Address—P.L. Johnson
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Two Samuel.
Chapter 5 and verse one.
Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.
Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou was he that led us out and brought us in Israel. And the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel.
So all the elders of Israel came to the King, to Hebron, and King David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.
David was 30 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 40 years.
In Hebrew he reigned over Judah 7 years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned 30 and three years over all Israel in Judah.
And the king and his men went to Jerusalem under the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hit her, thinking David cannot come in hit her. Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion, the same as the city of David.
And David said on that day, whosoever get it up to the gutter and smite at the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind that are hated of Davidde soul, he shall be chief and captain.
Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.
So David dwelt in the Fort and called it the City of David, and David built round about from Millow and inward.
I will turn to First Chronicles Chapter 11. We have the.
The account given.
In that book of the same circumstance.
First Chronicles, Chapter 11.
Then all Israel gathered themselves to David and to Hebron, saying.
Behold, we are thy bone in thy flesh.
And moreover, in time past, even when Saul was king, thou hast he that led us out and brought us in Israel.
And the Lord thy God said unto thee, Thou shall feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel.
Therefore came all the elders of Israel to the king, to Hebron, and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel according to the word of the Lord by Samuel.
And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jesus, where the Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land.
And the inhabitants of Jesus said to David, Thou shalt not come hit her. Nevertheless David took the castle of Zion, which is the city of David. And David said, Whosoever smite at the Jebusites first shall be the chief, shall be chief and captain. So Joab the son of Zarah went first up and was chief.
And David dwelt in the castle. Therefore they called it the City of David.
And he built the city around about even from Millow roundabout and Joab.
Repaired the rest of the city.
We know that.
Prior to this, even while Saul was still.
The king in Israel.
God sent Samuel down to the House of Jesse.
And he told him that he was to anoint one of Jesse's sons to be king in the place of Saul. Saul was rejected because he had not obeyed the commandment of the Lord. He had demonstrated that he was not a man of faith, that he was not a man of God, that he was not really God's man. He was not truly the anointed, that is, he did not correspond to what God had in his mind.
In the anointing because in the anointing.
I believe the fact of being anointed, the anointed king would bring before us a man.
To whom God could commit everything.
One to whom God could make a committal.
The man that God would use to carry out his will to perform all that God had in his heart.
And I believe that's where that's carried over in connection with the person of the Lord Jesus. He's called the anointed, the Christ.
He's God's anointed man, the one who was to carry out and who carries out.
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All of the mind and the will of God. But Saul had demonstrated that he was not God's man.
And God sent to Samuel to the House of Jesse, and told him to anoint one of the sons of Jesse to be king over his people Israel. And you remember there that when the when the first born came before Samuel.
Samuel felt undoubtedly this would be the one that God would have to be anointed.
That God said no, this is not the one, and when the second came, why God likewise said this is not the one and all of the sons of.
The sons of Jesse were made to pass before Samuel, every one of them the seven sons of Jesse, and not one of them was the chosen of God. But finally, when the Samuel asked if there were not another.
They told him of David, the youngest, and the one who was keeping the sheep. Keeper of sheep.
And even there we see that the character of David would qualify him to be the anointed. You remember what what characterized Saul when he was chosen by the people and he was anointed king. He had gone out to seeking the the ***** of his father, and he was occupied with a different class of animal.
Than David. David was occupied with a sheep. What does that mean?
We know in the word of God that the sheep we have the people of God seen in the figure.
Are under the symbol of sheep.
The people of God are spoken of as sheep, and the keeper of sheep, I believe, would mean that David had an exercise.
In regard to the things of God, he had a concern for that which belonged to God. But we read in the in the book of Job that man is born like a wild ***** coat.
And so I believe that a Saul would speak of the man, the man in the flesh.
Who has his interest in the things that belong to man in the flesh? Natural man is born into this world.
The things that are of foolishness, and that's what Saul was occupied with. But.
We see that David was a man who was occupied with a sheep, a keeper of the sheep.
And we know of course, that he had, he had cared for those sheep, and he had delivered them from the enemy that had sought to destroy the sheep. Well then, that when he is brought in, God says to Samuel, arise and anoint him. And there he was, anointed in the in the midst of his brethren.
