BEHAVIOUR IN THE HOUSE OF GOD
J.H.Trevvett
1 Timothy 3: 14,15; Psalm 122: 1
I desire to say a word about behaviour in the house of God, having in mind first that our hearts should be impressed with the delight that God has in the assembling together of His people. One of the most touching reflections is to recall the many occasions in the Old Testament upon which God expressed His delight in the gathering together of His people. If it were a question of need He would say "Assemble the people, and I will give them water" (Num 21: 16); and if it were a question of definite response to His own movements in descending grace He would say, "Gather unto me my godly ones, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice" (Ps 50: 5), as if to indicate that each one thus gathered had moved as from their own side on the principle of surrender - sacrifice. From the very earliest time God has indicated His pleasure in the gathering together of His people.
It is marvellous, indeed, to all our hearts that the blessed God should take a delight in the gathering together of such a people. He is not only prepared for the approach of one man, as it is said in Leviticus: "When any man of you presenteth an offering" (chap 1: 2), but He makes provision, indeed He lays down commandment, for the whole assembly. You will remember how He gives definite instruction in Deuteronomy 16 that all the males were to appear three times in the year before Him, and then there is this most solemn condition - a divine stipulation - "they shall not appear before Jehovah empty", (v 16). I think one of the most grievous things in the sight of God is to have any one appear before Him in His house empty - bound it may be as to his right hand - failure to appear before God in the appreciation of what the Spirit of God calls a feast - the feast of unleavened bread.
The feast of unleavened bread is no feast for the natural man for it is calculated to, and indeed does, bring about reduction, causing the fading away before one's heart and mind of the man that was and the bringing to light by the work and power of the Spirit, who is constantly concerned about this question of displacement, the man that is under God's eye. As the males in Israel appeared before God at this great feast of unleavened bread, no one was to appear empty. How that challenges one's heart as to the number of times one has appeared before God empty - a most grievous thing - as if there is to be no response to all the grace of God, His long-suffering, to the path of His leading, to the daily provision that He has given - as if none of these things had moved one's heart to an affectionate response.
Then there is the feast of weeks, meaning that I not only appear in the presence of God with others as having a sense of mercy, but I have begun to appreciate what is spiritual, that vast region which stands in relation to the ministrations and operations of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing stated as to the length of time the children of Israel remained there. As God viewed that vast assembly, each one bringing up the product of the dealings of God with him - his own appreciation - in a path of responsibility, who can say how long they remained there?
Then, finally, there is the feast of tabernacles, when the men who lived, it may be, in ceiled houses and those who lived in the poorer houses came together, bringing branches of thick trees, myrtle branches, and so on, and they dwelt in booths seven days before the Lord, reminding each other, as brethren dwelling together in unity, of how God led them through the great and terrible wilderness and suffered them not to hunger. In like manner all His dealings with us are calculated on the one hand to humble and to remind us how tiny, helpless and defenceless we were, and on the other to remind us of the great love wherewith He loved us; as Moses says; "Not because ye were more in number than all the peoples... for ye are the fewest of all the peoples; but because Jehovah loved you", Deut 7: 7.
As we contemplate these things - the holy possibilities contained typically in these three feasts and the assembling together - how our hearts are moved at the prospect of affording the blessed God the praise and glory He has ever sought, and has now secured through the Spirit's activities among His people.
And so we find, in the Songs of degrees, there is one who says "I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah". I desire to speak simply as to our appearing before God - the kind of attitude, spirit or deportment that is to mark every believer coming into the place where God is greatly to be feared - as the word says: "God is greatly to be feared in the council of the saints, and terrible for all that are round about him", Ps 89: 7. How the recognition of that would exclude from one's mind every fleshly and human element! How blessed, beloved, in any measure that we have known it, to surround God like that!
And so Paul says to Timothy, "These things I write to thee, hoping to come to thee more quickly; but if I delay, in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God's house". We are now, so to speak, in the time of delay. We have not the apostle Paul personally; his oral word has ceased. He passed out in triumph, not only continuing his speech to the disciples until midnight, but in his own hired lodging "preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all freedom unhinderedly", Acts 28: 31. But we have written directions: "These things write I to thee". Thank God for such writings - writings which enable us to maintain proper behaviour in the house of God!
