In this sermon, the speaker discusses the difference between being a servant and being a son in relation to the spirit of hardship. He emphasizes that a servant is someone who simply does what they are told, regardless of their personal feelings or opinions. In contrast, a son has the dynamic of love within them, which enables them to willingly and joyfully do what pleases their father. The speaker also highlights that in Christ, the system of the law and its ordinances have been fulfilled, and righteousness is now fulfilled through him. The sermon encourages listeners to embrace the spirit of sonship and the power of the Holy Spirit to respond to God's requirements with love.

Isaiah's Prophecies, Chapter 61. Chapter 61 of the Prophecies of Isaiah. Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified, and that they shall build the old waste, they shall raise up the former desolations, they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall be your ploughmen and your vinedressers. Ye shall be named the priests of the Lord, men shall call you the ministers of our God. Ye shall eat the wealth of the nation, and in their glory shall ye make your first. Instead of your shame ye shall have double, instead of dishonour they shall have their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double, everlasting joy shall be upon them. For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery with iniquity, and I will give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All that see them shall acknowledge them, for they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with a garment, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth its buds, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord Jehovah will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations. For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace. We have been, in these days, following through from chapter 53 of these prophecies, in which chapter we saw the foundation of everything laid for a new prospect and a new day, laid in the cross and by the cross of the Lord Jesus. That great, comprehensive, all-inclusive presentation of the suffering servant of the Lord. Now it is too late and we are too far advanced to go back over the ground that we have covered. We have just moved to see the new prospect that the cross brought into view. The something of the wonderful features of resurrection, as in chapter 44. And we have gone on to the recovery of testimony in the people of God in virtue of the work of the cross. Now here this afternoon we come to a still further phase or aspect of this tremendously many-sided fruit of the cross of the Lord Jesus. It is not necessary for me to tell you that this 61st chapter of Isaiah, in the first three verses, so full, was taken up by our Lord Jesus himself. After his baptism, heavens were opened and the Spirit descended and came upon him. The great moment of his anointing as the servant who had just symbolically passed by the way of the cross, as represented by his baptism. Now anointed, he met the enemy in the wilderness and worshipped him completely on all points. Then, returning from the wilderness in the power of the Spirit, he came to Nazareth, where he was brought up. On the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and the scripture was handed to him. And he opened it at this point in Isaiah's prophecies and read these verses. And when he had read them, he handed the scripture back to the ruler of the synagogue and sat down, a sign that he had something to say. The reverse of what we do. If we've got something to say, we usually stand up. But in the synagogue, if they had something to say, they sat down and it says, The eyes of all that were assembled were fastened upon him, because he had sat down, had something to say. And he began to say, today is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Thus appropriating this part of Isaiah to himself. What we have been seeing all along is that there is a relationship to these prophecies, of these prophecies, to the Lord Jesus and to this dispensation. As well as a connection with the history of Israel. And this is what we come to this afternoon. But I want you to notice, as we begin, that this anointing, while first resting upon the Lord's servant, that is the title of Christ in Isaiah, Behold my servant. While this anointing rests upon him and of course comprehensively, fully and supremely relates to him, is upon him as the head. The movement immediately goes on into day. You notice that, don't you? Immediately after this is declared about the servant of the Lord, it goes on, And they shall build the old waste, and they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. They and ye, the people come into the good of this anointing. The people of God derive the values of this anointing. It is as though the anointing upon him as head just flowed down and embraced the whole of his membership, the members of Christ. The values are found, and as you notice, why I read that first fragment of the next chapter, For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace. We say this morning there is so much in these later chapters about Zion, that the good of the anointing is found in Zion. Zion inherits all these values. And Zion, as most of you will know, is the Old Testament figure of the Church, the New Testament Church. This morning we were speaking about Zion's life. Rise, shine, for thy light has come. The testimony recovers. Here we move into Zion's life and Zion's liberty. Notice that this is, first of all, a message to Zion, a message to the Church. All this has to have its fulfillment, its realization in the Lord's people. Israel at this time were in a state of bondage and death, in exile, in Babylon. The prophecies have to do with their deliverance, their liberation from that bondage and from that death. To bring the bringing