MY SERVANT
P. Martin
Isaiah 42: 1–4; 2 Timothy 2: 19–26; Mark 11: 1–11
I desire help, dear brethren, to speak a word as to the Servant. Isaiah loves to speak of Christ on the throne at the beginning of the book, and as the Lamb led to the slaughter in chapter 53, so also he delights to speak of Him as the Servant. In fact, it is Jehovah who draws attention to Him. He says, “Behold my servant”. What an object for our attention, dear brethren, “my servant”. In the previous chapter, he prophesies as to Israel as the servant, but you get the impression that Isaiah hastens on to chapter 42. Much will enter into Israel’s history even yet in the accomplishment of God’s ways, but everything waited for this Servant; “Behold” He says “my servant”. There could be none other that He would speak to us of but Christ alone.
He would have our view, as He will later have Israel’s view, undistracted, when they gaze upon Him and see the One who has effected everything for God. How glorious He is, “my servant”.
The gospels bring out what He was to God, not only in His service but what He was personally. I desire, beloved, to leave some impression of the glory of what He was to God.
He is spoken of in this way, even before He moves in His public service “Behold my servant”. What delight the Father had in those secret years in which His God was everything to our Lord Jesus. His Father was ever the enjoyment of His affections. He says even at the age of twelve, “did ye not know ...?”. There are young persons here at the age of twelve and older; just contemplate for a moment the perfection of “my servant”, who said, “did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?”, Luke 2: 49. What underlies all service is the enjoyment of communion. The enjoyment of divine affections underlay the Lord’s
service. One might say reverently, that what preceded His service was the enjoyment of the relationship and of the communion that He had with His Father. The gospels bring it out. In Matthew 5 He is the Teacher; in Luke 4 He is the Preacher, in John 4 He is the Evangelist, and in Mark. He shows how things should be done. “Behold my servant”. There had never been one like Him. I suppose Moses came very close, but there had never been one quite like Him. Everything that God looked for in man was there, nothing was missing, one might say reverently. Everything that was delightful to God was present there in this blessed Man. You can understand the Father opening the heavens upon Him; it is as if He was saying “Behold my servant”. He says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”, Matthew 3: 17. What a witness. Well they might wonder at it, as they did, but there was no wonderment with the Father. The enjoyment of all that He was was treasured in the Father’s affections, “in whom I have found my delight”. Glorious, blessed Man!
In chapter 40 of this book, He is the One who had meted out the heavens with His span. How glorious! It says, “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heavens with his span, and grasped the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in scales?”, Isaiah 40: 12. Who had done it? The One who had done it was found here as “my servant”, not in outward majesty. Mr. Darby says,
‘Nor yet in triumph passing,
But human infancy!’ (Hymn 188);
One great enough to weigh the mountains in a balance, to mete out the heavens with His span, and yet He should come into manhood’s form, taking a bondman’s form. Not only manhood’s form, but He took a bondman’s form. One might wonder at it, that in becoming Man, He became a Bondman. When Jehovah gave the law in Exodus 21, immediately man was measured, but what was seen was the Hebrew bondman.
The only One who could please the blessed God in everything was the Hebrew bondman. He said, “I love”. That lay behind His service, “I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go free”, Exodus 21: 5. In that action of committal, he became a slave, he had his ear bored through with an awl. None less than the Lord of glory, working out God’s greatest thoughts; He became a slave. He said, “I will not go free”; He was purchased, “If thou buy a Hebrew bondman”. What a Man! What majesty, what glory was there in humility. It could not have been any other way if God’s thoughts were to be carried through in one blessed Man. It was necessary that it was in One who was here in humility, in lowliness, and in a bondman’s form, and yet One great enough to carry through everything for God.
So it says, “in whom my soul delighteth!” Think of the very inwards of the Father delighting in such a blessed Person, who was so great, yet He committed Himself to the will of God to come in as a Bondman. He says, “I will put my Spirit upon him”. It is wonderful that He moved in such dependence on the blessed Holy Spirit. So we sang,
‘Clothe us with that humility, we pray,
That honours Thee and shows what Thou canst do’ (Hymn 401)
That is for us, in any movement that we may make. But as a blessed Man, Jesus waited until the Spirit was placed upon Him, before moving out in His public service. What service it was! They “wondered at the words of grace which were coming out of his mouth”, Luke 4: 22. They had never heard anything like it before. Who was there? It was “my servant”.
