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II. Working with God (1 Cor. 3:9) to carry out His divine building in three aspects for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy:
A. Establishing and shepherding the churches by the pneumatic Christ, the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit, with His organic salvation.
B. Building and constituting the Body of Christ by Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit with His sevenfold intensified organic salvation.
C. Adorning and consummating the New Jerusalem with God the Father as its golden base, God the Son as its pearl gates, and God the Spirit for its wall of precious stones, by drinking the Spirit, the flowing Triune God, as the river of water of life and eating Christ, the overcoming Lion-Lamb, as the tree of life with His rich and fresh supply.
Prayer: Our God, our Lord, we truly worship You, extol You, and praise You. You are the God who is forever new; You never grow old and never fade away. May we receive from You the constant and daily renewing. Lord, save us from oldness, from the old creation, from our old “I,” from our old man, and from everything old. Lord, may we be like Your apostle Paul, forgetting the things that are behind, leaving everything that is old behind us, and endeavoring to go forward for the prize to which You have called us upward, which is Your dear Self. Thank You for leading us through the past five meetings. In this last meeting we pray that You would give us a simple and clear conclusion, even the best conclusion. Give us the words, the utterance. Amen.
Thank the Lord, in this conference I sense that we have touched the main points and have covered what the Lord wants us to cover. For this we worship Him. In the preceding two chapters we saw that when we are fulfilling our obligations as co-workers and elders, we need to beware of certain things that can frustrate and damage us. In this concluding chapter I have only one clear and simple burden to fellowship with you. This is concerning how to work with God in fulfilling our obligations as co-workers and elders to carry out the divine building.
First, as co-workers and elders, we must have the realization that we are working with God (1 Cor. 3:9). To work with God is not a small thing; it is a divine matter. What does it mean to work with God? To work with God is to carry out His divine building in three aspects — the church, the Body of Christ, and the New Jerusalem. This is God’s universal, divine building. All the works of God in the universe are being carried out with this as the center, the line, and the goal for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy.
The goal of the economy of God, which is eternal, is His divine building. This divine building has three aspects: the first aspect is the church, which is easy to understand; the second aspect is the Body of Christ, which is very divine and mysterious and is therefore not easy to understand; and the third aspect is the New Jerusalem, which is even harder to understand. The Bible has been with us for two thousand years, but everyone has been puzzled concerning the New Jerusalem, and no one has been able to explain it. Gerhardt Tersteegen, a German brother, referred to the New Jerusalem but in an insufficient way. Brother T. Austin-Sparks referred to it more than Tersteegen did, but it was still difficult for people to comprehend.
However, in these seventy years among us in the Lord’s recovery, God has given us a thorough interpretation and analysis of the New Jerusalem. In our hymnal we have at least three hymns written in 1963 concerning the New Jerusalem. When you read them, you will notice that the contents are nearly the same as the present light, except that they are not as transparent as what we see today. I do not have to be humble or proud; I am just stating a fact. Concerning the New Jerusalem, all the items and aspects have become clear and have been unfolded before my eyes to such an extent that they are altogether transparent. What is the street of pure gold? What are the pearl gates? And what is the wall of precious stones? The Lord has shown us that these reveal that the basic elements of the city are simply the Triune God: God the Father is the base of pure gold, God the Son is the twelve gates of pearl, and God the Spirit is for the wall of precious stones. The New Jerusalem is built up with these three divine elements.
How is the city sustained? Our life is sustained by our eating and drinking. Eating and drinking are equally important to us. Sometimes we can live without eating for several days, but we cannot stay alive as long without drinking. Likewise, we have a divine drinking, that is, we have to drink the flowing God. Our God is forever new; He is also a flowing God, a God who is always flowing. The Father is the fountain, and when the fountain emerges, it becomes a spring, which is the Son. When the spring flows, it becomes a river, which is the Spirit. Hence, the Triune God is the flowing God with the Father as the fountain, the Son as the spring, and the Spirit as the river. The Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as the fountain, the spring, and the river — gives us to drink of Him daily.
In a preceding chapter we said that in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body and were all given to drink one Spirit. The Lord Jesus also said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life” (John 4:14). This eternal life is the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem there is not only the Triune God as our river of water of life, but there is also the tree of life in the river. The tree of life is the Lion-Lamb. Christ as the redeeming Lamb and the overcoming Lion has dealt with our sin and God’s enemy, Satan. This Lion-Lamb as our tree of life has fresh fruits to be our supply. In this way the New Jerusalem is sustained.
The three aspects of God’s divine building are the church, the Body of Christ, and the New Jerusalem. To work with God, to carry out the divine building of God in its three aspects, we co-workers and elders must first establish and shepherd the churches by the pneumatic Christ, the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit. We must build up the churches by the pneumatic Christ. The building of the church is the ministry of Christ in His second stage. In His first stage there was only the mentioning of the church (Matt. 16:18; 18:17); there was not yet the actual building of the church. In the first stage He accomplished only the judicial redemption to redeem back the chosen people of God to be the material for the building of the church. The church is not built by Him in the ministry of His incarnation; the building of the church is accomplished by the pneumatic Christ as the Spirit in the ministry of His becoming the Spirit.
Hence, we need to establish and shepherd the churches by the pneumatic Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit, with His organic salvation. Our establishing and shepherding the churches should be carried out not only by Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit, but also by our applying His organic salvation.
The second aspect of the divine building is the Body of Christ. We need to build and constitute the Body of Christ by Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit with His sevenfold intensified organic salvation. This brings us into the third stage of Christ’s full ministry, which is the stage of His intensification. The building of the church was not in the first stage, and strictly speaking, it is also not in the second stage, because it was not carried out successfully. In the second stage God was building the church. However, instead of going forward, the church fell backward and degraded into a defeated church. Hence, in Revelation, Christ has become the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build and constitute the Body of Christ in a sevenfold intensified way.
