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Prayer: Lord, we worship You for Yourself. We worship You for Your Word. Lord, we treasure You in Your Word. Lord, we thank You for this gathering. We believe it is sovereignly of Your mercy. O Lord Jesus! It is all a mercy that we are here. Thank You that we are under Your mercy. We enjoy Your rich anointing. Thank You, Lord, that You have opened up Your Word to us. We are looking to You for this message. Be with us in Your Word. Lord, grant us to see a clear vision and have a clear way to carry out Your vision. Give us the way, Lord. Give us the wisdom to handle the vision of Your New Testament. Lord, do cover us again. We hate Your enemy. We hate that he is still troubling us in our mentality, in our concept, and in our opinion. Lord, we are still so natural in our soul without much transformation. Have mercy upon us. What we need is Your mercy. Amen.
Thus far, I believe that we have all been deeply impressed with the need of a vision of God’s New Testament ministry. This training is a training on the ministry. Throughout the twenty centuries of church history, the divisions, confusions, and problems that have taken place among all the Christians were all due to a ministry. Whatever you minister produces something. If you minister the heavens, something heavenly will be produced. If you minister earthly things, surely the issue, the coming out, will be earthly. The many divisions and confusions among the Christians today all come from one source — a ministry. The Presbyterian denomination, or division, came out of the ministry of the presbytery. The Baptist division came out of the ministry of baptism by immersion. All the different kinds of Christian groups come out of different ministries. A ministry is mainly a teaching. We must realize that the teaching that a Christian teaches ministers something. It may minister something right, something wrong, something high, or something low. A teaching always issues in something. Based upon the issue of your teaching, your teaching may be considered as a ministry. Ministry in the biblical usage means to serve people with something, just as a waiter in a restaurant serves people with the courses of food. To serve others with something is to minister. To minister is not to preach, teach, or speak without serving anyone with anything. We may say that a certain minister who speaks for an hour ministers nothing to people. This means that according to Christ, he ministered nothing, but according to the facts, that minister did minister something. He ministered something wrong, something bad, or something low to people. I hope we can see that that kind of ministry produces problems, produces division, and produces confusion.
Paul wrote 1 Timothy in the midst of a confusing environment and after many years of his work with his co-workers. This Epistle is altogether an inoculation. Poison after poison was injected into the Christian church while the church was going on. At the conclusion of his writing ministry, Paul wrote 1 Timothy to inoculate the church against all these poisons. In the opening word of this Epistle, however, Paul did not write in a way that we would think to be so serious: “Even as I exhorted you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things” (1:3). This phrase not to teach different things seems so simple. If you merely read this phrase, you will not sense the seriousness of different teaching. We may not think that this is serious, but actually it is more than serious. It kills people to teach differently. To teach differently tears down God’s building and annuls God’s entire economy. We all must realize that even a small amount of teaching in a different way destroys the recovery. There is a proverb that says, “One sentence can build up the nation, and one sentence can destroy the entire nation.” You do not need to give an entire message. Just speaking one sentence that conveys your kind of concept tears down everything. We must realize that such a ministry is “terrible.” Your speaking can build up or destroy. It is possible that your speaking destroys, kills, and annuls.
As we have seen, Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:3 that he left him there in Ephesus to charge certain ones not to teach different things. What then, we may ask, is the unique thing that all the Christian teachers should teach? Christian teachers today teach many things, such as the presbytery, baptism by immersion, the episcopalian way, holiness, how to preach the gospel, and the way to teach the Bible. We would all agree that to teach the way of Judaism is surely wrong, but what about teaching how to preach the gospel? What is wrong with preaching the gospel? We must realize that even the teaching to preach the gospel creates division. This is wrong. There is only one ministry that always builds up, edifies, and perfects with no destruction at all. There is only one unique ministry that is justified, promoted, uplifted, and even glorified in the New Testament. In 1 Timothy 1:4 Paul went on to tell Timothy what those ones who were teaching different things should be occupied with — God’s economy. Through my contact with some of you brothers, I became burdened and made a quick decision to call this gathering for this training. I do not like to see the recovery destroyed by different teachings. I realize the real situation. The Lord cover me. You may not know what I am talking about because you do not know all the factors. My contact with some of you impressed me with a terrible factor. I realized that you were going to teach different things to cause trouble and to create division. There is only one ministry that ever builds up and that never destroys — this is God’s economy.
We must ask ourselves what was wrong with teaching Judaism at the apostles’ time. This was not Buddhism or Gnosticism. To teach Judaism was to teach according to the holy word in the Old Testament. Someone could have said to the apostle Paul, “What is wrong with teaching the law? I am teaching the Bible.” Is there anything wrong with teaching people the Bible, with teaching people theology, or with teaching people how to preach the gospel? There is nothing wrong, but we must realize that this kind of teaching creates division. In 1 Timothy Paul does not indicate that those who taught different things taught heresies or heathen things. If they had taught heathen things, no Christian would have received them. The reason their teachings were received was that they were scriptural things from the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament. By that time the New Testament had not yet come into existence. The holy Word was only the Old Testament. These ones who taught differently could have thought, “If you don’t allow me to teach the Old Testament, then what am I going to teach? I am quite legitimate and quite scriptural.” Their teaching, however, created division. Is there anything wrong with setting up a mission and sending missionaries to the field? We must realize that this is not a matter of being wrong or right, but it is a matter of “cutting Christ’s Body into pieces.” On the one hand, the bringing of people to Christ through the missionaries is very positive. Unconsciously, however, this kind of work cuts Christ’s Body into pieces. We should be careful because we may do the same thing. We may insist, stress, and emphasize a scriptural item that seemingly is right, yet actually it cuts the Body of Christ. It divides the recovery. We must be careful. I called such a gathering because I read people’s hearts from their attitude and from their spirit in speaking. I am afraid that some different teachings might be on the verge of coming out.
