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Date: August 8, 1937Place: SingaporeScripture Reading: Mark 9:1-8
Brothers and sisters, we all know that revelation cannot be found on a plain. All revelation is found on the mountain. The Bible tells us that the mountain is the place where one draws near to God. If a man does not leave the plain and ascend to a higher place, he cannot draw near to God. We are all very familiar with these verses in Mark 9. But I wonder how many of us have truly seen the Lord's revelation of Himself. When the Lord was on the earth, He put on human flesh as a garment. He was first the Son of the living God, and then He became the Christ of God. What does this mean? As far as His person goes, He is the Son of God, and as far as His work goes, He is the Christ of God. The Son refers to His person, and the Christ refers to His work. Matthew 16:16 tells us that He is both the Son of God and the Christ of God. Actually, only the Son of God is qualified to be the Christ of God.
He was the Son of the living God with unmatched glory, position, and authority. Yet He put on the flesh and came to the earth "in disguise." Men did not recognize Him as the Son of God; they only recognized Him as the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon (Mark 6:3) and the cousin of John the Baptist. Men only saw His outward form; they did not recognize who He was within His flesh. They only knew Him as Jesus of Nazareth, and they criticized Him, saying, "Can anything good be from Nazareth?" (John 1:46). Unless a man receives revelation from the Holy Spirit, he cannot see the Lord.
Who is Christ? He is the Son of God in disguise. What is a disguise? It is putting on a form that is different from one's original form. The Word becoming flesh means that the Word put on a disguise. When the Word put on the flesh, He disguised Himself as flesh. Men only saw the disguise of the flesh; they did not realize that He was the Son of God. They could touch Him, hear Him, and see Him. They could be with Him in His preaching, eating, and casting out of demons. But they did not recognize Him as the Christ. Those who were more discerning, like the young man and Nicodemus, called Him Teacher, Rabbi (Matt. 19:16-20; John 3:1-2). They only knew that He had a relationship with God, but they did not know who He was. In Matthew 16:13 the Lord asked His disciples who men said that He was. They answered that some considered Him to be Elijah, while others considered Him to be Jeremiah. Why did men not consider Him to be Daniel or Zechariah? This is because no other prophet was as strong as Elijah; he condemned everything that was against God. He fought with the prophets of Baal and prevailed over them (1 Kings 18:18-40). Jeremiah was a very gentle person. He was so gentle that others called him the weeping prophet. When he was faced with a situation and could do nothing about it, he could only weep. He was not as strong as Elijah. Men said that the Lord Jesus was Elijah because He hated and condemned sin. They said that He was Jeremiah because He wept for the sinners, the poor, and Jerusalem. These ones knew Him a little, but they could only say that He was Elijah or Jeremiah. Men only saw His outward appearance; they only saw Jesus' relatives, dwellings, work, and character. They did not know the Lord Himself.
But one day the Lord brought Peter, James, and John up to the mountain, and He was transfigured before their eyes. His garments became as white as the light, and His face shined like the sun. The significance of the revelation on the mountain is that the Lord revealed His very own self to men. He was no longer wrapped in an outward shell and shrouded from men's knowledge. The Lord's transfiguration on the mountain did not change Him into something that He was not. Rather, He changed into what He was from the beginning. Through this He revealed to others the kind of person He is.
The Bible tells us that the church is built upon the rock (Matt. 16:18). The Catholic Church considers the rock to be Peter. Actually, they are wrong, because Peter means a little stone in the original language; he was not the rock. The Lord Jesus told Peter that he was a little stone and that He would build His church upon the rock. Have you seen this? The church is not built upon Peter, but upon the rock. What is the rock? When men know the Lord as Christ, as the Son of the living God, and when the person and work of Christ are revealed, we have the rock. In other words, the rock is the revealed Christ. The knowledge of the Lord as Christ and as the Son of the living God is something that is not revealed by men, but by the Father who is in the heavens (v. 17). The ones who have seen this revelation are taught by God.
All those who hear of the Lord through men and who know the things of the Lord only through men are not genuine Christians. Anything that is not built upon the rock is not the church. Today it is possible for everyone to receive revelation. Knowing Christ does not mean that we say what everyone else says about Him; we have to know Him personally. Many people study the Bible, but they do not know the Lord. They listen to messages, but the messages do not produce any effect on them. This proves that their efforts are the work of men, not the work of God. God's work is to reveal His Son. Every Christian has to receive revelation directly from the Lord. He has to know the kind of person that Christ is before he can believe in Him and receive Him with a living faith. When he believes and receives, he develops a direct relationship with God. Only those who know God and who know the Lord in this way can be considered as real Christians.
