Please turn to the book of Acts, Chapter 9. We will read from verses 1 through 20. I will read it in English first, and my brother will read it in Chinese.
But Saul, yet breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
and asked of him letters to Damascus unto the synagogues, that if he found any that were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
And as he journeyed, it came to pass that he drew nigh unto Damascus: and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven:
and he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?
And he said, Who art Thou, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest:
but rise, and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
And the men that journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but beholding no man.
And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing; and they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
And he was three days without sight, and did neither eat nor drink.
Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and the Lord said unto him in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus: for behold, he prayeth;
and he hath seen a man named Ananias coming in, and laying his hands on him, that he might receive his sight.
But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many of this man, how much evil he did to Thy saints at Jerusalem:
and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call upon Thy name.
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel:
for I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.
And Ananias departed, and entered into the house; and laying his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way which thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And straightway there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight; and he arose and was baptized;
and he took food and was strengthened. And he was certain days with the disciples that were at Damascus.
And straightway in the synagogues he proclaimed Jesus, that He is the Son of God.
Please turn also to Colossians, Chapter 2, verse 19. We will read it positively.
Holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God.
Dear Lord, as we gather together in Thy precious name, we do praise and thank Thee for Thy presence with us. Thou truly art the One who is worthy to be worshipped and praised.
We thank Thee for Thy marvelous love. We thank Thee for what Thou hast done on Calvary’s cross. We are what we are today; it is all by Thy grace.
We do praise and thank Thee that Thou art the One who speaks. Lord, speak; Thy servants hear. We commit this time into Thy loving hands. Fill our eyes and our hearts, that we may glorify Thee. Amen.
Well, we want to thank God for gathering us together this morning. What we would like to do this morning is a little bit different.
I want you all to join with me in entering into a gymnasium. We are not going to school; we are going to a gymnasium.
Now, when you go to school, you listen to teaching, and you just sit there passively. But when you go to a gymnasium, it is a different story. You are supposed to exercise.
It is gymnastic; it is not scholastic. So none of you can sit there passively. I want every one of us to join together in exercise.
There is a difference between being active and exercising. You may be a very active person, but you may not have any exercise, because exercise is something special. It is something predetermined. You have to set your mind to do exercise.
When you are exercising, you have to do it continuously. Do it every day. And you have to stretch yourself, even to the point of having some pain.
You have to do it with method. You cannot just do it without any direction. Usually, you have to get an instructor to tell you how to exercise.
In the old days among the Greeks, the purpose was to have a beautiful body. That is what the gymnasium was for.
A boy would be sent to a gymnasium, and there the instructor would look him over, studying his body: where is weakness, where is strength, and whether his body is well balanced. The Greeks wanted a perfect body.
After examining the boy, the instructor would set down a rule and tell him what kind of exercise he should begin with. The boy would follow the instruction of the instructor.
Through continued and long exercise, he would come up with a well-coordinated, well-balanced, beautiful body. So this is a gymnasium.
Many people want to go to the school of Christ. Now, I am not opposing the school of Christ. Surely we should sit at His feet and learn.
But there is something missing among God’s people. God’s people seem to go to the school of Christ, but not to the gymnasium of Christ. Because of this, we have a problem.
We find that today’s Christians have very big heads, but very small feet. It is not balanced.
So, brothers and sisters, what I am going to do this time is not try to get you into school. I am trying to invite you to join me in the gymnasium of Christ.
Thank God, we have a perfect Instructor. Who is He? It is the Holy Spirit, who dwells in each and every one of us.
It is not our body that is to be exercised; it is our spirit that needs to be exercised. Now, is that not wonderful?
When we were saved, God not only gave us life, and that life is none other than Christ Himself. But where does that life dwell? Where is Christ in you?
When we are saved, we are born of the Spirit. There is a new spirit within us, and the life of Christ dwells in our new spirit.
At the same time, He gave His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to indwell us. Now everything is ready.
What is the life of Christ in you for? It is to grow. It is to live. And who is going to take care of this spiritual growth? The Holy Spirit.
This is the reason why the Holy Spirit indwells you: He is to see to it that the life of Christ in your spirit may grow properly and grow into maturity.
This is the eternal purpose of God. He wants every one of us to be conformed to the image of His beloved Son.
The Bible tells us very clearly that the divine power of God has given us all things concerning life and godliness. You will find that in 2 Peter 1:3–4.
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.
Here you find that God has already made everything for us—everything that relates to life and godliness. We have all these precious promises in the Word of God, that we may be made partakers of His divine nature.
So, brothers and sisters, everything is ready now. What is left to do? Go to the gymnasium, and under the instruction of the Holy Spirit, let us exercise our spirit.
I wonder, brothers and sisters, after you are saved, have you been exercising your spirit? And is your exercise under the instruction of the Holy Spirit?
