Faith Unto Enlargement Through Adversity (Transcript)
by T. Austin-Sparks
We turn to several passages of Scripture. The book of Genesis chapter 15, first verse: "After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." Verse 5: "And He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed...".
Chapter 17: "When Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of a multitude of nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kingdoms shall come out of thee. And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."
The letter to the Romans, chapter 4, at verse 17: "that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, A father of many nations have I made thee) before Him whom he believed, even God, who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were. Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be. And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb; yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him; but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on Him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification."
And the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 8: "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went."
Let me just simply and briefly state what is in mind at this time, that is, what is the Lord's message for us just now. If you look at those passages which we have just read, you will see five things. One, enlargement; two, establishment; three, life; four, faith; and then this extra and inclusive factor, all this brought into fulness at the end of the dispensation.
The Word of God gives us to understand that at the end God will have a state of Divine fulness corresponding to the word 'enlargement'. At the end, God will have things established, fixed. At the end, God will have things wholly characterised by Life, but all these will be through tried and proved faith. Some of you already recognise how that end is brought into view in the symbolism of the City - the holy City, New Jerusalem, seen as coming down from God out of heaven in the last chapters of the Bible: Divine fulness, everything brought to a state of finality, established, all characterised by Life - the Tree of Life, the river of water of Life - symbols. But leading up to that, all the way along, is this matter of tried and proved faith.
As we know the Christian world as it is in our time, we realise how these are the great things which are supremely necessary. The great necessity of Christians in our time, is spiritual, Divine enlargement - things are so small spiritually. Spiritual establishment - things are so weak and uncertain, and variable, and inconsistent, without assurance, without certainty amongst Christians. Divine Life - how great is the need for more Life, Divine Life, heavenly Life, a greater fulness of Life amongst the Lord's people! And, while we recognise these things to be the crying needs, I think we are all ready to admit that the only way for these things is that the Lord's people shall be really tested, really tried. We don't like the idea, but there it is. Everything needs to be put to the test, to be proved, in order to be established. And so we are already very conscious of a new movement of God amongst His people to test their faith, to really try their faith, to bring faith to maturity.
Now, this would seem to have been God's pathway for His people all down the ages: by tried, tested, proved and established faith to bring to enlargement, establishment and Life more abundant. Those are laws of the ways of God, principles of His dealings with His people. This leads us, then, to in the first place, a comprehensive view of this matter, before we get down to the practical applications.
The Bible has many angles. If you take it, and look at it from one standpoint, you may think that that is all that the Bible is about. You seem to be able to gather up the whole of the Bible into that one thing. It might be sin, judgment, death - it is an angle. It might be righteousness and Life - another angle. And so it has many such angles, and every one of them seems to be comprehensive, and you just give the Bible another turn, and the same thing seems to be true again; all the Bible is gathered up into that particular theme or matter. And so you go on, for the Bible is like that, you can see the whole of it by just turning it a little from one angle to another.
Now, you will see how true that is in the very clear instance that we have before us - this whole matter of enlargement by Life through faith. It would be very easy to gather all the Bible into that, and to say that that is what the whole Bible is about. Well, of course, it isn't, but it is one very comprehensive angle. Think again.
Englargement by Life Through Faith.
Those of you who know your Bibles at all will at once see how that runs right through. Supposing we change the metaphor, and say that there is a whole bunch of keys to the Bible - quite a large bunch of keys - and every one of them seems to be a master key to open the whole of the Bible. And on this large bunch of keys there seem to be three that are joined together, on their own ring, so to speak. And those three keys are these three things: faith, life, enlargement.
Faith opens the first door. That door leads to the next, which is Life. And through Life to the next, which is enlargement. Those three things always go together through the Word of God. Of course, this is clearly seen by the opposite. Unbelief is always shown in the Scripture to result in limitation, you just do not get any further - you stop short and stop dead where there's unbelief. So there's no enlargement, but only limitation where there's unbelief and therefore, there is no Life beyond, no greater, fuller Life because you cannot separate these things, you see, it's always just like that. These three things hang together - faith, Life, enlargement.
