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Scripture Reading: Deut. 12:5-7, 17-18; 8:7-9; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:19-22
We have seen much concerning the experience of Christ. We have begun with the lamb of the passover and passed through many different items, such as the daily manna, the cleft rock with the flowing stream, the Ark of the Testimony with its enlargement, the tabernacle, all the various offerings, the priests with the priesthood, and the holy army. Eventually, we have come to the land, the all-inclusive land. We have seen that this land is everything both to God and to the people of God. The picture is abundantly clear.
All the items from the lamb to the land are types of Christ. Each one, as a type, is complete and perfect in itself, but the last one, the land, is the all-inclusive and greatest type. The passover lamb as a type of Christ is indeed complete and perfect, yet it is a type of Christ on a much smaller scale. As far as the Lord Himself is concerned, He is not circumscribed, but as far as our experience of Him is concerned, there is such a limitation. When we come to the Lord and accept Him as our Redeemer, the Christ we receive is whole, complete, and perfect, but as far as our experience of Him is concerned, we experience Him only on a small scale, just as a little lamb.
From the time we experienced Christ as the lamb, we have always been progressing and advancing; we have continually made improvement in our experience of Christ and have enjoyed Him more and more. This does not mean that Christ has become larger and larger. No, Christ is the same, but according to our experience, we sense that He is greater and greater to us. Day by day in our experience Christ is becoming greater and greater. At the stage of our experience in which we reach the last item, the all-inclusive land, Christ is unlimitedly great to us. He is a spacious land. He is a land whose dimensions are the breadth, the length, the depth, and the height. There is no limit to the breadth and the length; there is no limit to the depth and the height. No one can tell you how great Christ is — His spaciousness is unlimited. This is the land we have entered. The other items can be measured. There is an extent, a limit, to the features and experiences of the Christ they prefigure. It is not so with the land. The Christ who is typified by the land is inexhaustible and immeasurable.
When we enjoy Christ as the lamb, God demands that we stop all our work. At the time of the passover no one was allowed to work — all work must be stopped (Exo. 12:16). There was nothing to do but enjoy the lamb. The blood was put upon the door, and the meat of the lamb was eaten within the house. There was nothing more to do. The same applied to the eating of the manna. The manna came down from heaven for their enjoyment. Nothing needed to be done but simply to take and enjoy it. So it is when we enjoy Christ in such a way. When we take Him as our Savior and as our daily food supply, there is absolutely nothing for us to perform. We only need to accept freely and fully what has already been provided. Any manner of work from us can only hinder the enjoyment of Christ in these aspects and would be an insult to God.
But when we come to the Ark, it is a different story: there remains something for us to do. With the experience of Christ as the Ark we have the building up of the tabernacle. The aspect of work is even further intensified when we come to the land, for as we have already seen, unless we work on the land, it will produce nothing for us. The land is indeed different from the lamb and the manna. The manna descended with the dew from heaven (Num. 11:9). There was no work required for its enjoyment but simply to rise, gather, and partake. But when the people of Israel entered the land and began to enjoy its goodness, the manna from heaven ceased, and the fruit of the land took its place as their food supply (Josh. 5:12). We must be deeply impressed with this difference: to enjoy the manna requires no work, but to enjoy the produce of the good land depends very much upon our work. It is entirely different.
When we are newly saved and spiritually immature, we do enjoy Christ. He is so good and wonderful to us. Christ is our lamb, our daily manna, and our rock with the flowing stream — He is so good. He does everything for us. But as we gradually mature in the Lord, we discover that we have something to do. We must bear some responsibility; we must work. In our human families, for instance, there are the little ones, the infants and the toddlers. They have nothing to do but enjoy what is being continually provided for them. Everything for them is prepared by others. But when they grow a few more years, they are given a little responsibility in the family, perhaps looking after some younger members, perhaps doing some minor chores. Then when they mature a few more years, they are charged with greater responsibility. And when they reach the age of twenty or more, they must take employment and earn their entire living. It is exactly the same in the spiritual realm. When we enter into the all-inclusiveness of Christ, we enjoy much more of Him. But at the same time there is considerable responsibility that must be taken by us. The more we work on Christ, the more we will produce of Christ, the more we will enjoy Christ, the more we will have of Christ to share with others, and the more we can offer Christ to God. All this depends on the amount of our labor upon Christ. When we enter the land, we must work.
