"The Mystery of Godliness: The Sequel" (1) - How Will the Lord Appear to Man When He Comes Again?

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The Lord Jesus ascended to heaven in a spiritual body,
so logically the second coming of the Lord
should also be in this spiritual body.
It only makes sense!
Tell me, how could this be wrong?
If God were to appear in His spiritual body,
and all men good or evil were to bow down before Him,
then how would He separate the good from the evil?
He's right. There would be no way to distinguish them!
Also, if God were to appear in His spiritual body,
then mankind would fall into a panic and chaos start to spread.
Then how would God continue His judgment of man in the last days?
Come on in!
Okay. Morning!
Oh, you're back! (Yes!)
And this is?
Oh! It's you! (That's right!)
Oh, it's so good to see you, Brother Lin!
Sorry, I couldn't recognize you,
you have so much makeup on!
Oh, this is just to help me avoid the CCP.
He's right, he has to do it!
I almost forgot Brother Liu and Zhang are just inside.
Why don't you come in!
Right, we should go in. (Let's go!)
Now we know the CCP—
You both made it!
Ah, it's you, Brother Lin, you come back!
We heard last night that the police went to arrest you again,
and I hear this time they have a warrant.
I think we all should take a seat. (Okay.)
You know, you've become famous around here.
It seems that the CCP government won't rest until you're in custody.
You've spread the gospel throughout this area,
holding meetings and surrounding yourself with believers.
This could give away your whereabouts.
I'm sorry but soon you won't be able to spread the gospel here.
He's right!
Brother Lin, you need to lay low for a while,
or else things could get very dangerous!
Right now,
the kingdom gospel of God is spreading throughout the country on a grand scale.
Right!
And everyone is proactively trying to spread it.
How could I lay low at this time, living in shadows?
That's true.
The more the CCP bears down on us,
the greater our faith has to be.
We cannot run away!
That's right!
If we can't spread the gospel here,
then we'll have to spread it somewhere else!
Sounds good! Very good!
I've been thinking:
I've come to know many brothers and sisters who attend house churches.
We can use this opportunity to spread God's kingdom gospel to them, (Alright!)
and His work in the last days.
That's a great idea!
Since we became believers,
we have enjoyed much of God's grace. (Yes!)
If we don't fulfill our duties now for the kingdom gospel's sake,
we'll become unworthy of God. (Right!)
Brother Lin and I are growing old.
We're advanced in our years! (Yeah, you are right.)
But we still get to spread the kingdom gospel and God's work in the last days.
Isn't that an exaltation from God?
It's an immense blessing!
Yes, a blessing.
And one worth fighting for!
It is! (Yes!)
We have to give our all.
Don't hold back! (Amen!)
In the past, I've met quite a few house church preachers.
There was one who was called Zhen Houlin and another …
Song Muzhen.
Yes, Song Muzhen!
Oh, you both have met them!
Yes, I know them. We can trust them.
They are both true believers in God. (That's great!)
They're part of God's flock, those treasures He will "steal" at His return!
Yes!
Let's go then and spread the gospel of Almighty God.
Sound good? (Yes, wonderful!)
They're good people who are upright.
They have a true faith and believe in God.
They're perfect for hearing the gospel! (True!)
Then I think we should head out at the crack of dawn! (OK!)
The church is in bad shape.
Come on in!
Brother, look who's come to visit us!
Brother Lin! (Brother Zhen!)
Oh, this is so great!
Brother Lin!
Yes, Brother Song!
I can't believe it!
Welcome!
My good friends, it's been years since we met! (Yes, it has! Yes!)
The time has flown by! (Yeah!)
Brother Lin, Brother Liu, never thought I'd see you here!
Me neither. Thanks be to God!
We just happen to have our meeting today,
why don't you join us! (Okay!)
Yes, join us!
Right this way.
Let's welcome our visitors! (Yes! Hi!)
This is Brother Lin, this is Brother Liu. (Hello! Welcome! Hi!)
The three of us used to serve the Lord together as co-workers.
Brother Lin is very spiritual, (Thanks be to God!)
and his fellowship is full of light and practical!
Today, why don't we have Brother Lin give us a sermon!
Oh, alright!
Amen. Thanks be to the Lord.
Let's sit down.
Thanks be to God.
I've heard Brother Lin preach before, it is great!
This is wonderful!
What a great opportunity!
This will be wonderful!
Brothers and sisters, peace in the Lord!
Amen! Praise the Lord! Thanks be to God!
