This morning, O our Father, as we think
of what we were in ourselves before we
trust in Thy Son, we were but rebels,
sinners, far, far away from Thee, and yet
through Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Thou
hast drawn us to Thee.
We are so near to Thee that it
cannot be nearer, because we are accepted in
Thy beloved Son.
O how we praise and thank Thee that
today we are children of God.
We are partakers of Thy divine nature.
O our Father, our hearts do bow very
low before Thee in worship and in praise.
Father, we ask Thee that this morning Thou
will open our eyes once again to have
a deeper insight into Thy way, into Thyself,
that we may learn how to love Thee
and follow Thee, that we may be delivered
from misunderstanding, from murmuring against Thee, O that
we may know Thy way.
We do commit this hour into Thy hands.
We trust Thee for Thy Spirit's working, without
which nothing can be done.
O Lord, we ask Thee that Thou will
give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
Thou will open the eyes of our understanding,
that we may know Him as we have
never known before.
We ask in Thy precious name.
I would like to draw your attention to
a verse which is often overlooked.
I do not know if you have ever
read such a verse in the Bible.
It is not a difficult place to find,
but it is in the Old Testament.
Will you please turn to Jeremiah chapter 48.
Jeremiah chapter 48.
Jeremiah 48 verse 11.
Have you ever read this verse before?
Let us repeat it.
Jeremiah 48 verse 11.
God often encloses His deepest truth in the
simplest metaphor.
And here you find one of them.
Before we go into this verse, I think
we need to know a little bit about
the background.
We know that the prophet Jeremiah was called
of God when he was very young.
He prophesied to the nation of Judah during
the time of the end, closing of that
nation.
He had been very faithful in prophesying, in
delivering the messages of God to his own
people again, again and again.
And we know that he was one of
those who went into Egypt after the captivity
of the nation to Babylon.
But towards the end of his prophecies, we
find that he turned from the nation of
Judah and Israel to the nations that surrounded
Judah and Israel.
It is as if he looked around and
tried to see what about these nations that
surrounded the nation of Judah.
You know he was puzzled by one thing.
Being a prophet to Judah, to the people
of God, he had to deliver very strong
messages to them.
He told them, he forewarned them, that if
they did not repent, they would enter into
captivity.
And his prophecies came true.
The nation entered into captivity.
And what was left went into Egypt.
And we know that they perished there.
So after prophesying to the nation of Judah
for such a long period, and after seeing
what had happened to God's people, when he
turned around to look at the surrounding nations,
he was deeply troubled.
Why was it that God's people suffered so
much, while these nations, which did not respect
God, seemed to have a peaceful time?
He couldn't understand.
So you find that in his prophecy concerning
the surrounding nations, one of them being Moab,
he was actually agonizing before God.
He had a problem he could not solve.
He was faced with a fact which he
did not understand.
The fact was very simple.
God's people suffered greatly, while those nations that
did not know God seemed to have a
prosperous time.
What was the explanation?
How could you explain such a phenomenon?
The Spirit of God inspired the prophet.
God gave him a metaphor, a figure of
speech.
And in that parable, God revealed to the
prophet Jeremiah the answer, the answer to his
question, the solution to his problem.
And this parable was found in chapter 48,
verse 48.
We know that Moab came from Lot.
Israel came from Abraham, the friend of God.
But Moab came from Lot.
And Moab was born as a result of
sin.
The very word Moab means from his father.
In other words, Moab was just a reproduction
of his ancestor.
Moab as a nation lived at the east
of Israel, on the other side of Judah.
Yet when Israel and Judah were in deep
waters, Moab, the neighboring nation, a nation that
did not respect God, a nation which was
born out of sin, seemed to have a
good time.
And even when Judah and Israel were in
trouble, they were standing by and joking, mocking
and laughing.
And probably they were putting their part of
persecution.
They seemed to get by all right, while
God's people was in trouble.
So here you'll find the prophet said, Moab
had been at ease from his youth.
The ease of Moab is probable.
He did not enjoy ease just for a
short period.
The Bible said he enjoyed ease from his
youth.
