In the last chapter we considered the way of meeting as revealed in the New Testament, and we described its general outline. This morning, we need to continue to point out the key to the New Testament meetings.
The Bible reveals to us that in the Old Testament it was after the children of Israel were called out of Egypt that God began to require them to have meetings. Before this time, from Adam through the patriarchs including Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there had been no such problem as meetings. It was not until the Israelites had become a nation, had fallen into Egypt, and were rescued by God to the wilderness, that God began to teach them how to meet. At that time, God gave them the law so that they would take the law as their center. Every time they met, they would emphasize teaching the law and expounding the law. As long as they could be clear and accurate concerning the law, they would have no problems before God. Therefore, the Old Testament meetings were altogether a matter of the letter and of knowledge.
In the New Testament, God’s economy has overthrown everything of the Old Testament. God does not want the law to be the center of His people’s meetings any longer, but rather He wants His Spirit to be the center. The meetings are not of the letter, but of life; they are not of knowledge, but of reality. Because the New Testament meetings have the Spirit of God as the center, they are of life and of reality. Such meetings could not possibly be carried out by the practice of one person speaking and the rest listening. If the meeting is a matter of the letter and of knowledge, there is a need for someone who can understand, apprehend, and comprehend, like a lawyer. When that person speaks and everyone understands, the job is accomplished. In the New Testament age, however, the meeting is entirely a matter of the Spirit. Therefore, it is not sufficient to have only speaking and teaching.
I repeat, the Old Testament meetings centered around the law, which was entirely of the letter and of knowledge. The New Testament meetings center around the Holy Spirit, who is of life and of reality. In the Old Testament times, as long as there was a lawyer who understood the law, such as Ezra, he could gather the people together and expound the law clearly to them. This was merely a teaching of the letter so that the people could obtain the knowledge of the letter. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit replaces the law. The Holy Spirit is not the letter, but life; He is not knowledge, but reality. This Holy Spirit is the transfiguration of Christ, and He is simply Christ Himself. And Christ is the embodiment of God. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the Triune God. This Triune God has been manifested to us and has reached us, and even has entered into us to indwell us to be our life and our person. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate expression of the Triune God, who eventually enters into us to mingle as one with His redeemed and regenerated people so that we and He, He and we, can become one. This is the greatest mystery in the universe. The New Testament meetings are concerned with this.
Some of you brothers and sisters here were born in Christianity and were Christians there, some were born among us and have grown up in the churches of the Lord’s recovery, and some were Gentiles originally who were saved and came into the churches of the Lord’s recovery. Regardless of which kind of background you came from, I believe that before this time you had no understanding concerning the simple statements I just made regarding the believers’ meetings. Therefore, I would like to give you some basic training concerning this point. You need to realize that we are in the midst of a change of the system in the church. I have a very heavy burden to present to you trainees the basic issues of the change of the system in a clear and understandable way. I hope that while I am in your midst taking the lead in this training, the Lord will have mercy on me to make me a qualified “doctor” so that I can diagnose your real problems thoroughly. I would like to speak an honest word. Today there are still many Christians who may have read the Bible for years, pursued the Lord diligently, or studied theology, and yet may nevertheless have difficulty pointing out what were the meetings among God’s people in the Old Testament, and again what are the meetings among God’s people in the New Testament. But this morning, after so much experience, so much study, and so much consideration, I can stand before you to tell you in simple words that the meetings of God’s people in the Old Testament were of the law, of the letter, and of knowledge; the meetings of us believers in the New Testament are of the Holy Spirit, of life, and of reality.
I would like to speak a little more lest you do not understand. For example, there is the matter of redemption in the Bible. In the Old Testament, however, there was only the knowledge of redemption without the reality, because at that time redemption had not been accomplished yet. In the New Testament, whenever we meet together, not only do we have the knowledge of redemption, but we also have its reality. Not only do we preach the doctrine of redemption, but we also teach this matter of redemption and help people to be redeemed. In the Old Testament, even if people wanted to be redeemed, they could not be redeemed because redemption had not yet been accomplished. At most, they could only have the knowledge of redemption and the type of redemption, which was merely a shadow.