Men Whose Eyes Have Seen the King - Part 6 — T. Austin-Sparks

The Glory of the Lord in Ezekiel's Vision

I'd like for the moment to focus upon the 28th verse of Ezekiel 1 as the appearance, the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. Now this in particular, this was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

The appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. That fragment seems to me to sum up all these prophecies. Does it in particular apply to the first chapter? But it can be taken all the way through, for everything in these prophecies is being governed by what is there, the glory of the Lord.

There is a very practical and immediate relationship between ourselves here and this word, this word and ourselves. I'm quite sure that in the case of most of you, at any rate, there is a deep and strong need that the Lord should do a new thing.

I think that is very widespread. What that new thing is may be given different interpretations. In the whole evangelical world, there is much prayer and talk about revival. That perhaps is only another way of expressing this sense of a need for the Lord to move in in a new way and do a new thing.

This would put it in other ways. Nevertheless, there it is. Everyone finds it amongst Christians. Wherever we go, the Lord must do something. The Lord must move. The Lord must do a new thing. The Lord must take a fresh step.

And we here this morning are not less burdened with that concern than others. It is our prayer and our sense of need. We need to be very intelligent and understanding about this matter. The Lord has his ways and his means and we need to know something about them if we're going to be in line with the Lord in any movement that he proposes to take.

Therefore, I say this word is very appropriate to this situation. For whenever God has moved in a new step in his divine movement by bringing his people, bringing in the first place and then through such an instrument his people, to a fresh apprehension of his glory, that is a statement which will bear investigation confirmation.

God's Glory as the Goal of Every New Beginning

God's one end in all things is glory. Make no mistake about that. You want to know what God is after moving toward? All things encompasses countless details in every realm and corporate life and nations in every direction and connection.

The answer is that God's end is glory. And if that is so, it is to be noted that he sets and establishes that principle always at the outset of every movement. He puts it there as the thing which is going to govern that movement, that step or whatever it is.

He is about to undertake. It is going to be governed by that end which he brings to every new beginning. That may sound a little difficult for the moment, but take some instances. We will all agree when God called Abraham the father of the Chaldees, created him, that was a new movement of God.

There is no doubt about that. That is a defining to human history on the part of God. With something new or a further stage in the divine program in view. Stephen tells us that the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in earth of the Chaldees.

The God of glory. The end toward which God was moving was glory in his own glory in a people to be manifested among the nations. And so as the God of glory he appeared unto Abraham. He put the glory there as the principle, the law, the basis upon which he was taking that step and was going to follow it through.

Centuries later he appealed to Abraham even to the very period the Lord had that people out of Egypt. He brought them to Sinai and there the fresh step of changing them from a rabble constituted and unorganized mass multitude into a corporate nation.

At Sinai by the law and the testimony and the revelation given in the mount the people were constituted a nation and it was done in glory. Moses went into the mount saw the God of glory came down with that glory on his face.

Again God had put the principle of everything at the beginning of his new move. He was moving on the pathway of glory. A step in the divine plan was reached in the days of David and Solomon. The temple was indeed a development of the divine thought in representation.

The issue there is glory. Glory of the Lord. It was a glorious time with the glory of the Lord. It was a glorious place. It was all just enunciating and preserving this principle. God is moving all the time with this thought governing glory.

But we are told that the day came when the glory departed from Jerusalem and went away. We know why and that brings us to the prophets of recovery and to this prophet Ezekiel in particular. Here at the opening of these prophecies the day when the glory is eclipsed amongst the Lord's people lifted up and departed from Jerusalem.

The Lord of glory appeared to Ezekiel. This is the likeness of the glory of the appearance of the glory of the Lord. It's impressive that that comes right at the beginning of the prophecies isn't it? Now everything that follows is going to be but the outworking of that Lord glory.

God is more concerned and in these various ways he is concerned and showing his concern for the end of glory to be reached. You have that in the old testament come into the new and everybody will agree that the incarnation is a new movement of God.

