SONS OF THE KINGDOM AND SONS OF LIGHT
[p. 9] SONS OF THE KINGDOM AND SONS OF LIGHT
What has pressed itself upon me, dear brethren, is the thought of sonship, not so much in the sense in which we usually speak of it, as in the last verse read where we are alluded to as sons of God, but rather to dwell on sonship of certain institutions or principles or qualities of God, in which the word or idea is somewhat figurative, the idea of sonship. But nevertheless the idea is there, and it is to make the things alluded to practical, and in so far as may be, experimental. Hence you have in the gospels, among other references, sons of the kingdom, sons of peace, and here in John, sons of light. Doubtless most of us have taken notice of these expressions and profited by them, but I am sure that they will bear further attention or enquiry on our part, because we are all prone to be theoretic, and terms which are intended by the Spirit of God to be always pungent, both in our minds and in our words, are apt to become crystallised and meaningless.
So these references which I have made convey what is most practical. First, sons of the kingdom, in Matthew 13, as you will remember, are spoken of by the Lord as sown. You will recall that in that chapter there are something like seven parables, the first referring to the sower of seed, but the seed is called the word of the kingdom, the word of it. That is what is presented in ministry; the idea or thought of the kingdom conveyed intelligently in spiritual power by ministry alludes to the testimony of the Lord as Son of Man, and that of His apostles — the word. Then we have another parable, usually called the parable of the tares or darnel, in which the seed is persons, not simply words — an important distinction.
[p. 10] The word of the kingdom is sown and there are different growths, some permanent and many others of no value; but the parable of the tares implies that persons are sown. In other words, to be simple, an evangelist goes into a town and preaches the gospel and gets a convert. That is one operation of God, and that convert is sown in the place, otherwise there will be no representation of the kingdom. The word of the kingdom enters his heart and enlightens him, and he becomes a believer, as in Matthew, in the testimony of the heavens, the kingdom of the heavens. Now he is sown himself in the place, not as the word of the kingdom but as a son of it; that is the word used. The good seed are the sons of the kingdom.
Now I refer to that initially, because that is so important if we are to have representatives of the truth, valuable representatives of the truth in localities. We must not only have the word presented, but the sons of the kingdom set up there; they are sown, so to say. Now that would mean that they take root in the soil, in the divinely-prepared soil, and they bear fruit. As sons of the kingdom they would be persons who have some knowledge of heaven; the light of heaven has shone into those that are delivered from the earth. They cease to be politicians; they cease to be material for this world; they are secured for God’s world, but for the moment they are set in the place as sons of the kingdom. They are set down in the power of it, so that as they walk in the street, as they do their business, as they keep their house, and so forth, they set out the thing in the place. Another thing that comes out in him or her is that he or she is a son of the Highest, according to Luke. According to Matthew he or she is a son of his Father, not simply of his Father, but of his Father who is in the heavens. That is to say, there is a heavenly touch with him. Luke says, “the highest”, which is great moral elevation. That man [p. 11] is no longer a socialist, nor does he belong to any of those unions or the like that go to build up this world; he is out of society. He is a son of the Highest, that is, of elevated matters. It is not simply that I belong to heaven; the point is, I am a son of what is high, the Highest, what is of God of course, but the Highest. There is no dignity in the world, therefore, that can eclipse me once I get hold of that. I am delivered from all human greatness, and greater than all, I am a son of the Highest. That is not a mere abstract thought. According to Luke we get a list of things that mark persons who are sons of the Highest: they love their enemies. That is the idea of the Highest, rising above the sin, the opposition that may be. They bless them that persecute them and that curse them, and they pray for them that despitefully use them. That is an entirely new thing; that belongs to the Highest; that comes from the Highest; I am a son of the Highest.
