But before we go on to the subject of spiritual ambition, I'd like to deal with two or three questions which have either been handed to me or asked to me personally in connection with the past two meetings. One is a question that I raised and some people said, "You raised it, you haven't answered it yet. Why then does the pastor need the church?" I said, "You've answered every other question, but what about this one?" Now, we have often assumed that the pastor, being a mighty man of God, or so we hope he is, requires nothing and no one. He is utterly self-sufficient and everybody depends on him and he depends on nobody. Well, that is not at all true. And I'll just deal with this in one or two moments.
In this connection, I would like you to consider a remarkable verse — remarkable once you stop to think about it. And this verse is in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. Let me read it to you. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. And this is what the Apostle Paul says: "When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, a door was opened for me in the Lord. But my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia."
I would like you to think slowly about a verse like that. That is something really remarkable. Paul is saying that when he came to Troas, a door was opened for him to preach the gospel. A door that was opened — he doesn't say exactly what, but it is a door to preach the gospel. "A door was opened for me in or by the Lord," whichever way you translate this preposition in the original. "But my mind could not rest because I did not find Titus there, my brother Titus. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia."
Could you ever think that Paul would turn away an opportunity to preach the gospel? I think it's the only place in the Bible I've ever heard of it. This mighty man of God who would seize every opportunity — but he arrived at this place and his fellow soldier was not there. Titus was not to be found. He didn't know why. But Titus was not on the scene. We also don't know why exactly Paul needed Titus so much at this particular point. But he needed Titus. Titus was not there and so he moved on. Could it be that Titus had something to do with Troas and therefore Paul needed him on the spot? And because Titus was not there, Paul delayed this work to another time and got on with another work in Macedonia. Titus was not there.
You see, we often imagine that mighty men of God require no one else. That's a great mistake. Paul understood tremendously the principle of teamwork, that spiritual battles must be fought not as a single-handed business — in which case we have no need for the church again — but it must be fought with the unity of a team. This is the principle by which, I think you may have noticed by now, that we in Liverpool, whom the Lord has raised, are working with. We work as a team, always as a team. Fighting the Lord's battles as a team, consulting with one another how the battle should proceed, how to deal with this or that situation. Always a team.
Paul's team was a very big one. Never imagine, when you read the New Testament, that Paul fought every battle single-handed. He always worked as part of a team. And if you look at the end of 2 Timothy, you'll notice a number of team members' names. And many of you may not even realize that he's talking about team members, the team, these co-workers of his. He mentions, for example, that Demas, who was a team member, has left him because he fell in love with the world. Here is a team member that was disqualified. And secondly, he mentions another person whom we know little about, called Crescens, also in verse 10 of 2 Timothy chapter 4. He mentions here also Titus, whom we just mentioned. In verse 11 he mentions Luke, another team member. He mentions Tychicus, whom he has sent to Ephesus. How many people have we already got? And then he mentions that Timothy himself should come and bring Mark with him. You can see quite a considerable team. In some of the other letters you'll notice the names of other team workers. The fact that Paul was the best known member of this team doesn't mean he was the only one. Paul never fought alone. At least as far as it was possible, he never fought alone. He was always accompanied either by Luke or by some other co-worker.
And this is the principle of spiritual warfare. The Lord Jesus, when He sent out His disciples, He sent them out, remember, two by two. The minimum number was always two. Could it be for this reason that since Paul was alone, he did not venture forth until Titus or someone else should turn up on the scene, or he went where his co-worker would be?
This is another spiritual principle that we must grasp. If you want to do God's work, you must do it in His way. You never succeed to accomplish God's work unless you do it in His way. And when we do not do it in His way, either due to necessity, because there is no co-worker — you know, John Sung moans deeply, as I read his biographical notes, that some of his co-workers just went their own ways. He was so grieved about it, he remarked about this in one of the few bitter notes I have noticed in his biography, that he was left to fight the battle on his own. Now, maybe John Sung was not an easy man to get on with, but at least he was a man of utter devotion. He had often to fight the battle on his own because nobody wanted to fight beside him. And most people like, always — and this is a great problem of teamwork — to be the number one. They don't like to be number two or number three. And so the result was, many of these co-workers of John Sung may have left him because they wanted to play their own fiddle, and not to play second fiddle to John Sung.
But this is the reason that we have so many problems in the church, that we must learn that each one of us — there is no number one, number two. It is always Christ who is supreme. He is always number one, and we are always number two. And thank be to God for that. We wouldn't like it any other way.
So I'm saying this then — you say, "What's all this got to do with a pastor?" A great deal has to do with a pastor. The point is this: that every mighty man of God does not work alone. He works with his co-workers and with his church. He sees the church as his own team, as his own partner. At least that's how he wished they would be. How? How co-workers? How is the whole church a co-worker? Through their prayer. That's how. Through the encouragement they can give to him. Never think that a servant of God requires no encouragement. He can stand on his own two legs. A servant of God also needs encouragement and strength.
Look at 2 Timothy again, and how grateful, how immensely grateful Paul is to somebody that we read about in this letter. And I often think about this person and think, what a precious man this must have been. In 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 16: "May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, who has often refreshed me; he was not ashamed of my chains." Here was somebody of whom we know next to nothing about, whose name even we can hardly pronounce. And here is somebody who actually refreshed the great apostle himself, not once, but many times. You say, "What does Paul ever need?" This spiritual giant doesn't need anybody. Well, he does. He needed this man to refresh him. You know, servants of God also get tired. They also get weary. And here was this wonderful man, this precious man, who was always by the apostle's side, to refresh him again and again.
So I hope by now you can see. Don't say, "Oh well, he's the pastor. I can do nothing for him. He knows the Bible and everything else." Well, he is a man of flesh and blood just like you. And he also gets tired. He also gets so much pressure put onto him that you wonder how he manages to stand.
When I was in Peking in 1955, I had the privilege of going to Wang Mingdao's church to worship the Lord there. By that time, the pressure was building up on Wang Mingdao, and I wondered how he could stand it. He was being attacked by the communist press and by the official press from all angles. The pressure was enormous. But the church was full of people worshiping the Lord. And I looked at him, and as he preached, I realized by the way he preached, that he realized that he was preaching probably for the last time. When a person preaches as one who is about to die, then you know that that is preaching coming from the heart. He is pouring himself out for the last time. As it turned out, it was pretty near the last time. I think he preached only one more time after that, before he was arrested. And I had just arrived from Shanghai. And I felt, as I looked at the man, and as he poured himself out, I felt a deep sense of compassion and love for this man. And I said, "If only I could do something for him. What can I, a young Christian, do for a mighty man of God like this? What can I do for him?"
