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That He Might Fill All Things

by T. Austin-Sparks

Messages given in conference, August 1962.

Contents

Chapter 1 - The Greatness of Christ

Chapter 2 - Emptying Unto Fulness

Chapter 3 - The Eternal Purpose of God

Chapter 4 - The Essential Service of the Church

Chapter 5 - The Conflict Against the Fulfilment of the Purpose of God

Chapter 1 - The Greatness of Christ

Reading: "Wherefore he saith, When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)" Ephesians 4:8,9,10.

“That he might fill all things”. That is a consummate statement. Into it, as you will see by the whole context, the eternities and the ages are gathered up as to divine Purpose.

We know that the letter to the Ephesians was a circular letter sent to certain churches in Asia; and in this letter the apostle poured like a torrent the very quintessence of his spiritual knowledge: a knowledge which had come to him by what he in other places called “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:12) or: “It was the good pleasure of God... to reveal his Son in me” (Galatians 1:15,16). That revelation to and in the apostle was very full indeed. It was a knowledge derived from experience, experience which began on the Damascus road. What a knowledge broke upon this servant of the Lord at that time in that event! Knowledge which drove him to the desert to think about it, to examine its significance, to try to fathom something of its depths. It kept him there in the desert for three years — the breaking of a new world of spiritual knowledge upon him.

Later the apostle said that there had happened in his life history another mighty opening of heaven. He said he was “caught up even to the third heaven... and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” (2 Corinthians 12:2,4). It is an unfortunate word, that word “lawful”, because it does not exactly convey what the apostle really said. He really said, or meant: “which it is impossible for a man to utter” — “unspeakable words which it is impossible for a man to utter”. That must have been a wonderful fulness of knowledge!

And we know that on several other occasions the Lord Jesus came to him, stood by him, and spoke to him: and out of all this experience his knowledge was growing. It was not possible for the apostles in those days to take journeys swiftly as we can today. They had to travel and traverse long distances on foot, spending many hours in that way, and nights aside, and no doubt the apostle was much in meditation as he went on his way from place to place, over weeks, and months, and years, and this inspired meditation was building up this wonderful spiritual knowledge in him.

From time to time, in relation to specific needs and requirements here and there, to particular situations, he embodied in letters some fragments — mighty fragments — of this rich revelation which had come to him, and was all the time coming to him. Where did the apostle get all that that we have, for instance, in the latter part of what, in our arrangement, is the eighth chapter to the Romans? Going right back before the world was, telling us what happened by divine act when Adam brought the creation into bondage and it was subjected to vanity. Where did he get all that about foreordination? “Foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29). And the much more that is there that you and I are quite sure no man could ever find by searching, or by studying, however great a brain he might have. Those latter verses of Romans 8 are a mighty fragment of revelation!

Again, where did he get that fifteenth chapter of the first letter to the Corinthians? It is all about the diversity of glorified bodies in resurrection and the nature of the body of resurrection of believers. It is a very rich chapter! We have explored it long and deeply, but we know that we have not fathomed it.

In his letter to the Thessalonians, how did Paul come to know just exactly what would happen when the Lord returns? What is happening to the saints who have already left this earth: what is going to happen to the saints who are here when the Lord comes? Where did he get it all? It is rich, it is deep, it is full: but it is only a fragment of the whole of that wealth of spiritual knowledge.

But now, at last he is free from all his travelling and all the diffusion of many activities here and there. At last he is able to do what he had been unable to do before. And if this letter suggests or indicates anything, he is able to do now what he has longed to do, what he has waited for the opportunity to do — just pour out of that fulness which had been accumulating through the years: just pour out of his spiritual fulness.

And we are not surprised that that word “fulness” is very characteristic of this letter. True, it is the fulness of Christ, but the apostle has been brought into much of that. So, at long last, he is able to sit down and open up the floodgates of that spiritual store and pour it into this letter. Like the physical imprisonment of the apostle at this time, his great store of light and spiritual knowledge had been circumscribed and confined, but now the sovereign Lord had ordained that the physical imprisonment should make possible the release of the light for the church for the whole of this dispensation.

But the release! You cannot read this letter carefully and watchfully and feelingly without feeling that it is like the release of a bursting dam. You meet that feeling in the language which is crowded into this brief letter, the breaking of all grammatical barriers and the vastness of the concepts that are here. Think alone of the many superlatives in language which he uses! We referred to the repetition of the word “fulness”. If you could really sense the feeling of the apostle at this time you could understand how that word dropped from his pen so often. “Exceeding”, — “Exceeding greatness of his power” (1:19): “The exceeding riches of his grace” (2:7). “The riches” — “The riches of the glory of his inheritance” (1:18): “the riches of his grace”. And “glory”. Underline the word “glory” in this letter. See how it is constantly coming out. “Glory” everywhere here. “Abundantly” — “Exceeding abundantly above” (3:20). “Surpassing”. This is an attempt to express himself in language which calls for every kind of superlative at his command. And yet he is defeated!

And as for the grammar! Perhaps you have not worried yourself very much about that when reading the letter, but if you try to study it and reduce it to something simple, you have found yourself quite defeated. For instance, there is the longest sentence without a period in the New Testament at the beginning of this letter. And as for breaking the barriers of language: he starts off along a line, and then goes off at a tangent and puts in something altogether irrelevant, it seems. A long paragraph — and then he comes back to where he broke off, or where he started. That is not very helpful, you know, if you are trying to follow closely a sequence of thought. Yes, he is full of tangents and interruptions in his statements here.

And then, as to the concepts, these fragments: “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (1:4). “In the heavenlies” five times repeated. (By the way, you may need your mentality adjusting on that word. He is not talking about the heavens; he is talking about the heavenlies. And the difference is: the heavens are a realm, if you like a geographical realm. The heavenlies are a spiritual concept. The letter is based upon the spiritual concept of things, not a geographical.) This five-times-repeated “heavenlies”, that is the church’s place. The celestial principalities and powers looking on and learning from the activities of God in the church: “Now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places” (3:10). And then the diabolical forces in the heavenlies. What concepts are here! How tremendous this Paul is! And that very phrase itself: “Our wrestling is... against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness” (6:12). Those hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenlies, in the spiritual realm, that goes beyond all our power to understand. “Foreordained”! These words which have been the bane and trouble of the theologians all through the centuries — foreordained, predestinated, adoption. What a wealth there is in every one of them! And what about this six-fold repetition of the word “mystery”?

And then to come to our mighty fragment: “That he might fill all things”. Are we not right in saying that the apostle is too full for words, that the gates have burst and this mighty torrent of spiritual knowledge is breaking up almost beyond his control? But what is it all about? What is all this? And the answer? No, it is not just doctrine, not just light, truth, teaching. The explanation is that for Paul Christ had burst all the bounds and bonds of this universe. All this was but his hopeless attempt at bringing Christ into view as he had come to see Him, to understand Him, to know Him. Yes, it was an impossible task, and we would be right in concluding that no-one felt it more than the apostle who made this mighty effort to bring the greatness of his Christ to the church. Christ, Who for him had out-ranged all bounds of time, took him back into the ages of eternity past, before the world was, and carried him on — as he uses the phrase — “unto the ages of the ages” (Galatians 1:5 — R.V. margin). Christ for him had out-ranged all time limits, had outbounded all limits of space. He ascends into the highest heavens and Christ is there; descends into the deepest depths and Christ has fathomed and plumbed them. Christ has compassed the all-above and all-beneath of space and, as Paul says, has embodied all the divine fulness: “It was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell” (Colossians 1:19). And more: Christ has transcended all other authorities and all other rule, every principality and power and every name. Christ was above all. The greatness of Paul’s Christ led him to make this, which, as we have said, he, perhaps more than anyone else, felt to be a hopeless effort: defeating all language to bring Christ as He really is in His dimensions and fulness, into view.

But that, of course, is not all. With this, and set over against any idea that might come into our minds, and the minds of the Lord’s people, that all this about Christ was exclusively isolated to Himself — that is, to Christ — Paul had seen that an elect body, chosen in Christ, was bound up with and included in all this that he had seen in Christ. Here he calls the church the very complement of this Christ. It is the fulness of Him. The real word is “the very complement”, the completion of Him “that filleth all in all” (1:23). Paul had seen this elect body as bound up with this immensity of Christ. And that accounts for this sublime thing in the letter — thirteen times he uses the word “grace”.

First, the unspeakable greatness of Christ, the immeasurable greatness of Christ, the transcendent glory of Christ, the unspeakable significance of Christ in God’s universe from eternity to eternity. And then he says: “God, ...even when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ”(2:4,5). “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (1:4). We are brought into this as our inheritance in union with Him. No wonder the word “grace” falls over itself in this letter again and again! Grace! “The riches of his grace” (2:7).

Whether you and I are moved by this or not, we have said — and it was very true — the apostle could not contain himself any longer. We have seen that he no sooner got into that imprisonment — and between the times when the visitors were coming — than he just gave himself up to this two-fold object of setting forth, on the one hand, the greatness of Christ as he had seen it, and, on the other hand, the greatness of grace in calling him and the church into that divine fulness.

Grace! “Even when we were dead through our trespasses, (God) quickened us together with Christ” (2:4). That is the beginning of grace: union with Christ in His new risen life. But trace grace through this letter and see how it is leading on and on until at last it sees this church in the ages of the ages together with Him in His ultimate and final fulness, His eternal and universal fulness. What grace!

So we are led, to our fragment: “That he might fill all things”. This incomprehensible “He” — the centre of all things. Look at some other fragments in that connection.

You remember John himself had spoken about this. In the first chapter of his gospel he tells us that “All things were made by him” (John 1:3). Turn to the companion letter, the letter to the Colossians, chapter one: “For in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence... and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself” (Col. 1:16-18,20). Then the letter to the Hebrews. It may not have come actually from the pen of Paul, but undoubtedly from the influence of Paul. — “At the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” (Hebrews 1:2): “For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory” (Hebrews 2:10). This phrase “All things” of which Christ is the very essence and substance.

Now it is this One about whom we are thinking, on whom we are concentrating, this centre of “all things” — Jesus Christ. The Bible throughout is a progressive history of this One: the unfolding of this mighty “He”, who is to fill all things. That history begins with an intimation. Just an intimation which is very often missed and overlooked. That history ends with this passage about His filling all things. The intimation? “In the beginning God” (Genesis 1:1). That is where the Bible begins: but that name “God”, as you know, is in the plural form indicating that there is more than one person. There is another — and a third — gathered into that form of the name of God. And as the story grows the second One intimated as being present there becomes more and more discernible. It is not long before He assumes a name and is seen and heard by men. He appears to men in the many theophanies of the Old Testament. Sometimes at the beginning they describe Him as a man appearing, but when He goes they speak of Him as the Lord. You will call to mind those occasions. This One — the Lord. In those divine appearances His becoming known by men. Later He takes human form in a specific incarnation and lives and moves and works and teaches among men. Later still, in a still more intimate way, He reveals Himself in a resurrection body to individuals, groups, companies, and they are in no doubt about it. Whereas at the beginning they had questions, wondered whether they had seen a spirit, at the end they had no doubt. They knew who He was. They could say, “We have seen Him. We know Him.” And then finally He is seen by all creatures in heaven and earth, so that every eye beholds Him. He is known by “a great multitude, which no man could number” (Revelation 7:9).

