Good evening, brothers and sisters in Christ.
I had not heard that song we just sang, but one of the refrains, over and over again—one of the prevailing ideas—was, every soul, every heart; nobody left out. And the prayer that God would meet us, each one.
We are all different. We have come with different hungers, different capacities, different needs; but the Lord knows each one of us intimately, and He is able to meet each one.
As we come to the study of God’s Word, I want to remind you of a principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable in your study of God’s Word.
As you go on, you are going to find many, many things helpful. And though there are many things that are helpful, there is only one thing that is indispensable: total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit. It is His Book.
The Bible, like our Lord Jesus, is human and divine. There is a human side, and we need to see the human side. But after all the academics are finished, there is also a divine side. And only God can reveal God. Only the Lord can turn the spotlight on Himself—on the Lord Jesus—for our hearts.
Before we go to prayer, I want to remind you of a marvelous passage in John 12—one of those times when God broke the silence and spoke from heaven.
When He spoke from heaven—it is in John 12:27-28, around there—He spoke to glorify His Son:
“I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
Every time God speaks, it is to glorify His Son. Some people only hear thunder, and some people say, “It is just an angel.”
We are going to pray that God will speak to glorify His Son. After the voice, the Lord Jesus said, “It was not for My sake, it was for your sake that the voice came.”
So let us trust the Lord together that, as He speaks to glorify His Son, we will not hear thunder. We will not just have some spiritual experience and hear a messenger; but when God speaks to glorify His Son, let us hear God speak to glorify His Son.
Our Father, we do thank You again that we can call upon You to make bare Your arm and to revive Your work again in the midst of the years.
We can also pray that You would not pass by anyone. Draw us, Lord. We desire to run after You. Cause us to see You.
And as we touch this marvelous issue of serving the Lord—serving You—we pray that You would clinch these truths in our hearts; that You would teach us what it means to be serviceable to the Master.
We thank You for meeting us so faithfully throughout this week, and we pray now once again that, by Your grace, You would dawn Christ upon us. Speak, Lord, in a living way. Take us beyond the letter. Deliver us from flesh and blood.
We pray that we might respond to Your voice. Thank You, Lord, that You are going to meet with us, because we ask it in the deserving name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Well, I understand that some are just joining us for the first time, and so, very briefly, I am going to set the principles before you. I understand there are tapes, and you can listen and catch up.
But we are discussing this marvelous theme this week: being serviceable to the Master. The Lord has thrilled our hearts with Himself, and I hope He has also fired the right side of some of our brains as well.
Everything is in Christ Jesus. Now, as you know by now, my awful responsibility and my blessed responsibility has to do with that matter of serving the Lord. So we are trusting Him to continue to grace us as we look for His heart in this matter.
As it was said over and over again throughout the conference: Are we servants? Should we serve? Should we serve the Lord? Should we serve in the house, through the house, to the house? Should we serve one another?
That is not the issue. That has been settled. We were created to serve. We were redeemed to serve. We are called to serve. That is not the issue.
The issue is: Are we serviceable? How can we serve? What provisions has God given us in His dear Son to enable us to be serviceable to the Master?
In our consideration of how to be serviceable in terms of serving the Lord, we have been looking at what I have called the blueprint—the divine intention, the master plan.
I want to set that before you again, and so I am going to ask you to turn to Revelation 7. Revelation 7, to begin. Let me just set this before your hearts again.
Beginning at verse 15:
“For this reason they are before the throne of God;
and they serve Him day and night in His temple;
and He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more;
neither at all shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat:
for the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd,
and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life:
and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
If you glance at Revelation 7:15, you see that there is a service up there. Those who have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb, in that eternal state, are serving Him day and night.
And then, if you glance at Revelation 22, beginning at verse 3:
“And there shall be no curse any more:
and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein:
and His servants shall serve Him;
and they shall see His face;
and His name shall be on their foreheads.
And there shall be night no more;
and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun;
for the Lord God shall give them light:
and they shall reign for ever and ever.”
