Dear Heavenly Father, we are most grateful to
Thee in giving Thy only begotten Son to
us.
We are thankful that Thou hast called us
to Thy table to remember Thy love, Thy
tremendous love for us.
Lord, we do thank Thee because Thou are
real, Thou are here with us.
We do sense that we are standing on
holy ground.
Lord, we want to bow and worship Thee,
and we just pray that Thou will open
Thy word to us.
Lord, our desire is to know Thee, and
to know Thee is eternal.
We commit this time into Thy hands.
We thank Thee for this time, and we
trust Thy Holy Spirit to do the work,
and to Thee be the glory, in the
name of our Lord Jesus.
This morning I would like to borrow a
passage from the Old Testament, but substitute a
different word to it.
And I think that substitution will not change
the meaning.
Will you please turn to the book of
Job, Job chapter 28.
Job chapter 28, we
begin with verse 12, and read through verse
28.
We will substitute the word wisdom with reality,
and understanding with truth.
So let's read it.
But reality, where shall it be found?
And where is the place of wisdom?
Man knoweth not the value thereof, and it
is not found in the land of the
living.
The deep saith, It is not in me,
and the sea saith, It is not with
me.
Choice gold cannot be given for it, and
silver beweighed for its price.
It is not set in a balance with
gold or ophia, with the precious onyx and
the sapphire.
Gold and glass cannot be compared to it,
nor vessels of fine gold be its exchange.
Corals and crystals are no more remembered, yea,
the acquisition of reality is above rubies.
The topics of Ethiopia shall not be compared
to it, neither shall it be set in
a balance with pure gold.
Whence then cometh reality, and where is the
place of wisdom, of truth?
For it is hidden from the eyes of
all living, and concealed from the fowl of
the heavens.
Destruction and death say, We have heard its
report with our ears.
God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth
its place.
For he looketh to the ends of the
earth, he seeth under the whole heaven, in
making a weight for the wind, and making
out the waters by measure.
In appointing a statute for the rain, and
a way for the thunder's flesh.
Then did he see it, and declare it,
he establish it, yea, and search it out.
And unto man he said, Lo, the fear
of the Lord, that is reality.
And to depart from evil is truth.
Yesterday morning we concluded our time by the
criteria of spiritual reality.
First of all, spiritual reality must be spiritual.
It cannot be anything physical, material.
And we know from the scripture, in John
chapter 4, in the conversation of our Lord
Jesus with a Samaritan woman.
He said, God is spirit.
Therefore those that worship him, must worship him
in spirit and in truth.
We mention also, that one of the criteria
of spiritual reality is life.
And in Psalm 36 verse 9, which we
have already mentioned before, For with thee is
the fountain of life, and in thy light
shall we see light.
We mention also that another criterion of spiritual
reality is substance.
It cannot be anything superficial, just on the
surface.
Anything that is passing, it has to be
eternal.
And brothers and sisters, our God is that.
In the beginning, God.
Only he is the substance.
And of course, we also mention that it
has to be divine.
And our God is the only God that
we worship.
So brothers and sisters, where can we find
reality?
We cannot find it anywhere else.
Other than in God.
I think this is very evident.
You remember Moses, in Exodus chapter 34, actually
begins in chapter 33, He asked to see
the glory of God.
I think there is nothing, no request that
is higher from a human being than to
ask to see the glory of God.
And God's answer to him is, you cannot
see my face, because no man can see
me and live.
But I will pass you by, I will
hit you in the cleft of the rock,
and when I pass by, I will hide
you with my hand, so you can see
my back, but not my face.
And in chapter 34, verses 5 and 6,
we find that God passed by.
And he declared his name, Jehovah, Jehovah.
Gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in
goodness and truth.
Abundant in reality.
And in the song of Moses, in Deuteronomy
chapter 32, verse 4, He said, a God
of faithfulness without deceit.
Just and right is He.
Psalm 31, verse 5, Psalm
31, verse 5, Into thy hand I commit
my spirit, thou hast redeemed me.
Jehovah, thou God of truth.
God of reality.
And also in Isaiah chapter 65, verse 16,
we find here, So that he who blessed
himself in the land, that is referring to
the restoration of Israel, shall bless himself by
the God of truth.
And he that sweareth in the land shall
swear by the God of truth.
Because the former troubles shall be far forgotten,
and because they shall be hidden from mine
eyes.
And the word, the God of truth, in
the original is the God of amen.
He is the God of amen.
The God of reality.
When we think of His law, Psalm 119,
verse 142, Thy
righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law
is truth.
