CHAPTER ELEVEN

BECOMING A USEFUL VESSEL IN THE LORD’S HAND
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It is crucial for anyone who is truly saved, loves the Lord, and desires to serve the Lord all his life to know how to become a useful vessel in the Lord’s hand. There are a few things that such a one should pay attention to and practice every day for his entire life.

PURSUING THE GROWTH IN LIFE

First of all, we have to pursue the growth in life. Both our salvation and our growth hinge on life. Similarly, being useful in the Lord’s hand also hinges on life. Being able to render help to others depends on life, and being fruitful in gospel preaching also depends on life. Take our knocking on doors house by house as an example. We can see that whether or not it is effective hinges entirely on life. It is one thing for a sloppily dressed person to go door-knocking; it is another thing for a well-mannered person to do it. It would be a tremendous thing if the president of a nation were to go door-knocking. Therefore, the value of the same thing varies according to the person who does it. If the apostle Paul were preaching the gospel of forgiveness here today, it would be very weighty. If we were to do it, however, the result would be very different because we are not as advanced in life as Paul was. Therefore, we must pay attention to the pursuit of life and seek to grow in life.

We all know that the growth in life of all living things in nature, such as flowers, grass, trees, and all kinds of animals, is a moment-by-moment and day-by-day matter. The blood circulation in our body, which is the basis of our growth, is continuous and exceedingly fast. Once, there was a brother in the church who was a doctor and who opened a gospel clinic next to hall three in Taipei. He was greatly used by the Lord to lead many to salvation. He told me that even before a person finishes speaking a sentence, his blood has already circulated one time throughout his whole body. A person grows in life day by day, and even when he reaches one hundred years old, [442] he will still be growing. The Bible tells us that the life span of all the patriarchs was very long. For instance, Adam lived to nine hundred thirty years of age. Moreover, the entire time that he was alive, he was growing. Hence, the first thing that you must pay attention to is life. In all the books published by us, the matter spoken of and stressed the most is life. You must spend time to study two of these books, namely, The Knowledge of Life and The Experience of Life.

BEING EQUIPPED IN THE TRUTH

Second, according to the Bible, truth goes together with life. Truth is the word of God. It is not our words but the word of the Bible. In John 17 the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father, saying, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (v. 17). The Bible is an extraordinary book. The Four Books and Five Classics, written by the ancient Chinese sages, may be considered the highest books aside from the Bible in terms of human ethics and morality. According to my evaluation, the philosophies of other countries, such as Egypt, Babylon, and ancient Greece, are inferior when compared with the classical writings of Chinese Confucianism. Even so, the Four Books and Five Classics are not the truth. In this universe only the word of God is truth. For this reason we should never stop pursuing God’s word. Our pursuit should be a daily matter. I dare not say that it is a moment-by-moment pursuit, but at least it must be a day-by-day pursuit. You need to pursue the truth every day in order to gain the knowledge of the truth.

The Defects and Influence of Christianity

Christianity has two big defects: first, a negligence with regard to life, and second, a shortage of truth. Christianity in its entirety is a religion with only a limited amount of truth. Those who are known as the fundamentalists have four characteristics: first, they have deep faith in the Bible, believing the literal meaning of the words; second, they believe in the existence of God; third, they believe in the divinity of the Lord Jesus; and fourth, they believe that the death of the Lord Jesus was not merely the death of a martyr but was for redemption. Anyone who lacks any of these four points cannot be considered a fundamentalist. The four major fundamentalist denominations are the Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, and the Episcopalians. The Episcopalian Church, which is the state church of England, is also [443] called the Anglican Church. Its rituals and organization closely resemble those of the Catholic Church.

The Mistake of the Catholic Church

With regard to the fundamental faith, even the Catholic Church may be considered fundamental because she also believes in the Bible as the word of God, in the existence of God, in the divinity of the Lord Jesus, and in the redemption accomplished by the Lord Jesus. However, she has mixed a large amount of leaven into the three measures of meal, as mentioned in Matthew 13. In that chapter the meal signifies the fundamental truths. Three measures is the amount required for a full meal (Gen. 18:6), signifying that the Catholic Church does not deny any of the fundamental truths but rather acknowledges them all. To this day she is still like this and boasts in this. Nonetheless, she does not know how much leaven, heresies, she has mixed into the three measures of meal. The leavening has been so thorough that even the Lord Jesus said that “the whole was leavened” (Matt. 13:33). She has mixed leaven into all the fundamental truths. I have met many Germans whose specialty is chemistry. They all say that once the meal is leavened, there is no way to remove the leaven from it.

A Brief History of Fundamentalism

Like the Catholic Church, the half-Catholic Episcopalian Church acknowledges the authority of the Bible, the existence of God, the divinity of Christ as the Son of God, and the death of the Lord Jesus for our redemption by the shedding of His blood. However, for the most part the Episcopalians do not see the truths in the Scriptures related to life. Among them, some theologians might have studied this matter a little, but as a whole they do not pay much attention to it. John Nelson Darby, whom we have always respected, was originally a priest in the Anglican Church. After seeing much light at the age of twenty-five, he became one of the founders of the recovery that took place among the Brethren.

The inception of the Presbyterian churches and the Baptist churches was related to the Reformation led by Martin Luther. During the Reformation, Luther was constantly being threatened by the Catholic Church, and his life was always in danger. As a result, he was weakened. At that time the Catholic Church’s power was extremely great, and the pope’s political authority was greater than that of any [444] of the monarchs. Eventually, some Germanic princes were disgusted with this, so they joined together to fight against the Catholic Church in order to protect Luther, their fellow countryman. Because of their protection, Luther compromised and went along with their action. In the end, the Lutheran denomination, formed by the followers of Luther, became the state church. Later, one after another, the countries in Northern Europe followed suit, resulting in the formation of state churches in countries such as Denmark and Sweden. Until today many German citizens pay a church tax, and the government participates in the administration of the church. In the same way, at his birth every Englishman becomes not only a subject of Great Britain but also a member of the Anglican Church. Hence, due to the mixture of politics and religion, the situation of the state churches is very confusing and has a strong political flavor.