Date: April 19, 1948, Friday, eveningPlace: Hardoon Road, Shanghai
Brother Witness Lee: First I would like to explain the nature of this meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to share with the majority of the brothers and sisters the things that we, the co-workers, have been discussing for the last few days. I will first begin with a question: From the Bible and from church history, what is the way for us to serve in the church?
Brother Watchman Nee: We have to ask first of all if the church has taken a different stand with respect to its service to the Lord. Is the church different today in its stand toward service? Here we have two absolutely contradictory views. Many people do not realize that the church is in desolation on the one hand and is advancing on the other hand.
The way that the church has taken for the past two thousand years has become progressively poorer. In God's view the church is fully in desolation. We see many sins and errors existing in the church today. From the Bible we see that even the early churches were already in desolation. During Paul's time there were already false shepherds, false prophets, and false apostles. The condition at Ephesus seemed to be better. Yet in reality it was also in desolation. In Philippians Paul said that all were seeking after their own things and no one was seeking after the things of Jesus Christ (2:21). Second Timothy was written by Paul right before he died. There we see also the condition of the desolation of the church. First Timothy speaks of the elders and the deacons (3:2, 8). But in 2 Timothy Paul could only entrust the testimony to the faithful ones (2:2). It was as if he was saying that even the elders and the deacons had become untrustworthy. In 1 Timothy he spoke concerning how the elders had to be faithful. But in 2 Timothy he could only concede that there were wooden and earthen vessels in the great house (2:20).
Second Peter tells us that at Peter's time some had betrayed the Lord and denied Him (2:1). By the Middle Ages the church had become degraded. It was not carried into Babylon at the fourth century; it had already fallen into desolation at the time of the apostles. This is why judgment begins from the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17).
John's Epistles were written thirty years after Paul's Epistles. In John's Epistles we see that some had even denied Jesus as the Christ. They did not acknowledge that Christ had come in the flesh. These were those who had come as the antichrists (1 John 2:22; 4:3). Furthermore, the book of Revelation, written between A.D. 90 and A.D. 95, speaks of seven churches. Other than two that did not receive a rebuke, the remaining five received severe rebukes (Rev. 2—3). All the way from the degradation of Ephesus to the Lord's vomiting of Laodicea out of His mouth, there was a continuation of degradation. The lampstand at Ephesus was removed, and Laodicea was vomited out of the Lord's mouth. Although there were some recoveries in between, it was a situation of desolation for the most part. The book of Jude has only one chapter. It tells of some who had crept into the church unnoticed (v. 4).
Historically speaking, the situation of desolation continued. From the second century forward, the Roman Catholic Church was formed in a general way. During the second to the third century, the practice of the local church was abolished. By the fourth century, at the time of Constantine, the formal church was established.
In the early churches once a man believed in the Lord, he immediately dropped the world. The believers did not work for money, but for the sake of the church. The saints had all things in common. The brothers and sisters continued steadfastly in meeting and in the apostles' teachings (Acts 2:42-46). Because those who believed risked everything to believe, many were afraid to believe. Acts says that three thousand and then five thousand were added into the church. But it is possible that a few times more than three thousand and five thousand people had not dared to believe. Many people would say that to go in this way would cost them their name and position. Pentecost not only brought in people; it also kept people away. Pentecost is something that cannot be touched. Once a man touches it, it ruins his life.
The condition at the beginning was very different from what it is today. We cannot live on earth as if the church has never been degraded. We cannot offer up sacrifices like Cain did. The principle of Cain is to live as if a fall had never existed, when in reality there was a fall. Before Cain, there was Adam. God commanded that Adam had to eat bread in the sweat of his face. This was Adam's curse. Cain's mistake did not lie in the fact that he tilled the land and was punished. His mistake lay in the fact that he did not condemn Adam's fall. He went out to till the land without any sense of remorse. When a man sins and does not have the realization that he is sinning, he has fallen into the principle of Cain. Some are obviously in sin. Yet they feel like they have never sinned. Abel tended the flock, and God accepted his sacrifice. God accepted it because Abel acknowledged the existence of the fall. He realized the value of the shedding of the blood. Cain was different; he acted as if nothing had happened, as if there was no need for judgment. Hence, while we live on this earth today, we cannot live without a sense of desolation. Why do we leave the denominations outwardly and separate ourselves from others? It is because the church has fallen. There are so many sects today, and so many people are nominal Christians. Under such degraded conditions, we cannot be dull in our feelings.
However, from another angle we may say that the church has been advancing for the last two thousand years. Outwardly speaking, the church is in desolation. Yet among the faithful lovers of the Lord, God's recovery works have become deeper and deeper, and more and more numerous as time goes on.
