have studied the Bible for many years and read through it over a hundred times. I

have studied the Bible for many years and read through it over a hundred times. I

our disadvantage to engage in things that have a resemblance of sin. Those who live at the border between France and Germany travel back and forth between the two countries all the time. But they suffer in the end. If you are a borderline person, you may not fall yourself, but you will raise concerns in others. Question: Is it all right to celebrate birthdays? Answer: Leviticus mentions leprosy in one's garment. The garment signifies a Christian's conduct in the world. The garments of a leper have to go through fire and water. The principle of going through fire and water is having one's conduct in this world purged through judgment and cleansing. Question: What is the date of Jesus' birthday? Answer: There is no place in the Bible that speaks of Jesus' birth on December 25. Neither does the Bible command that man should celebrate His birthday. I have studied the Bible for many years and read through it over a hundred times. I cannot find the date that the Lord was born or any commandment for us to remember His birth. The Lord commanded men to remember His death; He never commanded men to remember His birth. Shepherds were tending the flocks in the wilderness at the time He was born. This means that sheep were grazing in the wilderness. However, there is snow in Palestine after September and before April. Sheep can only graze on grass; they cannot graze on snow or ice. Therefore, the Lord Jesus could not have been born on December 25. The most authoritative historian on the history of the Roman Empire was Edward Gibbon. He pointed out that December 25 was the greatest day of festivity in the pagan religion of ancient Rome. This was a day celebrating the birth of the sun. The shortest day of the year is December 22. Three days after the shortest day is the so-called birthday of the sun. After the Romans adopted Christianity, the Roman Emperor declared December 25 to be the day of Jesus' birth out of a need for festivities. According to Malachi, Jesus is the Sun of righteousness. The Romans therefore made the birthday of the sun the birthday of Jesus. We know that this practice is absolutely unscriptural, and we cannot accept it.

CHAPTER FIFTY GOD'S WAY OF ACCOMPLISHING HIS PURPOSE IN CREATING MAN (1) Date: December 13, 1936, evening Place: The Savior's Church, Foochow Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:7-9, 16-17; Rom. 8:29-30; Heb. 2:9-11 GOD'S ORIGINAL PURPOSE IN CREATING MAN Beginning from tonight we will study God's purpose in man in a systematic way and show how He accomplishes such a purpose. God's Word shows us that His purpose is to have many sons, that is, a group of men who will have the life of His Son (Heb. 2:10). In Genesis we see God creating the heavens and the earth, and then creating man. After this He put the man He created in the garden of Eden. God's purpose in preparing the garden of Eden and putting man in it was not that man would merely be a gardener, but that he would eat the tree of life and receive His life. Human beings work according to a purpose and a plan. God, being much wiser than man, works even more according to a plan. God did all these things according to a plan. His plan is that man would have His life and become His many sons. God wants many sons. Yet Adam did not have such a thought. Adam's goal might have merely been to become a perfect man. But even if he had become perfect, he would still have fallen short of God's purpose. A perfect man cannot fulfill God's purpose. In reality Adam did not become a perfect man; he became a sinner instead. Today man has two problems. First, he is a sinner, and second, he is a man. As a sinner, he needs salvation, and as a man, he also needs salvation. A person needs to be saved because he is a sinner. A person also needs to be saved because he is a man. The forgiveness of sins merely recovers man to Adam's original position in the garden of Eden. As a "man," he still needs to receive God's life before he can become a son of God and before God's purpose can be accomplished in him. In order to accomplish His purpose in man, God has to do two things. First, He has to save the sinner and deliver him from sin. Second, He has to save the "man" himself. Since man fell through sin, he became a sinner estranged from God on the one hand, and a man who had fallen short of God's purpose on the other hand. We are sinners, and as sinners we need forgiveness. We are also men, and as men we need God's life. Only when we have both of these things can God's

purpose be fulfilled. Man's problem is not one of being good or bad, sinful or sinless, perfect or imperfect. Man's problem lies in what he is. As long as he is simply a man, he needs God's work, and he needs God to dispense His life into him. Only then will he be able to fulfill God's purpose. God's forgiveness of man's sin is an incidental work—it is not His goal. Man's sin is something negative, something incidental. In order for God to achieve His purpose in man, He first had to solve the problem of sin, but His ultimate goal is to dispense His life into man. GOD'S PURPOSE BEING FRUSTRATED We know that Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As a result he became independent, knowing good and evil. There was no more need for man to ask God or to trust in Him; he became independent. Adam became an independent sinner estranged from God. What is a sinner? A sinner is simply one who is separated from God and independent of God. Being separated from God and independent of God is sin. Hence anything that originates from man is sin, and any act that is done independent of God is sin. A man does not have to commit fornication, robbery, murder, or arson. As long as he is separated from God, he is a sinner. Originally Adam was innocent. He was not able to differentiate good from evil. He had to ask God for everything and find out from God whether something was good or bad, right or wrong. After he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he was able to know good and evil by himself. There was no more need for him to seek after God or to trust in Him. He became independent from God. Through the knowledge he acquired, he became a man who was independent of God. In this way, God's purpose could not be fulfilled and His will was frustrated.

THE REASON FOR MAN'S FALL God created man's body from the dust of the earth so that man would be able to contact the physical world. After His creation He breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, which gave man his spirit. Man's spirit is able to communicate with God. When God's breath of life came in contact with man's flesh, man became a living soul with his own personality, character, disposition, emotion, will, and volition. However, God's purpose was not just to create such a man. After man was created, God placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden of Eden, and He charged Adam not to eat the fruit

of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was almost as if God was telling Adam that He had to eat the tree of life. But God did not force Adam to eat of the tree of life because He created man with a free will with a right to choose for himself. God's purpose was not fulfilled after the creation of Adam, because Adam did not have the life of God. If Adam had chosen the tree of life and eaten of its fruit, God's purpose would have been fulfilled. GOD ACCOMPLISHING HIS PURPOSE THROUGH CHRIST What is God's ultimate purpose? His ultimate purpose is to have many sons. What is a son? A son is not a chair; a chair is made by man. A son is not made, he is begotten. A son is not just something picked up from the street. Someone who is picked up from the street is not your son, because he has no life relationship with you. A son is one whom a person has begotten and who has a life relationship with that person. This is why the Gospel of John says that a man cannot enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and of the Spirit (John 3:5). If a man has not been born again and not received God's life, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. No lower forms of creatures can enter the kingdom of man, because they are too far apart from man; they do not have man's life. The distance between God and man is immeasurably greater than the distance between man and the lower creatures. As such, man cannot enter the kingdom of God if he does not have God's life. In order for man to enter God's kingdom and be a son of God, he must have the life of God. The Lord Jesus was God's only begotten Son. Yet God is not satisfied with having only one Son; He wants to have many sons. This is why Christ is the only begotten Son as well as the firstborn Son. As the only begotten Son, He is unique, having no brothers. At the beginning of the Gospel of John, the Lord was the Word, the only begotten Son of God (1:18). But in Romans and Hebrews, He became God's firstborn Son (Rom. 8:29; Heb. 1:6). For God to have a firstborn Son means that He has other sons. The Lord Jesus is the firstborn Son, and He has many brothers. God calls those who have His life His sons. Man will not call a lower form of animal his son no matter how good that animal is. The matter is not about good or evil, but about whether one is of the same species with the same life. In order for man to become God's son, he has to receive Christ. In the garden of Eden, God wanted man to eat of the tree of life. Today He wants man to receive Christ as life. There is a difference between a tree and fruit. A tree cannot be

eaten, whereas fruit can be eaten. The fruit is the embodiment of the tree; it is the tree, but in an edible form. The substance of the fruit comes from the tree, and it shares the same life with the tree. God is the tree of life, while Christ is the fruit. Christ comes from God and shares the same life with God. He is God in a receivable form. On the one hand, God gave Christ to us to accomplish redemption so that we no longer have to be sinners. On the other hand, He gave Christ to us in order to dispense His life into us and make us His sons for the fulfillment of His purpose. Romans 8 mentions conformation to the image of God's Son (v. 29). This conformation is not one man's imitation of another, moving when the other moves and stopping when the other stops. Conformation implies passing through the same mold. The Lord is a mold; He molds everyone who has believed and received Him into the same image. In Vietnam men make rice cakes by grinding rice into paste and pressing it with a mold. As a consequence, all the rice cakes bear the same image. Christ is our mold, and we will all be conformed to the same image. This is why some people say that Christians are in a class of their own, that they are all the same. This is true because we share the same life and are being conformed to the same image. God's purpose is to have many men who share the same image as His Son so that they become His many sons and eventually be with Him in His glory in eternity. But something happened—man sinned and fell. Sin entered the world through one man (Rom. 5:12). But the Lord came as the world's Savior. He died on behalf of man and solved the problem of sin. Man has been recovered back to the point of being in the garden of Eden. Now this man must still choose the tree of life and receive Christ as life before he can become the son of God. In this conference we want to see how God accomplishes His purpose in man. Tonight's word is merely a foundation. Starting tomorrow, we will begin to build the house. May the Lord be merciful to us so that we can clearly see God's purpose and the way to reach His purpose.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE GOD'S WAY OF ACCOMPLISHING HIS PURPOSE IN CREATING MAN (2) Date: December 14, 1936, evening Place: Foochow GOD'S ORIGINAL PURPOSE IN CREATING MAN

We have seen that God's purpose in creating man is that man would receive His life and become His sons. Man was created according to God's image and likeness. As far as his outward appearance is concerned, man is like God already. Man is like God in both image and likeness, yet he does not have God's life within him. Man must receive God's life before he can reach God's goal. Adam's spirit was not the Spirit of God, but the spirit of man. If Adam's spirit had received God's Spirit, he would have received God's life and fulfilled God's purpose. There are four kinds of spirits in this universe—the spirit of the angels, the Spirit of God, the spirit of man, and evil spirits. The spirit is the faculty for worship. Lions are strong, and monkeys and dogs are clever, but they do not have a spirit. Thus, they have no faculty to worship God. They are lower forms of creatures. Man is between the angels and lower forms of animals. The angels have a spirit and a soul, but no body. The lower forms of animals have a soul and a body, but no spirit. But man has a spirit and a soul, like the angels, and also a soul and a body, like the lower forms of animals. The lower animals belong to one category of living beings. Man belongs to another category of living beings. God's life is yet another category—His life is much higher than our life. Was God's purpose fulfilled after man was created in this way? No! After God created everything, the Bible says, "And it was so." But after man was created, it does not say, "And it was so," because the work was not completed. This is why the final word was not pronounced. The final word had to be spoken by man himself. Therefore, God put man in front of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Only after man made the right choice would God's purpose have been fulfilled. MAN'S FREE WILL God created man for the purpose of receiving and sharing His life to become His sons. Man's spirit was made to contact God's Spirit and receive His life, become His son, and fulfill His purpose in creating man. Yet God gave man the right to choose; man has a free will. After He created man, God put man in front of two trees. The created and completed man was sinless; he was innocent. God placed him in front of two trees, setting two principles before man. The tree of life represents dependence on God, whereas the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents independence from God. These two trees represent two kinds of lives. The tree of life represents the life of God, whereas the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents Satan's sinful life. When man rejected the

tree of life, he rejected the life of God. In effect, he was saying to God, "I do not want to take You. I will be a man by myself." GOD'S PURPOSE BEING FRUSTRATED In Genesis 2:17 God said, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." This word is not a word of punishment, but a description of a natural law. If one eats, his stomach will be filled. If one puts his hands to the fire, he will be burned—these are laws. If man eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he will die—this also is a law. God did not say that man would be punished by death when he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God did not say this, and we, of course, cannot add such a footnote. God only said that man would surely die when he ate of it. Conversely, if man did not eat of the tree of life, he still could not have been a son of God. In God's eyes, he was still without life. God's purpose in creating man was that he would be His son. For this reason He gave man a free will. He wants man to choose the tree of life and become His son by his own free will.

GOD'S REMEDY Originally, God only had to do one thing—cause Adam to receive the life of God. If man would have received God's life, His goal in creating man would have been fulfilled. But Adam sinned. God now must do two things. In the garden of Eden, He only had to do one thing to accomplish His purpose. But after man left the garden of Eden, God had to do two things. First, He had to deal with man's sin. Second, He had to cause man to receive His life. God wants man to receive His life—this is His eternal purpose which He purposed before the ages. His dealing with man's sin and His saving grace for man are simply His remedial actions. God did not intend for Adam to sin; Adam's sin was an incidental matter. Hence, God's dealing with sin is also an incidental work; it is not according to His original purpose. For example, when you drive a car, you have no intention to overturn the car; your intention is to arrive safely at your destination. However, you may have an accident, overturning the car and hurting yourself. Then you need to take care of your injury and fix the car before you can resume your journey. In the same way, God created man with a purpose. Yet man fell, and God had to do a remedial work before He could bring man back to His original purpose. HOW GOD ACCOMPLISHED HIS ORIGINAL PURPOSE

Now let us see how God saves us and brings us back to His original purpose in creation. After man fell, he not only needed to be saved from sin, he also needed to be saved from just being a man. What makes the Bible so distinct is that it not only says that a sinner should no longer be a sinner, but that a man should no longer be a man. Hallelujah! We do not have to be a sinner, and we do not have to be just a man. God wants man to live out His life in order for man to speak what he could not otherwise speak, to do what he could not otherwise do, and to live in a way that he could not otherwise live. Until we reach this point, we are at best like Adam in the garden of Eden; we are not yet men according to His will and not yet sons of God. God's purpose is to put His life within man so that man can live Him. When God is in man, man becomes God's son, and spontaneously he is able to live out the sermon on the mount. The Need of the Blood After man fell, his greatest problem was that he had sinned and become a sinner. This is why the Bible speaks of the need of the blood. Leviticus 17:11 says that life is in the blood and that it is therefore needed for the atonement of sin. Hebrews 9:22 says, "Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." The Bible speaks of the blood over four hundred times. When man sins, he has to be punished, and the punishment comes in the form of the shedding of blood. When a man's blood is shed, life is gone; when life is gone, the soul is gone; and when the soul is gone, the man is dead. The Picture of the Passover The Passover in the Old Testament is a picture of God's work of redemption. Exodus 12:2-13 speaks of the Passover. At the Passover, God took away man's sin and delivered him from His judgment through a substitutionary lamb. He told the children of Israel that the angel of destruction would come, and that the firstborn of all the households that did not put blood on the doorpost and side posts would be killed. The firstborn represents the sinner, because the first man was out of the earth and earthy (1 Cor. 15:47). Every household of Israel killed a lamb and struck the blood on the doorpost and sideposts. This blood is objective; it is not for man to see, but for God to see. If you were in the house, you "could not see the blood; the blood is for God to see. God said, "When I see the blood..." The word "I" is very important. The blood of Christ is not for us to see, but for God to see. The question is not how we strike the blood and how we apply it, but who is the One who sees it. A sinner can say to God, "Do to me

according to Your valuation of the blood." This is what the Passover has done for us. According to God's Righteousness Once I was traveling to Kiu-Kiang, and I met a Muslim on the way. I told him that if God appointed a way of salvation, it would have to be compatible with His own righteousness and holiness. In other words, the way must be proper in God's eyes and must also be proper in our eyes. One cannot be saved according to any way that he thinks is right; he can only put his trust in the sufficiency of God's way of salvation. If the righteous God thinks that a way is good enough, an unrighteous sinner should conclude that it is good enough. God has accomplished everything. What else should we do? We can say, "Thank the Lord that my sins are all forgiven. All my sins, great or small, obvious or hidden, noble or vile, good or bad, are covered by the blood. I do not have to be afraid when I come to God." God says that my sins have been dealt with already, and I also say that my sins have been dealt with already. This is faith. Once D. L. Moody was preaching to a man who was afraid that the blood of Christ would not be sufficient to take away his sins. Moody asked, "If one of Noah's daughters-in-law had entered the ark, but was afraid that it would leak, would she have not been saved because of this?" The man said, "Of course not." Moody then pointed out to him that his view of the blood would not diminish the effectiveness of the blood in any way. Through this word the man became clear.

The Flesh of Christ Thank God that through the redemption of Christ, our sins have been dealt with. However, settling the problem of sin was only the first step in God's work. If we see what God accomplished in eternity, we will realize that the removal of sin is only a remedial action; there is still a long way to go. After we are redeemed by the blood, we must still eat the flesh of the lamb. We must cross the Red Sea, leave Egypt, pass the wilderness, and enter the good land. In typology, this means that we should leave the world behind, pass through this world, and enter the millennial kingdom. According to the picture of the Passover, there are two steps to God's salvation. First, there is the salvation of the blood—this is objective and outward. Second, there is the salvation of the flesh—this is subjective and inward. Three to six hours after we eat some food, it becomes a part of us. This means that after we eat the flesh of Christ, God lives in us. The flesh of Christ typifies the life of God.

We must not only receive the redemption of the blood of Christ for our forgiveness, but must eat the flesh of Christ in order to have His life. There are two clear lines in the Bible. The first is the line of the blood, and the second is the line of the flesh. The blood typifies the redemptive aspect of Christ's death, whereas the flesh typifies the non-redemptive aspect of His death. A great problem among Christians today is that they do not have the strength to overcome sin. Do you have the strength to overcome sin? Do you have the strength to live a perfect Christian life? I am afraid that most people will say no. Every Christian has one or two sins that they frequently commit. Some sins have been with a person for many years. These sins are the private sins that he commits. For example, some Christians are stubborn in their attitude. Others are unrighteous, unclean, proud, or impure in heart. Some people are fastidious. These people have indeed been washed in the blood, but they have not eaten the flesh. The gospel of the blood enables a person to stand before God. The gospel of the flesh enables a person to live in the world in the same way that the Son of God lived on earth in His days. This living means much more than the forgiveness of the blood. THE FUNCTION OF CHRIST'S FLESH Let us now consider the function of the Lord's flesh. In John 6:51 through 58, the Lord did not emphasize His blood, but instead, His flesh, because His flesh accomplished what the tree of life did not accomplish. The Lord said that His flesh was given for the life of the world (v. 51). The blood is only the means; it is not God's goal. An important word is "world." Instead of "sinners," the verse uses "world." When the Jews heard this, they could not understand and said, "This word is hard; who can hear it?" (v. 60). Some who are sitting here tonight have surely asked this same question. It was asked two thousand years ago already. If you are asking the same question today, you can find the answer in the Bible. The Lord came down from heaven to be the bread of life. In verse 53, "flesh" is mentioned first and the "blood" second. This shows that God's emphasis is not the blood but the flesh. The blood is not given the first place. In this passage, "flesh" is mentioned six times, while "blood" is mentioned four times. Whenever the "blood" is mentioned, it is mentioned after the "flesh." From this we see that the blood is secondary rather than primary. What gives life is the flesh, not the blood. In verse 54, the Lord said, "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life." When I was in Chuenchow, I met a preacher who did not believe in

eating blood and who taught that man should not eat blood. I told him, "You should not only preach the Lord's blood, you should preach the Lord's flesh as well." It is impossible to take His blood while rejecting His flesh. Verses 57 and 58 require some explanation. Eating the Lord is eating His flesh. The flesh is for eating while the blood is for drinking. His flesh is true food. This means that the Lord Jesus has taken on a form that can be received and eaten by us. In verse 58 we see another eating. We can only reach God's goal and become His children by eating. Eating the flesh of Christ is receiving His life into us. What we have received in Christ far exceeds what we have received in Adam. Adam fell and became a sinner. Today we have not only been recovered to our first position (no longer being sinners), but we have become the sons of God through eating Christ. In this way, we can accomplish God's goal, which Adam had failed to achieve. At the Lord's table meeting, we see the cup and the bread. God's intention is with the bread and not the cup. The cup is only remedial. God does not say that we should come together to drink the cup, but that we should come together to break the bread. God's purpose is not for Christ to be crucified on the cross. His purpose is for His Son to dispense His flesh to men. His Son's crucifixion on the cross is merely a remedial act. Our breaking of bread not only reminds us that man has sinned, but that man lacks life. Hebrews 2:14-15 says that everyone in the world is a slave of sin through the fear of death, but that the Son of God destroyed the devil, who has the might of death, through His own death. "Since therefore the children have shared in blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil" (v. 14). First there is the flesh, and then there is the blood. The flesh is the goal, while the blood is the means. For ten years after I was saved, I did not understand the meaning of the bread. I thought that the blood should come first. Every time I came to the breadbreaking meeting, I praised Him for the blood. But when I saw the flesh, I could not see the significance of it. Later I realized that the flesh was the goal. This is why the flesh is mentioned first in the book of Genesis; the blood is not spoken of until Genesis 3. The flesh signifies the life released through death, whereas the blood signifies the redemptive death. The blood removes the barriers between us and God, whereas the flesh provides us God's life and enables us to become His sons, thus fulfilling God's purpose in creating man.

