Transcribed from a message given
by T. Austin-Sparks in March 1960.
The spoken form has
been retained verbatim.
A few verses from two places, one in the Old and one
in the New Testament. In the Old, the first book of the
Kings, chapter 7:
"Solomon was building his own house thirteen
years, and he finished all his house. For he built the
House of the Forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was a
hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and
the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar
pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars. And it was
covered with cedar above over the forty and five beams
that were upon the pillars, fifteen in a row. And there
were prospects in three rows, and light was over against
light in three ranks. And all the doors and posts were
square in prospect, and light was over against light in
three ranks. And he made the Porch of Pillars: the length
thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth thereof thirty
cubits; and the porch before them, and pillars and thick
beams before them. He made the porch for the throne where
he might judge, even the Porch of Judgment; and it was
covered with cedar from floor to floor. And his house
where he might dwell had another court within the porch,
was of the like work. He made also a house for Pharaoh's
daughter, whom Solomon had taken for a wife, like unto
this porch. All these were of costly stones, even of hewn
stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from
the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside
unto the great court. The foundation was of costly
stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and
stones of eight cubits. And above were costly stones,
even hewn stones according to measure and cedar wood. And
the great court round about had three rows of hewn stone
and a row of cedar beams, like as the inner court of the
house of the LORD and the porch of the house."
The New Testament book of the Revelation chapter 21
verse 2:
"And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down out of Heaven from God, made ready as a bride
adorned for her husband."
Verse 10: "And he carried me away in the spirit
to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy
city, Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God,
having the glory of God. And her light was like unto a
stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as
crystal. Having a wall great and high, and having twelve
gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written
thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the
children of Israel..."
16: "And the city lieth foursquare, and the
length thereof is as great as the breadth; and he
measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand
furlongs; the length and the breadth and the height
thereof are equal."
19: "And the foundations of the wall of the
city were adorned with all manner of precious
stones..."
In
both of these representations we have that which is
symbolic of the place where the Lord delights and
purposes to dwell. The greater than Solomon is building His
House and a House also for His Bride. The King
is building the City where His throne is to be.
We
read carefully these descriptions of Solomons
buildings and of the new Jerusalem, the Holy City. We can
clearly discern three outstanding characteristics: one,
strength; the second, beauty; and the third, costliness.
These are the three major characteristics of
that in which the Lord will dwell. He is most concerned
for these things and He works with deep and patient
application to have them the expression of Himself, of
His own thoughts.
Strength!
Very evident in Solomons building, the element of
strength: those mighty stones, those weighty
stones and those great cedars of Lebanon. It is all the
impression of strength. Its taken a long time to
secure those stones, they have a long history, indeed it
might be impossible to trace the beginning of those
stones. That rock-like substance goes back a long way and
has a long history. Those cedars of Lebanon were not
planted yesterday, they speak of many a testing storm,
many a long year of growth. Theres nothing
superficial about these things, nothing light and fancy
about them, nothing will be able to carry them away;
theyll stand, theyll endure. They are the embodiment
of the very principle of patient endurance. There's
eternity in their very constitution. They have passed
through many a tempestuous testing; they are here in the
House because of that. The King will dwell there
because of that. They have been exposed to the elements,
they have never been coddled and covered and protected
from adverse elements; theyve been exposed to all
the forces that could destroy. Here we have
strength.
Look
at that mighty City. Twelve thousand furlongs does not
convey very much to our minds until we begin to sit down
and remember that this is a cube. When you sit down and
think about it, and I leave it for the mathematicians to
work it out; length, breadth, and height equal.
Today, day by day we are impressed, almost shocked, when
we read and hear of thousands of millions of pounds or
miles... You know, this City if you work it out, runs
into thousands of millions of cubits; thousands of
millions of cubits! I just mention it in order to
emphasize this fact of weightiness, the substantial, the
enduring aspect.
Dear
friends, I think I need hardly say any more, your minds
are interpreting and applying as I speak; isnt this
the history of the true people of God? Is it not? The
Lord does not put us in glass houses to grow us, to be
His trees; the Lord does not protect us from the storms,
the adversities; He exposes us to the bitter winds and
the scorching suns of adversity and trial. The Lord is
working in us that which is according to His own Nature
eternity, the enduring, the everlasting
God that which will not be easily or hardly
carried away. He is putting substance in you. Oh, today
we fear that the appeal to become Christians is so often
in terms of having an easy or a good time; being happy
and enjoying yourself; well, thank God for ALL divine
joy, but this is true to the House, to the City, that the
first thing the Lord is working toward and seeking to
work into His people is that substantial, steadfast,
enduring faithfulness that is according to His own
nature. Substantial! Oh for substantial Christians that
dont need coddling and nursing and running after
all the time; being pandered to to get them to go on or
stand up. Men and women like cedars of Lebanon; like the
hewn stones weighty, accountable, responsible to
carry weight and all that is meant by strength.
I
can only remind you again of what a large place that has
in the Word of God: be strong, be strong in the
Lord in the strength of His might, be strong in
the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Think again. Want to
understand why the winds are allowed to blow so
fiercely... the storms? To get us away from that natural,
easy-going-ness or cheapness, lightness, frivolousness
and to make us people of weight. Strength through
testing, through adversity strength... to endure
throughout all ages.
