THE HOUSE OF GOD (4)
[p. 521] THE HOUSE OF GOD (4)
Luke 14: 1 - 24; Luke 15: 22 - 32
JT It seems to me to be in moral order to reach divine things now through John’s gospel because John’s way of presenting the truth precludes the natural mind. His principle is that the flesh profiteth nothing. It is utterly untrustworthy and so in the wisdom of the Spirit of God, the truth is couched in such form in John’s gospel as to shut out the natural mind. The things are all there, only they have to be understood spiritually, and by the Spirit, so that when we arrive at the things themselves we may take them up intelligently as they were at the beginning. Luke contemplates the house not as it is known today, but as it was in the beginning, as that which replaces the Jewish system, so that the Lord says in the end of chapter 13, “your house is left unto you desolate”, and then in the beginning of chapter 14 we find Him going into the house. “As he went into the house of one of the rulers”, is, I think, an allusion to another house into which He was going, and the instruction that follows, I think is to enable us to see how we are to be in that which is public, for that is what is in view in these chapters, what is public on the part of God. We are to be there on the principle of invitation, and in responding to the invitation we take the lowest place. What appears at the outset as He enters the house is a dropsical man; such a man as that is not the man for the house. A dropsical man, I suppose, would be someone in whom water has had an abnormal effect.
CCE He would be very swollen up and feeble. His size does not correspond to his strength.
JF The trouble is he cannot get rid of the water.
CCE What have you spiritually before you?
JT Nothing is more useful to God than water, and it is used as a simile of what is spiritual, what refreshes and cleanses, so that if it has an abnormal effect it would have reference to ministry received in the soul but not working [p. 522] normally. We have to understand how to assimilate and use the things we have here. There is a great deal seen of what we would call the abnormal effect of ministry; it is worse than useless in the house of God, and this is what the Lord is confronted with here. He entered into the house to eat bread on the sabbath and, behold, there was a certain dropsical man before Him. Such a man needs the Lord’s special touch. It is not enough to enjoy the ministry that God graciously gives unless it has a normal effect in the soul. It only creates an obstruction in the house of God.
JS This man was an obstruction rather than a help.
JT He was before the Lord. Thank God the Lord was able to help him and disposed to help him, and did help him. The point to see is that he was not normal.
JN What was spiritually wrong with him?
JT I think that typically the ministry was not rightly assimilated.
JF Would he answer what the apostle speaks of as having received the grace of God in vain?
JT Quite, the Bereans we are told searched the Scriptures daily whether these things that were ministered were so.
JS Luke would give us the house of God, the continuous thought.
JT Their house was left unto them desolate, so He enters into another house, and this chapter gives us the principles whereby the other house which we have to do with today is to be ordered and preserved.
JS The ministry must be rightly received and rightly assimilated in order to produce the right effect.
JT Quite so.
JF Is the idea that anyone coming into the house in this aspect should act in the light of what God is doing?
JT What is in your mind about what God is doing?
JF He was going out to all these public states of soul, and would have the head of the house to act in line with God and do the same, and invite them.
JT God’s house is that which is set up here for the administration of His bounty, of the bounty of heaven, as is said in 1 Timothy. The dispensation of God, being that [p. 523] which is in His house, as the word indicates, is in faith. God is dispensing all the wealth of heaven, His bounty; that is what Luke has in his mind. Dispensation is through the house. The word dispensation has the force of things being administered in the house, housewise. Hence Luke represents the house as bearing manward. It was. The music can be heard outside and the invitation comes out officially, “that my house may be filled”. However, as we have pointed out, an inflated man may interfere with the working of the house. Thus a man in an abnormal state would not be likely to begin with the lowest room, in fact he would require much more room than he was entitled to. One great principle in the house is to keep small.
JS Would the ministry in Luke be on the line of reduction?
JT Yes.
JF You begin by being small enough to go through the eye of a needle.
JS How does the Lord begin to make this effective?
JT It says, “taking him he healed him and let him go”. It does not say, as earlier, that He delivered him to someone else. The young man in chapter 7 is delivered to his mother, meaning that he was in need of care. This man does not suggest that. One who is enlightened needs to be healed and let go. He is able to look after himself. I judge he would represent a man who was at one time right. It is recovery rather.
