SEPARATION (2)
SEPARATION (2)
JT For those who were not at our meeting last evening, it may be remarked that we dwelt on the earlier part of this chapter, fixing our minds on the house from which the Lord departed, as recorded in the first verse; that it had allusion to the then accepted religious system of the world, viewed as in its family or social features; a ‘house’ suggesting what relates to family and social affairs. The Lord left that house, the features of which were laid bare in chapter 12. And it may be remarked further that He sat down “by the sea” (Matthew 13:1) — not that He intended to remain by the sea, but to indicate that He had taken up another position, which had a wide bearing, the sea denoting access to the Gentile world. I thought that tonight we might consider the question asked in verse 36, and what developed from it.
WHM If I remember aright, you connected verse 36 with the last verse of the previous chapter.
JT Yes; as you were remarking in prayer, the Lord indicates those who should be in family relation with Him, and that family relation must find its place in the second house into which He entered “whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in the heavens” Matthew 12:50. The second house into which He entered must include those who are in family relationship with Him, based on the doing the will of His Father who is in heaven.
What I thought would be helpful, particularly for believers who are seeking a way from the one house to the other, was to speak of the advantage of asking questions of the Lord, the readiness with which He answers, and the further light vouchsafed. It is very encouraging, because these questions are not captious;
[p. 303] they are honest inquiries, with a view to learning. The Lord delights in answering such. First, why should He speak a parable? (verse 10.) And then they ask for an exposition, “Expound to us”, they say, “the parable of the darnel of the field”. A very solemn fact comes to light in the Lord’s remarks in answer to their first question, namely, that to those that were without He would speak in parables; He says, “to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it is not given” Matthew 13:11.
Rem He gives them credit for having ears to hear, and yet He has to unfold what is His mind for them.
Ques There are many apparently honest and sincere Christians in the systems who make inquiries, and yet remain where they are — how would you account for this?
JT Well, I think they come under the heading of those referred to in 2 Timothy, as “always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” 2 Timothy 3:7. If there are honest inquiries, there will be answers from the Lord; and then you would expect movement, because it is a very serious matter to be in a position where the truth is hidden. To those without, the truth is ministered in parables; and the Lord explains: “For this cause I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear nor understand; and in them is filled up the prophecy of Esaias, which says, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and beholding ye shall behold and not see; for the heart of this people has grown fat” Matthew 13:13 - 15. This is judicial, having reference to those who, having heard the truth, refused it. It is not that every one in the systems comes under this category, but that worldly systems are characterised by this. The Lord had ministered to them in the plainest way, according to the earlier record in this gospel, but they did not [p. 304] receive what He ministered, and now the truth is enveloped in a parable, which renders it beyond the reach of all but those who are initiated — a very solemn consideration. So that we ought to speedily get out of such a position, and get into one in which the Lord is heard speaking ‘plainly’ and not in parables, as we learn elsewhere. You want to get the direct words of the Lord. The same thing, indeed, is seen in the book of Revelation; it is enshrouded in symbols. Anyone can see at a glance that the Revelation is very different from John’s gospel, although written by the same person. John’s gospel is direct ministry to the saints; the Revelation is indirect, because of the retrogression that had set in amongst the people of God. There had been the giving up of the truth, and hence the ministry is enshrouded in symbols. Christendom, as it is, is shut out from the book of Revelation. But why? Because of general unfaithfulness. The book is not shut up to those who have the Spirit of God. And so the parables are perfectly intelligible to the people of God. “blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear” Matthew 13:16.
Ques What would be the cause of bringing about such a state as you speak of?
JT Disregard of, and want of appreciation of direct ministry. If we are not appreciative of direct ministry, the Lord will have to deal with us judicially; the truth is presented, so that there is responsibility on all as to it, but it is clothed in parables.
SC In chapter 12 the Lord is presented in a very remarkable way — greater than Jonas, and greater than Solomon, greater than the temple — why is this?
JT That is to bring out the wonderful testimony presented to the Jews. “But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons”, He says, “then indeed the kingdom of God is come upon you” Matthew 12:28. That was the fact; it [p. 305] was there, and they were neglecting and despising it. Indeed, they were attributing it to Beelzebub. Satan was working, but the Lord exposes it, and He definitely leaves that house. They announced to Him, “thy mother and thy brethren are standing without, seeking to speak to thee” Matthew 12:47. But He answered, “Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren; for whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in the heavens, he is my brother, and sister, and mother” Matthew 12:49,50. So that the break is complete; and His sitting by the sea means, with other things, that He is not going back to the position He left; for it is an apostate condition of things; their house is left unto them desolate. The ministry goes on, but it is hidden in parables.
That is one lesson. The next is that there are two kinds of sowing; one is the pure and unadulterated word of God, and after it had been sown, the fowls came and devoured up the seeds that fell by the wayside; and the sun scorched that which had fallen in stony places, because there was no deepness of earth, and because they had no root they withered away; some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them; and then He points out the soil that was fruitful.
