The Secret Place — Robert B. Thompson

Lord, as we come unto you tonight, Lord, as with great thanksgiving and praise for all your goodness, Lord, all your wonderful love toward us, Lord, thank you. Pray remember Bob Porcelli, Lord, as he's in another country, Lord, keep your hand on him, keep him safe.

Bless each family represented here, Lord, you know the help that we need. And we just look to you, Lord, to keep our families safe and healthy, Lord, give us wisdom so that we can resolve our problems.

We pray as we continue tonight, Lord, that you will just give us just what you want for each one, Lord, just that word that will help us on our way. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen. Well, alright, we're in Ezekiel, we've heard of that book, we've gotten this far, now it's chapter 44, verses 2 and 3 of Ezekiel.

Christ’s Special Place in the Heart

Now, Ezekiel 44, 2 and 3, now we're talking about the image of Christ as portrayed symbolically in Ezekiel's temple, is what we're about here. Alright, now, for the benefit of those in Tape Land, the Lord said to me, this gate is to remain shut, it must not be open, no one may enter through it.

It is to remain shut because the Lord, the God of Israel has entered through it. The Prince himself is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the Lord. He is to enter by way of the portico of the gateway, that's a covered walkway that leads to the gate, and go out the same way.

Now, I believe what the Spirit of the Lord is talking about there is the special place that Christ is to have in our heart. Now, just because we are churchgoers, doesn't necessarily mean that we're really in the one-on-one relationship that Jesus wants.

It's very easy for church and religion to demand allegiance. We're following the rules and regulations and we know all the folkways and we know the words and the choruses and the mores and the values of our religion.

But knowing Jesus is something else again. And he wants to be in our heart in a more personal way than I think we have understood. I think the Lord showed me something and I'm not sure I can put it in words.

It was a week or so ago. But the kingdom is being set up now. It's being set up. And the kingdom is a rule of God through Christ to the individual and through the individual to others. Because we are being made a royal priesthood.

And I remember when I came to the Lord, I had always believed in God. I mean, it just seemed, I guess like everybody else, like the native in the bush. You just know there's a God. And I can remember as a boy praying, but I didn't know about Jesus and I didn't know about the gospel.

I wasn't raised in a Christian family and I didn't know about that, but I did believe in God. And when I was introduced to the gospel, the problem I had was something that would never, I don't think, ever bother a person who was raised in a Christian home.

And that was transferring my allegiance from God to Christ. I thought, who is this person, you know, I'm supposed to give the most sacred part of my life and worship him as God? And it gave me pause. I surmounted it, I said, okay, if that's what God wants, I'm in.

That's what Jesus said in John 14 .1, you believe in God, believe in me. And I had a problem with that. I didn't want to do that. I felt, you know, I didn't want anybody between me and God. Well, I think we're going to find when the kingdom is set up, that there's going to be not only God and Jesus, not only Jesus is going to be between us and God, but depending where we are in the hierarchy, there's going to be other people.

Now, I don't know how that all works out. But if you remember the verse, let no man take your crown, do you remember that? Well, my understanding of that verse has stopped with the idea of losing your crown.

But there's a flip side of the coin to that. And that is, someone else gets the crown. I never thought of that. And if we don't establish our place with Jesus in a one-on-one relationship with him, we're going to find that he puts others over us who are more diligent.

And let me tell you, this is a very real thing. I preached, and I've understood from the book of Daniel, that one of the horrors of the last days is going to be that Antichrist will be given the authority to reach into the heavens to the extent that he can interfere with the prayers of the saints.

Now, see, we don't know what that's like. We're simply used to, when we go to prayer, we're used to going right through Jesus to the Holy of Holies in heaven. And we know that God is so anxious to hear us pray, we go right on through.

We better start taking advantage of that. Because the day is coming when that won't be possible. Antichrist will have the authority to reach up to the hosts that are established in heaven. And if any rebellion at all can be found in them, they will be torn down.

Now, we're not used to this. We're used to having an open heaven. When we go to Jesus, we don't expect any problems, but it's going to change. The Lord showed me that, and I had a personal experience with that.

