Will you please turn to 1 Corinthians 4? We will read verses 1 and 2.
Let a man so account of us, as of servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Here, moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, as we gather here this morning, we thank You that Thou hast brought us into Thy inner chamber. There we behold Thy beauty; we partake of Thy life.
We enter into Thy secret counsel, and there we have heard Thy call: “Come, take up Thy stewardships of the mysteries of God in My household.”
O Lord, when we answer Thy call and come, we look to Thee to reveal Thy mind to us. We depend upon Thy grace to enable us to be faithful and prudent stewards of time.
For this end, we trust ourselves to Thee today. May Thy will be done in our lives. May Thy kingdom come, and may Thy name be hallowed in the midst of Thy home. We give Thee all the glory, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I do hope that these two simple verses in 1 Corinthians 4 will really be deeply inscribed upon each of our hearts.
Thank God for calling all of us—not just the apostles, not just a few, but all the redeemed of the Lord, all who have His life in them—all are called into the household of God and to take part in the management of that house.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we need to realize that each and every one of us is a steward. Not just a steward of any kind, but a steward of God’s eternal purpose, a steward of God’s household, and a steward of God’s estate. What an honor, and yet what a responsibility!
Yesterday morning, we spoke especially on this matter of the steward. This morning, we want to look together into this matter of stewardship.
A steward speaks of the person—the person who is called by God to take part in the management of His interests. And we are all called into that.
Even though we may have different gifts, even though we are apportioned to different responsibilities, let us remember one thing: it is not just a single gift, or a special appointment, or a special work that we are involved with.
We must remember that even though our gifts may be different, our places in the house of God may be different, and our responsibilities may be specific, yet we are all together as stewards in the household of God.
You know, we need a more comprehensive, overall vision or understanding of what we are entrusted with.
So this morning we would like to enter into this matter of stewardship. A steward speaks of the person; stewardship speaks of the responsibility.
We are all stewards. We are all in stewardship. But we need to understand: what is our stewardship? Or, to put it another way, what is it that God has entrusted to us?
Is it just a specific work of one kind? Is it that we are all serving God, each in our own way, faithful perhaps in that particular area, but forgetting that we are all involved in one stewardship?
There is an overall understanding that we must have. Otherwise, we will each be doing our own work. We may be faithful to that particular work, but it is all separated, individual, independent—not related, not together.
So I feel, brothers and sisters, that we need to have a real understanding of what stewardship is.
The Apostle Paul tells us that we are stewards of the mysteries of God. Now, brothers and sisters, this is what our stewardship is.
Our stewardship is not our particular gift. Our stewardship is not our particular work. Our stewardship is the mysteries of God. It is something far better, far greater, far more comprehensive than what we usually think.
Brothers and sisters, when we talk about stewardship, what is your real understanding?
We are all familiar with Matthew 28, that Great Commission.
You remember that when our Lord Jesus, before He left, gave us the Great Commission, He said:
All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you:
and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
When you read this Great Commission, what is your understanding?
I think, to most people, when we hear of this Great Commission that our Lord Jesus has committed to the church, we usually think of evangelism: go to the nations, evangelize, bring them into the salvation of the Lord. That is the Great Commission.
And thank God, throughout the generations and the centuries, for two thousand years, we find that the church has been trying to fulfill that Great Commission. We feel that we are called to go to the nations, evangelizing them, bringing them out of hell into heaven; and now our stewardship is done.
Thank God for that. I can never thank God enough for the missionaries that came to China and brought the glad tidings to us. It is great; it is necessary; it is important.
But, brothers and sisters, if you read this Great Commission very carefully, you will find there is not a word about evangelizing.
That does not mean that evangelizing is not important. It is very important, because without that, how can you disciple all nations? But that is the beginning.
Thank God that the church has heard and undertaken the Great Commission at its beginning, and for this we are most thankful. But everybody who reads this Great Commission can see that it is far more than just evangelizing.
The Lord said, “Go to the nations; disciple all nations.”
You know, when our Lord Jesus was on earth, He preached the kingdom of God: “Believe, and you shall be saved. Be born from above, and you shall enter into the kingdom of God.”
But at the same time, you find that while He was preaching, He called for disciples. He was discipling the nations.
What is discipling? It simply means: follow Him, learn of Him, become like Him. Not just saved, but saved to be like Him, taking up His character and growing up into sonship. That is what discipling means.
“Baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Why is baptism so important?
It is important because this is the beginning of true discipleship. It is the door by which you enter into being disciples of our Lord Jesus.
You know, in the old days, we did not have schools like we have today. So when you wanted to learn something, you had to be an apprentice.
If you were an apprentice, you did not stay at home. You left all your old environment behind. You left your home, your family, and your past, and you stayed with your master to be one of the master’s family.
Usually during the first year, if you were going to learn carpentry, your master would not even let you touch the instruments. He would ask you to hold his baby, serve him at his meals, sweep the floor, and do all these things. It seemed as if there was nothing to do with what you had come to learn.
It was only gradually that he would allow you to touch the instruments and teach you something. Why? Because he was discipling you.
Not only was he teaching you his skill—that was secondary—he was teaching you how to behave and how to be a man. That was the most important thing.
So, you know, oftentimes after you had been with your master for three years or more, you not only learned all his skills and became a master carpenter, but you learned his way. Oftentimes, you walked like your master, talked like your master, and thought like your master. You were almost like a duplicate of your master. Then you graduated.
And, dear brothers and sisters, that is the way of Christ with us. He saved us in order to disciple us. “Come, and follow Me.”
Then you find the disciples who left everything and followed Him. They were with Him day and night. They heard Him, watched Him, stayed with Him, and abided with Him.
And it all begins with being baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is baptism? Baptism is not just a ritual.
Some people ask the question, “If I believe in the Lord Jesus and am saved, what else is needed? The water will never cleanse me from my sins; it is the blood of the Lord Jesus. So why should I be baptized?”
But that is important, because baptism tells us that all our past was dead and buried. Now I rise up from the water, being alive in Christ Jesus.
I am being delivered from my past. It is no longer I; it is Christ who lives in me. So that is the beginning.
Only in that way are you able to be taught all the things that our Lord Jesus said He has commanded us. Otherwise, if He tries to teach you anything, you have your own ideas, and you will say, “My idea is better. I will stick to my former ways.” You will never learn.
You have to be dead to the past, dead to yourself completely, and walk in newness of life with a new mind, transformed. That is how you can be taught, learn, and really become like Christ.
Our Lord Jesus said, “I will be with you to the end of the age.” So when you read the Great Commission, what is the Great Commission that He has given to the church?
Why is it that we must be discipled? Why is it that we must be baptized? Why is it that we must learn all that He has taught us? Why? For what purpose?
The Lord said:
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church;
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
You are a little stone, a piece of the rock. Now you have life in you, and you need to be built upon Me and built with other small stones into My house, into My church. And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
So what is the Great Commission? The Great Commission is that we are all called to take up the stewardship of the mysteries of God.
This is the Great Commission. Anything less than that is below, is short of, the eternal purpose of God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, when we come into this matter of stewardship, I think first of all we need to realize what a stewardship this is.
He so loves us that He commits Himself totally to us. Our God, our Lord, is not just committing a little bit of Himself to us; He has committed Himself totally to us.
All the mysteries of God, all the secrets of God, all that are in the very heart of God, all that God has according to His good pleasure and purpose—even before the foundation of the world—all that He has been working throughout time, all that He is aiming at, all that He wants—He commits to the church. He commits it to us.
His commitment is total, and our stewardship is total. So, dear brothers and sisters, we need a larger vision.
Somebody asked me the question, “If I know what my gift is, if I am faithful to the gift that God has given me, if I am doing my bit of work as I understand it, do I still need vision? Do I still need a larger understanding?”
Certainly you do. Otherwise, what you are doing is independent; it is individual. It is not serving the whole counsel of God.
So it is absolutely important, dear brothers and sisters, that when we come to this matter of stewardship, first of all, we need to understand it.
Even though we are doing our little bit, that little bit is not isolated. It is not a work by itself. It is not its own objective.
It is a part of the greater plan of God. It is a part of the eternal purpose of God. It is a part of the mysteries of God.
Now, if you see it, I wonder how you will react. Do you see that we are involved in something so immense, so eternal, so spiritual, so all-inclusive? Even the mysteries of God have been entrusted to us.
We are to keep, we are to possess, we are to serve, we are to fulfill, and we are to realize. What a stewardship that is!
