Ewald Frank

1984-06-06 19:30, Krefeld, Germany 

broadcasted on 2024-11-27

Subject: Psalm 122: I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD!

Br. Schmidt:

Praise and thanks be to our God, also for this hour of grace, that he has granted us, given us, that we can come together here, unite before his face and thank and worship him.

May God give us grace this evening, as we cry out and say with the psalmist, as we all know, Psalm 122.

Here the psalmist says:

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.

Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.

For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

They shall prosper that love thee.

Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.

For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee, because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.

We are all familiar with this psalm, and we know it well, and it has been read to us so often.

And how often, when we read the sermons of brother Branham, does he refer to this Word, in the joy that he can be where his people are, in the joy that he can be where his Word is and where he reveals himself.

So may God put it in you and in me, in all of us, that we may rejoice in God's grace, in God's promises, that we may praise him and glorify his name, for he is wonderful in all that he does.

May we rejoice that our feet stand where his Word is.

Here it says, "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem."

And so may we rejoice that our feet can stand where his Word is proclaimed, the Word of truth.

We will one day be able to see and recognize that we have been granted the grace, the privilege of hearing the pure Word of truth.

And we know that here the psalmist has expressed it and said that "all the tribes of Israel were destined, according to the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord."

And so let us also praise him for the privilege he has shown us of giving us a place where we can praise and worship him.

Let us stand up and pray.

Faithful God, together we come before your face in this hour and thank you that you so graciously and fatherly still bring us together, O God, that our feet may hasten, O Lord, to where your word is proclaimed.

We thank you.

So grant us, grant me, everyone grace, O God, that we may take what we hear, O Lord, into our hearts.

For, Lord, you have ordained it for your people.

As we have just read how Jerusalem was destined for the tribes who rushed there to praise your name, O God, grant us grace and open our hearts.

O Lord, we want to praise you and glorify your name, but from ourselves we are not able.

O Lord, give us grace and power, your Holy Spirit, Lord.

We ask it in your name, Lord Jesus Christ, continue to speak to us this evening and let us exalt you.

Amen.

Br. Frank:

You may be seated.

Praise and thanks be to the Lord for the privilege of being here again to worship.

There is nothing more beautiful than to agree with what has been read to us, that a deep joy pervades us when we go to the house of the Lord.

When we leave here, it should make us sad because it is already over again. But when we come here, it should make us rejoice in the depths of our souls. 

It is a grace to come together before the face of God.

And in this one sermon, Brother Branham says, "I ought to be on my face by now because of the presence of God in the meeting."

We don't know how it is possible that we haven't made any progress yet, that we are not yet where God wants us to be.

But one thing is certain: We need to become more aware of what it means to be gathered before the face of God. Not just to attend a service, but remembering we come to talk to God.

We come so that He can talk to us.

We come to experience God.

And as we have sometimes said, if the Lord should reveal Himself once again in these last days, then certainly among those who believed Him as best they could and as it was revealed and given to them, and not there where people turn their backs on His Name, on His Word, but where His Name is precious to His people, where His Word is precious, where the work of the Spirit is precious, where the divine means more to us than anything on earth.

And we know that the Lord has loved us dearly and the love of God is not superficial, it is an intimate, eternal love of God, which we have been loved with.

And everyone who loves God loves all who are born of God. [1Jn 5:1]

But that is also true in the last sermon that we are translating, which will come out at some point. Brother Branham says there, "Every time the spiritual and the natural collide, there is trouble."

You have to be on the same wavelength.

You have to be born of God to even have access to the Divine.

Isn't that what the Lord says in this context?

The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit. [1Kor 2:14]

Unless someone is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. [Joh 3:3]

He can hear about it, preach about it, sing about it, but he cannot see it. He can only see if he has been born into it. And that, of course, moves us very much, that God would come into His own with us and with all His people more than ever before. And this requires us to return to the beginning in all things, even to the first intimate love that was in the first church.

But even then, it was reported in the first church-age message, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast lived thy first love." [Offb 2:4] And where we have strayed, as we have also heard, we must come back.

God should feel at home again in our midst. If anyone knew the way to get there, we would all want to hear how to reach the goal.

I think the first thing we all need to do is rejoice in our salvation. The certainty of being pardoned should bring joy to anyone who was condemned and sentenced, regardless of the things that surround us on the outside.

I couldn't help but think of what Brother Russ mentioned from time to time in earlier times of Paul and probably Philip when they were in prison. They sang songs of praise at midnight. [Acts 16:23

They could have complained and grumbled and said, "Dear God, now we've witnessed for you and now we've been soundly beaten and put in prison here." They could have quarreled with themselves and the whole world after all. And lo and behold, they sing. And they sing so fervently, not for show, not to let their voices ring out, to honor God.

