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Scripture Reading: Deut. 12:5, 8, 11, 13, 27; 14:22-23
I would like to stress again the type of the living of God’s people in the good land. The types in the Old Testament are the figures, the pictures, of the spiritual things. In the New Testament we have the teachings and the words about the spiritual things. We all know that a picture is always clearer than any kind of statement. This is why there is a saying that a picture is better than a thousand words. The whole Scripture is one. The Old Testament and the New Testament reveal to us the same thing. Whereas the Old Testament gives us the pictures, the New Testament gives us the statements. When we are not so clear about the statements, we have to look at the pictures.
The two main things concerning the living of God’s people in the good land can be simply stated with two words: oneness and Christ. The life of the children of Israel in the good land as God’s people is a life of worship to God. In this life of worship to God, two things are necessary. The first thing is to keep the oneness of the Lord’s people. You should not do anything to damage the oneness. Once the oneness is damaged, the proper worship to God is also gone. If any division exists, there is no possibility to have a proper worship that is acceptable and well pleasing to God. This is a serious matter today.
In the Old Testament we see that throughout the generations the worship rendered by the children of Israel to God was never divided. They never had two temples built up in two places at the same time. There has always been one temple, one center for worship. This is not just a matter of geography. This is a matter of oneness. The oneness of the people of God was always preserved, kept, maintained, in the worship of God. This is because whenever the oneness of the Lord’s children is damaged and spoiled, the building is impossible. The building of the church, the temple of God, the Body of Christ, depends upon oneness.
Furthermore, today under the light of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, we know that the oneness is the biggest test to our flesh, our natural man, and our soulish life. To find out whether or not you are fleshly, natural, soulish, or worldly, you need to ask yourself just one question: “Am I willing to keep the oneness of the Body?”
Suppose that six young brothers in a certain city come and meet together. In the beginning it is wonderful, but perhaps after three weeks, one of them may feel unhappy about the others. Then he may seek out another three or five to pray with him, and eventually they may decide to meet as another meeting. So probably within half a year, in your city there will be two separate meetings. This means division. Deuteronomy 12:8 speaks of “each man doing all that is right in his own eyes.” But the oneness limits this. The oneness will not allow you to do whatever is right in your own eyes. Regardless of whether you feel happy about others or whether they are spiritual or not, you have to keep the oneness with them. You have no right to separate yourself from others. This regulation preserves the oneness of the children of God.
As students, you have a choice of schools. If you are not happy about one school, you can quit and go to another school. But as a Christian, do you have a choice of churches? Today many Christians are frequently changing churches. When one church does not suit their taste, they leave that one and go to another one. When the second church does not suit their taste, they leave again and go to a third one. We must realize that as far as the church is concerned, we must give up our taste. We cannot have a church according to our taste. We have no choice as far as the church is concerned. We have to take what God has appointed, ordained, chosen, to keep the oneness of the Body. This is the biggest test to our flesh, our natural man.
Do you believe that all the members of the church are wonderful persons? It seems that the members of the Body, the saved ones, are peculiar people. This means that according to the flesh, according to the natural man, it is not easy to be together with the believers. Unless you learn the lessons, sooner or later, you will drop out. With the matter of the church there is no choice. This requires us to learn how to fear the Lord and deal with our flesh.
In 1926 Brother Watchman Nee started to work in Shanghai to establish the church there. Later, in 1942 the enemy raised up a big turmoil in the church in Shanghai. Brother Nee was put in a position so that he could no longer minister there. Some of the saints came to Brother Nee, saying, “Brother Nee, let us have another start. Let us start another meeting.” Brother Nee told them, “No. You have to continue going to that meeting. No matter what kind of attitude they have toward you or toward me, you have to go to that meeting. That is the church. Neither you nor I have the right to start another thing.” This is the test to the self, to the soul-life. This is the biggest lesson.
Today it is very easy for the believers to form meetings. Many believers who are dissatisfied with the so-called traditional church service just meet in their homes. They think everyone has the right to set up a meeting. They are too free. There is no limitation, no rule. I once went to a certain city and met with at least three or four free groups. They all claimed that they were non-sectarian, yet they would not come together to be one with one another. Every group keeps itself independent, separate, from the others. Strictly speaking, this is lawlessness. There is no regulation, no rule. We should not be legalistic, but we should not be too liberal either. We need to be governed, ruled.
The proper governing rule or principle is the oneness. Suppose that there are some brothers in a certain locality. They start to meet in the name of the Lord on the proper ground of oneness. When I go to their city, I have no right to set up another meeting. I have to keep the oneness with them. Right away, however, I am put on the test because human beings always like to take the lead. If I had started the meeting there, I might have been number one. But now that I come here to meet with them, I would be number two. Everyone likes to be the king. Because I do not want to be the second but the first, I would not submit to their meeting. Rather, I would set up another meeting so that I may be a little king. If there is not the grace and the lesson of the cross, every one of us would be like this. But here is the test. If we are going to keep the oneness of the Body, we do not have a choice. There are many lessons for us to learn in order to keep the oneness.
