Praise the Lord for the recent ITERO in Holland! The main topic of the fall International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones, held in Baarloo, Holland, is, The Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery. These four great pillars are Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel.
There is a book with the same name published by Living Stream Ministry (The Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel, Four Great Pillars in The Lord’s Recovery). This portion here is just a short enjoyment from this message and is an attempt to bring more saints in the fellowship and collective enjoyment of the Lord’s up-to-date speaking.
The apostle John wrote in 1 John 2:7-8, Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you heard. Yet again a new commandment I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
Even the four great pillars in the Lord’s recovery can be considered as “an old commandment”, and the Lord’s recovery itself is not bringing something new to the table – it is the same word spoken by God from the beginning, but now it shines with new light and enlightenment! The footnote here is marvelous,
The commandment regarding brotherly love is both old and new: old, because the believers have had it from the beginning of their Christian life; new, because in their Christian walk it dawns with new light and shines with new enlightenment and fresh power again and again.
The Lord’s speaking and His Word is NEW – nothing stale or worn out, decaying; because of the true light, the truths in the Lord’s recovery dawn on us with new light and shine with new enlightenment and fresh power again and again. Also, this light renews us as believers in our daily walk continually. This is the heart and the attitude we come to the four crucial pillars in the Lord’s recovery. The Lord’s recovery is mainly founded upon four pillars: truth, life, the church, and the gospel (Eph. 1:13; 4:18; 5:23-25, 29, 32; 6:15).
The First Great Pillar in the Lord’s Recovery: Truth
It may not be our portion as believers in Christ to provide the proper interpretation of the Word of God, but in the Lord’s recovery, God has provided us the ministry of the age, which brings in the proper interpretation of the whole Bible.
The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the divine truths as revealed in the Word of God. The Bible has been with man for more than 4000 years, but the truth in the Bible has been recovered throughout the ages and now we have both the Bible, the Word of God, and the proper and balanced interpretation of the Word of God.
We need to be absolute for the truth – not accommodating the truth because of our feelings, preferences, or natural inclinations. The Lord needs a recovery in which the truth is as absolute as it is in God Himself.
The standard in the Lord’s recovery is not the success in our work but the standard of the truth – the truth we put out is the measure we do everything! The kind of church we build up depends on the kind of truth we teach – there’s a desperate need of the living truth to produce the church, to help the church exist, and to build up the church!
We all need to be constituted with the truth – we need to have the truth wrought into us and constituted into our very being (1 John 1:8; 2 John 2-3; John 3-4). We need to see that there is a desperate need for the living truth – not just the truth in the Bible, but God shining in Christ on the truth and making it living to us. The truth is first the objective revelation in the written Word of God, then as the Lord shines on the truth in the Word and in the ministry, and also shines in our being, that will become the truth in us! The shining of the light on the truth and the shining of the truth into our being brings the truth to be the constituent of our being!
Remember: memorization is NOT constitution! Yes, it helps if we memorize the truth, but what we desperately need is for the Lord’s light to shine simultaneously on the objective truth and on our being, and then the truth will become forever a part of our inner being, a constant supply and nourishment to us for our whole life! The content of the truth is light – when the element of the truth is in our being, the light of the truth is in us, filling us with light, life, and life supply! We need to see the desperate need to be constituted with the high truth in the Word of God!
The Second Great Pillar in the Lord’s Recovery: Life
It is really important for us to realize that God does not give us “things” or matters; in God’s economy everything is a matter of persons. God gives us a Person – Christ! Both TRUTH and LIFE is Christ Himself! It all starts with the truth – the experience of the Lord as life is contained in the Lord as the truth. You cannot have life without the truth – when someone speaks the truth to us, when we hear the gospel, life is generated in us! The truth is the container, and life is the content of the truth. When we speak the truth, we minister life into others! People receive the truth and they get life!
The Lord is in us as our life – we can’t see / touch the life, so the experience of life needs an explanation – this explanation is the truth (Col. 3:4; 1:5). So many times we were in a meeting under the speaking of the truth and we realized: THIS is what is happening in my life these days! We may experience something of the divine life, but unless we have the truth to explain it, we don’t really know or share it to others… But once we get into the truth, we see that many times our experience of life is according to the truth. Now we can also go on to present the truth to others – the living truth, the truth we experienced.
