The Song of the Remnant by Oliver Peng - Continued from Part I -
Enlargement The Heading Up, Summing Up and Filling Up in Christ
Much has been shared from the book of Ephesians by brothers like Watchman Nee and T. Austin-Sparks concerning Gods eternal purpose that His Son, Christ, would be all and in all, that He would sum up all things in Christ and put all things in subjection under His feet. The thought of the supremacy, centrality and universality of Christ fills the entire Ephesian letter. God wants His Son to head up, sum up and fill up all and in all. In Isaiah, we find that the notion of enlarging your tent dovetails nicely with the thought of the Ephesian letter.
Lets consider Isa. 54:2-3 again, Enlarge the place of your tent; stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your pegs. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left. And your descendants will possess nations, and they will resettle the desolate cities. Now lets read Eph. 1:10: with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ
. And Eph. 1:22-23: And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. And Eph. 3:17-19:
so that Christ may make home in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
The enlargement spoken of by Isaiah was not merely a prophecy concerning the nation of Israel; more significantly, it is prophetic of the Church. On a physical level, the Church is to be enlarged and spread throughout the earth. On a spiritual level, the enlargement points to the heading up, summing up and filling up of all things in Christ. The Church is the vessel for such an enlargement of Christ. Today, the biggest problem facing the Church is not the want of converts and numerical increase. The greatest problem facing the Church is a serious shortage of Christ! We can fill a cavernous cathedral with thousands of Christians and yet have very little Christ. We can busy ourselves with successful mission works and have a serious shortage of Christ. For two thousand years, the Church has expanded and spread throughout the earth, but there has not been a corresponding enlargement of Christ in her.
When the Church is taken into captivity, she is able to flourish just as the children of Israel did in Babylon. Her outward success and greatness betray her inward poverty due to the lack of the substance and character of Christ. It takes the travail of the remnant to recover the testimony of Jesus. The remnant are simply a people who yearn to enlarge the place of their tent to have Christ as head over all things to the Church summing up, heading up and filling up all and in all.
The Cost Stretching
This enlargement of Christ does not come without cost. Notice the words stretch out and spare not in Isa. 54:2. A desire for the enlargement of Christ will most definitely be challenged by our natural man and the love of our soul life. It takes little effort to love brethren who are like-minded and like-dispositioned; it requires much stretching to love those who are not. We will be so stretched in the process of being enlarged that the only way to get through will be to spare not (lay down) our soul life. Jesus said, For whoever wishes to save his (soul) life shall lose it, but whoever loses his (soul) life for My sake shall save it (Luke 9:24). In a family life among the husband, the wife and the children, or in the assembly life among the saints, the Lord has decreed some stretching in order to enlarge us. Though it is unpleasant to our flesh, the stretching is actually not a misfortune. No matter how like-minded and like-dispositioned, and no matter how well-intentioned, we still get on each others nerves and rub each other the wrong way. We know we cannot get out of being stretched, but we do tend to look for ways to minimize the hardship. Many Christians gather on the basis of race and culture, because the cost is much lower to be around their own kind who are brought up in the same culture, who think alike, speak the same language and savor the same cuisine. Oh yes, there is no denying how importantly food weighs in on our scale of fellowship preferences.
The reason we find it easy to love those who are like us is because we are in love with ourselves. Many believers choose their place of worship based on cost alone: the less costly the better. Sadly, the popular cliché Pay now, or pay later holds true spiritually as well. Each lesson postponed only gets harder later on. Each cost deferred always comes back to exact a higher interest.
Sometimes the Lord will divide up the cost in installments, if you will. Paying the first installment does not guarantee we will pay the second. The remnant who returned from Babylon did pay a tremendous first installment leaving their careers, properties and relatives behind. But amazingly, a few years after arrival, many settled into a contentment to building their own paneled houses while the House of God lay in ruins prompting Haggai to stir up their spirit to refocus on what they came back for the rebuilding of Gods House.
Today, a similar scenario seems to unfold before our very eyes. Many precious saints paid a high price to exit the Institutional Church leaving ministries, fruit and relationships behind, but they are unwilling to reinvest themselves in new relationships. Some stay out of fellowship altogether. Some hopscotch from group to group enjoying their freedom of fellowship but would not pay the additional installments of having their vision re-calibrated, developing intimacy, travailing in prayer with the saints, or shouldering the burden of building up a testimony with any one group, to say nothing of getting balanced and adjusted by other saints.
