It's now — our chairman announced that the tapes for the summer, as we call it summer, because in Malaysia it's always summer — the Christmas camp tapes are now available. The theme of that camp was, "The mountain of the Lord shall be raised up, shall be raised." When I think about the content of what I preached at that camp, I feel very miserable. I feel very miserable because I feel that it was probably one of the worst messages I have ever preached. I want to tell you about my failure. I would advise everyone not to bother listening to that message.
Why do we have to be offensive? Why do we have to be offensive? Because the church is asleep. Because the church is asleep. Can you tell them any more nice and comforting things, and they will be snoring, never mind being asleep? They will be snoring, not just asleep. Our churches today do not require nice comforting words. What the words that we must listen to today is a word of rebuke. The word we are listening to today is a word that is offensive to the natural man. Only then can they be awakened from death to life. This is the character of the Old Testament prophets, that their words were so offensive to the people who listened to them.
But the theme of the camp was so nice. So inspiring. "The mountain of the Lord shall be lifted up." And the nations will gather to this mountain to seek the Lord. Yes, but look at the context. That passage is from Micah. The Old Testament prophet Micah, chapter 4, verse 1 onward. But the verse just before that — in fact, the whole chapter just before that — was a severe, scathing, offensive rebuke to the people of God, Israel.
The verse before that beautiful verse about the mountain being lifted up — Micah says, "I tell you this: Jerusalem will be destroyed and will be plowed like a field. The holy city will be utterly destroyed. And the cows will be there walking over the holy city. It will be ruined. It will be wiped out. Because of your sin. Because of your stiff-neckedness. Because you are all spiritually asleep."
The same passage in Micah chapter 4 is repeated — or the parallel passage is in Isaiah chapter 2. And there again, these beautiful words at the beginning of Isaiah chapter 2: "The mountain of the Lord will be lifted up." And the same mighty words of God will be revealed in Isaiah chapter 2. But what does it say in the chapter before that? In Isaiah chapter 1, what does it say?
Isaiah says to the people of God — not to unbelievers — to the people of God: "What are you people doing walking in and out of My temple? Singing songs of worship in My temple? Bringing sacrifices? I don't want to listen to your songs because they make Me sick," the Lord says. "I don't want your sacrifices. Take them away from Me. I don't want your sacrifices. Please, take them away from Me. What I want is a heart that is pure within you. And all I see is filth. You come and sing your songs in My temple. Outside you commit every kind of sin outside the temple. You fight and quarrel with one another. You tear one another apart. You're losing your temper with your wife, your children, everybody. And you come into the temple and you want to sing songs to Me? Get out of My sight. And take your sacrifices with you."
Isn't that more offensive than that? In modern terms it's saying the same thing. What do you come here for, to sing songs? When back at home you call yourself a Christian and you live a life that is disgraceful. Why do you come to church and put your money in the offering box? God doesn't want your money. Take it away. Can we get more offensive than that? I failed. I was impressed. I don't want to make any excuses for my failure. I only ask the Lord's forgiveness.
But I do not function as a prophet of the Lord. We are engaged in war. We are now in a war. A war far more serious than what is going on in the Gulf today. A war that has stretched over the last 2,000 years since the Lord Jesus came. And the troops have been progressively losing the war. But the troops have been thinking that they are winning. The troops started with a small group of people in Jerusalem. And now what we have is billions of Christians. I don't know whether it's one and a half, two billion Christians. I really don't care how many there are. We have many millions of Christians.
You know, this war is very difficult to fight. The war in the Persian Gulf is easy to follow. Today they are bombing over that side. The battle lines are going forth. This kind of war is easy to follow. But the war we are fighting is a very different kind of war. And therefore very difficult to follow. It's rather like a disease entering into your body, but you don't know it.
