If time allows, we want to reserve perhaps five or ten minutes toward the end of this session to give the young people some spiritual encouragement from the Word.
First of all, I feel in my heart that this question period should really be given to our three brothers who were the main speakers, because it is only natural that, after you have heard from them, you may have questions that you want to ask them. To me, it feels a little awkward that I should be answering questions not directly related to the theme of this conference. But in obedience to my brother, I feel that I have to do what they want me to do. So I ask you for forbearance.
There are a number of questions given to me, and I will try my best. Probably I will ask my brothers to help me out.
Here is the first question:
Considering that many moves of the Spirit in church history have dwindled after the second and third generations, how do we avoid falling into the same situation? How do we remain faithful to what the Lord has indeed revealed to us? How do we avoid becoming lukewarm, like the Laodiceans?
I think this is a very, very good question. It mentions the moves of the Spirit. Now, we know that after the ascension of our Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead, came into this world. The Spirit of God moves on this earth for one purpose: He is here to complete the work that our Lord Jesus began while on earth.
Our Lord Jesus finished the work of redemption on earth, and now the Holy Spirit has come to fulfill—to realize—what the Lord has done and make it real to His own people. So we find throughout church history that the Holy Spirit is moving all the time. He never ceases to move.
At different times, however, we see a fresh, new start, as it were, in the move of the Spirit. He is always moving in one direction. He always moves to complete that which our Lord Jesus has begun. Put another way, the move of the Holy Spirit is to complete the work of God throughout the centuries.
In a very real sense, God has only one work. We think of many works, but so far as God is concerned, He has only one work.
You remember that one day, after our Lord Jesus multiplied the bread and the fishes and fed five thousand, many people tried to follow Him. They sought Him out, and the Lord said, “Do not seek for the food which perishes, but seek for the food which abides unto eternal life.” Then immediately the crowd began to say, “What must we do, that we may work the works of God?”
Notice that when they asked, “What must we do, that we may work the works of God?” the word works is plural. There are many works that we think we can do for God. Yet it is striking that the Lord answered, “Believe on Him whom God hath sent.” This is the work of God.
“This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”
— John 6:29
There is only one work: you believe on the One whom God has sent. Unless we believe and receive what the Lord has done for us, we cannot do any work of God.
The Holy Spirit is here on earth to work toward the completion of the work of God. As our brother mentioned in his message, what is God’s work? God’s work is to sum up all things in Christ Jesus. God’s work is to complete a body for the Head, Christ Jesus. That is God’s work.
This is what the Holy Spirit is doing on earth today, and every fresh move of the Holy Spirit is always in that direction.
We thank God for the move of the Holy Spirit. If you read the Book of Acts, you find that on the day of Pentecost there was the first great move of the Holy Spirit. He came down upon the one hundred and twenty believers who had assembled in the upper room for ten days, praying with one accord.
The Holy Spirit came, and in one Spirit these one hundred and twenty believers were baptized into one body. That was the beginning of church history.
While our Lord Jesus was on earth, He prepared the material. He said:
“Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
— Matthew 16:18
Then the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, and in one Spirit the one hundred and twenty were baptized into one body. They were no longer merely one hundred and twenty individual believers; they became one body with one hundred and twenty members. That is a tremendous difference.
Thank God, in that same Spirit we have all been baptized into one body. We are no longer merely individual believers. Our individuality never leaves us; we remain individuals throughout eternity. Yet individualism is gone. We are no longer independent of one another. We become members of one body, related and interdependent to one another.
This was the first move of the Holy Spirit. Then, if you read the Book of Acts, you find that He made a second move in Acts 11, when the Holy Spirit made a new move in Antioch.
In Jerusalem, those who were baptized into one body—and the three thousand added on that same day—were all Jews. They may have been Hellenistic Jews or Hebrew Jews, and there may have been some proselytes, but the church in Jerusalem was composed mainly of Jews.
In a sense, it was not able to free itself completely from Judaism. In the beginning, the world regarded those who followed the Lord Jesus as a sect of Judaism. Judaism had a number of sects—the Pharisees and the Sadducees—and people thought that the believers in the Lord Jesus were simply another sect because they were all Jews.
Then the Holy Spirit made a new move in Antioch. Mostly Gentiles came to the Lord. They continued in the Lord, were discipled in the Lord, and were taught in the Lord. The world looked at them and said, “Who are they? They are not Jews. They cannot be a sect of Judaism. Who are they?”
