A Holy Nation
by
T. Austin-Sparks
Transcribed from a message given
by T. Austin-Sparks in May 1960. The spoken message is available on the Audio Page of this website. The spoken form has
been retained verbatim.
In
the Gospel by Matthew, chapter 21, at verse 42:
"Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the
scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the
same was made the head of the corner: this was from the
Lord, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I
unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken away from
you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the
fruits thereof. And he that falleth on this stone shall
be broken to pieces: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it
will scatter him as dust."
The first letter of Peter, second chapter, verse seven:
"For you therefore which believe is the
preciousness: but for such as disbelieve, the stone which
the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the
corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence,
for they stumble at the word, being disobedient:
whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are an elect
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for
Gods own possession; that ye may shew forth the
excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into
his marvellous light; which in time past were no people,
but now are the people of God: which had not obtained
mercy, but now have obtained mercy."
These passages belong, as you see, to that very solemn (in some respects or on one side, tragic thing) the truth
that all that could and should have been the inheritance
and the vocation of Israel was lost by them and to them
because of their unbelief and was transferred to the
Church, the holy nation as the Church is here
designated by Peter. It is Peter who has taken those Old
Testament words and the word which the Lord Jesus Himself
took from the Old Testament and transferred to Himself;
it is Peter who has done that.
Peter has a peculiar place in this transition, an
interesting place, a very instructive place. The Lord had
said to Peter, Thou art Peter, a piece of rock;
upon this rock, (of Peters testimony, undoubtedly)
I will build My Church. Theres no doubt about
it that in Peters mind the Stone which was rejected
of the builders and became the head of the corner was
identical with the Rock upon which the Church would be
built. Peter was the one who heard that statement from
the Lord and it is Peter who, so many years afterward,
has taken up the thought here in his letter: "the Stone,
the Rock, the building of the Church thereupon, there
around, I will build". The Lord had in that
very connection of the rejected Stone becoming the head
of the corner, said the kingdom shall be taken from
you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruit
thereof. To Peter He had said and I will give
you the keys of the kingdom. And here is Peter
using this very phrase, a holy nation
answering to that which was in the declaration of the
Lord Jesus, taken from Israel as they were set aside,
I, the kingdom of heaven shall be taken from you
and given to a nation. Now Peter is here speaking
of a holy nation to show forth the excellencies,
corresponding to bringing forth the fruit thereof.
Now, Peter opens this letter, as you see, by indicating
that he is addressing the scattered of the dispersion
over the world; the saints of the dispersion in all these
many nations, in all these many nations and places or
parts of the earth. And he says, Ye, ye saints
scattered in the nations, dispersed over the earth, ye
are a holy nation, not youre going to
be, but now, as scattered everywhere, youre just a
nation in the nations but you are different from the
nations. Now our present emphasis this morning is upon
this one word, Ye are a HOLY nation. A holy
nation. Upon that word holy the tragedy of
Israel took place; the transference of all the divine
intention was effected. Upon that one word the Church
inherits all that. You see, the whole
change-over, the terrible tragedy and loss of Israel and
the glorious inheritance of the Church just hangs upon
one word: holy. Holy; everything rests upon that. If
Israels loss of the divine intentions for that
people as a nation is all due to this one thing: failure
in what God means by holiness, and if the Church comes in
only on that ground, then its a very
governing thing isnt it, this matter of what the
Lord means by holiness. And we could go as far as to say
there is no guarantee of the Church retaining its
inheritance and vocation beyond its holiness. It could
very well be said of people, even in this dispensation,
the Christian dispensation: "it shall be taken from
you and given to those bringing forth the fruits
thereof". Thats the only ground. You, no more
than Israel, can claim to stand and abide on mere
tradition, on mere history, on mere externals of practice
and teaching. The basis with God is holiness and what He
means by holiness.
No one can contemplate the awfulness of Israels
tragedy over these two thousand years without feeling
that here is the presence of something very, very great,
important - and in a sense something very terrible - this
matter of holiness. And you know that there are other
words into which this one word is translated. It simply
means, as we often say: sanctified, separated, set apart
for God; many ways of expressing it, but that's what it
is. This is something which belongs to God solely and
wholly and belonging to God it is sacred, it is holy,
it is sanctified, it is separated from
all that is contrary to God. That is holiness.
Now, for light on this matter we, of course, do have to
go back to the Old Testament and we begin with the
realization that after mans disobedience at the
beginning (and thats the heart of the trouble of
all unholiness as is here stated) the whole world, to use
the phrase of an apostle, fell into the arms of the
wicked one. The whole world lieth in the wicked
one. The whole world lieth in the wicked one.
That is the revelation of the early chapters of the Bible
isnt it? We need not stay to emphasize or to
illustrate or to cite; there it is. God beheld, God
looked down and saw that all men had gone
astray; the whole world lieth in the wicked one. Then God
moved to extricate from that world in the lap of the
wicked one, a people of a different kind.
