Fighting the Good Fight, Finishing the Course, Keeping the Faith, and Loving the Lord's Appearing -3

Message Title: Keeping the Faith

I. In the New Testament, faith is both objective and subjective

Ephesians 4:13 Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

the faith in Ephesians 4:13 is not faith as a believing action but the objective faith. the objective faith refers to the subject of our believing, that is, to the things in which we believe; this objective faith includes the contents of God's New Testament economy.

subjective faith has to do with our action of beliving. 

these two aspects of faith involve one another. Our beliving (subjective faith) is out of the things we believe and in the things we believe (objective faith).

1 Thessalonians 3:2 And we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and encourage you for the sake of your faith,

when we attend the church meetings, listen to the ministry, we can receive more the obejective faith, the contents of God's economy. therefore, regardless what we are going through in our situations, our faith will not be shaken. 

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.

to keep the faith is to keep the entire New Testament economy of God - the faith concerning Christ as the embodiment of God and the mystery of God and the church as the Body of Christ and the mystery of Christ.  

Jude 20 But you, beloved, building up yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

to keep the faith is not just passive to not lose the faith. but we need to actively use our faith as the building material. the healthy teaching is to infuse the truth as faith into us. when we listen to the truth, the Spirit will operate to coodinate with the word of truth, the result of which is that the subjective faith will be produced within us. 

when we receive the obejective faith through our hearing of the word of Christ, which produces within us the appreciation of Christ, this objective faith must also proceed to become subjective faith. at times we may feel that we have so little faith within us that we cannot believe anymore. this is the indication that we have not been receiving enough objective truth. this should cause us to hunger for the word of the truth, to come more to church meetings, for the hearing of faith. 

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold on the eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.

to fight for the faith means to fight for God's New Testamony economy. to fight the good fight of the faith is to fight for the contents of the complete gospel according to God's New Testament economy. today at this corrupted age, many heresies, or evil teachings have become very popular, while the word of truth has become super rare. therefore, we need to rise up to proclaim the word of the truth to fight the good fight of the faith. 

to fight the good fight of the faith in the Christian life, we need to lay hold on the eternal life, the divine life, not trusting in our human life. 

II. A proper Chrsitian life involves keeping te faith for participation in the divine riches in God's economy. 

God's economy, which is to dispense Himself into His chosen people, is not a matter in the natural realm nor in the work of the law but in the spiritual sphere of the new creation through regneration by faith in Christ. when faith comes, we have been delivered from the realm of law, but into this spiritual sphere to become the new creation. 

by faith, we are born of God to be His sons, partaking of His life and nature to express Him. by faith we are put into Christ to become members of the Body, sharing all that He is for His expression. to be regenerate is a once-for-all matter, but to partake of the divine life and nature is a day by day matter. 

1 Timothy 3:9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

the mystery of faith is mainly Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ. 

do we have a pure consience? are we holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience? 

Jude 3 Beloved, while using all diligence to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you and exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

the faith here in Jude 3 refers to the objective faith which has been delivered to us once for all, denoting the contents of the New Testament as our faith, in which we believe for our common salvation. today, many argue over certain doctrines. we are not fighint for mere doctrines, but we need to contend for the faith, which matters our common salvation. 

Ephesians 4:13 Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

after we have received the objective faith, we still need to grow in life, until we arrive at the oneness of the faith. the oneness of the faith depends on our full knowledge of the Son of God. 

Fighting the Good Fight, Finishing the Course, Keeping the Faith, and Loving the Lord's Appearing -2

Message Title: Finishing the Course

the Lord's coming should not be a mere doctrine to us. Rather, the vision of the Lord's coming should affect our daily living. we should be governed by this vision, live in the light of the Lord's coming, so we can receive the reward when the Lord comes back. 

A proper Christian life involves running the course, running the race, for the carrying out of God's economy according to His eternal purpose. the qualification to run this course is the regeneration, being born of God. those who do not have the life of God cannot run this course. 

2 Timothyb ...I have finished the course; ...

we need to seek out the journey that the Lord has ordained for us and faithfully walk on it, paying any price to wholeheartedly continue on our journey until we reach the end. this journey that the Lord has ordained for us is the course we need to run and finish. it does not matter if we are the first to finish the course. what matters is that we run to the end to finish course. 

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore let us also, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, put away every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and run with endurance the race which is set before us,

for us to run the course, we need to have a very clear goal and a set course. we need to put aside everything that may frustrate us from focusing on running the course. why do we need endurance to run?? first, this is not a short course. also, while we are funning the course, we will face opposition. therefore, we need to run with endurance. 

Hebrews 12:2 Looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus is the Author of faith, the Originator, the Inaugurator, the source, and the cause of faith. we do not have faith in ourselves, but Christ entered into us to be our faith. how did we believe into the Lord? because the Lord came to attract, capture and captivate us. our beliving is our appreciation of Christ as a reaction to His attraction. faith is in our spiirit, so our spirit is the spirit of faith. 

