Matthew-053

 

Why are we not the spiritual giants that the Lord Jesus expects us to be? In Matthew 11:11, the Lord Jesus declared that he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist, not just will be greater. We saw what a striking word that is from the Lord Jesus, and whether we can measure up to his expectations of God’s church. We also asked why is it when we look around today, we don’t even see people who are half the caliber of John the Baptist, spiritually speaking, let alone be greater than John the Baptist. We find our­selves in a generation of spiritual midgets or pygmies. We cannot find these spiritual giants that the Lord Jesus died to bring into being.

Today, we need to look at the cause for this. Why don’t we find these spiritual giants in our midst? Put in another way, why aren’t we the kind of spiritual giants that the Lord expects us to be? When I consider at what cost he redeemed us, that he purchased us with his blood, what kind of risk he took in order to set us free from sin and to make us the people of God, and what the church gives him in return, it’s just pitiful to consider. This half-hearted, wishy-washy attitude that we give to him as a presentation of the offering of our faith is simply too shameful to consider! If we are certain, as indeed we should be, that we have been redeemed by his blood, that he has redeemed us at unspeakable cost to himself, dare we live this kind of Christianity that goes by the name of “Christianity” in the world today? Why don’t we see the spiritual power and spiritual glory of Christ in his saints today, if indeed we are his saints? This is what we need to look at.

I will look at something very basic today. Sometimes, when we find trouble with our lives, we need to go back to the basics and examine the root of our faith, the foundation of our spiritual life. If, by the mercy of God and by his grace, we will implement the Lord Jesus’ teaching, we will do what he calls us to do, I have not a shadow of doubt in my mind that the fullness of God’s power, something even greater than John the Baptist, will be manifested in each of our lives.

 

Win the world with God’s Word and his army of the totally committed!

This is my spiritual ambition: that each one of us will become spiritual giants in this generation, not so that we may have some kind of glory for ourselves, but that we may become effective in the work of salvation. I am concerned about evangelism. I am concerned for outreach when we are ready for the outreach. Today, churches are all rushing for outreach. Imagine, spiritual kindergarten people who cannot even stand on their own feet, who cannot understand the Word of God, and they all want to do outreach! They are not ready for this. You are sending infants to battle. You will be over­whelmed by the enemy long before you get anywhere. What do you do when you want to fight a war? You train an army, and the better trained the army is, the more effective they will be. Do we want to win the world for Christ with a bunch of untrained people? Even worse, with a bunch of totally uncommitted people? You cannot win the world for Christ like this.

If evangelism is winning the world for Christ, there is a long prepa­ration before we can begin to go out into spiritual battle. Therefore we have concentrated in these years to build the Lord’s army. We have not worried about outreach because the larger the number, the harder it is to train an effective army. You cannot give each one the personal attention that they need, so I have been contented to move in a small way, just as the Lord Jesus put his time and energy in only 12 men. He concentrated in these 12 ordinary men until they were not so ordinary anymore. They were equipped with God’s power, not only in their words, but they also modeled their lives after Christ to manifest God. These 12 men were all the Lord Jesus needed to turn the world upside down. That is the strategy.

But we don’t learn very well. So when we have a young Christian, we say, “Go on and evangelize!” We want “evangelism explosion.” Well, we have an explosion, and what happens after an explosion? We’ve got fragments here, there and everywhere. I don’t want an explosion. What we want is something that is constructive, that grows steadily into the fullness of the stature of Christ. And you don’t get the full­ness of the stature of Christ by any explosion, let me assure you. We want to have quick results we can see, but the Lord Jesus is not interested in that. For three years, his precious time was spent on building 12 ordinary men! Try to understand that well. This is what we aim to do. We must get to the roots of this matter. We certainly will reach out. When the army is ready for battle, we shall conquer in the name of God. But until that is done, we won’t be able to win any spiritual battles.

 

Build a few on solid foundation first, to build others into disciples

I have had to learn this the hard way. I remember well the mistakes we made in the Chinese Church in London. We expanded by explo­sive force! We multiplied 500% within a year! The church just grew! People rushed from all over England to see what was happening with this Chinese church. It was phenomenal, fantastic church growth! We had an explosion and we blew apart. That was the problem. The church was wide in scope but weak internally. It could not stand the first attack of the evil one and it collapsed. The numbers were still there but spiritually, the inside was gone. Then five years later, when I looked at the church that I had helped to build, and I had put some of the best years of my life into it, putting my academic career on the line to build this church, I could see 98% of the people had fallen away from the Lord.

