Proverbs 29:18a
Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.
Philippians 2:5-11
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on equality with God;
but emptied Himself, taking a bondman’s form, taking His place in the likeness of men;
and having been found in figure as a man, humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross.
Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and granted Him a name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to God the Father’s glory.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for being so faithful, kind, and gracious to us in giving us through these days. We thank Thee for gathering again today, this morning, to remember Thee at Thy table.
Oh, dear Lord, what love Thou hast bestowed upon us. What can we say? Thou hast bought us with such a tremendous price. Lord, how can we live for ourselves anymore? We are not our own; we are Thine, Lord.
We pray, Lord, that Thou wilt fill us with Thyself. Open our understanding that we may know Thee more and more. Lord, as we gather this morning, we commit this time into Thy hand. Speak to us. Draw us, that we may all run after Thee. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Well, where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint. This shows us the importance of vision, because if there is no vision, there is no direction, there is no constraint. We will go each according to our own ideas, and we will be lost.
Vision alone gives us motive, direction, and shows us the way that we can arrive at the goal. So, dear brothers and sisters, it is of tremendous importance that we be people with vision, because this alone will give us direction and the strength to press on towards the goal, the calling that God has called us.
Thank God, He has saved us. We who are here this morning, I believe, are all bought with the tremendous price of our Lord Jesus. We are His.
As we gather here, our one purpose is that we receive the vision of Christ. He is the only vision that we need, the only vision that is all-important. With Him as our vision, dear brothers and sisters, we know where we are going, and we will experience His presence and blessing with us.
Thank God for saving us. As we find in 1 John 5, he who believes in the Son of God overcomes the enemy. We are overcomers. Why? Because we have faith in our Lord Jesus.
Now, what is faith? You know, in the Bible you have different terms, but strangely, the Bible never gives us a clear, definite definition of any of these important themes. The closest that we can find to define faith is found in Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11:1:
Now faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Now, I am reading from J. N. Darby’s translation. He says faith is the substantiating of things hoped for. What is faith? Faith is a substantiating power.
What does it mean? Now, suppose when we come into this building, we can see at the back there is a picture. What enables us to see the picture? The picture has been hanging there all the time, but those with eyes, when we come in, can substantiate that picture into us.
It was on the wall, but with the substantiating power, we can bring the substance within us so that we can enjoy that picture. Now, suppose a blind person comes into this place, and you say, “Do you see that beautiful picture on the wall?” He says, “Where is it? I cannot see anything,” because he does not have the power of substantiating the substance into him to be his experience.
So, dear brothers and sisters, why is it that we need faith? Because that is the only power by which we bring that which we have hoped for to come within us, to be something that we can experience. Now, that is faith.
So, when we come together, dear brothers and sisters, we need to exercise our faith.
Where is our faith? We find in Philippians 2 that our faith is centered upon Christ—nothing else.
Now, who is Christ? Why is it that we should put our faith in Christ for life and forever?
We are told in Philippians 2, verse 6:
Who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on equality with God.
Now, our Lord Jesus subsists in the form of God. The form here is not the outward form, because the form here is image. That is, He has the image of God in Him. It speaks of something inward: the character, the nature. That is image.
Our Lord Jesus subsists in the form of God’s image because He is God. This is not something He tried to grasp at. No. In this verse, you can see there is a story behind it.
Because if you have read the Bible, or you have heard it before, you know that when God first created this universe, the highest of His creation were angels. There was no man yet in the first world.
Among the angels there was one archangel called Lucifer, the brilliant star. He was a masterpiece of God’s creation. He was given all kinds of gifts.
He was a cherubim that covered the seat of God. He was one who led the angels in worshipping God.
But unfortunately, somehow pride began to enter into his mind. He was not satisfied with the high position that God had given him, leading the angels in worshipping God.
Because of his much traffic, because of his talents and beauty, he began to think of himself. He did not want to be where God had put him. He wanted to be like God.
