Address—P.L. Johnson
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
But the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. Now therefore I pray you swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, that you will also show kindness unto my Father's house, and give me a true token. Verse 14 And the men answered her, Our life for yours, if you utter not this our business, and it shall be when the Lord hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee.
Then she let them down by a cord through the window.
For her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt from the wall.
And she said unto them, Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you, and hide yourselves there three days until the pursuers be returned, and after it may ye go your way. And the men said unto her, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou has made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou just let us down by.
And thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's households.
Home unto thee.
And verse 21 And she said, According unto your word, so be it.
And she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet line.
In the window.
I will turn over to March Gospel chapter 10 and verse 46.
And they came to Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples.
And a great number of people blind Bartimaeus the son of Timis, set by the waist by the highway side, begging. And when he heard that he was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
Many charged him that he should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal. Thou, son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, Rise, he calleth thee.
And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith have made the whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.
And another passage in Luke 19.
Luke 19 and verse one.
And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.
Which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich, and he sought to see Jesus, who he was.
And could not for the press because he was little of stature.
And he ran before, and climbed up into a Sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down for the day. I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying that he was going to be a guest, to be guest with a man that is a Sinner.
And Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord.
Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him forefold.
And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation. Come to this house, far so much as he also is the son of Abraham.
Now these three portions that we have read.
Don't really. They do not all speak of the same thing, as you could see obviously in the reading of them that they are in one sense diverse.
And yet there is a link with all three of them, and that link is that each one of them bring before us an event that occurred in connection with the city of Jericho.
It was a Jericho that Rahab was found and being a Jericho where she was brought into blessing and association with God's people. And it was a Jericho that the blind man Bartimaeus had his eyes opened and followed the Lord Jesus in the way. And here there was a Jericho in connection with Jericho that Zacchaeus.
Is brought to the Lord, and the Lord speaks of salvation being brought to his house.
00:05:06
So, as I say, each one of them brings before us a different thought.
Some different, different aspect of what the Lord has accomplished and what He has wrought for himself and for His people. But they're all linked with that city of Jericho. And my thought in taking them up in connection with Jericho is that we will understand that Jericho is a type A picture of this world as being under judgment.
We know that.
There are various types in the Old Testament of the world in which we live. I'm not going into the detail, but we know at Egypt the type of the world.
Babylon is the type of the world, and Jericho is a type of this world. Not a type or a picture of the world in its wisdom or in its religious ways, but it is especially a type of the world as being under judgment.
Now, of course, we know that that judgment is not executed as far as this world is concerned.
As the apostle Paul said to those in Athens that he is going to judge the world in righteousness, and yet the Lord Jesus in John's gospel says, now is the judgment of this world. Now is the Prince of this world cast out? This world is under the lies, under the judgment of God. God's sentence is opponent because it has rejected.
The Lord Jesus it's under the judgment of God, not only because of the.
Violence and corruption that has filled this world.
Going back to the days even before the flood.
But this world is brought under judgment because of the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what the Lord says. When the Holy Spirit has come, He will afford a demonstration.
To the Saints as to the state of this world of sin and righteousness and judgment.
Now I know it's a little digression, but I'd like to mention that verse that it might be some might feel it's a little difficult to understand. I know in our King James it says he will, I believe, convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. And that might lead one to think that the Lord is saying there that the Holy Spirit will work in the hearts of men to convince them or to convict them of these things.
Of course we know the Spirit of God does work.
Any work of God in the souls of any in the soul of any individual is the work of the Spirit of God. That's true. But what that verse is really saying is that when the Spirit of God comes to the believer, he indwells the believer and he gives us, he affords in our soul, He gives us a a knowledge and understanding of the true character of this world.
The true character of this world, that is.
That it is guilty of the sin of rejecting the Lord Jesus. That it is devoid of righteousness.
And that it is under judgment. Now we know that there are many who are.
Occupied and concerned.
