You know, I don't preach anymore, if possible, in North America or in the first world countries, if you like. I don't want to preach here, to be very honest with you. Now you might find that hard to understand, and I will explain this as we go along. You see, it's actually quite impossible to talk about vision in any meaningful sense in this part of the world.
It can't be done. Because the preconditions don't exist. There is no such thing as vision. In the biblical sense of that word, Do you know how offensive my preaching is?
You're getting the meaning? Getting it? I hardly open my mouth and I think you're beginning to understand. You see, I can't preach about vision until there are the preconditions for having vision.
Do you have those preconditions? I think not. Am I being offensive? There you are.
But I will explain. Now, if I were in the Far East, if I were in China, in Indonesia, in Malaysia, wherever they invite me to preach, I will. I will preach the word of God. Why?
Because the preconditions exist there. Preconditions don't exist here anymore. In most cases, there are exceptions. And I pray that you may be one of those exceptions.
The very small minority of those people who can hear the word and can catch the vision. But for most, the spiritual eyelids are very heavy. Especially, as Pastor Saul said, after a good meal. I mean, you need matchsticks to keep your spiritual eyelids up.
I'm not talking about physical eyelids. I mean, spiritual ones. And physical ones, usually, the eyelids will accompany the spiritual ones. When your spiritual eyelids are closing, your physical ones are likely to close too.
The preconditions are not conditions. So, we live here in North America. We live in comfort and ease. We live in an environment that caters to us in the way that we want it to cater to us.
This is heaven on earth. You don't need heaven above when you have it on earth. What vision of heaven do you need that you don't already have? If you are sick in Canada, Medicare takes care of everything.
You have nothing to worry about. If you are sick in China, you better wonder what you're going to do. An operation could cost $20,000 when your income is $400 a month. There is no way you're going to have the treatment you need.
You die, my friend. Because you can't pay for it. You can't get the treatment you need. Here, no problem.
I mean, I need an eye test. My doctor writes me a piece of paper. I go to the eye specialist, the best eye specialist. Examines my eye.
See what's the problem. Tells me what to do. Fine. So, you got a pain here?
I go to another specialist. I've been seeing four different specialists in the last year. One for the skin, one for the this, one for that, who knows what. Every time the doctor says, okay, take this and go with your specialist.
Now, you try that somewhere else. You can't do that. In the States, maybe, if you have good medical coverage. You pay enough insurance, you might get what you need.
In Canada, you don't even have to pay that. That's the marvelous thing about it. When you're old, you retire old age security, old age benefits, retirement benefits. You name it, you got it.
And there are Chinese people who came over from China who never worked a day in Canada, never paid one cent of tax, and they are living on old age benefits here. No wonder everybody wants to migrate here. This is heaven on earth. You can't get better than that.
Even you never paid any tax against it. This country is so generous. It's just marvelous. Right?
Now, tell me, where is anybody going to need God? When the world, when the state provides everything for you, you don't need God. What vision of God do you need? And sure, of course, you're a little bit scared that one day when this life comes to an end, then also your old age benefits comes to an end, your Medicare comes to an end, and everything is finished, and then you don't know where you go.
Maybe that's the cause for a little bit of concern. And therefore, just mix in a little bit of religion. All right? Not too much religion.
Don't go crazy over religion. All right? Just a small dose of religion will do. Right?
Now, you have that small dose of religion, and you've got the world, and you have God, and you've got everything, and now, who needs vision? What is this title about? Kindle what vision? Vision of what?
And we really think that after we have lived in comfort and ease, we will qualify, hopefully, for heaven, provided, of course, some minor costs. I mean, remember to drop one or two dollars in the offering box. You gave God something. You should open the door to heaven for that.
If not good enough, do a little bit of activity in the church. Visit a few people. You know, maybe even sing in the church if you have some good. That's also enjoyable.
This is Christianity. Now, let me tell you this. I did not throw away a lifetime. I did not throw away a lifetime in which I could have climbed the ladder of this world as high as anybody else could to preach this kind of gospel.
I have no use for this kind of gospel. If that's all there is to it, I wasted my life. And all those couple of hundred co-workers of ours who left behind the world in their professions in engineering, in law, in whatever things, in computers, whatever they were specialized in, to go and preach the gospel and establish churches around the world, they're all idiots. Sorry to use plain language.
They've just gone crazy. What did they do this for? Why don't they just build a social state over there? Heaven on earth.
We don't need heaven above. We've got heaven on earth. And that's, of course, what the communists fought for. And it turned out to be a nightmare.
And we tried to build heaven on earth. But we never give up trying, as we shall discover in a moment. Now, today's message, I will base it basically on Matthew chapter 4. So that you have a scriptural basis to go on.
When you get back home, you can look at the passage. Now, this passage actually should begin from the end of chapter 3. The end of chapter 3 with the baptism of Jesus. Like so many things in spiritual life, it all begins with baptism.
Baptism is the beginning. And Jesus was no exception. He was no exception. You don't begin at baptism, you don't begin at all.
That's where it is. Baptism is the first step for anyone. And Jesus was no exception, as I said. So here we see about the baptism of Jesus.
And then, at the baptism of Jesus, John the Baptist said to Jesus, Now, you shouldn't be coming to me to be baptized. I should be baptized by you. The first recorded words of Jesus that we have when he began his ministry, it is, Let it be so now. That is, You baptize me.
Let that be fulfilled. It is proper for us to do this, to fulfill all righteousness. What does that mean? Fulfill all righteousness.
In simple language, Jesus was saying to John the Baptist, The question is not whether I am superior to you or not. The question is, This is God's will. And let us do it. Because in doing God's will, We fulfill all righteousness.
Now, this is the key of my entire two days message. If you don't understand what I am saying, You will not understand the rest of it. The key of what I am saying is this. The key to spiritual vision, The key to spiritual life, Is the will of God.
To do his will, Is to fulfill all righteousness. Not to do his will, Is not to fulfill righteousness. You have nice life on earth, And you will sail into heaven, Forget it. It doesn't work like that.
Nobody gets into the kingdom of God, Nobody gets to heaven, Except on this one condition, Fulfilled here in Jesus' baptism, His own baptism. I am going to be baptized, You don't understand why, It doesn't matter. Why should you be baptized? I don't know.
But it is God's will. That's enough for us to know. I remember, A fellow student at the Bible Institute, Where we were training, A German brother, Who had been working in a bank. He came to me one day, And he said, Eric, You know, I have been a Christian for a long, long time, And I have never been baptized.
I don't know why, I should be baptized. I said to him, Well, I am not about to explain baptism to you, But I will tell you one thing. Or rather, Let me ask you a question. Is baptism, Something ordained by God?
He said, Yes. Is baptism something, In accordance with the will of God? He said, Yes. I said, What other reason do you need, To get baptized, If you want to do God's will?
I said, Do you want to do his will? He said, Yes. That's why I am in a Bible Institute. I said, Well, Then you haven't done the first thing.
