Just now we talked about the series of works God did for the first time, and all these things have to do with God’s management plan and have to do with God’s will and also have to do with God’s own disposition and God’s substance. To know more of what God has and is, we cannot just remain in the Old Testament, in the Age of the Law, but should go forward with the pace of God’s working. Then, as God ended the Age of the Law and began the Age of the Grace, our footsteps also come to the Age of the Grace—an age full of grace and full of redemption. In that age, God again for the first time did a very important thing. This work of the new age was a new start both to God and to mankind. This new start was another new work God did for the first time. This new work was a thing God did unprecedentedly which was unexpected to man and unexpected to all things. This thing is what is known to all people of today: God for the first time became a member of mankind and for the first time began his new work with the image of a man and with the identity of a man. This new work signified that he had ended the work of the Age of the Law and signified that God would no longer do or speak anything under the law or speak or do anything in the way of the law or with the principles and decrees of the law, that is, all the works based on the law stopped forever and would no longer go on. As God aimed to do a new work, a new thing, and God’s plan had a new start, God must lead men into the next age.
Whether this thing was good news or bad news to a person depended on what his substance was. It can be said that to some people, it was not good news but bad news, because when God did the new work, those who only kept laws and decrees and only kept regulations but did not fear God were liable to condemn God’s new work by his old work. To these people, it was bad news. However, to everyone who was simple and open and everyone who was sincere toward God and who was willing to accept God’s salvation, God’s first incarnation was extremely good news. This is because since there was mankind, God for the first time lived among men and worked among men in the form of the Son of man who was born of man and with the image of the Son of man, instead of appearing among men and living among men in the form of the Spirit. This first time broke man’s notion and went beyond everyone’s imagination, and at the same time brought “benefits” to all the followers of God. God not only ended the old age, but at the same time he also ended his old way of working and “style” of working. He no longer let his messengers convey his will for him and no longer “hid” in the clouds and appeared to men and spoke to men from on high in the way of “thundering,” but he “suddenly changed his usual act”—carrying out his work of that age in a way unexpected to men and in a way men can hardly understand or accept—incarnation—becoming a Son of man. This act of God caught mankind unprepared and also embarrassed mankind, for what God did was another new work God had never done. Today let us have a look at what new works God did in the new age, and what aspects of God’s disposition and what aspects of what God has and is we can know from these new works.
The following are the words recorded in the New Testament.
1. (Mt 12:1) At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat.
2. (Mt 12:6-8) But I say to you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
Let us first look at the passage, “At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat.”
Why is this passage selected? What does it have to do with God’s disposition? From this passage we first know that the day was the sabbath day. However, the Lord Jesus went out on the sabbath day, and he went through the corn with his disciples; what was more “rebellious” was that they even “began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat.” In the Age of the Law, the law of Jehovah God specified that on the sabbath day people could not go outside as they pleased or do activities as they pleased. On the sabbath day there were many things they could not do. That act of the Lord Jesus puzzled the people who had lived under the law for long, and it even incurred criticisms. As to how people were puzzled and how they criticized what Jesus did, we will not talk about them for the time being. Let us first talk about why the Lord Jesus chose to do that on the sabbath day and what he wanted to tell the people under the law through that. This is the connection between this passage and God’s disposition, which I will talk about.
The Lord Jesus came, and he told mankind by his practical act: God had come out of the Age of the Law and begun a new work; this new work no longer required people to keep the sabbath day; and “coming out of the sabbath day” was only a foretaste of God’s new work, and the real great work would go on. When the Lord Jesus began to work, he already went out of the “restriction” of the Age of the Law and broke the decrees and principles specified in the Age of the Law. Anything related to the law did not have any trace in him, and he discarded all of them and no longer kept them or required people to keep them. So, here you see that on the sabbath day the Lord Jesus went through the corn, and the Lord did not have rest but worked outside, without a rest. His such an act countered man’s notions, telling people that he no longer lived under the law and he went out of the sabbath day and appeared before people and appeared among people with a completely new image and in a new way of working. His such an act told people that he brought a new work, which began with going out of the law and out of the sabbath day. When God did a new work, he would no longer cherish the old one or care about the decrees of the Age of the Law, nor would he be affected by the work done in the former age; rather he worked on the sabbath day all the same, and when his disciples were hungry, they could pluck the ears of corn and eat. All these were very normal in God’s eyes. With God, many works and words he aims to do and speak can have a new start. When he makes a new start, the old work he did before will no longer be mentioned or go on. This is because God works by his principles. When he wants to do a new work, that is, when he wants to bring people into the new stage of work, and when his work enters into a higher stage, if men continue to practice and keep the old sayings or decrees, God will not remember or approve it, because he has brought a new work and entered into a new working phase. When he brings a new work, he will appear to all people with a completely new image and in a completely new position and way, so that people can see his disposition and what he has and is in other different aspects. This is one of the purposes of his doing a new work. God does not hold on to old things or walk the old path. When he works and speaks, he does not, as man imagines, keep this or that prohibition. With God, everything is released and free, without any prohibition or restriction. What he brings to man are all freedom and release. He is a