This recording begins with the conclusion of Brother Kong’s message, “God’s Eternal Purpose, Part One” (SK 6199). The second message begins at 00:05:12.
Our Lord is the true resurrection. This corruptible becomes incorruptible, and this natural becomes spiritual. This is the true resurrection, brothers and sisters.
Today, the church is standing on the ground of resurrection. Today we have become a new creation in His grace. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. But all things are of God.
All things are in resurrection. All things will display Christ. So, brothers and sisters, this is the eternal purpose of God.
This eternal purpose of God will not only be realized in all things; first, it has to be realized in us who have received His gospel and believed in Christ Jesus. First, He has given us His own life. Then, through His Holy Spirit, He is working in us to eliminate all things of the old creation and to constitute Christ in us.
Until He becomes all in all in us, then He is going to use us. He is the Head over all things to the church, and He wants us to subdue all things and to sum up all things under the feet of Christ. This is the eternal purpose of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, we have to ask God to grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we can truly see this purpose in the depths of our hearts, so that this will can control our whole life—not only our own life, but also the life of the church.
Let us bow down and pray.
Our God and Father, we thank You and praise You. Although Your eternal purpose is a mystery, You have revealed it to us through Your apostles and prophets, so that we know that Your mystery is Christ.
We know that Your purpose is to have Your beloved Son be the Head of all things. We thank You and praise You that You have saved us in Your Son.
Lord, we want Your eternal purpose to be realized in us, and we offer ourselves to You. Through Your Holy Spirit, work in us so that Your Son may have first place in us and be the Head of the church.
Hear our prayer. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
This concludes SK 6199, “God’s Eternal Purpose, Part One.”
Let us turn first of all to Ephesians 3. We will read from Ephesians 3:1-12. I will read in Chinese, and my brother will read in English.
For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of you Gentiles,—
if so be that ye have heard of the dispensation of that grace of God which was given me to you-ward;
how that by revelation was made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words,
whereby, when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ;
which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
to wit, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,
whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of His power.
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages hath been hid in God who created all things;
to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God,
according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in Him.
Let us pay particular attention to Ephesians 3:11:
According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the eternal purpose which God purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us bow down and pray.
Our Lord, our God, we come before You with hearts full of thanksgiving and praise. We thank You because Your will is so beautiful.
We thank You, Lord, because You have set up Your Son to be the Head of all things. You have opened our eyes so that we can receive Your Son to be our Head.
We thank You, Lord, because what You have predestined in Your Son is so perfect. You have saved us in Your Son so that we may obtain sonship because of Your Son, and so that we may be His bride and His helper.
For such a wonderful purpose, we bow ourselves to worship You. We want to place this time before You. May Your Spirit enlighten and inspire us through Your own word, so that we can see Your glorious purpose in our hearts and be drawn to partake in Your will.
Hearken to our prayer. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Yesterday morning, we shared together concerning the eternal purpose of God, which He purposed in Himself. Before creation, God predestined this will in Himself, and that will is His own Son.
He wants His Son to be the Head of all things. He wants to sum up all things in the heavens and on the earth in Christ, His Son. He wants His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the Head of all things.
This will is truly a good will. It is a perfect will. It is indeed an acceptable will. Because God has established His Son to be the Head of all things, today we must allow Him to be the Head in each one of us, and we must allow Him to be the Head of the church.
The eternal purpose of God is concentrated on His Son. Therefore, today we need to know His Son.
The Apostle Paul told us in Philippians 3 that, since he met the Lord on the Damascus road, he considered all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. From that point on, he had only one wish, only one passion: to know Christ.
Because Christ is the eternal purpose of God, Paul said:
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death;
if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead.
Of course, that resurrection does not mean the ordinary resurrection. In the original language, it is an “out-resurrection,” or an “out-from-among resurrection.” It is the first resurrection according to the Bible.
So, brothers and sisters, if we know that the eternal purpose of God is in His Son, then we need to pursue and know His Son while we are still on this earth. There is nothing more important than this. We must come to know the Son of God.
This morning, we would like to go one step further. Yesterday morning we spoke about the eternal purpose which God purposed in Himself. This morning we want to share concerning the eternal purpose which God purposed in His Son, Jesus Christ.
There is a slight difference, but they are closely related. In Ephesians 1, God, before creation, had His good pleasure in Himself. Of course, in God Himself there is only One—the Son.
The eternal purpose which He predestined has to do with His beloved Son: that His Son should have preeminence in all things.
But what is this eternal purpose which is established in Jesus Christ? It is the church.
