ARE YOU WILLING TO BE A SERVANT?

(7th in a series)

"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." (Hebrews 2:9)

Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is now the seventh in this series of Revival messages. In the first message in this series (Revival Now), we looked at the method that God uses to revive saved people: Brokenness! We saw how very SIMPLE it is. In the next message, we saw the method that God uses to keep "Cups Running Over": The peace of God! And we saw how very simple it is to stay revived.

In the third and fourth messages in the series (Fellowship Road and On the Highway), we saw how fellowship with our brethren is possible when we stay in fellowship with the Lord and walk in the Spirit.

In the next message we looked at "Revival in the Home" and saw how very essential it is to live for the Lord Jesus Christ first in your home. Next we took a fresh look at "The Mote and the Beam", and saw that it is necessary to first judge ourselves before we can help anyone else.

Remember, that if the Lord Jesus is to bless you at all through these messages, then you must be willing to let him satisfy that deep hunger in your heart. You must be willing for God to begin with you first rather than the other person; and expect the LORD himself to meet your need NOW!

In the new testament it is very clear that the Lord Jesus expects us to take the low position of servants. This is not just an extra obligation, which we may or may not assume as we please. It is the very heart of that new relationship which the disciple is to take up toward God and with his brethren, if he is to know fellowship with Christ and any degree of holiness in his life.

When we understand the humbling and the self-emptying that is involved in really being a servant, it becomes evident that only those who are prepared to live completely under the shadow of Calvary, always beholding the humility and brokenness of the Lord Jesus for us, that we will be willing for that position.

In approaching this subject and its personal application in detail to our lives, there are some things which need to be said first, to prepare us to understand the low and humbling position which the Lord wants us to take with him.

There are two sorts of servants that are mentioned in the word of God. There are the hired-servants, who have wages paid to them and that have certain RIGHTS. And then there are the bond-servants, even slaves, who have NO rights, who receive no wages and who have no appeal. The Hebrews were forbidden ever to make bond-servants of their own people.

The servant of the Lord Jesus Christ is supposed to be a bond-servant, bought with a price! Our position is one where we have no rights and no appeal, where we are the absolute property of our Master, to be treated and disposed of just as HE wishes.

"For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Corinthians 6:20)

We shall see clearly what our position is to be when we understand that we are to be the bond-servants of someone who was HIMSELF willing to be a bond-servant. Nothing shows us better the amazing humility of the Lord Jesus, whose servants we are to be, than his example for us:

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 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 him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:" (Philippians 2:5-7)

We see Jesus, without rights, willing to be treated as the will of the Father and the malice of men might decree, if only he might thereby serve to bring men back to God.

There can be no better master than one who was himself a servant, and obedient, even unto death. Since our position in Christ is to be just such a servant, this shows us what it means to be ruled by the Lord Jesus.

Our obedience and servanthood to the Lord Jesus is measured by how we serve our brethren in Christ, and how we serve earthly masters. The Apostle Paul said:

"For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." (2 Corinthians 4:5)

The position we take toward the Lord Jesus is measured by the low position we take in our relationship with our fellows. An unwillingness to serve others in costly, humbling ways, is considered to be an unwillingness to serve the Lord, and we thereby have put ourselves out of fellowship with God many times. Let us all be willing to be servants!

"But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do." (Luke 17:7-10)

We see here five things that the Lord expects of his servants.

1st of all, he must be willing to have one thing on top of another put upon him, without any consideration being given him. On top of a hard day in the field, the servant in the Lord's example had to immediately prepare his master's meal, and on top of that he had to wait at table -- and all that before he had any food himself.

He just went and did it, expecting nothing else. Are you willing for this? Oh how quickly there are murmurings and bitterness in our hearts when that sort of thing is expected of us. But the moment we start murmuring, we are acting as if we had rights, and a bond-servant has none.

Secondly, in doing this he must be willing not to be thanked for it! That's right! How often we serve others, but oh what self-pity we have in our hearts and how bitterly we complain that they take it for granted, and do not thank us for it.

But a bond-servant must be willing for that. A hired servant is looking to get something for what he is doing; a bond-servant should not expect anything.

