Oh the Depth — T. Austin-Sparks

The Parable of the Rocky Ground and the Depth of God

In the Gospel by Matthew, chapter 13, chapter 13, and verse 5,. And others fell upon the rocky places, where they had not much earth. And straightway they sprang up, because they had no deepness of earth.

But when the sun was risen, they were scorned, because they had no root, they withered away. The letter to the Romans, chapter 11, and verse 33,. The debt of the riches, both of the wisdom to the knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are his judgments, recognize that contrast, Matthew, portion, not much earth of earth. Oh, the debt of the riches, of the wisdom, and the knowledge of God. A little out of place today, not to speak on the season, but spiritual need is always in season.

And that is always with us. And I have it on my heart just to say a brief word on this matter of debt. Oh, the debt of our Lord, with which we are so familiar, called parable of the sowing, and its result.

The Lord puts his finger upon something that is nothing less than a tragedy. Tremendous potentialities of the word of God are, come to the end of the parable, see what was in the word that was sown. It was no different word, among the thorns, or on the rocky ground, from that sown on good ground.

In every case and instance, the potentialities were the same, no difference in the word. Mighty, wonderful things are possible from the word of God in the heart. And yet, with all those great potentialities and possibilities, here receiving, receiving it comes to them, just as it came to the others.

Receiving, and all that was possible, tragedy of shallowness, what a tragedy. On debt, which is so contrary to his own nature and his own thought, so contrary to God. All the depth of God, how deep God is, how deep God goes.

God's Deep Nature and His Purpose to Deepen His People

Here perhaps there is a link with the present remembrance, to what depth the Lord Jesus came down. How deep, and the length, and the height, and the depth of the knowledge surpassing, how profound, how deep God is.

The depth of all riches, the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, his ways passed by, that's God. And over against that, tragic shallowness, contrary to him, shallowness never goes through, enduring, it's all gone.

Always unprofitable, what God intended. Now you see, if God is like this, and if there is something in what the Lord Jesus says and means in the parable of condemnation, deploring such a state, what should we expect of God?

What should we expect? We should expect nothing other than that if God really gets a chance, he will go very deep, and he will take us very deep. And it does prove to be like that, quite sure that there are many here now who know that that is true.

It's a word that not only explains, so by thy way was in the deep, and it always is. God's way is always in the deep. God will always seek to take us down into the depths in order that he might reproduce in us the things that are true of himself.

Abiding in God and Becoming Spiritually Dependable

We have said just now that shallowness, that which is not substantial. Now the one thing that that psalmist was always saying about the Lord was that he was his rock, his rock. That he had discovered the Lord to be his rock, something that could not be moved, could not be shaken, to be relied upon, to be dependable, always there.

The Lord does want to reproduce his own character in us, to make us dependable, reliable, that we are there and always there. We can always be found there, not moved. In order to do that, he has to take us into the depths.

He is that himself because he is so deep, enduring. He is the eternal God. He abides us right into touch with that. He that doeth the will of God shall abide forever. Abide. Moved away, aren't we? Unabiding.

The Lord Jesus was ever stressing this. Abide in me. But you don't if you live on the surface. You know that quite well. Nothing that lives on the surface abides. It's carried away so easily by whatever comes along.

It's only those who, to use the words of a prophet twice employed, dwell deep, dwell deep. Only so shall we endure and abide. Things of greatest value are not found on the surface at all. The real treasures are in the deep.

Seeking the Treasures Hidden in the Depths

You have to go deep under jewels. Dig deep. Things that really are of value are not just superficial things. Anywhere, everywhere, you have to search deeply for them. The Lord was describing the land for his people.

The land of promise, the land of their inheritance. He told them that they were there, but they'd have to dig for them. They'd have to dig for them. Out of whose hills thou mayest dig, nothing that really is of value comes easily.

Oh, we know that. In every sphere of life it does not come easily, but we have to go deep. The Lord then is always seeking to deepen. All these features of depth is a costly thing. It's always a costly thing.

The fact is, and we know it so well, that we never do make deeper discoveries of the Lord only through very deep, very, very deep treasures. Treasures are treasures of darkness, treasures somewhere in the darkness.

There are always precious things somewhere down in the depths where the Lord leads us, of God, in his people. All that it means, abiding, and unto full fruitfulness, it comes only by way and suffering.

That explains the ways of the Lord with us. It really does. We wonder why the Lord allows so deep, and not allow us to superficiality. The Lord is poor. A great example always of every kind of divine truth and divine working and way and method.

The Costly Way of Divine Enrichment

Here is this man. He's with God. And God's very deep ways with him. Oh, the depth of the riches. Oh, the depth. Though sometimes we think we've touched bottom, there is nearly no touching bottom in this matter.

There's always something more to discover, but every time something more of deepening in us. It's the shallow way, isn't it? To get things as cheaply as possible and as easily as possible and as quickly as possible with as little cost of our nature.

We want it like that, and we don't like the other way. It's a mark of something of divine character missing. It is. It just shows how devoid of the character of God human nature is and this world is. And all God's ways of enrichment demand the countering of our natural desires, inclinations, propensities, to have it all so easy.

