SONSHIP AND SERVICE
[p. 153] SONSHIP AND SERVICE
Exodus 4: 21 - 23; Matthew 2: 13 - 15; Matthew 3: 16 - 17; Hebrews 9: 11 - 14
I would like to say a word to you about sonship as connected with service. I think if you will take up the Scriptures you will discover that the service of God is based on sonship. I suppose every Christian would be interested in regard to service. When I speak about Christians I speak about those who love God. I should think every such person would be interested as to the service of God; not that such an one would care about being conspicuous. It is a very poor thing to desire to be conspicuous; foreign to the true thought of service. The true servant has one object — God — and the Object is conspicuous, not the service. If God has taken us up, it is with the end in view that we should serve Him in the liberty which His love produces in our hearts. God desires to be served. If it is God’s service, it must be the outcome of His nature, and the effect of it is that He shines out for the good and blessing of man and the universe. I hope to be able to enlarge upon that later on, but for the moment I wish to engage your hearts with the desire on the part of God that He might be served.
I think, as I said before, that if God has taken us up, it is that we should be here for Him. There can be no question about that. One is impressed with the sense of how little souls are affected by God’s purpose as to His people. How many have nothing before them but their own advantage in this world; and they are managing their affairs with this end in view. But the end of such a course is not really to their advantage; on the contrary it will be greatly to their disadvantage. The fact is that we are but poor judges as to what is advantageous to us. God is by [p. 154] far the best Judge, and we are infinitely safer in leaving our affairs in His hands than in attempting to manage them ourselves. I can say that I have discovered God to be far more capable of looking after my interests than I am, so I have given it up. I only dwell on this for a moment, and I do so because I see how saints are being diverted from God’s intention as to His people, by the desire to establish themselves in circumstances of ease and comfort in this world. It may seem that you are missing opportunities, and suffering loss, in committing your affairs into divine hands, but it is not so really; if you want to be on true vantage ground, leave yourself in the hands of God. God is by far the best Judge as to what is for your blessing, and you can have no question but that He will do the very best for you indeed, He has done His best for you. Did you ever consider what God’s best is? I think it is wonderful to contemplate what God’s best is: what He has done for His people. He has given Christ for His people, and not only that, but He has established down here in the Christian circle that which is for your protection, comfort, and enjoyment. God has made provision for you; He has had wonderful forethought, and done His very best. Hence what anxiety need you have in regard to minor matters? If it is a question of things relative to this life, I have no anxiety at all; it is a simple question of leaving oneself in the hands of God. As I said before, God has given Christ for you. That is the expression of His love. What else has He done? God has gone to great pains for your good. He has come down here in Christ, and has broken the power of Satan, and He has set up here a kingdom, and has built a house for us. If God has done all that for me, He certainly will provide me with all I require, and hence I am perfectly well off in His hands.
I want to return to the thought of service. In going back to Exodus 4 you get the thought of it,
[p. 155] and I think what comes out in that passage gives you the clue to what was in the mind of God; and if it was God’s thought in regard to Israel it was His thought also as to Christians. You may rely upon that. God did not get service from Israel after the flesh; they were all as good as dead, and as a matter of fact the carcases of nearly all of them fell in the wilderness. So what was written of them really refers to us at the present time. In the future in connection with Christ risen, they too will come into what they could not really have as men in the flesh. My thought in referring to the passage before us was to show the divine idea in taking up Israel. I think God went to a good deal of pains in order to say a word to Israel. I refer to His dealings with Moses. One can scarcely refer to Moses without the greatest encouragement. God had been preparing for a good while, so to say, prior to the fourth of Exodus. He had taken Moses into the backside of the desert in order to make him a fit vessel to convey His thoughts to His people and to Pharaoh, and in fitting him for this, God set aside all that in which he might have trusted as in the flesh. It is very marked how much is said of Moses’ rod. We are told in Scripture that Moses was “mighty in words and in deeds”. Acts 7: 22. God took no account of either. When, after forty years of discipline, God proposes to send him into Egypt, Moses declares he could not speak. What had become of his mighty words? He seems to have forgotten them, and the Lord did not remind him of them. He says to Moses, “What is that in thine hand?” Exodus 4: 2. What had he in his hand? He had a rod. I do not know what kind of a rod it was, or where he got it. I do not believe he took it out of Egypt; no doubt he got it in the wilderness. “What is that in thine hand?” the Lord says. He did not say anything about the mighty words or deeds. I think the rod was very commonplace, but it was what [p. 156] Moses