But Saul did not relinquish the throne. If you remember, Saul continued as a usurper.
He no longer had right nor title to that throne as king of Israel, but he maintained it, and he persecuted or he, he sought after David to put David to death. And we know that there were those who were who went out to David and the hold in the wilderness when he was driven out of the court of Saul, and they accompanied him.
And eventually, of course, Saul met his doom.
When he.
Was demonstrated to have been a man who did not have faith why he was brought him to judgment. You remember there was one who who shared that judgment with him. Jonathan who was a lover of David. But he never was one who took the outside place with David. Jonathan was drawn to David when David you remember defeated the giant Goliath.
And he loved him as he loved his own soul. But Jonathan?
Would not take the outside place when David had to flee from Saul's presence for his life.
And we read that when Saul had his court together and Jonathan was there, we read that David's place was empty. That's a remarkable statement said in First Samuel. David's place was empty. David had had a place there at Saul's table, but he was rejected now and he had gone out into the wilderness.
And David's place was empty. And there was Jonathan, a lover of David.
In a place where David's seat was empty.
Well, I think of that in regard to any who might know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
A lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's what a Christian, a true Christian, really is. He's a lover of Christ, just as Jonathan loved David.
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But the Lord Jesus is rejected.
He was He was put outside the camp. That's what we have in Hebrews 13. He suffered outside the gate.
What we read, and that's why it says, Therefore let us go forth unto him.
Outside the camp, that is his place in the camp as it were, is empty. There is no place for the Lord Jesus and the camp of where he has been rejected and His place is outside. But Jonathan didn't take that outside place, but there were those who did. But now when we come to first Chronicles 11 and 2nd.
Samuel 5 Saul has met judgment and the enemies of David have been cleared away, and now David is the one who is preeminent. And we see that the people are brought to the recognition of what God had already done when they anoint David king over Israel, that is they're they're brought now in the.
In the their own souls to recognize.
What God had already made him to be, you remember in the second chapter of Acts.
When Peter is preaching there to those Jews on the day of Pentecost, he says of the Lord Jesus that God has made him both the Lord.
And Christ.
The Lord Jesus raised from the dead and taken up into glory. And he is there the the man, the center of all of God's purposes and councils. He is the anointed one. That is, he's the Christ. He's the one in whom all of God's purposes and counsels are to be carried out, and he is Lord. He's made him both Lord and Christ.
Well, I believe the anointing here by the people would be their their recognition.
Their response to that God had already anointed David and now they're brought to recognize the place that he has. And so God has given him that place in the glory and he would have us to to give him that place to to recognize him as the the Lord and to recognize him as God's anointed, that there would be no other man before God.
Other than the Lord Jesus Christ, everything that God desires in man is found in Him.
And as I say, all of God's purposes and counsel center in Christ.
He is the He's the beginning of the creation of God, everything that God has ever determined.
To accomplish has always been and is taken up in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You take the very fault of man himself.
Adam, we read in Romans 5, is the figure of him that was to come.
God had Christ before him, the man Christ, even when Adam was created.
Adam didn't fulfill the full thought of God in regard to man, but Christ did. All that God ever looked for or that or that God ever thought of in regard to man, All of His thoughts of man are centered in the person of the Lord Jesus. You take when he took up the thought of a king, and as we see here in David, why he had Christ in view.
Because David is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ as the great King and all that God ever had in mind in regard to one who would be head and who would be in authority and who would bring everything into subjection to God is found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the anointed. He is God's man, and I believe that the anointing here of the people.
When they anointed David, it was a recognition.
Of what God had made him to be, they were saying, as it were. We agree with that. We accept that.
You know, in the Gospels that is in the I was thinking now of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
Well, actually in all four gospels.
John as well. We have the Lord Jesus anointed.
By a woman Now in Matthew, Mark and Luke we have him anointed by God.
First you remember it is baptism, all three of those writers.
Record the anointing of the Lord Jesus. How that the Holy Spirit came down from heaven.
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Upon him and while we don't have the historical.
The actual historical fact in John we have a reference to it. You remember when John the Baptist refers to how he would know God's beloved Son, He said God had said to him, the one that he found, whom the Spirit of God came and abode upon him, the same as the Son of God. So we have the anointing of of the Lord Jesus Christ by God in those gospels.
