Conferences, Messages, and Fellowship(Vol.6)

《Conferences, Messages, and Fellowship(Vol.6)》

CONTENTS：

CONFERENCES, MESSAGES, AND FELLOWSHIP (6)

1. Preface

SECTION SIXTEEN: MISCELLANEOUS MESSAGES AND FELLOWSHIP

1. God's Christ and the Things of God (Chapter One Hundred Sixty)
2. Christ in the Law, Psalms, and Prophets (Chapter One Hundred Sixty-One)
3. Spiritual Reality—Three Views (Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Two)
4. The Work of the Holy Spirit (Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Three)
5. Light and Knowledge (Light Versus Knowledge) (Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Four)
6. The Place of Women (Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Five)
7. Anointing in Relation to Ministry (Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Six)
8. Enduement (Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Seven)
9. Law in Romans and Galatians (Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Eight)
10. The Christian's Relationship to the Law (Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Nine)
11. Free from Law (Chapter One Hundred Seventy)
12. The Lord's Prayer (Chapter One Hundred Seventy-One)
13. The Hannah Ministry (Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Two)
14. God's Eternal Purpose (Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Three)
15. Romans 12 (Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Four)
16. God's Building (Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Five)
17. Paul and Agabus (Guidance) (Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Six)
18. Priestly Ministry (Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Seven)
19. "The Joy of the Lord is Your Strenght" (Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Eight)
20. The Faith of God (Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Nine)
21. Faith (Chapter One Hundred Eighty)
22. The Cup (Chapter One Hundred Eighty-One)
23. Separation from the Wooden and Earthen Vessels (Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Two)
24. The Limitations of God (Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Three)
25. The Offense of the Lord (Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Four)
26. Fellow Workers (Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Five)
27. God's Ways (Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Six)
28. The Two Wills of God (Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Seven)
29. The Will of God (Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Eight)
30. The Suppression of Affections (Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Nine)
31. The Present Will of God (Chapter One Hundred Ninety)
32. Conformity (Chapter One Hundred Ninety-One)
33. The Four Aspects of the Lord's Death (Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Two)
34. Four Kinds of Discipline (Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Three)
35. Five Kinds of Forgiveness (Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Four)
36. Exposition on Luke 17:20-37 (Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Five)
37. Romans 14:1–15:7 (Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Six)
38. Hosea 14:5-8 (Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Seven)
39. The Book of the Revelation (Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Eight)
40. Revelation 1:9 (Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Nine)
41. Worship (Chapter Two Hundred)
42. Prayer (Chapter Two Hundred One)

PREFACE

Volume 46 of The Collected Works includes miscellaneous messages given by Watchman Nee throughout the period of time covered in Set 2 of The Collected Works. They are primarily notes on messages and fellowship from Sister Elizabeth Rademacher's collection. Since these notes were originally transcribed in English, translation from Chinese was not required.

SECTION SIXTEENMISCELLANEOUS MESSAGES AND FELLOWSHIP

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY

GOD'S CHRISTAND THE THINGS OF GOD

Scripture Reading: Col. 1:15-19; 2:6; Rom. 8:32; John 6:35; 8:12; 11:25; 14:6; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:10

Christ is the fullness of God. All the fullness dwells in Him. The word fullness is simple yet very puzzling. What does the phrase the fullness of God mean? We must turn to the Old Testament for an explanation. There God uses this word in a peculiar way. The Psalms say, "The earth...and the fullness thereof" (24:1), and "The sea and its fullness" (96:11). The earth and the fullness mean the earth and the things of the earth; the sea and the fullness mean the sea and all the things in the sea. Christ as the fullness of God means Christ is the things of God. The things of God as His fullness dwell in Christ.

What does Christ being the things of God mean? We understand that Christ is a person, and we think that there are things of God apart from Him. There are a thousand things, and there is Christ. But no! All things are in Christ. All the things of God are Christ. He said, "I am the bread." He did not say He was the giver of the bread; He is the thing called bread. He said, "I am the light." He did not say He is the giver of light. Again He said, "I am the resurrection and the life." He is the very thing itself.

We think of Christ as being a living person, but we also want to have some truth in addition to that. But He is the truth. He presented Himself not only as a person, as the Son of God, but also as the fullness of God. All the things of God are simply bits of Christ. Christ as a person is the very things of God. For us to know more of God and to receive grace from Him in practical issues, Paul not only tried to lead us to see that Christ is a person, but he also said that Christ was "made sin" (2 Cor. 5:21). He did not say that Christ had borne our sins, or that He was our deliverer, but that Christ had become sin, that is, He became a thing. In 1 Corinthians 1:30 Christ became wisdom to us. Wisdom is itself a thing and it comprises three things: righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. This verse does not say that He was our Justifier; it says that He is our righteousness. This verse does not say that He is the Sanctifier; it says that He is made unto us sanctification. It also does not say that Christ is our Redeemer; it says that He is made redemption unto us. He is the thing itself. Instead of saying that He is a person, this verse says that He is these things. What does all this mean?

