THE HOUSE OF GOD
I trust there may be help to say a word as to the house of God. It is something I find very difficult to speak about without being misunderstood, because on the one hand we have today what would claim to be the house of God, in which is housed what is corrupt, and even what is infidel finds a place; on the other hand, we have persons who say that everything is broken down, that the house does not exist, that everything today is on an individual basis. Both these are wrong, and yet they are propounded quite widely. In the midst of it all there is what is to be experienced, although not claimed, as being the place where God dwells, where He is loved, and where He is served. May we all have grace to find our happy and blessed part in it. The epistles to the Corinthians and Timothy particularly give us instruction, so that in spite of all that has come in by what men have done, “Yet the firm foundation of God stands”, 2 Tim 2: 19. What a comfort for faith! Whatever men may do or have done and are doing, the firm foundation of God stands. God’s house is His building where, as I said already, He is loved and where He is served. Every exercised soul would seek to find their place in it. There is a place for you in God’s house. The psalmist speaks about the swallow and the sparrow finding a place there, the most restless and the most worthless of birds, and yet they find a place in God’s house, Ps 84: 3. What a blessed privilege it is to find a place where God has made the arrangements; where God has things according to His thoughts. I only say again, Have you found it? Have you found your place where God is loved and where He is served?
We could hardly speak about the house of God without speaking about Jacob. His history and exercises show us how we may come into it; and how we may find our lives transformed from labouring under the bondage of a master that would change our wages ten times and give us nothing, to find our place in the house of God where He gives us everything. Perhaps, like Jacob, you have gone your own way till now, with your own ideas and your own standards, yet God may in His ways bring you to a point where He speaks to you about His house. Jacob says at first that it was a dreadful place, that exposes his heart; it exposes your heart and mine if we do not want to come into God’s arrangements. You say that surely it is much happier, much easier for us to make our own arrangements and find our own ways, in a system where man’s will and man’s ways find free expression. Jacob was like that, he says, This is a dreadful place: I do not want to be restrained; I do not want to be always hearing about Christ, I would like to make my way myself. So he went on his way. I suppose most of us have had some of these thoughts; maybe some of us still have them. Perhaps you would like to be in an area where self can be expressed, and the things you want can be found. The sad thing is that there is all around us that which bears the name of Christ, and yet man’s will and thoughts are given full expression there.
Jacob goes on his way and something happens in his life when he says, I cannot go on with this any longer. You know what happened to change Jacob’s life? What began to change Jacob’s life was the birth of Joseph. If it has not happened before, may it come into your heart tonight that God has another Man before Him, and that Man is Christ. If you read those chapters in Genesis, you will find that after Joseph was born, Jacob’s life began to change. When you see Christ as the Man of God’s choice, and that His thoughts are centred in Him, the arrangements of your life must become different. So Jacob says in effect, I cannot stay here where there is a semblance of Christianity, I must come into God’s arrangements. He began to be concerned to make some move into an area where God’s will prevailed. He found in those exercises very much what Paul brings up in Timothy, that in the midst of this great profession in which we are, there is a need to pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. Jacob came to pursue some of these features. You come to examine the path that you are on—Is it righteous? Is it right that you should live to yourself? Is it right that you should be pursuing your own will and your own ways and your own arrangements? Is it righteous that you should accept Christ as your Saviour, and the benefits that have come from that precious blood having been shed on the cross to atone for your sins, and still pursue your own ways, and your own will and your own ideas? It is not. Righteousness would involve that I make room for the claims of God and the claims of Christ. I know it is much more, but I give it that touch at this moment. Jacob began to see that it was not right that he should have tasted something of these benefits without making room for Christ, in type, to become supreme in his heart.