The birth of the Lord Jesus into this world that is indeed a great step forward in the divine program. Therefore it is accompanied with glory, heavenly glory, glory to God in high heaven. We've sung it in our hymn this morning.

Glory again the inception of this new mighty movement of God because the end of that thing is indeed going to be glory. He has come for the recovery of the glory of God in this that is heaven's song. We move on still and again we will all agree that the day of Pentecost is another great step forward in the plan of God.

God is moving on. This is a clear mark in that progress the Pentecost was a step of God from heaven and what glory. What glory? John tells us quite clearly that the coming of the Holy Spirit was upon the basis of Jesus being glorified.

He had said or he said spirit was not given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Implying that when the spirit was given Jesus was glorified. It was on that graph. See God is moving on this all the way along and so we could go on.

We think of the individual instruments of God's new movement. We will agree that a new movement was in hand through Peter no doubt about it. It's a real new movement although Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles we must remember that Peter opened the door both to Jew and Gentile for the new dispensation in Jerusalem in Caesarea.

It's a mighty new movement. Peter had his ministry set in this glory. He tells us as we have been seeing these days that he was with him in the holy mount. They held his glory and that had been a tremendously dynamic thing in Peter's life there's no doubt about it.

The Holy Spirit interpreted everything to him on the day of Pentecost. He got a new bible because he got a new Lord and an open heaven. Great principle of glory which accounted for Peter's ministry and Peter's work and Peter's endurance to the end.

That is perfectly clear in the case of John who was with him for so long as his co-worker in Jerusalem at least. Well we will again recognize when we come to the beginning of the book of the revelation we're in the presence of a new movement for recovery of the glory which has become so limited and obscured in the churches.

The Lord comes to John in vision in Patmos but it is such a glorious thing and the visions are so glorious that more than once John is down in utter prostration before the Lord and has to be lifted up helped to rise because of the overwhelming impact of the visions of the glory and you're all anticipating that I'm going to bring Paul into it and just say this again that this this wonderful ministry so full so rich so glorious was all born in the day when he saw the glory on the Damascus road.

It came out of that. The Lord put the glory that's the point at every occasion when he was going to move again with some new step in his purpose. All these things that I have mentioned are steps onward of God in his age-long purpose and every one of them is based upon an apprehension a new apprehension of the glory of the Lord by those who were concerned.

So their ministry became that in the case of prophets and apostles it's really a ministry of the greatness and the glory of the Lord. They became a people with a tremendous significance in this world.

It was this apprehension of the glory of Christ that gave character and meaning to their being here in this world. All this then has but one meaning. It is God's end and God's object is glory and everything that he does is governed by that.

Believing God's Glory Through Difficult Circumstances

Now dear friends this is something that must really take hold of us of which we must take hold. Oh if there is to be to from our being together one feels that it should be this that the glory of the Lord should take hold of us.

It should take hold of us or that we should become mastered by this truth that in all things in all things to the minutest thing in our life under the hand of God he intends that to work out for glory.

That God in everything is working with glory in you. Do you believe that? Ah yes you believe it as a statement and as a truth perhaps you believe it in your heart but it's not always easy you know to believe that.

Not always easy to believe that because we just don't see how it can be. Indeed what we do see convinces us that anything but glory can come out of this. So that the Lord would just grip us with this grip me grip you with this individually and as companies of his people where we are what he's doing what he is allowing is under the control of this one law and principle it's going to be for his glory or he intends it so to be that is what he has in mind and will do if he is not finally fought it in his powers.

Well everything may seem to contradict this we come to the prophecies of Ezekiel and there is plenty that seems to contradict this glory. You can't get away from it you just cannot get away from the fact that this is in the first chapter.

It is not reserved to the end and you wade through all that is in this book tale of judgments and woe and whatnot. You're not left to wade through it all and then at last find that God comes out with things in his own hands and manages to survive.