You haven't even gotten baptized. You haven't obeyed God. At the very point, Where Christian life should have begun. He said, Okay.
I will get baptized. And so he did. Very fine brother. He served as a pastor, In the German state church, Later on, After having served as an OMF missionary, For many years.
Later, He took the exams, And became a German state pastor, Pastor of the German state church. A very fine brother. Because why? He knew the secret.
The Christian life, Is about, Wholeheartedly, Joyfully, Doing God's will. Of course, There's another step, Knowing what his will is. You may not know all of what his will is, But you know one thing, He says, Go ye into all the world, And baptize all, And make disciples of all men, Baptizing them. It starts there.
And so my brother, The German brother said, I will be baptized. So this is, How Jesus begins. Fulfill all righteousness. Do you want to do that?
If you don't want to fulfill all righteousness, What vision do we want to talk about? You can't even start looking at a vision. Precondition. Precondition is what?
I said, Unless there's the precondition, There's no question of talking about vision. And the precondition is, First and foremost, The willingness to do God's will, Whatever it costs. Whatever it costs. Now think of this.
Here's somebody in a Bible institute, Who's been a Christian for years and years. And then all of a sudden, He comes and says, I want to get baptized. Everyone looks at him and says, You're in a Bible college, Do you know? And you want to get baptized?
Now you're duly. And this is silly, You know. I mean, You best not even mention that you've never been baptized. Just sneak along.
You're going to get baptized with all those young Christians, And you're in full time ministry. He said, I will do it. Never mind disgrace, No disgrace. Let me get baptized.
That's the will of God. The second thing, And I have to risk, By the time, What time do I finish? Check on this. Nine?
So much flexibility. Flexible. Okay. So the second thing here.
The second thing here is, The temptation. In chapter 4, In the first section of chapter 4. Now, Bear in mind this, That in the Bible originally, There were no chapter divisions. Alright?
Chapter divisions were introduced a few hundred years ago. There were no chapter divisions. The passage just runs straight on. If you're not aware of that, You're going to be stuck with chapter divisions.
Chapter divisions are very useful, When you want to find a passage in the Bible. But often times, It breaks the continuity. So there is actually no break, Between Jesus' baptism, And his temptation. Immediately after his baptism, Comes the temptation.
Now, The temptation is very significant. And I will come back to that in a moment. So the second point is this. The moment you want to do God's will, As Jesus does, Temptation comes straight away, And stops you, Trying to stop you in the tracks.
And I have seen so many people, Stopped in the tracks. The woman said, Rather hesitatingly, Yes, Yes, I think I will do God's will. I think so. And boom, Satan comes in like a flood, And says, Really?
And you say, Okay, I give up. I give up. It was just a passing thought, You know. Excuse me.
I was a bit rash. I was just, You know, It's because other people were, Giving, You know, Giving me problems, And I was giving myself problems, And everybody, No, No, No. So Satan said, Okay, Give a smile. But if you stick on, And say, I will do God's will, I tell you, Satan will come in, And he will work at you, Tempting you, Try to turn you off course.
A little bit here, As I say, You know, As the Chinese saying goes, If you turn just one degree, In one direction, You'll miss at the end, At the end, By a thousand li, You know, So Satan doesn't have to turn you too far around, Just a little bit, And you'll miss the mark. There comes the temptations. And I have seen, How many times it's happened. I remember with a lot of pain, A brother, I think I shared this somewhere before, A brother in Wales, Where I was, Preaching at one time, And had an evangelistic campaign in Wales.
And there was this Welsh brother, Lovely brother, And I looked at him, And like the Lord, Looking at the rich young ruler, I loved him. And, And then he said to me, He said, I want to serve the Lord. I said, Really? Oh my God, I'm so happy, He wants to serve the Lord.
He said, Where shall I go? I said, Well, There is Bible colleges, And he said, What about the one you go to? I said, Fine, You're very welcome to go to the one, I was still, I just finished my first year, And going to the second year at that time, And he wanted to apply, And I said, That's fine. And so, He got the application form, He filled in the form, And you know what?
It's amazing, He took this letter of the application form, He was going to serve the Lord, Right? And he walks out down the road, He's walking down the road, And he is approaching the letter box, In the post office, He is coming to the letter box, And who appears suddenly before him? The pastor of his church, And the pastor says, What are you doing? He says, Oh, I'm just sent, Nailing my application form, To the Bible college, What?
Are you crazy? He's stunned, A pastor talking, What are you applying to the Bible college for? My dear friends, Not all pastors are servants of God, And this poor young man, Didn't know the difference, This pastor was known, To be what in those days, Was called a liberal, Who didn't believe anything, And being a pastor, Was a livelihood, Just like, You want to be, A lawyer, Or this guy wants to be an engineer, And this fellow likes to be a pastor, Some people love that job, In fact, The people I was training with, Later at the university, I asked him, Why are you, Why are you studying theology? So, Because we like the job, The job, I thought, This is unbelievable, Why?
Because then you become, A vicar, A pastor, It's called a vicar, In a state church, In England, Because all those training with me, Were all training for the, Pastors of the state, Of the church of England, It's a very secure job, Even you don't have one, You know, Anybody in your church, It doesn't matter, Because if you have nobody, In the church, It's even better, You have no pastoral work to do, And you know, You'll be paid all the same, So the fewer people, The better, Many people know, A book called, By Dr. Alfred Edersheim, Edersheim, Sometimes it's called that way, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Two volumes, A very solid, Massive work, You know, He wrote that work, While he was, A vicar of the church of England, Because he had nobody, In his church, So he could spend all his time, Writing manuscripts, I thought that's wonderful, Maybe that's what I should have done, You know, After finishing there, I just go and become, A vicar in the church of England, And then I can, Spend all my time, Writing books, Just as he did, And he became famous for that, And in his case, His words are very good, Yeah, And he did love the Lord, But he was sent to a small church, Somewhere that he was, So I say, Why are they civic, And this pastor, This is what you call professional pastor, He's there not because he cares about you, Or the, You know, I met one buddy, Somebody I was walking on the street once, And I was talking to this person, And she saw her pastor, Coming by, And she greeted her pastor, And her pastor looked at her, And turned away, I was, I was astonished, I said, Is that your pastor? She said, Yes, And how come he doesn't recognize you? He said, He doesn't talk to anybody, He doesn't, And you would have thought, He must have a thousand people in his church, Wrong, He had, I don't know, Seventy or eighty people in the church, And he doesn't know, Who are the members of his church, Can you believe that?
But that's the truth of the matter, And so, My friend goes there, With the letter, To go, To apply for Bible college, And the pastor told him, Don't be silly, You know, Just get on with your life, Who needs to go to Bible college, My friend? So he took his application letter, Letter back home, And never, Never applied again, Later, Those people who knew him, Told me that he had lived in misery, All those years, In utter unhappiness, For what reason? I don't know, I lost contact with him, But some people, Who are still in contact with him, Told me that, His health went to pieces, He was in, In, In mental problems, And everything went wrong, Point is, Temptation, The moment you want to do God's will, Satan, You think Satan is, Is just an airy fairy notion? Well, As long as you don't do God's will, Satan will not want you to know, He's anything at all, He just doesn't exist, Alright?