We have His move with Abraham, and here, dear friends,
with all your interest in the life of Abraham and the
incidents in his life and all your study and reading of
that life, remember that the heart of everything
where Abraham was concerned was this one thing: to
separate from this world. So the Word came to Abraham
Get thee out of thy country, from thy
kindred, and from thy fathers house, get thee out!
Now this is a literal geographical movement but contains
a spiritual principle: a getting out of that
realm lying in the wicked one.
So Abraham went out from Ur of the Chaldees, in a typical
sense he went out from this world in the wicked one. And
then God promised him a son. He made promise of Isaac and
went away and left him, as He so often seems to do after
Hes made a promise - He leaves for a long time.
But, you notice, with one object; why did God
promise and then not fulfil His promise for so long and
leave Abraham so tested and tried by His promise, by His
Word? Why? For this one thing only: that that son had got
to be different from all other sons. That son could not
come the natural way. That son could not be like all
other sons of this world. He must be Gods
act. And so God saw to it that although He promised, the
natural way was impossible, simply closed down; no hope
along that line. And when at length Isaac was born, he
was Gods miracle, something not of this
world but of God.
But even so, God is going to ratify that and confirm that
principle. The day came when the lad had grown to youth,
the Lord said to Abraham take now thy son, thy
only, only son whom thou lovest and offer him and
so to death Isaac must go, in which all the natural
ties were severed and broken. And Isaac being brought
back as, in figure, by resurrection from the dead, was
simply put on supernatural ground again, the heavenly,
divine, supernatural ground of things was confirmed by
God in that event. See what God is doing? Putting
everything on holy ground.
You know, God can give us things that are undoubtedly
given us by God and we know it at the time, and then we
lay hold and impinge upon them and hold them to ourselves
and so our natural life comes right in on this matter to
take hold. The Lord takes us through drastic experiences
to sever our natural selves from divine things, to keep
them holy; because even our affections are not
always pure, not always holy. God put everything on that
ground, outside of this corrupt, devil-ridden,
devil-governed world. And who will not say that that is
the state of the world today. He did it with Abraham -
thats where He made His start toward a holy
nation. A holy nation
He laid the foundation in
holiness.
When His promise and covenant with Abraham had reached
the stage of a nation being in existence and Israel is in
Egypt, in the world, no doubt about it - in the lap of the
devil, the evil one, if Pharaoh is a type of the prince
of this world. You see, the Lord takes pains to show what
a tyrant he is; takes pains to show us how evil he is. I
venture to say there is no one in this place this morning
and there are few people in this world, who would put up
with half of what Pharaoh put up with without letting
those people go. And so God went through plague after
plague, right up to the tenth in death itself, for one
purpose: on the one side He is showing the nature of the
evil one, how evil he is. On the other, well, He
met Moses as you know, out there in the desert at the bush
alive with fire but never consumed, and this is the man
who is going to bring that people out of the power of
darkness, out of the bondage of the prince of this world,
out of this evil kingdom. And God meets him there and
what does God say? Put off thy shoes from off thy
feet for the ground and place whereon thou standest is
holy is holy. The instrument must in
figure, in type, be separated from the evil ground, the
evil act, the evil kingdom. No one can lead another soul
out of bondage who is still in bondage himself. No one
can help other people into a life in God who is not
separated from this world. So the very instrument, Moses
himself, has to come onto holy ground, consecrated
ground, separated ground, with what? Fire! Fire
between this world and that. Between God and the evil one
there is a fire which never dies. A fire which draws the
line of distinction between what is holy and what is not
holy.
To Egypt he goes with his commission and we know the
story, hes there in a kingdom, in a world which is
repudiated and got to be brought out but it is by virtue
of precious blood, the blood of the Lamb, the blood of
the Passover; by the mighty efficacious blood of a Lamb
without spot or blemish. Separated
by precious,
holy, blood. This is Peter speaking again, Ye were
not redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold
but with precious blood, as of a Lamb without spot and
blemish. And then, you would think that that had
effected it.
Forty years there in the wilderness and what is the one
thing that comes out so clearly during those forty years?
That, although they are out of Egypt, Egypt is not out of
them. For though they are geographically separated,
spiritually their hearts are still back in Egypt, they're
talking about Egypt, hankering for Egypt after all. And
so we come to Jordan, the mighty overflowing Jordan,
lying between them and that life as a nation which is to
satisfy God, fulfill a holy vocation. And the Jordan
flows deep and strong between. Their hearts in
Egypt and at last their hearts out of Egypt. You
see the principle is working all the time. God is
carrying this thing very deep.
And you pass on to later history in that nation when they
go into captivity and exile, and a remnant comes back.