had. It did not represent the “wisdom of the Egyptians” nor the prowess of Moses in Egypt; I think it represented what he had learned in the wilderness. In the Lord’s service it was the instrument of his power. As we have seen, God had been preparing His servant, and now he is sent to Pharaoh with this wonderful message: “Let my son go, that he may serve me”. Exodus 4: 23. God would be served, and that applies to you and to me. I think the position of the children of Israel in Egypt typifies the people of God who are in the world-system at the present time. What were they doing in Egypt? They were doing what a great many Christians are doing today. You say, What are Christians doing? I will tell you what the majority are doing — building up the world-system. Is that serving? Everybody is active — everybody is working — but it is not the service of God. I fancy the children of Israel were better workmen, and worked harder than the Egyptians; but what were they doing? Building cities for Pharaoh — building up Pharaoh’s kingdom — the world-system. They were building store-cities for Pharaoh, and we are told the names of the cities. I would not at all doubt that you could find relics of the work of the children of Israel in Egypt today. They were building up the world-system. I say that is what you are doing if you are in the world. If you are mixed up with this world you are a servant of the devil, building up his system. Do you not believe it? What do you think has made the world of the twentieth century? The world of our day is the product of so-called Christians. The most conspicuous pyramids and store-houses, as it were, have been built by them. That is what Christianity has come to. What is it? The work of slavery. What has Christendom come to? Slavery to the devil. Nobody can deny it. The most prominent features of the present world-system, the most salient [p. 157] points, have been built up by so-called Christians. It is their shame, still it cannot be denied Do you think that is the service God intended for His people? Did God take His people out of Egypt to build up the world-system? No, He intended to deliver them from the world, and to build up a system of His own. The tabernacle indicated that this was what was in His mind. It set forth God’s system, and those who should serve in connection with it were the priests. God would be served. Pharoah would be served, and the children of Israel were capital servants for him. So Satan uses Christians now. Look at the world they have built up. Did you ever know of such a world as we have today? And the name of Christ is upon it. There has never been such a world as they have got now. Give Satan heaven, the earth, and humanity, and see what he would do with them. That is what comes out in Genesis 40. Men did not like to retain God in their knowledge and so made room for the devil. Satan captured man, and in the sphere designed for man, he would establish a system which would be marked by lawlessness and violence. I think Satan set himself to capture everything set up of God down here, and he has succeeded but too well. Now he has the church, and he has effected more with it than with anything he has had previously. See what workmen Christians make! Pharaoh could say, as it were, Look at my workmen, descendants of Abraham; heirs of the land of promise! Those were the workmen Pharaoh had. The descendants of Abraham were the workmen of Pharaoh! That is what the church has come to. The church has become a slave in the hands of the devil. He is not likely to be inactive with such workmen at his command: men enlightened by the gospel and the Scriptures. With such men he is building up the world-system. That is the situation at the present time.
Now, what would God do? That is what we are [p. 158] most concerned about. There is plenty of evidence of what Satan can do. The world is evidence of that, and the church has come into his hands. I have no doubt after clever manoeuvring he succeeded, as it were, in purchasing the church, for it was sold in the public market. Pharaoh represents Satan, who seeks the best slaves obtainable, and he accounts Christians to be these. When he got the church he got the very best slave he ever had. It is a most serious consideration. Would that our eyes were open to see how things are!
But what I want to come to is this — I should like to engage you with what God would do. Even if Satan is building, God is building too. When He took Israel out of Egypt, He intended to establish a system of His own, and I think service stands in this connection. He says, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”. Exodus 4: 23. Did your heart ever respond to that? Let me put it to you here tonight. Did your heart ever respond to the desire of God to be served? Any enlightened Israelite would respond to the message Moses brought, that it had pleased Jehovah to call Israel His son. What a message that was! It does not say the message was sent to the people, but Moses undoubtedly told them about it. I think Moses would tell them all he could, and he would tell them what Jehovah had said. Jehovah said, as it were, You are to be My sons, and would not any true Israelite say, What a wonderful thought on the part of God, that we should be His sons! What a desire such a message would produce in the Israelites to be extricated from Egypt! The application is most direct — it has a present application to us: that is, God would speak to your heart and mine; and He says of you, as it were, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”. Exodus 4: 23. God would not be served by the people in Egypt. There are those who say, Can I not serve the Lord here? We can serve the Lord anywhere.
