“I WILL NOT GO FREE”

A. P. Devenish

Exodus 21: 1–6; Deuteronomy 15: 16, 17; Philippians 1: 1, 18–26; Matthew 25: 14–29

God said to Pharaoh through Moses, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”, showing what is in the mind and heart of God in relation to each of us, that we may be delivered put of the world’s system in view of serving God. “Let my son go” is a very lovely appeal to our hearts; “Let my son go, that he may serve me”. Then you get this remarkable bringing forward of the Hebrew bondman. Before the tabernacle is set up and the priestly service, you get this expression of the Hebrew bondman—“I love my master, my wife, and my children”. It says, “If the bondman shall say distinctly, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free”, showing that the whole system which the tabernacle represents is based on love, love for God, love for the assembly, and love for one another. Otherwise what is priestly becomes official; we have seen that. Underlying this whole tabernacle system is this reference—“I love my master, my wife, and my children”.

The Lord Jesus is in mind in this section in the wonderful way in which He gave testimony to His love, going even into death. Paul says to the Philippians, “and that the death of the cross”.

Who can fathom what that meant for Jesus, to go into the darkness of death? Jesus said, “This is your hour and the power of darkness” (Luke 22: 53) an awful thing to think about. The darkness is not just the absence of light, but is positive evil, positive evil! When Judas, about to betray the

Lord, went out, something was added to the darkness, the spirit of betrayal. In John the darkness spoken about is not merely the absence of light, it is Satan operating in view of bringing all his power against Christ and against those who loved Him.

Well, I think this is a lovely section because it brings out the love of Christ. Paul says that to the Corinthians, “The love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this—that one died for all, then all have died; and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised”, 2 Corinthians 5: 14, 15. It is a scripture that came home to me many, many times when for five-and-a-half years we sat alone—we were living to ourselves, not to Him who loved us and died for us. We should no longer live to ourselves, but to Him who died for us. So here in Exodus 21 we have not just a sense of obligation—that would be right of course, the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit (Romans 8: 4)—but this reference to the Hebrew bondman would be more than obligation, it would set us in relation to God’s testimony, it would be the Spirit of Christ, the spirit of bondmanship—when we would speak distinctly. Have you distinctly said, ‘ I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free’?

It says here that his master shall bring him before the judges. Think of the Lord coming, before the judges of Israel—Caiaphas and Annas. Think of the Lord being brought by His Master before the judges of Israel, and of what came into expression—He would not deviate in any way from the pathway of God’s will, but surrendered His life in wonderful love for God. What did they see? They saw the spirit of bondmanship. The judges of Israel saw that His Master brought Him before the judges of Israel. They brought their accusations against Him and yet in wonderful obedience, because He loved, He bore testimony that He would go all the way, even unto death, and that the death of the cross. I think it is wonderful to read the accounts in the gospels of the Lord’s sufferings and to see Him in those circumstances of suffering, when He was buffeted, when His face was spat upon, when they put the crown of thorns on His head and the soldiers went even beyond the Roman law in their cruelty. Think of man’s heart, the malice, the vindictiveness, the cruelty of men’s hearts that came into expression, and the submissive way He was led to the slaughter.

We were watching a sheep being shorn in Stawell; I have never seen one being shorn before—how docile the creature was! The Lord was led as a lamb to the slaughter and was as a sheep dumb before her shearers, and He opened not His mouth. Wonderful spirit of Christ!—it shines in those chapters where everything was concentrated against Him. When all the power of evil was against Him we see the Hebrew Bondman shining in His perfect obedience to the will of God.

I wish to refer to Deuteronomy because it would rather link with bondmanship as we may enter into it, as Paul sets it out to the Philippians. He writes to them not as an apostle but as a bondman, and he said to them, “ye have me in your hearts”. It is like this reference in Deuteronomy, ‘because he loveth thee and thy house, because he is well with thee’. Paul had a place in the affections of the Philippian saints. It is the wonderful truth of the mystery that Christ is manifested in His body here. Christ has a place in our affections. Practically, I think the mystery is seen in that we have a place in one another’s affections. Paul says, “ye have me in your hearts”, not exactly as an apostle but he presents himself as a bondman, a bondman of Jesus Christ, and he says, as we read, “For for me to live is Christ, and to die gain”, and then he says, “But I am pressed by both, having the desire for departure and being with Christ, for it is very much better”. You see, he would have gone out free if he went by his desires; “having the desire for departure and being with Christ, for it is very much better”.

That was the desire of his heart, to be with Christ. I suppose that is the desire of every real Christian, to be with Christ. He says, “it is very much better”. When my mother died, I remember a brother writing to us and saying, ‘ for you it is great sorrow, but for her, ecstasy’.

Well, you say—that is future; we can look forward to that, to being out of these conditions of sorrow, suffering, weakness, reproach, and to know what it is to be restful in His presence one day, to look into His face. As a beloved brother said, ‘the loveliest face in the universe’.