About the course of things in this world morally, Some of course are quite concerned about how things are going politically. Others may be quite concerned as to how things are going financially. But we find many Christians are quite concerned about how things are going morally.
And perhaps many are inclined to think of the sin of the world or the condition of the world.
The state of the world as being characterized by.
The various corruptions that have come in and the violence that fills it. But really the the Christian view, the true Christian view of this world I believe is what we have in John 16, that the Spirit of God gives us that the true character of this world.
Is that the sin of the world is not its debauchery and its violence, but having rejected the Lord Jesus. So that wherever we find the Lord Jesus rejected, we find that world that lies under the judgment of God. And we find that righteousness is not found here, but only at the right hand of God, because we the only man who had a right to live.
00:10:07
World was denied that right.
We hear a lot about rights and persons rights being denied, but you know this world denied the most basic right, the only one whoever lived in this world who had a right to live. Because scripture says the soul that sinneth it shall die, and in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And we read that death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, so that every life.
That has been lived in this world since the fall.
Was a forfeited life.
But the Lord Jesus had a right to live.
Because he did no sin and he knew no sin, and in him was number sin. There was number cause of death in him, but he was denied the right to live in this world. So that unrighteousness characterizes this world because of the rejection of the Lord Jesus, and judgment lies upon this world because of the rejection of the Lord Jesus. And Jericho represents that world.
As under judgment.
And I like to think of it in this light.
That even though the world lies under judgment.
And as John says, the whole world lies in wickedness, or in the wicked one.
The whole world, but in the midst of this judged and condemned, seen this poor world that has the judgment of God upon it, having rejected the Lord Jesus, and lying in the lap of the wicked one. God, in his goodness, God, in his mercy, and in his grace, has worked in such a way so as to secure something in this.
Judged world for himself.
And to secure something in this world for his people.
And I believe we have it in these three that we read in connection with.
Rahab, we have the prominent thought there of a window and I would say at the outset, I believe that would represent the the prospects or the outlook that the people of God have. Now as a result of the work of God through the Lord Jesus and in the connection with Bartimaeus, we see that God has secured for his people a pathway through this condemned and judged world.
And in connection with.
Jericho and Zacchaeus, we see that salvation.
Is brought to the households, to the houses of the people of God, that even though the world lies under judgment and is characterized by sin having rejected the Lord Jesus and is characterized by unrighteousness, there is salvation for the the households of the Saints.
When it turned back into that first passage we read in Joshua.
Chapter 2.
As I've already mentioned, the prominent thought in connection with rehab is the window.
The passage that we read of the spies who came to spy out the land, and of course they were the forerunners, the precursors of judgment. They were to spy on the land because that land, that city was going to be destroyed as the people of God entered into their enter into their inheritance in the promised land and.
Rahab was a dweller in that city that condemned city.
And she was a prominent person there, well known as, you know, she was a harlot.
And we read there that her house was upon the town wall in verse 15.
Her house was upon the town wall. I suppose that would speak of some. You might say she dwells securely there, and yet God worked in the heart of this woman.
God wrought in her heart that she might.
Turn from that city where she had been, that she had been associated with, because she saw that it was under judgment. She recognized that the city and all of the inhabitants were going to be destroyed, were going to be slain, because God was leading His people into their promised inheritance. And everything that stood in the way, every enemy and every foe was to be defeated.
00:15:02
And set aside that they might be brought into their inheritance. And God worked in her soul.
And she wanted to enter into that inheritance with them. She wanted to enter into that promised land.
And so she turned her back upon that city where she dwelt.
And received these spies. They are called those spies here.
But they are also called messengers.
They are also called messengers.
In the New Testament, because while they came to spy out the land in view of coming judgment, they were messengers to bring a word of hope.
Or rehab. They brought a word of hope to rehab. We might just read those. Perhaps some may not be familiar turn to.
The Epistle of James, where we have rehab mentioned in James 3.
And verse 25.
Likewise also was not rehab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers?