There was a Catholic priest who developed AIDS. He was not feeling well. So he went to the hospital to get a shot of something. It was supposed to be some antibiotics, a vaccine. But the needle was not clean. He got AIDS. He didn't know it was the disease. He gradually felt something not quite right. And then gradually found out that he is dying from AIDS now. If he had found out earlier, maybe something could have been done. But by the time he realized he had AIDS, it was too late.
I saw an interview with this priest. He was very calm, knowing that he was dying. But the tragedy was that his body was losing the battle. And within a few weeks he would be dead.
The kind of battle we are fighting — the church is called the body of Christ. The body. It needs only one little injection with a little bit of the disease on that needle, and the body would be fighting a battle. But this battle, as I said, is not like the visible battle between two armies. The battle is the battle of the body trying to survive the invasion of something that is killing it, but slowly. And by the time he realizes it, it is too late.
The body of Christ is now fighting for its survival. As the body loses the battle, what happens? You feel weaker and weaker. You feel more and more nauseous. You also have pain here and there. It is well known that probably everybody sitting here may have cancer cells operating in your body right now. Everybody has cancer cells in their body. You are still moving. Your body at this moment is fighting for its survival. One out of every three people in Hong Kong will die of cancer. On that statistic, one out of every three people sitting here will die of cancer. Now, it doesn't mean that the person who dies of cancer is the only one who has cancer cells in them. Those who are dying of cancer are not the only ones who have cancer cells in their body. In some cases, the body successfully fights the cancer cells and is therefore able to survive against falling victim to it. And then you end up dying of something else.
What is the disease? The church, and this is the point of my illustration, is fighting this kind of battle. This inner, secret battle that other people cannot see. That's what I mean. It is not like the Persian Gulf War. It is nothing dramatic. But every body, and especially the church, is fighting for its survival.
It is another way to put this picture. It is the battle between land and sea. The land is being invaded by the sea all the time. You know that? I don't mean the enemies on land and sea. But the land and the sea are fighting one another. You know that the sea is eating away the earth every year. As the waves come against the shores of every country, it is taking away some of the earth. And gradually, the land becomes smaller and smaller. The sea becomes bigger and bigger. Every year, the land is being reduced by the sea. It is not difficult to understand. The powerful movement of the waves smashing against the shore, day after day after day, is slowly eating away the land. But are you aware of that? You don't even know what's going on. After all, it takes only a few, maybe a few inches every year. So who needs to worry? There are thousands of years before they take up most of China. So we don't need to worry, right?
There is a very remarkable country in this world. A country that is very unusual. Do you know what that country is? That country is Holland. That is an amazing country. It is a very unique country. If you ever go to Europe, you should visit Holland sometime. What's unusual about Holland? Holland has been fighting a war with the sea. It has to try not only to push back the sea; it has to hold the sea back against its land. It is a serious and expensive battle. A few years ago, they spent fifty-four billion — that is fifty-four billion Hong Kong dollars — just to build one dike in one area to hold back the sea. Can you imagine what kind of sums they spend just to hold back the sea?
In 1953, one part of the dikes broke because of a storm. Two thousand people were drowned. The fierce battle going on. And you know what would happen if the dikes in Holland broke? Half the country would be under the sea. Half the country would be under the sea. Do you know at what depth? About seven meters under the sea level. Seven meters — that's more than 22 feet. That's incredible, isn't it? Half the country would be swallowed up by the sea if the dikes broke. And in that half of the country is two-thirds of the whole population of Holland. If the sea won the battle against the land, only a remnant of the Dutch people would survive. Do you understand why in one operation alone, to build a particular dike, they spend 54 billion Hong Kong dollars?
I once drove along one of the dikes of Holland along the North Sea. It's a very strange thing. In the sea you can see the sea level. And down below you can see the land of Holland on this side. The battle for survival. So if we ask what is the battle — it's a quiet, steady, but very dangerous battle that goes on, either between the body and disease, or between land and sea. I would like you to get this picture very clearly.