I trust you are all watching and waiting for the second coming of the Lord.
Yes.
Yes, every day we watch and wait for the coming of the Lord! Right, we've always been waiting!
We're waiting for the Lord to come and take us!
Right now, the entire religious world acknowledges
that all prophecies of His return have been fulfilled. (Yes!)
Many of those who thirst for the appearance of the Lord have already felt it
that the Lord probably has already returned.
Yes, we all felt it, too.
Yes, we think it's time for the Lord to return. (Yes, that's true.)
Yes, the Lord must have returned!
So now I want to confirm a piece of good news for all of you.
What news?
The Lord Jesus has indeed returned to us!
What? The Lord has returned? Is he telling the truth?!
And this is an indisputable fact!
Our Lord Jesus has returned?!
Did I hear you right?
Is that correct that the Lord has returned?
The Lord has really returned?!
This is amazing! The Lord has returned!
How wonderful!
Our Lord has returned?! Our Lord has really returned?!
This is amazing!
I've been feeling this for such a long time now!
If He's returned, where is He now?
Brother Lin, please tell us!
Yes, please! Where is the Lord?
The Lord has returned? But how can that be true?
If the Lord had really returned,
then wouldn't we have been raptured already?
He's right, and especially we have been raptured?
How could it be that the Lord has returned?
Brother Lin, if the Lord has returned, where is He?
Yes, please tell us! Tell us! Tell us what you know!
Alright, everyone! Calm down.
Have a seat and we'll discuss this. (Alright!)
I'll tell you everything.
God has become flesh as the Son of man and revealed Himself in China,
expressing the truth and performing His judgment in the last days!
Become flesh?
In China?
God is in China?
Now some of you might be asking:
Why has the Lord chosen to be incarnated in China?
Yes, why? Tell us, please!
The prophecies of the Lord Jesus tell us this.
Please tell us!
Well, in Matthew 24:27, it is clearly written:
These two scriptures clearly give us the details on how the Lord will return.
Everyone knows the fact that China is known as the East of the world.
Yes, that's true.
Almighty God has chosen to work in China
and expressed every truth that will purify and save mankind,
so that it is like a great light shining out of the East.
This is how the Eastern Lightning came into being.
They bear witness that the Lord Jesus has returned.
He is now the incarnate Almighty God, performing His judgment in the last days.
Ah … Yes!
In just twenty years,
Almighty God's work in the last days
has already spread through China at such a rate.
He is now a household name.
Twenty years? That's fast!
Amen! Thanks be to God!
Nowadays, Almighty God's word is available online,
so that the people of every nation can look into it for themselves.
The work of Almighty God in the last days is like a bolt of lightning,
shining from the East and into the West.
This completely fulfills the prophecy of Lord Jesus.
With the Lord Jesus' work of redeeming mankind as a foundation,
Almighty God has begun the next stage of work:
judging and chastising mankind's corruption.
Actually, the true purpose of this work
is to save and cleanse mankind completely.
It's just as the Lord Jesus prophesied:
Yes, that's what it says in the Bible!
And here, the Lord Jesus made it clear.
He said He would come again in the last days as the Son of man incarnate,
uttering words to fulfill His important work of judgment.
When we use the term "Son of man,"
we're referring to the incarnation of God, God in the flesh.
When we refer to God's Spirit,
this is not the same as the Son of man.
But Christ is certainly the incarnation of God, the Son of man,
and this is indisputable.
The Son of man?
The second coming of the Lord Jesus is the Son of man
who speaks the words to do the work of judgment in the last days.
Really?
Brother Lin,
you have told us that the Lord Jesus has returned
and He's been incarnated to do His work.
But I just don't understand.
We all know that the Lord Jesus was the incarnation of God.
Once His work was finished,
He was crucified and resurrected, appearing to His disciples,
and then ascended into heaven in His spiritual body.
Exactly. Precisely.
It's just like it says in the Bible,
Amen!
And so, this has all been confirmed in the biblical scripture.
When the Lord comes again,
it will be through His resurrected spiritual body that He appears to us.
Why would God choose to be in the fleshly form of the Son of man in the last days
to perform His judgment?
Yes. Tell us.
So what is the difference between these two forms,
the spiritual body of the Lord Jesus and the Son of man in the flesh?
I'm only saying that I'm still quite confused, if you could explain it to us.
Yes, fellowship with us, please! Please explain it to us. Tell us more!
It clearly says in the Bible,
The Lord Jesus ascended to heaven in a spiritual body,
so logically the second coming of the Lord
should also be in this spiritual body.
