Author's Rights

Published as an E-book

by

Austin-Sparks.Net

Email: info@austin-sparks.net

ISBN: 978-1-927228-66-1

In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of any changes, free of any charge (except necessary distribution costs) and with this statement included.

Vocational Fellowship

by T. Austin-Sparks

Transcribed from messages given at an Easter conference in 1960. The spoken form has been retained verbatim.

Contents

Chapter 1 - The Call to Fellowship

Chapter 2 - Fellowship With God in Vocation

Chapter 3 - A Worldwide Testimony and Impact

Chapter 4 - To Reunite All Things in Christ

Chapter 5 - Chosen in Christ Before the Foundation of the World

Chapter 6 - At the Crossroads

Chapter 1 - The Call to Fellowship

In the prophecies of Jeremiah, chapter 17, and verse 12: "A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary".

We shall have much to say about those words as we go on. For the time being, I want to range alongside of them two other passages. One in the first chapter of Jeremiah's prophecies, at the end of verse 5: "I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations", the other in the first chapter of the book of the Acts, verse 8: "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth".

"I have appointed thee a prophet to the nations", "unto the uttermost part of the earth". A very brief contemplation of the context of those two passages will reveal that they have many things in common, and amongst them some things of very great, indeed of the greatest, importance.

The one inclusive thing which they have in common, as lies right on the surface, is that here is a ministry, God-appointed and heaven-governed unto all the nations. That was Jeremiah's calling, or shall we say, the calling of the prophet; that was the church's calling and ordination - the ministry of the church. There are, alongside of that inclusive fact, or contained in it, these other features. Each of these, both in the case of the prophet and of the church, was linked with that past eternal intention of God. The present, in each case, was seen to be bound up with something that had always been in God's intention. The complete statement in verse 5 of chapter 1 of Jeremiah is a tremendously suggestive, significant statement, that before Jeremiah ever had a being in this world, the Lord knew him, called him, formed him, and appointed him. So that his very being was linked with something before time. That is perfectly true of the church, as we so well know. The present, in the prophetic ministry, in the church's vocation, thrown back into those eternal thoughts of God, that one eternal intention.

In the second place, in each case, God is seen acting again, because a called vessel had failed Him. How true that was in the case of the prophetic, or the prophet's ministry! The vessel which God had called, with which He had taken such infinite pains, had failed Him in this intention of His. We know how true that was in the time of the great crisis out of which the church came, was born: one called vessel and nation had completely failed. The Lord was reacting - in the case of Jeremiah and in the case of the church - in the way of recovering a vessel, or constituting a vessel in relation to the failure that had been and was.

In the third place, each of these - Jeremiah representatively as a prophetic ministry, and the church - was an embodiment of God's sovereign ways of working in relation to His intention. It is fascinating, it is tremendously instructive and helpful to study, to observe God's sovereign ways with Jeremiah as His servant, and how those ways with him set forth God's principles of service at all times. It is on this wise that God works, and if we want to know what true service to God is, we have to look into the life of Jeremiah and others, and not only by what they say, but to see God's handling of them, God's dealing with them, God's relationship to them. And there we learn the way and the laws of the service of God.

I am making these statements, they have got to be explained as we go on. This is the foundation.

What was true of the ministry of the prophets, represented so largely by Jeremiah (whom I consider the greatest of the prophets) was true and is true of the church. The church is the embodiment of God's principles of service; its very history shows how God works, on what lines God works. It's like that. A prophet "unto the nations"; a ministry "unto the uttermost parts of the earth", is constituted on certain, quite clearly defined laws. And God is the One who makes those laws, and applies them, and keeps the history of every chosen vessel to those laws. Here with Jeremiah, as with the church, we have the spiritual history of a chosen vessel. And if you were to look into it, you would see that this is true to type; the history of every chosen vessel is more or less the repetition of the history of these vessels of old. The vessel embodies something that is spiritual history with God. It is not just objective. What I am trying to say is that the vessel is not just picked up and used and spoken through, but a history is wrought in that vessel; its very constitution is a spiritual experience out of which its ministry comes. That is a very important thing ever to remember. No vessel chosen of God will be allowed for long, which is in His hands, to get outside of the realm of reality, and often it is terrible reality. God is doing something before He is saying something, and all the saying comes out of His doing.

Now the focal point of all this is fellowship with God.

Fellowship with God

That is a deep, and inexhaustible matter. Fellowship with God. A very great deal of weakness, confusion and failure is traceable to one basic defect: it is failure to recognise the real nature of God's call to any life, to any instrument. The real nature of God's call to you, to me, either individually or collectively, is a call into fellowship with Himself. We have other ideas about what it is to be a Christian, to "come to the Lord", however we may put it, but the fundamental thing about any call of God to any life, to any instrument, His choice of any vessel, the fundamental factor is this upon which everything else is based where He is concerned: fellowship with Himself. The Bible contains a great many things, as you no doubt realise. But it could be truly said that the whole Bible is gathered into this one thing: from the creation of man, right the way through to the end, the one thing that governs everything in the Bible is God seeking to have man, His creation, on the basis of fellowship with Himself. What a lot is gathered into that; how many aspects there are of that, but that is the one thing: the Bible is all about that. And if Christianity is the spiritual sum of the Bible, as undoubtedly it is, then Christianity rests upon this one thing - fellowship with God. Fellowship with God.

We are called (and this is a statement of Scripture) into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ. And the Son has made it unmistakeably clear, indeed He has taken pains to make it clear, that the relationship between Himself and His Father, which was a relationship of perfect fellowship, is the relationship that He desires to exist between His own, Himself and the Father - "they in us"; "we in them..."; "as I in the Father... so they...". That is the sum and the centre of true Christianity - it is fellowship with God. Perhaps it is necessary to step back to what was said immediately before that. A great deal of confusion, and weakness, and failure is due to our not recognising that that is what it's all about. Why are we Christians? Why do we belong to the Lord? What does it all mean? What is it all about? The answer dear friend, and you can apply it to every detail and you will find it fits, the answer is fellowship with God. That is what He is working at, and through that He does all His work.

So that the closer, the fuller the fellowship, the better and the greater the service that God calls true service. You can see, by only a superficial knowledge of the life of the prophets, who indeed were the great servants of God, that God did take infinite pains to see that these men were not just mechanical contrivances to serve some end of His, but they were men whose lives were brought into the deepest fellowship with God, and out of that all their service came. That explains the New Testament. Listen: we should not have ninety percent of the New Testament if that were not true! Ninety percent - and one could press it beyond that - ninety percent of the New Testament bears down upon this one thing: God seeking fellowship on the part of His church with Himself, and that of course includes the individual believer. Well, that is what the Bible is about, and that is what the New Testament, in particular, is about.

But further, it is a fellowship call in relation to vocation. It is not, only in a secondary way, a call to salvation; it is a call to salvation, but that is by the way, shall we say. But we make everything of salvation in our interpretation of Christianity. Salvation of course is essential; nothing can be apart from it. But God's call, God's call while through salvation essentially, is not ultimately the call to salvation; it is to vocation. It is a call according to purpose. And the vocation, to go back again, is only possible by fellowship. It is a fellowship vocation - a vocation springing out of fellowship with God.

Perhaps I must pause to say this: perhaps you, from time to time, or even now, could argue back on what I have said. Many there are who are doing a lot of good work for God; indeed there is a tremendous amount of what is called Christian work or "service", and it is possible to be carried away with the service, with the work. But listen: if those concerned are really in the hands of the Lord, if their lives have really been surrendered to the Lord and are under the government of the Holy Spirit, you will find this: that God is very, very, careful about things in the life of which He does not approve; and you don't get away with it. If there is something there that the Lord does not agree with, you come up against it; it is possible for your whole life to be held up; you have a bad time. The Lord is working in you to will and to do for His good pleasure that which is well-pleasing in His sight. He is working in; you are not some thing doing a lot of things; you are a sphere in which God is at work doing things, and being very, very painstaking, careful and meticulous. And this involves a considerable amount of exercise, and sometimes pain and suffering in our relationship with the Lord, because of this one thing: vocation. Real vocation, real service, springs out of a fellowship of life and character with God. There is no true fellowship with God only on the basis of character, is there? Our characters are all contrary to God - persistently, habitually - there is no fellowship with God; it breaks down at once. That's why, if something goes wrong with us, everything is brought to a standstill until we have got to the Lord to get it right. That's simple Christian life and experience.

Now let us take our steps again: the basis of everything is fellowship with God. The fellowship with God is a vocation fellowship: it has a purpose in view, a work to be done, a service to be fulfilled. Thirdly, that vocation relates to the nations. It relates to the nations. Everyone called of God into fellowship with God is called into a vocation, and that vocation is a nation's vocation. The horizon of your life, when you are brought into fellowship with God's Son, can never be small, little, limited, local. It immediately reaches out; you become aware of the greatness of the range of everything into which you have come! You become a part of this thing which God has had in mind from eternity - a world for Himself.

A World for Himself

That is what we are born into in our new birth - it's the nations. You  are a part of the church (and you are that if you are born of the Spirit, baptised in one Spirit into one Body) do you see that the first thing that the Lord Jesus said about the church which was about to be born was, "...the uttermost parts of the earth". That's your vocation! That's your setting, that's your calling, that's your horizon. The uttermost parts of the earth. Now don't misunderstand me, I am not saying that every one of you here this afternoon has got to go to the uttermost parts of the earth, I'm saying that is your setting; you are to have no less a range of responsibility than that; no less a sense of committal than that. It is the nations which are the vocation of the church, and therefore of every member of it.

If this book of the Acts, from which we've taken the key verse, sees Christianity precipitated by heaven into this world, for that's undoubtedly what it was, Christianity... (I don't like the term "Christianity", but it serves our purpose; if we use the term "the church", people get also wrong ideas) but if this book of the Acts, let me repeat, sees Christianity precipitated by heaven into this world, it takes its rise from verse eight of chapter one: "Ye shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me, in Jerusalem, all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." Now you see what's presented there, three things: "Ye..." - a called company.

A Called Company

That word "called" becomes very specific and very inclusive as you go on through the New Testament. But there it is: it is a company called by heaven into being. It is an endowed company; a company called... an endowment given to that company - "Ye shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you." It is a company with a vocation - "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me unto the uttermost parts of the earth"; called, endowed, commissioned, or entrusted with this worldwide vocation. And you go on into this book of Acts (so-called), and you see that heaven, heaven which initiated this, heaven which precipitated this, heaven which constituted this, takes infinite pains all the way along to prevent this thing from settling down and becoming merely localised. This is as big as heaven, and heaven is going to accept nothing smaller than itself.

The principle is going to be applied all the way along; heaven is going to keep the nations in view till the end. So you see the persons who lead the church - and I use that word, that language, carefully - the persons who lead the church, the church fulfilled its vocation because of heaven-given inspirers and leaders. But notice how heaven had taken pains to undercut in the persons concerned anything less than its own dimensions. Very much has been said about Stephen. Do you know why Stephen was martyred? Do you know why Stephen was martyred? There is only one explanation, and it is the explanation: he charged Israel and Israel's leaders with having failed God in the great vocation unto the nations. They had drawn in, settled down in an exclusiveness, and pride, and conceit, that they were the people and the only people; they had it all. They called the Gentiles dogs' and the nations... well, what were the nations? They were the people! And it was because Stephen struck at the very heart of that localisation and exclusiveness that he was martyred. Read it again what he said; that was it.

Paul... the only explanation of Paul is this: that God had cast him in the mould of the universal, the worldwide, and took those pains, those pains which resulted in perhaps the greatest miracle of the apostolic church, that a rabid, bigoted, Pharisee of the Pharisees, should become the "apostle of the Gentiles", of the nations. Of the nations! His whole background, training, everything, like Jeremiah's, was ordered, arranged by God, even before his birth, and at his birth, and through his childhood, to constitute him this man who would become God's vessel then in relation to that worldwide purpose concerning Jesus Christ. You see the Holy Spirit working with the persons on that line.

You see Him working with the place, the places. Jerusalem was tending (that's to say the least of it) to become the localised centre of everything: to dominate, govern, hold everything to itself. And heaven moved in and said, This is not My idea, it's not My idea!' With one scattering blow all that had to yield to heaven. They went everywhere, to fulfil the great design: unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And you notice how by the Spirit, by the Holy Spirit, the apostles were so strategic in this very matter of the centres that they chose, out from which whole areas, large areas, could be touched. Heaven was working on that principle all through the book of the Acts. This is:

A World Vocation.

Now you see how clear these things are in the case of Jeremiah. That statement of Jeremiah which we have quoted has a tremendous amount of history behind it. Jeremiah was a priest by birth; he was of the line of Abiathar. And you remember that it was Abiathar who was guilty of complicity with Adonijah in seeking to take the throne from Solomon, God's chosen successor to David. The result was that Solomon sent Abiathar, the high priest, away to his own home in Anathoth; banished for life and for good, and put right out of the high priesthood.

Come down the years and arrive at Jeremiah; he is in his home in Anathoth; he is there, serving in this limited way in a prescribed priesthood. There he is, in a little place, some forty odd miles from Jerusalem, carrying on some kind of priestly work in a little locality; not even in Jerusalem. And then it says: "The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and said..." And I like to paraphrase it or to put it into my own words: "Look here, I have got something bigger than this for you! I have appointed thee a prophet to the nations! Out of this! This is not My thought for any servant of Mine - some little hole-in-a-corner-thing, that is not accepted or recognised." And if you wonder if that is true, we have made a great deal (and I suppose we still may make a great deal of it for our own comfort) of the word that Jeremiah used when he answered the Lord: "I am a child, I cannot speak." Well, many of us have made a lot of that, as I say, for our own consolation. But when Jeremiah used that word, I have discovered that he didn't mean what we mean by a child', or the word does not mean that in the Hebrew. It means, I am one who is not yet recognised by men'; I haven't yet got standing or status'; I have not been accepted.' Perhaps that is more comforting still! But the Lord said, Say not, I am one without status, or recognition, or acceptance; thou shalt go to all to whom I send thee!' "I have appointed thee a prophet to the nations"!

Here is God's idea coming out again, you see; all the nations are in view with God and He is moving here sovereignly. And we have much to say about His sovereign movement in this connection, moving sovereignly in relation to the nations, maybe firstly through His own people; but it is the nations that are in view with Him.

Now, dear friends, if we, if we get in line with heaven, if we really get in line with heaven, (because both here in the Old Testament, and there in the New, in the Acts, it is heaven that is on the move. Heaven has got things in hand; all this is heaven on the go!) if we get in line with heaven, we shall come spontaneously into these three things. Lay hold of this if you forget much else.

We shall come into line with a heavenly calling, a heavenly calling; in other words, a heavenly vocation. Get into line with heaven, and we almost automatically come into line with a heavenly calling, a heavenly vocation.

