Will you turn with me to several very small passages of the Word of God, beginning in the prophecies of Isaiah.
Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him;
and I will loose the loins of kings; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:
I will go before thee, and make the rugged places plain;
I will break in pieces the doors of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron;
and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places,
that thou mayest know that I am the Lord, which call thee by thy name, even the God of Israel.
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it desolate for ever.
For thus saith the Lord, After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you, and perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia—
In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
These passages in the Word of God, as you realise, compass a history. They embody a history, but a history which declares one great Bible truth.
And that is the truth of the sovereignty of God in relation to His house—the sovereignty of God as related to the house of God.
Stand back from that for a moment. There is no mistaking one feature of history as it is recorded in the Bible, from beginning to end. That one feature is the feature of a great conflict.
We hardly get into the Bible before we find ourselves in the realm of controversy, dispute, challenge, and conflict. So early, the Lord Himself pronounced that there would be conflict; and right on through, almost to the end, that is the characteristic of Bible history.
But when we look to see what the occasion of the conflict is, we can find two major factors: the primary and the secondary.
The primary factor is the name of the Lord—the name of the Lord. I do not mean any particular designation of God, but the honour, the supremacy, the uniqueness of the name of the Lord: its supremacy in this universe.
It is primarily over that that all the controversy and all the conflict in the Bible rages: its dethroning or its dishonouring. On the one side, there is the maintenance, upholding, purity, and glory of the name of the Lord.
But the secondary factor in the conflict is a vessel, or a people, for that name. Immediately God moves to secure for Himself that wherein He may put His name, and it is a people—what we, in the larger term, call a vessel.
Immediately God moves in relation to a vessel for His name, you find that you are in the atmosphere again of conflict, challenge, and disputing. The battle begins.
The name of the Lord lies behind everything. That is the ultimate. But the vessel for the name lies in the forefront of everything. These two are related.
What touches that vessel in the forefront affects the name which is behind; it involves the name.
Let us come to the designation of that vessel: the house of God—the house for His name.
Wherever and whenever we touch the house of God in the Bible, it is not long before everything springs into life.
On the one side, we touch something that is vital to God, about which He is greatly concerned, over which He is very jealous. The living God is associated with this. To touch it is to touch the living God; to meet it is to meet the living God.
In the Bible, the house is always alive. When you touch the house of God, you are not just touching a dead thing; you are touching something that is alive. It is vital to God.
On the other hand, whenever you come into touch with the house of God in the Bible, you come into touch with forces which are inimical, antagonistic to what it represents and means to God.
In other words, the house of God is the centre of a whole age-long conflict. I am not staying to gather up the data in that connection. Anyone who knows the Bible knows quite well how true that is.
Here is something that has got to be, if possible, overthrown, destroyed, and nullified.
But for our purpose now, it is so very important, dear friends, that we recognise how closely related are the sovereignty of God and the house of God. The sovereignty of God and the house of God—that carries so much with it.
That sovereignty will be on our side if we are on the side, to put it this way, of the house of God. That sovereignty is shown in the Word of God to be against all who, in any way, are against the house of God.
Perhaps some of the most terrible words in the New Testament are those used by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. In another connection he spoke of them as individuals, but in this particular instance he spoke of them as a company: “Ye are a temple of God.”
And then he went on: “If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” God’s jealous sovereignty over His house.
But if it is true that the sovereignty of God is bound up with His house, it is equally true that the house of God is the object of all the fury of satanic antagonism—to spoil it, if possible.
Now we have to reduce this very large matter to a few quite definite practical points. Let us say at once: there are no alternatives to the house of God. With God, there are no alternatives to the church.
Because of all the controversies, the conflicts, and the confusion in relation to the church, many have sought to turn away from that to some alternatives or substitutes.
We know of many who, because of the unhappy situations and conditions in Christendom which centre in this word church, have come away from all that kind of thing, as they call it—church teaching and church truth—and they have turned to evangelism.
