(6)
We continue with the subject of the ultimate consummation. As we have seen in the previous message, the first item of this consummation was God expressed and represented. That was the climax. Based upon this point, we will consider several other points.
God blessed man to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and conquer it (Gen. 1:28). This is not a small thing. Before the time that God had a man to express Him and represent Him, there was no way for God to pour out His full blessing. God is rich and God is rich in blessing, but before the creation of man there was no object to receive His blessing in full. There was no way and no opportunity for God to render His blessing to His creatures in a full way. According to the record of Genesis 1, God did not begin to bless until the time when the living creatures came into being (Gen. 1:22). Yet, only the human life is up to the standard to receive God's blessing in full. After God created man, He was able to see on earth a living creature bearing His image and having His dominion. Immediately God bestowed His full blessing upon man.
Blessing is a good word. Many talk about God's blessing. We have prayed many times, "O Lord, bless us." However, if we are to receive God's blessing, we need to meet the qualifications. The qualifications, once again, are image and dominion. If there is the image of God with God's dominion in your home, you can be assured that the blessing of God will be there. God's blessing always follows His image and His dominion. In other words, God's blessing always follows His expression and His representation.
God's blessing is always with the priesthood and the kingship. We see this with Melchizedek. He was the king of Salem and the priest of the Most High God who blessed Abraham (Gen. 14:17-19). Blessing always comes with the priesthood and the kingship. If the church is seeking God's blessing, the church must have the priesthood and the kingship. What do the priesthood and the kingship mean? They simply mean God's image and God's dominion. The priesthood is for God's image; the kingship is for God's dominion. As long as we exercise the priesthood to contact God, to behold God and to reflect the image of glory, we have the kingship. God's blessing follows immediately.
God blessed man that he might be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. The blessing is fruit bearing, increase, multiplication, and the filling of the earth. Suppose Adam, the corporate man, had been made in the image of a scorpion or serpent, and God blessed the scorpion and the serpent to multiply and fill the earth. The earth would have been filled with scorpions and serpents. What a dreadful earth that would have been! If this had been the case, I would prefer to have never been born. Suppose you had two hundred scorpions in your bedroom and two hundred serpents in your living room. That would not be a blessing, but a curse. God, however, created a man in His image, giving him authority to have dominion for the Almighty on earth. This man was ready for God's blessing. God's blessing was to enable this man to be fruitful. One would become ten, ten would become one hundred, one hundred would become a thousand, a thousand would become a hundred thousand, a hundred thousand would become a million, and a million would become a billion, until the whole earth was filled with beautiful faces expressing God and representing God.
Although human beings are fallen, something wonderful still remains. That wonderful thing is the image of God. People may love dogs, but the love for a dog is much different than the love for a human being. Regardless of how good a dog is, it is not nearly as lovable as a human being. Every human being is lovable because every human being bears the image of God. Regardless of how much human beings have fallen, the earth is filled with men bearing the image of God.
In the church life today we are the real man bearing God's image and exercising God's dominion. In the church life we are ready for God to come in and render His blessing to us. How much God is able to bless us depends on how much we express Him and represent Him. If we express Him and represent Him in an adequate way, we will surely have His full blessing in multiplication and fruit bearing.
At this point I would like to say a word about gospel preaching. Everything in the Christian field, including gospel preaching, has been damaged by the poor practice of the past centuries. The real gospel preaching is not only an outward work. Real gospel preaching is fruit bearing out of the overflow of the inner life. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Lord Jesus said to go, preach the gospel, and disciple the nations, but in John He said that we must bear fruit. Preaching is one thing; fruit bearing is another thing. Genuine gospel preaching is not to convince people doctrinally, to subdue their thinking, and change their concept. Genuine gospel preaching is to minister life to others. Fruit bearing is the outflow of the riches of the inner life. Look at the branch of a tree filled with the life juice. The branch has the overflow of life and this overflow produces fruit. Fruit is the issue of the inner riches of life. We must realize that gospel preaching should be fruit bearing and that fruit bearing comes from God's blessing. Although we need to pray for the gospel preaching, it is not simply a matter of our endeavoring. We must have God's blessing. If a church wants to increase, the gospel certainly must be preached. However, if the preaching of the gospel is not under God's blessing, nothing will be gained regardless of how much we endeavor. The fruit gained will not have human faces, but scorpion faces. You may bring in many people, but when God looks at them He will say, "This is a scorpion, that is a serpent, and that is a frog. Yes, you brought in many people, but not many with a proper face expressing God." What kind of person are you going to bring in? People with the faces of scorpions or people with beautiful faces expressing God Himself? The fruit you bear is an expression of what you are. If you are an apple tree, you can never bear oranges. If you are a peach tree, you can never bear bananas. If you are going to produce bananas, you must be a banana tree. If you are a tree of knowledge, don't expect to bear the fruit of life. Only the tree of life can produce the fruit of life. We all must endeavor to preach the gospel, but consider what we are. If we are in the image of God and if we have the dominion of God, we will surely bring others into the image of God and dominion of God. All the local churches need the increase, but never use gimmicks, which may produce "Moabites" instead of the proper fruit.
