In the meetings of this conference, we have
been occupied with God's message for our time,
as conveyed to us through the book which
goes by the title of Nehemiah.
This evening, in as concise a way as
we can, we shall seek to gather up
the message and its lines as we have
been looking at.
I want to turn you over to the
New Testament to read some verses from the
book of the Acts.
The book of the Acts, chapter 15, verses
12 to 18.
Acts 15, 12 to 18.
And all the multitude kept silence.
And they hearkened unto Barnabas and Saul, rehearsing
what signs and wonders God had wrought among
the Gentiles by them.
And after they had held their peace, James
answered, saying, Brethren, hearken unto me.
Simeon hath rehearsed how God did first visit
the Gentiles to take out of them a
people for his name.
And to this agree the words of the
prophets, as it is written, After these things
I will return, and I will build again
the tabernacle of David which is fallen, and
I will build again the ruins thereof, and
I will set it up, that the residue
of men may seek after the Lord.
And all the Gentiles, upon whom my name
is called, saith the Lord, who maketh these
things known from the beginning of the world.
There is a marginal alternative, as you notice,
to that last clause, who doeth these things
which were known from the beginning of the
world.
That paragraph, which we have just read, is
the New Testament counterpart of the book of
Nehemiah.
As you see, it refers to the tabernacle
of David, its fall and its rebuilding.
And the quotation, as you will also see,
is from the prophet Amos.
Now the prophet Amos prophesied when that
tabernacle or temple of David was about
to be destroyed, on its way to fall.
He was a prophet of judgment, judgment upon
the sin of the people of God.
And that judgment was going to culminate in
the destruction or the fall of David's great
temple, representative of David and his people,
their overthrow and the captivity.
And with that imminent Amos prophesied that there
would be an afterward, and the Lord would
return and build again the tabernacle of David
which was fallen, the residue of men upon
whom his name was called.
Here we have that prophecy quoted and cited
in the book of the Acts by an
apostle.
It is full of significance and impressiveness to
note how the apostles interpreted the prophecy of
Amos.
David's tabernacle or temple did fall.
We know that.
The book of Nehemiah sees it in ruins
with the city and the city wall.
It has happened.
But a remnant has returned from that judgment
captivity and is here in Nehemiah with the
companion book Ezra, found rebuilding the temple.
And these two books contain the story of
the building again.
And the apostles were not at all satisfied
that that was what Amos fully meant.
They saw in that no exhausting of the
prophecy of Amos, only perhaps a very poor
and partial fulfillment for a time.
The apostles saw that there was a very
much fuller and larger fulfillment than that which
took place in the time of Ezra and
Nehemiah.
And their interpretation of the prophecy of Amos
is here in the book of the Acts.
To find the prophecy of Amos on the
way to its fullest fulfillment, you have to
read this book.
It's here.
I repeat, these words are the New Testament
counterpart of what we have in the book
of Acts itself.
Is that.
We ought to be impressed and duly impressed
with this fact to begin with.
The apostles seeing, as they did see, that
prophecy, the Old Testament, was certainly not all
that God had in mind when he inspired
the prophet to utter it.
God had something very much bigger than that
in his mind.
No one did see until the Holy Spirit
came and took hold of these apostles and
gave them the fuller meaning of the prophetic.
Now, to survey, gather up the various features
and factors in this revelation, the presentation of
truth, there are several particulars.
Firstly, there is what the tabernacle or the
temple represent.
And that comes out so clearly in the
New Testament.
And it's really the heart, and more than
the heart, it's the whole sphere of what
we have in the New Testament.
And Christ answers to that in fullness as
himself the sanctuary of God.
He had used that very word of himself,
destroy this sanctuary.
And in three days, I will raise it
up again.
Tremendously impressive statement.
This spake he of his body.
And we know without fresh study of the
truth of the New Testament that Christ himself
answers to that whole, vast, vast thought of
God to have a dwelling place amongst men.
That is realized in the first instance in
a perfect way in God's own Son, Emmanuel,
God with us.
God tabernacled in Christ.
God was in Christ Jesus.
In Christ, says the apostle.
God was in Christ.
God, who looked upon him, was able to
find in him that of which he had
once been disappointed when he made the world,
when he created all things.
