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Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 1:2; 3:9b, 11-12a; Gal. 1:2, 20-22; 4:11-12, 16; 1 Pet. 2:2, 5; Rev. 1:11; 2:7; 21:2, 18-19a
In these chapters we have seen God’s purpose and plan, which is to work Himself into us that we might be built up into the one new man. And this is the Body-Christ. In the beginning of the Bible, God was alone, but He had the desire to have a counterpart. Nothing could be His counterpart unless it was out of Him and brought back to Him. We should never forget that Eve came out of Adam. God did not create one man and one woman. God only created one man, and out of this one man a part was taken from his broken side with which God built a woman. God did not create a woman but built a woman from that part which was taken out of man. Man was created, but woman was built. In building anything there is the need for material. Woman was built with a part of the man as the material. Eve came out of Adam and went back to Adam from whom she was taken. Then the two became one flesh.
The church as the bride of Christ comes out of Christ. Christ on the cross was broken, and out of His side came blood and water. His blood redeems us, and the water, which signifies His life, is for the building up of the church. The church must go back to Christ as His counterpart in order that they may become one. This is eventually the Body-Christ. We must realize that Eve was not only a part of Adam; Eve was Adam’s enlargement. Without Eve, Adam was incomplete. At best, he was just a half of the whole. A man must have a wife to make him complete. But God did not create another half for Adam; He put him to sleep and took a part out of his side and built this part into a woman. Then God brought this part back to Adam, and Adam said, “This time this is bone of my bones / And flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23).
We do not have this concept. Our concept is that we are fallen and sinful, and therefore we need a Redeemer, a Savior. But the New Testament tells us clearly that Christ came not only to be our Redeemer but also to be the Bridegroom (John 3:29). He came for a bride, and His bride was produced in just the same way as Adam’s was. Jesus went to the cross. In a sense, He was crucified, but in another sense, He was sleeping. During His sleeping, a part of Him was taken out. Throughout all the centuries God has used this part to build the corporate Eve. One day this corporate Eve will be brought back to Him, and He will say, “This is bone of My bones and flesh of My flesh. This came out of Me.” This part becomes the enlargement of Christ, and this is the Body-Christ. The Body-Christ is Christ enlarged. Adam was enlarged in Eve, and now Christ is being enlarged in the church. One day the enlargement of Christ will be complete, and that will be the New Jerusalem.
Whenever the Bible speaks of the church as the bride of Christ, there is always the need of building. Even in Genesis 2:22 the Bible uses the word built concerning the rib out of which Eve was made. The King James Version uses the word made, but in the Hebrew it is the word built. It is not that God made a woman but that God built a counterpart for Adam with the rib out of his side. Then, when we go to the end of the Bible, we see a building. That building is the New Jerusalem, and it is also the bride (Rev. 21:2). The bride is the holy city, and since it is a city, there is the need of building.
We have seen that the church is the Body of Christ, the new man, the bride, and the dwelling place, or the temple of God. For the Body, the need is life; for the new man, the need is the person. For the bride, the need is love; for the temple, God’s habitation, the need is the building. In life, the church is the Body; in person, the church is the new man; in love, the church is the bride; and in building, the church is God’s habitation. The church must be these four things.
Now we must see something of the building. Everyone knows that to build a proper building there is the need of the proper materials. This is why for God’s building there is the urgent need for transformation. We have seen that the New Jerusalem is built with precious stones (Rev. 21:19-20). Precious stones are not created but transformed. Therefore, for the building of the church, we all need to be transformed. Naturally speaking, we were made with clay. But God could never make the New Jerusalem with clay. All the buildings of Satan, such as the city and tower of Babel, the pleasure cities of Egypt, and Babylon, were built with bricks. In the Bible brick is the production of man’s natural work, of man’s human labor with clay. But precious stones are something transformed, not made with human labor. All Satan’s cities were built with bricks, but God’s city is built with precious stones. All natural things are not good for God’s building. For God’s building, transformation is needed.
