A Living Hope - Part 2 — T. Austin-Sparks

We return to the two passages of scripture around which our thoughts are circling at this time. The first letter of Peter, chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

A living by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. A letter of Paul to the Colossians, chapter 1, verse 27, whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you.

Christ in Us as the Hope of Glory

The hope of glory. Evidence and material borne together enforce the one fundamental reality. It is that reality upon which we must keep our eye. I try not to lose it, the tremendous amount that gathers around it, but I feel quite sure, dear friends, that we'll agree, and I trust very heartily agree, when we close this gathering, that that which the Lord is bringing before us at this time is a, if not the, and I think we could say the most vital thing in the whole of the Christian life.

The meaning, the reality, and the meaning of those last words, Christ in you, the hope, concerned at this time with Christ within as the only, for anything, the hope of God for everything. Meditation.

The Cross Reveals the Hopelessness of Outward Christianity

Mightily this was proved. The experience of the first believers and the first apostles. As we saw, firstly, how the cross brought desolation to everything until Christ became an inward reality. Indeed we could say that that is the very purpose of the cross on one side, to show the hopelessness of everything until Christ comes in, in a living way.

We saw the hopelessness of a merely outward association with Christ. They spent that time with him in the days of his flesh. All the wonderful truth about him being right present with them. The infinite truth of incarnation, God manifest in the flesh.

Wonder of his personality, that divine personality which was all the time registering itself and yet not understood, but of which everyone was conscious. The impress of a different and a superior kind of man, of humanity, personality.

The great fact that right in their midst through the whole time there was one who carried in her heart of his birth his miraculous birth. The fact of all his mighty miracles in every realm. Then of his teaching which altogether confounded and defeated the best scholars of his day.

They could never get equal with him, say nothing of defeating him. All that they had, with all that they were closely associated for that time. And yet when the cross came, completely shattered their faith, their hope and they were all, the 70 and all the others, seeking, denying as though all that went for nothing.

Necessity for something in addition to that. Valuable eventually, all of it, when that other somebody proved to be helpful in the day of the great ordeal. Because that other was not there and the other was Christ on the inside, Christ in you.

We can say with Paul, Christ in you, the hope of glory, Christ not in you. With all this bring hopelessness. We went on 70 receiving a delegated authority and sent forth with that authority to heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead.

And so they did, came back rejoicing and proclaiming even that demons are subject unto us. Delegated authority, official power and in the end as though it all went for nothing. They are all scattered and peeled in the deepest uncertainty.

Yes, being upbraided by him for their unbelief, again and again, utterly without hope. And the cross becomes an actuality until he came in by the Holy Spirit, took up residence within. And then it was different.

Peter and the Failure of Human Nature at Its Best

That far we went this afternoon with many more words. We proceed this evening a little further with this matter. The hopelessness of human nature in itself. We look at these, we don't know very much about the 70.

We know a little about some of the followers, like Mary Magdalene, know the Bethany family. Some others just a little about them. We know a good deal more about the 12. As we were saying this afternoon, Peter always stands as a good representative of the others.

For what was true of him was so true of them in many ways. We look at them and there are a lot of good things about them. Quite a lot of good things about Simon Peter. I think in many ways a very lovable kind of man.

There's no doubt whatever that on the credit side there was a very warm heart there. And a warm heart for his master. There was real good intention. Good intention people can, as we say, put their foot in it often.

But good intention was there. He meant so well. His motives were all the best. We could go on saying a lot of good things about him and about John. Perhaps you think you could say better things about John, about them all.

There's no doubt about it, there was a very good credit side to these people. Perhaps in many ways a great deal better than some of us. Human nature, the point is human nature, not at its worst, but perhaps at its best, was represented by that company around the Lord Jesus.

Sometimes they're blundering, yet not evil. Nothing vice about it. Good, honest, open. In their intention and in a certain realm committed to Jesus. And very thoroughly committed to Jesus. Sometimes breaking out in very strong.

