LABORING ON THE ALL-INCLUSIVE CHRIST TYPIFIED BY THE GOOD LAND FOR THE BUILDING UP OF THE CHURCH AS THE BODY OF CHRIST, FOR THE REALITY AND THE MANIFESTATION OF THE KINGDOM, AND FOR THE BRIDE TO MAKE HERSELF READY FOR THE LORD'S COMING
Message Twelve
Living a Life of Enjoying Christ as the Good Land with the Temple, the Dwelling Place of God, and the City, the Kingdom of God, as Its Issue
Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 13:14; 1:12; 4:15; 6:1; 8:1, 9; 9:8, 14; 12:9
I. First Corinthians takes the history of the children of Israel in the Old Testament as a type of the New Testament believers (5:7-8; 10:1-13), but there is no reference to the good land in 1 Corinthians, because, spiritually speaking, the reality of the good land is in 2 Corinthians:
A. The reality of the good land in 2 Corinthians is Christ Himself as the divine grace; the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is the central thought and the subject of 2 Corinthians—13:14; 1:12; 4:15; 6:1; 8:1, 9; 9:8, 14; 12:9.
B. Not I but the grace of God in 1 Corinthians 15:10 equals no longer I...but...Christ in Galatians 2:20; the grace that motivated the apostle and operated in him was not some matter or some thing but a living person (John 1:16-17), the resurrected Christ, the embodiment of God the Father (Col. 2:9; John 14:7-11) who became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17), who dwelt in the apostle for his empowering enjoyment (2 Tim. 4:22; 2:1).
C. Grace is God in Christ as the Spirit given to us for our enjoyment, energizing us, enabling us, supporting us, and strengthening us to face any kind of trouble, to fit all situations, to endure any kind of treatment, to accept any kind of environment, to work under any kind of condition, and to take any kind of opportunity so that we may be good stewards to dispense the varied grace of God into others for the building up of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God—1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 1:3-12; 12:7-9; 1 Pet. 4:10; Eph. 3:2.
II. We need to see how to live a life in the eyes of God that will enable us to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ typified by the good land—Col. 1:12; 2:6-7a:
A. We need to live a life of laboring upon Christ, a life of enjoying Christ personally so that we may enjoy Him together collectively for the building up of the Body of Christ as the temple, the house, of the living God—1 Cor. 3:17; 1 Tim. 3:15.
B. God's will is for us to enjoy Christ (Heb. 10:5-10; 1 Cor. 1:9); we need to seek to enjoy Christ and experience Him in every situation (Phil. 3:7-14).
C. Christ is rich beyond measure, but the church today is groveling in poverty because the Lord's children are indolent—Prov. 6:6-11; 24:30-34; 26:14; Matt. 25:26, 30.
D. When we come to the meetings to worship the Lord, we should not come with our hands empty; our hands must be full of the produce of Christ—Deut. 16:15-16:
1. We must produce enough of Him so that there will be a surplus remaining for the poor and the needy, for the priests and the Levites, and with the best for the Lord Himself— 15:11; 18:3-4; 12:11.
2. 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.
E. If we want to be overcomers, we need to labor on Christ as our good land, to gain Christ as our enjoyment:
1. Every morning we must consecrate ourselves sincerely to the Lord for the simple purpose of enjoying and experiencing Him—cf. Phil. 3:13-14.
2. Every day we need to spend time to be with the Lord privately and secretly to have intimate fellowship with Him—Matt. 14:22-23; 6:6; Exo. 33:11a.
3. We need to enjoy the Lord in the Word every day early in the morning to have a new start of each day—Psa. 119:147-148.
4. We need to deal with sins thoroughly so that there is nothing between us and the Lord— 1 John 1:7, 9; cf. Ezek. 1:22, 26.
5. We need to maintain our fellowship with the Lord moment by moment, living a life of prayer—2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 4:6-7; Lam. 3:55-56; cf. Matt. 11:25-26.
6. We need to redeem our time and spend our energy to be saturated and soaked with God's holy Word—2 Tim. 3:16-17; Col. 3:16.
7. We should redeem the time to be filled in spirit by rejoicing always, praying unceasingly, and giving thanks in everything—Eph. 5:18; 1 Thes. 5:16-19.
8. In order to experience the riches of Christ as the good land, we must be dominated, governed, directed, moved, and led by our spirit—2 Cor. 2:13.
9. In order to experience the riches of Christ as the good land, we must live in the person, the presence, the face, of Christ—v. 10; 4:6-7; 3:16-18; 12:2a:
a. In order to possess Christ as the all-inclusive land, we must be governed by His person, His presence—Exo. 33:14.
b. Because Paul lived in the person of Christ, he experienced Christ as changelessness (2 Cor. 1:17-20), as meekness and gentleness (10:1), as truthfulness (11:10), as power (12:10; 13:4), as grace (v. 14), and as the One speaking in him (v. 3; cf. 2:17).
