The House of God Marked by the Discipline of God — JT, Sr.

THE HOUSE OF GOD MARKED BY THE DISCIPLINE OF GOD 

Genesis 32:22-32; 1 Chronicles 21:26, 27; 1 Peter 4:17 

What is in mind is to show that the house of God is marked by the discipline of God. I have selected these scriptures to show this, Jacob and David and Peter being three servants peculiarly linked with the house of God who came peculiarly under the discipline of God. We may gather therefore as in the house but we must come under discipline in order to continue according to God. There are three kinds of discipline and it is well to mention them: the discipline of the Father according to Hebrews 12, the discipline of the Lord according to 1 Corinthians II and other scriptures, and the discipline of the assembly according to Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5 and other scriptures. I mention these three kinds of discipline, for I believe it will help us to bear in mind that they exist. They have to be regarded separately and they stand in separate settings, but all make for suitable conditions in the house of God, The enemy's aim is to spoil the conditions inaugu­rated at Pentecost in the house of God, to spoil the general conditions of the assembly, not only in its general setting, but also in local conditions. These attacks of the enemy have been especially seen in recent years in local eruptions, some of which have to be classified as ordered of God. Indeed it is said, "There must be also heresies" (or 'sects') "among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you". This is in keeping with what is said in Leviticus, "I put a leprous plague in a house", Lev. 14:34.  

The principle to see is that God has allowed it, indeed we might more correctly say, God has ordered it. Take David's great sin in numbering the people; in one place it says, "Satan ... moved David to number Israel". And in another place it says, "Jehovah . . . moved David. . . . Go, number Israel and Judah". So in relation to Job's discipline, it was directly ordered of God. Satan suggested it, but God ordered it. It is a solemn fact to come under the government of God. God might order Satan to attack any one of us. At least these scriptures would challenge all our hearts as to con­duct and ways, lest one day the government of God be against us, but really for us — a solemn thing that Satan should be let loose and allowed to attack us. We may well think of the value of the prayer the Lord taught the disciples: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil". It was a sol­emn thing to be led into temptation, but it was to bring out what was there. The Lord Himself was led into temptation. The Lord came out triumphant­ly; Peter did not. "Satan hath desired to have you" — that is all of you. Peter did not come out glori­ously, he failed before the onslaught. It is a solemn thing that we are allowed to give way. But God says, ‘I ordered it, there is something to bring out': really, as it should read of the man at Corinth, "To deliver him, I say, being such, to Satan for destruc­tion of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus". Thank God, it was saved before that. It was very encouraging indeed; he was saved very quickly; the apostle had to urge the brethren to restore him. Such was the effect of the discipline. What an instrument it is in the ordering of God. These are extreme cases I am speaking of now. In fact discipline goes on all the time, but these are extreme cases to show how God orders it expressly to bring out what we are. God says, ‘I just order a proceeding against you'; it is really for us; but, it is against us at the time. 

Now I want to take up Jacob as the first illustration, he is outstanding. It is remarkable how definitions that have a place in the divine vocabulary come out, and how different ones name them. The house of God comes under that setting. Jacob says, "This is none other but the house of God". David says, "This is the house of the Lord God". There was no question about it, showing what a spiritual man he was. It says, "David; who found favour be­fore God, and asked to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob . . . But the Most High dwells not in places made with hands". David says, "This is the house of the Lord God". Jacob says, "This is none other", that is to say, there was a conclusion arrived at. Jacob typically says, 'This is nothing else than that', and it is the first mention of it, and it comes right down to us. He named the house of God. My point is to show that he came under discipline, and discipline stamped him; he was under reproach in that way all his life. He needed that. If we name things, and name them sincerely, and appreciate them, we must come under discipline in relation to them. God says He will bring us into the reality of that thing. Let us not shrink, for God has taken us in hand; we are to dwell in the house of God. Jacob does not see that. "That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire of him in his temple", Ps. 27:4. What beautiful language the Spirit of God would put not only into our mouth, but into our heart. So, discipline must proceed. All these things cannot be taken up in fleshly energy, We do not all get converted like Paul; we do not all get such a conversion as that, but all that is implied in that conversion must come to us sooner or later. So, we may as well take on the obligation as we are here in the school of God. We must go to school. God has provided a school. It is imperative to go to school. Luke in Acts 19 alludes to the School of Tyrannus. This is not put there without having a meaning, it is stated there for a purpose, that is to say, the flesh will not be tolerated. That is a notice at the very outset, we may say, nor can we bring our distinction into it. 

