Please turn to the Gospel according to Luke, Luke 19:13.
Last night, our brother already read this whole section, so I am not going to go over it again. But I will read verse 13 in a different version:
And having called His own ten bondservants,
He gave to them ten minas,
and said to them, “Trade while I am coming.”
“Trade while I am coming.” Let us have a word of prayer.
Lord, as we gather here this morning, we want to thank Thee for all Thy kindness and mercy toward us. Who are we that Thou shouldst treat us in such a way, that Thou shouldst gather us together and give us opportunity to hear Thy Word, to commune with Thee, to give ourselves to Thee, and allow Thee to work out the glorious salvation to the praise of Thy name?
Lord, as we gather this morning, we do submit ourselves to Thee completely and say, “Lord, here we are. What hast Thou to say to us? Speak, Lord; Thy servant heareth.” We ask in Thy name. Amen.
The theme of this conference is, “Be occupied till I come,” or, as Darby’s version says, “Trade while I am coming.” I think it is more vivid in this translation.
What are we to be occupied with? Trading. Why? Because He is coming.
Brothers and sisters, I think we are all aware that the coming of the Lord is so imminent. Everything seems to tell us that the world has come to an end, and the Lord is coming to establish His kingdom upon this earth.
What glad tidings that is. His coming is what we are all expecting. To me, I always think that the Lord can come back at any time. We do not need to wait for some more prophecies to be fulfilled, for as we understand, all the prophecies preceding the coming of the Lord have already come to pass.
The next thing is the coming of the Lord, and we are at this very juncture. On the one hand, it is most thrilling, thinking that we may be among those who will be caught up to welcome the return of our Lord.
On the other hand, it is very solemn. What if He comes now? Can all of us be caught up to the throne, or will some be left? So I think, as we are at this time, it is really a serious time for us to seriously consider what the Lord has said: “Trade, for I am coming.”
Our Lord was going to Jerusalem for the last time, and even His disciples thought He was going to take the kingdom. So our Lord tried to tell them the truth. It is true that He is going to take the kingdom, but not this time, because He is going to Jerusalem to die, to accomplish the work of redemption, and to lay the foundation of the church for His imminent return.
So the Lord used a parable. He said that a certain high-born man went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.
Now, of course, we know this is the background. During the time of our Lord, while He was on earth, they were under the Roman Empire. It was the practice in the Roman Empire for people to go to Rome to receive the kingdom and then return and rule over their domain.
But here you find the Lord using the parable. He is the high-born man because He is the Son of God as well as the Son of Man. He is now returning to heaven to receive from His Father the kingdom—not of this world, but the kingdom of the heavens.
Before our Lord left, He called His ten bondservants to Him. Brothers and sisters, in one sense we are all His bondservants. It is true, so far as grace is concerned, we are His children, being born by the Spirit of God. But as children of God, we also have responsibilities.
So far as our responsibility is concerned, we are all bondservants of God. As His bondservants, He gave each and every one of us a mina.
Now, we know there is a difference between a mina and a talent. You remember Matthew 25. Our Lord Jesus told the story about giving talents to His bondservants according to their ability. To one He gave five talents, to another two talents, and to still another one talent.
He gave these talents according to their natural ability. But here you find ten servants, and they were all given one mina. They were equal in what the Lord had given them. Why? Because the talent in Matthew 25 and the mina in Luke 19 are different.
Talent speaks of spiritual gifts. To every servant of the Lord, every brother and sister, everyone who is born again, He has given some gift.
Just as in the body, when God created this body, to every member of the body He gave some gift. He created me with an eye, and to that eye He gave the gift of seeing. Every member in the body of Christ, when you are saved, is given a certain spiritual gift according to the place that God has put you in the body.
You exercise your gift not for your own glory, but for the growth of the whole body. So every brother and sister, when you are saved, is given a gift according to your ability and according to the place that God has given you. It is not for yourself; it is for the whole body. Now, that is talent.
But in the matter of the mina, you find ten servants, and they were all given one mina. Why the number ten? The number ten is a number of responsibility.
You know, brothers and sisters, sometimes we think that in believing in the Lord Jesus it is all grace and no responsibility. But that is not true. On the one hand, it is grace, but grace does not allow us to be irresponsible. Grace actually helps us to be responsible.
And they were given equally. Why? Because the mina here does not speak of our gifts; it speaks of our life.
Even though we may have different gifts, the life given to us is the same. Christ is our life. When Christ is given to each and every one of us and we are born again, remember that, so far as our spiritual life is concerned, we are just babes.
We are not like Adam. When he was created, he was a grown man. But when we are saved, we are all children of God. Why? The life of Christ in us is just a beginning.
