THE LORD IS IN
HIS HOLY TEMPLE
Habakkuk 2:20, “But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.”
No doubt, Habakkuk was talking about the temple at Jeru-salem, when he said, “The Lord is in his holy temple.” The temple at Jerusalem was his house, and that was the one place on earth, where God had promised to meet with his people. But there can also be no doubt that, by the spirit of prophecy, he was looking forward to the gospel day, and the assembly of the saints in this day.
Peter says, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ,” 1 Peter 2:5. The church is a different kind of building, a different kind of house. It is “a spiritual house, an holy priesthood.” And more than that: the church is the dwelling place of God himself.”
What a beautiful text that is in Matthew, chapter 18, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.” That text is most often quoted as a reassurance to the children of God—when we meet in very small numbers—just “two or three” it says. And that thought is certainly in the verse. God is not bound to bless by many or by few. He can bless a small number as surely as he can bless a large crowd, and we would not minimize that aspect of the promise. How very often we have been reassured by that thought.
But, that is not the primary thought in the text. The main lesson has to do with the very nature of our assembly. Regardless of the size of the crowd, the single most important fact of our service toward God is that God personally meets with his people.
That is a fact we all know; we have made the statement a thousand times over. It is written on our memories, and we would never think to deny it, but how rarely does that fact really sink down into our hearts. When we meet in his name, the Almighty himself is one in our number.
In Genesis, chapter twenty-eight, we find Jacob asleep on a pillow of stone in a place called Luz. He was sleeping in the open field. He cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright; he stole his blessing, and Esau had determined that he was going to kill him. His mother Rebekah decided it would be a good time for him to flee for his life, and she suggested that he leave the country for awhile. He was on his way to Padan-Aram, to hide out with some of his mother’s kinfolks, till his brother Esau got in a better humor.
That night God appeared to him in a dream, and showed him a ladder set up on the earth. The top of it reached to heaven. The next morning when he woke up he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” He went on to say, “How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
Imagine the thought: “Surely the Lord is in this place.” Jacob woke up to realize that he had been in the very presence of the Almighty. What a sobering thought. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.” How very often in the Lord’s house I look over the congregation—quote that verse to myself—and tremble at the thought. The very God of heaven is here in this place.
I cannot imagine a more awesome thought. The heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and yet, he condescends to meet with his people.
Astronomers boggle our minds talking about the vastness of the universe. The created universe is so large we cannot comprehend it. Miles and millions of miles are insufficient to describe it. They talk of distance in terms of light years. I have no idea how far a light year is. Oh, I know the formula. Light travels one hundred and eighty six thousand miles per second, and a light year is the distance light travels in a year; but that is a distance so great, that after I say it, I still cannot comprehend how far that is. But as vast as the universe is, it is still not big enough to contain God.
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.” I am sure that nearly every person who will ever read these lines can quote that text. That text is like a lot of others. We quote it, and quote it, and quote it, and we know what it says, and yet, somehow the full impact of it just passes us by. I think, sometimes, it does us well just to stop and listen to what it says. The Lord said, “Let these sayings sink down into your ears.”
Think about what that means. When God’s people meet in his name, the very Creator of the universe, condescends to meet with his children and to make his presence known.
Sometimes, somebody challenges one of our people, and wants to know, “What do you Primitive Baptists have for the young people?” Have you ever heard that question? Sure, you have. And they expect us to say, “Well, not anything especially.”
Oh, no, no, no. Let me tell you. There is only one reason anybody has ever asked that question.
The only reason anybody ever asked, “What do you have for the young people,” is because he has no idea what we have for the old folks. If he had any idea what we had for the old folks, he wouldn’t ask what we have for the young folks. We’ve got the exact same thing for the young folks we have for the old folks.
I tell you, it is offensive to our Maker for anybody to imply that is not enough.