Well, Jacob returns from Padan, and he has got to meet the offended brother. It is no light matter to meet an offended brother, but the Lord gives in­struction in Matthew 5, "Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar". Esau had something against Jacob. One day earlier he had decided that he would mur­der his brother, a terrible thought to have, but Esau had it. Now Jacob is coming back, and he is not sure if Esau has changed his mind, nor can he be sure. So, he sends messengers to him. To our en­couragement, two camps of angels had already met Jacob — God's mighty angels, one of whom could slay one hundred and eighty five thousand at a stroke — so we need not be afraid of meeting the offended brother; he cannot overcome us if we are with God. But Jacob did not take that in, nor did he rely upon it. Mahanaim means that. But Jacob did not send messengers to Esau saying, 'My dear brother Esau, God has just met me'. Instead of that he sent a message to tell Esau how well off he was, as much as to say, 'Esau, you have got somebody to reckon with'. But the point is he had God to reckon with. The Psalms are full of that; they never fall back on cattle and houses and money. The book of Psalms is intended to strengthen our hearts in dealing with our brethren. So, there are two camps of angels on behalf of Jacob. Were Jacob to have taken this on, what would he do? He would have overcome evil by good. But Jacob was still relying on his own greatness. How ready we are to bring out in our conversation with the brethren what we are, what our position is, what our education is. How prone we are to do it, so that the listener might be im­pressed that we are somebody, indeed, we intend it that he should be impressed.  

So, the messengers came back and told Jacob that Esau is coming to meet him with four hundred men. Now that is some­thing for Jacob to reckon with. But he was a true believer; immediately he turns to God. His prayer is given in this chapter, and when we come to the verses which we have read, he is left alone with God. Instead of Esau wrestling with him God does it. And Jacob says afterwards, "I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved". There you see the result of the discipline, dear brethren; he comes out with an increased knowledge of God, and with an increased sense of the weakness that is in himself. That is what he has learnt in God's school. So one could say, "For when I am weak, then am I strong". The great learner, the most educated christian, was Paul. The Corinthians chided him, but he says, "I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified", which meant that he accepted in his own body and demeanour that he was crucified with Christ. "I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, /, but Christ lives in me; but in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me", Gal. 2:20. He is a full graduate of the school of God, not that discipline ever ceases; it goes on as long as we are in these bodies. "That the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us", 2 Cor. 4:7. So Jacob limped over the brook; he was under re­proach in men's eye, being crippled, but he was beautiful to God's eye. He is an outstanding exam­ple of education through discipline in relation to the house of God.  

What follows is a beautiful touch:  when Joseph and Rachel finally came before Esau, Joseph comes before Rachel. It reads, "And the aidservants drew near, they and their children . . . And Leah also, with her children, drew near . . . And lastly Joseph drew near, and Rachel". Joseph and Rachel: Christ first. That is another beautiful touch in the house of God. Make it a point of habit, make it a point of rule, dear brethren, Christ first! and, more than that, Christ all, everything and in all! That is all I had to say about Jacob.  

You know David takes up Jacob when he thought of building the house: "I will not give sleep to mine eyes, slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob", Ps. 132:4-5. God said virtually, If that is to be true there must be excessive discipline. As the Lord said of Paul, "I will show to him how much he must suffer". So, David has to go through the school. This event in 1 Chronicles 21 is late in his life; he is a highly disciplined man already. It is warning to us; we may have been going on forty years, and yet we may be exposed to the devil.  Let none of us think we are beyond discipline; our very thoughts expose us to the devil — a little bit of pride, maybe, spiritual pride.  David was an old brother. Old brothers are apt to think of the numbers in the meeting; they have had to do with this one's and with that one's conversions. We have been flattering ourselves that we have had to do with that. Do not let us be mistaken: Satan is in that, `Go, number the people!'  God said to the devil, `Go and make David number the people'. You may sure David had often thought of it. At that time Israel was a very powerful nation numerically. You know how modern rulers are counting their people.  It is natural to men to do that.  

