Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:5-7, 13, 17, 22-23; 2:4, 5, 15, 18, 22; 3:8, 16-17, 19, 21; 4:4-6, 15; 5:18, 26-27; 6:11, 18
In this message we shall consider how the church became degraded. Before we do this, let us look at some of the key verses in each chapter of Ephesians.
In 1:5 Paul says that we have been predestinated to sonship, that is, predestinated to become sons of God. In creation, God is our Creator, not our Father. None of us were born of Him in creation. The fact that God has predestinated us, or marked us out beforehand, to be His sons means that we have been predestinated to be born of Him. This implies that God must come into us and that we must receive His life and have a relationship with Him in life. Therefore, to be predestinated to sonship is to be predestinated to be born of God so that He may become our Father and that we may become His sons.
In 1:6 and 7 we see that God has graced us in the Beloved and redeemed us in Him. Having become the object of God’s grace, we have been favored in Christ, and we have redemption through the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 1:13 says that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise. On the day we believed in the Lord Jesus, God sealed us with Himself as the Spirit.
In 1:17 Paul speaks of our need for a spirit of wisdom and revelation. This spirit denotes our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God.
The closing word in the first chapter of Ephesians concerns the church, which is Christ’s Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (vv. 22-23).
By putting these verses together we can see Ephesians 1 in a new way. We have been predestinated, we have been sealed, and we have received a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may know the Body. Selection, predestination, redemption, and sealing are not ends in themselves. All this is for the Body. We were chosen, predestinated, favored, graced, redeemed, and sealed for the Body. Furthermore, for the Body we have been given a spirit of wisdom and revelation. In Ephesians 1 the Body is God’s ultimate goal.
In the past many of us heard sermons on predestination and redemption. We have also heard about being graced and sealed with the Spirit. But had you ever heard that God’s selection, predestination, favor, redemption, and sealing are all for the Body?
In 2:4 and 5 we see that even when we were dead in offenses, God made us alive together with Christ. Not only were we sinful, we were also dead. But God came in to enliven us. If He had redeemed us and forgiven us without enlivening us, God would have had a great many redeemed ones who were still in death. Praise Him that in addition to redeeming us He made us alive!
He also created us into one new man (2:15). Furthermore, we have been given access to the Father in the Spirit (v. 18). Finally, we are being built up into a dwelling place of God in our spirit (v. 22). Just as chapter one ends with the Body, so chapter two concludes with the building up of God’s dwelling place. This indicates that we have been enlivened not just for the sake of being enlivened, but for the building up of God’s dwelling place. In other words, God made us alive for the church. His final word both in chapter one and in chapter two concerns the church. At the end of chapter one, we have the church as Christ’s Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. At the end of chapter two, we have the church as the dwelling place of God in our spirit.
In 3:8 Paul said that he preached the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel. Paul did not preach doctrine, not even the doctrine of the riches of Christ. What he preached was the riches of Christ themselves. Furthermore, in this chapter Paul prayed that we would be strengthened by the Spirit into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our hearts (vv. 16-17). The goal of this strengthening and indwelling is that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God (v. 19). The result of this is glory to God in the church (v. 21). Therefore, chapter three, like the preceding chapters, ends with the church. This means that the preaching of the unsearchable riches of Christ, the strengthening of our inner man, Christ making His home in our heart, and being filled unto all the fullness of God are not for our individual spirituality, but for the church.
In 4:4-6 we have the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — with the Body. According to 4:15, we need to grow up into Christ in all things. This growth is for the sake of the Body, the church.
In 5:18 Paul charges us to be filled in spirit. This filling surely is related to being filled unto all the fullness of God. Through the infilling we have the water in the Word to wash away our spots and wrinkles (vv. 26-27). The result of this washing is that we are corporately sanctified. Sanctification is not primarily an individual matter, but a corporate matter, a matter for the Body. Moreover, in this chapter we see that Christ is nourishing and cherishing the Body (v. 29).
Finally, in chapter six Paul tells us to put on the whole armor of God (v. 11). We need to receive the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, by means of all prayer, praying at every time in spirit (v. 18). This is for the church to be God’s warrior.
As we consider all these verses, we see that in the genuine church there is no religion, tradition, regulations, forms, or rituals. Instead, there is just the Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit working in our spirit to produce the Body, the new man. I hope that we all shall pray-read these verses until we see this vision of the church. Then we shall realize that God has predestinated us for this. We have been made alive for God’s dwelling place, and we enjoy the riches of Christ that we may be part of the church. The church is produced by the mingling of the Triune God with redeemed mankind. The church life is thus the corporate mingling of the divine Spirit with the human spirit. If we have Christ as our reality, we shall not have ordinances or forms, but we shall have only the experience of the living Christ in our spirit.