Even when he was young, he had a
good time.
And he continued to have good time for
a long period.
Moab had been at ease from his youth.
Now dear brothers and sisters, is it not
something that we look for?
How we long that we may live a
life at ease.
How we hope that even from our very
young days, we will have a comfortable and
easy life.
And you know, some people have easy life
when they are young, but have very difficult
time when they are old.
Now I do not know.
Some people said it is better to have
a hard time when you are young, and
have an easier time when you are old.
I think there is psychological reason for it.
But what we hope for is that from
our very childhood, from our very youth, until
the day of our old age, oh if
only we may have a good time at
ease and comfort.
This will certainly be the blessing many
of God's people today.
Still have that missing.
Many of God's people today are still thinking
that if they believe in the Lord Jesus,
surely they will be blessed of the Lord.
And being blessed of the Lord means that
they can live at ease and comfort.
To many of God's people, God's blessing is
still something physical and material.
If you believe in the Lord Jesus, and
you have a smooth time and prosperous day,
everybody will say, well, you are blessed of
the Lord.
But suppose you believe in the Lord Jesus,
and you have very difficult days.
You do not seem to have smooth sailing.
You have problem after problem, trouble after trouble.
Even if other people are not saved, probably
you will say to yourself, God must have
cursed me.
Otherwise, how can such things happen?
You know, in our mentality, we always think
to be at ease is blessed of the
Lord.
To have trouble certainly is not blessed.
Humanly speaking, that is correct.
Moab has been at ease from his youth.
Do you think this is a good sign
of life?
It seems to be.
Even the prophet Jeremiah was troubled, but God
began to explain.
Moab has been at ease from his youth,
and has settled on his knees.
God used the metaphor of wine making.
Making wine.
You know, in the land of Palestine, in
the old days, wine and grain are the
two main things of life.
Suppose you have grapes.
You gather grapes from the vine, and you
put all these grapes in the wine press.
Now in the old times, in the old
days, the wine press probably is made of
stone, or maybe just dig a hole in
the earth.
But here you will find all these grapes
in piles being gathered, and they are thrown
into that vat.
And people will step into the vat, and
tread these grapes with their feet.
Now that is the old-fashioned way.
They treaded, they treaded the grapes until the
grapes were crushed.
And the juice, the fluid, began to flow.
And those juice will flow into a lower
vat.
Maybe deeper, but lower vat.
And all these juice will be collected in
the lower vat.
After they were collected, sometimes they will be
left in the vat to be fermented.
Sometimes they will draw off the juice, and
put into jars, and let it be fermented.
But anyway, you will find that after you
gather the juice, that the fermentation began.
And in that kind of climate in Palestine,
usually fermentation began on the very day.
If you crush the grapes in the morning,
fermentation will start in the evening.
In the very beginning you will just see
a little form on the surface of the
juice.
But then gradually you will find the fermentation
began vigorous and stronger.
And in about a week, the first fermentation
was done.
You had to put these juice in the
vat, or a jar, strong vessel.
Why?
Because if you put these juice that were
in the process of fermentation, in a weaker
vessel, it will burst once in.
But after about a week of fermentation, usually
they will pull the juice, the fermented juice,
into another jar, another vessel.
So that the heavier stuff, called the leaves
or the dregs, will be remained behind.
And that in the second jar, in the
second vat, the secondary fermentation will begin.
Another fermentation.
And after 40 days, the wine, you
got the wine.
And usually, again, they will pour the wine
into wine skin for transportation, or into jars
for storage.
So here you find the panel.
Moab has been at ease from his youth,
and has settled on his lease.
Now what does that mean?
It means that after Moab was crushed in
the vat, instead of pouring it into another
jar for fermentation, it was just left in
the vat to be fermented.
Secondly, after it had fermented, instead of emptying
it into another jar for straining, it was
still left in the vat.
So the first fermentation, the second fermentation, went
on in the same vat.
The dregs, the leaves, were never taken out.
They were left at the bottom of the
vat.
At the top you got the pure juice,
the wine.
In the bottom, there was the dregs.
There was the leaves.
And it was just left there.
