POWER COME IN TO MAKE THE WORD EFFECTIVE
[p. 206] POWER COME IN TO MAKE THE WORD EFFECTIVE
DLH Would you give us a little recapitulation of these chapters?
FER I think chapters 3 and 4 bring to light the change of position consequent upon the Son of God coming into the world. The temple is superseded, His body is the temple. Then He does not trust Himself to man and the Jew must be born again. The Son of man has come into the world as light, and the effect is, the world is tested. It is not only that light has come in, but there is also power come in to make the word effective. Things are revolutionised by the light coming in; the material temple is nothing now. The Lord recognises the temple, but His body is it. The Jew must be born again and the world must be tested. The Jew comes in on the ground of “whosoever” and Christ would not commit Himself to those who believed on Him on account of the miracles He did. He has come in as light and tested everything, and now power has come in to make the word more effective. Commensurate power has come in, and hence at the end of our chapter we get the harvest. It is reaping, not sowing. We get the light in chapter 3, and chapter 4 gives us the well of water springing up to effectuate the word in those who believe.
WB The question is, how do I stand in relation to the Son of God?
FER That is it, that is chapter 3.
WB Of course you get the love of God lying at the back of the coming of the Son of God.
FER Yes, it is love to the world, and the course which that love has taken in bringing the light of [p. 207] another world into this one to test it. The Son of God is the light of another world, and His coming into this one tested it; but my point is, He is the Centre of another world, He brings in the power of another world which springs up to eternal life.
JSO The light reveals God.
FER It reveals His thought in regard of man, “That whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”.
JSO Eternal life is the revelation of the Father and the Son.
FER It is all based on that. The thought of God in regard of man has its background in the revelation of God.
DLH The revelation of God is the truth.
FER That is how I would speak of it. It is the word of God to us, the light being bond and principle of another world which has come into this one to test it, and hence we get the condemnation. The world has been tested by the light, and has not answered to it, though there are individuals who have answered to it, but generally, the world has not.
WB Would you also say that there was salvation there?
FER Wherever there was the recognition of the light, there was the communication of the well of water of life. It is not only that light came in by Christ, but there was also the communication of power in order that the light might be effectual in those who came to it. I mean that there was the communication to man of living water. “Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst”.
ASL That was the light that tested the world.
FER The point is to see that Christ is the light of another world, and that He came here to test this one. All was darkness here; and after all there were those who came to the light that their deeds might be made manifest that [p. 208] they were wrought in God.
ASL Is darkness entire ignorance of God?
FER It was not only darkness but there was also wilfulness which accompanied it, and hence they did not come to the light because their deeds were evil.
ASL What is “God is light”?
FER That is moral; there is no countenance in God for evil. There is a dark spot in the sun, but not in God.
GJS What is your thought of condemnation?
FER It is moral, the state of the world is proved. The light has tested man. God saw fit to give expression to His love in allowing the light of another world to come into this one and of necessity it has been tested by the light by Christ’s presence here.
JSO “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”.
FER The life all belongs to another world. It is important to see that the world of which Christ is Sun and Centre is the real one.
JSO That is what made me think that the knowledge of God was inseparable from the life and light.
FER I quite agree. The revelation of God and His mind for man are both set forth in Christ and are inseparable. All that world subsists in the light of God; but another point is that Christ is the Sun and Centre of that world. “The darkness is passing and the true light already shines”.
DLH Say a word on “God so loved the world”. What is the exact bearing of it?
FER It indicates what was in His thoughts towards the world. It was shut up absolutely in a way under death and judgment, but He allows the light of His world to come into it to test it that man might find a way out of it.
ASL The coming will be characterised by the knowledge [p. 209] of God.
FER Exactly, it will be the scene of God’s glory, this is the scene of man’s.
ASL “The true light already shines”, what is that?
FER The Sun of righteousness. He does not shine in display, but it is what is true in Him and in you, in Christ and christians. The true light shines for us. You really come into the light of the Sun of righteousness, which shines upon us.
GB Do you refer, the darkness is passing, to christians and not to the world?
FER It is that which is true in Christ and christians.
ASL You would not speak of Christ as the light of the world now.
FER He is of His own world. The gospel comes today, and the world is really tested by it.
DLH The light is really seen in the saints.
FER Yes, but it is reflected light in them.
Ques How does the gospel test the world?
