I turn now to examine another side of the truth of the Church of God as unfolded in the doctrine taught by the Apostle Paul: not that of the Body of Christ, united to her Head in heaven and maintained by the Holy Ghost in unity; but that of the " House of God." the " Habitation of God through the Spirit."
On the day of Pentecost the aggregate number of disciples who were baptized by the Holy Ghost and thus formed into the Body united to Christ in heaven, were also on earth a " Habitation of God through the Spirit." Each was conterminous with the other. Both forms embraced the same people. Those who composed the Body composed the House, and none else.
During the early part of the Acts of the Apostles there was a sort of tentative dealing with Israel once more, an opportunity being given to them that if they would repent and be converted, they might receive Jesus Christ who would be sent to them. At the same time He who knows the end from the beginning, knew what would be the result of this fresh offer. Nevertheless it was needful in His purposes to bring out fully the responsibility. of that guilty people in their final rejection of Christ in the glory. This took place when they murdered Stephen, who not only bore witness to their rejection of the Messiah but also to their rejection of the Holy Ghost. But the divine flood-gates of grace once opened in righteousness through the cross, could not now be stayed, and the stream which had flowed into " the city of the great King " up to this moment, was diverted in its course and flowed onward to Samaria.
The Lord of the harvest had said at this place a few short years before, " Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest." Samaria is now conquered by the gospel and the old enmity between " this mountain " (Samaria) and " Jerusalem " is blotted out by its peaceful waters, at least in the souls of those who accepted the living water thus freely flowing to them, But Philip must leave his prosperous labor and follow the stream, if needful, to the " ends of the earth." The sandy desert near Gaza becomes the channel of the grace of the Lord Jesus. A child of the race of Ham, an Ethiopian,
Chamberlain of Queen Candace, is sitting in his chariot, reading the Prophet Isaiah. He had come from distant Africa to worship at Jerusalem, and with an unsatisfied heart was returning to his own country. The day of Jerusalem's visitation was past. The words of the Lord Jesus, when he wept over Jerusalem, might have been heard again: " If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace 1 but now they are hid from thine eyes." {Luke 19:4242Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. (Luke 19:42).) But He who is " a rewarder of them that diligently seek him," follows this " dry tree," who after hearing a few words from Philip, God's messenger, evangelizing Jesus to him, receives the message and goes on his way rejoicing.
The whole Assembly at Jerusalem is broken up and " all were scattered abroad except the apostles." Saul, the percecutor of the Church, is converted at the height of his mad career by the words of the Lord Jesus in glory: " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? " and then and there becomes " a chosen vessel unto the Lord, to bear. His Name before the Gentiles and Icings and the children of Israel."
Saul, the persecutor of the Church, becomes Paul the Apostle and is made a Minister of the Church (Col. 1:24, 2524Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: 25Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; (Colossians 1:24‑25)) to unfold the wondrous mystery, " even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Then in 1 Corinthians we find Paul " as a wise master builder " laying the foundation " which is Jesus Christ," and others " building thereupon." So the work goes on. On the one side the divine work of God in forming the Body of Christ by the baptism of the Holy Ghost; and on the other we have the administration of the House put into man's hands. At the first, as we have seen, God constituted it by taking up His abode in the disciples at Pentecost as His House or Habitation. Then all who accepted the testimony were received by baptism into the place where the Spirit dwelt. The Apostles and those who constituted the House at the first, were never baptized: they were not thus received into the place where they were already. But all who came after were thus received, professing by being " baptized unto Christ Jesus that they were baptized unto His death," and were " buried with Him by baptism unto death," (Rom. 6:3, 43Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3‑4)). Soon after many more were added to this House of God (Acts 4:44Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand. (Acts 4:4)) but all were Jews: God took this mode of saving the remnant of Israel.
Samaria falls under the sound of the Gospel, and the enemy who first began " within" through Ananias and Sapphira, now seeks to introduce evil persons from " without ": " while men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." " Wood, hay, stubble " were introduced into the House of God, and Simon, the sorcerer, is received in the flush of joy which filled many hearts in Samaria. Thus the House, conterminous at first with the Body, began to enlarge itself disproportionately to the Body, which was maintained of God intact within it. But the Spirit of God did not leave the House, nor has He left it even to this day, though it has enlarged itself into what we see around us, which is likened by Paul to " a great house " (2 Tim. 2. 20) containing " not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor and some to dishonor."
