Will you please turn to Galatians 4:19?
My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.
And then will you please turn to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 53:11.
He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied:
By the knowledge of Himself shall My righteous Servant justify many;
And He shall bear their iniquities.
And finally, the Gospel according to John, John 16:21.
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come:
But when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we praise and thank Thee for gathering us together here this morning. It is truly the prayer of our hearts that there is nothing between us and Thee. We praise and thank Thee that Thou hast accomplished that full salvation, and there is no reason why there should be any distance.
So, Lord, we just cast ourselves upon Thee, believing that Thou dost remove every distance between us and Thee. Thou hast drawn us into Thy very presence, that we may see Thy glory, hear Thy voice, and by Thy Spirit be transformed and conformed to the image of Thy beloved Son.
Dear Lord, we do confess that this theme is beyond us. But we praise and thank Thee, knowing that Thou who hast called us is faithful, and Thou wilt perform and perfect that which Thou hast begun in us. With this, we commit ourselves to Thee for this time. May Thy name be glorified. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
Brothers and sisters, I have to confess: when I first heard that the theme of this conference is spiritual travail, I was frightened.
Because immediately there arose in my mind Moses, he who pleaded before God for the children of Israel and was willing even to have his name blotted out from the book of life for the sake of the people.
Then I thought of the Apostle Paul—how he travailed before God, and how he travailed even for his own kinsmen, willing even to have his name blotted out from the book of life for his brethren’s sake.
And, as our brother mentioned last night, people like Elijah and Daniel came to mind. Also there arose in my mind Praying Hyde of India—how he prayed before God—and also Rees Howells of South Wales, the intercessor.
So when these pictures rose in my mind, I trembled. Who am I to talk about spiritual travail? How much do we really know what spiritual travail is? And more than that, how much are we involved in spiritual travail?
Is it too high for us, too deep for us? Is it something beyond us that we should not talk about?
Then the Lord comforted me. He told me that I am the fruit of the travail of His soul.
And not only am I the fruit of His travail, but I can recall that there are people who travailed in prayer before God for me. And here I am.
You remember your history. There was a famous person, Saint Augustine. He was a young man, brilliant. He was a professor of rhetoric in the university, and at that time a professor of rhetoric was of the highest rank in the university. But he lived a very dissipated life.
But thank God, he had a mother, Monica. It was the prayers and the tears of his mother that brought him back to the Saviour.
Brothers and sisters, thank God we are all the fruit of the travail of the soul of our Lord Jesus. If He did not travail for us, where would we be?
And probably you can all recall the story of how you came to the Lord. Maybe your parents, maybe some friend, maybe someone who knew you—they were pleading before God for you. And today, you are the fruit of the travail of their soul.
So when I think of these things, it really encourages me. And I begin to think: Why spiritual travail? Is it that important? Is it necessary? Is it absolutely needed in every one of us?
Is it just for a few select ones, like Rees Howells, Praying Hyde, Paul, and Moses? Is it their exclusive right, or favour God has given to them? And who are we even to talk about spiritual travail, not to mention really engaging in spiritual travail?
Is it something just for a select few? Oh, dear brothers and sisters, is it for us common brothers and sisters? Every one of us must be engaged in spiritual travail. Why? Because it is the will of God.
The One who travailed for our salvation has put His life in us, and that life has the travailing element in us. He has put His Spirit in us, and His Spirit pleads within us, in our spirit, helping us in this matter of spiritual travail.
So, dear brothers and sisters, let us remember that spiritual travail is not only for someone who has reached a certain spiritual stature. It is not that only then they will be engaged in spiritual travail.
We may be just a baby in Christ, maybe just saved. We too should begin to learn this lesson of spiritual travail. It should be the mark of every believer, because it is God’s will.
God wants each and every one of us whom He has justified to be glorified—each and every one of us, not only saved, but conformed to the image of His beloved Son.
But we ask the question: How? He has begun a good work in us. How is He going to complete it? And in completing it, is there anything that He requires or demands of us, that we should be engaged with?
As I think of these things, I begin to realize that spiritual travail is according to every believer, from the least one to the greatest one. Do not be intimidated by a few brothers and sisters who have such a height of experience in spiritual travail that you do not even begin to travail in your spirit.