And that sent them out another way. Now compare that with the 11Th chapter of Hebrews.
Where we have rehab mentioned again.
And verse 31.
Hebrews 11.
Faith the harlot Rehab perished not with them that believed, not when she had received the spies with peace.
You see, in connection with there being spies, we see that the city was to be destroyed and it says.
That she perished not with them. The city was being destroyed. That is those that came to the city of Jericho and to Rehab's house as spies.
They were the forerunners of judgment, but as messengers, they brought a message of hope. And what's connected with the thought in James is that she sent them out another way.
She sent them out another way and that's what I want to emphasize now in connection with Rahab. They came in by the door because Rahab's house had a door and a window. They're both mentioned in Joshua Two and.
The spies are messengers. Now we're Speaking of them as messengers. They came to Rahab's house through the door.
But when they left Rahab's house, they went out by the window. Verse 15 of Joshua 2.
Then she let them down by a cord through the window. They didn't go back out the door. They came into the door, but they went out of the window. She sent them out another way. And I was thinking that expression another way. And that's really what we see with rehab. We see with rehab a type, I believe, of the believer who has now been turned from this world.
He has been turned so that he no longer has his aspect.
Toward this world he no longer has his hopes and his desires.
And his aspiration, everything centered in this world.
That would be the door side which opened up to the city, the door of Rehabs House opened up to the streets of that city and if you went out the door you would find yourself in the city of Jericho, that condemned place.
But she sent them out another way. So another way is now opened up, and that other way opened up to the outside of the city. Her house was upon the wall of the city, so that that window opened up to what was outside the city of Jericho.
And she let the messengers out that other way. They went out by the window. And so we find the prominent thought here with rehab is that she has a window.
And there's a cord in that window that she let them down by, spoken of as a scarlet cord.
And that chord was to remain there.
That chord was to be there to indicate.
That those in that house, though, they were in that condemned city of Jericho.
That they were not to be brought into judgment. They were to be delivered from judgment.
Because they were identified with that which was outside that condemned city.
They were identified with those who were outside, in this case, of course, the children of Israel.
They were identified with them, and that's what this scarlet cord would bring before us. This scarlet cord in the window would remind you and me that we are not identified even though we're in this world. We're in a condemned world. We're in the world that lies under sin. We're in an unrighteous world, but we are identified with another world. We're identified with that which is outside and apart.
00:20:19
Together, from this world, even though we're in it, we're not of it. That's the thought, and we know that what identifies us.
With the world outside is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ has been turned out of this world.
He has been rejected and turned out he was cut off out of the land of the living. You know, it's remarkable in the book of Acts.
When that eunuch who is traveling back to his home like down into.
Egypt, and he had been up to Jerusalem to worship. He was a Jewish proselyte, and he was reading as his chariot was going along in the office. Isaiah and the Spirit of God LED Philip to join himself to that chariot, so that he heard the reading of this eunuch in the prophet Isaiah, and he was reading there in the 53rd chapter.
How that he was cut off out of the land of the living.
And it was then that he asked Philip about whom the prophet was speaking, opened his mouth, he remembered, and preached unto him Jesus.
He told him that was Jesus who was cut off out of the land of the living well. Then right after that, the unit says as they come to water, he says here is water.
What does hinder me to be baptized? And I thought that was remarkable that that man would would bring in baptism in connection with the reading of Isaiah 53, that he was cut off out of the land of the living.
Because that's really the meaning of baptism, isn't it? In Romans 6, that's the many of us who have been baptized under Christ have been baptized unto his death. And his death took him out of this scene. His death cut him off out of this world. He was cut off out of the land of the living.
And really, as being baptized unto Christ, we are like rehab here.
We are disassociated from the world in which we live. We are disassociated from Jericho.
Place under judgment and we are identified with one who is outside of it all.
The Lord Jesus and his people are all outside of that.
So that everything that we that is truly ours as Christians and our I emphasize that word ours.
