That we may behold Thee, behold Thy Son, with unveiled face.
We pray that this morning Thou wilt open our eyes to see Thee, and Thee alone. Thou wilt open our ears to hear Thy voice, because Thou dost say:
My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me.
O Lord, we do pray that this morning Thou, the Sun of righteousness, wilt rise in our hearts with healing in Thy wings. We commit this time into Thy hands. We pray that we may be delivered out of ourselves and into Thyself.
Lord, we pray that Thou art able to finish Thy good work which Thou hast begun in Christ Jesus in each one of us. We do desire that Thyself shall be exalted, seen, glorified, loved, and adored. We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
This morning, I would like to use one verse in the Bible. If you are able to find it, try it. Hosea 7:8—the second clause. I will give you one minute to find it.
Hosea 7:8, the second clause:
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
Through the prophet Hosea, God gave this estimate of Ephraim, which represents Israel. It is the judgment of love, not negative criticism.
It is important that we may see ourselves in God’s light. You remember that very precious verse in Psalm 36:
In Thy light shall we see light.
And in Thy presence there is fullness of life. We can only see ourselves in the light of God. It is no use; it is unprofitable; it is even harmful if we try to see ourselves in our own light, or in the light of others.
Now, of course, the Bible does say, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” The Bible also says that if we judge ourselves, then we may not be judged. But that does not mean that we are to measure ourselves in our own light or in the light of other people. No. The only thing is that we have to place ourselves in the light of God, that we may see exactly what we are in the sight of God.
The psalmist prayed:
Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
I believe this is a prayer that we should always pray. One thing that is very important in our Christian life is to know ourselves in the light of God—to know where we are and where we stand. This will help us greatly in our progress in the Lord.
So again I was saying: it is good to know ourselves in the light of God, but never try to analyze yourself. You will never be able to know yourself with the light of your own soul. It is futile. It is unprofitable.
Here you find that God gave His estimate of Ephraim. From time to time, I believe we need God to give an estimate of ourselves. And God’s estimate of Ephraim was: “You are a cake not turned.”
Now, I believe the sisters know much better than I do. But, of course, you remember this is baking, not in a modern oven, so there is a little difference here.
A woman kneads the dough. She puts all the ingredients together for the cake, and she may even put it in a tin of a certain shape—whatever shape you want it to be. You find that everything is ready, and then she begins to bake it over an open fire.
In an oven, you get the heat all around, and you do not need to turn it. But with an open fire, when you put the prepared material for the cake over the fire, it begins to bake.
It suddenly comes to me: was it King Bruce? When he fled from his enemy, he went into an old woman’s home. The woman said, “All right, I have a cake baking on the fire. Now you watch it.” The woman went away on some errand, and King Bruce was so occupied with his kingdom and all his thoughts that he forgot all about the cake on the fire.
When the woman came back, she found that it was burning, and, of course, she scolded him. So you find that when you try to bake a cake over an open fire, you have to be very watchful. If you do not, one side will be scorched and burning, and the other side will still be raw and undercooked.
Now, can you eat such a cake? Have you ever tasted such a cake? A cake not turned is a cake that is burned on one side and raw on the other side. Such a cake is not fit for food. It can only be cast away.
Do you know the spiritual meaning of this? Well, to be very simple, the spiritual meaning of a cake not turned is spiritual imbalance.
God has gathered us out of all nations, as wheat out of the field—the world. He works upon each one of us. He grinds us. He mixes us. He makes us flour. He mixes it with water, the Word of God, that we may become dough. He may put in some spices to make it more tasty.
Now He prepares all the time in order to make us a cake presentable to Himself. You remember that in the Old Testament there was the showbread, or the bread of the Presence. The showbread was put before God as food for God.
This is what God desires of His people. He saves us from the world. He gathers us together. He unites us. He cements us. He makes us dough, and He gives all His gifts to us. The ingredients are mixed in that dough.
Why has God done all these works in our lives, individually and collectively? Why? Because He wants to make us a cake as food for Himself, as well as for all the hungry ones. That is the purpose of God.
But after He has joined us together, after He has united us together, after He has given us gifts, after He has put us together, there is something more He has to do. We are raw yet. We cannot be eaten. He has to put us over the fire. He has to bake us.
