Will you please turn to Colossians, the letter to the Colossians, Chapter 1, Verse 27.
To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
And I would like to add to that by reading 2 Peter, Chapter 1, Verses 3 and 4.
Seeing that His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that called us by His own glory and virtue;
whereby He hath granted unto us His precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.
And finally, the book of Zechariah, Chapter 4, Verse 6.
Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, as we stand before Thee, we are deeply moved by the fact that throughout the ages and the centuries, those who love Thee long to see Thee. O Lord, do create within us the same longing for Thyself.
We do praise and thank Thee for Thy precious promise of Thy coming. O Lord, may we be with those who not only wait for Thy coming, but hasten Thy return.
We offer ourselves to Thee afresh, and pray that Thou wilt work in us until Thou art able to use us for Thy kingdom and Thy righteousness. And we give Thee all the glory, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
You know, brothers and sisters, during the early centuries, when God’s people were persecuted, when they saw each other, they greeted each other with this word: “The Lord is coming.”
They longed to see the Lord. And throughout the centuries and generations, we find that when God’s people were under persecution, that was the cry of their heart.
The day is at hand. But somehow, we live so comfortably that we forget. We do not desire His return as those brothers and sisters under persecution did. May the Lord deliver us.
We have been considering together, brothers and sisters, this matter of responsibility. And, of course, in view of the fact that the time is at hand, because the Lord is coming, we need to consider it seriously. We know not when, but we sense that it cannot be long.
Therefore, we need to consider very seriously together before the Lord this matter of responsibility.
Thank God for His great love. Because of His great love towards us, He honors us with responsibility. He is the God of responsibility. What He purposes, He always fulfills. He cannot deny Himself.
And, brothers and sisters, He wants us to be like Him—to be responsible for all that He has committed to us. It is a great honor that God should commit to us even a little responsibility in His eternal plan. May we be responsible.
We mentioned together the question of why responsibility. We also mentioned what responsibilities we are supposed to bear. And finally, this morning, we would like to ask the question: how? How can we fulfill the responsibilities that God has honored us by committing to us?
Now, dear brothers and sisters, you know when you are first saved, you do not ask such questions. You do not ask, “How can I fulfill my responsibility before the Lord?” You do not even ask, “What are the responsibilities that God has committed to me?” And, of course, you never ask why.
Thank God you are saved by His grace. Thank God He has given you His life. Thank God you love Him so much. You are touched by His great mercies, and you just want to consecrate and do things for Him.
You remember the children of Israel. When God delivered them out of Egypt, under the bondage of slavery, and brought them to Himself at Mount Sinai, God said:
I have delivered you out of Egypt.
I have borne you on eagles’ wings unto Myself.
Now therefore, if ye will indeed obey My voice, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is Mine:
and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.
And God said to Moses, “Tell the people about this.” So when Moses shared this with the children of Israel, you know what they said? Immediately they responded and said, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.”
There was no problem—no problem of how to do it. They were anxious, ready to plunge ahead into responsibility.
But after they traveled in the wilderness for about two years, they came to the southern border of Canaan, the promised land. God said, “Go in.”
They said, “We cannot. How can we go in? We are so small, tiny in the eyes of the people. They are giants. They look upon us as grasshoppers. They will eat us up. How can we do it? We cannot do it.”
Brothers and sisters, this question of how is not asked by young believers. It is asked by tired, weary believers.
I remember when God first saved me. I was fifteen at the time. I sought the Lord, trying to get saved for a year, and nothing happened. But on that day when God saved me, I was so grateful.
Usually, you know, during a conference, the last day of the conference is always on consecration. At that time, the meaning of consecration was limited to those who would offer their lives to be preachers or Bible women. That was consecration.
Ordinary Christians did not need to consecrate themselves. Only those who would serve the Lord full-time needed to be consecrated. Now, that was a great misunderstanding, but that was the way we understood it.
And on that day, I still very, very clearly remember: the preacher was there, calling people to offer themselves for the service of God. He even said, “You can choose where you want to go to serve Him.”
I was on fire. I said, “Lord, I want to serve You. I want to prove to You that I love You. I want to go to the first place, the most difficult place, to serve You.”
And the preacher said, “You can come to the platform.” There was a big, huge map of China hanging there, and you could come and point your finger to the place where you wanted to go, to show the Lord.
I marched up to the platform and put my finger on Mongolia. I meant business.
I never asked why. I did not ask what. Of course, I never inquired about how I would do it. I would do it according to what I thought God would like me to do, and I would do it with all my strength. Very heroic.
As a matter of fact, I prepared myself. That was my last year in high school. I tried to get all the literature on Mongolia. I tried to prepare myself to go there.
When I graduated from high school, I did not want to go to college. I picked a Bible school because I thought that was the way to prepare myself. I knew everything.
Thank God He did not obey me. He frustrated my plan. He changed my course. He put me in an icebox, as it were, and He began to teach me—not what I liked, but what He wanted; not by my strength, but by His power.
