Shall we attend to our Bibles?
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such doth the Father seek to be His worshippers.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
But we will continue steadfastly in prayer, and in the ministry of the word.
Thank the Lord for gathering us together unto Himself. The theme for this conference is worship, prayer, and the ministry of God’s Word.
Our brother is responsible for sharing on worship. Another brother is responsible for sharing on the matter of prayer. I have the responsibility to share on the ministry of God’s Word.
We have four times together to consider this matter of the ministry of God’s Word.
In Acts 6:4, the apostles desired to devote themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. In some translations there is the notion of preaching, but what we have in Scripture is not merely preaching. Scripture calls this ministry “the ministry of the Word.”
This is a most honourable and solemn matter. God is glorious and majestic, while we are corrupt and unclean. Yet somehow God delights to use us to preach His Word.
There is such a great gap between the holiness of God and our mouths. It is like Isaiah in the temple. When he saw the glory of God and heard the seraphim crying, “Holy, holy, holy,” he said that he was undone because he was a man of unclean lips and dwelt among a people of unclean lips.
God is so pure and so holy, but our mouths are unclean. Yet today God desires to use us to minister His Word. It is a most unusual thing.
On God’s side, He delights to use men to preach His Word. When God does this, it is as though He is taking a risk on us. It is very easy for us to corrupt His Word or misrepresent His Word.
In order that we may preach His Word, He must do much work in us until we are suitable to minister His Word. This is a most solemn matter.
When we come to the matter of preaching God’s Word, we are indeed standing on holy ground. We must remove our sandals and stand as servants before Him. Then we shall be able to minister His Word.
This evening, we would like to fellowship concerning God’s Word itself. In the second session, we shall consider the ministry of God’s Word. In the third session, we shall consider the basis upon which we can minister God’s Word. In the fourth session, we shall consider how we can minister God’s Word.
If we are going to preach God’s Word, we must know what God’s Word is.
We praise God that He is the One who speaks. God is not like idols, which have mouths but cannot speak. He is the One who speaks.
If God did not speak, there would be no way for us to know Him. He is the self-existent One, and He delights to reveal Himself to us.
How does God reveal Himself to us? God reveals Himself through His creation. Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God.
Romans tells us that what may be known of God is evident through what He has created. Through creation we can know something of His attributes and His power. There is no excuse for us not to know God.
However, what God reveals through creation is limited. Creation can reveal His deity and His power. We know that He is God and not man, but there are many other things concerning God that we cannot know merely through creation.
Acts 17 tells us that God made every nation of mankind to dwell upon the earth. He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation. When we consider history, we can conclude that there is a God behind history.
But this revelation is also limited. God’s greatest revelation of Himself is through His own Word.
John 1:1 is very familiar to us:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word is the self-existent Word. The Word was from the very beginning. The Word has His own personhood, and yet the Word was with God and the Word was God.
All Bible expositors tell us that this Word refers to the second Person of the Godhead. Our Lord Jesus declares the Father to us. He was God.
Brothers and sisters, we can say that God’s Word is God Himself. When we touch God’s Word, we are touching God Himself. God’s Word has personality; it is not a dead word.
When we touch God’s Word, it is a very solemn matter because we are touching God Himself.
God’s Word is God’s work. God’s work came into being through His Word. We know that the worlds were prepared by God’s Word.
Everything in this creation came about because of God’s Word. Is there any work that can compare with creation? Yet this creation was created by God’s Word.
In Genesis 1, God recreated the world in six days, and on the sixth day He created man. In that chapter, we find repeated statements: “God said.” God said, “Let Us make man in Our image.”
God’s creation is based upon God’s Word. Not only creation, but redemption also is based upon His Word.
In Genesis, when man fell, God gave man a great promise:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.
That was when God began preparing salvation for mankind. This promise was uttered by God’s Word.
Throughout the Old Testament, God used the prophets to foretell the salvation that the Lord was preparing. Then, when the fullness of time came, the Word became flesh.
The Word put on a human body. Jesus is God’s Word come to us. Why did this Word come to us? He came to accomplish the work of redemption.
When our Lord was crucified on the cross, He said, “It is finished.” He declared that the work of redemption was finished.
