Judging Ourselves as Nothing: we are what we are by the Grace of God for God’s Building

In our review and enjoyment of the intrinsic significance of the materials of the temple, we have seen that both in the tabernacle and in the temple gold overlays wood, that is, God is mingled with man. The building of God, God’s temple, is a matter of God being mingled with man; God’s building is man being united, mingled, and incorporated with God.

Also, what we see in the temple is bronze, which signifies God’s judgment: there’s the bronze sea with ten bronze lavers, which signify the convicting, judging, and renewing Spirit of God who washes away all the negative things from those who participate in the dwelling place of God.

If we want to build God’s house, His dwelling place, we need to be constantly under the washing of the Spirit so that any impurity, defilement, and earthly touch would be removed from us, and God’s element would be added to us.

In the temple we also see two pillars, which are of bronze, signifying God’s judgement; in the Bible the pillar is a sign of God’s building through transformation in practicing the Body life.

Today we want to see more concerning the pillars of bronze – from the pillar that Jacob set up in the wilderness to how we can experience being a pillar of bronze in the temple of God today.

The Christ we Experience and on whom we Rest becomes the Material for God’s Building

The first time a pillar is set up in relation to God’s house is in Genesis 28, where we see Jacob running away from his brother after stealing his blessing, and he slept somewhere on the way, having a stone as a pillow.

At night he had a wonderful dream of a heavenly ladder set up on earth reaching heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it; the next day, Jacob took the pillow-stone and set it up as a pillar, poured oil upon it, and called, Bethel, the house of God (Gen. 28:18).

Jacob took the stone that he made his pillow, set it up as a pillar, poured oil on it, and called it the house of God. The stone becoming pillow signifies that the divine element of Christ constituted into our being through our subjective experience of Him (the stone) becomes a pillow for our rest.

When we come to the Lord with all our toils, burdens, and problems, we take His yoke upon us, we learn from Him, and we find rest for our souls (Matt. 11:28-30). The more we come to Christ as the stone, the more we find rest for our souls – the stone becomes our pillow for resting.

The more Christ’s divine element saturates us, permeates us, and constitutes us by our coming to Him again and again, the more we are at peace, we have rest, and nothing troubles us because we enjoy the Lord in the midst of everything.

The pillow becoming a pillar signifies that the Christ whom we have experienced and on whom we rest becomes the material and the support for God’s building, God’s house (see 1 Kings 7:21; 1 Time. 3:15). When we come to Christ as the living stone, He becomes our rest (our pillow), and He makes us a pillar in His house to be His enlargement.

We just need to keep coming to the Lord as our stone-Christ and we will find rest for our souls, we will be transformed into stones, and we become pillars for God’s building, testifying of the Christ we have enjoyed and experienced.

Hallelujah, the Christ we enjoy, experience, and rest on makes us pillars in God’s building, and He in us is the material and support for God’s house. When we experience and enjoy Christ in such a way, we become together the house of God, the pillar and base of the truth, and we will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal dwelling place of God and His redeemed elect (Rev. 21:3, 22).

Lord Jesus, we come to You with all our problems, toils, and burdens – give us rest for our souls! Lord, we want to learn from You, be infused with You, and be saturated with Your element so that we may find rest and satisfaction. Lord, we want to experience You, rest in You, and be filled with You so that You may become in us the material and support for God’s building, God’s house. Keep us enjoying You, resting in You, coming to You, and experiencing You for God’s building!

Judging Ourselves as Nothing: we are what we are by the Grace of God for God’s Building

The pillars in the temple were made of bronze: they were not made of stone, but of bronze, signifying that those who are useful to God in His building are constantly under God’s judgment, realizing that they are men in the flesh, worthy of nothing but death and burial – only Christ in us is what matters.

In Matt. 3:16-17 the Lord Jesus Himself took the way of judgement, acknowledging that in His flesh He was worthy of nothing but death and burial; He took the way of death so that God would be expressed, exhibited, and testified in Him. Jesus Christ the God-man took the lead to take the way of judgement so that God would be expressed in and through Him.

This One is now in us, and every time we enjoy Him, touch Him, and experience Him, we also take the way of judgement so that the Lord would have a way to be released and testified through us.

Paul also considered that in him, that is, in his flesh, nothing good dwells (Rom. 7:18), and David realized that he was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did his mother conceive him (Psa. 51:5).