And when he made man and finished his
work, he looked on all his work and
said, It is very good.
And God walked in the garden.
God took pleasure in dwelling there with man.
It was the beginning of the answer to
a great thought and desire in the heart
of God concerning his creation.
And then he was robbed of it.
Man let in that which was contrary to
God, and God had to withdraw.
But in his Son, he found the recovery
and restoration of that which had fallen.
That sanctuary which had fallen.
We speak of the fall.
It was that.
It was fallen down.
And it was ruined.
It was laid waste, and God had to
withdraw.
After the long centuries of many representations and
types, his own Son came.
His new creation.
His full thought.
And looking on him, he could say, My
beloved, in whom I am well pleased.
In whom I am.
I believe that carries more than being pleased
with him.
I believe it implies in whom I am
well pleased to dwell.
Satisfied here is that which gives me a
resting place.
My beloved, in whom I am well pleased.
It is very good.
He answered the eternal desire and thought of
God.
He is.
The sanctuary recovered which had fallen down.
It is Christ.
That is what comes out in the New
Testament.
You want to know where God is?
Or you want to know where to find
God?
Not only in Christ, but truly in Christ.
But then there is the extension of that.
But let us see that that is what
the apostles saw.
Oh, wonderful thing that they came to see
that.
After all the mystery and all the misapprehension.
All the failure to see while he in
flesh was with them.
Last they saw and they saw him as
glorified.
The counterpart in spiritual reality of David's temple
which when it was complete.
Very magnificent.
Very beautiful.
Perfect as a type.
And the Lord filled it with his glory.
Just filled it with his glory.
So here on the day of Pentecost Christ
is in glory.
Christ is in heaven filled with glory.
And out from him the sanctuary in heaven
filled with glory.
The glory shone and proceeded to take up
its residence in that extension of Christ.
For by the Holy Spirit Christ is extended.
He comes to dwell in believers, in born
again believers.
And as he remains one, never divided into
so many, remaining one.
He constitutes them with himself.
The dwelling place of God.
The day of Pentecost sees that extension.
God coming to occupy the larger realm known
to us as the church.
There was something at that time which bore
all the marks of God's good pleasure.
The men and the women were not perfect
in themselves but there was something so much
of Christ there that God is smiling upon
it.
God is well pleased to be there.
The whole scene at the beginning of that
book is one of God being able to
say I am well pleased.
God finding his home and his rest and
his satisfaction.
That is what the apostles saw as the
fuller fulfillment of the prophecy.
I will build again that which is fallen.
The tabernacle of David.
Christ, God's sanctuary and then extended to a
chosen people taken out of the nations for
his name.
Who also become known as his temple and
his holy city.
His dwelling place.
That is where we begin with the book
of Nehemiah and Ezra.
That is where we begin with the book
of the Acts.
Being as now transferred from the earth to
heaven.
That may be one amongst other reasons why
the Lord did not let them stay permanently
in the earthly Jerusalem.
Very effective way the Lord saying here we
have no continuing city we seek one to
come.
Our city is not of this earth at
all.
So he allowed the earthly Jerusalem to be
a scattering place for the church.
Because now the Jerusalem is in heaven and
not on earth.
And perhaps they were inclined again to make
it an earthly thing.
The Lord said no, not at all.
My city, my Jerusalem, my temple is not
down here it is in heaven.
It is my son.
They came to see that.
Then in this Old Testament book we proceed
to the wall.
The wall which was particularly Nehemiah's work of
reconstruction.
The wall as representing the landmark.
The landmark between Christ and his church.
And that which is of the wall apart
and outside and contrary.
We said so much about it but it
cannot be too strongly emphasized and stressed dear
friends.
That there is that very secret demarcation to
overlook or override which is once again to
spiritually nullify all that God intends as to
his dwelling.
Cannot break down that wall without breaking down
the real house of God.
The wall will lead to the temple and
breaking down will be thorough once the wall
is broken down.
God will not be found there if the
wall is destroyed.
And it does really represent that great spiritual
truth that Christ and his people are a
separated people from this world.
Great, great work of all the enemies as
with Nehemiah's enemies so with the enemies of
Christ and his church is always to remove
that landmark.