God promised Abraham a seed. God was testing Abraham until Abraham's natural energy was terminated. Then He would give him a seed. While Abraham was under God's testing, his wife came in with a good proposal (Gen. 16:1-2). It worked. But it did not bring forth Isaac whom God wanted, but Ishmael whom God rejected. In English letters, both Isaac and Ishmael start with "Is." They are very much alike. All the churches need the increase, but don't imitate Sarah. Don't produce Ishmaelites.
Another case was the two daughters of Lot (Gen. 19:30-38). Do you remember how they discussed fruit bearing? They said, "There is a possibility that our father will have no descendants. Let us do something to help him produce an heir." They did something, and it worked. They brought forth Moabites and Ammonites. Many Christians today bring forth Ishmaelites, Moabites, or Ammonites. It is better not to have any descendants like these.
We must be men who bear God's image and exercise God's authority. Then we will be under God's blessing to be fruitful and multiply. Human faces with God's image will fill the earth. This is one of the points of the ultimate consummation. Don't think that gospel preaching is something low. It must be high. Our gospel preaching must be the climax, not producing Ishmaelites, Moabites, or Ammonites, but Isaacs.
We Christians always have a vain dream. We quote the record in Acts where it says that 3,000 were saved on the day of Pentecost and 5,000 saved on another day. Although there is such a record, the multiplication of human beings cannot come too fast. It may take twenty years to produce a generation. You cannot have a generation in five years. After five years a person is still a small child. Even after fifteen years he is a teenager. It generally takes twenty years to produce a generation of human beings. It is easy to make artificial flowers. In one night we can fill this meeting room with flowers, but all will be artificial. However, to grow an orchard takes time. If you come to the orchard one morning, it will appear about the same as the day before. The same will occur the following day, and every day will appear as the preceding day. It may take several years to grow trees that bear fruit. But hallelujah! Once they grow up they will multiply. This is the church life. All the churches need the increase, but we don't want the mushrooming increase, the overnight increase. We need the increase that comes from the image and dominion under God's blessing. This takes time.
It is not a small thing to say that man was satisfied (Gen. 1:29). Suppose Adam had been created and there was nothing for him to eat. Suppose God had said to Adam, "I made you, but I didn't prepare anything for you to eat. Please wait one or two days." The situation was not like this. Everything had been prepared before Adam came into being. God had made trees that were good for food. When Adam came out of God's creating hand, he immediately had something to eat. He was satisfied. Not only Adam was satisfied; all the living creatures were satisfied (Gen. 1:30). Later on we will see that real rest comes out of satisfaction. Can we rest if we are hungry? As long as we are hungry, we can never rest. Rest depends upon satisfaction. Hallelujah! Man ate and was satisfied.
Genesis 1:31 says that God looked at everything that He had made and it was very good. Before the sixth day, God did not say, "very good"; He said, "good." Why did God say "very good" on the sixth day? Because Adam was in God's image and had been given God's dominion. No one murmured and no one was hungry. God could say, "Very good!" That was the climax. After God said this, came the seventh day, the day of rest.
God rested because He was satisfied (Gen. 2:1-3). This was the last item of the ultimate consummation — God rested and was satisfied.
The reason for God's rest was that His glory was manifested because man had His image and His authority was about to be exercised. Satan, God's enemy, was going to be dealt with by God. As long as man expresses God's image and deals with God's enemy, God can rest. It was not simply that God had finished His work, but in His work was a man who could bear God's image and subdue God's enemy. Based upon these two facts, God rested.
The rest of creation was a small rest, a miniature rest. In this rest, man had the image of God and could exercise God's dominion. These two factors caused rest, but only rest on a very small scale.
Whatever is mentioned in Genesis 1 and 2 is a seed. We have seen in previous messages that light, image, and dominion are all seeds. Rest also is a seed, needing the whole Bible to grow and develop. The seed of rest is sown in Genesis and the harvest of this seed is in Revelation. In Revelation we have the consummation of rest.
The Bible has some types of rest. The sabbath of the Old Testament is a type of rest (Exo. 20:8-11). Man was a testimony, an expression of God. Man also was subject to God's authority. God's authority was exercised over the people who kept the sabbath. Thus, it was a type of rest.
