Revelation of Jesus Christ - Part 7 of 10 — T. Austin-Sparks

The Prize of the On-High Calling

Letter to Paul to the Colossians chapter 2, you know, and for Laodicea chapter 4, verse 13 I bear him witness that he has much labor for you and for them in Laodicea 15, that are in and when this epistle hath been read among you, I will obtain, if so that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ.

One thing for getting the things which are behind, stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize on high calling. Another hymn, verses of the third chapter of the book of Revelation, the risen Lord, one summation, divine purpose in this age of God for his foreshadowing everything, because chapters, purpose of God, in I said that he was on full for which he had been apprehended by Christ Jesus.

Exactly that was, that object, that purpose, he did add the prize. It was unto that he conceived himself as having been apprehended. Not only to be saved, but to be brought in and by Christ Jesus. He calls it the prize of the on high calling of the book of the Revelation is bringing us very near to the goal, the intention of the book is to get the church ready for the end, for the great crisis in view.

At the end of this first part of the book which has to do with the church, what it was that Paul meant by the prize of the on high calling. This is it. I will give to him to sit with me in my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father in his throne.

Object for which people ask their Lord. This, that is in the heart of the Lord in giving the gospel, in appealing this in view, nothing less. A wonderful prize. Quite significant, is it not, that that is the last note in this phase.

The End Governs the Lord’s Dealings

We can say, because it is quite true, that it has been that that has governed all that has gone before. The wonderful presentation of the Lord Jesus in person in chapter one, showing his victory, the glory of his risen band should be set.

The seven churches as representing by their very number the whole church in all ages, in all that is said through these. This thing is governing, this end is overshadowing. It is to this that everything is moving.

Judging and the condemning and the demand to put away everything that would thwart that end. And the encouraging and the help toward that end. The end governs the on high calling of the on high calling of God.

That is in view. That explains everything. It explains all the Lord's dealings with his people. Pause and think by this. Ourselves governing, getting us ready for the throne. He is doing something now that relates to that glorious end.

He is paving the way. He is preparing us. He is cancelling out that would hinder our progress toward that end. He is seeking to inculcate and develop in us the things that will hasten us toward that end.

That is exactly what it all means. It would be a tremendous help. It says that quite clearly to his people. We were thinking earlier in the day called to be. God simply told them in plain language that their tribulation with a spiritual and divine purpose to qualify them for their great eternal destiny.

That is how it is. I think dear friends perhaps with the importance is often a great limitation upon our appreciation of the heavenly calling. Of this life from one standpoint. From another perhaps we don't make enough of it.

From one standpoint we make far too much of it that if we don't see everything accomplished here and now in this lifetime and all our hopes and expectations realized then we are disappointed people. The Lord never looks at it.

Never has anything been made perfect in the lifetime of any one believer except the Lord Jesus. It is like that. On the other hand perhaps we do not make enough of the tremendous importance of what the Lord is trying to do with us in this lifetime.

Be there as it may. There is this that stands over our lives now. These lives here. Tremendous heavenly calling unto which we have been apprehended by Christ Jesus. Unto the realization of that or what Paul calls the attaining.

Christ’s Call to the Throne

Unto that certain things are necessary. And in this message to the church in Laodicea the Lord makes perfectly clear what is essential. And he does that in the first place by presenting himself in certain terms.

You notice how he introduces himself here? These things set the arm in the beginning of the creation of man. I may not answer then you are terrible hypocrites but I have been hearing a lot of amens tonight.

Throughout many amens tonight. We are accustomed to using that word. Is it just a word? Is it just something we at a certain point get accustomed to? That word barely being said. The amen. The amen. The one in whom and of my dear friend at all value our salvation.

If it had been a matter with him. Whether he was neither cold nor hot about this. That work of redemption without any reserve whatsoever or two minds divided heart that he might repent from all iniquities.

He did not stop half way. Thank God. He did not suffer himself to be turned aside or to be influenced. In the mansions of his robe Russell Paul called upon to remember Jesus Christ who before Pontius Pilate's testimony.

The point is, the underlining is that everything here is emphatic, definite. It's real. How does that come in? Well first of all we've got to get that word beginning. It is not the word that means the first of the creation.

