FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
[p. 327] FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 12:7 - 13; Romans 8:14 - 16
I have in mind to speak of the Holy Spirit as here to bring about immediate, intimate, family relationships and the affections suited to them. We are called into God’s immediate family — that is our greatest blessing. In the pattern of the house given to David by the Spirit, we read of upper chambers and of inner chambers; the upper chambers suggestive of that family dignity which is to mark the people of God, and the inner chambers speaking of that intimacy and nearness to God and to Christ which also belongs to the people of God. Every family in heaven and on earth is named of the Father and has part in the scheme of glory, but meanwhile He is working to bring about a family which is in the greatest possible nearness to Himself as having the Spirit of His Son, to whom also belong the “upper chambers”, as indicated in the Lord’s message through Mary to His brethren after He was risen, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”. John 20:17. The disciples had been prepared for this by the Lord; the relationships and the affections suited to them had been in view in the various manifestations of His glory they had witnessed in His life on earth. In chapter 2 we read, “This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory”. John 2:11. That was the beginning, and so we have a succession in John’s record calculated to prepare their hearts for the place designed for them in the counsels of God. The Lord said to Nicodemus, “No one has gone up into heaven save he who came down out of heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven”. John 3:13. And again to the Jews, “What and if ye [p. 328] shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” John 6:62. These and many other references made to the men whom the Father had given Him out of the world would prepare them for the glory of the new position they would share with Him. Indeed, they had heard these words from His lips, “Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory”. John 17:24. All this was preparation for that final message, “I ascend”. He was ascending to His Father and to theirs — the “upper chambers” were theirs! I go to prepare a place for you. How little they understood this as He spoke to them, but how wonderfully it would unfold to them later after He was glorified. When the Holy Spirit came, as sent forth from the Father and the Son, they understood that there was a place for them in the family, both the upper chambers and the inner chambers.
So in this connection I want to speak of the Spirit in His service in the kingdom and in the house, the assembly, and in His service in the family. The relation of the Holy Spirit in the kingdom is a wide subject, but I only touch upon one feature of it which affects the family. It is one thing to be in the kingdom, and another to be in the house of God, and still another to be in the family. There are intimate relations in all these concentric circles into which we have come. If we think of David, that man after God’s own heart, a remarkable king, yet he could not build the house. As to himself he had to confess, “my house is not so with God”. 2 Samuel 23:5. He was no success as a family man, great as he was in the kingdom. We have to distinguish and not stop short in the kingdom, but press forward to the truth of the house. Solomon built Him an house; He had also his own house. I connect the thought of the family with that. We read of Joseph as having a house, Samuel too, to which he returned, and where also he [p. 329] judged Israel. So there is that which corresponds to this thought now, that which is the immediate sphere of God and of Christ, the family thought, and the Holy Spirit is here that the saints might be in immediate, intimate relation to God as their Father.
But then there is the service of the kingdom. Romans gives the doctrine of it, not indeed doctrine cast in iron moulds, or set forth in creeds, but as Moses said, “My doctrine shall drop as rain, my speech flow down as dew, as small rain upon the tender herb, and as showers on the grass”. Deuteronomy 32:2. That is what Romans is, it is doctrine that comes down. We cannot be right without doctrine, it is like the banks to a river, it keeps the mind in proper channels. So then the kingdom is the sphere where the will of God is dominant, and where the Spirit operates, and there it is that the doctrine comes down from heaven itself with refreshing power. In the kingdom the doctrine is distilled like the dew. We come into it through our Lord Jesus Christ, everything reaches us that way. Tribulation existing, it becomes our servant; instead of outward deliverance from evil, we are made inwardly greater than the evil; we overcome evil with good. That is the triumph of God! This kingdom levies tribute from the very evil elements it has to do with, and calls them into service for good. So “tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us”. Romans 5:3 - 5. The action of the Spirit under the Lord — for it is a feature of the kingdom — is to shed the love of God abroad in our hearts. The Lord is the Lord of glory, and He is bringing in authoritatively the love of God. We are indeed vessels of mercy, fitted for glory; and now the Lord is insisting on the glory being introduced, the love of God filling the vessel. We are to be filled with the glory of the [p. 330] love of God. Is the Lord allowing us to be in this scene empty and inactive? No, the Lord is the Lord of glory; He is over the glory, it is under His hand. Glory has shone out in the death of Jesus, it is where the love of God shone out, and it has shone in our hearts. That really brings us to the ministry of the new covenant, for we are to be active in spiritual life. The letter kills, the Spirit gives life, and we read, “the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”. 2 Corinthians 3:17. So the Lord brings in the Holy Spirit into our hearts, and He sheds the love of God abroad there, and we are thus in the kingdom, not in name only, but in power. The heart is subdued by the love of God; we bow. There are many other things connected with the kingdom, but the feature I would press at this time is that the Lord brings into our hearts by the Spirit the holy love of God.
