[Note: This is a bilingual sermon. The pastor speaks in English and the content is then rendered in Chinese by a translator. Both languages are preserved as delivered.]
The subject of this camp — waiting and preparing for the coming of the Lord — is a very difficult subject to tackle. A friend of mine, an old friend from my days in England whom I haven't seen for over twenty years, was hoping to come to this camp. He has had to have a minor operation to his throat. We are fighting a very intense spiritual battle. If you are aware of the Lord, you will know the Lord is intensely at work, especially in these days prior to his coming. So we need to pay careful attention to the word of the Lord, because it has to do with our survival.
What I aim to do in these two messages is, first, to draw a picture — you can say a general outline — of the events leading up to the Lord's coming. It is very hard to prepare for something if you don't even have a general idea of what it will be like. Tomorrow, the Lord willing, we will speak more about how to prepare; not my suggestions, but what the Lord himself teaches us about preparing for his coming. My messages are never like honey-coated pills. They are rather hard to swallow, as some of you who know me already know. But it is precisely the Lord's words that are so hard to swallow. As the Lord said, the road to salvation is a very narrow one, and the gate into the kingdom is a very narrow gate. How narrow that gate is, I hope you will begin to see by the end of this message.
The Lord's coming is like the dawn — the light that is ahead of us — but the night before the dawn is the darkest. And many will not survive the night to see the dawn. I wonder whether you will be among those who are able to come through to the dawn. That, to some extent, will depend on tomorrow's message. The general picture is clear; the details are much more difficult to handle. In the time available — a little over half an hour of preaching — it will be very difficult to go through the details. We want to be faithful to the word of God.
这个营的主题, 就是等候主的到来, 预备主的到来. 这是一个非常困难的题目. 我的一个老朋友, 他是我在英国的时候认识的, 他已经超过二十年没有见面了. 他本来希望来参加这个营会, 可是他喉咙要做小手术, 所以他没有办法来. 我们是在打一场非常激烈的属灵争战. 所以我们需要特别的留意神的话语, 因为这个对我们的生存有非常密切的关系.
The first problem in dealing with the subject of the Lord's coming is that he already said of that day and of that hour no man knows. The coming will be like a thief in the night. So how do you prepare for something the time of which you don't know? How exactly do you prepare for the coming of a thief in the night?
I think of when I was a boy. My father was a very patriotic man, and when the war with Japan started, he threw his energy into fighting for the country against Japan. He laid aside everything to ensure his contribution to the war effort. As the Japanese advanced on Shanghai — indeed, when they were already in Shanghai — my father was intensely involved in the defense of the country. That of course left my mother and myself stranded behind enemy lines in Shanghai. He was prepared to leave his family, his employment, everything, in order to fight this battle. Such was his devotion to the country.
When he left, I was just about five years old. I still remember waving him off on a small boat as he slipped down the harbor. I didn't see him again until six years later — I was about eleven by the time he returned. As a small boy of five, I had almost no impression of my father. I didn't know what he even looked like. And I remember the day my mother said: "Daddy is coming back." When? "One of these days." Why can't you tell me when? "Because I don't know." Right after the war, the country was chaotic — nothing like an airport with planes arriving on time. Nobody knew when which boat arrived, if it arrived at all. We didn't even know by what means he was coming — over land, or by boat? So how do you prepare for something when you don't know the date?
I remember standing on the street looking left and right, looking for anybody who might be my father, but I had no idea what he looked like. My mother had shown me a photograph, but in those days photographs were not color pictures — it was something rather gray, and you tried to see: oh, that's my father. I didn't know how tall he was. Would he still have the same hairstyle, or would his hair have fallen off? There I was looking up and down the street without any clue what I was supposed to be looking for. I would stand there from morning to night, looking at everybody who might be carrying a small bag coming by: I wonder if that's my father.
And then one early morning, my mother dragged me out of bed, and I could hardly open my eyes, and she said: "Your father is here." I opened my sleepy eyes with great difficulty and looked at somebody there who I had not a clue who he was. He came and hugged me, and I was saying: ah, so this is the one. I think I must have been very disappointing to him because I had no reaction at all — I stood there like a piece of wood. He had to spend all the following days and weeks trying to gain my friendship, to win my love. Gradually I realized: this is indeed my father.
