In this message we will continue to fellowship concerning the second step of the God-ordained way, that is, having home meetings with the newly saved and baptized ones. If you spend some time to consider 1 Peter 2:2, you will realize that it implies more than feeding. It implies the raising up of children, which is to provide whatever they need, including feeding, that they may grow and mature. Human history has proven that the society of a nation is built up through the raising up of children in individual homes by families.
Since I came to the Lord’s recovery in 1932, I have been bothered by the small attendance in the meetings, yet I never understood the reason for this lack. For the past five years I have set myself to study this problem thoroughly. By the Lord’s mercy, I found out that the biggest reason we do not have a large number in our meetings is that we are lacking in the proper raising up of the new believers. We have had the meetings, we have had the work, and all the co-workers have been diligent and faithful in their labor; yet we have not seen much fruit. Many people have come, but very few have remained.
I have studied and even expounded John 15 for many years, yet there is one point in verse 16 that I had never seen. I had seen that the Lord has chosen and appointed us that we should first go forth and then bear fruit, but I had not seen the third point-“that your fruit should remain.” The Lord has not only appointed us to go forth and to bear fruit; He has also appointed us to insure that our fruit remains. Unless the fruit remains, it is somewhat vain for us to go forth and bear fruit. In the past we went out and labored to bear fruit, yet those who remain are very few. We all have to understand that our problem, our shortage, in the past was that we did not see that to keep our fruit, to insure that it remains, we need to carry out the work of raising up the new believers in the proper way.
On the day of Pentecost, three thousand were saved (Acts 2:41). I believe that on the same day they began to have home meetings (Acts 2:46). This was not something that was practiced in the Old Testament. This was something totally new, something of the New Testament. On the day the church came into existence, the one hundred twenty plus these three thousand believers began to meet in the homes so that the fruit would remain. It would be very difficult for three thousand newborn believers to remain healthy without being cared for in home meetings. Immediately after the delivery of a baby, the nursing mother must take care of feeding her child. However, only to feed this child is not sufficient; she must also raise this child. To raise a child is not simple or easy. There are many, many items to take care of in order to raise a child properly.
Surely Peter saw the situation on the day of Pentecost and helped in the work of caring for these newborn believers. Then in his first Epistle, he says that the newborn babes need the milk of the word, not for knowledge, but for the growth in life (2:2). He exhorts the newborn babes to long for the guileless milk of the word that they may grow in life unto salvation. Here salvation does not refer to regeneration, the initial stage of salvation, but to the fact that following regeneration, we must grow in life, that is, we must be saved continuously every day. After a baby is born, it must be cared for continuously. If it is not cared for, after a few hours, it may die. Therefore, its being cared for continuously is its salvation. Such a babe must be saved in every way; this is to raise up a child. Merely to feed a babe with milk is not adequate; it must also be kept clean, warm, and comfortable. All of its environment must be arranged so that it will be safe and able to grow properly. We must take this way in raising up the newborn believers.
I am very burdened concerning the new way. Nearly every day I have considered the items of God’s ordained way, and the more I considered, the more I realized that we should be trained to take care of the new ones in the same way that mothers and fathers raise their own children. The work of taking care of the new ones must be a work of raising up children. We should not bring forth children and send them to others to be raised. The little ones should be directly under their mother’s care. This makes a big difference.
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