The Will of God - Part 1 — T. Austin-Sparks

Knowing and Obeying the Will of God

These gatherings and the ministry today are based upon a three-fold supposition or assumption. One is that you have come here together because you have a very real concern to know the will of God. The other is that you are quite prepared to consider anything that may be a help in that direction.

And the third, that you are of a mind to obey any light that the Lord may give as to his will. Given that foundation, I think the Lord will find a clear way of meeting us and speaking to us today. The business of any servant of the Lord is, perhaps in many ways by many parts, to bring his people to know what his will is concerning them.

And that is what is on the heart of this servant of the Lord, if he may please, to make you a little clearer, give you a little fuller understanding of what that good and perfect will of God is. Come back to that specifically as we go on.

The Bible as Revelation of God's Eternal Purpose

Now, the Bible, which is our charter, the charter of the Christian faith, is just altogether occupied with that one thing. It's always helpful to know what it's all about after all. You can read your Bible, read through the various books, quite a lot of things you would perhaps find rather tedious, a lot of things you might not understand.

But the whole Bible altogether is concerned with just this one thing, the will of God. And it is as well to read the Bible everywhere in that relationship. What has this to do with the will of God? Because that is the thing that the whole Bible is occupied with.

It's all about that. And by way of introduction to our specific message today, what is it the Bible is occupied with in other words? It is a revelation of God moving according to purpose. There's only another way of speaking about the will of God.

God is seen from the very first words of the Bible to the last. Moving according to purpose, moving in purpose, and moving with purpose. God who is motivated by an object, one final all-inclusive object, which we understand in New Testament language as God's eternal purpose.

The first section of the Bible, first five books, just to show us so clearly, fully, and meticulously, God moving according to purpose. It's a section of movement forward, isn't it? And as though when you come to the fifth of those books, the book of Deuteronomy, there is a retrospective aspect, a looking back.

With this word, thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God hath led thee. Even that retrospective aspect has a forward aspect connected with it. The remembering is related to what is to be yet.

You know it's the book of the people between a past history and a new history of the future. And it is looking back to pick up the lessons of the past in order to carry them into the future. So you move out of Deuteronomy into Joshua with this forward movement.

With all that the past history has taught as the foundation. And how, may I repeat, how meticulous the Lord is in that book. You should read it again in this light. He is reiterating, re-emphasizing.

He is laying a very sound and a very particular foundation for the future. It's important to note that in the light of what we are going to say today. For we are going to be occupied with God's laws by which his will, which is his purpose, is realized, fulfilled, accomplished in his people.

Here in this first section, it's all with the future in view. The will of God governing. The last section of the Old Testament, the prophets, that section is occupied with the tragedy of lost purpose.

The cry of the prophets that God's will has not been realized and fulfilled. It's a tragic cry of failure and disappointment over this thing. You must listen to that because, you see, when you listen to these prophets, hear their cry.

Anguished cry over this people. You are hearing just this. What God meant has not been realized and that's a terrible thing. That's a terrible thing. Prophets have a voice of tragedy, pathos, and anguish.

Because God has been disappointed over his purpose in this people. And they have missed what he intended for them. So you have the Old Testament founded. We are not here occupied with the whole of the Old Testament.

We just noticed this in connection with this will of God. It is a tremendous thing, the will of God. I'm talking about the big will of God. The comprehensive will of God. I'm not talking about, shall I call the little wills of God.

You are every day occupied with what is the Lord's will for me in this and that hundred and one things. No, that's not what I'm talking about. All those, mark you, all those expressions of the divine will in the particular matters and situations, all those are gathered into the big will.

And until you get into the big will, you really haven't got the ground for the little wills of God. The particular application of that will. Turn over to the New Testament. The first section of the New Testament is what?

God taking up his purpose again. And he's taking it up in the person of his Son. And here in the person of his Son, you have the purpose and will of God embodied, personified. It's all gathered now into a person.

It has been expressed, the writer of the Hebrew letter says, expressed in many different ways by many portions at different times. Now the whole thing is summed up in the person of Jesus Christ who says, I am come to do thy will.

