We have
been seeing that in the dispensation of the Old Testament
the Holy Spirit was operating as the Spirit of prophecy,
making everything a prophecy. He was causing everything
within the Divine economy to point onward, to imply
something further, which was not clear to those who lived
in those times and who were most closely connected with
what was being done and said; and that comprehensive work
of the Holy Spirit through those ages was all heading up
to what would be the nature, character and purpose of the
dispensation in which we live. This dispensation is
marked by two outstanding features - two aspects of one
thing. It is the dispensation, firstly, of Christ
enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty in the
heavens, and secondly, of the Holy Spirit here within the
Church to make good all that that means. That prophetic
activity was many-sided; that is, it pointed to various
characteristics of the age which lay ahead; and we have
been looking at some of those characteristics in the
foregoing chapters.
So that
now we start here. We have come to and are living in the
dispensation of the spiritual fulfilment of what the
prophets foretold; but that fulfilment is not merely and
only objective, as in the history of the world or of the
Church, in an outward way. That fulfilment is an inward
thing, and moreover an inward thing so far as every
member of Christ is concerned. It is something which must
come down to the youngest. Please do not think that this
is for older or more advanced Christians! It involves
every one of us equally.
SPIRITUAL VISION
The
first thing that the prophets were occupied with, and
which has its fulfilment in an inward way in the members
of Christ in this dispensation, is spiritual vision.
Everything in the purpose of God, for its fulfilment and
for our attainment unto it, rests firstly upon this -
that the Holy Spirit has become to us the Spirit of
revelation, and has made us to see, in its grand outline,
what God is after. The details are filled in as we go on.
(a) The Faculty of Seeing
That has
two sides. First of all, there is the faculty of seeing.
The prophets had much to say about this. You know that,
because of a certain prejudice on the part of the people
of Israel, by which they were not disposed to see what
God wanted them to see (because they had their own
visions and ideas and were not ready for what God
wanted), a double judgment was passed upon them, and the
Lord closed their eyes. The word was given to Isaiah for
this people: "Go, and tell this people, Hear ye
indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but
perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make
their ears heavy, and shut their eyes" (Isaiah
6:9,10). That was a judgment, and a terrible one: the
very faculty of spiritual sight, of vision, was
neutralised. It was a terrible judgment, with terrible
consequences; for, as we have seen, the ultimate
consequence was that they lost all that God intended, and
that was no small thing. It passed away from them. It was
given to another nation - a heavenly nation. It is a
terrible judgment to have a faculty of spiritual sight
nullified; and if that is so, it must be a very great
thing in the desire and grace and lovingkindness of the
Lord that people should have such vision, such sight.
The
faculty for seeing is a birthright of every child of God.
Do not think that you have to live the Christian life for
a long time, receive much teaching, and reach a certain
advanced position, before you begin to see. It is a part
of your very new birth. The Lord said to Nicodemus:
"Except one be born anew, he cannot see the
kingdom of God" (John 3:3). By implication He said,
'When you are born from above, you will see.' The
commission to the Apostle Paul was: "... unto whom I
send thee, to open their eyes" (Acts 26:17,18). The
very symbolical work of the Lord Jesus in the days of His
flesh, in opening the eyes of the blind, was pointing on
to what was going to happen when He went above and the
Holy Spirit came, and men saw. It is a part of your new
birth to see. I am not saying that you will see all at
once, that you will see all that those who have gone far
on with the Lord are seeing; but the faculty of sight has
been given to you. Are you using it? Do you know that it
is just as true of your spiritual life as it is of your
physical - that you have spiritual eyes, and that they
have been opened? If not, get right down to the Lord
about this, because something is wrong.
(b) The Object Seen
And not
only the faculty, but the object, of sight; it is a part
of the vision. There must be a faculty for seeing before
there can be an object seen, but, having the faculty, you
must have an object to see; and the object is - what?