What about our growth in life? What about the growth in life of the saints we care for? Do we care whether we or not the saints grow in life? Can we rest while knowing that the saints don’t grow year after year? If there’s no growth in life unto maturity, the Lord cannot return – He’s not coming back to marry an immature bride. We need to enter into the Holy of Holies and know God, experience God, and grow in the divine life. So many times we may be part of the crowd of the saints who are in the Holy Place… – but we need to go on, grow in life!
The Third Great Pillar in the Lord’s Recovery: The Church
The truth brings in life, and once we have the divine life, we become the church (John 18:37; 10:10; 1 Cor. 10:32). The church is the house of the living God – God dwells in His house, the church! The truth is the source, when the truth comes to us, it brings life to us; when we receive life, we become the church, the house of God, even the incorporation of God and man!
The truth releases life to produce the church, and the church is the pillar and base of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15), holding forth and shining out the truth to the entire universe!
Especially in Europe, where darkness prevails, where the young ones are thirsty for the truth but they are fed with the thought that we are in a “post-God era” – in the places where the Reformation was so strong, may the Lord recover many seeking ones to be the church!
Wherever the Lord’s truth shines, life comes in, and the church comes into existence! In the midst of unreality and darkness, we as the church are unshaken – the church is a PILLAR, and the light shines in the darkness, the darkness cannot overcome it! As we express the truth, we become the truth – we are truth-life-men, testifying the truth by shining it out!
The Fourth Great Pillar in the Lord’s Recovery: The Gospel
What is the Gospel? It is not only what the four gospels as the first four books of the New Testament convey. The entire New Testament is the gospel of God – and our speaking of the truth in the Bible, the high peak truth, the interpreted truth, is our preaching of the gospel! This is our commission today – to be constituted with the truth and to speak the truth (Matt. 28:19). The gospel that we preach in the Lord’s recovery is the purest, the highest, and the most complete gospel (Rom. 1:1, 3-4; Mark 1:1-14; Acts 20:24; Eph. 3:8; 2 Cor. 4:4). This gospel includes all the truths in the Bible – the entire Bible is the gospel of God!
… there are so many other matters that were touched in this message, and now it is up to us all to share these riches, proclaim them, and fulfill our commission to SPEAK THE TRUTH = PREACH THE GOSPEL!
Please leave a comment below with your top enjoyment in this message: either from your being in the ITERO, from reading the above, from listening to the message, or from what the Lord touched you. It is so good to be under the speaking in the Lord’s recovery, with the ministry of the age!
About aGodMan
Wowww!! THANKS FOR SHARING!!!
God wants persons in whom He can trust – ones to whom He can commit Himself. We need to be constituted with the truth – buy the oil today, so that before the Lord comes or before we sleep in Jesus, our entire spirit and soul would be saturated with Christ as spirit and life. And if we must sleep in Jesus, may we be the prudent virgins as truth-saturated-persons in our whole being! Lord, make us brothers and sisters who grow in life and truth year by year!
I was just reading the source book, "The Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel, Four Great Pillars in The Lord’s Recovery". It was spoken in 1984 in Philippines, right after a low point in the church life there, and right after Witness Lee finished speaking the Life Study of the New Testament. He was burdened to encourage the young believers, who were rising up to serve, to study the truth in order to be most useful to the Lord. He said, <q>I encourage all saints to spend two hours a day to study the Bible with the help of the life-study messages.</q> Wow. This shows how much we should value the truth.
Why is the truth so important? As you said, it's a living truth. We need to get beyond knowing the doctrine, to knowing Christ Himself as the truth (<a>John 14:6). We must go beyond knowing the facts in our mind by praying over the word (Eph 6:17-18) until the divine light shines on it, so that it becomes life to us.
In this conference, I was touched how the four items are really one. Christ is the truth, the life, the content and reality of the church, and we should speak Christ as the gospel (Eph 3:8). And they should progress from one to another. Studying the truth should bring us more of the life of God. Growth in life produces the church. And the church should speak the gospel. Let us speak the high gospel– wow, there is so much here. Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord for the four great pillars in the Lord's recovery – Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel.