When we get into line with heaven, we spontaneously get into line with a heavenly endowment for the vocation. "Ye shall receive power."

And when we get into line with heaven, we get into line with God's ultimate object: a people out of the nations, and then the nations for His possession.

In line with heaven - a call, a call according to purpose. In line with heaven - an endowment, that heaven takes responsibility. Aren't we grateful for that? Aren't we grateful for that! What a lot of history that explains for the Lord's servants, for the church, for us. It is just this: that having come to the place of the most utter abandonment to God, to Christ, to be here on this earth only for Him, He has taken responsibility for all that is required. Jeremiah may have some terrible experiences, some terrible times; it may look sometimes as though it's the end, and an awful end, but you know quite well that God saw him through, took responsibility, and that his ministry was successful, although it seemed to be a failure. You have just got to follow haven't you through the Chronicles of Israel. And how did the Chronicles begin? "That the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, and made a decree..." Jeremiah comes into his own, God has taken responsibility for seeing that this heaven-given mandate does not fail. Come into that when we come into line with heaven, and we can never be in line with heaven and be on narrow, confined, exclusive lines. Heaven's view is the nations, or the uttermost parts of the earth'. Heaven acts sovereignly for that, as we have said.

Let it be understood, dear friends, that we don't make Christianity. We initiate or project nothing; heaven does all this. Heaven does all this! We shall see, perhaps, as we go on, more of this heavenly initiative. But what I am trying to emphasise is this: that if we get into line with heaven, the rest follows. Oh, how necessary it is not to get out of line with heaven. We can fail to come into line with heaven; we can turn aside from heaven's line, but if we come into line with heaven, everything else follows; it's spontaneous! It is spontaneous, it happens. You haven't got to organise, and plan, and scheme, and try to make something, and have elaborate programmes of Christian activity. It happens if you are in line with heaven. Spontaneous... heaven does it. We are but the channels or vessels; we are not the source, or the originator.

Heaven goes on, heaven is going on. If we step aside, heaven is going on. If we rebel, heaven is going on. Heaven's attitude is always that: I am going on. Are you coming or are you going to be left behind? It is just like that. Our life, our service, depends entirely upon where we are, not in the first place upon what we are, but where we are; not on what we try to do or make, but where we are. Are we in the place, in the place where heaven can go on with us and through us? You know quite well that this is the full revelation that has been given to us in one short book of the Bible. It is just that. Everything there is so full, so  strong, so rich, so spontaneous in the letter to the Ephesians: "in the heavenlies", in the heavenlies... "in Christ", and it's the vast range of the Divine purpose and counsel.

Well, for the present we must break off, but here the primary point is this: Christians, believers, children of God, people of God, are the result of a Divine act in relation to a superlative purpose in the heart of God - "Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you" - a Divine act. A Divine act. We all have to come there even at the beginning. We may be told that we can decide for Christ, and we can choose the Lord, and we may think that we do it, but we know quite well that nothing really happens until we come to the place where, if God doesn't do something, it is all nonsense, it's all empty, all in vain. Sooner or later, that is where we all have to come; it must be, from beginning to end, all of God. Our existence and our service is the result of a Divine act; and that Divine act relates to this great vocation in the heart of God which has to do with nothing less than all the nations. All the nations. As we shall see in the first place, it is "taking out of the nations a people", but it does not stop there. In the last place it is: "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God and His Christ."

It is really necessary to go on from that point, but for the afternoon that will be enough. I can only hope that with all this you catch a glimpse of something. We have so often said that it is no little thing to belong to the Lord, to be in relation to the Lord. It is no lesser thing than to be an integral part of this which was conceived in the heart of God before He made the world. In relation to that world, concerning His Son, you and I have, by Divine act, been called according to that. But we shall find the greatness of the Lord, the greatness of His resources, not brought down to the little measure of our personal horizon, but as we are lifted clear of all that into the full range of God's purpose concerning His Son, there we shall make discoveries of how great the Lord is in His resources, His ability to get us through. And if you want proof of that, if you want proof of that there is one very good source and kind of proof with which perhaps some of you are not a little familiar: that the more you are in fellowship with God's ultimate, full purpose, the more intense, and bitter, and relentless will be the activities of hostile forces. That is perfectly clear, but it is a compliment! Perhaps we don't like those kind of compliments, but it is a compliment to anything when the devil hates it and would seek to destroy it. So, what counts most for God, or could count most for God, will be the target of most of the enemy's activities, and that's a significant thing.

We need our initial verse, don't we? "A glorious throne, on high from the beginning... our sanctuary".

Chapter 2 - Fellowship With God in Vocation

I'm going to repeat the three passages of Scripture around which our thoughts were gathered this afternoon. Two of them in the prophecies of Jeremiah, the overall passage in chapter 17 and verse 12:

"A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary".

And then under that from the first chapter, the end of verse 5:

"I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations".

And in the book of the Acts, chapter 1, verse 8:

"Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth".

"A prophet unto the nations...", "witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth..." and "a glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary."

We have already covered a considerable amount of ground in laying down a foundation for these meditations. The sum and the substance of it all is that the call of God is a call into fellowship with Himself in a great purpose which has been in His heart from the foundation of the world. That is the meaning of being the Lord's: it is a fellowship call, it is a vocation call. It is therefore something very much more than a call to be saved. That is only the door into the fellowship, and into the vocation.

Now this evening we're going, without any backward look, we are going to go on with that. And once more we outline, and I want to here mention six parts of that whole matter of fellowship with God in vocation. And, of course, what I am saying, although without quoting the Scripture, is fully based upon and supported by what the Word of God teaches.

Firstly then:

[1.] This world was made for and given by God to His Son as His possession and inheritance.

That lies back of everything in history and in the Bible. It lies back of human life. It lies back of everything that the Bible contains. God designed this world and created it for His Son, and gave it to Him as His inheritance.

Secondly:

[2.] The world was stolen from God's Son.

Something that runs through the Bible, and breaks out from the prophets again and again is that God has been robbed. God has been robbed. God has had His rights taken from Him. God's rights are vested in His Son, and that taking from God relates to the place of God and His Son in this world. And it is not difficult to see that on the one side, the big issue all along is just that. It is just that: God has not got His place or His rights; they have been taken from Him. If we could comprehend the whole meaning of one big Bible word, and understand it, we should see that it just comes back to this thing - that word righteousness'. The whole of the content of the word righteous' relates to what is right where God is concerned; and righteousness and unrighteousness bear down upon this one issue: God having His place, and being ceded His rights; His rights in character, His rights in creation, and His rights in government. Well, they are things said - they are big things, and cover a lot of ground. But this point is that this world has been stolen from God's Son. True, by man's consent, but however and why for, that's not our matter at the moment. The simple fact is that it is in wrongful hands; it is in hands to which it does not belong. You know, God has written that truth deep and large in history.

I wonder if you have ever yourself wondered about one matter... Do you remember, in a vision God came to Abraham to make a covenant with him, and said: "Thy seed, thy seed shall be sojourners in a foreign land four hundred years". Before they were in existence, they were destined to the Egyptian captivity and bondage, or it was foreshown that they would be. I have often asked myself when reading the story of Joseph going into Egypt, then bringing his brethren there, and his aged father, and the seemingly happy time for the present that was theirs, why it was necessary for that to become a prison for them for those four hundred years, and as we know, an awful prison. We know the bondage and how they cried and groaned by reason of that bondage and their taskmasters. Why? Well, we know that Joseph's brethren were not very good kind of fellows, a poor lot perhaps; they didn't treat him very well, but four hundred years! If it was for what they were that they should not have been, this was pretty heavy punishment! Why? And determined or foreknown long before they were the bad men they were, before they were men at all. Why must this long and terrible period be written in history?

Well, we may not and I may not understand the whole thing, but I do suggest this: God has written deep and large on the page of history, that this world is in the hands of a power to which it does not belong. While they were there during that period in Pharaoh's hands, they did not belong to Pharaoh, they did not belong to Egypt. And God's words were: "My people... let My people go... let My son go...". In effect, They don't belong to you; you have no right over them; they belong to Me.' Now perhaps we could find a very much better and fuller reason for Israel later going into the seventy years' captivity in Babylon, for, we might say, they deserved that; you have only to read these prophecies of Jeremiah. Nevertheless, there is another aspect, another side to it. That people remained God's people in Babylon; they did not belong to Nebuchadnezzar; they did not belong to Babylon; they were God's people in wrongful and false government and control. God has written this in history. There is that which is God's which is under a false, wrongful government and control and mastery. It is not where it ought to be, it's not in His hands; it has been stolen from God. Truly, as Pharaoh stole Israel, and Israel's rights, and properties, and liberties; as truly as Nebuchadnezzar stole the wealth of the temple, and of the city, and the people, and carried it away, so in a fuller, and deeper, and of course a spiritual way (which is much, much worse than the temporal) this world which belongs to God has been stolen from God. He is not in possession of it. It has been stolen; God has been robbed. God's Son has been robbed of His inheritance.

Thirdly:

[3.] This world, therefore, is, in the deepest sense, a lost world.

A lost world. Of course, lost, firstly, to its Owner, its rightful Owner; lost to the purpose for which it was created; lost to its own rightful state of peace, joy and satisfaction. It is lost to all that. It is lost to its essential unity and integration, lost to that - that of course needs no arguing or belabouring. It is lost to its glory. It's a lost world. All in it, by nature, are lost. The nations are lost. Now, of course the Lord Jesus made it His business to lay great emphasis upon that fact by every means: by parable and declaration, and by work and Person, He sought to make this quite clear to all, that the inheritance is lost. Yes, and that it had been stolen. Remember the parable of the vineyard, and the wicked husbandman, who said: This is the heir, the heir to whom the inheritance belongs. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.' Oh, what a profound meaning the Lord Jesus had in speaking that parable. We know all His other parables about lost things. We have dwelt mainly upon one side of them. There is another side, you know. Take the one best known, of the prodigal' so-called.

Well, we have gone round that prodigal' looking at him from every standpoint, until perhaps we think that there is nothing more to be said. But have you ever thought that he didn't belong to the man to whom he had hired himself out, and he did not belong to that world into which he had gone, and he did not belong to the circumstances and condition in which he found himself? There is something in him all the time, rising up in revolt, and saying: "I don't belong here; this is not what I was made for! My whole being cries out and says: I am in a false position; I am in a wrong position. I am where I ought not to be. I should not be in this."

If the coin or the sheep could speak, those lost things, they would have said the same thing: "I am not where I ought to be, I'm somewhere else. This is not what I was intended for". So, when the Lord Jesus sums it all up and says: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost", He's touching the ultimate things, the ultimate things... not just the things of man's salvation in that elementary sense, but man's salvation in its profoundest, uttermost, sense: the recovery of that which has been lost to God's Son - His inheritance. Well, there's nothing perhaps new to you about that, but we're on the way. This world was made for and given by God to His Son, it was stolen from Him by a power that has no real right over it, it is therefore a lost world.

But then fourthly:

[4.] God's Son came into this world with the supreme object of recovering the inheritance to Himself...

Of again retrieving the lost, and securing the lost inheritance to Himself, as its rightful Owner. That, again, is perhaps the simple gospel, but let us get back of everything and see what it is that lies there at the root of His coming: leaving everything, leaving everything... being divested of everything in heaven and coming here, and coming to the day of which we are thinking today, even the death on the cross. The thing that lies right at the heart of all that is the recovery of His inheritance.

Now let me solemnly and reverently touch a point which goes deeper than anything else in this matter. When the Lord Jesus on the cross, cried, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani" He went out into the lost place, the place of the lost; the place where the scapegoat was loosed and driven to the wilderness, away from man and God. He took the place of a lost world, and a lost humanity. He has lost everything in that moment. It is the desolation of His soul. For that moment He's lost God, lost heaven, yes, lost everything. It is a terrible phrase, and I hesitate to use it - He was like a lost soul' in that moment. We say it with some support that He poured out His soul unto death. Unto death! What is death but the loss of everything? If it is death all is gone. And He went out there to bring back in His own Person the lost inheritance of man. He touched to the very depths, to the bottom of our loss, and God's loss, and His own loss. Oh, the wonder of the resurrection! It's essential to the whole circle. But, you see, this world was lost. But even that, dear friends is not all. That's all true, that's all true, but there is an extra factor in it all; an extra factor and element in it all.

[5. Christ triumphed over the powers of darkness in His cross]

Out there in that darkness and desolation, that wilderness of forsakenness, things were by no means passive. Out there He went to meet the one who had robbed Him and God of everything; whom He Himself called "the prince of this world". Out there as truly, and yet more truly and more fully than the combat of the forty days after His baptism with the prince of this world, He met the usurper. He met the false prince, He met the robber, the stealer, and in awful conflict in that darkness, He wrestled His great wrestle with the powers of darkness; so terrible that the Psalmist well describes them: "They compassed me about like bees... they compassed me about like bees", these hosts of wicked spirits, of which Paul speaks. Out there He met that whole kingdom and hierarchy in full force. "He plunged in His imperial strength to depths of darkness down; He brought His trophy up at length; the proud usurper's crown." He wrested the inheritance from the false prince. He fought this whole battle out in that dark moment on the cross. Oh, what a lot can be crowded into a few moments - an eternity can be! So it was with Him.

You see, the Cross, the Cross was a far, far bigger thing than a crucifix, than a crucifixion. It is cosmic, it compasses the whole range of heaven and earth. That's all focussed on that spot in that moment. He fought it through, did spiritual combat with the prince of this world and his hosts, and He triumphed by His Cross. He stripped off, says Paul, "the principalities and the powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in His cross".

That's number five. Number six:

[6.] As the Victor Prince He returned from the fight, brought back by the power of God, and coming back, He calls His fellow-heirs to the vocation of possessing the inheritance with Him.

Taking the inheritance which He has secured in Himself, He calls them "fellow-heirs". And you know that is a Scripture: "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ". He calls them to this great vocation and conflict of the inheritance. That is the meaning of the Christian life, of being a Christian: "Called into the fellowship with His Son", called as fellow-heirs' with Him to share the inheritance with Him, but called into the vocation of taking the inheritance and fighting its battle. And it is unto all the nations, to the uttermost part of the earth. The vocation of every Christian... listen: the vocation of every Christian, that includes you individually, and me, is to have our feet down on some patch on this earth in the name of the Lord Jesus. And that other one, with all his powers, will try to shift you, to move you, to force you out, to drive you out, to make it impossible for you to stay. But that Name is sufficient; that Name is enough. He has won! Not in our victory, but in His.