I believe this is the reason why God’s people do not seem to grow properly. This is what we would like to talk about together: spiritual exercise and the vision of body life.
When you come to spiritual things, there is one basic principle we have to understand. It is very simple: in spiritual things, it all depends upon God’s revelation.
God has to begin everything. Unless He reveals, we cannot see. Unless He draws, we will not run.
I wonder if God’s people have really seen this basic principle. Sometimes we think, “Now we are going to be spiritual. Now we are going to touch the spiritual realm. We want to know this, and we want to do that.”
We want to try to increase our so-called spiritual knowledge, which is mental knowledge only. We want to be engaged in spiritual work or service, but actually it is our own activity.
Everything seems to depend upon ourselves. How are you going to live as a Christian? You have to do it. How are you going to know? You have to learn it. Everything seems to be centered upon our own self.
But this is absolutely contradictory to God’s way. We may be familiar with and know much about the things of this world, but when you come to the spiritual realm, we are absolutely hopeless and helpless.
Anything we initiate is bound to fail. God cannot accept it. When we come to the spiritual realm, brothers and sisters, remember that we are zero. Everything depends upon God. He has to take the initiative, and then we just follow.
You know, when you read 1 Corinthians 2:14:
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 does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, because they are foolishness to him. He cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned.
There is another passage in Romans 8:7–8.
Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be:
and they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Here you find the verdict of God. God makes it very clear to us: the mind of the flesh is enmity against God. It cannot be subject to the law of God. Everything that comes from ourselves is rejected by God.
When you come to the spiritual realm, everything has to depend upon God’s revelation. Is this not true with our salvation?
We tried to save ourselves. We tried to wash away our sins. We tried to accumulate merit in order to get to heaven.
After we have failed and failed and failed, we look up and say, “Lord, we cannot do it.” The Lord says, “I have been waiting for you. I have already done it. Why do you not believe Me?”
Then you believe, and you are saved. Do you think that after you are saved, you can act differently? Do you think now you can begin to work by yourself and depend upon yourself to be spiritual?
How foolish we are. God has already taught us this lesson, and yet we have not learned. We do not give up; we do not give in to God. That is the reason why we are not growing properly.
First of all, I would like to make it very clear: God has brought us into the spiritual realm. In that realm, everything has to begin with God.
God will reveal, and if He has revealed, then we can follow. We cannot take the initiative. Thank God that He is the God who reveals Himself.
If God does not reveal Himself, we will know nothing about God, because He is so far beyond us. But it pleased God to reveal His Son in us.
When He reveals His Son in us, at the same time He also reveals the Body of Christ to us.
Yesterday we already touched upon this. After you are saved, there is a living relationship with God because you are born of the Spirit.
Before you were saved, you may have learned to pray. But after you are born of the Spirit, there is a living relationship. When you pray, you pray to God as your Father.
At the same time, when you meet another believer, immediately there is a bond between you and that believer. That bond is stronger than blood.
Where does it come from? It comes from the revelation of the Body of Christ. When we first believe in the Lord, revelation has already been given.
The revelation is not only about our Lord Jesus; it is also about what the Lord is after. He wants a Body. It is already built within our spirit.
If we follow that revelation, we will grow—not only toward the Lord, but also toward one another.
The way of growth is an inward way. It is not an outward thing. In the inner spirit, we receive the revelation, and we follow and obey that revelation.
If we follow that nature, as it were, then we will really grow in grace and in truth. We will not only love the Lord Jesus, but we will see Him in growing magnitude.
We begin to obey Him more and more, and that is where life is growing. We will see our brothers and sisters, and our relationship will be not only enlarged but deepened.
We will grow together in Christ. This will be supernaturally natural.
Unfortunately, outward things begin to crowd in: the first elements of the world and the traditional teaching of Christianity. All these things lead us to walk outwardly instead of walking inwardly.
Instead of listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, obeying Christ Jesus, and following the new nature within us, we have been led astray.
The more we continue in that way, the more our vision fades. This is our problem.
God is not partial. He treats every child of His the same. But why is it that some believers seem to have more revelation, while others seem to have less?
If you do not have revelation, you cannot grow spiritually. Why is it so?
In my family, we had an American lady staying with us. She was a missionary to China from Virginia, during the Qing dynasty.
When she came to Shanghai, she established a school. My grandfather sent my father to that school to study English because my grandfather was in the construction business and wanted to do business with foreigners.
My father, being the eldest son, was sent to that school so that, after he learned English, he could help my grandfather in his business.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—my father got sick. After my father was saved, a crisis came to the family. My grandfather thought that he had lost face, because in those days those who believed in Jesus were called “foreign religion Christians.” They were thought to seek help from foreigners.
