Lord, we do rejoice in how You have brought us into so great a salvation. We rejoice in how You have brought us into so much more. And the much more You bring us into creates within us a greater hunger for much more of You.
We are thankful as we look back at Your great faithfulness in how You brought ones into that much more. We pray that, as we consider this today, it would give us a hunger and thirst to seek You first, to seek the kingdom of God first, to put other things into perspective, and to allow us to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. In Thy wonderful name we pray. Amen.
It has been a while since we did the last one on church history, but we are coming to Part 16. This is the last historical section. There will be one more that is a summary or conclusion, summing up things, but from a historical point of view, this is the last one.
Last time, we mentioned that we were looking at the twentieth century. We covered some things before with Azusa Street and the charismatic movement, and then we started looking at the precious recovery of the Lord’s testimony: the fullness of His eternal purpose and the church, beginning in the 1930s.
Last time, we saw through Brother Sparks what the Lord revealed to him. Today, we want to continue with Brother Bak Singh in India and Watchman Nee in China, as well as some others.
There were some verses that came to my heart as I was thinking about these particular individuals. It took me back to Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. In many ways, ones have referred to Philippians as Paul’s personal testimony related to the Lord. He shares almost a biography of who Christ was to him.
Paul’s testimony in Philippians 1:21 is:
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
We are going to apply these verses to the ones we are considering today, because they were ones sold out for the Lord.
In Philippians 3:12, Paul says:
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.
These dear ones, and we hope within our own lives, were laid hold of by Christ Jesus for a purpose. We want to be those who are pressing on. We are thankful for all that we have. We are thankful for the much more we have seen. We are thankful for the blessing of His life, but we know that there is much more of Him that He wants us to enter into.
Later in that third chapter, that spirit of pressing on continues:
I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
We press on to finish well, all the way to the end, looking forward to that upward call, whether in rapture or through passing into glory from this earth. We see how these ones were really used of the Lord.
The ones in the past—we are standing on the shoulders of everyone who has gone before us. But the closer you get, you begin to identify more directly with how these ones touched us. We will see how some today have touched our lives very directly.
As we consider Brother Bak Singh, I was actually in fear and trembling today that we had the Indian brethren here. But they are not here, so I am safe to touch on Bak Singh and not get corrected too much.
Bak Singh was born in Punjab, which is now Pakistan, into a Hindu family that practiced the Sikh faith. He was a very devout Sikh and very proud of it. He had a staunch belief in his Sikh religion. It was one of the highest castes within India at that point in time, and that was what he was born into.
At age twelve—I verified this a couple of times—he was married in an arranged marriage to Ramabai. I do not recommend that today.
He graduated from the university in Punjab and went to England for further studies. What he discovered in England was the world. He fell in love with the world and all its pleasures: clothing, the way he dressed, and all the activities of the world. He was caught up in those passing pleasures.
After graduating, he went to Manitoba, Canada, for further studies. But praise God, there was a faithful couple there with the YMCA who befriended him: John and Betty Hayward. He often went to their home to eat.
That is one way to attract young students: invite them to your home to eat. It is one of the greatest ways of sharing the gospel—having people in your home. We talk about all these gospel plans, but invite somebody to your house to eat. That is a wonderful gospel plan.
They gave him a Bible, and he started to read it. Seeing Christ’s life in this couple and reading the Word, he was saved. It is a tremendous testimony of how he returned to India with a new purpose.
The Bible was significant to him because he had been given one earlier in life, when he was about sixteen years old, and he tore it up. He had attended a religious school, as many of the better schools in those countries at that point were sponsored by missionaries. When he graduated, they presented him with a Bible. He tore it up, except for the cover, because the leather cover was so beautiful. He valued the cover and kept it.
In his own words, he said:
I had torn the Bible up in the year 1919 in my blindness, and for ten full years I was speaking words of blasphemy against the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ in my stupidness.
But praise God, the Lord met him. The Lord put a great call upon his life and called him into a life of service. The Lord simply spoke to him:
Do not join any organization. Serve all equally. Do not make any of your own plans, but let Me guide and lead you in every step of the way.
