"Called. Chosen. Faithful." and
God's
Faithfulness to Us in His Son
by T. Austin-Sparks
These selections re-published by:
Table of Contents
"Called. Chosen. Faithful."
1.
The Call of God
2.
The Cost of the Calling
God's Faithfulness to Us in His Son
1. God's Faithfulness
Based Upon His Love For His Son
2. The Father's
Attitude To Us in His Son
3. Faithful to
Conform to the Image of His Son
4. Faithful in
Leading Into Afore Prepared Good Works
5. Faithful in
Fulfillment of Vocation
6. The Ground of Rest
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"Called. Chosen. Faithful."
"These shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall
overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of
kings; and they also shall overcome that are with him, called and chosen and
faithful." Revelation
17:14.
There
is a sense in which these three words represent a graduation from one plane and
sphere of probation to another. While we may be "chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world," it is also true that in the matter of trusted
service and honoured intimacy with God the choice is from those who "make
their calling and election sure."
The Call of God
God
begins all His dealings with us by a call. "The call of
God," to be of any use, must be personally felt and realised
by the inner man. The flesh may hear of it; yes, as with those who went
with Paul, it may be struck to the ground by the glory of the revelation; the
senses may witness some of the outward manifestations accompanying the call;
but, as Paul says, "They heard not the voice of Him that spoke to me."
The
call of God contains both grace and truth. Truth is the separating instrument.
"Get thee out." Grace is the promise. "I will bless and make a
blessing." Man often grasps at the grace, the "I will bless" of
God, and fails to comply with the demand thereof - "Get thee out."
Now this does not only apply in the matter of our salvation in its first steps,
but it comes in new revelations and calls at different times in the Christian
life. The call of God to some fuller and higher acceptance of truth and
ministry; of testimony and witness; of surrender and experience, will
undoubtedly come by one or another of the Divine forms of visitation to such as
the Lord wishes to lead in grace. This will be timed, definite, and
challenging. A messenger may come as out from nowhere; the nowhere of
reputation, recognition, worldly fame or honour. He will deliver a message,
only staying long enough to leave its essential implications with those who
hear. Then, having passed on, things can never be the same for them again.
The
"call" has sounded. The crisis has been precipitated. The issue is
between the life which has been with its limitations known or unrecognised, and that which God offers. But, as usually is
the case, this truth is going to call for a "getting out." Getting
out, it may be, of a certain popularity, a comparative
easy going. There may be a risking of reputation, a loss of prestige, a disfavour among men, a being labelled
"singular," "peculiar," "extreme,"
"unsafe." It may mean a head-on impact of all the prejudice,
tradition, and disfavour of the religious world. It
may involve exclusion, ostracism, and suspicion. These are the accompaniments
of all calls of God to advance with Him beyond accepted standards. This is the
cost of path-finding for souls. This is the price to be paid for the higher
serviceableness to God and men.
The Cost of the Calling
One
who paid this price as few ever will, and who was entrusted with superlative
revelation and immortal and universal service said at the end of his life
"There is no man like-minded with me." "No man stood with
me." Did this mean that he was wrong? Who will ever dare say so?
Note,
moreover, that every step ahead with God brings the "called" into
more direct and intimate collision with the forces of the enemy, and he is
going to give much more attention to such. The only way to "reign in
life" is by literally knowing the need for it.
The
interrogation is, are we going on with God at any
cost? Shall we refuse Him that speaketh? Are we going
to respond to every call to advance, mean what it may? Shall we stand our
ground when the price seems almost too much? Shall we "hold fast" in
the probation of a "call," and having proved ourselves by the grace
of God, be chosen for a work which only such can have committed to them?
Or
shall we sink back to our easier path, and take a line of less resistance; keep
our treasures, fear to lose, keep our place in the pleasantries and safeties of
the shallows, and not "launch out into the deep."
The
"Well done, good and faithful servant," will be reserved for
those who risked something of loss and went beyond the obligation of duty and
embarked upon the second mile at the "call" of the growing
revelation.
Oh,
beloved of God, let us go all the way and whatever it may involve - it will
never be in advance of the apostolic suffering - aspire to be of "the
called, chosen, and faithful."
God's Faithfulness to Us in His Son
by T. Austin-Sparks
"God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the
fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor. 1:9).
"There hath no
temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it"
(1 Cor. 10:13).
"Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it... sanctify you wholly...
your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:24,23).
"The Lord is
faithful, who shall establish you, and guard you from the evil one" (2
Thess. 3:3).
"If we are faithless,
he abideth faithful; for he cannot deny himself" (2 Tim. 2:13).
