"THE SERVICE OF GOD"
“THE SERVICE OF GOD”
Philippians 2: 1-8; Exodus 21: 1-6; 1 Corinthians 15: 23-28
One has the desire, dear brethren, that this occasion might be one that the Lord may use to bring about in each heart, and in each of our lives, correspondence with that feature of the Holy City that is expressed in those words in the twenty-second chapter of Revelation — “His servants shall serve Him: And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads” — and that there might be, in the Lord’s goodness to us, that sown in our hearts which will make that blessed feature which will yet come out in display when the City appears, more true and more living with regard to every one of us. For it says that “His servants shall serve Him.” In that blessed day every other object of service will have vanished eternally. There will not be, in the scene that is depicted in the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters of Revelation, a rival to the service of our hearts eternally. We shall serve Him! We have all known in various degrees what it is to serve others. The very principle of human life under the influence of Satan is that self is served. And then it speaks of serving divers lusts and pleasures. Divers lusts and divers pleasures call for the service of human hearts, and the time past suffices to have done the will of the Gentiles with every one of us. The prophet Elijah said, “If the Lord be God, serve Him; and if Baal, serve him” (1 Kings 18: 21). But there is coming a moment when it is said, “His servants shall serve Him,” and that is eternally. That is never, never to be altered. The object of our service eternally, in holiness and purity and transparency, is to be God. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”
I desire that we might stand definitely committed to the service of God. In looking upon the faces of so many dear young men and women, one’s longing goes out that their lives might in a definite way be committed to the service of God.
And so one would like to speak of the One under whose influence alone we can serve God. The Apostle Paul and Timothy are spoken of in this way. “Paul and Timotheus, bondmen of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1: 1). They were two bondmen, two men who were bound as servants in the service of Jesus Christ. John joins them. He says, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his bondmen things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His bondmen John” (Revelation 1: 1). His bondman John. James says, “James, bondman of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (James 1: 1). And Jude likewise. They are seen as the bondmen of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
When the Queen of Sheba came up from the south to see the glory of Solomon, and hear his wisdom, she received such an impression of the majesty and greatness of the king, that in the overflow of her heart she said this: “Happy are these thy servants.” If you could have asked Paul, Timothy, John, James and Peter, they would have said “Amen” to that. They would have said that their blessedness consisted in that they were privileged to serve such a King, because they had been eye-witnesses of His majesty. They knew something of the greatness of the One Whom they served, and they lived to serve Him.
And so, dear brethren, one would like just to say a few words to direct our hearts to God’s Servant. God’s Servant! in order that, impressed by the blessed footsteps of that Servant we might come under His influence in holy affection, to be also the servants of God.
Before one touches that, I would like just to say this. I do not know anything more disastrous to God having His portion in service from our hearts than to think of God’s servants as a specially privileged class; for to limit in our minds and desires God’s servants to those who are specially gifted, is not the divine thought. The thought of God is that His servants shall serve Him, and that we are all to be His servants. Everyone who loves Christ is intended to come under the constraining influence of that love, so that he lives for the One Who died for him and rose again. The service I would speak of tonight is the service of God, coming out in ten thousand ways, I know, but available to every one of God’s people.
I would like just to follow the path of service of that One of Whom God says “Behold My servant, Mine elect Whom I have chosen, in Whom My soul delighted.” (Isaiah 42: 1). There had been other servants before Him. God said to Satan “Hast thou considered my servant, Job?” (Job 1: 8). Job was one of God’s servants; and Moses was a servant faithful in all the house of God; and of David, He says: “I have found David My servant.”
But God says of the Lord Jesus: “Behold My Servant!” He calls the attention of every heart that knows God, that fears God, to the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He says: “Behold My Servant!” That is the One to look upon, and from Whom to learn in our various measures how to serve God.
Now I wanted to say a little about the verses in the second chapter of Philippians. We have there, dear brethren, the commencement of the pathway of service of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the beginning of that service. What preceded it, who can speak about? Who, being in the form of God, thought it not something to be grasped after, something to put out the hand and reach up to, to be called equal with God. What human lips can speak of that? All that we can say is this, that what marks God is omnipotent supremacy. It says: “Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.” That is what God did. He said: “Let there be light,” and there was light. He gave the sea His decree that its waters should not pass His commandment. That is how God acts. He said “Let the dry land appear.” Who can say “What doest Thou?” What marks God is absolute supremacy. He lays down things finally as His commandment. He commanded the light. The Lord Jesus is said to have been in the form of God. All things were created by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. But there came a moment when, in the Scripture we have read, He took a bondman’s form. “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself a bondman’s (or a servant’s) form; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself.” (Philippians 2: 6-8). That is, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the blessed greatness of His own choice, chose to become God’s bondman, God’s servant, bound to the will of God — bound to it! Henceforth the blessed One Who had the right to command — the fiat of His will none could refuse — chose to become God’s bondman, in order to carry out the will of God.
