Will you please turn to 1 Timothy 4? We will read from verses 8 through 10.
Exercise thyself unto godliness:
for bodily exercise is profitable for a little; but godliness is profitable for all things,
having promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come.
Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation.
For to this end we labor and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God,
who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe.
And then will you please turn to Ephesians 4, verses 15 and 16.
But speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, even Christ;
from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth,
according to the working in due measure of each several part,
maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.
Dear Lord, we do want to thank Thee for gathering us together this morning. We do gather in Thy precious name, and we have the confidence that Thou art with us.
We thank Thee for Thy precious promise. Thou dost promise us that where two or three are gathered together in Thy name, there Thou art present. What a glory that we can meet in Thy presence.
In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. So we do want to open our hearts to Thee, Lord. We pray that Thou wilt touch not only our ears, but our hearts, that we may not only hear Thy voice, but that Thy words may sink deep into our hearts.
May we, by Thy Spirit, be transformed from glory to glory and conformed to Thy precious image. We commit this time into Thy loving hands, that all glory may be unto Thee. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
Thank God for gathering us together this morning. Every time God’s people have the opportunity of gathering together, I always feel that it is the special grace of God.
Because we are living in a very strange time. On the one hand, we find that there are troubles everywhere. Yet, on the other hand, we are told to lift up our heads, for our redemption draweth nigh.
Who are we that God should be so gracious to us? Even at this last hour, He is still giving us opportunity to gather ourselves together unto Him. So we do look to the Lord that He will use this time to ready us for His imminent return.
I have no intention of teaching you this morning. I just want to have a heart-to-heart talk with you, because I deeply feel the need of this hour. I would like to share my burden with you, and hopefully, by the grace of God, we may be better prepared for His imminent return.
I would like to talk with you about something very basic, and yet it touches the very heart of God. This morning, what I would do is simply lay a foundation. The burden of my heart is this: spiritual exercise and body life.
For the sake of some who may not have the background, I will use this morning to explain what spiritual exercise is and what body life is.
The apostle Paul, writing to Timothy, exhorted him, “Exercise thyself unto godliness.” Personally, I do not like the word piety. I would prefer the word godliness.
The reason is that when you think of piety, you may think of a very pious attitude. It can be something external, something put on, instead of something that comes deep from within and then appears outwardly.
Strictly speaking, the word should be godliness—to be like God. That gives us the right concept, because to be like God is nothing external. God is Spirit, and to be like God there must be something happening in our spirit.
It is deep within us. It is to be conformed to His image. In Scripture, it speaks of something internal; it speaks of character. The exhortation of Paul is, “Exercise thyself unto godliness.”
At the same time, he said that bodily exercise is profitable for a little. In other words, sometimes we neglect our bodies. Probably Timothy was among those who did so. The apostle Paul said that bodily exercise is profitable.
We need to exercise our bodies. We should not neglect them, because it is profitable. But its profit is limited.
I notice that in recent years people seem to be paying more attention to bodily exercise. People are beginning to realize that eating, drinking, and sleeping do not necessarily give you a healthy body. There is something more that needs to be done, and that is to exercise your body.
I wonder if the young brothers and sisters here are exercising their bodies. I am afraid young people today spend too much time before the computer, and they neglect their bodies. Obesity has become a real problem among young people.
We need to exercise our bodies—not only young people, but older people as well. To have a healthy body, you need exercise. We should not neglect our bodies.
Sometimes we feel that, in order to be so-called spiritual, we should have a body like a hermit. But that is not true. God wants us to have a healthy body. It is profitable, but its profit is little in comparison with something else.
When you exercise your body and your body becomes healthier, it affects your mind. If you have a healthy body, you have a mind that is more alert. Perhaps it affects your spirit too. When you pray, you will not fall asleep.
But its profit is limited, because it is limited by time. One day, when this physical body becomes a spiritual body, that will be another story.
Why is the profit of bodily exercise little? It is in comparison with something more important: exercise unto godliness.
We who are the Lord’s have one exercise that we must do. We need to exercise godliness. This is a word for believers, because the people of the world cannot exercise godliness. They may exercise what is called piety, but they cannot be like God if they do not have His life.
