Message given in Richmond, Virginia, by Brother Stephen Kong, on Sunday evening, April 9, 1972.
God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners,
hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son,
whom He appointed heir of all things,
through whom also He made the worlds;
who being the effulgence of His glory,
and the very image of His substance,
and upholding all things by the word of His power,
when He had made purification of sins,
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame,
and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
In my version there is a footnote concerning this phrase, “looking unto Jesus.” It means looking away from other things and fixing the eye exclusively upon one. Or, to put it more simply: looking off—looking off unto Jesus.
I think this is one of the greatest things in the universe: God speaks. Now, suppose God remained silent. Suppose God never spoke. How are we to know Him? We can never know God unless God speaks. In speaking, He reveals Himself to us. So I think we should be very, very grateful that God has spoken.
He has spoken to our fathers in former days—that is to say, before the coming of Christ. God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. God raised up men and women, inspired them, and put His thoughts—and sometimes even His words—into their mouths, that they might speak for God.
God spoke through the prophets in many parts and in many ways. In other words, what the prophets spoke from God was only fragmentary. It was never complete and perfect. However much a prophet might be used of God to speak, what he uttered was but bits and pieces and fragments.
God raised up many prophets. He had to speak through many of them. Yet even when you put all the speakings of the prophets together, they were still many parts, and not the whole.
God would use one prophet to speak a little, and another prophet to reveal a little more of Himself. Now, the prophets are not limited merely to those whom we commonly recognize in the Old Testament, such as Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and so on. If you read the Old Testament, you will find that Abraham was a prophet. Noah was a prophet. Moses was a prophet. These were all prophets. Why? Because God spoke through them and revealed Himself through them.
You have to take the whole Old Testament together. There you find God speaking through the prophets: through Abel a little, through Enoch a little, through Noah a little, through Abraham a little, and so forth until Malachi. These were all parts and fragments. They were preparations; they were not the final, full, complete revelation of God.
Through these teachings we might know God to a certain degree, but only to a certain degree—not in the fullness of His revelation.
At the same time, when God spoke through the prophets, He spoke in many ways. Sometimes He used very plain words. At other times He spoke in riddles and parables. Sometimes He spoke through visions and dreams; at other times in types. Still at other times, He spoke by demonstrating in history and in actions.
Therefore, in the Old Testament, you find the law, the Psalms, and the prophets. Sometimes He spoke like a commandment; other times like a song, a sentiment; and another time like a prophecy. God spoke through the prophets in many ways and in many parts.
Thank God for all these speakings. But again, they were not final. They were fragmentary. They were parts, not the whole.
Then, at the end of these days—that is to say, at the end of the days of the law and the prophets—God introduced His own Son into this world. Then the Bible says that God has spoken to us in Son.
In Greek, it is rather striking. It does not sound very much like English: “God has spoken to us in Son.” We would put an article before “Son,” but in Greek the Spirit of God purposely omitted the article. The way God speaks in His Son is completely different from the way He spoke through the prophets.
When God spoke through the prophets, He inspired them and gave them words to speak. Sometimes they understood, and sometimes they did not. But when God speaks in His Son, it is not merely that He inspires His Son to speak or puts words in His Son’s mouth. No: God speaks in His Son. The closest English expression would be, “God speaks as Son.”
God Himself is speaking. He is speaking directly. He is not speaking in the person of the Father, but He is speaking in the person of the Son. You see a great difference between these two kinds of speaking. When He speaks in His Son, He reveals Himself to the fullest because He speaks directly to us.
The Lord Jesus is not only the last word of God. God has spoken many words, and when He comes to the Lord Jesus, His Son, of course He utters the last word. But He is more than the last word. All that the prophets have spoken speaks concerning Him. He is the very substance of all God’s former speaking. He is the sum total of all God’s speaking.
In other words, the Son is the finality. When the Son comes, God is fully revealed. There is nothing further beyond that. He is the finality.
