Factors in Our Relationship With God

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 5 - Sacrifice

Reading: Luke 9:57-62.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit. He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will the Father honor. Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again" John 12:24-28.

We have been occupied with some of the great factors in our relationship with the Lord. Four of those great factors have occupied us so far, the first being light, the second life, the third obedience, the fourth truth. Although there are others, and some which perhaps ought to be mentioned before we speak of the one which is in view in this chapter, we are compelled to leave those and come to what seems to be the final factor in this relationship, and one which runs through all the rest as a governing factor. It is the law of sacrifice. That indeed is a very important and a very great factor in our relationship with God.

We have sought in each connection to show that the thing which was in view was something which was in God Himself first. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." And in order that there shall be fellowship with God, we must also be light in the Lord; that we followed somewhat closely. God is truth; God Himself is the projector of obedience as a law. Everything first of all comes from God Himself. It is something which is a part of His own constitution, and for which He is jealous. If that is true in the matter of life, and light, and truth, and obedience, that is true, very true, in the matter of sacrifice.

God was the first one to ever make a sacrifice. God's Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. God came to His great decision about Calvary and the giving of His Only begotten Son before this world was; and everything that speaks of sacrifice had its origin in God. There have been many perversions of the law, the principle, the truth. Men have dragged this thing into the very depths of shame, of what is evil, but its original object, its original motive was in God. And God is seen to be all the way through the ages a God Who works out His purposes through sacrifice, Who reaches His end through sacrifice, Who triumphs through sacrifice. He makes it clear that we shall reach His end in no other way, and that for us, entrance into the full thought and purpose of God will be along the line of sacrifice.

Two things are always kept together:

Sacrifice and Glory.

You notice here in John 12 the Lord Jesus is speaking of Himself as the grain of wheat which shall fall into the earth and die. He immediately goes on to say: "He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve Me, let him follow Me". And this is particularly related to the Cross, this matter of following. You notice what immediately follows that: "Father glorify Your name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." The cross - the glory. There is no other way. There never was any other way. There never will be any other way. The way of reaching God's full thought and purpose and design is by the law of sacrifice. And when we speak of consecration to the Lord, we must ever remember that the instrument of consecration has always been the altar, which is always a symbol of the cross. The altar is the instrument of consecration, and we shall find that all consecration is tested by the altar.

This is not something about which to be afraid. This is the way not to loss, but to tremendous gain. This is not the way to final undoing, this is the way to final realization. Yet, at the same time, we must recognize that God's altar is not something upon which pieces are offered, but God's altar is something on which everything has to be placed. The covenant which God has made is just this: "My all for your all", and when you put those two things side by side, "my all" at its most, at its greatest, at its fullest, at its costliest, if you saw with your eyes the two side by side, oh how ashamed you and I would be that ever there was hesitation. The Lord never lets us see it beforehand, but He lets us taste some of it afterwards. And you will never find an instance in the Word of God, of God demanding the handing up of an "all", without finding the sequel to be that there was an infinitely greater return, and that there was a coming to the place on the part of the one so challenged and tested, where they would freely and gladly say that they would never have had it otherwise. They would never have held back; the issue has made the greatest sacrifice well worthwhile. God has never yet, and He never will be, in the position of a Debtor. God will always come out on the right side when it is a matter of balancing accounts. He will be overwhelmingly the Creditor no matter what His demands may be.

Now I want to try, by His enablement, to bring what I have to say, within the compass of as few words as possible, simply to emphasize the Lord's desire for full consecration in the light of His absolute consecration for us. He said: "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself". He has consecrated Himself - remember consecration is by the altar, and He was a whole burnt offering - and if you want to know what went on that altar, read again Philippians chapter two: equality with God, and rightful equality with God, put on the altar. The chief place in the Father's glory, put on the altar. The place where angels worshipped and obeyed, put on the altar. Yes, and in exchange, a place where men scoffed, smote, spat upon, and crucified. A place where all power was His in exchange for a place where He is crucified through weakness, put on the altar.