I determined never again to build this kind of church. I pray that God will teach me how I should do it right, modeling on what the Lord Jesus did. We should not worry about explosion, rather, just concentrate on building the foundation firmly. Or to change the imagery, concentrate on building a few until they reach the fullness of the stature of Christ, then they will have the power to reach out, and people will be drawn to God. Concentrate on the building of disciples. That was the way the Lord Jesus did it. I had to learn this lesson the hard way. We often think we are smarter than the Lord Jesus, we can do greater things, and we make a mess because we did not do it his way.

Let us come back to this. Why don’t we find mighty men today? It’s because of our explosion. Where is the mighty man? It’s hard to find. If you scan through the modern day churches to look for the mighty men, it’s hard to come by one of those. If you ever meet a mighty man, tell me about him. I’ll rush there to meet him and have fellow­ship with him. Oh, I am longing to meet these mighty men of God. What is the cause? Let us return to the Lord Jesus’ teaching in Mark 8:31-38.

Jesus had already been teaching his disciples for a couple of years, and after all this, he is coming back to the foundational truths. He was now at a critical point of his ministry, nearing the end of it. His disciples had been following him for some time.

I am sure you have read this important passage many times. It says that no man can be his disciple without denying himself, taking up his cross, and follow him. The link between these verses is very plain. Peter has just made a confession of the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. The Lord Jesus told him that he did not discern this by his own insight but that the Father had revealed this to him. The Christ, the Messiah means the King of Israel. They acknowledged that he was the King of Israel, the Son of God. But before they get the wrong idea of what his kingship is about, if they thought this in terms of worldly glory, then they misunderstood the matter.

Therefore he immediately began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, that instead of glory in Israel, the whole religious establishment was going to turn their backs on him. This seemed very difficult for the disciples to understand at that stage, because up to now, the religious opposition was not so obvious. It was smoldering but had not come out fully into the open. And it was also difficult to understand because Jesus was apparently so popular with the crowds. But the Lord Jesus said, “This whole situation is going to change. The smoldering resistance is going to become an outright rejection. More than that, I am going to be killed by the religious leaders.” And he said this plainly. I have already said that when the Lord Jesus speaks, he speaks plainly. He doesn’t try to confuse us. He wants us to understand.

However, Peter did not like what he heard, and began to rebuke the Lord Jesus. He said, “Oh no, you don’t want to go and die. Don’t be so negative in your thinking. You’ve got to be more positive – the power of positive thinking. This business of getting killed is rather too nega­tive. You’ve got to think positively otherwise you don’t sleep too well at night.” So he began to reason and to rebuke the Lord Jesus. But for his troubles, he himself got severely rebuked: “Get behind me, Satan! For you do not stand on the side of God but on the side of men.” The Lord Jesus said to Peter, “You are my adversary because yours is a human way of thinking; it’s not God’s way of thinking.”

Then he goes on and puts the case before the disciples: “Not only do I have to go to the cross, but you also have to, if you follow me. If that’s where I am going, that’s where you are going if you follow me.” This is a statement not just for the disciples but for every disciple, every would-be Christian. He then speaks about the denying of the self, and this is what we have to study today.

The problem here is this: We seem to know what this idea of self-denial means. Deny self means you deny yourself. The language seems very plain. What self-denial means simply is, say “no” to your self. We seem to know what it means, but in fact, when it comes down to the specifics, we don’t seem to know what it means. And there is the confusion of this term: self-denial, denying self. We don’t seem to know what it means, but we think we know. And yet when you are asked to define this thing more specifically, then we don’t know what it means. And this is what we must understand carefully. I have seen many people who say that they are totally committed, and yet all the marks of a non-commitment are seen in their lives. And yet, they genuinely think that they are totally committed. That is the strange thing about it. Either they don’t understand what self-denial means, or they don’t want to understand what it means. And I hope it is rather the former than the latter.

 

What’s the use if you gain the world and lose physical and eternal life?

