THE SUBDUING POWER OF THE LORD
THE SUBDUING POWER OF THE LORD
FER It seems to me that you get here a new point of departure, a starting point, which is Christ in glory.
DLH Stephen’s death brings things to a crisis.
FER He sees every divine interest of earth carried up to heaven, and chapter 8 is the completion of it. In chapter 9 you get the new starting point — Christ in glory.
JSO In what sense does chapter 8 complete it?
FER Stephen’s testimony was, that Christ was Son of man and he saw every interest carried up to heaven; but in chapter 8 His life is taken from the earth, and the curious thing in regard to the eunuch, is that he gets light going away from Jerusalem, and not when he is going to it.
JSO In seeing the glory of God and Jesus, Stephen got as much for his own soul as Saul did afterwards.
FER I think he did; he saw everything secured in Jesus and carried up to heaven.
JSO He saw things beyond the testimony he bore.
FER Yes, that was the case with the apostles too. Peter had more light than he bore testimony of. This chapter brings in and is full of the activity of the Lord. You get the idea of it in Philippians 3: 21, you get the Lord who is to subdue all things to Himself. All the order of things which would have had its climax in the glory of Israel is displaced, and the Lord begins afresh. The first thing is the church and He takes up Paul to be a witness to the gentiles. They come in first.
DLH Saul was really a witness to the propensity of the Jew.
FER He comes in to show that the best thing on earth is antagonistic to Christ. The best thing was hostile to Christ, which is very humiliating.
[p. 55] DLH It is interesting the way in which the eunuch perceived the force of baptism as connecting him with the One whose life was taken from the earth.
FER In baptism you leave the world, you are buried out of sight. His affections were reached and he was willing to follow; he saw that every hope connected with Israel had really died with Christ.
HCA Hence there was no way but to look to heaven.
FER The cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop were all cast into the burning. Man gets contaminated with the things of the world and death, and it is exceedingly difficult to go through the world without being contaminated with them, the water of purification comes in to cleanse a man. If a man were always up to his priestly functions, he would not want it, but we sometimes drop down to the level of common people by coming into contact with things in the world.
Paul immediately preached in the synagogue, Christ, that He is the Son of God. God Himself in that sense is the point of departure. He is no longer dealing with the responsible man, and trying to get anything out of man; the beginning now is God Himself, He is the source of everything for man.
TH “To reveal his Son in me”, is the idea there that Paul was to be the vessel of that revelation?
FER I thought that was peculiarly Paul’s testimony.
TH Does it convey the thought of the purpose of God — sonship?
FER It seems to be the principle of what is set forth for man in Christ as Man.
TH He was not simply the vessel of revelation, but it is what is set forth in the Man. He announced as glad tidings, what was really God’s mind for man.
JSO It gives a wonderful character to christianity.
FER It involves a very vast extent of testimony when you consider what was set forth in Christ as Man,
[p. 56] He has fully set forth the mind of God. It was set forth in Christ as Man. It is not exactly revelation; the revelation of God is distinct from that though connected with it. The mind of God was set forth in the presence of the revelation of God.
JSO The One who set forth God’s mind is the One in whom He is revealed.
FER You get the two things in Hebrews 1 and throughout John continually. Sonship comes out in Galatians as the mind of God for man.
TH The aspect of the church comes out here as the body of Christ.
FER I think it is Himself, Christ, in the saints. One thing is perfectly certain, that the body of Christ must take precedence over everything else. The body must come in before Israel, from the fact of its being the body and His body. This chapter is the unfolding of Christ down here, His activity and administration. It is not authority, but administration, and in connection with it His subduing power. Authority brings in judgment; administration brings in the Lord’s subduing power. Saul is subdued, and Ananias, and at the end of the chapter you find whole cities turning to the Lord. The incident in the latter part of the chapter points to the time when Christ comes in, it is in that way more dispensational.
TH There is a special tenderness in the repetition of Saul’s name.
FER In the case of Saul, religion connected itself with a tremendous strength of will which would not permit of any divergence from what was right and orthodox. The mind of man in the things of God may work tremendous mischief. Here the apostle of persecution becomes the apostle of the truth. It is administration coming in to subdue. In the samples given in this chapter there is no resistance. When the Lord sees fit to put forth His power nothing can stand against it.
DLH If one had the sense of that it would [p. 57] give one great quietness in regard to the testimony.
FER I think so. Though the Lord takes up nothing of earth — no place in regard to the world — there is great activity going on.
JSO Results seem very small at present.
FER The results in this chapter are not very great; they are simply in one man until the close of the chapter. Saul was a chosen vessel, and he becomes an instrument in the hand of the Lord for the conversion of great numbers. It is accounted for in the present day by our being in the end of the dispensation. When you consider the state of the church, where is the ‘Me’ now? It is here but where can you distinguish it? There was no difficulty in distinguishing it then, but where is it today?
