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Scripture Reading: Gen. 3:15; 1 John 4:2-3; Matt. 4:3-4; 8:29; 2 Cor. 10:1-4; 2 Tim. 1:7; 1 Thes. 4:3-4; 1 Cor. 6:15, 18-19
We have seen six main things in the past chapters on the meal offering: (1) it constitutes the proper worship to God; (2) it affords the proper diet for the priesthood; (3) it produces the standing boards; (4) it forms God’s house by uniting the boards; (5) it produces the proper gifts; and (6) it produces the flow of life. Now in this chapter we must see that the humanity of Jesus is absolutely necessary for the spiritual warfare.
The spiritual warfare between the enemy and the saints is mainly dependent upon the humanity of Jesus. According to the Bible, the spiritual warfare is between Satan and God, yet God would never fight the battle by Himself. This is because Satan is a creature of God and a fallen creature at that. God is the Creator. The Creator would never fight with His creature; to do so would lower His position. This is why there is the need of man, and this is also why man was created by God. For the spiritual warfare God needs another creature to deal with the fallen creature.
In Genesis 1 God says that He commits His dominion to man so that man might subdue the earth. The word subdue includes the meaning of fighting. It is impossible to subdue something without a certain kind of fighting. God’s intention was that man would war against Satan to subdue the rebellious earth. Yet we know how man was ruined by Satan. Satan knew that man was strategic in the spiritual warfare; therefore, he caused man to fall.
But, praise the Lord for Genesis 3:15! God promised that Christ would come as the seed of a woman. This seed of woman is a man, but a man who is different from the other man. The Bible says that Christ is the second man (1 Cor. 15:47). The first man failed, and then God sent the second man. Christ became a man to fight the battle for God. He partook of blood and flesh in order that through death He might destroy the devil (Heb. 2:14). These verses reveal to us that Christ as a man fought with His humanity against Satan.
The temptation in the wilderness was the first confrontation between Satan and the Lord Jesus. There the devil challenged the Lord by saying, “If You are the Son of God...” (Matt 4:3). This was not only a challenge but also a subtle attack. If the Lord Jesus had acknowledged at that time that He was the Son of God, He would have been defeated. But Jesus knew the subtle wiles of the enemy. Therefore, He answered, “Man shall not live on bread alone” (v. 4). He said, in other words, “Before you, Satan, I am not in the position of the Son of God but in the position of man. I am not fighting against you as the Son of God but as a man.”
This is the reason why the demons cried out that Jesus was the Son of God when they met Him. They dared not confess that Jesus was the Son of Man. If they had, they would have been defeated. Nevertheless, the Lord silenced them. And this is why 1 John 4:2-3 says that every spirit which does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This means that we all must confess that the Lord Jesus did come in the flesh. He came in the flesh not only to redeem us but also to defeat Satan.
Christians today have the wrong concept. They believe that to fight the spiritual warfare we need spiritual power with something heavenly and divine. But listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:1: “I myself, Paul, entreat you through the meekness and gentleness of Christ.” Paul’s entreating was real fighting. The spiritual warfare between the enemy and the saints is not so much in divine power but in the proper humanity. For the spiritual warfare we need the humanity of Jesus. To fight the battle against the enemy, we must exercise the humanity of Jesus in our daily walk. Our family life needs the humanity of Jesus. Among the saints in the church we need the humanity of Jesus. In other words, if we are not proper in humanity, it is impossible for us to defeat Satan; we are defeated already. As long as we do not have the proper and normal humanity, we are already defeated.
Now I would like to speak more practically. And as I do, I look to the Lord for the covering of His prevailing blood as I expose the enemy’s tactics. We are a tripartite being, with a spirit, a soul, and a body. Under the sovereignty of God, there is a boundary line drawn by Him to preserve the human spirit for His purpose. But Satan still can deaden the human spirit by means of the conscience. As long as our conscience is defiled, our spirit is deadened. If there is any defilement in our conscience, we can never be alive in the spirit. Hence, for the enlivening of our spirit, we need a pure conscience. This is why we need the cleansing of the blood. The redeeming blood of Christ cleanses our conscience so that our spirit may be enlivened.
God has drawn a boundary line to keep the human spirit for His purpose, but Satan has done and still is doing many things to damage both the soul and the body of man. All he can do to our spirit is to deaden it by means of the conscience. Praise the Lord that he can only do that much! However, according to the revelation of the Bible, Satan has liberty to do whatever he can to damage our mentality (the main part of the soul is the mind) and our body. This is the subtlety of the enemy.
We cannot tell how many mental cases there are in today’s society; they are innumerable. This condition is not only a kind of mental illness, but it is also the subtle work of Satan. Experts will tell you that in the history of humanity, there have never been as many mental cases as today. According to our experience, it is easy to deal with demon possession, but it is really difficult for any Christian to deal with a mental case. Satan is so subtle today. He is doing whatever he can to damage the mentality of man.
Satan’s main target today is the young people. There are more mental cases among the young people than ever before. He does not care so much for the older generation, but he seeks to destroy the young people. Young people today have many kinds of concepts and movements. The source of all these concepts and movements is Satan. Satan has indoctrinated the mentality of the younger generation with all these things. We need to pray against this satanic tendency among today’s young people. They do not know the risk they are running and the danger they are in. By considering how greatly they have changed from 1965 until today, we may realize how much the enemy is working. Satan is so subtle. He injects all his evil, satanic, devilish concepts and ideas into the young and fresh mentality of the young generation. This is his primary aim; he is out to damage the human mentality. This is why the Bible speaks so much of having a sound mind. Do you believe that the mentality of the younger generation today is sound? I would say that it is absolutely unhealthy. Their way of thinking is altogether dangerous. All the young brothers and sisters in the church life must be clear that the source of all this damage in the mentality is Satan. All the young people in the church must repudiate the concepts that they have held in the past. I do not care what kind of concept you had before you came into the church life; whatever you had, you must give it up. I am afraid that it may be something of Satan to damage your mentality.