So if you ask me what is the battle for the Lord — the sea in the Bible represents chaos and evil. In the book of Revelation chapter 21 and verse 1, you will see there a remarkable sentence. That in the new Jerusalem, in the new age, there will be no more sea. Well, for some of us who love to swim, that may be too bad. But that is not the meaning of sea in the Bible. In the Bible, the sea has a special symbolic meaning because of its shifting, chaotic, uncontrollable character. That is why it symbolizes disorder, the power, the forces of disorder and chaos. And these forces — Jesus must reign until He brings them under control. And by the way, no matter how good a swimmer you are, every year some of the best swimmers drown. That is how unpredictable the sea is. It is not the poor swimmers that drown. It is the best swimmers that drown. Because the poor swimmers know that they are no good, therefore they are very, very careful.
# Watch: How to Discern the Truth (Part 2)
...are not watchful. Of course, we are all trained — especially if you are an underwater diver, like I am — you are trained to take precautions. But every year, there are people who are not watchful enough, and they drown. Many of us, when we go into deep sea, we carry a knife with us. When I go into the water with my knife strapped to my leg, many people look at me and say, "What is that for? You are going to fight with the sharks?" I am afraid that the knife will not do very much to a shark. But it is part of the watchfulness that we are trained in. Because of that watchfulness, we must carry that knife.
Against what? Well, you know that people all like to do fishing. And what you fish with nowadays is a nylon line. That nylon line may be very thin and almost invisible. Now, if you take one thin nylon line and you try with all your strength to see if you can break it — it will cut your hand long before you can break it. And the worst part is you can't see it in the water. Now, a swimmer coming by will get caught in that nylon line time and again. And the more you struggle, the tighter it gets on your leg or on your arm or your neck, whatever. One of the reasons for carrying the knife is precisely in order to cut yourself free if you get caught in that. In fact, that is one reason why many good swimmers drown. They get caught in fishing lines.
What are these fishing lines doing? As you know, many people fish and their hook got caught on a rock down below. So what do you do? You pull. You think, "I got a great big fish." They get very excited and pull very hard. And then finally the whole string goes. And then, of course, they thought, "I missed the big fish." Actually, all they hooked was a great rock down below. But the problem is that that hook is still hooked there and that nylon string could still be floating there, especially if there's a float. And too bad for the swimmer that swims into that nylon string and gets caught. You have one minute to get out or else you drown. You can't hold your breath for longer than one minute, especially when you panic. That's why we carry the knife. Watchfulness.
So the first point I want to establish is this: the reason why we lose the battle time and again against the sea or against sickness and so on is because of the lack of watchfulness. After all, I've also run into a shark once upon a time. You have to watch out for those too. But of course, you're not going to win any fight with a knife, big or small. Once you see a shark, we are also trained to take proper evasive actions. So you've got to know what to look out for.
Let us, before we go on, look at the importance of watchfulness and what to watch out for. We look at Mark chapter 13. It shows you how important this constant scriptural teaching about watchfulness is. The last word again is "watch." You know, in all the years I have been a Christian I have never heard any preacher preach a message about watching. It seems that nobody knows what there is to watch. You notice how many times the Lord Jesus says "watch" — but nobody is watching.
That time when I was swimming in Malaysia, I knew that there are sharks in Malaysian waters. And that is why I was watching. And sure enough, I saw a shark not far away from me. We know that sharks attack from the back. Therefore, you have to watch. You have to keep looking back as you swim along to see whether a shark is closing in on you. Most sharks will not attack you head on, face to face. Therefore, you need to watch in order to survive.
I said that we are fighting a dangerous battle, and one reason we are losing — the reason why the church is losing — is because it doesn't watch. By the time you are attacked by a shark, it's too late. You won't even know what hit you. You'll be gone so fast, you didn't know what happened.
Then I took evasive action. I went into shallow water and I waited. Of course, I pulled out my knife. At least, you have to try to do something, even if there's not much of a defense. You have to do what you can. And of course, I kept facing the shark the whole time. And that shark waited around for half an hour, circling around. I had to watch the whole time.
