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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:4; Acts 2:42; 15:1-34; Rom. 15:25-27; 16:1-4; Acts 19:21; 20:16; 21:12-13, 17-19; 1 Cor. 1:12; Gal. 2:8-9; Acts 18:24; 19:1a; 1 Cor. 4:6; 16:12
Prayer: Lord, we worship You for Your economy and for Your sovereignty over us today that we all could be gathered together at this time and in this place. Lord, we are all here waiting on You. Lord, thank You that You have opened up Your Word in these days to us. We need Your Spirit, the Spirit of grace, and even the Spirit of supplication, that we may pray to You to receive Yourself as our grace. Lord, tonight we look unto You for a living revelation. Unveil Yourself to us and expose us. Lord, we want to know You. In the light of knowing You, we want to see ourselves. Lord Jesus, we want to be adjusted once more. O Lord, we want to be remodeled. Transform us in our view concerning Your Body, Your church, which is Your heart’s desire. Lord, we want to know You in this desire — not in our thinking, in our interest, but in what You want. Lord, do speak to us. Lord, quiet us and give us a heart that is open to You.
We want to see what You want us to do and to be in these last, crucial days. Lord, we pray for Your move to Europe, even to eastern Europe. We pray for Your step, which includes us. Deeply work in us so that we may cooperate with You to go together with You. O Lord Jesus, be the Angel of Jehovah to escort us to Europe — to eastern Germany and to Russia — that You would have a people to carry out Your plan even today. Lord, cover us. We hide ourselves in You and hide ourselves under the cleansing of Your precious blood, the prevailing blood, which protects us against all the enemy’s devices. Lord, rebuke him as You did before Joshua. We need Your cleansing; we even need Your purification. O Lord Jesus, we do not trust in what we can say or in what we can do. We still trust in Your mercy. Lord, grant us Your rich blessing. Lord, we like these three names in Zechariah 1:1 — at an appointed time [Iddo] Jehovah will bless [Berechiah] and Jehovah will remember [Zechariah]. Lord, we believe that this is the appointed time. Lord, bless us and remember us. Lord Jesus, we put our full trust in You. We have absolutely no trust in ourselves. Amen.
I am happy that we could be together in this elders’ meeting. This is probably the biggest elders’ meeting we have had in the United States. There are five hundred thirty brothers here in attendance. I noticed that many young ones are among the elders. I am happy about this, but I am also quite concerned. Paul’s charge to us is that the “new hands” should be considered carefully before being brought into the realm, the circle, of the eldership. In 1 Timothy 3:6 Paul says that an overseer should not be a new convert, or a novice.
On the other hand, there need to be learners in the eldership. Learning spiritual things may be likened to learning a language. It is easier for a young person to learn a new language. An older person may learn a new language, but it is difficult for him to get rid of his accent. In this sense it is very good to have young ones in the eldership. However, I also want to warn the young ones. I have passed through your age, and I do know what is in a young man that can be a possible problem. This does not mean that we older ones do not have any problem. We have our problem, the middle-aged brothers have their problem, and the young brothers have their problem. Every age group has its problems.
When you are young, the problem is your pride. It is hard for the young people to avoid pride. In the past sixty to seventy years I have been watching over the recovery and the world situation. I have discovered that pride is the problem with the young people. In the past seventy years the Lord brought in some brilliant, marvelous, excellent young ones among us. However, about eighty percent of the brilliant young ones whom the Lord brought into our realm were spoiled by their pride. Thus, we are short of hands today.
Because the recovery is real and rich in truth, the entire world is open to the recovery. Especially, I would say that all of Central America and South America, with Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Islands, are open to us. We have so many requests from these places for some to come and help them. This has become our burden. We cannot bear this much. We are short of hands. If we had fifty co-workers who would be able to go to help meet the present demand, it still would not be sufficient. In New Zealand, Australia, Korea, and Southeast Asia, there is also the need.
