Will you please turn to the Gospel according to John? John, Chapter 1, Verse 14.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt—that is, tabernacled—among us; and we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Ephesians, the letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 2. We will read from Verse 19 through Verse 22.
So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,
being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone;
in Whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord;
in Whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, we pray that Thou wilt, through Thy written Word, speak to us by Thy Spirit. We thank Thee that Thy Word is truth, Thy Word is life, and Thy Word is spirit.
So, Lord, do open our understanding and our hearts, and allow Thy Word to really come into us in such a way that it will reveal Thyself to us, draw us to Thee, and conform us to Thy image. We trust Thy Holy Spirit to do this work. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
We have been meditating together on the house of God. The house of God is not a human idea. The house of God is in the heart of God, even before the foundation of the world.
It was hidden in God’s heart, and yet we find that He began to reveal what was in His heart to His people. The first one who really began to see the house of God was Jacob.
God revealed to Jacob in a dream a ladder that joins God and man together, and through that ladder God comes to man. Jacob realized, “This is the house of God, the gate of heaven.”
But unfortunately, his response was not quite full. In other words, he understood a little bit. He understood that this is the house of God, but it is a terrible thing, a fearful thing, to be in the house of God, to have the presence of God, and to commune with God.
Even after God promised him such great promises, he could only take in a little bit. But at least he had a faint understanding of what the house of God is: that it is the gate of heaven.
Then we also shared together how God continued to reveal the house of God through types. First, we find that He revealed it to Moses. God said, “Build Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among you.”
Later on, we find God revealed the temple to David, and Solomon built it. Now, we have covered these in the past, and we would like to continue this morning and see how God began to reveal the reality of His house at the coming of our Lord Jesus.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, when God revealed the house of God to Jacob, he was not able to understand it fully, and his response was rather weak.
When God gave the house of God in types, we find that, in the beginning, Moses, who was faithful in the house of God, built everything according to the pattern on the mount. Because of this, when the tabernacle was set up, you remember, the glory of God filled the tabernacle.
But unfortunately, because of the unfaithfulness of the children of Israel, even after they got into the promised land, you remember how the ark—that is, the real center of the tabernacle—was captured by the Philistines.
Even after the ark returned, it never came back to the tabernacle. The tabernacle was there; it moved from place to place, and at the time of Solomon it was in Gibeon. Yet the ark never returned to the tent in Shiloh.
Not only did it never return to the tent in Shiloh, but the children of Israel forgot the ark altogether for many, many years. Until David, a man after God’s own heart, found the ark in the field of the forest.
When he became king, he brought the ark to Mount Zion and put the ark in a tent there.
So the picture, you see, is this: even though the tabernacle was there, with the great altar, the candlestick, the table of showbread, and even the golden altar of incense, the presence of God was missing from that tabernacle. In the holiest of all, it was empty.
David had a heart to build God a permanent house, a temple. God was pleased with his thought, but because he was a man of war who had shed so much blood, he could not represent the house of God, which is peace.
Yet God accepted his heart’s desire. God gave him the pattern of the temple, and David, out of his love for the house of God, prepared many materials—gold, silver, and all kinds of things—for the building of the house. But it was Solomon, in wisdom, who built the house.
So when the temple was finished, again you find the glory of God filled the temple.
But unfortunately, again you find the children of Israel became unfaithful to God. Because of their unfaithfulness, eventually the temple was destroyed by Babylon. The children of Israel were taken captive into Babylon, and they were there for seventy years.
It was the mercy of God that stirred up the spirit of some of those in captivity to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
But after the temple was rebuilt, there was something missing there. That temple which was rebuilt had no ark in the holiest of all.
All the services went on. We had the priesthood there; we had the sacrifices there. Everything seemed to go on as usual. But the most important thing—the ark, the presence of God—was not there.
When our Lord Jesus came into this world, the temple in Jerusalem had been enlarged by King Herod and adorned with beautiful stones and the consecrated gifts of people. It was a glorious temple.
You remember, even the disciples of our Lord showed Him the temple and said, “Behold this temple.” It was the pride of the children of Israel. Yet there was no ark. The presence of God was not there. In other words, the very meaning of the house of God was not there.
