The Mystery

“The sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself" (Psa. 84.3). You have all seen the sparrow gathering pieces of straw or hay to build her nest. When the nest is completed, how much rest and comfort it gives to the sparrow! What does this say to us? Does it not teach us that with just such care and patience, our God is gathering material to build for Himself a dwelling-place?

We human beings, redeemed by the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, are being gathered together unto Him to become “a habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph. 2.22)—that which will give comfort and rest and satisfaction to Him. Before we are saved we think only of what we can get from God, but here we are shown what we can give to God. That comfort and rest which, as long as man is in his sins, God cannot get from heaven and His angels, can be given to Him by worthless but redeemed humanity. This is a mystery, but when you come to understand the true meaning of the Church and its preciousness to God, then this mystery, also will be made clear to you.

We think so lightly of the word ‘Church’, and use it without knowing its true meaning. Many people say on Sunday, ‘I am going to Church today!’ Now that is a very wrong use of the word. In the Bible, the word ‘Church’ was never used for an earthly building. You will often see painted on boards the words ‘Baptist Church’, or ‘Methodist Church’, or ‘Church of South India’, and so on. But, you should never use the word ‘Church’ for a building. You can search through the whole Bible, I but you will never come across a single instance anywhere where any building is called a church. That is the reason why people have failed to comprehend the heavenly mystery of THE CHURCH.

When the Apostle was addressing his letters to the Church at Ephesus, or the Church at Corinth, or the Church at Antioch, or the Church at Philadelphia, he never meant a building when he used that word. What he did mean was something quite different. The Church is something living, not dead. A building has no life. Stones and bricks have no life. You may call a building a ‘Baptist Church’, but you are using the Holy Spirit’s terms wrongly. You should call it a ‘Baptist Building’, or Hall or Chapel or anything else, but do not use the word ‘Church’, because in the Bible the Church means only those men and women who have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. You can see this from Acts 2.47 where the Lord added souls daily to the Church—not to a building, but to a group of people who were believing in the Lord Jesus and had received His Holy Spirit. By that Church, God’s manifold wisdom is to be revealed, and His manifold power. God’s manifold wisdom is not going to be revealed by heavenly angels—but by human beings who are redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ.

I once saw a gift that was given by a very clever artist. One day in the bazaar, he saw an ordinary vessel being sold by the potter. He paid a quarter-anna for it and brought it home. Then he took his paints and brush, and began to draw upon that vessel beautiful designs of trees and flowers and fields. I saw the artist working upon that vessel for many hours and many days. Then he took it to one of his friends, and said: ‘I have brought you a present, my dear friend’. That friend was very delighted to receive it and placed it upon the mantelpiece above the fire-place in his dining room. Whenever any visitor came to see him, the very first thing he would see was that beautiful vessel resting on the mantelpiece. Together they would admire the beautiful designs on the vessel; and the first question would be: ‘Where did you get that vessel? How much did you pay for it, and who is the man who painted so beautifully upon it?’ So that vessel resting upon the mantelpiece was showing forth the wisdom and skill of the artist to all who came in. Going by its value, it cost only a quarter-anna, but its true worth lay in the way it showed forth the wisdom and skill of the artist to so many people.

This is the thought conveyed to us in the 10th verse of the 3rd chapter of Ephesians. “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God”. When we, by God's grace, are redeemed by the Blood of His Son, we are like vessels of clay which are given into the hands of a Master-Artist. Unknown to us the skilful Hand of God is working out designs, heavenly designs upon us. People may see only our thick lips and black faces and ugly noses, but God does not see that. Day and night He goes on working upon us His heavenly designs. A day is coming when He will present us before all the heavenly angels, and will say: ‘Come, my angels, look at this vessel called Paul!’ and they will say to God: ‘How did you make him so beautiful? We knew that man when he was living in Hyderabad State in India—such a small human being of no real beauty, and of no account, but O God, he looks so beautiful to us now! Tell us how you made so beautiful such a worthless man, with such an ugly black face.’ Yes! Even angels are going to admire us in heaven! I am not telling you fairy stories, but the truth from God's own Word! When we see our Lord face to face, and become like Him, we will be admired by all the heavenly hosts. How can God make a worthless, foolish, defiled, wretched human being so beautiful? Surely, if an artist of this earth could make such an ordinary vessel so beautiful, God can also work this miracle.

Many years ago when I was coming through Japan, I went to a place called Kobi. There are many bazaars in Kobi, and the vessels there are very beautiful and very well made. They are worth many thousands of rupees. I enquired about these vessels, how they were made, where they were made, and the price; and the shopkeeper said to me, ‘Sir, these vessels have been made out of the filthy, dirty, ugly scraps of paper which are thrown on the roadside by the people.’ Can you believe that? ‘Sir,’ he went on, ‘we go here and there through the streets of Japan and we gather up every dirty bit of paper lying anywhere. Then we put them all in a machine, and they are changed into a thin paste, and from that paste these vessels are made. The material is called papier mache, and on it different coloured designs are painted by hand.’

That is what is happening upon this earth to-day. When human beings can make dirty papers into articles so beautiful, cannot God make us also into something of beauty?

As we read our Bible from Genesis to Revelation we may see how in fact God plans to do so, and that His heavenly plan is brought out in the Word of God from the beginning to the end. As God helps us we shall see how He is working out that plan even now, and with this in mind we are going to study the House of God and see from it how God purposed from eternity past to show forth His glory to us and through us.