If we study church history, we can learn how the church became degraded. Firstly, Satan used Judaism, a religion founded and formed according to God’s oracle, to corrupt the church. In his subtlety, Satan caused Judaism to creep into the church. We have seen that the church is an entity produced by the mingling of the Holy Spirit with the human spirit. In this entity there is no room for regulations, organization, forms, or doctrines. There is room only for the Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit mingled with our spirit in a corporate way. The church on the day of Pentecost was like this. At that time, there were no so-called services or methods of worship. The saints were not preoccupied with doctrinal knowledge, and they were not under any kind of organization. On the day of Pentecost, there was no religion. There was only a group of people living in the mingled spirit and experiencing the genuine church life.
Later, however, Judaism crept in with its forms and ordinances, especially the ordinances concerning circumcision, the Sabbath, and eating. Paul wrote the book of Galatians in order to deal with the damage caused by Judaism, by religion.
Secondly, Satan used philosophy, especially a mixture of various philosophies called Gnosticism, to damage the church. Certain forms of Gnosticism included elements of Judaism and Christianity. The point here is that Satan used knowledge and the exercise of the natural mind to corrupt the church. The Epistle to the Colossians was written to deal with this, just as Galatians was written to deal with religion. The subtlety of the enemy is to turn the church from the mingled spirit to the natural mind, that is, to turn the saints from the tree of life to the tree of knowledge. In the beginning, those in the church life were feeding on the tree of life. Then Satan came in to distract the saints from the tree of life to the tree of knowledge. William Law, a contemporary of John Wesley, saw this. In a book entitled The Power of the Spirit Law is quoted as saying the following:
...A trust in the wisdom of men and the letter of Scripture has caused the church to fall from its first gospel state in much the way that Adam fell through eating of the same tree of knowledge. The Bible teacher and religious leader who gain and hold a church position through intellectual attainments and oratorical skills can be said to differ from lesser men only as the serpent differed from the other beasts of the field — in that it was more subtle.
Furthermore, speaking of the turn from the tree of life to the tree of knowledge, Law said:
In the first apostolic church, the wisdom of words was no more sought after than friendship with the world which is enmity with God. In that new-born church, the tree of life, which grew in the midst of Paradise, took root and grew up again, spreading glory and virtue as men fed upon it. In the present church, the tree of life is hissed at as the visionary food of extremists, and the tree of death, called the tree of knowledge, has the eyes and hearts of priests and people, and is thought to do as much good to Christians as it did evil to the first inhabitants of Paradise.
At the end of Genesis 3, the way to the tree of life was closed to fallen man. But through the redemption of Christ, the church was brought back to the tree of life. However Satan intervened and turned the church from the tree of life to the tree of knowledge.
This turn to the tree of knowledge was expressed in the controversies concerning Christology that were common during the first several centuries in the history of the church. These debates and disputations were related to the Person of Christ. Much of this debate was brought about by the threat of Gnosticism, which taught heresy concerning the Person of Christ, saying that He was not actually God incarnated as a man. A number of sound Christian teachers rose up to refute the Gnostic heresy. However, the result was that various opinions concerning Christ were put forth and debated. Some said that Christ was only God and not man, whereas others argued that Christ was only a man and not God. Others taught that Christ had a human nature, but that this nature was not real or complete. Some who held this view said that Christ had a soul and a body, but not a spirit. Still others taught that Christ was a man who eventually became God. Others claimed that Christ had not only two natures, but also two persons. Another view was that Christ’s natures were mingled together in such a way as to produce a third nature. All these different opinions caused considerable argument among the early church fathers. It was largely due to these debates that the church was divided. This is an illustration of how the enemy in his subtlety turned the saints from the spirit to the exercise of the natural mind to analyze doctrine and to systematize it.
We need to learn from this simply to take the pure Word of God without any attempt to systematize it. We should believe whatever the Bible says and say amen to it. For example, John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This verse says that the Word was with God; it also says that the Word was God. We say amen to both statements. The New Testament also reveals that Christ is both the Son of God and the Son of man. We believe both of these facts and say amen.
How foolish it is to presume to analyze Christ! We cannot even adequately or thoroughly analyze ourselves, much less the Lord Jesus Christ. If Christ were altogether understandable to us, He would not be Christ. We simply cannot fully comprehend who Christ is and what Christ is. Instead of engaging in disputes over the Person of Christ, let us receive in simplicity whatever the Scriptures reveal concerning Him. For us, the age of disputation is over. We just care to enjoy the wonderful Christ.
Today’s Christianity is preoccupied with doctrine, but is short of the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ. Nearly every sect or denomination has been established according to a particular doctrine. For example, the Baptist denomination is built upon the doctrine of baptism by immersion. Certain Baptist groups go so far as to insist that people be baptized only in their water. No other baptism is recognized. Hence, the Baptist denomination is a division caused by adhering to a teaching concerning baptism. By this we see that even today the church is being corrupted and damaged by knowledge. Many who care for a particular doctrine have no concern for the Body.
