Please turn to Ephesians 1. We will read verses 8 through 10.
Which He hath made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him
unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth.
Please turn also to Romans 11:36.
For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things. To Him be the glory for ever. Amen.
Let us bow down and have a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank You and praise You that we can gather together in Your name. We thank You for having promised us, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” You are the faithful God.
Today we are gathering here in Your name. We believe that You are here. We feel deeply that we are standing on holy ground. We are willing to take off our shoes, standing in the position of a bondslave and looking to You to say, “Lord, whatever word You have, please speak; we will hear.”
We thank You and praise You that, in these last days, Your grace still comes upon us. We are willing for only one thing: that Your will be done in us as it is in heaven; that glory, majesty, kingdom, and power may all be unto You. In the name of the Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
We thank the Lord for having given us another chance to gather before Him. We do not know how many more times we can meet like this, but we thank and praise Him. Every time we gather in His name, we know that He is with us.
We are not gathering here to hear anybody speaking, because the speaker is nothing but a voice. We are gathering here to look to the Lord to speak to us. He loves us, and He wants to bring us fully into His will.
In these last days, I often feel that we have opportunities like this, but we do not know how many more times we shall have them. We wish that, when we gather together like this, the Lord will help us to make use of these opportunities, because there is nothing more precious than this.
The question is this: if our Lord returns today, are we who have been saved by grace fully ready to see Him? Have we allowed His grace to equip us so that, when we see Him, we will have no regret?
The Lord knows our condition, and once again He gives us opportunity. Today, while we are still able to gather together, it is truly His great grace.
What we are going to fellowship concerning is very important, because nothing is more important than the eternal will of God. Today we live not for our own wills; we live for the eternal purpose of God.
Before the foundation of the earth, God established a will in Himself. That will was established according to His good pleasure. Since He established that will, all His works and all His doings have been according to this will.
What is His eternal will? It is very simple: He wants all things, whether in heaven or on earth, to be summed up together in Christ.
If today you can see the heart of God, you will see that in His heart there is only One, and that is His only begotten Son. Everything is in His Son.
Before God created all things, He established that He wanted to create all things in heaven and on earth. Yet all these things are not for themselves; all these things are for His Son.
Although on the surface there are thousands and thousands of things, when God sees the universe, He always sees His own Son. All things shall manifest the glory of His Son. All things shall manifest His Son. This is the eternal will of God.
Whether things are in heaven or on earth, the will of God is that His Son may have the first place, and that all things may manifest and glorify His Son. All are to be the manifestation and expression of His Son, because all of this satisfies the heart of God.
In His creation of all things, man is special, because God has not created anything else according to His own image. Even the angels were not created according to His own image.
Out of all things, man is special because man was created according to His image. God wants especially to manifest His Son among men. If heaven and earth display the glory of God, then man especially ought to express the glory of Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, we ought to see that all the things God has done are for His beloved Son. We who have been saved by grace, in the experience of our whole life, have to experience Christ so that Christ may be manifested in our lives.
Just as the Apostle Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ.” This is the eternal purpose of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, in our daily life, have we manifested Christ? Is it all Christ, and not us? Oftentimes we are so self-centered, but for God, Christ is the center.
If our life is outside of Christ, then no matter how beautiful we may be, in the sight of God it is ugly, because only the beloved Son of God is His delight.
This concerns not only our daily life. According to His salvation, God did not stop at forgiving our sins. He did not merely want us to go to heaven. He wants us to express the fullness of His Son.
He wants the life of His Son to be constituted in every one of us, so that when others see us, they do not see us; they see the beloved Son of God. They see our Lord Jesus Christ. He is all to our life.
Not only in our daily life must Christ be all things. This particular conference concerns service, so we want to pay particular attention to service. Not only is it true that to us to live is Christ; to us to serve is Christ.
This time we want to fellowship concerning how we are summed up in Christ in service. The expression “in Christ” appears in the New Testament in Ephesians 1 and also in Romans 13.
All the law is summed up in love. If you have love, you will not do the things that are lawless. The laws are words and letters; they are outward appearances. But the spirit and truth of them is love.
If you truly have the love of the Lord, of course you will not violate these laws. You will go beyond their requirements, because love is the spirit.
Brothers and sisters, whether it concerns our living or our service, all these things have an outward appearance. We may pay attention to the appearance and desire to have a good appearance, but we may neglect the spirit within.
If we pay attention only to the appearance, we may fool others, and we may even fool ourselves; but we cannot fool God. God is not satisfied with outward appearance. God pays attention to the spirit within. Is it out of Christ, or is it out of ourselves?
