THE HOUSE OF GOD (2)
[p. 494] THE HOUSE OF GOD (2)
John 8: 31 - 36; John 12: 1 - 3
JT It will be understood that these passages have been suggested because we have in them the idea of the house. Chapter 8 suggests the Son’s relation to the house, that He abides in it for ever. These references are not accidental; they run, as we should expect, through the gospel, culminating in chapter 20; they are not therefore promiscuous, they are links in a chain and we may assume they are the teaching of the gospels throughout. In other words the house developed in this gospel involves the work of God in men’s souls. Chapter 2 clears the ground for that work, and we may see that the work of God, as seen in these intervening chapters, involves energy. The idea of energy is strikingly illustrated in the Old Testament in Jacob, with whom the house of God is first connected in Scripture. It is introduced in Genesis 28 in connection with Jacob, and what Scripture discloses in regard to him is that he was marked by energy in displacing the man after the flesh. He took hold of his brother by the heel. At the very outset of his being on earth he took hold of his brother by the heel, and he wrestled with the angel in his strength (Hosea 12: 3, 4); he prevailed; he wept and made supplication, and then it says “he found him in Bethel”, in the house. All that corresponds with the work of God in our souls, as seen in John 3 to 7. There is instinctive energy at the outset in one who is born anew. A babe just born is not governed by his own will or thought, what he does is according to those instincts present in early life. Jacob later wrestled with God in his strength. He was intelligent then as to what he was doing. He made supplication, and was found in Bethel; so we may see in these intervening chapters the energy of life in the believer leading him into the house, leading him into correspondence with the house.
JF Is the house where every divine thought is treasured?
JT Yes, where God’s things are treasured. A man’s house is that in which he surrounds himself with what reflects his character, so that God’s house would be where all the character of God shines out; what we find here, introduced in such a remarkable way in connection with our liberation, is that the Son abides in the house for ever, so that in coming into it we are in that which abides. It is not a temporary idea. John has a way of introducing things that link us up with eternity. The Son abides there for ever.
JF Would that be in contrast to what we have in Luke? There it is what is for time.
JT Yes, it is a provisional thought in Luke in which God expresses His grace for those disciples. John has the family in view and it goes into eternity. In Matthew you have more of the house than in any other of the gospels. He gives more references to the Lord acting in the house and serving in the house in various connections, than does any of the other evangelists, because the Holy Spirit wishes to set out there that the house is that in which divine administration is presented to us. Matthew gives you the householder. Matthew uses the word “householder” several times because his thought is we should be householders having in our treasure things new and old.
S This house is composed of all believers.
JT Viewed from the Pauline side it is “whose house are we”. John is dealing with the thing abstractly. You have to see it in relation to Christ — the Father and the Son.
JF Is the Spirit given in chapter 4 so that apprehension of divine operations may be given to the soul? The Samaritans there realized that the Lord was the Saviour of the world.
JT The Holy Spirit in chapter 4 corresponds with the light of the gospel in chapter 3: “God so loved the world .”, verses 16, 17. That is the divine side. Chapter 4 indicates that men have come to the apprehension of that, and that could only be by the Spirit. The presence of the Spirit as seen in chapter 4 is of great importance as regards energy, both of affection and intelligence. They come and see Him themselves. The woman had spoken to the [p. 496] Samaritans about Him, but now they say, “We have heard him ourselves”, and they came to apprehend Him as the Saviour of the world.
CCE Freedom is connected with the house here.
JT That is the outcome of what was built up in the previous chapters. You are prepared for this now, do you not think?
JN In what way are we prepared for it?
JT Because of the ministry of chapters 3, 5, 6 and 7. That is to say the question of life has to be solved in our souls.
JS Chapter 5 speaks of quickening by the Father and the Son.
JT It is divine Persons quickening there, quickening that we may live with Christ.
JF John deals with the first tree in the garden, the tree of life, not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
JT The suggestion of Jacob helps because energy in the believer culminates in the house according to the type in Jacob. You remember the passage in Hosea 12.
WW You read of the Lord speaking to the Jews, “If ye abide in my word, ye are truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free”. That seems to be the link that connects us with the Son.
JT The truth is liberating us in detail.
WW I was thinking of those that believed on Him. It says, “If ye abide in my word”. So that if the Lord speaks to believers it is to bring out what is according to this and for them to “know the truth”.
JT It is well for young believers to make an introspective examination and see how much spiritual instinct there has been in disallowing what is natural. We cannot carry our natural feelings and affections into the house of God. The believer at the very outset is marked by certain instincts, very indefinite it may be at the outset, but nevertheless they are there and they increase so that Jacob in his strength wrestled with God. You come to a point where you see the need of another power, the need of the Spirit. You see the need of another power because the obstacles are very real [p. 497] and have to be overcome, so that Jacob prevailed and obtained by his energy what he sought.