FER It is evidently of God and therefore where there is any fear of God people are drawn to it; but on the other hand, those who prefer to go on in darkness do not come to the light, they prefer darkness because their deeds are evil.
DLH Are those people of the world of which it says, “God so loved the world”? Do you connect the thought of God’s love with the world in the manner you are now speaking of it?
FER I think so, if it had not been for the love of God towards the world it would have been shut up to death and judgment.
DLH I have thought of the world in contrast to the Jews.
FER It is in that way; but allowing that to be the case, if you take the world it has been tested by the coming of Christ into it and the practical result [p. 210] is condemnation.
DLH The world has assumed a character of hostility to God.
FER What do you mean by the world, the heathen?
DLH All that is not of the Father.
FER There is no world in christendom except in a moral point of view.
DLH Do you look upon the world in chapter 3 in a moral point of view?
FER It is the Jew and gentile; but then christendom has been formed by the testimony and will be judged on the ground of it, so that you cannot call christendom the world.
ASL Is the world that God loved all mankind?
FER Yes, “When the kindness and love to man of our Saviour God appeared”.
JSO The witness is on God’s side, His own Son.
FER Exactly, but the effect of such a testimony must be that the world is tested.
ASL The Son of God having been rejected here makes all the difference, it is final.
FER Yes, it is final. “This is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light”.
JMcK Has that altered God’s attitude towards the world?
FER But where is the world? Wherever the witness of the gospel came you get the same testing, but when you come to christendom, it has been formed by the testimony of the gospel.
JMcK Yes, but would you preach from John 3: 16?
FER I should preach that God demonstrated His love to the world by bringing in the light of another world, so that there may be a point of contact between God and man. God does not close things up. What has come to pass is that the Jew is apostate, and now he is rejected, and the light is among the [p. 211] gentiles. There cannot be a doubt that there still remains a point of contact between God and man. If it were not so man would be shut up to death and judgment. The world has been tested by the greatest light that has been brought into it; but still there is the point of contact. “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted out of the earth, will draw all to me”. There is the point of attraction.
KG Is that the mercy-seat?
FER It is Christ lifted up.
ASL John 3: 16 would have all the greater power if it were proclaimed as it stands.
FER Quite so, it abides so long as God goes on with things as they are, but He will not go on with things as they are, because the gentile will be broken off just as the Jew was.
DLH So it stands that God so loved the world in a past sense.
ASL “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself”.
FER But that continues, the effect of Christ going up on high has been expansion.
JSO The gospel is preached by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven consequent upon Christ’s rejection.
BWG How do you connect Christ with the darkness passing?
FER It is true in regard of Christ and us. The day has dawned and we have in view the Sun of righteousness; He has not yet arisen with healing in His wings, but He is good to us. Where I have failed is that I have looked at the world [p. 212] of which Christ is the Sun and Centre as coming in upon the failure of this world, instead of seeing that that world was really the one that was before God. This world was built up on Adam departed from God, but it is a figure only, it came in by the way. The world for God is the one of which Christ is the Sun and Centre. The effect of Christ coming was to open a door out of this world to Himself.
JMcK The condition of things here brings out what was in the heart of God.
FER God looked in compassion on the world, and said, I will not shut it up in death and judgment but I will introduce the light of another world into it to make known My heart and apply that test to the world. Christ is the test of it, and now He draws everything to Himself. He becomes the point of attraction and draws everything that can be here and preserves it all for the world of which He is the Centre. This world is only on probation. “He that doeth truth comes to the light, that his works may be manifested, that they have been wrought in God”.
ER What is wrought in God?
FER God is the source of them.
WB Is it the same now, to lift up our eyes and look on the fields?
FER I think so. The point of it is not simply that the light has come in but there is the power to make the harvest. The time of the prophets was not the reaping time, but now we have the reaping time. The evangelist is sent out to reap: to gather in the harvest is the great work of the present time. The word of God was here in the time of the prophets, they spoke of the Kingdom and coming of Christ, but God was not giving effect to it. Now the light has come in, and it is not simply that there is the word of God, but that He is giving effect to it so that you get the well of water which springs up to eternal life. That never was before.
G.J.S. Who is the sower?
FER The prophets in a way sowed, but now the reaping time has come, the Spirit is here. The disciples were sent to reap, it was the time of fruit and [p. 213] harvest.