So, if you read Isaiah 14, Isaiah 14 speaks of the king of Babylon. But certainly you will find that it begins to speak of Lucifer—that is to say, the brilliant star.
How is it that you began to think of yourself? Five times we find in these few verses that he thought of himself: “I want to be equal with God.”
As a matter of fact, most likely what he was thinking of was to replace the place of the only begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus. He wanted that place for himself.
And if you read Ezekiel 28, you will find again some descriptions that will not fit any person except Lucifer. Somehow, he wanted to raise himself and take the place of the only begotten Son of God.
Because of this ambition, God dismissed him from heaven. Most likely, at that time, the earth that we know today was under his control. That is probably the reason why, when God punished Lucifer and threw him out of heaven, the earth entered into destruction. Water filled the earth.
You know, brothers and sisters, as we read Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning”—now, that is not the beginning of God; that is the beginning of creation. It says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Do you think that when God created, He would leave things undone, that He would take a long time to complete His creation? No. When God said, it is done.
So, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Actually, the heavens and the earth were created in perfect order. That is the first world. But as we have already said, in the first world God had not created man. The highest creation were angels.
But unfortunately, as we find in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, this angel, this archangel, began to think of himself. He became ambitious. He wanted something more. He wanted to take the place of the Son of God.
That is the reason he was dismissed from heaven, and the earth that was under his control went into destruction. It was surrounded with waters.
We do not know how long that period lasted, but we know it was the Ice Age. The earth had suffered an Ice Age for a long, long time. It was covered with water.
Then, in Genesis 1:2, God’s Spirit began to move upon the deep of water. We find in Genesis 1 that in six days our God restored the earth to be habitable. It was not until the sixth day that God created man.
Now, why is it that God created man? God created man with a very definite purpose.
Because for God to deal with Satan—Lucifer, the archangel, the fallen angel—he was nothing. God could breathe upon him and kill him. But if God should do it, He would not get the glory.
Suppose a grown-up man beats a little child. Is there any glory in it? No.
So, instead of dealing with Satan Himself, God raised man. Now, what is man? The Bible tells us that man is made a little lower than angels. So far as creation is concerned, angels are spirits; they are higher. But man has a spirit, a soul, and a body.
Dear brothers and sisters, have you ever thought why God created you? What is the purpose of creating you? Is it because of you, or is it because of something higher and nobler?
Now, according to the revelation of the Word of God, we are told that we men were created with a definite purpose. Do you know what that purpose is?
Unfortunately today, we do not know what we are here for. Somehow, we are cheated by the enemy into thinking that we are here just for ourselves.
That idea came from the enemy of God. Because when God created man, He created man with a definite purpose. He created man for the reason that He would use man, a little lower than angels, to defeat Lucifer, the archangel. That will be glory to God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, unfortunately today we may forget why we are here. We are being cheated by God’s enemy, thinking that we are here for ourselves. We try to glorify ourselves, just like that archangel did in the beginning.
But God has a very definite purpose for us men. He wants to use men to defeat His enemy. His enemy should be our enemy, and we should be in the hand of God, used by Him to defeat the enemy. How?
If you read Ephesians 2, in the beginning you will find who we were. We were men on earth. We thought that we were doing things according to what we think and according to what we like. But if you read Ephesians 2, you find this is not the case.
While we were deceived into thinking that we were doing our own will, that we were living for ourselves—no. We were actually under the influence, the power, of that archangel, Lucifer.
He was at the back, controlling our thoughts, controlling our ways, controlling our lives. At that time, we had no God. We had no hope of any kind.
But thank God, because of His tremendous love for us, He has saved us through sending His only begotten Son into this world.
Why is it that the only begotten Son of God, He who is equal with God—that is His right—came into this world? It is not something He grasped at. That was what He was from eternity.
But why is it that our Lord Jesus should come into this world? We are told in Philippians 2: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” What was the mind of Christ when He came into this world?