JS So chapter 6 will adjust the obstacles, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing”.
JT Chapter 4 is the beginning of that as to power. The Lord brings in the thought of the water. He says, “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”. And then He says, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. So that we have there the definite suggestion of energy springing up. It is an outflow in power, not merely in light but power for deliverance from the world of lust, from the world of death. One is brought into another order of things in the springing up into everlasting life.
JF I suppose they crossed the Jordan in the power of the new spring they obtained in the wilderness.
JT There was a definite object before their souls in the ark, but they crossed it by power. Typically we do not cross the Jordan except in the power of the Spirit.
CCE How does chapter 7 come in? That is an energetic outflow.
JT That is Jesus glorified. It is a most instructive gospel. It is on the line of energy or life; chapter 4 is from the side of giving, and chapter 7 from the side of reception. “This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive”, John 7: 39. You have received something definitely, and then it says, “For the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”, verse 39. So that at the end of that chapter Jesus went to the mount of Olives, and I think that dominates chapter 8. He comes in from the mount of Olives to the temple, and he brings in the light of grace in dealing with the wicked woman.
WW What about the energy connected with the food as in chapter 6?
JT That is the constitution you have. The believer is built up in a definite constitution in life. He is no longer in a varied state, as we say, up hill and down dale. It is [p. 498] according to God in the eating of the bread that came down from heaven. I doubt if very many believers have come to chapter 6 and hence the varied experience. It is by eating food that we become satisfied spiritually. You have a definite constitution which can stand up against things and you are available now for the Spirit in testimony. It is a flowing out in chapter 7.
JF “Grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”, John 1: 17.
JT I think chapter 7 would correspond with what we get in chapter 1 in that way. “Grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”. The law was brought before her in the beginning of chapter 8; they would deal with her on that line, but the Lord was full of grace, not at the expense of truth, but full of grace and truth. Grace is in the forgiving of the woman, truth is in the writing on the ground. Truth must be accurate, hence the writing.
WW Say a word about the writing. Moses wrote on the stone, and the Lord writes on the ground.
JT The ground is death, the Lord’s own death.
JF Is the writing the full expression of God in love?
JT The first writing puts the accusers out and the second writing retains the woman. She can be forgiven on the ground of that. She is really retained for the house. It is a wonderful expression of the grace that subsisted in Christ, expressed in all circumstances. When we see that He came in from the mount of Olives we can see the bearing of it more because this chapter contemplates the house connected with the Son.
AAE What is your thought with regard to the mount of Olives?
JT It stands for the Spirit, the very term Olivet suggests the Spirit. Chapter 7 is the climax of the truth of the Spirit, where the believer has Him and the rivers are flowing out, but all that is consequent on Christ’s place on high; He is on high in relation to the Spirit. Coming in from Olivet means He comes in in relation to the Spirit and it is in that connection that the house is brought in. In chapter 8 the Son is known [p. 499] in it.
AAE Would the mount of Olives also be in contrast to Sinai?
JT It stands in that connection.
JS What is the significance in the receiving of the Spirit being connected with the last, the great day of the feast?
JT I think it is that it was the feast of the Jews. It is not tabernacles in the typical sense. It is to bring out the supremacy of Christ, not only His greatness but the greatness of a believer on Him; the believer in Christ is greater than any priest they had. We have little conception of the magnitude of the presence of the Holy Spirit here in a believer who is built up according to these chapters. What a vessel God has in him, in a man.
JF Do you think the energy of the Spirit practically sets us free so that we might be in the house as sons? I was thinking of the man bound to his bed for thirty-eight years. Liberation by the Spirit, as in chapter 4, would release him from that bondage.
JT There is not only the Spirit contemplated in chapters 6 and 7; there is the word, the word of Christ, and then His death, the death of One come down from heaven, giving His life for the world; chapter 7 brings out that the Lord was a stranger to his brethren and an alien to his mother’s children. That is found in the psalm from which the passage is quoted in chapter 2, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up”. We have to face the rejection of our nearest kin. Flesh profits nothing. His brethren did not believe on Him. It shows how utterly unreliable the flesh is; even in the nearest relative you cannot rely on it.
CRB It says “every one went to his home. But Jesus went to the mount of Olives”.
FF “The Son shall make you free”. How do you connect that with the Spirit?
JT The Spirit is the underlying principle of all this, the application of the truth. The truth shall make you free. It is dependent upon the presence of the Spirit and so the thought of the Son in the house is dependent upon the Spirit.