of this people out into life and into liberty. Now I have said that Jesus took these scriptures to himself. This about the anointing of the Lord, being upon him. And you remember that the earthly Zion, the earthly Jerusalem, in other words, the Jewish people never did come into the good of this. They missed all these values. That Zion did not inherit all the values of his anointing. But the Church has inherited it all. This has become the inheritance of the spiritual Israel, the spiritual people of God. Judaism, Israel after the flesh, was the supreme antagonist of the anointing. By their weapon of legalism they flew him. It must be, it must be a people who answer to all this that is said about the anointing. Who come into all these further values of the second part of this chapter. That is, it must be a people who can appreciate the good tidings because they are meek. That was not true of Israel after the flesh. It must be a people of the broken heart. And that was not true of Israel after the flesh. It must be a people who are conscious that they are really captives. And that was not true of the Jews. They thought, they believed that of all people on the earth they were the freest people who knew least about bondage. One of the points of controversy with them and the Lord Jesus. It must be a people who felt that their state was one of imprisonment to enjoy the opening of the prison to them that are bound and so on. The values of the anointing can only come to people who realize in all these ways spiritually their need, their need of this servant of the Lord. Working under the anointing for their good, for their advantage. Well now, we follow the same course as we have followed in every connection. We are carried of course by this part of the prophecies and by this chapter in particular over to the New Testament counterpart. We have seen that there are parts of the New Testament which answer so distinctly and so clearly to these different phases and movements in the prophecies of Isaiah. And the New Testament counterpart of this 61st chapter is undoubtedly the letter to the Galatians. It will be necessary for us to read a few fragments from that letter if you will turn to it now. Letter to the Galatians chapter 3 verse 2, this only would I learn from you. Received ye the Spirit? You see we bring Isaiah 61 and here the anointing. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish having begun in the Spirit? Are ye now perfected in the flesh? Verse 5, He therefore that supplies to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you, doth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Verse 14, That upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Chapter 4 verse 6, Because your son God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father. Chapter 5 and verse 5, For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. Verse 16, I say walk by the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are contrary to one to the other, that ye may not do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Verse 25, If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. Chapter 6 and verse 8, For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. And he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life eternal. Now another brief series as you go back again to chapter 2. That, as you notice, all has to do with the Spirit. Which is of course another way of speaking of the anointing. Chapter 2 begins this line of the cross. Verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ. Yet I live and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me. Chapter 3, verse 1, O foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth crucified? Chapter 5, verse 24, They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passion and the lust thereof. Chapter 6, verse 14, Far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world. I am sorry to have troubled you with all those scriptures. But we must have a good solid sound foundation in the words of what we say. And you will see that it is perfectly clear in this brief letter so called to the Galatians. The two main lines are the cross and the Holy Spirit. It is that bridge passed over between Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 61. Now we all know that this letter to the Galatians contains Paul's tremendous battle. Yes, Paul was out for a fight when he set himself to write this letter. There is no more vehement product of the pen of Paul than we have in this letter. But what is the battle for? What is it all about? Now of course there are theological and doctrinal answers to that question. But I want to say here with a good deal to support it from this letter and from other parts of the New Testament that this battle of Paul's all related to the true, the essential, spiritual character of Christianity. Christianity, that is, the right Christianity is an essentially spiritual thing. That's what the battle is about for the spiritual nature of Christianity. It shows so clearly in every connection that the cross, the cross leads to a spiritual position. To a spiritual condition. Now the enemy, the great enemy who had very useful instruments in the Judaizers, the great enemy was fighting to bring Christianity onto another than a spiritual basis. To make of it something other than a spiritual thing. To resolve Christianity into a matter of rites and ceremonies and so forth. Rituals, formalism, earthly and temporal symbols, representations, figures, mysticism, which is not spirituality. Mysticism is called spirituality. Satan was fighting to make Christianity into something like that. And Paul saw that the issue was no less an issue than the real meaning of what Christianity is. Real nature of Christianity. What it is. And Paul was not giving it away because he had had a tremendous experience on this very matter. And so he set himself to