He's very happy, With your don't believing in him, But the moment you do God's will, Believe me, You are going to know, What he can, You know, What his powers of temptation are, He's not just there to frighten you, He will offer you, As you will see, In the moment, The best the world can give, Just as I've been offered, All sorts of things, Why be in the past? I mean, With your ability, Your experience, Your talents, You could be, Who knows where, Sky is the limit, Can you say no? I wouldn't be honest with you, If I told you, It was not easy to say no, Now, The thing, Let me give you the gist, Of the message, As we move along, That was the second thing, The temptation, The third thing, That we notice, Is Jesus preaching, And Jesus preaching, The key of it is found, In chapter 4, Verse 17, Repent, For the kingdom, Of God, Is near, The kingdom, Of God, Is near, Now, Repent, Is a very religious word, Isn't it? And let's forget about, Religious terms, I'm not interested in religion, And I hope neither are you, And people are always surprised, To hear me say, I'm not interested in religion, When you're a pastor, Well, I'm not interested in religion, Religion, Is not my cup of tea, I'm interested in God, I'm interested, In truth, I'm not interested, Not interested in religion, Religion is man made, It's full of man made, Traditions, Ideas, Teachings, All kinds of human stuff in it, Let's just stay, With God, Don't get yourself into religion, That's the important thing, You need to understand, We follow Jesus, We trust in God, We have no use, For religion, Repent, What's the non-religious meaning, Of that?
Some words have been taken over, By religion, And become sort of, You know, Clichés, That we hear, We hardly know, What are you talking about? This has something to do, With feeling sorry for sin, I suppose, But repent means more than that, It means turn around completely, Turn around, That's what repent is, That's the Greek word there, Metanoia, The change of mind, Your thinking, Goes to, A complete revolution, It revolutionizes, Your thinking, And there is no revolution, Under the sun, That man has ever devised, That is ever as radical, As the teaching of Jesus, Let me tell you, I live through communism, As many of you do, And it's not revolutionary at all, And you wonder, It couldn't, For a Christian, It doesn't touch anything, Because it's too shallow, You want to change man, Will take a lot more, Than, Sisiang, Gai Zao, Of the kind that they talk about, You see, This is, Sisiang, Gai Zao, At the most fundamental, It is turning completely away, From human values, Which is impossible, For man to do, To God's values, That is why, All those ideologies, Have collapsed, Communism collapsed, In a very short time, And, The gospel goes on, Two thousand years, And from strength, To strength, Communism could barely survive, Fifty years, Radical, In the extreme, No human revolution, Could get even close, To the kind of thing, Jesus taught, But, Because it is so radical, That is what makes it, Uncomfortable, And the church, Has spent a lot of time, And effort, To make it less, And less, And less radical, Until, You can feed it, To a domestic pet, And you wouldn't know the difference, It is so domesticated, You have taken the teeth, Out of it, You have taken the sword, Out of the hand, There is nothing left, And this kind of Christianity, I don't want to preach, As I told you, I would have gone somewhere else, To do something more useful, I am a revolutionary, Believe it, Believe me, And Jesus was, Was a revolutionary, Of the kind, I am only barely managing, To catch up with, I can tell you, No man who has got in touch, With Jesus, Has ever been the same again, He becomes a different person, He is totally changed, By this, I have the testimony, From my own father's mouth, When he hadn't seen me, For years, The last time he saw me, Was as a non-Christian, When he saw me again, Was a Christian, And he didn't know, What happened, I had changed completely, And I wasn't even aware, Of it myself, The revolution, Took place within, And I was changed, I spent a few days, With him, And he, He noticed, This son of his, Is a different kind of person, Now, The preaching, Is the third section, We tend to, Why, Why do we need to turn, Completely around, Because God's kingdom, We will be studying that, A little bit more, Tomorrow, Because, Tomorrow, Because that is the essence, Of the vision, To know, What is the kingdom, What does it do, What does it achieve, Where is it going, And what, Will be the final outcome, Of this scenario, At the end, Of the days, The kingdom, Is the central element, Of the new testament, You don't understand, The kingdom, You have understood, Nothing about christianity, If you understand, The kingdom, You understand, What true, Teaching is, According to the scripture, It is too radical, For western christianity, Let me tell you, Can't cope with it, It is too powerful, Now, The next thing, We see is that, After the preaching, The proclamation, Of the kingdom, That is the lordship, The sovereignty of God, Becomes the calling, Of those disciples, In other words, He needs to involve us, In that project, And that is where, Vision comes in, If that vision, Can be passed to us, We follow him, If the vision, Cannot pass to us, We stick in the mud, Where we were, When the first disciples, Caught the vision, The world went aflame, As you know, And two thousand years on, The gospel keeps moving, And moving, Even through the dead, Parts of the church, There are life parts, That continue the work, That is the exciting thing, And it is because of that, I am still in this work, Now the next thing, Is when, The kingdom comes, In action in the world, The disciples follow, The next one, The next thing is, That the power of the kingdom, Comes into action, How do you know, That we are not talking, Pure ideology, How do you know, That we are not just, Talking stories, How do you know, That this thing is real, Because God's power, Will show it to you, All of us, Who have walked, In the will of God, Have experienced, That power, The power, Of the kingdom of God, The sick are healed, The dead are raised, Kinds of things, Start happening, Demons are cast out, All sorts of things, Are happening, I myself, I have been involved, Healing the sick, And things of this kind, You see the power, Of things that, It's impossible, According to modern science, Tumors do not vanish, Into thin air, When you pray, But that's exactly, What happened, On at least two occasions, When I prayed, The tumor just vanished, And these had been, Checked, With x-rays, With, And certified, That the tumors were there, After the prayer, The pain was gone, Tumor gone, Everything disappeared, Now I've said more than once, I'm not a faith healer, I don't claim faith healing, But where God, Wants me to do something, I do it, And has never failed, Never failed, The power of the kingdom, That, That was the, The fifth point, The sixth point, I would say, Immediately after this, When we come into chapter 5, We have the teaching, Of the kingdom, From chapter 5, To chapter 7, There is the teaching, Jesus tells us, What kind, Of people, Are in the kingdom, What is the kind, Of life quality, He expects, Of those, Who are committed, To do his will, Very concrete, Not every, Very stuff, And you don't know, What you're supposed to do, You see the power, You hear the teaching, And then you see, What happens afterwards, So, From chapter 8, To 28, Of Matthew, That tells you, The implementation, Of the kingdom, Alright, So, We have first, The baptism, The baptism of Jesus, Then we have secondly, The temptation, And thirdly, We have the proclamation, The call to repentance, The fourthly, The call of the disciples, And fifthly, The power of the kingdom, In action, Which is marvelous, To behold, But, If all you want to see, Is signs and wonders, Forget it, God is not there, To entertain people, Only when there is a need, And when, When that, Compassion calls for it, The reason I prayed, For those people, Suffering intense pain, Because of these, Cancerous growths, Was because, I