2022-5丨General Subject：Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

General Subject：Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

Message One Loving the Lord and Loving One Another— the Most Excellent Way for Us to Be Anything and Do Anything for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

VI. Psalms 22—24 are a group of psalms revealing Christ from His crucifixion to His kingship in the coming age; in Psalm 22 we see Christ's death, His resurrection, and His many brothers produced in His resurrection to form His church; in Psalm 23 we see Christ as the Shepherd in His resurrection; and in Psalm 24 we see Christ as the coming King in His kingdom:

Psa. 22 To the choir director: according to the hind of the dawn. A Psalm of David

Psa. 22:1 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? / Why are You so far from saving me, / From the words of my groaning?

Psa. 22:2 O my God, I call out in the day, but You do not answer; / And in the night, but there is no rest for me.

Psa. 22:3 But You are holy, You who sit enthroned / Upon the praises of Israel.

Psa. 22:4 In You our fathers trusted; / They trusted and You rescued them.

Psa. 22:5 To You they cried out and were delivered; / In You they trusted and were not put to shame.

Psa. 22:6 But I am a worm and not a man, / A reproach of men and one despised by the people.

Psa. 22:7 All who see me deride me; / They sneer at me; they shake their heads, saying,

Psa. 22:8 He committed himself to Jehovah; let Him rescue him; / Let Him deliver him since He takes pleasure in him.

Psa. 22:9 But You are the One who drew me forth from the womb, / Who made me trust while at my mother's breasts.

Psa. 22:10 I was cast upon You from birth; / From my mother's womb You have been my God.

Psa. 22:11 Do not be far from me, / For trouble is near, / For there is none to help me.

Psa. 22:12 Many bulls surround me; / The mighty bulls of Bashan encompass me.

Psa. 22:13 They open their mouth at me, / Like a ravening and roaring lion.

Psa. 22:14 I am poured out like water, / And all my bones are out of joint. / My heart is like wax; / It is melted within me.

Psa. 22:15 My strength is dried up like a shard, / And my tongue is stuck to my jaws; / You have put me in the dust of death.

Psa. 22:16 For dogs surround me; / A company of evildoers encloses me; / They pierce my hands and feet.

Psa. 22:17 I count all my bones; / They look, they stare at me.

Psa. 22:18 They divide my garments to themselves, / And for my clothing they cast lots.

Psa. 22:19 But You, O Jehovah, be not far off; / O my help, hasten to aid me.

Psa. 22:20 Deliver my soul from the sword, / My precious life from the power of the dog;

Psa. 22:21 Save me from the mouth of the lion; / Indeed while I am in the horns of wild oxen, answer me.

Psa. 22:22 I will declare Your name to my brothers; / In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.

Psa. 22:23 You who fear Jehovah, praise Him! / All you seed of Jacob, glorify Him! / And stand in awe of Him, all you seed of Israel!

Psa. 22:24 For He has not despised nor detested / The affliction of him who is afflicted; / And He has not hidden His face from him; / But when he cried out to Him, He heard.

Psa. 22:25 From You comes my praise in the great assembly; / My vows will I pay before those who fear Him.

Psa. 22:26 The lowly will eat and be satisfied; / Those who seek after Jehovah will praise Him—/ May your hearts live forever!

Psa. 22:27 All the ends of the earth / Will remember and return to Jehovah, / And all families of the nations / Will worship before You;

Psa. 22:28 For the kingdom is Jehovah's, / And He rules among the nations.

Psa. 22:29 All the flourishing of the earth / Will eat and worship. / All who go down into the dust will bow down before Him, / Even he who does not keep his soul alive.

Psa. 22:30 A seed will serve Him; / That which concerns the Lord will be told to a coming generation.

Psa. 22:31 They will come and declare His righteousness / To a people yet to be born, that He has done this.

Psa. 23 A Psalm of David

Psa. 23:1 Jehovah is my Shepherd; I will lack nothing.

Psa. 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; / He leads me beside waters of rest.

Psa. 23:3 He restores my soul; He guides me on the paths of righteousness / For His name's sake.

Psa. 23:4 Even though I walk / Through the valley of the shadow of death, / I do not fear evil, / For You are with me; / Your rod and Your staff, / They comfort me.

Psa. 23:5 You spread a table before me / In the presence of my adversaries; / You anoint my head with oil; / My cup runs over.

Psa. 23:6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me / All the days of my life, / And I will dwell in the house of Jehovah / For the length of my days.

Psa. 24 A Psalm of David

Psa. 24:1 The earth is Jehovah's, and its fullness, / The habitable land and those who dwell in it.

Psa. 24:2 For it is He who founded it upon the seas / And established it upon the streams.

Psa. 24:3 Who may ascend the mountain of Jehovah, / And who may stand in His holy place?

Psa. 24:4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, / Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood / Or sworn deceitfully.

Psa. 24:5 He will receive blessing from Jehovah, / And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Psa. 24:6 This is the generation of those who seek Him, / Those who seek Your face, even Jacob. Selah.

Psa. 24:7 Lift up your heads, O gates; / And be lifted up, O long enduring doors; / And the King of glory will come in.