If my behavior or my work is nothing but what comes out of myself—my own good behavior—I may have very good behavior. But if it is not from Christ, it is nothing but so-called virtue and has no real spiritual value. To be truly good, it has to be from Christ. Then it is acceptable to God.
Especially in our service, we can do many religious things by ourselves. But if they are not out of Christ, these things have no value before God.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, this is what we want to emphasize: when we serve, what is the spirit behind our service? Is it from Christ? Is it dependent on Christ? Is it for Him?
There are three things in service:
This morning we would like to share on the first point: how do we serve from Christ?
Regarding service, if we look from the point of view of the Word of God, we know that every one of us is called to serve the Lord. Actually, when God created man, He already had this thought.
In Genesis 1, God created man according to His own image, male and female. Then the Bible tells us that God wanted man to be fruitful and multiply, to subdue, and to rule over all things.
The man whom God created was not created for himself, nor merely for man’s enjoyment. Man was created with God’s purpose in him. God said that man was to subdue everything.
Why subdue all things? Because all things had fallen into the hand of the enemy and were under sin. All things had gone away from God. They had not done the will of the Lord, and they had not glorified God.
Therefore, God created man with a great mission: to subdue all things. What does subduing all things mean? It means bringing all things back under the feet of God, because the will of God is for all things to come under the feet of His Son. This work was given to man.
We are created according to the image of God. This is a glorious thing, and yet there is a mission. The mission is to subdue all things and bring them back under the feet of Christ.
God gave us power and authority to rule over all things. What is the purpose of this authority? It is given to us in order that we may subdue the earth in its fallen condition.
When we come to Genesis 2, God put man in the Garden of Eden. What did God say? Man was to till and guard the garden. The garden had no wall, and God wanted man to be that wall—to guard it.
Why guard? Because there were enemies outside. Man was supposed to guard the Garden of Eden so that the enemies could not come in. He was also to cultivate what God had created, so that God might have the glory.
When God created man, He entrusted service to man. God did not create man and put him in the Garden of Eden merely to enjoy. If that were the case, we would all be selfish people.
God created you and me so gloriously because He has entrusted to us a glorious mission. But regrettably, man sought his own glory and disregarded the glory of God. Finally, man sinned and fell.
Dear brothers and sisters, when we see the history of Israel, we see the same thing. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They did not even have the hope of life. But thank God, He sent Moses to deliver them.
When God sent Moses to Egypt, Pharaoh was on the throne. God sent Moses to speak to Pharaoh: “Let My son go, that he may serve Me.”
You see, God delivered the Israelites not merely because they were in misery. Of course, He had compassion and sympathy, but His purpose in delivering the Israelites was not merely that.
While the Israelites were under Pharaoh, they could not serve God. Pharaoh required them to serve him. They were living their lives without even the hope of life.
From the very beginning, God told them the purpose of their deliverance: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” A man cannot serve two masters. Either he serves God, or he serves mammon. If you serve mammon, you cannot serve God.
God saved the Israelites so that they could serve God. When He delivered them out of Egypt, He brought them to Mount Sinai, gave them the law, and entered into covenant with them so that they could indeed be His people.
For what purpose? God wanted to dwell among them. They were to prepare a tabernacle so that God could dwell among them, and there they could serve Him. The purpose of the tabernacle was that man could serve God there.
The Lord wanted the whole nation to be a royal priesthood. They were all to be priests. What is a priest? From the time he is born, he lives his whole life for God. His purpose is to serve the will of God.
But regrettably, the Israelites worshipped the golden calf, and as a result they were disqualified from serving God.
Sometimes we feel that when we serve the Lord, the Lord should feel that we are qualified. We may think, “A person like me can serve God,” as though our service could add to the glory of God. But, brothers and sisters, it is not so.
God allows us to serve Him; this is His great mercy. Who are we? Dust and ashes—the chief of sinners. Yet God saved us and wants us to serve Him. We should bow before Him and thank Him for giving us the opportunity to serve Him.
God’s desire that man should serve Him is the greatest glory He has given to man. From the depth of our hearts, we thank Him. Yet man has despised this matter of service. The Israelites were disqualified from serving, and even the Levites failed.
When we come to New Testament times, the Lord saved us because He knows our present condition. We who were dead in sins and transgressions could only serve Satan and the world; we could not serve God.
Therefore, salvation came to us. God saved us and prepared for us a full salvation. He can save us to the uttermost, that we may be saved out of ourselves and filled with Christ.
This is the will of God. Those whom He predestined, He called to be conformed to the image of His Son. Those whom He called, He justified; and those whom He justified, He glorified.
The heart of God is that we may be fully conformed to the image of His Son, that the character of Christ may be constituted in us. Outwardly it is us, but inwardly it is Christ. Thus Paul was able to say, “For to me to live is Christ.”
