HOW WE SERVE GOD, THE LORD JESUS, AND ONE ANOTHER

J. Spinks

Exodus 21: 1–6; Romans 12: 1–3; Galatians 5: 13, 14; 6: 1, 2; Revelation 22: 1–5

I would like to say a word, dear brethren, as to how we serve God, and the Lord Jesus, and one another. It is a wonderful system into which we have been brought. It consists of persons who have been affected by the love of God; their desires and outlook have been changed, and every one has an appreciation of Christ. Finally, we shall all be conformed to His image, that is the great end in view. How wonderful, that we shall actually bear the image of the heavenly one! What God has in mind at the present time is moral conformity, and I think if we are to be rightly in the assembly we must come as those who have relinquished all ambition, all self-seeking. We come in as those who seek to serve as motivated by the love of God. That is the great spring and motive for service. It was so with the Lord Jesus and that is why I read in Exodus 21, a beautiful type of Him as the One who came to serve.

In coming into manhood He had certain rights, including the kingship of Israel, but He relinquished those rights. To use typical language, He laid aside His garments to serve. How wonderful it is to think of the Lord of glory “taking a bondman’s form, taking his place in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death”, Philippians 2: 7, 8. What food for the soul! We need to feed on Christ. If we are going to be here in God’s service we need to feed on Christ. At a critical juncture in the history of Elijah, God supplied him with food, and it says he, “went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights”, 1 Kings 19: 8. That was food given to him for a period of time, forty days, and in our case it is a period from week to week, we feed on Christ. What a privilege it is to gather together with those who love our Lord Jesus, to partake of the Lord’s supper and feed on that blessed Man, feed on His holy perfections. What food it is for the soul, it gives strength, gives endurance, gives a motive for being here as affected by the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So it says here, “six years shall he serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing”.

Think of the Lord Jesus coming in as a Man; think of that precious service. From the time that He was acclaimed by heaven at His baptism up to the mount of transfiguration, he served in principle for six years. He accomplished that which He set out to do, establishing the glory of what God looked for in man. He could have gone out free, for nothing, as having glorified God on the earth. Love would go further, it is excess, dear brethren, it is what love delights to do. To express the love of God He took a bondman’s form. He laid aside His garments in order to serve, and that service led Him right through to death, and that the death of the cross.

He served humanity; He said prophetically, “man acquired me as bondman from my youth”, Zechariah 13: 5. He has served you and me, dear brethren. Every one of us here in this room tonight is a testimony to the efficacy of the precious service of the Lord Jesus.

In Exodus 28, Aaron was clothed with certain garments which are referred to as garments for glory and ornament. Included in these garments were the breastplate and the shoulder pieces, with precious stones set in them, and they were worn by Aaron as he went into the sanctuary.

It bears on the present position of the Lord Jesus. He has been invested with glory; God has raised Him from the dead and given Him glory. He has gone in with these garments of glory and ornament and He has the saints in His heart. How wonderful to see the Lord as invested with glory! That is what came into the first preaching. Peter, standing up with the

eleven, and preaching in tremendous power, says, “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2: 36. He was given the highest place in the universe; as we sang in our hymn, the highest place in heaven. Thank God we are in a circle of persons who are in accord with heaven’s acclamation of Christ. What a thing it is to sing with joy in our hearts as to the One whom the heavens must receive, the One whom God has invested with glory. Soon He is going to come out in those same garments and every one will have to bow the knee, and accord Him the place that God has given Him. He has not yet asserted His rights publicly; that awaits a future day, “we see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour”, Hebrews 2: 8, 9. That is the view that the saints have by faith, but meanwhile, He is serving His own in wonderful love.

When we come to the service of the priest in Leviticus 16, on the great day of atonement, he did not have the garments of glory and ornament. When Aaron went in with the blood of the sin-offering to sprinkle it on and before the mercy-seat, he was clothed in holy linen vestments. When the Lord Jesus took up the great matter of sin, He did so by virtue of what He was personally and morally. How precious to think of it! He did not take it up, speaking carefully and reverently, in His official capacity when He took up the resolving of the sin question. From one point of view, the Lord laid aside the garments of glory and ornament, but no one could divest Him of these holy linen garments. Men sought to do that. They sought to divest the Lord of the dignity that belonged to Him, but they could not. The greater the opposition, the more His moral glory shone. It was what He was in Himself, what He was personally. He went into the sanctuary with His own blood and effected the great matter of redemption. What a Saviour He is! What a Man for our affections! That blessed Man whom the heavens must receive; He is the Man who has effected everything for the glory of God.

