THE TRUE SERVANT
THE TRUE SERVANT
I have been thinking a good deal of what sort of person the servant would be if he were really here for Christ.
A solemn place the servant is called to; he is to stand for God first, and then to act towards men. It is not so much what he does, as what he is. “Be a model of the believers, in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity”, 1 Timothy 4: 12. Like a star in the sky - he is here for God. He may have his peculiar mission besides, may help people; but what is the calling and portion of every servant of Christ - of one called out for His service on the earth where He has been refused; and where He has sent the Holy Spirit? His beginning is to stand for Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit in the place where Christ has been rejected.
[p. 238] The first great lesson he has to learn is what Christ is Himself in His own sphere. Hence he learns in the gospel of the glory that in Christ Himself are set forth all the attributes of God in a Man, that He is a Man in glory. It is there that the servant begins his acquaintance with Him, and as his acquaintance advances the servant enters into the greatness of His purpose; not only about everything of man, and this world, but to establish the glory of God everywhere. The Lord leads His servant, not only apart from this scene, where Christ is not, which is the wilderness, but he is made sensible of His absence, so that the world becomes a wilderness to him. Then the servant is conducted through Jordan into Christ’s own sphere.
Now in Christ’s own sphere he seeks the things above, and an entirely new day as Christ’s servant opens before him. He not only knows Him in His own sphere, but the power and perfection of His grace are given to him from the Head of the church. The true servant is to express Christ here - to be the expression of his absent Lord.
When a man is first called out, he is often very earnest, but too often it is more for the truth than for the Lord Himself. This is where the weakness in all service has come in. The exposition of the subject of the grace of God, or of some truth, has been the aim, rather than the Person, and the consequence is, that practically, the servant is looking for supporters in his work, and counting his success by his followers, instead of having his heart as full as when he had only the Lord, and could say, No one stood with me, but I am standing here for Christ. When the servant has to do with people, he is affected by them in his private circumstances, etc. - he is not able to say he has set “his face like a flint”. (Isaiah 50:7) The true servant ought to be able to stand alone, like Paul in the storm (Acts 27: 21), and say, “Ye should have hearkened unto me”.
[p. 239] For a servant to be here for Christ fully, he must be a man come from heaven; he must come from Christ; he cannot be above the power of Satan otherwise (see Ephesians 6), and he is not fully for the Lord till then. “Stand therefore” (verse 14). You may say how few there are of such! There is plenty of excitement about praying for the work, and as to setting the gospel before souls, but this is not the Person, nor is it the ability to stand for the Lord in a crisis.
When you see a man occupied with his preaching, it is the effect of his preaching he is thinking of, instead of seeing whether he has presented Christ so that souls should be absorbed with Christ. In order to do this he must be in the power of the heavenly Man, and free from what affects a man naturally; he must come from Christ, and have Christ before him. Christ must be his object if he is to present Him here; he cannot go beyond what he knows of Him; the servant can only express Christ as he knows Him, and he can only know Him as he is with Him.
As the church declined many sought place and power in the church. Then those who had learning, and who commended themselves to man, were appointed by man, and the one or two sent of God, the really devoted ones, were not recognised, but lost sight of. Thus the church became the huge system which we now see prevails. But the true servant is sent of God; it is not place nor position that he seeks, but to do Christ’s work; and therefore while the mass of appointed ministers have only the safety of souls before them, none of them is set for the purpose of God.
This accounts for the solemn fact, that what ought to be the great aim of every servant is so little known. The servant himself is not in full power to set forth the heavenly Man until he is himself in the purpose of God for every believer; that is, until he knows that he is united to Christ.
[p. 240] Then he can stand for Christ above the whole force of this evil world; then he is practically a witness of Him, because he is superior to the power of the wicked one in the world.
The root of all failure in ministry is in overlooking the fact that you cannot set forth Christ but as you come from Him. The servant cannot express Him but as he knows Him, on the principle of “what hast thou which thou hast not received?” (1 Corinthians 4: 7) You may know the words of the Bible and put them together well, but that is not the present ministry of Christ; it is not the real ministry of one who has come from Him. Putting thoughts together, making nice sermons, may be very instructive; but setting forth Christ is a different thing. To set forth the Person, as knowing His present mind, you must come from Him, you must know, not only what He was, but what He is. This is the reason that so much ministry wants definiteness. There is no aim, no line in it, because it has not been received as distinct instruction from Himself. A servant might explain a course of study of the word, or of doctrine, or of conduct - his own apprehension of the subject - and yet it might not be under the immediate direction of the Lord.
If a man comes from Christ he communicates something of Christ to the saints; any attempt at ministry apart from Himself only betrays that the servant does not know the great end of ministry - namely, God’s purpose for every believer, that he should know that he is united to Christ. Therefore the great work of a servant is to lead souls into that. Until the soul realises that it is united to Christ, the servant’s work is not done. Like Abraham’s steward, he has to bring Rebekah to Isaac; then the believer moves about as a part of Christ down here, in His power and for His pleasure.
It is very beautiful to me that as He is endeared to you, and as you know Him, and are drawn nearer to [p. 241] Him, you value union with Him, and you find out that you are united to Him.
It is not His greatness putting you at a distance, but the more you know of it and the better you know Him, the more you are drawn to Him.
The servant who enunciates truth may instruct souls, but it is quite a different service so to present the Person of Christ to you, that He is endeared to you; so that you rejoice to be united to Him. The servant’s work is not done till then, nor is he accomplishing the purpose of God in his service, which is to bring Christ Himself more distinctly and effectively before the souls of His people, who thus become practically part of the bride, which with the Spirit calls upon Him to “Come” and reign here!