In both the previous message and in this message we are covering a matter that is neglected by most Christians. Many of us have studied the Bible for years and yet have not paid attention to this point. The reason for this is that right after we were saved, we were brought into the traditions of Christianity. The only thing we know is that it is good to be a Christian. Although we live in the church, we never try to find out what the church is all about, nor do we try to find out what our responsibilities are in the church. What should our standing be? And how should we go on? These are some of the questions we never bother to ask or get clarification on. After a while, we become accustomed to things as they are and are quite contented with everything. But this is not a proper attitude.
When we read church history, we find out that during the past four to five hundred years since the recovery of justification by faith by Martin Luther, the Lord’s recovery has never stopped. It has always gone on. Over sixty years ago, the Lord’s recovery came to China. As a result, a group of us young people were gained by the Lord. We loved the Lord and we loved His Word. Because I was exposed to English at an early age, I came into contact with western Christianity immediately after I was saved. I read not only the Bible, but also church history and the biographies of famous people as well as their important writings. We received the light and teachings from the Bible. We also took in the crucial truths and revelations released by God’s servants throughout the ages. After we received all these, we put them into practice. Hence, at the very beginning we came out of degraded Christianity and entered into a new realm. Actually, this new realm is the ancient realm of the Bible. This ancient realm was buried and neglected by men for a long time. But by the Lord’s mercy, the truths and revelations of this ancient realm have been recovered point by point throughout the ages by those who love Him. They are preserved in writing and are now in our hands. To us they now seem new because what we have seen and inherited is in contradiction to the practices of traditional Christianity. In comparison, these matters have all become new. These new things are what we know as the Lord’s recovery.
However, after the new things stay in our hands for a long time, they become old to us as well, and we do not treasure them anymore. This is why some brothers who were born among us, met with us in Taiwan for many years, and eventually went to America, are still not clear concerning the truth. As a result, they have deviated from the right way. Their situation is like that of those who confuse the capital letters “G” and “C”; some may consider these letters to be more or less the same. Today there are more than a thousand churches spreading over all the nations of the world. Concerning the practice of the new way, some are like this; they cannot differentiate between “G” and “C.” To them the two letters are more or less the same. As a result, there are different voices, and this has caused some problems.
The Lord’s recovery has been in Taiwan for almost forty years. In the last four years we have been experimenting with the new way. Now we must take this biblical way that the Lord has shown us. In this training my responsibility is to make this matter clear to the brothers and sisters. In the last message we pointed out the six levels of relationships revealed in Ephesians 4:8-12 and in other portions of the New Testament. On the first level, the Head, Christ, in His ascension, gave to His Body, the church, all kinds of gifts. On the second level, these gifts, which are the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers, function in the Body. On the third level, the apostles appoint men from among the saved ones to be the elders. On the fourth level, the elders take the lead to shepherd, teach, and oversee the church in a locality, and prepare an environment and the proper persons for the gifted ones to train and perfect. On the fifth level, the saints are perfected and function in a living and organic way, having a proper and normal church life as well as the genuine service. On the sixth level, the churches are built up in the localities, not merely for gathering in their respective places, but for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Among these six levels, the crucial one is the perfecting of the saints. All the gifts, whether they are apostles, prophets, evangelists, or shepherds and teachers, are for this one thing, the enabling of all the saints to do the work of the ministry for the building up of the Body of Christ. When we are saved, we are all spiritual babes. We are ignorant about everything. There is the need for someone to come and feed us and to teach and perfect us. It is by this way that we arrive at a full-grown man and thus realize our function and participate in the work of the ministry for the building up of the Body of Christ. To this day, this matter has not been adequately practiced among us.
Today Taiwan is very prosperous. The main reason for its success lies in its system of education. Through it many able persons are perfected. Many of the saints’ children, through the education they received from the government of Taiwan, have been perfected and have attained high achievements. But on the spiritual side we have not done as well. This is a serious matter. As far as our number is concerned, we have about forty to fifty thousand saints among us. Of those, about twenty thousand are active. But how many among these are perfected? On the secular side, because of the success in education through the government, by the time a child reaches twenty years of age, he has received a great amount of higher learning. But on the spiritual side, the situation is poor. This is true not only among the denominations, but even among us. For this reason, we must clearly see that the Lord’s recovery must go on. It must be uplifted further; it must match Ephesians chapter four in the matter of the perfecting of the saints. This is the reason we have been striving to experiment with the new way. This is not a new invention, but a recovery of what has been lost and neglected. The goal is the perfecting of the saints so that everyone may have a part in the building work of the Body of Christ.
The Bible tells us clearly that every saved person is a priest. But the situation today is not like that. Many are saved and are in the church life, participating in some service of the church. But if you consider a little bit the kind of service they are involved in, you will realize that most of it is just in practical affairs, such as cleaning, arranging, ushering, and so forth. A few might be involved in the preaching of the word. But after so many years, few have been perfected. This proves that our spiritual education is less than ideal. In the past we have had enough development in the truth. But there is not enough perfecting of the elders, and there is even less perfecting of the saints. In both groups the perfecting is poor. With the Head there are the gifts. The gifts produce the elders. The elders in turn prepare an environment and gather various people for the gifted ones to train and perfect. Only when the saints are perfected can there be a practical, proper, and normal church life. The church is not only for the building up of the congregation in the place where it is, but also for the sixth level of the work of the ministry, that is, for the building up of the Body of Christ. Although we are in the Lord’s recovery, considering our work and the results we have produced, we are far from the building up of the Body of Christ. For this reason, we must see the new way clearly, and we must be desperate to pay any price to take this way. We have to take this step of perfecting the saints. We must climb up these stairs. May the Lord be merciful to us that we may see this.
Let us now come to the outline of this message.