FRUIT-BEARING AS A RESULT OF SOWING
[p. 236] FRUIT-BEARING AS A RESULT OF SOWING
JT I have been thinking of fruit-bearing as a result of the sowing; as it is said here, “The seed is the word of God”. In Luke, before we have the parable introduced, certain persons are seen with the Lord — the twelve, whose moral beginnings are represented in Peter’s conversion, and then certain women who had been held by wicked spirits and infirmities, of whom Mary Magdalene from whom seven demons had gone out, was the representative; that is, there are those who are with the Lord who present the work of God in its moral setting. The moral effect of the work of God in John alludes more to what is inward or for eternity, so the disciples are seen inside at the end of that gospel. These all followed the Lord at the outset, and are seen to appear with Him. So John is the inward side; we go in in virtue of it to have a part in the Father’s house. The work of God in Luke is more outward in its bearing, and fits us to have a part before the day is over in this world; morally speaking, it is that with which God can identify Himself, so that we are known in our localities as those who were once serving sin and Satan, but are now with God and going on with Him; and so Mary Magdalene is representative of what we were under the power of Satan, but now she is with the Lord and in company with the others. They have substance, and they minister to the Lord of it. The Lord is not ashamed to have such as these in spite of their public reputation. He accepts them and respects their substance, but it is His. The work of God takes effect upon them and the moral features of the assembly are seen in them, according to Luke, so that in chapter 24, as they are gathered together,
they are saying, “The Lord is indeed risen and has appeared to Simon”, the erring one. It is the sphere of grace and all who compose the assembly are subjects of grace. We are to be gracious. A woman like Mary Magdalene would hardly be severe on others; she would not tolerate sin; she would know that she would need grace. Simon Peter has not only sinned, but he is a sinful man. That is the kind of man he was — sinful. It was in contact with the Lord he discovered that. As represented in Peter, the company with the Lord had been sinful persons, and in the woman they are represented as sinners. Chapter 7 tells us she was a great sinner — a five hundred pence debtor. We like to cover up all the bad side of our histories, and make much of the good side, but Luke would not have us to do that, but would like us to bring into evidence what we are, and what we have been, and what it is to have been saved from our public reputation, and in spite of that public history, that the Lord “is not ashamed to call them brethren” and not ashamed with such histories as this. The work of Christ was so effective that we are with Him, and we are used by Him.
WA Would that represent the full result of grace?
JT It is the full result of grace in the woman. Seven demons denotes perfection of wickedness.
WA I suppose the Spirit of God moves towards a full result of grace in us.
JT Mary Magdalene was a great sinner, and you cannot bring in any form of sin that she did not know. Therefore, she would be gracious towards sinners, and would tell them how to get free from it. Paul had experience. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first”. He could tell any one of them how to judge himself. If we are humble, it is to our advantage. If I have [p. 238] been saved from drunkenness, I can tell any one how to be saved from it. Though saved from drunkenness, nevertheless I am not to be ashamed to tell what I have been saved from. So Simon is brought in peculiarly in this book in the way that he is converted. The Lord came into his house in chapter 4 and healed his mother-in-law, but apparently that did not reach him. The Lord spoke wonderful things out of his ship, but apparently he did not get help. There was no confession until the Lord ordered him to “draw out into the deep water and let down your nets for a haul”. Instead of asking him to do it, He orders him to do it, and Peter’s salvation lies in the fact that he was submissive to the Lord. He says, “at thy word I will let down the net” and when he saw the bountifulness of the result he realised that he had to do with a Person that he did not know was there. He had judged that there could be no fish about for he had toiled all night and caught nothing, and according to all the rules he knew of, there could be no fish there, and so he tells the Lord this. He is sceptical about the result; he was going by experience, but human experience is always deceptive in the things of God. You have to do with the Lord, and He is above all human experience. He is in His own domain in the sea. What Peter did not know the Lord did. Salvation lay in the fact that he was submissive. He was not sure of the result, but he says, “at thy word I will let down the net”. He got a great draught of fishes, so great that the net broke. So he says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord”. I suppose he would refer back to many things. Possibly what he felt most was his unbelief. The very worst form of sin is unbelief. He felt unfit for the Lord. He represented the twelve. The Lord had to do with each one doubtless to bring them to the same point. He does not tell us so, but John says, “I suppose that not [p. 239] even the world itself would contain the books written”. What wonderful and glorious things He was doing! It just gives us a minimum of what He does to let us know the kind of thing that is going on. Here in the twelve we have the moral foundations going on. Here is a man who is sinful. He knows what others are, too, there is no exception. We do not expect from others what is not there. That is a great thing in the assembly of God in its public character. You know what is in people because you know what is in yourself. These twelve men had been the subject of prayer. The Lord was a dependent Man, He spent the whole night in prayer before calling them. In spite of the fact that they had been dealt with judicially as we see in Peter, the Lord turns to God as example for us. Thus we come to discernment of what God has given, but that is not enough, we can never do without God.
JN Does He say this with a view to their having substance?
