CHAPTERS 4, 5
CHAPTERS 4, 5
Mark gives us the Son of God; the perfect Servant; the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. It is emphatically the servant gospel, but it takes character from the Son of God.
You could not get the kingdom of God presented except in the Son of God. What we come to in this chapter is the mystery of the kingdom of God.
The Lord presented the kingdom, not only spoke of it, but presented it; that is the salient feature of this gospel.
It is presentation of the glad tidings of the kingdom: but it was set forth in His Person.
He represented grace acting in power; He was the living expression of it in His Person.
Is the sowing the seed the way the kingdom is established now?
The kingdom was not set up in manifested display, but it took the form of a mystery. The kingdom could only be brought about by the work of God underneath.
Is it preparatory to display?
It is not looked at in that way in this chapter. This chapter stops short of Matthew 13, it does not go beyond the present time.
What is the gathering of the harvest?
That is the mind and thought of God in the kingdom. When the harvest is ripe then the sickle is put in.
God has established the kingdom, in order that He might gather the harvest. In order to get a harvest He must prepare the ground for the seed. The word is sown broadcast, but the ground has to be prepared.
[p. 121] The ground prepared is good ground; but man’s mind is entirely incapable of compassing the operation of God.
The great point in the chapter is, the mystery of the kingdom of God; underneath everything that had been presented to man there was always the hidden work of God. It is a striking thing that underneath every dispensation or dealing of God with man, God has carried out His own work to bring about what is for Himself.
The true character of the Lord’s work comes out in the chapter. He had been publicly preaching from the first, but the character of His work comes out very distinctly here, He is a Sower, and the heart of man the seed plot.
The position of things was that Israel were blind morally, and therefore the Lord speaks in parables, He hides the truth in parables. Verse 12 is the declaration of the condition of the people. The Lord becomes the Expositor. The position of things was such that the work of God was a necessity underneath.
The sovereignty of the call of God had been already indicated in the call of Levi. The Lord came to call not the righteous but sinners. It is the sovereignty of the call which is the point there.
In regard to gospel preaching we get a lesson from these chapters. In gospel preaching the question may be raised as to whether you are preaching law or gospel. I have a strong impression that a good deal of preaching is the preaching of law. Any kind of preaching which makes benefits from God contingent upon a change in man is really the preaching of law. If you present to people the idea that on condition of a certain change in them, that will secure to them certain benefits from God, it is the principle of law.
Where then does repentance come in? There is the demand of it, and God grants it.
If you are preaching repentance simply as repentance,
[p. 122] you are preaching demand. But demand is not the gospel.
Is it preparatory to the gospel?
It is quite a distinct testimony, and a very right testimony, but it is not the gospel.
Is there a difference between the preaching of repentance and what produces it?
You may preach what produces it, and you can demand it as due on the part of God; that is all quite right, but it is not gospel. Law comes in on that line. When Paul reasoned with Felix of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, it was right, yet it was not gospel. It is very important in the way of maintaining the rights of God in regard to man.
Gospel is good news, yet you may have to preach that which is not in itself good news. There are certain obligations which must be insisted upon, but that is not preaching the gospel.
Does verse 14 help us?
That is the gospel.
The ground taken in Acts 17: 31, is that God is going to judge the world: that is not gospel.
How do you get the ground prepared?
When you come to the question of preaching, you are wholly and entirely dependent on the work of God underneath. It is not in the power of man to receive the gospel.
You have to present to people what they may believe.
“In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel”. What is that?
The gospel brings everything to light. You get the same in Timothy; everything which is condemned by law is contrary to sound doctrine. The gospel is the full light of God as to everything, and hence there is full light on the question of responsibility.
Judgment is according to the light of Paul’s gospel, but it is not gospel.
[p. 123] Is not repentance the ploughing up of the ground?
There are certain obligations on the part of man which God maintains, but they are distinct from the gospel. God will judge every man according to his works, but we must be careful not to mix repentance up in our minds with the gospel.
Then what about Acts 20: 21?
The door was opened. Man had responsibility to God, and he has failed. God calls him to repentance, but it would be useless to call him to repentance if there were no forgiveness. Repentance is in view of grace. God is perfectly justified in calling upon man to repent.
The word here is the word of the kingdom.
And that is grace.
All the repentance in the world would not bring about the reception of the kingdom.
The seed does not bring forth fruit apart from God, though it may enter the ground. There must be the work of God in the subject.
What is the work of God then?
A man must be born again.
Before he repents?
At all events before he receives the word.
Repentance is viewed as an obligation on the part of man, for God commands men to repent.
Is it not the result of the work of God?
I would rather say it is the work of God to bring forth fruit.
Does the case of the men of Nineveh describe it? It seems there, that repentance is the result in the soul of the reception of the word of God.
The obligation to repent is what I maintain. I should have a difficulty in connecting repentance with the work of God, because it is really an obligation on the part of man.
Does not Isaiah 55 throw some light upon it, God’s ways are not our ways, etc.?