Building may not be organic; a house is a building, but it is inorganic. On the other hand, constituting is organic; our body is constituted organically. Building may not be of life, but constituting must be of life. But in the divine and mystical realm, building and constituting are the same thing; we may call it building-constituting. This is our new language. We must build and constitute the Body of Christ with life. To know how to build up the Body of Christ, we must study thoroughly the messages given in chapters 2 and 3. Before we begin the building of the Body of Christ, we must know the church. Therefore, we must begin with the second stage and then enter into the third stage. After we have entered into the third stage, we should not go backward, but we must remain in the third stage to daily experience the sevenfold intensification so that we may build and constitute the Body of Christ by Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit with His sevenfold intensified organic salvation.
The New Jerusalem is the third aspect of the divine building. We need to adorn and consummate the New Jerusalem with God the Father as its golden base, God the Son as its pearl gates, and God the Spirit for its wall of precious stones, by drinking the Spirit, the flowing Triune God, as the river of water of life and eating Christ, the overcoming Lion-Lamb, as the tree of life with His rich and fresh supply. We have already covered the building and adornment of the New Jerusalem in many previous messages. Revelation 21:2 says that the New Jerusalem was “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” To “adorn” oneself is to make oneself pretty. This term cannot be used for males; it can be applied only to females. Only females need adornment.
The expressions used in the Holy Scriptures are very precious. You have read Revelation a number of times, but have you ever noticed the word adorned? I have read the Bible for many years, but it was not until this time when I was writing the message outlines that I found out that the New Jerusalem needs to be not only consummated but also adorned (21:19). It is adorned with pure gold, pearls, and precious stones, that is, with the Triune God as the elements.
In 1 Corinthians 3:9 Paul says, “You are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.” Then in verse 10 he goes on to say, “According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it. But let each man take heed how he builds upon it.” What Paul meant was: “I have already laid a foundation; no one else needs to lay another foundation. All you have to do is to build upon that which has been laid. But you have to be careful. If you build upon the foundation with wood, grass, and stubble, you are marring God’s building. You need to build with gold, silver, and precious stones.” For example, here is a building that is to be built with gold, silver, and precious stones. Yet you hang a few pieces of wood on it and put a pile of grass and some stubble on top. This is not to adorn the building but to mar it. First Corinthians 3:17 warns us not to destroy the temple of God. Destroy in Greek means “ruin, corrupt, defile, mar.” To build with the worthless materials of wood, grass, and stubble is to destroy the temple of God. If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. I have not seen anyone who damaged the Body of Christ have a good result. In these seventy years I have clearly seen that those who have damaged the Body of Christ have all suffered serious consequences and were destroyed by God. This is a serious matter.
Today we are here not to destroy the Body of Christ; rather, we are adorning it. I dare not bring my flesh with me to build the New Jerusalem; that is to destroy the New Jerusalem. I dare not bring my opinions, my old “I,” my preferences, and my views to build the New Jerusalem. I simply want to be in fear and trembling to adorn the divine building with God the Father as the pure gold, God the Son as the pearl, and God the Spirit for the wall of precious stones. All of us must have this kind of attitude in our living.
How do we sustain such a living? In this building, in the middle of this city, a river of water of life flows out for us to drink, and in the river the tree of life grows for us to eat. What we drink and what we eat are the Spirit and Christ, that is, the Triune God. The Spirit is the flowing of the Triune God; Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God. If I eat and drink the Triune God, I am sustained; I have gold, pearl, and precious stones. If I do not eat or drink the Lord, I do not have gold, pearl, and precious stones; I have only wood, grass, and stubble. This does not mean that only our losing our temper is considered wood, grass, and stubble. Actually, our meekness and even our diligent service may not be the Triune God but wood, grass, and stubble.
In the past there was a large frame in my study in which these words were written: “...he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15). If you build the temple of God with gold, silver, and precious stones, you will receive a reward. However, if you build with wood, grass, and stubble, your work will be consumed, but you yourself will be saved, yet so as through fire. This may be likened to a piece of land that was on fire, and the wood, grass, and stubble upon it were burned. The land itself could not be consumed, yet it went through the burning by fire. I hung that portion of 1 Corinthians on the wall in my home so that I might always be reminded: “Man, be careful; do not try to build the Body of Christ and the New Jerusalem with your nature, disposition, old ‘I,’ old creation, self, inclination, and preference. If you do, you will destroy the Body of Christ.” Whenever we touch the eternal goal of God, the New Jerusalem, we need to be very pure; we must not be careless.
In summary, this chapter tells us that we need to work with God to carry out His divine building in three aspects — the church, the Body, and the holy city. God’s building is first an assembly as the church, then a Body, and finally a city. Strictly speaking, the New Jerusalem is consummated not only by being built but also by being adorned with pure gold as its base, pearl as its gates, and precious stones for its wall. This is God’s eternal dwelling place, His eternal enlargement, expansion, and expression.
I hope that you will learn to memorize, recite, and speak these messages. When I was learning of Brother Nee, I never had any gimmicks. I only spoke the way he spoke, and I even used the same expressions that he used. Later, others criticized me, saying that I spoke the same things that Brother Nee did and that even my gestures in speaking were the same as Brother Nee’s. Once, a certain pastor ridiculed me, saying, “You know only to imitate Brother Nee’s speaking; whatever he speaks, you speak.” I said, “That is my glory.” Within me I said, “To be frank, even if you try to imitate him, you may not make it.” To be able to imitate is blessed; to be able to recite is blessed. Do not try to invent new words yourself. I hope that we all can enter into the reality of these messages.