It is the will of God that the life God has given us—even Christ in us, the hope of glory—must grow in us. Or, put it another way, we must grow into Christ and allow the life of Christ to be fully grown.
It is only after we are fully grown that He will come back and receive us as His bride. So, you see, this parable is not talking about spiritual gifts; it is talking about spiritual life. We are all given the same life of our Lord Jesus.
But this life needs to be traded. In other words, it needs to be exercised. When you exercise your spiritual life, then your spiritual life will grow up.
If you do not exercise it, if you do not trade with it, you are like that bad servant who put it in a napkin. He did not do anything with the life that the master had given him, and the result was that his life did not grow.
When our Lord Jesus comes back, he is still a babe in Christ. So, dear brothers and sisters, this parable exhorts each and every one of us to exercise the life that Christ has given us.
You know, brothers and sisters, in recent years we find that physical exercise has attracted the attention of this country. Everywhere you go, you find people running or exercising. Even in hotels, they have exercise rooms to make provision for you to exercise while you are away.
The Bible says that physical exercise has little profit. In other words, it does have profit. Young people in this country spend so much time before the television, or otherwise they do not exercise. Even if you eat well, you will not have a healthy body. We need physical exercise.
But physical exercise profits little. Why? Because the major profit is to your body. Your body, of course, becomes healthy, and with a healthy body you have a healthy mind, so it does affect you somehow. But essentially speaking, it is only your body that has the largest benefit.
And how long will you have this benefit? Suppose you live to be one hundred years old, or one hundred and twenty. It is only one hundred years or one hundred and twenty years. It is not eternity. So it profits little.
Now, it does not mean that because it profits little, you do not do it. Even that little, you have to do it. But, brothers and sisters, there is another exercise. It is exercise unto godliness.
In 1 Timothy 4:8, we are told to exercise unto godliness. Now, I do not like the word piety, because somehow, in my mind, piety is just something outward.
I remember once I was in the Philippines. I went to an island called La Guardia, and while I was on that island I saw a cathedral. So I went in to look at it.
When I entered the cathedral, I saw four white statues kneeling at the altar, not moving at all. But when I approached the front, I saw that these were not statues. These were nuns—four nuns kneeling at the altar without any motion.
The first thought that came to me was, “How pious they are.” Then the second thought came: “Is it really godliness?”
Godliness comes from the inside. It is true that it will be expressed outside, but without the inward reality, only the outward form is not godliness. This is not an expression of the life of Christ in you.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to exercise godliness.
May I ask you this question? Do you know what spiritual exercise really is? Have you ever exercised your spirit?
I suppose you all know that after you believe in the Lord Jesus, you receive a new spirit. The old spirit that God created was dead in sins and transgressions. That does not mean that, as an organ, it was no longer there.
You know, an unbeliever lives by the soul or by the body because his spirit is dead unto God. And yet, strangely, he can still communicate with evil spirits.
You may not know it, but I came from China, and in those old countries you find people communicating with evil spirits everywhere. But they have no contact with God. Why? Because they are dead unto God.
Scientifically speaking, death is the cessation of communication with its proper environment. What is the proper environment of our spirit? God. God is Spirit. He created us with a spirit that we may communicate with Him.
You cannot communicate with God in your body. Many years ago, Russian astronauts, or cosmonauts, went into space and came back saying, “There is no God.” Why? Because they said, “I have been to outer space. I looked around. I did not see God anywhere. So there is no God.” Nonsense.
How can you contact God with your body? You have to come to God with your spirit. But his spirit was dead. There was no contact with the proper environment. It had contact with an improper environment, but not with the proper environment, which is God Himself.
But thank God, I believe you all have this experience. The moment you believe in the Lord Jesus, suddenly that contact is made.
I can vividly remember my own experience. I was brought up in a Christian family. I used to pray. I knew how to pray, but I was praying to the ceiling, and the prayer fell down. There was no contact.
But the moment I really repented and returned to the Lord, you know what happened? Heaven opened. Immediately, in my spirit, I had contact with God. I could truly say from my heart, “Abba, Father.” It was different.
I believe every one of you has this experience. So, brothers and sisters, thank God. When you believe in the Lord Jesus, He has given you a new spirit. In other words, He has cleansed your sins and given you a new spirit.
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Your spirit is born again; it is renewed. And now Christ has come to dwell in your spirit. That is really salvation.
Brothers and sisters, when you are saved, God has given you every provision for you to exercise your spirit. Not only has Christ come into your new spirit and become the life of your new spirit, but God has also given you His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity.
He has come to dwell in your new spirit. He is the new Comforter. He is there to take care of you. In what way? He is there to help you exercise your spirit.
