IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD EVERY NATURAL THOUGHT IS REVOLUTIONISED
[p. 397] IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD EVERY NATURAL THOUGHT IS REVOLUTIONISED
Ques What connection have these two parables?
FER The early part of the chapter shews that in the kingdom of God every natural thought is revolutionised. The widow and the sinner without righteousness and the child without strength all come into the regard of God: the widow is heard for her importunity, and the children are received. It is extremely important to see what has the regard of God down here; it is not the rich man.
Ques What is the difference between this and chapter 11 where you have importunity brought in?
FER It is the same principle. The early part of the chapter connects itself with the end of the preceding one. The chapter is apparently divided: the first eight verses belong to the previous chapter; it is the elect of Israel that are literally referred to. It refers to the coming of the Son of man to avenge His elect. It is extremely important to see what God regards down here.
You get a new subject at verse 31; the point of the blind man is, he confesses Christ as the Son of David; then in the beginning of the next chapter the Son of David is in the house of the sinner. I think it gives instruction as to what it is that will really bring God in. “Shall not God avenge his own elect?” It is what commands His regard down here, and then you get what is the great hindrance.
The publican is justified; you have to come down morally to his level and to the level of children. The kingdom of God has come in to test everybody; it has not come in power and glory, but to test everybody, people are found out where they are. You [p. 398] have to receive the kingdom to come into it. On the other hand, the Pharisee did not want to receive it. The rich man wanted eternal life in addition to to what he had; he was not prepared to give it up. What lies at the bottom of all these things is self-righteousness; all connect themselves with a lawless world, and the kingdom comes in to deliver people out of the world. The point is whether people are low enough down to come into God’s kingdom.
What I understand by it is the rule of grace, the reign of grace. The talent is what Christ has left in the hands of the servants. A man must be divested of his riches to enter into the kingdom. I think the truth is that the link must be severed with this evil world in order that he may enter the kingdom. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, not eating and drinking.
The kingdom is brought in that eternal life may be known. You could not get it without it, in order to hold evil in abeyance, Satan bound, death swallowed up in victory, etc.
In order that eternal life might come in you must get the kingdom. The soul must come under the power and authority of God to be free of that of the enemy, you cannot get eternal life without that.
The prophets are all full of the kingdom, more than eternal life; the great point is, it comes in that all evil may be held in abeyance, that man may be able to live under the influence of God. There will not be the extinction of the enemies in the millennium, but all the forces held in abeyance; that necessitates the kingdom, victory rules. How will you get free of the power of the enemy? By the authority of God, in order that you may reach eternal life. Sin is reigning outwardly by death now, and now we get the thought of God, that grace might reign through righteousness; it is true to faith now, Christ [p. 399] is Lord, to us He presents all the power and authority of God, and therefore it is of great comfort to me. I am strong in the Lord and the power of His might; it is a great thing to know the consciousness of the Lord.
The Lord said to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for thee”. The Lord delights to put forward what is nothing and weak in this world, that it may stand against all the power of evil, “the little child”. Every natural thought, all that we have learnt in the world, is completely revolutionised in the kingdom. God has chosen the foolish things of this world.
The thought of kingdom in my mind is not so much connected with the world, but with the power of evil behind the world. The Israelites got clear of Egypt, but Satan wanted to bring them back. We want to be strong to resist the enemy, not to be brought back to fall down to the level of the world.
The kingdom of God is a means to an end; people ought to be set on reaching eternal life. The thought of eternal life was becoming prominent when the church was going to the bad, and I believe it to be a great safeguard for us, that we may escape Babylon and Egypt.
The kingdom is the means to that end. Egypt is the natural world, the world of man’s nature; Babylon is the world of man’s lust. The masterpiece of Satan is really Babylon, the mother of abominations. The church lost the rule of the Spirit, and was carried away to ecclesiastical Babylon. No system in the world has such power as popery. Balaam raises the question of association, which is a very great snare to people in the present day — people keep up links.
The young man would have been well pleased to have had eternal life with his riches. Riches are an abomination in the sight of God; it has all sprung [p. 400] up in this world. The principle of Scripture is that the rich man disperses.
Men get to love riches; you cannot watch men without seeing that. You will not get an accumulation of riches in the world to come, it is only in the present world; they measure things by appearance, not morally. If a bad man gets riches men do not neglect him, he gets honour. In the kingdom of God everything is measured morally, that is the great comfort. The rich man has the responsibility of using his riches as a steward; he cannot throw them away, it would only add to the confusion: the point is to make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness.
The Lord loved the young man. There are many things that you could love. See a mother with tender affection for her children; I think that you would love it, and the Lord loved it.
In the constitution of man there is a great deal that is very beautiful; it is a great mistake to overlook traces of God’s handiwork in that way.
The world would be a perfect pandemonium without it; the terrible mischief is that man is under the power of the enemy and cannot free himself. It is a perfect impossibility for a rich man to enter in as such: he must become small. The Lord knew perfectly well the great place and power that riches had over the heart of man, but God knows well how to bring him down. If he has a child taken it breaks him, and all that he may come into the kingdom as a little child.
God knows how to break the power of riches over a man; the kingdom will not be any man’s debtor. If they leave all they will get compensation. I never lost anything, but some people remain half in each and never come into the good of either. A man gains much more in the present time by getting [p. 401] out of what is artificial into what is real. The “manifold more” is in what is real, not in what is artificial. People live in appearances, but they are not real. The point is, I am not taken in by what is artificial, it is only counterfeit You want what is moral, that which will stand in the presence of God.