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What delights us beyond all else in the church is seeing so many young people being raised up. When we see the older people, we also cannot help but smile, because they are the fathers, the base of the church. Without the older ones there would be no young people. However, when we see the young ones, our hearts leap for joy because they are the future of the church. Therefore, when the young people rise up to serve, our joy is magnified. Nevertheless, those who serve practically in the churches in every place, especially the young ones, must learn some skills and secrets. Since you have a heart to serve, you must learn how to lead the saints. If you do not know how to lead others, how can you serve? If you do not have any ability, how then can you lead? Therefore, I hope that we would all learn some solid lessons in the matter of service.
Paul says that he was sent not only to preach the gospel but also to teach the truth (1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11). This indicates that it is not sufficient to just preach the gospel; we should also teach the truth. The main emphasis of the Bible is the gospel and the truth. The gospel is God Himself, and the truth is also God Himself. We must study the Bible thoroughly until we can see that the gospel is God Himself and that the truth is also God Himself. The gospel is not merely a kind of message but God Himself; the truth is not merely a doctrine but God Himself.
We must have the realization that what the whole earth needs today is the gospel and the truth. The Bible was completed two thousand years ago and was given to the church. Unfortunately, due to the degradation of the church, the light of the gospel dissipated, and the light of the truth became dim. From the history of the church we see that after the apostles passed away, the light of the gospel and of the truth gradually faded until the seventh century, when it was totally lost for a duration of ten centuries. World history calls this period the Dark Ages. Then came the time of the Reformation when the primary work of the reformers was to release the truths in the Bible. From then on, the light of the truth began to rise like the sun from the east at daybreak. Slowly the long night passed away, and a ray of morning sun began to appear. Although the light at that time was weak, it shone more and more. Today it can be said that the light of the gospel and of the truth is shining as bright and full as the sun at noonday.
However, much of the light of the gospel and of the truth has been released only within the Lord’s recovery. Outside of the publications in the Lord’s recovery, the most recent light one can find is light that was released in the middle of the nineteenth century. We may say that the light in Christian publications has been extremely sparse for the past one and a half centuries. As a result, the theology taught today in every country covers the light of the truth only up to one hundred fifty years ago. In the Lord’s recovery, however, the light of the truth is up to date.
Three hundred years ago the Philippines was under the occupation of the Spaniards. Spain was a Catholic country. Even though five centuries ago the Reformation brought in the light of the truth, it did not have much impact on the basic nature of Catholicism. Therefore, when the Spaniards came to the Philippines, instead of bringing the truths recovered through the Reformation, they brought the old Catholic theology of the Dark Ages. Through their political power they spread Catholicism to all the Philippines.
Thirty years ago, when I first came to the Philippines, I spent some time observing the situation in Catholicism. I went to the so-called “Cathedral of Jesus the Black Nazarene.” There was a sculpture of the so-called “Jesus the Black Nazarene,” the toes of which had been worn down from being touched by the Catholics. When I saw this, I could not help but shake my head and sigh, thinking to myself, “O pitiful ones, how could you be deceived to such an extent?” I really hated that superstitious situation. One day I saw many people crying and yelling in the streets, so I asked the brothers what was happening. They told me, “These people are repenting for having robbed and stolen from others. However, after repenting today, tomorrow they will rob and steal again.” I was really grieved in my heart because that situation was absolutely contrary to the gospel and the truth.
Not only is the Philippines like this, but Catholicism in South America is also in the same condition. I have lived in the United States for over twenty years, and by observing the situation, I have discovered that the Americans are equally superstitious. This fully proves that what the whole earth needs today is the light of the gospel and the light of the truth. Regardless of nationality or race, people need the pure and high gospel and truth.
The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the light of the truth. In the past sixty years the Lord has been opening up the Bible to us day by day, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. He will continue to do so until all the truths from Genesis to Revelation are completely transparent, opened, and unveiled to us. We may say that until now there has not been another group of Christians who has spoken on Genesis 2 and especially on the tree of life as clearly as the speaking in the Lord’s recovery. In the same way, today there is no one outside of the Lord’s recovery who can speak on the truth in the last two chapters of Revelation regarding the New Jerusalem to the degree of clarity that we have seen and spoken it.