The methods of those evil forces are too many to count and enumerate and mention, but I put my finger upon one very favourite one, which, no doubt, is a very live issue with you and with me - the livest issue - and that is as the accuser of the brethren'. And if he cannot get us broken on the matter of Christ's redemptive work for our ultimate salvation, he will seek to cripple and paralyse us on the ground of our unworthiness to be the Lord's at all, and the Lord's servant. You know, it is the Lord's servants who know the most about the work of the accuser, because it is the vocation that he is after. And this is an issue which is alive right to the end. Dear friends, you may think that you have got past the letter to the Romans, and you have got into the letter to the Ephesians. God help you! God help you. If you will allow the testimony of one who is not a novice and a beginner in these things by any means, it is that I need the letter to the Romans more today than ever in all my Christian experience - the great truth of justification by faith, or let me put it in another way, the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ. You see, that is not only a salvation truth, that's a battle truth, that's a warrior truth: "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper", says the prophetic word. And "every tongue that riseth against thee in judgement thou shalt condemn; this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord..." is that true? It's true, it's all true.

To what does it apply? Men forge their weapons against the people of God, and they succeed! Men raise their tongues of accusation against the people of God, and they succeed! Is it true? Apply it to the forces of evil back of everything, and it's true. Why? "And their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord"; that cuts the ground from every accusation that is made. And that bluntens every weapon of the accuser. "Their righteousness..." - the opposition of the enemy is along this line to make you surrender to the idea of your non-acceptance by the Lord, your rejection by the Lord, your being set aside by the Lord because, because look at you, what you are! It is a terrible battle, that! But "their righteousness is of Me" is the letter to the Romans, and we need it in the battle; we need it in the battle. We need it to begin, and we need it at the end.

We are in this battle; we are called into it, for the inheritance. The inheritance is not salvation. We do nothing to earn salvation. The inheritance is far, far more than that. He calls us into this vocation of taking, taking His rights for Him. I repeat, wherever you are, in your home, in your business, in your place of spiritual service, in any part of this world, as in fellowship with Jesus Christ you are in fellowship with this great vocation, to hold that place for Him, in His Name; and not to move until the Lord says, Move. The Lord does move us, and tells us to move sometimes; but we must have the Lord's word for it before we do it, or the enemy will make a great mess of us.

Now there are three things in this sixth point. The rightful and victorious Prince of this world calls us as fellow-heirs into the vocation and conflict of recovering the inheritance. That means that in the very call into fellowship with God's Son there is:

Inherent Conflict.

You never realise that conflict until you take sides with Jesus Christ. It is then that it wakes up. You find yourself almost immediately in some atmosphere which is charged with antagonism - without speaking or doing anything. You haven't got to get up and preach; it is there! It is there, you are aware of it. As you go on with the Lord, and the more you go on with the Lord, the more this very atmosphere of antagonism grows upon you. It is not a very comforting gospel this for you I know, but you know it's true; and the more you count for the inheritance, or the more anything counts for the inheritance, the more violent the conflict.

I can mention here, and it will be for your prayer, I had a long letter during this week from a dear aged sister, whose name is known to many of you, and whose writings perhaps to more: the writer of "God's Plan of Redemption" [Mary McDonough] one who has meant much for the Lord and the inheritance through a long life. She is now lying in a nursing home after a very bad accident, from which it is doubtful she will recover, very much alone. And in her letter she said: "I am the target of the assaults of the evil powers in a way in which I have never known in my life. Pray for me; ask your friends to pray for me." Here is one who has meant much to the Lord in the matter of the inheritance. You would say, "Well, it is time she had the waters of quietness, that the Lord gave her a calm evening." No.

But dear friends, that is no isolated case. Everywhere those who really represent some value for the Lord Jesus are having that sort of thing; the pressure is intense. Think of what is happening in some places. God only knows what that dear servant of His in China [Watchman Nee] now in his seventh year of tortured imprisonment, what he knows of it - the awful conflict. He doesn't know, unfortunately, of the tremendous values of his ministry. How he has kept us going here for months with his ministry, with demands that can hardly be met with that book or those books! [Probably referring to "The Normal Christian Life" which was first published by "A Witness and A Testimony" at Honor Oak] I wish he knew. But we know! We know! If you saw the correspondence about that book, hear the reports that we get about it... tremendous things that it is doing in many parts of the world,  you would understand then and realise that there is something in this suffering of his, and this conflict. It is not for nought. It's like that. If you don't count much for the Lord you will not know much about that, and there are many, many Christians who are turning Christianity into a mere picnic. A good time... that's the idea of Christianity in many circles alright. If you want to know what the intrinsic value, the ultimate value is going to be, and what the prince of this world (so-called) thinks about it, he may be very pleased with a lot of it, but you may take it that the call into fellowship with God's Son in this great vocation of the inheritance has inherently in it the element of conflict.

The second thing is that our business, in the first instance, is to get for Christ the token out of the nations.

The Token Out of the Nations

We are not told or taught in the Word of God, that in the first place, the world will be won for Christ. But we are told that the first thing - and notice that that is how it is put - God first looked to take out of the nations a people for His Name, to take out of the nations a people for His name - the token of them. That is our business. It is your business where you are in your business, in the place where your feet are put down to stand there, if by any means there shall be taken a token of the inheritance in view of the Great Day. That is what you are there for. Yes, common language and parlance speaks about soul-winning, and so on, but that is what it is. See something bigger even than getting people saved' and brought to Christ. That's important but there is something behind that. There is this thing that dates back to a dateless time, called the beginning', which was in the heart of God, and reaches through the ages, on to the ages of the ages; and one thing into that you and I are called, is in the first, practical instance: to get the token out of the nations. It's a token, but a token, but it's a token. We are there for that.

And thirdly: the ultimate possession lies along that line.

the Possession of the Nations.

"Ask of Me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession". That is to be fully fulfilled and granted eventually. The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ.

Can you suffer a few minutes longer? Because I want to come to Jeremiah 17:12. The cost of all this is great, as many of you well know; the conflict is fierce. The demands upon us sometimes seem to be immense and endless. The interests are so vital, so vital that something is absolutely necessary if we are going to get through. We must have an adequate background for getting through. I have not exaggerated, and even if you don't know what I am talking about, believe me, some do! The involvements in this great business are very, very great, and very serious, and very exacting upon the saints, necessitating some basis and background which is adequate to meet it all, and go through. And what is it? Oh, read again Jeremiah if you have the patience to read right through this long and terrible book. Hear this man's groans and cries and sighs and troubles. Hear him saying: "Woe is me, my mother, that you gave birth to a man of strife and contention!" He is called the weeping prophet', I think wrongly so, but he was a man who was right up against this terrible business. Terrible business! When at last they dropped him into a deep, dark, miry pit, up to the breast, and left him to starve and die had not a kindly Ethiopian, hearing of his plight, gone to the king and begged him to do something. The king gave commandment that they should take ropes and bring up Jeremiah out of the pit. And as Dr. Meyer says about it, there was the extra touch of kindness and understanding even with the Ethiopian when he took a lot of old rags and clouts to put around the rope to go under his arms, so that there should be no unnecessary chaffing, and they fetched him up. That's the man. He goes through, he goes through all that dear friends, to go through it all, and if you feel sometimes that it is a hard way and an impossible way to get through, you need something, and you need what Jeremiah had. And what did he have? "A glorious throne, set on high, from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary."

Break that up, break it up: "A glorious throne" - there is a seat of government in glory. "Set on high" - above all this, all this, above all of it, set on high. Not yesterday or today, but from eternity: "From the beginning" the throne has been there from the beginning is an eternal throne, a timeless throne, set on high from the beginning, "is our sanctuary...". Sanctuary! What picture does that bring up to your eyes? Do you see the fugitive? You see the one being pursued by the avenger of blood running and rushing for his very life towards the city of refuge, the place of sanctuary. The glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our refuge, our sanctuary, our security, our safety, our victory.

And when you come to think about it, not only Jeremiah, but Isaiah fulfilled his ministry on the strength of that: "In the year that Uzziah died I saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and sitting upon a throne..." and Isaiah had to go through things, and it was that that carried him through. Ezekiel - "I was by the river Chebar, and I saw visions of God. The heavens were opened..." And what did he see? "Above the firmament a throne, and above it upon the likeness as that of a man." What is the word that covers the book of Daniel? And Daniel knew something about this conflict and cost: "The heavens do rule". The heavens do rule, that is the word of Daniel isn't it, the book? "The heavens do rule... thou shalt know that the heavens do rule...". And the same secret carried Paul through all his sufferings and troubles - he had seen the Lord Jesus high and lifted up in glory. It is only as we do see God raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand far above all rule and authority, principality and power, and every name that is named, highly exalted and given the Name which is above every name; only so shall we get through. But so shall we get through, if we see Him there, know that He is there, and keep our eyes on Him there - a glorious throne... on high... from of old... our sanctuary.

Chapter 3 - A Worldwide Testimony and Impact

Before we read again from those places which have been before us in the former gatherings in this season, may I say to you that I really have a sense that the Lord has something to say to us of a very vital character just now; that we are not here, and I am not here in ministry just to give so many addresses, or so much teaching from the Bible, but rather that there shall be a word from the Lord for this time.

I don't know how you view it, whether you think about it or not; but if you will allow me to say this for my own part, that I approach these times with a very serious, solemn seeking of the Lord that there shall be a word from Him for the hour. And you will forgive me if I say, that on my own part in these times I always have to have in mind the thought that it may be the last time, the last conference, in which I minister to you here. And with that thought, I am the more earnest in my seeking of the Lord that it shall not be just words, but a message, and a message from Him. And I say this by way of seeking to draw you to the seriousness of such a time, if it should be that the Lord wishes to speak to us for the hour. And my sense is that it is so. Whether those of you who have been here thus far have been able to discern the essential message in all that has been said, I want to focus down upon that this evening, and with the help of the Lord, try to help you to see what that word is that I believe the Lord wishes us to have just now.

Having said that, let us read again from the beginning of the book of Jeremiah's prophecies. The first chapter, verse four:

"Now the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Before I formed thee I knew thee; and before thou camest forth I sanctified thee. I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child, for to whomsoever I shall send thee, thou shalt go, and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid because of them, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy and to overthrow; to build and to plant".

And then again, Acts 1:8: "Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you. And ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth".

Now, as I have said, we are this evening concentrating upon the heart of things. Forgive some reiteration with a view to so focusing everything. The heart of the Bible, the heart of Christianity, of the Christian life, the heart of Christian experience and all God's dealings and God's ways with us, with His people, is fellowship with Himself unto a vocation. Fellowship with God vocationally - not fellowship as something in itself, or an end in itself, but fellowship unto a vocation in time and in eternity. If you would keep that in mind continually, all the time, it would explain everything, because that is the explanation of the Bible from beginning to end, and of all that there is there from man's creation and the creation of the world, to the glorious consummation. Fellowship - that final, glorious and wonderful statement, "and His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face". That's vocation in fellowship, isn't it, if it means anything at all. And you know that that stands at the end of the Bible as the ages of the ages take the place of time.

Now I want to be very careful. I am not concerned to preach, I want to talk and make sure that what is said is, from my side, explained carefully. And I want you to come into this with me, and make it your business to try to understand and grasp what is being presented.

We have taken these verses from the beginning of Jeremiah's great ministry, great in every sense, stretching over some forty-five years, or thereabouts - so full and so meaningful. And we have seen how it began; how the Lord laid His hand on him; how the Lord spoke to him, and what the Lord said to him, and what his great commission was. If you follow through this lengthy book, you find that all working out from chapter to chapter, to the end; that beginning, with all its terms, is working out.

Now Jeremiah is

A Representative Prophet.

You may have your preferences amongst the prophets, and when you heard me say that I think that Jeremiah is the greatest of the prophets you might not agree, because you like Isaiah better, or someone else. Well, that doesn't matter. Jeremiah is a prophet to the nations through the nation, and is representative of the prophetic function and ministry. Now, what I want you to grasp is this: it does not matter one little bit who the prophets were; it does not matter that there were prophets who bore these names - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea and all the rest. You can dismiss the names, and if you like, in a sense dismiss the men as men. But you must keep and lay hold of this: that these men were a function, a Divine and heavenly function amongst the people of God and in this world. And you have got to get hold of the function, that is, the thing that God was doing through them. And that is not confined to the Old Testament prophets, the prophets of Israel.

There are prophets in the New Testament church; the church of the New Testament takes up the function. We are not given the names of the prophets, all of them, in the New Testament church, but we are told that they are there: "And He gave some apostles, and some prophets..." this ascended Lord, in the gifts to the church. And inasmuch as He has not marked them out by name in the New Testament church, all of them - I suppose Paul was one, and some of the others who are known to us by name fulfilled that particular ministry. But inasmuch as He has not given us the names of the prophets in the New Testament dispensation, that doesn't matter; that only bears out what I say. It is the function that matters, not the name or the person - it is the function. And the function which goes a long way back before Isaiah, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel - Abraham was a prophet and was called a prophet. This thing started a long way back and it comes right on. The function, what was it? Related to this one, essential, basic, central thing: the whole matter of fellowship with God in vocation. Now you can take that to your Bible, and the Bible will prove that that's right. Fellowship with God - real relationship with God in oneness of heart, oneness of heart, unto a vocation.

Now, that prophetic ministry, and the prophets, were related in their ministry, their work, not to themselves in this matter, not to themselves in this matter, but to the people that God meant to have, the race in that position - a people in this earth, in that relationship, fulfilling that vocation. They were the prophets of Israel, but the whole point of their life was that Israel, as a nation, as a people, should be in that relationship with God, of fellowship, to a worldwide vocation. That is why God chose Israel, to put them at the centre of the nations, in order that in this particular and peculiar relationship with Himself in fellowship, they might fulfill a Divine vocation amongst the nations, and to the nations, that if by response to God's overtures, all men might come into that relationship with Him - the whole world. It was open to the whole world to come into that relationship with God.

Don't make any mistake about it, dear friends, for our way of speaking often betrays a faultiness in our conception. We so often hear people in prayer, and other ways, speaking of the 'redeemed' in the earth; praying for the 'redeemed' in the earth. And the mentality is that the 'redeemed' is synonymous with the 'saved' - it is not. It is not. Every child of Adam has been redeemed; every child of Adam has been redeemed by the Cross of the Lord Jesus; there is not a man, woman or child on this earth that has not been redeemed. The great tragedy - the two-fold tragedy is that so few know that they are redeemed, and that so many who are redeemed will not accept their redemption. Judgment, you see, will rest upon that - the refusal to have something so costly, which is theirs by right. Well, that's by the way.

The Function Issuing From This Fellowship

Is to let the nations know what God has done by the Cross of His Son for them; and to bring the nations into that relationship with God, which will mean that the nations serve Him, serve Him. But come back - this is what is meant by the prophetic ministry. Do not think of prophets, or prophetic ministry, as bound up with a certain cult, a certain class of people. We speak in Old Testament terms of 'priests' and 'prophets' and 'kings' - oh, what a lot has to be done in our mentality over this! The church of Jesus Christ is called into the great prophetic ministry through fellowship with Him. It is a prophet nation to the nations. If you are in it, you're in that. You can call yourself a prophet if you like (you'd better not!), but it is true if you really are in this vessel. Your function, your function, your vocation is far beyond yourself and yourselves; it's to the uttermost part of the earth in some way. But I am anticipating. This is the meaning of what is in the Old Testament - the ministry and work of the prophets - it's a ministry that does not end with them, is not confined to them; it is a ministry brought right on. And while there is a need for this particular function, it will go on, right on to the end.