And I thought about it. And I thought, "Well, at least I can try to encourage him. At least I can say a few words of love to him. At least I can do that." So after the meeting, I made my way forward to Pastor Wang Mingdao. And when I got to him, I said to him, "Pastor Wang, I want to tell you something. I want to tell you that we love you all very much. We all love you very much. And we in the church in Shanghai pray for you constantly. And I want to say to you, stand fast in the Lord. We are with you. Don't be discouraged under these times." You know that the look of gratitude and encouragement that he gave to me was very touching, as he shook my hand and thanked me for that word.
You don't think that you can give nothing to a pastor. You can give him a lot. You can give him encouragement. You can pray for him. You can uphold him in the difficult hour. Many times people just don't know the kind of pressures that build up on those who serve the Lord, when the enemies attack from all sides. If he only knows that you are standing with him. If he only knows that you are praying for him and helping in that tremendously important way. What do you mean, the pastor doesn't need you? Of course he needs you. If you are a functional Christian, that we talked about yesterday. Don't always think, "What can I get when I go to church?" Think, "What can I give?" And so I thank God that even as a young Christian, I could not preach to Wang Mingdao — I mean, he knew the Bible far more than I did. What could I do for him? If he needed some money, I would have been glad to give him what little I had. But he didn't need that either. What could I do? I could at least encourage him. Can't you do that? And so we find that in many of these ways, we can, if we are functional Christians, contribute to the Lord's work.
Another question then, as we must rush on, was a question that somebody asked. "You said we must love one another in this total commitment. So what about the non-Christian?" Well, certainly we are going to love the non-Christian. And some people said, "Well, how much are we going to love the non-Christian?" Well, if you can begin by loving your brothers and sisters, that would be a marvelous beginning. I'm not going to make too many high demands on you. If you can love your brother and sister with that total love, do you know what happens? First of all, you have already begun to love the non-Christian. Why? Because as we saw yesterday, it is through our loving one another that the world will come to know Christ. Do you see? If we can first make perfect our witness in relation to one another, the non-Christians will see it, and they will start coming to the Lord. If you have by this means brought them to Christ, how great is the contribution you have made already.
But of course, there is no reason why you may not also go on to love them by laying your life down for them if it so comes to that need. I mentioned to one sister yesterday who raised this very question with me. I said, "Well, there is in fact actually the case where a preacher laid down his life for apparently a non-Christian in one of the Nazi German war camps." Where this man — the Germans sometimes, because some prisoner escaped out of the camp, they shot people at random. You know, they would just pick out so-and-so and say, "Come forward," and they would just shoot them all, just to warn people not to try to escape. And this whole number of people were selected to be shot, for no fault of their own that somebody escaped from the prison camp. And as they were just at random dragged out and lined up to be shot, a preacher who was also — and I think many of you should realize that many, many preachers, Christian pastors and leaders, were in the prison camps during the Second World War. Many of them faithful men of God, for example, who were locked up in Dachau, which I visited only two or three years ago and felt utterly sick in my heart after seeing that place. We see that the very place where tens of thousands of people had died in that very tiny spot, that concentration camp. And many of them were fine men of God who refused to give any support to this wild animal called Hitler.
And here in this prison camp then, these people were taken out at random to be shot. And a preacher who had befriended one of these men saw this man, who was a married man with three children, and he himself was single. And as these men were lined up to be shot in front of a ditch — you know, they dug their own grave, they were shot and pushed in, that was the fine German Nazi style of doing things — he stepped up. This preacher stepped up to the German officer and said, "Look, can I make a request?" He said, "What do you want?" He said, "I would like to stand in for one of the men being shot." This German officer was so staggered. He looked at him; he couldn't believe his ears. He said, "What do you want to do this for?" He said, "I'm a preacher. And I'm a single man. This man is a married man with three children. You can shoot me instead, if that gives you any pleasure." So the German officer, the poor man of course himself was acting on the orders, but he said, "Well, I suppose I can't object to that." So he ordered the married man back, that man out, and the preacher took his place beside the pit and was actually shot and killed.
I know about this account because it occurred in the newspaper. It was reported there how this man came back to the place where the preacher was shot for his sake and remembered with enormous gratitude how this man had died for him and that he was able to go back to his family and his children after the war. So here we can see again an instance in which there is nothing in the love of Christ which prevents us from loving a non-Christian also in this way.
But Galatians chapter 6 verse 10 says this: "Do good to all men," Galatians 6:10, "but especially to those of the household of faith." In loving, we must give to the brother and sister the priority. This we must certainly do. We must give the brother and sister the priority. Why? Because they are our spiritual relatives. If I have to choose between non-Christians and you, I love both, but I have to love you first because you are my spiritual relatives. You are of the household of God, so you get the priority. And so in the same way you must treat each other. And that is the scriptural teaching.
And finally, one last question is this. Some may say, "Well, you raised another question yesterday and we were longing to hear the answer of it, and we didn't get around to that." But I thought that by that time, if you had got the whole message, you would have been able to get the answer for yourself. Yesterday I asked the question, "Why do we owe love to our brothers and sisters?" And people were longing to hear the answer of that. We said we could see why we need to love them as God's command, but why do we owe it to them? Well, I thought that if you followed the message clearly, you would have gotten the answer.
You see, we owe that love to our brothers and sisters because they are the body of Christ and we owe that love to Christ. How do we love Christ? By loving His person, His body, the church. How else are we going to love Him unless we love His person expressed in His body in the world, in the church? So we owe that love to the brothers and sisters precisely because we owe it to Christ. And why do we owe it to the brother and sister? Because he is the very physical expression of the life of Christ. Because you are the body of Christ. You are the physical expression of Christ's life in this world. You are Christ incarnate, and Christ's life incarnate in this world. Always get this deep into your mind. And therefore, I owe it to Christ to love you because you are the physical incarnation of His life. That's why I owe it. I owe it to Christ. And because you are His body, therefore, I must love you. I owe it to you. I think by now that should not be too difficult to understand.
But we must now raise the arm. Today then we come to this principle which to many of you will be completely new again. And I wonder why it should always be so new. Because nothing of it is new. It is all in the word of God. But because of the lack of teaching in so many places today, all these vital spiritual principles sound utterly new to people.