This new trend does look enticing with its cloak of spirituality because of its association in a somewhat larger circle of fellowship involving multiple Christian families and groups. But the problems are: 1) they become spiritual Lone-Rangers, 2) they can never develop meaningful relationships by church-hopping, 3) no spiritual building can take place. A few saints looking for broad spiritual experiences with a less costly price tag have hopped on this bandwagon.
David knew well what paying the full price meant. After being punished for numbering the people of Israel, David was told to offer burn offerings. Ornan the Jebusite graciously offered his threshing floor to the king for free with wood for burning and oxen for sacrificing thrown in. What an offer! Any good Israelite would jump at such a deal. But not David. He insisted on paying a full price. Very significantly, the threshing floor for which David paid a full price became the very foundation of the Temple later on. I am afraid many so-called churches, relationships and even those of the remnant are today sitting on threshing floors purchased at a discount.
The Fellowship Lengthening
Another important element in the enlargement of Christ is the lengthening of the cords. To lengthen the cords refers to the longing to expand fellowship. There is no possibility of having Christ enlarged among us if we keep an elitist and exclusivist mentality in our fellowship. We must reach out lengthen our fellowship to include brethren of all backgrounds, learning, experiences, ethnicity and cultures. Church historians tell us that the groups that did not reach out for fellowship suffered the fate of spiritual incest. Every time!
Paul expresses the need to reach out for fellowship this way: to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth in order that we may be filled up to all the fullness of God. In other words, the remnant must not stay in a cocoon but reach out for fellowship with all the saints in every dimension that Christ may be enlarged in fuller measure.
The Anchor in Christ Strengthening
A crucial factor in this enlargement is found in the last phrase of Isa. 54:2: strengthen your pegs. To strengthen the pegs, they must be driven into solid ground, and what solid ground is there besides Christ? Yes, all else is sinking sand. There is no shortage of Christians and groups who are willing to be stretched and inconvenienced, or to reach out for fellowship even to the point of laying down their soul life. Most cultic groups meet this requirement. The crucial question is: Do all the stretching, laying-down and reaching out result in the stakes being firmly driven into solid ground? In other words, are our efforts to stretch out, reach out and fellowship resulting in being filled up to all the fullness of God, or are we merely satisfying our own religious zeal and good intentions?
Often our effort to reach out comes with a hidden motive of either trying to bring others into a sectarian fold or in line with a certain religious stronghold, or simply to feed our insatiable desire to minister. Yes, our reaching out should be to receive all the saints for fellowship, but we also must ask the Lord to anchor our fellowship firmly in Christ this is how to strengthen the pegs.
There is a dangerous tendency among those who have seen the degradation of religion. They detest religiosity but have not seen enough of the positive elements of Christ. They know what they don t want, as a brother pointed out recently, but they dont know enough of what, or more appropriately, Who they do want. It seems that everything they do is motivated by their intolerance for the institutional church. Sometimes their gathering can be devoid of the anointed presence and the sweet fragrance of Christ, yet they still pride themselves for having the real church experience just because they did not conduct it in a traditional or religious venue. Unfortunately, doing church outside of institutional environment and having church (or even being church) without a clergy-laity system becomes their only criteria for having the real church experience. As long as the church is gathered organically and spontaneously, they are satisfied. If everyone shares, the meeting is considered excellent. The weightier issues of the Lords presence, utterance, and anointing are all but neglected.
We must not only speak, Christ must come out of our speaking. Lance Lambert commented a few years ago, Two people can play the same piano, one plays and his gift comes out; the other one plays and Christ comes out. This is in essence what prophesying means in I Cor. 14. Prophesying is not merely to speak for Christ or to fore- speak future events, more importantly, it is to speak forth Christ!
In my limited observation, the Charismatic circle has a penchant for fore-speaking future events calling it prophesying. In the House Church movement, folks have a strong tendency to urge everyone to speak for Christ citing I Cor. 14 as basis for prophesying. Alas, bona- fide prophesying is rare these days! Brothers and sisters who have not yielded to the dealings of the cross, and fellowship not anchored in Christ will not speak forth Christ and can lead to confusion, contention, chaos, and the formation of another religious system. It is anything but the real church! A people that set their sights on being non-institutional instead of the Lord is just as religious as they come. A congregation where ALL speak but without Christ coming forth in their speaking has ventured hardly afield of the congregation where only one person speaks.