What was the thing that came to the perception, the
recognition, of people, when the Holy Ghost came? What
did they begin to see? They began to see the significance
of Jesus Christ, and there is one very familiar phrase
which indicates what that is - "the eternal
purpose". They are one and the same thing - the
significance of Christ, and God's eternal purpose. The
purpose of God from eternity is concerning His Son - the
place that His Son holds in the very universe according
to God's mind; the tremendous comprehensiveness of
Christ; the tremendous implications of the very being and
existence of Christ; the tremendous consequences that are
bound up with Jesus Christ. They did not see it all at
once, but they began to see the Lord Jesus. They began to
see that this was not just a man among men, not just the
man of Galilee. No, He is infinitely greater than that,
overwhelming. This mighty impact of a meaning about Jesus
Christ is too big to hold, so great that you cannot grasp
it. It is overwhelming and devastating. They began to see
that; that was their vision. Out of that vision
everything else came. Look at them and hear them,
recognise what a new and great Christ they have found,
what a significant Christ He is, how everything is bound
up with Him. All destiny is centred in Him; He is the
only consequence.
The
prophets had dimly seen something. You will hear a
prophet saying: "His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). Well, that prophet had begun to
see something; and there are other things like that. It
is but a beginning, but what they are saying is that this
One is going to come into full view. 'We are pointing on
to Him', they say, 'looking on to the day when this One
shall come right out into recognition.' And this is that
day; we are in the day of the prophets' fulfilled vision.
These
are not merely words, great ideas. It has to be true of
you, even though it may be only at its beginnings, that
the apprehension of Jesus Christ in your heart is
tremendous, is overwhelming. He is your vision, and He
has mastered you in the sense of His greatness. We shall
never get through without vision. We shall break if we
have no vision, or if our vision is arrested. If
something interferes with the clearness, the fullness, of
our vision, we shall begin to go round in circles, not
knowing where we are. The vision will carry us on if it
is kept clear and full. Have you got it? When the Holy
Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, this tremendous
thing happened - they saw the Lord, and in seeing Him
they began to be emancipated from everything that was
other or less than He. Those who did not see, well, they
began to pass out and either became nonentities in the
spiritual realm or, because of their prejudices, enemies
to those who saw. The instance in John 9 was fulfilled in
a spiritual sense. The Lord opened the eyes of the man
born blind. What happened? The others cast him out. Those
who saw in the day of the Spirit's coming were
excommunicated by many who were prejudiced. They were cut
off. There is always a price attached to seeing.
But that
is not our subject now. Simply, what the Lord has been
saying to us, in the first place, is that He desires to
have, and must have - and therefore He can have - in this
dispensation a people with their eyes open, a seeing
people who have the faculty in themselves.
(c)
Vision to be Personal and Increasing in Every Believer
Now, the difference between the dispensations is just
that. In the old dispensation everything had to be told
to the people. They had to get it secondhand from someone
else; it was never their own, it was not original. In the
new dispensation of the Holy Spirit, the thing was in
themselves; the root of the matter was in them. But
Christianity has become very largely a system which has
reverted to the level of the old dispensation. That is,
so many Christians have their lives based upon addresses
and sermons and going to meetings and being told by other
people. How many Christians do you find today who are
really living in the good of a throbbing, personal
revelation of Jesus Christ? I do not think that is an
improper question. The great need of our day is for the
people of God to be re-established on the basis upon
which the Church was founded in the beginning, a Holy
Ghost basis; and the very beginning of that basis is this
- not to have a lot of information given to Christians,
but that the Christians should have the faculty of
spiritual sight within them, should have the capacity for
seeing, and should themselves be seeing. Can you say: 'My
eyes are open; I am seeing God's eternal purpose, I am
seeing the significance of Christ; I am seeing more and
more as to the Lord Jesus'? Unless it is like that, we
shall leave the Holy Ghost behind, and we shall have to
turn round and go back to find Him where we left Him,
because a life in the Holy Ghost right up to date is a
life of continually increasing vision. Vision is
absolutely essential, both as to faculty and as to
object.
THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF THE CROSS
(a) Death - the Removal of What is
of Man
Still
recapitulating, we went on next to see that, in order to
keep the faculty alive and the vision growing, the Holy
Spirit has an instrument. He always works by an
instrument, and that instrument is the Cross; that is,
the principle of the Cross of the Lord Jesus.
This
means, on the one side, the removal of everything that
cannot come into the new Kingdom; getting rid of that
which in God's sight is dead and has to be put away -
that is to say, the sum total of the self-life. Call it
by other names if you like - the flesh, the natural life,
the old Adam, and so on. I prefer this designation - the
self-principle - because it is very comprehensive:
whether it be the self-principle acting in the outward
direction, in assertiveness, in imposition, where the
self is the impact; or whether it act in the inward
direction, drawing to self. Oh, how many aspects there
are of the self-life in both these directions! We may
know some of the more obvious ones, but are we not
learning how deeply rooted, with countless fibres, is
this self? We never get to the end of it. It spreads its
tentacles throughout our whole constitution - 'I',
somehow, strong or weak. It is just as bad for it to be
weak as to be strong. Self-pity is only a way of drawing
attention to ourselves and being occupied with ourselves,
and it is just as pernicious as self-assertiveness. It is
self, all the same; it belongs to the same root,
it comes from the same source. It all comes from that
false life of the one who said: "I will ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
and I will sit upon the mount of congregation... I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make
myself like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:13,14). 'I' -
'I' - 'I' -. Truly, we cannot exhaust the forms of this
self-life.
Now,
because it is so many-sided and so far-reaching and so
deeply rooted, the Lord cannot deal with it all at once
in the active way. He has dealt with it all at once
potentially in the Cross of His Son. But now the
application of that must go on. You and I must know
continually the application of the principle of the Cross
to the various forms of the self-life. We must learn both
the need for and the manner of its being smitten,
stricken, laid low and brought under the hand of God; and
that is the meaning of 'disciple', that is the meaning of
training. It is on that side of things that the Holy
Ghost is constantly taking precautions against the
self-life. Even in the case of a far-advanced and
well-crucified Apostle, it becomes necessary, in the
presence of great Divine deposits, for God to take
precautions and put a stake in his flesh and give him a
messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he should become
exalted (II Corinthians 12:7). That is very practical.
The Holy Ghost uses the principle and the law of the
Cross repeatedly and ever more deeply in order to get rid
of the rubbish - that which occupies the ground which
must be occupied by the Lord Himself. There has to be a
lot of clearing of the ground in order to build the new
spiritual kingdom within.
(b) Resurrection - The Expression
of the Lord Himself
So, on
the other side, the corresponding thing is the power of
His resurrection, which can never be known except as we
know the power of His Cross; and it is in knowing Him and
the power of His resurrection that our education on the
positive side is found. Oh, to know Him and the power of
His resurrection! It is a wonderful thing when you and I
are brought to the place where on the side of nature -
and not feignedly, but very utterly - we are compelled to
recognise the awful and terrible reality: 'This is an end
of everything. I who have said so much, I who have
preached so much, I who have taught so much, I who have
done so much - I am at an end.' It is the sentence of
death; no more is possible; and it is terribly and grimly
real. And then God raises the dead! You go on, and there
is something more of the Lord than there was before. It
is a great thing to see how God does raise the dead again
and again. The same person is alive again, and there is
more than there ever was, because there has been a
greater emptiness than there ever was. It is a very safe
position from the Lord's standpoint.
What are
we learning, what is the meaning of that way, what is it
we are inheriting along the line of such experiences?
Just this - we are knowing the Lord, that is all. We are
knowing this, that everything is of the Lord, and
whatever is not of Him is nothing at all. It must be of
the Lord or there is no more possibility, no hope. We are
the most ready to say, 'If it depends upon me, there is
nothing more possible'; and then the Lord does it. You
see what He is doing by the death side of the Cross. He
is clearing ground for Himself, and then He is occupying
the ground; He is building Himself up as the risen Lord
on the ground which has been purged of our old self. The
Holy Spirit uses the Cross to keep the way open, to keep
the vision clear and growing.