When the Lord instituted His supper, He took the bread and said: "Take, eat; this is My body" (Matt. 26:26). The Lord told us that this is His body; this is not His corpse. A corpse means that life is gone. The Lord gives to man the flesh of His body. This means that the Lord is dispensing to us His very organic life. We can see that God's purpose has always been for man to receive His Son's life so that they can become His many sons. We must realize that God's ultimate goal is for us to receive His life. Because of Adam's fall, God had to do two things: first, remove sins, and second, dispense His life to man. In other words, He had to first shed His blood before He could dispense His flesh to man. During the first few meetings of this conference, we will consider the objective truths. In the final meetings, we will consider our subjective experience.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO THE BLOOD OF CHRIST Date: December 15, 1936, evening Place: Foochow A SINNER'S TWOFOLD NEED From the time man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and was driven out of the garden of Eden by God, he lost his chance to receive God's life. On the one hand, he failed God's original purpose in creating man, and on the other hand, he sinned and became a sinner. Therefore, God had to deal with him not only as a man, but also as a sinner. To this end, God sent Christ to the world. He shed His blood and solved the problem of man's sins. This remedial work took care of the sinner. But God's work is not complete if He only saves us from our sins with His blood. The forgiveness of our sins is not the end of God's goal. The forgiveness of sins, by itself, will not bring us back to God's heart's desire. Therefore, we cannot be satisfied, happy, or at peace with just the forgiveness of sins. Sin is like the product from a factory, while the sinner is like the factory itself. The sin-products have to be removed, but as long as the sin-factory still exists it will easily continue to bring its product back into the market. Our heart is unclean and deceitful above all things. No one can open his heart for others to examine. Such a deceitful and unclean heart cannot be cleansed by the blood. Man has to have his heart changed. The Lord's blood does not cleanse man's heart; it only

cleanses man of his sins. The blood cannot wash man's filthy heart; it only washes the conscience of condemnation. At the time of our salvation, we accepted the blood, and its efficacy brought us the forgiveness of sins. Yet His blood did not change our heart. We may have been dishonest before we were saved. However, we can still lie after we are saved. We may have been covetous before we were saved, and we can still be somewhat covetous after we are saved. We may have been unrighteous before we were saved, and we can still be unrighteous after we are saved. We may have been unclean before we were saved, and we can still be unclean after we are saved. We may have been unforgiving before we were saved, and we can still be very mean after we are saved. At the time we were saved, we might have thought that being a Christian was a smooth-sailing journey. Yet we discovered that things were contrary to our anticipations. We discovered that a continuous succession of sinful acts continued to be found in us even though we had been washed of our past sins by the precious blood of the Lord. Hence, the Lord's blood not only must wash away the sins that we have committed, but He must come up with a way to deal with the sin-factory that manufactures these sins. If the factory is not dealt with, the removal of only the sin-products would be like putting the cart before the horse. Soon products will roll out of the factory again. In order to deal with the products thoroughly, the factory itself must be destroyed. Sins have been dealt with already, but the person who produces the sins may still be there. Therefore, there is still the need to deal with the person. There was a believer in Chuenchow who experienced much victory and peace during the first two or three weeks after his salvation. But after a few weeks, he began to lose his temper just as he once did. He was bothered very much. When I spoke to him, I illustrated his condition in the following way. Once I met a young child who asked me to wash his clay doll. I told him that a clay doll could not be washed. However, he insisted that I do it for him. Eventually, I had to give in. The more I washed the doll, the dirtier it became. Eventually, all the hair of the doll came off, and the child cried bitterly at the sight. I said, "I told you so. A clay doll cannot be washed. Do not cry anymore. I will buy you a new doll." We are like the clay doll; if we try to wash our sins in an outward way, the more we wash, the dirtier we will become. We must deal with the problem from within. Only then can we settle the problem of sin once and for all. GOD'S TWOFOLD SALVATION— THE BLOOD AND THE CROSS

Man is filled with sin inwardly and outwardly. Whatever man does is sin, and whatever man has not done is also sin. Man is truly corrupted from within. We are like a heavy debtor who owes a great deal of money. We have no means to pay our debts, yet the Lord paid all of our debts. Thank the Lord that He has paid all of our debts. This is a tremendous relief to us. However, we are the kind of person who makes a thousand dollars, but spends twelve thousand. Our Lord has paid our debts, but we continue to borrow. We are habitual borrowers, and we live by borrowing. Our sins are forgiven, but we continue to sin. We, our person, are sinners, and we are constituted with sin. Hence, there is a need to not only deal with our acts of sins, but the person who sins as well. Sins are dealt with by the blood of Christ, whereas the person is dealt with by the cross of Christ. The blood washes us of our sins and removes our outward acts of sins. Without the blood, man cannot be redeemed by God. But there is also the cross that puts to death the old man and annuls man's inward nature of sin. The Bible never says that the blood can wash away the "I," the self, the old man, the ego, or the flesh. The clay doll can never be washed clean. The biblical way to deal with the sinner is to "remove him." This is the work of the cross. The cross takes away the old man and crucifies it (Rom. 6:6). There is no place in the Bible that indicates the blood washes away our self, our old man, our lusts, or our flesh. A friend wrote a hymn that said, "The blood washes clean all lusts and evils." This is wrong. Lust can only be crucified by the cross (Gal 5:24), because lust is not an outward act; it is related to our inward nature. We must be careful to differentiate between the function of the blood and the function of the cross.

THE BIBLICAL TEACHING CONCERNING THE BLOOD In the Old Testament Let us now spend some time to study the Bible and see what it says about the blood. Leviticus 17:11 says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make propitiation for your souls; for it is the blood which, by the life, makes propitiation." The Old Testament mentions the blood over three hundred times, but Leviticus 17:11 is the only place where the function of the blood is explained. This is the only place in the Old Testament that tells us that the blood is for propitiation. In the Four Gospels

We also need to see what the four Gospels say about the blood. There are not many instances in the four Gospels where the blood is mentioned. In Matthew 26:28, the Lord spoke to the disciples before His betrayal, saying, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." This shows us the function of the blood. The blood is for the forgiveness of sins. On the night before the Lord's death, He explained the function of the blood, which is for the forgiveness of sins. Contrary to the assertion of the modernists, who say that the blood was merely an indication of sacrifice, the blood of Christ was shed for man's redemption. The Apostle Paul Let us consider the apostle's concept of the blood. In Romans 3:25 the apostle Paul said, "Whom God set forth as a propitiation place through faith in His blood, for the demonstrating of His righteousness, in that in His forbearance God passed over the sins that had previously occurred." The word "propitiation" is the same as the word denoting mercy seat in Greek; it is the flat covering on top of the ark. It is also called the throne of grace. Within the ark was the law, which condemned man and judged his sins. But the covering, that is, the throne of grace, was on top of the ark. This means that all sins are under the throne of grace, and God does not see them anymore. Paul told us that this propitiation cover is just the Lord Jesus, and that it is enacted by God through the blood of Jesus. A Seventh-day Adventist believer once hung the Ten Commandments on the wall, with the fourth commandment cut out as a reminder that breaking the Sabbath is breaking the fourth commandment. Actually even when a person keeps the Sabbath, he sins against all ten commandments as soon as he breaks any of the other commandments. Thank God that the Lord Jesus has become our propitiation cover. He is sitting on top of the law. The law cannot condemn us any longer. The only way we can be condemned by the law is if we put aside the Lord Jesus (Rom. 8:33-34). Ephesians 1:7, 2:13, and Hebrews 9:12-14 and 22 say that Christ shed His blood to redeem us from sin. The blood is for the washing away of sins; it is not to wash our hearts. Man's heart is too evil, and the blood cannot wash it. Man's heart is deceitful above all things (Jer. 17:9) and all wicked things proceed from within the heart (Mark 7:23). The blood does not change a wicked heart into a good heart; the blood only washes away our sins and cleanses us of them. There is no verse in the Bible that tells us that the Lord's blood washes our heart. Some may say

that in the Chinese Union Version Hebrews 10:22 says that the blood washes our heart. But actually this verse only says that the blood cleanses our conscience. Our conscience is related to sin. When a man sins, his conscience is no longer at peace. Once a man sins, he dares not come to God. There is a barrier between him and God. He dares not face God and is afraid to see Him. But the blood of Jesus has been shed. God cannot be unrighteous; He has to wash away our sins. We have incurred a debt of sin, and the blood has paid our debt for us. The Lord Jesus has shed His blood for us, and God has to acknowledge this. Since Christ has borne our sins for us, God can no longer claim any payment from us. A debt can only claim payment once; it cannot claim payment twice. Once we have such a faith, our conscience will be at peace. Some have asked if a person is saved through God's righteousness or through His grace. We are saved through His righteousness. From the time the Son of God was born to the time He was crucified, we see grace. But from the time He was lifted up on the cross, we see God's righteousness. Because the Lord has died, God has to forgive us. It was perfectly all right for God not to send His Son to die for us; this would merely have meant that God was not being gracious to us. But now that He has sent His Son to die for us, He has to forgive us because He cannot be unrighteous. Being unrighteous means to sin, and God cannot sin; therefore, He cannot be unrighteous. Since the Lord Jesus has shed His blood, God has to forgive all who believe in Him. The Apostle Peter In 1 Peter 1:18-19, the apostle Peter said, "Knowing that it was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, that you were redeemed from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ." The Bible never says that sin is dealt with by the cross. The cross only deals with the old man. The Bible tells us that sin is dealt with by the precious blood of Christ. The Apostle John In 1 John 1:7-9 the apostle John said that the blood of Jesus the Son of God cleanses us from every sin. Our hearts are thoroughly wicked; even God cannot cleanse them. He can only cleanse us from our sins. In Swatow during our conference, a middle-age sister came to me one morning at six o'clock and insisted that she had to see me. The sister was not a decent person. She was a widow and unbridled in her conduct. She was somewhat rich and had committed some uncommon sins. She came to me and said, "I have committed many sins,

and my conscience is not at peace. I do not know if God will forgive me." I quoted 1 John 1:9 and told her that all sins can be forgiven. Whether she considered a sin to be pardonable or unpardonable, refined or crude, moral or immoral, as long as it was a sin, it was included in "our sins." Even if she could not give a name to a sin, it was included in "our sins" as well. She answered, "But I am too evil. I am afraid that God cannot forgive me." I then spoke to her in an angry tone (of course, without any malice in my heart), "Do you know who you are doubting? You are doubting the faithful God. You are doubting the loving God. You are doubting the God who cannot lie. Do you know what a sin you have committed? All the sins that you have committed all your life could not add up to the sin that you have just committed. Doubting God and questioning His Word are the greatest sins that man can ever commit." She immediately turned from weeping into joy and said, "Then I know that God has indeed forgiven me." When I saw her exhilaration, I knew for the first time what it felt like for a person to turn from weeping to joy. The next morning she came again and said, "My sins are indeed forgiven. But there are many scars because of my sins. What should I do about these scars?" I said, "Read the second part of 1 John 1:9. It says that `He is faithful and righteous to...cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' The blood of Jesus His Son can cleanse us of our sins to the extent that we feel as if we have never sinned. Since God has forgotten your sins, you should not remember your sins either. You should forget about your own sins, the sins of the brothers and sisters, and the sins of everyone else. Otherwise, you will be saying that you have a better memory than God." In the last part of Revelation 1:5 John said, "Who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood." God washes away our sins and releases us from our sins by His own blood. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament show us that the blood deals with sins; it redeems us from sins and washes away our sins. The blood of Christ has been shed for us. God is righteous, and He must forgive those who come to Him through the blood of His Son. If anyone does not believe in this word, he is making God a liar (1 John 5:9-10). The greatest sin is to make God a liar. We should not doubt God's Word. When God says that our sins are forgiven and that we have been sprinkled from an evil conscience, we should come to Him with a true heart in full assurance of faith.

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE THE CROSS OF CHRIST Date: December 16, 1936, evening Place: Foochow GOD'S PROVISION MATCHING MAN'S NEED After man fell, a twofold problem emerged: the sins of man and the man of sin. In God's way of salvation, the sins of man are dealt with by the blood, but the man of sin is too wicked. There is no way to save him; he is corrupted to the core. God can only deal with this problem by removing the old man. It is impossible to change the nature of our old man; even God cannot change it. We are rotten throughout. Just as a Cushite cannot change his skin and a leopard cannot remove its spots, the old man cannot be changed (Jer. 13:23). God's salvation must (1) remove our sins, (2) deal with our old man, and (3) give us a new man, which means that His Son, Christ, has to live within us. Once God's Son lives within man, it becomes easy for man to overcome sin. In fact, once God's Son lives within man, it will be as easy for man to live His life as it was for Him to live His own life on the earth. THE OLD MAN BEING ABSOLUTELY INCURABLE Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things /And it is incurable;/Who can know it?" Twelve years ago I was conducting a conference in Amoy. One day I was thirsty, and I went with my friend to buy some pears. Each of us bought two nice looking pears, but when we tried to eat them, we found that all four pears had worms inside. I quizzed my friend, asking, "Did the worms come from outside the pears or inside the pears?" He said, "They came from outside, of course." I said, "No, the worms came from inside. When the pear tree blossoms, worms lay their eggs in the flowers, and when the fruit grows, the eggs are already within the pears. When the pears ripen, the eggs hatch and the worms come out." This is what it means when the Lord says that sin proceeds from man's heart. The most ugly sins that the Lord mentions in the Gospels proceed from the heart (Mark 7:21-23). The relationship between sin and the sinner is like that between tuberculosis germs and tuberculosis itself. The cleansing away of our sins by the Lord's blood is like the removal of phlegm, whereas dealing with the old man is like treating the lung itself. In order to cure a man of tuberculosis, the infected parts of the lungs must be removed. Similarly, in order to deal with the person who is totally corrupted, the old man must be dealt with.

GOD'S WAY OF SALVATION Romans 6:7 tells us that a dead man is delivered from sin. We came into this world through birth. Hence, we can only be delivered from sin through death. We got into Adam through birth, and we get out of Adam through death. The cross means removal, and God removes our old man through the cross. God's unique way of removing the old man is for us to be crucified with the Lord. Only the cross has the power to remove the old man. Let us now consider a few passages that speak of our relationship with the cross. Romans 6:6 says, "Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves." This act was accomplished once for all. The meaning of the word "annulled" is to abandon or cut off. In the original language it means to be cut off from employment. Therefore, a more accurate translation can be "unemployed." When our old man is crucified with Christ, our body of sin is unemployed. SIN, THE OLD MAN, AND THE BODY OF SIN Sin, the old man, and the body of sin have the following relationships—sin is the master, the old man is the steward, and the body of sin is the slave. Sin is in the innermost part. The body is the outermost part. In between, there is the old man. Sin tempts, induces, and suggests from within. The old man in the middle consents, and the body outside is motivated to do the works. This is the way the three work together. In order for man to be delivered from sin, there are specific ways to deal with each of the three things. The world's way is to restrict the body and stop it from sinning. This only takes care of the outward body. Another socalled holiness group of believers suggests eradicating the root of sin from within man. They think that once the root of sin is removed, a man will no longer sin. But God's way, as revealed in the Bible, is to deal with the old man in the middle; it is to crucify the old man. Once the old man is crucified, the body is deprived of any power to transgress. Even when sin tries to tempt, induce, or make suggestions, the body will no longer respond. This is God's way of dealing with sin. Every time man transgresses, he first experiences sin's instigation, then the old man's consent, and finally the evil acts of the body of sin. God's way of salvation is to crucify the old man. This causes the body of sin to be unemployed. By planting His own life in man, which is typified by the tree of life, He replaces the life of the old man and enables man to do God's will. In this way, when sin entices man to sin again, he will no longer succumb to its temptation, because

the Lord's life is now living within man and He does not sin. Sin's temptations will never go away, but if the brain, eyes, mouth, and hands are not available for sin's employment, sin cannot do anything by itself. When the old man is crucified, the body of sin becomes unemployed. Once the old man is crucified, sin can no longer urge it to induce the body to commit sins. When the Lord crucified the old man, we were freed from our slavery to sin. The blood secures our salvation before God; it gives us a clear conscience and brings eternal life to us. This is objective and outward. At the same time, the cross secures our salvation before men; it deals with our heart and touches our living on this earth. It is subjective and inward. Galatians 2:20 says that I have been crucified with Christ. The cross deals with the "I." Galatians 5:24 says, "But they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts." This verse does not say that sin was crucified on the cross. What God crucified was our person and all we have. Man's way is to improve, cultivate, or mortify himself. But God's way is to deliver our old man to the cross. Once I went to a person's home and saw a child about to take a pair of worn shoes for repair. The mother said, "The shoes are too worn; they cannot be mended. Go and buy a pair of new shoes instead." This is the way God deals with our old man. The full gospel tells us two things. First, it tells us that the Lord has cleansed us from all sins. Isaiah 1:18 says, "Come now and let us reason together,/Says Jehovah./Though your sins are like scarlet,/They will be as white as snow;/Though they are as red as crimson,/They will be like wool." All our sins are washed away by the precious blood of the Lord. Second, the full gospel tells us that God has crucified the old man, the one whom we cannot deal with by any other means. Our self has been annulled by the cross. Galatians 6:14 says that through the cross we have been crucified to the world. As far as I can remember, there are only four verses that speak of the relationship between the cross and "I"; they are Romans 6:6, Galatians 2:20, 5:24, and 6:14.

IN CHRIST Some may ask, "Christ was crucified two thousand years ago. How can I be crucified with Him?" First, we must realize that God never asks us to consider ourselves crucified. There are three hundred eighteen chapters of the New Testament. Not a single verse in all of these chapters says that we have to view our crucifixion with Christ through the eyes of our old man. Even the washing of

our sins by the blood has nothing to do with us. We have not done anything. It is the Lord who shed the blood and washed away our sins. A man once said, "We should carry our sins to the blood and wash them clean in the blood." But thank the Lord, we do not have to bring our sins to be washed. God washed away our sins two thousand years ago. Once a man selected a hymn in a meeting. The first line said, "I laid my sins upon Jesus." All the missionaries in that meeting wanted to sing that song, but I said I would not sing it, because I could not lay my sins upon Jesus. Then an elderly missionary said, "Jehovah is the One who laid our sins upon Him. We cannot lay our sins upon Him ourselves." Eventually, the hymn was not sung that evening. I hope that it will never be sung again. We have to see that our sins are washed away by the precious blood of the Lord. We have absolutely no part in this washing. Suppose one of our friends prays, "Lord, please shed Your blood for me. Please wash away my sins." God could not answer such a prayer. Such a prayer would not save him. We cannot pray a faithless prayer, and we cannot ask God to do something that He has already done. Similarly, if we say, "God, please crucify me," God could not answer such a prayer. God does not crucify us in ourselves. We have to realize that we are crucified with the Lord in Christ. Christ is the second man; we live in Christ, we are saved in Christ, we are forgiven in Christ, and we are crucified together in Christ. Adam was the first man, and Christ is the second man (1 Cor. 15:47). In heaven there is only one man, and in hell there is also only one man. In heaven there is only Christ, and in hell there is only Adam. Everyone who is in Christ is in heaven, and everyone who is in Adam is in hell. The whole world equals only two men. Adam was the first man, and Christ is the second man and the last man. We were all in Adam, but we have been transferred into Christ. When I was in Kaifeng, I spoke to some government officials. One of them did not understand the meaning of being in Christ. I explained to him in the way of an illustration: "Most people believe that the Chinese race comes from Hwang-ti. When Hwangti fought with his enemy Tzi-you, suppose that Tzi-you had not been killed, but that Hwang-ti had been shot to death by an arrow from Tzi-you. Where would you be today?" He said, "I would not exist." I said, "That is right. In the same way, you have died in Adam, and God has put you into Christ." When I was in Chuenchow, a few brothers asked, "How can a man be crucified in Christ? Christ is Christ and we are we. In order for us to be crucified, there must be two crosses, His and ours." I said, "Suppose a pregnant woman sits down on

a bus. She only needs to buy one ticket. Although there is a child within her womb, the child is included in the woman, and when the woman buys the ticket, the child buys it as well. In the same way, when we are in Christ, whatever is done to Christ is done to us. There is no need for us to be crucified." Someone once asked why he felt that there were times when he was in Christ and times when he was out of Christ. I told him the story of a ten-year-old child whom I once met. The child's mother had been in Amoy over ten years ago. I asked the child, "Have you been to Amoy?" The child answered, "No." I asked again, "Really?" Then he changed his tone and said, "Yes, I have visited Amoy before. I did it in my mother's womb. I have not been there by myself, but within my mother, I have already visited that place." Through this example, he became clear. DYING TO SIN IN CHRIST JESUS Romans 6:11 says that in Christ we are dead to sin, but living to God. This verse does not say that in ourselves we are dead to sin and living to God; we are such when we are in Christ. If we look back at ourselves, we will find that our old man has not died. We have to say to the Lord: "I thank You. In You I am dead." Colossians 2:11 says, "In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ." This verse refers to the circumcision of Christ, which we experience in Him. But how can we be circumcised in Him? We have to realize that the forgiveness of sins comes by faith, not by feeling or sight. Similarly, our circumcision in Christ and our death in Christ are based on faith. Therefore, Colossians 2:12 says, "Through the faith of the operation of God, who raised Him from the dead." We are crucified with Him through faith. Hence, we have to go to the Lord and say, "Lord, You have said that we are dead in You. I believe that whatever Your Word says will be accomplished." BY FAITH From the time I began to work for the Lord until 1927, I preached on the doctrine of co-crucifixion over a period of five years. Yet I really did not know how a person is crucified with Him. One day when I was in Shanghai, the Lord enlightened me and showed me that I am in Him, and that when He died, I also died. I saw that my death is as real as His death, because I was in Him when He died. I saw then that I was truly crucified with Christ. I was upstairs at the time. I ran down in joy and shouted in exhilaration, "Lord, I thank You. I praise You. I have been crucified with You." I saw it, I believed it, and I received it. A full

