Will you please turn to Ephesians, chapter 1,
verses 9 and 10.
Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 9 and 10.
Having made known to us the mystery of
His will, according to His good pleasure, which
He purposed in Himself for the administration of
the fullness of time, to head up, or
sum up, all things in the Christ, the
things in the heavens, and the things upon
the earth.
Romans, chapter 8.
Romans, chapter 8, verses 28 to 30.
But we do know that all things work
together for good to those who love God,
to those who are called according to purpose.
Because whom He has foreknown, He has also
predestinated to be conformed to the image of
His Son, so that He should be the
firstborn among many brethren.
But whom He has predestinated, these also He
has called.
And whom He has called, these also He
has justified.
But whom He has justified, these also He
has glorified.
1 John.
1 John, chapter 3.
The first three verses.
1 John, chapter 3, verse 1.
See what love the Father has given to
us, that we should be called the children
of God.
For this reason the world knows us not,
because it knew Him not.
Beloved, now are we children of God, but
what we shall be has not yet been
manifested.
We know that if it is manifested, we
shall be like Him, for we shall see
Him as He is.
And everyone that has this hope in Him
purifies himself, even as He is pure.
And finally, Revelation, chapter 5.
Revelation, chapter 5, verse 10.
And may them, to our God, kings and
priests, and they shall reign over the earth.
Let's have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, our heart's desire is to
see Thy glory.
We thank Thee that even though Moses was
not allowed to see Thy face, but only
Thy back, but today we can see Thy
glory in the face of our Lord Jesus.
O Lord, show Thyself to us that we
may be captivated, so captivated by Thee, that
we will fully surrender to Thee, and allow
Thee to be all and in all in
us.
O Lord, it is our prayer that it
may be all of Christ and none of
ourselves.
Do deliver us.
We commit this time into Thy loving hands,
trusting Thy Spirit to speak and to work
in each one of us.
Lord, Thou knowest everything is naked before Thee.
We are naked before Thee.
Search us, purify us, and possess us.
We ask in Thy precious name.
Amen.
We thank God for giving us this time
the theme of summing up all things in
Christ.
And it is our earnest prayer that this
does not just be a theme.
Our prayer is that this may be a
truth, a reality in each one of us.
Thank God for bringing us today, these few
days, that we may be able to expose
ourselves, as it were, to the light of
His countenance, that He may shine upon us,
remove anything in our lives that stands in
His way, and allow Him to come in
and fill us to the fullest, that God
may be glorified.
We talk about returning to Christ because we
deeply sense that we, as individual believers, whether
you are newly saved or you have been
saved for a long time, there is room,
much room, for us to return to Christ.
The reason why sometimes we become so comfortable,
so at peace, as it were, with ourselves,
as if everything is all right, and if
our Lord should come this day, we are
able to face Him.
But how deceived we are, because our hearts
are deceitful above all things.
Who knows it?
Only God is the one who tries the
heart and examines if we really come
under the light of His countenance.
Brothers and sisters, no one can stand before
God.
There is much we need to repent.
We begin to realize how far, far away
we are from our dear Lord.
He has redeemed us.
He has paid such a price for us.
And yet, where are we?
We need to return.
And the way to return is, first of
all, to be awakened from our sleep, to
realize that we have departed in His
light.
We see light.
Dear brothers and sisters, His
light is the only light that can reveal
our real conditions.
That we may repent, for we have come
short of the glory of God.
And as we repent, then we take a
positive step to return.
Just like the prodigal son, when he remembered
when he recalled there was plenty in his
father's house, and now he was starving, dying,
unnecessarily, he rose up and returned home.
So brothers and sisters, we hope that at
this hour, every one of us, no one
is accepted, brothers and sisters, that we are
on our way of returning to Christ.
Returning is returning to Christ.
Return to the finished work of Christ.
But through the finished work of Christ, we
return to Christ Himself.
You know, the letter to the Galatians is
the battle-axe of Martin Luther.
He used that letter to fight against the
Roman Catholic system.