As mentioned earlier, many precious seeking saints have been led outside the camp and discovered the value of their priestly functions in small house churches. A great number of such dear saints have given themselves to analyzing the mechanism and duplicating the practices of the Early Church. Armed with Bible verses, Greek renderings, historical documents
some groups have dissected and taken apart every component of the early Church meetings and practices. They scrutinized every detail under a microscope, reassembled them, certified themselves as experts and set up shop to authenticate and mass-produce their brand of the early church.
Its the Great American Way, isnt it? The irony is, the very camp that the saints came out of has come full circle to entrap them again! When Christ is replaced by the church as our focus, we are right back in the camp, whether we meet in a large cathedral or a cozy living room. May the Lord help us to anchor our fellowship in Christ.
The Building The Full Expression of Christ
As the cords need to be lengthened for the tent to have any hope of enlargement, our fellowship needs to reach out if we want to have an increased portion of Christ. Furthermore, as the lengthened cords need to be firmly staked in solid ground for the tent to be raised, our reaching out for fellowship needs to be firmly anchored in Christ in order that the building, the House of God, may go up. The ultimate issue is the building up of the House of God.
From the Tabernacle to the Temple to the Church to the New Jerusalem, the issue is abundantly clear: God is after a building the full expression of Christ. As a matter of fact, the divine thought of building emerged almost immediately after creation. In Gen. 2:22 God built a woman out of the rib He took from Adam. As the typology of Adam and Eve points to Christ and His counterpart, the Church, so does the building of Eve point to the Lords building of His Church from the pierced side of Jesus. And the thought of building continues throughout the Bible to the end of Revelation.
Therefore, every Christian group being part of the Church should consider the eventuality of something being built up. A fellowship should be open to all born-again believers; there can be no denominational, doctrinal or cultural restrictions placed on anyone. Fellowship is a matter of life since we have been born-again we share the same life, and this life enables us to have fellowship with each other. All differences in doctrinal understanding, meeting styles, experiences, races and cultures, visions, preferences, personalities
must be set aside. Any failure in this regard endangers the nature of fellowship and causes divisions.
Having said that, the church is not a free-for-all either. A brother (Ron) in San Francisco pointed out, If we do not stand for anything, we would fall for everything; a fellowship where everything goes would be no different from a social club. A young brother from another city near us made a sobering assessment about the fellowship he attended, When we get together, we are gathering unto each other, not unto the Lord. It is a serious dilemma, isnt it? On the one hand, we need to embrace all genuine believers into fellowship, on the other hand, our fellowship must never become a free-for-all. A fellowship unto each other will find the Lord on the outside looking in. The key to this problem is, we need to be built up, and building up takes light.
We need the Holy Spirit to cast light on the living word of God to illuminate our fellowship. Every fellowship that is enlightened by the word through the Holy Spirit leads us closer to the unity of the faith (Eph. 4:13) and produces Christ. As T.A. Sparks said, more Christ, more church. This is how spiritual building is formed through enlightened fellowship that produces more Christ and bonds believers together. On the flip side, church-hopping requires no light at all because the basic requirement for fellowship is life. As long as we have the life of Christ, we can fellowship and enjoy the Lord with even a company of strangers; hence some saints prefer to church-hop from group to group. But, in order to be delivered from mediocrity and for fellowship to be full of Christ that would give birth to a spiritual building (and indeed all fellowship should lead to spiritual building), we desperately need light.
Herein lies a paradox: among most groups, whenever building is the issue, fellowship fades, for the most part. This is why the Baptist Church cannot build up with the Methodist Church, the Lutheran Church, the Charismatic Church
and vice versa. Each one having its own doctrinal understanding, vision, goal and agenda preclude them from building together. The Word of God is the same, the Holy Spirit is the same, but their visions are different.
A while back, a former pastor of a Vineyard Church in our city visited a number of groups that assembled outside of institutional parameters with an intention of bringing them all under one umbrella. When he came into our midst, we were able to have the most wonderful fellowship and worship before our glorified Christ. But, his idea for the building of Gods house was clearly different from what the Lord revealed to us through His word. Were we able to enjoy fellowship, and can we continue to fellowship? Most certainly! Could we acquiesce in becoming part of his vision of Gods building? I am afraid not, with all due respect.
