From the cross to glory (3)

The Christian walk exemplified in the Old Testament patriarchs.

Hoseah Wu

For God to restore the creation back to Himself, He first needs to restore us: - the church. When the church is fully restored, then God will restore the creation back to Himself. We are the key vessel, the main instrument in God’s hand for the full restoration of creation. Those who were in the ark, are found in Ephesians 1:10. In the fullness of the dispensation, God will gather up all things in Christ Jesus, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. So then, in the ark, everything is restored back to God.

When we seek to fulfill God's testimony on earth, that testimony is not only to be fulfilled in our midst. Remember it is not only for us, the people of God, but it must eventually include all of creation. So we have a tremendous responsibility to fulfill our calling.

Thank God, our faith for that restoration is on a sure foundation, because what God desires to secure for Himself, He has already secured in His Son. The one ministry of the Holy Spirit is to reproduce Christ in us, because the testimony is not us, but Christ in us. How we need to allow the Holy Spirit to do a real work in our lives both individually and collectively, as a church!

Abraham

Let’s have another look at Abraham.  In the life of Abraham, through his faith and obedience, and God's dealings with him, God's purpose was that in the end Abraham could testify as to what God the Father is like. When we see Abraham, we see the love of God, because when, at the end of his life, he offered up his son Isaac, he was giving everything back to God. He did not hold anything back for himself, he lay everything down on the altar; He recognized that God Almighty, the God of glory deserves everything, and he was willing to give everything back to God.

True worship is to give back to God all that he has already given to us. In Romans 8 there are those wonderful verses that God loved us so much that he did not hold back anything for himself.  And Abraham was a testimony of God’s love. He put his son on the altar as a burnt offering. Abraham's testimony is that God so loved us that He gave His all to us.

In every local fellowship, we need brothers and sisters who know something of God’ s love, and who are willing to let that love have its expression. Just think; without that love, there would be no conference. Behind this conference, there are lives laid down, lives given back to God. God’s work cannot be done without love and without the laying down of lives.

Thank God for this conference, because there is love for God behind it, there is the love of God for His people and love for the testimony of God in His people. And the love of those who have laid down their lives for this conference, has often been unseen. People don’t see it, but God sees it. Because when Abraham offered up Isaac there were only two of them there on that mountain; only two knew what was going on. So we thank the Lord for the love and the lives laid down.

Isaac

Now we’ll have a quick look at Isaac. Isaac speaks to us of the resurrection life, as he was placed on the altar, and was symbolically dead. But God raised him from the dead. The life that is given to us is Christ’s resurrection life. When we have this life of resurrection, as brother Sparks has said, ‘death is history’, because God is the God of the living, not of the dead.

Isaac speaks of resurrection life. This life is an ascended life, a life of fullness.  You find that all Isaac did was to dig wells. And when he was digging those wells, he had conflicts. People quarreled with him; they opposed him and fought against him. However, he did not give up, because when you do not give up, it means that you are living an ascended life, because you know that you are on top. The real ascended life means that one day your natural life is willing to submit to the life of the spirit. What does an ascended life really mean? It means that you are above and when your spirit is above, your flesh becomes its servant and you can then fulfil and express God’s will.  God needs to restore that ascended life, that abundant life, in the church. That life is an overcoming life.  

There are many difficulties and obstacles that need to be overcome, because what God desires, our enemy, Satan, opposes. However, thank God, because of the resurrection, we are on the winning side; our victory is now assured, because Christ is now in glory.

Jacob

Let’s quickly look at Jacob. Jacob speaks to us of transformation. Abraham tells us of the love of God as our Father. Isaac speaks of God the Son, of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ, a life of fullness, a life of triumph, the life of ascendency. That is the life of Christ that is now given to us. So we dare to overcome and not to be defeated, because that life now dwells in us. The Epistle of John tells us that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. And thank God for all those promises which the Holy Spirit wants to make real in our experience.

One of the crises of Jacob is that he wrestled with God.  When he wrestled with God, God said that Jacob won. There is nothing wrong with that. Do you want God for yourself? Do you want to win Him for yourself? Yes, because God has made Himself so available to us, and he wants us to gain Him. However, before we can gain Him He has to defeat us. Unless God has conquered us first, we cannot gain Him.