JS His brethren were not prepared then to accept the [p. 500] truth that they were in bondage. We have to be prepared to accept the truth that we are in bondage, in order that we can be set free.
JT The truth setting him free is negative. It disconnects you in your conscience from what is not according to the house.
JS Does it correspond with “Loose him and let him go”?
JT Somewhat, only the truth has to become operative in your own soul, and the truth enters into detail. The Son sets us free in a positive way in His house in His own sphere. What is going on today is, “Send out thy light and thy truth”, Psalm 43: 3. That may come in as the Son in the house. “Send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to they tabernacles”. What is going on is t he far reaching effect of the light and the truth. Light and truth are abstract things; they are very potent in the way of delivering us from things that are dark and contrary to the house of God. The Son is not abstract; He is a Person. He is in the house. There are many who may get the benefit of the fight and the truth, and some do not move with the light and the truth. They may see it where they are. The idea is to guide the soul unto God’s holy hill and God’s tabernacle, and there you find the Son.
FF Does this answer to “Come and see”?
JT That is the principle throughout.
JN The Son sets you free from every contrary thing.
JT The truth does that. What the Son does is an abstract thing, setting you free in the house. The effect of the truth is to disengage you through your conscience from what is contrary to God. The truth is very far reaching, it extends universally and the light too.
JF Is that why Jacob had to bury the idols?
JT The truth was operating in Jacob throughout. It was the action of truth and light on his soul. His coming into the house is another matter. God found him in Bethel, and there he had to do with the Person (Genesis 35).
CCE It is connected with a free system of affection. The Son sets you [p. 501] free.
JT The truth is more negative. It reaches me wherever I am, but the Son brings me into the circle of affection.
WW Is the house at Bethany the positive side?
JT The thought one had was that it was filled. It was filled with the odour of the ointment, and there again we have to take account of the teaching of the intervening chapters. The man of chapter 9 is set free by the Son. The light and the truth had been operating on his soul, the fight had touched his eyes. The Lord had put mud on his eyes, and said “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam”. Now is he going to move? That is the question, is he going to be governed by the word? As the chapter shows he does not know who the Person is, but he had a certain impulse in his soul to act on the word. We do not come into the good of the truth unless there is movement with it, and so chapter 9 gives us the effect of the light on a man’s soul; until he is cast out, and when Jesus heard that they had cast him out, He found him, and He asks him “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?”
JF That is how he found the pool by the king’s garden as in Nehemiah. I was thinking of the king’s garden where the flowers, the lilies, were growing.
JT Open that up a little.
JF When he received sight he saw that which was for God.
JT The Lord finds him. The light and the truth had become effective. They lead to his complete disentanglement, in a very humiliating way, of course, because he did not leave them; they cast him out. That shows how the light and the truth of God acting on a man’s soul will lead to his excommunication from the current religion of the world. They cast him out and then the Lord comes in. When the Lord heard that they had cast him out He finds him. I think the one great thought connected with the Son of God is that He deals with each of us personally, as in Matthew 17, “me and thee”, It is the Son of God dealing with an outcast.
FE Would you say every soul has to go through that experience? None of us [p. 502] are exempt.
JT We become the outcast if we are true to the light and the truth.
JF Is that because in these systems they have no place for such a man? Human religion does not provide for such a man as this, neither for the Lord nor for the man governed by the light that is seen in Him. The Son of God and an outcast. When the Lord heard he was an outcast He found him; He setteth the solitary in families. He is now to be set in the family, that is the only exchange that is to be made.
WW Chapter 10 would give you the family.
JT It leads on to it, to the one flock. The Spirit of God takes up a new figure showing that sheep are being led out, a new figure of shepherd and sheep, because saints are to be viewed in the light of sheep and He calls them by name. How precious to be called by name. He calleth His sheep by name. He puts them forth and goes before them and calls them by name, so that one goes in and goes out and finds pasture. He is now in liberty.
RB Is that the liberty of the house?
JT It is the suggestion of it. The going in involves that.
JN Does one get the victory over the world because he believes Jesus is Son of God?
JT Yes, he would be under pressure otherwise. It was a serious matter to be cast out. The Lord would not leave you under pressure. He finds you and sets you up in connection with a new system. In chapter 10 we have the good shepherd, the One who lays down his life for the sheep. He came that the sheep might have life and have it abundantly. It is to furnish the outcast and set him up in the new system.
H Say a little about calling by name.