After some half an hour, I didn't see the shark anymore. It disappeared, because in Malaysia, the water is so clear, unlike in Hong Kong. You can see a long way in the water. But I had a long distance to swim back to shore. At least 20 minutes' distance from that island where I was to swim back to the shore. So I had to swim back, and all the time watching, watching the whole time.
The church must learn — you must learn — if you are going to survive spiritually, to watch. As I said again, it's not a battle like two armies. It's sudden — from nowhere, the shark appears. And then it disappeared. Where did it go? And the whole time, I had to keep watching, and I had to swim relatively slowly, because quick movements will attract the attention of the shark again.
The second point then is: what are we to watch? We must know what we are looking for. If you say to somebody, "Watch," he doesn't know what he's supposed to look at. That's part of our training. When we go into diving, we watch out for the possibility of swimming into an almost invisible nylon net underneath that's there to catch fish, but then catches you. You have to watch out for very many dangerous creatures, not just sharks. Oh, there are many things that could threaten your life in the water. You have to learn to know what you are looking for the whole time. And what happens when you meet up with it — what are you going to do? Not to panic.
There is another type of creature in the sea that's called a moray eel. It's a type of eel. But this one has very, very sharp teeth. It always keeps its mouth open and you see all the teeth in there. If you get bitten by one of these moray eels, you're in trouble.
And again, while I was swimming in Malaysia, I swam out towards that island that I mentioned. The water was shallow. There were many rocks below. And suddenly, when I swam over a rock, I saw one of these moray eels right down below. That moray eel was one foot — just one foot — from my face, about from this distance to my face. Now, you know that they look like snakes. And it's not very pleasant to see one of those. So I was there — he was looking at me, I was looking at him. To decide who bites who.
So again, you see: watch, and knowing what to watch out for, and then when you see it, what to do. So then I slowly glided over it. And he watched me all the way, but it didn't strike. And when you pass, you feel — that was close.
Do you know what to watch out for? Every day, you go out into the world, and there are so many things waiting to hit you — the enemies. We read just now in 1 Corinthians 15, not "an enemy," but "enemies," plural — many. And any one of these can cost you your life, or could take off a leg and an arm.
Now, when it comes to the gospel, what are we to look out for? How do we know when we are listening to the message whether it's true or false? In order to survive, we must be able to tell what is true and what is false. While you're listening to me preaching, how do you know what I'm saying is true or false? If what I am saying is false — and believe me, it is far more dangerous than any of those other dangers that I mentioned during swimming or danger to health and so on — because this has to do with eternal life. What are we going to do? Do you know how to tell?
Let us turn to 1 Corinthians 1. And verse 23: "But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles." Remarkable passage. You may be familiar with this passage. Like so many Christians, they read the Bible but they don't know really what is the significance of the passage. And strangely enough, on this passage, I have heard quite a few messages being preached. But do we know what this means? How do we apply this in terms of the question of discernment? How can we gain spiritual insight into what are the things that threaten our life? How do I gain insight into what is true or false?
My brothers and sisters, let me tell you this. There is a lot of false teaching in the church. And the sea, which I said in the Bible represents chaos and evil and falsehood, is eating away at the church. There is a lot of teaching in the church that is wrong. I include ourselves. I'm not criticizing other churches; I'm talking about ourselves. And I'm going to give you an illustration, an instance of this, in which I want to demonstrate where we go wrong.
This passage tells us one way to discern. It says the character of the gospel is like this. You must understand its character before you know what is true. The character of the gospel is that we preach Christ. Everybody knows that. We preach Christ crucified. Everybody knows that. What's new? What's new is this: that none of this is offensive anymore. What has happened?
