Will you please turn to 2 Timothy? Second Timothy, chapter 4. We read verses 7 and 8.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing.
We read 1 Corinthians, chapter 9, verses 24 and 26.
Know ye not that they that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? Even so run, that ye may attain.
I therefore so run, as not uncertainly.
Finally, Hebrews, chapter 12. We read from verse 1 to verse 11. I will read it first in English, and my brother will read it in Chinese.
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider Him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against Himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls.
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin:
and ye have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons,
My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord,
Nor faint when thou art reproved of Him;
For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?
But if ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them; but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.
Let us have a further word of prayer.
Our Father, as we gather here in Your presence and worship, we praise and thank You for what You have done for us—how You have shed Your blood for us and given Your life to us. We are what we are today; it is all because of You.
Oh, dear Lord, it is the desire of our heart that we may be what You want us to be, that we may be those who shall please You and give glory to Yourself by each and every one of our lives.
Lord, we offer ourselves totally to You, and pray that Your Holy Spirit will work in each and every one of us until Christ is fully formed, to the praise of Your glory. We ask in Your precious Name. Amen.
Thank God for gathering us together here this morning.
As you know, the burden that the Lord has placed upon my heart this time is concerning the shout of victory that the apostle Paul shouted before his martyrdom.
He said, “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”
Now, when you hear this shout of victory, it reminds us of the shout of victory that our Lord Jesus shouted on Calvary’s cross. It is because of the victory of Christ that we can shout in victory.
Yesterday, we shared together concerning this matter: “I have kept the faith.” We mentioned that there is a difference between one faith and the faith. It is in Ephesians 4.
One faith refers to our initial faith—that we believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. But the faith refers to all the truth that is in Christ Jesus.
We all begin with one faith, and then, if we continue to fellowship with one another, we will arrive at the unity of the faith.
So here you find the apostle Paul shouting, “I have kept the faith.” Paul suffered much for the faith that he kept, but thank God, by the grace of God, he had done it.
So, brothers and sisters, we may all ask ourselves: Have we kept the faith? Or do we just keep some of the faith because it seems to agree with us, instead of keeping the faith that God has committed to us?
Now this morning, we would like to go to the second area. The apostle Paul said, “I have finished the race.”
We know that keeping the faith is toward God, but finishing the race concerns ourselves.
Brothers and sisters, after we are saved, God has put us in the race. In other words, we often think that if we believe in the Lord Jesus, then all our toils are over; then we will have an easy time, sitting idly and being carried to heaven.
But, brothers and sisters, the truth is not that. We find that after we believe in the Lord Jesus, that is not the end of our faith. That is only the beginning of our Christian life.
Christian life is not a casual, leisurely walk. We have nothing to do, so we just leisurely walk around without any purpose. Brothers and sisters, this is not Christian life. Christian life is a race.
Now, when you think of a race, you know that it is not just a casual thing. You have to be prepared for that race, and you have to know the goal of your race.
So let us first of all remember: Christian life is a race. As soon as you are saved, God has put you in the race. There is a real purpose before you, and there is a course you have to run in order to win the prize.
Now, brothers and sisters, if you are in a race, the apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 9 that all run, but only one will win the prize. And he says, “Run in such a way that you may obtain.”
So what should be the attitude in our running the race? Everyone must have this kind of attitude: “I run to win the race.” This is the way we have to run.
This race is an obstacle race. It is a long-distance race; it is not a hundred-yard dash. You have to run with perseverance, and as you run, you will meet many obstacles. But you have to run with endurance. This is the race that God has put before us.
What kind of race is this? You find it in Hebrews 12:
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.
Of course, this refers to Hebrews 11, because in chapter 11 we are given those witnesses from Abel onward—how they ran the race and finished the race.
Brothers and sisters, these ones are witnesses. In other words, they are now surrounding us. As in a race, you find many people surrounding you. These people may be spectators, but here they are not merely spectators; they are witnesses.
That is to say, they are there encouraging you. They are witnessing to you that they have run the race, and they are there encouraging you to run on.
So, brothers and sisters, even though sometimes you feel that you are alone—because when you are running, sometimes you feel lonely—remember that you are surrounded by witnesses. Those who have faithfully gone before are encouraging you to press on toward the goal.
