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.
Please turn to Philippians 1:21.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I that live,
but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh
I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for giving us this opportunity that we may gather together unto Thy name. We thank Thee for Thy precious promise: wherever two or three are gathered together unto Thy name, Thou art in the midst of them.
We thank Thee for Thy presence with us. In Thy presence is fullness of joy and life forevermore. So we open our hearts to Thee this morning. We pray that, by Thy Holy Spirit, Thou wilt imprint Thy Word upon our hearts and transform us from glory to glory. All glory be unto Thyself. In Thy precious name, amen.
Well, dear brothers and sisters, thank God for giving us this opportunity of being together. In recent years, it seems as if the Lord has burdened me with one thing: I feel that the Lord wants to lead us back to the very basics.
So we will go into this matter of spiritual exercise again. God’s Word tells us that bodily exercise is profitable. We find that people today are very conscious of their health, and many people are doing exercises. The Bible says that it profits a little.
But there is another exercise that is profitable for everything, because it has the promise of life—the present life and the life to come. This is exercise unto godliness.
This is the will of God for His own people. He wants each and every one of us to do such exercise. We should exercise ourselves unto godliness because it is the will of God that we should be like Him.
He gave His life to us, and the reason He gave us His life is that we may be like Him. What is the meaning of having God’s life if we are not to be like Him?
In order to be like God, having His life in us is not enough. Thank God, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, we receive His life in us—Christ in us, the hope of glory. But this life has a purpose: it is given to us that we may live in that life today and for eternity.
Now, how are we going to enjoy such abundant life? There is one thing for which we are responsible. God has given us everything that will enable us to be like Him, but He wants each and every one of us to be responsible in this one matter: we need to exercise our spirit.
When we are saved, He gives us a new spirit. That is to say, our human spirit, which was dead toward God through sin, is renewed. With a renewed spirit, we can communicate with God, because God is Spirit.
We cannot communicate with God with our body. We cannot communicate with God with our soul. We can only communicate with God with our renewed spirit.
The divine life, the life of Christ in us, is in our spirit. At the same time, God puts His Holy Spirit into our spirit. The Holy Spirit is in us for one purpose: that He may see to it that the life of Christ in us grows into maturity. By that, we will be like God.
So you find that spiritual exercise is most basic to our Christian life. The Bible tells us that it is profitable for everything because it has the promise of life. The life there is not our human life; the life there is God’s divine life.
How can we enjoy God’s life at this present time? And how can we enjoy His life in the days to come? This time, we would like to focus on life in this present day.
We are living now, and we have our daily living. How can we live our daily life with the promise of eternal life?
A Christian’s life in this world is composed of four different areas. First, we have our personal life to live. Second, we have our family life to live. Third, we have the church life to live. Fourth, we have the social life to live.
How can we live in these four areas with the promise of life? This is what we want to fellowship about together. This morning, we would like to begin with the first area: spiritual exercise in personal life.
When we were born into this world, we began to live. But may I ask a very basic question: how did we live daily before we believed in the Lord Jesus?
We may have lived twenty years, or perhaps sixty years. By what life were we living? I think we all know that we lived by the Adamic life within us.
Of course, we who are born of Adam belong to Adam. We received his life into us in order that we might live. But what is Adamic life? When God created Adam, God breathed into his nostrils, and man became a living soul.
Adam lived by the soul life. When he was first created, that soul life was pure. I may put it another way: that life was neutral. It was neither holy nor sinful; it was neutral.
That is the reason why God put man before the two trees in the garden of Eden. In the center of the garden was the tree of life, and beside it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God put these two trees before Adam and let him choose what life he wanted to live afterward. Did he want to live by the life of God, or did he want to live by increasing his own soulish life, having in himself the knowledge of good and evil?
To choose the latter was to live an independent life. He would live by his developed soul life and no longer need God. To choose the tree of life was to live a dependent life upon God, submitting himself to God and letting God’s life live in him.
There were two ways of life before man. Unfortunately, our forefather chose the latter way. He chose to live by developing his own soul life. He chose to live independently of God, not knowing that by doing so his life fell into sin.
For God said that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. Dear brothers and sisters, when we were born into this world, every one of us lived by the Adamic life in us.
That Adamic life was a fallen life. It was a sinful life. We lived by that life for many years. We were all self-centered; we wanted to be independent. We had no God and no hope, and eventually death was our final destiny.
But thank God, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, something drastic happens. Not only is our dead spirit renewed, but the life of God in Christ lives in us, and the Holy Spirit also dwells in us.