A NEW LIBERTY
Further,
we pointed out that when the dispensation changed on the
day of Pentecost, from that moment there was a marvelous
emancipation into a new liberty. In the old dispensation
the whole order was one of bondage, of thraldom; people
were in a strait-jacket of a religious system. In the new
dispensation, the strait-jacket has gone. There is
nothing that suggests a strait-jacket in the Book of the
Acts. People are out, they are free. There will still be
some things to be taken away, like Peter's remnant of
tradition in the presence of the call to the house of
Cornelius, and so on. But in the main they are out,
released, and it is the Holy Spirit who brings that about
and demands that it shall be maintained.
The Lord
wants and needs such a people today, just as then.
Firstly, a people of vision; and then, secondly, a
thoroughly crucified people, giving the Lord full scope
for all His purpose - a people who, in themselves, have
been removed out of the Lord's way. (That is the meaning
of the Book of the Acts - that people are out of the
Lord's way, and He can move freely.) Then, the Holy
Ghost, having effected this liberation, demands that it
shall be preserved. We were pointing out earlier that the
constant and persistent tendency of man and effort of the
enemy is to bring back again into a yoke of bondage,
imprisoning the Holy Ghost in some set, crystallized
system of things - a Church system, an ecclesiastical
system, a man-made religious order, a formality, an
organization, and all such things as so often commence
with a Divine idea, and then take charge of the Divine
idea and make it to serve them instead of everything
serving it.
That is
the peril, and the Holy Ghost will have none of it. He
can only go as far as He has liberty to go. He demands
that we be out in a free place with Him; He demands His
own rights as the Spirit of liberty. He will be hampered
by nothing. If we try to hamper Him, to put chains on
Him, we shall lose His values. He demands that we shall
never allow ourselves to be brought into any fixed form
or economy or limit of any kind; that we shall be God's
free people. That is not licence. That does not give the
individual the right to be a free-lance, nor mean that we
can go and do everything that our impulse would suggest,
and independently snap our fingers at all spiritual authority.
It never meant that. But it does mean that the Lord
will not allow us to crystallize His things and put them
into a box and say, 'That is the limit.' He demands that
we should be ready always to receive and respond to new
light. If His new light demands that we make new
adjustments - revolutionary adjustments sometimes - we
are to be so free in the Lord that we can do it. It is
most necessary that we should be like that, as
God's free people. It is a very blessed thing to have the
expanse of the universe in which to move.
HOLINESS THE CHARACTER OF THE NEW
DISPENSATION
Now our
next point was that the whole nature of things,
characteristic of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit and
of all the Spirit's movements, is holiness - that
everything shall inwardly correspond to what is outward.
Progress can be brought to an abrupt standstill; all this
movement of the Spirit of God can be suddenly arrested;
there may be an end beyond which there is no advance, if
there is some debatable thing between the Holy Ghost and
us. We have to keep very short accounts with the Holy
Spirit on all matters of question, and He is resident in
us for this purpose. Why are there so many things in
Christians that are not as the Lord would have them? It
is simply because those concerned have not recognised and
taken to heart this - that the Holy Spirit is their
personal, indwelling Teacher, and they have to listen to
Him. How much is lost because of that failure! 'Oh, there
is a meeting: I do not think I will go to it - I will go
for a walk.' So off you go. In that meeting was the very
word God meant you to have! If only you had said, 'I
would like to go for a walk, but there is a meeting; I
will ask the Lord whether He wants me there.' Something
has been lost that you may not recover for yourself,
because you failed to ask the Lord.
