In pointing out these things to the brethren, thou shalt be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which thou hast followed until now:
but refuse profane and old wives’ fables. And exercise thyself unto godliness:
for bodily exercise is profitable for a little; but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come.
Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation.
For to this end we labor and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe.
These things command and teach.
Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example to them that believe, in word, in manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity.
Till I come, give heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching.
Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
Be diligent in these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy progress may be manifest unto all.
Take heed to thyself, and to thy teaching. Continue in these things; for in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee.
That is the portion we will read for now.
The theme for this conference is worship, prayer, and the ministry of God’s Word. We deeply sense that, in these last days, the Lord is seeking those who will worship Him. He is calling those who will pray before Him, and He is looking for those who can be ministers of His Word.
We sense that this is what the Lord is looking for among His people: that there will be worshippers before God, because our God is worthy of our worship; that there will be watchmen waiting and praying for the coming of our King; and that He will raise up many ministers of His Word.
Our brother’s responsibility is to share concerning the ministry of God’s Word. When we are in touch with God’s Word, we know that it is a most solemn and most honorable thing.
God’s Word is God Himself.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
In the beginning was the Word. This Word was God Himself. Every time we are in touch with God’s Word, we are indeed touching God Himself.
Almost all God’s work is the result of His Word. If you remove God’s Word from God’s work, then God would almost have no work on this earth.
We thank God because He speaks. If God did not speak, we would never get to know Him. If God does not speak, there will be no work of God on this earth.
But one thing is very wonderful: God wants to speak to man through man.
When we look into the book of Genesis, we find that God in the garden spoke to Adam face to face. He spoke to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
When we come to Moses, God spoke directly to him in the burning bush. There He commissioned Moses to go to Egypt and deliver His people.
After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, they came to Mount Sinai. God was speaking to the people and gave them the Ten Commandments.
In Exodus 20, the Israelites said to Moses, “You go and listen to the Word of God. Then come back and tell us what He has spoken, because we are fearful.”
They saw the thunder, the lightning, and the earthquake. They dared not hear that Word. They said, “You listen to God’s Word, and you come back and tell us what God says for us to do. We will obey.”
From that moment onward, until the end of the Old Testament, God did not speak to His people directly. Men did not have ears to hear God’s Word. They feared to hear God speak.
Therefore, God entrusted His Word to the prophets.
God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners.
God used prophets to speak to His own people. Yet the words spoken through the prophets were in fragments and in many ways. Even the greatest prophet was still only a vessel in God’s hand. God could not entrust His full Word to one particular prophet.
But praise God, the fullness of time came, and the Word became flesh. His name is Jesus.
In these last days, God has spoken in His Son. The Lord Jesus not only spoke for God; He Himself, in His entire Person, is God’s Word.
He was truly man and possessed a human nature and a human life. Yet His life was sinless. Though He was on earth as a man, He was the Holy One.
When He was on earth, He said, “I can do nothing from Myself.” He heard from the Father and spoke. He saw what the Father was doing and did it. The Father spoke within Him, and the Father did His work through Him.
Brothers and sisters, even though our Lord Jesus could have spoken His own words, His words would have been good words. Even though He could have done His own work, His work would have been good and righteous. But while He was on earth, He submitted Himself completely to the Father. He denied Himself and put Himself aside.
All His words and all His works came from His Father. Therefore, in the life of the Lord Jesus, He could fully declare His Father. This was the ministry of our Lord Jesus on earth: absolute and complete.
In New Testament times, the Lord raised up the apostles and prophets, and He revealed His mystery to them. These were New Testament ministers of God’s Word.
Because God wanted to speak through them, the Lord had to do a very drastic work in their lives. The apostles were just like us. They had their own opinions and their own feelings. Therefore, God had to remove from their lives all that was contrary to Himself.
Then the Lord could entrust His Word to them. When they spoke, they spoke God’s Word with a clear conscience.
There is a difference between the Old Testament ministry of God’s Word and the New Testament ministry. In the Old Testament, God’s Word came upon His prophets; it did not necessarily involve the person himself. But this is not the case with the New Testament ministry of God’s Word.
The New Testament ministry is based upon the ministry of the Lord Jesus. The Lord does a deep work in those whom He uses as ministers of His Word, because they are not merely ministering words; they themselves represent what they preach.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4 that, having received this ministry, we do not falsify the Word of God, but by the manifestation of the truth commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
This means that we are not only teaching truth. The man himself represents what he preaches. This is why there is such a high demand in the New Testament ministry of God’s Word.
