And I see with what courage, what effort, what determination it takes them to come forward to say a word to God's glory. Now the time has gone so quickly, many of you may have wished to do the same, but there's no more time. But I learn so much. I think we all learn so much from each other. We don't learn just from one person. We learn from each other. And when I saw this dear brother, with what effort, what determination, he sought to speak a word for the glory of the Lord, it really moved me very much. That it took this whole spiritual battle, this inner battle, to just have the courage to get himself here. And with all the determination, try to say something for the Lord's glory. I think we all learn so much from this. Because we learn not just from what is said, but from the life of the people. And I really am greatly touched.
I think, too, you know, all these stairs are so long. By the time you walk the whole length down, you're almost exhausted. And for people at the back to come all the way down here, it really takes enormous courage and determination. And yet you have come forward to speak to the Lord's glory. Even need not be disappointed; the front seats are not filled. I think, I'm sure that one came after the other with hardly a break in between. And that just shows what courage, what a great future there is for the church that they do. I think sometimes when people who have probably never stood before a congregation before, it's hard enough to stand up before ten people or five people. But to stand before three, four hundred people really takes tremendous courage. I think you all will make very good soldiers of Christ.
Also, I learned so much in this way. For example, this brother who was sharing, who had been to the conference in Hong Kong, he shared with us another very important principle. I think I would like to emphasize this: the principle of confessing to one another. This is very important in the Christian life. Don't hide your sin to yourself. Confess your sins one to another. Don't be afraid of other people's opinion, whether they think, "Wow, you mean to say you are a person who can do things like that?" Never mind. Confess your sins. That is a principle stated by the Lord's brother in James. He says, "Confess your sins one to another." Don't hesitate, that you may be healed.
Now, some people try to suppress their sins. They try to hide their sins in their life. And the pressure is just unbearable. If you find you have a weakness, if you find you have some sin, then go to a brother or sister and say, "Can you help me? I really need somebody to share this burden, this burden of my sins. I want to confess to you my sins. And pray for me." And you will find that the other person said, "Well, you are not the only one that has this kind of sin, this kind of weakness. I have it too." And so here we have another beautiful aspect of the fellowship of the church, that we can help one another, bear each other's burdens. In fact, this is one of the passages when I spoke about our debts to one another, what we owe. It says, we owe it to the weak, Paul says in Romans, to bear one another's burdens. To practice that. Don't try to suppress sin, even less try to hide it. Confess it to the Lord and to one another. And if you have offended any person, I am so moved by those who came forward to confess their sins and to ask the forgiveness of the others whom they have offended.
And before I go on to answer a few questions, I would like to ask of you also to do me this great favor when you leave this conference. And do it for the Lord's sake. That when you leave this conference, my prayer and my desire is this: that Eric Chang will just fade out of your thinking, out of your memory, and the Lord Jesus becomes everything to you. That Eric Chang will just decrease, will just fade out, and Jesus will be everything. The last thing I want — the last thing I want in this conference — is that everybody says, "You know, what a great guy Eric Chang is." Oh no, that's not the purpose we are here to serve the Lord for, to get some glory for ourselves. So I beg of you to do me this kindness, because any glory I take from the Lord will be a disaster. But I'm not going to stand in front of the Lord for one minute. My place is somewhere either behind Him or beside Him, but certainly not in front of Him. So when you have gone out of here, and you have taken the words of the Lord to heart, you have listened to the messages — just forget about Eric Chang. At least this Eric Chang. I gather there are some others.
Now, what I've been asked to do in these remaining minutes is to answer a few questions that have been put forward, and to make a final summary in the last moment that we have together. I shall take the questions just as they have been handed to me, and the few questions that we have that need to be looked at.
One question is this, and these are very practical questions: "Can a living limb of a paralyzed body help in any way, particularly to that body?" In other words, how can Christians help in a paralyzed church? It must be very painful for any brother and sister to belong to a church that has not much spiritual life in it. And you long to help, but you seem to have very little opportunity, probably because nobody wants you to help. You get no opportunity for service. You long to do something for the Lord, but nobody wants you. Now, can a living limb — that is, if you are a living Christian — help in a not very alive church?
