THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED
THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED
FER We had last time the kingdom, that is, what is established for God, and in chapters 10 and 11 we get the other side of it, what is for man. When you come to chapter 10 the parable of the good Samaritan and what follows brings out what is for man. The first thing to be established for God was the kingdom; if it were not so you could not have anything for man.
Ques Is that the order, God first?
FER In the ways of God the first thing to be established is the kingdom. We have failed in apprehending the importance and place of the kingdom. What has struck me as important is the difference between chapters 8 and 9, namely the mysteries of the kingdom in chapter 8, the kingdom is received, and in chapter 9, it is the vision, it is entered into, but you must first receive it.
TH It is received by the reception of the word?
FER In receiving the word of God the kingdom is received, but on the other hand it has to be entered into, and that comes out in chapter 9. Peter and the others saw it, the Lord speaks of it — “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein”. You first receive it as little children, and then enter it.
DLH The reception of the kingdom is not the mystery, but the person who receives it.
FER The mystery is what God is carrying out in this world for another world. The consequence is that the world to come is displayed, then the mystery is finished. I think the principles of Christianity are greatly misunderstood; they are only known by faith. Many people look upon Christianity as something for this world. If you have the light of the mystery you [p. 241] see that God is effecting something in this world for another world, not a future world, but a world that exists outside this world. When you apprehend the kingdom, you apprehend that it is outside this world. Peter, James and John learned that. We receive the kingdom in this world, and we have to enter into it.
Ques Is receiving the kingdom receiving the truth of it?
FER It is receiving the testimony, the word of God’s grace, the soul comes under the moral sway of God in receiving the word of His grace.
DLH You are subdued by grace?
TH In the case of coming under grace, the power of sin and death is broken for such an one.
FER I think so, in having come under the sway of grace. In receiving the word of God the reign of sin is broken in a way.
DLH Why does the passage start with: “When the time was come that he should be received up”?
FER It is to bring out the expansion of the next two chapters. The higher Christ goes, the greater the grace to man. The consequence is brought out in chapter 10. “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven”. How wonderful that Satan is cast out of heaven, and the disciples’ names are written in heaven.
DLH In the mission of the seventy we get that, in connection with this particular Scripture.
FER In connection with Christ being received up, He goes in the full power of the Holy Spirit outside administration. In the twelve we get the thought of administration, that is the idea of the principle, they were sent to Israel. In the mission of the seventy you get the idea that Christ can act outside and above administration.
DLH Chapter 11 gives us His departure out of the world.
FER Yes, the point in chapters 10 and 11 is this — the bringing in of another [p. 242] Man.
JB The incident connected with the good Samaritan, is it introduced to lead us into the patience of Christ?
FER I think so. Christ was affected by the treatment He received here. He had to tell His disciples they knew not what spirit they were of.
DLH When you speak of another Man, do you refer to what is brought out in chapter 10 with regard to the Person of the Lord Himself?
FER It all hangs on that. It is Christianity coming in; and that in the true power of it really means another Man. In chapter 12 it is wider, it is another generation; you get the children of God are to be “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world”. In chapters 10 and 11 you find out how the new man is formed. In the latter part of chapter 11 the Lord has departed from the generation that existed. In the earlier part of chapter 10 the Lord brings out the greatness of the moment. He says, “many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see”. The seventy return with joy and say, “even the devils are subject unto us” and He gives them power over scorpions and over the power of the enemy, but they were rather to rejoice that their names were written in heaven.
HCA The devil had gone down and man had gone up.
FER It is the ground of Christ being received up, the higher He goes the greater the gain for man. He afterwards comes out to affect that it is another Man. The principle is, “Glory to God in the highest and good pleasure in man”. But it is another generation of man.
Ques Why is following introduced in the end of chapter 9?
FER I do not know except in connection with the urgency [p. 243] of the moment.
DLH The claims of nature must be ignored if it is a question of going up.
FER I think so. The mission of the seventy was a point of great moment. It shows the Lord could act outside the perfect order here, in the full power of the Holy Spirit. To my mind it is the idea of expansion. If He goes up, there is expansion here.
HCA There is no entering the kingdom apart from the refusal of nature.
FER The first thing to apprehend is, that the kingdom is outside this world. People need to get a good start, that is the difficulty with the bulk of Christians. Nothing has affected the kingdom for God; the vision is on the mount. In the mysteries of the kingdom, it has been corrupted, but, as God has established it, it has not been affected a bit. Man takes up what God brings into the world, and so far as he is concerned he makes a mustard tree of it; but for God it is not affected in any way. God has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love; that is not affected. The mustard tree is not the real thing; it is the mystery; the real thing is the kingdom of the Son of His love, it is there and in no wise is it affected by man.
Rem Man cannot touch it.
