THE FORTH PART: THE PATHWAY OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
God-Ordained Way
Message Twelve—Practicing the Priesthood of the Gospel in the Vital Groups
Scripture Reading: Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 2:6; Heb. 10:24-25; Acts 1:14; 1 Cor. 14:31
I. For the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose, we must practice the priesthood of the gospel—Eph. 3:8-11; Rom. 15:16:
A. God’s eternal purpose is His eternal economy, His administrative plan, to distribute Himself into His chosen 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. 3:2, 8-11.
B. “That I might be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, a laboring priest of the gospel of God, in order that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit”—Rom. 15:16:
1. Paul’s being a priest of the gospel of God to minister Christ to the Gentiles was a priestly service to God, and the Gentiles whom he gained through his gospel preaching were an offering presented to God.
2. By this priestly service many Gentiles, who were unclean and defiled, were sanctified in the Holy Spirit and became such an offering, acceptable to God; they were set apart from things common and were saturated with God’s nature and element, and were thus sanctified both positionally and dispositionally.
3. Such a sanctification is in the Holy Spirit; this means that, based on Christ’s redemption, the Holy Spirit renews, transforms, and separates unto holiness those who have been regenerated by believing into Christ.
C. “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”—1 Pet. 2:5:
1. The holy and royal priesthood (v. 9) as the coordinated body of priests is the built-up spiritual house; God wants a spiritual house for His dwelling, a priestly body, a priesthood, for His service.
2. The spiritual sacrifices that the believers offer in the New Testament age are: (1) Christ as the reality of all the sacrifices of the Old Testament types, such as the burnt offering, meal offering, peace offering, sin offering, and trespass offering (Lev. 1-5); (2) the sinners saved by our gospel preaching, offered as members of Christ (Rom. 15:16); and (3) our body, our praises, and the things that we do for God (12:1; Heb. 13:15-16; Phil. 4:18).
D. The New Testament service ordained by God is that all believers are priests to serve God with the offerings that He desires—Rev. 1:5-6; 5:9-10; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9:
1. As priests of the gospel of God, we offer saved sinners, as parts of the enlarged and corporate Christ, to God as sacrifices—Rom. 15:16.
2. The offering of the believers to God is in three steps:
a. Those who preach the gospel offer the newly saved ones to God as spiritual sacrifices—v. 16; 1 Pet. 2:5.
b. After the new believers grow and begin to understand what it is to be a believer in Christ, they are encouraged to offer themselves to God as a living sacrifice—Rom. 12:1.
c. As the believers continue to grow unto maturity, those who labor on the believers present them full-grown in Christ—Col. 1:28.
II. For the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose, we must build up the vital groups—Heb. 10:24-25:
A. We must have an intimate and thorough fellowship in Christ as the element and sphere, by exercising our spirit with much and thorough prayer, concerning our status, spiritual condition, and present situation in and with the Lord.
B. We must be blended by much and thorough prayer, as fine flour of the wheat, with all the members of our group, with the Spirit as the oil, through the death of Christ as the salt, and in the resurrection of Christ as the frankincense, into a dough for the Lord—1 Cor. 5:6-7a; 10:17; 12:24; Lev. 2:1-13.
C. We must keep the oneness of the Spirit, the oneness of the Body, in the one accord according to the Lord’s desire with much and thorough prayer—Eph. 4:3; Acts 1:14; 4:24.
D. We must make, with much and thorough prayer, a corporate Nazarite’s consecration for the Lord—Num. 6:1-4.
E. We must be overcomers in this age with much and thorough prayer; this is according to the Lord’s calling in His last words to the saints in the churches to replace the degraded church—Rev. 2—3.
III. We must bring the churches into the God-ordained way of practicing the church life with all the saints functioning as priests of the gospel of God—Rom. 15:16; Rev. 1:5-6:
A. We must be built up into God’s holy priesthood—the New Testament priesthood of the gospel—1 Pet. 2:5; Rom. 15:16.
B. We must be functioning as priests of the gospel of God—saving sinners to offer them up to God as acceptable sacrifices (Rom. 15:16); bringing the believers up to lead them to present themselves to God as living sacrifices (12:1); warning and teaching every saint in all wisdom to present each one full-grown in Christ (Col. 1:28-29).
C. We must fulfill the requirements for the ministry of the priests of the gospel:
1. By being revived every morning—Psa. 119:147-148; Prov. 4:18.
2. By overcoming every day—Rom. 8:37; 2 Cor. 4:16.
3. By being filled with and living in the Spirit every moment—Eph. 5:18; Gal. 5:25.
4. By walking according to the spirit in everything—Rom. 8:4:
a. Without murmurings and reasonings—Phil. 2:14.
b. Without selfish intentions and greedy ambitions—Gal. 5:26.
5. By being in one accord and in harmony with all the saints—1 Cor. 1:10.
6. By not being blown by the winds of teaching—Eph. 4:14.
7. By not teaching anything different from the truth concerning the New Testament priesthood of the gospel of God—1 Tim. 1:3-4.