Well, brothers and sisters, I confess that is a very difficult question, and I'm not very sure how I could advise you, especially as I don't exactly know who the person is, what your particular gifts are, and so forth. How you should exactly go about it will depend on who you are and who is the questioner. But in a general sort of way, all you can do in such a situation is really to live forth for the glory of Christ. What else can you do? If your pastor doesn't want you to do anything, if the pastor doesn't care for you because you are too enthusiastic and have too much devotion to the Lord, frankly, there is almost no scope for you to work except on the level of personal witness, on the level of witnessing to other Christians. Within the church itself, your service seems to be reduced almost to nil. Because it's very difficult to work in any church if your pastor and those leaders in the church refuse to cooperate with you. How are you going to go on? How can you serve the Lord? Because you are not going to be given any kind of job.
In some churches, there seems to be always a monopoly. There is always — either the pastor is, in Chinese I don't know how you translate it in English — the one man show, maybe in English. He likes to do everything. He likes to chair his own meeting, he announces the hymns, he announces the notices, he ends up doing everything. Some of them like to make sure that they always have the central role. Or some churches have elders who always control everything, and church members seem to have no opportunity to do very much. Perhaps what you could do is ask some other pastor to speak to your pastor — maybe if you are a pastor of some live church in your area, to do this. But again, it's very difficult because pastors, unfortunately, are not always terribly open-minded if they are not spiritually very alive. If they are spiritually alive, there is no problem. The problem is precisely in the question: this church is already spiritually paralyzed. And unless the leaders of the church are regenerated or renewed or revived, you dear brothers and sisters in that kind of a church are going to have a very difficult time.
What you can do though is to pray — certainly, to pray that God will do something about this pastor or these leaders in the churches. For after all, that work you certainly can do and you owe it to them to do it. Beyond that, in this question, I fear that until something happens to the leaders of the churches, nothing much there is that you could do, beside, of course, the important work of prayer. Or speaking frankly to them, if you can manage the courage of going up to the leaders of the churches and say, "Do you mind if I say something frankly to you?" — speak out what you intend to say. It may be that God will use your words to touch the pastor's heart or the leaders or whoever they are. Speak out, humbly but firmly, in the love of Christ. And if you are not so afraid to do that, then I would greatly encourage you to go to your church, to your church leaders and say, "Look, this church appears to me to have not much spiritual life. I would like to, if possible, have a humble and frank discussion with you." This would be very desirable in addition to your praying for them.
Another question we have here is, I'll just read this out. It says, "Last night you mentioned about call and calling. It seems that you gave me an impression that there is no such thing as special calling given by God to command some Christians to some special field, for example, preaching, medical ministry. Would you please enlighten me on this?" And it goes on: "You used quite often in your message the spiritual earphone as a means of receiving God's guidance. Do you imply that it is the only — if not the only — the most frequently used method by God to give guidance? Do you think that in daily life God also uses various means such as His word, fellowship with fellow Christians, circumstantial evidence to hand down His guidance?"
Well, the second part first: by spiritual earphones, of course, I was speaking picture language. I hope you understand that. I don't say that you've got something you can put on your ears. We are talking in picture language there. "And it says the spiritual earphones as a means of receiving God — do you, yes, do you?" Of course, I do not imply that it is the only method by which God gives us guidance. I have already said that there is general guidance and there is special guidance. And so to say, do you think that in daily life God uses various means such as His word, fellowship, and so forth, and fellow Christians? Certainly, that is all part of the general guidance. And maybe I'm grateful for this question to clarify this. By general guidance, I mean precisely this: that God speaks to us through His word, which is part of His means of constantly guiding us; through fellow Christians — although we have to always study their counsel in the light of God's word; and to look at the things that He is doing round about us, which will be regarded as circumstances of His work and His actions.
So general guidance, then, means all of these things. It means that God is moving us in the general direction through the teaching of His word, through the fellowship of Christians, which is so precious, especially when each is kindling God's fire in the other's heart, like so many coals warming each other up; and through the things that you can see that God is doing round about you. And so, when I speak — and to the other part of the question — when I speak about a call, is there a special call? Well, if there is special guidance, there must be a special call. I don't think it's difficult to follow that. There are times when there is special call, certainly. If the Lord will direct a person to a certain place, to a certain person at a certain time, He will also, at times, direct a person to a particular field of service. That certainly does happen too. We must never limit what God can do, what God will do.