Now, waiting for the coming of the Lord, I feel a bit this way again. I am standing there every day saying: when is he coming? I know we don't know the exact date. But do we even know what we are looking for? I was looking for a government official, so perhaps I was looking for somebody escorted by soldiers with shining helmets and nice uniforms. But my father was not in the military. I had no idea what to look for. In the end I was taken by surprise. And so it will be.
我记得当我还是一个小孩子的时候, 我的父亲是一个非常爱国的人. 当中日战争开始, 他就投身去为国家而战. 当日本人来到上海的时候, 他就把家人留下来, 他去为国家而战. 所以我的母亲和我就被留在日本人的占领地里面. 当他离开的时候, 我只有大概五岁. 我记得在码头那里向他挥手再见. 然后在六年之后我才再见到他. 所以我那个时候大概是十一岁. 那段时间我就站在街上看来看去希望看到我的父亲, 可是我根本不知道他是什么样子. 后来有一天, 我的母亲把我从被窝里面抓出来说, 你的爸爸回来了. 然后我去看这个陌生人. 他来抱我, 可是我没有任何的反应. 他要花几个星期的时间来建立我们之间的感情.
In scripture, we read that when he comes, he will come with ten thousand of his angels — well, that should make him easy to identify. But when you look more carefully at the details, this comes at a later stage. You cannot say "he comes as a thief in the night with ten thousand of his angels," because if he had ten thousand angels he would not be like a thief at all. It means there is an element of surprise, an element of secrecy. And when you look at the parable of the ten virgins, the announcement that the bridegroom had arrived came not in the morning but in the middle of the night. It is clear that there are two stages of his coming, which complicates the whole picture. All ten were waiting for his coming. Unfortunately, five were caught unprepared. Maybe they thought it would be easy — they would hear the trumpet sound and ten thousand angels, and that would certainly wake everybody up. But when the Lord first came, he came in a way that caught people unprepared, because he was born in a manger. This is Jesus' way — he always does things that surprise us.
Matthew 24:12 says: "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." Now this is an important and difficult verse. It says that when there is lawlessness in the world, the love of people for the Lord correspondingly grows cold. But is that what we observe? In China, during the most chaotic period — the Cultural Revolution, which dragged on for a very long time — that is really lawlessness at a very high level. Did those who love the Lord grow cold during that time? No, it is not the case. In fact, to the contrary: during that time, many multitudes turned to the Lord. With the collapse of communism as an ideology, people have turned to the Lord for a sense of purpose and direction.
During these past years I have been to China a couple of times, and I speak from first-hand knowledge. I was impressed with young people who seek the Lord with an earnestness hard to find overseas. This year I visited Shanghai, my hometown, and talked to a young man of about nineteen years old, a college student. He was surprised that I took the initiative to talk to him. He told me that he had come to the Lord about four years ago while listening to a radio broadcast from Hong Kong in Mandarin. And he said that in those four years he could not find one fellow Christian to fellowship with. When he found that I was a Christian, he was so happy. He said that morning he had prayed: "Give me one friend, O Lord — one friend who knows you." That day the Lord answered his prayer: he got not one friend but two. And he traveled one and a half hours on a crowded bus to hear preaching, paying bus fare that cost him quite some money though he was a poor college student. That is a sacrifice.
我在这几年里面有去过中国几次. 在今年我回到了我的家乡上海. 我遇到了一个大约是十九岁的大学生. 他在四年之前信了主. 他是在听香港广播的普通话广播的时候信了主. 然后在这四年里面, 他找不到一个基督徒来跟他交通. 当他发现我是基督徒的时候, 他非常的高兴. 他那天早晨祷告说, 主啊, 给我一个认识你的朋友. 然后那一天主不但给他一个朋友, 更给了他两个朋友. 他为了要来参加这个聚会要坐一个半小时的公共汽车. 这个对他是一个很大的牺牲.