If you want to know God, you have to know Him. If all you know is the prophets, no matter how many prophets you know or how much uttered by the prophets you are acquainted with, all you have are parts, fragments, and preparations. It behooves us to know Him. If you have the Son, then you have all, because no one knows the Father but He who is in the bosom of the Father and declares Him. The Son is the finality.
I think there is a picture that illustrates this point. One day, you remember, our Lord Jesus took three disciples to the mountain, and there He was transfigured. These were the leading disciples among all the others. He took Peter, John, and James with Him to the Mount of Transfiguration.
There He was transfigured. His face shone, and His garments became white. Moses and Elijah appeared, and they talked with Him about His departure—His exodus, His exit. How would the Lord Jesus make His exit out of this world?
He had come into this world and lived upon this earth for a number of years. Through His earthly days, He had demonstrated what kind of Man God wanted. He was that Man. Moses and Elijah appeared with Him, and they were talking about His exit—how He would go out of this world.
This was a very, very important moment. So far as the Lord Himself was concerned, He was well qualified to make His exit from among men. Why? Because He had proved Himself worthy to appear before God as Man. Here was a Man qualified to abide in the presence of God. He was a Man after God’s own heart. He had pleased God in every way, and certainly He could be received by God as the perfect Man.
Now, should our Lord Jesus have made His exit at that time, what would have happened to us? There would have been no redemption, no cross, no redemption for us. It would have been all right for Him, but there would have been only one Man in glory, and no more.
So this was a very important subject. Moses and Elijah were interested in it. How would the Lord Jesus make His exit out of this world? Instead of making His exit at that time, He decided to make His exit from this world by way of the cross. That gave us hope.
Moses and Elijah were talking with the Lord Jesus about His departure, and because the glory was so great, the disciples fell asleep. Peter woke up just in time as Moses and Elijah were about to leave. Immediately, he felt that he had to say something to retain them. He did not know what to say, but he had to say something.
Therefore he said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Let us stay here forever.”
It would have been better if he had kept quiet, because immediately after he spoke, a cloud came and covered them, and God dismissed Moses and Elijah. They saw no one but Jesus.
The law and the prophets prepared the way. They introduced Christ into this world. As soon as their purpose was fulfilled, God dismissed them. God is very jealous over His Son. If anyone wants to make Moses and Elijah stand on the same footing as our Lord Jesus, the Father is so jealous that He dismisses them immediately.
He says, in effect, “No one is to be on the same footing with My Son. They introduced the Son. They have a place in My economy. But when the Son arrives, that is the finality.” He does not want us to see Moses. He does not want us to see Elijah. He wants us to see Jesus.
There is a finality in Christ that God wants us to see. But our tendency is always to try to hold on to something other than the Son. And we must be delivered from that. God is very jealous about it. This explains many experiences in our lives.
The whole book of Hebrews is written with this in view: the finality of Christ.
If you know anything about the background of the book of Hebrews, I believe you will appreciate it more. After the Lord accomplished the work of redemption, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and poured out the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the church was called, and the gospel was preached to all mankind.
As the gospel was preached, many Jews believed in the Lord Jesus. In the book of Acts, you find that even many priests believed in Christ, though they did not confess Him publicly because they were afraid of persecution.
During the early days of Christianity, there were many, many Jews who became believers in Christ. When they believed in the Lord Jesus, they held in their two hands both Judaism and Christianity.
The world at that time did not know that Christianity was something entirely new and different from Judaism. The Roman Empire, in the beginning, treated Christianity as a sect of Judaism. They thought it was simply a school within Judaism.
Not only the world saw it that way; even the believers at that time saw it that way. They thought Christianity was merely a continuation of Judaism. Thus, these early Jewish believers—whom we would call Hebrew Christians—gathered on the Lord’s Day and broke bread in remembrance of the Lord, yet on the Sabbath they still went to the synagogues and to the temple.
