Bible Study

According to God’s economy, there are only four races on this earth

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“The Bible is a book concerning God with man. In between God and man, there is a third party, Satan. Satan always makes trouble, and all the trouble is the chaos. The Lord needs a group of people, the overcomers, who will be one with Him to conquer all the destructive chaos and triumph in His unique constructive economy.

THE ADAMIC RACE, THE ABRAHAMIC RACE ACCORDING TO THE FLESH, THE ABRAHAMIC RACE ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT, AND THE OVERCOMING RACE

In the first 10 1/2 chapters of Genesis, God was dealing with man as the Adamic race. But after these chapters of the Bible, God shifted to another group of people. The second group of people is composed of the descendants of one father, Abraham. God shifted from the Adamic race to the Abrahamic race. God‘s dealing with the Abrahamic race occupies nearly the entire Old Testament, from partway through Genesis 11 to the end of Malachi. The Old Testament covers the race of Adam and the physical descendants of Abraham. Both were a failure to God, but God could never be disappointed. He is the almighty One and the faithful One. He has the capacity to fulfill His faithfulness to keep His economy.

In the New Testament economy, God had a serious, vital shift to another group of people. He shifted from Abraham’s descendants according to the flesh to Abraham’s descendants according to the Spirit. The book of Genesis tells us that Abraham had two kinds of descendants, who were likened to the dust of the earth (13:16), and the stars of heaven (15:5). His earthly descendants are as the dust of the earth, and we, the New Testament believers as his heavenly descendants, are as the stars of heaven. The Jews, by their natural birth, all belong to the physical descendants of Abraham. Then all the believers in Christ, regardless of their race, are the spiritual descendants of Abraham (Gal. 3:7, 29). Regretfully, however, most of the spiritual descendants of Abraham, also fail God. Then to whom can God go in order to carry out His purpose?

At the beginning of the last book of the Bible, the Lord Jesus as the High Priest walking among the golden lampstands gives a call to another group of people, the overcomers. In Revelation 2 and 3, He says “to him who overcomes” seven times (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). This is a sevenfold call to us, His believers, the spiritual descendants of our great father, Abraham. Christ calls out seven times for the overcomers.

The overcomers are the fourth race. The first race was Adamic, the second race was Abrahamic according to the flesh, and the third race was still Abrahamic, but according to the Spirit. However, even the spiritual Abrahamic race becomes a failure. Humanly speaking, it is quite disappointing, but divinely speaking, our God can never be shaken or disappointed. He is God! Regardless of what happens, He is still standing. Not only is He standing, but also He is the One who sat enthroned at the flood and who sits as King forever (Ps. 29:10). Because He is such a One, He produces another race, the top race, the super race, the race above all the races. This last race is the overcoming race!

From the time of Adam to the time of Abraham was exactly 2000 years. After the first 2000 years of human history, God shifted from the race of Adam to the race of Abraham. From the time of Abraham to the time of Christ was another 2000 years. Now we are here in the New Testament. The New Testament age is approaching 2000 years of history. Thus, there have been 2000 years for the Adamic race, 2000 years for the Abrahamic race according to the flesh, and almost 2000 years for the Abrahamic race according to the Spirit. What the Lord needs is the race of overcomers to conquer all the satanic chaos and triumph in the divine economy.

The book of Revelation is a book on the overcomers. The overcoming race in this book begins from Revelation 4 and continues through Revelation 22. The overcoming race brings in the success to God for His economy. We need to consider where we are today. Are we in Genesis 1-10 in the Adamic race, in the remainder of the Old Testament in the Abrahamic race according to the flesh, or in the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation 3, in the Abrahamic race according to the Spirit? We may say that we are in the New Testament, but this in itself is not adequate. We must be in the last 19 chapters of the Bible, from Revelation 4 through 22, from the throne to the New Jerusalem.

