Good morning, brothers and sisters.
After our breaking of bread this morning, I sensed in my spirit that the Lord was present in such a full and rich way. When we meet the Lord in such a wonderful way, what more can we ask?
But we have a journey on, and we need His word to encourage us. We are all in this race together, and right in front of us is the goal that we must reach.
Thank God for the strength, the grace, and all that is needed. It is all provided in the Person of the Lord Jesus, because He is our Forerunner. He has already arrived, and that life which has reached the goal is dwelling in all of us.
He being there in glory is our guarantee that one day we also will reach glory, for His name’s sake.
This morning, I want to share something very simple, something very fundamental. Before we begin, let us have a word of prayer.
Lord Jesus, we live solely by Your word. Speak to all of us in a fresh way this morning, and cause us to rise up and follow You all the way, so that Your heart may be fully satisfied. In Your precious name we pray. Amen.
At the youth conference this past week, one of the main emphases was that time is short. We are living in evil days. We have to, by grace, redeem the time—take time back for God.
The time that God has so graciously given to each of us is for the fulfilment of His purpose.
Recently, we have had a deep sense that we know so much, and we have been given much light. We claim that we have some revelation; we have vision. But the cry is that we must allow that vision to be realised in our everyday life.
The challenge is not how much we know, but how we walk. We must walk worthy of the One who has called us.
Would you turn with me to Psalm 37? During the past few months, as I have tried to read through the whole book of Psalms, a few words caught my attention. These words have given me a new meaning, and I want to share them with you this morning.
Psalm 37:3 says:
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
The Chinese translation is very accurate. His faithfulness is our food. We are to feed on His faithfulness.
If God is not faithful, none of us would be here this morning. Think about that. The Lord Jesus was faithful to His Father—faithful to such a degree that He was willing to lay down His life. Because of His faithfulness, His life was laid down for us, and we are what we are today.
Take these few words to heart: the Christian life is a life that feeds on faithfulness. Our Christian walk is a walk of feeding on His faithfulness. Our service and ministry are also by feeding on His faithfulness.
If we are able to overcome, it is because we are feeding on His faithfulness. Without His faithfulness, none of us can live. Without His faithfulness, none of us can get through this earthly journey. Without His faithfulness, none of us will reach the goal.
Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:24:
Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.
He is fully responsible, if we will let Him do it.
His faithfulness also brings us into a measure of intimacy and fellowship with Himself. As we feed on His faithfulness, we come to know who He really is.
Through His faithfulness, we are drawn into an ever-increasing degree of intimacy with Himself. This morning, I want to share on the degrees, or measures, of intimacy with the Lord Jesus, and how necessary it is for us to have an intimate relationship with Him.
We need to cultivate intimacy with Himself. For His purpose to be realised, we need to cultivate an intimate walk with Him, so that we may know what He wants and how His will is to be realised.
Would you turn to Luke 11, a very familiar passage? Let us read verses 9 and 10.
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Here we see three different levels of intimacy: asking, seeking, and knocking.
In the Old Testament tabernacle, there were three areas: the outer court, the holy place, and the holy of holies. These represent three levels of intimacy.
When we come to 1 John 2, we find that in God’s household there are three types of people: little children, young men, and fathers. The characteristic of the fathers is that they know Him who is from the beginning.
These three levels of intimacy show the progression of a normal Christian life. We need to move from one level to another. As one brother has said, “Our decrease is His increase.” This process brings us into the fullness of Christ.
The first level is asking. “Everyone who asks receives.” Wouldn’t you like that? I do. We all have needs, and we ask the Lord for them.
But think about it: at this level, who does most of the talking? We do all the talking. We ask, and we ask again. We are the centre.
God is for me. The church is for me. Everything is for me. If I ask and do not get what I ask for, I get angry. I am not happy, and I blame God for not loving me.
That is the first level. In His mercy, He has given us all that we need, but He never wants us to remain at that level for our whole life.
If our prayer life is only asking God to solve our problems and to help us get through our problems, then we know where we are spiritually. It is a manifestation that we are still babes in Christ Jesus.
The Holy Spirit sees to it that we do not remain at that level too long. He works in our hearts and lives, causing us to seek and to discover the treasure that is within us.
Seeking is a little harder than simply sitting there and asking Him for things. Seeking requires some measure of sacrifice. Things worthwhile do not come easily, and spiritual things, in a sense, are very costly.