salvation is not one that merely washes away our sins while leaving our old man behind. Thank God, in His full salvation, our sins are forgiven and our old man is crucified. What is faith? The Bible speaks of one kind of faith only—the faith that believes that things have already been done. All the things that I have spoken of tonight will not do us any good if we do not have a living faith. Mark 11:24 says that when we believe that we have received a thing, we will have it. Believing that a thing will happen, must happen, or hopefully will happen does not constitute genuine faith. In our spiritual experience, there are two kinds of "having." One is the "having" in faith, and the other is the "having" in experience. There must first be a "having" in faith before there can be a "having" in experience. Most people seek for healing in three ways: (1) for small illnesses, they consult themselves; (2) for more serious illnesses, they consult the doctors; and (3) for very serious illnesses, they consult the preachers. Those who consult preachers for healing in this way have nothing to do with faith at all. Such people hope that God will heal them, instead of believing that God has healed them. You only need to listen to one or two words from a person's mouth, and you can predict whether he will get better or worse. No prayers uttered in the way of a hope will receive any healing. Only prayers that issue from faith will produce experience.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR THE LIFE-RELEASING DEATH OF CHRIST Date: December 17, 1936, evening Place: Foochow Scripture Reading: Luke 12:49-50; John 12:24; 14:16-20; 2 Cor. 5:16 THREE ASPECTS OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST There are three aspects of the death of Christ. There is the aspect of His substitution for us, the aspect of His identification with us, and the aspect of His releasing His life for us. All three aspects of His death are needed in order to make God's way of redemption complete. If we only had one of these three aspects, we might feel insecure and might think that God's salvation was not trustworthy or complete. We might feel that God's salvation is like the light in this room tonight, flickering and dimming intermittently. All three aspects of the Lord's death are important. First, there is the Lord's blood. His blood speaks of His death as a substitution for us; He shed His precious blood on our behalf. Second, the Lord's death on the cross speaks of His identifying death. We do not have

any part in the shedding of His blood, but we can have a part in His cross, because when the Lord went to the cross, He brought us along with Him. We have to know what the Bible says, and we also have to know what the Bible does not say. The Bible says that we have been crucified with Christ, but it does not say that we have participated in the shedding of His blood. We cannot say that we have a part in the shedding of Christ's blood, but we can definitely say that we have been crucified with Him on the cross. Third, the Lord's flesh refers to the aspect of His death that released His life. This aspect of the Lord's death has nothing to do with God or man. It refers to His flesh being given for the world. The Lord released His own life. The flesh signifies the Lord's life, the life released through the Lord Jesus' death. This is why it speaks of His flesh, not His corpse. The Lord Jesus was God. Yet He came to the earth, putting on a body of flesh and having the life of man. In order for Him to release His life, He first had to put off His human physical life. In Luke 12:4950 He said, "I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am pressed until it is accomplished!" The word "pressed" means "constricted" in the original language. "Fire" does not refer to a physical fire that is lit by a match or any other kind of fire. The expression "cast fire on the earth" proves that this fire is not from the earth, but from heaven. The book of Hebrews says that our God is a consuming fire (12:29). Here fire signifies God's life, which is the life of Christ. The Lord wanted to see all men filled with His fire, that is, His life. But when the Lord spoke these words, they had not received His life yet. Therefore, He said, "I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled!" Following this He said, "I have a baptism to be baptized with." This is a strange word. Was not the Lord already baptized? He was baptized in Luke 3; it had been done already. He had been baptized at least three years earlier. Why did He say that He had a baptism to be baptized with? We have to realize that baptism in this verse refers to His death on the cross. The meaning of baptism is death and burial. It was right to say that the Lord still had "a baptism to be baptized with." This meant that the matter had not been consummated. At that time, the Lord had not passed through death, signified by baptism. CHRIST'S LIFE-RELEASING DEATH God's life originally filled the whole universe. But after Christ was incarnated, it was limited by His flesh and was bound. God had no way to dispense His life to men. First, His life entered the flesh of the Lord Jesus. The Lord's aspiration was

to put off His body through the consummation of His baptism so that He could dispense His life to men. Luke 12:49 and 50 are the two most precious verses in the New Testament. At that time the Lord's baptism had not yet been consummated, and although the twelve disciples were very close to Him, they could not obtain any life from Him. This is why we say that the third aspect of the Lord's death has nothing to do with God or man; it was His own aspiration for the release and liberation of His life. We can see this even more clearly from John 12:24, which says, "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." The death of the grain of wheat has nothing to do with sin. Neither does it have anything to do with identification. The death of the grain of wheat is a life-releasing death. Life is in the grain of wheat, but this life is surrounded by the shell. If you put a grain of wheat on the table, nothing will ever happen; it will forever remain as one grain. It has to be planted in the ground, allowing the shell to break, fall off, and decay through the action of water. Only then will life sprout forth, take root downward, and branch and grow upward. After two or three months, a hundred grains will be produced. Each of the grains will be impregnated with life, and the life within each grain will be derived from the one grain. In the same way, when the only begotten Son of God died, millions of God's sons were produced. Before the Lord's incarnation, God's life was abstract and untouchable. After the Lord was born, God's life was locked in the flesh. However, the Lord went to Golgotha and was crucified on the cross. This released God's life. God's original intention was for His only begotten Son to become the firstborn Son so that He could have many sons. Through the death of the only begotten Son, His life was released, and this life produced many sons. The one grain has become a hundred grains. There are now one plus one hundred grains. Originally, the one grain was unique. Now it has become the first of many grains. Before the Lord's resurrection, God had only one Son. After the Lord's resurrection, God had many sons. Before His resurrection, Christ was God's only begotten Son. After His resurrection, Christ was God's firstborn Son. The Lord told Mary on the day of His resurrection of "My Father and your Father" (John 20:17). Originally, the Father was only the Father to Christ. We were not able to call God our Father. Hallelujah! After Christ was crucified on Golgotha and after His resurrection, He was no longer just the only begotten Son of God; He became the firstborn Son of God. Hebrews 2:11 says, "For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One, for which cause He

is not ashamed to call them brothers." Just as the Lord Jesus received His life from God, we have received our life from God. Our life is the same as His.

ANOTHER COMFORTER Now we come to another problem. How does God dispense His life to us? We have to read John 14:16-20: "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you." The word "another" means that there was one already, and that this one is now another. The first Comforter was Christ. The second Comforter is the Holy Spirit. The word "comforter" is paracletos in the original language; it means a helper. The prefix para means to be alongside, just as the words parallel lines mean two lines that are alongside one another. This can be seen from two railway tracks which run alongside one another. Being parallel means maintaining the same distance all the time and being alongside all the time. God has given us a second Comforter, who will be alongside of us forever and help us all the time. The word "another" also means another in kind, and not just another in number. Another Comforter does not mean the same kind of comforter. The kind that the disciples knew could die and leave them; He could not be with them forever. But the other kind would not be the same as this kind; the other Comforter would be with them forever. Verse 17 tells us who the other Comforter is. The other Comforter is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him. Hence, it was impossible for the world to receive Him. The other Comforter was different from the Lord, because the other One could be with us forever. John 14:17 reveals the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the Lord could be present with men, but His presence was outward; it was not the kind of presence depicted in the New Testament. In the New Testament, the Lord is present within man; He brings His presence into man. Indeed, this is the real gospel! You and the Lord were two persons. But now you and He have become one, because He is present within you. THE LORD BEING THE HOLY SPIRIT

The most mysterious part of this portion of the Word lies in the pronoun He in verse 17, which is changed to the pronoun I in verse 18. Why is this? Please remember that the He is the I and the I is the He. The Lord Jesus is the Holy Spirit. I am not denying the doctrine of the Trinity. I am merely saying that the Lord Himself says that He is the Holy Spirit. Today the Lord Jesus is the Holy Spirit. This is like me saying, "A certain man is traveling to Pu-Chien-Ding to preach." Then I may go on to say, "I am preaching in Pu-Chien-Ding." What does this mean? This clearly means that the "He" in the first sentence is the "I" in the second sentence. Hallelujah! The Lord Jesus is now the Holy Spirit. Paul said that from now on he would no longer know Christ according to the flesh (2 Cor. 5:16). When the Lord Jesus was incarnated and put on flesh, He was immediately limited by time and space. Suppose the Lord was still in the flesh today, He would not be able to be in Tien-An Chapel if He was in the Savior's Church. If He was in the meeting in Ho-si Street, He could not be in the meeting behind the football field. If He was in London, He could not be in New York. If He was with the three disciples, He could not be with the other nine. If He was with the twelve disciples, He could not be with the other fifty-eight disciples. If He was with the seventy disciples, He could not be with the one hundred and twenty disciples. If He was with the one hundred and twenty, He could not be with the five hundred. If the Lord was in Jerusalem, Christians would have to save money to make a pilgrimage once every three or five years to Jerusalem to see Him, just as Muslims make pilgrimages to Mecca. But today the Lord is no longer in the flesh. Before His death, He was in the flesh. He put on a human body in the same way that a man puts on a garment. But after His death, He put off the body of flesh and put on the Holy Spirit. The Lord has put off the flesh and put on the Holy Spirit. Today He is in the Holy Spirit. This is why He can be in us. I have often pondered the completeness of God's salvation. It is so complete that He Himself has become available to us. Today the Lord is in the Spirit, and the Spirit is omnipresent. Therefore, we can all receive Him. In Acts 2 the apostle Peter quoted the last verse of Joel 2, saying, "And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (v. 21). Paul even said that the Lord is near us, in our mouth and in our heart (Rom. 10:8). Please remember that the Lord can be such because He is in the Spirit. This is why He can be omnipresent today. John 14:18 says, "I am coming to you." This does not refer to His future

coming, which will be visible; rather, it refers to His coming in the Spirit. Today the Lord has come to us in the Spirit, and He is even dwelling within us.

KNOWING CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT Some regret that they were born too late. They think that it would be wonderful if they had been born two thousand years ago because they could have seen Jesus. But I tell such ones that I would not exchange places with Peter even if I could. Although I am quite insignificant, I can say humbly that I know much more than Peter. Peter only knew a Christ in the flesh. But I know the Lord who lives within me. When I was in Europe, I passed through the Mediterranean Sea and was approaching Egypt. A friend invited me to visit the holy land, but I declined the invitation. I asked myself, "Can a man increase his knowledge of Christ by visiting Golgotha, the garden of Gethsemane, or Sychar? No! Absolutely not!" That was why I declined to go. Paul said, "Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer" (2 Cor. 5:16). Today we do not know Christ according to the flesh or outward appearance, but according to spirit. Romans 8 tells us clearly that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ have nothing to do with Christ (v. 9). Who are the sons of God? They are those who have become God's many sons through His unique begotten Son. God has neither female nor male offspring. We can be His sons today because we are in His Son. We become the many sons in His Son. All of God's children in the Bible are male. Second Corinthians 6:18 does say that God is our Father and that we are His sons and daughters. But this verse does not speak of our position in Christ. This is why it says "sons and daughters," not "sons." In Christ there is no male or female. In Christ we are all sons of God, and we have all received the life of God's Son. Hallelujah! The life of God's Son within us has made us His many sons. The life within the sisters is the same as the life within the brothers. John 1:12 says, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name." Receiving refers specifically to receiving God's life; it does not refer to sinners receiving Christ as Savior for their salvation. Rather, it refers to sinners receiving God's life to become His children. This verse has been borrowed by many for a long time and has been misused for a long time. Tonight we have to claim it back. Let us summarize what we have covered tonight. The blood and the cross deal with man as a sinner, whereas the flesh deals with man as a man. The Lord's

blood deals with sin. This is before God and it is a vicarious work of the Lord. It is objective, and it is for cleansing, forgiveness, and justification. It deals with the negative things, and we receive it through believing. The cross deals with the old man. It is something done within man, and it is the Lord's identification work. It is subjective, and it is for removing and cutting off the flesh. It also deals with negative things, and it is accomplished through our believing. These two items remove all the barriers. Finally, the Lord's flesh deals with the person; it is for the dispensing of life. It is something done within man, through which the Lord releases His life. It is subjective, and it is for liberation, supply, sustenance, and reproduction. It is on the positive side, and we receive it also through believing. It is for the accomplishing of God's purpose. We must learn to thank and praise the Lord even more, because all of God's works have been accomplished. Tomorrow night we will talk about the way to receive Christ's life in a subjective way.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE MAN-MADE VICTORY Date: December 18, 1936, evening Place: Foochow Scripture Reading: Col. 3:4; Phil. 1:21; Gal. 2:20; 1 Cor. 1:30 Tonight we will continue with the subject of God's salvation for us. From the day that man sinned, the way to the tree of life was guarded by the cherubim and access to it was taken away. God no longer allowed a sinner to eat directly of the fruit of the tree of life. From that time forward, man first had to pass through God's redemption before he could receive God's life. God sent Christ to accomplish the work of redemption on the one hand, and to dispense to us His own life on the other hand. When a man believes in the Lord, not only are his sins forgiven, but he also receives God's life. ABNORMAL EXPERIENCES AMONG CHRISTIANS After a man is saved and has received God's life, a number of problems often arise. First, he still sins in his daily life even though he has believed in Christ and received Him as his Savior and life. Second, even though he is able to have a sweet and intimate fellowship with God at times, the fellowship does not last for long. He may feel wonderful in the morning for an hour. But by the time he goes to school, to his office, or to contact others in the hospital, the deep sense of fellowship with God is lost. He discovers that not only does he have besetting sins, but he is unable to have a sustained and sweet fellowship with God.

Third, there is always the problem of not receiving an answer to our prayer. The Bible does not say that receiving an answer to prayer is the experience of some special kind of Christians. No. Everyone who prays to God should receive answers to his prayer. The Bible promises us that we can enjoy the Father's care all the time. Yet how many of our prayers are answered? Is it not true that they are so few in number that we can count them on our fingers? God's provision for Christians includes answers to prayer every day; there should always be experiences of answers to prayer. But many people find that they have experienced very few answers to their prayers. Fourth, there is a problem in understanding the Bible. Many people read the Bible without understanding it; they only touch the letters of the Word. The Bible is nothing but black and white letters to them; there is no revelation, light, or understanding. God has given this book to men. This book is the word of God; it is what men need for their daily living. God's children should receive nourishment from His Word every day, morning and evening, just like taking meals every day. God's intention is that when we open up the Bible, we would find joy, light, spiritual nourishment, and life supply. Yet many people open the Bible merely for the purpose of bribing their conscience. This is not the proper way for a Christian to live. Fifth, there is a problem in understanding God's will. Sheep know the voice of their master. In the same way, every child of God should know His will. We are in the New Testament age; this is not like the time of Exodus, when the Lord had to lead the Israelites out by their hand. Today, everyone can know God's will inwardly. Hebrews 8 says that God has placed His laws within a Christian's heart. A Christian does not need to teach his neighbor or brother, because all will know God, from the little one to the great one (vv. 10-11). A New Testament believer does not need to continually seek counsel from others concerning God's will. In actuality, however, many people do not understand God's will nor can they obey God's will. This is not what a normal Christian life should be. Sixth, there is the problem of an unwillingness to obey God. A victorious Christian has a heart that wants to obey God. He does not bargain with God. He has the power within him to obey God. A victorious Christian does not dodge the cross; instead, he embraces the cross with joy. We have to admit that many are not living this kind of life. All of the above conditions are abnormal. God has prepared a full salvation for us. He is saving us to the uttermost. If we cannot experience God's full salvation,

it means that there are problems on our part. The Bible shows us what a victorious Christian is like. There are at least six conditions of a victorious Christian: (1) He should have overcome all known sins; this is the most basic condition. (2) He should be able to sustain an intimate fellowship with the Lord. (3) He should receive answers to his prayer. (4) He should enjoy reading the Word and be able to understand and receive light and supply from it. (5) He should fully understand God's will, and know God Himself. (6) He should be able to obey God.

MAN-MADE VICTORY Many Christians realize that they are not living the life that God has ordained for them. Yet they desire to live an overcoming life. They aspire to overcome their temper, fleshly lusts, unclean thoughts, and pride. They employ all kinds of means, hoping that they will reach God's standard. However, their methods do not bring them the victory that the Bible speaks of. Let us consider the great difference between man's thought and God's thought, and the great difference between man's work and God's work. We can use temper as an illustration. Temper is a common sin. First Corinthians 13 is on love; both the first and last sentence relate to endurance or longsuffering. Being patient is not losing one's temper. There are a few common ways that man uses to deal with his temper. Suppression Suppressing one's temper is like trying to seal the lid of a bottle. When one's temper is about to burst, he tries to suppress it. He tries to swallow his anger. But swallowing one's anger is not genuine endurance. In her book, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith mentioned the example of a girl who stayed with her aunt. One day someone rebuked her aunt for no reason, yet the aunt continued to smile. The girl saw this and afterwards admired her aunt, saying, "All my life I have admired your patience. If I had to talk to such an unreasonable person, my anger would flare up immediately." The aunt replied, "Perhaps there is something you do not know. Do not think that I was not angry. Although anger did not come out of my mouth, my heart was burning with anger." A brother was hit once by another Christian on the cheek. He said, "I will overcome by Christ. Christ has given me the power to overcome." Yet in his heart he was cursing the one who hit him. This is not genuine victory. The victory that the Bible speaks of is a victory that does not become agitated in the heart. Stephen's victory was a victory in which he prayed for his persecutors; he did not

have any feelings of revenge whatsoever (Acts 7:60). Genuine victory is one that is not touched or moved by anything. Swallowing one's anger is a man-made victory. Victory is not a matter of mustering one's strength to suppress oneself in the hope of not sinning and of attaining to perfection. Victory is a matter of inward transcendency before God. It has no animosity whatsoever. Taming the Flesh The most common way to tame the flesh is by trying to mellow the temper. The Chinese have an idiomatic expression that describes this: "Taming the dragons and subduing the tigers." This is the way many people suppress their temper. They try to turn a wild horse into a tame horse. Many people think that what they need is more time to tame their temper and cultivate their character. They think that victory is the ability to tame themselves. When I was in Peking, I met a brother who was over seventy years old. He had a quick temper. I asked him, "How was your temper thirty-nine years ago?" He answered, "Thirty-nine years ago, my temper was much worse than it is now. I am over seventy years old, and my temper is naturally more subdued." This is not genuine victory. The victory that the Lord gives is always instantaneous. Your salvation is instantaneous. Your victory is also instantaneous. Both your salvation and victory are works that the Lord has accomplished. You do not become subdued slowly, and you do not improve gradually. Once I was in a restaurant, and I accidently spilled some soy sauce onto a waiter's clothing. In front of everyone he said, "It does not matter, sir." But behind my back he cursed me, saying, "This man has his eyes in the wrong place!" This is the victory most Christians talk about today. This is man-made victory and is worthless in the eyes of the Lord. Warring with Sin Another group of people deal with sin by wrestling with it and trying to withstand it. They struggle to oppose sin in the hope that they will overcome it. Yet their striving, struggling, and wrestling eventually end in nothing but failure. These people often think that they have failed because they did not fight with sin long enough and were not resolute enough in rejecting sin. They try to fight harder the next time, and they do their best to withstand. Yet how many people have we seen who have overcome their sin through wrestling with it? The Bible tells us to withstand the devil, but it never tells us to withstand temptation. It tells us to withstand evil, but it never tells us to withstand sin. None of our temptations and trials can be overcome through withstanding them.

A young brother was working for the Lord in a certain locality. Once while he was conducting a meeting and was helping others to have the overcoming experience, a seventy-nine-year-old doctor came and listened to his preaching. This doctor had been smoking cigars for fifty-one years. He told others, "Smoking is my habit; I have been smoking since my youth. Originally I smoked twelve cigars a day. Now I have increased to twenty a day. I have been smoking for fiftyone years, and there is no way that I can overcome it." The young brother asked, "How do you deal with it?" The doctor said, "I have been wrestling with smoking for over twenty years but have never succeeded." Another young brother who was there smiled and said, "I overcame without any wrestling on my part. If you want to overcome sin, you can never do it by yourself. You have to trust in God's deliverance. There is no need for you to struggle in yourself." The brother proceeded to explain to the doctor the way of victory. In the end they prayed. In his prayer the doctor said, "Lord, from now on, I will stop all my wrestling. Lord, I trust in You. Victory is Yours. I cannot overcome by wrestling with my own strength." Three months later, he testified, saying, "I have been smoking for fiftyone years. Yet in an instant I was delivered from it. Formerly, when I woke up in the morning, my hand would reach out for a cigar before I opened my eyes. Yet on that day, I stopped suddenly; the thought for smoking was gone. Christ has indeed become my victory." Victory does not come by struggling through one's own strength. It is Christ in us who becomes our victory. Victory over sin is just one small item of the work of Christ within us.