Now first, let me summarize in this way. The first meeting we spoke about the power of God, with the new creation, making us to be new creatures. And so Christ's life was being, is being ministered and mediated to each through the other, through this great transforming power which makes us new persons. And last night we saw the second principle of love. The third is a word which is very unfamiliar to Christians: self-control. Of all things, we didn't expect self-control to be found side by side with power and love, in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7. Three vital principles have been stated and we come to the third: self-control.
And many people are puzzled by this. Many of us who are studying Acts in Montreal found also that Paul was actually speaking of self-control to one person at his defense. And we expected that he would have spoken about other things than righteousness and self-control. What is this self-control? To put it in one single word, self-control here means the direction in which you live your life. How you control the direction of your life. And because you control the direction of your life, you control everything of that part of your life that is required to direct that life in the right direction. That's self-control.
Now you can see why we are speaking about it in connection with spiritual ambition. Because that's exactly what it is. An athlete who is running the race puts on self-control upon himself. Why? Because he must win that race. Therefore he must put himself in deep and powerful self-control. Why do you control yourself? Why do you work so hard? Because you must gain that direction. Why do you pull yourself up early in the morning, go to bed late? Because you want to accomplish this work. That's why you have self-control. You discipline yourself to accomplish that purpose. And this point is almost unheard of among Christians. They are so surprised by this word "self-control." Something unusual has been said here. But it is unusual and utterly vital. We've got to get this message very clear in our hearts. And so today we have to look on into this very vital subject: self-control. Spiritual ambition. The ambition to accomplish something spiritually. And in order to accomplish that thing spiritually, we control ourselves.
Before I became a Christian, I told you, I think, that my ambitions were military. I wanted to do something for China. Something must be accomplished for the country. I had been sick of seeing war after war after war. Since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, all I could remember was wars and wars. The Japanese were bombing Shanghai. The artillery was shooting over Shanghai. The bullets, the artillery shells were screaming overhead. As far back as I could open my memory in this world, I could only think of guns and gunfire and soldiers marching and aeroplanes flying. And then before I could hardly have recovered from the Japanese war, what did we have? The Chinese armies were locked in deadly combat between the communists and the nationalists. I stood on the rooftop of our apartment building and looked down to watch the whole battle at first hand that the nationalists and the communists fought. I had enough of this. We are going to fight one more war to end all wars. Sounds familiar. That was the famous talk in the First World War and then there was the famous talk in the Second World War. So we were always trying to fight that last battle and only found that it was just one more of a long series. But of course, we never think of that at the time. The battle we are going to fight is going to be the last one in this world.
Well, that is why, of course, I didn't sit there and dream. I immediately disciplined myself. I worked for it. I spent all my pocket money buying books on military science. Every morning I got up at the crack of dawn and exercised on the rooftop. I was always disciplining myself physically. I was going to make my body a body of steel to stand up to everything. I went on to learn all the arts of martial arts, of fighting, of boxing, of judo, swimming, everything else that needed to toughen my body up. So I disciplined myself. Why? Self-control. What for? To accomplish the purpose that was ahead.
I practiced organization. I organized a ball team just to be able to practice my organization. I picked it up from a scrap heap. I built up this lot of people. I organized it into a team. I forged it into one unit. And we went on right to the top of the Shanghai ball team, taking this group of people, many of whom hadn't seen a baseball in their lives before that. And I put them out there and trained them day after day until they became first-class players, until we were actually in the newspapers of Shanghai, playing in the first team, in the first grade. So I disciplined myself. I worked in order to accomplish this purpose. Until Christ laid His hand on me and said, "No more of that. I'm going to take all this away from you." And I said, "What, my military ambitions, my military desires as well? Can't I be a Christian, a good Christian general? I'm going to be a good general. I'm going to be a Christian. I'm going to fight for You." The Lord says, "I don't want that. No." I tell you, for two and a half bitter months, I struggled over this thing. It almost broke me until I said, "Lord, You win. I'm finished now with military fights."
But you see, I never thought anymore about war, not thinking that one day I'd find myself actually fighting in a spiritual warfare. And maybe that is why the Lord has called us out and called me out to this task. But here — self-control, power, love — you need both. But you need the third as well: self-control. How do we accomplish this? This spiritual self-control is more than just a matter of our will. It is the working of the Holy Spirit in us. How can you have self-control when you haven't even got spiritual eyesight? You don't even know where you're going. You've got to know the direction in which you are going and then have the power to go forward into it.
Spiritual ambition. You know, you say, "That's a strange expression to use. Ambition. Christians are not ambitious." And that's the trouble. They are not ambitious. That's the whole problem for the church today. You say, "But ambition is carnal. I mean, spiritual people don't have ambition." Oh, indeed. Where did you hear of that? Spiritual people have spiritual ambition. Carnal people have carnal ambition. Ambition — the ambition itself is perfectly neutral. It is what you are that matters. If you are a spiritual man, you are fired by powerful spiritual ambition.
Look at Paul. He was eaten up by spiritual ambition. He said, "Having forgotten everything else behind, I press towards the mark of our high calling in order to win Christ." No ambition, indeed? There was nothing to stop him on the way. And the whole church today — and this is why we are dealing with this — if you are going to enter into a spiritual warfare and you've got no kind of ambition, what do you hope to succeed? How are you hoping to accomplish anything, until the fire of God's ambition begins to burn in you? But how can you have this ambition unless you have a vision? A vision of what must be accomplished. The vision of the glory of Christ. Why do you think Paul went flat out to win Christ? Because he could see the glory of Jesus with the eyes of faith. He is the One I want. He is the One I must have. And so he goes all out with spiritual determination. This is why this subject is so utterly important.
The Christians today, the church today, are people with absolutely no ambition. What do they want to do? They are all very spiritually modest. It's amazing. If they were only so modest in the world as well. They are so modest. "Oh no, no. You know, I am very humble. I can't do any work for God, but after all, you know, God doesn't make spiritual giants of us all. I am quite satisfied to be a spiritual midget. We can't all be giants. And after all, let the work be done by those great people. I am nothing."
Does it ever occur to you that God can make something out of you? That He can pick a shepherd boy out of the backwaters and make a David out of him? A mighty man of God. He can pick up any one of us from somewhere, if only we are willing to let Him do something with us. He has not given us the spirit of cowardice or mock spiritual humility. He has given us the spirit of power, of love, and of this driving self-control to accomplish the purpose. He fires us. That's why we talk about spiritual fire. A fire that burns within you. "It must get done. It must be accomplished."