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substantiation of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

we do not regard, look at, the things that are seen but the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. the Lord is recovering the church from the things seen to the things not seen. 

if we read in the Bible, the history of the Israel people, we will receive both encouragement and warining. the journey of Israel people recorded in the Old Testament typifies the Christian race toward our good land, the all-inclusive Christ. the encouragement is that we have been redeemed through Christ, delivered out of Satan's bondage, and brought into the revelation of God's economy. the warning is that, we may yet fail to reach the goal of God's calling, that is, to enter into the possession of our good land, Christ, and enjoy His riches for the kingdom of God that we may be His expression in the present age and participate in the fullest enjoyment of Christ in the kingdom age. if we are not living Christ, if we are not magnifying Christ in our bodies, then we are not running the course. after regeneration, we all entered into the course, but it does not necessarily mean that we know the course we should run. if we do not know the course, how are we going to run? if we do not run, how are we going to finish the course? when God brought His people Israel out of Egypt, God had a purpose, not to just lead them to wander in the wilderness, but to bring them into the good land, the land of Canaan. 

in Mark 6:45 to 6:51, the disciples of the Lord were rowing in a boat to cross the sea. but they were struggling a lot because the wind was contrary to them. if we are going to be faithful in the path the Lord set for us, it will cost us much effort and it will be a difficult path because all the wind will be contrary to us. if we stop rowing against the wind, without any effort, our boat will float along the tide. but this tide will only carry us away from the Lord. 

Hebrews 12:3 For compare Him who has endured such contradiction by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary, fainting in your souls.

Micah 7:8 Do not rejoice against me, O my enemy; / When I fall, I will rise up; / When I sit in the darkness, / Jehovah will be a light to me.

we should not give up, become weary; or faint in our soul but look away unto Jesus and run the race before us. 

the Christian Life -3

Message Title: The Intrinsic Significance and Revelation of the Compound Ointment as the Holy Anointing Oil - a Full Type of the Compound, All-inclusive Spirit of the Processed Triune God

5 major points missed by most Christian theologies: 

1. the Spirit that gives life was not yet before the glorification, the resurrection of Jesus

2. the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit. 

3. the compound Spirit typified by the anointing oil in Exodus 30

4. the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Christ Himself, and the indwelling Spirit in Romans 8, all refer to the compound Spirit that gives life

5. the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God, the Seven Spirits

the Christian life is altogether a matter of the Spirit. No Spirit, no Christian life. we cannot live a Christian life without the Spirit. what is the Christian life? the Christian life is the acting and moving of the compound Spirit, the processed Triune God. Everything that God is, God has, and God wants to do within His people, is impossible and will not happen without this Spirit. 

our need today is to live the real Christian life. our living the Christian life has something to do with the Lord's coming. if the Lord cannot gain His bride, He cannot return. if the Body of Christ does not have a certain reality, expressed and manifested on this earth, the Lord cannot come back. what is the reality of that bride, that Body of Christ? it is the corporate Christian life lived out by all of us, His believers. 

I. The holy anointing oil, a compound ointment of olive oil and four spices, "compounded according to the work of a compounder," is a full type of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit of the processed Triune God, whom Christ became through His death and resurrection

the significances of the ingredients of this compound anointting oil are:

1. flowing myrrh: signifies the precious death of Christ. every other human being's death is ugly and terrible. but the death of Christ is sweet, precious, and flowing. 

2. fragrant cinnamon: siginifies the sweetness and effetiveness of Christ's death. cinammon was prescribed to stimulate a weak heart. when we apply the Lord's death in the Spirit to our inner being, our heart is stimulated to make us happy and joyful in the Lord. there are many situations in our human life, we are unhappy and full of complainings and murmurings. but these are also the opportunities for us to apply the Lord's death, to allow the Lord to be fragrant cinnamon to us to stimulate our heart. 

3. fragrant calamus: signifies the precious resurrection of Christ

4. cassia: signifies the repelling power of Christ's resurrection

5. olive oil: signifies the Spirit of God

this compound Spirit typified for the compound ointment in Exodus 30, is, of course, for our life and Christian life. but what is our Christian life for ? our Christian life is not just for our own spirituality, or spiritual accomplishment, but for God's building. 

II. the compound ointment, the holy anointing oil, was used to anoint the tabernacle with all its furniture, the altar with all its utensils, the laver and its base, and the priests, to make all these things holy, separated, sanctified, to God for His divine purpose

this ointment signifies the Triune God processed and consummated through Christ's incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the all-inclusive compound Spirit to reach His chosen and redeemed people and to anoint them with Himself, making Himself one with them and making them one with Him. 

the ointment was used to anoint the tabernacle, the furniture, and the priests, which means that the Spirit was applied to the building, to the serving ones. all of these is to make the tabernacle with those who serve it holy like God, sanctified to be as God in His divine nature. all of these is for the fulfillment of the divine purpose. we must have this reality in the church life today. 

such an anointing, being the moving of the compound Spirit within us, applies t us and also adds all the elements of the processed and consummated Triune God into our inner being so that our inner man may grow in the divine life with the divine elements and we may be mingled with God as one. our real growth in life actually is the addition of God into our being. the more God is added into us, the more His divine elements is added into us, the more we grow in the divine life. 

III. the Spirit of God, signified by olive oil, is no longer merely oil, but now it is oil compounded with certain ingredients; regarding this, John 7:39 says, "But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified."

John 7:39 But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

this means that before the Lord's glorification, which was His resurrection, the compound Spirit was not yet;; it was after Christ's resurrection that the compounding, or the blending, of such a Spirit was completed. 

it is not a small thing to enjoy the anointing, the bountiful supply of the Lord. this anointing and supply is for His Body, for His building. so we must be in the Body and be for the buiding.

