Of Beaten Work

Now you know what that means, simply the thing is hammered out; the thing is wrought into the very substance.

It means that there is a very real and deep and thorough-going experience in the matter with which we have to speak.

The LORD does not just commit to us something to say.

The LORD works the thing into us before He allows us to say it if we are really going to be His messengers.

He takes pains to see that the pattern of the thing is hammered into our very being.

We have got to know what redemption means in a deep way.

And that sometimes does mean that there's a good deal of cutting into us by the hammer and chisel; it's beaten work, it's wrought work, it's something that is very real.

Dear friends, these things, according to GOD'S mind, are to characterize every one who would be a messenger of GOD to others.

The thing has got to be wrought into you.

And may I say, that while it is not conveyed here, this matter is a continuous process.

We shall only really express GOD, convey GOD to others, be able to speak of GOD and for GOD, be able to give to others GOD'S thoughts and GOD'S mind insofar as the thing is wrought into us.

You've only got a little bit and you've only let the LORD take you so far; that is just the measure of your witness, of your testimony, of your real ability to convey what GOD wants conveyed.

We've got to let GOD do this thing in us very thoroughly. 

And I do feel that, simple as it is, elementary as it is, it's a very important thing to say.

There may be here tonight those who have really come to the LORD, who could say that they are saved, they've given their hearts to the LORD, they've let the LORD into their hearts... however you might put it, there is that initial transaction with the LORD by which you have come to be His. That has taken place...

But you've only gone just so far and there are still things which have not come into the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

The redemption has only gone so far, it hasn't touched some things in your life, you still have some associations, you still have some pleasures, some interests, you still have some idols of some kind.

You're a Christian, yes, but you've only gone just so far and now you haven't gone any farther and you're not going any farther, you've just stopped.

You've stopped, and all that great fullness that GOD has for you is suspended because, well, you've gone so far...

You are the LORD'S, but you're not letting the LORD work the fullness of redemption into your life.

Because redemption is a very comprehensive thing.

Redemption does not begin and end with our just being saved from judgment and hell and being assured of heaven, forgiveness of our sin, and the coming of the LORD.

Oh, that is a mere fragment...a large fragment and an important and valuable fragment...but after all in the light of all the redemption that is in Christ Jesus it is only a very little thing.

So much more...and this redemption has got to apply to and touch everything until we are wholly on the ground of redemption and everything is on that ground.

Take an illustration from the life of Israel. You remember when they were redeemed by GOD from their bondage in Egypt, the LORD so worked, so thoroughly worked, so drastically worked, that He was not going to have, as it is put, "the hoof of one ox left in Egypt."

Yes, He applied this matter of redemption to the last hoof of the last animal to leave Egypt.

His idea is a very thorough-going redemption with nothing left outside, it's got to cover all that we are and all that we have.

And it was because that generation of Israelite's did not allow the principle to be wrought into them,

The principle which GOD had established in that objective way, they did not allow it to be wrought into them that they did not come into the full purpose of redemption and occupy the great land of promise.

Now, that's all illustration, it was true in history, but it is an illustration of the spiritual life that this thing has got to be wrought... 

Beaten work, wrought into us thoroughly and exhaustively if we are going to come into all the good of redemption.

So that while we can in a certain sense say, "I am redeemed", we have got to be able to say: I am continually being redeemed.

I'm going on in redemption, it is applying everywhere."

Now the point is this: that only in so far as the thing is wrought into us as the LORD'S people have we a testimony.

You can't go in testimony, speaking to others, beyond that which is true in our own being.

So it is a beaten work, it is inwrought.


~T. Austin Sparks~