GOD DWELLING
[p. 166] GOD DWELLING
1 Timothy 2:3; 1 Timothy 2:14,15
I want to lead you, if I may, a point farther than we went in the previous lecture, and to show you what of necessity follows upon or accompanies the establishment of the kingdom.
First let me say that I think the great thing for saints at this moment is to be an apprehension of the world to come: it will tend to deliver them from a great many things. No one ever got deliverance from the present world except by the apprehension of the world to come. Moses got deliverance from the present world by the apprehension, so far as it could then be apprehended, of the world to come. He had as fair a prospect in regard to this world as most men could have; but he gave up the present world, because God gave him a ray of light in regard to the world to come. He rejected the world, and the powers of the world, and preferred the reproach of Christ, esteeming it greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. The reproach of Christ has reference to the world to come; I do not mean to say that in the world to come Christ will be in reproach, but I think it stands in that relation. Christ would not take any place in connection with the system of this world; if He had, there would not have been reproach: it was because He would not accept this world, or its prince, that He came into reproach. I think the world to come was early in view, and it is the light of that world that has determined the path of God’s people in this world. Abraham had the light of the world to come. I have no doubt that the promise to Abraham implied eternal life: it was the light which God gave him in regard to the world to come that determined his pathway in this world. This is a principle that is seen throughout the whole [p. 167] of Scripture. The moment sin came into the world, this world was spoilt for God. It was impossible to repair the world, because man could not be repaired; but God had in mind another Man and another world, all to be brought to light in due time. I reject the principle of free criticism of Scripture, because you cannot apply principles of criticism which belong to the literature of this world to a book which is occupied with the world to come. I believe there is hardly a thing related to us in Scripture except in its bearing on the world to come: it may be more or less difficult sometimes to see the bearing; none the less, I do not doubt the fact.
I was dwelling in the previous lecture upon what I may call the first principle of the world to come — the kingdom; now I am going to take up another point — the house. This follows upon the kingdom. If God rules, it involves that He dwells — God is not content with ruling: He dwells; and He dwells in order that He may bless. The kingdom does not in itself bring the blessing in: it paves the way for blessing; but the necessary accompaniment of ruling is dwelling. And then grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. God has established the reign of grace; but the great end in view is the blessing — eternal life. God intends to make manifest the greatness of His triumph over everything which the devil has brought in, hence the introduction of the blessing, that is eternal life. It is a pleasure to me to see the moral relations of divine things; to learn that everything has a proportion of its own, and every truth stands in relation to some other truth. There is no such thing as truths; there is such a thing as truth. You may see truth in part or in detail; but at the same time truth is one complete whole.
I refer for a moment to the epistle to the Hebrews to substantiate what I have said as to the world to come. That book gives us every feature of the world [p. 168] to come, and brings these features before us in connection with the present. The very expression “the world to come” might make people look on to the future; but the world to come is brought into presence. The difference is whether you look at things dispensationally or morally. The bulk of Christians are hindered by looking at things dispensationally; if you do, you are still virtually in the time of law and prophets. The world to come is not yet displayed, and therefore you could not say the kingdom, or the world to come, has come to pass dispensationally. God has not yet seen fit to change the order of things in the world, nor has He brought into display the world to come; but if you look at things morally, all is present. The Holy Spirit has come down here until things are brought out dispensationally, in order to give us power to look at things morally: then everything is present, and is made good to us in divine power. A great many of us have been hindered by the disposition to look too much at things dispensationally. Peter and James and John, in the mount of Transfiguration, had to look at things morally; they saw the kingdom, but when they came down from the mount, they found things below as bad as ever they were; things were not changed in the world; but they had seen a great sight on the mount: they had been permitted to see the kingdom. The account that Peter gives of the vision in his second epistle is essentially moral in character.