could not bear, To see their pain, I said, Lord would you have mercy, The Lord responded, The tumor disappeared, Some one, Big one, In a woman's, In a woman's womb, Just vanished like that, She was due to be operated, On the following week, They came in, When she came in, For the operation, They couldn't find, The tumor, So, The sixth thing, Is the teaching, The powerful teaching, Of Jesus, You live by that, And you see what happens, And then the implementation, Of all that, From chapter 8, To the end of Matthew 20, So you have a whole, Lesson on the gospel, Of Matthew, In one go, The whole of, In less than half an hour, Now let's come, To some of the main, The main points, Of this, I spoke about, The preconditions, Of having the vision, These preconditions, Must be met, Otherwise, To talk about vision, About the kingdom, Tomorrow, Is a waste of time, For those of you, Who don't, Don't meet that vision, Don't meet those preconditions, Or don't have the intention, Of meeting those, Preconditions, I'm sorry to say, It wouldn't be of much interest, To you, Because, That vision, Is not for you, You don't, Really want to fulfill, The requirements, For that vision, Now what is the problem here, Well we come back, To the temptation, We come back, To the part, About the temptation, And there are three things, That I would, Want you to notice, How, Satan, Tempted Jesus, That will tell you, The way, In which, Satan, Gets to work, Against us, And I have seen, Through my, Rather long ministry, By now, How person, After person, Has fallen, Because they were no match, For Satan's, Skill, And cunning, And because, Within their hearts, There was a readiness, To respond, To Satan's temptations, The first thing, About it, Is you can see, The first temptation, You all know, Even from Sunday school, What was it? Well Satan, Tempted Jesus to say, Well you are hungry now, 40 days of fasting, Your stomach is growling away, And as we say in Chinese, In Shanghai, In the hunger, In the stomach, And all that, That hungry sound, You need to eat something, 40 days, And this is no kidding, Anybody, Fasted here for 40 days, I don't think so, I know one dear brother, Who fasted for 20 days, And I myself, Have gone too close to that, But not, But not on a, That is, Drinking, You can't fast for 40 days, At least, We are not told, Whether Jesus drank or not, But fasting is normally understood, As not eating solid food, I could not carry on my ministry, If I fasted for 20 days, Without, I took grape juice, Fruit juice, For 20 days, And actually, I felt very well, And very strong, At the end of 20 days, But if on pure water, I don't think I would have survived, I know a brother, Who, Who, Who fasted for more than 20 days, On pure water alone, And he is much stronger than me, Jesus, Jesus, 40 days, Very hungry, There was Satan's chance, Now, You have the gift, You have the means, In your hands, You have the power, To get food for yourself, Because you are son of God, Right? Now look at the stone, You are the creator, You speak to the stone, You turn that into bread, You got your food, Jesus said, No, No sir, I will not, And he goes on to say, Man does not live by bread alone, But by every word, That comes from the mouth of God, What does that mean again?
Do you get it? Every word from the mouth of God, You live by that, What is it? What comes from the mouth of God, Is his will, You see, It always comes back to his will, His word reveals his will, And we live, Only and always by his will, Now if, God said, Turn that stone into bread, You will do it, But not before then, And God did not, Say to Jesus, You can now turn that, No, So since, I do not have the word, I don't turn stone to bread, Always, The will of God, That is the, The, The necessary prerequisite, Provision, When I am that committed, But his, His commitment to the will of the father, Was being tested, He was so hungry, So hungry, But he would not, Do something for his own sake, He had the means, He had the power, He could have acted without God, Without the father's authority, But he said, I never do anything, But what the father wants me to do, That's the way he lived, All through his ministry on earth, Do we live like that? No, That's why he has no vision, The, The ideal is to do, To use our gifts, And powers in any way, Are you, Are you, Like to argue, You like to think, So what do you do?
You use your gifts, Maybe you become a lawyer, Do you like to calculate, To do things, Maybe you become an engineer, Do you like to do, Study about health, And so on, Maybe you become a doctor, We use our gifts, Any way we please, But did anybody ask, The Lord say, You gave me all these gifts, Do you want me to study this? Do you want me to do that? No, We just decide, What we're going to do, Right? After all, It's up to us, Oh yes?
We live by every word, That comes out of the mouth of God, Does God have nothing to say to you? Or maybe you're not listening, When I listen, I hear, I do hear, But not if I'm not listening, We have to listen, Now this, This comes to some important matters, This is the essence of materialism, The need for bread, I said, The great problem, About, The first world countries, Is that we are full of bread, I mean food, I mean good things, Full of materialism, Why do people come from, Emigrate from China to here? Well, You know why, I mean, You can buy, Soon buy yourself a house, You buy yourself a car, You buy yourself, All the good things in life, Are available here, It takes you much less time, To earn all of this, Than it would take you back in China, For most people, This is the materialistic paradise, And Canada is number one in the world, According to the United Nations, For years and years and years survey, Canada stands number one, Did you know that? Church is in paradise here in the world, And I'm trying to preach to you, About the kingdom of God, I must be wasting my time, I mean Satan, Satan doesn't have to do much tempting, Does he?
It's all there, Laid out in front of you, As I said, Sick, Medicare, Old, You've got old age pension, Thank you.
# Vision of God's Kingdom (1) - Part 2
Let me put it in one phrase like this. The more you have of the world, the more the world has of you. Do you understand that principle? I have watched that principle in action.
And let me tell you, this is no theory. This is a simple fact. The more you have of the world, you try to get richer, you get one house, you get two houses, you get two cars, five cars. I don't know how many cars you can drive, but never mind.
If you feel happy, then have all the cars you want. And all the houses you can own. You can live three months in this one, move to the other one for three months, or rent that one out, get more money, more money. The more you have of the world, the more the world has of you.
And no one who has that much of the world, and who is so possessed by the world, has any vision. There's no use for vision. It's a waste of time to talk about vision. You see why I don't want you to preach?
I take this message to China. And they will just gobble this word in. Oh, my. This is marvelous.
You preach for one hour, not enough. Two hours, not enough. Three hours. In fact, they won't even let you sit down for the whole day if you can stand on your feet.
And as no exaggeration, we had one thin co-worker, Pastor Joe. You know how thin he is? They wouldn't let him even have lunch. Can you believe this?
Because they didn't want him to stop preaching the word of God. You wouldn't even understand that. It's just incomprehensible. Nobody is that crazy.
Here, a pastor preaches 20 minutes, and you're looking at your watch and think, goodness, when is he going to stop? He's been preaching all day already. The next time you look, it's 30 minutes, and you think this is forever. He's never going to get off that platform.
But there, Pastor Joe was not allowed. He said finally to them, he said, are we going to have lunch? And they said, no. He said, yes.
If you don't want lunch, I need lunch. Because I don't have the strength to keep on preaching without eating. He has no reserves, you know. Not like me.