So then, why should lawlessness in society cause loss of love for God? The answer is: the apostasy, the turning away from the faith, is in the church. The lawlessness that is immediately in front of us is not in the world — it is the lawlessness that now controls the church. Lawlessness is the turning of one's back upon the righteousness of God. And I have noticed that many people in the church have almost no concept of righteousness. Does sin bother you at all? Lawlessness creeps into the church slowly but surely, like a cancer. It is the death of the church.
You see church workers committing sin — leaders in the United States broadcast in very well-known cases consorting with prostitutes, cheating brothers and sisters out of vast amounts of money. We see full-time workers who decide to marry non-Christians, not knowing what the Scripture says, and yet insisting they are Christians. You take a very easy, soft approach to sin — "let's love, let's love" — but love that sacrifices purity and holiness is not the biblical type of love. How many sins in the church are simply waved away with the word "love"? And have you noticed in the sheep-and-goats parable what much of the distinction is based on? Not sins of commission, but sins of omission — the things you should have done and didn't do. "When I was in prison, you did not visit me; when I was hungry, you did not give me anything to eat." The standard of God's righteousness is that high, brothers and sisters.
这个不法就是背离神的义. 而且我注意到在很多基督里面, 他们对义几乎是没有概念的. 罪恶在教会里面慢慢地, 就好像癌症一样慢慢地蔓延. 当这样的事情在教会里面发生, 你对主的爱心会不会冷淡下来呢? 当然会. 在马太福音25章里面的绵羊和山羊的比喻里面, 那个分别不在于你犯了什么罪, 而在于你没有做你应该做的事情. "我饿了你没有给我吃, 我在监里你没有来探望我." 神的义的标准是那么高的, 弟兄姐妹.
Now we are talking about lawlessness in the church — and this situation will get worse. When you see brothers and sisters treating each other in this way, betraying one another; when you see church leaders fighting with one another — does that not affect your love for the Lord? Yes, certainly it will have a very great impact on you spiritually. But I tell you these things as the Lord told you, to warn you. Do you know that the Lord has already told us these things will and must happen? If you are prepared for this, it may save you from your love going cold, because you can say: the Lord warned us beforehand.
这些事情对你对神的爱心会不会有很大的影响呢? 是的, 当然会. 可是我在这里告诉你这些事情, 是要来警告你. 主已经告诉我们这些事情是会发生, 也一定会发生. 假如你知道的话, 也希望你可以做好预备, 就是说因为主已经告诉过我们, 警告过我们了.
And in this picture we see what we can say is the Antichrist emerging. We have in the general outline that the picture of darkness will get darker and darker. Out of this soil of apostasy and lawlessness in the church, the Antichrist emerges. We look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and we see that this person sets himself up in the temple. There cannot be a temple if there is no Israel, and we have seen Israel come into being again in 1948 after two thousand years. The fig tree which seemed to have died in winter has blossomed again. And both Matthew 24 and Mark 13 speak of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place — this is the Antichrist setting his throne in the holy place.
Who is this Antichrist? He is called "the son of perdition" — and if you compare this with the words in John 17 describing Judas, the only other person in the New Testament given this exact same title is Judas. Who was Judas? One of the twelve apostles — the one who betrayed the Lord. That is why I say it is almost certain that the Antichrist is not only a Christian but a Christian leader of a very high order.
All the great but horrendous leaders of history were powerful, charismatic personalities. The Antichrist has often been compared to Hitler — and Hitler was indeed a very charismatic person. He swept almost the whole of Germany after him, and the people hung on his every word. The Germans are not exactly unintelligent people, and yet they could be so completely captivated by this man that he finally led them to their destruction as a nation. How could an intelligent nation be so deceived? Very easily — if you understand the basic principles of human nature: you need only appeal to the ego. The gospel does not appeal to your ego, but every charismatic dictator understands how to use the weakness of human nature. When you appeal to the human ego, you raise up lawlessness by making use of man's self-centredness. It is amazing how you can captivate people in this way.
