Given the fact that I have less than 30 minutes, I have pondered before the Lord how to proceed with this message. I always remember Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones in London, in whose church I used to attend. He refused to preach any message unless he was given at least 45 minutes, because he said he could not develop an expository message, that is expounding the Bible, in less than 45 minutes. Because he said he cannot use less than 45 minutes of time to speak a teaching of the Lord. But by the Lord's grace, I'll try within 30 minutes or less. So I will see that in the Lord's grace, I can do it in half an hour.
Now, I had originally thought of talking to you about a plan of how to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth. I was just trying to tell you about how to bring the gospel to the end of the day. We have what plan to do in line with some of the things we talked about in the camp. But then it occurred to me that this may not be the right approach at this present time. Because to accomplish anything in any ministry, you need to have the right people with the right spirit. Because in any ministry, you need to have the right people. For example, you cannot carry out a military operation or commando operation without trained commandos. You cannot set up or build a factory or machinery without trained people such as engineers. You cannot run a business without people who know something about how businesses are run.
How are we going to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth with people who don't even have the motivation or the know-how to proceed? The important thing is people. What kind of people do we need to be able to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth? That's where we have to start before discussing all the plans of carrying out this operation. 起码我们先谈了这个才可以谈计划吧。
And so as we enter into the new year and the new millennium, and leave the old behind, we要忘记过去, I would like to talk about new people who have left the old life behind so as to enter into the new millennium. 我们也谈到就是一个新的人, new people for the new millennium, 新的人去迎接新的千禧年。And so we need a picture of what constitutes in the scriptures, in the New Testament, a new person. 我们要看，到底在圣经里面，新的人是怎么样的呢？I noticed that it's hard to find any book, at least I'm not aware of any book, that actually describes for us what the new man in the New Testament is like. 我发现到我在任何书本里面没有看到，到底在圣经里面看到新的人是怎么样的。
We remember again 2 Corinthians 5:16 and 17 where Paul says that if any man be in Christ, he is a new person, the old has passed, the new has come. 我们记得在林后第五章第十六十七节里面，保罗说过，旧的已经过去，新的要来。What's the use of entering into a new millennium when the person who enters it is old? It hasn't changed at all. 假如我们还是一个旧人，一个老我的话，我们怎么进入千禧年，又有什么意义呢？What's the difference if you have 2000 on the calendar but you are the same person that you have been for the last 10 years, 20 years, 50 years? What difference does it make if the calendar has a different date on it? Newness has to be something real within us and not just something external on the calendar. 这个的心不当仅是在外在的，最重要的是在心里面的内在的。
This newness in the scripture is something we need to experience, something that we know. I know now what is new. I feel new. 这是圣经里面，传统我们可以经验到，我就老是说，不是新造的人，我是一个新造的人。The old has passed. The new has come in my life. 旧的已经过了，变成新了，基本在我的生命里面经验到。
And then you might say to me, "Wow, you said you have 30 minutes, 哪里说你只有30分钟啊，and you're going to tackle a subject of this size? 你要谈这么大的一个问题吗？" So I will try to be brave. 他会出版勇气地继续。And try to give a brief portrait. 我希望用一个简单的去素描一下。And center it all around one theme to make it as easy to remember as possible. 我希望能够集中在一个主题里面。
And since it's Christmas time, the Christmas season, I will take as my text Luke 1:37. 既然是圣诞节，我们就看路加福音第1章37节。
Now in this section, the angel Gabriel. 在这里谈到天使Angel Gabriel. Gabriel is the highest, thought to be the highest ranking angel in heaven. 这个加百列天使长。He is given the responsibility to make the announcement to Mary. 他有这个责任把这个报告向玛利亚宣布。Who was about to become the mother of Jesus. 玛利亚就是将要成为主耶稣的母亲。And the angel Gabriel, by the way in heaven there are many ranks and among angels. 当然在天上不同的天使，他们也有一些层次的分别。And so this task is entrusted to the highest ranking angel. 这件事就交给天使长加百列。
And Gabriel gives quite a long message to Mary. 加百列他对玛利亚讲了一个很长的信息。And told her some mind-boggling things. 他讲了他一些很难想象的事情。Mind-boggling is: she is not married and she's going to have a child. 为什么这样说呢？因为他那时候还没有结婚他就怀孕了。In other words, she is not married according to what we call. She is married in the biblical sense, that is in those days when a person was engaged in the Jewish sense of the word, they were described as husband and wife already. 他们可以说他们是结婚了，可是那时候他已经许配了。But for about a year they don't stay together. 可是在那一年里面他们没有住在一起。So in that sense we would say they are not married yet. 所以我们可以说他们还没有结婚。And after about a year there would be that official marriage by which they can thereafter stay together. 然后就是过了大概一年，他们就正式的结婚，他们住在一起。That time had not yet come. 那时候还没有到。
And Mary received this mind-boggling news that she is going to have a child but from God. 然后玛利亚就受了这个信息，使她很惊讶地说她要怀孕了。你可以想象得到那么惊讶的时候，没有人可以想象得到。God does all these things which are really hard to believe. 有时候神所做的是使人很难相信，神迹是很难使人自信的。
But again there was a double announcement in this case. 这里也有一个双喜。A double announcement. Because having mentioned this mind-boggling thing to Mary, 因为跟他讲了这个信息之后呢，Gabriel went on to inform her that her relative Elizabeth was also going to have a child. 她的一个亲戚伊丽撒白也是怀孕了。The thing with Elizabeth is she was already quite old. 那时候这个姐妹伊丽撒白，她的年纪已经比较大。And she all her life was barren. She could not have children. And the angel told Mary Elizabeth is also has a child. In fact she has already been pregnant for six months. 然后加百列就告诉玛利亚，她说伊丽撒白已经有六个月的身孕了。So by now you also know that the son of Elizabeth was John the Baptist. 她可能也知道，就是伊丽撒白她的儿子就是施洗约翰。
