THE KINGDOM
[p. 25] THE KINGDOM
Reading, Revised by F.E.R.
Matthew 18: 1 - 34 You seem to have in your mind “the calling”. What do you mean by that?
FER I think the one thing that the christian has to learn is the calling of God; and everything else is subordinate to that. It is important to know God’s ways in government, but everything is subordinate to the calling.
JSA And salvation is a means to that end, not the end.
FER Yes, it is plain enough that you could not touch the calling without salvation, but salvation is brought in that you may apprehend the calling.
GR Is the calling the relationships and blessings in which we are set as christians?
FER It is the distinctive place which God has been pleased to give us before Him. It is connected with the purpose of God.
JP And if it is the great thing before God, it ought to be the great thing before us.
FER Take Israel, everything for them was to understand their calling, and the great thing for the church is to apprehend its calling. The difficulty is that, properly speaking, it lies outside of what we are as men upon earth and therefore must be apprehended abstractly.
JP And salvation has been presented so much as an ultimatum.
WM The two things are brought together in the one verse, “Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling”.
RSS We have been accustomed to think that we have been called out of darkness into salvation:
“[p. 26] whom he called, them he also justified”. The calling comes before justification.
FER You get the calling of God in the passage, “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”. Calling is used in two senses; there is a kind of call in the gospel, which does not involve that all are chosen — and there is the calling of God’s purpose.
B The calling connects us rather with Christ in His present place as man.
JSA God’s calling for Israel was connected with the land, but it was necessary for them to be taken out of Egypt for that. They must be freed from the power of the enemy. They were more willing to take the first step than the second.
JP “He brought them out that he might bring them in”.
B The heavenly calling is connected with a heavenly Christ.
FER What I refer to is an expression that you find in Ephesians 1: 18. That is God’s calling. The apostle prays “that ye may know what is the hope of his calling”.
CW We get the calling of the gospel in the Galatians, “called me by his grace”.
FER Exactly so.
B Would 2 Thessalonians 2: 13, 14, make it clear?
FER That looks on to the end, “the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
WM Does the truth of the kingdom lay the basis for entrance into all this?
FER It is in the kingdom that God has first displayed Himself, in order to approach man; that is, that man might have a place with God. Evidently, if you take the light of Scripture, the kingdom was the great thing looked on to in the ways of God. I think it was anticipated from the time that sin came into [p. 27] the world. The law and the prophets came first in the wisdom of God, but neither law nor prophets were the end. Every prophet looks on to the kingdom, while endeavouring at the same time to call the people back to the law, to awaken in them a sense of God’s claims. The prophets came on the line of law, but pointing on to the kingdom. The kingdom is the intervention of God for man.
WM Faith had always the light of the kingdom.
FER Yes, I suppose so, in some degree.
JT What have you in view in Matthew 18, as to the kingdom?
FER I think the passage is very important, because it shows you in the beginning of the chapter the condition of entering the kingdom, and at the close the great principle of the kingdom, i.e., grace reigning through righteousness.
JT That is, the condition is that of a little child.
FER To enter the kingdom you have to come down to that point; you cannot enter it otherwise. The principle of the kingdom is grace.
CW What is meant by the kingdom? There is difficulty in some minds.
FER The kingdom is that sway of God which has to be established in the soul of every man; if God is to have to say to man otherwise than in judgment, the kingdom of God must be established in man. Every christian must know the kingdom in himself.
B Do you mean righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit?
FER Those are consequences; in the first place the rule of grace must be established. If man has departed from God and gone on in self-will, the first thing God must do is to establish His sway, breaking down man’s will.
JP That is, God gets His true place morally in the soul.
RSS What sway were we under before?
FER The authority of darkness; that is, where man is naturally. God has come in to take him out of the authority of darkness, and to translate him into the kingdom of the Son of His love, the One in whom God is expressed. You get the expression of this in Matthew 17 in the transfiguration. There is a pattern of the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
JSA One difficulty is the vague kind of idea that many of us had, that the kingdom was heaven or something of that kind, that is, something you get into by-and-by, instead of an actual present thing in the soul.