JS So that he might eventually find himself in chapter 15 in the best robe.
JT If the Lord lets a man go He can trust him. If He cannot trust him He will deliver him to someone else.
CCE Yes, I was just wondering how far it went. Do you refer to the recovery of the believer?
JT I think one who can be let go will find his own company. Luke tells us that later.
CCE Therefore he finds the company of the house.
JT He will find his place. If the Lord lets him go He can trust him.
FF What about him being healed on [p. 524] the sabbath?
JT The Lord did this to show that the old dispensation had gone. The house is left desolate.
JN Is it the new wine coming out?
JT Yes. How many of the Lord’s people can be let go? You have to keep your eye on most of them.
RB Timothy was set at liberty. Lazarus was let go.
JT Yes, and afterwards he was sitting at table with the Lord. The experiences are, like every part of Scripture, instructive, and as we approach the house the Spirit of God suggests a certain state of soul in those that are to form it. There may be certain operations needed but there is a state developed so that He took this man and healed him and let him go.
JN He passed through the Lord’s hands. That is very necessary today as everything around tends to inflate.
JT If a man passes through the Lord’s hand He either lets him go, or he is handed to someone else, as he must be looked after.
AAE Into whose hands is he put?
JT The Lord’s people. Later in this gospel the disciples took off their garments and put them on the colt. They did that of their own volition. They saw some defect and they would make it up.
JN Lazarus had to be attended to before he could be let go.
JF Is it not in this gospel where one is delivered to the officer until he has paid the last penny?
JT Just so.
SLeR Describe a man who is set at liberty. What is the condition of such a brother?
JT He is what you might call perfect. He has all his senses in exercise. A babe is not developed and has to be fed with milk and watched carefully, but a full grown man can order his own dish. He knows what he can assimilate and having his senses exercised he discerns between good and evil. He refuses the evil and chooses the good; that is what a man does who can be let go. But there are some who cannot choose and refuse and you have to do that for them. You have to care for the young in [p. 525] the faith.
JN Could anyone else but the Lord deal with inflation, with a dropsical man?
JT It is too great a matter to be dealt with by the saints.
WW Do you look at this man as a typical man?
JT There are many like him. The thing is to commit him to the Lord.
JN What causes the inflation?
JT Taking in things and not fully assimilating them. One who makes reserves. You say I enjoyed that, but I am not going to let it affect me in every respect. You have limits and an abnormal condition is set up. I suppose it was physical in his case.
JN Does everything around today tend to bring about inflation?
JT Quite.
WW This man would stand for the old dispensation which was unable to deal with man after the flesh. The Lord introduces something which will heal the man.
JT Great features in the preaching are first the preaching of Christ as the Administrator; the second preaching is the Christ, and the third the Son of God. Acts 2 is Christ in heaven administering the Spirit; Philip’s preaching is the Christ, and there you have works of power immediately in connection with it, meaning that the Christ can do everything, He does everything for God, and everything for man. That is seen in connection with the house. Christ can do everything and you bring all things to Him. Whatever is too hard for you, bring it to me, says Moses. The Lord is able to do everything. It is a great point to get that in the soul in regard to the house. Many things will come up which are beyond us; bring them to the Lord.
RB Is that not headship?
JT Rather He is the vessel through whom God accomplishes things; the Lord Himself does it. The woman of Samaria rightly observed that when the Christ came He should tell them everything, so that we can look to the Lord in regard to matters that are beyond us. Instead of having any desire to get rid of any brother you bring him [p. 526] to the Lord, because it would be a great hindrance that the saints should have to carry a man like this, but this passage shows that the Lord can deal with such a situation.
JF Is that why the apostle exhorts those two sisters in Philippians to have the same mind in the Lord? He would refer them to the Lord in connection with everything. He is able to put everything right.
JT Having the same mind in the Lord means that that is the only basis on which they are to be of one mind. We might be of one mind on some other ground but we are to be of one mind in subjection to the Lord. The term Lord indicates administration, but the Christ is the One who accomplishes things, does everything. Not only does He administer the bounty of heaven, but he meets every contingency, He deals with everything, and so this sign is intended to be a sort of key to the chapter that there is not to be any irregular formation from the ministry of the word. There should be a normal effect of the word. It works out in us in every connection; it is regular.
