The most wonderful aspect of the Lord’s salvation is that He works Himself into us. The Lord does not save us from the outside. He saves us by entering into us. Not only does He enter into us, but He also mingles Himself with our entire being. His salvation does not go from the outside to the inside but from the inside to the outside, not from the circumference to the center but from the center to the circumference.
We can testify of this from our experience. Often when we pray, we embrace the religious concept that salvation will come from the heavens outside of us. Therefore, we lift our head and look upward while praying and calling. However, our experience shows us that at other times when we pray in a more informal way and even when we do not seem to be praying at all, we experience salvation breaking out from within us. According to our concept, we think that salvation will come from above, but instead, the Lord’s salvation comes to us from within. Why is this? The Lord’s salvation comes from within us because on the day that we were saved, at the very moment that we repented, confessed, believed, and prayed to the Lord, the wonderful Lord entered into the center of our being, our spirit. We may have had no consciousness that this happened, and we may not have sensed anything, but because we believed in Him and prayed to Him, He entered into our spirit. This mysterious reality is altogether not based upon our feelings. Some may experience great joy, sweetness, and release when the Lord enters into them, but with most people this is not the case. With most people, the Lord enters into their spirit in a quiet way, even without their knowledge. We may not have sensed anything and may not have known that anything happened, but when we believed in Him, the Lord Jesus entered into us.
Allow me to give a few examples to prove this to you. There are some people who repented, confessed, believed, and prayed to the Lord. When they did all of these things, they expected that something would happen. Thus, when it appeared to them that nothing had happened, they were disappointed, concluding that the gospel is not real and that the preaching that they heard was not reliable. Although they came to this kind of conclusion, within a few days (with some it is three or four days, with others it may be seven or eight days) something rose up within them without their knowledge. Some may call it a power, some may say that it is salvation, and others may say that they have experienced a change, but regardless of what terminology is used to describe it, this experience is very real. Something powerful rises up from within them to save them.
Forty years ago I preached the gospel to a man named Mr. Du, and he got saved. Mr. Du liked to drink. He had been in Christianity for many years but had never repented or believed until he heard our gospel preaching. When he heard our gospel preaching, he repented, believed, and called upon the Lord. Thus, he was truly saved. Mr. Du had a good friend and neighbor named Mr. Yang. Mr. Yang also had been in Christianity for many years, but he still liked to play cards and go to the opera. He seldom went to Christian meetings. He would go maybe only once every three to six months. Some years he went only on December 25 to attend a Christmas service. Mr. Yang was about thirty years old, and he and Mr. Du were good friends who enjoyed drinking together. After Mr. Du believed in the Lord, Mr. Yang was influenced by him and also believed in the Lord. Mr. Yang genuinely believed in the Lord and was saved into the church. Now he was no longer merely a nominal Christian. Mr. Du and Mr. Yang were happy that both of them had believed in the Lord and had come into the church life. One day one of them laughed and said to the other, “Let us have a little wine together.” The other answered, “No. It is not good to drink.” But the first answered back, “We can just drink a little ‘Timothy wine.’ In 1 Timothy 5:23 Paul told Timothy, ‘No longer drink water only, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.’ Thus, if it is all right for Timothy to drink a little wine, why can’t we have some also?” After this the two of them raised their glasses and began to drink. However, when Mr. Du took a sip of the wine, it did not taste right to him, so he looked at Mr. Yang, and after Mr. Yang took a sip, he said to Mr. Du, “This wine has changed. It tastes bitter.” The two of them each took another sip, and then without saying anything further, they both put down their glasses at the same time; neither of them could take another sip. This story demonstrates that even if you follow the letter of the Bible, the Christ who is within you may not agree with you. According to the Bible, it may be okay to have a little “Timothy wine,” but something within you may object. This illustrates that salvation does not come from outward teaching; salvation comes from within.
