Turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew 7, verse 20:
By their fruits ye shall know them.
Ephesians 1, verse 4:
According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love.
Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
The Gospel according to Mark, Mark 10, verse 45:
For verily the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.
Second Corinthians 4. We begin with verse 1:
Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not:
but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish:
in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
And then finally, Matthew 16, verse 18. The Lord said to Peter:
And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Let us look to the Lord.
Lord, we do commit these words into Thy hands. We ask Thy Holy Spirit to open Thy Word to us. We pray that revelation and light may be given. We pray that life may be the result, and we pray that Thou wilt be glorified. In Thy precious name, amen.
We have been considering together this theme of life—eternal life. We believe that the issue that God puts before man is none other than this issue of life.
In other words, in God’s dealings with us, and in our dealings with God, if we may put it that way, it is always just a matter of life. God’s question to us is, “Is it life?” And our answer to God is also, “Is it life?”
If it is life, it is of God. It is acceptable to God. It glorifies God. If it is not life, no matter what it is, it is not of God. It will not glorify God, and it is rejected by God. So life is the issue.
But, of course, when we talk about life, we do not mean that fallen, natural life of Adam. We mean the life of God—the uncreated life.
That life has been offered to us in Christ Jesus.
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.
This is the life that God wants us to have—not only to have it, but to have it more abundantly.
We have also mentioned the law of life. Every life has its own law. The fallen, natural life of Adam is under the law of sin and death. But thank God that the new life we receive in Christ Jesus is given by a different law. It is the law of the Spirit of life.
There will be a battle for life going on, because the flesh within us always lusts against the Spirit. But thank God, the Spirit lusts against the flesh too. The result is that we will not do what we naturally want to do, but we will be able to do what God wants us to do.
This battle for life not only goes on within us; we find that it is also a battle around us. We are surrounded by circumstances, and the Holy Spirit so arranges our circumstances that they seem to press upon us in order to bring out the resurrection life that is in us.
So far as we ourselves are concerned, we are always put to death. But thank God, there is a life that overcomes death. So out we come, and we find this is the way that life grows.
Now this morning, we would like to share together on this matter of the practicality of life. Life is not a theory for us to contemplate. Life is real. It is living. It is practical.
Life is not an end in itself. Life is unto purpose. Wherever there is life, there will be expression, and these expressions lead us to the fulfilment of purpose.
Now, what is life for? The Lord Jesus said, “I am come that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” Now that we have life, and probably have it more abundantly, then what? What is this life for? What is the purpose of life? What is its expression?
First of all, I think it is very common and very simple: life is for living. What is life for? It is for living.
Life is that power that generates daily living. If the life within us, all the life that we live by, is the natural life—the old life of Adam—then you will find, when that life is lived out, that living is simply selfish. It is predictably so, inevitably so. What kind of life determines the kind of living.
But if the life within is the uncreated, divine life, then we find that the living will be spiritual, holy, and righteous. It is the kind of life that determines the kind of living.
We know from the Word of God that God has chosen us even before the foundation of the world. But why did He choose us? What is the purpose of choosing us? Ephesians 1:4 says that we have been chosen before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and blameless before God in love.
In other words, God wants us to live holy and blameless before Him. This is the kind of living that God expects of us.
Even before we knew the Lord, before we were saved, we knew that the law of God was already inscribed upon our hearts. We may not have had the Ten Commandments that the children of Israel received by the hand of Moses, but we had the law of God inscribed upon our hearts.
Because the law of God was inscribed upon our hearts, we knew what kind of living God expected of us, even before we believed in the Lord Jesus.
Of course, we tried to live up to what the law of God within us told us. But we could not. We failed, because no one is justified by works. Our righteousness is all as filthy rags before God.
The same God—one day we realized that we could not do it. We could not give God what He demanded of us. We could not live such a holy life, such a spiritual life.
So we came to the Lord Jesus just as we were and believed in Him. His blood cleanses us from all our sins, and He gives us a new life.
But, dear brothers and sisters, the problem is this: He has given us a new life, but we do not know what that life is for.
After we believe in the Lord Jesus, of course, this sense that God requires a holy living is increased in us. Our conscience is now purified, so it becomes keener and more alert. We know what God’s will is. We know that we need to please God. That sense has greatly increased after we believe in the Lord Jesus.
But unfortunately, instead of living by the life that God has given to us for that very purpose, we still go back to our own life and try to live up to the standard.
In other words, we still believe there is some good in us—in the flesh. Formerly, we used the flesh to serve sin, to commit sin: bad flesh. But now we use good flesh to serve God.