CRB We must act up to the light that God gives.
JT There are many people in christendom receiving ministry but it is not developed in them. It has not its normal result.
AAE We must not pick and choose. We must take the whole thing in its entirety, and let it operate in us.
JT The engrafted word is able to save your soul. Again, good ground is he who takes heed to the word and understands it and brings forth fruit, thirty, sixty and a hundredfold.
WP We ourselves cannot get rid of that which has inflated us, so we have to place ourselves in the Lord’s hand that He might free us from it and heal us.
JT He alone can do it.
JS The house is to be filled with those who are prepared for adjustment: “Go out into the highways”.
JT The Lord indicates in the next parable the principles that are to govern us as we approach the house. He marked how they chose out the first place and said to them, “When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not [p. 527] down in the highest room ... but ... go and sit down in the lowest room”. By placing yourself in that position you are respecting the Lord because He is over the house, as we learn in Hebrews. He has built it and is over it and in placing yourself thus in humility in the house as invited it is for Him to determine where you are to be. He has bidden others and we must allow Him His rights in the house.
WW When the dropsical man had submitted to the reduction would he not naturally take his right place?
JT Yes, he is ready for it now.
JN The Lord would imply they were all inflated.
JT They had the truth but it had not formed them.
JN Taking the higher place would be the result of inflation.
JF Do you think a man thus would take character from the Lord Himself, the One who went down.
JT I am sure that is right. He came in in the most lowly manner. It becomes very interesting as you take a place humbly in relation to the house to see how the Lord acts sovereignly, how He promotes. You learn how to make room for the brethren, it saves us from being envious because it is a question of the Lord’s rights. He may say, ‘go up higher’. You are not to look upon him with envious eyes as he goes up higher.
CCE If he does not say go up higher, you are quite content to stay where you are.
WW The etiquette of the house is to assume another better than yourself.
WP You would not seat yourself; you would wait to be seated.
JT It is most interesting to see now what He would do. He will promote according to your stature. You see in the Acts how Peter and John stand out at the outset. They went up to the temple together at the hour of prayer. They were, as it were, the best that were there, because there are degrees of comparison in the things of God, and there was nothing abnormal in their movements, they were normal. They were the best product. They were there as a testimony. In the end of Luke the disciples all go to the temple. They [p. 528] were in the temple continually praising and blessing God. They were a wonderful product of Christ’s ministry and were in grace in testimony to the Jews as to what the Lord had effected. In the Acts you find in chapter 2 Peter stands up with the eleven and speaks, and in chapter 3 Peter and John are together at the temple at the hour of prayer. They were the best of the products. They were not there arbitrarily; they were those that were suited by their formation and they could say to the lame man, “Look on us”. That was not self-occupation. They did not intend by that that they were to be the objects for the lame man. They were not to be worshipped, but they were heaven’s product. The Spirit of God could ratify that, so that the Lord had promoted them then in order that there should be a balance maintained in the house, as they were used and were sustained in their service. In chapter 4, being let go they went to their own company. As returning to their own company they would again come under the ordering of the Lord, because it is a continuous process. The house is His here and it is for Him to regulate our position; so you find all the apostles are emphasised after their return to their own company. It is not the thought of the Lord that, while some are of greater stature, they should unduly dominate the position; so that the signs were done before by the apostles, and when Barnabas comes he does not come to Peter and John especially, but lays his money at the apostles’ feet. Then you find later that Stephen is promoted. All this is in keeping with what is public. The Lord has a right to put forward the best that there is. It is in keeping with the order of the house, so that Stephen develops from the office of a deacon into the dignity of a martyr, a most honourable position because he is the first martyr. He was the best and the Lord put him forward. He is the first one to reflect heaven because his face and countenance shone like that of an angel. He came in in a very lowly way.
JS Paul was lowly.
JT You see Peter and John are not mentioned at all now. At the outset they were the best, now we have others, so that there is continual variation in the house. There is [p. 529] nothing in that way fixed, it is a question of growth and development. The Lord knows what is going on and puts forward the best. Barnabas comes into view. First Stephen and Philip and then Barnabas, and then finally there is a whole year in Antioch with Barnabas and Saul, and again you have an adjustment. There were a lot of teachers there at Antioch, but the Spirit says, “Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them”, Acts 13: 2. He knew what was there.