I appreciate the simplicity of the call God had upon his life. The Lord also said:
Do not make your needs known to any human being. Ask Me, and I will provide for your needs.
Bak Singh arrived back in India in 1933, and his parents met him. He told them that he was a believer, that he had come to know the Lord. His parents did not like that because they were devout Sikhs. They told him that if he wanted to keep his faith, that was fine, but he had to keep it secret. Then he could come home.
His response was, “Can I live without breathing? I have given my life to Christ. I cannot follow Him secretly.” They replied, “If you cannot keep this a secret, you cannot come home.” His parents rejected him.
He was homeless in Bombay, now Mumbai, and began preaching the gospel on the streets. You will notice that in India there are old names and new names. As Hindu influence has increasingly taken control in the government, many names associated with the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth have been replaced with names more fitting to the Hindu religion.
But praise God, he was faithful, and the Lord met him. From 1937 to 1940, he ministered as an itinerant evangelist and preacher throughout India. Thousands came to the Lord. He would preach to any group that invited him—Presbyterian, Methodist, Pentecostal, whatever. He was out preaching Christ and sharing the Lord.
The British historian Edwin Orr wrote that Bak Singh was:
An Indian equivalent of the greater Western evangelists, as skillful as Finney and as direct as Moody. He is a first-class Bible teacher on the order of Campbell Morgan or Graham Scroggie.
That is pretty good company to be put into. He was really used of the Lord.
Eventually, he became so popular among many denominations and churches where he was preaching that the ministers became jealous. They said, “No more place for you here.” Their objection was that he was not ordained and therefore could not baptize. They could not see that all these people were coming to Christ. They were protecting their own little flocks, and they shut the door to Bak Singh.
For him, that was fine. He was serving the Lord, and he simply went on.
In 1941, he and some other brethren established their first local assembly in Madras, now Chennai. A group of brothers worked with him, including A. J. Flack and Raymond Goldsworthy from Honor Oak. We have known Brother Flack, who has been here.
Their meeting place was called Jehovah Shammah. I had planned this slide before the talk about the sign last night, so this is not in any way to influence anybody about a sign. This is simply a historical picture of the assembly there. They did have a sign: Jehovah Shammah.
The assembly was established with a fourfold purpose:
That was the simplicity of what they gathered in, and they continued to spread throughout India.
In 1946, Bak Singh began traveling through Europe, other parts of Asia, the United Kingdom, and Canada. He established fellowship with Brother Sparks and the brethren at Honor Oak.
In the 1950s, he went to the Philippines, where he shared alongside Brother Lucas Wu, the father of Hosea Wu, and Brother Goldsworthy. Lucas Wu would later become significant in the story of the Lord’s work in China and the Philippines.
In 1950, Bak Singh and his coworkers moved to Hyderabad. The Lord provided facilities both for the local assembly and for an extra-local church ministry. Workers came and lived there, receiving training for the Lord’s service. They called the new place Hebron.
Their normal Sunday gathering reflected their love for being together. They would gather at nine o’clock and usually continue until two or three in the afternoon.
The gathering always started with the Lord’s Table and open worship. There were no petitions or requests for things, but simply a remembering of the Lord and honoring Him for His death, burial, and resurrection.
Because of the length of the time, at some point the children would go out while others continued worshiping. Following the Table, there would be intercessory prayer for the church—not only the local church but the universal church. Then the Word of the Lord was shared, and finally a public offering was taken.
Whenever they took a public offering, they always made an announcement. They did not want unbelievers giving anything at all. They only wanted believers to give. They did not want to receive anything from the world. They would say, “If you do not know the Lord, do not give anything. This is for believers. This is how holy this offering is.”
You do not hear many people today saying, “We do not want your money.” But they were very clear on that, because there were usually many unbelievers present.
The gathering was followed by a love feast of rice and sambar—curried lentils and vegetables.
The gathering was open to everybody, and Bak Singh was really used to help break down the caste system because everybody was welcome. Ones from the highest caste to the lowest caste were in these meetings. It was a beautiful picture of the unity and oneness of the Body of Christ.
After the love feast, young brothers and sisters—and some not so young—went out to share the gospel. They brought people back for an evening meeting in which the gospel was shared. It was a very precious work throughout India.