It was never poured from vessel to vessel.
It was just left in the original vat.
And you know what will be the result?
The result is, because the dreg was still
there, therefore it will gradually decay the wine,
spoil the wine.
And in the land of Palestine, it is
very easy that the wine will gradually be
decayed, and become vinegar instead of wine.
Now that was the story.
Moab has been at ease from his youth.
From his very beginning, Moab just stayed there.
Moab had a good time.
He was in his original position.
He just settled down on his knees.
When you look at him, he looked like
wine.
But at the bottom was the dregs.
And the dreg and the wine were together,
and continually a deterioration, degeneration, a decaying, a
spoiling going on, fermentation going on.
The result was, his taste
had remained in him, and his scent is
not changed.
He remained as he was.
His taste remained.
His scent was not changed.
He was more vinegar than wine.
Now dear brothers and sisters, does that explain
something of God's way?
Is it not as children of God?
We are often puzzled by one question.
Why is it that those who are non
-believers, those people in the world seem to
have a good time.
It seems as if God is prospering them.
While we, the children of God, often seem
to be passing through problems, difficulties.
Why cannot God give us days of ease
and comfort?
Is it not our problem?
May I put it in another way.
Do you think that we as believers can
afford to have the luxury of ease?
Do you think that God will allow us
to be at ease all the time?
Do you want to be Moab?
Or do you want to be Israel?
If you are Moab, God will not bother
with you.
God does not have time for you.
He will allow you to settle on your
lease.
He does not care whether you become vinegar
or wine.
But if you are Israel, He cares too
much for you.
He cannot allow you to settle on your
lease.
He has to empty you from vessel to
vessel.
He has to change your taste and your
scent.
He has to do the work of transformation.
And the work of transformation is by emptying,
is by pouring from vessel to vessel.
Would you rather choose to live a life
of ease?
Do you know the words?
You are left alone by God.
Oh, very often, you know.
In our desperation, in our misunderstanding.
Oh, how often we murmured against God and
said, now leave me alone.
Don't bother with me so much.
Can't you just leave me alone?
If God should answer your prayer, woo to
you.
Because you will be Moab instead of Israel.
Dear brothers and sisters, there is something in
the Bible which is called the chastening of
the Lord.
This chastening of the Lord is a mystery.
And yet it is a necessity.
Sometimes we think that to be at ease
is a necessity.
But God says it is a luxury.
And you cannot afford to have it.
If you do, you will settle down on
your lease.
That's the problem.
While the chastening of the Lord is a
necessity, since you have believed in the Lord
Jesus, have you ever experienced this chastening of
the Lord in the way of being poured
from vessel to vessel?
You know, when the wine is poured from
vessel to vessel, it purifies.
It is purified from its debt.
Yes, it is reduced.
Yet it is pure.
It becomes good wine.
Wine that can satisfy thirsty and hungry souls.
Do you know why?
After you have believed in the Lord Jesus,
you have to be dealt with.
Do you know why God does not leave
you alone?
God does not allow you to settle down
on yourself?
Your natural life, your natural energy, your natural
temperament, what is yourself, must be poured and
poured until it is purified?
Do you understand why God does all these
things?
Do you know that He is aiming at
good wine?
Oh, if only you know that.
What a difference!
If he should believe in the Lord Jesus,
say, for ten years, or twenty years, and
yet the Lord does not seem to deal
with him once.
Oh, that is impossible.
If he is a child of God, certainly
the Heavenly Father will look to it that
he will receive his part of chastening.
If you are not chastened, you are a
bastard.
You are not a son.
If you are a son, the Father surely
would take care of you.
But dear brothers and sisters, suppose here is
a Christian who has been a Christian for
ten or twenty years, and it seems as
if never once he was poor.
Never once he was chastened.
Is it possible?
Has the Father forgotten him?
Not at all.
The Father has not forgotten him.
But when the chastening of the Lord comes
to him, he either rebels or he flees.
So you remember these precious verses in the
book of Hebrews, chapter twelve.
Probably we'll look at it.
Hebrews, chapter twelve.
We'll read from verse five.
