SONSHIP

^[p. 314] SONSHIP

Matthew 14:33; Matthew 16:15 - 18; Malachi 3:16 - 18

I am thinking at this time, dear brethren, about sonship, and how it appears in difficult days such as these in which our lot is cast; and so I have taken up these passages in Matthew that we may see how sonship is presented in this evangelist, as bearing on the assembly; that is, how it may bear in a collective way, how sons were together. And I may remark, here, that it is as sons that we shall be together in heaven. It is indeed involved in the hope of our calling. We have to understand God’s calling, and we have to understand our calling; as we have to understand God’s inheritance, and our inheritance. Our calling is involved in sonship, so that as sons we shall be together. Unless we learn the relationship now, we shall not cherish our calling, for it implies what we shall be. The wise man in Proverbs speaks of his desire rather “It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a contentious woman, and a house in common” Proverbs 25:24. We have thus to learn how to discriminate in regard to living companions; how to dwell in a most inconvenient, uncomfortable place, physically, rather than to be in contentious companionship. The book of Proverbs bears on the assembly; and what I refer to is one of the maxims that may be put down by each of us as of first-rate importance. Christians, of all others, are intended to be very discriminating in the choice of living companions.

And so, in the epistle to the Ephesians, believers there are said to have loved locally and universally; they loved all the saints. We have to learn to love at a distance. The apostle Paul, for instance, speaks about his regard for certain who had not seen his face in the flesh. We are thus to have love for all saints;

^[p. 315] then we are fit for translation. I do not say that we shall not be translated without it, but there is need of fitness. It says in Revelation 19, “his wife hath made herself ready” Revelation 19:7. To have part in the bride involves that we have love to all the saints; for we are to be caught up together, we do not go up severally. We do indeed sometimes speak of certain having gone to heaven, which is not quite scriptural. When the time for going to heaven, according to the purpose of God, arrives, we shall all go up together. So that, in treating of the subject, the apostle says, “God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us, (we too being dead in offences,) has quickened us with the Christ, ... and has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus” Ephesians 2:4 - 6. “Together” has to be noted there, because it has reference to our regard for one another; that there shall be no such thing as quarrelling, or resentment, or discord, otherwise we are unfit, morally, for being translated. I do not say that anyone will be left out — not one; but I am speaking of readiness, of that fitness that corresponds with the divine thought. So that if God raises us together, and sets us down together in the heavenlies in Christ, it is as those who love universally, who love all; and that is the apprehension of sonship. I love the saints in the light of their dignity, I love them in the light of their birth; for “every one that loves him that has begotten loves also him that is begotten of him” (1 John 5:1); but I also love them in the light of their dignity, because they are “all God’s sons”, Scripture says, “by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26); — all!

I wish to speak of it in its bearing on the present time, as presented in Matthew; for Matthew deals with the assembly, as we all, I suppose, know; and what underlies it is sonship. It is only as I apprehend myself as a son that I can be rightly in the assembly. Matthew quotes the passage from Hosea 11, in which God says, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” Hosea 11:1. These two thoughts are perfectly presented in Christ, in Matthew; the first has reference to youthful affection, and freshness; if applied to the saints it is seen in the epistle to the Thessalonians; saints recently converted, who had “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God; and to await his Son from the heavens” 1 Thessalonians 1:9,10. They are addressed as “the assembly of Thessalonians in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Thessalonians 1:1. They were beloved of God. All this has reference to a company of saints in any locality; a local growth; the outcome of the gospel, in youthful vigour and freshness; they are “in God the Father” (1 Thessalonians 1:1), and are “beloved by God” 1 Thessalonians 1:4.

The same applies to the Lord, so that, in Matthew, you find the “young child” mentioned eight times in the second chapter. The magi from the east found Him; “having come into the house they saw the little child with Mary his mother, and falling down did him homage. And having opened their treasures, they offered to him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh” Matthew 2:11. He is marked off as revered by the Gentiles at the very outset. But I speak of Him according to what he is to God. There was infinite pleasure for God in that young Child. He was cast upon God from the very outset of His being here on earth. A marvellous thing! a fact that only could appear in a divine Person becoming incarnate. What delight was for God in that young Child! He was under divine protection. “Arise, take to thee the little child and his mother, and flee into Egypt” Matthew 2:13. And then Matthew quotes the scripture, “that that might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son” Matthew 2:15. So that Christ is presented in Matthew as a son, called out of Egypt. The whole history of Israel from the divine side was ^[p. 317] taken up in Him; for the prophecy of Hosea referred, historically, to Israel as a child; alluding to the freshness of youth in them, as God saw them at the outset; the firstfruits of His increase. But then He says, “out of Egypt I called my son” Hosea 11:1. The call has reference not to the Child, but to the Son; the Son is called out of Egypt. So that Matthew gives us what underlies the assembly from the beginning the idea of being called out; separated from the world. “Out of Egypt I called my son”. I wonder if there is one here as truly a son as Paul, a true believer, and yet possibly in the world? your links, your friendships may be in the world. God would say to you tonight, “Out of Egypt I called my son”. Your place is not there. The divine call to you is to come out of Egypt, for that is not your place. God has got a place for you; heaven is your place, as a son.

