What is God’s ordained way for Christians to have a meeting? It is one church, one city. The meeting that is set up must keep the oneness. To set up a meeting which does not keep the oneness is to increase division and confusion. What is confusion? Anything that is done contrary to God’s ordained way is confusion. The only thing that keeps us from confusion is the way ordained by God.
I feel the churches in the recovery should accept a commission to sound the trumpet, declaring to those in darkness that division is not only unscriptural but altogether abominable. A division is an abomination in the eyes of God.
Some may argue, saying, “Why do you condemn us? We love the Lord, we preach the gospel, we study the Bible, and we try to serve the Lord.”
We can answer, “Why do you do so many things to please God, yet you do not care about being one?” You may mention John 17:21, “That they all may be one,” and Ephesians 4:1-3, where the first item in a walk worthy of God is to keep the oneness.
We need to study John 17:21-23 and Ephesians 4:1-6, and we need to train the saints. Perhaps in the prayer meeting we can take fifteen minutes to teach the saints how to sound the trumpet. At the Lord’s table we can take a half hour to train the saints to speak on the oneness of the children of God. We ourselves need to learn to sound the trumpet, and we need to train all the saints to do so too. We should not be so quiet. We should be watchmen, alerting people, not letting them sleep so peacefully. There are many ways to do this, such as passing out tracts and making phone calls to those we know.
In addition, to support what we say, we need a life that is the testimony of Jesus. We should live a life that is of the highest standard. Then, even though our words are rejected outwardly, inwardly those who reject will respect us. They will recognize that our words carry weight, that we have a living testimony, that we are the lampstand. The church in a locality should be shining. It is this shining that will convince those who would otherwise reject.
Isaiah says, “Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest” (62:6-7). We are to bother the Lord, praying, calling on Him, asking Him to do something. Just as we give the Lord no peace, so we should give those in the divisions no peace. I surely would like it if, after one month’s time, the entire Chinese community is discussing among themselves the matter of the oneness and the matter of the lampstand. I felt sad when I was in Houston. The Chinese there seem to be living in a backward country. It is dark; the spirituality is low. They seem to have no idea about spirituality. The church should be shining, trumpeting, speaking out, so that they have no peace.
If you ask about the Spanish-speaking and the English-speaking, I would say this should be true of them too. Brothers, we have the truth. We have the light. And we have the capital: the Spirit, the life, the church, and Christ. Why are we so silent?
We should live Christ before others, and every day we should preach the truth to them. We can tell them, “You need Christ; you need to be regenerated.” After a time they may be saved. If we just keep silent, the darkness will remain. If we rise up and sound the trumpet of the truth, the light will spread and the darkness will be scattered.