And of someone coming between me and the Lord, and I said, Lord! And it was someone that I did not care to have between me and Christ. And it was someone who, at one time in my life, I had given too much authority to.

And the Lord spoke to me about that many years ago. He said, you're giving your authority to somebody else. He said, I don't want you to do that, I don't want them doing what you're doing. And it wasn't difficult for me, I just never thought of it.

And so I took steps to correct it. He said, you're giving your authority to someone else. I have an open-hearted nature, that's what I am. In many ways I'm childlike, if not childish. And it's, you all come, that's the type of personality I have.

I don't grab things like authority, it doesn't mean that much to me. But there are other people to whom authority is extremely important, and they grasp it and have to have the preeminence. Well, of my many, many sins, that isn't one of them.

I don't care whether I'm noticed or not, that's fine, that's off my back. Better for me, let me curl up in bed with a book, that suits me perfect. Let people beat their drums all they want to. But that isn't the way it is with everybody, and this particular person was much more into seeking authority, seeking power.

And I was giving it to them, and the Lord spoke to me about that. And so I had to change my ways. You see, let no man take your crown. In other words, it's up to you to see, that you don't give away the authority that God has given to you, because someday, you're going to be ruled by people you don't want to be ruled by.

That's heavy and it's deep. It's very true, because the kingdom of God is a hierarchy of rank. And the overcomers will govern. They will govern. And people will not have a say in the matter. If God inserts someone in there, between you and Jesus to govern you there, I tell you from this brief experience I had, there is not a blessed thing you can do about it.

It panicked me for a minute. I thought, Lord, I don't want this. And then it was withdrawn, but the Lord showed me. And that's the way He does, so that I can teach and so that I can explain things. He shows me by personal experience.

But it has to match the Bible, see, and that's what it says. Let no man take your crown. Because you'll find Him ruling over you. So, we know from the New Testament that the kingdom will go to the diligent.

The Kingdom, Diligence, and Spiritual Rank

You know, take the talent from him, give it to the man that has ten. And those talents, the reward was ruling. You'll rule over ten cities. How about this guy? Take his talent, put him in the outer darkness.

He rules over nothing. This guy is over eleven cities. There's much about that in the Gospels. It's about rulership. And we don't think too much about it because, maybe because we're in a democracy and we don't have problems with the star chambers and the fiats of emperors or whatever.

We're just not that much into who's governing who. It used to be important in England. England had quite a caste system, you know. And if you were not of the nobility, when you came in front of someone, you had to grab your forelock and bow and show your subservience.

You didn't have any choice about it. See, we're used to, nobody's going to tell me what to do. That's a big problem in America. Is this saying, nobody's going to tell me what to do. If you ever find that in your spirit, ask God to remove it.

That is not a godly spirit. That's a function of the American pursuit of happiness. And it is not realistic because you're always going to find people telling you what to do. And if you can't be told what to do, I'm going to tell you where you're going to end up.

Just walking down Quince, pushing a shopping cart with everything you own in the shopping cart. Because that's why a lot of those people are there. Because nobody's going to tell me to take this job and shove it.

Well, in most of the world, for most of history, there was a rank. There were kings, there were nobles, there were the rich, there was the upper class, the middle class, the lower class, and things were strictly observed.

It's only now in England that they're talking about getting rid of the monarchy. And the House of Commons, I guess, as the House of Lords, is becoming more or less a figurehead. But you see, it goes back to the day when people accepted their role.

They couldn't marry outside of it. I'm just talking about England, let alone other societies that were more strictly governed, such as in India. But in England alone, you didn't marry out of your class.

You know, some fellow coming from a land of the state met a girl whose father was way down. There was no marriage. It caused such immense social problems, it just wasn't worth it for either one of them.

So now with the idea, well, it doesn't matter who you marry, anybody you want. I mean, we despise that sort of thing. But for most of history, for most of the world, people have lived in stratas of in society.

And it's even that true in India today. There is a lower class. There's the untouchables. And then it goes on up. I had a good chance to minister to those in the very lowest class. And they're very beautiful people.

But they're not concerned about that. They accept they were born into it. They're not striving to establish a democracy. We've got this idea there's something wonderful about having no class. Well, it creates as many problems as it solves.