I wish now to show how this great relationship becomes apprehended; we can get the idea from the Lord only. First, I want to call attention to the passage I read from Matthew 14. The Lord had fed the multitude: about five thousand men, besides women and children; He had used the disciples in the service. It was divine bounty administered through them, indicative of what was in His mind, that His people were to be in His hand for such a service. And then, after this miracle, it says, “immediately he compelled the disciples to go on board ship, and to go on before him to the other side” Matthew 14:22. He compelled them. You see it becomes a question of the will of the Lord. So I have no option at all; it is imperative. Let no one assume to have a free will. If the Lord reveals His will in regard to you, you have no option but to bow. To refuse to bow means that you are outside that realm in which He will display Himself; outside of that in which His sonship is witnessed. So His disciples, immediately ^[p. 318] after their service that was so effective, are to go into a ship under His compulsion.

Now, I would say to any young man or woman here, that the Lord has made His will perfectly plain at the present time — “This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30:21); and any one who refuses to bow to His will in that way simply shuts himself out of the sphere of light and privilege. You may say, The boat does not seem safe; or you may say, looking at the clouds, Possibly a storm will arise; you may say, Some of these people are not congenial to me; but those excuses and criticisms are only the evidence of the lawless will which underlies them. You are having to do with the Lord, to whom you are responsible; you must bow to His will whatever the apparent inconveniences.

Here the Lord compels the disciples to go into the boat so as to cross to the other side. There was no option; to refuse to go would be simply lawlessness; moreover, any who refused in this instance would miss most wonderful education, for it was those who were in the ship that rendered homage to Christ, and recognised Him as Son of God. If any had elected to stay at the other side, refusing to go for the reasons I have mentioned, they would have shut themselves out of all the light and instruction which the journey in the boat afforded.

First, the Lord sends the multitude away. He does that; and then He goes up to the mountain and prays. For whom is He praying? He is thinking of that ship; He is thinking of every one in it; it was under His command they entered into it; the responsibility of the voyage is His. We may count on Him to carry us through any course into which He directs us. Is the voyage safe? Yes, beloved friends, it is safe. He is on high in regard to it. And then, presently, in the fourth watch of the night, He is on the sea, and walks upon it, on the boisterous wave. Had they ever seen that before? Never, so far as ^[p. 319] Scripture relates. The wind had risen, and the waves, and the ship was tossed. Christ walks on the waves! a marvellous thing. They thought it was an apparition. It was no apparition; it was a real Man, a Man whom they had learned to love; now they saw Him in a new way, they saw Him as the Son of God! They worshipped Him.

This is what I may call objective instruction; it is what you see in Christ; He is walking on the waves, but only those in the boat saw this and got the gain of it. I need not remark on what may have passed between them in that boat; mutterings, doubtless; complainings, doubtless; as the waves beat in upon them; but one man is affected by the sight of the Lord on the water; he says, “Lord, if it be thou, command me to come to thee upon the waters” Matthew 14:28. He is seizing the idea — the Son of God walking on the water. He is superior to the water — to satanic power; and now another wishes to be superior to it also. Sonship is seen in this chapter. The Son of God is walking superior to the power of Satan, superior to the winds and waves, and another essays to join Him. Peter had the light, though he failed in faith; he learned the spiritual lesson fully afterwards. When the Lord had gone up into the ship, the wind fell, and now it says, “those in the ship came and did homage to him, saying, Truly thou art God’s Son”. They acquired in that position, as subject to Christ, a knowledge of Him they never had before, and they rendered homage to Him as Son of God. It is a definite point reached in the history of our souls when we apprehend Christ as superior to the powers of evil; the waves might seem to wreck the boat, but the Son of God is there; and the knowledge of the Son of God thus acquired, renders the believer superior to the waves and winds of Satan. We are of little use in the assembly unless we have learned this lesson.

^[p. 320] What we have in chapter 16 is not what is objective, but what is in Peter by the Father’s revelation. This needs nothing in the way of power outwardly. The Lord, in order to bring out what was there (He knew the revelation would come), demanded of them, saying, “Who do men say that I the Son of man am?” Matthew 16:13. They answered Him that some said this, and some said that. They were not indifferent; they knew what men were saying about Christ. No one who loves Christ will be indifferent to what is said about Him. If Christ is well spoken of, he will be thankful, whoever the speaker may be; Satan is not prompting that. If a man speaks ill of Christ, Satan is behind that man, and I feel it. The Lord demanded of them, and they told Him; and then He says, What about yourselves? “Who do ye say that I am?” The result shows that He does not here refer to anything that had appeared publicly in His ministry. He knew what was there; something had taken place in one of His disciples, and He wants to bring that out.

