THE HOUSE OF GOD, THE PLACE OF SPIRITUAL ENJOYMENT
[p. 77] THE HOUSE OF GOD, THE PLACE OF SPIRITUAL ENJOYMENT
Luke 15:22 - 32; Ephesians 2:19 - 22
JT The house of God has a very special place in Scripture, in a great measure connected with human responsibility. I thought it might be helpful to look at it as the place of fellowship and enjoyment, where you find that which satisfies. It is well to remember that in the employment of such expressions as, merriment, music, dancing, Scripture conveys spiritual thoughts. We must become accustomed to understand things in a spiritual way. The subject before us would be, in a measure, confined to those who are spiritual, and yet within the reach of all. In the first epistle to Timothy the principles of the house are set forth, and it is presented on the privilege side in Ephesians. The apostle says, “Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God”. (Ephesians 2:19) This Scripture sets forth what we are as viewed from the divine side. The chapter in Luke speaks of the house as the place in which you discern divine emotions; the Father was moved at the return of the prodigal. One would be very far from encouraging anything like natural emotions in divine things; but emotion was seen in the Lord when here, and also in the apostles; and so, spiritual emotions should mark the saints as they are in the presence of God and Christ. And as having to do with divine things, we are to be living; God is a living God, and we should be in accord with Him.
SL According to Ephesians 2, the saints were to be at home with God.
JT We are not strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; so that one is there in liberty, not as a slave; we have the liberty of the house.
[p. 78] Rem The world is going in for its music and dancing, in a material way; if we have not spiritual enjoyment we are worse off than the world.
JT That is where young Christians are at a loss; they do not see the recompense there is for them in the household of God. The prodigal’s elder brother heard the music and the dancing, but he would not go in. The Lord had spoken about those to whom He had piped; they had not danced; they were not able to appreciate the music of His ministry. You will remember how Barzillai the Gileadite, when king David proposed to him to go up to Jerusalem, said, “I am this day fourscore years old; and can I discern between good and evil? can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women” (2 Samuel 19:35). That to my mind is a very humiliating confession; old age had brought in a state in which there was no ability to appreciate what was of God. It was not that he was against it, he had to admit that he could not enjoy the things of David at Jerusalem. He was a great man in his own house, and in his own family circle; he could even entertain David, but when it came to David’s food and maintenance, singing and dancing, he was not able to enjoy that.
Ques Do you think there is a possibility that he finished brightly?
JT In spiritual things there should be no decline; old age should not cause you to decline spiritually. “Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing”, (Psalm 92:13,14). That shows where we are to be in our affections, where our living associations are to be; thus we are said to be fat and flourishing to the end.
[p. 79] Rem We should always be in the sense of belonging to that circle.
JT The thing is to cultivate living associations there.
Rem The tendency might be to settle down in our own line of things.
JT Make what is of God your chief interest, instead of your family and business.
JMcF Their house would be left unto them desolate; that would be to those who did not respond to the music and dancing.
JT In Luke 13 the house is left desolate; in chapter 14 the house is full; in chapter 15 it is the merry house.
Ques Would you say that the best robe, the ring and the shoes, were to prepare the prodigal for the house?
JT Yes. He is one of the household; he is one of those spoken of in Ephesians 2.
JM The house is where you are planted; you are of the household; your affections are there.
JT I suppose that is where God plants now. The Lord said, “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up”, (Matthew 15:13). It does not say where the planting is there, but who plants. Ephesians speaks of being “rooted and grounded in love”. (Ephesians 3:17) Roots draw up the sap which nourishes the tree. Grounded is that one is firmly set, so as to preclude rooting up; and the result is that one bears fruit in old age, and flourishes in the courts.
JMcG Would you connect it with what we enjoy when we are together?
JT The truth of it works out in our relation one to another under all circumstances. You have the expression “the household of faith” in Galatians 6:10.
JM It has a universal bearing here, and that works out in our relation one with [p. 80] another.
JT One would call attention particularly to appreciation; whether we appreciate what is in the house or otherwise. To those to whom the Lord piped, He says, “ye have not danced”. He intimates their inability to respond. It was a question of the state in man; so with the elder brother of the prodigal, it was not that he could not hear the music and dancing, but he would not go in; his will was active.
Rem The prodigal had come to an end of himself.
JT Yes, what one sees is the affection in the paternal heart towards the prodigal. It says in Acts 10:44, “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word”. It is energetic action of love laying hold of its object. That is the delight that God has in those that are secured for the house through the gospel. Luke 15 corresponds with this. The prodigal’s father “saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him”. Then, having ordered the different things to be put on his son, he says, “Let us eat and be merry”. Thus we are to have part in the joy of the house.
JM It is His delight in the result of the gospel that moves our hearts.
JT I think so. If we were more there intelligently, we should be more conscious of the delight that God has in us. In Luke it is His holy emotions on account of what the gospel produces. One is impressed with the great lack of intelligent emotion in the saints, with regard to what God is doing. If you keep your eye on what God is doing, your heart will be moved.
Rem The question is, what line are we on?
