The Israel of God (Transcript)

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 7 - The Object of His Travail

If I bring to you a number of fragments of the Word of God, it is not because I am going to say a lot to you, indeed, the message will lie deeper than anything that can be said. And I shall only do perhaps little more than make some statements, and leave the Lord to speak out of those statements in your own hearts.

The passages are these, and first of all, the one that has been running right through this whole conference, Isaiah chapter 53 verses 10 and 11: "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; He hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied".

Chapter 66, 66 of Isaiah, and verse 8: "Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children".

The prophecies of Zechariah, chapter 1 and verse 14: "So the angel that talked with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy".

Chapter 8 verse 1: "And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath".

The letter to the Hebrews chapter 12, verse 22: "But ye are come unto mount Zion"

"I am jealous for Zion"; "Ye are come unto mount Zion".

The gospel by Mark, chapter 14 at verse 34: "And He saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death... And He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; remove this cup from Me: howbeit not what I will, but what Thou wilt".

The letter to the Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 25: "Christ... loved the church, and gave Himself up for it".

All these passages, in principle and in ultimate meaning, relate to one thing. And in them and by them certain things altogether inexpressible, incomprehensible, are brought to our hearts. In the first place, do you notice they all have to do with the travailing love of God in Christ, the passion of God in Christ. And therein lies the mystery of the infinite value of the object of His travail.

There just must be something that justifies it; there must be something of preciousness to Him that would lead to this, to this: the travail of His soul. "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. I am jealous for Zion with a great jealousy... I am jealous for Zion with a great wrath." This stirring of the heart of God to its very depths, something of infinite preciousness and value must be in view.

Of course this is all centred in the Cross, as we know. The Cross links with that of eternal, supreme importance to the Son of God; it links with His inheritance in the saints. It is not a thing, it is not some inanimate, insentient "thing"; it is quite clearly a heart-relationship - something of the nature of things that just tears your very being to pieces. It is not an objective interest in something; some thing. Here it is a very part of Himself. That is borne out, as you will see, by these Scriptures.

A Part of Himself

Not to have that would mean, well, a very part of Himself would be missing. It's a heart matter, it's a soul matter; it's something that touches all the sensibilities of God. It's like that, a living thing. Paul speaks of it as corresponding to the wife. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it", and the law that governs that relationship is: "And they twain shall be one flesh". Divide them, and you tear one thing apart and in pieces and that's the relationship here but, of course, such a character that transcends any human analogy; the eternal is here.

Well, my statement is that all this, about His travail, His anguish, His love, His suffering, implies at least, if it does not declare with a very loud voice, that the object of it all is of infinite value to Him. What is it? "He shall see His Seed... He shall see of the travail of His soul." It is this of which we have been speaking all through this conference; this that is represented by that phrase, "His Seed" - a people for Himself. It's beyond us, altogether beyond us. We might, we might hear it, and have some kind of an objective acceptance of it as truth, yes, but dear friends, this comes to us, to you, to me. We're in this - the infinite preciousness and value that you and I are to Him. I say it's beyond us. And that's one thing (I don't know about you, but I know very well about myself over this) the one thing that is the greatest difficulty to believe, when it comes to myself. Yes, it's quite so. Perhaps there are two things, in the main, that constitute our difficulty in believing a thing like this.

The first is just:

What We Are in Ourselves.

We know ourselves: our sinfulness, our worthlessness. We really - and it's not put on, it's not language, not feigned, or pretended, it's really true - when we know our utter worthlessness, and we do come to know it and feel it, how abjectly worthless we are; you tell me that all this, all this is true? And that relates to and applies to me, to you? Ah, you're presenting me with a problem; you're calling upon me to believe something that's not easy to believe! But, you see, I could work that out in the Bible and show how, after all, it is so.

