The Overcomer (continued)
The Two Worships (continued)
It is the story of Elijah, fighting for the testimony in Israel in a day when the glory of God was hidden. On Carmel the great issue is the altar - the Cross, and the fire - the Spirit. The testimony is once more established in Israel; but the reaction of the powers of darkness is then through Jezebel to destroy the man who has restored the testimony. The issue in the word of Elijah is: "How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him" (1 Kings 18:21). You cannot divide the issue - it is one thing or the other. That is the testimony of God having His rights utterly and no one else getting a look in. And let the prophets of Baal, four hundred on the spot - there is a very deep principle involved, a deep principle. The destroying of the prophets of Baal is the outward demonstration of the spiritual principle that there can be no quarter given to that which is not against the Throne of God. Whether it be Agag (1 Samuel 15) or the prophets of Baal, the point at issue is God's rights. Is He having the worship and the honor and the glory in this universe?
That is a very brief survey, through the Old Testament, of the constant breaking in of this evil element along the line of worship.
The Depth of Calvary
Now, the Cross of the Lord Jesus gathered all this up, and "through the eternal Spirit" Christ secured the rights of God in His own Risen Person: so that "through the eternal Spirit" Christ met the whole of this thing in the universe at Calvary - He met it all.
Let us get behind Calvary, ever more and more behind, until we get to the ultimate. The Lord has led us by degrees deeper and deeper into the meaning of the Cross. There was a time when we thought that we had fathomed the Cross, when we saw the "old man" being dealt with, but we find that there are still ranges that we have not before seen. It was the Throne of God that Christ was standing for at Calvary; it was the ultimate and universal glory of God that He was fighting for in Calvary; and He met all this that was set against the Throne, and met it victoriously, and secured those eternal universal rights of God in His own Risen Person: which means that Christ Risen and Ascended has secured in His own Person all the rights of God for the glory of God for evermore. In the Lord Jesus God has His rights secured.
I hope the Lord enables you to enter into that. Jesus Christ, "Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself" (Hebrews 9:14), now standing in the Presence of God, has secured in His own Person all God's rights for ever, and the ultimate filling of the universe with the glory of God is secured in the Risen Person of Christ. There is no longer any doubt about the issue. God is going, without any question, to be universally worshiped, and the glory of God is going to fill the whole universe without any rival, because THE LORD JESUS is in the presence of God, victorious over every other thing that was against the Throne of God. This is something immense. He said: "Lo, I am come ... to do Thy will" (Hebrews 10:7), and the will of God done utterly is the recognition of the utter rights of God, and God becoming possessed of them.
When we talk about doing the will of God and wanting to know the will of God, oh, let us get the immense range of such words. The will of God means nothing else than that God shall be universally glorified and that He shall be the central object of worship in the universe. Read the Revelation again with that thought, and the book will become new. You will find then that the Book of the Revelation is the book of worship, and you will see that that worship, which is there in ever widening circles to the ultimate bounds of the universe - that worship is brought about by the Lamb, "through the eternal Spirit": the Lamb in the midst of the Throne.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 17)
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