Because the material things that we have while we are down here in this world, which we will not be able to take with us.
As we read in Timothy, you know that.
We cannot take anything out of this scene. It certainly came into this world with nothing. We take nothing out.
That is of material things, because they're not really ours. In Luke 16, the Lord.
Speaks there it says that if you're not faithful in that, which is another man who shall give unto you?
Your own, that which is your own. He's talking about the mammoth of unrighteousness.
And if you're not faithful, he says in that which is another man's the material things that we have.
We're going to leave the mall behind. They're not really ours. They're ours to use.
They belong to another man, they belong to the Lord, and he's put them into our hands to use for a little while, but they're not really truly that which is ours. And I like to think of it this way, that that which is truly ours, we're going to take with us.
Everything that is truly ours, that has been given to us in Christ, every spiritual blessing.
We're going to take with us. We're going to take all of that out. It's ours and it's ours.
Now it's ours for eternity, but all of the other things are going to be left behind.
We use them, but they're not really ours, only use them for a little while.
And then we leave all of those things behind and what is really ours as to what we have.
What we have laid hold upon and entered into the blessings that we have in Christ.
Or, you know, in Matthew 13, the Lord speaks.
00:25:00
In referring, I believe to his people, he says those that are instructed in the Kingdom of God is lack unto a householder.
Our householder is a person who has possessions. A householder is a person who has possessions.
Everyone who has a household has a certain amount of possessions and generally.
The longer one has a household, the more possessions he gathers, and we find that after a number of years that we've accumulated various.
Household items, various things and possessions.
Well, I believe that the Lord is saying to us that we should be that way in spiritual things, that we should be like a householder accumulating spiritual wealth, accumulating spiritual things, because we're going to take all of those with us, every one of them. Well, I don't believe we'll leave one thing behind that we've enjoyed of Christ or known of Christ, every bit of knowledge, every bit of appreciation and enjoyment of Christ that we have.
We're not going to lose any of that.
We want to be spiritual householders. Well, I believe in that's all connected with the thought here of Rahab. She was turned from this scene of judgment and now she says everything that is really mine, everything that I'm looking forward to, everything that I'm going to enjoy and possess is outside of this scene.
There was a little time that she had to be there in that city, but she was waiting.
For the time when she would enter into all of that, that she had title to, as was evidenced by that scarlet thread in the window. That scarlet thread was that which gave her a title to all of that. So that when the city was destroyed, she and all of those in that house would be spared. Well, I have no doubt too, that the thought of a scarlet thread would would remind us of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. He gives us title to that.
And identifies us the death of Christ identifies us with the.
Where to come and that which is outside this world. I like to think of Rahab as giving the Christian.
The true Christian outlook.
The true Christian outlook and it does not have this world.
Or anything of this world as its object.
The prospects of the believer does not have anything in this world as an object. His prospects and his outlook is all outside of this world. There is a world above, there is the world to come. There is that which is entirely of God and we're already identified with it, Paul says to those Hebrews.
In the chapter 12 That they've come unto Mount Zion, we've already arrived.
We are already identified with that world to come. We'll now turn to Mark's gospel and that passage we read in the 10th chapter of Mark, and again, it's associated with Jericho.
Associated with this world under judgment and condemnation. But here it's not a window that would give us an outlook or.
Prospect that we see at the end of the chapter that this man.
Bartimaeus.
When he received his side, he followed Jesus in the way.
In the way that speaks of a pathway, the path of the just is as the shining light that shines more and more under the perfect day. There is a pathway for the righteous. There is a pathway for the people of God, and we know that.
We are not Wanderers and one wouldn't make anyone an offender for a word. But only recently a brother was mentioning to me. I was visiting in his home and he mentioned the fact that in one of our hymns it speaks of the Lord wandering.
As I say, we would make a person an offender for a word. We know what is in what is really meant by that. I'm sure that the writer of that hymn.