IV. As believers, we have been anointed with the compound ointment, with the all-inclusive Spirit; Psalm 133:2 describes how the anointing oil flowed down from Aaron's head to his beard and then to the hem of his garments; this signifies that the whole Body is anointed with the Spirit

Psalm 133:2 It is like the fine oil upon the head / That ran down upon the beard, / Upon Aaron’s beard, / That ran down upon the hem of his garments;

no matter how insignificant we are in the Body, even we are just the smallest member, as long as we are members of the Body, this rich compound ointment will flow and reach us. in order to be under the ointment, we must be one with the church; then we will spotaneously enjoy the application of the anointing oil with all its elements; how marvelous is the oneness produced by the application of this ointment. 

Fighting the Good Fight, Finishing the Course, Keeping the Faith, and Loving the Lord's Appearing -1

Message Title: Fighting the Good Fight

according to the background when the apostle Paul wrote the book of 2 Timothy, Paul wrote a word of both warning and encouragement, to show the believers how to live a proper Christian life, to follow the Lord, especially in a corrupted age. 

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.

2 Timothy 4:8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense me in that day, and not only me but also all those who have loved His appearing.

as revealed in 2 Timothy 4:7, a proper Christian life is threefold; it involves fighting the good fight, running and finishing the course, and keeping the faith. These three all are related to God's economy. here Paul first mentions "fighting the good fight" because throughout the whole period, the Christian life is a life of fighting this good fight. therefore, as a Christian, we need to have a spirit of fighting. as shown in the exodus of Israel people, Jehovah God refersed to them as the army of Jehovah. as Christinas, the purpose of our gaining Christ and experiencing Christ, is to prepare us to engage in this fight. 

I. "I have fought the good fight"

1 Timothy 1:18 This charge I commit to you, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you might war the good warfare,

the word "charge" comes with aughthory and command.  the apostle Paul here is charging Timothy with the authority of the Lord to war the good warfare. God's economy charges us to fight, because God has an enemy in this universe. in order to defeat the enemy, we all need to be equipped to fight the good warfare. 

to war the good warfare is to war against the different teachings of the dissenters and to carry out God's economy. the different teachings will distract people and cause people to deviate from God's economy. therefore, we need to war against these different teaching so that we can be kept in the central line of God's economy. 

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold on the eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.

the eternal life is actually the processed and consummated Triune God being life to us, the divine life, the uncreated life of God. to fight the good fight of the faith in the Christian life, we need to lay hold on this divine life and not trust in our human life. without the eternal life we are nothing. 

Matthew 12:28 But if I, by the Spirit of God, cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

we are fighting the good fight against Satan and the kingdom of darkness. we should not only be able to preserve ourselves whole but should also challenge the devil. today, at the end of the age, the evil powers are more intense than befofe, because Satan knows that his end is coming soon.the strategy of the enemy is to corrupt and ruin man's mind. we should be God's soldiers, fighting the good fight, overthowing the devil's strongholds, and taking captive man's thought unto the obedience of Christ. 

when Moses sent out 12 spies to spy the good land. 10 spies came back with the evil reports because they were scared of the giants in the good land. but there were Caleb and Joshua who were encouraging Israel people not to be discrouraged or dismayed, but God has promised to give this good land to His people. today we are in the same situation. we should not be discouraged by the outward world situation right now. Rather, we need to be stregthened to stand firm for the kingdom of God, for the glory of God. 

we are fighting the good fight for the truth. what is truth? truth is not doctrine or teaching. truth is the Triune God with His word. the divine truth is absolute, and we must be absolute for the truth and uphold the absoluteness of the truth. we need to have the truth wrought into us and constituted into our being. 

The Christian Life - 2

Message Title: A Grafte Life

we have been joined to the Lord, and this is our Christian life, not emphasizing on our behavior or conduct, but that we should live a grafted life. Christ has entered into us and now is living in us, who is the righteousness of God, who is becoming our righteousness also both objective and subjective. since we are now living a grafted life, we need to turn to the Lord and ask the Lord to show us the meaning of a grafte life. 

I. the Bible reveals that the relationship God desires to have with man is that He and man become one

1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

God desires that the divine life and the human life be joined together to become one life. the concept of the divine life and the human life being grafted into one is mysterious, beyond the natural concept, and foreign to human thought. since this is beyond our concept, we rather simply enjoy this fact, that we have been grafted into God to be one with God. 

II. in grafting, two similiar lives are joined and then grow together. 

Revelation 14:18 And another angel came out of the altar, he who has authority over fire, and he cried with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, Send forth your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripened.

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. 

in Revelation, it shows the wine of the earth; while in John 15, the Lord says that He is the vine and we are the branches. so as human beings, we only have two options. but the Lord has rescued us from the vine of the earth and grafted into Himself as the true vine. in order to be able to graft us later, at creation, God created man with a human life which resembles the divine life; therefore the divine life and the human life can be grated together and then grow together organically. 

III. In order for us to be grafted into God, He had to pass through the processes of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection

God is the One who dwells in the unapproachable light, so there is no way for us to be grafted into God if He remains as the God dwelling in unapproachable light. thus, Christ became flesh to be the seed of David, the branch of David, the Shoot, so that we might be grafted together with Him; He became the same as we are so that He and we could be gfrated together. Isaiah 53 tells us that He was a man with sorrow and acquanted with grief. Hebrews 4 tells us that He is the High Priest who can be touched with our weaknesses, because He has been tempted in all respects like us, which causes Him able to sympathize with us in all our situations. 