living God, and he is a God who exists truly and practically; he is not a puppet or a clay sculpture, and he is completely different from the idols enshrined and worshiped by men. He is fresh and living, and his work and word bring man solely life and light and freedom and release. Because he has the truth, the life, and the way, he does all the work he aims to do without any restriction. No matter what men say and no matter how mankind looks at his new work or comments on his new work, he will do the work he aims to do without any hesitation. He will not mind anyone’s notions or anyone’s critical views about his work and word, even man’s extreme opposition and resistance against his new work. No one among created beings should expect that he can measure what God does, circumscribe what God does, or slander, disturb, or wreck God’s work by man’s doctrines, man’s imaginations, man’s knowledge, or man’s moral concepts. When God does things or works, he is free from any prohibition, and he is not restricted by any person, matter, or thing and is immune to disturbance from any hostile force. As far as his new work is concerned, he is the King triumphing forever, and all the hostile forces and various kinds of human evil sayings and fallacies are trampled under his footstool. No matter which stage of new work he does, his work will surely be carried out among men, will surely be spread among men, and will surely be carried out without hindrance and crowned with success in the entire universe. This is God’s almightiness and wisdom and also God’s authority and power. So, the Lord Jesus could go out to work on the sabbath day in an open way, for in his heart there was not any regulation or any knowledge and doctrine from man. What he had was God’s new work and God’s way, and whatever work he did was the way that could set man free and released, could let man live in the light, and could make man alive. However, those who worshiped idols and worshiped false gods lived in satan’s bondage every day and were bound by various kinds of regulations and rules. They kept this prohibition today and that tomorrow, living without any freedom. They were like prisoners locked in cangues and chains, without any happiness. What does “prohibition” represent? It represents restriction, bondage, and evil! Once a man worships an idol, he worships a false god and an evil spirit, and prohibitions follow with that: This cannot be eaten, and that cannot be eaten; this day he cannot go out, next day he cannot cook, and the following day he cannot move; even the day for wedding or funeral has to be chosen, and even the day for giving birth. What are these? These are prohibitions, are bondages to man, and are shackles with which satan and evil spirits control man and restrict man’s spirit and body. With God, are there these prohibitions? When God’s holiness is mentioned, you should first think of this: With God, there is not any prohibition. God works and speaks by principles but without any prohibition, because God Godself is the truth, the way, and the life.
Look at the following verses: (Mt 12:6-8) “But I say to you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.” What does the “temple” here mean? In common language, the “temple” means a magnificent and grand building. In the Age of the Law, the “temple” was the place for the priests to worship God. Who is the “one” in the word “That in this place is one greater than the temple” spoken by the Lord Jesus? Obviously, the “one” is the incarnated Lord Jesus, because only the Lord Jesus was greater than the temple. What did this word tell people? It told people that they should come out of the temple, because God had come out of the temple and no longer worked there. So, they should seek God’s footsteps outside the temple and keep up with the pace of God’s new work. The background against which the Lord Jesus said this word was that people under the law had taken the temple as something greater than God. That is, what people worshiped was the place of temple, not God. So, the Lord Jesus reminded that people should not worship the idol but worship God, because God is supreme. Therefore, he said: “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” It can be seen that in the eyes of the Lord Jesus, most people under the law no longer worshiped Jehovah, but just went through the process of sacrifice. Such a process was condemned as “worshiping the idol” by the Lord Jesus. These people who worshiped the idol considered the temple to be greater and more supreme than God. They only had the temple but not God in their hearts. To them, without the temple they lost the place to dwell, and without the temple they had no place to worship and could not practice offering sacrifices. The so-called “place to dwell” was a place where they carried the banner of worshiping Jehovah God and thus had the permission to stay in the temple and did their own things. The so-called “practicing offering sacrifices” meant that they could take doing service as a cover and do their own unpresentable things in the temple. This was the reason why people at that time considered the temple to be greater than God. Because they took the temple as a cover and took offering sacrifices as a camouflage to cheat man and cheat God, the Lord Jesus spoke such words to warn them. Now, these words are also effective and well-directed. Although people of today and the people of the Age of the Law experienced God’s different works, the substance of their nature is the same. Under the background of today’s work, people still can do the things of a similar nature to “the temple being greater than God.” For example, people take performing duty as their occupation, take testifying God and fighting against the great red dragon as the political movement of safeguarding human rights and fighting for democracy and freedom, and take the duty with some technology content as their own career, but observe “fearing God and shunning evil” as a religious doctrine, and so on. Aren’t these performances of people exactly of the same nature as “the temple being greater than God”? It is only that people of two thousand years ago did their own management in the physical temple, but people of today do their own management in the intangible temple. Those who treasure regulations consider regulations to be greater than God, those who like position consider position to be greater than God, those who love their career consider their career to be greater than God, and so on. Considering people’s various performances, I have to say, “People extol God as the Most High with their mouths, but in their eyes everything is greater than God.” This is because once people find the opportunity to exert their talents on the way of following God, once they have the opportunity to do their own management and career, they utterly keep away from God and throw themselves into the career they love, and have long cast God’s commission and God’s will to the winds. Considering these states of people, are they any different from those who did their own various managements two thousand years ago?