That distinguishing factor and to override and bring
in what is the world.
It's been like that all through the centuries
and more so today perhaps than ever.
In many ways religiously as well as secularly
to bring the spirit of the world in.
The methods of the world, the principles of
the world.
Something of this world which lies in the
wicked one into the sacred ground and area
of what is God and Christ alone.
Do it and you will find God has
gone, God has gone, God has withdrawn as
truly as it was literally the case in
the Old Testament.
So it will be in the spiritual of
the New Testament era.
There can be no preserving, may I put
it like this, of the presence of God
If we let that world under the evil
one come in any shape or form.
That wall must be maintained intact.
That demarcation must be preserved unsullied.
That landmark must remain strong and unbroken.
Let us lay this to heart.
The most vital thing where you and I
are concerned and where any company of the
Lord's people is concerned and where the whole
church is concerned.
The most vital issue is the presence of
God.
It is the presence of God.
It is not a hundred and one things
that go to make up Christianity.
Ultimately and supremely it is the presence of
God.
The presence of God in you, in me,
in all of us.
That we meet the Lord in one another
and others meet the Lord in us by
our presence here on this earth.
The Lord has a way of satisfying himself,
his desire and showing himself and what he
is like.
That is the vocation of the church.
That is the vocation of the believer.
Let us take this to heart.
Concentrate upon this.
For this is where the spirit of God
comes in, the presence of God.
Oh let us be diligent and devoted about
this thing.
Of course we know, we do know, if
we lose the Lord's presence or the sense
of the Lord's presence everything is hollow and
empty.
Isn't that true?
It is a hollow shell.
The old tabernacle in Shiloh might still remain
as a structure but when the Lord is
gone it is a hollow shell.
And so in any life where the Lord
has to stand back or in any assembly
where he is outside the door or in
his church where he cannot commit himself it
is a hollow thing.
Life is hollow without the Lord.
It does matter, we know that very well,
that all that we realize that the great
thing that is to justify our existence is
that the Lord shall more and more be
known and met in us and where we
are.
I would take that as the very heart
of this conference.
For individuals and for companies and for as
many of the Lord's people who could hear
it and receive it.
Well at the beginning of the book of
the Acts it was like that.
There was no doubt whatsoever that the Lord
was in his holy temple.
The Lord was there.
But, but, on the one side it was
because the Holy Spirit had made that so
distinct mark of difference between that people and
the world.
On the other side notice how no sooner
did God have that pleasure and that satisfaction
than the old enemy started up his old
tricks.
Ananas and Sapphira, instruments inspired of Satan to
let the world commercial principle into the church.
Again and again it was like that.
Some impingement upon what was of God for
personal ends, for earthly and worldly ends.
One man seeking gifts by the laying on
of hands that he might be able to
do something and the apostle says thou hast
no part nor lot in this.
Thy heart is not right with God.
No place for you in this.
But you see the enemy is busy, busy
again trying to find some, some crack, some
crevice, some place through which he can force
himself and his evil system into the area
defined for God alone.
You and I, like Nehemiah, must be very,
very diligent and watchful to see that the
Lord does not have to stand back because
we've let something in that is not of
the Lord.
Well that's the next thing, the wall.
Then something that we have not said much
about as to this book of Nehemiah.
We only mentioned it yesterday in an analysis.
The place of the word of God.
Place of the word of God.
If you look again you will see that
there was a phase or there was a
point at which the word of God was
restored to its place of full authority.
They searched for the word of God.
They brought it in and they made it
the governing thing for their life in all
departments.
The authority, the absolute authority of the word
of God.
Perhaps little need be said about that.
I'm not simply talking fundamentalism about the inspiration
of the scriptures and that sort of thing.
There's something very much more than that.
I suppose most of us believe that the
Bible is the word of God and that
the Bible ought to govern the life of
the Christian.
But that means very much more than a
general statement or belief.
This word of God has hidden in it,
buried in it the pattern for God's purpose.
Christ is there as the model in every
respect of God's sanctuary.
He's hidden in all the scriptures.
He's there.
That is the word of God.
It is not the letter.
It is what lies behind the letter, what
the spirit has put into the letter.
