For unto us a child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government shall be upon His shoulder:
And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end,
Upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom,
To establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us
(and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father),
Full of grace and truth.
Sacrifice and offering Thou hast no delight in;
Mine ears hast Thou opened:
Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast Thou not required.
Then said I, Lo, I am come;
In the roll of the book it is written of me:
I delight to do Thy will, O my God;
Yea, Thy law is within my heart.
Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
But emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;
And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee again for the privilege of gathering together unto Thy name. How we praise and thank Thee. It is because of Thy precious blood shed for us, and the new and living way that Thou hast opened for us, dedicated for us, and having Thee as our great High Priest, interceding unceasingly for us, that we are privileged to come to Thy very presence and to hear Thy word.
O Lord, do create within us a deep longing for Thy word. Take away any hindrance within us to understanding. We want to know Thee. We want to win Thee, Lord.
Thou art the only One that we desire. There is no one in heaven beside Thee, and on earth no one we desire aside from Thee. Do fill us with Thyself, that Thou mayest be glorified. We commit this time into Thy loving hands, trusting Thy Holy Spirit to do this impossible work. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Every time we are privileged to gather together in His name, it really brings forth from our hearts a deep gratitude.
In this world, how many today are privileged, such as we are, that we may gather together quietly and spend our time, as it were, with Him? It is such a privilege.
The theme this year is the testimony of the Apostle Paul. He said, “King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” That is where we are. Hopefully, by the grace of God, each and every one of us who are privileged to come to this conference will be able, by the grace of God, to say the same thing: “We are not disobedient to the heavenly vision.”
But as we mentioned at the very beginning, if we do not know what the heavenly vision is, how can we be obedient?
Dear brothers and sisters, what is the heavenly vision? To put it in the simplest way, the heavenly vision that we find in the word of God is concerned with the eternal purpose of God.
God has an eternal purpose, which He purposed in Himself even before the foundation of the world. That is the purpose that governs all His working throughout the ages.
That purpose is very simple, because His heart is centered upon only one Person: His only beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. So, what is the heavenly vision? It is not that mysterious, abstract, almost untouchable thing. It is very simple, very clear, very definite.
The eternal purpose is none other than Christ Jesus. In the eternal purpose of God, what does God think about His beloved Son? What does God want His Son to be? Who is this Son in the eyes of the Father?
He is the One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells. He is the One who is the Creator of all things. He is the One who is the Heir of all things. He is the Lord, the Master over all.
God has given all things to Him, especially human beings—men and women such as we are. We are God’s gift to His Son, God’s greatest gift to His Son. We are supposed to take up His character and be transformed and conformed to His image, that we may be His helpmate, His life companion, that He may be satisfied.
Now, that is the heavenly vision. And thank God, that heavenly vision includes us.
So the emphasis this year is more on this matter: How can that heavenly vision become our portion, our possession, so that the heavenly vision may be in us and we are in the heavenly vision? The secret is to be obedient to what God has revealed of His Son to us.
My responsibility this time is to illustrate obedience to the heavenly vision with the life of Christ Himself. We know that our Lord Jesus Christ is not only the heavenly vision, but He is also the Author of this vision. He is the One who brings this vision into reality. He is the One who lays the foundation for this vision.
Not only that, but He is the One who completes it, who works in us, who brings us into that vision. In the process of it, we find that He is the perfect example of being obedient to the heavenly vision. That is what we will share during the first three mornings.
Yesterday morning, we mentioned that the story of our Lord Jesus begins from eternity past. We will never be able to understand Him if we only know Him during those thirty-three and a half years when He was on earth.
That is why many people misunderstand Him. They say He is a great man, a great prophet, a saint, a wonderful person. But, brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is more than that. We have to know Him even before time was, in eternity past.
“In the beginning was the Word”—the Logos, the speech, the utterance, the image of God. “And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
In other words, brothers and sisters, in the beginning there was God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Three in One is a mystery we do not understand, but we know it is a fact.
