THE HABITATION OF GOD THROUGH THE SPIRIT
[p. 142] THE HABITATION OF GOD THROUGH THE SPIRIT
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”, Matthew 16: 18.
On the former evening our subject was the Spirit of God having come down to reside in the place of Christ’s rejection. It is consistent that, as Christ is exalted to the highest place in heaven, there should be a divine Person to maintain for Him in the scene of His rejection. If we were to see some great luminary in the sky, we should all accept it; but the Holy Spirit is invisible to the world, He is only known to faith; “The world seeth him not, neither knoweth him”. Do you think God would send Him down here to be seen by the world? Here, where His Son had been rejected? Impossible. You believe in a glorified Christ? Yes. Well, then, you have the Holy Spirit down here. The Holy Spirit here is the answer to Christ glorified. It would not be possible, looking at what God is in Himself, that He should exalt Christ to the highest place in heaven, and leave His own in the scene of His rejection overlooked and uncared for. Therefore the Holy Spirit comes down to us in this place. And, as I tried to bring before you, there are three spheres of His action here — there is the house in which He dwells, there is the body which He forms, and there is the individual whom He serves. There is the collective temple and there is the individual temple. Still, as the words pass out of one’s lips, one is sensible how little one enters into the magnitude of what is stated. The lack is, that there is not simple faith as to the reality of the truth I am propounding.
I dwelt on the last evening on what He was to the individual. Now I turn to Him in the house, the habitation of God through the Spirit.
[p. 143] I turn to Matthew 16: 18, because it is the first time that “My assembly” is referred to: “I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. It is a very important principle in Scripture that whenever a thing is first spoken of, though it be not developed, yet you get the great features that characterise it.
I will divide the subject into parts to make it simple: the first part is the origin of “My assembly”. It is a great point to lay hold of the fact that “My assembly” is a new thing. The word ‘assembly’ is not a new word. We read in Acts 7 of the assembly that was in the wilderness; but the word ‘My’ is what is new, “My assembly”. It is a little word, but it is of great importance; because the fact of its being His assembly necessarily implies that He is there Himself. He would not call it “My assembly” if He were not there Himself. In the Old Testament we read of the assembly, but never of “My assembly”. And hence Paul says to Timothy, “That thou mightest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God”. Mind the word ‘living’. I press it, because I think we are liable to forget the solemnity of the assembly. God’s assembly must be a company to suit God, though I am not speaking of the company, but of the Person who has the company, “That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God”- it does not say “in the body”, it could not say that, but “in the house of God, which is the assembly of the living God”.
I am not speaking of the body this evening, but of the house — the temple. The house is the earthly aspect, the body is the heavenly aspect. No doubt those who compose the house — the true ones, “living stones”- are the body.
Now I turn to the origin of “My assembly”, and I [p. 144] hope to lead the youngest in this room to understand this great subject. This is the first time, as I have said, that “My assembly” is alluded to in Scripture. Its origin is of great importance, because it is quite different from the origin of the body. People so often confound the body and the house. A churchman will talk about the house of God, and a dissenter will talk about membership; and the dissenter has an advantage over the churchman, because the churchman thinks of nothing but the house, and he has no idea beyond a building which he calls a church, and which he regards as a very sacred place; he will behave with all possible decorum in it because it is God’s house.
We have to learn the right thing in order to get out of the imitation. There is no way of doing so but by presenting the real. If a man say, There is a diamond, when it is only an imitation, I can easily confound him by presenting a real diamond. The principle of imitation is satanic. It requires a great mind to originate; a very small one can imitate. Satan seeks to spoil and undermine God’s works by imitation. To originate is God’s work. Hence the apostle says to Timothy, “As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses”. What did they do? They imitated Moses; they did not originate, they imitated — “so do these also resist the truth”; and that is the professing church.
But I say all this in preface. The part I have before me (the Lord give us grace to expound it) is the origin of “My assembly”. Its origin dates from Christ being rejected on earth . If you study from Matthew 14: 10 to Matthew 16: 18, you will then be prepared for this new structure. It is like an avenue conducting you to a terminus. I commend it to your patient study: mere reading will not do; go up the avenue and you are prepared for what is — at the terminus. The Lord was educating the disciples for this new structure and you must travel the road they did — divinity lectures, if you like. In Matthew 14: 10,
[p. 145] John the baptist is beheaded. He was Christ’s herald, and this intimates to the Lord what will happen to Himself. It is of immense importance to the soul to have faith as to the origin of “My assembly” — that I know why that structure is here. It is here because Christ was rejected by His own people. He has a new structure for Himself on the earth where He is rejected. He can say, I have My assembly there.
