MATTHEW 11
CAC We have to force a way into the kingdom of the heavens. There is a good deal of violence needed to overcome all that is natural within. Those who follow the Lord are required to be violent — “If, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body ...”, Romans 8: 13. Well, that is violence. They must have violence enough to withstand natural influences. The influence of the glorified Man in heaven is so great that the disciple is willing to do violence to nature under it. It is that side of things that calls for strenuous effort. In a certain place each of two preachers gave a word: the first told the people how easy it was to be saved, and the following week the second told them how hard it was to be saved! The Lord set His face steadfastly. Have we not to do that at times? Violence breaks through what would hinder.
Rem For example, David’s men.
CAC That is the kind of thing. All the influences of the day were opposed and it was a difficult time for the disciples.
We see how He has to give up His link with Israel in view of the new thing — the coming in of the assembly and the kingdom of the heavens. They gave Him up first, so there is a very solemn word at the close of the chapter. I notice people talk about praying but not about listening. It is the time of piping now; the Lord’s ministry of grace is going on now. Only the Lord could have told us these things, that Sodom would have repented and so on. It is here the great general thought of a judgment day. The Lord’s explanation is in verse 25, “And hast revealed them to babes”. If the Father had not been pleased to reveal these things they would not have been known to any. There would not have been any believing souls or repentant souls if it had not been made known in the sovereignty of the Father’s grace. If the Father does not work there is nothing in man. They would not be the children of wisdom. It is also pleasing to the Son to reveal the Father. It is the pleasure of divine Persons to move on this line.
Ques As to the title, “Lord of the heaven and of the earth” (verse 25).
CAC He disposes of all things in His sovereign power; the Lord is seen here as the Praiser, that is, He really takes His place as the Leader of praise, does He not? It is wonderful to think of a divine Person coming into a place where He can offer praise. It is coming to our side, to the side of the creature, and taking up the service of praise. It shows that where there is any result for the pleasure of God it is brought about by the actions of the Father and the Son.
Ques “All things have been delivered to me”. What are they?
CAC He was consciously in reproach and rejoiced that the Father had done this. He falls back upon this in His own spirit; He praises the Father for what He has done. Things were really opening up in a wider way; this wide range of “all things” of the Father’s operations comes into view and it gives Him joy. He was thinking of what has happened in the last almost two thousand years, millions of souls brought to know the Father revealed in grace, and He is doing it still. That is a comfort in preaching the gospel; behind the preaching there are the great operations of the Son. There is a personal revelation by the Son to every individual that is brought to know the Father. The Son is not revealed in the same way as the Father; it is one of the great depths in christianity which we have to accept.
[p. 77] There is an inscrutable mystery about the Son that has not come into revelation, but the Father reserves it to Himself; because it is a divine Person in manhood and that is inscrutable; we cannot fathom it, and as the Son in manhood such is His greatness that only the Father knows Him. We cannot measure that Person, it is beyond all creature thought, and we are thankful to know that the Son is so great that no creature can know Him. He is an Object of worship.
But the Father is revealed by the Son, that is, what the Son knows of the Father is a matter of revelation. So it is important that we should get near to the Son that He may reveal to us individually the Father as He knows Him. That is, all that the Father is in grace to men, all that is covered by the name of Father has been revealed, there is nothing to be added. We shall not learn anything more in heaven than we have down here; it has been told out by the Son and in the Son and it is immense. We feel on our side there is not room to take it in; so we sing, ‘Our cup indeed runs o’er’. It is a pity it does. Do you not think it would not run over quite so soon if it were a little bigger?
I suppose there is a great widening of things here. The Lord’s rejection by Israel, instead of closing things up, opens the way for a wider range of blessing and the know ledge of God, surely commensurate with the greatness of the Person of the Son.
Rem He seems to change the dispensation, bringing in different features and principles, and the greatness of the Son, all things being delivered to Him by the Father. There is a great range that the Father would have made known to those who were with Him.
CAC It would seem the Lord was looking further than the promises of Israel. In chapter 12 it is the liberty of grace. If the Son was pleased to reveal the Father there was something very sweet and precious about the revelation.
[p. 78] And He can make His selection; if He wishes to make Himself known to a poor Gentile, He can.
Ques Why does it say, “No one knows the Son but the Father” (verse 27)?
CAC Is it not to bring out the greatness of His Person, the inscrutability of it, that it is beyond all creature grasp?
Rem It is not a question of the Son being revealed; the Father is revealed.
