CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY OF FIRST AND SECOND KINGS
Message Ten
The Lord's Recovery—to Build Up Zion
Scripture Reading: Psa. 48:2, 11-12; 20:2; 50:2; 53:6a; 87:2; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21
I. Zion was the city of King David (2 Sam. 5:7), the center of the city of Jerusalem, where the temple as God's dwelling place on earth was built (Psa. 9:11; 2:6; 74:2; 76:2b; 125:1; 135:21; Isa. 8:18):
A. Jerusalem typifies the church, and Zion typifies the overcomers in the church:
1. Zion is the highlight of Jerusalem, the beauty of the holy city—Psa. 48:2; 50:2.
2. As the highlight and beauty of the holy city Jerusalem, Zion typifies the overcomers as the high peak, the center, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, the beauty, and the reality of the church—48:2, 11-12; 20:2; 53:6a; 87:2.
3. The hill of Zion is absolutely open to the Lord and is absolutely possessed by Him—24:1, 3, 7-10.
B. The overcomers as Zion are the reality of the Body of Christ and consummate the building up of the Body in the local churches to bring in the consummated holy city, New Jerusalem, the ultimate Holy of Holies as God's dwelling place, in eternity—Rev. 21:16; cf. Exo. 26:2-8; 1 Kings 6:20.
C. The church life is today's Jerusalem, and within the church life there must be a group of overcomers as today's Zion—Rom. 12:4-5; Eph. 4:16; Rev. 2:7; 3:12:
1. This reveals that the local churches are not God's goal but a procedure God takes to reach His goal; the local churches usher us into the reality of the Body of Christ.
2. The highest peak of the Lord's recovery that can carry out God's economy is for God to produce not many local churches in a physical way but an organic Body to be His organism—1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 4:16.
II. We have to realize what the Lord's recovery is; the Lord's recovery is to build up Zion—Rev. 14:1; Eph. 4:16; Rev. 21:2, 9-10:
A. The characteristics, the life, the blessing, and the establishment of Jerusalem come from Zion—1 Kings 8:1; Psa. 51:18; 102:21; 128:5; 135:21; Isa. 41:27; Joel 3:17.
B. In the book of Revelation what the Lord wants and what the Lord will build up is Zion, the overcomers; this is the intrinsic reality of the spiritual revelation in the holy Word of God; we surely need to be desperate to pray at any cost and to pay the cost just as the apostle Paul did—2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21; Col. 4:2; Phil. 3:8-14.
C. Our response to the Lord's calling of the overcomers in this age is for us to be vitalized; to be vital is to be living and active in oneness with our living and acting God; God's move on the earth for the accomplishment of His eternal economy is ultimately through the overcomers—Dan. 11:32; Heb. 3:12; 9:14; cf. Rev. 3:1.
D. The overcomers, who are typified by Zion, are the beachhead through which the Lord as the King of glory will return to possess the whole earth as His kingdom—Psa. 24:1, 3, 7-10; Dan. 2:34-35; 7:13-14; Joel 3:11; Rev. 11:15; 19:13-14.
E. There is no other way to reach the high peak of God's eternal economy, the reality of the Body of Christ, except by praying; our becoming the overcomers as the reality of the Body of Christ to be the bride of Christ will close this age, the age of the church, and will bring Christ as the King of glory back to take, possess, and rule over this earth with His overcomers in the kingdom age—vv. 7-9; 20:4, 6; Psa. 24:7-10.
F. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians reveals the living of the overcomers, who live in the reality of the Body of Christ by living in the mingled spirit:
1. The reality of the Body of Christ is the highest peak in God's economy and the top revelation of the Bible, revealed through a spirit of wisdom and revelation—1:17, 22-23.
2. The reality of the Body of Christ is a living in the mingled spirit, which is the dwelling place of God, the house of God, today's Bethel, the gate of heaven, and the Holy of Holies, the dwelling place of the pneumatic Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, who is typified by the Ark—v. 17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18; Gen. 28:12-17; John 1:51; Heb. 9:3-4; 10:19-22.
3. The reality of the Body of Christ is the reality in Jesus, the actual condition of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels, duplicated in His many members as the corporate living of the perfected God-men through the renewing of the mind by the renewing Spirit mingled with their regenerated spirit—Eph. 4:1-6, 15-16, 20-24; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a; 4:11-13.
4. The church is filled with the beautifying, bride-preparing Spirit, who is mingled with our spirit, so that we may become Christ's holy, beautiful, God-expressing bride, a bride without blemish or imperfection—Eph. 5:18, 26-27; Isa. 60:7, 19; 62:3; Exo. 28:2; cf. Psa. 27:4; 48:2; 50:2; 110:2-3, 7; Isa. 28:5; 60:21; 61:3.
