THE GAIN OF LEARNING OF CHRIST
[p. 17] THE GAIN OF LEARNING OF CHRIST
What I wanted to draw attention to in this passage is the change from one order or course of things to another. It would not, I think, be seen until pointed out, but the Lord points it out here. No one would otherwise have understood the two things which were going on together here, namely, on the one hand the testimony of grace, and on the other the Father’s work. It is just these two things to which I wish to draw attention a little as coming before us in this passage. Although the change in position indicated by the Lord’s words is not publicly seen, the truth comes out that there is nothing effective in man, nothing that abides for ever, except the work of the Father.
The first thing that the Lord shows in the passage is, that in place of the mighty works He had done, another order of things was to come in, and that based upon the revelation of the Father; in other words, Christianity was to take the place of His presence and power. It is a painful reflection, but only too true, that man has refused every testimony of God. The testimony of Christ, when He was here, differed from all previous testimonies. It was not like the law — not that He set the law aside, for He had come to fulfil it — it was not like the prophets, nor like that of John the Baptist; it was entirely different and new. It was in the power of the world to come; and the Lord appeals to the works as that which the cities had seen, but they had not repented. I judge that the testimony of the Lord here was the testimony of the kingdom. I think that He came here in the mighty power of the kingdom, that is, in the power of grace, showing forth those mighty works which relieved man of the pressure of evil. That testimony God addressed to man, and man refused it,
[p. 18] did not respond to it. In the first part of the scripture that I read, we see how John the Baptist had come, but they did not answer to him. And then the Son of man came “eating and drinking and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber”. They no more responded to the testimony of grace presented in the Son of man than they had done to John’s testimony in righteousness.
It has to come home to us painfully that the heart of man refuses whatever testimony God is pleased to present to him, but none the less the testimony of grace goes on; God will cut it short, but it is still here. It is the form of God’s outward dealings with man, the glad tidings are the glad tidings of the grace of God. The testimony of grace began with Christ, and continues in the mighty power of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. But this does not alter the statement I made, that man does not respond to any testimony of God. Such testimony may produce a transitory effect, as in the case of Nineveh, but no lasting effect; for man, apart from a work of God in him, is not really affected by any testimony, hence the breach between God and man is complete.
This ought to come home to us. It is a point of the last moment, but one which we are very slow to accept. We sometimes imagine that we might affect others by the testimony of God’s grace, but man is not really affected by the best testimony of God’s grace; was not even by the ministry of Christ Himself, save where souls were drawn to Him by the Father; and surely no ministry can be better or greater than His. As we have seen, the testimony of Christ was quite distinct, and of another character from that of John the Baptist, yet neither found favour. The same was true of the testimony of Elijah and Elisha. The testimony of Elisha produced no more permanent effect than that of Elijah. I have said this much to pave the way for what I have before me.
[p. 19] I want to bring home to you that everything has to start from the Father, if there is to be anything at all for God. The Son came to carry out the will of the Father, and let me say as to the will of the Father, that you have to accept it and its sovereignty. Broad and wide as may be the testimony of grace, and it is like the sun in the heavens, you must come to the work of the Father; and the work of the Father is sovereign, or rather, the Father is sovereign and must be sovereign in His work. This is brought out by the Lord in the passage before us.
We read in verses 25 - 27: “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him”. Now there is hardly a passage in Scripture that brings out the sovereignty of the Father more distinctly than this. The beginning is that the Father has “hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes”. The Father reveals to the babes, and the Son also speaks about revealing. He reveals the Father to the subjects of the Father’s work. Every one of us was a subject of the Father’s work before we knew it. You see that in John 6, where this comes out unmistakably: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day”. The Father’s work is that He draws to the Son, and the Son’s work is that He raises up at the last day. A great deal may come between, but these are the two extreme points in the Christian’s course. We are waiting for the last, but the first was the secret of our coming to Christ. Did you come to the Son of your own accord? I think not. It is an expression of the [p. 20] sovereignty of the Father that He draws to the Son, for He draws whom He will. Man in this light has nothing to say to it save to come when drawn. I quite admit that the testimony of grace is going on towards man, but it would be ineffective save for the work of the Father. Man does not come to Christ, for it is not his will to come.
There is not ability or power in man for the knowledge of divine Persons. No one knows the Son but the Father, and no one knows the Father if not revealed to him. We have no more power to know the Father than we have to know the Son. The Father was the subject of the Son’s revelation; but as to knowledge, you no more know the Father than the Son. We were the subjects of the Father’s drawing before we knew the Father. Then the Son follows the Father’s work, He reveals the Father and thus makes Him known. The Son is not looked at here as the subject of revelation. He was presented to man, and bore testimony as to who He was, but His work was revealing the Father. In His mind the Father was the source of everything, as we see in the most distinct way in John 5, the Father’s will and the Father’s pleasure was His work down here. The Son revealed the Father to souls. There could be no knowledge of Him else. And here again comes in the point of sovereignty. No one knows the Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. The Father hides from the wise and prudent and reveals to babes, and the Son reveals the Father to whom He will. Now, I refer to this because it is so important to be able to take account of ourselves as the subjects of the work of God. If I look at myself historically, I have come to know the grace of God. I was once unconverted, but by the grace of God was led to turn to God to receive remission of sins and the Holy Spirit; all that is the outward history; but when we come to be a little intelligent in the things of God we can regard ourselves in another light, that is, in the light of the [p. 21] sovereign work of God, and in that view whatever we have, originated with God. The Son has revealed the Father to us; that is what He came to do, and but for that all would have been a blank for God.
