THE HOUSE OF GOD AND OUR APPROACH TO IT
[p. 57] THE HOUSE OF GOD AND OUR APPROACH TO IT
1 Timothy 3:14, 15; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 1 Corinthians 15: 48
The last passage read is specially in my mind, and I desire to weave it, so to speak, into the two verses in Timothy to show that we have to reach the house of God, as it were, via heaven, or in other words, by the epistle written to the Ephesians and, parallel with that, with what may be called “the upper regions”, we have to approach the house through the letter to the Romans; and finally, in view of the altered conditions of our own time, to take account, in approaching the house, of the second letter to Timothy. These epistles, not indeed excluding others, but these epistles particularly, have to be considered by the saints if we are to be in the house of God according to God, if we are to behave ourselves in it. Speaking of these epistles in that way, I desire also to include certain brief sections of the Old Testament, for as Paul says to Timothy in view of our day, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works”. I mention that so that I may carry the sympathies of my brethren in referring to the Old Testament. We must be on our guard as to the authority and value of the Old Testament. If it is weakened in our minds, Satan gains an advantage and will succeed in undermining the power and authority of the New. Scripture is one whole and must be held together. It is the heritage of the saints and particularly of the man of God.
In touching thus on the heavenly in referring to Ephesians I refer for a moment to the book of Numbers.
[p. 58] The book of Exodus required that the people should supply the blue. It was among the many things that were requested as a heave offering; that is, an offering of love, as one may say, from the people of God. It is evident, therefore, that at the outset God looked for the heavenly element as a contribution from each of us; but Exodus says little or nothing as to the use made of the blue in anything external or public. When we come to Numbers, which is the book of order and testimony, public testimony, then the blue is requisitioned and brought into use for testimony. We may notice that when the Kohathites were to bear the ark, when the tabernacle was to be taken down and movement was to be undertaken, the priests, Aaron and his sons, were to take the ark and cover it over with the veil, and over that the badger skins, and finally the covering of blue. We refer to it with the deepest reverence as a symbol of our Lord Jesus in His public service in this world, leading up to death, but when we come to the second sanctuary; that is, the table of shewbread and the candlestick, the covering of blue was immediately over them, the badger skins, among other things, covering all; that is, the things that have reference to the service of the Lord’s people have the blue underneath. If not apparent publicly, yet it is in existence.
Now God looks for the blue, for “as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly”. For the moment, externally; we bear the image of the earthy, but presently we shall bear the image of the heavenly. It suggests that the truth of the epistle to Ephesians underlies the letter to Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 15 from which I read we have the blue mentioned, “as is the heavenly” but Ephesians develops the thought of it. I desire to make clear that the saints are heavenly, and that it is in the light of this that we are to be here, having our part in and conducting [p. 59] ourselves according to God in the house of God. The Lord was in every way heavenly, as He said, “Even the Son of man who is in heaven”. We are heavenly by association with Him, and through the work of God; but all that is, so to speak, underneath, but the point for each is to see to it that it is there.
Now if I approach 1 Corinthians via Romans, I am concerned about righteousness; that is, I am a board in the tabernacle. The shittim wood was for the wilderness, and the truth of it is developed from the Ark in Romans 3 to the saint in chapter 7, who is delighting in the law of God after the inward man. The Lord Jesus said, “Yea, thy law is within my heart”, and from that is formed the character of the man of Romans 7, and such an one as that is a board in the sanctuary. So in the next chapter he receives the Holy Spirit and in chapter 12 he is seen in relation to others as “one body in Christ”, not of the body of Christ yet, but one body in Christ. In that regard he is to stand up here according to the endurance and patience which marked the Lord, and he stands up in relation to his brethren. It is a great thing to keep rank; that was a lesson taught in Egypt; they went out of Egypt harnessed; they were taught in a military way to keep rank, but it is a much greater thing to know how to stand up with the saints as “in Christ”. All our difficulties with one another are because of our spiritual inability to take account of each other as in Christ. If I take account of my brethren in Christ I shall use no harsh words about them, I shall not find fault with them. We have to take account of one another according to the measure of faith which God has dealt. That is the principle of Christianity brought in in the chapter, I stand up with my brethren, but I stand up with them according to the measure of faith which God has dealt to each, not to me alone, but to each. I am not the only one God is thinking of, nor is any one of us. According [p. 60] as God has dealt to each a measure of faith; that is, the principle of sovereignty comes in in this chapter. I have to take account of myself in regard of my measure, but then I have to take account of all the brethren in regard of their measure, then to stand up with them, for when the boards are mentioned, the first item is that they stand up. I stand up with them: “Delighting in the law of God”. The outward perishes, whatever it be; what I am physically and naturally, all perishes. I have to take account of the saints according to what they are inwardly. It is said of Christ, “I delight to do thy will O my God”, Psalm 40: 8. Romans 7 tells us that a true saint “delights in the law of God after the inward man”. The next chapter tells us such a one as that is not in the flesh but in the Spirit, a great fact of which to take account. “Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that God’s Spirit dwells in you”. We take account of each other according to what we are inwardly; that is the heavenly.