His bondservants will serve Him. They will see His face.
And I thought, as I studied this, if we could get a vision of that eternal state, there is no doubt, there is no question, that up there, in that eternal condition, they are serviceable to the Master. And they are serving.
After all the doing is done, they are up there serving. What they are doing, we will leave for someone else to discuss. But how are they doing it? How are they serving the Lord?
Because if I can lay hold of how they are serving, maybe I will know a little bit about what it means to serve the Lord down here in this lower arena. Our Lord Jesus taught us to pray:
“Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.”
—Matthew 6:10
How is it being done up there?
Now, what has been so meaningful to my heart, approaching it that way—what has helped me to see a little bit more in this matter of serving—I understand has not been all that helpful to some, even a little confusing.
I think some of my words, some of my expressions, some of my terms, might have gotten in the way. I anticipated that, actually, and I tried to bend over backwards to speak in common-denominator language and avoid any controversial issues connected with the details of chronology.
But I think I offended somebody’s chart. I thought I had that chronology nailed down—give or take seventeen years.
Words that are so familiar to those who have been instructed in the Lord—words like resurrection, resurrection body, marriage supper of the Lamb, new heavens, new earth, New Jerusalem, heaven—well, we have different charts.
Someone says “resurrection,” and you say, “Resurrection? Heaven begins with resurrection—which one? Is it the resurrection of the overcomers, or the tribulation saints, or another resurrection? Which phase? Resurrection one, resurrection two, and which phase?”
And the marriage feast—when is that? I look at my chart, and I think that is over here in the middle, right after the judgment seat. It seems like you put it over here. Is it before the millennium or after the millennium?
New heavens and new earth—which one is it? Isaiah’s new heaven and earth in Isaiah 65, where the youth dies at the age of one hundred? Or John’s new heaven and earth, where there is no more death? What are you talking about? You are using all these words.
New Jerusalem—is that a place? My brother was sharing today: the city. Is that a place? Is that a person? Is that a condition? Who is in there—everybody, somebody? Heaven—when does that begin?
I have been following this little outline: How does heaven begin, and how does it continue forever? And some folks are saying, “What are you talking about?”
So let me nail down what I mean. Take your chart, however it is arranged, and go to the end of it.
All right, no matter what order you have everything in, go to the end of your chart. I want you to go past the tribulation, past the rapture, past all your phases of the resurrection—whatever they are. I want you to go past all the judgments, however many you have. I want to go all the way to the end.
Then take a big step—oh, one thousand years or two thousand years—past your chart. That is what I am talking about.
That is what I am using the word heaven to describe: after it is all done, after it is all finished, way up there forever and ever. His bondservants serve Him.
And before they do that, this has to happen, and so does this, and so does this. And they contain great principles on what it means to serve the Lord.
So what we have been doing, God assisting us, is going up to look at that great blueprint beyond the charts. We are His bondservants, and in their new glorified bodies they are serving Him day and night. As the ages roll upon the ages, His bondservants will serve Him.
I want to see how they do that. I want to glance into that place. And so that is what we have been doing.
You know, it is interesting how these eschatology things can get you going in this direction or that direction. When I fell in love with Lillian, when I married that dear girl, we did not have wallpaper in our house, in our living room. We had my chart.
I am serious. You would come to visit us, and there was my chart. I had it all down—the whole thing. My whole chart would have made Larkin envious.
Two times so far, we have looked up beyond the veil into that eternal state, where His bondservants serve Him day and night forever. Now, I do not want to spend the whole evening reviewing, but let me just get those principles before your hearts.
What does it mean to serve the Lord? How can His will be done on earth as it is being done up there? That is our heart. How does heaven begin?
Our first look at heaven, and an answer to the question, “How does heaven begin?”—it has to begin with a wonderful resurrection. Wherever it is on your chart, that has got to come before they serve Him day and night. It is a miracle of grace. Heaven begins with grace.
And how does it continue forever? Luke 12:37: when He comes again, He is going to gird on the slave apron, and He is going to wait on them forever. God serves them.
