So I'd like to thank you for the warm welcome that you have given me. Much too generous a welcome. Rather overwhelming, I should say. And it's really a great joy to see you all again. Looking well after two years. I think it was two years ago since I was last here. And my wife Helen would also like to express her joy at seeing you. And thank you also for the very kind welcome you have given to us. Also, at the airport and various places coming here, various co-workers have asked me to send their love and greetings to each one of you. And I think we'll spend a lot of time if I had to mention who all of them are. So I just put it very generally that co-workers ask that their love and their greetings be sent to all of you.
And just now listening to Uncle Wong's sharing, I find very encouraging. Because I can see that not only has he progressed a long way since that time that he was sharing about, five years ago. But I can see that together with him, all of you have progressed. And that gives us cause for much joy. I didn't know that Uncle Wong was quite so eloquent in his sharing. So that was an added surprise. I think many of you also have many hidden gifts, which if given a chance would also blossom forth.
Today, of course, I will be preaching the word of God in English. But I want to say, because people sometimes ask me, do you know any Chinese? This question is very frustrating to me. Because I am basically Chinese educated. So I speak, I preach in English only because most can understand Mandarin, I guess, but they don't seem to be too comfortable in Mandarin. And for the benefit of our foreign friends, they might wonder, how come Chinese people are speaking in English? That's often a mystery to them, you see. Well, the explanation to that is simply because we have too many dialects among the Chinese people. And when most people do not speak the national language, then in the end, we seem to have to end up speaking English, much to our embarrassment sometimes. But so often, overseas, I have to speak in English, that I find it, as I said, quite frustrating if people ask me, do you speak Chinese? I was educated in English only up to primary school level, if you believe it or not. And my middle school or secondary education was all in Chinese. So, in that sense, I'm bilingual. And, of course, I've had to use English a great deal more than Chinese over the years, having lived in England for a very long time and then also in Canada.
But so I just want to clarify this point, since I've been preaching in English, that people don't ask me again, do you speak Chinese? Of course, I also speak, besides Mandarin, my own dialect, which is Shanghainese. And there are tens of millions of people in China who speak Shanghainese because Shanghai is a major city and attracts people from all over China for business or for education to the many universities and other institutions in Shanghai. So, quite apart from Shanghainese people, there are tens of millions of people who speak Shanghainese. So, if you speak Shanghainese, you're always welcome to try it out.
It's quite amusing because some years back, I was going back to Hong Kong for my brother-in-law's wedding. So, I asked my wife, does your father speak English? She said, I don't think so. What about Mandarin? She says, I don't know. I thought to myself, this is terrible. I'm going to meet my father-in-law, and I don't know how I'm going to speak with him. I mean, we're going to use sign language or something? This is very awkward. But when I got off the plane in Hong Kong, I was thinking, oh, now comes the moment of truth. So, when I met him, he greeted me in Shanghainese. I nearly fell down. I said, you speak Shanghainese? And he continued in perfect Shanghainese. He's Cantonese, you see. And he speaks perfect Shanghainese. I said, I never knew. I said to my wife, why didn't you tell me that your dad speaks Shanghainese? She said, I didn't know. Because they always speak to each other in Cantonese. He spoke perfect Shanghainese. And I asked him, how is it that you're able to speak Shanghainese? He said, well, I lived in Shanghai. I was doing business in Shanghai for so many years. And when I say perfect, it means perfect. He didn't have even an accent. He spoke Shanghainese that well. So, I was delighted that we had no language barrier. I was further delighted to discover that his other two sons-in-law were both Shanghainese. So, when the four of us, the father-in-law and the other two sons-in-law and myself, got together, we all happily were conversing in Shanghainese.
Well, until then, we'll proceed in English, shall we? Today, the Lord willing, I'm going to expound on a very important passage in the word of God. That is in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 12. Philippians chapter 2 and verse 12. And it reads like this. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
Now, the words we must look at today is work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Now, in all my life as a Christian, it has been quite a while, I have never heard a message on these important words. Why are these words important? Because they have to do with salvation. Our salvation has to be worked out. And it has to be worked out with these surprising words, fear and trembling. We tended to think that the Christian life is about love and joy and peace and all this. We never thought that fear and trembling has anything to do with the Christian life, with our salvation. And if you look into various commentaries of Philippians, you will look in vain for a satisfactory explanation of these words. I have often asked various people, tell me what you think this means. Nobody seems to know how to explain these words. It seems that the key to understanding the Bible and understanding salvation has somewhere been lost. If we lose the key of salvation, we have lost everything. So today we want to concentrate, to ask the Lord to enable us to understand what these exceedingly important words mean.
Now, if we did a word study on this, we will not find the answer either. We must understand the broad base from which the principle of these words are to be derived. Now, before we do that, let us commit this time to the Lord in prayer. Gracious Father, we earnestly pray that you will grant to us the joy of your presence and that by your Holy Spirit you will lead us into all truth as you have promised. And no truth is more important than the truth of salvation. So we earnestly ask that you will illuminate our understanding so that we may be able to work out the salvation which you have given to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Help us to understand, Lord, what is the secret of the Christian life? What is the secret of victory? Forgive us that we so often live in defeat and cannot taste the real abundance of the Christian life. Show us today, O Lord, from your word how to live this life. We ask for your glory's sake in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.
Work out your salvation. How? How to work it out? The surprising answer is with fear and trembling. For the apostle Paul, the apostle of liberty, the apostle who writes in Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit, about the abundance of love and joy and peace, how come when it comes to the matter of working out salvation, he speaks of fear and trembling? Now this is not the kind of message we are used to. Today we hear things about power evangelism, power and strength and glory and majesty. These are the kind of words we like to hear. Fear and trembling is not what we are inclined to listen to. Not what we are used to hearing. So, how do we understand this? What is the meaning of fear and trembling?