On the one hand, they believed in the Lord Jesus as the fulfillment of all prophecies. Yet, on the other hand, they still kept the law, the feasts, and all these things. They could not see the distinction between Christianity and Judaism. It was a Judeo-Christianity.
In other words, they put Moses on the same level as Christ. They had received Christ, but they would not let Moses go. They wanted both. It was such a mixture, and God was very unhappy with that situation.
God was very jealous for His Son, so He decided to do something drastic. If He did not do something drastic, these Jewish believers would never be delivered from Moses. They would never be pure in their faith.
God decided to destroy Jerusalem, to destroy the temple in Jerusalem, to destroy the sacrifices, and to put the priests out of their jobs.
Jerusalem was the place of God’s appointment. He Himself chose that place to set His name there. To the Jewish people, Jerusalem had such a hold upon them. You remember Psalm 137:
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her skill.
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,
if I remember thee not;
if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
Jerusalem was everything to a Jew. That is why, when they had Jerusalem, they would not let it go. It was their very life.
The temple was given to them by God. God Himself said that He would set His eyes upon the temple and hear their prayers. It was the place where they came to worship God. The pattern was revealed to David by God Himself.
The law, the sacrifices, the priesthood, the feasts, and the services—all these things came from God. They were the very life of Judaism and of the Jewish people.
But because they held on to these things to the extent of rejecting God’s Son, God had to act. Even those Jewish believers who did not reject the Son still held on to Judaism and were most reluctant to let it go, as though they would lose something.
God was determined to wipe out Jerusalem, destroy the temple, and tear everything down to pieces. Why? That these believers might be set free from the bondage of Judaism and enter into Christ in a pure way. Otherwise, they would never be able to enter into the purity of Christianity.
Christianity, in the eyes of God, is not a continuation of Judaism. It is a new thing, a new creation, completely new. God did not want His people to hold on to the old and try to mix it with the new.
You remember the parables in which our Lord Jesus speaks about the old and the new. If you have an old garment with a hole in it, what do you do? Do you tear a piece out of a new garment and put it on the old garment? No. Or do you put a piece of unfulled cloth upon the old garment? No, because when the new cloth shrinks, it makes the tear worse.
Or do you put new wine into old wineskins? No. The new wine will ferment, and the old wineskin has lost its flexibility. The wine will burst the skin, and the wine will be spilled. You do not do that.
But that was exactly what these Jewish believers were doing. They tried to hold new wine in old wineskins. They thought of taking a piece from the new garment, or from unfulled cloth, and mending the hole in the old garment.
God said, “No. My Son is the finality. I do not want you to have My Son together with many other things. These things all served a purpose. Now they have served their purpose, and they can go. My Son shall remain, only and forever.”
This was such a drastic step. If God did not first prepare their hearts, their faith might be shattered.
I remember during the wartime, when I was in Singapore. The Japanese came and bombed Singapore day and night. There were only about two hours in the early dawn when there was no bombing, and that was the time we met together. We never stopped meeting.
We knew that from approximately four o’clock to six o’clock in the morning we could come together on the Lord’s Day, meet during those two hours, and then disperse. Bombing could come at any hour, day or night.
One day, I remember vividly, a young brother came to me in agony. I could see that he was agonized. He said, “Brother, have you heard? Have you heard that a bomb has fallen through the roof of a church building?”
I said, “Yes, I heard it.”
He said, “Brother, if God allowed a bomb to go through the church, we have no more protection. We are finished.”
Brothers and sisters, how we put our trust in a building, thinking that it is a sanctuary and that we may find protection there. God is only trying to show us that there is something more real than this.
The Jewish believers had the same trouble. What if God destroyed Jerusalem, the temple, and all these things? These believers would think, “Now that is finished. That is the end.” They would begin to doubt God. Their faith would fall to pieces because somehow they leaned upon these things and held them as though they were the very substance.