DLH It cannot be found except morally.
FER It is obscure and hid in the mass of christendom, but we ourselves want to be in the ‘Me’. The small results of the testimony at the present time are because brethren are not up to the mark.
ERBR Is not the ‘Me’ like the 7000 in Elijah’s day in Israel?
FER They were quite hid; the Lord knew them. But it was not so with the ‘Me’ referred to here because it was known. The 7000 are hid today, but it is not God’s mind that they should be hid. The difficulty of today is that we have not got the witness. The witness is here and it is essential to testimony, but it is very obscure. The living expression of Christ was here in the early days, and if it were here today the testimony would be entirely incontrovertible. By testimony I mean Christ in the saints; that is the only collective testimony. In the early part of the Acts, the first thing God did was to establish the witness, then you get the preaching going out; but there was no preaching until the witness was here. I quite admit the difficulty of the present time, but you have to hold to that principle.
JSO There is nothing else to encourage one.
FER When there was a great work in regard to [p. 58] brethren, it was in their early days because there was something of the witness there. If you take our meetings, many come to them just as they would go to church or chapel. They see things are a little more scriptural perhaps, but there is very little faith really. Take the prayer meeting, you do not find the men all praying and it indicates a lack of spiritual energy.
JMcK One has proved that the condition of the local assembly has greatly affected the testimony.
FER That is the case. If you really want to have real power in the preaching, it would be when the meeting is right; that is the principle of the thing. When a meeting is right there is a real expression of Christ in the saints.
JSO On the other hand, do you not think that at the end of a dispensation things are very low, and that the ministry of the Holy Spirit would be very much characteristic of the close?
FER It is at that point that God would come in and help the saints to awaken them to their calling. Any activity of the Spirit of God would begin from within and work outward.
WB When you speak of the saints you speak of a large company.
FER After all the Spirit of God has wrought among the saints, but very many of the saints have refused the activity of the Spirit. It has been very greatly refused in our day. Things are going very much to the bad in Protestantism because they have refused the light which God has brought in.
JSO You get the principle of it in the Judges.
FER Yes, God has raised up men to awaken the saints afresh to their proper place and calling. As a matter of fact there cannot be a doubt that the present state of things in christendom is entirely apostate from the Holy Spirit, and what can God do but bring us back to what is really in the Holy Spirit?
WB It is a happy thing when a good many are led [p. 59] to pray at the prayer meeting.
FER It is very striking to me the way the Lord deals with Ananias, he in a way resists the Lord when he gets his directions, but the Lord says to him “Go thy way”; I do not think you can resist the Lord.
JSO He is like Peter, “I have never eaten anything common or unclean”.
FER All must have sounded very strange to Ananias.
WB May there not be on the part of the unsaved the resisting of the Holy Spirit — divine power?
FER There may be on the part of a christian. The will of man always resists the Holy Spirit; the flesh lusts against the Spirit, but there is a subduing power with the Lord which breaks down all opposition. With Ananias it was not will, it was hesitation. I think there is one principle which has to be accepted, namely, the sovereignty of the Lord. He is sovereign in the choice of instruments and vessels. I cannot tell who the Lord would use, because He does not act in accordance with my mind, He takes up very often very intellectual men. Paul is a special case and initiates the principle.
DLH One sees what a deep work of God there was in him, he did neither eat nor drink for three days.
FER Every thought and feeling in Paul was completely revolutionised; it was a moral earthquake; all the foundations gave way and the whole edifice came toppling down about his ears. It reveals to us how far religious zeal leads a man.
DLH It is tremendously opposed to God.
FER Yes, and nothing else would do for him but the subduing power of the Lord. What we have to meet today is the administration of the Lord and His subduing power.
TH In 2 Corinthians 10: 1 he speaks of the meekness and gentleness of the Christ, do you think that came out here?
FER I think so. Take the religious fanatic of today,
[p. 60] he does not appreciate the meekness and gentleness of Christ. When the Lord was here He said “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart”. That is not at all appreciated in the world. They do not appreciate the qualities which are of God. The moment you get a divine Person become Man, He says “I am meek and lowly in heart”. That is very strange because the world does not appreciate it, but what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God. There is a power in the Lord which is able to subdue all things to Himself, and if the Lord is to have sway, every sentiment appreciated in the world, patriotism, loyalty and the like, will have no place at all. No sentiment which had its origin in departure from God can have any place with God. God approves an entirely different line of sentiment to that.
JMcK This is not a sample case of conversion.
FER I do not think so, though every man is subdued by the grace of the Lord. The Lord has come forth in divine goodness, not only to accomplish righteousness for God, but to establish salvation for man, and that breaks man down. The Lord has come in grace to deliver man out of the power of darkness, Satan and the world.