He was the first one created and then there are a lot more after him created. It's not that word at all. Source of everything. Fountainhead of everything. The one in whom and from of everything. That is what we mean when we speak of an architect.

This is the model. Out of whom comes that which is to be the source. The word here. The beginning of the creation of God. See him coming forth. For it says that in him and through him and unto him were all things created.

All things were made by him. That's the scripture. When the thing was completed, the evening of the sixth day, was there a lot left to be desired and a lot that needed improving upon. The verdict is, he had applied himself.

Now even in a trace of his creative fingers impresses us with the wonder of it. The wonder of the mind there. The wonder of the power. My point is, dear friends, that this is only one further. It's the third phrase that bears upon this one thing.

You're dealing with somebody who is very thorough. Thorough in creation. Thorough in redemption. And his own witness is how he is introduced. And this alone will bring you to the end. Such a spirit. Such a mind.

Such a devotion. Such a thoroughness. Such an Amen. If you're going to reflect fear as the basis of his speech. And he goes on then. The lairdessere's attitude of nine and a half. Never get them there.

The Warning Against Lukewarm Devotion

Never get them there. Hot nor cold. The difference between sitting with him in his throne and being spewed out of his mouth. Those are the alternatives resting upon this matter. Devotion unto God indicates to the attaining.

Because thou seest and have gotten riches and have need of nothing. It was the great banking center of Asia Minor. And out from which all the wealth of the province lairdessere, the world was. There was satisfaction.

Sense of being quite sufficient. Having got there much more to do about it. Rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing. The lord says that will never get you to the prime. That will never get you to the prime.

One, if you are to come to that for which I have apprehended and chosen you, one essential is and must remain of your own insufficiency, of your own need of there still being far more in Christ than ever you possess.

It's this which is essential. Gratification or so much further to go or to gain. You're content with a little. The little that you've got or perhaps you want a little more. Spirit of the great apostle discerned it over lairdessere.

I will have you know. I will have you know. Trave for them of lairdessere. The nature settling down with less than God's full content of Christ. It will just be fully, deeply conscious. They have not attained.

Neither are they already. But who have yet. The mind, the disposition that is here demanded. Because thou knowest not that thou art miserable and naked. I counsel thee first of all to buy of me gold refined that thou mayest become.

This is not buying salvation. Salvation is without money. If there is something that is not salvation by our effort or our work or even our God being saved, we are saved unto something. Draw us up in the matter of faith and it is refined by which the crown is won.

I'm not going to dwell upon all the details here. I just want you to catch the spirit of this without an exhaustive exposition. Thou knowest not that thou art poor. Thou knowest not that thou art blind of me, knowing to thine eyes that thou mayest see.

Thou knowest not that thou art blind. Here again is a local touch taken up. In connection with one of the temples in lairdessere there was a famous medical school. And from that medical all over the Greek and Roman world an eye salve went.

It was famed for this ointment. Everybody knew what this meant in lairdessere. And yet, and yet, right there in the precincts of the place where I was blind. Blind. Thou knowest not that thou art blind.

Spiritual Vision of God’s Eternal Purpose

Let us say right away without too many words. The absolute essential of reaching that end of God is to have a vision. To have a spiritual vision. I ask you, my dear friends, every one of you personally now to challenge your own hearts.

Have you got a spiritual vision? Are you going on from day to day? Are you going on without a mighty incentive of a divine eternal purpose? Are you in the shadows or in the dark as to what it all means and what the end is intended to be?

Or is there before you, before your enlightened spirit, a clear vision of what God has determined as the issue of all things? What are you into in fellowship with his son? Are you clear about it? You know quite well that no one ever gets anywhere without a vision.

An artisan will never get anywhere without a vision. No one will ever make any progress unless they clearly see what they're after. What they're aiming at. To get somewhere you want to know where it is and what it is you're going to.

An essential is that you should see these letters and the presentation of the Lord Jesus is a revelation that is going to master the revelation of Jesus Christ and make us people of a purpose. People who know.

Do you like that? You've got the vision of God's eternal purpose in Christ for the church into which you have been called by his grace. You've got the vision. Is that something that is coming down into your life continually?

Are you tired of hearing that phrase, the eternal purpose? The eternal purpose? Is it lost? Is it music? Captivating? That's laudatio, you see. What do you mean when you talk like that figuratively and symbolically?

