The Crucial Revelation of. Life. in the. Scriptures

Transcription

1 The Crucial Revelation of Life in the Scriptures International Blending Conference Bower Park Academy, London 30 th March to 1 st April 2018

2 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE Friday, 30 th March Message 1 10:30 am Message 2 14:00 pm Saturday, 31 st March Message 3 10:30 am Message 4 14:00 pm Lord s Day, 1 st April Message 5 10:00 am Message 6 14:00 pm 2018 Living Stream Ministry Used with permission. Please do not duplicate.

3 GENERAL SUBJECT: THE CRUCIAL REVELATION OF LIFE IN THE SCRIPTURES Message One How the Bride of Christ Comes into Being Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:18-25; John 19:34; Eph. 5:25-27, 32 I. The entire Bible is a divine romance, a record of how God courts His chosen people and eventually marries them Gen. 2:21-24; S. S. 1:2-4; Isa. 54:5; 62:5; Jer. 2:2; 3:1, 14; 31:32; Ezek. 16:8; 23:5; Hosea 2:7, 19; Matt. 9:15; John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25-32; Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9-10; 22:17: A. When we as God s people enter into a love relationship with God, we receive His life, just as Eve received the life of Adam Gen. 2: B. It is this flowing, transforming, and building life that enables us to become one with God and makes Him one with us vv. 9-12, 22. C. In order for God and His people to be one, there must be a mutual love between them John 14:21, 23; Exo. 20:6; Jer. 2:2; 31:3. D. As God s people love God and spend time to fellowship with Him in His word, God infuses them with His divine element, making them one with Him as His spouse, the same as He is in life, nature, and expression Psa. 119:140, 15-16; Eph. 5: II. In Genesis 2 we see a picture of Christ and the church in the types of Adam and Eve: A. Adam typifies God in Christ as the real, universal Husband, who is seeking a wife for Himself Rom. 5:14; cf. Isa. 54:5; John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32; Rev. 21:9. B. Jehovah God said, It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper as his counterpart Gen. 2:18: 1. Adam s need for a wife typifies and portrays God s need, in His economy, to have a wife as His counterpart, His complement (lit., His parallel). 2. Although God, Christ, is absolutely and eternally perfect, He is not complete without the church as His wife. 3. God desires to have both Adam, typifying Christ, and Eve, typifying the church; His purpose is to let them have dominion (1:26); His purpose is to have a victorious Christ plus a victorious church, a Christ who has overcome the work of the devil plus a church that has overthrown the work of the devil; God wants Christ and the church to have dominion Rom. 5:17; 16:20; Eph. 1: III. We need to see what God did in order to produce a counterpart for Himself: A. From the ground God formed every animal of the field and every bird of heaven and brought them to Adam, and the man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of heaven and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper as his counterpart Gen. 2:19-20: 1. The wife must be the same as the husband in life, nature, and expression. 2. Among the cattle, the birds, and the animals, Adam did not find a counterpart for himself, one that could match him. B. In order to produce a counterpart for Himself, God first became a man, as typified by God s creation of Adam John 1:14; Rom. 5:14. C. Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place Gen. 2:21: 1

4 1. Adam s deep sleep for the producing of Eve as his wife typifies Christ s death on the cross for the producing of the church as His counterpart Eph. 5: In the Bible sleep often refers to death 1 Cor. 15:18; 1 Thes. 4:13-16; John 11: Christ s death is the life-releasing, life-imparting, life-propagating, lifemultiplying, life-reproducing death, which is signified by the grain of wheat falling into the ground to die and to grow up in order to produce many grains (12:24) for the making of the loaf, which is the Body, the church (1 Cor. 10:17). 4. Through Christ s death the divine life within Him was released, and through His resurrection His released divine life was imparted into His believers for the constituting of the church. 5. Through such a process God in Christ has been wrought into man with His life and nature so that man can be the same as God in life and nature in order to match Him as His counterpart. D. Jehovah God built the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman and brought her to the man Gen. 2:22: 1. The rib taken from Adam s opened side typifies the unbreakable, indestructible eternal life of Christ (Heb. 7:16; John 19:32-33, 36; Exo. 12:46; Psa. 34:20), which flowed out of His pierced side (John 19:34) to impart life to His believers for the producing and building up of the church as His counterpart: a. Out of Christ s side came blood and water, but all that came out of Adam s side was the rib without the blood. b. At Adam s time there was no need of redemption through the blood, because there was no sin. c. However, by the time that Christ was sleeping on the cross, there was the problem of sin; thus, the blood that came out of Christ s side was for our judicial redemption. d. Following the blood, the water came out, which is the flowing life of God for our organic salvation (Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4; Num. 20:8); this divine, flowing, uncreated life is typified by the rib taken out of Adam s side (Rom. 5:10). 2. Genesis 2:22 does not say that Eve was created but that she was built; the building of Eve with the rib taken from Adam s side typifies the building of the church with the resurrection life released from Christ through His death on the cross and imparted into His believers in His resurrection John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3. 3. The church as the real Eve is the totality of Christ in all His believers; the church is the reproduction of Christ; other than Christ s element, there should be no other element in the church Gen. 5:2. 4. Only that which comes out of Christ with His resurrection life can be His complement and counterpart, the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 5:28-30: a. We need to put off all the natural life until the living Christ can be expressed from within our spirit; then we will be the church in reality Col. 3: b. To live out anything other than Christ is not the church; it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20); to me, to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21) this is the church! c. Only that which comes out of Christ can be recognized by Christ; only that which comes out of Christ can return to Christ and match Him. 5. At the end of the Bible is a city, New Jerusalem, the ultimate and eternal woman, the corporate bride, the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 21:9; 22:17) built with three precious materials (21:18-21), fulfilling for eternity the type shown in 2