Making Resolutions and Bridling Oneself The fourth way to deal with sin is by making resolutions and bridling oneself. One makes up his mind and vows to do such and such a thing. Many Christians constantly resort to this method. They say to the Lord, "I will not do this anymore. I promise that I will not do it again." Yet their temper, pride, and anxieties do not respect their resolutions. Man cannot overcome his sins by his own determination. Every time a person determines not to do a certain thing, he ends up doing it instead. Those who make many resolutions find themselves constantly failing in spite of their year-round resolutions. Paul showed us clearly in Romans 7 that to will is present with us, but to work out the good is not (v. 18). God allows us to make resolutions again and again and to fail again and again in order to show us that we cannot overcome. God has said that we cannot overcome; we can never overcome our sins. His way of salvation is to remove

us, to remove the person who sins. Our identification with the Lord's death on the cross removes the sinning person. We are identified with the Lord in His crucifixion; therefore, we do not have to be a slave to sin any longer. It is absolutely futile for a person to try to overcome by his own strength. GOD'S SALVATION Romans 7 is between chapters six and eight. Chapter six shows us the doctrine of crucifixion and our living with Christ. Chapter eight tells us of the overcoming life. However, if we do not have the experience of chapter seven, that is, if we do not see our own failures, we cannot overcome. We have been Christians for many years already. Why does the Lord allow us to fail again and again? We have to realize that the Lord has a wonderful intention behind allowing us to fail. His intention is to show us that we cannot make it. We could not make it before we were saved, and we cannot make it now that we are saved. The Lord wants us to confess, "I cannot make it." If we can say this, we are almost there. In Romans 7, we see Paul's experience of victory only when he comes to the last two verses. His shout of victory, "Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (v. 25), follows his declaration, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" (v. 24). If we sin to the extent that we can do nothing but groan about it, we are close to deliverance. Once we stop making resolutions and cease struggling, our victory is in sight. We can listen all we want to teachings on victory, but if we do not cease our own struggling, we will not experience victory. I can make a prediction: Anyone listening to this message tonight who still thinks that there is some good in him will surely not overcome. Thirteen years ago when I was in Foochow, a brother invited over twenty brothers to Yang-Shu-Pu to preach the gospel. We had to cook, shop, and do our laundry by ourselves. We all took our bath in the Pu-Tsai River because there was no place to take showers. One day while Brother Lee Teh-yuen was taking a bath, he suddenly had a leg cramp. Even though he could swim, I noticed that he was struggling and was about to sink. Brother Wei-san was very good at swimming. I shouted for him to rescue our brother, but he remained in the same place and did nothing except watch Brother Lee closely. Everyone was nervous and wanted him to rescue Brother Lee immediately, but he would not move. I was mad. When Brother Lee was about to give up and was close to sinking, Brother Wei-san swam quickly to his side. With one arm around him and the other arm paddling, he quickly brought him to shore. I immediately did artificial respiration on him. When his condition stabilized, I turned and rebuked Brother

Wei-san, saying, "Had you gone earlier, he would not have suffered so much." He then said to me, "There is a secret to rescuing people. Do not rescue the living and do not rescue the dead; only rescue the half-dead. If a person has died, you cannot save him. If he is still living, he will grasp hold of whatever he can grasp hold of in his desperation. When he sees you, he will cling to you and you both will sink together. One can only rescue a drowning person when he is about to sink. Then you can seize him without him seizing you and bring him to shore." This is the way God saves men. We need to go through many failures in the course of our struggle over sin. In the end we have to give up struggling and admit that we cannot make it before God will come to our rescue. God's way of salvation is different from man's concept. Romans 6:14 says that sin will not lord it over us, for we are not under the law but under grace. What does it mean to be under the law? What does it mean to be under grace? Being under the law means that man is doing something for God, and being under grace means that God is doing something for man. If it is left to man to keep God's commandment, he will surely fail and sin. Our victory over sin does not depend on how much we do, but on how much God has done. We should not make the mistake of thinking that salvation is of God's grace, while victory is of man's effort. No. Victory is of God's grace, just as salvation is of His grace. Everything is accomplished by the Lord alone. God wants to secure all the glory; therefore, He accomplished everything by Himself. None of our ways work; they can accomplish nothing. We must give up our concepts and our ways. Everything that I said tonight is on the negative side. The purpose of this word is to show you man's errors. All of these erroneous concepts and ways frustrate man from experiencing victory. Tomorrow night we will see the positive side. The positive side is very important. We must pray more and ask God to open our eyes to see what the life of God's Son is and to see that He is not here to be our Savior in an outward way, but our Savior in an inward way.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OVERCOMING LIFE Date: December 19, 1936, evening Place: Foochow Scripture Reading: Col. 3:4; Phil. 1:21; Gal. 2:20; 1 Cor. 1:30 Last night we pointed out how man tries to overcome by his own efforts and how these efforts are futile. Even God cannot do anything with us when we try to overcome by ourselves. This is why God allows man to fall. He allows man to fall in order to show him the kind of person that he is. Of course, God has no intention for man to fall. But if man does not fall, he will not see himself and not acknowledge that he cannot make it. We see from the Bible that God's provisions for man are always excellent. The blood of Christ has satisfied God's righteous judgment. The cross of Christ has crucified our old man together with Him. Furthermore, God has dispensed the life of His Son to us. Yet many people think that the life of Christ within us is mainly for us to have some power. They have not seen the salvation of Christ clearly. After they are saved, they try to imitate Jesus, copying Him like they copy calligraphy. Those who copy well are regarded as being good Christians, and those who do not copy well are regarded as being bad Christians. They pray for the Lord to give them the strength to be like Jesus, to be holy and humble like Jesus, to live a heavenly life, and to have a life of prayer like Jesus. Man wants to do things by himself. No one wants to hear someone saying, "You cannot do anything; you are too evil." Many people have reviled me and have said that Watchman Nee is an evil person. I never get angry about this. On the contrary, I tell them that they have not said enough. Watchman Nee is actually more evil than they think. Within my small heart are the sins of the whole world. God has utterly given up all hope in me; He does not cherish any hope for me. Have you seen this? This is what man has. God does not want man to live his own life. He has given Christ to man so that He would become man's life and so that man would live out His life. This is God's salvation. What is life? Life is something within our being. Without life we would cease to exist. Christ is our life. If Christ were taken away from us, we would cease to exist. Paul did not say that he wanted to be like Christ, that he had to trust in Christ, or that he had to trust in His power, that he had to imitate Christ, or that he had to take Christ as his pattern. He said that Christ is our life (Col. 3:4), and

that for us to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21). Paul recognized that his life was simply Christ, and that he lived because Christ was his life. If Christ had been taken away from him, he would have ceased to live. THE OVERCOMING LIFE BEING CHRIST HIMSELF God's provision for us in the gospel is for Christ to become our life. What does it mean to say that our life is Christ? Galatians 2:20 says, "I am crucified with Christ." This word is not a goal for us to attain. We could never accomplish this goal, because this is something that only the Lord Himself can do. This verse goes on to say that "it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." In other words, Christ is living within us instead of us living by ourselves. Our heart is deceitful above all things and very evil. Unless Christ lives within us, there is no way for us to not sin. Since man's heart is evil and beyond any remedy, God must set man aside and install Christ His Son within him to be his life. What is the overcoming life? The overcoming life is simply the Son of God living within us to overcome sin on our behalf—this is the overcoming life. The overcoming life is not the Lord giving us the strength to be holy or pure in our thoughts. No! The overcoming life is Christ being obedient in our place, Christ praying in our place, and Christ being humble in our place. Christ lives in us to do everything for us. There is a world of difference between these two things. Have we seen the difference between applying Christ's power to act in a humble way and having Christ within us as our humility? If we see the difference, we will be blessed. Last year when I was conducting a conference in Chefoo, Mrs. Witness Lee said to me, "I have overcome in many areas. I have made confessions to my motherin-law, and my mother-in-law has said that there is no longer any problem between us. But I still have two little children who are quite rowdy. It is difficult for me to overcome in this matter. I try to be patient whenever they are noisy. I can overcome the first five or six times, but I lose my patience when they become rowdy for the seventh or eighth time. Can you pray for me that God would give me a better environment so that I can overcome?" I answered, "No. I cannot ask God to make you overcome; God will not make you overcome, He will only make you fail. Victory is something that only God can accomplish. Christ within you is your victory. God does not help you overcome. If it were up to you to overcome, you might overcome when your children shout four times, but by the fifth time you will fail. But if the Lord takes care of your children in your place, would you lose your patience? You would not lose your patience after they shouted five or ten

times. In fact, after fifty or a hundred times, you would still come out more than a conqueror."

VICTORY BEING CHRIST LIVING IN US Victory is the Lord Jesus living in us. Because the Lord lives in us, He overcomes for us. No temptation is so great that He cannot overcome it. God has not given us Christ to be our example. He has given us Christ to be our life. Four years ago I was in New York, and I met a Presbyterian medical doctor with his wife and four children. The wife was about forty years old, and she was very humble. She came to me and said, "You have to pray for me. Pray that God would give me patience. My four children are driving me crazy. I can tolerate one being rowdy, and I can tolerate two being rowdy. But when three start to become rowdy, my temper begins to flare up. If all four become rowdy, I completely lose control of my temper." I asked, "What do you lack?" She said, "Patience, of course!" I then asked, "Has the Lord ever answered your prayer for patience?" She said, "No." I then said to her, "The Lord has not answered this kind of prayer before, and He will not answer this kind of prayer in the future. You cannot be patient, and you will not be patient. What you lack is not patience." She said, "What do you mean? If I do not lack patience, what do I lack?" I said, "What you lack is Christ, not patience, meekness, or quietness." Patience is Christ. True humility, meekness, and holiness are just Christ. A brother said to me in Shanghai, "I cannot be patient. What do I have to do before I can have patience?" I told him that there is a toothbrush factory in Shanghai that sells toothbrushes wholesale; it does not sell toothbrushes retail. This is what our God does—He is in the wholesale business; He does not care for retail business. If you want a little patience from Him, He will not give it to you. He has put all virtues in Christ. When you believe and receive Him, Christ becomes yours, and all the virtues also become yours. First Corinthians 1:30 says that God has given Christ to us to be our sanctification. I cannot be sanctified in myself; rather, Christ is my sanctification in me and for me. You may not realize how precious this substitution is. God has given Christ to us to be our sanctification. He is living out a life of sanctification within us and for us. If anyone sees this tonight, I will shake his hand and congratulate him; he is the most blessed man on earth. If you are living by yourself, you cannot be sanctified. But if Christ is living in you, you can make it. This is the victory that God has given us.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OVERCOMING LIFE An Exchange, Not a Change Let us consider the characteristics of the overcoming life. First, we must see that the overcoming life is an exchanged life, not a changed life. Victory is not a matter of being changed; it is a matter of being exchanged. We all want to be changed, but God wants to show us that we cannot be changed for the better. God has lost hope in us completely. He knows that we can never be changed for the better. The Foochow dialect has a colloquial expression Shi-wu-bien, meaning no change until death. A person who is Shi-wu-bien is one who can never change, even until his death. Thank the Lord. He has shown us that our life is not changed; it is exchanged. Once when I was in Shanghai, I bought a watch. At the time I bought it, the shopkeeper gave me a warranty that guaranteed that he would fix the watch free of charge if it broke down within two years. The second morning after I bought the watch, I noticed that it was two and a half hours off. I took the watch to the shop and said to the man, "Why is the watch off by two and a half hours?" The man said, "Okay, okay, I will fix it for you." After two days I went back to pick up my watch. After using it for another day, it was off by an hour again. I took it back for repair a second time. After it was repaired, I took it home. The next day the time was the same as it had been the night before; it had not even moved. I took it back again and asked the man to find why it was not moving. The man said, "Okay, okay, you do not have to say anything more. We will fix it for you." After another week I took the watch home. The next day the watch was three hours fast. I went to the shop again and said to the man, "I have owned this watch for only twenty days. Of these twenty days, it has been in your shop for fourteen days and with me for only six days. Is this your watch or is it mine? Since you cannot fix it, could you exchange it for another one?" But the man said, "There is no such thing as an exchange. The warranty only guarantees repair work. If it breaks down again, you can bring it in and we will fix it for you, until the two year period expires." Do you see what I mean? Repairing and exchanging are two different things. Repairing involves making good that which is broken, whereas exchanging involves getting rid of that which is old and replacing it with something new. Man's concept is to repair, but God's salvation is to exchange. Most people pray for God to give them power to change for the better. But this is like fixing my terrible watch; no matter how much one repairs it, it will never be changed for the

better. The only way is to exchange it for a new one. God's salvation does not help us change for the better; it does not help us to overcome. God's salvation is Christ overcoming for us. God never does a work of changing us; rather, He exchanges our life. A year or two ago, I was in Chefoo. In a conference that was prepared specifically for Westerners, the subject of victory was brought up. A Westerner asked, "How can our lives be changed?" I answered, "Victory is not a matter of changing our life. Victory is an exchange of life. It is not a changed life, but an exchanged life. Man is concerned only with changing himself. But in God's eyes, man is too deceitful and evil. There is no way for him to be changed. Adam cannot be changed into a son of God, and tares cannot be changed into wheat. Instead, Adam is exchanged for the Son of God, and tares are exchanged for wheat. Today God has crucified our old man through the Lord's cross. Christ is living within us and is overcoming for us. Our life has been exchanged; it is not merely changed."

Here I must mention a story. Last year in Shanghai a Western missionary working for a mission came to me and told me of a person sent by the mission board to work at a school. The man had been in Shanghai for six years already, and no teacher or student in the school could get along with him. He had a terrible temper. No one in the school could do anything about him; neither could the mission board do anything about him. It intended to send him back to America by the first of November. When the Western missionary came to me for help, he said, "This man is very peculiar. He never laughs. Every time he sees others, he gives them a terrible face. He has a hot temper throughout the day, and everyone is afraid of him. When he shows up, others run away. He has been this way for six years. No one can get along with him in the school, and all four hundred students in the school are afraid of him. No matter where he goes, he gets into arguments with others. I am afraid that he is possessed by some kind of demon. Mr. Nee, you are familiar with the teaching on overcoming. What can you do to help him?" When I heard this, I rejoiced in my heart. Here was another hopeless case. Once man becomes hopeless, God has His way. God heals terminal patients. I promised the missionary that I would go and visit the man. After two days, I was in another person's home. That particular man also came. After introductions, everyone left. When I looked at the man, I almost fainted. I had never seen another man like him in my entire life. His eyes, nose, mouth,

and every feature on his face seemed to be designed specifically to express anger. I could not have agreed more with the one who spoke with me two days ago. When I saw the man, I froze. Perhaps he was indeed possessed by demons! But when he saw me, he began to cry. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he said to me, "They do not want me anymore." It was hard to tell if he was sad or angry. But his face became even uglier. I asked him, "How do you feel about yourself?" He said, "I have often bought gifts for others. I preach the gospel to others, and I pray for others. When others are sick, I pray for them, and they become well. But I admit that I have somewhat of a bad temper." I said, "Only somewhat bad?" He said, "Frankly speaking, it is terribly bad! I have a temper like a beast." I then asked him, "Were you like this from the time you were a child, or did you become this way later?" He said, "If I remember right, I have had a bad temper since I was four years old. When I was thirteen years old, my mother died, and my temper grew worse. Today I cannot do anything about my temper. Not only am I not glorifying the Lord, I am actually sinning all the time. I feel that I am the most pitiful man in the whole world. No one will nod at me or speak to me." While he was speaking, he was crying. I began to laugh. He said, "Do not laugh at my bad temper," and I said, "I am not laughing at your bad temper. I am laughing for joy. I am happy that you cannot make it. When you cannot make it, God will have a way." I then said, "A person like you should not have any problem at all. It is not hard for you to overcome. You can overcome in an instant. The question is not whether you are good or able. The question is whether or not God is able. Victory has nothing to do with yourself. Victory depends on Christ. It is Christ in you who overcomes for you. Victory does not come by trusting in yourself. Victory fully depends on Christ and on Him overcoming for you within you. Victory can only be found in Christ, not in you." He said, "What should I do to stop my temper?" I said, "You do not have to do anything. Just let Christ do everything. Let Him live for you within you. Your eyes should not be set on yourself, but only on God's Christ. He alone can give you the victory." We talked for four hours, but the light still could not penetrate his mind. Later we prayed together, and he prayed, "God, I am too evil. I have lost hope in myself; I can do nothing about myself. From now on, I do not trust in myself. I cannot overcome. God, if You do not overcome for me, I will never make it by myself. From now on, I will not be responsible for myself. You must take responsibility for me!"

After he prayed in such an honest way, he asked, "What should I do after I go home?" I said, "You should do nothing." He began to smile. He took a few steps and then turned back and said, "Is there really nothing that I need to do?" I said, "Indeed, you do not need to move at all. If Satan comes to tempt you to exercise your patience, you should say, `I cannot be patient. I will let Christ be my patience!'" He said, "That is right. That is right." He began to speak to himself, "I do not need to do anything. If I am ever saved from my temper, it is God's work and not my work." After a few days, I asked others about his condition. One man answered, "It is amazing. Truly amazing! The whole school has never been so quiet as it has been in the last few days. We have never seen him so quiet during the past six years as he has been in the past few days. There has been no noise at all. God has demonstrated His miracle and power in this man." Brothers and sisters, if that man could overcome, anyone can overcome. After a few days, he came to our meeting and began to smile. Later his colleagues and students testified that he had changed. Even the mission board that intended to send him home decided not to send him back because of his change. Do not think that praying and reading the Word alone will give us the power to overcome. I am not saying that we should not pray or read the Word. There is a place for prayer and a place for reading the Word. But prayer and the reading of the Word alone cannot enable a person to overcome sin. Matthew 5 through 7 says that we are the sons of God. It does not say that we have to be sons of God. If it were up to us to be sons of God, we could never make it. Matthew 5:16 says, "So that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in the heavens." If a man has good works, the glory goes to the Father. This proves that the good works are done by God through man. This is why the glory goes to God and not to man. If Brother Chi delivers a good message, no one should praise Watchman Nee. If we have good works, why should others give glory to God? The only reason they give glory to God is that these good works are from God; they are done by God.

Obtained, Not Attained Another characteristic of the overcoming life is that it is obtained and not attained. You can only obtain the overcoming life; you cannot attain the overcoming life. To obtain means to receive, but to attain means that there is a long way to go. Did you have to strive and struggle for your salvation? No. You experienced salvation as soon as you received. In the same way, victory is

obtained. It is not attained through struggling and striving. To obtain means to have something immediately. Let us look at 1 Corinthians 15:57: "But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Thank God that victory is not something that we attain through much labor. Victory is given by God. God has given it to us, and all we have to do is stretch out our hands to take it. Mr. Trumbull was a very spiritual man. He realized that the overcoming life is a miracle. Once he testified to an elder that his temper disappeared from the time that he had received the Lord Jesus as his life; even the desire to lose his temper had disappeared. The elder said, "I believe this is true in you, but it is not a reality for me." Later Mr. Trumbull invited the elder to pray together with him. Afterwards the elder testified, "In my entire life I never experienced what I experienced that evening. It was a miracle! There was no wrestling and no strenuous work. The urge was gone, and even the desire was gone. It was wonderful. It was nothing less than a miracle." Not long afterwards, he wrote a letter to Mr. Trumbull telling him of an evil power at the place where he worked. In the past he would have tried to suppress himself, but from the time he prayed with Mr. Trumbull, he did not have to suppress himself anymore; even the desire to suppress himself was gone. There was once an Anglican preacher in England by the name of Mr. W——. One day his daughter died. When he returned home from the funeral, he wondered what message he would deliver the next day, which was Sunday. He picked the text 2 Corinthians 12:9 as the subject of his sermon, which says, "My grace is sufficient for you." He knelt down and asked God to bless the subject. While he was praying, he asked himself, "Is the grace of God sufficient for me? If God's grace is not sufficient for me, how can I say to others that His grace is sufficient? My daughter has died and I feel sad, heartbroken, and hurt. This means that God's grace is not sufficient for me. I cannot lie." He thought about changing the subject, but there was no time. He could only pray, "God, help me to experience Your sufficient grace. May Your grace be sufficient for me." He prayed for a long time, but nothing seemed to work. Then he glanced casually at a verse on the mantel. The verse had been placed there by his mother while he was at the funeral. The verse was 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you." The words "My" and "you" were blue, the words "is sufficient" were red, and the rest were black. Suddenly he was enlightened by the Lord. He said to himself, "The Lord says that His grace is sufficient for me. Yet I am saying that

His grace is not sufficient for me." He began to confess his sin to the Lord, saying, "God, You have said that Your grace is sufficient. Yet I am still praying for Your grace to become sufficient for me." As he was confessing, he was also praising and thanking God for the sufficiency of His grace. Soon he was filled with joy and thanksgiving. The next day, when he stepped onto the podium, he delivered the best message of his entire life. When others asked about the secret of his message, he answered that he saw what faith is after his daughter's funeral. Faith is not asking God to fulfill His promises. Faith is praising and thanking God for what He has spoken. From that time he experienced a great change in his life. When God's life comes into us, it enables us to live a life on earth that is just the same as the one His Son lived in Nazareth. God is raising up a new race—those who have God's Son as their life and who live out the life of His Son. Philippians 4:13 says, "I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me." The Lord in you is empowering you. You have to see that nothing is too difficult for you because the One within you is empowering you. This One is omnipotent. The Lord does not want you to be an ordinary person; He wants you to live a life that God lives, to speak what no man can speak, to do what no man can do, to experience what no man can experience, and to face what no man can face. When Christ lives in you, you can live such a life. I want to say one word that may offend some people. Many people who go to church are quite dispensable. Whether or not they are around does not mean much, and whether or not they are gone does not mean much either. God can never use such people, because they have not lived the overcoming life. They cannot testify to the world of the life of Christ and cannot help others overcome. We have to ask the Lord to enlighten us and show us the characteristics of the overcoming life. Thank God that our salvation is a full salvation. God has not only saved us from the judgment of sin, but also from the bondage of sin. God's way of salvation is for Christ to suffer sin's punishment on our behalf, to crucify our old man with Him, and to release His life and dispense it to us. Today He dwells within us. His indwelling constitutes our overcoming life. Thank the Lord that His throne is in the heavens as well as in man's heart. Thank the Lord that He lives in the heavens as well as within us. He can accomplish God's desire within us. All the great and difficult commandments in the Bible are not for man to keep. They are meant for the Lord to keep. The harder the commandments are, the more they prove that only the Lord can fulfill them. Miss

