THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Gospel according to Mark
Message Two—A Life Fully according to and for God’s Economy
Scripture Reading: Mark 4:1-20, 26-29; 12:30
I. God’s New Testament economy is to sow the living person of Christ into our being so that we may live a life that is fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy—Mark 4:1-20, 26-29: (2006 WT, msg. 6)
A. Christ as the Sower is the Messenger of God, Christ as the seed is the message of God as the gospel of God, and Christ sown into our being to grow and develop in us is the building of God and the kingdom of God as the goal of God—Luke 17:20-24; Mal. 1:1; 3:1-3; Heb. 1:2; 1 Cor. 3:6-9; 2 Sam. 7:12-14a. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
B. The Lord’s recovery is not a work, teaching, theology, or movement; the Lord’s recovery is the living Christ as the seed of life sown into our being. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
C. The kingdom of God, which is Christ Himself as the life-giving Spirit, is a seed; the kingdom comes by the growth of the indwelling Christ in us—Mark 4:26; Luke 17:20-24; 1 Cor. 15:45b. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
D. We must give the Lord our full cooperation for the inward operation of His growth process in us so that we may hasten His coming—Gal. 1:15-16a; 2:20; 4:19; Rev. 19:7; 2 Pet. 3:11-12. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
II. In order to live a life that is fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy, we must allow the indwelling Christ as the seed of life to grow in the soil of our entire heart, thus making our heart His home and a duplication of God’s heart—Mark 4:1-20; 12:30; Eph. 3:16-17: (2006 WT, msg. 6)
A. Although man’s heart is corrupt and deceitful and its condition is incurable, even such a heart can be a tablet upon which God writes His law of life by the spontaneous growth of Christ as the seed of life in man’s heart; this is God’s way, according to His economy, to deal with the heart of fallen man—Jer. 17:9; Mark 7:21-23; 4:26-29; Jer. 31:33; cf. 2: Cor. 3:3. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
B. We must deal with the conditions of your heart to make our heart the good earth for the full growth of Christ in us—Col. 2:19; Gal. 4:19: (2006 WT, msg. 6)
1. The wayside signifies the heart that is hardened to by worldly traffic and cannot open to understand, to comprehend, the word of the kingdom; the birds signify the evil one, Satan, who comes and snatches away the word of the kingdom sown in the hardened heart—Mark 4:3-4, 15: (2006 WT, msg. 6)
a. The anti-God world system with its worldly traffic is the system of Satan, who is the ruler of the world; we must be strengthened into our spirit, our inner man, and remain in our spirit so that we can overcome the world and be kept from the evil one by remaining in the pneumatic Christ for Him to make His home in our heart—1 John 2:14-15; 5:4, 18; John 12:31; 14:30; Eph. 3:16-17. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
b. We need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly; His word works in us to separate us from anything worldly and to saturate us with the reality of the Triune God—Col. 3:16; John 17:17; Eph. 5:26. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
2. The rocky places that do not have much earth signify the heart that is shallow in receiving the Lord’s word, having “no root”—Mark 4:5-6, 16-17: (2006 WT, msg. 6)
a. The sun with its scorching heat signifies affliction or persecution; the scorching heat of the sun causes the seed that is not rooted to wither. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
b. The heat of the sun is for the growth and ripening of the crop, which take place once the seed has been deeply rooted, but because of the seed’s lack of root, the sun’s heat, which should cause growth and ripening, becomes a deathblow to the seed. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
c. In order to have Christ as the seed of life deeply rooted in us, we need to be deeply rooted in Him by having a secret life and secret history with Him—Col. 2:7; S. S. 4:12; Psa. 31:20; 32:7; 83:3; 91:1; 119:114. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
3. The thorns signify the anxieties of the age, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts for other things, which utterly choke the word, preventing it from growing in the heart and causing it to become unfruitful—Mark 4:7, 18-19: (2006 WT, msg. 6)
a. Anxiety is the gear that makes the world move; to allow the Lord to deal with our anxiety is to allow Him to deal with the gear of our human life; our human life is a life of anxiety, whereas God’s life is a life of enjoyment, rest, comfort, and satisfaction; we must habitually fellowship with God in prayer to be infused with Him as life and peace, and antidote to anxiety—Phil. 4:6-7; John 16:33. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
b. To be deceived by riches is to suppose “godliness to be a means of gain”; because of pride and desire for profit, for riches, some today are teaching differently; to maintain the victorious standard of the church, we need to be lovers of God for the economy of God, not lovers of money for the system of Satan—1 Tim. 6:3-10; 2 Tim. 3:1-5. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
4. The good earth signifies a heart that gives every inch of its ground to receive the word that the word may grow, bear fruit, and produce even a hundredfold—Mark 4:8-9, 20, 26-29; Luke 8:15: (2006 WT, msg. 6)
a. Today in the Lord’s recovery the Lord is sowing Himself into people so that He may have the good earth to grow Himself into the kingdom. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
b. Day by day and morning and evening, we must keep our heart open to the Lord by repenting and confessing all our sins to Him; this is the way to deal with our heart to make it the good earth for the growth of Christ as the seed of life—Mark 1:4-5, 15; 2 Cor. 3:16; 1 John 1:9. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
c. Giving the Lord the full way to grow in our heart will make our heart the duplicate of God’s heart, and we will live a life fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy to carry out His heart’s desire. (2006 WT, msg. 6)
III. The Gospel of Mark conveys a heavenly vision of a life that lives and expresses God as a complete, whole, perfect, and entire pattern of God’s New Testament economy; this governing vision directs our steps, controls our living, and brings us into God’s consummation—Prov. 29:18a; Acts 26:19. (2006 WT, msg. 5)