In eternity past, the Father and the Son maintained a sweet, harmonious, wonderful, glorious fellowship with each other in the Spirit. In their conversation, as it were, in their fellowship, the Father told the Son, “How much I love You. I want to express My love to You. I want to give all things to You. I want to create the heavens and the earth, and all the things therein. I want to create man, that he may be Your life companion.”
But God, being omniscient, knows the end from the beginning. So He knew there would be problems—an impossible problem standing in the way. He could foresee that there would be rebellion in the universe.
“So what should I do?” said the Father.
And the Son, in full agreement with the Father, offered Himself voluntarily. He said, “Father, if this is Your will, just go ahead. I am willing to offer Myself as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. I will be the One to solve that impossible problem, so that Your purpose may be done.”
So, dear brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus was the Lamb even before the foundation of the world. He was the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. In having offered Himself in such a way, it was in obedience to the Father.
The obedience of Christ to the heavenly vision began in eternity past.
This is very important to us, because this is the basis for our being chosen in Christ before the world’s foundation. Thank God, we are chosen. But remember, our being chosen traces way back to eternity past, and it is based totally upon the obedience of Christ to His Father—His offering Himself as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
So, brothers and sisters, whenever we think of that, we bow our knees. We worship. It is something too marvelous to us, but He has done it.
Now, this morning we would like to continue with the life of Christ in the days of His flesh: how He was obedient to the heavenly vision and how He came to lay the foundation for the heavenly vision.
You know, brothers and sisters, after man sinned, they hid themselves among the trees. They were afraid of facing God. But God came to them. Isn’t that true? We try to escape from God, but God, in His great love, comes to find us.
God came into the garden, and He said, “Adam, where are you? Why do you hide yourself among the trees?” Adam confessed that he was naked because sin took away the glory that was Adam’s covering.
So God began to pronounce His judgment. He pronounced judgment on Adam, then on Eve, and then on the serpent that tempted Eve.
While He was pronouncing His judgments, in Genesis 3:15, He gave man and the world a great promise:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
And between thy seed and her seed:
He shall bruise thy head,
And thou shalt bruise His heel.
In other words, brothers and sisters, God always reacts positively. In spite of the sin of man, in spite of the judgment proclaimed, God always reacts far above what we could think of. His thoughts are always higher than our thoughts; His ways are always higher than our ways.
Thank God that under that kind of situation, God gave us a great promise. One day, the Seed of the woman would come, and when He came, He would crush the serpent’s head. In other words, He would put Satan to death, put him away. But He also would suffer.
God, in many ways throughout the years, reiterated His promise until we come to Isaiah. Isaiah lived about eight hundred years before Christ, so over three thousand years had passed. God never forgot, and through the prophet Isaiah He prophesied, “Unto us a child is born.”
One day, a child would be born unto us. This child is born unto us, to all of us—not just to one family. When a child is born in one family, there is rejoicing in that family. But this Child is born unto us, into this world, for us.
And who is this Child? A Son is given. This very Child, this little Baby, is the Son of God. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
The government shall be upon His shoulder. His name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. He shall sit upon the throne of David, and His government shall know no end. The zeal of the Lord will perform it.
Oh, brothers and sisters, here you find this promise of the Seed of the woman clearly reinforced in this prophecy of Isaiah.
Then, in the fullness of time, as we find in Galatians, Christ was born of a woman, a virgin, under the law, that we might be redeemed from the curse of the law and might receive sonship.
There you find in John 1:14: “The Word became flesh.” In the beginning was the Word, but now the Word became flesh. The Word took upon Himself the flesh of a man, and He dwelt among us. He tabernacled, as it were, among us, full of grace and truth.
John put in parentheses, “And we beheld His glory, even the glory as of an only begotten with the Father.”
In eternity past our Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself as a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. There was an offering, and now you find this offering was made effectual. The Word became flesh. The Seed of the woman had come. That is incarnation.
Now, of course, we find in Psalm 40:6-8 a prophecy referring to Christ. Here He says, “Sacrifice and oblation Thou dost not desire.” God is not looking for sacrifice or oblation; these are just types. Sin-offering and burnt-offering Thou dost not want.
