Lord, we are before thee.
Make thy presence known to us.
Make it real to us.
May the light of thy countenance shine upon
us.
Live up thy countenance towards us.
We do come together to thee, to behold
thee.
With unveiled face, that thou mayst be able
to transform us according to thy Son, from
glory to glory.
Lord, we do pray that at this very
moment, thou will make us forget everything, that
our whole being may be fixed upon thee.
Lord, that we may see thee, hear thee,
and be in touch with thyself.
Lord, we ask thee that this night, thou
will open our understanding, that we may know
thee, as thou dost know us.
Lord, we ask thee to deliver us from
ourselves, even the best of ourselves, that we
may be absorbed into thee, to all that
thou art.
Lord, we do look to thee together for
thy Spirit's working in us and among us,
that thy Son may be magnified, expressed and
glorified in the church.
In the precious name of our Lord Jesus.
We do thank the Lord, that this morning
our brother has helped us to see the
need, and not only the need, but the
way to spiritual balance.
I believe you all agree with me, that
we need this very much.
And we do see that this is possible,
not in us, but in Him.
And we also thank the Lord for our
brother, who has again led us into that
unsearchable riches of Christ, the glory of His
inheritance in the same.
Brothers and sisters, I believe that we all
marvel at what the Lord has done.
He always surprises us.
And we do thank Him for that.
Tonight, God willing, we will look into more
or less the same direction.
But I hope I will just keep myself
low at the practical level.
Will you please turn to the letter to
the Ephesians, chapter 1.
The letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1, we
read from verse 17 through verse 23.
The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, would give you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge
of Him, being enlightened in the eyes of
your heart, so that ye should know what
is the hope of His calling, and what
the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the same, and what the surpassing greatness
of His power towards us who believe, according
to the working of the might of His
strength, in which He wrought in Christ, in
raising Him from among the dead, and He
set Him down at His right hand in
the heavenlies, above every principality and authority, and
power and dominion, and every name named not
only in this age, but also in that
to come, and has put all things under
His feet, and gave Him to be a
head over all things, to the church, which
is His body, for the fullness of Him
fulfills all."
The third chapter of the same letter.
Chapter 3, we'll read from verse 2 through
verse 11.
If indeed ye have heard of the administration
of the grace of God, which has been
given to me towards you, that by revelation
the mystery has been made known to me,
according as I have written before briefly, by
which, in reading it, ye can understand my
intelligence in the mystery of the Christ, which
in other generations has not been made known
to the sons of men.
As it has now been revealed to His
holy apostles and prophets in the power of
the Spirit, that they who are of the
nations should be joint heirs and a joint
body and joint partakers of His promise in
Christ Jesus by the glad tidings, of which
I am become minister according to the gift
of the grace of God given to me,
according to the working of His power.
To me, less than the least of all
things, has this grace been given to announce
among the nations the glad tidings of the
unsearchable riches of the Christ, and to enlighten
all with the knowledge of what is the
administration of the mystery hidden throughout the ages
in God, who has created all things in
order that now, through the principalities and authorities
in the heavenly, might be made known through
the Church to all various knowledge of God
according to the purpose of the ages, which
He purposed in Christ Jesus, Our dear brothers
and sisters, by the grace of God, we
hope that tonight we may touch a little
upon the unsearchable riches of the mystery of
the Christ.
Now, first of all, we have to explain
what do we mean by mystery.
Probably when this word is mentioned, immediately you
are thinking of something mysterious, to the extent
of being something hideous.
But dear brothers and sisters, certainly this is
not the meaning in the word of God.
It is mystic, but not mysterious.
It is hidden, but not hideous.
It is in a sense unknown, but it
doesn't mean it's unknowable.
A mystery in the word of God means
something that has been hidden in the mind
of God throughout the ages, but it is
one day to be known through the revelation
of the Spirit of God.
That is a mystery.
In other words, before the foundation of the
world, before time ever began, way back in
eternity past, there was a thought, a divine
intention, a purpose, or a will in God,
in the Godhead.
And with that will, or purpose, or intention,
or thought in God, we find that there
is a council, a plan, an administration, an
economy, a dispensation, that throughout the ages, God,
according to that will, with that council, God
gradually, progressively, has been working towards the fulfillment
of that purpose.
Throughout the ages and the generations, God has
been working.
And all the workings of God are controlled
by that purpose, which He purposed in Christ
Jesus before the foundation of the world.
In the Old Testament time, we know that
God was working.
But He worked without telling anybody why He
was working in this way, what was the
objective of His working, what was His working
purpose.
God did not tell anybody.
But that does not mean that God did
not work.