Thank God that we have His life. He has given us His life, and He wants our life to be like Him, to express His glory. This is the purpose of God.
Exercise unto godliness is profitable for everything. It is profitable for your spirit, profitable for your soul, and profitable for your body. Not only so, it has the promise of life.
The word life here is zoe. It points to the life of God. There is such a promise not only for now, but for the age to come. In this life, you can find how profitable it is to you, and that profit will extend into the life to come.
The apostle Paul said, “It is for this that we labor and even suffer.” Dear brothers and sisters, you see here how important exercise unto godliness is.
Exercise unto godliness is not something outward. It is something intensely internal. God is Spirit.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, not only are our sins forgiven, but something positive happens in our lives: we are born again.
The Bible says:
That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
We are born of the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be born of the Holy Spirit?
When God created man, He created us as a tripartite being. We have a body that is made of earth, and God breathed His breath into man’s nostrils. There is something that comes directly out of God into us, and that becomes the human spirit.
Because God is Spirit, you cannot communicate with God without spirit. God wants man to communicate with Him and to be like Him. Therefore, He gave us a human spirit.
The human spirit is so precious. God created mountains and hills, and they have a massive body, but they have no soul. They have no feeling, no emotion, and they cannot determine for themselves.
We can see a little cat or a small bird. Their bodies are small, but they have a soul. They can feel things. Yet they have no spirit. They cannot worship God.
Thank God, God created man out of Himself, out of His breath. He gave us a human spirit, so that man is able to communicate with God.
I often say that when the cosmonaut first went into outer space, he came back and said, “I have been to outer space. I looked around, and I did not see any God. Therefore, there is no God.”
Foolishness! How can human naked eyes see God, who is Spirit? We have to see Him in our spirit. Thank God, God created us with a spirit.
But unfortunately, when sin came into the world, our human spirit died. God said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Adam lived more than nine hundred years. He begat many sons and daughters. He had family life. He did not die physically right away, but God’s word is true. On the day that they ate the forbidden fruit, something died.
That does not mean the spirit no longer existed. It means that it lost its proper communication with God. An unbeliever can still communicate with evil spirits, but cannot communicate with God, because God is the proper environment for the human spirit.
We may say that our spirit was in a coma, almost like that. But thank God, when you believe in the Lord Jesus, something marvelous happens.
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
In other words, our dead spirit is quickened into life. We have a new spirit, and immediately we cry out, “Abba, Father.” We begin to communicate with God, our Creator.
Not only that, but even the life of Christ comes into us. He that believeth hath eternal life. Eternal life is the life of Christ, and Christ comes into us.
But I want to ask the question: Where does Christ reside in you? Christ resides in your new spirit. That life comes into your spirit and becomes the life of your spirit.
More than that, when you believe in the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit Himself comes into you. Where does He dwell? He dwells in your spirit.
Not only do you have a new spirit; you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in your new spirit. Why does the Holy Spirit dwell in your spirit? Have you thought of that?
He dwells in your spirit for one reason: He is there to look after the life of Christ that is in you. He is there to see that the life of Christ in you may grow, that you may be like Him, and that the eternal purpose of God might be fulfilled.
When you read Romans 8, you see that God has called, justified, and glorified. What is meant by being glorified? It is to be conformed to the image of God’s beloved Son.
How can you arrive at that? Only by the work of the Holy Spirit within you. He will see to it that the life of Christ in you will continuously grow.
Growing means that you take on more and more of the character of Christ. Brothers and sisters, where do all these things go on within you?
It is not going on in your body, nor is it merely limited to your soul. It begins in your spirit, and out of your spirit it begins to influence your soul and body.
It is an inward thing. It is the inward way of life. This is Christian life. Christian life is not something external at all. It will appear externally, but it has to begin within you, because it is the story of your spirit.
How do we exercise unto godliness? Where does this exercising take place? It is in your spirit. Therefore, we call it spiritual exercise.
This is something that is a must for every believer. But, dear brothers and sisters, I do feel that among God’s people this is something that is neglected.
We try to grow so-called spiritually, but often we are distracted from inside to outside. Instead of listening to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit within us, who is trying to guide us into spiritual growth, we begin to listen to what people tell us.
