2006秋季长老
总题:牧养神的群羊
总题:牧养神的群羊
Message Three Shepherding the Flock of God in Living by the Grace of God
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9; 13:14; Gal. 6:18; Heb. 4:16
I. Grace denotes the contents of God's eternal economy for the producing of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:4-6; Rev. 21:2.
II. Grace is the manifestation of the Triune God in His embodiment in three aspects—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—2 Cor. 13:14; Num. 6:22-27; Psa. 36:8-9:
A. The New Testament is a history of the grace of God as the incarnation of the Triune God in His Divine Trinity processed and consummated and moving and living in and among the believers—John 1:14, 16-17; Rev. 22:21.
B. Grace is the Triune God in His incarnation to be dispensed into the believers by the Father as the source, by the Son as the element, and by the Spirit as the application—2 Cor. 13:14:
1. The source of grace, the element of grace, and the application of grace are the three persons of the Divine Trinity to be our everything—Matt. 28:19.
2. In the divine dispensing, grace is called the grace of God, the grace of Christ, and the grace of which the Spirit is—1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 1:12; 8:1, 9; 9:14; 12:9; 13:14; Heb. 10:29.
C. Grace is the embodiment of God, who became a God-man with divinity and humanity, passed through human living, died, resurrected, and entered into ascension; now He has become the life-giving Spirit dwelling in us—1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17.
D. Without being processed, the Triune God could not be grace to us—John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b:
1. God the Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is realized as the life-giving Spirit, and the Spirit enters into us as grace for our enjoyment—Heb. 10:29.
2. The processed and consummated Triune God dispenses Himself into us to be our portion as grace so that we may enjoy Him as everything in His Divine Trinity—2 Cor. 13:14.
E. Grace means God is everything, God does everything, and God gives everything— 1 Pet. 5:10.
III. The new covenant ministers' living is the living of grace, the experience of grace; they enjoy Christ as their all-sufficient grace through sufferings— Heb. 12:28; 2 Cor. 12:9:
A. Christ as grace becomes power tabernacling over the new covenant ministers, overshadowing them in their weakness to become their dwelling place to sustain, support, maintain, protect, and keep them—v. 9b.
B. The resurrected Christ brings the consummated Triune God in resurrection into them to be their life and life supply so that they may experience Him as grace and thus labor more abundantly for the Lord—1 Cor. 15:10, 58.
C. Like Paul, we should take the consummated Triune God as grace in our living and work today, conducting ourselves by God's grace, that is, by the processed and consummated Triune God as the life-giving Spirit—2 Cor. 1:12.
IV. The New Testament believers' living under the grace in God's economy is a total living of experiencing the processed and consummated Triune God as grace—Gal. 6:18; Heb. 4:16; Rev. 22:21:
A. The Christian living must be the living of grace, the experience of grace; our Christian life is essentially a life of having God as our grace—2 Cor. 1:12.
B. A total living means that our entire living is a living of the Triune God processed to be grace to us—13:14.
C. The compound Spirit is moving within us daily as the anointing so that we may enjoy the processed Triune God as grace—1 John 2:20, 27.
D. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of grace, is with our spirit, which has been regenerated to be the dwelling place and vessel of the Triune God— Heb. 10:29b; Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:23; Philem. 25; 2 Tim. 4:22.
E. We are those who have received grace, which is the Triune God—the Father given to us in the Son, and the Son realized as the Spirit dwelling in our spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17:
1. The Lord being with our spirit is grace being with our spirit—2 Tim. 4:22; Gal. 6:18.
2. When we turn to our spirit, we enter through the gate of heaven and touch the throne of grace in heaven through Christ as the heavenly ladder—Heb. 4:16; Gen. 28:12-17; John 1:51; Eph. 2:22.
F. The riches of God's grace surpass every limitation, for they are the overflowing riches of God Himself for our enjoyment—1 Pet. 5:10.
G. Grace is God Himself as our life to be one with us, to save us, to make His home in us, and to be formed in us—Col. 3:4; Eph. 2:8; 3:17; Gal. 4:19.
H. To grow in grace is to grow in the increase of God—2 Pet. 3:18; Col 2:19.
I. Humility invites God's grace; if we are humble, God will give Himself as grace to us—1 Pet. 5:5-6; James 4:6.
J. Because we are saints, the grace of the Lord must be with each one of us in every aspect of our daily life—Rev. 22:21.
V. The consummation of the believers' experience of the grace of God in His economy is the church as the Body of Christ, which consummates in the New Jerusalem—Eph. 1:6-8, 22-23; Rev. 21:2:
A. Our experience of the grace of God in our living and in our words and actions issues in the Body of Christ—Eph. 1:6, 22-23; 2:8; 3:2; 4:4, 16, 29.
B. This grace consummates in the New Jerusalem as the consummation of God's good pleasure in joining and mingling Himself with man for His glorious enlargement and eternal expression—Rev. 4:2-3; 21:10-11.
C. The grace of the Lord Jesus dispensed to His believers throughout the New Testament age consummates in the New Jerusalem, in which the processed and consummated Triune God will be the grace enjoyed by all the believers for eternity—22:21.