And this very word appears again and again. Various words that in the New Testament refer to spiritual ambition. And we find here that this very word of spiritual purpose is used also of God. God has a purpose and we must have it too. In 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9 we read this: "God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of our works but in virtue of His own purpose." This word "purpose" could be translated as His plan, His determination, His will, His spiritual purpose. And that is what it is. Ambition is purpose. You have a purpose in front of you. And the whole church is filled with purposeless Christians who don't know what they are going through, what they are determined to accomplish. They have not a clue what they are trying to do. How can you go and fight a spiritual battle when you don't even know what your purpose in life is? You have got no determination to accomplish anything because you don't even know what is supposed to be accomplished.
We have got a battle to fight and how are we going to win unless you say, "I am determined to fight this battle. I am going to fight it to the end"? That is what Paul said in 2 Timothy 4. "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race." He pressed on to the end. He pressed on to the mark. He finished it. If it means gritting my teeth, I am going to get there. Where are the Christians like this today? I am asking you, brothers and sisters. Where are these kinds of Christians that we have today? Have we got men who are fired with this spiritual determination? If the Holy Spirit were working in your life, you would have power, you would have love, and you would have self-control. Here is the mark and I am going to drive myself to accomplish it.
There is no use sitting there and saying, "Oh, it is good to know the Bible. Isn't it so nice if only I know the Bible?" What do you expect to happen? That the Bible is suddenly going to drop into your head? What makes you think that you are going to get to know the Bible without the determination to work at it? Say, "Okay, every day I am going to spend this time to get to know the Bible. And boy, don't let anybody distract me during this time. I am going to work at this word of God until I get it." Oh, I pray that God give us men like this. How are we going to fight battles without people like this? How is anything going to be accomplished?
But what do we have in the church today? Every time a little problem comes along, they are down again. They are spiritually depressed. "How are you today?" "Oh, I am depressed. I am not so good today." Depressed. How are we going to go on to a war? What can you do with these people? Every time it rains today they are already waterlogged. And you are going to have a war? He insisted to become a Christian we have seen before is to become a soldier. And no soldier is groaning because he has to drag himself through the mud from time to time, crawl through the trenches, come under fire, get hit, wounded, hurt, and even get killed. Whoever enlisted in an army hoping to have feasts every day? Whoever enlisted in an army that he might go on holiday every day? We have enlisted in battle.
And what is the purpose of being enlisted in battle? Chapter 2 and verse 4, you can see it goes through chapter 1, chapter 4, chapter 2. Everywhere is this picture of spiritual ambition. Chapter 2, verse 4: "No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim" — his purpose in life, his goal, his direction — that same word we saw of God having a purpose, a plan — "his aim to satisfy Him who has enlisted us," who is Christ, of course. Read that verse again. "No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits." He doesn't allow anything to distract him, since his aim, his purpose, is to satisfy Him, the One who enlisted him. Christ has enlisted us into the army to join Him in fighting the spiritual battle. Where did you come for? To become a soldier of Christ? To a picnic? We are here for war and our aim is to satisfy Him.
Oh, pray that God would just set alight the aim, the purpose, the ambition. Say, "Lord, I am going to serve You. I am going to fight this battle until the end. Come, bring on the enemy. Let the bullets fly. But let me be found in the forefront of Your battle, to be the first to go, the first over the top."
You know, God did not give us the spirit of cowardice, of timidity. The ones who want to be the last: "Oh, the battle — fight, you go on first. I am coming after you. You go ahead first." And the fact is, they never come. How many people have said to me, "I am going to serve the Lord with you. I am going to fight the battle with you." And so I went on ahead and I looked back. Where are they going to? This one got a professorship in Malaysia. And that one got another job in engineering over there. And that one — and I said, "I am the only fool here." They are all doing nicely for themselves and the world. I am the one that has gone on the front. And we thought we had made an agreement that when I am going forward, they are coming with me. We look back and they are nowhere to be seen. I am not sorry for myself. I am sorry for them. They have thrown away a crown to gain the glittering prizes of the world.
Do you not think that I could have done the same? What makes the difference between them and me? Not because I am better than they, but because by the grace of God, I have opened my heart in such a way that the Holy Spirit has given me this spirit of self-control, of spiritual determination, to go on this way. More than once, I tell you, brothers and sisters, I also am weak like all the rest. Somebody said there is a nice lecturing post in that university. "Just write. You can get it." And somebody even was so kind as to send me some forms of application to a lectureship in Hong Kong. "So you should go for it. Just put in your application." And I look at this lecture form. I wouldn't even put my name on it. I wouldn't fill the first bit of it. I did not come out here to do this, to make a name for myself, to make a nest for myself in this world, to put down my house in this world. Like Abraham, I am going to be a pilgrim in this world. Why? Because like Abraham, I look for a city that has foundations. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 10. Abraham looked for the city which has foundations, whose maker and builder is God. And therefore, he didn't want anything in this world. He didn't want any piece of land. He bought only the smallest piece of land to bury his people, his relatives. That's all he wanted. He didn't want anything of this world because he looked for the city ahead.
You say, "But there is a way to be cleverer than Abraham." Oh, I'm sure you have clever people around. How's that? Well, you can have the city with foundations and have your land here as well. You get the best of both worlds. You see? Don't be fooled. We are going to look at that principle in a moment. It doesn't work like this at all.
And so, also in chapter 3 and verse 10, we have the same words. Chapter 3 and verse 10. Notice we cover every chapter and show how this principle of spiritual drive and purpose and ambition is central to the whole of the New Testament teaching as well as the whole of Paul's thinking, this mighty man of God. Chapter 3, verse 10. He says to Timothy, "Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct," and what do we read? "My aim in life." My faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, my sufferings, etc. But notice: "My aim in life." That is the same word as in chapter 1, verse 9. In that instance, it was God's purpose. But now it is Paul's purpose. "Timothy, you know. You know what is my purpose in life. You know the direction which I am taking. You have observed my aim in life." And his aim in life was to please Him who enlisted him.
And so, because you have this ambition, you pursue the objective. You've got the aim there and you pursue it. Now, if any of you know what a concordance is or how to use it, look under the word "pursue." And you will find quite a number of references. We have one right here in chapter 2 and verse 22. 2 Timothy 2:22: "So shun youthful passions and aim" — here it is translated as "aim" again — "aim at righteousness," but in fact it is a different word. "Aim" here — this word "aim" means "pursue after righteousness, faith, love, and peace." You see, here the word "pursue" indicates a word of great intensity. You pursue — that means that you are running after something, you are determined to get hold of it. Where is the intensity, the determination in the Christian life today? And yet, this is a word that Paul uses again and again.