Brothers and sisters, we should not consider merely the outward appearance of the Lord and put Him in the same category as Elijah and Jeremiah. We should know the Lord from the deepest part of our being. Only then can we be considered as Christians. Everyone who has not been to the mountain of transfiguration does not know the Lord. The problem with believers today is that they are like the disciples in those days; they do not know the inward Christ. They only see His outward appearance. You may memorize the catechism, but you will still know nothing about Christ and the Bible; you merely know His outward appearance. None of these things will do you any good. Christ is inward, and only that which is living within counts. You have to pierce through His outward shell to recognize Him inwardly. Others may look at the outward appearance, but we know Him inwardly and are directly related to Him alone. This is what distinguishes a Christian from the rest of the world. Every Christian has to ascend to the mountain of transfiguration. Otherwise, he is nothing but a Christian according to tradition and appearance, one who knows nothing about the inward Christ.
What does it mean to be a traditional and outward Christian? Suppose the son of a pastor reads the Bible every day and prays every evening. He is very familiar with the stories in the Bible. He attends church services every week, fifty-two weeks a year. He is well acquainted with the doctrines of Christianity and knows everything that you are talking about. Yet he is not saved. He knows nothing about Christ being his personal Savior. He is a Christian by tradition. He receives everything from men and not directly from God. He knows only the outward Christ. The knowledge of the inward Christ, however, is something entirely different. Suppose a man is a Christian. Through his influence, his son professes a Christian faith. This may go on for many years. But one day, thank God, the light of the Holy Spirit reaches the son. He touches Christ and has a direct relationship with the Lord. He knows Christ in a genuine way. This is the difference between an outward knowledge and an inward knowledge of Christ. Many Christians only see a disguised Christ; they do not see His true image. But once they receive revelation and see His true image, they will know Him in a real way.
Brothers and sisters, what is your knowledge of Christ? If you know Him in the depth of your being, you will have the experience of being crucified, resurrected, and victorious together with Christ; these things will be possible in you. Christ will no longer be abstract; He will be real in you. Let me say honestly that if a person has not received the revelation of Christ the Son of God, he is not a Christian. He has nothing to do with the rock, and he is a person apart from the rock.
The Lord Jesus said to the disciples, "But you, who do you say that I am?" (Matt. 16:15). We should have a Christ that we know through revelation, and we should believe and receive Him with a living faith. When this happens, the kingdom of God will come upon us. If a man is not born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Those who have seen the revelation on the mountain enter the kingdom of God, and those who have not received such a revelation are not yet regenerated; they have no part in the kingdom of God.
Romans 14:17 says, "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Everything is in the Spirit. If a man has not received the revelation from the Spirit to know Christ, he will know nothing about spiritual things. If you try to explain something spiritual to him, he will have a headache and not get anything out of it. He has not seen God. He has not seen the Lord, and he does not know anything about the kingdom of God. He may think that he knows a great deal, but what he knows are merely outward things. The Lord is only an abstract Christ to him. The problem today is that the Christ known by God's children is not very real. One does not know Christ through pastors or teachers; he has to receive direct light and revelation from the Lord. This is the first item in Christianity.
When we ascend to the mountain, to a higher place, we see Christ. Here we have God's revelation. At the time the Lord was transfigured on the mountain, He manifested Himself. On the mountain the disciples beheld the true image of the Lord. They also saw Him talking to Moses and Elijah. Peter was a talkative person. There are many descendants of Peter today. The church is full of men who are as addicted to talking as Peter was! They talk, but they do not realize what they have said. As usual, Peter was talkative on that day; he could not keep quiet. In this wonderful revelation, the true image of Christ Jesus was revealed. The disciples knew the Son of God, and they saw the most important figures in the Jewish religion. It was a great opportunity for them to express something. Peter asked whether the Lord wanted him to set up three tents, "one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah" (Luke 9:33). In Peter's mind the Lord Jesus was the greatest, and the first place should go to Him. But after Him there were still a number two and a number three, who also deserved tents. But the Bible says that Peter did not know what he was saying (v. 33).