Hebrews, chapter twelve, verse five.
And ye have quite forgotten the exhortation which
speaks to you as to sons.
My son despised not the chastening of the
Lord, nor fainted when reproved by him.
For whom the Lord loves he chastened, and
scourges every son whom he receives.
Ye endure for chastening?
God conducts himself towards you as to a
son.
For who is the son that the Father
chastens not?
But if ye are without chastening, of which
all have been made partakers, then are ye
bastards and not sons.
Moreover we have had the fathers of all
flesh as chasteners, and we reverence them.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection
to the father of spirit and live?
For they indeed chasten for a few days,
as seemed good to them, but he for
profit, in order to the partaking of his
holiness.
But no chastening at the time seems to
be matter of joy, but of grief, but
afterwards yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to
those exercised.
When the chastening of the Lord comes to
us, very often we take a wrong attitude.
Sometimes we despise the chastening of the Lord.
What do you mean by despising the chastening
of the Lord?
It means that you look down upon it.
You consider it just as an accident.
It's incidental.
It doesn't have any meaning in it.
It just happens.
You neglect it.
You just let it come and go.
You do not go to the Lord and
ask the Lord for your lesson.
This is despising chastening.
Now, very often, even in earthly families, you
find sometimes the parents are chastening the children,
and you know some children just despise the
chastening.
You'll beat me.
I don't care.
It doesn't matter.
Now, when a child should take such an
attitude, the whole meaning of chastening is lost.
You despise the chastening.
You will never learn the lesson.
Dear brothers and sisters, very often when God
begins to chasten us, He does.
He always does.
He will not give you the luxury of
ease.
But when He starts to chasten you, you
just despise it.
You know, by despising the chastening of God,
you despise God.
You do not take Him seriously.
And in so doing, the chastening is lost.
You may be a Christian for ten or
twenty years, and it seems as if there
has never been any chastening.
Not because there hasn't been any, but because
you have despised it.
Now, that's one attitude.
And some people adopt the opposite attitude.
They take it too hard.
When God begins to chasten you, you faint
under the chastening.
Oh, you will cry out, God, God, why
are you so hard and harsh?
Do you really love me?
You want to put me to death.
You just faint under His chastening.
Well, if you do, God cannot chasten you
the second time, because you may die.
Dear brothers and sisters, these are the only
two ways to escape the chastening of the
Lord, so far as God's children are concerned.
If you are not God's children, God will
not bother about you.
Moab has been at ease from his youth.
God let him settle down on his knees.
But if you are a child of God,
He has to take you in His hands.
He has to chasten you.
He has to discipline you.
He has to train you.
But if you want to escape His chastening,
there are two ways.
One is, despise it.
Yes.
If you despise the chastening of the Lord,
you escape it, because it becomes meaningless.
Or you just faint.
Every time you faint.
That will ease you from the chastening.
If you know, if you know God and
His way.
Dear brothers and sisters, can you despise the
chastening of the Lord?
Sure you faint under His chastening.
Moab has been at ease from his youth.
He has settled on his knees.
He has not been emptied from vessel to
vessel.
You know, dear brothers and sisters, as believers,
as children of God, our life is a
continuous emptying, is a continuous pouring.
God will never allow us to settle down
on our knees.
There are times God allows you to settle,
but not true.
After you have settled down, and the drags
are separated, God says, now is the time
to be straight.
You are just being poured from vessel to
vessel.
But you know our difficulty.
When God begins to pour us from vessel
to vessel, we begin to quarrel with these
vessels.
Oh, how we quarrel with our environment.
How we quarrel with people.
How we quarrel with events.
How we quarrel with things.
Now remember, all these are but vessels.
They are nothing in themselves.
God arranges everything.
God arranges your environment.
God provides for you, the people.
God orders the event.
Everything that comes to you and around you
are just vessels.
They are just God's instruments.
They are nothing in themselves.
God is using these to purify you.
But you know, when we are being poured
from one vessel to another, we quarrel with
these vessels.
We become very unhappy with our environment.
We fight against our circumstances.
Oh, we begin to strive with people.