Now we are fit for the assembly. No one is rightly in the assembly who is not filled with the glory. It is a wonderful service that the Lord is carrying on for us in filling us with the glory, fitting us for our place in the assembly, as having the love of God in our hearts by the Spirit. That is the effect of coming under the Lord’s administration in the kingdom; the Spirit has gained a footing in our hearts — a dwelling there; we are filled with the glory. As dwelling there, He ornaments the saints, but He works from the interior; He begins with the heart. We read in Proverbs 23:26 “Son, give me thy heart”. He takes possession of your heart, and He reads your heart, “He who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for saints according to God”. Romans 8:27. What a wonderful sphere of operation is the heart of the Christian! Well, the kingdom produces that, and when your heart is secured, you are ripe for the assembly. The kingdom contributes to the house. I think that these holy gatherings — [p. 331] holy convocations, they are called in Scripture, which are, thank God, becoming more and more general — are intended to forward the house operations of the Spirit.
When I speak of the house service of the Spirit, I refer to what is general or universal, but the Holy Spirit operates also locally. Indeed, so pronounced was the local feature in the early days, that the apostle in referring to his journey to Jerusalem Acts 20:23 says that “the Holy Spirit witnesses to me in every city that bonds and afflictions await me”. But then He operates house-wise, generally. The Lord is looking for the reproduction of Himself: you must have all the saints for the reproduction of Christ: “So also is the Christ”, 1 Corinthians 12:12: That means the saints put together, not in a local way but in a general way, an Ephesian way, Jews and Greeks merged in one whole. “For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body ... and have been all made to drink into one Spirit”, 1 Corinthians 12:13 that does not refer to the Corinthian company, but is really based on the truth of Ephesians which speaks of the whole assembly, and it is there that the Spirit of God operates house-wise for the reproduction of Christ.
So these gatherings which afford opportunities for saints to come together from various places, even from different continents, give evidence of the operations of the Spirit in the house. We have thus what corresponds to Troas (Acts 20), where the house of God comes into view as set up by Paul. There were certain brothers of note spoken of who accompanied him in his journey, the first mentioned is a Berean. He was a brother who would remind them of the importance of all Scripture; you must have the whole book, for “every scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable”. 2 Timothy 3:16. A Berean is one who would have searched the Scriptures diligently.
[p. 332] Then there were two brothers from Derbe; they would add their quota of spiritual experience and observation. There were two from Thessalonica, lovely brothers they, for the Spirit of God wrote of them, “brethren, beloved of God”. I do not know of a more distinguishing title than that, “brethren, beloved of God”, and doubtless they were that as dwelling together in unity according to Psalm 133:1, found in freshness and vigour as the result of the administration of the great apostle among them. That is what Thessalonica yielded, this assembly in God the Father, these brethren beloved of God. How delightfully they would contribute at this Conference! What interchange of thought there would be as they sat down with the other brethren thus gathered! Then, further, there were two from Asia, where the “word of the Lord had prevailed”. There were none from Corinth specified, for the Spirit of God would name such as would contribute house-wisely and spiritually to the Ephesians. These two brothers from Asia would speak of that mighty work of God through the energy of the Spirit in the great apostle which brought down every feature of the world. If any young Christian present like Eutychus, had spoken of some novel he might have been reading, or of some other item of worldly interest, such men would have rebuked him; they would have told him of the books that had been burnt at Ephesus. Depend upon it that a fall like that of Eutychus had been preceded by a history of departure. There are books which eat into the soul like a canker. Young people are often undermined spiritually by what they read, but these brothers would tell of the mighty energy of the Spirit in the teaching of the apostle which had brought down all these things, undermining the world of books, so that they burnt them. Just as in the days of Joshua, the city of Kirjath-sepher, the city of books, had been destroyed.