Well, there is another thing, and that is a son of peace. Luke makes much of the sons of peace. He uses it in the singular. It has to do with the formation of local companies, of an assembly in a town like this or in other towns. The missionaries went out two by two according to chapter 10; thirty-five pairs were sent out by the Lord, and they were to go into every city and place where He was to go, meaning that there would be those in these places as He came there who would receive Him; and as entering in they would enquire if a son of peace were there. You can understand that a son of peace in Luke would include all these things that I have been speaking of, a son of the kingdom and a son of the Highest and one that lives at peace with others, that knows something of the peace of God. How can I be a son of peace if I do not know the peace of God? “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God”. That is one thing; but in deliverance, which [p. 12] goes further, the peace of God garrisons the heart, “In everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses every understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus”. That is a son of peace. He has acquired that by prayer. He is not quarrelsome. You cannot have an assembly according to God with quarrelsome persons. These missionaries of Christ came to a town and a quarrelsome person is there, whether it be a professor, or a confessor, or nominal believer in Christ, he would not be a son of peace; they would leave, for their peace would not rest there. Their peace rests where there is a son of peace. The peace of the two missionaries of Christ would be the peace of God. He would have a resting-place. Think of that, that in a town there is a resting-place for the peace of God, for the son of peace. You have, therefore, in these features material for local assemblies, that is to say, companies of people in which the thoughts of God are vested, in which they lodge, in which they are cherished, and in which the all-varied wisdom of God is worked out. You can see the magnitude of it, and that is the importance of these features, sonship of certain institutions or qualities or principles of God that have come in in Christ. They are intensely practical.
Well now, in John we follow on the subject, because he presents his side of it. He speaks about sons of light, and I wish to speak about sons of light particularly. John’s ministry, as has often been said, but not too often, has reference to our own time, but it also had reference to the time it was written. It had always a place but it has a peculiar place now, having in view the great increase of darkness. We are living in darkened times, a time in which the works of the devil take that form, “The universal lords of this darkness”, as Paul said. How feelingly we can speak [p. 13] of it if we have been walking in any way with God for many years, especially in this last century. How feelingly we can speak of this darkness, not that darkness; and it all issues forth from the universal lords of this darkness. One may be an instrument of it in a large way or in a small way, but it is all to one end, to darken the mind of the saints.
Now John has that in mind and he makes a great thing of believing what is presented. Everyone who reads his gospel knows that it is peculiar, very different in character, not in substance, but in character, from the other three. He stresses the thought of divine Persons. It is a question of the revelation of God, or as I should say, the declaration; that is the word used in verse 18, the declaration. The declaration is to be understood as different from the revelation. The word ‘revelation’ is the apocalypse, that is, the unveiling, the unrolling of the veil, so that you look in and see what is there. That is the idea. The features revealed would be Persons. The declaration is that God is brought out. God is brought out to us; that is the force of the word, not that a veil is removed that we may look in, because the creature cannot look in, the creature is not capable of looking in for himself, “No one has seen God at any time”. John said in verse 18 of his first chapter, and that was written long after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, long after the advent of Christ here, “No one has seen God at any time”. In his epistle he repeats it. No creature is capable of seeing Him in His essential Being. So that it is not a veil removed, but He is brought out to us. In John 1: 18 He is brought out by the Son, the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father. Mark, it is not ‘was’ in the bosom, but “is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. The declaration is past but the position is present. It is eternal. He is brought out in His Person so that He should be seen by us,
[p. 14] brought within our range so that the creature should understand. That is what is in view. What John calls for is believers in truth, not mere nominal belief, but genuine heart belief; hence you find in some cases there were believers, but Jesus did not trust them. That is another feature of John’s gospel: there are those whom the Lord has no confidence in. He did not commit Himself because He knew all men; He knew what was in man.