He said, I'm married to that book, because
that book shows us justification by faith.
These Galatian believers, they began to depart from
the pure gospel of Jesus Christ.
They were enticed into another gospel, which is
not a gospel of Galatians, because they began
to trust in the works of their own
flesh, thinking that they can keep the law
of God.
And fallen from God's grace.
And Apostle Paul tried to bring them back
to see that we can only be justified
by faith in Christ Jesus.
When the Holy Spirit convicts us of our
sins and convinces us that Jesus is the
only Savior of the world, then we turn
to Him, believing in His redeeming blood and
of being justified before God.
But, brothers and sisters, what is justification?
Just as we have never seen in the
sight of God that we can stand before
the righteous God, what makes it possible for
us to have such boldness before God?
Because we are closed with Christ.
When God looks upon us, He sees Christ.
We are hidden in Him.
And that gives us ground, boldness to stand
before God.
So in the strictest sense, fullest sense, justification
is not just an act that we be
justified.
Our sins are forgiven, that we can stand
before God.
No, not on our own, but in Him.
He is our justification.
So, brothers and sisters, you find that returning
is not just return to what He has
done for us.
We return to the One who is the
Justifier.
In reading this letter to the Galatians, we
often thought that it was very negative.
But when you read this letter, you find
there is a very positive message to us.
And the message is, by justification, you return
to Christ.
For instance, in Galatians 1, verse 16, it
says, It pleased God to reveal His Son
in me.
That is the gospel.
The gospel is not just being justified.
The gospel is, it pleases God to reveal
His Son in me.
And then it goes on, in chapter 2,
verse 20, I am crucified with Christ.
No longer live I.
It is Christ who lives in me.
And now I live in the flesh by
faith, not my faith, but the faith of
the Son of God who loves me and
gave Himself for me.
It goes on to say in chapter 4,
verse 17, that Christ may be formed in
you.
So, brothers and sisters, what is the gospel?
What does justification lead us to?
It leads us to Christ.
Christ revealed.
Christ lived.
And Christ formed.
This is returning to Christ.
When you look at 1 Corinthians, another depressing
letter, as it were, these Corinthian believers, when
Paul wrote a letter to them, saying he
was sanctified, called saints.
Think of that.
These Corinthian believers were sanctified by God.
They were called saints.
Now, today, if somebody comes to you and
says so-and-so, what will be your
reaction?
Oh, I'm not worthy.
But you are.
You are called saints.
Justified.
Sanctified.
By our Lord Jesus.
But look at these Corinthian believers.
They are carnal.
They live according to the flesh.
They were not different than the people of
the world.
They went into gross sin.
They defrauded one another.
They even accused one another in the worldly
court.
They loved eating and drinking.
Even in a meeting, there was disorder.
In faith, they did not believe in resurrection.
They are corrupt.
Life.
The only redemption is in Jesus Christ and
Him crucified.
Sanctification is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
It is His cross working in our lives,
putting the flesh, the work of the flesh,
to death.
Putting the world to death.
Putting sin to death.
That Christ may live in us and be
our sanctification.
God has made Him wisdom, justification, and holiness,
and redemption.
So, brothers and sisters, for the Corinthian believers
to return to Christ, it means that they
are to be completely delivered from their flesh
through the cross of our Lord Jesus.
That Christ may be their sanctification because it
is Christ who lives in them.
You go to the letter of Colossians.
The Colossian believers sought for perfection.
They wanted to be perfect.
And because of their desire to be perfect,
they were being led astray to the so
-called Colossian heresy.
It is a strange mixture of mysticism and
ritualism.
You will think that these are two worlds
apart, but strangely, oftentimes, you find mysticism and
ritualism in John Hans, and they sought perfection.
Or, if we use another word, glorification through
that kind of heresy.
So, the apostle Paul tried to lead them
back to see that all the fullness of
the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily, and ye
are complete in him.
It is Christ in you, the hope of
glory.
So, brothers and sisters, what is glorification?