“How dreadful is this place.” “Surely the Lord is in this place.” Think about it. In a simple building just like many others, God condescends to meet with his people. In a building made of brick, and two-by-fours, and floor joists, and rafters, and plaster, and wiring, roofing, and the like, God himself meets with us. There is no other place on earth like the assembly of the saints.
A lot of religious assemblies manage to gather a crowd on special Sundays by having a special, invited, celebrity guest. People come out on that Sunday just to see the invited guest. Well, we have in our assembly, the celebrity to end all celebrities, but he is not a guest. We are, rather, his guests. The house belongs to him. And, because it is his house, we are to be very reverent, very quiet before him. “But the Lord
is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him,” Hab. 2:20.
But, when you use invited celebrities to draw a crowd, you have to keep inviting somebody different. No matter how famous a person may be, if he began to be there every Sunday, he would cease to draw the large crowd he drew that first time. But, not so with our Lord. So long as he meets with us, makes his presence manifest, and blesses his people, that is sufficient.
And, how God does bless his people. He reaches down and picks up a little preacher boy and enables him to speak with an ability that is not his own.
A God-called preacher almost never preaches on his own level. Did you ever think about it? If God blesses the preacher to preach, he lifts him up above himself, and he is able to speak with an ability that is not his own. And if God does not bless the preacher to preach, he cannot talk as well in the pulpit as he can out on the sidewalk. And, sometimes, God just shuts him up altogether.
That can be mighty unnerving to the preacher. But, I would not want it any other way, would you? The scriptures say, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,” Psa. 66:18 . It takes more than a keen intellect, and a good memory for the preacher to preach. If his heart is not right with his Maker, the preacher is not likely to do much preach-ing. If the preacher becomes proud, and self-sufficient, the Lord is likely to leave him in the dark. I’m glad it’s that way. I’m glad God deals with preachers the way he does, even as unnerving as it is.
In the Song of Solomon the writer uses the sweet and tender relationship between a devoted husband and wife as an allegorical lesson to illustrate the spiritual relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ, and his bride, the church. If you do not read the Song of Solomon regularly and often, you are denying yourself one of the greatest benefits.
In that book the wife is forever talking about how very special her husband is to her. She cannot say enough good things about him. She is excited to catch just a glimpse of him. Along with many other things , she calls him, “the chiefest among ten thousand, Songs 5:10 . It thrills her very soul to see his face.
And on one occasion she says, “Behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice, Songs 2:9 . When you see somebody behind the lattice you don’t get a full view—just a glimpse. You and I have never had a full view of the Lord, just a glimpse. But that glimpse is worth all the world. I’d rather get just a fleeting glimpse of him than to be in the company of all the named celebrities this world has to offer, wouldn’t you?
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Think of what that means—to be in the very presence of God himself, and by faith to catch of glimpse of his face.
That is the one thing Adam in the Garden of Eden, and the children of Israel at the Tabernacle, and God’s children in the church, and God’s children in eternal heaven all have—in one way or the other—in common. That is the very presence of our Maker. In the very morning of time, God would come walking in the Garden in the cool of the day. Can you imagine what that must have been like? In his innocence, before sin separated him and his maker, Adam could talk with God face to face. He could enjoy the company of his Creator. But he sinned, and he lost that fellowship.
Over two thousand years later, God gave Israel the Law of Moses. One of the promises he made in that law, and, I believe, the central promise of that entire system, is found in Exodus chapter 25, verse 22, when God told Moses, “And there will I meet with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims.”
There had never been another building like the tabernacle. With all the gold, and all the silver, and all the precious wood, and cunning workmanship, it was a very expensive building. But it was not the gold, and silver, and brass, shittim wood, that made it so distinctive. The one thing that made that building different from any other building on earth was the fact that God said, “There will I meet with thee, from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims.” He had never made that promise about any other building.
