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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:16-19; 2 Tim. 2:22
Ephesians 3:16 to 19a says, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ.” Verse 8 says, “To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to announce to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel.” The unsearchable riches of Christ are in the dimensions of Christ in verse 18: the breadth, length, height, and depth. These four dimensions are unlimited. We do not know how broad is the breadth, how long is the length, how high is the height, and how deep is the depth. They are all immeasurable. This relates to the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul did not preach mere doctrines. He preached the unsearchable riches of Christ so that the saints together may apprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth. Verse 19b is the result of the foregoing verses: “that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.”
In this portion of the Word, a prevailing prayer by the writer of Ephesians, there are several main points. The first point is that we are strengthened into the inner man. Second, Christ makes His home not only in our spirit but also in our heart, that is, our whole being within our body. Third, we are filled unto all the fullness of God. In addition, we apprehend with all the saints all the dimensions of Christ. It is impossible to apprehend the immeasurable dimensions of Christ by ourselves. We have to do this with all the saints. Second Timothy 2:22 says that we should flee certain things and pursue with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
We always need to keep God’s eternal purpose close to us. God’s intention and central thought is to work Christ into us. This is basic and very important. God’s intention is not for us to know many teachings and be taught with many doctrines. God has no intention that we merely learn doctrines. All the doctrines are not for the doctrines; they are for Christ. Doctrines are simply a means to reveal and convey Christ to us, instruct us how to partake of Christ, and give us the proper understanding of Christ. All the teachings are for Christ. However, many dear saints today have been distracted from Christ by doctrines, such as those concerning predestination, sovereign will, absolute grace, eternal security, and others. Today there are many arguments about these matters. Even among us there may be some who care for these things, secretly speaking with others about them.
Over a year ago when I was in San Francisco, a group of young people listened to my speaking. Afterwards, their leader came to me and asked, “What about absolute grace?” I told him, “Brother, if you have Christ, you have grace that is more than absolute. But if you do not have Christ, you have no grace; you have only the doctrine of grace.” Then he asked, “What about eternal security?” I said, “Even security is Christ. If you have Christ, you have eternal security. The doctrine of security is not security; Christ is security. What we need is not eternal security in a doctrinal way. What we need is Christ.” What then is God’s sovereign will? The real will of God is Christ. If we have Christ, we have the sovereign will of God. If we do not have Christ, however, we have only the knowledge of God. Knowledge puffs up, and the letter kills; only Christ, who is the Spirit, gives life (1 Cor. 8:1; 2 Cor. 3:6, 17).
What we need today is nothing other than Christ. All things are for Christ. The doctrines are for Christ, and the gifts are for Christ. We need certain kinds of forms, such as baptism by immersion and the Lord’s table with the emblems. We are not for these forms, however. Rather, the forms are for Christ. I stress this again, because I sense that there is a distracting spirit today, even among us. Not many, but some, are being utilized by the enemy to distract us, particularly the young ones, by their secret talking. We condemn the distracting things. We do not want to talk about mere teachings. We are tired, even sick, of mere teachings. When I was young, I spent more than seven years to study the knowledge of the Bible. I became sick of mere knowledge. I asked myself, “What is the good of that kind of knowledge? Look at yourself. What kind of life do you have? What kind of character do you have? You are sloppy, lazy, and loose.”
I am forced to say these things. Do not listen to those distracting teachings. Look at the character of those who speak them. Consider their life. What kind of life do they have? We do not need mere teachings. We need the living, practical Christ. We need the Christ whom we are practicing to experience day by day by the exercise of our spirit. God’s intention is to work this Christ into us and to make Christ everything to us.
I am opening my heart to you. I long to see the day when the conversation among us will be nothing but Christ Himself, not teachings or even just the Bible. Please understand me in the right way. Do not think that I do not know the Bible or read it. I spend many hours in this book every day. However, we should not talk about the Bible alone. The Bible is a means to convey Christ to us. When we go to breakfast, we do not pay attention to the silverware. To have good silverware is helpful, but we do not go to breakfast for that. We go to breakfast for nourishment. All the utensils are the means by which we enjoy the nourishment. In the same way, the Bible is a means by which we enjoy Christ. It is a means through which Christ is conveyed and revealed to us. We are not for the Bible; we are for Christ. We are not for teachings; we are for Christ.
I hate to see and hear that among us, even today, some brothers still talk only about doctrines. I have to fight the battle because of this. I have to shut the door. This is one hundred percent wrong, and it damages the situation here. We have no intention to care for mere doctrines. We are not here for doctrines. We have been made sick, and we are still sick, by doctrines. We do not need that. We need the riches of Christ. We are not even for the knowledge of the riches of Christ; we are for the riches of Christ themselves. We need not only to know the riches of Christ; we need to experience, partake, and share the riches.
