THE SERVANT OF GOD AND HIS CHARACTERISTICS

Exodus 21: 1-6; Psalm 40: 5-9; Isaiah 50: 1-11

You will remember that in my last address the subject was the “man of God”. I desired to shew the features of the man of God; the sensibilities of the man of God, and the resources of the man of God; and I made the remark that I supposed we all pretty well knew that the man of God comes to light when things are going to the bad; God has had in the last days those who have stood for Him, and therefore the man of God comes to light in a dark day, such a day as we are in at the present moment.

I am speaking now of the condition of the church of God looked at down here, set up in responsibility, in great privilege, but responsibility.

That was my subject last week, and I will endeavour now to bring before you another subject of importance which I trust will be of help to you, and that is - the servant of God. I want to say a little to you about it that may be of a practical nature, because that is what is on my mind, not so much to unfold the truth but to turn to some points that may be of real value to us at this moment, and I trust that something may come to you that will be of practical value.

Now the passages I have read are well known to us all, and we have before us in the precept which is found in the Book of Exodus (we all know it and delight in it), we have before us the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect Servant.

You will remember doubtless that God acted in the thought of the deliverance of His people Israel, the object of that deliverance was that they should be set free to serve Him. You remember how God spoke in the early part of this book, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”, Exod 4: 23. That was the object of His deliverance and His intervention. He regarded Israel in that light; there was affection and it is “Let my son go, that he may serve me”. His firstborn son, which gives us at once the thought that all true service must be rendered in affection.

I want to give you a practical thought. The spring of all true service lies in affection.

I need scarcely say that the word servant refers particularly to that which is priestly. They were set free in order that they might be a nation of priests - that was the thought that God had to serve Him in that way. That is the thought very largely. It is not as we understand it, activity in service going out to others, though that is true, as we have seen in our readings in the Book of Numbers, but I call attention to the fact that no service could possibly be pleasing to God that had not love for its source and spring.

Love is the spring of all true service. It has often been remarked how touching it is when we come to this first precept given to Israel, we see the way in which God will be served. The priest is a most beautiful type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Love is demanded, as you know, in the previous chapter, it is God demanding love; but here there was one, in precept the type of the Lord, who responds. The blessed Lord came into Manhood to be a Servant. He came in by His body and He served, and His service was so perfect that He could go out free; having served perfectly He could go out by Himself. But He plainly said, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free”. What then is the spring of all that service - “I love”.

How sweetly it sounds after chapter 20 where love is demanded. Here we have in precept a type of Christ where His heart responds to God; He has found One to respond to Him, “I love”.

Well then, that is the spring of all true service. You know very well in the Gospel by Mark - which presents the Lord in the perfection of His service - that the Servant is the Son of God. It is in the spirit of sonship that true service is rendered. The Servant is the Son of God, but there is no genealogy in Mark, you are immediately presented to the Son of God who comes to serve.

Then you get all the features in that early chapter of Mark. He is greeted as Son, He is in touch with heaven; He is morally with God, He is victorious over Satan, and He moves forward in Mark 1 as the perfect Servant. He is the Son of God. He is in that relationship, and in that relationship He serves, and all His service is set forth in Mark in a blessed way; not only what He did but the way in which He did it; all His service was rendered in the power of love. That is, His communion was unbroken, and hence His service was the outcome of a condition in which He was abidingly without anything to hinder; so the service of the Gospel of Mark was carried out in the communion of the Gospel of John. Thus it always is, affection is behind all true service; there is no legality in true service, it is a joyful thing, and has for its spring divine love.

Here we have at once the One who is presented as the true Servant. He went to the door-post. We are introduced to it in Isaiah, where you have the servant and the door-post, it all comes to light in that book. Here it is that in the precept you have the “I love”. In the ark of the covenant you have the “I love”. The ark was a beautiful type of Christ. You go from precept to furniture, and from the furniture to the psalm where you get the prophetic scripture.

You need the Spirit, but the ark of the covenant was a piece of furniture, there was nothing in it in itself save what it teaches; but when you come to Psalm 40 it is more living. You have the ark of the covenant, but it is prophetic of' Christ. He is living and we go back and understand it; we understand the furniture and the precept, as we go back from Psalm 40 and see how livingly He speaks in this remarkable psalm.

This psalm is very beautiful in its order, the first four verses being the conclusion and verse 5 being where it begins. It really begins, “Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward”.

I pause for one moment and ask you all where you learn the thoughts of God towards you? In Christ. What a blessed thing it is to know that Christ is so great and can present all the thoughts of God. What a wonderful Person! You see there “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire”. They were imperfect, but we have taken up the type and we hear His voice, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God”, Heb 10: 9. “A body hast thou prepared me”. He comes in by His body in that way, and then He says, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart”.