Now the point I am coming to is this — in the presence of the Father and the Son we have another order of man. The first order of man has been tested in every variety of way in which God could approach man — law, prophets, John the Baptist, Christ, and even by the presence and testimony of the Holy Spirit — but man has failed, he does not respond to any testimony of God at all. Thus man’s case is hopeless. God cannot touch him except in sovereign grace. Without God’s sovereign work, in which man is born again, man’s case would be hopeless. It is of all moment to accept this. But then by this fact you have a man of another order morally before God, and that must be the case if the first man is not to be touched by any testimony of God. All must begin with a divine work in his soul, as we find in John 3: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”. Then in verse 5 you get a subsequent statement: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”. But first you have to see that he cannot accept any testimony addressed to him by God. But in the presence of the Father you get a man of another order, and if you want to know what the character of it is, you get it here in the person of Christ Himself, for in the subsequent passage He speaks of Himself very evidently as Man. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls”. One may venture to speak of the Lord as presenting Himself there as in the place of Man in the presence of the Father, and the character brought before us is “meek and lowly in heart”. I [p. 22] think there could be nothing more remarkable than the Son describing Himself in that way. That is what a man is in the presence of the Father’s love, that characterises him down here; but you never find that in man after the flesh. It was said of Moses, that he was the meekest man upon earth, but you must remember that this was after and the effect of a long course of divine discipline, and it was, I doubt not, in view of the One who here says, “I am meek and lowly in heart”. If you find a man in the presence of the Father, I do not doubt he will be thus characterised. It is, I judge, in contrast to man in his assumption and self-confidence and pride. The first thing the Lord proposes is, “I will give you rest”. You get rest in the apprehension of the glory of God; there righteousness and love have been perfectly reconciled, for that is what I understand by the glory of God, when the question of sin has been raised. The Lord says in John 13: “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him”. God has been glorified in the Son of man, righteousness and love perfectly reconciled in the place of sin. I believe it is in the apprehension of it that we get rest. While righteousness and love are opposed in regard of man, you cannot have rest. Righteousness is God’s measure in regard of the creature, and it must be answered to. So if sin is in question, righteousness and love must of necessity be opposed; but when I see them reconciled, I get rest. All this was effected at the cross, and no one can now know God except as revealed in love and righteousness, and this we learn in the death of Christ. Then we have the admonition, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart”. You are to be subdued to Christ; Christ is now the starting point morally. Every subject of grace has to take his character from Christ, and we can approach Christ from the very fact that He is meek and lowly in heart; He is approachable. That is the idea which the passage presents to me. You can venture to approach one who [p. 23] is meek and lowly in heart, and He is the Man in the presence of the Father’s love.
Now, in being brought to Christ, and learning of Him, you get wonderful instruction which you can derive only from Christ. We all seek to help, and to point out the lines to one another, and to direct each other’s attention to the things of God. We can in this sense be as sign-posts to others, but each one of us has himself to learn of Christ. You cannot be impressed too much with the importance of that. Christ is the Teacher, He instructs us, and leads our hearts into the knowledge of the love of God. I think we learn every true lesson from Christ. Our hearts get instructed in divine love, and the love of God is the true source of our moral being. There is never a breath of real life in man except in response to the love of God. There may be an antecedent work in the soul, but until the love of God is apprehended, until we have learnt that “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ”, we can hardly be said to be conscious of living. God began, of His love, and the first breath of spiritual life was our response to that love. And the great expression of that love is beyond all controversy in the death of Christ. God so loved us that He gave His Son for us. Every one of us has the spring of his moral being in the love of God. “Rooted and founded in love”. Two great effects are produced in us by the love of God. One is holiness, and I think that is the point where man is naturally wholly unfitted for God. The holiness of God is unbearable to the natural man, though he has but little idea of it.
The love of God is a holy love, and must be so, for God is holy; and the natural man cannot enter into the thought of holiness. It is really foreign to him. You can understand this. The fact is that we never reach holiness except by love, and as we drink [p. 24] into the love of God we appreciate holiness, and thus holiness is promoted. It is in this sense that holiness is progressive in the Christian.
Another great effect produced by the love of God is growth in intelligence. We come to the clear knowledge of the Son of God. The spring of intelligence is love. Thus the apostle speaks of it in Ephesians 3: “Rooted and founded in love”, that ye “may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge”. And so in Colossians, “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the clear knowledge of the mystery of God, ... in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. There is evidently great gain in that in which Christ can instruct us, that is, the knowledge of the love of God; and indeed, Christ went to the cross to bring us into that love. It was to maintain God’s glory and righteousness that He died; but with all that there was the purpose that in it might be expressed to us the perfect love of God. It is there Christ instructs us, and there is the secret and spring of the true moral being of the Christian. I am thoroughly convinced that as we advance in the knowledge of God, as our hearts are in the sunshine of His love, so holiness is promoted in us, and we grow in divinely given intelligence. Holiness and knowledge are thus promoted in the Christian by learning of Christ.
I am sure that your experience must be the same as mine. I have studied Scripture for a long time, and as much as most, but I have not grown in that way in the love of God. I had not the capability. Many study Scripture beyond their capability. We learn from a Person. Scripture tells you what you are to learn, but the things presented in Scripture are learned from a living Person. He encourages us to learn of Him — to sit at His feet and hear His word. I could not express [p. 25] too strongly the thought that we do not learn of one another. We are privileged to suggest to one another, but I do not think that we really learn of one another. The force of this Scripture is, that all originates, and must originate, in the sovereign will of the Father. The Father begins by revealing to babes, drawing to the Son, and the Son takes up the same line and reveals the Father. To that end He encourages us to come unto Himself to learn of Him.