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Scripture Reading: Exo. 5:1; 10:9; 23:14; Psa. 42:4; 122:1; Acts 2:46-47; 1 Cor. 14:26; Heb. 10:25
Prayer: Lord, thank You for this gathering. How we thank You for all the churches with all the saints in this area. Lord, this gathering is a testimony of Your victory over us, even over the enemy in us. Lord, we trust in You for instant utterance. We have no decision as to what to say. We trust in You for Your living Word. Touch our heart and visit our spirit. Lord, even open up our sober mind so that we all may see something on Your heart, that we may see something according to Your plan. We claim this in Your precious name. Amen.
After the summer training I began to consider the matter of meeting. While I have been considering this, I believe some new light, even new lights, have come to me. As you can see from the title of the chapter, what we would say is not something so usual concerning the meetings. In this chapter we would see that the meeting is to exhibit Christ in His victory.
Have you ever asked when the meeting life began in the Bible? Most of you, after thinking a little bit, might say that the meeting life began from Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. But you have to realize that the meeting life began much earlier than this. The meeting on the day of Pentecost was just a continuation of the meeting that began centuries ago. When did God’s people begin to meet together? Could you find some meeting of God’s people in the book of Genesis? There is no meeting there. At most you may find a kind of family reunion. In all of the fifty chapters of Genesis there is no meeting, no assembly. There was no gathering of God’s people.
But when you come to the second book of the Bible, Exodus, there was the meeting of God’s people. In Exodus when God’s salvation was brought in, right away there was the demand of the assembly of God’s people. There was the request to meet together, and this request goes along with God’s salvation. In a sense God did not save any individuals or even a bunch of individuals. God saved an assembly.
Of course, according to the appearance of the wording in Exodus, you could not find a word like assembly. Yet when God called Moses and sent him to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt, He spoke in this way: “Afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Let My people go that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness” (5:1). My people is collective; it is not just one person. This is a collective people. Moses was to tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go to hold a feast to Him. You have to realize that the thought of assembling, the thought of gathering, is implied in this word feast.
I believe we all know that there is no possibility to have a feast if there is only one person. It is difficult to have a feast by yourself. You may buy some chicken and some pie and some other things and try to have a feast by yourself. It is hard to do. Even to have a feast with our wife and children is difficult. Still there is not that much of a feast flavor. The more people we have, the more flavor we have of a feast. A feast is a kind of assembled eating. We have to assemble people together for eating, and this eating implies an assembly. So a feast implies two things: eating and assembling. Both are crucial.
It is hard to say which may be considered first and which second: eating or assembling. But these are the two factors that constitute a feast. Without eating there is not a feast; without assembling there is not a feast. A feast needs eating and assembling; it needs assembling and eating. “Let My people go that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.” This means to eat by assembling in front of God and also with God. It is a feast for the people but “to” God.
Now we can see the requirements of God’s salvation. The first requirement is to meet. According to this principle, we cannot receive God’s salvation without joining the assembly. According to the typology in Exodus, God did not save any individuals; God saved a people. And this people ate together and assembled together. That was their keeping of a feast to the Lord. They enjoyed the eating by the assembling; however, they did this not only for themselves but mainly to the Lord. This was the way of God’s salvation.
Even on the day of Pentecost it was a people and not individuals who were saved. According to the principle of the first mentioning in the Bible, the first instance of God’s salvation at Pentecost was not a saving of individuals. It was a saving of a people. Right after they were saved, they all assembled together (Acts 2:46-47). If we study the book of Acts carefully, we will see that all the people who were saved on the day of Pentecost stuck themselves together. Not only did they stay together; they also stuck themselves one to another. Their sticking together was a testimony of victory. That testimony scared the people. Acts 5:13 tells us that other people dared not to join them. When I was a small child, the first time that I saw an army I was scared to death. I dared not go close to that army. That was terrifying! I do believe that on the day of Pentecost the first meeting of the church was very terrifying. Of course, in those days they met nearly the whole day and every day, and whenever they met, that was a testimony of the victory. It was a testimony of Christ’s victory in them over the enemy, over Satan, over the world, and over all the demons.