Later the word of God leads him to go up to Bethel, to the house of God, no longer a dreadful place, but a place where he can enjoy liberty. But on the way he is made fit to find his place there. It says that a man wrestled with him (see Gen 32: 24), and his name was changed, “Thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel”, Gen 32: 28. God would like to give you a sense of changing your name. If you take up some of these exercises, as you seek to make room for Christ in your life, God would change your name. What for? To make you suitable to live in His house. What a place it is, a house of first-born ones. What a history was removed in that wrestling; it says in that chapter, a most beautiful word, “the sun rose upon him; and he limped upon his hip”. He is saying, No longer do I want to please myself, no longer do I want my things, but I want to serve God. He is a limping man but a blessed man, no longer a scheming man, but a prince with God. God was making him fit for His house. God’s house is where God dwells; it is where His arrangements prevail; not man’s arrangements as in the great house; but the house of God, as I am speaking of it, is where God’s arrangements prevail. I do not want to be misunderstood; because we know that the house of God in its widest sense includes every believer, that is the wide scope of it, but we can hardly identify that today in the breakdown. What I am speaking about now is the vital side of it, that is not only to be identified, it is to be experienced. I do not say where it is, but I say it can be found and Jacob found it; he found a place where God was honoured, where God was served, and he found a place where he could be at home in the presence of God. What a wonderful thing it is to be at home in the presence of God. God has made these arrangements, they are all centred in Christ. When the disciples of John saw Him here, they said, “where abidest thou?” (John 1: 38), they saw something there that must have a home; He said, “Come and see”. I believe God would say to you as having begun a work in your soul, Come and see; find the place where My arrangements prevail; where there is to be found something in which I find My joy; where there is praise and glory to God in the assembly.
The psalmist says, “I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah”. May I just make an application of that to the announcements that are made on Lord’s day morning of the meetings in the week. They bring a sense of joy. The prayer meeting would be an expression of the house of God. It says that about it indeed, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”, Matt 21: 13. We get that too in Timothy that there is to be intercession and prayer for all men, for nations and kings. So the prayer meeting would be an experience of being in the house of God. In what I say I would seek to elevate the assemblings of the saints. There is a danger of them becoming common, ordinary in our thoughts; but in the gathering together of the saints on right principles, there is an expression of the house of God. The prayer meeting would be that; not that a few people come together and some pray, but the prayers are to God in His house. What an elevation that would give to the prayer meeting. Solomon speaks about it when he says, “when they shall pray toward this place, and hear thou in thy dwelling-place in the heavens, and when thou hearest, forgive”, 1 Kings 8: 30. In the prayer meeting there is a sense of God’s ear being reached. I do not say that to weaken our individual prayers which have a great place in our experience and exercises.
The psalmist says, “I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah”, the collective position is to be valued and esteemed, and the announcements on Lord’s day are to give a touch of dignity to the meetings. It has been spoken of as the anointing; there is something dignified that on the first day of the week these announcements are made that we will be gathered together for prayer and thanksgiving, for ministry, and for the reading of the Scriptures, which is another feature of God’s house, to enquire in His temple. What a matter to come together with that in our minds! You say we come together to read the Scripture, we are reading in Matthew or Mark or whatever it may be, but we come together to an area of things, which in its vitality is the house of God. David speaks about that, coming into His temple to enquire of Him in it, yea more he says, “that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah”, Ps 27: 4. That is where God is known, in His house; He is displayed in creation unmistakably, but where do you expect to find an expression of God? Where do you expect to get the best impressions of Christ? It would be when the saints are gathered together on the principles and in the way in which I am speaking of it. As coming together, let us leave our own arrangements and what claims they have upon us. So as the announcements are made, we commit ourselves to being there, with a sense of joy as we look forward to the reading of the Scriptures.