JF Would that be in keeping with what we have here in respect of these people? They chose out the place, but it was for the Lord to choose.
JT It was for Him to do.
CCE It is very blessed, the Lord has reserved that prerogative to Himself. He alone can do it rightly.
JT The clerical system around us disregards all this, because it is all by appointment. There man is on another principle altogether. It is not the lowliest man that becomes pope, or archbishop.
You see how the Lord would bring us back to first principles. As we arrive at the house spiritually He would lead us to see what it was publicly at the outset, and it is right He should put forward the best because it is a question of public testimony. Why should He not have the right to put forward the best? He puts forward the best because it is a question of helping man.
OW The man that is healed in Acts 3 is brought into fellowship.
JT He not only stands with Peter and John, but enters the temple leaping and walking and praising God.
AAE Would you distinguish between the position the Lord gives the person in the house publicly and the position a believer has in the body of Christ which is more private and inward.
JT What we have been dealing with this morning is what we are inwardly when the doors are shut.
RB Are the doors open at all?
JT Yes, this is public. The Lord is over it and it is for Him to say who is to be prominent.
WP [p. 530] The sitting down is not growth, but a waiting attitude until the Lord moves us.
JT You are at His disposal. As Barnabas came up with his money he laid it at the apostles’ feet, which meant ‘I am at the disposal of the Lord’, I and my money, and he was named by the apostles Barnabas, meaning Son of Consolation.
JN Had the inflated spirit taken possession of Ananias and Sapphira?
JT Quite.
JN They wanted a name.
JF What we had this morning was the Son shining on things; this is the public side.
JT They run together, one is inward, the other is public. You can see the moral rectitude of allowing the Lord the right to put forward whom He pleases, because He would put forward the best He has got. That is the principle of God.
JN This would be headship.
JT It is the Lord in the position of governing the house; headship enters into it.
JS David places his mighty men according to his estimate of their worth.
WS How should we recognise the one that God puts forward?
JT I am sure you will see it; the saints usually discern. The people of God are usually with God if they are in a normal position.
WS It would be dangerous otherwise.
JT As Paul and Barnabas started out, Barnabas is first. “Barnabas and Saul”. It would be noticed in Acts 13 in the list of teachers that Saul is mentioned last, and the Spirit says, “Separate me now Barnabas and Saul”, but before very long it is Paul and Barnabas.
JN In the Corinthians some were saying “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos”. They were inflated and Paul sets himself aside to bring them to their right proportion.
CCE A good deal of trouble is caused in the assembly by not recognising that changes take place in the relative [p. 531] value of brethren. Because a brother has been prominent at one time it does not say he is going to excel others at all times. The other man may outstrip him and it is surely the safest to take the place the Lord gives him.
JN Paul had to withstand Peter.
CCE Barnabas was only too glad to let Paul get in front of him, to own his superiority.
WP There seems to be a putting to a lower place as well as a higher place. Barnabas took the lower place.
JT Ananias is an example of how one could come in in an abnormal condition: he would be in the house abnormally. Then again Simon Magus in chapter 8 was one who had gone in. He wanted the distinction that the possession of the Holy Spirit would give a man, and he says, ‘I am willing to buy that’, but to have such a thought as that showed that he was in the bond of unrighteousness. Probably Philip did not discern the man was wrong, but Peter discerns it.
JF I suppose Silas proved his spiritual instinct by preferring Antioch to Jerusalem. It was whence the testimony would go forward.
JT That is very interesting. He was not governed by metropolitan feelings; he discerned what God was doing. How it honours the Lord to submit and let Him determine who is to be put forward; He knows best, and it is due to Him that the very best should be prominent.
OW Was not Moses rather slow to accept his promotion?
JT Do you mean at the beginning? It is very beautiful to see the spirit of Moses when two of the seventy that were appointed prophesied in the camp; a young man ran to Moses and told him, which young men are apt to do, and another young man, Joshua, said, “My lord Moses, forbid them”. He was a partisan. That is another thing we have to contend with. It was the Lord’s will that the seventy men should share with Moses in the ministry, and Moses says, “Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets”; because the more prophets the more light, the more there would be of God. Another gift does not take yours away, it enhances [p. 532] it.