So, brothers and sisters, with that I am encouraged, and I do hope that every one of us will be encouraged.
Do not ever, when you are listening to this message of spiritual travail, say, “This is not for me. This is only for those who have reached a certain spiritual stature.”
Yes, the more you grow in the Lord, the deeper spiritual travail will be your experience. But if you do not begin from the very beginning, you will not reach it.
So I encourage all brothers and sisters, especially young people, that you will open your heart, believing that the One who travailed for you on Calvary’s cross—His life is in you, and His life is a life of travail.
We need to allow that life to really grow in each and every one of us.
I am thinking especially of the imminent return of our Lord Jesus. Why is it that we have waited for twenty centuries for His return? We are now in the beginning of the twenty-first century. Why? Why the delay?
Dear brothers and sisters, the reason does not lie with our Lord Jesus. Every bridegroom is anxious to receive his bride. It is the bride who is not prepared.
Can it be that the reason why the church, the bride of our Lord Jesus, has not been ready for Him even for twenty centuries is because there is a missing element—a lack of spiritual travail?
God’s people receive the grace of God and do not allow that grace to work in our lives and make us gracious, that we may be able to hasten the return of the Lord. The responsibility is upon us.
And I am afraid the reason is the lack of spiritual travail. Because we do not have that spiritual travail, we do not grow spiritually. Because we do not have spiritual travail, people are not saved. Because we do not have spiritual travail, the Body is not completed.
Is it because of us, because of the lack of spiritual travail?
So, dear brothers and sisters, I do hope that every brother and sister who is here—especially young people—will really see the importance and the urgency. I would say God is pleading for you to be engaged in His heart’s travail, so that His perfect will will be completed.
I feel that I would like to share with you, dear brothers and sisters, on this matter of spiritual travail from the very bottom. What is spiritual travail? How can we be engaged in this spiritual travail?
If you look in the dictionary, you will find that the word travail means physical or mental effort, trial; and it is usually accompanied by tribulation, anguish, and agony. It is also descriptive of childbirth.
Now, thank God, in the Greek original you will find the same thought there. It is a travail, an exercise within our spirit; and it is tribulation, suffering, and agony. But thank God, it results in birth.
Now, if it is travail without giving birth, then it is a terrible thing. But when you think that travail will lead to birth, is that not promising?
So I remember when our Lord Jesus was with His disciples before His crucifixion. After He had instituted the Lord’s table—how He said, “This is My body for you. Do this in remembrance of Me”—He took the cup, blessed it, and said, “This is the blood, the seal of the new covenant. Remember this.”
And after the Lord’s supper, He conversed with His disciples. The disciples were sorrowful because they saw that something was going to happen. They saw that our Lord Jesus was leaving them. They had left everything to follow the Lord, and now the Lord was leaving them.
So our Lord Jesus tried to comfort them and said, “Do not be grieved. I will leave you, but I will come again.”
Then He said, “You will be grieved. The world will be happy. But just like a woman, when she is in travail, there is pain and grief for a time. But after a child is born, all these will be forgotten, and she will rejoice because a man is born into this world.”
So, brothers and sisters, when we think of spiritual travail, it is something very positive. It is something that will bring forth birth.
Then I began to think how the Lord Jesus said, “In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Everyone who is born into this world goes through tribulation.
Now, if you remember the wisest of men, Solomon, he wrote a book called Ecclesiastes. He became a preacher. What was the message that he preached out of his great wisdom and through all his manifold experiences? He told us that he tried everything under the sun, and then he wrote this book, the book of Ecclesiastes. It describes the world and worldly travail.
Everybody is travailing—not only Christians; non-Christians too. The world itself is in travail.
If you will turn with me to Ecclesiastes, I will just mention a few things. Ecclesiastes 1:1 says:
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Now listen to what he says, especially young people:
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Ecclesiastes 1:8:
All things are full of weariness; man cannot utter it:
The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
Ecclesiastes 1:11:
There is no remembrance of the former generations;
Neither shall there be any remembrance of the latter generations that are to come, among those that shall come after.