Two mind-boggling statements. 人家很使人惊讶地消失。And at the end of this rather long announcement, 在这个报告的末后，总结的时候，加百列跟玛利亚这样说："With God all things will be possible." 出于神的话，没有一句不能带能力的。这句话好像是预说以后的事情，可是事实是已经发生了。天使要说的就是一个永远的真理，就是说在神里面没有不可能的事。
And I would like to give you this verse as something to take into the 21st century. 我希望你能够把这一节的经节带进新的千禧年里面。Because this is the core of true Christianity. 这个就是真正的基督徒。This is the essence of the truth of a new man. 这个就是一个新造的人他的真实。Because becoming a new man is simply a miracle. 因为一个新造的人就是一个神迹。How do you turn an old man into a new man? 你怎么把一个旧人变成一个新人？How do you turn a sinner into a saint? 你怎么把一个罪人成为一个圣人呢？That is the miracle. If this thing doesn't happen, this transformation doesn't happen, all we are going to have is religion, not spirituality. 不是一个属灵。
And most of the church is Christian religion. 现今在教会里面一般都是说基督成为一个宗教。And at the level of religion, the differences between Christianity and other religions may not be that striking. 在宗教这个层面来说，每一个宗教可能是相差不远。The basic ideas of morality. 他们说要有道德。A belief in some kind of supreme power or eternal laws. 他们相信是什么超乎人的能力。And trying to live harmoniously with other people. 他们希望能够彼此和好的相处。Aren't these the basic principles of any religion? 这是所有的宗教的基本的原则吧。And frankly, while religion might be quite good at that level. 当然在那个层面来说宗教是挺好的。That isn't what the Bible or the New Testament teaches. 可是这个不是说圣经里面所谈到的。
It's amazing how many Christians still don't understand this point. 可是很多基督徒他们也不明白这一点。And so they become Christians. They become baptized. And baptism is just another religious ceremony. 他们受洗了，可是受洗了就可能只是一个的仪式罢了。And so they become Christians in the religious sense. 所以他们只是在宗教上他们成为一个基督徒。And I wonder whether you are a Christian simply in this religious sense. 我在想，你是否这一种的基督徒呢。Nothing new has happened. 没有新造的人。You are still the old person you were before. And you can't become anything else, at least not until these words become true in your life, that this amazing miracle by which the old is transformed into the new.
Now we in the world know everything about new becoming old. You bought a new car, right? Oh, so shiny. Look at the design, streamlined. And when you walk around it, you can't help admiring your car. And when it got a little dirty, you rush out there to have it nicely washed. Look for the nicest protective car wash material you can put on there. Coat it with wax or whatever it is you can coat it with, so that you can preserve its newness as long as possible. You know you can keep on the new car. But by the second year, there are a few scratches on there. You are trying to find what kind of thing can remove the scratches. And this problem gets worse and worse. By the second year, the third year, all the other efforts to make it look new are getting more and more unsuccessful.
The law of this world is that the new becomes old. Look at the young person. You admire the skin so smooth. I think all the ladies, they admire the babies, the young children. Oh, so beautiful skin. Look at that. That's the reason why they always like to touch the baby. I wish I have this kind of skin. And then they look on the TV and there's a program that tells you, oh, if you put this on your face, your wrinkles disappear. No wonder that's a billion dollar business out there. Oh, everyone put this stuff on their face. Somebody thinks I also need some treatment on my face. Oh, maybe I need some treatment on my face.
So I was given, you know what I was given? I was given a bottle of mud. Mud. It's called thermal mud. I'm sure the sisters were familiar with this kind of thing. They know all this kind of thing much better than I do. And then when you put this stuff on your face, your face feels quite hot. And that's supposed to improve the circulation, you see. And this way your wrinkles begin to disappear. Then your皱纹 will decrease, at least you hope they do. And then on top, after you wash off this mud, because you're supposed to keep it on your face for a while. If anybody happens to knock on your door and walk in, they're sure they have a heart attack.
So I tried it once on my face. And I hope nobody's going to open the door. Because since somebody gave it to me, they're going to ask me, "Did you use this thing?" Not very nice. I said, "No, no, I never use it." So I can say, "Yes, yes, I put it on my face." I actually used it once. And I looked in the mirror and I thought, "This is really something. Wow, this looks like something out of the comedy." And I had two eyes and all of this is black. So you can imagine if somebody came to my door and they were looking for me and I opened the door. So here we are. And recently, apparently some people are very convinced the value of mud. So believe it or not, I got another two things of mud, two bottles of mud products. So pardon me if you come to see me sometime, and you'll be forgiven if you thought you came to the wrong door.
We are trying to preserve the old in such a way that it does not become old too fast. We are trying to preserve the old in such a way. Not to mention, again, I think the sisters know very well how much they go operations, stretch the skin up into their hair. I think姐妹知道的比较多一点什么拉皮之类的。And of course I mean this is not only sisters, by the way. I mean brothers do the same thing. I mean弟兄也做同样的。I mean the hair is dropping off. We have to think of all kinds of ways to keep what's left still there. You know, we have to keep what's left. This struggle, this struggle not to become old too fast is a reality we all understand. This struggle we have to keep what's left.