Now, if you take a concordance, you are going to be surprised that Paul uses this term quite a number of times and in that combination, fear and trembling, several times he uses that. And he uses it with slightly different meanings in different contexts. In some contexts, it means to be submissive and obedient. Slaves to their masters. Jesus, we find that surprising too, that he should give this kind of exhortation. But he uses it even of himself. Let me give you a look at just one example. In 1 Corinthians, he uses such an example. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, and verse 3, and this is what he says. I'll read from verse 2 because it's very important.
For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Notice the words. Not Jesus Christ as Lord of glory, as King of glory. Not Jesus Christ in his majesty and his dominion as Lord of lords and King of kings. But Jesus Christ crucified. That is Jesus Christ in his utter weakness. In his state of powerlessness hanging on a cross. He says, I don't want to know anything else. Not even the lordship of Christ at this time. I want to talk and I want to think and I'm determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ crucified. And then he goes on. I was with you what? In power? As an apostle? No. I was with you in weakness. As though that is not enough, he goes on to say in fear and trembling. Not just trembling but much trembling.
I find all this surprising. How do we understand this? The great apostle of power. He's talking about I was with you in weakness. Now in this combination you see immediately that fear and trembling is merely another form, another way of describing weakness. So weak that you reach the point of trembling. Have you ever experienced that? I have been at times in a state of such physical weakness that when I lift my hand I see my hand shaking like this. I look at my hand and I say what's happening? What's happening to me? Have you ever felt so weak that the fever is so high that you are trembling? You are shaking because of the fever. I think almost everybody has experienced that. And fear and trembling in that combination is then the expression of extreme weakness. I was in your midst in a state of extreme weakness.
How do we understand this? Surely the Christian life is about power. Power evangelism they talk about. Power this and power that. Yeah, we like power. There's somebody in the United States who sells a book by the name of Robbins. He just put power on the cover and the book sells like hotcakes. Everybody wants power. You want to sell a book? Write any rubbish you like and just put power. How to get power. And your book will sell. Believe me. Try it sometime. Who wants a book about weakness? If I put out a book and said how to become weak? That book will sit on the shelf, nobody ever look at it. Or at least they look at it and never buy it. What fool is going to buy a book like this? How to become weak? Ridiculous. Well I'm going to preach a ridiculous message today. Because that's what I'm going to talk about.
Why was the apostle Paul so effective in his ministry? Have you ever thought about it? If you study theology they're always talking about Paul this and Paul that and Paul the other thing. Who wrote all these epistles that we study? Paul. What is his secret? Weakness. What? No. Yes. It's weakness. He's sharing his secret right here. I was with you. And how was I there? I swayed. I puffed out my chest. I lifted up my chin. Pulled myself up to my full five foot one inch height. And overwhelmed everyone with my enormous presence. My charismatic power. And when everyone looked at me the apostle Paul and my halo was shining bright. That is it. Presence. That's what the world wants. Everything is about presence. You can't become general manager of a company looking like a mouse creeping around like this. You've got to walk around. Make your presence felt. Wave your stick around. That's the way to do it.
What does Paul say? I was in your presence in weakness. Look again. Somebody must have sneaked those words in. That can't be from Paul. Oh, sorry, but that is from Paul. And how weak? Fear and trembling. Can you imagine the great apostle Paul sitting there shaking. What? You're cold? We turn off the air con. It's a bad day today. You're not feeling good? You want aspirin? Can you imagine this? Is Paul exaggerating? There is here a principle so important that it has to do with salvation. Remember, it's in Philippians it's also written by Paul. And what did he say? Work out your salvation with what? Fear and trembling.
Now we understand. In this combination we understand fear and trembling is the expression of weakness. Do you work out your salvation with fear and trembling? Do you sense the profound weakness of your life? You know, that's the problem with many of us. So many Christians inwardly are so weak. But it will not do to show your weakness. It is not Christian to show weakness. You've got to smile broadly when you can't even smile. Because if you don't smile the brothers and sisters say, oh, you got stomach ache today? Headache? Your wife scolded you? What's going on? Oh, no, no, no, please smile. You're trying to look good. Inwardly, you feel terrible. But it's important to put on the Colgate smile. Yeah, that's right. You pull up the muscle a bit. A little bit wider. And what do you feel? You feel like a complete hypocrite, isn't it? You feel like a complete fool. You don't mean a word you say. You're good? Oh, good, good, good, good. You say to yourself, come on, is it good? Oh, well, I have to say good. We dare not admit that we are weak. We dare not admit that we feel miserable.
And so, what do we do? We walk around as hypocrites. And at the end of the Sunday, oh, you know what I mean? You're so tired. The whole day of acting has worn you out. I mean, you could have gotten a job in Hollywood. You did such a good job. Everyone thought you were wonderful. And in fact, all the time you're miserable, right? Does that sound familiar to you? We don't have the courage to admit, I'm weak. Today, I am so tired. Today, I feel so sad. Why? Because the whole week, I couldn't live the Christian life. I couldn't. Why couldn't you do it? Well, you see, I was trying to put on this show of strength and I wore myself out. And the more I put on this show of strength, the more tired I got. In the end, I don't even have the will to put on this show of strength anymore. I don't care what anybody thinks about me anymore.
Well, maybe you finally arrived at where you should have been in the first place. I think the church would be a healthier place if we could come to the communion and prayer meeting and just say, frankly, brothers and sisters, I don't feel good. I don't feel good. Forgive me if I can't smile today. I'd be grateful if you could remember me in your prayers. I'd be very honest with you. I couldn't live victoriously through the past week. I've done things that I shouldn't have done. I've said things I shouldn't have said. Forgive me if I can't smile today. Please support me in your prayer. I think we would feel so much more genuine, isn't it, without all this ridiculous pretense of which so much of the Christian life is carried on in this fashion.