But, very often, in serving the Lord, the general guidance is already giving you the direction in which you need to go. And for example, when you are going to study a subject, which subject are you going to study? Often this can come under general guidance. It's a matter of you using your understanding, using your mind. God is not turning us into puppets. Many Christians think the finest Christians are the Christians that have no minds. They are mindless Christians, wandering about, of whom God only needs to press buttons and they react. God doesn't want any of us to be mindless.
The parable of the pounds and the talents teaches us that God entrusts something to us and how we cause it to multiply is left to our resources, to our skill, to our understanding. You see, God doesn't want to produce a bunch of puppets. Christians are people who use all the initiative, their understanding, their imagination, their skill in carrying out God's work. That is all under general guidance. So the general guidance that was given by the master to the stewards of the pounds and the talents is this: "Here is the pound, here is the talent. You go out and multiply, do business with it."
Now, in case any of you who are young Christians don't know what parable I'm referring to, here then is the reference. The parable of the talents is in Matthew chapter 25, verses 14 to 30. The parable of the pounds is in Luke chapter 19, verses 12 to 27. "Talents," by the way, has nothing to do with gifts. A talent is a silver talent which was entrusted to someone to do business with.
So here we see that a Christian must have initiative, must have determination. Just like a soldier — you are sent on a mission. But your commander does not expect that you're going to stand and do nothing until you get the next instruction. "Say, now, take your gun into your hand." So you hold it up. "Now put a bullet in it." So you take out a bullet and put it in. "Now put your finger on the trigger." What kind of a soldier is that? The point is, here is a mission — that is a general command. Carry it out. That's why I used the picture: the general moving forward of all the tanks, the general moving forward of a whole commando unit. They are not getting all the time told exactly what they have to do. They are to use the initiative, their skill, their imagination, and everything — the total resources.
To be a total Christian involves the use of all your total resources. I always like to remind Christians we are to love the Lord our God, as the Bible says, with all our hearts, with all our minds, with all our soul, and with all our strength. Loving God is not just a question of turning God into someone who wipes out our personality and makes us puppets. There is no such thing. When you become a Christian, you become a total person. Every part of your mind, of your soul, of your emotion, of your strength, of your skill, is employed in God's service.
So let's get this clear: the spiritual Christian is not a man who does nothing waiting for the next move. "You may eat now," so you pick up the spoon. "You may open your mouth," so you put it in. This is called a spirit-guided Christian? What I call that is a puppet. There is no such thing in the Bible. What it says is: you have the general guidance to go forward, get this job done. You carry out that job with all the skill at your command, with all the determination at your command, with everything you've got, relying on the power of the Holy Spirit.
That's the way Paul worked. Paul was given an instruction: "Go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles." And he went out, fulfilling this with every nerve and every strength, with every grain of energy, right down to the last bit of his strength. He fulfilled his ministry. That's what he meant: "I have finished the course." The job that was entrusted to me, I have carried out to the limits of what can be done. Did he stop every two minutes for guidance? Not at all. He went on with the work. But as he went on in fulfilling the general command, so there came specific commands. That's what I meant by general command, specific command.
And the most beautiful part of it, as he comes to the end of his course, he uses the words in 2 Timothy chapter 4. He says, "I am about to be sacrificed." So beautiful, these words. "I am about to be sacrificed." He loved God with all his heart, his mind, his soul, his strength. And you know, the last thing he did was still one more sacrifice. All his life he had been a living sacrifice. At the end, he would be a sacrifice literally, physically, offering up faithful unto death. And the picture that he uses there, which doesn't come out in the English at all — "I am ready to be offered up," he says, in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 6. "I am ready to be offered up." That, in the original, is a word which means a libation. You know what is a libation? It is an offering that is poured out, a liquid offering, an offering of wine or of oil that was given under the Old Testament. You could give a drink offering, sometimes it's called, an offering that is poured out from a vessel.
So the beautiful picture that Paul is giving here is: "I am about to make my final sacrifice." What does the final sacrifice mean? His picture is this: our body is like a vessel. Inside of him the last sacrifice he could offer was his blood. He would pour it out to the last drop for his Lord. How beautiful is this picture. "I am about to be utterly poured out as a drink offering, as a sacrifice." Paul often pictured his own body as a vessel, you see. A vessel is a container that contains water or wine or oil. And inside this, his life, he pictures like the drink offering of oil or wine. He is about to make the final sacrifice upon the altar of faith. Oh, what a wonderful man was this servant of God, Paul. Surely we need to imitate him, to follow in his steps, even as Paul says, "I follow Christ. Follow me insofar as I follow Christ."