Because of this work, more than eight thousand local assemblies were established throughout India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
In 1947, India became independent from the Commonwealth. During the partition of India, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh were separated, largely according to religious affiliation: India being predominantly Hindu and Pakistan more Muslim. Previously, these countries had been together; now they became separate.
At first, everything was fine. We know today it does not go so well. Hindu authorities have increasingly restricted believers throughout India. They do not have the freedom they once had.
In the mid-1970s, Bak Singh came to Richmond twice. I could never find an exact date. One time he shared at the Garden Club, and another time at Pope Avenue. Both times, he encouraged us and showed us the significance of kneeling and praying. You can ask anybody else about that.
In 1986, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. During the last ten years of his life, he was bedridden. A dear Indian couple, one of whom was a medical doctor, cared for him. In 2000, he passed into glory.
One of the quotes I appreciate from him is this:
The only thing God is building in this world is His church.
That is it. Let us keep it simple and straight: the only thing God is building in this world is His church.
He also spoke to those of us in the United States:
You feel sorry for us in India because of our great poverty in material things. We who know the Lord in India feel sorry for you in America because of your spiritual poverty. We are praying for you also, that there might come a church with a hunger for God, not merely a hunger to see some form of amusement.
They were praying for us. How often we pray for them, but they saw the spiritual condition of the people of God in the United States. We are really praying for the Lord to create a great hunger for Himself.
Bak Singh had no knowledge of the Lord at all. Yet a dear couple—unknown to the world, but now known by name—reached out, befriended him, had him for dinner, gave him a New Testament, and God moved in a wonderful way. He responded.
Thank the Lord for how God worked throughout India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and many places in the world through Bak Singh. I do not have a particularly good biography of him. If anybody ever runs across one, I would appreciate knowing about it.
Next, we want to look at our brother Watchman Nee. He was born in 1903. God had been laying groundwork in China through Pastor Hsi in the nineteenth century and through the China Inland Mission with Hudson Taylor.
During the twentieth century, there were what some called China’s three mighty men: Watchman Nee, Wang Ming-tao, and John Sung.
John Sung was a powerful evangelist throughout China. Many times, he was as animated as Billy Sunday, hopping around and dynamically sharing the gospel.
John Sung came from a part of China where his dialect was difficult for people in another region to understand. When he went to Fukien to share, no one could translate for him. A principal at the local school, who was not a believer but understood the language, was asked to translate.
That principal was Lucas Wu. He first shared with John Sung as an unbeliever, but after hearing him, he was saved. Praise God. It is wonderful, the marvelous ways the Lord works.
Sometimes we limit Him, and it is amazing how we can limit Him. Here, He took one who did not even know the Lord and used him. Lucas Wu remained very faithful throughout his time in the Philippines. Some of us who attended conferences in the Far East had the privilege of meeting him before he went home to be with the Lord.
Each of these three men had a tremendous ministry. John Sung abandoned his education, his great Ph.D.s and everything, and threw it away as nothing in order to follow the Lord. It became rubbish, as Paul would say.
The Lord apprehended Nee and Bak Singh at about the same time that He apprehended Brother Sparks. We see how the Lord was working throughout the world in this marvelous period to reveal His heart, His purpose for the church, and that great mystery which had been hidden.
Watchman Nee was born in Swatow, and his birth was an answer to his mother’s prayer. She was not a believer at the time, but she had had several daughters, as had her sister-in-law. In China at that time, there was great pressure to have a son. She prayed selfishly for a son, and praise God, the Lord answered her.
He attended a missionary society school in Fuchow and later St. Mark’s School, affiliated with Trinity College in Dublin. While at St. Mark’s, he observed all the Christian rituals, though he was not saved. He was baptized, attended communion and Sunday school, and went through all the outward motions.
But thank the Lord, the Lord first worked in his mother’s life. In 1920, she was saved through the ministry of Dora Yu, a great evangelist throughout China. If you can read about her, she was a precious sister, sold out for the Lord and pouring out her life for the gospel.