How striking it is and necessary for us to remember that whatever we desire to be and whatever we ought to be is presented livingly in a Person, and you cannot be what you desire to be or what you ought to be unless you are under the influence of Christ. There is nothing could possibly give God pleasure that does not find its spring in Christ.

It is all seen in Him, and hence we need to come under His influence to answer to Him for the pleasure of God. No matter what it may be, it is in Christ you see it; in Christ you learn it, but let me say this, that the ministry is effectual only in the measure in which Christ is presented to the affections of God’s people; no matter what you may be calling attention to, everything is vested in Christ, and everything is effectual only in the measure in which Christ is presented to His people. I may take up things in an abstract way, but everything is presented in Christ and I trust the Spirit will help me to present Christ; no matter what the subject may be that I am pressing, it is in Christ and that is where we learn it.

Well now, having said that, I will move on immediately to what is more directly before me. I have read this psalm because it is where Christ is seen as the One who answers to the covenant. “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart”. The One who loves is there, and there was everything in that blessed Man responsive to God for His pleasure; everything that was well-pleasing to God was found in Him. Anything that comes from you or from me must come that way, it is in the measure in which we are under His influence that there could possibly be anything for God's pleasure.

I come now to Isaiah, and would say this first, that there are two books of Isaiah. I mean there are two distinct parts of the Book of the prophet Isaiah, and each book is introduced by a king, as far as I understand it. The first part of chapter 6 starts, “In the year that king Uzziah died”. There is a leprous king introduced there, a kind of frontispiece. The leprous king represented the uncleanness of the nation. There was the glory of the Lord and the prophet discovered that he was unclean, he was leprous; and therefore the key to that section of Isaiah lies in the word “holiness”. There are the seraphim, representing holiness, and hence that part of Isaiah is connected very largely with holiness. He is the Holy One - if you will pursue it.

In the next part of Isaiah you get introduced to another king, Hezekiah, and the principle of death and resurrection comes to light. He was recovered from his sickness; that is the frontispiece to the second part of Isaiah, and the key to that part of Isaiah which we are now about to consider lies in the word “righteousness”. On the one hand the seraphim are there giving character to it, and on the other hand there are the cherubim where you have the thought of righteousness. Hence the word righteousness occurs about fifty times in the second part of this book. I have referred to that hurriedly but it is very interesting.

Now what is introduced in this second part is the servant. The servant has a great place in this part of the book, if you will notice, “Israel my servant” (chap 41: 8), “Jacob my servant”, cha[ 46: 1. It constantly speaks of the servant, that is another word which is a key to this part of Isaiah. It is the servant. Israel and Jacob will be the servants of God; they will come into it by-and-by, but it must be in connection with Christ.

How lovely it is in reading the prophets where you get a dark picture and where the things are exposed as to what they really were, the state of the things, yet in the midst of it all God introduces Christ; that is the way of recovery. He introduces Christ. He must do so. It is very sweet in the middle of a dark description of the condition of the people, there is the thought of recovery, and where there is the thought of recovery, Christ is introduced. Hence it is the true Israel, and the servant is presented very distinctly in this part of the Book of Isaiah.

I come immediately to this remarkable chapter, chapter 49 being an introduction to it. The early part of this chapter is very touching. It is He who speaks, there is the Deity, the attributes of God, and you glide from Deity into humanity without any explanation. This is very important to remember. It is so also in the Book of Psalms; where His true humanity is insisted on, yet His Deity is asserted. I cannot explain it, no one can, but there it is, all through the Book of the Psalms.

We must have maintained in our souls the Deity of Christ; for if we do not we unconsciously drop into irreverence; we do not mean to be irreverent, but we do sometimes drop into unconscious irreverence when we speak of Him as a Man. He is truly a Man, but He is God, ever God blessed for ever, and in our hearts there should be at all times the sense of the Deity of Christ. We may regard Him in His true and perfect humanity with reverent hearts, but He is ever God.

He never ceased to be what He was because of what He became. He cannot cease to be what He was. He ever remains as to His Person, God ever God, the eternal Son of God⁴. He remains that, and this should be and has been cherished in the hearts of Christians. Whenever we look, as we are about to do, at His true humanity, we should never overlook His Deity. You go from Deity to humanity without any explanation. It cannot be explained. If you try to explain it you get into disaster. He is seen here in His perfection, in His seven years of service if you like - He is seen as the One who is fitted to be the Administrator. He listens. His ability to speak a word in season to those who are weary is that He took the place of a listener. It is excessively important to be a listener - an upturned ear. Hence, do you not see, He is constantly in that condition or position, and there was also the outflow to the sad and the weary.