Given this unfortunate paradox, all Christian fellowships must still seek divine light which produces spiritual building, because without light, anyone with a doctrinal bias and a personal agenda can come in and hijack the fellowship and inflict damage. If our fellowship group were a free-for-all without an anchor in the word of God and the light of what the Lord desires, then the aforementioned ex-Vineyard Pastor could easily enlist our group and make it into another trophy to adorn his umbrella group of house churches.
Great consideration must be given to building, because it gives expression to fellowship. The more Christ-centered a fellowship becomes, the more built up it gets. So, how are we to build? Upon what basis do we build? Building is based on light, among other things. The more light we receive, the more solid is our building because light calibrates and sharpens our vision of Christ. Moses work of building the Tabernacle was based entirely on the pattern on the mount (light) he received. Down to the minutest details. There was no room for religious ideas, good intentions, fleshly zeal, human ingenuity, compromise or any other considerations. That building work was based 100% on divine light. Davids blueprint for the building of the Temple was also based exclusively on divine light. The Lord Jesus work of building His House (the Church) was exclusively according to His Fathers revelations upon this rock (the revelation of who Christ is) I will build My Church.
Since both the Tabernacle and the Temple are important types of the Church, it goes without saying that the Church is not just a fellowship, it should also become a spiritual building as more light is received and more Christ comes into focus. All Christians who gather regularly in their respective groups are engaged in a building up in some fashion whether they know it or not. They labor (or more precisely, the Lord labors through them) toward a common goal under the light of a common vision to build up their fellowship.
King Solomon declared, Unless the Lord builds the House, they labor in vain who build it (Psm.127:1). Notice that Solomon did not say, Since the Lord is the One building the House, the laborers neednt bother; since the Lord is the One watching the city, the watchmen can go to bed. The watchmen still need to keep watch, but it is the Lord who guards the city. The laborers still need to build the house, but it is the Lord who builds in and through them.
Paul said, Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each mans work will become evident
(I Cor. 3:12-13). There is no question that the Lord is the One who builds His house, yet He has decided that we all become His co-laborers in this endeavor, because His building work is done through men. George Cutting once told Watchman Nee, I cant do it without the Lord, but do you know, the Lord cant do it without me? Gods entire business is wrapped up in man, but man has utterly failed. The sooner we realize our complete untrustworthiness and total incompetence, the better are our chances of being fashioned into vessels useful in the Masters hand.
The question is not whether we have a part in His building work. The questions are: 1) How much have we allowed Him to mold us into useful vessels so that He can labor in and through us? 2) How much of our co-labor is based on divine light?
Regrettably, a great number of the brothers and sisters who have received a vision of Gods purpose for His Church care only for the external technicalities of the church. They split hairs over whether the Lords Day begins at sundown Saturday or sunup Sunday, whether the Lords Supper should be a full meal or just crackers and tiny cups, over scheduling meetings versus meeting spontaneously, over how to be un-religious, over the proper name/proper ground for the church, and even over certain version of the Bible! At the drop of a hat the saints quarrel, and the points of contention soon lead to point of departure if their biblically sound resolutions are not respected and adopted into practice.
For sure, these and other issues are very important and ought to receive careful considerations. We most certainly should search the Scriptures for light on these things. But do we really allow the light of the word to expose us, search us, change us, and fill us with His character first; or do we zealously read our religious biases and concepts into Gods holy word and call that light? All too often, we are ready to withdraw or cut off fellowship over some pathetically minor trivialities. There is a tendency among brethren who are gifted and zealous to major in the minor and minor in the major, and in so doing tear the fellowship apart and inflict great harm to the innocent members of the body of Christ.
In the New Testament economy, our greatest source of light comes from the word of God through the illuminating of the Holy Spirit. Some Christians may argue that the Holy Spirit is the only source of light, citing the fact that the patriarchs did not have the benefit of the written word, yet they came into Gods will either through the revelation of the Holy Spirit or direct divine intervention. Others also claim to have the leading of the Holy Spirit without the written word in matters related to jobs, marriages, etc.
While it is true that the patriarchs did not have the written word of God, it is equally true that they did not have a comprehensive view of the light and revelation contained in the written word of God which we have today. The same can be said about todays leading of the Holy Spirit independent of the written word. While the Holy Spirit can certainly prick mens conscience and convict men of sins without the written word, the questions are: 1) How much longer can such people go on without relying on the authority of the written word and not suffer spiritual delusion, deprivation and darkness? 2) How much light can one claim to have in being solely led by the Holy Spirit? 3) Can anyone come into the revelation (light) of the fullness of Christ and the whole counsel of God without the complete record of the word of God being illumined by the Holy Spirit? The answer is obvious.