I must allude to a very interesting thing here, and one of great import: it is that when a soul has found rest in Christ and His work, the very first thing that occurs to that soul is, Has God a place here? My authority for this is Exodus 15: 2, “I will prepare him an habitation”. You may be occupied with the blessing and going on with it, but when you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the first question that will occur to your mind is, Has He any place of His own on the earth where He wrought out my salvation? Hence the language of the Psalmist is the language of many a true-hearted soul, “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob”. Believe me, this is a true experience; and the reason why Christendom has not found out this, the second part of the song (Exodus 15), is because they have not learned the first part of it, namely, “The Lord hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea”. Have you peace with God, able to say, I am delivered from the power of the enemy? It is not only that you are sheltered by the blood, but that you are delivered from the power of death, you are brought out of Egypt, you are on resurrection ground; “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God”. There are three things, as has often been said, in that song. The first is, the sense of what He has done; the second, you desire to glorify Him, prepare Him a dwelling; and third, “Thou shalt bring them in and [p. 146] plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance”.
I have dwelt long on the origin because it is an important point. Christ has been rejected here, but He has a structure here at this minute, against which all the powers of hell cannot prevail. And that is an immense thing for the heart; it is the breakwater against the violence of man. How it ought to cheer our hearts that there is a structure built upon this earth by Christ, which all the power of hell cannot shake!
Now, the next part to which I turn your attention is the material that forms “My assembly”. Well, I need hardly say that Christ does not build anyone into this structure before he is converted; but I will try to explain to you. Conversion in itself does not put a man in “My assembly”. Everyone in “My assembly” is a “living stone”; that is something in addition to conversion. Some may say, You are imposing terms or intelligence for communion. I am not. I am only insisting upon the true material for this new structure. If I ask, What is the material? there is not one in this room, even a child, but would answer, A stone. What kind of stone? A living stone. Right. You did not say conversion. Well then, there is a difference between simple conversion and a living stone, and that is all I want. You may ask, What is the difference? Well, I believe a very important difference. I believe we should have very different meetings if we believed in this addition to conversion, even that you came into the assembly with faith in the supremacy of Christ. This constitutes a living stone. “Thou art Peter”- a stone. What had he said? “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”; He did not merely say, Thou art my Saviour, though if Christ were not his Saviour, he could not have said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. He has faith in the supremacy of that blessed One of whose building he is a part. Turn to Matthew 16: 7 - 10,
“[p. 147] And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?” He had been educating them as to what He could do. They now had no bread, and they were upbraiding themselves for their lack of prudence in not bringing bread. The Lord does not charge them with lack of prudence but lack of faith, and mark, He did not give them any bread, but He reminded them of His own greatness . “Do ye not ... remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?” In the one case there were twelve, and in the other seven. What was all this to establish? Even that where Christ is there is unbounded power; and every one is a living stone who believes in His supremacy. I do not mind how young you are as a Christian, if you believe in the Son of God the builder. You will likely slip away some day unless you come in right. You have not light and faith, you have not taken your place rightly, if you are not according to your vocation. We read in 1 Peter 2: 5, “Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house”. Nothing can be plainer. The living stones are built in; they are in function. As Paul says, “I planted”, they were plants before, but they had to be planted. You get the same thought in Matthew 13: 48. The fish were caught and the fishermen sat down to sort them, and they put the good into vessels. The question was put to me, Have you faith to come into Christ’s assembly? I look back to that challenge as a very wise one — had I faith! I had very little intelligence, but that is not [p. 148] the point. It is a question of faith in the Lord, otherwise there is no stability. Teaching is not the ground for coming. You are according to your vocation, a living stone built in by Christ, when you believe in His supremacy. I fully admit that it is the right of every believer to be there. I am only dwelling on the way in which he may enter on his rights and his calling, even that he is a living stone.
Thirdly, this structure is the habitation of God through the Spirit. Ephesians 2: 22, “In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit”. None of you will question it, and therefore I need not dwell upon it.
