The third situation is the condition of Christianity today. I would like to ask you all again whether or not it is all right to have only the Ark. It is not all right! David was a man after God’s heart. He cared about the matter of God’s dwelling place very much. In Psalm 132 David swore and vowed to God, saying, “I shall not go into the tent of my house; / I shall not go up onto the couch of my bed; / I shall not give sleep to my eyes, / Slumber to my eyelids; / Until I find a place for Jehovah, / A tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob” (vv. 3-5). He also prayed, “Arise, O Jehovah, unto Your resting place, / You and the Ark of Your strength” (v. 8). David knew that to have only the Ark was not sufficient and that there was the need for a dwelling place. So according to his good intention, he built a tent for God, knowing in his heart that this was only temporary and not permanent. Subsequently, he intended to build a house for God. Then, through the prophet Nathan, God told David that although his intention was right, the time was not right, because the enemies had not yet been completely subdued, and there was not yet rest all around. Therefore, God told him that a son would be born to him and that his son would be a man of rest, and it was he who would build a house for God. Not only so, God also revealed to David the pattern of the temple through His Spirit, just as He revealed to Moses the pattern of the tabernacle on the mountain. Before his death, David clearly showed Solomon this pattern. Later Solomon built the temple according to the pattern that his father had showed him. The temple was what God in His heart wanted to obtain and to dwell in. Only when the temple was finished did the Ark of God have a proper and fixed dwelling place. This is the fourth kind of situation. In this situation, there is not only Christ who is so rich but also the church that is proper, strengthened, enlarged, and stabilized.
I believe that now you can clearly see this matter of a proper church not only needing to have Christ within but also needing to be built according to the pattern on the mountain. I will give a detailed explanation of the pattern on the mountain later. First, I must give you all a principle—there can be only one church in a locality. Only by keeping this principle can the children of God be guarded from division. It is a pity that today very few people abide by this principle. Almost everyone does as he wishes and considers this a matter of no consequence.
I was twenty years old and was just beginning to pursue the Lord fervently when, after seeing this light from the Bible, I discussed this matter with an old pastor. The old pastor was a very godly man who lived in God’s presence. He said to me, “Mr. Lee, what you have seen may be considered very correct, and this record is truly in the Bible. However, in my opinion, a city with many separate churches has an advantage.” I was very surprised and asked him, “What is the advantage?” He replied, “A church is a lampstand. If a city has only one church, then no matter how big the church is, it cannot shine brightly enough to cover the entire city. However, thank and praise the Lord that God in His great wisdom has allowed His children to be divided. The more they are divided, the more churches there are. On the surface, the church is being divided, but because of this division, God can have many small lampstands in a city. Thus, will not the entire city be illuminated?” His explanation was very clever. However, is this a divine pattern or a human pattern? The problems that we encounter today are not concerning spiritual matters but concerning the matter of the church. In our speaking about the building of the church, we have seen that the problem is not with the Ark. Instead, the problem is entirely with the tabernacle. I believe that all of you have seen that God needs to gain a proper tabernacle on the earth to match the Ark. In other words, God needs to gain the proper church to match His glorious Son, Christ. We cannot pay attention merely to being spiritual and neglect the matching of the proper church.