Will you please turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter 3, verse 13?
But exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called To-day; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Please turn also to Isaiah, chapter 6. We will read from verse 1. I will read it in English first, and my brother will read it in Chinese.
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and His train filled the temple.
Above Him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
And he touched my mouth with it, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin forgiven.
And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Then I said, Here am I; send me.
Lastly, let us read Revelation, chapter 4. I will read the whole chapter, and then it will be read in Chinese.
After these things I saw, and behold, a door opened in heaven, and the first voice that I heard, a voice as of a trumpet speaking with me, one saying, Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which must come to pass hereafter.
Straightway I was in the Spirit: and behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and One sitting upon the throne;
And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper stone and a sardius: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, like an emerald to look upon.
And round about the throne were four and twenty thrones: and upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, arrayed in white garments; and on their heads crowns of gold.
And out of the throne proceed lightnings and voices and thunders. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God;
And before the throne, as it were a glassy sea like unto crystal; and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, four living creatures full of eyes before and behind.
And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face as of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.
And the four living creatures, having each one of them six wings, are full of eyes round about and within: and they have no rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.
And when the living creatures shall give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sitteth on the throne, to Him that liveth for ever and ever,
The four and twenty elders shall fall down before Him that sitteth on the throne, and shall worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power: for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they were, and were created.
Dear Lord, as we gather here this morning, our hearts are in worship. We want to thank You because Thou art our God. Thou sittest upon Thy throne, Thou art in control of all things, and Thou art working out Thy purpose in each and every one of our lives.
We thank Thee for Thy glorious thought toward us. Thou hast not only saved us, but Thou dost desire to use us for Thy own purpose and glory. Lord, we worship Thee. We give ourselves totally over to You and pray that only Thy will be done in us, as it is in heaven.
We offer ourselves and pray that Thou wouldst use us for Thy own glory and purpose. We commit this time into Your hands. Lord, may Thou speak so as to change and transform us, and bring each and every one of us into Thy perfect will.
Glorify Thyself even in us. In Thy precious name, amen.
Dear brothers and sisters, we want to thank the Lord for giving us this opportunity. Every time when God’s people are gathered together, I feel thankful in my heart, because our Lord really loves us. He wants to prepare us for His imminent return.
I often feel that it is not we who are waiting for our Lord Jesus. It is our Lord who has been patiently waiting for us, because He wants to have His bride. He wants to prepare us for Himself.
So He has given us this opportunity again. Let us take advantage of this late hour. It is marvelous that He still thinks about us and wants us to be ready. May we open our hearts to Him, so that whatever He wants to say to us, we may respond to Him.
As our brother mentioned last night, the theme of this conference is taken from Hebrews 3:13:
But exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called To-day; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
This is an exhortation given to us by the writer of Hebrews. As a matter of fact, it is the Holy Spirit of God Who is exhorting us.
Exhortation has two sides. On the one hand, it is to encourage us. On the other hand, it is to warn us. He wants to encourage us to go forward in His will, and He also wants to warn us against anything that may deter His will.
I do not know how you react to this exhortation. Today is the gift of God. We do not live forever; our life on earth is very short. But thank God, every day is given to us by God.
I often wonder how good it would be if, as soon as we are saved, we were raptured to heaven. Why is it that, even after He has saved us, He still leaves us on this wretched earth? Is it because He does not love us enough? No, there is a purpose in it.
He leaves us on earth for a reason: because He wants us to be mature. He cannot come back to receive a bride that is not mature.
He has been waiting for over twenty centuries. He wants each and every one of us to be mature for Himself. In order to do that, He gives us time.
Time is used by God to do His work. Every day is a blessing from God. As long as it is today, there is hope. He wants us to be ready for Himself.
As Moses said in Psalm 90, the life of a man is seventy years, and if he is strong, it may be eighty. So Moses prayed that God would give us wisdom to number our days, that we may use every day to accomplish God’s purpose.
Today is a very important day. It is a day of hope. It is a day of encouragement, that we may use every day for God’s glory.
My assignment is “Seeing God on His Throne.” In other words, if we want to use our days in the right way, we need to have a vision. We need to have the vision of God on the throne.
If we do not have that kind of vision, we will find it very hard to live upon this earth. Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, we felt how difficult it was to live on this wretched earth.