In Colossians 2:2, we are told that the mystery of God is Christ. A mystery means that there is a secret in God, and this secret requires revelation. If the secret is not revealed, it remains only in God and nobody else can understand it.
What is the secret in God? The secret in God is Christ.
In Ephesians 3:4, Paul speaks of “the mystery of the Christ.” In Colossians 2, it speaks of the mystery of God, and the mystery of God is Christ. But in Ephesians 3:4, it says, “the mystery of the Christ.”
In the original language, there is a difference between “Christ” and “the Christ.” Sometimes the Bible simply says “Christ”; at other times, the word has the definite article: “the Christ.” The Holy Spirit is very precise and accurate in His use of words. Whether there is an article or no article has meaning.
What does “Christ” refer to? Christ refers to Christ as a Person.
What does “the Christ” refer to? The Christ refers to the corporate Christ. Christ refers to Christ as a Person, but the Christ refers to the relationship between Christ and the church. He is the Head of the church, and the church is the body of Christ. Therefore, it is called “the Christ.”
But please, brothers and sisters, be careful. Although there is a difference between Christ and the Christ, you cannot separate Christ and the Christ. The Christ is the corporate expression of Christ the Person. Christ in Himself is Christ Himself; the Christ is Christ among us.
Paul tells us that he knew deeply the mystery of the Christ. In other words, he knew what the church is.
We know that the church is a mystery too. Perhaps today, in the concept of many brothers and sisters, we may think that the church is a very ordinary thing. We all know what the church is.
When we walk into a town and see a building with a tall tower and a large cross, we may say, “That is the church.” We have seen so many of them. But the Bible tells us that the church is the mystery of the Christ.
I hope that the Lord can open our eyes so that we can truly see that the church is the mystery of the Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 12:12, we are told:
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
In the original language, it says, “so also is the Christ.” Now, when we read this verse, we may think, “This is strange. How can it be put in this way?” We might say that the church is a body with many members, and that every believer is a member. Although there are many members, there is one body. Clearly, this is the church.
Yet how can it say, “So also is the Christ”? The Holy Spirit knows what He is writing. The Christ refers to the relationship between Christ and the church. So here it really speaks about the church, but it uses “the Christ” to represent the church.
The church is the Christ. If the church is not the Christ, then it is not the church. Dear brothers and sisters, please see this point very clearly: the purpose God has purposed in Christ is the church.
In Ephesians, there is a phrase repeated many times: “in Christ.” Anyone who reads Ephesians must pay attention to this, because “in Christ,” or “in Him,” occurs again and again.
All His fullness dwells in Christ, and we are made complete in Him. All things are in Christ. Outside of Christ, there is nothing. You and I are not outside Christ, and outside the Christ there is no church.
God has purposed this good purpose in Christ. Please remember: this good purpose is not purposed in you or in me. Let us not think that the purpose which God has is according to you or me. The purpose of God is according to Christ.
What has He predestined in Christ? He will prepare a bride for His Son.
He has given all things to His Son, but He is not satisfied. He wants to do something greater for His Son. Although all things are the property of His Son, although His Son has all these things and all things will display His glory, God is not satisfied.
He says, “I will prepare a bride for My Son, so that this bride may be suitable for Him, may be in union with Him, and may be a helper corresponding to Him.”
For this purpose, God has established a good purpose in His Son. He wants to give the church to His Son and prepare her for His Son to be His bride and helper.
When was this purpose predestined? The purpose was predestined before creation. Yet although this purpose was already predestined, it remained a mystery because it was hidden in the heart of God.
Men throughout the ages did not know this. Our God can keep a secret. Sometimes we tell our friend, “I am only telling you; please keep it,” but the one telling the secret often cannot keep it, and eight out of ten friends will not keep it either. We cannot keep a secret, but our God keeps His secret.
Over the ages and ages, nobody knew His will. Yet throughout the ages He often revealed something. If you have treasure or a secret in your heart, even though it is not yet the right time, sometimes you cannot help but reveal a little of it. Even when people hear it, they may not understand.
This is the secret which God has in Christ.
For example, in the creation of Adam and Eve, this secret was already revealed a little. God said that it was not good for the man to be alone, and He would prepare a wife and helper for him.
When Adam was created, he was alone. He did not have a wife or a helper. God brought all the animals that He had created before Adam, and Adam named each one of them. Adam was a genius zoologist; he did not need to go to school. He was the first man to name every animal.
But I believe that when God brought all these animals before Adam, the purpose was not merely for Adam to give them names. There was a deeper meaning.
God had said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” He wanted to prepare a wife for him. So God brought these animals before Adam. Some were very small; some were very large, like an elephant or an orangutan; some were like crocodiles.