CAC Quite so, that is something to think carefully about, is it not? You see, what God is in revelation as the Father, that is, in grace to men, can be and has been fully made known. There is nothing inscrutable about that; it has been caused to shine forth in sunlight splendour. It is the side of revelation. It does not say anything about how far we enter into it; but the Father, all that God is in grace manward, is fully revealed.
Rem It is wonderful to think of One like that, so great, near enough to men to say, “Come to me”!
Rem It is to whom He will; His pleasure is in it.
CAC And the thought of purpose is in that, too. The Son makes selection of those to whom He will reveal the Father; there is that thought in it. “All things” means that all the Father’s actings and dealings in the ways of grace are all committed to the Son. In John 3: 35, it says, “The Father ... has given all things to be in his hand”. It is the nature of the economy; that is the character of things today. The Father has originated many precious thoughts but they are all delivered to the Son for effectuation, and though He is rejected nothing breaks down. All becomes available to those who come to Him, this Person of infinite resource and blessing, so great that no creature can compass Him. And He says, “I will give you rest”. Laborious conditions have been brought in by sin; God feels it and Christ feels it, but rest requires a spirit of subjection and submission not at all to man’s taste. There are two reasons [p. 79] why we may not have rest: we may not have received the knowledge of God in grace revealed by the Son, or we may have received it and not have come into practical submission to the will of God. Either hinders us from having rest. The whole world is a mystery, and such books as ‘The Riddle of the Universe’ are a useless attempt to reach rest, which the simplest believer has in the knowledge of the Father revealed in the Son. If He is what Jesus tells us He is, the thing is to be in absolute submission to Him. The blessed God Himself appreciates the thought of rest. J.N.D.’s hymns, I notice, are full of the thought of rest, showing that he was looking at it sympathetically with God. Sin is a toilsome matter for God. In the book we are reading, Amos, He says, “I will press upon you, as a cart presseth that is full of sheaves”, Amos 2: 13.
Rem The thought of yoke here is not the usual one of two yoked together. We come under His yoke.
CAC Is it not that we come under the same yoke with Him, the Father’s will? The saints are brought to it sooner or later. We often chafe and murmur, like the Israelites. Sooner or later a saint is brought to accept the will of God; never till then does he get rest. We think our will, if we get it, will minister to us, but it will only make us unhappy. “Meek and lowly” — and He was entitled to have a will — and He said, “Not my will, but thine be done”, Luke 22: 42. A moment came when He had to give up His will, which was perfect. The perfection of His will He gave up to say, “But then, not my will, but thine be done”. “I am meek and lowly in heart”. It was there in the nature of His being. We get all the inwards laid bare in the sacrifices. God brings His work to pass in men in the inward parts. So you get, “I delight in the law of God according to the inward man” (Romans 7: 22) before there is any practical expression seen. As has been remarked, he is better inside than outside!
Ques Are the two ‘rests’, in verses 28 and 29, the same?
CAC My impression was that the two rests were of the following nature: (1) in the knowledge of the Father revealed by the Son so that all the problems and uncertain ties about God are removed from the heart and conscience of men; it is the rest of the gospel. (2) then finding rest is in our practical submission to the will of God, so that we are not chafing against the Father’s appointment for us. His submission involved infinitely more than it does with us, but He accepted the yoke and went through with it, and will have the glory of it evermore. With us it is often a very small thing that is bad for us and we have no rest until we say we are happy to have the Father’s will; it is far better than our own. It is something we reach in our experiences, the rest of practical submission to the Father’s will. The two ought to go together but sometimes they do not. God would have us at rest in both; rest, too, in the ordering of His will for us. We are to have it also in relation to one another, to be in submission to one another. I do not know much about meekness. I think it would come out in relation to men, fellow-men, and lowliness in relation to God. If something happens that I do not like, I am exposed. We are all tested. Moses was accused unjustly by his brother and sister; he never said a word, and he was ready to pray for them. Someone says something very nasty about you and you take notice of it. Someone once said very bad things against J.N.D. Afterwards a brother asked him why he did not reply, and his answer was, ‘I did not hear him say anything against the Lord’.
Rem It says, “In meekness setting right those who oppose”, 2 Timothy 2: 25.
CAC I find it the most difficult verse to carry out when people are opposing. To tell such, ‘You are a servant of the devil and I will have nothing to do with you’ is [p. 81] sometimes right. But the opposition may be through ignorance and not wilfulness, then I ought to be patient and have meekness and instruct him.
Rem With the apostle Paul meekness is the strongest argument.
CAC Yes.