Brothers and sisters, I wonder if this is your experience. Maybe you who are just saved do not think it is necessary to ask the question, “How?” But for those who have gone on a few years, probably that is your question.
“I know God has honored me with responsibility. I know He has great expectations of me. He wants me to be like Him. He wants me to serve His purpose. I have tried, and I find out I cannot.”
Brothers and sisters, how can we fulfill the responsibility that God has given to us?
Does God ask something from us without first providing that which can fulfill that responsibility? Oh, God is so loving, so considerate. Before He asks us for anything—whether it is our life, how we live, or whether it is our service, our responsibility in the house of God—does He ever put any responsibility upon us without first providing what is needed to accomplish it?
We need to understand our God. He never asks you for anything, and He never commits anything to you, without also, at the same time—and even beforehand—making all the provision for you to accomplish it. That is love.
So, dear brothers and sisters, you find in 2 Peter 1 that he says:
Seeing that His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that called us by His own glory and virtue.
When God called us, He called us according to His glory and to His virtue. In other words, when He saved you, when He called you, it was not according to what you needed. It was not according to what you wanted.
Now, what did we want at that time, before we were saved? We wanted to have our sins forgiven. We wanted to be delivered from hell. That was all we wanted.
But God does not call you according to your wants. He called you according to His glory. You know, His salvation is according to His glory, not according to your need.
Glory—that is what He is. He has to satisfy His glory when He provides salvation to us. And virtue—that is His quality, His character.
So that is the reason why you find that when God calls us, He justifies us; and whom He justifies, He glorifies. He has predestined every one of us who has been called to be conformed to the image of His beloved Son.
That is the responsibility upon us: to be like Him, to live like His Son, to take upon us His qualities—His gentleness, His kindness, His purity, His righteousness, His love—and to manifest His glory.
That is what we are all called to, according to His glory and virtue. And because of this high calling, by His divine power, He has given to us all things related to life and godliness.
He not only gave us life that we may not die. He gave us eternal life—not merely eternal life for the future, but eternal life that begins the moment you receive Him as your life. Christ is your life.
Everything related to life God, by His divine power, has provided. And not only life, but the purpose of life: godliness, to be like God.
Never in the sense of being deified, but in the sense of being like Him in His quality and character. Why? Because He has shared His life with you.
Brothers and sisters, has God provided for us to fulfill our calling? Yes, He has already provided. He has given you His uncreated life. He has given you His divine life.
And this life is not abstract. This life has lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years and has proven sufficient—more than sufficient—overcoming, more than overcoming, more than conquerors.
This life is a Person, a living Person: Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Brothers and sisters, do we ever realize this? Do we have this living knowledge? Do we know, when you first believed in the Lord, how much God has deposited in you in His Son? You have it all.
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
And at the same time, you find He gave us His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes into you. He dwells in you. He will never leave you nor forsake you, no matter how you treat Him.
He is there as the Spirit of life, activating that life of Christ in you, making that life living, working, growing, and manifesting, until you are complete in Christ Jesus.
Oh, brothers and sisters, every provision is here within you.
But why is it that, with all the provisions that God has provided for you in Christ Jesus and in the Holy Spirit—well able for you to fulfill all your responsibilities in your life, your relationships, your service, and your work—you yet find yourself unable? Why? Where is the problem?
The problem is that we do not know ourselves.
The children of Israel, at the beginning of their salvation, were on fire for the Lord. They said, “We can do it, and we will do it.” But during those short two years, it was proven that they failed.
Why? Because they depended on themselves instead of depending on God.
Brothers and sisters, one thing we need to understand is this: even though we are saved, have a new life, Christ in us the hope of glory, and have received the Holy Spirit as another Comforter dwelling in us forever to bring us into all the riches of Christ, we forget that our own self, our old life, is still there.
You know, in 1 Corinthians 2, Verse 14:
Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.
The natural man—now, who is this natural man? The natural man is the fallen man. The natural man is a man who lives by his soul-life, by his created life, without the knowledge and the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the natural man.
The natural man is a man of the world. They do not receive, they will not receive, the things of the Spirit of God because they consider them folly, foolishness. And they cannot even know the things of God, because the things of God need to be spiritually discerned.
Now, brothers and sisters, if a believer who already has the uncreated life, Christ in you, already has the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, and yet still lives by his created life, then the Bible has a special term for you. That term is: you are carnal. You are a carnal man.
The same thing applied to worldly people is the natural man. But when it applies to a believer, it is still the natural man, but it is called a carnal man.
Because you still live by your created life, by your fallen life. You still live according to the flesh, not according to the Spirit.
And when you are in that stage, you are in the wilderness. You are being tested. God knows that we will never appreciate what He has done for us, what He has put in us, and what potential and power are there to fulfill our responsibility, until we come to the end of ourselves.
You know, brothers and sisters, in our Christian experience, at the beginning of our walk with the Lord, we always say, “I can do all things for God. I love Him. I am willing to give my life for Him. No problem. I am willing to die for You. No problem.”
I remember during those early days, even when I was in high school, I was busy serving the Lord. I had no time to find out the will of God. I was on the run all the time, everywhere, doing anything that I thought was good for God.
