Wherefore He saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.
Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for gathering us together again before Thee. Lord, Thou hast been faithful. Thou hast been gracious to us, that in these last days, in these difficult times, Thou hast gathered us to hear Thy Word, to strengthen us, that we may be able to be Thy good army and that we may fight a good fight.
Lord, we just commit ourselves to Thee for this morning. Speak; Thy servants are hearing. We ask in Thy name. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters, we thank God for giving us another opportunity to be together, to hear God’s Word, and to be better prepared for His imminent return.
To me, I feel every time God has given us such an opportunity, we really want to thank God, because it is His desire that we be prepared, that we be ready to be His bride. You know how the bridegroom is anxious to see the bride arrive. So our Lord Jesus, more than any husband in the world, is anxious to come to claim us as His bride.
But He cannot come when the bride is not ready. I always remember my brother, Lambert, said, “The Lord cannot marry a little child. He has to have someone who is of His own stature, that they may be united into one.”
So, dear brothers and sisters, we thank God, for He has given us opportunities again and again to prepare us for His return. And this is the reason why we are here.
I think we all know what our theme is: redeeming the time. Now, what is time?
God lives before time, but He uses time to accomplish His purpose. God has a tremendous purpose in His heart. The Bible tells us that even before the foundation of the world, before anything was created, God had in His heart a will.
And that is: He wants His Son to be the Heir of all things. He was thinking of creation, of creating things in the heavens and upon the earth.
But He had a problem. Because God knows everything beforehand, He knew that an angel whom He created would rebel against Him. He also knew that man, whom He would create later on, would also rebel against Him. Now, how was He going to make all things to be under the feet of His beloved Son?
So, if we can use a human way of saying it, while He was considering this matter, His Son stepped in and said, “Father, go ahead. Whatever Thou dost desire to do, I am willing to give Myself to be the Redeemer.”
So, brothers and sisters, this is how God began to create all things, and it all happened according to what God had foreknown.
Brothers and sisters, we are today in the twenty-first century. When our Lord Jesus was on earth, before He left, He promised His disciples that He would go to prepare a place for them; and after He had prepared that place, He would come back and receive them to Himself.
This was a promise given to them over two thousand years ago. But, dear brothers and sisters, century after century passed, and there was no sound of His coming. But that does not mean that He will not come.
We are now living in the beginning of the twenty-first century. So we can see how much, how much closer today we are to the coming of the Lord than anybody else before our century.
From all indications, from all that the Bible has said, now some brothers and sisters may be waiting for some prophecy to be fulfilled before the coming of the Lord. But let me tell you: all the prophecies before the coming of the Lord have been fulfilled.
There is no more prophecy to be fulfilled before the coming of the Lord. Now, that does not mean there is no more prophecy. There are still many prophecies concerning the coming of the Lord, during the coming of the Lord, and after His coming.
But, dear brothers and sisters, notice: all the prophecies preceding the coming of the Lord have been fulfilled. The next event will be the coming of the Lord.
The Lord is coming. Hopefully, and by His grace, we are prepared. Then we can hasten His return.
So you can see, I will not say it depends on us, because everything depends upon God. But I will say we are very important concerning His return. And by His grace, when we are prepared, ready, grown up, filled with the stature of Christ, He will not wait any longer. He will come back.
So, brothers and sisters, this is the burden in our hearts: How can we redeem the time?
We have already said that God uses time to accomplish His work. But God’s enemy, the fallen angel, also knows there is a time, and he is trying to postpone that time as much as possible.
And the only way is if he can entice man in a sense that will delay the return of the Lord. So this is the reason why we find the world getting worse and worse.
Satan is trying every means to postpone the time. And the way to postpone the time is to try to tempt God’s people from being completed in Christ Jesus.
So that is the reason why we find the Scripture says the days are evil. We are living in days that are evil. Why? Because God’s enemy is trying very hard to prolong, to delay, the coming of our Lord.