In 1963 I was invited to work in America in East Texas. One night after I returned home to my hospitality, I saw a young man, a Southern Baptist believer, who was dedicated to gospel preaching. He was sitting in the study making a telephone call, inviting his friend to come to the meetings. He told the friend that he was attending a preaching meeting with a very unusual message and that he hoped that his friend would by all means fly over to attend. When I heard this, I shook my head, thinking the brother was crazy. What surprised me was that on the next evening his friend came from West Texas. That night I spoke on the relationship between the first two chapters of Genesis and the last two chapters of Revelation. After listening, this one was captured by the Lord and confessed that he had never heard this kind of message before. He also stated that he would definitely receive the teaching and take this way. As the next day was the Lord’s Day, he had to preach a sermon, so he went back to West Texas to fulfill his duty. The following Monday morning he brought his wife. After she heard one message, she also expressed a desire to take this way.
This example shows you that even such an advanced Christian country as America is short of biblical truth. Therefore, the most urgent need on this earth today is the truth of this age. The Lord has placed the responsibility of spreading the truth upon our shoulders. Although we do not have a large number of serving ones, we should each pick up this burden to learn the truth, to preach it everywhere, and to bring ten others into the knowledge of the truth and perfect them to do what we are doing. If we do this, then in three to five years there will be a tremendous multiplication and increase among us. In the Philippines, if there were forty thousand who knew the truth and could also explain it to others, then they would be able to spread the truth to the entire country. That would be a glorious sight.
Approximately thirty years ago, when the Philippines first came out from under more than forty years of rule by the United States, the English language was still not very common. Now the situation is no longer the same; we see English being taught even in the elementary schools in Mindanao. I truly believe that one day not only the light of the gospel but also the light of the truth in the Lord’s recovery will be spread to all the Philippines, just like the English language. Even the young ones who are newly saved will be able to utter the truths readily.
What we call the light of the truth is actually the light of the gospel. The so-called gospel that most Christians preach is too shallow and too low. The gospel actually includes all the truths in the Bible. Today the Bible is published and widely propagated all over the world. Many people have the Bible, but to them it is neither open nor easily understood. When they read it, they use their mind to comprehend it, so there is no way for them to see the spiritual mysteries. Consider Ephesians 5 for example. When people—whether Christians or unbelievers—read this chapter, they all feel good about it because they consider it a chapter on husbands loving their wives and wives submitting to their husbands (vv. 25, 22). In reality, all wives want their husbands to love them and also wish to submit to their husbands. The wives already have these concepts in them; there is no need to read the Bible in order to have such an understanding. Similarly, all husbands desire to love their wives, but their greatest problem is that their wives are not submissive. Without being taught by the Bible, the husbands already have these concepts within them.
However, Ephesians 5 not only speaks about these two things, it also reveals a much deeper truth, which is that we must be filled with God in spirit (v. 18). Yet when people read this verse, nearly all of them have their eyes veiled. They do not know what it is to be in spirit and what the spirit is. They also do not know who God is and how God can fill them. This is the kind of understanding that people, including Christians, have of the Bible. They know the superficial word of the Bible, but almost no one apprehends its hidden truths and mysteries.
Most Christians when reading the Bible see only that it teaches people to be forbearing, patient, kind, righteous, and temperate. They consider this kind of teaching to be good and proper and more or less the same as the teachings of the Chinese Confucianists. They are totally ignorant of the revelation in the Bible regarding God’s economy and God’s mysteries. To most people, including the common Christian, the Bible is a closed book. Consider the Gospel of Matthew. Almost no one understands why Matthew 1 records Christ’s genealogy or why it is presented in the way that it is. Thank the Lord that today in the Lord’s recovery the Bible is no longer a closed book. If we would read the Bible along with the Life-study messages, we would be able to see the significance of every name. The more we read, the more we will be clear and the more we will have the sense that the entire book has been opened to us. As a result, we will be able to enter into the depths of Matthew and come to the knowledge of the true significance of the divine revelation.