There is no such thing in this world whereby the old becomes new. All you can try to do is try to hold on to it so that it doesn't become old too fast. This is in the world. We have to from old to new. But becoming a Christian is the reverse. You become new, the new within. That is amazing. That's why I say it's contrary to the principles of life. I mean, we all know about the second law of thermodynamics and everything going down here. But the whole problem, that is the law of how things work in the world.
# New Life - Part 2
And the only way it can go in the reverse is when God intervenes. So a person, for example, physically sick. Sickness is part of the whole process of degeneration. Cancer, for example, is something that strikes mostly older people. The older you get, the risk of cancer goes higher. As you look at the statistics, you see that the older people get cancer at a much higher frequency, higher rate. That's because the immune system, the body's defense system, weakens with age. And therefore the risk increases all the time. Nowadays, younger people also get heart attacks. But again, of course, if you look at the statistics, the older they are, the risk of heart attack is ever higher.
He can stop the process and reverse it, so that a person with cancer is healed. I think I've shared with you before that I'm not involved, I don't engage in a ministry of physical healing. But often out of compassion I have prayed for those with things like cancer. And they have been healed. The cancer has simply disappeared. So God has intervened and not only stopped the degeneration process, but actually removed it, so that the very tumor, in one case a very large tumor, simply vanished. It's gone into thin air, disappeared. And that not over a long period of time. It simply vanished, either the same day or within the next day or two. There's nothing psychological about this. Tumors do not vanish out of psychological reasons.
Even when they are attacked with the most powerful chemical weapons, even with radiation, for example, it's very difficult to destroy a tumor. But when God intervenes, the tumor disappears. He takes it away. With God, all things are possible. I know this firsthand because I was the one who prayed for them. I also had a group of people. Because I was the one who prayed for them. Somebody with hemorrhage stroke, I prayed for the person. She was instantly healed. Cases like this, because God can not only stop the process of death but reverse it. And these people, most of them are alive to this day, even though I had prayed for them more than 20 years ago. But I do not do this as an evangelistic method or anything of this kind. It is purely out of compassion. And there are times if the Lord doesn't lead me to do so, I would not pray for them. Because I must be sure of the will of the Lord in this matter. So I do not believe in blanket praying for everybody. In each case, I must know the will of the Lord in the matter. Once I'm confident that it is the will of the Lord, then I will pray. Because my confidence is in God. With Him, all things are possible.
Try to remember: with God, all things are possible, always. If you take the first letters, All Things Are Possible, you have ATAP. ATAP. What is a tap? No, no, no, not tap that one. To tap, like this, to touch gently. It's true, the word can mean also tap. It might also be good. You turn on the tap. You can say it. I didn't think of that one. Thanks for that. That is good too. Because you see, for us, what is impossible, it's so difficult to accomplish. For the Lord, it is one gentle touch. A tap. A sick person comes, someone is dying. The Lord just touched gently the person. The person is healed. This is the wonder about true faith.
True faith is the confidence, the confidence that with God everything is possible. What else is the definition of faith? And what is the problem that we have among Christians today? They claim to believe in God. The truth is they don't believe in God. Because if you don't believe that with God all things are possible, then you haven't believed in God at all. So I ask you right now, do you really believe? I don't mean theoretically. Not as a matter of theology and dogma. Of course, in theology, we all know that God is omnipotent. We use this great big term, omnipotent. Oh yeah, theoretically God has to be omnipotent, otherwise He wouldn't be God. But in practice, we don't believe that. Because our lives show that we don't believe it.
If somebody has cancer in front of you, do you dare to pray for that person? You say, "Well, you know what happens? I pray, nothing happens. Then I dishonored the Lord." Well, you've already dishonored the Lord by not believing that He can do it. Somebody asked me just yesterday, "Do you believe in God's healing?" I said, "Of course I do." The only thing, as I said before, is it's not up to us to tell God to heal this person. The only thing we have to do is not to say we have to say, ah, you need this person. God doesn't want to heal that person for reasons best known to himself. How do I have the right to tell God to heal that person? I'm always terrified of those people who pray as though they can command God to do all kinds of things. I'm always afraid. And those who say they claim some promise, well, I also read the same Bible and I haven't seen that kind of promise. Because there are no promises without conditions in the Bible.
And sometimes you can go into a Christian bookshop and you'll see a book on Bible promises. If you quote a promise without quoting the condition attached to that promise, then you have done something false. I think you have heard me so many times preaching about being led by the Spirit that by now you'll say, "I think next time he's going to preach, he's going to talk about that again." But that is the fundamental principle of the spiritual life. And I know from experience that no matter how many times I may say the thing, it still doesn't register. But particularly when we relate to God and be confident in His power, we must be certain we are walking in the center of His will. And when you walk with God, you know His will. That's why you pray for that person, he will be healed. No question about it.
Some people are very surprised when I say to them, I have never prayed for a person to be healed and that person was not healed. It has always been healed. And the reason for that is very simple, which I have already told you. I always aim only to do His will. I have always told you my goal is to fulfill God's will. And no faith healer that I know of has ever claimed that every person he heals has been healed. Only a small percentage of them are healed. Just a small percentage. And he will admit that the only people who were healed were the ones in line with God's will. So why do you go for a blanket healing and then you have maybe 10% healing and 90% not healed? Is that the way to function? Because if only 10% are healed, the unbeliever will be able to say, "You see, this was probably, you know, there is a psychological explanation for all this." So far from God being honored, actually the glory of His work is gone. But when the non-believer challenges me and I said 100% healing, he doesn't know what to say.