Now I would refer to the words of Balaam, and to Balak’s effort to get him to see only part of the saints, that he might thus be induced to curse them. Beware of only taking account of part of the saints. If they are not all available to you, remember that the Lord knows them, and if I get near to Christ I shall find them all in His affections and in His heart. The more I see them in relation to Christ, as they are in Christ’s affections, the more beautiful they are. Satan would occupy us with a few, it may be the few that are available to us; that was Balak’s suggestion to Balaam. But Balaam saw them all and said, “Israel shall dwell alone, he shall not be numbered among the nations”, Numbers 23: 9. And who are Israel? The twelve tribes! The whole twelve; Jerusalem is the city whither the tribes go up, they go up for a testimony in Israel. I see them all. Let us not have a partial view, dear brethren; it is an advantage [p. 61] to the enemy if we are occupied with a partial view, and so the apostle says, “Our whole twelve tribes”. The saints, dear brethren, are ours, and affection only delights in that, “our whole twelve tribes”. What about them? “Serving God instantly night and day”. Hence faith and affection clothe the saints with divine thoughts. We take account of them, those who are available, in regard of the whole, otherwise we are partial. We cannot afford to lose one; the nearer we are to Christ, the more we claim the brethren, the more closely we cling to the brethren, the more we save them according to our ability. They are precious, and we view them “in the vision of the Almighty”, in divine beauty and loveliness and order and dignity. “As the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters”, Numbers 23.
So when we come to Romans 12, indeed in the end of chapter 8, Balaam’s prophecies are alluded to. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” I hesitate to lay anything to the charge of the brethren. It is a serious thing to do. Have I convicted them before all? Beware of laying anything to their charge! Who shall do it? And then he again says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Then follows his wonderful persuasion that separation is impossible. Separation “from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus?” No! Separation from the world? Yes! “For Israel shall dwell alone, he shall not be numbered among the nations”; but separation from Christ and God? Never! Such are the saints, beloved brethren, in Romans. And so in chapter 12 the saint’s body is living. In chapter 8 it is dead on account of sin, but in chapter 12 it is living because of the Holy Spirit in it. Hence it is to be presented to God a living sacrifice, a living one, “holy and acceptable unto God, which is our intelligent service”. Such is the position in Romans,
[p. 62] so that in that way there is brought to the door of the tabernacle material which God can use; the boards are set up and they are set up in Christ. We are “one body in Christ”.
You recall that the boards were held together by five bars. We cling to each other in weakness, dear brethren, for our position is that of weakness; that is what marks the tabernacle outwardly, whereas inwardly the ark was the strength of God. But we cling to one another if we love one another. We cannot do without the brethren, so we are held together in that way; but there is one bar which runs from end to end in support and encouragement, the Holy Spirit in us holds us together in Christ. The Lord kept His own while He was here. Of course it is for us to recognise the obligation resting upon us to hold together in Christ. “In Christ” is the dignity of the position; flesh has no place in it; we stand up together in Christ.
Now that is Romans, and in approaching the house from that point of view the saints are kept on the line of righteousness. They have to follow righteousness and that leads us for a moment to 2 Timothy 2. The next thing is faith; if I follow faith I come to the blue. If the practice of righteousness narrows me down here, as it does, I have to dwell alone, individually like Jeremiah. “I sat alone”, he says. If the practice of righteousness reduces us outwardly, the presence of faith leads us into what is infinitely great, for faith expands us. “By faith we apprehend”, says the apostle, “that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear”. It is a question of God’s mind. But then faith sees God in that. Faith sees Christ as the Head of a new moral system, and if I follow faith I am not narrowed. I may be outwardly, but I am really enlarged, I am expanded in my view. I see not only myself but all [p. 63] the saints linked up with Christ; I see domains of blessing and glory opened up if I follow faith. If I limit myself in righteousness, then I become narrow, but if I follow faith as well as righteousness, I see the domains of Christ opened up to me. I see Christ and the assembly, and as the apostle says, “For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in heaven and on earth is named”. But this needs power, so in the presence of faith you are led to pray. I would urge that upon you.
Let us in the presence of faith, dear brethren, continue in prayer. Prayer gives us power, faith brings in love. If I follow faith I am expanded in my mind, in my intelligence, but I need power, otherwise my heart will not travel with my mind. So he prays that the Father may strengthen them with might by His Spirit in the inner man: it is the inner man again. It comes out in Numbers, the inner man, the blue, that Christ might dwell by faith in your hearts.