I hope then we are all clear about this: that certainly there is general guidance, there is special guidance, there is general calling, and there are special instructions as we follow out. So I don't call it a call, because now this is not a special call — it is special guidance. And there is a distinction about that. We are all called, as we saw yesterday, but within that call we have special guidance into which area we go. But while we are — only when we are already fulfilling the general command.
One last question here. This question is quite interesting: "Should Christians be nationalists? Is that every Chinese should have a heart to love China?" Well, I can answer this question in one single word. Yes. Should every Chinese love China? Sure. I mean, there is nothing else to be said to that. We will certainly love China. If we are to love even our enemies, and we are to love our brothers and sisters, how certainly we are going to include China in our love. We owe China a great deal because we are, after all, Chinese people. And we have a debt to our own country.
Paul had a principle: "To the Jew first." Why to the Jews first? Because he was a Jew. He said, "I always preach the gospel to the Jew first." Why? Because he's a Jew. As a Chinese, our responsibility is to the Chinese first. If you are an Englishman, your responsibility is to the English first. If you are a Canadian, your responsibility is to Canadians first, unless you have special instructions. That is the general guidance given to us. Your responsibility is to your own people. It doesn't mean to the Jew first and only to the Jew. No. It means that when we have fulfilled our responsibility to the Jews, we can also, at any time — that is, in Paul's case, Paul could then also minister to the Gentiles. And he said this in spite of the fact that his ministry was specifically to the Gentiles, not to the Jews. So since Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles, why did he still say "to the Jew first"? Because he was a Jew. He never forgot that. We must never forget that we are Chinese. That becoming a Christian does not make us an Englishman, does not make us a Canadian, does not make us an American. Becoming a Christian means that we are still every bit a Chinese. And we are going to preach the gospel in Chinese language where it can be done to the Chinese people. And that we must always remember. We owe it to our country and to our people that they may hear the gospel. I owe it to the 800 million Chinese people to get, in my lifetime, the gospel into China. I trust you owe it too. So you owe it to carry out this great commission.
So, to answer this question is very simple. I have always stated that it's the scriptural principle that we are to love our country and pray for our country, as well as for its leaders. That includes praying for Chairman Mao. Don't be surprised. It says in the Bible, pray for the leaders of the country. Pray for them. How else is he going to be saved? Or how else is God going to work in his heart? If you regard him as an enemy, fair enough. It says also to pray for your enemies. So pray for him. If you have to pray for him as an enemy, you still need to pray for him. Let us pray for our country. And God willing, within not too many years, you and I will be getting the gospel into China.
Many people say, "Well, don't you know the door is closed?" There is no door closed as far as God is concerned. God knows no closed doors. Have you ever heard that God saw a door that is closed? What kind of a door is closed? The only door that is closed to God is our heart. There is no country that can close its door to the gospel. Maybe we'll have to go into the country by one way or another at great cost. But there is no such thing as a closed door to God's servants, except that we have to use our resources wisely. I can go back to China today. I can go back to China tomorrow. All that will happen to me is that I'll end up in a camp with my board and lodging provided. And that won't be a pleasant camp either.
So we have to go in and use our resources wisely. As I said yesterday, you don't just show your bravery by throwing yourself straight into a machine gun. A machine gun will just mow you down and you have accomplished nothing. Our job is to take out the machine gun, not to be shot down by it if we can help it. Every soldier's job is to win the battle, not just to get killed. Getting killed is very heroic, but how do you win the battle? Our job is to do this. My job is to win the battle to get the gospel into China. We are all willing to be brave. We are all willing to be shot down with the first bullet. But we won't win any battles like that. So I use all the strategy, all the initiative, all the imagination, all the skill that is put at my command by the Lord, and with all the wisdom that He gives me. And I'm going to work out the battle lines in such a way that we are going to fight and to win. But I know that in my own self, not all my wisdom can accomplish it. Only through God's grace and power and His working can it be done. But in this work I'm going to love God with all my heart and soul and strength, and China as myself. Let's apply it in this way.