You're told right at the very beginning that everything is governed by God's glory. Everything's going to happen everything's going to be said right on to the end the governing thing is the glory of God.

It's there as the very foundation of everything. We must take note of that. What is God's end? Well Paul has seen it and has given it to us in a matchless fragment. Unto him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus unto the ages of the ages.

You can't get beyond that. That's that is the end. Unto the ages of the ages glory in the church by Christ Jesus. There it is. Now coming then to Ezekiel. There is much here to help us as to God's own concern for his glory.

We may have a concern for the Lord's glory. The Lord has a far greater concern for his glory than we have. And this book is just a book full of God's own concern for his own glory. So with a precision Ezekiel comes into view.

Notice how precise it is. Even to the day of the month and the year the word of the Lord came unto Ezekiel son of Busi. Where he was, when he was, how he was. It's like the Lord moving so exactly so meticulous in this matter and laying hold of this man.

And remember it had to be a laying hold of him because it resulted in a complete change in the whole vocation of this man. Ezekiel was a trained priest. He belonged to the priesthood. And he was a young man who was expecting that through his life he would fulfill the ministry of a priest.

This broke in and upset his whole career and his whole vocation. He had to change his whole manner and method of life from priesthood to a prophet. It was something very strong in this man's case. It's interesting to notice that his name Ezekiel means God will strengthen, will strengthen.

Ezekiel's Calling Amid Exile and Opposition

For the glory of God that's very necessary. Especially in conditions such as those in which Ezekiel lived. Ezekiel thus as a young man carried away with the captives to Babylon. He was with the captives by the river Kibar he tells us.

From what we know, what we read, it was a pretty hopeless situation. We know something of the conditions in Jerusalem from the prophecies and ministry of Jeremiah. They were pretty bad there. Poor Jeremiah had his heart broken as he had ministered in Jerusalem.

But there are reasons for saying that while it was like in Jerusalem it was more difficult in Babylon. That is so far as the people were concerned to whom Ezekiel ministered. They were recalcitrant. They were difficult people.

Read these early chapters. See Ezekiel's encounter with them. Encounters with them. Things to which he had to resort. See I don't want to stay with too much detail but it's very necessary for us to get the setting of the glory of the Lord for our encouragement.

Here he is with these captives and you know a man, a man who has to bring home to a people the reasons for their condition and the judgments of God and has to speak faithfully in the name of the Lord without compromising on any principle at all.

He will put his own very life and future in the balances of his ministry and be thoroughly faithful. Thoroughly faithful. He will not condone any wrong. He will not compromise on any principle in order to preserve their favor and his own position.

Man who has the glory of God at heart at any cost. He's a very unpopular man. Make no mistake about it he's an unpopular man and Ezekiel was an unpopular man among the exiles. So unpopular that he had to resort to all sorts of seeming tricks to gain their attention.

To get a hearing. Look at the things to which he resorted and had to do spectacular things. Unusual things and unnatural things. Sometimes seem to act the fool to draw attention. People would look in his direction.

No he was having a hard time to get a hearing. Have any attention at all? The most unpopular man perhaps in the country. It was a desperately difficult situation that he was in amongst his own people.

There in the midst of such a situation which I don't think I exaggerate. Indeed I could add much more to it from these very chapters. In the midst of such a difficult and seemingly hopeless situation.

For the time being Ezekiel says he was with the captives by the river Kibar and the heavens were opened and he saw visions of God. He saw visions of God. There is no situation so hopeless as to make it impossible for the glory of God to break in.

It says that surely. No situation that can shut God out. Impossible for a fresh manifestation of his glory. Don't you take heart from that if it's true? Well here it is. Here it is. Amazing thing when you take the whole setting and the whole circumstances and the whole position.

You could say well that's that's altogether beyond any hope. That's broken Jeremiah's heart. That has broke the wrath of God. In this way boy Jerusalem and send the people far away. What can you hope for in such a situation?