They have finally gotten it straight up there. They have learned that God is the Servant, and they are the receivers. They have learned to serve the Lord the same way the earth serves the sun. The earth serves the sun by allowing the sun to serve the earth, and as it receives, it becomes a testimony.
The first principle of serving the Lord: I must be a receiver. I must allow the Lord to serve me. The more I allow the Lord to serve me, the more I serve Him.
Then we looked again a second time. How can I serve the Lord? How do they do it? I want His will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven. How do they do it?
I suggested that before they can do that service, there has got to be a marriage—a wedding, a union with Jesus Christ. If they are going to live happily ever after, it begins with that marvelous wedding.
The fruit of that union is the manifestation of the Lamb, who is the lamp. He fills that New Jerusalem and radiates through it throughout the new heavens and the new earth.
If I am going to serve the Lord, I have got to bear fruit.
“Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.”
—John 15:8
Burned and sad, fruitful and glad—how can I bear fruit? Romans 7, you remember: united to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God.
And so earth becomes a facsimile of heaven. That is how they do it up there. I want to serve the Lord, and I must be a receiver. I want to serve the Lord; then I must know union with Christ.
And that is where we left off. So now, brothers and sisters in Christ, that brings us to the next principle. I hope you are understanding, at least, our approach on this.
I want to look again at the blueprint, at the place where they are doing it right. How do they serve up there? How does heaven begin, and how does it end?
Now, rather than going straight up there and looking at the blueprint, I want to set it up. So I am going to ask you to turn to Amos. I want to read a couple of verses from Amos 7.
I think sometimes, if we can get a contrast, it makes it a little clearer. If I build a building and then I look at the blueprint, I might really be able to see where I messed up.
Amos 7:7:
“Thus He showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in His hand.
And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb-line.
Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst of My people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.”
Now, quite apart from the immediate context of that—I know this is allowable; DeVerne did it when he took us to that parable of the tree—this is an illustration.
In the illustration, God’s people had built a vertical wall. Their vertical wall looked so good. It looked so straight. It looked so tall. Compared with all other walls, their wall was pretty good. They said, “Look at our wall. We have a good wall.”
Then the Lord appeared in a vision, standing by their vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. He said, “You think your wall is so straight? I am about to drop a plumb line next to your wall, and let us see how straight your wall is.”
So before I look at the blueprint, before we go up there and see how they do it, I would like to suggest—at least, I too was trained in the large house—and I would like to show you how we built our wall in the large house.
When He dropped His plumb line, it hit me right in the head.
I am going to ask you to turn, if you would please, to John 12. Let us build the wall, and we will call the wall Christian service.
John 12, beginning at verse 23:
“And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”
Now look at the context. It is Christian service. Verse 26:
“If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will the Father honor.”
There is no doubt this passage is talking about Christian service. Clearly, in the context, the first application is our Lord Jesus. He is the grain of wheat that must die in order to bring life to the world. He is the grain of wheat.
But if you look at John 12:23-26—look at verse 26—it goes beyond that. Yes, Jesus is the grain of wheat, but, “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.”
If I am going to be a servant of Christ, I must follow Christ the Servant. Where? Well, He is the grain of wheat. That is the context.
You glance at John 12:32. He is talking about His death:
“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself.”
—John 12:32
Verse 33 says that He was saying this to indicate the kind of death He was going to die. Jesus said, “If a grain of wheat abides by itself alone, it will never produce. It has to die. You want to serve Me? Then you are going to have to die. You are going to have to become a grain of wheat. You are going to have to follow Me. You cannot abide by yourself alone.”
Verse 25: “He who loves his life loses it; he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.”
So far, so good. We take our first building block for our wall—our Christian-service wall—so that it will be true, so that it will be accurate. We lay it carefully, and we call it the grain-of-wheat stone: death to self. Let us just call it that: dying to self.
Now, there is another stone. Some say it is just the other side of that stone, but let us make it two stones. Some say one is negative and one is positive.
