THE LORD JESUS KNOWN AS MASTER

J. Wright

1 Samuel 30: 11–15; Luke 5: 1–11; 2 Timothy 2: 19–21

You will notice that the word “master” occurs in each of these scriptures. Who is our master?

We all have a master. Men like to think that they are their own master, and some in business are their own master. But, in a moral sense, no one is their own master. Persons may be deceived by thinking that by doing their own will they are their own master. If any one does their own will, and pursues a course of their own will they have a master, and it is a hard master, for Satan is the master of anyone who is doing their own will.

This young man whom David finds had a master who left him. It is a good thing that the master did leave him. We hear a lot about redundancy today, but this man was left because he fell sick. He had been serving a master who left him sick. Satan is the master of so many but he has no concern about persons, no concern about their souls or about their well-being. It says he was the servant “of an Amalekite”. They found an Egyptian in a field. He was a man of the world, in the world away from God, and independent of God. They brought him to David; he was to come under a new master. Conversion is a wonderful change, it is a complete change. This man was to have a change of occupation, and a change of master.

You could not have a better Master than the Lord

Jesus; He is the best Master, you could not come under anyone better. Is the Lord Jesus your Master? Does He have, control of your life? If you have a master you have to do as he tells you. The Lord Jesus would care for you, do the very best for you; indeed He has done the very best for you. The Lord Jesus has done for you what no one else could do for you. He has taken account of your condition. He has taken account of where you were through sin, and the results of sin through serving another master, a master who had got no rights over you at all. Jesus has taken account of that condition of yours and He has come in to meet it, to relieve you of it, and deliver you from it. Think of how the Lord Jesus saw men here under the power of Satan. How He felt it! As He moved here among men, persons He came in contact with were under the power of Satan. Scripture makes it plain that “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way”, Isaiah 53: 6. We have come under the power of Satan, the power of a terrible task master. The Lord Jesus felt it and He came in to deliver men. He has overcome Satan, that terrible master over men. Satan brought temptations to bear on the Lord Jesus, but the Lord Jesus did not yield to him for one moment; He was greater than Satan and more powerful. The power that marked the Lord Jesus was not in any great outward way, but it was moral power, and Satan had to leave Him.

Satan came back to the Lord Jesus as He approached death, bringing the pressure of death and all that lay before Him to bear upon His spirit, but He went forward in obedience.

The Lord Jesus was Master, but He knew what it was to be obedient to God and to God’s will; He always obeyed. If He had not obeyed, dear friend, you and I would be eternally lost, and would have remained under the power of Satan. He obeyed under the most trying and testing circumstances. We have been reminded that He became obedient even unto death and that the death of the cross. The Lord Jesus, in going to the cross, has

taken upon Himself all the effects of sin that lay upon us. Indeed He has borne the sins of many, of every one who has come to Him, in faith and obedience. He has borne their sins in His own body on the tree; He has gone into death as the penalty that lay upon the sinner, that lay upon those who were disobedient. He has gone that way for you and for me, that we might be relieved from the burden of our sins, and that we might be delivered from the power of sin. The Lord Jesus went into death and His precious blood has been shed. What a price has been paid in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus shedding His precious blood. He is now raised at God’s right hand, He is available both as Saviour and Lord, and He wants you to know Him. He wants you to know Him as your Master for He is entitled to have you.

So they found this Egyptian and brought him to David and gave him bread and he ate, and they gave him water to drink; no demands were made upon him. This young man found a plentiful supply and it was what he needed. What your soul needs it finds in coming to Christ.

You will find it in Christ and it is freely available to you. They gave him a piece of fig-cake and two raisin cakes. All on the line of giving, not on the line of demand. Do you think in coming to the Lord Jesus, knowing Him as Lord and Master you will find He is hard? You will find Him as this youth found David, he found what he needed, and it says, “and his spirit came again to him; for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, for three days and three nights”.

Then David asked him some questions. He says, “To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou?” Good questions, are they not? To whom do you belong? Do you belong to the Lord Jesus? This young man could not say that at this point; he had to make a confession. So he says, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick”. He makes a confession. There is the situation, this man makes a confession, he brings it all

out. He was an Egyptian, a sinner who had just gone his own way. It is a happy day for you when you tell the Lord Jesus you are a sinner, and have gone your own way, serving sin and Satan. There has been no positive result from that. Then he says, “We made a raid against the south of the Cherethites, and against what belonged to Judah, and against the south of Caleb”.

He gives an account of what he has been doing as a servant of this Amalekite, typical of a servant of Satan. But David is going to enlist him, he is going to become a servant of David.

How gracious David was; what a gracious master. He is like the Lord Jesus! Then David said to him, “Canst thou bring me down to this troop?” And he said, “Swear to me by God, that thou wilt neither put me to death nor deliver me up into the hand of my master, and I will bring thee down to this troop”. He did not want to go back in any way to what he had done and whom he had served; he wanted to be kept with David, and to become serviceable to David.