They were called Christians. The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch—Christ-men and Christ-women. In other words, they were Christ-centered. They gathered around the name of Christ. They loved Christ, spoke of Christ, lived for Christ, and worshipped Christ. Christians: a new move of the Holy Spirit.
Then, if you read the Book of Acts, you find a third move. Ephesus became a center of His work. Paul was in Ephesus for three years, and all Asia—not the continent of Asia, but the Roman province of Asia Minor—heard the gospel. Many came to the Lord, and the Lord made a mighty move there. A church was raised up, composed of both Gentiles and Jews.
Finally, you find another move in Rome. In a very strange way, God sent Paul to Rome as a prisoner. Yet he was not only a prisoner of Rome; he called himself a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
For two years Paul remained in his rented lodging. Even though he was a prisoner, he was given a certain freedom. He was always chained to a soldier of the imperial guard. For two years he received anyone who wanted to hear the glad tidings. The whole imperial guard heard the gospel, because one after another was chained to him. They could not help but hear the gospel.
In those days Rome was considered both the center and, in a sense, the end of the world. Every road led to Rome. You remember that our Lord Jesus said:
“Ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
— Acts 1:8
In approximately thirty-three years—the period covered by the Book of Acts—the Holy Spirit made four great moves, and the gospel spread to the end of the earth. It was a glorious, wonderful beginning.
If you read the Epistles, you find that toward the end of the lives of Paul and Peter, in the sixties, there seemed to be a declension in the churches.
Read Paul’s letters to Timothy, especially 2 Timothy. You find that he said they were living in perilous times. There would be lovers of self, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure. Paul was not speaking about the world. It is no surprise when people in the world are lovers of self, because they are self-centered; nor is it surprising that they are lovers of money and pleasure. But Paul was speaking of believers.
Even believers can become lovers of self, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure, instead of lovers of God and lovers of good. A general declension had come into the church. You find the same thing in 2 Peter. He mentions that there were people who would even deny the Lord who bought them.
At the end of the first generation, in the sixties, you begin to see this transition. Paul, for example, was very anxious to reach Jerusalem on his final journey. He called the elders of the church in Ephesus to meet him at Miletus.
He told them that for three years he had been with them, preaching publicly and from house to house, with tears. He had not withheld anything profitable from them. He had shared with them the whole counsel of God. But at the same time he told them, “Ye shall see my face no more.”
Those elders in Ephesus never saw Paul again. After Paul was released from Roman imprisonment, he visited Ephesus again, but the older generation of elders had passed on. This is one reason why, in 1 Timothy, he instructed Timothy to appoint elders and gave the qualifications of elders. New elders needed to be raised up.
By the sixties, the first generation was passing away and the second generation was coming in. During that period there was some kind of declension.
Skip another generation and come to the nineties, at the end of the first century. This is when you read the writings of the Apostle John. Among the twelve apostles, John was the last one living. He lived to about one hundred years of age.
In Revelation 2 and 3, the letters to the seven churches, you find real decline. Even in Ephesus they had left their first love. When you come to Laodicea, you find a lukewarm church, neither cold nor hot. The Lord said He would spew them out if they did not repent.
The church seemed to be going down at the end of the first century. But thank God, if you read history, you find that because of this general declension, the Spirit of God arranged circumstances. In the second and third centuries, persecution came to the church.
From the human standpoint, persecution is not welcome. Yet from the spiritual standpoint, whenever God allows persecution to come upon the church, persecution usually revives the church. Not only in the second and third centuries, but even today, wherever you find persecution, the church prospers.
I think one reason there is such lukewarmness in the church in this country is probably because we do not have persecution. We are not saying that we welcome persecution, because when it comes, it is not easy. But the Spirit of God is always moving, trying to recover and restore what God is really after: a people who are Christ-centered, a people who exalt Christ, a people who express Christ, and a people who are like Christ.
That is God’s purpose: that Christ may be glorified in the church throughout the generations. The Spirit of God is always making moves.
First of all, I would encourage brothers and sisters that this observation is very keen: a move of the Holy Spirit is often fresh in the first generation, begins to decline in the second generation, and by the third generation is almost gone, becoming merely tradition—something dead.
It is, sadly, almost true. But I must say that this is not the will of God. The will of God is that we go from glory to glory, from strength to strength, and from grace to grace.
God’s will is that we go on and on until there is a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, presented to Christ as His bride. God’s will is that we all be conformed to the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
It is never God’s will that the first generation should be fresh and living while the second and third generations become dead. Do not think that because something happens in church history, it must therefore be God’s will and must happen every time. That is not true.