It was for this reason that God raised up an instrument. We do not know who the writer of Hebrews was. There are different theories, but let us not speculate. We do know that God raised up a servant of His, and through that servant He gave the Hebrew believers a letter, a message.
The message of the book of Hebrews is: None of these things, but Christ. All these things had to go, but the Son would remain forever—and it is much better that way.
The book of Hebrews is centered upon the theme of the finality of Christ. Nothing else is final. Because it is not final, sooner or later it will pass away. Christ is the finality of God, and this is the purpose of God.
All the other things introduce Christ. But when Christ has come, these things must pass away. Why? Because God will not allow anything to stand together with Christ, however good it may be. Not only the things that do not come from God must go; even the things that come from God have to go.
The Son is the finality. Is there a message in this book of Hebrews for us today? I believe there is.
We are living in a time of transition. This age is drawing to a close, and the age to come is beginning. We are living in a time of transition, and during this time there will be great shakings everywhere.
During the last fifty years, the last ten years, or even the last five years, you think there has been much shaking in the world. But let us not think of the world. Let us think of the Christian world.
During the last five years, how much shaking has happened in Christianity. It seems as if everything is being tested to its very core. Even the question of whether there is a God is being tested. There is theology within Christianity declaring, “There is no God. God does not exist. God is dead.” You find that the very core of Christianity is being tested.
We are not like the Jewish believers holding on to Judaism, but, dear brothers and sisters, do we not have the same problem? We are holding on to Christianity—for Christian things.
What is Christianity? In reality, Christianity is Christ. Christianity is Jesus Christ. That is Christianity today: Christ.
There are many things in Christianity that have grown through the centuries and ages which do not come from God. They do not come from God; they have to be taken away. Why? Because the kingdom that cannot be shaken is coming.
Before the kingdom, everything that can be shaken will be shaken. All that is not of the kingdom has to go. Therefore, many things in Christianity that have developed through the years, but do not come from God, have to be shaken away. Do not cry over that. They cannot enter into the kingdom of God anyway.
The difficult thing is that even things which come from God—such as Jerusalem, the temple, the law, the priesthood, and the sacrifices—will also pass away. Why? Because the Son has come.
Brothers and sisters, let me ask you a very serious question: What do you have in your hand?
What is Christianity today? Is Christianity a huge collection of things—things that are not from God, and things that are from God, but merely a collection of things? We have a collection of teachings, doctrines, rules, regulations, forms, ways of worship, and service. It is just a great, huge collection of things, like a museum or an institute.
Or is Christianity, to you, Christ? What do you have in your hands? What is your Christian life composed of? Is it composed of many things, or is it composed of nothing but Christ?
Brothers and sisters, this will be the test of our days. God allows, and even causes, much shaking in Christianity.
Not only those traditions which do not come from God will be questioned; even Christian traditions that do come from God will also be tested to see whether they are of the kingdom. All things will be shaken. If they are Christ, they will enter into the kingdom that cannot be shaken. That is the test of the whole matter.
I have a deep burden in my heart. I do not know how to discharge it. But, dear brothers and sisters, I have a great fear in my heart.
My fear is this: when it comes to things that do not come from God, we may readily see that they are not from God and reject them. Yet even this is not easy. There are many things we know are not from God, but we still hold them very precious.
Nevertheless, in comparison, things that do not come from God are more easily discerned and should be more willingly forsaken. When the shaking comes and these things are shattered to pieces, we ought to let them go to pieces. We should not try to hold them together.
But the difficult thing is this: suppose what you have are things that come from God. Should you let these things go if God wants to take them away from you? Yes. Yes. Why? Because you are occupied with things; you are not occupied with Christ.
God has given you these things, but these things ought to introduce you to Christ. Unless you reach the finality, anything that is not final has to pass away. May I say reverently: Christ is the final form of all things.