So the exhortation from the Word of God is: Do not be foolish. Walk carefully, that we may understand the will of God.
Brothers and sisters, I am thinking especially of the young people. When we were young, I do not think we had all these temptations that you have today. Even though we did have all kinds of temptation, compared with today, we find that young people at this time are under greater temptation than ever before.
The enemy tries to tempt the young people to love the world. But the Bible says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” Why? Because the world is passing away, and the things of the world are passing away. They are not permanent.
We need to be aware of it, and we need to seek to do the will of God. Only by doing the will of God will we be better prepared for the return of our Lord.
But, dear brothers and sisters, the question is: How can we be better prepared? Who is going to prepare us?
We thank God that He has made every provision for us. He has not only saved us, but the Bible says He will save us to the uttermost.
So He has prepared everything for us to be matured, for us to be grown up, and to be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus. But how? And this is what I want to share with you, dear brothers and sisters, this morning.
Now, in order to do that, we have to go back to the very beginning. When we were saved, I suppose all who are here this morning have been saved. If you have not been saved, hopefully this time you will be saved.
We are saved not by our own merit; we are saved by the grace of God. But, dear brothers and sisters, we do not know, when we are saved, how God has made provision for us to be grown up and matured in Christ Jesus.
Of course, we know that before we were saved, our spirit was dead. I often remember the Russian cosmonaut when he first went into outer space. He came back and said, “There is no God.” Why? “Because I have been in space, I looked around, and I do not see God anywhere.”
Now, is that not foolishness? Because God is Spirit. The only way you can contact God is by your spirit. You cannot contact Him with your mind, or even with your body.
Many years ago, when I was in the Philippines, I went to a place called Legazpi. I saw a church building, and when I went into that church building, I saw near the pulpit a few statues kneeling—statues.
But when I drew closer, I noticed, no, they were not statues. A few nuns were kneeling before the altar, motionless. My first reaction was, “How pious they are!” But the Lord corrected me right away. He said, “Worship is not outward. You may appear to be very pious outwardly, but how about your heart?”
So I learned a lesson that day. But, dear brothers and sisters, thank God He has made every provision for us to be matured.
When He saved us, not only were our sins forgiven. I think for most Christians, when they were first saved, it was over the problem of their sins. That is what happened to me.
And how I thank God, because He washed away my sins. The same burden fell from me. I felt so light. I felt so free.
Brothers and sisters, that is only a little of what the Lord has done for us, because there are many positive things that God has done in saving us.
He has not only restored our spirit. Our spirit, which was dead in sins and trespasses, has now been cleansed, renewed, and restored. So we have a new spirit, each and every one of us. That is the reason why we can fellowship with God.
I remember I had prayed from my childhood, but my prayer always seemed to go up and come back. I never knew whether my prayer would be answered. But the day when God saved me, my connection with God was made. My spirit was brought to life, and it is by my spirit that I contact God, who is Spirit.
But more than that, our Lord Jesus came into our spirit to be the life in our spirit. Now, how good is that? Jesus Christ dwells in my heart, and He is there to control the spirit. And by Him, we are able to contact God.
More than that, not only is Christ the life of our spirit, but the Holy Spirit of God also comes and dwells in our spirit. We have the indwelling Holy Spirit. Every brother and sister, everyone who is saved, not only has Christ as his life, but also the Holy Spirit dwelling in his spirit.
So the question is: Why does He dwell in our spirit? What is He working? What is His job?
We know the Holy Spirit who dwells in us has one job, one work, and that is the work of seeing that Christ grows in us, seeing that whatever is not of Christ, He will remind us and help us to get rid of it. That is why the Holy Spirit is in us.
So, dear brothers and sisters, every brother and sister not only has Christ in him; he has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him or her. And He is very diligent.
I believe from the very moment you are saved, the Holy Spirit begins to work in your life. He is trying to bring you out of the world, out of yourself, and into Christ Jesus.
I believe everyone has that experience.
