I suppose it was maybe almost ten years ago. Seems like it. The Lord had put it on Brother Christian Chen’s heart to produce this hymnal in English, Christ in Song. He had given some lectures on hymnody, and it was such a blessing that brothers came from several quarters, including Ben Hebert and others. They wanted to put together a hymnbook of Christ, and I was invited into this wonderful venture. It was a precious thing.
I remember we came together, and Christian Chen—I do not know how big his brain was, but so much stuff oozed out. We were gathering songs we wanted to sing, and one day Brother Christian simply said, “I have a poem from Frida Allen called ‘Set Apart’: ‘Chosen vessels, empty, weak, and small.’”
He gave us the little background. Frida Allen wrote this poem for Jessie Penn-Lewis’s birthday. Jessie Penn-Lewis had been a very powerful woman used in Great Britain in spiritual warfare. Frida Allen had written a song dedicated to her because—I do not know why this is, but it seems to be the case—all spiritually powerful women are short.
Jessie Penn-Lewis was another sister, short in stature and large in spirit. So she wrote:
Chosen vessels, empty, weak, and small,
But bearing heaven’s greatest treasure,
Christ, the Lord of all.
What a wonderful seeing. Christian showed us the poem, and we all looked at it and said, “Hey, that is a great poem.” Then he said, “Okay, Dana, write the music.” So that is how we got the song in the book.
But that is who we are. Now think about it. On this earth, our Father wants people to see His greatest treasure: Christ on earth. And all He has is weak vessels. If He can set us apart—sanctify us—in such a way that we can bear heaven’s treasure, this is the highest of callings.
So that on this earth, even while Jesus is gone from us for a little while, people can say, “I see Jesus. I hear Jesus.” This is our highest calling and our ministry.
I was so helped by the ministries that our brother Stephen gave thirty years ago, in 1990, which we now have transcribed, as we mentioned already. There is an extra added blessing, because I have heard Brother Stephen for so long that, when I read these books, I slow down to Stephen Kaung speed, and I can almost hear his voice speaking the words. It was so living back thirty years ago, and when I do that, it is living again.
I must say also that when I read Brother Lance’s books, I slow down to Lance Lambert speed, put a little English accent in my digital setting, and I can hear Brother Lance speaking.
I met Brother Nee—never in person. But in college, somebody—I was in a Baptist college—handed me a book as if it were illegal, out of his pocket, and stuffed it over to me. I opened this book by Watchman Nee.
Now, I did not hear our brother’s voice. I do not know what he sounded like, but I heard the Lord. Because of my hunger and love, I have read every one of Watchman Nee’s books that has been translated into English. There are others that are still in Chinese, but I read everything I could get in English, because I doubt there was any one of his books in which I was not able to hear the Lord.
In a sense, this is what we are about. Our ministry of the Word should come to the place where people can hear Jesus through us. In order to do that, He has to fit our character to the Word that is spoken.
So we gather for these sessions together. I am so encouraged, especially seeing a younger generation who really want to serve the Lord. I want to speak about matters that we have already read in our studies and in the books, but also some things I have felt impressed to share tonight as we are together.
I would like for you to turn to 2 Corinthians 4. Our brother, God willing, will share some things tomorrow morning on the matter of the new covenant ministry. I just want to pick up a few verses and a few simple thoughts from chapter 4.
It is a shame at times that we have chapter divisions, because this is still talking about new covenant ministry. It still has to do with a veil being taken away and the glory of Christ being seen as the gospel is preached by the apostle Paul.
We find here in 2 Corinthians 4:1-7:
Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not:
but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully;
but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish:
in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving,
that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, Who shined in our hearts,
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
Lord, we just want to come and pause, that we may be able to hear Your voice as the Word is ministered tonight. Do speak to our hearts, Lord Jesus. We know that the ministry of the Word is much more a matter of touching the heart than touching the mind.
So speak to us, Lord, regarding this ministry and this life that we have in the new covenant. We thank You, Lord, for being with us throughout the day. Now quicken our mortal bodies once again for this time of ministry. We pray in Jesus’ precious name.
You remember that we said in the introduction of this book, newly given to us regarding the ministry of the Word by Brother Kaung, that he mentioned five necessary qualifications to be a minister of the Word. Do you have them memorized by now?
Well, salvation is first. Then he mentioned consecration. Then sanctification. Then brokenness. Then anointing.
As he mentioned in the book, four of those five are the Lord’s doing. We cannot save ourselves, but consecration is something for which we are responsible.
I want to speak some simple things. I am going to call this the two consequences of consecration.
Consecration always brings us back, it seems, to Romans 12. Everybody by now has quoted it already this afternoon and even tonight. Paul urges us to offer our whole lives as a living sacrifice to the Lord.
I want to take this matter of consecration and show two special consequences of consecration as it applies to our lives.
Consecration is a very important step in our Christian life. Many of us, when we were saved, totally gave in to the Lord. Perhaps when we were baptized, we sensed a new consecration. Maybe at some time in college, we once again saw the greater cost and the greater call, and consecrated ourselves.