There
is much which is going to be carried away in the last
great testing, and if, therefore, trial and adversity is
the only way to deepen us, to put caliber into us, I
suppose we must expect more of it as the time shortens.
Beauty,
not staying to say much about it but it is so evident in
these representations, isnt it? Beauty. The Lord is
also at work in this matter. The Lord wants that which is
His dwelling place, the place that He is making for
Himself for His own habitation, to be attractive, to be
admirable, to be grand, to be something to be wondered
at. I suppose the one word that covers this whole sphere
of beauty is the word "grace". Grace! If
suffering is unto strength, then grace is unto beauty.
If
you and I have a true apprehension of divine grace, real
heart appreciation of the meaning of divine grace, there
will be something about us that is not ugly, repulsive,
but something beautiful, something mellow. Beauty is not
fierce. Beauty is not cruel. Beauty is not hard. Beauty
is in the right sense, soft. Perhaps mellow is the best
word. You and I as we go on with the Lord unto His end,
ought to be losing our natural hardness of judgment, of
word, of attitude, and taking on more and more of the
mellowness of grace. Look again at these descriptions,
perhaps particularly that of the City and see how outstandingly
is this characteristic of beauty.
Beauty!
Its a mighty thing, an almost over-awing thing in
its strength, its power to resist and endure and stand,
and yet it is one of those wonderful things about the
Lord, the Lord Jesus, and it's one of those wonderful
things about anything or anyone in whom He fulfills His
purpose is the combination of strength and beauty.
The balance of strength its not all strength
and its not all softness marvelous balance
in the Lord Jesus, look at Him! These two things brought
together... and that is what the Lord would have.
And
finally, costliness. How costly was Solomons
building, the gold of Ophir! There was a great, great
cost bound up with those houses that he built, with the
city, the foundation of the walls; all manner of costly
stones
something very precious, something very
valuable to the Lord. Here there is nothing cheap, there
is nothing cheap in what is of God. Remember
that! Everything that is of God is costly. It
has a great price attached to it. There is nothing here
contemptible, mean; it is the embodiment of suffering
costly stones.
Notice
that on these twelve foundations were the names of the
twelve apostles of the Lamb and the first was jasper,
clear as crystal. Who was the first of the apostles?
Simon Peter. Jasper, clear as crystal; all the mixture
has gone out transparent, clear but what
suffering! Look at him: he went out and wept
bitterly. Peter in his letters has quite a lot to
say about fiery trials to test us, to try us. Peter knew
suffering. Yes, but you see it produced something very
precious, valuable and costly to the Lord. Was it not
Peter who used that word, unto you that believe is
the preciousness
? If you again think
of the Lords ways with us, you cannot fail to see
that the Lord is prepared to use a lot of time and a lot
of energy and a lot of money in order to get essential
spiritual value.
Those
of you who have read the life of Madam Currie, the
discoverer of radium, will remember the tons and tons and
tons of stuff that men would call rubbish, heaped into
that backyard there; collected, collected tons
of it, you might say mountains of it, out of which to get
the tiniest grain of radium. When its all
reduced, just this little fragment of radium out of tons.
Ah, but look at the cost of radium in those days; look at
the power, the virtue in radium! The Lord seems like
that, He is prepared to use tons and tons and tons and
tons to get one fragment of this essential nature of
Himself: preciousness. It's intrinsic energy,
there is something about the nature of the Lord that is
tremendously potent; the potency of Truth, the potency of
Love, of God.
Now,
while the Lord wants us to be scrupulously careful about
money, our use of money, our care of money, He would
never for a moment be sympathetic toward carelessness in
that realm, He himself sometimes seems to draw upon the
resources, the material resources and the financial
resources, so fully, so deeply in order to turn to
account for some spiritual measure and this is what
Im trying to say to you. You and I must look at
everything in the light of spiritual value; that is how
He looks at it. Nothing with the Lord is of any value
only in so far as it results in something of Himself. You
may have your millions, I dont suppose any of you
have, but if you had your millions, that to the Lord is
nothing; He says, how much does that represent of Me? You
may have your little and have to look at every shilling
that you spend, but there may be, in your use of
it, something of the Lord, for the Lord and so the Lord
looks upon a widows mite in the light of spiritual
value, while He looks upon the Pharisees plenty
without one thought or word of pleasure. Its
everything in the light of spiritual value where the Lord
is concerned.
Think
of the matter of time, what a lot of time the Lord takes!
How we get upset over this matter of time... it is one of
our big problems that the Lord is so slow, waits so long,
takes so much time! Thats real trouble with us
isnt it? Always trying to hurry the Lord; no, if it
requires time to get what Hes after, He will take
eternity to get it, He will take a lifetime to get it.
You see, the whole thing with the Lord is just real
value, the cost of things.
And
we could speak much about suffering, much about
suffering... how much suffering the people of God know.
Its a problem, the sufferings of the Lords
people, but if Paul is right, heres the answer:
Our light affliction which is but for a
moment
and you can only talk like that if you
can see the other, the rest: that worketh for us a
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory eternal
weight of glory! That is the end, the object, the
goal. Our light affliction; it isnt light at all,
it is very heavy affliction unless we can see what the
Lord is after and then perhaps affliction will be seen in
a different way.
So
here we are: costliness. The Lord is after this true
value and when He gets that, these characteristics, when
He gets them - strength and beauty and real
preciousness, costliness - the process will be fully
justified.