And so down, down, down from the heights of glory, each step meant putting something more upon the altar until His last rights were surrendered, and He came to the place of the deepest humiliation where He would not speak a word in His own defence or stretch out a hand for His own deliverance. He Who could rightly say: "Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?" was: "As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth." That was the kind of consecration: "For their sakes I consecrate Myself". All upon the altar; everything. With that in view He says to you and to me (and He has a right to say it): "Your all upon the altar"; "Your ALL upon the altar".

It is firstly a question of the ALL. The Lord wants everything. We may as well say that quite frankly and immediately. There is no need to delay it. The Lord wants everything, and the Lord cannot be satisfied with anything less than everything.

We spoke in chapter three about David and God's choice of David as the man who would do all His will, the man after God's heart who would do all His will. David represented the finality of God's requirement. When David's father, Jesse, brought his sons before Samuel, and the Lord said: "Not that one", and "Not that one", and all who had been brought were rejected, Samuel turned to Jesse and said: "Are here all your children?" and Jesse said: "There remains yet the youngest and, behold, he keeps the sheep." And it seems to me that even Samuel, in a perplexity, was not very hopeful, and he said: "Send and fetch him for we will not sit down till he come hither." The thoroughness of God was working in spite of Jesse's weakness, and in spite of Samuel's doubt and lost assurance the sovereignty of God was working to the remotest part of that family. And it is striking that it was just in that uttermost part which was being left out of account, that God found what He was after. And it is like that so often, that all the big things, the important things, are brought, all the things of which we would take account; the obvious things like the big sons of Jesse! They are brought, and God's purpose is not realised, and God does not get what He is after.

The whole purpose of God is still in suspense because some, perhaps remote, despised thing, something we would call insignificant, something we would judge as unimportant, has been left aside, and everything hangs upon that, and the challenge is: "Are here all your children?" "Are here all the big, important things?" No! "Are here all your children?" You see, God hangs everything upon all to the last finality. I am not sure, but I think, as I said earlier, that that is the right explanation of why Jesse did not bring David, and perhaps the explanation of that sinking note in Samuel when he said: "Send and fetch him; for we will not sit down till he come hither", that he was not taken very much into account, that David was the youngest, he was not one of these soldier men, these spectacular fellows; he was away there in the field.

Very often men's judgments are so different from the Lord's. We think God wants this and that and something else, and all the time God has His eye upon something that we do not take very seriously into account, and He says: "My whole purpose is held up because of that thing"; and it is that very thing about which we are speaking lightly. That thing, which to us does not represent a very great battle. It is something about which we say: "Well, there is not very much wrong in that...", and that thing is the hold-up of all God's fulness in our lives. God says: "Now spread it all out, a full sacrifice", and we say: "All right Lord, You can have this, and that", and we say we make a full surrender, and the Lord says: "Are here all your children?" And if we are honest in heart, we know that there is something back there, and on that thing, on that matter we have got a controversy with the Lord.

I have been reading the life of C. T. Studd and there is an account in that life of how when C. T. Studd, as one of the most popular men of his day, was brought to the Lord in Mr. Moody's mission. He and the other six Cambridge men consecrated themselves to the Lord for missionary work in China; and the "Cambridge Seven" as they came to be called, before going to China went about the country seeking to win especially university men for Christ. C. T. Studd and another brother went to Melbourne Hall where Dr. Meyer was the minister, and they stayed with Dr. Meyer; and he afterwards testified to the wonderful joy that marked these two men, their fulness of Christ, the radiance of Christ about them, and how they were simply burnt up with love and zeal for Christ.

He says that, as the grey dawn began to spread over the sky, through the shadows he saw flickering candles which had evidently been alight for some hours, and in the flickering light of the candles these two men were bent over their Bibles, and he was convicted of his own spiritual poverty, and began to be possessed of a great longing to have what they had. And he said to C. T. Studd: "What is the secret of your joy in Christ?" And C. T. Studd said to him: "Have you consecrated yourself to the Lord?" Dr. Meyer said: "Yes, I have in a general way." "Oh", said Studd, "you will have to do it in a particular way." And through deep exercise of heart, Dr. Meyer records his consecration in this way. He says: "I came to the place where I handed God an iron ring with the keys on it; the iron ring of my will, with the keys of my life upon it. And as I handed that ring of keys to the Lord it was as though the Lord stood back and I heard Him say to me: 'Are all the keys here?'"