JT It is very precious to be called by name. John makes much of the idea of name because name expresses the variety of life that is in you. It says of those in the upper room that the number of names together was about an hundred and twenty, Acts 1: 15. Everyone was called by the Lord by his name, which expressed in each the variety of life.
JS That is the name you have in the book of life.
JN [p. 503] He would make you conscious he has something to say to you.
CCE It is His name for you.
JT It is precious that the Lord should speak to you by name. You are to show the variety of life your name expresses. It is the name He gives you. The gospel begins with that. He looked on Peter, you remember in chapter 1, and said, Thou shalt be called Cephas, not thou art, but shalt be called.
JF That would be a son’s glory.
JT I think the name you get from the Lord indicates the place you get in His system of things.
H Is it necessary to be called by name to be a follower?
JT It is an immense incentive to be called by name. You feel what a place you have in His heart and mind.
JS In Luke the names are recorded in heaven.
JT You have a Levitical reference.
JN Would it suggest headship? Adam gave the creatures their names.
JT He is the last Adam. Adam had such intelligence that he could name a creature by what he saw in it, and the Lord names us according to what we are.
CRB It shows He deals with us individually.
JT That is what comes out in the end of chapter 9; that the Son of God, the Creator of the universe, should be occupied with me, should find me and converse with me! The man was ready for it — built up according to the truth received in the gospel. “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe on Him? Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he”, and he worshipped Him. The truth links on with chapter 11, which is the family. Chapter 10 presents the sheep, in the 11th you have persons that the Lord Jesus loved, in family relationships.
CCE You refer to the family of Lazarus and Martha and Mary.
JN Would Bethany be the house coming into view?
JT Now you see it in connection with the family. In chapter 8 you have the Son in it.
JN Outside the world’s religious system.
[p. 504] WW Is it a family without a head?
JT Yes, it is now to have a head.
JF Does that not involve that the experience of death had to be gone through, but we find Him on the other side.
JT In chapter 8 the Son abides in the house for ever, but in the 11th the Son of God is to be glorified. The house is filled with His glory. He is to be glorified in my soul. In the end of chapter 9 we worship Him. There you have one that is to be in the house, but he is to be in the house in the light of the glory of the Son. “This sickness is not unto death”. All that follows is to bring in the glory of the Son of God. Hence Mary and all at Bethany are in the light of the glory of the Son of God.
JN Is Mary the only one that saw it?
JT She represents the height of the subjective position that was there. Lazarus represents the dignity of the position. They would know Him as declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. That is the demonstration that He is the Son. In chapter 9 He tells us He is the Son, in the 11th He is declared to be it by resurrection.
CCE There is a declaring of His person.
JF We are therefore now in the light of the Lord as the One Who raises the dead, and that imparts immense stability to our souls in the house. You are in the glory system.
WW Say a word about Martha serving.
JT She is serving in the light of the glory. That is the place to serve.
H Say a little of what goes before that. In order for Lazarus to be found in the house he had to be loosed from the grave-clothes, and the Lord told those about him to loose him.
JT That is a service that may be performed by us. The Lord did not take off the grave-clothes. There is much in that way we may do for one another. Lazarus is now in Bethany as a risen man. Jesus came to Bethany six days before the passover, where Lazarus was who had been dead, and whom He raised from the dead; He is now coming to [p. 505] give occasion for the display of what is there. Where a subjective effect has been produced, His presence always brings out what there may be, much or little, amongst His people.
JF Would you say that they were like the train in Isaiah 6, they filled the temple.
JT I think they were. It is a very serious matter that the Lord should come to a locality. He comes in relation to a person in it. What do you say about the Lord coming to the locality?
CCE It was very gracious and very discriminating.
WW You say coming to a locality in relation to a person?
JF You would not come to a place if there were not people to come to.
WW What about the sisters?
JT They come into line. It does not say He came in relation to them, the point is to bring out the dignity of Lazarus.
WW Is it the responsible side you are thinking of?
JT What is the effect of chapter 11 in the locality? The Lord comes in relation to what He had done already. What is He going to find in the locality?
JN Would the ointment filling the house correspond to the glory of God?
JT I think the Lord intended to bring this out. He knew what was in Bethany. He came in relation to Lazarus, because it was in Lazarus that the Son of God is glorified. He came in relation to that in which He is known to be glorified. If He finds additional things, good and well. He did here; He found Martha serving. They made Him a supper. It does not say who they were.
JS He comes into a locality to His own work.
JF In His mind they dominated the village. It was “the village of Mary and Martha her sister”.
AAE In what way would the Lord do that now?