When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we may have thought that from then on it would be smooth sailing to heaven. But unfortunately, we find it is different. Perhaps we find it is even harder for us to live on this earth.
Sometimes because of this, we begin to murmur. But we need to thank God, because as long as it is today, there is hope. Yet we need a vision.
That is the vision Isaiah saw in the old days. It is the same vision that John the apostle saw, and I believe it is the vision that God wants each and every one of us to see.
At the death of King Uzziah, Isaiah went to the temple of God to pray. Uzziah was a good king. In the days of Zechariah, who understood the visions of God, Uzziah served the Lord, and because of that God blessed him. He was prosperous.
But unfortunately, when he was prosperous, his heart became proud. One day he even tried to enter the temple to burn incense before God.
This was something forbidden by God. It was the work of the priests. When the priests tried to hinder him from doing that, he became angry, and suddenly leprosy appeared on his forehead. So he had to quickly retreat.
When he died, Isaiah wondered what would happen. For this reason, he went to the temple to pray.
As he went to the temple to pray, he saw a vision. It was the vision of God sitting on the throne, and the seraphim were crying, “Holy, holy, holy.”
Even before that day, according to the record in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah was already prophesying. In the five chapters before Isaiah 6, you find that his prophecies were more negative than positive.
Even though he did prophesy that one day Israel would be revived, most of his prophecies were negative in nature. But when he went into the temple and caught the vision of God on the throne, everything changed.
After he saw that vision and gave himself to God, his prophecy changed. In the sixty-one chapters that followed, Isaiah became the prophet of the Messiah.
In spite of all the conditions in the nation of Israel, he saw the Messiah. Isaiah prophesied concerning the Messiah more than anyone else.
In Isaiah 7, he prophesied that a virgin would give birth to a son. In the following chapters, he prophesied that a Child would be born and a Son would be given. He would be One upon Whom the Spirit of God rested, and He would bring this earth into the millennium.
In Isaiah 40, he prophesied concerning the forerunner of the Messiah. In Isaiah 42, he prophesied concerning the Servant of God. In Isaiah 53, he prophesied that our Lord would be crucified. One day, He will come back.
Brothers and sisters, you find how the vision of God on the throne changed the prophecy of Isaiah. Instead of a prophet of doom, he became a prophet of hope.
The same thing happened to the apostle John. Of all the original twelve apostles, John lived into his nineties. At that time, he was serving in Asia Minor.
Because of the testimony of Jesus and the word of God, he was exiled by Emperor Domitian to the island of Patmos. On the Lord’s Day, he may have been sitting on a stone facing the Aegean Sea, where he could see the fringe of Asia Minor.
He was thinking of the churches to which he had ministered before his exile. He wondered what would happen to those churches. Then he heard a voice behind him, and when he turned, he saw a vision.
He saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands, One like unto a son of man.
John was most familiar with the Lord while He was on earth. We know how close he was to the Lord. Yet here the Lord gave him a vision of the Lord in heaven.
John had been ministering to the churches in Asia toward the end of the first century. But God showed him that it was not only John who was ministering to those churches. Actually, it was the Lord Himself Who was serving His church.
This is the ministry of our Lord Jesus as High Priest in heaven. John knew the Lord as the Apostle of God, the One Whom God had sent to finish the work of salvation. But he was not familiar with the Lord as the High Priest.
After our Lord was raised and ascended, He was anointed by God as High Priest. Here we find that the Lord Himself was ministering to His church.
John must have been very faithful in serving those churches, but he did not know that it was the Lord Himself Who was faithfully ministering to His church.
John fell down, and the Lord raised him up and told him Who He was.
Fear not; I am the first and the last,
And the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore,
And I have the keys of death and of Hades.
This was a great comfort to John. But more than that, in Revelation 4, he was called up to heaven. In the Spirit, he went to heaven.
What did he see? He saw a throne set in heaven, and One sitting upon the throne, surrounded with glory and honor.
Brothers and sisters, this is the vision of God on the throne. When John saw that vision, I believe all his problems were solved.
He must have wondered what would happen to the church, what would happen to the world, and what would happen to the Jewish nation. But now he saw God on the throne.
He began to understand how God would regain this world, how He would use the church to bring in His kingdom, how He would raise up overcomers through the ages, and how He would have His bride.
