A TIMELY WORD CONCERNING THE WORLD SITUATION AND THE LORD'S RECOVERY
Message One
T.e World Situation as the Indicator of God's Move on Earth, the Vision of World History from Christ's Ascension to the End of This Age, the Spreading of the Truths of the Lord's Recovery as a Preparation for His Coming Back, and Persevering in Prayer, While Discerning "the Signs of the Times"
Scripture Reading: Acts 5:31; 17:26-27; Dan. 2:31-45; Rev. 6:1-8; 4:1-2; 1:10-11; Col. 4:2; Matt. 24:3-14, 32-34
I. We need to be in our spirit so that we can be men on earth with God's heart, men to whom heaven can be opened to see the vision of God concerning the destiny of the world—Rev. 1:10; 4:1-2; cf. Gen. 28:12-17; Ezek. 1:1; Matt. 3:16; Acts 7:56.
I. The world situation is the indicator of God's move on earth—5:31; 17:26-27; Dan. 2:31-45:
A. All the major events of human history have been arranged and matched by God for His move on earth; since God has a purpose to accomplish with mankind on earth, He surely has the sovereign authority to manage the situation in human history; as an example, for the spreading of His recovery and for the final stage of His recovery—the building up of the Body as the preparation of the bride—God has sovereignly prepared, preserved, and blessed the United States—Acts 17:26; 5:31; Rom. 12:4-5; Rev. 19:7.
B. The entire world situation with its "birth pangs" is for the completion of the re-formation of Israel and also for the completion of the full delivery of the universal new man— Matt. 24:32-34; Mark 13:8; Dan. 12:1-2; Rev. 12:1-2, 5.
C. The vision of the great human image in Daniel 2 is a vision of "what will happen in the last days" (v. 28); it is a prophetic illustration of the history of human government, sovereignly arranged by the Lord for the carrying out of His economy (vv. 31-35):
1. The head of gold (vv. 36-38), corresponding to the first beast in 7:3-4, signifies Nebu-chadnezzar, the founder and the king of Babylon.
2. The breast and the arms of silver (2:39a), corresponding to the second beast in 7:5, signify Medo-Persia.
3. The abdomen and thighs of bronze (2:39b), corresponding to the third beast in 7:6, signify Greece, including Macedonia.
4. The legs of iron and the feet partly of iron and partly of clay (2:33), corresponding to the fourth beast in 7:7-8, signify the Roman Empire with its last ten kings (2:40-44a; 7:7-11, 19-26; Rev. 17:7-13).
5. Although the form and appearance of the Roman Empire have vanished, the culture, spirit, and essence of the Roman Empire continue to exist today; at the beginning of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21) the form and appearance of the Roman Empire will be restored under Antichrist (Dan. 7:12).
D. The ten kings with their kingdoms, typified by the ten toes of the great image in Daniel 2, will be joined together under Antichrist, who will be the last Caesar of the revived Roman Empire; all of this will transpire in Europe—Rev. 17:10-14:
1. The mystery of lawlessness is working today among the nations and in human society; this lawlessness will culminate in the man of lawlessness, Antichrist—2 Thes. 2:3-10.
2. Antichrist will be the power of Satan, the embodiment of Satan; he will persecute and destroy the people of God—both the God-fearing Jews and the Christ-believing Chris-tians—Dan. 8:24; Rev. 12:17; 13:7.
3. Antichrist will demolish and desolate the temple of God and the city of God; he will cast truth down to the ground—Dan. 9:27; 8:12.
4. Antichrist will have sharp insight to perceive things and will speak things against the Most High—7:8, 20, 25.
5. Antichrist will wear out the saints of the Most High; we have to resist and oppose the gradual, repeated, frequent, and daily wearing-out tactics of Satan—v. 25; Matt. 24:12; Judg. 16:16; Eph. 6:11-13.
6. Satan and Antichrist want the souls of men to be the instruments for their activities in the last age—Rev. 18:11-13; 2 Tim. 3:5; cf. Zech. 12:1.
E. At His appearing as the God-cut stone, Christ with His overcomers—the corporate Christ—will strike the ten kings with Antichrist (Rev. 19:11-21), thereby crushing the great image from the toes to the head (Dan. 2:35).
