SERVING THE LORD

J.Renton

Romans 12: 9-11; Genesis 22: 4-9; 1 Samuel 17: 29

This short section in Romans 12 is full of brief, very pointed exhortations. Paul in his writings does that sometimes. Towards the end of the first epistle to the Thessalonians, for instance, he gives a number of very brief, pungent exhortations. Their power lies in their brevity and the point of them. It would be similar in this little section here: "Let love be unfeigned". The world around us likes good actors, good actresses. Some of them receive titles because they do it so well. This kind of thing is to have no place among believers. It is innate in every one of us to act a part. We can be good pretenders. The more clever and able we are, the more we can put a face on things, but the exhortation is, "Let love be unfeigned; abhorring evil". We were speaking about the children of God. Believers who have the Spirit are the children of God, begotten of God, and that nature which they have from God abhors evil. If the children of God are true to their nature they will abhor evil. It really involves holiness. God abhors evil. "Cleaving to good": that is the positive side. There is a semi-colon between "abhorring evil" and "cleaving to good". Each brief important exhortation stands by itself. "As to brotherly love, kindly affectioned towards one another". "One another" suggests specially a local setting. Of course as together here as a company we could think of one another, but it really works out locally. "Kindly affectioned towards one another: as to honour, each taking the lead in paying it to the other": Mr Darby's note indicates that this is a paraphrase. Whatever the original was, he paraphrases it to give the sense as to honour, each taking the lead in paying it to the other. We like honour for ourselves. When the king spoke about the man whom the king delighted to honour, Haman said to himself, Oh, that must be me (see Esth 6: 6). "As to diligent zealousness, not slothful; in spirit fervent; serving the Lord". What I want to come to is this matter of serving the Lord.

I noticed this week that the word for 'serving' in verse 11 is serving as bondman. The note to this verse indicates that there are three different words for 'serving' in this chapter. The first one in verse 1 is 'priestly service'. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service". This is the action of a priest. He presents his offering to God. It is the result of being affected by the compassions of God, the result of the believer's appreciation of the love of God taking the form of compassion in his case; and in response he presents an offering to God of his body - "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service". It is done in a definite, calculated way, not haphazardly or hastily, not done without counting the cost, or without understanding what is involved in it. He presents his offering, his body as a living sacrifice. He says, From henceforth my body is going to be a vessel for the service of God.

This is one of the most important steps a believer takes in his life. His body is offered, never to be recalled. To one who has presented his body a living sacrifice, things that men might think sacrifice would appear small. Extricating himself from some kind of yoke, or not prepared to link on with some kind of yoke, men regard as a great sacrifice, but for one who had laid his body on the altar in sacrifice it would be the normal result. I cannot over-emphasise the importance of every one of our young people taking this step, this action of a priest in offering his body a living sacrifice.

Now the next reference to service, in verse 7 - "or service, let us occupy ourselves in service" - is doing the needed service, doing what one sees needs to be done, especially locally. It is that kind of service, diaconal service. There is a kind of moral order. The initial step, the great step, is to present one's body in a priestly act as a living sacrifice, and then one would be on the outlook for any needed service that requires to be done. Then the third reference to service is bondman service. There is a need for bondmen, and of course bondwomen. Bondmen are prepared to have things laid upon them. It is not so much the idea of being available to do what we see needs to be done but prepared to have a matter or matters laid on us. We live in a time when there is a lack with men and women of preparedness to take responsibility; or if anyone does take responsibility, he is thinking of the additional results for himself. Men speak of differentials in the wage structure, and anyone who would take responsibility would want a great differential to make it worth while taking on responsibility. The Lord is looking for persons who are prepared to take on responsibility, to have things laid on them.