Then, two thousand years later, he made that same promise to his children in the church. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
There is coming a day, when the Lord will come again in the clouds of glory. He will declare that time shall be no more; he will speak the word, and he will raise our sleeping bodies out of the ground. He will bring our departed spirit with him, and raise our body out of the ground, and he will put them back together. I don’t know how he’s going to do that, but that is not part of my job description. I don’t need to know how to do it; he is not depending on me to help; he’s going to do that himself. Then he’s going to carry us away to be with him forever in the air.
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are live and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord,” 1Thess. 4:16,17. That will be the great blessing of heaven—to be in the presence of God himself.
I was sitting in a restaurant one day overhearing some preachers. I knew who some of them were, but I wasn’t personally acquainted with any of them. I don’t think any of them knew who I was. But anyway, they were engaged in a profound discussion. They were discussing First Corinthians, chapter two, verse nine, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
They discussed that verse, and kicked it back and forth, and back and forth, and then, in a burst of brilliance, one of them said, “You know, what it comes down to is that we don’t know a thing in the world about what heaven is going to be like.” I wasn’t a part of that conversation and I didn’t butt in, but I’d have given a nickel if they’d asked me for my input on that verse.
I acknowledge that there is a lot we do not know about that eternal city, but I wanted in the worst way to quote the next verse to them. “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” Paul said again, “Now we see as through a glass, darkly; but then face to face,” I Cor. 13:12. There is a world of difference between seeing through a glass darkly, and being blind.
We are not totally blind; we do see, even though it is “as through a glass darkly.” There is a lot we do not know about heaven, but I believe there are some things we do know. I believe heaven is going to be a whole lot of what we get just a little of down here. I believe it will be a lot of what I can feel—about all I can stand to feel—in my heart at this very moment.
Paul the apostle said, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” Heb. 11:1. What we are hoping for is the manifest presence of God himself.
Faith is more than an inclination of our mind. It is the very “substance of things hoped for.” It is that little part of heaven we are able to experience down here—ahead of the time. Faith is a little advance view of what is waiting after awhile.
“What do you Primitive Baptists have for the young folks?” When we do right, we have the same thing for the young folks we have for the old folks. When we do what we ought to do, we get a foretaste of heaven itself. That is why the church is so often referred to as the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord’s church, the Kingdom of Heaven, is the nearest thing to heaven that you and I will ever experience this side of heaven.
Why in the world could anybody want to know, “What do you have for the young folks? What do you have for the little people?” The same thing we have for the old folks.
Some people have the idea they need to tailor their message for the young people—get it down there where the young people can understand it. I believe the preacher should preach to the little people to start with, and if they can understand it, the old folks should not have any trouble.
But the fact is that the young folks are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. There are some ways in which we were a lot brighter when we were children than we ever have been since. I believe I can prove that to you. I am sure that every person reading these lines speaks English to one degree or another, or else you would not be reading the book. And you probably didn’t have a lot of trouble learning the language. By the time you were five or six years old, you were fairly fluent.
Later in high school, some of you enrolled in Spanish, or French. Some of you older readers may have enrolled in Latin. You took the entire course; you passed mid-terms; you passed finals, and you may have taken it the second year. But, at this moment, you probably could not sit down, and read a book in that language to save your life..
Why was it so easy to learn English when you were three and four years old, but, years later, you never really got the hang of it, when you tried to learn a foreign language? I hope you will not get offended with me for saying so, but it is probably because, so far as an aptitude for learning languages is concerned, you were a lot brighter back then, when you were 4 or 5 years old than you ever have been since. And if you want to prove me wrong, why not start today to master a new language, and in two or three years from now you tell me, “Brother Hunt, I disproved that. I speak French, or Spanish, or Swahili, as well as I speak English, and it just took me two years to learn it. I learned it as easily as I learned English.” It doesn’t work that way. Those little fellows are a lot brighter than we give them credit for being.
