THE HOUSE OF GOD
THE HOUSE OF GOD
Luke 14:21 - 23; Luke 15: 22 - 24; Acts 10: 44 - 48
I wanted to say a word about the house of God. The evangelist Luke presents it to us, for he speaks of it in connection with the reception of the Gentiles. In that way he has in view, as I apprehend, its relation to the gospel testimony. So in his gospel he speaks of the household, presenting the Lord’s ministry in regard of it, in order to show how the Lord had the house of God in view, so that believers should graduate from their own houses into the house of God. Hence in the fourth chapter Luke speaks of Peter’s wife’s mother being taken with a great fever. The Lord stood over her and rebuked the fever; and it left her, and immediately she arose and ministered unto them. The Lord in that way introduced the principle of serving those in the household. In the fifth chapter you get the paralytic; he was evidently a man of small circumstances; the Lord sent him back into his house. He was therefore instructed how to bear things, how to carry things, instead of being carried by others. In that same chapter, Levi, who is the counterpart of the paralytic, made a great entertainment for the Lord, and had in his house publicans and sinners, such guests as were in keeping with the Lord’s ministry of grace which Luke presents. So in chapter 10 the Lord enters into Martha’s house and the point the Spirit makes in regard of that incident is that the house is the place where we acquire teaching; we become teachable. It is a very great feature in connection with Christianity. We must become teachable if we are to be taught. Whilst the teaching may be perfect, it must be made effective.
[p. 323] So the Lord is speaking in the house, uttering divine thoughts, as He only could, for He was the Word. Martha was missing it, but Mary was gaining, for she was teachable, and appreciative of the word. I commend the tenth chapter to the young; it presents being teachable; you must be instructed. In the house of God the mind of God and the Spirit of God are to be set forth down here in the presence of men, and obviously those who compose it must be instructed in divine thoughts. The Lord, in His ministry according to Luke, led up to efficiency in those who were formed in the house of God. Now when you come to the thirteenth chapter, the Lord says to the Jews, “Your house is left unto you”. The principle of it applies to the local meeting: we have to be on our guard, that we may not be left. It is hardly “desolate” in this chapter: it was left unto them. However much men might see, it was without God, without Christ. We must never force Him to say, “Your house”. The Lord had said elsewhere, “My Father’s house”; now He says, “Your house”. They left God out. It is a serious matter to leave God out. How serious to have Him out of our individual things; but how much more serious to leave Him out in regard of His house! Hence He says, “Your house is left unto you”.
The ostensible house in Jerusalem being left in man’s hands, the Lord opens up in the next chapter the thought of God’s house. He is in the house of a ruler; there is a man there with the dropsy, and the Lord heals him. If man’s will has shut God out in the public government of the house, there is the grace of God in Christ. In these last days the Lord has been working with individuals, so as to make way for the truth of the house of God. We must not give up the truth, however letter we may have of the concrete thing. So the Lord comes in and restores the man; then He begins to touch certain principles which are I [p. 324] essential to our apprehension and enjoyment of the truth of the house. He marked those who chose out the chief rooms. We have to be careful about this. If the Lord gives you a prominent place, He will support you in it; but if you take it without His support you will be humbled, not only in the presence of the Lord, but in the presence of those that have been invited, in the presence of your brethren. Not that the Lord has any pleasure in humbling us publicly, but it is unavoidable. If the Lord has to say, “Come down”, you have shame in the presence of the Lord and of the other guests.
So the Lord says in grace, Begin at the bottom; then you give. Him opportunity to exalt you, and He does that as you are fit for it. He loves to do it. He loves to take up the beggar from the dunghill; He ennobles him, so that he can sit among princes, in keeping with the princes; there is no discrepancy. He belongs to a kingdom of priests. But then let us listen to it. The Lord advises guests how to behave themselves. Now He says to the man who made the feast, I have a word for you. If you are acting in the way of hospitality; that is, like God, do not invite your rich neighbours, because they have the means of recompense. That is the principle of the world. The world always expects a return. That is not God’s way. God’s way is to invite those who have no means of return, according to His own great heart of love, without any expectation of return. He delights to do it. It is a great principle in the house for we are prone to bring in the principles of the world in the exercise of our hospitality, whereas if we have to do with the house of God, we must learn to do things as God does them. The Corinthians were disregarding this injunction; the rich sat by themselves, and the poor were despised.