Oh, why do you treat me like this?
Why is it that you have such a
bad attitude towards me?
Why do you say such a thing to
me?
Why, why, why?
And in quarreling with these vessels, we miss
the whole point.
It is not the vessel.
It is the father.
The vessel has nothing to do with it.
I remember how Brother Nee once used an
illustration.
If somebody comes to you and beats you,
what will be your reaction?
Suppose a stranger comes, without any reason, out
of the blue sky.
He will come to you and start to
beat you, or even scold you.
What will be your reaction?
Your reaction naturally will be, you will fight
back.
You feel the whole thing is so unreasonable.
You just cannot take it.
That person that comes to scold you and
to beat you is your father.
Can you fight back and scold back?
If you are a child of God, if
you are a child of the father, you
cannot do that.
This is my father.
He is chasing me.
You cannot just treat him as a stranger.
The only thing you can do is to
submit.
Submit to him.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you see that
in our Christian life, it is the Heavenly
Father who is ordering all our vessels?
It is the Heavenly Father who is pulling
us from one vessel to another.
You know, it is very strange.
God does not allow you to stay in
one environment all your life.
God will change your environment from time to
time.
God does not even allow you to have
the same people all the time.
God will change the people around you from
time to time.
God will not allow you to meet with
the same events all the time.
Events change everything from one vessel to another.
When one vessel has done its work, God
will pour you into another vessel.
Now, if that vessel hasn't done its work,
probably you will have to stay there longer.
Until it has done its job, and then
God will pour you into another vessel.
It is the Heavenly Father who is pouring
and emptying you from vessel to vessel.
If this is the case, can you quarrel
with the Father?
There is nothing to quarrel about.
All you can do is to submit yourself.
Consider these vessels.
There is a great difference between chasing.
You know, very often we think that God
is punishing.
When you meet with some unpleasant event, when
you have gone through some sad experience, naturally
you will think, now God is punishing.
God is punishing.
You know, this concept of punishment is very
strong in us.
Very strong.
We always think that God is punishing us.
But the Bible does not say so.
There is a great difference between punishing and
chasing.
Punishing is just to punish your sin or
your fault.
In other words, it deals with the past
and nothing more.
But chasing deals with your past fault, with
a bright future.
In other words, a chasing has a purpose.
Has a positive purpose.
A chasing has an educational value in it.
Punishment has no educational value in it.
So far as the law of the land
is concerned.
You know, if a man commits a crime,
you will punish him.
Put him in a jail.
In prison.
Punish him.
But people begin to realize that there is
no educational value.
Or if there is educational value, it is
just to make him worse.
To make him worse.
But chasing is different.
Chasing has an educational value in it.
The very word chasing means child training.
God is training you.
Training you as a child.
To make you a son.
A grown up.
A mature person.
There is a positive value in chasing.
And this is what God...
Do you realize, dear brothers and sisters, that
the Heavenly Father is chasing you?
If you are not under the chasing of
the Lord, you are in a most dangerous
situation.
Why?
Because you may never become a son.
Grown up.
You remain just children.
God has given you up.
There is no more hope for you.
But if today you are still under the
chasing hand of your really Lord, God believes
in you.
God believes that there is something that He
can still make out of you.
God believes that He can transform you into
sons, into women.
What should be our attitude?
When we are being chasen?
When we are poured from vessel to vessel?
Our attitude is, do not resist or resist,
but learn to submit and to humble yourself.
When you pour the wine from vessel to
vessel, what is in there?
The result is transformation.
The original taste.
The original scent.
All that is there.
With the dress.
And here comes a new one.
A new one.
With a new flavor.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is what God
is doing with us today.
He is pouring us from vessel to vessel.
He is chasing us.
And in doing that, He purifies us from
our original taste and scent.
And transforms us into the Savior.
Have you ever met Him?
Ten years ago.
That man was your Savior.
You met Him.
After ten years, you meet the same person.
And what is the impression you give him?
The impression is, He hasn't changed.
His taste remains the same.
His scent is just the same.
Or sometimes you hear people say, Bullshit!
I haven't changed.