Somebody says, “Brother Hunt, we need to tailor our message for them, because they have such a short attention span.” Well, the old folks have a short attention span, a lot of the time, too. Sometimes, the old folks will be sitting in the congregation, looking the preacher in the eye, and planning what they are going to do on the job tomorrow, or reviewing what they did yesterday. That is no reflection of anybody; sometimes, we just have a problem listening.
A lot of the time when you think those little fellows are not listening, they are hearing more than you think they are. They do that at home. Sometimes, when they get out in public, they repeat what they heard at home. You did not think they heard, and you would prefer they did not repeat it, but they do. They are brighter than you may think, and they hear more than you think they do.
“What do you have for the young folks?” Same things we have for the old folks. We have a touch of heaven—we have the manifest presence of our Maker, when we do right, walk
right, meet at God’s house, and do what we ought to do. Who would dare suggest that is not enough?
We don’t need any new projects. We don’t need any new ideas imposed on the Lord’s house. The thing we do need is to do better what we already know we ought to be doing.
God told Solomon, “If my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin, and heal their land,” 2 Chr. 7:14. That is the one thing we need more than anything else. That would solve our problems.
When God’s people humble ourselves, and pray, and turn from all those things we have been doing wrong, and assemble at the Lord’s house, mourning and grieving over our spiritual condition, and praying that God would look down and bless us, and send revival in Zion, God does bless his people.
Even then he takes his own time and blesses in his own way. You cannot hold God to your schedule. You cannot say, “Now, Lord, we have met the conditions, where is our blessing? Where is the revival?” It doesn’t work that way.
You cannot hold God to a schedule, and you cannot hold him to a formula. You cannot tell him, “Lord, we have gone by the numbers: 1-2-3-4-5; we have met all the conditions; now, it is time for you to keep your end of the bargain.” God sends revival, when we repent, and pray, and seek his face; but he sends revival in his own time and way.
God is sovereign in all he does. He is sovereign in his dealings with his people. He is sovereign in the way he deals with the church, and he is sovereign in the way he deals with the preacher.
Sometimes the preacher studies and prays and prepares, and he goes to the pulpit, and he preaches well enough. But, sometimes he studies and prays, and it seems that he’s done everything he ought to do. He cannot think of anything he should have done that he did not do. But he goes to the pulpit, and there’s no preaching in him. Not a bit. He just can’t preach. Sometimes he can’t even recite his lesson.
And sometimes, he goes to church, and he has not done what he should have done. He has not prayed as he should have. He has not studied as he should have. He is not in the proper frame of mind, and still the Lord blesses him to preach. There is no cut and dried formula. You cannot hold God to a formula. But, in his own due time, and in his own good way, he blesses his people.
“If my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and heal their land.” God is not at our beck and call. We cannot turn him on and off like a light switch, but when we repent, and pray, and turn from the error of our way, he does hear and bless.
We have the blessings of God’s Spirit today, in a manner that they did not have it in the Old Testament day. That is not to say that they did not have the blessings of the spirit. God did bless them with his Spirit, but they did not have the blessings of the spirit, in the abundant manner, in which God’s children have those blessings in the gospel day.
That’s what the Lord meant when he said, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter,” John 14:16. He has given the Spirit in a more abundant manner in this day, than he did in that day. They were born again in exactly the same way that we are today, but they did not have that more abundant witness of the Spirit.
Their worship, in that day, revolved around the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was a fairly small building. It was only 10 cubits (that is about 15 feet) wide. And it was 30 cubits long; that is about 45 feet long. Nobody knows exactly how long a cubit was, but it is generally agreed that a cubit was about 18 to 20 inches. It was divided into two parts. There was the outer part, the Holy Place, which was 10 cubits by 20 cubits; that’s 15 x 30 feet. And, then, there was the Holy of Holies. It was 10 cubits, by 10 cubits, by 10 cubits.
It was in the Holy of Holies that God said, “And there will I meet with thee;” but we will get back to that.
