Int’l Training for Elders and Responsible Ones (Fall 2013)--Message One Outline

Int’l Training for Elders and Responsible Ones (Fall 2013)

Entering Into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life
to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose

Message One

A Full-grown Corporate Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose
through the Experience of Life in the Fourth Stage

Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26-28; Ezek. 1:5, 26; Eph. 2:15; 4:13, 24

Outline

I. In the Bible there is a mysterious thought concerning the relationship between God and man—Gen. 1:26; Ezek.1:5, 26; 1 John 3:2b; Rev. 4:3a; 21:11b:

A. Man is the means of God’s manifestation, man is the means of God’s move, and man is the means of God’s administration—Acts 2:32-33,36; Phil. 2:5-11; Heb. 2:9; Rev. 5:6.

B. The fact that the four living creatures in Ezekiel 1 bear the appearance of a man and that God on the throne bears the appearance of a man indicates that God’s central thought and His
arrangement are related to man—vv. 5, 26; Gen. 1:26:

1. In Ezekiel 1 there are three crucial matters concerning the four living creatures’ bearing the appearance of a man:

a. God’s glory is manifested upon them; apart from their bearing the appearance of a man, God’s glory cannot be manifested—v. 28.

b. The living creatures are the means of God’s move; God’s move depends on them—vv. 12-21.

c. The living creatures are the means of God’s administration—v. 26:

(1) God’s throne is the center of His administration—Rev. 4:2, 6.

(2) Because the living creatures bear the appearance of a man, there is the administration of God’s throne—Jer. 17:12.

2. The Christ whom the church must express is the man on the throne—Rev. 3:21.

C. There is a connection between Ezekiel 1:26 and Genesis 1:26—a resemblance between God and man in their images and likenesses:

1. In Ezekiel 1:26 the One on the throne has the appearance of a man:

a. The One sitting on the throne is not only God but also man; He is the God-man, the Man-God, the mingling of God and man—Acts 7:56.

b. Through incarnation God became a man; He lived, died,resurrected, and ascended as a man; and now as the One on the throne, He is still a man—John 6:62; Acts 7:56.

2. Through His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, the Lord Jesus was brought to the throne—2:36; Phil. 2:5-11:

a. God has always been the Lord, but now a man is on the throne as the Lord—Rev. 4:2-3; 5:6.    

b. After the Lord Jesus was crucified and buried, God resurrected Him and set Him at His right hand, making Him the Lord of all the universe—Acts 2:36.

D. God’s intention is to work on man in order that man can be on the throne—Psa. 8:4-8; Rev. 3:21:

1. God’s mind is on man; He wants to manifest Himself through man and reign through man—Psa. 8:4, 6; Gen. 1:26.

2. God’s goal is to bring us to the throne and to make us people of the throne—Rev. 3:21:

a. God’s kingdom cannot come in full until we are on the throne.

b. God’s enemy will not be subdued until we are on the throne.

3. God desires to bring us to the throne because of the rebellion of Satan against God’s throne—Isa. 14:12-14:

a. The greatest difficulty God faces in the universe is that His throne has been opposed and attacked by rebel forces; in his rebellion against God’s throne Satan intended to exalt his throne to the heavens and thereby to intrude upon God’s authority.

b. God needs to gain a full-grown corporate man so that through this man the authority of God can be executed, and the kingdom of God can come to the earth—Rev. 11:15; 12:5, 10.

II. God’s purpose in His creation of man was to have a corporate man to express Him and to represent Him—Gen. 1:26:

A. God created man in His own image for His expression, and then He gave man His dominion to represent Him to deal with His enemy—vv. 26-28.

B. For the fulfillment of His purpose, God’s desire is to become the same as man is and to make man the same as He is by working Himself in Christ into man—1 John 3:2b; Eph. 3:17a.

C. God’s creation of man in Genesis 1 is a picture of the new man in God’s new creation; this means that the old creation is a figure, a type, of the new creation—2:15; 4:24:

1. The church, the Body of Christ, is the one new man to accomplish God’s eternal purpose—1:9, 11; 3:9; Rom. 8:28-29; 2Tim. 1:9; Eph. 2:15-16; 4:22-24.

2. Eventually, the church as the one new man is the corporate man in God’s intention, and this new man will fulfill the twofold purpose of expressing God and dealing with God’s enemy—vv.
13, 24; Gen. 1:26-28.

III. The goal of the Lord’s recovery is to bring forth a fullgrown corporate man—Eph. 2:15; 4:22-24; Col. 3:10-11:

A. What the Lord has been doing, and what He is now doing, in His recovery is bringing forth the corporate new man with Himself as the life and the person for His expression and representation—Eph.3:17a; Col. 3:4, 10-11.

B. The one new man will usher in the kingdom of God and bring Christ, the King, back to the earth—Rev. 11:15.

C. “Ultimately, the Bible speaks of the church as the one new man…In the new man there is nothing but the person. This level is so high that it cannot be higher, so strict that it cannot be stricter, and so intimate that it cannot be more intimate. All are one new man; this one new man has only one person, and this person is the Lord Jesus” (One Body, One Spirit, and One New Man, pp. 82-83).

D. Now is the time for God to accomplish His purpose to perfect the new man, who will come into full existence on the earth—Eph. 4:24:

1. The world situation has been raised up for the goal of the corporate new man.

2. Today there is the possibility that the saints in all the localities in their environmental circumstances will become this corporate man—v. 24.

3. When the one new man is full grown and perfected, that will be the time of the Lord’s coming, and this corporate man will be His bride—Rev. 19:7.

IV. In order to arrive at a full-grown corporate man for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, we must enter into the fourth stage of the experience of life—Eph. 4:13:

A. This is the last and highest stage of our spiritual life—the stage of Christ’s full growth in us.

B. According to the type of the children of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, journey in the wilderness, and entrance into Canaan, the first three stages of our spiritual life take place before we pass through the Jordan—1 Cor. 10:6, 11.

C. The fourth stage of our spiritual life occurs after we cross the Jordan and enter into the land of Canaan, where we learn to engage in spiritual warfare.

D. At the end of the third stage, we express God with His image, and in the fourth stage we represent Him with His authority—Gen. 1:26.

E. The experiences of life in the fourth stage include knowing the Body, knowing the ascension, reigning with Christ, engaging in spiritual warfare, and being full of the stature of Christ.