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, 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 in 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. My! when the saints were coming to the meetings, there was the victory! The saints came to the meetings with shoutings, with praisings, with singings, with hallelujahings!
Of course, some of the neighbors were bothered by the shoutings, the rejoicings, 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 was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” 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. “When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept festival” (lit.). 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, don’t you believe that they rejoiced? How can we know 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!