I received a letter three days ago from a brother in Mongolia. I want to report to you that there is a local church of about twenty-five saints there in the recovery. Most of them are either students or professors in the universities. The way they meet and serve is absolutely in the new way. They have also asked for some to go there to help. These ones in Mongolia are open and eager to know the Bible and to know the Lord. Who will go to them? This shows again that the door is wide open to the Lord’s recovery.
The door is also wide open to the Lord’s recovery in Russia. We have signed the order to have altogether one and a half million books printed in Russian. Some brothers there promised us that they had the means to distribute these books all the way from Moscow to Vladivostok. If one hundred proper brothers (not only qualified but also proper) went there, fifty churches could be raised up within a short time. But where are the proper brothers among us? Throughout the years we have had many promising young ones, many crops, but when they were growing up, they got cut off by their pride.
The turmoil through which we have recently passed has become a cycle in the Lord’s recovery. Nearly every seven to ten years there has been a turmoil to damage the crop. In 1978 there was a storm that cut off some good brothers. Then three years ago there was another turmoil. Some useful ones were cut off through this recent turmoil.
In the past Brother Nee warned us. He said that many pieces of pottery will be broken in the process of finishing the pottery. These ones who have been involved in this recent turmoil have been spoiled like this broken pottery. These dear ones could have been very useful, but their potential usefulness has been spoiled.
At the beginning of their church life in the recovery, they were quite humble and poor in spirit. They were under the ministry to be taught, nourished, and raised up. They really learned something, and they had a certain capacity from the Lord by His mercy. But they eventually began to be deceived, trying to overthrow the present ministry in the Lord’s recovery. They were like a crop going on quite well, a crop that gave much expectation to the farmers. But a hailstorm came suddenly to damage that crop. This happened during my absence from the United States. A hailstorm came and damaged the crop. Once the crop gets damaged in this way, there is no way to recover it.
I have seen this several times in our history in the Lord’s recovery in mainland China. When I was sent out of mainland China, we did not have many useful, proper brothers to bear the burden because of this kind of continual damage through pride. The enemy damages the recovery first by people’s pride.
This is why I want to warn the young ones. Today a young brother may be very humble and obedient because he is learning. But we do not have the assurance that he will be the same after seven or ten years. We do not know what the result will be with this young brother. Pride is a big killer used by Satan. Satan may not take advantage of a young one while he is learning. But after a number of years, when this brother is just entering into the years of being useful in the hand of the Lord, Satan will seek to take him as prey through his pride. This is why we are short of hands today in this time of urgent need. I hope that you young people would be impressed that the enemy is crouching, waiting for the opportunity to take you as his prey. After some years you will have learned something, and some capacity will be there. You will be useful. That will be the time for you to get caught by the enemy.
There is also a problem with the middle-aged ones. In this elders’ meeting, I have been prepared by the Lord to say something very practical to the three age groups — the young people, the middle-aged brothers, and the older brothers. What is the trouble with the middle-aged brothers? A certain brother may have come into the church life when he was twenty-two. Now that he is forty years old, he praises the Lord for His mercy in keeping him in His recovery. He is thankful to the Lord for His ministry by which he has been nourished, educated, perfected, and equipped. Now he has the attitude that he knows something and can do something. Then what is the trouble? Satan is subtle. He can use anything according to your age to get you as his prey. The middle-aged brothers, after staying in the Lord’s recovery about eighteen to twenty years, may consider themselves as heroes in the recovery. They feel that the recovery cannot be short of them.
Because I have passed through the Lord’s recovery as a young and middle-aged person, I understand these problems. I dropped my job in 1933 so that I could serve the Lord with all my time. I was humble because I did not know much about life, the Spirit, Christ, or the church as the Body of Christ. Of course, by that time I had acquired much knowledge about the types and prophecies in the Old Testament. I knew that Christ was my Savior, but I never knew that He is God’s centrality and universality. Brother Nee was only two years older than I. Sister Faith Chang observed my relationship with him and testified that I was to Brother Nee just like a son to a father.