Next to the death-to-self stone is the lordship-of-Christ stone. Romans 12:1-2: “I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto Him.”
So it is not only the end of my life, but it is His life; it is the beginning of His life. Those are the two stones: death to self and the lordship of Christ. It is not only deliverance from; it is deliverance unto, and a total surrender unto Him.
Whether that surrender is a crisis or a process in our lives, it is deemed necessary if I am going to serve the Lord. I am going to die to self—ever heard that? Not only die to self: Christ must be absolute Lord of our lives.
So far, so good. It looks like a good wall. It looks like a straight wall.
That is what I was taught in the large house. I am going to serve the Lord. Hey, you want to serve the Lord? Then Christ has to be Lord of your life, and you have got to die to self.
What a nightmare those seven years were, as I tried to die to self and make Christ Lord of my life. I tell you, it was an agony.
They all say the same thing, some in these words and some in those words, but it is this: that is the goal of your life—surrender to Him.
So I did. I surrendered to the Lord, and then I got up and went out and sinned. I could not blame God, so I thought I did something wrong, held something back. So I had to surrender again.
I tell you, I became one with the altar. I surrendered my guts out. I did not know how to surrender any more.
I went through my library. If any of you have seen my library, God has given me a marvelous library. I went through every book and I surrendered every book to the Lord, by name.
I surrendered everybody in my family to the Lord. I went through my body. I surrendered my eyes, my ears, my lips, my tongue, my hands. I could not surrender any more.
Because that was my wall. I had to surrender to the Lord and die to self. I could not die to self, and I could not surrender to the Lord any more.
Every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year—more and more dying to self. I felt a little bit spiritual from time to time. I felt, “Well, I am more surrendered today than yesterday.” And then tomorrow—uh-oh. Well, I have got to do it again, and again, and again.
There was never an end to that.
Maybe there is somebody here tonight who has built that kind of wall, and you are longing for the day, for the season, for the hour, when someday He will be Lord.
I am serious about that. “I am going to surrender someday. It is going to happen. Someday, finally, I will be dead to self. I am trying. I am surrendering. I do not know what else to do. I will just keep trying—be more surrendered this week than last week, and next week than this week.”
All right, brothers and sisters in Christ, that is the wall. Now let us go upstairs. May God help us.
I am going to ask you to turn, please, to 1 Corinthians 15. Let us look at the blueprint, and let us ask the Lord to come down in His great mercy and stand by our wall with a plumb line in His hand. Oh, God, help us.
First Corinthians 15, beginning at verse 22:
“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits; then they that are Christ’s, at His coming.
Then cometh the end, when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
For He must reign, till He hath put all His enemies under His feet.
The last enemy that shall be abolished is death.
For, He put all things in subjection under His feet.
But when He saith, All things are put in subjection, it is evident that He is excepted Who did subject all things unto Him.
And when all things have been subjected unto Him, then the Son also Himself shall be subjected to Him that did subject all things unto Him, that God may be all in all.”
—1 Corinthians 15:22-28
Let us break it apart a little. How does heaven begin? How does it continue forever?
You say it begins with a resurrection, then it continues with God serving men. Yes, it does. You say it begins with a marriage, and it continues with the manifestation of Christ through His glorious bride. Exactly so.
How does it begin again? Well, according to 1 Corinthians 15, it begins with an end. Verse 24: “Then cometh the end.”
When He has abolished all rule, all authority, all power—He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. That sounds like lordship. That sounds like the stone I have in my wall: Lord of all.
If you ever wanted a picture of Lordship, you have it here. Every enemy under His feet—that is absolute Lordship. Demons, angels, men, things visible, things invisible; every stronghold of error is under His feet. Every fortress of ignorance is under His feet. The reign of lawlessness is put down. He is King. He is Lord. Every power is subdued. He reigns. Before Him, every knee bows.
So I say, “Lord, Your wall, so far, looks like my wall.”
Then I look at verse 26: “The last enemy to be abolished is death.” And I say, “I have that stone in my wall.” It always seems to be the last one to go down, too. I cannot die to self. The last enemy is always there.