Paul says — and it's not true today. It's simply not true anymore today. Paul says that the preaching of Christ, the preaching of the cross is offensive to the Jews. It is a stumbling block. They hate it. And for the non-Jews — what's called the Greeks, the non-Jews — it is foolishness. It is nonsense. It is stupidity. Can the Savior of the world be nailed on a cross?
You see what has happened. I say we think we are winning, but we are losing. We think we are winning because we have removed the offense of the cross. What used to be offensive is not offensive anymore. Because we have taken the offense of the cross out of it, that means we have changed its character. That's why I said I regret I failed at the conference — that my message was not offensive.
That is why in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, it says that the word of God is a sharp two-edged sword. But today we have made that sword very dull. It has long been made very dull. Your sword is no longer sharp. But Hebrews 4:12 says this: that the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. No matter how marvelous your sword is, the word of God is sharper. What does a sharp sword do? Oh, it cuts. It's very dangerous. You really need to know how to handle it, otherwise you're going to hurt the wrong people.
So this passage tells us that the true message of the cross, the true message of the gospel, is always offensive to the natural man. And which of us is not carnal? I would like to know which of you are so spiritual here that you are not carnal at all. I am not so spiritual that there is no more carnality in me. Now, that sharp two-edged sword, let me tell you, will kill the carnal man in you. Because the only way to save you is to kill you — that is, to kill the sinful man in you, the sinful character in you — so that the new man in Christ can live. And for that reason, because all of us are still carnal, that message of the cross will always continue to offend us. If it stops offending you, you are not reading the Bible anymore.
As I said, we have today taken the sharp edge of the word of God. The church has done a wonderful job. It has taken the sharp edge off the word of God, and it is no longer offensive. Such a good job the church has done of destroying the sharp edge of the sword of God that today, even if you go into China, they will say, "Oh yes, religion and Christianity is very good. It is spiritual comfort." You try getting some spiritual comfort out of leaning against a sharp sword. We have destroyed the offensive character of the gospel. Even the non-Christian who knows next to nothing about the Bible will know the beautiful twenty-third Psalm that our sister sang for us just now. A person completely not understanding the Bible will say, "I feel so good." Now that is beautiful. But let me tell you, the edge of that sword is very, very sharp. But if I asked you, could you tell me where is the sharpness of that sword? You probably wouldn't know where it is. Why? Because the church has done a beautiful job. They have taken the sword and put it on the grinding stone, and now what do you do? You can use it as a walking stick. Especially with my bad back, I can walk with it. Wonderful! The sword has become a walking stick. The church thinks it's winning, and it has destroyed the gospel.
The 23rd Psalm is very important, and we thank our sister for singing it. Because it's amazing — I was going to mention this Psalm and I didn't know that our sister was going to sing it. It's really the leading of the Spirit. Where is the sharpness? I won't spend time to expound it. I'll just mention it. "The Lord is my shepherd." You think that's comforting? You know what shepherd means in the Bible? The shepherd was a picture of the king. Many times in the Bible the word "shepherd" is used — it refers to the king. And when you say "The Lord is my shepherd," it means nothing unless it means God is my king. And the king is a king of holiness. And let me tell you this: if you are going to sin and live in sin, don't you dare to quote that verse, that Psalm. Jesus shall reign until He deals with every enemy, including the enemy in your life. And if you are the enemy, you will come under His sword.
To my mind it's a total mystery how a non-Christian can say "The Lord is my shepherd." When was He your king? And then it goes on, and there the sharpness gets even further. Maybe some other time I can expound this. You know what it goes on to say there? "Your rod and your staff, they comfort me." We've lost the sharpness of that too, haven't we? You know what you do with the rod? The rod is not for a walking stick, you know. The rod was a weapon. The rod was for beating. The shepherd used the rod for beating or killing a wolf if it attacked the sheep. And what is more, it will beat the sheep. The shepherd will also beat the sheep when it goes out of line.
