Will you please turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, verses 1-6?
Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you?
Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men;
being made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of flesh.
And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward:
not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;
Who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
May we have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we want to thank You for gathering us together this morning. This is Your gathering, and we just pray that Your presence will so prevail that we may really sense that You are here with us.
Dear Lord, we do pray that You will speak to us through Your Word. Your Word is truth. Your Word releases us from all our bondages and sets us free.
Lord, we commit this time into Your hands. We pray that You will speak to us, touch our hearts, and bring every one of us close to Yourself, that Your will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. We ask in Your precious name. Amen.
Thank God for bringing us together this morning.
In the Old Testament ministry, the prophets spoke as the Word of God came to them. They were mere voices. They were not primarily involved; that is to say, it was more objective.
But in New Testament ministry, the speakers are deeply involved. They are trained by God’s Spirit, and they are being transformed. The Word becomes flesh in them.
It therefore requires a great cooperation. The Word becomes flesh and is manifested in glory. It is therefore highly subjective.
The indwelling Holy Spirit works in us so that our life will be changed from glory to glory. Everything is internal and deep. We are deeply involved.
After we believe in the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes within and dwells in our human spirit. He becomes the life of the new spirit. He is therefore responsible for the spiritual life of the believer.
He will not leave us nor forsake us. He is always faithful in working us.
He will work within us first in small things, but gradually in all things. He is responsible for our spiritual life. As we begin to obey Him, our spiritual life will grow into maturity.
It is therefore most important that we cooperate with the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is the secret of our Christian life, for God wants sons, not children.
Brothers and sisters, after we have believed in the Lord Jesus, not only are our sins forgiven, but He has given us a new spirit—a new human spirit.
Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, our spirit was dead towards God. It was dead in sins and transgressions. But thank God, the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus, not only are our sins forgiven, but our dead spirit is brought into new life.
I believe we all here have this experience.
Before I believed in the Lord Jesus, I was brought up in a Christian family. We had devotion every evening before supper. My father, who was a pastor, gathered all seven children into the living room.
He would read from the Bible, and then he asked all of us to kneel down and pray. He never asked any one of us to pray. He himself would lead the prayer, because he knew that at that time, even if we were brought up in a Christian family, we were not saved.
But by the grace of God, after I was saved, he began to ask me to pray also.
So by the grace of God, I was brought up in this way. The greatest thing that I experienced after I believed in the Lord Jesus was not only that all my sins were forgiven.
Now, brothers and sisters, it is very strange. I was brought up in a Christian family. I used to consider myself as better than the world. In comparison with the world, I was a better person. What could I do as a student in high school?
So I always had the feeling, you know, I believed Jesus is Christ, the Savior of the world. From my childhood, this belief was within me.
And yet, at the same time, I felt that the world needed Christ as their Savior, but not me. I was a student. I was good. I was in good relationship with everybody. So let Christ save other people, but I did not need Him.
That was my situation for a long time.
Until, when I was fourteen, I began to get sick. Now, it was typhoid fever. At that time, there was no cure for typhoid fever. It all depended upon whether you could pull through or not.
Now, as a young man, I did not want to die. So I prayed. I asked the Lord to heal me. My father prayed for me. The missionaries prayed for me. And after four months, I gradually recovered.
After I recovered, a classmate of mine came to me and said, “Can we have some Christian meetings in our school?” Now, it was a Christian school, so-called.
Of course, I wanted to show my gratitude to God, so I said, “Yes, we will do that.” So we began to organize Christian meetings in our school.
After supper, we would knock on the doors of the dormitory and invite our fellow students to come. Even some teachers came. We used the library as our meeting place.
I still can vividly recall how I led the first prayer meeting. To a pastor’s son, it was easy, because my father had a library. He had many Christian books, books of prayer. So all I needed to do was go to his library, get a book of prayer, translate it into Chinese, memorize it, and preach it.
I still can remember very vividly the first time I led a prayer meeting. We gathered in the library of the school. I gave the message, and after I did, I had everybody kneel down and pray.
But, as you can expect, nobody prayed. Even some began to laugh, because they were wondering what we were doing.
And I, as chairman, scolded them. I said, “We are before God. It is serious. We have to be serious.”
This was the first time I led the prayer meeting.
And not only that, I preached. To a pastor’s son, it was not difficult, because my father had a big library. He had many books, so I just chose one, memorized it, and translated it into Chinese.
I remember one Friday after school, we had a meeting in the church, and I preached that message. I felt good about it. The only regret was that nobody praised me.
So you can see that I tried to serve God before I was saved. To me, it was just a natural thought—to repay my debt to God.
But, brothers and sisters, God is so gracious. Yes, I began to try to serve Him, and He began to reveal to me my sins.
I usually considered myself as good, as a student in high school. Compared with the world, we were much purer, better. So I always had the wrong idea. I believed Jesus is Savior, but I had the wrong idea: I did not need Him. I was too good to be saved. Let Jesus save the world, but I did not need Him.