According to our concept, God is a great Giver, a fountain, and His chief gift is His Son—the greatest gift that heaven could have ever made. But we also see that we need grace, peace, righteousness, goodness, etc. We need many things. Therefore, we come as those who are needy and ask for these things. Our needs are all different, so we think that the supplies must also be different. But this is not the way God works. We make the mistake of seeking these things as things. We seek righteousness, as if we receive Christ and then later receive righteousness. We seek sanctification, as if we receive Christ and then later receive sanctification. But if we have a vital relationship with the Lord, we get these things! This is a most important principle. We cannot have anything apart from Christ. This is the reason we find so many occurrences of the phrase in Christ in the New Testament. It is always in Him. Everything is in Him. We cannot receive anything apart from Him. We have to first get in touch with Christ and then we will receive the things.

First Corinthians 1:30 says that Christ has been made righteousness to us. The person becomes the thing. We all know that when we come before God, the question of righteousness arises. If we do not go out to visit someone, we do not think of our clothes! We think of them only when we have to meet someone. Only when we approach God does the question of what we appear in arise. The presence of God always produces a sense of the need of righteousness. Our first thought is, "What have I done?" or "What have I not done?" Our whole thought is on the thing. We wonder what we have to bring before God. Praise the Lord, our righteousness is not based on whether we have prayed, witnessed, or read our Bible. Christ is our righteousness! It is a great thing to see this. None of us could ever have true rest if this were not settled. We could easily be put out of the battle, and we would have ups and downs all the time. If we could only come to see that our righteousness is a person! My righteousness is not my patience, but Christ. My patience may fail, but not my righteousness. My love may wane, but not my righteousness, for my righteousness is not in me but in Christ. If He does not change, then my righteousness will never change. We try to look for some thing within. But we should not seek righteousness as a thing; we should seek Christ. Oh, to be delivered from things and to know Christ! He is the things of God! This is the foundation. Unless this question is fundamentally settled, there will be no rest. No matter how much I have failed, my righteousness has not changed. No matter how lofty a position I may have attained or how successful I may seem, my righteousness is still Christ. There is always a danger of looking at our attainments instead of Christ, or feeling that we have arrived at something. Someone may think that since he has not lost his temper, he can pray louder! No, it is not what we have or have not done; we do not stand on that ground but on the ground of the righteousness of Christ.

Praise the Lord! This is not all. Christ is made unto us sanctification. All righteousness has to do with God; that is, it is on the objective side. But because we are walking on the earth, we also need something subjective. How can we be meek, loving, and patient? We try to look into ourselves to find what we need and then go to God with these needs. We think of our needs in terms of things, perhaps meekness or humility, and we pray for them. We may pray a great deal and never get them. We think that we need a new part as if it were a question of parts and accessories! No, we need a new "car"! We need the Lord Himself, not a thing. If we seek patience we will never get it, but if we seek Christ we will get patience. The person leads to the thing. If we merely have patience, what we have belongs to the natural life and is not divine. God does not dispense things. God has only one answer to all of our difficulties—His Son. God has only one remedy and that is His Son. God does not give us power to be holy, but He lets His Son live His life of holiness in us and through us. Our life on earth has nothing to do with things, even divine things; our life has to do with Him. It is not that we fight and try to resist, but that He does it all. Whatever lack we have, we can trust Him to be the answer to that lack. I cannot emphasize the word be too much. When He is obeyed, trusted, and believed, we will find that Christ has been made unto us that very thing. So, what need have we? We may think that all our needs are different, but the fullness of Christ answers them all.

Christ is made unto us redemption. This is looked upon as being something in the past, but the full effect of it will be manifested in the future. It will be manifested at our translation, or resurrection, at the redemption of our body. How can we be raised? Christ is our redemption. What does that mean? It is Christ who is going to be taken up. Something of Christ in us is going to be raised. I was once at the funeral of a brother, and there were two funerals going on at the same time. I asked a bystander a question. Pointing to our brother who had gone to be with the Lord, I said, "Do you know what we are doing to his body?" "Burying him," the bystander answered. "Oh, no," I replied, "The man who is not a Christian is being buried." "Then what are you doing with him?" he asked. I said, "We are planting him." There is a difference between burying and planting. With the latter there is something that will come up. Nothing in us will survive death; only Christ will survive death. What makes it possible for us to come up? The Lord of life who cannot be held makes it possible. Anything that does not come from heaven can never go into heaven. Nothing of ourselves will ever be raised; only the Lord will be raised. Now we can see why Paul said, "To know Him" (Phil. 3:10). Hence, it is "Who will deliver me?" (Rom. 7:24), not "What will deliver me?" It is a question of who. Our experience is not one of adding one experience of grace to another experience of grace. We grow, but we grow in the knowledge of the Lord. This knowledge is the knowledge of Him as all the things.