They have said, “Well, let the church get on with itself. We will give ourselves to the salvation of souls.” As an alternative, you see. I am not saying that in all evangelism that is the motive, that is the reason; but it is true that some, perhaps always disgusted with what we will call Christianity—sectarianism, all the horrors and divisions—have said, “We will get on with the business of soul-saving.”
Others have decided that the course is world evangelisation: to take the gospel to the nations. “Leave all this about the church, and get on with the great business of world evangelisation.” Again, all world evangelisation is not prompted by that thought or feeling, but we know that it is there.
There are others who have said, “Well, let the church get on with itself while we attend to the needs of mankind, of humanity in this world—the sufferings, the misery, the poverty, and whatnot.” They have committed themselves to what is called the social gospel, of improving human life for men and women.
Now, I am not saying for one moment that these things are not right. In themselves they are quite right. But if they are an alternative to the church, see what will happen.
The vast amount of energy and expenditure in evangelism—how much is there, as the result, of permanent, abiding result, without a great margin of disappointment in comparison with what we have in the New Testament?
The evangelism of the New Testament—what a tremendous thing that was, how comprehensive it was, and effective! But it was always related to the church. It was church evangelism, not evangelism as something in itself.
Evangelisation of the world—well, it is in the New Testament: seeing the gospel going to the nations, the great compass and range in the brief period of thirty years. The Word, it says, went into all the earth because it was on church ground.
Divide and separate these things, and let there be that which is an alternative for any reason at all, and what happens? Well, what a costly thing is world evangelisation! It means money, people, and whatnot, with a fruitfulness which cannot compare with those thirty years of the New Testament.
And then, remember, the Lord comes back. Sooner or later, the whole thing is shaken to find out what is really solid, real, and true, and the whole matter of the house of God springs into life again.
The very survival depends upon what the house of God represents: that is fellowship, that is intercession, that is relatedness.
Now God always moves—and here I speak with the Bible in mind—God always moves in relation to His main object.
It may be a long-term thing. It may be true that the mills of God grind very slowly, but it is true that they grind exceeding small. God never departs from His original and primary purpose, and that is a house for His name.
Now you see in these scriptures we have read how true that is. We have read the words of Isaiah, Isaiah 45:1: “Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus.” Then we have gathered around that these other words and come back at last to Ezra and to Daniel.
Do you know, dear friends, that Isaiah prophesied those words, or uttered those words of prophecy about Cyrus, nearly two hundred years before Cyrus made that decree or came on to the scene at all?
Nearly two hundred years elapsed between Isaiah’s saying, “Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus,” and the arrival of Cyrus. Cyrus was an unknown person when Isaiah uttered those words.
All through that time, you have the completion of the ministry of Isaiah, all his life, the rest of his life overlapping into Jeremiah; and you have all the life and work of Jeremiah through those years. Then you have, later, seventy years of captivity in fulfilment of Jeremiah’s prophecies.
All those years, at last God moved sovereignly in relation to His house. Yes, He has waited long, but here it is. It may be a long way ahead, and that because of His people’s failure; nevertheless, however far ahead, God has still got His object, and He is not going to abandon it.
Let years pass. Let there be infinite suffering in the meantime. At length, He is coming back to it. He is going to have it. That is New Testament truth as well as Old Testament truth.
It is a remarkable thing, is it not? The sovereignty of God mentions a man’s name before that man was born. The sovereignty of God chooses him as the vessel before anybody knows anything about him. The sovereignty of God details what he will do.
“I have girded thee, though thou hast not known Me,” says the Word. What the man will do and what will happen—long, long years before the man is in view at all—the sovereignty of God is moving right ahead over all that intervenes.
That sovereignty is bound up with His house, and He is not going to let that thing go, because His name is inexplicably and inseparably bound up with a vessel for the name. He must have it.
But in the meantime—in the meantime—all the suffering, the suffering of the captivity, of the exile. What was the deepest cause of the suffering?
In putting our finger upon this, we touch this whole matter at a very vital point. What was the deepest cause of all the suffering and all the delay?