Now finally we must conclude. Our time rushes on. And so I conclude with a final summary of what we have been doing during this time at the conference in the very few minutes that we have. But there is just one last question if I may be allowed to deal with it, because it's rather important. This was not a written question but a question asked to me. It is the case with some Christians that they still do not know whether they are, after all, saved or not. Whether they are, after all, Christians or not. Now that is very dangerous. If you don't really know whether you are in the army of the Lord or not, how are you going to fight with any determination? You are left with constant uncertainty whether you belong to the Lord or not. Since at least two people have asked me that question within a single day, it seems to me that that is quite a serious question. If you have not the certainty that you really belong to Christ — how are you sure that you belong to Christ?
Now I answer this question very simply and briefly in this way. How do two people know that — is that my wife or is that not my wife? Is that my husband or is that not my husband? You keep puzzling in your mind and saying, "I'm not so sure whether I'm married. Am I really married? Is it all a dream?" By what evidence do I know this? You see, I use the analogy because that's exactly the picture used in the Bible. We have been united with Christ in the same way that a husband and a wife have been united with each other. They have no great uncertainty. I don't see, at least, most husbands and wives always wondering whether they are married or not. But how can they be so sure? Well, two things, quite simply.
First of all, there is total commitment of one to the other. You have committed yourself to each other in love. Love means commitment. I hope you understand that. Love means commitment at all times. Love is not intellectual thinking. Love is a commitment. Where there is no commitment, there is no love. In marriage you commit yourself one to another. You don't just believe in each other, whatever that means. You may say, "He's a nice guy," and she says, "You are a nice guy," and everybody shakes hands — "We are all nice guys." But that does not seem to mean that you are married. So you can say there must be love, and true love always involves commitment. That means giving rather than taking. If there is a person who is only interested in getting as much as they can out of you, that's not love, that's just selfishness. And you'd be wise to stay away from that kind of people, because all they want is some emotional comfort or maybe some advantage out of you. This is getting something, and too many marriages are based on this kind of selfish business and it collapses before very long. I have seen couples who have been married for two or three months and they are already at each other's throats. It didn't take very long to wear out whatever was there before. There was no basic commitment from the start.
So the first thing you've got to know is: have you made a commitment to Christ? Have you given yourself to Christ as Christ gave Himself to you? Remember, it's not that God is taking from you. He has given Himself to you. Love is the mutual commitment of two people to each other where both give themselves to the other person. And this commitment is established in a covenant.
# Summary and Final Exhortation on 2 Timothy (Part 2)
Or three people at least. And so you have committed yourself to Christ and entered into the new covenant. I hope that although we have to hurry so quickly, this helps you to see the picture.
Now we come quickly to the summary, and I would like to say one last thing regarding the tapes. In case anybody has any misunderstanding about this, and my witness is of the most important matter to me, because I don't just preach the gospel, I want to preach it also with my life. I want to tell you that any person buying tapes, I want to let you know that I don't get a single cent out of any tape that you buy. I have no profit out of this thing, not one single cent. So if anyone thinks that I'm making any kind of business out of your buying tapes, you better make it clear right now that I get absolutely nothing out of those tapes. The tapes are made available to you by the faithful service of our brothers in the 4M, who also are doing this as a service to the Lord. They don't make profit; they are not a profit-making organization. So it is merely done for you as a service. I would like you to understand this as part of my witness. I get nothing out of those tapes.
Now finally, to the summary. And this we have to do in two minutes flat. Is that even possible? First, how is the Lord's army formed? We have been talking about spiritual warfare; we have an army. But you say, "We have an army, where is the organization?" You see, we think in human terms, we look for an organization. Remember this: the church is not an organization basically, although it has organization in it. The church is not an organization; it is an organism.
Now any of you who have done biology know what an organism is. That is something that is an organic unity because it's connected with the same life. It is the same life that is operating within the sphere of this organism. The life of Christ operates in all of us, which constitutes us as an army, as a body of Christ, and so as a spiritual army. You and I are already linked in the closest way possible. Much closer than any organization could link us together. You see, a country, for example, has one organization. But there is virtually no connection between the citizens of that country. Because there is no organic relationship, spiritually speaking, to one another. You are you and I am I. We all have one organization looking over us. We are citizens of a certain country. But there is no organic unity. So we are more closely related to one another than any organization could relate us. Remember that always. Because we belong to one body. We are organically related in life to one another. How much closer can you get than that?
You see, a family may have no formal structure of organization. You don't take any votes. You are not going to vote that your father is going to be head of the family. And your brother is going to be the treasurer. Who does things like this? You are organically related to one another because you are members of one family. Therefore, sometimes it may be convenient to have some kind of organizational structure. But that will be only a matter of convenience. It is not necessary to the unity of the family to have an organization. So it is not necessary to the unity of the body of Christ to have a formal organizational structure. Because we are already so closely related, we can't get any closer than that.