The historical fact in Matthew, Mark and Luke, and a reference to it in John.
That is, God was declaring his delight in this one, the Lord Jesus. God was declaring his word. God was declaring this is the man who is before me.
But then we have the anointing of the Lord Jesus by a woman in each one.
In Matthew and Mark.
The woman is not named and you remember it takes place.
There when the toward the end of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, when they were in the House of Simon the leper, there was a woman came and anointed the head of the Lord Jesus in Matthew and Mark, and I suppose that there it would be.
Symbolizing the.
The recognition that the Saints have that all that the Father saw in the Son.
As the great administrator, the head, the son of David, as we have in Matthew.
And that's where he's presented there in Matthew. He's presented as the great administrator that is the one who is head like David and the anointing of the Lord. And Matthew would be a recognition of that.
And in Mark, of course, we have the Lord Jesus presented as the servant of God.
Serving here in the liberty of sonship, the one who was here as a great servant of Jehovah, the one of whom it was said that he hath done all things well. It's not only that he served, but everything he did, he did according to the mind of God. He, he did all things well. Well, there's the anointing by the woman found in the Gospel of Mark.
And I suppose there would be the response of the heart of the believer. It would be a picture of the response of our hearts.
That would answer to the anointing of the Lord Jesus as the servant of God.
And then in Luke, you remember there was an anointing there.
In the I believe it's the 8th chapter of Luke.
It was the woman who was a Sinner in the city, and she came and she.
With the tears she anointed the feet of the Lord and wiped his feet with her hairs of her head.
She was recognizing there the the grace of God that was brought to her in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in John's Gospel chapter 12, we have we have one that we have the one mentioned.
Mary there as anointing the Lord when the she breaks that alabaster box of ointment. Well, I believe that all corresponds to the anointing of the Lord here. That is, the people are brought to recognize.
I suppose before this they hadn't really properly appreciated the value of David Godhead. God saw in David the one who was His anointed, but the people had not really been brought to it. And now they're brought to recognize that He is the one who is, who is to be their head, and they anoint him king over David.
Now you'll notice that the first action of David here is that he goes to Jerusalem.
You know in the book of Acts when the Lord Jesus goes up into heaven.
And.
Peter declares him to be made both Lord in Christ.
The first thing that he does is establish here on Earth a divine center.
Well, you might say there was already a divine center. Well, there was. We know that Jerusalem, as we see it brought to light here was the divine center when the Lord was on earth. But you remember, the Lord wept over Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem and he speaks of how often he would have gathered her children as as a as a hen gathered her chicks under her wings, but they would not. And so Jerusalem is set aside and the there's a new center established on earth when the Lord goes on high for the church is established here on earth. And I believe we have here the the in tight that very thing.
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That when David goes to Jerusalem, he brings delight.
The divine center on earth because God had promised of old back in the book of Deuteronomy before they ever entered the land of Canaan. Many years before this, God had said that he would that there would be a place.
There would be a place there in the midst of His people, where He would place His name, and that would be the divine center. That's where He would dwell. That's where He would be served. That's where the gathering together of the people of God would take place.
Now that place never came to light.
In the days of Joshua, or in the days of the judges that that followed Joshua, it didn't come to light in the days of Samuel, the days of Saul, it was only when David became king.
When David had his right place. When David was enthroned.
Not only by God but by the people, and He had His rightful place that the divine center came to light and was established. And that's what we have here. David and all Israel went to Jerusalem. Turn over to Psalm 122. I believe it's 122nd Psalm.
I think we see the significance of the.
Jerusalem.
As the divine center.
Psalm 122 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the House of the Lord.
Our feet shall stand within thy gates of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together. Whether the tribes go up. This is the verse I had especially in mind. Whether the tribes go up. The tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks under the name of the Lord.
For there set Thrones of judgment, the Thrones of the House of David.
Jerusalem was the place where the tribes, where the people of God went up. That was the gathering center, that was the divine center, that was the place that God had placed his name. Of course, when the psalmist writes here at some years after David and that place had come to light that it was Jerusalem. So in the book of Deuteronomy, when God says that there would be a place.
That he would place his name.