The issue of this kind of mental damage is of three categories. The first is fornication. In the past five or six years, I have heard much concerning this matter. Among today’s young people, especially the so-called hippies, there are innumerable cases of fornication. They live just like animals. They do not even care for this word fornication. I believe that in their dictionary they do not have such a word. It is all done without shame. In the whole Bible the greatest and most sinful act in God’s eyes is idol worship. Fornication is second. Idol worship is an insult to God, and fornication is a damage to humanity. God created humanity for His divine purpose, but Satan damages this humanity by fornication.
On some occasions, the Lord Jesus tore down all the rituals and ordinances of the Old Testament. But He did not tear down the law concerning fornication; rather, He enforced it even the more. When the Pharisees spoke with Him about divorce, the Lord asserted that Moses had allowed them to divorce their wives because of their hardness of heart, but from the beginning it was not so (Matt. 19:3-9). The Lord enforced the commandment regarding fornication much more than it had been in the Old Testament times (5:27-28). This is because nothing damages our humanity like fornication. Paul says that any act we commit is outside our body, but fornication damages our body (1 Cor. 6:18). Oh, the enemy is so subtle! He first injects so many devilish concepts into the mentality of the young people, and the first issue of this is fornication.
I would like to say a word to the young people. I am not speaking my own idea but something from the divine Word. You young brothers and sisters should not enter into marriage so quickly, so lightly, and so easily. You must realize that marriage is a very holy relationship (Heb. 13:4). No marriage should be broken (Matt. 19:6, 9). Anyone who breaks the marriage bond is exceedingly sinful to God. You must take the matter quite seriously to the Lord. Once you are married, you should never be divorced. Nothing offends the Lord so much as a broken marriage, and nothing damages our humanity more than fornication. It is not just a moral matter; it is a matter of damaging the humanity that God created for His purpose.
I believe that many of you are acquainted with the cesspool of fornication existing among so many young people today. Three years ago when I was in San Francisco, I heard many detailed reports concerning this situation. I simply could not stand it. To me this is not human life but animal life.
The second issue of the devilish concepts indoctrinated into young people’s minds is to commit suicide. If you study the proper statistics, you will see that the number of suicides is much larger than it was five years ago. In the earlier years of my ministry, I hardly ever heard someone tell me that he wanted to end his life. But in these last few years a number of young believers have come to me and expressed such an intention. Where did this kind of thinking originate? Undoubtedly, Satan has indoctrinated the mentality of the young people with this concept. We all must pray and stand against such subtlety of the enemy. Satan’s whole purpose is to damage humanity so that man cannot be used for God’s purpose.
The third issue of the indoctrination of devilish concepts is mental illness. If you will check with today’s younger generation, you will see that so many do not have a strong mind. Their way of thinking and their concepts are altogether unsound and unhealthy. Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:7 that God has given us a spirit of sobermindedness. We must be exceedingly healthy in our thinking, concepts, and ideas. We need to have a sound mind.
Paul also says that each one of us should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor (1 Thes. 4:4). We know that our “vessel” means our body. We all need to keep our body in sanctification and honor because our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and a member of Christ (1 Cor. 6:15-16, 18-19). We should not misuse our body.
We must keep our mind healthy and our body in sanctification. This means that we are in a battle. The church life is a real battle life. We are not battling against human beings but against the subtle enemy, Satan. If we do not have a sound mind and if we do not keep our body in sanctification, we are defeated already. If we would fight the battle, we need a proper humanity. And a proper humanity is one not only with a strong, living spirit but also one with a sound mind and a body kept in sanctification. This is the humanity that Satan fears so greatly. Consider today’s society. Do you believe that you could find such human beings among the human race? I do not believe so. I even doubt if Christians in Christianity today have such a humanity. So many are dead in their spirit and unhealthy in their thinking, unsound in their mind. And, shameful as it is, even among Christians there is fornication. Satan seems to have gained the victory over all humanity.
But praise the Lord! The church is here with the humanity of Jesus. Such a humanity has a strong, living spirit; a clear, healthy, and sober mind; and a body kept in sanctification. This is the humanity that is qualified to fight the battle for God today. We long to see the church life in all the local churches with such a humanity. To some extent we can say that the church life is like this among us. But I feel burdened to share that the church life is not just a church life; it is also a battle life. We are not fighting against flesh and blood or any human beings but against the principalities, the powers, and the darkness in the air.
If we do not have the proper humanity, we have lost the ground. Some may say that we have the ground of the precious blood. I agree; we do have the blood to cover us, but we still need the proper humanity with a living spirit, a sound and clear mentality, and a holy body, separated by God for His purpose. If we are wrong in any of these three matters, we are finished in the spiritual warfare. We simply do not have the ground to fight the battle.
Praise the Lord that the humanity of Jesus is not only necessary and sufficient to produce the standing boards, the uniting bars, the proper gifts, and the flow of life; it is even more necessary and sufficient for the spiritual warfare. For the church to fight the spiritual warfare, we all need the proper humanity. By ourselves we cannot be such a person, but He is such a person in us, and His humanity is such a proper humanity for the spiritual warfare. The meal offering we present to God is composed of such a humanity. It is this humanity that constitutes the real worship to God, affords the priestly diet, produces the standing boards, forms God’s building by the uniting bars, produces the proper gifts, gives us the flow of life, and fights the battle for us. We all must be bold in the humanity of Jesus so that we can fight the battle for God’s kingdom.