The walls of the Tabernacle were made of huge boards, 1½ cubits wide and 10 cubits longs. That is about 27 inches wide, and 15 feet long. That is a mighty big board. They were made of shittim wood, and they were gold-plated.
And it had a solid silver foundation made of huge blocks of silver. There were two sockets in each block of silver, and two tenons in the end of each board. The tenons fit into the silver sockets, and held those huge shittim wood boards upright and in place. The Bible doesn’t tell how thick those boards were, but for them to be thick enough not to twist and buckle in the desert heat, they must have been fairly thick. A silver block, big enough to provide a foundation for a board 15 feet long, and 27 inches wide, is a mighty big block of silver.
The shittim wood boards stood upright in the silver sockets. There were huge golden rings in the shittim wood boards. And God commanded them to make long shafts, or rods, of gold plated shittim wood, to run through those rings and hold them in place.
The Tabernacle was constructed so they could put it up, and take it down, and move it from place to place.
Over the very end of the Tabernacle there was an opening, and it was covered with a huge drapery called a veil. It was 15 feet tall, and 15 feet wide. That was where the priests went into the Tabernacle. Between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies there was another veil. It separated between those two parts of the Tabernacle.
There were no windows in the Tabernacle; so there was no light that came in from the outside, except when they moved the veil back, just long enough to pass inside, and then it would close again. The only light in the Tabernacle was the light of the candlestick. There is a lesson in that. The Taber-acle was a figure of the church, and in the church, we do not need light from the outside world. We don’t need the world’s instruction. God’s light is all the light we need.
Then, there was the seven pronged Candlestick. Seven is a complete number. It gave all the light they needed.
At the far end of the Holy Place was the second veil, and then beyond that second veil was the Holy of Holies. It was 15 feet wide, and 15 feet long, and 15 feet tall. Inside the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant. It was made of gold plated shittim wood, and covered with the solid gold Mercy Seat. The Cherubims were over the Mercy Seat.
It was at this point that God said, “AND THERE WILL I MEET WITH THEE, from above the mercy seat, from between the cherubims,” Exo. 25:22.
Only the priests could go into the Holy Place, and only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies.
In the courtyard, outside the building of the Tabernacle, there was the Laver. It was made of brass, and it provided a place for the priests to wash their hands and their feet.
Between the gate of the Tabernacle and the Laver, there was the huge brazen altar. It was 5 cubits, or 7½ feet long, and 7½ feet wide, and 4½ feet tall. At the dedication of the Tabernacle, God sent fire out from his presence in the Hly of Holies—from that spot above the Mercy Seat and between the Cherubims where he had promised to meet with Israel—and ignited the fire on the Brazen Altar. The fire consumed the offering. That fire was to be kept “ever burning upon the altar,” Lev. 6:18. They were never to let it go out. That was the fire they were to offer on the smaller Altar of Incense inside the Tabernacle.
The Altar of Incense was 1 cubit (about 18 inches) wide, and 1 cubit long, and twice that tall (about 36 inches tall). They were to offer on that altar, the fire God had ignited on the Brazen Altar outside.
But the Tabernacle had hardly been dedicated, when two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu became complacent, or perhaps, they really became rebellious. Anyway, they got the idea that one fire was as good as another, and they brought strange fire into the Tabernacle. Bear in mind that the Altar of Incense stood right up against the Second Veil, and just beyond that veil is the one spot on earth that God had promised, “And there will I meet with thee….”
These two sons of the high priest brought strange fire right into the very presence of God. Only the Second Veil, only this heavy drapery, separated between them and the presence of God. In open defiance of the commandment of God, they brought strange fire right up into the face of God, within just a few feet of the ark of the covenant, and they put that strange fire on his altar.
It was from behind that Second Veil that fire had proceeded to consume the sacrifice on the Brazen Altar outside. And, again, the same fire came from behind the same veil, from the presence of the Lord, and this time it consumed those two rebellious men on the spot. Anybody who, in open defiance of God, could bring strange fire into the Tabernacle—into the very presence of God himself—is just not afraid of God.
