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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-skates/filled-houses/
Let's turn to the book of Job, please, chapter 22. If I speak first, you'll have an opportunity to get a break from my voice because I know you're all going to stay for the gospel. The book of Job, chapter 22, and we'll read in at verse 15.
Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? These are the words of Eliphaz the Temanite, which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overthrown with a flood. So he's referring back to Noah's flood, which said unto God, Depart from us.
And what can the Almighty do for them? Yet he filled their houses with good things. But the counsel of the wicked is far from me. And so on. Now the gospel of Luke, please, chapter 14. Luke chapter 14.
Luke chapter 14. We'll break into the reading. It's the Great Supper down to verse 21. So that servant came and showed his Lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind.
And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou has commanded. And yet there is room. And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. That my house may be filled.
My house may be filled. Back to the Old Testament, to Second Chronicles. Second Chronicles, chapter five. Second Chronicles, chapter five. This has got to do with the inauguration of Solomon's temple.
Now come down to verse 13 for sake of time. Verse 13. It came even to pass as the trumpeters and singers were as one. To make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. And when they lifted up their voice and the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music and praised the Lord, saying, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever, that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house.
Now one more from John's Gospel, chapter 12. John, chapter 12. John 12, and we read verse 1. Then Jesus, six days before Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
There they made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
The Lord will bless his word to our hearts. Just a short meditation on these scriptures. I have been in many houses throughout my career, certainly as an appraiser back in the day, and sometimes the owners were not present when the inspection was made.
But you could tell a lot about a house by the contents, by the decor, by things that were in the house, and certainly what filled the house would tell you a lot about the owner of the property. We have read, you may have noticed, of a number of houses in scripture that are filled.
We have in Job, we have houses that are filled with good things. We'll come to that in a moment. Then in Luke chapter 14, we have the desire that the house would be filled with guests. And back in 2 Chronicles, the house, the temple, we have that house filled with glory.
And finally, in John chapter 12, I need another G. So it's a house filled with gratitude, isn't it? The fragrance of her ointment. So let's come to these just briefly together. Eliphaz, one of Job's friends, he's reminding Job of God's judgment in the past, how that he overthrew the world of the antediluvians in Noah's day.
And his implication is that because they were so wicked, they were punished. And as a result, Job, that's why you're being punished. You must be wicked, Job. Now, he was right in his observations up to a point, but his conclusion about Job was wrong.
But I just want you to notice what the observation was in Noah's day, how that God filled their houses with good things. And yet for all of that, their cry was to the Almighty, depart from us. They did not want the knowledge of God.
And as a result, the earth was filled with violence. Every thought of the imagination of men's hearts was only evil continually. It repented the Lord that he had made man, but he filled their houses with good things.
And yet they were marked by unthankfulness, a lack of gratitude. And in spite of that, God was so good to them. You know, I think of our own case as believers. We think of those days before God saved us, how ungrateful, how unthankful our hearts really were.
And yet God was so good. God was good to us, not only materially, but in every way with friends and family and so on. God was good to us. And in spite of that, we were unthankful and unholy and deserving of the judgment of God.
You know, as we look around us in the world, there are many that have been blessed materially, at least we say blessed, who have fame and fortune, celebrities. But yet if they do not know God as their God and Christ as their savior, their hearts are filled with a lack of gratitude on thankfulness Godward, in spite of the fact that they have been so blessed in material ways.
Sad to think that such when they die, if they die in their sins, they'll be lost forever. We are thankful for parents that understand that it is far more important for our children to be saved and prosper in the things of God and to have an emphasis on that rather than prospering materially and maybe to lose their soul at the end of the day.
Houses that were filled with good things. In Luke chapter 14, we have a certain man who made a great supper and bad many. He invited many to come. This is setting out, no doubt, the goodness of our God.
We've been hearing of some of the attributes of God this morning, and here is the goodness of God on display in the parable of the great supper. The magnanimity of that certain man is put on display and the invitations go out.
And of course, there are many that make excuses. Married a wife, cannot come, bought a piece of ground, must need to go and see it, the five yoke of oxen and so on, and the excuses came. But the man's heart desired that his house would be filled.
And even when the servants came back and said to him, the people aren't interested. What's the use? Did you notice that he sent them out again? With this instruction, go into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
Yes, the excuses will be there, but the highways and the hedges would indicate to invite even those that are most unlikely to come. But invite them and compel them, to the point of almost being troublesome, is the idea.
To compel them to come in. When we think of it in the gospel, God's house is filling fast, and yet there is room. And some soul will be the last, brethren and sisters, but yet there is room. What a wonderful day it will be when the Father's house is filled with guests.
The children are all there. Behold, I and the children which God hath given me, all because of sovereign grace, all because of that invitation that was given to a neighbor, maybe, like Henry, who was here this morning, the elderly gentleman.
And they came and they heard and they were reached. And God's house will be filled in that coming day. But let us not be negligent. Let us listen again to the words of the Master. Compel them to come in.
So let's keep out the gospel, brethren and sisters. Each one of us is a debtor to mercy alone. Each one of us has that commission given to us by the Lord Jesus, we refer to yesterday, to make disciples of all nations.
And even though they don't deserve it, we never deserved it. And yet God in grace saved our souls. I remember it just comes to mind. A number of years ago, I was up in Toronto and visiting at the break after the breaking of bread in Unionville.
