by T. Austin-Sparks
Conference messages given in August 1953. Edited and supplied by the Golden Candlestick Trust. Some of these messages are also available in audio with transcripts under the title, "The Recovery of the Lord's Name". A précis of the conference was published in the Sep-Oct 1953 magazine "A Witness and a Testimony" titled, "The Altar and the Name".
The all-inclusive and dominating factor in the Bible - which is the book of human history in relation to God - is the glory and honour of God's name. It is for this that God is supremely jealous. Weakness, poverty, smallness and ineffectiveness of spiritual life can be mainly traced to an inadequate or misdirected motive. The appeal is so largely made on the basis of the advantages which will accrue to those appealed to. It is their good, their blessing, and their gain which is emphasised as the reason for a response. Salvation, peace, joy and heaven are the enticements and the rewards offered. Usually it is the Saviour before the Lord. The New Testament preachers did not put it that way. Their preaching was always related to the Person and the place - the rights - of Jesus as Lord. "We preach... Christ Jesus as Lord" (2 Cor. 4:5). "He is Lord of all" (Acts 10:36). By the altar we mean the Cross. The Cross and the Name are joined - "obedient unto death, yea, the death of the Cross. Wherefore also God... gave unto Him the name which is above every name" (Phil. 2:7-11). The altar and the Name. It is impressive and significant how these two things are repeatedly linked together in the Scriptures.