Do you believe that with God all things are possible? Now that is the first mark of a new man. And the reason why he has that confidence is because he has already experienced it in himself. The miracle has first happened in him. He can look at 2 Corinthians 5:16 and 17 and say it is true. In my own life it's happened. The old has passed, the new has come. From there on, he goes on practicing this truth, this ATAP, all things are possible with God. From there he can continue to experience which is to do with God. When you look into the gospel, this saying occurs several times. I wouldn't have time to go through them one by one. In Mark's gospel alone, it occurs three times, such as in Mark 9:23, Mark 10:27, Mark 14:36. I just give you the references for your future reference. In Matthew, the same thing, Matthew 17:20, Matthew 19:26, and so on. Which shows that we are not dragging some obscure elements from the scriptures out, but that it is a pervasive part, a common part of the Lord's teaching. In many times, he said to his disciples, "You of little faith."
Now, if we want to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth, how are you going to do this unless you proclaim a gospel that shows that the God we believe in is one who can transform every person into a new person? If we don't do this, all you are going to do is to proclaim a Christian religion. We will spread Christianity around. Are we here to preach religion or are we here to preach new life? What do you want to do? Now you see what I meant when I hesitated to talk about plans of evangelism.
I remember what the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees. "You go out over land and over sea, over long distances, to make one convert." Oh, they are religiously very zealous. And then, "When you have made one convert, you make that person twice as worthy of hell than yourself." I think religion is a very dangerous thing. To a great extent, I agree with Marx and his notion that religion is an opiate, an opium for the people. Because it is the substitute for the real thing. It actually, like opium, I don't know how opium works, I have no firsthand experience of this, but I understand that either it makes you feel good or it dulls your mind to the various problems. And that is to a great extent what religion does. I don't think we have to take exception to what Marx said, because there's a lot of truth in what he says. I look around at religion, including Christian religion, and I see that it has made people numb. It has dulled their understanding of things.
So if we want to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth, what is the gospel that you understand? Just more religion? We're going to produce a lot of Christian Pharisees, of which we have too many in the church already. I think that our church, disciples' church, is no exception to this problem. Never imagine that this is a problem for other churches. Our church has a major problem. I think too many among us are simply religious, with a lot of religious fervor sometimes, religious enthusiasm, just like the Pharisees, going over land and sea, they're missionaries. We also send out missionaries. Are we making those people twice as worthy of hell than ourselves? The answer to that is, in fact, I'm afraid yes. Because what you don't have, you cannot pass on. If you don't have life, what life are you passing on?
There's a world of difference between religion and life. When you don't have life, all you are conveying to others is religion. You listen to two people preaching the gospel and it sounds entirely different. You listen to one and you know that's religion. You listen to another and that is life. If you can't tell the difference, it's too bad for you. And therefore, before we talk about bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth, I emphasize again, we must know whether we understand what life is in our experience.
You see, the difference is this. Religion is knowledge. In the early days, there was something called Gnosis, which is just the Greek word for knowledge. And this means that you know what the Bible teaches. And many people in our church have a lot of Gnosis, a lot of knowledge. They've been through so many trainings. But you don't necessarily have life. When you have life, life is something that is dynamic, something that is inside and that moves you forward. Life is real in your heart. And this life finds expression in a communion with God. Now, you can have a lot of knowledge, but you don't like praying. Or you can pray as a religious exercise. Maybe it's like Buddhism. You sit there and meditate. You sit there in lotus position and you just meditate.
I have somebody in Hong Kong that I'm in touch with, a very good person. We built up a friendship between us. It actually came from going on, happened to be on the same holiday tour. And he happened to attach himself to me because I went out swimming, relatively long distance, and he determined to come with me. We don't know each other. But that day, he asked me, "You are going to swim out there?" And I said, "Yes." He said, "Can I come with you?" I said, "You're welcome." And at first, the whole group of people came out. And then one by one, they all dropped away, because it was a bit rough out in the ocean. I was exploring some coral in that area. But because the water was rough, they all left. So I turned around and I saw, oh, they were all heading back to the shore. So I said to him, "You going back?" He said, "No, no, where you go, I go." Oh, I thought, this is a real disciple, this one. And he stuck with me all afternoon. And I thought, wow, he has a lot of confidence in me. And where does he get that confidence? Because in case he can't cope with the waves, he has to be confident that I can rescue him and bring him back to shore.
So in any case, we built up a friendship. And I discovered that he is a very devout Buddhist. And so even after we returned to Hong Kong, we kept the friendship with one another. I admired him very much in many ways. I thought he was superior to many Christians that I know. For example, his self-control. Because the hotel provided meals and sometimes we had this nice big fish there, you know, delicious big fish. But since he had become a Buddhist, maybe two years before, he wouldn't eat any fish. I said, "You don't like fish?" He said, "I like fish. But now I don't take fish anymore." And so everybody was there, you know, eating and enjoying all this fish and all this food. He would not yield to temptation. He wouldn't touch it. He was eating a piece of dry bread. Because there wasn't much else for him to eat, because everything included some meat inside or something else that he couldn't eat. So there he was chewing this dry bread and drinking some coke. And meal after meal, I saw him doing this thing. And yet he was very cheerful. He didn't see that as a very high price to pay for being a Buddhist. The more I got to know him, the more I love this man.
