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.
2) God Blessed Man to Be Fruitful
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.
3) Man and All Other Living Creatures Were Satisfied
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.
4) Everything Was Very Good
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.
5) God Rested—God Was Satisfied
God rested because He was satisfied (Gen. 2:1-3). This was the
last item of the ultimate consummation—God rested and was satisfied.
a) The Reason for Rest
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.
b) The Miniature of Rest—the Rest of Creation
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.
c) The Types of Rest
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.
d) The Foretaste of Rest
The rest we experience now is a foretaste of rest because the full
rest has not come.
(1) With the Saints
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.
(2) With the Church as the Body
With the church as the Body, God is expressed and Satan is dealt
with (Eph. 1:23; 3:19b; 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.
e) The Fulfillment of Rest—the Rest of the Millennium
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).
f) The Consummation of Rest
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.
g) Man Also Rested with God
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).
(1) God's Seventh Day Was Man's First Day
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!
(2) The Sabbath Was Made for Man
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.
(3) Man Rests Because God Rests
Whenever God is satisfied, you are satisfied. Whenever you are
satisfied, that is a proof that God is at rest. He is satisfied.
(4) Man Rests When God's Work on Man Reaches His Goal
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.
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