What a difference that vision made.
Brothers and sisters, it is the same with every one of us. If we find that our life on earth is difficult, if we find that it is hard for us to press on, it is because we are running against the current.
It becomes harder and harder. I think people today feel this even more than we did years ago. How can we press on? How can we fulfill God’s purpose in our lives?
If we look at our environment, we will be disappointed. If we look at ourselves, brothers and sisters, we will be quickly deceived by Satan. We are governed by what we can see.
But thank God, by His grace we can see the unseen. We can see that God is still on the throne, and He is working out His purpose.
Let us review a little of the history of Israel. We know how Israel became slaves in Egypt. They did not even have hope to live, and they cried to the Lord. The Lord sent Moses to lead them out.
When you go from Egypt to Canaan, the usual way is through the land of the Philistines. But God led them out differently.
God said that if He led them by the way of the Philistines, when they met problems they would want to return to Egypt. So God led them by the way of the sea.
After they crossed the Red Sea, God led them for forty years in the wilderness. Now, turn to Deuteronomy 8. We will read verses 1 through 6.
All the commandment which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or not.
Even after we are saved, we do not know ourselves. We think that since God has saved us, everything is all right. But we do not really know who we are.
What does it mean to be saved? Number one, your sins are forgiven. Thank God for that. Usually, we think that we are better than other people. But when the Holy Spirit begins to convict us, we begin to realize how sinful we are.
I always remember when I was young. I was brought up in a Christian family. My father served the Lord, and in our family we had family altar every day before supper.
We had seven children. Before supper, our father would gather us together in a room. I can still vividly see that there was a big Bible there. He would read from the Bible and lead us in prayer. That gave me a deep impression.
I was brought up in mission school. I knew the Bible, and I also prayed. But I was not saved. I believed Jesus is the Savior of the world; there was no problem with that.
But my problem was that I felt I was too good to be saved. As a student in high school, I was friendly with everybody. So I thought, “Let the Lord save those sinners. I really do not need Him.”
That was my condition until the Lord did something in my life and the Spirit of God began to touch me. I felt that I was a person full of sins.
As I got older, I would sometimes sit by myself and weep. I sought the Lord earnestly. For a whole year, I went to every revival meeting that I knew of.
At that time, famous preachers came to Shanghai, and I heard them all. I went up to the altar and wept a number of times, but nothing happened. It went on for a whole year.
I remember in the summer of 1930, I went to a revival conference because I wanted to get saved. I heard some young men who had just graduated from Asbury College preach to us.
I knew all about it, so nothing happened. After a few days, I was alone in the room. I do not know whether I was praying or simply speaking to myself.
I told the Lord, “Lord, I want to be saved. Why is it that other people get saved so easily, while it is so hard for me to get saved?”
I heard someone say that perhaps I had become hardened because I knew too much. I could teach, too. Before I was saved, I led Bible studies and I also preached, though I had no message.
In my father’s library there were many books. I found a book of sermons by a famous preacher in the United States. I chose a sermon, translated it into Chinese, and memorized it.
After I finished preaching, I was very proud of myself. The only reason was that nobody praised me. That was the way I preached before I was saved.
But the Lord really convicted me. I felt that I was the greatest sinner in the world. One morning, I spoke to the Lord and said, “If You want to save me, save me now. If not, I will say goodbye to You.”
Then I went again to the meeting. The message was nothing to me. After the meeting was over, the preacher asked everybody to kneel down and pray. So I knelt down at my bench.
A preacher came to me. He did nothing except ask me to go to the altar. I had done that many times, but in order to please him, I went forward again. Then I prayed again, and the meeting was over.
As I was walking out, a Chinese preacher came to me. He must have noticed me. Point-blank, he asked me a question.
I had to be honest. I said, “I really want to be saved.” He asked me, “Do you believe the Bible is the word of God?”
From my childhood, I believed that. Then he asked me to turn to 1 John.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He said, “Do you believe this?” I said, “Of course I do.” He said, “Put your name there and read it.” He asked me to read it twice with my name there.
Then he said, “Let us pray.” I knew how to pray, but this time I really prayed from my heart. I told the Lord all the sins that I could remember. I said, “Lord, many I have forgotten, but You know.”
I said, “You are righteous. Now I have done my part; it is Your part.” In my heart, I felt that if I died, I would die trusting Him.