Had in mind the thought that he had no dwelling place or home here. But we're really not Wanderers, are we? I think of man away from God in the darkness as a wanderer. That was the that was what characterized Cain when he went out of the presence of the Lord in the land of Nod. He was like a Vagabond, a wanderer. A wanderer doesn't have a definite path.
00:30:01
A wanderer is just going here and there because he doesn't have direction.
He doesn't have a definite path.
While a Pilgrim would.
A Pilgrim would have a definite path. Well, I think we have here in Bartimaeus the fact that God has secured for his people in this world a definite pathway, a definite pathway. We find that the of course, as far as the as man outside of Christ, those who are unbelievers who not who are not really the Lords.
We find that each one has a path of his own, more or less, because every man does that which is right in his own eyes. But the Lord has marked out a path in His word. And I think here in connection with Bartimaeus, we have, or in this 10th chapter, even before Bartimaeus is called, we have some of the things that characterize that path. Look back earlier in the chapter, I was thinking of verse 17 in chapter 10 of Mark.
Speaking of the Lord Jesus, it says when he was gone forth into the way.
We have the thought of the path away and again in verse 32.
And they were in the way, the disciples with him, and then later Bartimaeus followed Jesus in the way. So we have what we have emphasized here is a pathway in the way. The Lord Jesus is in that way, His disciples are in that way. And now this man Bartimaeus is brought into that way, and we see that the way is going up to Jerusalem.
And the end of that pathway into Jerusalem we have in Chapter 11 when they come to Jerusalem.
That the Lord Jesus is celebrated there as the King. I don't say he's received.
Because we know he wasn't. He was rejected, but he is celebrated as the king. He is praised as the king. So it's really a pathway that is associated with the testimony of Jesus.
It's associated with himself, the testimony of Jesus.
And we know that we have different expressions in Scripture of the testimony, the testimony of God.
The testimony of Christ, the testimony of our Lord, the testimony of Jesus would.
I believe involve a pathway of humiliation and loneliness and rejection and I think we find that if we were to read the the verses between verse 17 and and the healing of the blind man, we would see that what characterizes this pathway is one of self denial which the rich young ruler didn't understand and didn't want to take.
And it's a pathway of suffering because the Lord says that when he goes up to Jerusalem, he's going to be.
He's going to be taken to the hands of men and put to death and it's a pathway of humiliation. We find too in chapter 10 when he speaks about taking the lowly place. It's a pathway of rejection, suffering and self denial and it's a pathway of humility and a pathway that is associated with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The testimony of Jesus.
Well, you know the Lord never promised.
To his people. And it's not promised in the word that the pathway that He would set out in His word and mark out for you and me as believers in this condemned scene would be an easy pathway.
He never did say that it would be an easy pathway, but the wonderful thing is that we have the Lord in this pathway with us.
And not only that, but I was thinking of what he says to Peter in verse 28 when Peter says that they had left all and followed him.
Why he says in verse 30, the Lord answers to Peter and says he shall receive a hundredfold now and this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions. Not an easy path, but it's a path of blessing. It's a pathway of blessing and in the world to come, eternal life.
It's not only a, it is a pathway of of.
Difficulties.
But it's a pathway of blessing now.
And it's a pathway that issues in blessing. Blessing the path of the just is as the shining light that shines more and more under the perfect day. Well, I'd just like to touch one or two points in connection with Bartimaeus because he brings before us how we're brought into this pathway.
00:35:08
You know, we're not, we're not in this pathway by nature. That is we wouldn't take up this pathway is natural with our natural propensities.
We like Bartimaeus. We were blind.
Like Bartimaeus, we were blind, and I and anyone who is here this afternoon and in their sins, they're like this man Bartimaeus, you're blind. They cannot really see the pathway. The pathway may be there as it is, as the pathway was here. Jesus was in the way, the disciples were with him in the way, but Bartimaeus could not follow him in the way.
As long as he was blind.