The first point of the new light concerning the meetings is this: the meeting life of God’s people began in Exodus. Do not think that the meeting life of God’s people began in Acts. What transpired in Acts was a continuation of the meeting that began in Exodus centuries ago. Even the meeting place was not changed. The New Testament people of God met in the same temple where the Old Testament people of God had met. The meeting in the temple was a continuation of the assembly of the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. Properly speaking, God’s people began to meet at Mount Sinai.
The second new light is this: the meeting is a testimony of the victory of Christ. The meeting of God’s people is a testimony of the victory of Christ in God’s people over His enemy. Look at the situation when the children of Israel were there under the tyranny of Pharaoh in Egypt. There was no salvation; there was no victory over Pharaoh. The children of Israel, the people of God, were all defeated and captured. They were under a kind of tyranny. But when they assembled at Mount Sinai, that meant a victory over Pharaoh, over Egypt, over Satan, and over all his demons.
Today the church meetings are an exhibition of the victory of Christ over all the demons and the devil in all of us. If Christ had not defeated Satan, how could we be here? We might be at the beach or in a movie theater or in some nightclub or at a ball game. When we were in those places, we were captured; we were under the tyranny of Satan. About sixty years ago I was there. But Hallelujah! Today I am not there. Today I am on Mount Sinai meeting with all the saints. Our being here in the meeting is a testimony of the victory of Christ.
Sometimes, though, I noticed that some saints do not come to the meetings like captives who have been released. Although some have advised me not to talk so much about Elden hall (the first meeting hall of the church in Los Angeles), I cannot avoid speaking about those years of 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1972. When the saints were coming to the meetings, there was the victory. The saints came to the meetings with shoutings, with praisings, with singings, and with Hallelujahings!
Of course, some of the neighbors were bothered by the shoutings, the rejoicings, and the singings, so they called the police to complain. The police told those complaining neighbors that before the church came, this area was terrible and even horrible. Some murders had happened on the street. But since the church came, the area had become such a nice area. So they encouraged the neighbors to go along with us or to consider moving. This happened several times.
Close to three hundred saints lived right around the hall, and there were more than this coming to the meetings. The meetings at that time began in the homes. I still remember that I gave a message using Psalm 122:1: “I rejoiced when they said to me, / Let us go to the house of Jehovah.” I still remember my word of encouragement: “Don’t come to the meeting by yourself! Always come to the meeting with a multitude!” This word multitude is used twice in Psalm 42:4: “These things I remember, / And I pour out my soul within me: / That I passed through with the throng; / I led them to the house of God / With the voice of a joyous shout and praise, / The festal multitude.” I encouraged the saints not to come to the meeting by themselves but to come to the meetings in company — singing, praising, walking and jumping, rejoicing and Hallelujahing. And the saints did it. That was wonderful!
But today I notice that when the saints come to the meetings they are so silent. They are a silent people. They are like a group of silent captives released from the poor prison. At least you got released. You are here and not in the casino. The only thing is that you are not full of joy; you are not full of rejoicing. When the children of Israel got released from Egypt and met at Mount Sinai, do you not believe that they rejoiced? How can we know that they rejoiced? We know that they rejoiced because they were rejoicing on the shore of the Red Sea. When God delivered them out of Egypt and put Pharaoh and his army to the bottom of the sea, all the children of Israel gave a loud praise to God, especially the sisters, under the leadership of that old sister Miriam. Today we need more Miriams. The sisters are too quiet, and the brothers are even quieter.
This is why I want to share with you that the meeting of God’s people is a testimony of victory over Satan, victory over the prevailing world, victory over the demons, victory over all the bondage.