Grafting requires cutting; two branches cannot be grafted together unless both are cut. so Christ was cut when he died on the cross, and we were cut when we repented and received the Lord. After Christ was cut on the cross, He was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. by becoming such a Spirit, Christ was ready for grafting. once we repent and receive the Lord, He as the life-giving Spirit enters into our spirit, bringing the divine life into us, and we are grafted together with Christ. 

IV. As regenerated ones, we should live a grafted life - a life in which two parties are joined to grow organically 

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

after we have been grafted into Christ, we should no longer live by ourselves; rather we should allow the pneumatic Christ to live in us. 

V. the grafted life is not an exchanged life but the mingling of the human life with the divine life

it is easy for us to have the concept that this is an exchanged life, that the divine life of Christ replaced our human life. but it is not the divine concept of God. the divine word shows us that we are living a grafted life, the mingling of the human life with the divine life. the human life is still here, but enjoying the benefit of the divine life. the focus here is the dispensing and infusing of the Lord with all His unsearchable riches. in our life, Christ must be all and in all, be everything to us. but we are so full of so many other things. the Lord has to strip off all these things, like what He did to Job in the Old Testament. we have to go through this stripping process, to cause us to lean on the Lord only, not anytying we have or obtained in our life, to cause us to only rely and depend on the Lord, and only to be filled with Christ, not anything else. 

VI. In the grafted life the human life is not eliminated but is strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine life

by being grafted into a better life, our human life is uplifted and transformed. 

in the grafted life the divine life works within us to 

1. discharge the negative elements. the divine life works in a gradual way to eliminate whatever is natural. the negative elements in our disposition is killed, and then instead of casting away our disposition, the Lord uplifts it and uses it. 

2. resurrect God's orignal creation. we were created for God's purpose. but Satan got into us and runined us. however, instead of giving up His creation, God will reclaim it. God intends to bring all the aspects of our being into resurrection. 

3. supply the riches of Christ to our inward parts. through such a supply we are renewed in our mind, emotion, and will. 

4. saturate our whole being. we are being saturated, transformed, and conformed to the image of Christ. 

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

in living such a grafted life, it is not a matter of our effort or striving, or self improving, but a matter of beholding the Lord. in this beholding, we are  enjoying the benefits of the grafted life. through this grafte life, the Lord has the ground to transform us. the more we live this grafted life, the more the Lord will have ground in us, and the more we will be able to discern inward things. 

Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good Land - 12

Message Title: Living a Life of Enjoying Christ as the Good Land with the Temple, the Dwelling Place of God, and the City, the Kingdom of God, as Its Issue

What God has wanted to gain when God created man in His own image and according to His likeness, and giving them the dominion over this earth; that purpose of God can only be fulfilled through our experiences of this all-inclusive Christ. 

our God dwells in the heavens, but really His desire is to dwell on this earth, which is the church, in our spirit, and also on the unique ground of oneness, not up to our choice or preference, but up to the choice of God. 

I. Fist Corinthians takes the history of the children of Israel in the Old Testament as a type of the New Testament believers, but there is no reference to the good land in 1 Corinthians, because, spiritually speaking, the reality of the good land is in 2 Corinthians.

if we look at the history of Israel people, after enjoying the passover and leaving Egypt, they entered into the wilderness, drinking of the spiritual rock following them, and eating of the spiritual food, getting baptised over the sea. in 1 Corinthians, we only see those two parts of the journey of Israel, which is the exodus out of Egpyt and their life in the wilderness, wandering for 40 years. but we cannot see the good land, which is found in 2 Corinthians, though there is no mentioning of "good land" in this book. However, the word "grace" is mentioned multiple times in the book, which grace is Christ as the good land to us today. the reality of the good land in 2 Corinthians is Christ Himself as the divine grace; the grace of the Lord Jesus is the central thought and the subject of 2 Corinthians. 

Grace is surely unmerited favor, which is corrent. Grace is also a free gift from God. but grace is more than that. we must see that grace is not just something God does for us, something that God gives to us, but grace is actually God Himself in the Son as the Spirit coming into us to be our enjoyment, even our full enjoyment, to be what we cannot be but should be, to do what we cannot do but should do, to live for us, to enable us, to stregthen us, to empower us, to do everything for us, to energize us to face all kinds of situations and to meet all kinds of situations. 

in the book of Ephesians, which is a book on the church, grace is closely related to the building of the church. it is grace that enables us to function and to build up the Body of Christ. it is grace that produce the church as the masterpiece of God. Grace is what we need, which is the all-inclusive Christ, who is with our spirit today. 

the way for us to enjoy the good land, to labor on the good land is by grace. 

II. We need to see how to live a life in the eyes of God that will enable us to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ typified by the good land

we need to live a life of laboring upon Christ, a life of enjoying Christ personally so that we may enjoy Him together collectively for the building up of the Body of Christ as the temple, the house, of the living God. there are two aspects in our life of enjoying Christ. first, there is the personal aspect concerning our individual enjoyment and labor. also there is the corporate aspect for us to enjoy Christ collectively, which requires us to come to the specific place ordained by God. God's will is for us to enjoy Christ. we need to seek to enjoy Christ and experience Him in every situation, which has been divinely arranged by God for us to enjoy and gain Christ. 

we must produce enough of Him so that there will be a surplus remaining for the poor and the needy, for the priests and the Levites, and with the best for the Lord Himself. this means we cannot produce just enough for ourselves. we need to produce the surplus, for others in the church life and for the Lord. there will always be some poor and needy ones in the church life, and also there will the ones who serve the Lord. 