F. Before the crushing of Antichrist and the totality of human government transpires, the Lord's recovery must spread to Europe and be rooted there; Europe, in the consummation of the fulfillment of the vision concerning the great human image in Daniel 2, is more vitally crucial than any other country or race—the crushing of the two feet of the great human image will be the crushing of the entire human government—vv. 34-35.
G. After coming to defeat Antichrist and to crush the aggregate of human government, the corporate Christ—Christ with His overcoming bride—will become a great mountain to fill the whole earth, making the whole earth God's kingdom; this kingdom will consum-mate in the New Jerusalem—the ultimate and consummate step of the divine history— Rev. 20:4, 6; 21:10.
III. The first four seals opened by the Lamb-God give us a vision of world history from Christ's ascension to the end of this age (cf. 4:1-2; 5:1-14); they show us that immediately after His ascension (Mark 16:19-20) there has been a four-horse race continuing through the entire age of the church until Christ's return:
A. The first seal consists of a white horse and its rider, signifying the spreading of the gospel—Rev. 6:1-2:
1. The bow without an arrow signifies that Christ's fighting for the constitution of the gospel of peace is finished and that the victory is won; a crown signifies that the gospel has been crowned with the glory of Christ—2 Cor. 4:4.
2. Went forth conquering signifies that the gospel has been going forth with Christ to conquer all kinds of opposition and attack—Rev. 6:2.
3. The overcomers who preach the gospel of the glory of Christ become the riders of the white horse—Eph. 3:8-11; Rom. 1:1; Rev. 19:11, 13-14.
B. The second seal consists of a red horse and its rider, signifying the spreading of war— 6:3-4:
1. Red signifies the shedding of blood, and a great sword signifies weapons for fighting.
2. To take peace from the earth signifies that war is continuing on the earth; that men should slay one another signifies that people will fight one another—v. 4; Matt. 24:7.
C. The third seal consists of a black horse and its rider, signifying the spreading of famine— Rev. 6:5-6:
1. A balance, a scale used to weigh precious things, being used here to weigh food signifies the scarcity of food; a quart of wheat, good pay for a day's labor, and three quarts of barley, also good pay for a day's labor (Matt. 20:2), signify the high price of food in its scarcity.
2. Do not harm the oil and the wine (oil and wine are for man's pleasure—Psa. 104:15— and are always in short supply and become precious in famine) signifies the presence of famine.
D. The fourth seal consists of a pale horse and its rider, signifying the spreading of death— Rev. 6:7-8:
1. Pale signifies the color of the appearance of those stricken with the plague; Hades following Death signifies that Hades receives and retains those whom death has killed.
2. Authority is given to Death and Hades over the fourth part of the earth to kill with the sword, famine, and death and by the beasts of the earth—cf. vv. 9-11; Luke 18:1-2, 7-8.
IV. The spreading of the truths of the Lord's recovery will be a preparation for the Lord's coming back to bring the recovery and restoration not only to Israel but also to the entire creation—Matt. 24:14; 28:19; 19:28; Isa. 11:9; cf. Rev. 5:6-8:
A. Immediately after Christ's ascension, these four things—the gospel, war, famine, and death—began to run like riders on four horses, and they will continue until Christ comes back—6:1-8:
1. The spreading, running, and racing of the gospel of the kingdom throughout the whole inhabited earth is the kernel of the divine history within human history—Matt. 24:14.
2. The gospel of the kingdom, signified by the white horse of the first seal in Revelation 6:1-2, will be preached in the whole earth for a testimony to all the nations before the end of this age, the time of the great tribulation.
B. We are not preaching a partial gospel but the full gospel that encompasses everything from Matthew through Revelation—the gospel of God's eternal economy to dispense Himself in Christ as the Spirit into His chosen ones through His judicial redemption and by His organic salvation for the building up of His Body in the local churches to con-summate the New Jerusalem as His bride, His wife, for His eternal expression—1 Tim. 1:3-4; Rom. 1:1; 5:10; Rev. 1:10-11; 21:2-3, 9-11; 22:1-2.