We try to live up to God’s requirement, to live a holy life, a blameless life before God. And, brothers and sisters, we all have had the experience that Paul had in Romans 7: we could not do it.
To live before God holy and blameless is something that no one can do. There is only One Who can do it, and that is our Lord Jesus.
Therefore, you will find that the question here is not a changed life. We think that we have believed in the Lord Jesus, therefore we have changed, and now we can live a holy and blameless life. No, we have not changed.
What we need is an exchanged life, and that is what God has given to us. He does not try to change our flesh and make it holy. On the contrary, He says that it goes to the cross; it needs to be crucified and gotten rid of.
He has given us an entirely new life—an exchanged life. In other words, from now on we are to live not by our own life any longer, but by the new life that He has given to us.
If we know this secret, then, brothers and sisters, it is possible to live before God holy and without blemish.
The apostle Paul said:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
So, brothers and sisters, what is life for? Life is for living. Who is living in you? Is it you yourself—your old self, your good flesh—that tries to live? Or is it Christ Who lives in you?
We often say that the gospel is a full gospel. The gospel we preach to the sinner is that you do not need to die because Someone has died for you. But then you find that the gospel to believers is this: you do not need to be afraid to live, because there is Someone Who lives for you.
You know, the more you try to live the Christian life, the more fearful you become, because you find it is impossible. You cannot live a holy and blameless life. It is not there.
But thank God, you do not need to be afraid to live, because there is One Who lives for you, and He is living in you. Just let Him live, and you will find that that life is holy, blameless, and pleasing to God.
So far as our living is concerned, you know, it is many-dimensional. First, we live before God. Then we live before man. And we live before our enemy. It is three-dimensional.
How do we live before God? There is only one way to live before God, and that is to live by the life of His Son. We are accepted in the Beloved.
If we try to approach God by ourselves, we will be smitten to death. Why? Because God is a living God. He is very jealous about life. Anything that is not life, yet comes into His presence, will be smitten to death.
We remember the story in the Old Testament. We remember Cain. He came into the presence of God; he wanted to worship God. But how did he worship God? He brought the produce, the best of his produce, the work of his own hands, and the best of his own hands. He tried to approach God with this, and the Bible says he was utterly rejected.
We remember Nadab and Abihu, the two sons of Aaron. They wanted to worship God. They wanted to offer incense. But in their drunkenness, instead of using the fire that came from heaven, they used strange fire. The result was that fire came out from the presence of God, and they were consumed.
We remember Uzzah. When the ark was carried on an ox cart, the ox stumbled and the ark was falling. Uzzah put out his hand to hold the ark, and he was smitten to death.
In other words, when we come to God, if it is not life—the life of God Himself—if it is not the power of that resurrection life, if it is our efforts, our strength, our ideas, our natural life, brothers and sisters, you will find that death will be the result. God is jealous.
Therefore, when we come to God, when we live before God, when we have relationship with God, brothers and sisters, it is a matter of life. Is it life?
For instance, we come to worship God. Do we worship God with beautiful words, with noble thoughts, or merely with physical postures?
You know, in Old Testament times people worshipped God in a temple. One day our Lord Jesus spoke with a Samaritan woman. The Samaritan woman said, “You Jews worship in Jerusalem, and we Samaritans worship on this mountain. Now where should we worship?”
The Lord Jesus said that the time had come, and now is, when people do not worship on the mountain or in Jerusalem—here or there—but worship in spirit and truth.
When we come to worship God, it has to be in spirit and truth. It is not a matter of place or time. It is not a matter of words. It is a matter of spirit and truth—in other words, a matter of life.
Is it life—the life that God has given to us? Out of this life, worship, adoration, love, and praises go back to God. That is worship.
Communion: we have communion with God. Now, how do we commune with God? True, we read the Bible and we pray. Those are means of communion. But we may read the Bible and study it with our minds while our spirits are not working. There is no revelation; it is merely mental exercise. Is there any communion between us and God? No.
We may pray out of our own minds. Is there any communion with God? No.
In order to have communion with God, you will find that it has to come from the heart. It is heart-to-heart fellowship. You receive the Word of God into your heart, not just into your mind.
When you pray, you pray in the Spirit. You do not merely pray out of your own mind. So you find that it has to be a matter of life. If it is not life, there is no relationship.
When we come to serve God, it is the same thing. We have to serve God out of the life that He has given to us. If we try to serve God with anything other than life, the result is death.
So, brothers and sisters, the life that we have received is for living, that we may live before God holy and without blemish.
The same thing is true in our life before men. The Lord Jesus said:
Ye are the salt of the earth.
Ye are the light of the world.
Now, how do we shine upon this world? How do we preserve this world from corruption?