Now you see that while this was true, and it is so patently true of those called the prophets in the Old Testament, this was the real nature, the essence, of the call of disciples. The very disciples of the New Testament, of Christ, became disciples on this basis, "And He chose twelve, that they might be with Him" - that is fellowship, "and that He might send them forth" - that is vocation. These two always go together. Discipleship rests on that. Now, you might be unprepared to call yourself by any of the other names, but I am quite sure you would be prepared to call yourself a 'disciple' if you belong to the Lord. At least that is our relationship with Him - a disciple. But there it is, whatever that means, a follower, a taught one, one under instruction - whatever it means - it is just that basic, initial relationship to Him - a disciple. Now, note again, discipleship, the very first phase of the Christian life, rests upon this fellowship unto vocation. Discipleship was that.

Apostleship - and again we put a ring round a certain class, and call them 'the apostles'. Well, of course, in a sense that's right, but in another sense it's wrong. Every one of us is a 'sent one'. If you haven't got that consciousness that you are a 'sent one', then there is something defective about your Christian life. You may only be 'sent' on a very short errand, within a very short geographical limit, but you are there as sent by God. And 'apostle' simply means that: 'sent one'. Sent one. The whole content of apostleship is just this - fellowship unto vocation.

And when you leave the individual aspect, and move to the collective, do remember, dear friends, do remember, that while the book of the Acts of course includes necessarily, individuals, all the individuals, the book of the Acts is concerned with the church - firstly the church universal, the whole church. And the church has its very existence upon this one exclusive and inclusive basis. The church is the apostolic church, the apostle church in this sense; the whole object of the church (and it has none other) is to have a people in fellowship with the Lord to a worldwide vocation. Well, that is obvious in the book of the Acts - you see? Fellowship unto vocation - that is the explanation of the church. And when you break up the church (in a right way) into churches - the churches - what is the Divine idea, mind, about churches? Here and there planted, planted by heaven, throughout Asia, throughout Europe, anywhere; here or there, wherever you are come from, what is the Divine idea of a company, smaller or larger, in any particular location? It's the same - fellowship with God unto a world vocation!

World Vocation

The churches exist for that. Do you get a hold of that? The ministries, Divinely given from heaven, relate to that one thing. Is it a ministry of instruction in the companies, unto the persons - a ministry of instruction? The ministry of instruction is to result, is intended to result, in this double thing: the fellowship with the Lord being right and clear and true and full, unto vocation. Any other function in the church or the churches has this same object in view all the time. The Holy Spirit's presence and activities is all on this basis, and on this line. All discipline, all chastening, all correction, all empowering - everything that the Holy Spirit will do directly or through instrumentalities, has one thing in view - the right relationship to the Lord - can you challenge that? Can you dispute that? The right relationship with the Lord, with the object of making those so rightly related, His vehicles and His instruments to a wider circle than themselves. "He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers". What for? What for? The rest of the statement is: " for the making complete of the saints unto the work of the ministry". Unfortunately the punctuation has spoiled that statement, but it is a whole. The perfecting, or making complete of the saints unto the work of the ministry. It is the saints who are to fulfil the ministry. It is the church that is the anointed vessel of ministry. If you come into the church you come into that which is the Divinely chosen from all eternity - "before I formed thee I knew thee"  chosen from eternity; called in time; endowed from heaven; you come into that church, and you come into a place where these two things are implicit from heaven's standpoint. Fail there,  and you fail of the very meaning of your Christian life and of your church relatedness. Fellowship with the Lord. Fellowship with the Lord, that is what ought to be in our individual Christian life, and in our life together as companies of the Lord's people, a basic thing: fellowship with the Lord, but not stopping there - unto vocation, unto vocation, world vocation at that!

So you see the meaning of this ministry. So far as the prophets were concerned, and they spoke sometimes like thunder, sometimes with broken hearts and a sob. Why? Because they knew, they knew dear friends, what I am this night trying to make you know. They knew that if this relationship with the Lord, this real fellowship with the Lord, resulting in this real, worldwide vocation of representing Him to the nations - if that broke down, the very, very meaning of their existence was gone, and there was nothing for it but for God to put them aside. When God did set aside any vessel that He had brought in for that purpose, be it a whole nation, and send it away into captivity and exile, it was for this thing only - you have failed in the thing for which you were brought into being: to represent Me in the nations, to express Me to the nations. And you have failed of your vocation because you have lost your fellowship. That sums up the prophets, doesn't it? Their cry, their appeals, their warnings, their thunderings and their broken hearts.

And you can see, at once, if you know Jeremiah, that he is representative of this particular ministry - you can see at once how true that was. How he cried, speaking for God: "My people, my people have committed two evils, They have forsaken Me, the fountain of water; and have hewn out cisterns" - broken cisterns, man-made contrivances in the place of the living God. That was Jeremiah's cry, or one of his cries. And I am afraid of bringing in too much detail from this long book, but I could take up thing after thing to show that it comes back to this: the people are out of touch with God, and therefore out of touch with a nation, as far as a testimony is concerned.

Now, dear friends, let's come right home in all faithfulness, to ourselves, whether here in this place, or in any other place where you may be with the Lord's people. If ever the Lord raises up or plants an instrument, a vessel, in any place, He does it on this alone basis: on the one side, to bring into the closest, and fullest, and deepest fellowship with Himself that is possible; and on the other side, with the world in view, not themselves in view - not themselves in view, but the world in view. Believe that, a world testimony is always God's thought in any selective choice and appointment of His. And, listen, the essential to the very life of such a people is a dominant sense and consciousness of being in a world ministry. If you forget everything else, hold that and carry it forward for all time to come.

You must, dear friends, individually, and you must as companies of the Lord's people wherever you are, you must, if you are to conform to the Divine mind in your existence, you must have this dominant consciousness that you stand related to a great world ministry. It is over that that the battle will rage. Anything to weaken that, to dispose of that, to spoil that, break that up, paralyse that, end that! Don't you see that every time God has moved in a prophetic way (I mean on this principle of recovering or securing something according to His mind, in fulness) every time He has moved, the movement has had a far horizon; it has had something far beyond itself in view. In the days of its livingness, its primal freshness, oh how it spontaneously moved out to the world, and became a world force. No organization, no hewn-out cisterns were necessary, no plans, no programmes to do things in the world, but there the thing happened! It happened without effort, without propaganda, without advertising or publicity - it happened! And the world was touched.

Can we not go through those movements? Yes, we can mention so many of them; there they are in history - things that God did from heaven. And the result was a wonderful fellowship with Himself in Life, a wonderful fellowship with Himself in Life. I'm afraid to mention any one lest I spoil the picture. Some of you know, if I were to pick out the wonderful movement through the Moravian brethren, well, it's so, so clear, evident, with them. On the one side, it was a beautiful, a wonderful fellowship with God, wonderful fellowship with God. Their motto, and everything spoke of that. What a fellowship with God! On the other side how the world was touched then! Yes, a world testimony, and a world impact; quite spontaneous... spontaneous, a repetition of what we have in the book of the Acts - spontaneous.

And so we could put our finger upon one thing after another and see this. And then what? And then, and this is the tragedy - they turned in on themselves. Every one of them turned in on itself, became something in itself, drew a circle round itself, constituted a hard and fast system of teaching to which you must conform; regulations that you must observe... turned in on itself - and what? Disintegration, divisions, confusion, and creeping paralysis! Isn't that true to history? You see the reverse. Because that was the state of things, firstly in Israel in the days of the prophets, that we have these prophetic ministries. It was because that that was the situation that was growing in the churches of the New Testament that we have the messages at the beginning of the book of the Revelation to the seven churches in Asia - just that! Just that. They are lampstands! They are lampstands, Jesus Himself said that no man himself lighteth a lamp and puts it under a bushel; a lamp is a testimony for all to see; for the illumination of all within its range: something not to live unto itself.

This has always been the peril, always been the battle ground, to maintain this two-fold position: living, unclouded, unshadowed fellowship with the Lord and a testimony to the world. Yes, beginning, if you like, locally, but ever and always far beyond, having that in view. And it can be put to the test. It is true. So it works.

If the Lord has to chasten, discipline, and sift all such activities and ministries, painful as they may be to those concerned, have this still in view:

Recovery of Fellowship with Himself unto Essential Vocation.

Now then, have you met that challenge this very moment? Ask your own heart. Have you dear friends, in your very constitution as a Christian, a sense that you do not live unto yourself, and you cannot live unto yourself, but that you are bound up with a great purpose, a great Divine purpose, reaching out and on, drawing out your life? Are you? If that is not true, you come into the category of "she that liveth to herself is dead while she liveth". Isn't that true? It's true! Our life, very life, depends upon this, that we are in union with God with a purpose, with a vocation. And this is no small thing - it draws us out to the uttermost part; the ends of the earth are our concern. If the Lord wants us to go, well, we are ready to go. But whether He calls us to the end of the earth or not, our hearts reach there with Him for all His interests. And it is not sentimental; it is something that is a part of our being. A part of our being. Is that true of you? Have you just settled right down, nicely settled down into your nest, whatever that nest is? Well, remember the words about the Lord stirring up the nest, and casting out! That's not a very pleasant experience. It will have to be if we settle down in our nest, if we put a limit that God does not put upon our calling, our vocation. Well, perhaps I have said enough.

Here were these disciples, in their fellowship with the Lord, being trained, disciplined, instructed. And it was not all words where the Master and they were concerned; they had some bad times, painful experiences, heading right up to the inclusive, painfulness of the Cross. It was all to prepare the way for a new Holy Spirit fellowship with the Lord unto their world vocation; to be with Him that He might send forth. I think perhaps I should stop.

Much more could be said and much more is in my heart to say, but I do feel that this is the word of the Lord. And it comes just right to this one thing: You and I, every one of us, must be mastered and governed by a great sense of Divine vocation in our existence; which vocation for its fulfilment of course, demands a fellowship with the Lord that is close, that is pure; because this vocation can never be truly fulfilled unless it is so. That is why the Lord is disciplining us, putting us through it so continually, having such short terms with us on wrongs, evils, questionable things; not letting us get away with it, run off - no, holding us to it, and working deeply and thoroughly, and perhaps drastically. His object is vocation.

If you don't like the word 'vocation' - sounds too technical - it is testimony. It is spiritual ministry - which is not going on to a platform here and there and everywhere with a Bible, but a life that knows the Lord; a life that is in fellowship with God. You can leave the preaching side, you can leave that. Don't you worry about the preaching side, or the Bible teaching side as some particular and peculiar function - you need not worry about that. Jeremiah, Jeremiah got to the place where he said, "I will never preach again; I will never preach again; I am not going to do any more of this talking." The preaching took charge of him; he didn't take charge of the preaching; it came out of the fire burning in his bones - it has got to be like that. But... that fire only burns when you are in real touch with the Lord - that's where the fire burns.

Well, have I said enough? Will you be patient and ask for grace to receive this? And do remember, do remember that most of our enemies, if not all of them (and there are many, many of them) most of our enemies have this one object as their target: our fellowship with the Lord resulting in our testimony to the Lord. If he can undermine, undercut that by any means at all, he is going to do it. And oh, how many are his means!

The Lord help us to receive the word and to yield to it, and go back with this. It might be new commissioning, wherever you go to - go back: "I am not here just for here, just to live in this small realm; I am not here with myself and my immediate circumstances as my horizon; I am here as a part of something far bigger. I am a member of a church which was brought into being, a church universal, brought into being for a world testimony to the Lord, I affect that. I affect that, consciously or unconsciously, and mostly unconsciously, I affect that. I touch it. My spiritual life means something to other people of the Lord."

You don't know, dear friends, how many of your dark days and bad times are because, because some brother or sister or brethren and sisters somewhere are going through it, and you are involved in it. Now that is New Testament teaching: "If one member suffer, all the members suffer". How often there has come to us a sense of some brother or sister, or some of the children of God having a bad time. It has overcome our spirit, and we have had to pray for them, we just had to pray for them. And when we've learned the truth, it was just at that time that they needed our prayer and were asking the Lord for special help, and it was laid on us. You see, in this great spiritual system, time and geography have no place; we are met in our Head, Christ Jesus. Now that is another big matter, but it comes in here. We belong, by our very relationship to Christ, to something that is far reaching... and the vitals, the very vitals of that far reaching vocation of the church of which we are part, is our relationship to the Lord, our fellowship with the Lord. The Lord keep that pure and strong.

Chapter 4 - To Reunite All Things in Christ

Instead of reading one passage of Scripture, we are going to bring together a number of short passages; it will test your dexterity with the Word, it's scattered all over the place. But we, first of all, take the passage which has been like a banner over this season, under which we have been gathering everything else, that is in the prophecies of Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse 12: "A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary".

A glorious throne... set on high... from the beginning... is the place of our sanctuary.

Now, a long way on to the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 1 and verse 8: "But of the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; and the sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows".

A glorious throne set on high from the beginning... Of the Son, He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever!"

Then back to the Psalms, to the second Psalm, verse 8: "Ask of Me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession", and you notice the context relates that to the Son.

Now another flight into the New Testament to the book of the Acts, chapter 1, verse 8: "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth".

'Ask of Me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession... ye shall be witnesses... My witnesses, unto the uttermost part of the earth.'

In the letter to the Ephesians, and what conference would be complete without Ephesians? Chapter 1, the first part of verse 4: "as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world". He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world. Verse 9: "Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ; the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in Him, I say".

He chose us... In Him... before the foundation of the world... He made known unto us the secret of His will... to sum up all things in Christ.

And now back to our prophet Jeremiah to re-read the words in chapter 1, at verse 4: "Now the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee, I knew thee, and before thou camest forth I sanctified thee; I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations".

Ask of Me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance... I have appointed thee a prophet to the nations... Ye shall be My witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth... and so on.

I wonder if you have noticed a very obvious thing in the Bible, that most of the great things were connected with:

Mountains.

You only have to have that said, and your memory will take a flight through the Bible, and light upon many a mountain, in which some great thing took place which was indeed a point in which heaven and earth met.

Now, the value of a mountain is that it helps perspective; it gives a command of the whole situation; it brings all details and particular things into a right relationship, so that everything can be seen as not just something in itself, but as a part of a whole. And there you get a sense of proportion and balance. These are some of the values of a mountain.

(And, by way of parenthesis, don't you think that that is just what the value of such gatherings as these, which we call conference times, should be. For we all feel the need to have our sense of proportion maintained, preserved. We are right up against things too closely; the details press upon us. The immediate situations take possession of us. Things immediately before our eyes, and in our experiences, tend to become everything and exclude so much more. And they get on top of us, just because we are so close to them. And the perspective is upset, and there is a good deal of confusion for this very reason.)

