Message Title: Experiencing Christ as the Reality of the Good Land Promised to Abraham and Laboring on the Land to Produce the Riches of Christ for Our Personal Enjoyment and to Have a Surplus to Bring to the Church Meetings for the Corporate Worship of God
I. Galtians 3:14 is an extremely important verse because it combines the promise of the Spirit with the blessing of Abraham.
Galtians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse on our behalf; because it is written, ``Cursed is every one hanging on a tree'';
Galtians 3:14 In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
all of us are under the curse of the law. God is righteous in everyway, so He cannot just ignore our sins and unrighteousness. God's expression of love must be based on His righteousness, which requires all those who disobey the law must die. so we are under the curse of the law, and are setenced to spiritual death. but Christ redeemed us out of the curse of the law. how? by His becoming a curse on our behalf. Christ was on the cross and was made a curse for us. He took the curse upon Himself, so that we might receive the blessing, so that we might be able to enter into the all-inclusive Christ typified by the land of Canaan, to have our allotted portion, to experience and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ. so Christ died being a curse, in order that the blessing of Abraham, the promise of the good land might come to the gentiles. how do we receive this promise? we receive the pormise of the Spirit through faith. Christ paid such a price so that we may enter into Himself as the reality of the good land, experience Him, enjoy Him, live Him and to be constituted with Him. how we need to thank and worship the Father for sending His Beloved Son. now we can receive Christ as the reality of the good land, by receiving the Spirit through faith. Christ is now in us as the Spirit, the all-inclusive processed and consummated Triune God, to be the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ. and on our part, we exercise our spirit, not only to be one with the Lord, but to contact Him, in the midst of all kinds of situations through our day. when we contact Him in our spirit, we receive more and more of the Spirit, the reality of Christ, who is the reality of our good land.
in Galtians chapter 3, Paul interpretes the good land as the blessing of the Spirit. the Old Testament promise was of the good land; in the New Testament, the fulfillment of the promise becomes the Spirit. how do we experience this? in our human day by day situations, we experience Christ, the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land, by receiving the Spirit, by breathing the Spirit, by receiving the Spirit as life as we pray read the word of God. the Spirit we receive is the good land; the Spirit we receive is the reality of the good land.
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;
we need to learn to live and walk in the spirit as the good land.
II. in our daily life, we need to labor on the all-inclusive Christ as our good land for our personal supply and enjoyment
if we read the history of the people of Israel, when they entered into the good land, defeated the enemies, and settled down in their portion of the land, their major responsibility was to labor on the good land, to produce a harvest, a crop. most of the produce was for their own life supply and enjoyment, but a special portion was required to be brought to the yearly feasts. this signifies that we need to bring the Christ we have been laboring on, to offer to God for God's satisfaction and our corporate enjoyment. now in the same principle, what is our laboring on Christ? how do we labor on Christ? "labor" is a strong word for "work", a more demanding work, a more weighty word. our laboring on Christ is a day by day, all day long labor. if we are really to reap the produce of the good land, to have a harvest, to truly experience and enjoy this all-inclusive Christ, then the issue and outcome is that our church meetings will become so rich.
a proper life in the good land is a life in which we are continually laboring on Christ. in this way, we will meet our own needs, meet God's desire for true worshippers, to build up the house, the temple of God, to be in the reality of the kingdom, and to bring the Lord back. it is serious for us not to be spiritually idle or loose.