So, working out your salvation with fear and trembling means at least this. It will mean more than this, but at least this. To be genuine and acknowledging that we are weak. To be genuine and acknowledging that we are not as great as we imagine ourselves to be or want other people to think ourselves to be. The apostle Paul was not given to acting. And what is more, he was determined not only not to act, but he was determined to place himself in the position of weakness. Do you know what I mean by that? Now that's hard.
As you go on to study the apostle Paul's way of doing things, you go from surprise to surprise. Let me give you an example of what I mean using Paul's words. This is not a Bible study, so I shall try to avoid giving a lot of references. But from time to time we have to look at some of these things. In 2 Corinthians, I can read it for you so you don't need to turn to the passage. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 1. Perhaps I'll read at verse 10 first. Chapter 10, verse 10. For his letters, they say, Paul's letters, they say, are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. No, not a charismatic presence. Not an impressive presence. No. Notice the word weak. We saw that same word in 1 Corinthians just now. I was among you weak. His bodily presence, his physical presence, unimpressive. Weak. And his speech, eloquent? No. Contemptible.
Now Paul, with his massive education and his remarkable intelligence that everyone agrees, he is so learned that in one of his trials, the one who tried him said, Paul, your great learning has made you mad. Oh, Paul was a very learned man. And learning, of course, is the foundation of eloquence. Because you command a huge vocabulary, you know how to state your case. Education makes you able to express yourself well. So how is it possible that his speech is contemptible? There's only one way it could be contemptible. And given his enormous intelligence, as everyone knows, there's only one way it could be contemptible. It was of his own choice. In 1 Corinthians 2, just now we read, I was among you as weak. It's because he chose to be weak. That's the way he chose to be. He chose not to impress. He chose not to be eloquent. And he explains in 1 Corinthians 2 why. He said, lest your faith be in the wisdom of men, not in the power of God. Therefore, I put aside all human wisdom. Striking. We are beginning to see the secret of the way in which Paul works. So completely different from human ways of doing things.
Our preachers in seminaries are trained to be eloquent. To put an impressive presence in the pulpit. And Paul is doing the opposite. I find this strange indeed. And now to verse 1. Now I, Paul, myself, am pleading with you. Did he say, I'm commanding you? I am the apostle. I am the pastor of the churches in Corinth. I am the boss. I command you. No, no, no. I am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. The Christ crucified. Remember? He only determined to know Christ not as king. Therefore, he doesn't command. He knows Christ as the crucified one. Therefore, he pleads in the meekness of the one who let himself be crucified. In the gentleness of the one who died for our sins. And he says, who in presence, no, he's taking up their words. Who in my presence, in my physical presence, am lowly among you. But you say, in my absence, I am bold through my letters.
Paul then, here is his secret. This is the reason why God uses this man. That's the amazing thing. He doesn't use human techniques. You know, one of the things that puzzles me in North America, and I go into all these bookshops, especially Christian bookshops, is I find that the church is trying to use the methods of the world to preach the gospel. Methods of human wisdom. You see books, for example, of the keys to excellence. Striving for excellence. The kind of excellence they are talking about is the excellence of the world. The techniques of the world. The business administration of the world. The leadership principles of the world. This is the kind of stuff that they want to apply in the church. And that's what they do. These are the kind of books you see all the best sellers in Christian bookshops. And these books, many of them are not even written by Christians. They are written by business experts in the world. So far have we departed from the gospel that we don't understand anymore that these principles cannot be applied in the church. They cannot be used in the church. They are the reverse of the way the church works.
Paul chooses to be lowly. He chooses to speak in such a way that he puts away human wisdom and does not impress with the excellence of his learning, of his tremendous intelligence. Many people class Paul as a genius. If you read his letters such as Romans you will easily understand why. You can see even when he does not try to impress that he is a man of far above average intelligence. And when he doesn't try to impress his learning is evident enough. But he chooses to be lowly. Not to use his authority, much less to misuse it. He doesn't throw his weight around. He doesn't boss people around. He says I plead with you in the meekness and gentleness of Christ. There is no banging of the pulpit because anyone who bangs the pulpit must think himself to be something that has the right to bang pulpits, to scold people in this arrogant fashion. Have you heard preachers like that? They are unbelievably arrogant and they think that that is power. That is authority. Well that is nonsense.
But I am pressing on towards this fundamental principle. And here we come to the other thing. The gospel is the exact reverse of the way the world works. And until you understand that you will never live the Christian life much less work out your salvation. Because you don't know what fear and trembling is. You don't know how to choose fear and trembling because it is by choice. Nobody is going to force it on you. Nobody made Paul to be gentle and meek or required him to be so. He chose to be like this.
In my non-Christian days, I used to, in teenage days, I used to look at those magazines that young boys like to look at. And many of these magazines are advertising bodybuilding things. And they show you one picture of some pitiful skinny stick of a skeleton figure here looking utterly fit as a specimen for medical studies where you without stripping them you can still see all their bones. And then beside that picture is the picture of the same guy after training with this Atlas school or whatever it is of bodybuilding. There is this muscle man who is bulging in all directions. And of course you look at these two pictures and you look at yourself in the mirror and say I'm rather too uncomfortably close to this skeleton here and I would like to move on a little bit to this side of the picture, this he-man bulging there.
So what attracts you? You want to be like this. What's so beautiful about all these bulging muscles? Well, power, strength. Anyone touch you and you'll teach him a thing or two. If the advertisement were the other way around and said, look, you are this muscle man right now, come to our school and we will reduce you to this stick. Would you have a great queue standing in front of the door all wanting to become sticks? Ridiculous. Of course nobody will come to your school. Well, that is the school of Christ, believe it or not. He's going to reduce you to a stick. And I wonder who likes to come to the school of Christ. Now I walked into that school and look what happened to me. You see that?