But Thou hast prepared Me a body. Now, in Psalm 40, He says, “Thou hast prepared Me ears,” a pierced ear. But when you read Hebrews, it is a body. So, in other words, you find here the Word offered Himself to come in the flesh, to take upon Himself the flesh of a man.
“This is according to Thy word, and Thy law is written upon My heart. I come to do Thy will.” So, dear brothers and sisters, here you find at the beginning of the life of our Lord Jesus on earth: He came in the flesh, full of grace and truth.
In other words, we never knew what grace and truth were until Christ came into this world and brought in grace and truth, because grace and truth subsist in Him.
This matter of incarnation is so marvelous in our eyes. If we want to know the mystery of incarnation, we have to go to Philippians 2. There it says, “Christ Jesus, subsisting in the form of God.”
Now, what does that mean? The word form there in Greek is morphē, and that means primarily nature or essence. It is not an abstract thing. It speaks of the very nature, essence, and character of that individual—what makes up that individual spiritually and morally. As long as that individual lives, that form remains with him.
So here you find, when the Word—in the beginning was the Word—what is the form of that Word? It is the form of God. Whatever God is—God’s nature, God’s character—all of this is in the Word, because He is God.
He subsists in the form of God. Being in the form of God is not a becoming; it is a being. This is what He actually is. So, in eternity past, the Word subsisted in the form of God. Everything that God is, that is what He is, because He is one with God.
There it says He “did not esteem it an object of grasping to be on an equality with God.” He is equal with God, and it is not something that He has to grasp or seek after.
Now, you know there is a background there. We remember that in the first world of God’s creation, the highest were the angels. There was one angel called Lucifer. He was gifted. He was put in the highest position that an angel could ever hold.
Yet he wanted to grasp for something that was not his. He was not created for that. But he became so self-ambitious. He wanted to be above everything, to be equal with God. He wanted to grasp that position.
But so far as our Lord Jesus was concerned, that was His right from the very beginning. He did not need to grasp it or try to get it, because it was His forever. That is where He was before He came into this world.
And then, when the Word became flesh, it was not a simple thing. How could the Word, having the form of God—and God is eternal, God is Spirit, God is almighty—come to become a man?
There is only one way to do it, and the way is to empty Himself.
Now, brothers and sisters, this matter of emptying Himself, or making Himself of no reputation, does not mean that He emptied Himself of His deity. We have already mentioned that the form of God subsists in Him, and that is eternal. He cannot empty Himself of His deity, because as long as He lives, this is what He is: He is forever God.
But this emptying Himself is laying aside temporarily, setting aside—as if taking off a garment—His glory, honor, position, and rights. He laid all these aside in order that He might take up the form of a bondservant.
Again, you find this word form does not refer to outward appearance. This word form refers to inward character. He subsists in the form of God, and now, in emptying Himself, He took upon Himself another form. That form is the form of a bondservant.
Again, it does not refer to an outward figure. It refers to this: when He came to become flesh, what was His inner feeling? What was His mind? He had the mind of a bondservant.
What a contrast that is. Think of God, who is almighty, the Sovereign, who can do anything He wants. Yet here you find a bondservant. A bondservant is lower than a servant. A bondservant is one who has given up all his rights. He has no rights whatsoever, no possession, no position, no right even to his life.
That is what our Lord Jesus was when He came to be in the flesh. That was His inward feeling. What an emptying that is.
That form, that inward feeling, was always with Him throughout His life on the earth.
“Taking His place in the likeness of men, and having been found in fashion as a man.” Now, the word fashion here is schēma. It refers to outward appearance. It is something that He appeared to be before men.
So, when you looked at Him when He was in the flesh, He looked exactly like a man, like you and me. That is His fashion, His outward appearance. But inside that figure, that outward appearance of a man, there was an inward form in Him, and that inward form was the form of a bondservant.
Now, I hope you understand this, because, brothers and sisters, you remember when God created man, He created man in His own image, after His likeness, and God gave dominion to man to rule.
