The Fight of the Faith by T. Austin-Sparks - Chapter 4 - Revelation in Relation to Sonship
by John Mark on 02/18/24
The
Fight of the Faith
by T. Austin-Sparks
Chapter 4 - Revelation in Relation to Sonship
Dear Saints,
This
message originally posted December 11, 2014.
My
notes:
Brother
Sparks defines sonship from many perspectives, and in this message helps us
understand that it is a very personal thing, not about what others are
experiencing. "'In our hearts' - that is where sonship begins, and it is
that which is sonship from beginning to end; an initial thing where we leap
clear of everything that is second-hand and the thing becomes first-hand, and
where it grows and grows and never stops growing as a first-hand thing. That is
sonship. If you understand and can grasp what that means, then you know what
sonship is."
As he
describes fresh revelation as that also which is very personal, "as though
the thing revealed had never been before, and no one else in all God's universe
had ever heard or seen it", I very clearly recall in my earlier Christian
life driving down Lewis Ave. in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and spotting a large truck
with a sign, "JESUS IS LORD". It was a sudden reality I somehow had
missed up to that point. Had you asked me if I believed in the deity of Christ,
I'd have quickly said Yes - but this was different. It became a fresh new
spiritual understanding that was all mine - as if I was the first person on
Earth to have realized it.
This
experience happened again before Morning Star Testimony Church was born.
Attending another assembly where Doug and Lori went, at that time I thought he
was a heretic and needed to be exposed. As I sat in a bible study led by him
right there in my living room, ready to jot down everything he said was in
error, he began his message with "Then there will be two men in the field;
one will be taken and one will be left." When he said the one taken is the
one taken into judgment and the other left to enter into the Millennial
kingdom, the exact opposite I had to that point believed, I instantly knew I
was hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd. I knew it was true. It was such as
Brother Sparks is speaking of - a new revelation spoken right into my heart. That's
when I discovered Doug was no heretic - and not long thereafter he became God's
gift to me as my pastor-teacher who would shepherd me for forty years.
In
this message, Brother Sparks speaks of "fresh revelation". It might
help to point out that he is not speaking of the error prevalent in some of the
churches in our day who receive what they call 'revelation from God' that is
additional to the written word of God and what they consider to be on the same
level of truth as the Bible. As the Apostle Paul prays that God "may give
to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the [full] knowledge of
Him" (Ephesians 1:17), this would be that "fresh revelation" of
what is written, not some new God-breathed, inspired word of/from God.
"Let us be very careful that we do not give the impression that we think
that we are constituted by a special revelation which none of the Lord's people
elsewhere have had or have. That is not the case, nor is that our idea at all.
What we do seek to stand and live for is that the full revelation of the Lord
Jesus shall come in our case in such a living way as to remove us altogether
from merely traditional ground, and put us on to living ground. That is what it
means, that the thing is living." Doug refers to it as "the act of
the Holy Spirit bringing specific spiritual illumination... causing the eyes of
our heart to be illuminated" (Ephesians 1:18).
In
Doug's commentary following this message, he referred to the next series of
messages he planned on going through, The Testimony and Its Vessel unto the
Time of the End by T. Austin-Sparks. That may be next I edit and re-post after
the upcoming last chapter in this series - Chapter 5 - The Mystery of the
Gospel.
Audio:
https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/12-11-14+Wednesday+Assembly.mp3
Recommended
Resources:
Erich
Sauer: In the Arena of Faith
https://amzn.to/3T3IGMx
F.B.
Meyer: Moses: The Servant of God
https://amzn.to/48cbneb