Well, as I was sharing with Brother Chris in the car when he came to fetch me from the airport, I was thinking back on my days. And in those days, of course, I was mostly a sportsman who wasn't too interested in such absurdities of studies and things like studying history and other boring subjects like literature and things that you do in school like chemistry and physics. I mean, who has time for such nonsense when you can be playing on the sports field? And so all my day was spent on the sports field. And after several years of this, of course, I was indeed bulging with muscles all over. In fact, I didn't have much to envy from our atlas picture there because I had quite enough muscles of my own. I used to admire myself in the mirror. Pull this muscle out, V-shape, this one up, how's that, move the chest muscles up and down a bit. Very nice. You can't imagine me like that, right? That's the truth. And then I would look in the mirror and stomach muscles, six square plates down there. Since I did a bit of boxing, it was important to have those stomach muscles so that when you get whacked in the stomach, boom, bounces back again, no problem. So I looked at myself daily admiring myself. My dad used to say, what are you doing in the washroom? Brushing my teeth. How come it takes so long? Well, the teeth brushing took half a minute, the rest was self-admiration.
And you look at me now and you say, really, he could be like that? That's the truth. That's me. Well then, all day long I was there on the sports field either playing baseball, softball, or basketball, or badminton, anything you like. I played everything. Of course my favorite was swimming and baseball, softball, plus the martial arts, of course, which I spent quite some time with. And as a result, you say, well, where did you do the studying? Oh, I squeezed in a little bit of study in my spare time. Study for me was a spare time activity.
But I had a strategy. My strategy worked so beautifully. I never understood why anybody was silly enough to spend hours and hours with their books. My strategy was very simple. I would excel in two subjects and with those two subjects I will pass any exams you like. I could go into any school from junior middle school to senior middle school. As you know, in China it is by competitive exam. My father thought, this fellow spends all his day on the sports field, he never studies, he will never get into any senior middle school. Well, I took my exams for four of the best middle schools in Shanghai and I was accepted by all four. My father was mystified. This guy never studies, he gets accepted into all the four best schools. My secret very simple. First, I would excel in English, which was easy as I told you, I did English in primary school and since I did a lot of reading in English books, my English standard was in China considered to be very high. Maths I loved because I treated it as a game, you know, like a computer game. You fool around with it and you always get good results. And maths was another subject I always got nearly hundred percent. Sometimes the teacher would not like to give you a hundred percent, would give you 99 or something like this. But almost always perfect because I treat it as a game. It's also fun. I don't like hard work, I only like fun. And so maths is fun, you play with these figures. With these two subjects always over 90, guaranteed to get into any school, just as long as I pass things like chemistry and history and all these boring subjects with 70% or something like that, that's good enough to pass. That was my secret. So I could spend all my time on the sports field and build up my physique into this impressive physique that I had.
Well, when the Lord got hold of me, he got to work on me. I told you his school is in the opposite direction. How to go from muscle man to stick. And so what happened was after I came to the Lord, as many of you know my testimony, I went through three years of starvation. And I tell you after three years of starvation I was reduced to skin and bones. After that you look in the mirror and you dare not even look. It's pitiful. You can play the guitar on this side, banjo on the other side, whatever you like. It's just pitiful. Where did all my muscles go? Well, my muscles got digested by the body. Everything is gone.
This is really going in the opposite direction. God had to do it. He knows what it does to your mind. It has a psychological effect. That is why people go for these power training, bodybuilding things. Because it has a psychological effect. It's not just they want to look nice. It has an important psychological effect. That's the important part that you've got to understand. It makes you feel you are somebody. It makes you feel confident. There is a spring in the step of the athlete. You feel so good. You feel on top of the world. Nowadays I don't know how that feels anymore. I have to try to remember how did I feel in those days. Nowadays I feel sick most of the time. It seems in this school the further on I go the more sick I'm going to get, the weaker I get. We don't want to become weak, but God wants to give us his power. He has to teach us how to become weak. Did you know that?
So let me take you to the next passage, the important passage also in 2nd Corinthians. And it's on this that I preached last week in Penang. So you can say that this message in a way is a continuation of the series from Singapore to Penang, now to KL. Paul had to go through the same experience. God had to take him and keep on weakening him, even physically. So I read from verse 7. This whole important passage in 2nd Corinthians 12. And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, to beat me, that's what the word means. He got beaten, lest I be exalted above measure. The apostle Paul could become a victim of pride. Exalted above measure means pride. He had to be beaten down by this physical ailment.
Verse 8. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. Three times he prayed. Three times the answer was no. Verse 9. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength, how is it made perfect? It is made perfect in weakness. That is behind all those other statements that we read about Paul just now. He learned the secret that God's power is manifested only in one way, only when we are weak. Therefore Paul goes on to say, now that I understand this principle, most gladly I will rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. He wants to not only accept the weaknesses, not just accept, but he may boast in them. He so joyfully accepts the pain. Thorn, what is a thorn? You know what a thorn is. Every rose has a thorn. Pick that thorn and stick it into your flesh and you know what pain is. The word thorn has to do with pain. Paul was given an ailment that caused him pain. And now he didn't say grudgingly, okay I accept. He says no, I will boast. Boast in what? In the pain and the weakness.
So well he learned this lesson. So that, why is he crazy? No, not quite. So that the power, not his power but Christ's power, may dwell in him, may rest on him and dwell in him. That's what the Greek word means, to live in. Verse 10, therefore notice again, I take pleasure. He boasts in the weakness, he takes pleasure in his weaknesses. And notice the whole list of things. I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. And now notice the secret again. When I am weak, then and only then am I strong.