Glorification is Christ formed in you.
The measure of the formation of Christ in
you is the measure, the degree of your
being glorified.
In the letter of the Philippines, there is
no letter that reveals the inner life of
Paul than this letter to the Philippines.
In this letter, he shows us the secret
of his Christian life.
And what is the secret?
Very simple.
For me to live is Christ.
That's the secret.
Second Corinthians is the one letter that reveals
the ministry of the apostle Paul, the secret
of his ministry.
And what is the secret?
The secret is ministry is not just doing
a work.
Ministry is imparting Christ.
He is but an earthen vessel, but there
is a treasure in that earthen vessel.
For the radiancy of the light of that
treasure to shine forth and to bring life
to others, the earthen vessel has to be
cracked and broken.
And this explains the secret of Paul's ministry.
He was a broken man.
He died daily.
He bared the dying of Jesus in his
life that the life of Jesus may be
in him and also in other people.
So dear brothers and sisters, what is returning
to Christ?
Returning to Christ is returning to what he
is.
Enable him to be everything to us.
Now this morning, we would like to consider
together on the results of returning to Christ.
Now we have returned to Christ.
And what are the results?
First of all, the primary and
the chief result of returning into Christ is
to fulfill the eternal purpose of God.
Brothers and sisters, our God is purpose-oriented.
In the beginning, even before the foundation of
the world, he purposed a purpose in himself.
This is called the mystery of the ages.
He is a God of purpose.
He never does anything by chance.
According to the good pleasure of his will,
he purposed a glorious purpose in himself.
You know, unfortunately, we are not naturally purpose
-oriented.
We naturally are need-oriented.
Because we are need-oriented, therefore we are
self-centered.
What is for me?
But God is purpose-oriented.
He is for us.
So in returning to Christ, there is a
great change in our orientation.
It delivers us from need-oriented to purpose
-oriented.
It delivers from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness.
You know, the Bible said there is a
mystery, a secret, a secret in God's heart,
hidden throughout the centuries.
But all his works are governed by that
secret.
He never did anything outside of that secret
purpose.
And because it is such a glorious secret,
he is not able to share it with
man right away.
But here and there, you'll find he tried
to drop, as it were, some indication of
what that mystery of the ages, that purpose
of eternity, that secret will of his really
is.
As a matter of fact, if you read
the Old Testament, you'll find that he has
dropped that secret in pieces and bits here
and there, some hints, giving us some idea
of what really he is aiming at.
For instance, David.
You know, David is not only a king,
he is a prophet.
And if you read Psalm number 2, you
will find in Psalm number 2, from verse
6 to verse 8, And I have anointed
my king upon Zion, the hill of my
holiness.
I will declare the decree.
Jehovah has said unto me, Thou art my
son.
I this day have begotten thee.
Ask of me, and I will give thee
nations for an inheritance, and for thy possession
the ends of the earth.
He said, You are my son.
This day I have begotten thee.
Ask of me, and I will give you
nations for your inheritance, and for your possessions
the ends of the earth.
And then if you turn to Proverbs, chapter
8.
Proverbs, chapter 8.
The wisdom of Solomon, David's son.
In chapter 8, you find the Son of
God is personified as wisdom.
But if you read, say verse 22, Jehovah
possessed me in the beginning of his way,
before his works of old.
I was set up from eternity, from the
beginning, before the earth was.
When there were no depths, I was brought
forth.
When there were no fountain abounding with water,
before the mountains were settled, before the hills
was I brought forth.
While as yet he has not made the
earth, nor the fields, nor the beginning of
the dust of the world.
When he prepared the heavens, I was there.
When he ordained a circle upon the face
of the deep, when he established the skies
above, when the fountains of the deep became
strong, when he imposed on the earth his
decree that the earth, that the water should
not pass his commandments, when he appointed the
foundations of the earth, then I was by
him his nursery, and I was daily his
delight, rejoicing always before him.
The Son, the nursling of his love.
And in some translation, the artifice, the artist,
the architecture.
Why?