Beloved brethren, there is great need that I should behave myself - "that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God's house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth". Can I go up lightly? Can I go in, so to speak, from a world in which I have been engrossed and appear instantly, maintaining the attitude that is proper to the house of God? In Hebrews 10 we are warned not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and the word reads as if the apostle, inspired by the Spirit of God, had it in mind that as the saints come together they should come direct from the holiest. How often is that the case with us? It is not a matter of custom but of spiritual inclination and affection; it is a matter in which one is not only prepared for displacement but in which one is displaced. We are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and yet how lightly some regard this holy privilege. Think of our dear brethren in Russia and other places! Think of those who met in dens and caves of the earth! Could I lightly afford to miss a prayer meeting? Could I neglect, on account of some natural tie, the reading of the holy Scriptures together? How the very remembrance of the delight of God in seeing His people assemble should cause delight in my own heart and give impetus to gather together with others in a deportment consistent with the house of God - "that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God's house".
I believe the Songs of degrees help very much on this question of behaviour. The first thing is that you have one crying in his distress (Ps 120). Woe to the person who dares to move in the things of God, to stand up in the house of God and minister the word of God, who has never known soul distress! This is, so to speak, the beginning from my side, ere I can realise what the blessed God has in mind for all His people. Is there any one here who has never known the distress preceding repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ?
Passing on we find the Psalmist praying that he might be delivered from "the lying lip, from the deceitful tongue". Alas! the spirit of falsehood is abroad today. I used to wonder as a lad why that solemn exhortation should appear in Colossians: "Do not lie to one another", chap 3: 9. It is not addressed to unbelievers but to brethren described as "holy and faithful". Here is a man who has received the most precious sense of sovereign mercy, who prays to be delivered from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. It is sad to have to admit that there is much current among the professing people of God which is of this character.
Then the Psalmist passes, as I gather, through the most intense soul exercise, and he says "I rejoiced". Spiritual emotions have now come to light: "I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah". The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews would free those Hebrew believers from being self-centred; he brings in mutuality; he says "Let us". The Psalmist is beginning to get light upon the collective position which will secure divine approval "Let us go into the house of Jehovah". He is like Hezekiah, delivered through discipline and saying, We "will play upon my stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of Jehovah", Isa 38: 20. It is not only that he has the fruits of discipline but he has come to a sphere where God is owned and where others also may sing on stringed instruments; they too will share in the product of Hezekiah's discipline so that God Himself is praised. He is worthy to be praised.
And then the exercise goes on. The moment the Psalmist's face is set for the collective position, where God is owned, and in which He has delight, he begins to suffer the most bitter persecution, as you will too. Then he is concerned about the building; it says in Psalm 127: "Unless Jehovah build the house, in vain do its builders labour in it". You may sit up all night and eat the bread of sorrows, but is that going into God's building? Think of the Lord's activities as seen in Luke's gospel - dispensing with the wood, hay and stubble, passing it by, and bringing to light gold, silver and precious stones for the house of God.
In Psalm 128 he draws attention to a model household. Would that there were more such! The husband fears the Lord. The wife is like a fruitful vine in the inner part of the house - not the outer side, that is no place for wives, but the inner side. She is there in subjection. You could never have a model house with an insubject wife. You could never have a household which is going to be a stay and an asset in the locality as supporting divine principles there if the husband is not the head. If the wife assumes priority over her husband, whatever her spirituality may be, it is a dangerous position.
I want to speak too of the children. "Thy children like olive-plants round about thy table": I like that expression. There is not a disobedient child in the house, each one is looked at potentially according to the Spirit. Think of the Corinthian children. In spite of the defection of the elders, Paul refers to their children as being holy. They are not olive trees like the Psalmist in Psalm 52; "But as for me, I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God" (v 8). No; but under a right influence at home they will grow up to that. They are like the cuttings - olive-plants - and they are round about the table. Is there a disobedient child in this room? a young man or a young woman who does not honour father and mother? God will honour the sons and daughters who honour their parents in their young days; they will live long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth. "Children like olive-plants round about thy table". Why should he bring in a household were it not to support the idea of a household standing not only for the interests of God but prepared for movement. That is how the testimony is sustained and passed on; nothing surrendered - things held there for the pleasure of God, and another generation coming forward to take up the holy charge.
The Psalmist retains his sense of mercy. In Psalm 130 he says, "If thou, Jah, shouldest mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand?" I do commend with all my heart that word to each one of us tonight. I want you to view it in its context. I am not now preaching the gospel. This is the kind of spirit and attitude that is to mark the believer. "Had I regarded iniquity in my heart" - not my tongue but my heart - "the Lord would not hear", Ps 66: 18. You may pray for twenty minutes in the prayer meeting, but if you regard iniquity in your heart the Lord will not hear, and it will be apparent to all in the company that your right hand is withered. I am not speaking harshly; I want to encourage each one of us to be prepared for the searching out and uprooting of things that are destructive to proper behaviour in the house of God.
