This morning we come to what
I feel to be one of the most important messages that we have been
giving.
We have been seeing that the Letter to the Galatians is a concentration
of
the great change which took place with the coming of the Lord Jesus.
That
is, that the coming of Christ into this world changed the
dispensations,
and changed the whole nature of things. So that Christ stands as the
dividing of two whole systems. The whole system of Judaism which had
existed up to
the time of His coming was set aside when He came. From that time, as
He
said, a new order was introduced, and that is represented by His
repeated phrase, "The hour cometh and now is." Now this morning, we are
going to consider
the essential nature of that great divide. How the new dispensation and
the
new order differs from the old. This is a matter of supreme importance
for
us here this morning, and for all Christians if only they would accept
it,
because Christianity as we know it has been largely constituted on the
old
dispensation. The great difference between the old and the new has not
been
fully recognized. So let us get to business and try to understand the
difference
between the old and the new.
The obvious nature of the
old Jewish dispensation was that it was all in the realm of the natural
senses.
Firstly, it was in the realm of physical senses. Everything was a
matter
of seeing with the physical eye, of hearing with the physical ear, of
feeling
with the physical hand. It was something that could be touched,
something
that was tangible, something that you could put your hand upon. And
then
it was a matter of physical smelling. You see, the offering and the
incense were a matter of physical smelling. They could smell the sweet
incense. And
then it was a matter of physical tasting. All the feasts of the Jews
were
a matter of tasting. That needs no argument; that is perfectly clear
and
simple. To begin with, their whole system rests upon the physical
senses.
But it did not stay there,
it also went into the realm of the soul. We understand the soul to be
composed of three things, reason and emotion and will, that which
appeals to the natural
reason, and that which appeals to the natural feeling, and that which
appeals
to the natural will. So you see that body and soul governed everything.
God
gave them a tabernacle that they could see and handle; God gave them
the
incense that they could smell; God gave them the feasts that they could
taste;
however, they were blind to the meaning of these things. In brief, that
was
the nature of everything in the old Jewish system.
We pass over to see the difference in the new spiritual
order. What is the essential nature of that which has
come in with Jesus Christ? It is a spiritual order. It is no longer a
matter
of the natural senses. This whole new order begins at another point.
Now
we are keeping very close to the Letter to the Galatians. I suppose it
would
not be fair if I were to ask you how many have read the Letter to the
Galatians
right through this week. One of the advantages of knowing the Word of
God
is that you are able to see what is right. There are many other
advantages.
But in this Letter to the Galatians, the word "Spirit" occurs twelve
times,
and that is very largely the key to the letter. It is no longer after
the
flesh, it is now after the Spirit. This is essentially a spiritual
dispensation
that has come in.
You will remember our message
on the words of the Lord Jesus to the woman of Samaria. She had said,
'Men ought to worship in this mountain, and you Jews said, men ought to
worship in Jerusalem.' "Jesus said, 'Woman, believe Me, the hour
cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye
worship the Father... God is
Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."'
That
is the nature of what has come in with Jesus Christ. We know from the
Word
of God, and I trust from our own experience, that men are not born of
the
flesh in relation to God: But they are born of the Spirit. Not of a man
but
of the Spirit, that which is born of the Spirit, said, Jesus, "is
SPIRIT."
In the Letter to the Hebrews,
chapter twelve, the writer speaks of the Father of our spirits. He is
not
the Father of our bodies. He is not the Father of our natural souls. He
is
the Father of our spirits. We are going to come back to that later on.
But
what is it that happens when we are born of the Spirit? What really is
the
nature of the new birth? This is, of course, the very meaning of the
advent
of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came especially for the purpose of
creating a spiritual order of things. And He begins with the
individual. The word to
each individual is, "You must be born again," and that which is born of
the
Spirit is spirit. What then happens when we are born of the Spirit?
When
we are truly born of the Spirit, we receive a new set of spiritual
senses.
They correspond in purpose to the old senses. But they are spiritual
and
not physical.