Next, let us look at the last word in this passage of scripture, “For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.” Does this word have its practical aspect? Can you see the practical aspect of this word? Every word of God is expressed from his heart. Why did he speak this word? How do you understand it? Now you may be able to understand its meaning. But at that time, not many people could understand it, because people of that time had just come out of the Age of the Law. To them, it was a very difficult thing to come out of the sabbath day, much less to understand what the true sabbath day was.
The word “the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day” tells people that God’s everything is non-material. Although God can supply all your material needs, when your material needs are satisfied, can the satisfaction these materials bring you substitute for your pursuit of the truth? Obviously, it can’t! God’s disposition and what God has and is we fellowship about are all the contents of the truth, and you cannot measure them by any material of great value, nor can you measure their value by money, because they are not material, and they are supplying what everyone needs in his heart. To everyone, the value of these non-material truths should surpass the value of anything you consider good. Can it be said so? You need to savor this word slowly. The important point I speak about is that what God has and is and God’s everything are most important to everyone, and they cannot be substituted by any material thing. Let me give you an illustration: When you are hungry, you need to take some food. The food can either be good or bad; as long as you fill yourself up, the unpleasant feeling of hunger in your stomach is gone and disappears, and you can quiet down while sitting there and your body can be in rest. You can solve the hunger in your stomach with food. However, when you, in following God, feel that your knowledge of God is nil, how can you solve the feeling of emptiness in your heart? Can you solve it with food? Or when you follow God but do not understand God’s will, what can you take to fill this hunger in your heart? In the course of your experiencing God’s salvation and when you pursue the transformation of your disposition, if you do not understand God’s will, do not understand what the truth is, and do not know about God’s disposition, you feel very worried, don’t you? You feel very thirsty in your heart, don’t you? These feelings of yours cause you to have no rest in your heart, right? What can you take to fill this hunger in your heart? Do you have any way to solve it? Some go shopping, some go to several good friends to have a chat, some go to have a good sleep, and some spend more time reading God’s word or exert more effort and strength in performing duty. Can these solve your practical difficulties? You all have much experience of these practices. When you feel you cannot make it as you wish and when you feel very thirsty for God’s inspiration so that you can understand the reality of the truth and understand God’s will, what do you need the most? What you need is not a good meal or some considerate words, much less that your flesh receives temporary ease and satisfaction, but that God can directly and clearly tell you what to do and how to do it and let you understand clearly what the truth is. When you understand these, even bits of them, doesn’t your heart feel more satisfied than after having a good meal? When your heart is satisfied, doesn’t your heart or your whole being have a true rest? After I draw an analogy and analyze this thing like this, have you understood now why I let you look at the word “the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day”? The meaning of this word is that what is from God and what God has and is and God’s everything are greater than anything else, including the thing or the person you have regarded as most dear to you. In other words, if one cannot gain the words from God’s mouth or understand God’s will, he cannot possibly have a rest. In your future experience, you will understand why I let you look at this passage today, which is very important. Everything God does is the truth and the life. To man, the “truth” is an indispensable thing in his life and is something he cannot leave at any time, and it can be said to be the greatest thing. Although your eyes cannot see it and your hands cannot touch it, its importance to you cannot be neglected, and it is the only thing that can bring rest to your heart.
When receiving the truth, do you know how to relate it to your state? In real life, you should first think what truths the people, matters, and things you experience involve, and only in these truths can you find God’s will and relate them with God’s will. If you directly go to seek God’s will without knowing what truths the things coming upon you involve, such practice is quite blind, and no result will be achieved. To seek the truth and understand God’s will, you should first see of what kind the thing coming upon you is and what truths it involves. In God’s word you should find the truths corresponding to your experience, and then find the ways for you to practice in them. In this way, you will indirectly understand God’s will. Seeking the truth and practicing the truth are not to mechanically apply to a regulation or observe a formula. The truth is not formulaic, nor is it a fixed law. It is not a dead thing, but it is life, a living thing, and is the law a created being must obey when living and the law indispensable to man’s existence. You need to understand this more in your experience. No matter to what degree you have experienced, you cannot do without God’s word and cannot do without the truth. And God’s disposition which you understand and what God has and is which you know are all expressed in God’s word, and they have an inseparable relation with the truth. God’s disposition and what God has and is in themselves are the truth; it is only that the truth is a real manifestation of the expression of God’s disposition and what God has and is. It has specified what God has and is in explicit terms, and it more plainly tells you what God likes and what God dislikes, what God wants you to do and what God forbids you to do, and what kind of person God hates and what kind of person God is pleased with. Behind the truths God expresses, people see God’s pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy, and see God’s substance; these are the expression of God’s disposition. Besides knowing what God has and is and knowing about God’s disposition in God’s word, one has to do it mainly in his practical experience. If one is divorced from the real life, it is impossible for him to know God. Even if some people gain some knowledge in God’s word, it is limited to doctrines and letters and is still at distance from the true God Godself.
