总题：活在神圣三一里并与神圣三一同活
LIVING IN AND WITH THE DIVINE TRINITY
Message Four
Living with the Divine Trinity (1) Living with Christ as Emmanuel and Having the Resurrected Christ Living in Us
Scripture Reading: Matt. 1:21-23; 18:20; 28:20; 2 Tim. 4:22; John 14:17
I. To live in the Divine Trinity is to abide in Him, to remain in Him, to dwell in Him as our home; to live with the Divine Trinity is for Him to abide in us so that we may have His presence, His person, with us for our enjoyment—John 15:4:
A. The abiding Spirit, the indwelling Spirit, is the element and sphere of the mutual abiding, the mutual indwelling, of us and the Triune God—1 John 4:13, 16b.
B. We need to have a bird's-eye view of the entire revelation of the New Testament—one-fourth of the New Testament is concerning our living in the Triune God, whereas three-fourths of the New Testament is concerning our living with the Triune God.
II. To live with the Divine Trinity is to live with Christ as Emmanuel—"'Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel' (which is translated, God with us)"—Matt. 1:23:
A. God's intention is to dispense Himself as life (Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11) into us, the tripartite men—into our spirit, soul, and body—to make us His sons (vv. 14-15, 19, 23, 29, 17) for the constituting of the Body of Christ (12:4-5) so that we may become the New Jerusalem as the city of life (Rev. 22:1-2).
B. In order for us to experience the dispensing of the Triune God as life into our being, we need to be those who are living with Christ as Emmanuel; Matthew is a book on Emmanuel—God incarnated to be with us—1:21-23.
C. The presence of Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us:
1. He is with us in our gatherings—18:20.
2. He is with us all the days—28:20.
3. He is with us in our spirit—2 Tim. 4:22:
a. Today our spirit is the land of Immanuel—Isa. 8:7-8.
b. Because God is with us, the enemy can never take over the land of Immanuel—v. 10; cf. 1 John 5:4; John 3:6.
D. The practical Emmanuel is the Spirit of reality as the presence of the consummated Triune God in our spirit; His presence is always with us in our spirit, not only day by day but also moment by moment—1:14; 14:16-20; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Tim. 4:22:
1. We can enjoy the presence of the Triune God in gathering together for the teaching of His holy Word—Matt. 18:20; 28:20; Psa. 119:130; Acts 6:4.
2. We enjoy grace and peace through the Spirit as the presence of the Triune God—Gal. 6:18; Acts 9:31.
3. The Spirit's leading and witnessing are His presence—Rom. 8:14, 16.
4. We enjoy the dispensing of the Triune God through His presence as the Spirit—2 Cor. 13:14.
E. To live with Christ as Emmanuel, we need to be in His divine presence, which is the life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God—Gal. 5:25:
1. To live with Christ, we still live, yet not by ourselves alone but by Christ living in us and with us as Emmanuel; the Triune God cannot complete His intention to dispense Himself into our being outside of us; therefore, His being with us must be inward—2:20.
2. Emmanuel is our life and person, and we are His organ, living together with Him as one person; our victory depends upon Emmanuel, the presence of Jesus.
3. If we have the Lord's presence, we have wisdom, insight, foresight, and the inner knowledge concerning things; the Lord's presence is everything to us—2 Cor. 2:10; 4:6-7; Gal. 5:25; Gen. 5:22-24; Heb. 11:5-6.
F. If we would enter, possess, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land, we must do so by the presence of the Lord; the Lord promised Moses, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest" (Exo. 33:14); God's presence is His way, the "map" that shows us, His people, the way we should take:
1. In order for us to fully gain and possess Christ as the all-inclusive land for God's building, we must hold on to the principle that God's presence is the criterion for every matter; regardless of what we do, we must pay attention to whether or not we have God's presence; if we have God's presence, we have everything, but if we lose God's presence, we lose everything—Matt. 1:23; 2 Tim. 4:22; Gal. 6:18; Psa. 27:4, 8; 51:11; 2 Cor. 2:10.
2. The presence of the Lord, the smile of the Lord, is the governing principle; we must learn to be kept, to be ruled, to be governed, and to be guided not by His secondhand presence but by the direct, firsthand presence of the Lord.
3. "In my youth I was taught various ways to overcome, to be victorious, to be holy, and to be spiritual. However, not any of these ways worked. Eventually, through more than sixty-eight years of experience, I have found out that nothing works but the Lord's presence. His being with us is everything"—Life-study of Joshua, p. 48.
G. The entire New Testament is an Emmanuel, and we are now a part of this great Emmanuel that will consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity; the New Testament begins with a God-man, who is "God with us," and ends with a great God-man, the New Jerusalem, which is "Jehovah Is There"—Matt. 1:23; 1 Cor. 6:17; Acts 9:4; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Rev. 21:3, 22; Ezek. 48:35.