How we need to be affected by the moral glory of Christ, and as thus affected, take on His features.

That is why I read in Romans 12. In the first part of the epistle. Paul has gone over these great matters relating to the outshining of God, how the Lord Jesus has met the question of sin.

Here he says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. He is beseeching them by the compassions of God; it is not now a question of demands of the law, but of the way God has come out in grace; so that we are ready to put our bodies on the altar.

What does that mean? It means that we make a committal from which we never go back.

When the body is placed on the altar, in principle, it can never be recalled. Who would wish to recall it? It is a very sad matter when persons go back on their committal to the Lord Jesus, a very sad thing. You remember how Jonathan made certain committals to David. There was no doubt about the genuineness of his love for David, but there came a time when they parted company; in the type Jonathan was not prepared for the reproach of the Christ. At that time they wept with one another until David exceeded. Think of the feelings of Christ! I trust there is no one here who is thinking of turning back. I trust there is no one here who would recall their body from the altar, to use typical language.

In Romans 5, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Everything really begins from that; all the grievous exercises that come into Romans 6 and 7 are entered into because we are affected by the love of God. We come through to something in our own souls and we present our bodies as acceptable to God. Think of that! We who had been bondmen to sin, governed by the whims of our own lawless nature, going this way and that way according to the lusts of the flesh, becoming acceptable to God. What a fine thing that is, to be acceptable and serviceable to God. What does it

mean to be serviceable? It means we hold ourselves for the will of another. We no longer live to ourselves but to Him who died for us and has been raised. What a fine thing it is that the Lord has such at His behest at the present time; men and women, boys and girls who are serviceable to the Master. It means not only that they have relinquished their own will, but they are imbued by the Spirit of Christ, so that they have the feelings and affections that are proper to those who serve God.

The principle of service is a very wide thought; if we go to the Old Testament we find there is priestly service and levitical service and military service. I do not want to go into these things in detail, but it is very interesting for the young people to take up these Old Testament scriptures, and see what moral lessons there are to be learned in them. The priests had many things to do; the service of God was committed to them. They had to keep the fire burning on the altar all night, so that everything was kept in readiness for the pleasure and service of God. The levites had to carry all the things pertaining to the tabernacle through the wilderness and set it up at every encampment, very arduous work. Then there is military service, that comes into Numbers. That involves that we are committed to the local position. It means that we value the ark, and value the system that God has placed in relation to it. Christ has a place in our affections and the saints have a place in our affections, and we are going to stand by that. Paul says to Timothy, “Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”, 2 Timothy 2: 3. The main thing about the soldier is that he does not entangle himself with the affairs of life, “that he may please him who has enlisted him as a soldier”. Is our main object in life to please the Lord? Let us search ourselves dear brethren; I feel searched myself as I speak. A good soldier of Jesus Christ has only one object, and that is to please Him who has enlisted him as a soldier.

Well, these Old Testament scriptures are written for our learning, so that believers should become instructed and intelligent in the truth. There is not only affection involved, which is a prime thing obviously, but that we develop in intelligence. Then it goes on to say, “And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. That means that your mind is no longer governed by your own lusts and desires, but it is governed by the will of God, which we prove to be “good and acceptable and perfect”. The Lord would seek to lay claim to our affections, “My son, give me thy heart”, Proverbs 23: 26. If He has the heart, He has the whole man, that is the great secret and strength of service. When a person is converted, we speak about them giving their heart to the Lord Jesus. Well, that committal has to be maintained; we place ourselves at the disposal of the will of God, and thus come into the testimony of the Lord Jesus. Paul says, in addressing Timothy, “Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but suffer evil along with the glad tidings”, 2 Timothy 1: 8. It is a suffering time, dear brethren; are we prepared for it? It is a great thing to realise that despite the onslaught of the enemy, and all the exigencies and vicissitudes of the testimony, the assembly is being formed. It says in Isaiah, “This people have I formed for myself—they shall show forth my praise” (Isaiah 43: 21). How is He doing it? He is doing it through all these grievous exercises through which the saints are passing, some things very difficult, very hard to understand. Let us not shrink from the suffering involved, but see the great end that God has in view. Let us see that we are committed to something that is going right through, not only to the millennial day, when it will be displayed in all its glory and splendour, but right through to the eternal day, where all will be maintained for the pleasure and glory of God.