III. We must meet with the Lord's children for corporate worship at the place that the Lord has chosen - in our spirit and on the unique ground of oneness

First, God's sanctuary, His habitation, is in our spirit, and second, it is the church. 

there are four characteristics of the place the Lord has chosen:

1. the place chosen by the Lord must not have any name other than the name of Christ.

2. the place chosen by the Lord is full of the exercise of the spirit

3. the place chosen by the Lord is a place of the enjoyment of the riches of Christ

4. the place chosen by the Lord is a place of rejoicing. 

if we have all of these above, we will have the proper meetings. 

the Chrisitan Life - 1

Message Title: The Intrinsic Significance of the Christian Life

what is the Christian life? we need to see and experience a lot, so that we can share with others what is the Christian life. 

I. the Christian life is a life of living Christ; our living should be Christ, and the way to live Christ is to love Christ

2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died;

we can live Christ by loving Christ to the uttermost; if we do not love Christ, we cannot live Him, and loving Him is the best way to concentrate our entire being on Him. we need to be constrained by the love of Christ so that we will live Christ. because we love the Lord, we will give Him the first place in all things. pracitically speaking, what does it mean by "give Him the first place in all things"? 

Psalm 27:4 One thing I have asked from Jehovah; / That do I seek: / To dwell in the house of Jehovah / All the days of my life, / To behold the beauty of Jehovah, / And to inquire in His temple.

what does it mean to "inquire in His temple"? to inquire in His temple means to check with Him everything in our daily life. when we do this, we give the Lord the first place. we check Him about what we shall wear, where we shall go, what we should do. while we are doing this, the Lord is everything to us, and doing everything in us, through us, and for us, for the building up of the Body to consummate the New Jerusalem. 

John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.

to live the Christian life is to love Jesus the Son of God so that we will be loved by the Father and the Son and enjoy the Son's manifestation to us and Their visitation to us for Them to make a mutual abode with us. 

when we love the Lord, turn our heart to Him, exercise our spirit of love to say, "Lord Jesus,, I love You.", the Lord loves us, and the Father also loves us. the Lord lives in us all the time, but we also want to enjoy His manifestation all the time. when the Lord manifests Himself to us, He makes Himself clear to our understanding and to our sight. He makes Himself very very real to us. 

II. To live the Christian life is to do all things in the person of Christ, in the face of Christ

2 Corinthians 2:10 But whom you forgive anything, I also forgive; for also what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sake in the person of Christ;

Paul is a pattern as one who lived and acted in the presence of Christ, according to the index of His whole person, expressed in His eyes. 

2 Corinthians 3:16 But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

our turned away heart is the veil. but, whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away from our heart, and we can behold the Lord of glory with an unveiled face; an unveiled face is an unveiled heart to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. in the Lord'eyes, our face is our psychological heart. the heart is our real inward face. when we turn our heart to the Lord, we are beholding the Lord face to face, and our eyes of heart are beholding the index of the Lord's eyes. 

2 Corinthians 4:6 Because the God who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.

the glory of God is in the face of Christ, and His face, His person, is the indwelling treasure in our spirit. we are earthen vessels who are worthless and fragile, but within our spirit we contain a priceless treasure, the face, the person, of Christ Himself; in the whole universe, there is nothing so precious as to behold the face of Jesus. it is only when we are living in His presence, looking at the index of His being, that we will sense that He is such a treasure to us; if we have some problem, we just need to tell Him; He is right within us, and He is with us face to face. the more we see the Lord, the more we abhor and deny ourselvs, and the more we love the Lord. 

III. To live the Christian life is to walk worthily of the calling with which we were called 

Ephesians 4:1 I beseech you therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,

1. we need to be dilligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit as the reality of the Body of Christ, with the transformed human virtues strengthened by and with the divine attributes. we cannot have the church life if we do not have the transformed human virtues strengthened by and with the divine attributes. in the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, there is the transformed humanity of Jesus. 

2. we need to grow up into Christ the Head in all things. we grow up into the Head, and then we function out of the Head. 

3. we need to learn Christ as the reality that is in Jesus. the reality that is in Jesus refers to the actual condition of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels; Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God; God was in His living, and He was one with God. As we love the Lord, contact Him, and pray to Him, we automatically live Him according to the mold, the form, the pattern, described in the Gospels; in this way we are shaped, conformed, to the image of this mold.

4. we need to live in love and light. as we partake of God's divine nature, of which is love and life, we will be living in love and light. we all need to spend an adequate amount of personal time with the Lord to privately fellowship with Him in our spirit so that we can be filled with His loving essence for Him to shepherd others through us and so that we can be filled with His shining element for others to see Him in us. 

5. we need to live by being filled in spirit to overflow with Christ. 

IV. To live the Christian life is for us to accept the discipline of the Holy Spirit

Jeremiah 48:11 Moab has been at ease from his youth; / And he is settled on his lees / And has not been emptied from vessel to vessel; / Nor has he gone into exile. / Therefore his taste remains in him, / And his scent is not changed.

God wants to take away our taste and change our scent by our accepting the discpline of the Holy Spirit, which is God's emptying us from vessel to vessel for the removal of the lees, the dregs, of our natural outer man until we have the pure taste of Christ and exude the pure fragrance of Christ. this is what the Lord is doing day by day, turning us into different circumstances and environments, so we will not have the same taste and fragrance. 