RH The kingdom is moral and not material.
FER After a while the kingdom will become manifest, but at the same time its principles will never change; they will always be moral.
JSA In Psalm 72 you get the kingdom very prominent, and also pervading the Psalms.
JA “Take Thou our hearts, and let them be forever closed to all but Thee” — is that the sway under which a man must come?
FER Yes.
JSA The first step from God was moral opposition; the first step back to Him is moral submission.
FER How many of us, I wonder, are accustomed to look to the Lord for direction in all the details of life? We are so accustomed to look to man that we do not easily come under the moral sway of grace; we are very apt to act for reasons of advantage or convenience, and that proves that one knows very little about the kingdom.
Ques When the Lord told His disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come”. Is that the thought?
FER In a sense, yes.
WM We have looked at the kingdom too dispensationally.
FER That is the rock on which many have [p. 29] split.
GB What did the Lord mean when He said, “The kingdom of God is within you”?
FER I think in principle the kingdom was present in the Person of Christ Himself. The wonderful thing in the kingdom is that you have power on man’s behalf superior to all the power of evil. That is what came to pass in Christ being here upon earth. There was power superior to everything that oppressed man. There are three great ideas that are seen in the Old Testament; the first is blessing, the second is dwelling, and the third is ruling.
JT And they all come out in connection with the kingdom.
FER Yes, and they are revealed in the order I indicated, because what comes out in revelation is God’s own thought. In application they come out in the inverse order.
JP It is the same principle that you get in the instruction as to the tabernacle; it begins with the ark and mercy-seat on God’s side; but when you come to the application, you have to start from the brazen altar.
FER When God reveals His own thought He begins with what is in His own mind, but in man’s apprehension and experience we have to begin with the kingdom. The idea in the kingdom is that you have a point of security, like the child who feels secure with its father. I know it as well as possible; there is a point where no adverse power can touch me; so that the kingdom means salvation. You have to confess Christ as Lord and keep your eye there, and there is not a single thing upon earth that can hurt you. If in any matter you only have your eye on Christ, you may be perfectly sure you will be guided aright. It is deplorable to see how in church troubles people run about like a lot of sheep without a shepherd, reading pamphlets, and everything else except going to the Lord. It is a wonder that they are kept right at [p. 30] all.
CW So that in confessing the Lord Jesus you not only put yourself under His dominion, but you confide in His heart.
FER Yes, the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe. It is a necessary start. The character of the kingdom is grace; and it will not tolerate anything that is not grace. It is power, but it is the kingdom of grace. If people are legal and hard it is extremely probable that they will come under discipline, for the kingdom will not tolerate anything that is not of grace. Grace will not be a cover for man’s will.
GR To come back to the child, it is just as the child is subject to the parent, it has the sense of security.
FER The fact is that if not subject it proves that the child has very little sense of its parent’s goodness; and if we are not subject to the Lord Jesus, it proves that we have a very feeble sense of grace.
JT Have we connected security too much with eternal life, as in John 10?
FER Whatever do you want security for in regard of God? You want security against the power of evil.
JT What do you mean by that; people do not understand you?
FER Have you never found people hunting about for this and that, to give them a sense of security as to God?
CW Is the reason for it that they thought they were going to approach God, to get a place before Him?
FER They do not understand the very first principle of the gospel, and that is, God’s approach to man. It is the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared. The only way you can know God at all at the present time is as a Saviour [p. 31] God.
JT So that the end reached in the close of Romans 8 is that God is for us. I can understand now what you mean when you say that people do not need to look for proof in regard of God.
FER If they do, it shows they know little or nothing about the character of God. They do not realise that salvation is of His pleasure. It is God’s mind in regard to man.
WM I suppose a person in the light of that is saved.
FER He must be; if you know God as a Saviour God you must be saved.
RSS It has helped me, your asking as to why people want assurance.
WM It makes the principle of the gospel very simple.