We will now turn to Scripture to examine more fully the unfoldings of this truth of the House of God, an intelligent grasp of which is so needful for our path and service to the Lord.
In 1 Corinthians we find two greater divisions: 1st, ch. 1 to ch. 10, 14; and 2nd, ch. 10, 15 to ch. 16. In the first division the Apostle has the House before. him; in the second, the Body. Chapter 12 connects both. And here it may be of use to say that the word " Church " or " Assembly " applies to both, though having a distinct application to each. If we look on high at Christ in Glory, the Assembly is His Body (Eph. 2. 22, 23); and if we look below where the Spirit dwells, the Assembly is His House (Eph. 2. 22: see 1 Tim. 3:1313For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 3:13) where both are put together).
In the Apostle's address to the saints at Corinth we find a most comprehensive line of thought. " Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called [to be] saints [that is, saints by calling], with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." In this address we find him writing to the whole professing Church. He assumes of course that all are true and real, unless proved to be otherwise. But all who profess Christ's Name are addressed: the expression, " calling on the Name of the Lord," having this meaning in Scripture. The simply calling on His Name does not prove their reality: this has to be proved in those who do so call. Now the whole professing church at that day, being assumed as real, another thing arises when ruin has set in. The professing Church has now enlarged itself to what we term Christendom, but it is nevertheless bound by what was revealed to the Apostle Paul and contained in his inspired writings.
The wisdom of the Spirit of God foresaw what would happen; for if we turn to 2 Tim. 3, we find what was prophetically provided for the " last days," which at once began when apostolic gift was removed from the Church. The Epistle is divided into three parts. First (ch. 1:1-14) a preface; second (ch. 1:15-ch. 2) takes up what had already supervened in the lifetime of the Apostle, in the words, " This thou knowest "; and third (ch. 3 and 4) commencing with, " This know also "; in which division he foresees what was about to be. Let us hear his words: " This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." This then is the description of the profession of Christianity: this is the sphere in which the faithful would find themselves: this the platform where the servants of Christ would now have to work. And in such a sphere, with such materials before him, was the servant Timothy to " do the work of an evangelist," (2 Tim. 4:55But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. (2 Timothy 4:5)).
How deeply solemn is this prophetic truth I To find that instead of the habitation of God on earth being the answer to the glory of Christ in heaven, as the Spirit of God meant it to be, it had so dishonored that blessed Name as to be described with words almost similar to those used to describe the heathen, out of which the Church had (with the Jew) been called. The only striking difference is this, that when the heathen are described (Rom. 1:28-3228And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:28‑32)). the words, " having a form of godliness," are not used: they are added to similar words in 2 Tim. ch. 3 to describe a worse state, because existing under the Name of Christ.
There is no need for one to examine more. We might recall the words of the Apostle in Phil. 2. 21, " All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's " and (ch. 3. 18, 19) " many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind `set their minds upon' earthly things." Colossians, too, and Galatians, and even Ephesians, refer to those evils which had entered in and against which the faithful are warned. There is, too, a tendency in the saints to sink down into an abnormal state of soul below the level of that which prevailed at the first. The varied states around us now are the speaking witness that in the House of God there are numbers of those who are really Christ's but who are not in the consciousness of the Christian standing-union with Christ in glory.
Yet the Spirit of God abides. He still inhabits God's House on earth He remains there till all those who are Christ's are called by His grace. till the Lord Himself comes again. And still is that name—the House of God-applicable in responsibility to that which is His habitation here below, though it is the abode of evil too just as the Lord Jesus spoke of the Temple at Jerusalem as " My Father's House,- though the people had made it a " house of merchandise " and a " den of thieves." So the House of God remains such, as long as the Spirit of God abides there. When He departs from it, it becomes, as we read in Rev. 18:22And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. (Revelation 18:2), " the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."