These passages which we have read are themselves mountain peaks, and together they constitute one great and glorious mountain, which could deliver us from all this obsession of the oppressive, immediate, too-close touch with just what we ourselves are going through. And so we have to leave our spiritual insulation and isolation, and climb to some vantage ground of the heavenlies. That word took its great place in our New Testament at a time when the near view could have brought complete despair. The immediate happenings in Christianity, amongst believers, in the churches, could have produced in the apostle a hopelessness that would have cast him deep down in the valley of despair. He climbed to the heights. And you and I, dear friends, and the church ever since, to the end of the age, will owe a vast debt to that man's climb up the mountain in spirit, from his prison cell, and repeatedly used that very word, that mountain word: "the heavenlies... in Christ Jesus".

Then we need to get up there again. May the Lord give us mountain energy today, to rise up as on wings, to see anew what we are called unto and what we are called into. That is the saving vision; that is the redeeming view - what it really is that we are called into and unto; what we are in if we are really in full fellowship with God; what it is all about. What is all the conflict about? What is all the pressure about? What is all the discipline about? What is all the suffering about? Is there some, one thing that can and does answer all such enquiries and cries? For I am quite sure that sometimes, sometimes you ask that question: What does it all mean? What is it all about? Why this and that? If the Lord will answer that cry, it will have been worth our coming here. So we climb the mountain!

We are all familiar with a line of a well-known, and I think greatly loved, hymn by George Matheson: 'O Love that will not let me go', and I remind you that, after his death, when the poem was found and the thought was to publish it, those who found it and were about to publish it, came upon one line in it that perplexed them. They couldn't quite grasp it, understand it; it seemed mysterious, abstract, and so they decided to change it. And we have in our version the line: 'I trace the rainbow through the rain', but George Matheson had written: 'I climb the rainbow through the rain'!

That is quite a difference: 'trace' - well, that is all right; that's an artistic contemplation, a poetic way of speaking, but when George Matheson wrote that poem, he was in the grip of a tremendous spiritual conflict. For him everything in life was rocking, and there was a perfect deluge on his soul. He did not sit back in poetic contemplation and say, 'I trace the rainbow through the rain'; he girded himself, and said, 'I climb the rainbow through the rain'!

We have got to take hold of things, and discover what lies there behind, and get hold of that; bestir ourselves to find out what does it all mean? What is it all about? What is the explanation? And there is one. And it does lie right at the heart of this that I have just said: what we are called into and unto - that explains it all.

These difficulties, trials, adversities, sufferings and conflicts are very real! Very real. For the saints they are sometimes terrible. And if that is true, the explanation must be one that is at least commensurate with them. The answer must at least be adequate to all this. Think of all the suffering of the saints... Why, we have some, but is it comparable to what some of the Lord's people are going through while we are sitting here in, if not absolute, comparative comfort? What justifies all this? What is an adequate answer? We are driven, we are forced to seek that answer. Again I say, the only answer that is sufficient is that of what we are called into, and called unto.

Now, in order to get that, we are going to take three cycles. The Scriptures which we have read, which are only a selection from many more of the same kind, bring these four things into view.

Firstly,

All That Which is Comprehended by a Repeated Clause: 'All Things'.

All things - you can't get outside of that; that comprehends everything.

[1.] All things were created by God for His Son, whom we now know as Jesus Christ. That's the beginning of everything. They were created for Him, through Him, unto Him. He (we are distinctly told) was appointed Heir of all things. That's where we begin. All things, these Scriptures show, were integrated in Him, consistent in Him, held together as one whole by His Person - not only by His power, but by His Person. There was a wonderful, beautiful, harmonious unity in the creation, all centred in God's Son; held to Him. While He was there everything was harmonious and in accord. While He was in His place, there was a beautiful oneness running through everything.

Of the great harmony of creation, He was the keynote, and everything came back to Him, and moved from Him; and the explanation of the music was God's Son. God's Son.

[2.] All things were integrated, and consisted in Him.

[3.] All things were disrupted by putting Him out of His place, or refusing to recognise Him in that place. That's, of course, the great story of heaven's disruption; that to which an apostle refers when he says: "The angels which kept not their first estate". Their first estate... what a lot there is in that! - "are reserved in chains unto everlasting destruction". Well, I am not dwelling at length upon any one of these things. But there was discord in heaven to begin with, and it had to be cast out: and there came into this world that disputing of the creation rights and place of the Son of God, And by that, we know, everything here was disrupted and became disconnected.

The first picture of creation is a beautiful picture, but that changed, and we see all things now with something working like an evil leaven, a power which is all the time breaking up, never ending in its breaking up work, leaving nothing whole, complete. It is a terrible story in history, all through the ages, of this evil thing working, so that the last bit of unity is destroyed, the last bit of harmony is spoiled. It is an evil spirit about, which is not going to allow anything to remain integrated in Christ. And, dear friends, does that not explain perhaps a lot, that where Christ is the more given His place, the enemy is the more concerned to break up, to divide? It's a sad history, isn't it? Do you see it? Will anything survive this? Will anything escape this? And the most beautiful thing will be the object of the most vehement attempt to break up; disruption and disconnection.

[4.] Fourthly we have things all in chaos, in confusion, because He, the unifying, integrating Centre of all things, is not in His place. That is the answer, the explanation - because He is not in His place. That may be a terrible indictment on some situations, but we have got to face it quite honestly and frankly.

That is the first cycle. The second cycle which the Scriptures before us present is, firstly, the Son Himself, the Heir and Centre of all things, undertakes:

The Work of Recovery.

Viewing the chaos from heaven, He, voluntarily stripping Himself of heavenly glory, undertakes to come down into it, and recover that which has been lost. He undertakes the great work of recovery. Now that word 'recovery' is a favourite word with us, isn't it? The 'recovery' of this and that, which was God's mind, and thought. The first one who engaged in that work and that ministry was God's Son Himself. And He has committed Himself to that work of recovery. Having undertaken it, He comes down and enters into this kingdom of disruption, He comes right into this chaos, and disorder, and discord and ruin - right into it Himself. And by His very Presence, as we see Him in the pages of the record - by His very Presence, shows what a disrupted and discordant scene this is. There is only one Person in the whole picture, who, in Himself, is integrated, is harmonious, is balanced, is a whole.

It is one of the impressive things about the Lord Jesus, that He Himself moved in this scene, so harmoniously in His own Person. It is not an easy thing to do in this world, as you know, but He did it. But, on the other hand, how that Presence annoyed - and that is a very, very weak word - it perfectly roused these chaotic forces, so that there grew and grew and grew, through that brief period of His earthly sojourn, an atmosphere of conflict, of hatred, of discord, until at last it breaks out in an awful storm, tearing the very creation, tearing the very atmosphere, and no one, no one has any kind of control and mastery; the very elements are disrupted. This, this evil thing - and it is all focussed upon Him - He has entered into it, to witness against it, in the first place; in His own Person and Presence, to witness against it; to be an offset to it. And to speak the words, the words which are in the strongest contrast to men's state, and condition. What are His words? "I will give you rest"; "You shall find rest unto your souls". "Peace I leave with you, My peace l give unto you". How such words clash with the conditions! He is here, right in the midst of it, testifying against it, manifesting what it ought to be, and intensifying the condition that really is, to show how evil it is. You never know how wrong or evil a thing is until you get the absolutely right and good right in the heart of it. He became, by His Presence, the Example and the Witness, the personal testimony to what was intended, and against what is.

Probably your minds are running ahead of what I am saying - mine is - because you can see what the next cycle will be. Let's go on.

Having come in - and the explanation of being here long enough, (and it proved to be long enough, though it was only three and a half years or so, it proved to be long enough to show the contrast, and to bring out the contrast, and to testify against it) having brought it all out, and shown in word, in word, in word... what is that word on His lips? "Blessed... Happy... are the peacemakers..." , and so on, in word, in deed - all His works testifying against this wrong state, and mending it. Having been here long enough to be a witness in the midst of it, He then, and this is our third point in the second cycle, He then took it all on Himself.

Took It All on Himself

Took on Himself the evil and the consequences of the evil that had come in. He drew it on to Himself, yes, verily drew it on to Himself. He sought not to ward it off, sought not to argue Himself out of it, though He knew what it meant. The marvel of His silence when such as He could have made a case for Himself...

He, who again and again, had sent wise men, scribes and Pharisees, with all their trickery and subtlety and all their attempted snares to ensnare Him, sent them away like dogs with their tails between their legs, without a word! Without a word. See Him! "All right - let him who is without sin first cast a stone". And they went out one by one from the least to the greatest! "Master, is it right to give tribute to Caesar, to pay tribute to Caesar?" You can see the trap that they have laid for Him... "Show Me a coin. Whose inscription is this? Caesar's? Render unto Caesar the things that belong to Caesar". Now then, your whole honesty, conscientiousness, integrity, is at stake: "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's". You notice the effect of that? They are completely defeated, and had to confess that no man spoke like this Man.

The Man who can do that sort of thing with the rulers, could, in the day of His ordeal and trial, have put them all out of court. But the marvel, "He opened not His mouth". He opened not His mouth! Not a word! Not a word! "As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, He opened not His mouth". He is not putting it off; He is not keeping it at bay; He is letting it come on, even drawing it on! And so He "became sin", says the Word, "that He might destroy sin", He is drawing it on to its own destruction. He became broken - "This is My body, broken" - He became broken in order that He might unite. This is the great testimony of the Lord's table - one loaf, one Body - through brokenness. He became broken that He might unite. He became defeated in order that He might triumph. He became dead in order that He might destroy death for ever. He emptied Himself and became empty in order that He might be filled with all things - all things. That is the second cycle. But now we come to the third.

Having done it, accomplished all that in His cross, and having received the great approbation, seal of heaven, of His Father: "Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee", referring to His resurrection; all that is scattered - and what a scattering has taken place! They're all scattered: "All ye shall be offended because of Me this night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad" - all scattered. Then He begins to gather these fragments, these broken, scattered fragments, together, and:

The Son Brings in His Sons and Fellow-heirs.

We need to read again that first chapter of the letter to the Hebrews: "Of the Son he saith...", and then it goes on about His brethren, 'I and the children which God hath given Me", and later, "bringing many sons to glory".

In the third cycle, the Son brings in His sons as His fellow-heirs; and it is in that letter that the phrase occurs, "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ". These sons are a family matter; we call that family the 'church'; the New Testament calls it the church. But in this third cycle, this is what comes so clearly into view with the passages read - this family, this church, this body was eternally known by God, foreknown and chosen by God in Him, the Son, before the foundation of the world. That, that's very wonderful - chosen in Him. "Whom He appointed heir of all things", He also chose and appointed the heirs with Him of all things. "Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, and hath made known unto us the secret of His will" (in so doing) "to gather together all things in Christ".

This church, foreknown, eternally chosen, elected, elected to this one great all-comprehending, all-inclusive purpose - now here is the point where you and I must be very clear and very positive: this matter of election, predestination, and so on, does not relate to salvation; only insofar as salvation is the way, this election (if the letter to the Ephesians means anything, and all that is in harmony with it) this relates to the purpose of God concerning His Son. We come to it through the Cross; we come to it through being born from above; but that is not the object and that is not the end. That for which you and I are born from above, chosen in Christ, and in time, called into the fellowship of God's Son. That, dear friends, is this purpose of God concerning His Son: to gather up into Him all things; to (and this is the real word in the original) re-unite, re-unite all things in Christ.

The church (you see where we have arrived) the church is seen by God through the ages, through all the disruption, through all the cost, all the consequences, all the cross and its agony - the church has been seen before it all, and through it all, as the vehicle, the vessel, the instrument of the Son, to bring back that original pristine harmony, unity, centred in the Son of God. The church is called for that - that's the heavenly vocation, the purpose. Perhaps it is too big for little people like you and me to grasp that and to believe it, but we are a part of a great thing. It is not all in us, thank God. We haven't got to take the full burden and responsibility of this individually, but we are related to something that is elected of God, called of God, for no lesser thing than this, than this! What a lot that explains if it's true! What a lot it explains. What an answer! Isn't it? To all our suffering and our discipline. If only we could see it, and we don't... it is not present with us in our hours of anguish as it was with the apostle who, knowing perhaps more of sufferings and sorrows than any other man of his time in Christianity; because he climbed the mountain, because he was seeing from the heavenlies, could say: "Our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things that are seen..." these things right on top of us, these close-up things of present experience, but from the mountain-top where we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for these things that are seen are transient, temporal, passing, but the things that are not seen are eternal. You need to get on a high mountain to view it like that; to get that balance in life.

Well, friends, I said that answers a lot of enquiries and questions; if that were true, if that is true, if that could come really to us, and we knew it... Oh, to be delivered from our familiarity with the Bible... and this teaching might break upon us with its own real impact! My brother, my sister, you are called of God in relation to a vocation which He fore-determined in which you should have a part, and it is no less a thing than this: that in union with His Son you should answer this whole challenge to His Son's place, and right this whole wrong that His Son has suffered, and be with Him at last in the righting, in the adjustment, in the recovery - sons in glory. I say, if that's true, it's a great gospel! It's a great gospel. No wonder the apostle felt it necessary, in the midst of saying these things, to fall on his knees, and say: "I pray, I pray to the Father of glory, that He would grant unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened that you may know..." It is a prayer that we ought to pray continually, because only so shall we be saved in the hour, in the day of travail and suffering. This church is the sovereign act of God, the sovereign act of God - it is God's act, it is God's thing. Before ever it existed in time God has acted about it, it is God's act. We are brought into something that we never thought of, or thought out, or planned, or intended, or meant, or understood. We are brought into something that is God's own thought, and God's own act, "Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you".

But this church... and it is important, as a part of the whole, to really understand the nature of this church. Again, we need delivering from well-nigh two thousand years of distortion on this matter! That word 'church' - what a lot has been put on it! What a lot it carries! What a lot has to be stripped off of it to get to its real meaning! This is a spiritual thing; this is not a temporal thing. This is not a temporal thing this church; this is a spiritual thing. This is comprised at the very beginning of such as have been born of the Spirit, and are indwelt by the Spirit, and the measure of their churchmanship (may I use that phrase?) is only the measure of their spirituality, the measure of their spiritual life. That is in its effect, in its outworking, in its value, this is a spiritual thing. This does not belong to this earth at all: it belongs to heaven. Its roots are in heaven, its life is in heaven, its Lord is in heaven. Its everything is in heaven! All its government is from heaven. But when we have said all that, we have to come back to this, and re-emphasising this we must close for the moment: this church,

This Church is an Essentially Vocational Thing.