This whole will and purpose of God, therefore, is personified or incarnated in Jesus Christ, God's Son. And although you have heard it a thousand times, many, many messages given on it, it may not have occurred to you that there is one statement of the Lord Jesus which comprehends all this no so well on gospel, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

That is a comprehensive statement as to the whole will of God. I am the way. What do you have a way for? To get somewhere. A way implies a go, a going to a go. A moving toward an object. I am the way of this eternal purpose of God.

I am the way of its realization. I am the way, the embodiment of the will of God. I am come to do thy will. Oh my God. The way is a person. The truth so immense is that simple clause or definition as to call for many hours.

Men have been preaching on that for centuries. The truth. I am set, he is saying in effect, in a realm which has been deceived and led away from the will of God. Away from the divine purpose. A world that is now a lie in its constitution.

I am the truth. Over against all that which is false in the human race, in the creation, in this universe. If the will of God is an all-comprehending, vast and great, the lie of the devil is an immense thing.

And it is something that has got to be overcome in you and in me. In the whole race. Truth put into our constitution. Destroy that lie that is there. Dare not dwell more upon that but indicating what we are concerned with.

Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Will of God. You shall know the truth. The truth shall make you free. We talk about conversion. People being converted. You know, a fundamental factor in conversion means turning around. The opposite way is turning from what is false to what is truth.

Coming into the truth of God. As to why we have a being in his purpose. Why he is dealing with us as he is according to his will, that great will. What it all means, the truth about this. Don't you and I need every day to know the good of that conversion?

The real true meaning of God in Christ for us. The way, the truth, the life, the life. But far too small an idea of this conception of it. There is a marvelous statement which has arrested me with great force in the letter of Paul to the Colossians.

Where he speaks of the life which God foreordained unto his glory. Life in the eternal counsels of God. The thoughts of God before ever the world was created and man upon it. God's hope was centered in this thing called life.

Life. That is the battle of the ages, isn't it? That is the key to so much life. Life. What God means by life. The life of God's eternal purpose. The life of God's all captivating will. The life which he is, the Lord Jesus.

We are on a day called Good Friday. We were reading this morning about this. And I was impressed again. When he coming from the sentence of crucifixion toward the hill. Simon carrying his cross. The women of Jerusalem weeping, wailing for him.

He turned to them and he said, women of Jerusalem, weep not for me. Weep not for me. There is no need to weep for me. You weep for yourself and your children. Weep not for me. What does that say? What does that say?

Toward which he is going. On which he is going so soon to be impaled. All that is going to fall upon him there. That's not the end of it. That's not the end. They may have thought so. Oh no, he knew it.

Tears for him were not justified even then. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Life, not death, was the way of the cross. Life. This is how he was going to secure that for which God had intended for man.

All down the ages and from before the world was. I am the way. I am the truth. Dear friends, we can't get outside of that. We comprehended what those three terms mean. That's the end of it. Compassionate.

Has it? No. Well no. The New Testament then introduces this eternal will and purpose of God in a person. And I am only in my introduction for this morning even yet. The rest of the New Testament is what?

We try to comprehend the word of God. What is all the rest of the New Testament about after the Gospels? It is simply the working out of those three things. All the rest of the New Testament is gathered into the way that Christ is.

The truth that is in Jesus. The life that is by his death and resurrection. All the New Testament is that. Read it like that. What is this? Let me pick up any part of it. What is it? What is talking to me?

About the way. Christ. The way. The truth. The life. Having said that, we can perhaps come to our particular passage or message for the morning. We must read some scripture to get to this. You then please take the Bible.

Joshua and Deuteronomy: God's Word as the Ground of Progress

We begin in the book of Joshua and then go back a bit. The book of Joshua chapter 1 and verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success, or as the margin says, deal wisely.

Now we go back to Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses 1 and 2. And now, O Israel, hearken unto the statutes and unto the judgments which I teach you for to do them, that ye may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord thy God, the God of your fathers, hith you.

