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God’s intention is to build the church with Christ. Christ is the unique material for the building of the church. However, in His sovereignty, God knew that His chosen people would not have an adequate desire to seek Christ. This is the actual situation among Christians today. Although many have received Christ as their Savior and are saved, they do not seek Christ. But because God’s desire is to build the church with Christ, Christ must be wrought into our being. We need to be saturated and permeated with Christ in order to become a part of Christ. When we have been saturated, soaked, and permeated with Christ, we shall each be a part of Christ. When all these parts are put together, they constitute the church.
Although there are millions of genuinely saved Christians, so many have gone no farther than receiving Christ as their Savior. They do not care about the subjective Christ but leave Christ in the heavens as an objective Savior in whom they believe and whom they worship. They do not seek Christ, and they do not go on to attain unto Christ or to gain Christ.
This matter of gaining Christ is fully revealed in Philippians chapter 3. In Philippians 3:8 the apostle Paul says, “Moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.” Even Paul felt that he was void of Christ, short of Christ. Although he had experienced Christ to such a degree, he still said that he was stretching forward to gain more of Christ.
I would ask you to consider how many Christians today are this intent in their seeking after Christ. How many Christians are hungry and thirsty for Christ? I doubt that among us there are very many who pursue Christ in this way. To tell you the truth, in recent days I have been asking myself how hungry I am for Christ. I have said to myself, “Are you hungry for Christ? You have been in the ministry for more than forty-five years, and you have been in the church life for such a long time. Are you as hungry for Christ as the apostle Paul was in Philippians 3?” I must confess and say to the Lord, “Lord, have mercy on me. I am not that hungry or that seeking.” Philippians 3 reveals how hungry Paul was for Christ. In verses 10 and 11 he says, “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if perhaps I may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.” Here we see that Paul had a great hunger for Christ. How many Christians today are this hungry to gain Christ?
It is important that we realize who Christ is today. Christ is the Triune God processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to be the life-giving Spirit. Such a Spirit is here with us right now. Everything positive is included in this life-giving Spirit. Within Him there is redemption, forgiveness, justification, righteousness, holiness, life, light, and power. In the life-giving Spirit there is God, man, and every positive thing in the universe.
God’s desire is that we first receive Christ. When we do, we are redeemed, justified, reconciled, forgiven, washed, regenerated, and saved. After we have been saved, God wants us to hunger after Christ. We need to be able to say, “Oh, I want to gain more Christ! I must be a person hungry for Christ, that Christ may be my life supply and that I may be filled, saturated, permeated, and soaked with Him. Then I shall become a part of Christ.” It is in this way that the church is built with Christ.
The reason very few Christians are hungry for Christ is that the gospel of the kingdom has never been preached adequately. What we all have heard is only the gospel of grace, not the gospel of the kingdom. We all have heard the gospel of grace regarding eternal salvation. We have believed this gospel, and we have received eternal salvation. But perhaps we have never heard an adequate preaching of the gospel of the kingdom. Thus, we all, including me, need a serious warning.
In George Whitefield’s biography we are told that one day when he was preaching on the subject of hell, someone in the congregation leaped into the aisle and began to shout that he was falling into hell. This indicates how prevailing was Whitefield’s preaching about hell. Today we need some preachers to proclaim the punishment of the kingdom in just such a prevailing way. We need to warn the believers about being cast into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. We need to preach the warning gospel of the kingdom to stir up the Christians regarding God’s dispensational punishment. This type of preaching compels us to seek Christ.
A good evangelist always preaches the gospel from two angles. The first angle is to warn people that if they do not repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, they will be cast into hell to suffer the punishment of eternal fire. People need to be told of the judgment of the righteous God. The other angle is to tell people how Christ has done everything to save them and that they simply need to receive Him. The principle is the same in the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom. We need to warn all the Christians that one day Christ will come back to settle accounts with them. At that time they will be either rewarded or punished, either brought into the bright enjoyment with Christ or cast into outer darkness. Thousands of unbelievers and sinners have been compelled to believe out of the fear of going to hell. In like manner, Christians need to be compelled to seek Christ out of the fear of the coming judgment.
The promise of the kingdom reward is also a great incentive to seek Christ. The hope of receiving this reward encourages us to gain Him. When we are compelled to seek after Christ and encouraged to gain Christ, we shall be hungry for Christ. We shall earnestly desire to gain Christ so that we may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.
When we have been compelled and encouraged to seek Christ, we shall not be idle regarding Christ, and we shall no longer be indifferent. I must confess that I have a burden about this matter. I am concerned that not even many of us have been stirred up to seek Christ in such a desperate way. We need to see how crucial the situation is. We shall either be punished or rewarded. Thus, we need to say, “Lord, I am desperate. Because I will be either punished or rewarded, I must seek after You.” This is not simply a matter of knowing the truth of the kingdom. It is a matter of being desperate to gain Christ.
Are you seeking Christ? Are you gaining Him more and more? If not, do not make excuses for yourself. Do not say, “Lord, I can’t make it. I can’t come up to the standard of Your constitution in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Lord, You know that no one can do it. How can I make it? Lord, please excuse me.” You may excuse yourself today, but you will not be able to do so when you meet the Lord at His judgment seat. At that time there will be no excuse. If you try to excuse yourself then, the Lord will say, “Did I not present Myself to you? I am the all-sufficient grace. But were you hungry enough to seek Me?” What will you say? You will be silent.