And Meyer knew that he was found out. And he said: "All but one, Lord", and the whole issue was suspended. A long battle ensued. Dr. Meyer said: "Lord, You can have every room in my life, but that one; I cannot let that go." And so the thing which he desired was put back, and in desperation at last, before the Lord he said: "Lord, I am not willing, but I am willing to be made willing", and the Lord came in in a new way and it was not long before that key was in the Lord's hands, the last key, and all the chambers of his life were open to the Lord.

Yes, some of us know what that last key was. I know you are wanting to know. It might be helpful for you to know, it might spoil the whole thing, but I have had close fellowship with Dr. Meyer and I know: it was popularity as a preacher. He was not prepared to let that go, but he came to the place where that key was placed in the Lord's hands. Did F. B. Meyer lose as a preacher? That is the beginning of history, and that is why I mention it; all of you know there was a wealth from his ministry of spiritual power and fruitfulness which we can well see would never have been, but for that surrender. However, when the iron ring with all the keys, the last key, got into the hands of the Lord, then God's fulness of purpose commenced, but only then. "Are all the keys here?"

"My all is on the altar..." have you sung that? All the keys? Has God got all, full consent to every chamber of your life? Has He got you absolutely? Is there some compartment closed to Him? Is there something in your life over which you have argued, over which you have excused yourself, concerning which you have said to the Lord: "No, not that"? Are you the Lord's? So far as it is in your power to determine, is your home the Lord's, and is it being used for the Lord? So far as you are concerned, are your children the Lord's, given to the Lord for any purpose that He may have? Is your future put into the Lord's hands, to go anywhere in this world that the Lord wants to send you? And to stay anywhere where the Lord wants you to stay - which is sometimes harder than to go? Anywhere? Has the Lord got you for His will? Are the Lord's interests pre-eminent in your life?

What about those Sunday afternoons by the fire, when perhaps some interests of the Lord, if they were sufficiently upon your heart would cause you to say: "Well, Lord, I will gladly give up Sunday afternoon by the fire for those interests." Now, I can go over many, many things, and I might just miss the very thing. I must allow the Holy Spirit to make the application. All I plead with you to do is to come before the Lord, and say: "Lord, search me, try me, see if there is any way of grief in me." If you do not know, beloved, of anything that is closed to the Lord (and doubtless most of us, if only we knew it, still would have to have a battle on something if the Lord touched it) if you do not know, nevertheless, ask the Lord if there is anything. But oh, if you do know something that the Lord has asked of you, and you love it, you cling to it, you argue for it, perhaps you back up your argument by citing instances of others who were used of God who nevertheless did that and do that, the question is: what has the Lord said to you?

Have we a sufficient apprehension after all, of the greatness of His consecration on our behalf? Let us tell ourselves this, that anything that we hold back from the Lord, anything about which we do not make the fullest and freest surrender and consecration, represents in our lives a failure to apprehend the love of God for us, represents a minimising of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. For to recognize, to appreciate that at its right value would most inevitably result in saying: "Lord, I can hold nothing back from You when You have done that for me, I can hold nothing back." "Are here all your children?" "Are here all the keys?" Have you commenced with that which carries everything else? The will?

I tell you this (but I do not want you to do it because of this) the Lord may challenge you, and in the first instance it may represent terrific conflict, but when once you have definitely faced it, willing to be made willing, you will find it not so hard. It is that initial battle where, although as yet you cannot do it, yet you are willing by the grace of God, then you will find the thing to be not nearly so difficult as you thought it was going to be. You will find at one point the whole thing breaks down and goes through, but it is a facing, and the initial acceptance by the grace of God, "I am willing to be made willing." And then the exchange. The law of sacrifice is the law of glory.

I can close now. You must go on. You must apply. You must ask the Lord to apply. I have simply told you the Lord's position over this, and I can close by quoting words of Scripture that are familiar to many of you:

"Lay your treasure in the dust, and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks; and the Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver unto thee."

That is an exchange worth having; your treasure: the I AM.