Many things, such as his considerateness. And once he invited us for supper. And so I thought he was going to take us to a vegetarian restaurant. He said, "Well, you're a Shanghainese, are you not?" And then when we arrived at the restaurant, I discovered that it was a Shanghainese restaurant. I said, "Well, how come you bring us here?" He wanted to do something nice for us. I said, "What are you going to eat in the Shanghainese restaurant?" Because even the oil with which they fry the vegetable may be from animal fat. He said, "No, no, that's fine with me. That's no problem." In the end, I think he had a small dish that he asked for specially to be cooked with only vegetable oil. So he was feeling bad enjoying the Shanghainese food and he was just eating this. But he was so joyful in doing it. I was very touched.
And I asked him about what he does every day. He was quite high in some company in Hong Kong. And I wondered, how does he survive? Because he has to go out into China often for his business. I don't think in China it's all that easy to find vegetarian restaurants nowadays. Every day he spends one hour in prayer, in meditation. No matter how busy he is, no matter whether he had enough sleep or not enough sleep, one hour he spends in prayer, in meditation. I thought to myself, how many Christians do that? How many Christians spend one hour in quiet time? And all his spare time, I mean all, without exaggeration, all his spare time he spends in reading the Buddhist scriptures. And not only reading it, he hand copies it. I asked him, "Why do you have to copy it?" Well, he said, first, so that he can remember it better. And secondly, with his hand copied scriptures, he writes it neatly, then he distributes it to other people. Evangelism. Do you spend all your spare time reading the Bible? I think not. You see the power of religion. Very powerful, and it's good. It's good. Can you see anything bad in that?
There are some people who can do the impossible. But does he know the God who can do the impossible? Of course not. Because in Buddhism, there is no such God. And yet, even without knowing God, without that spiritual life, the power of religion can motivate him to that extent. Of course, the Marxists will say, there you are, this man is living in the religion of opium. Well, actually, if this is the case, it isn't that bad, is it? After all, he is a very moral, very righteous, very good man.
And yet, we have this friendship between us. Because I would like to pass life onto him, not more religion. He has enough religion already. And it seems to me that he appreciates this friendship with me perhaps because he does see there is a difference. Maybe he does see that the difference is he has religion, I have life. And that life is a gift from God. And so I keep in touch with him hoping one of these days he will also have life. Again, I ask you, do you have life? You have religion. That's why you're here today, presumably. At least I think that's the reason why you're here. But when I told you about my Buddhist friend, does your religion compare to his religion? I think very few of you can compare with the excellence of religion at that standard. If you don't have life, then why don't you just be a Buddhist? What difference does it really make? At least a good one like him. I have nothing against Buddhists. And Buddhists like him I love very much. In fact, I'm not so sure that even some of the monks are up to his standards. He's just outstanding. But we are back to this question. Do you have life?
Now, if you don't have life, and we're going to talk about bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth, you see what I mean? All you're going to bring is religion. You've got no life to bring. And if all you have is religion, why not let the Buddhists do the work? Or some other religion. The reason why I am a Christian is because God has drawn me to himself. It is because I know this God with whom all things are possible. I don't want religion. Not even the nice religion of my Buddhist friends. Because I don't see what's the point of all this. But knowing God, that is eternal life. That's something else.
And so let me just summarize a few points before we close. Before we can talk about bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth, what has to happen with us? First thing is faith. You must have faith. Now here we have another problem. The definition of faith. What is the meaning of faith? In the church today, faith generally means you accept certain doctrines to be true. That's religion. My Buddhist friend also believes certain things to be true. If he didn't believe those things to be true, he wouldn't be doing what he's doing. Nobody can be motivated without believing in something. The businessman believes in money, and that is what motivates him into business. To believe certain things to be true and describe this as saving faith, that's not scripture as far as I can understand.
Faith in the New Testament is relationship with God. "I am the vine, you are the branches." We are related to one another in a living way. That is faith. You can believe all those doctrines, and they are all good doctrines and right doctrines, but that isn't saving faith in the New Testament. At Christmas time, you believe we have Christmas because Jesus came into the world. Good and true. And then Jesus walked on the face of this earth for some 33 years. Yes, I believe that. Good, good. At the end of 33 years, He got crucified. And you believe He got crucified to die for our sins. Alright, good, no problem. And then after three days, He rose from the dead. Rather hard to believe, but okay, I can cope with that at least on the intellectual level. I really don't know how you can believe something like the resurrection without believing that with God all things are possible. But you say, "I do believe all things are possible with God, because I accept theology. And theology says that God is omnipotent." I would say too much of this is totally thoughtless faith.
I would like to talk to you if you say you believe in the resurrection. And I would like to say, apply it now. I challenge you to put into practice this faith you claim you have that God can do all things. I wonder, would you dare? And the place to dare is in true evangelism as distinct from just missionary activity. Jesus dared us. And I preach His way, His style. You dare? Okay. "Sell everything and follow me." Let's not go too far. This is becoming a bit fanatic. You know why? Because if you sell everything as Jesus said and gave to the poor, what does the rich man have to live on? Now he has only one way to live. How? Like the birds of heaven. Like the grass of the fields. Isn't that what the Lord Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount? Do you dare to trust God to provide for your daily needs in the same way that God provides for the birds? Do you dare to go out with nothing in your pocket and trust God will put a shirt on your back, a coat on your back?