Therefore, any claims of comprehensive divine revelation that do not conform to, and are not consistent with the word of God must be questioned and discarded. Even more importantly, if we have not allowed the light of the word to penetrate, expose and cut our egos down to size first, our un-dealt-with natural man will either puff ourselves up or slay each other, no matter how much light we claim to have!
So the first order of things in the building of His testimony is the need for divine light and for us to be completely arrested and cut down in His light. Isaiah cried out upon seeing a vision (light) of the Lord high and lifted up, Woe is me, for I am ruined! (6:5). Then and only then can Isaiah be commissioned for service. No service or building of any kind is possible aside from a complete surrender of our natural man under His light.
Fellowship and Building
Then, in our willingness to be stretched and in our desire to reach out for fellowship unto the enlargement of Christ, it becomes necessary to see how fellowship and building, life and light harmonize in concert together. Missing fellowship, our Christian gathering becomes a lifeless, lethargic, legalistic and exclusive entity. Neglecting building, our gathering becomes a visionless, aimless free-for-all, and is subject to being tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of teaching, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming (Eph. 4:14).
The relationship between fellowship (life) and building (light) is fascinating. No Christian group can flourish without a good balance of life and light, fellowship and building. The shortage of either could seriously inhibit proper growth. Usually, in groups where doctrinal issues, experience issues, personality issues or cultural/racial issues divide Christians into different camps, serious Christians will discover the tragic error and start looking for fellowship across doctrinal, experiential and cultural lines. Eventually, they will grow so detached from their original groups that they may either have to leave or can no longer fit in and be built up with the brethren even if they stay.
No Palace of Strangers
It is commendable when Christians discover the errors of division, and long to reach out to all Gods children. Driven by a burden to be enlarged, they stretch themselves and lengthen the cords of fellowship. However, the most common mistake at this juncture is the reluctance to becoming relational with any one group, and the resultant lack of building up with brethren of like vision and kindred spirit.
Isaiah warned in 25:2b, A palace of strangers is not a city; it shall never be built. Two important thoughts are underscored here: 1) the need to be relational a palace of strangers is not a city, 2) the importance of building it shall never be built. Perhaps nowhere else in the Bible are these thoughts as graphically portrayed as in Nehemiah chapter three. There we find the people of God rising up to rebuild the walls and the gates of Jerusalem by sections. Two words keep popping up: next to. Next to him built the men of Jericho; and next to them built Zaccur
. And next to them repaired Meremoth
. And next to them repaired Meshullam
. And next to them repaired Zadok
. And next to them
and next to them
. And so it goes. What a picture of the saints becoming relational to each other! No palace of strangers here! No spiritual Lone Rangers either; they all had someone to become relational with. And since these men in Nehemiah built next to each other, and the palace of strangers in Isaiah will never be built, can there be any doubt that building comes out of relationship at least in this context?
I am eternally grateful that the Lord has given us a section of the wall to rebuild and has stationed a few of us shoulder-to-shoulder, next to each other on our section of the wall. And it was exciting to discover that as we reached out, there were other relational groups of saints building on their sections of the wall! My joy could hardly be contained as the Lord graciously allowed our different groups to fellowship and experience oneness together. At the same time, I must say, I am also alarmed that the Enemy has relentlessly attacked the fledgling building. It seems that any time the degree of light and revelation concerning Gods full purpose intensifies, the Enemys attack ratchets up a notch. If we want to become relational and burdened for the building, rest assured that the attack will come, but also rest assured that Gods ultimate rout of the Enemy will be great! The Evil Ones attack on the building of Gods testimony will be his own undoing. Make no mistake about it.
The Original Foundation
As an important side-note, please notice that all the families stationed next to each other on the walls had to come back to Jerusalem the place of the original foundation for the building; they couldnt build just anywhere they wanted. In order for genuine next-to relationship to exist among the saints, we also have to return to our original foundation Christ. Any talk of relational experiences or building outside of Christ is wishful thinking.