JT At the bottom of this question of assurance, there is a great deal of self-consciousness.
FER Yes, people are not concerned about a knowledge of God, but want assurance about themselves. The secret is, perhaps, that there is a good deal in their inmost hearts that the knowledge of God would rebuke. The more you know of God, the more you see your own way searched. The knowledge of God is very testing. The whole ways of God all tend to this, that God may be known in the heart of man. God has laid Himself out that He may be known in the heart of man. God’s end is never gained until He has got man’s heart.
JT And then the works of the devil are undone.
FER Yes, that is the mighty victory of God, that He has got man’s heart for Himself. What are men or the world worth, or what is man compared with the knowledge of God? The one thing that a christian knows is that everything here will pass away; and what will remain then?
[p. 32] WM Love.
FER That is the knowledge of God. “We love him because he first loved us”.
CW Very few have reached that point.
FER The sooner they do it the better; that is the only way they can cater for their own happiness.
JT That was expressed the other day. You said people do not cater for their own happiness.
FER I do not believe they do. I have watched people; they go after what they think will bring happiness, but not true happiness. They do a great many things which in result will bring them into bondage, and bondage is never happiness. They pursue things by which they get entangled and from which God will perhaps have to come in to extricate them.
JSA Grace and peace are multiplied in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
FER Paul prays that God “may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling”.
RSS How is happiness to be obtained?
JC Mr. Stoney used to say that the way to keep happy is to keep small.
CW The true condition of happiness is that God should be supreme in our hearts.
JA Does not the acknowledging of the moral sway of God involve a good deal?
FER It is that which brings you salvation. It is the grace of God that bringeth salvation.
AC What are the steps in the soul’s history?
FER The first great thing is the recognition of the reality of the Lord Jesus. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”. Then I think there needs to be apprehension of what is established in connection with Him, that which prevails through Him. You get three great things in the beginning of [p. 33] Romans 5; the first is peace, the second grace, and the third hope. These three great principles are connected with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is supreme at the right hand of God. He is Lord of all. Peace in regard to the past, grace as to the present, and hope as to the future. And that takes up everything pretty much as to the christian in the world. Grace is supreme over everything, and makes you superior to evil, so that you overcome it and hold fast your profession. You have boldness to come to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need; and as to the future, you have the glory of God before you. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing”.
JSA Would you say what you mean by salvation, it has been connected with the future a good deal?
FER I think salvation is in the title to be free from everything that is adverse, and refers especially to the present scene. It is perfectly intelligible by the type of the Israelites. Salvation to them meant deliverance from the Egyptians. They never had anything to fear from God, but a great deal to fear from the Egyptians, and salvation to them was in destruction of the Egyptians. God was not their enemy; they had everything to hope from Him. People often fear man and death and the devil. They are not in salvation. If you expect anything from man, you are afraid of man. If you can say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man can do unto me, you do not fear any one but God.
GR In the meantime that is only moral. When the kingdom is established salvation will apply to our bodies also.
WM Before eternal life can be touched we must certainly be under the sway of grace.
FER Yes, because until you are there you do not come under [p. 34] the teaching of God.
JT And the teaching of God has reference to His purpose.
FER Then it is that Christ becomes the teacher in order to lead you into the purpose of God, and that could not possibly be until you are brought under the moral sway of God.
JP That is the order in the opening of Romans 5 — peace, grace, and hope, and then the love of God shed abroad in our hearts — that is divine teaching.
FER Divine teaching is an insight into the nature and counsels of God; it begins with making known to us the terms on which God can be with us.
RSS You spoke a little while ago about blessing and dwelling and reigning, and that we have it in inverse order. How about the dwelling?
FER Dwelling is consequent on the reigning; the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us. You could not have the Spirit dwelling until the kingdom is established; the Lord Jesus Christ must be set at the right hand of God before the Holy Spirit could be given. I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit came in connection with the kingdom, to make good in power the kingdom here. The kingdom was made good at the right hand of God when Christ went there, but the Holy Spirit came down to make the kingdom good here. The coming of the Holy Spirit brought God into this scene, and the house is the consequence of His having come.