We no longer talk theoretically, yes, yes, yes, Jesus rose from the dead. You know, if you hear a thing, and this was Nazi propaganda, and we have the same problem in the church, you repeat a thing over and over and over again. According to Dr. Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief, just repeat it often enough and everybody believes it. You come to the church year after year and what does the preacher stand there? Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus rose from the dead. At first you say, "I don't believe this." But after one year, two years, what happens? This propaganda breaks down your resistance. So after one or two years, depending how strong your resistance is, finally, at first you are shaking your head, no, no, no. But after a while, the shaking is less and less vigorous. And slowly, suddenly you nod a bit, you know? And after a while, begins nodding more vigorously. And one of these days, when somebody says he doesn't believe in the resurrection, oh, you become very fierce with him. And then you suddenly say, "See, I believe." I'm afraid, I'm sorry to put it as blunt as this, you might be nothing more than a victim of propaganda. 对不起，我也这样说了，可能你只是成为一个宣传的受害者。
All religion works with propaganda. Just like the communists did. You repeat, repeat, repeat until you break down the resistance. But we are not aware of it, are we? Why would millions of people in China believe in this kind of stuff that they got there? Even fanatically believing in all this? Well, propaganda does it. Very effective. I expose it myself because I don't want anybody to believe on the basis of propaganda. I want that faith, as God wants that faith, to be genuine. And it is based on a genuine, deep experience. A non-experiential faith is what most Christians have. It is not based on any personal experience of God. There is no contact with Him at any deep level.
And sometimes it's almost pitiful. When you challenge some Christians and they try to dig out some experience that they claim is an experience of God. So they will tell you some experience they had, which any non-Christian would very well know how to explain away. You will notice that when I give a testimony, I have already taken into account the objections of the rationalists. The reason is because I was a rationalist myself, so I can predict what they are going to say. And also because I don't want to deceive myself. I must be sure that my experience is true, is genuine.
This brings me to this other concern, that many Christians may be Christians for no other reason than that they are deceiving themselves. We sometimes believe something that we want to believe, even if it's not true. That is the tragedy. Sometimes it results in death. Sometimes, for example, even in human relations, we want to believe that this person we love also loves us. But it's self-deception. And when one day that girl or that boy tells you "I don't love you," actually, the shock is too much to take. So that person has already convinced himself that he or she does love me. And when the self-deception is exposed, they sometimes commit suicide. I beg of you that as Christians you don't engage in self-deception. The gospel has to do with the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. But that's not always the case in the church, unfortunately. I emphasize again, I'm not talking about other churches, I'm talking about our church.
Until these things are clear, we have no gospel to preach anywhere. Until you can say with the apostle Paul, "I know whom I have believed." If you can't say that, don't go and preach the gospel anywhere else. Because all you got is religion. The person who has life is the person who can say with Paul, "I know whom I have believed." The person who has faith is the person who can say "I know whom I have believed." Otherwise, all you have is the statement "I believe what I believe," which is the worst form of dogmatism.
Well, our time is rushing away. But this kind of faith in the God of the impossible is foundational to a genuine faith.
# New Life - Part 3
I've often been shocked at how unfaithful Christians can be in relating to one another. The word faith in Greek can be translated either as faith or faithfulness. It's one and the same thing. And if you cannot be faithful on the human level, you can't tell me that you can be faithful to God. I will need a lot of time to develop this point, but we don't have that time now. Because our relationship to God and our relationship to man is inseparable. You will know the level of faith of a person when you see the way they relate to other people. A faithful person behaves in a very different way, and can show you that there is either genuine faith or the potential of genuine faith. And by genuine faith, I mean a living relationship with God. As somebody who has spent much time in theology, that is me, I'm not at all impressed with professions of faith. But we must persist in living communion with Him.
So I mentioned just quickly this matter of faithfulness as a requirement when you go out to preach the gospel. You don't go alone. You work in a team. And faithfulness is essential to that. But faithfulness of the biblical kind is a miracle in itself. It involves an inner transformation. In which, when people are not nice to us, a brother or sister, intentionally or unintentionally, we do not turn against them. We do not slander them. We do not speak evil of them.
One of the most serious marks of the problems of the Chinese churches today, including us, is how easy slander can move through the church. Speaking evil of one person and another and passing this on magnified as it goes along the way. I have never seen so much of this kind of thing as in the Chinese churches. I think we as Chinese churches must come before God and let Him search us. Because the quality of relationship between brothers and sisters is much too bad. So we need a miracle to transform us in the way we relate to one another. But as I said, it would take a long time to go into that. What's the point of bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth when we cannot establish a community among ourselves in which there is genuine love and faithfulness and concern? What kind of community you want to establish somewhere else?
Third point, quickly. The new man in Christ is a man with vision. Wonderful. It's a wonderful thing to have vision. As we go into the new millennium, do you have any vision? I see very few Christians who have vision, spiritual vision. From out of these visions there come plans, concrete plans of action. Without vision, all we are going to have is missionary activity. So all the points I am talking about today, when I talk about the qualities of the new man, have to do with outreach.