Now you know why he chooses the weakness. Because it is in the weakness that God's power is made perfect. If you only knew this, you don't have to pretend to be strong. You don't have to try to impress anybody that you are strong. If only we know that. Are you feeling miserable? Then you are feeling weak. If you are feeling weak, that is God's opportunity to manifest his strength in you. So why do you try to put aside the feeling of weakness rather than to welcome it? That God has finally brought you to the place of such utter weakness. Tiredness, maybe depression. What is depression? Depression is discouragement. Why are you discouraged? Because I failed. Is that bad? Did you know that failure might be the first time when God can finally work in your life? He has to bring us that low.
When Christ was put on the cross, his disciples thought surely he had failed utterly. The whole ministry had come to nothing in his death. Death had wiped everything out. His ministry had failed. Little did they know that in that failure was precisely the secret of the triumph of God over sin and death. The cross, Paul boldly describes as God's weakness. And he goes on to say, but the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God at the cross is stronger than men. How wonderfully Paul has learned that secret.
# Salvation and Weakness (Part 2)
And he goes on to say, but the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God at the cross is stronger than men. How wonderfully Paul has learned that secret. So before I close today, I would just like to analyze these five points that we just read in verse 10. Therefore I take pleasure, Paul says, in weaknesses. Some translations have infirmities, which is the same word, same meaning as weakness. And he lists five things here, and I'd like to look briefly at these five things that Paul takes pleasure in.
The first word translated infirmities can mean one of two things, and here of course it means both. Infirmities can mean sicknesses, as in Paul's case. That's why you have hospitals that are also called infirmaries. And these people who are infirm, who are sick, go there for treatment. Do you find it terrible? God treats you so badly that you get sick. Do you feel sorry for me when I get backache and so on? Say, oh, poor man. Well, I thank you for your sympathy. But did it ever cross your mind that it is through this that God is making me strong spiritually? That if you realize that, you would give thanks to God for every weakness, every sickness. It's because we don't understand the secret of power out of weakness, God's power in our weakness, that we think it's so terrible. I've got a headache today. How, why should God treat me like this? It is only when through your weakness, God manifests his power, that the glory goes to him. He is glorified.
I remember some years ago, and I often think about that instance, because it left such an impression even on my own mind. I was preaching in London, Ontario. This is not the London in England, but the London in the province of Ontario in Canada. And that same evening, I had to speak at the Chinese Christian Fellowship of the University of Western Ontario in London. And I got up in the morning, and my legs just buckled under me. And I fell back onto the bed. I couldn't stand up. I tried again. One more time. I tried to get up and just collapsed back in the bed. I thought to myself, what's happened to me? I got no strength at all. Totally weakened. I think I was over-exhausted from the long ministry of preaching, day after day, that I had no more strength left. I couldn't even get up. I struggled a few more times. I couldn't get under my feet.
So I was staying with some people who belonged to that fellowship. And I called them into the room, and I said, I'm sorry, I can't get up. My legs have no strength. I just can't get up. And they got so worried. They said, we have advertised everywhere that you're preaching tonight. And people are going to come from everywhere to listen to the preaching. And then you can't preach. I said, yeah, I understand. It's a problem. And it's so short a time now, there's nowhere to find another preacher. And even if they did, people would be disappointed, because that's not the advertised preacher. I said, I understand. That's a problem. They said, what are we going to do? I said, you just pray. What? Just pray. We call the doctor. No, no, no. Don't call the doctor. Just pray. The doctor can't do anything anyway.
So, okay. I said, by tonight, the Lord willing, I'll be there. They look at me. You can't even get off the bed. You're going to get to the meeting? I said, yeah, let's leave it in the Lord's hands. Well, the day wore on. I still couldn't get up. Just no strength, whatever. It's an amazing experience. I had never experienced anything like this before. You see, from the he-man, muscle man, to this state, the guy can't even get out of bed. Pitiful, isn't it? Because God wants to manifest his power.
Half an hour before the meeting was to begin, the leaders were standing there, all looking very worried. I said, all right. By the Lord's grace, now I get up. By faith, I get up. I got up. Wow, at least he got up. Now, to see whether he can walk to the door. He might collapse before he got to the door. I got to the door. Not bad, not bad. Now the question is, can he get into the car? I got to the car. And then when we came to the college there, I had to walk up a lot of stairs. Can he get up the stairs? You got to carry him. I said, no, I walk up the stairs. And then I preached through that evening with such power from the Lord. And I knew it's not from myself. The power of the Lord just lifted me up as on wings of eagles. I was carried up on a wing. And I preached with such energy and such power that all the leaders, I could see their faces. They sat there looking at me, wondering, is this for real? No, they couldn't believe it. My power is made perfect in weakness. That was a demonstration of God's power in my weakness. And that's the way Paul wants it all the time. Keep me weak so that your power will be manifested. It's quite remarkable.
I have many times had to preach in my ministry in a state of complete weakness. I think Brother Lim Kai saw me there in Singapore. I was sick. I was running, in fact, a slight fever. And the sweat was running off me. I was propping myself up against the pulpit, as you see me doing somewhat now, trying to get through the message. The Lord keeps me weak so that the power will be from him. I remember preaching in another case in Edmonton in Canada. I was at that time running a high fever. But again, they said, well, you are the advertised speaker. And people are coming to listen to you preach. I asked another pastor, would you be so kind as to preach? He said, no, they don't want to listen to me. They want to listen to you. I said, look, I'm running a high fever. You can see the sweat coming down. And I'm sweating not because of the heat, that is in Canada, not in Malaysia. He said, no, no, no, I can't do that. They will be so disappointed. He is a well-known pastor himself, but he refused to take over my place. So I had to go on to the pulpit to preach. And I tell you, the sweat from that fever is just running everywhere down. I preached in complete weakness. Why does the Lord allow this? He knows you are going to have to preach. Why doesn't he take away your fever? Then I will be strong again. No. Preach in weakness. With the fever. When you can hardly think straight. When the temperature is so high, you don't know what you are saying anymore. That is the secret of Christian life.