God had been working throughout the ages and
the generations in the Old Testament time.
And never God worked without.
He was always working towards one thing.
But that one thing was a mystery.
It was not known.
It had not been announced.
It had not been told to anybody.
But thank God, after He sent only begotten
Son, our Lord Jesus, to this world, and
after our Lord Jesus had accomplished the work
that was entrusted to Him, then we find
God began to unveil that mystery by revelation
of the Spirit to the holy apostles and
Christ.
In other words, whereas in the old days
God worked with a definite purpose but without
announcing it, now God is still working.
He is still working but He has declared
to us the objective that He is working
for.
He has told us what, brothers
and sisters?
I think there is one thing that by
the grace of God we must lay hold
of.
Oh, may I say it more correctly?
That we must be laid hold of by
that one thing.
Otherwise, we miss the whole thing.
And that is the mystery hidden throughout the
ages but is now made known to us.
Apostles call that mystery the mystery of...
If you read very carefully the third chapter
of Ephesians, you will find that on the
one hand He says God has made known
to Him the mystery of Christ.
And on the other hand He tells us
God has appointed Him to announce the glad
tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ.
The mystery of Christ.
The unsearchable riches of Christ.
It seems as if the mystery is the
unsearchable riches of Christ.
The unsearchable riches of Christ What is the
mystery among Greek scholars that
in the original Greek you will find that
sometimes before the word Christ there is an
article.
A definite article.
The.
And sometimes there is no article before the
word of Christ.
In many versions you do not have this
difference.
I guess that the translator would just put
Christ there without any definite article.
But if you go to the original or
more original, more closer to the original you
will find that sometimes they put The before
Christ and sometimes they do not have that
The before Christ.
Now what is the difference?
They tell us that there is a difference.
The difference is here.
Whenever Christ is used without a definite article
it means Christ himself as a person.
That is to say the personal Christ.
Christ as a person by himself.
But whenever you find the article The before
Christ it means Christ in relation to someone
else.
Christ with someone else.
Christ includes someone else.
Together with someone else.
It means Christ the Christ personal through his
death and resurrection is enlarged into the Christ
covering.
He includes in himself many whom he has
saved.
He is the glorious head but he has
obtained for himself.
Dear brothers and sisters if this is true
then you'll find the word here the unsearchable
riches of the Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters the unsearchable riches of
Christ is something shall we say natural.
Supernaturally natural.
Of course Christ is unsearchably rich.
No doubt about that.
Who can challenge that?
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in
him bodily.
That's unsearchable riches.
But dear brothers and sisters to think that
Christ who is unsearchably rich should share his
riches with us who are naturally that
we may share in his riches in his
unsearchable riches that we may be united with
him into one.
And not only the head alone that displays
unsearchable riches but the body is.
Dear brothers and sisters this is unthinkable.
The unsearchable riches of the Christ.
It is a mystery.
How can it be that we who are
born and dead we who are rebels sinners
we who have no party in God he
has brought us unite us to him become
one with him in life in nature in
spirit and even in unsearchable riches.
Dear brothers and sisters it is.
Our brothers can explain that to us far
much better than I can.
So I'll leave it to them.
But I try to stick to it.
What I mentioned in the very beginning that
is I would like to limit myself just
to the demonstration of the unsearchable riches.
So we will again take pause as the
demonstration.
Now dear brothers and sisters we know that
before Paul was converted he was called Paul.
Did he know Christ?
I do not know.
Whether he knew Christ personally or not I
do not know.
Only we find in the letter to the
Corinthians 2 Corinthians chapter 5 he did mention
something like this.
If we have known Christ in the flesh
now we no longer know him in the
flesh.
We do not know whether the Apostle Paul
knew Christ in the flesh or not.
That is to say did he meet Christ
personally while Christ was on earth?
I do not know.
But one thing is sure.
He has known Christ in the flesh.
That is to say he has measured Christ
scrutinized Christ examined Christ analyzed Christ and he
has come to a conclusion that he has
known all about him.
Who is the Christ that he knows in
the flesh?
A carpenter by trade.
An uneducated person never been to school.
An outsider never been a Pharisee.
An intruder into the field of religion.
An unorthodox person not being brought up in
the right way.
An imposter.
A blasphemer.
One who sets himself up as a teacher
dare to be a teacher.
A little man.
Pretending to be big.
One who is worthy to die.
And was dead.
And that's that.
And thank God this Paul, this Saul was
used by God to wipe out.
That is the Christ that Paul knew in
the flesh.
He knew all about him.
He had figured him all out.
He believed that he had got the right
judgment.
And it was the agreement with the consensus
of the ruling class.