JT I was thinking that. Then another thing that comes out in chapter 7 is the woman was a lover of Christ. Wisdom says she gives those who love her to inherit substance. Look at the regard with which wisdom holds its lovers. They get substance. Luke is most practical as to this.
Rem It would be well if we could take account of the fruit, or substance, as coming out under these new conditions that you indicate under grace, because in all these people that are made prominent you get some different feature brought out as to their past history.
JT You get a wonderful company of people. The Lord is going about from city to city and from village to village preaching the gospel. There is a wonderful company and all these are with Him. Demons are cast out, wonderful things are being done. No wonder you would like to be in a company [p. 240] like that; there is something extraordinary about it, but if you are to be in it you must be like those who form it. You cannot be added to the company as you are naturally. People of all kinds have been allowed to join it, and it is this that has made christendom.
RS It is not a question of quantity but of quality.
JT That is the thing — quality first. Quality must be by the word of God. God has begun and He is going to finish.
WA It seems that being in contact with the Lord in a personal way is the test presented here.
JT Yes. Mary Magdalene was one from whom the Lord Himself had cast out the demons. It is a great thing to come in contact with the Lord.
Rem I was wondering if the seed sowing had produced these people.
JT I suppose that is the thing to call attention to. These people were His own handiwork. He shows what His idea is in these people who were with Him.
RS So Paul says, “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness”, 2 Corinthians 4: 6. It is God Himself that is shining.
JT That is the idea indeed. What a company! The twelve, Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward and Susanna and many others — wonderful companions, all God’s handiwork. So in Antioch, another relative of Herod was there too. Grace oversteps natural prejudice. Herod was a fox; the Lord said, “Go tell that fox”. He saves the wife of his steward. In Antioch Herod’s foster-brother. Manaen, was there too in that company. So it is with Christ, He selects people from all quarters.
Rem Luke would help us in our outlook on the world in general.
JT I think so. Luke helps you as an evangelist. The work of God selects from all classes.
[p. 241] Rem This makes it a great test for us in speaking to people about their souls as we often are much influenced by natural prejudices or feelings, and making differences.
JT Luke would suggest that throughout this beautiful picture; in chapter 7 we have the evangelist; he took account of the woman who was a sinner, also of the centurion, a Roman soldier, who was on the best of terms with the Jews, for he had built them a synagogue. He is on the very best of terms too with his servants; he was a good master. All that kind of thing you get recorded in Luke. There is no attempt to store up feeling, for it is a question of getting souls saved.
Rem You get souls whether it be the centurion or the servants or a poor woman like Mary Magdalene, or the wife of Herod’s steward. It is grace operating. No matter how great a sinner, there is room for all.
JT Luke is the only one who tells us that one of the malefactors on the cross was saved. God’s assembly is composed of this kind of people, so that He makes you gracious about other people, but firm against their sins, because sin is sin in the eye of God. It is remarkable what we read of Mary Magdalene, “from whom seven demons had gone out”, as if their place was made such that they could not stay there. It is most remarkable, “had gone out”. I suppose the work of God in us makes us unfit for them.
Ques Would you say the work of God Himself preceded this work?
JT It did. That is the thing that comes out “Good ground” — good ground is the work of God.
Ques Is it possible to have a very great deal of light, and miss the true object of Christ?
JT I think so. You might have light and doctrine, and may lack grace. The sons of Zeruiah were hard men; they were not subject to David.
[p. 242] The present dispensation is grace reigning through righteousness; so we must not overlook grace.
Rem In Luke 7: 48 the Lord said to the woman, “Thy sins are forgiven”, but to Simon the Pharisee, “Her many sins are forgiven; for she loved much”, as if to emphasise grace.
JT You get substance in that way; wisdom causes those who love her to inherit substance. The thief on the cross said, as he was suffering excruciating pain, “we indeed justly, for we receive the just recompense of what we have done; but this man has done nothing amiss”. Death would suggest he had to go through the just judgment of God.
WS Recovery comes in the way of righteousness.
JT David allowed his kindness of heart toward Absalom to let his sins pass. We see how David allowed him to come back without judging himself; he evidently thought he had done enough, being two years without kissing him. Absalom did not care about his kiss; he wanted his throne. He was an unrighteous man, and David suffered the consequences.
Rem Your thought is to see the lines by which fruit of the right kind is to be produced.
JT The Lord went about preaching the gospel and He has got results by it. The seed is the word of God and fruit is borne. Fruit is only borne in one kind of soil and that soil is an honest and good heart. That heart is not natural to you and me. If we look into our hearts naturally, terrible things come out; thirteen wickednesses according to Mark (Mark 7: 21, 22); nothing but evil comes out, and that by birth; only the Lord can bring the right kind of soil. The Lord says here in giving an explanation, “But that in the good ground, these are they who in an honest and good heart, having heard the word keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience”.
JN I was wondering about the fruit; there is decline in Matthew, increase in Mark, and a hundredfold here.
JT That is very interesting. You will have observed that the Lord gives an explanation of the good ground. He does not repeat an hundredfold. He gives an hundredfold in the parable, but not in the explanation of the parable. He gives in the parable the instance of fruit-bearing, and with the explanation ‘patience’. His thought is that we are to grow in it; that is the hundredfold line. The full result of that is bearing fruit with patience.
