In this message we will continue to consider the matter of mutual teaching in the vital groups. To speak in a natural way, to gossip, to murmur, and to complain are all quite easy, but to teach the divine truths is not easy. In the vital groups we need to reach the goal of carrying out the mutual teaching through mutual asking and mutual answering. The vital groups must be the teaching organ in the church life. We all need to be willing to pay the price to reach this goal.
The vital groups can be eighty percent of the church life mainly due to the mutual teaching. Of the eighty percent, sixty percent depends on the mutual perfecting by the mutual teaching. Thus far, we are still in the initial stage.
More than fifty years ago Brother Nee saw the light in 1 Corinthians 14 concerning all the believers prophesying in the church meetings (vv. 24, 31). Brother Nee published two books—The Normal Christian Church Life (first published in Chinese in 1939 under the title Concerning Our Missions) and Church Affairs (messages given by Brother Nee in 1948)—in which he spoke of this matter. In both books he stressed that the practice of one man speaking in the church meetings must be put down. In Church Affairs (page 81) Brother Nee said that all the saints need to continually “push against” the tradition of having a Lord’s Day morning message meeting in which one man speaks and all the rest listen. Eventually, he said, that tradition would be overthrown. Today, forty-four years later, we have still not fully eliminated that practice. Today as we are practicing the prophesying according to 1 Corinthians 14, the temptation may still rise up within us to return to the practice of one man speaking.
Since the end of the Second World War in 1945, very few renowned speakers have been raised up in Christianity, especially in the United States. Over this period of time, the attempts of a few spiritual men to bring in a spiritual revival in America have not been successful. Even though I am very much for the increase in the churches, I would not place much confidence in well-known speakers and big works. In a certain sense, whether the number of saints in the churches of the Lord’s recovery is large or small is not very significant. What matters today is that all the saints need to get into the truths of the Bible. This is very difficult; it is not an easy way. In Matthew 7:14 the Lord Jesus told us that the way that leads to life is a constricted way and that not many would find this way and walk in this way. This being the case, we may all be tempted to give up. We may give up, but Someone within us would not give up. The fact that few will enter through the narrow gate and walk the constricted way does not mean that the Lord Jesus will suffer a defeat. On the contrary, He will still succeed. The Lord expects to have a bride, and He will have His bride. Revelation 19:7 says that the day will come when the bride will be ready. Will we be included? To this question we should respond, “I will.” To say “I will” means that we are still endeavoring. We have not yet arrived, but we are still endeavoring to arrive.
If we mean business with the Lord to participate in the vital groups, from this point forward we must make up our mind with a definite determination that we will endeavor to get into the biblical truths. How we need to thank the Lord that today we have a Bible that has been not only translated but also interpreted. What we have is not perfect, complete, or fully consummated; nevertheless, what we have in the recovery today is vastly different from what I had as a young man. In my youth I tried my best to collect books that would help me to know Genesis, but I was not able to find many helpful books. However, today, if you desire to know Genesis, there is a book called Life-study of Genesis that contains one hundred twenty messages on Genesis. If you read several messages a day in a quick way, without musing on what you read, you should be able to finish this book in approximately one month. I believe that it is possible for nearly all the saints, young and old, to do this. After you read Life-study of Genesis once, your understanding will be different. Reading the one hundred twenty messages on Genesis will make you different.