How is it with us, dear brethren, with regard to faith? Are we living in the presence of all that vast expanse of glory and blessing that God has set up in Christ? It is most beautiful! But then it is not only that we have the light of it; we are to have Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, not now exactly as He was here, but the Christ, that is Christ in relation to all that domain; “That we might comprehend the breadth and length, and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fulness of God”. The prayer brings in the power. But then I have to follow love. I believe that it is in this way we reach the house of God according to Ephesians. In following love, whom am I to love? Those that are available? No; the apostle loved all the saints. Surely I love those that are available and those who [p. 64] are available are too few to spare any; love clings to those who are available, but love clings to them according to righteousness and faith, not according to the flesh So that in following love I have before me that vast domain filled with living persons, for we cannot think of a vacuum or void in that scene! Christ fills it; but He fills it with intelligent persons who love Him, so that we follow love in the light of all that is before Christ. And that really answers to being filled unto all the fulness of God, for “he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him”. How wonderful that position! And then finally we have “peace”. We desire peace under those conditions and only under those conditions. The Christian instinctively loves peace, and I love to think of the Lord Jesus as the true “Solomon” “the greater than Solomon”, “the Prince of Peace”! And we find it I believe, in this order, as we follow the things that are spoken of in 2 Timothy.
I have sought to show how, on the one hand, we are kept in the way of Ephesians, so that we come out in the house of God, the assembly of God, by the way of Ephesians, and on the other hand by the way of Romans.
Referring again to Numbers 15, the people were required to have the riband of blue on the borders of their garments and this was to be a sign of remembrance that they kept the commandments of the Lord. Now I connect that with the first letter to the Corinthians, that they kept the commandments of the Lord. Do not let us allow for one instant that any of the commandments of the Lord which the Lord has given are to be given up. “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me”. And so the blue on the garments reminds us of that. Numbers 15:37 - 40 make that very clear; study those verses. The riband of blue should be the indication that we belong to heaven. All [p. 65] inside is blue according to the type earlier in the book in chapter 4. But now on the fringe, on the border of the garment, there is to be a witness that the commandments of the Lord are to be kept. Where does the principle of keeping divine commandments come from? It comes from heaven; not an earth-born product, but a heaven-born one. It came out in Christ, as He taught, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”, Matthew 6: 10. Thus all belongs to heaven. What is the test as to coming out here in the assembly in a heavenly fashion? You keep the commandments of God. How it is done is another matter. The heavenly man should not be at a loss in that respect, but the commandments stand, as the Lord said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away”. We must, therefore, dear brethren, as a heavenly people, see to it that we do not forget the “riband of blue”, and as we look upon it, not only Remember the commandments, but do them.
Now all this is included in our conduct in “the house of God”. The apostle was urgent about it: “If I delay, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God”. Am I concerned about that? If I am heavenly I am. The point was urgent; the apostle could not possibly wait for a visit to Timothy, others were to know also. Let us accept its urgency today, that we may know how to behave ourselves in the house of God; for that we must approach it by Ephesians, by Romans, and by 2 Timothy. The house exists while the Holy Spirit is here, the saints are the house of God; it is not in evidence in a public way, but it is available, and it exists in spiritual reality. “Whose house are ye”, says the apostle elsewhere, and here, “the assembly of the living God”. We have to distinguish between the two. The assembly is where the wisdom and order of God are seen, “... that now unto the principalities and powers ...
[p. 66] might be known ... the manifold wisdom of God”. The house of God is the place of affections. The assembly is where God’s mind is displayed. Shall we give that up because of the conditions of our days? Not while the Holy Spirit is here. The assembly where God’s all varied wisdom is displayed, is in a public way “the pillar and base of the truth”, 1 Timothy 3: 15.
These great facts remain, and it is for each one of us, dear brethren, to follow them out practically and to know how to conduct ourselves. When Timothy received the first letter he would take account of everything on the line of it; when he got the second letter he would take account of everything in the changed conditions on the line of that; it was the last word, and everything has to be viewed from the standpoint of the last communication. Does not the Lord know better than we. He inspired the letter and it was sent by the apostle to his beloved child Timothy that he might know how to conduct himself in the altered conditions in which he found himself when the second letter arrived. Let us not assume to be wiser than God. God had the second letter written as well as the first, and the man of God takes advantage of each to the glory of God.
I think it is very interesting to see, in our humble and obscure way, that when we return to divine principles we find they are perfectly workable. There are no circumstances or difficulties in which the saints may find themselves in this world where assembly principles cannot be applied and made to work. We have seen cases where meetings have been broken up, and the break-up has continued for years. It is tantamount to acknowledging that assembly principles are not applicable, whereas they are always applicable. There are no circumstances to which they cannot be applied.