After the last enemy goes down, there are no more enemies. Everything is subdued. Verse 54 of the same chapter gives us this description:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
—1 Corinthians 15:54
That is the final picture of victory. By the way, let me just say this on the side. “Death is swallowed up in victory” is such a glorious picture of the victory that He gives us.
If you were to take your newspaper tomorrow and read a headline that said, “Cancer is swallowed up in victory,” would that not be a glorious headline? Or, “Multiple sclerosis is swallowed up in victory,” or some other debilitating disease.
What would that mean? It would probably mean that a cure has been found, and now you can be immunized and you will not get it. It is a death blow to the disease.
But what about those who have already had cancer? You say, “Well, that will not help them too much, but from now on…” That is cancer swallowed up in victory.
The victory God offers, when He says, “Death is swallowed up in victory,” not only says a death blow to death in the future, but it goes backwards all the way back to Adam. That is the kind of victory He gives.
He not only puts the fire out; He rebuilds the house. That is the kind of victory He gives.
It is a victory that not only promises you, for the future, that you can have victory, but reaches back and undoes the damage that that thing has done in life.
When you pray for someone to have victory, and you pray for yourself to have victory, ask God to give you that kind of a vision—to pray for that kind of a victory: the kind of victory that will restore the years that the locust has eaten, that will turn the curse into a blessing. That is the kind of victory He is offering.
Now let us get back to the question: How does heaven begin? So far, I see the same two stones. I see the lordship of Christ, and I see death—victory over death. That is what I learned in the big house.
What is the difference? The Lord Jesus stands there with His plumb line, and He holds it next to our wall and His wall.
Let me tell you the difference. Up there, where the bondservants of Christ serve Him day and night forever, where they are serviceable to the Master, in their wall those are foundation stones, not top stones.
In other words, that is the starting point. That is not the goal. The lordship of Christ is not the goal; that is the starting point.
When heaven begins, that is done. He is Lord of all. When heaven begins, death is finished. It is not out in the future, saying, “Oh, I hope someday I will be dead. I hope someday Christ will be Lord of my life.”
That is all behind. It is a finished work. Lordship is accomplished, and victory over death is accomplished.
Friends in Christ, how the enemy loves to make a goal out of a starting point. It will kill you. He makes a goal out of a starting point. If he can get you to believe that it is still out there and still needs to be done, you will never arrive. You will never begin. You cannot begin to be the servant of the Lord.
It is a finished work. If I am going to serve the Lord, I must do it like they do it up there.
I cannot stop praising the Lord for the clear presentation our brother Stephen gave the other day on this wonderful issue. It is over. It is done. It is finished. It is through.
Two thousand years ago, I died to self in the person of Jesus Christ, my Substitute. That is not a goal. That is the starting point. I have got to come and reckon that by faith. I believe that.
And He is Lord. His death has made me die, and His resurrection has made Him Lord. It is done.
I tell you, that is a glorious thing. That is how heaven begins. As He puts the plumb line next to mine, I see that, to me, it was all out in front, and yet my wall was so crooked.
I cannot serve without being a receiver. I cannot serve without union with Christ. And I cannot serve Him if His Lordship and dying to self are always out there and are never real in my life. It has got to be back there: over, done, through, finished, accomplished—once done, forever finished. Bless the Lord.
Now hold on a moment, and let me try to answer this question. Heaven begins with Lordship accomplished and death victorious. How does it continue forever?
It is strange when you read 1 Corinthians 15. You do not expect this. Verse 28:
“And when all things have been subjected unto Him, then the Son also Himself shall be subjected to Him that did subject all things unto Him, that God may be all in all.”
What I would expect is, when all things are put under His feet, when all rule and all authority and all power and all dominion, and every enemy is down and the last enemy is down, He shall reign forever. That is what I would expect.
But it does not say He shall reign forever and ever. When He finally becomes Lord of all, I would expect Him then to exercise—was that not why You became Lord of all, so You could be Lord?