But thank God, man’s failure only brings out God’s glory. Not because of the weakness of man does God give up what He has in His heart. No. We find that God brings forth even more glory through the failure of man.
So, in the fullness of time, we thank God: God sent His only begotten Son into the world to be a man. The Word of God became flesh.
When He became flesh and dwelt among men, the word dwelt is the same word as tabernacle. In other words, when Jesus came into this world, the house of God appeared on the earth.
And we beheld the glory, even the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. In other words, here you find a man. He was God; He became a man. And He became the tabernacle, the house of God, the real house of God on earth, full of grace and truth.
You remember when our Lord Jesus was thirty years old? After He was baptized, He went into the temple. He saw what was happening there, and He cleansed the temple.
He said, “This is My Father’s house, and ye make it a house of merchandise.” Because of this, He was challenged: “What sign do You give that You do such a thing?”
Our Lord Jesus said in John 2: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
When the Jews heard that, they were so surprised. They said, “Do You not know that this temple has been building for forty-six years, and You say You will destroy it and in three days raise it up?” They did not know that our Lord was referring to His own body.
They destroyed His body, the house of God; but in three days He was raised from the dead.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we find that in spite of the failures of man, God is faithful to Himself. He cannot deny Himself. What He had in His heart, even before the foundation of the world, He will have for Himself.
Here you find that He sent His own Son into this world to be a man, to accomplish what He had in His heart.
When our Lord Jesus was born—or, before He was born, after the virgin Mary had conceived—Joseph was thinking of putting her away quietly. Then in a dream the angel of the Lord came to him and said, “This is the fulfillment of prophecy: a virgin shall give birth to a child, and His name shall be called Emmanuel.”
In other words, Mary, a virgin, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and this Child is Emmanuel. Emmanuel simply means, “God with man.”
Now, brothers and sisters, that is the very meaning of the house of God: God with man. In Him, God and man are all brought together.
Brothers and sisters, here in Christ Jesus we have a demonstration, a revelation, of what the house of God really is. He is the house of God, the perfect temple.
Now, if you look into the life of our Lord Jesus, you discover how He demonstrated to the world that He is truly the house of God. Let me put it in a very simple way.
First of all, we find that the house of God is where God dwells with man. That is the house of God. Our Lord Jesus is the house of God because God dwells with man: Emmanuel.
But this dwelling is not just an outward thing, because we find that God dwells in Him and He dwells in God. It is an indwelling.
When Philip said to our Lord, “Show us the Father, and we will be satisfied,” our Lord said, “Philip, you have known Me so long, and yet you do not know that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? Do you not know that when you see Me, you see the Father?”
Brothers and sisters, throughout the life of our Lord Jesus, you find that God dwells in Him and He dwells in God. It is a mutual dwelling. The Father never left Him, and He never left the Father.
Only for a very short time, when He was on the cross, was there separation. For the first three hours, God still dwelt in Him and He still dwelt in God, because He could pray and say, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” The Father sustained Him.
But during the last three hours of His crucifixion, God left Him. The house was deserted. He could not address God as Father. He said, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
Brothers and sisters, in those last three hours, He suffered eternal death. He tasted hell—separation from God—for our sake.
But throughout His life, you find that the temple there was so glorious, so beautiful, admired by people, yet it was empty. God was not there. But here was a man, a man of Galilee, despised and rejected, and yet God dwelt in Him and He in God. There was no separation.
Only for our sake was there separation for three hours. But thank God, before He died, the Bible says He committed His spirit to God. In other words, there was a reunion, because the work was done.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is the house of God? The house of God is where God dwells, and man dwells in God.
Secondly, not only does God dwell with man, and it is an indwelling, but we find that God communicates with man. Now, that is what the house of God is.
You remember, when God commanded Moses to build the tabernacle, He said in Exodus 25:22:
There I will meet with thee, and I will speak with thee.
In other words, the house of God is where God communicates Himself to man. Not only does God communicate with man, but man communicates with God. Now, that is the house of God.
In our house, what is it if there is no communication? Say you have the husband and wife there, but they never speak to each other. There is no communication. You cannot say that this is a house. It is empty, just as if they were not there.