Thirdly, having done all this, he must not charge the other with being selfish. How many of you reading that passage in Luke couldn't help but feel that the master was being rather selfish and inconsiderate? But there is no such charge from the servant. He EXISTS to serve the interests of his master and the selfishness or otherwise of his master does not come into it with him.

But we? We can perhaps allow ourselves to be "put upon" by others, and are willing perhaps not to be thanked for what we do, but look how quick we are to charge the other in our minds, with selfishness. But that is not the place of a servant! He is to find in the selfishness of others only a further opportunity to identify himself afresh with his Lord to serve the more!

There is a fourth step still, to which we must go. Having done all that, there is no ground for pride or self-congratulation, but we must confess that we are unprofitable servants, that we are of no real use to God, or man, in and of ourselves.

We must confess again and again that "in me, (that is in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing," (Romans 7:18p) that, if we have done thus, it is no thanks to us, whose hearts are naturally proud and very stubborn, but only to the Lord Jesus, who dwells in us and who has made us willing, as it is written: Christ in you the hope of glory!

With the fifth and last step, the bottom drops out of "self" -- the admission that doing and bearing what we have in the way of meekness and humility, we have not done one stitch more than it was our duty to do!

God made man in the first place simply that he might serve God. Man's sin has consisted simply in his refusal to OBEY! The restoration can only be, then, a restoration to the position of an obedient servant. You haven't done anything especially meritorious when you consent to take that position, for you were created and REDEEMED by the blood of Christ, for that very purpose. Are you willing to be a servant?

This then, is the way of the cross. It is the way that God's lowly bond-servant, Jesus, first walked for us, and should we not walk also as he walked? Does it seem hard and forbidding, this humbling walk?

Be assured, the only way up to glory is downward humbling. This is the way to reach the throne of God's grace, through humility and obedience. You will then reach the place of real spiritual power, authority and abundant fruitfulness.

All those who walk this way are radiant, happy souls, overflowing with the life of their Lord. You need to find out that the saying, "he that humbleth himself shall be exalted", (Luke 14:11p) may be true for you, as for others.

At the cross of Christ, we find that whereas before -- humility was just an unwelcome intruder to be put up with only on occasions -- at the cross humility becomes the very spouse of our souls, married forever.

If darkness and unrest enters your soul, it is only because somewhere, on some point, you have been unwilling to walk in the paths of meekness and brokenness before God. The Lord is ever ready to welcome you back as you seek his unmerited favor, his grace, in real repentance.

Real repentance is through the Lord Jesus Christ. This abundant life of the Lord Jesus cannot be entered by merely resolving to be more humble in the future. There are attitudes and actions which have already taken place and are still being persisted in, (if only by our unwillingness to apologize for them,) that must first be repented of.

The Lord Jesus did not take upon him the form of a servant merely to give us an example, but that he might die for these very sins upon the cross, and open a fountain in his precious blood where all our sins can be washed away. That blood cannot be applied to the sins of our proud hearts until we have been broken in repentance as to what has already happened and as to what we are.

You must be willing to allow the light of God to go through every part of your heart and into every one of your relationships. This will mean that you shall have to see that the sins of pride, which God will show you, made it necessary for Jesus to come from heaven and die on the cross, that your sins might be redeemed, cleared, and TAKEN AWAY!

You not only need to ask the Lord to forgive you, but need to seek the forgiveness of others to whom you are indebted. Certainly this is humbling, but as we kneel to go through the door of the broken ones, we shall emerge again into the light and glory of the highway of holiness and godly humility in fellowship with our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Remember the gospel which you have heard, how that Christ died for our sins according to the word of God, and how that he was buried and arose from the dead the third day according to the scriptures, that we might become not only the sons of God, but true servants of him who died for us.

Always remember that Jesus is the Lord!

Have you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour? then receive him also as the Lord -- your Lord.

If you have NOT YET received the Lord Jesus Christ, NOW is the day of your salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Bow your head and admit you are a sinner, ask God to forgive you, and by faith, receive the Lord Jesus in your heart.

May your heart be ever open to God in true faith and real obedience. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.  --Richard 

(See Power Of The Blood Of The Lamb next. Thanks. :)