Like so many things in the world. And we're going now into a kingdom. The kingdom of God. It is not a democracy. And the order of the kingdom is being established now. And the word is very clear, you know.

He who overcomes will rule with a rod of iron. And so on. It means just that. It means that someone in the world will not be able to go directly to Jesus. They'll have to go to one of the victorious saints.

And through him to Jesus. And through Jesus to God. And you can't vote people in and out. Because it's established in your spiritual environment. And when you go to pray, there's this guy. There's no option.

So it never dawned on me until I experienced it. And I said, well yeah, that's what the Bible is talking about. It's the establishing of a rule. A system of rule. That starts in the top and works its way down.

With God the Father above all. And Jesus under him. And the victorious saints under Jesus. And the rest of the church under there. And then under the church is the world. And nobody has a say. So that's the way it's set up.

So today you can do something about it. But in the future you won't be able to. Now you can do something about it. You can maintain your crown. The crown means rulership. What else does a crown mean? In fact, it was conventional in England.

Instead of referring to the government, they would refer to the crown. The crown does this. The crown does that. It's just a way of speaking. Because the crown... Here's just somebody that is like you and me.

Breathing the air. Metabolizing all the time. Trying to keep a temperature of 98 .6. And that's all they are. They don't have any particular power. Maybe they're not strong. Couldn't whip their weight in marshmallows.

And you put that crown on their head. And they command armies and navies. All of a sudden, they have the power of life and death. But without that crown, they only have what they can establish with their ability to wrestle.

Or argue. Or spend their money. So, when the Bible is talking about crown, it's not talking about a little rentals wrapped crown that your Sunday school teacher made, and put on your head because you put a dollar and a half in the offering.

It's not talking about it. It's talking about a genuine governmental authority that will command angels. Will command great power. Great power. And we miss it because the things that God does are so low key.

You know, here the king of all is born in a barn. And they're so low key that you miss it. But it's going on today. But you can miss it in religion. Because religion has its own ranks and files and hierarchy.

And we get used to that. And there's immense politics played. And nepotism and every other thing that goes on in denominationalism. And we miss what God is doing because we're not on a one-to-one relationship with Him.

We've got our religion. We've got our salvation, we hope. And we've got our church attendance. But God wants more than that. He wants you to know Jesus in a much greater way than you know Him. And He is available to be known.

The Lord is available to be known. This is the day. This is the time. You remember we noticed in 1 Thessalonians 5 Sunday night. But brethren, you have no need that I write to you concerning the times and seasons.

Plural. That same expression is in Acts 3 .18 .19. The times. Plural. Chronome. Of opportunity and the calendar time. There's times. God works in times. And there's a time for things in the kingdom. There was a time for tongues.

There's a time for worldwide evangelism. There's times for things. And one of the differences between living in the flesh and living in the spirit is when you're in the spirit, you know God's times. You're not just running around trying to do something.

You know God's times. But that takes a lot of waiting on the Lord and a lot of trust in the Lord. But we are now in a time when the Lord is knocking at the door. That's the seventh church. We're in that time now.

And the Lord is saying, I want you to open up your heart. I want you to come in. I want to come into you in a much greater way than you have known. See, that's what Ezekiel 44 is talking about. The prince wants to come in.

And when he's in there, he doesn't want anybody else in there. Did you notice that? See? It remains shut because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered through it. And we have lots of things in our hearts and lots of things that moves us.

Jesus wants to come in and be the one that does it. He wants a one-on-one relationship with you in your heart. Not through the pastor. Not through your parents. Not through your fellow saints. But you.

And these are the people who will rule with Christ. And the time is now. But it means an awful lot of letting go of idols. Because those idols are in our heart. And Christ is saying, I don't want any idols in your heart.

Guarding the Inner Life Against Human Control

Now, how many remember the flap of a few years ago on sensitivity training? Are any of you old enough to remember that? Oh, it's got to be... We've been here 25 years, so it's got to be 35 years ago. Yeah?

Yeah, 35 because Mark is 41 now. So it's about 35 years ago. There's a big flap in sensitivity training. And the idea was that was a manipulation of people that the communists have used many times. You get people in a group and you get them to confess and confess and confess and to open up the deepest part of their personality.