So we are shown Him in the Bible in His aloneness with the Father before times eternal. We are shown Him in the busy activities of the creation, creating all things. We are shown Him with the wayward nation in its wilderness wanderings as the angel of His presence. We are shown Him in this same Bible returning as the victorious Monarch, the King of Glory, and the everlasting gates opening to receive Him back after His campaign here with evil and the false rulers of this world. We are shown Him coming again to judge the nations, to set up His Kingdom. Are we right in saying that the Bible is a progressive history and unveiling of this One, this “He” who is to fill all things?

Notice: we have marked seven stages in this history, His history. In the eternal past, in creation, in the Old Testament age, in the earthly life, in His present session and intercession in heaven, in the great Day of the Lord and in the eternal future. That is really the Bible story. It is the story of a Person, the story of this mighty “He” of whom we are thinking, who is to fill all things.

In that seven-fold progressive revelation of Him in the Bible, the outstanding feature, the feature which comes to our hearts with such comfort, is His expanding grace. Note how grace is growing, is developing. What grace! His expanding power and His expanding glory. Trace that three-fold development — grace, power and glory — in Christ Jesus right through the Bible.

All this brings us back to our little clause — it is wrong to call it a little one! — “All things”. He has expanded to the full range of “All things”, and, having done so, He is to fill all things Himself. You know that it is a phrase scattered in the New Testament, particularly in the letters of Paul as we have noted, related to Christ. “All things”. In creation — and I would have you note that it is not only said that He created all things Himself, that is, that all things were created by Him, but they are created in Him. It opens a door to very much profitable reading of the Word. God has through Christ, His Son, by the Eternal Spirit, created all things in Christ. That is, He has made Christ the encompassing, encircling sphere of all things in creation itself. The creation is bounded by Christ in the thought and intention of God. Eventually there will be no created thing in this universe outside of Christ, because they were all created in Him. If they have gone out, they have been given the option in this dispensation to return into Christ. If not, they are for ever expelled from the whole domain of Christ, and all that does remain is found, as was intended, in Christ.

You and I, the church, are a new creation in Christ. Creation! And, as we read in Colossians 1:20 “through him to reconcile all things unto himself”. All things are reconciled in Christ. Again: “that in all things he might have the pre-eminence” (Col. 1:18) All things under His pre-eminence. Again: “In him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17 — R.V. margin). And finally “That he might fill all things”.

What is the concern in our hearts as we say all this to you? Would there not be a wonderful and glorious emancipation from nine-tenths — if not ten-tenths — of our troubles if we only had the apprehension of Christ that the apostle Paul had? Put it in another way. Most of our troubles are due not to our mental failure, but our heart failure really to grasp and apprehend the greatness of the Christ to whom we have been introduced, and to whose fellowship we have been brought by the grace of God. Is it not the need, the greatest need today everywhere, and particularly in the church of God, to recover something of this immensity of Christ? We are too small, are we not? Too petty. That is the cause of our trouble, of all our troubles. How mean we are! How paltry! How little! What small-minded, small-hearted people we are! How occupied we become with the little things that really, after all, don’t matter so much! What a low level we are content to live upon! How this very nature of ours is always bringing things down and down and down to the level of what is unworthy of Christ!

Perhaps you have had similar exercise to myself over many things, and, not least, how this man Paul at this very time of writing this letter, could write it! How could he write it? He is in prison, cut off from all his activities and work, separated from all his friends in the churches. There is a movement on foot to isolate him spiritually as well as in other ways, leaving him, departing from him; there is a mighty movement to discredit him and his work, and destroy it. Churches are by no means answering to all his prayers and entreaties and outpourings. His was a life just given for them — and see how they are! “All that are in Asia turned away from me” (2 Timothy 1:15). And so on. His own condition and position, and the state of things for which he had given his life, and much more — and then, for the man to sit down and write a letter like this, a document like this! As we have described it — a pouring out like a mighty torrent and deluge of wonder and amazement at the greatness of his Christ and of the calling of this elect body. I wonder what sort of letters would come from us under similar conditions!

Well, what is the secret? What is the answer? A rebuke to our hearts, to yours and mine — a real, sound rebuke. Paul had such an apprehension of his Lord that was more and greater than all these troubles, these afflictions, these disappointments, these adversities, these sorrows, these sufferings of body and of soul. It was his apprehension of Christ that explained a letter like this. Are we not right in saying that is what we want, what we need? It is a mighty, emancipating thing, isn’t it? It really is! The first revelation of Jesus to Saul on the Damascus road effected something that all the tortures and laws and prisons and oppositions that were heaped upon him could never have done, that is, emancipated him from Judaism, from Israelism, made him the great apostle of the church and of the nations.

That was the first effect of apprehending Christ, and that is no small thing. It is tremendous! This enlarged, increased revelation of that same Christ accounted for this ultimate, this final emancipation from all that which would have crushed him, broken him and sent him into utter despondency.

This is but an introduction. But it is the only way to get at anything. We will never get anywhere at all until we have come to look at the Lord again and see Him. I do trust that all that has been said has not been to you as words, as language, ideas, as just teaching of doctrine, but that you, with me, have just caught a glimpse, a fresh glimpse of the greatness of this One who is to fill all things.

May that emancipating work be done in us by a fresh seeing of this great “He” from eternity to eternity, “that He might fill all things”.

Chapter 2 - Emptying Unto Fulness

Reading: “He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” Ephesians 4:10.

We have been seeking already to see that into that last clause of a parenthesis the Lord’s servant has packed the mighty fulness of his apprehension of Christ. We have tried to enter into the tremendous emotion in which the apostle set himself to write this circular letter. Having at last the opportunity to be free from all his travellings and journeyings and on-the-spot occupations with the affairs of the churches, being now detached and shut up in his imprisonment, he found it the occasion for which his heart had doubtless often longed for giving expression, as far as he could, to some of that mighty store of accumulated spiritual knowledge of the Lord Jesus. And this letter is an opening of those flood gates, a pouring out in superlative upon superlative, beggaring all language to find some way of expressing what Christ had become revealed to him.

Here in this fragment, this mighty fragment, there is a summing up of it all, a final vision of that wonderful Lord: “That he might fill all things” — his Lord Jesus at last filling all things.

We have seen that this One, this great “He” to whom the apostle refers, is the subject of the whole Bible. We have traced the unveiling of Him in the seven great stages of that unveiling from eternity past, through time, to the ages of the ages, in each stage the apostle seeing depths of meaning.

Well, now, we come from that wide range, that vast scope, and seek to fasten down on one or two particular emphases as we go on.

Firstly, quite clearly this phrase is itself indicative of the greatness of the Lord Jesus: “That He might fill all things.” The final “all things”. It is impossible to get outside of that! It is final: there is no more that can be added. “All things” just means what it says — everything. This eternal, divine determination and design, which has been revealed to the apostle, is to be that Christ does fill all things. It is the predeterminate counsel of God that He shall. God hath, it is said elsewhere, “appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained” Acts 17:31. That is the Lord Jesus. This phrase is therefore indicative of the greatness of Christ.

How can one Person fill a universe, fill all things? Well, it is not so difficult a question to answer. You will not go to any part of this world, in all its length and breadth, without finding traces of the evil one. Wherever you go you will find that which indicates and betrays that the evil one has been there. Evil by the evil one fills this world, anywhere, everywhere, and, we may say, in its natural condition he, the evil one, the devil has filled all things. And, although you do not see him in personal form, you know he has been there, and very often you know that he is there. He has filled this world with his evil self and his evil marks and traits. They are everywhere. He has filled the very atmosphere with himself. That is unchallengeable, I think. You can meet that one anywhere, in anything in the creation, which he has captured from Adam.

All right! Is that true? You meet him in his nature, you meet him in his disposition, you meet him in his evil atmosphere and presence.

And in exactly the same way Christ is going to fill all things. That evil thing is going to be purged out by eternal fire, completely purged out. No trace of it will be left or found when God has done His work in this creation, but there will not be a void. His Christ is the One who is destined so to fill all things that you may go anywhere in His created universe and know Him by His footsteps, sense Him, feel Him, recognise Him. But what a difference! What a different atmosphere!

Now this present time in which we live, though so poorly serving that purpose, is a time in which just some little reflection of what is to be can be found. It is a very blessed thing to be where Christ is. It is a good atmosphere to be in when He is present and He is filling all hearts. There is a behaviour, a conduct, and a disposition that is so different when He has His place in a company, in lives. We don’t have too much of what is sometimes called “heaven on earth”. There is a lot of room for more of that! But we here know just a little, a very little, of this changeover. The enemy is still present and about to spoil, to mar everything, but if only the Lord has people in whom He really has His lordship expressed, His place fully given, it is a very blessed place to be in and condition to enjoy. There is a little of it in this world. Would there were more!

What I am saying is leading to something else, of course. But here is the indication of what the Lord intends, and one says that, dear friends, because you will understand that we very much dislike living in abstractions and visionariness, words, beautiful ideas, and that sort of thing, that realm of imagination. We must always have some practical ground on which to build these great conceptions. And so, when we speak about the time when He will fill all things with Himself, in this way of character, of nature, of disposition, of conduct and of behaviour, we must have something upon which to put our feet down for the present. And so it is that the great delight of Christian hearts is found in that kind of fellowship and relationship where Christ is everything. And it is a real thing. It is possible to know that now, is it not? It is!

But I have said it is all too small. It is not by any means in all things, but it is the determinate counsel of God that so it shall be, that He, the beloved Son, shall fill all things with Himself, His own wonderful character, His divine character.

Now here is something that sounds perhaps difficult to grasp and understand, but you notice the context of this phrase. “He ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all”. It was never necessary to have the incarnation if God wanted to fill all things as God, as deity. God could very well clear everything out and just fill everything with Himself in sheer deity, sheer Godhead. But this statement “He descended... ascended... in order that He might fill all things” indicates this: the incarnation. How did He descend? Well, we know. By incarnation He came down in flesh, in humanity — “taking the form of a servant... being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself” (Philippians 2:7,8). That was His descent — into humanity, into the incarnation. Why? “That he might fill all things” humanity-wise — in other words, have people in whom and through whom He would fill all things; have a race of human beings through whom He will fill all things, who will be His fulness, and who will minister and transmit His fulness.

Now, that is one of the great arguments of this letter: “The church, which is... the fulness of Him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). It is that the Lord should have people, human beings, for the expression of His fulness in His created universe: you and me. That is why He descended first and then ascended — in order that He might fill all things.

This great cycle of the deepest descent to touch the heart and root and core of all the trouble, down to its very depths, and His ascent far above all was that there should be no realm left where He is not its fulness. He did that through incarnation, which itself means by way of human life, in order to have human life like that.

Well, now, this is very great. Indeed, it is the greatness of this One who is able to do that. He must be very great!

But that leads us to this law, which governs all spiritual history and experience. There is a law governing all our spiritual history and experience. It is not just something that is of its own free will happening to us. It is under this law; it is controlled and governed. The experience that we are having spiritually, the history that is being made in our case, spiritually, is held by this law, and the law is “That He might fill all things”. If it is this matter of men, of people, of humanity, of human life, then there must be something in, behind and over what happens to us when we get into God’s hands. And this is what it is: God is taking us the way in which He is taking us with this one object in view — that His Son, Jesus Christ, shall fill all things.

