The Horizon of Divine Purpose - Part 7 — T. Austin-Sparks

Divine Purpose in Ezekiel, Ephesians, and Revelation

We are with the very slightest look back on all the ground so far covered, going to continue straight on from where we had to break off this morning in this great matter of the horizon of divine purpose.

God has horizoned everything by a definite and certain eternity to eternity. God has been and while time shall last will be moving according to a specific and everything under his rule which is universal is governed by purpose.

Concerned at this time with what the purpose is. Although there will be quite definite reference at Easter we will occupy what the purpose is. At this time the emphasis is upon purpose itself, the fact of purpose.

I have been seeing that a great interpreter of this matter is the prophet Ezekiel. I have also seen that prophecies of Ezekiel are counterpart in the letter of Paul to the Ephesians so called and in the book of the Revelation.

I mention that because I do want you at once to realize that we are not just moving in the Old Testament in a time that is past, long ago. We are right up to date, very much up to date in this matter.

I trust that will come to you with divine impact as we go on. We have seen or we began to see that the book of the prophecies of Ezekiel is particularly a book of God's reaction because his people in general had lost that sense of divine purpose, that government of divine purpose, that tremendous incentive of divine purpose and had just become a people with his name in a very general way, a great deal of mixture and confusion resulting in weakness, growing limitation.

The Lord raised up the prophet Ezekiel amongst others but in a particular way to call his people back, to enunciate the great reality of divine purpose, to warn of the consequences, the inevitable consequences of missing God's way as to their very election, peculiarly characterized by this particular ministry, but it is not Ezekiel's exclusive and unique ministry, it is the very thing that the Lord Jesus himself took up and it is the very thing that we find so clearly in the ministry of the Apostle Paul particularly in that writing of his, this letter which goes by the name of the letter to the Ephesians, the emphasis is repeatedly upon this, all things after the counsel of his own will, according to the purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus before the world was, and that is the Coming back to Ezekiel as our interpreter, our great instructor in this matter of divine purpose, we want to note this afternoon some things that stand out most clearly as to God's method in this matter.

The Church Elect in Christ for Divine Purpose

Is it necessary for me to repeat, for the sake of any newcomers, that the church is eternally elect for this very purpose of God in Christ. The existence of the church in the mind of God from before times eternal, when it was chosen as Paul says, in Christ Jesus, before the foundation of the world, the very existence of the church is explained by this word purpose as it is in the mind of God.

The Holy Spirit took up this matter from the beginning and has ever pursued it with diligence and energy right through history. Now this is of Ezekiel particularly a revelation of the mighty energetic goings of the Spirit of God in this very connection.

It is far more clear in the day of Pentecost and immediately after than anywhere else. The eternal thought of God as an elect instrument for that then born on the day of Pentecost came upon it and into it and from that moment those energies of the Spirit are seen to be moving, yes moving, but producing in the church this of existing in relation to some divine intention.

Mighty energy is not just the abstract energy of God's power, they are a people who have the incentive and dynamic of a particular purpose. They come to know that they exist for something and they are beginning by the Spirit to see and going on seeing more and more of what that purpose is through the teaching of the divinely raised up ministers.

The churches, local expressions of that work, that energy of the Holy Spirit with this purpose in view, that brings the whole matter very near to us doesn't it? We said this morning here is a company, not a vast concourse of people, comparatively small company of people here today, but representing quite a number of local companies of the Lord's people.

Assemblies of the Lord in different places and the purpose in God's mind of the existence of such companies of the Lord's people distributed here and there on the earth is just this, to be there in the hands, in the power of the Holy Spirit with this mighty sense of vocation in relation to God's purpose.

If you can lay hold of that, it will help a great deal as we go on. This afternoon to note some of those things which come out in the prophecies of Ezekiel or in relation to the instrument himself which show us God's method, this matter recovering, re-establishing his purpose in his people here and there.