Watchman Nee’s mother had known Dora Yu previously in Shanghai, where they had been in school together. When Dora Yu came to town, Nee’s mother went to hear her, received the gospel, and was saved.
She invited Watchman Nee to go to the gospel meeting with her, but he refused because he was angry with her. She had accused him of breaking a precious vase in their house. If you are in a family with a bunch of sisters and you are the brother, who gets blamed for everything? He got blamed for everything. This time, he was innocent; he had not broken the vase.
As she was before the Lord and praying for him, the Lord convicted her that she needed to apologize. Most of us probably do not recognize the magnitude of that step. But in the 1920s, for a Chinese mother to humble herself on her knees before her son and say, “I was wrong,” was only the grace of God.
It touched Watchman Nee deeply. He said, in effect, “If this gospel did so much for my mother, I am going to go to that meeting.” So he agreed to go.
He heard the gospel and began wrestling with the Lord. One reason he struggled was because he understood that becoming a Christian was far more than merely knowing Jesus as Savior. It was knowing Him as Lord of one’s life. He knew that he would have to fully surrender himself.
The gospel then was not watered down as it often is today: simply, “Come to know the Savior.” One had to know Him as Savior and Lord. The full gospel was going out.
He had earlier vowed never to be a preacher, never even to become a Christian, because he saw how foreign missionaries used local people as preachers but treated them terribly. He saw how they were abused and said, “I am never going to do that.”
But as he struggled with the Lord, he later wrote his personal testimony:
I was alone in my room, struggling to decide whether or not to believe in the Lord. Then I was shown the blackness of my sins and the redness of His blood. I was constrained by the love of Christ, and it was as if the Lord’s hand was reaching out to me, saying, “I am waiting here to receive you.”
Realizing the effectiveness of Christ’s blood in cleansing my sins, and being overwhelmed by such love, I accepted Him there as my Savior and Lord. Previously, I had laughed at people who had accepted Jesus. But that evening I wept and confessed my sins, seeking the Lord’s forgiveness. I knew joy and peace such as I had never known before. Light seemed to flood the room, and I said to the Lord, “Oh Lord, You have indeed been gracious to me.”
Praise the Lord for that touch of the Lord.
Watchman Nee began as a zealous young Christian, going out and sharing the gospel with all his friends. Then he met a missionary, Mrs. Groves, who challenged his evangelistic style.
She asked, “How many have you led to the Lord since you have been a Christian?” He said, “None. I have not led anybody, but I have done my part. I shared the gospel with them. I made them know they were sinners.”
She said, “Why do you not first make a list of people and pray for them?” He had the idea that he was going to convert them, but she said, “No, you need to pray for these people. Stop. Do not do anything at this point in time. Just stop and pray for them.”
He made a list of about seventy people and began praying for them. All but one were saved within a few months. He had begun with zeal without knowledge, and praise God for that zeal, but then it came into the Lord’s way.
In 1921, he was searching the Scriptures and wanted to do everything according to them. He was baptized on March 27 in the White Teeth Rapids. I always wondered how rapid the rapids were that day. Perhaps he chose the rapids to show his dedication—I do not know.
He also felt impressed to remember the Lord in simplicity. He spoke with another brother, Leland Wang, who had the same conviction. Wang and his wife, Nee’s mother, and Watchman Nee met together to break bread for the first time in Fuchow.
Then the Lord brought across his path someone who changed his life: Margaret Barber.
Margaret Barber was from England and went to China with the Church Missionary Society. She taught girls at their school in Fuchow.
Because of her popularity—the children loved her—the other teachers became jealous and falsely accused her of various things. She did not defend herself and was sent back to England.
She learned the lesson of the cross through this. She knew she had not done any of it. She did not get into a fight or put up a defensive argument, but humbled herself before the Lord. She was willing to be misunderstood.
Later, she was fully vindicated. The truth came out, and letters publicly vindicating her were published. But she had paid a high price, because her reputation had been severely tarnished. You know how it is: if someone is accused of something, people think they may be guilty. Even when they are later released, people retain a little doubt.
Even after she was vindicated, she never made a big deal of it. She never said, “See, I told you so.” The cross had worked in her in a marvelous way.