FER No, even in regard of the body. The mystery never applies to anything in heaven, it is something on earth. In Ephesians 2 there is not a word about mystery, it comes in in chapter 3. The body is the mystery here, and you see how the body can be imitated. Rome imitates it, and Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, is mystery; but in heavenly places the saints are raised up with Christ, and seated together in Christ, and there is no mystery there. It is exactly the same with the kingdom of the Son of His love. The mystery is in connection with the work of the [p. 244] Sower here.
DLH Mystery has a double kind of application, good and evil.
HCA That is the line on which the mystery of iniquity comes in?
FER Exactly, there you get mystery again; in the formation of it that is mystery. It is the work of God coming in contact with man in the world, but God has formed something for heaven and there is no mystery there.
W Is that the meaning of “all things put under him” in Hebrews?
FER If you look around you do not see all things put under Him, but you see the kingdom, because Jesus is crowned with glory and honour. In the parable of the good Samaritan and the two incidents following, you get the description of the new man; you get the change. It began with Christ as neighbour, and in connection with that you get the transition from law to grace; then you have the gift of the Holy Spirit by which man prays. Thus in principle you have a new man.
FC He prays by the Holy Spirit, not for it?
FER Exactly, that is the result of it. But the Lord puts it upon them to ask for the Holy Spirit.
DLH And meanwhile He teaches them to pray.
FER Yes, He urges them to say ‘Father’ and hence it is clear that the word of Christ was the revelation of the Father’s name.
DLH What is the difference between this and the line of things in John’s gospel?
FER John sends you to Christ’s circle, that is one thing, but it is another thing to be a child of God here on earth. The Father is equally true to both, but in the one case you are in association with Christ in His circle, in the other case you are under the Father’s care here on earth. That comes out in chapter 12; you have the love and care of the Father as a child here.
DLH You apply that to the individual?
FER [p. 245] Yes.
DLH When it is a question of His circle, is it collective?
FER That brings you to the assembly. In chapter 12 you get the characteristics and the marks of the children of God. In chapters 10 and 11 you get how they were brought into association with Christ; it is a new generation.
DLH ‘Father’ applies in a way to both.
FER “To us there is but one God, the Father”; that applies to us here; on the other hand He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that you come into that circle. The thought of child does not go to eternal life; the idea of children is not association with Christ.
DLH ‘Children’ comes out in connection with suffering here.
FER I think so. You are suffering with Christ and you are going to reign with Him. ‘Children’ brings in the truth of the bride, sonship the truth of the body.
JN Will you please explain that?
FER People ought not to need explanations, they ought to see it.
HCA The bride is going through the desert now.
FER What I understand by the bride is, I look at her in connection with the heavenly city; it is that in which God is expressed. We get in 1 John 4, “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us”. The nature of God is expressed in the bride — in the company of God’s children here. There is the expression of the love of the Father in the company of children, that is, the bride. The bride is the heavenly city coming down from heaven; the expression of God’s nature in the presence of the universe. Sonship is connected with the body, because the body is the worshipping company. The Church is the body, and the sons in connection with Christ as Firstborn among many brethren, and, on the other hand, the Church is [p. 246] that in which God is expressed. You are a holy priesthood, and then you are a royal priesthood to show forth His praises. It is the generation of His children in whom God’s nature is expressed down here. 1 John 3 brings it out. I used to think that eternal life is connected with the children but it is connected with sonship with the assembly; that is what I see now.
Ques Why do we get children in John?
FER I do not think that we merely get the children in John. In 1 John 5 we come to sonship in the reality of it, “we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life”. My Father and your Father, My God and your God, in John 20 is sonship, it is association with Christ. In the company of God’s children down here you get the thought expanded. In chapter 12 you get, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”.
Ques Why does it say in chapter 11, “Our Father which art in heaven”?
FER The Lord puts them upon the Father, and then He speaks about the Father giving the Holy Spirit to them who ask Him. In chapter 12 it says, “the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the hour itself what should be said”. He looks at them as indwelt by the Holy Spirit — they were dependent on the Holy Spirit.
AEW Is sonship in the line of resurrection?
FER Yes, you are risen with Christ and quickened with Him; you are in association with Him. Eternal life is how you are going to get to the other side of death. Christians have not understood their calling; as regards the calling they are risen with Christ, and they get to the other side of death, but they have life in themselves. In the calling you belong to the other side of death.
DLH Say a word about ‘life in themselves’.
FER You have the well of water, the Spirit is life and [p. 247] all that.
DLH That is in connection with deliverance, our freedom from sin and the law.
FER Quite so.
DLH Is it not that which lifts us into heavenly things with Himself? It is most essential for us to be lifted up.
FER It is a means to an end.
HCA You could not get to the other side without it.
FER No one could. The Lord brings out here the immense change that was about to take place in the order and kind of man. You see it by connecting these incidents together.