Recovery is a return to the begnning. In the Lord's recovery, what we have is both 'old' (as it was as revealed in the begnning) and 'new' (as it dawns with new light and shines with new enlightenment) – see 1 John 2:7-8 and footnotes. The Lord's recovery is mainly founded upon four pillars: Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel. These pillars need to become our constituents so that something stable, unshakeable and strong are wrought into our being to uphold the Lord's interest faithfully until the end.
The first great pillar in the Lord's recovery is the truth – John 18:37. The standard of the Lord's recovery depends upon the standard of the truth we put out… The kind of church we build up depends on the kind of truth we teach. We need to have the truth wrought into us and constituted into our being. If the truth is wrought into us and constituted into our being, we will be able to protect the interests of the riches of God's divinity and the attainments of His consummation. In this way, we can properly represent the desire and will of God. Lord, gain us to spend time in Your word that we can be sanctified in the truth and be constituted with the truth.
The second great pillar in the Lord's recovery is life- John 14:6; 11:25. While the truth is the outward definition and explanation, life is the inward and intrinsic content. In order to experience and enjoy the Lord as life, we must know the truth. The Lord wants His church to know Him as the truth and to receive and enjoy Him as life, and the content of the church must be the growth of Christ in us as truth and life. Life is the way to fulfill God's purpose. Lord, gain us to daily eat You as the tree of life and to experience and enjoy the flow of life.
The third great pillar in the Lord's recovery is the church – 1 Tim. 3:15-16. The truth brings in life, and once we have life, we become the church. The church is the house of the living God. The church is the supporting pillar and the holding base of the truth. The church is the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh. The great mystery of godliness is that God has become man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce a corporate God-man for the manifestation of God in the flesh. Lord, gain us to always exercise our spirit – to deny the self, take up the cross and lose the soul-life – that the church can be built up as the kingdom of God.
The fourth great pillar in the Lord's recovery is the gospel – Eph. 1:13; Col 1:5. The gospel that we preach in the Lord's recovery is the purest, highest, most complete gospel. The commission of the church today is to preach the gospel, the content of which is the truth; our preaching of the truth is the preaching of the high gospel. The center of Paul's gospel is Romans 8, which concerns the dispensing of the Triune God as life into the tripartite man. Lord, put a strong burden in us to pursue the knowledge of the truth as the word of the gospel is the truth, that we can preach the high gospel for God's eternal purpose.
Lord, for Your good pleasure and heart's desire, pillarize us with Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel.
We are at the end time and its about time to preach the high gospel we got. It is high time therefore that the elders from all over world be encouraged and be enlighthened with the messages released in Baarlo, Netherland. It addresses all the present condition of the churches and will definitely resolved all the constraining factors which empeded the return of our Lord Jesus.
The greatest recovery of the Lord’s recovery is a recovery of the truth and of life so that He may have the church; the truth brings in life, and once we have life, we become the church . Truth in 1 Timothy 3:15 refers to the real things revealed in the New Testament concerning Christ and the church . The truth, the real thing is none other than Christ and the church. The church is the house of the living God, the dwelling place of God—the place where God can have His rest and put His trust. We are the church, the house of God, the Father’s house, the enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation. The church is the supporting pillar and the holding base of the truth . As the pillar, which bears the truth, and the base, which holds the pillar, the church testifies the truth, the reality, of Christ as the mystery of God and of the church as the mystery of Christ (Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4). The church is the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:15-16). God’s manifestation was first in Christ as an individual expression in the flesh (v. 16; Col. 2:9; John 1:1, 14). God is manifested in the church as His enlarged, corporate expression in the flesh (Eph. 2:19; 1:22-23). The great mystery of godliness is that God has become man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce a corporate God-man for the manifestation of God in the flesh. What a wonderful truth we have which eventually usher us to preach the high gospel…. That God becoming to be the life giving Spirit to make man God in life and in nature. We should make people realize about this wonderful process which is the very heart desire of God so that He may gain a group of people who will represent Him and to defeat Satan. This will end this age ushering the manifestation of the kingdom upto the consummation, the New Jerusalem, the divine and human incorporation.