What is the connection of verse 35 to 34? Verse 35 says, “Whoever will save his life will lose it.” The connection is very clear: To lose one’s life is precisely to deny oneself, take up your cross and follow Jesus. When you take up your cross, you will lose your life. The cross is an instrument of death, so you are going to be crucified; you are going to die. But the Lord Jesus says, “If you think that you will save your life by not taking up the cross, then you are mistaken, because you will lose your life precisely by not taking up the cross.”

Then what is the connection to verse 36? “For what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world”? You have to understand that the worldly man thinks that he saves his life by gaining the world. For him, his life is understood in terms of gaining the world. Look at the artist. What does he live for? He lives for the applause of man. For him, gaining the world is gaining the applause of the world. For many people, they are happy not necessarily to gain the whole world. They cannot have that much ambition to gain the whole world, but they are quite happy if they gain some small corner of the world.

Some people think they are a great success because they are millionaires, but in terms of all the money in the world, what they have is a very small amount of money. There are countless billions and billions in the world that if you gain a million, that is a very small slice of the pie. So the Lord Jesus is not talking about gaining the whole world here, but even just one fragment of it will be quite sufficient for the worldly man. His whole eye is on seeking to gain the world. For him, the world is life.

In Chinese, there is the saying: 要錢不要命, in the sense that money is even more valuable than your life. People are ready to die for it. Treasure hunters know what kinds of danger there are when they do skin diving to get the submerged treasure in the sea. There is the danger of attack by sharks, for example. You may pass out in the depths, and drown before you could recover. Or you might suffer serious results when you come to the surface. Although the tech­niques of skin diving are improving, there are constant dangers of being trapped in the wreck. If you are swimming with a pipe, the pipe may be cut by some sharp metal and you will drown before you can get to the surface. But people are willing to risk their lives to get to this treasure, so the treasure is more valuable in some sense, than their own lives.

We seem to be risking our lives all the time. You like to learn flying, but your plane may crash. You like to learn driving, but your car may crash too. The important question is: What do we risk our lives for? For some people, they are willing to risk it to gain the world.

I am quite familiar with this. Those of us who have military ambi­tions are all the time putting our lives on the line. We gain the world through military adventure, but we are willing to put our life on the line before we gain even one fraction of the world. For the worldly man, he stakes his life in order to gain the world. “For what shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lost his life?”, not just physical life; even more importantly, if you’ve lost spiritual life, if you’ve lost the possibility of eternal life, what do you do with the world? So we see this connection going through this passage.

 

“If any man come after me, he must deny himself, take up the cross, keep following me.”

Let’s look at verse 34 which is the passage we need to look at in greater detail. This passage has three elements in it. Jesus said, “If any man come after me,” he has to do three things: First, he must deny himself. Secondly, he must take up the cross. Thirdly, he must “keep on following me,” a present continuous tense. It’s not just “follow me” once or for a while, but constantly “follow me.”

Let us look at this matter of denying oneself. First of all, why is it so important to deny oneself? Wherein lies the importance of this matter? What is the danger of self that it has to be denied? When we look at the history of mankind, we find that the reason for every failure is the failure to deny self. Why did Eve eat the fruit that was forbidden? The answer is simple: self. God said, “No,” but I say, “Yes.” Or “I’m willing to give it a try.” The self gives way. We have not denied the self. Eve certainly did not deny her self. If she had denied her self, she wouldn’t have eaten the fruit that was forbidden. But why did Adam also fall? Again, he did not deny himself. Why did anyone fail in sin? It’s because of the self, isn’t it? There is a reason and the reason is always lodged in the self.

I find it very interesting when I talk to people who fail. It’s incredible that they always have a very convincing reason to justify their failure. It is convincing because for them, self is what counts. Their whole thinking is governed by the principle of self. For the spiritual man, that is not a reason. Why did you fall into this sin? “Oh, the circumstances were such that I found it so hard to resist.”

That is exactly what Adam was saying when Eve presented him the fruit. He should have said, “No, I’m not eating this. I love you very much as my wife. And God has given you to me. Indeed, he has; there’s no denying this. But I will not eat this even if it offends you, even if you are going to grab that fruit and throw it in my face; I’m sorry, I’m not going to eat it because God said I shall not eat it.” But Adam said nothing of the kind. So when he failed, what is his reason? The woman. And the woman passes the blame to the serpent and the serpent has nobody to pass the blame to.