There is an expression that has become quite common in recent years. We often hear the expression, “in your face.” The expression indicates arrogance; it indicates disrespect; it indicates a lack of interest in getting along. The message it
sends is, “There, I did it; now what are you going to do about it.”
It is only a few verses before this incident that we read of God’s sending fire from behind that veil to consume the sacrifice on the Brazen Altar outside. Now, Nadab and Abihu bring strange fire and offer it on the Altar of Incense—just a few short feet from the very presence of God. It is as if they were saying to God, “There, we did it……” They were very soon to discover what God would do about it. Fire came from just behind that veil and consumed them on the spot. God will not tolerate strange fire on his altar.
Somebody wonders, “Why don’t you Primitive Baptists try this project? Why don’t you try that project? Why don’t you try something else.” The denominational world has a way of challenging our Primitive Baptist people as if we were, somehow, behind the times, because we are not interested in many of the activities that are so common in the religious world.
One of the reasons we don’t engage in those kinds of actvities is that we are afraid to. In this age, the Lord’s church has that one place on earth where God has promised his people, “And there will I meet with thee.” Today, not even the second veil separates between God’s children and his manifest presence. When the Lord was dying on the cross, “He cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost, and, behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom,” Matt. 27:50,51.
Today, even the veil has been removed, and we assemble in the very presence of the Almighty; he is in our very midst. He says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” With his manifest presence in our very midst, we don’t dare to bring strange fire and offer it on his altar.
There is an idea quite common in religious circles, that what is needed is to come up some new project, some new campaign, and you can breathe new life into your church.
If anyone has that idea, he is not afraid of God. That is what it comes down to. That’s the only way I know to say it. He is just not afraid of God. I love him; I trust him; I believe him, but can I tell you right now; I am afraid of him.
I recall another time when the tabernacle and its furnishings had become separated. That happened very often during the time of the kings. At one point, the Ark of the Covenant was in the home of a man named Abinadab. The Lord had blessed the family of Abinadab, because of the presence of the ark in his home. Finally, David determined to bring the Ark of God from the home of Abinadab up to Jerusalem.
Uzzah and Ahio, the two sons of Abinadab, took on the job. They set the Ark on an ox-drawn cart, and they started on their way. God had provided a special way for the Ark to be moved from one place to another. He intended for the Ark to be handled very carefully—very reverently. There were huge gold rings in the corners of the ark, and there were long, gold plated, shittim wood staves to run through those rings. They could put those long staves on their shoulders, and they could move the Ark without actually touching it.
Being made of those huge, gold plated boards of shittim wood, the Ark must have been enormously heavy, and it must have been hard on their shoulders. Later on, when they got around to moving the Ark the way God had instructed, every time they walked six paces, they would put it down. They would move the Ark 6 paces, put it down, and offer a sacrifice, move 6 more paces, put it down, and make another sacrifice. But Uzzah and Ahio found a better way.
Actually, Uzzah and Ahio had no business moving the Ark in the first place. That was the job of the Levites; nobody else was supposed to touch it. Ahiah and Uzzah were of the tribe of Judah. They didn’t have any business moving it in any manner, either in a cart, or on their shoulders, or any other way. It was the place of the Levites to move the ark from one place to another. But these men of the tribe of Judah figured they could do just as good a job as the Levites could, regardless of God’s commandment. So they put the Ark in a cart. Somebody is forever trying to put wheels under the Lord’s church.
It was too much drudgery to do it God’s way. So they streamlined it; they made a cart; they put wheels under it, and they started jolting along on their way. But our plans never go as well as we expect them to. The oxen shook the cart.