We, by the Holy Spirit, receive
a new faculty of sight. You know how much there is in the New Testament
about having our eyes opened. Jesus pointed to this principle by
opening the eyes
of the blind. He was illustrating the great spiritual truth that in the
new
creation, we get a new faculty of sight. And every truly born again
child
of God ought to be able to say, "Whereas I was blind, now I see." The
truth
about a child of God is that their first thing is, "Now I see." They
have
received the faculty of spiritual sight. It goes by different names in
the
New Testament. Sometimes it is called spiritual discernment. Sometimes
it
is spiritual understanding. Sometimes it is spiritual perception. But
whatever
the name is, it means the same thing. I now see what I was never able
to
see before as to the true meaning of Divine things. I was born blind,
but
the Holy Spirit has performed the great miracle of giving me new
eyes.
This spiritual faculty of
sight has introduced us to a new world altogether, not the material
world,
but the spiritual world. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says about
this,
he says, 'Things which eye did not see, things which ear did not hear,
things
which entered not into the heart of man, these things God has revealed
to
us by His Spirit.'
The first faculty of new
birth is spiritual sight. Can you see the difference between the old
dispensation and the new? You see, Israel had all these things which
they could see with
their natural eyes. They could see the tabernacle or the temple. They
could
see the priests and the sacrifices. They could see the feasts. But they
were
totally blind to the meaning of those things. And because they were
blind
to the meaning, they crucified the One Who fulfilled them all. With all
their
power of natural sight, they were spiritually blind. So the first work
of
the Holy Spirit in new birth is to give us new spiritual eyes.
Not only is this true of
seeing, it is also true of hearing. In the old dispensation, they heard
everything with their natural ears; but they were quite deaf to the
Voice of God. It
did not go any further than the drums of their ears. Now in the new
order
of the Spirit, we are given a new faculty of hearing. We Christians
have
a way of saying, 'The Lord has spoken to me.' We do not mean that we
have
heard something with our natural ears. We know what we mean, 'The Lord
has
spoken to me. I have heard the Lord speaking in my heart;' that means
we
have received a new faculty. And this new dispensation is built upon
this
principle. When Jesus spoke His parables, He finished by saying this,
"He
that hath ears to hear, let him hear" (Matt. 11:15). And you know that
was
His Own Word to the seven churches in Asia. After He had spoken to
those
seven churches, He repeated seven times, "He that hath an ear, let him
hear
what the Spirit saith" (Rev. 2:7,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22).
But you must remember that
speaking to the churches was not with an audible voice. Those churches
did
not hear a voice from heaven with their natural ears. It was what "The
Spirit
saith to the churches." And spiritual speaking is spiritual. It is not
physical. We could illustrate this in many ways. We speak of spirit to
spirit speaking. We meet some other child of God, and we do not have to
say much with our lips,
but we know that is a child of God. Their spirit speaks to our spirit.
We
have a spiritual language. We know that we belong to the same family.
We
can discern the Spirit in one another. We have got this new faculty of
spiritual
hearing. It is not outward hearing, but it is inward hearing. And what
is
true of seeing and of hearing is true of all the other senses.
What shall we say about spiritual smelling? Do you know
what spiritual smelling is? Well, you have only got to go into some
atmospheres, no one has to say anything to you, but you sense
that something is wrong; you sense that it is not life here, it is
death.
This is not the Lord, this is man. This is not the Spirit, this is the
flesh.
You sense this with your spiritual faculty of smell. You may meet
another
person. You do not have to speak, or they do not have to speak, but you
know
that there is suspicion in that person. There is prejudice in that
person.
There is a closed heart in that person. They are not open to you, they
are
trying to deceive you, they are holding something back from you. How do
you
know it? You smell it. It is a spiritual sense. But it is a very
important
faculty. By this faculty we sense what is of the Lord and what is not
of
the Lord. You see, the incense in the old dispensation was a sweet
fragrance.
It was something very pleasant. The corresponding spiritual faculty of
smell
is, this is very pleasant. This is something very pleasing to the Lord.
This
is an atmosphere of life.
Therefore, it is a guiding
principle. When naturally you go into a place where there is a bad
smell,
you hold your nose and you say, let me out of this. This is unhealthy.