But, you know, He cannot start from zero with us, unfortunately. We are already so full! So full of our own ideas, our own desires, our own ambitions, our own interests and our own strength. Oh, what a lot there is of which we are so full! And that is just the trouble. That is where it began with Adam. Adam made this great bid to have all the fulness in himself. Well, the Lord let him have it, and Adam is more than one person who lived so many centuries ago. Adam is a very big, corporate person, who has filled the world and is still making a bid to have everything in himself. He is very full of himself. He is very full of his own cleverness, ability, power, wisdom, and what not. And he is filling himself more and more with his own fulness.

Well, let that be as it may with the big Adam; but what about the little Adams that we are? You and I? Well, we do not know, and we would not believe it until the hand of the Lord comes upon us, just how much there is of us in the picture. And when the Lord begins to work upon us, we begin to discover there is a lot more of us than we would ever have suspected or acknowledged: indeed, this is an endless matter, a bottomless pit. All the trouble is there — that there is something in us that has got to be got rid of and got out of the way. Is it true? Our simplest troubles with the Lord are on that basis, and our biggest and our most complex. So, if He is to fill all things with Himself, there has got to be a history, a deep history of making room for Him completely, by an utter emptying of us, of everything that is not Christ.

It is not just negative. It sometimes seems negative — emptying, undoing, breaking, and all that, but this law is operating. It is a law in nature. God put every tree in the garden into the hands of Adam. It got cultivated, but it was not necessary for there to be evil present in order that the pruning knife should be used. That was a natural process. To produce something better you have to get rid of something that is not much good. To produce something more you have to reduce a great deal. It is a law in nature — you see it everywhere. Unto the better and unto the more there is always a process of reduction, what looks like destruction, but we know that in the long run it is not destruction. It is construction, fruitfulness. That law operates everywhere. And just as God has written this law in the creation, so in spiritual experience it is like that. God is working, dear friends, with you and with me. On the one side emptying, breaking down, cutting off, seeming to be reducing, emptying us of that other fulness which is in His way and is not His fulness, but always with this object — that there should be more of Christ.

Now, perhaps some of you may say “Well, there ought to be a very great deal of Christ in me if that is the explanation, because I am having a pretty bad time!” But here is where faith and patience are called for, and, oh, you may take it as a fixed law that any kind of work on God’s part which has an emptying effect, an undoing effect, a weakening effect where we in our self and self-life are concerned, is determined by God to produce more of His Son. It is the eternal law, and it is the law which is governing.

Now you can see that the Bible is a record of this very thing. We have seen that Adam let in all the trouble of this self-fulness, which is the curse of humanity and is going to prove the utter undoing of humanity. Do not make any mistake about it! We have little indications of this almost weekly — that the cleverness of man can be his undoing. What he calls his wisdom and knowledge increasing can just be to his own hurt. However, leave that as it may be — but Adam opened this door and let in this accursed self-sufficiency.

Whenever you find that God comes on to the scene in relation to His end, His eternal end, and puts His hand upon any man or any instrument, He takes that instrument or that man through a history which for a long time is a thoroughly undoing history. Who comes to mind? Well, let us start with Abraham.

We have every evidence that Abraham, or Abram, was a great man in Chaldea, a man of considerable substance, standing, possessions and sufficiency. Stephen tells us that “the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham” (Acts 7:2) — and how did the God of glory begin to work? Well, He just hooked him right out of Chaldea and brought him into a place where all his own erstwhile fulness and sufficiency was gradually removed. He did not give him a foothold in that place. All he had was a tent — and moving from place to place. No “continuing city”; a life of utter dependence upon God. He was being emptied. Notice the various stages of God’s dealings with him, right up to the time of requiring him to offer his Isaac. Did ever a man get nearer to the great heart of Calvary, in the utter self-emptying, than when Abraham was asked to give what to him was his all and his last, in Isaac? My, this man was being emptied! Very well! But God appeared unto him and then — “In multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore” (Genesis 22:17). Emptying — to vast fulness. That is spiritual history. That is no mere teaching, truth. Ask Abraham whether it is real!

Jacob: Jacob is elect, destined, mark you, to build the tribes of Israel by his twelve sons. Fulness is to come that way, tremendous fulness. This seed of Abraham has got to come through this man Jacob. All right! But Jacob, as we see him, is a man very self-sufficient, full of his own cleverness and artfulness. He can do it: he is sufficient for the situation. And for the twenty years of his life with his Uncle Laban that was the kind of life he was living, tricking and triumphing by his own self-ingenuity, cleverness and artfulness, all the time getting the advantage himself simply because he could do it. Very well — but what about Jacob and Peniel? The Lord, in one of those theophanies of which we were speaking this afternoon, met him there and said “Now, then, we are going to settle this matter once and for all. I have allowed you plenty of scope, plenty of rope, I have given you all these years to extend yourself, but I have chosen you for something better than that. Now the issue has come. Tonight we settle this thing.” Jacob started out again to try it on the Lord, and found he had met his match, and more than his match, that night. That story as told very often is put the wrong way: Jacob wrestled with the angel. He never did until the angel wrestled with him: “and there wrestled a man with him” (Genesis 32:24). God took the initiative in this matter. God took this thing into His own hands. It was God who said: “We are going to settle this mighty issue. Before you go back to that place of covenant, of purpose, we are going to settle this thing.” Who is master, Jacob or the Lord? Oh, what an emptying that night! Not all at once, perhaps, for there are still some traces of Jacob after that, but when at last you meet him in the presence of Pharaoh, what a poor creature he is! He talks to Pharaoh — “Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life” (Genesis 47:9). Leaning upon his staff — he is a very empty man, a very broken man. Now the Lord can do something: out of that will come the purpose of God.

We just mention it. It is so patent, isn’t it?

What about Joseph? Well, now, our first introduction to Joseph: a good and nice young fellow in many ways, the pet of his father and a lot more, but... but... very conceited! Very indiscreet! Telling his brothers about his dreams and implying “You are going to be the ones who bow down to me”, provoking the situation which was God’s sovereign opportunity of starting up this work of emptying. A dungeon is not much of a place to live in for thirteen years! Being forgotten and enduring all the hardships and difficulties of such a life, so that it is written: “His soul entered into the iron” (Psalm 105:18 RV margin). Do you know anything about the iron entering into your soul under the discipline of God’s hand? Well, we need not enlarge. Here is this man indeed being emptied of all his conceits, but at last, what fulness! Fulness for Egypt and fulness for his own brethren, and for the rest. It is the way.

What about Moses? Now, Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. What a man Moses was in the first forty years of his life! How full of everything! So full that he thought he could do it. He smote the Egyptian, challenged the Hebrew — he thought he could do it. All right — he is very full. Forty years at the back-side of a desert is well calculated to empty you of that sort of thing! You are not surprised that at the end of eighty years he says: “I cannot. I am not able”. “Very well,” says the Lord, “come then and I will send you.” The same story — what an emptying unto a filling!

We dare not dwell upon Israel as a nation. With the Lord’s hand upon Israel, we pass to David. One thing about the Lord’s dealing with David is this — the working of this law of emptying, humbling, and making him so utterly dependent in order to bring him to the highest place of Israel’s fulness in the Old Testament. There it is — and so it goes on.

I have only taken out those illustrations. The Lord is working by this law. He is working towards this end — “that He might fill all things”, but unto that how we have to be emptied! What an emptying work He has to do! There is nothing that stands in the Lord’s way more than self-sufficiency. It is only another way of saying “pride”. That stands in the Lord’s way, and when He has done with us there will be no room or ground for any pride. No more — it is down there as far as we are concerned. But, oh! look at the end, the divine end! The increase of Christ — “that He might fill all things.”

Now this we note as we close for the present. This reversing of things from whatever fulness there is in ourselves to make way for His fulness has to have a crisis. As truly as the Lord met Jacob that night, as truly as the Lord met Moses in a crisis, as truly as the Lord met Saul of Tarsus in a very real crisis, there has to be a crisis, there has to be a time and a place where you and I come before the Lord on this matter of self-life and Christ-life, and we say “This is settled. So far as position is concerned, so far as acceptance is concerned, so far as the foundation is concerned, now it is settled, God helping me, once and for all, that it is to be “no longer I, but Christ” (Galatians 2:20) in anything. It is to be: “For to me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21). It is a crisis. Everything does not happen in the crisis, but the position is secured, the ground is taken, and it must be so.

No doubt many of you know that. You know there was a time, more or less extended — it may have been a day, a night, or even a period — but it was a time in your life when the crisis was raised as to the self-life and the Christ-life, and it has to be like that. From the crisis the process begins, the process of the Christian life under the hand of the Lord, which is just this all the way along — deeper and ever deeper. If it is so, take heart! Let us try and take all the comfort we can from it. Deeper and deeper is this self-emptying to bring to the greater fulness of Christ in us. It is a process going on. And, it seems to me, both from the Word and from experience, that at the end there won’t be much of us left! If the Lord is not everything, God help us! That is what we are coming to. It is going to be the Lord or nothing. He is working that way, and when He works by that process, He intends it to be according to His predeterminate counsel that “He might fill all things”.

A crisis, a process, but, blessed be God! a climax. The Word reveals in this very letter with which we are occupied, that day, that glorious day of the climax when it shall be “glory in the church... for ever and ever” (Ephesians 3:21).

Now, if what we have said is true, there is another thing that we ought to think about, at least. It is this: that measure now is going to determine the measure hereafter. What the Lord is doing with us is not just an arbitrary thing. The Lord is creating capacity for spiritual things. All the fulness of what is spiritual lies ahead, in the hereafter, in the ages of the ages. The measure in which that fulness is expressed in us will be the measure of the capacity which the Lord has been allowed to develop in us now. It matters, you know. I don’t understand the New Testament at all; it is a perfect enigma if what I am now saying is not true. Why all this in the New Testament if willy-nilly we are going to come into all the fulness? If it does not matter at all about now, we are going to have it if we belong to the Lord, we are going to have it all if we are the Lord’s, why all this about “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” (Hebrews 12:6), and all this about discipline and suffering? You see what a situation that raises? It certainly says this most powerfully — the measure in which the Lord gets His way with us now is going to determine our measure in the glory.

And none of you who knows anything about the difficulty and suffering of the Christian life fails to see that the Lord is seeking by painful means to enlarge us. We start out with a very little spiritual capacity for having, receiving, knowing, understanding spiritual things. The Lord gets to work upon us — and this stretching business is awfully difficult! The Psalmist said, “In pressure hast thou enlarged me” (Psalm 4:1 — Darby). Pressure unto enlargement is a painful business, isn’t it? But the Lord is working to increase our capacity. Thank God that is true! Although it is so imperfect: we feel that we have not made very much progress in this at best. Some of us can see today, we can understand, we do know in an intelligent way what at one time was altogether outside of us, beyond us. We are learning, we are growing in understanding, we are becoming more and more capable of receiving the things of God. It is like that.