You read the Gospel according to John. The Gospel according to John was written very late, after the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke had been written and spread among the believers for some time. Confusion concerning Christ had begun to arise among the believers.
Therefore, God used the Apostle John in his old age, after a long period of knowing God, to write the Gospel according to John. John’s Gospel is very different in nature from the other three Gospels. The theologians divide the first three Gospels into one class and John’s Gospel into another, and that is correct. It is very different.
In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you find recorded what Christ did and what He said. In John’s Gospel, John also records what Christ said and did, but there is a difference. In the first three Gospels you see things—unique things—but in John’s Gospel all these things are not merely things. Christ is these things.
That is the difference. Therefore, in the Gospel according to John, you repeatedly find the words, “I am.”
I am the bread of life.
Suppose you are hungry. Suppose you are not satisfied spiritually. You need spiritual food. The Lord says, “I am the bread of life.”
I am the resurrection, and the life.
When He went to raise Lazarus, He was not merely giving Lazarus something called resurrection. He was resurrection itself to Lazarus. “I am the resurrection, and the life.”
Throughout the Gospel according to John, Christ is the great “I am.” That is to say, He is it. Whatever it may be, if it is bread, He is bread. If it is light, He is the light. If it is the way, He is the way. If it is truth, He is the truth. If it is life, He is the life. If it is resurrection, He is the resurrection.
In other words, He is all things to us. It is not bread as one thing, light as another thing, way as another thing, truth as another thing, life as another thing, and resurrection as another thing.
Oh, brothers and sisters, how many things we accumulate in Christianity and in our Christian life. But if all we have are things and not Christ, one day they will be shaken off. They will be taken away.
It simply is not enough to be occupied with things. We must be occupied with Christ.
There are two verses in the Bible that are great verses—tremendously great verses.
In Colossians 1:18, we read that Christ “might have the preeminence in all things.” Christ is to have the first place in all things. This is the will of God. The eternal will of God is that Christ may have the first place in all things. But how?
Then there is Ephesians 1:10: “to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth.” That is the eternal purpose of God. But how is it to be fulfilled?
In the early days of our Christian life, we are usually given things, or we receive things from the Lord. I am deeply burdened with my sins. Oh, how I need forgiveness. So I go to the Lord and say, “Lord, will You please forgive me? You have died on the cross for me. You have shed Your blood for me. I believe You. Will You forgive me?”
The Lord says, “I forgive you.” So we take a thing called forgiveness of sins and go away. We have received the forgiveness of sins.
Then we come to the Lord and say, “Lord, I need to be justified. But how can I be justified? Not by my works. You are the Justifier, so will You please justify me?” The Lord says, “All right, I will justify you.” Thus we know the Lord as the Justifier, or, to put it another way, as our Savior.
But when you read the Bible, you find something very striking. In 1 Corinthians 1:30, God has made Him our righteousness—our justification. He is not only our Justifier; He is our justification.
He is not only our Savior; He is our salvation.
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
We may say, “God is my Savior,” but the psalmist says something greater: “God is my salvation.” Christ is our righteousness. It is not merely that He justifies us or gives us something called righteousness. He Himself is made righteousness to us. Is that not glorious?
I cannot forget the story of John Bunyan. Sometimes, when you have a very hard time getting through, God may have some lesson for you to learn so that you may help others. Other people may get through very quickly, but John Bunyan got through with great difficulty.
As a young man, he was very careless in sin. Then he was convicted and tried to reform himself. He became involved in the church; he became the bell-ringer and rang the bell in the church. He was reformed for a while, then he slipped back again. Once more he was convicted, and once more he tried to reform himself. He went back and forth.
You find his autobiography in Grace Abounding. He did not mention his own name, but it is his autobiography.
One day, when he was so burdened in his heart concerning his justification and righteousness, he was walking in a field. He was asking, “How can I be justified? I have no righteousness. The righteousness I have is filthy rags. How can I be righteous before God?”