Your
nose may save your life from a fever. Your nose may save your life from
one of the bad diseases. And that is very true in the spiritual life.
If this spiritual sense of smell, or this faculty for spiritually
discerning were really keen and alive, we would know what is life and
what is death. We would
know what is spiritually healthy and what is spiritually unhealthy. I
am
not going to follow this further. I am just saying that when we are
born
again, we are given a new set of spiritual faculties. And just as the
physical
faculties governed in the old dispensation, it is the spiritual
faculties
which are to govern in the new dispensation.
If you will read the First
Letter to the Corinthians, you will see that that letter is built upon
this
very difference. The Corinthian Christians were living on the basis of
natural things, and they were not living on the basis of spiritual
discernment. So
Paul said to them, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit
of God." The natural man cannot receive those things, because those
things
are only spiritually discerned. And then he adds, "He that is spiritual
discerneth
all things, yet he himself is discerned by no man." He is the mystery
of
the world. A spiritual man and woman is a mystery to the world, they
just
do not understand. Paul illustrates it in this way, "What man knoweth
the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" If you and I
are
going to understand one another as human beings, we have got to be
human
beings and have human nature. Other orders of creation do not
understand
the human order. Men understand one another simply because they are
men.
Now Paul says in the same way, "No one understandeth the things of God
except
the Spirit of God that is in him."
Now I must get to perhaps
the most difficult part of it all. If you will look at the Letter to
the
Hebrews, we will come to it. Chapter four and verse twelve begins in
this
way, "For the Word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any
two-edged
sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both
joints
and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart"
(ASV). We can leave the second half of the verse for the present, and
just note this,
"The Word of God is quick, and powerful, piercing even to the dividing
asunder
of soul and spirit." You notice how that statement begins. It begins
with
a conjunction. It relates to something. It connects with what the
writer
has just been saying. What has he been saying? He has been speaking
about
Israel in the wilderness, and Israel's failure to enter into the
promise
land. And it says, "If Joshua had given them rest, he would not have
spoken
afterward of another rest." He is saying that Israel after the flesh
failed
to enter into God's rest. They failed to enter into that for which God
had
brought them out of Egypt. That whole generation with the exception of
two
men died in the wilderness. And they never did come into the purpose of
God
in their redemption. Now that is the statement, that is the background,
and
then you have this conjunction. For, or because, the Word of God is
living
and powerful, piercing to dividing asunder of soul and spirit. What
does
that mean? The Old Israel lived entirely upon the basis of the natural
soul.
They lived entirely upon the basis of these natural senses. Everything
for
them was a matter of what they could see and handle down here on this
earth.
Theirs was an entirely soul life. And the writer says, because of that
they
failed to enter in.
The Word of God cuts clear
in between the soul and the spirit. The new dispensation and the new
people
who are going to enter into all the purposes of God must be a spiritual
people, not a soulish people. They must be constituted on the basis of
what is spiritual
and not what is natural. This whole letter to the Hebrews is built upon
the
difference between the old and the new. It takes a lot of space to show
how
the old fails. The old law fails, the old priesthood fails, the old
sacrifices
fail, the old tabernacle fails, the old temple fails. It was complete
failure,
because it was built upon natural ground. The ground of the soul.
Now the new is not going
to fail, the letter brings in the new order. A High Priest is in
Heaven.
The One Sacrifice has been offered forever, and so on. It is all a
spiritual
order. And the Word of God divides between those two. When you get to
the
end of that letter to the Hebrews, to chapter twelve, the writer is
saying this, 'We have had fathers after the flesh, they chastened us as
it seemed right to them. And we gave them reverence.' I wonder if that
is true of all
of us. When our fathers after the flesh gave us a good thrashing, did
we
revere them? We did not say, thank you, we felt very bad about our
fathers after the flesh. When we grew up to be men, we said, 'Father
was right, that
chastening was the best thing for us.'
However, the apostle says,
'We had fathers after the flesh, who chastened us as they thought was
right
and good. And we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of our spirits?' The natural is down on that
level. The spiritual
is so much higher, the Father of our spirits! Is that what happens when
we
are born again? Not our souls born again, but our spirits. That
innermost
part of our being which died with Adam, was separated from God in
Adam's
sin. So that by nature all the children of Adam are dead in that
spiritual
sense. Our spirits died with Adam.