So, God said to Satan, `I allow him to number the people'. I do not know of anything more solemn: David the beloved king, the great prophet, the sweet psalmist of Israel being allowed to give way to this temptation. How solemn that is. What a warning for us, dear brethren, that we should not be priding ourselves our achievements. After all we are unprofitable servants. The Lord would put us in our places. Paul says, "That I might not be exalted . . . there was given to me a thorn for the flesh, a messenger of Satan". Who sent him? God. "That he might buffet me, that I might not be exalted". He asked the Lord thrice that it might depart from him, but the Lord said, 'No, My grace suffices thee'.   Jacob's limp stayed; Paul's thorn stayed, and he is contented; power increases as he is subject to the Lord in this matter.           

Well, God is displeased at the numbering of the people, so that David is now in the position of dis­cipline. The whole nation has been disciplined. The angel of God was standing over Jerusalem to des­troy it. What a terrible sight that was — the holy city about to be destroyed. Then you get that beautiful word, "The Lord beheld, and he repented.”  He thought of Jerusalem, the city He had chosen.  How touching that is. Then think of many of us, any of us whom He has selected according to divine counsel. He sees us, He thinks of us when we are under discipline, and He repents. And when He repents He will leave a better christian, a better stone in the building. God sent the angel to Jerusalem destroy it, and yet there is this beautiful touch, "He repented". He sits as the refiner; He watches and watches, and relinquishes, and the fire ceases; He calms it down. "All things work together for good .... to those who are called according to purpose.” He had selected Jerusalem, and it repented God, and He said to the angel, 'Put that sword into its sheath', but not until David had brought the sacrifice (v. 27). There must be sacrifice; all His dealings with us are in relation to the death of Christ.  

So, David goes up and buys the place. He would not take anything for nothing to offer to God, he paid the full price, nor should we be behind that in principle. Whatever it costs let us not fail to meet God. David paid the full price. Then he built an altar. He judges himself. Let us judge ourselves unsparingly, there is to be no reservation in that matter. Heaven comes in and acknowledges David's offering. And we are told in the first verse of the next chapter, "And David said, This is the house of Jehovah Elohim, and this is the altar of burnt-offering for Israel". This is a new order. The tabernacle was at Gibeon, but David would not go there. We must be careful and let God provide, but on the line of sovereign selection. David was accepted on that line. Let us be like him and pay the full price. I mean to say, let everything go that you may get the treasure, like the Lord Jesus, He restored that which He took not away. See how pleased God was with David here! Can we miss heaven's acknowledgment of this? Now we are ready for the house. David says, This is the house of God. He goes the whole way, he pays the full price: six hundred shekels of gold. That alludes to the great spiritual contribution David made. Heaven owns it. 

Now just a word on our passage in Peter. Peter says, "The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God". The house is not formed of merely professing christians, it is formed of real christians. The time is come that judgment must begin there. This includes much of what I have said already, but I only wanted to say about Peter how qualified he was to speak about the house; he says here, "The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God".  Obviously, the meaning of this is that God is no respecter of persons: "If it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel?". God is saying that there is no more license for sin in a christian than in an ungodly person. Sin is sin before God — as in the case of David, so in our case. If a christian's conduct discredits God, God will deal with him. There will come a terrible day, a solemn day: "For this God shall send them strong delusion, that should believe a lie: that they all might be da who believed not the truth, but had pleasu unrighteousness".  But judgment must begin at us, God is showing that He is no respecter of persons, He deals with sin as sin.  The Corinthians were told "On this account many among you are weak infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, so were we not judged".  The apostle adds,  "But being judged, we are disciplined of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world".  Why did the Corinthians not deal with these things, but let them continue in the meeting as we see in chapter 11? It is inside, where our wills are often at work; it may be a care meeting where we want a little bit of our own way. "On this account many among you are weak”.  If we would judge ourselves we would not be condemned with the world.  So you see at Corinth discipline is going on all the time. So with us going on continually. So that we are warned how to behave ourselves lest we should be condemned the world.