And right in that Ezekiel says I saw the heavens and visions of God. And he sums it all up. This is the likeness of the appearance the appearance of the glory of the Lord. Earlier friends difficult as it is for us to take hold of that.

Really believe it. This may be a message to us. Sometimes we are very near to despair over the whole situation. Let it come to us as a message from the Lord. In our own lives perhaps in the place where you are the company of the Lord's people.

Things create such difficulty that you sometimes get near to giving it all up. Ezekiel might well have done that and had far more occasion to do it than you or I had. But right in there. There. This was the likeness of the appearance of the glory of the Lord.

The Open Heaven and Hope in Despair

The heavens were open. The heavens were open. We have thought and said much about open heaven. All we need say or will stay to say about that this moment. That if there is any indication at all that the heavens are open.

Always most hopeful thing in any situation. You may be having some difficult times in your company of the Lord's people. You have some difficult people or Ezekiel had some difficult people. You may be having much discouragement.

There may be things that you feel to be very wrong. And so on and so on. Yet when you come together and give yourself to the worship of the Lord. The wonderful sense of unction. You just become occupied with the Lord.

For the time being at any rate you let the other go. And the Lord becomes your center. The heavens are open. The heavens are open. While that lasts dear friends. There's every hope for your assembly. There's every hope for the future.

There is nothing more hopeless than a closed heaven. A closed heaven. Look at Calvary. There was darkness over the face of the earth. And Jesus cried with a loud voice. My God why hast thou forsaken me?

Heaven was closed. Because of what he was doing there. Taking the sin of the whole world. Heaven closed down. Was shut up. Heaven closed down. Was shut up. No way through. That is the most hopeless situation.

Could ever possibly be. Hopelessness of that situation killed him. That was the final stroke. Bring about his death. It was not the nails. It was not the thorns. It was not the action of men. It was the broken heart.

Because he had lived his life all the way through. With a clear way through to the Father. An open heaven. He had it. You see all his days he had an open heaven. He was in communication with heaven with the Father.

He had never known until then one moment when he couldn't get through in an instant. Here that all ended. No way through. No response. No answering voice. Closed heaven. That's hopeless. If you and I have any answer to prayer.

Any little indication or token that the Lord has not forsaken, given up, shut down on us. We have anything. Heaven's still open. And that's very hopeful for the future. Cherish the open heaven. Times of worship.

Many, many dark things may be about. Many difficult things. Situation like Ezekiel may be full of evil or perplexities, problems and difficulties and sufferings and whatnot. And yet we come together and focus upon the Lord and sense his presence.

Sense his presence. That's our open heaven. And an open heaven is always a sign that there's hope yet. There's hope yet. There's still a future for glory. The Lord forbid that ever we should come to the time when we are closed down by heaven and can't get through.

I saw the heavens open. And that meant God hasn't finished with things yet. God has not closed down yet. There may be judgments and the following chapters show the judgments. There may have to be judgments.

There may have to be disciplines. May have to be chastenings. There may yet be a lot to be done. But whatever it is, it's got to be cleared up, perhaps by the jealous wrath of God for his glory. Hard things to be gone through.

Sufferings and afflictions because of the wrongs. Nevertheless, nevertheless, it's all governed by this. A hope of glory. A hope of glory if the heavens still remain open. I saw visions of God. That is visions given by God.

The Throne, the Man, and God's Government

What did Ezekiel see? What was it that comprised those visions of God? Well, as we have seen in chapter one, he saw a throne. And then he saw the likeness, the appearance as of a man upon the throne above.

And then he saw a two-fold symbolic medium of the administration of that throne. The cherubim and the wheels. Just mention these things for the moment and pass on. Coming back for further considerations later.

Then, as we know, he saw a house. He was commanded to show to the people of Isfah. He saw the house in later glory. He saw the river coming from under the threshold, passing through the court and a way down, broadening and deepening and making everything live with us however it came.

Then he saw the land and the inheritance possessed. And finally he saw the city. The Lord is there. That's the end of it all. The Lord is there. All these things are related to the glory. Are the result of the government of that one on the throne above.