And so He enters this world, “being found in fashion as a man.” And so we come in our thoughts to Him at Bethlehem. There appears at Bethlehem God’s bondman, One Who has come down to do God’s will, and to serve Him. And there appears a multitude of other servants. “There appeared a multitude of the heavenly host” — part of the company of those of whom it is said: “Ye ministers of His that do His will.” He makes His angels ministers or servants. He makes them ministers, and a vast company of ministers or servants appear to announce the wondrous fact that God’s blessed Servant has appeared in this world, with the object of bringing glory to God. He has come here so that there should be glory to God and peace on earth, and that the pleasure of God in men should be secured for ever. Those blessed ministers announce this fact. The beloved poet has said:
But who Thy path of service,
Thy steps removed from ill,
Thy patient love to serve us,
With human tongue can tell?
That pathway of service was begun at Bethlehem. Who can speak of it? We follow this blessed Servant, committed to the will of God, and the first words we hear from His lips are these — at twelve years of age, just when those at that age are beginning to indicate, as we know, the bent of their lives (I suppose up to twelve years children are marked by being more or less governed by the will of others, but at twelve years of age a child’s mind begins to manifest itself, the bent of its heart comes to light), it says of the Lord Jesus at twelve years, as Mary comes to Him and says “Why hast Thou dealt thus with us?” He says to them “Did ye not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2: 48-49). “Did ye not know?” The first recorded words of the Lord Jesus were these: “Did ye not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” ‘I am committed to His will. Even at twelve years I am committed to His will.’ There may be some of twelve years here, with tender hearts. Let that blessed word come before you. “Did ye not know,” says the Lord at twelve, “that as God’s bondman I must be about My Father’s business?”
And then the next time we see the Lord, we see Him coming up out of Jordan, beginning to be about thirty years old. When a man is thirty, it is apparent to all what he is after. The object of every man is manifest at thirty. What will he do? What is he here for? Being about thirty years old Jesus was baptised, and, coming up out of the water, we read that the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended as a dove, and abode upon Him. And God said “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I have found My delight” (Matthew 3: 17). It corresponds with the Old Testament Scripture ‘I have found David My servant. With My holy oil have I anointed Him.’ At that wonderful moment, God publicly anoints Jesus with His holy oil as His Servant. ‘I have found David My Servant. With My holy oil have I anointed Him.’ You see the Lord Jesus step out from that moment publicly to do His will, committed to a life of devoted service to the will of God.
We follow Him to Sychar’s well, weary with His journey, sitting thus on the well. What for? To serve God. I know He serves the poor, sinful woman who comes to Him; one who had gone down to the sink of corruption and drunk of its filth; one who had gone also to Jacob’s well and drunk out of the mercies of this life, and yet in whose heart there was a longing for something. I know He serves her, but He serves God. He tells this woman that the Father is seeking hearts that will overflow in worship to Him; that the desire of the Father is that He should receive worship,
and worship is the overflow of the heart; and He is there to gratify and serve God. And so he says to the disciples (who say, “Master, eat”), “I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.” And the will of Him that sent Him was that that woman’s heart should be so satisfied with the knowledge of God that she should be a worshipper.
So we follow Him on in that devoted pathway as a bondman — taking a bondman’s form. He could say to His own “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day.” (John 9: 4.) “I must work the works of Him that sent Me.” The whole history of the Gospels might be gathered up in that word — “working the works of Him that sent Me while it is day.”
Then, dear brethren, on the Mount of Transfiguration, we can see Him having done what the twenty-first chapter of Exodus indicates. He has served for six years. “Six,” in Scripture, represents what belongs to man. “Six days shalt thou work.” That is man’s period. The seventh day is God’s, but the six are man’s. The Lord Jesus had fulfilled perfectly His service as man to God. He was entitled to go out free. He was entitled to be liberated from the bondman’s position which He had taken. The word from heaven confirms it “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased,” indicating that His service had been of such a character as to entirely satisfy His Master. He was entitled to liberty. But Moses and Elias are there, and they are speaking of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. In Old Testament language, they are speaking of the moment when His ear should be bored, when, instead of going out free. He should suffer, and accept the place of service for ever; in other words, He should retain the bondman’s form instead of going out free.
Then we follow His blessed footsteps, still committed to the will of God, and at Gethsemane we see the intensity of His devotedness to God’s will. We see how committed He was as God’s Bondman, God’s Servant. He stands there and looks into the cup that is there. He looks into the contents of the cup, which is to be drunk. He shrinks from it in all the blessed perfection of His holy Person. Nevertheless, He says: “Not My will, but Thine, be done.” He became obedient; He Whose right it was, as in the form of God, to command, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2: 8).
He moves on from that scene to Calvary. “Thou hast brought me to the dust of death.” (Psalm 22: 15). He accepts death in obedience to God’s will. He said Himself, that no man taketh His life from Him: No man taketh it from Me, he says. I have — not exactly power, although He had that — but I have authority, to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father (John 10: 18.) He received a commandment, the most wonderful commandment that has ever been issued from the throne of God, that that blessed life He had here on earth should be laid down by God’s will. He said, “I have authority to lay it down, and to take it again.” He came up out of the grave by the commandment of God. He took His life as man again (not in flesh and blood, but still man), by the commandment of His Father.