We need to be those who belong to the overcoming race. If someone were to ask us what kind of people we are, we should be able to say, “I belong to a race of which you do not know. I belong to the race of the overcomers.” According to God’s economy, there are only four races on this earth — the race of Adam, the race of Abraham according to the flesh, the race of Abraham according to the Spirit, and the race of the overcomers. We should declare by faith that we belong to the race of the overcomers.”

(The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation, chp. 3, pp. 63-65)

How do we grow in life?

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“We all need to have a private time with the Lord. This needs to be built up into a daily habit. The best time for such a private time with the Lord is in the morning. Some who leave for work very early, however, may need to choose another time of the day. Nevertheless, we all need to set aside time for the Lord daily, preferably at least thirty minutes.

During this time, you should go to the Lord and pray, not for so many affairs or business matters, but to contact the Lord, asking Him to examine you, to enlighten you, and to expose your situation in His light. As the Lord enlightens you, you will need to confess one item after another. When we do not come to the light, we do not see the uncleanness, especially the offenses on our conscience. But when we are enlightened, we are aware of all the dirt. We need to confess everything exposed by the Lord’s light. Once I made a confession to the Lord that lasted more than two hours. The more I confessed, the more I needed to confess. After I confessed one thing, I had to confess another, and then another. To confess is the best way to contact the Lord in prayer for the genuine growth in life. The more we are dealt with by the Lord, the more He will be wrought into our being. This is what it means to grow.

In order to grow, we must firstly contact the Lord in our time of private prayer. I encourage all the saints, especially the young people, to build up such a habit. Every day you must have a time of prayer. Sometimes you may pray for the church or for the Lord’s recovery, if you are burdened to do so. You may also pray concerning your affairs. But the primary matter is to pray for the Lord’s enlightenment, exposing, and examining. Ask the Lord to show you what is within you and ask Him to deal with you. You should say, “Lord, expose through Your light my real situation and condition.” If you pray like this, the light will come, and you will be dealt with. Then whatever you pray will not be a performance, but a genuine prayer from your cleansed spirit.

You need to lay a good foundation in the Word of God by reading through it consecutively from Genesis to Revelation. Read book after book without selection, choice, or preference. Try to read the Bible through once every year or every two years. It is important to build up the habit of reading and studying the Word.

We need to pray and to read the Word, putting these things together.

Along with reading the Bible, we need to develop the habit of reading some profitable and nourishing spiritual books, doing this in a very balanced way and not eating too much at one time. Rather, it is better to eat several times a day. You may read four pages of a message at one time and then read more later in the day or the next day. In reading spiritual books, do not try to take in too much at once. If you build up the habit of reading the Word and spiritual books, you will be healthy spiritually and you will grow.

If you take the Word without receiving light, there must be a problem within. There can be no problem with the Word, for the Word is light. Because you do not receive light, you need to ask the Lord to show you what is wrong, to show you why you have not been receiving light from Him. When you receive light on certain matters, accept the light and confess to the Lord immediately without excusing yourself.

We need to be filled in spirit with the fullness of God. The way to be filled is the same as the way to grow in life: to pray properly, to take the Word of God, to read some nourishing spiritual books, and to be enlightened. If we pray, read the Word, and are enlightened, we shall spontaneously and immediately be filled with the Lord, and the Lord will be added to us. This is the growth in life.”

(From Life Messages vol. 1, chapter 2)

We need to come to the Bible daily and even hourly

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“Because the word in the Bible embodies God, Christ, the Spirit, and life, we Christians need to come to the Bible daily and even hourly. We should not take the excuse that we do not have time. Finding time to spend in the Word depends on our realization of its importance. We all find time to eat every day, no matter how sloppy, lazy, or loose we may be, because we realize that eating is a life necessity. If we do not eat, we will die. When we see that reading the Word is a life necessity, we will find time to do it.

We need to spend time in the Word every morning… Everyone can make it because life necessity teaches us. Contacting the Bible is much more important than keeping a job or eating breakfast. There is no excuse for not contacting the Lord through the Word every morning.”