My grandfather stopped my father from going to school. To make a long story short, finally my grandfather allowed him to continue.
When that old missionary became old, instead of returning to the States, she stayed with us. We called her Grandma.
My father had seven children, and she loved my youngest brother the best. Oftentimes we wanted to stir her up, and we would say, “You are partial, because you love my youngest brother more than every one of us.”
She would become exasperated and say, “No, no, I love every one of you the same.” But then she would say, “Your brother is closer to me than every one of you. That is the reason.”
Now, is that not a good explanation? God loves every one of us the same. He wants to reveal Himself to us equally. He wants to show us Christ and the Body of Christ.
Why is it that some people seem to receive more and better vision, while others seem to have less and imperfect vision?
There is no problem on God’s part. He is willing to reveal His Son. He is willing to reveal the Body of Christ to us.
The problem is in us. Our spiritual condition is the problem. He wants to reveal, but He cannot. He wants to speak, but He cannot, because of our spiritual condition.
If our spiritual condition is right, we should be able to receive more and more revelation from above, and we may really grow spiritually. But it is our spiritual condition that limits God’s revelation.
Have you read the so-called Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5? In verse 3:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Here you find a spiritual condition: poor in spirit. Now remember, poor in spirit does not mean a poor spirit or a wrong spirit. God wants us to be poor in spirit.
When is the spirit poor? It is when we are very full that we can be poor. We must be very full in order to be poor in spirit.
That is what our Lord Jesus is. So far as His spirit is concerned, He is the richest. He was equal with God, and that was not something to be grasped.
Yet He emptied Himself. He became so poor that He even took upon Himself the form of a bondservant. That is poor in spirit.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Brothers and sisters, because we are so rich, so-called rich, He cannot reveal Himself to us. We think we have everything. We are like Laodicea: we have everything; we are rich.
When we are in that kind of spirit, God cannot reveal Himself to us.
The same thing is true when you come to verse 6.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Why are we not filled? Because we are not hungry and thirsty. We find ourselves so satisfied; therefore, we cannot be filled.
And then you come to verse 8.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Why do you not see God? Because your heart is not pure. It is full of mixture. You love God, but you also love the world. How can you see God in that way?
You find that our spiritual condition does affect revelation. When you read the Bible, you can find many, many instances of this.
The Bible tells us that we need to be diligent. If we are diligent, then we can enter into the kingdom richly. There is our responsibility.
We have a responsibility to see that our spirit is in the right condition—that we really have a seeking heart and that we are diligent in seeking Him.
The Apostle Paul says, “I pursue. I stretch myself. I am looking for that goal that is before me, the prize of the high calling of God.” No wonder you find that he was a person full of revelation.
Brothers and sisters, what we need is revelation. When revelation comes to us, that is light. We see; that is, we receive a vision.
I would like to use the Apostle Paul as an example. We all know that Paul, before he was saved, was a wonderful young man.
Most young men seek after earthly things, but this young man, Saul, was different. He sought for heavenly things.
Unfortunately, in his seeking, he was led into the tradition of the fathers. He was most zealous, and according to the teaching of the fathers among the Jews, they considered Jesus an impostor because He did not fit their idea of the Messiah.
So he began to persecute the believers with the idea that he was serving God. But thank God, God looked upon his heart. He was sincere, but sincerely wrong. So God showed mercy to him.
He was going to Damascus to seize the believers. As he was approaching the city, suddenly a light came from heaven.
It was an irresistible light, and this proud man fell upon the ground.
“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? Do you not know that it is hard for thee to kick against the goad?”
It was not an angry voice. It was a voice full of love and sympathy. “You do not know what you are doing.” There was love and sympathy in that voice.
Then Saul said, “Lord, who art Thou?” In effect, he was saying, “I know You, but I do not know You.”
And the voice said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” It pleased God to reveal His Son in him. That is his testimony in Galatians 1:16.
Immediately, he realized that the One whom he persecuted was the Lord of all. Immediately, he yielded himself. So it was followed by the second question: “Lord, what dost Thou want me to do?”
“I was the master of myself, but now You are my Master. You have to tell me what to do.”
Do you think Saul was really expecting the Lord to tell him what to do? Of course. “My Lord and I”—who else? In his eyes, it should be “my Lord and I.” This is spirituality.
The Lord said, “Go to Damascus, and you will be told what I want you to do.”
Here you find that in that vision, God not only revealed His Son in Paul; He also revealed to Paul the Body of Christ.
Saul was educated as a Pharisee and was very logical. He knew how to argue. He could rightfully argue, “I have never persecuted You. You are in heaven and I am on earth. How can I persecute You?”
But by revelation, his mouth was shut. He knew that persecuting a believer is persecuting Christ. He received a revelation of the Body of Christ.