God's Faithfulness Based Upon His Love For
His Son
"God
is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus
Christ our Lord". That comprehensive statement means that God's
faithfulness is based upon His love for His own Son; His faithfulness to us is
because of His faithfulness to Him. Because of the fellowship with His Son into
which He has called us, we enter into that faithfulness. That means much. It
raises the very big question - which question, of course, we ought never to
entertain - as to whether the Father would ever be unfaithful to His Son. We
have a fairly solid block of Scripture to establish the nature of the
relationship between the Father and the Son, and the Father's estimate of the
Son, which would certainly lead us to rule out any such question as to whether
the Father would ever be unfaithful to the Son, would ever fail Him, would ever
go back upon any promise to Him. That, of course, is unthinkable.
The Father's Attitude To Us in His Son
It
is not quite so easy for us to believe and really to enter livingly into the
further statement that the Father's attitude to the Son is His attitude now to
all who are in fellowship with His Son. We have selected a few passages of
Scripture, which can be supported by a very great deal more, to show that that
is so. God has Himself called us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ
our Lord, and on that ground the same faithfulness which is toward His Son is
carried over to us. That is something very strong, very far-reaching and
much-embracing.
God
is faithful. How? Why? It is a tremendous thing to find that to be the
introduction to the first Corinthian letter. We know what is to follow in that
letter. We know the disclosures that are going to be made about the state of
things among the Corinthians. Another side, that of our responsibility, will
develop, but when all has been said - and not much more could be said, I think,
of human imperfections and the failures of Christians than we have in the first
letter to the Corinthians - when all has been said of that kind, the
faithfulness of God still stands, and all that is required from our side is
that, when God shows where the faults and weaknesses and wrongs are, we adjust,
we respond, we obey; and when we do so the Lord just goes on with the rest. We
know quite well that if we resist the Lord, if we refuse obedience, if we do
not walk in the light which He has given us, then of course we put ourselves
out of the blessings and benefits of His faithfulness.
But
there is the other side. I think sometimes we get loaded too heavily with our
side, and do not take sufficient account of God's side in this way, that, given
openness and responsiveness of heart to the Lord: given that there is no wilful, conscious resistance, disobedience, refusal,
neglect, carelessness: given that we are toward the Lord and that the
fellowship of His Son is to us the most precious thing: I say, given that, the
Lord takes a tremendous amount upon His own faithfulness. He can be trusted to
look after the imperfections and everything else, and I think that this,
standing right at the commencement of this letter, just says, 'Well now, you
Corinthians, there are many things where you are at fault, and many things that
have to be put right, but if only you seek grace to make the adjustments and be
obedient, God will faithfully fulfil all that He has
undertaken to do. He will do it. Yours it is to seek to step into line with the
Lord; His it is to perfect that which concerneth you:
and He will.' God is faithful. And His faithfulness, as we have said, is not
affected so much by our weaknesses, our defects. It is affected by His devotion
to His Son. He has sworn to His Son, He has made promises to His Son, and He is
not going to fail Him. Wherever He can get a way, He will fulfil
His word to His Son. He is the covenant-keeping God, and all His covenants are
related to His Son.
There
are many covenants made by God in the Bible. There is the covenant of the
rainbow; there is the covenant of the Sabbath day; and there are many others.
But if you look at them you will find that in every covenant there are the
features of the Lord Jesus. The covenants do not finally and exclusively
concern only those to whom they were immediately made, but all the promises of
God are ratified with a Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20). That is to
say, God looks beyond the temporal occasion to His Son and His Son's interests,
and He has secured everything in Him. The faithfulness of God to His Son is the
solid rock of our confidence.
Faithful to Conform to the Image of His Son
When
you break this up, you find that it applies to so much. As a matter of fact,
this word "through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his
Son" applies to everything that affects us. The first calling is into the
fellowship of His Son, and then within that fellowship we find that we are
called "according to purpose". That is in Romans 8:28. Looking to see
what the purpose is according to which we are called, we find we are"foreordained to be conformed to the image of his
Son". God
is faithful to carry that out, not on the ground of any struggling on our part,
nor of anything at all that we can do other than walk in the light He has
given; that means, to take our steps in the direction of His will as made known
to us. Then the Lord is faithful to fulfil this work
of conforming us to the image of His Son.
Faithful in Leading Into Afore Prepared
Good Works
Then
we are told that we are "created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them" (Eph.
2:10). This same
sovereign calling relates to the works which God has afore-prepared for us to
walk in; and if He gets us responsive and obedient in His hands God is faithful
to see to it that we are found in the afore-prepared works. It is not a case of
our straining to be in the work of the Lord, but of the outworking of this
Divine sovereignty. God has appointed certain things which He calls good works
in relation to His Son, and if He possesses us completely, we shall find that,
in the sovereignty of God, we shall come into the good works afore-prepared.