Regrettably, some precious saints with religious concepts and high and lofty ideas that are not founded upon the original foundation come into a group and expect their concepts and ideas be accepted before they are willing to become relational. On the other end of the spectrum, some saints will settle with any group with no regard for the original foundation as long as they can feel warm and fuzzy for being relational with each other. And still there are others who decide to form their own relational groups only because they cannot get along with certain brothers and sisters, or because their religious bias precludes certain biblical teachings
.
Sad to say, some of these next-to relational groups are not founded upon the original foundation and may suffer loss. Im afraid that many zealous saints casually start a new group and have no idea just how serious it is to do so without returning to the original foundation. While many seeking saints have awakened to discover the cold and ritualistic conditions of the Institutional Church and longed to be relational in simplicity, only a small remnant have truly returned to the original foundation.
On the one hand, an assembly must have a big heart to accept all Gods people for fellowship regardless of their level of life and light, but it must not become a cesspool of all sorts of ideas and strange teachings. Our big heart must be balanced by our small feet to return to Jerusalem the original foundation for the building. A building outside of the original foundation of Christ is no building at all.
The church is a relational entity, but Im afraid many have settled far short of the original foundation. I firmly believe that being relational takes fellowship to a deeper level. With todays technological advances in multimedia, internet and telecommunications, one can fellowship with a multitude of believers all over the globe in real time without stepping out of the front door. Even though one can fellowship across geographical, denominational, doctrinal, cultural and racial boundaries, he may not have entered into deeper or more intimate relationship at all with anyone.
One of the subtleties of the Enemy is to blur our relationship with each other by taking away the next-to. He knows better than anyone else that stirring up oppression and persecution will never destroy the Church. The Roman Empire persecuted and oppressed Christians for three hundred years only to make them stronger. But herding Christians into those cold, cavernous cathedrals (under Constantine) and making them all pew-members did the trick. Just make the Christians Sunday Morning Spectators, and the church is paralyzed. Just take away the next-to, and the building collapses. Just isolate the Christians into contentment with their keyboards, modems and dish-networks, and the testimony is over!
I am sure we all appreciate these modern technological wonders, but what a price we are paying. With some folks, I am afraid they may have given away much more than they gained. Relational! Brothers and sisters, we need to be relational with each other. We urgently need to find others we can be next-to with. We also urgently need someone who can get close enough to chip away some of our sharp egos. Without the next-to, any talk about the building is wishful thinking; unless of course the Lord puts us in a situation of isolation to teach us some valuable lessons. After all, the Lord did send Moses to the back side of the desert for 40 years, and Paul to the Arabian desert for 3 years.
Just as the returned remnant were each assigned a section of the wall, we, the New Testament remnant, also have each been given a section of the wall to rebuild. Dear brothers and sisters, have you seen the deplorable condition of the burnt gates and the breached walls? Has the Lord granted you light on the building of His testimony? Do you have a burden to rise up and build? Are there brothers and sisters next to you on your section of the wall? I am afraid most Christians have not seen the deplorable condition of the breached walls and the burnt gates of Gods testimony. Just as in Nehemiahs time when he rose up in the middle of the night to inspect the walls, Gods people today are also soundly asleep with regard to the degradation in Christendom.
Before you get all stirred up to build the testimony of God, may I humbly suggest that you repair your own dormant or damaged relationships first? Do you have some feelings against certain dear children of God? Have you offended someone? Has someone offended you? Are you just staying aloof? Do you stay away because you think your doctrines and practices of the church are superior? Do you think you have received better light and revelation than others? Ask the Lord to help you. Nothing pleases Him more than seeing brothers and sisters reconcile and restore those damaged or dormant relationships, because the restoration of relationships comes straight from the very core of the character of the Lamb. And it is the Lambs character that affords the Lord a perfect platform upon which to build His testimony.
Recently, the Lord mercifully restored a divorced couples relationship in a town just north of us. The testimony that came out of their reconciliation greatly strengthened and encouraged all the saints in their fellowship and beyond. As a result, the brothers and sisters there experienced tremendous building up in life, joy, faith and love for each other. More recently still, another young divorced couple in another fellowship in our city got restored, and great rejoicing and encouragement fell on all the saints. Praise Him!