Brothers and sisters, here we find in Christ Jesus that communion, that communication, was unceasing, uninterrupted, sweet, harmonious, and glorious.
The Father always spoke to the Son, and the Son always spoke to the Father. There was perfect communication.
You remember our Lord Jesus: His whole life was governed by the will of God. How did He know the will of God? Even His timing was governed by it.
He would not even go to the feast, and He told His brothers, “You go there, because your time is always ready; but My time has not yet come.” Why? Because the Father had not communicated it to Him. He waited for the Father. Yet later on, He knew, and He went.
You will find that His whole life was in communion with His Father. In the Bible, you will find many instances when our Lord Jesus prayed. Early in the morning He went into the wilderness to pray. Late in the night, deep in the night, He was praying.
All these are but indications. Even when He was not outwardly praying, there was communion going on day and night, unceasingly, because He is the house of God.
God spoke to Him. Three times the heavens opened and God spoke: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him.” That was perfect communion in that house.
Not only that, but thirdly, God was worshiped and served. This is what the house of God is. The house of God is where God is worshiped.
Now, what is worship? Worship is not a formality. Worship simply means that you put God in His rightful place and you stand yourself in your proper place. Now, that is worship.
No one on earth put God in His rightful place as our Lord Jesus did. When He came into this world, the Bible tells us how He emptied Himself of the glory and honor of being God, the Son of God.
He emptied Himself of all these things and took the form of a bondslave. Now, a bondslave is one who has no right to anything. He does not possess anything; he is possessed. He has no right even to his life. His life or death is in the hand of his master.
Our Lord Jesus, coming to become a man, took the form of a bondslave. He gave up every right, and He allowed God to be all to Him, to be His Lord and Master.
Throughout His life, He obeyed. He was obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Brothers and sisters, that is worship. His whole life was worship: giving God His rightful place and standing on the ground of a bondslave.
Not only worship, but service. You find throughout His life how He served God.
How do you serve God? You serve God by serving His will. If you serve according to your own will, but do not serve the will of the One Whom you serve, you are not serving. You are serving yourself. You are not serving God.
You remember even in Psalm 40. There was a prophecy about the Lord:
Sacrifice and offering Thou hast no desire;
but a body hast Thou prepared for Me.
Lo, I am come to do Thy will;
Thy will is in My heart.
It is My pleasure to do Thy will.
This prophecy was fulfilled in our Lord Jesus. We find Hebrews quoting the same thing concerning our Lord Jesus. So you find His whole life, His service, even though He was serving man, was service according to God’s will.
Our Lord Jesus on earth is a perfect example of the house of God. Brothers and sisters, God gave us such a revelation, such a demonstration, in the life of our Lord Jesus that we cannot fail to understand what the house of God really is.
But our Lord Jesus, as the house of God, is a demonstration. God wants to demonstrate to man what kind of a house He would be pleased to dwell in and rest in.
But God’s purpose is to include us. So, in this sense, you find that our Lord Jesus is not only a demonstration; He is a pattern. He is the pattern of the house of God.
He came into this world to prepare not only to show what it is, but even to prepare for its enlargement, if I may put it that way. Because God wants to include man—us—into that house.
So when our Lord Jesus was on earth, what was He doing? What was He looking for?
The apostle John always went to the very heart of God. So there in the Gospel of John we are told that our Lord Jesus came into this world to seek for His bride.
He is the Bridegroom, because John the Baptist said, “I am the friend of the Bridegroom. I am not the Bridegroom. When I hear the voice, the sound, of the Bridegroom, I am happy. He must increase; I must decrease.”
In other words, our Lord Jesus came into this world as a Bridegroom looking for His bride, looking for His like, looking for people whom He could join together with, fill, and express Himself through, to be the real house of God in eternity.
But when He was on earth, if you read the Gospels, you will find the people He was in touch with: sinners, deaf, blind, crippled, dead. That was all He could find.
They were not His like. They could not be joined together with Him to be the house of God as an expansion, an enlargement, of Himself.
So He had to prepare. He had to save, to redeem, to discipline, to train, and to provide the material for the building of the house of God. That is what our Lord did when He was on earth.