And so the Antichrist will receive enormous support from mankind — but particularly from the church. The scripture says he exalts himself above all that is called God. There will then come a time of persecution against those who still want to remain true to the Lord and not join the Antichrist. The Lord Jesus says in Matthew 24 that there will come a time of suffering the likes of which did not occur before and will never occur since. A time of tribulation that you cannot even imagine.
# The Lord's Coming and Events Preceding It (Part B) — Sins of Omission, the Mark of the Beast, the Rapture, and the Lord's Return to the Temple
[Note: This is a bilingual sermon. The pastor speaks in English and the content is then rendered in Chinese by a translator. Both languages are preserved as delivered.]
Is there nothing in your life that you are ashamed of? If you want to prepare for his coming, start right there. See whether your life can stand up to examination. See whether your life is pure, for he will judge. And when sin happens in the church, do you take a very easy, soft approach? When you see church workers committing sin, does it bother you? A love without holiness and purity is not the biblical type of love. But how many sins in the church are just waved away with the word "love"?
The coming of the Lord is linked with his judgment — his judgment against sin. And have you noticed in the sheep-and-goats parable on what so much of the distinction is based? Not sins of commission, but sins of omission. "When I was in prison you did not visit me; when I was hungry you did not give me anything to eat; when I was cold you did not give me anything to wear." There is no reference to their committing any sin. It is the things you didn't do that you are held responsible for. Do you really dare to meet the Lord? Can you think of all the things you ought to have done and didn't do? And when the Lord then says, "What about the sins that you did commit and haven't dealt with yet?" — that puts you in a different class altogether.
你敢不敢去见主呢? 你先想想你所犯的罪而你还没有去处理的事情. 然后你再去想想你没有做而你应该做的事情. 在马太福音25章里面那个绵羊和山羊的比喻里面, 那个分别不在于犯了什么罪, 而在于你没有做你应该做的事情. 我饿了你没有给我吃, 我在监里你没有来探望我. 这个是神的义的标准.
All the brothers and sisters in China — do you know how many of them suffer for the Lord? You say: I don't know anybody who is suffering. Nothing to do with me. Oh really? Do you know how much suffering and poverty many of them endure? Or do you say: I don't want to know, because if I know, it will put me under obligation. Some of you are here and have been to Burma, to Myanmar. You've heard the reports of those who came back from Myanmar — the intense hunger for the word of God there. Is that your responsibility? You've been through commitment training, basic training, some of you intermediate training. And there, even the pastors have not even had the most basic level of training that we have in our church. You have the training. Have you got some money? You're not rich, but Myanmar is not far away. Can you afford the trip? It probably doesn't cost much more than coming to this camp, does it?
你们当中有些人曾经去过缅甸. 你们听过那些从缅甸回来的弟兄们所分享的. 那边的弟兄姐妹非常渴慕神的话语. 这个是你们的责任吗? 是的. 你们有接受过训练. 你们有没有钱呢? 你们去缅甸大概需要花的钱跟来参加这个营会的花费差不多. 你们有没有想过去呢?
Whatever you do to the least of these my brethren, you do to me. That is what the Lord said. And so we are talking about lawlessness in the church — and this is what is immediately in front of us, and this situation will get worse. The standard of God's righteousness is too high for us. If you grasp the nature of this problem — about sins of omission, the things we should do and didn't do — it is enough to make you fear and tremble. How much time do you spend studying his word in a week? Man does not live by bread alone but by every word from God's mouth. Did you have anything to live on spiritually over the past week? The understanding of the average Christian about the scriptures is pitiful in the extreme. How many things have we neglected? Should we have called somebody whose father died, whose mother died, or was sick, and we never called? These are the things that need to be done — that is the standard of righteousness.