He says, “No. I do not want to be Lord as you understand it.” He turns around to the Father, and He lays it all down.
Because there is something beyond lordship. It is not beyond Lordship—He did not abdicate the throne. He is King of kings and Lord of lords forever.
He dropped a little hint of it in John 15:15:
“No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known unto you.”
In that marvelous passage, He takes that great truth of the lordship of Christ, and He opens it up and shows us the heart of Lordship. In the heart of Lordship is friendship.
All the time I am waiting and bowing down and surrendering and giving up this and trying to make Him Lord, as if that is the goal—that is not the goal. That is the starting point. He says, “I want you to get through that so you can enter into My friendship.”
It is the same kind of thing that Joseph’s brothers, in type and picture, so resisted for years: “You will not reign over us. You are going to lord it over us.”
When they finally entered into his lordship, they found out it was friendship. The heart, the marrow, of lordship is friendship. That is how it is up there.
None of His bondservants up there are saying, “Oh, I wish I could surrender to the Lord. I wish I could die to self.” They are not saying that up there. That is all very far behind.
I want to develop that a little more, but I want to call attention to one little difference. I look up there and see such an ideal, and I come down here and it is not that ideal.
Up there, they have Lordship behind, victory over death behind, and have entered into friendship. Now they are going to go forward in friendship for eternity.
Here, in this life now, the question is, where is the cross? Do I not still have to die to self and still surrender? Exactly right.
Here we die to live to die. Understand what I am saying. I reckon myself dead by faith. I died two thousand years ago. If I am going to know His resurrection life, I have got to take by faith that I died, and then I get His life.
Now, what is the fruit of His life? It enables me to die, to pour myself out, to lay it down, to desire to do His will, to delight in His will, to have that as my meat and my drink, and to lay down my will.
Here, the more I enter into the life, the more I am enabled to die. It takes life to die.
I was talking to Mary Lou this afternoon, and she was pointing out that arrangement when Paul prayed: “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death.” Why did resurrection come first?
I die that I might live, that now, by His life, I may die. Here His life allows me to die; there His life allows them to stay dead. They are not going to rise up in rebellion up there.
How does heaven continue forever? Let me suggest that this friendship up there means they are beholding the beauty of the Lord. They have gone through Lordship into friendship. They are mutually enjoying and satisfied with one another.
When the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known,” and when 1 John 3 says, “When He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is,” brothers and sisters in Christ, that does not mean that we will see the Lord and arrive: “We have seen Him now. There is no more to see.”
I do not know your view of that eternal state, but let me give you some of my guesses. Because He is infinite, you cannot overtake that which is infinite. You can pursue it, but you cannot overtake it.
Forever and forever and forever up there, they will be going on in friendship and knowing Him more and more and more. You are only eternal on one end. He is eternal on both ends. He is infinite, and forever and forever we are going to know Him up there.
Second Thessalonians 1:10 is another of my favorite verses. I have favorite verses on everything. In fact, I make it a hobby. My favorite verses change all the time, but I make it a hobby for every subject.
You name a subject, I will give you my favorite verse on it. I did that on purpose. I have a list: my favorite verse on the Trinity, my favorite verse on the Holy Spirit, my favorite verse on the second coming, my favorite verse on resurrection. I have favorite verses. I love it. And they keep changing.
Here is one of my favorite verses on the second coming: 2 Thessalonians 1:10:
“When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed.”
Is that not a wonderful verse? He is coming to be marveled at.
When the Lord Jesus returns, or when I am up there, I see Him. My eyes are going to be opened wide in amazement, and my mouth is going to be opened wide in amazement.
I am going to say, “I always knew He was beautiful, but I never knew He was like this.”
I think I see Him now, but I only see Him, man, as trees walking. When I see Him and marvel at Him—when we see Him face to face, on earth we see Him mediately, that is, through mediation, through things.
We see Him through ordinances, through creation, through one another, through the trials of life, and even through the Bible. We see Him through the Bible.