I think I shared with some of you before, when I was in Montreal some ten years ago, I attend the Montreal church whenever I can when I return to Canada. And that Sunday, the pastor of the church was preaching there. And I was sitting there listening to the message, and suddenly a vision came to me. And I was transported away in the vision. And suddenly I saw in front of me the whole of China spread out in front of me. Looking from south to north, I could see the whole of China in front of me. And I saw a light, the light of God, descend and cover the whole of China. And my heart was so moved. And I said, "Lord, will you not raise up, to begin with, ten men, ten people, to be able to start reaching out into China?" So amazing vision I had there. This picture is always there. When you see a vision, it sticks in your mind. The whole of China and there all covered in a golden glow. And so I made this request.
And since that time, this vision has been transformed into reality. It's one step, one step. The first stage of that vision and my request for ten co-workers from China itself. It's now precisely being fulfilled. There must be a vision from God, not something we just dream up ourselves. I don't remember how long I was in that vision. And then when I sort of came back again into the meeting hall, I don't know how much of the message had been going on. I didn't hear anything, of course. As a matter of fact, I don't remember anything about that service, except that vision. When we are new in Christ, we live in this new life. God will give us visions, just as Paul had the vision of the Macedonian call, and then he went on into Europe to preach the gospel. Since that vision, I have myself been into China several times, and God is moving the work forward, though my visits did not directly have to do with the fulfilling of this vision. There are so many things I could say in all these points. I will just give you the headings and move on.
The fourth thing I would like to say, if you are concerned about world evangelism, is that the new man in Christ is mobile. Mobile means he can move from place to place. Are you mobile? Many Christians are unable to move. They are pinned down to the ground. Could you move at short notice? What is the point of talking about bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth when you can't even move from where you are now? Among our co-workers, we have something very interesting which is called mobile teams. They are volunteers. That means they have made themselves available for any work at very short notice. These mobile teams might have to move out within less than 48 hours notice. They pack their bags and off they go, sometimes to the other side of the world. And there have been quite a number of times when they have been called upon to move and move quickly. They are mobile. They keep themselves very mobile. They keep very few possessions. They just throw a few things in the bag and they're gone.
Needless to say, most of them are not married people. Married people, not so mobile. But some of them are very willing to be mobile. But 48 hours notice is a little bit too short for them. But the general principle we see in the scriptures about the new man is his remarkable mobility, like the Lord Jesus himself. As the Lord said, "The Son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Though the foxes have holes, the birds have nests, the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head." That is to say, unlike the fox, he doesn't have a hole. Unlike the bird, he doesn't have a nest. He can leave right away. Our churches are not mobile. When the Lord said, "Sell all that you have," do you see what it means? It means you are very mobile. You've got nothing holding you down. The mobile teams have nothing to sell, as a matter of fact. So they are very mobile. Because in this mobility, the Lord can direct you anywhere, anytime, very quickly.
But you don't have that freedom from material possessions. In fact, the reverse, you want to acquire more, buy more things. So when we want to move, there are piles of things, you know what we are supposed to do with all this. We don't even know where all this came from. We are not mobile. But when you are mobile, you don't have much. So not only are you mobile, you need to depend on God for the provision of everything. Then you learn to experience how God provides for your needs. Then you know, with Him, all things are possible.
You know, I have lived this kind of life, and still am living it now. As you realize, I am half the year in Hong Kong, the other half of the year somewhere in Canada or who knows where. At our age, being as mobile as this is not easy. You have nowhere to settle. You are all the time packing and unpacking, packing and packing. Finally, you just live out of the suitcase. You don't bother to unpack anymore. This is one thing that my wife had to learn from me. It's very hard for her. When we were in England, for all the time we were there, we hardly stayed ever in one place for more than six to nine months. And that is over 30 years ago now. And it's still true today. So where is our home? When we have to fill out the form, where is your place of residence, I often don't know what to fill in. Should I write Canada? Should I write Hong Kong? Both are true. Nowhere I can properly call home, or maybe I can call everywhere home, either way. And all the way back, that has been my lifestyle. Are you prepared to live in this way, like the Lord Jesus?
So, in this life of dependence on Him, and experiencing the way He fulfills His word, it is truly wonderful. Yes, it is tiring. When you first as a young person travel, it's very interesting. You travel here, travel there, it's all great fun. By now, the thought of traveling gets very tiring. But you experienced the Lord. Have you experienced the Lord's words that the Lord provides for His people just as He provides for the birds of the air? I can tell you endless stories of how the Lord works, doing the impossible. And He says He will clothe you with a glory beyond that even of a king.
When I came out of China, I had absolutely nothing. Not even a watch. I sold that in order to be able to have something to eat. So I had to try and figure out what's the time. I had to look around somewhere to see the shop. Do they have a clock somewhere? Then I couldn't afford a watch for a long time. And then one day I visited my mother. By this time she was in Europe after having had an operation for her lung problems. She didn't have much money because of all the medical bills. And she noticed I don't have a watch. How can you live in a civilized part of the world without a watch? So she said to me, "Here is a watch you can use. Your father bought this watch." In fact, he bought two of these watches. And you know what watches these were? Gold Omega. Wow. Here is a guy who owns nothing, and suddenly my mother says, "Why don't you take the watch and use it?" This is a gold Omega.
So can you imagine, I was in my twenties walking around with a gold Omega on my wrist. The Lord could have provided me with any old junk that keeps the time. But there is the way He wanted to show me, "I will clothe you beyond even..." Solomon never had a gold Omega, you can be sure. And today even many prime ministers don't have gold Omega, not even gold Rolex. And here is this twenty-year-old guy walking around with a gold Omega. My mother said, "I have no use for the gold watch." I guess my father gave it to her so in case she had some financial need, maybe she can sell one of them. But she didn't even know where to sell the watch. And anyway, at that point in time she didn't need to sell it. And for several years I was walking around with a gold Omega on my wrist.