And here we see that the place is Jerusalem, and that's where the tribes went up and it was to the testimony that was the testimony of Israel. And that's where the the House of God was in that city of David. When I turn back again to First Chronicles.
When David goes up to Jerusalem.
We see that it's in the hands of the Jebusites.
That is, that God is going to.
Take a city.
That was in the hands of the enemy.
And he was going to overthrow the power of the enemy, and in the very place where the.
Where the enemy had a stronghold, where the enemy had this, had this great power, he was going to come in and break the power of the enemy. And in that very place he was going to establish a divine center where he would dwell with his people and where his people could approach him and where his people would serve him and where he would be known.
Right in the place of a stronghold of the enemy.
And it was a very, very strong place because in verse five, at the end of the verse, it says nevertheless David took the castle.
Of Zion.
That shows us that it was a stronghold. It was taken out of the hand of the enemy.
Where we read in the in that verse 5. Nevertheless David took the council of Zion, which is the city of David.
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Verse seven And David dwelt in the castle, and therefore they called it the city.
Of David.
It's called the City of David. It was rested from the hand of the enemy, a stronghold of the enemy, and now David takes it and he calls it after his own name. Well, I believe we have here a little picture of how God comes in.
And A and and.
Delivers from the hand of the enemy those who were under Satan's power, and constitutes them his house.
Turn over to the book of Acts chapter 18.
Before we go on, I'd like to make this little distinction. It might help us.
We know that.
The Church when we speak of the Church or the Assembly.
And it's.
Broadest aspect We speak of all the believers on the Lord Jesus Christ everywhere.
And we know that when one believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, his heart is purified by faith and he receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. He is united to that company on earth called the body of Christ. Every believer, when he believes his heart purified by faith.
He receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. God gives him the Holy Spirit. It's not automatic. God gives it. It's the gift of God. And then one is made a member of the assembly of the church, which is the body of Christ. It's a universal thing. The it's not some local gathering, but it's universal. Likewise we have in the.
First epistle to Timothy in chapter 3. The thought of the House of God.
Paul says that thou mayst know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the House of God.
Which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. That also brings before us the church in its universal character, as we have in Hebrews chapter 2, that Christ is Son over God's house. And it says whose house we are, the believers are the House of God. Now Christ is over God's house. He's the head. He's the one who has authority in charge.
God's house as Son.
But the House of God are the believers on the Lord Jesus. It also has a universal aspect, of course. The thought of the body brings before us the thought of union, That is, that we're actually united together and united to our living head in heaven, Christ.
And the thought of the house is testimony.
It's the pillar and support of the truth that is the Church has been set in this world.
As the center of testimony for God in the place of public witness.
And testimony. But what I was thinking, especially now, is the way in which God.
Comes in in a locality.
And he establishes in a locality that which corresponds, I believe, to Jerusalem.
That is a local assembly. Now, of course, a local assembly is not seen in Scripture as independent of the one church on earth. It is the local aspect of it. It's a part of the church. But nonetheless, we find in Scripture that the assembly functions locally. That is all of the truth, the truth that we find in Scripture, that is.
That in regard to the assembly or the Church.
Is to be carried out in localities where believers.
Have been saved from the power of Satan and where they have been gathered.
That's the thought we find that in the book of Acts, do we not? When there were those that were saved all the way through? And I was thinking of this 18th chapter, especially when Paul comes to a corner.
And when he is there?
We read that he preached the gospel.
I was thinking especially in verse 7.
After the Jews had rejected and blasphemed, the Gospel says he departed thence and entered into a certain man's house named Justice, one that worshipped God, whose house joined harm to the synagogue.
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And Christmas, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized.
Now Corinth, of course, was a Gentile city.
And characterized by heathen darkness.
Indeed, they were under under Satan's power. Now. There was a synagogue there.
And we know that with the synagogue being there, there were Jews, and these Jews had the more light than the Gentiles.
But they they had fallen into mere formalism, and so there was number reality.
We might say that when Paul entered this city, it was in the power of the enemy, just like Jerusalem was in the when it was under the power of the Jebusites. As David approached the city of Jerusalem, he would not find a city there where there was the light of God and where there was a testimony of God, where they were lovers of God, but the city was filled.
With those who were opposed to God and those who were.
In darkness and so when Paul comes to Kant, he doesn't come to a city where there's.
