27 February 1957, at
Fenshan, Taiwan.
Well, we are very glad to
have this little touch with you, dear friends, and I do hope
that what our brother has just said will be true; that we
shall meet the Lord. We have just a few minutes with you, we
want to use them all to the greatest profit. So I just turn
you to the Lord's Word at once, in the Gospel by Luke,
chapter 10 and verse 1: "After these things the Lord
appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two
before his face into every city and place, whither he
himself would come."
I think we feel that we are
in the company of the seventy. He is sending us into cities
and places and I am glad that it is put in that way, because
if it had only said "city", you might feel that you were
left out. This is a "place" and the Lord Jesus not only went
to cities, but He went to "places" and we believe that He is
with us in this place.
Now, you notice that it said
here that He sent them before His face into every city and
place whither He Himself was to come. What He really did was
to send them into every city and place that would provide a
place for Him. It was a matter of the Lord's place in every
place, that the Lord should have a place.
A Place for the Lord
Dear friends, that is why you
are here. You may think that you are here to preach the
Gospel, and of course that is quite true. You may think that
you are here to bring other people to salvation. You may
think you are here to learn about the Lord. Those things are
all true, but there is something more than that in your
being in this place. The real purpose for your being here is
to provide a place for the Lord, that the Lord should have a
place here.
He said, "Wheresoever two or
three are gathered in My name, there I am." He sent them
forth two by two, and two being in any place, was in order
to provide a place for the Lord. What is the real meaning of
your being here? It is really that other people who know
that you are here, know that the Lord Jesus is here. If
people want to know the Lord Jesus, they know that they will
find Him where you are. If people want to know what
Jesus is like, they know they will find what He is like in
you. If people want to meet the Lord Jesus, they know that
this is the place they will meet Him. So you see, you are
really here to provide a place for the Lord Jesus. Your
being here ought to mean that the Lord Jesus is here. Of
course that puts a big responsibility on us, doesn't it?
That means that we must be very sure that Jesus is met
amongst us; that when people come into our midst, they do
not meet us, they do not go away talking about us, but in
looking at us, they really do meet the Lord, so that our
coming together in any place must be a setting forth of what
the Lord Jesus is like, so that people are able to go away and
say, "Well, I meet the Lord Jesus when I go there, I see the
Lord Jesus when I go there, the greatest reality about those
people is Jesus."
He sent them before His face
into every place where He was going. Well, that is the first
thing about our being in any place; but there was something
more than that.
Two by Two
What did the Lord mean by sending those
people out two by two? Now, I don't know what you know about
Bible numbers, and I can't explain it to you in these few
minutes, but I can tell you this: that every number in the
Bible has a meaning. I must just leave that with you.
But here we have the number two and in the Bible, the number two
always means a testimony. You see, it is in the mouth of two
witnesses that everything is established. A testimony is never
sufficient if it is only given by one. A testimony is complete
if the testimony is given by two. Jesus sent these men to
different places and in doing so, what He was saying was that
in every place, there should be a testimony. But what is the
testimony? The testimony is that this place belongs to the
Lord. This world belongs to the Lord Jesus. Satan has stolen
it from the Lord Jesus. We are here to say that it belongs to
Him. He is the right Lord of this world, and we are here to
declare that Jesus is the right Lord in this world. Another
one has taken it from Him and we are here to say that it
belongs to Him.
Now you notice what happened: whenever any people take up that
position in any place on this earth and declare that Jesus is
Lord, trouble always begins and the devil says, "I am not
going to have that! I am going to break up those people, I am
going to drive them out, I am going to make it impossible for
them to stay here. In some way I am going to spoil that
testimony." Satan knows that there is a testimony that Jesus
is Lord and he is not lord then. Now you see why you are in
this place; it is really to be a testimony to the truth that
Jesus is Lord, to put both feet on this place and say, "This
belongs to Jesus."
Maintaining the Testimony
Now a third thing and I am finished. When the Lord
Jesus comes back again, He shall come to the places where His
testimony is, and
take back that which belongs to Him. There is an Old Testament
illustration of
this. It is in the life of David, perhaps you remember the story
of Absalom,
David's son. Well,
Absalom decided that
he would be king so he worked to drive David out of his kingdom.
He found lots
of people who would agree with him, and so he drove his father
David out of
Jerusalem. But as David was going out, he turned to the high
priest and he
said, "Don't you come with me. You go back into the city and take
the ark with
you, because I am coming back again and I have to have something
to which I
can come back that belongs to me." So the high priest took the ark
of the testimony
back into the city and they waited until David came back. And when
David came
back, it was to that testimony that he came. Now that is an
illustration of
what we are talking about.
Jesus is coming back again. He has been driven out
of this world. This world says, "We will not have this Man to
reign over us!"
They have crucified Him, they have driven Him out, but He is
coming back and
says, "You go back to that place and hold that place for me. I
must have some
place that belongs to me, I must come back to that which is My
own." So, you are
here, holding the position for the Lord until He comes.
You see the three big
lessons: you are in this place to provide a place for the Lord
Jesus; you are
here to be a testimony to the truth that Jesus is Lord; and you
are here to be
something for the Lord to return for when He comes.