After ten years of being with Brother Nee, from 1933 to 1943, I learned a lot. In 1943, after I had been somewhat perfected and equipped, I became very sick. That was actually the mercy of the Lord. The Japanese put me into prison for one month. After I came out of prison, I got tuberculosis and nearly died. The Lord in His mercy put me into this sickness for two and a half years. I learned a lot in that time. During that time I saw the tree of life. This took place when I was forty years old. In 1944 I left Chefoo, my hometown. Since then up to now, I have not returned there.
The lesson that I have learned regarding the middle-aged brothers is about their thinking that they may be the hero, that they may be somebody in the recovery, and that the young ones should listen to them. If you think this way, sooner or later, a day will come when the crouching enemy will take you as his prey. Then you will be finished. I thank the Lord that He delivered me out of that snare.
Now I am in my old age. I know the problems with the elderly brothers. The problem with those in their old age is opinions. An older brother feels that he has the experience. He has passed through the problems of the young and middle-aged brothers. Now he has learned a lot. If some want to act, he will say not to because of his experience. His opinions hinder the work. The older ones can hinder the going on of a church because of their opinions.
Pride, the thought of being a hero, and opinions have been used by the enemy among us in the past seventy years. I am sorry that Brother Nee is not here. If he were here, he would nod his head again and again to my word. He would tell you that I am altogether right.
To illustrate what I have been saying, I would like to relate something of our history. I was sent by the work to Taiwan in 1949. In the spring of 1950 Brother Nee came out of mainland China to Hong Kong, and he brought in a revival there. He contacted me and asked me to come to Hong Kong from Taiwan to help. The next morning he brought me to the service meeting, which included the elders, deacons, and co-workers. He brought me in and said, “Brother Witness, according to the authority that the Lord has given you, make full arrangements for all the service concerning the co-workers, the elders, and the deacons.” Later, a small group was formed to take care of the purchase of some land for the building of a hall. Brother Nee found out that this group, mostly of older brothers, was full of opinions. One day Brother Nee took the opportunity in his wisdom to tell this group, “Concerning the purchase of land and the building of the hall, you have to listen to whatever Brother Lee says.” They all agreed to this.
Soon after this, I was invited by this group to an older brother’s home for a love feast. This older brother was full of experiences. These experiences had become his opinions. After we had started to eat, these brothers said that they were begging me for permission to buy only one acre of land. I had told them previously to buy two acres of land, but they thought this might be too much.
I told them that since the church in Hong Kong was their church, this was their business. But I also told them that if they were going to buy a piece of land in a big city like Hong Kong, they should buy it in a sufficient way. I warned them that after buying the land, it would be very difficult for them to go back to get additional land. They still decided to purchase only one acre. After they made the plans for the hall, they found out that one acre was insufficient. Then they tried their best to go back and get more land. They did everything they could, but they were able to get only a little bit more property. This illustrates how the Lord’s work can suffer because of opinion.
In the recovery we have been suffering and suffering from 1922 up to now because of these three things: the pride of the younger ones, the thought of being a hero of the middle-aged ones, and the opinions of the older ones. Everything may be all right with us now, but these problems are within us. All of us need to be warned. If we are younger ones, we should be warned of pride. If we are in middle age, we should learn to be nothing. We should not wear a “mask” in the eldership. We should be what we are. When we are older, we should remember that the problem with older people is opinion.
There are a number of brothers working with me to carry out the full-time training. Sometimes, although I have had the proper way to go on, I did not say anything. Because the brothers helping me expressed a way that was quite different from my way, I would not say a word. The frustration of opinions can be illustrated by five brothers taking one car to go to Los Angeles. The first decision they have to make is who the driver will be. If they have not been dealt with by the cross, this decision could take much time. Once this is decided upon, the driver may ask what way he should take. The opinions expressed concerning what way to take can also take much time. This waste of time hinders, frustrates, and delays them from arriving at their destination. This is why we should be exercised not to express any opinion if we are not the “driver.” My point is this — if the elders in the eldership are not one, sooner or later, they will “kill” themselves. This has been the situation among us in a number of places.