While I was in Foochow, I told some sisters that the history of the church is like our own personal history. Please tell me, as far as our own history is concerned, when are we the richest? The minute we are saved, we are justified, sanctified, and regenerated. We have Christ living within us, and we have the Holy Spirit as our power. All these things are obtained as soon as we believed. Although we may not realize that we obtained these things, they are all there within us. When does a Christian become poor? It happens when he gradually drops all these riches. This is why a person falls into darkness and trials soon after he is saved; he loses all these things. After some days the Lord's mercy causes such a one to regain some of what he has lost. Still later trials come, and he becomes fallen again. The Lord's mercy comes upon him once more, and he is revived and recovers all the lost riches again. Every time we regain something, it becomes more solid in us than before. Eventually, all of these things will become part of us. During his lifetime Jacob rose many times and fell many times. But at the end of his life, he could worship God leaning on the top of his staff (Heb. 11:21). He regained all that he had lost. He was able to come back to God like one who is fully saved.
The same is true with the history of the church. The revelation in Ephesians reached the highest point. But this does not necessarily mean that the experience of the church in Ephesus was the richest. The church in Ephesus was like a new believer. During the advance of the church, truths such as justification by faith, sanctification, the oneness of the church, preaching the gospel, and the truth concerning the cross have become clearer and clearer. Whatever has been recovered at a later stage is clearer than that which was present at the beginning. From the letters that the church father Clement wrote to the church in Corinth, we can see that those men were less clear than we are concerning the gospel. Even Augustine's Confessions and Thomas à Kempis's On the Imitation of Christ do not contain as much truth as we have seen today. Among their revelations, there are treasures, but there is also sand.
We have to see that the church stands in between these two contradictions today. Outwardly speaking, the church is becoming worse and worse. Inwardly speaking, its nature has become better and better. In his books J. N. Darby described the church as a house in ruins. Yet many do not realize that the church is a house of revival at the same time. No one after Paul was able to match Paul's revelations. He saw the truths in a very clear way. Unfortunately, he is gone today. If he were still alive, we could ask him how he feels about today. On the one hand, the outward church has become more and more fallen and degraded. But on the other hand, the inward nature of the church has become better and better.
Once a truth has been recovered, it can never be lost again. The truth of justification by faith was recovered in the midst of fiery trials. It can never be lost today. Let me ask you if the church could ever lose the truth of justification by faith, even after another thousand years. The books of Romans and Galatians speak about justification by faith. But during the two thousand years of church history, one thousand years saw this truth lost. However, once this truth was recovered, it will never be lost again. The book of Galatians was with the church for fourteen hundred years before Martin Luther, but the truth of justification by faith was lost. Today, through the recovery of Luther, the truth of justification by faith can never be lost again. Formerly, men argued in doctrine about justification by faith. Because many have shed their blood or been burned to death for this truth, it can never be lost again. What the church has inherited today can never be shaken. All the truth becomes more and more solid as time goes by.
After the recovery already mentioned, God raised up another group of people, men like J. N. Darby and so forth. They saw something concerning the heavenly vision, the removal of the flesh, and so forth. There were also men like Pearson Smith, who recovered sanctification by faith. There was Madame Guyon, and there was George Müller, who saw the matter of faith. Then there was Evan Roberts, and in recent times there was T. Austin-Sparks. We can say that there has never been a time when the church was as clear and as rich as it is today.
There are sixty-six books in the Bible. Of these books, only one has no ending — the book of Acts. This book only has a beginning; it has no ending. All the other books have a proper conclusion. After Acts 28 there are still many untold stories. John, Peter, Barnabas, and Paul all went to Rome and were judged there. The whereabouts of many other brothers and sisters are not mentioned in Acts. Acts does not have an ending, because we are still continuing the book of Acts. The gospel has not been thoroughly preached, and the Lord has not come back yet. Today we are still writing Acts. Ephesians 2 speaks of the dwelling place of God. Ephesians 4 speaks of the perfecting of the saints by the gifts, in order to arrive at the oneness of the faith and the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ unto the building up of the Body in love. Ephesians 5 speaks of the church being without spot, wrinkle, blame, and reproach, and being fully glorious. These are conditions that have not been attained yet. We are still in the continuation of the recovery of the church.
When I was in England, Brother Austin-Sparks asked me what chapter in the Bible is the hardest to fulfill. I told him that the hardest chapter should be Ephesians 4 on the perfecting of the saints. After reading that chapter, I am very concerned that this chapter will not be fulfilled. I am confident about the other chapters. But I do not as yet have the confidence about this chapter. For the past two thousand years, Ephesians 4 has not yet been fulfilled. According to the present condition, I am afraid that given two thousand more years, this chapter will still not be fulfilled. If this is the case, humanly speaking, the Lord will not be able to come back. It is true that the church is in desolation outwardly. But the question today is whether or not there is a group of people who will stand on God's side to receive God's riches, and who will pay the price to appropriate these riches.