I still have reserves. And he doesn't. Materialism, the world. What is world?
You know, the world in the Bible is simply a system in which Satan controls everything pridentally. Hiddenly. That's the secret thing. In other words, he controls you without your knowing it.
He uses materialism. He uses a number of other things that will come to you. And you don't even know that you are being controlled. That's what in English is called insidious.
Insidious means something is working without your knowing it. It's a good word in English to know. Insidious. It's like cancer.
Cancer is insidious. You may have cancer working in your body right now, but you don't know. You haven't got a clue. By the time it's discovered, it's often a bit late.
Because it works insidiously. Hiddenly. That's how Satan works. He doesn't come to you in front of you.
Here is Mr. Satan. No way. You only can see him.
He doesn't exist. He doesn't want you to. Then he works quietly. Dreadful.
He's insidious. And that's the world. The world is a system of thought. A system of government.
A system of society where Satan gets you to believe that you are doing what you really want to do and which is very good for you. Oh. He's a great psychologist. Anybody who studies psychology knows that.
The way to get somebody else to do something you want is to tell him how good it is for him. If you haven't done that, you can never be a CEO. You don't know how to manage. You don't know how to govern.
You must make the other people, your employees, your staff, believe that whatever you want them to do, actually you want them to do, you won't tell them that, but you tell them that it's in their best interest to do it this way. And wow, they really go all out to do this for you. But of course, you won't say, it's for me. It's for your own benefit.
It's for your good. Look at yourself and see how much is materialism a factor in your life. You can know it. How much do you earn per month?
Not enough. And then you get the next raise. How much do you earn? Not enough.
You know, the interesting thing about materialism is we can never be satisfied. There's no limit. If you have $100,000 in the bank, you want $500,000. If you have $500,000, you want a million.
You say, no, no, I'll be satisfied with $100,000. That's because you haven't got $100,000 yet. Wait till you have $100,000 and then you'll say, only $100,000. I have still another 50 years to live.
So you need $500,000. I'll be satisfied. You are kidding yourself. Wait till you get to $500,000.
I think you'll say, what? This my friend over there, he has $2 million. I'll be satisfied if I get the million. Then you won't.
That's how it works insidiously. You see, you don't realize you're being pushed along by this hidden force of greed. That's all that it is. But you call it security.
It's security. Security sounds much nicer than greed, doesn't it? It's so crass, the word greed. Me?
Greeding? Not at all. But security, yes, I need that. The second thing that we see here is this, what does it say here?
Well, it says that we need religion. You see, the world does not throw out religion. It makes use of religion. The world exploits everything, including religion.
Religion is a tremendous power and the world knows that you don't stand up against such a power. What do you do? You assimilate it to your own purpose. Now, take the politicians in America.
You know that they're all good Christians. Every one of them. Mr. Bush is a Christian, of course, you know that and then so is the two Johns now and John whatever and then they are also Christians.
One is a Catholic, one is a Methodist and Mr. Bush is a Baptist and everybody is Christian. Oh yes. Now, I don't want to criticize them.
I have no right to criticize anybody and they are Christians, they may be very genuine Christians, I don't know. But the point is and it's rather convenient to notice that unless you are a Christian your chance of garnering votes from Christians is very, very slim. In fact, I heard an interview with just two democratic candidates, the two Johns, they said they are very sincere about their faith when being questioned by a commentator. Well, let no man question that.
We have no right to criticize or condemn but what we have to know is that Christianity is very, very powerful. Christianity, mind you, as a religious system is very powerful in North America and in the United States in particular. They can put you in office and they can throw you out of office. That's because the majority of people are Christians in one sense or another.
And you don't get their vote, you don't stand a chance. Now, what does it say here? Well, it says here that Jesus, that Satan took Jesus to the holy city and to the highest point of the temple and suggested that maybe he could display his power in another way because turning stone into bread, nobody can see it. There's no one to witness this business.
You did a miracle, fine, nobody saw it. But you go there in the temple crowded with people and you sail down from the sky from the highest point of the temple called the pinnacle and wow, that will create a stir. Now that's something. I mean, Superman would be something, you know, Superman is fake.
Now they will see the real thing. They will see somebody sailing down from above and then what happens? Well, and then Jesus, and then Satan noticed this, he knows the Bible better than most Christians and he says, he quotes a promise. He quotes a promise from the Bible and says, now if you do that, you see, what God has promised is he commands his angels to protect you so that when you come down you will not even so much as strike a foot, you hurt your foot on the stone. then the glory is displayed.
Have you gone to a Christian bookstore? Have you seen books about the promises of God or cards about the promises? That scares me no end. It reminds me of this, Satan quoting promises.
Let me tell you, please, never touch a book on promises or a box of cards on promises. Don't even look at it, don't touch the thing. because the promises are not for you. Unless you are totally committed to doing the will of God, then every promise is for you. But otherwise it's not for you.
But even if that promise is for you, it may not apply to you at that particular time. Now, if promises apply to anybody, it will apply to Jesus. He was the one committed to doing the will of God and Satan is clever. You see, he knew that Jesus could use the promise because he was totally obedient.
But a general promise is not necessarily applicable in a specific situation. You must first get the Lord's permission that even this promise, which is to his faithful people, applies to you in this situation. It may not. This means that every true Christian has to be in touch with God.
That's the difficult part. Now, if God is not real, there's no one to be in touch with. You see that? Why am I so convinced?
Because I know. I know the Lord tells me what I need to do, what I may do or may not do, to keep in the center of his will. Because God is real, I can know his will. If he were not real, there would be no will to know, and no one to tell me what his will is.
Logical? Of course it is. I told the young will. If you don't know him, obviously you don't want to do his will.
You don't really know what is which comes first. To know him first and then do his will, or be prepared to do his will. If you are real, I will do your will. But you must do his will because he is the creator.
We can't lay down conditions for him. His condition to all of us as his creatures, not as redeemed people. As his creatures, we don't have to wait till we are Christians or regenerate. As his people, as his creatures, we are committed to do his will.
First we do his will, he then reveals himself to us. If any man's will is to do the will of my father, he will know of the teaching, whether it's from God or not. That's the way it works. That's where vision comes from, my friends.
If you have that precondition to the It's because the more you do his will, the more you want to do his will. There is the cycle, it's moving. And it gets moving faster and faster. The more you do his will, the more you experience it.
I've written my testimony, it's only a small fraction of my testimony, I haven't got time to get to the rest of it yet. I'm so busy with other work. But that little section in front already can tell you how I constantly, and that's only a selected number, that's not all there is, there's a selected number of things I testify to in that book. Let me say that again.
The more you are committed to do his will, the more you experience him. The more you experience him, the more you're committed to do his will, and so it gets more and more the intense division gets sharper and clearer and stronger. The key condition must be there. If you say, I am ready, O God, to do your will, just as Jesus said in Hebrews, I am come to do your will.
Now, here, using religion, using the promises of God, making use of promises that don't even apply to you. Here we have a Christianity that only wants the promises, but none of the conditions. You can see what happens. This is what is corrupted Christianity.