It only makes sense!
Tell me, how could this be wrong?
You're telling us
that God in the last days has come in the flesh for His judgment.
I'm sorry, but that's impossible.
Most followers of the Lord Jesus do believe
that the Lord will reveal Himself in His spiritual body,
that is,
the spiritual body the Lord appeared in for forty days after His resurrection.
We believers are clear about this.
This spiritual body of the Lord Jesus, after He was resurrected,
has the very same image He had when He became flesh,
but the spiritual body is not constrained by the material world, time, or space.
It has the ability to appear and disappear at will
to mankind's shock and amazement.
Accounts of these times are in Scripture. (Right! That's true!)
Before it was time for the Lord Jesus to be crucified,
He had been speaking and working within the normal humanity of the flesh.
Whether He was expressing the truth,
interacting with men, or performing miracles,
everyone thought He was normal.
And what people actually saw was His flesh truly doing His important work
while suffering torment and paying the price.
In the end, it was this flesh that was brutally crucified on the cross
as the sin offering for mankind,
thereby completing God's redemptive work.
This is widely acknowledged as fact.
Think about this for a moment:
If His spiritual body had done the work,
could the Lord Jesus have held normal conversations with men?
Could He have truly suffered the torment and paid the price for our sins?
Could a spiritual body have been nailed to the cross?
He couldn't have done these things.
If it were His spiritual body doing the work,
could we humans interact with Him?
Would we reveal our corruption?
Would we form notions about Him?
Would we dare to rebel and cast judgments on God?
No! Absolutely not!
That would be impossible!
All men are imbued with normal humanity,
they are all subject to the constraints of the world, time, and space.
And all men have a normal thought process.
If man witnessed the work of the spiritual body,
then they would be overwhelmed with fright and sent into a great panic.
Their very thoughts would become crazed and maniacal.
If God were faced with this situation,
then salvation would be impossible.
So working in the spiritual body
is far less effective than working within the confines of a normal humanity.
Yes! That's right!
Throughout the ages,
God's chosen people have never experienced the work of God's spiritual body.
It certainly wouldn't be suitable for God's spiritual body
to express the truth, directly communicate with man,
or shepherd the churches.
This truly is helping us understand things.
Brothers and sisters, God's judgment work which comes in the last days
uses the expression of God's word to purify, save, and perfect mankind,
but also its goal is to expose and eliminate human beings,
dividing man according to their kinds, rewarding good and punishing evil.
If God were to appear in His spiritual body,
and all men good or evil were to bow down before Him,
then how would He separate the good from the evil?
He's right. There would be no way to distinguish them!
Also, if God were to appear in His spiritual body,
then mankind would fall into a panic and chaos start to spread.
Then how would God continue His judgment of man in the last days?
It's true. Yes.
And if that were to happen,
how would God make a group of followers that align with His will
before the great disasters?
Yes. That's right!
So in the last days,
God must take on a human form as the Son of man with normal humanity.
This way, He can work and live in the human world
and He can express truth to judge and purify mankind all in a practical manner,
so that man may be freed from Satan's influence,
receive salvation from God and become of God.
Yes, of course.
The incarnate Lord Jesus worked within His normal humanity
in order to achieve mankind's redemption.
The Lord Jesus' spiritual body only appeared to mankind
just to prove that the Lord Jesus was the incarnation of God.
This was done so that man's faith would be strengthened.
You see, His spiritual body was for appearing to man and not for doing the work.
Now I see!
God incarnate has to have normal humanity to be able to work amongst man
and to achieve the redemption and salvation of mankind.
Right!
So then if God wants to thoroughly save man
through His judgment in the last days,
He must become flesh and work in normal humanity to do it effectively.
He certainly can't appear in the spiritual body of the Lord Jesus
to do His judgment in the last days.
This is something that all believers of the Lord have to become clear on.
Only by being incarnated to do His work can God purify and save man!
Yes, God really loves man!
What you said has helped me understand.
You're saying the Lord's spiritual body
was only meant for appearance and not to do work.
Yes!
The Lord Jesus came back after the crucifixion,
and His resurrected spiritual body appeared to man for forty days.
He did this so that man could see the Lord Jesus is the incarnation of God.
Right!
Only the flesh that's been assumed by God's Spirit
can resurrect and become the spiritual body.
Knowing this, God's incarnation is essential to His work. (Yeah! Right!)
It was only through becoming flesh
that God redeemed man through His crucifixion. (Oh yes, that's right!)