It’s shameful even to say, “I failed because of the woman.” You only fail because of yourself. You don’t fail because of anybody else. A person who fails always likes to put the blame on someone else. We must understand one thing scripturally, that on the Day of Judgement, when the Lord Jesus comes, we have to answer for our failure, and you fail because of your self. When people are asked, “Why did you commit this sin?” The answer is always: “Oh, I was in an impossible position. I had to do it.” You don’t have to do it. You did it because you did not say, “no” to your self. So what is the danger of not denying self? The danger is that you cannot survive spiritually because like Eve and like Adam, you will go down. Why did David go down? It’s the self again. He cannot resist a beautiful woman he sees. His flesh gets the better of him. He looks and keeps looking, and his heart gets more worked up. And what does he do? He commits murder to get her. He sends her husband to the frontline in the battlefield. He dies so that he can marry her. What is he doing? There is the self again.

All the time it is the self. So the failure to deny self is going to be absolutely fatal. You must understand this very clearly, and I have the feeling that you probably already do. The problem is that when it comes to the actual sinning, we cannot seem to remember this truth. We understand when we sit in the coolness of our chair, and we think coolly about the matter. But why do Christians sin? If you know it, why did you do it?

 

The world, the flesh, the devil all operate on only one principle: The self

We speak about the world, the flesh and the devil as the enemies of the Christian life. Do you know that these are not three different things? All of these operate on only one principle: the self. The world operates on the principle of self. The self is what motivates us in the flesh to do what my flesh wants me to do. The devil is always moti­vated by self: “Why do you listen to God? Do what you like.” The Lord Jesus said to Peter, “You stand on the side of “man” in the sense of the unregenerate man is always motivated by self. Why do Christians fall? Self. Why do young people fall into sexual sins? The answer is plain: you have not been able to deny your self, therefore you do these things. Afterwards, you regret, but you’ve already done it. Why have you not denied self? Don’t you understand that when you do these things, and you have not denied self, you cannot be a disciple of the Lord Jesus? He said this, I didn’t say it.

Look at the world. It functions entirely on the principle of self. When we say that we must not love the world, it means we must not love our self. But of course, we love our selves, so we love the world. There isn’t any difference. The world functions on the basis of the self. The whole society functions on the principle of self-interest. If you took away this principle from the world, the whole society in this world would collapse because it hasn’t got another principle to function on.

Look at all the advertisements that you see around, and it would not take you long to discern immediately, that the whole society works on self. You buy a new car. How are new cars advertised? If you study the advertisements, they are very revealing. For example, I was looking at an advertisement for car stereos, and it was almost too ridiculous to look at! You see a very attractive girl who is a waitress serving at a take-out restaurant. Who does she serve? She serves this guy in a particular car. She ignores all the other cars parked there and she serves this guy in this one particular car. So the advertise­ment says, “Why does she serve this guy in this car? Is it because he drives a very magnificent car? But you see that it’s a mini. Is it because this guy is dressed in the latest style suit? You see that he wears an ordinary suit. Is this guy very handsome? He is a middle-aged balding fellow, so it makes you question why she is ignoring all these handsome guys sitting in these beautiful cars and coming to this this middle-aged, half bald-headed fellow, dressed in this rather ordinary suit, sitting in a yellow mini. The answer of course, is be­cause of his car stereo! The car stereo draws this attractive waitress to your car to serve you. How ridiculous! But it plays on all the elements of self: the desire for attention, particularly the attention of a very attractive girl, and the desire for food – she not only brings herself but also the food around. She ignores the entire crowd and you are the one that she pays attention to. Therefore buy this car stereo! The appeal to self and the lowest elements in self are always there. You can just study any of these advertisements for yourself.

And there is the advertisement of a car. This car is parked very significantly outside the Hilton. And what has the Hilton got to do with this car? The idea is to suggest to you that people who drive this kind of car go to the Hilton. If you drive this kind of car, you will be in the class of people who go to the Hilton.

Then you see an advertisement of a watch. Who is wearing this? Some well-known sports personality, maybe Muhammad Ali. There he is wearing this watch. What has he got to do with the watch? The idea is if you wore this kind of watch, you will be in the class of people like Muhammad Ali. Or if you don’t happen to be interested in boxing, they have got someone else that suits your taste. If you like hotel management, then there is a photo of this boss of a chain of hotels around the world, and what is he doing? There’s a photograph of him sitting, his watch gleaming conspicuously, and he’s wearing the advertised watch! This is the appeal to self. The relevance of all this hardly strikes you because you might suggest that another owner of a chain of great restaurants in fact, wears the cheapest watch in the world, but that is not advertised. So the appeal to self is constantly being hinted at you. This whole society is built in this kind of way.