But we see there was a desire on his part when he heard of the of the tumult and he asked who it and what was going on and they said it was Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus of Nazareth, but I believe God was working in the heart of this man. And when he cries out, you notice in verse 47 he says Jesus, thou son of David, he doesn't say Jesus of Nazareth have mercy on me, but he says Jesus thy son of David.
I think that indicates that God was working in his heart. Those standing round about, they said it's Jesus of Nazareth. They didn't really see in him the one who was bringing the testimony of God as the Son of David. He was the one bringing her the testimony of God. That's the way he's presented in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter one, where we have the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David.
The son of Abraham, as the son of David, He's the Christ. He's the anointed man.
He's the man who brings the testimony of God into this world well.
They saw in him just a man, Jesus of Nazareth. But here we see that Bartimaeus heart was open, and he saw in him what the others didn't see. He saw in him the Son of David. Well now I know today.
As today we the testimony is not that of Jesus as the son of David, that was what was here when he was here on earth, but there is a testimony concerning the Lord Jesus today.
That testimony of himself not only is the one who has gone into death and accomplished atonement, redemption, and that great work, but as the one who is raised again and exalted and glorified, the One who has sent the Holy Spirit down here to unite us to Himself as as well as to one another, So that there is formed, 1 Newman, and so that there is formed this.
According to that mystery of God.
Christ in the church. What a wonderful testimony. What a wonderful testimony. It's called the mystery of the gospel. It's not the gospel itself, the mystery of the gospel, because the gospel has in mind not only the saving of souls from a Christmas eternity, but to gather those souls who would be united to Christ and to one another.
As members of his body united to him in sharing that place.
That he has before the father is sons with himself. Well, Bartimaeus entered into the testimony.
And then his eyes were opened.
I believe that means that he had to.
He gained an understanding, He was able to see things. And this is what the Lord would do for you and me. He would open our eyes.
By His spirit, through His precious word, that we might see the path that is marked out in His word for us.
Through this scene, this Jericho world under condemnation, but we see also that he cast aside his garment in verse 50. He cast aside his garment even before his eyes were open. Well, I suppose that casting aside the garment would speak of casting aside all of that that characterized his manner of life heretofore.
Garments speak of behavior in scripture. I believe it's a picture of a little type picture of of a behavior.
And so there's an entirely new exercise now with with him in connection with the being in the way and in the path and those things that once marked him and his in his past as identified with Jericho, as identified with this world under judgment is cast off.
00:40:10
Sort of like the grave clothes. The grave clothes would be perhaps more religious marks of the world.
The garments would be perhaps the walk in ways that characterizes this world under judgment and those garments are passed off as being in this pathway. He did not want to have the marks of Jericho on him. He did not want to be identified as to his manner of life and his walking ways with that scene that was under judgment Jericho.
So this pathway is one of separation from this world.
And then in verse 52, he followed Jesus in the way he followed Jesus.
In the way what an object? Well, here is the pathway.
A pathway that has been secured by God and His grace for you and me as His people through this condemned scene. Let's turn to the 19th of Luke.
With the rehab.
The prominent thought was a window, and with Bartimaeus the prominent thought is a pathway, but here with Zacchaeus.
The prominent thought is the House.
Notice the end of verse five, the last words there. For today, I must abide.
At thy house.
Verse nine And Jesus said unto him, This day, as salvation, come to this house.
Well, no doubt it was.
Salvation was brought to Zacchaeus.
Real deliverance.
And Deliverance?
From this scene, the deliverance from this Jericho scene.
That's the thought of salvation. Salvation is deliverance.
Deliverance from man in his world. And that's what's under the judgment of God. That's Jericho.
Man in his world lies under the judgment of God. And now not only Zacchaeus though, but it's his house.
Salvation has come to this House.
So I think we have the thought here that that salvation is not only for the individual believer, but for his household, his house. Salvation comes to the house. Or how that Philippian jailer rejoiced, how he rejoiced not only in his own salvation, but he rejoiced household wise.
