Msg. 9 Practicing the Church Life for the Building Up of the Body of Christ

THE UNIQUE WORK IN GOD’S ECONOMY

Message Nine
Practicing the Church Life for the Building Up of the Body of Christ

Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:2; 12:12-13, 27; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:21-22; 4:16

I. After we see the vision of the Body of Christ, we need to practice the church life according to this vision; anyone who wants to live in the Body in a practical way must be in the local churches—Acts 9:4-6; 13:1; Eph. 1:17-23; 2:21-22; 4:16; 1 Cor. 12:27:

A. The Body of Christ is manifested in the local churches; every local church is the manifestation of the Body of Christ in that locality.

B. Participating in the fellowship of the local church is participating in the fellowship of the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 10:16-17; 11:23-26, 29.

C. The local churches are a procedure to bring us into the Body of Christ; we need to be in the local churches so that we can be ushered or brought, into the reality of the Body of Christ —Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16.

D. The local church is a procedure and not the goal; the goal of a local church is the building up of the Body of Christ; we should pay more attention to the Body of Christ than to the local churches—Matt. 16:18; 18:17.

II. The practice of the God-ordained way in the church life delivers the believers from hierarchy, the papal system, and the clergy-laity system for the building up of the Body of Christ—Rev. 2:6, 15; Rom. 12:4-6:

A. God’s intention in His economy is to have an organic Body built up for Christ—Eph. 3:9; 4:16.

B. The God-ordained way as revealed in the Bible is the proper practice of the church life against the papal and clergy-laity systems—Matt. 20:25-28:

1. The goal of the papal and clergy-laity systems is to annul the Body of Christ and to replace it with religion—Rev. 2:6, 15.

2. The recovery according to the Lord’s mind is to bring His believers out of the papal system and the clergy-laity system and to replace these systems with the God-ordained way for the building up of the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:16.

III. The God-ordained way is the organic way of life; in the Lord’s recovery we are taking a new way, which is God-ordained—John 14:6; 15:1:

A. God’s eternal purpose is to have the Body of Christ, and the steps to arrive at this purpose are the begetting through the preaching of the gospel, our nourishing through the home meetings, our teaching through the small group meetings, and our building up through the church meetings—Col. 1:28-29; Eph. 4:12.

B. We need to preach the gospel in an organic way as the priests of the gospel; sinners are redeemed by receiving our preaching; when they are redeemed, they become acceptable sacrifices to God—Rom. 15:16.

C. After someone gets saved through us, we should consider that he is our spiritual child; we need to feed the young believers as a nursing mother that they may grow in the spiritual life—John 21:15-16; 1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Pet. 2:2.

D. Our group meetings also need to be carried out in an organic way; the group meetings are the best way to care for new believers; a group meeting can keep people, uphold people, and relate people; no meeting can be as practical as a group meeting in communicating with and blending together the brothers and sisters—John 21:15-16.

E. We need to teach the saints to prophesy in the church meetings; then the new ones will be living and functioning members in the Body of Christ; to teach the saints to prophesy in the church meetings, that is, to speak for the Lord and to speak forth the Lord, for the building up of the church—1 Cor. 14:1, 31; 12:27.

F. To carry out this way, we must budget our time and give the Lord certain hours every week to go to contact people to save them, feed them, shepherd them, teach them, perfect them, and eventually bring them up so that they can speak for the Lord; then the church will receive the building up—1 Cor. 14:4, 12, 26.

IV. One of the tests of a genuine local church is that it should have fellowship with all the other local churches—Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3:

A. In a proper local church, the administration of the church is local, but the fellowship of the church is universal; the fellowship among the churches is the fellowship of the Body of Christ—2 Cor. 13:14.

B. Every church should be open to the other churches; if a church isolates itself from the other churches, it becomes a local sect—Col. 4:15-16.

C. The local churches should fellowship with all the local churches on the whole earth to keep the universal fellowship of the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 10:16-17; 11:23-26:

1. Any local church that does not keep this universal fellowship of the Body of Christ is divisive and becomes a sect.

2. A genuine church remains in the Body; a sect is a group of believers who divide themselves from the Body—1 Cor. 1:12-13.

D. Whenever we are about to do something in the church life, we need to consider how the Body might feel about what we intend to do—2 Cor. 8:21.

V. Whatever we do in our locality or universally for the other countries should be done in a full realization that we are building up the Body of Christ; thus, we should always keep a view of the Body; in all that we do, we should care for the Body, taking the Body as the rule in our mind, thoughts, words, and actions—1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 4:16.