Is it not true that this is not
only the Christ that Saul knew?
This was the Christ that the Jews at
the time of our Lord Jesus knew.
Whenever the Lord did something glorious, wonderful, on
the one hand they were amazed at the
grace of God that such power might be
manifested.
And immediately they came down and said I
know.
We know who he is.
He is a cousin to us.
We know his mother.
We know his brothers and sisters.
Oh, we know him from inside out.
Dear brothers and sisters, what a knowledge that
was in his understanding.
He got the credentials from the high priest
in Jerusalem giving him authority to go even
to foreign cities to lay hands upon those
followers of Jesus and to condemn them.
We are all familiar on the way to
Damascus as he was approaching that city.
I do not know what he was thinking
while Damascus was in view.
But suddenly a light from heaven came upon
him.
He fell to it and he heard about
it.
Saul, why do you persecute?
Don't you know it is hard?
So keep it there.
Dear brothers and sisters, there on the ground
as he prostrated on the ground in dust.
Not the Christ that he knew before.
An entirely different Christ.
On the one hand he was the one.
On the other hand he wasn't.
He met Christ in glory.
It was a great surprise.
He thought Christ was dead.
But here the risen Christ.
He thought Christ was the son of Joseph.
Here he discovered Christ is the son of
God.
He thought Christ was a blasphemer.
Someone who is worthy to be killed.
Now he finds Christ is the fulfillment of
all the promises.
Dear brothers and sisters, for the first time
he became the risen one.
The one in glory.
The almighty one.
The conqueror.
The heir of all things.
The Christ of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, is it not that
in our lives we must begin with him?
The life of Paul begins with a heavenly
vision.
The life of Paul does not begin with
himself.
With what he thinks.
What he has figured out.
All these are shattered.
The life of Paul begins with a heavenly
vision.
He himself tells us that he was caught
up to the third heaven and heard unspeakable
things.
But on the way of Damascus heaven came
down to him.
There in heaven he saw Christ.
Christ in his glory.
And that was, that is the beginning of
the life.
Dear brothers and sisters, we have to begin
here.
We cannot begin with ourselves.
We cannot begin with our own thinking.
With our own concept of Christ.
We cannot begin with our own understanding of
Christ with the natural mind.
We put him on a very low level.
We cannot.
We have to have all these shattered to
pieces.
We have to begin with a revelation.
A heavenly revelation of Christ.
And when you see that, now
brothers and sisters, as soon as he saw
Christ, he asked one question.
The first question was, who are thou?
Who are you?
I do not know you.
I think I have known you.
But I discover I do not know you.
I do not know that you are so
glorious, so mighty, so rich, so high.
You are high above all.
God has put all things under your feet.
I do not know you.
And I know you.
I will not do it.
But I did it ignoring you.
Because I did.
But dear brothers and sisters, do you know
that what surprises Paul?
May I say more?
If I can use that word.
What surprises him more in a sense, humanly
speaking, is that when he asked, who are
thou, Lord?
Who are thou?
Do you know what the Lord answered?
The Lord said, I am Jesus.
Whom thou?
Why do you persecute me?
Did I persecute you?
How can an earthly being persecute a heavenly
person?
I am on earth.
You are in heaven.
How can I reach you?
How can I persecute you?
That's impossible.
What do you mean?
Why do you persecute me?
I do not persecute you.
I cannot persecute you.
You are beyond my reach.
You are too powerful for me.
Too high for me.
What do you mean by that?
Dear brothers and sisters, you know what he
said.
Paul was persecuting the believers, the followers of
Jesus.
Those who are the Lord, they were on
earth, the weak things, the
foolish things, the ignoble, those
who are there.
These were the people that Paul was persecuting,
the foolish people.
And they could be so foolish as following
a dead man.
The poor, the weak things, just people, nothing,
nobody.
Paul was persecuting, Paul was persecuting these people.
And yet the Lord revealed to Paul on
the way of Damascus that in touching these
foolish things of the world, these weak things
of the world, these nothings of the world,
he was touching none other but the glorious,
the risen.
Dear brothers and sisters, I think this came
to Paul as a great honor.
How could these foolish, indignant, nobody, nothing,
how could they be of that?
How could they be so joined to Christ,
the glorious head, that the head and the
body are literally one?
When you touch any member of the body,
if you touch the head, the member is
not something different from the head.
Idiot.
But can these poor things, these
weak things, these nothings be the vessel,
the container, and the manifestation of the unsearchable
riches of the head?
You need revelation to see Christ.
You need revelation.
If you try to see Christ in the
flesh, whom do you see?