on God's part, He has become the all-inclusive Spirit and is now dwelling in our spiirt. therefore, on our part, we must exercise our spirit to contact the Lord Spirit, who is the all-inclusive Christ, the good land. this is implied by continually laboring on Christ, inwardly and continually exercising our spirit. if we are spiritually idle and passive, we are losing opportunies one after another, to labor on Christ. when we come to the church meetings, we are empty-handed spiritually. the people of Israel were required not to be empy-handed when they went to the feasts, so they must bring some produce from their laboring during the year to offer to God. this is a picture of our Christian life and church life. we must see the need of our laboring on Christ as the good land, and bring the surplus to every church meeting to exhibit Christ. how can we labor on Christ day by day? in the midst of all the situations we are facing, which are ordained and arranged by God the Father. the way to labor on Christ is to exercise our spirit inwardly, while we are doing what we need to do in our human daily life, at job or at home. if we make excuses for not to labor on Christ, we will not be pleasing God. we need the Lord to train us to stop wasting any opportunity to exercise to labor on Christ as the good land, as the Spirit. we need to exercise our spirit to be one with the Lord inwardly. and the Lord whom we are contacting knows what we need, and what aspects of Himself He needs to dispense and work into us.
Christ is for us, and He is our portion. He is not merely an objective Christ, but altogether a subjective Christ. we need this objective Christ to become our subjective Christ daily. at the end of everyday we live on the earth, we all should have a sense that we have gained more Christ compared with the beginning of the day.
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;
Christ is our portion, our inheritance, just as the good land was to the people of Israel. we may not know what is included in the portion, but we just sense that a portion of Christ has been alocated to us by God, for us to labor on. this portion is for our life long experience and enjoyment. each of us has a portion of Christ, and now we have to labor on this portion of Christ given to us, to enjoy Him day by day. God will send "rain and sunshine" to cause us to have a rich harvest. the "rain and sunshine" sent by God is to help us in our growth, to have a rich harvest. then we will have riches on which we can live. God is for us, and His heart is good towards us. and it is pleasing for God to see us laboring on Christ.
we labor on Christ by exercising our heart to have faith in the Lord and to love the Lord and by exercising our spirit to contact the Lord, and receive the dispensing of the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the reality of Christ as the good land.
Matthew 24:40 At that time two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left.
Matthew 24:41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left.
in this illustration, one was taken and one was left. this shows us the picture of the belivers as living overcomers raptured before the great tribulations. why one was taken and one was left? we will not know what the rapture call will be like. the one who was taken, was always contacting the Lord inwardly, and when he had the sense of the Lord's rapture call, immediately he responded to the call. while the end of this age is drawing near, we all should have the aspiration to be part of Revelation 14. the Lord is glad to hear our aspiration. what is our responsibility? we need to contact the Lord in the midst of whatever situation we are in. the Lord will have a way to make us the laboring believers. the first thing we need to do is to exercise our heart, by turning the heart to the Lord everyday, by exercising our heart to have faith in the Lord and to love the Lord. our heart is the believing and loving organ, by which we can love the Lord with fresh and new love. then we will be able to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord, to receive the dispensing of the Spirit, the reality of Christ as the good land. we need to turn to the Lord, asking Him to teach us and train us to labor on Christ everyday for the rest of our life. then the Lord will remind us, guide and lead us, to exercise our heart with faith and love, and exercise our spirit, in every situation that will come to us. the Lord will surely be glad to perfect all of us.
III. daily we should labor on Christ to have a surplus, a harvest to bring to the church meetings for the corporate worship of God the Father.
when the people of Israel met together to hold the feasts to Jehovah, they would all bring the surplus from their harvest. they brought for the worship of God corporately, which is a picture for the genuine church meetings. before we come to the meetings, we should all have already been laboring on Christ, then we will have the surplus to bring to the meetings for the worship of the Father, which He has been seeking.
the life in the good land is a life of laboring on Christ, producing Christ, enjoying Christ, sharing Christ with others, and offering Christ to God that God may enjoy Christ with us. this kind of enjoyment and sharing is an exhibition of Christ to the entire universe. we all need to be diligent in our laboring on Christ, to have our hands filled with Christ, and then come to the church meetings to enjoy this rich and glorious Christ with God's children and with God Himself.
we need to produce Christ, not just enough for ou own supply, but we need a surplus, not for us individually, but to share with other, and we need to offer the best part of our produce to God the Father, for His joy, for His delight, and for His satisfaction.
what we have heard should become a basis for us to go on, in enjoying the all-inclusive Christ for the fulfillment of God's heart desire.
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