There are moments when we need to get on the altar and lay before the Lord. But consecration should also be a daily experience, where we offer ourselves to the Lord for His use and for His working in our lives.
Consecration is something for which we are responsible, but it is not really self-initiated, is it? Paul introduces this matter by saying, “Therefore I beseech you by the mercies of God.”
What is he saying? I hope we can grasp this. Because he begins that sentence with “therefore,” he is really saying, “Everything I have already spoken about in Romans—if you understand what I have just said about your salvation, your sanctification, your exchanged life, your freedom of living in the Spirit, and your predestination to be conformed to the image of God—then offer yourselves.”
If you understand that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and if you understand what Paul spoke in Romans 9, 10, and 11—where he was taking up Israel, but making a bigger point—then you should understand that God takes a chosen vessel and forms it the way He wants to.
Do not talk back to the Potter. You are just the clay.
He uses Israel as an example of a nation chosen by God that, because of disobedience, was going through severe discipline. But he comes to the end of those chapters to say, in effect, “Oh, the greatness of the kindness and severity of God.”
His mercy means, “You are Mine. I have chosen you, and I will not let you go until I have fitted you for My purpose, until I have conformed you to the image of Christ. Since I have chosen you, I have permission to discipline you—to do whatever is necessary to bring you to the place where you come to your proper end.”
Then he says, “Therefore I beseech you by the mercies of God.” He is bringing all of that in: both the wonder of our predestination, the wonder of our salvation, and the fear of His discipline.
In light of all that, offer yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. Do you really know that you are chosen? Do you really understand that there is nowhere else you can go? You cannot slip away. He does not forget about you. He wants to mold you and shape you into the conformity of His Son.
So, based on that: “O Lord, I am chosen. Lord, have Your way in my life.”
When we offer ourselves in consecration, we lay down our lives before the Lord. But we do not always realize what the very first consequence of our consecration is.
What is the first consequence of consecration, following the context of Romans 12? The first thing we find is that after we have consecrated ourselves, there is no longer merely “me.” There is “us.” There is one body.
At the beginning of Romans 12:1, Paul says, “Present your bodies.” We have 110 guys here—110 bodies. If we all consecrate ourselves, we become one body.
So the first consequence of consecration is that we are called. I do not think we realize that. This matter of calling is so nebulous.
To me, as a Baptist, calling was very specific. When I got saved and called, I got called to be a preacher. That was all you could do. Either you were a preacher or you were a missionary. You had two choices.
It was like a professional, full-time calling: “Oh, I am a preacher,” or, “I am a missionary.” But today, in the body of Christ, we say, “Yeah, I am called.” Well, what are you called to? “Gee, I do not know. I am called, you know. I am called.”
But it is something much more explicit than that.
Every brother who consecrates himself finds himself in a very definite calling. Did you know you have a definite calling?
We do not know whether it is apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, or teacher. It may not be any of those, but it is still a specific calling. Paul says to the Ephesians, who are living in the body of Christ, “I want the Lord to open the eyes of your heart, that you might see first of all what is the hope of your calling.”
What is your calling? You discover that in the body of Christ.
How will you know your calling? Does the Lord send you an email and say, “You are an evangelist”? No. But in the body of Christ, you find that when you do the work of an evangelist, there is something there.
The dynamics of consecration are that your calling begins to be worked out. If you understand that you are now a member of the body of Christ, then ask the Lord, “Lord, enlighten my heart so I might understand what is the hope of my calling. What is my calling? What are You after? How can I serve You, Lord?”
Paul says that by revelation the Lord will make that known to us.
Our brother mentioned—and it is very important to say this—that when he is talking about calling to ministry, there are actually two aspects of it in the New Testament.
There is the special calling of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Turn to Ephesians 4:11-12. In that passage we find both aspects of our specific calling.
Paul speaks about the wonder of Jesus, Who ascended on high and distributed gifts unto men. Then he comes to verse 11:
And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ.
He does speak about these specific workers: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. But these are men who have developed a measure of Christ in such a way that the Lord uses them to equip the saints.
Do you see that? These men have been sent to the church to equip the saints.
You can imagine that apostolic band with the apostle Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke, each one ministering in this worker capacity—some more shepherds, some more prophets, and some as evangelists. But what they do is equip the brothers and sisters in Thessalonica.
What is the purpose of equipping them? So they become holy? So they become a bride prepared? Yes, all these things. But He equips them so that they can minister in the body of Christ.
So the second category of calling, roughly speaking, is the equipping of the saints, who will then do the work of ministry to build up the body of Christ.
Our great mistake today is that we have these so-called workers who tend to do all the preaching and all the equipping, and nobody is building up the body of Christ except them.
But the fact is that men like apostles and prophets were often traveling from place to place. After the saints had been equipped, they could leave town, and those equipped in Thessalonica would continue to build up the body of Christ through ministry.
Everyone who is consecrated into the body of Christ has a calling. It is a calling to build up the body of Christ in some manner or another.