Ques Is that the same word as endurance?
JT Yes. Patience is to have its perfect work. “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord”. One of the greatest things with God is patience. Think of how He sent His prophets, and look at the period of time covered by the prophets’ ministry.
WS So that there is no rushing of things in God’s realm.
JT It is a great mistake in the house of God to rush things, to not give time.
RS Is the zenith of grace reached in Luke?
JT Yes. I was thinking the zenith of grace is the Lord on the cross saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. Stephen is very near to that, but his is a more limited prayer. He says, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”, but the Lord says, “Father, forgive them”. The counterpart of that is “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem”. That is where He gave His body — the maximum of grace. When Jesus died it was not from weakness, for He cried with a loud voice; He knew He was dying and what He was saying, so that the centurion says, “Certainly this was a righteous man”. Well now, that is the kind of [p. 244] fruit God looks for, according to Luke — men who have the light of that One. So the Lord says, “no one having lighted a lamp covers it with a vessel or puts it under a couch but sets it on a lampstand, that they who enter in may see the light”.
RS Would that be the work of God?
JT God has shone out and what is of God is going to come out. “They who enter in”, that is the touch relative to our fellowship. It is blessed to be where the light is; you cannot be anywhere else if you are with God.
JN It results in testimony.
JT We feel what a great thing it is to have things right. The Lord is the true light that already shines.
WC Is that always the effect of grace?
JT That is right. The Lord says, “there is nothing hid which shall not become manifest”; nothing but shall come to light. Those of us who know God know that some time everything will be manifest in our midst, and so the Lord says further, “Take heed therefore how ye hear”. The word of God is to be heard aright, but now you find that there are people who have things and people who seem to have things. The people who have things will get more and those who seem to have things will get less. That is how things are. “For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and whosoever has not, even what he seems to have shall be taken from him”. We do not want to be among the class that seems to have things, but among those who know that they have them.
Rem “The destruction of the poor is their poverty”, Proverbs 10: 15.
JT The application of this is all around us. There are those who seem to have things and you will observe that in recent years gradually things have [p. 245] been taken away from them; the so-called denominations are losing what they have got.
RS We get the same principle in Matthew one man built his house on a rock and the other on the sand.
JT That is the idea. Both have a house; one comes to nothing, the other stands.
Rem Would not the thing be to give the Spirit His place?
JT You have not got the articles of faith by writing them in a book; they have to be in your soul, and that is by the Spirit.
Rem Does “bring forth fruit with patience” suggest that it is out of diverse conditions that this fruit will come to light? So James in reference to the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord as examples, speaks of suffering affection and of endurance that they passed through, draws attention to the endurance of Job and seeing the end of the Lord.
JT The end of the Lord was reached with Job. His brethren came and each gave him a gold ring, showing that the end of the Lord was reached in him. With a person under discipline, if the end of the Lord is not reached, you cannot give him a gold ring, but if it is, the brethren will surround him and give him a ring, then he is restored. A ring represents a token of affection. The ring being round, there is no end to it. It is to be for ever.
RS “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes”, Job 42: 5, 6.
JT Very beautiful that. In verse 10 of the last chapter, we read that “Jehovah turned the captivity of Job, when he had prayed for his friends; and Jehovah gave Job twice as much as he had before. And all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house, and [p. 246] they condoled with him, and comforted him concerning all the evil that Jehovah had brought upon him; and every one gave him a piece of money, and every one a golden ring”, Job 42: 11.
RS That was a fine time.
JT Yes! Genuine recovery; these were not only tokens of affection to himself, but he is restored to fellowship with his brethren. He was not to be a poor brother any more. He was a real gainer from the discipline.
Ques Why is it the endurance of Job in James? When we read the book of Job we see that what marked him was standing for his own reputation and defence, up till the last chapter; but James puts it in a different light.
JT Job’s history began well, and the Lord credits him with that. Satan tried to get Job to deny God in his affection but in all that Job did not sin with his lips. He justified God before Satan in not being impatient. He said, “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah”. Satan departed; he has to go. Now God takes him in hand. He takes great account of justifying Him before Satan. Satan wanted to make God a liar. It was endurance; the loss of his children, and cattle; his body suffering, and yet he never charged God foolishly. Everything was between God and himself. It was a question of God’s dealings with his soul. After that Satan is shut out.
Rem It says, “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly”. Then the three friends of Job came to him and sat down with him for seven days and seven nights but did not speak a word to him. Satan had said that Job would curse God, but he did not.
JT Another thing comes out here in the thought of God; not only fruit bearing and substance, but relationship with Christ. “My mother and my [p. 247] brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it”. The first is kept by patience, and the second in doing it. I keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. By doing it I am marked off as one of the brethren of Christ. So that we want to do the thing and to be the thing before we can express it.
WS That would be in line with Luke’s ministry. In Matthew it is “whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in the heavens”, but here it is hearing the word of God and doing it.