The Rule of the Heavens # 8

The Rule of the Heavens # 8

Hell's Hatred of the Vessel of Testimony, continued -

I am always so glad of that correspondence between Paul and his Lord, that when the Lord Jesus came to die He said: "I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment received I from My Father" (John 10:17-18). When the Apostle Paul came to the end he did not say: 'Now I am going to be taken hold of and they are going to kill me, and I shall not be able to help myself.' He quietly,serenely announced: "The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:6-7). There is no surrendering to fate in that. There is no capitulating to the hands of men in that. There is, as it were, a quiet, deliberate walking out in the recognition that the Lord's time had come and not man's. Now there is a correspondence between Paul and his Master, but note, Paul is in representation the vessel of the testimony in this age. The testimony of Jesus was peculiarly placed within that vessel in a representative way. We have often said Paul personally embodied all the special revelation which was entrusted to him; he became a personal sign of that revelation. The truth which was committed to him from heaven had a specific outworking in his own life and experience because he had got to represent the Church in this age in himself as the vessel of its unveiling, and the issue of the Church in this age is the expression in fullness, of the power of Christ's resurrection as triumphant over death in translation, not by the grave but by the air.

"Oh, joy! oh, delight! should we go without dying; No sickness, no sadness, no dread, and no crying."

We have sung that: that is the prospect for the Church; that is the glorious possibility, No! that is the certainty, as the final issue. But that represents that death is robbed finally of its power, that the power of His resurrection is manifested in eluding the grave and depriving death of its object. That is Enoch. But Paul represented that, and his last utterances are: "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection"; yes, true: "and the fellowship of His sufferings" (Phil. 3:10), that is Daniel and the others. "The power of His resurrection" not as something just at the beginning of his Christian life and walk, but something at the end. And not as something merely to deliver him with all others in a general resurrection from the grave, but in a specific out-resurrection from among the dead. That is the testimony of the Church, a vessel for that. Paul represented that specific thing for the Church in this age. Daniel continued and Daniel stands in his lot at the end. Have you grasped the principle that is implied in that? A wonderful thing. But beloved, you and I are called even now - though we may die, we may go by the grave - yet now, at this end time, you and I are called to be a part of that vessel in which the power of His resurrection is manifested, that the murderous plottings of hell are eluded, are overcome, and that the murderer who comes out to destroy before the Lord's purposes are accomplished shall be baffled by the power  of His resurrection in us. When we ought to have been dead a dozen times we are still alive. Yes, the Lord wants an adequate vessel for that, not one, two, or three scattered here and there, but an adequate vessel for that; and He is seeking that. In relation to that we are here. You and I must not accept death until the Lord tells us the time has come, If we do we open the door for the enemy to triumph. (Many of you do not understand that. If you do not, do not worry about it, but ask the Lord to give you the essential thing of what we are saying.) Now that all comes out of that statement: "Daniel continued." Daniel stands at the end. The vessel is there when all has been done to see that the vessel should not be there. The testimony is there - goes on unto the end. But we have to see something more about such a vessel.

The Nature Of The Vessel's Present Ascendency

We have to see the nature of the ascendency of that vessel. In this present age it is true that the vessel is called to be in a state of ascendency, in a place of government, now, a place of dominion if you like, ruling. But its government, its ruling, its dominion in this age is not the same as it will be in the age to come. It is going to rule. There is another sense  in which the kingdom will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, then it will be literal government, literal dominion, it will be recognized and acknowledged, it will be universally manifested, the accepted order. It is not that now, that hardly needs saying; and yet the principle is to be just as true now as it will be then. But the nature of the government now is not literal, but moral. Now I explain what I mean by that by illustrating from this Book of Daniel.

Nebuchadnezzar is that head of gold. God had given him a kingdom, the greatest of all those world's kingdoms; every other dominion that followed was a step of deterioration. Silver, brass, iron, clay. A drop in value all the way through; but Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian empire was the most glorious of all empires, and God had given it to him. Daniel and his three companions are in the center of that, and I ask you, who rules, Nebuchadnezzar or Daniel? When no one could help the king out of his difficulty over his dream and eventually Daniel came in, it says: "Then Daniel answered before the king." Why? Because he had already been before the King of kings. If you follow him in before Nebuchadnezzar you are moving in an atmosphere of dignity, quiet confidence and assurance. From the very first step, as we pointed out before, when Daniel heard that all the wise men were to be destroyed, he confidently announced that there was a God in heaven who revealeth secrets and he would give an answer to the king. There was not any hesitation and saying: "Well, I will ask the Lord and see if He will give an answer." Absolute assurance, absolute confidence, serenity, kept him perfectly steady. He never lost his head. He called his three companions and they prayed,and the Lord revealed the thing to Daniel in the night season. "Daniel answered before the king." It is moral authority, ascendency, he is governing morally and again and again things were, so to speak, put into his hands. He became the moral ruler of the situation again and again. He ruled even from the den of lions, he was on top; he was on top of the king. The king morally groveled to this man more than once. And those three, where were they morally? Well, "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us... and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up? (Daniel 3:17-18). What is the result of that? Not that they are delivered from the fiery furnace - keep that in mind - not that God comes in and open a way of escape for them, but the Son of God associates Himself with them in the fire, and the result is that everything goes down before them morally and they come out as kings, they reign morally. You see the ascendency is a moral thing in the midst of this world-system, and government from the heavens morally. What is the secret of that ascendency which, in the sovereignty of the God of the heavens, brings the power into our hands? Go back to the first chapter of the book and you have the secret, the foundation secret: "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." It says: "But Daniel purposed in his heart"; it only says that about Daniel, but before you get through the chapter you find the other three are in the same position. It does not say they purposed,but it says Daniel purposed, and it is clear that Daniel's moral lead, moral stand, moral ascendency, brought his brethren alongside of him in fellowship in that testimony. Now there are two things there. I will mention the second first.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 9)