Ezekiel as the Son of Man

And in this connection we have the major designations of the prophet Ezekiel. They are full of instruction. The first, you are very well aware or you ought to be if you have read this book at all, is the designation or the title given to him of son of man, that is a unique designation of a prophet.

No other prophet is so called. Ezekiel's son of man, no fewer than 90 times in his prophecy he is so called. See how often he is so addressed and that no other prophet is so addressed must surely have a meaning.

We said very early in this time that every prophet, every prophet of the four and the twelve had a peculiar aspect of this purpose of God to which they were committed. This title indicates very clearly what the aspect of the divine purpose is where Ezekiel is concerned of man.

Of course we know that the Lord Jesus took as his own favorite title for himself, the son of man. It was not given to him, others did not use it of him, he chose it himself, he used it of himself, 82 times in the New Testament we find it, the son of man.

Now here we want to be careful and explicit, Jesus are not identical because there is such a similarity in title. The son of man, the definite article puts him in a realm category alone. There is no other, he stands by himself.

But if Ezekiel representing a function in the method of God more than an individual, a function, a ministry, is called son of man. The similarity between him and the Lord Jesus is not in person, it is in function.

To understand that, does this title, this designation really carry with it, mean and imply on the very face of it, identification with man in the purpose of God. Into very relationship with the human race in the very purpose for which God created it.

It is a word of identification. That of course, in the case of the Lord Jesus, in a way, deeper and fuller and more complete than in any other, here it is, has man in view. God has man in view, God has not a system of things in view, not an organization, an institution, not a machine.

Not a thing at all. God has man in his mind in relation to his purpose. And any movement of God toward his full purpose is governed not by things at all, not by things at all. Not even religious things, not by system, not by institutions.

It is governed by this idea of man. And Ezekiel, in particular, was identified with the people to whom he was sent, for whom he was laboring and suffering. He said, I sat where they sat, I sat where they sat.

I was not just a preacher standing apart and back from them and preaching to them or at them. I was not just some detached ministry. I sat where they sat. It's indicative of an identification with the people.

Son of man, you're a part of the people. You're a man! More than a prophet, more than a minister, more than an instrument, a vessel, you're just a man, but you're a man. You're a living person and a part of this very race has intended to come into his full purpose.

Son of man, identification, one with, one with. There's much more in that, dear friends, for our instruction and for our correction, and perhaps lies on the surface. We have heard, and only heard in the last day or two, of missionaries, so-called.

God have mercy upon them, going from one country in the West to another country, and telling the people of that country that they, of course, the missionaries, are much more civilized and educated than these people, and that these people of the East must take note of this fact.

And begin, they begin, right at that point of a superiority. Superiority, which creates great problems for governments and completely the work of the Lord Jesus. And I come from a civilized country and from a college of education, and you poor people have none of these advantages.

Therefore, therefore, you have got to listen to me and do what I tell you. God deliver from any such spirit. That is not a servant of God in the sense of Ezekiel, son of man. Naturally, naturally you are no different from any other.

You must just take your place there in the realm of a common humanity. And it is not what you are at all in yourself that matters. It's what you've got of God to give that defines your ministry and gives you any right whatever to exercise ministry.

Ministry, dear friends, must be on this basis, not of what anybody is in themselves, assumes to be, pretends to be, professes to be, claims to be, but just what they have got of God. Mark you, it's not only as I was trying to emphasize this morning, a matter for a certain class of people called ministers or missionaries or apostles or prophets is for the church.

That is for the churches. That is for the local companies. We've got to be here on that basis that it is only a matter of what we've got of the Lord that justifies our being here and claiming anything at all.

But we could put it the other way, I've got something of the Lord that is altogether different from and more than what we are in ourselves. That, that really is value in ministry. We're going to follow that up in a minute.

Son of man is identification, oneness, oneness with the people, with man. There's no one who took that position and showed it more than our Lord himself. There's no class with him of any kind whatever.