Then he heard, whether from heaven or in his heart, I do not know: “My righteousness is in heaven.”
Suddenly it dawned on him: “My righteousness is in heaven.” Why? Because Christ is his righteousness. If Christ is my righteousness, that solves the whole problem. I may not feel righteous, but my righteousness never changes because it is Christ.
Brothers and sisters, in the early days of our spiritual life, we usually go to the Lord and cry out for things, just like children. “I am hungry. Give me bread.” The Lord condescends Himself and gives bread to us. When we have bread, we run away and have a good time.
Then, when we need another thing, we come back to Him and say, “Lord, we are in need again. Please give me this thing.” The Lord says, “All right, I will give you this.” We take it and run away again.
What do we want spiritually? We want justification. We want sanctification. We want redemption. We want joy, peace, comfort, power, gifts, grace. We want this, and we want that.
In the early days of our Christian life, strange to say, God often gives these things to us. If God did not give them to us in the early stages of our Christian life, we might stop going on with Him. God has to suffer long with us. He goes along with us.
But He cannot go along with us all our lives. Why? Because these things are not final. The finality is in Christ. Unless you find Christ in these things, unless Christ becomes these things to you, God’s purpose is not served.
That is the reason why all these things will later be tested and shaken.
Have you ever heard of Christians—even the best of Christians, who loved the Lord throughout their lives and served God—whose faith seemed to be shattered near the time of their death? They even doubted whether they were saved. Have you heard of that? I have read about them. I have seen something in that.
Why? Is it not because they knew the Lord as Savior, but did not know the Lord as their salvation? Is it because they knew the Lord as Justifier, but did not know the Lord as their justification? They knew that the Lord had made them righteous, but they did not know that Christ Himself was their righteousness.
Even this matter of our salvation has to be tested. Is it Christ? Then it cannot be taken away; it is the kingdom of God. Is it merely a thing? Then one day it will be shaken, even if it comes from God, because it is not the finality.
God has to lead us to the very end, to see that it is Christ. Thank God, when you read these biographies, you find that even though there may be a struggle at the very end, they come out of darkness and know that Christ is their salvation.
Even in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, you remember that when Christian passed through the icy water, he faltered and was drowning. Hopeful had to uphold him and help him out. It is a picture of the fact that even to the very last, we may be tested.
But thank God, in all cases, at the very, very end, they came out of darkness and knew that Christ was their salvation. Their faith may be tried, they may doubt, and they may be puzzled, but it does not change Christ.
Brothers and sisters, in you, Christ—that is the finality. It never changes.
How many brothers and sisters lack patience. That is probably the problem with all of us. You go to the Lord and ask for patience: “Lord, I am a believer. I have to be patient. If I am not patient, people will ask whether I am a believer. Lord, please give me patience.”
And, strange to say, the Lord gives you some patience. For a few years, perhaps, you are able to be quite patient.
But the hard thing is that after a few years, when you suppose you have become more mature, suddenly you discover that you have lost your patience. God takes it away. Why?
In my own experience, I knew a sister whom I admired very much. I was a very young boy then, and she was far ahead of me. The Lord used her greatly. But after I first came out to learn to serve the Lord, I heard her stand up and say something that really frightened me.
This patient sister told us how she had lost her temper. That was terrible—terrible. After many years of being patient, she discovered that she did not have patience.
But do you know why? The Lord had something bigger for her. So the Lord said, in effect, “You want a thing called patience. Well, I had to give it to you for a little while. But that is not Christ. You have to lose that thing. You have to gain Christ as your patience.”
If Christ is your patience, then you will be as patient as Christ. Your problem is solved forever.
That is sanctification. That is holiness. Holiness is not that you get something called holiness, or that you eradicate something that is unholy. No. Holiness, holiness, holiness—He is that thing. He is that thing.
Therefore, you find the Bible saying that the church is the body of Him “that filleth all in all.” Christ is all things to all men, everywhere. Whatever you enter into in life, Christ is all things in all.