So weakness, he says here. But this weakness is not just physical weakness. It also has to do with the inner feelings of weakness. For example, give an example of this, about this kind of weakness in 2 Corinthians 11:32-33 that we won't read now. When he had to be let down in a basket out of Damascus. How humiliating. How undignified. Imagine, the great apostle is being dropped in a vegetable basket down the side of the city wall. This is humiliating, isn't it? I mean, there wasn't any red carpet. Here the apostle is going out with trumpets blowing. No, no, no. He was let down in a vegetable basket. Probably with some vegetables covering him so that the spies and the police would not catch him. To escape the police of the king, King Aretas' secret police. Not dignified. So weakness, in the sense also of inner feelings. Do you feel weak? Can you thank God? And Paul says, I take joy and pleasure. I'll boast about that. I will boast about my weakness. It's a whole new mentality, isn't it?
Well, the time is going fast and I want to close very quickly now. The second thing we see here is a word in my translation translated as reproaches. I take pleasure in reproaches. The word, in fact, means insult, shame, mistreatment, outrage. Can you take pleasure in that when somebody insults you, ridicules you, mistreats you? Paul says, yes. I thank the Lord that I got insulted. He said, ridiculous. Yes. I once went from door to door preaching the gospel. I seldom do that now. In fact, I never do it now. But I went once in Wales. Wales is a place on the west side of England doing door-to-door work. Have you tried that? And they say, hello, madam. And here is a tract. Boom. The door slammed in your face. Hey, do you know who is talking to you? Excuse me. And here is an important man. And don't you ever slam the door in my face. Hmm? Oh, sorry. She wasn't listening. Humiliated. Insulted. And you know what? I thank the Lord. Thank you, Lord, that I got the door slammed in my face. Thank you that I'm allowed to suffer a little bit of humiliation for your sake. Do you know from what kind of family I come from that having somebody slam the door in my face is not exactly an easy thing to take. For those of us from China and background and days of power and authority, I mean, anyone who slammed the door in your face might stand a chance of being shot for that, you know? That was the old days in China. So, this was a wonderful experience.
Now, this word translated here as reproach can also mean hardships, disasters, damage. So, it could be ridicule or it could be hardships. Like, you are thrown out of your home because of your faith in Christ. You end up sleeping on the park bench, nowhere to go. You are laughed out of court. You are made to feel very small in front of your friends and relatives. You become a Christian. And you are sitting there and everyone is looking at you either with a long face or with a pitiful smile. This guy belongs in the mental asylum. This is reproach to endure this for the sake of Christ.
How do you feel when in your office you say to your boss, no, I am a Christian. I can't cooperate with you in falsifying the figures. What? You fool, you know what happens? You are going to lose your increase in pay, your allowances, everything is going to be cut. How dare you do this? So you get insulted, you get your pay slashed, everything else happening to you. How do you feel? You say with Paul, I take pleasure in this. Let's take something more simple. You pray in public and all these people looking at you. Ah, holy Joe, are you? Oh, we didn't know that? Yeah, when did you wear your halo this morning? Oh, you like that? No, nobody likes that. But can you rejoice? That takes transformation.
Third thing here, necessity. This means quite a number of things in the Greek. This word necessity, or needs, actually means pressure of any kind. All kinds of pressures that are brought to bear on you. We live in a very stressful world, isn't it? Stress gets us down. We end up taking tranquilizers and stuff like this. So hard to sleep at night. Our nerves are in tatters every night. We have to knock back a lot of alcohol to calm down our nerves, or whatever it is we use. Stress. But here Paul says no. He rejoices in stress. He rejoices in all these kinds of pressures brought on by obligations. You're going to lead a Bible study. Just like Uncle Wong. Unfortunately, my presence gave him a lot of stress. I hope he was able to give thanks for the stress that I caused him. Yeah, but you lead a Bible study and all the brothers and sisters expecting things from you. Pressure, stress, hard to take. Next time you say I don't want to lead a Bible study. Even worse when they criticize you. I work so hard and they say why did you do this wrong and why did you cite the wrong verse and you turn to the wrong page and this and that and why didn't you say this which you should have said. I did my best and look at all the different mentality. This is what it means to work out your salvation in accepting joyfully the weakness and the feeling of weakness, of inadequacy, of humiliation. Do you understand now what Paul is saying? This is the only way you work out your salvation. Not pretending to be strong, not pretending that you are something that you are not, simply accepting joyfully every pressure inward or outward. That's the Christian life.
It goes on to say even greater things that don't apply to us now. The Greek word translated as needs or necessity here can mean persecution. It can mean even torture according to the Greek dictionary. And in fact, Arndt and Gingrich, the authoritative Greek dictionary, suggests that this is the possible meaning in this place for this word. Torture. Paul says, I thank God, I take pleasure for torture. Because Paul took a tremendous amount of punishment. Beatings, stonings. Not to say rejection was the least thing. Ridicule was nothing for him.
