GENERAL SUBJECT
CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY OF DEUTERONOMY
Message Six
Life in the Land and the Issue of the Land—— the Church as the Temple, the Dwelling Place of God, and as the City, the Kingdom of God
Scripture Reading: Deut. 12:11; 14:22-23; 16:15-17; 1 Cor. 14:26; Eph. 3:8, 18; 1:22-23; 2:21-22; 2 Cor. 2:10; Exo. 33:14; Psa. 27:4; 46:4-5
I. 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——Col. 1:12; 2:6-7a.
II. 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——1 Cor. 3:16; 1 Tim. 3:15:
A. God's will is for us to enjoy Christ——Heb. 10:5-10; 1 Cor. 1:9.
B. We must seek to enjoy Christ and experience Him in every situation——Phil. 3:7-14.
C. Whenever we come to the meetings to worship the Lord, we should not come with our hands empty; we must come with our hands full of the produce of Christ——Deut. 16:15-17:
1. 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——15:11; 18:3-4; 12:11.
2. To worship God with Christ is to worship Him collectively with all the children of God by enjoying Christ with one another and with God——1 Cor. 14:26.
III. If we want to be overcomers, we need to labor on Christ as our good land, to gain Christ as our enjoyment:
A. Every morning we must consecrate ourselves sincerely to the Lord for the simple purpose of enjoying and experiencing Him—— cf. Phil. 3:13-14.
B. Every day we need to spend time to be with the Lord privately and secretly to have intimate fellowship with Him——Matt. 14:22-23; 6:6; Exo. 33:11a.
C. We need to enjoy the Lord in the Word every day early in the morning to have a new start of each day——Psa. 119:147-148.
D. We need to deal with sins thoroughly so that there is nothing between us and the Lord——1 John 1:7, 9; cf. Ezek. 1:22, 26.
E. We need to maintain our fellowship with the Lord moment by moment, living a life of prayer——2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 4:6-7; Lam. 3:55-56; cf. Matt. 11:25-26.
F. We need to redeem our time and spend our energy to be saturated and soaked with God's holy Word——2 Tim. 3:16-17; Col. 3:16.
G. We should redeem the time to be filled in spirit by rejoicing always, praying unceasingly, and giving thanks in everything—— Eph. 5:18; 1 Thes. 5:16-19.
IV. We meet together to have an exhibition of the Christ upon whom we have labored, the Christ whom we have enjoyed and experienced——Deut. 14:22-23:
A. The true worship of God by His people is when everyone is full of Christ, radiant with Christ, and exhibiting the Christ upon whom they have labored.
B. We should always have something to speak in all the meetings as a freewill offering to God and to the attendants——1 Cor. 14:26:
1. Before coming to the meeting, we should prepare ourselves for the meeting with something of the Lord, either through our experience of Him or through our enjoyment of His word and our fellowship with Him in prayer——cf. Rev. 1:20.
2. After coming into the meeting, we need not wait, and should not wait, for inspiration; we should exercise our spirit and use our trained mind to function in presenting what we have prepared to the Lord for His glory and satisfaction and to the attendants for their benefit——their enlightenment, nourishment, and building up——1 Cor. 14:31-32.
V. Day by day and hour by hour we need to enjoy the marvelous, wonderful, immeasurable, unlimited, and all-inclusive riches of Christ as the good land——Eph. 3:8:
A. In 2 Corinthians the good land flowing with milk and honey is Christ Himself as the embodiment of the processed Triune God, given to us as the divine grace for our enjoyment——1 Cor. 5:7; 10:3-4; 2:14-15; 3:1; cf. 2 Cor. 1:12; 12:9; 13:14:
1. In order to experience the riches of Christ as the good land, we must be dominated, governed, directed, moved, and led by our spirit——2:13.