The Royal Bank is running a series of advertisements which is very interesting: “We succeed when you succeed.” This is absolutely honest about their selfish motive. Why do we want you to succeed? They are rather interested that you succeed so that they can get more money out of you to put into their bank. Naturally, “we succeed when you succeed.” Of course, we don’t want you to fail, because if you fail, you’ll have no money to put in the bank. That is as honest as you can get about the self-centered interest. Now if my business would prosper to your failure, then I suppose the Royal Bank will say, “I hope you fail so that we succeed.”

And there’s the advertisement: “Steinberg is on your side,” this supermarket is especially on the side of your purse!

 

Worldly morality is also built on selfishness

The most remarkable thing is that if you want to motivate a worldly man to be moral, you have to appeal to his selfishness, otherwise even his morality will not function. The worldly morality is also built on selfishness. That is remarkable, isn’t it? You can even persuade people to be moral by being selfish. For example, “Honesty is the best policy.” What does that mean? Well, if you are honest, you will stay out of trouble. So that is the best policy. If you are not honest, you might end up in jail, and that’s not a very good policy. So the way to stay out of jail is to be honest. Even being honest appeals again to the self

Or “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” So the reason that I’m doing this for you is purely out of self-interest. I am kind to you so that you will be kind to me. If I’m not sure that you are going to be kind to me, I won’t be kind to you. So let’s agree first. If I scratch your back, you will remember to scratch mine. In this way, we have a morality, a concern for others which is based on self-interest: “I’m going to help you now when you’re in trouble, so that when I’m in trouble you’ll remember to help me.” This is the natural man. This is very reasonable on the logic of the self. “I don’t want to give you something when I don’t get something back (禮上往來, li shang wang lai). If I give you something, you must remember. What I gave you was about $5’s worth. When you buy something for me, make it $5.50 because of inflation. Otherwise, I’m going to lose out on this exchange. You must be fair.” This is the whole logic of the carnal man, the natural man. Even if he is being good—if you can call it good—he is motivated by selfishness. I will help him repair his car if his car breaks down, in the hope that when my car breaks down, he will help to repair mine. This is very understandable.

So you say, “Worldly people are so nice.” Of course, they are so nice, it’s because they want to get something out of you. Sometimes, worldly people can be nice simply because it feels good to be nice. Take for example, if you put a few coins into the hat of a beggar, it certainly makes you feel so good. Even though the beggar cannot give you anything in return, how good you feel is more than suffi­cient reward. You only put in a dollar, but the good feeling over giving one dollar is worth every bit of it!

Or, perhaps you did something wrong, and by doing a bit of good helps to improve your conscience. I did some wrong, so I balance it out by doing some good. Even for morality, it is motivated entirely by the self-interest within. That is the natural man. This is the nature of our society in which we live. That’s why I said, the world is motivated by self.

The fact that the flesh is driven by self needs no further explanation.

We also know already that the devil is motivated by self. That is why he tries to take the place of God. He wants to be number one.

Needless to say, the self always wants to be number one. As every psychologist knows, the way to get someone else do something is to make him feel that he’s going to feel good as a result of doing it. If you buy this suit from our shop and wear it, you will really be number one! You will be like the Prince of Monaco.

You must understand then, we are not facing a multitude of enemies, but we are facing one enemy. It’s not that the world is some kind of enemy, and the flesh is another. This is simply the self functioning in different spheres. The enemy is always the same. We are our greatest enemy when it comes to spiritual life and spiritual reality.

 

What are the marks of the self?

The question is: How do we know whether we are delivered from the self or not? I should think I am speaking mostly to people who consider themselves to be disciples. Yet, I find it alarming that among people who think that they have already disposed of the self, one sees the marks of the self everywhere.

 

Praise of man, excited by things of this world

What are the marks of the self which are very common among Christians? You just saw that it says the carnal man seeks to gain the world. Let us look at ourselves. When you are given a promotion in your company, how good it feels! This is really something great! Suddenly, you feel yourself six feet high. Or what are the things that give you pleasure? Does the applause or praise of man make you feel high? You should be careful about that because if praise has that kind of effect upon you, the chances are that your self is very far from having been denied.