If you are not a listener you will never be one who can meet those who are sad and weary. So it says here, The Lord God has given me the tongue of a disciple or an instructed one. “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned”. My point is this, beloved brethren, if we read ministry or if we listen to ministry, do we hear His voice? If you do not there will be no effect, the thing will fail as far as you are concerned. The thing is to hearken; God raises up instruments, those who can minister, but in that ministration the thing is whether you are really a listener and hearken to His voice. I feel I have poorly presented it to you; but I will now turn to Proverbs which will perhaps help you. “Bow down thine ear”, Prov 22: 17. There must be the spirit of subjection. You bow down your ear and hear. That is it. What is next? “And apply thine heart to my knowledge”. There is subjection, and there is not only subjection, but you apply your heart to its application. You apply your heart, not your head. No, no, not your head but your heart. It is a question of affection, you apply your heart. What next? “It is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee” (as food is kept - in the margin).

The pleasantness lies in the retention of it, which supposes exercise; that is the point. Are you exercised in regard to what you hear? “It is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee”. It is kept there, and it becomes a part of yourself. Mind, in your heart, not in your head, “They shall withal be fitted in thy lips”. From your heart it comes to your lips. Nothing else could be effectual. “They shall withal be fitted in thy lips”. It is what comes from the heart.

Follow the scripture. You bow down your ear and hear, and you apply your heart that is application, and it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within thee - that is retention, as in the margin, as food is kept - you digest it. Then you get the pleasantness of it, the joy of it. What next? “It shall withal be fitted in thy lips”. Oh, blessed lips!

Turn back to the psalm again and hear what the Lord says - “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart”. “I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest”. No, what was in His heart came out in testimony. “I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest”.

That is the kind of ministry we want; that is it, the ministry that comes up from the heart; that comes from one who knows what it means and enjoys what it is, and does not refrain his lips - he could not refrain. He knows how to speak a word in season to those who are weary. I hope you do not object to what I am saying. If you do, you object to what the Lord has given me to say, though I am conscious how poorly I have presented it. It is a very great thing to be a listener, you cannot be an administrator unless you listen to Him, and mind, it is morning by morning.

Think of the blessed Lord taking such a place as that - the humility of it, that upturned ear. Whoever was a listener like the Lord a continuous listener in His true and proper position as Servant, His ear was open for communications constantly. Wonderful communications on the Mount of Olives when He retired, special communications at such moments; but He was constantly a listener, and hence there was from His blessed heart the outflow, His lips moved with His heart, “I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest”.

That blessed Jesus the Lord, how perfectly He administered. One loves to think of that mark of affection. You remember how Peter came out in his feverish way Peter was naturally a feverish man - his heart delighted in the thought that his Master was sought after and he came into the solitude of the Lord and said, ‘All men seek after Thee, all the streets are full of people to hear Thee’. What was the result of His listening? He said, ‘Let, us go into the next town’, Mark 1: 38. He was not to be diverted by a feverish man, though this man had affection for Him and was delighted in the thought that his Master was sought after. The Lord give us grace to be listeners, and it is not only listening with the outward ear and the mind working on these things, but you apply your heart, and you retain it, in your heart, and then you find the pleasantness of it. We often find pleasure in listening, but the pleasure dies away. You say, What a beautiful meeting that was, but the pleasure dies away! The pleasantness is not only in the listening but in the exercise about it - you digest it, you go over it and it comes to you then in all its wonderful power - you make it your own, and what you say is your own, you say it, in your own way.

My beloved brethren, it is easy enough to listen, easy enough to repeat what is said; but all that is practically worthless unless it is what comes from your own heart as the result of listening and exercise. and so it is fitted to your lips and it gives you great confidence in God - “That thy trust may be in the Lord”, Prov 22: 19. “Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth?”, vv 20, 21.

Certainty. Where do you get certainty? Do you think you could be diverted from what the Spirit of God has produced in your soul? You can be diverted from the things that you entertain with your mind, but this produces certainty, you know certainty.

Now you are ready and people will send for you. It says so. “That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee”. Some one will be sending for you. The Lord will look after that, He does not give it you for yourself, you will find ways and means will be opened for you, some one will be sent to you - the sad and weary. It would be a sad day if at any time in our meetings - our gospel meetings, for instance - when sad and weary souls who are exercised - and remember in this great apostasy there are those who sigh and cry in distress - if they turned into our meetings and found nothing to meet them, it would be a sad day - a sad day when people give up the simple gospel.