Psalm 131 opens with the word "Jehovah, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, and in things too wonderful for me. Surely I have restrained and composed my soul, like a weaned child with its mother". What profitable care meetings we should have if we came together in that spirit - as a weaned child; what bounty would be shed abroad! How perfect the administration if those who were engaged in it were not haughty but behaved themselves like weaned children, weaned from every resource of nature and free to devote themselves without reserve to the interests of Christ.
Then in Psalm 132 he says "Jehovah, remember for David all his affliction": not remember David but remember for David. He is not obsessed with his circumstances; he has known pressure and sorrow; he has gone forth sowing in tears and he comes forward in the morning of joy bringing his sheaves. Remember for David! You can well afford, beloved, to leave the recapitulation of your exercises and sorrows. There is no reason why I should repeat all that I have passed through in the way of church sorrows. What is his concern? That there should be a place for the ark.
We are coming now to the central feature of the whole system of divine blessing - the ark. David says, I want a place for the ark. He had heard of it at Ephratah. Jesse when instructing his sons had probably spoken to them of the ark. It says of Jesse, "and the man was old in the days of Saul, advanced in years among men" (1 Sam 17: 12), indicating that men revered Jesse and that his grey hairs were like a crown of glory. He had a family of eight sons and probably he spoke to those sons about the ark. David says "we heard of it at Ephratah". David was the youngest, and little might have been expected of him, but remember how he vowed. Perhaps, dear brother or sister, at your family Bible reading there may not be great interest apparent with the children, but one can never tell how God is working. Evidently He worked with David; he wanted a place for the ark. Was that his sole concern? Not only did he want a place for the ark but he wanted those surrounding the ark to be clothed with salvation - priests - and he wanted saints who would shout aloud for joy. How delightful that is! How ashamed we should be, beloved, of any attempt to cover up spiritual emotions! How cold and formal we are content to be in the presence of the most holy things! "Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy". "I will satisfy her needy ones with bread". The poor will be all right in the locality if God has His place; there will be abundance of bread.
Now what is the outcome? "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" The Spirit of God says "Behold", as if to secure our attention and focus it upon this marvellous sight. And then he goes on to describe what it is like, lest we should not apprehend the full value and beauty of this wonderful situation: "Like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, upon Aaron's beard, that ran down to the hem of his garments". And yet one holds a grudge against the brethren in the locality! You hold a complaint against a sister. You will mar this precious unity by the fostering of a grudge that has lasted for years. Could I in any sense mar this precious unity? I cannot see it universally but, thank God, I can arrive at it with a few in the locality! "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" Is that the end? No; as the outcome there are those who stand by night or, as it should read, 'in the nights' in the house of Jehovah. What resources we have in divine Persons to enable us to stand! In close proximity to the hostility of this present evil world there is the mount of Olives also, as John 11 speaks of it - that village, near the desert, very near to the scene of hostility, but in the realm of the power of the Spirit where this beautiful fruitfulness is seen under the eye of God. You do not need to go out of the world, save in spirit; it is found here 'in the nights'. "Jehovah... bless thee out of Zion".
And so Paul says "if I delay, in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God's house". I would just remind you in simple language of how Peter, John and Paul were concerned about my deportment and your deportment. I believe all three would be emphatic as to the necessity of right behaviour in the house of God. I think Peter would stand, so to speak, at the very threshold - at the door, if you like, of the meeting - and he would insist upon your having a sense of mercy, for without it you will get nowhere in the things of God; neither shall I. He would insist upon mercy. Listen to what he says: "But ye are a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession" (1 Pet 2: 9); that is, I belong to people who are God's possession. Some young person may say, I do not see them like that, I have seen their faults and failings. But God sees them like that, "a people for a possession... who once were not a people, but now God's people; who were not enjoying mercy, but now have found mercy". How humiliating to think of one's past - shame and sorrow in the sight of God - but we have obtained mercy.
Peter is like a skilful physician who has one thing supremely before him, and that is the health of our souls; he says "Beloved" (how that ought to appeal to us), "I exhort you, as strangers and sojourners, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul". Peter is concerned to produce in my soul a sense of sovereign mercy. As I approach the threshold of the house of God I remember I came in on the basis of sovereign mercy. I look at a rich brother and I see he came in on the same basis; he, so to speak, in response to God recognises the need of mercy - the atonement money -- the half shekel. The rich man could not give more, though he might like to, and the poor man must not give less. There they are, "The rich and poor meet together; Jehovah is the maker of them all", Prov 22: 2. One half shekel for the rich brother, and it, so to speak, puts him out of court; and if he comes in in the way James speaks of, he rejoices in his humiliation; then the poor brother comes in with his half shekel, with no radical feelings or tendencies but rejoicing in his exaltation, and there they are on the same level - and a very precious level.