You are closer to me than my own brother and sister in the flesh. And each one of you are closer to each other than your own brother and sister in the flesh. That's the scriptural teaching. "Who is my brother and my sister and my mother? But he who does the will of God." That's what the Lord Jesus said. You are closer to Jesus than any physical relationship could make you close to Jesus. If you were the physical brother of Jesus, you would not be closer to Jesus than you are now. Did you ever realize that?
So we are closer to one another, brothers and sisters. And I hope when we call each other brothers and sisters, we are not using it as a courtesy title. That we really receive one another as brothers and sisters. Because we are one family, closer to each other than blood relationship could make us. Blood relationship will fall apart. Your brother and your sister or whoever it may be will die one of these days, and the link is cut. But our relationship with each other is spiritual life so that no death can cut it. We remain forever united in a blood relationship.
Among the Chinese, you have blood brothers. Sometimes you cut your arm. All of you who have read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms will know how the three brothers became united to each other by the blood bond. They cut themselves and they put their wounds each to the other, as though it suggests an interflow of blood. But of course the blood doesn't flow to each other, as any of you know. But they are symbolically showing that they were one. But we are much closer than that. Because it is not just the same blood flowing in each other — it is the same life of Christ flowing in each other. And no death can separate us.
Oh, that we may understand. And from this to begin to see the picture, the vision of the great church of Christ. We have problems in the church of Christ. Sure we have. Because there is sin in the church. Everybody has some sin. No one is utterly perfect. But that is all the more reason why we need to help each other, rather than to disdain each other. No, no. We need to help each other. So that we understand the unity of the church of Christ.
And truth must be turned into vision. There is literal vision in which you actually see something spiritual with your eyes. And there is spiritual vision in which you see something — a truth so clearly. And this is what I have been meaning by vision in this conference. That you see a truth of God so clearly that it becomes a vision. You see that truth. You see the church of Christ that God has established by His blood and infused with His life. You see it so clearly that you begin to see the organic whole of that body of Christ. And realize how wonderful a thing God has created.
And our battle is to fight with sin inside the church. To overcome it. See the picture of the church glorious in its beauty when we can overcome sin. When we can love each other and receive each other as Christ received us. Remember, Christ did not receive us because we are good and lovely people. We were sinners. And scripture tells us to receive each other in the same way. Don't wait until he is perfect before you love him. Because that day will never come. And if he loved you because you are perfect — when will he ever love you? But love each other just in our weakness. Receive one another as we are in all that weakness. And see: how can I help the other? How can he help you?
And so in these days we have, in those first two talks, looked at the body of Christ. The new society that God has created in the world. Let it capture your imagination if it can. Let it capture your imagination. That there is this new society. A new society in which each contributes as he can and receives as he needs. You say, "Wow, that sounds rather like communism." Exactly. Let me tell you something. The communists never invented communism. The church knew about communism 2,000 years before the communists were ever dreamed of. If anything happened, the communists stole something from the church. We steal nothing from them. They stole the whole idea. All of you who read the early chapters of Acts have seen communism in practice in its most beautiful way. Where nobody takes a gun and says, "We are going to have communism now. Let's have your house. Let's have your field." That is communism? Okay. You can practice it in that way. It's not for me to criticize it if that's the way you like to do it. Carry on. But I'm always for sharing of goods. Though I think that the church does it much more beautifully. Nobody grabs your land from you or your house from you. We share it out of sheer love and say, "Here it is. Take it. You need it. You have it." Each contributes as he can and each receives as he needs.
Take the picture of the church. This is what we must build in the world today. And the communists — let me tell you, as somebody who has been in China — I tell you the communists are afraid of one kind of person in China. They are afraid of the Christians. Because the Christians are the truest communists that show them to be the real hypocrites. And I mean the Christians in China. Maybe you don't practice it. But they do. The Chinese Christians don't need anybody to teach them about communism. They give to each other whatever they can. And each receives according to his needs. Nobody needs to teach them that. Some of you may have read about the Jesus Family in China. Well, you remember that those communist officials who went to see the Jesus Family were so astonished, so amazed, that here was a society far more communist than anything the communists could dream up with. And here they were doing this out of love. Nobody stuck a gun in their back. Nobody threatened them. They did this out of love.