Because all things were created in him, and
by him, and for him.
So here you find another drop of heat,
the Son.
And then if you turn to Isaiah chapter
9, you find another hint there.
Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6.
For unto us a child is born, unto
us his Son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder, and his name
shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Father
of Eternity, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government, and of
peace, there shall be no end.
Upon the throne of David, and over his
kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it
with judgment, and with righteousness, from henceforth, even
forever, the zeal of Jehovah of hosts will
perform this.
Another hint of that secret.
Turn to the book of Daniel.
Daniel chapter 7.
Daniel chapter 7, the night visions begin with
verse 13.
I saw in the night visions, and behold,
there came with the clouds of heaven, one
like a son of man.
And he came up, even to the ancient
of days, and they brought him near before
him.
And there was given him dominion, and glory,
and a kingdom, and all peoples, nations, and
languages shall serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall
not pass away, and his kingdom that shall,
which shall not be destroyed.
So, brothers and sisters, you find that mystery
of God, the secret of God, that concerns
the eternal purpose of God.
What is it?
The Son.
How he will give everything to the Son.
The Son is the heir of all things.
All kingdoms, glory, power, dominion, belong to him.
And that is the mystery.
And thank God, one day that mystery broke
open.
When our Lord Jesus came into this world,
the word became flesh, and tabernacle among men,
full of grace and truth.
He, who was equal with God, he is
the exact image of God.
And that is not something to be grasped
at.
He emptied himself.
He emptied himself of all the glory and
honor surrounding his God, Godhead, his
deity.
He emptied all in order to take up
the form of a born slave.
As he take up the fashion of a
man, he was obedient.
That's what man was supposed to be.
Man was created to be obedient to God.
And here you'll find the typical man, the
only man.
He's obedient.
He humbled himself and was obedient to the
Father, even unto death, and that the death
of the cross.
And because of this, the Father highly exalted
him and has given him a name that
is above every name.
And in that name, every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord
to sum up all things in Christ.
The mystery manifested.
And then if you read the epistles, the
mystery fully revealed.
There you'll find the eternal purpose of God
is that His Son should be the sum
of all things.
Everything shall bear something of His beauty,
His glory, His character of Him.
Nothing is to manifest itself.
The heavens will not just be heavens.
The heavens is to declare the glory of
God.
The earth is not just filled with things
as it were, but everything will be brought
in subjection to Christ.
And man as the chief, the leader of
the whole creation will be filled to the
fullest with Christ.
Brothers and sisters, so what is the meaning
of returning to Christ?
It is more than just a personal thing.
It is no more than just a personal
privilege that we enjoy.
Thank God it is.
But that is a byproduct.
The one and chief thing is when we
return to Christ, we are in a sense
a step closer to the time when all
things will be summed up in Christ.
Therefore you find in Ephesians chapter 1 verses
21 and 22 Christ is made head over
all things to the church which is His
body, the fullness of Him who fills all
and in all.
So brothers and sisters, you can see the
immensity, you can see the importance of returning
to Christ.
Because it is more than it will affect
you personally.
You will find that it actually affects the
whole counsel of God, the whole purpose of
God.
You can be a person that delays, postpones
the fulfillment of God's purpose.
Or you can be a person who hastens,
quickens the fulfillment of God's purpose.
Think of that.
What a responsibility that we have.
How can we lay back?
How can we comfort ourselves?
Thinking that as long as we do not
go to hell there is a chance to
go to heaven.
That's enough.
But brothers and sisters, how do we offend
God?
Hurt His heart in this way.
We cannot afford to become complacent.
Not for ourselves.
For God.
For His purpose.
May the Spirit of God pierce our hearts.
How can we live so carelessly?
You do not know what hurt, how harm
you have done to God.
Brothers and sisters, why must we return to
Christ?
Not for our sake.
For God's sake.
Oh God, how He cries out through the
centuries, pleading, begging.
Why?
If today you hear His voice, harden not
your heart.
But of course, when we return, really return
to Christ, we are blessed.