There may be three brothers in the eldership in a certain locality — one is older, one is younger, and the other one is middle-aged. Thus, the three problems of pride, thinking that one is a hero, and opinions are all there. When these problems are present in the eldership, the eldership is finished. I would like to ask the elders if they are in oneness in their locality. Those who think they are a hero may wear a mask, feeling that they can convince everyone and subdue everyone. This is terrible. If this is the case, can the church in this locality be built up? The church is torn down by these kinds of problems.
Brothers, you need to realize that to be a person in the eldership in the Lord’s recovery is a serious thing. If you are young, beware of your pride. If you are in middle age, beware of your thinking that you are the hero, the strong one among the others. If you are an older one, beware of your opinions. In the eldership there should be no pride, no thought of being a hero, and no opinions. There should be only truth, the Spirit, Christ, and the church, the Body of Christ. We do not want to know anything else.
In the past two years of the full-time training in Anaheim, I can testify that I and all the trainers did not have anything other than the truth, the Spirit, Christ, and the church, the Body of Christ. Thus, the blessing has been here. When we practice the one accord, our name will be Iddo, Berechiah, and Zechariah (Zech. 1:1), meaning that at the appointed time Jehovah blesses and Jehovah remembers. In some localities there is no blessing because some of the brothers wear a mask. They are not honest, sincere, and genuine. Do you think that the Lord will bless you and remember you if you are like this?
We should be serious in taking the eldership in the recovery. We have to fear the Lord as our Head. In the church life we all have to learn to be subject to one another. Not only should the young ones be subject to the older ones, but also the older ones should be subject to the young ones in the fear of Christ (Eph. 5:21; 1 Pet. 5:5). This means that we should honor and regard Christ as the Head. In the church we are not the head. He is the Head, and we should be careful not to offend Him.
We need to be aware of the seriousness of being in the eldership. The young ones should hate their pride, the middle-aged ones should hate their thinking that they are heroic, and the older ones should hate their opinions. We should try our best to fulfill our duty in this way under His economy. Due to our past history I feel that what I have spoken here as a warning is needed. If we remain in the recovery in our pride, our thought of being a hero, or our opinions, we will be the first ones to suffer, and we will cause the church to suffer.
Some middle-aged brothers wear a mask in the eldership. A mask is a falsehood; it is hypocrisy. To appear in a way other than what you really are is to wear a mask. In front of one person, you may act one way. Then in front of another person, you act in another way. This kind of pretense is hateful in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord likes to see truthfulness, sincerity, and faithfulness. In the eldership one of the most important lessons to learn is to be truthful, faithful, and sincere. We should not be two-faced. We should be one person with one genuine face. To be hypocritical cuts off your future in the recovery. The Lord knows our heart. The ones who last in the eldership are those who are honest, faithful, truthful, and sincere.
My burden in this elders’ meeting is to try my best to fellowship with you all concerning the real problem among us today. Pride, the thought of being a hero, and opinions are the factors working something out secretly to damage one thing — the Body of Christ. As long as I am proud, the Body of Christ is through with me. As long as I am thinking that I am the one who is a hero, the Body of Christ is gone. If opinion is here, the Body of Christ is frustrated. If we are in any of these three items, the Body is annulled.
In fact Christ does have a Body, but in practicality this Body has been crippled, annulled, and to some extent destroyed. Christ does have a Body, but where is the proper Body? Where is the Body that functions? If you have one of these three problems — pride, the thought of being a hero, or opinions — in practicality the Body is absent in your locality. When your problem is present, the Body of Christ is absent.
Now we want to see two crucial points concerning knowing the Body. We need to know the Body in the Spirit and in practice.