So that the first sign is that He manifested His glory. What is the effect? The effect is that the disciples, already believing, believed on Him. That is another thing John has in view, true believers in Christ. So in the verse I read, “While ye have the light, believe in the light”. Believe in the light. Now the light, whatever it may be, whatever comes from God is to be believed, and let no one turn a blind eye. I was going to say a deaf ear, but it is a question of the light to the eye. It is a serious matter to turn a blind eye to divine light so that you do not see. A person says, ‘I do not see it’; that is, you are blind or you are wilful. The first thing you get in this gospel in regard of the Spirit is that John saw Him, “I saw the Spirit”, he says, “descending and ... it abode”. That is the point. Indeed, He that sent him to baptise told him, “Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on him, he it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit”. Hence the importance, dear brethren, I do urge with feeling, to keep your eye open, your spiritual eye, and keep it single. Matthew says that the lamp of the body is the eye, and if thine eye be single, or simple, thy whole body is full of light, full. A very remarkable figure that! You know there is not one bit of darkness when the eye is single, but if thine eye be evil thy whole body is darkness, thy whole body. You may profess to be a believer on Christ and in fellowship, even pretending to be defending the truth and [p. 15] yet every movement of yours be darkness if your eye is not single. It is not only what people say, but what they do, where they go, all is darkness, the Lord says according to Matthew’s record. Then, “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great the darkness!”. So it is, alas, with our brethren in bodies around who have left the path of light. How great is the darkness! Better if they had never been out. That is a solemn warning to us to keep a single eye, for if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is it! I become an imitation. That is the worst kind of opposition to the truth; the worst kind of darkness is imitation.
Well now, John, as I said, is stressing the idea of believing whatever is presented as light from God, while they have it; it may pass away. Immediately after the Lord said these things He hid Himself from them. How solemn that the Lord should hide Himself! He hid Himself, and then the Holy Spirit begins to speak about the announcement from Isaiah that they could not believe. A most terrible thing! If the light is refused, judicial darkness sets in. Isaiah says, “Who hath believed our report?”. The evangelist goes on to it, “Lord, who hath believed our report?”. What a word that is for our hearts! A report! In Isaiah 53 the Person of Jesus is set before us in such a beautiful way, and the Spirit of God says, “Who hath believed our report?”. Then it says that they could not believe because He had blinded their eyes. Isaiah said it again. The second word is a solemn word. So that we cannot trifle with God and the truth. Judicial blindness sets in. Isaiah says again that they could not believe, for He had blinded their eyes that they should not believe. That is a solemn thing. I am only speaking of what is stated and to emphasise what John says, “While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light”. In the Authorised Version the word ‘children’ is used. In fact, in all references to this the proper word is ‘sons’, and anyone can see that the word ‘son’ used in its full bearing is more than a child. Although we may call a male child a son, the scriptural use of the word ‘son’ indicates more than a child. It means that there is development. It means that there is something characteristic in him of that of which he is son in a developed form. So that the thought here is that we should be developed as believers in the light, developed in the light and living in it, which would mean that if one enquires as to where I am and why I am there, I can give an account of myself. Hence I am enlightened and my walk and ways correspond.
Well now, to make the thing simpler, I may illustrate from John’s gospel sons of the light. The first one I would bring forward is the well known woman of Samaria. She is a son of the light in regard of her body. She left her water-pot as has been often remarked. She brought it to the well to fill it up and carry it back, but she did not do that. After Jesus had talked with her, her soul became illuminated. She had met the Son of God and she left her water-pot. He had been talking to her about living water and what it shall be in a person that believes; one who had drunk of it shall never thirst again, and it shall be in him a well of water. That was light to her soul in regard of her body, and she left her water-pot and went away to the city, and there were results. She spoke to the men and they were affected. She was a son of light in the place. Now that is a very simple thought. It is, as I may say, the initial idea of being a son of light, that one understands the importance of one’s body. The epistle to the Romans points out to us how the gospel affects one so that his body is presented a living sacrifice to God, and that means purified inwardly to make room for the living water. That is the inward thing involving all [p. 17] the automatic organs in the body, so that the body, the organs themselves, begin to act. I am not merely intelligent, I have affections, feelings and compassions with that. All become active and controlled by the Spirit, so that we live. As Romans teaches us, the body is dead physically, but the Spirit is life. The body is dead on account of sin. All that it was connected with has ceased to operate. Instead of that, the working of sin, the Spirit is life within, and in chapter 12 the body is presented as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, and that is called intelligent service. I am a son of the light in regard of my body. I have that to present. That leads on to the worship of God as indeed the instructions to the woman involved. God is a Spirit. The first thing is that you present your body. She went to the city and left her water-pot as if she understood that her body was henceforward to be a vessel. I only touch on it.