All that we fellowship about now are within the scope of the stories recorded in the Bible. Through these stories and through dissecting these things that happened, we can know God’s disposition and what God has and is, which God had expressed. This will enable us to know various aspects of God in a wider range, in a more profound way, in more respects, and from manifold angles. Then, to know various aspects of God, can we do it only through these stories? No! This is because the words God speaks and the works he does in the Age of the Kingdom can better enable people to know God’s disposition and know it more comprehensively. It is only that I want to make it easier for people to know God’s disposition and know about what God has and is through some well-known cases and stories recorded in the Bible. If I fellowshipped word by word about the words of judgment and chastisement and the truths God has expressed at the present time for you to know God, you would feel it too dull and too boring, and some people would even feel that God’s words seem to be formulaic. When I list out these stories in the Bible for people to know God’s disposition, they will not feel it boring and dull. It can be said that in the course of my telling these things, I tell people in human language the details of what God thought in his heart at that time, and also tell people God’s heart, that is, God’s feeling, or God’s mind and thoughts at that time. The purpose of my telling them is for people to understand and feel that what God has and is is not a formula, a legend, or something people cannot see or touch, but something that exists really and practically, which man can feel and understand. This is the ultimate purpose. It can be said that people born in this age are blessed. There are the Bible stories as reference for them to have a more extensive knowledge of the works God has done. Through the works God has done, they can see God’s dispositions, and through the dispositions God has expressed, they can know God’s will for mankind, and know what the specific manifestations of God’s holiness are, and what the specific manifestations of God’s concern for man are, so that they can have a more specific and profound knowledge of God’s disposition. I believe you all have felt it, haven’t you?
In the Age of the Grace, within the scope of the works done by the Lord Jesus, you will see what God has and is in another aspect, which was expressed through the flesh and could be seen and understood by people through his humanity. In the Son of man, people saw the living out of God’s humanity in the flesh and also saw the expression of God’s divinity in the flesh. The expressions in these two aspects let people see a practical God and also gave them a different concept of God. However, from the creation of the world to the end of the Age of the Law, that is, before the Age of the Grace, what man saw, heard, or felt was only the aspect of God’s divinity, was what God did and spoke in a non-material world, and was something expressed by God’s real person invisible and untouchable to man. At many times, these things gave man a feeling that God was too great to approach. Most often the impression God gave man was that he suddenly appeared and suddenly disappeared. Even God’s each thought or idea was so mysterious and unfathomable and so incomprehensible to man that man could not reach it at all, much less ponder or understand it. To man, God’s everything was very distant, so distant that man could not see or touch it, and God seemed to be on the distant horizon or seemed to not exist at all. So, to understand each thought of God or understand any idea of God was impossible to men, and even more, far beyond their reach. Although in the Age of the Law God did some specific works and at the same time he also expressed some specific words and expressed some specific dispositions, so that people gained some real knowledge of God which they could comprehend or see, yet after all these were what God has and is which God expressed in the non-material world, and what people understood and knew was still what God has and is in his divinity. What God has and is like that could not give people a specific concept, and thus their impression of God still remained within the scope of “the inapproachable spiritual body that suddenly appears and suddenly disappears.” Because God had not manifested himself to man as a specific object or an image in the material world, man still could not define God with human language. In man’s mind and thought, he always wanted to define God with a standard in human language, materializing and humanizing God, such as, how tall God is, how big God is, what God looks like, and what God’s specific likes and specific character are. Actually, in God’s heart he knew that man had such thoughts; he was very clear about man’s needs, and of course, he also knew what he should do. So, God did the work of the Age of the Grace in another way, which was both in humanity and in divinity. During the period the Lord Jesus worked, the God man saw had many manifestations of humanity, such as, he could dance, could attend a wedding banquet, could talk with and speak to people or talk about a thing. At the same time, the Lord Jesus also did many works that represented the divinity. Of course, these works were all the expressions and manifestations of God’s disposition. During that period, God’s divinity was realized in a normal flesh so that man could see and touch him and no longer felt that God suddenly appeared and suddenly disappeared, unable to be approached. On the contrary, through the Son of man’s act and move and his words and works, man could ponder over God’s will or know God’s divinity. The incarnated Son of man expressed God’s divinity through his humanity and conveyed God’s will to man, and at the same time he manifested to man the invisible and untouchable God in the spiritual realm through expressing God’s will and disposition. What man saw was God Godself with form and image and with bones and flesh. So, the incarnated Son of man specified and humanized God’s own identity, position, image, and disposition, what he has and is, and so on. Although as far as God’s image was concerned, the Son of man’s appearance was limited in some way, yet the Son of man’s substance and what he has and is could completely represent God’s own identity and position, only the way of expression was different. Considering the Son of man’s humanity or divinity, we can undeniably say that he represented God’s own identity and position. It was only that during that period God worked in the way of the flesh, spoke in the position of the flesh, and faced mankind in the identity and position of the Son of man, so that man could have the opportunity to contact and experience God’s practical speaking and working among men, know God’s divinity, and God’s greatness in humbleness, and at the same time have an elementary knowledge and definition of God’s realness and practicalness. Although the work the Lord Jesus did and the way of his working and the position in which he spoke were different from those of God’s real person in the spiritual realm, his everything precisely represented God Godself whom man had never seen. This was undeniable! That is to say, no matter in what way God appeared, in which position he spoke, and in what image he faced man, God represented God Godself only, and he could not possibly represent anyone else and could not possibly represent any of the corrupt mankind. God Godself was God Godself. This was undeniable.