Barber once wrote the following words in her Bible beside the passage in Matthew that says we should love the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul, and will: "Lord, I thank You for this commandment." She knew that the Lord was the One who could accomplish this. The commandments in the Bible can only be fulfilled by Christ. Thank and praise the Lord. Christ is our life, and He is our victory.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN BRIEF EXPOSITION ON THE SECTIONS OF EPHESIANS Date: December 20, 1936, morning Place: Pu-Chien-Ding, Foochow INTRODUCTION Of all the Epistles of Paul, the book of Ephesians touches the highest pinnacle of the Christian life. This book can be divided into three sections. The first section covers chapter one through chapter three. It emphasizes the facts which we hold in Christ. The second section covers chapter four to chapter six, verse 9. It speaks of the things in Christ and how they are applied to man. The third section covers chapter six, verse 10 to the end of the book. In addition to what we have obtained in Christ and what is applied to men, this section speaks of the attacks from Satan and the way to withstand him. We are not going to do a detailed study of the book of Ephesians today. We will only consider the spiritual principles revealed in the book. Ephesians 2:6 says that we are "seated" with the Lord in the heavenlies. The word sit is the key word in the first section. Ephesians 4:1 says that we should "walk" worthily of the calling with which we were called. The word walk is the key word in the second section. Ephesians 6:13 says that everything is done, and that we have to "stand." The word stand is the key word in the third section. Every time we read the Bible we should pay attention to these three things: what God has gained, what man has gained, and what Satan has lost. If our position in Christ is right, our living before men will also be right, and we will also be right before Satan. The Bible shows us that the basis for us to be right before men and Satan rests in Christ. We can walk rightly before men because we have received our fullness in Christ. We are able to stand and defeat Satan because we are firmly established in Christ. No other person in the Bible spoke like Paul. Most people concentrate on what they can do; their focus is on man himself. However,

man can never meet the demands placed upon him. What he says is one thing, and what he does is another. In fact, what he does is often contrary to what he says. For example, Paul said that before there was the law concerning covetousness, he did not know coveting. But once the law came, coveting also came (Rom. 7:7-8). According to Paul's message, we can do something only because God has done it first. The outstanding thing about the gospel is that God's Son worked first, after which we work. A doctor once told a nurse to give a patient some instructions. The nurse twice had to tell the doctor that the patient would not cooperate. When the doctor went himself, the patient said, "It is not that I will not do it, but that I cannot do it." He was extremely weak mentally. The doctor came back and said, "It is not that he cannot or that he will not. He is at the point that he cannot will." Not only was he short of the outward power to do the thing, he did not have the inward power to will to do it. He did not even have the inclination to will to do it. What makes the gospel so distinct is that God has first done something for man, after which, man does it accordingly. Figuratively speaking, God has not asked you to earn money to feed yourself; He has put money into your pocket already. With His money you can buy food. If you still do not buy food, it means that you are really hopeless. God has done His work. If you still say that you cannot make it, it is not because you cannot make it, but because you choose not make it. Ephesians 1—3 speaks of the facts we have in Christ. Afterwards, chapters four through six speak of our walk in this world and our responsibility before Satan. This is Paul's message and his method. First he tells us what God has done, and then he tells us what we should do. For the past ten years I have only practiced God's way and Paul's way, which is presenting our position in Christ and then dealing with our daily walk and standing firm against God's enemy according to this position.

THE FIRST SECTION: OUR INHERITANCE IN CHRIST—SIT Ephesians 1:3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ." This verse points out the central thought of the first three chapters of this book; it contains a most important point. According to Paul, this book is not about earthly things, but about heavenly things. God has given man every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.

When I was in Changchow, some brothers wondered how we have all the blessings in the heavenlies. I used the illustration of a water bucket to explain this matter to them. God's salvation is like a well. He has no intention that we draw out water with a water bucket, as the Samaritan woman did. It is too unreliable for man to draw the water himself. The rope may be too short and not reach the water. One may not have enough strength to draw up the water. Therefore, God has given us the whole well. He has given us everything that we need once and for all. The Samaritan woman's thought was only on the water bucket. But God has prepared everything for us in Christ Jesus His Son. Chinese has an idiomatic expression: "As long as the green mountain remains, there is no fear of shortage of firewood." If a whole mountain is yours, you do not have to worry about running out of firewood. But man thinks that as soon as he stops cutting wood, he will run out of firewood. Christ is our "green mountain," and as long as this "green mountain" remains, we have all the provisions we need; there is no need for us to worry anymore. Ephesians 1:4-14 then speaks of how God selected and predestinated us unto sonship, how He redeemed and forgave us, and how we have received the Holy Spirit. All these are the heavenly blessings mentioned in verse 3. Since we have already received these things, why are we still so poor? My answer is that we are all millionaires, but that we are poor millionaires. Suppose a prodigal son does not realize that his father has left him a will. He will continue to live in poverty. When he takes out his father's will from the safe and reads it, and when he begins to claim his inheritance, he will become a rich millionaire. Spiritually speaking, we often are poor millionaires. If our eyes are veiled day after day, we will surely live a life of poverty. We will live a life that is beset by sin and frustrated by temptations. We will not see that God has given us everything in Christ. Our eyes must be opened to see the inheritance that God prepared for us in Christ. This is why Paul continued to pray for the saints in verses 15 through 23, after he mentioned God's heavenly blessings in verses 4 through 14. He prayed that our eyes would be opened, and that we would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know of our inheritance. Everything depends on God's revelation. We need God's revelation before we can see the riches in Christ. A preacher may preach the doctrine of salvation, but he may not be able to save others. A preacher may preach the doctrine of victory, but he may not be able to help others overcome. The Lord said, "He who has an ear, let him hear." Many people have the first part

of this sentence, but do not have the second part. They have ears, but they do not hear and they do not receive anything. We need to pray and ask God for revelation to see the riches of our inheritance in Christ. Mr. Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission did a good work in China, but at one time there were a few sins that he could not overcome. He could not sustain an uninterrupted fellowship with the Lord. One day he read in John 15 that the Lord is the vine and that we are the branches, and that those who abide in Him will bear much fruit. He thought that he had not been abiding in the Lord continually, and he prayed day and night to be a branch in the vine. He wrote to his sister, saying, "For a few months I have been praying to be a branch, but have not experienced it yet. I am in much turmoil. Please pray for me." Later, in another letter he wrote to his sister, saying, "The scales have fallen off from my eyes. I saw that the Lord's Word clearly says that I am a branch. Yet I was still praying to be a branch. How foolish I was." He saw that he was a branch, and that there was no more need to beg earnestly to be one. Once his eyes were opened, he realized that the Lord is the vine as well as the branches, the water, the sap, the soil, the root, the sunshine, and the fruit. The Lord is everything to the vine. As long as he remained in the vine, everything would be all right. From the day he saw this, his spiritual life took a great turn. Here is a glass cup. It does not have to pray to be a glass cup. You are Chingfan Chan. You do not have to pray to be Ching-fan Chan. A man can stumble upon salvation accidentally, but he cannot stumble upon victory accidentally. As soon as a man aspires to be holy and victorious, he will try all he can to seek after the Lord. But once his eyes are opened, he will see that he has inherited everything in Christ already. He will say what Hudson Taylor said in jubilation: "From now on I am a new man." In chapter two, Paul went back to the time before man's salvation and told how God leads man step by step and guides his footsteps. Verses 11 through 22 tell us how we start from the point of being Gentiles, and how we are led from the lowest pit to the highest plane. In 3:1-13 Paul goes on to say that he was appointed by God to be an apostle to the Gentiles, and that the Gentiles are now able to receive the same grace. According to doctrinal sequence, verses 14 through 21 should immediately follow the last verse of chapter one. Ephesians 2:1—3:13 is actually a parenthesis; it describes our condition as sinners, our position as Gentiles, and Paul's apostleship for the deliverance of man.

Ephesians 1:23 is joined to verse 3:14. These two passages are Paul's prayers. What is the goal of these prayers? The prayer in chapter one is for us to "know" something through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. The prayer in chapter three is for us to be "granted" something through the power of the Holy Spirit. Chapter one is on revelation; it enables us to know what we have. Chapter three is on the strengthening of the inner man; it enables us to be rooted and grounded. Chapter three does not tell us what we are in Christ, but what Christ is in us. If there is no air, we cannot survive. However, even if there is air, we cannot live if we cover up our nose. In order for a man to live, he must be in the air, and air must also be in him. Chapter three's emphasis is not on us being in Christ, but on the Holy Spirit being in us. Thank the Lord that the air that I am in is also the same air that is in me. In the first prayer, Paul mentioned revelation. Revelation shows man that everything is accomplished in Christ. In the second prayer, Paul mentioned faith. Faith is believing that what God has done is real. Revelation is always linked to faith. There are three main points in chapters one through three: (1) God's provisions, (2) God's revelation, and (3) man's faith.

THE SECOND SECTION: OUR APPLICATION BEFORE MEN—WALK Now let us come to the second section. Ephesians 4:1 says that since we are called, we should "walk" worthily of this calling. If a man has never sat, he can never walk. To sit is to rest. It indicates that everything is done, or that someone else has done all the work. This is like riding in the car or on a boat; someone else is moving the vehicle. We can sit in the same way because the Lord has done everything. He has done everything for us; He has identified Himself with us, and He has given us His life. When did God create Adam and Eve? He created them on the sixth day. Hence, the seventh day for God is the first day for man. Man's first day is God's Sabbath day. As soon as man was created, he entered into God's rest. If we cannot sit, it must mean that we have not yet received salvation. There was only one person who entered the Holy of Holies to make atonement for sins—the high priest. Even ordinary priests were not allowed to enter (Heb. 9:7). The curtains of the tabernacle kept outsiders away from the sanctuary. God wants us to make no mistake about this—He does not want man to have any share in the matter of redemption. As far as man's forgiveness is concerned, he "sits" on the Lord's redemption. It is not a matter of serving God or seeking for salvation. God has freely given us the grace of forgiveness. Both the

problem of sin and the problem of the old man are dealt with by "sitting." If we have never sat down, we can never do any work. Wherever faith is, there is no work. Everything has been accomplished by God already; all we have to do is receive. If we can sit, God will make us walk. The second section, Ephesians 4:1—6:9, is on walking. Ephesians 4:17 says, "That you no longer walk." Verse 19 says, "To work all uncleanness in greediness." Verse 22 says, "Your former manner of life, the old man." Ephesians 5:2 says, "Walk in love." Verse 8 says, "Walk as children of light." Verse 11 speaks of "unfruitful works," and verse 12 speaks of "the things which are done." Verse 15 says, "Look therefore carefully how you walk." Ephesians 6:8 speaks of "whatever good thing each ones does." This portion of the Word repeatedly and emphatically mentions the matter of a Christian's walk. Please remember that not only are we in the Lord, but the Lord is also in us. Once we are connected to Christ, His life will flow into us and we will be able to walk. This is like the electric light bulb; when the bulb is connected to the current from the power plant, electricity will be in the bulb and the bulb will light up. First God operates, and then we walk. Without God's operation in Ephesians 3:20, it would be impossible to have the walk of chapter four. First we overcome, and then we go into battle. Christ's salvation first brings in rest and then brings in a walk, unlike other religions which work first and then achieve something later. Ephesians 4:2-16 tells us how we should relate to the brothers and sisters, to the church, and to the Body of Christ. Verse 3 speaks of the oneness of the Spirit. Paul said that we should "keep" the oneness of the Spirit, rather than "striving at" the oneness of the Spirit. Verses 17 through 24 tell us what we should do concerning our former manner of life. Verse 22 speaks of a putting off. A putting off is not a change. An experience of putting off is a precious one. The Lord has crucified our old man already; we only have to put off the old man as regards its former manner of life. Ephesians 4:25—5:14 draws special attention to the words we speak with our mouth. Ephesians 4:17-24 deals with one's conduct, while Ephesians 4:25—5:14 deals with one's words. In Ephesians 5:15-21 the most crucial point is the filling of the Spirit and thanksgiving and praise. We can put Ephesians 5:15-21 together with the previous section. Ephesians 5:22-33 shows husbands and wives what each should do, Ephesians 6:1-4 shows parents and children what each should do, and Ephesians 6:5-9 shows masters and slaves what each should do.

Let us summarize the second section: (1) Keeping the oneness of the Spirit and not offending the brothers, because this grieves the Spirit. (2) Putting off the old man. The putting off of the old man is related to the growth of the new life within. This is like the shedding of old leaves from a tree. When new leaves grow, the newness of their life replaces the old leaves. (3) Paying attention to our speaking. We have to be delivered from all kinds of negative speakings. Our conversation should not be focused on the brothers and sisters, but should be words of thanksgiving and praise. (4) Giving a word to husbands and wives, with the emphasis being on the wives. According to God's conviction and commitment, the goodness of the woman lies in her testimony of submission. I wish I could be a woman so that I could submit. Christ was equal with God, yet as the Son, He submitted to God in everything (Phil. 2:6, 8; Heb. 5:8). In the same way, the wife is equal with the husband, yet she is willing to be submissive in everything. Submission is a sign of meekness. The Lord honors the woman by asking her to submit. This means that the Lord places higher hopes on the woman. (5) Giving a word to parents and children. Parents have to nurture their children in the discipline and admonition of the Lord. The word "nurture" means "to bring up." Many parents want to send their children to the Lord, yet they themselves do not go along. Some say to their children, "I am a grown-up; therefore, I can smoke. You are a child; therefore, you cannot smoke. When you grow up, then you can smoke." This kind of teaching is wrong. The parents must bring up their children. This means that they have to be a pattern for their children to follow. (6) Giving a word to masters and slaves. Slaves should not try to be equal with their masters. They should be obedient to their masters according to the flesh, as to Christ. Many people do not like to hire believers as servants, because brothers who serve as servants often think that they are the same as their masters because they both are brothers. Therefore, they think that they should be treated better, instead of being treated simply as servants. This is wrong. A brother who is serving as a servant should serve his master all the more diligently and should be obedient to his master, as to Christ. THIRD SECTION: OUR WITHSTANDING BEFORE SATAN—STAND The third section of Ephesians begins with chapter six, verse 10 and goes to the end of the book. It is the "final" word. The final word concerns the way to deal with Satan. We must first understand that we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies and then understand our proper walk on earth. Finally, we need to

know how to deal with God's enemy, Satan. Paul told us to put on the whole armor of God so that we can stand. It says to stand because we do not overcome Satan by our fighting. The Lord has overcome and placed us in the position of victory. All we have to do is to stand and withstand. None of God's armor is for attacking; it is all defensive. Chapter two says that we are seated in the heavenlies. Sitting means that we have overcome the powers and principalities. Now we only need to maintain this stand. Chapter six does not mention any actual warfare; it only mentions withstanding. If a person realizes that he only needs to withstand and that everything is done, he will encounter no problems. Thank the Lord that we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Now we can walk on earth before men, and we can stand to withstand Satan. Thank God that we can "sit," "walk," and "stand."

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT HOW TO EXPERIENCE THE OVERCOMING LIFE (1) Date: December 20, 1936, evening Place: Foochow Scripture Reading: Luke 18:18-27; 19:1-10 Last night we saw what the overcoming life is. The overcoming life is just Christ; it is Christ living in us. Victory is not receiving some help to become like the Lord Jesus. Victory is the Lord living within man and living for man. Victory is not receiving some kind of power to be humble or to be free from anxiety; it is having the Lord within us becoming our humility and freeing us from anxiety. But why have so many Christians not obtained all of God's provisions? Actually, they received the power of Christ's blood, His cross, and His flesh at the time they believed. Yet in their experience they may not have entered into the full realization of these things. This is like a person who has bought two packages of goods and opened only one of them, leaving the other one wrapped up for three or five years. It is a pity that this is what God's salvation is like to many people. Tonight I have borrowed two passages of the Bible. Although these two passages do not deal directly with our subject, I will quote them to show how a person can experience the overcoming life. THINGS IMPOSSIBLE WITH MEN BEING POSSIBLE WITH GOD

Luke 18:26 asks, "Then who can be saved?" Yet Luke 19:9 says, "Today salvation has come to this house." In chapter eighteen there is a rich young man who was a ruler. He came and asked the Lord what he should do to inherit eternal life. The Lord told him to keep the commandments, to not commit adultery, murder, and theft, to not bear false witness, and to honor his parents. The young man said, "All these things I have kept from my youth" (v. 21). When the Lord heard this, He said, "Still you lack one thing: all that you have, sell and distribute to the poor" (v. 22). When the young ruler heard this, he left in sorrow. Then the Lord said, "How difficult it is for those who have riches to go into the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (vv. 24-25). When the disciples heard this, they asked, "Then who can be saved?" (v. 26). The Lord answered, "The things that are impossible with men are possible with God" (v. 27). The rich man in chapter nineteen and the rich man in chapter eighteen are quite different. The rich man in chapter nineteen was a tax collector, whereas the rich man in chapter eighteen was a young man who had inherited his wealth from others. Ordinarily an old man like the one in chapter nineteen should have been more stingy, whereas a young man like the one in chapter eighteen should have been more generous, because a young man is not as experienced in the human life as an old man and is not as conscious of the power of money. But Zaccheus did in chapter nineteen what the young man in chapter eighteen could not do. Why is this? Humanly speaking, a young man is relatively generous in the way he spends money and is not as thrifty as an old man. But this young man was different. He could not let go of his money. Actually, not only was the young man unable to let go of his money, even the aged Zaccheus would not have been able to let go of his money if he had been left to himself. But Zaccheus had experienced the Lord's working. Hence, 19:9 says, "Today salvation has come to this house." This means that it was God who made Zaccheus overcome his money. God's salvation came to him. Following this the Lord said, "Because he also is a son of Abraham." The phrase "a son of Abraham" denotes faith. Zaccheus became what he was by faith, not by his own works.