Or do the things of this present age matter more or are equally important to you than the things which are eternal? Do they give equal excitement to you? There are the signs of danger; the marks of the carnal man.

 

Pride

What about the struggle with pride? The apostle John speaks about that in 1 John 2:16. He says, “The pride of life, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh” are marks of the carnal man. Sometimes, I find even in conversation with Christians, from the things that they gloat about, you see the self has not been denied.

 

Individualism

Another sign of self of course is individualism. Particularly painful to me, is to see in the Training Team, individualism raising its ugly head at times. What is individualism but self? The assertion of the self to do it my way. In Frank Sinatra’s wonderful song, “I did it my way.” Right down to the grave, I did it my way. Then what is he going to do in his way at the Judgement? I don’t know. The problem here is always individualism. “I want to do this and I want to do it in my way.” In a discussion, for example, it is the insistence that “This is the way I want to have it done. This is the only way that is right.” Or, “If they don’t want to go along with me, I’ll go ahead and do it all the same. I don’t have to consider whether you like it or not, or whether you think it’s good or not, I’m going to do it.” These are not talking about matters of doctrine, but matters of how we conduct ourselves. Sometimes, we even have to ask them to leave the team because the individualism makes team work impossible. Such people cannot function properly in a team because they are going to split the team before too long if they insist in their way of doing things.

 

Have no opinions: Unconcerned about God’s interest

I don’t mean to say that we have no thoughts or ideas of our own. By all means, we should have thoughts, helpful suggestions and present them. It is rather difficult when someone has no feelings on anything whatsoever. After all, when you have a co-worker, you want some opinions. When you say, “How about this way?” and he says, “That’s okay.” And you say, “How about the other way?” And he says, “That’s okay” too. It’s good to you, but the question is, which is better as far as the Lord’s work is concerned? I am not asking you which you prefer. The self can even be expressed in this no-opinion position. Do you see that it is simply: “I don’t care. Any way will do.” That is not selflessness, because if self has been denied, I am concerned about God’s interest. Therefore I will consider which of these ways is best for God’s work. So don’t think, “Anything is okay for me, just as I don’t mind whether it’s coffee or tea.” Most people don’t care too much about whether it is coffee or tea either, but in many arrange­ments, if you have no suggestion to make, you may be opting out of your responsibility. That is not a sign that your self is dead, it’s simply that you are unconcerned about what is best for God’s work.

 

Moodiness

Moodiness is a sure mark. So if you think you have denied your self and you are in good spirits one day and in bad spirits the next, then so much for what you think. What is moodiness? It is simply that you are focusing your attention on your inner feelings. That is what a moody person does. He does not look away from himself to God. God is always the same, whether the weather is good or bad, whether someone has been nice to him, what difference does that make to God? A person who fixes his mind and heart on God does not become moody. He is absorbed with God, therefore he doesn’t have to go up and down in moods.

 

The lack of perception

Another sign of failure to deny one’s self, or the failure to put away self is the lack of perception. This problem worries me a lot. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, especially chapters 1 and 2 that spiritual things are spiritually discerned and the carnal man cannot discern them. Often in a conversation, you see that the person is speaking but has no spiritual perception at all (cannot discern the spiritual content of things) because spiritual things are discerned spiritually. Unless you are spiritual, you cannot understand or discern them. This comes out in preaching, leading Bible studies, and conversation. You see that there is no spiritual perception there, and this is a great problem. Now perception takes time to grow, but it will never grow at all unless the self has been put away.

 

How to deal with the self?

We must come to this question of how to deal with the self. This is vital for us. How to deal with the self is the problem that so many people have wrestled with and failed. This is the reason why we don’t have the spiritual giants that God can bring into being in his church. Now look again at this verse:

Clearly, there is a negative and a positive here. Deny oneself is the negative side of things. Take up the cross is the positive side, but we shall not expound the positive aspect now. Rather, we shall expound this verse today, in the light of Galatians 2:20. This is another well-known verse often quoted but not so often understood:

 

1. Die with Christ: Turn your back on the self-centered way of thinking

Let us draw a number of points very quickly from this passage. First of all, we are talking about the very basics: I have been crucified. It’s not something in the future; it’s not something merely in the present, but it is something which for Paul, is a reality already in the past. It is a perfect passive tense: I have been crucified with Christ. When he came to, he understood that the self had to go. He denied himself. You cannot be crucified with Christ unless you have denied your self; you have come to an utter end of your self.