Now when we think of His word, in
John chapter 17, The gospel
of John, chapter 17, verse 17,
Sanctify them by the truth.
18, thy word is truth.
And so far as God's works are concerned,
Psalm 111, Psalm 111, verse
7, The works of His hands are truth
and judgment.
All His precepts are faithful.
So brothers and sisters, when we talk about
spiritual reality, And where can you find it?
You cannot find it anywhere else.
But only in God Himself.
He is the God of truth.
He is the God of reality.
He is the one who is from the
beginning.
And there is no end.
And everything that is of Him is real,
is reality.
But brothers and sisters, the problem is, God
is the greatest mystery in the whole universe.
He is transcendent.
He lives in unapproachable light.
No one can see Him and live.
He is far above, far beyond our reach.
We hear reality, but we cannot see it.
We cannot grasp it.
Because our God is transcendent.
Now even in the Old Testament times, it
is true.
Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 said, God having
spoken in many ways and in many manners
to our fathers, In the early days, in
the former days, It is true that God
did somehow reveal Himself.
Reveal His reality to man.
But even so, we find such revelation is
rare.
And it is not full.
The glory of God did appear to Abraham.
Moses did receive the Ten Commandments on the
Mount of Sinai.
The prophet Isaiah did see the glory of
God in the temple.
And Ezekiel saw the glory of God.
Now brothers and sisters, in the Old Testament
times, God did in some way, but it
is in fragments, in pieces and bits, reveal
Himself so that people can know Him.
But still, you find God is distant.
He is there, but He is far.
And you can only worship Him from afar.
The reality is there, but it cannot be
reached.
Thank God, one day, the Word became flesh.
And tabernacle of a man, full of grace
and truth.
Brothers and sisters, the God who hid Himself
has now come upon this earth.
The incarnation of our Lord Jesus is one
of the greatest things in the universe.
Because reality came upon this earth.
God is love.
And our Lord Jesus is full of grace.
Because grace is the expression of love.
How do we know love?
It is not by grace.
God is light.
But our Lord Jesus is full of truth,
of reality.
And it is by truth that light is
known.
Our Lord Jesus, He is reality in the
flesh.
Now we not only can hear about reality,
we can see.
Because reality has come, spiritual reality, in the
person of our Lord Jesus.
He has come into the midst of mankind.
In John chapter 1 verse 18, we are
told that no one has ever seen God.
But the one who is in the bosom
of the Father, He has declared Him.
No one has ever seen God.
We cannot see Him.
But the one who is in the bosom
of the Father, He comes to declare Him.
And this declaring is more than just announcing,
telling us about the Father.
This declaring is demonstrating, showing us what the
Father is really like.
Our brother mentioned about John chapter 18.
And that is when our Lord Jesus was
before Pilate.
Now in John chapter 18 verse 37.
Pilate therefore said to Him, Thou art then
a king.
Jesus answered, Thou sayest it, that I am
a king.
I have been born for this.
And for this I have come into the
world, that I may bear witness to the
truth.
Everyone that is of the truth hears my
voice.
And Pilate says to Him, What is truth?
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus came to
bear witness to the truth.
That is to say, He bear witness to
reality.
What is reality?
That is His witness.
His whole life is a demonstration of reality.
There is nothing in Him that is not
real.
Nothing in Him that is just something external.
What expresses outwardly is what He is inwardly.
He is transparent.
Nothing in Him is just something transient.
When He says anything, what He says is
truth.
It is eternal reality.
And that is the reason why you find
in the Gospel of John, especially, He often
says, Verily, verily, I say unto you.
And the word verily actually is a transliteration
of the Hebrew word amen.
Amen, amen, I say to you.
What I say is reality.
It is eternal.
It is not something that is passing.
It lasts forever.
When people heard Him, they realized that what
He said, He said with authority.
It's different.
It's different from the Pharisees and the scribes.
They may say the right thing, but there
is no substance in it.
But when our Lord Jesus says anything, there
is substance there.
It's solid.
It's real.
And all His works.
A brother I heard mentioned by Science and
Wonders last night, I'm sorry I wasn't able
to be here, how people were attracted by
Science and Wonders that our Lord Jesus did.
But His works is beyond just awkward science.
It is truth, reality.
He is revealing Himself.
You know the song, the chorus that we
sing, Show me thy way, O Lord.
In 1970, I was in New Zealand.
I was invited there to be among a
people who came out of the Apostolic Church.
And they traced their origin to the Welsh
Revival.
And these people, they were great in prophecy
flying and in speaking of tongues.
And I was invited to be the speaker
among them.
And this is the chorus that they sang
at that time.