Originally, these workers were trained by the Lord Himself and by those helped by the twelve apostles. But after that, these workers—apostles and so forth—were built up in the assemblies.
As men gained spiritual stature, Christlike character, and developed the gifts that God had given them, their sphere increased. Paul talks about our measure of Christ and our sphere of ministry.
We need more such workers today: men whose level of ministry causes the Lord to send them here and there to equip saints in various places.
But that does not work unless, in the body of Christ, we have those who are ministering in the body whether workers are present or not—so that all the saints can be built up together in the body of Christ.
The challenge I bring to us tonight is that in our assemblies there are too few consecrated brothers who take their calling seriously.
As I mentioned this morning, I believe there are two basic reasons for this. I want to blow up both of these false reasons so that we can understand the importance of our calling.
The first reason we do not understand this personal calling in the body of Christ is that we have basically understood consecration as a personal matter. As one brother shared this afternoon, it is personal. We need individually to lay our whole lives before the Lord.
But the fact is that one who offers up his spirit, soul, and body to the Lord immediately discovers that he is in the body of Christ, as Romans 12 makes clear.
You wake up, and here you are in one body with brothers and sisters, connected by the Spirit. You have been given a measure of faith and a measure of grace.
As you live in that body, when you see a need arise, you try to address the need. Somebody comes into your midst and does not know the Lord—you share the Lord with them. Somebody is sick and needs help—you bring them food and pray for them. You see things in the body, and by the grace of God you try to meet the need.
When you feel that in your heart, by the grace of God and by the measure of faith you have, you begin to minister. We see this in Romans 12, as Paul lists some gracious outpourings in the body of Christ. These are brothers and sisters who have been saved, but everybody has received something.
And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, let us use them:
if prophecy, according to the proportion of our faith;
or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry;
or he that teacheth, to his teaching;
or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting:
he that giveth, let him do it with liberality;
he that ruleth, with diligence;
he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.
This is not an exhaustive list, but these are examples of how we, as members of the body of Christ, begin to minister by the grace of God.
Did you notice that three of those seven ministries are ministries of the Word? He who prophesies, he who teaches, and he who exhorts. The Word—the ministry of the Word—is very important in the body.
There are other ministries: giving, showing mercy, and other things. But there is an importance and priority in the ministry of the Word.
The Lord desires to speak through His consecrated vessels. If you look in 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul again lists—not exhaustively—nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, did you notice that five of them are verbal gifts?
There is the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, prophecy, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues. These are verbal gifts. It is simply to say how important it is that there be the ministry of the Word of God to build up the body of Christ.
Then when Paul comes to 1 Corinthians 14, he opens it by saying:
Follow after love; yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
He is probably speaking of prophesying in the more general sense of speaking God’s Word. He is saying, “Dear brother, above all things, your desire, as you love the Lord and want to serve Him, is to prophesy—to speak God’s Word to build up the body of Christ.”
Well, your number one should really be to pursue love. If you minister but do not have love, it will be a clanging cymbal and a lot of emptiness. So pursue love. But having pursued love, of all the ministries needed, the ministry of prophecy—the ministry of the Word spoken forth—is of the highest essence.
Specific calling comes out of our life in the body of Christ. For a man, it may very well be a verbal gift. Sometimes we know brothers in every assembly who do not have a speaking gift, but they have other manifestations of God’s Spirit and God’s grace. Thank God for that.
Still, we want to underscore the importance of this calling to be a minister of the Word of God.
The second reason I believe that this calling has been de-emphasized is that there has been a serious misconception evolving over church history: that calling to ministry is a full-time job.
That is, if you are called a minister, you are called to be a pastor or a full-time worker, however you want to call it. But this is clearly not what is in the Bible.
People do not take calling seriously because they say, “No, no, no. I am not called to full-time service. I am a doctor. I am a lawyer. I am an engineer. I am not called to ministry.”
But we are not talking about professional, paid ministry with a title and a position. We are talking about a life of the Lord, called to speak for the Lord in the assembly.
Basically, as I already said and will say again, we are all called to full-time ministry. All of us are called, and this is not just a saying.
We do not realize that we are called to full-time ministry.
Can you turn down the volume on that? All right.
Called to the ministry. Full-time ministry. Whatever that ministry may be.
I do not want you to be ashamed or hesitate to say, “I have a calling in the body of Christ.” It may not have a title. You may not be called an apostle. You may not have a salary involved with it. But it gives glory to the Lord when people give themselves to the Lord, and their ministry is vital because they do it out of love for the Lord.
Peter says, “Take care of that flock, not for money; not because you are constrained and have to do it; not for some bad motive.” We are to serve the Lord out of love. We all need that full-time calling.
I remember several years ago, when we had a smaller group in Manhattan, Brother Lance came through and spoke to us. He gave a wonderful, very straightforward message. He was received well by all the saints, but we had a couple of wise guys. By that I mean these guys were Christians, but they thought they were pretty cool and pretty smart.