As soon as we are saved, people will tell us, “Now you need to do this. You should not do that,” and so forth. In other words, we are being distracted outwardly.
People will tell you that if you want to be a good Christian, you need to read your Bible, pray, gather with God’s people, and witness for Christ. You start to do these things. But how do you read your Bible? How do you pray? What is your attitude when you meet with God’s people? When you are witnessing, by what power do you witness?
I remember Brother Watchman Nee. He was very zealous for the Lord, and he tried to tell all his schoolmates about Christ. Finally, all the students began to avoid him. They would say, “The preacher is coming. Go another way.”
One day, Miss Groves met him and asked, “How many people have been saved through you?” He said, “None. But I have done my business. Whether they believe or do not believe is up to them.”
Miss Groves said, “Have you ever prayed for them before you preached to them?” He said no. She told him, “You had better go and pray.”
So he put the names of those fellow students in a book, and he prayed and prayed and prayed for them. Then the Lord began to work.
You can witness by your own cleverness instead of depending upon the Holy Spirit. You can come to the meeting simply trying to get something. If you do not get anything, you feel that you have wasted your time.
But you do not come together with God’s people in your spirit. You come with your body. You come with your mind. But you leave your spirit at home.
When you read the Bible, how do you read? After you read, people ask, “What have you read?” and you have forgotten. Brothers and sisters, you have not exercised your spirit. Everything is just outward.
No wonder there is no spiritual growth. After many years, you are still a babe in Christ.
In order to be spiritual, we try to accumulate much biblical knowledge. I do not say biblical knowledge is not important, but that is secondary. There is something more important.
We fill our minds with all kinds of doctrines. Our minds get bigger and bigger, but our spirits shrink smaller and smaller. This is not spiritual growth. This is not being conformed to the image of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, I really feel that Christianity today is on the wrong path. We are being led astray. Instead of going deep within ourselves and letting the Holy Spirit exercise our spirits, we are occupied with outward things.
What is spiritual exercise? It is the Holy Spirit working in your spirit.
When I exercise my body, I can see it. If I exercise my mind, my mind becomes more developed. But the spirit is something you cannot see. How can you exercise your spirit?
Exercising your spirit simply means exercising the functions—the faculties—of your spirit. I often use an illustration: we all know electricity, but can you see it?
How do we know there is electricity? We know that electricity is power by the functions of electricity. We cannot deny that there is electricity, even though the naked eye cannot see it.
When you come to spiritual things, it is not something that we can know by our five senses. We need a sixth sense: spiritual sense.
By that spiritual sense, you know your spirit. Our spirit has three main functions:
Our spirit has the function of communion. We can commune with God, and God can speak to us. He can reveal Himself to our spirit.
Through communion, we gradually grow into His likeness. Oftentimes you find an elderly couple who look alike. They look at each other day after day, hour after hour, and gradually they even begin to look alike.
The same thing is true spiritually. When you look at the Lord, and let the Lord look at you day and night, hour by hour, without knowing it, you begin to be like Him. Your spirit begins to become like Him.
The reason we are not like God is because we do not look at Him. If we look at Him with unveiled face, then we will be transformed from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
That is 2 Corinthians 3:18. Dear brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit works through our communion.
The Holy Spirit also works upon our conscience. The conscience of unbelievers is undependable because they have lost their standard. The standard of our conscience is God.
After we believe in the Lord Jesus, conscience is very important. The apostle Paul said that he maintained before God and men a conscience without offense.
Actually, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, we are not very knowledgeable at that time. But from the very day you are saved, your conscience has been cleansed, and the Holy Spirit begins to speak to your conscience.
Sometimes we say that conscience is the voice of God. He will touch our conscience in small things, in big things, in everything.
If our conscience is not exercised before God, we will not grow spiritually. Instead of listening to men, we need to listen to the still, small voice within. Then we will begin to grow spiritually.
This is the way of righteousness. Conscience is related to righteousness. What is right and what is wrong in the sight of God is determined by conscience.
After we believe in the Lord Jesus, we often ask, “What is the will of God? What is His word for me? Can I go there? Can I do this?”
When you are puzzled, what do you do? Do you ask people? If they say no, you try not to do it. If they say yes, then you go ahead.