The nice thing is this. Most people never noticed it was a gold Omega I was wearing. My father used to say that if he wore any old junk watch, because of his position, everybody thought he was wearing something very valuable. In fact it was a very cheap one. Of course later he liked to wear Omega and Rolex. But early on he wore any old thing. But the reverse was true of me, you see. No matter how expensive a watch I wore, people didn't even look at it because they were sure that I only wear junk. So I noticed for years nobody ever asked me, "Hey, how come you have a gold Omega?" And me, being very naive, didn't have any clue about the value of the watch. And there I was walking around happily with this thing, with no fear of being robbed. Solid gold Omega. Omega also makes steel watches. This is not a steel Omega, this is a gold one. My father bought it as an investment, you know. You don't buy a steel Omega for investment.
When later on I realized the value of this watch and I was able to afford another cheap watch, so I stopped wearing the Omega. And then some years later I gave the watch away to a dear friend of mine. I didn't realize that actually I was giving him problems. He then looked at the gold Omega and he knew the value of it. And he kept protesting, "No, no, no, I can't accept this. After all it's from your father. This is a family heirloom, I can't take this." But I insisted that he should accept it and so finally he accepted the watch. Last year he insisted to return the watch to me. He finally said to me, "Please, you have to understand, I'm very uncomfortable. I've kept your watch all these years, but with the intention to return it to you." So behold, the gold watch is back again. And now what do I do with it? But now it is a family heirloom because it comes down from my father. So I think my daughter is very keen if she could inherit the watch. Of course she cannot wear a man's watch. But for her it's from grandfather, it's an heirloom. I said, "Okay, okay, you can have the watch."
You see, the Lord's word is so true, and I see the humor of it. He could have given me any watch, but he gave me only the best. When the Lord Jesus says, "I will clothe you beyond the glory of Solomon," He meant that. He said, "Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be given to you." You can have them all. But you have Christians all chasing after the things instead of the kingdom of God. And all through these years, I experienced the truth that with God all things are possible. God is so real.
I think we have to close even without going through the points anymore. I really have to close. So I hope at least I have conveyed some idea of what I mean, the difference between religion and a living relationship with the God who does all things. God has been gracious to allow me to have a part in the building up of many churches in the world. But you can see from my message, I am not interested in setting up churches. I am not interested in proclaiming a religion. And to experience Him for yourself. Because the scripture says, to know Him, that is to know Jesus, that is life. To know Him, not just in the head, but in experience.
I pray that the Singapore church, that is all of you, will, by the grace of God, through Him who does the impossible, become a church through which the word of God will reach out through Asia. Through which other people throughout Asia may come to know the living God. And in the process of bringing the true gospel to other parts of Asia and perhaps the world, you will experience God in a very deep way.
You can already start now by opening your homes to invite people in. Some of you already doing that, but on a more well-planned way. For example, you can show a video which will draw and invite the neighbors in to look at it. Then have a time of discussion about this video afterwards. Invite them for some refreshments. We started a church in Hong Kong just by showing a film, you know. Because I said to the team, that was the fourth team, I'm going to give you an assignment. And the assignment is you start a new church. I said to them, "How do we start a church?" I said, "Well, how about like this? You show a film, you choose a film, you find a place, choose a film, and then invite all the people in the apartments." You know, Hong Kong has high-rise apartment blocks. Invite all of them upstairs and downstairs, nearby, all come and see the film. And then from there you can start a church. I said, "Really? That easy?" They said, "Well, try."
So they went and looked for a film, whatever. And then they printed these things, invited people, all come in. And then when the day came, they wondered if anybody will turn up. And then when they walked into the room, they had a shock. The place was packed. They thought, how are we going to cope with so many people? First they're afraid nobody comes. Next they're terrified there are so many people. And then they thought, oh, the people come once, maybe they never come again. And behold, they continue to come, some of them. That's how the central church in Hong Kong was started. And of course, now that is quite a big church. And they're just going to start a new church on the east side of Hong Kong. But I could see the encouragement to the fourth team of such a thing. Evangelism is not a difficult thing. The important thing, that's the difficult part, is to preach the true gospel.
And so from there on, I see that perhaps one of these days, some of you in units of two or three may be able to go forth to Burma. And who knows, as far as maybe South America, Central America. I was dreaming for you today. Or maybe you can go to南非. This morning, I was dreaming. Maybe the Singapore church is going to set an example to all the churches. A church that is mobile. A church that is self-giving. That will go to the ends of the earth. And South America is about as far as to the ends of the earth that I can think of at the moment. Lots of Chinese there. And maybe some of you will be called by the Lord to do just that. I've thought about South America a lot of times. Pastor Boone went to Central America. I also went there myself to another part of Central America, looking for the opportunity to establish the work of the Lord there. And perhaps some of you will be part of this wonderful plan of God.
Well, at this point I have to apologize again. I've gone half an hour beyond my intentional program. But at least you have the comfort that you might not see me for another three years or more. So you won't have to suffer through this again. I hope you will remember His words. So thanks for your love, your patience, your endurance. And I hope you will forgive me that my speaking often is very straight. And some people may feel it's too sharp. So I ask your forgiveness for that because I speak truly out of love. So let us close in prayer.