I do want you to get a hold of that these days - an essentially vocational thing. Of course the vocation can never be fulfilled as the conduct is right, so the apostle says in this very connection; "I beseech you to walk worthily of the calling (the vocation) to which you are called, in all lowliness and meekness..." and so on. Character must be there, or there can be no vocation, because with God and with heaven, vocation rests upon character, "that we should be holy and without blemish before Him..." that is His mind. The Holy Spirit, because of the greatness of the vocation, dear friends, is very meticulous and particular over details of conduct. You see, you cannot lift this great heavenly vocation out of the affairs of daily life here. You cannot put your 'church' position, and your 'church' doctrine, and your 'church' mentality outside of your accounts, your money matters, your family life, and so we could go on. You can't do it. All that is a part of the whole - "Walk worthily of the vocation", because that basis affects your vocation. But, seeing how the Holy Spirit is particular, very particular, and sooner or later will bring us all up sharp on this, "Look here, you've got a great idea of church teaching and truth about the church, but you're not consistent with it; there is that which is inconsistent with it." Oh, what a challenge this is, that you and I here this morning might almost shudder to face, tremble to look at!

Let me put my finger upon this one point at once: if what I have been saying as from the Word of God is true, that in Him, the Son, when all things were created and for whom all things were created, there was (and we know not for how long) a beautiful harmony, complete integration and co-ordination, all moving together as one whole, and then that was all shattered like a beautiful vase broken to pieces, and this terrible discord was shot through and through the creation, touching everything, as we know well. If it is true that God had already determined by His Son and with His Son, that the church should be the vessel and instrument of recovering that, bringing into effect the re-uniting of all things in Christ, where are we over this matter of unity, of oneness, of harmony? Or all to the contrary? What are we doing about that? The vocation is that! Oh, the Lord help us not to play into the hands of, and work together with, this great adversary of the harmony of God!

It's a vocational fellowship with God and with His Son. It's all related to the Son and His appointed place in the counsels of the Father. It's all related to the throne, the throne, because it is in that throne, and by that throne into which He is exalted, that glorious throne, on high from the beginning. It is in that and by that that this is made effective, and (as we were hearing last night) the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ in everything and over everything is affected by the state of the church, it's related to the throne. And being related to the Son and to the throne, you see it's related to the nations, "the uttermost part of the earth". The message of the gospel to the nations is not only the message of salvation and redeeming love, and redeeming grace; but over and above all that, it is the message of the Crown Rights of God's Son - that's the message. He is Lord of all - of all! We are not called to offer Him as Lord, but to declare that He is Lord! But the Lordship, the throne, has its seat and centre in the church and it must be here in ourselves, in our own hearts.

I wonder if I have failed... have you really grasped, dear friends, that however you may feel about it yourselves, you may feel you are too young, or too inexperienced, or too something or other to be in such a thing. No, if God has called you in Christ, that calling contains all that I have said for you in relation to a whole. In relation to a whole. Perhaps this afternoon we will be able to get nearer to this thing in that way, but for the moment the object that the Lord is bringing before us at this time is this: we are called with a great calling. And that word calling can be rightly changed for 'vocation'. Vocation - "we are called according to His purpose". And you ask, what is that purpose? To save? Oh, infinitely more than to save! To have a body, a body of people saved and glorified at the centre of His coming new creation, what the letter to the Hebrews calls "the inhabited earth to come"; through which He will express this perfect harmony; maintain the government of this glorious integration; be the co-ordinating centre - Christ in the midst. This Church, this City - there is the metropolis of His creation. Because of that everything, everything in peace; everything in rest, when He gets it. We are called unto that - to serve Him in that matter. But, let us remind ourselves that this is not going to begin when we get there; the beginning of this is now.

We in ourselves have got to be one person, not two or three persons. Do you understand what I mean by that? That is, "This one thing I do..." I am completely one in my whole being set upon a single object; there is one thing in God's universe that unites my whole being. Unites my whole being. My spirit, soul and body are concentrated and focused and united upon this purpose of God concerning His Son - I am not a divided person. We have got to be harmonised in that way by the interests of the Lord Jesus. Together it must be so. Our personal, divided interests must go; must go! Our ambitions must go; all secondary considerations must go. We must be one people, for the sake of the Lord Jesus and His rights.

And we must go out to be His witnesses and, like it was with Himself, it will be with us. Oh, if only there is the right thing there as the example, the witness - if it's there, hell will be stirred from beneath - and that is a good sign if it is. It's no compliment to any Christian, or any church, or any body of Christians in this world, for the world to be able to go on without feeling its presence, the Presence of Christ; no compliment at all to have an easy time like that. Well, that is not a pleasant thing to say, and we shall probably have to face that in practical ways. But there it is; so it was with Him, but we have this: "be of good cheer, I have overcome the world". We have His victory upon which to count. The Lord help us.

Chapter 5 - Chosen in Christ Before the Foundation of the World

I trust that it will not be a weariness to the friends who were with us earlier if I go right through those passages of the Word which we had as our foundation, but it seems necessary in view of there being quite a number here who have not been earlier. And, in any case, we must have a good foundation in the Word, and I think in bringing these portions together they themselves constitute a vision of Divine purpose and thought.

So we'll get on with it and turn to our overall fragment in the prophecies of Jeremiah, chapter 17 at verse 12: "A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary".

And then in the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 8: "Of the Son, he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, and the sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom".

The second Psalm, the second Psalm, at verse 8: "Ask of Me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, arid the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession".

The book of the Acts, chapter 1 and verse 8: "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be My witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth".

Back to Jeremiah, to chapter 1 at verse 4: "The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee I knew thee, and before thou camest forth I sanctified thee; I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child, for to whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go, and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid because of them: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth; see, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy and to overthrow; to build, and to plant".

And finally, in the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1, first part of verse 4: "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world..." verse 9: "having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in Him, I say".

Now this afternoon, we are going to move from the wider circumference to the more inward application. What is before us (we believe by the Lord's appointing) is the great, wonderful truth and reality that the call which has come to us and to the people of God, contains a very great purpose.

It would not be surprising if a failure to know and to apprehend the great purpose of God through salvation resulted in a number of disappointing conditions. Because, as I think we shall see as we go on, the real fulness of the meaning of Christ to the believer lies right there in the purpose for which He has brought them into fellowship with Himself. It does not lie in their just (and this is not, of course, minimising, or undervaluing salvation in its initial and elementary phases) but it does not at all lie there, only potentially and intentionally. You, as you know, perhaps very well, perhaps too well, that you can be saved and stay there for the rest of your life rejoicing in the fact of what that means, but knowing painfully little of all the great inheritance that is in Christ. And that ignorance resulting in such limitation in life is due to this, not to ignorance of the way of salvation, but to ignorance as to the purpose of salvation, and the purpose now, as well as in the ages to come. So that the emphasis at this time is upon that for which we are saved, unto which we have been called in Christ Jesus.

And although it will be said again and again, let us say it here now: that purpose is not only to have, and not only to be, but it is:-

To Fulfil a Vocation.

All the having, and all the being, is into a great service to the Lord. Now, we spent the whole morning on that, and sorry as we may be for those who didn't get it, we have to go on; we want to get, as I have said, right on the inside of this matter this afternoon as the Lord will help us.

You will have probably been aware that so much of what we read in other places, is very much, if not altogether of a piece with what we read in Jeremiah. There you have the throne on high from the beginning - a glorious throne - "Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever", and of the Son He said it. The throne, as something relating to the nations, to the uttermost part of the earth. Jeremiah was told that he was appointed a prophet to the nations, to the nations, not only to the nation, but to the nations; and the fulfilment of his tremendous - tremendous in range and tremendous in cost - his tremendous ministry and vocation, was only possible with that throne in view as his place of refuge and appeal and resource.

To the Lord Jesus, the Father is heard saying: "Thou art My Son. This day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me and I will give Thee the nations for Thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession". That Son later said, to the nucleus of the church, with the whole church in view: "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me unto the uttermost part of the earth". In other words, "You are related to the Father's intention to give Me the nations for My inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for My possession - that's your business; that's your commission; that's your vocation." "Having made known unto us the mystery, the secret of His will, to re-gather all things into Christ". He has made that known to us. Why? Because He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. You see, in piecing it all together, it makes one picture, and comes right up to this: the purpose for which we have been brought into fellowship with God's Son, it is, to repeat a phrase we've used many times - a vocational fellowship with God's Son.

Now then, to come to this matter, and to allow Jeremiah in his experience, in his function, to interpret for us, because it's all one thing, whether it is Old Testament or New, it is one purpose, and it is one way of God. Jeremiah can help us a lot as a focus of all that we have said. As we take up, then, these verses right at the beginning of his life and work, we are in the presence of God acting sovereignly in relation to His purpose. What a tremendous thing this book of Jeremiah discloses as to the:

Sovereign Activities of God.

It is God acting in His own right. God acting on His own initiative. God Himself, the originator and projector of everything; it is God taking things in hand personally, and bringing them out of His own counsels - the counsel of His own will. And this book of Jeremiah is full of the fact, and then of the features, of this sovereign movement and action of God in relation to purpose.

Dear friends, the language may sound technical and even theological. If you can get through the language, the very word 'sovereignty' is a word that has been taken up and made a basis of tremendous controversy. If you can get through the words and the phrases, to the truth that lies behind, you have, we have, an impregnable rock; an unshakeable rock of confidence.

The Lord is many times, in the Scriptures, called the Rock. The Psalmist found that as a favourite title for the Lord, and we need something rock-like upon which to stand and to rest. And Jeremiah needed a rock under his feet. I don't know how many of you are familiar with the prophecies of Jeremiah. Perhaps you have not studied them very much. Perhaps you think that they are not particularly interesting or inspiring, perhaps a bit depressing, but those of you who know, know this: that if ever a man needed a rock under his feet, Jeremiah did. Oh, the forces that he encountered, that broke upon him. Jeremiah would not have survived at all, let alone at last triumphed with his ministry, but for a rock under his feet. And that which was of the nature of a rock was this, this: it is all in one word repeated how many times? Underline it in your Bible: "I, I, I... before, before thou camest forth I knew thee; I formed thee; I have made thee a prophet to the nations; I have put My word in thy mouth. I knew thee; I formed thee; I chose thee; I appointed thee. I equipped thee. I put My word in thy mouth - I..."

If Jeremiah had started this business, he wouldn't have got very far. If someone else had put him into it, he would have had good reason for a controversy with them, and to retire very early in life. But he went through, and for forty, forty-five years of unceasing and ever-growing antagonism and hostility... sufferings that few men have known or surpassed, he went through. And I believe that it was because of this, that underneath him and behind him, was this which remained: "I did not put myself into this; I did not take this work on; this was not my idea for my life; I really had nothing to do with it. Indeed, if I could have escaped it I would, but I came under a Divine compulsion. I am where I am, I am doing what I am, I am what I am, because God said, 'I knew thee, formed thee, appointed thee, sent thee' - God!" The Divine sovereignty in action. You say, "That's alright, it's quite obvious for Jeremiah, we accept it for him." Now, does the letter to the Ephesians apply to Jeremiah, to the apostle Paul, or to some special servants of the Lord, or is it the message to the church? If it is the message to the church, as it surely is, it almost begins with this:

He Chose Us.

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world! I wonder how, how you define and explain your conversion? How do you put it when you refer to your whatever it was: coming to the Lord, coming to know the Lord? 'I was saved on such and such a date'. 'I came to know the Lord at such at such and such a time'. 'I was born again'. Oh, we have many ways of putting it. I wonder how you put it? Do you know, dear friends, that the true way (all these, of course, are true in their way), but the truly adequate way to explain it is this. Right back from eternity past, before this world was, a hand reached out to my lifetime and took hold of me! And in so doing, brought me right into something that was in the mind of God before the world was created. That's the meaning of our salvation. It was not just something that happened some day in our lifetime.

There is concentrated into every true new birth from above all the meaning and intention of God's great purpose concerning His Son, that He shall give to His Son the nations for His inheritance, the uttermost part of the earth for His possession. That's in our being Christians, our being the Lord's - it's all there. And if all who are born again, or saved (call it what you may) could only get something, something of that into their hearts and into their understanding early on at the beginning, don't you think that their spiritual progress would be much more rapid? That their measure as Christians would be much greater? There it is. Saved... well, saved, and saved so long ago, and today, not much more than when it happened. Why? For this very reason: an insufficient apprehension of the greatness of the purpose bound up with salvation. That's it.

Here, our being here this afternoon, in this room, as born from above children of God, has right in it this, and no lesser meaning than this, that we have been reached unto from eternity, to be brought into that fellowship with God's Son for the ultimate possession of the nations and the re-gathering of all things into Him.

Now, of course, we must ever keep in view the relative factor in this. All that cannot in the very nature of it, quite obviously, all that cannot be gathered into any one individual, or into any number of individuals as separate individuals and entities. We are a part of a great whole: it is the church that is the elect, the chosen vessel for that purpose. But having said that, we can go on.

Now you see, there are a number of things, a large number of things and great things, that go with that, to which we have no right, to which we can make no claim, only as we get right into line with God's purpose concerning His Son in fulness, and stay there. Now, what do we mean? Well, look again at Jeremiah as instancing this.

When God becomes possessed of a vessel, an instrument for this purpose of His heart, this counsel of His will, this secret (what is translated "this mystery") among the nations - when God gets hold of a people in line with that, to that vessel and instrument He commits Himself. That is the next thing: God acts, and then getting the response to His sovereign action,

He Commits Himself to That Vessel, to That Instrument.

And Jeremiah is a wonderful example of an instrument, or a vessel, to which God committed Himself. Go away and read through again (I am sure you will want to, but you will have to!) read through again and see how many times it looked as though Jeremiah was finished! Finished by the designs, and the cruelty, the hostility, and the wickedness of men. Finished by the weariness, the awful weariness of his own hard way. Finished by the drooping of his own soul: 'I said, I will no more speak' - finished! Go through... again and again, for reasons within himself and outside of himself, it looks as though Jeremiah is finished. Until at last you reach that terrible time when the vehement wrath and fury against him has taken him and dropped him down into a deep, dark, muddy pit, into which he sinks up to his arms, to be left to starve and die. Finished? Well, he is finished now! Who can survive all this, the accumulation of things - and this. But he survived! He survived, he came up out of the pit, and went on for quite a long time with his work.

And even when his prophecies, being fulfilled, they came and destroyed Jerusalem, and carried away all who had opposed, the very, very king himself who was doing it all, marked out Jeremiah to be saved. Set him free! Told him that he could go where he liked! God, in committing Himself to this vessel, saw to it that he continued as long as He wanted him to continue. Let all the forces, in men and devils, and all the human weaknesses and readiness to give up, seem to say that it is impossible to go on - he will never get through - when God commits Himself, there is continuance until God says: "I have finished!" That is what it means. Oh, it is a tremendous thing dear friends, to be right in line with God's purpose! God will commit Himself to that, and there will be continuance until God writes the day of Finish on that story. That is the sovereign continuance of God. Well, you have that so much in the Bible, in many ways.