For this reason, we can serve Him. When you read Romans 1 through 11, you see the various mercies of God. He saved us from sin—not only from the penalty of sin, but also from the law and power of sin—so that we may be sanctified and glorified. His salvation is full.
When we receive this grace, what should be our response? This is what appears in Romans 12:1:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
We who have received grace should offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. Why our bodies? Because we use our bodies to walk and to work. Actually, the body represents our whole being—our spirit, our soul, and our body.
Because of the love of God, we offer ourselves fully as a living sacrifice. In Old Testament times, all sacrifices were dead sacrifices; in the New Testament, they are living sacrifices.
What is a living sacrifice? It is that I am now a sacrifice offered to God. I do not belong to myself; I belong to Him. You have full authority over me. Your will can prevail in me—not according to my will, but according to Your will; not my thought, but Your thought.
My whole being belongs to You. My authority is Yours already. Now You can accomplish Your will in me, and You can use my body to serve You.
Brothers and sisters, consecration is the first thing every child of God should do. Consecration is the first spiritual experience, and it is also the last spiritual experience of our lives.
Throughout our whole life, consecration must continue. As time goes on, it becomes deeper, until Christ becomes all in all in us.
Why do we consecrate ourselves? We consecrate not only that God may accomplish His work in us, but also because what He has done in us enables us to serve God so that He may be glorified.
Therefore, in the New Testament, everyone who has been saved by grace is a priest. Though we may not have the title of priest, we must have the reality of a priest.
What is the reality of a priest? I live for the Lord. The Lord lives in me. I live to serve Him, and this is my worship.
Let us not think that only missionaries or preachers need to offer themselves. When I was first saved, that was the teaching at the time: if you offered yourself, then you would become a preacher or a missionary.
In the 1930s, on the day I was saved, the Spirit of the Lord enlightened me. I saw that I was full of sin, but I thanked the Lord that He had saved me.
At the end of that conference, on the last day, they spoke about offering. A huge map of China was put on the wall, and the preacher spoke about offering oneself to the Lord.
He said, “The Lord loves you so much. You should come out and be a preacher, or become a missionary. You choose for yourself. Come up to the platform, and wherever you point your finger, that is where you will be a missionary.”
I had just been saved. I was fifteen years old, and emotion filled me. I said, “I love the Lord. I want to go to the most difficult place, the farthest place.” So I went up to the platform and pointed my finger to Mongolia, because at that time Mongolia was the farthest place.
Within a year after I was saved, I collected all the documents about Mongolia and prepared myself to go there. After graduating from high school, I did not want to go to college. I said that if I went to college, it would waste four years. So I chose a Bible school and wanted to equip myself as a preacher.
But I thank God: He had a different thought. To this date, I have not been to Mongolia.
Dear brothers and sisters, consecration is not to become a preacher. Consecration is to become a bondslave. You lose your own rights; you belong to God.
The One whom you serve is God. You are no longer serving this world and no longer serving yourself. His will prevails. This is our first spiritual experience as Christians.
If you have not had this spiritual experience, you have not begun to live the spiritual life. But thank and praise God: every brother and every sister lives to serve God. We are all royal priests.
This is our life; this is our work. We belong to Him. We serve Him, and Him only.
But, brothers and sisters, service is such a holy thing. Can we serve merely according to our own will? Today we see service too lightly, and we see ourselves too heavily.
If we go back to the Word of God, our service must come out of revelation. The issue today is this: does our service come out of revelation, or does it come out of tradition?
We can indeed serve according to tradition. I was like that. After I was saved, I wanted to serve God, but all my service was according to my own thoughts. I thought this was how God should be served.
I was zealous. I organized evangelistic groups to go to the countryside and preach the gospel. When somebody died, I put my hand on him so that he might revive. It was totally according to my own will. I did not seek the will of God.
If that is the way to serve, then all you need is zeal. But the Lord shone His light upon me, and I saw that it was not tradition.
Tradition comes out of man and comes out of self. It may be my good intention that God may be glorified, but this is not what God wants. Service must begin with revelation.
In the Old Testament, the most obvious servant of God is Moses. Again and again the Bible says, “Moses My servant.”
When Moses was born, he was miraculously delivered from being drowned in the River Nile. He became the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter, but he was nursed by his own mother.
Not only did his mother feed him with her milk, but somehow she also told him the will and thought of God: God had delivered him and intended to use him to deliver the Israelites. This thought was given to him while he was still being fed milk.
Moses grew up in the palace of Egypt. He learned all the knowledge of Egypt, and he was powerful. When he was forty years old, he felt that it was time to deliver his own people.