When was the last time when you got beaten by the Lord and you thought it was very comforting? "Thank you. I enjoyed the beating very much." But that's what the Psalm is saying: "Your beating with the rod comforts me." You say this guy is nutty. He is very wise. Because he knows that with that rod, with the beating from the Lord, the Lord is keeping him from straying off track and being killed by a wolf. In other words, you have to be very spiritual even to understand the meaning of this Psalm, otherwise you are misusing it.
Let us go on quickly. We can discern that unless you see and you willingly, like the Psalmist say, "I thank You for the offense of Your gospel, for that stick, that rod, that beats me — it comforts me, that You care for me enough to beat me." That is the way you should read your Bible. That every time you read the Bible, don't you dare to take the sharp edge off that Bible. It is precisely that which will save you. It is precisely because so much of the Bible is rebuke. And it's only when you have learned to thank the Lord for the rebuke — that it cuts you, it hurts you, it beats you — that you only then can benefit from the blessings that the Bible also contains. Only then can we talk about the mountain of the Lord being lifted up and drawing all the people. Until then, there's no use for us to talk about this. I hope now you can understand more fully why I say I failed to bring out the offense. There's no use talking about the promises without talking about the offense.
Now I want to give an example. I want to say this because I think it's very important for us to be self-critical rather than critical of others. I have already criticized myself for my own failure. Here I have to criticize a co-worker. I am not criticizing him but for this particular section of a message. I also have to say that he has preached some very good messages. But when I thought about his message and the illustration he used, it worried me. Here I'm going to be offensive, you will see. I offend even our co-workers. My co-workers know me very well. I'm very offensive sometimes. Because the truth must be said. The rod has to be used. The sword must be drawn.
Now our time is running out fast and I want to cover this quickly. In this message, this dear co-worker was talking about the importance of transformation — that the Christian must become a transformed person. And that is absolutely true. But the illustration is the problem. And what bothered me was how everybody who listened to that message welcomed that illustration so much. Oh, they found it very wonderful. So vivid, so beautiful. And it tells me that our church has got a lot of problems if you think that is good. Our church, brothers and sisters, have a long way to go spiritually before we have discernment, before we watch and have insight to see what is right and what is wrong.
And I hope that you will do me this kindness. I hope that my beloved co-workers will do me this kindness: that if you detect anything in my message that is not absolutely hundred percent in line with the word of God, you come to me and tell me. Take the sword of the Spirit, the sharp sword of the Spirit, and use it on me. Because in that way you are doing me a great kindness, and you are doing all the churches a great kindness.
So the message was about transformation. And we know that to be a true Christian is to be transformed. And this dear co-worker used the illustration about a frog turning into a prince. Very interesting picture. It comes from, of course, a western, a European fairy tale, in which the frog somehow is then transformed, changed into a beautiful, handsome prince. Well, that's a good picture of transformation, no? What's wrong with it?
If you preach this message to any non-Christian, would it be offensive? If we use the guideline of offensiveness, of course it's not offensive. It makes very good sense. In other words, that illustration failed in the same way that I failed. You see, there are several problems when we analyze this illustration.
First of all, not all princes are handsome. What is more, it conveys the wrong picture because princes are people with position and power in the world, even though they are not necessarily handsome. Secondly, not all frogs are ugly. Have you looked at some nice frogs? Oh, very cute. I feel very sorry — why should the nice happy little frog become a prince? You've seen some nice green-colored, very beautiful little frogs. What's ugly about a frog? In fact, I'm not alone in thinking that frogs are not that ugly. If you go to a shop sometimes you'll see nice stuffed big green frogs, and children love to play with the great big cuddly frog. So even on the human analysis this illustration doesn't really work that well.