John 12:3 Then Mary took a pound of ointment, of very valuable pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.

the alabaster flask signifies our outer man, which needs to be broken so that the inner man can break forth; the Lord works in us and on us in so many different ways for the purpose of breaking the earthen vessel, the alabaster flask, the outer shell. the discpline of the Holy Spirit destroys our natural disposition and habits and brings in the constitution of the Holy Spirit in maturity and sweetness. God orders everything in our environment to tear down what we are naturally so that He may form in us a new disposition, new character, and new attributes. 

we need to realise that everytying through which we pass has only one purpose, that God's life would be released through us and expressed in us. Our outer man needs to be broken to such an extent that the inner man can be released and expressed. this is precious. 

Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good Land - 11

Message Title: The Surp;us of the Produce of the Good Land and the Corporate Worship of God the Father in Truthfulness

on Lord's Day morning meetings, how do we come? what do we have? what can we offer? have we labored, produced, the produce from my living as a child or God? do I have least some surplus, which is for praising the Lord, for woshiping God? 

I. We use the word surplus because the people of Israel put aside a certain portion of their produce from the labor on the good land for the purpose of worshipping God

this is the age,, when God is seeking for worship, while Satan, the enemy is trying his best to steal the worship from God. we need to open our beings to the Lord, so the Lord can establish in us the unshakable committment to worship God and God only. 

the enjoyment of the surplus of the produce of the good land typifies the corporate enjoyment of Christ as our worship to God. according to the New Testament fulfillment of this type, when we come to worship God in a corporate way, we must bring the Christ whom we have experienced. 

Deutoronomy 16:16 Three times a year all your males shall appear before Jehovah your God in the place which He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles. And they shall not appear before Jehovah empty-handed;

there was one commandment to the Israel people in Old Testament that, they cannot come to worship God empty-handed. to us today also the same, we cannot come empty-handed. we must bring the Christ we have experienced.  many times when we come to the Lord's Day, do we all bring the surplus, or do we come empty-handed? 

II. if we faithfully labor on the all-inclusive Christ, we will have the riches of Christ as the produce to exhibit Christ in the church meetings

1 Corinthians 14:26 What then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

the proper life of Christians is to labor on Christ every day and thus have the rich surplus of Christ to bring to the meetings for a rich exhibition of Christ. we are not coming to the meetings to display anything related to ourselves or our natural constitution; we are here to exhibit Christ. God the Father is waiting for this, an exhibition of Christ. but the enemey is fighting against this. 

through our daily experiences of the riches of Christ, these riches will become an exhibition of the produce of Christ. our meetings should always be an exhibition to show forth what Christ is, what Christ has, and what Christ does. in some of the places, what is exhibited is some special persons with their characteristics, their eloquence, their personal charm, etc. but this is not acceptable to God the Father. the only One accpetable to God the Father is His Son. we should only exhibit Christ, and Christ only. therefore, we need to contact the Lord daily in our personal life and then come to the meetings with the realization and understanding that we are coming to exhibit Christ and share Christ with others. this need to be wrought into our being, why we come to the meetings? we are coming to the meetings to be part of the corporate exhibition of Christ. 

Colossians 1:12 Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light;

Colossians 1:13 Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

we meet to exhibit not only the Christ given to us by God but also the Christ we have produced, the Christ on whom we have labored and whom we have experienced; this is the Christ whom we come together to exhibit. through our laboring by excersing our spirit to contact the Lord in every situation we are in, we are laboring on our portion of the good land, i.e. we are laboring on our portion of the all-inclusive Christ. we have a portion of Christ that no one else has or ever will have. to learn to labor on our portion, we will bring forth Christ for our need, our experience and enjoyment, but even more, for worshipping God. but we are not doing this by our effort, but the Christ dwelling in us, making His home in us, is enabling us to bring forth Christ and the riches of Christ. because our portion is so unique and the members in the Body all need our unique portion of Christ, we need to continually labor on Christ, so that we will have the rich surplus to bring to the meetings to exhibit to the other members, also for the satisfaction of the Father. 

III.  we need to labor on the all-inclusive Christ in order to have a surplus of Christ to bring to the church meetings for the corporate worship of God our Father

John 4:23 But an hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him.

John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.

for our worship of the Him, the Father requires that we come to Him with a harvest of Christ; thus, we need to come to the church meetings with the riches of Christ. the Father has been waiting for centuries the true worshippers. we should respond to Him in this way. First, we realize that God the Father requires such worshippers. Secondly, we say Amen to the Father's desire for the true worshippers. at the same time, we also realize that we cannot do this in ourselves, that we cannot be true worshippers in ourselves. so we open to the Lord, and allow the Lord to d this in us, through us, and with us. 

it is crucial that we diligently labor on Christ to have our hands full of Christ and then come to the church meetings to enjoy this rich and glorious Christ with 

God's children and with God the Father Himself. since we have a mingled spirit, in any situation, anytime and anywhere, we can always labor on Christ. 

IV. according to John 4:23-24, we need to worship God our Father in spirit and in truthfulness

"truthfulness" in John 4:23-24 denotes the divine reality becoming man's genuiness and sincerity for the true worship of God. in order to have this truthfulness, we need the divine reality to saturate our whole being so that in human way, but humanly divine, our very being, our person, our speaking, is sincere and genuine. 

to worship the Father in truthfulness is to worship Him with the Christ who has saturated our being to become our personal reality through our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God as the divine reality. 

so the key words in this message is:

1. laboring: labor on our portion of Christ

2. surplus: to bring the best to offer to God the Father in worship

3. exhibit: to come together corporately to exhibit the Christ we have been experiencing

4. worship: the enemy wants people to worship him. there is a battle concerning worship. but we will worship God

5. truthfulness

Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good Land - 10

Message Title: Governing Principles that We Need to See and Experience in order to Possess Christ as the Good Land

Colossians 2:6 As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him,

as we have received Christ, we should walk in Him; to walk in Him is to live, to act, to vehave, and to have our being in Christ so that we may enjoy His riches, just as the children of Israel lived in the good land, enjoying all its rich produce. 