But the man that God created is a man who has the form, the figure, of a man and is to do God’s will. So his inward feeling should be the feeling of a bondservant. Man is not created for himself. Man is created to do God’s will. Man is created to be a bondservant to God.
That is what you find when our Lord Jesus said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads.” Now, you know there is a background to it.
Saul thought he was his own master. Being a man, he thought he was his own master. He was doing what he thought should be done, and he thought the only way to serve God was to persecute the followers of Jesus Christ.
But then the Lord said, “Saul, Saul, it is hard for thee to kick against the goads.” In other words, you are not free. You are not born free. When you were created, you were created to be a bondservant to God. You have a Master. You ought to do His will.
You are like an ox under a yoke—My yoke, the will of God. But you rebel against it, just like a stubborn ox. You think you are free, and you want to go your own way, do your own thing. But remember, you have a Master.
He will use the goad—that is a sharp instrument in the hand of the farmer. Whenever the ox goes astray while he is tilling the ground, the farmer uses that goad, a sharp instrument, just to touch its leg and remind him. But the ox is so stubborn that it kicks back, and when it kicks back, it hurts. After a number of hurts, the ox begins to be obedient.
So, brothers and sisters, God was telling Saul, “You were created a man with an inward mind of a bondservant, to serve God’s purpose. That is why you were created in the first place. But you kick against the goads. I have reminded you again and again. Remember, if you continue on, it is to your own hurt.”
I believe that when Stephen was dying, Saul, the young man, was watching the clothes of those who threw the stones at Stephen. His face was like the face of an angel, and he said, “The heavens are opened. I see the Son of Man standing there, welcoming me.” When he died, he said, “Lord, do not put that sin upon them,” just like his Lord.
I believe Saul’s conscience was touched. That was the goad. God was trying to remind him. When Saul was taking men and women from their homes or from the synagogues, beating them and putting them into prison, being a gentleman, would not his heart be touched?
Again and again God reminded him, but he rebelled even more. The Bible says he persecuted even more fiercely in order to silence his conscience. But finally, God brought him to an end.
So, brothers and sisters, remember: we as human beings have the form, the figure, the appearance of a man. But inside, our mind should be the mind of a bondservant. That is what man was created to be. But unfortunately, man rebelled.
Here you find God has found His Man in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, He is a perfect Man. He looks like a man, and He is a man. Yet He is the Man of God’s heart. Within Him there is a mind, there is a form, of a bondservant. He has given up all His rights to the Father.
So, brothers and sisters, when our Lord Jesus was on earth, there was one thing that marked Him throughout His life: the governing principle of His life was the Father’s will. “Lo, I come to do Your will.”
When you read the Gospel according to John, especially from John 5 through John 8, you find a number of places where our Lord Jesus said, “I cannot do anything by Myself. I do it because I saw My Father doing it. I cannot say anything of Myself. I say it because I hear My Father say it. My time is not My own. My judgment is not My own.”
He had nothing of Himself except the Father’s will. Throughout His life, you find He lived a life of a bondservant, obedient to the heavenly Father.
Again and again, you find the enemy, Satan, tried to draw Him out from His standing on the ground of man, on the ground of a bondservant. He tried to remind Him again and again, “You are the Son of God.”
You remember the temptation in the wilderness? After forty days and forty nights of fasting, our Lord Jesus, being human, felt hungry. Satan came and said, “Now, if You are the Son of God, You can easily solve this problem. You can turn the stones into bread, and then You need not be hungry anymore.”
He is the Son of God as well as the Son of Man. But during His days on earth, He lived as the Son of Man, not as the Son of God. So the Lord said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” This is the attitude of a bondservant.
Throughout His life, Satan tried to draw Him away from that ground of a bondservant. But our Lord Jesus never, for one instant, one second, departed from that position. So He was obedient.
Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself. He humbled Himself. It was not something that fell upon Him. He willingly took a lower place before His Father.
And, brothers and sisters, for what reason? For the sake of the heavenly vision. Unless He took that position of a bondservant, unless He came as a Lamb to be slain, He would not be able to bring in the heavenly vision.