(CWWL, 1978, vol. 3, “The Recovery of Christ as Everything in the Church,” ch. 7, p. 273)

Neither faith nor love are ours

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That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love. (Eph. 3:17)

“To experience Christ we need faith and love (1 Tim. 1:14). Faith enables us to apprehend Christ, and love enables us to enjoy Him. Neither faith nor love are ours; they are His. His faith becomes our faith, by which we believe in Him, and His love becomes our love, by which we love Him. When we are rooted and grounded in His love, we grow and are built up in His life.”

(Ep 3:17, footnote 4)

The church life is not for a good time; it is for something solid

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“Suppose the young people in a locality come together only to have a good time, playing the guitar, singing hymns, and releasing their spirit, but they do not spend time in the Word of God and are not exercised in the spiritual experiences. Several years may pass, yet nothing will be built up. Such a situation would be worse than the situation in denominational Christianity, for Christianity at least has seminaries to train some leaders. To only have a good time is a waste of time. We need to come to the church meetings to learn something, to be built up, and to be trained. This is worthwhile. We should mean business in the church life. The Lord’s testimony is the most important thing in our life today. Therefore, we need to spend our time, our energy, and even our being to be constituted for the Lord’s recovery.

I encourage all the saints to spend a solid time to enter into the solid things. We should not relax or only seek to have a good time. The church life is not for a good time; it is for something solid. We need to pick up this burden and go to the Lord. We should not use the excuse that we are weak. We are all weak, but He who is in us is strong. We do not have the energy in ourselves, but His grace is sufficient for us (2 Cor. 12:9). We all need to look to the Lord for His grace that we may come up to His standard. I hope that all the saints will legally spend time in the Word of God. If we all practice this, the church life will be healthy, strong, rich, and genuinely living. We all need to honor the headship of Christ, bear the truth, exercise ourselves unto godliness, take care of the healthy teaching, and study the Word. By spending time in the Word, we will be filled with the knowledge of the divine Word and will know how to conduct ourselves in the house of God.”

(Crucial Principles for the Christian Life and the Church Life, Chapter 8, Section 4)

Why does God allows us to be afflicted?

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‘Psalm 119:71 says, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” This verse indicates that God raises up circumstances to discipline us so that we may learn the Word. Through suffering and affliction we learn His law. Inwardly we have faculties created by God by which we can understand His Word, and outwardly we have the environment and the circumstances by which we are disciplined. God allows us to be afflicted so that we may learn the Word of God.’

(Life-Study of Exodus, message #57)

Why is our Christian growth stunted?

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“Question: How is it that after so many years of being a Christian, there does not seem to be any change in me? Why do I still lose my temper? Should we expect to improve?

Answer: I understand your problem. Day after day a mother takes care of her children, but she can see very little change in them. She does not do anything purposely to make them grow, but by feeding them properly and by regulating their behavior, exercise, and sleep, little by little they are changing. The time will come when they will be full-grown.

Why is our Christian growth stunted? It is from our failure to take in the Word. Our eating and drinking are deficient. If the main point of our meetings is guitar playing and singing the psalms, we may enjoy ourselves, but year after year there will be no change in us. Just as our human life requires that we eat, drink, sleep, and breathe, so for our spiritual life we must contact the Lord and take in His Word. Our meetings must also supply us with the solid food. The result will be transformation. We will change not by any outward doing but by the life supply dispensed into us from within.”

(Life Messages, vol. 1, chapter 16)

Overview of the New Testament

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“In the Gospels is the Christ who lived on the earth and died on the cross for the accomplishing of redemption.

In the Acts is the resurrected and ascended Christ propagated and ministered to men.

In Romans is the Christ who is our righteousness for justification and our life for sanctification, transformation, conformation, glorification, and building up.

In Galatians is the Christ who enables us to live a life that is versus the law, religion, tradition, and forms.