I wonder what is the most comforting fragment to you in the Bible? May I tell you what it is to me? "This is a faithful saying... that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief" - brought right down to the personal. What a [view]. Yes, there are lots of comforting things in the Bible, but that, that, you can't get deeper than that, you can't get behind that. It's here, there it is! All this infinite passion and travail for such as we! The Bible says it! The Bible says it, [focussed down]. Now, I told you I couldn't define or explain, I'd make statements, but there it is. And that is one reason why we find such difficulty in believing and accepting.

The other probably is the mystery of God's ways with us. So often, in the mystery of His ways, we are sorely tempted to wonder whether anything like this can be true. It may be true of some people, but all His ways with us don't seem to bear it out at all. A love like this? A love like this? Unto death? An estimate and value of a soul to this degree? Really, really is that borne out by the strange, mysterious dealings of God with us? Those darknesses, those perplexities, those problems, those disappointments and all of it... oh, satan is always at our elbow to say, "That's not His love for you!"

Dear friends, I am not here to argue that out philosophically, or even from the Scripture; I am here to make the statement: the Bible says.... Here it is! What is all this? Here it is: all this about the travail of His soul, what is it for? His Seed. Who are His Seed? Those who have believed on Him unto eternal life. No more than that, no less than that. And they become enwrapped in this, this unspeakable thing: His soul's travail.

Oh, that we could believe it, that I could believe it at all times, that in all the mystery of His ways, the strangeness of His dealings, in all the bewilderment and perplexity as to what it is that He's after, I could believe that behind it is such a love as this!

You notice the second thing - again, only a statement.

The Infinite Suffering Behind Our Belonging to the Lord

The infinite suffering behind a soul's salvation, and that soul that might be yours or mine. What suffering! What suffering! Peter draws this contrast: "We were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold... silver and gold, but" here's the contrast: "with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot and without blemish".

And you know that the word "blood" is a simile for "soul". When He poured out His blood, He "poured out His soul unto death". The soul is in the blood in symbolism, Biblical symbolism. His soul! Here it is set forth as infinitely, transcendently more precious than gold or silver; and He has given that for our redemption! That soul travail lies behind your belonging to the Lord, and my belonging to the Lord.

What I am trying to do is redeem this whole thing from cheapness. We have made salvation too cheap and too easy; pulled it down to such a low level. Here is the infinite cost and suffering which lies behind the salvation of one soul.

Further, the infinite love therefore, which Christ has for His own when He has got them. Paul seems to make some tremendous statements. Sometimes they almost sound like exaggeration: "Who shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus?" and then he catalogues every conceivable thing that might be thought to be capable of doing that. And he says, "No, no!" Bunching them all together, he says: "Nay, nay, I am persuaded that none of these things; in them all and over them all, the love will triumph" - the love that He has for those who are His own, when He's got them. It's a tremendous thing, isn't it?

You know, it's not only to have them, but when He's got them, sometimes we are prepared to believe, or think and accept, that the gospel of our salvation is based upon all this to get us; and then as we go on a bit, we wonder, we wonder whether He still loves us as much now as He did at the beginning, whether He is still as concerned to have us now as He was then. It's like that. Am I talking of something that I ought not to be saying? You know what I mean, and when He's got us it's like that.

You know there's a wonderful picture of this in the Old Testament, in that temple that Solomon built - the most magnificent structure that perhaps was ever built up to that time. And the predominant feature of that temple was gold: overlaid with gold, pure gold. Everywhere: gold, gold, over everything. It's something that the Lord has got at last, which in symbol and type is what He had set His heart upon. It was only in symbol and type, nevertheless, it's true to principle. At last the Lord has got what He's been working toward all the time with His people: a place in which He can dwell. And everywhere it's simply covered and smothered with gold and gold is always a figure of the Divine love. He's got it! It's to Him precious; far more precious than gold. It's the preciousness of what He's got when He's got it to Himself and He writes it everywhere lavishly. Oh, the lavishness of that gold in the days of Solomon! It's all love, God's love for and in what He has got when He's got it! No, His love doesn't change after He has come into possession. It's the same. I make the statement, I can't explain it, but there it is.