In that picture we can see emerging the Antichrist, the man of sin, from out of this soil of apostasy and lawlessness. He is described in Revelation as having such power that he can put a mark on every person — so that if you don't have that mark you cannot even buy food to eat. I saw a Korean video put forward by a Korean computer expert who says the technology is already in place to plant a little chip into your skin painlessly, in a fraction of a second, in your right hand or forehead. When you have that chip implanted, it is extremely convenient. When you travel you don't need a passport. When you buy something you don't need to carry your visa card or cash. The chip is scanned automatically and the money is taken from your bank account. You can't falsify the chip, so merchants know they will get their money. And if you have no money in your bank account, the computer can tell the merchant: this person has no money, don't sell to them. This video was made three or four years ago and at that time the technology was already in place, just waiting to be implemented. In fact it is already in use for some dogs in North America — if a dog gets lost and has no collar, they can identify straight away whose dog it is. The machine is ready; it is just waiting to go.
我看过一个韩国的电脑专家所制作的录像, 他说, 其实现在这个技术已经有了. 可以把一个小的电脑片放在你的皮肤里面, 无痛的, 只需要百分之几秒的时间. 可以放在右手上或是额头上. 当你有这个标记的时候, 你去旅行不需要护照, 你买东西不需要带信用卡或者是现金. 那个扫描机一扫你的手, 钱就自动地从你的账户里面出去了. 你不能够伪造这个电脑片. 这个技术三四年前已经有了, 只是等着去实行. 其实在北美洲已经有一些狗用上了这个技术. 机器已经准备好了, 只是等着人去用.
Now our time is going fast. As I told you, I have a hard time even giving the general outline. Can you see that the picture is dark — getting darker? It will be so deceptive that you don't even know how bad the situation is, until the persecution comes, and you have to lay down your life. In the history of the church, laying down one's life is nothing new. Actually, dying itself is not the most difficult part — it is the suffering before the dying. If you see what some of the martyrs endured, it is enough to make your hair stand on end. What about being crucified? You can hang on the cross for three days or more and your blood slowly drips away while you hang in unspeakable pain. Jesus never called us to anything but what he himself has gone through.
How do you prepare to die? I tell you something: I prepare to die every day. I expect it will come to me. All church leaders must be prepared to die. I once talked to a group of our church leaders and I couldn't help but start crying. I said to them: maybe I have led you all into your death. Although it is your own choice, if I were not around, maybe you wouldn't have to go through all this. By dying, I don't mean you stand there and somebody puts a shot through your head — that is very easy. What about first some hard labor, without food and without enough clothing? What about some beatings? What about electric shocks? What about crushing your thumb slowly with a screw? At the end of which, to die would be sheer joy. When someone finally pulls out his gun you say: why, what took you so long? The night, as I said at the beginning, will get a lot darker before the dawn.
我怎样去预备死亡呢? 我告诉你, 我每一天都在预备死亡. 我预期这件事情会临到我. 所有的教会领袖都必须要预备好面对死亡. 有一次我跟我们一些教会的领袖谈话, 我忍不住哭了. 我跟他们说, 也许是我把你们带进了死亡. 虽然这是你们自己的选择, 可是如果我不在的话, 也许你们就不需要经历这些事情. 那个黑夜在黎明来到之前会越来越黑暗.
And then the day comes when suddenly you may be caught up into the air — that is what is called the rapture. You look down and there are some others who did not come up with you. If you did everything you could to win them for the Lord, your conscience is still okay. Suddenly caught up — it is a very interesting idea, this one. I don't think anybody could have invented a teaching like this. There is that element of surprise — we don't know when this happens. It is a kind of rescue, like the Entebbe raid: the paratroopers come in and rescue the people out of the grip of the evil power. One moment the person is about to give you a shot in the head, and suddenly: where is he gone? Maybe that will be for his salvation — suddenly he realizes that he has been persecuting the wrong person. It seems that God does everything to give a person one last chance to repent. After the rapture, it appears that the Lord has not yet come down to earth — you meet him up in the air. The next stage is for the Lord to set his feet upon the earth.
然后当那一天来到的时候, 你被提了. 那一刻你往下望, 有一些人没有被提. 这个被提就好像一个被救援行动, 就好像以色列的那个恩特贝救援行动一样. 一个时刻, 那个人正要把你杀死, 忽然他消失了. 可能这个会成为他悔改的机会. 然后之后, 主耶稣来到地上.
