T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 3

The Lord Coming for a Prepared People

Reading: Malachi 3.

We notice that Malachi is the final voice of the Old Testament and that there are very striking similarities between the close of the Old Testament dispensation and the close of this dispensation; and one of the outstanding things is that for the close of a dispensation God has a special voice. He secures for Himself a voice by which to make vocal His special message for an end time. That voice represents an instrument peculiarly constituted. We saw that with Malachi there was not only the closing of the dispensation, but there was the bringing in of the Lord. The Lord was coming. Read chapter 3 and you have the messenger sent before His face and then the Lord Himself coming, the Messenger of the Covenant coming suddenly to His temple. It was an end time with the Lord's coming in view.

And we further see that Malachi was peculiarly linked with John the Baptist, and John the Baptist with Malachi, as we saw the complement of each other, two halves of one whole. Chapter 3 speaking of John the Baptist in connection with other prophecies and Malachi thus linked with John the Baptist is the voice for the bringing in of the Lord. The end of one order and the bringing in of a new order, the end of one age and the bringing in of another age and that age ushered in by the coming of the Lord. These things are very patent, they lie on the face of these prophecies and of the life of John the Baptist who declared "I am a voice".

Malachi, we noticed, means "the messenger of Jehovah" and John the Baptist was "My messenger". Malachi is an unknown man. We do not know who he was or when he prophesied. John the Baptist set aside all public recognition - "I am not a great man, I am a voice. That is all, a voice". And so an end time instrument of God for the bringing in of the Lord Jesus is something which is nothing in itself, but which brings the Lord Jesus into view and is only occupied with Him and preparing the way for Him, and repudiates all prestige, popularity, and personality of its own and keeps the Lord Jesus in view for the attention and consideration of all. So Malachi and John were one as an end time voice for bringing in the Lord.

We swiftly glance on towards another representation of an end time and we touched Paul. The nature of the apostle's life is also a representation of an end time and an end time method of God. We believe that the general characteristic and feature of this dispensation is the securing of the church, the body of Christ, out from the nations. Paul himself had that revelation in a peculiar way and was the embodiment of that truth. He became the personal embodiment, the very personification of the truth of the body of Christ and with the close of his life you have in representation what you will find at the close of the church age, this present age; and you will notice that the features are similar to those features of those other closing ages, the features of John and the features of Malachi. Things were reduced to a very small compass, that is, things which truly represented the Lord's mind.

In Malachi the great mass of those who claimed to be the Lord's and laid claim to covenant rights, were in their hearts distant from the Lord whilst maintaining the outward ordinances. And in the midst, hidden, you have Malachi 3:16: "They that feared the Lord spoke often one to another; and the Lord hearkened and heard..." "they shall be My peculiar treasure in that day that I do make". There you have things reduced among the Lord's people in that which represents His own mind. When you come to John you have something very similar. At the opening of John's life things which truly represented the Lord were very small. A remnant of a remnant.

In Malachi you are dealing with the whole remnant that came back and yet that whole remnant is out of touch with the Lord, and a remnant of the remnant only is in touch with the Lord. There is that remnant of the remnant at the beginning of John's life. There was one Simeon... coming in by the Spirit into the temple etc.. And there was one Anna, and she spoke to all those that looked for redemption in Jerusalem - a remnant of a remnant looking. I have missed the most important thing, "She spoke of Him to all those". It was Him she was speaking of; and Simeon was speaking of Him, bringing in the Lord. A remnant of the remnant out to bring in the Lord. "She coming in at that very hour"; this was not some chance thing that she came in by the Spirit just at that very hour, there was something in the background causing this thing. A remnant of a remnant looking for, waiting for the Lord.

When you come to Paul you find things are reduced very much at the end of his life. It is striking and perplexing unless you get the key. This man with such a wide range of ministry, to whom the whole world was open, by the working of things in a very strange and perplexing way must be reduced, cut off from his public ministry, the many lands all closed to him personally until he found himself in the prison at Rome and that is all. No platform, no church, no wide ministry, nothing out in the open, but the last thing it says about him, "...he received all that went in unto him... teaching concerning the Lord Jesus". Simeon and Anna spoke of Him. Paul now not coming out to the multitudes, but shut away and the Lord leading hungry ones to him and he received and taught them things concerning the Lord Jesus. These are features of an end time.

What the Lord is going to do is to find hungry ones, and hungry ones will seek out the truth. And the nature of the instrument at the end time is not some great public organisation, movement and demonstration, but some secret thing to which the Lord leads the hungry; detached from the official organisation, in the wilderness, outside the camp, a going out.

As far as I can see this is the principle at work in Malachi, John the Baptist, and Paul: the Lord seeking to get something which is wholly for Himself, to which and in which He alone is Lord, He the sole occupation, engrossment, absorbs all the attention. They feared the Lord, thought upon His Name: the Lord in view. And that thing will be something apart, not a popular movement, something outside the camp with His reproach upon it like Paul in prison. Who will go to that? Reproach, shame, a man in prison who is there lying under judgement, a man concerning whom there are all kinds of rumours - this is the instrument. And who is hungry enough to risk all the laws of reputation, who is humble enough to accept God along that line? Finding out where there is true hunger for the Lord. The Lord does not protect His special instrument from the slanders and the reproaches of men, but He uses those very slanders as tests as to the hunger of others, as to where they are, whether they are prepared to bear the reproach in order to find Him. Do you recognise that? So Paul, representing in his own life and person the end time of the church, finds that, so far as the great public sweep is concerned, that is at an end and now he is shut up in a prison and his ministry is to those who come to him, and by his pen out to the Lord's people. This is a feature of God's method at the end.