He who was equal with God received all the worship, praise, and honor, seated at the right hand of God. It was His right, not something He grasped at. Why, then, should our Lord Jesus come into this world?
For Him to come into this world, He had to empty Himself. Brothers and sisters, sometimes we think we are emptying ourselves for the Lord. But how much can we empty? There is nothing in us to be emptied except sins.
But the Lord Jesus was equal with God. He received all the worship in heaven. So when the Lord Jesus came into this world, one thing He had to do was to empty Himself.
Of course, He could not empty Himself of His Godhead, because that is what He is forever. But He emptied Himself of all the position, the honor, and the glory that surrounded His place as the Son of God.
What an emptying it must have been. When we think of what He had emptied, we are ashamed of ourselves. What have we to empty? We have nothing but sin.
But our Lord Jesus, being God, the Son of God, had so much to empty. He gave them all up: His glory, His position, His power.
Dear brothers and sisters, this morning I want all of us to think of the emptying that our Lord Jesus, as the Son of God, underwent for our sake. There is such love behind it.
Even before the foundation of the world, as the Bible says, He offered Himself to His Father as a Lamb to be slain from the foundation of the world.
Even though this happened later in time, yet the idea, the thought, the willingness, the giving of Himself to the Father’s will, was before the foundation of the world. Love is so deep; we cannot comprehend it.
So here we find He who was subsisting in the form of God—that is, the image of God, not only the outward form but the inward image. It speaks of the inward situation. That is what He was from the beginning.
Yet He emptied Himself of that form. After He had emptied Himself of the form, the Bible tells us He took upon Himself a bondman’s form.
That is, again, form or image: the thought, the idea, the willingness. He came in bondman’s form—that is, as a slave.
Think of the emptying that He must have done. From the form of God, He emptied Himself to take up the form of a slave.
Brothers and sisters, when God created us men, so far as our relationship with God is concerned, we were slaves. We did not live for ourselves. We should live for God. We should not do our own things; we should do His bidding. That is the reason why God created man.
But here you find one Man. When He came into this world, He really took up the form of a bondslave. That is to say, inwardly, inside Him, there was the spirit of serving God. He did not come to live for Himself; He came to live for God. That is what we should be.
Inwardly, He took a bondman’s form. Outwardly, He took the likeness of man. The likeness is the figure; it is the outside. So outwardly, He looked like a man. He was a perfect man, just as we are.
So, dear brothers and sisters, as we read the Gospels, we find that the Son of God, when He was incarnated, became a man just like we are. You look at Him: He was no different from any other person, even though within Him He is God.
And being a man, He humbled Himself. Then how did He live His life? We find through the Gospels that, even though He lived on earth only for thirty-three and a half years, He lived such an obedient life.
He repeatedly told us, “I cannot do anything by Myself. I do it because I have seen My Father do it.” He said, “I cannot say anything by Myself. I say it because I have heard My Father say it.” “Your time is always convenient, but My time has not yet come.”
In other words, throughout His life, He waited for the Father. If the Father said, “Go,” He would go. If the Father said, “Say it,” He would say it. If the Father said, “Do it,” He would do it.
Throughout His life, He was obedient to the nth degree.
You know, brothers and sisters, one day He took three disciples with Him to a high mountain. The Bible says there He was transfigured. In other words, His glory began to come out from Him.
Moses and Elijah came and talked with Him about His exodus. In other words, He had His entrance into this world; now, how about His exit from this world? You know, this is a very important matter to us. It is life and death to us.
As Moses and Elijah talked with Him about His exit, how He would leave this world, so far as He Himself was concerned, He could have left this world from that Mount of Transfiguration. He was ready for it.
But He did not go. He would rather come down from the mountain, set His face towards Jerusalem, and there He would go to Calvary to die on the cross. Why?
Not because of Himself. He did not need that. He could have left on that Mount of Transfiguration. If He did, what would happen to us? Dear brothers and sisters, there would be only one Man in heaven, and that is all.