Speaking, I suppose to hundreds as He entered into Capernaum and took the roll of the book, He would have spoken to many. But in John 4 He spoke to one person. Just as valuable to Him, to traverse that journey, to speak to one as the Evangelist, to enter into her circumstances; to understand them as He did better than she did, and to occupy her with His circumstances, that she might come to know what it was that the Father was seeking, and the joy that was in the Father’s heart as having worshippers.
What a Servant. When the disciples’ mother asked for a place of prominence in the kingdom, He said it “is not mine to give, but to those for whom it is prepared of my Father”. That was the Lord of glory speaking, but He was here as a Servant. He said, “whosoever will be great among you, shall be your servant”. Is it not in that section that He says, “the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many”, Matthew 20: 23–28. Think of Him coming in not to be served, but to serve. That was the character of His life, dear brethren. He came to serve, and nothing hindered Him in it. He enjoyed the relationship that He had with the Father, and what He was occupied with in His service did not intrude upon that relationship, but He served as in that relationship, in the enjoyment of the communion that was ever His. “The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve”. What a lowly place! He says, “the rulers of the nations exercise lordship ... It shall not be thus amongst you”, Matthew 20: 25. He was here not as One who assumed a position that was great, but He was here as the Servant.
So Isaiah says, “he shall bring forth judgment to the nations”. Think of the One who is going to carry everything through for God in perfect righteousness, “he shall bring forth judgment to the nations”—not only to Israel, but the extent of His service went outside Israel, to that woman in John 4, and many others, outside the bounds of Israel. He served them in His grace, and brought judgment to bear upon the very situation in which they were, but He will do it in a wider way in a day yet to come. Then it says, “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street”. There was nothing excitable in Jesus. The oblation was even, perfect in every way; the evenness of the oblation is to occupy us. It was perfect, and even, and that comes out in the Servant. There was nothing there that caused Him
in any sense to cry out. Whether He was alone with that woman, or was preaching to many, or was teaching His own, whatever the circumstances, He was the Same. Indeed that is His name, “thou art the Same, and thy years shall not fail”, Hebrews 1: 12. Oh beloved, how perfect! You can understand Jehovah’s pleasure as you think of the even perfection of Jesus, that humanity which was, through and through, delightful to the Father. “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench”. He nurtured everything that was of value to God. How wonderful He was, and is, dear brethren, because one does not just want to leave an impression of Him historically, but to leave an impression of Him now, because He remains the Same, and in His gracious service He is the Same. He values all that is potentially for God, and nurtures it. Where would any of us be if He had not? Some of us could say, Where would we be today if He had not nurtured and cared for the bruised reed, and held it as potential for God. How wonderful His service! And it continues in the divine grace and power which belongs to Him.
Then we read, “he shall bring forth judgment according to truth”. That is what He did in John 8. He was not influenced by the circumstances. We become influenced by circumstances, but He brings forth “judgment according to truth”. He does it still, and He will have it—“Behold, thou wilt have truth in the inward parts”, Psalm 51: 6. He will have judgment according to truth. The service now of the Spirit, and the priesthood of Christ, is to ensure that judgment is maintained according to truth, not what man naturally would do. The gospels are full of His perfection. Young people, read them in the light of where He is, but read them. Read of the perfection of the blessed Man who could say to the Pharisees, “The baptism of John, was it of heaven or of men? Neither do I tell you”, Luke 20: 4, 8. He was bringing forth judgment according to truth, meeting
not only the question, but meeting the questioner, as He does. You go into His presence; He does it even today. He meets not only the question but the questioner. He says, ‘I will ask you a question’. Has He asked you any questions, dear young person? Have you ever been asked a question by the Lord Jesus as you have been in His presence. Prayer is a real thing. Faith in prayer would help us, that we might go into the divine presence and be there as conscious of being there. Do not rest until you are conscious of being in the divine presence.
Now I want to speak of service that is continuing. The Lord would have His service maintained. You will remember in Numbers that when the Levites were taken up initially, the age for service was thirty years old, but when you come to chapter 8 Jehovah lowers the age (Numbers 8: 24). I think He found such delight in what speaks to Him of Christ that He said
‘I will lower the age to twenty-five’, that more may come in to the service, that there may be youthful energy. We are in a day, dear brethren, and I would appeal to my younger brethren, when many who have served the saints are no longer able, by physical restriction. The Lord intends that His service should continue.