In the magazine Living Waters there are some articles by Harry Foster, who was an early co-worker of Austin-Sparks. He has written many lessons for children; He is an excellent teacher. I personally know him and his wife; both have been in our home. He wrote a devotional book about all the  characters of the Bible. In that book, he says that Jacob was blessed because he was glad that God defeated him. God conquered Jacob for Himself. God took possession of Him, and if God takes possession of you then you have everything. It was not only that God conquered him, but he agreed to be conquered by God. What do I mean? That once we are conquered, we must surrender to Him. A person may have been conquered but they do not want to give themselves to Him.

Let me give a concrete illustration. During World War II, I was in the Philippines. Before the Japanese invaded this territory, it belonged to the United States. But because the American troops were not prepared for war, the invasion took them by surprise. There was a very famous general, General Douglas MacArthur. When the Japanese arrived, General MacArthur escaped in a submarine. However, he went away with a mission, and before leaving, he said to the Philipinos: "I shall return." And, do you know, they all lived with that hope. Every day, the Philipinos were asking themselves: "When will General MacArthur return to liberate us from the evil domination of the Japanese empire?".

I was there for those three years during the Japanese occupation, and I witnessed the suffering of the people. Unimaginable things happened. In 1944 the Americans started the invasion of the Pacific, and soon recovered the Philippines. So when we saw the soldiers coming in with their tanks, there was a tremendous celebration. Some months later, the Japanese surrendered, and in Tokyo they signed the document of unconditional surrender. Officially, Japan had surrendered; however, there were many soldiers hiding in the jungle who refused to surrender.

Do you see? Officially, we surrender; however, in practice, we may be unwilling to surrender. There on that cross, His love has already conquered us. It is done, settled. However, we do not realize it and we are not willing to surrender. The sooner we surrender, the sooner we recognize Him and make Him Christ and King over our lives.

We know that after that wrestle, God touched Jacob's thigh, and he became a cripple. Becoming lame or crippled by God is the way to be fully blessed by God. When we realize that we cannot walk by ourselves, then we lean on Him.

Spiritually, we all need to be crippled. Then we will lean on Him for the rest of our lives and we will be blessed for the rest of our lives. We cannot let Him go; we need Him at every moment. Without Him we cannot take one step forward. Every step forward is by his grace and power. And those of you who have a history with the Lord, every time you move forward you say “it’s His doing”. It is the work of God by His grace. May the Lord make all of us crippled spiritually; then He can manifest his power in us and guide us in the way we should go.

Brothers and sisters, are you conquered? Thankfully, on the cross, we were already conquered. But now we should be able to confess: "Lord, you have conquered me!".

Joseph

This morning I want to talk about Joseph. Every time that I come to read the account of Joseph, I can’t put it down, because it’s such a beautiful and touching story. Joseph's story takes up many chapters in the book of Genesis. The creation takes up only about two chapters. There are a few chapters for Isaac and Jacob. But from chapter 28 onwards, it is all to do with Jacob’s family, and Joseph has a very prominent part.

Let me share with you some unique features that we find in the character of Joseph. I’m not going to talk about his dreams, which you know about. Because of them, his brothers hated him, and even his parents did not understand him completely. But one of the characteristics of Joseph is that he had a close connection with his father. He was very close to his father, he was the father’s beloved and the father made him a special robe to wear. This was an outward sign; but if we read the account, we see that there is a close heart to heart intimacy between Jacob and Joseph.

Joseph was at that time about seventeen, and was keeping the flock with his brothers. He would come home and confide to his father the bad things that his brothers were doing. Now this wasn’t gossiping behind his brothers’ backs, but it was in love with the hope that his brothers would do what is right.

There is a right concern for our brothers and sisters. When we see that something is wrong, it should not be for condemnation or criticism, but to pray for restoration. We all have faults, nobody is perfect, and we need the Lord to correct all of our faults. However, Joseph's brothers did not appreciate him. They hated him but even so, his love for them never changed. That's why Joseph is a perfect type of Christ in his love for his father and his love for his brothers.

You remember that on one occasion when the father called Joseph, he immediately replied: "Here I am." In other words, he was always ready to respond to the will of his father. It was the same when God spoke to Abraham, he responded: "Here I am." They were ready and they had a hearing ear. That attentive listening ear comes from a heart that is ready to obey; these two things go together. Where there is a willing, hearing ear, it is because there is a willing, obedient heart.

Joseph already knew that his brothers hated him. His father sent him to go and see how they were doing, but Joseph couldn’t find them. Knowing that they hated him, he could have returned with an excuse, saying: "You sent me to check up on them, I looked, but I didn’t find them; my mission is accomplished. " However, while he was wandering around and looking, someone asked him, "Who are you looking for?" and he said, "I’m looking for my brothers." They replied, "I heard that they went to Dothan." So Joseph went there to find his brothers.