Why do you not have courage, my brother, to preach a simple gospel? Never mind the exposition; never mind pleasing the saints; it is what the Lord thinks, not what the saints think. I would rejoice in all the unfolding of scripture, but preach the gospel. I have had great exercise about it; forgive me speaking about myself.

I was speaking at a certain place - no matter where - and I commenced with the songs of scripture, the song of the Red Sea, and the song of “Spring up, O well” (Num 21: 17) - there is gospel in that - and I made the remark that there were five other songs in the Old Testament and I should like to take them up one after the other. The people were very interested, and I said I would take up the other five songs in the Old Testament.

I got before the Lord and prayed about it, and He said to me, ‘If some poor sinner comes in, some sad and weary heart, what would there be for such?’ Let us think of such. I turned aside the next Sunday and said, ‘I cannot go on with what I purposed’. No doubt the people would have been pleased and I should have been pleased to do so but the Lord put His hand on me and said: ‘You preach the simple gospel’.

Some one said to me a little while ago, ‘Anybody would think you had just been forgiven, the way you talk about forgiveness’. That is how it should be. Do you think I should lose the sense of my forgiveness, no matter how far I had advanced in the truth? No, you get widened in it. I joy in my forgiveness now just as much as I ever did. What I am pressing now is, get with the Lord; never mind what people think or what people approve of, get with the Lord and get your communications from Him; there will be your ability to speak a word in season to those who are weary.

I am conscious that while I am here there is a movement of the Spirit of God in the direction of the gospel at this time; a quiet movement going on in the hearts of a good many in regard to this matter, for which I am deeply thankful. I ask you to consider it. What light He has given us, what wonderful light! Has He given it you for yourself? Does He love His people? I appeal to you, do you think we are peculiar favourites of His? No; - He loves all His people. Has not He blessed us with light? He has. What for? Surely to diffuse it.

I am not thinking of anything of an excitable nature that people can take cognisance of publicly; I am thinking of a desire in our hearts that other people should be the recipients of the light which He has given us so blessedly and mercifully. May the Lord stir up our hearts with a real earnest desire; it will be so if we are listeners, if our ears are open. It is impossible to receive anything from God without having the same kind of feeling that God has given it to you.

When you get anything from God it is God that gives it to you, and He passes over His feeling to you, so that you immediately desire that others should receive what you have received. If you have got it in your mind only it will not work out. “It is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee”, Prov 22: 18.

I will proceed from that to another side of the truth. Sometimes we are afraid to listen because of the consequences. It says here, “I was not rebellious, neither turned away back”, Isa 50: 5. I believe some of us are afraid to listen because we feel it is going to make a demand on us; you will not go forward, because it will make a demand. Every bit of truth and light that God gives us, in the very nature of things, makes a demand on us. The blessed Lord says, “I was not rebellious, neither turned away back”. “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair”. “I hid not my face from shame and spitting”, v 6. Blessed Lord; He accepts it. I am down here for the will of God; and let me tell you, where the truth is really known, if it is operative in your souls, you are going to have opposition; people shrink away from you; but there are great compensations, and you are prepared for it. How touching are His words, “neither turned away back”. Blessed Jesus, how faithful He was. How He bore the opposition of man, because the opposition of man is against the will of God, and here was One who was found in God's will. Are you up against it? Are you afraid of consequences? There may be some who say, ‘If I take such a step, what will happen to me; I am afraid to take it’.

There is a moment to make a decision. Perhaps that is now. Many of us are brought up in our histories as to whether we can trust God. Can you trust God? What will be the consequences to me if I take such a step? Can you trust God? Here was One who trusted God and God justified Him.

O that blessed One, Jesus the perfect Servant. He moved forward regardless of consequences; He has not turned back, but was found down here in the way of God's will and God justified Him, and will justify all that which is of Himself. In the midst of it, when you are with God, men look like grasshoppers to you; “the moth shall eat them up”, Isa 50: 9. Man is an insignificant creature.

One of the proofs of your being with God is that you have a proper estimation of man. They are nothing but poor changing creatures; the moth will eat them up. The Lord here says that in the spirit of prophecy in regard to man - “They all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up”. Those very people that pluck off the hair and smite Him; they are nothing but grasshoppers.

Now look at the last few verses of our chapter, pay attention to them. It says here, “Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant; that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God”.

If you are with God you can afford to wait. Wait. Have you no light? Wait. Need I say to you - it must occur to your mind that in this listening we have Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening. She comes under Him as Head and therefore she listens; she receives an impression from Him. Martha is cumbered with much serving, but Mary is a listener and the Lord says, “one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part”, Luke 10: 42. Why was it a good part? Because it was His part. “Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her”. Why shall it not be taken away from her? Because it is His own part. So there He justifies Mary.