All the great crises in the history of God's people, as we have it in the Scriptures, had these three features. If you like to begin right at the beginning in Genesis, in the first chapters with Adam, it's perfectly plain there that the whole question of establishment, of enlargement, and of life, hung upon faith. And when he refused, or ceased, to believe God, that was a dead stop, a full stop. No more and that was death. At that point death entered in and limitation so far as God was concerned, and so far as fellowship with God and all that God means in the life, so far as all that was concerned, that hung upon his faith - or his refusal to believe. If only he had believed God, the way would have been wide open to continuous and unceasing enlargement, establishment and Life.
You go on in that book of Genesis to these chapters from which we have picked out some verses this afternoon, 15 and 17. We come to Abraham. See, the Lord comes in with Abraham on this line of enlargement, of establishment, and of Life. Those are the three great things that sum up Abraham's life with God. Everything hung upon faith. All this that God said about this multiplying, this tremendous increase, this enlargement, and establishing him in the covenant forever; forever - the finality of this - and this wonderful principle of Life which is so apparent in the case of Abraham. When death would argue that there was no prospect at all in himself and in Sarah and in every situation, yet Life is in view in spite of it all - but all those things just hung upon faith. He believed God. If he hadn't, there would have been none of it.
You pass into Exodus, the great crisis in the national life of Israel in the exodus itself, the deliverance from Egypt. Chapter 12 of Exodus just rests upon this: "Now then, the whole question of your enlargement, your release unto enlargement, the whole question of your being established and brought to finality, to fullness; and it's the whole question of your life." The central word perhaps in Exodus 12 is Life, isn't it? The slaying on the one side, of Egypt's firstborn, and the deliverance of Israel into life through death. These things go together and that was the crisis. but it all hung upon this matter of faith - faith in action: whether they would take the lamb, whether they would sprinkle the blood, whether they would gird their loins and take their staff in their hand. You see, all an attitude and spirit of believing God. Everything hung upon that.
Passing through the book of Joshua, or through Numbers into Joshua, and again it's the land that's in view - the land of promise, with all that it meant to them historically and all that it means typically and spiritually. Jordan lies between Numbers and Joshua and what a matter of enlargement that was! From the wilderness, with all its limitations, its 'pent-upness', its emptiness, into that largeness, that fullness, into that liberty; that, to be established in the land.
The wilderness never, never, had any idea in God's thought and purpose of permanence at all. That was only a phase of things to be got through as quickly as the spiritual condition of His people would allow. His thought was: into the land and established for ever. The promise to Abraham was that the land was covenanted for ever: finality and Life!
Jordan, overflowing all its banks, running there between, speaking of death to be overcome in its fulness, in its depths; and into the land, it's Life triumphant over death. But again, everything hanging upon their faith, upon faith. Would they, would they move in faith? Well, one generation could not do that, and went back and perished in the wilderness. But another generation did it and into the land they went. It was all these things, these three things rested upon faith.
Pass into the book of Samuel and onward and you move out of that terrible four hundred years covered by the book of Judges - the most terrible book in the Bible, I think - the most painful, shameless, story of Israel. Oh, what a story: its death, its limitations, its uncertainty.
On out of the book of Judges into Samuel: a transition toward a new state of enlargement. This phase will end with David and Solomon, with the enlargement of the kingdom beyond anything that had ever been before, establishment and Life. Again, it is all on the basis of faith, the faith in some caused the movement to go forward. Faith in Samuel's mother, brought in Samuel; we dare not stay with all the detail. Right on, last, of course, faith was lost, unbelief prevailed. And again it's a return to limitation, a return to bondage, a return to spiritual death, a return to uncertainty. It all hangs upon faith. Shall we go on?
Well, you can look at the whole period just before the captivity, and after the captivity with the remnant, and you'll find these things are holding together all the time, three things.
You pass into the New Testament, you find that these are the things which cover the gospel, the four gospels; the whole issue is now that of enlargement, of being established, and of fulness of Life. That's the issue in the gospels, all in Christ. And now the question is: believe it; a question of faith.