Because all the fullness of the Godhead dwells
in Him.
As you return to Christ, you return home.
You return to the abundance, abandoned, abounding in
Christ.
the abundant, abundant riches, glorious riches of Christ
Jesus.
He is the fullness of God.
We cannot even imagine what the fullness of
God is.
We have tasted a little bit of His
love, A little bit of His righteousness, a
little bit of His holiness, a little bit
of His beauty, a little bit of His
glory, of His purity, just a little bit.
But there is so much more.
He wants to bless us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
So we do.
By returning to Christ, we return to fullness.
We begin to enjoy our Christ as never
before.
Then secondly, another by-product, when we return
to Christ, we discover that Christ begins to
transform us and conforms us to Himself.
You know, what is spiritual growth?
We want to grow.
Physically speaking, as a child, a child wants
to grow.
I remember my little sister and my little
cousin sister.
One day, day two, they were little girls.
They sat on the stairway and somebody heard
them, overheard them talking.
You know what they were talking?
They were complaining about being the youngest.
We are so tiny.
Look at our brothers, sisters, what they can
do, and we can do nothing.
They want to grow.
They want to be matured.
But strangely, God's people do not feel that
way.
We don't want to grow.
How good if we can remain bathed in
Christ throughout life.
Then we will be taken care of, and
we will have no responsibility whatsoever.
Isn't that clever?
But you cheat yourself.
God is not looking for babies.
God is looking for sons and daughters.
God is looking for people who can share
responsibility with his beloved son.
But what is Christian growth?
How do we grow in spiritual stature?
We know how to grow in physical stature.
We know how to grow in mental stature.
But do we know how to grow our
spiritual stature?
Spiritual growth is the increase of Christ in
you.
Not you increase, you decrease.
But Christ increase.
That is spiritual growth.
And because it is this process, it is
very painful.
You have to die that he may live.
The more you go down to the cross,
the fuller the life of Christ is manifested.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit
today in our lives.
He wants us to be changed, to be
transformed until we are conformed to the image
of Christ.
And what does it mean by transformed to
the image of Christ?
What does it mean by Christ fully formed
in us?
It means none of I, but all
of Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, we
start out with none of Christ, all
of me.
Then gradually we become some of Christ, and
some of me, until finally it will be
all of Christ and none of me.
That is fully formed.
That is spiritual growth.
And if we are measured by that standard,
how far have we grown?
So this is another byproduct of returning to
Christ.
And then thirdly, this
is ready for Christ.
As our brother has already shared with us,
how to be ready for Christ.
The only way to be ready for Christ
is as he is, so are we.
That is to say, to be like him.
And to be like him is not to
imitate him outwardly.
To be like him is to allow him
to live fully in and out of us.
That's to be like him.
And that is the way to be ready
for Christ, so far as we are conscious.
We allow Christ to live in us, and
to live out from us.
Perfect love casts out fear, because
we are as he is.
So in the day of judgment, when we
shall all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ, there will be no fear.
So that's the way to prepare ourselves for
the coming of our Lord Jesus.
He who calls us, he is faithful.
He will perform.
We cannot do it, but if we are
willing to place ourselves in his hand, that's
what he will do.
And we believe that he is doing it,
so that when we shall stand before him,
there will be no fear, blameless
at the coming of our Lord Jesus.
That is my prayer.
May the God of peace sanctify your holy,
that your whole spirit and soul and body
be preserved, blameless at the coming of our
Lord Jesus, ready for the King.
And then finally, reward.
You know, brothers and sisters, there will be
kingdom reward.
What is reward?
What is grace?
What is gift?
Grace is something that is freely given, universally
given.
It depends on the giver.
It does not depend on the receiver.
It is free.
Thank God he is the giver of all
good things.
He gives and gives, and he gives his
only begotten Son, his all.
We do not deserve it.
We have not worked for it, but it
is grace, freely given.
But brothers and sisters, the Bible tells us
there will be reward.
And what is reward?
If you get what you have done, this
is work.