You have seen that the world’s way of thinking is self-centered, but when you become a Christian, you turn your back on this way of self-centered thinking. Your whole attitude has to change completely. The whole meaning of baptism is that you die with Christ. But how many people having been baptized, have really died with Christ, being crucified with him? If that were the truth in the fullness of its application, there would be a power functioning within you now, that will certainly exceed that of John the Baptist.

 

2. Choose Christ, not your self

The second thing we need to look at right away is this:

What does “no longer I but Christ” mean? The first thing that is clear to us is that so long as I live, Christ cannot live in me. Grasp this very clearly. If Christ could live within me, without my having died, without my having been crucified with him, then why should I be cru­cified at all? Paul is saying exactly the same thing as the Lord Jesus is saying in Mark 8:34, “Unless you deny yourself, you cannot follow me.”

This faces us with a choice. We have to choose either self or Christ, but we cannot choose both. “If you don’t deny yourself you cannot follow me. If you follow me, you have to deny yourself.” You either choose your self or you choose me.” That is exactly the same thing that Paul is saying here: “Only when I am crucified with Christ can I say, ‘Christ now lives in me’, because God’s Holy Spirit now lives in me to live out Christ’s life.

The reason that the life of Christ has not been able to function in our lives is precisely because we have not denied ourselves, we have not died to our self. The reason for this is that man’s self in my carnal nature is the opposite of Christ’s God-centered life. They are totally disparate; you cannot have these two forces side by side. In Chinese we say, “世不兩立” (shi bu liang li). Therefore, if my “I” has not died but is alive, then ‘Christ cannot live in me’; God’s Holy Spirit does not live in me to empower me to live out the life of Christ. That is how it is. Now, are you perfectly sure that Christ lives in you?

We use the term “in Christ.” Now we cannot be “in Christ” unless Christ is in us. We can see that from John 15:4, “I in you, you in me.” Paul uses the term “to be in Christ” which is exactly derived from there. These are two complementary truths. You cannot be in Christ unless Christ is in you. If Christ’s life in all its fullness is lived out by me by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, and Christ is greater than John the Baptist, then clearly, I am greater than John the Baptist, because it is not I but Christ who lives in me. I wonder how many of you, dear brothers and sisters, know the truth of Christ living in you?

 

If Christ lives in you:

1. You will have sweetness of communion with God

If Christ lives in us because God’s Holy Spirit in us empowers us to live the life of Christ, two things will certainly happen immediately. The first is that I will have communion with God’s Holy Spirit. What happens if someone lives in your house? You will see him every day. You will talk with him. You will communicate with him. And if your self has died, and the person is totally unselfish, what sweetness of communion there will be!

For those of you who are in love, do you recall why love between two young lovers is so sweet in the early stages, until the self starts appearing? This so-called “falling in love at first sight” is all very fine, there is no problem because “at first sight,” the self has no time to assert itself yet. It is very sweet at that stage. It is precisely because the two people have put the other person first for the moment. It’s so sweet! But when each person starts asserting their self, their own ideas, insisting on their own ways, and their self-interest, then the fighting begins. And when it comes to marriage, the husband insists that this is the way it has to be done, and the wife insists, “No, my grandmother always did it this way and that’s the way I’m going to do it!” Then he says, “No, my father did it this way and that’s the way I’m going to do it!” They are really at each other’s throats, really fighting it out! No fellowship can be sweet when self comes into it.

Why is our fellowship with God so poor, that is, if we have any fellowship at all? Because self is there. I am always interested in my self. How can I commune with God? Therefore communion is destroyed. Do you enjoy sweetness of communion with God? Be very honest with yourself. Let me say that if you don’t enjoy sweetness of communion with God, the answer is very easy to find. You have not denied self. Christ Jesus denied himself to the point of death on the cross for you and me, but we haven’t denied ourselves. And let me say with absolute certainty that when you deny yourself, God will grant you the sweetness of communion with himself such as you dare not imagine. How precious is that sweetness!