It was the lack of a heart relationship with the house for His name. Oh, the house was there. The house was there. It was called the house of God; that is, the building was there, and the name was on it—the name of the Lord.
The ritual was carried on every day. The whole framework and formality proceeded. But you know from the prophets: “This people’s heart is far from Me,” said the Lord. There was not a heart relationship with the house.
The thing was an object, something that was kept going. But the people had no correspondence in heart with the jealousy of God for its purity because of His name, for its livingness because He was the living God.
So cold, so formal, so hollow, so unreal. The cry of the prophets is always about this heart matter. How the Lord tried to bring that home to His people through such men as Hosea and Ezekiel, whom He brought into deep and terrible suffering and sorrow in public.
So that everybody could see: this young prophet whose wife has died; this other young prophet whose wife has been unfaithful, gone after other lovers. It was all brought out so that everybody could see the tragedy in their lives and say, “Oh, is not this terrible? Is not this terrible?”
If they had any sensibility, any feeling at all, it would touch their hearts. But it did not. When they asked what the meaning was, the prophet could say, “This is just an expression, a representation, of you and the Lord—unfaithfulness, loss—and you are not touched. You are not.”
This prophet, when his wife died, had at once to go out before the people with his face anointed—no sign whatever of mourning, grief, or tragedy. The people said, “This is a scandal. This is a man who has lost his wife and is showing no sign of sorrow. The scandal!”
At once the prophet had his message: “Yes, but you have lost more than I have. You have lost far more than I have, and you do not care.”
You see, it is all on this matter of a heart relationship with the house of God. Well, it was like that. They were still keeping up the temple service. Outwardly the house was there, but there was no heart there. That is what brought all the suffering.
So the Lord had to bring them back to the place where they cried, “How can we sing the songs of Zion in a strange land?” Ah, the heart is waking up now, longing for what has been lost, which can no longer be had.
There is the need of it, the sense of its need, and they cannot get it.
There must be a consciousness that this is not just an empty framework, or even teaching, but something vital and consequential for their very life—this house of God. That is how it must be with us.
We must have such a relationship to the house of God that it is vital to our existence, essential to our life; and to lose that is to lose what we most need of all things in this life: the house of God.
But then, in order for it to be like that, something has got to happen somewhere. That is why I read the words from Daniel.
Daniel, away there in the midst of it all in Babylon, says, “I learned from the books the times spoken by Jeremiah the prophet—the time, seventy years. And I prayed, with fasting, sackcloth, ashes, supplication.”
I did not read his prayer. It is a heartrending prayer, that prayer of Daniel in Babylon. Do you say that that had nothing to do, no relationship, with the going back of the remnant to rebuild the house? I say it did.
I say that was God’s way of deliverance and recovery: the man in Babylon who prayed like that. Until, somehow, there is that which will get to God in dire anguish about the situation, in prevailing prayer over His house, the thing will not go on.
He must have that. It has always been God’s way. Go through the Bible and see how true that is. Even in the great sovereign movements of God, His sovereignty has not been separate from someone who entered into His travail.
The factor of prevailing prayer must be present in reality.
We must close. Note: when we are in line with God’s object and purpose like that, and it has become really a heart matter of suffering to us, and God has a people who are so committed to the thing which is so close to His heart, see what wonderful things God does.
The facilitation of His heart—the means provided. We have got to read Ezra again, and Nehemiah. Read how the Lord stirred up the spirit of this pagan king who knew Him not, and how, by his decree, every means was provided.
God is sovereign over all resources, over all needs and their supplies. Get into line with the thing that is nearest to His heart, and you get into line with the operation of that sovereignty: on the one side, to provide, to meet all demands; on the other side, to meet the enemy.
But it is not for me to close there without saying that, even when the remnant got back and started on the building of the house, there were still enemies—and there always will be, always will be.
There were Samaritans that gave that remnant a terrible time, even to the point of suspending operations for some years. The people’s fault. There are always enemies about where the house of God is in view. Make no mistake about it.
But now we must finish on the note where we began: the sovereignty of God is related to that thing.