He was one with those to whom he came to minister. That is clear. But the title, designation son of man, means that not only we are one with, identified with, but that we are representative of before God.

This is a great principle running through the whole word of God. Right back in the early days, you see, principle that the instrument that God is one who stands before him in this identification as representing all others.

Being there as the representative of men before God. Moses was there, Samuel was there, the prophets were there, but the Lord Jesus was there in the presence of God. He said, he could say, not only that I and they are one, identical, but I am here as representing them.

I am here as them. I bring them in my very person into, before God. I'm not here in some isolated capacity. I am here in a corporate representation. Israel was meant to be that for the nations. To bring the nations into the presence of God, representatively, where they failed.

Where they failed, they thought they were superior. They were special. And they took on an exclusiveness. The Gentiles, they called dogs. Instead of standing before God in this way and saying, no better than all these.

We bring them in representation right into your presence. We being here is in its implication. These people are brought into your presence. You hear the prayer of Nehemiah. You hear the prayer of Daniel.

You hear these men. They're not there alone before God. You see all the people are present when they are praying. They're carrying the people with them. Son of man means that. But it indicates the purpose.

The Man in the Throne and the Reproduction of Christ

And this is the important thing. We started by saying, God is concerned with man. Always was. When God made man, man came from his hand. That was the signal for God to say it is. And God rested from his labors.

The end to which God works and in which he finds his satisfaction and his rest when he has man according to his own likeness and image. Now that takes us back to the beginning of our meditation. In the beginning of the prophecy of Ezekiel the all-governing thing is a throne and a man or the likeness of a man upon it above.

And we said then that it is that man in the throne who is governing all that takes place in that book. Coming into the larger context it is the man Paul presents to us the beginning of his letter to the Ephesians raised, set at his own right hand far above all rule and authority.

It is that man in the throne who is governing everything. The man who Stephen saw, I see the son of man standing at the right hand. God finds his man. The very representative man who has identified himself with man to bring man to God.

And God finds his man. His son. He takes his rest. He takes his rest. He's satisfied. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. That's only the counterpart of It is very good. I'm satisfied. I'm at rest.

But then the spirit comes as from that enthroned man to make that one enthroned man glorified, perfected man to make what he represents in heaven true here of men on this earth. To really, to really do this thing.

He produced that man in men. That mankind here beginning in the church. Now dear friends, this is where we ought to be certainly instructed what the Holy Spirit is doing. What is it that the Holy Spirit is doing in your life and in mine through all the experiences the experiences of sorrow of suffering in some realms of disillusionment and disappointment all the ways of God with us all the Holy Spirit dealing with us personally individually and as companies of his people wherever they are.

What is it, the one thing that the Holy Spirit is really settled upon determined to accomplish if he can. What is the explanation of everything the all things in which God works for them that are called according to his purpose.

What is it? It's only one thing. It's a reproduction of that man in you and in me. The introduction of him into us by new birth and his spirit the development and increase of him in us through discipline, through training through all these experiences the effect of suffering the effect of adversity the effect of godly sorrow, the sorrow that the Lord allows to come to us the effect of our difficulties and our problems in this way the right effect should be more of Christ more Christ likeness and when the Holy Spirit really does have his way how true that is we emerge from some period or experience deep exercise and distress and trouble with something more of the graciousness beauty and understanding, sympathy of the Lord Jesus we have a larger knowledge of him in that way in which knowledge is only true knowledge knowledge in our very being, in our very experience in our very constitute part of us.

Where did we get that. Where did that come from. How did it come. It came by the deep and the dark and the trying ways the Spirit of God has produced that like that production. I am conscious of the imperfection faultiness of my words and way of putting it but I see this as the answer to our troubles.

I have to ask my heart what is the Lord after in all this. What is he after. Well personally he must be after after increasing the measure of his son this kind of man. What is he doing in the company of the Lord's people passing through times of difficulty darkness pain and travel producing of his son in greater measure.