5 Genesis 2; thus, in type all the precious materials mentioned in Genesis 2:11-12 are for the building of the woman. 6. As Eve was taken out of Adam and brought back to Adam to be one flesh with him (v. 24), so the church produced out of Christ will go back to Christ (Eph. 5:27; Rev. 19:7) to be one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17); Christ and the church as one spirit, typified by a husband and wife as one flesh, are the great mystery (Eph. 5:28-32). 7. In the future, Christ as the holy Bridegroom will present us to Himself as His counterpart for His marriage just as God presented Eve to Adam as his counterpart for his marriage vv. 27, 31-32; Gen. 2:22-24; Rev. 19:7-9: a. Ephesians 5:27 reveals the beauty of the bride, saying that Christ will present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and without blemish. b. The beauty of the bride comes from the very Christ who is wrought into the church and who is then expressed through the church v. 26; Psa. 45:9-14. c. The Lord s recovery is for the preparation of the bride of Christ, who is composed of all the overcomers Rev. 19:7-9; Gen. 2:22; Matt. 16:18. E. The man said, This time this is bone of my bones / And flesh of my flesh; / This one shall be called Woman / Because out of Man this one was taken. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh Gen. 2:23-24: 1. In Hebrew Man is Ish, and Woman is Ishshah; the church is a pure product out of Christ; the church is Christly, resurrectionly, and heavenly. 2. Only those who are regenerated of Christ and who live by Christ as the church can match Christ and complement Him. 3. When Christ sees this, He surely says, This time this is bone of My bones and flesh of My flesh cf. v. 23; Eph. 5: Just as Eve was the increase of Adam, the church as the bride is the increase of Christ as the Bridegroom John 3: Adam and Eve becoming one flesh, a complete unit, is a figure of God and man being joined as one; the coming New Jerusalem will be the eternal union of God and man, a universal couple as a complete unit composed of divinity and humanity cf. Gen. 5:2. F. Adam and Eve, being one, lived a married life together as husband and wife (2:24-25); this portrays that in the New Jerusalem the processed and consummated redeeming Triune God as the universal Husband will live a married life with the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified humanity as the wife, forever (Rev. 22:17a): 1. The Triune God, who went through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and who ultimately became the lifegiving Spirit, is joined in marriage to the created, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man composed of spirit, soul, and body who ultimately constitutes the church, the expression of God. 2. In the eternity that is without end, by the divine, eternal, and surpassingly glorious life, they will live a life that is the mingling of God and man as one spirit, a life that is superexcellent and that overflows with blessings and joy. 3

6 NOTES 4

7 Message Two The Revelation and Enjoyment of Christ as the New Covenant of Life and as God s Sure Mercies Scripture Reading: Isa. 42:6; 49:8; 55:1-13; Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-12 I. In Greek the same word is used for both covenant and testament: A. A covenant and a testament are the same, but when the maker of the covenant is living, it is a covenant, and when he has died, it is a testament; a testament in today s terms is a will. B. A covenant is an agreement containing some promises to accomplish certain things for the covenanted people, while a testament is a will containing certain accomplished things that are bequeathed to the inheritor Heb. 9:16-17; cf. Deut. 11:29; 28:1, 15; Jer. 31: II. The old covenant, the law, is the testimony of God, the portrait of God, showing us who God is and exposing man, subduing man, and conducting God s chosen ones to Christ Psa. 78:5; 119:88b; Gen. 1:26; Rom. 3:19-20; Gal. 3:23-25; John 10:9-10. III. The old covenant of the law is the portrait of God, but the new covenant of grace is the person of God 1:16-17: A. The law makes demands upon man according to what God is; grace supplies man with what God is to meet what God demands 1 Cor. 15:10. B. When we believe into Christ, the person of this portrait comes into us, and He fulfills in us the righteous requirements of the law as we walk according to the spirit and set our mind on the spirit Ezek. 36:26-27; Rom. 8:2, 4, 6, 10. C. In the new covenant God puts Himself into His chosen people as their life, and this life is a law, a spontaneous power and an automatic principle Heb. 8:10; Rom. 8:2. D. In essence this law is God in Christ as the Spirit, and in function it has the capacity to deify us and to constitute us the members of the Body of Christ with all kinds of functions vv. 10, 6, 11, IV. Christ Himself is the new covenant, the new testament, of life given to us by God Isa. 42:6; 49:8; Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-12: A. Through His death Christ fulfilled the demands of God s righteousness according to His law and enacted the new covenant (Rom. 6:23; 3:21; 10:3-4; Luke 22:20; Heb. 9:16-17), and in His resurrection He became the new covenant with all its bequests (1 Cor. 15:45b; Isa. 42:6; Phil. 1:19). B. In His ascension Christ opened the scroll of the new covenant concerning God s economy, and in His heavenly ministry He is carrying out its contents Rev. 5:1-5. C. As the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Christ overcame and defeated Satan; as the redeeming Lamb, Christ took away the sin of fallen man; and as the seven Spirits, Christ infuses us with Himself as the contents of the scroll of the new covenant vv D. God s salvation, God s blessings, and all of God s riches have been covenanted to us, and this covenant is Christ: 1. The reality of all the hundreds of bequests in the New Testament is Christ Gen. 22:18a; Gal. 3:14; 1 Cor. 1:30; 15:45b; Eph. 1:3. 2. Christ is the reality of the new testament, the reality of all that God is and of all that God has given to us; therefore, Christ is the new testament. 5