We should stand with God against anything that falls away from the will of God. It should be from glory to glory.
There are exceptions. For example, the first generation of the children of Israel came out of Egypt but never entered Canaan. It was the second generation that entered Canaan. So the second generation has hope. It is not always the same way.
Still, when you study church history, sadly, it often seems to be like this. So we need to find out why. Why is it that when the Spirit of God makes a new move, you have a generation with a living, vibrant testimony, yet the second generation declines, the third generation declines, and gradually something falls away until it becomes merely a shell?
I think knowing the reason is more important than merely accepting the observation of what has happened in church history.
When the Holy Spirit makes a new move, some people begin to receive light. Toward the end of the first century, the revelation of God was completed. We have the completed revelation of God in this Book.
Certainly, when God reveals His mind to His people, in the beginning it is living faith. But gradually, as it is handed down from generation to generation, it becomes a tradition.
We cannot go through two thousand years of church history, or I will keep you here for a long time and you will not be able to go home. So we will not do that. But consider the beginning of the sixteenth century, what we call the darkest part of the Dark Ages.
The truth revealed in the Bible had largely been lost to the so-called church. The church was full of superstition, tradition, and ritual. Truth and living faith had disappeared. People were not even allowed to read the Bible. In fact, at that time ordinary people did not possess the Bible; it was kept in monasteries and copied there.
People were living in superstition. Then God made a move through the Reformers, and Martin Luther is representative of the Reformers. He was a monk and a professor.
Luther was stirred by the fear of death and by the sudden death of a friend. One day he said goodbye to the world, knocked at the door of an Augustinian monastery, and asked to be received as a monk in order to seek salvation.
Like others, he tried to afflict himself and put his body through hardship in an effort to save his soul. But he could not do that. Then the Lord gave him light:
“The righteous shall live by faith.”
— Romans 1:17
To us today, this seems very simple. We are saved by faith in the work of our Lord Jesus, not by our own merit or works. But at that time people thought they could be saved only by merit. If you had enough merit when you died, you would go to heaven. If you did not have enough merit, you would go to purgatory.
People even believed that some saints had more merit than they needed to enter heaven, and that through praying to them, some merit could be transferred to help others leave purgatory more quickly. They could even buy indulgences.
There is a story from the time of the Reformation about a robber who decided to rob a papal messenger who was collecting a great deal of money. Before he robbed him, he first bought an indulgence. Then, when he was caught, he showed his indulgence and claimed that he was free. That was the situation of Christianity at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
No wonder that when light came to Martin Luther, it was such life to him. The truth was not new; it was in the Bible. But it was newly discovered. It was a new move of the Holy Spirit. What a price he paid.
Those Reformers paid a tremendous price for the revelation God gave them. In other words, the revelation was life to them. They were willing to lay down their lives for it.
That is the first generation. They received revelation from above—not something extra to the Bible, but what is revealed in the Bible being revealed to their hearts in a living way. Having seen this revelation, they were willing to pay any price to see that this truth would be worked out in their lives.
But then the second generation came, perhaps even at the end of the first generation. Having received such light, they began to think, “How can we preserve this light?” In order to preserve it, they tried to organize.
It is like new wine. How do you preserve new wine? You need a wineskin to contain it. So they began to organize something around the light, around the revelation.
Then the second generation came into that organization. Some may still have received revelation, but others simply entered into the benefit of what had been revealed. They did not have a personal experience. They only had the teaching. They received the teaching and entered into the organization.
When you come to the third generation, the wine is gone and all that remains is the skin. Or, we may say, all that remains is tradition.
God’s purpose is from glory to glory, but because of the weakness of man, decline occurs. It is not the will of God; it is the weakness of man. Whenever something comes into the hands of man, man tends to spoil it.
Briefly, this is the reason. With the first generation there is revelation and a price paid. With the second generation, people enter into the teaching and organization without paying the cost. They may keep the teaching, but it is in their minds and not in their lives.
By the third generation, even the teaching may be diluted, adulterated, and changed. It becomes an empty tradition. Thank God, when this happens, God makes another move and another recovery. From the sixteenth century to the present time, God has always been moving on toward His purpose.
How can we avoid falling into the same situation? Suppose God has given us some revelation of His will and we are obedient to it. Having a revelation from the Lord is, on the one hand, glorious; on the other hand, it is very costly.
Do you really want God to reveal Himself to you? Do you really want to know His will and His purpose? If you do, be ready to pay a cost. Truth is very costly.
