The New Testament Church is not a denomination, inasmuch as the churches are not bound together in organization. They are only bound together by the mutual spiritual tie of the ministries that God has raised up. In the New Testament times Jesus Christ was Lord; and under His Lordship, foundational ministries were sent forth upon which the Church was to be built. Then came the setting in of elders and various ministries by apostolic appointment. The New Testament Church is built to stand the weather.
Why is God concerned that the Church in the end time be restored to the New Testament order? That order is spiritual structure that will enable His people to stand the stress to which Christians will be subjected in the end time. The day will try every man’s works by fire. Paul says in I Corinthians 3:13, …the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. The coming stress requires that the Church be built exactly according to God’s pattern. Churches may experience great movings of the Holy Spirit; but in a few years, something will come to rock and shake them, because they are not built in such a way that they can stand the stress to which every church and every believer in this age will be subjected. Even though we may have only a fraction of a generation until the Lord comes, it is important for us to recognize that this generation will witness spiritual stress such as no church has witnessed since Jesus Christ’s ascension. We believe we can survive it, if the Lord gives us a double portion and if our church is built the way He wants it to be built. Wherever the stress comes, the Lord will cause grace to abound.
God seems to work against the building of churches in order to build His Church. A church begins to bring in a few people, and He looks at them as He looked at Gideon’s army and says, “There are too many,” and He starts sifting them down (Judges 7:2–8). God may seem to be ruining the church and getting rid of some good people, but the Lord wants more than good people; He wants people who will open their hearts to the revelation of this hour and to the loyalty, the dedication, and the absolute surrender that the Lordship of Jesus Christ requires.
God is looking first of all for quality. He demands a great deal of those who will be His end-time witness. When the disciples asked Jesus what they would receive for leaving all to follow Him, He said they would have a hundredfold in this present time and eternal life in the world to come (they would also have persecution) (Matthew 19:27–29).
There are many privileges which belong to those who walk with God. First of all, they will be a part of that select witness, which means immunity for each one of them. Even if a man had enough money, he could not take out an adequate protective policy to give him immunity for this hour when, according to the prophets, God will smite and judge the circumcised and the uncircumcised alike (Jeremiah 9:25). Judgment will begin at the house of the Lord. The devil may be making life difficult for us, but it is not as bad as the judgments of God that are to come.
The Word of God will come in such a way that everything that can be shaken will be shaken (Hebrews 12:26, 27). Anything that man has ever made—whether in the name of the Church and Christianity or in the name of world government—will be shaken. The only accomplishment of man that will stand through the end of this age will be the prints of the nails in the hands and feet of the Son of God and the wound in His side. Everything else will come down. It will be a time of trouble and tribulation such as the world has never known (Matthew 24:21). When it comes upon the world, people will not pray to God; they will cry in desperation for the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of God (Revelation 6:16).
God’s remnant will have immunity; they will be His witness in the world and will be called to sacrifice and to dedication and to the absolute surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They will be one people, coming forth as an absolute contradiction to the indifference, to the softness, and to self-indulgence of the Church in this hour. We are starting on the course of dedication and sacrifice and what shall we receive? We are coming to the end of the age; and as God’s people, we will be left standing when the rest of the world has succumbed to the attacks.
There are hair-raising Scriptures related to the end time and to the terror that will befall Christian and sinner alike. You must realize why God is slowly but surely calling you to something that is contrary to every trend, to every natural course and inclination of people. You may wonder why you are having such a difficult time. God is doing a special work: He is raising a remnant to proclaim a word that belongs to this hour. Do not get the idea that God is raising up another denomination. There will be no major denominations coming up. The denominations served a purpose in the will of God, but now God is concerned about the end-time remnant.
There is a famine in the land, and people are looking for this word. We need to place it into the hands of pastors and leaders who want to lead and to teach the people. The light of yesterday found in the commentaries is not enough for today. The commentaries stopped giving light about 1900. From that time on, books have been written about everything that God has done in the restoration of divine healing and of the Holy Spirit and about the second coming of Christ; but no adequate commentaries have come forth to expound the Word and to give people more light. We must be dedicated to place in the hands of pastors, quickly and efficiently, the word that God is speaking, the enlightenment on the Scriptures.