Look at today’s situation among the Christians. There are divisions after divisions because of the flesh, the self, and the natural man. There are the state churches and the denominational churches. Following this, there is the Brethren practice. Then today there are so many free groups. Today the practice of the free groups is fashionable. They say that they are really free from the denominational system, but the divisions created by the free groups are endless. If I do not agree with you who are meeting on Twenty-third Street, I will set up a meeting on Twenty-fifth Street. If I am not satisfied with the meeting that is in your home, I will set up a meeting in my home. This is too free. The free groups simply neglect the oneness of the Body of Christ. We have to honor this ground of oneness.
Do you think that there is a proper reason for you to separate yourself from other Christians meeting in the Lord’s name on the ground of oneness? No reason is proper, and no reason is valid. As long as you live in Israel, you have to go together with all of Israel to worship God. You have no choice but to do it. If you would not do it, you break the law and have become lawless. Suppose that you and another Israelite are enemies. It is a real problem. You and he, according to the law, have to go to the same place three times a year to worship God. This is a real test. Therefore, you have to forgive him, and he has to forgive you. You have to learn how to be happy with him by the Lord’s grace, and he has to learn to be happy with you. You have to keep the oneness. I believe that this is clear to all of us.
Now we come to the second main thing in the living of God’s people in the good land, and that is Christ. When you come as an Israelite to worship God, you have to bring the produce of the land of Canaan. We know that the different sorts of produce are types of the different aspects of Christ. You have to bring Christ to the worship of God. This is also a governing principle.
Whenever we come together, we have to bring Christ. Do not bring anything else. What you need to bring to the meeting must be Christ or some aspects of Christ. Do not bring your doctrines, your opinions, or your interpretations. Rather, bring something of Christ. Suppose that a brother brings the debate about predestination to the meeting. Is that something of Christ? You and I have to learn the lesson strictly. Whenever we come to the meeting, what we bring must be Christ Himself. Look at the picture in ancient times. When the people of Israel came together to worship God, they just brought the produce of the good land of Canaan to offer to God. What they offered to God would be the food to God for His satisfaction and enjoyment. Also, they shared with one another all that they had offered to God. We are clear today that all the offerings, all the things offered to God, are types of Christ.
Concerning the offerings, let me give you a summary. All the offerings are classified into two main categories. One is the offerings of the animal life, and the other is the offerings of the vegetable life. The Israelites offered something of the herd and of the flocks, which are things of the animal life. They also offered corn, wheat, wine, and oil, which are things of the vegetable life.
There are also two aspects of the life of Christ. The first aspect is that His life is likened to the animal life, which typifies the redeeming life. Whenever you offer something of the herd or of the flock, that offering will be slain, and its blood will be shed. With the shedding of the blood, there is the redeeming (12, Heb. 9:22). With Christ the Lord, His life in the first aspect is a redeeming life, which is typified by the animal life. The other aspect of the Lord’s life is the generating life, which is typified by the vegetable life. A grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, and when it grows up, it produces many grains (John 12:24). This means that it generates. This is why I say that the vegetable life is a generating life.
The life of Christ, on the one hand, is the redeeming life to redeem us, and on the other hand, it is the generating life to generate much fruit. Our experiences of Christ can be classified into these two categories. Christ as the redeeming life recovers, heals, cures, and restores us. Then there are many other times when we experience Christ as the generating life that generates us, resurrects us, gives life to us, energizes us, strengthens us, and empowers us. The life of Christ is a powerful life that strengthens and energizes us so that through us something may be produced. Therefore, in our experience of Christ we should have many flocks and herds and also much wine, oil, corn, and wheat.
All the saints bring all these experiences of Christ to the meeting and offer them to God. In a certain sense, these experiences may be considered as a burnt offering. The burnt offering is something offered to God for God’s satisfaction. There were five main offerings in the Old Testament — the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. Christ as the burnt offering is for the satisfaction of God.
Also, what we bring to God may be considered as a heave offering. To heave means to lift up. Therefore, the heave offering typifies the ascended Christ. Christ, who has accomplished everything, is the ascended One, the lifted-up One. On the one hand, as the burnt offering, Christ is the very satisfaction to God. On the other hand, as the heave offering, Christ is the ascended One who has accomplished everything. Whenever we come to the meeting, we have to bring these kinds of experiences of Christ.