But when you see Christ by the revelation
of the Holy Spirit, whom do you see?
All things are in
the same manner.
If you try to see the people of
God in the flesh, what do you see?
Our dear brother this morning had already told
us, rather it
is most of us.
In the world, there are not many who
are wise, who are noble, who are high,
who have become followers of Jesus.
Instead it seems as if the Lord delights
in choosing, and He does.
The foolish, the weak things, thank God, you
are weak things, and He chooses.
The nothings, if you think you are something,
I'm afraid, you are nothing.
But if you are nothing, thank God, that's
what He is looking for.
He is looking at something that nobody will
look at.
So someone said, our Lord Jesus will even
pick up the devil's castle.
And it seems as if the Lord is
always looking for that.
Dear brothers and sisters, when you try to
see the believers in the flesh, whether you
see them in the flesh, whether you see
them through your flesh, what is the result?
What is the picture that you see?
I do not need to describe to you,
because we all know.
But dear brothers and sisters, if you see
the Body, the Church, the people that God
has chosen for Himself, a peculiar people unto
Himself, if you see them in the Spirit,
by revelation, oh dear brothers and sisters, you
see that the Church is the Body of
Christ, the fullness of Him who fills all.
In Ephesians chapter 1 it is said, God
has made Christ head over all things to
the Church, which is His Body.
The fullness of Him who fills all is
made head over all things.
For what?
For what purpose?
For what reason?
To the Church, which is His Body.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is the meaning
of this?
Why do you need a body?
We say that our head actually is the
most important thing, because it is the nerve
center, it is the center of everything.
The brain is there, everything is there, the
head.
Why don't we just have the head and
not the body?
Isn't all the richest are in the head?
All the richest of this being is in
the head.
All right.
Take off the body and let the head.
Is that enough?
Why is it that a head needs a
body?
Dear brothers and sisters, the head
is so rich that it needs some container,
something to contain it.
And it needs something to exist.
I remember, I cannot forget, a brother says,
when you are talking like when I'm talking
now, of course I'm talking with my head.
My mouth is.
When I'm talking, I'm talking as if it
is the head who is talking.
But why is it that I need to
use my hands and even use my feet?
Sometimes I have to walk here and walk
there.
And sometimes I have to bend forward and
sometimes I have to bend backward.
Now, have you ever seen someone who stands
there and just talk and talk and talk?
And if anyone is doing that, the first
thing is he cannot get his thoughts across.
There might be words, but these words without
expression is not effective.
On the other hand, the longer he talks,
the quieter the audience will be.
They all go to sleep.
Dear brothers and sisters, all the unsearchable riches,
our Lord Jesus is so rich that He
has to find a body to contain His
riches.
And by containing His riches, it may give
Him a chance, a chance of opportunity to
express Himself in full.
Dear brothers and sisters, dear
brothers and sisters, I have to confess, I
have believed the Lord for many, many years.
But after all these years, I am still
a fool.
I remain a fool.
The foolish things, the weak things, nothing.
Think of that, that the Lord can take
these to Himself and join these to Him
and form these to be a body and
fill these with His riches.
And through these He shall manifest Himself that
the world may see Him.
Brothers and sisters, you will never think this
is possible.
But what is impossible, dear
brothers and sisters, we have this treasure in
the earthen vessel.
The Church, outwardly speaking, is like an earthen
vessel, nothing can keep it.
But thank God, if you see the Church
in the Spirit, the earthen vessel, for the
life, the Church is the body, the
fullness of Him who fills all.
Let us be very clear.
What is this body made of, composed of?
If you read the second chapter of Ephesians,
you find it is said that the gospel
has come, that the cross has come, and
it breaks down the wall of partition between
the Jews and the Gentiles and made them
one body in peace.
You know that they have found, actually found,
in the ruins of the temple, they found
a sign there that was used to be
posted in the temple to warn the Gentiles
not to go in too far.
They may stay in a certain section of
the outer court, but beyond that, no.
If you go beyond that, then there
was a wall of partition between the Jews
and the Gentiles.
The Jews are the chosen.
The Jews have the oracles of God, the
Gentiles.
A wall of partition between the Jews and
the Gentiles.
And yet our Lord Jesus, on Calvary's cross,
breaks down that wall of partition.
He brings the Jews and Gentiles together and
makes them one body.
His body.
You remember, in John chapter 10, our Lord
Jesus says, I have other sheep that do
not belong to this fold.
I must go and find them.
And they will hear my voice and I
will make them and you into one flock.
The fold of Judaism.
And those without the fold.
But in Christ, the wall, He has drawn
out of every nation, every tribe, every tongue,
and made them one.