Because now his whole house could have the benefits of the salvation in which he had been brought. No longer would his house be characterized by heath and darkness, you know. What do you think about it? Think of that man as he was a heathen, and with the heathen faults and ideas and those little ones in that house.
They would be reared up in that darkness.
They would have no moral light than the head of the House had they would be.
Unless the grace of God came, comes in as it did, they would be destined to go on in darkness and in the ignorance and without understanding and living, just like their neighbors who were also heathen and heathen. Darkness, living a common life with common concerns, common motives, common desires, and in common it all ends in death.
And after death of judgment. But now salvation comes.
Because the word was that not only that he would be saved, but his house. And he rejoiced household wise. He rejoiced that that salvation had come to his house. And that's what we have here, salvation for the house. Well, that doesn't mean, of course.
That does not mean that everyone born into a Christian family is saved in a real way from this world as far as having soul salvation. It does not mean that they are going to be with the with those who are going to be eternally with Christ in heaven. Just because they're born into this world doesn't mean that.
Sad to say that.
One might be in a household where the things of God are found.
And yet it's not really have any effect.
I think in the household of Abinadab.
00:45:00
You remember when David consulted with the people about bringing up the Ark?
It was in the House of Abinadab and had been there, I believe you'll find it, around 70 years after it had gone into the hands of the listings, you remember, and was brought back. It ended up in the House of a Benedict, and David wanted to bring it up to the place that he had prepared for it. And we read there that they put that arc upon a new cart.
And there was Aza and Ohio, the sons of Abinadab that drove, that took the cart and were moving the cart along, well, that cart.
Was an idea that was borrowed from the Philistines because they had brought the art back to Israel on a cart and God allowed that because they were those outside of the of the people of God and they didn't have light as to how the ark was to be born along and carried by the Levites. They didn't have all of that intelligence. So God allowed that they could use the card, but now among his people where they had the light of his word as to how.
To be carried. He would not allow them to use that list and expedient, and he brings in judgment. But my point is that the two men who were who drove the cart were the sons of a Benedict, and that that ark which represents the presence of God had been in that household for all those years, and those men grew up with the ark in the house.
But apparently they didn't really appreciate and and enter into.
God's thoughts in connection with that ark, they didn't know how to act in regard to it.
It really didn't take the true character of the ark. Later on, David says none ought to carry the ark but the Levites, the sons of Abinadab apparently didn't know that. And it's sad to see that that that the art representing the presence of God could be there in a household. And no response apparently from those boys.
So when we speak about salvation coming to the house, we're not saying that everyone born into a Christian family is going to be in the glory and are saved in that sense. But I believe the thought is this, that the houses of the Saints should be, as it were, a little sphere of salvation where those who are in that house are preserved from the elements.
That are found in this Jericho world under judgment.
Now I know we have just a little time, but I want to point out and perhaps you can trace them out.
Some things that are said in regard to houses that might help us as to seeing how salvation can be a practical thing in the houses of the Saints. First in Luke, turn back to the 10th chapter.
And verse 38.
Now it came to pass as they went, that he, that is the Lord Jesus entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
Well, this of course doesn't speak of a center receiving Christ. We know that Martha was already a lover of Christ.
She was a lover of Christ, but she received him into her house.
I believe it means that Christ had a place in the house.
She received him in and gave him, you might say, the charge of that house.
He took charge for when he comes in. He set things in order, he corrected Martha.
And he was the one that Mary sat at his feet to hear his word. He took the dominant place.
And I believe this would be a thought of salvation being brought to our house, that the Lord Jesus has a dominant place in our house.
Now we know of course, that the head of the house is the father, the husband is the head of the house. But even there, as we read in First Corinthians 12, that the head of every man is Christ.
And I believe even in our houses, that the thought of salvation being there is that Christ.
Is he's predominant and dominates. Everything is under him and unto him.
Things are done in relation to Christ and I believe it's important for.