The next thing is — seeing that “My assembly” is God’s house, and that the Lord is the Son over this house — what do you find in the house? What do you look for? The youngest believer would answer, I look for His presence. Right; but I want to have it a little more defined. What do you expect to find in His presence? Well, His presence is our sanctuary. We have the antitype of what Israel had in the tabernacle; otherwise Israel were better off than we are. Remember it is said of the mercy-seat in the holiest of all in Exodus 25:22, “There I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee”. The term sanctuary is a common word amongst us, and I believe often used without intelligence. What do we mean by the sanctuary? It is a very interesting question. You read in the Old Testament, “Until I went into the sanctuary”; “To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary”. We have something far better. The sanctuary is God’s place, and this is very important. It is not your own room. You may say you may sanctify the Lord in your hearts. It is perfectly true that the Lord does make Himself known to us individually, but that is in relation to our own circumstances. In God’s house it is with relation to His own interests. If there are any here with an [p. 149] exercised conscience they would like to understand the sanctuary. I am sure one often repeats anxiously to oneself, I long to see Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary. If in the dark ages before Christ came a godly soul would have found so much in the tabernacle, what do you find? Do you come to God’s house expecting to find something greater than that? You have not come rightly if you do not. Do you think there would be the inattention that there is sometimes if you had such an expectation? In Old Testament times they could not go into the holiest. But the holiest is thrown open to us. As someone has said, there is no Urim and Thummim now, but there is greater, there is Christ’s presence . And that is not merely the presence of a Saviour, but, as in Hebrews 8, a Minister of the sanctuary, or, as is more correct, of the holy places, because there is no veil now. But I ask you, Have you ever been in company with Him as a Minister of the holy places? The point in the Hebrews is, that you are brought into company with Christ, the heavenly Aaron, after the order of Melchisedec. He is the Minister of the holy places, “the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man”.
I think a great many — I have done so myself — read Hebrews merely for the Lord’s priestly service for our infirmities. No doubt that is in it, but there is much more. We go a piece of a road, and think we have gone the whole journey. The High Priest’s object in supporting you along the road is that He may have your companionship in the holy places. Read Hebrews again with that view, and you will see where you are. He supports me along the road; He does what Aaron could not do for his sons. If his sons had an infirmity, such as a bald head, they could not go into the holy place. The Lord says, If you are under pressure, or in illness, or in sorrow, I will sympathise with you, and for this purpose, that you should bear Me company [p. 150] in the holy places; that you should be inside with Me. There I get such a sense of heaven that I am ready for the race; Hebrews 12. You get this in company with the Lord in the sanctuary.
I turn to my fellow Christians in system; I have a great respect for them. What is the character of the building which they call the church? First, it is constructed as much like Solomon’s temple as possible. The next thing is, that as you walk up the aisle, right before you there is what is called the communion table, where the clergy only are allowed to be, and no one else. It is the holy ground. It is in imitation of the sanctuary. Now the sanctuary, and not an imitation of it, is the proper place for every believer, for every believer is a priest. It is not merely a believers’ meeting, with great enjoyment that the Lord has saved us, and we remember that He died for us. We must remember that Christendom in its worst form makes everything of the mass. In the Lord’s presence, the sanctuary, the first thing which should engage your attention is the Lord’s supper — that you call Him to mind in His death. You cannot greet Him but as remembering Him in death, dwelling on what the love of His heart was, that He should go into death for me. But that is not all. You have Himself now, you are in His company — the apostle and High Priest of our profession. You are entranced with the Minister of the holy places, you are now conducted into participation of all the heavenly blessing which He is in, you now learn what it is to be in the sanctuary. They try to imitate it in Christendom; through divine mercy you are enlightened and can enjoy the real thing. I admit it is in ruins, but remember it is His house. We ought to be the more zealous because of the state of things. See how the Lord respected the temple: “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up”. Does the zeal of His house eat you up? When the Lord was here, the glory had departed from the house.
[p. 151] What should characterise us then, with the Lord of glory in our midst? You never can refute an imitation but by presenting the reality. There is not a shade of distance between Him and you in the sanctuary; all is heavenly, a heavenly atmosphere brought in by Himself in the midst of His own, just as the tabernacle was a heavenly construction in the midst of the twelve tribes. The mistake of Christendom is, they make the laity to be the antitype of the twelve tribes, and the clergy the antitype of the priests. The antitype of the twelve tribes has not come yet. Israel in the millennium will be the antitype.
The next branch of the subject is the company who enjoy the sanctuary — as it is said in Peter, “a holy priesthood”. This is the calling of every believer; but there is a great difference between right and enjoyment. If you have not right you are not quickened. It has done much mischief to souls to be satisfied with the assurance of right without entering into what the right confers; like a man of great rank, an exiled prince, very great in his position, but without property to support it. The Christian has always the means to support his position if he will use them. There is the condition of the “holy priesthood”, and you must be in that condition to enjoy the sanctuary. You enter in the fragrance of the High Priest. The fragrance of the High Priest is common to each one of the consecrated company.