One of these wise guys walked up to Brother Lance and said, “Brother, what do you really do? I mean, when you are not preaching and speaking and traveling around, what is your real job?”
You know the common understanding: preachers do not do anything. They sleep all day or play golf. Then Sunday comes, and they come up with some message. They are basically useless to this world. This is the idea.
My brother made that little quip, and he had a smile. He said, “Well, what is it you really do?”
Lance stood up to his full height and said, “I am a servant of the Lord.”
The brother was stunned by the humanity and feeling that came out when Lance said that. For better or worse, profitable or unprofitable, he knew one thing: he was a servant of the Lord, and he was not ashamed to say so.
I fear that we are ashamed to say that we are ministers of the Word of God. I do not think it is appropriate to be ashamed of that at all if God has called us to it.
Oh, how we need workers today. We hardly have any.
How are workers going to be raised up unless, in the body of Christ, we take this ministry of God’s Word seriously and allow gifts and ministry to develop in the character of Christ, in a fuller measure of Christ, until their sphere can be expanded?
Listen: your fellowship is the Lord’s seminary.
I went to a seminary. The seminary believed two things: in order to be a minister, you need to be saved and consecrated. I never heard a thing about sanctification, brokenness, or anointing.
We always prayed for anointing. Nobody knew what it was.
That was all they taught because we did not learn character in seminary. We learned how to make up a sermon. We learned how to counsel people with psychology and such things.
I will not go into the whole thing. There was some value in learning the biblical languages and some things like that. There were wonderful things.
But all in all, God’s seminary is for those who have been enrolled by consecration. He wants us to take this seriously as we grow to be men of God in this world.
How seriously do you take your call? Is it part-time? Voluntary? “Yeah, I think I have something to share. I do not know. Oh, I am sorry, brothers, I could not get it together. I was busy yesterday. We had a softball game.”
When you are not getting paid, you do not think it is important. But you are getting paid. You have a reward in heaven for laying down your life and serving the Lord for nothing. It is a great reward.
Because we do not realize our calling, I do not think we take it seriously. This professional idea of calling has held us back. I want you to hear His voice when He calls you into this ministry of the Word of God.
Now listen: there are always a couple of brothers who think they are called to the ministry, and it is awfully hard, but somehow we get around to telling them, “Brother, sit down.”
Then there are brothers who are called to the ministry, but they are afraid ever to grow or develop, and we are always having to kick them in the seat of the pants.
There is a very famous Baptist story. In the great First Baptist Church in Dallas, one of the biggest Southern Baptist churches, there was a man in the late nineteenth century who was a lawyer. He was busy lawyering, as all lawyers do.
Every once in a while, they would ask him to speak when the pastor went away on vacation. Every time he spoke, he electrified the people. People got saved.
Finally, the deacons had to go to him and say, “Brother, you are called to be a minister.” He said, “No, I am not. I am a lawyer.”
They said, “You had better check with God about it, because we think you are called to be in ministry.”
Finally, he honestly asked, and the Lord said, “Yes, you are called to be a minister.” He became the most powerful minister in that First Baptist Church in Dallas, and all along he thought he was a lawyer.
But he had been trained by God. There was something in him. It was a gift. There was character in his life, and there was immediate response when he spoke.
He did not understand because, again, the Baptists had that limited thing: you are either a missionary or a pastor.
I am not calling you to be a pastor. But God is calling you, if you consecrate your life, into some form of ministry in the body of Christ that you need to be about full-time.
I will have to explain that a little more next time, because that is the first burden I want to share: that we take our ministry of the Word of God with all the seriousness of a divine calling.
The second thing I want to speak about is a second consequence of consecration, which we read in at least two of the books we were to study. It is this: true consecration, with a life laid upon the altar, gives the Holy Spirit permission to discipline, separate, break our self-life, and do anything else necessary to make us useful to the Lord.
Did you realize that when you consecrated yourself, you gave the Lord permission?
The story of seeing ourselves laid on that altar as a living sacrifice is incomplete unless you understand what it meant to those former Jews. When you lay yourself on the altar, the fire of the Spirit comes down.
He quickens life in you that enables ministry, but that fire also begins to work on that vessel. As a living sacrifice consecrated to the Lord, the Holy Spirit has been given permission. You wrote it. There it is. You signed your name on the bottom. Now the Holy Spirit will fill in what He plans to do.
We heard some testimony in this afternoon’s messages about how fearful a thing this seems to be. But what you will discover is that the more you sacrifice, surrender, and give yourself to the Lord, the freer you become.
It is a glorious liberty. We live by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. When we are laid upon the altar and the Spirit has a burning in our lives, how men need the Spirit’s burning in their lives.
It is a wonderful burning, but there is cost, dealing, discipline, the cross, and all of that kind of thing.
In this matter, I have never heard this anywhere else outside of Brother Nee and Brother Stephen Kaung, as they shared on the ministry of the Word.
I do not know if you remember, but within two pages of the beginning of the book, our brother, thirty years ago, opened The Ministry of God’s Word by Watchman Nee. He started reading parts of it—fragments—and then annotating with his comments.