Well, that is the normal Christian life. It is what the Lord is doing with us. This law of Christ ultimately filling all things is governing our spiritual history and our spiritual experience day by day. What, then, is to be done where we are concerned? Well, it is the old matter of applying our hearts very definitely and earnestly to learn the lessons of our sufferings, to learn the meaning of our trials and adversities, to find out where more of Christ has to come in by this breaking of ourselves. That is co-operation with God toward His end. He descended, came right down here, to take us in our humanity, and has ascended far above all — and both things are governed by this purposive statement in order “That He might fill all things”.

Chapter 3 - The Eternal Purpose of God

“He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10).

“And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22,23).

“That he might fill all things... his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all”.

We are going, as the Lord enables us, to consider those two statements along four lines: firstly, the purpose which they indicate; secondly, the means by which the purpose has its realisation and fulfilment; thirdly, the method by which the means will fulfil its vocation; and fourthly, the obligation that rests upon those concerned.

The Purpose

We come to these complementary words that we have read, and beginning with the purpose that is indicated. You have this letter to the Ephesians before you — so called “to the Ephesians”, but you can just cross that right out, because it was not in the original letter at all. It was a circular letter. Ephesus may have been the first place, though we don’t know.

When we take up this letter, this mighty document, we find that we are, as we read through it, moving in the realm of sovereign purpose. That is an unmistakable characteristic of the letter and its language. There are three phrases, or words, which constantly recur in this letter, and they indicate that when we come here we are in the presence of something very positive and very definite as to purpose.

The first phrase is “His will”, and you must look upon that not just as something willing, but as an object. It is a very definite thing. This will of God is something very concrete. You can look at the letter and move with me in it in these connections: “Having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (Ephesians 1:5); “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will” (Ephesians 1:9); “In whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). All those come so quickly at the beginning of this letter, laying the foundation for all that is to follow, and each phrase carries its own significance. Surely they do impress us with this fact: that we are here presented with something tremendous — “the good pleasure of his will”; “the counsel of his will”, and so on.

Then we turn to Ephesians 5:17: “Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is”. May I say again that we, of course, daily and continually ask that we might know the Lord’s will, but in so doing we are thinking in relation to many details of our lives. We want to know the Lord’s will as to whether we should go here or not go here, do this or not do this, and so on. We say that we want to know the will of the Lord and we go to the Lord about it and ask Him to show us His will. That is specific and particular in its application. It is quite right, but it is not what the apostle is talking about here. We must understand that this letter comprehends the church. Individual lives come into that, but it is the church that is in view and does that will — write it with a capital “W” if you like. That is behind everything here.

Then there is that word “purpose”. As you know that is characteristic of this letter. We have just read the first occurrence of it: “In whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11); “According to the eternal purpose (the margin says ‘the purpose of the ages’) which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11).

And if we want a third emphasis we come to this word “foreordained”. “Having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (Ephesians 1:5); “In whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him...” (Ephesians 1:11).

His will — big will: His purpose of the ages: foreordained accordingly.

So, if this all refers to the church — and we are that — then we certainly are moving in the realm of tremendous sovereign purpose, something laid down, fixed, irrevocable, unalterable, and laid down by God before the foundation of the world.

One thing from which we and all the Lord’s people — and we might say further all men — need to be delivered is this sense, this growing sense, this intensifying sense in the universe of futility, meaninglessness. There is a growing fatalism in men’s hearts because they cannot explain. They cannot get the meaning — and fatalism is a most soul-destroying thing. It just says, “Well, if it is to be, it will be. If it is not to be, it will not be, and that is all there is to it. You had just better give it up; take your hands off. It is going to be and you cannot alter it. It will happen”, and so on. That is the very heart of weakness, of looseness of life, of uncertainty, indefiniteness, of insecurity, of utter aimlessness. It takes every sense of purpose and meaning out of existence. And that is a growing thing. Why is it that over this world today there is a wave of suicides as has never been known in its civilised history before? We don’t dwell upon that, and you may not be acquainted with it. Some of you from the continent know about it, however, especially in northern Europe, where it is just like a terrible wave. It is growing, and it is because of this very thing, this feeling of fate and fate being against one. A hopeless impotence in the presence of forces with which men cannot cope and which they cannot explain. This fatalism, is the most disintegrating thing in anyone’s life, or in any society. There is no cohesiveness about this, no holding together — and that goes right to the heart of this letter... “In whom each several building, fitly framed together” (Ephesians 2:21). The answer is in Him. We will leave that for the moment.

In this letter for Christians, for the church, we are right in the presence of something which is so much the opposite of all that, such a contradiction to all that: His will, concrete, divine, positive, settled, established from all eternity, which cannot be defeated, or deflected, or in any way frustrated in its full and final realisation. It is fixed and His purpose stands, and according to it you and I, and all who are in this body of Christ, are foreordained. That is fairly solid ground! And is it not true that the greatest need is to be on solid ground in days such as these?

So, over against all this state of things, which we have only touched upon so lightly, is God’s fixed and established purpose — something that God has fixed and established and in relation to which it says here: “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4).

The purpose, then, begins with God’s Son. The thing, which God has settled in His unalterable, unchangeable, irrevocable will is that His Son, shall ultimately fill all things. This is the Bible, this is the Word of God, and, of course, we are confronted with whether we believe the Scriptures when we read things like that. You wonder, perhaps, why such a thing is said, because you all do believe the Scriptures. I venture to say, in the awful upheavals and shakings of the end times the faith of the most devout believer will be shaken as to the Scriptures, as to the Word of God. Forgive me if that sounds a wrong thing to say. However, whether you can endorse it by your own experience, or not, there is a tremendous shaking going on amongst Christians today as to whether the Bible can really be relied upon.

Here, then, is the statement — sheer, definite, positive, because it comes right from God Himself — that He has in His eternal counsel settled it, with full knowledge of all that would rise against it, with full knowledge of all history of this world and of the work of evil and seeming contradictions, that “In the end My Son shall fill all things”.

But He has alongside of that, just as definitely, positively, categorically and finally decided and determined that a certain body, a certain elect body of people are to be a medium, vessel, channel, instrument for the fulfilment of that determined purpose concerning His Son. That elect body is known to us by various names, but in general “the church”. Here in Ephesians it is “the church, which is his body” — an elect body.

The Means of its Realisation and Fulfilment

That leads us, then, to the second thing — the means: the church, the elect body of Christ. God has foreseen this body and chosen this body before the world was in Christ: it is set down here in the Scriptures as a fact, a definite fact. And you know that God’s facts are very awkward things and very stubborn things. If you come up against God’s facts that is an end of all argument. And here is the fact. God has done this. It is stated to be so in the Scriptures of truth. There is the fact.

But then, God has not only fixed it from eternity. He has given the revelation of it in time. The Holy Spirit has come from God, from heaven, for the specific purpose of making known this very thing, first giving the revelation of it and then, by wonderfully sovereign means, raising up and choosing vessels, preserving vessels, anointing vessels, and enabling vessels, through untold opposition and adversity and suffering, to fulfil this ministry of bringing to the people of God the knowledge of this very thing. The revelation has come.

We have not measured, and probably in time we shall never be able to measure, all the tremendous triumph that lay in this one instance of Paul at last being able to give this revelation in fulness. That man ought to have been dead a dozen, a hundred times! If the devil could have done it he would have been. That man ought to have been absolutely neutralised again and again, not only by the evil powers, but also by men. His battles were tremendous battles. Everywhere his steps were dogged, his path was followed. This man was marked down for destruction, and for the entire and final discrediting of himself and his ministry. But we have it on record in this fulness, as we saw in the last chapter. It looks like a little pamphlet, doesn’t it, this letter to the Ephesians? What does it amount to on paper? Yet it is the greatest document that has ever entered into this creation! It is the embodiment of the exceeding greatness of God’s power in a man’s life for a ministry, and for the revelation of this eternal purpose of God for the church.

And so God has sovereignly done this thing to give it to the church, to make it known that there is an elect body in existence in the eternal counsels of God, and that that elect body is the object of this dispensation — particularly to be called out of the nations.

All the difficulties and problems, of course, arise there, theologically, for God does not say who belongs to this elect. He has never yet said to you and me directly and personally: “Look here! I chose you. You belong to the elect.” He does not do that. This problem exists everywhere amongst people — “I wonder if I am one of the foreordained, predestinated. I have reason to question whether I belong to that.” You know all the difficulty because God has not just said to individuals directly, in this way, that they are of the elect, but God works on this line.

We may touch this more intimately presently, but you are familiar with this sort of thing: that when the Lord brings to many people the light and the revelation and the truth that is here, when it comes their way, or when they come its way by the sovereignty of God, you watch and you see, either literally or metaphorically, their mouths opening and their eyes open wide — “This is what I have been wanting. I did not know what it was, but I have had a great longing for something, and this is it. This just answers to something in me which has prepared me for this. Something has been going on. Even in my unconverted state I knew that there was something more in life than I had. I was dissatisfied and I knew it. I went here and I went there, and I went somewhere else to find it, but could not find it. But this is it!” Isn’t that true? Well, that is our experience, our own experience and the experience of many. God just works, you see. And when the revelation, the light comes, there has been a preparation, perhaps an unconscious preparation very largely — that is, an unenlightened preparation, in darkness, in distance, far away from God, and yet, something drawing, some hunger, longing — and then the content, and it is just as though the hand goes into the glove: they fit! “This is it!” That is how the sovereignty works in relation to the elect. And if you have not seen it in every case you have met yet, don’t give it up. I mean, you may think of people who are not yet like that. They are showing no signs of that. Ah, but the end is not yet. The time may come when through deep experiences, through suffering history, their hearts will be prepared and touched and you will find they respond. That is all we need say about this matter of election, or ordination. God works accordingly.

I want to put this word in here. It is to remind you and point out to you that in this letter that we have before us the Gospel and the eternal purpose are united. That is a very important thing to remember. Some people, I am afraid, have a mentality: “Well, the Gospel, the simple Gospel, is one thing. All this is another.” Indeed, we have known very strong reactions, people saying: “All right, you can have all your deep teaching, if you like. You can have all that sort of thing, if it appeals. We are satisfied with the simple Gospel.” The Lord have mercy upon such people! Here you have the profoundest document, as I have said, that has ever been given from God to man, and it has, not as two different and separate things but as joined right in, the Gospel and the eternal purpose.

Look at the word “Gospel” in this. Paul links it in himself. This ministry that was given to him, this full, rich, profound ministry he calls “his Gospel”. He was chosen for this Gospel. Oh, if only our gospel were richer and fuller we would have much better results. Don’t divide these things! Remember, this is the Gospel. What is it? It is the good news. “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” There is an imperative need of linking the purpose with salvation in our preaching, and not leaving salvation as something in itself, something smaller than it really is, but linking purpose with salvation always. And I don’t think we shall get very far with the kind of Christians that will be until we have attended to that weakness and remedied it, and brought in relation to salvation the full purpose of God in salvation.

The Method By Which the Means Will Fulfil its Vocation

We come next, then, thirdly, to the method. The purpose... the means, the church, the elect... then the method.

Let us remind ourselves again that the apostle is particularly occupied with the church in this letter. It runs throughout, and then it emerges in one sublime definition, which he calls: “This mystery” (Ephesians 5:32). You must look upon familiar words to us in the light of the whole of the letter, the whole revelation.