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you. Chapter 6, from verse 6. These words which I command thee this day shall be upon thine heart.

Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thy house, and upon thy gate.

Gospel by Matthew, chapter 4, and verse 4. He answered and said, It is written, Men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Divine laws of realizing the divine purpose, of knowing to doing the will of God, which is the ultimate thing in Christianity.

And here it is perfectly clear, the law of the absolute government of the word of God. We've read from Joshua, and you know what Joshua is. You have intimated already that the book of Joshua is the resumption after a nation's failure and perishing in the wilderness, the resumption of the divine will and purpose, moving now forward under that government.

And right there at the beginning, this new movement, and all that is involved in it, all that it means, against the repetition of the failure that has been and the tragedy, unto fullness of life, the foundation is the meticulous observance of the word of God.

The word and the will of God go together. And there is no progress, dear friends, in this great calling with which you and I are called, in the mind, the purpose, the will of God, there is no progress only by the word of God.

Obedience to the word, cherishing of the word, binding the word upon our lives in all matters. I have said how meticulous the Lord was in that book of Deuteronomy because on the one side of the terrible tragedy that had taken place and because on the other side of the tremendous prospect without which there was no prospect for the people of God.

And he is there chapter after chapter, chapter after chapter, saying, remember what I said? Remember what I said? Remember, cold remembrance, all that I have said to you? The law of prospect is the government of God's word.

People had been 40 years on probation in the wilderness and the one thing that stood over that 40 years of probation was a testing of the heart as to the word of God. Remember Deuteronomy chapter 8? Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God hath led thee these 40 years in the wilderness.

Try this, whether thou wouldest keep his commandment or not, whether thou wouldst obey his word. One place his word had in your heart, probation of life is always that, the testings of a wilderness experience, the trials of the journey, all the experiences in God's mind are to see what is in our heart.

Whether we really have a heart for the Lord, whether after all our professions and protestations, the will of God really is the thing which governs our whole life. Try yourself on that, whether thou wouldest keep his commandment.

Testing by the word of God. We know it, perhaps daily we know something of this. We are going to bring that very near as we go on. And so we come to Joshua and the new phase begins with a reaffirmation.

On the other side of Jordan a reaffirmation that the word of God is to be kept always before the face, on their arms, on their forehead, on their home threshold, always there to govern. They were a cold people, cold by God out of Egypt.

They were cold by his name, they were cold. But the calling is not enough, we've all been cold. We are the cold, the Lord, here today. But then after the cold comes the testing. We know that is true. And then when the testing has been proved, the chosen, cold, tested and chosen.

Everything as you see then and in the word of God turned and turns upon this one thing, the government of his word. Disaster, disaster where the word of God was not honoured. Calamity because of failure in what God had made known.

Biblical Examples of Disobedience and the Cost of Ignoring God's Word

As to his will. And how again and again we find in the Old Testament disaster, attending, a failure to keep the word of God before. Even this Moses, and I always have a bad feeling when I think about it and read about it.

This man who had sacrificed so much and suffered so much for this people at last forbidden by the Lord to ask any more that he might go into the land. Ask me no more about this Lord. But the Lord had said something and Moses had not meticulously observed what the Lord had said.

Well you say terrible, terrible, it's a hard God. Ah, but you must remember that it was not just Moses. Moses is in glory. He has attained and obtained now. He was with Elijah on the Mount of Thrones beginning with the glory.

Not Moses, it was the people forever afterward had got to learn this lesson. You cannot, you cannot violate anything that the Lord has said without forfeiting someone, losing someone. We remember again David bringing of the ark up to Jerusalem making the new cart on which to bring it.

Disaster on the way. Calamity. The whole thing about which they seemed to be having such a good time. Feeling that they were being prospered and blessed of the Lord. They were pressing the floor. Calamity.

As I died before the Lord. And David was angry with the Lord that day. Turned the ark aside and went and sulked. Nurse, his grievance with the Lord. And he got over that. We get over it, we do get over those things.