Only through His incarnation
is God able to deliver His truth to man, judge man, and cleanse man,
and thoroughly save mankind from all of its sinful ways. (Amen!)
The pastors and elders never put it like this before.
To gain an even greater understanding of the incarnation,
let's read something from Almighty God's word. (Alright!)
That's wonderful.
Yes.
Praise the Lord. Thank the Lord.
Let's continue reading. (Thank the Lord.)
Brother Lin, could we have a look at the word of Almighty God?
Yes, let us have a look! (Alright. Sounds good.)
Great!
Could you take them out?
Brother Song.
Thanks be to God!
Great!
Thanks be to the Lord!
"Holy Bible The Kingdom Age."
This is God's word!
This is
Everyone, please turn to page 1355.
Alright!
The word of Almighty God is so clear!
Let's all turn back to page 1011.
Let's stop our reading of God's words here.
Almighty God has revealed the mystery of the incarnation.
His word is truly eye-opening.
The truth He reveals is so extraordinary.
Do you have time to fellowship with us some more?
Yeah, please fellowship with us! Tell us more!
Almighty God's word clearly explains the differences
between God's work performed in His spiritual body and as God incarnate.
Right.
It also reveals the meaning of God's work while in His incarnation.
Yes.
Despite the fact that the Lord Jesus' spiritual body
can appear to man and come face to face with them,
that same spiritual body still seems unapproachable and mysterious,
it stirs fear in man's hearts to keep them at bay.
Yes.
Because the Lord's spiritual body cannot interact with man normally,
and cannot perform His work while living normally amongst men,
He thus is incapable of saving all of mankind.
However, God incarnate is different.
He can interact with mankind in a practical way
and He can water and supply man,
just as the Lord Jesus could deliver the truth anytime and anywhere
while He was still living among men.
His disciples would always take the time to sit with Him,
listen to His teachings and communicate with Him.
They directly received His watering and shepherding.
Whatever obstacles they faced,
the Lord Jesus would help them find the right solution.
They were blessed with the rich supply of life.
They found God to be both pleasant and lovely.
And thus they could truly love and obey God.
It's only when God chooses to become flesh among men
that we have a chance to engage with, experience, and know God.
Only at that point can we see God's wonder, witness His wisdom
and His practical salvation with our own eyes. (Amen!)
You see, this shows the importance and value of the work of God incarnate.
And the spiritual body simply cannot achieve this effect.
It's great that God has become flesh for His work!
This fellowship is important to understand,
and has made one thing very clear to us.
Only through returning as the Son of man and working within normal humanity
will God be able to practically judge, conquer, and purify man.
If the spiritual body of Lord Jesus came to work,
He could not achieve nearly the same result. (Right!)
At first, when God becomes the Son of man
to begin His judgment and purification of mankind,
we humans will treat God as though He was an ordinary human,
and that's because we don't know the incarnate God.
We will form notions about God's word and work;
we'll treat Christ without respect and disobey Him;
we'll speak in falsehoods, pass judgments on His work,
and go so far as to condemn Him.
The arrogance, rebelliousness, and resistance of us humans
will make itself fully visible in the presence of Christ.
It's just as Almighty God says,
Let's end our reading here.
God judges, exposes, and deals with mankind
according to the actual fact of their resistance.
God's work is practical and reveals man's true nature.
When faced with this evidence,
those who can accept the truth will be thoroughly convinced enough
to admit their own resistance and that they are rebellious against God.
Also, they will come to know God's holy, righteous,
and unoffendable disposition,
and they will all be able to accept God's judgment by word submissively,
so that they may be conquered and saved by God's practical work.
Just as Almighty God says,
So mankind will only have themselves thoroughly purified and achieve salvation,
if the incarnation of God comes to implement His judgment in the last days.
Yes, it is true! That is true!
Praise the Lord!
I understand this now thanks to your communion!
Thanks be to God!
Though I have yet to experience Almighty God's judgment,
I'm clear it's through God's incarnation
performing His work of judgment, purification, and salvation
that we have the opportunity to see God and truly acquire knowledge of God.
Right!
The work of God's incarnation is very practical!
Thanks be to God!
I'm embarrassed to admit this:
Although we're believers,
we've never understood the Lord's word.
We've based everything on imagination,
thinking that in the last days the Lord would descend with clouds.
For all these years, I've been gazing toward the heavens,
waiting foolishly for His spiritual body to descend with clouds.
I never thought to study the work of God's incarnation in the last days.
I think we've been so very ignorant!