The church must grow in truth and life. The Lord will not return for growth in number an will not marry a child bride. Growth in life is the increase of the Triune God into our being. The Lord wants His church to know Him as the truth and to receive and enjoy Him as life, and the content of the church must be the growth of Christ in us as truth and life (Matt. 16:18; 1 Tim. 2:4; John 8:32; 10:10).
We have to make use of our time to be truth constituted and life saturated person in our being. Growth is important, if there is no growth something is abnormal.
If we are not clear about the truth and do not understand or know the truth, we will have no way to enjoy the Lord as our life (8:32; 11:25).
The truth is the gospel, and our preaching of the truth is the preaching of the gospel (Col. 1:5).
To preach the gospel is actually to speak the truth, because the real gospel preaching is the speaking of the truth (Acts 8:4, 12, 30-35).
I was at ITERO in Holland, but further review always strengthens what the Lord wants to speak to us. The messages put truth first and the verses tie truth to the other three pillars. In John 14:6 the Lord Himself is both the truth (or reality) and the life. In 1 Timothy 3:15 the church is the pillar and base of the truth. In Ephesians 1:13 the word of the truth is the gospel of our salvation and in Colossians 1:5 is our hearing of the word of the truth of the gospel.
Because the truth is central, we have to look at what it is in the light of the Bible. It is not merely facts, nor even correct doctrine. Rather, truth (or reality) is the Lord Jesus Himself. In John 14:6 He said, "I am the truth" or "I am the reality." John 1:14 tells us that the Lord, who is the eternal Word, became flesh in incarnation, full of grace and reality. Here, grace and reality are something of the inner being of the Lord, just as life is in John 1:4.
John 1:17 tells us that "For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ." The law was given through Moses as an intermediary, but the being of Moses was not the law. In contrast, grace and reality are the being of the Lord Jesus. Grace and reality "came" through Him or more literally, "became" through Him. That is, grace and reality came to humanity when God as the eternal Word came into flesh.
Therefore, to hold to the Lord is to have the reality, the truth. The church is not merely upholding correct doctrine. Rather, the church, composed of all redeemed and regenerated people, upholds Christ as the reality of the universe. Furthermore, the gospel is not merely assent to certain doctrines but it is receiving a wonderful Person who wants to be reality in us. This is John 1:12 – "as many as received HIM"!
This Person, who is the truth, the reality, is also our life. We can pray, Lord, live in me today. Lord, in the mundane events of today be my life and my reality.
Hallelujah for the Lord's Recovery ! Hallelujah for the four great pillars in the Lord's recovery .. Hallelujah for Truth, Life, the Church and the Gospel ! Amen !
It seems unavoidable to view something from one's own perspective. An object can only be viewed from one point of reference at a time. Some features are always more prominent to an observer than others. As I listened to this message from the recent ITERO, I remembered that my perspective is that of a young adult.
This message was spoken to elders, responsible ones, older brothers who are shepherding the flock of God. They are bearing the responsibility of the churches in which they live and serve. Yet, I just had my 28th birthday. I'm decidedly young in the company of such brothers. But I'm still burdened. I want to encourage the growth of the brothers and sisters in my church. What can I do as a young adult? Being a young adult, my measure is not the same as the older brothers. I can't exhort the saints the way they can. So how can I discharge my burden to see the saints perfected while staying within my measure?
Pray. Prayer is within my measure. I can pray for the saints and pray for the church. But in what way? How should I pray for them? Pray according to the four pillars.
The Truth
First, pray that they would be constituted with the truth. This is the beginning. Whatever the shortage that we see in our church life, the starting point to a recovery is the truth. We must pray that the saints would be brought on in the truth. This is prerequisite.
Life
Secondly, pray that the truth become a life supply to the saints. In their inner life, in their daily life, and in the meeting life, the truth can supply them. This will uplift their experience of Christ as life. They will grow, and they will be channels of supply to others.
The Church
Third, pray for the church. Pray that the church would be built up. The church must mature so that it is an appropriate counterpart for Christ. The church matures through increasing in truth and life, not by the increase of organizational efficiency and membership counts.
The Gospel
The contents of the gospel is the truth. Speaking the gospel is synonymous with speaking the truth. If the saints are going to spread the gospel, they must be constituted with the truth. They have to grow in life. They also need a burden to see the church grow. The gospel is the last thing we should pray for. If we pray for all the previous things, God will have a foundation to completely answer our prayer for the spread of the gospel in our city and on the earth.