But I want to emphasize and stress particularly that all that is in this book is the result and the expression of that throne of the man upon it above. It is the inclusive in the whole book because that's very simple to understand.

Everything emanates and results from the fact that there is one in the place of supreme government and authority for us and for them and for all time by the eternal appointment of God. That one is the Lord Jesus, the son of God.

Act inclusive, act of his being exalted to the right hand of the majesty of the heavens. We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. God raised him, set him at his own right hand far above all rule and authority, principality and power and every name that is made.

Everything comes out of that. If that is true then everything is all right. It will be all right in the end. Everything that is here is but the expression of that throne and the man upon it above. Now dear friends, this is very up to date, isn't it?

The Throne's Relevance to the Troubled Church

Very up to date. I have spent time in speaking of the conditions in which Ezekiel fulfilled his ministry, the state of things. Yes, he had a very difficult situation but the church has got a pretty difficult situation now and things are far from easy today as then very much is wrong and very much that is evil.

You'll say today that the glory of God pervades his people. Ezekiel's was a difficult time but it was at that time and in those circumstances that the expression of the throne came in for a new movement of God or shall I say this apprehension on the part of an instrument of the supremacy of that throne and the man upon it had this wonderful result that in time the whole situation was changed and God had something for his glory.

It had a tremendous effect upon Ezekiel so it saved him. That vision, the open heaven, the throne and the man upon it above, it saved him in his day from despair. It saved his ministry, it saved his test, saved his life.

That will save us. That can save us, dear friends. I perhaps sound a bit, want to be a pessimist. You cannot, you cannot today be acquainted with the state of things on this earth even amongst what is called Christianity, Christians without sometimes feeling fairly hopeless about it.

Maybe all wrong and I don't want to speak about myself. It may be partly due to me but I confess to you that in recent months I've almost despaired of the Christian situation as I had seen it, wondered is it, is it that the great revelation given to us the church as we have it here in the New Testament can in any way be realized in our time.

Look at the divisions, look at the quarrels, feel this awful atmosphere that has spread, that has spread and grown. When I first went to United States in 1925 there seemed to be such an open clear way everywhere for something new of the Lord.

The atmosphere seemed so clear, hearts seemed so open. Go back there today and it is not personal. Everybody is suspecting everybody else. Spirit of criticism has got into the most devoted Christians about both Christians and Christian things.

The very people who are really most devoted to the Lord you can't have a half an hour's conversation with them but what somebody gets it is left. Somebody is mentioned for a warning, somebody is suspect.

It's like an awful miasma fog that has crept over the whole world and you cannot go anywhere but what you find it, you find it amongst Christians. You cannot go into religious bookshops without seeing line upon line of pamphlets and books which are occupied with denouncing something, denouncing something.

Men giving their whole lives to this kind of horrible work, trying to expose what they think to be error because they don't agree with it. Now that's strong language but it's not too strong. It's a state of things and you might despair of having something that you have seen to be God's purpose.

You can't, the Lord won't let you if you have seen the Lord. If you really have seen the Lord you just can't give it up. You may say like Jeremiah that you won't speak in this way anymore. He did. He resolved and determined that he would never speak again on this matter but he said while I kept silent the fire burned then spake I with my lips.

It's out again, can't give it in and you and I have often resolved we just have to stop talking about it and give it up because it doesn't seem to work. Things seem to go from bad to worse and worse to awful and yet and yet here we are again, here we are again, we're here.

I've been calculating very much in recent weeks as to how much I would say, calculating to keep back a lot. Can't help myself. We're back here again in full view of God's declared purpose. Spirit won't give it up and won't let us give it up.

However bad the situation is, the heaven is not closed yet. The man on the throne has not evacuated the throne yet, there's hope but we've got to have the mastery of that great reality that he is still there where God put him and if this is true, this is true, difficult as sometimes it is to believe it, to see it at any rate, he is far above all rule and authority and principality and power and every name be it Stalin, Khrushchev or anybody else, far above every name in this age and in that which is to come.