Because so few Christians are hungry for the subjective Christ, it is impossible for the church to be built up with them. Where can you find Christians who are denying the self and losing the soul? It is difficult to find any. Most Christians stay with a particular group as long as they are happy there. But when they are no longer happy, they leave and go somewhere else. This indicates that there is no denying of the self and no losing of the soul. Instead, there is one excuse after another. But what about us? Are we making excuses, or are we being forced to seek Christ? We need to tell the Lord that we are short of Him and that we are desperate to gain Him.
I thank the Lord for setting up a pattern in the New Testament with the apostle Paul (1 Tim. 1:16). Paul was so hungry for Christ that eventually he became fully saturated with Christ. Therefore, in Philippians Paul seemed to be saying, “As long as I can manifest Christ, I don’t care about the circumstances, for to me, to live is Christ. I am satisfied to be able to manifest Christ in any environment.” Paul was one who sought Christ in an absolute way. He was utterly hungry for Christ, and he did everything possible to gain Christ, to experience Christ, and to be saturated with Christ. Therefore, from his experience he could say that it was God who operated in him both the willing and the working for His good pleasure (2:13). He could also say, “I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me” (4:13). At the end of his life, Paul had the assurance to say these words: “The Lord will deliver me from every evil work and will save me into His heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim. 4:18). No doubt, Paul was saturated with Christ. He surely was one fully built into the Body of Christ and completely under the exercise of the kingdom.
Recently, a brother testified in a meeting that the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 is a description of the life of Christ. I appreciate this word. All the exercises and requirements of the kingdom are a description of Christ’s life. They all speak of how much Christ’s life can do in us. The requirements of the kingdom’s constitution and the exercise of the kingdom reveal what great things Christ’s life can accomplish in us. Thus, there is no excuse. His grace is all-sufficient. If Christ had not been incarnated, crucified, and resurrected, we might have an excuse. But now, after having been incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended, Christ is the very all-inclusive life-giving Spirit within us. The only question is whether or not we are hungry for Him and seek after Him. Do not make excuses for not denying the self, taking up the cross, or losing the soul. None of us should offer excuses for ourselves. Instead, we should say, “Lord, there is no excuse. I am compelled to seek You, and I am encouraged to gain You. Lord, I want to be filled with You, saturated with You, and permeated with You so that I may be a part of You.”
If we are filled, saturated, and permeated with Christ, we shall spontaneously be under the exercise of the kingdom. As we read Paul’s Epistles, we see that he was constantly denying himself. His life was also a life of bearing the cross and losing the soul. This was not done by asceticism but by the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit living within Paul. Paul enjoyed Christ as the life-giving Spirit to the uttermost; he hungered after Him and constantly enjoyed Him. Paul’s enjoyment of Christ spontaneously brought him into the exercise of the kingdom. This enabled him to fulfill all the requirements of the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens.
Paul was in the exercise of the kingdom for the church. There is only one class of people with whom the church can be built: those who are in the exercise of the kingdom. If we mean business with the Lord for the building of the church, we must be hungry to be saturated with Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. By being saturated with the life-giving Spirit, we are brought under the exercise of the kingdom. Then we have the kingdom life.
The exercise of the kingdom is the actuality of the church life today. To a great degree, what we have is still the appearance. We are yet void of the reality. The reality of the church life is the exercise of the kingdom, and the genuine exercise of the kingdom comes through the adequate enjoyment of Christ. Through this enjoyment and exercise, we are built up together as the church. This is Christ building His church with Himself through the kingdom.
Matthew 5:3 says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens”; and Matthew 5:10 says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” If we are poor in spirit and are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, the kingdom is ours, and we are in it today. But what aspect of the kingdom are we in, in the aspect of reward or the aspect of exercise? We are in the aspect of the exercise of the kingdom. Matthew 5:20 says, “I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens,” and Matthew 7:21 says, “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he who does the will of My Father who is in the heavens.” Both of these verses speak of entering into the kingdom of the heavens in the future. On the one hand, the kingdom is ours, and we are in it already; on the other hand, the kingdom is coming, and we shall enter into it. With respect to the exercise of the kingdom, we are in it today. But with respect to the reward of the kingdom, we shall enter into it in the future.
After saying that only those who do the will of the Father will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, the Lord said, “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, was it not in Your name that we prophesied, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name did many works of power? And then I will declare to them: I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness” (vv. 22-23). Here the Lord seemed to be saying, “Get away from Me, you lawless ones. Whatever you did was lawlessness. You were not doing the will of God, and you were not hungry for Me.” Here we see that it is not a matter of doing things or of working but of enjoying Christ. This is the will of God. The will of God is that we enjoy Christ and be built up so that the church may exist on earth.
We have seen that, on the one hand, we are in the exercise of the kingdom and that, on the other hand, we shall enter into the reward of the kingdom. This fact must be both a warning and an incentive to us. It must compel us, attract us, and encourage us to seek Christ. However, we still may not have a sufficient appetite. We may not yet be hungry for Christ, and we may not take this warning and incentive seriously. Instead, we may be indifferent or negligent. But we need to say, “Lord, have mercy on me. I am hungry for You, and I want to gain You more and more. I want to gain You so that I may arrive at the out-resurrection from among the dead.” This resurrection from the dead, mentioned by Paul in Philippians 3, is the reward of the kingdom. I hope that we shall be stirred up to realize that this is not an insignificant matter.
In this chapter you have heard a warning and an incentive. Whether you will accept it or not, whether you will be hungry for Christ and seek Christ or not, is your responsibility.