So see the new society that God has created in the world today. And let us fight to make this society a reality. I will certainly fight for it wherever I go, whether it be in Montreal or Liverpool, wherever that may be. To build the new society. That's what I'm here to do. To build the church is to build the new society. In which everybody breaks down the barriers between each other and labors to build. To give as much as you can, to receive what you need. That's what this new society is all about. Both materially and spiritually. Not only spiritually but also materially. That is why I say let us prove it. Let us test it. I hear that this conference still has some needs, some deficits. Let us give. If you can give five dollars, give it. Let's put it to the test. Give where the need is. Because you know that in giving that you have helped some brother and sister who came to this conference who couldn't have afforded to come. That's why there was the deficit. The deficit was to meet the needs of those brothers and sisters who could not otherwise afford the cost of this conference. When will you help them? Let me tell you that I intend to give a lot more than a few dollars. I intend to take nothing out of this conference for myself.
So now remember then this: that we are serving the Lord. Each giving according to what we are able to give. But receiving each — the poorer ones — according to their need until they are able to give. Let us apply these principles. Let us see the oneness of the body of Christ. Let us realize that what we give to the other we have given to Christ. That is the truth that we have been looking at.
Let us let God then fire us when we have seen the beauty of what is ahead. The beauty of the potential of the church. Those weak and full of sinners. But yet how wonderful it can become. A reality which we have seen become a reality in Acts. And it can be a reality again today. Many people who have been to our church in Liverpool say, "We haven't seen a church like this. People love one another. There is a sense that as soon as you come you feel at home. Why is it that we can't find this wherever we go?" The secret is very simple. Because we are building the kingdom of God. We are not building just a church. We are building the kingdom of God in the world. A society in which we practice what we preach. That we give what we can. We receive what we need.
Oh, let us fight for this. In Montreal we will aim for this. And I don't intend to stay too long in Montreal, God willing. Like Abraham, move around in my tent and push on to the next place when the Lord's orders come. But wherever we go — going back to your own church — and there labor to build. And I thank God for that question: "How can I make a dead church alive?" Well, labor at it. Pray for it. Talk to the people. Encourage them. Say, "Don't you know what the scripture teaches? Let us build God's kingdom." Until they can catch the vision of it and say, "Yes, what am I doing? I should be in this too." Until the spiritual ambition is there. Say, "This must get done." And then you will see the non-Christians flowing into the churches.
Let me tell you a truth. We in Liverpool hardly have a single evangelistic meeting. Does this surprise you? We do have occasionally, very seldom. But people are coming to the Lord all the time. Why? Through the testimony of a living church. There was a hospital, and one of our sisters is here from that hospital in Liverpool, that started out with 20 Chinese nurses. Two of whom in that group were Christians. Three years later there were only two non-Christians. Seventeen or eighteen had come to the Lord of that particular group. Did we go out to the hospital outreach? Not at all. They came to the church and said, "Hey, there's something different here. What is it?" They wanted to find out. And then they found that they were drawn into the life of Christ. The church is to witness as light. As light draws the people in.
And so let us catch the vision of the spiritual ambition. Let us know then as we go on to serve the Lord in this way, how are we going to do it? We can be assured that God is going to give us the special guidance we need as we move on in the general guidance. And so we come on, as we saw, to the spiritual battles that we have to fight. The enemy is strong. But our Lord is stronger. We are realists. To be a Christian is to be a realist. You don't run away from the problem. You look the problem in the face and say, "How am I going to deal with this problem?" The Christians are not people who are impractical. They are realists. They don't live in the clouds. They live with their feet firmly on the ground. They see the job. They look the enemy in the face. And they go forward into battle knowing exactly what they intend to do. And in our weakness, relying on the power of the Lord.
This is all the time we have for this summary. But praise be to God that we have had this opportunity for this military academy, even if it be for a number of days. And I pray that you will go out of here with the vision of the job that is ahead. The vision of Christ's glory. The vision, the tremendous potential that is before us. And once again I say to you, brothers and sisters, when you go out of here, let Eric Chang fade out of your mind. Forget about him. And let Jesus get all the glory. Just have that vision of Him. That's all that matters. Let everything else fade out. And so Jesus is your all in all. And His body is your commitment, where you will serve Him with all the faithfulness at your command. Be true. Let us be quiet before God in prayer.