Christianity is corrupted, take it from you. And of course, Christianity doesn't like to hear me say that. That's why I'm not a popular preacher. In spite of the fact that I preached three years in a row at Camp Trent.
Because the young people, we were all university students at the University of Trent. It's called Camp Trent because it was held at the University of Trent. And they were all young people. And young people, that is why, you see Pastor Saul is very clever.
He said the young people at the camp and he knew. Why? Because the young people do not have much of the world and therefore the world does not have much of them. You know the young people, even if they come from a rich family, they often don't have much.
I came from a well-to-do family. My father wouldn't even give me pocket money. Why? Because he was afraid of spoiling me.
I couldn't buy a suite off the street because I had no pocket money. He said I went to buy some of you spoil your teeth. No pocket money. I came from a very well-to-do family.
But I didn't have much of the world. So the world didn't have much of me. And I realized that most young people are like that. Even you come from a wealthy family, you may actually personally as a student be very poor.
And such people are more open to the gospel. The moment you start working, the moment you start making money, the moment the money comes into your bank account, your bank account gets thicker, the world has more of you and God has less of you. Now, this is not like in China. Maybe as a factory worker, 400 Chinese dollars a month.
That's not much to go by. That's about 50 US dollars a month. If you have a better job, you might get a hundred dollars US a month. And of course, if you are a high professional, you might get a bit more.
There are lots of millionaires in China today. That's why the window of opportunity in China is closing fast, especially in Shanghai. I'm a Shanghainese, I know that. We Shanghainese are famous in China for knowing how to make money.
And so Shanghai is the most highways flying over here and there and everywhere. It's like spaghetti everywhere. The road is full of countless cars. We Shanghainese are just full of the world.
That's the problem. And it's hard to find spiritual people among the Shanghainese. I tell you, I count myself thankful to the Lord that he had mercy on the likes of me. I'm glad I can criticize giant Shanghainese because I'm Shanghainese.
I cannot criticize Hong Kong people. Although indeed the Hong Kong people are very dear to me. Anyway, the time is racing on. Let me come to the third point about the hindrances that block our vision.
We saw materialism blocks our vision. We saw a corrupted religion, a corrupted Christianity that blocks out religion. And now the third thing. The third thing is the temptation of Jesus.
It says here, And the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor and said, If you bow down to me, you bow down to me, give me some honor, give me some face, I give you all the kingdoms. Is he bluffing? No. The point of this is that Satan is the fundamental power behind all earthly power.
But the earthly powers of course neither one to know it or believe it. will do do thing. Now what does it mean? If we can't succeed in our earthly goals by materialism, by our own effort and our own gifts, if we can't succeed by even with the cooperation of using religion, if you are desperate enough, just give Satan some honor and he'll give you what you want. And I've seen that frightening thing happen too.
Satan is no bluff, I can tell you. You can only thank God that there is a far greater power than he, that is God himself. But foolish are the people who rather than turn to God, turn to Satan. And you know that in North America, Satanism, even in its undercover forms, is widespread and there is spiritism and there is new age and there is on and on it goes.
Just give me a bit of honor, I'll give you what you want. I have the power to do it and he does. To have the kingdoms of this world is to have power. It is to have control.
It is to be able to do your will. Now at this point I want to tell you something which is very offensive here in the West and as told you I have no intention of being popular at any time. I will speak the truth and I am happy to hear anyone disprove me. The point is that this is the word of God.
What is the kingdom of God? Think about it. We are using an archaic word kingdom. It should be the reign of God.
The rule of God where he rules over mankind. God is to do with his sovereignty also archaic words. There are not too many modern words to use these days. Kingdom we don't use anymore.
We think of the kingdom of Jordan or some little place where there still is a king running there who is there by popular tolerance or something. The kingdom of God means God's power reigning in the world and in your life. But what is the catch phrase in first world countries today? It is democracy.
Right? Oh, that's the slogan everywhere. We want democracy. I'm sorry, my friend.
I'm sorry. There is no democracy in the Bible. Shock to you? Why?
Democracy comes from two Greek words. The first part means people or multitudes or crowds or whatever and krasi means power, kratos from the Greek power, gratos. The power of the multitudes, the power of the people. people. Today, to say a word against democracy is heresy.
That is the power of politics today. But let me say something. There is only theocracy in the Bible. That is the power of God. theos, God in Greek and kratos, power, the power of God.
The Bible only knows the power of God. It knows no other kind of power unless we set up our own power, which is what we have done. I can't preach here anymore, my friends. Maybe this is the last message I'll teach in this part of the world.
I preach in an environment which is hostile to theocracy. Not in word, but in fact. The more we stress power of people, the less we stress the reality of theocracy, God's kingdom in the world. Either you choose human power and authority as the ultimate power on earth, which is what happens.
Now in the old days where the kings were there, you know the kings were modest enough to claim that they governed by divine rights, what in political science is called the divine right of kings. That means to say, they say that they are a son of God or they have their power from heaven and whatnot and whatnot and they use, like the second point here, religion as a means of oppressing the people. So we are not much better off with kings as a matter of fact. Now if we have to choose, if I have to choose between existing systems of government, human governments, excluding democracy, the rule of God, I would choose democracy of course, as being a more balanced system as compared to the rule of kings, generally speaking.
Now in China, those of you who know Chinese history will know that occasionally we had an excellent emperor who did a wonderful amount of good, such as even in a dynasty like Qing dynasty, which is not very popular with most of us, being a Manchu dynasty, Kangxi and Qianlong were extraordinary, excellent emperors who governed for the benefit of the people. But since there are very few of these and given the fact that emperors then passed down their power to their sons who were more and more incompetent in the end they were totally corrupt, so the imperial system was certainly no good. So man because he rejects God as king is left with no means of government. He has to choose between kings or presidents whatever and if he doesn't do that he's going to have something less totalitarian like the communist system.
All of them no good. And we are fixed into this choice, why? Because mankind generally didn't want God as king. We don't want God as king.
Now Israel was a theocratic state in the beginning. God ruled Israel through his representative Moses. Moses did nothing but what God commanded him to do. But if you don't have this kind of person obviously you cannot run a theocracy.
And you know what happened. Eventually people like to be like other nations. Other nations have kings and they can go down there with all these wonderful attire and all this pomp and ceremony. And here was Moses a servant of God always humble and meek.
There's no glory to show to the nations where you can ride with chariots and march your armies there and so on. None of this is in the time. So you have a man of God but no pomp and glory. You have justice and truth.
But none of the trappings of the world. So finally came that they didn't want theocracy anymore. They want to get rid of it. They want a king like other nations who can go around behaving like kings of other nations and finally became as corrupt as the kings of other nations.
And so that's what happened to Israel. Eventually they got what they wanted. They got their king. They behaved like any other nation.
And finally God was pushed out. Theocracy was pushed further and further away until Israel perished as a nation. Gone. Finished.