In Christ they are made alive
again. The new birth is not the new birth of our body. It is not the
new
birth of our soul, because we have got a soul. It is the new birth of
our
spirits. And God is the Father of our spirits. That is why I pointed
out
in the Letter to the Galatians - which marks the great divide - the
word
Spirit occurs twelve times. The Father of our spirits, then we are not
the
children of Abraham, we are children of God, and that is a very big
difference. You see, this is what Paul is arguing in the Letter to the
Galatians. He is
saying to these Galatians, "Oh! foolish Galatians, how foolish you are!
You
began in the Spirit, and now you are going back to the flesh, you came
out
of the old dispensation and out of the old order, you came into the new
life
of the Spirit, and now you are going back, you are going to forfeit
your
rest, the very purpose of your redemption. Oh! foolish Galatians, how
foolish
a thing it is to live in the old dispensation!"
But note this, dear friends,
the Christianity with which we are familiar is very largely constituted
on the old dispensation. It would take another hour to show that in any
fullness. But do you see how Christianity goes to work now? It begins
by building religious
buildings. They are called churches, of course, a false name entirely.
The
Church is not a building made with hands. And then they set up a
certain
order in it. And then they appoint certain officers to do the work.
When
they've got the building, and when they've got the officers, the
minister
and all the others, and when they have got their order of service, then
they
ask the Lord if He will come into it. The organization comes first. The
outward
thing comes first. It all builds upon the principle of the soul. It is
all
a matter of reason and emotion and doing. That is Judaistic
Christianity.
It is just the reverse with
God's method. Where does God begin? God does not begin with churches
even
if they are companies of people. He certainly does not begin with
buildings. And He does not begin with ritual, or with a system of
things. And He does not begin by calling a congregation together. A
congregation is not God's beginning. God begins by a work of the Holy
Spirit in individual lives. It
may just be one to begin with, and then another and then another. And
if
those two or three find themselves in one city, they are joined, not
because
they have accepted Christianity, but because they have the one Spirit
in
them. That is the beginning of the Church in that place.
And what is true of the beginning, has got to be true
of everything afterwards. Man's hands must be kept off the things of
the Spirit. Man must not try to form something that is of the
Spirit. The Holy Spirit, Who began this, is perfectly capable of
forming what
He wants. Hence our responsibility is to be led by the Spirit, to
always
seek the guidance of the Spirit. And until we are sure that the Holy
Spirit
is really guiding us, we keep our hands off. We will do nothing about
it.
This thing must be of the Spirit. This is the order of this
dispensation.
Do you see the difference
between the beginning and what we have today? In the first thirty years
of
Christianity, the Gospel spread all over the world that then was. There
were
churches in almost every country of the world. Thousands and thousands
were
joined to the Lord. It was a mighty thing. It only took thirty years to
do
that. We have had two thousand years since then. We have put multitudes
of
missionaries into the world. We have spent millions of dollars upon
this.
We have worked tremendously. In two thousand years, there is nothing to
compare
with those thirty years.
Why has it not continued?
Because they brought it all back again unto a soul basis and not unto a
spiritual basis. When things are out of the hands of men, and in the
hands of the Holy
Spirit, things happen. My great concern is that there should be
something like that here. That is what I have come to say to you. If
things are wholly of the Spirit, you will see something happen, the
enemy will be stirred up
against it. And that is always a good sign. If the devil feels that
there
is something that he has got to fight, he knows that means something
against
his kingdom.
So I must stop now. I have
not finished this part yet, we have another morning, but do not leave
it
till tomorrow morning. This is the word for us today. If I were to go
away
tomorrow, and never see you again on this earth, I feel that I have
spoken
to you the most vital word that could be spoken. This represents the
complete change from the old to the NEW, from the natural to
the spiritual in
the things of God, from the things which are of men to the THINGS which
are of God.
In
keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received
should
be freely given, his writings are not copyrighted. Therefore, we ask if
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