To look into His face, that is what Paul longed for. He had been “taken possession of by Christ Jesus”, Philippians 3: 12. Have you been taken possession of? I wonder if it is so with us all. Have we yielded to Him our hearts’ affection? Have you been taken possession of? He speaks in this epistle, about “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”, my Lord.

Mary says, “They have taken away my Lord”; then she says, ‘my Teacher’. That is the order in John 20. We recognise Him affectionately as Lord, “my Lord”. Have you done that, dear young brother and sister? Have we all done it affectionately—recognised Him as Lord? “They have taken away my Lord”, Mary says. And with what feeling she would say that. She missed Him so. But then when He reveals Himself she says, ‘my Teacher’, reflecting a longing to be taught in His presence. So He says, “Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. So you see she had something given to her to do, and she did it. The Lord had given her a message to convey to the brethren. Can you not picture her coming in among the brethren, and she would say, He said to me, “Go to my brethren”. Would she not convey something of her affection for Jesus as she related the message in her own words to the brethren? Well, maybe you have something for the brethren. Do you ever think about that? The Lord has given you something. What are you doing with it?

That is why we read in Matthew. What are we doing with it? Have we hidden it in the earth?

The bondman hid it in the earth. In Philippians Paul says that some “mind earthly things”, whose god is the belly and whose end is destruction. Solemn thing! He says, “I ... tell you even weeping”. How Paul felt it, that brethren allowed earthly things to overshadow and overcome them. His goal was the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. That was his goal.

He says, “We await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory”. That is what Paul’s goal was. What is your goal? The Lord may have to say, ‘What I gave you for the brethren you have hidden, you have not used it. You have not gained by trading. I gave My substance into the hands of My bondman’. Think of the substance of Christ, what He has put into our hands by the Spirit.

What are we going to do with it? Are we going to be bondmen who will enter into the joy of our Lord? Paul recognises that he was a slave. He says, “I bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus”, Galatians 6: 17.

What do you bear about in your body? You may say, I am not well; l suffer in my body. But do you bear about in any sense the brands of the Lord Jesus? That is the idea of a slave. You see, the branding of the slave involves ownership. You see a slave with a brand on him; that involves ownership. He belongs altogether to another. Paul belonged to Christ.

You belong to Christ, and, that being so, what have you done with what He has put into your heart? He left His substance to His bondman. All the wealth that He has left here in the Spirit is available to us; but it is in the hearts of the brethren, in the hearts of one another. You may have to say, ‘I am still living to myself’. I get up in the morning; what do I think about? My business, or my house, or my children? Well, we need to have these matters in our minds, but has something in any sense superseded that? Has Christ in any sense taken possession of your affections, taken possession of your heart, of your vessel, so that it becomes available in service? You can say, as Paul did, “being with Christ ... is very much better, but remaining in the flesh is more necessary for your sakes; and having confidence of this, I know that I shall remain and abide along with you all, for your progress and joy in faith; that your boasting may abound in Christ Jesus through me”.

A wonderful thing, you know, that he would have gone free, but it was well with him among the Philippians, as I have said. He said, “ye have me in your hearts” and I think that would mean all that Paul would represent, all that he unfolds. If we have him in our hearts it would mean that we have all that was given to him for the assembly in our hearts. And so he says, ‘I would love to go, but it is better for you if I remain’. That is like the bondman or the bondmaid in Deuteronomy. Paul is saying, ‘It is better for you if I remain’ and therefore, in a sense, you might say his ear was bored through with an awl as in devoted, unselfish service he commits himself to the progress of God’s work in the saints. Is that not a fine objective?

I wonder when your week is finished and it comes to Saturday, what you think. What has happened all the week? Has there been anything for Christ? When you have that time with the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ what will He say to you? I wonder what He will say to me. I think for some of us it will be a moment of deep inward regret that when we could have given our lives in devotion to Christ and His assembly we just lived to ourselves. Not that there will be any penalty. The Lord has borne the penalty of our sins, and our neglect. There is nothing like neglect to hurt the heart. The Lord has borne all that. There will be no sense of penalty. But what will it be? I think for a moment we would say, ‘I wish I had that time again to lay at His feet’. Well, why not take the opportunity?

You can all have it today, the bondmaids and the bondmen. To depart to be with Christ is very much better, but ‘to remain for your sakes’ means that Paul, in the spirit of bondmanship, would say, ‘I am only thinking of the progress of the work of God in the beloved saints’. Well, it is wonderful to see how Paul serves in the spirit of bondmanship, great apostle that he is, he who speaks about his intelligence in the mystery. No one’s intelligence in a sense could compare with his intelligence in the mystery—“That the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”, Ephesians 3: 17–19.