Paul's words to the Galatians are so apropos of larger situations like this my little children for whom I am again in travel till Christ be fully formed in me travel unto the fullness of Christ in local companies as well as individuals and through them expansively as far as they will have it to the whole church.

And here may we not say that as the end of the dispensation draws near and the consummation of the Holy Spirit's energies is imminent the church will pass into a time of travel and anguish in which it will have to discover and prove the Lord and know the Lord in a much larger measure than it does.

That's the way the Lord has of doing it, son of man. It's conformity to the man the reproduction of the man. I must hurry on. There's of course a great deal more in that than we have time to even look at the other two designations of the prophet indicating God's method.

Ezekiel as God's Sign: The Messenger Becomes the Message

God's method. No, it's God's method in relation to his purpose. Greatly concerned about methods greatly concerned about methods in doing the work of God in fulfilling the commission. Methods, methods, methods.

God has only one method. I know that he moves in a variety of ways but his one method is this to make his son by increase to fill all things. But then there's this second designation of the prophet mentioned in chapter 12 and in chapter 24, son of man I have made thee a sign unto the house of Israel.

Say unto them I am your your sign. The prophet himself is the sign. There are going to be many signs in his behavior in what he does, what he's called upon to do. And how many things strange things peculiar things.

Some things as we said before the world would call mad things the Lord called upon him to do. How many hard things, bitterly hard things. They were all signs but they were all gathered into the man himself.

These were not things objective to him. It was the man, the man. I think the people who were watching him watching him doing all these strange singular enigmatic things saying now what's the fellow doing now what is he up to.

He is, he must be mad. They brought it all down on the man, that's the point things he did. The things he said were not just things given off. They were enacted in his own experience. They were a part of his own history.

The man and his message, however that message came by acts or by words by experiences that came to him that others could see such as the death of his wife. That was no inaction of his no choice of his something that came upon him.

Things that made up this man's life were things which were a part of himself, message and the messenger were one. I am not just giving you signs. I am your sign. Very often things happening in the life of this man were both to himself and to others quite incomprehensible quite inscrutable.

Others had to say well I don't know what it is that man is trying to say. I don't understand what is going on there all this all this. I can't understand it is altogether incomprehensible. And I am quite sure that Ezekiel must have felt that about his own experience.

The Incomprehensible Ways of God

Sometimes he was taken completely out of his depth. Isn't that true of our experience. There are times when we find ourselves in a place where we just cannot understand or fathom what God's meaning is in this experience or in that in this that we are called upon to go through or to do one great why stands over our hearts and our minds in the ways of God.

Why? Moment of eclipse. A moment of eclipse in the life of the Lord Jesus on the cross when that word broke from his lips. My God. Why? Eternity alone could answer that fully. But time afterward did explain it.

Why? We know why. Now sometimes we are called to go into experiences and depths. We cannot understand beyond our scrutiny. But God is doing something now. Paul has something to say about this and I challenge you to explain it.

I challenge you to explain it. I'd be very glad if there's someone here who can explain it to me. I've been at it for 50 years and I haven't got the explanation yet. Now that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies might be made known the manifold wisdom of God in the church.

You understand that of course you could give some kind of explanation. Principalities and powers in the heavenlies are looking on. We're on the stage of this great theatre and God is doing things. And they're learning.

But does that help us? Do you find that that really comforts you in the hour of eclipse in the day of darkness the day of sorrow and suffering. Does it really comfort you to know the principalities and powers in heaven are learning something.

I have to be quite frank and say I've never found much comfort in that. This thing is far too real far too terrible while it's going on. But here it is in the inscrutable unfathomable incomprehensible ways of God he is doing something which is producing instruction and a message and making of the instrument a messenger a messenger of life beyond the comprehension of the messenger himself.

God is doing something that outranges our intelligence goes beyond our understanding. I've read through these chapters of Ezekiel's behaviour. Look at him what he's called to do. See these people looking on.