I want to raise the question with each one as to whether you have that sense of mercy. As I appear with the brethren, have I that sense of mercy? I believe the eating of unleavened bread - that precious feast would enable one to be maintained in this, as Paul could say that he was "an insolent overbearing man; but mercy was shewn me", 1 Tim 1: 13. John would insist upon our having love. He reminds us that there is no fear in love, and he also speaks of our obligations one to another. I like the "oughts" of John. He says "we... ought to love one another" (1 John 4: 11) it is not left as a matter of choice. And he also says "we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives" (chap 3: 16); it is an obligation that John would press upon us. Then he comes down to a very searching matter, and I would speak of it with much affection. He says "If any one say, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar", chap 4: 20. He does not say 'If any brother' but "if any one". Further, he would encourage; he says "let us love one another; because love is of God", chap 4: 20.
And so I am challenged as I come up to the house of God as to whether I love. These three door-keepers, if you will allow that simile, Peter, John and Paul, stand athwart the threshold and they are concerned about these things. John would be concerned as to whether I have love; not in this instance love to all the saints but love which finds expression in one's locality. Do you love the brethren locally? Do I? How searching it is! I am challenged in the presence of God. Do I cast an envious eye upon a brother, like Saul when he eyed David "from that day forward", because he is advancing spiritually in the locality? Is that the kind of eye I have? I see the Lord prospering him; I see him standing up, a green olive-tree, marked by all the fatness and wealth of God's house. Am I to be radical? or am I to regard him as part of the commonwealth of the whole assembly in which I have my share? He is graced with a special gift from the ascended Christ and I embrace him; I get the value of him in the locality. I am reminded that "all things are yours. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things coming, all are yours; and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's", 1 Cor 4: 21 , 22. Do I love? I beg of you each one to ask yourself that question. If a brother or sister is not exercising love to the brethren locally, it is impossible for responsive affection towards God to be in exercise with such an one. I beg of you to ponder this.
Passing on to Paul, I think he would insist on spirituality - spiritual intelligence. It is not only the sense of mercy, though Paul would impress that; it is not now love only, though Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 would take up John's line and say, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal". Whatever your ability or mine, if we have not love we are nothing. "And if I shall dole out all my goods in food, and it I deliver up my body that I may be burned, but have not love, I profit nothing" (v 3). But as I come up amongst the brethren, as I gather together with those who have made a covenant by sacrifice, Paul would impress me with the need for spiritual intelligence. He says "we have all been baptised into one body... and have all been given to drink of one Spirit". 1 Cor 12: 13. Then why should there be the difference in our spirits? Why should I shew a bad spirit? Why should I shew a critical spirit? Why should I not be sympathetic with what the Lord is saying? "We... have all been given to drink of one Spirit". Why does not this Spirit pervade and animate the whole?
Paul says "whenever ye come together, each of you has a psalm", 1 Cor 14: 26. He is a poor brother who has not a psalm each day. Alas, so many beloved saints limit the psalms to one hundred and fifty! There ought to be a psalm each day; and who that knows God and His dealings in holy intimacy but would be furnished, after the most difficult and trying circumstances of the day, with a most blessed psalm? There are spiritual instincts and spiritual intelligence with the psalm. You are governed now as in the region of the Spirit, and you are not concerned now about your favourite hymn! You are not going to give out the hymn that you have used for years but you come to a place where the Holy Spirit impresses you and gives impulse to everything. Oh, how I ought to behave myself so that my spiritual instincts and sensibilities find their expression in the presence of the others who "judge"! I would not like to say that I had the Lord with me if what I might be saying cut across the spiritual sensibilities of the saints, for the word is definite - "let the others judge", 1 Cor 14: 29.
So I believe Paul would impress us with the need for spiritual intelligence, John with the need of our having love, and Peter with the need for a definite and ever increasing sense of mercy. Having these things, I humbly suggest beloved, that during this time of "delay", whilst we are waiting, not for Paul but for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, we shall know how one ought to behave oneself in the house of God. Presently there will be that great and final gathering for which we all wait - the gathering together unto Him!
WOOLWICH
8 November 1930