Psa. 24:8 Who is the King of glory? / Jehovah strong and mighty! / Jehovah mighty in battle!

Psa. 24:9 Lift up your heads, O gates; / And lift up, O long enduring doors; / And the King of glory will come in.

Psa. 24:10 Who is this King of glory? / Jehovah of hosts—/ He is the King of glory! Selah.

A. These three psalms show that between Christ's death and resurrection in the past and Christ's coming again as the King in His kingdom in the future is the enjoyment, experience, and expression of Christ as our pneumatic Shepherd in the present.

B. This reveals that shepherding is the bridge between Christ's first coming and His second coming; in His heavenly ministry Christ is presently shepherding people, and if we participate in His wonderful shepherding, there will be a big revival, a new revival, in the Lord's recovery to bring Christ back.

VII. In taking care of the churches and in shepherding the saints, what is needed is the intimate concern of a ministering life—2 Cor. 7:2-7; 12:15; Philem. 7, 12:

2 Cor. 7:2 Make room for us; we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.

2 Cor. 7:3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts for our dying together and our living together.

2 Cor. 7:4 Great is my boldness toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf; I am filled with comfort, I overflow with joy in all our affliction.

2 Cor. 7:5 For even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted in everything; without were fightings, within were fears.

2 Cor. 7:6 But He who comforts those who are downcast, that is, God, comforted us by the coming of Titus;

2 Cor. 7:7 And not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted because of you, declaring to us your longing, your lamentation, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced the more.

2 Cor. 12:15 But I, I will most gladly spend and be utterly spent on behalf of your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved less?

Philem. 7 For I had much joy and encouragement over your love, because the inward parts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

Philem. 12 Him I have sent back to you-him, that is, my very heart-

A. In shepherding the saints, it is possible that we may kill others; the reason for this killing, this fruitlessness, is the lack of intimate concern—cf. 2 Cor. 3:6:

2 Cor. 3:6 Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

1. The milk of the word of God, the life supply of Christ, should be used to nourish the new believers in Christ, not to “boil” them—1 Pet. 2:2; Exo. 23:19b.

1 Pet. 2:2 As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation,

Exo. 23:19 The first of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of Jehovah your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

2. If we have the ability to carry on a work but lack an intimate concern, our work will be fruitless; our heart must be enlarged to embrace all believers regardless of their condition—2 Cor. 6:10-11.

2 Cor. 6:10 As made sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things.

2 Cor. 6:11 Our mouth is opened to you, Corinthians; our heart is enlarged.

B. How fruitful we are, how much fruit we bear, does not depend on what we are able to do; it depends on whether we have an intimate concern.

C. A ministering life is a life that warms up others; if we would minister life to the saints, we must have a genuine concern for them, a concern that is emotional, deep, and intimate.

What we have in 2 Corinthians 7:2-16 is the intimate concern of the ministering life. Every believer who loves the Lord and who wants to come up to God’s standard should become a minister of the new covenant... Such a minister is a person who supplies Christ to others for the building up of the church, His Body...The goal of the Lord’s recovery today is to recover this ministering of Christ by all the believers so that the church may be built up. This understanding is based on Paul’s word in Ephesians 4, where he says that the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers perfect the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ. For us all to be church builders, to minister Christ for the building up of the church, we need a ministering life,...a life of ministering Christ to others for the church.

The ministering life we see in 2 Corinthians is a fruitful life...In the Gospel of John the Lord does not tell us to be spiritual, holy, and victorious. Rather, in John 15 He charges us to bear fruit, even to bear much fruit, abiding fruit. This is to live a ministering life.

In the shepherding of the saints, it is...possible that we may kill others. The reason for this killing, this fruitlessness, is the lack of intimate concern...We may visit a family to shepherd them, but we may not have any loving concern. Rather, our motive may be to display our knowledge, spirituality, gift, or capability. The result is a killing.

If we have ability to carry on a work but lack an intimate concern, our work will be fruitless... How fruitful we are, how much fruit we bear, does not depend on what we are able to do. It depends on whether or not we have an intimate concern.

Paul was very human and emotional in his ministering of life. Paul was so emotional because his concern was so deep and intimate. Without this kind of concern, we could never be abundantly rejoicing in the way Paul was. Instead, we may be as cold as a freezer, altogether lacking in concern for the saints. Instead of warming up others, we make them even colder. Nothing can grow when it is in such a frozen condition. We need the weather of spring to come to thaw us out and warm up our life. Once again there is a need for a ministering life. Do you know what a ministering life is? It is a life that warms up others. Learn to warm others. This is to have an intimate concern for them.

If we do not have this kind of concern for others, we shall not be fruitful. If I would minister life to the saints, I must have a genuine concern for them, a concern that is emotional, deep, and intimate. I must be so concerned that, at times, I may appear to others to be foolish or beside myself. Only the ministering life enables us to bear fruit. Fruitbearing is the issue of a ministering life. (Life-study of 2 Corinthians, pp. 379-384, 386)

Further Reading: Life-study of the Psalms, msgs. 11-12; Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msg. 44