Of course that is the explanation of that symbol in the life of Moses - the bush that did not burn, and was not consumed, it did burn and was not consumed - the Lord knew what He was doing when He made that the medium of his call and commission of Moses. If ever a man, if ever a man found within himself, and in those about him, reason to again and again give it all up, and say, "I just can't go on any longer..." - indeed he did cry out sometimes, "O Lord, I cannot bear this people - I cannot..." but he did, until God buried him, until God fixed the day for his going. He went through all the weariness, and all the welter, and all the trouble, because God was in the bush, had committed Himself, the unquenchable Fire, until God's work is done. Well, I dare not take up the Bible along that line, but you can see - here it is.

But what am I saying? I'm saying to you that if you, if you come right into line with God's purpose, wholly committed to God's purpose concerning His Son, and keep there, you'll go through. You may have all that Jeremiah had, if not literally, spiritually, but you will go through. It is a wonderful, wonderful story of the continuance, the continuance of a vessel to which God has committed Himself. Get out of line with God's full purpose on to some subsidiary line, some bypass, some other track, some alternative, and this will not obtain, it will not obtain.

Here is God's sovereignty, then, seen in Jeremiah, in the matter of his continuance, and in the manner of many particular deliverances. Many particular deliverances. Again and again God stepped right in at the critical moment and cut short the course that was threatening the life of this man. And then, when all was done: the final vindication of Jeremiah. Much has been made, and it is a gloomy side, a side that none of us like to contemplate - much has been made of the fact that Jeremiah was called to a ministry that was never going to succeed - to call the people of God back to Him, and it was destined to failure, in a sense. They never did, they never did come back. In a sense it looked as though he was giving his whole life to a lost cause. Oh well, for the time being that is how it appears; and perhaps that is how it is! But don't forget, the return of the remnant from the judgment in captivity was definitely put on record written in the Chronicles of the history of Israel, written most probably by a man who was in it, Ezra - who wrote Chronicles, the books of the Chronicles - Ezra the scribe. It was put there, right at the beginning of the Chronicles of Israel, that "the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus" (2 Chron. 36:22).

Oh Cyrus, pagan king, great, good, noble, but ignorant of God (for Isaiah says: "I have surnamed thee though thou hast not known Me"), one day felt himself strangely moved within to think about these people that he had got in his dominion - these Hebrews - and to look into their history and their case; not to just let this thing drag on, but to see if something shouldn't be done about it. And this came on him; this came on him. He couldn't get away from it; perhaps it became almost an obsession. Day and night, this matter was disturbing his rest, engaging his attention, and causing him to look into it. "The spirit of God..." was doing what? Was taking up the ministry of Jeremiah, and making Cyrus fulfil it; vindicating Jeremiah. If you want to know what lies behind that remnant coming back and rebuilding the House and of the wall, and all of those final activities of recovery, the answer is Jeremiah, Jeremiah! Isn't this sovereignty? Jeremiah wasn't on the scene here on earth to see it - I don't know whether he was watching it all from heaven! Whether or not he will know all about it, but his labour was not in vain in the Lord! God was committed to him and there was an ultimate vindication of Jeremiah.

Well, there may be a good deal of adversity, may be a lot of time taken, may be much suffering and cost, but a vessel that is right in line with God's purpose concerning His Son will stand vindicated at last - at last vindicated. God Almighty has committed Himself to that, and will see to it. Isn't that a rock to stand upon? It is, isn't it? The sovereignty of God - committed!

Well, what is the essential basis of this whole thing, this position? You see, it is just this:

Fellowship With God in a Purpose Much Larger Than Just a Personal Ministry, or a Personal Bit of Work for God.

It is to see everything in the light of the whole, and to be committed, as Jeremiah was, without consideration of what is personal; committed to what God wants, to what is nearest to the heart of God. It is fellowship with God in that which He has projected and is pursuing, and is set upon realising; fellowship with God! Oh, our silly, silly little "Christian" interests! How foolish and paltry so much of it is! You look at people strutting about, calling themselves by important names, and... well I'd better stop. Playing at churches and chapels... it's all so silly! Get some conception of the greatness of what God is after, and all that is so small and little. Our bit is only, at most, a fragment. Get right into the whole thing, right into the whole thing: firstly fellowship with the purpose of God, and then, and then fellowship with the burden and suffering of God.

These sufferings of Jeremiah seemed to be very personal, very much because of himself. But nay, they were the sufferings of God. It was like that with the prophets, wasn't it? With the prophets, they had been baptised into the passion of God concerning His great purpose in the nations. And oh, how they were baptised into that passion! So many of their experiences, the happenings in their lives, were just sovereignly brought about. Call them tragedies if you like - brought about in order to be vivid, all such vivid illustrations of what God was suffering.

A week or so ago we spent an evening here on the 'thirty pieces of silver' for which Judas bargained with the high priests the life of the Lord Jesus. And we allowed that to take us back to the Old Testament where in three places 'thirty pieces of silver' are mentioned. And one of them was the prophecies of Hosea. Let me recount this in order to make this point particularly.

Hosea, a young man, married a young and beautiful woman. They set up home; they lived together happily and in fellowship, blessed fellowship. He went about his work, and she kept the home. But after a time she tired of that life, and tired of him, for some reason - perhaps, as we said, she got tired of his ministry; she didn't like the kind of ministry - it wasn't very popular; it didn't bring many friends; indeed, it alienated quite a lot of people. Well, for some reason, or reasons, she tired of him, and in so doing, became opened to other approaches to which she succumbed. Other lovers came her way, and she yielded, and left the home, and left Hosea, and went. How long she was away we don't know, but long enough to have her whole life wrecked and ruined, leaving this broken-hearted man behind, alone.

One day he went out, sad, heavy at heart; perhaps for some business. He took with him a bag with some meal in it. As he went through the city he had to pass the place where slaves were bought and sold, and a sale of slaves was going on. He heard the noise and the bidding and the asking, and he looked up, and he saw someone being offered for sale - a woman. There was something about her that made him look again, and as he looked, it was his former wife - emaciated, almost out of recognition, in shame and degradation.

Was it revulsion that welled up in his soul? No, the old love, the old love came up and overcame everything. And he asked; "What price are you asking for her?" They said, "Thirty pieces of silver!" As he looked in his wallet, and only had fifteen, he gave them the fifteen, he said: "Here's fifteen, and fifteen worth of meal; will that do to make up the thirty pieces of silver?" They said, "All right, we will accept that!" He took her home, restored her to her old place of honour and respect and love, and cherished her again.

Why must that come into a prophet's life? The sovereignty of God! You say it's cruel, hard, bitter - ah, but you see, a vessel committed to the purpose of God has got to enter into the very heart feelings of God, because the prophet had to become the very embodiment of his message. And the message of the prophet is this: "Israel, whom I betrothed unto Me, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me!" Israel, betrothed to the Lord, married to the Lord, His Spouse, had forsaken Him, had gone after other lovers, and been wrecked and ruined - in the market, the price, the price of a harlot. And God comes out to an Israel like that with a new embrace, to bring that Israel back, and to love as before; to restore and honour as before; to pass it over in great forgiveness as though it had never been. That's the grace of God, and the messenger had to embody that message in his own experience.

Now, that is a very vivid instance, but it is sufficient to carry this point, I am sure. Ours is not a work and a ministry that is something objective; we are not just tape-recorders to reproduce something mechanically. The thing has to be wrought into us, and come right out of the brokenness of our own souls. We have to share the passion of God's heart. That is Jeremiah! Are you going to turn your back on that, and say, "No, that's not for me"? But, dear friends, if only we could get a glimpse, I feel, of what that grace will result in - for here in this letter to the Ephesians you know, "that we should be to the glory of His grace" the glory of His grace - what that grace will issue in in glory; probably more than compensate for all the cost.

I have only got half-way through my message for this afternoon. It's so full, this matter of being in fellowship with God.

This last emphasis is upon:

The Constituting of a Vessel.

Note: the constituting of a vessel, Jeremiah might well have complained along one line - perhaps you have, I have! Along this line: I was never made for this. No, I was never made for this, my whole constitution and make-up is such that, well... another kind is necessary for this job, for this work. Have you ever said that? Well, I have quarrelled with the Lord on that many times: "Lord, you have got the wrong man; you have got the wrong kind; it is another type that You need for this job; I am out of my place. I could do a lot of things very much better, naturally, than I can do this job. Lord, you have made a mistake." Jeremiah might well have said that, and might have said it, not only about his constitution, but about much in his early history. We pointed out, you see, he was a member of a priesthood that had been entirely set aside. His ancestor, the high priest, Abiathar. Abiathar had been caught in complicity with the conspiracy of Adonijah, to take the throne from Solomon. And when Solomon was established on the throne, he banished Abiathar the high priest, to Anathoth - miles and miles from Jerusalem.

It was a priesthood banished, under a ban, and had never been restored. Jeremiah belonged to that ancestry, and to that order - banished! He might have quarrelled with God over that - the advantages of birth, of ancestry, of heredity and so on, all against him. "Now, if, if You really wanted the right kind of man, Lord, You ought to have got somebody who had better standing than I have!" You see? And yet, in the sovereignty of God, this was the man that was chosen, and it says definitely, "I formed thee" - I formed thee! The mystery of God's ways, but it becomes quite clear, as you go on through his life, that, difficult as it was for him naturally, he is the man, he is the man. God can write in this man His own heart. God can come through this man as He might not come through, be able to come through, many others. The point is, the man was constituted not as he thought he ought to be, but as God chose that he should be; and being constituted by God he fulfilled his ministry, because God was behind it. God was in it.

Dear friends, if you and I are really in line with God and in the hands of God, with everything against us in ourselves and outside of ourselves (as we think it, as we interpret it) the thing is done sovereignly, the thing is done spontaneously. Let me put it this way: If you or I were to assume a position, to assume it, to take it on ourselves, and to do it out from ourselves, by our own make-up, and our own natural equipment - if we get into a position that God has not Himself sovereignly put us into, the whole thing becomes artificial, unreal. And the evidence to all is God's not in that, God didn't do that, that didn't come from God - that's the man himself. That is the man! He has taken that position; he's trying to do that. The Lord is not supporting him - it is patent to everybody.

When we are in that for which God has called us, and Himself (in all the mystery of it) constituted us, the thing is in a right sense quite natural. It just does go on, just does happen, you don't have to 'put on' anything, make-believe anything; you don't have to adopt a special kind of voice or dress or anything else, it just spontaneously flows - perfectly natural, it just happens. You are, in a right sense, yourself, and not aping someone else. God made you for that; He knew what He was doing; you need not worry, just get on with it with Him.

I wonder if that helps you, because you know, there is a lot of unnecessary trouble to ourselves and to other people by our getting into something for which the Lord has neither called us, nor fitted us. Not according to our ideas of fitness, but His own. To Moses He said, when Moses argued I cannot speak, I am not eloquent: "Who made man's tongue? Did you make your tongue, or did I?" Jeremiah... I am a child, I cannot speak: "Say not, I am a child; thou shalt go to all that I send you; say all that I tell you to say."

Yes, you're looking at the clock, I'll close. If, the point is, if we are with God, God takes the responsibility to see us through. And I bid you, as I have to break off and not continue to finish this, I bid you to go to this book again, and see if you can mark these evidences of God sovereignly at work. There are many of them, but particularly note the tremendous values, resources, that there are available when we really are wholly in line with God's purpose. Oh, the resources! The resources... it is a hopelessly inexhaustible realm! We will leave it shall we, for the time.

Chapter 6 - At the Crossroads

I am going to repeat the fragment of Scripture which has stood over our time together in this weekend; not to dwell particularly upon it, but to have it there as standing over all that we have to say. In the prophecies of Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 12: "A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary".

And now for this present time, will you turn back to chapter 6, at verse 16: "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths wherein is the good way, and walk therein".

Stand in the ways... and see... and ask for the old paths... wherein is the good way... and walk therein.

At this point in the ministry of the prophet, he is commanded to indicate to the people that they have come to the crossroads; that the position and the condition in which they were at the time, represented and constituted for them crossroads. The roads were crossing and dividing, and from this time, their choice of road was going to seal for them their future; determine their destiny. At some point, which is not easy to trace or fix, at some point in their history a deceitful current had entered the stream of their life. It may have been very small at first, as these things usually are - almost imperceptible... the nature and meaning of which is not recognised, the significance of which is not measured. It had been so with these people, small, and yet as it went on, it gathered momentum, until the time of these prophecies. It had taken control and was carrying almost everything in its course. The Lord knew about it, knew the trend of things, knew the implications, knew what it pointed to, and saw that people must be called upon to stop and face this whole situation. And this is the word with which He challenged them: "Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, wherein is the good way, and walk therein".

The effect of this "something", this foreign element, which had crept in, was to bring about an almost total loss of a central, controlling, integrating authority. That, by the way, is the point of this all-governing word in chapter 17 - a throne on high - the central, uniting government. That was what was needed, because, as I have just said, it was just that which had gone, resulting in complete confusion. If there is no single voice of authority, no one centre of government, no one uniting vision and purpose, then there is confusion. No one knows what is right and what is wrong, whether things are right or wrong; that is how it was then. And that produced unrest... unrest.

This appeal, as you notice in verse 16 of chapter 6: "Walk therein and ye shall find rest for your souls". Unrest... weariness with the whole business... a sense of futility... not getting anywhere. And then the crumbling to pieces, breaking up, divisions and schisms, and conflicts - all for one reason, but that is how it was. Some people (and it would seem, a large number, if not the mass) accepted this way that things were going and abandoned themselves to it. Some others were confused and bewildered by it all. Some were fearful and distressed. The Lord knew all about it, and came in with this word: A crisis has been reached; you are at the crossroads, you have got to stop and consider.

The first thing, as you notice, is:

Stand in the Ways, and See.

Stand! Stop! Pause! Reflect! Take in the situation. Break this spell! Stand at the crossroads, and see, look, take account, take note, for this is a critical time.

That brings us right back to the whole message of this conference (so-called) because the one uniting, co-ordinating thing in the life of any people of God, or any individual child of God, the absence of which is bound to bring conditions like this, like these, the one all-integrating thing is a clear apprehension and strong grasp of why we are God's people. Why has the Lord called us to Himself? Why do we exist as people of God? What we have been trying to see and to show is that it is not just to be His people, not just to be different from other people in the world, not just to be a saved people who are on our way to heaven. But He has called us, He has chosen us, He has brought us to Himself for a great purpose, and that purpose is to be instrumental in our time - we can leave past times and future times to those who belong to them - but in our time, to effect that measure which belongs to our time, of the purpose of God to bring all things into His Son Jesus Christ - to 'gather up', as the word is - "to re-unite all things in Christ", to bring back that which is His by eternal appointment of the Father.