DLH When the Lord says, “Fear not, little flock”, do you take that in the general spirit of the thing?
FER Yes, you get the idea of giving up proprietary possessions. You sit loose to everything here.
Rem It came out in the beginning of the Acts, “They had all things common”.
DLH But we have not now.
FER Because we are not Jews; we have not a providential title. The Lord says to the rich in this world, that they are not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God. The point is to sit loose to them.
DLH The real blessing is transferred into another scene.
FER That is the point of it. The idea connected with the children of God is, that they are here for testimony in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Their proper portion is Jesus alone — above — they do not belong to this world.
ER In chapter 12 their hearts are put into heaven.
FER Quite so, “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”.
AEW Is the treasure Christ?
FER I suppose so. The good Samaritan is the beginning not the end; the end is when you have got [p. 248] the Holy Spirit. Many people have taken up the parable as though it was the end; the parable is simply introductory, the beginning of blessing.
DLH It is all relief.
FER The new man is relieved, carried and cared for, but that is only the beginning. The object is, that man may be set at rest in regard of everything here, to sit at the feet of Jesus where you get the light of the Father’s word, and at the same tune you get the Spirit of God’s Son, by which you cry ‘Abba Father’; then that man is changed, it is another order of man.
Ques Does righteousness come in here?
FER The principle of righteousness is, I act towards others as I am acted to. I do not see that to be loved is righteousness: we are under an obligation to love one another, because we have been loved. “If God so loved us we ought also to love one another”.
Ques Is the Lord’s prayer to be used by us today?
FER You have to take account of where the Spirit would lead you. The Lord took up things according to the moment of His presence on earth. He is now at the right hand of God, and I do not think that the Spirit of God would take us up with things on earth, but with things where Christ is. I have no difficulty whatever about the prayer, there is not a petition in it which I could not offer. I do not think that one of us would care to be hampered by forms of expressions.
DLH We have said many odd things in our times.
FER The two great links between the soul and God are the word of God and prayer, in the one God is revealed to me, in the other I communicate with God. But then the way God is revealed to me is as Father and the way in which I communicate with God is by the Spirit of His Son, and all that is preceded by the apprehension of grace. The knowledge of the Father, and the Spirit of His Son, would be impossible, if you were not at rest in regard of everything here. The man benefited by the good Samaritan had not to care.
[p. 249] That is what grace does, but that is not the Father. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His word — what He had to reveal. Then consequent on that you get the Spirit of God’s Son whereby you cry ‘Abba Father’. The man in whom that is realised is another man. It is not the improvement of man, but another man.
DLH With regard to the expression, “which art in heaven”; that is all right in Matthew.
FER Yes, it is an immense thing to see that the work of God has formed a generation on earth in which God is to be expressed. If it is not the highest thing, it is a very important thing. “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us”. That is the character of a generation that does not belong to this world at all, it is a generation produced by the ministry of Christ. It is wonderful how Christ comes in as Neighbour, Revealer and Teacher. If we cry ‘Abba Father’, it is by the Spirit of His Son; Christ is the Teacher just as He reveals the Father to you. In the early part of chapter 10 the Lord has got a man according to God in whom He is going to be expressed. You can understand how the Lord speaks about this generation further on, because there was not one ray of divine light there.
DLH And the Pharisees and others are really the pick of men.
FER Yes, the light had become darkness in them; they had not acted up to the light, and it had become darkness in them. The effect of their teaching was to distort the truth of God in the use they made of it. It was brought down to a mere question of morality; it was allegorised, the Lord predicts it in the chapter. They did not apprehend the character of the moment, the strong man had come into the house, the house was swept and garnished, and the unclean spirit finding it so, would come back with seven other spirits more [p. 250] wicked than himself; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. The wrath of God is upon that generation. You could not understand the idea of generation, if you did not understand that morally God has another Man before Him, in whom He is expressed. Instead of Scripture becoming the means of communication between God and man, they allegorised the truth, and formed it into fanciful pictures to teach something beyond morality.
DLH That is what Christians have done today.
FER I think so. Religious literature has that character today.
DLH When I glance down a sermon preached by some Church dignitary it seems to me that all the good of the truth is taken out of it.
FER The truths of Christianity are taken up simply to illustrate moral character. The leading men of the day seem to have an idea that disease is going to be stamped out of the world by some hygienic or other means and that the beginnings of it were the miracles of Christ; that by care and the reformation of man, they are going to get rid of disease. You can understand how completely the word of God is set aside. They lose the whole force of Christ’s miracles being testimony from God drawing near to man; they set it aside and bring everything to a natural level. It begins with man, and it is going to be brought about by man, and if the leading teachers do that in our day, you can understand how scribes and Pharisees used God’s word in that day.
HCA It is all the denial of man’s ruin.
FER I think so. The point is not to reform man, but God has produced another in his place.