What that part was all about was this: the Lord desires to use human, earthen vessels to minister His Word.
We know that in the Old Testament, in former times, God spoke through various vessels—various prophets, even Balaam. He spoke His Word because He wanted the Word to be heard upon the earth.
Before judgment came, before blessing came, before a promise came, He wanted the Word to come forth. In the Old Testament, in various ways and by many means, over time, partially and sometimes more fully, through holy vessels and sometimes through carnal vessels, the Lord spoke through human vessels. That is what the Lord desires to do.
Then everything changed when Jesus came to earth. For the first time, God not only had a word to be spoken of His will and His heart’s desire, but He had a human vessel in perfect harmony with that will of God.
His will was God’s will. His heart was God’s heart. His feeling was God’s feelings. Can you imagine somebody speaking God’s feelings while having those same feelings—a clear channel through?
No wonder John says that Jesus was the Word made flesh.
When He got angry, we saw the anger of God. When we saw His compassion, we saw the compassion of God. When He spoke a word about the authority of the kingdom, we saw the authority of God in Him.
He was a vessel perfectly fitted for this ministry of the Word.
Oh, how I wish Jesus could be on the earth today. Oh, wait a minute—He is.
That is the third part the brothers talked about. Because Jesus has come and inaugurated this new covenant, wherein the life of Christ is built in us by the Holy Spirit, the Lord now has Christ still upon the earth in brothers who are consecrated.
When they speak the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is busy fitting our lives to fit the Word we are speaking.
I remember my early days, because I was going to seminary. I had a full library of all ancient Christian books. Many times, because I was a Baptist preacher—even in seminary, a full-time Baptist pastor and full-time student—I had to preach three times a week whether I had anything or not.
But I had a library of Spurgeon’s sermons and G. Campbell Morgan’s sermons. I was writing them, copying down outlines, and spitting them out on Wednesday night.
I would speak on holiness, even though I was not a holy vessel. I would speak on love, even though I was yelling at the people while talking about love. A vessel totally out of shape with the Word, but speaking the Word.
That is why I say, if you start ministering the Word, you will have to eat your words. The Lord will say, “There was no reality there, because you have not been there yet.”
We begin to see that our head knowledge is approximately two and a half years ahead of our experience. That is an arbitrary figure, but the Lord has us.
In this new covenant ministry, we see something wonderful and fearful. When the Lord ministered through Paul, Peter, or John, their ministries were anointed. But the Lord came through human vessels. This is His desire.
When these unique human vessels ministered the Word, Christ came through these broken vessels in unique ways. Paul cannot be compared with Peter, and Peter cannot be compared with John. Their ministries were unique, but they were all Christ.
Today the Lord wants that in our lives. This is why He thanks us for giving Him permission to deal with and transform our lives, so that the Word we speak fits the reality of our lives.
I want us to turn again to 2 Corinthians 4 and look at verse 5 for a moment, to see how this is worked out.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
Paul is still speaking about new covenant ministry. There is a background to 2 Corinthians: Paul is being accused of being too bold, too forthright, too confident in his accusations. Throughout the book, people accuse him of being big and bold in his absence, and so forth.
Here is what Paul is saying: “No, no.” It is an amazing statement. Paul basically says, “I preach Jesus Christ, but I also preach me.”
“We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord.” That is what he is preaching: Jesus Christ as Lord. But do you know why his ministry is so powerful when he preaches Jesus Christ as Lord, and why people get saved?
Because when he preaches Jesus Christ as Lord, what is conveyed through his human body is that he is a bondservant of Jesus Christ.
Do you get it? Jesus is Lord. When a bondservant says that, it is powerful because you can see that Paul is a bondservant.
You can tell Paul surrendered to Christ. You can tell he is only speaking what Christ wants him to speak. When he says, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” because he is a bondservant, that comes through with thrilling reality.
His conveyance is as a bondservant. That is who he was. When he spoke on lordship, it was a powerful ministry. It totally complemented the lordship of Christ and the bondservant speaking.
But the point I want to make is this: every time we preach, something of ourselves is preached as well.
This is why the Spirit’s working upon us is so vitally important. When we speak, what is conveyed nonverbally? What is conveyed is where we really are in Christ—what our attitudes really are.
Sometimes when we preach, do we convey our anger or our humility? Do we convey that we are a wise guy and clever, or that we are humble? Are we angry? Are we a holy vessel? Are we a bondservant?
When you minister the Word of God, what is seen through you?
Paul saw this. Paul knew he was an unprofitable servant. After he says, “We preach Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants,” he says, “You know what I am? I am an earthen vessel.”
But when the earthen vessel gets broken, the treasure comes out.
When Paul said that, you could tell he was a broken earthen vessel. If somebody says, “I am just a broken earthen vessel so Christ’s treasure can come through me,” but you see that person all full of himself, he is hardly a broken earthen vessel. He has patched himself up with gold. He is so in love with himself.
But we convey something of ourselves whenever we minister.