The next son of the light can be said to be the nobleman of Capernaum, because God is no respecter of persons. The light comes to a poor outcast, and she becomes intelligent as to her body, purified to be used of God. Then we have the household, the nobleman as he is called; he becomes a believer in regard of his house. That is the next thing. The light is radiating in his house. He believes in his own house. His son is healed by the Lord Jesus. It is an important matter first to be son of the light in regard of my body, and then a son of the light in regard of my house, and then in chapter 6 you will remember what Peter says to the Lord when others, great numbers, were drifting away from Him. That is always happening, people turning away from Christ, walking no more with Him; what He says is too spiritual for them. The words that He spoke were spirit and life and many walked no more with Him. They turned back, and the Lord says to the twelve, “Will ye also go away?”. Notice the word ‘twelve’ — I may say the only allusion to [p. 18] the official position on the part of the saints in John. “The twelve”, he says. The use of the numeral as alluding to the selected apostles would be the testimony. It is not the idea of the testimony in a locality. Twelve is universal. Many of us are too local; others of us are too universal. We begin locally and then become intelligent and see that the testimony is universal. The woman of Samaria belonged to a town; the nobleman thought of his house, and he shone there. The twelve were taken up in relation to the testimony in its universal bearing. You know the fellowship has two features; the local feature and the universal feature. They must merge, the one into the other, otherwise the local becomes a mere congregational church, because in truth there is only one fellowship, and it has a local aspect and a universal aspect. Now the twelve would refer to the testimony in its universal bearing because they were to go into all the world. The Lord says to the twelve, “Will ye also go away?”. One might say if they all went away what would become of the testimony? But the Lord can look after the testimony. But He says, “Will ye also go away?”, as if it were possible for the leading men of the testimony to go away. Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God”. What a wonderful word that was! There is a son of the light. He has got apprehension of the light, of the light in regard to the whole testimony. He is one of the twelve. What would hold John, or Peter, or what would hold Paul? Christ! He is the great attractive centre for all, “To whom shall we go?”. The apostles were as dependent upon Him as we are. ‘Where shall we go?’. “To whom shall we go?”. There is none save One; He had words of life eternal.
Then the next great example is, I think, the man that had his eyes opened. He was a son of the light [p. 19] in chapter 9 in regard of the works of God. Now that is a very important thing when one person is to be a testimony of the works of God: not only the work but the works of God should be manifested in him. An astronomer or a scientific man would testify to the work of God. The Lord does not say anything about the cause in chapter 9; He says that this man was not born blind because he sinned but that the works of God should be manifested. How great that thought is, that I am taken up as the subject of the work of God, the works of God. That is, the man in chapter 9 is the one that bows down and worships the Son of God. Every man that is the subject of the work of God worships God. “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?”. “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him?”. The Lord said, “Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he”. He said, “I believe, Lord”, and he worshipped Him. That is a son of the light in regard of the Son of God. How much we need that at the present moment. The enemy is darkening our minds whereas the Spirit of God would insist on Scripture, and Scripture speaks for itself. If we want to apprehend the Son of God we want to apprehend the first chapter of John. That is where it is set out, the Person of Jesus. This man said, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him?”. And he said, “I believe, Lord”. How delightful to Jesus! They were both outcasts. That man was cast out of the synagogue and when the Lord heard that, He found him. He takes account of outcasts for the truth. Let us not be afraid of that, to be an outcast for the truth that the works of God might be manifested. He said, “I believe, Lord”, and he worshipped Him.