For this reason I have been encouraging all the saints in America and in Taiwan to spend two hours a day to study the Bible with the help of the Life-study messages. In this way the entire New Testament can be read through in four years. I hope that all the young people will spend the time to do this. Then in four years you will become excellent Bible teachers, able to present the New Testament clearly and logically and to meet the Lord’s great need in every place.
A young person who is sloppy at age fifteen will be a foolish person at age eighteen. However, if he is willing to study hard during high school, he can learn many things. If he continues with another four years of college, by age twenty-two he will be more enlightened inwardly and able to teach others. The difference between those who are learned and those who are unlearned is very great. Today those who have a college education are distinguished in society. Thus, even if you are no longer a young person, it would be best for you to go back to school to get a college education if possible. Otherwise, it will be difficult to convince others.
We are certainly happy to see the elderly saints, but it is very difficult for us to demand that they spend more effort to pursue the truth. They love the Lord and also His Word. They know Genesis 1:26, realizing that God created man in His own image. They understand Ephesians 1:4, knowing that God chose us in Christ. They are clear about Proverbs 9:10, recognizing that the fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom and that the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. They are able to testify to others, saying, “The Bible is very good; it tells us that God created us in His image, that He chose us in Christ, and that today He has become our wisdom.” This is more than sufficient. We cannot ask for more. However, if the young people among us were to study the Word in the same way, this would be very disappointing. Why should an eighteen-year-old study the Word like a sixty-eight-year-old? That way of studying is not bad, but only for an elderly saint. An eighteen-year-old must study the Bible utilizing a more in-depth method, just as Solomon says that we should remember our Lord in the days of our youth (Eccl. 12:1). The young people must learn the highest truths while they are in their youth.
First, the Bible reveals God’s creation (Gen. 1—2). In God’s creation there are two important points—one is the creation of life, and the other is the creation of man. The creation of life is the most unusual aspect of God’s creation. People today promote the building up of their countries, but no matter how much building work they do, they can never produce life. At best they can build some robots that resemble man but do not have man’s life within. Regardless of how far technology has advanced in producing more and more sophisticated computers, it still does not have the ability to create a living brain. Only God can create life. Genesis 1 shows us that God first created the inanimate objects and then the living things. When He created the living things, God started from the lowest form of life and then progressed to the higher forms of life. This is the process of God’s creation of life.
The highest form of the created life is the human life. Human life is the highest life among the lives created by God. This life is one that resembles the life of God; it is a life created according to God’s image. God’s image is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Since the human life has God’s image, it also has love, light, holiness, and righteousness, making it the highest created life. Of course, in the universe there is still a higher life—the life of God. In the entire universe the highest life is God’s life. Therefore, in Genesis 2 the tree of life depicts God’s life. Man was placed before the tree of life, indicating that God wanted man to take Him as the highest life so that man would live out God’s life in the human life. This is the truth concerning God’s creation.
Second, the Bible speaks about the fall of man, which is recorded in Genesis 3. There are also two important points concerning the fall of man. First, when man fell, there was a charge of sin against him before God, and man became a sinner condemned by God. Second, man now had the sinful nature within him as the result of Satan’s coming into man’s flesh. Satan tempted man to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This fruit denotes Satan, just as the fruit of the tree of life denotes God. If man had eaten of the tree of life, he would have gained God. However, man ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, receiving Satan into his flesh, issuing in the sinful nature being in man’s flesh. This sinful nature is called sin in the Bible. Therefore, when man fell, not only was there a charge of sin against him before God, but also the sinful nature was in his flesh.
The third great truth in the Bible is God’s becoming flesh. There are three main points concerning God’s incarnation: the bringing of God into man, the accomplishment of redemption, and the termination of the old creation.