This is just a perfect figure of our Lord Jesus Christ. He came to his own, and his own refused to accept him. However, he came anyway. That speaks to us of the love of Joseph for his father, and the love of Joseph for his brothers.

I want to share about the end of the life of Joseph, and how he was reconciled with his brothers. For Joseph to ascend to the throne, he had to go through some very deep things in his life. His brothers sold him into Egypt. But where his stay in Egypt is mentioned, the Scriptures also tell us that God was with him.

To reign with Christ -this kingship which God is after-  is costly. Nothing of spiritual worth comes easily. We have to accept that fact. Although Joseph knew that he was destined for the throne, he was prepared to accept all the discipline necessary for him to arrive at the throne. There is a very wonderful detail about Joseph that in all the terrible things that happened to him, you do not hear one word of complaint. He accepted everything as coming from the hand of God on his life. He was able to say: "Perhaps my brothers meant this for evil; however, God always meant it for good."

When Joseph was a slave in Pharaoh's palace, although he served an earthly master, in his heart he was learning to serve his God Jehovah. The captain of the guard recognized that God was with Joseph and everything about his household was blessed because Joseph was there. Can you imagine a slave bringing blessing to a household? What can a slave do? The slave is not in a position to contribute anything. But it was not about what he could do, but his presence, because God was with him.

We are living in difficult days, days of evil, days of darkness. But wherever we go, we must shine as lights, we must be salt in this world. That's what we're here for. So, wherever Joseph was, God's presence was with him, and through all his trials, he was willing to learn to know who God is. He learnt one lesson after another; lessons of complete submission, without murmuring or grumbling.

Do you know why the Israelites failed to enter into Canaan? Because of murmuring, and murmuring is simply unbelief and disobedience. From Joseph’s lips there was not a single word of complaint, because, behind it all, he saw God’s hand upon him. Through those days when he was in prison, or when he was a slave in the house of the chief guard, he learned spiritual lessons. God was maturing him, preparing him for the throne.

Let's see an illustration from the life of Joseph. Remember when he was at home and he had these dreams? He did not know their meaning. He just knew he had dreams, but he couldn’t interpret them.  But as he grew spiritually, just before ascending to the throne, the Lord gave him wisdom to interpret dreams, and it was through interpreting dreams that Pharaoh promoted him to the throne.

God had an intimate and deep walk with Joseph, to the point that Joseph knew the mind of the Lord very well. He could interpret dreams, and could even interpret what the future would be like. That's why Joseph was promoted. Because when the time was right and he knew the mind of the Lord and what He wanted to do, God promoted him. In a sense, it was not Pharaoh who promoted him, but God Himself, because the time was right, the hour had come to promote him, and he became the savior of the world.

Joseph and his brothers

Now I want to share about some of the encounters Joseph had with his brothers. Before that, we will read in Genesis 47. The people came to Joseph for bread, and Joseph gave them bread. But his interest was not only in giving them bread. Joseph wanted to gain a people for himself -  just as the Lord Jesus came to seek that which was lost.

"There was no bread in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of hunger" (Gen. 47:13). Of course, in those days it was physical bread. Today however, we speak about spiritual bread. Today, brothers and sisters, where can we find the bread of life, the word of life? Where can you find people who really know the mind of the Lord through the Word?

I'll tell you a true story. There was a brother who went to Honor Oak to hear the preaching of brother Sparks, for the first time. He sat down to listen, and said to himself, "Where did he get all that?". And after the meeting, he sought a brother and asked which version of the Bible brother Sparks was using. He said, "How come he gets things from the bible that I don’t get? What version of the Bible is he using? What kind of footnotes are there in this Bible? Why is it that in the same passage, he sees things that I don’t see".

Let me honestly tell you that today, we are living in days of spiritual famine.  It’s a fact. Today we are really privileged; we have the privilege of breaking bread together this morning.  Thank God, He is our food, our bread of life. We know that we can only be satisfied with Him.

"And Joseph gathered up all the money that was in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, for the bread which they had bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house "(v. 14). There was no bread in Egypt or Canaan, and the only way to survive was to buy bread. "When the money from the land of Egypt and Canaan came to an end, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, saying: Give us bread; Why should we die in your presence, for the money is all gone" (v. 15). God is doing a very deep work today. We want bread, and we think we have money to buy it, but sooner or later we will find that we are bankrupt - The money is gone and there’s no way to buy bread. However, you still want to live so you find ways to survive.