So we can see that God’s Word is God’s work.
A brother wrote a book entitled The Ministry of the Word. I feel that this book is most precious. If you want to be a minister of God’s Word, I would say that this book will be most helpful.
From the Scriptures, we can see that God has a very important work to accomplish on earth: He wants to speak His own Word.
Take away God’s Word from God’s work, and there will be no true work on this earth. In the reality of God’s work on earth, the most important thing is His Word.
We need to understand the important place of God’s Word in God’s work. If we remove God’s Word, there is no work of God at all. God’s Word is indeed very, very important.
How does God speak to us? We have already mentioned that God can speak through creation.
Psalm 19 says:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament showeth His handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech,
And night unto night showeth knowledge.
There is no speech nor language;
Their voice is not heard.
Everything in creation speaks to us. Day unto day pours forth speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. Yet creation has no audible speech, no words, and no voice that can be heard.
Creation is speaking, but without a spiritual ear we cannot hear. If we have a spiritual ear, we can hear creation speaking God’s Word to us. Without a spiritual ear, we cannot hear.
God speaks through the moon. The birds speak to us. God speaks through a tiny leaf on the ground, but often we do not hear.
Consider the birds of the air. Consider the lilies of the field. How beautiful they are! Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these lilies.
Why are you anxious concerning what you shall wear? Are you not of much more value than they? The birds are speaking, but we are still worrying. The lilies are speaking, telling us how God has adorned them, but we do not hear.
God uses creation, without words, to speak to us. Yet very few are able to hear this word from God through creation.
God can also speak to us through angels, because angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall inherit salvation.
If angels spoke in an angelic language, we would not understand them. Angels are intelligent beings and have their own language. Even if we heard them speaking in their own language, we would not understand.
Therefore, when angels speak to men, they must use human language to convey God’s Word to us. They must even appear in a human form in order to speak with us.
This is an unusual phenomenon.
God can speak to us directly. However, the most normal way in which God speaks is through man: God speaks to man through man.
Hebrews 1:1 says:
God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners,
hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son.
In the Old Testament, God raised up a group of people called prophets. God used these prophets to be His mouth and to speak to the fathers. Their words came in many portions and in many ways—here a word and there a word.
But in these last days, God has spoken to us in His Son. Through His Son, His Word is complete. It is the final Word.
We praise God that He desires to speak to us through men.
There are two portions of Scripture that show God speaking to us. One is Hebrews 1:1: God spoke long ago to our fathers through the prophets in many portions and in many ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us in His Son.
The other portion is Ephesians 3:5:
Which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.
Here we find that God speaks through three different groups of people—three kinds of people.
In the Old Testament, He spoke through the prophets. In these last days, He has spoken to us through His own Son. Then the Holy Spirit revealed Christ to the apostles.
The expression “the last days” has a special meaning. From the first coming of the Lord to His second coming, this entire period is called the last days. We are living at the end of the last days because our Lord is coming soon.
Through these three groups of people—prophets, the Son, and apostles—God completed all that He desired to say to mankind. Today we have this complete Word in our hands: the Bible.
In the Old Testament, God spoke through the prophets. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He Himself was God’s Word. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit revealed Christ to the apostles.
There are three different kinds of ministry through which God’s Word has come to us.
In the Old Testament, God used the prophets to speak. We may call this the ministry of the prophets.
When the Lord Jesus came into the world, the Word became flesh. Here we see the ministry of the Lord.
In New Testament times, the Word comes to us through the apostles. Here we see the apostolic ministry.
Through these three kinds of people, God has given His Word to us. We have it in the Bible, the complete Bible. We praise God that in our hands we have God’s Word.
There are differences among these three ministries.
In the ministry of the Old Testament, God’s Word came upon a person. God used that person’s voice, but the person himself was not necessarily one with the Word.
But in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, the Word did not merely come upon a man. The Word became flesh. The Lord Jesus Himself was one with God’s Word.
What God used was not merely His voice. His whole person—His thoughts, His feelings, and all that He was—was one with God’s Word. This One was none other than the Lord Jesus Himself.
In the apostolic ministry of the New Testament, there is the character of the Lord’s ministry, though not in the absolute sense in which it was true of the Lord Jesus.