RECOGNIZING THAT MAN CANNOT MAKE IT The Lord Jesus told the young man to sell everything and distribute the money to the poor. But the young man could not do it. The Lord did not ask the aged

Zaccheus to give away any of his money, yet he gave away a great sum all at once. Why was there such a difference? The difference lies in the phrase "the things that are impossible with men are possible with God." The young man was the best illustration of the first part of that verse—"impossible with men," and Zaccheus was the best illustration of the second part of the verse—"possible with God." Hence, the first secret to victory lies in the first part of 18:27—"impossible with men." You have to realize and learn that it is impossible with men. The Lord's intention was not for the young man to sell all he possessed to be saved. His intention was to show him the meaning of "impossible with men." The young man was very good. He kept all Ten Commandments, and he thought that he was quite good. Because of this the Lord purposely showed him that he still lacked one thing. Many people have overcome many of the sins that they indulged in before their conversion. Yet there are still one or two sins which linger on that they cannot overcome. The Lord allows one or two things to remain in order to teach them that they cannot make it. This is like a hurdle race where all the contestants fail to get over one or two hurdles. The champion may fail to get over one, and the runner-up, the third, and the last may fail to get over more than one hurdle. God knows that you cannot make it, but you do not know that you cannot make it. If you keep all Ten Commandments, the Lord will show you that there is an eleventh commandment which you cannot keep. With every one of us there are always one or two sins that we cannot overcome. These sins are our private sins. When I was in Shanghai, I once went out to buy something and met a brother on the way. I nodded at him. After I crossed over to another street, I met him again, and I nodded at him again. When I came to the front of the shop, he was there again, and I nodded at him once more. When I came out of the shop, he was still there, and we nodded again. Within the space of an hour, I nodded at the brother over ten times. This is our experience with some sins—we encounter them again and again. Today we encounter a certain sin, tomorrow we encounter the same sin, and the third day we encounter the same sin yet again. These sins are familiar to us; we frequently commit them. Our list of sins is never extensive. Our sins are very specific. Those who are stubborn are always entangled by stubbornness. Those who worry are always entangled by worries. Those who are proud are always entangled by pride. Those who are anxious are always entangled by anxiety. Those who are prejudiced are always entangled by prejudice. Those who are rash are always

entangled by rashness. Every person has "one thing." At a minimum he has "one thing." God wants to show us through such things that man cannot make it. Last year in Chefoo a doctor's wife was seeking after the overcoming experience. Most of the people there had passed the gate of victory, and she was the only one who had not passed through. For a whole month she prayed every day. Many of her sins were dealt with in the first three weeks. But there was one sin that she could not overcome. One afternoon everyone went to the restaurant for lunch, and the wife was playing the piano. After a while she stopped and began to weep. I asked her, "What is the matter?" She said, "I cannot make it. There is one thing which I can do nothing about. During the past few weeks, I have been dealing with my sins every day. I have overcome many sins. But I cannot overcome my habit of eating snack food. I am a Presbyterian missionary, but I dare not tell anyone else of my sin." While she was speaking, she was weeping. As I sat and watched her weep, I was rejoicing and smiling. She asked, "Why are you smiling?" After some time I said to her, "I am so happy today. Now do you realize that you cannot make it? Over twenty days have passed, but thank God that you have finally come to the point where you realize that you cannot make it. You have to realize that the Lord allows this vestige of sin, this insurmountable barrier to remain in order to test the genuineness of your victory. The Lord just wants to show you that you cannot make it. Once you see that you cannot make it, God will have a way." The whole principle of God's work is to show you that you cannot make it, and that God alone can make it. There was a sister who was a mother and a wonderful person. Her only trouble was that she worried about her children day and night. For a while she did not realize that her worrying was a sin. One day she saw it and could not let this matter go. Prior to that time she did not know herself well enough. But on that day she began to have a deeper knowledge of herself, and she felt that she could not go on in that way. Many people only know the doctrine of victory; they do not have the real experience of victory. One of the reasons for this is that they do not know themselves well enough. NOT TRYING TO MAKE IT We know that Christ is our victory, but in order to experience Christ as our victory, we have to fulfill one condition—we must first see that we cannot make it. If we constantly say in our hearts that we can make it, Christ will not be able to live for us; He will not be able to overcome for us, and He will not make it for us. Victory is for those who have utterly failed. But here is a problem: It is one thing

to say that we cannot make it, and it is another thing to say that we no longer try to make it. When were the lepers in Leviticus 13 and 14 cleansed? They were declared clean by the priests when their leprosy had spread from the head to the feet. The Lord raises only the dead; He does not raise those who are half alive and half dead. We have to see that apart from the Lord we can do nothing. The conditions for victory are: (1) seeing that we cannot make it and (2) not trying to make it. Being unable to make it and giving up on trying to make it are two entirely different things. Some people know very well that they cannot make it, yet they still try to make it. For example, something may weigh a hundred catties [a Chinese measure of weight], and you can only lift fifty catties. You know that you cannot lift the hundred catties, but you try to do it anyway. This is foolish. God knows that we are totally corrupted and that there is no other way to deal with us except crucifixion. But the problem with man is that he still tries to make it. As a result, he resorts to all kinds of methods and struggles in many ways. A person who struggles in this way will never be saved. Not trying to make it means that we not only acknowledge that we cannot make it, but also that we will not exercise any effort in trying to make it. We know that the Lord Jesus is living in us, and that He is accomplishing that which is impossible for us. His power is not for making up the lack in our work, and His life is not for making up the lack in our life. He is living within us by replacing us. Whenever we exercise our own strength, we will not experience Him living within us. Therefore, we must not only see that we cannot make it, but we must give up trying to make it. Second Corinthians 13:5 says, "Do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?" Those who come to the Lord are not disapproved and have the Lord living within them. The Lord is within you, yet your old man is also within you. The two exist within you at the same time. Both Christ and your old man reside within you. This poses a problem. What should you do? One of the occupants has to move out. God's way of salvation is to move the old man out. He has crucified the old man and put Christ within you instead. This is victory. Last year I met a Western sister in Chefoo who had three children. The children always caused her to lose her temper. She came to me and said, "I cannot be patient. What should I do?" I said, "If you cannot be patient, do not try to be patient. You have to say to the Lord, `I cannot be patient. From now on, I will not try to be patient. Lord, You be my patience for me. I will not try to be patient anymore.'" If you learn to let go this way and not try to make it by yourself, but

instead trust in the Lord's power, you will experience victory all the time. This way of victory is glorious.

LETTING GO AND COMMITTING Overcoming means to stop acting, to stop managing, to ignore, and to cease our own activities. It is forgetting about ourselves and committing everything to God. We have to say to the Lord, "I commit everything to You. From now on, I do not care if I am good or bad." Once we commit ourselves to the Lord in this way, He will take over. Once we let go, God will take over. Suppose I give you a cup. When I let go and you pick it up, the transfer is completed. But if I serve you a cup of tea, but do not let go of the cup, you cannot pick it up. The same is true with God. He wants us to let go before He will pick up. However, we expect God to pick up before we let go. But God is waiting for us to let go before He will pick up. God never does anything to supplement man's work; He will never help anyone. He wants to gain all the glory. This is why He has to do all the work. If we try to do anything by ourselves, God will not do anything. We have to let go completely before God will begin His work. When a temptation comes, we can say to the Lord, "Here is a temptation. I cannot withstand it, and I will not try to withstand it. Lord, You must withstand it for me." If we let go in this way and allow the Lord to do it for us, He will become our victory. Every day that we live, we live by grace. I have seen many people, perhaps one or two thousand, who have been delivered from sin and are walking on the path of holiness. A brother in Tientsin by the name of Lee once asked, "How do I let go?" I said, "Brother, what is your job?" He said, "I am the manager of the purchasing department of a fabric store." I said, "Suppose your boss Mr. Lin told you that the board of directors of the company had decided to let you go, and that you should start handing over your responsibility to others. What would you do?" He said, "I would have no choice but to start my resignation process." I said, "If a salesman came in to sell fabric to you, would you go to your abacus? Would you still have to find out how much you have in inventory, and how much you need to buy?" He said, "No. I would tell him that I am not working here anymore, that I have resigned, and that he should talk to the new manager." This is the meaning of letting go. We have been discharged by God; there is no need for us to do anything anymore. We only need to let go and let God do everything. When Satan comes, he does not tempt us first to sin. He just wants us to act on our

own. As long as we move, he will have a way. Our victory lies in our refusal to move or expose our head. We do not have to try to fight back at all. The more we oppose, the quicker we will fail. All we need to do is to commit ourselves to the Lord's hand and forget about doing or managing anything. This is victory, and this is letting go. One brother said that he wrestled with sin daily. Another young brother told him that he should never wrestle with sin. The first brother asked, "If I fail when I fight and withstand, will I not fail even more if I do not fight or withstand?" The young brother said, "No! I would just say to God, `I cannot make it. You have to make it for me. I commit myself to You.'" This is the secret to victory. Once you let go, the Lord will pick you up. Victory does not depend on how much you have done, but on how much God has done. Once a brother was going down a dry well. He tied a rope to the edge of the well and lowered himself down by the rope. As he was lowering himself down, he suddenly found that he had come to the end of the rope. He did not know how much lower he had to go before he would come to the bottom of the well so he decided to climb back to the surface. But as he tried to climb up, he realized that he had exhausted all his strength. Since he could not go up or down, he cried for help. But it was a deserted place and the well was deep. He shouted until he was exhausted, but still no one came to his rescue. Eventually, he could not hold on any longer. Since he was a Christian, he thought that he should pray. So he prayed, "God, please help me to fall into eternity." Then he let go of the rope and fell from the air to the earth. However, he only fell two or three inches! He regretted that he had held onto the rope for so long and that he had not let go of the rope sooner. Brothers and sisters, overcoming means letting go! Let go! Do not be afraid; you will not fall into eternity. Rather, you will fall onto the eternal Rock. If you let go and do not take control, you will overcome. Victory is something that Christ accomplishes; it is not something that you accomplish. All you have to do is let go and give up. Christ will take over and everything will be accomplished. The overcoming life is for those who have completely let go. When I was in Chefoo, a brother who was a doctor by the name of Shi came to listen to my preaching. He had a long history of smoking cigarettes. He had been saved for four years, and he had married a Christian sister. His wife had been to a seminary and was a very upright person. Brother Shi had tried to quit smoking for four years. Every year he would make seven or eight attempts, but the longest he was able to stop smoking was only four days. When a cigarette was

not in his hand, it was in his mind. He could do nothing about this, and he would eventually smoke again. He often smoked secretly at the hospital. When others came, he would snuff out the cigarette and put some breath freshener in his mouth to hide his smoking from others. He told me that his smoking had caused him much suffering. He had tried all kinds of ways to quit but had not been successful. He came and asked me what he should do. When I heard his story, I was happy within, because I knew that another person was about to go through the gate of victory. I said, "Brother Shi, you are a doctor. If a healthy person comes to the hospital and asks to be admitted, would you admit him?" He said, "No. If he is not sick, the hospital cannot admit him. The hospital only admits those who are sick." When I heard this, I was even happier, because here was another visitor for the Lord's clinic, and this was one more opportunity for the Lord to demonstrate Himself. I said to him, "Do you realize that the Lord Jesus only takes terminal cases? You say that you cannot quit smoking. Is this not a terminal case?" He said, "Indeed it is. I have tried to quit for three or four years but have not been successful. This is a terminal illness as far as I am concerned." I then said, "Okay, now is the time for you to see what the Lord Jesus can do. What should you do? You only need to say to the Lord, `I cannot quit smoking. I cannot make it. I will not try to quit anymore. Lord Jesus, I commit myself to You. Lord, You can do it; please save me.'" Then I showed him Paul's word in 2 Corinthians 12:9, which says, "And He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me." I said, "It is wonderful that you cannot quit smoking. Paul boasted in his weaknesses. What are you going to do with your weakness? Are you going to cry about it? No. You have to say to the Lord, `I am weak. I have completely failed in my efforts to quit smoking. I cannot quit. I will always smoke, but Lord, You are in me. I will not try to quit anymore. You must quit for me.'" He prayed in this way, and after he prayed, he went home. The second day he came to me and told me what he said to his wife. He had said, "For four years you have been bugging me and arguing with me. Yet I continued to smoke. But yesterday I went to God, and in five minutes it left me." I asked him, "Will you smoke again?" He said, "Of course I will! I will always smoke. Tsailin Shi will always smoke; he will smoke even five years or ten years from now. It is the Lord Jesus who stops me from smoking." He had truly overcome.

When I was in Chefoo, a sister came to me. I asked her, "Do you believe that you can overcome all the time?" She said, "I believe that I need some time to answer your question." Her words indicated that she was defeated already. Victory is not something that is proven over time. Victory is believing that the Lord lives in us and that He lives for us no matter what may happen. Victory depends on our letting go and our believing. If we are not victorious, it is either because we have failed to let go, or because we have failed to believe. If we have not failed in these two things, we will surely overcome. The secret to victory lies in: (1) realizing that we cannot make it, (2) completely letting go, (3) seeing that the Lord can make it, and (4) having a living faith every day, believing that the Lord is living for us. When we rise up from our bed in the morning and are happy, we should believe that the Lord is living for us. When we rise up from our bed in the morning and are not happy, we should still believe that the Lord is living within us. If we do this, we will always live an overcoming and glorious life. Please remember that we have to commit ourselves to the Lord and put ourselves in His hand. We must believe that He has received us and will live out His overcoming life for us. We should not try to see if this works; rather, we should trust in Him fully and believe in Him absolutely. The Lord will work only when we trust in Him fully. We have to believe from our heart that the Lord will live for us at all times. If we do not fail in letting go and in believing, we will surely overcome.

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE HOW TO EXPERIENCE THE OVERCOMING LIFE (2) Date: December 21, 1936, evening Place: Foochow We have seen that there are simple conditions for a person to have the Lord live in him, that is, to experience the overcoming life. All he has to do is resign, quit, yield, let go, and let Christ take over. When a man does this, he will overcome. We have been meeting here for nine evenings. Now I will ask a question. Have you let go? If you have not let go, you have to say to the Lord, "I cannot make it, and I do not intend to try to make it. I let go. I commit everything to You so that You can overcome for me." Some may feel that it is very difficult to let go, and some may not even know what letting go means. You have to realize that unless

you truly let go, you cannot fully overcome. Therefore, tonight we need to consider once again how we can let go and commit everything to Him. LETTING GO When I was in Chefoo, a sister came to me and said that she could not let go because she did not know how to let go. I asked her if she had ever taken a cab to her friend's house. She said she had. I then asked if she had ever arrived at her friend's house and as she reached into her pocket to pay the driver, her friend came out and tried to pay the fare, with each trying to pay and each trying to push money into the other one's hand. She said she had. I said, "Suppose your friend paid the twenty-cent fare for you, and the driver took the money and left. Since you did not want your friend to spend her money, you would attempt to put twenty cents into her hand before you left. As you were leaving, she would try to put the money back into your hand. After pushing the money back and forth a few times, you could place the money on the ground and tell her that you were leaving. In your heart, however, you would wonder if your friend had taken the money. You would also wonder what would happen if she did not pick it up and some passersby picked it up instead. Therefore, you would glance back quickly to see if she had picked up the money. If you saw that she had not picked it up, you would take a few more steps and look back again. If you did this, I can tell you that your friend would never take the money as long as you continued to look back. But if you left the money in the middle of the street and did not look back, walking straight ahead instead, your friend would surely come over and pick it up." After I told her this illustration, she became clear and began to experience the overcoming life. Last night I spoke of a sister who loved snack food. A few days after I talked with her, she invited some guests to her house for a meal. During the meal, she wept again. She felt that she was still defeated and had not yet overcome. She still had not let go. Chinese has an idiomatic expression: "To let go and die." Once a man lets go, God can do His work. Man always tries to do something and to come up with some methods, but God considers us to be hopeless. He only asks us to let go. As long as we still want to do something, God will allow us to go on by ourselves. But when we can say, "Lord, I thank You that I cannot make it, but I believe that You can make it," our faith will bring in the Lord's work. On the one hand, many people commit themselves to God, but on the other hand, they cannot be at peace. They constantly look back, fearing that God will not take up their consecration. This is not genuine trust. God wants to be responsible for

everything. But if we want to take control, He will not take control. If we do not take control, He will surely take control. After we have committed everything to God, we should no longer take control or worry about anything. We have to say to God, "I have committed everything to You. From now on, I do not care if I am good or bad." Once we commit ourselves to God in this way, He will take over and be responsible for everything. If we let go, God will take over. BELIEVING However, after many people know that they should let go, they still fail because they have not believed. After a person has let go, he must continue to believe. Letting go is just the negative side of the matter. On the positive side, we must believe. We have to believe that we have overcome. Putting it more accurately, we have to believe that the Lord is living in us, that we have uninterrupted fellowship with the Lord, that we have a sustained prayer life, that we are obedient to God, and that we have the power to overcome sin. Letting go and believing are definite steps that we must take. Every Christian should know the day that he let go and the day that he believed. These days should be as definite as the day of his salvation. Our letting go and believing must be definite, but after we have let go and believed in a definite way, we need to continue to let go and believe. Letting go and believing are things that we do continuously day by day; they are not things we do once for all. Some people say, "This is hard. How can I remember to do this? After I hear a message, I may be able to remember. But when I am busy, when I am studying, or when I am visiting the sick, I may forget. What should I do?" We have a brother who manages a factory that has more than a few dozen female workers. He said that he often has been driven almost to insanity by the noise of the machines. He did not know how one could be in Christ all the time. I asked, "When you have forgotten that you are in Christ, are you still in Christ in reality?" He thought for a while and answered, "Yes, I am still in Christ." Thank the Lord that this is not a matter of us remembering, but a matter of the Lord remembering. We can forget about the Lord, but the Lord will never forget us. We have to realize that there is no problem with us at all, because we are in Christ already. We can rest in the Lord, because He is responsible for everything.

COMING TO GOD JUST AS WE ARE A brother once asked, "If I let go today, but cannot let go tomorrow, what will happen to me?" I said, "You can go to the Lord and say, `Lord, I cannot let go,

and I will not try to let go. Thank You that You can make me let go!' If you find that you cannot believe, you can say to the Lord, `I cannot believe, and I will not try to believe. Thank You that You can believe for me.'" There is not a single weakness in us that is so severe that it can frustrate God. We only need to come to the Lord just as we are. From now on there is nothing that is impossible with us. Hallelujah! After we pass the gate of victory, day by day we will find the Lord overcoming the sins that we could not otherwise overcome. Another brother once asked, "Does this mean that if I let go and believe today, that I will never sin again?" No. You can still sin. But there is a big difference between letting go and believing, and not letting go and not believing. Before one can experience the overcoming life, failure is the rule while victory is the exception. But after one passes the gate of victory, victory is the rule while failure is the exception. Victory is the normal experience, while failure is the abnormal experience. The old sins are gone and his tone has changed; everything is different. He is no longer bound by the sins that once beset him. There is a big difference between his present state and his former condition when he had not yet experienced the overcoming life. THE WAY TO DEAL WITH TEMPTATIONS Those who are living the overcoming life may still encounter temptations. When temptations come, how should we deal with them? There are two kinds of temptation that Christians encounter in their daily life. The first kind of temptation comes slowly; it gives a person time to think about it. The second kind of temptation comes suddenly; it does not give a person time to think about it. These two temptations vary in the duration of time, and the way to deal with them is different. Let us consider the way to deal with these two kinds of temptation. Dealing with Temptations That Come Slowly The way to deal with the first kind of temptation is similar to the way one gets through the gate of victory. When this kind of temptation comes, he should not "stick out his head"; rather, he should hide behind the Lord. He should not resist or fight the temptation. He only needs to tell God directly, "I know I like to lose my temper. I will not try to be patient. Lord, I thank You and praise You because You can be my patience. I cannot overcome this temptation myself. Just as Your blood saved me, Your flesh, that is, Your life, will also save me." If he stands firm in this position, the temptation will go away. If he struggles with the temptation and tries to resist, it will never leave him. But when he says, "I cannot make it,

but God can make it," and when he boasts in his weakness and in God's strength, the temptation will go away immediately. Dealing with Temptations That Come Suddenly In order to deal with the second kind of temptation, we must first realize that sudden sins, temptations, and snares are like fiery darts that come upon us; they shoot us when we least expect it. The way to deal with these sudden, fiery darts is to lift up our faith as a shield. Many people use faith like "pliers." When fiery darts hit them, they try to pull them out with "faith-pliers." But this is futile. What is a shield? A shield is something that is between the enemy's darts and us. Every morning we have to pray with faith and ask God to deliver us from temptations so that we will not encounter unexpected temptations. Moreover, during the whole day, we have to believe that Christ will live His life out of us. We have to believe that just as we sinned without effort or resolutions when we were in Adam and joined to him, we can live out the patience of Christ and express His holiness without effort or resolutions now that we are in Christ and are joined to Him. Every morning when we wake up, we have to believe that God will deliver us from temptations that we do not even have a chance to think about. We also have to believe that Christ's life will manifest His victory through us without any conscious effort on our part. If a man says that he cannot guarantee that he will not fail today, he will surely fail. If he says, "I believe that I will surely overcome today," he will still fail. But suppose he says, "Lord, I thank You because You have said that Your grace is sufficient for me. Lord, I am weak and will always be weak. I do not have any strength, and I cannot overcome sin. But You have said that Your grace is sufficient for me. I commit myself to You. I believe in You, and I believe that Your grace is sufficient." He has the Lord's Word. When he believes in the Lord's Word and stands on His Word, he will overcome. We must have the shield of faith with us all the time. The Lord's prayer to the Father in Matthew 6 is a very good prayer. He prayed that the Father would not bring us into temptation (v. 13). We also have to pray like the Lord, saying, "Lord, do not bring me into the sudden temptations." If we do this, we will see the Lord's deliverance.

