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Additional Quotes about the Local Church by Witness Lee and Watchman Nee
As we have pointed out, nearly everything found in
the book of Revelation is not new but a fulfillment of things revealed in the
Old Testament. This is also true of the key of David. Isaiah 22:22-24 is a
prophecy concerning Christ as the One who holds the key of David. The deep
thought in Christ’s holding the key of David is found there. In Isaiah 22 it
was prophesied that Christ would not only be the One holding the key of David,
but that He would also be a nail or peg. Very few Christians have heard that
Christ is a nail. If you consider the context of Isaiah 22 and if you read the
context of the word regarding Christ as the One holding the key of David in
Revelation 3, you will realize that Christ’s holding the key of David is for
God’s house, for God’s building. The crucial subject in Isaiah 22 is the house
of God. And the epistle to the church in Philadelphia eventually speaks of the
New Jerusalem. The overcomers in Philadelphia will be pillars in the temple of
God, and the temple of God will ultimately be enlarged into the New Jerusalem.
According to Revelation 21:22, there is no temple in the New Jerusalem, for,
in eternity, the temple will be enlarged into a city, which, having three
equal dimensions (21:16), will be the enlargement of the Holy of Holies. This
is the ultimate consummation of God’s house. Christ’s holding the key of
David, fighting the battle for God, and building the temple and establishing
the kingdom of God are all for God’s building.
Christ holds the key of David and He opens and shuts,
not that we might be holy or spiritual, but that we might be built up. He does
not care for so-called holiness or spirituality. During the past two
centuries, certain people claimed to be holy and spiritual. Although they saw
something, they were rather short-sighted. Holiness is not for holiness, and
spirituality is not for spirituality. Both holiness and spirituality are to
enable us to be pillars in the temple of God. Eventually, we shall not bear
the name of holiness or spirituality but of the New Jerusalem. In 3:12 the
Lord did not say, “I will write holiness upon you,” or, “I will write
spirituality upon you”; He said, “I will write upon him the name of My God and
the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which descends out of
heaven from My God, and My new name.” What we have here is neither holiness
nor spirituality but God and the New Jerusalem. God’s purpose is not to make
us holy or spiritual; it is to make us part of the New Jerusalem. God already
has all the holiness He needs, but He does not yet have the New Jerusalem.
God’s desire is not for more spirituality. He is seeking the New Jerusalem.
God desires a builded church. He wants today’s Bethel, the house of God which
will consummate in the New Jerusalem….
The Speaker to the church in Philadelphia holds the
key of David, not to make us holy or spiritual, but to deal with us that we
might be transformed and built up. Once we have been built up, He will become
a nail to us, and we shall be the vessels hanging on Him. Firstly, Christ
holds the key of David and eventually He holds us. Christ used the key to open
the door of our prison. Before we came into the church life, we were all
imprisoned. For example, some were imprisoned in the dungeon of Catholicism.
But wherever we were, Christ, the One who holds the key of David, opened our
prison and released us. According to our experience all the doors opened for
us by Christ are prison doors. Although the opposers are trying their best to
imprison us, and to make the church a prison, we are released by the key held
in the hand of Christ. As today’s David, He has the key to open whatever God
desires to open. Once He opens the door and we are released, we enter into the
house of God where we become the household with many vessels held by Christ as
the nail. If we remain in our mentality, we shall not have the realization or
the sense of being held by Christ in this way. Nevertheless, Christ is the
nail in God’s house, and by this nail, we all are held up from the
earth.
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