Think of the wonderful light of the truth that would be embraced as we embrace Paul in our affections. Not that he would draw men to himself; he says, “Be my imitators, even as I also am of Christ”. He would not draw persons to himself, save as he brought Christ into expression. I think when they fell on his neck and wept that they would see his face no more, that it was the expression of Jesus in Paul that was so attractive, Paul’s face radiant with the spirit of the glad tidings, radiant with his love for the assembly. And in a sense if Paul is in your heart it means that we would embrace all the unfolding of the truth through that elect vessel. And it would be a concern, as to what the Lord has given us, whether we are in the spirit of bondmen seeking to bring increase for the heart and pleasure of God. So Paul says to Timothy, a young man, rekindle the gift that is in you. Timothy was a timid man. I often wonder why he was not in the gaol in Philippi. I think perhaps Paul had to say to him; ‘Take your share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ’. Maybe you have avoided that experience. In the beginning of Acts 16 Timothy is introduced and when you come to the prisoners, Paul and Silas, where was Timotheus? Paul said in his second epistle to Timothy that “We have not been given a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion”. And he says, “Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”.

Well; for those of us who are younger, “Take thy share in suffering”. We naturally would avoid it if we could. We do not like the reproach, you know. The beautiful architecture of the world, the churches, there is no reproach in that, but the Lord speaks of “these great buildings”, that is, He would turn His own away from the literal buildings. God is not interested in that. He is interested in the Lord Jesus being in our hearts, in the hearts of the saints. So there is a reproach connected with the testimony. It is a day of small things. Paul says to Timothy, “Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner”, and he speaks about one who was not ashamed of his chain. Are you ashamed of Paul’s chain? He could not go very far, I suppose, he could not move very far with a chain about him; he would be regarded as a felon in prison. Men would regard him as a malefactor, a felon. He says to Timothy, Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner. Then he says of Onesiphorus that he was not ashamed of Paul’s chain, and he says, “He has often refreshed me”. Have you oft refreshed the brethren? You say we are in circumstances of smallness, just a few breaking bread in the light of the assembly, not presuming to be the assembly—but breaking bread in answer to the Lord’s appeal, “this is my body ... this do in remembrance of me”. Paul says, Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner. Can we expect better circumstances than he had?

One would appeal to each one of us not to be ashamed of the reproach of Christ. Peter says, “If ye are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed are ye; for the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you—on their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified”, 1 Peter 4: 14. One would like to appeal to each one of us, beloved brethren, to contemplate the spirit of bondmanship that shone perfectly in Jesus. He distinctly said, “I love my master”. Only once that I know of in the gospels, and that is in John, He says, “I love the Father ... Rise up, let us go hence”. “I love the Father”—His heart was towards the Father; every movement of His was in relation to the Father’s will. He says in the time of extreme pressure, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt”, Matthew 26: 39. It speaks about His sweat as great drops of blood; how He felt what He was about to enter! But in the spirit of the perfect Bondman He said distinctly, “I love my master”; But He said too, “I love ... my wife”; that is a reference to the assembly. Christ loved the assembly and delivered Himself up for it. He had the assembly in His heart. He saw it, you might say, in the disciples; He saw some moral features of the assembly in the disciples. He says, in relation to Peter’s confession of the Son of the living God, “Thou art Peter”, meaning that He saw assembly material that could be built in, involving stability, stamina to go through to the end. “He that has endured to the end”, it says, “he shall be saved”, Mark 13: 13.

Then He says, “I love ... my children”. I wonder whether you have really had a sense of the personal love of Jesus for you. Paul says, “the Son of God, who has loved me”, Galatians 2: 20. How that must have thrilled Paul’s heart! He says, Think of what I was—“a blasphemer, and persecutor, and an insolent, overbearing man, but mercy was shown me because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief”. He says, “Faithful is the word, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first”, 1 Timothy 1: 13, 15.

Never did Paul forget the personal love of Jesus, and there is nothing that can stir your heart more than that. There is nothing that can affect us more than a sense of the personal love and devotion of Jesus. He had His ear bored through because He loved me. Peter says He bore our sins in His body on the tree. There should be personal devotion to Jesus because of the way that He has gone on your account and on my account. He took my place in wondrous grace. In grace He took my place so that by faith I might have His. So you reverently contemplate His footsteps into the sufferings of Calvary, into death, the abandonment, the dreadful, awful experience through which He went when He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And what is the answer in Psalm 22? “Thou art holy, thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel”. Not in churches, not in these lovely architectural buildings, but in the hearts of those who love Him.

He would say to us again, distinctly—perhaps there is a message in this for you today—Do not live to yourself any more. Before the Lord graciously recovered us, we used to go through the week aimlessly, come to Lord’s day, and not know what to do. We would go wandering in the fields or, if we were in some other city, we would get in the car and drive around the houses of the saints that we knew. We were in the wilderness and we ended up the week, you know, impoverished. And if you are honest you would say the same, if that is your position—impoverished, when you could have been enriched; you could have used too what the Lord has given you, the substance that He has put into your hands and into your hearts so that you might bear fruit to God. May the Lord bless the word.

Address in Melbourne
6 March 1984