Isaac was prepared to have things laid on him. The will of God is involved in this chapter 22 of Genesis. The will of God costs something. It cost Isaac something. It cost Abraham something. It says in verse 6, "And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it on Isaac his son". Abraham laid the wood on Isaac. Isaac apparently must have been prepared to take on this wood. We see it perfectly in our Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the manhood of Jesus. Think of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the devotion in sacrifice supreme. Think of the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ as taking on responsibility, accepting what was laid upon Him. He came into manhood, into a condition of flesh and blood, that certain things should be laid on Him that could not be laid on any other one. The great work of redemption was laid on Jesus. No other one was qualified to have that great work laid upon him, but it was laid upon Jesus. He took it on, willingly took it on, sustained it all, went through it all at infinite cost to Himself, that the will of God might be secured, that there might be results for the will and the pleasure of God. Think of the pathway of Jesus here. This is a beautiful type of the Father and the Son, and the communion between them. Twice it says "they went both of them together". Abraham had the fire and the knife in his hand; on Isaac there was the wood. Isaac was to be the sufferer. You can see it perfectly set out in the pathway of the Lord Jesus here. Dear brethren, the Lord is looking for persons who are prepared to be like that, to take responsibility locally or whatever it may be, for the Lord would lay something on every one of us. Who is available? That is the great question. I have no doubt it comes by way of Romans 12 verse 1, persons who have laid their bodies on the altar as a living sacrifice. It comes by way of persons who are available to do the needed service. But then bondman service is full committal, full devotion. We see bondmanship set out perfectly in our Lord Jesus Christ. It says of Him, "taking a bondman's form", Phil 2: 7. I would say reverently, not only did He come into manhood but He came into a bondman's form. I believe it refers to the condition into which He came, flesh and blood, a condition in which He could suffer, in which He could pour out His precious blood, in which He could work out this great transaction of redemption. I would not think of the Lord Jesus exactly in a bondman's form now. He is in Manhood, but not exactly bondman's form, because Paul goes on to tell us that He has been highly exalted and given a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow (see Phil 2: 9,10), but here He was a bondman. In the type the wood was laid upon Him. Who is available in the time in which we are to take on bondman service, our own wills subserving the will of God? Who is available to have things laid upon him? Abraham laid the wood on Isaac his son. Apparently there was no question as to that on the part of Isaac. He accepted the wood being laid upon him. Abraham had the fire in his hand, and the knife.

While we think of it typically as the Son here and the Father's activities, we can think of it also as two generations here. Abraham had the fire and the knife. He had experienced the fire in his own private life and he had experience of the application of the knife. He himself had set out these matters. Those who are older need to be persons who have experienced the testings of fire and have tasted the application of the knife. Think of Abraham being told to go out from his country and his father's house. Think of the knife of circumcision being applied, and the fire in Genesis 15. Abraham experienced all these things. The wood, the kind of manhood which was Abraham's, is laid upon Isaac. It is how things continue in the testimony, and Isaac accepted the wood laid on him. Then it goes on to say that "Abraham built the altar there, and piled the wood; and he bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood". Where was Isaac's will in all this? Isaac was submissive to what was laid upon him. Wherever you may be there is something the Lord would lay upon you. The fellowship involves accepting some measure of responsibility. We are in a time when men and women shirk responsibility. They want the results, the income, but not too much responsibility. The Lord is looking for persons who are prepared to take responsibility.

Now I want to speak of a few who had things laid upon them. Isaac is the first. We see how submissive he was, but he had a sense of being loved. It says "Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac" (v 2). Isaac accepted what was laid upon him in the consciousness of being loved. "I beseech you... by the compassions of God" (Rom 12: 2): God's love is behind His compassion. His compassions are the form His love takes. We are to be moved by the sense of being loved. We were speaking of the children of God. The children of God are those who are loved by God. "See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God", 1 John 3: 1. Isaac accepted what the will of God required in the consciousness of being loved by his father, in the consciousness of communion with his father.