They have seen Science and Wonders, but now
they want to know.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is
reality personified.
He is reality manifested, revealed.
God who is transcendent.
Now, in the incarnated Son, He becomes imminent.
He is with us.
He is no longer at a distance.
He is near us.
But strangely, when our Lord Jesus was on
earth, many saw Him.
Many thought they knew Him.
They knew that He was the Carpenter.
They knew His brothers in the flesh.
They even knew His sisters in the flesh.
They sensed something in Him that is different.
He is on earth and yet He is
in heaven.
There is a heavenliness in Him.
He is in the flesh and yet He
does not walk according to the flesh.
He walks according to the Spirit.
Spiritual.
They sensed something in Him that is different.
They cannot figure Him out.
Some say He is Elijah.
Some say He is even John the Baptist
coming into life.
Some say He is Jeremiah because he wept.
And some say He is one of the
prophets.
And some say He is the prophet that
Moses prophesied.
One day there will be a prophet rising
among you, brethren.
And whoever does not hear Him shall perish.
Brothers and sisters, strangely, reality is already in
the midst of the people.
And yet they miss Him.
Why?
The natural man cannot receive the things.
The natural man will consider it as foolish.
When our Lord Jesus said, I am the
bread of life.
They said, if you do not drink my
blood and eat my flesh, you have no
eternal life in you.
But if you do, you have eternal life.
And they said, what is he talking about?
So the natural man is foolish talking.
They could not understand it.
So even though reality has come into this
world, and yet they only see His outside.
They cannot see.
Only to a few, the Father revealed
His Son.
I think we are all familiar with Matthew
chapter 16.
When our Lord Jesus said, who do men
say that I am?
I have been in your midst for some
years now.
And they have seen me, they have heard
me, and they have touched me.
Who do men say that I am?
And of course the disciples will not report
to Him any evil reports.
They try to please their Master and they
only report the good things.
You are Elijah, you are Jeremiah, you are
John the Baptist, you are one of the
prophets.
But the Lord said, now whom do you
say that I am?
You have been with me day and night.
Is there something you see in me more
than what the world saw?
And thank God, Simon Peter said, you are
the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
And you remember what our Lord Jesus said,
Simon Bonita Jonah, you are blessed.
Because this is not something given you by
man, by the flesh, impossible.
It is my Father who has revealed.
Brothers and sisters, even when reality is on
earth, is in the person of our Lord
Jesus.
You can touch Him outwardly.
And yet you still do not know Him.
It needs revelation.
But in those days, not many received such
revelation.
Our Lord Jesus said, in Matthew 11, 27,
He said, No one knows the Son but
the Father.
And no one knows the Father but the
Son.
And to those whom He has revealed.
Now do we really believe what the Lord
has said?
No one knows the Father.
No one.
Do we believe that?
Do we really believe that the Son is
the only one who knows the Father?
Because He is in the bosom of the
Father.
And do we believe that no one knows
the Son, knows the Father, but the Son
and to whom the Son has revealed Him.
So without revelation, it is impossible to touch
reality.
Brothers and sisters, spiritual reality is beyond human
beings.
No matter how clever you are, you just
cannot.
Even though God, who lives in unperceivable light,
has now come upon this earth.
And reality is now manifested, available,
attainable, approachable.
But even so, if there is no revelation
from above, you still cannot get it.
But thank God.
Before our Lord Jesus went to the Father,
He said, I'm going.
And the disciples were very sorrowful.
But the Lord said, it is good for
you.
I'm going, but I will go and ask
of the Father.
And I will send another Comforter to you.
The Spirit of Truth.
And He shall be with you and He
shall be in you.
And He will never leave you.
And this Spirit of Truth, in John chapter
16, that we have already mentioned a number
of times, when the Spirit of Truth shall
come, He shall lead you into all truth.
The Lord said, He will take what is
of mine and reveal it to you.
It is the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God is the Spirit of
Truth.
He is the Spirit of Reality.
And in 1 John chapter 5, the Apostle
John mentioned about this matter of the testimony.
He said, This is He that comes by
water and blood, Jesus the Christ, and by
water, not by water only, but by water
and blood.
And it is the Spirit that bears witness,
for the Spirit is the Truth.
God the Father is the Truth.
The Source of Reality.
But He is transcendent.
Unapproachable.
God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is
Truth incarnated.
The Truth has come upon this earth, making
Himself available to us.
But it is the Holy Spirit that leads
us into it.
You know, brothers and sisters, even when our
Lord Jesus was on earth, only relatively few
people receive a revelation from the Father concerning
the Son.