Philippians chapter 3, verse 12, and verse 14. These are the chapters that we looked at at the last tenth conference, how Paul shows this — let me just read it to you — this driving spiritual force. Philippians 3:12 and 14, we read like this: "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect," and here it is translated, "but I press on." "I press on." The word "press on" in English is a little bit too weak. I don't exactly know what "press on" — sometimes in England we simply say, "Well, let's press on," rather feeble. Just "let's go on." It's a little bit stronger than "go on" and it indicates some pressure there, pressing on. But again, the word in the original is this: pursuing. "But I pursue. I strive on to make it my own." Another word is "strive." Notice the intensity of that word. "Strive to enter in at the narrow gate." These are words which we must really notice.
And then verse 14. Again, it's translated here, "I press on toward the goal for the prize." But the word I find is much more intense in the original. The word there is "I pursue." I run flat out. It's running a race. You don't walk to the goal. You run flat out in order to win it. "I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call." The direction — notice — upward call of God in Christ Jesus. In the Authorized Version it is translated "high calling" but "upward" is the correct translation. Upward towards God. The direction. Away from the world and up to God. That's the direction in which our ambition, our spiritual ambition, moves.
Now notice another term. And there are so many references. I can keep you on with reference after reference. But let's just notice another term: the crown. 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 8. Back to 2 Timothy we read this. Paul says, "I have finished the race. I have finished the course." What is there left to look for? Verse 8: "Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing." Not only to me but also to you, to all who have loved His appearing. Is there a crown?
Now the way most Christians conduct themselves in this world, I'm not sure they can hope for anything, never mind a crown. If they don't get the judgment at the end of it they'll be pretty fortunate. And you know some Christians are going to be humble again. In a Bible study the other day, some brother, an elderly brother, said, "Oh, we can serve the Lord — we don't need the crown." I said, "Brother, if you only knew what the crown was, you wouldn't be saying that. The reason you say that is you don't know what the crown is." How humble is this? "We serve the Lord — we don't need the crown." That's just so humble sounding. That's what I said to you — there's so many spiritual-sounding phrases that sound so nice, so humble, so spiritual, and they're absolutely rubbish. What you need to have is spiritual insight. Judge every statement according to the word of God. You don't want the crown? The Bible speaks about the crown. You don't want it? Do you know what it is? And before you don't want the thing, you better find out what it is before you have said no to it. You might find that it's just exactly what you needed, and then you find, "Oh, I said I don't need it."
Now the crown here does not refer to a king's crown. Don't get confused about that. In the original, that is a completely different word. It is not the crown of the king. Although we in the Greek Old Testament sometimes these two words are used — the literal word for crown and the victor's crown are sometimes used interchangeably. The Greek word for the king's crown is transliterated into English as the diadem. And in the original it is "diadema," which you can see immediately its resemblance — where the English got the word "diadem" from. But the crown here that is spoken of in the New Testament is the "stephanos." That is where you have the English name Stephen. So if you have the name Stephen, then you know where that word comes from. Your name comes from the crown. It is this crown that we are pursuing.
It was a kind of wreath or garland which was given to the victor. It is the victor's crown — the one who has triumphed, succeeded. This person gets the crown. Therefore you will see sometimes, if you look at your Bible dictionaries or pictures in history books, you will often see that the Roman emperor is wearing a wreath. You say, "Why shouldn't he be wearing a golden crown instead of all those leaves on his head?" The reason is that these leaves on his head actually represent the crown, the stephanos, that is to say, it represents the triumph, the crown of victory. It shows him as the conqueror. It shows him as the victor. The one who has fought and won. Now it is precisely only those persons who have engaged in battle, who have fought and won, or the athlete who having gone flat out has won — this person is given the crown, the stephanos. That is to say, it represents
# Spiritual Ambition and the Victor's Crown in 2 Timothy (Part 2)
It was a kind of wreath or garland which was given to the victor. It is the victor's crown, the one who has triumphed, succeeded. This person gets the crown. Therefore you will see sometimes, if you look at your Bible dictionaries or pictures in history books, you will often see that the Roman emperor is wearing a wreath. You say, "Why shouldn't he be wearing a golden crown instead of all those leaves on his head?" The reason is that these leaves on his head actually represent the crown, the stephanos. That is to say, it represents the triumph, the crown of victory. It shows him as the conqueror. It shows him as the victor, the one who has fought and won.
Now it is precisely only those persons who have engaged in battle, who have fought and won, or the athlete who having gone flat out has won — this person is given this stephanos, this crown, if you could call it that, this wreath, this victor's crown, we should say. But what is the spiritual meaning of this crown? The spiritual meaning of the crown is this: it is God's approval, His seal of approval upon us, that we have accomplished the work entrusted to us. It is His "Well done, good and faithful servant." "You have accomplished everything I have entrusted to you." It means simply in one word, then, the crown represents that we have been pleasing to God. We have been well pleasing to Him.
And then when you say you don't want the crown, it means you don't want to be pleasing to Him. Therefore I say you don't know what you are saying when you don't want the crown. But I imagine that there is truth in this: many Christians do not seem to understand that the whole purpose of the Christian life is to please Him who has commissioned us and enlisted us in His warfare. And in order to please Him, if you have succeeded in pleasing Him, that is then when you get the crown. Precious crown. Oh, to be pleasing to Him.
On that day — think about it — when you and I, that day, the day with the big capital D that you have here in Timothy, many times Paul speaks about "the day," and we are going to see about it in our last talk. But on that day when you and I stand before Him, let me ask you, what really matters on that day? Will the fact that you have spent so many years to get so many diplomas make any difference in God's sight? Will your spiritual value be more important before God because of your diplomas or because of my diplomas? Will we be something more in God's presence because of our academic achievement? Do you think it's going to impress God? What's going to matter on that day? Do you think you can say, "Lord, look at all my chain of restaurants"? You know, I'm quite a significant character in Toronto or Montreal where I own so many restaurants. Look at me, very successful. Good food too, I guess it is.
Oh, brothers and sisters, you think God is going to look at that? Well, you say, "What's He going to look at then?" That you have fought and won. That you have done what He has instructed you to do. Not that you have padded your own, feathered your own nest and lined your own pockets. What's going to count with Him? Oh, what will count on that day when we stand before Him is when He says, "Well done, good and faithful servant. My beloved child, you have done so beautifully. Excellent. Here is the crown." What crown? The crown of righteousness.