But then, face to face—immediately, without anything in between—we are going to see the Lord. We are going to see the beauty of the Lord unveiled. Every cloud, every curtain, and every veil is going to be drawn aside. No lattice view up there. We are going to marvel at Him.
Revelation 7:17 says the Lamb shall be the Shepherd. There is a great mixing of metaphors: the Lamb shall be the Shepherd.
You say, “Why do I need a Shepherd up there?” Because I am not done knowing Him. He is going to lead me to rivers of living water.
“I thought there was no thirst up there.” It is like when you received Christ into your life: “He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.”
I am thirsting more now for the Lord than I did before I got saved. It is a different kind of thirst. It is a thirst from satisfaction, not for satisfaction. We have already been satisfied in Christ, and now we want more. They have that thirst in heaven.
There are many, many guesses as to what Revelation 22:2 means:
“In the midst of the street thereof. And on this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
You say, “What is that all about? A tree of life—one tree on both sides of the river? Healing of the nations? What? Do they need healing?”
Here He provides needs; there He prevents needs. Is that just how it is? What is that all about?
I have my guesses. You have your guesses. Here is my guess.
I feel like Vernon McGee when I heard him say one time, “If you disagree with me, you are in good company.” So now you need to decide if you want good company or the truth.
I am only kidding. He also said one time, “I have many friends who take different positions on this issue, and I agree with my friend.”
Anyway, this tree of life—I think God deliberately, for my sake and for our sakes, because we are so weak, divided eternity into months so I could get some grasp of it, some hold of it.
Every month, this tree bears twelve kinds of fruit. So let us say the first month it is apples, bananas, peaches, pears, plums, kiwi—whatever.
I have an idea, because it says kinds of fruit, that the next month it is different, and the next month it is different. Twelve kinds every month—different, different.
It is a picture of our Lord Jesus, and we will be feeding on Him forever and ever. First month in heaven: twelve kinds of fruit.
I say, “I knew the Lord Jesus was wonderful when I arrived, but then my eyes will be one month wider in amazement. My mouth will be open one month wider in amazement, and I will say, ‘I always knew He was beautiful, but I never knew He was like this.’”
After a thousand years go by, and I have been feeding on the tree of life with the people of God, my eyes will be a thousand years wider in amazement as I behold this marvelous Savior.
That is what they are doing up there. How glorious.
It begins with Lordship behind. He is Lord. I am dead. Now I have gone through Lordship into friendship, and I am just knowing the Lord and going forward in the glory of the Lord.
There is one servant in the Bible—a human servant—who twenty-five times is called the servant of the Lord. He is so interesting. He is a different kind of servant because he is so close to the original.
Of this servant we read that he had face-to-face fellowship. You know whom I am talking about. God talked with him as a man talks to a friend. He beheld the form of the Lord. I am talking about God’s servant Moses, the servant of the Lord.
Turn, if you would, and we will close with this illustration. Turn to Exodus 32 and 33, and Revelation 15.
I looked up in heaven, and as I was studying all about heaven and all those verses, I was amazed when I looked at one of the songs they sang.
Revelation 15 says:
“And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.”
—Revelation 15:3
What a soul. What a servant.
Exodus 32. Let me just give you the background here. It is right after the sin of the golden calf. Moses has come down out of the presence of the Lord, and now his heart has been touched.
He is a servant of the Lord. He has gone through Lordship and into friendship. He has a passion in his heart, a desire in his heart, and nothing else is going to satisfy that servant of the Lord.
Now, I know I am not doing justice to the Scripture. I am flying over, but just enough to touch the heart of it. God makes him some offers.
Exodus 32:9-10:
“And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.”
Do not answer, but what if God said that to you? What if God said, “They really blew it. I am going to start all over, and I want to use you as My instrument”?
Man, I think my heart would flip. “Yes. Okay. Right.”
You read the record. Moses said, “I do not want that. I do not want my kingdom. I do not want You to start over. I do not want to be used by You to start all over. That would violate Your holy character. That would do injustice to Your promise and Your vow.”