Well then, to finish, the twelfth chapter is a sort of constellation of light. I suppose the stars would be alluded to. John is very astronomical in his references, although he was not an astronomer by profession,
[p. 20] but God changes things about, and John got to know far more than his teachers. He knew more about astronomy than Newton. He had the spiritual understanding: by faith we understand. I have no doubt his reference to the sons of light would be that, the stars. Daniel speaks about them too: “They that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse; and they that turn the many to righteousness as the stars”. That is a great thought. So you get a cluster, so to say. We read of the sweet influences of the Pleiades, and there are beautiful influences here in chapter 12, at the beginning of the chapter. We have a wonderful shining of Christ in chapter 11 where the glory of God and the glory of the Son of God shone, for this gospel would put the Son and the Father on equality: he that honours the Father honours the Son, and the glory of the Father and the glory of the Son shine together in chapter 11. It is a wonderful shining in chapter 11. No wonder we have a cluster of sons of light following in chapter 12. Bethany was the centre of the sons of light; they were there together. The thought enters into a local company of christians. Jesus came there to be glorified amongst them. He names the stars, He calls them all by name, those that shine.
So they made Him a supper. It is not the house of Simon the leper. Here He secured the company of sons; it is, “They made him a supper”. It is a question of the spiritual setting; no one is saying anything. According to the record not a word is said to Jesus when He arrived. Not like chapter 11 where Martha came to Him and talked to Him on orthodox lines. We often do. She knew that at the resurrection her brother would rise at the last day. That was orthodox. The Lord says, “I am the resurrection and the life”. He who is, and was, and is to come! John presents Him who is. Martha bowed and He said, “Believest thou this?”.
She said, “I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world”. Then she goes away to her sister. She got help; she was illuminated; and there she spoke. But when He came this time not a word was said by anyone, because the point is spiritual power, spiritual affection. It is a question as to whether we can sit still and let the love of Christ permeate our souls, and let our affections go up to Him, no speaking, not a word said. We ought to learn how to sit together in assembly in spiritual silence. I do not know anything more difficult myself than to sustain spiritual silence, but it belongs to the assembly. We read of silence in heaven for the space of half an hour. Think of the intelligences that are in heaven; they are made silent for half an hour. I know it has a prophetic meaning, but I am just referring to the fact that there was silence. So there is silence at Bethany. Lazarus sat at table, Martha served and Mary worshipped. The house was filled with the odour of the ointment; all was delightful spiritually; Judas breaks the silence, but I do not dwell on that. It is a group of sons of light: they know what to do, how to go and how to keep quiet when necessary; and the Holy Spirit pervades all. You will all remember how when the glory entered Solomon’s temple the priests could not minister. The thing was so full: God was there. The enjoyment is not to be defined; it is to be enjoyed. But then I am speaking of the light that governed them, for they were sons of light. So, in this chapter John says, “While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light”. That is the point, dear brethren, if you are sons of the light.
So in Romans 8 all this merges into sons of God. What marks them is the consequence of what I am speaking of. They are led by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God has entire control in our hearts,
[p. 22] as sons, to lead us into His presence. Those that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. One would like to have said more about the sons of God. Indeed any one of these scriptures that I have brought forward would be quite enough, but I do not know that I am to be here to speak again, so I want to bring this subject briefly but comprehensively before you, so that in our localities we may shine in these features and be led by the Spirit, that we may know how to be in our local assemblies to be led by the Spirit. Where will He lead us? He has come out from the Father and He leads us in, and He hands us over to the great Minister of the sanctuary; Christ is the Minister of the sanctuary, of the true tabernacle pitched by the Lord and not man.