You know, so many times the Bible uses this word "crown" that it is quite remarkable. And again here you should perhaps get yourself a concordance and look at it. How many times the word "crown" is used. Let me try to give you some indication of this. Here are some of the references for those who would like to see that every apostle — not just Paul — every New Testament apostle mentions the crown. James, the Lord's brother in this case, chapter 1, verse 12: the crown of life. The apostle Peter speaks about the crown again, 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 4: the crown of glory that God will give to us. Revelation chapter 2 — this is John — Revelation chapter 2, verse 10: the crown of life. And Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 25 of the imperishable crown, the crown that does not pass away when the glory of this world passes away. Again in Revelation chapter 3, verse 11: the warning is, beware not to lose the crown. There is nothing more dangerous than losing the crown, because with it you have then lost the righteousness. The crown of life. The crown of glory. There is a future of glory.
You know that. Many people say to me, "Whatever are we going to do when we get to heaven? Are we going to be singing in the choir all day long? Are we going to be musical instrumentalists? I better go to music school here then I can play better when I get there. What are we going to do in all eternity sitting there in heaven?" Oh, it's a great future for us. Paul sums it up in these words: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, the things that God has prepared for those who love Him." You haven't even begun to consider what God has prepared for you. If only you knew what is in front there. Oh, to be able to walk in those eternal days. Crown of life. "Well done." There's a lot of work to do in eternity. God is a God. The Lord Jesus says, "My Father works hitherto and I work." There's no place for idle people in the heavenly places.
The paradise that the heathen imagine is always a paradise where women are walking around, you have pretty women, you have fruit trees everywhere that you can chew the fruit on, you lie there on your back in the palm trees waving in the sky. It sickens me. Such an eternity I don't want to struggle for. No thanks very much. They can keep it. I mean, I'll be bored to death lying beside those nice waters and chewing figs or dates or whatever they may be. That kind of a future I wouldn't fight for. But when we consider the fact that God has great things yet for us to accomplish — there's a hint of it in the parable of talents. When the Lord said, "Well done, you good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in small things. Now you're going to be committed with greater things. You are going to rule over ten cities." The other one is going to rule over five cities. Wow, there's still government jobs for me waiting. Yes, indeed. We are going to reign with Him. Not so that we can get some glory, but that we can accomplish more. We can do more things. Oh, it's a future of activity, of bustling activity. So much more to accomplish as God's sons. To walk in the heavenly places as sons and daughters of God. And above all, to be able to win Christ. And what does that mean? We'll look at it in a moment.
But I hope that you are beginning to see the whole spiritual teaching of spiritual ambition. Oh, this is so wonderful. That we may have this driving force to win Christ. What else is there worth winning in this world? You know, once you have known the Lord Jesus, you don't want to win anything else. There's nothing worth winning. I'm not interested to be a millionaire, the owner of a thousand factories. None of this interests me. All this has passed away. All this is gone. To be president of some country — maybe we could achieve it. Maybe it's not so difficult. But who wants to put one's energy into that? Every time I see some politician stomping around from place to place, I almost feel he looks pathetic, pleading for people to vote for him so that he can stay president. I wouldn't like to be in that kind of a job. It makes no sense to me. For me, there is nothing more precious than Christ, to win Him.
But you know, we do not see these things because our spiritual eyes have not been opened. We have not yet seen the glory of the things that are eternal. And that is why we are in the pathetic state, like so many of these religious people. And you say, there is a vital difference between being religious and being spiritual. And I want to ask you: are you religious or are you spiritual? Which are you? It's better not to be religious. Rather, don't be anything at all if you can't be spiritual. It's the religious who are the hypocrites that God could not stand. "Woe to you Pharisees, scribes, hypocrites." Religious people who are not spiritual are the most terrible thing in the world because they are the great stumbling block. They are the people who put everybody off from church, who make everybody sick of the gospel. We've got to be spiritual. But you cannot be spiritual until you have a spiritual vision in front of you. And if you are not spiritual, you are going to be carnal in all your thinking, and you have no spiritual ambition.
The sure mark that you are only religious and not spiritual is this: that you haven't got any spiritual ambition. Your ambitions are purely carnal. You want some glory from men. Look at these significant words in John chapter 5 and verse 44. This is another verse that you need to mark out for yourself. Enormously important. Chapter 5, verse 44. A verse that is extremely precious to me. And what do we read here? Here the Lord Jesus says this. Notice: "How can you believe?" How can you see any spiritual things? You are spiritually blind. "How can you believe who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?" Notice two things for the person who is spiritually blind.
First, he desires only glory from other people. He likes people to put him on the pedestal. To clap him on the back. To say how good he is. How beautiful are his messages. Great popular speaker he is. I have often shared with others with great amusement how somebody tried to say to John Sung, "What a beautiful message you preach today. I really enjoyed that." And John Sung looked at him. He got frightened. "Did I say something wrong?" You see, John Sung overreacted, but he didn't want any glory from other people. He didn't want to hear that. If the message has transformed that person, that is fine. But don't come and give me nice-sounding phrases. I don't want to hear this. He did not seek — that is John Sung's spiritual secret. Okay, he overreacted. We don't have to act like this and frighten the wits out of people every time they try to say a kind word. You just said the pastor needs some encouragement and you encourage him and he shouts at you. He said, "I don't dare to encourage him anymore. How do I dare to encourage this man John Sung?" I can see by now why he's got no co-workers. A person like that. Never mind. And God still was pleased to use him. He sought no glory from others.
But how different from Christians. How we love the glory that comes from men. How we like people to call us some nice names, call us big titles, give us some glory. That's exactly how these religious people were. They like glory from one another. They like the praise of men. That is the first — the negative. But secondly, even worse, is they do not — their trouble was that they do not seek the glory that comes from God. The implication is that we, if we had any spiritual ambition, look for the glory that comes from God.
Now notice: these two are not compatible. You cannot seek the glory of men and the glory of God. You cannot get both. You've got to choose between one and the other. If you get glory from God, you don't look for the glory that comes from men. And if you get glory from men, don't expect glory from God. Which is the desire that you have in your heart? To get glory from God or glory from men? Ask yourself right now: do I desire the glory that comes from God? And I can say immediately, I have cancelled out 98% of the people sitting here. Is that not true? Ask yourself honestly: have I, up to this day, ever sought the glory that comes from God? And the Lord Jesus says, "You cannot believe because you don't seek the glory that comes from God. Your eyes are closed. You desire only the things that come from this world. You don't even look for the glory that comes from God."