While back in England, she attended Surrey Chapel, where D. M. Panton was. They were attracted to one another and had planned on getting married.
But Margaret Barber felt the Lord calling her back to China without the support of any mission. The first time she had gone under a mission, but now she felt the Lord calling her simply to return and trust Him. She shared that with Panton, and he said, “If the Lord is calling you to go, then go.”
They broke off their relationship, and she went back to China. Margaret Barber wrote beautiful poems and hymns, many of which are in our hymnbook.
At this time, when she had to give up the love of her life in this world in order to follow the Lord, she wrote:
If the path I travel
Lead me to the cross;
If the way Thou choosest
Lead to pain and loss;
Then let the compensation
Daily, hourly, be
Shadowless communion,
Blessed Lord, with Thee.
Shadowless communion, blessed Lord, with Thee. That was what she was after. What a place of fellowship. How the Lord had touched her.
She returned to China with her niece, Miss Ballard. She said, “I desire nothing for myself. I want everything for the Lord.” There was an absoluteness in these dear brethren we are considering today. This was not some theoretical, highfalutin statement. It was a testimony of life. You saw it in their lives. This was what they desired.
They rented a house near Fuchow and were greatly burdened for the Lord’s work there. Though Margaret Barber had been cleared of all accusations and could have lived in Fuchow, she chose to live outside the city, in a little isolated rural place.
They prayed daily for God to raise up young men for the gospel. They prayed and prayed for many years that the Lord would raise up ones who would share the gospel, know the gospel, and become instruments through whom the Lord could do a great work.
During their time of prayer, their landlord told them they had to leave. “You cannot rent here anymore.” But she felt in her heart that this was the place the Lord had given them. She said, “If the Lord has given us this place, we cannot leave it.”
They began praying, and she remained there until after her death. Miss Ballard remained until 1950 before returning home.
Out of this standing in faith, Margaret Barber wrote the hymn “Keep Up the Song of Faith”:
Keep up the song of faith,
However dark the night;
And as you praise,
The Lord will work
To change your faith to sight.
She saw the reality of it. They prayed it through, and praise God for that. They could have looked at the circumstances and said, “Maybe we missed God. This was not our place. We are supposed to go somewhere else.” But she knew that was where God had them, and they stood in faith for that wonderful provision.
They continued praying for another ten to fourteen years. They were hidden away and unnoticed by man, but God heard their prayers.
In 1922, revival broke out near the White Teeth Rock in the Fuchow area. God raised up a young generation, including Watchman Nee. Margaret Barber provided constant counsel, correction, and encouragement to him.
Watchman Nee said, “Through Dora Yu, I was saved. Through Miss Barber, I was edified.” Through Miss Barber, he was built up and strengthened.
One characteristic of Miss Barber was her great heart for the Lord’s second coming. She had it much upon her heart.
One of her prayers was recorded. Notice the simplicity of this prayer. Sometimes our prayers are so highfalutin. We get grandiose and eloquent and use all these words. But this was simply her heart. It sounds like a conversation between two friends, between a father and a daughter who know each other and do not need to put up any pretense.
One New Year’s Eve, she intensely prayed:
Lord, do You really want to let this year slip by? Are You sure You want to wait until the new year for Your coming? Even though today is the last day of the year, oh Lord, I pray that You would come today, the last day of the year.
That is a pouring out of a genuine heart that had a relationship with One before whom she could honestly open her heart in fellowship.
Watchman Nee tells of walking down the street with her one day, and she said, “Dear brother, we wish we could meet Him on the next street corner.” She was thinking that, perhaps as they went around that corner, the Lord would be there. The Lord was coming back.
This burden for the Lord’s second coming is reflected in her hymn, “There’s a Whisper from the Glory”:
There’s a whisper from the glory
Of the coming of the Lord.
Praise God.
Margaret Barber was very gifted in writing hymns and poems. She helped Watchman Nee write some of his precious hymns, but mainly she helped him by correcting him in love. She did much correcting of Brother Nee, and he always treasured it.
He did not always understand. He would debate with her, in a reverential way, asking why this and why that. But she was steadfast in pointing him to the Lord, to taking the cross, and to humbling himself.