And lo and behold, something happened. Something started to move.

I have to tell myself that and to all of us in equal measure.

What prevents us from giving thanks to the Lord in every situation?

This is what God wants from us in Christ.

That's how it is written.

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God.

To those who can do this, we would like to hand over the master's certificate. But we are still at school and we want to fulfill every Word of God.

We won't succeed on our own, but with the Lord's help I'm sure we will.

And I have realized so much that all complaining about all hardship and distress and all grievances only makes people ill and does not help at all, neither for the person complaining nor for those who listen to the complaints.

You know, I used to think that when old people got together everyone complained about their illness. But none of them got better as a result. Everything stayed the same.

And we sometimes do the same in the spiritual. We complain and no one has ever got better as a result. On the contrary, we get ourselves into even greater trouble and lose our joy in the Lord. Not that we lose the Lord, but the joy.

And the joy in the Lord is our strength. [Neh 8:10]

There are some scriptures in the Bible that we read over. And if we look at them a little closer, there is such a truth in them that we all have to listen to, that we have to heed, if we are to be well.

The joy in the Lord is our strength.

You can certainly say: "When you are in deep distress and everything is abominable and so on." Yes, what has the Lord got to do with it? He has done us no harm to this day.

So our attitude towards Him should be the same in every situation.

Come what may, that's what we have to tell ourselves.

Sure, one person may complain about his work situation, there is this and that, and the other does not have these problems. There are things everywhere that could be seen differently or criticized on a daily basis, and anyone who wants to deal with this could be prescribed a 25-hour day, because 24 might not be enough. But all this leads nowhere. On the contrary, it makes us sad and disgruntled.

And there are two things.

There is a divine sadness of which it is written that no one will regret it. [2Cor 7:10] A divine sorrow about our spiritual state. And then we look up to the Lord to change it and to help.

And that is why we are here tonight.

Not because we already have everything, but because we know that God has everything we need. And when we really realize that God has everything we need, and I've also had to think about that since Sunday morning.

It was one of the most powerful sermons ever. I had trouble holding back. That's how it seized me deep inside.

What is a church service in which God cannot serve us?

What use are all the meetings if God does not have His right fulfilled?

What use is all the proclamation of the mysteries of God if the mystery of Christ is not revealed through our lives?

Then all this is a theoretical lesson and if we had to write an exam about it, we might know all these things, but what does it look like in practice?

We have heard it in this Word here. [Ps 122:1]

I was glad when they said unto me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord."

And you can still see that among the Jewish people today. As our brother Goldner once mentioned, when such a psalm is mentioned, there are tears in the eyes. Even today, when a Jew, a truly God-fearing Jew, thinks of the temple, the longing in his heart is so deep and so great that it overwhelms him. And when they are at the Wailing Wall, there is not one who would forget to pray for the temple to be given to them again, so that they can go there to worship.

They know: it was ordained for them.

In the days of Moses, it was the tabernacle, the tent of the congregation. And God came down in glory and spoke to Moses face to face like no other prophet. And therefore Moses could say, referring to Christ [Dt 18:15]:

The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me.

Unto him ye shall hearken, and every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.

God has not left himself unwitnessed from the beginning. He walked in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the evening and visited Adam and Eve. [Gn 3:8] He has an urge for fellowship with us.

And we all know that this bridge has been built, but we have to enter and cross it ourselves.

I have probably said it here recently, God's way is not a one-way street, but is traveled in both directions.

God has bent down to us, has been gracious to us, so that we can go up to him.

All wonderful thoughts, but how does it manifest itself in our practical life of faith?

If we take the Holy Scriptures seriously, and we should, then being a believer really does require divine confirmation, a divine answer. Without a supernatural divine answer, we have no answer.

And your answer and my answer will be of no use to you or me.

Therefore, also with regard to Pentecost, it is not a festival that we should celebrate with a new suit, new shirt and new tie or new dress. That's not what Pentecost means.

Pentecost means that God has poured out his Spirit on his people. Whether it was an old suit or a new dress, that was not the point, but rather an answer from God, no longer as a word of promise, but as the fulfillment of the word of promise.

Just as it was with our Lord – the promises were and were and suddenly they were all summarized and "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." [Joh 1:14]

"God had spoken through the prophets in diverse manners" and suddenly everything was summarized and "at the end of days he spoke to us in the Son." [Hebr 1:1-2]

Then when redemption took place and he ascended to glory, the Spirit of God filled the people of God.