First, God became flesh to bring God into man. Although God created man in His image, He did not put Himself into man at that time. It was not until the incarnation that God brought Himself into man. Therefore, Jesus the Nazarene, who was conceived in and brought forth through Mary, was a God-man. Outwardly He was a man, but inwardly He was God. Outwardly, as a man He had the human nature; inwardly, as God He had the divine nature. He was a God-man with the human nature as well as the divine nature. His divine nature lived in His human nature, and His human nature expressed His divine nature. In His human nature were all kinds of human virtues, the principal ones being love, light, holiness, and righteousness. In the record of the four Gospels in the New Testament we see the Lord Jesus, who was God yet man, being full of love, light, holiness, and righteousness. In His human virtues of love, light, holiness, and righteousness were the divine attributes. In other words the divine attributes in the humanity of the Lord Jesus strengthened, enriched, and uplifted His human virtues so that the love, light, holiness, and righteousness that He lived out were the most outstanding, the most excellent, and the highest virtues.
Normally, when we preach the gospel, we feel like we do not have much to say. We are able to say that it is good to believe in Jesus, but we are unable to explain why. Most Christians can only tell others that believing in Jesus is a good thing because it will save them from going to hell and will give them peace and prosperity. Some unbelievers after hearing this might say, “You believers are superstitious. You only talk about hell, prosperity, and peace. What is the difference between this and worshipping Buddha?” I hope that from now on, when we see our friends and relatives, we would say to them, “Let me tell you who Jesus was. He was a God-man, having both the human nature and the divine nature. His divine nature lived in His human nature, and His human nature expressed His divine nature. In His human nature there were human virtues—love, light, holiness, and righteousness—that were strengthened, enriched, and uplifted by His divine attributes. Therefore, the virtues of love, light, holiness, and righteousness that He lived out were excellent.”
You may ask how those who have never heard the gospel will be able to understand this. Actually, you ask this because you underestimate them. If we can understand, they can also understand. They are the same as we are; there is hardly any difference between us. Therefore, what we can understand, they definitely can also understand. An American brother testified that for a period of time he used the diagram of the three circles, which depicts the spirit, soul, and body, and spoke about man’s three parts as his unique topic in gospel preaching. The result was that after contacting over five hundred people during a period of several years, over three hundred were saved. Today many Christians, even many pastors and preachers, do not necessarily understand the truth conveyed in the diagram of the three circles. Nevertheless, we must have the faith within that as long as we speak, those who listen will definitely be saved. Do not worry that people will not be able to understand.
From now on we must stop preaching the superficial gospel, telling people that believing in Jesus is good because the sick will be healed and the poor will become rich. This is not the gospel; this is superstition and is altogether deceiving. Today some people practice divine healing, but in the end they are cheating people. Strictly speaking, divine healing is a power of the age to come (Heb. 6:5). We should not preach this; instead, we should use the diagram of the three circles to preach on the three parts of man. When I spoke on the three circles twenty years ago, a brother who was a traveling preacher from a Brethren assembly and who had established Brethren meetings in more than ten places was greatly touched, because he had never heard this kind of speaking before. Later, not only did he learn about the three circles, but wherever he went, he also spoke this truth. I hope that all of us would also learn the truths diligently and speak them everywhere.
The second main point of God’s incarnation is that this God-man went to the cross to suffer death to accomplish eternal redemption. The third main point is that He terminated, or put to an end, all the things of the old creation on the cross.
The fourth great truth in the Bible is God’s dispensing. The noun form of dispensing is dispensation. Unfortunately, this word has been spoiled by the theology taught in Christianity. Whenever this word is mentioned, theologians understand it as the different methods by which God deals with people. Every dispensation is a way that God deals with His people. When it came time for the Chinese theologians to translate this term, they had difficulty and could only translate it as age, indicating that God deals with people differently in various ages. In reality, this term in Latin and English theology denotes God’s arrangement, which is the divine administration. However, when we use this term today, we are referring not to God’s arrangement or administration but to God’s dispensing. Therefore, for the sake of differentiation, we do not use dispensation but rather dispensing.