Based on this word I would ask you, how much of Christ have you enjoyed today? Perhaps twelve hours have passed today, from the morning to the evening. How much of Christ have you enjoyed? If I ask what kind of food you have enjoyed, you can immediately tell me what you had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now, however, I am asking you in a practical way how much of Christ you enjoyed today. Christ is our life and life supply as our food. As our food, we must enjoy Him daily. He is our daily manna. I am afraid that we talk much about doctrines and, perhaps, even about Christ, but we neglect the enjoyment of Christ. I would like to see that from now on, by the mercy and help of the Lord, the church will learn how to help the saints in a practical way to enjoy Christ, not only to know Christ but to partake of Christ.
This time of training from the very beginning to the end is for nothing but Christ, along with His Body. It is for us to enjoy Him as our life and express Him as our Head. I beg you to learn to forget about other things. Do not talk about other matters, and do not listen to this kind of talk. Talk about things other than Christ is distracting. I realize that a number of the young people have been distracted by that talk. This is not right. This is to not be faithful. Our training is not for this. It is for the experience of Christ. I hope that from now on we do not give the young people any kind of mere teachings. Rather, we should give them the adequate instruction so that they may know how to contact Christ, deal with Christ, be dealt with by Him, and share Him with others. The leading brothers among the young people have to pray together very much that the Lord would deliver them from anything other than Christ.
We do not know anything else. We know just this one thing, to fellowship one with another about Christ. What we apprehend with all the saints is not knowledge and teachings about absolute grace or sovereign will. That is something of the Lord’s recovery of four or five hundred years ago. Today is not the time of Martin Luther. Luther was a great servant of the Lord; there is no doubt about that. But today the teachings of absolute grace and sovereign will are too childish. The Lord’s recovery today is Christ Himself as life and His Body as His expression. God’s recovery today is Christ and the church. Even the gifts are an item of the Lord’s recovery in the previous century. God’s recovery today is the full experience of Christ and the practical expression of Christ in each locality. We should never be distracted by anything else, even by the good things. I hate to see that anyone among us would speak only on those other, good things. Those things distract from the very purpose of the church. The church is not for anything else but Christ and His Body. The church should help the saints in a very practical way not to talk about anything else, or even merely to talk about Christ, but to share Christ with one another.
Ephesians 3:18 is Paul’s prayer that we would apprehend with all the saints the dimensions and the riches of Christ. In addition, 2 Timothy 2:22 instructs us to flee. At that time there was the need to flee, to escape, and today there is still the need. Flee from the distracting, dissenting, and vain talk. Moreover, we should pursue after righteousness toward ourselves, faith toward God, and love and peace toward others, with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. We must learn to experience Christ in such a way and not know so many other things.
The church must help the saints to experience Christ, partake of Christ, and share Christ with one another. As a rule, the church should not give people much teaching. Rather, the church must give adequate instruction concerning the experience of Christ. Then after giving instruction, the church should help the saints to practice what they have been taught. For instance, we can instruct the saints that Christ is the life-giving Spirit who dwells in our spirit today; therefore, we must walk in our spirit and exercise our spirit to contact Christ and take Him as our life. This much is good enough. Now we have to help the saints to put this into practice, because the messages, teachings, doctrine, and knowledge are not adequate.
In order to put this into practice, we need to have the meetings. The most profitable and proper way to meet is to fellowship with one another according to the instruction we have received. Someone may ask a brother, “Do you realize that we have to exercise our spirit to contact Christ, walk in the spirit, and take Christ as our life in a practical way?” Then the brother can testify how he has experienced Christ as the life-giving Spirit by exercising his spirit. This should not be a testimony about what happened twenty years ago. It should be a testimony of the brother’s recent experience. Moreover, it should be something real, not mere knowledge. Simply to repeat the points of a message means nothing. We may compare the speaking of knowledge to teaching someone to drive a car. If we tell a person only how to turn the steering wheel, he still will not know how to drive; rather, he needs practice.
We also have seen that in order to experience Christ in a living way, we have to deal with our conscience. Our conscience must be pure, purged, good, and without offenses. This is the instruction of dealing with our conscience. It is brief, because even the apostles did not give long messages in the New Testament. To put this into practice, we can ask a brother, “Would you please tell us what your experience is of dealing with your conscience?” It is all right to put the brothers on a little test. Some may say that this will scare people away. This is not a problem because whoever does come will come with a sincere heart and not just listen as a “pew member.” What is the good of listening like this even for twenty years?