But there is also rather unpleasant implications in this illustration. It seems to imply that all non-Christians are frogs because they have not yet been transformed, and all Christians are princes. And we know that that's nowhere near the truth. Come, look at all our princes and princesses here. Of course, you may be exceptions; you're all very handsome and all very excellent, that's fine. But dare we say that all non-Christians are ugly frogs? Now I'm not sure that this was in the mind of our co-worker when he was using this illustration. Maybe this was not in his mind. Maybe he just wanted to illustrate the point. But even in the illustration we can convey falsehood. I warn all our co-workers of our heavy responsibility in the preaching of the word of God.
But the worst part of the illustration is that it is false — falsehood both from the scriptural point of view. Indeed, we are talking about a transformation. But what kind of transformation? If we are going to illustrate the transformation in this way, we've got it upside down. In the Bible, the transformation might be more correctly described as a transformation from a prince to becoming a frog. And that would have turned the illustration upside down. And that is what the Bible says, from any point of view you like to put it. That's what the Bible says. That's very offensive, and that is really foolishness in the hearer's ears. "Who are you asking me — a prince, that I think I am — to become a frog?" Now you begin to preach according to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 in the passage we read. Otherwise we are going to preach the wrong kind of transformation and for the wrong motives.
The Bible tells us to humble ourselves from our princely position — from what we think is our beauty and our righteousness and our status and our riches. After all, when you think of a prince, what do you think of? You think of a person with position, with power, with wealth. That's what we think of. Do we want Christians to be transformed from lowliness and humility to positions of power and strength in the world? The concept of transformation is correct, but what kind of transformation are we talking about?
What is more, it is contrary even to the message that was in the camp. For God only exalts what is lowly. So if we do not realize the need for first becoming a frog, we will never be lifted up. We already consider ourselves — every sinner thinks of himself as a prince. He must learn to humble himself down. That's what I say to you today.
Do you know how to discern the truth of the message? Suppose I didn't tell you what's wrong with that illustration, could you tell me what was wrong with the illustration? Probably not. Why? Because it appeals to you.
# Watch: How to Discern the Truth (Part 3)
My brothers and sisters, you have to listen even to our preaching with great care. You may not know what to watch out for. You must watch out whether that message you hear is pleasing or offensive. That's one guideline. If it is not offensive, it is likely that it is not the word of God. We want to become princes; we are not going to become Christlike. I just ask you to read Isaiah 52 to 53 — the last part of 52, and especially chapter 53. Do you think that the Lord Jesus was like some handsome prince? What does it say there? "His visage was so marred and so ugly that nobody wanted to look at Him." You see, this is understood not just physically but also spiritually. He was despised and rejected by men.
You think if Prince Charles came to Hong Kong, he would be despised and rejected by men? Oh yes, our Christian pastors have a way to explain that. They have another way so that the sword will not be sharp anymore. They are going to tell us that Jesus became ugly so that we can become beautiful. How convincing it sounds. Unfortunately, that's not Bible teaching either. The Bible tells us something quite different. It's that the world will always hate us. You can see they don't hate us anymore. Do they hate you? Do they hate me? Nowadays, if you're a pastor, you're out there. Even the government looks at you — oh, pastor is good.
If you apply for immigration to Canada, Australia, if you put "pastor," you jump from the back of the row where all those poor frogs are standing, and then you come to the front because you're now a prince. When we go to Canada and the United States, we are princes. When President Bush is having difficulty and lonely, who does he talk to? He talks to Billy Graham. I ask: which of you can get near to Billy Graham? Because you're not a pastor. You're nobody. You're just a frog. So obviously, you all want to become princes. That is the tragedy, brothers and sisters, of the church today. We think we won and we have lost.
When people ask me, "What do you do?" I don't want to say I'm a pastor. I say I'm a church caretaker. "Oh, you clean the floor?" Oh, yeah, sometimes I do that too. Okay, fine. So I'm a frog. Well, wonderful. Because then I'm in line with the will of God.