Ephesians 4:4 says, “One Body and one Spirit.” The Spirit is the essence and the reality of the Body. In doctrine it may not seem so good to say that the Spirit is the Body, but in actuality the Spirit is the Body. If you are proud, the Spirit is absent, so the Body is not here. If you are opinionated, the Body cannot be here either, because your opinions are enemies to the Spirit.
Just because a group of believers meets in your locality, it does not mean that the Body is there. Today on this earth there are many Christian groups. You may have the thought that your local church has nothing to do with other churches and should not be in any connection with other churches. This thought isolates your local church, making it no longer a part of the Body of Christ. The Body is unique in the whole universe. There may be thousands of local churches, but there is still just one Body. All the local churches are the one, unique universal church, the one Body of Christ.
Furthermore, all the local churches possess the same one Spirit. The Spirit is uniquely one. There is no local Spirit, there is no local Christ, there is no local God, and there is no local Bible. Moreover, the apostles’ teaching is not local, and the apostles’ fellowship is not local (Acts 2:42). All the basic things for the Body are not local. Some of the business affairs may be merely local matters, but we need to realize that all the local churches are the one, unique universal church, and they all have the same one Spirit. In this light we need to reconsider our present understanding of the church. Our understanding of the church may be unbalanced.
We also need to know the Body in practice. Locality as the church ground of a local church separates the church in existence but does not divide the church in essence. The existence of the churches is separated, but their essence is inseparable. The saints who live in Atlanta and those who live in Anaheim cannot come together always as one church. This is impossible. For the sake of existence, the local churches are separate. The saints who live in Atlanta have to be the church there, and the brothers and sisters in Anaheim have to be the church here. This is a separation for the purpose of existence, but this has nothing to do with the essence. The church in Atlanta, the church in Anaheim, and all the local churches are one Body in essence. Essentially, we are still just one Body on the entire globe. Our thought needs to be revolutionized. We should consider our local church as a part of the Body of Christ.
Brother Nee taught about the regions of the work in his book Further Talks on the Church Life (see chapter 6 entitled “The Way for the Work Hereafter”). We have to realize that in the New Testament, for the apostles’ work, there were only two regions. One was the Jewish world, and the other was the Gentile world. In these two regions there were no sub-regions.
Peter was working in the Jewish region, and that area was relatively small. But the Gentile world in which Paul worked was vast with different countries. These different countries, such as Asia Minor, Greece, and Macedonia, were different geographical regions. Rome with its surrounding areas could also be considered as a geographical region. But the New Testament does not have this kind of consideration concerning the work. In the Gentile world there was only one region with one group of co-workers.
Did Paul, because of the vastness of his region, let some brothers take care of the work in Rome and another group take care of Greece with Macedonia? There was not such a thing. There were not different groups of workers under Paul taking care of specific regions or sub-regions. Paul and those with him were altogether just one group.
The regions of the work should not divide the churches. There were regions in Paul’s time, the Jewish and the Gentile, but they never divided the churches.
The churches in the Gentile world had fellowship with those in the Jewish world in solving the problems in teaching (15:1-34). Some taught circumcision as a term for eternal salvation. That was wrong. Paul, however, did not have the attitude of merely solving this problem in Antioch. Rather, he, Barnabas, and some others went to Jerusalem to get the problem solved by all the churches. That decision eventually became an epistle written by the apostles and elders. This epistle was not designated as being written by the Gentile and Jewish apostles and by the Gentile and Jewish elders. Acts 15 says that it was written simply by the apostles and the elders (v. 23), including the apostles and elders of both the Jewish and Gentile churches. They were considered as one. We have to see this.
The churches in the Gentile world also had fellowship with those in the Jewish world in supplying the physical need (Rom. 15:25-27). The apostle Paul was endeavoring to raise up financial help, physical help, from the Gentile saints for the Jewish saints. In this fellowship they were considered as one, but I do not think our attitude today is like this. Sometimes we help other churches, but there is the consideration that we have to take care of the need of the local churches in our area first. If we have some surplus, then we will consider giving something to other churches. But Paul’s practice was not like this. Paul knew that the saints in Macedonia were in poverty, yet he still encouraged them to give. Their giving was their fellowship of concern to help the churches in the Jewish world.