Please do not have the peace and assurance that as long as you teach things scripturally, it is all right. It is not all right, because your teaching creates division. Even your right teaching creates division. We all must realize that, generally speaking, the different denominations do not teach anything wrong. They have all tried and endeavored to teach the right things, the scriptural things. Eventually, however, the Body of Christ has been cut into pieces. We thank the Lord that thousands of missionaries went to China. They brought the Bible, the gospel, and the Lord’s name to China, and they brought a substantial number of God’s chosen ones into the salvation of Christ. Through them, the old, conservative people of China were opened up to receive the things of the Lord. No one can deny this. On the other hand, there were some missionaries who went to China to teach different things according to their concept. As a result, they brought in divisions there that have cut the Body of Christ in China into pieces and that could never be healed. What a terrible situation this is! They did something right. They preached the right thing but with a terrible issue. Who is responsible for this? The teacher who taught the right thing to create a division. This is terrible.
We should be on the alert and watchful. We do not simply want the right teaching. We want the teaching that teaches God’s economy. Now we can understand Paul’s charge in 1 Corinthians to speak the same thing (1:10). What same thing should we speak? Should we speak Bible teaching, how to meet, the way to baptize, the way to edify the saints, the way to help people to be spiritual, or the way to render much help to the Christians that they may grow in life? These are right things to teach. Something from the Bible such as evangelism is altogether right. However, if you do these things and teach them apart from God’s economy, you are divisive. You are divisive in right things, in scriptural things, not in wrong things, heathen things, or pagan things. To teach the Bible and to preach the gospel are not pagan things. They are altogether right and altogether scriptural, but we must be on the alert as to whether or not we are divisive. Whatever you teach should not be measured by whether it is wrong or right. It must be measured by whether it is divisive or not. Only one kind of ministry builds up and never divides — this is the unique ministry of God’s economy. We must be reminded that Paul left Timothy in Ephesus with a charge to tell certain ones not to teach different things and that what they teach should be related to God’s economy.
It is impossible for anyone to control the church. No one can control the entire aggregate of Christians today. Even no one can control the Lord’s recovery today. I cannot control it. Please do not think that I am controlling. I am not controlling. I cannot do it, and I would not do it. To control means nothing. Paul could not control the situation in Corinth, but he charged the Lord’s seekers and lovers to speak the same thing. Paul also charged his young co-worker, Timothy, to remain in the place that was under the poison of the divisive element of the right things, the scriptural things. Timothy was to charge these teachers not to teach different things. This is what we can do by following the steps of the apostle Paul. This is what I want to do. If you mean business in the Lord’s recovery, if you love the Lord, and if you are a real seeker of the Lord, you must take care of this — do not teach differently. What then should we teach? We should teach God’s economy. This is the only answer available. No other result will come out of the different teachings but division. It is possible for you to do something like the missionaries, who did a great work in China, but they cut the Body of Christ into pieces. This is much more significant than what they did positively. The situation there was incurable, and the Christian situation today is also incurable.
Do not consider that I am rebuking, warning, or threatening you. I am loving all of you. I am speaking a word in love because you all love the recovery. If you do love the recovery, be on the alert, not concerning others but concerning yourself. Do not be cheated by the enemy. If you love the recovery and if you treasure the ministry, you must realize what the Lord’s recovery is. The recovery is not for any kind of doing. The recovery is for God’s economy in order to keep the oneness of the Body of Christ. This is the Lord’s recovery. If we are through with the oneness, we are through with the recovery, and we will become another repetition of today’s Christianity. Be on the alert to watch for the subtle one, the devil, who can put any kind of mask on his face to come to you. This is my word of love. You may wonder whom I am talking about. I am talking about those of you who have an intention to teach things different from today’s ministry. You know and the Lord knows whether or not you have such an intention. If you do not have such an intention, praise the Lord. That is all right. We must realize, though, that it is a serious matter to teach scriptural things and good things yet somewhat different from God’s economy.
As we have seen in our fellowship concerning the New Testament ministry, four names in the New Testament remind us of the seriousness of getting away from God’s economy. The first name is that of John the Baptist. Even he was not on the alert that he was causing trouble to make a division. He initiated the New Testament by ushering in the Savior. Eventually, however, his ministry was in danger of building up a new sect. There were two sects already among the Jews — the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The third sect would have been “the Johnites.” The Lord was wise in allowing John to be put in prison. The other names are Barnabas, Apollos, and even the name of the top apostle, Peter. Even Peter was in danger of falling into division. Peter never fell into division, but his being “gray” in his ministry issued in the Corinthians taking him as a foundation of division (1 Cor. 1:12). Some in Corinth were saying that they were of Cephas, that they were of Apollos, and even that they were of Paul. Paul indicated to the Corinthians that he was nothing (vv. 13, 15), but Paul never said that Peter was nothing. Paul’s attitude toward the Corinthians was, “Do not say that you are of me. I say that I am of you.”
The only way that can preserve us in the recovery is the unique ministry. If we say that we are in the recovery, yet we teach something so lightly, even in a concealed way, that is different from God’s economy, we sow the seed that will grow up in division. Therefore, the only way that we can be preserved in the eternal oneness is to teach the same thing, God’s economy. This kind of teaching is called the New Testament ministry, the ministry of the new covenant. The ministry of the new covenant is to minister only the processed Triune God to be dispensed into His chosen people as life and life supply to produce members of Christ to form the Body to express the Triune God. This is the New Testament economy. To teach anything, even good things and scriptural things, that is even a little apart from God’s New Testament economy will still issue in division, and that will be very much used by the subtle one, the evil one. We must, therefore, be on the alert.