That's our way. It is the way of man. Matter of depth and of deepening into God and by God constitutes of the great battle that the Lord's people are always in. And an instance of this. Remember the Lord Jesus as he stepped across that line from his thirty years of private hidden life into the public vocation and mission for which he had come.

Jesus Rejects the Enemy's Superficial Kingdom

And the enemy clearly discerning with that intuition recognized quite well why he had come and for what he had stepped across that line that day. To become Lord of creation, the prince of this world, the ruler of the kingdom and offered that prize to him along superficial lines.

Superficial lines. Compromise. Take this easier way and you can have it. You can have it all if you'll only take this way that I suggest. You're going the hard way. You're going the deep way. You're going the costly way.

But you can have it all without that. Superficial. See? The superficial way for a kingdom. But what a kingdom it would have been. It would not have lasted. It would not have endured. It would not have been of that substantial order of eternity.

And that's what the enemy wanted. That deep reality that God meant. The Lord Jesus saw the snare and accepted the deep way. How deep it was. To the very depths. An everlasting kingdom. An enduring kingdom.

He has it. It will endure throughout all generations. Forever. The deep way is the real way. The enemy is always trying to rob of depth. That's the point. He is always trying to make things superficial.

All so happy and so pleasant. So nice all on the surface. All look so pointless. Has it been secured? Is there a peril in surrendering? For that's the realm of value and of conflict. I know what sounds like a melancholy note.

Suffering as the Means of Preserving Spiritual Depth

For this reason, the Lord does have to bring his own things. His own divine, sacred things. Into a realm of tremendous suffering. In order to preserve and increase their depth. Make no mistake about it.

The question will always arise. At what cost did you come by that? That determines whether it is real. Thinking much about that incident. With this I close. In the life of Elisha. Heard many things about it.

Elisha, Gehazi, and the Life-and-Death Reality of Ministry

One thing has impressed me. As I have been thinking over it again recently. When the Lord sent him to the woman. You remember. And the child was given by divine act. The prophet went away. And it fell upon a day.

The child was asked her husband to saddle the ass. For her to go and fetch the prophet. And off she went. Found him. Told him her trouble. And he sent Gehazi. With his rod. Gehazi. His servant. With the rod.

It can help my imagination. Getting to work as I see Gehazi. A man for which I have the utmost contempt. For all I know of human structure. Taking that rod. Seated way. Going into the situation. Entering into the depth.

Perhaps some other angle. But the woman saw through Gehazi. She said I am not going with Gehazi. I am not going without you. She come to Elisha. How he entered in. Stretched himself upon that child. Hands to his hands.

Eyes to his eyes. And lips to his lips. Stretched himself. You know the whole story. But what has impressed me is this. The Lord. The Lord. In this scene. Was sovereignly at work. And the principle there undoubtedly was this.

That here in this child was represented. The very thing and value of that woman's life. If you will allow her to represent the church. And the child the very meaning of her life. The very fruit of her life.

The very testimony of her life. The only thing for which now she had to live. Matter of life or death with her. And the Lord touched that. In order to bring out this great. This wonderful. This profound truth.

That everything in the church has got to become a matter of life and death. No play acting by any Gehazis. No merely formal professional. No mere words. Mere performances. Only the man. The man who is brought right in.

So that this matter is with him. A matter of his own ministry. Of his own life. Of his own testimony. Brought into the agony. And the anguish of this thing. Not standing aside like a Gehazi. And acting objectively.

But this thing involves his very life. His very ministry. His very testimony. His very anointing. If God doesn't do this. Then in life you better give up everything. He's brought into the agony and anguish of this situation.

God has touched something. That is not just a matter of his professional ministry. It's a matter of the justification of his life. Brought into it like that. God is going deep. Dear friends. God does that.

God Removes Formality and Superficiality from the Church

Make no mistake about it. Make no mistake about it. In the church. In the church that is according to God. God will touch the individual life. He may touch a husband. He may touch a wife. He may touch a child.

A beloved child. In order to get us out of this merely formal detached kind of association with his things. And make everything an agony. An agony. That the church doesn't come in on our behalf now. You see.

God has wonderful ways of making things real. Making things real. Of destroying superficiality. Do you follow? Solemn word from the Lord. But a word we all need to recognize. The Lord is not, not going to have shallowness and superficiality.

He's going to touch the depth until it's a matter of anguish. Whatever it may be. Whatever it may be. Business situation. A home situation. A personal situation. A church situation. Everything's in the balances now.

The Deep Work of God Produces Enduring Testimony

How this goes. The Lord simply draws us in. And I have a feeling the Lord is going to do things like that. To save the matter of course. Kind of things. Taking things for granted. And to bring about a more deadly solemn reality.

With us all. It'll be by deep ways. But oh it'll be worthwhile afterward. That lad became the embodiment. Have that testimony enshrined and embodied. Something indestructible and abiding there. Substantial there.

The power of his resurrection. Who can? My way to the depths. Things that are going to happen to you perhaps. And it may be a saving word.