And if God had not mercy upon them and raised them out of the grave after 2,000 years there wouldn't be an Israel left. And do they now worship God in Israel? No my friend. Do they love God now as they did in the time of Moses?
No my friend. I've been to Israel many times. I know Israel as well as anybody. And those Jews that do still worship God so to see are what I call the Orthodox Jews mainly or the Reform Jews whichever.
And that what we have is religion again. Ceremony. Yish. We have all these trappings of external religious behavior.
How many are still faithful to God? There are some. Let's not say no. There are some.
But there are such a tiny minority. And that is the state of the church today. We want democracy. Why?
Because it's power to us, the people. Now I'm not interested in attacking democracy as a system. As I said there is not a better system around. So we are left with nothing if we reject theocracy which mankind has done.
Rejected theocracy. So we only have democracy left. And now democracy becomes an ideology that people like to push out just like Mr. Bush is doing.
Make all the countries in the world democratic. My friends, democracy is nothing new. It's not a recent invention. Anybody who knows a bit of history will know that the ancient Greeks were democratic states.
The states of Athens, for example, was one of the first democratic states in the world. A city state, a small state, democracy works best in a small state. The bigger it is, the more complicated the mechanism to get anything like a fair system going. But now we want everybody to be democratic.
So wonderful. Now by the way, democracy is wonderful if you have the means and the funds to live. For example, I go to the Philippines from time to time. It's a democracy in the Philippines.
And it is exceedingly, exceedingly poor. And frankly, what is the use of your having the freedom to vote when you don't have enough to eat? When you are sick and there's nobody to take care of you? You don't have the money to go to hospital.
You've got no money to go to education. We are trying to sponsor some people to continue their studies because they cannot get enough money to get through their education. Recently, when I was there, I met a taxi driver and I asked him, you're a young man, have you been doing all this? He said, no, he's a university student.
He's trying to get through university, trying to make enough money to get through the college, but he couldn't because he's trying to drive his taxi, he's trying to study, in the end he can't get through his exams because he has not enough time. He has to work enough time to earn the money to pay his college fees. By the time he has earned enough, he hasn't got enough time to study. It's a terrible situation.
He's 25 years old and still trying to get through the second year of his engineering degree. So we try to work out a plan to help him out, told him to put away his taxi, give him a loan repayable after five years from graduation, just get on with your studies and finish it. So you can see, democracy you can have, but what can you do with it? When you have no money to get, and he was sick and he has no money to pay his medical expenses, democracy is wonderful.
When you live in an affluent country like Canada, it's heaven on earth. Democracy, yes. Half the people don't bother to vote. Who cares who's in government?
You just give me my social benefits and don't you touch that. If you touch that, I'll throw you out in the next election. Now that's the point. The people do have power.
They can throw you out if you don't do what you want them to do. Understand? What does that mean? If you're an American, you know that you could put Bush out of power in the next election.
Well, you're only one out of a huge number of people. But maybe your vote will count. After all, you know by what little margin, 300 some votes, see one in Florida. So, you do have power.
There's where the problem is. What happens here is psychologically means that the respect for power diminishes to the point when there's no more respect for power. Have you heard people talking to the leaders of our democratic countries? Oh, they can grill them, cross examine them, contradict them, stop them in mid-sentence?
You would not dream of treating anybody with this much disrespect. Only their own party members respect them. The other party members call them all kinds of names. No respect for authority.
That's what happens. Now, that means gradually we have respect for no authority because the power is in our hands. We are the people. God is transfer this mentality into our relationship with God.
That is terrifying. Just two days ago, I happened to catch a comment when I was looking at a program on the History Channel. There was something about introducing another program and it stuck in my throat, I can tell you, where this man said that God and Moses had a lot of respect for each other. Does that sentence bother you?
Probably not because in a democracy, you can put the leader in power, you can kick him out of power for that matter. And maybe you think you can vote God out of authority too if you would like. You have so used to power. God and Moses, what are we talking about?
We can talk of God and Moses in the same breath as having respect for each other. I tell you, those of us who have served the Lord and have known the glory of God, shrink. It just makes us, makes me sick in the stomach. Who are you talking about, my friend?
I think Moses, if he heard that sentence, he would have dropped on his face. So he made the Lord forgive. God and Moses have a lot of respect for each other. So you are talking about equals.
There is not even, what is man, the scripture says, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man. What is man? We have lost that concept. We grew up in democracy.
We are used to power, the power of the people. That guy there, whoever his representative of my district is, he does what I don't like, and you send him a letter and really slam him, all right? And if he still doesn't do what you want him to do, you vote against him next time he is out of office. You are used to power. power.
You see what I mean? We have grown up in an environment that is in iniquity, that is hostile to reverence or the fear of God. Fear of God doesn't exist anymore in the churches here. I see nobody fearing God.
Give Jesus a clap. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap. Jesus, what is he an actor? What do we think he is?
These, you know, but they don't see anything wrong with that. It must be me. I am the crazy one around here. I have fear of God.
Fear in the sense of reverence because I know his power. I know who he is. Do these people know? Jesus a clap?
What are we talking about? All right, maybe we put him on the level of president. The president comes in and gives him a clap. You see, that is why I said I don't wish to preach anymore in this part of the world.
The preconditions for vision, which comes with honor and a fear for God, doesn't exist. Either you don't even believe God exists, or if you do, well, he needs your vote as much as President Bush or President anybody else does. I mean, you don't give him a vote, God is out of the picture. He needs you.
You are the important person to give him some face, give him some status. He can stay in office thanks to you. Isn't that right? Am I wrong?
Such a God is not worth believing in. A God that stands on the level with Moses. This God created heaven and earth. Do we know what the universe is like?
Do we even have a clue? Do we know what the area of particle physics is like? Do we have a clue? I read up on these things.
I read up carefully on these things because it magnifies my wonder. My God, it's amazing. But today, they use the name of God as swear words, as just a by word. Jesus Christ is like this, in this kind of atmosphere.
I don't preach. I don't preach you. I remember I was on the ship coming over from Asia and they was on the ship because I was on a freighter and there were only eight or nine passengers on the freighter. And we were all treated as first class people because we paid less than the passengers.
But because it takes longer on the freighter so you're given first class accommodation and first class treatment and food and you're stuck with eight or nine people together. And I had there on the ship there was this Austrian doctor. Well, he was very well fed indeed. But he had this nasty habit of always using Jesus' name as a swear word, as a by word.
And he would keep saying Jesus. Now, I was only in my early twenties, okay, and he looked to me like fifties or sixties, I don't know what, and he was a big doctor and I was a small nobody, alright. But I had walked with Jesus a good number of years in China and I was not about to have anybody taking my Lord's name in vain every two minutes. He couldn't open his mouth without using Jesus as a swear word.
One day I said to him, after a day or two of this, I could stand it no longer, and I said to doctor, whatever his name was, I don't remember anymore. I said, maybe Jesus means absolutely nothing to you, as obvious, but please bear in mind that he means an awful lot to me. So if you could somehow manage to stop using Jesus as a swear word or as a byword, I would deeply appreciate that. he said, no, I'm sorry. He was a very worldly, very carnal kind of person.