In God’s plan He not only became flesh, but He also dispenses Himself into His chosen people. How does God dispense Himself into man? First, we must see that the death of the Lord Jesus was not just a termination. The Lord died but was also resurrected. His resurrection was a new beginning. His death was the termination of everything in the old creation, but He did not stop there. After everything was terminated, there was a new beginning—resurrection. Peter tells us that through Christ’s resurrection we were all regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3). Paul says that through His resurrection the Lord Jesus as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). This means that in Christ’s resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit to enter into all those who believe into Him.
First, the life-giving Spirit enters into us to regenerate us. Regeneration is God dispensing Himself into us. To be regenerated is to be born of God. Once we are born of God, we have God’s life in us, which is God Himself. This may be likened to the fact that when a father begets a son, the father dispenses himself into the son so that the father’s life and nature are in the son. Since the father is human, the son is also human. In the same way, when God dispenses Himself into us, we are regenerated with God’s life and nature to become God’s children (John 1:12-13; 1 John 5:1).
Second, the life-giving Spirit enters into us to sanctify us and third to transform us. Sanctification is for us to be separated, and transformation is for us to be changed in nature. Fourth, God conforms us to Christ’s image, and fifth, He glorifies us so that we may enter into glory. Regeneration, sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification are the five steps of God’s work in dispensing Himself into us. The church today must daily allow the Lord to do the work of sanctification, transformation, and conformation. At the end of the age, when the Lord Jesus comes again, He will glorify us; that is, He will come out of us as glory (Phil. 3:21). Then we will enter into His glory. That will be the kingdom age, which will last for one thousand years. Afterward, the New Jerusalem will come as the ultimate expression of God’s dispensing. This expression is God and man becoming one entity—God as man’s inward life and nature, and man as God’s outward expression. This expression is glory, and this glory is the issue of the mingling of God and man—the New Jerusalem as the consummate expression.
These four great points—God’s creation, man’s fall, God’s becoming flesh, and God’s dispensing—are the major truths in the Bible from God’s creation to the New Jerusalem, from Genesis to Revelation. Although they are the major truths, they are not difficult to comprehend. They can be easily understood by the young ones as well as by the elderly ones. We must preach these truths as the gospel to others. When we go to preach, whether others can understand or not depends on how we speak. If we speak clearly, plainly, and logically, then everyone will be able to understand. If we speak clumsily and ambiguously, then no one will be able to understand. Therefore, if we have the burden within that the Lord’s recovery would spread to every place, it is not enough just to preach the superficial gospel of Christianity. We must announce to people the major truths in the Bible as the gospel. For this reason we must study them diligently.
When we speak to our relatives and friends, we do not need to preach everything all at once but may divide our speaking over several occasions, speaking clearly, little by little, once a week. In general, the educational level among people today has been raised, and people’s reasoning and logic skills are more advanced and enriched than in the past. Furthermore, most people have some philosophical ideas and are able to ponder over all kinds of questions related to human life, questions requiring high levels of psychological reasoning. If we talk only about peace and prosperity, people will not be happy because they will not be satisfied. However, if we preach these four great truths, people will be appreciative because these truths will match their inner condition, raising their interest and their thinking concerning human life, as well as providing them the highest answers to the true meaning of human life. If someone is saved as a result of this, his salvation will be a surpassing salvation.
We believe that this is the only way we can bring the Lord back as well as meet the need of human society in its present vain condition. The result of society’s civilization and progress has been an unremitting emptiness within man. Only the high truths in the Lord’s recovery can fill up this emptiness. Therefore, we should bear this burden to diligently study the truth to the extent that we can expound the truth and announce the truth. This is to truly preach the gospel. This is the preaching of the high gospel. Paul says that God had commissioned him to preach the gospel and to teach the truth (1 Tim. 2:7). In the same way, this commission has been given to us today. I hope that we would all receive this commission to actively preach the gospel and teach the truth.