And that is Christ.
That is Christ.
He is the pattern.
Your approach to the word of God, to
the Bible, dear friends, must always be with
one question in mind.
What has this to say to me about
Christ?
What is there here that can teach me
more of Christ?
Both positively and to the contrary.
One side, yes, and the other side, that
is not Christ.
The Bible is divided like that.
But the authority of the word of God
is not just the authority of letters.
It is the authority of the living word
within the written word.
And he is there.
He is the pattern.
There in all the scriptures.
And he is the absolute authority as the
living word for the church, for the people
of God.
That is a statement of truth.
And it must be applied.
There's nothing superior to the scriptures.
There's no revelation superior to the scriptures.
Make no mistake about it.
There is nothing of revelation from God that
is superior to the scriptures.
That puts the Bible on one side in
any fragment at all.
If the Bible says something, that's what the
Bible means.
That's what it says.
And you are superior to that or you
violate that to your own peril.
And with the effect of putting you outside
of that in which the Lord is fulfilling
his purpose.
But enough about that for the moment.
There's something more than that in this book
of Nehemiah, which I think is very, very
important and instructive.
If you look at chapter 8 of this
book, you will see that when the word
of God was recovered, brought back into its
place, brought in to become the governing authority
of the life of the people, it had
to be interpreted.
You see, these people had been in captivity
for 70 years and they had forgotten their
own native tongue and learned a foreign language.
And when they came back after 70 years,
the new generation and the old people didn't
understand their own language when it was spoken,
their old native language.
And so they were appointed some 13 interpreters
in addition to the Levites.
That's enough for you to have one interpreter.
But on that day or in those days
of reading the scriptures, both the Levites and
then 13 extra men stood amongst the people.
And as the word of God was read,
they gave the meaning and the sense.
They said, you hear that?
Now that means this.
That means this.
And in that I see a wonderful spiritual
principle.
Because I just see that happening in the
book of the Acts.
By reason of our alienation, our spiritual alienation,
we don't understand heavenly language.
It's difficult enough when we've been brought back
to understand the things of the Spirit.
We are having to learn a new language
all the time as a new generation.
We are having to learn a new language
all the time as a new generation, born
again.
But here in this book of the Acts
is this wonderful thing.
These apostles who were the interpreters, filled with
the Holy Spirit, taught by the Holy Spirit,
governed by the Holy Spirit, were interpreting the
Old Testament in a way that those most
familiar with it did not understand.
It's one of the impressive things, what they
saw in the scriptures with which they were
familiar.
Here's an instance, Amos.
Well, the orthodox Hebrew would say of the
prophecies of Amos, of course that referred to
the remnant returning, and to Nehemiah, and Haggai,
and that time when they rebuilt the temple.
Of course, that is what Amos referred to.
It's only common sense to see that Amos
was talking about that, and that fulfilled the
prophecy of Amos.
Now, here are Hebrews in Jerusalem, filled with
the Holy Spirit, and they are seeing what
no orthodox Jew saw in that prophecy, that
it was not fulfilled in Nehemiah or his
time.
The fulfillment is in Christ, in our time.
And if you look again and see the
preaching of these apostles, it's just like that.
They are saying things about the scripture that
no one without the revelation, illumination, and inspiration
of the Holy Spirit would see in the
scriptures.
And in that way, they became vital.
And so I take that up.
It's a very important thing, because we are
in this dispensation of the spirit, and the
spiritual, and the heavenly.
Dear friends, I have said with great emphasis,
there is nothing extra to the scriptures in
themselves.
But, oh, what a need there is for
men filled with the spirit to interpret the
Word of God according to the mind of
God.
We've got any amount of man's interpretation and
exposition, but how little we have of real
Holy Spirit illumination of the Word of God.
And the other doesn't get us very far,
does it?
But anything that really is a touch of
the Living Spirit upon the Word, oh, how
it helps.
How it quickens, enlivens, and lifts, and enriches.
As we are able to say, oh, I
never saw that.
How wonderful that is.
We need the interpreters who see God's meaning
in the Word and through the Word.
We need this New Testament ministry.
Pray that the Lord will recover this amongst
other things in His recovering work in this
time.