Whether this thing was good news or bad news to a person depended on what his substance was. It can be said that to some people, it was not good news but bad news, because when God did the new work, those who only kept laws and decrees and only kept regulations but did not fear God were liable to condemn God’s new work by his old work. To these people, it was bad news. However, to everyone who was simple and open and everyone who was sincere toward God and who was willing to accept God’s salvation, God’s first incarnation was extremely good news. This is because since there was mankind, God for the first time lived among men and worked among men in the form of the Son of man who was born of man and with the image of the Son of man, instead of appearing among men and living among men in the form of the Spirit. This first time broke man’s notion and went beyond everyone’s imagination, and at the same time brought “benefits” to all the followers of God. God not only ended the old age, but at the same time he also ended his old way of working and “style” of working. He no longer let his messengers convey his will for him and no longer “hid” in the clouds and appeared to men and spoke to men from on high in the way of “thundering,” but he “suddenly changed his usual act”—carrying out his work of that age in a way unexpected to men and in a way men can hardly understand or accept—incarnation—becoming a Son of man. This act of God caught mankind unprepared and also embarrassed mankind, for what God did was another new work God had never done. Today let us have a look at what new works God did in the new age, and what aspects of God’s disposition and what aspects of what God has and is we can know from these new works.
The following are the words recorded in the New Testament.
1. (Mt 12:1) At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat.
2. (Mt 12:6-8) But I say to you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
Let us first look at the passage, “At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat.”
Why is this passage selected? What does it have to do with God’s disposition? From this passage we first know that the day was the sabbath day. However, the Lord Jesus went out on the sabbath day, and he went through the corn with his disciples; what was more “rebellious” was that they even “began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat.” In the Age of the Law, the law of Jehovah God specified that on the sabbath day people could not go outside as they pleased or do activities as they pleased. On the sabbath day there were many things they could not do. That act of the Lord Jesus puzzled the people who had lived under the law for long, and it even incurred criticisms. As to how people were puzzled and how they criticized what Jesus did, we will not talk about them for the time being. Let us first talk about why the Lord Jesus chose to do that on the sabbath day and what he wanted to tell the people under the law through that. This is the connection between this passage and God’s disposition, which I will talk about.
The Lord Jesus came, and he told mankind by his practical act: God had come out of the Age of the Law and begun a new work; this new work no longer required people to keep the sabbath day; and “coming out of the sabbath day” was only a foretaste of God’s new work, and the real great work would go on. When the Lord Jesus began to work, he already went out of the “restriction” of the Age of the Law and broke the decrees and principles specified in the Age of the Law. Anything related to the law did not have any trace in him, and he discarded all of them and no longer kept them or required people to keep them. So, here you see that on the sabbath day the Lord Jesus went through the corn, and the Lord did not have rest but worked outside, without a rest. His such an act countered man’s notions, telling people that he no longer lived under the law and he went out of the sabbath day and appeared before people and appeared among people with a completely new image and in a new way of working. His such an act told people that he brought a new work, which began with going out of the law and out of the sabbath day. When God did a new work, he would no longer cherish the old one or care about the decrees of the Age of the Law, nor would he be affected by the work done in the former age; rather he worked on the sabbath day all the same, and when his disciples were hungry, they could pluck the ears of corn and eat. All these were very normal in God’s eyes. With God, many works and words he aims to do and speak can have a new start. When he makes a new start, the old work he did before will no longer be mentioned or go on. This is because God works by his principles. When he wants to do a new work, that is, when he wants to bring people into the new stage of work, and when his work enters into a higher stage, if men continue to practice and keep the old sayings or decrees, God will not remember or approve it, because he has brought a new work and entered into a new working phase. When he brings a new work, he will appear to all people with a completely new image and in a completely new position and way, so that people can see his disposition and what he has and is in other different aspects. This is one of the purposes of his doing a new work. God does not hold on to old things or walk the old path. When he works and speaks, he does not, as man imagines, keep this or that prohibition. With God, everything is released and free, without any prohibition or restriction. What he brings to man are all freedom and release. He is a living God, and he is a God who exists truly and practically; he is not a puppet or a clay sculpture, and he is completely different from the idols enshrined and worshiped by men. He is fresh and living, and his work and word bring man solely life and light and freedom and release. Because he has the truth, the life, and the way, he does all the work he aims to do without any restriction. No matter what men say and no matter how mankind looks at his new work or comments on his new work, he will do the work he aims to do without any hesitation. He will not mind anyone’s notions or anyone’s critical views about his work and word, even man’s extreme opposition and resistance against his new work. No one among created beings should expect that he can measure what God does, circumscribe what God does, or slander, disturb, or wreck God’s work by man’s doctrines, man’s imaginations, man’s knowledge, or man’s moral concepts. When God does things or works, he is free from any prohibition, and he is not restricted by any person, matter, or thing and is