A devotion to go to death should it ever become necessary. The cross. Eternal value. So much of it will go through. Survive and triumph. Not one bit. The desolation of all their protestations, all their confessions, all their declared good intentions, all their professions of love, devotion, faithfulness, lying in ruins.

The most representative is denying with oaths he has any knowledge of this gallant. Need say any more? The hopelessness of human nature in itself. Could hope be found? Would there ever be hope again? Will hope rise out of those ashes?

Is it gone forever? Is it finally and eternally hopeless? Yes, if it's left to them. If they're left to themselves. Where will hope be? Not in themselves, but in Christ in them. That will be the hope.

Of glory. Change. Transfigured outlook. Shame. Shame. Remorse. Reproach. Glory. And let us be very, very clear about this, dear friends, because it's just at this very point that you and I need to learn all our lessons over again.

The hope will never be found in ourselves. Even when we are Christians. Even though we go right on as far as any Christians can go. Should he leave us for five minutes, as hopeless as it was before ever we started?

In me. And it's an apostle. And a mature, experienced apostle that is speaking in me. That is in my flesh dwelling no good thing. There's no hope there. Christ in you. And the only hope. 2 Corinthians 5 contains the very foundation of any hope where a man is concerned.

Hope Through Union With Christ in His Death and Resurrection

The love of Christ. The love of Christ constraineth us. Because we thus judge. One died in the place of all, therefore all died. They which live should henceforth live no longer unto themselves, but unto him who in their place died and rose again.

Henceforth. No, we know may not. The old things are passed away. Or they become new. But all things are out from God. The way of hope. Yes, through the devastation of the cross. Out into the resurrection where it is.

Center. And the circumference of a new creation. Hope. Whatever. Absolutely no hope in man naturally. I say we've got to learn that lesson all over anew because you're always, always trying to find hope in yourself.

That's your trouble. I put it another way. Your trouble is that you can't find any hope in yourself. And the fact that you're troubled about that shows that you want to. You haven't given yourself up.

God gave you up. In the cross of Jesus Christ. As a hopeless mess. And shown by that very cross how hope that in raising Jesus from the dead. Taking him up. And then sending him as in the Holy Spirit to dwell within.

God started a new basis of hope. It is never in us. It is in Christ. It never will be in us. We'll be as hopeless at the end as we were at the beginning. It will always be in Christ. Friends, we've got to make everything of Christ.

Far more than we have. Far more than we have. Oh, that we could free ourselves from that old ground of expectation where we are concerned. We could quit it. And get positively onto the ground of Christ.

With both hands I lay hold on. He is the hope. Of glory. Ward attitude. We've got to take God's position. About ourselves. God's position about ourselves. Is. Has nothing to do with us. He has only to do with his son.

God's Ground Is Christ, Not Human Effort

Here opens a very large field. Of perplexing experience. And it is interpreted by this one truth. And this one key opens the door to so much. Why does the Lord ignore so much of our prayer? And why does the Lord not come onto the ground that we try to get him to come onto?

Do we not find the Lord with us in much? He doesn't answer. Doesn't move. The answer, dear friends, the explanation is usually that we are on the wrong ground. We are taking account of things that God has finished with long ago.

We are wanting to get God onto ground. He's abandoned forever. You will only have the Lord or we shall only have the Lord. With us. At all. While we keep on the ground of Christ. Make no mistake about it.

You've got to find out whether that's Christ ground. Or your ground. Or other people ground. The ground of human judgments. Human interpretations. Human feelings. Human desire. That which is natural. Is the ground on which we are trying to get the Lord to encamp and do something.

He'll be silent. And silent forever. He'll not move him. One thing about God is that he is a realist. A realist. And if he says in the cross, I close the door forever to the natural man. You'll never get him opening that door again.

Not a bit. Break your heart in prayer. Get him. He won't do it. Only on one ground. That's the ground of his son. Can you provide the ground of Christ? Then you will find the door open with God. And he's coming through.

That's his only ground. It will be despair and hopelessness until we can get clean through pure Christ. And then it's an open heaven. It's an open heaven. It's released. I said that opens a very big field.