Ecclesiastes 1:18:
For in much wisdom is much grief;
And he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
Then, in Ecclesiastes 2:11:
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do;
And, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
And Ecclesiastes 2:22-23:
For what hath a man of all his labour, and of the striving of his heart, wherein he laboureth under the sun?
For all his days are but sorrow, and his travail grief; yea, even in the night his heart taketh no rest. This also is vanity.
The whole book describes what worldly travail is. Everybody is travailing. Everybody is exercising. Everybody is in pain.
But what is the result? If you travail for the world, it does not give birth. On the contrary, it produces death. Now that is worldly travail.
Now, are you in that category? We should not be. But thank God, He has removed us out of this world and put us in the kingdom of the Son of His love. So our travail is a different kind of travail. It is called spiritual travail.
And this spiritual travail results in birth. So that is why every believer should be involved in this spiritual travail.
Brothers and sisters, we are the fruit of the travail of God. Now there is something that I often wonder: Is it necessary that with travail for birth there has to be pain, suffering, anguish, and agony?
God is love, and because He loves us, He travails. But in the very beginning, when He created the heavens and the earth, did it cause God suffering, pain, and tribulation? I do not think so.
When God put Adam to sleep and out of his side took something of Adam to build a woman, we often say that was the first operation in the world. But it was a painless operation, because God put Adam to sleep. There was no pain involved.
Where does that pain, which always accompanies travail, come from?
You remember when Adam and Eve sinned against God and God came into the garden. God pronounced His judgment. So in Genesis 3:16, what does He say? What is the judgment upon the woman?
I will greatly multiply thy pain, and thy conception;
In pain thou shalt bring forth children.
So I wonder whether that is where these two things became related: that there must be pain in travail for birth. Is it because there is sin in this world? When sin came in, the scene became totally different.
So it became a universal law: wherever there is travail, there is pain. Put it another way: where there is no suffering, there is no birth.
This has become a universal law. This is the reason why travail is always accompanied with suffering.
Now let us think of how our God has travailed for us, for our salvation.
You know, we are so familiar with John 3:16:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
That whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Everything begins with the love of God. If there is no love, there is no suffering.
God so loved the world, and the world here especially refers to the people in this world. God so loved the people He had created that He gave His only begotten Son.
Think for a moment. God has only one begotten Son. They were together from the very beginning. They were not only equal, but They were one. They had never left each other.
They loved each other. They understood each other. In everything They were in perfect harmony. And this love between Them is increasing.
It is out of that love for His beloved Son that He created the universe, and especially man. You know, man is a special creation of God.
There is nothing else created after His image, according to His likeness. Everything is created by God, but it is created by His wisdom and by His power. Only man in the whole universe is created in His own image, after His own likeness.
Why? It is because He wants to give man to His Son as a life companion. In order to be a Son-like companion, he has to be like His Son; otherwise, they do not fit.
So it is out of love that God created man. But unfortunately, we as human beings, who received the greatest gift of God in creation, rebelled against Him.
Because of this, we are separated from God. We even turned ourselves against God as His enemies. How we sinned against Him! The Bible tells us, “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.”
What is the glory of God? The glory of God is Himself. We come short of His glory because we are not like Him. We are the very opposite of what He is, and that hurts Him more than anything else.
You know, brothers and sisters, sometimes when we are preaching the gospel to unbelievers, we usually mention Romans 1, listing all these terrible sins that men have committed in order to convince men that they are sinful. But what does the Bible say?
The Bible says, “Of sin, because they believe not on Me.” That is the greatest sin in the world. If you do not believe in the Lord Jesus, that is the greatest sin in the world, because this is the greatest gift God has given to men. Everything is involved in Him, and if you resist Him, you resist His love.
But thank God, He does not forsake us. We who have sinned should be left behind, judged forever. But it is love—it is God’s love—that He gave us His only begotten Son. Think of that.
You know, when we are talking about this, you always think of Abraham. Abraham, when he was one hundred years old, got a son.
Now, when you are thirty years old and get a son, how happy you are. And when you are one hundred years old and get a son, my, that is the treasure of your heart—Isaac, that which gladdens his heart and makes him laugh.
Then you remember God said, “Take your son, your only begotten son.” Now God made it very difficult. “Go three days”—surely giving you plenty of time to think—“and offer him to Me.”