Look at the picture that the Bible portrays. God created man with a purpose, that is, to express God. But this man fell again and again and again, in at least three or four stages. Eventually, this man fell into Egypt where he was altogether under Pharaoh’s tyranny, having no freedom and no God. Then God came in to deliver man out of Egypt, out of the usurping hand of Pharaoh. But most preachers, including myself, when we have preached the gospel by such a story, never pointed out that God’s salvation is one that releases people from the tyranny of Satan into a feast. This feast implies not only the release and the freedom but also the assembling to enjoy a feast. You have to realize that this assembling to enjoy a feast is a testimony of the victory of God’s salvation in all His redeemed people over His enemy.
If one is redeemed yet is not in that feast, it is wrong. This is the situation with many Christians today. Many have been saved, but very few are in the feast. At Elden hall the attendance of the meetings was very high. When we had three hundred people, nearly all three hundred were present in every meeting. Sometimes even the attendance at the prayer meeting was higher. If the attendance of a local church is low, this is a sign that the saints do not realize and enjoy the victory of Christ so much. If we enjoy the victory of Christ, surely we will join the feast. We will plunge ourselves into the feast.
Some dear ones who have a tender heart and who sympathize with the saints may say that some have a job and that they work long hours, and then they have a long drive so that they are worn out. I agree with this, but why in Elden hall was the attendance that high? Does it mean that all the saints there were jobless? Actually, today more are jobless. Today the unemployment is high. Twelve years ago at Elden hall nearly no one was jobless. So this is not a good excuse. Another excuse is that most of the sisters have to take care of their children. Again, what about Elden? Did all those sisters not have children? Were all the sisters single? There is no excuse. The only reason is that the enjoyment of the victory of Christ has been much reduced.
If you have ever met Christ in the morning, surely you expect to come to the meeting in the evening. The enjoyment of Christ, the meeting with Christ, always sends you to the church, to the meeting. Not only so, if you have been enjoying the victory of Christ over the enemy during the day, you are just equipped and ready and expecting and waiting for the meeting time. You would come to the meeting with shouting, with rejoicing, with praising. You come with the expectation that you can have a time to give a testimony that Christ today has defeated the enemy in you. Dear saints, the principle of the Bible is precious. God’s salvation is for a feast, and a feast always implies an assembly.
If you do not come to the assembly, this is a strong proof that you are short of God’s salvation. You do not enjoy Christ that much; you do not participate in Christ’s victory that much. So your appetite, your hunger, your thirst after the meetings is not that high. This is the principle: if you enjoy Christ, surely you will have an aspiration to come to the meeting. If you participate in the victory of Christ, you would hate that the day is too long. You would like to shorten the day so that you could come to the meeting sooner.
If you do not participate in the victory of Christ, you always feel that the day is too short. Six-thirty would come quickly, and you have not yet finished dinner. How could you go to the meeting? If this is your sensation, it proves that you have not participated in Christ’s victory today. There is no need to say that you need to participate in the victory of Christ that much. If you just participate in Christ’s victory a little bit, it will encourage you; it will stir you up to come to the meeting, the earlier the better. And when you come, you will look for the front-row seats. When you have been defeated, you just are so reluctant to come to the meeting. Then you come in late, and although some vacant seats might be in the front, you would not take them. You would sit at the back. This is a sign that you need the victory of Christ.
Apparently, it seems that God’s enemy has defeated God in gaining man. Look at today’s world. All men have gone from God. All men have been captured by Satan. They also have their assemblies. You just consider every night how many gatherings, how many congregations, how many meetings, and how many assemblies the fallen people have. Going to a theater is to go to a kind of an assembly. Going to a nightclub is to go to a kind of an assembly. Today the entire world has been captured by Satan. Satan does have his train of captives. But praise the Lord! Christ has won the victory. At least He has won a people. He has captured us. In every place there is the need of a proper Christian assembly that can constitute a testimony of the victory of Christ. All the people have become captives in Satan’s train, but we are here! We would not join that train. We have no share in that kind of an assembly. We are here meeting as a testimony to the victory of Christ over Satan. We need to do this every day, the more the better, and as much as we can. Do you not believe that the saints at Mount Sinai met every day?