We are dealing here with a wholly spiritual matter; it is not now a question of raising the dead, or stilling the winds and waves, or walking on the water; it is a question of revelation. How much do we know about this? The apostle Paul prays for us that we may have “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him” Ephesians 1:17. Paul says that God revealed His Son in him. It is a question of what happens inside the believer; it is a divine transaction within. Man affords a sphere in which the Holy Spirit operates directly to bring about results. The Father had wrought with Peter. “And Simon Peter answering said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. How did he know? The Lord enlightens us on the point, He would emphasise it: “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens”. It was the Father’s ^[p. 321] work. I am not seeking to explain it; it has to be known by direct relation with God; it is a spiritual matter. “Flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens”. The Lord had waited for this; He knew it was there; He wanted to bring it out, hence He demanded from them; He put them to the test as to whether they knew who He was.

And you find that in the history of your soul; it is a question as to whether you are spiritual; it is not what you have seen objectively; not even what you have learned from the Scriptures, but whether you are spiritual in regard to Christ, whether you have come to know Him on the principle of revelation. So Peter says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. And the Lord says, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona”. He says, “Thou art Peter”. This is applicable to every stone in the building, really. It is a spiritual thing now; it is now what you are by virtue of the work of God in your soul; in confessing Him thus I apprehend Him in relation to God. I have the light of it in my soul; it is on the principle of revelation. “Thou art Peter” — Peter is taken up in the light of his confession, and he is regarded abstractly as that now. On the confession of Peter, the Lord says, “On this rock I will build my assembly, and hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”. We have now the foundation and the material for a structure that is to be invulnerable; the hades gates shall not prevail against it; the “gates”. It is not exactly a question of military power, but of counsel; the assembly which Christ builds is composed of persons of His own order. The “universal lords of this darkness” (Ephesians 6:12) take counsel how they may circumvent the counsel of God, but they have no power against this of which I am speaking. It is a spiritual formation — composed of those who apprehend Christ as the Son of the living God. Peter ^[p. 322] represents those who are stones in this wonderful building. It is formed of persons; they are spiritual as of Christ, apprehending Him as the Son of the living God.

In chapter 17 we see how little this was apprehended. This chapter shows how slow the disciples were. At Capernaum those who collected tribute money said to Peter, “Does your teacher not pay the didrachmas?” Matthew 17:24. He is put to the test; and we are put to the test also it is for us; we shall be tested as we proceed in the school of God. Well, what have you learned, Peter? Peter says, Certainly my Master pays tribute; he had missed the mark entirely; not that the light was not there, but it was not operative. You see, it was not ready to hand when the question was put to him, “Does your teacher not pay the didrachmas?” If it had been ready to hand he would have said, My Master is the Son of God; my Master is a divine Person; my Master is greater than the temple. That is what Peter should have said had he followed the revelation he had; but he did not follow it; hence when he was tested he broke down. Now the Lord would set him right, and He would set us all right tonight. The Lord deals with this matter in the house. When Peter comes into the house the Lord anticipates him, and He says, “What dost thou think, Simon? the kings of the earth, from whom do they receive custom or tribute? from their own sons or from strangers? Peter says to him, From strangers. Jesus said to him, Then are the sons free” Matthew 17:25,26.

Some of us are better versed in the manner of the kings of this world, and in the etiquette of this world, than we are versed in the truth of the house of God, and we are not ashamed of it! We should be ashamed if it were a matter of ordinary education that had been neglected; and yet of things spiritual that we are ignorant of, we are not ashamed! When the Person of Christ is attacked all around us, it ^[p. 323] behoves us to have ready material to meet it; that is to say, the knowledge of the Son of God. Peter had been up on the mount with Christ, and he had heard the voice out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight: hear him” (Matthew 17:5), but he seemed to have forgotten it. When he is faced with this question he says, Yes, He pays tribute; he was not ready to meet the question.

Now the Lord would make him ready; He is patient with us; when He questioned him about the kings of the earth, Peter answered aright, and then the Lord says, The sons are free; the sons! What Peter needs to know is that now he is one of the sons himself. For it is as one of the sons that you are able to answer correctly when questions are raised about Christ. “Then are the sons free”. What a word for us! The Lord graciously allies us with Himself in these remarkable words. Think of brethren holding themselves aloof from that — the relationship of sons! And now the Lord says, “But that we may not be an offence to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when thou hast opened its mouth thou wilt find a stater; take that and give it to them for me and thee” Matthew 17:27. So we are linked up eternally with Christ, as sons.