If you do not know God, you will think that God is so hard. But Abraham knew God. He got up early in the morning, took his son, prepared everything for the sacrifice, and went to Mount Moriah.
He was going to sacrifice his son because he loved God more than anything else, and he believed that God would bring Isaac back to life.
Brothers and sisters, when we read this story, how do you feel?
But if you can multiply it millions and millions of times, and think of God—what did He feel when He gave His only begotten Son to us?
His love is billions and billions of times deeper than any human parent’s love. And He is travailing for our souls. He was willing to give His beloved Son, who is incomparable with any human son or daughter.
What a sacrifice. What suffering it must be to God.
Throughout the life of our Lord Jesus on earth, again and again and again, the heavens opened and a voice came from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight.” You can see how much God loved His beloved Son.
And yet, if you read Isaiah 53:10, it says that God crushed Him on Calvary’s cross. Is it an easy thing to do?
The Son who had pleased Him throughout His life, even throughout eternity—and the Father crushed Him.
No wonder, when our Lord Jesus was crucified, from nine o’clock to twelve o’clock it was men who crucified Him. Men mocked Him. Satan surrounded Him.
But during those three hours, our Lord Jesus never said a word about Himself. The Father was with Him. He could pray, “Forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
But then the scene suddenly changed. Matthew 27 tells us that from twelve o’clock until three o’clock there was darkness all around. It was during that period that our Lord cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
Brothers and sisters, the Father turned His face away, not to see the suffering of His beloved Son. What love. What sacrifice. What agony. What travail.
And remember: we are the fruit of the travail of God the Father’s heart.
Then you think of our Lord Jesus Himself. He was before His Father as His delight, rejoicing before His Father and creating all things according to the will of His Father.
And yet the Bible tells us, even before the foundation of the world—you can find that in 1 Peter 1—even before the foundation of the world, He was the Lamb of God.
In other words, before God created everything, our Lord Jesus, the beloved Son of God, had already offered Himself to be the Lamb of God. Because God knew everything. God knew what would happen if the world was created, if man was created—what would happen to man and what would happen to this world. God saw it all.
May I use human words? God hesitated a little bit, and the Son stepped in and said, “Father, go ahead. If this is what You want to do, do it. I am willing to offer Myself to be the Lamb of God.”
Our Lord Jesus was the Lamb of God before He came into this world. John the Baptist looked at Him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.”
But even before He came into this world—eternity past, before time began, before the world was created—He had already offered Himself to be the Lamb.
Therefore, the Bible tells us that He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It is upon that basis—that He had offered Himself to the Father to be the Lamb—that God began to create the universe.
And when the universe began, our Lord Jesus, as the Lamb of God, was slain from the beginning of the world.
Can you imagine the love behind it? Can you imagine the travail, the suffering, the pain, the anguish, and the sorrow?
And yet, in the fullness of time, our Lord Jesus came, born of woman, born under law, that He might deliver us from the curse of the law and that we might receive sonship.
The Word became flesh and tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth. Throughout the life of our Lord Jesus, how He pleased the Father. He said nothing out of Himself; He did nothing out of Himself.
He was always under the timing of the Father’s will. His face was toward Jerusalem. He came; He was born, not only to live, but to die.
And, brothers and sisters, we all remember the scene of Gethsemane. He was a perfect Man.
By a perfect Man, it means, on the one hand, He was sinless. He had never known what sin was. He had never committed anything sinful; He did not know what sin was.
But being a perfect Man, His feelings, His senses, His will, His soul-life, must have been hundreds, thousands, billions of times sharper than ours. How much He felt when He was to become sin for us.
The sin of the whole world was heaped upon Him. The Bible says He was made sin for us—not only bore our sins in one sense, but was made sin for us. In the sight of God, He was sin itself. How terrible that was.
No wonder our Lord could not stand it. How He prayed, “Father, if it be possible.” But He said, “For this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.”
In the garden of Gethsemane, the Bible tells us how He was oppressed in His spirit, how much He was grieved in His soul, how He prayed until His sweat became as drops of blood in agony.
“Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Thine, be done.”
