Please turn to Romans 11:36.
For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things.
To Him be the glory for ever. Amen.
Please turn to the Gospel of John.
John 14:6:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
Zechariah 4:6:
Then He answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
Let us bow down and have a word of prayer.
Lord, we come to You with thanksgiving and praise. We thank You and praise You, Lord, for Your longsuffering.
Lord, we thank You for having given us another chance. We do not know how many more chances like this we can have. But Lord, we thank You because today, even today, You still give us this grace.
We dare not be careless before You. We prostrate ourselves before You, asking that You open our hearts and speak to us Yourself, for all Your word is spirit and life. Only Your word can save us and can bring us into Yourself.
Lord, our hearts desire You. We are willing that Your will may prevail in us, that when we see You, we can be without fear. It is all for Your own glory.
Lord, we entrust this time respectfully into Your hands. You are the One who does Your own things. Things people cannot do, You can do.
Although we are just like rocks, You are able to equip us well, that we may glorify Your name on this earth.
Lord, if You still have words to speak to us, speak. Your servants are here.
In the name of the Lord Jesus, amen.
Brothers and sisters, I have something deep in me: the longsuffering of God is our salvation.
When our Lord was on earth, He said to His disciples, “I shall return.” Even when we read Revelation, the Lord tells us that He will return. But today is the twenty-first century, and the Lord has not returned yet.
It is not that He is not willing to come back. Is there any bridegroom who does not want to have his bride soon? But the bride is not ready.
So, brothers and sisters, every day that we pass our life is the long patience of our God. He is not willing to see us unprepared. He gives us long years. We do not know how long He will have to wait.
Today we can still gather together. On the one hand, we feel ashamed; but on the other hand, we really thank Him. He loves us so much. He is not willing to see any one of us not perfected in His will.
So every time we gather together, I really thank the Lord. I thank Him for His patience. I thank Him for His grace.
I hope that we do not come to the Lord carelessly, but that we can all prostrate ourselves at His feet and let Him speak to our hearts. The words of men are useless, but the word of God is life and spirit.
I pray and hope that as we gather, we all can receive mercy before our Lord—whether we have received His grace for many years or have just been saved.
We hope that we can be well prepared by His grace, that not a single one will be left behind and not a single one will be shut outside the door. May we come to see the face of our Lord with joy.
This time, our theme is very important: all things are headed up, summed up, in Christ.
Because the will of God is to see His Son. In the eyes of God, He does not see all things in the air or on earth. He does not even see us who have been saved by grace. When He opens His eyes and looks around, He only sees His Son.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in each one of us, what He sees is not you, nor I, nor me. He sees Christ in every one of us.
His eternal purpose is for you and me to be conformed to the image of His Son. For us, there is nothing more important than this.
My responsibility and burden before the Lord is that we who have been saved by grace and called may understand this. Everyone who has been saved by grace is called.
We are saved not for ourselves. We are saved for the will of God. Therefore, when we are saved by grace, we have all been called to serve Him. To serve Him is to serve His will.
If there is one who serves you, how can he satisfy your heart? It is to be obedient. In all things, he hears your command. He does not do things by himself or according to himself, but serves you according to your pleasure and according to your will. This is a real servant.
The same is true with us today. We live for the sake of serving Him, and all our service has to be from Him and come out of Him. It must be done according to His will, not according to what we like, and not according to our own might.
For this reason, our service has to be out of revelation—not out of tradition, and not according to what pleases men, but according to the light and revelation of God. Then our service can be summed up in Christ.
This morning, we would like to go one step further. Not only must our service be out of Him; our service must be dependent on Him.
To be out of Him has especially to do with His will. To depend on Him has to do with the method, the way, and the power.
We all know that only that which comes out of Him can be returned to Him. This is a spiritual principle.
Even when God created man, He created Adam and brought all the animals before him. Adam assigned a name to every animal, but he could not find his mate.
So God put Adam to sleep, and out of his side He took something. The original language says that He took something out. Out of that which came from Adam, God made woman.
When God brought Eve before Adam, Adam said:
This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh.
So the two became one.
In spiritual principle, this ought to be the relationship between us and Christ. The church is the wife of the Lamb. It has to be something out of Him that can be returned to Him.
That which is not from Him will be rejected.
But, brothers and sisters, when we serve the Lord, not only must we do according to His will; our way, our method, and our power are things to which God pays attention. In our service, we have to depend on Him.