You know, sometimes we hear some young people ask, “You talk about the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, but I do not feel it. How do I know He is in me and He is working?”
I think that is very simple. Because after you are saved, I believe you all will have this experience, more or less.
Sometimes you frequented some places that you should not go. But after you are saved, you may be trying to go there again. But then you will find a still, small voice within you saying, “You are now a Christian. Do you think it is a proper place for you to go?”
And probably, in your experience, you say, “Why not?” and you try to go. But after you went, what happened? You find that your contact—your communion—with God somehow was interrupted.
You cannot restore that communion with God until you confess your sin. I think this probably is a very common thing that will happen to you.
Or probably, before you were saved, you liked to boast. You liked to say things that were not real, and you may be the center of a crowd of friends. After you boast, you feel very happy about it. But after you are saved, you try again.
If you try to boast, there is a still, small voice telling you, “That is not true.” But I believe we all have such experience. We continue to boast, but are we happy about it? No.
We find ourselves miserable, and unless we confess before God and be true, our contact with God is interrupted. So, brothers and sisters, in these small things, He will begin to deal with us.
You know, our spirit has three main functions. Number one: in our spirit there is the conscience.
Even though we often hear people say, “I do everything according to my conscience,” you know, our conscience was not dependable before we were saved. Why? Because we had lost the standard. God is the standard of our conscience, but we had lost the standard.
After we are saved, the standard is restored. So God is now the standard of our conscience.
You know, in the world, people’s conscience follows the custom, the environment, in which they live. But we who are the Lord’s, we live before God. And whenever we do something that is not at peace with our conscience, we find our relationship with God is interrupted.
So in our conscience today, brothers and sisters, God has restored the proper use of our conscience. Your conscience will bother you, and not until you cooperate with God, your conscience will continue to accuse you. So that is the way He is trying to purify us.
Just to give you an illustration of myself: I am a pastor’s son, but I liked movies.
Before I was saved, I used to spend my time on Saturday in a movie house. And I had a friend who owned the movie house, so I did not need to pay anything. When the newspaper came, the first page I looked at was the movie news.
Now, you would say a pastor’s son probably would not do that, but I did it.
But after I was saved, I still went to see movies. But somehow my conscience began to bother me. I tried to argue, but there was no use. My conscience was just a part of me.
So I told the Lord, “If You do not like it, I will try not to go. But I will not tell anybody, because I am not sure of myself. If I fail, nobody knows.”
So I recall how, for several months, I did not go to any movie. My aunt told me, “You are a young man. Have some fun. I will give you money to go and see a movie.” But I could not.
Then one day, a religious movie came to Shanghai. I still remember very, very clearly. It was called Noah’s Ark, and people sent us tickets.
Now there was a struggle within me. I said, “What is wrong with a religious movie?” So I went.
But let me tell you, I went into the theater and looked at a movie for two hours. I was fighting within. My conscience was telling me, “This is not a place you should be.” But I would not go out. I was just fighting and fighting within me the whole time.
But thank God, that was my last time to go to a theater to see movies. The Lord had dealt with me over it.
So, dear brothers and sisters, you find that the Spirit of God is very real. He begins to work in you, and He tries to purify you, sanctify you, that you may be totally God’s and not of the world.
Now, we usually say a person who is unsaved, his conscience is not dependable, because his conscience does not have its proper object. God is no longer the standard of his conscience; it is the custom of the world that becomes the standard. So these are not dependable.
But, brothers and sisters, after we are saved, God will be the standard of our conscience. This is very important.
You remember the Apostle Paul. Again and again, he witnessed before men. When he was in the Jewish council, what did he say? He said, “I live my life with a good conscience.”
Another time he was with the governor Felix, and he said, “I keep my conscience without offense before God and men.” So, to a Christian, conscience is very important. We need to keep our conscience clear. Then we can stand before God. Amen.
Now, the Spirit of God not only works upon our conscience, that we may have a good conscience before God and men; He also works upon our intuition.