Then you might ask, What about our living? What shall we eat? What shall we drink? How shall we be clothed? Do not come to me. You had better come to the Bible to see what those people did at Mount Sinai. Have you forgotten? Manna came down, and living water flowed out. Then you would ask, Do you really mean it? If we meet every day, will manna come down? I really mean it. If you do not believe me, let us try. Let us meet every night and see whether we will be short of food. The Lord Jesus’ words were to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to us.
At Mount Sinai the ancient saints met every day. For forty years those nearly two million people only met and traveled. They just handled one thing, the tabernacle. They met around the tabernacle; they traveled with the tabernacle. That is all. They did not do anything else. For forty years they had no job: no farming, no industry, nothing. That is a clear type. Then on the day of Pentecost the New Testament saints did the same thing. Day by day and day after day they met in the temple and from house to house. What were they doing? They were not gossiping but praising, preaching, teaching, and talking about Jesus. No doubt, dear saints, Christianity has lost such a character. God has saved His people into a feast, but this feast has become a formal service.
Recently, I read some definite news that in China in one county there were one hundred forty thousand new believers meeting in different places. Sometimes some of them, mostly the leading ones, came together to have meetings for the whole day from six o’clock in the morning to six o’clock in the evening. All day long they met there. And the good thing is this: they called on the name of the Lord, and they pray-read the Word. It seems that we have lost the calling on the name of the Lord, and we have lost the pray-reading of the Word. Once in Elden hall in one prayer meeting the saints pray-read the entire book of Ephesians. Today we pray-read so little. This is a sign of a weak point, that we have lost the enjoyment of Christ, and we have missed so much of the participation in His victory. If we would recover the enjoyment of Christ and the participation in His victory, surely the shouting, the singing, the praising, the calling on His name, and the pray-reading will be recovered.
Here is a battle, a struggle, between God and Satan. We have to realize that in the Lord’s recovery the first thing that the Lord recovers is the meeting. The meeting is the front part of God’s recovery. You know that the front part of any building is very prominent. If the Lord’s recovery does not have the proper meeting, it does not have a front. We must look to the Lord for His mercy that we would pay adequate attention to the matter of meeting. The recovery of the Lord must have a front to declare the enjoyment of Christ and the participation in the victory of Christ. We enjoy Christ, we participate in His victory, and now we are in the feast.
Let us look at Exodus again. The children of Israel were slaves under Pharaoh. But one day they enjoyed the passover lamb. That was the beginning of their enjoyment of Christ. Christ became not only their redemption but also their life plus their release and their freedom. Christ got into them. That hour they could not stay away from one another. From the hour of the passover they stayed together, and right away they became an army of the Lord. And that army defeated the Egyptian troops by the Lord. So you could see that they enjoyed Christ, and they participated in the victory of Christ over the Egyptian army. These two things — the enjoyment of Christ and the participation in the victory of Christ — brought them into the feast. And that feast is the assembly. They assembled together to enjoy more of Christ. Eventually, they became not only the people of God but also the army of God. And their way of fighting was just to meet and to eat. Their way of fighting was to enjoy Christ and to participate in the victory of Christ. This enjoyment and this participation are nothing but meeting together.
We have to forget about the services that Christians have today. In the morning we have to enjoy Christ, and during the day we have to participate in His victory. These two things will send us in the evening to the meeting. Every morning we enjoy Christ, every day we participate in Christ’s victory, and every night we come together. If we enjoy Christ in the morning, and during the day we participate in His victory, I do not believe that in the evening you would stay home by yourself. These two things motivate you and urge you and charge you and even send you to the meeting. There would be no need for me to encourage you to sing Hallelujahs or to call on the Lord’s name. You would do it spontaneously. The enjoyment of Christ and the participation in His victory would motivate you, would cause you to fly, to soar, to jump, to shout Hallelujah, and to come to the meeting by companies.