Moses represents the law, and Elijah represents the prophets. The two represent the law and the prophets. In Peter's knowledge Christ was the center, but there also was a place for the law and the prophets. But God could not tolerate such a thought. If this thought remained, the Christian faith would have been over. As a consequence, God immediately unveiled His will from heaven. God surrounded them with a bright cloud and took away Moses and Elijah. When the disciples lifted up their heads, they saw Jesus only. At the same time, they heard a voice from heaven, saying, "This is My Son, the Beloved. Hear Him!" (Mark 9:7). God was telling them that it was not their time to speak, and that they should be quiet and listen. They should not have any say in anything. They should only listen to the Beloved Son.
Being a Christian has to do with knowing Christ in an inward way; it has nothing to do with the outward law and prophets. The law is the outward ordinances. It is written on the tablets of stone, and it tells us what we should and should not do. The law gives us an outward standard of right and wrong; it tells us what is and is not correct in an outward sense. Many people do not know the inward leading of the Spirit, and they have never learned to obey the leading of the Spirit. They say what others say and deny what others deny. When the Bible says that such and such is right, they repeat it. But they have no inward revelation and have never learned to obey the leading of the Spirit.
A brother once asked me, "I want to do a certain thing. What is the biblical teaching concerning it?" I said, "In the name of the Lord, let me ask you a question. If you do not have the teaching of the Bible, does this mean that you do not know God's will at all?" In the Old Testament age men were given the law. They knew only these few items of the law, and the standard of right and wrong was according to these items. In the Old Testament age there were ordinances; there was not the leading of the Holy Spirit. But the New Testament age is different. In the New Testament age the Spirit lives within men and leads them to obey God's will. In contrast to the Old Testament age, the Spirit is living, while the law is dead. It is very dangerous for a man to know only ordinances without knowing anything about the leading of the Spirit! In the Old Testament age there was only the Holy Bible; there was not the Holy Spirit in an inward way. But in the New Testament age the Holy Spirit is within man. He is here in addition to the Bible. He tells us what is right and what is wrong.
If a man only considers the teaching of the Bible without considering the Holy Spirit, he is living in the Old Testament age, not in the New Testament age. We do not despise the Bible. I am only saying that as precious as the Bible is, it cannot be compared with the indwelling Spirit. Brothers and sisters, if we agree that the New Testament age is better than the Old Testament age, we have to agree also that the Holy Spirit is better than the Holy Bible. Some Christians think that being free from the Ten Commandments means being free from the law. Little do they realize that the law is a principle. When they are under the law, they can have no confidence to do anything apart from the law. The law tells them what is right and what is wrong; other than what has been told to them, they know nothing. The Bible is a wonderful book. But even the Bible cannot be a substitute for the Spirit; it cannot be the standard of our walk or the yardstick of right and wrong. The Bible is important, but we must have the leading of the Holy Spirit in addition to the truth of the Bible.
Once a brother who is in fellowship with us was talking to another brother in a denomination concerning the truth of baptism. Our brother was behaving very much like a member of the Baptist Church because he would not talk about anything other than baptism by immersion. The minute he opened his mouth, he would persuade others to believe in baptism by immersion. When he spoke to the brother in the denomination about baptism, the brother in the denomination was convinced by his speaking about baptism by immersion. He came and asked me to baptize him. I asked him why he wanted to be baptized, and he answered that the Bible says that a person should be immersed, not sprinkled. I asked him whether he had prayed about it or whether the Spirit had led him to do it, and he answered, "As long as the Bible says it, I am going to be baptized." I said, "Please go home. I will not baptize you, because you do not have the revelation." This person only had the law.
Brothers and sisters, our work today is not to help people obey the Bible; rather, it is to obey the biblical truth through the Holy Spirit. I am not despising the Bible. I am only saying that we should have the Bible plus the Spirit. Having the Bible without the Spirit is the same as being in the law. Today we do not need the law; we need the living Christ living within us. We have to follow His leading. The Bible is not a law. Many people have made the Bible a law. Some read the Bible and receive revelation and guidance through the Spirit, and they have life. But some have taken the Bible merely as an outward law, a kind of standard of right and wrong. This is a matter of life and death, the difference between Judaism and Christianity. If we are not clear about this, we cannot expect to see a great revival or any great work here in Southeast Asia.
There was a doctor in Tsinan, Shantung province, who had a maid servant. The maid servant visited Shanghai once and was saved. When she saw the sisters covering their heads in the meetings, she asked what it meant. Someone told her that they were obeying the teaching of the Bible. When she heard this, she also covered her head. After she returned home, her mistress asked why she was covering her head. She did not know what to say, and so she answered, "I cover my head because the Bible says so. Others are covering their heads, so I cover my head as well. I do not know why I should do this." When I was at their house, her mistress told me about the head covering. I asked that she be sent to me right away. When she came, I said, "On behalf of the church in Shanghai (I was a brother in the church in Shanghai at that time), I forbid you to cover your head again, because we do not have head-covering sisters like you among us. Your head covering is a law."