When Adam saw each one of them, he could not find himself in any of them. He felt that none could truly be a match for him, and none could be his helper.
One after another, Adam could say, “I can rule over them, and I can give them names, but none can be my match. Why? Because it does not look like me.” This was the law of elimination, and each one was eliminated.
That is to say, in the creation, Adam could not find one suitable for him. Then God said, “Now I am going to make a wife for you.”
Perhaps if Adam had found one, he would have been satisfied. Maybe he would have seen a monkey and said, “This looks right.” Then he would have been miserable. But we thank God that each one was eliminated. Adam could then receive what God had prepared.
God put Adam to sleep and took one thing from his side. Today we say that it was a bone, but in the original language it simply says that one thing was taken out. I do not know whether man has one less bone than woman; the Bible simply says that one thing was taken out.
From this thing, a woman was created. A woman was built, just as a house is built. From that which was taken out of man, the woman was built.
Then God awakened Adam and brought the woman before him. Adam saw her and said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” In other words, “This is me.” He called her woman.
A man is called ish in Hebrew, and a woman is called ishah. Adam said, “This is me. This is truly the wife,” and she became his helper.
We have the knowledge of the New Testament, so we know that Adam is the first man and a type of the second Man, Christ. Eve is a type of the church. God was revealing His secret.
Again and again, God sought to reveal this secret. For example, in Genesis 24, Abraham knew that his son Isaac was about forty years old and still without a wife. So he sent his old servant to his former country to find a wife for Isaac, and he found Rebekah.
Genesis 24 is a chapter that young brothers and sisters should read, because it reveals to us the wonderful work of God. Abraham represents God the Father. Isaac is a type of the Son. The old servant represents God the Holy Spirit.
God had a desire for His Son. The Son Himself had not revealed His heart, but the Father, because of His love for the Son, wanted to prepare a wife for His Son.
Today it is the same. Many young men and women do not want to marry and want to delay it. Isaac was already forty years old and was not married, but the father was anxious. I believe that many brothers and sisters are anxious for their children.
The Holy Spirit was working. We see that God, in His sovereignty, made the arrangement. It was not the work of man. The Holy Spirit arranged the situation and brought Rebekah to Isaac.
This is a type of the relationship between Christ and the church. But at that time neither Isaac nor Rebekah knew about it, and in Old Testament times none of them knew.
In New Testament times, the Bible tells us that in the fullness of time Christ came into the world. He was born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive sonship.
Because we are flesh and blood, our Lord took a body of flesh and blood. He came into union with us, and He became a man. For this reason, He could become a substitute for us.
On the cross, He became our substitute. Out of His pierced side came blood and water, and God built the church out of the blood and water coming out of Christ.
This is what our Lord said: “I will build My church upon this rock.” The Lord Himself is the Rock. The church is built upon Him.
The blood that came out of Him cleanses our sins. The blood represents His life, and the water represents His life. This life is given to us. For this reason, we can be in union with Him.
God offers us to His Son to be His bride and His helper. Brothers and sisters, we thank and praise our God.
The secret which has been hidden in God through the ages has now been revealed. Paul tells us in Ephesians 3 that it has been revealed through the apostles and prophets.
Today, if we still do not know this, we have no excuse, because it has already been revealed to us, brothers and sisters.
The center of God’s heart is Christ, but the church is in union with Christ. Therefore, the church has a very important position in the eternal purpose of God.
Today we all know that we should pursue to know God and to know Christ, because Christ is the eternal purpose of God. But do we know that we also need to pursue to know the church? The church has a very important position in the eternal purpose of God.
Among brothers and sisters, particularly among those children of God who pursue Him, we all know that we need to pursue to know the Lord. Of course, this is right and good.
But when we pursue the Lord, it is very easy to fall into a danger: we may know only our personal experience of Christ and seek only to know the Lord personally. This is important, and it is good. But what is the result of this pursuit?
Do we have a secret desire in our heart that, if we pursue the Lord in this way, one day we may become like Madame Guyon? If our pursuit is only for our personal spiritual experience, then we will deviate into a very narrow idea of becoming a spiritual giant.
But if we read God’s word, we know that the eternal purpose which God has purposed in His Son is not a collection of spiritual giants. It is not an arm bigger than all the others, or a leg bigger than all the others.
If you have been to America, you may have seen some modern art by Michelangelo or others—an arm larger than the rest, something very strange. Once I was having dinner at a friend’s house. His daughter was an artist.
When I raised my head, I saw a painting on the wall. There was a table, with fruit and other food upon it, and it was very attractive. But in the middle of the table was a hand sticking out.