Thank God. Yes, I began to serve Him, and His Spirit began to work in my heart. You know, I never thought myself a bad person. I was in good relationship with everybody, even with the servants.
So I always had the wrong idea: let Jesus save other people, but I did not need Him. I did not need Him.
But thank God, when you begin to serve, as you think, the Spirit of God begins to work in you. He began to show me my sins.
As a matter of fact, I was better than before. People called me “young pastor.” They thought that I would continue my father’s work in the church.
But thank God, as I began to try to serve God, the Spirit of God began to reveal to me my true condition. I began to see my sins.
As a matter of fact, I was better than before. But when the Spirit of God begins to work in you, He will reveal what you really are. I began to feel that there was nothing good in me.
You know, I was afraid to die. When I saw a funeral, I felt uncomfortable. I knew one day I would die too, but I was not ready at all.
Sometimes, as a young man of fourteen years old, I would sit by myself and weep. I wept for my sins. “Who can deliver me from my sins? Who can save me, that I will not go to hell?”
I was from Shanghai. Shanghai was a big city, an international city. Many famous preachers all over the world would come to Shanghai to preach, and they usually preached in my father’s church, because he had a big church there.
Whatever famous preacher came, I went to hear him. I wanted to be saved.
But you know, brothers and sisters, the strange thing was, even though I was seeking and searching, it evaded me.
I heard all the best preachers in the world at that time, like Major Whittle. I was touched by what I heard. I went to the altar, knelt at the altar, confessed my sins, and wept a number of times. But nothing happened.
After the meeting was over, it was over. This continued for a year.
When the summer came, I decided that I would go to a summer conference in order to get saved.
Now, it was a Bethel Mission in Shanghai. They loved the Lord, and three young men from America, who had just graduated from Asbury College, came to preach to us.
So I went there with the thought to get saved. What they preached, I already knew. Nothing was new to me.
After a few days, I saw people going to the altar and getting saved, but I was not.
So I remember one morning, I sat in my room. I do not know whether I was praying or just speaking to myself. I said, “Lord, why is it people get saved so easily, but not me? I do too much.”
I told the Lord, “This is Your time. If You want to save me, save me now. If not, goodbye.”
That very afternoon, I went to the meeting. Mr. Kirkpatrick was preaching on John 3:16. Now, I knew it from my childhood. Nothing was new. Nothing touched me.
After the meeting was over, he asked everybody to kneel down and pray. So I knelt down. An Indian brother came to me. He told me, “Son.” The only thing he did was to persuade me to go to the altar.
Now, I thought to myself, I had been there a number of times, and nothing happened. Why should I go again? But out of courtesy, I went.
When I was at the altar, I confessed my sins, all that I could remember. I even wept. But nothing happened. The meeting was over.
There were hundreds of people there. A young pastor—if I mentioned his name, some older ones among you might remember him—he was at that time a young man, not a pastor yet, just a preacher.
He must have noticed me. So when I walked out, he stopped me. Point-blankly, he asked me this question: “Are you saved?”
Now, I had to be honest, so I told him, “I want to be saved.”
So everybody left—hundreds of people. Just the two of us were in the auditorium. He asked me, “Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?” I said, “From my childhood.”
He said, “All right. Turn to 1 John 1:9.” So I did. He said, “You read it. Instead of ‘if we,’ you say, ‘if Stephen Kaung.’ Put your name there. Read it twice.”
If Stephen Kaung confesseth his sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive him his sins, and to cleanse him from all unrighteousness.
He made me read it twice. Then he said, “Let us kneel down and pray.” So we knelt down. I began to pray. I knew how to pray. I confessed my sins.
I told the Lord, “Lord, there are many things I have forgotten, but You remember. Now I have done my part. It is up to You. If You want to save me, save me now. If not, goodbye.”
You know, brothers and sisters, when you are desperate, when you are real, when you are really in business, the Lord knows.
Immediately, I felt such peace in my heart. I got up.
And Brother T. asked me, “Are you saved?” I said, “I…” He said, “How do you know?” Well, I said, “I have such peace in my heart.” He shook his head.
Immediately, the Word came to me: “I know I am saved because God says so.” He said, “Right. Your feeling may change, but God’s Word never changes.”
He was very wise in leading people. He said, “You go out. Tell someone what the Lord has done for you.”
I did. I went to my room. I opened my Bible—it was 2 Peter, chapter 2. I read it, and it was different. It became a new book to me. Every word began to speak to my heart.
And from that hour, over eighty-some years ago, it never changed. Brothers and sisters, what the Lord has done is everlasting. It is not just for a moment.
It has been over eighty-some years now, but the Lord has kept me until now.
So, dear brothers and sisters, my advice to you all is: be real with God. Do not play with God.
Confess your sins before God, trusting in the salvation of the Lord Jesus, and you will find that a great change will come upon your life.
There will be such peace in your heart. You will know within yourself for sure that your sins have been forgiven.