In Philippians is the Christ who is lived out of His members.

In Ephesians and Colossians is the Christ who is the life, the content, and the Head of the Body, the church.

In 1 and 2 Corinthians is the Christ who is everything in the practical church life.

In 1 and 2 Thessalonians is the Christ who is our holiness for His coming back.

In 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus is the Christ who is God’s economy, enabling us to know how to conduct ourselves in the house of God.

In [Hebrews] is the present Christ, who is now in the heavens as our Minister and our High Priest, ministering to us the heavenly life, grace, authority, and power and sustaining us to live a heavenly life on earth.

In the Epistles of Peter is the Christ who enables us to take God’s governmental dealings administered through sufferings.

In the Epistles of John is the Christ who is the life and fellowship of the children of God in God’s family.

In Revelation is the Christ who is walking among the churches in this age, ruling over the world in the kingdom in the coming age, and expressing God in full glory in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.”

(Heb. 1:3 footnote 4)

The Bible is like a big puzzle

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“We all know that not only the New Testament, but also the Old Testament was written in the way of a puzzle. This is why so many teachers of the Bible like to systematize the things in the Bible. Isaiah 28:10 and 13 tell us that God speaks His word here a little and there a little. He speaks a little to Moses and a little to Joshua and a little to another one and a little to David. In the Bible God didn’t speak in the way we do. Whenever we speak we like to have a completion to our speaking. But God didn’t speak in that way. God spoke just a little bit to Abraham. Then, of course, God spoke a lot to Moses. At least two full books were God’s speaking to Moses, especially the book of Leviticus. From the first verse of chapter two to the last verse of the last chapter, it is altogether God’s speaking. That speaking of God to Moses was longer than God’s speaking to anyone else. Even Psalm 119 has only one hundred seventy-six verses. The book of Exodus has forty chapters; Leviticus has twenty-seven; Numbers has thirty-six; and Deuteronomy has thirty-four. This means there are one hundred thirty-seven chapters of God’s speaking just to one man, Moses. Yet still that was only a little of God’s entire speaking. Why? Because it was not completed. After speaking to Moses it may be that the Lord spoke to over forty different people in different places at different times. Still God’s speaking was not completed until Paul. Paul said his commission was to complete the word of God (Col. 1:25). Paul was bold. No other one ever had the boldness to tell people he had a commission to complete the word of God. In the Bible no one chapter is so complete in revealing God’s economy to us, but a little is here, a little is there, piece after piece, like a big puzzle. All the pieces are scattered and mixed up, so you need to spend many hours to put the pieces together. Then you can see the picture.”

(Perfecting Training, chapter 16)

Truth is found a little at a time

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“In 2 Timothy 2:15 Paul issued a charge: ‘Be eager to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, cutting straight the word of the truth’ (Gk.). Every Bible student pays attention to this verse. When I was young, the Brethren teachers stressed the importance of cutting straight the word of the truth. Paul charged Timothy in this way because the truth regarding any matter is not found all in one place in the Bible. Rather, it is found throughout various books of the Bible, with a part in one place and another part in a different place. In His wisdom the Lord reveals the truth in this way. Perhaps He did this so that those who are careless will have difficulty knowing the truth. To know truth we must be diligent. Hence, Paul charged Timothy to ‘be eager.’

Some say we should not be strict or legal in studying the Word. They insist that we should read the Bible only when we are inspired by the Spirit to do so. This is like saying that there is no need to eat three meals a day, but a need to eat only when the Spirit inspires us. This means that if there is no inspiration, we should not eat. Paul, on the contrary, charges us to be eager. If we are truly eager to present ourselves approved to God, then when we read the Word, we shall find the truth revealed in one place after another, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. We need to put all these pieces together in order to see the picture, the vision. According to Isaiah 28:13, the word of the Lord is ‘precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.’ This means that we find the truth a little at a time.”

(Truth Messages, chapter 3)