Consider again the Lord’s regulation regarding coming to His chosen place to worship Him with the top tenth of the harvest. In Deuteronomy 12, 14, and 16 God said words such as, “The place I shall choose,” fifteen times. In Deuteronomy 12:5 He said, “But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come.” Verse 11 of the same chapter says, “Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the Lord.” In these verses the Lord seems to be saying, “You must go to the place I have chosen, the place where I put My name, the place of My habitation. You have no right to offer sacrifices in the places you see. You must be regulated by Me and go to the place I have chosen.” That place was the uniting factor. For thirty-five centuries it has kept the children of Israel one. If Christians today observed such a uniting principle, no one would dare cause division. Whether or not we liked one another, we would still have to be one. If I were a loud brother, you would have to be one with me, and if I were a quiet brother, you would also have to be one with me. You would have no choice. But where is such a regulation in Christianity today? Instead of this regulation, there is lawlessness. Because of this lawlessness, Christians cannot eat the top portion of Christ.
Praise the Lord, this top portion is to be eaten by the people of God! But it must be brought to the uniting center, where it is honored and respected by God and enjoyed by Him. When the Israelites brought the top portion of their produce to Mount Zion, it was offered to God, and a portion of what was offered to God became His food. The expression, “My food,” is found in Numbers 28:2. According to the Hebrew, this verse says, “Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, and my food for my sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savor unto me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due season.” At the uniting center, both God and the Israelites enjoyed the top tenth.
In all the years you have been a Christian, have you ever heard of such a regulation? As far as Christian meetings are concerned, all Christians today do whatever is right in their own eyes. Some do not like meetings where people say amen or praise the Lord in a loud way. Some like to have a quiet or formal service with a sermon. These dear Christians do not like to meet with other Christians who have meetings that do not fit their concept. They prefer to meet in their own way. But is Christ divided? Do we serve different Gods or have different Bibles? Are there different ways of salvation? No, there is one Christ, one God, one Bible, and one salvation. Any Christian who has seen the church, the Body, knows that the church is one. Whether some saints are noisy or speak in tongues, they are brothers in the Lord, and we must be one with them. Our attitude toward all believers should be that we care only for Christ and that we love them because Christ is in them. We should not be bothered by any who speak in tongues or who say amen in the meetings.
Because there is no uniting principle, no unique center for oneness, among today’s Christians, there is no enjoyment of the top portion of Christ. For this reason, today’s Christian meetings are very poor. Some are so pitiful that they use performances of rock music and drama in their meetings. How could the Lord be in these meetings? Furthermore, those who meet in this way do not have the Lord’s speaking. Today in neither the United States nor Europe is there a Christian paper with a rich message. The reason for this is that Christians do not have the speaking of the Lord. They lack His speaking because they do not have the temple with the Holy of Holies. The Lord speaks only from the Holy of Holies. Who can deny that this is the actual situation of Christianity today?
Recently, by the Lord’s grace, we have put out the life-studies of various books, including Genesis, John, Romans, Hebrews, and Revelation. Although some oppose the local churches, they use our materials for their own purpose. For example, a few weeks ago, a brother heard a certain radio preacher conducting a study of Revelation. One of his messages was exactly according to message eighteen in our Life-study of Revelation. Another example is that of an itinerant preacher who has written a tract opposing the local church. This preacher has reprinted some of my material. However, although he gives credit to other writers for material taken from their books, he does not give me credit for the material from my book. Furthermore, not long ago he conducted a study of Romans. One brother who is familiar with that study told me that he used the materials from my Life-study of Romans.
My point in relating these incidents is to show the poverty-stricken condition of Christianity. Christianity is poverty-stricken because of its division and confusion. Will God speak in a meeting where there is division and confusion? Certainly not! There is no need to say that most Christians do not have the top portion of the harvest; they do not even have the harvest. In fact, I doubt if they even have manna.