“Uzzah put forth his hand to the Ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it.” What Uzzah did seemed so innocent; he was concerned when the oxen shook the Ark, and he wanted to keep it from falling. But Uzzah was on shaky ground from the time he put the Ark of God on a cart. In our folly, we may not realize it at the time, but it is the height of arrogance for anyone to imagine he can improve on God’s work.
I am afraid to lay hands on God’s work. Uzzah should have known better. He and his brother had no business moving the Ark to start with, much less putting hands on it. But he did put his hands on it, “and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God,” 2 Sam. 6:7.
When people get the idea they can figure out new methods, new projects, and new programs, to help the Lord along, they really don’t trust the Lord to do what he has promised to do. God has promised to bless his people when we follow him, and he will be faithful to his promise. He always has been.
God promised, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and heal their land,” 2 Chr. 7:14. That is what we need. We don’t need new projects, and new campaigns. The one thing we need more than anything else is to humble our selves before our Maker, turn from our rebel-lious ways, and pray. If the members of our churches all over the country would, from the very depths of our hearts, do what is required in that verse—in God’s own time—we would receive the revival we need.
It was the question of all those extra activities in the church, that, many years ago, when I was a teenager, started me looking for the Old Baptist Church. I didn’t know there was such a church in the world. I had never heard of it. But I remember looking around at some of the things involved in religion—Sunday Schools, Training Unions, Vacation Bible Schools and the like, and I wondered why could I not find anything in the Bible about Sunday Schools? Did the apostles have Sunday Schools? Did they have Training Unions? Vacation Bible schools? Church sponsored ball teams? Church sponsored Boy Scout Troops?
I wondered: if those activities are a benefit to the church, why did the apostles not have them?
And I remember—for one a brief moment—I thought, “I’m going to start me a church, and not have anything in it, except what I find in the New Testament.” I meant well. But that thought had a dull ring to it.
But, somebody might say, “Harold Hunt, what’s wrong with that: starting a church with nothing in it, except those things the Bible provides.” What was wrong with it is this: God did not call me to start a church. He set up his own church, and he told me, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” He says, “I have a church in the world; you find my church.” It took me a while to find it, but, I believe it was by the providence of God that after awhile I did find it. But, do you see? It wasn’t my job to start a church. It was my job to find the Lord’s church.
Let me make one statement, before I say anything else. There’s nothing wrong with Boy Scout troops, and Little League ball teams, and most of those other activities churches get involved in. They just don’t have any business being connected with the church. Young people need recreation; they need Boy Scout troops, and ball teams, and the like, and anybody who has the aptitude, and the disposition to be involved in those kinds of activity can perform a great service to the young people in his area. But we misrepresent the church, and we mistreat those young people, when we pretend those kinds of activities have something to do with the Lord’s church.
And, we certainly mistreat them, when we substitute fun and games for the most profound, and uplifting experience that has ever been available to poor sinners of Adam’s race— when we substitute fun and games in the place of worshiping God, according to his instructions, and enjoying his manifest presence in our midst.
Somebody says, “But, Brother Hunt, don’t you know you can use fun and games to get young people interested in the church.” But, that is not right. The only thing you can use fun and games to get anybody interested in is fun and games. If you set up a program of fun and games, you will get people interested in fun and games. It just doesn’t work. Fun and games does not get people interested in the church. It rather directs them away from the church. It leads to them to believe the church is something totally different to what it really is.
It takes that grand experience of communion between God and his people, and makes it just another form of entertain-ent.
But, for the sake of argument, let’s suppose it did work. Suppose you can use fun and games to get somebody interes-ed in the church. If you will stop and think, you will remem-er that in the business world, there are laws against that. It’s called bait and switch. Did you ever hear of it? Sure you have. Sometimes a business will advertise one product, and deliver another. Some businesses have done that for years, and finally the various states legislatures passed laws against it.
That is what much of religion is all about. They promise fun and games—and deliver religion. So, even if it did work, you ought not to do it. You ought not to do anything in the church, that would be unethical if it was done in a business setting.
