Message Four

The Prerequisites of the Believers’ Building Up
in the Church, the Body of Christ
(1)

Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18; 18:19; 12:28;
John 17:21-23; Psa. 133:1-3

1. We must realize that the Lord loves and wants to have a built-up church, not scattered individuals—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 5:25; Acts 13:22; cf. 1 Kings 8:17:
   1. The principle of Babylon, apostate Christendom, is that of division, confusion, and scattering; God’s people are scattered, with each one going his own way and direction—Gen. 11:1-9; Judg. 21:25.
   2. The principle of the Lord’s building of His church is that of gathering; we are gathered by the Lord out of all kinds of occupations and frustrations into Himself on the genuine ground of oneness—Matt. 18:20; Deut. 12:5, 8; 16:16.
2. We must acknowledge that all the believers have been baptized in one Spirit into one Body and that God has placed the members in the Body and blended all the Body together—1 Cor. 12:13a, 18, 24:
   1. As the Spirit is the sphere and element of our spiritual baptism, and as in such a Spirit we were all baptized into one organic entity, the Body of Christ, so we should all, regardless of our race, nationality, and social rank, be this one Body—vv. 12-13; Col. 3:10-11.
   2. Every believer is an indispensable member of the Body, and “God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, even as He willed”—1 Cor. 12:18:
      1. We should not despise ourselves and covet the work of others—v. 15.
      2. We should not be proud and despise others, thinking that we are all-inclusive and that we are better and more useful than others—v. 21.
   3. God has blended all the different members of Christ together into one Body; to be blended means to be tempered and crossed out, learning how to follow the Spirit to dispense Christ for His Body’s sake—v. 24; cf. 2 Chron. 1:10.
3. We must be in harmony with the fellow believers and be in one accord with the Body in prayer, which issues in the establishment of the church—Matt. 18:19; Acts 1:14:
   1. The two most important matters in the Scriptures are being mingled with God and being one with all the saints; the oneness is like a thermometer—it can tell us how much we are in the mingling—Lev. 2:4-5; 1 Cor. 10:17.
   2. The one accord is the practice, the application, of the oneness—Acts 1:14:
      1. In Matthew 18:19 the Lord spoke of two praying together on earth in harmony, in one accord; to say Amen in response to others’ prayer is an indication of our one accord—1 Cor. 14:16; 1 Chron. 16:36; cf. Rev. 3:14.
      2. The way for us to be blended with others is through prayer with the exercise and release of our spirit so that others can hear, understand, agree with, and thus say Amen to our prayer—Hymns, #846.
4. We must practice the oneness of the Divine Trinity in the Divine Trinity as the Divine Trinity does—John 17:21-23; cf. Gen. 1:26a:
   1. The three of the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—are continually practicing the divine oneness; the beauty and excellency in the Divine Trinity is the oneness, harmony, and coordination in the Divine Trinity:
      1. Matthew 12:28 reveals that the Son as the center of the Divine Trinity was altogether not by Himself, for Himself, or to Himself; whatever He did was by the Spirit of God and for the kingdom of God the Father.
      2. If we want to be coordinated with all the members of the Body in the oneness and harmony of the Divine Trinity, we should follow the pattern of our Head by not doing anything by ourselves or for ourselves; what we do should be by the indwelling, pneumatic Christ as our humility and selflessness for our Father’s heavenly kingdom, perfect will, and eternal glory—6:8-13.
   2. John 17 reveals the believers’ oneness incorporated with the oneness of the Divine Trinity—vv. 11, 21, 23:
      1. We practice the oneness of the Divine Trinity by the divine life with its source, the divine name of the Father; the Father’s name is the source of our oneness, and His life is the element of our oneness, delivering us from the natural realm—vv. 2-3, 6, 11-12, 26.
      2. We practice the oneness of the Divine Trinity by the divine word as the truth that sanctifies the believers from the world; the Father’s sanctifying word is the means of our oneness, delivering us from the world—vv. 14-19.
      3. We practice the oneness of the Divine Trinity by the divine glory—the divine sonship with the Father’s life and nature as the divine right to express the Father; the Father’s glory is the expression of our oneness, delivering us from ourselves—vv. 22, 24.
   3. Psalm 133 reveals the commanded blessing of God the Father on the believers’ living in the oneness of the Divine Trinity under the spreading ointment of God the Spirit and the descending dew of Christ the Son—cf. 2 Cor. 13:14:
      1. The anointing oil as the compound ointment is a type of the processed Triune God, the all-inclusive compound Spirit—Psa. 133:2; Exo. 30:23-25:
         1. We are in the oneness which is the processed Triune God anointed, or “painted,” into our being—2 Cor. 1:21-22; 1 John 2:20, 27.
         2. Day by day in the church life, all the ingredients of the divine and mystical compound ointment are being wrought into us; through the application of these ingredients to our inward being, we are spontaneously in the oneness—Eph. 4:3-4.
      2. The dew signifies the descending, refreshing, watering, and saturating grace of life (1 Pet. 3:7); grace is the pneumatic Christ experienced, received, enjoyed, and gained by us—Psa. 133:3; John 1:16-17; 1 Cor. 15:10; Gal. 2:20:
         1. By remaining in the church life, we are preserved in the Lord’s grace—Acts 4:33; 11:23.
         2. By the grace we receive on the mountains of Zion, we can live a life that is impossible for people in the world to live—20:32; 2 Cor. 12:7-9.
      3. The more we experience Christ as the life-giving Spirit, the more our natural constitution and disposition are reduced; as they are reduced through our experience of the Triune God with His divine attributes, we are perfected into one for the Father’s glory—John 17:23; Eph. 4:1-3.