Adopting a teaching may not be costly, but truth is costly. Yet it is truth that sets us free.
How can we avoid falling into the second- or third-generation condition and falling away from what God has revealed to us? Number one: we must never be content merely with the teaching we have.
However precious the teaching may be, we should not be content merely with knowing what it is. We need to seek the Lord for a firsthand experience.
When you hear a teaching, do not think that because you understand it, it is therefore yours. Go to the Bible to see whether the teaching is of God. Then go to the Lord and ask Him to make that teaching a living experience to you.
It must not be merely something you have heard, or even something you see intellectually. It must become something living and real in your life.
If you have this kind of attitude, you will avoid falling into the second or third generation. Put another way, you will remain in the first generation: firsthand experience. That is what is needed.
How can we avoid lukewarmness, like the church in Laodicea? First of all, when you read Revelation 2 and 3 with a prophetic view, the church in Laodicea speaks of the final stage of church history before the coming of the Lord.
So far as Christianity is concerned, it is like Laodicea: lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. But prophetically, Laodicea is actually a church that has fallen out of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia is the church of brotherly love: a church that knows the truth, does not deny the name of the Lord, and is approved by the Lord Himself. It is rich in truth and in life.
But when it falls, it becomes Laodicea. That is why Laodicea says, “I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing.” They have received a rich heritage from the earlier generation and boast in their riches. Yet they do not know that they are poor, blind, and naked.
They have much teaching, good teachers, and many good traditions. They think that because they have these things, they possess reality. But the Lord says, “No. You are poor, blind, and naked. You need to buy. You need to pay a cost.”
Remember: if you do not pay a cost, what you have is not really yours. Are you ready to pay the cost? The Lord Jesus said:
“If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
— Matthew 16:24
The reason Laodicea became lukewarm was that they were proud of their heritage without paying a cost to possess it for themselves. That is the problem.
How can we avoid this? First, we need a holy discontentment. Brothers and sisters, never be content with what God has already given you.
On one hand, we need to be content. Paul said:
“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.”
— Philippians 4:11
That is true. But on the other hand, there needs to be holy discontentment. Never be satisfied with what you have already received or heard. Always press on and seek for more.
Why? Because our Lord Jesus is inexhaustible. He is infinite. What we have is only a tiny little bit. It takes eternity for us to know Christ.
Some people say, “What will you do in eternity? Will you simply play a golden harp and sing?” No. Eternity will be thrilling because we will be discovering Christ in ever fuller and more wonderful ways. There is no end to knowing Christ.
Therefore, we need holy discontentment. Whenever you become content and settle down, saying, “That is it,” then, if God is merciful to you, He will disturb your nest and make you try to fly again.
The second thing is this: ask the Lord to keep us humble before Him. Pride always brings a fall. If we are kept in humility before the Lord, I believe God is able to keep us.
We cannot keep ourselves, but God is able to keep us from falling. To whom does He give such keeping? To those who are humble. Whenever we become spiritually proud, proud of our spiritual condition, that is the beginning of a fall.
If the Lord keeps us truly humble before Him, I believe He is able to keep us always in the first generation and prevent us from falling into the second or third generation. This is what I would like to share. I will ask my brothers to add something.
I asked my brothers to sit here because I need their support. If they refuse to support me, I will fall.
I would just like to say, in a larger overview of these things, that we thank the Lord that the Holy Spirit is so faithful. The Holy Spirit is like a mother with regard to the church. God does not give up on His people.
When you look at church history, despite the declensions, you find that very mercifully, out of the tragedy of decline comes a new reviving of a generation to stand again for the testimony.
Even when the outward shell deteriorates and declines, by the Holy Spirit a new generation comes out of that shell. They capture something again, and yet add something to what has gone before. There is always regeneration because the Holy Spirit is faithful. He will not allow a generation to go by with nothing.
If you are looking at a particular company of believers, we do not know what the future of that company will be. Pride can enter in. Often, in practical terms, one of the great problems with a company moving on in a living way is its leadership. The leaders’ vision may dim, or they may begin to grasp things, and decline follows.
But the Lord is not concerned merely that a particular company of believers remain together forever in one form or one building. Sometimes His Spirit must leave a particular building, but He does not leave His people.
Out of the ruins of what may be a shameful decline, there are still people who receive something from it and who stand for the Lord in a brand-new way. Yet there is continuity. They stand for the Lord in a new generation.