Many people are keeping alive and reviewing the blessings which God gave in another day; but very few are pioneers in the present day, willing to face reproach and hostility from those who are not ready to accept what God is doing now. We are the pioneers. People may laugh at us for a while; but before long, as it was in the days of Noah, their laughing will suddenly stop.
Noah, who was obedient to build the ark according to the specifications that God had given, had a vehicle that took him and his family through the greatest tribulation and judgment that the antediluvian world had known. Today God is building the New Testament order, a spiritual ark as it were, to carry people through the greatest shake-up and testing the world has ever known.
I would rather be a part of a little New Testament church than to be a part of a large impressive church, because I believe that God is doing a specific work. We are raised up by the Lord, not to boast in numbers, but to glorify Jesus as Lord, as we proclaim what He is going to do. Each of us should become involved with everything that is in us and with everything we have, determined to do the whole will of God. What about the people who are on the verge of this move? They should be sought out and exposed to the teachings. They should also have an opportunity to pay the price. They should be told about the discipleship of this hour, about taking up the cross and following the Lord. God requires total involvement.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst. Amos 8:11–13. This is reminiscent of the five foolish virgins who were looking for oil. The bridegroom said, “I know you not” (Matthew 25:1–12). We are always confronted with Christ’s prophecies about people awakening a little too late. There always seems to be a set time when the door of grace and opportunity is suddenly closed, especially when it is related to God’s choosing of vessels and instruments that He intends to use.
We are aware that there will be a famine for hearing the words of the Lord. For that reason, the literature we print, the tapes we record, and the word written on the tablets of our hearts with which we will be prepared to teach others will not be a luxury; these will be the only means available to quench the burning thirst of many people, the only bread to feed their souls in the famine. These will be the only answer that can possibly meet the needs of their hearts, because there will be no other word.
Because God allows it and Satan insists on it, you go through tests and trials, the like of which you have never before known. What is it that sustains you? Esteem the words of His mouth better than fine gold (Psalms 119:127); love that word, and give yourself to it.
Two things are prophesied that seem very contradictory. In addition to the prophecy of famine in Amos, the prophecy of Joel in the same portion of the Old Testament states: And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and shall praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you; and my people shall never be put to shame. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you. Joel 2:26, 24, 25.
The famine is growing in the land. The trend is becoming more and more pronounced. America began as a Christian nation, but in her legal structure she is becoming anything but a Christian nation. In the midst of this, the famine is increasing. A multitude of books have been written; but most of them are shallow, without any light for this hour. Instead of bemoaning the famine, let us rejoice that the days of Joel’s plenty are coming upon us, that we will see the vats overflowing with wine and oil, and that we will eat in plenty and be satisfied.
Let us not only appreciate what we have spiritually, but let us feast upon it; let us eat in plenty and be satisfied. We should rejoice that this is the day of the word, the day of revelation and of unveiling, the day in which the seals will be taken off the books. Light has been hidden since the days of Daniel, when he was commanded to seal the book (Daniel 12:4). Now revelation is coming again, and the seals are being removed.
No wonder the commentaries are obsolete! God has revealed more light in the past twenty-five years than had been revealed in the previous five hundred years since the Protestant Reformation. We have just begun to move into it. The next few years will see an acceleration of this revelation and a deepening of people’s understanding and capacity in the Word. In the past Bible studies have at times been boring. In the days ahead we will find that we cannot wait to come to hear what God is opening up out of the Word. How we will feed upon it! While the famine is increasing, the remnant will possess the great storehouse of truth.
Malachi, the prophet of the restoration, commands, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse” (Malachi 3:10). The storehouse was a place of great abundance from which the poor and the needy were fed. This was the purpose of the Levitical tithe, that the Levite and the priest could minister to the people of the Lord. In this day our giving and our sacrifice has a definite emphasis, but it is never to build up man’s program. God forbid that we should go into building programs just to erect some ornate monument to ourselves in order to be an important people. We must sense that all our giving is centered in sending forth God’s word for the hour, in doing what He is ordaining should be done. Then God will take care of us.
In the third chapter of Revelation, which speaks of the end time, the Laodicean church is told, If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Verse 20b. We shall feel as if we are seated at the table of the Lord. We are feeding, and the Lord is seated with us. Whenever Jesus sat down to eat with someone, He always taught something that was pertinent for today. Those talks at the table belong to the Laodicean church. He will come in and sup with us and we with Him. Marvelous things will be revealed to us, and we will enjoy them together.