GR Have we not these two thoughts in the Acts? Jesus is established Lord and Christ, and then, “he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear”.
FER Yes.
RSS What blessing is connected with the kingdom?
FER Blessing is consequent on God dwelling; it hangs on that, as you see in Psalm 133; there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.
[p. 35] David talks about building a house, and God speaks about David’s throne. Then David’s throne is really the throne of God. You could not understand this well from the Old Testament, but in the New you find that David’s throne is God’s throne. The kingdom is Jehovah’s. It is the Son of God who sits on David’s throne. Then it is that blessing is commanded in Zion. In Revelation 21, the former things are gone, all is blessing because God is there. That is always the way. Where God is there is perfect happiness; you will not find it elsewhere.
GR The point today is to bring God into our own little circle.
FER The house of God has come in, and in the original order the house of God was a place of supreme happiness, and we have found this in a certain sense, being in the gain of where the presence of God is. This was seen plainly in the early chapters of Acts.
GR David seemed to value the house of God more than this scene.
WM I think you said somewhere, that when a man has to do with God he must own God’s righteousness.
FER I think you want that for a moral basis; all is established on righteousness, and we have to learn that. This comes out in the early chapters of Romans. In chapter 3 not only is sin gone from before God, but the man has gone. Chapter 4 brings in the thought of another man and another world, and the apprehension of that would help people, because they would learn at the outset that God would have nothing to say to man in the flesh. We need to apprehend that in order to see what the righteousness of God means. All this is preparatory to the reign of grace. The power of resurrection puts you into the line of the children of promise, who all looked [p. 36] for another world.
WM The law pressed righteousness on the first man.
FER It witnessed and claimed the rights of God, but the righteousness of God came in, when the law had had its place in the way of testimony, to carry out the original sentence of death, but sacrificially in the death of Christ. “If one died for all, then were all dead”. The offender is gone, not only the offences.
Ques The kingdom can only be established in righteousness?
FER Grace reigns through righteousness; grace has not come in to condone sin, but to remove it.
JSA Righteousness is characteristic of the reign of grace. The kingdom is not simply established on it, but must be characterised by it.
FER The effect of grace reigning is that you are saved from your own will. No man who is in the good of grace gives way to his own will. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts”, etc. It is important, as to Matthew 18, to see that the subject of the chapter is not the church, but the kingdom.
WM The house is not spoken about until the kingdom is established.
FER The church is mentioned in this chapter, but only incidentally. You get more about the church in chapter 16, the Lord is giving in chapter 18 the principles and economy of the kingdom.
JSA That leads to a right application of verse 20, “where two or three are gathered together in my name”.
FER The verse brings in the Lord’s presence to the smallest possible number. It was not written for a day of ruin, but for the best day of the church.
AC You would not care to rob people of this verse which has been a comfort to so many?
FER There never were two or three people in [p. 37] the world that really wanted the presence of Christ that did not get it. If people claim it, I am not sure they always get it. If they want it they get it. There is often a danger of setting up to be something collectively, which is not the idea of the passage.
JT As to the individual conduct in Matthew 18, the person who seeks the restoration of his brother would be in the sense of what the kingdom is.
FER The Lord makes provision to meet difficulties that come in. After 1800 years you have not found anything wiser than the principles you get in this chapter. If people acted in this way it would save them from many painful things.
JSA The thought has been taken up so often ecclesiastically. If it is connected with the kingdom it must be moral.
FER Ecclesiasticism, standing, ground, and such ideas have almost ruined us.
GB Would you say a few words as to verse 18?
FER That I think is connected with the assembly. That is, the assembly is in Christ’s mind as to things, and therefore has a very important place. Every individual effort having been put forth, the matter comes to the assembly, and they bind and loose.
WM Because they are in Christ’s mind.
GB This is not authority merely, given to the apostles.
FER No, it belongs to the assembly.