It will cost something to seek those treasures. The Holy Spirit begins to work because there is treasure for us—something He wants us to possess.
In 2 Corinthians, we are told that we have this treasure in us. But we need to discover what that treasure really is.
As children, we know that our sins are forgiven. But as we seek this treasure, we find that Christ not only died for our sins; He died as us. He died in our place. His death is our death, His burial is our burial, and His resurrection is our resurrection. We are to live by His life.
We are called with a high calling, and we need to walk in a way worthy of the One who has called us. We have to discover the treasure within, because that treasure within enables us to walk in a way that is pleasing to God’s heart.
Seeking this treasure allows Christ to be fully formed in us. We need to know the treasure of His fullness.
The third level is this: “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
Every government has what is often called a situation room or a war room. In a time of emergency, secret documents are kept there—documents concerning the survival of the nation and the implementation of its policies.
You do not share your secrets carelessly with just anybody. You share your secrets with those whom you know and trust. Those who are given access are screened very carefully. They are checked and checked until there is confidence that they can be trusted.
The Lord also has secrets in His heart. He does not reveal them casually. He reveals them to those who have entered into a deeper intimacy with Him.
Consider the apostle Paul. Paul was a great apostle, and the Lord used him mightily. But there came a point when he said, “I am the prisoner of Christ Jesus.”
The Lord took Paul away from all his visible activities and put him in the prison of Rome. Paul was willing to be bound, or to be imprisoned, by the Lord Jesus.
For two years he sat in that prison. It was there that God revealed the secrets of His heart to the apostle. Paul not only saw what God wanted; he also saw the way in which God’s purpose was to be fully realised.
I believe that in this age, in every local assembly, the Lord needs to raise up many brothers and sisters who have an intimate walk with the Lord Jesus—those willing to be prisoners of Jesus, so that He can communicate what is in His heart to them.
Then we will have direction as to why we meet and how we meet. We will have direction while we are serving Him, and we will be able to discern the way that is pleasing to Him and the way that is not pleasing to Him.
All spiritual sensitivity and all spiritual understanding come from an intimate walk with Himself. When Paul was in prison, the Lord gave him the heavenly vision, which we find in Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians.
The mystery of the church was revealed, and the way in which the church is to be built was also revealed.
What we lack today are men and women who cultivate an intimate walk with the Lord Jesus. We are all prone to do things for Him, but we fail to cultivate that intimate life with Himself.
I want to share a few ways in which we can cultivate an intimate fellowship and walk with the Lord Jesus. Would you turn with me to Psalm 25?
Psalm 25:14 says:
The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him;
And He will show them His covenant.
The Chinese translation is very beautiful and clear: the Lord will show you the secrets of His heart.
One brother helped us to see this verse in this light: the first and initial way of cultivating an intimate walk is simply to be with Him.
Just to be with Him. Think about that. Just to be with that Person. That is true friendship.
Just being together means something. Silence is golden. We often think that we have to do a lot of talking, but true friendship often does not need a lot of talking.
That was Peter’s problem. He did not know how to sit quietly in the presence of the Lord. He felt that he had to say something, and often he said the wrong thing.
The first thing we need to learn is that His presence is enough.
This morning, His presence was so rich and so real. In simplicity, the saints offered words of praise and songs of praise, exalting Him. It really touched my heart.
If the Lord is truly with us, what more can we say to Him? If He is with us, we are already full. Silence is good.
Enoch walked with God. That is all the Scripture records—nothing more, nothing less. It does not say that they talked to each other. They just walked together. Just being together was good enough.
Of course, after sitting together in silence for a while, we may feel a little awkward. Who should be allowed to speak first? We should allow Him to speak first.
When we sit in silence, the One who breaks the silence should be the Lord Himself. When we are silent and rest in Him, then we can truly hear what He wants to say to us.
Just be ready. Be there. He will do the speaking.
There are assemblies—one or two in particular come to mind—where, when they come together, they do not know how to be silent before the Lord. They come occupied with problems and with the question of how those problems must be solved.
They gather with the aim of solving their problems, and so they miss everything. They do not discover the Lord’s way of solving the problem. They miss that the Lord is already there in their midst.
They are not willing to wait silently before Him. They are too occupied, and the Lord has no opportunity to say anything to them.
This is a phenomenon we find in many local assemblies. They are too occupied with many things, but they fail in the first matter: being occupied with Himself.