Pray according to the four pillars.
audio archive messages available at (post an account) :http://www.lsmwebcast.com/index.cfm
I was impressed with the fact that the gospel is actully the very person of Christ. He Himself is the living gospel, and whatever relates to His Person and work are items of this gospel. Whatever aspect we take is an aspect of this living Gospel Person. These aspects include Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit to make God so rich to every person who calls on His name. The tragedy of the European Christianity is that gospel preached in this part of the world is incomplete. It is often at the level of the 16th or 17th century, whereas the Lord has opended up many more items of the truth since that time. And this means we need to dive into them and proclaim the complete Gospel-Person to all the unbelivers and to all the dear children of God in Europe.
I also enjoyed the four pillars in the Lord's recovery–truth, life the church and the gospel in a fresh and subjective way. I particularly enjoyed that these four pillars are not something objective to us. The Lord wants to make us pillars (Rev. 3:12; cf. Gal. 2:9) in His house by our experience and constitution with these four pillars.
Concerning the divine truth–we need to dive into it and be constituted with it until we can teach it, preach it and even blog it.
Concerning life–we need to experience the Lord as the inward content of life according to the outward explanation, the truth. Knowing the truth in a genuine way will cause us to really experience Christ as life. We need to help all the believers under our care to know the truth and to experience life.
Concerning the church–we need to see that the real knowing of the truth, the divine reality that brings us into the experience of Christ as life will make us the church as Christ's organic Body. We won't just be attending church meetings, we'll be the church as God's living house, the pillar and base of the truth and the great mystery of godliness, a corporate God-man for God's expression on this earth.
Concerning the gospel–we need to see that such living church has the commission to preach the high gospel to the whole earth. Our preaching of such a gospel is presenting all the rich and high truths with which we are being constituted.
May we all go on to practice a living and service that is according to these four pillars–truth, life, the church and the gospel. My post at holdingtotruth.com is a further development of this comment to agodman.com
God wants persons in whom He can trust – ones to whom He can commit Himself. We need to be constituted with the truth – buy the oil today, so that before the Lord comes or before we sleep in Jesus, our entire spirit and soul would be saturated with Christ as spirit and life. And if we must sleep in Jesus, may we be the prudent virgins as truth-saturated-persons in our whole being! Lord, make us brothers and sisters who grow in life and truth year by year!
I was just reading the source book, “The Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel, Four Great Pillars in The Lord’s Recovery”. It was spoken in 1984 in Philippines, right after a low point in the church life there, and right after Witness Lee finished speaking the Life Study of the New Testament. He was burdened to encourage the young believers, who were rising up to serve, to study the truth in order to be most useful to the Lord. He said, Wow. This shows how much we should value the truth.
Why is the truth so important? As you said, it’s a living truth. We need to get beyond knowing the doctrine, to knowing Christ Himself as the truth (John 14:6). We must go beyond knowing the facts in our mind by praying over the word (Eph 6:17-18) until the divine light shines on it, so that it becomes life to us.
In this conference, I was touched how the four items are really one. Christ is the truth, the life, the content and reality of the church, and we should speak Christ as the gospel (Eph 3:8). And they should progress from one to another. Studying the truth should bring us more of the life of God. Growth in life produces the church. And the church should speak the gospel. Let us speak the high gospel– wow, there is so much here. Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord for the four great pillars in the Lord’s recovery – Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel.
Recovery is a return to the begnning. In the Lord’s recovery, what we have is both ‘old’ (as it was as revealed in the begnning) and ‘new’ (as it dawns with new light and shines with new enlightenment) – see 1 John 2:7-8 and footnotes. The Lord’s recovery is mainly founded upon four pillars: Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel. These pillars need to become our constituents so that something stable, unshakeable and strong are wrought into our being to uphold the Lord’s interest faithfully until the end.
The first great pillar in the Lord’s recovery is the truth – John 18:37. The standard of the Lord’s recovery depends upon the standard of the truth we put out… The kind of church we build up depends on the kind of truth we teach. We need to have the truth wrought into us and constituted into our being. If the truth is wrought into us and constituted into our being, we will be able to protect the interests of the riches of God’s divinity and the attainments of His consummation. In this way, we can properly represent the desire and will of God. Lord, gain us to spend time in Your word that we can be sanctified in the truth and be constituted with the truth.