The Need for Light
It is one thing (and a good thing) to want to stretch and lengthen our cords, but if there is no one on the receiving end of the cords of fellowship to drive them firmly into solid ground, our fellowship will fall seriously short. Cords of Christ-centered fellowship must be mutually understood and received or they cannot be firmly anchored; and firmly anchored they must be, or any winds of teaching will send the tent crashing into the dust! Also, many precious saints who chose to stay in the Institutional Church have withered on the vine because their fellowship concerning the vision of Christ and His eternal purpose was not understood and received. The problem was not the lack of fellowship; it was the lack of light and perception that directly resulted in the lack of building.
This is where the need for light comes in. As mentioned before, fellowship is based on life, not on light. Consider how a 60-year-old grandfather can have the sweetest fellowship with his 3-year-old grandson not because of light (which the child has none) but because of life. If fellowship were based on light, then the old man could never fellowship with the young lad; and Jesus could never have fellowshipped with His disciples (who were largely in a fog most of the time). Yes, fellowship is based on life, but fellowship must be issued from and received in light to be firmly anchored in Christ, or there is no building! Please notice that it is only when the cords are firmly staked into solid ground that the tent (the building) can be raised up. Notice, too, that Jesus fellowship, though fully in life, did not immediately result in building until Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and flipped the light switch, so to speak, and brought the brethren out of the fog and the Church into being.
Just like the grandfather, those who are spiritually mature must still reach out to the spiritually younger and find the fellowship sweeter than honey. It is Jesus life that makes our fellowship sweet. At the same time, the remnant must labor to pursue light on Gods eternal purpose, and travail on behalf of the younger brethren that they too, might see light so that the stakes can be firmly anchored in Christ and the tent of testimony raised up. Fellowship, as important as it is, does not by itself result in building; fellowship in light facilitates building.
Now, isnt the relationship between fellowship and building, life and light a most fascinating one? On the one hand, the remnant should reach out to fellowship with all Gods children. On the other hand, they must forsake not the gathering together with like-visioned and kindred-spirited brethren in order that those cords are not only stretched and lengthened, but also firmly anchored into solid ground so that the tent (the building) can be raised up unto the testimony of Jesus. Fellowship without building will not produce real testimony; life without light leads to sloppy-agape. Building without fellowship will result in legalistic division; light without life ends up in arrogant exclusivism.
The Remnant, a Work in Secret
Finally, the Lords work in preparing and enlarging the remnant is done inwardly and in secret. You rarely find the remnant making headlines. You wont see them plastered on billboards or glowing under spotlights. In fact, if we saw them, we would be utterly surprised, as Isaiah bemoaned: Then you will say in your heart, Who has begotten these [the remnant] for me, since I have been bereaved of my children, and am barren, a captive and a wanderer? And who has reared these? Behold, I was left alone; where did they come from? (49:21). Just like the Jews who missed their Messiah because He was so hidden, humble and lowly, likewise when the lowly and humble remnant do appear, many Christians will let out a collective cry of surprise: Where did they come from?
It is so sad that Christians are constantly being bombarded and enticed with the desire for outward greatness and success, they no longer pay attention to the intricate work of the Holy Spirit enlarging us for more Christ within. It is ironic that Christians today are so quick to point out the failure of the Jews to recognize Christ, but do not see that the same danger also lurks in our failure to detect and embrace the work of the Holy Spirit in producing and enlarging Christ in us inwardly and secretly. When the lowly remnant, the ones who have been enlarged and constituted with the character of Christ appear, may we not be those caught astonished, Where did they come from? I thought we were the remnant
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If there is one thing that captures the essence of the remnant, perhaps it is in this verse, The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears, The place is too cramped for me; make room for me that I may dwell here (Isa. 49:20). Oh, how delightful it must be to the Lord that His remnant is so in tune with the divine thought of yearning for the enlargement and fullness of Christ! Dear saints, do you feel cramped? Do you need more room? Do you yearn for more Christ? Are you willing to be stretched? Do you long for fellowship, relationship and building up? May this be the heart-cry of all Gods children, Lord, how very little of Your character and essence do we posses! How much we need You to enlarge our capacity until Christ heads up, sums up and fills up all and in all!
Lo, the old creation is passing away, the new creation will soon be consummated in His glorious return. The remnant is standing in the gaps (unseen) by His enabling grace and by His might. Soon we shall hear the shouts of joy: Grace, grace unto it as the top stone is being laid when the building of His Church is finally finished. Hark, it is the song of the remnant: Therefore the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away
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Part I - https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=35448&forum=34&2
Oliver Peng |