Why is this so? Because God wants us now to live by a different life instead of the Adamic life. When you believe in the Lord Jesus, you realize that you should be different from the way people in the world live.
In Matthew 5:46-48, the Lord says:
For if ye love them that love you, what reward have ye?
do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?
do not even the Gentiles the same?
Ye therefore shall be perfect,
as your heavenly Father is perfect.
We who are Christians are to be different from the world. He wants us to be extraordinary. He wants us to be perfect as God is perfect.
I believe every believer has that sense within: now that you are a Christian, you should be different. People expect you to be different. But how are you going to live differently? How are you going to do it?
You may be told that, if you are to be a Christian and live a Christian life, you should pray, read the Bible, and go to church. There are certain things that you should not do. If you keep all these rules and regulations, then you are different.
Brothers and sisters, is that what you are doing now? Is this Christian living? Is this your spiritual life?
When I believed in the Lord Jesus, I was fifteen years old. I really meant business. Thank God for saving me. I thought, “Now I must be different.”
Every morning I got up before any member of the family was up. I shut myself in a room, knelt down, sang hymns, read the Bible, and prayed. I had performed my religious duties.
I was also pretty zealous. Not only did I share Christ with my fellow students, but I organized gospel teams. We went to villages to preach the gospel. Everybody thought I was a good Christian.
I was in a Christian school, and on Sunday we had to attend the service. We would all march into the church building. I was told that we should not do any labor on Sunday, so I dared not study because that was labor.
When there was an examination on Monday, that was the one I feared most, because I could not study on Sunday. But I had nothing to do, so what did I do? I played ball. Religious—very religious.
But I still lived my own life. I did not live by the life of Christ. I was reformed, and outwardly I was pretty good, but that was religion.
What is religion? Religion is man-made. Men become conscious of their sin and try to overcome it. They try to do something good in order to cover their conscience.
We can be very religious, but may I ask you one question? When you are doing all these things, are you really different from the world? There are people in the world who are very religious—perhaps more religious than we are. Where is the difference?
It is all by self-effort. It is not by the life of Christ. Dear brothers and sisters, we need to realize one thing: there is a difference between religious life and spiritual life.
Spiritual life comes from our spirit. Religious life comes from our soul. There is a vast difference, and unfortunately many Christians, even today, live only a religious life.
The way we try to live a religious life is all by our old Adamic life. It is all self-effort. It is not spiritual life. Spiritual life has to come from our spirit, and spiritual life is the result of spiritual exercise.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit pricks our conscience so that our conscience may be exercised. We repent and confess, and the blood of the Lord Jesus cleanses us.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit stirs up our intuition. Perhaps while we are reading the Bible, suddenly some word seems to jump out. The Holy Spirit gives us illumination. He is trying to lead us into a spiritual life.
Sometimes, when you are praying, it is no longer merely words coming out. You sense that there is a relationship between God and you. You realize that He is precious.
Actually, the Holy Spirit is trying to lead us in this inward way. Yet we are often not conscious of it. We still work in the outward way, and we still live a religious life instead of a spiritual life.
Do you remember the apostle Paul? When he was a young man, his name was Saul. This young man was really different, because most men love the world and seek the things of the world. But Saul sought something higher.
He was not only born into a Jewish family; he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. This means that he was not only a Hebrew, but his family spoke Hebrew. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, which had remained with Judah. He was a pure Jew.
When he was young, he was sent to Jerusalem, where he studied under Gamaliel, who was a great rabbi at that time. Saul was seeking to live a religious life, and he was sincere. He kept every letter of the law.
He became a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a Jewish sect that studied the Old Testament and were supposed to keep every letter of the law. Saul was such a person.
Because he was so bound by the traditions of the fathers and was so religious, he felt it was his duty to persecute Christians. According to the traditions of the fathers, they considered Jesus an impostor, and whoever followed Jesus was also an impostor.
Saul began to persecute Christians. When Stephen, the first martyr, was killed, Saul was there. He watched the clothes of those who stoned Stephen to death.
He heard what Stephen said. He saw Stephen’s face, which was like the face of an angel. Stephen lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “I see Jesus standing.” As he was dying, Stephen said, “Lord, forgive them. Do not lay this sin to their charge.”
Saul was there, watching. Just think: this moral, religious person saw and heard these things. His conscience must have been deeply touched. But tradition was so strong that he tried to cover the voice of his conscience by doubling his effort in persecuting Christians.
He was sincere, and God looked upon his heart. God allowed him to go as far as he could. Then God’s strength stopped him.