You see, it opens the field of the whole of the Bible. This conference right on for the next two or three years. With our Bible in hand on this one thing only. On this one thing only. And I would ask you to take this as the key to your New Testament.

Make no mistake about it. This is the key to the New Testament. It is of the old, of course. But in spiritual reality, every book of the New Testament must be read in the light of this. Christ as God's ground.

Seeing Other Believers on the Ground of Christ

Ground of hope alone. Passes from the individual to the collective. Oh, we haven't learned much yet of this. Dear friends, this is perhaps the most difficult thing in the whole Christian life. For all of us, every one of us.

And in this I am the most backward of all. We'll not get anywhere with one another, our relationship as the Lord's people, if we are going to keep on the natural ground of one another. You are judging me according to what I am naturally.

Taking account of me because of what you see I am just as a man in myself. So, you will have all the ground for despair that ever you can want. And I'll do the same where you're concerned. I'll have to give you up.

There's no hope. There's no hope. Some of us, of course, are unable to see all the frailties and faults of others. And where does it lead? Despair, doesn't it? Deadlock? No way through. No future. No promise.

The Lord is not with us in that. Henceforth know we no man after the flesh, it was. What is the henceforth? Since all died. All died. Ah, this lesson for us all is just this. The minutest bit of Christ that there is in another.

Focus upon that. The work of grace. Go as far as you can, even if it's only in a sort of negative way and say, Well, what would they be but for the grace of God? Go further and say, See what the grace of God.

Now, that's the only way of hope. Christ. Christ in you. Now, do you see what that leads to? Oh, dear friends, it does mean what this New Testament is all about. We've got to provide one another with a great deal more of Christ in ourselves.

For hope. There's got to be a continual increase of Christ. A continual increase of the work of grace in us. The grace of the Lord Jesus. It's the only way. As I've said, the whole of the New Testament is about this first.

Spiritual Growth as the Increase of Christ Within

Christ must get inside. And then Christ must grow inside. Until, until. Will it ever be there is more of Christ than there is of ourselves? That's the way. The apostles, who, as we said this afternoon, were so meticulous about this matter of Congress receiving the Holy Spirit as a definite, positive, concrete word, just as particular in all their teaching, that not only should the Holy Spirit have been received, but that they should be filled with the Spirit.

Be filled with the Spirit. The other way of saying Christ is in, but Christ has got to be fully formed within. More practical school, isn't it? The hard lessons. Does it not explain much? Yes, it does.

It's the heart and the core of true spiritual Christianity. The Alpha, the Omega. Beginning, the end, and all between. A few words before we go on just another point. The hopelessness until the King is within.

The Resurrection Restores the Kingdom Hope

How much we could say about the hopes, expectations, concerning the Kingdom that fill the hearts. Every true, the heart of every true Israelite. And, as we know, these disciples and apostles were very true representatives of Israel's hopes for the Kingdom.

They cherished that hope. They built everything upon that hope. All their thoughts, their mentality, their very committal to Christ, leaving all things to follow Him, had the Kingdom in view as its motive.

Right up to the last minutes, we might say, before He went to glory, they're, I was going to say, obsessed with this Kingdom matter. How at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel? The last words to Him on record before He went.

But what about the effect of the cross upon all that? The crucifixion shattered all their hopes of the Kingdom. We had trusted that it had been He that would restore the Kingdom. And here, their Kingdom lies waste.

And all their hopes, so far as He was concerned in the Kingdom, are just scattered like, what's the hope of the Kingdom now? Hopelessness of the Kingdom. It came back when He came in. That is what Peter is talking about.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again unto a living hope. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance. Not to crumble again to the dust.

An inheritance incorruptible, that faded not away, reserved in Heaven. There is the Kingdom vision, but it's back. On what ground? Christ, the King, with Him. That was Peter's note on the day of Pentecost.

That was the preaching of the first preachers. Jesus Christ is Lord, His Lord. God hath made Him both Lord and Christ. That was Peter's note on the day of Pentecost. That was the preaching of the first preachers.