8 3. The bequests are many, but all these many bequests are actually one person the pneumatic Christ; God has willed Himself in Christ as the Spirit to us John 20:22; Eph. 3:8. 4. The bequests bequeathed to us by the Lord in the new testament are inexhaustible, and they are for us to experience and enjoy through the Spirit for eternity Heb. 9:15. V. Our spirit is the bank account of all the bequests of the new covenant; by the law of the Spirit of life, all these bequests are dispensed into us and made real to us Rom. 8:2, 10, 6, 11, 16; Heb. 8:10; John 16:13: A. In our spirit we have the presence of God, the speaking of God, the meeting with God, and the dispensing of God through His operation as the law of the divine life to impart and inscribe Himself into all our inward parts Heb. 8:10. B. The Lord makes His covenant known to those who fear Him, and He dispenses Himself as the unsearchable reality of His covenant into those who love Him Psa. 25:14; Isa. 11:2-3a; 1 Cor. 2:9. C. Christ as the new covenant is our portion, our cup of salvation and our cup of blessing; we can drink Him as our salvation and blessing by calling upon His precious name Luke 22:20; Psa. 16:5; 23:5; 116:13; 1 Cor. 10:16a. D. Christ is the pneumatic Executor, Mediator, of the new covenant in our spirit; as the Executor, He makes every bequest of His will available and real as we receive the word of His will by means of all prayer Heb. 8:6; 1 John 5:6. E. As the surety of the new covenant, Christ is the pledge that everything in the new covenant will be fulfilled; He guarantees and ensures the effectiveness of the new testament Heb. 7:22. F. As the divine High Priest, Christ is executing the new covenant by interceding for us, praying that we would be brought into the reality of the new covenant v. 25; Rom. 8:34, 26. G. As the Minister of the holy places, Christ is serving us with the bequests, the blessings, of the new testament, making the facts of the new covenant effective in our experience Heb. 8:2. H. In order to receive the application of all the blessings in the new covenant, we need to be those who respond to Christ s heavenly ministry by entering into His intercession for the churches and His ministering God into others Gen. 14:18-20; Heb. 7:25; 8:2; Acts 6:4. VI. Isaiah 55 reveals the resurrected Christ as God s sure mercies shown to David v. 3: A. In Acts 13:34 Paul interprets the sure mercies as the holy things of David, the faithful things, and in verses 33 and 35 he indicates that these things are the resurrected Christ Himself as the firstborn Son of God and as the Holy One. B. This is also confirmed by Isaiah 55:4, which reveals that the sure mercies are Christ Himself as the Witness, Leader, and Commander to the peoples. C. The resurrected Christ as the seed of David (Rom. 1:3-4) is God s sure mercies shown to David through his descendant Mary, the mother of Christ (Matt. 1:16), for the dispensing of Christ into all His believers (1 Cor. 15:45b). D. He is the mercies and blessings, the holy and faithful things, that God gives to us as a great gift, the eternal covenant with all His unsearchable riches, to be our allinclusive grace Isa. 42:6b; 1 Cor. 1:9; cf. Acts 13:34. VII. Isaiah 55 reveals the way to enjoy the resurrected Christ as God s sure mercies: 6

9 A. Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, / And you who have no money; / Come, buy and eat; / Yes, come, buy wine and milk / Without money and without price. / Why do you spend money for what is not bread, / And the result of your labor for what does not satisfy? / Hear Me attentively, and eat what is good, / And let your soul delight itself in fatness. / Incline your ear and come to Me; / Hear, so that your soul may live; / And I will make an eternal covenant with you, / Even the sure mercies shown to David vv. 1-3: 1. God s way and God s thought are that we would come to Him, ask Him for, and drink of Him as the living water, the reality of the eternal covenant and the sure mercies shown to David v. 1; cf. John 4:10, 14; Rev. 22: The evil condition of the wicked is that they do not come to the Lord to eat and enjoy the Lord; they do many things, but they do not come to contact the Lord, to take Him, to receive Him, to taste Him, and to enjoy Him; in the sight of God nothing is more evil than this Jer. 2:13; Isa. 55:7; 57: We need to pay the price to be satisfied with Him as the life-giving waters, the supplying bread, the vivifying wine, and the purifying milk by giving ourselves to the Lord and allowing Him to open our ears to hear His voice 55:1-3; John 6:57; Matt. 9:17; 1 Pet. 2:2; Rev. 3: Then our soul will be filled with the compound Spirit as the oil of exultant joy, with the resurrected Christ as the living One Heb. 1:9; Rev. 1:18; Isa. 55:2. B. Indeed, I have given Him as a Witness to the peoples, / A Leader and a Commander to the peoples. / Indeed, you will call a nation that you do not know, / And a nation that does not know you will run to you, / Because of Jehovah your God, even the Holy One of Israel, / For He has glorified you vv. 4-5: 1. We need to exalt Him in our inward being as God s faithful Witness and the Head of the Body so that He may head up the fallen universe, the universal heap of collapse Rev. 1:5; Acts 1:8; Eph. 1:10, We need to ask the Lord to draw us so that we and many others will run after Him as the greatest attraction in the universe Isa. 55:5; S. S. 1:4; cf. Luke 15:20; Heb. 12:1-2. C. Seek Jehovah while He may be found; / Call upon Him while He is near. / Let the wicked forsake his way, / And the evildoer, his thoughts; / And let him return to Jehovah, and He will have compassion on him; / And to our God, for He will pardon abundantly Isa. 55:6-7: 1. We need to seek Him and call upon Him v. 6; Phil. 3: We need to forsake our way and our thoughts and return to Him so that we can enjoy His compassion and His boundless and multifarious forgiveness Isa. 55:7; 2 Cor. 3:16; 4:4; Rom. 9:23; 1 John 1:7, 9. D. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, / And your ways are not My ways, declares Jehovah. / For as the heavens are higher than the earth, / So My ways are higher than your ways, / And My thoughts higher than your thoughts. / For just as the rain comes down / And the snow from heaven, / And does not return there, / Until it waters the earth / And makes it bear and sprout forth, / That it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; / So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; / It will not return to Me vainly, / But it will accomplish what I delight in, / And it will prosper in the matter to which I have sent it Isa. 55:8-11: 1. We need to enjoy His word as the rain and the snow in order to be watered and saturated with His heavenly thoughts and ways for our sanctification, transformation, and conformation to His image so that the Body of Christ may be built up to consummate the New Jerusalem Eph. 5:

10 2. Our being saturated with God s word is so that we may live and grow Christ in order to sow Christ as the propagating seed and minister Christ as the living bread Mark 4:3, 14; 1 Cor. 3:2a; Matt. 24: E. For you will go out with rejoicing, / And you will be led forth in peace; / The mountains and the hills / Will break forth before you with a ringing shout, / And all the trees of the field will clap their hands. / In place of the thornbush, the fir tree will come up; / In place of the brier, the myrtle will come up; / And it will be to Jehovah as a name, / As an eternal sign that will not be cut off Isa. 55:12-13: 1. Our fullest enjoyment of Christ as God s sure mercies will become a name to Jehovah for His universal renown to the praise of the glory of His grace Ezek. 34:29-31; Rev. 3:12; Eph. 1:6. 2. Our fullest enjoyment of Christ as God s sure mercies will become an eternal sign, an eternal memorial, for His universal exaltation and preeminence Exo. 13:4-9; 16:33; Matt. 26:13. NOTES 8

11 Message Three The Overcomers Taking the Way of Life for God s Building Scripture Reading: Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 3:9; Matt. 7:13-14; 16:18; Rev. 1:10-12; 4:5; 5:6; 2:7, 17; 3:20 I. Life and building are the two key words in the entire Bible life is God in Christ as the living content, and building is the corporate expression of the Triune God Gen. 2:8-12, 22; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 3:8-11, 16-21: A. Christ is our life (Col. 3:4), and the church is God s building (1 Cor. 3:9). B. The building up of the church is by the believers growing in life for their transformation in life vv. 6-12; Col. 2:19: 1. The growing members are the building members Eph. 4: To build up the Body of Christ, the church of God, is to minister Christ as the tree of life to people for their growth in Christ 1 Cor. 3:6: a. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, people always brought questions to Him concerning good and evil, right and wrong, and yes and no (John 4:20; 8:5; 9:2; 11:21), but He always pointed them to life (4:21; 8:7; 9:3; 11:25). b. In order to serve God and work for Him, a Christian must learn to stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Only those who touch the tree of life will see their life and work remaining in the New Jerusalem (Messages Given during the Resumption of Watchman Nee s Ministry, vol. 1, pp ). C. The intrinsic significance and heavenly reality of the church as the Body of Christ are typified by the golden lampstand, portraying the Triune God as a living, golden tree, growing, branching, budding, and blossoming with resurrection life Exo. 25:31-40; Rev. 1:10-12; Num. 17:8: 1. When we overcome to return to Christ as our first love, we will enjoy Him as life and shine forth the divine light to keep the testimony of Jesus in our locality; otherwise, the lampstand will be removed from us Rev. 1:2; 2: The local churches are the procedure God takes to reach the goal of His eternal economy; we need to be in the local churches so that we can be ushered into the goal of the reality of the Body of Christ (as Zion within Jerusalem) to be the golden lampstands in actuality Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4; Psa. 48:2; 50:2; 51:18; 102:16; 125:1-2; 128:5: a. In order to be in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ 1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6; cf. Gen. 2: b. When we do not live by our natural life but live by the divine life within us, we are in resurrection; the issue of this is the Body of Christ Phil. 3:10-11; 1 Cor. 3:12. D. In the New Jerusalem, God s ultimate building, there is the river of life flowing for us to drink and the tree of life growing in the river of life for us to eat; this shows that for us to partake of God s building, there is no other way but by life and with life Rev. 22:1-2. E. The sevenfold intensified organic salvation of God in Christ s heavenly ministry is to bring the degraded church back to the enjoyment of Christ as life for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem as God s ultimate building in life, the city of life 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6; 22:1-2: 1. The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to save the believers in the church in Ephesus from the formal church life, which has lost the first love to the Lord, the shining capacity of the lampstand, and the enjoyment of Christ as life, to become overcomers so that they will be rewarded to eat of the tree of life in the Paradise of God the New Jerusalem in the kingdom age 2:1-7. 9

12 2. The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to strengthen the suffering believers in the church in Smyrna to overcome the persecution by being martyred so that they will be rewarded not to taste the second death during the kingdom age vv The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to sanctify the believers in the church in Pergamos from the union with the world and from the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded to eat the hidden manna and to have a white stone upon which a new name will be written in the kingdom age vv The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to rescue the believers in the church in Thyatira from idol worship, fornication, demonic teachings, and the deep things of Satan to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded with the authority over the nations in the kingdom age vv The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to revive the believers in the church in Sardis from their dead and dying condition to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded with walking with the Lord in white and with not having their names erased from the book of life but confessed by the Lord before the Father and His angels in the kingdom age 3: The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to encourage the believers in the church in Philadelphia to hold fast what they have that no one take their crown to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded to be a pillar in the temple of God with the name of God and the name of the New Jerusalem and the new name of the Lord written upon them in the kingdom age vv The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to awake the believers in the church in Laodicea from their lukewarm and Christless condition, exhorting them to pay the price for the refined gold, white garments, and eyesalve and to open their door to the knocking Lord to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded to sit on the throne of the Lord in the kingdom age vv II. The Lord s recovery is for producing the overcomers to build up the Body of Christ for the initial consummation of the New Jerusalem in the kingdom age (2:7) and for the full consummation of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (21:1-2): A. The overcomers enjoy Christ as life for God s building by having an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches 2:7. B. The overcomers enjoy Christ as life for God s building by living in their spirit 1:10. III. The overcomers live according to the principle of the tree of life, the principle of dependence, not according to the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the principle of independence Gen. 2:9, 17; Rom. 8:6: A. In the eyes of God the greatest sin is independence; independence is a spiritual insulation, disconnecting us from the life of God Eph. 4:18. B. We must learn to depend on the Lord continually, living constantly in direct contact with Him 2 Cor. 1:12; Heb. 11:8; Matt. 6:28; cf. 1 Kings 7:17-19; S. S. 8:5a; 2 Chron. 16:12; Isa. 50: IV. In our service to the Lord, we must reject our natural enthusiasm, natural strength, and natural ability; our service must be life flowing out of us as a ministry of life to others John 7:38; 2 Cor. 3:6; 1 John 5:16a: 10