On the way to Damascus, Saul was going to persecute the Christians in the Gentile cities and bring them to Jerusalem for judgment. As he approached Damascus at midday, suddenly a light brighter than the midday sun shone upon him, and he fell to the ground.
He heard a voice in Hebrew: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.” It was not an angry voice. It was a most sympathetic voice, as though the Lord were saying, “You do not know what you are doing. You are hurting yourself.”
Saul said, “Lord, who art Thou?” The voice said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” With that heavenly vision, Saul was completely turned around. There he gave himself and surrendered himself totally to the Lord Jesus.
He became Paul the apostle. Brothers and sisters, can you see the difference? Before he was converted, he lived a religious life. Could anyone be more religious than this young man Saul? Yet he was in darkness because he lived by tradition, not by revelation.
Thank God, He knows our hearts. If our heart is right with Him, sooner or later He will show us that religious life is not enough. We have to live a spiritual life.
What do you mean by living a spiritual life? To put it very simply, the apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:21, while he was in prison in Rome for the testimony of Jesus:
For to me to live is Christ.
Brothers and sisters, can we declare the same word? Can we say today, “For me to live today is Christ”? Can we give that testimony?
The question is simply this: who is living today? Is it you who live a so-called Christian life by your own effort, or is it Christ who lives in you?
I believe all of us have to go through this process. Nobody believes in the Lord Jesus and immediately lives totally by Christ. Not even Paul.
After Paul believed in the Lord Jesus, he wrote Romans. If you read Romans 7, some people say the experience Paul wrote about belongs to the time before he was saved. But that is impossible.
In Romans 7, Paul says that he knows what he should do, but he cannot do it. He has an inward knowledge of God’s will. The flesh never obeys God, does not know the will of God, and cannot submit itself to God.
But here is a man who wants to submit himself to God. “I know what is God’s will. I want to do it, but I cannot. I know this is not God’s will. I do not want to do it, but I cannot help it.”
This is not the experience of an unbeliever. This is the experience of a believer. Do you have this experience? You want to please God. You want to do the will of God, but somehow you fail again and again.
This experience is meant to lead us out of ourselves and into Christ—out of living by our own life and into living by the new life of Christ.
The apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I that live,
but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh
I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
Brothers and sisters, this is the process: how do we come out of self and into Christ?
On the one hand, we receive a revelation. We are shown by the Spirit of God that when Christ died on the cross, He not only bore our sins in His own body, and therefore our sins are forgiven; He also took the old man, Adam, with Him to the cross.
In the eyes of God, there are only two men in the world. The first man is Adam, and all who are born of Adam belong to Adam. The second man is Christ, and all who are born of Christ belong to Christ.
The Bible tells us that Christ is the last Adam. When He came into this world, He took upon Himself flesh and became a man. When the last Adam was crucified, the entire Adamic race was finished.
Christ is the second Man. All who are of Him belong to Him. Brothers and sisters, the gospel has two sides.
One side is for unbelievers: you do not need to die, because Christ has died for you. That is the gospel to the unbeliever.
But to believers there is another side of the gospel: you do not need to live, because Christ lives for you. Is that not marvelous?
You do not need to die because Christ has died for you. But there is another side that you should receive: you do not need to live. Then who is living? Christ lives in you.
How can you get out of Adam and into Christ? You do not need to do anything. All you do is believe. Simply thank the Lord and say, “It is no longer I; it is Christ who lives in me.” Just believe and rest.
When you do that, you will find the marvelous living of Christ in you.
I believe, as Chinese, we have all heard the name of Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was the missionary who opened inland China to the gospel.
He came to China and lived by faith. He founded the China Inland Mission, and a number of missionaries came to China. They wore Chinese dress, tried to live as Chinese, and lived among the Chinese in inland China. They suffered persecution, and many were martyred.
Thank God, because of that, the gospel came to inland China. Hudson Taylor had already been in China for a number of years and was the leader of the China Inland Mission, but he was not satisfied with himself.
He felt that he was not what he should be, because he was not as perfect as the Father is perfect. So he was seeking. He studied the Bible very carefully and tried to become like Christ, but he could not.
He felt that if only he could be connected with Christ, then he would be able to live a life that would truly glorify God. So he began to pray that he might be joined with Christ.
One day, when he read John 15, the Lord said:
I am the vine, ye are the branches.
Suddenly, the light broke out. Hudson Taylor said, “I was trying to join myself to Christ, but I did not know that I had already been joined to Christ. He is the vine, and I am the branch. All that is His is mine. I do not need to ask for it. I just rest in Him.”
That was a revelation to Hudson Taylor, and his life was revolutionized. During the Boxer Uprising, he was already an old man and very weak, but thank God, the Lord gave him rest.
