The Testimony and Its Vessel unto the Time of the End - by T. Austin-Sparks
by John Mark on 03/06/24
Chapter 4 -
The Universal Range of the Eternal Purpose
Dear Saints,
This
message originally posted in December 28, 2014.
My notes:
As Brother Sparks instructs us of God’s eternal
purpose, he identifies that which is most important for today – the culmination
and consummation of the church age that will bring about the day of the Lord
and the millennial kingdom: “What the Lord is after, what the Lord needs, what
the Lord is seeking to possess Himself of is a vessel in such relationship to
Himself and His throne in the heavens, as will bring that throne and that
heavenly dominion and authority very mightily to bear upon the whole spiritual
system of His enemy, the principalities and powers and the world rulers of this
darkness and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies, as they have control
of this cosmos; to register the throne of God upon those forces and upon the
cosmos.”
Doug refers to this as the purpose and reason for
Morning Star Testimony Church and its ministry to SRA survivors.
I wonder if most Christians think God’s eternal
purpose is getting people saved so we can go to heaven. Once we have that
‘ticket’ to glory, we can just sit back, enjoy God’s abundant life, and wait
for that glorious day Jesus comes for His church. Do many of us know there’s a
warfare we’ve been conscripted to fight in? Do we know there’s an enemy totally
invested in keeping us dumbed down and ignorant of our spiritual calling? Do we
believe that since it’s in the Bible and has been prophesied that it will automatically
happen? Didn’t Daniel believe Jeremiah’s prophecy that the captivity of Israel
would end after seventy years? Why pray for something that is going to happen
anyway?
“God does nothing but in answer to
prayer.” John Wesley
“It is on prayer that the promises wait for
their fulfilment, the Kingdom waits for its coming, and the glory of God waits
for its full revelation.” Andrew Murray (With Christ in the School of Prayer)
Daniel was God’s prayer instrument through
which the prophecy is fulfilled. Had Daniel just went with the flow there in
Babylon and decided he had more important things to do than pray three times a
day, day after day, God would have raised up another. Instead of seeking his
own interests, Daniel travailed for the Lord’s interest. Therefore, Daniel was
entrusted with such a far-reaching prophecy we are only now coming into its
revelation as to what will happen as Satan’s kingdom is destroyed and God’s
kingdom is finally established on Earth.
As Doug read, “The testimony of Jesus… (we are)
joined with Him in His heavenly position for that testimony not only to men,
but to men by reason of having dealt with the spiritual powers and
intelligences back of men”, he identified this as the purpose of our corporate
weekly prayer meetings for about 40 years.
“Not all the members of the Church which is His
Body are there, or are going on there, but the Lord will from His people obtain
a company which will be the vanguard of the whole, and which will go on with
Him and take the heavenly place and be His instrument for the breaking through
and leading a way for the others. That is the peculiar vessel upon which the
heart of the Lord is set.” If we don’t answer God’s call, others will, but will
result in our ultimate loss of potential reward. Spiritual infants will not be
those ruling and reigning with Christ in His soon-coming Kingdom. This is a
matter of sonship – those who attain to sonship in which God can entrust His
authority. “The vessel, the Church, the Body, will be the instrument of
administration; administrative in relation to the throne.” The “prodigal son”
for a time only sought for self-interest, but when he repented and returned to
his father in humility and submission, he could then, and only then, be
entrusted with the father’s robe and ring.
“We must be crucified to the world, and
crucified as men to the flesh, and thus must any ground of Satanic activity be
taken away from him so that he has nothing which is his essential occasion for
bringing about an arrest in the testimony. That is essentially the meaning of
our being in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” We must experientially come to an
end in who we are in Adam, dead in trespasses and sins, and experience
resurrection life in Christ with no ground, no foot-hold, no occasion for Satan
to thwart our purpose for being here in this particular time when Jesus is
finishing the process of building His church. Once that is complete, the
fulness of the Gentiles, the number of those chosen in Christ before the
foundation is reached, and the goal attained, “the unity of the faith, and of
the [full] knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect [mature] man [i.e.:
sonship], to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”, then the
day of the Lord can commence, and 7 years later the Lord and His bride come to
Earth to wipe out the enemies of the Kingdom and establish His rule and reign.
Satan is doing all he can to thwart that day – or at least delay it
indefinitely – but as prophesied, it will come to pass. It’s our opportunity to
hasten that day: “what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and
godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.” (1 Peter
3:11-12)
Link
to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/12-28-14+Sunday+Assembly+edited.mp3