KNOWING, EXPERIENCING, AND LIVING THE ALL-INCLUSIVE CHRIST FOR THE GENUINE CHURCH LIFE
Message Seven
Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ— "a Land Flowing with Milk and Honey"— and Bringing the Surplus of the Riches of Christ to the Meetings of the Church for an Exhibition of Christ and the Corporate Worship of God
Scripture Reading: Deut. 8:7-10; 12:6-7, 11-12, 18
I. As believers in Christ who have been led by Christ into Himself as the good land typified by the land of Canaan, we need to labor on Christ—1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 1:12:
A. After the people of Israel entered into and possessed the land of Canaan and received their allotted portion, they labored on the land—Deut. 8:7-10; 12:6-7, 11-12, 18:
1. Whether or not they were willing to labor on the land was a serious matter; they had to labor on and cultivate the land.
2. This is a picture of how we need to labor diligently on Christ so that we may enjoy His all-inclusive riches—Eph. 3:8; 1:7; 1 Cor. 15:58; Phil. 3:10.
B. The life we live after entering into Christ as the good land is a life of laboring on Christ—Col. 1:12; Rom. 15:16; 1 Cor. 15:10:
1. As the Lord's people who are living in the all-inclusive Christ, we need to labor on Christ, seeking Christ and enjoying Christ in every situation—Col. 1:12; 3:1, 4, 10-11.
2. We are in a very rich land, but if we do not labor on it, there will be no produce for us to experience and enjoy—Eph. 1:7; 2:7; 3:8; 1 Cor. 15:58.
C. Although we need to labor on Christ as the land to produce Christ, we need to realize that it is not we who produce Christ but Christ who produces Himself in us through our labor—Phil. 2:13; Eph. 3:17; Col. 3:15-16:
1. We all need to labor on Christ and let Christ give us much produce; then we will have rich experiences of Christ—Eph. 3:8; Phil. 4:19.
2. The harvest of Christ is the Christ on whom we have labored and have reaped to be our harvest—3:10.
D. Every morning we need to pray, asking the Lord for the day's portion of grace and consecrating ourselves to the Lord for the purpose of experiencing and enjoying Him by laboring on Him—Rom. 12:1-2; 15:16.
E. Throughout the day we need to maintain our fellowship with the Lord and thereby contact Him, labor on Him, apply Him, experience Him, and enjoy Him— John 15:4-5, 11; 16:22; 1 Pet. 1:8.
F. Exercising our spirit is the key to laboring on Christ, experiencing Christ, and producing Christ—1 Tim. 4:7:
1. The way to labor on Christ is to exercise our spirit to contact the Spirit, the reality of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land—Gal. 3:14.
2. Throughout the day, in every situation and in all our circumstances, we should exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and experience Him—1 Tim. 4:7; Rom. 8:4; 1 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 4:11-13.
G. We labor on Christ as the good land by exercising our heart to have faith in the Lord and to love the Lord and by exercising our spirit to contact the Lord and to receive the dispensing of the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the reality of Christ as the good land—2 Cor. 3:16; 13:14; Gal. 3:14.
II. As a type of the all-inclusive Christ, the land of Canaan is "a land flowing with milk and honey"—Exo. 3:8, 17; 33:3; Lev. 20:24; Num. 13:27; 14:8; Deut. 6:3; 26:9, 15; 27:3; Josh. 5:6:
A. Milk and honey are produced out of the mingling of two kinds of lives—the vegetable life and the animal life:
1. In Deuteronomy 8:8 honey is put together with the plants—the wheat, the barley, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree.
2. In Deuteronomy 32:14 milk is put together with the animals—the cattle and the flock.
3. For the most part honey has to do with the plant life, and the greater part of milk is related to the animal life:
a. When these two lives are mingled together, honey is produced by bees from the nectar of flowers.
b. Milk is also a product of both the animal life and the vegetable life, but it belongs mainly to the animal life; it is produced from grazing in the pasture (vegetable life) by the cattle and the flock (animal life).
B. Milk and honey, which are the mingling of both the animal life and the vegetable life, signify two aspects of the life of Christ—the redeeming aspect and the generating aspect—8:8; 32:13-14:
1. The vegetable life is the life that generates and multiplies; this life signifies the generating and multiplying life of Christ— John 12:24.
2. The animal life signifies the redeeming life of Christ—6:54-55.
3. The redeeming aspect of Christ's life is for our judicial redemption, and the generating aspect of Christ's life is for our organic salvation—1:29; 12:24; Rev. 2:7; Rom. 5:10.
4. The symbols of the Lord's table signify the redeeming and generating aspects of Christ's life for God's complete salvation—Matt. 26:26-28; 1 Cor. 10:17.
5. Milk and honey speak forth the goodness and sweetness of the life of Christ— Eph. 5:2; Phil. 4:18:
a. When at the same time we experience and enjoy Christ as both the vegetable life and the animal life, we realize how good, sweet, and rich the Lord is to us.
b. We sense the richness and the sweetness of Christ—the goodness of the milk and the sweetness of the honey.
6. By enjoying Christ as the land of milk and honey, we will be constituted with Him as milk and honey—"Your lips drip fresh honey, my bride; / Honey and milk are under your tongue"—S. S. 4:11a; Eph. 4:29; Col. 4:6.
III. Daily we should labor on Christ to have a surplus, a harvest, to bring to the church meetings for the corporate worship of God the Father—Deut. 12:6; 1 Cor. 14:26; John 4:23-24; Deut. 16:15-16:
A. The life in the land is a life full of the enjoyment of Christ, both personally and collectively with the Lord's people—8:7-10.
B. The life in the good land is a life of laboring on Christ, producing Christ, enjoying Christ, sharing Christ with others, and offering Christ to God that He may enjoy Him with us:
1. This kind of enjoyment and sharing is an exhibition of Christ to the entire universe—Rev. 19:7.
2. This is a worship to God and a shame to the enemy— John 4:23-24.
C. May we be diligent to labor on Christ, to have our hands filled with Him, and then come to the church meetings to enjoy this rich and glorious Christ with God's children and with God Himself—1 Cor. 14:26; John 4:23-24.
D. Whenever we come to the Lord's table meeting to remember the Lord and worship the Father, we should not come with our hands empty; we must come with our hands full of the produce of Christ—Deut. 16:15-16:
1. 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.
2. We need to produce enough of Christ so that there will be a surplus to share with others and offer the best part of the produce to God the Father for His joy, delight, and satisfaction—Deut. 15:11; 18:3-4; 12:11.