Romans 8:32 says, "With Him freely give us all things." All things are with Him because all things are in Him. Blessed be the name of the Son of God! (Recorded by P.D.)

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-ONE

CHRIST IN THE LAW, PSALMS,AND PROPHETS

Scripture Reading: Luke 24:25-27; Heb. 11:24-26; John 12:41; 8:56; Acts 2:25-28, 30-31; 1 Cor. 7:25b, 40b

When our Lord was on the earth, He plainly stated that He could be found in the Old Testament: in the books of Moses, in the psalms of David, and in the prophetic writings. We readily admit that, in addition to the law, psalms, and prophecies in the Old Testament, there is also Christ. My question today is not, "How many places can we find Christ in the law, psalms, and prophecies?" My question is, "How can we find Christ there?" I am not asking how many passages refer to Christ, or how many passages tell us things about Him. I am asking how did He come to be in the Scriptures at all? How is this possible? He is not only spoken about in the Scriptures, He Himself is in the Scriptures. We see Christ in the law and say, "Here are the types of Christ." We see Christ in the psalms and say, "Here are the messianic psalms." We see Christ in the prophets and say, "Here are the prophecies of Christ." When we think of Christ being in the Scriptures, we think in terms of types, messianic psalms, and prophecies. But is Christ merely written about in the Word of God, or is there something beyond this? We read of Joseph and others and speak of them as being types of Christ, because there was much about their lives that was like His. But if that is all, then the manifestation of Christ in the Scriptures is very superficial. Let us look for a moment at the law, the psalms, and the prophets and see how Christ is found there.

THE LAW

In Genesis 4 we see Abel offering sacrifices. God did not instruct Abel to offer sacrifices. Abel just offered them spontaneously. Christ in him moved to offer in that way. Christ in him expressed Himself in that way. In Hebrews 11 we read that Moses saw Christ and esteemed the riches of Egypt as filth. When we read the law of Moses we read of goats, bulls, and other sacrificial animals, and we read of a tabernacle. But Moses did not see just these things, he saw Christ. We read of Abraham: "Your father Abraham exulted that he would see My day, and he saw it and rejoiced" (John 8:56). Abraham saw Christ.

THE PSALMS

David records his joys and sorrows; he tells us of his sighs and groanings, of his hopes and fears. We say, "Oh, how they speak of Christ!" Then we call these records messianic psalms. But these psalms are messianic psalms not only because they foretell the experiences of the Messiah, but because the Messiah Himself is in them. David wrote of his own experiences, but because it was the life of the Lord that took him through these things, the Word declares that these things were written of the Lord (see Acts 2:25-31). We touch Christ Himself in the record of David's experiences. We meet David, but we also meet Christ in David. In the messianic psalms it is extremely difficult to distinguish between the words that refer to David and the words that refer to Christ. There is no possibility of separating Christ from His people.

THE PROPHETS

When we read the prophetic books, we say, "Here are prophecies that foretell of Christ; therefore, Christ can be found in the prophets." But is the manifestation of Christ in the prophets just an external matter? Is it merely objective? Many people say that the Old Testament prophets did not know Christ, and that they were merely inspired to write of Him for our sake. But was Isaiah in the dark as to the things he wrote? Our Lord says that Isaiah wrote what he wrote "because he saw His glory and spoke concerning Him" (John 12:41). No one is a prophet who does not see Christ; no one is a prophet who does not see the glory of Christ. Seeing is conditional to prophecy. It was so in the Old Testament days, and it is so today. We read of David's sighs, cries, and desires and say, "That's David!" No, that is Christ! The record of what Christ in David went through produced the messianic psalms. The same is true with all the prophecies. It was not that God gave the prophets certain knowledge and then they recorded it; rather, the life of Christ in them took them through certain experiences and they recorded them. Throughout the Old Testament we do not find just types that foreshadow Christ and prophecies that foretell of Christ. In many matters and through many persons, Christ expressed Himself, and the record of these persons makes up the Word of God.

THE NEW TESTAMENT

Read 1 Corinthians 7 and note verses 12, 25, and 40. Some modernists concede that there is a divine element in the Bible. But we have to go one step beyond and say, "Praise God, there is a human element in the Bible." God speaks words from heaven, but these words pass through human channels. Every true prophet utters the words of God, but they are not just words that he has read in the Bible. They are the expression of the life of the Lord in him, and what this life has taken him through. They are words that have been burned into his very being in the furnace of experience and then spoken out. The narration of such an experience is not the speaking of mere words. Prophecy is nothing objective.