I think all of us remember the relationship between David and the ark. The ark represents the presence of God.
Israel, because of sin, could not overcome the Philistines when they came to attack. So they decided to bring the ark into their camp. They thought that if the ark was with them, God was with them, and they could overcome.
But they forgot that their life had no testimony and was totally inconsistent with the character of God. Because of this outward belief, they thought they could overcome the Philistines.
Men can deceive themselves, but they cannot fool God. God saw His own ark being taken captive. He would not bear a false testimony for the Israelites.
The people of God could not take care of the ark, but the ark would take care of itself. When the ark was in the midst of the Philistines, the punishment of God came upon them until they could not take it any longer.
They sent the ark back to the Israelites, but they did not know the method of God. They used a method which they thought was most respectful: they put the ark on top of a cart pulled by oxen.
They used two cows to pull the cart and tested whether the judgment they had suffered was truly from God. They shut up the calves at home and allowed the cows to go by themselves.
Though the cows cried for their calves, they brought the ark into the territory of Israel. The ark remained at Kiriath-jearim for twenty years. Through the work of Samuel, the Israelites began to turn back to God.
In the time of Saul, who was king for forty years, he never went to the ark to inquire. But when David was raised up, though he was fleeing from Saul, he remembered the ark.
If you read Psalm 132, you see the suffering of David. It is not speaking of his suffering as a refugee. It speaks of the pain in his heart as he thought about the ark of God.
He said that he would not go to his couch and would not close his eyes until he found a place for the ark of God. The ark was in the hill country of Ephraim, but David found it and wanted to come before it.
This was the heart of David. When he became king, he had a heart to bring the ark into the city of David. That heart pleased God, because the heart of God is that He wants to dwell among His people.
But regrettably, when David brought the ark into the city of David, he did not seek the method of God.
In 1 Chronicles 13, David spoke to the leaders of the army—the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds. He told them that they had to bring the ark back. So they gathered the people to receive the ark.
This was a wonderful thing. It was the right thing. But they did not seek the method of God.
They used the method of the Philistines and put the ark upon a cart. As they were bringing the ark from Ephraim, they came to the threshing floor, and the oxen stumbled.
The ark was about to fall, and Uzzah stretched out his hand to hold it. According to men, this seemed to be a good thing. How could they let the ark fall to the ground? But God struck Uzzah.
David was indignant. He thought, “I have such a good intention to bring the ark back. Why does God punish me so severely?” So he dared not bring the ark into his house. He placed it in the house of Obed-edom.
After three months, he heard that God had blessed that house. His heart turned.
When we come to 1 Chronicles 15, David remembered the Levites. The ark of God could not be put on a cart. That was not the method of God.
The ark of God was to be carried by the Levites on their shoulders. This is the way of God. David told the Levites to cleanse themselves. Then they put the ark upon their shoulders, and the ark came into the city of David.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is a great lesson: the will of God has to be accomplished according to the method of God.
The will of God cannot be accomplished by man’s method. Although David’s heart was pleasing to God, the method was condemned by God.
In spiritual service, not only must it be from God; it must also be through God, or dependent upon God.
What does it mean to depend on God? It is according to His way and according to His method. You cannot use man’s method to accomplish the will of God.
It may indeed be the will of God, and it may be acceptable to Him; but in order to accomplish that will, the way must be right. It is a way appointed by God.
In John 14:6, the Lord Jesus said:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
In this matter of service, our way has to be accurate. The method we use has to be the method that God has chosen. We cannot use the world’s way to accomplish the will of God.
Brothers and sisters, when we look at Christianity, we see many activities carried out according to the method of the world.
Because young people today like the methods of the world, some use drums and dancing in order to attract young people. They use such methods trying to bring men to God. Would God accept this?
Although this may be very successful in the world, is it valuable in the sight of God? Though you can deceive men for a moment, does it have any eternal value?
Dear brothers and sisters, the world of Christianity is really pitiful. We do not even need to speak of those whose faith is questionable. Many who have a very pure faith, in order to be successful, great, and glorious, use the ways of the world.
They try to use these things to bring men into the will of God, but this is totally opposite to the will of God. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have to cry before God for what God’s people have done in this world.
The will of God can only be done through God’s own way. We cannot use the method of man, because this is something God condemns.
We have to be pure and simple before God. We have to serve Him in His way.