God still stands by his Word today.

It must become a real need for us, not just for me, but for all of us, that we firstly experience and receive a biblical conversion, a biblical new birth, a biblical baptism of the Spirit, that everything we read in the Holy Scriptures and promised to believers, that we would experience and receive like them. Otherwise we can never be a biblical church.

We can explain what it should look like, what it should fulfill as functions, but that would again be a theory.

Oh, that God could make people out of us who believe him from the heart and trust him from the heart.

And as we have often said, God and his Word are credible. For thus it is written, "God is not a man that he should lie." [Nu 23:19] He, the glorious one, has never said anything that he did not keep or that was not true.

This was talking about the people of Israel that they should go to the house of God, that they should go to Jerusalem, and there all the tribes of the Lord went.

What do we notice here?

It doesn't say all the tribes of Israel, all "the tribes of the Lord," all from all the tribes of Israel who believed what God said in His word. They went, regardless of what the others did, who stayed behind. But the tribes of the Lord, they went. For them, the Word of God was a commandment.

Whatever had to be done, and you have to give the Jewish people credit. They can be said to be good at trading, but when it came to following the Word of God, they did it. They knew what was right. When they traded, they did so on the designated days.

But when the day of the Lord came and the feast of God, they knew what was right.

And it says here [Ps 122:6]:

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee.

Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces.

For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, 'Peace be within thee.' 

Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good.

There are several passages in the New Testament that speak of the house of God. And it says here, in Hebrews chapter 3, that we are the house of God.

Hebrews 3, verse 5.

And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.

But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Christ is said to be "over His own house and His house are we." So we have read.

And the church is also compared to the city, to Jerusalem. In Hebrews 12, Hebrews chapter 12, from verse 22.

But ye are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly 

and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 

and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

We too have come to the house of God, to the new Jerusalem, to the city of God. Paul probably explains this in his letter to the Galatians, when, in comparing Hagar and Sarah, he speaks of the one Jerusalem that is in bondage, and the other that is free, and that we belong to it.

It says here, in Galatians 4, verse 26:

But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all.

We have come to the city of God. We are not the earthly Israel, not the fleshly descendants of Abraham. But to Abraham it was promised in the singular, "In thy seed." [Gal 3:16] And this seed is Christ, and through him we have all been blessed.

You all know the word.

I sometimes struggle, because I have the English Bible in my memory from time to time, where things are written.

But you all know it. Here in Galatians 3, in the English it's on the right, here it's on the left. It says here in Galatians 3, verse 16:

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, 'And to seeds, as of many, but as of one.' And to thy seed, which is Christ."

Here we are dealing with the beginning of divine creation, with the seed of God, with the word of promise that became flesh. And we are all likewise conceived and born from the Word of God and by the Spirit of God.

Christ, that's how we read, He himself said, "I am not of this world, neither are ye any more of this world." [Joh 17:16]

He was able to say, "My kingdom is not of this world," [Joh 18:36] otherwise people would fight.

No, he brought a heavenly, divine kingdom.

If we summarize this, just as God brought the natural seed of promise, there was a natural seed of promise. That was Isaac.

Ishmael, we have come to understand, was a man without promise, born according to the will of Sarah. God allowed it to happen. She had lost faith that God would fulfill his promise and then gave advice on what should be done.

And this man, "Ishmael, was like a wild donkey." [1Mo 16:12] That's what the Bible says. No one could tame him. All against him, he against all. Things were always not as they should be.

With Isaac it was completely different: A son of promise, although born according to the flesh.

And that is why God said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." [1Mo 21:12]

Ishmael and all "the sons of Abraham's other wives were given gifts." They were given gifts along the way, but Isaac received the inheritance.

How many people there are at this time who are richly endowed by God with gifts.

And thanks be to God for all gifts, nothing against it.

But let us be "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ." [Röm 8:17]

And the gifts to go with it, oh yes, I wish for a great abundance.

What would it be like if what is written were to be fulfilled?

My people shall have my gifts in abundance. [Jer 31:14] Is that what it says? Who can remember that? Yes? Yes, I hope we have all read the Bible.

Isaac was the rightful heir because he was born according to the divine promise.

Christ, the rightful heir, because he was born according to the promise. And all who receive the word of the divine promise are rightfully born through the word and the Spirit and have part in what God has promised.

That should actually make us happy. It should make us worship because we believe that we are legitimate sons and daughters of God. And we don't just believe that because we want to believe it. We believe it because of the Word of God, because we believe the divine promises from the bottom of our hearts.