We are vessels. We are earthen vessels, but there is treasure within the vessel.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
We are not preaching ourselves; we are preaching Christ Jesus as Lord. Yet we are vessels. Earthen vessels are not transparent, but inside there is a treasure. This treasure is Christ Himself.
For the radiance of this treasure to be manifested, the vessel needs to be broken. If the vessel is not broken, the radiance will remain hidden within it.
We are afflicted in every way, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.
In order for God’s Word to be released through us, the Lord arranges our environment through all kinds of circumstances so that this vessel may be broken. Then the light of the treasure is manifested.
Yet there is something very miraculous. Even though the vessel is broken and the radiance comes forth, God does not remove or destroy the vessel completely.
When God spoke through Paul, Paul was a broken vessel. If you read 2 Corinthians, you can see that the breaking Paul went through was perhaps more severe than that of the other apostles.
Therefore, the Word that came through Paul was strong and vital. It was indeed God’s Word, but it still bore the flavor of Paul.
When you read Paul’s epistles, you recognize Paul. When you read Peter’s writings, you recognize Peter. When you read John’s writings, you recognize John. The Lord did a special work in each of their lives, and yet their temperament and personality still flowed through their ministry.
God has created each person differently. There are millions of human beings, yet no two faces are alike. God has also given us different temperaments. Some are impulsive; some are quiet. Some are extroverts and some are introverts.
This individuality remains. Even in the new heaven and new earth, you will recognize Peter as Peter. Yet it is Peter, and it is not Peter. It is the Lord expressing Himself through Peter’s temperament.
Do not despise yourself because of your natural temperament. God loves every person, and He wants to work in each one. It is you, and yet it is not the old you. It is the Lord. This is a mystery.
The Lord wants this vessel to be broken, but He does not throw away the vessel. He can speak His Word through a broken vessel. This is the New Testament ministry of God’s Word.
Paul wrote to Timothy. We know that the relationship between Paul and Timothy was a very intimate one.
On Paul’s second missionary journey, when he came to Lystra and Derbe, Timothy was introduced to him. Timothy had been nurtured in the things of God from his youth, and from childhood he had known the sacred writings.
When Paul was preaching in those places, Timothy came to know the Lord. In a relatively brief time, the Lord manifested in Timothy the potential to become a minister of God’s Word. So Paul took Timothy with him.
Timothy accompanied Paul as he preached in various places, and Timothy learned much from the apostle. Paul continued to care deeply for him. Therefore, we have the two epistles, 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy.
First Timothy was written after Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome. At the end of Acts 28, we are told that Paul stayed in his own rented house and was unrestricted in preaching the kingdom of God.
It is possible that Paul was declared innocent and released. He renewed his ministry, visited the assemblies, and perhaps even went to Spain. He left Timothy in Ephesus and wrote this epistle to him.
How does one become a minister of God’s Word? How is one qualified to minister that Word? How can one become the mouthpiece of God’s Word?
Paul calls Timothy’s attention to this: “Take heed to thyself, and to thy teaching. Continue in these things; for in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee.”
We often pay attention only to teaching. We become familiar with the Bible, learn how to explain the Word, and perhaps have some ability to preach. Teaching the Word is important.
But Paul shows us that, in order to be a minister of God’s Word, teaching alone is not sufficient. More important than your teaching is yourself.
If a man is wrong, even though his words are correct, something is still wrong. The strength, power, and measure of the Word are decreased.
Two persons can speak the same word. One may be used by God, and the other may not be used by God. Though both may speak God’s Word, one may actually be speaking merely from himself.
Therefore, to be a minister, the person is very important. Paul told Timothy, “Let no man despise thy youth.” Timothy had to be diligent before God in order to minister the Word.
This morning we will consider what kind of person is qualified to be a minister of God’s Word. We wish that the Lord would raise up all of us to be ministers of His Word.
In the Old Testament, Moses felt that the responsibility was too great. The Lord said that He would take of the Spirit that was upon Moses and put it upon the seventy elders.
When two of the seventy remained in the camp and prophesied there, Joshua was unhappy and thought that they should be forbidden. But Moses said, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”
In these last days there is a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord. People go from city to city, from east to west and north to south, seeking the Word of God.