Dear brothers and sisters, we do thank the
Lord.
It is wonderful in our eyes that He
has broken down all the walls between nations
and nations, race and race, social status and
social status, background and education.
The Lord has broken down all these discriminations
and out of these He has drawn us
and put us together and make us one.
But dear brothers and sisters, that is good.
Out of every nation, every tongue, language, tribe,
He has gathered us together and make us
one body.
Let us use this audience as an illustration.
Not that there are no more Christians in
this world aside from this.
There are many, many more.
Countless.
But suppose let us use this audience as
an illustration.
Thank God He has drawn people from this
country, out of United States of America, He
has drawn some out of Great Britain, He
has drawn others.
Out of South America, He has drawn still
others.
Out of the Orient, He has drawn some
others.
And the Lord has broken down the wall
of partition and has brought us together and
make us one body.
Thank God for that.
I see Chinese, I see Americans, I see
British.
Yes, the Lord has delivered us out of
these.
He has taken us out of these and
put us together.
As our brother mentioned today, the Chinese have
their culture, their way of thinking, the Oriental
way, which is.
And then you find there is the American
way of life and so on and so
forth.
Now brothers and sisters, yes, the outward wall
of partition has been broken.
But how about the inward?
If the body of Christ is made up
of such a mixture, a heterogeneous body, what
can you expect of that?
We are in a conversation.
We meet together.
It is as this.
We can afford to be kind to one
another.
Because it won't be too long.
Suppose we stay in here for a hundred
years.
We live together day and night.
Dear brothers and sisters, what will happen?
Not only the Americans will migrate to one
corner, the Britishers will migrate to another corner,
the Oriental will migrate to another corner.
You will find even among the Orientals, they
will be divided.
Wherever there is flesh, there is division.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is the body
of Christ?
Yes.
Outwardly, the law has drawn us from every
nation, every tribe, every kind.
In a sense, we have left our fold.
And we become one flock under one shepherd.
If that inward reality is not in a
sense everything.
Often Christians come and say, Brother, how can
such thing happen?
How can such thing happen among God's people?
Aren't we not supposed to be saved?
Aren't we not supposed to have the life
of Christ?
Why isn't the Spirit of God speak?
Can you answer that?
Not to say with so many of us
here.
I always like to use a simpler illustration.
Suppose there are only three Christians in the
world.
The best of all Christians, Peter, John, the
closest, nearest, dearest.
Suppose there are only these three persons and
God put them together and make them one
body under the head.
They know the Lord very much and they
are good friends.
My dear brothers and sisters, we figure out
if anything should happen it will come from
Peter.
If the other two or more yield, taking
the second place and let Peter.
But do you know that John and James
they have another name.
Sons of Christ.
Did you ever hear their thunder?
I did.
You remember once our Lord Jesus was on
his way to Jerusalem.
He passed by a Samaritan village and because
they saw the Lord was going to Jerusalem
they were not deceived.
John and James said, Lord, do you want
us to call down fire from heaven and
burn us, these people?
Do you hear the thunder?
Oh dear brothers and sisters, what is the
church?
What is the church?
What is the body of Christ?
Are we the church?
Are we the body of Christ?
Yes and no.
Yes in the sense that we are gathered
out of every nation.
No.
Because in the church there is neither Chinese
nor American.
No.
This is just another way of saying it.
The body, the fullness of him who feels
all things is all.
If he feels all in all then where
are you and where is he?
All in all.
Not even a little bit of it.
Dear brothers and sisters, I may oversimplify it
but if you allow me to use a
formula.
You know, spiritual things can never be put
into words.
I think our brother Mr. Spock was told
me that.
Now suppose I just use a simple formula.
What is the church?
Peter plus John plus James equal the church.
No.
Peter plus John plus
James equal Christ
in Peter plus Christ in John plus Christ
in James equal to the church.
Right?
Do you know?
Christ in Peter minus Peter plus Christ in
John minus John plus Christ in James minus
James equal to...
Am I right?
Thank you for helping me with this arithmetic.
Dear brothers and sisters, there is no such
formula.
But the principle is there.
What is the body of Christ?
What is the church?
The church is Christ himself.
Is Christ who is in you and in
me and in every one of us.
But do not forget you have to be
if you try to bring yourself in with
Christ.
You can expect anything.
Oh dear brothers and sisters, this is the
mystery.
This is a mystery of the Christ.
The unseen.
That God can take hold of us and
get rid of us.
And what we may know.
Our Heavenly Father give us the spirit of
wisdom and revelation.
That we may know Christ Give us revelation
that we may know thy church.
Oh, that we may see that one unit
the eternal intention.