The Lord's Day of the New Testament is also a type of rest (Rev. 1:10; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). The Lord's Day is a type of the coming rest. The church with the saints releases the Lord's life, expressing God Himself. This is the rest we have today. As long as God can be expressed, there is rest. The church with the saints exercises the Lord's authority to deal with His enemy. If we release the Lord's life and exercise His authority, we have rest even now. On the contrary, if we argue and fight, we will have no rest because we are not releasing the life of the Lord. If we fail to exercise authority over the enemy, there will be no rest.
The rest we experience now is a foretaste of rest because the full rest has not come.
With the saints the life of God flows and God Himself is manifested. As long as the life of God is flowing and God Himself is manifested, there is rest. This is a foretaste of the coming rest. You may experience this rest even when you are on your job. When you allow the life of God to flow and you let God be expressed, you have the sense of rest. If, however, you are cut off from the flow of God's life, immediately you will be upset within. You have no rest. The more you argue with your wife, the more you will have stomach trouble. You may even develop an ulcer, indicating that there is no life and no rest. On the contrary, if you release the Lord's life whenever your wife troubles you, you will have a foretaste of rest.
With the saints the authority of God is exercised and the enemy of God is dealt with. When your wife gives you a difficult time, don't exercise your headship. Don't say to her, "Don't you know that I am the head?" If you do that you will lose the human face and express the face of a serpent. You will become a scorpion. When your wife gives you a hard time, go to the Lord as a priest. Let the life flow and be released. Authority and dominion will be there, the enemy will be subdued, and both you and your wife will have rest. We have all experienced this.
With the church as the Body, God is expressed and Satan is dealt with (Eph. 1:23; 3:19b; Eph. 6:11-13). Whenever and wherever God is expressed and His enemy dealt with, there is the foretaste of rest. This is also true in our home life, marriage life, and personal life. If you buy something that will not help you to express God and to deal with Satan, you will lose the foretaste of rest. If you express God and deal with His enemy in whatever you do and wherever you go, you will have a sweet foretaste of the coming rest.
In the church life don't argue and don't murmur. One night I received a phone call, telling me that a certain church was in poor condition. Two people were on the phone, the one confirming what the other said about the poor and sick condition of the church. They stopped their talking and wanted to hear what I would say. Immediately I said, "Don't talk this way. From now on forget about your talk. If you say that the church is bad, the church certainly will be bad because you are bad. If you say the church is wonderful, the church will certainly be wonderful because you are wonderful. What is the church? The church is you. When you say that the church is bad, you are condemning yourselves." I further told the brothers that they must be aware of the subtlety of the enemy. They said, "What shall we do? To whom shall we go?" I said, "Don't go to anyone. Don't talk! Just go to the church meetings and praise the Lord." They asked, "Shouldn't we pray?" I replied, "Yes, you should pray, but don't pray negatively. Pray positively. The church has no problems. The church is glorious. The church doesn't need you to pray, 'O Lord, there is a problem.' You are the problem. The more you pray about the problem, the more you become the problem. Don't cause a problem and there won't be any problem. Go to the church meeting, praise the Lord, and pray positively."
We all must see through the wiles of the enemy. From now on don't talk about the condition of the church. Just go to the church meeting and praise the Lord. The church is the church. So, we have rest. Whenever you talk about the condition of the church, you will lose your rest. You will never have the foretaste of rest. If you go to the church meeting and praise the Lord, you will immediately be in the foretaste of rest.
The fulfillment of rest is the rest of the millennium, the thousand-year kingdom. According to Hebrews, there is a rest promised for God's people, and we all must labor to enter into that rest (Heb. 4:1, 3, 9, 11). If we do not endeavor to enter into that rest, we will miss it. The way to enter into that rest is to experience the foretaste today. If we have the foretaste, we will certainly enter into the full taste. If we don't have the foretaste of that rest today, we will miss the full taste to come. During the rest of the millennium, the saints will be fully like Christ, expressing God's glory (1 John 3:2; Col. 3:4; 1 Thes. 2:12). The saints will reign with Christ (Rev. 20:6).
The consummation of rest is the rest in the new heaven and the new earth. All the redeemed ones as one Body will express the glory of God for eternity (Rev. 21:11, 23). Also, all the redeemed ones as one Body will reign for God for eternity (Rev. 22:5b). That will be the consummation of rest. Rest in Genesis 2 was simply a type; the consummation will be in the New Jerusalem. Everyone will be satisfied. Everyone will have rest because God Himself will be satisfied and God Himself will find His rest there. The church life today is a miniature of the New Jerusalem. The church life is a foretaste of that full taste. The consummate rest mainly includes two items: the expression of God's image and the exercise of God's authority.