III. To live with the Divine Trinity is to have the resurrected Christ living in us—Gal. 2:20b; Phil. 1:19-21a:
A. Resurrection is a person because Christ said that He is the resurrection (John 11:25); the life-giving Spirit as the Spirit of reality is the reality of the resurrected Christ and of the power of Christ's resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45b; John 14:17; 16:13; 1 John 5:6; Phil. 3:10; Exo. 30:22-25).
B. In our Christian life we are under the killing of Christ's death by the indwelling Spirit and through our outward environment; the outward environment cooperates with the inward Spirit to kill our natural man for the manifestation of the resurrected Christ within us—Rom. 8:9-10, 13b, 28-29; 2 Cor. 4:7-18:
1. If we try to escape from the environment that God has arranged for us, we will not have joy and peace; when we stay in this limited environment, we can experience resurrection—Eph. 4:1; 6:20; 2 Cor. 1:8-9, 12.
2. To experience the Spirit as the reality of the resurrected Christ, we need to turn to our spirit to pray, praise, sing, or talk to God; the title of Psalm 18 indicates that this was David's human talk with the divine God, implying David's intimacy with God; after ten minutes of talking to God and consulting with Him, we will be on fire and be full of the Spirit as the reality of resurrection.
C. The humanity of Jesus is His human life in resurrection; the Lord's charming and cherishing are not natural but are by His resurrection life in humanity; He lived a human life in resurrection, not by Himself but by another source, that is, His Father—John 5:19, 30; 14:24:
1. Because Jesus lived the divine life in His human life, His human life became mystical, a mystery; as the Lord's disciples, we need to live the divine life in our human life to magnify Christ—Rom. 13:14; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21.
2. The followers of Christ were discipled through Christ's human living on the earth as the model of a God-man—living God by denying Himself in humanity (John 5:19, 30), revolutionizing their concept concerning man (Phil. 3:10; 1:21a).
3. We all need to be discipled by the Lord to be divine and mystical persons; we should cherish people by the divine and mystical life in resurrection; in resurrection means that there is nothing natural in our care for people.
D. The budding rod signifies that Christ, the resurrected One, should be our life, our living, and the resurrection life within us and that this life should bud, blossom, and bear fruit to maturity—Num. 17:8:
1. After the children of Israel rebelled, as recorded in Numbers 16, God commanded the twelve leaders to take twelve rods according to the twelve tribes of Israel and put them in the Tent of Meeting before the Testimony (17:4); then He said, "The rod of the man whom I choose shall bud" (v. 5).
2. All twelve rods were leafless, rootless, dry, and dead; whichever one budded was the one chosen by God; here we see that resurrection is the basis of God's selection and that the basis of service is something apart from our natural life; thus, the budding rod signifies our experience of Christ in His resurrection as our acceptance by God for authority in the God-given ministry.
3. The principle to every service lies in the budding rod; God returned all the eleven rods to the leaders but kept Aaron's rod inside the Ark as an eternal memorial; this means that resurrection is an eternal principle in our service to God—vv. 9-10.
4. After Aaron's rod budded, there was no ground whatsoever for him to be proud; his experience shows that everything depends upon God's grace and mercy, and we can do nothing in ourselves—2 Cor. 12:7-9; Rom. 9:15-16, 21, 23; Luke 1:78-79.
5. Because our sufficiency is from God, there is no ground whatsoever for us to be proud; only a foolish person would say that he is better than others (2 Cor. 3:5; Matt. 26:33; John 21:15; cf. Mark 11:9); humility saves us from all kinds of destruction and invites God's grace (2 Cor. 12:7-9; James 4:6; cf. Rom. 12:3; Gal. 5:26; Matt. 18:3-4; 20:20-28; 2 Cor. 4:5).
6. Resurrection is everything that is not out of our natural life, not out of ourselves, and not based on our ability; resurrection speaks of the things that are beyond us, which we cannot do in ourselves—1:8-9; 4:7.
7. Resurrection means that everything is of God and not of us; it means that God alone is able and that we are not able; resurrection means that everything is done by God, not by ourselves—1:12; Phil. 3:10-11.
8. What we can do belongs to the natural realm, and what is impossible for us to do belongs to the realm of resurrection; a man must come to the end of himself before he will be convinced of his utter uselessness—Matt. 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27.
9. We need to see that to be a Christian and an overcomer is not merely difficult—it is impossible; only the processed and consummated Triune God living in us as the all-inclusive Spirit can be a Christian and an overcomer; when we have a need, a disability, or when we are facing a difficult situation, we can talk to Him about it; then He, the One who lives in us, will come in to face the situation and to do whatever is needed, and we will spontaneously live Christ—Phil. 4:5-7, 12; 1:21a.