HOW TO DEAL WITH TRIALS Sometimes you encounter not only temptations, but also trials. Suppose a sister's husband persecutes her and does not allow her to come to the meetings. The way to deal with such a trial is by faith. If faith is genuine, an intense fire will only

prove its golden nature; the fire will not turn it into bronze. All genuine faith is long-lived. Whenever you encounter any trial, do not be discouraged and do not retreat. On the contrary, stand on God's Word and believe that God will manifest His victory through you. When I was in Chefoo, Brother Witness Lee's wife came to see me once and said, "I have passed the gate of victory. But my victory is very short; it only lasts for a week. After a few days, I am defeated again. What is happening to me?" I gave her an illustration. I said, "Suppose your child is playing outside your house and a rickshaw driver comes and says to him, `Your mother bought you from the herbal shop.' Your child will come home and ask, `Was I born of you, or was I bought by you?' You will say, `You were born of me. Do not believe the word of a stranger.' Your child may go out and meet the same man again, who says, `You are silly. Your mother has deceived you. You were bought and not born of your mother. I was there when she bought you.' The rickshaw driver may repeat again and again that your son was not born of you. He may even present two or three witnesses to your child. Will your child believe your words, which do not have any proof, or the stranger's lies, which are apparently backed up by proof? If your son has faith in your word, he will be very bold. He will ignore the lies of the strangers, and he will even laugh at them in his heart and say, `You are liars. You are just trying to deceive me. The more you speak to me, the more I do not believe.' In the same way, we believe in God's Word and do not need any proof. Whatever God's Word says, that is it. My feelings are lies, and my experiences are lies. I only believe that God's Word is true. If we can believe firmly in God's Word, we can even say, `I wish more trials can come. Let them come. See whether or not I am nervous about them!'" Once another brother named Lee testified that he lives a life of sitting at the bow of the boat. He can look down upon all the temptations and scorn all the trials, because the Lord is sleeping at the stern of the boat. Those who have faith will have such a confidence. Yet this will not guarantee that we will never fail. It is still possible for us to fail. Once we fail, we have to confess our sins immediately and repent to Him, asking for the cleansing of His blood. Then we have to return to the proper path and live the overcoming life once again. When we do this, the way of victory will shine brighter and brighter. VICTORY BEING PERFECT IN NATURE WHILE THE EXPERIENCE OF VICTORY BEING PROGRESSIVE

Question: Is victory something progressive, or is it something that we experience once for all? Answer: It is right to say that it is progressive, but it is not wrong to say that it is complete once for all. In terms of God living in us and overcoming sins for us, we can say that victory is complete once for all. However, there is a difference in degree. There is a difference in the amount God fills a person. For example, a cup, a bowl, and a bucket can all be filled, but the measures are different. Every believer can only overcome the sins that he knows about; he cannot overcome sins that he does not know about. For example, last year you might not have known that a certain matter was a sin. Obviously, you could not have overcome it then. When God enlightens you this year, you will know that it is sin, and you can overcome it. The light you receive is progressive. Therefore, the victory you experience is also progressive. The victory that a newly saved person experiences is the same kind of victory that is experienced by one who has been a Christian for forty to fifty years. But the latter has experienced victory in greater frequency and degree. Hence, in order to live the overcoming life, we must learn daily to know sin and the things that do not glorify God. If we do this, we will advance day by day. I have a friend who is a missionary with the China Inland Mission. She was familiar with the overcoming life. She had a colleague who always gave her a hard time, spreading many unfounded rumors about her in England. All the coworkers disliked this one, but my friend endured her and outwardly maintained a cordial relationship with her. One day my friend read 1 Peter 1:22, which says, "Love one another from a pure heart fervently." God shed His light on her and showed her that not only is hatred a sin, but the failure to love one's brother is also a sin. She prayed and said, "Lord, make me love her. There is nothing lovable about her. She is not lovable at all. In fact, she is horrible. Lord, I can forgive her, but I cannot love her. I cannot love her fervently. I confess that this is a sin." For two to three days, her attention was on this new sin. One day she prayed and fasted the whole day, but still she could not love the sister. She prayed earnestly for another day and night. The next evening the Lord granted her the victory. She felt that she not only loved this sister fervently, but that she could even pray for her. Thank the Lord, after another week the co-worker who gave her a hard time also overcame and received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. After we pass the gate of victory, there may still be warfare, but the

warfare we experience after passing the gate of victory is a warfare of faith. In the world one fights to win, but the Lord's way is to win first and then fight. There were three Western sisters who were working in Shansi. Two of them decided to remain single, and the third was engaged. Her fiancé was in England. One day the sister who was engaged was praying in her room and felt very lonely. She began to weep and feel sorry for herself. When the second sister passed the room and saw her crying, she went to the third one and said, "If anyone should be crying, we should be the ones. She has a fiancé who writes to her all the time. Why does she have to cry?" Eventually the two were affected and began crying out of loneliness as well. A few days later the Lord reminded one of them of the word in Matthew 28:20: "I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age." The other sister read Psalm 16:11, which says, "You will make known to Me the path of life;/In Your presence is fullness of joy;/At Your right hand there are pleasures forever." They realized that even the feeling of loneliness was a new sin, and they prayed, "Lord, forgive us. You are with us all the time. Yet we feel lonely. This is a sin." After this they overcame. From that time forward, they never wept for their loneliness. One sister had five children. She was a very good sister, but she worried for her children all the time. At first she even thought that it was right to worry; she did not see that worrying is a sin. Therefore, she did not overcome. One day the Lord enlightened her, and she realized that worrying is a sin. Subsequently, she overcame. If you have the Lord living in you, the more sin you know, the more you will overcome. I was once ill-treated by a certain person, and I said a few rash words to him. The Lord pointed out this matter to me and told me to deal with it. I thought that he had wronged me. I did not hate him anymore and I had forgiven him. Yet the Lord wanted me to confess my sins to him. I felt that I could not do this, but whenever the Lord speaks, He will not give up. Whenever the Lord lays His hand upon something, He will never take it back. I read the Bible and prayed. One day I read the phrase "love your enemies." I had written a letter apologizing to him, but when I realized that I could not love him, I did not send it out. I prayed to the Lord, "If You do not give me a love for this man, I cannot love him by myself." When I honestly confessed that I could not make it, and that God was the only One who could, I was able to love him from my heart. I had been trying to deal with the matter for two months, but it was settled that day. I sent him the letter of apology the next day.

A sister who was very neat, tidy, and kept her house in good order did not care very much about her closets. Two months ago she testified that the Lord spoke to her, "You have to clean your closets; otherwise, you cannot glorify Me." She began to clean her closets. When I heard this, I was quite touched, and the Lord immediately spoke to me, "You have not made your bed. How can this glorify Me?" I began to make my bed. Before that time I had never made my bed. That was the first time I began to make my bed. Two months have passed now, and I have been making my bed ever since. Thank and praise the Lord. The victory in Christ is complete in its nature, and there is no way to improve on it. However, the extent and degree of victory are constantly growing and increasing. The more light we receive, the more growth we experience. The less light we receive, the less growth we experience. The more we know our sins, the more supply we receive from God; the less we know our sins, the less supply we receive from God. If every day we acknowledge before the Lord that we cannot make it, that we will not try to make it, and that only God can make it, and if every day we believe that God lives in us to be our victory, we will advance continually. Hallelujah! On the one hand, our victory is complete, because this victory is accomplished in Christ. On the other hand, our victory is progressive, because as the light we receive increases, the measure of our victory will also increase.

CHAPTER SIXTY TAKING UP OUR CROSS Date: December 22, 1936, evening Place: Foochow Scripture Reading: Luke 9:23-24; Phil. 3:10 GOD'S OBJECTIVE SALVATION AND SUBJECTIVE SALVATION God's intention in creating man was not only for man to multiply and replenish the earth, but for God to have sons, that is, for Him to have a group of men who would have His life. This group of men would not only have God's image outwardly, but also have His life inwardly. In the garden of Eden, God intended only to do one thing, which was for Adam to receive His life. If Adam had done this, God's goal would have been achieved. After Adam fell, God had to do two things. First, He had to deal with sin, and second, He had to deal with man the person. God dealt with sin so that man would no longer be a sinner. He dealt with man so that man would no longer merely be man. Both as a man and a sinner,

man needs God's grace. A sinner needs God's grace in order to have the forgiveness of sins, and a man needs God's grace in order that he may receive God's life. The Adam in paradise needed God's grace, and the Adam outside of paradise also needed God's grace. In the first few evenings, we saw that on the objective side, God solves the problems of the sinner and man by the substitutionary work of the blood and the identifying work of the cross. In the next few evenings, we saw that on the subjective side, God deals with man's problem in life through Christ's flesh becoming our life. The result is that man can now live out the life of Christ. God has prepared not only an objective salvation for us, but also a subjective salvation. The blood of the Passover signifies the objective redemption, whereas the lamb of the Passover signifies the subjective salvation. All of the Israelites, old and young, had to strike the blood and eat the lamb. This simple type shows us objective salvation as well as subjective salvation. By striking the blood, we receive objective salvation. By eating the Lord's flesh, our natural elements are eliminated daily, and the Lord lives out of us day by day. This is subjective salvation. Tonight we have to add another item, which is bearing the cross. We can explain this by a diagram: I wonder how many of you realize the preciousness of this diagram. If there was a meeting concerning this diagram and I had to buy a ticket to get in, I would pay a hundred pounds to get in. Let us look carefully at this diagram. THE BLOOD OF CHRIST AND THE CROSS OF CHRIST DEALING WITH SIN AND THE OLD MAN First let us consider the sinner. There are two aspects to the sinner. The first is sin and the second is the old man. Sin is like the product of a factory, whereas the old man is like the factory. Because the old man is corrupt, the product is nothing but sin; one cannot expect any better product than sin. The Lord's blood deals with the product, that is, it deals with man's sin. It cleanses us of our sins and accomplishes an eternal redemption. There are two aspects to cleansing us of our sins. The first is cleansing before God, and the second is cleansing in man. The first aspect removes the record of sin before God and brings in forgiveness. The second aspect removes the guilt in man's conscience. The blood does not cleanse man's heart; it only cleanses man's conscience. Since the Lord has shed His blood on the cross and sin has been judged, God must forgive man's sin. This is most righteous. Man no longer has to worry or be threatened by his sins; he can now enjoy peace. In the Old Testament, after a

leper was cleansed, the priests had to sprinkle the holy place seven times and sprinkle the leper seven times (Lev. 14:19; 4:6; 14:7). This signifies that man is at peace when sin is forgiven before God. However, the blood cannot cleanse our old man, self, or lusts. There is no place in the Bible that says the blood cleanses our old man. The old man must be crucified and annihilated. There is no way to deal with the old man except through death. Even God cannot do anything with it. The old man can only be dealt with by the cross. Hence, the cross of Christ deals with our old man. The sinner's sins are dealt with by the blood, whereas the sinner's old man is dealt with by the cross. The blood signifies the substitutionary death of Christ; He bore God's judgment on the sinner's behalf to secure the forgiveness of sin for us. The cross signifies the identifying death of Christ; our old man was crucified together with Christ and has been terminated.

THE LORD'S FLESH AND OUR CROSS There are also two aspects to man. On the positive side, he lacks something— God's life. On the negative side, he still has the human, natural, and mortal life, and there is the need for him to be terminated. I want to say a few words here to the unbelievers. It does not matter whether you are good or bad. As long as you do not have the life of Christ, you have nothing to do with God. I have over ten friends who invited me once to a feast at the ancestral hall of a Chen clan, but because my last name is not Chen, I could not participate in the fellowship of that ancestral hall. You do not have to commit any sin to become a sinner. As long as you are a man, you are alienated from the life of God. God's way for man to receive His life is for man to eat His flesh. The Lord's flesh signifies His life which was released through death. This flesh is equivalent to the fruit of the tree of life. Both flesh and fruit are edible—fruit is the edible part of the tree, while flesh is the edible part of an animal. For us to eat the Lord's flesh is for us to regain the blessing of Adam which he lost in paradise. The blood speaks of the substitutionary death of Christ. The cross speaks of the identifying death of Christ. The flesh speaks of Christ's life-releasing death. He died in order that man may eat His flesh to receive His new life, the life of God. But how can we allow the flesh, that is, God's life, to live within us? In practice, it is through the cross, that is, through bearing the cross. The bearing of the cross signifies our acceptance of God's work. It means that we lose our own soul life, natural life, and allow Christ to live within us.

After Adam sinned, man became the "old man." Before Adam sinned, man was simply man. When God crucified you on the cross with Christ, He crucified the old man; He did not crucify you as a man on the cross. Your hands, feet, mind, will, and emotion are still here. Your personality, self, and natural disposition are still here. What then does Galatians 2:20 mean, when it says, "I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me"? The "I" in this verse refers to two different things: one is the old man, and the other is our personality. In this verse, the first two "I"s refer to the old man, while "me" at the end of the verse refers to our personality. The "I" of the old man is dealt with through crucifixion with Christ, whereas the "I" of our personality is dealt with through bearing the cross. TWO ASPECTS OF THE CROSS Our natural human life is mortal and animal. When Adam was in paradise, even before he sinned, his life was mortal; he did not have God's life within him. The natural life needs to be dealt with and the animal life needs to be dealt with even more. Otherwise, God's life will be bound by man's body. This is like the Lord Jesus when He was on earth. The life of God within Him was bound by the body He received from Mary, and it could not be released. However, He dealt with this mortal life and was able to express God's life through His body. The way to deal with the old man is by the cross. The way to deal with the mortal life is also by the cross. Are these two dealings identical? No. The first dealing has to do with the cross of Christ. His crucifixion deals with our sinful self; this is an accomplished fact. The second dealing has to do with our own cross. We have to bear the cross, and it deals with our natural self. This is something that we have to do every day. TAKING UP OUR OWN CROSS Every work spoken of in the Bible has its own specific application. For example, here is a chair. If we turn it upsidedown, no one can sit on it. We have to apply the two aspects of the cross correctly. The cross of Christ requires faith. Once we believe, it is ours. Its purpose is to deal with sin itself. Our cross does not require faith; it requires obedience. Its purpose is to deal with the self which was there before sin even came in. This self can only be dealt with by obedience. For your benefit I should mention one thing. I am not only condemning you, I am also condemning myself. Some people are more amiable than others. We tend to be attracted to them. They speak well, and there is nothing sinful or wicked about them. Yet when we are with them, we do not feel the presence of God. Although

such a person may talk about God, we can only sense his wisdom or cleverness; we do not sense God. Only his natural life is manifested in him. Eloquence, management skill, and kind dispositions are natural traits. They do not issue from God's life. When a person sits beside us, we may be attracted to him and he may make us feel very comfortable. This kind of natural goodness is often the very thing that frustrates God's life. The natural life is the totality of the life that we have inherited from our parents. It is what remains in our life after the sinful elements have been dealt with. The life of the old man, the natural life, easily veils God's life and keeps it from being released. In Luke 9:23 the Lord said, "If anyone wants to come after Me"—this means if anyone wants to live as He lived on this earth—"let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me." Verse 24 continues, "For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake, this one shall save it." The word "for" at the beginning of verse 24 tells us that verse 24 is an explanation of verse 23. The life spoken of here is the soul-life. Everyone wants to preserve his own soul-life, animal life, and natural life. This life includes such traits as our natural generosity, excellence, and good disposition.

THE CROSS IN PRACTICE The Lord wants us to take up our cross daily because He wants to cut off our soul-life with the cross. How does the Lord do this? He allows man's misunderstandings to come upon us. When we are misunderstood, we always try to reason. It is not a sin to try to reason, and the natural life always likes to reason. But a Christian has to learn a lesson. He has to say to the Lord, "I thank You. When others misunderstand me, I am eager to justify myself. But vengeance is Yours. I will not try to justify myself." If we ignore ourselves and allow others to misunderstand us, and if we do not justify ourselves even when we have the chance, our capacity will be increased and God's life will become manifest. The daily cross is something that eliminates us day by day. We all want others to understand what we are doing and appreciate us. Yet God allows frustrations to come upon us so that He can eliminate us. Some people wish that their children would not make noise so they could read their Bible quietly; this would be wonderful for them. But those who genuinely bear the cross endure their children's distractions. Once a father and son came and told me that they had countless grievances and that they needed someone to sympathize with them. I said, "There is nothing

wrong with what you have just said; saying these things is not a sin. In fact, you are quite justified in saying these things. But the question is whether or not you are bearing the cross. Please remember that the day you stop bearing the cross is the day that you stop growing. When you reject God's word, you stop growing in the eyes of God, even though you may still have a good appearance before men and may still maintain certain kinds of works." Man's greatest suffering is finding his desires unfulfilled. When a person cannot satisfy his desires, he may rebel, disagree, or complain in his heart. But if he would lift up his head at that very moment and say to the Lord, "I thank You because this is Your will," his capacity would be increased. Without the cross, all spiritual blessings will stop. When harsh words, unkind expressions, or unhappy incidents happen at home, a person may weep. Yet if he would say to the Lord in tears, "I accept and am satisfied with the things You have permitted to come upon me," he would grow. Madam Guyon said, "Lord, even if You chastise me with a whip, I will still kiss that whip with my mouth." Miss Barber wrote in one of her hymns: "Let the spirit praise Thee,/Though the heart be riven" (Hymns, #377). This was spoken by one who truly knew God and who truly knew the cross. The Lord has to dig away many unnecessary things in us. Once the cross stops its work in us, growth and victory will also stop. Man is prone to preserve himself, but the cross is here to strip us of our soul-life. The way to be a blessing to others is not by preserving our soul-life, but by losing our soul-life. The more we lose our soul-life, the more we will become a blessing to others. Mr. Cowman was a person who had deep spiritual experiences in the Lord. While he was working in India, the Lord opened his eyes to see that he should be a servant to others, a "heel" to the Body, and that he should happily accept the ugly things that were heaped upon him. The suffering of the cross is not a suffering of wine mingled with gall. It is a suffering that refuses to avoid pain. Rumors were once circulated about me. At first my natural life could not stand it. I said, "Lord, if I remain silent and do not fight back, I will not be able to do anything." But the Lord showed me Matthew 5:12. His intention is not only that we should not fight back, but that we should accept these things with joy. THE TONE OF VICTORY Victory has a certain tone. The tone of victory is thanksgiving and praise. If you cannot give thanks and praise, you have been defeated already. If you are genuinely bearing the cross, you will be able to praise and thank the Lord. There

are two kinds of thanksgiving and praise. One is cheap; it thanks and praises the Lord for His grace. The other is expensive; it thanks and praises even when the cross is present. The second kind is better; it is the real offering of thanksgiving and praise. An offering is a sacrifice, and a sacrifice is something that brings about a loss. Many times, we have to learn to agree with other brothers and to deny ourselves. We often have to learn to agree with our enemy and to oppose ourselves. The crucial things about the cross are the dealing with our individual opinions and ideas on the one hand, and the denial of our preferences and desires on the other hand. If we can overcome our animal life, we will gain God's life. The more we lose, the more we will gain. If we lose our soul-life day after day, we will be on the way to glory day after day, and we will realize that chastisement is a joy. THE RESULT OF VICTORY— THE ABILITY TO BEAR THE CROSS Please remember that victory results in our ability to bear the cross. If we do not have any opinion of our own, if others find it easy to take advantage of us, and if we do not fret while we are being taken advantage of, thanking and praising the Lord instead, we are bearing the cross. As a wife, husband, teacher, student, servant, or master, there are countless numbers of things that bother and disturb us every day. We have to realize that nothing that comes upon us comes by accident. All these things are crosses that the Lord has given us. Blessed are those who see God's hand in their environment. Those who avoid the cross are only lovers of themselves. They have not seen God's hand. As a result they miss many blessings. In the past we might not have been able to face the cross, because we were short of strength. But thank the Lord that we have the strength now, and we can face the cross. If we want to know ourselves, if we want to know sin, and if we want to go on in the way of God's will, we have to learn to stand on the side of those who take advantage of us. We have to learn to love our enemies, to pray for those who curse us, and to have our self broken. We have to learn faith, learn to trust and obey, learn to cease fighting against our environment, and learn to submit to all of God's arrangements. Others may find a certain environment frustrating, but for us, everything is working for our good. Eight or nine years ago, I read a story which rendered me much help. The story happened in one of the kingdoms in western Asia. The general of the kingdom staged a rebellion to usurp the throne, and the king led his personal guards to

confront the rebellion. He only had three thousand soldiers, while the rebellious army had a hundred thousand men. When the king saw the general, he called for him to surrender. The general asked how many soldiers were on the king's side, and whether the king knew how many men were on his side. The king did not answer, instead he asked one of his guards to jump off from a cliff. The guard obeyed immediately. The king asked a second one to jump into the ocean, and he did so accordingly. He then asked a third to draw a sword and kill himself, and this guard also obeyed without question. When the rebellious general saw this, he was terrified, and he asked how many such men did the king have. The king answered that every one of his men were this way. At that word, the general decided to drop his rebellion and surrendered to the king. Our God demands that we be those who want nothing for ourselves. He wants us to be those who would allow ourselves to be destroyed and trampled under the feet of others. He wants us to be the obedient ones. If we are such persons, we are bearing the cross. We will be those who accept God's arrangements and who do not fight back; our capacity will increase, and God's life will flow out of us in an unhindered way.

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE TALKS (2) Date: December 23, 1936, afternoon Place: Foochow Question: The faith mentioned in Mark 11:24 is a promise. Can one lay hold of the faith in verse 23 as a promise also? Answer: Yes, but there is a difference. The faith in verse 23 is a gift, while the faith in verse 24 is of grace. The faith in both verses is based on one's "faith in God" as described in verse 22. Question: In Mark 11:12-14, the Lord cursed the fig tree. Was this too unfair to the tree, because the time of harvest had not yet arrived? Answer: There are two harvests for figs, a winter harvest and a summer harvest. The harvest that the Lord was talking about was the winter harvest. There was not even one residual fruit left on that tree. Question: Are all of God's provisions "wholesale"? Answer: Objective grace comes "wholesale," it is not "retail." But subjective truths come to us item by item in our experience. If we go to the Lord for one or two items today, He will still give them to us.

Question: The Bible says that we should not have multiplicity of words (Matt. 6:7). What does that mean? Answer: The multiplicity of words mentioned in Matthew 6 refers to prayers that are void of utterance, yet have many empty words added in for the sake of sounding pleasant to the ear. I may repeat words in my prayers, but I will repeat them because I cannot ask for anything further and there is nothing more to say except to thank and praise. There is a great difference between these two kinds of repetitions. Question: Once a man lets go and believes, the Lord will live for him. Is this something instantaneous or is there a time factor involved? Answer: With some people it is instantaneous, while with others it involves a long period of time. In your heart you should expect it to be instantaneous. However, if the Lord delays His work, you should be happy to accept His timing. This requires an enduring faith. Question: Will believers today experience the kind of thorns that Paul was talking about (2 Cor. 12:7-8)? Answer: No. Thorns are for those with great revelations, to prevent them from being puffed up. We do not have as great a revelation as Paul; therefore, we do not have his kind of thorns. Question: Should we take a supplement of tonic when our sickness is gone, or should we take a tonic while we are still sick, believing that we are healed already? Answer: If your faith will not be eaten away, you can take it. Some people eat away their faith when they take tonic. If this is the case, they should not take it. Question: What kind of faith is the "shielding" faith? Is it the same faith as believing that the old man is crucified with Christ? Answer: Yes. You can say that these two faiths are identical. We believe in God's Word and we believe in His promise. If we want to lay hold of one word, yet find that we do not have the strength, we should try to lay hold of another word. Ying-ying asked: What should we do if we do not know the Bible that well? Answer: Suppose you finish reading the Bible in two years and you understand and memorize everything, does this mean that you no longer have to read the Holy Scriptures for the rest of your life? Some people have spent thirty or forty years to study the Bible, and have only scratched the surface. Hence, it is always good to read the Bible, whether you read much or little. It also does not matter whether or not you understand what you read.