The second great pillar in the Lord’s recovery is life- John 14:6; 11:25. While the truth is the outward definition and explanation, life is the inward and intrinsic content. In order to experience and enjoy the Lord as life, we must know the truth. The Lord wants His church to know Him as the truth and to receive and enjoy Him as life, and the content of the church must be the growth of Christ in us as truth and life. Life is the way to fulfill God’s purpose. Lord, gain us to daily eat You as the tree of life and to experience and enjoy the flow of life.
The third great pillar in the Lord’s recovery is the church – 1 Tim. 3:15-16. The truth brings in life, and once we have life, we become the church. The church is the house of the living God. The church is the supporting pillar and the holding base of the truth. The church is the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh. The great mystery of godliness is that God has become man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce a corporate God-man for the manifestation of God in the flesh. Lord, gain us to always exercise our spirit – to deny the self, take up the cross and lose the soul-life – that the church can be built up as the kingdom of God.
The fourth great pillar in the Lord’s recovery is the gospel – Eph. 1:13; Col 1:5. The gospel that we preach in the Lord’s recovery is the purest, highest, most complete gospel. The commission of the church today is to preach the gospel, the content of which is the truth; our preaching of the truth is the preaching of the high gospel. The center of Paul’s gospel is Romans 8, which concerns the dispensing of the Triune God as life into the tripartite man. Lord, put a strong burden in us to pursue the knowledge of the truth as the word of the gospel is the truth, that we can preach the high gospel for God’s eternal purpose.
Lord, for Your good pleasure and heart’s desire, pillarize us with Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel.
We are at the end time and its about time to preach the high gospel we got. It is high time therefore that the elders from all over world be encouraged and be enlighthened with the messages released in Baarlo, Netherland. It addresses all the present condition of the churches and will definitely resolved all the constraining factors which empeded the return of our Lord Jesus.
The greatest recovery of the Lord’s recovery is a recovery of the truth and of life so that He may have the church; the truth brings in life, and once we have life, we become the church . Truth in 1 Timothy 3:15 refers to the real things revealed in the New Testament concerning Christ and the church . The truth, the real thing is none other than Christ and the church. The church is the house of the living God, the dwelling place of God—the place where God can have His rest and put His trust. We are the church, the house of God, the Father’s house, the enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation. The church is the supporting pillar and the holding base of the truth . As the pillar, which bears the truth, and the base, which holds the pillar, the church testifies the truth, the reality, of Christ as the mystery of God and of the church as the mystery of Christ (Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4). The church is the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:15-16). God’s manifestation was first in Christ as an individual expression in the flesh (v. 16; Col. 2:9; John 1:1, 14). God is manifested in the church as His enlarged, corporate expression in the flesh (Eph. 2:19; 1:22-23). The great mystery of godliness is that God has become man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce a corporate God-man for the manifestation of God in the flesh. What a wonderful truth we have which eventually usher us to preach the high gospel…. That God becoming to be the life giving Spirit to make man God in life and in nature. We should make people realize about this wonderful process which is the very heart desire of God so that He may gain a group of people who will represent Him and to defeat Satan. This will end this age ushering the manifestation of the kingdom upto the consummation, the New Jerusalem, the divine and human incorporation.
The church must grow in truth and life. The Lord will not return for growth in number an will not marry a child bride. Growth in life is the increase of the Triune God into our being. The Lord wants His church to know Him as the truth and to receive and enjoy Him as life, and the content of the church must be the growth of Christ in us as truth and life (Matt. 16:18; 1 Tim. 2:4; John 8:32; 10:10).
We have to make use of our time to be truth constituted and life saturated person in our being. Growth is important, if there is no growth something is abnormal.
If we are not clear about the truth and do not understand or know the truth, we will have no way to enjoy the Lord as our life (8:32; 11:25).
The truth is the gospel, and our preaching of the truth is the preaching of the gospel (Col. 1:5).
To preach the gospel is actually to speak the truth, because the real gospel preaching is the speaking of the truth (Acts 8:4, 12, 30-35).