As He brings back a people, as He
brings back His sanctuary, as He brings back
His wall of demarcation, pray that He will
bring back spiritual interpreters of His mind, of
His Word, to fulfill a ministry of real
illumination and revelation to His church.
Pray that God will secure such men.
We need them badly.
We just don't need technical teachers and preachers.
We need interpreters by the Holy Spirit of
the Word of God.
We pass to two remaining things.
We spent the whole afternoon on one of
them.
The absolute government of the Holy Spirit.
The Word of God and the government of
the Holy Spirit.
These are the two great governmental factors in
the house of God, amongst the people of
God.
And I'm not going to stay to say
much more about this matter.
But we must remember that all through that
book of Nehemiah, there is a secret mighty
energy at work.
And that is the energy of the Holy
Spirit carrying out the divine plan to its
full realization.
And that is what we have here in
this book of Acts.
The Holy Spirit's got it in charge.
He has taken charge of the divine purpose.
He Himself, by His own energy, might and
wisdom, is carrying it out.
Oh, what a romance of the Spirit that
book is.
How differently He does things from what men
would do them.
What He does that men would never think
of.
You have to say, well, I would never
have thought of that.
You see the Spirit moving, how He does
it, His strategy.
The Spirit is in charge.
And there's a great need for this recovery
too.
I need not argue that.
You and I need the recovery of the
absolute authority and government of the Holy Spirit
in every respect.
The local company needs that wherever it is.
And the whole Church of God needs that.
Other lords have dominion.
Other heads are in His position.
Holy Spirit is not today able to exercise
Himself because there are other forces at work
which are not of Him.
We leave that.
We must pray in all our praying for
God's recovering work that this shall come back
with His purpose.
Finally, there is the matter of the local
expression.
The last phase of this book of Nehemiah
sees the people settled in the cities of
the land.
That which corresponds to that, of course, in
the New Testament is the churches over the
world, the local companies.
What we have to say about that is
that that is the outcome of something.
That is the outcome of Jerusalem being rebuilt.
That is the outcome of there being an
archetype, there being the model in existence from
which all that is local and scattered can
take its character.
Now here you see there is that spiritual
thing secured on the day of Pentecost.
Christ and His Church, His members, a model
in those beginning, just a model.
And then because that is in existence, it's
there, the local churches take their character from
that.
They are but an extension of the full
thought of God, a local expression of that
which is there spiritually.
And dear friends, if all that I have
been saying about the purpose and desire of
God for dwelling place, about the character of
that dwelling place, its nature, its spiritual and
moral nature, about its separateness, its distinctiveness, its
absolute separation from the world, the government of
the Word of God, the government of the
Holy Spirit, if all these things go to
make up the whole purpose of God and
are the features of what God Himself has
secured in His Son, then in every locality
where His people are there should be that
in representation, an extension of that.
Those things should be true where there are
the Lord's people.
It only requires two of you to be
a representation, you know.
The Lord said that, I didn't.
Wheresoever two or three in my name, I'm
there.
I am there.
That strikes a familiar note now.
The Lord is there.
It only takes two in Christ to be
a microcosm of this whole wonderful thing that
God is after.
You too in your home.
Oh, you deplore perhaps that there are not
others, there's not an assembly there, but there
are two of you.
The Lord can be there because He's in
you too.
And your home can be a dwelling place
because He's in you too, a dwelling place
of God.
And in that, all that I have said
can have its expression.
The Holy Spirit can be in government and
authority.
The Word of God may be the rule
of your life.
All this providing the Lord with a place
for Himself and His pleasure.
And He can take pleasure in being there.
Let us remember that.
If there are only two of us somewhere,
that's the possibility of two, the Lord has
said it.
If there are three, so much the better.
And if there are more, better still.
But the principle it is, the principle, not
the multitude, but the principle, providing the Lord
with that which makes it His pleasure to
be there, a heart for the Lord, two
hearts for the Lord, where the Lord alone
is Lord.
The Lord grant that out of this there
may be inspired in our hearts such a
purpose and such a meaning in life.
We shall say as one long ago said,
as for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord.
And if you want to know what serving
the Lord means, it means giving to Him
that upon which His heart is set.
And this is it.