10. We receive Christ as grace, the reality of the good land, through the breaking and constituting work of the Holy Spirit, whereby our inner being is rebuilt with the Divine Trinity—12:7-10; 13:14.
III. We must meet together to have an exhibition of the Christ upon whom we have labored, the Christ whom we have enjoyed and experienced—Deut. 14:22-23:
A. When we enjoy Christ personally in our daily life for our collective enjoyment of Him in our meeting life, God is among us, and we are His dwelling place and His kingdom.
B. When we enjoy Christ to such an extent, the church meeting will be filled with God, and all its activities will convey and transmit God to people that they may be infused with God—1 Cor. 14:25.
C. The true worship of God by His people is when everyone is full of Christ, radiant with Christ, and exhibiting the Christ upon whom they have labored.
D. We should always have something to speak in all the meetings as a freewill offering to God and to the attendants—v. 26:
1. Before coming to the meeting, we should prepare ourselves for the meeting with something of the Lord, either through our experience of Him or through our enjoyment of His word and fellowship with Him in prayer.
2. After coming into the meeting, we should not wait for inspiration; we should exercise our spirit and use our trained mind to function in presenting what we have prepared to the Lord for His glory and satisfaction and to the attendants for their benefit—their enlightenment, nourishment, and building up—vv. 31-32.
IV. We must meet with the Lord's children for corporate worship at the place that the Lord has chosen—in our spirit and on the unique ground of oneness—Deut. 12:5, 11, 13-14, 18; 16:16; John 4:24:
A. First, God's sanctuary, His habitation, is in our spirit (Eph. 2:22), and second, it is the church (1 Tim. 3:15); thus, to go into the sanctuary of God, we need to turn to our spirit and go to the meetings of the church; in our spirit and in the church we receive divine revelation and the explanation to all our problems (Psa. 73:16-28).
B. We must keep the unique oneness of the Body of Christ on the genuine ground of oneness:
1. The practice of the church life is the practice of having one church for one city, one city with only one church—Acts 8:1; 13:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; Rev. 1:11.
2. On the genuine ground of oneness, we enjoy the Lord as the anointing oil, the refreshing dew, and the commanded blessing of life—Psa. 133.
C. There are four characteristics of the place the Lord has chosen:
1. The place chosen by the Lord must not have any name other than the name of Christ— Deut. 12:5; Rev. 3:8.
2. The place chosen by the Lord is full of the exercise of the spirit—Eph. 2:22; John 4:24; 1 Tim. 4:7; 1 Cor. 14:32.
3. The place chosen by the Lord is a place of the enjoyment of the riches of Christ—Deut. 12:7, 18; Psa. 36:8-9.
4. The place chosen by the Lord is a place of rejoicing—Deut. 12:7, 12, 18; Psa. 42:4; 122:1.
V. The issue of our enjoyment of the all-inclusive riches of Christ as the good land is the church as the temple, the dwelling place of God, and as the city, the kingdom of God—Eph. 2:21-22:
A. The land with its temple and city is the center of God's plan—1 Kings 8:48 and footnote 1:
1. The land is Christ Himself, and the temple and the city are the fullness of Christ, the church, which is His Body—Eph. 1:22-23; 2:21-22.
2. The temple is for the expression of God, and the city is for the dominion of God; this fulfills God's eternal purpose—Gen. 1:26.
B. The main aspects of God's house, His dwelling place for His expression, speak of God's presence:
1. God's house is the place of God's presence, which is God's glory (Psa. 26:8; 29:9), God's beauty (27:4, 8), and God's riches (36:8-9).
2. God's house is the place of revelation and God's answer—73:16-17; 3:4; 18:6.
3. God's house is our hiding place—27:5; cf. 31:20; 84:3.
4. God's house is the place where we may be planted, flourish, and bear fruit—92:13-14.
5. God's house is the place of springs—87:7.
6. God's house is the place where we are strengthened—68:35; 96:6.
7. God's house is the place where we are mingled with God—92:10.
8. God's house is the place where God is our portion—73:26.
C. The main aspects of God's city, His kingdom for His dominion, speak of God's authority:
1. God's city is a strong city, the city of the great King—31:21; 48:2.
2. There is a river with gladdening streams in God's city—46:4-5.
3. God is known in her and is a high retreat in her—48:3.
4. She is a terror to the enemy—vv. 3-6; 76:2-3.
5. She is the perfection of beauty—50:2.
6. She is the goal of God's good pleasure—51:18.
7. The thrones of judgment are set in God's city—122:5.
8. The Lord blesses others out of her and is blessed out of her—134:3; 135:21.
VI. The ultimate issue of our enjoyment of Christ as the good land is the divine-human incorporation of the processed Triune God with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite people as the eternal dwelling place and the kingdom of God— Rev. 21:3, 22; 22:5.