Another great matter is the gospel. There can be no real preaching of the glad tidings save as the house of God is known and enjoyed. It has been well said no slave can be an evangelist. It is only as you enjoy the liberty and blessedness and fulness of God’s house that you can come out towards men in all the fulness of the blessing of God’s heart. In order to come out in the wealth of the glad tidings we must know the heart of God; we must know the kind of God that He is—ready to forgive, rich in mercy, abounding in goodness towards the sinner. All these things are learned in the house; so the glad tidings go out from the house, from persons who have been dwelling in His courts, who know something of His heart and the wealth of His love. I think that all enters into what David is rejoicing in here. Jerusalem was the place of God’s dwelling, “Jerusalem, which art built as a city that is compact together”. There was a Jerusalem that men had their hand in, but David is speaking here about what God had done, what He had built, the city of the great King; where God found His dwelling and His rest. I say again, from that sphere of things the gospel goes out to bring men in. The gospel does not go out just to relieve men of their sins, it goes out to relieve you of your sins surely, but also to bring you into the house of God as a son, as illustrated in what that young man experienced in Luke’s gospel, Luke 15. It is to bring you into all the wealth and blessings that are to be enjoyed in the house. These are available for every believer surely, but how few come into it. May you and I be among them.
So David here goes on to speak about the thrones of judgment. There is judgment expressed among the saints. The brethren may speak about some things and you may think they are hard; and maybe you maintain your own judgments; you think, Well, that is what I think about things. These things you know are not permissible in the house of God; it is where God’s judgments are known, where His standards are upheld; it says, “For there are set thrones for judgement, the thrones of the house of David”. They are always protective, not punitive in that sense, they are there that the divine mind may be known. It is a great matter to find the meeting proceeding and God’s mind becomes known about exercises; it may not be my mind or my thoughts, or the thoughts that I have held heretofore. In the house of God there will be God’s judgments expressed, and, dear brethren, they need to be honoured; they need to be accepted, indeed, but they need to be honoured, and they need to be embraced, and they become our standards. The standards of judgment as expressed in the house of God become the standards for my pathway, because my life, as Jacob’s was, is to be lived in relation to God’s house, and not in relation to my sphere of things. These things are testing but very blessed as we see that in the house is where Christ is enthroned.
David goes on to speak about these thrones, and he speaks about prayer as we have said, and he speaks about peace. The normal thing that pervades in God’s house is a great sense of peace. In the type in the tabernacle, as Aaron went into the holy places, how calm it must have been; he must have been slow to come out because outside there were all kinds of troubles; but inside the whole thing was shut out, he was shut in to God. He was shut in there where there was the ark, the table, the lamp, divine light shining in all its blessed fulness and peace. Aaron must have proved it as he went inside. May we know more of it in our gatherings. It is foreign to the house of God that there should be unrest; it is foreign to God’s dwelling place that there should be any feeling of bitterness or strife. Let us remember, dear brethren, that in our gatherings together, in our local meetings, there is to be an expression and experience that we are in the house of God. We are not just there to air our views but we are there to listen. The main Speaker in the house of God is Christ. He is Son over it; His standard, His character, His features are to prevail.
In Hebrews 3, the writer says that He who has built it has more honour than the house. The house of God as I am speaking about it is all divine work, “he who has built all things is God”. Much could be said, if we were able, of the material He is using in the building; the boards of the tabernacle set up on those bases of silver speaking of the great redemptive work of Christ—all entering into the building and the forming of the material. So it says, “Christ, as Son over his house, whose house are we”. He is Son over it. He gives character to it in dignity and liberty. He is the same One who has shed His blood that we should be no longer strangers and foreigners, but should be of the household of God. How right that He should be Son over God’s house! What a place He has in the house, none shall move without Him, but when He moves everything will move. He gives the dignity to it and He gives the liberty in it, leading us into this area of things where we see Him in the glory of His Person; nothing needing to be done, but as Son over the house enjoying the company of His own; every one of them bearing His features; every one of them ready to respond, every eye fixed upon Him in His movements.
