RECOVERY IN RELATION TO HOUSEHOLDS
[p. 72] RECOVERY IN RELATION TO HOUSEHOLDS
Luke 18: 9 - 14; Luke 5: 18 - 26; Luke 19: 1 - 10
I think it will be understood by those who are instructed that it is the gospel that effects the recovery of man to God, and that involves his adjustment with God. My thought tonight is to show how a man is adjusted in regard of his house, because if the head of the household is recovered we may say that God has reached His thought, for it involves all the other particulars of a man’s position. I have selected this thought because of its importance in the mind of God. It has a much greater place with God than we are accustomed to think; it involves the family. God intends that the human race should be subdivided into households, the family thought being prominent. The household in Scripture is a prominent thought, indeed it is taken up by God in regard of Himself. He has a house, and our enjoyment of God’s house necessarily depends upon adjustment in our own houses. The introduction of the gospel into the western parts of the world was marked by the recovery of households. I refer to Acts 16. You will recall how the testimony through Paul brought about the recovery of households at Philippi. Now I want to show in the passages I have read how adjustment takes place. That is why I read chapter 18 first, because it shows how a man went down to his house justified. Chapter S shows how a man was sent to his house by the Lord, but there is another thought, and chapter 19 shows how such a man receives the Lord in his house. I want to speak a word for every conscience, for there are those here tonight who have not houses. There are children here, and there are those perhaps who have no parents, so I want to speak a word to everyone. The parable of the Lord in chapter 18 serves to show how repentance is brought about. There are two motives whereby men generally are governed in regard to God, one is religious respectability, the other is a genuine desire to be right with God. Now we are in relation with [p. 73] God from one of these two motives. It is for each one to determine before God which of the two motives governs us. The pharisee spoken of went up into the temple to pray, evidently priding himself in the religious garb in which he was clothed. His going down was not prompted by any inward desire to be right with God, in other words he was a mere religionist, and it does not say that he went to his house. The other man had another motive; God had been working, he had discovered certain conditions in his breast which were contrary to God, he had discovered that he was a sinner. Satan did not tell him that, Satan never tells you that; a motive and conviction like that arises from God. He had discovered something in his breast, and that was that he was a sinner. If there is anyone here who has not discovered what this man discovered, I would speak to you. You are in a dangerous condition. I am a great believer in the fact that man is responsible to God whether he acknowledges it or otherwise, but when light comes from God, by whatever means it may come, there is the acknowledgment of responsibility to God. When Peter stood up with the eleven at Pentecost, he announced the gospel with the effect that men said “what shall we do?” Peter does not say, ‘It is not for you to do anything’. Let us not make any mistake. You cannot do anything to make yourself acceptable to God, but I again remark that Peter did not say, ‘It is not for you to say that’. It was for them to say that, it was in perfect order for them to say that, every man has to say it in principle in his soul before God; for there are requirements. Peter’s word is “Repent”, which is an active verb. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you ... and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”, Acts 2:38. You shall receive it. God offers it, that is another matter. “When they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both”, Luke 7: 42. God has nothing else in His mind towards man, nothing but forgiveness, “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations”, Luke 24: 47. If however one refuses it is another matter. What good or value is it to you if you do not receive it? It is similar in regard to the Holy Spirit. “But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive”, John 7: 39. “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”. That is the gift of God, but there is the act of receiving: “Have ye received the Holy Spirit?” Paul said, Acts 19:2. I have to receive things. Have you received the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit? There are two sides to the truth. So the element of responsibility is in a man’s soul, responsibility attaches to everyone, the great white throne is on that line. “The books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life”. In the books are recorded all the acts in responsibility. “And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works”, Revelation 20: 12. These are the books in which God has recorded man’s walk in responsibility. We read of “the righteousness of God revealed”, but “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven” too, Romans 1: 17,18. What is done in secret is all known to God, it is all recorded; and man is held accountable at the great white throne. Then it says, “Another book was opened, which is the book of life” so as to make it quite certain that no one consigned to eternal perdition should have any question that his name is not in the book of life. Well, the question of responsibility had come into this man’s soul, he had to do with God; it does not say how it came about, but it was there, so his cry to God is “O God, have compassion on me, the sinner” (Luke 18:13, New Translation), as if there were no other sinner in the world. Have you come to that, to the sense that in your responsible life here you have sinned against heaven, and in God’s sight, as if there were no other sinner but you? The Lord said, “This man went down to his house justified”. His wife and children would now have a different man in the house. He did not have the Holy Spirit, it is not so presented; all that is said is the elementary thought of righteousness, but it is very important. It does not say he went to his business, or his club, justified, but he went [p. 75] to his home and he went there a different man. How is it with us as heads of our houses? Are we righteous? You cannot represent God there if you are not righteous. Righteousness must be shown there first, afterwards in the business, and in other relationships, but it must come out there first. It does not say he was sent there, his going there was a normal result.