You will find that the Sermon on the Mount is not addressed to the old life. The Sermon on the Mount is addressed to the new life that is in us. In other words, it is only by that life within us that we are able to do what the Sermon on the Mount requires.
First, He puts life in us, and then He tells us that this is the way that life will express itself. It is by the life within us, naturally and spontaneously, that we are able to do what the Lord has instructed us to do.
No one can keep the Sermon on the Mount. No one can even keep the Ten Commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount is I do not know how many times more demanding than the Ten Commandments. If we cannot keep the Ten Commandments, how can we keep the Sermon on the Mount? It is impossible.
But thank God, He has given us a life. It is not we ourselves who keep it. It is the life within us that is the natural expression of that life. It is not work; it is fruit. It is not effort; it is the spontaneous result of life.
The same thing is true as we live before the enemy. Brothers and sisters, we have an enemy. That enemy is strong and tricky.
How can we face the enemy? If we try to fight against the enemy by ourselves, apart from the life of Christ within us, he is stronger than we are. He is more clever than we are. We are not able to stand against him.
But thank God, it is by the life of Christ within us that we overcome the enemy.
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.
How can we stand before the accuser? He is always accusing us. Sometimes his accusation has some fact in it. Many times there is no fact in it; it is only exaggeration and false accusation. But anyway, you find the accuser is always accusing us, trying to lead us away from Christ.
But we thank God there is the blood of the Lamb. Whenever the accuser accuses, we claim the blood of the Lamb, and it cleanses us from all our sins.
And then there is the word of their testimony. What is our testimony? Our testimony is not something concerning ourselves. Our testimony is something concerning our Lord—in other words, the testimony of Jesus: Jesus is Lord. That is our testimony.
Whenever the enemy tries to come and attack us, we declare that Jesus is Lord, and the enemy will flee.
“They loved not their lives even unto death.” In other words, they loved not their soul-lives. You know, if we love our soul-life, our self-life, then the enemy has ground to overcome us.
But thank God, we accept the cross. We love not our soul-life even unto death. We have already delivered our soul-life to the cross, and the enemy has no ground whatsoever to attack us or to overcome us.
So, brothers and sisters, how do we live on this earth before God, before man, and before the enemy? Not I, but Christ. That is the way to live. Any other way will be defeat and failure.
Thank God, it is not I; it is Christ Who lives in us.
You know, it will be very helpful when we wake up in the morning to tell the Lord Jesus, “Lord, here is another day. Thank You. It is not I who live; it is You Who live in me.” Here we take that stand.
Then you will find that the Holy Spirit will make it real throughout the day. Life is for living.
Secondly, life is for ministry. Life is for living—that is personal. Life is for ministry—that is corporate.
You know, we do not just live for ourselves. Thank God, we have received this life. Perhaps because we really seek after the Lord, we are willing to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow the Lord. Therefore, we may enter into life more abundantly. But what is that for?
Do we want to become spiritual? Do we want our lives to be abundant so that everybody will admire us? Then we will be like a monument standing there for people to look at. Certainly not.
Life is not just for ourselves. If, by the grace of God, He has given us life—and even life more abundantly—there is a reason for it. It is not for our own boasting. It is for service, for ministry, that we may serve our brothers and sisters.
You remember our Lord Jesus said:
For verily the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.
Our Lord Jesus came into this world. This life that came into the world was not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. In other words, this life is a giving life.
It is just the opposite of the old Adamic life. You know, the Adamic life is selfish in nature. The Adamic life is always taking, getting something, and never giving. We want to receive and receive and receive, but we never want to give. It is just our nature—the Adamic life.
But, brothers and sisters, what is Christ’s life? Christ’s life is a life that gives, always gives. Whatever God has given freely to you, you freely give.
Life is not meant to be wasted. Life is meant to be used. So whatever degree of life that God has given to you, brothers and sisters, remember: it is for you to serve, that you may be able to serve your brothers and sisters.
Now, what is ministry? What is service? Ministry is the ministering of life. Or, you may put it another way: ministry is the ministering of Christ.
Ministry is not the ministering of doctrine, teaching, method, technology, organization, or form. This is not ministry. Ministry is the ministering of life.
What the world needs is not teaching, doctrine, organization, or method. The world has lots of methods, lots of organizations—too much of it. The world has lots of doctrines, and doctrines divide. What the world needs is life.
When you minister to your brothers and sisters, are you ministering life to them, or are you merely ministering a teaching to them? If it is merely a teaching, perhaps it is a correct teaching, but you will find that it comes out of your mind and touches the other person’s mind. That is all.
