We need to pay attention to leading the new ones to confess their sins before the Lord. In the meetings we have heard many testimonies about how people were saved, but we have not often heard someone testify that he felt he was sinful, that he had confessed his sins before the Lord, and that he believed that the precious blood of the Lord Jesus shed on the cross for him had cleansed away all his sins. Often no one testifies about this point. This is a big deficiency in our preaching of the gospel. Therefore, when we contact new believers, whether before or after their baptism, we should have some good fellowship with them on the matter of sin so that they may have a proper feeling toward sin.
People must realize that in the Bible the first word of the gospel is “repent” (Matt. 3:2). On the day of Pentecost, after the crowd heard the gospel preached by Peter, they asked Peter, “What should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent” (Acts 2:37-38). Of course, the way we have discovered to use The Mystery of Human Life to preach the gospel is right, but using The Mystery of Human Life is simply to open the door. We may also compare this to opening the cork of a bottle; after opening the bottle, we need much careful study as to what the bottle should contain. First, we should put repentance into man that he may know that he is sinful. This is what we lacked in the past, so now we all have to fill this gap. We need to learn how to lead people to repent, how to help them to care for their conscience, and how to cause them to have an inner sense. For example, if someone was dishonest and offended his parents, brothers, and sisters, we certainly cannot rebuke him face to face. Rather, we should first pray before the Lord. Then when we go to preach the gospel to him, we have to learn how to lead him to repent and be convicted. When the Spirit comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment (John 16:8). The word convict in Greek is a word that is difficult to translate. This word denotes thorough repentance, confession, and condemning of oneself. This is what is lacking in our gospel, and we have to endeavor to make it up.
For the sake of the new ones in the Lord’s Day meetings, we should fellowship concerning the meaning of bread-breaking and have a certain amount of ministry from the Word. We should have a message every Lord’s Day to share with the saints. Strictly speaking, the church should be living and full of riches to the extent that there is no need to give the saints a printed message excerpt. Rather, there should be a brother who simply rises to speak a passage for ten minutes. The speaking should be living, enlightening, real, and rich. Although since Brother Nee’s time, we have tried hard to do well in this matter, this has not been worked out until now. The old way in the past annulled this matter. Now we are like the lame, walking with a crutch. We hope that after six months or a year, some skilled persons may be brought forth. They should have some learning and can use ten to fifteen minutes in the meeting to lead all the saints to read a few passages in the Bible, to pray-read together, and to speak something so that people can be benefited and nourished.
If in a meeting of two thousand people, hardly one word of life can be heard throughout the meeting, this is not right. We cannot merely give people hymns, because when people sing hymns, they seldom pay attention to the meaning of the hymn; often they pay attention only to the melody, sound, and expression. Hence, in every meeting there should be the spirit and the word instead of entertainment, making merry, or being playful, all of which should be totally avoided. Meetings should be living and released, but there absolutely should not be any playfulness or merrymaking. This does not mean that we should put on a long face in the meetings. Rather, it means that we have to give people a sense of solemnity. After all, the Lord’s Day meeting is for the remembrance of the Lord and the worship of God. Although today is the age of grace, as long as people contact and meet the Lord, they will prostrate before Him. The presence of the Lord often causes people to be in awe and is not as light as we may have understood. This speaking is not to discourage us but to help us to practice diligently so that every activity in the meeting can be carried out properly before the Lord.
Although the way we are taking is the right one, it is very difficult to succeed completely in this last step of practicing the home meetings. This is a very heavy burden within us. In the past we baptized people, but we could not keep them because we did not have the home meetings, and we did not know how to practice the home meetings. Now we have spent much time and effort to practice this, hoping that through the home meetings in our localities we will be able to establish people in the church life and cause them to grow in life.
An enthusiastic display is momentary, and excitement is temporary. We have to nourish people continuously, as a mother prepares meals at home several times a day, always feeding her children from the time they are born until they are at least twenty. This is not an easy matter. When we practice home meetings, we have to see them with this view. It is necessary that first we are enriched with life, equipped with the truth, and skilled in our method. These three things—the enrichment of life, the equipping of truth, and the usage and practice of the lessons for the home meetings—must be well taken care of. We have to experiment with the home meetings personally, attending them to see how they are conducted and carried out. The same Bible and Life Lessonsin others’ hands may be rich, living, fresh, and enlightening, but when they are in our hands, they may not work effectively. This should not be the case. We all help people to read the Bible, but while others do it in a living and enlightening way, we may do it in a dead, rigid, and darkening way. This shows us that we all need to be trained.
If the home meetings are practiced successfully, the new way will be successful, but if the home meetings are not practiced successfully, our labor for the new way will be in vain. This matter is very serious. Hence, we need to pray to ask the Lord to give us a clear view for the way ahead. Apparently there are many things that are praiseworthy and encouraging, but the content of the meetings does not deserve any praises, nor is it encouraging. We should not say that it is at least better than that in Christianity. We should not compare our picture with the black picture. Our standard for comparison is not yellow earth but gold. How much gold is in us? We need to be continuously enriched with life, truth, light, and experience, and exercise continuously with our methods until we are skillful.
(A message given on April 28, 1987 in Taipei, Taiwan)