Now we come to chapter 5, a remarkable passage well known to many here; I have read it to bring out one principle, for it indicates how a man went to his house in power, carrying his bed, and in so going he glorified God. That is another matter; besides that he was sent there by the Lord Jesus. As if the Lord would say, ‘I can commit myself to that man, he will represent me in his house’. It is incumbent on me to be righteous without being told to be; it is the normal result of righteousness in my soul. As I am sent to my house by the Lord, it is that I am to represent Him there, not only God in righteousness, but to represent Him as I take my place as head in my house. How remarkable, it is God’s thought that there should be in the house not only the acknowledgment of what is right but the headship of Christ effected in the head of the house. This man was paralytic, he was a kind of head who had to be attended on, he never did anything for anyone, he could not, for he was without strength. He was a sinner in his house and therefore unrighteous: no unconverted man can be righteous before God. It does not appear either that he was specially marked by faith. If there are those here who think a person cannot be saved on the faith of others, I would call your attention to this chapter, “When he saw their faith”. It is great encouragement to have faith about precious souls, especially about our children; one is encouraged to have faith because it says “When he saw their faith”. I am not denying that the man had faith; he did have it, and the Lord forgave his sins. He also said, “Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house”; the Lord empowers him and then sends him to his house. Am I so in the dignity of the power of Christ bestowed on me that I can rightly represent Him in my house? For [p. 76] He sends me to it. See the dignity upon one who is sent there by the Lord Jesus; he is given power to be there on His behalf as representing Him in headship in all his movements in the government of his own house. He went out before all who were there and God was glorified of all. What a result, a man by his movements glorifying God. I have often thought of the incident in Acts 3, the man who sat at the gate of the temple who was healed: “And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong”; he entered the temple “walking, and leaping, and praising God”. What a marvellous triumph. His ankle bones were made strong, evidently the point was the limbs, it was a question of walking, so he stood up “walking, and leaping, and praising God”.
Now I pass on to Zacchaeus, who gives us a kind of climax as to the household. Zacchaeus did not offer the Lord his house, the Lord as it were says to Zacchaeus, I am going to your house. Have you ever received a servant of the Lord or any of the saints of God in your house? Do not think you are honouring them. If you regard them in the fight of their relation to Christ you are really being honoured by their presence. The Lord said, “I was sick, and ye visited me”, Matthew 25: 36. It would be a serious thing to say the Lord Jesus was ever sick personally. He was not, but there is in His thought complete identification with His people, so it is the sickness of His people He refers to, the nakedness of His people, not His own; the hunger of His people, not His own. If you look at the saints in their relation to Christ you will feel honoured by their presence. The Lord told Zacchaeus that He was going to abide that day at his house. Zacchaeus’ position in the tree was quite justifiable, there was such a crush round the Lord that he could not see Him. Large multitudes of people came round the Lord as He was ministering and He would not send them away hungry. However justifiable your position may be, your house must be regulated by the Lord Jesus. I want to be regulated by His word in everything and it is incumbent on me to be so. A spiritual man is one that is regulated by Christ. So the Lord says to Zacchaeus, ‘Come down, your position must be regulated by My word and commandments’. The Lord is interested in our circumstances and the relations in which we are found. Am I regulated by the commandments of Christ in my household? “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down”, the Lord says: “Make haste”, do not waste any time. If any adjustment is shown to be necessary in your circumstances do not delay, look into the matter at once and make the alterations that are necessary in order to conform to the will of Christ. The Lord said, “Make haste”, and Zacchaeus made haste. When the Lord’s mind is made known there must be no delay, you must act. So he came and it says he received the Lord joyfully. It was a happy house under the blessed direction of Christ, and Christ the guest. The Lord said He must abide at Zacchaeus’ house and Zacchaeus received Him, really as a priest regulated by the word of Christ. He was like the priest in the temple when the Lord Jesus was taken there as a babe. Simeon was there and received the babe into his arms — a wonderful scene; he was a priest in the true sense as he held the true Ark of the Covenant in his arms. He went into the temple by the Spirit; like Zacchaeus here who received Christ into his house, he received Christ in the temple of God in a priestly way. Then he says, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation”, Luke 2: 29, 30. He praised God, he worshipped, his hands were filled, he was before God in the temple of God in all the acceptability of Christ. Zacchaeus’ house is not the temple of God, but He receives the Son of God into that house and then there is joy. There is nothing so lacking among the people of God as joy, and I believe the reason is that we are not regulated by the Lord. He says to Zacchaeus, “Come down”, and Zacchaeus came down and received him joyfully. Then the Lord gives him his status, He says “he also is a son of Abraham”. Perhaps you think that is not saying very much. Is it not? It is the most dignified genealogy that I know of. Abraham is the heir of the world. Everyone who has got heirship has got it on the principle of [p. 78] faith, the children of faith are the children of Abraham. I referred to the priest to show you that as you are regulated by the word of Christ you come into priesthood; He comes into your house and then you are knighted, and the greatness of your genealogy makes you suitable. Zacchaeus is constituted a priest and is regulated by the true High Priest; as a priest his genealogy is recognized, he is a son of Abraham.
That is the substance of what I had before me, I commend it to you. You cannot have things right in the assembly unless they are right in the households of God’s people. The gospel adjusts man’s place in that connection. Eternal salvation is a great thing, but I am thinking of our position here in regard of testimony. The gospel qualifies you for that. May the Lord give us grace, power and intelligence, for the gospel adjusts one in regard of all these.