I just want to refer briefly to Galatians, because what is involved here is that we learn to serve one another. That is what love does, love delights to serve. When the love of God is shed broad in our hearts, they

become enlarged, and we begin to take on features of Christ. Serving is not an onerous thing when love is there; it says, “by love serve one another”. What a fine thing that is. These Galatians were biting and devouring one another. It is a sad thing when saints of God are engaged in this. When matters arise, instead of building up one another and serving one 91

another in love, they bite and devour one another. Well, when that happens Paul says, “see that ye are not consumed one of another” (Galatians 5: 15). Let us see, dear brethren, that we are on the line of love, taking as our pattern the true Hebrew bondman, affected by the love that went all the way even unto death. It says here, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”. How simple Christianity is; the love of God, the love of Christ, the love of the saints, it is a wonderful system of love. I trust you dear young ones value the place into which grace has brought you, a system that is dominated by love.

Then it goes on to say, “Brethren, if even a man be taken in some fault, ye who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted”.

What a fine example of how love operates; to be able to get alongside a brother and bring in help, bring in healing. Maybe something has come in between brother and brother, or sister and sister, perhaps something has come in that is needing adjustment, how love would serve in this way. How we need to learn to do this! The Samaritan in Luke 10 had in his possession something that met the condition of the man on the way to Jericho. What resource do we have, dear brethren? Can we bring in something that answers to the oil and the wine; can we bring in healing, can we bring in restoration? There are many things in our localities that test what resources we have. What a man of resource Paul was; he could say, “put this to my account”, Philemon 18. I feel greatly tested by this, but love is the answer to so many things.

Indeed, I would go further than that, I would say that love is the answer to everything, it says in 1 Corinthians 13: 8, “Love never fails”. Here it says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfil the law of the Christ”. How wonderful that is, “the law of the Christ”! It is the law that governs the Christian position; set out perfectly by the One who served even unto death; and now serves His own in priestly grace and succour. It is the law that governs our dealings with one another. In saying this, I am not seeking to weaken the truth, and if the principles of the truth are abrogated or set aside, we must act accordingly.

The truth must be maintained. Well, I take the word to myself, I think we would all acknowledge that we are pretty weak and feeble, but the Lord will help us as we are committed to this line. We all need help and we can be helpers one of another. One of the beautiful features that comes out as you follow through Romans 12 is, “in spirit fervent; serving the Lord” (Romans 12: 11). What a brother that would be to have in your locality—one “in spirit fervent; serving the Lord”.

We see in Revelation a very beautiful picture of the millennial day, and it is very refreshing and blessed to read it. It speaks of a river of water of life, and of the tree of life. These were things that were seen in the beginning of Genesis, and here we see them in all their glory, in a scene where everything is of God. Every trace of evil has been removed and the scene is one filled with joy, filled with fruitfulness, filled with blessing. I believe we touch it as we come together. What particularly drew me to this passage was this precious thought, “and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face; and his name is on their foreheads”. This is not service in a scene of contrariety, this is priestly service in an area of love where everything is according to God. No doubt it will be our eternal portion to serve in the liberty and dignity of sonship, but there will be priestly service in this millennial setting. Then think of the saints in this respect, “his name is on their foreheads”, each one having an impress of the image of God. Earlier in this book there is a reference to persons

who will have the mark of the beast on their foreheads. The day is coming when that prophecy will be fulfilled; persons will not be able to buy or sell without having the mark of the beast on their foreheads. But think of a company of saints with the impress of the image of God, who are marked by the characteristics of that blessed Man who is so delightful to God, and are occupied in His service.

These are wonderful things, dear brethren, and while they may especially bear on the service of God on Lord’s day, I believe they extend into all our gatherings. We can touch something of the blessedness of being able to serve God as those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, who have been given the Spirit of God’s Son in our hearts, whereby we can cry, Abba, Father. Think of these holy feelings that rise up in the hearts of the saints, who are enabled by the Spirit to give expression to them feelingly and intelligently. In the day to come, of course, when we have our bodies of glory, there will be nothing to hinder.

There will be full expression of everything that God has done; everything He has worked out in the saints will be given expression to. Let us see, dear brethren, in committing ourselves to the testimony of our Lord, that we enter in a fuller way into these things that are available to us now in the power of the Spirit. May the Lord help us and bless us for His name’s sake.

Address at Kirkcaldy
12 November 1994