I will share one little testimony, indicative of what happens in many places. In recent years, I have been to India several times, among brothers and sisters who stood with the Lord in a very costly way upon the ground of the Lord Jesus.
They met in simple fellowship, breaking bread at great cost and under great persecution—not only from the world but from the denominations around them. But over the years there has been quite a bit of declension. It is a very difficult situation.
The older generation, where the whole thing began, has almost passed away. The second generation is almost nonexistent. When you visit the assemblies, you hardly see those in their forties and fifties. This move of God seems to be in decline.
But there is a third generation, a little older than many of you, in their twenties and thirties. This generation is grasping something of the Lord in a new way. They want the Lord. They are willing to sacrifice for the Lord. They are willing to pay a cost.
This is the first generation in that church movement to be educated in this way. They have been to college and hold responsible jobs. There are doctors, nurses, engineers, and others. Yet they are standing for the Lord where they are, paying a price again.
You sense the ferment, and you realize that the Holy Spirit will not allow this matter simply to fall into the ground and die. It does fall into the ground, but out of it comes a new generation.
May that always be our testimony. Even when we fail, the Holy Spirit is doing something. He will bring something out of the ashes that will be more purified and that will continue in the testimony.
Let us be thankful. The Lord keeps raising up reality, even if there is decline for one reason or another. Remember: the Lord cares nothing for a building or for the name of a fellowship.
We call ourselves the Fellowship of Christians in Huntington. That name means nothing, nor does the building in which we meet. But the saints in Huntington—the Lord loves them, and He wants a testimony there.
The building, the institution, and the organization are secondary. What the Lord wants is people who, in the first-generation sense, possess humility, light, and life.
I was reminded of the Book of Esther. You know the story: King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the Agagite, who is a picture of the flesh.
If you give your ring to the flesh, and if the flesh occupies the throne, sooner or later it will wipe out all the people of Israel. Then the testimony—the real testimony of God—will not last.
The lesson from the Book of Esther is that the right man is outside and the wrong man is within. Haman is on the throne, while Mordecai, who represents the Holy Spirit, is at the gate, outside.
Only when Haman is put on the gallows and Mordecai is brought to the throne does everything turn according to the will of God.
This is an important lesson because Esther is one of the books of recovery. If you study the chronology carefully, you discover that the story of Esther took place between the first generation returning to Jerusalem from Babylon and the second generation.
If Haman had succeeded in wiping out all the people of Israel, that would have included Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra and Nehemiah represent the second generation of the Lord’s recovery. Not only did Zerubbabel return; Ezra and Nehemiah also returned.
If the Lord’s testimony is to be secured in the second generation, then Haman must be put on the gallows, Mordecai must be brought to the throne, and we must give our ring to the Holy Spirit.
That is an important lesson from the Old Testament. Esther is one of the five books of recovery in the Old Testament. Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah all returned to Jerusalem—to the center of the will of God. This is encouraging. We can learn from this one book among the sixty-six books of the Bible how the second generation of the Lord’s testimony may be secured.
There are some other related questions, but because of time, we will move to another topic.
What is your view of the predestination and free-will argument?
Well, that is an argument that has been going on for twenty centuries, and I do not think we are able to solve that problem this morning.
I am no theologian. But I think the Lord said that God reveals His will through babes and hides it from the wise. Perhaps if we are babes, we may be able to understand this matter. If we take the attitude of being babes in Christ Jesus and simply look to Him, perhaps He may help us.
In the church, the doctrines of predestination and free will seem to stand in opposite camps. In Christianity, people group themselves around one or the other and fight each other over this matter.
But we must acknowledge that both predestination and free will are taught in the Bible.
Consider Romans 9. There you find election and predestination. Then in Romans 10, you find free will. Paul was not absent-minded, writing about predestination and election in one chapter and then forgetting about it altogether when he wrote about free will in the next chapter.
Even if Paul had been absent-minded, the Holy Spirit is never absent-minded. We believe it was the Holy Spirit who gave us these words. Romans 9 speaks strongly of predestination.
Paul writes concerning Jacob and Esau:
“For the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. Even as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
— Romans 9:11-13
Then Paul asks:
“What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Far be the thought. For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
— Romans 9:14-15
“So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy.”
— Romans 9:16
In other words, predestination is God’s prerogative—God’s right. Being God, He has the right to do what He wills, and nobody can question Him. If you can question God as His equal, then you become God.
Romans 9 continues:
“Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He still find fault? For who withstandeth His will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why didst Thou make me thus? Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?”