Furthermore, Paul, who worked in the Gentile world, was concerned for the church in Jerusalem (16:1-4; Acts 19:21; 20:16; 21:12-13, 17-19). He had a heavy burden to help the church in Jerusalem to enter into God’s New Testament economy. Although the Spirit inspired the saints to warn him not to go to Jerusalem, he said that he did not care for his life. He had purposed in his spirit to go there. No doubt, he went there with a burden to help the saints get out of the law in the Old Testament economy and enter into the New Testament economy of God to have the church. This shows us again that the regions of the work should not divide the churches. I called a number of urgent elders’ meetings beginning in 1984 because I realized that there was the tendency of division among us. If we know the Body of Christ, however, we cannot be divided.
Peter, who worked in the Jewish world, was also accepted by the church in Corinth in the Gentile world (1 Cor. 1:12; Gal. 2:9). His teaching, his work, was accepted by the church in Corinth. Otherwise, some of them would not have been able to say that they were of Cephas. Since some of the Corinthian saints said this, that is strong evidence that Peter’s ministry and teaching were accepted by the Gentile world.
The co-workers in the Jewish world and those in the Gentile world had pleasant and sweet fellowship with one another. Galatians 2:8 and 9 record that Paul and Barnabas had fellowship with James, Cephas, and John. They did not consider themselves to be separated from one another. They considered themselves as one in the divine fellowship.
Apollos was received and accepted by the brothers in the Gentile world (Acts 18:24; 19:1a; 1 Cor. 1:12; 4:6; 16:12).
In the light of this fellowship we need to realize that our present situation is not so scriptural. I picked up all the above points to present a portrait of the situation at the time of the early apostles. The churches were all one in the Spirit and in practice, but it is not so much like this today among us.
All the above points show that all the co-workers in all the regions should do the same one work universally for the unique Body. We should do only one work. There should not be several works in the Lord’s recovery. In the past there were several works in the recovery. This is still lingering among us. There is the risk and the danger that these different works will issue in divisions. We have to consider our present situation so that we can eliminate the number of works. The work should be just one. Even Paul and Peter did not carry out two works. Even though they worked in different regions, they had only one work to build up the Body of Christ.
I am concerned that in the Lord’s recovery, the brothers in a certain country may consider that the work there is their work. Then some brothers in another country may consider that the work there is their work. Thus, we have many works. This shows that our situation today is abnormal, yet probably not many of us have the sensation of abnormality in the recovery. There is a practical situation that is abnormal, and the biggest point of this abnormality is the different works.
I hope that we will consider our present situation before the Lord. Are we doing the same one work for the recovery? If not, we should let the Lord have the freedom to adjust us. Thank the Lord that due to the riches of the truth, the Lord’s recovery is being welcomed everywhere on the earth. In the Lord’s move in His recovery, there should be only one work, not different works. Our situation is different from this. We have different works without any consciousness. This is dangerous.
In Paul’s time, because of the lack of modern transportation and communication, it would have been logical to have the work divided. However, there was only one work. Today the globe has been made small by modern conveniences. All the modern conveniences have made the globe just like a city. Despite this we do not have one work but many works. If we stay in this situation, a negative result may come out eventually. We do have an existing problem among us. I hope that we would reconsider our situation.
The two problems that are bothering me very much concern the eldership and the number of works. In the eldership all the brothers in the different age groups have to deal with the Lord concerning their pride, their thought of being a hero, and their opinions. The different works also need to be eliminated. As long as we have these two problems, the recovery cannot be that healthy or that prevailing. We must look to the Lord that these two things will be absent among us. Then I assure you that the recovery will be healthy and prevailing, and the increase will surely come. Furthermore, even in life, the standard, the level, will be greatly uplifted.