And you said it was proud to look for glory that comes from God. "Who wants the crown?" The crown is the glory that comes from God. And you thought it was humble to say you don't want the crown. I want the crown. I want the glory that comes from God. For this I am striving. And what are you striving for? How many Christians — all they want is more diplomas, more degrees, more place in the world. "How can you believe who seek glory from one another?" So that you can walk around in your academic hood and feel self-important. Get the picture up on the wall. "See, that's me, the one with the hood there. The guy without the hood, he's just my friend. And I am the one there." Stick the walls full of your diplomas. Look at it: "My achievement. The recognition that the world has given to me." How can you believe, the Lord Jesus says, who seek glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from God?
So ask yourself — this is the vital question — do you seek the glory that comes from God? Do you seek the praise that comes from God? Look at John chapter 12 and verse 43. The same truth appears again. Don't think I need to quote only one verse. We are going through all of the New Testament. John 12, verse 43. Look at those significant words again. Again they could not believe. They could not see the glory of Christ that John is speaking about. In John chapter 12, verse 41, he says Isaiah said this because he saw the glory of Jesus and spoke of Him. That's verse 42: "Nevertheless many even of the authorities believed in Him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess the Lord Jesus, lest they should be put out of the synagogues." Secret Christians, these people are called. Why? The condemnation, verse 43: "For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God."
How do you stand? Are you much better than these? You may dare to call yourself Christians because nobody is persecuting you, because nobody puts any pressure on you. Nobody is going to throw you out of the synagogue like these people. Your parents are not going to shout down your neck. No difficulties to be a Christian. How many survive here? Once the pressure comes on, once there is the danger of being thrown out of the synagogue, once there is the danger of losing your job — they didn't want to be thrown out of the synagogue. They didn't want to lose their job. They wanted the praise of men more than the praise of God.
Do you see how spiritual ambition, or the lack of it, determines even our spiritual future, whether we will survive under persecution or not? It is a question tied up immediately with spiritual ambition, with our spiritual insight. I don't care for the persecution. It doesn't worry me. If I am going to get the crown, I am going to get there. Bring on the persecution. But you have no such mentality if all you want to do is be a sort of compromising Christian that wants a little bit of the world, a little bit of God. And the church is full of this kind of people.
Ask yourself today: how are you going to fight a spiritual warfare? What is God going to do with people like you if you are not going to change, if you haven't changed? So my prayer today, brothers and sisters, is that God will change the attitude of each one of us. We are going to become utterly different. From now on we are going to say, "I am going to make this the aim in life. I am going to strive to obtain the crown. I am going to look not for the praise of men." Notice these words: they did not look for the praise that comes from God. You got thrown out of the synagogue, you lost your job. Is it worth it? Sure. Because you get praise from Him. What else is better than that? To have received praise from God.
And so we see in conclusion this: that what motivates us when we fight for this spiritual ambition, when we are willing to endure hardship and suffering and privation, it is because for us before us the vision is clear. Is the vision clear before you? You know these are Paul's words in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 18. Another exceedingly important verse. Where he says, "The things which are seen" — material things — "the things which are seen are temporal. They pass away. The things which are not seen" — those are the spiritual things — "these are eternal."
Have you got the understanding of that? At least that much. If you cannot see the glory of Christ, can you at least see the spiritual logic of that? The things which are seen are passing away. They are all going. The beautiful cars are rusting away. The beautiful things that you have now are going to be on the scrap heap before long. The beautiful suit that you wear is going to be moth-ridden and full of holes before very long. The things which are seen, the material things — they are passing away. But the things which are not seen, the eternal things — they abide forever. Do you understand that logic at least?
And the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 and 20: "Don't store up for yourselves treasure on earth." Why? The same principle. Because what you store up on earth will be lost. The thieves are going to get it. The robbers are going to get it. Inflation is going to get it. Devaluation is going to get it. Oh, dear me. The time I have stayed in England, I have seen so much devaluation. I don't know what's left of the pound. Every time you take out the pound, it's worth less. Your pound is being eaten away. Your dollar is going down and down all the time. You don't even need the robbers to come and take it from you. Inflation does it all for you. Ten years ago when I went to Switzerland, the pound was worth 12 Swiss francs. 12 Swiss francs. Today when you go to Switzerland, you can barely get three Swiss francs for it. Cut to one quarter of its value in ten years. Think of those people who used to hoard up their pounds. Their bank account has been cut. Three quarters of it is gone, by devaluation. You don't even have to wait for the robbers to attack it. It's all gone. The things of this world, they pass away.
The American dollar has been falling too. That great dollar. Once the pound was called "sterling." Sterling, of great value. But what's happened to the sterling? And the dollar — the gold dollar. What's happening to it too? Against the Swiss franc it's being cut and cut again and cut again. And the Swiss franc itself goes down. Everything goes down. Can you understand the spiritual logic? What are you trying to do? Store up for yourself something in this world? Everything passes away.
So the Lord Jesus says don't store up. If you have spiritual wisdom, you don't store it up in the world. You store it up in heaven. Ah, you say, "That's fine. How do I store it up in heaven?" That's why we had yesterday's talk before this one. Do you see? Did you not remember what we said yesterday? If you gave one dollar to a brother in need, you have given it to Christ. That dollar has gone into heaven, into the bank of heaven. It will never be lost. The one dollar you spent on yourself is gone forever. The one dollar that you spent to lick the ice cream cone — it's gone. Finished. No more. Forever it has passed. But the one dollar that you spent upon your dear brother or sister — even if he wasn't so dear to you, but you did it for the sake of Christ — that one dollar abides forever. Nobody can wipe it out of your account.
Do you understand how to transfer things into the spiritual account? Therefore, just think about it: the person who's given up all to serve Christ — what has he done? He has transferred his all into the spiritual bank account. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that wonderful? And those who have given all for Christ, people look upon them pitifully: "Oh, how much he has suffered. How much he has lost." Don't you be fooled. Their whole account is transferred above where no devaluation gets it. Nothing can take it away. And the matter is — all. That's what matters. The widow gave two mites. It was her all. And it's worth as much as the millionaire who gives his all. Because in both cases, it's all. And you can't give more than all. Their all is in the heavenly places.
You see, I'm working for this heavenly bank account. I think we're going to have an awful lot of spiritual beggars by that day when we get up there. Who come up there — paupers. Nothing in the bank account. Spiritual ambition. We want spiritual riches, not material riches. The spiritual things which count. We are using picture language, of course. But these are the spiritual riches that we want. What drives you on?