You know, we usually learn from outside. We read books, we listen to lectures, we get information from outside and store it in our mind, our data. That is the way we learn.
But thank God, when He is teaching us, He will touch our intuition. That is to say, it is not something outside that you absorb. Intuition is within you, and the Holy Spirit will speak to your intuition.
And whatever He has done in your intuition, that is the will of God. So you remember in 1 John 2:27, it says we have the unction, the anointing, within us. That is to say, we have the Holy Spirit within us, and He will teach us in all things.
And whatever He teaches is true. Big things, small things, He will teach us in all things. And if we follow His teaching, we will abide in Christ.
So how do you know you abide in Christ? I remember once I asked a group of young people, “How do you know that you abide in Christ?” And they gave me different answers. Some said, “You need to read the Bible more.” Others said, “You need to pray more,” and so forth.
But the Bible says we have to listen to the teaching of the anointing. The Holy Spirit is teaching you directly in your intuition. You intuitively know what is right and what is wrong. And when He is teaching you in this way and you obey, then you will find you are growing in the Lord.
And not only that, our spirit has another function called worship.
You remember John 4, how the Lord Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman: that we worship not in places—not in Jerusalem, nor in Samaria. It is by spirit and truth.
So deep in our spirit, we worship God. That is the way that the Holy Spirit is trying to make us grow up in Christ Jesus.
But, dear brothers and sisters, we have not only problems with our spirit; we have even more problems with our soul. Why? Because when we are saved, Christ comes into our spirit to be the life of it, but we ourselves are still living in our soul.
You know, our soul-life is our self. Now, that is the reason why you find in Romans 7, after Paul was saved, he found that he was as if there were two men within him. He knew God’s will. “I want to do God’s will.” But then there was another life in his soul, his own self, saying, “No.”
And he found himself stronger, and oftentimes he had to follow himself instead of Christ. And he longed for deliverance.
So, brothers and sisters, we find that the Holy Spirit will not only touch our spirit, but He will also deal with our soul.
Our soul has emotion. You know, emotion usually is the clearest, most active part of our soul. But the Holy Spirit will deal with our emotions.
You remember in Matthew 10, the Lord Jesus said, “If you love your father and mother, brother and sister, your wife, and your own life more than Me, you are not worthy to be My disciple.”
What is wrong with loving our parents, loving our brothers and sisters, and even loving our life? What is wrong with that? Is it not in the Ten Commandments: honor your parents, and you will have a long life? So what is wrong with that?
Brothers and sisters, this is not a matter of right or wrong. It is a matter of life or not. If we love the Lord more than anybody, more than our life, you know what will happen? We will love them even better, in the right way.
So our emotion needs to be dealt with, and the Holy Spirit is working on it. He will cleanse our emotion and allow us to have the right emotion. In other words, our emotion will not express ourselves; our emotion will express Christ.
Not only our emotion, but our mind. Our mind is also very active, but the Lord will deal with our mind.
You remember in Matthew 16, the Lord told Peter, “You are mindful of yourself instead of mindful of God’s will.” So our mind needs to be cleansed and redeemed.
And not only our mind, but even our will. Again, you find in Matthew 26 the Lord praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not My will, but Thy will be done.”
So, dear brothers and sisters, as we are talking of redeeming the time, in a practical way, this is the way of redeeming the time. In other words, we need to cooperate with the indwelling Holy Spirit.
And when we are doing that, not only our spirit, but even our soul will be delivered. So that is the way to redeem our time.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee because Thou hast not only saved us, but Thou dost want to save us to the uttermost. We praise and thank Thee that it is Thy will that we should be fully grown into Christ Jesus, that we may be able to be His bride, to glorify Him.
Lord, we pray that Thy indwelling Spirit in each and every one of us will work in us until Christ is fully formed in every one of us. O Lord, that we may be ready to meet Thee.
We pray in Thy name. Amen.