8. By watching prayerfully, laboring diligently, and struggling earnestly to carry out each step of the duties of the New Testament priests of the gospel of God—Matt. 26:41; Rom. 12:11; Col. 1:29; 1 Cor. 15:58.
9. By awaiting the Lord’s coming through living and working in the light of His judgment seat—Phil. 3:20; 2 Cor. 5:10.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE GOSPEL
The Lord has definitely and clearly shown us in these days that our New Testament service in the church must be a kind of priesthood of the gospel. In the Bible there are two stages. The first stage is the Old Testament and the second stage is the New Testament. Whatever was there in the Old Testament was a type of the better things to come (Heb. 7:19, 22; 8:6; 9:23). The better things to come are in the New Testament stage. If we look into the Old Testament service, the main thing that we find is the priesthood. The entire service of God’s people in the Old Testament was a priesthood. A priesthood denotes a body of priests built up together. There was no individual service, for all the priests served as a body. The high priest and the other priests were burdened and charged to carry out a certain part of their unique service. In the English language, the word priesthood denotes two things. In 1 Peter 2:5 and 9 it means a body of priests, whereas in Hebrews 7:12 it refers to the priestly service. A group of priests were there to carry out the priestly service. All those who were engaged in the priestly service mainly offered sacrifices to God every day. In Numbers 28 and 29 the children of Israel were charged by God to offer daily the continual burnt offerings morning and evening. It was called the continual offering because it never ceased morning and evening.
Offering Living Sacrifices
Today we are the New Testament priests. What should we offer? As the New Testament priests of the gospel, we must offer living sacrifices; we have to offer persons. Our service must not concentrate on business affairs which in the eyes of God are nothing. Rather, it should concentrate on living persons. This is why we are called the New Testament priests of the gospel (Rom. 15:16).
Paul is a pattern (1 Tim. 1:16), a model, of all the New Testament saints in that he handled people all the time. He preached the gospel to the unsaved to beget them, fed them to enable them to grow, and built them up (1 Cor. 4:15; Gal. 4:19; Col. 1:27-29). Whatever he did became a kind of offering to God. We must have a change in our thinking. For many years we thought that church service was just to do things such as vacuuming the carpet, arranging the chairs, mowing the lawn, trimming the trees, or preparing the bread and the wine. Sometimes our service also included two other things. One was to stand on the platform and give a message; the other included visiting the saints. These last two matters are worthwhile because they are directly involved with people, but the other things such as cleaning, arranging, and ushering are just sundry matters. To distribute the bread and the wine at the Lord’s table is really good, but that kind of service is too minor. New Testament priests should daily offer living persons to the Lord. On the one hand, the Lord added people to the church daily (Acts 2:47). On the other hand, the church should offer people to the Lord daily. In the Old Testament God charged the children of Israel not to stop burning the sacrifices on the altar (Lev. 6:9-13). They were charged to burn the sacrifices, not just the wood. Of course, this is a type of our service today. (Talks Concerning the Church Services, ch. 6)
HAVING THE VITAL GROUPS
The grouping of the saints together in the vital groups is to recover us, and to recover us means to heal us, to cure us. We have become sick; thus, we need the healing. The healing that we need is to be grouped together in the adequate accord. The way to touch the sickness that is among us is to have the vital groups.
Having an Intimate and Thorough Fellowship in Christ
as the Element and Sphere, by Exercising Your Spirit with Much and Thorough Prayer, Concerning Your Status, Spiritual Condition, and Present Situation in and with the Lord
The word fellowship is used in the New Testament first in Acts 2:42: “And they continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.” This verse mentions the fellowship of the apostles. Among the apostles there was an intimate fellowship. In the beginning of Acts the apostles were with a group of about one hundred twenty saints (1:15). We may say that that was the apostles’ group. Among them there was an intimate fellowship. The one hundred twenty stayed together for at least ten days. They ate together, prayed together, and did everything together. Surely they had an intimate fellowship. The day of Pentecost was a day produced by ten days of this kind of fellowship. Among us there is a shortage of such an intimate fellowship.
Our fellowship should be not only intimate but also thorough. We may know one another, but we may not know one another thoroughly. If this is the case, we cannot say that we have thorough fellowship with one another. In the vital groups the members first need to know one another intimately and thoroughly.
Fellowship is the flowing, the current, of the oneness. Ten days before Pentecost, on this earth there was a group of people who were in the fellowship; they were in the current, in the flow, of the oneness. According to Acts 1:14, they were also in one accord.
The intimate and thorough fellowship is in Christ. Christ is the element, and Christ is also the sphere, the limit, of that fellowship. That fellowship actually is Christ Himself, because Christ is the element of the fellowship, and He is the sphere of the fellowship.
The way to have an intimate and thorough fellowship is to exercise our spirit. Whenever we speak something in fellowship, we need to exercise our spirit. According to my observation, a number of saints have the teaching concerning exercising the spirit, but in practice they do not have the reality. For the proper fellowship we need to exercise our spirit with much and thorough prayer. In the vital groups we need to fellowship concerning our status, our spiritual condition, and our present situation in and with the Lord.