Question: Is the matter of Christ living for us the same as the fruit of the sanctification of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23)? Answer: Yes. When Christ lives in us, the Holy Spirit lives in us, and we live in them. This is like saying that the air is outside of us and also within us. If we are short of either one of these two aspects, we cannot live. Question: Do we pray to the Father, the Son, or the Spirit? To whom do we pray the most? Answer: Perhaps we should pray to the Father the most. It is also correct to pray to the Spirit, but we cannot make this a rule or a law. If we do, we will not be able to release ourselves. Question: If we do not understand the background of a verse in terms of its time, place, and the person it is in reference to, will the Lord honor us and accomplish it for us if we still lay hold of it as a promise? Answer: Yes, because the Lord says, "Believe that you have received them, and you will have them" (Mark 11:24). The Lord did not say, "You must understand before you will have them." We have them because we believe.

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO TALKS (3) Date: December 23, 1936, evening Place: Foochow We want to concentrate our fellowship this time on the following things: (1) the nature of our testimony, (2) God's will in the Bible concerning the ground of the church, the responsibility of the workers, the local assemblies, the responsibility of the local brothers, and the responsibility of the elders, and (3) the work in Foochow and the question of the co-workers. THE PRINCIPLE OF OUR WORK Let us first look at Acts 13 and 14. The basis of Acts 13 and 14 is the Lord's charge to the disciples to preach the gospel to the uttermost part of the earth (1:8). The disciples did not obey this charge. At the time of Pentecost, the disciples were in Jerusalem, and the gospel remained only in Jerusalem. Because the disciples did not go out to spread the gospel, the Lord allowed many persecutions to come to force them to leave (8:1). The spreading in Jerusalem, Samaria, and Caesarea cannot be considered as the proper pattern of gospel preaching. Only the spreading in Antioch followed the proper pattern of

preaching. Paul's work in chapters thirteen and fourteen are the proper pattern for gospel preaching throughout the ages. Acts 13 tells us of Paul's first missionary journey. This first journey was put in the Bible by the Lord as a pattern. Please remember that every time the Bible mentions something for the first time, the principle behind it remains as a guideline. A Coordination of All Kinds of People Chapter thirteen mentions five persons. Lucius was a black man, Manaen was a nobleman, Barnabas was a good man, Simeon was an educated man, and Saul was one who had persecuted the church. They represented different kinds of people. This shows that the Lord chooses all kinds of "bad" people. (In this list Barnabas ranked first. This was according to Paul's own record. At this time Luke had not come into the work yet, and this portion of the history was probably related orally by Paul to Luke, who then wrote it down.) Being Sent Out by the Holy Spirit Their going out was based on the Lord's calling. They fasted because they were afraid of making mistakes. In order to find the way to go on in the work, we often need to fast and pray. Verse 4 says, "They then, having been sent out by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia," and there they began their work. The words "went down" show that they set out for the work once they were clear about the sending of the Holy Spirit. Traveling Around and Not Remaining in One Place They went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. In Cyprus they announced the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they passed through the whole island as far as Paphos. This is the apostles' pattern; they continued to travel and did not remain in one place. They passed through the whole island as far as Paphos. There the proconsul was saved. Then Paul set out again to Perga, and from there he went on to Pisidian Antioch. The record of many brothers today is a record of "being stationed" in a certain place, not a record of "moving"as shown in Acts. The record of Paul's preaching in chapter thirteen continued until verse 41. The result is seen in verse 42—they left the synagogue and the people begged for these words to be spoken to them on the next Sabbath. This verse proves that Paul had assumed a more prominent role than Barnabas had by this time. This is why the order of Barnabas and Paul is reversed in verse 43; Paul was mentioned first. When they were called by the Lord, the Bible says "Barnabas and Saul." But in the spreading of the work Paul

was manifested to be better and was more able to speak for the Lord. Consequently, the Bible changes its record to "Paul and Barnabas." They immediately engaged themselves in the work of edifying the believers, urging them to continue in the grace of God. At the next Sabbath, almost the entire city gathered together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and they blasphemed. The apostles then turned to the Gentiles (vv. 44-46). When Paul preached to the Gentiles, many of them were saved. On the previous Sabbath the Jews were saved. On this Sabbath the Gentiles were saved. Verse 49 follows, saying, "And the word of the Lord was carried through the whole region." The words "whole region" are wonderful words. The last part of verse 51 through verse 52 says that they departed to Iconium, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. The reason many disciples are not filled with joy today is that their "pastors" have presided over one place for too long. We must remember that God does not want His workers to remain too long in one place. Wherever human control abounds, the Lord's hand stops. In many places today, saints cannot experience the filling of the Holy Spirit because the preachers are restricting the work of the Spirit. As long as Elijah remained on earth, there was no possibility for Elisha to receive the double portion of the Spirit. Elijah stood in the place of the Holy Spirit. Once Elijah left, Elisha received the double portion of the Spirit.

A Worker Not Being Bound by One Locality or One Assembly They worked in Iconium and started another assembly. Acts 14:4 indicates that the multitude of the city was divided into two groups. Some followed the Jews, and some followed the apostles. This shows that the number was quite large. Verse 6 says that the apostles fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the "surrounding" region because some were trying to treat them outrageously. According to the Bible, the Lord has no intention for a worker to go to a place and remain there. A worker should be above any locality or any assembly. An apostle is for the whole church. In Lystra Paul healed a lame man. Verse 20 says that the disciples "surrounded" Paul, and verse 21 tells us that there was a "considerable number of disciples." This proves that there were many disciples. Although Paul was wounded, he rested only for a night and went

to Derbe the next day. He did not go to Derbe to recuperate from his wound, but to preach the gospel. Paul and Barnabas passed through all these places. Once a number of people were saved, they moved on to another place. They did not stay in a church to "edify" men. Paul kept moving forward to sow. After he went through all the places, then he returned to build up the saints. They went forward first to establish the churches, and then returned later to strengthen them. Acts 14:23 says that the two appointed elders in all the churches. They appointed elders in "every" church; there was no exception. We would think that an assembly needs ten or twenty years before some saints mature and are old enough to be appointed as elders. But the apostles handed over the responsibility of the assembly to the local brothers very quickly. The workers are responsible for the extra-local work of the assembly. The local responsibility must be taken up by the local brothers. CONCERNING THE ELDERS The Appointment of the Elders The Bible gives us very brief qualifications of the elders. When a worker goes to a place, he cannot appoint elders immediately. When he returns from another place and sees that a group of saints are still meeting, he can be assured that they are trustworthy. From among them, he will spontaneously find some who are particularly seeking spiritually and appoint them as elders. THE WORKS OF AN ELDER An elder does not monopolize everything in the church. The works of the elders are: (1) managing the administrative affairs of the church, taking the lead in receiving the saints, making arrangements for the meetings, and collecting offerings; and (2) caring for the local believers, preaching regularly to the congregation, and nurturing the brothers and sisters spiritually. Administration and preaching are the main responsibilities of the elders. According to 1 Timothy 5:17 there are two kinds of elders. One kind takes the lead in the church. The other kind not only takes the lead in the church, but labors in the word and teaching. The regular preaching and shepherding work in a local church belongs to the elders; they are not the work of the apostles. Titus 1:9 says that the elders have to hold to the faithful word and to exhort and convict by the healthy teaching. This shows us that an elder must not only bear administrative responsibility, but must bear spiritual responsibility as well. However, the workers do not bear any responsibility for a local assembly. In

other words, the preaching on the Lord's Day, Wednesday, and Saturday should be the common responsibility of the local brothers and sisters. The church in Shanghai does not have any worker. I thank the Lord for this. Someone in the church in Swatow has said that a church cannot be without a worker. This is a joke. Paul and Barnabas established over ten churches. If they presided over a church, how could they have been distributed among all these churches?

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WORK OF THE WORKERS AND THE WORK OF THE ELDERS The workers' work is restricted to activities such as special gospel meetings and spiritual edification conferences. The regular weekly preaching and edification remain the work of the elders. In other words, the elders are like the pastors we see today, whereas the workers are like the revivalists we see today. The workers who intend to remain in one place are not qualified to be apostles. The works of a worker are to preach the gospel and establish churches in places where no gospel has been preached. In a place where the gospel has been preached, he engages himself in special spiritual edification. Therefore, a worker cannot have a place that he can call his own. The elders are like wives who cook every day, three meals a day. The workers are like special catering cooks. They are invited to prepare a few lavish dishes and then leave. If you ate lavish dishes every day, sooner or later you would have to see a doctor. You have to be content with ordinary meals. Hence, every brother and sister must be satisfied in their mind with "workerless" meetings. In the first century, during the first thirty or forty years of the church's history, the relationship between the work and the churches was proper. By the fourth century, after the Roman emperor embraced the Christian faith, and Christianity was formalized as the state religion, men were encouraged to join the church, babies were sprinkled, and the church was filled with false Christians. Because of the great influx of nominal members in the church and the fact that those in authority could not bear spiritual responsibility nor could the laity help edify others, the emperor was forced to give the more spiritually mature believers a monopoly on spiritual responsibilities. In the end they became a special class of people. This group of people would work seven days a week, while the rest of the people would work only six days a week. The members would offer their money every week to support the church and the clergy's need. Eventually the priests in

the Catholic Church became a professional class of people to bear spiritual responsibilities. Protestantism improved on the sacerdotal system and instituted the pastors, who are a little better than the priests, but in principle the two groups are the same. Our work during the past ten or more years has practically annulled the system of the pastors, but unconsciously we have replaced it with the workers, and now the workers have become pastors in disguise. This is wrong. The workers should pioneer or help the meetings in all the places. They should not stay in a place and replace the work of the elders. The brothers in all the localities should be under the direction of the elders. Even when a worker resides in Foochow, he should only be a brother in Foochow. In the work there are workers, but in the church there is no such thing as a worker. For nine years I have been telling the brothers in Shanghai that I was not working there as a worker. This is a principle that a worker must absolutely keep in his work. As far as a worker's work is concerned, the Bible only gives the principle of planting and watering; it does not say that the workers have to stay behind to oversee the growth. We see this in Acts 13 and afterwards. There was a brother in Shanghai who was not that mature. Yet when he moved to Lung-Ya, he became an elder there and began to grow very much spiritually. He did a good job there, and the brothers liked him very much. The elders must be under the instruction of the apostles. Paul exhorted the Corinthians to put the sinning one out from the church (1 Cor. 5:13). But he could not do it for them. If you find that a worker is improper, your locality can reject him, and a worker should accept this rejection humbly. There should be a plurality of elders. Overseers are the same as the elders, and they should be plural in number. CONCERNING FELLOWSHIP If a local assembly is standing on the ground of the church, it will surely receive all Christians. A local church must include all saved and regenerated Christians. You can chase out the foreigners from the Foreign Concession District in Shanghai, but you cannot chase out the Chinese who are living there. The church can only remove unsaved and unregenerated people; it cannot remove those who are saved and regenerated. Seventy percent of the money collected in the church in Shanghai is used to help weak brothers. Although these brothers are weak, they are still brothers. There should also be fellowship between the different assemblies. There also exists a relationship among the workers. If one

place recognizes a brother as a worker, other places should also recognize him as a worker.

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE TALKS (4) Date: December 24, 1936 Place: Foochow, Brother Nee's mother's home A NARRATION OF HISTORY In 1921 Brother Leland Wang and I were being raised up by the Lord together. In 1920 Miss Dora Yu had come, and Sister Ding, Sister Hwang, Brother Leland, and myself had all been saved. Pastor Hsu Je-chou was saved at that time also. My mother and brother began to have a Bible study meeting with a few other brothers. The first year after I was saved, there was a Bible study meeting every Thursday at my home. Most of the ones who came to the Bible study were older ones. Brother Leland and I were the youngest among them, and naturally we were together quite often. I was baptized in 1921. None of the others were baptized at that time; I was the only one who was baptized. After I was baptized, I still enjoyed my worldly amusements. In 1922 Leland and I began to see the truth concerning the breaking of bread, and we began to break bread together. In the beginning of 1923, four or five hundred people were saved, and there was a revival. Brother Leland and I shared the responsibility: I took care of the work in Foochow and the literature work, while Leland took care of the work beyond Foochow. Brother John Wang also left his denomination during the second half of 1923 and joined us in our work. Originally, John did not agree with the matter of baptism. Later he also saw the truth about baptism, and I baptized him. In 1922 I began to see that denominationalism was wrong and that missions were also wrong. I saw that God wanted local assemblies. In 1923 Leland had a disagreement with me concerning some doctrines. His burden was for evangelism, while I saw that God was after the local assembly. In other words, Leland's work was hawking his goods, while my work was setting up stalls for my goods. John was not as experienced in the truth, and therefore was not involved in the dispute. In 1924 the dispute resulted in the assembly calling itself "The Church of Christ in Foochow," and the stamp of the assembly was changed to read "The Church of Christ in Foochow." I questioned Leland and told him that this was not scriptural. If we named ourselves in this way, many unsaved ones

would also be included. Moreover, there were not many saved ones among us, and other groups had four or five hundred saved ones. Therefore, we could not call ourselves "The Church of Christ in Foochow." During the first half of 1924, Wu Ai-lan's father (Mr. Woodbury) wanted to come to ordain Leland as the preacher, myself as a teacher, and John also as a teacher. I said that I needed a few weeks to study the Bible before I could say either yes or no. After I studied the Bible, I realized that pastors and teachers are gifts and cannot be ordained. One can appoint elders, but one cannot ordain pastors and teachers. The pastors or shepherds and teachers are like carpenters and concrete workers—one cannot ordain them. If a man is a carpenter or a concrete worker, he simply is one, and there is no way to ordain him as one. It is the same with a teacher—one cannot ordain a teacher. One can appoint a registrar or a principal, but he cannot ordain a person to be a teacher. One can appoint elders and deacons, because these are offices, but one cannot ordain pastors and teachers. During the last term of the eighth year at Trinity College, Leland told everyone a few weeks before the final examination that Mr. Woodbury would come the following week. When I heard this, I knew that the situation had become critical. At that time I was conducting a Bible study on the Lord's coming, and I changed the subject to a study on the ark. I saw that God's testimony followed the ark, which was a type of Christ. When the ark was in the tabernacle, God's glory was there. But when the ark left the tabernacle, the tabernacle became an empty shell. God's countenance left the tabernacle and went with the ark. I presented this truth to everyone. I wrote to the co-workers, made a copy of it, and distributed it to every brother and sister. After the letter was distributed, Mr. Woodbury did not come, and I was very happy. After this I was invited to preach in Hangchow, and the co-workers in Foochow excommunicated me because of that letter. All the brothers did not agree with the view of the co-workers. The brothers believed me, but the co-workers rejected me. When I returned in July of 1924, I persuaded the brothers to continue to work in oneness. I proposed that I go from Foochow and work elsewhere. I did not want to have a split because of this dispute, so I left Foochow. I thought that I could preach the truth about the local assembly in other provinces. Later, the truth that the Lord had entrusted to me did spread to other places. From 1924 to 1936, in a period of a little over ten years, over two hundred assembles were raised up throughout China. Foochow became an exception; it has never been

clear about the truth. In spite of this, we have always believed that God could accomplish His own work. We were not hasty; we waited for over ten years. During this time, there were over ten proposals by various brothers to start another meeting in Foochow. Personally, I have been against starting another meeting. But if you want to do it, I will not oppose it.

FOOCHOW'S PRESENT PROBLEM At present there are three problems. First, we have to receive all those who are redeemed by the blood, even the weak ones. As long as a person has not committed any sin worthy of excommunication, we have to receive him. If a foreigner is caught in the Foreign Concession District as a thief, we can put him out of the Concession. But if we catch a Chinese, we cannot put him out; we have to receive him. Even if we have to punish him, we must punish him on Chinese soil. The same is true with the church; we cannot put out any genuinely saved and regenerated person. Second, there should be no problem in fellowship among all the assemblies in China. The fellowship between one assembly and another should pose no problem at all. The only place that poses a problem now is Foochow. All the workers understand the problem here, but they have not told the other brothers. For this reason, ordinary brothers are kept in the dark about this problem and are not clear about it at all. The problem of Foochow's fellowship is not just a problem with Shanghai; it is a problem that exists between Foochow and all the assemblies in China. Third, there is the problem of the traffic of the co-workers. There is a problem among the co-workers. Three years ago I returned to Foochow, and there was a problem in Foochow concerning head covering. The local assembly did not see the truth concerning head covering. Some wanted the saints to wait for the responsible brothers to become clear before the sisters covered their heads. They had the authority to request this. Consequently, my mother and sisters removed their head covering. But it was a difficult situation. I told John that we did not demand that the sisters cover their heads when they came from Foochow to Shanghai. But some workers in Foochow rebuked some of the sisters who came to Foochow from Shanghai for covering their head in Foochow, and they demanded that these sisters adopt their stand. But our condition for receiving one another is based on life; it is not based on light. Take the matter of baptism as an example. Whether or not a believer is baptized cannot be the basis of receiving or rejecting him. In the same way, whether or not a sister covers her

head cannot become a criterion for receiving. Because of this one thing, our fellowship with Foochow was interrupted. This interruption lasted for three years. They have promised that they would give us a reply in the near future. According to the Bible, an assembly cannot receive only local saints; it has to receive everyone that the Lord has received. Brother Weigh is a very careful person as far as his way before the Lord is concerned. He considers everything carefully. If he comes to the assembly in Foochow, and the assembly in Foochow does not receive him, then it will be a problem whenever he comes to Foochow, and it will be a problem whenever any worker from China comes to Foochow. I am not speaking for myself this time. I have been delivered from myself. If there is one strand of hope to recover the assembly in Foochow, we would do it even if it meant the three of us going to them and kneeling down before them to beg. But it seems that the separating wall has become thicker and thicker. If it can become thinner and thinner, we will wait, even if it means waiting ten or twenty years. If the wall can be dissolved one day, like snow melting away, we are willing to wait as long as necessary. We want to remove the wall of separation. However, this problem has been existing for thirteen years, and is difficult to be solved. At present, there are three problems with Foochow, but more than three harms have come in. All those who have had some experience of working in Fukien province know how easy it is to get fruits in the work here. We have assemblies all along the coast of south Fukien already, and they are all practicing the principle of Acts 13 and 14. We should have moved west from here, and Foochow is the locality that should naturally bear the responsibility of spreading the gospel throughout the whole province of Fukien. There should be a strong meeting in Foochow to bear the responsibility of the work. But at present, circumstance does not allow this to happen, and this is a great loss to us. The most important thing for Brother John Wang is the Lord's Day morning pulpit, but we are after a testimony. Our goal is to teach the brothers and sisters to understand the truth about the church and to know life. On the one hand, we preach the Word, conduct meetings, and lead many people to the Lord. On the other hand, we are here to bear the testimony of the church. The assembly in Foochow should take up the responsibility for the spreading of the gospel to neighboring villages and towns. An assembly should take up the responsibility of its neighboring areas in addition to bearing its local responsibility. The money in Shanghai should not simply remain in Shanghai. It has to be sent to out-of-town

places. The workers in Shanghai do not receive one cent of supply from the local assembly. The spiritual principle is not keeping but spending. There are "saving" millionaires and there are "spending" millionaires. If the meeting in Foochow was normal, it would have taken up the responsibility for the spreading of the gospel to neighboring towns and villages. The assembly is a big family, and our meeting should reflect such a family atmosphere. If everyone fellowships warmly with one another and loves one another, the meeting will surely be a success. I can predict that as soon as a meeting loses a family atmosphere, the meeting will fail. The churches in the first century did not have any chapel. They met in the wilderness. There were no church bells, and even when they sang, they had to sing softly. The Bible says that in a meeting Eutychus fell asleep and fell down from a window. Paul was halfway through his message, but he went down and embraced him (Acts 20:911). If this happened today, it would have been forbidden for anyone to interrupt a meeting. This is far from the condition at the beginning. This is where the meeting in Shanghai has failed—it has lost the family flavor, and it is difficult for brothers and sisters to have intimate fellowship one with another. This morning I had a detailed discussion with Brother Wang Wei-san. He thinks that there is no longer a problem among the co-workers and their fellowship, but Brother John does not want to divulge the content of that talk. As far as denominations are concerned, there are at least four or five Methodist churches in Foochow alone. We had thought of having another bread-breaking meeting between the assembly in the city and the assembly in Chang-ChienShan. If we cannot break bread together, we can have at least two breadbreaking meetings. This will give others a chance to choose. Prior to the Overcomer Conference in Chuenchow, we had suggested this already. After the conference in Chuenchow, the matter was dropped. Now Brother Weigh has also taken the same view concerning this matter. At present, he has some burden for the work in Foochow. THE SOLUTION As far as the problem with Foochow is concerned, there are a few ways to solve it. First, the fellowship should absolutely be one. Second, the work can be separate. Since the work in the city and the work in Chang-Chien-Shan cannot combine together, we should at least maintain a oneness in fellowship. As to when we can be combined as one, and what the criteria is for waiting, it is hard to say.

Ephesians 4 says that we should be "diligent" to keep the oneness of the Spirit (v. 3). This is the oneness of fellowship. First Corinthians 15 says that we should be "diligent" in the work of the Lord (v. 58, according to the Chinese Union Version). Hence, we must be diligent to work on the one hand, and diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit on the other hand.

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