Brothers and sisters, when are you going to have your corporation registered in your city? What corporation? It is Christ Incorporated. It is Christ Incorporated, Los Angeles, and Christ Incorporated, San Francisco, and Christ Incorporated, Sacramento. Every group of believers as a local expression of the Body of Christ must be a corporation, a factory to turn out Christ in mass production. We must be working on Christ and producing Christ day by day. We must make Christ our industry. If others ask us what our business is, we should be able to answer that it is Christ, and our firm is Christ Incorporated. We want to see that this corporation will have branches in every city throughout the entire world. How wonderful if everywhere we go there would be this reality — a group of people whose only business is Christ: Christ Incorporated, London; Christ Incorporated, Paris; and Christ Incorporated, Tokyo. Sometime we can have a world fair. Christ Incorporated in Taipei can bring something. Christ Incorporated in Hong Kong can bring something. From every city the Lord’s children can bring the Christ they have produced and have an exhibit of His manifold riches. Let us come together to have an exhibition of Christ. We are not speaking of some kind of human organization but of those who are built together in Christ in a practical way, whose only purpose is to work on Him in order to produce Him, enjoy Him, share Him, and express Him. This is what God intends that we do.
Consider again the people of Israel in the ancient times. After one year of laboring on the good land, cultivating the ground, sowing the seed, watering and pruning the plants, the day of the Feast of Tabernacles came. Then from all over the land, from all the cities and towns, the people came together to their center in Jerusalem, bringing the tithes and firstfruits of their produce. There was an exhibition of all the products of the land of Canaan. This feast together with God’s people and with God Himself all depended upon their diligent work on the land.
Now we are enjoying Christ as the very reality of that exceeding good land. It is indeed the grace of God to give us such a land, but it is a matter that involves our full cooperation. We must cooperate and coordinate with God. God has prepared and provided this piece of land — that is, God has given us Christ. And God has poured out the rain from heaven upon this land — that is, God has given us the Holy Spirit. The land is the type of Christ, and the rain is the type of the Holy Spirit. Yet there is the need of our cooperation. We must cooperate with God; then we will have the produce. How much do we cooperate with God? This is the problem.
In some so-called churches you cannot realize that anything exists as the produce of the good land. All they can afford people is the lamb of the passover and the manna from heaven. All they can minister to people is Christ as the redeeming lamb or Christ as the daily manna. They cannot minister Christ as the good land, because they themselves have never entered the good land. But in some local churches, when you contact the people and attend their meetings, you realize that whenever they come together, there is a rich exhibition; all kinds of the produce of Christ are displayed. Why? It is because they have entered the good land, and they are working diligently on Christ. They have many good things that they have produced from Christ.
We must notice again that all the people of Israel brought their produce to one place, to the place chosen by God, to worship God and to enjoy the produce before God and with God. What they produced, typically speaking, was Christ, and what they offered to God was Christ. What they produced, they offered to God to enjoy mutually before Him and with Him.
One of the offerings that God’s ancient children offered was rather distinct and special. It was the peace offering. In the peace offering there was something for the one who offered it to enjoy, there was something in it for others to enjoy, and there was also something for God to enjoy. If I came to offer the peace offering, there would be a part for me, a part for others, and a part for God. Read Leviticus 7. You will see that the peace offering is an offering to be enjoyed by the one who offers it and to be shared with others and with God.
Brothers and sisters, every time we come together to worship God in Christ, with Christ, and through Christ, we are offering Christ as the peace offering. And with this Christ, there is a part for God, a part for us, and a part for others. We enjoy Christ mutually with God and before God. This is the real worship, and this is the heaping of shame upon the enemy, Satan.