The same is true in the Acts and in the Revelation, these are the things governing those first chapters of the book of the Revelation where the churches are dealt with. It's just a matter now of spiritual limitation or spiritual enlargement: of being established, or having the lampstand moved out of its place, with nothing established, nothing final. It's now a matter of Life, through the Living One Who became dead and is alive for evermore. The whole challenge is on this matter of Life, and whether it's to be Life or death, and it is focused in the one question of faith.
And so you end with the last chapters of the Revelation, and there you have these things brought to fulness in the great City as a symbolic representation of the church. What have you? Oh, how great it is, how great it is, how full, how enlarged, how solid it is; established! How living it is! And it is the very embodiment of tried, tested and proved faith.
Now here is the whole Bible, you see, gathered into this, and it's a tremendous lesson to us. The Bible simply says this to us and our Christian lives are based upon the Bible, upon the whole Bible. What does that mean? Well, it means this, that our spiritual lives are concerned with spiritual fulness, as we shall see as we go on; are concerned with our being established to eternity, and not carried away with time. And our Christian lives are concerned with this whole matter of Divine Life brought into complete triumph over the last enemy, death. But the thing therefore that governs the Christian life in these three aspects, which comprehend it, is this whole matter of faith. This matter of faith: tried faith, proved faith, established faith, perfected faith. What a lot that explains, doesn't it? That is the basics.
Well, now we must look for a few minutes at these words that we have used, these terms we're employing. We will take perhaps for this afternoon, just this matter of enlargement.
Enlargement
We can use the alternative word 'fullness' - and we shall do quite a lot - but here, I have a special thought in my mind in preferring this word 'enlargement', because I think it's a very living question and issue. This whole matter of enlargement, whether the Lord is going to enlarge us, whether we are going to be enlarged, because enlargement is a governing thought of God. All the way through the Bible, as we have seen, God's thought is enlargement. God is always thinking in terms of enlargement, of increase, of final fullness. God never finds any pleasure at all in emptiness and in smallness. God dislikes emptiness, and always reacts against emptiness.
We open our Bibles and what is practically, although not literally, the first thing that we read? After we have read: "In the beginning God...", and then a few words more, we read: "And the earth was without form and void" - or if you like: 'waste and empty' and empty - "and the Spirit of God...". The earth was empty, and the Spirit of God - what? Reacted against that state of emptiness. It was as though God said, 'This is not My mind at all; this is altogether contrary to My thought. I am against this, and I am going to do something about it.' God would have everything in Divine fullness - that is, in abundance. That's His thought for the earth, for the people. And so the Spirit of God, brooding over this void, this emptiness, begins to work, and every stage and phase of the Divine activity is to fill.
He fills the earth with the vast range of the vegetable kingdom - seeds in abundance and life within the seeds capable of endless production and reproduction. He fills the earth with the animal kingdom. He fills the sea, and says: "Let the living creatures swarm in the sea" swarm in the sea! And then, creating man, He says: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" - 'I am against this emptiness, this void'. And on He moves on that principle, governed by that thought.
Reaching Abraham, as we have seen: "I will greatly multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand of the sea-shore". Well, comprehend that, if you can! That's Divine thought; beyond all comprehension! God thinks in terms of enlargement. It's always like that.
Oh, how much you can gather up if you like to go to the Bible on this very matter! Remember, the Lord Jesus came to express the thoughts of God in very practical ways, and, amongst many other things He said, He spoke of a great feast which was made. And the guests were bidden, but they did not come - they made excuses. And then the man who made the feast said to his servants: "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be full!" See? Christ bringing God's thoughts into this world - 'That My house may be full.' And I suppose in the New Testament the day of Pentecost is the greatest example and expression of this Divine thought. When the Spirit came, a mighty, rushing wind in form or in manner, "filled the whole house where they were sitting". Filled! And then it's applied to each believer: "Be filled with the Spirit". See? It's very clear, isn't it, that this is a governing thought of God: enlargement.