To a believer, there is no such thing as chance. Everything that happens to you is arranged by the Spirit of God. We call it the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit arranges your environment—the people you meet, the things you encounter, everything, every detail in your life. It is arranged by the Holy Spirit in order to discipline you, teach you, and develop you, so that you can really grow in the life of Christ within you.
So, brothers and sisters, 1 Timothy 4:8 says, “Exercise yourself unto godliness.” Why? Because it is profitable, not only for this age but also for the age to come.
May I ask you: look back into your experience. Has the Holy Spirit ever spoken to you? Have you ever heard His voice? It is not something from outside; it is something from within.
You know, in 1 John 2:27, the Bible says that you have the anointing within you. Now, who is the anointing? Who is the ointment within you? The Holy Spirit, who dwells in you.
He is called the anointing because when He works in you, it is like applying ointment to yourself. Suppose you hurt yourself somewhere and put ointment over it. There is a soothing feeling within you. That is the way the Holy Spirit works.
He does not come like a great mighty wind that blows. He does not come like a fire that is burning. He comes as a still, small voice. He speaks to you, but He is very persistent.
He will not allow you to go until you respond, one way or the other. Through that, He is teaching you how to exercise your spirit.
For instance, after you are saved, suppose you are a person who likes to talk extravagantly. You like to say things beyond what they really are. The more you boast about things, the better you feel. That is the way you were before you were saved.
But after you are saved, you may still do the same thing, because old habits are not easy to die. Yet, strangely, as you begin to boast and exaggerate, while you are doing that there is a still, small voice within you saying, “That is not true. You had better stop.”
It is like when you are driving a car and a brake is put on. But, brothers and sisters, we may still go on. Yet the voice will not go away.
If you persist in doing that, you do not feel good as you did before. Actually, you feel very bad. Unless you repent and ask for the cleansing of the blood, you find that your fellowship with God is interrupted.
Do you have this experience? I believe so. If you never have such an experience, I wonder whether you are really saved, whether you really have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. How can He dwell in you and not do His work to let the life of Christ grow in you?
So, 1 John 2:27 says that you have the anointing within you. You do not need anyone to teach you, because He will teach you in all things—not only in big things, but also in small things.
We think we can take care of small things, and only when we are faced with big things do we need to pray and seek the will of the Lord. But no. God loves us so much. He loves every detail of your life. He wants to be involved with you, even in very small things.
If we are quiet enough to listen, He has His voice. Sometimes people come to me and say, “Brother, you people often talk about God speaking to you, but God has never spoken to me.”
I think it is very strange if God has never spoken to you. Are you really His? If you are really His, how can He neglect you? He will take care of you. He will see that the life of Christ in you grows into maturity. He will not let you go free, because He loves you.
He has to lead you so that the life of Christ in your spirit will grow into maturity.
Brothers and sisters, the Apostle Paul, when he wrote this letter to Timothy, told him this is what he was doing. If that is the case, do you think that we are not trading, occupied while Christ is coming?
Why did the Lord say, “Trade while I am coming”? Why must we grow spiritually in the stature of Christ within us before He returns? Because He cannot marry a baby. Have you ever seen a grown man marry a baby? Never. It is unfit.
How important it is that we exercise our spirit. Our spirit has three functions. Number one: conscience.
Conscience is one of the functions of our spirit. But unfortunately, before we believe in the Lord Jesus, our conscience has lost its proper environment, and that environment is God.
The conscience that people have today is often measured by custom and habit, not by God. We often hear people say, “I do everything according to my conscience.” A robber can say, “I do it according to my conscience.”
Why? Because the conscience of an unbeliever is not measured by God; it is measured by custom and habit. In the old days, when an African ate another person, did his conscience bother him? No, his conscience praised him, because his conscience was not governed by the proper environment.
But for you and me to eat another person, how would we feel? We would feel bad about it. Why? Because God is now your conscience. He is telling you what is right and what is wrong.
Paul, when he was before the governor, could declare that in everything, before God and man, he kept a good conscience. Do not throw away your conscience, because your conscience now is the voice of God.
Formerly, your conscience was in sins and transgressions. But now you have a new conscience, and it is for every believer to keep a conscience without offense before God and before man.
Sometimes we find that the Lord seems to disturb us, and He will never let us go until we solve a problem that we know we should solve. So conscience is an important thing to be exercised.
Now, you do not need to search your conscience by yourself. Many years ago, there was something going on in this country, and people said, “You need to search your conscience and confess everything from your childhood up to the present time. Confess it before the Lord and have it cleansed by the blood.”
Brothers and sisters, you do not do that. If you do that, you will be under condemnation all the time.
In China, there was a time when the teaching of Moral Rearmament spread over the world. It came to China and especially touched the upper class because it spoke of being absolutely clean and having a conscience without offense.
There was a famous Christian in China who was in my father’s care. During the war, we were all in the wartime capital, Chungking, and he talked with me.