And when you are running, what do you do? Do you put on a fur coat and try to dress yourself with all the luxuries? No, of course not.
When you are running the race, you strip yourself of all these weights. You strip yourself to the uttermost. Anything that weighs you down, you put it off.
When we are preparing to run the race, we have to lay aside everything. We cannot allow anything to remain with us that weighs us down. Whatever the Holy Spirit has reminded us of, we need to deal with these things.
And not only that, but even the world. If we love the world, it becomes a weight upon us. It will slow our steps. So we have to deal with the world in and around us.
And we have to deal with the enemy, Satan. Most of all, we have to deal with ourselves, that our self-life will not be a heavy weight upon us.
And not only are we to lay aside every weight, but also the sin which so easily entangles us. Now, what is this sin that easily entangles us? It is the sin of unbelief.
Somehow, in us there is the sin of unbelief, and this is the sin that entangles us. We need to deal with that sin which entangles us. Then we must run with endurance.
Now, what is endurance? Endurance simply means that you are able to endure what is around you. If there is eighty pounds upon you, then you can endure a hundred pounds. If pressure is upon you, you are able to overcome and endure beyond that weight.
So, brothers and sisters, our race is an endurance race. You have to continue on in spite of all the troubles.
The Scripture says, “Looking steadfastly on Jesus, the Leader and Completer of faith.” There is another translation that says, “Looking off unto Jesus.”
That is to say, do not look around you. If, when you are running, you look around you, it will slow down your running. And do not look upon yourself; you will also slow down.
If you look off from everything unto Jesus only, that will give you the strength to press on. Because He is the Leader and Completer of faith.
As the Leader of our faith, He is the One who began this course. He is the One who opened the way, and He is also the One who supports us through the way. This is the way that we must run.
Brothers and sisters, as we run the race of our Christian life, there is one thing that is of utmost importance: you should not think of yourself; you should not think of anybody else. You should only think of Jesus and see how He has run that race.
How He has resisted sin even unto death; how He has shed His blood for the will of God. He has finished that race, and He is now seated at the right hand of His Father.
Now, at the same time, as we are running, how can we endure all the troubles and not faint? There is one thing we need to remember.
As we live our Christian life, many things will happen in our lives—some things that we cannot understand and cannot even explain. Whenever anything happens to us, it is natural for us to try to reason out why.
We want to ask, “Why? We are God’s children. Why does God allow this thing to happen to us? Why should such an environment come upon us?” And when we are questioning God’s love, our faith begins to fade away.
So, brothers and sisters, as we are running this race, we need to remember one thing: the Father loves us.
And because He loves us, what will He do? Will He allow us to do anything and everything that we want to do? Is that love? That is indulgence; that is license. And if a father should treat a son like that, that son would never grow up to manhood.
Brothers and sisters, we live in a time when people despise discipline. We are told to let everybody freely develop himself or herself. But this is not the way of God.
Our heavenly Father loves us, and He treats us as His sons. Because of this, He has to discipline us. He has to put us through circumstances in order that we may be partakers of His holiness.
Holiness is not our human nature. Selfishness is our human nature, and God has to deal with our selfishness so that we may be partakers of His holiness.
These are the necessary preparations for our running the race.
Now, brothers and sisters, when you read the life of the apostle Paul, you find how he ran. I think especially of Philippians 3.
Before Paul believed in the Lord, he was Saul. He was named after the first king of the Israelite nation. Perhaps, as a young man, he came from a family that feared the Lord.
He went to Jerusalem and studied under Gamaliel. He received the law and even became a Pharisee.
The Pharisees, to us, may seem despicable. But the Pharisees were the most honorable sect in Judaism. This young man studied under the greatest rabbi during that time. He became a true Pharisee, kept all the outward forms of Judaism, and was more zealous than his contemporaries.
According to Jewish tradition at that time, they considered Jesus an impostor. So he persecuted the followers of Jesus.
But God knew his heart. God knew that he was sincere, but he was in darkness. So on the road to Damascus, Christ revealed Himself to Saul.
And after he saw the Lord Jesus, his whole life was transformed. He became Paul the apostle.