We must be deeply impressed with the word in Deuteronomy 12 — it is extremely important. We must bring all our produce to the place chosen by God. What is this place? It is the place of God’s habitation. You must bring Christ to this central point; I must bring Christ to this central point; we all must bring Christ to this central place, there to mutually enjoy Him before God and with God. This will result in the habitation of God. We must realize that when we enjoy Christ not only in an individual way but in a corporate way, there will be an issue. The habitation of God will come into being. That means that on this earth, in this age, at this very moment, God will have a place to dwell. Brothers and sisters, when we enjoy Christ to a certain extent and when we come together to enjoy Christ before God and with God, this fact emerges — we are the habitation of God; God dwells among us. When anyone asks where God is, we may tell them to come and see. If we want to find a brother or a sister, we go to their home, their habitation. There we will see them; there we can commune with them. People today are asking where God is. They are saying, “You preach God, but where is God?” If we are those who enjoy Christ as the good land to such an extent that we come together on the ground of oneness to enjoy Him mutually with God, we will be the proper church. If we have such a situation and people ask us where God is, we can answer, “Come and see — God is in His home, and now God has obtained a dwelling place on this earth.”
Let me illustrate. If you come to a city and wander throughout it day by day, having no certain dwelling place, it will be extremely difficult to locate you. A letter addressed to you could hardly be delivered by the post office. But if you settle down in a particular house on a certain street in a certain district, you will have a definite address. Anyone can locate you.
You and I who are believers are talking continually about God. But the unbelievers are asking, “Where is God? You talk so much about Him, but where is He?” You may answer that God is so great; God is omnipresent; God is everywhere. But I wish to tell you that when we enjoy Christ in a corporate way to a certain extent, God, in a certain and real sense, will be localized. He will have a definite address on this earth. You can say to your friends, “Come and see God. Come to the habitation of God. Come to His home.” The home of God is the very place where “Christ Incorporated” is. Wherever you go, if you can find “Christ Incorporated,” there is the home of God. Chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians tells us that when Christians come together in the proper way, people will come in and bow down, acknowledging that God is truly among them. In other words, they will confess that it is the habitation of God.
Of what is this habitation, this home of God, built? It is built of Christ mingled and blended with so many believers. With them, Christ is everything. He is the all-inclusive land to them. Christ is what they eat; Christ is what they drink — Christ is everything to them.
Take a healthy American youth for example. Every cell in his body is American. He was born in America, he was brought up in America, and he is saturated and constituted with the produce of America. All his living has been reaped from the land of America. He has eaten American eggs, American beef and chicken, American potatoes, oranges, and apples, etc. Day by day he has been eating America, and day by day America has been digested by him and mingled with him. He has become a part of America. He is one hundred percent American.
In exactly the same principle, a Christian is a Christ-man. A Christian is one who day by day is eating Christ, drinking Christ, digesting Christ, becoming mingled with Christ. After some time Christ to a certain extent becomes this man. If you are an American, you need not tell others. Most anywhere you go in the world, people will recognize you as such. There are certain distinguishing characteristics that mark you out as an American, one of which is the things you eat. In like manner, if you are Chinese, everyone knows it. If you know what the Chinese people eat, you only need to exercise your sense of smell to discern their origin and constitution. It is rather difficult sometimes to distinguish the Japanese from the Chinese. Just by looking at their eyes, it cannot be easily discerned. But if you are familiar with the diet of both the Chinese and the Japanese, you may distinguish them by using your sense of smell. The Japanese eat certain foods that emit certain odors, and the Chinese eat different foods that emit different odors. In other words, you become what you eat, and you are known by what you eat. Just as an American is something of America, so a Christian is something of Christ. This morning he eats a little of Christ, and this evening he eats a little of Christ. Day by day he eats Christ and drinks Christ. Christ is gradually digested by him and mingled with him so that he and Christ become one. Then when he comes together with other Christians who have done the same thing, he brings Christ and they too bring Christ. Christ is everything to them. Christ is their very constitution. Wherever they go, they cannot help but bring Christ. When they meet together, they offer Christ to God, they enjoy Christ together, and they exhibit Christ. Whenever they speak, Christ comes out. Everything is Christ. This is the habitation of God; this is the home of God.