JT He comes to localities. This is a pattern of course. I think we have to distinguish between coming to localities and coming to persons. The locality is not in view in [p. 506] chapter 11 but the persons. This chapter has reference to the locality. There is that which is known to be the fruit of His work, and then He looks for what may not as yet be known, in His own divine way. He knows what is there, and He brings out what is there.
WW When He came to the locality death had claimed the loved one.
JT It was very deliberate. It is one of the most remarkable passages in the Scripture, that the Son of God should remain away in order to let him die. He shows the deliberation with which things are done divinely. He remained two days in that place.
JN What does Mary’s act set forth in connection with this?
JT She had intelligent affection. You will observe that in chapter 11. Martha was very restless. When she heard the Lord was coming she went out to meet Him and had a good deal to say that was quite out of keeping with things as they were. Whereas Mary sat still in the house. I think that is where, in quietude and restfulness as knowing the Lord, the ointment is developed.
JS The Lord does not stand in relation to the persons but in relation to His own work in that locality.
JT Whom He raised. It brings out what they could do that He could approve and accept.
JS Our exercise should be to see where the work of God is.
JT It is not so much what He did but what they did. There they made Him a supper. They being indefinite makes room for any number. An occasion like that would give room to anyone in Bethany who had interest to contribute. They would all be taken account of.
JN Mary’s act would be part of that supper.
JT It is rather the sequel. I think it is very necessary to see the Spirit puts down that they made Him a supper, indicating that every saint in Cape Town can have a part in that. It may be very little you contribute but you can do something. “They” being indefinite leaves room for any number to have part in it. But only one had the ointment. The occasion includes everyone who has interest in Christ.
[p. 507] Everyone may have some part in this. But as things proceed and they are seated the greatest spiritual stature will soon disclose itself. It will soon be discovered who has the ointment. We are all put to the test by the visitation to the locality.
JF She has no reserve in the Lord’s presence. She took the ointment.
JT She anoints His feet.
CCE He was going to death.
JT He laid down His life of Himself. It was His own act. They did not kill Him in this gospel.
JS Do you think in that action, she is prepared to follow Him into death?
JT She is occupied with Him. Her affections are transferred from Lazarus to Christ. Lazarus is not the supreme object with Mary now. He has his place at the table. It is to be specially noted that the “they” opens the door for every person in the town or village to prepare.
CCE What do they prepare?
Rem They prepared a supper for Christ; it is a season of delight.
JT After toil we sit down in restfulness with the Lord, and we have something. The Old Testament types help us as to what to value spiritually. The ointment I suppose is the outcome of a great spiritual stature, like the bullock in the types. There are different sizes in the offerings. The question is whether you offer from the herd, the flocks or the fowls. Any one is accepted, whether he offers a turtledove, or a sheep or a bullock, but the man who offers the bullock has more for the occasion than anyone.
B Is this a collective thing? Have you any particular time on your mind such as the Lord’s supper?
JT No, it is not the Lord’s supper. It is what you make. The Lord’s supper is what He makes.
H The anointing is individual.
JT It is suggestive of the stature. The greatest spiritually will soon come to light in the Lord’s presence.
JF Is this the climax of the teaching on one line?
JT We have arrived at the truth of the house as it may [p. 508] appear in any locality. Although the house is individually connected with the locality it is a universal thought, but it may be seen in this character in a locality.
CRB To what occasion would this apply now?
JT Any occasion for which the saints may be free to retire to the Lord. There they made Him a supper. Whenever He comes you give Him a supper. He gives you an opportunity when you are ready for it. You cannot tell when He may come. He came to Bethany where Lazarus was, six days before the Passover. The thing is to be ready to bring out what there is.
JF Any meeting corresponds with this.
JT It is a question when the Lord gives you an opportunity such as an occasion like this. The Lord must give you an opportunity. They did not make a supper and invite Him. They could not determine the time. He came and they made Him a supper. He had been to Bethany many times before. When He first came to Bethany Martha opened her house, but she complained about Mary, but there is not a word about making Him a supper. It is the result of a spiritual visitation from the Lord. You may look for it but you can never tell when it will come.
OW Is it a sign of that?
JT It is the outcome of what you have. “Against the day of my burying hath she kept this”. He came before His burial, six days before it. If she had not been ready beforehand she would have deferred it for another week. She was ready for Him.
JN He puts His own interpretation upon her act.
JT The thing is to be ready to come in for the things that are indicated in the earlier chapters and have the ointment.
JN In distinguishing Him He distinguishes her.
WW The material value of the ointment was estimated at three hundred pence; what about the spiritual value?
JT The Lord alone could tell that. It filled all the house. What one person can contribute to the house of God!
H Would it be right to say the supper for Him was an appreciation of Him as the Son of God?
JT They were in the light of His glory.