Oh, the Depth by T. Austin Sparks — T. Austin-Sparks

The Tragedy of Spiritual Shallowness

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.

When the sun was risen, they were scorched. And because they had no root, they withered away. The letter to the Romans, chapter 11 and verse 33,. The depth of the richest, both of the wisdom to the knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways. Immediately recognized that contrast, those three statements in the Matthew portion. Not much earth of earth. The depth of the richest, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.

Seem just 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, simple word, on this matter of depth, oh the depth, with which we are so familiar, called parable of the sower, phase of the sowing and its result.

The Lord puts his finger upon something that is nothing less than a tragedy. It is remembered what the tremendous potentialities of the word of God are. We come to the end of the parable, 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 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.

So the Lord puts his finger upon that which is so contrary to his own nature and his own thought, so contrary to God. All the depth of God, how deep God goes. Here perhaps there is a link with the, to what depth the Lord Jesus came down.

The breadth and the length and the height and the depth of the knowledge of how profound God is. The depth of all riches, the wisdom and knowledge of God, of how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways passed by.

Is this tragic, contrary to him, being all that could have been. Shallowness never, never stands the test and goes through. Always unenduring, for a time profitable, 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, what should we expect of God?

God's Deep Work in the Believer

We should expect nothing other than that if God really gets a chance, has a way to his end, he will go very deep. 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 experience.

It's a word that exclaims, so thy way was in the deep. And it always is. God's way is always in the deep. God will always take us down into the depths in order that he might reproduce in us the things that are true of himself.

We have said just now that shallowness is 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. Not a lot. 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. That is the Lord. 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 for us. There is a word, you know, that brings us right into touch with that. He that doeth the will of God shall abide forever. Abide. 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. You have to go deep for the pearls and the jewels. Dig deep.

Things that really are of value are not just superficial things. Found strewn 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 there were treasures 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 and deepen. He is in quest, and because of the importance to the Lord of all these features of depth.

Depth is always a costly. It's always a costly. The fact is, and we know it so well, that we never do make deeper discoveries of the Lord. Very deep. Very deep testing. Very deep. These treasures are treasures of darkness.

Treasures are always precious things somewhere down in the depths where the Lord leads us. In his people, all that it means unto the abiding and unto full fruit comes, that explains the ways of the Lord.

It really does. We wonder why the Lord does plow so deep and not allow us to abide in our superficiality. Now, here's Paul. Example always of every kind of divine truth and divine walking and way and method.

The Costly Way of the Cross

Here is this man, out of very deep ways with God, and God's very deep ways with him. Oh, the depth of the river. 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. Like that. Now, the way of man and the way of the world is 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 as of our nature.

We want it like that. We don't like the other way, but that is a mark. It's a mark of something of divine character missing. It just shows how devoid of the character of God human nature is and this world is.

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. This matter of depth and of deepening into God and by God constitutes a feature of the great battle that the Lord's people are always in.

As an illustration 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.

And the enemy clearly discerning with that intuition common to spirits recognized quite well why he had come and for what he had stepped across that line that day. To become the Lord of creation. The prince of this world.

The ruler of the kingdom. Offered that prize to him along superficial lines. Superficial lines. Compromise. Take this easier way. 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. The Lord Jesus sold a snare and accepted the deep way.

And oh how deep it was. That way of the cross. To the very depths. An everlasting kingdom. An enduring kingdom. He has it. It will endure throughout all generations. Forever and ever. The deep way is the real way.

The enemy is always trying to rob of depth. To make things easier. He is always trying to make things superficial. All so happy and so pleasant. So nice all on the surface. All look so lovely. So what cost has it been secured?

And is there a peril? Something of the depth is being surrendered. For that's the realm of value and of conflict. I know what sounds like a melancholy note. 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?

Elisha and the Reality of Resurrection Life

That determines whether it is real. Thinking much about that incident. With this I close. In the life of Elisha. You know. Heard many things about it. One thing has. As I have been thinking over it again recently.

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 by 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. And I never 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. And seated way. Going to the seat. Entering into the death chamber. Trying it perhaps some other angle. But the woman saw through Gehazi. She said I'm not going with Gehazi.

I'm not going without you. She come. To Elisha. And you know 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. Principle there undoubtedly was this. That here in this child was represented. The very value of that woman's life.

If you'll 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. Something that was a matter of life or death with her.

And the Lord touched that. 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 Dehazites.

No merely formal professional with the Lord. No clear performances. The man who is brought right into the thing. In heart. 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 Dehazite. 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. 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. Make no mistake about it. Make no mistake about it. In the church. In the church that is.

According to God. God will touch something. 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. God has. Wonderful ways. Of making things real. Making things real. Of destroying superficiality.

Do you follow? I feel that it's a very solemn word from the Lord. But. A word that 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.

This issue. 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. How this goes. And the Lord suddenly draws us in.

And I have a feeling the Lord is going to do things like that. The. Matter of course. The. 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. Of the power of his resurrection. To have that testimony enshrined and embodied. Something indestructible and abiding there. Substantial there.

The power of his resurrection. Who can. Undo that. Oh God was in the depths. Depth of the riches. It will explain things that are going to happen to you perhaps. And it may be a saving word.