BEING A VESSEL UNTO HONOR, A FULLY EQUIPPED MAN OF GOD, BY BEING EMPOWERED IN THE GRACE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS TO FULLY ACCOMPLISH OUR MINISTRY IN THE UNIQUE MINISTRY OF GOD'S ECONOMY
Message Two
God Calling Us according to His Own Purpose
Scripture Reading: 2 Tim. 1:9; Rom. 8:28-29; Eph. 3:9-11; Col. 1:9; Rev. 4:11; Matt. 7:21
I. In 2 Timothy 1:9 Paul says that God "has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own purpose":
A. God has not only saved us to enjoy His blessing but also called us with a holy calling, a calling for a particular cause, to fulfill His purpose—v. 9; Rom. 8:28.
B. To be called by God is to be separated unto His purpose—Eph. 1:11; 3:11; 2 Tim. 1:9; 3:10.
C. The purpose in 2 Timothy 1:9 is God's plan according to His will to place us into Christ, making us one with Him to share His life and position so that we may be His testimony.
D. God saved us and called us according to His own purpose, and now His purpose should become our purpose—Rom. 8:28; 2 Tim. 1:9; 3:10.
E. We need to view salvation from God's perspective; the purpose of God's salvation is for His created and redeemed ones to have the sonship, that is, to have the life of the Son and be conformed to the image of His Son so that the Son would be the Firstborn among many brothers—1 John 5:11-12; Rom. 8:29.
F. Salvation involves our being saved from a human life that is meaningless:
1. The gospel saves us out of the human life that is without meaning into the meaning of the universe—Rev. 4:11.
2. God created a man who had great meaning and purpose (Gen. 1:26-28), but man fell, and the meaning of human life was lost.
3. With His salvation, God rescues us and brings us back to our original purpose, which is the meaning of the universe—Rom. 8:28; 2 Tim. 1:9.
II. God's eternal purpose is to dispense Himself into His chosen and redeemed people to make them the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead for His enlarged and expanded expression—Eph. 1:5, 9, 22-23; 3:9-11:
A. The book of Job leaves us with a twofold question concerning the purpose of God in creating man and in dealing with His chosen people—1:1; 10:13; 13:3-4:
1. The answer to this question is the economy of God, which is God's eternal intention with His heart's desire to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity as the Father in the Son by the Spirit into His chosen people to be their life and nature so that they may become the same as He is for His fullness, His expression—Gen. 1:26; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; Eph. 1:22-23; 3:9, 19.
2. God's purpose in dealing with His lovers, even in the way of loss, is that they may gain Him to the fullest extent, in order that He might be expressed through them for the fullness of His eternal purpose in His creation of man— Rom. 8:28-29; 2 Cor. 4:16; cf. Jer. 48:11.
B. God's intention in the creation of all things, including man, was that man would be mingled with God to produce the church as the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem for His glorious expression—Zech. 12:1; Rev. 4:11; 19:7; 21:2.
C. God's eternal purpose, according to the desire of His heart, is to have the church to be the organic Body of Christ for the manifestation of His multifarious wisdom—Eph. 1:9-11, 22-23; 3:9-11.
D. The church as the Body of Christ is the unique means used by God to fulfill His purpose and settle all His problems—cf. Gen. 1:26:
1. The church is for the expression, the glory, of God the Father in the divine sonship with the Father's life and nature—Eph. 1:4-5; John 17:22-24.
2. The church is God's greatest boast in making known to the angelic rulers and authorities His multifarious wisdom for the shame and defeat of the enemy to bring in His kingdom—Eph. 3:10; Rom. 16:20.
3. The church is for the heading up of all things in Christ through the working of Himself into us as life and light—Eph. 1:10, 22-23.
III. In order to live a life for the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose, we must know and do the will of God—Col. 1:9; Matt. 7:21:
A. God is a God of purpose, having a will of His own pleasure, and He created all things for His will so that He might accomplish and fulfill His purpose —Rev. 4:11; Eph. 3:9-11; Col. 1:9:
1. God's will is His heart's desire, His mingling with man, and the fulfillment of His eternal purpose—Eph. 1:5, 9, 22; 5:17.
2. The will of God is to obtain a Body for Christ to be His fullness, His expression—Rom. 12:2, 5; Eph. 1:5, 9, 11, 22-23.
B. We need to be filled with the full knowledge of God's will—Col. 1:9:
1. God's will in Colossians is His will regarding His eternal purpose, regarding His economy concerning Christ—Eph. 1:5, 9, 11.
2. To have the full knowledge of God's will is to have the revelation of God's plan so that we may know what God plans to do in the universe—Rev. 4:11:
a. God's plan is to make Christ everything in the divine economy—Matt. 17:5; Col. 1:15-18; 3:10-11.
b. The revelation of God's plan opens the way for us to have more experience of Christ—2:16-17; 3:4, 15-16.
3. The will of God for us is that we know the all-inclusive Christ, experience Him, and live Him as our life—1:9, 15-18; 3:4.
4. Walking worthily of the Lord issues from having the full knowledge of God's will; such a walk is a walk in which we live Christ—1:10; Phil. 1:19-21a.
C. If we would enter into the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens in the coming age, we must do the will of our Father in this age—Matt. 7:21-22; 6:10; 12:50; Rev. 4:11; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 1:5, 9, 11; 5:17; Col. 1:9; 4:12.
D. "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he who does the will of My Father who is in the heavens"—Matt. 7:21:
1. To call on the Lord suffices for us to be saved, but to enter into the kingdom of the heavens, we also need to do the will of the heavenly Father—Rom. 10:13; 12:2; Matt. 12:50; Eph. 5:17; Col. 1:9.
2. Since entering into the kingdom of the heavens requires doing the will of the heavenly Father, it is clearly different from entering the kingdom of God through regeneration—John 3:3, 5:
a. The entrance into the kingdom of God is through being born of the divine life—1:12-13; 3:5-6.
b. The entrance into the kingdom of the heavens is through the living of the divine life—Matt. 7:21; 12:50.
3. The Lord Jesus rebuked those who prophesied, cast out demons, and did works of power in His name because, as "workers of lawlessness," they did these things out of themselves, not out of the obedience to God's will—7:23.
4. In order to do the will of the Father, we need to enter in through the narrow gate and walk on the constricted way—vv. 13-14:
a. The narrow gate excludes the old man, the self, the flesh, the human concept, and the world with all its glory; only that which corresponds with God's will can enter in.
b. As we walk on the constricted way, we are restricted by a mysterious, invisible, inward control, and we live under this control.
5. Whoever does the will of the Father is a relative of the Lord Jesus—12:50:
a. Christ, the heavenly King, always submitted to the Father's will, taking the Father's will as His portion and not resisting anything—11:28-30; 26:39.
b. Whoever does the will of the Father is a brother who helps the Lord Jesus, a sister who sympathizes with Him, and a mother who tenderly loves Him.
6. The kingdom people need to pray for the Father's will to be done on earth as in the heavens; this is to bring the kingdom of the heavens to the earth—6:10.