But, dear brothers and sisters, very often in the process of baking, some forgetfulness comes. We let the dough bake over the fire, but we forget to turn it. The result is that we are overcooked in one way and undercooked in another way. In other words, we need to come into balance.
Here, brothers and sisters, remember one thing: if we are unbalanced, in spite of all the work that God has done in our lives, we cannot be presented to God as His food. We are scorched on one side and raw on the other side.
Spiritual balance is a very important principle in our Christian life. The Lord Jesus Himself is the most balanced Person in the whole world. If you read the four Gospels, they show you how balanced our Lord Jesus is.
The Word became flesh, full of grace and truth.
On the one side, He is full of grace; yet it does not mean that He lacks truth. He is full of truth; but on the other hand, He is not lacking in grace.
Yes, He is the Son of God. He is above everything. He can do everything. Nothing is impossible with Him. Yet, on the other hand, He is the Son of Man—the Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Have you ever met a Person so well balanced as our Lord Jesus?
Spiritual balance is the sign of spiritual maturity. The lack of balance is a lack of spiritual maturity. The Lord Jesus is the most balanced Person in the whole world, and this is what the Lord expects us to be: that we may not be a cake not turned; that we may turn around and be well done.
Let me illustrate with a few thoughts. We need to maintain a balance between life and knowledge.
You know, it is our human nature to go to extremes. It is very difficult for our natural life to be balanced. We either swing to one end, or we swing to the opposite end. It takes some time for us to swing back to balance.
Very often, we find people who emphasize knowledge so much. “Knowledge is power.” Yes, they want knowledge. They search the Scriptures very diligently. Now, do not say that we should not search the Scriptures. You remember in the book of Acts that the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians because they searched the Scriptures. It is important that we search the Scriptures very diligently.
The cry of these people who emphasize knowledge so much is, “To the law and to the testimony.” If you want to talk with them, the first thing they say is, “Show me the verse.” If it is not in the verse, they cannot accept it. “To the law and to the testimony”—that is their cry.
They want to base everything on some Bible verse. They know a lot of the Bible, like the scribes and the Pharisees. They can recite the Bible from memory.
You remember when the Lord Jesus was born, the Magi went to Jerusalem and asked King Herod, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” He gathered the scribes and the Pharisees and asked, “Where?” They did not say, “Let me go back and look up my concordance.” They did not do that.
Immediately they said, “Christ shall be born in Bethlehem of Judea.” Why? Because it is said in the prophet Micah. I wonder whether you can find the prophet Micah. But they knew the Scriptures so well. They knew it all.
But the trouble was that they passed on that information to King Herod, giving him an opportunity to kill the Child. They did not go to Bethlehem to worship.
Knowledge—full of knowledge—but it can be purely mental exercise. You do not go beyond your mind, and you may pass on the information of your mind to the minds of other people. There is very little, if any, spiritual value in such knowledge.
Knowledge, as the Bible says, puffeth up. If you know, you will feel yourself important. Knowledge—but love edifieth.
Do you prefer to be full of knowledge? Do you think you really know? The apostle Paul says, “If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.”
Oh, I have heard people say, “I do not want knowledge. Knowledge is dead.” No, they say it is useless. May I ask you how much knowledge you have? Probably you have very little, so you can dispense with it.
Human mental knowledge is dead. It is cold. It is useless. It has not much spiritual value. All these are true. Knowledge without life is dead.
If you search the Scriptures and all you find are the letters, without going beyond the letters to the Spirit of it, it is dead. If you know the Word of God and store the Word of God in your mind without ever opening your heart to the Word of God, your knowledge will remain an outward thing. It will never become an inward knowledge, which is of great value.
It is very true, dear brothers and sisters: you can be a cake unturned in this respect. You can dig, dig, dig, dig, dig into the Bible. You can try to analyze and analyze the Bible. You can gather and accumulate information in your mind until you are a doctor of divinity.
But, dear brothers and sisters, if your heart is not open to the Lord and you do not let the Word enter into your heart, it is completely useless. It has no spiritual value before the Lord. It can be very harmful. Why? Because it makes you self-important, self-contented, critical, hard, proud, cold, and dead.