A man sat there and listened to all these remarks, and he says, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God”. He says in effect, I should like to be where these principles rule. The world is all disorganised, particularly so now; so the man appreciated the thought of being where the will of God should prevail. He says, It would be blessed to eat bread there, to take one’s food without anxiety or fear, conscious of the will of God being maintained in the kingdom of God. The Lord proceeds to open up this: “A certain man made a great supper”. He answers the evident interest of the listener. He says, I will give you a conception of what really it is to eat bread in the kingdom of God. I need not remind you that the one who made the great supper is God. Think of how much that means! It brings to our attention God’s celebration of accomplished righteousness: there could be no kingdom established apart from that. God having Christ in heaven, the parable supposes Christ having died and the Holy Spirit being here, God would intimate His desire. It necessitates not only the kingdom, but the house.
The Lord would say, It is not only that bread is to be eaten in the kingdom: it is to be eaten in the house, supported by the kingdom. We partake of the divinely provided food in the house. How blessed that is spiritually! I commend it to you, especially to the young. God has food, not only in His kingdom, but in His house. The kingdom is a wide conception: it is essential in regard to security and public order, but it does not delight affection; there is the parental affection and care of the house, so that the supper is in the house. I do not dwell on man’s will in refusing it. The principle of refusal may appear in the believer: he may refuse to accept and appropriate all that is available spiritually. Many excuses were made: I just refer to them as indicative of man’s will. We must be on our guard against this, natural feelings and the like. They stand in the way with many believers, hindering their enjoyment of the spiritual things that God has provided. “Then the master of the house being angry”; that is a serious word as applied to God. He was angry that men should despise such an opportunity. God celebrates the greatest possible thing, what Christ has accomplished for God’s own glory, and man despises it. Now He says that the house must he filled, and it is filled, Thank God, nothing can stand in the way of that. The fulfilment of God’s counsels cannot be prevented, so He uses a compelling power “Compel them to come in”. God must have His house full He hates a void. Through Christ, God fills all things, and He fills His house with guests.
Now in Luke 15 I want to show you how the house is marked by merriment. There are those who think Christianity is dull; they do not seem to find the recompense that is there. The passage is so well known that it is difficult to speak about it to those present, but I want to show you how God is moved, how the blessed God Himself is capable of being moved. One might speak of the running, the father ran; but I would speak particularly of that peculiar action of his in falling on the neck of the prodigal. That shows the peculiar delight God had in the reception of the Gentiles. I read that passage in Acts 10 because it refers historically to what this parable teaches. I want to show you also the connection with the individual’s household. I dwell on it because I am impressed with this, that God would use a Christian household to form us for His own house. So Cornelius was a pious man, a praying man, and one that feared God with all his house. Now that was a remarkable household. Cornelius was a man who did not yet know God revealed in Christ; he was not even a believer, had not had the gospel presented to him; and yet he was a devout man; he feared God, and his house feared God, and he prayed to God alway.
[p. 327] Now it is remarkable that the Spirit of God should have found such a man among the Gentiles. We have instances of conversion, but this man was already converted; he was a devout man, feared God, and prayed. An angel of God comes to him. We can understand what the Gentiles were for he was a representative of them. We can understand, now that the veil is removed from the Gentile world, how God looked out, and His eye rested on that man. For as Paul says, “Is he not the God of the Gentiles? Yea, of the Gentiles also”. Those that fear Him are accepted. So in this long chapter, we get the presentation of the gospel to this man and his friends. He sent for Peter, and Peter comes. How important that Cornelius should be prepared to listen. I would remark, dear friends, on the importance of being prepared to listen. Peter opens his mouth and presents the word to him; and it says, “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word”.