I asked my friend, “What does this mean?” He said that when his daughter was painting, she felt that something was lacking, so she drew a hand. But if a hand were sticking out from the table when you were eating, you could not eat.
So, brothers and sisters, what God has purposed in His Son from eternity past is not a collection of spiritual giants—single arms or single legs. What God wants is a body.
What God wants is for the members of the body to be fitted and built together. This is not strange or abnormal development; it is growth as a body, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. This is the eternal purpose which God has purposed in Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, we cannot only pay attention to how spiritual we should be. We have to be built up together with brothers and sisters.
If you are one who walks faster, you have to slow down your pace for your brothers and sisters. Consider Caleb and Joshua. Thirty years earlier, they were able to enter Canaan, but they were willing to wander with Israel in the wilderness so that the whole new generation of Israel could enter Canaan at the same time.
Brothers and sisters, what God wants in Christ is the church. It is not only you or me. Although your spirituality and mine are closely related to the spiritual growth of the church, our pursuit of spirituality is not for ourselves. It is for the church, and even more, it is for our Lord.
I hope, brothers and sisters, that we will not take the matter of the church lightly. We cannot play with the church, and we cannot take the church lightly, because the church is a very important matter in the purpose of God.
If Christ cannot obtain this church, then He is extremely lonely. If He cannot gain His church, then He does not have His helper. The Bible shows us clearly that, in the eternal purpose of God, the church has a very important position.
Our problem today is this: do we know the church? How do we know the church?
If we look around at present conditions, we can never know the church. If we turn back to look for the church in history, we will not be able to know the church accurately.
To know the church, we have to go back to eternity past. We have to go back to the original purpose which God purposed in Christ, because the church is beyond history.
The church was already there in the purpose of God, originally in the heart of God, for His Son. Let me make this a little deeper.
Before creation, in the mind of God, God had already given the church to His Son. Not only in His mind, but in fact God has given the church to His Son. Why? Because our God is beyond time.
With Him, when He has a thought, the thing is already established. Time refers to us. Today we live in time, so we see that the church is still being built and that our Lord has not yet obtained her in full.
But from the standpoint of God, the Lord has already obtained His church. In other words, the work of the Holy Spirit today is to bring into realization that which has already been accomplished.
The Holy Spirit is not making something out of nothing. Brothers and sisters, if you can see this, then you will not lose heart. No matter what conditions you see in this world, you can give thanks and pray, because you know that this is already done.
The church is a mystery. Is it truly a mystery? If we want to know the church, the Bible tells us that the church is the mystery of the Christ.
Because this is a mystery, we need revelation. Without revelation, you cannot understand or see through this mystery at all.
This mystery has been revealed through the holy apostles and prophets, and we have it written in the book of Ephesians. But, brothers and sisters, the principle of revelation is unchanged.
Although this mystery has been revealed and written in God’s word, and today we can read it, if we read it without receiving revelation, then it is only words written on paper. What we touch is dead letters, and we have not come to truly know the church.
To know the church, we need the Spirit to reveal it to us. Therefore, the first prayer of Paul is that the Father would grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the true knowledge of Him.
Without revelation, your knowledge is not true knowledge. You cannot do or work anything according to that knowledge.
Many people read the New Testament and say, “I have found the pattern of the church. Now I can rise up to build the church. I will appoint some to be elders and others to be deacons, and then the New Testament church will be here.”
What are you doing? Are you making yourself an apostle? Brothers and sisters, even though the mystery is already revealed in the Bible, if the Holy Spirit does not reveal in you what He has already revealed in the Bible, then you have not seen the church.
So we need to pray before God, asking Him to give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that we can truly see the mystery of the Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, if you can see the mystery of the Christ, I know for sure that it will greatly change you. The church is nothing else; the church is the Christ.
Whatever is not of the Lord is not in the church. Although on the surface the church is the gathering of us believers, in reality the church is Christ in you and Christ in me.
Years ago, I gave an example during a special conference. Brother T. Austin-Sparks was with us. I wanted to illustrate something for the brothers, so I gave a very simple formula. Brother Sparks did not particularly like that, because he liked to speak of high and deep things. If you have heard Brother Sparks speak, you know that his words were weighty words.
But I am a simple man. First, I asked Brother Sparks to excuse me. I said, “What is the church?”
Suppose there were only three Christians on earth today: Peter, James, and John. They are good Christians. If there were only these three Christians in the world, what is the church?
We may say, “Peter, James, and John gather together. This is the church.” But if this were so, the church would have many problems. Peter naturally wants to be the leader, and James and John also wanted to be leaders.
James and John even brought their mother, because their mother was related to the Lord Jesus. So if these three persons are the church, there are three heads of the church, and there will be divisions.