Not until very late, toward the end of His ministry, do you remember, in Matthew 16, He said:
Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Again, in Matthew 18:20, He said:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
That is the house of God. This was His preparation.
Thank God for Calvary, for the cross, because there on the cross He redeemed a people out of every people, every nation, every tribe, and every tongue. God called out a redeemed people unto Himself.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down, and in one Spirit they became one body. We all drink of one Spirit.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find that on earth today there is the house of God, not in type but in reality. When Christ was on earth, He was the only One who really represented the house of God.
But after His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, we find that from that time onward until now, there on earth is the reality of the house of God.
What is the church? In 1 Corinthians 12:12-13:
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is the Christ.
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit makes no mistake. The body is one but has many members; many members, but one body. We know what that is. That is the church.
But the Holy Spirit says, “So also is the Christ.” So what is the church? The church is the Christ. In other words, it is Christ in His corporate expression. It is the enlargement of Christ. It is the fullness of Christ, Who fills all in all.
That is what the church is. In other words, whatever Christ is, that is what the church is to be. Nothing less, nothing more. It is the Christ.
Thank God: where two or three are gathered together in My name. Thank God, He has given us His name.
You remember, in the last discourse of our Lord with His disciples before His crucifixion, He promised a few things. One of the things He promised was, “I will give you My name.”
“You have never prayed in My name, but now I give you My name. If you ask the Father in My name, He will do it for My sake.”
So, dear brothers and sisters, even though our Lord Jesus today is not physically here—He is in heaven—He has left His name with us. We are all called by His name.
Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
That is the house of God.
When we really take up the name of our Lord Jesus, His name is above every name. It is not a mere formality; it is real.
If we gather together in His name, that is to say, we all put ourselves under His name, under His authority, and under His headship. We are assured of His presence.
Every time when God’s people come together representing the house of God, we should experience the presence of God.
You remember in 1 Corinthians 14, when the church gathered together and people came in and heard, they said, “God is in your midst.” That is the house of God.
The house of God is not an empty building. What if we meet together and the glory of the Lord does not fill the house? What if we meet together and the Lord is not there?
We lose the very meaning of our existence. The reason why we are together is not to have a social time, not to have a good time, not to satisfy ourselves, or get something for ourselves.
The reason why we are together is that we are together with the Lord, and the Lord is together with us—not physically, but spiritually. And the spiritual is more real than the physical.
The presence of the Lord: if the presence of the Lord has left, you remember when the ark was taken, Eli’s daughter-in-law gave birth, and she said, “The glory is departed. The glory of the Lord has departed.”
If that is the case, there is emptiness. So, brothers and sisters, what we look for is the presence of our Lord—His very presence in our midst.
But there is a condition: we have to gather together in His name. That is, we have to put ourselves down and allow Him to be our Head, allowing Him to express Himself through us.
Nothing satisfies God or satisfies us but His presence. That is what the church is. It is not an external thing; it is a reality.
Every time when we come together, we need to be able to say, “Thank God, He is here.”
Not only that, but the house of God is the place of communion, of fellowship. Therefore, the church is a fellowship.
Fellowship is sharing something in common. Now, what do we have in common? Naturally speaking, we are so different. Yet thank God, there is something we have in common.
We have Christ. We have His life. We have His Word. We have His Spirit. We come together to share with one another.
Nobody is so selfish as to keep everything unto himself and not share. And nobody is so proud as to think that they themselves are sufficient. The church is a fellowship.
As we fellowship with the Father and with the Son, out of that fellowship we fellowship with our brothers and sisters. Communication, fellowship—not only vertically, where it begins, but horizontally.
If we do not have fellowship with the Father and with the Son, we have nothing to report to our brothers and sisters. But the apostles had much to report. Why? Because they had such sweet fellowship with the Father and with the Son.
So it is so important, brothers and sisters, being the house of God. If there is no fellowship, only social activity, there is a club. There is not a church. There is not a house of God.
So we want to encourage brothers and sisters to fellowship.
Now, fellowship is not just talking about everything under heaven. There is a time for that, yes. Fellowship is sharing Christ.
By sharing Christ, we encourage and enlarge one another. It is a fellowship of love.