But today, what a privilege we have.
Today, all who believe in the Lord Jesus
has the Holy Spirit.
That Spirit of Truth dwells in us.
Now, do you know that you have the
Spirit of Truth in you?
Do you know that He is in you,
teaching you?
Not only teaching you all things, but He
is leading you into all truth.
In other words, He makes reality not only
present on earth, but He makes reality real
in your life.
He takes what is of Christ, what Christ
has done for us, the finished work of
Christ on Calvary's cross, that makes reality available.
Now He takes that which is available and
makes it attainable, touchable, experiential to each
one.
We cannot say today, we have not heard
reality, because we have heard it in God.
We cannot say, we have not seen reality,
because we have seen it in our Lord
Jesus.
The full Gospels, because the life of our
Lord Jesus, it is the life of spiritual
reality.
And we cannot say today, that we cannot
experience spiritual reality.
Why?
Because the Spirit of Reality is in us.
Everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus has
the Spirit of Jesus, has the Spirit of
Christ, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of
Truth, the Spirit of Reality in him and
in her.
And it is only by the Holy Spirit
we are led into experiencing spiritual reality.
Now, how does the Holy Spirit, the Spirit
of Truth, lead us into all truth?
There are two ways.
One, the Holy Spirit reveals reality within us.
He will tell us what is real and
what is false.
The anointing that is in you, he will
teach you in all things.
And whatever he teaches is true and is
not false.
And if you listen to his teaching, you
abide in Christ.
Brothers and sisters, how do we really know
Christ?
Know God.
How do we really know reality in our
lives?
It is by the teaching of the anointing.
The Holy Spirit within us, he is teaching
us.
He is teaching us and telling us what
is not real and what is real.
What is just a knowledge, a mental knowledge?
And what is spiritual reality?
What is the appearance and what is the
substance?
You find the Holy Spirit, he is teaching
us all the time, trying to divide all
the imitation, the counterfeits, the pretence, the deceit,
deception, the substitute.
And he is trying to show us where
reality is.
And that is the work of the Holy
Spirit in each one of us, every day.
Our problem is we are so busy with
outward things that we do not have the
quietness to hear the still, small voice.
You know, actually, when we are talking, the
Holy Spirit is in us teaching us reality.
When we are talking too much, he restrains
us within and says, that's enough.
When we are exaggerating, he will tell us,
you are not telling the truth.
When we are boasting of ourselves, he will
show us that it is ourselves, not Christ.
Unfortunately, we did not listen to him.
You know, sometimes, even in talking, the momentum
seems to just carry us on.
We know inwardly something is telling us, but
we cannot stop.
But afterwards, we feel uncomfortable.
When you are talking, you are very comfortable.
But after you finish, you feel uneasy.
It seems as if a cloud has come
between you and God.
Your fellowship with God is interrupted.
You have to repent and return.
And then you will find it is really
connected.
Brothers and sisters, I think this is just
common life.
You do not seek spiritual reality in some
big experience.
Spiritual reality is right here in your daily
life.
Often times we think we know the Word.
We read the Word of God many, many
times.
We think we know it and we even
preach it.
Tell it to other people.
But one day, when the Holy Spirit begins
to enlighten us, when He begins to speak
to us in the written Word, then suddenly
you discover all you had before is just
theory.
You do not have the substance.
But when the Holy Spirit reveals, you touch
the reality.
And He is teaching us every day.
He is in us to glorify.
You know, the Holy Spirit does not speak
of Himself.
The Holy Spirit only speaks of Christ.
That is His mission.
He will glorify Christ.
He will take what is of Christ and
reveal it to us so that Christ may
become a reality in our life.
And this is not something spectacular.
Brothers and sisters, we often are brainwashed thinking
that to get into spiritual reality it has
something to be very spectacular.
The Spirit of Truth in you is daily
bringing you into spiritual reality.
But do you cooperate?
Do you obey?
Do you really surrender?
Do you surrender yourself?
But that is only one way.
The Holy Spirit has another way to lead
us into all truth.
And it is discipline outside.
Revelation inside and discipline outside.
Do not think that anything happens to you
by chance.
To a believer, a child of God, nothing
happens by chance.
Our Heavenly Father watches over us.
Our Lord Jesus said, look at the birds
of the air.
They are so worthless.
And yet your Heavenly Father takes care of
even that odd bird that is added with
nothing.
How much more?
Even the very hair of your head has
been numbered.
Well, we do not know how many hair
you have.
As you get older, probably you get less
hair.
But we never know how many hair we
have.
And certainly we have never numbered it.