immune to disturbance from any hostile force. As far as his new work is concerned, he is the King triumphing forever, and all the hostile forces and various kinds of human evil sayings and fallacies are trampled under his footstool. No matter which stage of new work he does, his work will surely be carried out among men, will surely be spread among men, and will surely be carried out without hindrance and crowned with success in the entire universe. This is God’s almightiness and wisdom and also God’s authority and power. So, the Lord Jesus could go out to work on the sabbath day in an open way, for in his heart there was not any regulation or any knowledge and doctrine from man. What he had was God’s new work and God’s way, and whatever work he did was the way that could set man free and released, could let man live in the light, and could make man alive. However, those who worshiped idols and worshiped false gods lived in satan’s bondage every day and were bound by various kinds of regulations and rules. They kept this prohibition today and that tomorrow, living without any freedom. They were like prisoners locked in cangues and chains, without any happiness. What does “prohibition” represent? It represents restriction, bondage, and evil! Once a man worships an idol, he worships a false god and an evil spirit, and prohibitions follow with that: This cannot be eaten, and that cannot be eaten; this day he cannot go out, next day he cannot cook, and the following day he cannot move; even the day for wedding or funeral has to be chosen, and even the day for giving birth. What are these? These are prohibitions, are bondages to man, and are shackles with which satan and evil spirits control man and restrict man’s spirit and body. With God, are there these prohibitions? When God’s holiness is mentioned, you should first think of this: With God, there is not any prohibition. God works and speaks by principles but without any prohibition, because God Godself is the truth, the way, and the life.
Look at the following verses: (Mt 12:6-8) “But I say to you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.” What does the “temple” here mean? In common language, the “temple” means a magnificent and grand building. In the Age of the Law, the “temple” was the place for the priests to worship God. Who is the “one” in the word “That in this place is one greater than the temple” spoken by the Lord Jesus? Obviously, the “one” is the incarnated Lord Jesus, because only the Lord Jesus was greater than the temple. What did this word tell people? It told people that they should come out of the temple, because God had come out of the temple and no longer worked there. So, they should seek God’s footsteps outside the temple and keep up with the pace of God’s new work. The background against which the Lord Jesus said this word was that people under the law had taken the temple as something greater than God. That is, what people worshiped was the place of temple, not God. So, the Lord Jesus reminded that people should not worship the idol but worship God, because God is supreme. Therefore, he said: “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” It can be seen that in the eyes of the Lord Jesus, most people under the law no longer worshiped Jehovah, but just went through the process of sacrifice. Such a process was condemned as “worshiping the idol” by the Lord Jesus. These people who worshiped the idol considered the temple to be greater and more supreme than God. They only had the temple but not God in their hearts. To them, without the temple they lost the place to dwell, and without the temple they had no place to worship and could not practice offering sacrifices. The so-called “place to dwell” was a place where they carried the banner of worshiping Jehovah God and thus had the permission to stay in the temple and did their own things. The so-called “practicing offering sacrifices” meant that they could take doing service as a cover and do their own unpresentable things in the temple. This was the reason why people at that time considered the temple to be greater than God. Because they took the temple as a cover and took offering sacrifices as a camouflage to cheat man and cheat God, the Lord Jesus spoke such words to warn them. Now, these words are also effective and well-directed. Although people of today and the people of the Age of the Law experienced God’s different works, the substance of their nature is the same. Under the background of today’s work, people still can do the things of a similar nature to “the temple being greater than God.” For example, people take performing duty as their occupation, take testifying God and fighting against the great red dragon as the political movement of safeguarding human rights and fighting for democracy and freedom, and take the duty with some technology content as their own career, but observe “fearing God and shunning evil” as a religious doctrine, and so on. Aren’t these performances of people exactly of the same nature as “the temple being greater than God”? It is only that people of two thousand years ago did their own management in the physical temple, but people of today do their own management in the intangible temple. Those who treasure regulations consider regulations to be greater than God, those who like position consider position to be greater than God, those who love their career consider their career to be greater than God, and so on. Considering people’s various performances, I have to say, “People extol God as the Most High with their mouths, but in their eyes everything is greater than God.” This is because once people find the opportunity to exert their talents on the way of following God, once they have the opportunity to do their own management and career, they utterly keep away from God and throw themselves into the career they love, and have long cast God’s commission and God’s will to the winds. Considering these states of people, are they any different from those who did their own various managements two thousand years ago?
Next, let us look at the last word in this passage of scripture, “For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.” Does this word have its practical aspect? Can you see the practical aspect of this word? Every word of God is expressed from his heart. Why did he speak this word? How do you understand it? Now you may be able to understand its meaning. But at that time, not many people could understand it, because people of that time had just come out of the Age of the Law. To them, it was a very difficult thing to come out of the sabbath day, much less to understand what the true sabbath day was.