He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Throughout His life, we find how obedient He was.
Do not think that it was easy for Him because He is also God. Remember that our Lord Jesus is a perfect Man. We are imperfect men and women; we have been contaminated by sin. But our Lord Jesus was a perfect Man, as if He had just come out of the hand of the Creator.
You find that He had His own soul, just as we do. He had His own feeling, His own mind, His own will. His feeling was, I do not know how many times, sharper than our feeling because He was perfect. His mind was how many times clearer than our mind. Even His will was how much higher than ours—so perfect.
Yet throughout His life, He denied Himself. Even if He should act out of Himself, He did not sin.
So that is why He could pray, “Father, remove this cup from Me, if it is possible. But not My will, Your will be done.” Even if the cup had been removed from Him, He would not have sinned. He was still the perfect Man, because it was not His due to drink that cup. We ought to drink that cup.
But our Lord Jesus, being the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, denied Himself. He was obedient to the Father even unto death.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus’ death is totally different from our death.
You remember in John 10, the Lord Jesus said, “My Father loves Me because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No one takes My life away. I voluntarily lay down My life, and I can take it again.”
Our Lord Jesus volunteered to die, and it was the death of the cross.
We cannot fully understand the meaning of His death, the death of the cross. It was not the death of a sinner, like the two robbers crucified with Him. It was not the death of a good man, nor was it the death of a martyr.
During His dying, He cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” That was not the cry of a martyr. It was the death of a Redeemer, of a Savior. He died that we might live.
The suffering of the cross is far beyond what we can understand. Not only when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane—the Bible says He was so oppressed in His spirit. All the powers of darkness were crowded upon Him. He was sorrowful even unto death.
But there you find He prayed, “If it is possible, remove it. But not My will; Thy will be done.” The Bible says He sweat great drops of blood. What a struggle!
He always sympathized with people. But when He entered into the garden, He told His three chosen ones, “Stand with Me. Sympathize with Me.” But they fell asleep. He was alone.
Brothers and sisters, why? Why should He die? Because that is what He came for.
If He should come down from the cross, which He could if He wanted to, then the heavenly vision would be lost. It is on the cross that He laid the foundation of the heavenly vision. He made that heavenly vision possible, and He is able to offer that heavenly vision to us.
So, dear brothers and sisters, this is where the glory of the cross is. If you look at the cross externally, there is no glory, only shame, because the cross is a shame. Only the vilest criminal was crucified on the cross by the Romans. It was a curse in the sight of God. Therefore, all those who were crucified had to be removed before the Sabbath, because it was a curse.
And yet, brothers and sisters, it is glory. Where is the glory?
You remember, even before our Lord came to Calvary, when some Greeks wanted to see Him, there was, humanly speaking, His glorious time. He entered into Jerusalem in a glorious way, and they welcomed Him as the King, the Messiah to come.
Now even some Greeks wanted to see Him. To the disciples, this was the glorious time, the time that our Lord Jesus should be enthroned. No wonder that the two sons of Zebedee wanted to sit on His right and left.
When our Lord Jesus heard of it, He said, “The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified. 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 spoke of His death. In other words, to our Lord Jesus, His death was His glory. His death was the time of His being glorified. The Father was glorifying Him. Why? Because He was obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross, for the fulfillment of the heavenly vision.
Brothers and sisters, if this is the way that our Lord Jesus went through, He said, “Come, follow Me. Where I am, there shall you be. Then you will be My disciples, and My Father will be glorified.”
So may the Lord draw our hearts to our Lord Jesus. “Take My yoke upon you,” as He said, “for I am meek and lowly in heart. Learn of Me, and you shall find rest for your souls.” May the Lord have mercy on us.
Dear Lord, we pray that Thou wilt, by Thy Spirit, reveal Thy glory in the cross to us. Draw our hearts to Thee, that we may despise all things and follow Thee.
O Father, glorify Thy Son among Thy people. We are united. Amen.