But if the ministry is a ministry of life, even though it may come in teaching, and you may be teaching something, if it comes out of life, you will find that it reaches into the very life of that person, and that person’s life will be increased. It is a ministry of life.
In order to minister life, we need two things. First, life needs to be increased in us.
You know, oftentimes we find that we have nothing to share. We have nothing to serve. We feel that our life is so weak, so feeble, so young. We feel there is nothing by which we can help other people. Well, we need life to be increased in us. That is the first thing.
The second thing is this: after life is increased in you, then you need to know how to release that life. You may have much life within you, but it may all be imprisoned there and not released. Then people do not receive that help.
So, when we come to this matter of service or ministry, first we need to see how this life—the Christ-life in us—may be increased. Then secondly, how can it be released?
Now, how is life increased in us? We mentioned the other day that the life in us is the life of Christ. The life that God has put in us is a perfect and complete life.
You cannot add to or improve upon the life of Christ. Sometimes we may think that an increase of life means an improvement upon the life of Christ. That is impossible. No, brothers and sisters, the life that is in you is a perfect life, a complete life. There can be no improvement and no addition. It is full and complete.
What do we mean by life being increased in you? It does not mean that the life of Christ is increased. It simply means that that life has more place in you.
The life is there; it is full, but it is squeezed, as it were.
For instance, this room. We know that this room is full of air. The air fills this room, but here we are. We have chairs, we have people here, and you find that wherever we are, we displace the air.
If we fill this room with other things, then we squeeze the air into a tight spot. But suppose we remove everything from this room. Everybody goes out; all the chairs are moved out, and it becomes empty. Well, by emptying, it is filled with the air.
The same thing is true in our spiritual life. The secret of life increase is emptying.
Indeed, brothers and sisters, there is so much rubbish in us. There is so much of the world in us. There is so much of ourselves in us. There is so much that is not of God in us, so much that is not life in us. We are literally filled with all this rubbish.
We need to be emptied. The Holy Spirit will do the work. He will convict us of something. You know, when the Holy Spirit convicts us, mostly it is too much, not too little.
In other words, when He comes with such conviction, He says, “Now, here is something that should not be there. That needs to be removed.” The way of removing it is by the cross—the inworking of the cross.
When the Holy Spirit applies the cross to our lives and puts to death the things that are not of God, that is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:
Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.
We need to know the dying of Jesus. We need to see the cross applied to our lives, not only in the matter of sin.
You know, in Romans 5 through 8, when the cross is applied there, it is in the realm of sin. Our old man was crucified with Christ, that we might not be in bondage to sin.
But here in 2 Corinthians, you find that we need to be delivered unto death. It is self—our self-life—that needs to be delivered to death. By delivering it to death, life begins to be increased in us.
Self is the greatest hindrance to life increase. This self of ours has to be delivered to death. As we are emptied of ourselves, we will be filled with Him.
But after we are filled with Him, the second thing is that life needs to be released. Now, how can that life be released?
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. We are the earthen vessels, and the treasure is within us.
For the treasure, for the light of this treasure, to be released, what is needed is brokenness. Brokenness is the secret of the release of life.
How the outward man needs to be broken, that the inward man—the life of Christ—may be fully released.
Oftentimes, when we try to minister, it is because our outward man has not been broken. In other words, we try to keep our integrity. We try to protect ourselves. We are unwilling to be broken.
The result is that, even though we have that treasure in us, we still minister with the earthen vessel. It is the earthen vessel that ministers; it is not the treasure that is ministered. So here we need brokenness.
Then the life of Christ may come forth, be released, touch people, and truly build up people.
Thirdly, life is not only for living, and life is not only for ministry—to minister to other people. Life is for building.
The Lord Jesus said to Peter:
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
You know, God’s eternal will, or desire, is to have a house. Heaven is where His throne is; the earth is His footstool. But where does God live?
The heavens and the earth, we may say, are God’s office. But where does He live? You do not live in your office. You go there to work, and then you go back home.
Brothers and sisters, God’s desire is to have a house, a home. He wants to dwell in man. He wants to make man His house, His home.
That is God’s desire, even before He created the universe. He is always looking for a house, a habitation, where He can dwell, where He can rest, where He can find His satisfaction; where He is loved, worshipped, and served; where He is understood and appreciated; where He is able to be Himself, as it were.
God is always looking for that—not merely a building, but a home.
You know, sometimes a house can be a home. Other times, a house is merely a house; it is not a home. Where there is no love, where there is no understanding, where you cannot be yourself and cannot relax, there is a house. You may have a house, but you do not have a home.
God is always looking for a house, a home.