Where there is light of God there and where there are Saints of God, that he comes to a city that is a stronghold of Satan.
An idolatry city and those who were in darkness. But God comes in and we see that he, he delivers souls.
Just as we had in the in the.
Capture of Jerusalem when David captured Jerusalem.
He delivered that city from the hands of the enemy. So God comes in, we see in verse 8 and many of the Corinthians hearing believed.
And were baptized. Now notice verse 9. Then speak the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not by peace. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. For I have much people in this city.
And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God.
Among them.
God says I have much people in this city.
There were many souls who had been saved.
And those who were saved were of course joined to that body on earth, the body of Christ that had already been formed here on earth by the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
And God was adding to the church daily. We read back in the early chapters of Acts and now God added to the church here.
But I believe what's involved in verses 10 and 11.
Goes beyond the fact of souls being saved and dwelt by the Spirit and so united to the body of Christ. Now that's one thing for them to be a part of the body of Christ, but what God had in mind was that in that city of Kant that there would be a gathering.
A gathering of those who were his, that there should be a center like we have in Jerusalem, it said. Whether the tribes go up, that is the people of God actually gathered there, They came together.
They came together that there should be a gathering of those who were saved and made members of the body of Christ. You know, there are those who I believe overlook this important truth.
They preach the gospel and we can thank God for that. And the gospel preached God uses for the salvation of souls. And those who believe the gospel and are indwelt by the Spirit, they are added to the church, the body of Christ.
That God has more than that for his people he has the thought that there would actually be the.
Gathering together of his people like Jerusalem, a gathering center and I I feel that here in the in Corinth, God came in for that very purpose, not only to save these souls for heaven, not only to save them from a crisis eternity, but that there should be a testimony established there in that city, just like Jerusalem was the spoken of in the Psalm 122 is the testimony.
Of Israel. That was the testimony of God. That was the Sinner, the testimony of God in Israel.
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And so God wanted, as it were, a temple in that city. You remember what it says in First Corinthians chapter 3 when God write or the Paul writes later to these to to the assembly there he says, ye are God's temple.
Now I know in First Corinthians we have that expression.
That we're the temple of God in two different ways in chapter 6.
There who our bodies are spoken of as being the temple of God.
But in the third chapter when he says Ye are the temple of God.
And the temple of God is holy. He's not talking about our bodies there. He's talking about the assembly.
He's talking about the gathering of the Lord's people in that city, those who came together.
Those who were walking together as members of the body of Christ, he says, now you're God's temple, and the temple of God is holy. Now that's true as to our bodies, but it's also true as to the assembly.
Well, God wanted a temple in this city.
And in order to secure that temple, a dwelling place for himself in that city.
A testimony to himself in that city, why he he sent Paul there, and the preaching of the gospel secured the material.
You know what I mean? It was the preaching of the gospel that secured the material for this temple that God would have in that city. But the actuarial, you might say, formation of the temple involved teaching. In verse 11, he continued there a year and six months.
That is, it wasn't sufficient that these souls were only saved, but in order to have that which he could own and call his temple.
Why Paul remained there a year and six months teaching the Word of God, among them teaching the word of God so that in a, you might say in the practical sense, there was farmed a divine center, there was farmed an assembly. I don't want to be misunderstood, but I I believe that it's sustained in the Word of God.
Here and in other places that.
There's two.
Different faults.
As to the assembly, which is the body of Christ that everyone belongs to when he's saved.
And the assembly in a practical sense of functioning, you know what I mean? That is coming together as God's assembly and functioning as God's assembly.
Coming together to break bread, coming together for edification, coming together for fellowship so that and coming together too for discipline in the care of God's people and the maintenance of God's testimony and order in this world.
You know, we read in the 11Th chapter of Acts.
When?
Who went as far as Antioch preaching the gospel? That is, they want they were scattered there on account of the persecution that arose in connection with the stoning of Stephen.
A great persecution arose against the Christians.
Over the in connection with the stoning of Stephen and we read that some went as far as Antioch preaching the gospel.
And souls were saved in Antioch.
And when the tidings of this reach the ears of the church or assembly in Jerusalem, they sent Barnabas up there. And Barnabas, you remember, exhorted them with purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. But Barnabas felt that here was a gathering, here was a number of souls that have been saved.