We must judge ourselves as nothing and as being qualified only to be crucified; whatever we are, we are by the grace of God, and it is not we who labor but the grace of God (1 Cor. 15:10).

God in Christ as the Spirit comes to us to be our life, our life supply, and our everything for our enjoyment to be our capacity to live Him and magnify Him, and the life we now live in the flesh we live in faith and by grace (Gal. 2:20).

Let us therefore come forward to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace for timely help (Heb. 4:16); this timely help is to become the enlargement of Christ, the church as the temple of God.

We need to be reminded that God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5-7); we should not think that we are something but rather realize our need for the Lord moment by moment.

The reason for both division and fruitlessness among believers is that there is no bronze, nothing of God’s judgment; instead, there is pride, self-boasting, self-vindication, self-justification, self-approval, self-excuse and self-righteousness and condemning and regulating others instead of shepherding and seeking them (Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:54-55). When we love the Lord and experience Him as the man of bronze (Ezek. 40:3), He will become our extraordinary love, boundless forbearance, unparalleled faithfulness, absolute humility, utmost purity, supreme holiness and righteousness, and our brightness and uprightness (Phil. 4:5-8). Witness Lee

The reason we are fruitless and divided is because there’s no bronze pillars among us. The Lord told us that, if we want to follow Him, we need to take the way of judgement: we need to take up our cross, deny our self, and follow Him. If there’s no judgement of our self in our living, we are full of the self.

The Lord builds His church through death and resurrection, and if we want to cooperate with Him for the building, we need to refuse any self-boasting, pride, self-vindication, self-justification, self-approval, and self-excuse. No more excuses for the self. No more justifying of the self. No more boasting on what we can do. No more approving of ourselves or having our own righteousness.

We need to open to the Lord, praise Him, enjoy Him, and be constituted with Him so that He would become in us the capacity and ability to live a life under God’s judgement that expresses Christ.

We should never leave our first love for the Lord (Rev. 2:4) but love Him to the uttermost and pray to have our love rekindled. Only love can keep us in the humanity of jesus, and nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the God-man Christ, the Man of Bronze.

When we love the Lord and come to Him again and again, He becomes our all-inclusive virtue of forbearance, which will be shown to all men.

When we face anxiety, we should simply converse with the Lord and bring all our requests to Him on a platter of thanksgiving; in nothing should we be anxious but in everything, by prayer and petition, we should make our requests known to Him with thanksgiving. We may not get an outward answer, but inwardly the all-inclusive Christ will be our forbearance.

We need to keep this traffic with God: opening to Him, conversing with Him, and receiving His dispensing to be constituted with Him for God’s testimony. The result of enjoying Christ in such a way is that the peace of God, God Himself as peace, will guard our heart, and Christ is exalted, Satan is crushed under our feet, and we are richly supplied (see Phil. 4:5-8; Rom. 16).

Hallelujah, even if our circumstances are unbearable, they become bearable because of Christ as the Man of Bronze in us!

Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You for the building up of the church by denying our self, taking up our cross, and following You. Save us from vindicating ourselves, justifying ourselves, approving ourselves, excusing ourselves, or condemning and regulating others. Lord, we want to take the way of opening to You, conversing with You, and bringing all things before You so that we may be infused with You, constituted with You, and have You as our capacity to express God as we live a life under God’s judgement!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and The Vision of the Building of the Church, ch. 10 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Church as the Temple of God – The Goal of God’s Eternal Economy (2015 Thanksgiving Conference), week 3 / msg. 3, The Intrinsic Significance of the Materials of the Temple (2).
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Lord, deeper make Thy home in me / ’Til ev’ry room belong to Thee, / That Thou might fully make me Thee / And so full rest Thou have in me. / So also deeper into Thee / I’d make my home, my rest in Thee; / A pillar in Thy temple be / And stay in Thee eternally. (Song on becoming a pillar)
  # Build me, Lord, with other saints, / Independence ne’er allow, / But according to Thy plan / Fitly frame and join me now. / In experience not my boast, / Nor in gifts would be my pride; / For Thy building I give all, / That Thou may be glorified. (Hymns #839)
  # Lord, I love You more and more; / I just want You. / Fill me with Your life and Your virtues. / Fill me ’til I’m only living You. / Fill me every minute, every hour, every day / Until I am expressing You always. / Fill this earthen vessel, Lord, I pray. (Song on Loving Jesus)