It is clear that we all have different kinds of personalities. Some are quick; some are slow. Some are humble; others are proud. Some are kind; and others are hard. But none of these are good for the building of the church. They are all muddy. Regardless of how loving you are, your love is a muddy love. Your humility is muddy, and your kindness is muddy. Everything natural is muddy. This is why the Lord has brought all of us to the cross and terminated us. Not one of our natural dispositions is good for the building. All our dispositions must go to the cross. Therefore, we need something new, something divine, something heavenly, something holy, and something eternal to replace our natural makeup. This is why we need transformation. Among today’s Christians, it would be difficult to find a place where you could hear someone give a message on transformation. Most of the messages are on correction, adjusting, and improvement. They even quote 2 Timothy 3:16 to say that the Bible is good for correction. But the Lord does not need the corrected things; He needs the transformed things. For the building up of the church, we must have transformation. The building up of the church could never avail by our natural character, regardless of how good we are. This is just building with bricks, but there is no place in God’s building for bricks. In the New Jerusalem there is only one kind of material—the precious stones that have been transformed. What God needs is the transformed precious stones for His building.
Transformation is not something corrected; it is something transformed from one essence into another element. Therefore, we need another element to get into us, and this other element is Christ Himself. For example, eating and drinking cause a great deal of transformation. Day by day our body is undergoing a process of metabolism. New elements get into our body to discharge and replace the old. This is called metabolism. Our body is constantly being metabolized, which gives us the daily newness. In the same way we must take Christ in daily. This is why the Bible tells us that Christ is our food and drink (John 6:35, 57; 1 Cor. 10:4). This should not be just a term; it must be our spiritual reality. Then Christ will get into us to be the new element to replace and discharge all the old things. In this way we will have a divine metabolism. That is transformation. Only transformed brothers and sisters are good for the building of the church. How much we could be built into the church depends upon how much we will be transformed, and the way to be transformed is to eat and drink Christ. In the New Jerusalem there is the tree of life and the river of water of life (Rev. 22:1-2). The whole city is something transformed because the whole city is maintained by eating the tree of life and drinking the water of life (vv. 14, 17).
Today the church life is a miniature of the New Jerusalem. What we need for the church is simply the daily eating and drinking of Christ. Trying to correct or improve ourselves will never work. What we must do is learn to take Christ in every day, eating Him by pray-reading the Word, and drinking Him by calling on His name. All day long we must call on the Lord. “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus!” I know that some people are opposing this kind of calling, saying that it is just vain repetition. Yes, it is repetition, but it is not vain. Breathing is repetition, but I do not suggest that you stop. We can never graduate from breathing. I have been breathing for over seventy years, but I do not plan to stop. Eating is also repetitious; every day we eat at least three times. All the things that sustain life must be repeated.
Regardless of what people say, we love to call on the name of the Lord. This is really to drink the living water. If we are in darkness, the best way to get out of that darkness is to call on the name of the Lord. If we are in trouble, the best way out is to call on the name of the Lord. If we would just call for three minutes, we would be in the third heaven! The best way for us to overcome our temper is not to try to overcome it. The more we try to overcome our temper, the more it will overcome us! The best way to deal with our temper is to call, “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus!” Eventually, our temper is gone. This is not something superstitious. The next time you have a problem, try calling on the name of Plato: “O Plato, O Plato!” Nothing will happen. But when you call on the name of Jesus, there is the real comforting, strengthening, and refreshing. This is because the name of Jesus is the person. The name represents the person, and the Lord Jesus is a real, living, nigh, present, and available person! Whenever we call on Him, He is right there to be our supply.
We must also learn to eat the Lord in the word. This means that we must not simply read the Bible but pray-read the Bible. It is so nourishing to pray over the Word. Some people have condemned us by saying that pray-reading is not in the Bible, but I do have a portion of the Word for them. The King James Version does not have the proper translation, but in the Greek, Ephesians 6:17-18 says, “Receive...the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.” These verses tell us clearly that we need to pray the Word of God. When we simply read the Word, we only get the knowledge into our mentality. But when we pray the Word of God, we get the spirit of the Word into our spirit. This gives us the nourishment. Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). They are not doctrine or knowledge but spirit and life. As they are spirit and life, we must take them into our spirit, not into our mind. How can we do this? It is not by thinking, reading, or understanding; it can only be done by praying. When we exercise our spirit to pray the Word, we receive the spirit of the Word, and we get the life.
If we will daily eat and drink Christ by pray-reading the Word and calling on the name of the Lord, we will have the growth in life and the transformation. Then we will not only be in the church, but we will be built into the church. It is very difficult to take anything away that has been built in. The New Jerusalem is a building with precious stones. It is not a piling up of stones but a building up. This can only come through transformation.
