finally, Son of Man as relating to
the Lord Jesus, is God's model for all His further
activities where man is concerned. There you have the five-fold
component of this title: Son of Man.
Now you know what the Lord is after; what the churches, and the
church are intended to be in the mind of God; what God is seeking,
what the Son of Man is seeking, what the Holy Spirit in His
seven-fold activity is seeking is one thing: correspondence to
the Son of Man. That that Son of Man shall be found repeated
in character in all men. The church is chosen for that. Seven lamps
of fire, they'll reveal how far that is true, and how far that is
not true. They test everything on that ground: does this answer to
what Christ is like, what the Son of Man is like? And, having found
the answer, judges accordingly. That is the quest: to illumine and
search; to discriminate between what is Christ and what is not
Christ; to purge, if it may be, of all that is not Christ and to
establish what is. That's the sum of these three chapters.
Lamp one. Seven lamps... burning before the throne. Lamp one: the
first aspect of Christ with which we are met, the ground of the Holy
Spirit's quest and activity. What is it? A garment down to the foot.
A Garment Down to the Foot
This is not the priestly robe, and this is not the kingly robe, it
is just a garment. It is not described at all, it is simply stated
that He was clothed, and with a garment down to the foot. He was
clothed, and fully clothed... fully clothed.
Do you remember that the very first effect of man's sin was the
consciousness of nakedness? It was sin that brought about that
consciousness. We're told precisely, immediately man had
sinned they
knew that they were naked. The realisation of it. Their
consciousness was changed because their nature was changed. And the
changed nature was first marked by a sense of shame; shame. Do you
notice that the very first work, genuine work of the Holy Spirit
toward redemption and recovery is to produce a sense of shame? I'm
afraid many supposed, professed conversions lack that, or lack it
sufficiently, but any true, genuine work of the Holy Spirit
begins there. We cover up our face with shame... the consciousness
of our undoneness, our... what the Bible means by our nakedness
in the sight of God: shame.
Look here in chapter 3 of this book, at verse 17: "Because thou
sayest I am rich and have gotten riches and hast need of nothing
and knowest not that thou art the wretched one, and miserable, and
poor and blind, and naked..." Few more terrible judgments
could be passed upon anybody than that; "You have no sense
of need, or of shame; you have no consciousness of how you
really stand before the eyes that are a flame of fire... You think
you're all right, you think you're covered; 'I counsel thee to buy
of Me gold refined by fire that thou mayest become rich and white
garments that thou mayest clothe thyself and that the shame
of thy nakedness be not made manifest...'". This is symbolic
language relating to spiritual truths. God immediately proceeded to
make clothing for man, to cover him, to put away from His own sight
man's sin.
Now you come to the Son of Man, the last Adam. Here He is clothed
down to the foot. He, in other words, has a fine, keen sense, and
sensibility of what is fitting to the presence of God. Don't you
feel that's searching? In so many instances and matters in these
churches, that was just the trouble. They had not that due sense,
that fine sense, of what is suitable to God, what is right
for God, what becomes God. They're putting all sorts of things
forward, but no, no, this one thing was so often missing.
Now, this is capable of very wide and manifold application. See,
clothes, clothes are usually the expression of the person who wears
them. Untidy clothes, unbrushed clothes, careless clothing...
betrays the person. Oh, we could go over that whole ground couldn't
we? What a searching word for the whole question of clothing or not
clothing in these days, before God... but here is the symbolism;
it's spiritual, it's spiritual. It is what we are in
ourselves before God as producing shame, self abasement, but
then - thank God - what the Son of Man has secured and provided for
us in a garment of righteousness that we can stand in the
presence of God.
I said to you a little while ago friends, that you could crowd into
every one of these fragments a mass of the Bible. Into that one
word, "clothed" you crowd the whole of the letter to the Romans, and
again the letter to the Galatians, and much more. It is this
question of the righteousness which is through faith in Jesus
Christ, the righteousness of God. "I counsel thee to buy of Me
white, white raiment..." and the white raiment is the
righteous acts of the saints; it is the righteousness of God given
to us in Christ, the Son of Man.
You see what a large realm that opens up: how do we stand
before God? Are we projecting ourselves before God? Are we
standing as before the Lord, amongst His people, or alone, or
anywhere in this world and obtruding our natural life in any form
upon the eyes and the consciousness of those around? What a lot of
that there is, even, even in our religion and even in our feigned
spirituality; making an impression of meekness or what-not. And
behind it, it's the impression of ourselves! Oh no. We are right at
the beginning of the foundation of everything here.
What is our standing before God, what is our standing before our
brethren; our standing at all? It can only be what we are in
Christ. It must never be anything other than that. What we are in
Christ! What Christ has been made unto us as Wisdom and
Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption. Clothed...
"Put ye on the Lord Jesus." "Ye have put off the old
man..." the figure there, quite clearly in the original languages
are the garments being put off, one garment being put off and
another being put on. You have put off that garment of Adam,
the old man, and you've put on Christ. Another garment, another
clothing.
The first challenge of the Holy Spirit is this: How much of a view
of us is appearing? What we are? Making an impression? Oh,
God save us from wanting to make an impression... being outstanding
and singular and different in order to draw attention or to register
something that brings us into view. The Lord have mercy on
us... It is Christ our clothing, the only fitness,
seemliness for the presence of God. And believe me, dear friends,
the ultimate question of all these searchings is: the
presence of God, standing in the presence of God, that you may stand
before the presence of God. We can't do that in our natural
condition because that is nakedness and shame. You know how much the
New Testament says about this matter, when we appear before Him and
when He appears, whether we shall be naked before Him in that day.
Well, again, it's a symbolic word, but oh, how searching it is, but
how blessed it is, how it will drive us again to our most blessed of
all blessings: the clothing of a righteousness that is not our own,
but the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. But I
say again, it deals with all, all this: every aspect of Self coming
into the picture, it does; every aspect of ourselves coming into the
picture. The Spirit is a lamp of fire... exposing, searching,
determining. And that with this One in view.
I close at this point for the time being with this: The Lord lead us
to seek more and more, that we may have this fine sense of
what is proper to God. You see what that means in the natural,
coming into the presence of a person of honour. I remember reading
the Seer of Chelsea, Carlyle, going on a visit to Queen Victoria.
And being what he was, a philosopher and the recluse, he never
bothered about how he dressed and he appeared most shabbily at the
palace, most shabbily. And what a scandal it was to Queen
Victoria! She never got over it; all his philosophy and all his
genius and everything else went for nothing; the man hadn't any
sense for what is fitting for the presence of a queen. Well, that's
only a sideline, you know it works like that in the natural, but how
much more for the Lord! When we come together, what is fitting for
the presence of the Lord? And we would always be in His presence...
May the Spirit check us up continually on that which is not suitable
to abiding in the presence of the Lord, and say, "Now, that's not
consistent with the Lord, you'll have to change your clothes a bit
in this matter..." you see what I mean? Well, is that practical? Is
that just teaching again? A subject, a theme? I say, beloved, very
little could be more searching than that.
The Lord lead us to this same quest as is in His own heart, for on
this matter, remember, He puts on the one side the highest value, on
the other side the most scathing denunciation. Listen to Him with
the Pharisees, their fine clothes, their garments, their pretences,
their outward adornments... He saw right through to their nakedness.
Oh, how scathing to hypocrisy, pretence! God sees. God sees. No,
that won't do, but here is a blessing for those who will seek
continually to cultivate that sense of what really belongs to the
Lord; the honour, the glory. The Old Testament fragment comes back
to us with new force, "Worship the Lord in holy array".
[ Contents
]
[ Next Chapter ]
|