He used his own might to attempt the deliverance. He saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite. Seeing no one around, he struck down the Egyptian. The next day, he saw two Israelites arguing with one another and asked, “How can you fight with each other—brothers fighting among brothers?”
The news went out, Pharaoh wanted to kill him, and Moses ran away. He went to Midian, where he stayed for another forty years. During those forty years, he tended sheep.
After forty years, God gave him a vision. Moses saw a thorn bush. This was a usual sight in the desert, because the desert was hot and dry, and thorn bushes would often ignite by themselves. Since they were thorn bushes, they would quickly be consumed.
But Moses saw this thorn bush burning and not being consumed. It was a wonder. So he drew near.
Out of the thorn bush came a voice. God began to speak: “This is holy ground. Remove your sandals.” Moses stood on the ground of a bondslave.
God spoke to him and told him to return to Egypt to deliver the Israelites. But by then Moses was eighty years old. He considered himself already finished.
You remember Psalm 90: a man may live seventy years, and if he is strong, eighty years. Moses saw himself as already dead. Yet God wanted him to go. Moses said, “Lord, I am slow of speech.”
That was true. After talking to sheep for forty years, he had lost all his eloquence. He had no power either. How could he go to Pharaoh?
But thank God: the end of man is the beginning of God.
When Moses was forty years old, he served according to tradition—according to his own will and his own might. We thank God that he failed. If he had succeeded, it would have been a different matter.
Through that failure and through forty years in the desert, all his former learning was gone. But he learned one thing: he learned to know God. According to the knowledge of God, he could return to Egypt and deliver the Israelites.
Brothers and sisters, is our service according to tradition or according to revelation? Is it because someone told you that you should serve, according to the way of man and according to your own might? Or has God given you light, revelation, vision, and grace?
We must no longer depend upon self. All must be according to Him. Only such service is from Him and comes out from Him. Then the source is right.
When we come to the New Testament, among all those who served the Lord—apart from the Lord Jesus Himself—we must think of Paul. Paul was a tremendous person.
When he was young, his background was complete and his opportunities were many. Many young men seek the good things of this world, but this young man was different. Though he was young, he sought spiritual things.
From his youth, he sought the law. He went to Jerusalem to study under the great rabbi Gamaliel, and he learned the law. He became a Pharisee.
Today, when we think of Pharisees, we think of hypocrisy. That may be true, but here was a true Pharisee. He was serious. He pursued the Word of God, word by word, and he was zealous for the tradition of the fathers.
If you read Acts 7, when Stephen was stoned to death, Paul was keeping the garments of those who stoned him, and he agreed with it. Then he began to persecute the Way.
Such a young man—this was how he served God. The more he served God, the more God rejected his service. Yet God knew that his heart was sincere.
God allowed him to persecute His own children until the day Paul took letters from the high priest and went to a foreign place to seize believers and bring them to Jerusalem for condemnation.
You see the patience of God. The cord of love is very long. The Lord let him go to the very end, even as he approached Damascus.
At noon, a bright light came out of heaven, brighter than the sun. He fell to the ground. The light struck him down, and he heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.”
It was not an angry voice. It was a sympathetic, compassionate voice. If you do it this way, you hurt yourself.
There the light of God shone upon him, and he was delivered. His whole service was turned upside down. He became the Apostle Paul, and he could testify, “I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.”
Dear brothers and sisters, this service came out of revelation.
In the matter of serving the Lord, there are two sources. One source is from man, even from the best tradition. The Jewish tradition was the best religious tradition, yet that tradition stood against God.
Only service that comes from revelation—from the vision of heaven—is from God.
Throughout our whole life of service, we need God to shine His light upon us, that we may discern whether our service is from man or from God. Is it from the tradition of man, even the best tradition of Christianity, or is it a vision from heaven?
If it is a vision from heaven, that vision will take hold of you and change you, so that your service will have its source in Him instead of in yourself.
You remember Matthew 7. Toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord spoke of men coming to Him and saying, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied by Thy name? Have we not cast out demons by Thy name? Have we not done many mighty works by Thy name?”
But the Lord said, “Ye that work lawlessness, depart from Me. I never knew you.” In the original language, it means, “I do not approve you.”
Dear brothers and sisters, one day we may come before the Lord and say, “Lord, Lord, I have served in this way. I have served in that way.” But if the Lord says, “I do not approve you,” it is because we have not done it out of Him. Our service has been out of man, not out of Him.
May these words encourage us. Let us pray.
Lord, if these feeble words are of You, we pray that You will add light and shine upon them, that our service may not be in vain throughout our life.
Lord, we are willing to serve You. We want to serve You out of You. Deliver us. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.