Much instruction has been given, but I am concerned about the practice. We do not meet together to learn the “menu” and the “recipes.” I do not care to learn these; I simply want to eat. Sometimes my little daughter teases me and asks me if I know what I am eating. However, I do not have to exercise my mentality to know; I simply eat to enjoy.
Today too many Christians come to the meetings only to sit and listen. They learn to criticize and say, “Good speaker, marvelous message.” After doing this for twenty years, do they have the growth in life? Do they know Christ in a practical way? Rather, after twenty years they are still the same, as far as life is concerned. They are spiritual dwarfs, without a proper stature. We need to grow, and in order to grow we need to eat. We cannot grow without eating. All mothers know that children grow by eating, not by knowledge. The church needs to nourish the saints, and the saints need to be nourished by learning to take Christ and by practicing all the things that we have learned.
I am not without the experience of these things. I experienced the vanity of the mere teachings in Christianity, so I know that today we need the real practice and the real experience of Christ. When we say that we need to deal with our conscience, the church must immediately help the saints to put this instruction into practice, and everyone should practice dealing with his conscience. Then we may ask a brother to give a testimony of dealing with his conscience. This is the proper way. If by the Lord’s grace we take this way, then week after week and month after month the saints will grow in life.
We have said that the inner anointing is the heavenly, spiritual, divine “painting.” Through this strange language we have received the instruction; however, I am concerned that even after five months not many of us have practiced the inner anointing. This is another example of how the leading ones need the experience to take the right way. It is easy simply to read a certain chapter and a certain verse and speak about a certain subject. To help the brothers and sisters to go on in a practical way, however, requires that we have the real experience. I hope that the church will take this way.
The leading ones in the church should pay attention to those who improve, those among the brothers and sisters who have made some real progress. It is better to divide our meeting into groups of ten or fifteen and let one or two who have some progress in the growth of life take care of each group. Then the ones in the group can share and fellowship with one another, not about other things but about the instruction the church has received from the Lord. Week after week there should be one or two meetings for the saints to come together in this way. This will be very practical and very helpful. All the brothers and sisters will be interested in this kind of meeting; they will have a taste for it, and spontaneously they will bring others into it. This will help the increase in the number of saints meeting. There may be ten or twelve people in a group, but after three months there may be eighteen or twenty. Then more leading ones will be produced. After five or six months we may have to divide a group into two groups of ten, each with some leading ones. In this way the saints will constantly learn to grow, and there will be the continual increase of numbers.
In addition, the useful ones will be manifested. We may even say that they will be “exposed.” In the church the ones who are truly spiritual and actually know something always like to hide themselves, to make themselves hidden. The fleshly ones, however, always like to make a show of themselves. Therefore, the spiritual ones need to be exposed, that is, manifested.
I say again, it is in this way that the saints will grow in life, our numbers will be increased, and the useful ones, the leading ones, will be produced. Then spontaneously all the members will be functioning members. Everyone will learn to function by growth. It will not be like today’s Christianity, in which everyone sits while one person speaks. A brother once incorrectly called me a “pastor.” I told him, “Brother, if I am a pastor, you must be the pastor of the pastor.” We are all functioning brothers. I have my function, and you have yours. I have my ministry, and you have yours. I have my responsibility, and you have yours.
To say this is easy, but we must put it into practice. The proper way to practice this is what I have shared with you in this message. Once a week on the Lord’s Day morning, some brothers who truly know something of the Lord can give us a message of ministry. However, one message a week is good enough. The rest of the time can be for worship, the remembrance of the Lord and the Father at the Lord’s table. We can also have a time to come together to pray, as in our prayer meeting. Then we can come together one or two times a week for practice meetings. In this meeting there are no messages or teachings. We simply practice all the instruction we have received from the messages.
Many of you have studied in college or in graduate school. In college many students spend more time in the lab than in the classroom. Without the lab the classroom does not mean much. We need to put what we have been instructed with into practice. In addition, we also will help others and practice the outreach to unbelievers or believers. This is very practical. Allow me to speak frankly: If we do not have some brothers with some real ministry, there is no need to have a so-called message meeting for speaking nonsense and wasting time. Do not have the expectation of coming only to listen to more and more doctrines. You have been listening to many doctrines, but what help is it? We have to put all the things that we have heard, the things that are necessary for the experience of Christ, into practice, and we should forget about the things that are not necessary.