What is our position today? We are standing between two contradicting things today. Outwardly, we should learn to condemn the desolation around us, and we should be separated from it and be delivered from all degradations. For this reason, we have to be clear about the ground of the church. We cannot say that everything is all right; we have to separate the vessels of honor from the vessels of dishonor. The vessels of honor are not born honorable; they become honorable through their separation. The Bible says that if a man cleanses himself from the dishonorable things, he will be a vessel of honor (2 Tim. 2:21). Honor comes through separation. All those who will not separate themselves from dishonor, who are not serious about anything, will be vessels of dishonor. What is it to be a person of dishonor? It is to mingle oneself with vessels of dishonor without realizing that there is anything wrong. This is one aspect of the church.
At the same time, we have to learn to live in the Body, to be the sons of God, and to take the way of recovery. In God's eyes the church has come up to the full measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ already. This matter was not realized in the past; it was not realized yesterday. But today it is here. What the Lord is doing today is much more than what He has done before. Christians should come up to the standard of God's advanced work in this age. It is not enough to see just the outward desolation. There is the need to advance further to see the Lord's work. We do not know when the Lord will stop His work. We only know that God is preparing the stones. One day, when all the stones are prepared, the temple will be completed.
In the Old Testament there are two types: one is the tabernacle, and the other is the temple. Many people can speak on the tabernacle; there are at least one hundred books on this subject. But it is difficult to find a book on the temple. Men pay attention to the type of the tabernacle but neglect the type of the temple. They think that the tabernacle and the temple are more or less the same thing, and that they are repetitive types. Actually, the two types are entirely different. The tabernacle was something temporary and on the periphery. The temple was something eternal and in the center. The tabernacle was in the wilderness, and the temple was built by Solomon. The tabernacle in the wilderness typifies the condition of the church on earth, and the temple in the kingdom typifies the eternal condition of the church before God. If we see this light, we will be very clear concerning today's situation.
God had obtained a tabernacle in Exodus already. This tabernacle followed the Israelites wherever they went. Later the tabernacle settled in Shiloh (Josh. 18:1). But the children of Israel stumbled and sinned. They had no king among them, and everyone acted according to that which was right in his own eyes (Judg. 21:25). Later, the Philistines came and were the enemies of the Israelites. Then Samuel, Saul, and David were raised up. The two sons of Eli sinned, and the Israelites were defeated before the Philistines. The people tried to use the ark to protect them in battle. The ark was the ark of the testimony, which was also the ark of grace. The Israelites thought that the ark could help them. However, God did not help them, and the ark left the tabernacle. It was captured and moved into the house of Dagon (1 Sam. 4:1—5:2). God did not try to protect the Israelites for the sake of the ark, nor did He need the Israelites themselves to protect the ark. After the ark left the tabernacle, it never went back to it again. It remained outside the tabernacle until Solomon finished the temple, when it was moved into the temple. Jeremiah 7:12 says that men were still going to Shiloh at the time of Jeremiah. Because the ark left the tabernacle, God left the tabernacle as well. The ark had turned its back on the tabernacle and was facing the temple. This is the condition of the church today.
At the time of Solomon, the king went to Gibeon to offer up sacrifices. Solomon prayed for wisdom in Gibeon, and his wisdom was unmatched by anyone else. The Bible says that Solomon went up and offered a thousand burnt offerings (1 Kings 3:4). Second Chronicles 1 tells us that there was still the brazen altar, and there were priests at Gibeon (vv. 3-5). But the ark was no longer inside the tabernacle. The ark had turned its back on the tabernacle and had turned toward the temple. This is the testimony of Christ. It is also our way today. Our way is the way of following the ark; it is not toward Gibeon, but toward the temple.
Today God is preparing all kinds of gold, silver, wood, stones, brass, and iron. When the time comes, Solomon will appear. On that day, no one will hear the sound of any work, because all the materials will have been prepared (1 Kings 6:7). Once Solomon came, the temple was completed. The materials for Solomon's temple were not cut on the spot; they were prepared ahead of time. Although there are noises today, everything will be coordinated in that day, and there will be the temple.
The desolation of the church is a fact. However, the testimony of the temple throughout the past two thousand years has never stopped. One truth after another has been recovered. These are not small recoveries. Although there are all kinds of noises today, all the materials are being prepared. As a fulfillment of the type of the building of the temple, the church of God is advancing. Presently, the materials are being prepared one by one. At that time there will no longer be any need for last-minute work; all that will be needed will be for the materials to be put together. The temple is not built on the spot. Rather, it is prefabricated. God's work today is the perfecting of the Body of Christ for the arriving at the oneness of the faith (Eph. 4:12-13). This has been God's work throughout the ages. His works today are more numerous and more advanced than His works in the past. The Lord Jesus said that the Father works until this day, and He works also (John 5:17). As time goes on the Lord's work becomes better and better, and the content of it becomes richer and richer. If we take the way of recovery, we will surely see God's work among us.
Sister Pearl Wang prayed: May Your word not be distorted through man. May Your word not be locked up by man. May we not frustrate Your work, and may we not limit Your work. Instead, may Your work have a free way among us.