When he once hastily drafted a few hymns and poems and excitedly took them to her, she told him:
Hymns and poems are like producing milk and honey. They are the fruit of long, hard experiences that come from dealings with the Lord. They are not just a concoction of words thrown together, but a sweet result of the outflow of the inner life.
They come from experience. That is why, in books such as Appreciating Christ in Song, when you read the story behind a hymn or chorus, it gives it a whole different meaning. Many of the hymns and choruses we have contain a story behind them, and it is beautiful to see the way the Lord works.
Margaret Barber passed away in 1930. In one of her last letters, written to Panton in 1929, unaware that she would soon return to the Lord, she wrote:
Just a few more miles, beloved,
And our feet shall ache no more;
No more sin, no more sorrow.
Hush thee, Jesus went before.And I hear Him sweetly whispering,
“Faint not, fear not, still press on;
For it may be ere tomorrow
The long journey will be done.”
After she passed away, Brother Nee spoke of Miss Barber:
She was one who was deeply rooted in the Lord. I consider the degree of her devotion and faithfulness to the Lord the most rare in the world. The greatest fortune in my life was to have met her.
He was not trying to put together flowery words. He was sharing his heart concerning the impact she had upon him.
He also said, “She wasted her life on the Lord.” She was that one poured out. In Scripture, some asked, “Why this waste?” But it was not a waste at all.
The world would consider her life wasted. It would consider Bak Singh’s life wasted, John Sung’s life wasted, and Watchman Nee’s life wasted. But no: precious gold, precious treasure in the Lord.
Are we willing to be wasted for the Lord in this day and time? Are we willing to be misunderstood by the world, misunderstood by brothers and sisters, and wasted for the Lord? Margaret Barber impacted Watchman Nee in a great way.
In 1922, while Miss Barber was influencing him, Watchman Nee was touched by Psalm 73:25:
Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee.
He said, “I can answer the first part: ‘Whom have I in heaven but Thee?’ There is no one but He.” But the second part was more difficult because he was in love with a young girl named Charity Chang.
They were teenagers, their families knew each other, and they had known one another for a while. But when Brother Nee came to know the Lord, he shared the Lord with her, and she laughed at him. She did not receive the Lord.
He saw that he had to separate himself. He had to leave the love of his life in order to follow the Lord and serve Him.
Praise God, through that devotion the Lord continued to work among his schoolmates as revival spread. In 1923, he testified that God really revealed His purpose to him:
As I was studying the book of Acts, I saw God’s wish to establish a local church in each city. It was as if a light shone upon me clearly, and I understood His purpose.
In 1925, he changed his name to Watchman. That is easier for us to say.
In 1926, he became seriously ill with tuberculosis and was given only a few months to live. While bedridden, he wrote The Spiritual Man.
After the book was completed, the Lord miraculously healed him. I would encourage you to read his biography, Against the Tide, and the story of how he stood in faith. The Lord spoke to him about being healed, and he stood up, left the bed in which he had been for months, and went to see friends in the next house. They were shocked—it was like a dead man walking. It was a glorious reviving and encouragement.
The Lord had a call upon his life, which may be described in four parts:
I always appreciate how Christian Chen describes an overcomer: one who is overcome by the love of Christ. That is who these conferences were for—ones overcome by the love of Christ.
Watchman Nee always had a burden for training young people. We are thankful for that. Through this burden, many young people were trained to serve and go forth.
In 1928, God began sovereignly moving throughout China. Many assemblies sprang up all over the coast, independently of Brother Nee. He was being used in one area, others were being used in other areas, and many assemblies were coming forth.
For several years, they met together and recognized the great work God had done. It was amazing how God was doing something here and something there. In a similar way, among the brethren we considered earlier throughout England and Ireland, the Lord was moving hearts in many different places and then bringing them together in fellowship.
In 1934, Charity was saved and really gave her life to the Lord. She and Watchman Nee were married. He called her his true helpmate. She was the only one able to visit him in prison during the many years he was there.
In 1935, he felt a dryness in his spirit and desired to go to England to speak with Brother Sparks. Before going, he met a sister, Elizabeth Fischbacher. Through fellowship with her, he was refreshed in his spirit.