But in order to get anything into the spiritual account, there is a process of losing before you gain. That is another principle you must understand. By giving that dollar to your brother, you seem to have lost it, haven't you? I mean, you could have been licking your ice cream with it. And now, look, you have no ice cream to lick. You gave it to your brother. You've lost it. It's gone. Praise be to God. What you lost, you gained. What you gained, you lost. You gained your ice cream cone, but you lost that which goes into the eternal account. You lost your ice cream cone, and you gained what went into the eternal account. Do you understand that logic?
That is another vital spiritual principle which we cannot expound in detail today. But it is a principle so important that it occurs in all four Gospels. Here are the references, if you want to have them. The Lord Jesus says, "He that seeks to save his life, to gain his life, he will lose it. And he who loses his life gains it." Do you understand the logic now? He who tries to save the dollar, he loses it spiritually. He who loses that dollar for his brother's sake, for Christ's sake, gains it. Is that hard to understand? Why are these things not taught in the churches today? It's time that these things are taught. Understand this principle. And here are the references of where the Lord Jesus makes this important teaching. It occurs twice in Matthew: Matthew 10:39 and Matthew 16:25. In Mark 8:35. In Luke 9:24. In John 12:25. Every Gospel records this vital spiritual principle. What you gain for yourself, you lose in relation to eternity. What you lose in relation to yourself, you gain in eternity.
It's the principle of the seed and the sower. If you've got a seed here, you can put it in your safe, or put it there, and all you've got is a seed. And in due time, mold will attack it. Some insects will attack it, and you even lost the one seed that you got. But you lose that seed, you drop it into the ground. You've lost it. You haven't got it anymore. It's down in the ground. And it seems to have been lost. It seems to have gone. But what happens? In due time, you see it coming forth. And then you have not one seed, but a whole heap of seeds. And then you take those heap of seeds, and you lose it again. And what have you got? You've got a whole harvest. That is spiritual logic. By losing it in the ground is an act of faith. Who knows? You might not ever see it again. But it will come forth, because God's life is inside of it.
That is the principle where the Lord Jesus says: if you save your life, you try to keep that seed for yourself, you keep your life to yourself, you lose it. You lose your life for the sake of Christ and His church — what happens? You gain it to all eternity. Oh, brothers and sisters, there are so many vital spiritual principles. If only I could go on, but there is no time. We must stop.
I pray that by now, in God's grace, you have come to see it. We have come to see why we must have this spiritual ambition. Because the things of this world — they pass away. Don't spend your life on what is not worth working for. The Lord Jesus says in John chapter 6: "Why do you labor for that which is not bread? But work, labor for the bread which I shall give you, which shall abide for eternal life." You spend all your life grinding through all this, which will not be worth having in the end.
When I was in Shanghai, as a young boy, I used to see the pedicab coolies cycling on the streets of Shanghai. I think you know what is a pedicab. In the back you have two seats; the person in front cycles. All the rickshaw coolies running on the streets. I used to say to myself, "What a life. What a life." Their rags were soaked with sweat, the perspiration running down their back as they trotted on the streets or cycled through the streets. Thin, gaunt-looking men. I wondered how they could even stand the weight of the rickshaw, these pitiful-looking people. They labored, striving to make two ends meet. Their lunch was one bowl of rice with some soy sauce on top. This was their existence. You call that life? Laboring for the things which must pass away. Well, sure, they need to eat, and we all must work. But to put our whole purpose in life just to do this, to get a chain of restaurants, to have nice clothing to put on, to have a quartz watch, to drive a nice car. Oh, brothers and sisters, you must be blind to spend your life doing this kind of thing. What's the worth of that? It all passes away.
But to labor for the things that never pass away, that endure forever. To be able to win Christ. What does winning Christ mean? What is Paul saying in Philippians 3:8? "That I may win Him." That's what I want. What does it mean to win Christ? Very easy to understand. All of you are young people, no problem. What does it mean to win a girlfriend? It's simple. You don't need to have deep, profound theological knowledge to answer this kind of a sentence. What does it mean to win a boyfriend? It's very simple. How do we win Christ? Simple. To win a boyfriend, to win a person, is to win his love. That's what Paul is. Not that you can take Christ and put Him in your pocket. Of course not. To win Christ is not something like that. When I say, how do you win a girlfriend — you grab her and put her in the pocket? It's ridiculous. You win that person's love. That's what it means. We cannot win Christ who is supreme King of kings in a certain possessive way. But we can win His love. You can. And that's what we want to do because we love Him.
You know, we all start out equal but we end differently. Everybody starts out at the running line equal, at the same line. But everybody ends differently at the other end. That's the point. The Lord Jesus lets us all start at the same running point. We all end up different. Where will you be at the end of the line, at the end of the race? "I have finished the race. I've got the crown." Can you say it with that confidence at the end of the day?
To win Christ — you know that there were twelve apostles and even among the twelve, they started out at the same line. They finished up different at the end. Did you know that? In that great race, John came out the winner. There were three right behind him. There were two more behind him, Peter and James. John was the winner right at the front. It is only recorded of John: "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Was it favoritism? Not at all. John won Jesus' love. They all started out at the same time. They ran at the same baseline. They finished different at the end. We are all running in this race, brothers and sisters. And notice, if you have a concordance, check how many times there is the phrase "run the race." The Christian life is a race. We all start at the same line. We are all going to finish differently. Where are you going to finish? That is the question. I aim to run so as to obtain, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. "Run that you may obtain," not end up empty-handed.
Oh, it is marvelous. John, by his love, his devotion, his quiet devotion — remember, Peter was the big mouth, yep, yep, all the time. He made quite a good way, a lot of distance for himself even so. He ended up in the second tier. But John, quiet devotion to Christ — he won right at the front. Only of him it was said, "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Never think that Jesus is purely favoring people. If that is the case, there is no point for us to run. We can run so as to win Him. Is there anything else worth laboring and striving for in this world? Isn't it exciting? We are all engaged in this spiritual race. And some are going to get the crown. Let us run so as to obtain.
Don't think you have to be only a preacher. And the girls will say, "Well, I can't be a preacher. Where am I? It's unfair. Jesus is unfair to us because they can be and I can't." Don't you worry. You go forth with utter devotion and determination. I tell you, there are many women in the New Testament who you find are far out ahead of the men in the spiritual race. I think even of that Gentile woman, that Syrophoenician woman, of whom the Lord Jesus said, "O woman, great is your faith. Be it done to you as you have asked." This is really exciting, the Christian life. Let the fire burn in our hearts. Let us get the spiritual vision. Let us know there is nothing in this world worth running for. Let the fire of this ambition burn in our hearts. This self-control to direct ourselves on by the power of the Spirit until we attain the goal. That God burn His message into our hearts. Let us be quiet before God in prayer.