So Paul is writing to Timothy. Timothy has served with Paul; he says that to the Philippians,
“he has served with me in the work of the glad tidings”, Philippians 2: 22. So Paul writes this second epistle to Timothy, and he says that “the firm foundation of God stands”. The foundation is not broken, the foundation of God stands. We could never desire to be here serviceable to the Master if the foundation of God had broken down, but it stands. And then,
“The Lord knows those that are his” that is the seal, and the other side is, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. The foundation of God stands. There is what is given to man in responsibility; that is gone, and it will never be raised up again. That has happened in every dispensation; what God has committed to man to carry
forward in responsibility has broken down, and publicly it is so in this dispensation. It will never publicly be restored. Paul is not telling Timothy that it will be, but he says that the foundation is not broken. The firm foundation of God—it is firm, and it stands. He says to Timothy in effect ‘You lay hold of it’. Paul says it has this seal, “The Lord knows those that are his”. That is something we cannot interfere with, we have to leave that. You say, ‘Well, I would like to know them all’. It would be good if we could know them all, it would be good if we could meet with them all, but we cannot, because of the other side of the seal, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”.
So Timothy is to be separate from vessels to dishonour, that he might be pleasing to the Master. The believer is to purify himself that he might be serviceable. It is more than what is positional, it is what is moral, something that is wrought out in the soul that purifies the believer from all that is around that may profess the name of Christ, but that dishonours Him.
How much there is that is coming into Christendom at large. We feel it keenly, that that which professes to hold the name of Christ should be discussing things, which Paul says should not even be named among you, and making way for their operation in that which professes His name. How sorrowful! Oh, but you say, that is nothing to do with us. But it is.
Then as purifying oneself from it, the sanctifying effect is to work in the soul of the believer, so that he feels these matters in some measure as God would feel them, and carries the shame of it in relation to that which professes the Lord’s name. So that it says the vessel has to purify 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”.
I would like to raise the question with myself, and perhaps with my dear young brethren, as to whether there is the desire to be here as sanctified. You say, I
thought you were going to say whether there is the desire to be serviceable. Well, the Lord will see to that. Your responsibility and mine is to desire to be here sanctified, and as sanctified the Lord may take you up as serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work. There are no specialists in divine things. If one might speak reverently of the Lord, in His service He was not a specialist. He was able to, and in His service He did, take up the work of the Gershonite and the work of the Merarite. They are to be carried on, and they go on together in the same persons. They are to be handled rightly in the dignity that belongs in the house of God and in the power of the anointing. So Paul says, “youthful lusts flee, and pursue righteousness”. There are many things that would appeal to youthful lusts in the present day. I do not want to go into that. But, young people, fix your eyes on the perfect Servant, and “youthful lusts flee”. There are things that the believer has to run from. They do not only mark young people, some of us carry them even as we are older, but we have to flee them, and as fleeing them, be occupied with the One in whom perfection is resident.
So he says, “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. Pursue it with them. The Lord has not left us alone; there are those with whom we are able to walk, and the servant, if he becomes serviceable, is able to value what the Lord has, and serves not because it belongs to him but because it belongs to God. That work is His.
If any service is undertaken in any way, secretly or publicly, the servant is never greater than those he serves. He is here as a bondman or as a slave, as the Lord Jesus was, and he serves in the light of that and he is serving a people that are so great. Moses at one time spoke against the people of God, and that is something that the Lord would help us with, that we might be preserved from speaking against the people of God. If there is anything that needs to be carried, carry it in His presence, and speak to Him about it, and find that His people become precious. He may give a needed word that may quicken the affections of His people, that may stimulate what they are according to their true calling. He did this with the apostle Paul, and He can do it, and does do it, at the present time in order that the saints might stand in the light of their true calling.
So Paul says to Timothy, “foolish ... questionings avoid”. There are many foolish questions.
They come up in the great house. You find persons getting involved in things that are nothing to do with the saints on the heavenly line, questions that are beneath the dignity of our calling. Paul says, ‘you just avoid them and go on’. He says, “a bondman of the Lord ought not to contend, but be gentle towards all; apt to teach; forbearing; in meekness setting right those who oppose”. Why does the bondman of the Lord behave like that? “If God perhaps may sometime give them repentance”. That is one thing that the true servant would be conscious of, that whatever he does, he is dependent on what God would do, that “God perhaps may sometime give them repentance”. These words have often been dwelt upon, and the brethren know well the meaning of them. It is not always that God will grant repentance—if God perhaps may sometime give them repentance; that is not always in our time but He may “sometime give them repentance to acknowledgment of the truth”.