Let us look at John chapter 15. I ask you to read verses 18 and 19: "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." Is this verse true? Not true. Not anymore. It used to be true. The church today is powerful, especially in the United States. No president of the United States dares to offend the church — I mean the whole church. Why? How many votes are you going to lose? That is why Reagan is a Christian. He goes to church and meets with all the princes. And Bush is also a Christian. And Carter is a Christian. They're all Christians. Because if you're not a Christian, you're going to lose all your votes. But if you can have Billy Graham next to you, then how many million votes can you get from that alone?
The Bible is not true anymore. The Lord's teaching is not true anymore. Or is it that we are not true anymore? Which one? Are the words of the Lord Jesus false, or are we false? We don't offend the world anymore. Where is the offense? We have long since lost the sharpness. The world loves us. Oh, they respect us, especially the pastors. Oh, they are people of position. If I go through customs, especially in the United States — "What's your profession?" You say, "Pastor." Through. Prince. Next guy. Frog. Open up everything. Take everything apart. Because you're a frog. No wonder everybody wants to become a prince.
So I say to my dear co-workers — and I'm saying this publicly because it's very offensive, because it's a public message — I have to correct it publicly. I have also warned all my dear co-workers: if you say something false in public, I will correct you in public. I will draw the sharp sword in order to save the church. I expect them to do the same to me.
The Bible is not a transformation, my dear friends, from frog to prince. It's exactly the opposite. Psalm 22 — I will just mention it to you. Where the Psalmist says, "I am no man but a worm." You know who was writing the Psalm? King David. The king is going to be a worm. He says, "I am a worm." Not to mention a prince. The king becomes a worm. A worm is even lower than a frog, no? What kind of transformation are we talking about? The Bible's transformation is in the opposite direction from the illustration.
We must close. And we can see the importance of being able to discern the truth. We are going to learn to understand the truth. It is so important. Are you willing to become a frog or a worm?
And the most interesting thing about the book of Revelation and the pictures that are used there — because it's a book of pictures — is that the lamb overcomes the dragon. What would you like to be? A dragon or a lamb? Of course, all Chinese people want to be dragons. You'll become the emperor. You'll even get to sit on the dragon throne. Who wants to be a lamb? A lamb is going to be gobbled up. You'll end up as lamb stew. But the Bible tells us exactly the opposite. The transformation is not from lamb to dragon but from dragon to lamb. And it is precisely the lamb that overcomes the dragon. It is God's power working through the lamb. It is God's power working through the worm — such as me — in order to defeat the kings of this world. Let us understand this thing clearly.
The last point then I must very quickly close. How do we apply all this? How is it and for what reason does the world stop hating us? Quite simple. Because your life is not a challenge to them. Your life does not offend them. The Lord Jesus said in John chapter 3 that people hate Him. Why? Because His light, the light of His life, exposes the darkness of their lives. Does your life expose the darkness of others and expose the darkness of this world? Or are you like all the non-Christians, just the same as them, just a little bit nicer, just a little bit more polite? Let me tell you that if you live the Christian life in the way you are supposed to live it, you will be very offensive. They will hate you. But then you know that you are a true Christian.
So here we come to the conclusion. Here we know how a message is true or false. Here we also know how we know that a Christian is true or false. If you mix with your non-Christian friends and they think you are just fine, just one of them — you are not a Christian at all. Forget it. But if they find something about your life convicting them, offensive to them, then you know you are a true Christian. Now you know you have been transformed in the true sense of the word. Now you know that you are a new person.
I sum up the message quickly. I wonder if you noticed the words that I used. The first is watchfulness. Watchfulness starts with W in English. The second has to do with insight — to see, to discern what is true and false. Insight in English starts with I. And the last word I mentioned briefly — I have no time now to develop — is the newness of life, so new that people can see that you are different and your life challenges them and even offends them. Newness starts with N.
By now you will have noticed that these letters stand for WIN: Watchfulness, Insight, Newness. Only in this way, living under Jesus' kingship, can we win this battle. Which right now, unfortunately, we are losing, even though we imagine we are winning. Pray for the Lord to deliver the church from self-deception.