I. To walk in Christ, that is, to walk according to the spirit and by the Spirit as the reality of the good land, we must see that the key of the spiritual fellowship of the regenerated tripartite believers with the consummated Triune god is 1 Corinthians 6:17 - "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit"

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

we were regenerated of God as the Spirit to be a spirit. our spirit is a joined spirit,  because our spirit is joined to the Lord, who is the Spirit, the Lord Spirit. "the Spirit Himself with our spirit" is the secret of God's organic salvation. 

the six major steps of God's organic salvation:

1. regeneration

2. sanctification

3. renewing: we are tranformed by the renewing of the mind

4. transformation

5. conformation

6. glorification

we have the seed of God abiding in us at regeneration. we are sanctified positionally and dispositionally. 

these six steps are accomplished by the joining of the Spirit with our spirit as one spirit. if this were not so, even though the gospel of God is powerful, it still will not have any power or accomplish anything in the believers. the issue of these six matters, which are accomplished by the joining of the Spirit with our spirit to be one mingled spirit, is the building up of the Body of Christ. God's eternal economy is to obatin the Body of Christ. 

II. We need to see that the One in whom we need to walk is the Christ in His full ministry of three stages

The Lord's recovery is the recovery of Christ in His full ministry of three stages - incarnation, inclusion, and intensification; the Lord's recovery is God becoming the flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build up the church that becomes the Body of Christ and that consummates the New Jerusalem.  

III. the Lord's present recovery is the recovery of the Body-Christ ( "the Christ") in the church life; the Body-Christ is the incorporated God; thus, to wak in Christ is to walk in Him as the Body-Christ, who is the incorporated God

 1 Corinthians 12:12 For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.

"the Christ" in this verse is not the individual Christ but the corporate Christ, Christ incorporated with all His members. therefore, we need to treasure one another, the members of the Body. 

To receive and to walk in Christ is to receive and to walk in the Body-Christ, because Christ today is a corporate Body; Christ is no longer only the individual Christ but also the corporate Christ, the Head with the Body; it makes a great difference in our Christian life for us to walk in the corporate Christ. 

1 Corinthians 12:24 But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked,

1 Corinthians 12:25 That there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same care for one another.

In the Body-Christ we enjoy Christ as everything. In the Body-Christ, there is the function of all the members, and there is the blending together of the members in the oneness of the Triune God.

IV. In order to possess and walk in the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land, we need to see that the presence of the Lord means everything to us in both our life in the Lord and our work in the Lord; in Exodus 33:12-17 Moses bargained with God for His presence to go with him and with God's people; God responded by saying, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest"

the presence, the smile of the Lord, is the governing principle for us to enter into and possess Christ as the reality of the good land; God's presence is the way, the "map" that shows His people the way they should take. our GPS is God's presence. we will never get lost if we have God's presence. 

Exodus 13:21 And Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them on the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might go by day and by night.

Exodus 13:22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night departed from before the people.

in typology, the cloud signifies the Spirit, and the fire, for enligtening, signifies the Word of God. hence, the instant, living leading from the presence of God comes through either the Spirit or the Word. the two pillars symbolize God Himself, for He is both the Spirit and the Word. furthermore, the Word is also the Spirit. Thus, God, the Word, and the Spirit are one to lead and guid us continually, whether by day or by night. 

Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good Land - 9

Message Title: A Land of Pomegranates

the good land typifies the all-inclusive Christ, who is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. this Spirit is the Spirit of life. so we can say that this land is a land of life, the land of the Spirit. in this land, there is an item, the pomegranate, as the abudance, the fullness of life. the truth is for life. our study of the truth is for the experience of life. without life, all that we know will just be in the realm of doctrine, knowledge and teaching. the burden of the Lord today is that we the believers should keep growing in life until maturity. 

I. In the Bible pomegranates signify the fullness of life, the abundance and beauty of life, and the expression of the riches of life.

a ripe pomegranate with its seeds gives the impression of the fullness of life and of the abundance and beauty of life. this reminds us that we should not be content with our current growth. it is not enough just to grow a bit. we need to become a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness. 

Colossians 1:13 Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

we need to know what the rulership of the Spirit is, what is the restriction by the Lord Jesus. the more we are willing to be ruled and restricted by the Lord Jesus out of our love for Him, the more we will grow in life. 

Colossians 1:12 Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light;

if we see the vision of the all-inclusiveness and extensiveness of Christ, we will concentrate our whole being on this Christ, and He will fill and saturate us. Our being will be occupied with the vast, unsearchably rich, extensive Christ. to us to live will be the Christ who takes possession of us and fills and occupies us with Himself. for this, we need to undergo much experience of being ruled and restricted by the Lord, so that we would be filled and saturated. we cannot be just satisfied with receiving something of Christ, but we need to filled, to be made full in Christ. 

Colossians 1:28 Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man full-grown in Christ;

to be full-grown in Christ is to be filled, saturated, and permeated with Christ. this is to have every part of our being occupied with Christ. 