JW The householder comes to the guest, and invites him to go up higher. Would that be on the line of a gift making room for itself?
JT No doubt, but I think that the Lord’s gift does make room for him. What is in view here is the Lord’s right in putting forward.
JW That is sovereign right. But he that bade thee and him may say, Give this man place.
JT Both have been invited. That is sovereignty, but after this invitation there is discrimination. If the Lord puts you higher than me, it is because in His perfect wisdom He knows you are fit for that. There is another thing that He immediately notices and that is that we must not use personal preferences in the house of God. He says, “When thou makest ... a supper, call not ... rich neighbours ... call the poor ... and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just”. This is another important point, that we should not use personal preferences.
WS We should not be partial.
JT Quite. A great deal of damage is done by personal friendships in the house.
JF The resurrection of the just has reference to the world to come, when the effects of the house will be seen universally. That should be before us in all that we do.
JT Leave your recompense to the Lord. So the Lord speaking of all these things would convey to one that is present the thought that it would be a very blessed thing to eat in the kingdom of God. For God has said virtually thus is how things are to be there. “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God”. There was one person who understood what the Lord was doing.
JF Had he not the savour of it?
JT Yes. He saw that the Lord was here forming it. In Luke, it is the kingdom of God, and these principles that He was setting out involved that it would be very blessed to eat bread in God’s kingdom.
JF Did not the Lord answer that by saying, ‘It is so great that there is room for you in it’?
JT [p. 533] He opens out what the kingdom is by the parable of the great supper. The previous instructions would mean that any of us who entertain should convey the sense that it is the kingdom of God — it is not a social matter — that my table corresponds to the kingdom of God.
It is blessed to eat in the kingdom of God. There are not personal preferences in the kingdom of God. God acts without respect of persons and the believer’s board should be like that. When you sit down at it you should feel you are eating in the kingdom of God. God’s principles rule here.
JF So that the host would suggest God to the guest?
FF When thou makest a feast, would that be a special occasion?
JT The Lord shows how you are to act and in that way you act like God.
WP We acknowledge God’s authority over us.
JT If you act like God. As David says, “that I may show the kindness of God unto him”. The passage means that God’s kingdom is known in His house. The supper is in the house. It is really the celebration of righteousness. Righteousness has been accomplished through the death of Christ and the Holy Spirit coming in shows that God is celebrating and He invites universally. It is a wonderful conception.
JF It is a wonderful conception, and do you not think the guests would act like Christ by going down?
JT The man that heard the Lord and understood Him and said, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God” gave the Lord the opportunity of opening up the supper in God’s kingdom, so that now we have the house in its world-wide aspect. The invitation began with the Jews and they refused, and it goes out wider so “that my house may be filled”.
JS According to Luke the house would be subservient to the kingdom.
JT I think that is the way it stands. The kingdom is a wider idea, but it is there too. When we come to chapter 15 we have the kind of people that are in it, and the joy that is in [p. 534] it.
JS The Lord unfolds the idea of one coming to the supper in chapter 15.
JT It is from the standpoint of the kind of people that are there permanently, and of the elder brother’s fault finding with God’s celebration. It is a public institution, because he comes up and hears the music and the dancing. It is within his range, a public matter, grace brought it there. The father came out and entreated him to come in.
JF There is a worse state here than dropsy.
JT The Jew is not curable from this standpoint at all. He is outside, he is in the field. That is a serious place to be in; if we bring in the types he is exposed, because a murder happened there. It is the Jew in the position in which he is exposed to the judgment of the man-slayer, at the hand of the avenger of blood.
JN The spirit of inflation led him there.
JT In the next chapter he is in the lake of fire, he is in torment.
CCE The music and the dancing should be heard today.
JT That is the thing, so that our meetings are public in that respect, we are not private. Things are going on and anyone can discern if there is music and dancing, so that it is for him to say whether he is going in or not. The elder brother would not go in. His will was active in it.
Rem The wealth and blessedness of heaven are brought within the range of man.
JN Here and now, in the house?
JT Quite.