What does that do? If you realize that every time you share, something is coming out of you, it puts the fear of God in you.
Here is how Paul puts it in verse 1 of chapter 4:
Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not.
If you really see what the issue is here, you would faint. Who feels worthy to stand up for God and speak God’s Word in holiness and purity? Who feels worthy to do that? None of us are adequate.
But we would faint except for the mercy of God.
The mercy of God says, “Now speak My Word, and I will make it real in you.” That is mercy. We speak His Word, and He makes it real as He deals with us. Therefore, we do not faint.
We do not condemn ourselves. We do not say, “I am disqualified.” We say, “Lord, here I am.”
Paul says that rather than fainting, renouncing everything, and calling himself worthless, “We have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the Word of God; but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”
He did not faint. He said, “Lord, take this vessel. Take out anything shady, anything twisted, any manipulation of the Word. Lord, take it out until my conscience is clear.”
Then, when a person hears the Word of God, their conscience is clear that there is a real channel of life going on.
I want to press this point home by giving you three examples of how, in reality, a person’s life conveys a message even while the Word of God is being spoken.
I came back to the New York area in 1977 and began ministering in various assemblies and places around the area. At that time, I met, knew, and respected a man who called himself an apostle.
He was not from New York, but he would come up to New York, and he had about three or four fellowships of young people. He was ministering as their apostle and building up the body of Christ. I remember one place in Brooklyn, but there were several places in New York and down along the East Coast where he ministered.
Somewhere around six years after I met the man, he was caught in a homosexual relationship with one of the young brothers in one of the churches.
When he was exposed, you cannot imagine the damage done. But here is the point: when they went back and looked at that fellowship in Brooklyn and the other fellowships, it was interesting that among those he had drawn to himself were a number of homosexuals.
I know this brother never spoke or advocated homosexuality. He did not have to. There was something in his life that was impure, and it attracted homosexuals.
Do you understand what I am saying? This man preached the Word of God, but there was something there. We often do not realize it, but we convey a lot more than just the words we speak. It is the life we live.
Example number two: I knew and loved a dear man of God who had a particular ministry on our union life with Christ—how we are one with Christ, Christ is in us, and we are with Christ.
Basically, he taught that this union with Christ gives us freedom simply to be Christ and to do whatever we want, because it is Christ living in us doing this thing. This word was very popular in certain circles. He went around and ministered, and I listened, followed, and loved the things he said.
In his last several years, as he became quite an old man, he was exposed for being involved in some sexual misconduct. It was not the terrible kind as we would think of it, but nevertheless, he was caught in sexual misconduct as an old man.
It is the foolishness of Solomon, who as an old man ran after such things.
As a result, the groups that continue speaking of the things our brother initially conveyed have added a doctrine they call “the wink of God.”
Have you ever heard of that? In Acts 17, Paul is preaching in Athens, and he says that because of our ignorance, idolatry, and everything in the past, God winked at it, but now He commands every man to repent.
But they developed a doctrine that says, when it comes to little sins—little trysts, little sexual immorality, and so on—God winks, because it is okay.
They just call it “the wink of God.” Within their ranks, there is a lot of immorality hiding under the surface. Why? Because God winks at it.
This brother was a dear man of God, but in his older days he became too free, too open, too tolerant. I do not know what the word is, but you understand what I am saying.
Let me give you another example. Martin Luther, when he was saved, stood like a brick for justification by faith. He bet his life on it. The Lord met him, and he was partly responsible for the recovery we call the Reformation, where people understood that we are saved by grace and by faith alone. What a wonderful stance.
But our brother also had reactions, as we all do. Because he had a life as a monk before he was saved, involving severe and needless legalism, asceticism, self-hurt, and such things, he reacted against all forms of what had been called holiness for monks.
He took a position that was true: we are sanctified by faith. Are we? Yes, indeed.
But as far as walking out sanctification, he reacted against all kinds of legalism and all kinds of things that dealt with outward matters.
As you know, and as is known in history, he was quite vulgar in his language. In his meetings and times, the brothers would get together and often get stone drunk.
Those things did not touch his life. He refused to allow the Spirit to deal with these outward matters, which are partly responsible for our sanctification. Not only do we stand in sanctification, but it has to be worked out in a holy life.
To this day—not all, but Lutherans as a whole—are very weak in this area of outward sanctification.
Twenty-five years ago, I used to play golf. I would get up at six o’clock on a certain morning—I think it was Tuesday morning. We would go out when the sun was barely rising and dew was on the grass. I played with two Lutheran ministers, charismatic and Spirit-filled ministers.
They played golf much better than I did. They loved the Lord, wanted to talk about the Lord, and wanted to hear my experiences. But they smoked ceaselessly. Then after the golf round, they drank themselves to where they could not get in their cars. They were Lutheran ministers.
Please, do not go home to your Lutheran friends and say, “You are all a bunch of drunkards.” The Lutheran Missouri Synod and a number of Lutheran groups are quite serious about sanctification.
But the basic fleshly result of such a reaction in the flesh can be experienced in a whole denomination.