John Adams, one of the Adams brothers, he came over to me and I hardly knew the man, but he had found out what my name was and he said, there is a rumor going around Toronto and his face was dead serious about William Skates.
I said, oh, right. Well, what is it? He says, the rumor is this, that he never deserved God's salvation. I had to say amen to that. There's not a one of us deserve God's salvation, but the goodness of the heart of God.
He has invited us in. He has brought us in, filled the table, loaded it with forgiveness and justification and reconciliation and in the family of God. So many things could be said there that the house may be filled with guests.
Let's keep at the gospel. Let me come quickly to second Chronicles five here. It's the inauguration, if you will, of Solomon's temple. And we find that when all was in place and there was praise going up to God, there was the voice of trumpets and cymbals and the instruments of music and the people praising the Lord for his good, for his mercy endureth forever, that the house was filled with a cloud.
I take it that's a manifestation of the Shekinah glory of God. The word Shekinah, just it's the thought of the presence. It's the glory of his presence. The Shekinah glory, that majesty filling the place, the glory filling the house.
It's indicating to us that God had found a place to rest, if you will, a place where he was satisfied to dwell with his people. In the temple in that day, it was his temple. The Lord Jesus will later refer to it as my father's house.
And in that temple, there was a priesthood that would serve. And we find that by God filling the house with his glory, it was an indication that this temple now is mine. He was owning it as his own. It is amazing to think that when we come to the New Testament, the temple today is the local assembly.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said, Know ye not that ye are temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? That that little company that you form a part of seems so small and insignificant and irrelevant so far as this world is concerned.
A temple of God where the presence of God dwells in the corporate gathering of his people. Now think of that. We don't live in the day of the visible Shekinah glory being among us, but we have the presence of the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in the assembly.
That's what the verse is teaching. And as we have heard already, the Spirit of God indwelling each believer, Christ indwelling each believer, God the Father indwelling each believer, we will come and make our abode with him.
We live in a marvelous day. It must have been marvelous in Solomon's day to see the cloud fill the house, the glory of God filling the house. But the reality is, brethren and sisters, we can know his presence amongst us still.
Did we not experience it this morning as our brethren rose one after another, exercising the priesthood of believers, rising to give God thanks, and our hearts, brethren and sisters, engaged in worship, in praise that filled the house, so to speak.
And God had his portion. What a privilege it is to be a part of the local assembly. And one of the expressions that thrills my heart in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, right down at the end of that chapter, verse 23, it's talking about the brethren who are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ, the assemblies, the glory of Christ.
I trust that that would cause us maybe to think a little differently about how insignificant we are as a people of God gathering in the name of the Lord Jesus. But we are there to bring him glory, to bring him pleasure, being obedient to his word and carrying out the commission.
It brings glory to his name, even though it may seem to be so insignificant in the eyes of the world. Now, with the goodness of God before us, I want to come now to John chapter 12, because here's a response of heart in Mary and her unselfish devotion.
We have here a house that's filled with gratitude. Martha's in the kitchen. Martha's served. And she's known for her work. Then we have Lazarus. And he's there at the table, too. I often think it must be a wonderful thing for the neighbors next to that little house there in Bethany.
And they would look out through the window and they might say, come here, come here, look, look at this man here. That's Lazarus. Remember, we were at his funeral last week. And there he is walking down the street.
A man that was known for his walk. Martha was known for her work. Lazarus was known for his walk and the newness of life. But then there's Mary here. And you remember that Mary, she sat at his feet. Luke chapter 10.
And she is listening to his voice. And her heart is one. And the Lord has her ear. The Lord has her ear. I've likened that to the Old Testament priests. You remember that whenever they were inaugurated as priests, there was blood that was taken.
It was put on the thumb of the right hand so that everything that they would do, every work that they would accomplish would be marked by blood, if you will. And it was to mark them in their work. That's Martha.
Then when we think of Lazarus known for his walk, the priests had the blood put on the great toe of the right foot. So that blood was to mark them in their walk. But then with Mary, you remember the Lord had her ear and the blood was also put on the tip of the ear of the priest.
So there was the claim of blood upon them for their service and their work. It would govern their walk and it would govern the ear and what they were devoted to. I think there's a lesson there for us, brethren and sisters.
You know, it is good to be marked out as those that work for God. That's great to be engaged in serving Him. And it is good to be known in the place where we live or in the place where we work for our walk as believers.
That's wonderful. And it should be that they take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. But tell me, does he have my ear? Do I perceive things in this world according to his values? Am I so in love with him that I love to be in his word and hear what he's saying to me from his word and then to surrender to him?
Mary held nothing back. This ointment was so precious. It was very costly, but she willingly yielded it to him. Her heart was so devoted, so taken up with gratitude, so taken up with thanksgiving, so full of worship.
She held nothing back. What an example for us as well to follow. Mary had her box of perfume and ointment, very precious. But, brethren and sisters, may our hearts constantly be moved with felt appreciation for him, in our meditation of him, that it would be sweet and that there would be that responsive soul in devotion, holding nothing back, not only in devotion, but in our service and in our walk for Christ.
The whole house was filled with the ointment. And I wonder, as we move out from here, will the aroma of the appreciation of Christ that has been expressed this morning, will that permeate the atmosphere of where we go and how we move in the week that we've entered upon?
Will others take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus? We trust that it may be so. Just some meditations, just a short little word there on houses that have been filled. May the Lord bless it to our hearts.