Reading: “Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church; because we are members of his body. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.” (Ephesians 5:22-32).

Now, we do not know all that was in the mental background of the apostle. We know that he had a very full and deep and thorough knowledge of the Old Testament, which was his only Bible, and that it was ever with him, either in his full consciousness or in his subconsciousness. We do not know, but the Holy Spirit knew, whether behind what was being written here was an Old Testament story. Whether it was or not, when you come to think about it, it does seem that it is so. The Old Testament story, gathered into one little book... the Book of Esther.

Whether what I am going to say is the right interpretation to put upon that book or not, I am not very concerned about at the moment, because I believe that it does serve as a very good illustration of what we are now considering — that is, the method by which this means, the church, the body, is to fulfil its eternal vocation of bringing the fulness of Christ into expression.

I suppose you remember the story of Esther. It is not necessary for me to take you through it thoroughly. It opens with a picture of happenings in the great Medo-Persian kingdom and palace. Ahasuerus, in all his glory, power and authority, having a banquet lasting a long time for all the rulers, the princes and the governors of his great domain, from India to Ethiopia. That is no small thing! Gathering all these representatives and having this wonderful time, feasting, revelling and displaying his glory. And then, when that is over, gathering his immediately intimate company of counsellors for seven days of another feast. All this pageantry has been going on, and as it is in its full swing, Ahasuerus gives command to his eunuchs to go and bring in the queen, the Queen Vashti. It is said that she was beautiful, and he wanted to display her beauty to those who were assembled. He made a feast for the purpose.

Vashti refused to go in, to obey the king’s command. She stayed away. The king was fiercely angry and appealed to his counsellors: “What does the law say in a case like this?” You know their answer: “Well, you know, it is not only to the king that she has done mischief. All our wives will begin to behave like that if you let her off.” Well of course, that is persuasive. The result: the king stripped Vashti of her royal rights and cut her off and set her aside. She was no longer his queen.

There was a vacancy, a vacuum, an emptiness, for how long we do not know, but it must be filled if the king was to have all that he should have as king. And there the story opened concerning Esther, and you are familiar with that. She was there, a captive, an exile, an alien to that kingdom. She was in the king’s harem, but exactly how it came to pass, what is the detail, we don’t know, but somehow or other the sovereignty of that throne was at work, and Esther was seen, was known, was focussed upon, was chosen, and was marked off for this high position. She filled this vacancy and she was given everything to furnish her, adorn her and make her suitable for that position. She was clothed with royal apparel and enriched with royal gems, and riches. She was called, released, redeemed from her exile, from her captivity and brought in as one of that race, that royal kingdom. We are not told of any marriage ceremony, but undoubtedly there was something by which she had to commit herself to a covenant of loyalty, of devotion, of faithfulness, to be what Vashti had refused to be — alive only for the king, not for herself.

There are a great many more details. We are not moving on to the great and glorious end of all this in sovereignty for the release and redemption of a race, but it does not require a very great deal of insight to see spiritual meaning in all this. It seems to me to have a double application.

God chose man at the beginning for this very thing. Adam was created for this very thing, and brought into that glorious association with God at the beginning... and then he did this very thing — not to be for God but for himself, not to be for the glory of God but to retain the glory, as did Vashti, for himself. The result? Repudiated! And the story is written in history, not in the Book of Esther, that the period which followed was for Vashti a reign of vanity. Her life purpose was gone; all the meaning of life was gone. Only imagine what Vashti was thinking and feeling after this as things developed and Esther came into her place! Perhaps remorse, and many other emotions. But the fact is that it began a reign of vanity for her, meaningless — all the meaning gone out of life. Is not that the human race? In Adam — called, given, potentially, dominion. And then taking it into his own hands and refusing to hold it for God’s glory. Then he himself was set aside and there came this long-drawn-out period of meaninglessness in the human race.

That is one application. But what about Israel? Israel — chosen, called to the kingdom, and called in the Old Testament the wife of Jehovah. Called to that high position — and then what? Taking it all to themselves, and not holding it for God.

The great challenge of the coming of God in the flesh into this world had this great issue bound up with it. Will Israel hold everything for God, or will they hold everything for themselves? Well, we know what happened. “No, away with Him. We will not have this man.” They were holding everything for their own glory. And then came these long two thousand years of vanity for Israel — the Vashti cut off and set aside.

It is a sad story, is it not? But when the race in Adam failed, God had His elect somewhere quietly hidden. From eternity He had His bride, there in His eternal knowledge, foreknowledge and counsels. She was there! When Israel failed God in this matter He brought in the church. She was there to take Israel’s place, and all the vanity of the latter was reversed in the saints.

Now what does this all mean as an interpretation, if only by way of illustration, of this letter to the Ephesians, so-called? “Chosen in Him” — that is Esther, the instrument and vessel. When the other fails, the element of sovereignty is at work, bringing in this vessel foreknown, foreseen and foreordained, knowing it, choosing it, and then, blessed be God! calling to Himself His Esther, redeeming from alienation, redeeming from exile and captivity.

That is the story of the church, isn’t it? Released from the terrible embargo of the rejected world, of the rejected race. The rejected Gentile, Esther, called. What a word that is in the New Testament — called! Redeemed!

And here there rushes right in at this point, through the gap which we present, this word “grace”. Thirteen times the apostle uses this word in this letter! That we should be “to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:6). Well, is not that Esther? Who was she? What was she? Where was she? And now look — in the second place in the kingdom! Adorned with all his glory — “the glory of His grace”.

There is something which to our hearts is still more precious. What had she where she was? Nothing! But out of the royal store there was brought for her everything that she required, but which she did not have, not one fragment of which she had. There was brought to her everything to make her suitable for that most august presence of the most high — she was clothed suitably, and provided with everything to make her not an offence to the king, but a pleasure. What a story of grace that is! What a lot comes in at that point!

What is this church in nature? Or, to come to ourselves, what are we in nature? Well, if we know anything about ourselves at all we are prepared to say “Anything and everything but suitable for His presence!” No hope, no chance, no possibility whatever of our standing in His presence as we are in ourselves by nature. No, we are exiles, in captivity, alienated and far off. But He brings us in and clothes us “with the garments of salvation... the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10) and lavishes upon us riches. Have you traced that word through this letter? I would like to give you the passages which occur again and again. “According to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7). “Unto me”, says the apostle, “...was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8). Esther is brought in, adorned with all for His presence and for His service “that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:27). That is the end of the story!

What is the method by which the church will fulfil this high vocation? The marriage relationship with the Lord, with all that that means. That is Ephesians five, verses 22 to the end! The marriage relationship... “I speak in regard of Christ and of the church” (Ephesians 5:32). Oh, it is more wonderful the more you think about it! Married to the Lord, joined to the Lord by one Spirit. In the natural and the flesh “the twain shall become one flesh” (Ephesians 5:31). But in the spiritual these twain become one spirit joined to the Lord. Married, one flesh, one body, one life. There is no figure in all creation that sets forth oneness, identity in the thought of God more than the marriage relationship when it is according to God’s mind. That is how God intends it to be and more or less it is like that in humanity, some more than others, when one does not, cannot live without the other. Sometimes we open our morning paper and look down the list of the departed, where we see two notices — the woman has gone and within a few days the man has gone, too. That is the ideal. I mean, there is something there, in that. When it is according to heaven — “I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.” I ask you — can you live without Christ? Listen: He cannot live without you. It is stated here: “The church, which is his body, the fulness of him”. Literally that is “the fulfilment of Him”. He must have this relationship for His own fulfilment. The marriage relationship — that is the method.

What a lot we ought to say about it! But our time for the moment has gone and we come to the last thing — the obligation.

The Obligation Resting Upon Those Concerned

Well, if this is the truth, if this is God’s revelation, if it is that and not some beautiful story, some spiritually or religiously romantic story — if this is spiritual truth, and not just doctrine or teaching, (God help me and God help you if that is all!), there is an application, surely resting upon Esther, surely resting upon this church. “I... beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love” (Ephesians 4:1,2).

The obligation? If this is more than a beautiful picture, if it is something that really comes to us as God’s word today, in this time, it puts us under a big obligation as to our demeanour and our conduct. “Walk worthily... with all lowliness and meekness”. That is the demeanour, the sort of people we ought to be, called to such heights, such a calling. Oh, no, there is no room here for conceit, for spiritual pride, no room for us to take the glory to ourselves and hold it to ourselves. That is the way of Vashti. No, “with all lowliness and meekness”. God’s church and God’s people ought to be like that.

And conduct. Here every relationship in this life is lifted by this concept of marriage relationship with the Lord. Husbands, wives; wives, husbands. That must come up on to a higher level, mustn’t it, if it is a reflection of Christ and the church. Children, parents; parents, children — servants, masters; masters, servants. Every relationship is touched by this great concept of what the church is: its high, noble, honourable position, its wonderful dignity as before God. And that dignity ought to come down into our behaviour, our conduct, our relationships. We are talking, not in the court of Ahasuerus, but in a greater, the court of heaven, and we have a word — it is in the New Testament — “courtesy”. “Be courteous,” says Peter (1 Peter 3:8 — A.V.). That surely is a very low level — good manners! Proper behaviour! Etiquette! Yes, that comes into this. In the court of heaven there should be good manners amongst those who make up this bride. I fear that we often fail in common courtesy to one another. It is true — we have failed. Very often there are better manners amongst the people of the world than there are amongst Christians! That is a terrible thing to say, but it is true. Our conduct in every relationship of life must be touched by this high conception, which is not only a dream, a teaching, but is stated as a fact. “I speak in regard of Christ and of the church” — even as husbands, wives, servants, masters, children, parents, even as Christ, also the church.

It is challenging; it is practical. What are you going to do about this? Are we going to say now “Well, I determine that from this moment, by the grace of God, I will live up to that level of my holy, sublime calling. By the grace of God I will adjust to this. I will do something about it. I will watch my behaviour. I will be careful of my speech. I will keep a guard upon how I react to others.” There is an obligation... “I... beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called.”

The Lord help us!

Chapter 4 - The Essential Service of the Church

Reading: Ephesians 4:7-13.

Now we come to the essential service of the church in relation to the divine end “That he (Christ) might fill all things”.

We saw that that is the divine purpose, fixed in eternity, unalterable and undefeatable. We saw that, alongside of that, the church, which is the body of Christ, is said to be “the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). Then we went on to see the method of that fulfilment, as made so clear in this letter in which the apostle begins to sum up all that he has said, and head it up to this sublime issue of the marriage relationship between Christ and the church. We saw, illustrating from the Book of Esther, what that marriage relationship means: divine election, divine redemption, divine enrichment and adornment, divine covenant. All that was illustrated in the case of Esther, and there we stopped.

We stopped short of the next thing — essential service. It is perfectly evident in that book of divine sovereignty in operation, for undoubtedly that is the meaning of the book, that Esther was not just selected, chosen, called to the king, to the palace, released from the embargo of her exile and captivity, redeemed, and then adorned with everything that was essential to make her suitable for the presence of the king and enriched with his riches for the sake of Esther herself. It was not just that she might be able to sport herself in her new position and privileges, and strut in and out of the palace and show off all that she had become and with what she had been endowed. The real meaning of that book, as the sequel shows, is that that divine sovereignty was in operation in all those ways in the behalf of a people who had got to be delivered, a people who had got to come into all the good of that sovereignty of the throne.