So we rush on. The fourth one actually says persecutions. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 11, he speaks about these persecutions and he specifically refers to three places. Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. These are referred to in Acts chapter 13 and 14 as to what happened there. One of the hardest forms of persecution for us to take, not talking about being persecuted in China since you don't live in China. I will leave that part out. But what kind of persecution could you experience here? One of the worst forms is slander, isn't it? When people say bad things about you which are not even true. And there is no use even trying to justify yourself. Because the more you justify yourself, the worse your case becomes. And this is what happened to Paul in Antioch and Iconium. He was constantly slandered. His teaching was distorted. Bad things were said about him and his co-workers. And when it came to Lystra in Acts chapter 14 verses 8 to 20, not only was he slandered, he was then, because of it, stoned. Because you see, slandering is the first step to actually attacking you physically afterward. Because it justifies the attack because you are a bad guy and you deserve to be punished. And so he was stoned and he was left for dead.
These are the kind of things for which Paul gives thanks. Now think of another thing. The terrible stoning that he took at Lystra. He was knocked unconscious, bleeding, and left lying on the ground that they walked away thinking he was dead. And the disciples also thought he was dead. But he rose up by the power of God and continued his ministry. But there's only one way to have left him for dead and that is that the stones hit him real hard on the head. Which means that he must have had terrible scars on his head. Terrible scars that he bore for the sake of Christ. How would you like to have scars on your face? I think sisters are very, very sensitive about that, but brothers too. Would you find it very humiliating to go around with physical defects on your face because of the stoning? He must have been stoned so badly that he was left for dead. And that would certainly have left scars. But Paul gloried in that. And at the end of his letter to the Galatians he says this, let no one trouble me because I bear in my body, in my face, on my head, the marks of the Lord Jesus. He did not consider his physical disfigurement something to be ashamed of. It was humiliating but he gloried in that too.
Now you begin to see the stature of this apostle. Why God used this man, this extraordinary man who delighted in every weakness from sickness to disfigurement to inner anguish and pain. And he speaks about that too. He speaks about that in abundance. He talks about sleepless nights. He lost sleep. He speaks about every kind of distress like poverty and hunger.
That's the last point here, the fifth one. It comes all under this. And that word means literally narrowness. Here it is translated as distresses. The Greek word means to be hemmed in, into a very narrow place and that's why you're in distress. It means every form of difficulty, not least of all hunger. Do you enjoy being hungry? Oh, since when? If you missed one meal, you already feel that you're dying. But Paul lived with hunger. I know a lot about hunger. I lived with that for two and a half years. God had to take me through that school. As I said, that's what reduced me to skin and bones.
God, and this is what we must close with and you must clearly understand. God's power is made perfect in only one way, only one. That is in weakness, in our weakness. Until we accept our weakness, at least as a first step, and then like Paul to go on to rejoice in our weakness. And there are so many weaknesses in the church that there should be plenty of things to rejoice about. It's because you cannot accept your weaknesses. For example, does it trouble you that your educational standard is not up to some of the others? It bothers you? It gives you inferiority complex? My friend, you don't understand this principle. God doesn't care about your education. Man cares. You care. God doesn't care. He doesn't care how many degrees you have or no degrees that you have. In the church of Christ, anyone who walks around with an inferiority complex because of lack of education still doesn't understand that we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. That if you are weak, that is when God's power can be manifested. Who cares about your education? You do. God doesn't.
And there are other strange things that people worry about. You know, some people are very bothered whether they are tall or short. They have an inferiority complex because the next guy is 5 foot 2 inches and he is 5 foot 1 inch. Ah, I got a higher heel. Stand up here. I don't like looking up to you. As though being tall is something very significant. What's significant? I am trying to figure out what's significant. Well, at least he can find a job. Once I was in a department store. And there was this very tall guy there. Oh. The first thing that struck me was this fellow, something like 6 foot 4 or 6 foot 5 or something. Oh, it is here in Malaysia. I think KL. This man, Chinese man, like a pole. He would have made a beautiful lamppost if he had a lamp on top of his head. And as I observed him for a while I realized that he was being employed as a store detective. Why? Because he was so tall he could look over all the shelves and could see if you are stealing something. Well, I thought at least there is one benefit, you know, being that tall and be a store detective. That sort of walking TV monitor sort of thing like this.
Other people, why are you bothered? I know some people who are very much bothered all the time and it eats them up that they are short. They are not so tall. And there are all these tall guys around and it really bothers them. If you think like that, you see, you still are struggling with such elementary problems as this. It's too humbling to have to twist your neck to speak up to this guy. I know in Canada, a dear friend of ours, Professor Pinnock, is a professor of theology in McMaster University. Well, it's a problem to me talking with him. My neck gets very tired. Oh, he's six foot six. And then you're talking to him like this. This is the only nuisance, I have to say. It's not kind to have this kind of stature, you know. But apart from that, why should there be a problem? What's the problem? Why should you worry that you're short? It makes no difference. God doesn't care about that. You think when you go into the kingdom of God he measures you first? You're too short, you cannot enter. How do you know? If it's too tall, you can't enter? Then you've got a big problem.
But you see, I've just mentioned these things, it's surprising, it's education, it's how rich or poor you are. Some people are bothered, you know, he drives this car, I drive this car. You want to know? Mine belongs in the museum. It's a wonderful car. I drive a car in Canada that I bought for, you know how much? I like to boast about this, $100. That's no joke, it's $100. Powerful eight-cylinder car. Hmm, wonderful. And when we took it in for the servicing the other day in the States, my wife took it in to Sears where they serviced the car and he asked her, madam, what's the year of the car? She said, 1977. What? 1987? No, no, no, she said, 1977. What? 77? What kind of a car? You see, in North America, cars don't last long because of the salt that eats all the body of the car. 1977 is a historic monument. It's now, what is it? It's 15, 16 years old now, but it runs beautifully.
