The Victory That Overcomes

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 5 - The Three Pillars of Faith

We are thinking of faith at this time, mainly in connection with our life in relation to the Lord and all that it means and all that it requires, and our relationship with the Divine purpose. These two, of course, must not be separated. They are one, for our union with the Lord is unto His purpose. And yet they are two phases of one thing. There is the personal walk with the Lord, which is a walk and a life of faith in all its elements. Everything which has to do with our going on with the Lord in the growing knowledge of Him, in the development of our spiritual lives, all this is a matter of faith. And, on the other hand, there is the more active feature or character of our lives with the Lord as we are workers together with Him concerning His purpose. Usually we call that "service". Unfortunately, service has become in many minds something rather set and related to certain forms of expression. I think the word "vocation" would be very much better.

As we see this relationship with the Lord in His Word in life and in purpose, we see that there are at least these three things which undergird its faith, which are the pillars of its faith.

1. The Exaltation of the Lord

As far as I can see, everything begins with that. There will be no triumphant living, and there will be no triumphant serving apart from a recognition and realisation that the Lord is exalted, that the Lord is on the throne. The prophet Isaiah brings out this first great factor in a life association with the Lord and His purpose, and it is presented to us in the portion of his prophecy so well known, marking chapter six: "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple."

"I saw the Lord, high and lifted up"! That is the key to everything. Victory is bound up with that primarily. The Lord's commission to His disciples was based upon that: "All authority is given unto Me in heaven and in earth; go ye, therefore...". When Stephen was put to the final test, the supreme test, he triumphed on that: "I saw the heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." When Paul was called into relationship with Christ for life and apostleship, for his great vocation, it was all founded upon that. He saw the Lord exalted, Jesus in the glory. When the apostle would seek to save a widespread company of believers from a vital backward step into mere symbols, types, pictures, illustrations, away from the realities, he based the whole of his mighty appeal upon: "we see... Jesus... crowned with glory and honour" (Heb. 2:9).

Isaiah won through; Stephen won through; Paul won through; and all who have ever won through have won through by a faith which was, first of all and above all, supported by the exaltation of the Lord, resting upon the fact that the Lord is the Lord, high and lifted up over all, blessed for ever.

That is simple. That is not fresh information, but it is as well for us to know that upon which we proceed from this time, and it has to be settled in our hearts. There are other times when it is not quite so easy to rest our faith implicitly upon the fact that the Lord is on the throne, the Lord reigns. That is the first pillar of faith. Faith cannot be sustained apart from that. Faith will crash if that pillar is not erected and established.

2. The Sovereign Providence of the Lord

If you like to make two words of it, instead of a compound word, say the sovereignty and the providence of the Lord. Jeremiah, as among the prophets, brings this into view. "The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee I knew thee, before thou camest forth I sanctified thee; I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations." That is sovereignty. "Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child; for to whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go, and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid because of them; for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." (Jeremiah 1:4-8). That is the providence. The sovereignty is in the Lord choosing whom He will. The providence is the Lord choosing that which men would never choose and equipping those who are naturally unequipped.

This is developed in a statement familiar to us in the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians. "God hath chosen the weak things of this world... the foolish things... the base things, and the things which are not." That is sovereign-providence.

Go back to Moses as another illustration. "Come now and I will send thee", said the Lord. Moses objected. "I am not eloquent." The Lord said, "Who made man's mouth?" (Ex. 4:11). "You are not eloquent! I do not say you are, but if your mouth is not eloquent, I made it, and I have chosen an ineloquent mouth in order that what comes out of it shall not be man's eloquence but My Word!" Man's eloquence very often gets in the way of God's Word. There is a great peril, a tremendous snare, about natural eloquence. It may not all be to the good to have natural facility of speech. It may be very much to the glory of God if the Lord puts a word into the mouth of one who is naturally hesitating, without the gift of language. There is sovereignty even in a mouth made without ability to speak for God themselves when He puts His word into that and takes up that one and provides what is necessary for the fulfilment of the ministry. That is providence allied to sovereignty.