And, brothers and sisters, when Judas came with the crowd to take the Lord, our Lord said, “Must I not drink the cup which the Father hath given Me?” He went to the cross.
But as we have said, from twelve o’clock to three o’clock was the time when He was made sin for us. And God, who is the righteous One, the Judge of the world, crushed Him, put Him to death, and sentenced Him to death in order to make a way for us.
Brothers and sisters, what agony, what travail, our Lord Jesus has gone through. And it is for you and for me. We are the fruit of the travail of His soul.
Think of the Holy Spirit, the perfect Person in us. How the Holy Spirit travails in man.
I often thank God. When we are saved, what has God done for us? Probably our first thought will be, “Well, thank God, my sins are washed away. I am forgiven. I am justified. Now I have peace in my conscience. Now I can face God. Now one day I will go to heaven.”
But, brothers and sisters, these are the least of the grace of God in His salvation. Yes, thank God, when I am saved, not only are my sins forgiven, but He has given us His own life. Now the life of God, the life of Christ, is my life. He is here in me. Thank God for this life.
And thank God, when He gave this life of Christ to us, at the same time He put His Spirit in us. The Holy Spirit comes and dwells in our new spirit.
The Holy Spirit comes as the guardian of the new life, as the One who is responsible to bring that life into maturity, to see to it that we will be transformed and become like Christ.
Anything that is not like Christ, He will judge. He will touch our conscience and make us uncomfortable until we are willing to repent and return to Him.
He is doing this great work day by day—indeed, minute by minute—because He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is always there in us. For what reason?
For only one reason: to see that the life, the new life, the eternal life, the life of Christ in us, will be given all the needed help to be brought into maturity.
That is to say, that we may be transformed and conformed to the image of God’s beloved Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now this is why the Holy Spirit is in us.
And thank God, He says the Holy Spirit will never leave us nor forsake us. Our Lord Jesus, when He was in the flesh, had to leave us to return to the Father. But another Comforter, of His life, came and dwells in us forever.
Now do you think that the Holy Spirit in you is free from travail—with pain, with suffering, with anguish?
Think for a moment, brothers and sisters. Since you were born again, since you received the Holy Spirit, how much have you cooperated with the Holy Spirit? How much have you listened to the still, small voice? How much have you walked in the light of life? How much have you obeyed Him?
The Bible says, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit”—Ephesians. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. How much we must have grieved Him.
If you try to add up all the griefs that we have piled upon Him, what would happen? Humanly speaking, He would die. But He never dies.
Though we grieve Him, He will not leave us nor forsake us. Oh, brothers and sisters, how we grieve Him beyond measure.
We grieve Him because we want to have our own way. We want to live our own life. We will not allow the life of Christ to grow in us; we want to grow ourselves.
“Quench not the Spirit”—1 Thessalonians. How much we have quenched Him. We will not listen to Him.
Do you know, when we are doing that, not only does the Holy Spirit suffer in pain to bring forth birth, but we are the ones who have the loss. Think of that.
But no matter how we grieve Him, no matter how we quench Him, no matter how we disobey Him, He will not leave. He is still here in me and in you, continuing in His travailing pain in order to bring forth birth.
Think of that, brothers and sisters. When you think of all the travails, all the sufferings, that we have caused our Father, our Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, will that not bring us to shame?
As the fruit of the travail of His soul, what should we do?
On the one hand, is it not the right thing for us to do that we really appreciate all His travail for us, giving ourselves totally to Him, that love may complete His work?
And on the other hand, is it not that we should try to cooperate with Him intimately? That is to say, whatever He travails for, we travail with Him.
And that is the reason why I feel this matter of spiritual travail is our portion. Every one of us must be involved.
May the Lord show us a way: How can we be involved in spiritual travail? And what will it mean to God and His purpose?
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we do think that we are standing on holy ground.
Lord, reveal Thy travail to each and every one of us here.
Let Thy travail give us strength to respond, not only to obey, but to follow.
Oh, Lord, may the Spirit of Thy nature fall upon us, that we may become a people that will travail with Thee for Thy eternal purpose to be fulfilled.
We are here offering ourselves to Thee, for Thou hast called us. We cannot do it, but Thou art able to perfect it. We pray in Thy precious name. Amen.