[p. 124] You get two things there, God is dealing with man on the footing of law, and at the same time introducing a measure of gospel light.
The preparation of the ground is beyond the will of man.
You could not conceive that man could prepare the ground, it is the work of God. The sower sows everywhere, but God prepares the ground. He works in sovereignty and people are born again.
The new birth is undoubtedly the work of God, but might not God use the preacher, or rather the preaching in order to produce the new birth? Otherwise, you are limiting the sovereignty of God.
The point in new birth is that a person may receive the word.
The subject of new birth is to receive the word. The word is presented to him, but the point is, how is he to receive it?
New birth cannot be produced by the preacher, because man has to receive the word, and how is he going to receive it?
Because of something wrought in his soul.
Exactly, God has worked in order that he may receive it.
What about John 1, “Born, not ... of the will of the flesh ... but of God”?
There the origin of their being was from God.
Does sowing the seed test the ground?
Exactly. When the Lord was here even, there was a variety of grounds, but the seed only produced fruit in good ground.
An honest and good heart is something man cannot bring about himself.
As regards 1 Peter 1 “Being born again, not of corruptible seed”, etc. What is that?
Every converted person is begotten of the gospel, of the testimony; they are counted in that sense the children of the gospel. As Paul could say, “I have begotten you through the gospel”, but at the time when you really come to the principle of things, like we have in John 3, it is “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”. Peter’s statement involves new birth.
In John we have a second statement with regard to it, a man cannot enter the kingdom of God except he is born of water and of the Spirit. This is a distinct statement. The first statement is as to seeing the kingdom, and then the second entering. A man is born again by an act of God. The ground is prepared, the word is received, springs up and produces fruit, but the ground is an honest and good heart.
How do you understand the passage in James, “Of his own will, begat he us by the word of truth”?
Every Christian is begotten of the word. James looks at them as Christians. You cannot put that as a parallel with John 3.
If we distinguish between the ground and the seed we should not have any difficulty. There is the ground, and there is the seed.
We have everything to do with the sowing the seed, but not with the preparation of the ground.
It helps very much as to the question of new birth to see on the one hand the ground, and on the other the seed.
Apart from the work of God in a person, no one can have any apprehension whatever of anything which is of God’s grace.
What would your text be?
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”. A man has to receive the seed.
With regard to that passage quoted from Peter, is there a difference between being born again in John, and being born by the word of God in Peter? Are we not born by the word of God?
As a Christian, you have been begotten by the gospel. But Peter speaks of those who were Christians as having been born again of incorruptible seed.
[p. 126] Of every one here it could be said, you have been begotten by the gospel, but how came you to receive it?
By divine power.
Very well, then you must have been born again.
If there is a moral work in man, it is by divine power. If a man receives the gospel it is the fruit and effect of a divine work in him. He receives the word as the result of it.
That work in him will be by the Holy Spirit?
Decidedly.
Will not the Holy Spirit use the word of God in producing that work?
But he has to receive the word.
You must make a distinction between what is brought forth, and being born anew. Peter says, “Being born again”. In John it is a different word, you must be born anew; in reality Peter contrasts their birth as children of Abraham, corruptible seed, with having been begotten of God. This made them of another order, Christians not Jews. James uses a different word from John or Peter, he speaks of what is “brought forth”. In John 3 it is something totally new to begin with. The Christian according to James has been brought forth, you can see God’s creation in him.
The power of the Holy Spirit is antecedent to receiving the word. If you have received the word you must have been born of God. As regards the gospel, there is a work of God which no one can describe, a work of the Spirit of God in the sovereignty of God, through which one receives the gospel. If you study the next chapter you will find the Lord is acting in regard of faith which was there. Not faith which He produced, but which was there. If you take, for instance, the woman with the issue of blood, faith was there. And it is the same in the case of the ruler of the synagogue. The Lord did not produce the faith that brought the ruler to Him,
[p. 127] but, as I said, He acts in regard of the faith which was there.
Does not faith come by hearing? There it is the faith of God’s testimony, that comes by hearing.
“Faith” is the gift of God.
Was the case of Cornelius an example of new birth?
Undoubtedly, there were children of God among the Gentiles, and the work of God was to bring them into the benefits of the gospel. The fear of God is the effect and proof of new birth. Cornelius was now begotten by the gospel.
In Acts 2 were they born again before Peter preached? It is difficult to take things up in that way. The Acts of the Apostles gives you the external effects of the preaching of the gospel.
Is not that our side?
Yes, and so you have it in this chapter. You have a great deal about the character of the ground. Nobody could sow so well as the Lord Himself, and I may say, His sowing was not a general success on account of the ground.
In Acts 2 Peter preached the word of repentance; did not that produce new birth?
No. It might produce repentance, but certainly not new birth. How could they receive the word apart from new birth? You cannot put John 3 on a parallel with Peter. The latter speaks to people begotten by the gospel. The Lord shows to Nicodemus that a man cannot see the kingdom of God without a work of God in him.