When the early Christians came together, do you believe they came with predestination, with Calvinism, or with Arminianism? Of course not. Rather, they came with the Christ whom they experienced and offered to God as the burnt offering for God’s satisfaction and as the heave offering, as the One who has accomplished everything and ascended to the heavens. Today let us learn how to experience Christ in such a way.
In order to practice the church life, we do not need to learn some technical matters. We must know that the way to practice the church life is to experience Christ daily. Every one of us has to experience Christ daily so that whenever we come to the meeting, we come with something of Christ. Then we will have much of Christ to offer to God as the heave offering, as the One who has accomplished everything, and also as the burnt offering, as the satisfaction to God.
The building of the temple and the city can come about only by these offerings. If you keep coming together with your hands empty, with nothing to bring to God as the offerings, nothing will be built up. The building depends on the offering, and the offering depends on the daily laboring on the good land. The building of the church depends on our offering of Christ, and our offering of Christ in the meetings depends on our experiences of Christ in our daily life. We need to experience Christ by laboring on Him; then we will have something to bring to the meetings to contribute to others and to share with God. By this kind of offering the building will be accomplished.
We come together to meet, time after time, with the expectation that the church might be built up. But if we are going to be built up, we need some material. We may say that we believers are the material, but actually in ourselves we are the garbage. We need to be hauled away by the garbage truck. Do not think that we could be used as material for the building up of the Body of Christ. We need to be buried. The material for the building is the Christ whom we have experienced. If we keep coming to meet again and again without something of Christ to contribute to others, there cannot be any building. If we come to the meeting with nothing of Christ but with a lot of rubbish — the natural life, the self, the flesh, and the worldly things — how can we be built up?
The building of the city and the temple came out of the offerings. The more the people offered, the more material they had to build up the city and the temple. Their offerings depended on their daily laboring on the good land. Today it is the same. We have Christ, and we are in Christ. Christ is a very rich, good land, but we are lazy. We would not pay the price to cooperate with Christ. We would not labor on Christ. So when we come to the meetings, we come empty-handed. Meeting after meeting we are empty and have nothing to be built up with. Do not think that just by coming together we can be built up. To be built up there is the need of some material.
This is why in the New Testament the apostles Paul, Peter, and even John all conveyed the same message that we have to grow up into Christ so that we may have some measure of Christ’s stature for the building up of the Body. Ephesians 4 shows that growth and maturity are needed so that we can have some stature of Christ (vv. 13, 15-16). It is only by the increase of Christ within us for our growth in Christ so that the Body of Christ can be built up. We have to be transformed by Christ so that we may have the stature of Christ. We cannot build up the church by meeting with empty hands. We must work on Christ to have the experiences of Christ.
Let us look at the picture in the Old Testament. Suppose that all the children of Israel were lazy. They had a piece of the good land, yet they did not work on the land. No one would till the ground, sow the seed, or take care of the harvest. Everyone just had a good time. They had no herds, no flocks, no wine, no oil, no corn, and no wheat. Then when it was time to go to the feasts, everyone would go empty-handed. They had no food for God or for themselves. God was hungry, and they also were hungry. Eventually, there would be no material for the building up of the city and the temple.
This is the real situation of the poor church today. Many times this is the condition of our poor meetings. We come to the meeting with nothing of Christ, and we expect others to have something of Christ to share. The brothers come with the hope that the sisters will have something to share, and the sisters come with the expectation that the brothers will have something to share. Eventually, nobody has anything to share, and the meeting becomes an empty meeting because we do not labor on Christ.
What is the way to practice the church? First, we have to realize that there is the need of oneness, and second, we have to realize that there is the need to have many experiences of Christ. We have to experience Christ all the time. Then we will have something in our hands of Christ as food for ourselves and for the needy ones. We will also have something of Christ to offer to God to satisfy God as a burnt offering and as a heave offering. Then there will be the material to build up a dwelling place for God. The proper way for us to practice the church life is to respect the oneness and to experience Christ in order to have a surplus of Christ to bring to the church to share with the saints in the worship of God so that God can be satisfied with Christ and enjoy Christ with us. Then we will have something built up. Besides this, there is no other way to practice the proper church life and to build up the church as the living expression of Christ.
There is the urgent need for us to experience Christ, to minister Christ to others, and to help others to know Christ. Without Christ there is no gold, silver, pearl, or precious stones. Without Christ there is no material for the building up of the Body. Without Christ you have wood, grass, and stubble, which are not good for the building up of the Body (1 Cor. 3:12).
There is a great need of prayer for this matter. I hope that we will pray for this matter of experiencing Christ for the building up of the Body. We cannot just learn the technique of practicing the church. If all we have is technique, we just have an empty church, a church without reality. The reality of the church is the very Christ experienced by us. This very Christ is the contents of the real worship to God and the material for the building up of the church. I would urge all of us to pray much about this matter.