In the Lord Jesus, first there was God’s Word, and then there was flesh prepared to express that Word. His feelings, His thoughts, and His ideas were all one with God’s Word.
In New Testament ministry, however, we have the flesh first. We are the flesh first. If this flesh is to minister God’s Word, it must be transformed and made suitable for God’s Word.
God must do a very drastic work in this flesh. Our thoughts, feelings, and ideas need transformation so that the person may become one with the Word.
Eventually, after much dealing, God’s Word can be manifested through such a person. Yet the ministry of the Lord Jesus was unlimited, because He was the Word become flesh.
Today we are in the New Testament, and we desire to be ministers of God’s Word. We must be like the apostles and have the same kind of ministry they had.
Let us consider some characteristics of God’s Word. God’s Word is unlike any ordinary thing.
First, God’s Word is spirit. Because our God is Spirit, His Word is spirit.
There are many books in this world. They are written by men and are the product of human intellect, philosophy, experience, and religion. This is the characteristic of books written by human beings.
But God’s Word is different because God’s Word is spirit.
Second Timothy 3:16 tells us that all Scripture is inspired by God. The original meaning is that all Scripture is God-breathed.
When God created man, He formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; then man became a living soul. In the same way, God’s Word comes from within Himself.
God’s Word is spirit. This Book is different from every other book. Its nature is different.
If we read God’s Word in the same way that we read other books, God’s Word will remain foreign to us. The nature of God’s Word is spirit.
From childhood, I read the Bible. I received much teaching, and even before I had anything to share, I preached other people’s messages. Yet God’s Word was closed to me.
Even though I knew the letters and could memorize verses, I did not understand God’s Word.
But praise God. One day, when I opened my Bible to 2 Peter 1, the Word began to speak to me. Something joined me to God’s Word. There was something living and sweet.
God’s Word is spirit. You cannot touch God’s Word merely with the mind. You must touch God’s Word in the spirit.
We may research the Bible, outline its words, explain it, and use our intellect and knowledge. We may gain much teaching, but unless we touch God’s Word in spirit, we have not touched the Word itself.
Today, the way many people approach God’s Word is wrong. We touch only the letters, and we think that this is the way to read the Word. In the end, we may understand something, but we do not touch the Lord Himself.
The Sadducees came to test the Lord. They asked concerning a woman who had been married to seven brothers, each dying without leaving offspring. They asked whose wife she would be in the resurrection.
They did not believe in resurrection. The Lord answered them, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.”
Then the Lord referred to the Scripture which says that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Therefore, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must be raised.
If we touch only the letters, we cannot find the answer. But if we touch the spirit of the Word, we see that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
Sometimes we may think there is something wrong with a passage because we are touching only the letters and not the spirit. The Holy Spirit must use the Word to enlighten us.
The Lord said:
It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life.
In John 6, after the Lord fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, many people followed Him. But the Lord told them that they were seeking Him because they had eaten bread and were filled, not because they sought eternal life.
He told them not to labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life. He said that He was the bread which came down from heaven.
The Lord said that His flesh was true food and His blood was true drink. Many could not receive this word. They said, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” Many of His disciples went away.
The Lord asked the twelve, “Would ye also go away?” Yet He said that His words are spirit and life.
The word used in John 6:63 is not logos, but rhema. I think we need to explain this.
When God speaks the first time, this is logos. Logos is the constant Word. It cannot be changed. It is the Word written in the Bible. It is true, unchanging, and eternal.
When we read the Bible, the logos is there. Yet we may read it without having a living relationship with it. God’s Word is spirit, but we need God to breathe upon that Word again.
When God uses the written Word and speaks to us again, it is the second speaking. It is not merely the Word written generally; it is the Word spoken specifically to you. That is rhema.
We have all read much of God’s Word and remembered much of it, yet sometimes the Word has had no effect upon our lives.
Then one day, perhaps after we have read the same verse a hundred times, the Holy Spirit opens that Word to us and speaks it personally to us. The Word becomes powerful within us and changes us. This is rhema.
When we come before God’s Word, we need the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us. We should not think that knowledge alone is sufficient. We need to trust the Holy Spirit to unveil God’s Word to us. Then we have the spirit.