If you experience trouble in prayer, you will know in a moment’s diagnosis that the self is fighting you every step of the way. You kneel down and immediately, everything starts coming against you. The self rises up in protest: “I haven’t got time for this! I’ve got so much homework to do, don’t you understand? I can’t spend time kneeling here talking to God. We’ll do that when we get to eternity. For now, we’ve got to get on with the realities of everyday life.” Oh yes, the self has so many reasons that are very reasonable. “Bye-bye God, we’ll see you another time. Maybe in eternity I will see you again.” Self opposes you and you know that’s the truth. What’s the point of being a Christian if you don’t want to live in the sweetness of communion with God? Why not forget the whole business? It’s either Christ (I live out Christ’s life), or I (I live out my self life). It means to choose one of these two. If you want to choose the “I,” then do God the favor of saying, “I am not a Christian, and I don’t intend to be a Christian.” Otherwise, people think you are a Christian, and you disgrace the name of God. People don’t want to become Christians because of you!

 

2. You will have an obvious measure of power in your life

If Christ lives in you, the second thing that will happen is that a measure of power comes into your life that will soon become very obvious. You don’t lose spiritual battles, but always win them. Do you always fail? Then clearly, you have not denied self. Your self has not been crucified. A Christian who fails constantly cannot be a victorious Christian. But Paul says, “He has made us to be more than conquerors.” To be “more than conquerors” is not just to barely sur­vive; it is superabundance! There is no contest in the battle because of the power that is functioning within us. He is living within us to will and to do for his good pleasure. And yet, we cannot do for his good pleasure because self is there. As I said, you seem to under­stand what self-denial is, yet in daily practice, self is there all the time. We must once and for all settle this question. If we don’t once and for all settle this question, we are not going to make it as Christ’s disciples. Would that Christ live in us, that we live out Christ’s life by the power of God’s Holy Spirit!

 

3. You will experience God answering your prayers

Let us consider this final point. When you pray, and God does not answer, when you ask some more, and he still doesn’t answer; and you say, “God, I’ve prayed about this ten times already, but you’re still not answering. Are you there or not?” The answer is he is there, but you aren’t. That’s the problem. What do I mean by you aren’t there? You are not there spiritually. You haven’t arrived. The self is still dominating your life.

I would like you to remember James 1:8 very clearly: “Let not the double-minded man think that he will receive anything from God.” God told you in advance that you won’t receive anything. Don’t ask why he didn’t answer because he already told you he won’t when you are double-minded.

What does “double-minded” mean? The most dangerous form of the Christian life is the kind that we partly deny ourselves, partly acknowledge the lordship of Christ by obeying his teaching. And yet, partly we don’t deny ourselves, and therefore, partly don’t obey to acknowledge the lordship of Christ. Either Christ is Lord or he is not. This is something you must settle in your mind once and for all.

If you pray and God doesn’t answer, it’s because self is still alive. You have not thoroughly denied your self, therefore you are double-minded in your thinking. Do you know what is the consequence? If you keep on praying and God keeps on not answering you, naturally, what little so-called “faith” you have is going to go down the drain.

How does God’s reality come to you? How does God work so that you experience him working in your life? It is by experiencing him answering your prayers. And when you pray again, he answers again. And because he is working all the time, you say, “I know God is real! I see him working. I experience his power!” You can say with the apostle Paul, “I know whom I have believed!” But can you say that? It seems that you pray and he doesn’t answer. You pray again and he doesn’t answer. He keeps on not answering. So you say God isn’t real. Certainly, God is real!

Those of us who have put the truth of Christ’s teaching to the test, who have applied Christ’s teaching in our lives, we know God is real. I wouldn’t be standing here preaching these teachings if I had the slightest doubt in my mind that God is real. Rather, I should make myself a good living elsewhere. No, I speak because I know he is real, and I want you to experience that he is real. I am telling you the truth that Christ has taught that unless you come single-mindedly to follow him as his disciple, to finish with self totally, you will never experience God’s reality.

 

You must make a choice between Christ’s life and “I” life

You have to make a choice between Christ and your self, between living Christ’s life and living the “I” life. I would urge you not to say, “Oh, I have made this choice long ago.” Have you made it? So I should see you as a spiritual giant, having sweet communion with God! Is the fullness of God’s power coming through your life? Do I see this? If I don’t, then I think you need to examine whether indeed you have denied your self (you have said “no” to your self), whether you have died to your self.