Well, again, I'm going to take you back to such familiar words in Paul's letter to the Ephesians that he would grant unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. The eyes of your heart be enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling.

There it is. That means lay yourself out with all your being before God that the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of your heart for you as a part of his church. Knowest not that thou art naked? I counsel thee, white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest.

The Need for Christ’s Righteousness

Again, Laodicea was famed as a manufacturing center, a beautiful fleece which they cultivated in their surrounding fields and made wonderful garments which were world famous. A glistening fleece of Laodicean manufacture.

They knew what it meant. Here, in a place where everybody knew how this beautiful garment material, people were proud of wearing right in the presence of it all. As the Lord looked at them, he saw them naked.

But they didn't know it. They didn't know it. Knowest not that thou art naked? He saw them as they were, and you know, dear friends, when our eyes are opened about ourselves, the one thing we want is to get covered up somehow.

When Adam's eyes were opened, the one thing he wanted was to get covered up. He went and hid himself. We know ourselves, and of course you know what I'm talking about. And we begin to know ourselves in the light of God.

One thing we feel to need is all for a covering, all for a hiding, all to get out of the way, out of the scanning of those eyes. If only we could hide ourselves from ourselves. This is no pleasant view when we begin to see ourselves.

But they didn't know it. That's how they were. That's how God saw them. But they had no sense of nakedness. They were priding themselves in the garments of their own making. Again, the Lord says quite clearly, if you are going to reach the end, you must have a very, very poor opinion of yourself and realize your absolute need of a clothing that you can't make for yourself, the white raiment of Christ's own righteousness.

That's your only way to the end. So Paul says, that I may gain Christ. Not having a righteousness of mine own, but the righteousness which is of God, the white raiment, who sense our need of that because of our deep and overwhelming sense of our own unrighteousness.

These are the people that are on the way to the throne. Any saints, whatever, ought to be running for the prize. This may be comforting to most of us. But this is, after all, the gospel, isn't it? And it all just amounts to this, that on the one side of this great argument, you've got to be a people characterized by such a strong sense of need, which only the Lord Jesus can supply.

You've got to be a people like that if you're going to get there, to the place where you're called. How different this is from the whole world's attitude. God's attitude is always certain ability, certain self-sufficiency, and self-importance to receive the prizes.

Zeal, Repentance, and Fullness in Christ

It's not the spirit of the world, absolutely unfit, unworthy. That's not the spirit of the world. This is the spirit of Christ, and this is the spirit called for. As many as I love what it is to be, but as many as I love, then be appealed.

That word simply means, be on fire. Be burned. Be not like that stream alongside of Laodicea, which is not a hot stream nor a cold stream. It was well known what he meant. There it was, a river just by the city of tepid water, neither one thing nor the other.

Be not like that, but be zealous. Be hot and repent. I stand at the door. I don't dwell much upon that, but it has been dwelt upon so much. It just means this, that where conditions obtain such as these, no sense of the need of him, no sense of undone condition.

Well, the Lord's outside of that. He's not inside that at all. He's outside of that. But he says, I stand at the door and knock. That knocking may mean many things. Many things. The Lord is trying to get on the inside by many a form of knocking.

And then this, if any man open the door, I will come. We'll sup with him. He with me. Looking at that word sup, I find there are three words. It applies to the Greek breakfast, which was but a bit of bread and a drink, and that suffices.

Another was another little larger meal that they had during the day. But there's another word which is used for the full meal of the day. And that's the one here. I will come in and there'll be a full meal.

You see, everything that you look at in this, the word, is something positive, isn't it? Something full that the Lord is after. Not something partial. Not just the early morning scrap with which you start the day, but the full meal.

He's after fullness. I'll come in and there'll be fullness. It's all that. Well, he calls me of that mind, of that spirit, of that disposition. Again, it's just the people. But one thing, this one thing I do, leaving the things which are behind.

All the things and having only one thing. The things which are behind, I press. Hold the mark of the prize of the on high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Be satisfied with what God meant for you when he saved you.

Settle down that is not his fool. Don't you be robbed of your prize by any compromises of any kind or any carelessness. But everybody can say those people know where they're going, what they're after.

There's no doubt about them. A people either drifting or just having meetings. A people who are marked and characterized by a sense of a great meaning, a great purpose.