The next thing I must try to explain is, the organisation in “My assembly”. Turn to 1 Corinthians 12: 13, “By One Spirit are we all baptised into one body”. Now, if you study the epistle to the Corinthians, you will see the apostle is speaking of the house to chapter 10. The house is visible. The body of Christ is only known to faith. It is a mystery. When you speak of a body of Christians, that is not the church. If a stranger comes into the assembly and he finds it well ordered, he might ask, What is the [p. 152] organisation here? I saw no disorder, and yet there was no visible organisation; who ordered? Well, this verse shows the organisation. It is one body, and the apostle is showing what the assembly is when in function, every member of the body co-operating. I am now speaking of “My assembly”, what the Lord builds. Here you have the organisation — all baptised by one Spirit into one body, and the smallest disturbance affects the whole; there is not a spiritual person in the room who does not know it. An unconverted person cannot disturb the organisation, though he may disturb the meeting; but if “one member suffer, all the members suffer with it”. You say, Would not that apply to you when at home? I believe it would, but that is not the point here. The point here is, that the assembly is in function. I trust you will bear in mind what I say, and examine it. “I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say”. Man does not know how the organisation is carried out, but he is often convinced when it is done right. I do not say that there is no disturbance, but the Spirit, if there be simple dependence on Christ, will carry you over it, just as, if an obstacle were thrown in the way of a stream, it would be checked for the moment, but would eventually flow over it. I will give you one scripture as an illustration; Proverbs 31. The wise woman keeps the house. The wise woman is the organisation; as long as she was in vigour and health she kept the house well. Surely if the body of Christ had been true to itself it would have kept the house in order. If I walk into the house of a wise woman I see that it is well kept.
Now there were two things which marked the wise woman. One she fed her household, and the other she clothed them. This answers to what is said of our Lord, “No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church”. Thus edification should be found in the assembly — there should be the nourishing and the [p. 153] cherishing for those who come. Even if a stranger come into the assembly, he should hear the word of God there, and “the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth”, 1 Corinthians 14: 25. It is not that he knew that the Spirit of God was there, or that the Lord was there; no, he had not faith, but the ministry of the word is so effective that he falls down and reports that “God is in you of a truth”. It does not say even that he is converted, but he is made sensible of the wonderful power in the assembly. Thus the Lord uses the man speaking by the Spirit of God in the assembly to arrest the stranger. In the habitation of God through the Spirit, a stranger even is made sensible of the power of God.
No one has the right to take part but under the sanction of the Lord. It is not because there is a pause, or because it is on your heart, that you give out a hymn, or read a scripture, No, but because you have faith in the Lord that it is His pleasure. What is so interesting in this scripture (1 Corinthians 12) is, that the assembly is in function. When we come together we find Him in the midst. He is the Head of the body, and each individual is subject to Him. Then there is the responsibility. Every privilege has its responsibility. I turn to 1 Corinthians 5: 7: “Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened”. I do not pursue it, but every man, woman and child in the assembly is responsible. You may not be able to remove the evil you see, but you must not let it slip by; you must look for someone competent. In 1 Thessalonians 5: 14, the whole assembly is addressed, not merely the preachers. No one who has a sense of the blessedness of God’s house but will say, I cannot have anything unsuited to my Lord.
Thus, beloved friends, I have touched on a great [p. 154] many points; and I trust in the Lord that the subject is interesting to each of you, and not without profit.
Finally, I bring before you an important thing connected with the house, which I see in John 20. The Lord says, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”. My impression is that the servant is actually sent from the assembly. In the Jewish system there were no missionaries. The land and the nation defined the limits of their services. Now you get in John 20: “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”- missionaries. Each one has a mission, and I believe that if each one was occupied with Christ’s interests in the assembly he would learn his mission.
In closing I would ask you to bear in mind 1 Timothy 3: 15, the object of the assembly on the earth. The assembly is the pillar and base of the truth. Look at a clock. You may not know its organisation, but you see what the time of day is; the clock was made for this. Like the clock at Greenwich, it tells the time to the whole country. Now the church should be, in like manner, the pillar and the base of the truth. A child could not understand the organisation of the clock, but if the organisation is damaged the time of day will not be given correctly. And it is thus with the assembly, so internally distracted it is imperfectly the pillar and the base of the truth.
There is one thing more I have to say on this: “That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God”. This does not mean simply when Timothy was in the house assembled, but wherever he was he belonged to the house of God, a living stone, a constituent part of Christ’s assembly.
I will just enumerate the points in their order. First, the origin of the assembly; secondly, the material of the structure thirdly, the habitation of God through the Spirit fourthly, the sanctuary is there; fifthly, the character of the company who enjoy [p. 155] the sanctuary; sixthly, the ministry of the word, edification; and finally, what the object is, to be the pillar and base of the truth.
The Lord lead our hearts to be not only encouraged, but that gladness may fill every heart that there is such a structure on this earth.