Because Satan has used religion and knowledge to damage the church, we in the Lord’s recovery must strongly testify that we are not for religion or for knowledge. Satan is subtle. Firstly he used the tree of knowledge to corrupt the old creation. Then he used the same tree to corrupt the church as God’s new creation. Today his work is the same. Therefore, we must not take the way of knowledge, not even of biblical knowledge in letters. If we are distracted from the tree of life to doctrinal knowledge, we shall lose the oneness.
Many who have visited the church in Los Angeles have been impressed with the oneness. To them this has been the most convincing aspect of the church life. The reason for the oneness among us is that we condemn and despise the tree of knowledge. From the very beginning, when the foundation of the church life was laid in this locality, we had nothing to do with the tree of knowledge. This is the reason we have been kept and preserved in oneness.
The third item that has damaged the church throughout its history is organization. This damaging and corrupting element began to appear in the second century, largely through the influence of a certain spiritual leader, Ignatius, who taught that bishops were different from elders. According to the Scriptures, however, elders and bishops refer to the same people. The term elder denotes the person, whereas the term bishop, or overseer, denotes the function. In the New Testament the elders oversee the various aspects of the church life. The teaching that bishops are above elders prepared the way for the development of a hierarchy, with an elaborate organization that included bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and the pope. The result was that the Holy Spirit was given no place in the so-called church. In order for organization to be maintained, there is the need for regulations, forms, and rituals. This is the reason these things have been prevailing in the so-called church.
Religion, knowledge, and organization have surely damaged the church. Even nominal Christians have some form of religion, although they have no experience of the living Christ. Furthermore, nearly all Christians, whether genuine believers or false professors, have some knowledge of doctrine. Moreover, organization abounds in today’s Christianity. But very few Christians know the life-giving Spirit or the reality of the Body of Christ. It seems that the lexicon used by most Christians does not include these terms, but includes only terms related to religion, knowledge, organization, regulations, forms, and rituals.
Praise the Lord that we have escaped from all this! If we are clear about the factors that have damaged and corrupted the church, we shall be kept from taking the old way of Christianity. We shall give no place to religion, the tree of knowledge, or organization.
In the church life in the Lord’s recovery we are not for organization with its emphasis on position or rank. It is not wrong to speak of elders and deacons. However, in the book of Revelation there is no mention of these terms. This book speaks, on the contrary, of the seven Spirits, the sevenfold intensified Spirit that deals with the fallen, degraded church. We are not for doctrines, rituals, or rank — we are for the sevenfold Spirit. Everything apart from this all-inclusive Spirit is dung (Phil. 3:8).
Recently, in a time of fellowship with the Lord, I had the sense that I was immersed in the Spirit. Inwardly I was filled with the Spirit, and outwardly I was clothed with Him. The church life consists in the corporate experience of the mingled Spirit, not in religion, doctrine, or organization with its titles, ranks, and positions. Like Paul in Philippians 3, we count as dung everything other than Christ, who is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit.
Before the Lord, I know what my burden is today. I am not interested in teaching the saints. My burden is that we all be “wrecked” for Christ and the church, and that we be unloaded of the old things of Christianity. In the Lord’s recovery we must go all the way back to the beginning, where there was the eating of the tree of life. In the beginning there was just the Word to feed us; there was no religion, no tree of knowledge, and no organization. How we need to be unloaded of these three devilish factors of corruption and damage in the church! By the Lord’s mercy, many of us have been unloaded, and others are being unloaded meeting after meeting. As I contact the saints, I realize that many have been fully released from religion, knowledge, and organization. Because we have been unloaded and released, we can be living and aggressive for Christ and the church wherever we may go. Having been unloaded, we are one, and we have brotherly love not as a doctrine, but as a reality.
Sometimes people ask us if we speak in tongues or if we exercise the gifts of the Spirit. We can testify that we are filled, saturated, and possessed by the Spirit. In this experience of the Spirit we have the church life.
May we all be deeply impressed that the church life has nothing to do with religion, knowledge, or organization. In the church there is no room for regulations, forms, or rituals. We do not care even for the knowledge of the Bible in mere letters. To us, every word of the Bible must be spirit and life (John 6:63). Then the church will be living and preserved in the oneness. The life-giving Spirit is our oneness. Everything we need for the church life is in the all-inclusive Spirit. As we come to the Holy Word, we need to exercise our spirit to pray. Then the Word will become the Spirit in our experience, and we shall have the genuine and proper church life. As long as we have the church life, we have everything: salvation, redemption, sanctification, the overcoming life, the rapture, and the kingdom. In the church life everything in time and eternity is ours.