And he felt that perhaps he wasn't equal to the task of instructing and teaching them. So he sent for Saul in Tarsus, who had been converted. And undoubtedly he, he felt, and he had seen already that this was a man who was to be greatly used of God. So he sent to Tarsus and had Saul come up to Antioch. And we read that.
They assembled themselves with the church.
And taught them they assembled themselves what I had especially in mind that thought of assembling you see the.
The the Church, the body of Christ.
In one sense does not really assemble it, the universal aspect, but the Saints who are members of that body, they assemble. They come together and they assemble. And that's the thought I believe in connection with Jerusalem that we have back in First Chronicles and in Second Samuel, just as Jerusalem was to be the center of the city where the people of God were to come together.
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So God would have this assembly established here in Corinth and in other places too, and in every place.
As he would have an assembly established here that there might be the gathering together.
Of the Lord's people, it's his thought that they should gather together. We know that the very work of the cross had that in view. That's in John 11.
Where you remember it, we said of him that he should die for that nation Israel, and not for that nation only, but that he should gather together the children of God scattered abroad.
His death on the cross had the gathering together of God's people, not just the salvation of their souls, but to gather them together in testimony to Him and to and testimony to God that they would be that gathering center.
And I'm reminded of this. You remember back in Samuel when David slew Goliath to John?
And he ran upon him and cut his head off.
We read there that he took the head to Jerusalem.
I think that's a striking type of the verse that I just quoted in John 11. Of course, he is defeating the giant. There is a picture and a type of his victory on the cross of Calvary, and he took the head to Jerusalem, showing that there is a connection with the work of the cross with the divine center Jerusalem will now turn back to.
The account that we read in Second Samuel, chapter 5.
In Second Samuel chapter 5 we have some details given that are not found in First Chronicles. In First Chronicles we have the general statement of how David went up and how he arrested that city of Jerusalem from the Jebusites and how he established it as his own city.
And so, as we've seen in Corinth, God comes in in grace, and he secures material for the assembly. He snatches them from the hands, as it were, of the enemy, and he establishes.
That which is to be for his own name, because when Paul writes to Corinth, he writes to the Church of God.
See, they have they take the very name of God. Of course, that's not a title that anyone would put on a sign out in front of a meeting room, the Church of God, but it means it's God's church.
It's God's assembly now.
And so the city of Jerusalem became the city of David. But notice in Second Samuel 5.
We have some details and if you will.
Allow me, I'm going to change the translation and it's not arbitrary.
I mean by that, that I'm not just changing it to suit my, my thoughts. If you would check with Mr. Darby's new translation, you will see that generally the way I'm I'm going to read it is the way he puts it because.
The the translators in this particular occasion, and especially in in verses 6:00 and 8:00, we'll see that the the the translation that King James is not really that accurate.
In verse six, when the king and his men went to Jerusalem under the Jebusites, inhabitants of the land. Now here's what they said when David came up, the inhabitants of the land, they speak unto David saying, and this is the way it should read.
The blind and the lame shall Dr. thee back.
That's what they said when David came up to take the city. Why they, they derided him. They spoke in derision, mockery. They, they were so secure. They felt so secure, that is, and their stronghold, their castle. So secure. They said why the blind and the lame will drive David back, thinking that David cannot come in, hit her. That's what they thought. They thought there's no way David can.
There's no way David can take this stronghold. And they said why are the blind and the lame? They were not even good. They were not. They didn't have to use their choices of their soldiers. They didn't have to bring the greatest of their warriors against David. They said by the blind and the lame will drive thee back thinking David could not come in, hit her. That's what they thought.
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Well, we know, that's why it says in verse 7 nevertheless.
Despite this secure feeling, despite this derision and mockery, David took the stronghold. It was a stronghold, but he took the stronghold. Now in verse eight, we have what David says.
And David said on that day.
Whosoever smideth the Jebusites, let him cast into the water spot.
The lame and the blind hated of David's soul.
I had a question asked from you one time by sister where I was staying. They had read this before the day before I arrived and and she said to me, she said I'm troubled about a a verse that we read in our reading here at home yesterday and second Samuel 5 and she referred she read this to me. She says that that doesn't sound like God, that David would hate the lame and the blind.