They say one day now what's the fellow doing. Look at him. He's digging a hole in the wall. Now he's gone into his house and he's packed up his baggage and he's got it on his shoulders. And he's pushing through that hole in the wall with his furniture on his back.

What's he doing. See what I mean. And he did lots of things like that. He in his own experience and history was prewriting and revealing the history of that people the siege that was coming there trying to break out of the siege and get through and escape and take their furniture.

Their history is written deep in his experience. Well I don't know how much this helps you dear friends. But the point is this God is not so concerned with having preachers as such or teachers as such or churches as such or anything collective organic expression of his purpose so that when whether it be angels principalities powers or men look on if they look with uncritical eyes without prejudice they can see hear what God is doing.

God is doing something. Don't understand it. But God is doing something. God is saying something. And that people that people itself and that person not just saying things but is something that God is doing.

Do I carry you with me. This must be the registration of our lives. This must be the truth of our assemblies that we really are the embodiment of something that God is doing. We have often said here in years gone by that the apostle Paul was the great sign of the dispensation.

His particular ministry charge was concerning the church as the body of Christ the mystery. Oh see how the apostle himself not only received it in an objective way and then reproduced how the truth deep profound and sometimes agonizing truth of the body of Christ was wrought into that man's very history.

He is that he is that an embodiment. The message that he has is not something that he takes hold of and gives out. He is that before he speaks and as he speaks you can see it. A man's history bears out what he says may be a suffering history.

It is the sign. He is the sign. The message and the messenger are not two things. They are one. This is reality the reality that is called for. Are we not tired very tired tired of teaching as teaching and doctrine and truth as there is a lot we are tired of in our christianity almost ready to jettison and not crave for reality.

Do you be careful. Be careful if you say that honestly before God reality means that the things of God are going to be wrought into your very being by experience. And you are going through them, they are not only going through you, you are going through them now.

We said at the beginning that Ezekiel was a committed man a committed man. God the spirit could do as he liked with Ezekiel. This is what it means. Those of you who minister. Those of you who minister or who want to minister take this to heart.

You find very often that either before something vital is coming through you or not long afterward you have a very bad time. You have a very bad time. All hell gets busy and rages against that which it knows is coming either to spoil before cripple and paralyze before or soon after to take you into such a position as to make you doubt your own message.

Question your own message. This sort of ministry is fraught with the most real often the most terrible experiences in the spiritual life. Many of you won't understand what I'm saying. Some of you do, don't worry about it.

It's true. I'm saying all this just to get at this point. God doesn't want people to go about with Bibles giving Bible lectures and addresses and retailing things that they've studied up in the Bible.

God wants men people who are the embodiment of his truth who in themselves are the men that he is seeking to reveal for his own satisfaction. Ezekiel not only prophesied he was a prophecy more in what he was than in what he said.

Ezekiel the Watchman for God's People

Come to the end very hurriedly to the third designation again mentioned in chapter 3 and chapter 33. Son of man I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel. I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel.

If you look see the context is a very solemn one. If you warn if you warn and the warning is not taken people's blood will be upon their own heads. If you don't warn their blood will be on your head. I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel a solemn vocation for the Lord's people.

This is no new idea. Of course this is not exclusive to Ezekiel. We have it several times in Isaiah we shall remember the great cry from Isaiah. Watchman what of the night. And the watchman said the morning coming but also the night.

But here in Ezekiel applied to this man right early in his commissioning. You notice in the third chapter that it first comes into view. And what is the function of the watchman. Are you dear friends taking all this to yourself.

Because it does apply to the Christian and it applies to companies of Christians. Very very definitely and particularly. What is the function of a watchman. Well the function of a watchman was and is to know and to voice the meaning of the hour of the time.

That intelligence about the situation. Why things are as they are. Why things are as they are. What are the portents of things as they are. What will come if things proceed as they are proceeding. What does God want in this hour.

What is he after to be. The intelligence of the people in a day when that intelligence is at a discount. Because the watchman functions in the night the work of the night time. Watchman what of the night.