You remember that crisis in the book of Ezra when
theyve come back and the house is being restored,
beautified; a crisis arose. It was over one thing: the
people had married foreign wives and the whole thing was
spoiled, came under arrest. It was as though God said, We
are not going on with this. And you read again what Ezra
did over that, brought everything up short on this
question of mixed marriages. All again a figure of the
spiritual mixture which God will not have.
Unholiness
the mark and line of distinctiveness
between what is of God and what is not of God, drawn fast
and hard.
Well, what are we going to say to all this? Thats a
very brief, imperfect survey, but dear friends, do you
see that the very beginning of the Christian life, the
very beginning of the Christian life, rests upon this one
historic law of God right through the ages which He
cannot overlook. The beginning of the Christian life is
called being born anew, or more correctly, born from
above. What does it mean? It means all that
Isaacs birth and resurrection meant in figure; it
means this, that by our very new birth we are translated
out of the authority of darkness into the kingdom of the
Son of Gods love. By our very new birth, our
conversion - call it what you will - the very beginning
of the Christian life is an absolute separation of
two kingdoms; a transference from one into another.
One is an unholy realm into which we are born and to
which we belong by nature. The other is a holy realm,
You are a holy nation, a nation
separated from this world unto God. New birth means that,
oh, that that was made clear to all right there at the
beginning how utter this thing is.
The Lord Jesus left people in no doubt about this; a
cleavage utter and absolute. He would take risks with
people, you would say probably: oh, why put them off, why
run the risk of offending them, why discourage them
saying Except, except, except all the time?
Ah, He was taking all the risks necessary about this
because the reality, the awful reality of this: you
CANNOT, you cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven
while you cling to this kingdom inimical to God, in any
way. The two things cannot go together. One is unholy.
The other is holy. And by new birth we cross a line which
is a very broad line, as broad as the Red Sea and as the
Jordan, as broad as the cross of the Lord Jesus. New
birth
its a life of holiness that we have
taken up or entered into; a life of holiness, separation
unto God. Complete separation unto God. Its to be a
walk in holiness. How much the New Testament has to say
about this, a walk in holiness that is separate unto God
in heart, in spirit, in life, from this world. And if we
knew it, a very large degree of our education, our
spiritual education and our discipline in the Christian
life under the hand of the HOLY Spirit, has to do with
those things in us which are mixed up, are mixed up;
were trying to make the best of two worlds. We are
trying to keep together, in compromise, things which
before God do not belong and are going to spell disaster
for us, mark you, disaster for us as truly as ever it
spelt disaster for Israel: going to lose the kingdom.
Its a tremendous thing.
The Lord calls for distinctiveness of life and testimony,
real distinctiveness of life and testimony. Is our life,
dear friends, is your life and my life in this world in
our connections and associations and so on, quite
distinct, no mistaking to what realm we belong, to Whom
we belong? No mistaking it? Or are we mixed in,
compromising, keeping on good terms with this world and
its people under the devils hand? If so, we stand
to lose terribly. We do. What sort of a testimony have
you got where you work in your business and its
associations? What sort of a testimony have we got in the
church? Are we really registering and making our mark in
the church, do we count in the church or are we
passengers? Is there something quite distinctive about
our lives that says that man, that woman, that young man,
that young woman is utter for God, theres no doubt
about it, you see it all the time, they are utter
for God; they are not playing at things, theres no
compromise with them. Now this sounds hard, but its
necessary.
Do you see whats involved? Dear friends, the secret
of power is holiness! It is. The secret of power is
holiness. If our lives are powerless it may be due to
this lack somewhere, somehow, of this utterness for God,
this separation unto God, of some kind of compromise
somehow, somewhere, with the prince of this world
whos robbing us of our spiritual power and vitality
on his own ground. The secret of power is holiness;
whatever you forget, remember that!
The secret of a testimony that counts is a holy life. It
is not our teaching, our truth, our practice, religious
ordinances and so on, our forms; it is nothing of that.
In the first place our real testimony is the testimony of
a holy life. It counts far more than all our words, it
really does. And remember, this being true, this is the
secret of divine support. The Lord will commit Himself to
His own ground: holiness. The Lord will stand by those
who stand for Him in His nature. The Lord will look after
such. And whatever we may have in this life, in this
world, we may have a lot but mark you, if we havent
got the Lord with us at last, its no gain.
Its no gain, its a terrible loss. Israel had
the ordinances and the oracles and the tradition and all
that; a mighty lot that they had, but at last they lost
the kingdom. They lost the kingdom; it was no gain was
it?
Well now, what are we concerned about? What are you
concerned about, what am I concerned about? I can focus
it all down to this one thing: Im concerned about
the Lord being with us and the Lord committing Himself to
us and Im concerned about a testimony in power, a
life that counts for God, leaving a mark for God, being
remembered for what was of God. This is the only
justification of our having come this way at all. And as
I see it, all that depends upon this utter separation
unto God, gathered into this word: holiness. Ye are
a holy nation. May we answer to the
description and to us will be the preciousness.
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