Now I just want to show you some principles of the world to come as seen in Hebrews. In the first chapter we get the throne, in the second, the glory of Christ; in the third, the house of God and the Spirit, in the fourth, God’s rest; in the fifth, the calling of the High Priest; in the seventh, our approach to God; in the eighth, the minister of the sanctuary and the mediator of the covenant; in the ninth, perfect purgation, and in the tenth, sanctification, so that we have [p. 169] boldness to enter into the holiest. Every one of these is a principle of the world to come: they will come out when that world is displayed. God is allowing the present world to grow old, to wear itself out, in order that He may in due time display the world to come. But looking at things morally, every one of the items I have enumerated is true to us now. We have the good of all, they are available for those who are able, by grace, to look at things morally.
In the first two chapters of Hebrews the point is, as we have seen, the throne, and the glory of man in Jesus; in the third, the house of God is in view, “whose house are we”, and then it immediately adds, “Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith”. You have come to the house of God, where God speaks. The kingdom is there for those who apprehend it, the house is the necessary consequence of the kingdom. You get the idea in the song of triumph in the fifteenth of Exodus, “I will prepare him an habitation”. As far as I understand it, when once a soul apprehends the kingdom of God, is brought under the sway of grace, the next thing that soul wishes to do is to serve God. I could not understand a person being truly converted without that person having a certain desire to have to say to God. In the expression, “Behold, he prayeth”, there is the anxiety to have to say to God: in principle that means, I will prepare Him an habitation. I do not think the habitation is the end: eternal life is the end; but the habitation follows upon the kingdom, and the kingdom introduces God’s habitation: God comes in to reign in order that He may dwell.
I doubt if anybody is prepared for the house of God that does not understand the kingdom. The first point on the part of God was to bring man to righteousness. God could, so to speak, very well take care of His own righteousness; but the difficulty was to bring man to righteousness: He could not have to say to him otherwise, except in judgement. In the day of [p. 170] judgement, God will certainly maintain His righteousness. Even in the millennium, there is an inside and an outside; there is an inside of blessing, and an outside of wrath: so too in the eternal state. There is the universe of bliss; but there is the lake of fire. The outside of wrath is the witness of the righteousness of God, but at the same time there are the new heavens and the new earth, in which righteousness dwells. If sin had never come in, we should probably never have heard about the righteousness of God, but the fact of sin coming in immediately raised the question of the righteousness of God. God has vindicated His own righteousness without looking to man for help in the matter; but it is a very much more difficult thing for man to come to righteousness. It is the reign of grace which brings man to righteousness; law never did, but the reign of grace makes righteousness possible to man. The moment you come under the sway of grace and know you will never come into judgement, you say to yourself, I must alter my ways; my will must no longer have place; I must walk in self-judgement. That is the way in which God brings about righteousness in regard to man. Then you get the help of the Spirit in walking here in self-judgement; consequent upon that you get peace and joy in the heart of the believer. I should say very few Christians get the full benefit of the kingdom, because they so little walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Having become a servant to righteousness, walking in self-judgement, now you are prepared to recognise the fact that God has come to dwell. If the Holy Spirit is here, God is dwelling. The Spirit has not become incarnate, but He has come here to dwell, that He may maintain the kingdom. Therefore another thing has come to pass: there must be a house, else, where is the Holy Spirit to dwell? It is impossible for the Spirit of God to dwell in the world that has rejected Christ. The Holy Spirit has come that a [p. 171] company of people down here in this world may be set apart for God.
The present form of the house is that Jew and Gentile are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit, and in connection with that you get the idea of Christian fellowship. Christians partake in common of the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of the Spirit is connected with the house of God, with the blessed fact that the Holy Spirit is dwelling here.