2. In order to experience the riches of Christ as the good land, we must live in the person, the presence, the face, of Christ—— v. 10; 4:6-7; 3:16-18; 12:2a:
a. In order to possess Christ as the all-inclusive land, we must be governed by His person, His presence——Exo. 33:14.
b. Because Paul lived in the person of Christ, he experienced Christ as changelessness (2 Cor. 1:17-20), as meekness and gentleness (10:1), as truthfulness (11:10), as power (12:10; 13:4), as grace (v. 14), and as the One speaking in him (v. 3; cf. 2:17).
3. We receive Christ as grace, the reality of the good land, through the breaking and constituting work of the Holy Spirit, whereby our inner being is rebuilt with the Divine Trinity——12:7-10; 13:14.
B. At the stage of our experience in which we are enjoying Christ as the all-inclusive land, Christ is unlimitedly great to us; He is a good and spacious land, whose dimensions are the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth——Exo. 3:8; Eph. 3:18:
1. Christ's dimensions are the dimensions of the universe—— cf. Col. 1:16-17.
2. To apprehend the dimensions of Christ, we need all the saints.
3. Our experience of Christ must become three-dimensional, like a cube:
a. In our experience of Christ we must go back and forth and up and down so that eventually our experience of Him may be a solid "cube"; when our experience is like this, we cannot fall or be broken.
b. Both in the tabernacle and in the temple, the Holy of Holies was a cube of ten and twenty cubits respectively—— Exo. 26:2-8; 1 Kings 6:20.
c. Christ is the universal cube, and the church life today is also a cube.
d. Eventually, the entire New Jerusalem will be the Holy of Holies as an eternal cube, twelve thousand stadia in three dimensions——Rev. 21:16.
VI. The issue of our enjoyment of the all-inclusive riches of Christ as the good land is the church as the temple, the dwelling place of God, and as the city, the kingdom of God—— Eph. 2:21-22:
A. The land with its temple and city is the center of God's plan:
1. The land is Christ Himself, and the temple and the city are the fullness of Christ, the church, which is His Body——1:22-23; 2:21-22.
2. The temple is for the expression of God, and the city is for the dominion of God; this fulfills God's eternal purpose——Gen. 1:26.
B. When we enjoy Christ personally in our daily life for our collective enjoyment of Him in our meeting life, God is among us, and we are His dwelling place and His kingdom:
1. When we enjoy Christ to such an extent, the church meeting will be filled with God, and all its activities will convey and transmit God to people that they may be infused with God—— 1 Cor. 14:25.
2. When we enjoy Christ to such an extent, we will submit to one another, and the authority of Christ will be among us—— Eph. 5:18, 21; 1 Pet. 5:5.
C. The main aspects of God's house, His dwelling place for His expression, speak of God's presence (God's house signifies Christ, the church, the New Jerusalem, and our spirit):
1. God's house is the place of God's presence, which is God's glory (Psa. 26:8; 29:9), God's beauty (27:4, 8), and God's riches (36:8-9).
2. God's house is the place of revelation and God's answer—— 73:16-17; 3:4; 18:6.
3. God's house is our hiding place——27:5; cf. 31:20; 84:3.
4. God's house is the place where we may be planted, flourish, and bear fruit——92:13-14.
5. God's house is the place of springs——87:7.
6. God's house is the place where we are strengthened——68:35; 96:6.
7. God's house is the place where we are mingled with God—— 92:10.
8. God's house is the place where God is our portion——73:26.
D. The main aspects of God's city, His kingdom for His dominion, speak of God's authority:
1. God's city is a strong city, the city of the great King——31:21; 48:2.
2. There is a river with gladdening streams in God's city——46:4-5.
3. God is known in her and is a high retreat in her——48:3.
4. She is a terror to the enemy——vv. 3-6; 76:2-3.
5. She is the perfection of beauty——50:2.
6. She is the goal of God's good pleasure——51:18.
7. The thrones of judgment are set in God's city——122:5.
8. The Lord blesses others out of her and is blessed out of her—— 134:3; 135:21.
E. The ultimate issue of our enjoyment of Christ as the land is the divine-human incorporation of the processed Triune God with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite people as the eternal dwelling place and kingdom of God——Rev. 21:3, 22; 22:5.