Well, it says, “whose house are we”—not will be then, but we are that now. So does Christ have His full way of liberty as Son over the house? Is He the point of reference, or is there some projection of man that would spoil the features and character of what is normal to the house of God? Let us ever seek to touch what is normal; however abnormal things may have been and are around us, the Spirit’s grace is here, the Spirit’s power is here, that we may touch something of what is normal in an area where Christ is known as Son over God’s house. In the types it is not the military man that is Son over the house, it is the Beloved, Solomon, who is Son over the house. David was restricted somewhat, I do not speak about that, but the one who was over the house was Solomon, typical of Christ the Beloved of God, and beloved of the saints. There will not be an eye there in that day to come but will behold Him and rejoice in His every movement. How about in the local gathering now? Do we come in faith? Do we come in expectancy that in the occasion of gathering, be it prayer or gospel preaching, or enquiry into the Scriptures, there will be some sense of the movements of the Son in the house. He is ready to move; He would be ever moving us inward and upward in relation to the great thoughts of God.
Well, it speaks too about His being a Priest over the house of God; it is to encourage us to approach now. It says, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness”—because we have a great Priest. It is not the high priest here, but it says, “a great priest”, there is only One. He is distinguished in all His glory, and He is distinguished in making full provision for us that we may approach and enjoy the most blessed things. It says, “let us approach”, having boldness for entering by the blood of Jesus—may that never be historical! The power of it, the blessedness of it should be there in every meeting. We need it in every meeting as we come together; a sense of the blood of Jesus that would touch me maybe in my conscience as to anything that may have happened in the day that may bring in defilement. There are the blood and the water; these things would affect us as we come to the meeting. If you look into the Old Testament and the types you would find them all there. There is the laver, the priest had to wash as he went in; and the further in he went the more holy and the more he had to be affected by the work of Christ in type. So as we come to the meetings we need to be affected by the blood of Jesus; that He has made the way at such cost. Can I project my thoughts and my way of thinking? Have I liberty to say what I think, when it has cost Christ so much to end the man that is so obnoxious to God? That is all in this new and living way.
Then it says, “and having a great priest over the house of God”. He is there to make you feel at home. What a blessed thing to be at home in the presence of God. Beloved, unless we are, we shall not enjoy our portion nor will God have His. But you know God has made a way; Christ, as Priest over the house of God is there dispensing what you need, that we may be at home in the dignity and blessedness of being in God’s house, finding our true place there. It goes on, he makes it very practical, approaching, sprinkled, washed. He is not speaking here about sin in its grossness, but about things that may just spoil our enjoyment of the house of God. The great Priest is there to help us to get rid of these things; even our worries, even right exercises that we may be carrying. I think the great Priest is there to help us that we may be in relation to God and His things. What a system we have been brought into, and that, as I am speaking about it, is the house of God. I trust that we see it as being practical; not something that is unreal, not something that is unrealisable. I am sure there will be a chord struck in every true heart that has touched something of it, and may we through grace, as exercised know more of it, that God’s name may be praised.
So it goes on to say, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”. That shows it is a present matter; it shows that it applies to our weekly gatherings, not forsaking them, but “encouraging one another, and by so much the more as ye see the day drawing near”. Soon we shall be there in all its blessedness. The Lord says, “In my Father’s house there are many abodes”, John 14: 2. Meantime publicly, there is great admixture all around; in the midst of it all there is what is true, to be known for our blessing and for God’s glory and praise. It is where He is praised. The psalmist says again, “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be constantly praising thee”, Ps 84: 4. May our hearts be led into that great note of praise that the Son would lead to God in the midst of all the confusion and breakdown.
When Aaron went in, he was there in the presence of the ark, typical of Christ, in all His blessedness; the table of shewbread, the saints in all their glory; the candlestick, the light shining. What a place it must have been! Aaron must have been slow to come out, but he came out with all the blessing of that place resting upon him. May we come out from the inside place to face what is false in the great house, as having been inside, knowing that there is a great Priest over the house of God who is able to sustain us, and knowing that Christ is there as Son over God’s house setting its standards and maintaining its glory. These things are going on, soon to issue in the Father’s house above; soon to issue where every feature of God’s work will be housed; where every family will find their eternal rest and God will be praised for all eternity. May we be exercised, amidst all the public confusion, to find our present living part in what is for God’s glory and praise. For His Name’s sake.
ABERDEEN
15th August 1992