And then of course the next day he started and immediately Jesus came out of his mouth again, he says, sorry, sorry, sorry. This went on for several days, he said, sorry, sorry. We were on the ship together for two months, you imagine? One day I was standing on the flag bridge, the bridge that's on the highest part of the ship, because I like to stand there with the wind blowing in my face and looking out over the ocean plowing through endless waters.
And he came up beside me suddenly and he said, you really believe in Jesus, do you? I said, certainly I do. He's really I've experienced the morning. He said, amazing, amazing.
He said, there are two things amazing about you. I said, well, even two? He said, yes. One is that you can speak and read and write Chinese.
I said, yeah. He thought that anyone can read Chinese must be a genius. You don't know how anyone can read Chinese. Just unbelievable.
And he said, the other thing is that you believe in God. It's really incredible. I said, well, I hope that you too will have a chance, maybe not to read Chinese, but at least know God. And before the ship landed, after two months, he very happily, he wanted to take a gospel from you, John's gospel, and he said, would you put your name and address in there?
God, I have never been afraid to stand up for my Lord. It doesn't matter. I didn't know how he would react. He could have reacted very hostile to me.
After this shrimp, this peanut here, he's telling me what I can say, I cannot say, we're in democracy here. Everybody got the right to say what you like. But the Lord did the work. I'm as close, the time is gone.
So I hope now that you can see why I said that we cannot have vision. We cannot have vision. Because the precondition doesn't exist. The world has gotten into us so subtly, so insidiously, we are not even aware of it.
Even as Christians, we are not aware of it. Therefore, I don't blame you. You're not aware of what's going on. Just like a cancer working, you don't even know it's there.
Our ideals, the ideals that have shaped our thinking since our youth in our democracy, where we exercise our power, are the ideals of materialism, of comfort in his. Let me just close with this. When I came out of China, in suffering and poverty, the first European country that I stayed for a time in is where? In Switzerland.
Because my mother was undergoing treatment for tuberculosis, severe tuberculosis that she got in China. And the best treatment available at the time was in Switzerland, in the mountains, in the sanatorium. She had one lung removed. Switzerland, of course, is a democracy.
A democracy of the truest kind. Much more true than the United States or anything. What do I mean by that? No major decision can be made in Switzerland except by referendum.
Not by vote, but mind you, by referendum. That's the difference. What is the difference? Well, a democracy is not a true democracy.
For example, if President Bush wants to go to war with Iraq, there's nothing the American people can do about it because he's commander-in-chief. He takes the nation into war, that's it. And the same, that's democracy. Even though the majority of people may be opposed, as was the case in Spain, as you know, the majority, the vast majority opposed the war in Spain being involved in Iraq.
No difference. A democratically elected government takes the nation into war anyway. Of course, they lost the next election, as you know, those who were in power, who took the nation into war. But too late.
They were already in war, and they had the bombings in Madrid, and nearly 200 people were killed. You know the whole story. A democratic state knowingly acts against the will of the people, because the constitution allows them to do so. Same thing happened, of course, in Italy.
The same thing in other European countries. The people don't want to go to war, the government committed them to war anyway. Democratically elected government. And let it never be forgotten, that the worst tyranny, the worst evil of dictatorship was voted into power by a democracy.
You remember who? You remember who? Hitler. Hitler was democratically elected.
It was a democracy that brought the Nazis to power, which shows how vulnerable a democracy is. And then the disaster of millions, Russia alone lost 20 million people dead. Maybe the whole of Europe, 40 million dead. Because a democracy voted this guy into power.
Nobody can deny that. That's historical fact. That's what democracy can do. In Switzerland, you can't do that.
Because you cannot take the people into any decision of a major kind if the people object. Now, as I said, it works in a small country. Switzerland's a small country, maybe 6 million people. And so every issue can be voted on and voted on quickly.
The people decide. If it's wrong, they bear the consequences. But they are not made to bear the consequences of the mistakes of a government voted by them into power and dragged them into something they didn't want to do, as in the case of Spain, I've mentioned already. today, of course, Britain is largely opposed to the war in Iraq, as you know. But they were taken in by a democratically elected.
That's an actual democracy, where you can act in major decisions against the will of the majority. But Switzerland, and I went there to Switzerland, and I saw what is a true democracy. Switzerland is a wonderful country, of course. And I said, if that is democracy, if you want to push out theocracy, then this is the best you'll ever have.
That's the best. You'll never have to accept a decision that you didn't want, enforced upon you by a government that, yes, you elected, but a bunch of people decided for political reasons to act in another way. No, they couldn't do that in Switzerland. So I lived in a pretty, there's another heaven on earth.
Switzerland is another heaven on earth. On top of that, I saw in the life of my uncle, the best the world can offer. You know, my uncle, he was a very successful manager, sales manager, and at the age of 50, he retired as a very rich man. He felt he knew where to cut off.
He said, okay, I've made enough money to last me a couple of lifetimes. I've quit at this point when I'm still young and strong. I can still enjoy my life. He was very healthy and fit.
He's now 90 years old and still very healthy and fit. So the last 40 years he's been enjoying his life. Wouldn't you like that? You have all the money you want, you can buy whatever you want, go anywhere you want, do anything you like, because you have the health to do it, the money to do it.
Oh, wonderful life. I visited him once and he said to me, Eric, he said, because I said I'm going back to town. He said, why don't you take my BMW to town? BMW?
I have only 20 some, you know, and his is the top type of BMW. I believe it's the 7 series, you know, BMW, there's a 3 series, the smaller one, 5 series, mid size, 7 series, top of the line, or something like that. He said, take my BMW into town. I said, no, no, no, no, no.
If anything happens to your BMW, I mean, I couldn't, I mean, all my lifetime I can't afford to pay that back again. He said, don't be silly, just go and take a drive, you know. So I got into this big BMW, and there I was driving this thing, a 20-year-old, you know, I think I was 25 or something at the time, driving this BMW into town. Can you imagine me arriving and open the door?
Even in a rich country like Switzerland, they're not used to seeing some 20-year-old coming out of a first class BMW. Of course, that was not his only car, but he wanted to give me a view of what the taste of the world is like, you know, and then he can really get on the hook. Now, here was this guy wanting to be a preacher. Now, you just let him sit in a BMW, and he wouldn't want to be a preacher anymore.
He's going to see how he can earn his own BMW in due time. He's very smart. I don't think he was any evil intention. Not at all.
He was a very nice man. He had this big, beautiful house, two beautiful collie dogs, fantastic view out there, and so on. This is the world, my friend. This is the world.
Well, I thank God that even in this temptation, not intended, I suppose, as a temptation by him, I said, fine, I've driven my BMW once, that will do for the rest of my life. Of course, I've never been in a BMW 3 series, 5 series, or any other series since that time. That was the picture. There in a free society like Switzerland, living in our world.