The next one I want to speak about is Moses. God intended to lay something on Moses, and Moses, as we know, was very reluctant to have the matter laid on him. Many of us would know something about this. God called Moses at the bush. The good will of Him who dwelt in the bush was active, and Moses was called to serve. A load was laid upon him, and Moses found every reason why he should not be the one who should take on that responsibility. How patient God was with him! You might say it was a commendable feature with Moses. It may have been, up to a point, but he went beyond that point, so much so that God was angry with him. God was going to lay something on Moses and Moses brought forward excuse and reason why it should not be laid on him, but Jehovah in His grace considered for Moses and gave him a brother to help him with the load. God said, "Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother?" Exod 4: 14. Even after God was angry with him, God considered for him and gave him a brother to help him to work out what was laid upon him. I would like to commend this feature of the brother: "as to brotherly love, kindly affectioned towards one another". I think it would be safe to say that over recent years we have experienced brotherly love and brotherly confidence and mutuality such as maybe we have never experienced before. Things have been taken on and there has been brotherly support and mutual confidence. It is the kind of time we have been in, but the fact is that the enemy is set to destroy this. It is pleasing to God. It is for our enjoyment and our edification, but the enemy is active somehow to destroy, to sow discord. He does not care what he uses or what he brings in for his own purpose, but he is intent on destroying and disrupting brotherly links and mutual love and confidence. We are in a time when we have to be on our guard that we do not let the enemy interrupt the flow of brotherly love and confidence that have been experienced. God said to Moses, "Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother?" Two Levites, Moses and Aaron, were in levitical service together. The enemy does not like that. He will do all he can to disrupt it. Jehovah said to Moses, "When he seeth thee he will be glad in his heart", Exod 4: 14. Aaron met him and kissed him. There was brotherly confidence, brotherly love. We have had experience of this that has been encouraging and edifying. A brother was given to Moses to support him and strengthen him and be with him; in fact the two, Moses and Aaron, made one in that sense.

The next one I want to speak about as having matters laid upon him is Joshua. Jehovah said to him "Be strong and courageous". Joshua might well have wilted before the task that was put upon him, but Jehovah said to him "I will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee. Be strong and courageous", Josh 1: 5,6. And Joshua was strong and courageous. These are features that persons who have matters laid upon them and who accept things that are laid upon them need. You will need this, dear brother or sister, if you take up any responsibility, you will need to be strong and courageous. But there is great resource in the Holy Spirit. It says in Romans 12: "as to diligent zealousness, not slothful; in spirit fervent". Mr Darby in his translation hardly knows whether to put a capital 'S' or a small 's' for 'spirit' here. Think of the support of the Spirit in providing strength, in promoting courage, so that what is laid upon us is fulfilled for God's pleasure. Think of the moral triumph of God in having persons on whom He can lay things, and who accept these things and carry them through for God's pleasure.

The next one I want to speak briefly about is Gideon. He had a matter laid upon him and he, like Moses, was reluctant to take it on, but the commendable feature with Gideon was that he sought confirmation at every step he took. Gideon wanted to be sure that God was laying this on him, and that is a good exercise, because some of us have known in the past taking on things that were not laid upon us by the Lord. Gideon would be preserved from that. He made sure at every step that what he was doing was what God was laying upon him. We might even suffer from an obsession; we might think that more is laid upon us than God is laying upon us, and we might be obsessed with a thing. Gideon was preserved from that because he was assured at every step he took that this was from God, and God was with him in what he was doing. It is the spirit of dependence, of needing assurance, and God supplied to him assurance at every step. Every question, every test, that Gideon put to God, He answered. Gideon put a fleece on the threshing floor. I know we look at that typically, but I suppose the fleece represented himself because he was thinking of what was confronting him. When Gideon put the fleece on the threshing floor he said "if dew shall be on the fleece only", Judg 6: 37. In effect he was saying, Let me be assured of divine favour, of divine support in what I am taking on. The next time he said "let it...be dry upon the fleece only, and upon all the ground let there be dew". That means he was prepared to be deprived of any public evidence of God's support in order that others might benefit by his exercise. Then in consideration for Gideon God Himself gave him a sign. Appreciating his reluctance to take a step without assurance, God said to him to go into the Midianitish camp. If he was fearful he could take his servant with him, and he would hear certain things (see Judg 7: 9-11). If we accept responsibility that is laid upon us, God is prepared to assure us that He will give us His support and help at every step we take.

The next is David. David was challenged as to what he was doing: "I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thy heart", his elder brother said to him. David's answer was, "Was it not laid upon me?" Oh, what a good reason David had for being where he was at that moment! The reason was that it was laid upon him. David became available because he fed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. It could be said that locally he was doing the needed service. He saw what was needed to be done locally and he was available to do it, and he became one who was sent. Something was laid upon him. He was found where he was because it was laid upon him. Let us be ready, dear brethren, to take responsibility, to serve the Lord as bondmen. May the Lord help us all to be bondmen, prepared to take on what is laid upon us. There is no doubt the Lord would lay something on every one of us. May we accept it, for His Name's sake.

 

GRANGEMOUTH

11 November 1978