I repeat to be intelligence for the Lord's people at large. Many of whom for one reason or another lack this intelligence this discernment that these people whether they be individuals but I especially have the companies of the Lord's people in mind at this time they're the burden of my heart these companies of the Lord's people here and there that they shall be there as a witness for God as to what the meaning of things is in their time.

Why things are as they are. How God would have them to be. What will happen if they are not changed if they do not conform to God's mind. It's a warning note. It's a note of exhortation. It's a note of information.

That's the watchman's portents periods alive to the time. Is that true our local companies. Is it true that people of God can receive enlightenment as to the meaning of things. Warning as to the peril of certain portents certain causes the arresting hand upon ways that are contrary to the will of God to the mind of God.

Will the Lord make us more like that. Eyes for his people. Eyes for his people. We've almost worn this threadbare so far as words are concerned he would grant unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

The eyes of your heart be enlightened but not just for yourself. It's the whole church that is in you. They may benefit may be saved may be delivered may be instructed by spiritual discernment and enlightenment.

Watchman. Watchman's message must be an unmistakable one. No use a watchman being out there on the watchtower in the night and giving a confused message an indistinct note. All must know what he's talking about what he's saying.

Cry. Went out watchman what of the night. Watchman said. Well I don't know really. I don't know where I am what things mean at all. It's no use asking me what's the good of a watchman like that. But mark you many many churches are like that and many of the Lord's people are like that.

It's no use asking me. I don't know where I am. I don't know the meaning of things at all. I don't understand. The Lord wants to bring out people who know who know where they're going know the meaning of things who have a distinct note and message.

Everybody who meets them is able to say well they are people who know where they stand and they know something that is very important to know. This is a very responsible ministry a very responsible ministry.

Many many may have their destiny by our faithfulness to this very ministry or our failure in it. Oh do ask the Lord in all your praise for your local companies just where you are to constitute you together as a people, a watchman with intelligence with knowledge with understanding and with a clear and unmistakable message to his people when they see you when they meet you when they hear you they meet people who about whom there is nothing indefinite nothing whatever uncertain.

They meet something very positive and clear cut. The impression that we give is we know where we are and we know why we are where we are and we know where we are going and we are going a going people that impress.

I have made thee a watchman said the Lord. I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel. Do you notice what happened when the people when the people so largely and generally rejected the watchman rejected the ministry that God raised up everything that God intended was lost where they were concerned with the ministry went the purpose and they found themselves in Babylon all lost.

That is completely confused of all meaning helpless and impotent limitation and bondage. The ministry given the purpose was bound up stood or fell. It's a very responsible thing. But it does give surely it does give to us something very vital in our existence.

A Costly Calling to Embody God's Purpose

I know I am failing to get to you what is in my heart. I feel that at any rate but I do want to close on this note dear friends we are here as God's people where we are in our companies and as our companies we are here for a very positive purpose and positiveness of purpose must characterize us.

We must be a people upon whom God has laid a great burden a great concern a great responsibility. We must feel that we must sense that we must be committed to that we must be what Paul called himself bond slaves of Jesus Christ captured captivated sense, a mighty sense that we have been called according to purpose.

God is working that purpose in our history. That's our word this afternoon in order that he may place us here and there and people will be able to say of us. Now he's not and she's not just a religious person not just some ordinary Christian.

My word he or she or they have got something they've got something. But you know that's a costly way a very costly way. I could not exaggerate that to be like that here and there means sometimes I am being very torn to pieces brought into perplexity beyond our power of understanding.

Now Paul says all this you know he does use these words cast down perplexed, pursued like that. But out of it coming this rich effective ministry oh we have a very costly heritage and we have a very vital calling impress you with it.

If you don't grasp what is being said may come upon us all. There's a need for recovery of this thing called purpose strengthening of this element this force this dynamic of purpose that we are here for something in the eternal councils of God God help us.