God wants to speak, but He lacks vessels. In many localities, the church lacks God’s Word. May the Lord raise up a group that can truly be ministers of His Word.
It is true that sometimes God can use an unsaved person to speak His Word. History tells us that even when an unsaved person reads God’s Word, those who hear may be touched, because there is power in God’s Word.
But that is unusual. Under normal conditions, one who ministers God’s Word must be a saved person.
But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.
God revealed His Son in Paul so that Paul might preach Him among the Gentiles. If we do not know the Lord, and if there is no revelation of God’s Son within us, we cannot truly preach Christ to others.
I shared this before. Before I was saved, I was already preaching. I remember that when I was about to preach and had no message, I went to my father’s library. My father was a preacher, and I picked up a book by a well-known American preacher.
There was a message in that book about Noah’s ark. I translated the message into Chinese and went out to preach it. I was quite pleased with myself. When I finished preaching, I was still very happy.
But afterward I realized that, if Christ is not within you, even though you can preach, it is useless. The ministry of God’s Word is truly the ministry of Christ.
Thank God, I obtained mercy. We preach the Christ who has been revealed within us. First, then, a minister of God’s Word must be a saved person. But this is not sufficient.
A minister of the gospel must be a consecrated person.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
One who wants to be a minister of God’s Word must be a consecrated person. We sometimes have the concept that only preachers need to be consecrated. When I was first saved, that was my own understanding.
But the Bible says, “Brethren.” All who have received mercy have no right to live for themselves. We ought to offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice. We all belong to Him, and we must allow Him to live through us.
This is the meaning of consecration. Consecration does not mean that you must do certain things. It means that you put yourself on the altar and allow God to do all that He wants to do.
If one is not consecrated, even though he is saved, he remains a soulish person. He lives according to his own thoughts and still desires his own things. His mind has not been renewed and transformed.
A person who is not consecrated has a new life but an old mind. How can such a person know what God’s will is? He knows only his own will.
If God wants you to minister His Word, but you mix your own thoughts with God’s Word and interpret it by your natural intellect, you will damage the Word. Therefore, one who wants to be a minister must be a consecrated person.
Consecration is foundational, but it is still not enough. We must also be broken vessels before God.
Even though we are consecrated, our self-life may still be very strong. We may still be unwilling to let go of our self-life. If the vessel has not been broken, the radiance of Christ cannot shine forth.
The earthen vessel represents our outer man. Our outer man can shield our inner man so that the inner life cannot be released. Therefore, the outer man must be broken, while the inner man is renewed day by day.
If our soul-life has not been broken, the spiritual life cannot be released. Everyone who wishes to minister God’s Word must know the cross.
The Lord must do a deep work in our lives, removing the dominance of the soul-life so that the life of Christ may mature and grow within us. If the cross is not doing this renewing work within us, God’s Word cannot gain its release.
For example, a very intellectual person may use a good mind to read God’s Word and speak it in a refined way. Yet what touches people may be his intellect rather than Christ.
When such a person finishes preaching, people may say, “That was a good message. It was well organized, and the words were appropriate.” But if Christ has not touched them, that is a failure.
When people hear you preach, they should forget about you and remember Christ. If you are not a broken vessel, what you give people is simply yourself, and that is not Christ.
Like Mary’s alabaster vial, we must allow the vessel to be broken, that the fragrance of Christ may fill the house. We must be broken vessels.
One who wants to be a minister of God’s Word must be a transformed person. What is the difference between brokenness and transformation? Brokenness is negative; transformation is positive.
The vessel may be broken, but if there is only a little treasure within, the radiance will be weak. Therefore, we need inward transformation. The more we allow transformation to take place, the more the fullness of Christ is incorporated into us.
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
Transformation takes place in our soul. Our spirit has already been quickened, and the Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit. Christ is the life of our spirit. But our soul—our mind, emotion, and will—still needs transformation.
The Holy Spirit puts the soul-life under death and fills the soul with the life of Christ. This is Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3: that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Christ dwells in our spirit, but He desires to move outward and dwell in our hearts. Then our mind is transformed, our emotions are transformed, and our will is transformed. We have the mind of Christ, His feelings, and His will.
This is transformation. We need this transformation so that what comes out is Christ and not ourselves.
The temple illustrates this. The outer court represents our body, the holy place represents our soul, and the Holy of Holies represents our spirit. Between the holy place and the Holy of Holies was a veil.