Until I discovered that the flesh does not receive the things of the Spirit. I did not care about God’s will; I had a will for Him.
I did not know that all these things of the flesh—wood, hay, and stubble—would one day be burned by fire. God did not appreciate it.
God said, “There is no good in the flesh. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The flesh will never change. The flesh will never be improved.
The flesh always has its own way: self-centered, ambitious, self-sufficient, self-glorifying. God said, “I have no need of it. I have already taken it to the cross. When Christ was crucified, our old man was crucified with Him.” God has done with it.
But I did not know. I was trying—not trying to sin, but trying to do what I thought God wanted. But when I was doing that, I found myself under the bondage of the law of sin and death.
You remember the experience of the apostle Paul in Romans 7. He had a new mind. He wanted to please God. He wanted to do the will of God. He tried with all his strength—and think of the strength of Paul.
He failed again and again until finally he gave up:
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
Dear brothers and sisters, we have to come to a point from which we know we cannot. I wonder how many have already reached that point.
Oh, how blind we are. The provision is there, but we are looking everywhere for help. “How can I do it? How can I fulfill my responsibility? I just cannot.”
In my flesh there is no good. Dear brothers and sisters, have you come to this point yet, concerning your Christian life or concerning your Christian service?
Thank God, at this point revelation came to Paul. He said, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He turned his eyes upon Him, away from himself.
If anyone could trust himself, that was Paul. But now he was at his end. He turned away from himself, and he looked off unto Jesus. There he found the provision.
So, brothers and sisters, in our experience we have to go through this. It is our necessary training and education. Do not be disappointed.
But at the end of yourself, that is the time when you look up and see the Lord, who is there, all-sufficient for your life and for your service.
I remember the story of Hudson Taylor. The Chinese are always grateful for God sending that man to us.
As a young man, he loved the Lord. He set his heart upon the Lord. He felt called to China, and he understood that it was a life of faith. So he trained himself.
He was a clerk under a medical doctor, but that medical doctor was very forgetful. Oftentimes, at the time that he should pay his employee, he forgot.
And Hudson Taylor decided, “I will not remind you. I will only trust my God.” How he was tested and proved that God was faithful.
He went to China. He labored there a few years. Already he had colleagues working together with him. He was the one whom God used to open up interior China.
They adopted not only the customs but even the dress of the Chinese. They suffered greatly. But he was not satisfied. He felt his life was a failure.
He did not know the riches of Christ. He prayed, he fasted, he read the Scriptures, trying to find the secret: how could he fulfill all that God had put upon him?
One day he received a letter from a colleague who was seeking the same thing. And that colleague, in the letter, said, “It is not striving; it is resting.”
That touched the heart of Hudson Taylor. He had been trying every kind of way and means that he might be sufficient, but he was not.
So in his mind he said, “Lord, You are sufficient. If only I can be connected with You, then all Your riches will be mine. But how?”
By faith, he tried to work up faith, but it did not work. Until one day, at the end of his own life, the Lord opened his eyes.
“Do not try to get into Me. You are already in Me. I am already in you. I am the vine; you are the branches. The branch does not need to struggle to try to join itself to the vine. It comes out of the vine. It is part of the vine, and all the riches of the vine flow into the branches.”
When he saw it, he stopped striving. He entered into rest.
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Even during the time of the Boxer Uprising, so many of his colleagues were martyred. He was, at that time, physically weak, and yet, with all the burdens upon him, there was rest in him.
God’s people, brothers and sisters, our experiences are all different. Do not try to imitate. But by the grace of God, when He brings you to the end of yourself, that is the time you look up, and there He is—always there—provided abundantly, more than sufficient for your need.
The apostle Paul learned a secret. When he was in prison in Rome, misunderstood, accused, and persecuted, yet there was joy in him.
He even wrote his letter to the Philippians to comfort the believers there:
Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice.
What was the secret?
For to me to live is Christ.
Brothers and sisters, Christ is in you to live—to live for you. Will you allow Him to do it?
Paul had a thorn in his flesh. He looked to the Lord: “How could I serve You with such a thorn? My eyesight is so bad. My body is so broken. I shake, I tremble. How could I be Your messenger?”
God said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Therefore, he said, “I boast in my weakness, because when I am weak, then am I strong.”
Oh, brothers and sisters, you can experience this. It is true: you cannot do it. But He can.
You have to go through this process: at first, “I can”; then, “I cannot.” But do not stop there. Then you say, “He who is in me, He can.” Praise the Lord.
Do you see how loving our God is? May we all rise up in the power of His strength and be men and women who fight the good fight, keep the faith, and finish our course.
And is it not good? He supplies all His work in us, and He says He will reward us with a crown of righteousness. Praise the Lord.
Dear God, our Father, dear Lord Jesus, O Savior, how good You are.
Do open our inner eyes to see how much You have done for us, what provision You have provided for us.
O Lord, do not allow us to be so foolish as to look everywhere but not to Thee. Fix our eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.