Is it not true with us? The revelation of Christ as the Head and the church as the Body of Christ comes at the same time.
But here there is something more. Not only did the Lord teach Paul about the revelation of the Head and the Body; He also led Paul into body life.
If the Lord had told Paul directly, “Now you go and preach the gospel,” Paul would have immediately done it. What would the result have been?
It would have been “the Lord and I.” In his eyes, there would be nobody else. “I am strong enough, and I will do everything that the Lord wants me to do.” He would have been an individualist.
He might have had the truth of the Body, but he would never have lived a body life. Is that not true of many of us?
We need a vision of the Body of Christ. Not only a vision of the Body of Christ, but we need a vision of body life.
What humility for this great man, Saul, when God sent a little brother to tell him what God’s will was.
This big man listened to a small child. But this is the lesson: in the Body of Christ, even the biggest member needs the smallest member, because we are members one of another.
It is not only the Lord and I; it is also the Lord, my brothers and sisters, and I. Paul learned this lesson of body life from the very beginning.
Do we have to accept this? Without the Lord, we cannot live. Without my brothers and sisters, neither can I. We need the Lord, and we need one another. That is the vision of body life.
David had a vision of body life. When you turn to Psalm 133, we know that Psalm 132 is a psalm of David’s longing for the house of God.
But in Psalm 133, you find something more. It is his longing for body life.
David had a big family, but it was not a happy family. There was so much trouble in the family. Because of this, he had a vision of that happy family—the family of God, the Body of Christ.
With that vision, he wrote his psalm: “Behold.”
It is something to behold. We often see things that are unworthy, but there is something that is worthy not only to see, but to set your heart upon seeing.
What is so worthy to behold?
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
for brethren to dwell together in unity!
He could not describe it. He said, “How good! How pleasant!” It is beyond description.
What is good? According to Scripture, the will of God is good. Whatever is not the will of God, no matter how good it appears, is bad.
Nothing is more in the will of God than this: God loves to see the brethren dwell together in unity.
How it hurts His heart when He sees the brethren striving against each other, unable to forgive one another, unable to endure one another.
But if there is such dwelling together in unity, how pleasant it is.
God wants the brethren to dwell together in unity. This is the heart desire of God.
Not just to touch each other occasionally. We can be good to one another at times. I am in good relationship with my brother in Africa because I have never seen him.
But to dwell together, to be so close to one another, is just like a body. All the members dwell together.
When I eat, I sometimes bite my tongue. My tongue does not say, “I am going to depart. I am not going to suffer any longer. That is enough.” We are not to be butterflies.
A bee will fly into a flower, go into it, take out the nectar, and immediately fly to another place. But we are not butterflies. We are to dwell together in unity.
What will happen? There are two metaphors.
It is like the precious oil upon the head,
that ran down upon the beard,
even Aaron’s beard;
that came down upon the skirt of his garments.
That is a picture of Aaron when he was anointed high priest. He was clothed with the priestly garment, and then the oil was poured upon his head.
It flowed down to his beard, and then it flowed down to the skirt, covering the whole body.
The anointed High Priest is Christ Himself. When Christ was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven, the Bible says God anointed Him as High Priest.
He was anointed as Lord and Christ. On the day of Pentecost, all that was upon His head flowed down to the beard, and it flows down even to the edge of the garment.
In other words, the whole Body is anointed.
Brothers and sisters, when brethren dwell together in unity, we will be filled with the Holy Spirit. We will be able to serve God. Otherwise, how can we serve God?
Then there is another metaphor:
It is like the dew of Hermon,
that cometh down upon the mountains of Zion:
for there the Lord commanded the blessing,
even life for evermore.
Hermon is in the north of Palestine. It is a high mountain. Here you find the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion.
It is as if the wind had blown the dew from Hermon to the mountains of Zion. Hermon represents the heavenly, and Zion represents David’s throne; therefore, it represents authority.
When the headship of Christ is honored, then you find heavenly dew—which is life—will come upon it. There the Lord commands the blessing: life forevermore.
Whenever brethren dwell together in unity, not only will the Holy Spirit fill the Body so that we may serve God, but there will also be life filling the Body, and there will be pleasure forevermore.
This is the vision of body life.
If we have this vision, there should be within us a longing. This is what God wants; this is what I want.
Brothers and sisters, do you have a real longing for such body life? Have you suffered enough in the church to long for this body, or have you given up?
What is our condition today? Have you given up? How can we arrive at this body life?
It is our prayer. It is our longing. Are we willing to give everything for it?
Next Saturday, we would like to find out the secret: how can we, through spiritual exercise, get into the reality of that?
Dear Lord, we feel that we are touching something very dear to Thy heart.
Will You please create within us the same longing? Give us vision, that we may see body life, and give us a longing for it.
Create within us a willingness to suffer for it. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.