Now in Mark, the colt is tied at the crossway. It is interesting that in Matthew, the ass is tied and the colt is with it. That is a word for those of us who are parents. We cannot expect the colt to be tied if the ass has not been tied. If we have not been held in devotion to Christ and to His will, we cannot expect the colts to be. I believe, and I feel it very much for myself as a natural father, that parents are responsible to give some impression to the young people of what committal to Christ is. I say that in passing; that is Matthew’s side. In this chapter, Mark brings out the Lord’s service in conditions of pressure. One thing in being serviceable to
the Master, and I would say this carefully, is that the servant has to be prepared for a broken heart. The Lord says prophetically, “I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain” (Isaiah 49: 4), “Reproach hath broken my heart”, Psalm 69: 20. Dear brother and sister—sisters serve, we are all taken up for service—this is not, as we used to say as boys, this is not only the first eleven, it is all of us, we are all taken up for service. We are called to the path of service. It is only what is right for the believer, but be prepared for a broken heart. Paul knew it. He says, “all who are in Asia ... have turned away from me” (2
Timothy 1: 15), and “At my first defence no man stood with me ... But the Lord stood with me, and gave me power, that through me the proclamation might be fully made, and all those of the nations should hear”, 2 Timothy 4: 16, 17. You think of that one man standing alone.
The Lord Jesus stood alone, there in the palace of the high priest. No one stood with Him; in fact one stood with the opposers, but the Lord Jesus stood alone. Now, I ask myself, and might I ask you dear brother or sister, Have you the heart for Christ that is prepared to stand in the midst of opposition?
Now here, the cold is tied at the crossway. Why is it tied there? You might say, ‘I suppose it was to stop it running away’. Young people, just be thankful if someone has tied the colt, for what your parents may have done in devotion and in committal, like Hannah, in that character, making a vow that her son might be here for Jehovah, given to Jehovah for the rest of his life. Thank God for the prayers of mothers and fathers who have done that. So the colt has been tied. In the family reading in the morning, something of the strengthening of the rope has gone on. When you felt you wanted to get away and do your own thing, morning by morning in the family reading, the rope was just strengthened a little. So the colt was tied at the crossway. Some of us can thank God for such service.
It was tied there, not only to stop it running away,
but it was there because the Lord had need of it. And, dear young person, brother and sister, the Lord has need of you in His service today. He was going up to Jerusalem, the testimony was moving forward, and the Lord had need of the colt. You may say, ‘I am not very significant’. Yes, but you could perform that little service. I remember Mr. Lyon saying,
‘Take a basket of cakes to the old sister down the road’. That becomes part of levitical service. And if you have been faithful in little things, the Lord may take you up for that which is greater. “The Lord has need of it”. He is moving forward today. We should desire increasingly to get some sense of the movements of the Lord Jesus in the present moment.
Where is He moving? He needs persons like you and me, and young persons, to devote themselves to Him, to be available, perhaps not for anything great. Mr. Darby said, If you think you can do something for Him, He will never use you. But if you keep near to Him in lowly humility, He will do something and He will use you in the doing of it. What wondrous grace! Keep near to Him. Be conscious of being available to Him, “prepared for every good work”. Putting the hassocks round at the meeting room; that is where young persons often start in their service to the saints, helping to put the chairs straight, doing it in love, because the Lord has need of you. It is not only the meeting of your need, or the meeting of mine, but it is the meeting of His need. He has need of you. I would leave that with you, dear young person. It may be that someone here may pick it up and take it away, that the Lord has need of you, whatever that may be for.
He needs your company. And as having your company, He would delight to impart some of His own thoughts to you, and give you some of the secrets that are in His heart; He would put them into yours as He did with that woman in John 4. He took the secrets of His own heart and put them in hers in order that she might be here superior to the whole system that was around her. The Lord would do that. What a service she
rendered. She went out of the city, and said “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done—is not he the Christ?”, John 4: 29. May that blessed Man so fill our hearts that we may be here “sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work”. May it be so for His name’s sake.
Address at Grangemouth
8 November 2003