Now I want to speak of Peter, who has a conversion in this chapter. He comes to speak of Jesus as Master. The Lord Jesus is entering into Peter’s circumstances, to get near to him and secure him for Himself. Peter was one who became serviceable to Him. The Lord Jesus made something of Peter. Satan will not make anything of you in regard of divine things. But think of what the Lord Jesus is able to do. He will make something of you. Do you want to be made something of and be serviceable to the Lord Jesus? Simon lets the Lord have use of his boat, and when Jesus had ceased speaking He said to Simon, “Draw out into the deep water and let down your nets for a haul”. He was going to experience what it was to come under a new Master. How blessed it is to come under Christ as Master! It far exceeds our expectations!

We knew we were not getting on at all well before, things were difficult and hard, we found no satisfaction in the things we went after. But we find very much more in the Lord Jesus than we expected. Have you found that?

One of the things needed would be simple obedience to the word of Jesus. Have you been obedient to the word of Jesus? He loves you and has done everything for you. You can find the grace that is in Him, the abounding grace in the Lord Jesus. Peter did not think he would get anything, he had given up. When answering the Lord here he said, “Master, having laboured through the whole night we have taken nothing”. He would think, I know this lake I have fished in it many times, I know we will not take much now. Have you ever thought like that, thinking you would not get much by answering to the Lord’s word, by being obedient to it? However Peter was obedient to it, he did what the Lord told him to do; that is the safe way, it is the way of blessing, to do what the Lord tells you to do. So he says, “Master, having laboured through the whole night we have taken nothing, but at thy word I will let down the net”, note “at thy word”. Peter had never had such a haul of fishes before, it far exceeded what he had expected. It was such a haul of fishes that the ship could not contain them, the net could not contain them. Think of the goodness of the Lord Jesus! Peter writes later in his life, “if indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good”, 1 Peter 2: 3. Peter was tasting here that the Lord was good; he was obedient to His word and there was this great haul of fishes; as a result he became a prosperous man. Do you want to become prosperous? I am not talking now about your business. The Lord can help you in that, surely He can, but I am talking about your soul prosperity, that is the important thing.

Peter was overcome by this great haul of fishes; the boats were filled and were sinking. “But Simon Peter, seeing it, fell at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.

Lord”. He not only came to it that he had committed sins and confessed them, but he went deeper than that, he was a sinful man, he had served sin. His whole life had been marked by that, sin. However respectable a person might be, if they are just pleasing themselves, away from God, it is a sinful life.

All that was in him was sinful, and Peter came to it in the presence of Jesus, but he fell at His knees, “For astonishment had laid hold on him, and on all those who were with him, at the haul of fishes which they had taken; and in like manner also on James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon. Fear not”. No reproach, no condemnation does He hold for you! The Lord would say, I know you have been a sinful man, I know you are a sinner, but fear not. The Lord Jesus has been to Calvary’s cross; He bore the whole sinful condition; Him who knew not sin was made sin for us. The Lord says to Simon, “Fear not; henceforth thou shalt be catching men”. What a fisher of men he became!

You can read in the Acts of the Apostles of how serviceable he became to the Master! How different he became under this Master! I commend Jesus to you; own Him as your Lord and Master. We sang,

‘As Lord and Master in thy heart enthrone Him.’

Life everlasting, peace and joy to know’. (Hymn 409) He will give you the gift of the Holy Spirit, as you are obedient to Him, giving power for having a living link with Him and becoming in you a well of water springing up unto eternal life.

I want now to refer to this scripture in 2 Timothy. Paul is speaking of difficult times. He says,

“Yet the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal. The Lord knows those that are his”.

He knows if you are His—the Lord knows every one that is His, every one who has come to him, every one who has had a transaction with Him. What a right He has. How He would care for one who is His. He would not make you redundant, cast you away as of no use. No, you are of value to Him. He wants to preserve you, He wants to protect you. He can preserve you and He can protect you. Salvation is in the recognition and confession of Jesus as Lord.

He has all the power available to help you and preserve you and protect you. He is in the highest place in the universe, he is in the highest place of power, He is at God’s right

hand, and all power is available for you as a believer to help and preserve you. You cannot go through in your own strength, you have no need to, you do not need to attempt to, all the power in the Lord Jesus is available to preserve and protect you.

Then it says, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”.

Anyone who professes to own Him as Master is to withdraw from iniquity. Then it says, “But in a great house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also wooden and earthen; and some to honour, and some to dishonour”. That is the present state of things in the public profession. Then it says, “If therefore one shall have purified himself from these, in separating himself from them, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work”. It is a wonderful thing to be kept serviceable to the Master. Would you not like to be preserved serviceable to the Master? To be kept serviceable, we need to purify ourselves so as not to be mixed up with vessels to dishonour.

There is salvation and preservation in separation, and it is only a sanctified vessel that can be serviceable to the Master. I commend to you the Lord Jesus as Master. May we each one come to know Him in this way, for His name’s sake.

Preaching at Rotherham
29 September 1991