And so
in a thousand different ways. If only we listened to the
Holy Spirit, we should make more progress. He talks to us
about all sorts of practical matters. For example, we
need to be taught by the Spirit in the matter of our
merriment - how to be merry without being frivolous, and
how to be serious without being long-faced and miserable.
We are not going to giggle our way through life, but at
the same time the Lord does not want us to be poor,
solemn creatures. He does want us to be serious people,
but do not think that solemnity is necessarily spiritual
life. I read in my morning paper of a poor girl in
Australia, who was overtaken of a certain disease which
deprived her of the ability to smile. She was brought by
air to have an operation in London - and after the
operation she could smile! I think a lot of Christians
need that operation!
But in
this whole matter we have to know the discipline of the
Holy Spirit, because spiritual value, spiritual increase,
is bound up with it. In matters of holiness, and
controversies with the Lord - which may come down to very
small points, such as details of dress, the wearing of
adornments, and so on - it is remarkable how adjustments
are made by many young Christians on these practical
matters without anything being said to them by anyone.
Who told them to do it? No one; but they came to feel
that the Lord would have them do it, that is all. Such
people are going on; they are beginning to count
for God. I take those points, not to impose law upon you,
but to show the principle of the Holy Spirit's being able
to speak to us inside on matters where the Lord may not
be fully in agreement, and, as He speaks and we respond,
we go on. The Holy Spirit adds and adds.
SPIRIT-DIRECTED SERVICE: NO
EXCLUSIVISM
As you
come into the Book of the Acts further, you find that the
Holy Spirit was the Spirit of service. You get to chapter
8, and the movement out from Jerusalem is absolutely
spontaneous. Philip goes down to Samaria. Who told him he
should go to Samaria? Surely we may say that the Holy
Spirit led him there. They moved out under the sovereign
control of the Holy Spirit. He was the Spirit of service;
He brought it about. And when you come to chapter 10, oh,
what a blessed aspect of that development! We find it in
keeping with what the prophets, though imperfectly, were
made to see. In chapter 10 the Holy Spirit precipitates
the whole matter of going beyond the bounds of Israel out
to the Gentiles. How do the prophets come into that?
Well, what about Jonah? It is a terrible story, that
story in the little book of Jonah. It is not the whole
life and work of Jonah, but it is practically all that
most people know about him - that he had a fierce quarrel
with the Lord. "Doest thou well to be angry?... I do
well to be angry" (Jonah 4:9). Think of a man
answering God like that! Why? Because the large-hearted
grace of God had said, in effect, 'There must be no
exclusivism; I am not bound up wholly and solely with
Israel; my heart embraces the heathen as well; the whole
world is the scope of My grace.' Jonah was so exclusive -
there could be nothing beyond his own circle, and he came
into controversy with the Lord.
The Lord
has scattered here and there through His Word lessons and
illustrations which emphasize that. What about Ruth? She
is a Moabitess, a heathen, outside the pale of Israel. It
is the most beautiful romance in the Bible, that little
story of Ruth. What is the Lord saying? Look at the
genealogy of the Lord Jesus, and you will find Ruth, the
Moabitess, there. But if that is impressive, what about
Rahab the harlot, the resident in doomed Jericho, who had
faith and expressed it by the scarlet cord in the window?
And in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Rahab the harlot
has a place. What is God saying? He takes up in the new
dispensation the principle of that prophetic work of the
Holy Spirit through the Old Testament. In Acts 10 He
precipitates it, as if to say, 'Go out to all; let there
be no exclusivism.' It is impossible to be people
governed by the Holy Spirit and not to have the world in
your heart - not to be concerned for all the Lord's
people, and for all who are not the Lord's people. He
will precipitate that issue. Let us allow that truth to
search us deeply.
The
point of all that we have been saying is this: that when
the Holy Spirit comes and really has His way, all these
things are spontaneous: they happen: these are the
features of His government. Oh, that the Lord might
recover a people like that, free from all set,
ecclesiastical, religious, traditional limits and bounds
- a people in the Spirit! The Lord make us every one to
be of that kind.