Isa 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me

The Arm Of The Lord

                                                                                 

Psa 89:13  Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.

Psa 118:16  The right hand of the LORD is exalted: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly.

                                                     
 What Does The Arm Of The Lord Imply?

We all want to have His support, His upholding, His strength.

To have the Lord with us, alongside of us, with all His gracious and infinite power exercised on our behalf, is, after all, the most important thing in life...

Not only for us as Christians individually, but for the Church, and for the whole work of the Lord.

But have we really thought as to what we mean by this?

What do we expect?

Is it just the bare support of the Lord, to get us through, to carry us over, to see that we do not collapse on the way?

When we see somebody standing fearfully by the side of the road, afraid to step out and cross, we sometimes offer an arm:

We say, 'Let me give you an arm and see you over' - an arm!

Well, the arm is a support; it helps to the other side.

Is that all we want from the Lord?

We do not always speak about the Arm of the Lord; we often express it in other ways.

We ask for grace; we ask for sufficiency; we ask for many other things;

But it is all included in the Arm of the Lord.

What is it that we are really seeking?

Now, what does the Word of God show to be the meaning of this support, this Arm of the Lord?

Before I answer that question, let me pause to say that this is a matter of the most far-reaching importance and application.

I am not at this time at all concerned with merely giving Bible studies.

There is a very great practical background to all that is presented here.

There is coming daily into one's life an almost continuous, unbroken demand for help in the problems of Christian lives...

The problems of churches, the problems of Christian relationships; sometimes it seems almost day and night, without cessation.

And letters are continually coming...sometimes very long letters from assemblies of God's people in different places...

Telling of the deplorable conditions in those assemblies, with all their frustration, limitation, disappointment, even deadlock and defeat, and asking for counsel and advice as to what is to be done.

It is over against this background of real and urgent need that these messages are presented.

I want to stress that there is something very practical in this.

For after all, it just amounts to one thing: Where is the Lord?

Just that: Where is the Lord?

Where shall we find the Lord?

How are we going to know the Lord is unreservedly with us?

And that contains this further serious question:

How far is the Lord able to support this and that...to come in and undertake, to show His power, show Himself mighty?

That really is the heart of the whole matter.

Is there a limitation upon the Lord, that He cannot do these things, because of certain obstacles?

It is of supreme importance, then, that we should know and understand the ground on which the Lord will show His mighty Arm in these days...

On behalf of His people...

On behalf of His Church...

On behalf of His work...

When, therefore, we ask the question: What does it really mean for the Arm of the Lord to be revealed?

We find in the Word of God two or three things, holding a very large place there, in many forms of expression, which answer that question.

But first may l pause again to say, in parenthesis, that the message of Isaiah 53 is the answer to everything

Perhaps we think we know Isaiah 53; perhaps we could even recite it.

I venture to suggest that we know very little about that chapter.

It is the most comprehensive chapter in the whole Bible.

If we were able to read it with real spiritual comprehension, we should find that, in that one chapter, all our questions are answered; all our needs are met; all our problems are solved!

The Bible is comprehended by Isaiah 53, and in what follows I am keeping within the compass of that chapter.

~T. Austin Sparks~


                                                   
The Vindication Of A Course Taken
 

Now, I find that the first thing that is meant by the Arm of the Lord on behalf of His people is this...

It means the vindication of the course that they have taken.

If you turn to your Bible with that in mind, you will find how much there is that gathers around it.

You will agree that it is a very important matter, that the course that we have taken should be proved at the end to have been the right one.

There could be nothing more terrible and tragic than that having taken a course...

And given ourselves and all that we have to it...

Poured out our lives in it and for it...

We should find at the end that we have been wrong...

And that the Lord is not able to vindicate the course that we have taken. 

It is plainly of the utmost importance that the course that we have taken should, in the end, receive the Divine approval...

That over against everything, in spite of everything, from men and from demons, God should be able to say: 'That man was right!'

That, after all, was the vindication of Job, was it not? How much that man met of misconstruction and misrepresentation! 

But in the end God said, 'My servant Job is right'; and it is no small thing to have God say that. 

In Isaiah 53 it is that: the vindication of a course taken, in spite of everything. 

And that 'in spite of everything' amounts to a good deal in that chapter, does it not?

An overwhelming weight of contradiction and misunderstanding; 
 
But, in the end, the Servant is vindicated;
 
God says He was right.
 
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? 
 
To that One - to that One! 
 
That thought runs everywhere through the Bible, in relation to all the great men of faith, as they walked with God.
 
What a difficult way they went!
 
But in the end, God said, not in word only, but in very, very practical vindication, 'He was right, he was right.' 
 
That is the meaning of the Arm of the Lord. 
 
That is what I want when I ask for the Arm of the Lord.
 
O Lord, that I may take such a way with You that, in the end, You may be able to stand by that way and say: He was right.'  
 
Do you want that? 
 
There is no value in anything that does not work out like that.  
 
~T. Austin Sparks~ 
 
                                                     
The Principles Of The Revealing Of His Arm
 
Now we come back to our initial question: What are the principles upon which the Arm of the Lord will be revealed?

As I have said, we think we are very familiar with the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah.

But when we read it, we are usually so taken up with those vividly descriptive words concerning the sorrows and the sufferings and the sin-bearing of the One who is in view...With the Person and the experiences of this suffering Servant of Jehovah...

That we almost entirely lose sight of the tremendous significance of that fundamental opening question: "To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"

And yet the whole chapter would have very little value and meaning but for that question.

Think about it again: Supposing all that is described there - His sufferings, His sorrows, and His sin-bearing - had taken place, and then the Arm of the Lord had not been revealed on His behalf, what were the value of it all?

It has happened - but where is the vindication?

What is the verdict of God upon it?

For, although the content of the chapter is so tremendous, and so overwhelmingly moving in its tragedy, it all relates to this one thing: "To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"

The answer is: To that very One who is described here in such vivid detail.

The Arm of the Lord is revealed to the One who, with such fulness and such pathos, is here brought into view, as the object of all this tragedy, affliction, misunderstanding and misrepresentation.

It is to that One that the Arm of the Lord is revealed.

The prophet is viewing the reaction of the whole world, Israel and Gentile alike, to the report, the proclamation.

Who has believed our report? he asks.

Who has believed the message that we have proclaimed?

It is all looking on to the day of the Son of Man.

The messengers have gone out; the proclamation has been made - and what a proclamation it was!

It was made on the Day of Pentecost; it went out from Jerusalem into all the regions round about.

But - who believed it?

What was the reaction to it, from Israel and the Gentiles?

The prophet, in his wonderfully vivid, inspired foreknowledge of, and insight into, the reactions of the world to the message of the Gospel, asks the question, and answers it in the whole chapter.

But he asks also: "To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"

The world has so reacted the vast majority have refused and rejected the message...

They have put a totally false construction upon the afflictions of the Suffering One.

Nevertheless, it is to this One that the Arm of the Lord is revealed;

It is alongside of this One that Jehovah stands.

 ~T. Austin Sparks~ 
 
 
                                        




                                                    


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