MATTHEW 9
CAC Two things come out in the gospels, and the one is just as wonderful as the other. One is what was there in Emmanuel to be drawn upon, and the other the faith in men that knew how to draw upon it.
Ques Why do you say equally wonderful?
CAC Because it is an utter impossibility to fallen creatures to be possessed of such faith.
Ques Has there to be something entirely new as we were seeing with the new wine and new bottles last week?
CAC Yes, it links on with it. The new wine was there in Himself but the new skins were required to hold it; that is, it needed the receptacle to hold it; the receptacle is what comes out in the gospel. There were persons who could take hold of what was in Emmanuel and make use of it, and such persons constitute God’s harvest.
Rem It is like new birth in John 3.
CAC Quite so, and He accredits faith to such. He does not say to the woman, ‘I have healed thee’. There were persons who appreciated what was there in Christ. The disciples did, because they did not fast, for they were in the joy of what had come in though they could not, perhaps, have explained it. So they had dropped all their legal customs of fasting.
Rem It says the time will come when they will fast.
CAC Yes, but they will fast in a new way. The christian’s feasting involves his fasting!
Ques Is there an order in this chapter and in the persons affected by their contact with the Lord?
CAC What were you thinking?
[p. 62] Rem The first is the paralytic, representing man’s condition; then He secures the house on calling Matthew and then a man comes to light who is anxious about his daughter. In the course of that a woman is healed. Those things come out in detail as the result of what came out before. I thought, perhaps, that comes out in relation to what you were saying about faith coming to light as Emmanuel is drawn upon. So there is a house and every type of person — man, woman and child, and a man who was blind and one who was dumb towards God.
CAC So that God deals with great disabilities affecting men and so secures a harvest for Himself.
Rem The first incident would illustrate what was said as to faith laying hold of what was in Emmanuel.
Ques What would be the thought of the Lord’s garment?
CAC I suppose the garment would set forth all that attached to Him, one might say, officially as the Messiah, and the fact that the woman touched the hem would indicate she had some appreciation of it in its completeness.
Ques How would that apply today?
CAC Well, I think it is one of the delights of faith to see what attached to the Lord officially, how God has signalised Him and invested Him with every feature that is delightful to Himself. “All thy garments smell of myrrh” (Psalm 45: 8, A.V.) is said prophetically. The garments seem not exactly to be the Person but matters which are very closely identified with His Person.
Ques Do the saints come into it?
CAC I think the saints come into it today as being available. What we need to consider is this blessed Person and all that is connected with Him, and we see the completeness there is about the deliverance that is available to us in Him.
Ques Why [p. 63] is it the fringe?
CAC It is the hem, it is not a fringe!
Ques What is the difference?
CAC There is a great difference — any of the sisters would tell you that! The hem puts a finish to the garment. It is not a matter that is left incomplete, there is a divine finish upon it all.
Rem Psalm 133 speaks of the hem of His garments.
CAC That is another thing and would bring in what was referred to as to the saints. The anointing oil runs down to the hem of His garments; it comes down to the saints, and so the testimony is maintained here. The bells and the pomegranates are maintained here in the power of the Head.
Ques Why does the women come in between?
CAC I suppose the case of the child, bringing in death, goes deeper into the matter, does it not? Not only is there the plague of one’s own heart, spoken of by Solomon (1 Kings 8: 38), that does not touch the bottom, but the fact that we are absolutely under death is a deeper problem. The woman is learning under the law the plague of her own heart. But the real state of the heart is set forth in the woman. It is a beautiful illustration and she is called “Daughter”. But the child is under death, which is the deepest thing of all. Both exercises will be gone through by Israel. First there is their condition under law and the inability to remedy it, but they will get faith in One who can. But there is a deeper lesson, that is, death is upon them; and He can meet that, too.
Ques Is this the only case of anyone asking the Lord to raise the dead?
CAC I think it is. It brings out an extraordinary measure of faith in the father; he lays hold of the power in the Lord. He says, “she shall live” (verse 18), without any hesitation or question; and God would give us the faith of that now, that it is possible for us to be brought entirely [p. 64] out of the state in which we were under death into a new state in which we live to God, entirely out of that state of death.
Rem Romans 8: 2 gives it, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death”.
CAC Yes, so the Spirit is life there. It is very wonderful that through the power that is in Christ we can emerge from the state of being under death and we can truly live Godward in the One who lives to God.
Rem I thought these two cases went together, and work out in us as one case. Before life there must be the exposure of the hidden state; it has to be faced with the Lord before there can be a rising up in life in a new condition. And there is a continuation in life — the change from the old to the new bottles.
CAC Yes, where there is also power to see and to speak. The gospel continues the picture of the working of God.
Rem Two very important features of the new life.
Rem Life was there and faith, so that the Lord could bring that to pass.
Ques What is the thought of “touching”? We get it in verses 20, 21 and 29.
CAC Personal contact is the great thing; we want personal contact with the Lord. We may believe things, we often do, and that is about as far as many get; but there comes a point when nothing will do for us but a personal touch.
Rem That makes a really new start.
CAC Yes.
Rem With the blind men the Lord seems to require an acknowledgement of their faith.
CAC He was set on bringing out what was there, which is a great principle of action. He seeks to bring out [p. 65] what was there.
Ques Would that be on the line of harvesting?
CAC I should think so. What is there in men for God? It would help us if we had that in view when in contact with souls. We should look out for anything that is of God in the person. The Lord sets great value upon that; it was what He was looking for when He was here. How He welcomes any appreciation of Himself! You see, that is something quite different from having an orthodox faith, as it is called. It is something wrought in the soul that is able to lay hold of what is in Christ. There becomes an intense craving to see things, to see what is of God. I suppose the opening of the eyes is really one great figure of the gift of the Spirit as conferring the ability to see.
Ques Would spreading forth His fame (verse 26) be the renown of His Person?
CAC Well, I suppose so, though they were wrong in doing it.
Ques Why did the Lord charge them to be silent?
CAC It was to emphasize the fact that it was for themselves. I think we should understand that some things are private; we are not always to be anxious to speak; I know we are so generally. I know if I had been caught up to the third heaven it would have come out in the next meeting! Paul did not speak of it for fourteen years afterwards, but it coloured his life and ministry and only came out when occasion called for it in Corinth. It is good to have some secret weapons in hand that you can fall back upon in an emergency. There is a certain self-prominence connected with publishing things sometimes. It is often so with young converts; they often say too much.
Ques You mean, when they are not mature enough to give testimony to the Lord?
CAC If we speak too soon we are apt to say something [p. 66] which does not fit in with the divine plan. Then there is often a reaction and those who say too much at the start are apt to say nothing afterwards when they ought to speak.