I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord. Our feet are standing within thy gates, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that art builded as a city that is compact together. As Galatians says, we’re come to the heavenly Jerusalem. It’s a spiritual thing, built of lively stones. Whither the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord, For an ordinance for Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones for judgment, The thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: They shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, And prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good. Psalms 122.
The set thrones of judgment are coming forth. God is moving by His Spirit. It is beautiful to watch what the Lord is doing; to rejoice because we’re coming up to the house of the Lord. Is this correct terminology, “We came to church”? Study the New Testament Word, “ecclesia,” translated “church.”
“We came to church.” Did we? No! We did not come to church; the church came together. Technically, when you put a name on a building and call it a church, it is incorrect. You’re transferring the name that God gave His people to a building and are calling it a church. In some parts of the country, they are closer to the real meaning when they speak of going down to the “church house.” The hand of the Lord has brought us together. We are the church; living stones. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord. There is great joy that we have of coming together.
Jesus said, I shall not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom. Matthew 26:29. In these days as we approach the kingdom, we’re aware that the communion is having a changing significance to us. It is as if we not only partake of the blood for the eradication of the flesh, and we partake of that body for life as we make our spiritual journey into new days, into new spiritual levels, but there is something more: it’s as if we are seated with the Lord in the days that the kingdom is coming forth. Something is being born, coming forth that is in the very atmosphere around about us. The kingdom of God is coming. We know it. Hope, the living hope, begins to surge forth within our hearts.
We’re walking through the convulsive dying of one age, and we see all around us the confusion and the problems. That’s all right because we can see the Day Star, the Morning Star, and we know the day is coming; and our feet are already standing within thy gates, O Jerusalem. We’re coming into the house of the Lord. We’re beginning to drink the fruit of the vine, but with a new awareness of His presence. More and more, it will be so, until we are seated with Him in the Father’s kingdom. And we’ll be drinking the new wine of the kingdom that has all the promise. I want it not only as I partake of the Holy Supper, but I want it in all of my thinking.
For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Philippians 3:20, 21.
Moffat puts it, “We are heaven’s colony.” We are heaven’s colony, and we’re waiting for Him to come. It is more true today than it has ever been in the history of the church. We are heaven’s colony. We’re the first colony of the kingdom. We’re the first little cell to be planted, and here and there over the land, there are little New Testament churches that are coming forth preaching the message of the kingdom. What are they? They’re little colonies. Ancient Rome knew what that was. Wherever the Romans went, they made a colony. First they would build a Roman bath and roads, and soon the Roman influence would be there. They knew how to do it.
The kingdom of God is planting little colonies, and we could have a new way of life. We don’t have to wait and say, “What can we do here?” We can absolutely refuse to conform in every way to the age in which we’re living. We are going to be a kingdom people, heaven’s colony. We not only take our communion as those that are anticipating being seated in the kingdom, but we fellowship on that basis.
The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened. Matthew 13:33. All we have to do is to walk in it, and soon it takes over. How do we do it? The love, the faith, the walk with God! There’s a new day coming, and we have to prepare ourselves to live in it now. Are there things in your life you want to change? Believe God for the old to pass away and for the new to come forth, to live by different ideas, different concepts, different drives, a different motivation.
Oh, to do the will of God, to come before the altars of the Lord and to receive that life, because we’re going to be that people that God wants us to be. We start with faith by believing that we are that people, and we work from that point, and God will help us. So we have a few problems. We’ve an old Adamic nature pulling us back. We have circumstances round about us, our conditioned responses, and we’ve responded certain ways all our lives to certain stimuli. Now, we will change. We will open our hearts to the Lord, and we will be a new people. We’re aware of demonic pressures but we are living now with authority and victory.
You can forget the most terrifying aspects in your life if you just relax and look with hope, and then give it your very best. Keep moving into something that’s good. Anyone can give up, but keep fighting, keep going, keep walking. Many will fall by the wayside, the broad way that leads to destruction, but there are a few that the Lord said will, Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. Luke 13:24. Congregations are not picked by man, but they are hand picked by God, brought together out of a common drive to walk with God and a desire for the things that are coming in the days of the kingdom.
We’re coming to the place when we pray to the Father that we think about His big family—how nice it is to put our feet under His table—how glorious to look up and rejoice in the Lord and know that He’s “Abba, Father”—the father and His big beautiful family—He’s bringing them forth. He has a few brats, but we entreat you to walk as dear children. And so the Lord is bringing us into His presence and teaching us. We are drinking the wine of the kingdom anew. We’re walking into a new day. We’re to have a new way of life with none of the formality, none of the cold, stiff approach. I want to see another way of life created.
Something about the old galls me. Everytime you turn around, everyone is on pins and needles over the changing social scene, revolution, and the racial problems, etc. Why can’t we rise above it into the brotherhood of the saints of God? Why can’t we say, “We’re through with this scene.”
We’re no part of it, because we’re not doing those things. We’re not filled with the hatred, the animosity, lust or the violence that drives men, but we have the love of the kingdom in our hearts and so begin to bring people in. And if we do it more slowly and carefully and the spirit of it is undiluted, it will become so intense that it will begin to reach thousands of people that will hear and wonder.
This will involve work, sacrifice, total dedication, a new way of living. So do we really want to be disciples? I think we do, with all of our hearts.
O Lord, let us be inspired. Let us know we’re heading into new days. Let us come into the precious ministry of the blood of Jesus Christ to our hearts and to our spirits. Above everything else, Lord, don’t let the sin and the evil of the flesh rob us from our position and our boldness and our confidence in the kingdom. Lord, we can say that’s the worst thing sin does to an individual. Many of our people could sin, and they could get away with it as far as many of their personal consequences are concerned. But they couldn’t do without the fellowship with You, O Lord—to have sin break that fellowship! They couldn’t miss the walk that they have with God, and what it will mean in their lives. What an evil thing sin is, because it separates; and Lord, we just pray that You’ll open our hearts and our spirits to see that we be not separated one from another. By the blood of Jesus Christ, by His holy flesh, we partake in the name of the Lord to receive grace, and cleansing for our hopes and our inspiration to be at a new level.
O Father, meet our hearts! Honor the blood of Thy Son of which we partake with real faith! We insist that all of its merits work in our lives. We refuse to be the same after we leave our knees at these altars. We cry unto Thee with all the humility, but with that determination of faith that touches the hem of the garment and will not stop. As the blind men of old, we cry, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, have mercy on us,” and we’ll not stop until we have become the recipients of that grace that changes, that blessing that flows in the name of the Lord. Meet our hearts, O Father, meet our hearts. Let it go deeply within us. Let not our hopes waver, and if there be anyone of us whose vision grows a little dimmer, who, because of the problems becomes a little more discouraged, Lord, forbid it. Revive us, strengthen us, minister to us at Thy holy altars, we ask, Lord. Amen.