She taught him the vital lesson that the cross precedes Pentecost. He was looking for power, the power of the Holy Spirit, the anointing, and the enabling. But she said that first there must be dying to self. The cross must work within you.
As the cross works within us and we give ourselves to the Lord, the power of His resurrection life comes forth. The cross precedes Pentecost. This is vital, because many are so occupied with the Pentecostal or charismatic experience that they neglect the cross. This creates great mixture.
Out of the cross working in us comes the power of Pentecost. There is a balance there: the fullness of His life going forth.
In 1935, Brother Stephen Kaung began working with Watchman Nee. Brother Kaung was twenty years old then.
From 1937 to 1945, the Sino-Japanese War took place. Finally, Watchman Nee was able to visit Brother Sparks in London. During this trip, while in Denmark, he shared the messages we know today as The Normal Christian Life and Sit, Walk, Stand.
He returned to Shanghai in 1939. Because of the Sino-Japanese War, many workers were suffering financially. To help them, he started a pharmaceutical business.
That business had many problems and became a stain on his testimony. In 1942, the brothers asked him to stop speaking in the assembly, and he did.
He withdrew to Kuling Hill and quietly suffered in isolation. The work of the cross went deeper and deeper in his life. He was alone with the Lord, but the Lord was meeting him and revealing Himself to him.
But praise God, in 1948 the brethren in Shanghai asked him to return. The war had ended, and the spirit of unity was manifested. There was a great healing and restoration, and he continued to be a help there.
In 1948 and 1949, he conducted training sessions for workers and young people. They gathered for four months at a time in order to be set apart for the Lord.
In 1949, the Communists took over and established the People’s Republic of China. At that time, Brother Nee was in Hong Kong, and Brother Kaung was there also. But Brother Nee felt compelled to return to China.
Many warned him, “Do not go back. You know what will happen to you. You are going to get arrested.” But he knew what he had to do, and he went back.
For the first year and a half, there was no interference from the government. They were able to meet and share freely, and the church flourished.
But in 1951, the Communists announced a new religious policy. You had to be pro-government and support the revolution in everything you did. If not, you were considered an imperialist, an enemy of the Republic.
They saw the writing on the wall. They knew trouble was coming, and various assemblies and individuals began making plans.
In 1952, Watchman Nee was arrested and imprisoned while the government prepared its case. In 1956, he was tried and sentenced to prison. One of the principal accusations was that he was a master spy. There were many accusations against him, but this was the key one.
He died in prison in 1972, still refusing to write a confession. He was faithful to the very end.
He made a choice in 1949 to return to China. He could have remained outside China. With his popularity, he could have traveled the world as a great teacher and encouragement. But he knew the call God had upon him, and he went back.
He was in prison for about twenty years. He worked as a translator, translating many technical manuals and other materials. Only his wife, Charity, was able to visit him.
From every indication and from all that was heard, he was faithful to the very end. It would have been easy to confess in order to get out, but he knew he could not. He had to be a faithful witness all the way.
It is difficult to select quotations from someone who said so much, but here are a few.
To keep our hand on the plow while wiping away our tears—that is Christianity.
Through the sufferings and tears of life, we keep our hand on the plow and go forward. That is Christianity.
We may be weak, but looking at our weakness will never make us strong.
I appreciate that. When we come to the Table, our eyes should not be upon our weakness but upon the One who loved us and delivered us from them.
Just as the right relationship with Christ generates a Christian, so the proper relationship with the Holy Spirit breeds a spiritual man.
There was a value in the relationship Nee had with the Holy Spirit that was very precious.
The cross grants us our position; the Holy Spirit gives us experience.
It is by the life of the Spirit within that we experience the fullness of Christ.
God is not seeking a display of my Christlikeness, but a manifestation of His Christ.
Think about that. So often, we simply want to be like Christ. I do not want to get too hung up on words, but he is saying that what the Lord is really after is Christ’s life being manifested in us—that Christ is seen.
He also prayed:
Lord, I am willing to break my heart that I might satisfy Thy heart.
For to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Praise God.