Do not think that it is a little bit of work that God has entrusted to you. Even though it may be small in human eyes, it is a part of the mysteries of God that God has entrusted to the church and to each and every one of us.
So, dear brothers and sisters, first of all, we need to ask the Lord to really open our understanding, granting us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may really know Him.
Without that, all our works will be in vain. We may think that we are serving God, but we may be like Saul of Tarsus, doing God a great disservice—not until, on the road to Damascus, he saw the Lord, and that changed his ministry.
So this morning, we would like to go into this matter of the stewardship of the mysteries of God.
You notice here that the Apostle Paul talks about the mysteries of God. It simply means God’s secrets.
God has called us into His inner chamber, and there He will reveal His secrets to us. He has many secrets, but all these secrets are related.
This morning, we would like to share a little on the fourfold secret of God—four aspects of the mysteries of God to which we have all been called to manage, to keep, and to work faithfully in them.
First of all, will you please turn to Ephesians 1? We will read verses 9 and 10.
Making known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him
unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ,
the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth.
Also, Colossians 2, verses 2 and 3:
That their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love,
and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding,
that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ,
in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.
What is the mystery of God? We are clearly being told that the secret of God is none other than Christ. Christ is the mystery of God.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, and we are complete in Him.
In other words, if you want to know God, know Jesus. If you do not know Christ, you will never know God. God is the greatest unknown, the greatest mystery.
You may search for Him, but you cannot find Him. He is so infinite, so immense, so high that He is beyond any human mind and beyond any searching by man.
You remember how our Lord Jesus said:
No one knoweth the Son, save the Father;
neither doth any know the Father, save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him.
God is the greatest mystery in the universe. But one day, that secret came out.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us
(and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father),
full of grace and truth.
No one has ever seen God, but the Son has declared Him. All that you want to know about God is in Christ Jesus. Outside of Him, there is no knowledge of God.
Philip said to the Lord, “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. We shall be satisfied.”
And you know what our Lord said? He must have said it with a very sad heart: “Philip, you have seen Me. You have been with Me for so long, and you still have not seen the Father? Do you not know that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father? If you see Me, you see the Father.”
That is the only place where you can know God. The mystery is here, dear brothers and sisters.
Everything you want to know about God, you will find in Christ. If you try to find God outside of Christ, you are lost.
That is what happened to the Colossian believers. They believed in the Lord Jesus, they wanted to become complete, they wanted to be full, and they were led to something other than Christ—Christ plus—and they lost it.
Our Christ is the One whom we need to know throughout our life, and life is too short for that. Even in eternity, we will continue learning Christ, because He is the infinite One. There is no end to it.
Are you satisfied with the Christ that you know? As our brother Sparks often said, “You make Christ little, as if you are able to comprehend Him.” He is far beyond every one of us. There is always something more to learn of Him, because God is infinite.
And He has entrusted this ministry to the church.
We who have received the stewardship of the mystery of God, what is it that we are really managing today?
If you were here at this morning’s prayer time, our brother mentioned this matter of the testimony of Jesus. And this is what it is.
Because Christ is the mystery of God, God has committed the testimony of Jesus to the church. We are here to bear witness to Christ Jesus.
The Lord said, “You have been with Me for so long. When the Holy Spirit comes, He shall bear witness of Me, and you too shall bear witness of Me.”
So we are the holders, as it were, of the testimony of Jesus.
Now, when you come to the book of Revelation, you find again and again the testimony of Jesus. John the apostle was exiled to the island of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus. Throughout the ages, you will find people who have the testimony of Jesus.
Even the whole prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. We have the testimony of Jesus. Now, do we really have it? We are supposed to have it, but do we really have it?
What is the testimony of Jesus? The whole Bible is the testimony of Jesus. Let us try to condense it, perhaps, into one or two sentences.
Will you please turn with me to Revelation 1, verses 17 and 18? John, on the island of Patmos, had a vision of the risen Lord.
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead.
And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not;
I am the first and the last, and the Living One;
and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore,
and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
This is the testimony that our Lord Jesus testified of Himself. He said, “I am the first and the last, and the Living One.”
That refers to the past, to eternity. He is the first, and He is the last. He is the first in the sense that He is the beginning of all things. He is the last in the sense that He is the end, the aim, of all things.
He must have the preeminence in all things. All things come by Him, through Him, and to Him. That is what He is.