The people were under threat. They came under an edict from a very evil source — we may say from very hell itself, as represented by that Agagite. You have only to mention that name, Agag, with any knowledge of the Old Testament, and you will remember the attitude of Samuel toward Agag. He hewed him in pieces! It is something very evil against the throne, a hand against the throne and against the people of God. And here, in this Book of Esther, this evil thing has come up from the pit, with its design to destroy the people of God and the testimony of life which is within them as a vessel. And Mordecai used the so-familiar phrase about Esther: “Who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14. It was the essential service of Esther, and when you come to the letter of the Ephesians, as we have seen, all these features of Esther, in spiritual expression, are in it. When you come here you arrive at this: that it is not just for the church’s own sake, good, benefit, glory and pleasure. This elect vessel, instrument, is what it is as elect and foreordained in a much vaster context than itself, just as the city at the end of the Bible stands in the midst of the nations to mediate life to the nations through its tree of life and river of life. It is only another figure or symbol of a great divine truth. Right at the heart of things is this elect body, elected, foreordained, to minister the fulness of Christ within its own compass and beyond its own compass, now and in the ages to come.

That is the essential service of the church. Now, with that service in view, the apostle is led to bring us to this matter of the church’s ministry as the way to the end of His filling all things by means of it: the church as a ministering instrument or vessel.

That is what is here. It is the ministry of Christ and of His fulness through the church, through us, if we are truly in and of that body. It is our vocation. I do want to emphasise this. I want you to be quite sure that you get hold of this. All that is said here about other people functioning is only within the compass of this — that this is essentially a ministering church, or it has missed the way. And that is a tragic missing of the way!

Israel was called in the Old Testament the wife of the Lord, the bride of the Lord. “I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:32). Israel was called to be the ministering channel and instrument of the Lord to all the nations, and because Israel did not fulfil that high purpose and vocation but built walls around itself and shut itself in and became an exclusive body in the nations, for two thousand years it has been out of the way. It has missed the way, it has been set aside. It is in the place of Vashti, who was supplanted by Esther.

When we speak of the church, don’t let us get beyond the individual responsibility. There can be no such thing as a church without the individuals that make it up. Every individual is a part of that church, that body, and is intended to be a functioning part. That is the point. Every one of you without exception is supposed to be contributing something out of the fulness of Christ beyond yourself to others. You are in this high and holy calling, vocation, to be the channel, the vehicle, the mediator, of something of that fulness. The Lord has made His provision for others, and, having done so, of course He expects it to be so.

We have here these words: “When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men... And he gave some apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers”, and, of course, we feel their job is to bring the church to fulness. Well, it doesn’t matter, that is their work, that is their job, that is their vocation, that is what they are called for, and we just sit back and listen to what they have to say, and think: “Well, that was all right, or it was not so good today... it was pretty good, or it was very good.” Then we go home and that is the end of it. No, never! That is a misapprehension of what is stated here. These gifts, it is stated here, were given for the perfecting, the making complete of the saints “unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto... the fulness of Christ.” These gifts are only, but essentially, to bring the church into the place where it can fulfil its ministry. Make no mistake about that! The ministry belongs to the church. The Lord has made provision for the church to be helped to fulfil its ministry by these gifts.

This is a wonderful statement (in verse 8)! As you know, it is a quotation from Psalm 68. You recall that psalm! It is the psalm of the triumphant return of the victorious monarch after his campaign in which he has overthrown his enemies, has taken great spoil and has brought back many prisoners. In his triumph and in the bounty of his gains he is now generously distributing his gifts to the people in his kingdom in order that they may come into the good of his great triumph. That is the picture in Psalm 68, and there is little doubt, I think, that that psalm has as its historic background David’s conquest of Zion.

You remember the story. Zion was held by the Jebusites, and they had manned it with their weakest, their lame and their blind, because to their minds it was such an impregnable stronghold that it did not need anything more than that to defend it. David threw out his challenge concerning the taking of the stronghold, inspiring his men to that great work, and they launched their attack, scaled the height and overthrew the enemy, subduing every opposing force, and taking great spoil. David followed up and took over all these gains, and, although it does not say so, in keeping with the practice on such occasions, he distributed his gains to all the people, in order that they might know what a great leader, conqueror and king he was.

That is the picture behind Psalm 68. It is a wonderful psalm — you can read it again.

But now, is it not remarkable and impressive that the apostle lifts up out of that mighty psalm these words and transfers the whole idea to the Lord Jesus? “When he ascended on high” — and you have to put in there words from the letter to the Hebrews: “Ye are come unto Mount Zion” (that seat and centre of His great conquest, the place where the King dwells) “...the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22) — “he led captivity captive, and gave...” And why did He give? For what purpose? That of His fulness, the fulness of His mighty conquest, His triumphant campaign the fulness and the good of that, might become the inheritance of all His people. But that that might be so there are distributors of the good and the wealth, and those distributors are named here — “He gave some apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” The object we shall come to again.

There is another little illustration, not so perfect or so complete, and perhaps not in such a good setting, but quite an illustration of this same thing in the life of this same man, David. During the time when he was driven out by Saul, hunted in the wilderness and he went to the land of the Philistines, he was given for his own possession and dwelling the town of Ziklag. One day, he having gone out on one of his raids, the Amalekites raided Ziklag, burned it with fire, took all its contents, David’s wives and all the people, and left nothing, going off with the lot. When David and his men returned and found this state, they were in great distress. It says they “lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep” (1 Samuel 30:4). “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him... but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (1 Samuel 30:6). He then called for the priest to enquire of the Lord whether he should pursue the Amalekites. The answer was “Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and shalt without fail recover all” (1 Samuel 30:8). So David went off with his men, pursuing far and long, in fact so far and so long after a recent campaign that a number of his men were too faint and too exhausted to go on. So David left a lot of the stuff there and said: “Well, you sit here and look after this, and we will go on with this job.” Leaving them there he went on, and you will remember they found a half-dead Egyptian. Apparently he was hardly conscious and was sick, having had no food for three days and three nights. They generously gave him food and water and he regained consciousness. He then sat up and David said to him, “Who are you?” He replied, “I am an Egyptian, the servant of an Amalekite. Three days ago we made a raid upon Ziklag, but I fell sick and my master just left me, to die, apparently.” David said “Will you bring us down to the Amalekites? Do you know where they are, which way they have gone?” The Egyptian said “Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me up into the hands of my master” (1 Samuel 30:15). David did so, and the Egyptian brought him down in the trail of the Amalekites, and he overtook them. The Lord’s word was fulfilled utterly. They made their assault and all but four hundred of the Amalekites were slain outright. These four hundred escaped on camels, but it says, “David recovered all” (1 Samuel 30:18). And it seems that he recovered a great deal more than he had lost! (It is always the way with the Lord — there is always more at the end than there was at the beginning when you are moving with the Lord. However, that is by the way.) David seems to have recovered a great deal more than he lost, for on the return journey he came back to the men whom he had left on the way and was going to give to them of the spoil. Then certain vain fellows said “No, not at all. They did not go to the battle. Why should they share the spoil?” “Ah!” said David, “Not a bit of it.” “For as his share is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his share be that tarrieth by the stuff” (1 Samuel 30:24). And David made that a covenant for ever in Israel.

Then David came back to Ziklag, and you notice what he did at once? He started distributing this spoil everywhere. He sent it to Judah and sent it in all directions. He must have had a real scoop from the Amalekites! He was giving the gifts of his mighty victory in all directions. Put it round the other way. Everywhere within the range of David’s associations and fellowships they were coming into the good of his victory. He had led his captivity captive, brought it back, and was now giving gifts to men.

It is an illustration which fits right in here with Psalm 68, and with what the apostle is saying to us. The Lord Jesus has made His raid — and what a raid! He has come out of a tremendous campaign against principalities and powers and hosts of wickedness — the whole mighty range of evil, as we shall see. But this is the position. He has turned upon the spoiler and taken the spoil, brought it back, and now He is saying “All My people must come into the good of this. They must all of My fulness receive. They must all come into the blessing of the fulness that is vested in Me through this conquest. They must be My fulness. My fulness must be seen in all My people. And unto that, unto this end, there are various ministries which I give.” He “gave gifts”, and in the letter to the Ephesians it is personal gifts. In the letter to the Romans, as you know, the apostle speaks of prophecy, and so on — the thing itself, its function. But here it is the persons in the function.

It is not for us to spend a lot of time on these various functions, because that really would take all our time. We need only remark that the apostle, or the Holy Spirit through the apostle, begins with apostles, and that is a very significant thing. When you are in this particular part of the Bible, though it is a much bigger thing than that, you start at the standpoint of the universal. You are going to work inward and finish at some centres, but the apostle is a universal function. You remember, the Lord Jesus called the twelve “apostles” and sent them out — “Go ye into all the world, and preach” (Mark 16:15) “and teach... and act... baptize”. It is a universal function — preach, teach, act, in relation to your teaching. This is not local to begin with. It is the whole range of Christ’s Kingdom. Apostleship relates to that, and my point at the moment is that God begins with the universal. Nothing other. When it comes to the local presently, that must be the embodiment of all that is universal and the expression of all that is universal. If it drops on to a lower level, if it takes a smaller compass, if it becomes something less, it has missed the divine thought, and you will find that it will lose its power, and its anointing will be limited. It becomes something in itself. It starts with the universal — “he gave some apostles”. In the other place where he refers to these gifts the apostle says “First apostles” (1 Corinthians 12:28). That is you and I, and all who are in this church must first of all be imbued and inspired with the universal vision and motive. We must be gripped by the universality of Jesus Christ in this whole world, and that must be the range of vision and purpose, nothing less than that. It is something that has got to get hold of us, to liberate us entirely from all gravitations towards something less than what Christ is. Christ is so great that He is to fill all things, to the uttermost bound, and everything within is to be filled with Him. And we must have no less a vision, a motive and inspiration than that to begin with.

“Some prophets”. That would take some time to explain, because apparently in the New Testament there was still a prophetic gift, even in the matter of foretelling. But taking the prophetic gift at large, it just means this — those who are anointed to interpret the thoughts of God to His whole church, who are to bring to His church and keep before His church all the fulness of His thoughts concerning the church in itself and its vocation. A prophet has always fulfilled that function of calling back the people if they have departed and keeping faithfully before them what God meant in calling them, what God’s purpose was in choosing them, what their ministry and vocation was under the anointing Spirit. They have that interpreting of God’s thought by revelation from God. It is very important. These are the people to whom the Lord has shown something of His mind, His purpose. They have come to it, not by study, not by being informed, but by the Holy Spirit. They just cannot get away from that function. When you meet them and hear them you will find that they are always on the same line. All right! So long as it is not the only line! But there it is, and the prophet is for this purpose — to keep the thoughts of God in fulness ever fresh before the people of God.