C. Actually, the gospel includes all the divine truths; the entire New Testament is the gospel, and the New Testament as the gospel is typified by the Old Testament; thus, we may say that the gospel includes the entire Bible.
D. God's unique purpose in this age is to have the gospel preached so that the church as the Body of Christ might be built up to consummate the New Jerusalem—Eph. 3:8-11.
E. May the Lord burden us to learn the divine truths of the gospel and to spread them every-where for His recovery—Isa. 11:9; Dan. 11:32b-33; 2 Tim. 2:21.
V. n the present environment of the world, we need to devote ourselves to and per-severe in prayer, while discerning "the signs of the times"—Acts 6:4; Col. 4:2; Matt. 16:3; Luke 21:24-36; Matt. 24:3-14, 32-34; Rom. 13:11-14:
A. We need to realize that we are in the midst of "birth pangs" (Matt. 24:8, 32-34), that "the kingdom of God is near" (Luke 21:31), and thus, pray the last prayer in the Bible— "Come, Lord Jesus!" (Rev. 22:20); the entire Bible concludes with the desire for the Lord's coming expressed as a prayer (cf. S. S. 8:13-14; 2 Tim. 4:8; Acts 26:16); Christ's coming will be His presence (Gk. parousia) with His people (Matt. 24:3; Acts 26:15-16; Mark 13:8; John 14:21, 23).
B. We need to pray with the full realization of God's view of human history by seeing that the gospel is speeded up and even maximized by war, famine, and death and by seeing that we need to gain God to the fullest extent to accomplish the goal of His divine econ-omy—Phil. 3:8, 12-14:
1. After he rebelled against God, Satan was condemned and even sentenced by God, but in His wisdom and sovereignty, God has not yet fully executed His judgment on Satan; He still has given Satan a certain limited time to do something to meet some negative need in the fulfillment of His economy—Job 1:6-8; 2:1-6; cf. John 12:31.
2. The book of Job shows us that God, through Satan as an "ugly tool," was tearing down Job in two ways: stripping and consuming; God's stripping and consuming were exercised over Job to tear Job down that God might gain Job so that he might gain God more; our outer man is being consumed so that our inner man may be renewed day by day—Phil. 3:8-10; 2 Cor. 4:16-18.
3. Job's sufferings were not God's judgment but God's stripping, consuming, and tearing down so that He might have a base and a way to rebuild Job with Himself, to make Job a God-man, a new man in God's new creation—5:17; Gal. 6:15.
4. It is through His stripping, consuming, and tearing down that God dispenses Himself into those who love Him and seek after Him—Job 10:13; Eph. 3:9; cf. John 3:6; Phil. 3:3.
5. God's purpose in dealing with His holy people is that they would be emptied of everything and receive only God as their gain; the desire of God's heart is that we would gain Him in full as life, as the life supply, and as everything to our being, which ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem—Rom. 8:28-29.
6. The end of the book of Job tells us that Job eventually saw God; in the New Testament sense, seeing God equals gaining God; to see God is to be transformed into the glorious image of Christ, the God-man, that we may express God in His life and represent Him in His authority—42:5-6; 2 Cor. 3:18.
7. The more we see God, know God, and love God, the more we abhor ourselves and the more we deny ourselves—Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23; 14:26.
C. According to Solomon's prayer in 1 Kings 8:48, we always need to pray toward the Holy Land, typifying Christ as the portion allotted by God to the believers (Deut. 8:7; Col. 1:12); toward the holy city, signifying the kingdom of God in Christ (Psa. 48:1-2); and toward the holy temple, signifying God's house, the church, on the earth (Eph. 2:21; 1 Tim. 3:15):
1. Daniel prayed three times a day by opening his windows toward Jerusalem; through His faithful channels of prayer, God carries out His economy with His elect for Christ's coming—Dan. 6:10; Acts 2:42; 6:4.
2. God will listen to our prayer when our prayer to God is toward Christ, the kingdom of God, and the house of God as the goal in God's eternal economy; this means that our prayer should always be aimed at the interests of God, that is, at Christ and the church as God's interests on earth, for the fulfilling of God's economy.