Brothers and sisters, do you see the point? If you want to live the Christian life by your own effort, you are doomed to fail. We have all tried.
But one day, you will cry out like the apostle Paul, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” At that point of disappointment, thank God through Jesus Christ, the Lord begins to turn your eyes away from yourself. Look unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith.
So, dear brothers and sisters, how can we live the Christian life? How can we really have a spiritual life? The experience is all in your spirit. The Holy Spirit will begin to reveal His mind to you, and He will lead you through many experiences and many failures until you are disappointed in yourself.
Then you let go and let Christ. You enter into rest. This is all through spiritual exercise. Everything is going on within your spirit. In your spirit, you realize Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Finally, I would like to share some practical lessons. As Christians, how are we to live our daily life? How can it be that our personal life is Christ and not ourselves? I think the morning is very important.
The Chinese have a proverb: “The beginning of the year is the spring; the beginning of the day is the morning.” Morning is very important. If you read the Bible, you find that the Bible emphasizes the morning very much.
If we begin the morning right, our whole day will be blessed. Otherwise, our whole day may be miserable. The psalmist speaks about morning. Psalm 5:3, a psalm of David, says:
O Lord, in the morning shalt Thou hear my voice;
in the morning will I order my prayer unto Thee,
and will keep watch.
Psalm 63 also says:
O God, Thou art my God;
early will I seek Thee:
my soul thirsteth for Thee,
my flesh longeth for Thee,
in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.
Morning is very important to our daily life. I remember Mr. Groves, a fellow worker with Watchman Nee, who said, “Our battle is between our bed and ourselves”—whether we will continue to roll on our bed or get up early.
Early rising is not merely rising early. When it is early, your mind is clear. It is the right time when you can really draw near to God. The Bible says, “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.”
In the early morning, when everything is quiet and your mind is clear, before you do anything else, draw near to God. Have a quiet time with the Lord. Have fellowship with the Lord.
The problem today is that modern life is really not conducive to spiritual life, because everything is in a hurry. But in order to have a real daily life with the Lord, early morning is very important.
This is the time when you draw near to God, and God draws near to you. Often we are so busy. We know that as Christians we should pray and read the Bible, but we do it in such a hurry that it is all in our mind.
Sometimes, if I ask you what you read in the morning, can you remember it? That is the way we often read the Bible. That is the way we pray: we say a few words and say goodbye. How can you have a real spiritual life?
I am not talking about the amount of time. I am talking about the quality of the time. We need to present ourselves before God. We need to open our hearts to Him.
Perhaps you will kneel before Him and be quiet. Learn to open your heart. Learn to draw near to Him and pour out your heart. Perhaps you may read just one verse.
That is what George Müller did. George Müller was a German who went to England. God used him to take care of thousands of orphans, all by faith. He never asked for money; it was all by prayer.
Every morning, he would draw near to God. Then he opened the Bible and chose books that were more conducive to meditation. He would read one verse—read it and read it—and then meditate on it.
From that verse, he began to pray. If it caused him to repent, he repented. If it led him to praise and thank God, he praised God. You do not need a long time, but remember that verse throughout the day.
When you are free, recall it. Then you are constantly in the presence of God. You may have your work to do, but whenever the Holy Spirit begins to show you something that needs to be corrected, whenever you feel something is not right, do not keep it until evening prayer.
At that moment, lift up your heart to the Lord and ask for forgiveness. Keep a pure conscience before the Lord. Just like the apostle Paul said, “I exercise myself to have a conscience void of offence toward God and men.”
If you live each day in that way, you live childlike, because the Lord said that to a child He will reveal Himself. But to the wise and prudent He will be hidden, because they depend on themselves.
If we really depend upon the Lord, live a simple life before Him, and trust Him, we do not need to analyze ourselves. We may live supernaturally, naturally before God. That is the way of the Christian life.
May the Lord help us that we each may have a real spiritual life. In your daily life, it is Christ who lives in you; it is not yourself.
Do not analyze yourself constantly, always looking within and asking, “Is it pride or is it not?” We have all done that. The more you do that, the more disturbed you become. Look away unto Him. He is the Author.
Thank God, we may live simply. We do not need to live so complicatedly.
Dear Lord, we believe that Thou hast shown us the simple way of living before Thee. Deliver us from being complicated, that we may truly live by faith. It is not our faith; it is Thy faith, because Thou hast done it all.
Lord, we trust Thee. We commit ourselves to Thee. May Thou live in each and every one of us, that God may be glorified. In Thy precious name, amen.