THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
God’s Building
Message Six—Enjoying Christ as Our Prize of Life to Be Filled unto the Fullness of God
Scripture Reading: Rev. 3:11; Isa. 28:5; Rom. 5:17, 21; John 4:14b; Psa. 36:8-9
I. Grace is God in Christ as the Spirit for our enjoyment; we must be today’s overcomers, who live in the eternal economy of God by enjoying God for the building of God—John 1:14, 17; 2 Cor. 13:14; Gal. 2:20; cf. 1 Cor. 15:10: (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
A. God’s eternal economy is for man to enjoy Him by eating and drinking Him so that man can grow with the growth of God for the building of God, which is the organic Body of Christ as the house of God for God’s expression and the kingdom of God for God’s administration—Gen. 1:26; 2:7-14, 22; 2 Sam. 7:13. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
B. The Triune God created man according to His kind, making man in “Our image, according to Our likeness” (Gen. 1:26a) and created man with a spirit that man may enjoy God—contact God, receive God, worship God, live God, fulfill God’s purpose for God, and be one with God—2:7; Zech. 12:1. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
C. God put man in Eden, a place of pleasure, indicating that God wanted to please man and make man happy by being man’s pleasure, enjoyment, amusement, entertainment, satisfaction, and everything; if you are not joyful and happy in God’s presence, it means that you are wrong with God—Rom. 14:17; Psa. 95:1; 100:1; cf. Col. 2:2. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
D. After being regenerated, we have become a miniature garden of Eden—the mind of our soul represents our person, sin in our flesh represents Satan, and the Spirit in our spirit represents God; we are either in our spirit or in our flesh; there is no third place to be—“the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace”—Rom. 8:6; 7:22; 8:2, 16. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
E. God put man in the garden of Eden to work it for the expression of God and to keep it by the authority of God—Gen. 2:15; 1:26: (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
1. The ground typifies the human heart, into which Christ as the seed of the tree of life has been sown; to work the ground signifies to loosen and break our hard heart, to open our heart to the heavens so that the Spirit as the rain may water us for the growth of God in us—Luke 8:15; Isa. 55:8-11. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
2. To work the ground is to open ourselves to the tree of life; to keep the ground is to close ourselves to the tree of knowledge—2 Cor. 11:2-3; Rom. 8:6; cf. Lev. 5:2. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
II. The pathway of God for the building of God, the way of Philadelphia, brings us back to God’s original intention so that we may overcome to live in the eternal economy of God by enjoying God in Christ as our prize, our reward, our crown, for His building—Rev. 3:11; Phil. 3:8, 14: (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
A. The overcomers have learned the secret of enjoying the crucified Christ as the reality of the bronze altar to be their nest for their refuge and the secret of enjoying the resurrected Christ in ascension as the reality of the golden incense altar to be their home for their rest—Psa. 84:3-7, 10-12; 43:4a; cf. Phil. 4:11-13. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
B. The offerings, typifying the unsearchably rich Christ, were both God’s enjoyment and the serving priests’ enjoyment; our only reward for our priestly service is Christ as everything to us—Num. 18:9, 31; Mark 9:7-8; 1 Cor. 1:9. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
C. Christ Himself as the flowing Triune God is our enjoyment, our prize, our exceedingly great reward, our crown; we must continually receive Him as our superabounding grace so that grace may reign in us for us to reign in life and become the totality of the eternal life, the New Jerusalem—Gen. 15:1; Rom. 5:17, 21; John 4:14b; Psa. 36:8-9; Rev. 22:1-2a: (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
1. As grace reigns in us, we are under the ruling of the grace of life, and we reign over Satan, sin, and death to practice the Body life for the crushing of Satan under our feet—Rom. 5:21; 8:2; 12:1-3; 16:20. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
2. We must continually come forward to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help; we must come to the ruling Lamb-God as the divine source and open ourselves from the depths of our being to be filled with Him as grace—Heb. 4:16; Rev. 22:1; John 1:16. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
3. The more we have a clear sky, a clear fellowship with the Lord, in the fellowship of the Body, the more we are under His throne, causing us to become the heavenly electrical lines to transmit the heavenly throne of God’s ruling presence to the earth—Ezek. 1:22, 26; Rev. 22:1-3; 1 Kings 10:18; Rom. 5:17; Matt. 24:14. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
D. The wonderful Christ enjoyed by us as the power of resurrection and as the shining forth of God to be our overcoming strength for the expression of Christ as life is our crown, our prize, our reward—Gen. 15:1; Hymns, #208—chorus: (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
1. “I come quickly; hold fast what you have that no one take your crown”— Rev. 3:11; cf. Psa. 103:1-4. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
2. “In that day Jehovah of hosts / Will become a crown of beauty and a diadem of glory to the remnant of His people”—Isa. 28:5; cf. Exo. 28:2. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
3. “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life”—Rev. 2:10b; cf. James 1:12b; 1 Cor. 8:1-3. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
4. “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense me in that day, and not only me but also all those who have loved His appearing”—2 Tim. 4:8. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
5. “You shall place the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban” (Exo. 29:6; cf. Lev. 8:9); “you shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave upon it, like the engravings of a signet: HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH” (Exo. 28:36). (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
6. “Shepherd the flock of God among you,…and when the Chief Shepherd is manifested, you will receive the unfading crown of glory”—1 Pet. 5:2, 4. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
7. “Do you not know that those who run on a racecourse all run, but one receives the prize? Run in this way, that you may lay hold. And everyone who contends exercises self-control in all things; they then, that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we, an incorruptible”—1 Cor. 9:24-25. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
E. All of the above reveal that when we enjoy Christ as our prize of life, He is dispensed into our entire tripartite being so that His unsearchably rich divine attributes of righteousness, holiness, and glory become our human virtues to make us the eternal poem of God for the radiant expression of God—Gen. 3:24; 1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 5:10; 1 John 3:2; Eph. 2:10; Rev. 21:10-11. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 16)
III. We need to be filled unto the fullness of God to express the reality of the Body of Christ—Eph. 3:16-20; 5:18; 1 Cor. 6:17: (2006 Fall FTTA, msg. 15)
A. The secret of being filled unto the fullness of God is absolutely a matter of the Spirit in our spirit, the mingled spirit—Eph. 3:16-20; 5:18. (2006 Fall FTTA, msg. 15)
B. This is not a matter of feeling but a matter in faith—2 Cor. 4:13; Psa. 116:10a; cf. v. 13. (2006 Fall FTTA, msg. 15)
C. For anyone who is one spirit with the Lord, the supply is inexhaustible—1 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 1:19; 4:23. (2006 Fall FTTA, msg. 15)
IV. The consummate expression of the fullness—the New Jerusalem—has the glory of God—Rev. 21:11; 4:3: (2006 Fall FTTA, msg. 15)
A. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate expression of the church as the fullness of God to express God’s glory. (2006 Fall FTTA, msg. 15)
B. The content of the city is God Himself as the fullness of God; the appearance of the city is also God Himself as the glory of God. (2006 Fall FTTA, msg. 15)
C. The believers being glorified is for God’s consummate expression—Rom. 8:30, 21: (2006 Fall FTTA, msg. 15)
1. The glory that will ultimately be manifested is the consummate expression of God, which is the effulgence of His glory—Heb. 1:3. (2006 Fall FTTA, msg. 15)
2. In that glory we will be the fullness of God expressing the Triune God for eternity. (2006 Fall FTTA, msg. 15)