13 A. We must be burning in spirit with the fire of God s life; we should not serve with strange fire, signifying the natural enthusiasm that is not dealt with by the cross and not in resurrection Exo. 3:2; Luke 12:49-50; Rom. 12:11; Lev. 10:1: 1. Strange fire in the priestly service, a sin of presumption, causes death before God 9:24; 10: The offering of strange fire might have been related to the drinking of wine; drinking wine signifies the overenjoyment of the worldly, natural, or physical, material things vv When the priests are drunk, they lose the discernment of holiness and are unable to teach God s people vv B. Our natural strength and ability need to be dealt with by the cross in order to become useful in resurrection for our service to the Lord Phil. 3:3: 1. After being put aside by God for forty years, Moses learned to serve God according to His leading and to trust in Him Exo. 2:14-15; Acts 7:22-36; Heb. 11: After becoming a complete failure, Peter learned to serve the brothers by faith and with humility Luke 22:32-33; John 18:15-18, 25-27; Matt. 26:69-75; 1 Pet. 5:5-6. V. In the decree of the kingdom s constitution, Christ displayed the two possible ways of people s life and work before God Matt. 7:13-14, 21-27: A. The broad way leading to destruction is according to the worldly systems satisfying the natural tastes, to get the crowd, to maintain a career of man, and to achieve man s enterprise 13:31-33; Rev. 2:13, 20; 17:4-5. B. The constricted way leading to life is according to the divine regulations fulfilling the spiritual requests, to bring in God s elect, and to bear the testimony of Jesus Christ, and carrying out God s economy for the building up of the Body of Christ Rom. 1:9; Heb. 11:5-6; Rev. 1:1-2, C. The way that leads to a living reward in life is the Way (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:22) the way of the truth (2 Pet. 2:2), the straight way (v. 15), the way of righteousness (v. 21); the way of peace (Luke 1:79; Rom. 3:17); the way of salvation (Acts 16:17); the way of God (Matt. 22:16; Acts 18:26); and the way of the Lord (John 1:23; Acts 18:25); it is slandered as the way of heresy (24:14). D. The God-ordained way is to have a living and working, which are always narrow and constricted, according to the pattern of the Lord s indescribable life and ministry John 5:19, 30; 4:34; 17:4; 14:10, 24; 7:16, 18. E. We in the Lord s recovery must walk in our spirit; walking in spirit restricts us, causing us to live a normal Christian life and making us vital, healthy believers who take the way of life for God s building Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16, 22-23; 1 Thes. 5:

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15 Message Four A Man of God with the Breath of God Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:7; John 20:22; 2 Tim. 3:14-17; Ezek. 37:1-14 I. God s ultimate intention is to gain a corporate God-man for His corporate manifestation; God does not desire a good man but a God-man, a man of God with the breath of God John 1:1, 14; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; 2 Tim. 3:16-17: A. Jehovah God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul Gen. 2:7: 1. The breath of life breathed into man s body became the spirit of man, the human spirit Prov. 20:27; Job 32:8. 2. The breath of life breathed into man s body was not the eternal life of God or the Spirit of God; but because the human spirit came out of God s breath of life, it is very close to the Spirit of God cf. Gen. 2: Thus, there can be a transmission between God the Spirit and man s spirit, and the human spirit is able to contact God and be one with God Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17. B. He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Pneuma John 20:22 (lit.): 1. The Holy Pneuma is the Holy Spirit, or Holy Breath. 2. In the Gospel of John there are three wonderful words: Word, flesh, and breath; the Word was God, the flesh is man, and the breath is the Spirit 1:1, 14; 20: The Word became flesh to accomplish judicial redemption and then resurrected to become the Holy Breath indwelling us and supplying us for our organic salvation 1:14, 29; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 5:10; 10:12-13; cf. Lam. 3: C. All Scripture is God-breathed 2 Tim. 3:16a: 1. The Scripture, the word of God, is the breathing out of God. 2. God s speaking is God s breathing out; hence, His word is spirit, or breath John 6: Thus, the Scripture is the embodiment of God as the Spirit; the Spirit is therefore the very essence, the substance, of the Scripture, just as phosphorus is the essential substance in matches; we must strike the Spirit of the Scripture with our spirit to catch the divine fire. D. This all reveals that being a man of God with the breath of God requires the exercise of our spirit, the continual receiving of the Spirit, and the breathing in of God s word 1 Tim. 4:7; Gal. 3:2; Eph. 6:17-18a. II. The antidote of the divine inoculation against the decline of the church is the God-breathed Scripture, which is profitable for teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work 2 Tim. 3:14-17: A. The Bible is God s breath, this breath is the Spirit, and the Spirit gives life John 6:63: 1. Our reading of the Bible should be our inhaling of God to receive life, and our teaching of the Bible should be our exhaling of God to impart life Acts 6:4. 2. We need to read the Bible by means of all prayer and petition in the spirit to inhale God and minister the word as the Spirit to exhale God into others Eph. 6:17-18a; Acts 6:10; 2 Cor. 3:6; cf. Psa. 119:130, 133,