Knowledge must be balanced with life.
But, on the other hand, dear brothers and sisters, there are some people who emphasize life. “Oh, life is everything. We do not want knowledge. We do not want to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We want to eat of the tree of life.”
It is true: life is of supreme importance. What is the use of all this objective knowledge? What is the use of filling your mind with information if your life does not prove that you are what you know you ought to be? Life is very important.
But do you know what life is?
This is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.
You say you do not want knowledge? You mean you do not want life? Because life is knowledge. What is eternal life? Eternal life is an inward knowing of God and of Jesus Christ, His Son.
It is true that life is not that outward knowledge, that mental knowledge, that objective knowledge. Life is something more than that. It is knowledge, but remember one thing: this inward knowledge is nevertheless based upon outward knowledge. This subjective knowledge is based upon objective knowledge.
If there is not truth, there can be no life. Because there is truth, then, in knowing the truth, you will have His life. A life that is not based upon truth is not the real life.
A life that can dispense with the Word of God is not the life of God. You find that the life of God is always based upon His Word—the objective truth, the Logos.
With this objective truth, through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, you get into it and beyond it, and you get that inward knowledge which is life. You find that life is very precious, very precious.
Have you read the Epistles? In the letter of Paul to the Ephesians, he prayed for the believers:
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
He prayed for the Philippians:
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment.
And he prayed the same prayer for the Colossians. Dear brothers and sisters, sometimes in our emphasis on life, we despise knowledge so much that we even throw the truth away. Remember, this is a cake not turned. Life is measured by truth.
If it were not for the fact, the truth, that our Lord Jesus has come into this world, died on the cross, and fulfilled the work of redemption for us, nobody, however he tries, can be saved. You will not be able to enter into any experience of Christ if there is not the truth of Christ.
Let me make this clear. Throughout the centuries, especially in the Middle Ages, Christianity had become almost like a superstition. The Bible was not read. There might have been some copies of the Bible chained in the monasteries, and even the monks did not read the Bible. It took an exceptional monk, like Martin Luther, to read the Bible.
So you find that people were ignorant of the truth of God, and yet there were people who really had a heart for God. We call them Christian mystics. Now, do not be afraid of that. It is a little bit mystical, but still do not be afraid of that.
These so-called Christian mystics throughout the centuries had a very strong longing for God. They sought God. They wanted to reach God. They gave up everything for knowing God.
What did they do? They wore hair shirts. They slept on nails. They used sharp instruments to beat themselves until their blood flowed profusely. They practiced this until oftentimes they were given up as dead.
I have read many of their stories. I admire them—their longing for God. They inflicted a lot upon themselves. They wanted to know God. Do you think they could know God that way?
In the mercy of God, God came to them and said, “Children, you do not need to do that. Just believe in Me.” And I think they did. Yet, because they had no Bible to guide them, even after they had experienced the grace of God in a real way, when they came out to teach and instruct people, do you know what they did?
They told people, “If you want to know God, you have to inflict sufferings upon yourself.” They taught people according to their own particular experience: “I have experienced God in this way; therefore, you too must experience Him in the same way.” Because that was the only way they knew.
And do you know what the result was? The result was that they taught the traditions of the fathers instead of the Word of God.
Do you see the point? You may think that life is all you want, but you can get overcooked. You can try to develop your life to such an extent that you get rid of the Word of God and insist on the traditions of the fathers—which is your experience.
Do you think that God is greater than your experience? Do you not know that someday God will lead you into further experiences? Do you think that your experience limits God? God is nowhere to be found except in your experience? You are overcooked.
Brothers and sisters, Israel is a cake not turned. We easily can be that way. We can easily emphasize knowledge to the exclusion of life, and then you go dead. We can easily emphasize life and despise the Word of God, and that will make us wild and undisciplined.
We need to maintain the balance. Turn over the cake. Turn that one side that is overcooked and the other side that is undercooked.
The Scriptures and the Power of God
Let me use another illustration. I should give you a Scripture. You remember the Sadducees came to the Lord with a very difficult supposition. I will not go into it. They thought they had caught the Lord and that the Lord could never get out of that.