“Some evangelists”. Evangelists undoubtedly were the itinerant messengers for the evangel. They had to preach the evangel here, there and everywhere. But, again, it is a sovereign gift. That dispensation has not passed. We should not say, “Now these gifts were all right for what we call apostolic times, New Testament times, but not now.” Well, if we take that position we are forfeiting something very vital. These gifts, these personal gifts, ought still to be here in the church universal. They are sovereign gifts of the risen Lord, to be recognised, to be accepted, to be accredited, to be honoured. There are some men, you know, who just cannot speak and cannot preach without going straight for the unsaved. That is their very being, their very life, and if they get on to anything else, the unction goes. The Lord is with them on that line. There is no doubt about it. They are given to the church in that capacity, and they only spoil their own ministry if they try to be something else. It is as well for us to recognise this.

And then the combined function — “pastors and teachers”. I like that combination! It is really shepherds and instructors in one. You can be a shepherd, rushing round and fussing about people all the time, trying to make them comfortable and happy and pleased with themselves, and snug, and all that sort of thing. That is a shepherd, yes — but... shepherd and instructor, pastor and teacher, in one. These whom you are cherishing — which is right — caring for, looking after, trying to help, are not just to be left there in their own smugness, pleased with themselves and very happy that you often go to see them and say some very nice and helpful things to them. They have got to come to understanding through the pastor and teacher. Thank God for all pastors and teachers combined! I think we in fairness ought to put it round the other way: that it can make people top-heavy if it is all teaching without cherishing. The two things must work both ways.

But when we have said all this, what is the grand object, and what is the test of ministry, test of anointing, test of function? It is found in this: “Till we all attain unto... the fulness of Christ”.

Every divinely-given ministry is only for the purpose of bringing us to completeness, and ultimately to the fulness of Christ. Is it doing that? The point at which we arrive is a very practical point for us all. It is not just to hear, to listen to what is said to us, what is brought to us, by these various means. It is not just to receive all that they have got to give, stores and stores of it. The test of those of us to whom ministry has come by various instruments is: “Are we quite sure that this is resulting in some increase of Christ in us?” That will necessitate an attitude and an action. “The Lord has spoken today. The Lord has said something today. I am listening intently to this brother, this servant of the Lord, to see what it is the Lord has to say, because I am being involved in a great responsibility by having ears at all. Now, if I can in the Spirit discern anything that the Lord has said to me, I have to go straight away to turn that into life, into character, into substance, into history.”

I wonder how many of us do go after a message and get before the Lord and say: “Now, Lord, it is not good enough for me just to have heard that. That may work only to my condemnation. As you said: ‘The word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day’ (John 12:48); that may only be to my condemnation. There is no guarantee that my hearing a lot of divine truth is going to result in my spiritual measure being increased willy-nilly. I have got to do something about it. I have got to take this to the Lord and do something about it.”

You know how possible it is for volumes and volumes to be given over the years, and the resulting spiritual measure to be very small! One says that reluctantly, but it is possible. The point is that all these gifts are given for the perfecting of the saints “unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto... the fulness of Christ”.

This is the essential service. You are not called to office; you are called to function. A lot of people are quite ready to begin to do something if you will only put them into a uniform, or put a badge on them, or call them by some title — “missionary” or “reverend”, or something like that. They will get busy about it then. But... oh, no! That is not what is here. The Holy Spirit through this apostle is speaking to the church — “till we all”. And he is saying that every one of the all has to increase in the measure of Christ through ministries given, and have, through that increase, something to give themselves, so that it is possible for people who are in need of light and life and help to say: “So-and-so has got something — he has got something — she has got something — those people have really got something — and it is something vital. It is not just light as such, but something vital. They count for something by what they have.”

It must be like that. This is the essential service.

Now just to refer to Esther again. We mentioned how it worked out in the end because she came, through grace, marvellous grace, abounding grace, unto the riches, the wealth and the glory of her marriage relationship with the king. The whole nation derived the benefit and was saved from death unto life. It is put in a rather quaint way at the end: “The Jews had... a good day” (Esther 8:17). They kept the feast and they had “a good day”! Oh, don’t the Lord’s people need “a good day”! I trust we are having “a good day” today, but surely we covet for all the Lord’s people a good day in this sense of release, deliverance, escape from the devices of the enemy, the counsels of hell, the verdicts of death, and a coming into all the good that Esther came into.

That is the need, the really crying need. Perhaps we are here today with some sense not only of that need but that this is really what the Lord wants. I hope with all my heart that, as we are here today and are speaking to one another, your hearts are saying: “Now this is what the church needs. It is what I need. This is it.” I wish it were like that! I hope it is in some measure.

If you have that desire and wish in your heart strongly enough — whenever there is a message which comes through a messenger of the Lord, an anointed messenger of the Lord, in whatever capacity or function he may fulfil his ministry, and you are listening and saying “What is the Lord saying today? What is it that marks this time as from the Lord?” and then “I must do something about that!” — that kind of attitude will bring in spiritual measure, spiritual increase, spiritual wealth, and lead on to the ultimate object of it all: attaining “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”.

The Lord burden us, if necessary, with this great sense of vocation. We are called to the throne, we are called to marriage union with the King, we are called to administer the resources of His kingdom to His people, we are called now to be ministers of Christ — yes, ministers of Christ! And perhaps in a much more real and wonderful sense than very often is attached to that word “minister”. You can have the name, you can have the word, and it can be used of people, but the Lord only knows what it means. We are called to be a ministering church in every part.

Now, go and get to it — get to the Lord about it! Say, “I know I am nothing very much. I have not got very much life. I don’t know very much. I am not very much good. But the Lord has said this and I have got to do something about it, small as I am, mean as I am, contemptible as I am, worthless as I am — the Lord has said this to me, and I am a part of His body, and His body is called upon to be a ministering body in every part. I am in the body and ‘that which every joint supplieth’. I have got to be in this supply to other parts of the body.”

The Lord help you really to take that attitude and you will find in that way your deliverance from so much. A lot of our trouble, paralysis, confusion and whatnot is due to our being turned in in a corporate introspection, occupied with ourselves corporately, and with our problems. Oh, it is a trick of the devil! We will say more about it presently, but the Lord give us the great vision of Himself and our calling and — blessed be God — of His distribution!

If I were to add a word, I would put it in this way. You do know that in the New Testament times, in the beginning, when people really came to the Lord and were saved and baptized, the apostles did lay their hands upon them and pray for them, and if you look into the matter you will find that it was for this — that by the Holy Spirit they should become functioning members of the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit distributed gifts for functioning, qualifying them to be functioning members. The Holy Spirit does not recognise or accept any passengers in the church of God. Is not every one, every single one, to be a functioning member by the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to us? And while that is a challenging statement which may worry us a bit, remember, it is meant to show us this: that the Lord has made provision for what He requires. He really has, and we do know that the Holy Spirit does help us in certain ways. We say, “This is the way in which the Lord is with me. This is the way in which the Spirit helps me. This is where I find the Lord helping me.” Yes, He has distributed according to His will, and it is for every one of us, by real exercise, to find out what it is that we have to do and contribute in the body of Christ. Don’t try to do what someone else is doing, but get it from the Lord and it will be right.

Chapter 5 - The Conflict Against the Fulfilment of the Purpose of God

“He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10).

“He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22,23).

“Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might... For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenlies” (Ephesians 6:10,12).

The first passage sets forth the eternal intention of God that His Son should “fill all things”.

The second passage indicates the instrument by which that fulness is to be ministered: “the church, which is his body”.

Now, with the third of these passages, we come to the consummate conflict which rages against the purpose and against the vessel of its fulfilment.

The apostle introduces this summing up at the end of the letter in this way, with this word: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might”, and it is necessary for us to remind ourselves that that word “finally” is not what we mean when we use it. When we say “Finally” we mean “Now lastly”, the third point in a sermon, but that is not the meaning of the word here. It is a bigger and more comprehensive word than that. The apostle is really saying: “Well, now, in view of all that, from henceforth... with all that in view, from now onward” ... “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” The word of a great résumé by a great retrospect.

So we should regard this part of the letter, from verse ten of chapter six in this arrangement, as a gathering up of all that has preceded it. The apostle is saying: “All that I have set down becomes the occasion and the ground of a tremendous conflict. This whole thing, comprehensively, and in all its parts, is something which is challenged, withstood, fought against.” You notice that he does not say to us, or to the church: “There is a big fight on.” He just takes that for granted. He does not have to say that to anybody who knows anything about it! But he does say that this wrestling that we are in, this fact of conflict, is not of a mundane, temporal character at all. It is with “principalities... powers... world-rulers of this darkness... hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenlies”. It relates, then, in the first place, to the ultimate purpose which we have considered more or less fully in the previous two chapters, this ultimate purpose set forth in those words: “(He) ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” — according to the eternal purpose, according to the counsel of God’s Will, in accordance with the design and determination of God “that he might fill all things”. And that has ever and always been the comprehensive occasion of all spiritual conflict. It is against that ultimate purpose. Anything and everything will be resorted to by this whole mighty system of antagonism to that purpose to try and defeat it, to delay it, to contradict it, to distract from it — anything and everything to negative that purpose “That He might fill all things”.

Now we must look into this more closely and see the essentials of triumph. The battle is real: it is a fact. But we are not left without enlightenment and instruction as to the essentials of triumph, and the first is to recognise fully the realm and nature of this spiritual warfare. Five times in this letter the apostle uses the phrase “heavenlies”. The first is: “(He) hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies” (Ephesians 1:3), and the last shows us where our warfare is — it is in the heavenlies (Ephesians 6:12).

Now, because of the difficulty in our minds with a word like that, it is necessary to pause and explain.

You see, this is not a geographical realm at all. This is not a literal realm. This is a spiritual realm. This is not talking about heaven. This is talking about the heavenlies, which is something different. It is reported that Mr. Kruschev recently, in his anti-God, anti-Christian mockery, said that he had told his spaceman, when he went into outer space, to have a look round everywhere to see if he could find this “paradise”. When the spaceman came back he reported that he had looked everywhere for it, but could find no trace of it. Mr. Kruschev, with a sneer, said: “Of course not. It is all fiction: it is all nonsense.” To say such a thing betrays him! It shows how utterly ignorant he is of the thing which is nearest to him and in which he himself lives his life. This “heavenlies” is not somewhere up there in the clouds at all. It is right here where we are. It is right down here, and it is of two orders. You don’t have to go up in a plane, or anything like that, and get somewhere above this earth in order to get where the apostle means. You know quite well that this thing, this sinister thing, this evil thing, this deadly thing, this dark, paralysing thing, can come in anywhere. It can invade any place, and you can know quite well, any day, anywhere, that there is an awful system of evil in this universe, not somewhere remote, but right down here, pressing upon your body, pressing upon your mind, and sometimes it almost seems as if it has got inside of you.

On the other hand — blessed be God! — it is possible for the other kind of “heavenlies” to be right here, pressing upon us — that glorious, blessed “heavenlies” of Christ, with its joy, its peace, its rest and its relief, and you don’t have to go up somewhere to find it. It is there, right there, where we are.

This “heavenlies”, of whatever of the two kinds it may be, is a spiritual realm, which descends upon us and presses upon us. Sometimes it is the beautiful, heavenly realm which comes and lifts us, as it were, into itself. It is a great joy when we are together in the Lord! Sometimes the other thing, the evil, antagonistic, inimical thing, seems to be all around us, pressing right down upon us.