He said, “Whenever I am weak physically, all my past sins come back to me. I have to confess everything once again.”
So I told him, “No, you do not need to do that, because all your past sins have been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus. They are under the blood. They are no longer there. It is the enemy trying to bring all this back to you to bother you.”
But no matter what I said, he was not helped. Think of that: a life under constant accusation. How can you live a victorious life that way?
So, dear brothers and sisters, I strongly urge you: when the Spirit of God is touching your conscience, that is one thing. When the enemy tries to accuse you, he comes like a whirlwind. He tries to press you down. He gives you no quarter to hide.
But when the Holy Spirit is working in you, it is a still, small voice. It is persistent, but it is quiet, speaking to your conscience.
So, as a Christian, you need to exercise your conscience. If in some way the Spirit of God is speaking to your conscience, bring it to the Lord.
The Bible says that He will teach you in all things, not only in big things but even in small things. If you abide in His teaching, you abide in Christ.
Once I asked some young people, “How can you abide in Christ?” They gave me different answers. Some said, “You need to pray more in order to abide in Christ.” Others said, “You need to read the Bible more.” Others said, “You need to attend the meetings more,” and so forth.
Brothers and sisters, the real secret is that you need to listen to the Holy Spirit. That is what you need to do. If you really listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, He will purify you and allow you to grow spiritually.
Now, the next thing is this: how do you exercise your spirit? Your spirit has another function. We call it intuition.
What is intuition? Intuition is direct knowledge. How do we get ordinary knowledge? We get knowledge with our brain, with our mind. We gather it from outside, and the more knowledge you gather from outside, the more knowledgeable you are. That is the world.
But how do we know God? We do not know God merely by collecting mental knowledge. That mental exercise is not spiritual exercise. Spiritual exercise is intuitive.
If you are in touch with God, the Holy Spirit within you will touch your intuition and give you a direct knowledge from God. In other words, you begin to see things even if you cannot explain them.
In Hebrews 8, one article of the new covenant is this:
And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen,
and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord:
for all shall know Me,
from the least to the greatest of them.
Now, that is intuition. Christianity has gone the wrong way. It has gone the outward way. After you believe in the Lord Jesus, people tell you what you should do and what you should not do. If you keep these things, you are considered a good Christian.
I remember when I was young. I was brought up in a Christian family. We kept Sunday, the Lord’s Day, and on the Lord’s Day we should not do any work.
I was a student at that time, and the one thing I dreaded most was an examination on Monday, because I could not read on Sunday. I kept it. But you cannot just be doing nothing, so what did I do? I played ball.
You see the absurdity of it? Keeping law. People tell you what you should do, and if you do them, you are a good Christian. But that is the outward way; it is not God’s way.
God’s way is inward, because the Holy Spirit will reveal God’s mind to you in your spirit. If you are quiet enough, He will speak to you. He will tell you what is of the Lord and what is not of the Lord.
It is by intuition that we grow in Christ Jesus. Once you are saved, you are a little child, and that spiritual intuition begins to work.
As a matter of fact, children live by intuition—not spiritual intuition, but still intuition. Sometimes a child will go to a certain person but shy away from another person. Intuitively, the child knows something.
The moment we grow old, intuition begins to decrease and mental knowledge begins to increase. So we are no longer living by intuition, but we live by mental knowledge.
Brothers and sisters, you do not need anyone to tell you, because the Holy Spirit within you will touch your intuition and allow you to know His will. That is the way we grow. That is the way we serve God.
Thirdly, the function of our spirit is worship.
After we believe in the Lord Jesus, our spirit is living unto God, and we worship God in spirit and in truth.
Worship is not an outward gesture. Worship is an inward spirit. Of course, when there is that inward spirit, the outward gesture will naturally follow, but it does not depend upon outward gesture.
How sad that Christianity today is mainly outward gesture instead of inward fellowship with God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, if we really exercise our spirit, the result is that our inner man—that is, Christ in us—will grow into maturity. That is the way to really know God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, this morning my burden is simply this: God has saved you. He has made every provision for you to grow spiritually. But you need to cooperate. You need to exercise your spirit.
You need to allow the Spirit of God to speak to you and talk with you. You need to be near to Him so that you can hear. You need to be quiet so that you can hear.
Remember, the Christian way is an inward way of life. It is not an outward thing. Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast not only saved us, but Thou wantest to save us to the uttermost. How is it, therefore, the full salvation Thou hast prepared for Thy people?
Do open our understanding. Bring us back to the original work of God. Pray, Lord, that Thou wilt really teach us how to exercise our spirit and learn to obey Thee in an inward way.
May we really see the life of Christ growing within us, preparing us to meet Thee and to be Thy bride. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.