This is not reward.
This is not gift.
This is reward.
Reward is selective.
Reward is not given to everyone, freely, without
any cost.
Reward requires work.
Reward depends on the one who receives the
reward, rather than the one who rewards.
And the Bible says our God is not
only the giver of all good things.
He is also the rewarder of all those
who seek him earnestly.
Is there any contradiction?
No.
Today, we abuse grace.
Today, we think of free grace in such
an extent, to such an extent, that we
do not have any sense of responsibility.
He has done it all.
It's all freely given.
So why should I bother?
No matter how I act or react, he
loves me.
He will see to it that I be
there in the kingdom when it shall come
upon this earth, and to reign and rule
with Christ for a thousand years.
Remember, that is not a gift.
That is a reward.
It is true.
Eternity is a gift.
Eternal life is a gift.
If you believe in the Lord Jesus, you
are eternally saved.
Put it in a simple way.
Heaven is yours for eternity.
But remember, before heaven, there is the kingdom.
A thousand years.
Our Lord Jesus shall come back to receive
his kingdom.
All the kingdoms of the earth will become
the kingdom of God and of his Christ.
And he shall reign over this whole earth
for a thousand years with righteousness.
But when that kingdom comes, he will reward
those who press on diligently
towards the goal.
Those who have been transformed and conformed to
Christ.
Those who have returned to Christ.
Those who are ready for him.
The overcomers, if you want to say.
If today, we die with him, we shall
reign with him in the days to come.
Brothers and sisters, that's a reward, not a
gift.
It is not freely given to everyone.
It is given to those who deserve it.
But does it mean that reward and gift
are contradictory?
No.
They are complementary.
Why?
Because when the gift is given to you
and you receive it, you receive the grace
of God.
But after you have received the grace of
God in you, do you know this is
not the end?
Do you know that grace, first of all,
means there is something in that person that
is so pleasing, so attractive, so rewarding?
That is the beginning of grace.
God is a God of grace.
Our Lord is full of grace.
He is so attractive, so beautiful, so glorious,
so rich, so shiny.
That's the origin of grace.
And then when this grace comes to man
as a gift, free, believe in the Lord
Jesus and you shall be saved.
Freely given, we receive the grace in us.
That's the second step.
But grace has the third step.
After you have received grace in you, that
grace shall so change you that you become
also graceful.
You are able to be gracious, just like
he is gracious.
So, brothers and sisters, what is reward?
Yes, reward is your work.
But what kind of work is it?
It is he who works in you and
in me.
So, it is your grace.
It is grace being manifested.
It is not your work.
It is his work.
He works in you.
He works through you.
You allow his grace to pour out from
your life.
And brothers and sisters, on that basis, he
will reward us.
So, after all, it is all grace.
There is nothing we can boast of.
So, that's why Paul said, I am what
I am.
It's by the grace of God.
But thank God he is so gracious that
he will even reward us even though he
does all the work.
And brothers and sisters, that's a byproduct.
But if it is his desire that we
should win that reward, then who are we
not to try?
How he looks forward to the day of
Christ.
He looks forward to seeing the Lord face
to face.
And in order to do that, he pressures
on.
He forgets the past.
He wants to possess that which he has
been possessed by Christ.
That's the attitude we should take.
And if we take that kind of attitude,
don't worry about the reward because our God
is righteous and faithful.
And brothers and sisters, there is so much
involved when we return to Christ.
Most and above all things, the eternal purpose
of God concerning his Son will be fully
realized.
And that's what the scripture means.
In the fullness of time, to sum up
all things in Christ, the things in the
heavens and the things upon the earth.
May the Lord be glorified.
Dear Lord, we bow before thee, model
at thy ways, model
at thy purpose.
Lord, we thank thee for allowing us to
be involved, even in that great mystery of
the ages.
Wake us up to see our privileges and
our responsibilities, that we may all return to
Christ, that Christ may be all and in
all to us.
And to thee be the glory.
In the name of our Lord Jesus.
Amen.