And He is the Living One. In other words, He is life. Before Him there was no life; outside of Him there is no life. He is the Living One, the only One who lives forever.
Brothers and sisters, this is what our Lord Jesus’ testimony is. Now, is this true to us? Is He the first in our life?
It is easy to say, “Lord, You are the first.” But is it true? Is it ourselves first—me first, my family first, my interests first, or even my church first?
Who is really the first in your life? Who begins everything in what you do? Does He have the preeminence in your life, in my life? Do we allow Him to begin everything, or do we begin something and ask for His approval?
He is the first, and He is the last—not the last one, but the final One. Everything ends up with Him. It is for Him, for His glory, not for ourselves.
Who has the testimony of Jesus? The one who really allows Christ to be the first and to be the last, and all within; and one who really knows Him as the Living One, living by His life.
Now, that is the testimony of Jesus. The testimony of Jesus is not just a word. There is power; there is reality behind the word.
Therefore, in Revelation 12, they overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb. They are not perfect, but they know the blood of the Lamb—the power of the precious blood of our Lord Jesus.
And they overcome by the word of their testimony, because behind their word is the reality that Christ is the first and the last in their life, and they live by the life of Christ. So that word has power to overcome Satan.
That is from eternity to the time that our Lord Jesus came into this world and said, “Behold, I became dead.”
That Living One became dead. How can it be? Because the Word became flesh and tabernacled among men.
He came to be the Son of Man, a new beginning. And He came for the purpose of dying on the cross on our behalf.
He came to die in order that we may live. That is what He did, and that is what we have experienced.
Then, “Behold, I am living unto the ages of ages.” He is resurrected. Hallelujah! He has gone into death, robbed death of its power, came out victorious in resurrection, and He lives forever and forever.
Do we know Him? Do we know the power of His resurrection, overcoming everything? And He holds the keys of death and Hades.
The gates of Hades shall not prevail against the church. Dear brothers and sisters, this is the testimony of Jesus, and this is the testimony that has been entrusted to us.
We are the custodians; we are the managers. We are here to see to it that we ourselves are in it, faithful and prudent, and that many more may be brought into that same testimony.
Now, this is the stewardship of the mystery of God.
Number two: will you please turn to Ephesians 3? We will read verses 9 through 11.
And to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery
which for ages hath been hid in God who created all things;
to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places
might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God,
according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The mystery of God is Christ. The stewardship is the testimony of Jesus.
The mystery of Christ, as we find in Ephesians 3:4—Paul said, “By which, when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ.” So what is the mystery of Christ? The mystery of Christ is the church.
If you want to know Christ, there is only one way to know Christ: know Christ through the church, just as you are not able to know God except through Christ Jesus.
It is all-inclusive. The same thing is true: how will the world know about Christ? Through the church.
The church opens up the mystery of Christ, that the whole world may know who Christ is.
That is the reason why the church is called the Christ. You will find this in 1 Corinthians 12:12.
For as the body is one, and hath many members,
and all the members of the body, being many, are one body;
so also is Christ.
Now, we often think that by the description of this verse—the body is one and has many members; many members, yet one body—we would say, “So also is the church.” And that is true. It is the church.
The church is the body of Christ. It is one, and yet has many members. Even though there are so many members, it is one body under one Head, Christ Jesus.
But the Spirit of God said, “So also is Christ,” because the church is the Christ. In other words, the church is none other than Christ Himself in all of us.
It is like when God prepared a bride for Adam. Adam could not find his bride in any of the living creatures. No matter how intelligent or how great they were, he could not find one.
So God said, “I will make him a helpmeet like him.” God put him to sleep. Out of his side, He took something, and from that which was taken out of Adam, He made Eve.
When she was brought to Adam, immediately Adam recognized, “This is me—bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.”
Brothers and sisters, it is a type. The antitype is Christ and the church.
When our Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, the soldier took his spear and thrust it through His side, into His heart.
Out of that broken heart came the last bit of blood and water. John said, “I witnessed it, and my witness is true.” Why?
Because out of the blood of our Lord Jesus, out of the life of our Lord Jesus, He made His bride—His body today, His bride.
Brothers and sisters, we are entrusted with this mystery. We are here on earth with a mission, with a trust from God Himself: to build the church.
That is our mission. We are to see that the body of Christ is being built.