Do we love one another enough to be willing to share what Christ means to us?
Not only that, just as our Lord Jesus is where God is worshiped and served, so, as the house of God, this is where He is worshiped and served.
Is He really worshiped? Do we really put Him in His rightful place?
Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
That is worship.
Do we really worship Him in our singing? If we sing with our voice but not with our heart, there is no worship.
Do we worship through prayer? If we just want God to do what we want and do not want what He wants, is that prayer? Is that worship?
If we are thinking of ourselves all the time and not of the Lord, is that worship? Who is worshiped?
Not only should our life be worship, but this is the time when God’s people come together. Our worship ascends as incense toward God, satisfying His heart.
Brothers and sisters, how often, when we come to the Lord’s table, are we here to be satisfied, or are we here to satisfy Him?
After we have the Lord’s table, will our Lord say, “Today, I am satisfied”? Or do we say, “Well, this worship time is not good. I am not satisfied”?
Worship is giving Him the rightful place together—not just in your personal life, but together. Let us give Him the rightful place, and let us stand in our proper place as bondslaves, with no right of any kind.
And serve. Serving Him simply means doing His will. If we are doing our will, that is not serving Him; we are serving ourselves.
So when we come together, brothers and sisters, when we serve, we serve according to His will, by His strength, by His Spirit—not by our own selves.
Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.
Our service is unto Him, not unto men.
Sometimes I am thinking, you know, every group has a chance to serve, to clean this place on Saturday once in a few weeks. I thank God that brothers and sisters serve, so on the Lord’s Day when we come, we find the place is clean and the chairs are there.
But my question is this: when you are doing these things—not to say that those people are not doing them—when you are doing these things, do you do it as unto the Lord or as unto man?
If it is unto man, that is not service. It is unto God, thank God. Because even when you are putting up the chairs, there is a spirit behind it. The Lord will bless that action, and we will remember it even in eternity.
Brothers and sisters, what a privilege we have. So many opportunities to serve God by serving brothers and sisters.
If you just have your heart open, there is no lack of places to serve. We do not need to go to Africa to serve. Right here, there are lots of opportunities to serve God, if we have the heart.
So, brothers and sisters, this is what the house of God is.
Finally, you remember, in 1 Timothy 3:15, the apostle Paul told Timothy that he wrote these words so that he might know how to behave in the house of God, which is the pillar and ground of the truth.
So, knowing what the house of God is, we need to know how to behave, how to conduct ourselves, in the house of God. I would just briefly mention three things.
One is from the personal point of view: how should I conduct myself in the house of God? I will say one word: holy.
Because the house of God is holy. Without holiness, no one shall see God.
Be ye holy; for I am holy.
In other words, we need to be separated. It does not mean that we need to leave the world. It does not mean that you go to the mountain and become a monk. That is no separation, because the world follows you into the monastery.
It is a spiritual reality. We need to be separated from everything that is not of God—not only separated from the world, but from sin, from our flesh, from our self. Holy unto God, because He is holy.
So how we need, in our daily life, to learn by the grace of God to be separated. The Word will tell us; the Spirit within us will show us. We need to be a separated people unto God.
Now, corporately, we need to keep diligently the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
How do we keep our unity? By putting ourselves all under the headship of Christ. As Colossians 2:19 puts it in a positive way, holding fast the Head, that all the members of the body will be ministered to and united together.
Then there will be the increase of God.
From the family point of view, because the house of God is a family, the household of love, there is nothing more important than love.
Even in the Last Supper, you remember, our Lord Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. Then He told them:
Love one another, as I have loved you. This is My new commandment.
So, dear brothers and sisters, thank God that in spite of all the failures throughout the centuries of man, God is able to reveal even more glory—not only in Christ, but in the church as the house of God.
Dear Lord, we are really awed by that glory. Who are we, that Thou shouldst have such a glorious thought concerning us, that Thou wouldst want us to be Thy house?
O Lord, we pray that we may really see it in our hearts, that we may really be able, by Thy grace, to represent Thy house even today on earth.
Lord, we want Thee to enter into rest. We offer ourselves afresh today for this purpose. In Thy precious name we pray.