"Say not, I am a child. Do not stand on that ground in your objection. I know exactly what you are. I know you are a child. Nevertheless, I have chosen you. Before you were born, I chose you, in sovereignty I chose you, and now, being what you are, I equip in providence".

You remember what was said of the twelve. "They took note of them that they were ignorant and unlearned." We read that they were all amazed and astonished, absolutely defeated in every attempt to explain this thing on natural grounds. That is sovereign-providence. That is a pillar of faith, and faith has to rest upon the sovereign-providence of the Lord.

You and I may very often have complained and even fretted over the lack of natural equipment for the work to which God has called us, and we may have told the Lord He had made a mistake and chosen the wrong man or the wrong woman. He needed someone with better equipment than we have. Well, if the Lord has called, if we know, after all argument, that we are where we are not by our own choice or forcing in or persistence, but because it is the Lord Who has done it, we have to hand over all those other elements to the Lord and say, "Lord, You know what You have chosen in Your sovereignty, and You must make provision accordingly!" Faith must settle it that while we keep within our measure and do not try to do the thing the Lord has never called us to, the Lord sovereignly will provide unto the fulfilment of all that to which He has called us. We shall have to settle that.

I do not know whether you have had any controversy with the Lord on that ground. I know I have told the Lord scores of times that He had the wrong man, He had made a tremendous mistake, and it was So-and-so He needed for the work that I was attempting to do. The Lord has simply made it perfectly clear to me that if I am going to stand on that ground, there will be a standstill. The Lord says, "If you make that the ground, the criterion, I cannot go on! Are you prepared to trust Me with what you are, or what you are not, and let Me meet all the demands?" When faith settles that matter and rests upon the sovereign-providence of God, then the Lord goes on, and we make wonderful discoveries.

3. The Energy of the Lord

Among the prophets Ezekiel is the one who brings this into view. You cannot get away from the element of energy in Ezekiel's prophecies. You find it is tremendously bound up with those prophecies. The first chapter is a chapter of tremendous energy. Here are these wheels, and eyes, and wings, and the spirit, and there is a tremendous, irresistible straight forward drive, and on the basis of that there comes the commission. "And He said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee. And the spirit entered into me when He spake unto me, and set me upon my feet" (Ezek. 1:1,2). That is not a man on his back; that is not a man prostrate; and yet this is not a man standing in his own energy, his own self-sufficiency; it is a man on his feet by the energy of the Lord. And when he got there, on his feet by Divine energy, the Lord said: "Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to nations that are rebellious, which have rebelled against me: ... thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them" (Ezek. 2:3-5). From that point it is tremendous energy. Ezekiel has to rest all the way through upon the energies of the Lord.

We know how true it was in other cases among the Lord's servants. Look at Paul. How often he uses the very word energy, translated in our English version as "work" or "works" or "worketh". "It is God that worketh in you...". The Greek word is ἐνεργέω, 'energeo'. "It is God who energises in you both to will and to energise for His good pleasure, according to the power that worketh (or energises) in us." "Striving according to His energy which energises in me mightily". It is a worthwhile study to go through with that word.

Paul rested his faith upon the energy of the Lord. But, of course, all those who have known the Lord truly have done so. I have no strength! I have no energy! Are we to stay there? Is that to be the end? If so, well, the measure of our effectiveness will be the measure of our energy; and yet if we have got energy of our own there will be very little real spiritual effectiveness. When we recognise that it is the Lord's energies which are the basis of all effectiveness in life and service, then in weakness His strength is made perfect, and we proceed accordingly. We act upon that. We do not yield to how we feel, but we move in faith in the energy of the Lord. Then things beyond our imagination, beyond our ken, will be accomplished.

Take these three things with you. Go back to difficult places to live and serve. Set up your three pillars and let your faith rest heavily upon these things: the exaltation of the Lord, the sovereign-providences of the Lord, and the energy of the Lord. You will overcome through faith. This is the basis of the faith which overcomes.