When Cornelius received the gospel he was begotten of the gospel. A man that preaches must have the sense that for the success of his preaching he is dependent on the operation of God in those to whom he preaches. The gospel is the light of God to them, and it is a serious thing if they reject it. In Acts 13 they despise it. You could speak to people on that ground; you could warn them as to rejecting it, but at the same [p. 128] time you could not put the receiving on the ground of responsibility. Man is responsible if he rejects the light of God, but at the same time you have to look the other side in the face, if the word sown is really to produce fruit, you must have a work of God in a man, you must have prepared ground to receive the seed.
As to 2 Thessalonians 2, “That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness”.
Thessalonians is addressed to Christians, and it speaks of those who received not the love of the truth. He is speaking there in regard of Christendom. He is not speaking to people to whom the gospel was addressed in the first instance, but of the system built up in the name of Christ, God sends them strong delusions that they should believe a lie.
It would be recognising the power of man if he could prepare the ground?
Exactly.
“Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men”.
That is responsibility. That is another thing from the gospel and the ability of man to receive the glad tidings.
The Lord says in John 5, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life”.
That shows the necessity of a work of God. The light of God cannot be presented to man without recognition of his responsibility, but if there is the idea of the ability of people to receive the gospel you are on wrong ground.
There is nothing more interesting than the work of the Lord here, seed-sowing, and in the next chapter, His dealing with individual souls. Seed-sowing is not the entire work of the servant, but also dealing with souls and dealing with them individually in regard of the work of God.
In the next chapter we have the demoniac, then the [p. 129] woman with the issue of blood, and the ruler’s daughter. You find the Lord dealing with each individually. He had performed miracles, but now in chapter 5 it is His highest service in dealing thus with souls, for sowing the seed is not equal, morally, to the dealing with souls. The skill and ability of a servant comes out in dealing with souls. There is scarcely a chapter in Scripture like chapter 5. It shows the skill and wisdom of the Lord in dealing with each. When a man is dispossessed of the power of Satan, he wants to be in a line with the Lord: it is not enough to be delivered. The devil was cast out of the man, but he wanted to be with Christ. The question is, will you go to be with the Lord or remain here?
Why does the storm on the sea come between these chapters?
The fact of the storm coming in shows the devil to be in activity. You must not expect good times here. It is best to go on through everything quietly like the Lord in the vessel.
The devil sets up an agitation against the truth going forth. He uses influence here which tends to counteract the truth.
Was it something of an idle boast when Satan said he had power to give the Lord the kingdoms of the world?
I do not think it was entirely idle. He has great power in the world. I would not say he had not power to give kingdoms away now. I think Napoleon’s power was very much of him, but underneath everything in the world today there is the activity of God.
In chapter 5 you get the works of the devil undone, “For this cause the Son of God was manifested that he might undo the works of the devil”. That is the principle in the case of the demoniac. The demons are not only cast out of the demoniac, but they go into the herd of swine; you have the result of the whole question connected with Satan and man; and the man is delivered and desires to be with Christ, but he is sent to his [p. 130] friends in testimony. You see the power which is in the hands of Christ; you get glimpses of it, there is power with Him to dissolve demon possession.
In the woman with the issue of blood is seen the pressure of bodily weakness. There is not only healing, but the healing is subordinated to His dealings with the soul. The point is this, that she was not only to be healed, but to know the One who had healed her; that is the end of God’s grace, that He may be known by those whom He has delivered: to make Himself known in the heart of man. Man does not simply get benefits, but the divine thought and object is to make God known in the heart.
The ruler of the synagogue carries you right on to the end; to the raising up of the Jews.
The case of the woman gives us a picture of what Christ is doing at the present time. It is the work of grace which brings a person to know the One who has set her free.
Jesus called her “daughter” in tenderness and grace; it was that she might know Him. One cannot conceive any greater expression of the grace of God, than that it should be the pleasure of God to be known in this way by those on whom He has conferred benefits. The work of the gospel is not done until the soul is brought to know God. To know the grace of God, is to know the attitude of God, but to know God you must get behind His grace. God purposes that He may be known, and His love responded to.
All that comes out here in chapter 5, as to the real force of it for us, must be beyond death in resurrection. In the end of chapter 4 the Lord rather rebuked the disciples for waking Him. They are a very good pattern of us in their weakness, but I see too that they were a pattern to us in their power.
Any one who preaches and is really instructed in the bearing of these two chapters, would be better furnished for the gospel here. You want to take in the scope of [p. 131] the two chapters. Seed-sowing is the work of the evangelist, and he has also the individual work of dealing with souls. The object of the servant’s work is that God may be known on the part of every one whom He has benefited.
Is that why the twelve are not sent out until they have been instructed?
Quite so.
Every servant should be able to give something to eat.
The only thing to be given to eat, is the living food come down from heaven; that is what instructs the heart of man in the grace of God.