In order to have a building, there is the need of the proper site. If we build a house on the wrong site, we will lose it. Therefore, the site or the ground upon which we build is very important. For the building up of the church, we need the proper ground. We know that there are some real Christians in the Catholic Church. They are our real brothers and sisters because they are also born of our Father. But could we go into the Catholic Church to be built up with them? This would be impossible, because they are on the wrong site. The same principle is true with all the denominations. There are thousands of real Christians there, but can you go into their denomination to be built up with them? No, for they are also on the wrong site. Then what about the free groups? Today, especially in this country, there are hundreds of free groups meeting in their homes and in many other places. They are real brothers in the Lord, but can we go and be built up with them? Again, the site is wrong.
People are always telling us that we are narrow because we take care of the ground of the church, the site for the building. But we must take care of it, because the building must be on the proper ground of oneness. In the Catholic Church, there is no possibility of having the proper oneness, because the ground is wrong. The same thing is true with the denominations and the free groups. In typology the temple of God could only be built in Jerusalem. If you were to build the same temple in Babylon, that would be wrong. Therefore, we need the proper ground, the proper site for the building of the church. We know that the proper ground is not in the Catholic Church, the denominations, or the free groups. Then where is the proper ground? Again we must come back to the pure Word of the Lord. The pure Word tells us that the church is one. How many bodies does Christ have? Universally speaking, the Body of Christ is one. And this one Body comprises all the saints. But we know that all the saints are not in the same place at the same time. Some are scattered in this city, and some are scattered in another city. But wherever we are, we must come together to be one and to be built up with the saints in the city where we live. This is the local church, the church that, according to the pure Word, is built upon the ground of oneness in the locality where we live.
However, there is a big problem. Perhaps you and I would like to come together for the proper building up of the church, but so many brothers and sisters do not like to come together. They still like to stay in the Catholic Church, in the denominations, or in the free groups. What shall we do? Shall we go to their different places and join them? If we do, there will be no possibility for the proper building on the ground of oneness. We must still come together to be the local church. Some say that a local church must include all the saints in that city. We absolutely agree with this. But they go on to say that since we only have a small number, not including all the saints in that city, how can we call ourselves the local church? If this were the case, there would be no possibility of having the local church, because so many real Christians in every city will never agree to meet in this way.
Let me illustrate in this way. Suppose there is a large family by the name of Smith with thirty-six members, and they all become scattered individually into so many places and into so many things. One day, two of the thirty-six become saved, begin to consider the poor situation of their family, and realize that they must come together to be the Smith family. Following this, they come to the third brother and tell him about the Lord Jesus and ask him to come home to be the family with them. Eventually, five come back home, but thirty-one remain scattered. Now, is it too much for these five to say that they are the Smith family? I would say that it is not too much. Yes, the Smith family should be composed of thirty-six people, but all of them would not come back. Only five, by the mercy of the Lord, would come back. If they do not call themselves the Smith family, what should they call themselves? Should they call themselves the Smith fellowship, the Smith Center, or the Smith Bible study? It is absolutely right for them to call themselves the Smith family because they are the Smith family. They do miss so many of their folks, but they are still the Smith family.
Today is a day of confusion. I would like to be kind to everyone, but I do have a burden from the Lord. If I were afraid that I would offend someone, I could not be faithful to the Lord’s burden. I must speak the truth. The sky must be cleared. If you are the Smith family, then you must simply call yourselves the Smith family. If you do not like the Smith family, just say that you do not like it. Be honest and frank and faithful.
Since 1962, a strong testimony of the local churches has been raised up by the Lord, starting from Los Angeles. In the first few years people did not agree with it and did not pay much attention to it. After so many years, not only were many more churches raised up, but many books were published. Therefore, the term local church has become popular. Twelve years ago it was opposed, but in the last five years so many so-called free groups have begun to call themselves the local church. Recently, the churches had some migrations to several cities, and from two of these cities we received letters warning us not to come because there was a local church there already. They said that they were the local church and that they would not have fellowship with all the other local churches. And they did not! But they claimed to be the local church in those cities.
In a situation of this nature, there is the need of clear discernment. According to the Bible, the Body of Christ is universally one, comprising all the saints and all the local churches. All the local churches, regardless of whether they are in this city, in this country, or in other countries, are the one Body of Christ. It is absolutely right to say that all the local churches are independent of one another. But this independence should be in administration, not in fellowship. In administration all the local churches have their own jurisdiction, but in fellowship they must still be one. All the local churches throughout the whole world should be one in fellowship. Suppose there is a so-called local church in Atlanta. On the one hand, they claim to be the local church there, but on the other hand, they would not open to the other local churches in order to have fellowship. What sort of local church is this? Immediately, that church becomes a local sect. A local church is one that is open to all the saints in that locality and open to all the other local churches. If there is a so-called local church that would not have fellowship with the other local churches, that is not a local church but a repetition of the history of fallen Christianity. In refusing fellowship, this so-called local church becomes a local sect.