[p. 159] I answer, Why did the Lord not leave the children of Israel in Egypt? Why did He not enlighten them by Moses, and let them stay there, in order that they might enlighten the Egyptians? That would be a very plausible argument. What was the need of going to all that trouble? Why not enlighten the children of Israel in Egypt through Moses, and then leave them there to enlighten the Egyptians? God never intended to make a slave an evangelist: a slave cannot be an evangelist. If you are to convey glad tidings from God, you must be a free man. The message is too great to entrust to a slave. God thinks too much of the glad tidings to entrust them to a slave. They are too magnificent. The gospel is the grandest thing God has ever presented. You cannot overestimate the gospel, and the more you understand it, the more you will see that the Son only could be the Bearer of it to man. If great men of the world have great things to undertake, they take up great people to perform them. For instance, the emperor of Japan recently sent an envoy to this country; he had an errand of importance, and he sent a man of importance to accomplish it. God accounts the gospel to be of very great importance, hence the heralds of it must be great: they must be free men.
Now, I have anticipated. My thought was to show that God would not be served in Egypt. As I said before, it would have been a very plausible argument to say the Egyptians needed enlightenment: how can you do better than to stay where you are? Is that not just what people are saying today? They say, Are we going to leave them in the dark? Ah, you can never enlighten people if you stay where they are. The world-system is doomed, and if you are in it, the best service you can render to others there is to abandon it. You may talk about enlightening it, but the whole system is doomed. The deliverance of God’s people from Egypt really meant the destruction of Egypt, You can neither serve God nor those in the world while you are in the world. You say that is strong language, but it is the teaching of Scripture. “Let my son go, that he may serve me”. Exodus 4: 23. In order to serve God they must leave Egypt. Egypt is the world. You may say that Egypt was heathendom. But Egypt is the world of the flesh; it is Satan’s world. It makes but little difference what name you put upon the world, whether Egypt or Babylon, it is all built up by men energised by Satan, and if you are mixed up with it you cannot serve God. If you are in the world-system you are a slave to Satan. You can adorn Satan’s system: you make it attractive, and he will endeavour to hold you in his net. It is a terrible net, so constructed as to catch and hold people. Satan has been studying humanity for a long time, and has studied Christians, and I think he has studied them in such a way as to enthrall them and make them his slaves.
Now, if God would be served, He declares that He must have His people out of Egypt. I believe God’s thought was to bring Israel out so as to have them all to Himself. He would have a people of His own. He would make kings and priests of them, and bring them into His own land, where they would serve Jehovah: serve Him in love, serve Him in His own blessed sphere. But they never really served Him, and it is just because of that I have read the passages in Matthew.
Every Christian must be interested in having his attention called to Christ, because it is only in Him that we see every divine thought realised. God had burst the bands, and liberated His people: had borne them upon eagle’s wings and brought them to Himself. Do you know what that means? Borne on eagle’s wings to God. I fear many do not prize being with God. The children of Israel did not care very much [p. 161] about it: they were continually wanting to return to Egypt, which meant returning to bondage. These verses in Matthew 2 show that we get the true service of God in Christ. The whole history of the children of Israel is taken up in Christ. He went down into Egypt in order to take up the whole history of the children of Israel in His Person, as it is said, “Out of Egypt have I called my son”. Matthew 2: 15. The Lord Jesus went down into Egypt, but He would come out of it, in order to set before the universe what the service of God really is. You can never understand sonship until you see it in Christ. Becoming Man, He takes the place of Son, but the Lord did not begin His service until He was publicly acknowledged as Son. I think that is the divine order. God’s thought about the children of Israel was that they were to serve Him, but not until they were in liberty. Now when you come to Christ, He does not begin His service until He is publicly acknowledged as Son. In the end of Matthew 3 He comes up out of the water, and the Father declares, “This is my beloved Son”. Matthew 3: 17. Now God has reached His thought. He did not say Israel was His beloved son: He did not open the heavens on the children of Israel, not even upon the banks of the Red Sea. That was only a figure. If you want to get the true idea of sonship, you must see it in Christ. He comes up out of the water: He and the Father had been alone; I think they had been in privacy prior to that, and the Lord was perfectly delightful to the Father, even as secluded and out of sight in this world. But now the Father would proclaim Him publicly in the presence of all. He would open the heavens, and proclaim, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. Now you get service. There never really was service prior to Christ, properly, because there never was a Son before. Sonship began with Christ, and you never really get service, according to God, until [p. 162] Christ appears. I say, when Christ appears, and is proclaimed as Son, then I think you can look for service.