Jesus Christ is Lord, His Lord. God hath made Him both Lord and Christ. King of kings and Lord of lords. That hope for the Kingdom. But that's perhaps speaking in large terms, you see. What I'm talking about is the preaching.

Preaching Must Bring Christ Through the Holy Spirit

The preaching. Preaching of the Kingdom, yes. If you like to alter the phraseology and say, preaching for man's salvation. It's called evangelization. The point so much is evangelization. What is preaching the Kingdom?

What is preaching the gospel? Is it just and only announcing certain truths and facts or certain doctrines? No. According to the true meaning of the very words themselves, it is bringing Christ. Bringing Christ.

Speaking about Him. Being concerning Him. It is hope unless you bring Christ. Preaching has got to bring Christ. Your evangelization has got to bring Christ. It's not to be something in itself. Christ has got to come in it.

And therefore, therefore, can you not see, dear friends, why at the beginning the demand was that they should preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven. I cannot bring Christ to the unsaved. We can preach until we are blue in the face and it will have no effect.

They have got to meet by the Holy Spirit within. There is so much preaching, you see. That is not just a criticism. It's on that ground. For man's salvation rests upon the ground that we bring Christ.

I know it's bringing. It's with that. Every body has got to be the embodiment of Christ. Preaching or their manner of procedure. But spiritual growth, you can understand this, is not our growth in that sense that we, in what we are growing.

Spiritual growth is just the increase of Christ in us. That's perhaps too simple a thing to say. But what I'm saying in all this, you see, in all this, is one thing. Only Christ. The only hope from beginning to end in any phase or stage or form is Christ risen.

The Holy Spirit Makes the Indwelling Christ a Present Reality

The scene of desolation and devastation which meets our eyes after the cross. Changed that and gave a new hope. Gave a new hope when he came back in the Spirit and entered in. And began the realization of the hope.

That's what we have, isn't it, in the New Testament. The hope brought in with the resurrection and then a proceeding to the fulfillment of the hope. We read the book of the Acts, so-called. It's the hope working out, isn't it?

The hope in progressive fulfillment. Friends, that's where I'm closing this evening. Unless it is as this one thing. As we particularly distinguish the persons of the Trinity, we do not divide between Christ and the Holy Spirit in work, in nature.

Therefore, when we speak about Christ and the Holy Spirit within, when we speak of the Holy Spirit dwelling within, we mean Christ within. It's what the Holy Spirit himself means. What Jesus himself meant when he said he shall not speak of himself.

He shall take the things which are mine, show them to you. They work together in such complete identity that you cannot distinguish between them. Though Christ remains at the Father's right hand, he is here in you, in us, by the Holy Spirit.

Now, my final emphasis is upon this. Our need to be very sure about this matter of the indwelling spirit, which is the indwelling Christ. I know all the things that are going to arise around us. Know what questions you could begin at once to fire at me about all this matter of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and so on.

I'm not surprised that the devil has supremely confused this whole thing and brought it under reproach. Not surprised. The devil at least knows a good thing when he sees it. He knows that comes into touch with him.

This is the matter upon which everything hangs. Interpretations apart. All questions, let us come down to the facts. And I must, in our Christian life, know two things. Our death with Christ to the old man within.

The Holy Spirit within. Starting on heavenly ground only. Ignoring all going on on heavenly ground. That's the way of the Spirit. Oh, let us learn or seek to learn this lesson. Don't want to throw you into the vortex of great confusion or questions as to whether you've ever received the Holy Spirit because of this or that or something else about manifestations.

Don't be troubled about that. You can know. Listen to me. You can know that Christ is in you. You can know that the Holy Spirit is in you by a thousand spiritual evidences without any of those manifestations that some people say are the essential proof of the Holy Spirit.

I speak, I mean of tongues and such like. No, they are not essential to the fact and reality of the Holy Spirit being within. And filling demonstrations and noises. The deep, deep reality. Through hope of Christ.