So in Acts chapter 1, the angels said to the disciples: "What are you looking up there for? The one you see going in this way, he will come down again, he will come back, on the Mount of Olives, as you have seen him going up." I have the impression that the vast hosts of angels will remain in the air while the Lord Jesus comes down and stands on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the temple. And like in the old days, he will walk down the Mount of Olives towards the temple — past Gethsemane, across the Kidron Valley, and up through the Golden Gate, right into the newly built temple.
I can imagine that the Antichrist, in his last act of defiance, is sitting upon his throne in the holy place in the temple. And where are all his powerful forces? They will be immobilized. None of them will be able to move — rather like Y2K on a grand scale. His rockets cannot fire. His armored vehicles cannot move. His troops are unable to use their weapons. All the chips in the tanks malfunction. No guns can fire. Above, the hosts of angels like huge clouds in the sky. But this is Jesus' style — he likes to do things in a very interesting and gentle and yet powerful way. And as the prophet Malachi said: "The Lord shall suddenly come to his temple." He walks in. And when the Lord Jesus enters the temple and there is the Antichrist still trying to put on his show — at that moment I can imagine that a cry will go up through all the angels and all the heavenly hosts: "The Lord reigns!" — and this will echo through the whole heavens and the whole earth. And with the destruction of the Antichrist, the King has come. All heaven rejoices together.
So I hope you have at least a vague picture of what is ahead. When will all this happen? I think probably within less than ten years. Maybe a lot less. Maybe slightly more — twelve at the maximum. Of course, as I said, the scripture will not allow us to pick the date. We don't have a lot of time. And maybe not a lot of time before we die. But you would say: if we die we don't see all this. Oh, don't worry — you will see it. First Thessalonians chapter 4 tells us why: at the rapture, the saints who died in the past are raised first, and then those who are alive will be caught up. So all the saints will witness the Lord's coming upon the earth. They will not miss that. You can be sure of that. That is the beauty and the wonder of it.
我相信这一切的事情大概会在少于十年的时间里面发生. 可能会更短. 可能会稍微多一点点, 最多是十二年. 当然我们在圣经里面我们不能够定下日期. 我们的时间不多了. 可是就算你在这一切事情发生之前去世了, 你还是会看见这一切的. 帖撒罗尼迦前书第四章告诉我们, 在被提的时候, 所有过去在主里面去世的圣徒首先要复活, 然后那些还活着的人才被提. 所以所有的圣徒都会看见主的再来. 他们一定不会错过的. 这就是其中的一个奇妙之处.
# The Lord's Coming and Events Preceding It (Part C) — Cautious Interpretation, Romans 8:14, and Being Led by the Spirit
[Note: This is a bilingual sermon. The pastor speaks in English and the content is then rendered in Chinese by a translator. Both languages are preserved as delivered.]
Those of you who have spent time studying this subject will notice that I have omitted a lot of things from the picture I have drawn, and that was deliberate. For example, what is very popular in North America is to talk about references in Ezekiel to Russia coming down from the north and invading Israel. According to that view, Russia will be in alliance with countries like Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, and they will invade and attack Israel. All this is supposed to lead up to the battle of Armageddon, to be fought in the plains of Jezreel. Any of you who have been to Israel will have seen those plains — they are vast, and an ideal place to fight a conventional land battle, the kind of ground on which tank battles would be fought. I am somewhat reserved about these interpretations, and that is why I left them out. I am not so sure that this is the way to understand these passages.
We are even more skeptical about another popular view, which says that China will send an enormous army towards the Middle East — an interpretation of a passage in Revelation where the word myriad upon myriad is then interpreted as two hundred million. Two hundred million troops from China invading the Middle East? I had a little bit of interest in military matters, and I wonder if anybody has thought how you would move an army of two hundred million right across two continents, and then into Africa. And from the point of view of strict exegesis, to interpret the Greek words "myriad upon myriad" as literally two hundred million is, I think, close to nonsense. I just say these things so that you are cautious when it comes to biblical interpretation of the last days. We should not make an important subject into something quite silly.