We have those bad times with the Lord but when we get over them the Lord is able to show the meaning. So David went back to his Bible. To his Bible. To the word of the Lord. And found the discrepancy.

There the Lord had not said thou shalt make a new cart. It was not in the word at all. Indeed that was another heathen idea. Then David saw and said Oh, it is written. It is written. By implication not a cart.

The Levites shall carry it. The tragedy of that day. The word. With all good intention. The word overlooked and missed. But the Lord always doesn't overlook his word ever. Maybe many secret tragedies in our lives.

Maybe many arrests in our spiritual progress. Not because we didn't mean well. Not because our motive wasn't quite good. But good motive, best motive may just miss the particular thought of God. And God does not substitute a good motive for something that he has laid down as law.

And God does not substitute a good motive for something that he has laid down as law. See we are pressed with something aren't we this morning. This sounds very terrible I know. But we haven't got through yet.

The Presence of the Lord and the Test of Obedience

Here we are. The government of the word of God. And in all these things it was invariably one thing. And this dear friends is where our hearts are going to be really touched. It was not just in a sort of legal mechanical way observing some statement in the bible.

The issue was very much bigger than that. If you will look at every such instance. The big and the small. The larger and the particular. You will see that it was always a matter of the Lord's presence.

We talked about Joshua. You remember Ai. What had the Lord said about the principles of our spiritual progress. You know what he said. And they came to Ai. And you know what Achan did. He violated the word of God.

And the whole of Israel was arrested in their progress. Brought to a standstill and it was a scene of tragedy. But what was the real tragedy? The manifest presence of the Lord wasn't it? Isn't that everything?

Oh we don't want anything greater than that. Surely no heart here has any interest in anything in this life and in this world apart from the presence of the Lord. If only we know that the Lord is with us.

Oh what a lot of difference that will be. A lot of victories. A lot of strength. Yes there may be conflict. There was with Joshua afterward. Conflict, terrible assaults. There may be many problems and many difficulties in life.

But if only we are assured that the Lord is with us. That's everything isn't it? Is it to you? I tell you that's my battleground all the way along. Devil is so cruel. Using the very disciplines of God to bring us into his greater fullness.

Using those trials as accusations against God and inside of us making us feel. Because of this situation of circumstance, this trial, this difficulty, this thing that is so hard. The Lord is with us. Don't you listen to that lie.

You'll be absolutely worsted. Ruled out of all the conflict and the possession. If you take on that lie of the devil. It's always there. But it's the background. The presence of the Lord. What can we do without that?

How can we get on without that? What would our meetings be but for the presence of the Lord? Our prayer meetings. Only we are able to say the Lord was with us. The Lord was there. We knew the Lord's presence.

That's life isn't it? That's strength. Now all that in the Bibles you see hung upon this word of God. He is with us according to his word, on the basis of his word. And only with us as his word has its place in our heart.

The early apostle says, let the word of God dwell in you. Ritually. In all spiritual wisdom and understanding. The presence of the Lord. The Lord stood back at Ai. The Lord stood back in David's incident.

Because of defaulting over his word. Always like that. Now then. The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. You see he is present as the jealous trustee of the word, will and purpose of God. Oh I thank God for that.

Don't you? You're hearing what I'm saying. You say this is rather oppressive. This is rather heavy. Rather exacting, demanding. This is rather hard. Hard yes. But that's all truth and right. But. The Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, Scripture, and Spiritual Discernment

For what has he come? Why is he here? Why is he in us? He is as I have said the jealous custodian of the word of God. On the one side very watchful. He is referred to as the seven spirits of God that is.

The complete spiritual knowledge and discernment and perception. Seven eyes of the Lord. The Holy Spirit here. In trust with, if I may put it this way, the will of God. In trust with the purpose of God.

In trust with therefore the word of God. For these things all go together. Presence of the Holy Spirit. The known presence of the Holy Spirit. The working of the energy of the Holy Spirit. It's all in this connection.

To bring us by way of the word of God. To the end. To which we have been called. The word of God is the ground of the Holy Spirit's activity. Remember that? See it here illustrated in the Old Testament.