We must be clear that if a person pays attention to outward ordinances and teachings, he can turn the spiritual Bible into a dead book of law. On that day God told Peter to hear His beloved Son and to forget about the law and the prophets. His word for Peter is for the whole church. Thank God that Christ is living not only in heaven but also within us. We should listen not to the law but to the living guidance of the Christ within.
The law is dead ordinances, while the prophets are living persons. The law cannot spell out the standard of right and wrong for every move we make. Should I have rice or porridge for dinner tonight? How should the meetings of the church in Singapore be conducted? Answers to such questions cannot be found in the law. The ordinances of the law are not complete. All laws are good, but they do not cover everything. This is why there were not only dead laws in the Old Testament but also living prophets. What one could not find in the law, he inquired of God through the prophets. The prophets fulfilled what was lacking in the law. One could not go to God directly; he had to seek counsel through the prophets. The prophets conveyed God's word.
Being freed from the Ten Commandments alone is not freedom from the law. The law includes all the other outward ordinances. Being according to the prophets means to walk according to what other men say. Failing to understand God's will by oneself and seeking counsel from others is walking according to the principle of the prophets. Thank God, not only does the law have to go, but the prophets also have to go. Moses must go, and Elijah must also go. Both the law and the prophets are over. The work of the prophets is to prophesy, preach, and inquire of God's will on behalf of others. But the prophets are gone, and we cannot depend on any men to inquire of God for us any longer.
What is the New Testament age? It is when "the earth will be full of the knowledge of Jehovah,/As the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9). You can go to God and inquire of Him directly; there is no need for your brothers to tell you anything. You can know God's will yourself, and there is no need to turn to other men to know Him. In other words, there is no need to have your neighbor be your prophet. Everyone can know God's will directly. I receive countless letters every year asking me questions and requesting that I pray for them. They want to know whether God wants them to do this or that. They are saying, in effect, "Watchman Nee is the prophet. We no longer have to inquire of God. We can just ask Watchman Nee to do it for us." Brothers and sisters, this is the principle of the Old Testament. This is the principle of a prophet.
Does this then mean that we do not have to listen to our brothers? No. In the Old Testament age, men listened only to their brothers. In the New Testament age, Christians should listen to their brothers, but they also have to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. I am not saying that we should ignore our brothers or the Bible. I am saying that we must have the leading of the Holy Spirit in addition to these things. Thank God that Moses and Elijah are gone. There is no need for others to tell us what is God's will, for we know within. The Holy Spirit within us will tell us what we should or should not do. If we do not have the leading of the Holy Spirit, we can wait for the prophets to give us the word. What is a prophet? A prophet is a person who finds out God's will for us.
There was a time when I did not understand why Paul had to go up to Jerusalem (Acts 21:4, 10-14). Many people discouraged him, yet he still went. Why did he have to go? Now I know. Paul had to go because he had to preserve the New Testament principle. In the New Testament age, no one should be another person's prophet! It is true that all the brothers and sisters have the Holy Spirit and can prophesy through His inspiration. But no one needed to tell Paul what to do. Paul should have known in himself whether or not he should go. Those people did one thing more than was necessary — they became Paul's prophets. This is why Paul ignored their word and went according to his plan. Had Paul followed their word and turned back and had such a history been recorded in the Bible, we would have a terrible case on our hands. Paul was willing to sacrifice himself to maintain the principle of the New Testament. This shows us that today the law and the prophets are over.
In our faith there is only the Son of God. We cannot have the law and the prophets in addition to Him. The Lord within us tells us what we should and should not do. Many times when others ask me questions, I say, "Just ask yourself." Every saved person should understand God's will by himself. Perhaps our confused thoughts and feelings and our complicated mind have shut us off from the voice of the Lord and the leading of the Spirit. If our heart is pure we will see God. Those with a pure heart see God (Matt. 5:8). But whatever our condition may be, we must always remember that a Christian is one who listens to Christ. We can only receive revelation directly from God. We cannot have the law or the prophets in addition to this revelation. May the Lord guide us to learn this lesson. We must first receive revelation from the Holy Spirit before we can understand God's will. Only then will we have a living testament and not a dead testament.