And the purpose of that is so that the leader of the group can rule you. Can govern you. Not so long ago, I was reproved by some people. Not in this church. But other people that I knew in another place.

And they said, the problem with you is you don't let anyone walk in the garden of your heart. And I said, you've got it. You've got it. I don't open up my heart to you or anybody else. What's deep in there, nobody knows.

Nobody but Jesus. But the communists do that, you know. They move the group by confession. You get people, we want to know everything you're thinking. They did that up at Big Sur. They were into sensitivity training.

That was a big flap a few years ago. And you tell the group everything. Everybody, the expression was, let it all hang out. Let it all hang out. Confess everything. Let it all hang out. Confess everything.

And people, their conscience bothers them and they feel unholy. You work on people's consciences that way. And when I heard that, there's something wrong here. But the group dynamics in that thing are awesome.

Awesome. And people being what they are, they're willing to do that. And if you have a strong leader, pretty soon he's got everybody under his thumb. And they do such things. I remember an example where a person had been trained up in Esalen in Big Sur was dealing with a person and he dropped something on the floor.

And he said, pick it up. He was training them in this way. They went down to pick it up. He said, stand up. He said, no, you bend over and pick that up. And they got almost there. No, stand up. No, I want you to pick that up.

And this person was doing that. See, the idea is to break down the inner individuality of the person until they become subject to the leader. Everything is under the control of the leader. Now, whether this will return, I don't know.

It was a big flap in public education when I was teaching. A big flap. And the dynamics on the children were sometimes very negative because they would subject the children in the group, especially if a child was having problems, they'd put the child in the center of the group and ask the group what they thought about him.

Can you imagine doing that? See, teachers very often are, let's say half an understanding of psychology is worse than none because they were not competent to deal. But they had this smattering of psychological thing and they were not trained in it and they were exposing children to terrible emotional problems and self-image problems by having the other people, other children in the group say, well, this is how we feel about you.

Teachers were doing that because they went to a seminar and some hotshot making, you know, his $100 an hour as a consultant was teaching them about how to control group behavior by using the pressure of the group.

There's great pressure in a group to cause a person to conform to the median thoughts of the group and anybody that wants to govern people will try to get them in a group. I think that's why sometimes preachers, when they start off the meeting say, now turn to the person next to you and say I love you and it might be somebody, a total stranger, I don't want to say that.

Let me tell you something, don't say it. It's group control. Now a little bit of that, you know, somebody comes to the church and says that, don't freeze on them, you know, but that is done for that reason because the man up in the pulpit knows that you break down that thing and you've got the group in your hand because you had them all interact that way.

So it's a device and I expect they learn it in Bible school. But the Lord wants individuals. To him that overcomes, I'll give him a new name that no man knows, saving him who receives it. He wants you.

He doesn't want you bringing anybody with you in that sense, in the garden of your heart. Don't let anybody walk in the garden of your heart except Jesus. If you do, you're going to be very disappointed someday because people cannot possibly meet your expectations.

Only Jesus. Keep a place there for Jesus. Keep a place there for Jesus. Like it says, the prince is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the Lord. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will eat with him. You're eating in the presence of God. You're feeding on the body and blood of Christ. And nobody, but nobody is to be there but you and Jesus.

Now Antichrist is going to try to get in there because he knows you can rule the world by force but that's not very satisfying to rule in a satisfactory way. You have to have the hearts of people. And only Jesus.

Remember where it says in Revelation that John wept because the book was sealed on the inside. The scroll was sealed inside and outside with seals. How many remember that? And John wept because no one was worthy to open that scroll.

That scroll is the human heart. And was it the lion or was it the lamb that came? And he says, rejoice because the lamb has prevailed to open that. See because it's written because our lives are written on the outside and they're written on the inside.

And only Jesus has the authority before God to open your heart. So you can love anybody to pieces. That's fine. But keep a place in there for Jesus. It's just you and Him. If you do, He'll never let you down.

You'll find there's somebody that sticks closer than a brother. But anyone else you let into there eventually will let you down. God Himself will see to that. Because that's an idol and it doesn't belong in there.