16 B. On God s side, the Bible is God s breathing; on our side, the Bible is for us to receive the breath of God as our profit in four matters: teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness: 1. Teaching equals revelation; to teach is to roll away the veil so that others may see something of the Triune God and His economy Eph. 1:17; 3:9; cf. Job 10: Conviction comes from the revelation we have seen; whenever we see something of God, we realize our mistakes, wrongdoings, shortcomings, and sins, and the result is that we are convicted and reproved; the more we see God, know God, and love God, the more we abhor and deny ourselves Isa. 6:1-8; Job 42:5-6; Matt. 16: Correction follows conviction and is a matter of setting right what is wrong, turning someone to the right way, and restoring to an upright state 7: Instruction in righteousness is be divinely instructed to enjoy Christ as our lived-out righteousness and to be divinely disciplined in being right with God and with man Phil. 3:9. C. The issue of God s breathing out of Himself through the Scripture for teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness is that the man of God becomes complete, fully equipped for every good work 2 Tim. 3:17: 1. A man of God is a God-man, one who partakes of God s life and nature (John 1:13; 2 Pet. 1:4), thus being one with God in His life and nature (1 Cor. 6:17) and thereby expressing Him. 2. God s breathing produces God-men; we need to continually inhale the Triune God by reading the Scripture with prayer to receive revelation, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness. III. To receive the word of God as the breath of God in order to be constituted with God is also to receive the word of God as the sword of the Spirit in order to slay God s adversary Eph. 6:17-18a: A. Satan is not only the enemy outside of us but also the adversary inside of us; to deal with this inward adversary, we need to experience the killing power of the word, praying over the constant word of the Bible so that it becomes the instant word of the Spirit for the preparation of the bride of Christ John 6:63; Eph. 5:26-27; Rev. 2:7. B. The sword, the Spirit, and the word are one; when the constant word in the Bible becomes the instant word (the applied word spoken at the moment by the Spirit in any situation), that word is the Spirit as the sword that kills the adversary Heb. 4:12. C. The more we take the word of God by means of all prayer in spirit, the more the negative elements in our being are slain; eventually, the self, the worst foe of all, the enemy of the Body, will be put to death cf. Rev. 1:16; 2:16. D. Whenever we are troubled by something negative within us, we should take the word of God by means of all prayer in spirit; when the negative things in us are killed through pray-reading, the Lord is victorious. E. We are preserved in the church life and in the ministry by receiving the word as the Spirit to be the killing sword, which is a spiritual antibiotic to kill the germs within us so that we can live a healthy Body life, a healthy church life. F. The overcomers keep the Lord s word by always coming to the Lord to contact Him as the living Word in the written Word so that He can become the applied word as the dispensing Spirit in them 3:8; John 1:1; 5:39-40; 6:63. G. The overcomers are fully constituted with the Spirit as the word of God to be the bride of Christ and the new man, the corporate man of God with the breath of 14

17 God as the killing sword for the destruction of the enemies of God and the manifestation of the sons of God Rev. 2:7; 22:17a; 19:13-15; 2 Thes. 2:8. IV. Ezekiel 37:1-14 reveals how God s Spirit as the breath comes into us in order to enliven us so that we may become a corporate body, formed into an army: A. The vision of the dry bones shows that before God came in to renew and regenerate us, we were not only sinful and filthy (36:25) but also dead and buried in graves of various sinful, worldly, and religious things (37:12-13). B. We were like dead and dry bones, disjointed and scattered, having no oneness: 1. Whether we were an unsaved sinner or a backslidden believer, this was our situation; not only unbelieving sinners need to be delivered from their graves, but even many brothers and sisters need to be revived and delivered from death and from their graves. 2. Today many Christians are buried in the graves of denominations, sects, divisions, independent groups, and different movements. 3. Formerly, we were in such graves, dead, dry, scattered, disjointed, and not connected to anyone, but the Lord is the Savior of the dead; God s word here is to cause a dead person to become a living person John 5:25; Eph. 2:1-8. C. Ezekiel s prophesying in Ezekiel 37 was not a matter of predicting but a matter of speaking forth, declaring, something for the Lord vv. 4-5: 1. When Ezekiel spoke forth, God gave people the Spirit vv. 10, The main meaning of prophesying in the Bible is not to predict but to speak forth the Lord, to minister the Lord to people: a. He who prophesies builds up the church 1 Cor. 14:4b. b. You can all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be encouraged v. 31. c. Prophesying, speaking for God and speaking forth God with God as the content, ministers God to the hearers and brings them to God; the church meeting should be filled with God, and all its activities should convey and transmit God to people that they may be infused with God vv d. Prophesying makes you an overcomer; prophesying is the function of the overcomers vv. 3, 4b; cf. Matt. 16: As Ezekiel was prophesying, God was blowing upon the dry bones, sending the wind, the breath, and the Spirit Ezek. 37:4-10, 14: a. The Hebrew word ruach is variously translated wind, breath, and spirit in verses 5 through 10 and 14. b. In spiritual experience, when God blows on us, His breath is the wind; when we breathe the wind, it is the breath; and when the breath is within us, it is the Spirit. c. When Ezekiel prophesied, God blew the wind, the people received the breath, and the breath became the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:6. D. Prophesying in the meetings of the church fulfills the greatest prophecy in the Bible, which is to build up the church (in oneness as an exceedingly great army) Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 14:4b; Ezek. 37:

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19 Message Five The Key to Being an Overcomer the Law of the Spirit of Life for the Body of Christ Scripture Reading: Rom. 6:6; 7:15 8:13; 12:1-2 I. The key to being an overcomer is the law of the Spirit of life in Romans 8, a chapter for desperate seekers 7:24 8:2, 28-29; Psa. 105:4: A. Romans 7 is the experience of being in the flesh ; Romans 8 is the experience of being in the spirit (the divine Spirit dwelling in our human spirit and these two mingled together to be one spirit) vv. 4, 9-10, 16; 1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22. B. The enjoyment of the law of the Spirit of life in Romans 8 ushers us into the reality of the Body of Christ in Romans 12; this law operates within us as we live in the Body and for the Body 8:2, 28-29; 12:1-2, 11; Phil. 1:19. II. In order to experience the indwelling Christ as the law of the Spirit of life, we need to see the three lives and four laws in Romans 7 and 8: A. The created human life with the law of good is in our soul; this law derives from the natural human life, that is, from man himself 7:21-23; Gen. 1:31; Eccl. 7:29. B. The evil satanic life with the law of sin and of death is in our flesh; this law derives from Satan, who as sin dwells in the believers flesh Rom. 6:6; 7:15-20, 23-24; 1 John 3:10; John 8:44; Matt. 13:38; 23:33; 3:7; Rom. 3:13. C. The uncreated divine life with the law of the Spirit of life is in our human spirit; this law derives from God, who as the Spirit dwells in man s spirit 8:2, 9-10, 16; John 1:4; 10:10b; 14:6a; 1 Cor. 15:45b. D. These three parties with the three laws are now present in the believer in much the same way that they (God, man, and Satan) were present in the garden of Eden (Gen. 3). E. In addition to these three laws within the believer, there is the law of God outside of him Rom. 7:22, 25. III. The subject of Romans 8 is the law of the Spirit of life: A. Every life has a law and even is a law; God s life is the highest life, and the law of this life is the highest law cf. John 1:4-5; 12:24; 14:6a; 10:10b; 1 Cor. 15:45b. B. The Triune God has been processed through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to become the law of the Spirit of life installed in our spirit as a scientific law, an automatic principle; this is one of the biggest discoveries, even recoveries, in God s economy Rom. 8:2-3, 10-11, 34, 16. C. The law of the Spirit of life, the compound Spirit, frees us from the law of sin and of death, solving for us the problem of sin and death v. 2a; Phil. 1:19. D. The law of the Spirit of life is the spontaneous power of the divine life; it is the natural characteristic and the innate, automatic function of the divine life Rom. 8:2; Phil. 2:13; Ezek. 36:26-27; Prov. 30:18-19; Isa. 40:28-31; Heb. 12:2a; Phil. 4:13; Col. 1: E. The processed Triune God as the life-giving Spirit installed into our spirit may be likened to electricity; God s operation as the law of the divine electricity within us requires our cooperation to switch on this law Phil. 2: F. While we remain in touch with the Lord, staying in contact with Him, the law of the Spirit of life works automatically, spontaneously, and effortlessly to dispense God as life into our being and to overcome the law of sin and of death Rom. 8:10, 6, 11: 1. We need to cease from our own struggling and striving Gal. 2:20a; Rom. 7:15-20: 17

20 a. If we have not seen that sin is a law and that our will can never overcome this law, we are trapped in Romans 7; we will never arrive at Romans 8. b. Paul willed again and again, but the result was only repeated failure; the best that a man can do is to make resolutions 7:18. c. When sin is dormant within us, it is merely sin, but when it is aroused in us by our willing to do the good, it becomes the evil I find then the law with me who wills to do the good, that is, the evil is present with me v. 21. d. Instead of willing, we should set our mind on the spirit and walk according to the spirit, looking away unto Jesus 8:6, 4; Phil. 2:13; Heb. 12: In order to live in our spirit, we need to take time to behold the Lord, praying to fellowship with Jesus to bathe in His countenance, to be saturated with His beauty, and to radiate His excellence Psa. 27:8; 105:4; Hymns, # We need to cooperate with the indwelling, installed, automatic, and inneroperating God by prayer and by having a spirit of dependence, thus maintaining our fellowship with the Lord of life and the Lord of work 1 Thes. 5:17; Eph. 6: We need to care for the sense of life in our spirit to remain in the fellowship of life, the flowing of the divine life, for the operation of the law of the Spirit of life Rom. 8:6, 16; 1 John 1:2-3, 6-7; Mal. 2:15-16: a. The sense of life, on the negative side, is the feeling of death weakness, emptiness, uneasiness, restlessness, depression, dryness, darkness, pain, etc. Rom. 8:6a. b. The sense of life, on the positive side, is the feeling of life and peace strength, satisfaction, peace, rest, release, livingness, watering, brightness, comfort, etc. v. 6b. c. The sense of life is related to the consciousness of the conscience according to the life of God and the reality in Jesus Eph. 4: IV. In order to live by the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit, we must see what the flesh is cf. Rom. 8:6, 13: A. The flesh is the corrupted, polluted, and transmuted body: 1. Man s body was originally pure, but through man s fall Satan injected himself into man, and man s body has become the flesh Gen. 3:6; Rom. 7:18a. 2. Our body is the body of sin (6:6) and the body of this death (7:24); the body of sin is very active and full of strength in sinning against God, and the body of this death is weak and powerless in acting to please God (v. 18). 3. As long as we are still living, until the day of our redemption, the body of sin and death is always with us cf. 8: The word flesh refers also to our entire fallen being; man is totally flesh because the fallen being today is under the dominion of the fallen flesh 3:20; Gen. 6:3a. 5. The flesh is the meeting hall of sin, death, and Satan; the flesh is a hopeless case and can never be improved Rom. 7:17-18, 21; cf. John 17:15: a. The flesh is at enmity with God and is unable to be subject to the law of God. b. The flesh can never please God Rom. 8:7-8. B. Sin is Satan himself in our flesh: 1. Sin can deceive us, kill us (7:11), lord it over us, that is, have dominion over us (6:12, 14), and cause us to do things against our will (7:17, 20); all these activities show that sin is a living person. 18