You will also have noticed that I avoided referring to the European Union and its member states as the new Roman Empire, or to the calculations based on the seven years and the three-and-a-half years from Daniel. I do not normally speak on any subject that I am not reasonably well acquainted with. I have deliberately left these things out so that we can concentrate on the general clear outline. Even in that outline, I would say there are points I have made that are subject to possible revision in the light of better evidence. When we speak of this important subject, it is not the right place for being dogmatic. We must come with much humility, understanding that our knowledge of scripture is always rather inadequate.
我在这个图画里面, 刻意地省去了很多的东西. 比如说在北美洲非常流行的就是谈到以西结书里面所谈到的俄罗斯从北方下来攻击以色列. 然后他们说俄罗斯会跟土耳其, 叙利亚, 伊朗, 伊拉克联合来攻打以色列. 这就引到哈米吉多顿的争战. 我对这些解释是有所保留的. 然后另外一个说法就是说中国会派出两亿的军队来攻打中东. 这是根据启示录里面的一段经文. 对这一段经文的这种解释, 我觉得是近乎无稽的. 我提出这些事情, 是要你在解释关乎末世的圣经段落的时候要小心谨慎. 我们应该谦卑地来处理这些题目.
And so I begin today by referring to Luke 18:8, where the Lord Jesus says: "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith?" He would not say something like this unless he expects that faith will be hard to find. Everything depends on whether you believe what we have talked about so far. If all we have discussed is to you nothing much more than fairy tales, then you are not going to bother with preparing. Talking about preparing for anything is meaningless unless you believe that these events are going to take place.
Let me ask you: do you really believe that Jesus is coming? Let's not assume too many things. You might not even truly believe this. After all, you're a reasonably intelligent person: "You're telling us something about Jesus, the one born in the manger two thousand years ago, and he's coming again? Come on." I am putting into words what may be hidden in the heart. You're too polite to say so, but I am impolite enough to bring it to the surface. If there is no faith, then all this talk is a complete waste of time. If there is only partial faith, you are actually in a jam — you don't know whether to believe or not, and that inner deadlock is very uncomfortable.
If somebody came in here and said, "This building is on fire," and you didn't believe him, you would take no action — you wouldn't see any fire, you wouldn't smell any smoke. Whether you believe it or not doesn't change the fact of whether there is a fire. It only changes the course of action you're going to take. Similarly: whether you believe there is a God or not doesn't change the fact of whether there is a God. Your faith changes you, but it doesn't change any facts. If Jesus is coming and you don't believe it, it won't stop him from coming. The only difference is whether you will prepare or not. And so Jesus asks: when I come, will I find faith? A rhetorical question, expecting the answer no. He knows us very well.
因此主耶稣在路加福音18章第8节说, 人子来的时候, 遇得见世上有信德吗? 他不会说这句话, 除非他预期信心是很难找到的. 这一切都取决于你是否相信我们所讲的事情. 如果你不相信这些事情会发生, 你就根本不会预备. 假如你不相信耶稣会再来, 那么我们所说的一切都是浪费时间.
Now, why would I myself believe in this amazing event? I share this with you so that you might also find a way to truly believe in his coming. I am still by nature a very skeptical person — I don't just accept something because somebody said it. I like to be very sure of the truth of anything. Those who have read my testimony will know that even as a very young person I was extremely rationalistic, and that made believing very difficult. Because anyone knows there are many things in this world not accessible to our rational powers. Even the greatest scientists humbly acknowledge that what they really know is very little. Spiritual things are especially hard to analyze with human reason. When you try to read the book of Revelation without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, you may come away humbled — because very quickly you will discover that you have no idea what that book is about, no matter how clever you are. It can only be understood by the capacity that God himself gives us.
我自己为什么会相信这个令人惊奇的事件呢? 我分享这个是要帮助你也能够真正地相信主的再来. 我本来是一个非常理性的人, 所以相信这些事情对我来说非常的困难. 因为每个人都知道这个世界上有很多的事情是我们的理性所不能够理解的. 就算是最伟大的科学家都谦卑地承认他们所知道的东西是非常少的. 属灵的事情就更难用人的理智去理解了.