It is not a matter of our personal spirituality. God does not want monuments; He wants a house. He does not want individual giants; He wants a body—the body of Christ.
It is our responsibility to allow the Holy Spirit to use us to build that body.
So what is the stewardship? If you read Ephesians 4, you will find that we ought to keep diligently the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
We need to fellowship with one another in spite of differences. We need to be under the headship of Christ.
We must hold fast the Head, that all the members may be united together and minister one to another for the building up of the body in love.
This is our stewardship of the mystery of Christ. Dear brothers and sisters, are we fulfilling it? Are we faithful and prudent stewards of God’s household?
Number three: 1 Timothy 3, verses 15 and 16.
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness;
He who was manifested in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit,
seen of angels,
preached among the nations,
believed on in the world,
received up in glory.
The third aspect of the mystery of God is the mystery of godliness. What is godliness? Godliness simply means being like God.
We have the life of God in us, and it is the will of God that that life should grow more and more into conformity to the image of God’s beloved Son. This is what the church is. This is our testimony.
You know, as you read these two verses, most people think, “Why is it that the translator put the word God in it?” Because in the original, it is just “who,” and they do not know who this is.
If you read on, you will find: who except God Himself? That is true. But if you really read the preceding verse, what is the antecedent of verse 16?
The mystery of godliness is great. What does that mystery of godliness refer to? God is God. There is nothing strange about God being godly. But here you find the mystery of godliness. Why the mystery?
Because it was something unknown before, impossible, but now made possible. So what is the mystery of godliness? If you read the former verse, it talks about the church. The church is the mystery of godliness.
If you read all the description there: manifested in flesh. The church is heavenly in nature, but it is manifested in flesh upon this earth.
It has been justified in the Spirit. In one Spirit we were baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
It has appeared to angels. The angels look at the church and wonder. They learn from the church the manifold wisdom of God—what God has done in this group of lost and fallen men, and how God can make them like Christ. Is that not marvelous?
It has been preached among the nations. Now we will say, “You do not preach the church. If you preach the church, you get across. We preach Christ, and you get the church.”
But thank God, so far as the world is concerned, the world should know what the church is. It has been believed on in the world.
In the early church, you find people looking at the church and saying, “Who are they?” “They are Christians.” They were attracted, and they believed.
It has been received up in glory. The church is here in the wilderness, on a journey. We are going to glory.
Brothers and sisters, this is the mystery of godliness, and this is entrusted to us. How are we going to fulfill that trust?
In 1 Timothy 4:8-9:
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.
Brothers and sisters, how can we fulfill the trust and responsibility of managing this mystery of godliness unless we exercise godliness in our daily life?
We know how to exercise our physical body. We are being told again and again how important it is that we should exercise for our health and for our well-being.
But the Bible says, yes, it profits us a little; but exercise godliness. It is not only for now, but for eternity.
Brothers and sisters, how can we exercise godliness? By cooperating with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit within us teaches us in all things.
If we obey the teaching of the anointing within us, we abide in Christ. By abiding in Christ, we become like Him. This is our responsibility. We must do it.
Finally, the fourth aspect: Ephesians 6:19.
And on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me
in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.
Then Colossians 1, beginning with verse 24:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,
and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh
for His body’s sake, which is the church;
whereof I was made a minister, according to the dispensation of God
which was given me to you-ward, to fulfil the word of God,
even the mystery which hath been hid for ages and generations,
but now hath been manifested to His saints,
to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom,
that we may present every man perfect in Christ;
whereunto I labor also, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily.
There is the mystery of the glad tidings, the mystery of the gospel.
People never thought of the gospel that God has prepared for men. It is beyond human understanding. To men, they think it is foolishness; it is weakness. But to us, the cross is the wisdom of God and the power of God. Wonderful!
And Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Brothers and sisters, these are the various aspects of the mysteries of God. And God so loves us, He has such faith that He entrusts all to us. What a responsibility!
Who can fulfill this task? Thank God, we cannot, but He can. This is where grace comes in.
It is a mystery. God’s grace is so immense, so manifold, so complete, that He is able to work in us all that He has entrusted to us.
To God be the glory. Amen.
Dear Lord, we bow in worship that Thou shouldst have such faith in us.
Because Thou hast faith in us, Lord, we are unworthy, but Thy love has constrained us. We are willing.
Use us to fulfill that eternal purpose. In Thy name. Amen.