The spirit of God is in charge. He's the captain of the host of the Lord. In the New Testament. The Holy Spirit has come to dwell within. To just keep us on the line of the word of God. And if we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, without perhaps knowing the particular scripture that applies for the moment, we shall know that something is not right.

We are just out of adjustment with the Lord. There's something that does not say that's right and good and proper. There's a sort of pause in us. The Holy Spirit knows why that is. If we will go to the Lord about that, seek the Lord about it, turn to his word, the Lord will just put his finger upon something.

That's been there all the time. And here my situation just contradicts that. All right. Now I'm tested by the word. As to the heart. Yes, the Holy Spirit has come for this. It's the ground of his working.

Diligent Bible Study and the Word Written on the Heart

And let me say to the young Christians, say out of a long experience, that although you may not understand the Bible, you may not understand a great deal of it. You may not just seem to enjoy it. Read it.

Enjoy it or not enjoy it. Understand it or not understand it. Read it. Work at it. Even if it's labor. Endow to it. You know you've got a tape recorder inside of you. We have a lot of tapes in the office.

A lot of tapes of messages spread over many years. Sometimes one is asked for and we look up. Just occasionally I want to hear a bit of that. Did I say that? Coming back to me, Max. From somewhere far away, coming back.

Yes. I did. You know we've got a tape recorder inside. You notice this interesting thing. You try to remember something. Someone's name. Some person or something. It comes up and you want to remember.

But it's gone. What was that person's name? When was it that that happened? Where was it? Oh no. I always give it up. Do you? Now if you understand anything about psychology, you wouldn't give it up. I hear something like that and my folks say, he's gone away.

I cannot let go of that until I've got it. I'm not looking up anywhere for it. But I set my mind to recover it. And then the point comes where I feel utterly defeated. But I've learned something. And I let go.

In a few minutes or perhaps it comes floating in. Something like that. Oh yes. Where's that come from? Your tape recorder. Speaking back. Perhaps over the years. It comes back. Have you had that experience?

Supposing you'd given it up altogether and said, well I've forgotten that. All right. That's gone. But you get down to it. Now the word of God is like that. I am so glad that in my early Christian life I set myself to a systematic study of the Bible.

Book by book. Though I didn't understand. There are many things today I don't understand. I read some things in the Bible yesterday that I didn't like. Only I don't understand. Many things then I didn't understand.

And I could have closed the book because it didn't seem to mean anything. But I worked at it. I worked at it. I analysed the books. Without spiritual understanding but I worked. Aren't I glad today? If I have any spiritual ministry today it's the Holy Spirit working upon what is there.

The word is there. The Spirit works upon the word. In time of need it becomes more than the word. It becomes the life. Young Christians don't give up the Bible because it's difficult. You work at it. And in time of trouble you'll say thank God for that hard labour over the Bible.

Like this. One of the greatest, if not the greatest, Bible expositors of this last century would say to me once sometimes it's such a weariness such a weariness in my work with the Bible I almost wish there was no Bible there.

Well, he laboured at it. But my word, the fruit of his ministry all over the world the Holy Spirit works upon the word. Remember that. Give him his ground. It's the ground of spiritual progress by the Holy Spirit.

There may be an unconscious control of the word in the sense that you may not know exactly what that scripture is but unconsciously you know there's something that has got hold of you. You can't get away.

You can't get on. He is working. He is written inside. And he wrote it. He wrote it. The new covenant is written upon the heart. Now that's the beginning. A statement, a strong statement. But what does this mean after all?

It may still seem objective to you. Things said. But let us come back to the beginning. Progress, spiritual progress in the will of God unto the full purpose of God in our calling demands will not be made without a very meticulous observance of what is in the Bible.

Scripture's Authority in Christian Conduct

Now why this word? Why this word today? Oh, this has borne dear friends out of a tremendous amount of exercise over recent years. Why the weakness of Christianity? Why the weakness of so many Christians?

Why the slowness of their spiritual progress? Why the failure of so many? I have the answer. There's no doubt about it. Because I can put my finger upon a large number of things that are there in the word of God.