That is what is meant by the “heavenlies” in this letter.

I think we need a little brainwashing over this matter, don’t we? When we read that word “heavenlies”, we always think of heaven, and then people begin to say, “You are so heavenly! You are no earthly good! Your feet are off the earth. You are up in the clouds.” Now, be careful about such nonsensical talk, because this thing is a desperately real matter. It is right down here, this “heavenlies”. It is a state, it is a spiritual condition, it is a spiritual power and force, not a location. A dear sister here, many years ago, said she would never go up in an aeroplane because that would be invading the devil’s realm! You see, it is imperfect understanding. You are invading the devil’s realm every time you pray, every time you get down on your knees.

Well, you see, this word “heavenlies” means the reality of spiritual things, the reality of spiritual force, the reality of spiritual forces, the reality of spiritual influence, the tensions — and how real they are! Spiritual tensions. But there is this extra feature. These forces are not just naked, abstract forces: they are very intelligent forces. They know how to time things. They know when to get you off your guard. They know your weak moments. They are very intelligent forces. That is the meaning of the “heavenlies”.

Now, what is the immediate object of these antagonistic forces? It is to unseat believers from their spiritual position, which is put here: “(He hath) made us to sit with him in the heavenlies” (Ephesians 2:6). In other words, he has put us, in union with Christ, into a spiritual realm which is above — a spiritually-above position, a position of spiritual ascendancy in Christ. The immediate object of the forces of evil is to unseat the church, and to thrust or press it down so that there is an on-drive upon the church spiritually, an on-drive upon the body of Christ, to separate it from its true position in Christ and bring it down, anyhow, but bring it down.

Well, you don’t need to have that argued further. You know enough about that, and you are destined to know a great deal more if you go on. We are defining, explaining, the nature of this consummate conflict.

You will come then to the varied “wiles”, as the apostle calls them here: “That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” They are too many for any man to count, and I would be altogether out of my depth if I tried to enumerate them. But there are a few that it may be helpful to mention.

The first is to get us out of our rightful standing and position in Christ. What is that? It is the position and standing of justified ones, of those who are, in Christ, righteous, against whom no charge can be levelled. Now Paul says that definitely and distinctly in his letter to the Romans: “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? ...It is Christ Jesus that died” (Romans 8:33,34). Justified and righteous ones by faith in Jesus Christ. And the first object, or wile, of the enemy is to get us off that ground, and make us accept judgment and condemnation and accusation and come under an awful sense of death, because God has got everything against us, He is not for us any longer. This is a battle indeed! Hence the apostle says: “Put on the breastplate of righteousness” (Ephesians 6:14). Your whole vitals need to be covered in this matter, and it is indeed a matter of the vitals of the Christian life. If only the evil forces can get an entrance with accusation and condemnation, bring us under a sense of judgment and turn the truth of God into a lie, saying: “God is not for you. God is against you,” they have undone us indeed. We are down! No one will ever be able to put up any fight if they have lost that ground. It is the first wile. “Wherefore... put on the breastplate of righteousness” — His righteousness. It is ours.

I am keeping closely to this letter — “Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit” (Ephesians 4:3). The assault upon unity is one of the devil’s most strategic attacks and methods. You know that any general, in common warfare, has one law, one principle, which governs him when he faces an enemy. It is this: “Divide and conquer”. If only you can split up those forces and set them apart, destroy their unity, their cohesion, the battle is yours. Divide and conquer! And doesn’t this great enemy know that, the value of that! Divide... once that has begun confusion follows very soon, and we are out of touch with one another. When the army is out of touch with its supports, confusion follows. And then what comes with the confusion, or follows right on its heels? The whole of the fighting forces are turned in upon themselves with their own internal problems — what we called in the previous chapter “corporate introspection”. Occupation with your own selves and your own troubles, your own difficulties. And doesn’t the enemy delight when he sees the forces of God in a state like that, divided, confused and all tied up with their own problems and difficulties! Indeed a wile of the devil! So the word is: “Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit.”

Another thing in this system of adversity is to make the Lord’s people put secondary causes in the place of first causes. You wonder what is meant by that. It is to put certain situations and conditions down to secondary causes, to blame somebody, and say: “It is this, or that, or something else. This is why it is.” And we get our eyes on people. We get our eyes on what they say and what they do. We get our eyes on events and happenings. We just become obsessed with the things that are around us — secondary causes — and we fail to see that right behind and through these things there is a first cause, which is “principalities... powers... world-rulers of this darkness”. And mark you, this thing can be carried a long way. I don’t like saying some of the things that I am going to say, but I must, with courage and faithfulness, say them.

It is possible to put down the devil’s work to God! Terrible things are happening, and then we say “Oh, no, of course it is not the devil: it is the Lord. The Lord is doing something. This is the Lord. Don’t attribute it to the devil.” It is possible to do that.

Now, I want to pursue that, to examine that. The one point of enquiry about any situation should always be: “What is its effect?” Put that in another way: “Is this to the glory of God or to the dishonour of the Lord?” You remember that when the Lord was here and He was casting out demons, His enemies said: “By Beelzebub the prince of devils casteth he out devils” (Luke 11:15). The Lord Jesus took them up on a matter of logic, sheer, pure logic: “If Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?” (Luke 11:18). “A house divided against a house falleth.” (Luke 11:17). Logic! The devil is not throwing himself out! Now then, pass that over. Does God cast out God? Does God bring dishonour upon Himself? Does God destroy Himself? The answer is quite clear: No! Never! God will never do anything which will bring shame, dishonour or reproach upon His own name. He is far too jealous for His name. Therefore, if anything is having that effect, you should suspect it. You should pierce it right to its core and heart: “This thing is dishonouring to the Lord. This thing is a reproach to His name. This thing is evil. This thing is destructive of spiritual and heavenly values. Therefore it cannot be of God.” We must make that enquiry always and be very faithful about it and see exactly where the thing must be attributed.

Secondary causes are a favourite method of the enemy to cover himself up, to hide himself, and make us think that it is... well, you know, difficult people, difficult things, all this and the other, and all the time it is this evil, sinister thing behind provoking these things, stimulating these things, but they are not just the beginning and the end in themselves. You will see what that will lead to in a moment.

Another thing that comes out in this letter quite clearly as one of the enemy’s great masterpieces is that he keeps the Lord’s people from light, from getting light. He keeps them in the dark, keeps them blind, keeps them ignorant. Now that comes out in this letter through the apostle’s prayer — and he doesn’t come into the battle as he ends the letter: he is in it right from the beginning. It is because of this that he wrote the letter at all. There is a terrific battle, and so early in the letter he says: “Making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know”... that you may know... and the third time... that you may know. (Ephesians 1:16-19). Oh, it is of immense consequence that you know, that you “have the eyes of your heart enlightened”, that you know. Blindness, ignorance in this realm of spiritual things as to God’s purpose, as to God’s means of realising it, as to God’s ways of accomplishing it, is a master thing in the hands of the enemy. It always has been, right from the very beginning. Elsewhere this apostle says: “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of God, should not dawn upon them” (2 Corinthians 4:4). And this apostle’s very commission was couched in these words: “To open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18). Oh, the immense value of spiritual illumination to the Lord, to the church! And the immense value of spiritual ignorance to the devil! Be careful, therefore, about this matter, and stand: “Withstand... and, having done all, to stand” (Ephesians 6:13) for this matter of spiritual illumination, enlightenment. I can visualise that apostle in his imprisonment not just offering a simple petition, but on his knees — as we say — wrestling: “God, I pray, grant Your spirit of wisdom and revelation.” The importance of this thing is incalculable.

There are many other wiles, and I will mention another before I come to sum up.

It is this wearing out business. You know it occurs in the prophecies of Daniel: “He... shall wear out the saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7:25). Ah, yes, sapping life, wearing down. It is the long-term business of these forces. Whether we are always aware of it or not, whether we are always alive to it or not, whether we always take it in this way or not, here is the fact: that very often our state of exhaustion cannot be accounted for on any other ground than the action of spiritual forces.

And that can be proved. Oh, some of us know what we are talking about in this matter: physical exhaustion, mental exhaustion, spiritual exhaustion, to the point of just giving up — going to bed, flopping into the arm-chair, and doing no more: “I just cannot. It is not in me. I have not got the strength. I have not got the energy to go to that meeting, to go into that ministry, to undertake that piece of work. I just cannot do it.” Now, have you ever put that to the test and laid hold of God for resurrection life, for divine energy, and gone in faith, laying hold of the Lord? What has been the result? Oh, a mighty accession of life! Afterwards you have felt more life than at your best times naturally. It is a mighty uplift. You see, this we are talking about is a battle, and the enemy wants us just to surrender, to give up, to accept the situation. Flop — I cannot: “But thou”, the apostle says to Timothy, “lay hold on the life eternal” (1 Timothy 6:11,12). And it is marvellous, just marvellous, what has been done by this supernatural inflow of divine life when naturally the whole thing was an impossibility.

Now, I am speaking the truth, it is a fact. This sapping, exhausting, draining work has got to be countered by a positive action of faith. We must lay hold of Him, who is our life, to get through at all.

To conclude: what is the inclusive counter of all this and the much more that is against, that constitutes this conflict, this warfare? The apostle gives it to us. When he has told us the realm and nature of the warfare: when he has told us all the points at which the enemy attacks, as represented by the different pieces of armour — spiritual points in the life — and said “Withstand... and, having done all... stand”, he says: “Praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18). Praying! But, you notice it is fighting prayer, because it is in the realm of battle. It is prayer that relates to this whole conflict. How much the enemy has succeeded in doing mischief and harm — robbery and spoliation by robbing the church of its fighting prayer! There is any kind of prayer but fighting prayer! Fill up all your time with all sorts of things, but don’t come out in fighting prayer, corporately, against the forces of evil! They are out to smother that, rob you of that. Oh, how we have seen and watched the church going into all these troubles because it has lost its fighting power in prayer! It is true. Really putting up a collective, a corporate resistance to all these things, together getting down to it, standing and withstanding in prayer. “Whom resist” (1 Peter 5:9), says the Word. Yes, fighting prayer has got to be recovered, or all these things that we have mentioned are going to triumph: divisions, confusions, corporate introspection, misjudging situations, the sapping of life, the withholding of life. All these things are going to succeed until we reach this point to which the apostle brings the whole thing: “Praying at all seasons” — but battling prayer, fighting prayer.

I am afraid that many, many Christians don’t know what you mean when you use that language. It is a strange phraseology to many. And I know for a fact that there are a great many who dislike it and resent you speaking about it. One of the specious arguments is: “The Lord is on the throne. The Lord is Lord over all. He is sovereign. He is doing His will. Why worry? Why fight? Why take this thing on so seriously?” How specious! It is in the Bible that this warfare has got to be carried to its triumphant issue by way of prayer, and it is the church that is here in view in this letter — the church at prayer.

Oh, the Lord bring us in a new way on to this ground of standing together in prayer against this many-sided destructive work of the principalities and powers and hosts of wicked spirits! May we recover our fighting prayer, and we will see what happens — and that will be the glorious experience of the church to see that the absolute supremacy of the Lord Jesus is a reality, but it works through a church on its knees.

So help us, God!