Finally, turn with me to Proverbs 11:13.
He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets;
But he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth a matter.
Do you catch the significance of this verse? God is ever faithful to us. If we are truly faithful to Him, He will entrust His secrets to us.
To whom can God reveal the secrets of His heart? To those who are faithful to Him. They believe, and they are prepared to obey.
God’s secrets are His true treasure. To whom can He reveal them? Isaiah 53 begins with this question:
Who hath believed our report?
And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
We need that kind of faithful brothers and sisters in every local assembly.
I want to conclude with two examples. At the youth conference, a brother touched on the matter of Jacob and Benjamin.
When Jacob gave up Benjamin, it was a sacrifice. Yet through that sacrifice, the whole family was finally restored. Sacrifice is not loss; sacrifice is great gain.
Without Benjamin being given up, Jacob would never have seen Joseph’s face. Because he was willing to sacrifice Benjamin, Joseph and his father were finally reconciled.
True worship and true service are true sacrifice. Those who know God’s secret truly know what sacrifice means, because sacrifice is most God-like.
Abraham offered Isaac on the altar. At that very moment, Abraham was most like God. God gave His beloved Son, and Abraham was most God-like when he offered Isaac.
That was Abraham’s testimony: he was like God. Our testimony should be that we are like God through sacrifice. Abraham received Isaac back, and that is why sacrifice is always connected with resurrection.
Another example is found in Matthew 3. The Lord Jesus came to be baptised by John the Baptist. John said, “I have need to be baptised of Thee, and comest Thou to me?”
The Lord answered, “Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.”
Then heaven opened, and the Father declared:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
For the first time, this light dawned on me: what prompted the Father to make such a beautiful declaration? Why was heaven opened? Why did the Father declare, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”?
The Father had found a Man who was truly one with His heart. From beginning to end, the Father’s heart is set upon the cross.
Without the cross, man cannot be redeemed. Without the cross, Satan cannot be defeated. Without the cross, the whole creation cannot be recovered. Only through the cross can God’s purpose be fulfilled.
The Father was delighted because, finally, there was a Man on earth who agreed with His heart. The cross is the only way.
There is no better way to know who God is than through the cross of the Lord Jesus. God is not selfish. God is a God of real sacrifice.
Christian life is, ultimately, a life of sacrifice. Ministry is a life of sacrifice. Why? Because Christ sacrificed Himself.
The altar and the throne are connected. The altar is the way to reach the throne. That is the secret of God’s heart for all His people.
Finally, I want to share a few verses that I shared with the young people at the conference. Turn with me to Luke 1. This passage concerns the birth of the Messiah.
Luke 1:37 says:
For no word from God shall be void of power.
We need to get hold of that—not merely as a verse in the Scriptures, but as a living reality. We may know it, but do we get hold of it? We understand so much, but often we do not lay hold of it.
Now look at Mary’s response. This should be our response:
Behold, the handmaid of the Lord;
Be it unto me according to thy word.
If God has spoken, our response should be, “Let it be according to Your word.” That is the proper response; otherwise, we lose it.
Then the angel departed from her. When the angel stopped speaking to Mary, Mary had received it. She got it. She embraced it. She said, “So be it.”
There was no further talking. She understood, and she took it to heart. If God continues to speak to us, perhaps we have not yet responded properly.
Then, in Luke 1:45, we read:
And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a fulfilment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord.
If we believe, it will be fulfilled, because God is faithful to Himself. Feed on His faithfulness. He will do it.
May the Lord bless all of us. He is faithful. Whatever He says, may we respond by saying, “So be it, Lord.” Then He will do it.
May He help us to cultivate a real, intimate walk with Him. In the end, His thought becomes our thought, and then we can begin to do His will.
It is good to be with you. May the Lord receive what He desires in your midst. If He is truly our Head, then all things are well.
On behalf of the young people from many other areas outside Toronto, we want to thank you for your love and hospitality. Thank you to all the brothers and sisters who opened their homes to host the young people.
Through all these interactions, many barriers were broken down, and we can testify that in Christ we are one people.
Father, we thank You for this morning, that we can remember You. If we remember You, all is well. If we remember other things, then we are in great trouble.
Make us Your prisoners, so that You can reveal Your secrets to us and that Your will may be done. May Your light shine through the saints in this dark and evil day.
Gain all of us for Yourself. To You be all the glory. In Christ’s name, amen.