On the cross He is still committed to the service of God. One sees Him serving the thief. How blessedly He served him at that moment! But He served God, too. He sees in that repentant man a plant for the paradise of God. He sees an addition to that blessed paradise which will minister to the heart of God eternally. He serves God in securing it. “This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise” — not the paradise of the thief, but the Paradise of God, the place where God’s pleasure is ministered to for ever. The Lord Jesus is still serving, in all the agony and suffering of the cross, committed to the will of God.
And so He comes up out of the grave by God’s commandment, retaining His place as Man, retaining, too, the bondman’s form.
He is carried up into heaven, still to serve God. As Hebrews says: “We have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.” (Hebrews 4: 14). He has gone there to serve God. “A Minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” (Hebrews 8: 2). Not into holy places made with hands, but into heaven itself, has this High Priest gone, to serve God, and in serving God He serves us. “There to appear in the presence of God for us.” One feels how little we consider His wondrous service there. “Who also intercedes for us,” says the Apostle Paul. He is there as representing us, to appear there for us, to intercede for us, to present, in the very presence of God the much incense to give efficacy to the prayers of all saints at the golden altar. He is there in service to God, and in service to us. Think of His service now! It says: “The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep.” (Hebrews 13: 20). He is still a Shepherd, though brought again from the dead. On earth He said: “I am the good Shepherd.” The God of peace brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep. He is in heaven as a Shepherd and Bishop of our souls; not now limited to a place on earth, as in Palestine, but in the presence of God. He is there exercising His shepherd service and His bishopric. One delights to think of Him as the Bishop. Men have their bishops, and archbishops, but there is a “bishop of our souls,” active in service, so that the flock of God may be ministered to. Those who take the place in some feeble way of shepherds and bishops may fail, and do fail, in properly caring for the flock, but there is one Shepherd and one Bishop, Whose service is unremitting, and I would appeal to any heart who is turning away from the flock of God — you will have to turn your back upon the service of the Shepherd and Bishop of your soul. Others may fail to care for you as they should, but He will not, and if you go away you go away with your back upon the unfailing service of the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls.
I just pass on to the last Scripture which I read. It says there that “He must reign, until He hath put all enemies under His feet.” (1 Corinthians 15: 25). Until everything is subdued. The Lord Jesus is coming shortly, and He is going to reign. He is going to set up publicly His kingdom, and going to cast out of His kingdom everything that offends, and all they that do iniquity, and He is going to rule, and rule, and rule, until there is not one thing that lifts itself up against God; until everything is subject to God’s will. And when that wondrous end is secured, when that which will not be subject is cast out of the kingdom, and everything that is left in the kingdom is subject to God’s blessed will — when that end is reached He delivers back, it says, the kingdom. He hands back that kingdom to Him Who is God and Father. Having secured the will of God everywhere, He delivers back the kingdom.
And then we have a word which one fails to take in the greatness and the wonder of. It says that the Son, when everything is subdued unto Him that put everything into subjection to Him, the Son Himself — not will become, but in the New Translation the rendering is that the Son Himself will be placed, in subjection to Him Who put all things in subjection to Him, that God may be all in all. That verse brings us to the very door of eternity. It takes us beyond the thousand years of the reign of Christ. It brings us to the door of eternity, where time ceases to be; where time has no place; and the entrance to that eternal scene is marked by this, that God’s will places the Son in subjection. He is placed in subjection, and He accepts that place. As the Scripture in Exodus says, “I love my master, I love my wife, I love my children, I will not go out free.” “And He shall serve Him for ever.” Think of that wondrous moment, when the Lord Jesus lifts brought everything into subjection to God, and He accepts for eternity the place of subjection! He accepts it! God places Him there, and He accepts the place of subjection to that will of God, in order that God may be all in all; in order that God’s place in the whole universe might never be disturbed again eternally. His committal to God’s will is such that the Son is placed in subjection. Wonderful it is to think of! Wonderful to think of the footsteps of God’s Servant. As our hearts lay hold of it in its wondrous character, we are stimulated in attachment to Christ, in accepting Him as our Master. The Apostle says “One is your Master, even Christ.” “One is your Master.” In accepting Him as our Master, we are stimulated to serve God in the same blessed spirit, so that we reach that scene of which it is said: “His servants shall serve Him,” and that will go on for eternity.
May the Lord help us, especially the young, to desire, in their appreciation of that blessed Servant of God, that their lives may be afresh dedicated to the service of God. One has enjoyed this, that, as the true David, the Lord would gather up for the House of God everything that is dedicated. David brings in to the House of God everything that is dedicated. Even what a man like Joab dedicated is gathered up! He preserves and values everything that is dedicated. He takes account of what is dedicated. One would desire that each life here, in a fresh and living way, may be dedicated to the service of God, under the gracious and blessed influence of God’s Servant.