The temple that Solomon built is only a type. Even Solomon himself, when he dedicated that temple, said:
But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded!
Surely, God would not live there. It was only that He put His name there. That is all.
How God has been looking for that house and home throughout the ages.
He can only dwell where He is comfortable with Himself. In other words, God is life. He cannot live in dead situations. He cannot do that. He will not be comfortable there, and He cannot rest.
That is the reason why one day the Lord Jesus said, “You are Peter. You are a stone—a living stone.”
“I will build My church upon this rock”—the foundation, which is Christ Himself, the Living One—and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Well, where is that house, that home of God? What is it made up of? Peter understood it. In 1 Peter 2:5, he said that as we come to the Lord, we all become living stones.
He is the Living Stone. Therefore, when we come to Him, we all become living stones from the same rock. He is the Rock of Ages, the Living One. He is alive forevermore, and He holds in His hand the keys of death and of Hades. This is what our Lord Jesus is: He is the Living One, Who lives forever.
When we come to the Lord Jesus, we become living stones with His life. The Lord says, “You are a living stone. I will build My church with these living stones, and with many other living stones like you.”
What is life for? Why does God give His life to you and to me? Because He wants to use that life in you and me to build for Himself a house, a home.
You know, the life in us is the building block. Oftentimes we think, “Well, what is the church? How does God build His church?” We say, “God saves this one, God saves that one, and God saves us. Then He puts us together, and so He has the church.” No.
Why? Because even though we are saved, and we do love the Lord, and we come together and try to serve the Lord together, because there is so much Adamic life, God cannot rest.
We give Him too many problems. You have your idea, I have my idea, and you always think you are right and all the others are wrong. We are always fighting against one another, and there is no rest. How can God rest among us? There is no house, no home. This is not a building block.
The building block is the life in you and me. God uses life to build us together. It is life that joins us together. In spite of all our differences, thank God, we have one life, and that life is inseparable.
God uses that life to build us together. That is the building block.
You know, in the process of building, that place is filled with debris. Lots of things have to be cut off and chipped off so that you can fit together. That is the way it is.
Brothers and sisters, every one of us has a life He has given us, but there is ourselves too. So how can we be joined together?
He has to apply the cross to our lives. He has to chip off here and chip off there, especially our strength.
You know, when God builds us together, it is not so much weakness that is the problem. It is strength that is the problem.
You may be very strong in your will. You may have an iron will. That is the problem in building you together with other brothers and sisters. You always want to stand out by yourself, and your strong will has to be put down.
You may have a very clever mind. You have lots of ideas, and people can hardly follow you because when people begin to follow one idea, you already have another idea.
God has to deal with your clever mind.
You may be full of emotion. Everything is governed by your feeling. You just do not feel good, and if you do not feel good, you make everybody else feel not good. Now how can you be built together?
Or perhaps you have a charismatic personality. You dominate people. Now how can you be built together? It is our strength. God has to deal with us.
By dealing with us, we find that it is not you and I who are joined together. It is the life in you and the life in me that are joined together. That is the only way to be built together.
As we are being built together, then the Lord says, “That is where I will dwell.”
Psalm 132 is such a beautiful psalm. David had such a heart for the Lord. His affliction was that he was always thinking of finding God a house.
And the Lord said:
This is My resting-place for ever:
Here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
How beautiful that is, brothers and sisters. Why are we here? Why are we given His life? Why must life be abundant? For one reason: that God may have His house, His home, that He may dwell.
One day, when that work is finished, you find in Revelation 21 and 22 that holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming out of heaven:
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them.
God has His house. God has His home. This is what life is for.
Brothers and sisters, what is the use of life, even abundant life, if all these building stones are scattered around? What is the use of life, and even life abundant in us, if we are merely piled together? It is a waste of life.
God is the greatest economist. He does not want to waste His life. So remember, the life in you and me is for building.
Whenever trials come, whenever we find problems with our brothers and sisters, whenever we feel that it is too much and want to pull away, you will find that life within you says, “There is nowhere you can go. You have to be built up with your brothers and sisters.”
“I am in that person just as I am in you.” It is life that overcomes all the problems, all the difficulties, and all that God may have His house, His home.
So you find that life is very real, very practical.
Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, we trust Thy Holy Spirit to speak to each one of us, that we may see what life is for.
We pray that we may truly see that it is not only for our living and for our service; it is for Thee to provide fully a house.
Lord, how we do desire that Thou mayest say, “This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell.” And, Lord, we will be more than satisfied.
We commit ourselves afresh to Thee and ask Thee to build us together under the headship of Christ, that Thou mayest get what Thou hast sought through the centuries and ages.
To Thee be the glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.