You have a new life, a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell in your spirit.
What is the purpose of the indwelling Holy Spirit? His purpose is to lead you all the way in your Christian life.
You know, brothers and sisters, even after you are saved, if you are left in this world, you will very soon find that you are no match for temptation. You are no match for the world, for Satan, God’s enemy.
But thank God, after you are saved, God does not leave you alone to fight the battle. God puts His own Spirit into your spirit. The indwelling Holy Spirit is a great gift of God.
Oftentimes, after we believe in the Lord Jesus, we might think that having our sins forgiven is the greatest thing in the world. But that is not the greatest thing that God has done.
Yes, He has put His Spirit into your spirit to be your Guide.
You know, sometimes one may think, “If I am saved, and by the grace of God I will be raptured into heaven right away, that would be the best thing for me. Now I will be safe from all the temptations in the world.”
But, brothers and sisters, God knows better. He does not want babies in heaven. What if heaven is full of babies? Now, babies are good to look at, but babies can be very troublesome.
God wants grown-ups—the fullness of the stature of Christ Jesus. So that is the reason why, after you have believed in the Lord Jesus, you are still here.
You know, sometimes I had that feeling: if immediately after I was saved I was raptured, I thought that would be the best thing. But the Lord knows better.
After you are saved, after you have a new life, you are still in this wretched world, full of temptations, full of the work of the devil, and you are no match to it.
So He puts His own Spirit—God puts His own Spirit into our spirit—to be our Guide, to lead us, that by His Spirit we may follow the Lord Jesus.
You cannot fight against the world. You are no match to it. But by the grace of God, when God’s Spirit within you is leading you, you are more than conquerors.
When the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in your spirit, He is not there to do nothing. His only work is to make you full-grown children, sons of God.
He not only gives you intelligence to know what is of God and what is not of God; He is also the power for you to overcome the world.
If, after God has saved you, He leaves you alone to fight against this evil world, nobody can overcome.
But thank God, He puts His Spirit within us, and His Spirit will begin to guide and lead us. Usually, He will begin with small things.
For instance, before you were saved, probably you always would go to certain places. But after you are saved, do you have the experience that, when you go there, there is a still, small voice within you saying, “You are now a Christian. Do you think it is the right place for you to go?”
You probably will not listen to this small voice. You continue to go. But did you have a good time? No.
In the evening, when you begin to pray, you cannot. You have to confess your sins, clear the way, and then your fellowship with Christ will be renewed.
So, brothers and sisters, this is the Christian way. You are now a Christian. You are the Lord’s. How will the Lord lead you to be real sons and daughters of God?
By cooperating with the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is the only way.
So I hope, dear brothers and sisters, that you will remember this: in your life afterwards, you will not depend upon yourself. Do not ever try to depend upon your own self, thinking that you can do it.
No. The world is too great, too powerful for you. You need to depend upon the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Thank God, the indwelling Holy Spirit will never leave you nor forsake you.
Even if you do not obey Him, even if you do not listen to Him, He will not leave you. That still, small voice is persistent. He will continue to touch your conscience until you repent, return to the Lord, and do what the Lord has ordered you to do.
So, brothers and sisters, this is Christian life. Christian life is cooperating with the indwelling Holy Spirit.
He will lead you all the way until you grow up and become sons and daughters of God.
Now, this is the Word of God. So this morning, my only plea with you is this: you who have believed in the Lord Jesus, you have the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Learn to cooperate with Him. Learn to obey Him in all things. It is not easy, because the temptations can be great.
But blessed are all those who cooperate with the indwelling Holy Spirit and follow the Lord all the way through their lives.
Thank God, when the indwelling Holy Spirit begins to deal with you, He will not begin with big things. Because if He began with big things, He knows you would fail. He usually begins with small things.
If you obey Him in small things, gradually you will learn to obey Him in big things, until, by the grace of God, you become sons and daughters of God.
Now, this is the gospel. Have you heard it? Such a wonderful gospel.
You know, sometimes I had that strange idea. I said, “Lord, after You have saved me, take me to Yourself right away. Then I will be safe from all the temptations of the world. How good that would be.”
But, brothers and sisters, if that is the case, heaven will be full of babies. Babies are lovely, but babies can be very troublesome.
God wants sons and daughters. God wants people after the image of His only begotten Son. That is what God wants you to be.
So, brothers and sisters, thank God that after He has saved you, He has left you here on earth. This is our opportunity to grow up. This is our opportunity to be sons and daughters of God.
This is the lesson that we need to learn every day until we are raptured and see Him face to face.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, our hearts bow and worship because You do love us, and love us to the uttermost. You do not leave anything to ourselves.
God has made provision for us that, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, by Your Spirit, we are able to live even in this wretched world a life that will be pleasing to Yourself.
So, Lord, we want to give ourselves over to You this morning. Take us. Take charge over us. Enable us to cooperate with You, to obey You, that we may really be sons and daughters of God, to the praise of Your glory. We ask in Your name. Amen.