Those with young households and children, to instill in children while they're young that the things that are required of them are for to be pleasing to Christ, not just because mother and father say so, but it is pleasing to Christ. And I believe that's involved in receiving Christ in the house, that everything is done in relation to him. Christ took over here. When he came into the house, he took over.
00:50:28
And he said everything in order, and his word and hearing his word was the.
Dominant fall. Let's turn to Acts 16.
We have another house, House of Lydia, verse 15 of Acts 16.
And when she was baptized in her household, she besought her, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. She's speaking to Paul, of course.
Here Paul is invited into the house.
This would represent, I believe, that in our houses there is intelligence.
As to the present order of things in Christianity, because it's Paul's ministry.
That really gives us what characterizes the present dispensation, the present testimony.
The present order of things that God is instituting.
It's Paul's ministry.
Paul's teaching and the light of Paul's ministry. The light that Paul had.
That heavenly light, that light above the brightness of the sun, would be brought into.
Lydia's house. And that, I believe, would be another element in salvation coming into our houses.
When the light of God's testimony at the present time, the light of Christianity, the true character of it, of this present order of things, is brought in, in the ministry of the apostle Paul, as we have in his in his epistles. That's not to say we're not to have other parts of the word. I don't mean that. But I believe that we should have the light of Paul in our houses so as to be intelligent.
And understanding the present order of things.
Now turn to the epistle, The Little Epistle to Philemon, one chapter.
And I read a verse there in connection to the house.
He ranks in verse one to Philemon.
And in verse two he includes.
Aphia and octopus, and then, he says, and to the church.
And thy house are the assembly in thy house now I know literally.
I am sure that this indicated that there was a gathering there. The Lord's people gathered.
In the House of Philemon, where they conducted their meetings in the service of the Lord.
But also I think there is the thought that the assembly.
Should be in our houses. I mean by that, that we should recognize.
We should recognize that as those who are of the assembly.
That our houses are not something disassociated from the assembly. It's as if the two things are interchangeable.
We shouldn't have, as it were, one order of things in our houses and another in the assembly.
What is of God or what is in keeping with the people of God when we come together should be.
Also, in keeping for us in our houses, we shouldn't bring into anything in the house that doesn't have a place among the Lord's people.
And I like to think of this too, in this regard, that the assembly being in the House.
We are inclined, perhaps, to disassociate our families and our house from the Assembly.
And so that when it comes to meeting time, well, we consider it optional whether we go or not, But it seems to me that our daily pursuits in our life and our living in our homes is identified with the assembly. So that we, whatever the assembly is going on with, we go on with the two are are in concert one with another. They're not diverse. He speaks of the assembly in thy house.
But it's thy house.
There it brings before us, and I'd like to give a little word too, especially to those who are younger and perhaps some maybe even contemplating setting up a house, that the husband, the father, is the head of the house.
00:55:00
In thy house, and one cannot relinquish that headship.
With impunity.
We cannot relinquish it without suffering the consequences. It's the assembly in thy house. It was. It was the House of Philemon. He was the head of that house. But now turn back to.
First Corinthians, the last chapter.
And I think this is.
A word that we might address to the.
Sisters.
And their part in the house.
In verse 19 of the last chapter. First Corinthians. First Corinthians 16 verse 19.
The churches of Asia salute you, Acrylic and Priscilla.
Salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
I like that expression. Now here it's similar to Philemon, the thought of the assembly in the house, but it says.
In their house the two are mentioned. Aquila is mentioned first here in Priscilla. If you compare this with Romans 16, you would see that it's Priscilla and Aquila. And again, it's the church in their house.
And I take it the thought here is that while the man is the head, the husband?
The father is the head of the house.
That the the wife and the mother is one with him in it. It's their house. They share a common exercise. It's very sad if we find a division in the household where maybe there's an exercise on the part of the father and the husband to have the assembly in the house. They have exercises is what would be honoring and pleasing to God and going on with the the Lord's people.
And maybe and the wife is not of one mind.