In the next parable, it is not the word of God that is spoken of; the seed is persons, which raises a very important consideration. It is not now simply that the word of God is sown, but “the sons of the kingdom”. They are really the outcome of the first sowing. And then Satan sows opposingly. The word in verse 38, “children”, (King James translation) is really “sons”. Sons are developed persons. There are “the sons of the kingdom”, and “the sons of the evil one”.
Ques How would you explain the term, “sons of the evil one”?
JT Well, they are developed in the knowledge of Satan’s ways; they are avowedly there to oppose and counteract what God is doing. The sowing of the ‘tares’ was by the ‘enemy’.
Ques Would you connect them with those referred to in 2 Timothy 3?
JT They are similar; persons who say false things; they are bad teachers. They are deliberately counteracting, as far as they can, what God is doing, and corrupting it. It is a terrible thing, and they remain during the whole dispensation. This cannot be altered, they go on to the end.
Ques So this would apply specially to the present moment?
JT Yes.
Rem “The heart of this people has grown fat, and they have heard heavily with their ears, and they have closed their eyes as asleep, lest they should see with the eyes, and hear with the ears, and understand with the heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” Matthew 13:15.
JT Now, when the Lord enters into another house, His disciples come to him and they want an exposition. It is now not a question as to the kind of ministry, parabolic or plain, but an exposition. And so the Lord opens up what the parable of the tares means. Before we can be in the house that He enters into aright, we have to know how to discriminate between the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the wicked one. Christendom is honeycombed with sons of the wicked one; they misrepresent what is of God; they work by imitation.
Ques You connect “sons of the evil one” with false teachers and doctrines?
JT Yes. Men fully cultured in the knowledge of Satan’s ways; and their preparation is in order that they should be that, because the word ‘sons’ implies growth or development. They are not babes, they are sons.
Rem In another place He says, “Ye are of the devil, as your father” John 8:44.
JT Well, there it is more origin, but here it is development of satanic ways; they are avowed adversaries, and their teaching has always that in view.
Rem The source of it is satanic.
JT Yes; it is Satan’s deliberate work; he could not blot out Christianity by persecution; he tried it, and did not succeed, and so he brought in a counter movement, marked by imitation.
Rem That is a very solemn consideration for us we should require anointed eyes.
Ques Are they mentioned in Ephesians 2; “the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” Ephesians 2:2?
JT Perhaps that is more general in the world: but these are distinctly seen in the Lord’s ‘field’. The field is here, and the right to it has been acquired by Him. Satan sees what He is doing; he cannot blot out Christianity by persecution, so he brings in something like it, because the ‘darnel’ resembles the ‘wheat’, but it is of no value as a crop; it looks like wheat, and therefore an imitation — Satan’s most effective way of opposing the truth of God.
Ques Is this what involves separation; seeing that the wheat and the tares grow together, that is, the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the wicked one?
JT Separation is the only way. When He says, “Suffer both to grow together” (Matthew 13:30) He means that Christendom was not to be reformed. It does not mean that we associate with them at all. Judgment will be executed on them at the end.
Rem You do not contend with them; you just leave them.
JT Yes. “An heretical man after a first and second admonition have done with” Titus 3:10.
[p. 308] Ques Would not the spirit that animated Abigail in going out to meet David separate us from the first house to which you directed attention?
JT Just so. David is presented in Scripture as a type of Christ. He is attractive; his appearance is beautiful; he had beautiful eyes, we are told, and was ruddy; and so he became an object of affection amongst the people; he was loved by Jonathan, and loved by all Israel. Absalom was also a man of beautiful appearance, but it was connected with human culture; polling his head, and all that sort of thing; his opposition took the form of kissing the people, etc., thus stealing their hearts from David.
Rem He spoke ill of David, and suggested that they needed someone to take their part, and plead for them.
JT He injected into them the poison of distrust; that David was not doing his duty, but he would do it; he made promises, like a politician. He is a type of antichrist.
What comes out in the second book of Samuel is in connection with wisdom; the wisdom that discerns the deliberate working of Satan is the wisdom of God.
Now the Lord, in this house, after explaining the parable of the tares, tells them about the kingdom of the heavens being “like a treasure hid in the field, which a man having found has hid, and for the joy of it goes and sells all whatever he has, and buys that field”. That brings up another thing, namely, we must not court publicity. The introduction of the assembly in this parable is to call attention to the importance of being hid; not seeking publicity in this world.
Ques What is suggested by the treasure being hidden, in the first instance, and then when the man found it he hid it?
JT Well, the first hiding has allusion to what God had done; it was hid in God. God in His [p. 309] eternal purpose had the assembly before Him, but it was hidden throughout all the dispensations. The secret things belong to Him. In the ministry of Christ I think He found it; He found it in the responsive affections of the disciples. The man found the treasure; it does not say he was looking for it. But in the second parable (verse 45) the merchant man is seeking goodly pearls, and he found one of great price, and went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
Ques Would that be the mystery?
JT Well, in verse 45 the Lord was looking for goodly pearls, but found one of great price. This is the assembly.
Ques Would the hiding in verse 44 suggest that Christianity was not to come to the front in any way?