[p. 333] So in these holy gatherings, you get house influences brought to bear, and the young are rescued.
These gatherings represent the work of God elsewhere; because we are all of one Spirit we are one body. In the power of the one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit. It does not say “ye all”, but “we all”, he is referring to the house. So there is liberty now in the Spirit for His gracious administration — spiritual manifestations are unhindered. Whether it be in the Western hemisphere, or the Eastern, whether here or there, “all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will”. 1 Corinthians 12:11. We are united in common feelings, sympathetic interests, so that we walk about Zion, we count the towers thereof, we consider her bulwarks; we are interested in all that God is doing wherever it is — it is all God’s work. Now it is for us to look into our hearts and see if we are in accord with that, because aside from these features we shall not reach the special family privileges which the Spirit is bringing about at this time.
Now to turn to Romans 8:14. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. Think of the dignity of being led by the Spirit of God. There are four things we are told which are “stately in going”, Proverbs 30:29 - 31, the lion, the horse, the he-goat, and a king. They represent what is spiritually stately and comely; they are entirely free from selfish personal pride, aims and objects. A lion does not turn aside for any, it says. The Spirit is here to maintain the testimony, to reprove the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Peter was bold as a lion when he stood up and accused the Jews of the murder of Christ. He is not afraid as he says “the originator of life ye slew”, Acts 3:15, for he was indwelt by the Spirit of God, and led by Him he is bold as a lion.
[p. 334] Then there is a warhorse; it smells the battle from afar off. He discerns when the conflict is on; he is not afraid when he hears the thunder of the battle and the shouting. He enters the fray as led by the Spirit of God; he stands in the conflict for the truth.
Then the he-goat is one who refuses to come under human influences; he is one of the most interesting of these figures, for human influence is a most baneful thing in the house of God; you are useless to the Spirit of God for the moment. Aaron came under the influence of the people when he made the golden calf while Moses was on the mount with God, for you are either under human influence or spiritual influence. The he-goat holds himself for God, and led by the Spirit of God, you come into the midst of the people as Moses did, as a king against whom there is no rising up. A man who is for God cannot be turned down. Moses probably faced two million people when he came with the authority of God, and there was no turning him aside. All these things are involved for those who are led of the Spirit of God. We are not under “the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father”. Romans 8:15. The current religions of the day tend to bondage, to the re-establishment of what God has set aside as effete and worn out; many a heart is filled with slavish fear of God. But the apostle says here, “ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ... a spirit of adoption”. It is not here the spirit of adoption, but “a spirit”, that kind of spirit, a Spirit of adoption, and by that Spirit we cry, “Abba, Father”. In Galatians it is the “Spirit of God’s Son”, it is definitely the Holy Spirit, but here the apostle would emphasise the kind of spirit we have received, whereby we cry, Abba, father. Here we come to our most intimate relationship, we cry, Abba, Father, by Him. I am speaking of God and to God in the most intimate [p. 335] way as if He only were before me — Father, Father. That is the result of the Spirit of adoption in my soul, God would bring us to this immediate, intimate relationship with Himself, so that He Himself, the Father, is supreme to my soul. When I say it twice, I am resting in it.
John brings in early in his gospel the thought of the Father; you will remember He says to the Samaritan woman in chapter 4, “the Father seeks such to worship him”. John 4:23. We have noticed that Samuel after having circuited all Israel, returned to his own house at Ramah, and there he built an altar, and there also he judged Israel. In connection with the judging in Samuel’s house, I think we get the spiritual adjustment of the family. The Lord in that way would set brethren together happily and freely, so that there might be this free and direct approach as it is said, “By him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father”. Ephesians 2:18. He would bring us to that; it is the great end in view. He is the Spirit of adoption to bring about inward correspondence to God’s Son, to bring about the affections of the inner chambers where we have direct access to God, and where we cry by the Spirit of adoption, “Abba Father”!
Pages 336 - 391— “The Power of God”. Indianapolis, New Year, 1925 (Volume 67).