II. Pomegranates and golden bells were on the bottom part of the high priest's robe, which signifies the church

Exodus 28:33 And you shall make on its hem pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet strands, all around its hem, and bells of gold between them all around:

Exodus 28:34 A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, on the hem of the robe all around.

as the members in the church, though we are human beings, the fullness of life should be expressed in the church's humanity. when God's divinity is trespassed, there will be the sounding of the golden bells, as the voice of warning, the speaking from the divinity of the church. on the one hand, there is the uplifted humanity of Christ being expressed through the human beings in the church; at the same time, it affords the Spirit to sound out warnings to us according to His divinity, to keep us in oneness. 

the beauty of life expressed in our humanity and the divine sounding from the golden bells are signs of a proper church life.

III. the two hundred pomegranates surrounding the capitals at the top of the pillars in the temple signify the expression of the riches of life

1 Kings 7:18 So he made the pillars; and there were two rows of pomegranates around the one network, to cover the capitals that were at the top of the pillars. And he did the same for the second capital.

1 Kings 7:19 And the capitals that were at the top of the pillars in the portico were of lily work, four cubits in diameter.

1 Kings 7:20 So then the capitals that were on the two pillars were above and close to the bulge that was beside the network. And there were two hundred pomegranates, in rows around both capitals.

the pillars of bronze: God's judgement work

lily work at the top of capitals like a crown: a life of trusting in God

pomegranates two hundreds in rows: the fullness of life

the checker work wrapping the whole capital: the intermixed, complicated and complicating environment in our life

chain work: to bind us, to hold us together. when we are too depressed by the complicated environment, the chain keeps us and not let us go. 

Those who judge themselves (bronze) and regard themselves as nothing will be able to bear responsibility in full in the midst of an intermixed and complicated situation (nets of checker work and wreaths of chain work) because they live not by themselves but by faith in God ( lily work); thus, they express the riches of life two hundredfold (pomegranates). if we want to become the pillars in the church life, we need to consider all these elements. while we are going through all these complications, we should realise that they come all under the sovereignty of the Lord, to mold us, to form us into the pillars. therefore, we should not try to run away, or try to push away the environment. rather, we should learn to live the life of a lily, turning to the Lord and trusting in Him. 

Jeremiah 52:22 And a bronze capital was upon it; and the height of each capital was five cubits; and the network and pomegranates were upon the capital all around, all of bronze; and the second pillar and the pomegranates were like these.

Jeremiah 52:23 And there were ninety-six pomegranates toward the open air; all the pomegranates on the network were a hundred all around.

out of every ome hundred pomegranates, ninety-six were exposed to the open air, and four were covered. 96 = 12*8. 12 is the number for eternal perfection, completition; 8 is the number for the freshness of resurrection. what this means is that the expression of the riches of life is eternally complete, in the freshness of resurrection, and in the Spirit. the fact that four of every one hundred pomegranates were hidden indicates that our natural being, our natural life, and our self must be concealed. when our natural being disappears, we have the rich expression of the life of Christ in the reality of the spiritual air. in our church life, if every one of us all hold on to our natural being, our natural life, there will be no way for the resurrection life to be expressed freely. all these are related to our becoming the pillars, our becoming the pomegranates in the church life, so that the building can go up for the completion of this age.

IV. Accorcding to Song of Songs, pomegranates have a spiritual significance in the progressive experience of an individual believer's loving fellowship with Christ. 

Song of Songs 4:3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread, / And your mouth is lovely; / Your cheeks are like a piece of pomegranate / Behind your veil.

after the seeker has gone through all the dealings in the previous three chapters, now she became someone so beautiful, so attractive, no longer a wild horse pulling Pharoah's chariot. particularly, the beloved described the seeker's cheek like pomegranate. now the seeker expresses, the beauty, the abundance of life. 

Song of Songs 6:11 I went down to the orchard of nuts / To see the freshness of the valley, / To see whether the vine had budded, / Whether the pomegranates were in bloom.

this verse is the description of the lover's work. after she becomes beautiful, her work, her service is decribed here. the lover was serving the Lord, in growing the garden. while we serve the Lord, do we consider our serving the Lord as growing the garden? we are not here to just get the work done, but like apostle Paul, to present every man full-grown to the Lord. the Lord does not want to just bless us with many numbers. the true blessing the Lord wants to give us is the blossoming of the pomegranates. we need to pay attention to the blooming of the pomegranates, the fullness of life. we need to pay more attention to life than work. 

Song of Songs 7:12 Let us rise up early for the vineyards; / Let us see if the vine has budded, / If the blossom is open, / If the pomegranates are in bloom; / There I will give you my love.

now the lover's union with the Lord is so complete that she is not just working for the Lord, but working with the Lord. in the midst of her work, she could give her love to the Lord. she is not exhausted or distracted with the work, but the work and the Lord is one. 

Song of Songs 4:13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates / With choicest fruit; / Henna with spikenard,

Song of Songs 4:14 Spikenard and saffron; / Calamus and cinnamon, / With all the trees of frankincense; / Myrrh and aloes, / With all the chief spices.

in Christ's enjoyment of His lover, she is an enclosed garden that grows all kinds of plants in different colors as different expressions of the inner life and in a variety of fragrances as the rich expression of the mature life. ths becomes the lover's beauty to the Lord; the lover of Christ is now rich in life, producing fruits to nourish and refresh, giving forth sweet frangrances, and displaying beautiful colors for Christ's enjoyment.