THB Was not Christ the sower Himself?
FER I think not, it refers to the ways of God with the prophets.
THB What is the force of verse 34?
FER The finish is the harvest. John the baptist was a sower, be did not reap. Christ came in on the evangelistic line preaching glad tidings and gathering in the harvest.
ASL The reaper goes out now with the gospel.
FER That is the object with the gospel, he goes out to gather to Christ as Sun of righteousness and Centre of another world. The meeting of man’s need comes in by the way, but the object of the gospel is to bring souls to Christ.
WB If man’s need is met it is his soul being brought in contact with Christ.
GJS How do you distinguish between this and Matthew 13?
FER The sowing there is the kingdom, it means the kingdom was established. No prophet could speak of the kingdom being established, but in Matthew it was there in His Person.
JSO The well of living waters supposes more than the responsibility of the testimony.
FER There are two things in the living water which He gives; first you never thirst, second it springs up to eternal life. You cannot get the second without the first. The love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, that is the first thing so that a man is satisfied and then the well of water springs up in the way of righteousness, holiness and eternal life. “Having become bondmen to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end eternal life”.
JHK What is the force of the latter part of the chapter?
FER You get the progress of the Lord from Judaea to Galilee, the scene of His labours. The Jews are scattered and the judgment of God is upon [p. 214] them, and the word is the only link between God and them. The nobleman had to believe before he got the intervention of God in power. The link with Israel will be formed by the word of God and it will become a test to them previous to the intervention of God in power. He will intervene to raise them up, but the link will be the word. The word is really the revelation of God Himself to them, and it will form the link between God and them. If you think of their perversity, what claim have they on God? The only claim that they have is that He has something in His mind for them, and that is the only link.
ASL Is verse 48 a reproof to the nobleman?
FER I think so, though he ought to have been looking for a prophet, Moses said a prophet would arise, but instead of looking for Him they looked for signs. They will have to accept the word first, and then they will get the signs. This occurred in Galilee, the scene of Christ’s labours among the poor of the flock. To me it is wonderful to see the wisdom of God in introducing the light of another world into this one to gather together everything in this world to carry it out into His own.
JSO All that He can gather out He has formed Himself.
FER There is a good deal of darkness in this world. I saw today that according to man, the will of humanity is the god of this world. Men have to worship the will of humanity, the religion of the world is the will of humanity. Men talk about what they think profound wisdom, and it is really profound rubbish. To think of an intelligent man putting forward such an idea is simply monstrous. If you take up the thing morally it is an absurdity and has no real meaning in it.
ASL The pride of man cannot accept that which must come from [p. 215] God.
FER It is wonderful to think what God’s world is, that all subsists in perfect light — God coming out in that way — and then Christ giving impulse to everything just like the sun. He is the Sun of righteousness, the righteous One, and in His circle everyone likes to do right. Righteousness does not necessarily suppose iniquity, it supposes love.
JSO The world is going to get the benefit of His reigning in righteousness.
FER The millennium is God’s world of triumph over all the workings of evil.
GJS What is the point in the two miracles being in Cana of Galilee?
FER It is adequate testimony, confirmation. Each sign in John’s gospel has its own peculiar significance. The first miracle is that Christ can do better for man than He can do for Himself. This one is the intervention of God on the part of Israel when the link is formed by the word. The new wine is moral, and typical of joy.
PRM What is the force of verse 36, “Gathers fruit unto life eternal”?
FER It is all the time of harvest. The point in view is gathering to eternal life.
PRM Do you connect it with Galatians, “from the Spirit shall reap eternal life”?
FER Here it is evangelistic, there it is individual.
IF That is in view of the future.
FER No, it is in view of the present. The way of it is that we are brought into the knowledge of Christ. John 5 and 6 unfold what eternal life means; we are brought into the joy of it, though we could not get it in a public way like it will be in the kingdom. We are brought to it in the knowledge of Christ; that is the secret of eternal life now. The simple solution of it is that Christ is it.
Christendom is on the point of being apostate and we have to take that into account; nothing can be [p. 216] more appalling than its present condition. If you notice, all real evangelicalism is being given up on every hand and the thing for us is to hold fast. Any effort to connect christianity with the course of this world means dismal failure.
PRM In what sense is salvation of the Jews?
FER The testimony went out from them.
THB You get the Saviour of the world.
FER Yes, not simply of the Jew.