She said. You would think that you would have compassion on poor, lame and blind people.
Well, I I explained to her what I'm going to bring out now. That's what David said here. Whosoever smites the Jebusites, let him cast into the water. Course, that's a waterfall.
Of course it means casting them into death.
The lame and the blind hated of David's soul. Now what David is saying here, he's taking up the language of the Jebusites.
They said.
That the blind and the lame would drive David away.
And David takes up that language. He takes that up and he applies it to all the Jebusites. He says you're the lame and the blind. So he says let them be cast into the water. Course. It wasn't just the poor lame and blind ones that he's talking about. He he's Speaking of the character of the Jebusites. They said the lame and the blind would drive him back. But David is saying you're the lame and the blind, so that whoever.
The Jebusites let them cast them into the water course, that is, into the place of death.
And what I believe is involved here in type and in picture is this.
It's a picture of man by nature, natural man. He's blind and he's lame. Now we're we're speaking morally, we're not talking about physical blindness and physical lameness.
It's the moral thought that man by nature, and that's what the Jebusites were, they, they represent a natural man and with all of their vaunted strength and with their position they had and whatever they thought of themselves from the standpoint, from God's standpoint, they were just poor, blind, lame persons. That's all they were. And when Paul came into calm.
That was a city, as the Greeks are noted for their wisdom.
And the Greeks boasted of their wisdom, but as far as God was concerned, they were just poor, blind, lame souls. That's what man is in the flesh. That's what natural man is. He's blind and he's lame. He cannot see the things of God except a man be born again. He cannot see the Kingdom of God. There is nothing in man that responds to God.
Natural man. It must be a work of God.
Ye must be born again, because there is nothing there. He is blind. He cannot see the things of God. And then the Lord goes on to say that except you be born again, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. They're lame. They can't walk in the ways of God.
Natural man does not walk in the ways of God. He cannot see the things of God. He does not understand the things of God. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. They that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Well, those are plain language, isn't it? And I think that's what's involved here.
You see this just like in Corinth and justice as we were.
We were those who were in the flesh and we could not please God. We couldn't receive anything from God.
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God must do the work Himself, and so He has begottenness of His spirit, so that now that which is born of the spirit is spirit. We have a life, we have a nature that is spiritual, that can take in spiritual things.
As those who are born of the Spirit. But now, then they were cast into the place of death.
They were cast into the place of death.
That is that we recognize, we recognize that what belongs to the flesh and man in the flesh has come under the judgment of God. That's the first chapter of first, first Corinthians, that man in the flesh has come under the judgment of God and we recognize that. That's why he says let him cast into the water course.
The lame and the blind hated of David's soul because that's where the cross of Christ has put man in the flesh.
Notice at the end of verse 8. Therefore they said, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house.
Oh, I believe that's important.
The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.
You know, that was the trouble in Corinth. They were trying to bring the blind and the lame in the house.
They were bringing in the first man, They were bringing in man's wisdom and man's religion, religious thoughts, all that belonged to the first man that David had said. Let him cast it into the water course, and they shall not come into the house.
They're being brought into the house and that's what brought in the difficulty. I believe that's an important principle in connection with with the with the assembly as functioning. And you know, when we come to the First Epistle of the Corinthians, we have set out the assembly and function that is we have the assembly actually functioning in that locality of corrupt.
And we have the instructions as to how they were to go on and.
What is lame and blind, what is of man in the flesh has no part. And I believe that all of the difficulties that arise among the Saints arise by bringing in that which is blind or lame. Something of man, something of man. It's not of the Spirit of God that is not of the 2nd man, something of the first man that should be put in the place of death.
And that's where the difficulty arises is we don't modify our members, which are upon the earth.
And we, we don't put them in the place of death, and we bring in the that which says here that they have no place. They have no place in the House of God. Now I'd like to refer to one other incident here. And in First First Chronicles 11, we read in verse nine that David dwelt in the Fort and called it the city of David. And David built roundabout from Millow and inward.
This expression.
Miller this word.
Means a rampart. I take it to be a high.
Plot of ground a place that was, you might say, natural defense. We know, of course, that that in in warfare.
Why high ground is perhaps better and easier defended than some low lying ground. This the word mellow means a rampart.