And the Lord Jesus has not only pointed that out as what the Lord, what God would have, but He has said on the other hand, that it is exceedingly dangerous to be empty. He spoke of a certain 'house', which was a man, possessed of a demon, an unclean spirit. And He visualised the casting out of the unclean spirit, and the house being 'swept and garnished', but left empty. And because no other occupant takes possession, the unclean spirit comes back to his old home, and sees it empty, and the Lord says, "He goes and taketh seven others like himself," and fills the empty house. It's a dangerous thing to be empty, to be void. If God doesn't fill, the devil will.
Beware my friends of negative conditions, of not being positive, of not being definite. Beware of vacuums in your heart, in your mind, in your life. David one day was on the housetop in a state of a vacuum, at a time when kings go out to war. And he was a king, and a warring king, he went onto the housetop. Instead of being occupied in a positive way, he was in a passive state. And we know the disaster that overtook him, from which he never recovered all his life. It is a dangerous thing to be empty. The devil will see to the filling up of any space that he can occupy. The Lord wants to fill.
But it is not just size, that the Lord is after, it is fulness! It is not just bigness, it is fulness. The ultimate word in this matter in the Bible is Ephesians 3:19: "that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God". Think of that! This is said to believers together in their corporate, their related life - to the church, it is "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all... that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God". Think of it: the fulness of God! The fulness of God, that is, God coming in in such a way that there is no room for anything else. The illustration of this in the Old Testament was in the temple when the cloud and the glory filled the sanctuary and the priests had to go out. The Lord fills, and there's no room for anything or anyone else. That's the fulness of God.
It seems to me that that word 'void' or 'empty' at the beginning of the book of Genesis, is the result of a judgment. That, of course, has been surmised, some people think guessed. But you can look at it from another standpoint that I think is confirmatory. When the Lord sent His people Israel into Babylonian captivity for the seventy years, the land was waste. The land was waste! The land fell into a state that very largely corresponded to this state at the beginning - void, waste and empty. Now, in the case of Israel's going into Babylonian captivity, it was a judgment, a judgment upon their unbelief and their idolatry, so that the waste, the void, was a judgment. And it would seem that's how it was "in the beginning", desolation as the result of a judgment upon a former creation.
But what is the point? The issue must have been this issue - for it has always been this issue, it must just have been this matter: that God was not allowed to fill all things. God's place was either shared with other things, or God was driven out. The end of this present world, as shown to us in the New Testament, is going to be like that. There will be a point at which God will be finally rejected by this world, and will have no place. We are moving fast toward that. The result? The burning up of this world - judgment, destruction and everything waste - for a period, shorter or longer we don't know, a state again of desolation before there's a new heaven and a new earth, and all things are created anew. Judgment! And judgment is always upon this one thing - whether God is all and in all, or not.
Therefore, enlargement - the fullness which is God's thought - rests upon this matter of God having full place; and my dear friends, that is the basis of all testing of faith. God presses that point closer and closer as we go on: whether we will believe God sufficiently to let Him have His place in this impossible situation.
Well, what do we mean by the fulness of God? It is not God coming in in person and filling everything, but it is surely God in nature filling all things.
God is Light
The Scripture says God is Light, then, where God is, there is no darkness, there is no room for darkness. And when God comes in in fulness there is "no darkness at all." It is all "light in the Lord" - all Light in the Lord! And the Lord is moving on this line, dear friends, with you and with me, to get us completely out of our darkness into His light! That is, to bring us into the light as He is in the light. He's moving, and oh, how faith is a factor in this matter of coming to know the Lord, coming into the light of the Lord, coming into understanding, whatever word you may use for Light. It is seeing, it is knowing, it is understanding.
But you and I never come to one fragment of extra, real Light, real Light (I'm not talking about information, I'm talking about spiritual Light) only along the line of tests of faith, faith really tested. You want to know the Lord? You want to have more of the Lord?
A dear woman who felt that she was far too quickly provoked, far too short-tempered, said to a dear servant of God, "Oh, do pray for me, that I may have more patience, I do need more patience. Do pray for me that I may have more patience!" And the servant of God said, "All right, let's get down and pray now", and so they knelt down and he said, "Oh Lord, do send more tribulation into this dear sister's life..." and she stopped him. "No! I didn't say I wanted tribulation - I want patience!" "Ah," he said, "but the Word says: 'tribulation worketh patience'".