The whole church, including the young people’s work, should take this way. Those who lead the young ones should help them to practice. Do not merely lecture them; just use a short time to give them some instruction. Then put them on the test and help them to practice. In addition, help them to “open the fields” in the universities, colleges, and high schools. Do not say that they are not grown enough. All mothers know that they have to let their children make mistakes. Then they will learn the proper way. We cannot say that since a baby does not know how to walk, we should not let him walk. This is foolish. Let him walk; then he will know how to walk. Let them make mistakes. However, we must check their motive. If a child does something wrong with a wrong motive, he should be reproved. But if he does something wrong with a good motive, he should be encouraged. Let all the young ones practice and learn from mistakes. If you do not know how to do this, you are wrong.
Do not let the young ones become the old ones. Do not let the grandchildren become the grandfathers. I live in a small, quiet apartment. The neighbors do not have the energy to make noise. Most of them are retired and too old to make noise; they spend the day on the sofa or in bed. I, my wife, and my little daughter are the most active persons there, with the most energy to make noise. Do we expect all the young people in the church to be old ones who do not have the energy to make noise? We must help the young ones to “make noise.” There are a number of universities and colleges in this area. If we have the proper practice, it will be easy to have three or four hundred young people in these schools to open all the “fields” in the campuses and dormitories. We have to help all the saints to practice. When we went to Taiwan in 1949, we had only a handful of young people, about ten or twelve. After less than a year, however, we had over one hundred college students. We have to put the young ones on the test; we must help them to practice and learn the lessons. I say again, though, that we must have a pure motive. It is not serious to make mistakes; our motive is the most important thing. What the church needs today is the real practice.
One very necessary matter is that all the saints must learn how to pray in a living way and how to read the Word to feed on the Lord in the spirit. All the saints must learn the lesson to rise up a little earlier to have a time with the Lord, to pray in a living way, and to read the Word to feed on the Lord. We should check ourselves concerning these things. Do not listen to vain talk about doctrines, sovereign will, and absolute grace. Rather, check concerning people’s living. At what time does someone rise in the morning? What is he doing at 6:00 A.M.? If a brother or sister does not know how to rise early in the morning to contact the Lord with living prayer and living reading of the Word, yet this one speaks much doctrine, we should not listen. Rather, this one should be reproved. We may say, “Brother, I do not care for your talk. I would check you by your living, not by your talk. I advise you to rise early in the morning. Do not love your bed more than you love the Lord.” However, I do not see those who speak much about doctrine come often to morning watch.
I do not believe in vain talk. Rather, we must have a practical living. All the dear brothers and sisters must be helped to practice the normal, practical Christian living. We are children of God. Therefore, day by day we need to contact the Lord in a living way. We need to know how to pray to Him and how to read His Word. We need to have a living contact with Him day by day. Then based on this, we need to deal with our motive, intention, desire, conscience, and relationships with others. This is practical. Whether or not we know what sovereign will is means nothing. What is truly sovereign is that we learn how to have a practical living and to bear a burden for young ones, for spiritual children, caring for them and feeding them all the time. We should always be bearing a responsibility for two or three, or five or six, unbelievers, praying for them, bringing their names into the presence of the Lord, watching for them, crying to the Lord for them, and finding a time to bring them to the Lord and to help them to know the Lord. These are the necessary things.
Do not stay in your sitting rooms to have vain talk. Whenever the church has a meeting, come to the meeting. I am sorry to see that some do not come to our prayer meeting. Where are they? Are they sitting in their living room talking about vain things? Come to the church meeting to function, to build up others and to be built up by others. These are the practical things. Forgive me if this offends you. I am a frank brother, and I cannot stand to see the saints going astray. I like to see them going on in the proper way.
We need something practical and real. If we still have the distracting things, there is no need to meet together here. There are many Christian “bodies.” You can go there to talk with them, because they are for the teachings. We, however, are not for the teachings. We are here for a practical life to experience Christ and to come together to express Him. We do not care for the doctrines. We look to the Lord to rescue us from going astray, to deliver us from the distracting elements.
I exercise my heart and my spirit much to look to the Lord that from now on the church will go on in a very practical way to help the saints, not to gain more knowledge but to put all the instruction that we have received into practice, to deal with all these things, not to criticize or condemn but to fellowship with one another, to help others, and to be willing to be helped. Then we can go on in a practical way, and we will have the real growth. We will see the glory of the Lord among us, and His glory will fill us. Then we will render help to many others; that is, we will minister Christ to them. Whenever people come into our meetings, they will not sense teachings or something else but rather the anointing and the gracious presence of the Lord. Many people will be saved in the way of life, and we will help them to know Christ in the way of life. This is what the Lord is seeking after today. This is our burden, and we all have to pray and plan for this. I beg you, not that you would cooperate with me—I am nothing—but that you would cooperate with the dear Lord for His recovery. I assure you that if we go on in this way, we will see His blessing on us. However, I must warn you that if you are doing something against this recovery, I am concerned for you. Some vindication may come from the Lord.