The first local church in the U.S. was raised up in Los Angeles in 1962. If anyone truly means business with the Lord for the proper oneness, they will have no problem in having fellowship with the church in Los Angeles. If they will not fellowship with the church in Los Angeles, but hold a certain kind of concept that keeps them separated, they have lost the proper ground and have become sectarian. They are the same as the other free groups, because they will not recognize the other local churches. Ever since 1962, wherever a local church was raised up, if those saints did mean business with the Lord, they were happy to fellowship with the church in Los Angeles and the other local churches. This is in order to keep the proper oneness in the Body of Christ. If any group refuses to fellowship with the other local churches, they have lost the ground of oneness and have become sectarian. They are not a local church but a local sect.
Since so many free groups have picked up the name of the local church, we must discern what a proper local church is. A proper local church is one that is open to all the real saints in the city where they are, as well as open to all the other local churches in this country and throughout the world. This is because all the churches are one Body. So many of these who have picked up the name of the local church argue that every local church is independent, saying that there is no need to be related to all the other local churches. But in Revelation, although there were seven epistles written to seven local churches, the whole book as one letter was written to all the churches. Surely this means that all the local churches should be related to one another, not in organization or administration but in the testimony of Jesus. Then at the end of each of the seven epistles, the Lord says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” This shows that each separate epistle written to a particular local church is also the speaking of the Spirit to all the churches.
Galatians is a book that was not written to an individual local church but to all the local churches in Galatia. Galatia was not a city but a province of the Roman Empire. Therefore, in Galatia there were many churches, and Paul wrote one letter to many churches. This shows that the churches there were related as one. Otherwise, how could they be one Body? In 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul says that the letter was written to the church in Corinth with all those who call upon the name of the Lord in every place. This one letter, which was written to one particular local church, was also good for all those who called upon the name of the Lord in every place.
Since all the local churches are one Body, we cannot be divided in any way. Even localities cannot divide us. We may meet in Los Angeles, but we are one with the saints in Atlanta. Although we are separated by distance, we are still one. And we are one with the churches in the Far East, Germany, England, Africa, and in so many other countries. Praise the Lord that we are one Body!
Some have said that the seven churches in Revelation were all different from one another. In the early days I was influenced by this kind of teaching. But gradually my eyes were opened to see that this is not accurate or sound. The seven local churches in Revelation were different from one another only in a negative sense. On the negative side, they were different, but on the positive side, all seven were the same. They were all golden lampstands. In nature, in appearance, in shape, and in function they were all the same, losing their individual identity. They were different in their corruption and in their degradation, but in the positive things, they were all the same. This is also seen in the New Jerusalem. The wall of the city has four sides, yet every side is built with the same material, jasper, and looks the same (11, Rev. 21:18).
When the Lord raised up His recovery in China, He began in 1922 with Brother Watchman Nee in south China. From that time on, a number of gifted Chinese Christians were raised up. Nearly all of them passed through the Lord’s recovery. They came, and they left. In 1932 I came in contact with Brother Nee. The next year I went to visit him and stayed with him for three months. After that, he asked me to move down from north China to work with him and the other brothers. When I went to the Lord about this matter, I saw that in the book of Acts there was only one flow with the Lord’s work. It started in Jerusalem, went up to Antioch, and turned to Ephesus and other places. On the way, here and there, new ones were raised up to join that one flow. It was not that one flow started with Peter, another with Paul, and another with Apollos. No, there was only one flow, and they all got into that flow. When I saw that, I told Brother Nee that I would come and join them, and I did. I saw that this was the Lord’s unique flow. I could only join it; I could not start another one.
The Lord has led me to bring the torch of His recovery to this country. My burden is to pass the torch on to you brothers here, and I do believe that the torch has been passed. There are now thousands of saints in this country who would go on with the Lord’s flow. This is not my work. This is the Lord’s recovery, and this is His flow. I have mentioned all these things so that we may be clear about the real situation and so that we can have the proper discernment. Not every group that says it is the local church is the local church. It is not what we say we are; it is what we are. If we do mean business with the Lord to be a proper local church, we have to be a proper local church, receiving all the saints and being open in fellowship with all the local churches throughout the world. Then there will be no problem in having the real oneness in the one Body of Christ.
