Thank the Lord for giving us this conference in these two evenings. I consider this very important, and I treasure it very much. In these two meetings, our burden is to help the brothers and sisters to see in a brief way the goal of God’s ordained way and the way to practice it. For this, we need to speak for the Lord according to the high standard of the Bible. I hope that every brother and sister will exercise his spirit and his sound mind to understand and receive this word. I also look to the Lord’s grace from above that I can present this new way clearly and completely.
First of all, we need to know that the God-ordained way, which is the new way that we have been talking about in the past three years, is an ancient way in the Bible. The way that the apostles brought in two thousand years ago and the way that the early church took was this way. However, due to her degradation, the church gradually fell into the world, deviated from the revelation in the Bible, and took an old way about which we have spoken. After receiving light in the Bible before the Lord, we, by the Lord’s grace, are willing to recover the lost scriptural way. Therefore, in the Lord’s recovery, this has become a new way. Actually, this new way which we are recovering is the ancient way which was practiced by the church two thousand years ago. This is the way ordained by God according to His eternal purpose.
You may say that this way, from the beginning to the end, was revealed to us in the New Testament little by little in a very clear way. However, due to the fact that there is nothing of this new way in our natural concept, we could not discover it from our reading. When we read the Bible, mostly we have deeper impressions concerning the things which are already within us; hence, we echo to them immediately upon reading. However, concerning those profound things within God’s heart, we have no idea, and we cannot understand even after much reading. Let us take Ephesians 4:8-16 as an example. There are many points there which are profound; we can read them, yet we have no way to understand. We find it difficult to understand such a profound matter. We need to look to the Lord to grant us revelation and light that we may see the profound things of God in this portion of the Word.
This portion of the Word primarily talks about the building up of the Body of Christ, which is the goal of the God-ordained way. When we first mentioned the new way, it seemed that the impression we gave the brothers and sisters was that the goal of the new way was door-knocking. But I have to say that preaching the gospel by door-knocking is not the goal of the new way. Even all the home meetings, group meetings, or district meetings are not the goal of the new way. The goal of the new way is the building up of the Body of Christ. Then why do we still have to preach the gospel by door-knocking? It is because the building up of the Body of Christ requires material. In order to obtain the material, we have to preach the gospel. The reason we go out to knock on doors is for preaching the gospel, leading people to be regenerated, to be saved, and to become material for the building up of the Body of Christ. The home meetings are for the perfecting of the newly saved ones, for leading them to function in the meetings. A further step is to have group meetings to group the saints together that they may have a place to have mutual fellowship, to be knit together, to care for one another, and to be built up with each other. Then we arrive at the district meeting where we help people to enter more into the church life, to function organically in the meetings, and to speak to and supply one another for mutual building up. All these added together are for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Every one of us has a body, which is our physical body. Christ also has a Body, which is His Church. Apparently our body is an organization organized by many members grouped together. However, it is not quite the same as a table made of many pieces of wood. The table is a lifeless organization; the body is an organism of life. As long as something is a part of the body, regardless of whether it is big or small, it has the organic feeling and function. Similarly, the Body of Christ, the church, is not an organization, but an organism. Therefore, our building up of the church of Christ is not building up a congregation, an organization, or a social group. The old way of tradition in Christianity does not pay attention to the Body of Christ, but only to the outward organization. That old way encourages people to join a religion. Once they have joined the religion, they became a member of that group. Then everyone comes together to elect each other. They form a board of directors, a committee, and elect different kinds of committee members. This is a congregation, not the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is a group of people who have repented, believed, and received Jesus as their Savior and life. They have been regenerated in their spirit, and they have the Holy Spirit moving and filling them within to cause them to be transformed, to grow, and to become organic members.
Tonight I am standing here. If I did not have an organic body to coordinate with my life, then this living person of mine would have no way to be expressed. The Lord Jesus is a great One who fills all; He needs a great organism to express Him. However, until today, He still has not obtained this great organism which is the proper church. We have been in the Lord’s recovery for many decades, and the Lord’s recovery has spread to the six continents having more than eleven hundred local churches. However, the percentage that we are organic is not that much; we are still lacking the organic expression of the life functions. Our situation is still mostly one of organization. This is altogether the result of the old way. Therefore, there is an extremely great need for us to walk from the old way to the new way that has been given to us by the Lord in order to develop the organic functions of the members so that the Lord may have an organic Body.
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