I can bring it home more locally now. If you have been in a church for a number of years and there has been a worker or preacher on a regular basis, have you ever seen how all the brothers take on that person’s characteristics?
They take on the person’s soulishness, perhaps. They may take on the person’s spirit. It depends on whom we are dealing with.
If you are in a congregation long enough and have one of those good old Southern preachers who is a fundamentalist and a disputator—who loves to argue and fight, one of what we used to call “fighting fundies”—the whole congregation ends up being fighting fundies.
If you have someone who preaches week to week but is authoritarian, it seems that all the ministers of the Word become authoritarian.
If there is a pastor, worker, or whatever you want to call him, who is very careful with the Word of God, the people become careful. If he is loose with the Word of God, the people become loose. Have you ever noticed that?
It is because we convey things out of us.
It is also true that when there is a godly man fitted for ministry and he ministers the Word, he conveys things in his life beyond even the things he speaks.
Robert Chapman is an example. Have you heard of him? He was a man in the nineteenth century who became pastor of a church in Barnstaple. It is a long story, but he stayed there for at least fifty years. Everything he touched, spoke, and taught was full of love, and that church became a church of love. He became known as the apostle of love.
Andrew Murray, a Dutch Reformed man from Africa who often spoke in Keswick conventions and elsewhere, conveyed holiness whenever he ministered. This is testified to everywhere.
A. J. Gordon, near Boston, was another such man of God in the early twentieth century. Whenever he spoke, there was a reverence for God that came through his ministry.
What kind of conveyance comes through us?
The Lord does not say, “Become perfect, and then you can be My minister.” But the Lord says, “I want to use you, but I must deal with you.”
Then we understand how serious this matter of the ministry of the Word is. We see the necessity of the Lord’s dealing with us in this way.
We had these wonderful books—Brother Nee and Brother Kaung—that spoke about the twofold work of the Holy Spirit upon a consecrated vessel. The fire comes down on a consecrated vessel.
One of the two works involved simultaneously in you and me as servants of God is that the Holy Spirit is always revealing things to our spirit, and then revealing things from our spirit to our thoughts.
Sometimes we see something in our spirit and cannot even explain it. So He takes a revelation and brings it to our thought, where we understand exactly what is being spoken. Then He enables us to flesh out this thought in terms of a message that can be presented so other people can see what we have seen.
This is the revelation work of the Holy Spirit: He takes a revelation, gives us a thought about it, and then develops that thought and builds it out into a message. We will talk more about that tomorrow night on the practical side.
At the same time, the Holy Spirit is strengthening and building Christ in the inner man, strengthening the inner man so that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith.
He is dealing with us, correcting us, sanctifying us, and bringing the cross upon our flesh-life. He is doing all of that at the same time because He wants our vessels to be fit—useful vessels—to minister the Word of God with sincerity.
That is how Paul puts it with Timothy: “I want you to minister the Word of God with sincerity.” This means the Word you are speaking has a true conveyance in your life. There is a reality there that you are able to speak about.
There must be some measure of the Word ministered into us for the Lord to do this in our lives.
These things take years. That is why the Lord starts us out in small ways and asks us to be faithful. As we are faithful, as He teaches us and leads us, He is able to lead us more fully into the Word of God if we can express the truth behind it.
When it comes to these things, we must consecrate ourselves and allow the Lord to do His work in us. This is a solemn and fearful thing.
But brothers, I do not know a greater route of blessing than to be a minister of God’s Word. He takes such care of you. He reveals to you. He takes His time.
Everybody has their own quirks. I used to ask Lance a million questions. I said, “Lance, how do you prepare your message?”
He would say, “Sometimes I get into such a knot.” Lance had a deep soul. He was serious and a bit melancholy, if you knew our brother. He could get so deeply into something.
He said that while he was trying to work out his message, saying, “Lord, what do I do?” the Lord would say to him, “Lance, have a good lie down.”
He would go and have a nap. When he came back, he would say, “Oh, now I see what to do.”
You cannot believe the extraordinary long-suffering and patience of the Lord when we are ministers of the Word of God. Even though this is a great task and a very serious matter, it is a wonderful ministry: ministering the Word and speaking as the oracles of God.
What a wonderful experience this must be.
I want to conclude by saying a couple of things.
I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,
that you offer yourselves a living sacrifice,
your bodies holy, acceptable unto God.
This is your reasonable ministry.
My burden is this: I am jealous for the Lord, because I believe we have sold Him short by ministering at less than He wants us to.
I know that most of us are made up of assemblies where you are working and also ministering the Word as God gives occasion. But I think the Lord wants us to be serious about our calling to the ministry of the Word, to develop our gift, develop our character, and allow the Lord to do the things only He can do: sanctify, break, and anoint.
I want to see ministers of God who can recover the truth of Christ in these last days.
Brothers, I know it sounds impossible to you. I will share some practical things tomorrow night, Lord willing. But I want to say this.
In the nineteenth century in England, there came a reviving—indeed, a recovery—throughout the whole church in England, including the Anglican Church. Do you know why?