If you read Genesis 1 carefully, you will see that after God created man He didn't tell him to do anything. God simply spoke about man's eating (Gen. 1:29).
According to the calendar of the Bible, a day does not start in the morning, but in the evening. I believe that man was made late on the sixth day. When man came out of God's creating hand, he immediately entered the seventh day. The seventh day was to God the day of rest (Gen. 2:2-3). God's seventh day was man's first day. This means that God had prepared everything for man's enjoyment. After man was created, he didn't join in God's work; he entered into God's rest. Hallelujah! Don't think that you must do something. God doesn't need you to do anything. God has plenty of riches and He wants you to come and enjoy them. Don't work! If you try to work, God will say, "Foolish child, I have no work for you to do, but I do have great riches for you to enjoy. Come, join Me in My rest. My sabbath day is your first day. I have worked for six days. Now, come and join Me in rest as your first day. Let us go together and rest." Man did.
I have spent a good deal of time to find out what man did after he was created. I found out that he did nothing but eat and rest. Isn't this wonderful! After people are saved, they always think that they must do something. Forget about doing. Come to eat Jesus. Come to be satisfied. Come to join God in His rest. God will say, "Little child, forget your doing. Forget your working. I have done everything. Now is My time to rest. Come to join Me in My rest."
In 1936, I was working in north China, very burdened for the Lord's work. The work was hard and testing and circumstances were difficult. I would ride by bicycle to the suburbs, throw it down, fall flat on the ground and cry, "Lord, help me!" I was bothered and tested. One day, before giving a message, the word came to me and said, "Do you know that man's first day is God's seventh day? God's seventh day was man's first day. Why do you labor so hard? Stupid child, give up. Throw away your work. Just come to Me and join Me in My rest." On that Sunday morning I gave a message that God's seventh day was man's first day. I told people, "Hallelujah! Today is my first day. For months I have been laboring very hard, but now I am throwing away my work. I will labor no longer. Today I have begun to rest with God. His seventh day is my first day." You may ask, "What about the day after the seventh day?" That was the first day of the week, the Lord's day, a new rest and a new sabbath. Praise the Lord!
The Pharisees forced every man to be for the sabbath. The Lord condemned them, telling them that they were absolutely wrong. He said that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath (Mark 2:27). Hallelujah! Man's destiny is not work — it is the sabbath.
Whenever God is satisfied, you are satisfied. Whenever you are satisfied, that is a proof that God is at rest. He is satisfied.
Don't work. Just take care of one thing: to let God reach His goal. What is God's goal? God's goal is to have His image expressed and to have His dominion exercised. As long as you have God's image expressed and God's dominion exercised to deal with His enemy, God has reached His goal. God will say, "I am satisfied." Then you will say, "God, I am satisfied too." Thus, you rest with God.
All the aforementioned rests are due to the fact that God has reached His goal and man enjoys the rest with God. Praise the Lord! This is wonderful.
I am so happy that the Lord has afforded us the opportunity to release these nine messages on Genesis. From these messages we can see that everything written in the divine record is fully focused on life. Genesis 1 and 2 are simply an outline. The biographies of the eight men — Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph — will present the full picture. Eventually we will see that Jacob and Joseph are coupled together. These two are actually one man: Jacob becomes Israel, the prince of God, bearing the image of God; Joseph becomes the one to rule over everything, exercising God's dominion. At the end of Genesis, we will see a dual man: one aspect — Jacob — expressing God's image and the other aspect — Joseph — exercising God's dominion. God's image is expressed, God's authority is exercised, and there is rest. Hallelujah!
The whole Bible, with all its stories, histories, biographies, and teachings, is focused on life. This life will produce the expression of God and the representation of God. God will be manifested and His enemy will be dealt with. Hallelujah! Then there will be ultimate rest in this universe. We thank God for the Old Testament and the New Testament. Without the New Testament, it would be difficult for us to understand the allegories, types, figures, and shadows of the Old Testament. However, without the Old Testament, we would have only the direct words of the New Testament. We would lack the pictures. Praise the Lord that we have both testaments. We have the pictures and we have the clear words that we may know where we are — in God's image and God's dominion. We shall be in God's rest. We need to remember the five crucial words that we have covered thus far — image, dominion, blessing, satisfaction, and rest. When we bear the image of God expressing Him, we will have the dominion of God representing Him. Then His full blessing will be upon us and we will be satisfied. Eventually, God and we will all rest in full satisfaction under His blessing with His image and dominion.