This is not only in our life; it is also in our service. If you read Acts, you find that one hundred and twenty were praying when the Holy Spirit fell upon them. That was the beginning of the church.
The purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit is that in one Spirit we are baptized into one body. Originally, there were one hundred and twenty individual believers.
Though those one hundred and twenty were very spiritual people, though they prayed for ten days in one heart and one spirit, and though we may say it was the highest and most beautiful gathering in the world, they were still one hundred and twenty individuals.
Their gathering, after all, was still outward. Because they were one hundred and twenty separate individuals, though gathered together, the Holy Spirit baptized them into one body.
Now it was no longer a congregation of one hundred and twenty individuals. There was one body with one hundred and twenty members. This is the meaning of Pentecost.
Then three thousand were saved. In one body there were now three thousand one hundred and twenty members, and the Lord added to them daily. The Spirit of God moved freely, and the gospel was sent to other places.
Those who believed in the Lord gathered together. They continued in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, broke bread, and prayed.
When they broke bread, it meant that they completely belonged to the Lord and that they were members one of another. Their prayer was not individual prayer. Their prayer was like the prayer of many, yet it was like the prayer of one person.
Their life was totally changed. When people in the world saw them, what did they call them? They said, “Those are of the Way.”
In Chinese translation, “those who believe this way” may sound like a doctrine or a theology. But in the original language, this word means “the way.” It is not doctrine; it is the way.
They were people who walked in this way. In modern language, they lived in a particular way.
Every country has its own manner of life. The United States has its manner of life. The Chinese have their manner of life. The Jews have their manner of life, and the Gentiles have theirs.
But who were these people? They were Jews and Gentiles. They were free and slaves, learned and simple, high in society and low in society. Yet when they gathered together, they were like one man.
They had a manner of life that you could not find on earth. This was the heavenly way. This was the situation in Jerusalem and in Antioch. When people saw them, they did not know what to call them, so they called them people of the Way.
Not only was their manner of life different; their service was also different from ordinary men. They did not serve according to the manner of service of any country. They walked in a way which God had shown in His own word.
Today our service must be totally different from any service in any country. When people look for someone to do something, they consider how much he has learned and how able he is.
But in the way of serving the Lord, this is not what God pays attention to. In service, the question is how much place the Lord Jesus has in you.
If we want to find an example, our Lord Jesus, when He was on earth, had the most complete way of service.
When He was serving on earth, the will of God was His guidance. Not only did He do the will of God, but in everything He did, He first saw what the Father was doing.
You remember John 5:17:
My Father worketh even until now, and I work.
He could do nothing by Himself. He did what He saw His Father doing.
Today, when we serve the Lord, we have to follow the way of Christ. We cannot serve God according to man’s way.
What is the way of the Lord? What is the path of His service? It is very clear: the way of service for our Lord is the way of the cross.
When He was on earth, whatever He did, He rejected Himself. He asked only one question: “Where is the way of God?” If His way brought Him to the cross, He walked the way of the cross.
No matter how people saw Him or what people said, He only paid attention to what the Father would say. Whatever the will of God was, He would do.
Philippians 2 shows us the mind of the Lord Jesus. Though He was equal with God, He did not regard it as a thing to be grasped. He was God, and He was one with God. There was no need for Him to grasp it.
But He emptied Himself. The first thing He did when He came to earth was to empty Himself.
He is the fullness of God. All the fullness of God dwells in Him bodily. His majesty and His glory have no comparison. Yet He emptied Himself.
He could not empty Himself of His deity, because He is God. But He emptied Himself of glory, worship, and majesty. He put down all these things.
He took the form of a bondservant. This form is the inner character. When He came to be a man, within Him was the thought and mind of a bondservant.
What is the character of a bondservant? He has no rights. He has no freedom. He completely belongs to God.
When He took the form of man, He purposed in His own heart to be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Dear brothers and sisters, when our Lord Jesus was on earth, He walked the way of the cross. Today, if we want to serve according to the way and method of God, there is only one way: the way of the cross.
If we do not deny ourselves, take up our own cross, and follow the Lord, then no matter how able we are, we have gone the wrong way in serving the Lord.
Today, when we serve God, the question is how much of the mark of the cross is upon us. How much has the cross worked in you? To what extent has it put the self to death, so that you are completely under the mighty hand of God?