I'm still what I was.
It's a good thing.
Why, there are so
many systems.
As in many years.
They are natural things.
The appearance may change, but the taste may
change.
The outward form may change, but the scent
may change.
You know, these are two things that it's
very difficult to cover.
You may change the color.
You may change the appearance.
But there is a taste.
If people try to taste it, Feel that
taste.
Or you smell it.
Feel that scent.
You know, especially scent is very intangible.
It's something intangible, and yet it's something that
cannot be touched.
You cannot be touched.
Your natural mind, your natural energy, or if
you are very clever, your cleverness remains.
If you are very stubborn, your stubbornness remains.
If you are strong-minded, your strong-minded
remains.
What you were in yourself remain with you
and become the impression you gave to people
even after 30 years.
Oh, brothers and sisters, if this should happen,
it shows that you have accepted you have
not been saved from that place.
It shows that you lack the discipline of
the living.
You lack the patience of the living.
You are still what you were.
You taste just the same.
You smell just the same.
How can all taste be?
How can all scent be?
In the process of emptying, the transformation takes
place.
So after you have been poured from vessel
to vessel, the result is the taste is
gone.
This is what is made by the Bible.
We are being made partakers of the people.
This is what is meant.
Chastening brings us to holiness.
That is to say, we are set apart.
It is God who is incorporated.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you want to
be made?
If you know God's mind and God's will,
you would rather be Israel than Moses.
You would rather be one who is being
emptied from vessel to vessel because the earthen
will apply these to us individually.
And that is true.
As individuals, it is God's way that we
must be poured from vessel to vessel in
order to be good wine, new wine.
But you know, in this very verse, it
applies also constantly because more than here is
not an individual.
More than here is an individual.
So brothers and sisters, not only individually, God
has to change the life, bring us through
vessel after vessel in order to make us
new wine but coffee.
As a church, as a church, God has
to do the changes.
Do you realize that in the making of
the church there is this continuous pouring from
vessel to vessel?
How often we long to have a peaceful
church life.
Oh, if we can just settle down, be
contented, be happy with what God has already
shown us.
If we would just go on happily like
this, oh, how good it will be.
For dear brothers and sisters, God cannot afford
to give us such luxury.
Do not think that to be at ease
so far as the church is concerned is
a good thing.
It is not.
The luxury of ease is not ours.
God has to bring the whole church into
crisis after crisis.
God has to empty the church from vessel
to vessel.
God has to allow us to meet new
people.
God has to allow us to enter into
new environments.
God has to allow new events to come.
God has to allow us to enter into
all these things.
For what purpose?
Because He is afraid that we will suffer.
If we get settled on our leave, the
faith and the faith will be ours.
The church must give the faith of Christ.
And the only way that this transformation may
happen to a people of God is by
pouring from vessel to vessel.
Sometimes we just fight, and other times we
do not.
Often we fight.
We do not know how to submit ourselves
under the mighty hand and let God every
vessel, every pouring, it is
to make the church the new one that
can not only satisfy the thirsting soul, but,
brothers and sisters, does that explain a little
bit of what God has allowed His people
to go through?
Sometimes, you know, you admire.
You admire peace.
You admire that peaceful, restful church life.
God loves you too much to allow you
to have such behavior again.
Yes.
If we are not poured from vessel to
vessel, if we settle on our leave, what
will be the result?
Fermentation will continue beyond this limit.
And the result will become this.
Have you drunk vinegar?
Have you tasted vinegar?
Have you smelled vinegar?
It is not sweet.
It is sour.
How many Christians today, how
church, God's people, the
reason they try to keep instead of allowing
God to pour them.
So may the Lord be with you.
May this metaphor be a warning to you.
Moab has been at ease.
And he has settled.
He has not been poor.
He has not gone into captivity.
Therefore, our
Heavenly Father, we pray that Thou will show
Thy way.
We pray that we may be with us
as individuals.
We pray that we may not admire to
the extent that we will not allow You.
We pray that we may humble ourselves.
Oh, we ask Thee that Thou would take
away from us our original sin and give
to us.
Make us.