There's a place there for God that's been created in you and in me and it's for God alone. And every marriage should be formed that way. It should be if you're really going to love somebody and you want it to last, love them through Jesus.

If you don't, your love eventually will fail. Love them through Jesus. Because otherwise, no matter how intense your passion is, eventually that person will let you down. God will see to that. Because He's jealous.

And He wants your heart. Am I coming across? Do you see it in Ezekiel? Alright, let's take a look at Song of Solomon chapter 2 verse 7. Now here is a question with a pronoun. And King James says He. But I think the NIV It is probably more to the point.

Song of Solomon chapter 2 verse 7. I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field do not arouse or awaken love. Isn't that an unusual expression? Until it so desires. Now a government or a religion will call for your love.

Call. But Jesus waits God's time. And He lets the north wind blow on the garden of your heart and the south wind blow on the garden of your heart. And He very gently awakens love for Himself. He does not demand it.

He says wait until it pleases. King James says He. But I don't think that fits it. It's the love itself. Wait until it pleases. Wait until that love comes voluntarily. Did you ever notice about Jesus that He is not harsh?

And you know He can get harsh. Whoa! But you notice how gently He leads you? Did you ever notice that? He is much more gentle with people than we are. And people irritate us. Eventually we give them a piece of our mind.

And the Lord never gives us a piece of His mind. He very gently leads us awaiting for that love to awaken. He wants your voluntary love. He doesn't want it commandeered. He doesn't want it forced. He wants it to come of your own joy and your own choice.

I sound like the Lord? That's the way He is. And see the Song of Solomon is a contest between organized religion and the one-on-one relationship with Jesus. That's what the Song of Solomon is about.

That's why at the very last of it you'll see He says, give Solomon his shekels. In other words, that's what he's after anyway. Give him his shekels. Give organized religion their shekels. My beloved is mine.

I have her heart. Give organized religion its money. Give it whatever they ask for. But their heart is for me. Not for their church. A nice church asks for it, doesn't it? They want the allegiance. They want to stand in the place of Christ.

Don't ever let that happen. Nobody stands in the place of Christ. Not at this time. Okay, any questions about that? Let's take a quick look at the same book. Chapter 3, verse 5. The watchman found me as they made their rounds in the city.

See, that's referring to organized religion. 5, Daughters of Jerusalem. Daughters of Jerusalem represent religion. And the Lord here is speaking to them about His bride. And He says, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

I mean, the second instance, same thing. You don't very often find in the Bible things related repeated like that. Sometimes. But when they are, it's because it's important. So, the Lord is charging religion.

Don't awaken that in people. Leave it. Let it come up by itself. Don't try to force it. They'll love me sooner or later. You don't have to beat them. Well, we've had enough of that. Let's go to chapter 8, verse 4.

My goodness! Arouse or awaken love until it so desires. And then He goes on. Then the Lord goes on talking about the intensity of His love. Ephesians, the third chapter, talks about the love of Christ that passes knowledge.

And here it is. Who is this that comes up from the desert leaning on her lover? That is the true bride. And she's been and God has knocked every prop out from under her until she's no longer able to march.

She has to come up leaning. She learns to lean. Learning to lean. Learning to lean. Learning to lean on Jesus. God been knocking the props out from you? Making you more dependent on Himself? He does that with the bride.

Religion doesn't want that. Religion acts best when it has plenty of money, plenty of people, plenty of publicity, plenty of this and plenty of that, and can do very well thank you whether the Lord shows up or not.

But the bride is brought to the place where she can't move without Jesus. That's what He wants. When her love is awakened the third time, that's where she is. And you come up out of the desert. Place me like a seal over your heart.

Like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death. It's jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire. Fire. Like a mighty flame. I want to scroll down a little bit. Many waters cannot quench love.

Rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned. Back in verse 6, I believe, is the passage in Rotherham. I guess the interpreters of the text don't like to put what in there, but instead of a mighty flame, the Hebrew says that it's like the flash of Yah.

In other words, it's like the love that burns in God himself. And I guess they feel that's a little too gross to be speaking about God in that way. But the Hebrew is not nearly as delicate as some of the modern translations.