It is abundantly clear that this is the real church, the real expression of the Body of Christ. It is a group of people mingled with Christ, saturated with Christ, enjoying Christ day by day, and coming together with nothing but Christ. They enjoy Christ mutually, and they enjoy Christ before God and with God; therefore, God is among them. At that very moment they are the habitation of God; they are His house, His home. The habitation of God is the temple of God. And if we have the temple of God, we have the presence of God and the service of God.
But this temple of God needs enlargement. How can it be enlarged? It is enlarged by Christ as the authority of God. We not only need Christ as our enjoyment but also Christ as the authority of God. This is exceedingly real. When you and I enjoy Christ together in the way that we have shown, the reality of the authority of Christ is among us. In such an enjoyment and out of such an enjoyment, we will be very submissive to God and to one another. We will be full of submission. Can you believe that after enjoying Christ in such a way we could quarrel with each other? Can you believe that in such an enjoyment we could hate one another? It is impossible. Is it possible for us to be formed as an army to fight the enemy and yet within the army to be fighting with each other? It is possible if this is not an army. If we are a group of bandits or gangsters, it is possible. Without submission there is no army. When we enjoy Christ to such an extent, every one of us will be submissive to each other. We cannot do otherwise. True love is in submission. When we submit one to another, we are really loving one another. True love does not exist in my taste, my choice, or my desire but in my submission. If there is submission among us, the authority of Christ is among us. It is the authority of Christ that enlarges the habitation of God, the temple of God.
What is the enlargement of the temple of God? It is the city of God. By the authority of Christ the church is not only God’s home but also His city. Not only is the presence of God there but also the kingdom of God and the authority of God. When people come in, they will sense God’s presence, and they will also sense God’s authority. They will say that this is not only the house of God but the kingdom of God. Then there will be the city with the temple. The city and the temple are where there is a group of people who experience and enjoy Christ to such an extent that they are mingled and blended with Him in every way. When they come together, they enjoy Christ before God and with God. Everything with them is Christ. If we are in such a situation, praise the Lord, we have the house of God and we have the city of God. We are in God’s home, and we are in God’s kingdom. All who come into our midst will sense the presence of God as well as the authority of God. They will say, “God is not only dwelling here, but God is ruling here.”
Brothers and sisters, this is what God is seeking today. He is looking for such a situation on this earth, in the very place where you are living. If you are living in Louisville, God is seeking this in Louisville. If you are living in Sacramento, God is seeking this very reality in Sacramento. Wherever we are living, God is seeking His house and His kingdom, His temple and His city, among us. But we must experience Christ. Starting with the passover lamb and passing through so many experiences, we must come together with the saints into the land, the all-inclusive Christ. Then we must labor diligently on the land to produce the abundant riches of Christ. We must become “Christ Incorporated,” the group of Christians who produce Christ, enjoy Christ, share Christ, and offer Christ to God in worship. Everything with us must be Christ. This is the real expression of the Body of Christ. Here is the house of God and the kingdom of God. If we have such a reality, we have the land, we have the temple, and we have the city.
We cannot now go into detail concerning the temple and the city. But at the present we do know something about the land — how to get into it, how to take possession of it, how to enjoy it and live within it, how to labor on it, how to worship God in it, and how to have the temple and the city built upon it. We are clear that the land is Christ Himself, and the temple and the city are the fullness of Christ. Christ is the Head, and the fullness of Christ is the Body, the church. In these chapters we have been speaking of the land with the temple and the city. This is Christ with the church, His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
This is what God is seeking today. May we be faithful to Him and learn by His grace how to enjoy Christ, how to experience Christ, and how to apply Christ to our daily lives. Then we will continually grow in our experience and enjoyment of Him until that time when with the saints we enter the good land, labor on it, and the temple and the city come into being.