Brothers and sisters, that is Old Testament, not New Testament. In the Old Testament, you needed people to tell you, “Know the Lord.” But now the Holy Spirit is within you. He will teach you all things, small things and big things. If you listen to Him, you are abiding in Christ.
Intuition is direct knowledge. Usually, our knowledge comes indirectly. We gather information from outside, store it in our brains, analyze it, and come to a conclusion. It is all from outside.
But God will speak directly to us. He will reveal Himself to us. He is light.
If we walk in the light, as He is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Brothers and sisters, we need that intuitive knowledge guided by the Holy Spirit. It leads us to sanctification and holiness.
Intuition helps us determine what is good and what is evil. Good is God’s will; evil is whatever is not God’s will. Communion brings us into glory.
You find that all this comes from spiritual exercise. We have lost so much because we are not exercising our spirit.
It is the only way to spiritual growth, and it is the only way to transfer truth into experience. This is spiritual exercise.
My burden is that we exercise our spirits. The more we exercise, the better and healthier we are. Then we are really growing in the Lord. That is exercise unto godliness.
Now we turn to body life. What is body life, and why is it so important?
We are naturally individualistic. But when God created man, we were not intended to be individualistic.
God created man, male and female, and He called them man. Man is a corporate being. Adam and Eve were two individuals, yet they were joined as one. They lived a corporate life.
But unfortunately, when that corporate life was broken, man became individualistic. When God questioned Adam, Adam said, “It is the fault of the woman.” When Eve was questioned, she said, “It is the problem of the serpent.” Immediately, they became individualistic and self-centered.
Naturally speaking, everyone today is individualistic. We are all self-centered. “I need mine.” That is our life philosophy.
But, brothers and sisters, God’s purpose is different. When you look at God’s purpose, you find that His purpose is always corporate.
It is true that He saves us one by one, because we are individuals. I often say that when we are saved, we are selfishly saved. We want to go to heaven; we do not want to go to hell. So there is a sense of selfishness there.
Thank God for His longsuffering. Even though we are so selfish, He still saves us. But He does not want us to remain self-centered.
We are saved one by one, but when we are saved, we are put into a family. We are brought into a body, and we become members one of another.
How wonderful it is when you are saved. How do you know that you are saved? Where is the proof?
You cry out from your heart to God, “Abba, Father.” That is the proof. It shows that you are a child of God.
Formerly, when you prayed to God, you prayed to your Father in heaven as someone distant from you. But now it is different: you are speaking to your Father. Thank God for that.
But do you know that another thing happens when you are saved? When you meet another Christian whom you have never known before, and discover that he is also a believer in Jesus, immediately there is a bond between you and that person.
Where does that bond come from? It comes from salvation.
But unfortunately, instead of realizing that we are one family and one body, outward influences come in. You meet a believer, and your heart goes out to that person. Then an outside teaching comes in, and the next question is, “What denomination do you belong to?”
When that question is asked, division immediately comes. The body is broken. In other words, what God has intended has now been broken.
Today you find divisions everywhere, all because we have brought other things in instead of letting Christ be all and in all.
God’s eternal purpose for us is that He does not want us to remain isolated individuals. May I say this: our individuality will never be lost.
We are still individuals. Our individuality remains to eternity. No two faces are alike. Our temperaments are all different. God loves variety.
Even in the New Jerusalem, the precious stone of Peter is different from the precious stone of Paul. So do not try to be like another person. Be yourself.
But individualism must go. Lay down yourself. Lay down your flesh. Let Christ be all and in all.
You remember 1 Corinthians 12:12. This is a verse that puzzles many people. If it does not puzzle you, it shows that you have not really read your Bible.
For as the body is one, and hath many members,
and all the members of the body, being many, are one body;
so also is Christ.
Is there anything wrong with that verse? The body is one and has many members, but all the members, being many, are one body. We would expect it to say, “So also is the church.” Clearly, it is the church.
But the Holy Spirit says, “So also is Christ.” Why? That shows us what the body really is.
Of course, this refers to the body of Christ. When Christ was on earth, He took a body from Mary. He had a personal body. In that body He lived for thirty-three and a half years. He did many things and taught many words.