So it had to do with the defense of the city. Now that's the thought. You see, the city has been captured and taken, and the principle of the city had been set out. The blind and the lame have no place there. So we might say that the assembly has been established, and in a locality assembly has been established where souls have been gathered who are members of the body of Christ. And the principle is established that the blind and the lame have no place there.
But now that city needs to be defended because the enemy is not going to give up. We find that Jerusalem was always the object of the attack of the enemy. The enemy wanted to destroy that because it was the city of David. It was a testimony. And so the assembly today where their Saints going on coming together, gathering together and walking in the light of the assembly, they're going to be the object of the attack of the enemy because it's a testimony to the Lord.
That's the thing, It's a testimony to the Lord.
And so the enemy would attack this and and they needed a defense.
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So he built.
From Miller and inward when I turn over to First Chronicles 11.
And verse 8.
And he built the city roundabout even from Miller Roundabout or outward.
In other words, the starting point was this rampart, this high.
Piece of land, ground. And from there he built fortifications outward, and from that point, mellow, he built fortifications inward toward the city. And I believe that it brings before us the two ways in which the testimony of the Lord in the assembly is to be preserved and defended.
That is in an outward way, which I would apply to the.
To the gathering that is the form, the outward form of the gathering of the Lord's people, as we come together without organization, as we come together without an appointed head, as we come together without committees, and all of these organizations that man has introduced coming together simply as those who are under the headship of Christ.
And under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and directed by the Word of God.
And coming together as we do on the first day of the week, as Paul writes to the Corinthians, when you become together in the assembly, why it was for the breaking of bread. And when they become together too for edification, how that there is a leading of the Spirit of God, and how that the Spirit of God furnishes all that's needed for their good and edification in the 12Th chapter.
In other words, the outward order, so to speak.
That belongs to the assembly needs to be defended. We need to preserve the outward order order and not allow.
Disorder to come into the gathering of the Lord's people, that which is the center here, we're not to allow disorder to come in. That's I would say the building from the mellow outward preserving the outward order and it has its place. And 1St Corinthians, I believe, is chiefly occupied with the with the outward order because confusion had been brought in.
And the armor had been.
Perverted there in Corinth.
Even sisters taking part and so forth and being without head covering. Those things all have to do with the outward order.
But in the book of Samuel we read there that he built from the mellow inward.
And there I believe that there is a the fault of preserving the testimony and defending the testimony inwardly. And I believe that's what we have in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, the ministry, the ministry that preserves the testimony. Because, you know, outward order will soon give way if there is not the.
Ministry of the Spirit of God, the ministry of the truth, the ministry of new creation.
The ministry of glory. The ministry of Christ.
If there is not a building up and the souls of the Saints with true ministry, eventually outward order will decay and give way. You can't really preserve outwardly without the inward power, and that comes from the the ministry. You remember what Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 4, having therefore received this ministry.
Its new covenant ministry. It's the ministry of the Spirit. It's the ministry of righteousness, a ministry of glory.
A ministry of new creation. If any man be in Christ, it's a new creation, you see.
These are wonderful truths, and if we let them slip away.
Then we're not preserving the we're not going to preserve the the testimony inwardly and then eventually the outward defense will give way. But here we see that David built from the mellow that speaks of the defense, the rampart and he built outwards and he built inward and both need to be maintained the outward order that becomes the House of God and the.
Ministry. The New Covenant Ministry.
The ministry that is peculiar, you might say, to Christianity. Now, of course, there's many things that are administered in the Word of God, and I'm not saying that it's not without profit, prophecy and the position of Israel and the dispensations, all of these things. But if we lose that which is characteristic of Christianity, the new covenant, new creation ministry that I think is is brought out.
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Largely in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians.
Of course, others as well, like Ephesians and Colossians, this will preserve the the ardor even outwardly. So the the defense of the city. It has been secured just as David secured this stronghold of the Jebusites to be the city for his name.
Where the people would be gathered, a gathering center. So God has come in in grace and he establishes a testimony in the local gatherings here and elsewhere. And it's a testimony to his name. And so he would desire that the principles that govern that assembly and especially this thought of the blind and the lame being excluded and then it being it's being defended as to its outward order and as to the.
Power.