Being Blended by Much and Thorough Prayer,
as Fine Flour of the Wheat, With All the Members of Your Group, With the Spirit as the Oil, through the Death of Christ as the Salt, and in the Resurrection of Christ as the Frankincense, into a Dough for the Lord
In the vital groups we need to be blended by much and thorough prayer, as fine flour of the wheat, with all the members of our group, with the Spirit as the oil, through the death of Christ as the salt, and in the resurrection of Christ as the frankincense, into a dough for the Lord (1 Cor. 5:6-7a; Lev. 2:1-13). To be blended is not merely to be put together as a couple, like a husband and wife. Being “coupled” is not as advanced as being blended. It is possible for a couple to be married for a number of years and yet never be blended. In human society there are often quarrels between husbands and wives, between brothers and sisters, and between children and parents because they have never been blended with one another.
The New Testament tells us, first, that we are grains of wheat. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus was the unique grain. Through His death and resurrection He released His life into us, making us the many grains. This is very good. However, the New Testament goes on to tell us that as grains, eventually we need to become a lump (1 Cor. 5:6-7a). This means that we need to become dough. The making of dough requires the blending of grains of wheat; but before being blended, the grains need to be ground into fine flour.
The New Testament also tells us that eventually we all become a loaf (1 Cor. 10:17). In a sense, the grains, the fine flour, the lump, and the dough are nothing until they become a loaf. After we become a loaf, we mean something and we are something in the hand of the Lord. The loaf is the group. At the Lord’s table, we often praise the Lord for the loaf, the bread, yet in actuality we may not be a loaf. A number of saints among us may never have been ground or broken. Although we are grains, it is possible that we have never been broken and ground into fine flour. On the other hand, we may be broken, yet we may never have been blended together. Thus, we are far from being a loaf. The way to become a loaf is to be blended together in the groups. The loaf is the group.
The way to be blended is by much and thorough prayer, as fine flour of the wheat, with all the members of our group, with the Spirit as the oil, through the death of Christ as the salt, and in the resurrection of Christ as the frankincense. We need to pray over all these points with much and thorough prayer. We need to be blended into a dough for the Lord. Our becoming dough implies our being broken, our being ground, and our being blended. According to the type of the meal offering in Leviticus 2:1-13, to be blended requires the adding of oil so that the flour will not be dry. It is impossible to blend fine flour that is dry; oil is needed to make the flour moist. In the same way, we need the Spirit as the oil to “moisten” us so that we can be blended together.
To be blended together, we also need the salt, that is, the death of Christ, to kill all the germs within us. We need to realize that we have many germs in our being. All these germs need to be killed by the death of Christ. Then, we also need to be in the resurrection of Christ. In the blending we need to experience the Spirit as the oil, and we also need to pass through the experiences of the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. If by the Lord’s mercy we are able to experience such a blending, we will be absolutely different from what we are today. It is not enough just to put people together and call them a group. That can be done very quickly. The proper grouping with the blending of the members will take time.
Keeping the Oneness of the Spirit, the Oneness of the Body,
in the One Accord According to the Lord’s Desire with
Much and Thorough Prayer
To build up the vital groups, we need to keep the oneness of the Spirit, that is, the oneness of the Body, in the one accord according to the Lord’s desire with much and thorough prayer (Eph. 4:3; Acts 1:14; 4:24). Without the one accord we cannot keep the oneness. The one accord is the heart, the kernel, of the oneness.
Making, with Much and Thorough Prayer,
a Corporate Nazarite’s Consecration for the Lord
For the building up of the vital groups, we need to make, with much and thorough prayer, a corporate Nazarite’s consecration for the Lord (Num. 6:1-4). We need to do this until we are blended, until we become dough. All the members of a group should come together to consecrate themselves as one entity, as a group of Nazarites, to give the Lord a corporate consecration. We need to let the Lord gain our whole group as one entity for the carrying out of His New Testament economy. Our corporate consecration should not be to fulfill any kind of formal duty, but to serve the Lord according to the organic leading of the Spirit.
Being Overcomers in this Age with Much and Thorough Prayer
For the building up of the vital groups, we need to be overcomers in this age with much and thorough prayer. According to the New Testament principle, all the believers are and should be overcomers (1 John 2:13, 14; 4:4; 5:4-5), but the majority have become degraded. Thus, in the seven epistles in Revelation 2 and 3 the Lord called the overcomers.
According to the Lord’s Calling in His Last Words to the Saints in the Churches
We need to be overcomers in this age with much and thorough prayer, according to the Lord’s calling in His last words to the saints in the churches. The Lord’s calling of the overcomers in Revelation 2 and 3 was not only to the church, nor only to the saints, but to the saints in the churches. It is difficult for the entire church to be a corporate overcomer, but individual saints within the churches should be overcomers. (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 10)