I was at ITERO in Holland, but further review always strengthens what the Lord wants to speak to us. The messages put truth first and the verses tie truth to the other three pillars. In John 14:6 the Lord Himself is both the truth (or reality) and the life. In 1 Timothy 3:15 the church is the pillar and base of the truth. In Ephesians 1:13 the word of the truth is the gospel of our salvation and in Colossians 1:5 is our hearing of the word of the truth of the gospel.
Because the truth is central, we have to look at what it is in the light of the Bible. It is not merely facts, nor even correct doctrine. Rather, truth (or reality) is the Lord Jesus Himself. In John 14:6 He said, “I am the truth” or “I am the reality.” John 1:14 tells us that the Lord, who is the eternal Word, became flesh in incarnation, full of grace and reality. Here, grace and reality are something of the inner being of the Lord, just as life is in John 1:4.
John 1:17 tells us that “For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” The law was given through Moses as an intermediary, but the being of Moses was not the law. In contrast, grace and reality are the being of the Lord Jesus. Grace and reality “came” through Him or more literally, “became” through Him. That is, grace and reality came to humanity when God as the eternal Word came into flesh.
Therefore, to hold to the Lord is to have the reality, the truth. The church is not merely upholding correct doctrine. Rather, the church, composed of all redeemed and regenerated people, upholds Christ as the reality of the universe. Furthermore, the gospel is not merely assent to certain doctrines but it is receiving a wonderful Person who wants to be reality in us. This is John 1:12 – “as many as received HIM”!
This Person, who is the truth, the reality, is also our life. We can pray, Lord, live in me today. Lord, in the mundane events of today be my life and my reality.
Hallelujah for the Lord’s Recovery ! Hallelujah for the four great pillars in the Lord’s recovery .. Hallelujah for Truth, Life, the Church and the Gospel ! Amen !
It seems unavoidable to view something from one’s own perspective. An object can only be viewed from one point of reference at a time. Some features are always more prominent to an observer than others. As I listened to this message from the recent ITERO, I remembered that my perspective is that of a young adult.
This message was spoken to elders, responsible ones, older brothers who are shepherding the flock of God. They are bearing the responsibility of the churches in which they live and serve. Yet, I just had my 28th birthday. I’m decidedly young in the company of such brothers. But I’m still burdened. I want to encourage the growth of the brothers and sisters in my church. What can I do as a young adult? Being a young adult, my measure is not the same as the older brothers. I can’t exhort the saints the way they can. So how can I discharge my burden to see the saints perfected while staying within my measure?
Pray. Prayer is within my measure. I can pray for the saints and pray for the church. But in what way? How should I pray for them? Pray according to the four pillars.
The Truth
First, pray that they would be constituted with the truth. This is the beginning. Whatever the shortage that we see in our church life, the starting point to a recovery is the truth. We must pray that the saints would be brought on in the truth. This is prerequisite.
Life
Secondly, pray that the truth become a life supply to the saints. In their inner life, in their daily life, and in the meeting life, the truth can supply them. This will uplift their experience of Christ as life. They will grow, and they will be channels of supply to others.
The Church
Third, pray for the church. Pray that the church would be built up. The church must mature so that it is an appropriate counterpart for Christ. The church matures through increasing in truth and life, not by the increase of organizational efficiency and membership counts.
The Gospel
The contents of the gospel is the truth. Speaking the gospel is synonymous with speaking the truth. If the saints are going to spread the gospel, they must be constituted with the truth. They have to grow in life. They also need a burden to see the church grow. The gospel is the last thing we should pray for. If we pray for all the previous things, God will have a foundation to completely answer our prayer for the spread of the gospel in our city and on the earth.
Pray according to the four pillars.
I was impressed with the fact that the gospel is actully the very person of Christ. He Himself is the living gospel, and whatever relates to His Person and work are items of this gospel. Whatever aspect we take is an aspect of this living Gospel Person. These aspects include Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit to make God so rich to every person who calls on His name. The tragedy of the European Christianity is that gospel preached in this part of the world is incomplete. It is often at the level of the 16th or 17th century, whereas the Lord has opended up many more items of the truth since that time. And this means we need to dive into them and proclaim the complete Gospel-Person to all the unbelivers and to all the dear children of God in Europe.