Only those who are themselves born on the basis of the divine promise, I mean spiritually now, are able to believe the promises of the word. All others will pass them by.

I don't know whether we are doing violence to the scriptures when we make the comparison with Mary who believed the Lord.

Mary was a vessel. She was ordained by God to receive the word of promise. And she believed. And the Holy Spirit came upon her and overshadowed her. [Lk 1:35]

Beloved, we believe the word of promise today – and the same thing must happen. The Spirit of God must come upon those who believe the Word of God's promise.

There is no other confirmation of faith. We must realize this once and for all.

Mary could have said for a hundred years, "I believe and I'm the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done unto me." [Lk 1:38]

And if nothing had happened, what good would it have done?

Where people believe, something happens. That is where God intervenes. That is where the word becomes flesh, where it becomes reality. That's when it comes forth. These are not just words that we say, but God is behind them.

What kind of example are we given here!

The word of promise goes forth and she asks, "How shall it be done?" and so on.

And then came the divine answer: The seed of the word was transformed into life in her, transformed into divine life.

Beloved, "the Word of God is spirit and life," [Joh 6:63] but the word must be brought forth unto life by the spirit. There is no other way.

And I think that Mary no longer had to ask and plead, no longer had to wrestle – faith, faith did it.

If God sees your heart and mine, that we have received his precious and holy Word as a divine promise, will that not pull down the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon us, to make alive the word that has fallen in us so that divine life may come forth?

I'll say it again: She didn't need to wrestle, she didn't need to fast, she didn't need to pray.

Everything has its place – but the moment God begins to act, our works all cease, then we come to rest with our works so that God can work.

And that's what happened then.

And it will certainly be the same now, at the end, in the bride of the Lamb, "flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones." [Eph 5:30]

"I was glad," so we read along, "when they said unto me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord." [Ps 122:1]

We were glad when we knew that we were now coming to have fellowship with the Lord. And we are glad again when we can bring His Word before our eyes.

Oh, how all these divine things are a divine reality. We can rely on them!

Everything can collapse. But what God has promised, He will certainly keep. And when we come to our God with His confidence of faith and attitude of heart, oh, something must begin to move.

Then first our hearts are moved. Then the stony hearts are taken out and hearts of flesh are given that can feel and that can receive the Word. [Ez 36:26]

Promises have been given but only to those who are ordained to find fulfillment in them.

The angel Gabriel did not go around the country asking, "Would you like to be the one?" He knew where to go. God knows all things exactly. 

He knew when He guided your steps into a meeting and His Word entered your heart that you would believe it and receive it.

Is it true?

Surely God has had a hard time with us but we believed right away.

Is it true or not?

Of course, since we became believers we have given the Lord a hard time. But when the hour of God struck for us and His Word spoke to us there was an answer in our hearts towards God. And we came to Him and He accepted us.

And we too can say, each one, one in the village, one in the city one in the country, one here, one there – the Lord passed by thousands. Suddenly there was a knock at the door of your heart and at the door of my heart. And the Lord could have called out to us "Thou art highly favoured. God is with you." [Lk 1:28]

The Lord knows who believes Him and who does not believe Him. He will not spend His time with those who do not believe Him but He will spend His time with those who believe Him from the heart.

And I mean these are the days that the Lord has made for us to believe Him.

I wish so much that I could believe every Word of God so wholeheartedly and put it into practice that I would be a letter written that not everyone would have to read the Bible, but that the people could also read us, that what is written in the Word of God is written in us again and has been fulfilled.

"I was glad when they said unto me "Let us go into the house of the Lord," to Jerusalem "where the thrones of judgment were set," the place God had chosen, the city of David, the city of the great king, the king of peace, Salem, Jerusalem, city of peace.

"We have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the new Jerusalem, to the just man made perfect, to God, to the mediator of the new covenant, to the blood of sprinkling…" [Hebr 12:22] 

Everything is there: the blood of sprinkling, the mediator of the new covenant, the connection to God is there again, reconciled with God, united with Him.

Beloved, may God give us a new encounter with himself tonight.

Let me tell you how this happens: by seizing the opportunity and meeting our God in prayer and seeking him and this in faith and trust because the moment the Lord speaks to us he wants us to respond.

He wants your response and mine, he wants your mouth and mine to be filled with what our hearts have been filled with.

I believe that when what we have looked at passes before our spiritual eyes it is again such an abundance of divine glory and clarity that overwhelms our hearts.

We can only say: oh God how great are thou, how gracious, you have knocked, we have heard, you spoke, we received and believed. Lord, do with us as it pleases you, add to your word your spirit so that divine life may be revealed in all of us by grace.

Amen.