He is your salvation. He is your way. He is your truth. He is your life. He is your gift. He is your power. He is your wisdom. He is all these things, brothers and sisters.
God is very jealous. He does not want us to be occupied with these things, even things from God. We think that accumulating many spiritual things makes us very spiritual. Far from it.
The question is: Is Christ your joy? Is Christ your weakness? Is Christ your power? Is it Christ, or is it something else? In Christianity there is no thing—nothing but Christ.
All the things that we have have their reality in a Person. That is the truth. Christ is all things to us. Because Christ is all things to us, therefore He has the first place in all things. This is the way He sums up all things in Himself.
It is not one thing, another thing, and another thing. He gathers all things in Himself. He is it.
I remember Brother Nee using an illustration from his own experience. Once he was dying of tuberculosis. The doctors had given him up long before, but suddenly the Lord raised him up by His word. He had many experiences.
One day, the Lord taught him a lesson. The lesson was that it is more than the Lord healing him. The Lord says, “I am your healing.”
He used 2 Corinthians 12 as an example. Here was Paul with a thorn in the flesh. He went to the Lord and asked Him to remove it. The Lord could very easily have healed Paul, but the Lord did not take away the thorn.
Did the Lord heal him? Yes. The Lord said:
My grace is sufficient for thee:
for My power is made perfect in weakness.
What we need to learn is simply this: Christ is the finality.
Therefore, Scripture exhorts us to look away from all things and to look only to the One.
Because if you look at things, one day these things will pass away. But if you look at Christ, He never passes away. That is it. That is what God really wants you to have.
Because of this, God will measure us by this standard. You remember Revelation 2 and 3, the seven churches. The Son of Man is walking among and measuring these seven churches. What is He looking for in these churches?
Some of these churches had many good things—things that came from God. For instance, in Ephesus, the Lord said, “I know your labor. I know your work. I know your endurance. I know your patience. I know that you can test false apostles and prove them false. I know that you do not hold the works of the Nicolaitans.”
“I know you have this. You have that. You have this thing and that thing. But I have somewhat against you.” Why? Because He did not find Himself there. They had left their first love.
You may have many things, but if the Lord cannot find Himself in these things, if the Lord is not in these things, if the Lord is not these things, they will be shaken. The Lord says, “I will move thy candlestick.” In other words, the testimony will be removed.
In Laodicea, they were very proud of themselves. “We are rich. We lack nothing.” As a matter of fact, they were very rich in doctrine, very rich in teaching, very rich in this and that. But the Lord said, in effect, “I do not find Myself in these things.” If you do not repent, “I will spew thee out of My mouth.”
What does the Lord see in the church in Philadelphia? Even though they had little power, the Lord saw Himself. Yes.
So, brothers and sisters, we are approaching the very end of the very end.
God is shaking everything. Why? Because the kingdom that cannot be shaken is coming.
He will measure us and test us by one criterion: Is it Christ, or is it something else?
Things will pass away, but Christ will not pass away.
My burden today is this: I meet many believers in many places, and one thing tears my heart. I have discovered that most of God’s people are occupied with things, not with Christ.
Because of this, great shakings will come. I have already seen some shakings. Unless we see that it is Christ, our faith will be purified, our hope will be lifted, and our love will increase.
So it is very important that we see, in God’s mind, that Christ is all.
Our Heavenly Father, we do not know how to discharge this burden, but we just lift up our hearts and pray that Thou wilt give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may see Christ as the finality.
We pray that we may not stop short with many things in our hands—things that come from Thee—and yet not have Thee as our all in all.
O Lord, we pray that more and more we may be occupied with Christ instead of with things, that when Thy kingdom shall come, we may find ourselves in that kingdom which cannot be shaken.
O Lord, do not spare us, lest we be ashamed at Thy appearing. In the name of our Lord Jesus.