As you read Philippians 3, you will find that what he considered excellent, he now looked upon as refuse. He counted all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
So here you find Paul had a goal. He said, “My whole desire is to know Him. I press on toward the goal. I want to apprehend Him as I was apprehended by Him.”
He said, “I forget whatever is behind, and I press on toward the goal to gain the prize that is in Christ Jesus.”
This is the way that Paul ran the race. No wonder he finished the race, and he was able to receive the prize of the high calling.
So, dear brothers and sisters, remember: when you believe in the Lord Jesus, this is the beginning of your Christian life. This is not the end of your Christian life.
God has put you in the race, and this race is to gain the prize from above. It is not something gained upon this earth. The only thing is that we may gain Christ.
So, is this in your heart? After you believe in the Lord Jesus, do you press on toward the goal? Is there a direction in your Christian life? What are you seeking today? Are you seeking something other than Christ? Are you willing to seek Christ above all things?
This is a question that we need to ask ourselves.
I would like to use this opportunity to share with you concerning some brothers who, in the early days, worked together with Watchman Nee.
Yesterday, we mentioned how one brother kept the faith. Now this morning, I would like to share with you concerning another brother, one of Brother Nee’s co-workers in the early days—even before my days. But I knew him very well. This was a doctor.
This brother was an eye specialist. He was with Brother Nee in the early days. Then he went to Hunan, where he attended a medical college and became an eye specialist.
Then Brother Nee felt there was a need for him to come back, so he left that profession and came back to Shanghai.
When he returned to Shanghai, he practiced only in the morning. The rest of his time he devoted to the Lord.
Now, he was a brother who was very deeply involved with mysticism. Some of you may know that he was the one who translated Madame Guyon’s Sweet-Smelling Myrrh into Chinese.
Madame Guyon was a lady who lived in the seventeenth century, and she loved the Lord. She influenced many people and suffered a great deal for God.
Of course, at that time she was a Catholic. Today, as we read her life, we find that a Protestant had cleared out all the Catholic elements, so there was not much Catholic teaching in that biography.
I cannot read French, but there were translations into English, and I have read them. They were full of Catholic superstitions. But anyway, this brother was deeply involved with mysticism.
But he loved the Lord. During days of crisis, when the church was in crisis, he was one used by God to maintain the church.
Then, when the government changed in China, he was sentenced to fifteen years of imprisonment, later extended to twenty years, because he would not renounce the Lord.
So he was in prison for twenty years, and he died believing in the Lord. He kept the faith.
After Brother Nee was taken into prison—I do not remember exactly the date, something like 1955—one day all the fellow workers of Watchman Nee and the responsible brothers throughout China were taken by the government.
In Shanghai, these brothers and sisters were imprisoned in the meeting place. They were asked to do one thing: they were asked to say that Watchman Nee had faults, and then they would be released.
Now, of course Brother Nee had faults. If you say that he had faults, you would be released. This is a most natural thing to do, right? There is nothing wrong in saying that.
But this doctor refused to say that. His family came and begged him: “Of course he has faults. Maybe so. What is wrong with saying that he has faults? Then you will be released.”
But he refused. He said, “I know Brother Nee has faults, but God has not told me to say it.”
And because of this, he was taken into prison. He had physical weakness, and very soon the authorities saw that he was dying, so they released him.
But no hospital was able to receive him, and finally he passed away.
Brothers and sisters, I use this as an illustration. He was the first among us who was martyred. How he followed the Lord; how he ran the race. And thank God, he finished the race.
Brothers and sisters, as we read church history, we find that there are many who were martyred for the Lord’s sake. They ran the race and finished it. May this always be an encouragement to us.
So may the Lord have mercy upon us. Remember: we are all involved in running the race.
Whether we are able to finish the race or not depends on how we look off unto Jesus. May the Lord keep us running, running to the end, and to win the prize.
Heavenly Father, we want to thank You that You have not only saved us, but You have put us in the race.
How we praise and thank You that our prize is heavenly. Our prize is Christ, even our Lord Jesus.
We pray that You will encourage us. No matter how difficult the race may be, may we, as Your apostle Paul, forget the things that are behind and press on with perseverance, that we may gain You more than anything else.
We ask Your blessing upon everyone who is here this morning. We ask in Your precious Name. Amen.