So, the next guy drives a what? He drives a Cadillac and the other guy drives a BMW and I drive my 1977. Right? So what? God's power is made manifest, even in the car. I tell you, that car can outrun your BMW. No joke. If you have a BMW, bring it along, we'll go for a start-to-start race and see who goes faster. You'll be so impressed with my antique. And you give glory to God that I could buy something like this for $100. Amazing, isn't it? And so I never understand why those people, they go out and pay $40,000 Canadian something to buy a car and then they sit in the church, worrying, somebody's going to scratch my car outside. Somebody's going to put a mark on it. Ah, sweating there. And then you say, why is he not concentrating on the message? Because my car, my beautiful wheels are there.
Even worse, you know what happened? I went back two, three years ago. I didn't have a car because I was away in Hong Kong for so long. And where I live, without a car, you can't move around. There's no bus, nothing to take you around. So a friend very kindly loaned me his car, because he had a company car. And he loaned me this beautiful VW Jetta. I tell you, it's agony, because I parked that shining, beautiful thing outside the church and I'm worrying the whole time. Oh, dear me, I hope that car is still alright out there. I'm going to return it to him with a dent in it and scratch in it. It's terrible. And you know what happened? I went out after the first service, and the wonderful stereo in the car was gone. The whole thing was ripped out of the dashboard because of the very high-class German Blaupunkt stereo. My worst fears were realized. I'm so glad for my 1977 car. It had no stereo inside, there's nothing, nobody wants to steal anything from the car. I can sit in church peacefully singing the hymns. Wonderful. I know when I come out it will be sitting there and nobody will touch it.
How to learn to rejoice in a different way from what the world rejoices in. I don't see anything to wonder at in my brother-in-law who goes around with his chauffeur and his Mercedes Benz. I joke around with him. I said, why do you have this chauffeur driving Mercedes Benz? Hong Kong is full of Mercedes Benz. Find something else more fancy. Look around, this is Mercedes, Mercedes, every, it's too common. This whole thinking is governed by the things which to me is worthless. Our sense of values are the other way around. There is only one way to experience God's power and that is to learn to rejoice in weakness and being lowly and being humble and being nothing.
I close with this story. I think it was not long ago I was in Toronto and I came to the church and I walked into the church. And learning from the apostle Paul, I was asked to say a few words to our Toronto church. And I stood up and I spoke very gently, very quietly, very meekly. And there was this Jewish church leader, six foot two, great big size, who believed in charismatic power, charismatic presence, and I'm not talking about Christian sense here but in the worldly sense. And you know afterwards he criticised me, and I thanked the Lord for the criticism. He said to me, when you spoke to the church, you spoke in such a weak way. There was no presence, no authority. I spoke so quietly, so meekly, like nothing.
I sat there and I looked at him because when he preached he was waving his arms about, he was banging the pulpit, he was shouting across there. Well, I know how to preach like that too. Excuse me, if I wanted to, I know how to preach. Who doesn't? He was waving about and he was so pleased with himself, I'm sorry to say. And at the end of his arm-waving, pulpit-banging message, I turned to the Jewish brother sitting next to me. This was in our church in Toronto by the way, and he was the guest preacher, and that's why I only gave some greetings at the beginning. And I asked the Jewish brother sitting next to me, what do you think of his message? I thought he would be very impressed with this tremendous performance on the stage there. He shook his head. I said, you don't like it? He shook his head. That was all.
You see, the power of God does not come across in this way, brothers and sisters. That's not the way. God's power is something that Paul understood. And so I hope today you understand. I spent quite some time trying to illustrate and to help you to grasp what it means to work out your salvation. The feeling of weakness. Every time you feel weak, thank God for it and say, Lord, I am so weak now, please let your power come through my life. I have no power of my own. I am nothing. I can do nothing. I know nothing.
That is what it means, brothers and sisters. You either are going to be saved through not only accepting the gift of his salvation, but letting his salvation work out through you, and that's the only way it can be worked out. Have you ever heard this expounded to you properly? I haven't. And I'm also in the process of learning. And I thank you for continuing to teach me as well, how to be weak, how to live in the weakness of Christ, because by nature I am not weak. I think Paul is by nature not weak either. It's something we have to learn. It's something we have not only to accept, but to delight in. And then people will say to you, I see the glory of God in your life. I see his power.
In fact, people have said exactly this. I once met a spiritist in England. I hope you trust you know what a spiritist is. There are people who communicate with demons and other spirits. When he met me, he had a look of fear on his face. I don't know why. I didn't know this man. I never met him before. And he looked at me with great fear. I thought, what's happening? And he said to me, you are very powerful. But I hadn't said anything. I hadn't even opened my mouth apart from saying hello. I hadn't said a word. I hadn't preached. I didn't even have a Bible in my hand. He had a big Bible in his hand. I was at a disadvantage. I didn't have a Bible in my hand. And yet he said to me, you are very powerful. He said, but I will not let you crush me. Well, I wasn't intending to crush him. So, I didn't know what it was all about. I was living in a Christian guest house at the time. A Christian family. He moved in that morning. But you know what? By night time, when I came back from a meeting, the man was nowhere to be found. So I asked the lady of the house. I said, where was the man I met in the morning? Oh, she said, he moved out. Because he was terrified of you.
I thought to myself, wow, this is amazing. I haven't said anything to him. I met another spiritist. A lady in North America from California. And she looked at me and she knew at once. She said, I don't have to ask you any questions. I know that you are a servant of God. Oh, amazing. I didn't have a Bible in my hand. I was traveling on Philippines Airlines. I didn't have anything. She said something about being able to see some light or some aura or something about me. Oh, very amazing. Okay.
You see, I was utterly weak. I had said nothing. I had done nothing. And yet God's power, without your knowing it, is manifested in your life and through your life to the transformation and saving of other people. You are not conscious of it yourself. But the enemy is conscious of it. And those who follow him are conscious of it. That's how we are called to be. To work out our salvation in our own utter weakness. So that his power, and only his power, is manifested in our life. Let us close in prayer.