From Brother Sparks and Brother Nee came brothers who were greatly influenced by them, including Brother Stephen Kaung.
For the sake of remembering his testimony, here is a basic timeline of Brother Kaung’s life. He was born in Shanghai in 1915 to a Christian family. His father was a Methodist pastor.
At the age of fifteen, in 1930, he became a Christian. He later graduated from Soochow University.
In 1935, he began working with Watchman Nee in Shanghai. In 1949, he was in Hong Kong and left China for Manila. He desired to go to England, but while waiting for paperwork in Manila, the Lord directed otherwise.
In 1952, he arrived in the United States. He still desired to go to England, but he never made it there on that trip and settled in New York City.
In 1968, he first shared in Richmond at a gathering on Waveney Road. In 1971, he moved to Washington, and in 1978, he came to Richmond. In 2022, he passed into glory. We are thankful for the testimony he had.
In a similar way, our brother Lance Lambert was a great influence upon us here. That line comes down through Sparks and Nee. We see the impact of the ones who were with us and passed these things on to us.
Lance was born in Richmond, England. At the age of twelve, he became a Christian. In 1948, he began studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. He wanted to go to China as a missionary, but the revolution in 1949 prevented that.
He served in the Royal Air Force in Egypt for three years. After returning to the Richmond area, he and some other young people began praying together. They wanted to gather in the simplicity of the Lord and began meeting at Halford House in 1954.
There is a book available on the history of Halford House. Lance first shared in Richmond, Virginia—not Richmond, Surrey—at the second Christian Family Conference at Roslyn.
In 1980, having discovered his Jewish heritage, he moved to Jerusalem. In 2015, he passed into glory.
We are thankful for so great a heritage and the great cloud of witnesses that we have. May we be encouraged that, though these ones were rejected by man and rejected by the religious establishment, they pressed on.
They did not give in to obstacles. They continued pressing on because someone had captured their heart: our Lord Jesus Christ.
May we see, as they saw, that new wine needs fresh wineskins. The wineskins must remain fresh. There must be that living freshness within the wineskins for that life to be expressed. Too often the wineskins dry up, but we need the freshness of the Lord to continue.
As we see ones who were willing to forsake all for Christ, may that same spirit capture us in these days.
Jesus, Lord, I’m captured by Thy beauty,
All to Thee, my heart is open wide;
Now set free from all religious duty,
Only let me in Thyself abide.
May we be captured by Him and serve Him fully. These ones served Him and were totally sold out for Him. May we press on to lay hold of that for which we were laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Our Lord has laid hold of each one of us for a purpose. We pray that the ones we have considered, particularly today, would encourage us to press on and to be faithful unto Him all the way to the end.
The days in which we are living are becoming more and more challenging—not only from the world, but also from religious institutions and other believers. “Why do you meet this way? Why do you gather this way? Why do you not have a name?”
Are we willing to be misunderstood over these matters? Do we have them settled in our hearts? Do we know who we are? Do we know why we gather?
These are basic questions we need to settle and ask the Lord to reveal to us, so that we may know the reality of the solid and sure foundation we have in Him.
We have a great heritage. But if I can say this in the right way, Watchman Nee is not our foundation. Brother Kaung is not our foundation. Lance Lambert is not our foundation.
They only built upon the one solid and sure foundation. They desire that we would continue to be found faithful to the end upon that one foundation: Christ and the calling He has upon us.
Lord, we are thankful and very humbled by the great way that You work in so many. We see what You have done, how You have taken lives that were so much against You. Some knew You; some knew about You from Christian families; but many did not know about You at all. Yet, Lord, You were able to do a great transforming work.
Lord, as we are here in this room together, each one of us is so unique. Each one of us is fearfully and wonderfully made by You.
Lord, we are thankful for how You are building us together. We want to guard that and cherish it. In the same way, Lord, we want to press on for that much more, because we know there is a greater and greater work that You desire to do.
We have a desire, Lord, to be faithful to the end, to know the call You have upon us. Would we really know who we are? Would we know why we are here?
Lord, may we be a light in the midst of the darkness in these last days. In Thy name we pray. Amen.