They are there, plain to be seen as anything can be. And I look at those Christians, I see that in their behavior in their appearance in their conduct and way of going on and their relationships there is just as clear and definite a contradiction of what is there in the Bible as anything could be.

The Bible has something to say about anything that you can think of. Has. It prescribes for anything that you could ever think of. If I mention some of the things that it mentions you'd be surprised. The Bible has something to say about that.

Yes, it has. What is the meaning of the tragedy of many marriages? That's a practical point, isn't it? Then you go back behind. Why did the marriage take place? On what ground? A fascination? An infatuation?

An emotion? An impulse? A desire to be married, anyhow? Tragedy. Because that marriage was not based upon a real spiritual relatedness. The first thing was not given its place. Other interests. The word says, and you know it precisely be not unequally yoked together with unbelief.

All right? Are you going to make spiritual progress? Do you violate that? No. Certainly tragedy sooner or later. I take that as an example. I could take many of the things like that in the word that I am seeing in Christianity today.

And I'm trying to be very thankful with you young Christians. I'm concerned for you. Deeply. That you do not miss God's best. God's fullest. And so I say, look, that depends upon your having the word of God in you that the Holy Spirit can say.

Now then, what about this? Of course there's another side to it, isn't there? I have to be faithful and I want to be serious on this matter because it's a present issue. I have no doubt about it. It's a real issue in Christianity today.

Christianity that is being produced today is a terrible caricature of Christ. You older Christians are bearing with me. Now I'm trying to be very faithful with you. I want you to have God's fullest and God's best.

I'm saying to you that that depends upon your being serious about the word of God. Agree with that? The other side, of course. One always likes to turn to the other side. What a blessed thing it is to feel there's no impediment, there is no restraint with the Lord.

There's a clear way. The presence of the Lord is very real. Heaven is open. I know of nothing more blessed in all life than those times when you have no cloud, between you and the Lord. The Lord's presence is so real, so wonderful.

I wish it were always like that. We sing the hymn, There have been seasons beautiful and calm. Abide with me and they shall never be. Well, that's the wrong way of putting it. Let me abide with thee and they shall never be.

Deviations, you see, bring the cloud. But there is nothing more precious in all human history than this joy of the Lord. This peace of God, this sense of the Lord. He is not against us, he is with us and for us.

Isn't that so? You've had those days, hours, weeks of spiritual ecstasy by the Lord. And so it's worth it. It's worth it to be obedient, to let his word rule in our hearts, as the scripture says, rule in our hearts.

Jesus' Temptation and Living by Every Word of God

And when Jesus was dealing with the devil in the wilderness, you know what he was dealing with, don't you? Dealing with a person? All right. Leaving the personality of the devil. Dealing with an evil person?

Yes, no doubt about that. He was dealing with very much more than that. He was dealing with the whole issue of life and death. The devil was trying to get him, coerce him, tempt him, constrain him, compel him to take away which was out of the will of God, which means his premature death.

A death which would be death and not victory. He was dealing with this whole issue of life and death. And so, underline and encircle the word, it is written, man shall not live. Vibrate of it. By every word.

Proceed it out of the mouth of God. Put that in a positive way, ruling out the negative clause. Man shall live. Live, live. By every word. And live, that's God's word. Son of the word of exaltation. I was very near to despairing a little while ago, especially in the realm of ministry.

And I got to the Lord, Son of His personal word. And the Lord turned me to a scripture and hit me like a sledgehammer with it. Preach the word. Be instant. In season. That's very easy. Out of season. When everything says this is not the time.

We prove. Rebuke. Exalt. And here we are. You had too much reproof this morning. Too much rebuke. Well, I exalt. Give the word. Its place. The Holy Spirit will do the rest. And you will go on the way.

Unimpeded progress. So we bow for a moment, letting the word of God search us quicken us. We love thy law. We ask thee that thou write it in our hearts. And that it may be seen in our lives for thy glory.

For Christ's sake. Amen.