JT Yes; it does not belong to the items of knowledge in the world; it is known to those who are spiritual. First of all the thing was hidden in God; then it came under the Lord’s eye; and this treasure would afterwards develop in the assembly. It was found by the Lord in His disciples. God put it there. Coming in as Man, He waited for things to come about, so when the Father reveals something to Peter, the Lord recognises it, and He says, “flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens. And I also, I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and hades’ gates shall not prevail against it” Matthew 16:17,18.
Rem He called it my assembly.
JT Yes, He would have an assembly; but what came under His notice was in Peter, and the Father had put it there. Then He says in effect, This is not for publicity yet. He found it hidden, and He rehides it, and instructs them concerning it; He charged them “that they should say to no man that he was the Christ” Matthew 16: 20. Things are now to be known spiritually, and not in a public way, and that covers the whole of this dispensation; it is a time during which the things of God are hidden. Such knowledge was not to be within the range of the natural man. ‘Theology understands it not’.
Ques Is that why these things are spoken of as the “mysteries of the kingdom” Matthew 13:11?
JT Just so; but they are not mysteries to those who have spiritual understanding.
Ques Is this what the apostle Paul desires the saints should know in his epistle to the Colossians?
JT Well, that is the thing in its completeness. Here it is “the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens”
(Matthew 13:11) there it is the “mystery of God” Colossians 2:2.
Ques In order to understand this scripture should we not require first to know what the assembly is?
JT You can understand Matthew, because you are in the assembly, and have the Spirit. Matthew was written long after the truth of the assembly came out. Indeed it was written to confirm this truth; it was necessary on account of the reprobate character of the Jewish system.
Ques Would you say Satan used Judas to bring to those outside what was inside?
JT Yes; he carried the secrets of Christ’s circle out into the world. John speaks of false prophets going out into the world.
Ques I should like to ask, Do we get the way to the assembly in the next chapter — I refer to Peter leaving the boat?
JT We only get suggestions in these chapters; we are at school, so to speak, and we are asking questions, and the Lord is answering them; but He is giving much more than we asked for. This is the first great lesson. It is what you might call the initial lesson, where you get things just touched upon; afterwards they are taken up and enlarged [p. 311] upon. These are said to be parables of the kingdom, not of the assembly. The Lord says, “For this reason every scribe discipled to the kingdom of the heavens is like a man that is a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old”. It is a question of the kingdom of the heavens; the different features of it.
Rem And it is the diligent one that learns, and gets understanding and the knowledge of God; as we have it in Proverbs 2: “if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hidden treasures: then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, and find the knowledge of God” Proverbs 2:4,5.
JT Yes, we see here how the mystery comes to light; we see that the Lord found the pearl; He was on the lookout for it. He was seeking goodly pearls. Laziness marks most of us. There is very little agility of mind to find things. We see how the Lord found the thing.
Ques Do I understand you to mean that in the presentation of the mystery, we should seek not to make it as a public thing in the world?
JT You retain it as a mystery as regards the world. As the world rejected Christ, thus showing itself reprobate, divine things are hidden from it. This should be maintained; it is maintained by those who are spiritual. The travesty called Christendom is the result of disregard of this principle.
Ques Would you say, perhaps, there are few Christians that understand it?
JT That may be; but the point for each one of us is to ask, Do I understand it? The apostle Paul says he had great combat for the Colossians, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as had not seen his face in the flesh, that they might understand the mystery of God.
In Proverbs 25 you find a remarkable statement: “These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men [p. 312] of Hezekiah king of Judah transcribed. It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the glory of kings is to search out a thing” Proverbs 25:1,2. Certain proverbs of Solomon had apparently been neglected, and this was one of the first that they copied.
The Lord says, after having spoken of the hidden treasure and the pearl, etc., “Have ye understood all these things?” They say unto Him, “Yea, Lord”. He replies, “every scribe discipled to the kingdom of the heavens is like a man that is a householder”, etc. The scribe is thus in accord with the instruction that runs through Matthew, and which stands in relation to houses. The Lord is seen teaching in houses throughout Matthew, and the man who learns what He is teaching becomes an householder, and he is a scribe. Now the word ‘scribe’ there is not accidental. It is an allusion to the value of writing. He has an understanding of the value of writing in the things of God.
Ques What have you in mind?
JT Writing makes an exact man; there is nothing calls for more exactness than the things of God. There must be nothing slipshod about a true scribe. If you have put it down, you go over it with your eye, and you can see the defects, and correct them.
Rem We read of Ezra that he was “a scribe of the words of the commandments of Jehovah, and of his statutes to Israel”, Ezra 7:11.
JT It shows that he was a true priest. He was versed in the law of God. You can rely on what Ezra writes, he being a scribe in the law of God; that required great accuracy. The Lord says, “Until the heaven and the earth pass away, one iota or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all come to pass” Matthew 5:18. You can thus see what accuracy was needed in writing. The Scriptures are a standing miracle! The more you look into them the more you are [p. 313] impressed with their infinite accuracy, as conveying the thoughts of God.
Ques And would you suggest that we cannot understand divine things, if we do not know the Scriptures?
JT We cannot. They are the repository of the ‘new’ things and the ‘old’ things. The scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, being like a householder, brings out of his treasure the new and the old things.