"And Joseph said, Give me your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if the money is all gone" (v. 16). When the money ran out, he took the cattle. "And they brought their cattle to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread for horses, cattle and sheep, cattle and cows, and donkeys; and he fed them with bread for all their cattle" (v. 17). Bread is a consumable thing; when you eat bread, you have less and less, and one day it’s all gone.

"And they came to him the second year, and said to him, ‘We will not hide it from y lord that since our money has come to an end and the herds of cattle are in the possession of my lord, nothing is left before my lord but our bodies and our land.  Why should we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be bondmen to Pharaoh, and give seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land be not desolate." (v. 18-19).

Here we see the progression of our spiritual walk. We are all hungry. At first, we think we have the means to satisfy our hunger. But then we exhaust the means that we have to satisfy our hunger. However, behind this,  God is working out His purpose. The money has gone, the cattle have gone, everything has gone; all that is left of me is myself. Joseph was waiting for that moment that he would get the people for himself, because Joseph alone is the bread of life.

Brothers and sisters, how often we look for things outside of Christ, and in this way our hunger can never be satisfied. But Christ is all we need. Joseph was waiting for that moment when they would say: "We have nothing; all we have is our bodies, ourselves; take us for yourself. " Once we belong to Him, the problem of our hunger is solved, because Jesus is the true bread of life. Not the things that he gives, but He Himself.

I’ll give you another example: When his brothers came to Egypt to buy food, they did not recognize Joseph, but Joseph recognized them. But, he was waiting for the moment when they would truly understand who he was.

I want to conclude with a very important principle: for the Lord to restore His people, together as one before Him, His throne will hold us together as one. The reason why He is exalted is because all must confess that He is Lord. If you confess that He is your Lord and I confess that He is my Lord, then we are one.

Benjamin

Now I want to share about the character of Benjamin, who was instrumental in bringing the family back together. When Benjamin was born, Rachel called him Benoni which means ‘son of my sorrow’ and then Jacob changed his name to Benjamin which means 'Son of my right hand'.

If you read the account of the relationship between Jacob and all his children, none of the ten older ones had an intimate relationship with Jacob. In fact, many of them caused him big problems. But when you read the Scriptures, it says that Jacob’s heart and Benjamin’s heart were knit together. And when Judah promised that the next time he came to Joseph for food, he would bring Benjamin, Joseph said, “insist that you bring Benjamin with you”.  But Jacob said, "If you take Benjamin away, I will die here in my grave." And I think Judah also said to Joseph, "If I take my youngest brother with me, my father will die."

Here is a spiritual principle. It is clear that Joseph was not with his family. Within that family, Benjamin was the only one who fully understood what was in the heart of Jacob. Clearly Jacob longed very much to see Joseph. Although he was close to his death, Jacob always longed to see Joseph. However, for God to restore his people back to himself, He needs to raise up many Benjamins, who know the longing of the heart of their Father.

The Lord's prayer is that we may be one. That is the Lord’s longing, and if that is His longing then it should also be our longing.  The throne can keep us as one. Those who understand the heart of God are willing to pay any price to maintain the unity of God's people. When we are one with the Head, then the testimony of the Lord Jesus is fully realized.

God wants us to give ourselves back to Him. We have spent all our money, and we’re still hungry; we sold all our cattle, and we’re still hungry. Joseph said: "Here is your opportunity; give yourselves to me, and you will never be hungry." This is what the Lord is looking for.

God needs many Benjamins. In these last days, when God’s people are so divided, who is sympathetic with God’s heart that all His people should be one? For the testimony of the Lord Jesus to be fully realised, the oneness of our testimony is crucial. One God, one Lord, one people. Everything is one, and we are one. The cross made us one. Thank God for that.

When God looks down upon us and sees that we are united, we are one, forgetting our differences, and just looking at one another in Christ Jesus, that brings delight to His heart. If we want to please Him, let us diligently keep the unity of the Spirit. There's one head, there is one body, and there is one food, the Lord Jesus. There is only one way for all of us, and there is only one testimony that God is looking for: the fullness of Christ incorporated into all of us together.

A summary of the message given at the 2nd International Conference, Santiago de Chile, in September 2005.

Copyright © AGUAS VIVAS | CHILE 2015