James and John were brothers, while Peter was only related to them. You can see that there would be divisions in the church. This will not work.
What is the church? The church is the Christ in Peter, plus the Christ in John, plus the Christ in James. That equals the church.
In another word, Peter, James, and John plus Christ does not equal the church. If that were so, then half the church might be spiritual and half carnal. That is not the church.
What is the church? It is the Christ in Peter minus Peter, the Christ in John minus John, and the Christ in James minus James. This is the church.
The church is not Peter, James, and John themselves. In reality, they have been dealt with by the cross, and the cross has taken away themselves. What remains is Christ Himself. This is the Christ. This is the church.
If this is the church, then what does it require of us? Any time the self comes out, we destroy the testimony of the church. In this matter, we need to be severely disciplined before God.
What is the church? The church is the body of Christ.
Ephesians 1:22-23 tells us that God gave Christ to be Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all.
The church is the body of Christ. A body is an organism; it is not an organization. The body is living. It is not a matter of rules and regulations. The body has the law of the Spirit of life.
The body cannot be separated from the Head. The body is one with the Head. All fullness dwells in the Head, and the fullness of the Head also dwells in the body.
Christ is the source of all abundance. The church is the fullness of this fullness. Christ is the Head of the body, and the church is the body of Christ.
Christ is the authority. The church carries out all the commands of the Head. This is the church.
What is the church? The church is the fullness of Christ. Think about it. Is the church as we see it today fullness, or is it illness and poverty?
Why can we not see the fullness of Christ? Because we have been filled with many other things. We need to be emptied of all things so that the fullness of the Head can fill the church. Then we can manifest the glory of the Lord.
What is the church? In Ephesians 2, we see that the church is one new man.
In the old creation there were many differences. In Ephesians 2, the greatest division was between Jews and Gentiles. There were differences of race, religion, and custom.
At that time, Jews and Gentiles did not come together. In the temple, there was the court of the Gentiles. Beyond it was the court of the women, and there was a sign declaring that the Gentiles must stop there. If a Gentile went further, he would die.
The Gentiles had no portion. They were outsiders. The Jews viewed the Gentiles as dogs because they considered the food Gentiles ate to be unclean. According to Leviticus, they ate kosher food, and therefore they considered the Gentiles unclean.
There was a great difference between Jews and Gentiles. They could not eat together, and they could not visit one another. If you came to a Jewish house, you might defile it.
But we thank the Lord. On the cross, the Lord took away the middle wall of partition. He made Jews and Gentiles one in Himself, so that we might become one new man and be brought before God. Now we can be reconciled to God.
Brothers and sisters, what is the church? The church is one new man. The old things are passed away; all things are become new.
In the church there is no distinction: no Jew or Greek, no circumcision or uncircumcision, no barbarian, no Scythian, no bondservant or free person. Christ is all and in all.
According to the original language, it is not merely that there is no division. If there were only no division, something of the old identity would still remain. But in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile; there is no Jew and no Gentile.
A Chinese person comes into the assembly, and the Chinese identity disappears. Who is there? A Christian. A Jew comes in, and he is simply a Christian. An American comes into the church, and the American identity disappears.
There are all kinds of divisions in the world, and they remain in the world. Do not try to eliminate all those differences in the world. The communists tried to break down such things, but there was no real change, because of sin.
But in Christ, in the church, all these differences are taken away on the cross. All these things belong to the old creation. In the new man, these things have no place.
So, brothers and sisters, let us remember that we are all brothers and sisters. We do not have these differences.
I remember Brother Watchman Nee. A brother ministered to him and cooked for him; we called him Brother Wang. He truly loved Brother Nee and cooked for him.
Brother Nee once said, “This tastes good.” Then Brother Wang cooked the same dish every day. He truly loved Brother Nee and used all his salary to buy food for him. He considered Brother Nee his master and himself Brother Nee’s servant.
When they came to the breaking of bread, he first wanted to see where Brother Nee was sitting. If Brother Nee sat in the front, Brother Wang would sit in the back, because he said, “I am the servant, and he is the master. I want to separate myself from him.”
But Brother Nee would bring him to his side, because in Christ we are all brothers. At home, there may be a difference between master and servant, and that is true. But in the church there is no such difference.
What is the church? The church is one new man.
The church is not only one new man. The Bible tells us that the church is the bride. The church is also the household of God.
This was told to us in Ephesians 2. There are two meanings of the house of God. A house is a household, a family; it is also a place where we live. In the Bible, both meanings are present.
The Bible says that now you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but members of the household of God. So we believers are in the same household. God has a household.
But in the house of God, there are only three members.