So we are led to this next thing.

The Infinite Importance Attached to the Church

If the church is only another word or title for His wife, His bride or His temple - they are all in reality the same thing - and then they all come into this: the infinite importance attached to the church. A lot of people, I'm afraid, think that "church" is "teaching". It's what they call "church teaching".

You know, there's nothing that makes me shudder and my skin go more goosey than when I hear people use that phrase, "church teaching"! I have even heard people speak about "the church teaching of Honor Oak". "Church teaching"! The Lord pity us, the Lord save us!

The church is not a truth, it's not a teaching, it's not an idea. The church is a Gethsemane. The church is a bloody sweat. The church is a Golgotha - the church is a Golgotha! The church is the cry of a broken heart from the Cross. The church is the pouring out of His soul unto death. The church is the great sob of God in this universe.

Now, I am not exaggerating, that's not just words. I take you to the prophets, and I will show you there that all that is true. Oh, go back to some of those prophets and hear them! If you don't hear the sob of God as they speak, "Oh Ephraim... Oh Ephraim... How shall I give thee up?" And they wept and cried over the Lord's people, as an unfaithful bride, a wayward daughter, a prodigal son, a family repudiating the best of fathers. These are similes on the lips of the prophets about the Lord's people and God is broken hearted, just broken hearted. Don't talk about "church truth", "church teaching". Oh, no. "Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it". "I am jealous for Zion", it's only a title for the church, "with a great jealousy... with a great wrath".

Dear friends, we are not here to give church teaching and church truth. We've seen something. We've seen something! It's not just a subject of interest to which we return again and again. Oh no, this is something of a burden on our hearts and a passion in our lives for which we suffer not a little. It's not for the "truth", if it were just a "teaching", well, we wouldn't go on and go through with it.

He loved the church. The infinite importance to Him of His church. Again I say, I cannot explain it; but there's the truth. Oh, that you and I could see through the truth and the doctrine and the teaching, just see the reality, and see that this is the thing involved in that ruptured heart, in that agonised cry, in that sweating, as it were great drops of blood. It's the church that's involved. That's not a "thing", that's not a "theory", a "line of truth". That's something tremendous.

Then, what does it lead to? Finally:

The Infinite Motive for Our Response to the Lord.

A first response, yes, if there's someone who has not made the response to begin with. There's an infinite motive why you should - no less a motive than all this. The infinite motive for our response as His people to Himself on all matters. Why should I settle any controversy with the Lord on any matter? Why should I set aside my own personal interests? Why should I just believe that? Why, why? Why not? In the light of this, is there anything really, really that you can set against this? There's an infinite motive for our going on with the Lord, for responding, being obedient, giving Him everything.

And it's the infinite motive of service. Why should we give Him our life in service? Just for this, for this reason. You know, in those first days of the Moravian brethren, when everything was so pure, so true, the Lord used them so tremendously over this world. Oh, what a wonderful thing happened! John R. Mott said at the Edinburgh Conference in 1910, that if the Christian church had proceeded on the lines of the Moravian Brethren, the whole world would have been evangelised long ago. Yes, a wonderful story, a wonderful story of sacrifice, of suffering, of giving themselves. One missionary for every ten members of their fellowship. A wonderful thing.

What was the secret? They had a motto. They had a motto, it was written on everything and they took it wherever they went. And their motto was this: "To win for the Lamb that was slain the reward of His suffering." That's the infinite motive: the reward of His suffering for the Lamb that was slain.

I made my statement, that's all. It's altogether beyond us; but there it is, this is what is here. Isaiah 53 is that, and all these other things. If this is true, He's not going to give us up very easily; He is not going to abandon and forsake His purpose. He is going to return to it again and again. He will say: "I have returned unto Zion" - He will come back again and again and again for what He has set His heart upon. But oh, may we have in our hearts something of this same love of God shed abroad by the Holy Spirit.