God’s glory was within the Holy of Holies, but in the holy place one could not see that glory. When the veil is removed, the light from within can shine into the holy place and fill the whole temple. This is transformation.
The deepest work of the cross is to deal with our soul-life so that the life of Christ may fill the different parts of our soul. Our mind becomes His mind, our feelings become His feelings, and our will becomes His will.
Then God’s Word will no longer be limited within us. This is the building up of spiritual character.
We need to cultivate our character. In our natural life, we have a nature of sin. Having lived according to that nature for many years, it becomes our character and personality.
But Christ’s life has a new nature. This new nature must be cultivated. We must live by the Spirit, and this becomes a new character.
Even though we have new life and a new nature after we believe, if we do not live according to that new life, we cannot have a new character. A new character results from transformation and conforms us to the image of Christ.
Transformation takes place from within, and the character of Christ flows out through us. This is God’s will, because He wants us to be conformed to His Son.
Therefore, it is not merely a matter of preaching God’s Word. We must commend ourselves to every man’s conscience before God. Often the gospel is veiled, not because the words are incorrect, but because the man himself veils it.
I cannot finish this matter of character in a few minutes, but I hope you will read the book The Character of God’s Worker. I often mention Watchman Nee because I have received much help from him.
He mentions many aspects of the character required for God’s workers. Today I will mention only a few.
The one who wants to be a minister of God’s Word must first have the character of diligence.
In diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.
One who wants to minister God’s Word must be a diligent person—not only diligent in studying the Word, but diligent in living and in doing God’s work. God will never use a lazy person.
Someone put it this way: even Satan has no use for a lazy person. This is our problem. Even those who are diligent in natural life may become lazy in the things of God.
Some people are diligent in worldly things, working from before sunrise until midnight. But when it comes to the things of God, they are sleepy. It seems that they are lazy in spiritual things.
This diligence must be cultivated. Young people, determine before the Lord each day to read a certain portion of God’s Word. At the beginning it may be difficult, but you must do it until it becomes a good habit. Build the character of diligence and do not be lazy.
Second, we must restrain our speech.
James 3 tells us that the tongue is the smallest member of the body, yet no man can tame it.
Much speech brings much transgression. Therefore, our speech needs to be restrained.
If you want to speak God’s Word, your speech must be restrained. You cannot use your mouth to curse or criticize people and, at the same time, preach God’s Word.
Because we speak too much, we leak our spirituality out.
This is a lesson we must all learn before the Lord. Only the Holy Spirit can control our tongue. If you try to control your own tongue merely by yourself, you may simply keep your mouth shut; but when you open it, you may still speak wrongly.
Thank God, the Holy Spirit can become an inward watchman. When you are about to say something that is not of the Lord, there is an inward voice saying, “Stop.”
Isaiah said, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” We need to be sensitive before God and ask the Lord to restrain our speech.
Third, we need stability. We cannot be changeable.
Peter originally was an unstable person. But through the Lord’s work in his life, when you read his first and second epistles, you see a man of stability.
To be a minister of God’s Word, you must not be subjective. We all have our own opinions, but when we come to God’s Word and minister God’s Word, we cannot be governed by our own thoughts and opinions.
To be a minister of God’s Word, one must have a mind to suffer. This is what we find in 1 Peter 4. For His Word’s sake, we must be willing to suffer.
The building of character is not an easy matter. We need to be transformed persons.
We need the anointing. In the Old Testament, kings, prophets, and priests were anointed for their service. In the New Testament, if we are to do God’s work, we must come under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
This means coming under the control and filling of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who gives the Word, uses the Word, and accomplishes God’s work through the Word.
God’s Word is the sword of the Spirit. It is not your sword or my sword. We must not use God’s Word merely to pierce people. Only the Holy Spirit can use the sword effectively.
We need the Lord’s anointing every time we minister His Word. We must ask, “Lord, fill me with Your Spirit. Let Your Spirit speak the Word. Holy Spirit, do Your work—not by my power, not by my life, but by Your Spirit.”
Then the Lord’s work will be accomplished. This is the Word of the Lord, not merely the word of man.
Lord, we present this word to You under the covering of Your precious blood. We confess that we are not worthy to announce Your Word.
Yet we thank You that You have chosen us and desire to speak Your Word through us. We ask You to do a deep work in each of our lives so that Your Word will not be discounted.
May Your Word have its full strength and power. Lord, speak to Your people. Accomplish Your will, and receive Your glory.