Satan had the earth and humanity, and he performed his acts of lawlessness: but Christ was to have these. In Matthew 11 you will recall, when the Lord was rejected, when refused by all here, He looks up to heaven, and says, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth”. Matthew 11: 25. Look at that picture, and contrast it with Genesis 11. There you have the earth and humanity under satanic power. Did God find any pleasure in what was going on there? Work was going on, unquestionably, great energy, but Satan was behind the energy. Do you know what the building of the tower of Babel was? I think it was what would be called in statesmanship a hostile demonstration. It was scarcely an overt act of war; it was more, as I said, a hostile demonstration. For instance, take Great Britain and Russia: their policies are known to be antagonistic one to the other. We will suppose that Russia sets up a military establishment at the frontier of India, what would be Great Britain’s interpretation of this? Great Britain would regard it as a hostile demonstration, and would do everything in her power to nullify its effect. Would not God act in that way? I think He did. He confounded their language, separated the nations, and scattered them upon the earth. The building of Babel was really hostile to God. The builders were setting up a city and a tower in defiance of God. They said, as it were, Let us make us a name without God. That is what it really meant. Now look at Christ! He looks up to heaven; He does not speak about making a name: He did not come to earth to make a name for Himself, He did not even come in His own name. Nobody had a better right: nobody could have established a name like Christ, but He did not claim a name. He was here in the Father’s name. He says, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth”. Matthew 11: 25. The Father owns heaven and earth, and He must be served. Heaven and earth are the sphere of His service. Now in Christ He has the Servant. He called Abraham out, and gave him Canaan, and in this way indicated His right to heaven and earth, but in that day He had not the Servant. When you come to the Gospel of Matthew you get the Servant. Who is the Servant? The Son — a free Man — One who can come down from heaven and go up to heaven. That is a free man. You do not allow your servant to go into the drawing-room when she pleases: she cannot go up to the top of the house and come down when she pleases. But suppose you have a son: he can go anywhere. The son belongs to the house, his place is in the house, he abides in the house. He is there by birthright, he is your son. The Son came down from heaven, and He can go up to heaven. He is a free Man. The same thing holds good in regard to Jerusalem above. She can go anywhere in the house: she is a free woman. She goes up, and comes down.
The Lord says, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth”. Matthew 11: 25. There is the sphere — it belongs to the Father. That is the sphere of service — an enormous sphere. Suppose that sphere is filled with what pollutes, or with thieves and robbers, what do you think the Servant is going to do? He must remove them; He must clear the scene. The Son will clear and purify the scene. The scene is heaven and earth, and to be the scene of divine service it must be a purified scene. The Lord Jesus Christ will make it perfectly suitable as the scene for the public display of all that God is. Do you think the world as it stands is suitable for the public display of God? It is polluted. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world; but what else? He [p. 164] baptises by the Holy Ghost — He brings in the good. That is the idea of service.
Christ says, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes”. Matthew 11: 25. There is the Father on high, the Son upon the earth, and the babes. The babes are to be His associates in this wonderful service. What will the Lord do? What would you expect Him to do? He will bring these babes into sonship, and so constitute them eligible for the service of God. That is what He has done. If you look further in the Gospel of Matthew you will find this illustrated. In chapter 17 the Jews say to Peter, “Doth not your master pay tribute?” Matthew 17: 24. Peter replies, in effect, Certainly, my Master is a good Jew. The Lord anticipated Peter, and when he came into the house, said to him, “What dost thou think, Simon? The kings of the earth, from whom do they receive custom or tribute from their own sons or from strangers?” Peter answers Him, “From strangers”. Jesus says to him, “Then are the sons free. But that we may not be an offence to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when thou hast opened its mouth thou wilt find a stater; take that, and give it to them for me and thee”. Matthew 17: 25 - 27.
There, then, were the Son and the sons. Peter represented the sons. They are free: they belong to the house. They are sons of the owner of the temple. The tribute-money was for the temple, but the Lord was the Son of God, and God owned the temple. Why pay tribute to the Father’s house? The sons are free. The Lord says to Peter, “Me and thee”. Peter was a son as well: the Lord associated him with Himself in sonship.
The Lord would bring us all into the good of sonship. It would be the Lord’s present thought to deliver us from everything that holds us. There are [p. 165] a great many things that hold people: things by which the devil holds people for his service, for establishing and building up his own system. Such are slaves. The Lord would use us in connection with the Father’s system, in connection with building up that which God has made known.
I feel I have only put out an initial idea as to the great subject I ventured to bring before you, but I hope what I have said may serve to awaken your interest in it. The passage I read from Hebrews connects the service of God directly with Christians. Our consciences are purged from dead works to worship (or serve) the living God. The allusion is to service carried on in the tabernacle. The tabernacle foreshadowed that with which service is properly connected — the blessed system revealed in Christ, in which God is known and approached.
May the Lord open our hearts to the understanding of it. It is wonderful to see what is in the heart of God for us. He says, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”. Exodus 4: 23.