Let me give you another example. When I was preaching the gospel forty years ago, another person got saved. His last name was Jing. He worked at the customs office and was about the same age as Mr. Du. Mr. Jing was tall and strong. He came from Manchuria, had a good sense of humor, spoke with a loud voice, and liked to smoke and drink. His colleagues at the customs office often had parties. If Mr. Jing did not attend these parties, his colleagues did not have much fun, so they always made sure that he came. Mr. Jing was known for being kind and also for being a chain smoker—he smoked from the time that he arrived at the office until the time that he left. This was the kind of person that Mr. Jing was before he got saved. One day, however, he came to listen to the gospel. At that time we were holding a series of gospel meetings at the beginning of the new year. After listening to the gospel for a few nights, on the last evening Mr. Jing came to see me. He said, “Mr. Lee, I understood your preaching, and I am also very touched by it. Now I would like to ask you, how can I get saved?” I answered him, “It is very simple. You have to repent, confess, believe, and pray. Go home and pray to the Lord Jesus. Tell Him, ‘Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.’ After you pray this, whatever sin you sense within, just confess that sin, and after you confess, say, ‘Lord Jesus! Thank You. You were crucified on the cross for me. I believe in You, and I receive You as my Savior.’” When he went home, he did what I had instructed him to do, but when he prayed in this way, it did not seem to him that anything had happened. The next morning he went to work as usual. It was his habit to bring two packs of cigarettes with him every day, but on this morning, for some unknown reason, he forgot to bring them. One of Mr. Jing’s colleagues who sat across from him at the office was also a chain smoker. When the two of them would arrive at their desks each morning, they would look across at each other and give each other a certain look that seemed to say, “I have my cigarettes, and I intend to smoke them. You better have brought your own, for I am not going to let you take advantage of me by asking me for my cigarettes.” However, on this morning when his colleague took out his cigarettes, Mr. Jing realized that he had forgotten to bring his. At that moment he also remembered that the night before he had believed in Jesus, so he told his colleague, “I have forgotten to bring my cigarettes, but last night I believed in Jesus.” When his colleague heard this, he replied, “Forget about it, my dear Jing. You are good at joking around. I know that you must be up to some new trick by saying that you have believed in Jesus. Do not think that you are going to be able to take advantage of me this morning. Whether or not you brought your cigarettes is your business. I am not going to give you any of mine.” Then Mr. Jing’s colleague waited to see what would happen. To his surprise the whole morning went by, and Mr. Jing did not smoke. Then the colleague observed Mr. Jing further. The whole afternoon went by, and still he did not smoke. Mr. Jing’s colleague was now quite surprised. He knew that even if Mr. Jing were joking, there was no way that he could have maintained the joke for this long. This was the way in which Mr. Jing quit smoking.
That evening the employees of the customs office held a party as usual and invited Mr. Jing to come. It was difficult for him to refuse, so he went. When he got to the party, he simply remained quiet and just smiled at everyone. As a result, people began to make fun of him. But no matter what they said, he remained quiet and smiled at them. Eventually someone said, “Everybody look. Dear Jing is up to something new today.” Still, regardless of how others teased him, he remained quiet. Then he told his friends, “I have believed in Jesus. I do not smoke anymore, I do not drink anymore, and I will not fool around anymore.” When they heard this, everyone just laughed and said, “Forget about it! Who are you fooling? You are up to some new trick!” Then everyone came to give a toast for him, but instead of drinking with them, he simply said “thank you” and smiled. Within him there was a power that enabled him to stop drinking. This is how Mr. Jing was changed.
When the employees of the customs office had parties, their wives always accompanied them. Once Mr. Jing had been saved, he stopped going out with his colleagues, and as a result, his wife also could not go out with them. Therefore, his wife became very angry with Jesus and blamed those who had preached Jesus to her husband. When Mr. Jing got saved, he became very burning for the Lord. One day he invited seven or eight of us to his home for a love feast and asked his wife to prepare a meal for us. Little did he know that his wife was very angry and had no intention of preparing anything. I was also invited to his home that day. When we arrived at his house, we saw that there was nothing on the table to eat but cold leftovers from the day before. Brother Jing sat down in tears, but we said to him, “Brother, this is really a love feast. Let us eat!” On another occasion when Brother Jing was at a meeting, his wife waited for him impatiently at home. The moment Brother Jing walked in the door, his wife began taking paintings off the wall and throwing them at him. Nevertheless, he still smiled and praised the Lord. He was able to respond in this way, not because he had received some power from without but because there was a power within him.
I can tell you many stories of preaching the gospel and seeing the Lord save people, not from without but from within. We may think that when the Lord saves us, He is like someone who is standing on solid ground pulling someone else out of a deep pit. This is not the Lord’s way. When we open our mouth to pray, the Lord enters into us and pushes us out of the pit from within us. The Lord enters into us and saves us from within.