Paul said, “I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus.” Dear brothers and sisters, how much of the mark of the cross is upon you and me?
When people see us, do they see me—my wisdom, my knowledge, my ability? Dear brothers and sisters, all these are vanity of vanities.
God measures our service according to the mark and influence of the cross, because this is His way.
When we speak of God’s way for us to serve, we must pay attention to another thing: the way of God’s work on earth is the Body.
This is what God wants to obtain in His eternal purpose. He does not only want to gain each one of us. To gain us means that Christ is formed in you and me.
But further, what God wants is a Body—the church.
No single person is great enough to be compatible with Christ or to match Him. Christ needs a Body to express Himself.
Today, our service cannot be individual or merely by ourselves. Our service must be related to His church—not only for the church and in the church, but related to one another, helping one another and stirring up love.
Today we are not looking for spiritual giants, monuments standing above everybody else. No, we have to see a Body.
Brothers and sisters must work together to serve God, not individually doing “my work.” If that is what you do, then you are expanding your own kingdom. You are building the tower of Babel, not building the house of God.
You cannot do these things all by yourself. You cannot be apart from brothers and sisters. Whatever you do, it has to be for the house of God.
The service of the priests is inside the temple. If you leave the temple, then you sin.
In the book of Judges, there was a Levite who was the grandson of Moses. But he left the house of God because he wanted to find his own way. He became the priest of a family, and then he became the priest of a tribe.
Though the tabernacle was in Shiloh, this idolatrous service was in Dan in the north. These are things that hurt me.
We cannot leave the house of God and live. We cannot leave the house of God and serve. Our service has to be related to each other as members of the Body.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is a great temptation in our service. May the Lord have mercy on us. Only Christ is our way.
In service, how can we depend on Him and serve? Zechariah 4:6 says:
Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
We know that Zechariah saw a vision that night. He saw a golden lampstand, and he also saw two olive trees on the two sides of the lampstand.
Out of the olive trees came pure gold. This gold came through the tubes of the golden lampstand and became oil.
Zechariah said, “I do not understand.” God spoke to Zechariah. Every time there is a vision, there is a word afterward. What did God say? “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit.”
Zerubbabel at that time was rebuilding the temple. According to the testimony, this is represented by the golden lampstand, because the lampstand represents the church in Revelation 1.
What is the function of the lampstand? The golden lampstand is not an ornament in the temple for people to admire. The lampstand in the temple is to give light.
The purpose of the church is not for its own glory. The glory of the church is to lift up Christ, because Christ is the light.
But when you build the church, how can the church be built to emit light, to be the light of the whole world, and to maintain the testimony of Christ? You see the two olive trees.
These two olive trees supply the oil. This is very amazing. What comes out of the olive trees is gold, but when it comes into the lampstand, it becomes oil.
What is oil? Oil represents the Holy Spirit. Only through the Holy Spirit can the testimony of Christ shine brightly.
Not by your own might; not by your own power. It has nothing to do with your relationships. It is all according to the Spirit of the Lord.
If today you let the Holy Spirit work in you, what is the product of the Holy Spirit’s working? It is gold. What does gold represent? The nature of God and the character of Christ.
If we let the Holy Spirit work in us, He changes us within, and the stature of Christ is formed in us. These things are supplied to His church.
What comes out becomes oil, and that is the power of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in the way of service, you cannot depend on your own ability. You cannot depend on your own influence or your relationships. These things have to be put aside.
Only the Holy Spirit can build the church. The Holy Spirit in us produces pure gold, full of the life of Christ. When this life is supplied to the church, that is the ability and power of the Holy Spirit.
By this, we can accomplish the mission that God has entrusted to us.
Brothers and sisters, this is the way of service. On the one hand, we have to walk the way of the cross. On the other hand, we have to walk the way of the church. Third, we have to completely depend on the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is what it means to depend on Him. If we depend on Him, we will return to Him.
May the Lord encourage us through these words. May every one of us open ourselves before God.
Lord, shine in us. Save us, that we would not waste our whole life and that our service would not be rejected before God. May the Lord be exalted.
Let us pray.
Lord, we believe that if You speak, things are done.
Lord, may You use Your own blood to cover whatever word comes out of men. Whatever comes from You, may You anoint with oil.
We do not seek glory on this earth. We seek only Your smiling face. May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Glory, glory to You.
In the name of the Lord Jesus, amen.