The word “the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day” tells people that God’s everything is non-material. Although God can supply all your material needs, when your material needs are satisfied, can the satisfaction these materials bring you substitute for your pursuit of the truth? Obviously, it can’t! God’s disposition and what God has and is we fellowship about are all the contents of the truth, and you cannot measure them by any material of great value, nor can you measure their value by money, because they are not material, and they are supplying what everyone needs in his heart. To everyone, the value of these non-material truths should surpass the value of anything you consider good. Can it be said so? You need to savor this word slowly. The important point I speak about is that what God has and is and God’s everything are most important to everyone, and they cannot be substituted by any material thing. Let me give you an illustration: When you are hungry, you need to take some food. The food can either be good or bad; as long as you fill yourself up, the unpleasant feeling of hunger in your stomach is gone and disappears, and you can quiet down while sitting there and your body can be in rest. You can solve the hunger in your stomach with food. However, when you, in following God, feel that your knowledge of God is nil, how can you solve the feeling of emptiness in your heart? Can you solve it with food? Or when you follow God but do not understand God’s will, what can you take to fill this hunger in your heart? In the course of your experiencing God’s salvation and when you pursue the transformation of your disposition, if you do not understand God’s will, do not understand what the truth is, and do not know about God’s disposition, you feel very worried, don’t you? You feel very thirsty in your heart, don’t you? These feelings of yours cause you to have no rest in your heart, right? What can you take to fill this hunger in your heart? Do you have any way to solve it? Some go shopping, some go to several good friends to have a chat, some go to have a good sleep, and some spend more time reading God’s word or exert more effort and strength in performing duty. Can these solve your practical difficulties? You all have much experience of these practices. When you feel you cannot make it as you wish and when you feel very thirsty for God’s inspiration so that you can understand the reality of the truth and understand God’s will, what do you need the most? What you need is not a good meal or some considerate words, much less that your flesh receives temporary ease and satisfaction, but that God can directly and clearly tell you what to do and how to do it and let you understand clearly what the truth is. When you understand these, even bits of them, doesn’t your heart feel more satisfied than after having a good meal? When your heart is satisfied, doesn’t your heart or your whole being have a true rest? After I draw an analogy and analyze this thing like this, have you understood now why I let you look at the word “the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day”? The meaning of this word is that what is from God and what God has and is and God’s everything are greater than anything else, including the thing or the person you have regarded as most dear to you. In other words, if one cannot gain the words from God’s mouth or understand God’s will, he cannot possibly have a rest. In your future experience, you will understand why I let you look at this passage today, which is very important. Everything God does is the truth and the life. To man, the “truth” is an indispensable thing in his life and is something he cannot leave at any time, and it can be said to be the greatest thing. Although your eyes cannot see it and your hands cannot touch it, its importance to you cannot be neglected, and it is the only thing that can bring rest to your heart.
When receiving the truth, do you know how to relate it to your state? In real life, you should first think what truths the people, matters, and things you experience involve, and only in these truths can you find God’s will and relate them with God’s will. If you directly go to seek God’s will without knowing what truths the things coming upon you involve, such practice is quite blind, and no result will be achieved. To seek the truth and understand God’s will, you should first see of what kind the thing coming upon you is and what truths it involves. In God’s word you should find the truths corresponding to your experience, and then find the ways for you to practice in them. In this way, you will indirectly understand God’s will. Seeking the truth and practicing the truth are not to mechanically apply to a regulation or observe a formula. The truth is not formulaic, nor is it a fixed law. It is not a dead thing, but it is life, a living thing, and is the law a created being must obey when living and the law indispensable to man’s existence. You need to understand this more in your experience. No matter to what degree you have experienced, you cannot do without God’s word and cannot do without the truth. And God’s disposition which you understand and what God has and is which you know are all expressed in God’s word, and they have an inseparable relation with the truth. God’s disposition and what God has and is in themselves are the truth; it is only that the truth is a real manifestation of the expression of God’s disposition and what God has and is. It has specified what God has and is in explicit terms, and it more plainly tells you what God likes and what God dislikes, what God wants you to do and what God forbids you to do, and what kind of person God hates and what kind of person God is pleased with. Behind the truths God expresses, people see God’s pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy, and see God’s substance; these are the expression of God’s disposition. Besides knowing what God has and is and knowing about God’s disposition in God’s word, one has to do it mainly in his practical experience. If one is divorced from the real life, it is impossible for him to know God. Even if some people gain some knowledge in God’s word, it is limited to doctrines and letters and is still at distance from the true God Godself.