Only as that gets hold of us and in return we take hold of it will there be any prospect at all but that is the prospect. I think perhaps I'd better stay there, see this so much and we can overload the real value by getting too much.

Seeing Glory as God's Strategy in Dark Days

My point at the moment is that to see the glory is always a strategic movement of God in a difficult and unpromising day and situation. That was the meaning of the transfiguration. It was a difficult day.

Things were closing in on the Lord and his little band. Atmosphere was impregnated with hatred. A difficult day and the cross, the cross was there immediately before. Shall they meet it? How will they survive it?

Strategy was the transfiguration. They saw his glory and although for a time afterwards it seemed to be eclipsed, as we have said he was risen from the dead. They understood all things. Quite sure the transfiguration took on its full meaning in the light of the resurrection.

Stephen was having a pretty hard time, wasn't he? Things were going very hardly for the church in Jerusalem. The day that wonderful young man dragged outside to death with that so vicious hatred of the Lord Jesus.

It was a difficult time for Stephen and for the others and Stephen saw the heavenly son of man standing at the right hand. Saved the situation for him and I think it had a much farther reach than just himself.

I think it handed on something, handed on something. At any rate one man there who became a very potent factor in the church for all time was tremendously affected by what he saw in the face of Stephen and heard through the lips of Stephen.

He never got over it. He never got over it and he never forgave himself as he quite clearly says and I was standing by him and giving my vote, my consent. The glory was a saving thing in a dark and difficult day.

Paul is in prison. Paul is in prison. The end with all those many churches far more than we have tabulated by letters addressed from many churches he had been used to bring into being. Many converts and many who owed everything spiritually to him and his ministry.

Now he's in prison, shut up, he can't go to them and churches are in state to decline. Many are turning against him and away from him as he says. A lonely man, a lonely man, only Luke is with me. Individually and if ever a man was in naturally.

Circumstances in every way, oh what a situation for a man like that. Fancy coming to an end like that. What saves him? It is, my dear friends, it is astoundingly impressive that right in that knowing it all, knowing his own position, knowing his own prospects, his own prospects which were pretty poor for this life, knowing the state of things far away in the churches, getting news of these secessions and these disaffections, seeming breakdown of his work, disappointed with believers and with churches and all that enough to crush a man in despair.

I say it's an amazing thing that out of that in the midst of that he has an open heaven and says now unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all ages forever and ever. He's saved by the glory.

He is delivered by the glory for a different end it might have been but for this apprehension of the glory. Here he writes that this one, this man is in the glory on the throne about far above all. Caesar may be there next door governing the whole world and bringing it under his mighty and he to be able against the Jesus Christ to Paul.

Caesar and Caesar's city and strongholds set him far above all and every name Caesar or any other in this age or in any other age put in all things in subjection under his feet. That's a vision, a saving vision of the glory and I think with just a reminder that it was that that saved John in his difficult and desperate situation in Athens.

Well it was indeed something to break a man's heart and to send him deep down and dark the position of John. The one lonely survivor of the whole apostolic band. They've all gone to cut off from his beloved church.

Alone, isolated, exiled with all the conditions which must have accompanied that exile. Well that's enough to make a man despair and feel that he's lived his life in vain and that there really is no hope at all but he had an open heaven, saw a vision and what visions he saw.

It was the open heaven that saved him. The Lord give us then a new apprehension of the throne and the man upon it. If anything has been said that would have been better left unsaid we beseech thee to cover and nullify that O Lord.

Whatever has been right according to thee do make it more than words and ideas. Make it life. Make it our salvation. Make it our strength in this difficult day. O Lord in this day this very day in which we gather together may there lay hold of us and we be able to lay hold in a new way of thee, of all thrones.

The man we ask this that glory may come back into our assemblies and amongst thy people. In the name of the Lord Jesus.