We dare not take time this evening to dwell upon that, but make no mistake about it, anything other than that, anything less than that, will undoubtedly result in the conditions that we find here in this book of prophecies.

Firstly, arrested spiritual development.

Arrested Spiritual Development

Having gone so far, then stopped. And from that time, no progress spiritually, no enlargement of spiritual life, no increase of spiritual stature - arrested spiritual progress and growth. They had stopped in that. Why? Not, not for a moment because they ceased to be the Lord's people, and not for one moment because they ceased to carry out the ordinances, and the ritual, and the forms, and the ceremonies, and all the whole system which had been given to them, which was their religious tradition and inheritance. They were as active in their temple activities, their sacrifices and ordinances, as ever. It was going on. No, not because the outward forms of their relationship with God had ceased - not for these reasons, and we might add others to them. But for this one reason: they had ceased to realise that they were called to be the Lord's people, and that everything that was bound up with that had one object: to constitute them a people in this world by which the world would be brought to know God; to constitute them an instrument unto the nations. Unto the nations!

Now they had become something in themselves; the limits of their horizon were fixed with themselves. All this was turned in to themselves and they had either forgotten, or completely violated, the laws of their very existence: that they were raised up as a people by whom the nations should know God and should be left with no excuse whatever for ignorance, and, on the other hand, with all that which would make them understand what kind of God He is and what He requires. It was the vocation of the people that governed everything. The vocation of the people under that glorious throne on high from the beginning, integrated with that one all-governing throne-purpose, and throne-vision. Because, remember, dear friends, all that we have said: that Jesus on the throne, the throne of heaven, embodies and represents the purpose of God for all the nations at last - one throne over them all, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ.

That throne is the symbol of universal rights, authority, government, vested in the Lord Jesus. They had lost the vision of the throne, they had lost the vision of their calling, and they had lost their Divine vocation which was the very meaning of their existence. That being so, the purpose having fallen out, everything went; everything went. And it was on that one issue which included everything (and one issue does include everything) that this word came through Jeremiah: Call a halt! Call a halt! We are at the crossroads; we have got to look right into this thing, to the nature of it, and see. Stand still.

Now, dear friends, before we go on, while you will see that this was true as to Israel at that time, will probably see features of it in our own time, let's come very close to this. If there should be arrested spiritual progress and growth in any life or in any company of the Lord's people anywhere, or in the church at large - if that should be the state, while they are the Lord's people, while they are very busy in the Lord's things outwardly and yet not spiritually growing, growing and increasing with the increase of God (I don't mean numerically, it may be that as well, but I mean spiritually growing) so that there is no doubt about it, there is a difference now from even so long ago there was, in the knowledge of the Lord, in the enjoyment of the Lord, in the understanding of the Lord, the meaning of the Lord. If it's not like that, stand still and ask: What is the meaning of this? You are at the crossroads. Sooner or later you will have to recognise that, that you cannot just go on like this, unless you are going to throw everything away. What does it mean? And while, of course, spiritual arrest may be due to many things, particular things in any one life or in any one place, the thing that I am bringing to you at this time, as an inclusive thing is just this: Stand still and ask whether you may not have had your life, your spiritual life, brought into something less than God intended, or into something other than God intended and brought you into being for - personally and collectively. Whether some deceitful current has crept in and is taking charge, resulting in something other, less, different from, that which was the original vision, and that which is revealed to be the supreme purpose of God in the existence of the church, which means you individually as a true Christian.

The Way of Progress

The way of growth, the way of Life is the way of the full purpose of God. The way of limitation is the way of something either less or other. It's like that. If there is confusion in your life, so that you don't know, you don't know what is right and what is wrong, if there is a loss of an all-governing authority that integrates, that unites, that holds in one steady way, if you're scattered and divided, then stand still. Stand still, and see, and ask again: Have I somehow, for some reason, by some means, been sidetracked, got off the main way of God's intention? Got into something that is less, that is other, that is different - not the whole counsel of God? Stand still and see!

I am sure that you will agree that spiritual progress and spiritual prosperity are bound up with this: an all-unifying, inspiring, dynamic purpose - it is like that, isn't it? Find a person or a people without a purpose like that, that governs their whole life, touches everything, not only in their meetings, but reaches out through them to everything, in the homes, and in the business. It's just... its arms just reach out and affect everything. Everything is in the light of this great all-governing object: the place of Jesus Christ in God's intention - fulness of place for Him - everything being made to bend to that, to bow to that, to serve that. And I tell you that your life will be in confusion, and it will be a divided life, and it will be a weak life, it will be a limited life, unless you have come to this: My business, my home, all my affairs, my society, my occupations, my everything has got to focus upon this: the serving of God's end concerning His Son Jesus Christ, that in all things He shall have the pre-eminence!

He shall come into His crown rights in this world. I may not be able to settle that issue in some distant land. It may not be mine to see that that is so in India, or some other place that is not my country, to which God does not send me; but here I am. And here, whether it be (forgive me) Honor Oak, or Richmond, or Deal, or Canterbury, or any other place, it may be a limited spot; that's a part of the nations! That is just as much a part of the nations as any country in this world! Don't be romantic or sentimental about China and India to the loss of that patch upon which God has put you! That locality, that town, that sphere of influence, that place of business, that home, that is in the nations as much as any other place is. And so far as God will help you, it is your business to see that Christ reigns there. The throne is there; everything is gathered to Him. You will make spiritual progress if you have it like that. You will be a unified person or people if it is like that.

One of the things that the Lord had to say through Jeremiah, you will read here, is this: "My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living water, and have hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water". What a picture! In line with God's purpose, in full line with God's purpose the river flows, the fountain springs up, the spontaneous Life wells over - spontaneous! And over against this: 'hewing out cisterns' - hewing out! Oh, the labour... oh the hard work... oh, the weariness - hewing out from solid rock of a cistern, and then filling it up and finding there is a crack in it, and it all seeps and leaks away - "which can hold no water"! Your work, your effort, your organisation - what you are doing instead of this spontaneous thing that God does. What a contrast!

In line (and I know what I am talking about, dear friends) in line with God's purpose, the river flows! On some other line, mere (what we call "organised") Christianity, we've got to do the work, we've got to find the resources. And isn't that just what Christianity is doing? Labouring and toiling, to find the resources to carry on Christian activities, and largely leaking. Oh, what a lot of leaky cisterns there are! Disappointment  they can hold no water. That is the difference.

In line with His purpose it is spontaneous - it is so. You have honest, conscientious work to do in the right way, but it's the flow, it's the flow of the Life. It comes along this course, this course of the Divine purpose concerning the Lord Jesus. As we said this afternoon, God commits Himself to that. He is with you in it, and carries you along. If it is not like that, stand! There's a crossroads. Stand and see, and at least ask: Are we on some lesser line, some other thing? Are we trying to make something? Trying to constitute something? Trying to create something? Trying to form something? Are we doing that or are we in something that God is doing? God is doing! We are not carrying this; this thing is carrying us! It's like that when you have your course set wholly in line with what that throne from of old, from eternity, has meant - everything gathered into the Son of God.

Stand! Reflect! Consider! Take it all in!

Next, allow yourself to be made aware of what this alternative is.

What is This Alternative?

What is the meaning of it? If you look into this book, and into the history of Israel that brought them to the crossroads, you will find that they had left the heavenly way, and come down on to an earthly way. Their original history, indeed, was a heavenly one. Everything was from heaven, everything was linked with heaven. Everything was meant to be like that. If you had gone through the tribes of Israel (as they were there arranged around the Tabernacle in the wilderness) gone through them, their thousands, you would have found that there was a certain - may I put it this way? - fashion prevailing; fashion in dress, for everybody had on the edge of their garment a blue fringe. No, it was not the mark of the Temperance Society! But there it was - blue was the predominant colour in Israel and it was everywhere. And from what did it derive? There was one man right at the centre and heart of the whole nation, the high priest, who had a marvellous blue robe; and everything in Israel corresponded to that, was like a piece of it. It was 'corporate blue' (there is a new phrase for you!). Blue is the heavenly colour, and God ordained this, you see, from centre to circumference - everything was to be heavenly.

So their food came from heaven - they were sustained from heaven. Their guidance in the wilderness came from heaven; their government came from heaven. All their times were appointed by heaven. Their law was given from heaven, their water came from heaven. They were, while here in this world, a heavenly people, moving steadily on to a heavenly country - the consummation of their heavenly life here. Well, that is the picture.

They had been like that; had been like that and in the days when it was like that, they were days of joy, of harmony. But they had left their heavenly position, while, perhaps, maintaining the forms, they left it, and had come down to earth; come down on to the level of the other peoples the earth. You read the book - I can't take you through it, but there it is, so clear, so clear.

And again and again that happened in Israel. It happened in the days of Samuel when they said: "Make us a king like unto the nations". And the Lord said unto Samuel, "They have not rejected thee, they have rejected Me"! The glorious throne on high was rejected, to have a throne on the earth. The Lord let them have their throne, and their Saul and their king, but all these conditions followed: frustration, limitation. Yes, they came down to earth. That's the battle, to keep on the heavenly level, and not to be brought down, forced down, tricked down. But this, this deceitful current that came in had that in it, to bring them down on to an earthly level. Many of you may not understand what that means, but many of you do. It is just the battle there: something like the rest, something as they do it in this world, something that is down here.

But note, the challenge is:

Ask for the Old Paths.

Is there some hint in that? Some suggestion, some implication that the trouble, the trouble, the condition, the state of things was due to: "Oh, we are tired of all this... let us have something new! Let's have something fresh! Let's have a change - let's have a change." You know, one of the prophets puts his finger on that, and says: 'where there are no changes'. Where there are not changes... The people can't just bear not to have variety, not to have changes, what they call 'freshness' and so on. But there is a peril in that. There is a freshness, a newness about the things of God, Divine things, and Divine life that's right, but when it becomes something like this: "Oh, we are tired of the old thing, tired of the old thing... let's have something new." There may be something in that that's deceitful. And so, throwing off restraint, and throwing off that which God established, that which God brought in, and hankering after variety and novelty; something different.

Do you notice that course of things today in Christianity? It's always very near, and it becomes very artificial doesn't it? And strained, and false, unnatural - trying to be, trying to be different which amounts to trying to be clever. Trying to be clever, novel - it's an awful evil. Ask for the old paths! Let's be very careful what we mean when we say we don't want the past. That is just exactly what we do want and need, if the past is the old paths. If the days of the apostles, of the early church represent the old paths, that is exactly what we do want! But here is something that is not true and right that is new. Oh, I know how much there is, and many aspects of newness in what is true - I am not thinking about that. This people, throwing over everything that God had brought in and established as the basis of the Life which had been in such fulness, spontaneity, progress - they are throwing it all over; tired of it. Stand! See! Ask!

One other element in this state of things you see, there were false prophets. Jeremiah's bane were the false prophets. They were the thorns in his side, they were the ones who were making his life a life of contention. But what were the false prophets saying? Look into it again. They were saying: "Don't you listen to Jeremiah! If you do, if you do, he will lead you astray and you will lose your place, and you will be found on the unpopular side; you will have the majority against you. Now listen, it is not politic to go the way of Jeremiah. If you want influence, if you want standing, if you want position, don't you listen to Jeremiah." In a word, they wanted popularity. Popularity! And Jeremiah was the most unpopular man on the face of the earth at that time. But was Jeremiah right? Was what Jeremiah stood for God's way? How did it work out? Pause, stand, see! This is the nature of the crossroads very often; you have got to decide whether it is popularity you are after, whether it is the way of the majority vote, the way of the crowd, the multitude, of most people, or whether it is the way of the Cross. You have got to decide.

I don't know what is in it, but I do know of a book written by Dr. Wheeler Robinson. I have never seen it, I have never read it, but I only know its title. And I know that it is appealed to by many. It is called The Cross of Jeremiah - what a title! What a fine title for this whole book. The Cross of Jeremiah - what is the cross of Jeremiah? I say, I don't know what's in this particular book, but I know what the cross of Jeremiah was: it was the way of the minority, the way that was unpopular. It was the way that was not the way of least resistance, it was the hardest way to take. That is always:

The Way of the Cross.

The crossroads... is it policy? Is it popularity? Is it common acceptance? Or is it the way of the full purpose of God which may only be taken by a minority? So it works out. And that minority is an unpopular minority. And about them the others say: "Don't you go that way, don't you listen to them, don't you follow them! If you do, you see what you are in for, what you will lose." And policy becomes the ruling thing at the crossroads. It is like that.

Well, I must close. Here is the enquiry at the crossroads as to really what is the nature of this thing? And then the decision - the decision. Ask for the old paths, the old paths... the path, that old path of the New Testament, which was by way of the Cross, was the path of the released Holy Spirit through an open heaven. And what is there in all the creation that is to be compared with an opened heaven and a released Holy Spirit? That was the 'old path' of the book of the Acts, wasn't it? It was. But that was by the way of the Cross. It was the way of the exalted Christ upon the throne. And although, like Jeremiah, it meant for the church suffering, adversity, persecution, pain, and cost... oh, the wonder of that Cross!

I had thought that some time during this weekend, I would be able to put in a message on the sovereignty of the cross, but can't. But I have been fascinated, just fascinated, as I have gone through the pages of the story of the Cross, to see that what from one side, the earthly human side, looks like tragedy and defeat, and the triumph of evil and the enemy, can be seen from another side to be God working out sovereign purpose in a marvellous way. Even to hint at it is to open up a field of tremendous inspiration! Oh, but there it is - there it is, the sovereignty of the Cross, it is marvellous! They said this; but sovereignty came in and took hold of that and turned it in exactly the opposite direction from what they intended.

Take one point, if you like. They said "Not Jesus but Barabbas". And then, being pressed, being pressed by Pilate, they said: "We have no king but Caesar". Oh, they never said a more foolish and utterly mad thing! "We have no king, but Caesar!" And they put their King, their true King on the cross. What happened? They got Caesar, and he absolutely wiped out their nation in seventy years, and scattered them over the world, so that they have never had a king through these two thousand years.

All right, there's a throne above, you see, a throne above that Cross, working by that Cross. Pilate said, "Put up an inscription, and write it in three languages, Hebrew, Greek, Latin" - the whole world on that cross. "Ask of Me and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession". And He did it by His Cross! It is the sovereignty of the Cross that wins the nations for Jesus Christ. Oh, I could go on like this for an hour! There it is. Yes, by the way of the Cross is the way of the throne. It's the way of the opened heaven, it is the way of the released Holy Spirit, but, ask for the old paths, and walk therein.

It's your decision. Weigh it all up. Look at it, compare the values of the two ways, this way and that at the crossroads, and having decided, "Oh, though we gain the whole world, though we get everything down here and lose that which God meant, that inheritance in His Son, it is not worth it. This is the way I am going, the way of the Cross." The Lord bring us there at this time.