Then He died, was buried, resurrected, and ascended. When He ascended, He was anointed by God as Christ and as Lord.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down upon about one hundred and twenty believers. The picture is that Christ, having ascended on high, was anointed by God as the High Priest. The ointment came upon His head and flowed down to His beard and to the skirts of His garments.
Christ in ascension was anointed, and the Holy Spirit came down. Those one hundred and twenty believers were baptized into one body. That is the meaning of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Today, we wrongly emphasize the meaning of Pentecost. Our emphasis is often on sight and sound—on the rushing wind and tongues of fire. These are outward signs. They are not the primary meaning of Pentecost.
The real meaning of Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit was given, and the one hundred and twenty were baptized into one body. Formerly they were one hundred and twenty individuals, a congregation of one hundred and twenty members. But now they became one body with one hundred and twenty members.
There was an organic change. This is not an organization; it is an organic body.
Brothers and sisters, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, not only are we individually saved, but we are baptized into one body.
You cannot receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit individually today, because that baptism is historical. We can be filled with the Holy Spirit, but baptism is historical. We all have that baptism.
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free;
and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Are you in the body of Christ? How are you a member of the body of Christ? You have been baptized in one Spirit into one body.
This is the will of God. God’s will is that you are more than an individual. God wants us to be members one of another in one body.
We may remain individualistic and be concerned only with our own spiritual lives. We may want to be spiritual giants. But God does not want monuments. God wants a house, a body.
Brothers and sisters, we need to have a change of mind. We need to desire what God desires. God wants us to be members one of another in one life.
God wants us to be responsible as members of the body of Christ. This is our standing and our responsibility in the church.
What is body life? What is a body for?
When you think of a corpse, it gives you the impression of death instead of life. Thank God, we are not a corpse. Sometimes, however, you may feel almost like a walking corpse.
Many years ago, when I was in England, I visited Westminster Abbey. When you enter Westminster Abbey, you see plaques with the names of famous people who have died. I felt as though I was visiting a church of the dead.
But the church is the church of the living God. It is a body. When you think of a body, you think of life; you think of living.
There is a body life that must be expressed. We are not just a body—that is our position. But what is our daily living? How do we live body life?
Body life is to live out Christ together. Because we are living together, the life of Christ among us begins to increase.
When we grow into maturity, Christ will come back and take us as His bride. That is what the body is for.
When we grow to maturity and reach the full stature of Christ, then we are fit to be His bride. That is why body life is so important.
If body life does not grow into fullness, it delays the return of the Lord. Why has the Lord not come back for twenty centuries? That is not a short time.
Even in the first century, people expected Him to come. In times of persecution, Christians greeted one another with the hope that the Lord was coming. Why is He still not coming?
He is waiting for the body to be matured. What a responsibility! Brothers and sisters, this is not something small. It is tremendously important.
The Lord is waiting for us; it is not merely that we are waiting for Him. Body life is what God is expecting to see today.
Throughout the centuries, whenever God’s people began to depart from Him, in every century and every generation there were people who remained faithful to God.
When we came to the so-called Dark Ages, the church had fallen far away from God. People did not know justification by faith. They thought that people had to be saved by accumulating merit.
Historically, we can say that God began to recover truth on a large scale worldwide.
In the sixteenth century, there was the Reformation: the recovery of justification by faith and the recovery of an open Bible. It was a tremendous recovery.
In the seventeenth century, there was a recovery often called pietism. Then, in the eighteenth century, there was a recovery of evangelism through men such as Whitefield and Wesley, and through the Moravian movement.
In the nineteenth century, there was a recovery of church truth through the Brethren movement. In the twentieth century, there was a recovery of spiritual life through the Keswick Convention, Brother T. Austin-Sparks, and many others.
Brother Watchman Nee felt that perhaps the last recovery would be the recovery of body life—not only the truth of the body, but the reality of body life.
But how can body life be recovered? It can be recovered only through spiritual exercise.
That is the reason I feel deeply that we need to connect these two things together: spiritual exercise and body life.
May the Lord help us and lead us in this way.
Dear Lord, we do wait upon Thee. We wait upon Thy word to be rooted deeply in our hearts and to stir us into response. May Thy name be glorified. Amen.