21 2. Sin is the evil nature of Satan, the evil one, who, having injected himself into man through Adam s fall, has now become the very sinful nature dwelling, acting, and working in fallen man cf. Matt. 16: In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me ; in Romans 7:17 he says, It is no longer I but sin that dwells in me, showing that sin is another person within us. 4. In our flesh no good thing dwells, because the flesh is fully possessed, taken over, by Satan as sin v. 18a. V. For the sake of His economy, God in His wisdom and sovereignty uses our sinful, ugly flesh to force us to turn to our spirit so that we may live by the law of the Spirit of life and gain more of the Spirit 8:2: A. We are either in the spirit or in the flesh; there is no third place for us to be vv B. Judicially speaking, both Satan and our flesh were condemned once for all on the cross (v. 3; John 3:14; Heb. 2:14; 2 Cor. 5:21), but God allowed the flesh to remain with us to help us and force us to turn to Christ in our spirit and have no more confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3:3): 1. Without the help rendered by the sinful, ugly flesh, we would not be as desperate to gain the Lord or to have Him wrought into us. 2. Our goal may be holiness, spirituality, or victory, but God s goal is to work Himself into us; often, when we are in a difficult situation, we are more open to the Lord, more willing to turn to Him, and more willing to allow Him to work Himself into us Rom. 8: Our hardships, defeats, failures, and disappointments force us to realize that there is no hope in the flesh; the flesh is good only to force us to turn to Christ in our spirit, to make us desperate to get into the spirit, and to keep us watchful to stay in the spirit Matt. 26:41; Eph. 6: The Lord does not care for whether or not we have a victory; the Lord cares for only one thing that we gain Christ as the Spirit Phil. 3:8; 2 Cor. 3:18. VI. Today we need to take care of one thing walking according to the spirit to gain, to win, Christ as the Spirit Rom. 8:4; Phil. 3:8; Rom. 10:12-13; Eph. 6:17-18: A. Our flesh is a compound, compounded with sin, death, and Satan; our spirit is also a compound, compounded with Christ, the Spirit, and grace 2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16; Gal. 6:18. B. Only the persons who walk according to the spirit can be the proper members for the building up of a local church; if we do not have such a walk, sooner or later we will be a trouble to our local church 5: VII. Our enjoyment of the indwelling Spirit as the automatic law of the divine life is in the Body of Christ and for the Body of Christ with the goal of making us the same as God is in life, nature, and expression but not in the Godhead and of constituting us the members of the Body of Christ with all kinds of functions Rom. 8:2, 28-29; 12:1-2; Phil. 1:19; Eph. 4:11-12,

22 NOTES 20

23 Message Six Romans 8 the Focus of the Entire Bible and the Center of the Universe Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:2, 10, 4-6, 11, 13-15, I. Romans 8 reveals that the processed Triune God as the law of the Spirit of life gives the divine life to the believers for their living vv. 2, 10, 6, 11, 28-29: A. God s desire and goal are that we live by the divine life and minister life to others for the building up of the church; this life is in Christ Jesus, and it is the life of the law of the Spirit of life; the all-inclusive, indwelling Spirit is constantly transmitting this life into each one of us to build up the church, edify the saints, and minister the riches of Christ to everyone who contacts us v. 2; 2 Cor. 3:6; 1 John 5:16. B. We need to see the way to live as a man by the law of the Spirit of life; we must be controlled and directed by the law of the Spirit of life to experience a genuine and normal Christian life Rom. 8:2: 1. We need to walk according to the spirit v. 4: a. If we insist on anything for our own sake, interest, or profit, even if the thing itself is not sinful or immoral, we are walking according to the flesh. b. According to the Bible, there is no third choice or neutral ground; everything is according to either the flesh or the spirit vv. 4, 6, 9; John 3:6; Gal. 5:17; 6:8; 1 Pet. 3:18. c. When we deduct the flesh, what remains is the spirit; since we know what the flesh is, we can walk according to the spirit simply by not walking according to the flesh. 2. We need to be according to the spirit Rom. 8:5: a. A living according to the spirit and not according to the flesh is the realization of an inward law the law of the Spirit of life v. 2. b. Being according to the flesh is like remaining on the ground according to the law of gravity, which may be likened to the law of sin and of death. c. Being according to the spirit is like being on an airplane according to the law of aerodynamics, which may be likened to the law of the Spirit of life. d. The law of the Spirit of life in our mingled spirit has the power to overcome the law of sin and of death in our flesh. e. If we choose to be according to the spirit, the law of the Spirit of life will spontaneously free us from the law of sin and of death; the law of the Spirit of life does not need our help, but it needs our consent cf. v. 6. f. In every place and at every time, we need to build up a spiritual habit of exercising our spirit to switch on the law of the Spirit of life 1 Tim. 4:7. g. The law of the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the resurrecting Spirit have been installed into every believer; in order to receive His life supply, we need only to exercise our spirit by calling on the Lord and worshipping, thanking, praising, and exalting Him Isa. 12: We need to mind the things of the Spirit Rom. 8:5: a. To mind the things of the Spirit is to set our mind on the things of the Spirit, that is, to always have our mind occupied with the things of the Spirit, which are the things concerning Christ. b. The things of the Spirit of God are the deep things of God; to realize and participate in Christ as the deep things of God requires us to love Him 1 Cor. 2:9-11,