5. For Christ to be victorious in our entire being, we must experience the slaying Spirit mingled with our spirit so that everything of God's adversary can be killed within us, enabling us to rule in the divine life of the Spirit over Satan, sin, and death for God's dominion and to live a healthy Body life, a healthy church life—Eph. 6:10-18; Psa. 48:12-13.
III. The overcomers enjoy Christ as the incarnated Triune God, the God-man, and are those in whose heart are the highways to Zion—"Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, ? In whose heart are the highways to Zion. ? Passing through the valley of Baca, ? They make it a spring; ? Indeed the early rain covers it with blessings. ? They go from strength to strength; ? Each appears before God in Zion"—84:5-7:
A. The strippings and weepings result in the enjoyment of the loveliness and sweetness of God's house—vv. 1, 6 and footnotes 11 and 61; cf. 73:26 and footnote 1.
B. While we are weeping, we are being filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit becomes a spring and the early rain to us; the highways to Zion signify our intention to enter into the church as the house of God with the two altars, which signify the leading consummations of the work of the incarnated Triune God, who is Christ as the embodiment of God for His increase—84:3-6.
C. Psalm 84:11 reveals that the blessings of our dwelling in the house of God are our enjoyment of the incarnated and consummated Triune God as our sun to supply us with life (John 1:4; 8:12), as our shield to protect us from God's enemy (Eph. 6:11-17), as grace for our enjoyment (John 1:14, 17), and as glory for the manifestation of God in splendor (Rev. 21:11, 23).
IV. "His foundation is in the holy mountains. ? Jehovah loves the gates of Zion"—Psa. 87:1-2a:
A. Zion, as a type of the overcomers in the church, is built on the highest peak of the "holy mountains," which typify the local churches, whose foundation is Christ (v. 1); the heavenly Zion, of which glorious things are spoken (v. 3), will be the final place of rest for the overcomers (Rev. 14:1).
B. The gates of Zion are for coming in and going out, signifying fellowship; the fact that the New Jerusalem will have twelve gates (21:12, 21) indicates that God's holy city will be full of fellowship.
C. "Of Zion it will be said, ? This one and that one were born in her, ? And the Most High Himself will establish her. ? Jehovah will count ? When He records the peoples: ? This One was born there" (Psa. 87:5-6); the unique One, Christ, who is the totality of all the saints ("this one" and "that one"), is the One who is all the saints and in all the saints (Col. 3:11).
D. "All my springs are in you" (Psa. 87:7); let Egypt boast of the Nile, and let Babylon boast of the Euphrates; they do not have the springs, but we in Zion have them.
V. The Songs of Ascents (Psa. 120—134) speak of the preciousness of Zion and Jerusalem in the experiences and praises of the saints:
A. Psalm 132 mentions seven precious items related to the overcomers in their going up to Zion; these items are at the top of the church life, and they portray the situation of the overcomers in Zion, the highest peak of God's mountain—vv. 13-18:
1. Resting with God—"This is My resting place forever"—v. 14a.
2. Dwelling with God—"Here will I dwell, for I have desired it"—v. 14b.
3. Food for satisfaction—"I will abundantly bless its provision; ? I will satisfy its poor with bread"—v. 15.
4. Glorious clothing—"Its priests I will clothe with salvation, ? And its faithful ones will shout with a ringing shout"—v. 16; cf. Exo. 28:2.
5. The horn of victory—"There I will cause a horn of David to shoot forth"—Psa. 132:17a.
6. The enlightening lamp—"I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one"—v. 17b.
7. The shining crown—"I will clothe his enemies with shame, ? But on him his crown will shine"—v. 18; cf. Isa. 62:3.
B. When Zion is built up as depicted in Psalm 132, we have a place where we can gather and where we can dwell together in oneness; how good and how pleasant this is!—133:1-3.
C. "May Jehovah, who made heaven and earth, ? Bless you from Zion" (134:3); wherever there are some overcomers, there will be God's blessing; God always blesses His people from Zion, from the highest peak, from the ones who have attained to the top, to the position of the overcomers; from this position God blesses all His people.
VI. Today in the church age, the God-men who are perfected and matured are Zion, the overcomers, the vital groups within the churches, but in the new heaven and new earth, the entire New Jerusalem will become Zion (Rev. 21:16), with all the believers as overcomers—v. 7 and footnote 1.