But thank God, He did not go. For our sake, He came down from the mountain, set His face toward Jerusalem, and there He was crucified on the cross on our behalf.
In doing that, He was obedient to His Father, fulfilling His Father’s will that He should die. He should bear all the sins of the world in His own body, and there He would suffer death from the hand of His Father.
We cannot, for a moment, understand His experience in the Garden of Gethsemane. There you find our Lord Jesus, the perfect Man.
Why did He struggle? He said, “I am sorrowful even unto death.” Why did He do that? Because that was the time that He had to decide whether He would take the sins of the world upon Himself and die for us.
If you are a very clean person, and people go to your place, everything is in order. But then another person comes to live with you, and he is such a careless person that he throws things all over the room—what is your feeling?
We can multiply that a thousand, ten thousand times to see what would happen to our Lord, who was perfect, and yet was to bear the sins of the world. No wonder you find that He was sorrowful even unto death.
But how He prayed: “Father, if it is possible, take it away from Me; but not My will, but Thy will be done.” There in prayer three times, He was sure that was the Father’s will. So He set His face toward Jerusalem and died for us.
So, dear brothers and sisters, as we meditate on the life of our Lord Jesus, do you see that the way He lived is the way that He wants every one of us who are His to live likewise?
We have no right to live for ourselves.
Are we living for Him, or are we living for ourselves? That is a question that we should answer individually. No one can answer this for you.
You have to decide whether you want to give yourself totally over to the Lord, because He has bought you with such a price, or whether you still want to live your own life. You can do it. But, brothers and sisters, what will happen if the Lord should return today?
While we are meeting here this morning, do you think the Lord can return at this time? I sincerely believe He can.
Because all the prophecies before His return have been fulfilled. There are still prophecies, but these prophecies are concerned with the time of His coming and afterwards, not before His coming. The time is here.
He could return at any moment. Why is it that He has not returned? It is because He is waiting for you and for me. He loves us so much. He does not want to leave us behind.
When He shall come, the Bible says two men will be sleeping, two men will be working in the field, and two women will be grinding meal. Why do you not have six here? You have two, two, and two. Why? Because the earth is round. In some places it is midday, in some places it is midnight, and in some places it is morning.
The Bible says that suddenly, without any warning, one is taken and one is left. Why? Because the Lord will return as a thief.
A thief would never blow a trumpet and say, “I am coming.” You know, whenever we sing these songs on the coming of the Lord, a number of songs tell us that when the trumpet blows and the angel sounds, then the Lord is coming. We shall be raised from the dead, and those who are still living shall be changed and taken up into the air.
That is the song we usually sing. But when you sing it, how do you feel? When I sing it, my heart tells me, “Sorry, it is too late.”
We should be taken long before. We should be taken before the great tribulation, if by the grace of God we are ready.
Dear brothers and sisters, my burden is this: should the Lord come today, I hope this building is emptied. None will be left behind.
We cannot imagine what will happen during the great tribulation. But if we are not ready for Him, that will happen.
So, dear brothers and sisters, this is why we are here at this time. We want to see every brother and sister who came to this conference, by the grace of God, prepared and ready for the imminent return of our Lord Jesus.
May this be His blessing to us. And if that is the case, this conference is worthwhile.
Dear Lord, again and again, we want to thank Thee for Thy tremendous love for us. Who but Thee, Thou only Son of God, the eternal Son of God, should come into this world to become a man like us and to die in our stead?
We thank Thee, Lord, that this is not the end, because Thou hast risen from the dead. Thou hast ascended up to heaven, seated at the right hand of God, waiting and working to prepare each and every one of us to be taken by Thee.
Here we are, Lord, every one of us here, none excepted. Lord, have mercy upon us.
If there is anything within us that will keep us on earth instead of being raptured to the throne, Lord, show us and remove it.
We want to give ourselves to Thee as totally as Thou hast given Thyself to us. Oh, dear Lord, have mercy upon us. Glorify Thy name. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.