— Romans 9:19-21
That is God’s right. If He wants to show mercy, He can show mercy. If He wants to show compassion, He can show compassion. It is up to Him. We are not supposed to question Him.
This is divine election. Even before the foundation of the world, we were chosen by God in Christ Jesus. Before Jacob and Esau were born, God had already spoken. It is not a matter of what you do; it is a matter of the One who calls.
Predestination is connected with divine election. In Romans 8 we find that we are predestined:
“For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
— Romans 8:29
The problem today is that we misunderstand predestination. People immediately think, “You are predestined to be saved, and he is predestined to be lost.” In other words, they connect predestination solely with initial salvation.
If God predestined a person to be lost, then no matter how freely the gospel was preached to him, he would be lost. What would be the purpose of preaching the gospel? On the other hand, if I were predestined to be saved, then even if I had never heard the gospel, I would be saved anyway. What would be the purpose of preaching the gospel?
If you embrace an extreme form of predestination, you come to that conclusion. But the Bible never teaches such predestination.
First, predestination is God’s prerogative. It is not your right; it is God’s right. Therefore, do not intrude into God’s authority. Let Him do what He wills, and learn to submit yourself to His authority.
Second, predestination in the Bible is not something low. It has glory in view. To us, escaping hell and entering heaven may seem to be everything. But for God, that is not all.
He does not merely want to save us from hell and bring us to heaven. He wants to bring us into glory. Our Lord Jesus is leading many sons into glory. Therefore, if the doctrine of predestination is taught in the Bible, it must have a noble, high, and glorious purpose.
Predestination is not merely concerned with going to hell or going to heaven. What is predestination? God has predestined that those whom He has called, He will justify; and those whom He has justified, He will glorify.
If you are called, God will justify you. If God has justified you, will He stop at justification? No. He will continue to work in your life until you are glorified.
Whom He foreknew, He predestined. God’s predestination is according to His foreknowledge. God knows everything. With Him there is no past and no future; it is always now. He is omniscient.
Our knowledge is very limited. We know only the present. We do not know the future. We may learn something of the past through reading or hearing, but our knowledge is limited. God’s knowledge is unlimited. He knows all things from the beginning to the end.
According to His foreknowledge, He predestines. Therefore, God’s predestination is not arbitrary. God has His reason for predestination, and that reason is His foreknowledge. He knows beforehand what will happen.
If the gospel is preached to you, God knows whether you will continue to resist it or whether you will believe it. He knows beforehand. It is on the basis of that knowledge that He predestines.
Let me use an illustration. Suppose you are a very alert person, and one day you are sitting by your window. You see a man walking back and forth before your house, peeping here and there and looking suspicious.
You feel that he may be a robber or thief trying to enter your house, so you become watchful. Sure enough, that night the man comes.
Did your foreknowledge make him a robber or a thief? No. If your foreknowledge had made him a thief, then you would be responsible for his theft. But you are not responsible; he is responsible.
This is the way God predestines. He does not predestine you to be lost or saved in a mechanical way. According to His foreknowledge, when the gospel is preached equally, universally, and freely, some receive it and some reject it. On the basis of that foreknowledge, He predestines.
Whom He predestined, He called. Whom He called, He justified. Whom He justified, He glorified.
To me, predestination is one of the greatest truths in the Word of God. It strengthens me and comforts me. Why? Because once God’s hand is upon you, no matter how you are, He will see to it that one day you will be conformed to the image of His beloved Son.
That is God’s purpose for us. Thank God, you are called. Thank God, you are justified. Will God also glorify you?
When you look at yourself, you may say, “I have been justified for five years, ten years, twenty years, fifty years, or more, and there does not seem to be much glory.” What is glory? It is Christ fully manifested. That is glory.
Whatever is of ourselves is shameful. You do not see much glory there. But remember: God does not give you up. He is still working by His Spirit in your life, and one day you will be like Christ.
God can never fail. You may fail, but He will never fail. Is that not the greatest assurance we have?
Thank God, His eyes are upon you. His hand is upon you. His heart is upon you. He will never give you up. He will complete you in Christ Jesus. One day we will all be completed in Christ Jesus. That is predestination.
What is free will? Free will means that you are free to choose. In Romans 10, Paul presents free will.
“But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
— Romans 10:8-10
The word of salvation is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. If you believe and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you are saved. If you exercise your free will, then it is yours.
Free will means being free to choose whether you will choose Christ or reject Him. It is up to you. Free will is man’s responsibility.