JT It is the Spirit’s day. That is, the Spirit is here in answer to Christ in heaven, and if our senses were more exercised we should discern what He is doing. “It was meet that we should make merry”, the Father says; so that God orders holy merriment in relation to what He is doing. The elder son did not go in, his will was active. We have to be on our guard with regard to our wills. Esau was in the field; that is, he made that his sphere instead of the house. The house is the Christian sphere. The house is God’s people, but the field is a very attractive place to the flesh.
JMcF There were influences there. I suppose chapter 16 shows the end of the elder brother.
JT It is very solemn. “He fared sumptuously every day, but in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments”. There was entire want of sympathy with God. He refused the house of God, and remained in the field, and so he came to his end.
Rem The elder brother’s state is a more deplorable one than Barzillai’s.
JT It is worse certainly, because his will was in it; like many young men and women who take their own way in self-will. There are certain restrictions in the house, the field affords scope for the flesh.
Rem The principle of lawlessness is active in the field.
Ques What is to be learned from the servants?
JT There are servants in the household; one of them spoke to the elder brother, but they were evidently in sympathy with all that went on.
Rem The servant’s message to the elder brother ought to have touched him. “Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf”. He appealed to his affections, saying, thy brother and thy father.
JT No young man ever had a greater opportunity of recovery than this. His father entreats him to come in, and listens to his complaint, and then explains, “Child, thou art ever with me”. God accredited the Jew, in grace, with all that belonged to Him, in order to induce him [p. 82] to come in.
SL What is the thought in “the fatted calf”?
JT That was Christ, but viewed as the very best; everything was to make the scene entirely delightful.
Ques What would answer to the servant?
JT The first of Acts shows how the servant is active. The saints are first viewed as a company, they are thus the house of God, but then certain ones are taken up. The situation that has arisen is explained to the elder brother.
Ques Would Peter answer to the servant?
JT Yes, and the ministry of Paul would answer, perhaps, to the Father coming out and entreating him. In Acts we see how Paul was taken up with the Jews; although he had written a letter to Rome, when in Rome he sends for the Jews, first; it is the grace of God keeping the door open that they might return. After the death of Stephen the Jews had an extended offer to the grace of God. He extended the period to the Jews, in order that the scattered among the Gentiles might have an opportunity of coming into the house. When Paul came to Rome they reasoned with him a whole day; and then he quoted Isaiah 6, and they leave Paul, he having said to them, “the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and they will receive it”. (Acts 28:28) So they are no longer addressed as a separate people.
Rem That is the attitude the elder son takes up; he reasons with the father.
JT He is entirely wanting in sympathy with the father.
Rem Ephesians is an enlargement of Luke 15, the Jew and the Gentile being brought together.
JT It specially emphasises the place the Gentiles have.
Rem The household was there before the Gentiles were brought in.
JT [p. 83] It speaks of the house from a high standpoint, and then of the security of it: it is built on “the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone”. There is what the house is in the way of privilege and security, and then what it develops into; it “groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord”.
Ques What is the thought in the chief corner-stone?
JT I think ornamentation and binding. The chief corner binds the whole building.
JM Christ would bind the affections of the saints.
Rem “The beauty of the Lord” (Psalm 90:17) is upon us.
SMcC The corner-stone often had an inscription.
JT It is what is seen. The Lord is “the head of the corner”, (Matthew 21:42).
Rem The stone that was set at nought by the builders is now conspicuous.
JT I was thinking particularly of spiritual emotions. I understand to some extent the forms and ceremonies used in the so-called high church; they take the place of spiritual emotion, but there is nothing for God in them. They are dead things, but God is praised by the living, as Hezekiah says in Isaiah 33:19. Our consciences are to be purged from dead works to serve the living God; (Hebrews 9:14). God is living, and He looks for the evidence of life in us towards Himself.
JMcF Of Sardis the Lord says, “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”, (Revelation 3:1).
SL When we come together to the morning meeting, there is often an absence of real emotion.
JT Often there is very little for God. He is looking for movement of soul, in answer to what He presents to us.
Rem You get spiritual emotions in Acts 20; “When he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and [p. 84] prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him”.
JT Paul speaks of Timothy’s tears; (2 Timothy 1:4). He speaks also of being beside himself to God; (2 Corinthians 5:13).
Rem I think what you call attention to is very important, and something that we should be greatly exercised about. I suppose the Song of Solomon is full of that.
JT Yes, both on the bride’s side, and on the Lord’s side. You want the senses moved intelligently and spiritually, in the presence of what God presents to us.
JM That is where spiritual discernment would come in.
Rem The result would be enjoyment of what is in the house.
JT The apostle says, “Be not drunk with wine ... ... but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord”, (Ephesians 5:18,19). There is thus a divinely appointed outlet for the joy the Holy Spirit produces in our hearts. Note, that the melody is to be made in the heart to the Lord. In the assembly Christ sings Himself. Indeed, all the singing there is regulated by Him. David made much of singing, providing for it in the house. He is a type of Christ in this respect. David is said to be “the sweet psalmist of Israel”, (2 Samuel 23:1).
Rem You would not confine this music and dancing to the meetings?
JT I think Ephesians 5 shows that it is to mark the Lord’s people generally; but when you come to the assembly, in its true character, the Lord regulates the praise. The spirit of music and dancing should be always with us.
Rem God is working to this end today.