And then it goes on. Scroll down a little bit, would you? This is the three divisions of people you have in the church. We have a young sister and her breasts are not grown. In other words, she's immature.

She cannot bear fruit. But she is a sister of the bride. She's not grown enough. She's not mature enough to nourish children. What shall we do for our sister in the day she's spoken for? If she is a wall, that is that she has some defense against sin.

Somewhere there we're going to build towers of silver on her. That is battlements that in those days they used in warfare like forts will make her strong. She's already got some defense will make her stronger yet.

She still isn't able to bear children, but she can resist sin. There's a lot of church people like that. Boy, this is a picture of church people who won't quit. If she is a door and so many of God's people are doors.

I mean, you just get them going and then Satan takes them off. And then they're in and then they're out. And then they're in and then they're out. Well, what do you do about such a person? You don't try to make fortresses out of her.

You enclose her with panels of cedar. Well, in those days cedar was greatly set by. It is today, too. It's not the cheapest wood there is. Any of you have cedar in your closet to keep the malls out? Do you like the smell of cedar?

Cedar has a smell all its own, doesn't it? Other woods don't have that smell like cedar does. But it was used for decorative purposes and the Temple of Solomon was walled inside with cedar boards. Cedar.

So here you've got a relative of the bride. She's not a fortress and she can't nourish children. But the Lord loves her and so He protects her. But notice that it says, we. And in my point of view, that we is the hundred fold of victorious saints.

And I believe they will perform this work during the thousand year kingdom age and is the reason for the thousand year kingdom age. Is to bring the rest of the church into a place where it can descend as the holy city.

You can't have people descend in the holy city if they're a door. Mind you, the story of Aladdin. Have any of you ever read the story of Aladdin and the magic lamp? Do you remember how the guy came by after that lamp and the girl was so dumb she sold him the lamp?

Have you ever read that? Aladdin and the magic lamp. Well that's a great allegory. Because it's so true. It's telling you the story of Eve. See she was a door. Satan comes, boom! Off she goes. Well see we don't picture that in the world to come.

We think everything is going to be so there's no temptation. Forget it! As long as angels and people have free wills there's always a possibility of rebellion. And the Lord doesn't want a bride that is like that woman in Aladdin's lamp.

That's a door. He doesn't want anything like that. So he's saying you enclose her so that the devil can't get at her. I believe that's the reason for the thousand year kingdom age. Is to make the whole church ready to descend to the earth to be the government of God.

Do it as you will. There's a lot of other scriptures that bear the same thing. Now see you've got your thirty-fold, your sixty-fold and you've got your hundred-fold here. I am a wall and my breasts are like towers.

Now what relationship do breasts have like towers? By the way, the name for God Almighty is El Shaddai. The Almighty God means literally in Hebrew the breasted one. Because you see dominion comes from fruitfulness.

See the more kids you have in those days it says there's arrows in the quiver of a mighty man so are the children of the youth. And in those days the more children you had the more power you had to exercise dominion.

And so the last two parts of the divine fiat concerning Adam was that he would be fruitful and have dominion. And dominion is the result of fruitfulness. Fruitfulness bears children. The children can wage war.

Man's strength in his children. And so that's the relationship. It says I have, my breasts are like towers. I've strength. El Shaddai strength and fruitfulness. I'm not a door just a door a wall. That's the firstborn.

That's the Lord's. It says back in chapter 6 in the same book there are a lot of virgins a lot of concubines and queens and everything else but my beloved is one. Let me get to that in a minute. I didn't mean to go this direction but I'm on it so and but notice in verse 11 when it gets back to Solomon it's talking about organized religion or any organized religion.

He has a vineyard in Balaam and he let out his vineyard to tenants. Each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand shekels of silver. That's what churches are always doing. Begging for money. Begging for money.

A thousand shekels of silver. Cough up. Tithe. Here's the thermometer on the wall. Look at it go up. Did you put in a thousand dollars today? Ever been in a church like that? My own vineyard is mine to give.

The thousand shekels are for you Solomon. Take your money and split. You who dwell in the gardens with friends and attendants let me hear your voice. Come away my lover and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the spice-laden mountains.