Do you remember what the Lord said? “Ye do err.” For what reason?
Because ye know not the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
How can we be wrong? If we do not know the Scriptures, the Word, we can be wrong. If we do not know the power of God, we can be wrong. The Scriptures and the power of God are well balanced. Knowledge and life must be balanced.
Let me use another illustration. I gave you the Scripture verse first: 1 Corinthians 14:15.
What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also:
I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
Of course, we know that this verse refers to the way God’s people should meet. When God’s people meet together, they should sing in the spirit as well as with understanding. They should pray with the spirit as well as with understanding.
But I think the principle can be applied over a wider area. Here you find that we need to maintain the balance between spirit and understanding.
Christianity, as such, has left those who have a real heart for God disgusted with the formality of Christianity. God’s people everywhere are seeking for something living—in other words, the Spirit.
If you allow me to say it, the Pentecostal movement is sweeping the whole world. Why? They want something living, something living.
God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
It is very true. Because God is Spirit, unless your spirit is released, unless your spirit gets in contact with God, there is no other way to worship God. No other way. That is very true.
You may prostrate yourself on the floor for hours before an icon. You may get all your noble thoughts and try to think and imagine God—His mercy and grace. You may move all your emotions to jump and leap before God. You may make a very strong declaration: “I want God.”
That does not mean you are in contact with God. You think you are, but you are not, because God is Spirit. He is to be worshipped only in spirit and truth.
Dear brothers and sisters, I do believe that in these days God’s people ought to know more about the spirit—not only the human spirit, but the Spirit of God. God’s people need to have some real experience of the Spirit of God.
To make spiritual things real to you—otherwise spiritual things are just unreal—you need it desperately. You need it.
The Bible says that you sing in the spirit, and you sing with understanding. You pray in the spirit, and you pray with understanding. It is true that we must emphasize the spirit. We must have spiritual experiences. We must touch spiritual things in a real way.
Yet, on the other hand, the Bible says that does not mean you should get rid of your understanding. How often we say, “We want the spirit. We do not want the mind,” as if our mind were sinful. God created your mind. God means that you use your mind. But your mind alone is not enough.
There must be the Spirit—the Spirit of wisdom and revelation—given to you, that you may know Him, and that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. Spirit and understanding.
It is never the will of God that Christians should be people devoid of understanding. The policy of fooling the people is not God’s policy. God wills us to understand.
But, of course, it has to go deeper. It has to be in the spirit as well as in understanding.
Why is it that the spirit alone is not enough? “Oh, as long as I am in the spirit, that is all right.” Well, if you are in the Holy Spirit, that is all right; nothing can be wrong. But are you sure you are in the Holy Spirit? That is where your understanding comes in.
What do you need to understand? That your spirit is only a means; it is not an end. The human spirit needs to be released that it may be the channel of the Spirit of God.
Do you think God is so interested in your spirit being released? God is interested to see your spirit released that His Spirit may have a release. It is foolish to think that is the substance. Your spirit is just an organ. It is just that.
Remember, one day the Lord Jesus was rejected by the Samaritans. James and John came to the Lord and said, “Lord, this ought not to be done. Dost Thou want us to call fire down from heaven and burn them up?” Oh, full of spirit—spirited people!
The Lord said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.” My Spirit is the Spirit of love, of selflessness, of meekness, of humility. You just demonstrate how stupid, hard, harsh, selfish, and critical you are, because your pride is hurt.
You do not know what spirit you have. Remember, even our spirit needs to be purified. 2 Corinthians 7:1 says that not only your flesh needs to be cleansed, but your spirit needs to be cleansed, because your spirit is just an organ. Your soul can occupy it.
You need understanding to understand what? The spirit needs to be disciplined. So, in 1 Corinthians 14, “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” The prophets had to exercise control over their spirits with understanding.
He is not a prophet who has a spirit and speaks whenever he feels like it. He has to know when to speak and when to be quiet and silent. Read Proverbs 25:28:
He that hath no rule over his own spirit
Is like a city that is broken down and without walls.
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty. With understanding, know that your spirit is not the end; God is after the release of His own Spirit, not ten thousand words of tongues. Spirit and understanding.