There are two areas here. Predestination belongs to God. It does not belong to you. You do not have foreknowledge. Therefore, you cannot decide that one person is predestined to be saved and another is predestined to be lost.
That belongs to God. Do not try to be God. This is why we must preach the gospel to everybody. You do not know whether someone is chosen, called, justified, and glorified.
Within our human boundary, God has given us free will. We are to exercise our free will to choose the right thing—to choose Christ.
Why must we believe that God raised Jesus from the dead? Because if He were not raised from the dead, how would we know that His substitutionary work on the cross was accepted by God?
We know that when He died for us on the cross, His redemptive work was accepted because God raised Him from the dead as proof that the work was done and accepted. Therefore, we believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, and with our mouths we confess Him as Lord. Then we are saved.
From the human standpoint, predestination and free will appear to be opposites. If there is predestination, it seems there can be no free will. If there is free will, it seems there can be no predestination.
But if we see that they belong to two different areas, then the problem is resolved. Let God have predestination, and let us believe it. Let us have free will, and let us exercise it.
Strangely, God often works with two opposites. How He works it out, I do not know. But that is the way He works.
Look at the sky. The planets and stars move at great speed, yet remain in their orbits. We are told that they are maintained by two opposite forces: centripetal and centrifugal forces. They are opposite forces, yet together they hold the planets in their orbits.
That is the way God works. D. L. Moody used an illustration that may help us. Moody was not a highly educated man. He was a shoe salesman, yet the Lord called him and made him one of the greatest evangelists in the world.
Moody said that when you come to the door of salvation, you find written on the door:
“Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
— Revelation 22:17
When you come to the door and see, “Whosoever will,” you can say, “That includes me.” If it named a particular person, perhaps you might wonder whether it referred to someone else with the same name. But “whosoever will” includes you.
You say, “I will.” You exercise your free will, enter through the door, and then look back. On the back of the door you find written, “Chosen before the foundation of the world.”
You do not know whether you are chosen until you exercise your will and enter the door. After you enter, you look back and say, “Thank God, I was chosen even before the foundation of the world.”
Is that not comforting? Is that not assuring? Does it not give you great strength, knowing that you were chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before God in love?
That is the grace of God. Perhaps the only way to solve the argument is not to argue, but to accept whatever the Scripture says.
Predestination and free will are sometimes called Calvinism and Arminianism. Calvin was one of the great Reformers who received the revelation that the righteous shall live by faith and that eternal life is a free gift by grace. Calvinism is associated with predestination, and Arminianism with free will and human choice.
This is a truth that we should consider carefully and search out in the Scriptures for ourselves, so that we may be clear concerning our salvation and that God may show us the proper balance.
It is a covenant; it is a relationship involving two parties—God’s part and our part. We need clarity. Yet, like any truth, we can turn this into a diversion. In church history, this matter has often become a diversion, leading people to fight over it.
One thought that may help is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is threefold.
First, it is the gospel of grace. This is the good news for sinners: God saves sinners. He came to save us from sin and make us saints.
Second, it is the gospel of the kingdom. This is the gospel for disciples. The Lord wants to make us disciples. This is why we are here this weekend: we are learners who want to learn the kingdom so that we may be ready for the kingdom.
Discipleship involves discipline, growth, and maturity. It includes judgment and reward. It is not that a believer loses the gift of eternal life, but that the Lord trains His people for reward.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is also the gospel of judgment, as seen in Revelation 14. It is still good news. The gospel is good news for sinners; it is good news for disciples because the Lord wants to reward them.
He wants to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Yet the Lord Jesus Christ must judge the earth and judge sin. That is good news, because righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne. Before His throne is established on earth, there must first be judgment and then righteousness.
If we understand these three aspects of the gospel, we do not need to go to the extreme of free will and say, “Oh no, I have lost my salvation. I must get it back.” Rather, we can be secure in salvation, press on, and become disciples.
Since a brother borrowed an illustration from physics, I will add one. Light is a mystery. According to Isaac Newton—not John Newton—light consists of particles. For a long period, people believed light was only particles.
Then another Christian scientist, Maxwell, taught that light is a wave. Experiments demonstrated wave-like properties of light. So there was an argument among scientists: what is light? Is it particles, or is it waves?
Some admired Newton and believed light consists of particles. Others respected the experiments and believed light is a wave. For a time, some teachers were so torn between the two that they supposedly taught particles on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and waves on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
What is light? Which view is correct? Both are correct. If you accept both, you stand on the side of truth. In the Bible, Romans 9 gives the doctrine of predestination and election, while Romans 10 gives free will.