I wonder if we are accustomed to hear. The Lord had said, in Luke 4, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears”. It is one thing to have something fulfilled in your ears, and another to have it fulfilled in your heart. In Luke 4 they heard words such as had never been spoken before, gracious words; they were fulfilled in their ears, and yet in a moment they would have cast Him down the hill and destroyed Him. Such is the capability of man. We may hear with our ears and not understand with our hearts. So it says, “the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word”. They had not only heard with their ears, but with their hearts. The Holy Spirit fell upon them. It is the same word as in Luke 15 where the father fell on the prodigal’s neck. The Holy Spirit fell on them. It was God’s delight in the returning prodigal. Do we take it in, that we of the Gentiles have been received in this [p. 328] blessed way, this magnanimous way, by the Spirit of God? As Paul says in Ephesians, “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints”. (Ephesians 2:19) That is a political thought; and then we have a part in the household of God. All that is following upon this blessed fact, for the Holy Spirit, according to Romans 5, carries into our hearts the love of God; He makes us to know that God loves us. Would that we had the consciousness of it we should become very different in many respects. It gives such superiority, the consciousness in one’s heart of the love of God being there. The Holy Spirit fell upon them; it was an energetic action of the Spirit, taking possession of the returning Gentiles and incorporating them in the household. “As he fell on us at the beginning”, Peter said. It was the same act, the same love, only He had a peculiar delight in the Gentile company. He saw the prodigal; He saw the Gentiles coming, and He meets them, the Holy Spirit falls upon them.
Now coming back to the fifteenth of Luke, we can understand what the feeling was. The prodigal is not said to be brought into the house; the servants were to bring the best robe out, without saying where it was. Now if you analyse the tenth of Acts, you will see how this comes into view in connection with the same thing. The great sheet was let down to Peter and taken up three times, and lastly it remained up. It meant that God was going to take His people into heaven, and that the Gentiles were brought into this flow of light. Peter had more light in his soul in the house of Cornelius than he had when he preached on the day of Pentecost; the light was greater. They all came in; there were no exceptions. It was a remarkable meeting; the word was preached in the light of heaven. The prodigal gets the best robe, the very best that God could give, conferred upon him; so it says, “Let us make merry”; it [p. 329] does not say, I will make merry. God would enlist the sympathy of all who were there. The elder brother was not sympathetic, but there were others who were; certainly the servant whom the elder brother spoke to was; he was quite sympathetic. What was going on? Do we know anything about it? Music and dancing. While it is in the light of heaven, Luke 15 is here on earth; it was in the hearing of the elder brother who was in the field; nevertheless the music and dancing were within his hearing. God graciously begged him to come in, but he had no sympathy. Have we sympathy and enjoyment in having part with what goes on? They began to be merry. The merriment has begun; do you think it has ended? I know it continues. What has been begun by the blessed God Himself continues. They began; it does not tell us who they were. So far as we know they were all in it except the elder brother. Alas for him! To remain outside is a reproach against God, and against those whom God has blessed.
Barzillai the Gileadite, who maintained David in his rejection, when the time came for David to return, was invited by David to return with him. Barzillai replied, ‘I am too old; I have no taste for food’. Does that describe you? No taste for food? Then he says, ‘I cannot appreciate singing men and singing women’. Poor Barzillai! He was a great man, but a very poor man in Jerusalem; he had no ability to enjoy it. David was going to live in Jerusalem, and he would have Barzillai too. Barzillai says, ‘Chimham may go’. He did not disregard the thing, but he did not go. He did not enter into the divine sphere. He had no taste for food, for singing men or singing women. Have we the taste? How does it come about? We have to exercise our senses, taste, smell, hearing, feeling. I have to exercise all these in a spiritual way, otherwise [p. 330] I am lean and powerless for enjoyment. God would look for those who dwell in His house to be continually praising Him; the merriment is seen in those who are in the house. The prodigal is not said to be brought in because the house is composed of such as he. It is in such that God has delight. In Psalm 87 the singers as well as the players on instruments say, “All my springs are in thee”. They find all their springs in that blessed sphere where the Holy Spirit is. They do not, as in the house, draw from any other source. The epistle to the Colossians is to exclude all other sources, for we are said to be filled full in Him. There is nothing outside of Christ; all our springs are in Him.
May God bless His word!