A great thing happened. Immediately, I felt a burden fall away from me.
The preacher asked me again, “How do you know?” I said, “I have such peace in my heart. I know because God has said so.”
He said, “That is right. Your feelings may change, but God’s word is eternal.”
I remember that I went to my room, opened my Bible, and read 2 Peter 1. It was as if God were speaking to me. The Bible became a living book. Thank God.
Sometimes I wonder: if the Lord had taken me to Himself immediately, how good that would have been. But He knows that I do not know myself.
Just as the Bible says, He wants to humble me. He wants me to know exactly who I am and what I am. In my spirit, the Lord is there, but in my soul, my old soul still remains.
Even though I began to serve the Lord right away, I served the Lord according to my own will. Brothers and sisters, we do not know ourselves.
God has to reveal to us what exactly is in our soul. He wants to prove us, not because He does not know us, but because we do not know ourselves.
How often we find that He makes arrangements around us just to reveal what is really in our hearts.
As the Bible says, He wants to know what is in our hearts. Do we really keep His commandments? Do we really love Him more than anything else? Are we still guided by our own mind and our own heart?
Are we willing to yield ourselves completely to Him? Are we willing to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Him?
Whenever God’s will and our will conflict with each other, do we insist on our own will? Or are we willing to give up our will and allow God’s will to get through?
He is worthy of complete obedience.
This is the way the Lord leads us. To us, this world is a wilderness. But thank God, He is bringing us through the wilderness.
On the one hand, He is proving us. On the other hand, He is showing us how careful He is for us.
As we go through these experiences, we find that we are being chastised. My brothers and sisters, He is our heavenly Father. He loves us, and whom He loves, He chastens.
If He does not discipline us, we will never grow up spiritually. Nobody loves to be disciplined. Discipline means that it is not all my way. That is the point.
If we are willing to receive God’s discipline, then we will walk in His way, and we will be used by God to fulfill His mission.
Dear brothers and sisters, as long as it is today, let us encourage one another. If you find your way too hard, look away from yourself and see that God is on the throne.
He knows what He is doing. He is leading us and guiding us. He is perfecting us, that we may enter into the promise and inherit our inheritance.
May the Lord help us to press on.
Brothers and sisters, we are a privileged people because we are living very, very close to the return of our Lord. He is already at the door.
When did He begin to be at the door? The fig tree is the symbol of the nation of Israel.
You remember that when Jesus was on earth, He cursed the fig tree. It was during His last entry into Jerusalem.
The fig tree was full of leaves, and usually when a fig tree has leaves, you should find some early fruit there. But He could not find any. Strangely, the Lord cursed the fig tree.
Throughout His life, He always blessed, but now He cursed a fig tree. That is amazing. The fig tree withered. Why? Because He had been to the nation of Israel, caring for it for three years already, but it yielded no fruit for God.
The Lord continued for another half year, trying to nurture it so that it might bear fruit. Finally, it did not give any fruit.
We all know that in A.D. 70 Jerusalem was destroyed, and the temple was destroyed.
But the fig tree began to grow again, and you know that He is at the door.
Orientals understand this expression differently from those in the Western world. In the Western world, when you are at the door, you open it and you are inside the house.
But in the East, it is different. You may have an outer door around the wall. After you go through the door, you enter a garden. If you come from a rich family, you may have to walk a long way before you reach the family residence.
So the Lord said that when you see this happen, know that I am at the doors. There was the revival of the nation of Israel.
In 1948, to the expectation of everybody, Israel was suddenly revived. It had no territory, no government, and no nation. The people were scattered around the world. Suddenly, it was revived.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is already at the doors. That was in 1948. Now we are in the twenty-first century. Shall we not know that it is very, very near?
It is my hope that our Lord will return. Brothers and sisters, think of the blessing. There is very little time. Now is the time. Let us be prepared before Him.
Let us give ourselves to Him and allow Him to work out His full salvation, however difficult it may be.
Dear Lord, as we bow before Thee, reveal to us God on the throne. However difficult it may be in our lives, Thou art using it to perfect us.
Bring to us clearly a vision that God is on the throne. Thou art in charge, and Thou art perfecting us.
Here we are. We give ourselves today. Thy will be done. We ask in Thy name.