Both are from the Word of God. We have no choice but to receive both, even if we cannot explain how to reconcile them. Modern physicists may not fully explain how light can be both wave and particle, but they accept both realities. If you insist on only one, you are wrong.
There is another question:
How can you be sure that you have a calling to a certain field of work or ministry in particular?
Pray for me. I want to help the young people. To reinforce what our brothers have shared concerning predestination and free will: God is not answerable to us, but we, as creatures, are answerable to Him. We have responsibility.
In the matter of serving the Lord, the call sometimes comes progressively. Initially, we may not be clear about the particular area of ministry or what our work will be like. Yet deep in our hearts, we may have a sense that we are called to do something. That is the beginning.
We are all called. As we respond to that initial call, the Holy Spirit will do the rest. He will equip us, teach us, discipline us, and provide opportunities to exercise the gift to which He has called us.
It is all in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, do not focus too much on gifts. Rather, walk closely with the Lord, because He will direct you in the way He wants you to serve Him. That is the safest way.
Do not begin by thinking about what you can do for Him. Let Him first do something in your life, because ministry is not merely what we do. True ministry is the Person—the outflow of the life of the Lord Jesus through the vessel.
Young people, if you have a sense of calling, stand up for it. Learn obedience in small things and be sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As you mature, the Lord will show you exactly what He wants you to do.
Do not anticipate too soon what you should do. That is in the hand of the Holy Spirit. Once we surrender to the Lord, He is in charge. That is the best way.
My brother asked me to say a few words to you, brothers and sisters. First of all, I want to thank the Lord for being with you all. I thank the Lord to see such a group of young brothers and sisters who truly have a heart for the Lord.
I would like to leave with you two passages of Scripture that mean a great deal to me. As I look back through my life, these are two passages that comfort me, strengthen me, and encourage me.
The first is 1 Thessalonians 5:24:
“Faithful is He that calleth you, who will also do it.”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:24
Thank God, He has called you all. What He calls you to is the very thing that He will perform for you and in you.
We have been sharing during this time that we are called to be bondmen of righteousness and bondmen of Jesus Christ. We are called to be that, and He will perform it.
Sometimes we wonder whether we are able to fulfill our calling. Sometimes we live poorly, of course. But whatever may be the case, one thing is sure: God is faithful. We may be unfaithful, but He is faithful, and He will perform it.
Do not trust too much in yourself, as though you are able by your own strength to be a bondman of righteousness. Trust Him. He is the One who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless with exceeding joy before His glory.
He is able to save you to the uttermost. Remember this verse. It has been a real comfort and strengthening to me.
The second passage is Philippians 3:12:
“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.”
— Philippians 3:12
Whatever stage we may be in in our Christian lives, some may have gone a little further than others, and some may have just begun. But this attitude must always be with us.
As Paul says, “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect.” No. But because of that, we do not give up. He says, “I press on.”
Dear brothers and sisters, I hope you will pursue. Never stop pursuing—pursuing Christ.
You are to lay hold of that for which you have been laid hold of. Christ has laid hold of you. He has a purpose for you. It should be our desire that we may lay hold of whatever He has laid hold of us for.
In other words, we may gain Him fully. Dear brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you all: you have been called, and He will perfect you. He is faithful.
But on your part, you need to pursue. You need to pursue after that goal. You want to have everything that Christ has for you.
I believe that if you pursue in this way, when He returns and you see Him, you will not be ashamed. May the Lord bless every one of you.
This is the end of our conference. We want to thank the Lord for bringing you to Kimbrook for these few days of waiting before the Lord and seeking the Lord.
We trust the Lord will richly bless each one of you. We hope that when you go back, you will have a fuller measure of Christ than when you came. That is our desire.
This conference exists for one purpose: the increase of Christ in His people. It exists to bring people to God, to know God, and to bring God to His people so that God may gain them for Himself.
We are very thankful this year to have had our brothers with us. In particular, we are thankful for our brother who has come, and we pray that the Lord will continue to give him good health.
If we are willing, let us pray that the Lord will give him a burden for this new generation. We believe that he has much from which we can all learn.
As far as next year’s conference is concerned, we are not sure at the moment. We want you to go back and pray much about it. If you have a sense from the Lord that we should go ahead and have another conference, and that the Lord is using this conference for Himself and for His purpose, please get in touch with one of the young brothers or sisters in responsibility.
Then we can come before the Lord concerning when and where to plan for another conference.