The next point I wish to touch upon is sanctification. You get the expression very frequently in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit came to dwell, to establish the kingdom; but at the same time He came in the power of sanctification, that there might be the setting apart here of a company from all that is contrary to God; from sin, the world and Satan’s power, for God, that they should be no more of the world than Christ is of the world. The first expression of that separation was baptism: the house of God was entered at the first by baptism. The force of baptism was dissociation from the world, in order that saints might be set apart from all that was not of God. I know the difficulty of the present moment: things are very much changed outwardly; the world has become Christian, hence sanctification has become very much more difficult. Sanctification cannot have altered in the mind of the Spirit, but we are in the midst of a Christian community; you can hardly say to people today, ‘Save yourselves from this untoward generation’. It is difficult to understand sanctification now unless you look at it from a purely moral point of view. If sin, the world and Satan’s power have part in the Christianity that is current, we have to distinguish between things that differ, between the truth and the form; to purge ourselves from vessels to dishonour. The path becomes a narrow one; it is a path that can only be discerned morally. There is a kind of sanctification within sanctification. Professedly Christendom [p. 172] is sanctified, but it is not really sanctified; sanctification never can go beyond the Spirit, and therefore you have to get within the limits of the Spirit to realise what is suitable to God. There is nothing that affects us more than the presence of the Spirit here. Had it not been for that, I should still have been in the State church; it was the recognition of the Spirit’s presence that determined my path; I saw that Christianity around was inconsistent with the presence of the Spirit here. The Spirit of God has come down, not to affect the world, but to set apart a company for God, where God can dwell — Jew and Gentile builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. What I apprehend in connection with the chapter I read is that the house of God is morally outside the world and its order.
One thing that is identified with the house of God is prayer. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” holds good for a different time. It is the place where God is approached in the way of supplication. You cannot understand prayer, intercession or giving of thanks for kings and for all men, unless you see that the house of God is outside of the order of the world. If we were of the world, we should pray for a particular king; we should go in for patriotism, loyalty, and all that kind of thing. It is only in apprehending that the house of God is outside the world that we can understand prayer for all men.
The first principle of the house of God is that in it God’s mind is understood. The house of God is an enclosure in the world, co-extensive, properly, with the presence of the Spirit. God’s mind, His attitude towards all men, is appreciated and understood in the house. The heathen known nothing about His mind; they may see His goodness in the sunshine and rain; but in the house the secret of His mind is known. Take the 120 disciples in Jerusalem when the Holy [p. 173] Spirit came down; all outside of that upper room was Jewish, and opposed to Christ and to God; but those inside were in the secret of God’s mind. They were not men of any account in the social or religious or literary world; yet they formed the house of God, and the Holy Spirit came there. Really they were a most exalted company, because they were in the secret of God’s mind. They were in the consciousness of grace and peace; they walked in rigid self-judgement, and they knew God’s mind in regard to man. Another thing was that they were prayerful. Read at your leisure a few chapters in Acts, and see the wonderful way in which they turned to God in prayer. They felt they were where God was, that He was nigh to them, and they drew nigh to Him. If we return to first principles, depend upon it we shall be marked by that lifting up of holy hands, without wrath or reasoning. In the detail of life, I do not want to be in accord with this world, but with the world to come, and in the world to come there will be no wrath or reasoning; there will be holy hands.
Then as to the deportment of the women: when the world to come is established, do you think women will adorn themselves with gold and pearls and costly array? Do you think the Paris fashions will rule in that time? I am sure no sober person could think so for a moment. When Christ is reigning, everything will take its character from Him. The tinsel with which people adorn themselves in this day will look very shady in that day. When you come to the house of God, you want to be adorned suitable to the world to come: Christ is the standard of that world, and hence you want the hidden man of the heart in that which is incorruptible. There is no male nor female in heaven, but there is in the world to come; each one will have to order himself in accordance with the standard of that day, and the standard of that day is found in Christ Himself.
[p. 174] If you want to get the gain of the kingdom, you must accept the principle of the kingdom — grace reigning through righteousness. People want the grace, but evade the righteousness. God brings grace to bear upon man in order that man may become servant to righteousness. Being thus in accord with the mind of God, you are brought to His house, and are free to make supplication to Him. As to deportment, we are not to be governed by the principles of the world which is, but of that which is to come. The Holy Spirit has come down here to enable us to apprehend things morally; of course when the glory of God appears all these things will be displayed dispensationally, and in them all God will be glorified.