Now, Romans chapter 8 verse 14: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." Is this very mysterious? To a rational person, it is exceedingly mysterious, because he does not know what it means to be led by the Spirit. You cannot analyze that experience with your mind — unless you have actually experienced being led by God's Spirit. Have you been led by the Spirit of God? Paul is not saying this as something optional or rare. He is saying this is the defining characteristic of every son of God. According to that definition, are you still a Christian?
We make our own standards: you're a Christian if you believe in this and that; you're a Christian if you got baptized. We have various convenient definitions. But Paul says — and I emphasize, not me but Paul — a child of God is one who is led by the Spirit. By that standard and definition, are you still a Christian? Now why is this important? Because if you don't know what it is to be led by the Spirit, you obviously cannot truly believe in the reality of God. You can believe in God as an intellectual idea. Your belief will be the same kind of belief that a philosopher has — he believes in an idea. And there are many Christians today who believe in God in that intellectual sense; when examined closely, their belief is not based on any experience of fact but on an idea.
The problem with this theoretical kind of belief is that if it is established on theory, it can be destroyed on the basis of theory. If I can pull your theory apart, your faith collapses. And it is usually not very difficult to pull such theories apart. This is why there were people who went into a theological seminary for training and lost their faith in the process — because one of the things they had to do was to study the philosophy of opposing philosophers, those who want to prove that God does not exist. And because their faith was not rooted in a living experience of God, they found it difficult to defend their theory.
罗马书第八章第十四节说, 凡被神的灵引导的都是神的儿子. 这个对一个理性的人来说是非常地神秘的, 因为他根本不知道什么是被神的灵引导. 可是保罗在这里说的不是一件可有可无的事情. 他说这个是每一个神的儿子的特征. 根据这个标准, 你是否还是一个基督徒呢?
那些凭头脑上的理论去相信神的人, 他们面对一个问题, 就是如果这个理论被推翻了, 他们的信心就会垮掉. 这就是为什么有人去了神学院之后反而失去了信心. 因为他们的信心不是建立在一个活生生的与神相遇的经历上面. 但是没有一个哲学可以否定神的存在. 哲学所能做到的, 就是在你的心里面提出很多的疑问, 使你成为一个不可知论者.
The only kind of person who has no doubt about the spiritual reality of what we are talking about is the person who knows day by day what it is to be led by the Spirit. And according to the apostle Paul, those are the only true Christians there are. So if you want to prepare practically for the coming of the Lord, start right here: learn to be led by the Spirit. Romans 8:14 is about the most basic Christian experience. And to be led by someone implies that you follow, you are a disciple, you obey the one who leads. To follow Jesus today means to follow his Spirit — the Holy Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of Christ in the New Testament.
To yield your life to his kingship: God never forces his kingship upon you. He leads those who joyfully and humbly yield their lives to him. He only leads those who come willingly. And the coming of the Lord is precisely the coming of the King. Are you sure you want to meet the King? I am not so sure. We discussed yesterday sins of omission as well as sins of commission. Do you really dare to meet the King? Think of all the things you ought to have done and you didn't do. And then, if at some point in your life you have humbled yourself before the Lord, knelt before him, and said: "Lord, from this moment I repent of all my past rebelliousness and sin, and I yield my life to your kingship" — you have started on the road to being a true Christian. But that is only a start. Then there is the constant yielding of the will to being led by him day by day. And I can tell you: the road gets harder and harder as you go on.
所以假如你要实际上预备主的到来的话, 从这里开始: 学习被神的灵引导. 这个是一个基督徒生命里面最基本的经历. 被引导就是说你要跟随那个引导你的. 今天跟随耶稣就是跟随耶稣的灵, 就是圣灵. 假如你要被神的灵引导的话, 你必须要甘心乐意地把你的生命的主权交给他. 把你的生命交给他才是开始. 然后还有就是每天的把你的意志交给神. 每天的让他的灵去引导你. 我告诉你, 这条路越走会越困难.