Number one, number two, number thousand, number ten
thousand, a million.
We never number it.
But in the morning when you comb your
hair and some hair drop off, your Heavenly
Father knows exactly which number of your hair
has come off.
Now think of that.
If this is true, and it is true,
can you believe that anything happens to you
by chance?
The Holy Spirit is in
charge.
He arranges all our circumstances.
The people you are with, the people you
meet, the words you have heard, the
rumors you have heard, every idle word that
you speak.
Brothers and sisters, nothing comes to us by
chance.
The Lord so arranges.
Now we think, why is it that I
was born in the Kong family?
God arranges it.
Why is it that I have seven brothers
and sisters?
God arranges it.
Why is it that I am in the
midst of a group of believers?
Brothers and sisters, God arranges it.
Why is it that some brothers and sisters
get in touch with you?
God arranges it.
Why is it God, for somebody like you,
God arranges it?
Remember, the Holy Spirit arranges all our circumstances.
Not occasionally, all the time.
Where you are, what you do, whom you
meet, what you hear, everything is arranged by
the Holy Spirit.
Why?
He is trying to lead you into spiritual.
He knows how unreal you are.
He knows how much of you is the
flesh.
How much of you is just knowledge.
He knows how much of your love is
natural love.
How much of your patience is natural patience.
How much of your gentleness is Adamic in
origin.
Some people are born more gentle than other
people.
Some people are born more hard than other
people.
The Holy Spirit arranges your circumstance to test
you to the uttermost.
Beyond.
Why?
Just to lead you into spiritual reality.
That's what it is.
The instrument He uses is the cross.
He uses the cross to expose and
to cut off all that is not real.
All that is man, that is of yourself,
of the all creation, imitation, substitute, deception.
Brothers and sisters, we do not know how
much we are deceived.
We do not know how much we are
in darkness.
We do not know how much we are
living in the flesh.
We do not know how much the world
has influenced over us.
We do not know how much is just
religion, just appearance, human efforts, not
real, will not last forever.
It cannot continue on to eternity.
We do not know.
But the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth,
He knows.
Why certain things happen to certain people and
not to other people?
Why certain things are easy with certain people,
but they are difficult with other people?
Certain things are a problem to certain people,
but these things are no problem to other
people.
Why?
Because God knows us.
If we are willing to submit ourselves under
the mighty hand of God.
You know, that is the problem.
When we are put into certain circumstances, we
fight against it.
We see man instead of God.
If only we were to submit ourselves under
the mighty hand of God.
Brothers and sisters, in due time He will
exalt us.
Christ is increased in us.
Reality is increased in us.
This is the only way to spiritual reality.
There is a cost we have to pay.
And that's the reason why you find at
the very beginning our Lord Jesus will tell
those who come to Him and said, except
you deny yourselves, take up your cross and
follow me, you cannot be.
You are not worthy of me.
There is a cost.
You have to be ready to pay but
thank God when the grace of God is
finally manifested in your life.
You say, Lord, this is no cost.
This is your love.
Because what I consider as cost to me
actually is harmful to me.
And God in His love removes it and
replaces it.
With His beloved Son.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is reality.
So you find that spiritual reality can only
be found in God and nowhere else.
Don't try to find spiritual reality anywhere else.
You cannot find it.
Even death and destruction we have heard the
report of it but we have never seen
it.
Don't try to find spiritual reality in man.
No matter how great that man may be,
he is not there.
The only place where you can find spiritual
reality you find it in God.
And thank God, Christ Jesus is God becoming
man.
Reality incarnated.
And through His death and resurrection He makes
reality available to every one of us.
And thank God He sent the Holy Spirit
dwelling in each one of us to lead
us into spiritual reality.
So, do not say that reality, spiritual reality
is nowhere to be found.
And you cannot have spiritual reality.
And just be content with a big lie.
Brothers and sisters, seek spiritual reality.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, Thou art the only true
God.
We thank Thee for sending Thy beloved Son
into this world we believe.
We thank Thee for making reality available to
us through Thy beloved Son.
And we thank Thee for the Holy Spirit
who makes reality real even in
us poor vessels.
Oh, we thank Thee.
We thank Thee for all Thy goodness to
us.
Lord, make us a grateful people.
Deliver us from anything that is unreal.
Anything that is passing.
Anything that is a substitute.
Lord, we want Thee.
We want the real thing.
Oh, Lord, be merciful to us.
We pray that our life hereafter will walk
in a different direction.
That we no longer seek for vanity, but
we seek eternal life.
We thank Thee in the name of our
Lord Jesus.