Now you remember in John 11 she sat still in the house. That remarkable chapter is lit up with the glory of God - death and sorrow are there but shining resplendent above it all the glory of God as it always does. One Man in it - the blessed Son of God no stumbling there, He is walking in the day, walking in the light, there is no stumbling; and you never stumble if you walk in the light of the glory of God. Never.

We often say, ‘Show us thy way’. Why do we not say, ‘Show us thy glory’? and then we shall learn His way. Mary sat still in the house. She says, ‘I do not know but I will wait until He calls me’. She sat still. All were perturbed in that chapter save the Son of God and Mary. The Son of God is the light of the day and is the light of all that was going to occur, but Mary sat still. I will tell you what listening will do for you, it will make you sit still and wait.

Instead of that, the next verse is what we do, we cannot wait for light, we look around for some providential sticks and make a fire for ourselves. We know what that means we cannot wait, and you can always find some providential sticks and make a fire, and put your sticks together and rejoice in the sparks, but you will lie down in sorrow; out that fire will go; you made it, and if you are looking about for some indication you can always find some sticks, but, you will lie down in sorrow. “Let him wait”.

I am feeling in my soul here that this particular word is needed by some one. You say, ‘I have no light’. Only wait, He will give you light, do not be impatient. How dangerous this impatience is; we must have light, and we make light for ourselves, but we lie down in sorrow.

I wanted to say a little on the hearken in the next, chapter - the great Hearkener, the One who hearkens, whose ear is open to God.

Now the next chapter starts with “Hearken to me ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged”. Isa 51: 1. Be encouraged; the little ones, the feeble remnant, look into the pit from which You were digged. See how Abraham was alone, and how God made of that man which was alone a nation. That is the first hearken.

Then again hearken. The law comes from Jehovah; man and his will goes. Then there is the third hearken. “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law”, v 7. The law that had been reviled; the law that had been made good in their hearts, and they were to hearken. Those are the three hearkens; and then, Awake. They ask Jehovah to wake up for their salvation, and then Jehovah turns round and says, ‘You wake up to what I have been doing for you in My discipline; wake up and see your redemption’.

The last awaken is, “put on thy beautiful garments … shake thyself from the dust”, Isa 52: 1. If they had beautiful garments they had beautiful feet; they became evangelists. If you have beautiful garments you will have beautiful feet. “How beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace”. Their beautiful garments are in the beauty of Christ, and the joy of Christ, and their feet go out as evangelists. It refers to a future day, “How beautiful... are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace”, v 7.

Well, you come to the doorpost in chapter 53 - the doorpost. It is the spirit of repentance - repentance of God's people by-and-by. How deep is the repentance when you love God; you love everybody when you love God. There is the substitutionary part, that in which we all rejoice. He was wounded for our transgressions, chastised for our peace - we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

That is the substitutionary part of Isaiah 53. The doorpost is there.

The next part is, “He was cut off”. It is that part which the eunuch was reading; he was not reading the substitutionary part. “Who shall declare his generation?” That is a deeper thing; that is what he was reading; he says, “Of whom speaketh the prophet? of himself, or of some other man?” Did you ever have the feeling of what it was for Jesus to be cut off and have nothing? “Who shall declare his generation?” “He was cut off out of the land of the living”. That is the most wonderful part of it. “It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief”. The heart is bowed before such a thing as that; it is the door-post that will keep our hearts soft; that will keep us lowly in our spirits - that door-post.

How beautifully it closes. He bore their iniquities that they might be a righteous people. He teaches them how to be righteous. I appeal to you. Why did Jesus bear our sins? You know He bore them, you are glad to be free, glad to remember that He bore them. He bore your sins to make you a righteous person. Do you like that? “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness”. That is it. He went to the door-post to secure a righteous people for Jehovah's pleasure; a people that should answer to Himself morally.

It thrills my heart to sing that hymn,

That we as like Thee might become,

As we unlike had been.

Do you like that? ‘As we unlike’. How unlike? The nearer you get to Christ, the more you touch His moral beauties, the more you are made to feel how unlike you have been; but you will be made to feel that you shall be like Him; to be righteous as He is righteous, to come under His influence that there may be produced in us His own blessed features, whether in service or whether we learn, it is all of Christ we learn. So may we be kept under the influence of His blessed love that He may teach us to be righteous.

I feel how poorly I have presented it to you, but my resource is in the Lord that He will give some touch to your hearts on some of these things that may be for profit and blessing for His Name’s sake.

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