“How dreadful is this place….This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven……surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not,” Gen. 28:17,16. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” Matt. 18:20.
For the God of heaven, to speak to such sinners as you and I are, and promise to actually meet with us, to make his presence manifestly felt among us, is the most awesome thought I can imagine. And for anybody to take that experience—which is the nearest thing to heaven, that you and I will ever experience this side of heaven—and equate it with fun and games is just not the thing God-fearing people ought to do. I cannot think of anything that so cheapens the Lord’s church the way that does.
Fun and games is not the thing we need. The thing we need is to seek God’s face, turn from the error of our way, quit those things we have been doing wrong, repent of our sins, and beg God for forgiveness—and expect the blessings of God’s Spirit in return.
The one thing there is the greatest need for, and the least evidence of, is for humble, heart-broken sinners to meet at God’s house, praising him, and especially, pleading with him for forgiveness, and for heart-felt blessing.
Somebody may object that we do not have that great a need for repentance—we do not have such sin in our lives, that such repentance is necessary or appropriate. Anybody who thinks that way has simply become hardened to his own sin. He needs, first off, to beg God to soften his heart, which has become so hardened to sin, that he cannot see himself as the sinner that he is—and that we all are.
David said, “Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity,” Psa. 39:5 . Isaiah told us, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,” Isa. 64:6 . Even with the best of us, our lives are tainted with sin; we fall far short of the goal. If we would enjoy the blessings of God, it behooves us that we spend our lives, confessing that we are sinners, undeserving of any good thing, and begging God for mercy.
It is a strange paradox, that those, who show the greatest evidence of repentance, are usually those, who seem to have the least need for it; and those, who show the least evidence of repentance, are usually those, who seem to have the greatest need for it.
The more closely we follow the Lord, the more keenly aware we are of our own sinful nature; and the more distant we are from him, the less we realize that we fall so far short of his righteous requirements.
Let all of us—sinners that we are—meet with one another, as humble, heart-broken beggars at God’s throne. Let us repent of our sins, and beg God for mercy. And let us see if God will not “open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it,” Mal. 3:10.
“When I was in school, every now and then, the teacher would say, “Everybody just be quiet and listen.” Habakkuk tells us, “But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him,” Hab. 2:20. That is what the prophet is saying. He’s saying that God is in his holy temple, everybody should be quiet and just listen.
“And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him,” Matt. 17:1-5.
You talk about somebody getting his comeuppance. Peter seemed to always have something to say, whether he knew what he was talking about or not. But this time, God spoke from heaven, and told him that this was not a time to talk; this was a time to listen. When God speaks, it behooves us to listen.
“But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.”
If you had a child who was making total shipwreck of his life, if he was behaving in a terrible manner, keeping bad company, and staying out to all hours of the night, what would you do?
Would you not stain your pillow every night, crying, begging, pleading with God? Would you not beg, “God, look down on that boy. Show him the error of her way; lead him to repentance, Lord.” Would you not go to sleep, night after night, praying that prayer?
By and large, our churches are not enjoying the attendance we were, just a few years ago. We are not having as many people to join the church. It is not at all uncommon to hear of a church closing its doors for good. For the most part, we are not enjoying as spiritual meetings as we once did. Of course, there are exceptions to that rule. There will always be pockets of blessings, but, by and large, our membership is not as large as it used to be, and we are not having as spiritual services as we once had.
That ought to be a cause of great concern to every one of us; but, I wonder, how many of us went to sleep last night, earnestly agonizing with God, earnestly praying that God would send repentance and revival in Zion. The prophet tells us that it was as soon as Zion travailed, that “she brought forth her children,” Isa. 66:8. God has not given up on his church; he is not going to give up on his church. When we follow the God-given pattern, God hears our prayers, and he blesses his people.
If we would enjoy his manifest presence among us, let us follow his instructions. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
THE END