All that we fellowship about now are within the scope of the stories recorded in the Bible. Through these stories and through dissecting these things that happened, we can know God’s disposition and what God has and is, which God had expressed. This will enable us to know various aspects of God in a wider range, in a more profound way, in more respects, and from manifold angles. Then, to know various aspects of God, can we do it only through these stories? No! This is because the words God speaks and the works he does in the Age of the Kingdom can better enable people to know God’s disposition and know it more comprehensively. It is only that I want to make it easier for people to know God’s disposition and know about what God has and is through some well-known cases and stories recorded in the Bible. If I fellowshipped word by word about the words of judgment and chastisement and the truths God has expressed at the present time for you to know God, you would feel it too dull and too boring, and some people would even feel that God’s words seem to be formulaic. When I list out these stories in the Bible for people to know God’s disposition, they will not feel it boring and dull. It can be said that in the course of my telling these things, I tell people in human language the details of what God thought in his heart at that time, and also tell people God’s heart, that is, God’s feeling, or God’s mind and thoughts at that time. The purpose of my telling them is for people to understand and feel that what God has and is is not a formula, a legend, or something people cannot see or touch, but something that exists really and practically, which man can feel and understand. This is the ultimate purpose. It can be said that people born in this age are blessed. There are the Bible stories as reference for them to have a more extensive knowledge of the works God has done. Through the works God has done, they can see God’s dispositions, and through the dispositions God has expressed, they can know God’s will for mankind, and know what the specific manifestations of God’s holiness are, and what the specific manifestations of God’s concern for man are, so that they can have a more specific and profound knowledge of God’s disposition. I believe you all have felt it, haven’t you?
In the Age of the Grace, within the scope of the works done by the Lord Jesus, you will see what God has and is in another aspect, which was expressed through the flesh and could be seen and understood by people through his humanity. In the Son of man, people saw the living out of God’s humanity in the flesh and also saw the expression of God’s divinity in the flesh. The expressions in these two aspects let people see a practical God and also gave them a different concept of God. However, from the creation of the world to the end of the Age of the Law, that is, before the Age of the Grace, what man saw, heard, or felt was only the aspect of God’s divinity, was what God did and spoke in a non-material world, and was something expressed by God’s real person invisible and untouchable to man. At many times, these things gave man a feeling that God was too great to approach. Most often the impression God gave man was that he suddenly appeared and suddenly disappeared. Even God’s each thought or idea was so mysterious and unfathomable and so incomprehensible to man that man could not reach it at all, much less ponder or understand it. To man, God’s everything was very distant, so distant that man could not see or touch it, and God seemed to be on the distant horizon or seemed to not exist at all. So, to understand each thought of God or understand any idea of God was impossible to men, and even more, far beyond their reach. Although in the Age of the Law God did some specific works and at the same time he also expressed some specific words and expressed some specific dispositions, so that people gained some real knowledge of God which they could comprehend or see, yet after all these were what God has and is which God expressed in the non-material world, and what people understood and knew was still what God has and is in his divinity. What God has and is like that could not give people a specific concept, and thus their impression of God still remained within the scope of “the inapproachable spiritual body that suddenly appears and suddenly disappears.” Because God had not manifested himself to man as a specific object or an image in the material world, man still could not define God with human language. In man’s mind and thought, he always wanted to define God with a standard in human language, materializing and humanizing God, such as, how tall God is, how big God is, what God looks like, and what God’s specific likes and specific character are. Actually, in God’s heart he knew that man had such thoughts; he was very clear about man’s needs, and of course, he also knew what he should do. So, God did the work of the Age of the Grace in another way, which was both in humanity and in divinity. During the period the Lord Jesus worked, the God man saw had many manifestations of humanity, such as, he could dance, could attend a wedding banquet, could talk with and speak to people or talk about a thing. At the same time, the Lord Jesus also did many works that represented the divinity. Of course, these works were all the expressions and manifestations of God’s disposition. During that period, God’s divinity was realized in a normal flesh so that man could see and touch him and no longer felt that God suddenly appeared and suddenly disappeared, unable to be approached. On the contrary, through the Son of man’s act and move and his words and works, man could ponder over God’s will or know God’s divinity. The incarnated Son of man expressed God’s divinity through his humanity and conveyed God’s will to man, and at the same time he manifested to man the invisible and untouchable God in the spiritual realm through expressing God’s will and disposition. What man saw was God Godself with form and image and with bones and flesh. So, the incarnated Son of man specified and humanized God’s own identity, position, image, and disposition, what he has and is, and so on. Although as far as God’s image was concerned, the Son of man’s appearance was limited in some way, yet the Son of man’s substance and what he has and is could completely represent God’s own identity and position, only the way of expression was different. Considering the Son of man’s humanity or divinity, we can undeniably say that he represented God’s own identity and position. It was only that during that period God worked in the way of the flesh, spoke in the position of the flesh, and faced mankind in the identity and position of the Son of man, so that man could have the opportunity to contact and experience God’s practical speaking and working among men, know God’s divinity, and God’s greatness in humbleness, and at the same time have an elementary knowledge and definition of God’s realness and practicalness. Although the work the Lord Jesus did and the way of his working and the position in which he spoke were different from those of God’s real person in the spiritual realm, his everything precisely represented God Godself whom man had never seen. This was undeniable! That is to say, no matter in what way God appeared, in which position he spoke, and in what image he faced man, God represented God Godself only, and he could not possibly represent anyone else and could not possibly represent any of the corrupt mankind. God Godself was God Godself. This was undeniable.