THE WILL OF GOD
Message Eight
Meeting to Know and Do the Will of God
Scripture Reading: Matt. 7:21; 12:50; 18:20; Eph. 3:8; Col. 1:12; 1 Cor. 14:26; Heb. 10:25
I. To meet is to know and do the will of God; our goal, our purpose, on earth is to do the will of the Father, and we do this by coming to the meetings of the church—Heb. 10:25.
II. We need to realize that besides our inner life with the Lord, nothing is as crucial, important, and profitable as the church meetings—1 Cor. 14:23-26:
A. As indicated by the Greek word ekklesia, the church—the dwelling place of God—is a meeting or an assembly of the called-out ones—Matt. 18:17-20:
1. The church is a gathering of the believers, a meeting of a collective people.
2. When God's called-out ones meet together, this is the church—Acts 2:42; 8:1.
3. Our Father has predestinated us to meet together; coming to the meetings is God's will—Eph. 1:5; Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 14:26.
B. The Christian life is a meeting life—Heb. 10:25; 1 Cor. 14:23-26:
1. Much of the grace that we receive is in the meetings, and much of the work that the Lord does is also in the meetings—Acts 4:33; 13:1-2.
2. Since the Christian life is a meeting life and much of the Lord's work is carried out through the meetings, we should regard the meetings as being of great importance—Heb. 10:25.
III. In the meetings God makes His will known to us—Psa. 73:16-17:
A. Doing God's will depends on knowing His will— John 7:17.
B. In our meetings there are many wonderful things underneath the surface, one of which is knowing God's will.
C. When the psalmist went into the sanctuary of God, he was able to know God's will—Psa. 73:16-17:
1. God's sanctuary, His habitation, is in our spirit and in the church—Eph. 2:22; 1 Tim. 3:15.
2. In order to go into the sanctuary of God, we need to turn to our spirit and go to the meetings of the church.
3. Once we are in the sanctuary—in the spirit and in the meetings of the church—we receive another view, a particular perception, of our situation— Psa. 73:16-20.
4. God's way is made known in the sanctuary of God—v. 17:
a. In our spirit and in the meetings we receive divine revelation—Rev. 1:10; Eph. 1:17-18.
b. When we exercise our spirit and attend the meetings of the church, God's way becomes clear to us—Psa. 73:17.
IV. Since the will of God is in Christ, concentrated in Christ, and for Christ, and Christ is everything in the will of God, we do God's will through exhibiting Christ in the meetings—Col. 1:9, 15-18, 12; 3:4, 11; 1 Cor. 14:26:
A. The will of God for us is that we would experience and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ and live Him as our life—Col. 1:9, 15-18; 3:4, 11.
B. Our meetings are to exhibit Christ, so when we come to a meeting, we need to bring with us the Christ whom we have enjoyed—1 Cor. 14:26.
C. The proper church life depends upon the church meetings where all the saints exhibit Christ with His unsearchable riches—Eph. 3:8.
D. The goal of our meeting is to exhibit Christ, and the Christian meeting is an exhibition of our Christian daily life—1 Cor. 14:26; cf. Deut. 12:5-7, 13-14.
E. We exhibit Christ in the meetings by offering to God Christ as the reality of the offerings, enjoying Christ together with God—Heb. 10:8-10, 25; 13:20-21.
F. We need to function in the meetings to exhibit Christ—Col. 1:12; 1 Cor. 14:26:
1. Due to the influence of Christianity, many believers do not bear responsibility in the meetings.
2. The concept that we may attend a meeting but are not responsible for the meeting is a fundamental error; it is a ploy of Satan to render the members of the Body of Christ useless so that they do not function.
G. As Christians, we are members of Christ, and our most important service is to meet—12:4-11, 14-27; Heb. 10:25:
1. The church meetings are the best opportunity to exhibit Christ—Col. 3:11.
2. As Christians, we are commissioned to exhibit Christ in the meetings and thus do the will of God—Matt. 7:21; 16:18; Eph. 3:8; Col. 1:12.
3. "The Father we would glorify, / Exalting Christ the Son, thereby / The meeting's purpose satisfy / That we exhibit Christ" (Hymns, #864, stanza 8).
V. Since the Father's eternal will and the desire of His heart are to build up the church as the Body of Christ, we do His will by functioning in the meetings according to the scriptural way to meet for the building up of the Body—Matt. 7:21; 12:50; Eph. 4:16; 1 Cor. 14:26:
A. The meetings of the believers should always be linked to God's New Testament economy; we should come to the meetings with a vision of the divine economy, and what we speak in the meetings should focus on the economy of God—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 3:9; 1 Cor. 14:26.
B. The recovery according to the Lord's mind is to bring His believers out of the clergy-laity system and to replace this system with the scriptural way to meet and to serve for the building up of the Body of Christ—v. 26; Eph. 4:12, 16.
C. The Lord desires to recover the church meetings in mutuality with all functioning for the building up of the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 14:4b, 24a, 26, 31:
1. When we come to the church meetings, we should have something of the Lord to share with others—v. 26.
2. Before coming to a meeting, we should prepare ourselves for the meeting with something from the Lord or of the Lord, either through our experience of Him or through our enjoyment of His word and fellowship with Him in prayer.
3. We must labor on Christ, our good land, so that we may reap some produce of His riches to bring to the church meeting and offer—Col. 1:12; Eph. 3:8.
4. Thus, the meeting will be an exhibition of His riches and will be a mutual enjoyment of Christ shared with all the attendants before God and with God for the building up of the saints and the church—1 Cor. 14:26.
5. Whatever we do in the church meeting must be for the building up of the saints and the church—vv. 3-5, 12.
D. In the practice of the scriptural way to meet and to serve, we emphasize prophesying—the excelling gift for the building up of the church—vv. 1, 4b, 24-25, 31:
1. The significance of prophesying in 1 Corinthians 14 is to speak for the Lord, to speak forth the Lord, and even to speak the Lord, to minister, to dispense, the Lord, into others; in the sense of the divine dispensing, the entire Bible consummates in all prophesying—vv. 3, 24-25, 31.
2. Prophesying, speaking for God and speaking forth God with God as the content, ministers God to the hearers and brings them to God—v. 25.
3. God desires that each of the believers prophesy, that is, speak for Him and speak Him forth—vv. 1b, 31; cf. Num. 11:29.
4. The characteristic of prophesying is to minister Christ for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ; prophesying is the particular gift for the building up of the church—1 Cor. 14:3-5, 12, 24, 26.