We need this kind of revelation. Apart from the revelation found in this Book, there should be no other revelation. Any supposed revelation outside what God has given in His Word is heresy.
We do need revelation, but this revelation is the Holy Spirit using what has already been given in the Word and making it new to us.
Because God’s Word is spirit, we need to use our spirit to touch God’s Word. First Corinthians 2 tells us that spiritual things are spiritually discerned.
To touch God’s Word, we need to use the spirit. To explain God’s Word, we need the Spirit to explain it, because the whole Word of God is spiritual.
Secondly, God’s Word is life. Our God is the fountain of life. When God speaks His Word, life is in that Word.
In the past, I met two brothers who were scholars of Confucianism and Chinese philosophy. They had deeply researched ancient Chinese philosophy, and later they became Christians.
I asked them how they could believe in Christ when they were so scholarly and familiar with Chinese philosophy. Their lives were cultured and moral, and they had much knowledge.
On two different occasions, they gave me the same answer. They said that Chinese ancient writings are very deep and profound. Their teaching can give a person a cultured and refined life.
But there is a problem: such teaching tells you what you ought to do, but it gives you no power to do it. Even though you know what is good, the old life cannot perform it.
God’s Word is different. It tells us what we ought to do, and it gives us the power and life to do it. We can do it simply by living out His life.
This is a great difference. We must remember that God’s Word is life.
In John 5, the Lord said to the Jews:
Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of Me;
and ye will not come to Me, that ye may have life.
Men can research the Bible and become very familiar with it. But if they will not come to the Lord Himself, they will not have life.
The whole Bible is to give us Christ. When we touch the Word, we must touch life. If we touch life, then we touch God’s Word. Otherwise, we are merely touching the letters.
God’s Word is Christ. The whole Bible is for us to see Christ.
The Old Testament prophesies Christ, and the New Testament fulfils Christ. Whether it is prophecy, history, biography, or any other part of Scripture, the whole Bible is for us to see Christ.
If we read our Bible and only touch the outward matters without touching Christ, our study produces no result.
There is danger in reading prophecy merely because we are curious. We may become students of prophecy, and perhaps even become false prophets, if we read prophecy without touching Christ.
If we read history and merely see history without touching Christ, then our reading is empty. History is the history of our Lord Jesus.
As our brother shared this afternoon, we need to move from the written Word to the living Word.
After His resurrection, the Lord spoke to the disciples from Moses and all the prophets concerning Himself. Then their eyes were opened and they were enlightened.
When we touch the Word, we are indeed touching Christ. There is a personality there. It is not merely something objective or dead.
Another characteristic of God’s Word is that it is practical.
Sometimes we have the wrong conception that spiritual things are not practical. We may think that the more spiritual a person is, the less practical he becomes. But this is not true.
The most spiritual person is the most practical person. We cannot call something spiritual if it makes us less human. If you cannot be a proper man or woman, how can you be spiritual?
God’s Word is practical. God is the God of reality. He does not misuse His Word; there is reality in it.
In the New Testament, we often find teaching concerning truth in the first part of a book, followed by practical application in the second part.
For example, in Ephesians, the first three chapters bring us into the heavenly places. Then the latter part of the letter shows us how to walk practically in our daily lives.
God’s Word is not given for us merely to imagine, dream, or speculate. God’s Word is for us to live.
The Lord said that the one who hears His words and does them is like a man who built his house upon the rock. When rain, floods, and winds came, the house stood firm.
But the one who hears His words and does not do them is like a man who built his house upon the sand. Even a light rain can ruin that house.
These are the characteristics of God’s Word.
We have seen the importance of God’s Word. God has already spoken His Word to us, but in many ways we neglect it and take it lightly.
When we come to God’s Word, we need to take off our sandals and stand as His bondservants. We should say to Him, “Lord, speak, for Your servant is listening.”
Our God and Father, we praise You because You are the One who speaks. If You did not speak, we could never come to know You; we would be like those who are dead.
We thank You because You are the Word. When we come to You, we want to hear Your voice. We want to obey You.
We want You to work within us. We want to receive Your Word so that Your presence will always be with us.