Faithful in Fulfillment of Vocation
Then
the same thing is said about our vocation. We are familiar with such words as
Ephesians 4:1 - "I... beseech you to walk
worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and
meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; giving diligence
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and
one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling". Or again in 1 Tim. 6:12 - "Fight the good fight of the faith, lay
hold on the life eternal, whereunto thou wast
called". This Divine
calling lies behind every aspect of the life of the child of God, whether
conformity to Christ's image, or the works to be performed, or the vocation to
be fulfilled; the calling gathers it all up, carries it all. Our calling into
the fellowship of His Son means that we are brought into all that: and again,
given a full-hearted response, the faithfulness of God to His Son demands that
we do not miss the way for want of light, that we do not miss the calling
because we never had the Divine help in that direction. If we miss the way
after we have wholly put ourselves into the Lord's hands and responded to His
calling, then that is God's unfaithfulness, not to us, but to His Son. If any
of these aspects, of the work and way of God fail where we are concerned when
He has us wholly, then God has failed His Son; and if you can think of that,
then you can think of failure in these respects where we are concerned. If you
cannot believe that God is going to fail His Son, then, apprehending the truth
that Christ and ourselves are one now by the calling of God, you need not fear
that God can fail us. He is faithful.
It
does not say that we shall always be able to see how God is doing it, but He is
faithful. The end will be attained, it will be an accomplished fact, and when
eventually we see things as God sees them, and know what He was doing and how
He was doing it, we shall see that He has reached His end, and say, 'Well, I
could not see it, I had very bad times about it, but God has got what He was
after, and He has got for His Son what He intended Him to have'. God is getting
for His Son what He has promised Him by the way in which He is dealing with us
and leading us. He is faithful to His Son, and therefore He is faithful where
we are concerned. That is the one side.
The Ground of Rest
But
there is the other side. What is the ground on which we shall come to rest in
this matter, and to assurance and to relief from strain? It will be the ground
of the Lord Jesus. It will be when we take and maintain this attitude: 'Lord,
it is for Thy Son, not for me, it is all for Him. If greater gain is coming to
Him, if Thy faithfulness to Him is being proved by my being denied or deprived
of many things that I feel would be for Him, that I would like for Him, that I
think would be best - so long as He is gaining His end and Thy faithfulness to
Him is working out in His having that which Thou dost want Him to have where I
am concerned, that is the only thing that matters. If in any way I have to
adjust, I count on that same faithfulness to be shown to me as was shown to the
Lord Jesus, to bring me into the knowledge of my need, that
I shall not err in ignorance, and the Lord Jesus shall not lose anything
because of my blindness or failure. I count on Thy faithfulness to work in that
way for my enlightenment. I make it a matter of Thy faithfulness to Christ, and
that faithfulness to Christ will mean also faithfulness toward me; and though
it may express itself in ways contrary to my expectation or desire, I come to
rest on that'.
Now
note this as a personal application. If you go to the letter to the Romans, you
have these same things emphasized, but you find there much that is individual.
When you come to the Corinthian letter, you have come more on to the collective
ground of the Church; and then you move right on to the highest expression of
that in 'Ephesians'; but the same thing applies right through from the
individual aspect to the corporate in 'Ephesians'. Every step, every stage,
from the individual to the whole Church is governed by this faithfulness of God
to His Son. It is all a matter of God's keeping His eye on His Son, and
therefore upon everything that can be for His Son, and faithfully seeing to it
that, wherever He has a chance, wherever there is response to Him, the goal is
reached. With all the seemingly hopeless conditions as at Corinth, God says
even there, "God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the
fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord". He says, in effect, 'I am
going to tell you what is necessary from your side in the matter of adjustment
and correction, how this and that must go, and this and that must come in. Give
your response, and I will see to it that all that ever can be for My Son shall
be, even in Corinth, even in you'.
Oh,
this is only walking round a little fragment, seeing it from different aspects,
but the affirmation of our hearts must be - God is faithful. We may not think
He is being faithful because He is not taking us the way we want or would like,
but God is faithful and the whole universe hangs upon that. For us there is no
bigger issue raised than that of the faithfulness of God. For us, everything
for faith, for life, our very existence, hangs upon whether God is faithful. If
we have any question about that, our world goes to pieces. We have nothing to
stand upon if we have any question about the faithfulness of God, and that, not
as a general and abstract thing, but as concrete and personal. It must not be
personal in the sense that we want God to come our way. It is only personal in the right
sense when it is in fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ.
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