Because the Lord found some consecrated vessels. We now call them the Brethren.
They consecrated themselves to studying the Word of God until they were absolutely soaked in the Word of God.
Many of these Brethren had occupations. There were doctors, lawyers, regular businessmen, common laborers, and all kinds of people. But the one thing they seemed to have in common—and this was a sovereign work of God—was that they began to receive revelation in the Word of God. It was so rich.
There were some, such as J. N. Darby, who had been a full-time Anglican minister, left that, and became a Brethren teacher. But most of these men maintained their secular jobs all their lives.
Yet they became so rich in the Word of God that many Anglican bishops, Anglican priests, and Baptist pastors left their denominations to come and study the Bible under a blacksmith.
It was because these men loved the Word of God. They gained the mastery of speaking revelation.
It was especially among the Brethren that people began to understand the last days, the soon coming of Christ, the matters of the kingdom, and all these things about which the church had been so confused.
They saw it in the Word and shared the Word together, like the church in Berea. They loved the Lord and loved His Word so much that these extraordinary men of God—who were simply earthen vessels—spoke a Word that revived the church in England.
They were toolsmiths, workers in printing presses, doctors, lawyers, and all sorts of people. But they spoke a Word full of light. They had gained mastery in the ministry of the Word of God.
It was not the affected ministry of Anglican ministers rolling out a big vocabulary of spiritual vernacular, telling stories and speaking poems. No. They had a simplicity of ministry in the Word of God that broke through and brought life to so many Christians starving in the famine for the Word of God.
I want to see the Lord do that again through you. I do not want it all to be dependent on whoever your so-called worker is. If you do not have a worker, God bless you.
But I want it to be that when you get up to share on your given Sunday, you have come prepared, and your heart has been fitted for a Word that has life and revelation—such that people say, “We saw Jesus.”
That is the ministry of the Word of God we need.
We might see Jesus. “Sirs, we would see Jesus.”
There is some sweat and toil. As we heard, there is revelation, inspiration, and perspiration. I will speak on those three things tomorrow night.
But oh, how the Lord wants to find such people—ready to consecrate themselves and understanding their call to the ministry of the Word of God.
There are all kinds of ministry. Not everybody is an apostle, prophet, or teacher. But there are shepherds; there are those who can share one-on-one; there are those who have a Word in the prayer meeting. There are all kinds of ministry of the Word.
I hope I have at least brought to you the matter that your calling is of utmost importance. Otherwise, you will just be a volunteer for the rest of your life, doing a half-baked job. God forbid.
He wants to recover the ministry of the Word. You have read the things that are necessary, but oh, how the Lord wants those of you who are joints of supply.
Whenever your joint offers supply, it is full of His life. It is something you have discovered from heaven. It is something you have discovered here, and you have chewed it, and it tasted sweet to your mouth. But it upset your stomach because it dealt with you.
Then you were able to digest it, and now you are sharing on a Sunday, and it comes out like rivers of living water.
It is just an earthen vessel, but that vessel has been willing to consecrate himself seriously in this matter of the ministry of God’s Word.
Let us pray for a moment. My prayer is simply going to be, “Lord, call men to this ministry of the Word of God.”
O Lord, we remember how Isaiah was overwhelmed when he saw the glory of the Lord. In that being undone, he heard a voice saying, “Who will go for Us?” And he said, “Here am I; send me.”
O Lord, none of us are worthy. But we know that You are looking for those who will go for You and speak the Word of God, even in these last days.
O Lord, raise up men who take their calling seriously and say, “Here am I; send me.”
We heard this afternoon that when Kenny saw this calling that God had put on his life, he said, “I cannot do it, Lord, but I am willing to be made willing.”
Lord, help us to see the importance of this calling, the seriousness of this calling, and the conveyance of our life that is sending out signals even as we speak. Help us to be serious about ministering the Word of God with life and effectiveness in these last days.
O Lord, call men, young and old. Lord, for those who have been ministering for a while, break down any old stuff and fallow ground where we have become so glib with knowledge that we have lost our spirit.
Revive our spirit with the spark of fire as we lay ourselves again upon the altar. O Lord, You can make all things new. Even old ministry You can make new.
We pray for these younger ones here, those with promise, a future before them, and youngness of heart. Let them be like little Samuel, fully given to the Lord, so that You could speak through a vessel once again.
Lord, every week we all hear messages, and some of them are dry bones from the desert of Israel. Breathe upon these bones by Your Spirit, Lord, and let Your church live as they hear the Word of God spoken with life.
Let the bone come together and the sinew come upon it. Breathe the breath of life into Your church.
Oh, how we wait upon the Word of God to have this life among us. Lord, we will not substitute or settle for something less. We are not going to look for somebody else to do it. We do not have any full-time guys to do the job. We have full-time, consecrated men willing to offer their all.
O God, use these precious brothers who sit before me tonight. Raise up a band of men who could be called men of the Word.
O Lord, make us such men, we pray, dear Lord, in Jesus’ precious name.