It looks like, on the level of earth—it looks like, and I think God is playing with us here—it looks like Moses changed God’s mind. You read that. It is interesting.
So God makes him another offer. Exodus 33:2-3:
“And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:
unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people.”
He said, “I will send an angel. That angel will go before you and bring victory into the land.”
Moses, the servant of the Lord, said, “I do not want an angel. Thank You anyway.”
If God told me He was going to send an angel and wipe out the enemy, I would say, “Oh, what a great experience I am going to have. I will just follow this angel and have victory.”
Moses, the servant of the Lord, had a different heart. He said, “I do not want a kingdom. I do not want to be greatly used. That is not a servant of the Lord. That is not what I want.”
“I do not want some great experience. I do not want an angel coming down and leading my way so everyone can say, ‘There is the guy who followed the angel.’ I do not want that.”
Then God comes a little closer. Exodus 33:14:
“My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”
If you read that very carefully, it seems like even that did not satisfy the heart of Moses. When he responds in verse 15:
“If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.”
It is almost like he is taking that for granted. God said, “I will go with you. I will give you rest.” He says, “I know that. Do not even send us if that is not true.”
Moses is saying, “I do not want a kingdom. I do not want an angel. I do not even want something called rest.”
The servant had another passion. He had something else in his heart, and it was very much like they have up there.
Well, you know where I am heading. Exodus 33:18. What do you want, Moses? What will satisfy that servant heart of yours?
Moses said:
“I pray Thee, show me Thy glory.”
—Exodus 33:18
Nothing else could satisfy the servant of the Lord. What are they doing up there? Lordship behind. Death to self behind. Friendship begun. Up there, they are just saying, “Show me Your glory.”
“Oh, I knew You were beautiful. I did not know You were like this. Show me Your glory. Show me Your glory.” That is what they are doing up there, and that is what Moses was doing.
Now I am really going to do dishonor to Exodus 33, this great passage. There is no time to develop it. You remember how God answered that prayer.
He said, “You want to see My glory?” He took His servant and put him in a rock. He is praying for light. He is praying for glory. He is praying to see the satisfaction of the Lord, because that is the only thing—that mutual satisfaction Brother DeVerne shared with us. That is his heart: “Show me Your glory.”
I do not know how dark that cave was, but that sounds strange: “Show me Your glory,” and He puts you in a cave. Then He puts His hand over it. That is pretty dark in answer to the prayer, “Show me Your glory.”
You never know what the Lord is doing when He puts you in the cave and puts His hand over it.
Here is what He was saying: What is true up there is true down here in picture. You want to see the glory of the Lord? You have got to abide in Christ.
As you abide in Christ, “I will pass by. I will protect you from what you are not ready to see. You will see the back”—as Dana presented, the mercy of the Lord, the lovingkindness of the Lord.
Here we are at the end—at the end of my little session. What does it mean to serve the Lord?
Let me suggest to you these three things. Do not get all complicated. Do not say, “Well, I have got to look for a ministry, look for a service, get involved in this.” Maybe God will lead you into that. I am not suggesting He will not.
But I am saying this is the foundation. This is the basic. This is how it is done up there, and it is how it has got to be done down here.
You want to serve the Lord? Learn to be a receiver. Let Him serve you.
You want to bring forth fruit unto God? Learn what it means to have union with Jesus Christ.
You want to serve the Lord? Lordship and death to self are a starting point, not a goal. By the grace of God and the death of our Lord Jesus, that is done.
Now enter into His friendship, and pray, “Lord, show me Your glory.” He will put you in the rock, and He will begin to pass by, and you will learn what it means to serve the Lord.
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord.”
—Psalm 27:4
Let us bow out again.
Father, teach us how to do Thy will on the earth as it is done in heaven. Teach us what it means to have You serve us. Oh, what grace.
Teach us what it means to be united to You in such a way that glorious fruit comes out of our life and Christ is manifest.
Teach us what it means to reach the heart of Lordship and enjoy friendship, and to behold the glory of the Lord.
Give us heaven in the bud now. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.