Oh yes, we want more of the Lord, but we are not always so ready to go the way that He would take us to have more of Himself. But it is that way - and what is tribulation if it is not testing of faith? [It's like that.] Putting us into situations where it does take some faith in God to live and to go on. And yet it's possible - it's so possible.
It's only a week or two ago that I was in the west of the United States, in California, and a brother said that we would go to see some dear children of God, about some sixty miles drive. These dear people down there had begged us to come. By the way, those who didn't care what they said about this the other day, are a wonderful example of really meaning business with God when after a long and very heavy day's work, hard work, these several, dear children of God, bundled into a car without having had time to take a meal, or something with them in the car, and came a hundred miles every night, for one meeting. And after the meeting, rather late, back home again, reaching home after midnight; the same for the next ten or more days. That's business with the Lord, isn't it?
Now, they begged us to go and see them for some fellowship and so we started out in the morning. And these dear children of God were living in perhaps one of the most worldly, unpropitious, impossible situations spiritually that you could think of - the week-end resort of all the Hollywood stars. And I can't describe that, the utter abandonment to the flesh. We got there, and found our friends, our two friends living in what they call 'trailers' over there (we call them caravans) in a trailer, a large trailer, right at the centre of a great trailer park, of all these worldly people in luxurious trailer homes, but surrounded, as you see, by the utmost sensuality, fleshliness, indulgence. We went in, and had a most blessed afternoon with them in the things of the Lord - a most precious time. And when we'd spent the whole afternoon, with a touch of heaven, a brother said: "Perhaps you won't believe it, but there are sixteen out-and-out Christians in this trailer park. I am going to fetch some of them". He went across and brought back two dear children of God, elderly, saintly. And without any going round matters at all and talking on generalities, we're right at the things of the Lord instantly, and we sat down. Very blessed. We could have gone on all night! We were so sorry we had to leave. We could have gone on and brought all the others in. The brother said, "We all meet here in this trailer, sixteen of us, and have a very blessed time of fellowship."
Now, why am I saying this? In the most unlikely place on earth - yes, the most impossible place for anything really of the Lord, of a spiritual character - and there, right in that place (I dare not put names to it) there are saints walking in white raiment, in living fellowship with the Lord. Do you say, you say, "Oh, the place I have to live in and work in is impossible for any spiritual life or spiritual growth - everything is against me." Remember that! The Lord can enlarge you anywhere if He calls you to be there. It's the argument, you see, the impossible.
Well, think of Abraham, think of Abraham and the impossible. Enlargement, but not because everything was propitious, not because everything made it so easy and was so helpful. No, there can be light in the darkest place if the Lord is there, the increase of the Lord.
I had, having heard of that situation, expressed the wish that those dear friends could have been got out of it, but when I left them I had changed my view entirely. I don't know that they would really be the better for getting out of this. This is the thing that is enlarging them spiritually: it's throwing them on the Lord, it's making them know the Lord. There's nothing here but the Lord; everything else is against the Lord, it's only the Lord, but there they are.
It is the fulness of God, and that is in terms of Light, even in darkness; of love - for God is love - love in a realm of hatred. God is Life in a realm of death. God is holy in a realm of unholiness. "That ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God."
Now I must close. There's much more about this matter of enlargement. Remember that was the governing thing in the sovereign gifts of the ascended Lord. "When He was ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men... and He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets... and some evangelists, some pastors and teachers". What for? "For the perfecting of the saints... till we all attain unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ". Every Divine gift in ministry has fulness as its object and its governing motive.
Let me close with this for the moment, that spiritual measure is always the test as to whether a thing is of God. It is not the measure of our doctrinal knowledge, not even the measure of our Bible knowledge as such. It is not the accuracy or correctness of our technique in form and procedure. It is the degree of God. We can have all those others, and there really not be a degree of God. It is the degree of God that counts, the measure of God - it is all that matters when we meet and when others meet with us.