I wish now to show briefly in closing, from Malachi, how all this fits into a day of small things. Matthew 18 treats of the assembly; that is to say, it treats of the spirit in which we regard and deal with one another as in the assembly of God. The Lord speaks of the assembly as the final court of appeal: “If thy brother sin against thee, go, reprove him between thee and him alone ... if he do not hear thee, take with thee one or two besides ... But if he will not listen to them, tell it to the assembly; and if also he will not listen to the assembly, let him be to thee as one of the nations and a tax-gatherer” Matthew 18:15 - 17. The man that refuses to hear the assembly is treated as unfit for fellowship. “Let him be to thee as one of the nations and a tax-gatherer”. Such is the greatness of the assembly, and such the solemnity of refusing to hear it. But then He says, “If two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens” Matthew 18:19. And then He goes on to say, “For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them” Matthew 18:20, That is to say, in these last words He makes provision for a day of small things; He speaks of “two”, and then of “two or three”.

Now I want to show that this great principle of sonship works out in a collective way in a day of small things. In Malachi we have reference, in a general way, to God and His servants; in chapter 3 we read, “Since the days of your fathers have ye departed from my statutes, and have not kept them” Malachi 3:7. Then in verse 13, “Your words have been stout against me, saith Jehovah; but ye say, What have we been speaking against thee? Ye say, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we keep his charge, and that we walk mournfully before Jehovah of hosts” Malachi 3:13. That is to say, they are disregarding the service of God; for them there is no profit in it. It is a dreadful state of things that Malachi depicts. And, mark you, he is dealing, not with the mass of Israel, but with the returned remnant. Decay had set in even in these; God’s word was disregarded, and His service disregarded; there was no profit in it. One looks abroad now in nominal Christendom, and sees the difficulty they experience to keep things going; spirituality is waning, dying out; men who will serve God are scarce.

Now, in the presence of all this, “Then they that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another; and Jehovah observed it”. This has often been spoken ^[p. 325] of; it is a well-known Passage. I quote it for one purpose; it refers to a saint that serves. It is a day of small things, as I have said; it is a question of those that fear the Lord. Now, if we go back to the book of Proverbs, which is an assembly book, we read, “The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom” Proverbs 9:10. So in speaking “one to another”, wisdom has its place, and assembly conditions come into view — tabernacle conditions — wisdom is seen in the building of the tabernacle, and in the building of the temple, and it comes into action amongst those who fear the Lord.

So John says, “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me; but he that loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him” John 14:21. That fits in here amongst those who fear the Lord; they get manifestations of Christ. This involves a pattern; He presents Himself by manifestation, so that we should see what should be. Judas (not Iscariot) says, “Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not to the world?” John 14:22. And the Lord replies, “If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him” John 14:23. I have spoken of the fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom; the connection now is His word. I not only regard His commandments, but I have got His word, and I keep it. What does that mean? It means the wisdom of God that the epistles to the Corinthians, Colossians and Ephesians have opened up. Hence I arrive at tabernacle conditions in a day of small things, amongst those that fear the Lord. And so the Lord says that He and the Father will come, and make their abode with him.

Think of that, dear brethren! We have tabernacle conditions in spite of the smallness of things. And then He says, “I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him”. His own son! Now contemplate that. The term is applied peculiarly to Christ. You will find that Scripture never errs in the use of words; the more you look into Scripture, the more value you set on the words. In Romans 8 we have it that God did not spare His own Son. How that touches the heart! He “has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all” Romans 8:32. But now He says, He spares those who fear Him and speak often one to another, “as a man spareth his own son that serveth him”. You see what importance God attaches to true service as found amongst those who fear Him, and speak of Him one to the other. You see what God values: the son who serves Him.

Now, perhaps some of you will have noticed that in this last book in the Old Testament, the people of God are enjoined to keep the law of Moses given at Horeb for all Israel. You can understand that. It appears in the last chapter of Malachi. It was no question of what was given for the remnant merely; it was given for all Israel. That is to say, the whole scope of revelation is for us. The law is kept by sons. In Romans we read that “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8:14), and that we “have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear” (Romans 8:15), but the “Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” Romans 8:15. Of old Israel was regarded as a son: “Let my son go, that he may serve me” (Exodus 4:23), God said to Pharaoh. This service is now found in those who are led by the Spirit of God. I would say to all that God deals tenderly with us. He did not spare His own Son; He gave Him up for us; but He spares “sons”. As the Lord says, “I do not cast upon you any other burden” Revelation 2:24. It is in the light of our serving Him as sons.

May it be our portion, dear brethren, in a day such as our own, to serve God as His own sons, while He spares us!