I give you one more. I can go on and on and on. This balance covers all areas. 2 Corinthians 5:13:
For whether we are beside ourselves, it is unto God; or whether we are of sober mind, it is for your cause.
Here you find another balance. “If we are beside ourselves, it is unto God.” Brothers and sisters, we need to be beside ourselves. The trouble is that we are too self-conscious. We are always thinking of ourselves and what people say of us.
Oh, that one day we may be beside ourselves. What can I say? I will say that one day we may be so abandoned unto God, so utter toward God, that we forget ourselves completely.
David danced before the ark. David the king danced before the ark, and there is the explanation: it was before the Lord.
I will be yet more vile than thus.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to be beside ourselves—delivered from ourselves, wholly occupied by God, abandoned to God. This is what we need.
But, on the other hand, Paul said, “If I am of sober mind, it is for your sake.” When you are alone before God, be beside yourself. But when you are with other people, be sober.
Remember, there are other people who do not understand as you do. They may be offended by your liberty and freedom.
All things are lawful; but not all things are expedient.
All things are lawful; but not all things edify.
Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbor’s good.
Many more things I can mention, but I will not. The Spirit of God can do the work in you.
Lastly, I would just like to mention a few things as to how we can keep the balance.
Number one: the secret of spiritual balance is to look unto Jesus.
Do you know what? Our Lord Jesus is the whole. All your experiences and knowledge are parts. Whatever you know, whatever you have experienced, remember these are just parts; they are not the whole.
If you focus the attention on any part, you lose the whole. But if you focus your attention on the whole, you get that. Christ is the center.
You see a wheel here. All these spokes of the wheel represent experiences, many teachings and doctrines, many experiences. All these spokes are necessary, but they are parts. These spokes must all be joined to the center, and that is Christ.
If any spoke is out of the hub, it is out of joint, out of place. It not only does not profit; it hurts. It hurts. Every truth, every experience, must be centered upon Christ. Then it must be joined together by the rim of the wheel, which is the church.
This is the secret. Oh, dear brothers and sisters, allow me to say this: here we see only some truth, or some experience, and make so much of it that Christ disappears. We are out of balance.
Let every truth and experience be centered upon Christ and be circumscribed by the church.
Number two: in order that we may arrive at spiritual balance, each one of us must be open to what God may lead us into. Yes, in other words, be flexible.
Do not take a hard position and say, “This is it. Nothing else.” You are finished. Be open before the Lord. Oh, the Lord has much more for you. Do not restrict the Lord and think that He is just that small, and that is all.
You are looking at heaven from the bottom of the well. Do not do that. Get up to the mountain and see the horizon there. Do not limit Him.
Be careful of one thing: be careful of yourself. You know, we are our worst enemies. We always try to go the easiest way, the line of least resistance, even in spiritual things.
What is the line of least resistance? It is according to our natural temperament. God is against it. God is against that. Here is the thing: be open to whatever the Lord may have to say to you. That is the only way to reach balance.
Not only in yourselves be open, but learn to respect others—their experience and their understanding. Try to understand them. Try to adjust yourselves to them, and let them adjust to you.
Yes, brothers and sisters, you need your brothers and sisters for balance. I need your balance, and you need my balance. We have to balance one another. That is the church.
What is the use of talking about the church if we do not balance one another and all go one way or the other? Do not demand that your brothers and sisters adjust to you. Learn to adjust to them. This is love.
The Spirit of Christ is love. They are very simple things, but if we learn these secrets, by the grace of God we can grow in spiritual balance. The Lord will not say to us, “Ephraim, you are a cake not turned.”
Ah, Heavenly Father, put us in Thy light, that we may see light. Deliver us from judging ourselves or judging others, but judge us with Thy light.
Show us where we are unbalanced—overcooked on one side, undercooked on another side. Oh, Lord, give us that spiritual balance which belongs to Thee, as we center upon Thyself.
Teach us how to be open to Thee. Teach us how to tolerate and to adjust ourselves to our brothers and sisters, that Thy church may be a well-balanced church, as Thou art balanced.
Lord, we commit these words into Thy hands. We do not trust in the words of men. We trust in Thy Spirit to finish Thy work, Thy good work, that Thyself may be glorified and honored.
We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.