I do not know of one person who lost the church life because of something that was an offense to God who later came back to the church life. In each case, a saint did something that caused him to lose the church life, but that one did not return to the church life during the remainder of his life. They all died without having the lost church life recovered to them.

I do not speak these words as a threat but as a warning concerning the New Testament jubilee. Actually, even this kind of speaking is a sounding of the jubilee, telling the Lord’s people that the jubilee is a jubilee, but there is nonetheless a limitation concerning the house in a walled city.

If we lose the house, that is, the church life, we can redeem it, but only within a certain time limitation. If we do not redeem our lost church life during the time allotted, we shall also lose the church life in the coming age, and the church life will not be restored to us until after the coming age, when we shall be disciplined, trained, corrected, and punished in order to be cleansed, prepared, and perfected for the eternal age. We cannot lose the church life eternally, but we can lose it temporarily and dispensationally for a thousand years. This understanding is consistent with the Bible as a whole, for we see it both in the type in Leviticus 25 and in the clear words of the New Testament.

The warning about losing the church life eventually turns out to be a part of the jubilee. Regarding the jubilee, we should not be loose, shouting in a careless way. Rather, we need to be careful and be warned that concerning the recovery of the lost church life there is a time limitation. If we lose the church life, we should try to recover it right away, for we do not know how long the church age will last. To God one day may be as a thousand years, but to us a thousand years is a thousand years either for discipline or for reward.

The serious matter of dispensational reward and punishment during the coming age of the millennium is part of the gospel, in particular of the gospel as it is taught in Matthew. In Matthew we have the gospel of the kingdom. This gospel warns us concerning reward and punishment. “Unless your righteousness surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees,” says the Lord Jesus in Matthew 5:20, “you shall by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens.” This teaching concerning the kingdom is different from that found in the Gospel of John. In John we do not have the gospel of the kingdom but the gospel of life. According to the Gospel of John, we enter the kingdom of God simply by regeneration (John 3:3, 5). This is the kingdom of life, and as long as we receive the divine life, we are in the kingdom of life. What we have in the Gospel of Matthew, however, is not the kingdom of life but the kingdom of the kingdom. In this message I am trumpeting, sounding out, an aspect of the jubilee that is a part of the gospel of the kingdom. We all need to listen to the kingdom gospel.

In Leviticus 25 there are two kinds of enjoyment: the enjoyment of the land and the enjoyment of the house. The enjoyment of the land typifies the enjoyment of Christ, and the enjoyment of the house typifies the enjoyment of the church life. We should not be careless in the church life, lest we lose it. There is the definite possibility of losing the church life in this age and then of suffering the loss of the church life in the coming age, in the thousand years of the kingdom.

It is possible to have the land without the house, but having the house surely implies having the land. The enjoyment of the land does not assure the enjoyment of the house, but the enjoyment of the house does assure the enjoyment of the land. As long as we enjoy the house, we may have the assurance that we are also enjoying the land. If we enjoy Christ, that does not assure us that we are also enjoying the church life. But as long as we are in the enjoyment of the church life, we are also in the enjoyment of Christ. The church assures us of Christ for our enjoyment.
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