fight this thing with all the strength that he had. To make it perfectly clear that Christianity is not an earthly system in any respect. It is a heavenly life. Christianity is essentially a life in the spirit. The cross is intended to produce that. And if it does not produce that, there is some reason for that in those concerns which means that the whole nature of Christianity has been changed. And the meaning of the cross has been subverted. So Paul lunges at this thing with all the force of the cross. And he brings in every weapon to which he can lay his hand. What are some of those weapons? Well, first of all, and it's a very, very powerful weapon that Paul uses, as you will notice in this letter to the Galatians, the weapon of his own history and his own experience. There are a few places in all his writings where he refers to himself more than he does in this letter. He brings his own history and his own experience right forward as one of his master strokes. And he was the man to do it, you know. Now then, look at Paul of Parthas. Look at his history. What he tells us about himself. Was there ever a man who had put this whole Jewish system more thoroughly to the test than he had? Why, up to the hilt, right up to the hilt, he had committed himself to the observances, performances of every part of the Jewish ritual. And he tells us that in this matter he was more and more zealous than many of his own age. And being more exceedingly zealous. Well, this man has gone all the way with this whole system of ceremonies and rites and types and figures and symbols and forms. He's gone all the way. Where did it land him? What did it do for him? Well, we have his own exclamation after having exhausted it most conscientiously, most sincerely, most thoroughly because what we have to say even about Paul of Parthas was that he's a man who did not believe in half measures. And he was a man who meant business. And we can go further and say that he was a man who was sincere in what he did because he tells us, I verily thought that I ought to do. I thought that I ought to do. Many things contrary to the name. It was a conscientious matter with this brilliant young Pharisee who had climbed so high on the ladder of Judaism. Well, where did it land him? He says, this is where it landed me. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Well, you couldn't get very much lower than that, could you? That's the last word in anything. He says, in effect, that's where it landed me. That's all it did for me. It's not going to do any better for anybody else, however devoted they may be to it. It had all failed in his own experience, in his own history. But then he came to that end, that ignominious end. O wretched man that I am, crying for deliverance. Who shall deliver me? Nothing, nothing and nobody of all this long history has proved a deliverer for me. Then he found the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus did for him all that this tremendous sum of things had entirely failed to do. He found the cross and he said, I have been crucified with Christ. I live, yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me. Do you notice the change from the word death to the word life? Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I live, yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me. He is a dead man made alive, come to life. He's a man who has got an altogether new beginning, a new history, a new experience, which has sprung out of the cross of the Lord Jesus. He found the Holy Spirit. Yes, he found the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit did for him all that this vast system of Judaism, which he had given himself so utterly, had failed entirely to do. The Holy Spirit did that. That is why in this letter he gives such a large place to the Holy Spirit. You notice that, don't you? That is why here the cross and the Holy Spirit are brought together as the ruling line of this whole testimony. The Holy Spirit on the ground of the cross has reversed the whole experience, changed the whole situation. But then, and here I could not take you through the letter with another ruling line. It's the real meaning of Christ. I'll tell you why I couldn't take you through, because the name Christ occurs 43 times in this little letter. You wouldn't want me to take you all through that at this time. Forty-three times in a little letter, which you can read in ten minutes, a quarter of an hour, the name Christ. That itself is significant, isn't it? It shouts at us. It tells us really what it is all about and what Paul is really seeking to show here is what the true meaning of Christ is. What is the true meaning of Christ? That in Christ all that system has been completely fulfilled. The vast system of the law and all its ordinances has been fulfilled in and by Christ. In the cross all righteousness has been fulfilled, as Jesus said. Suffer it to be so now. Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. That's the question of issue. And it was all fulfilled in the cross of the Lord Jesus. Christ crucified has fulfilled it all. The Old Testament is fulfilled in Christ. That's what we are saying about Isaiah. What is true of Isaiah is true of all the Old Testaments. Well, you wouldn't have me embark upon an attempt to show that how the Old Testament is fulfilled in Christ. But that is what Paul is saying here. I have been crucified with Christ. And so, and so, because of that I am united with him in that writing of fulfillment of all the requirements of God. And by the Spirit I come into the good of what Jesus is. And then there's another thing in this letter which again would require our going through. It is the meaning of grace. Grace. That's a great thing in the Letter to Figulations. Indeed, you may say that it is almost a governing thing. Grace. Grace. Grace here puts us onto an entirely new basis. All the rituals, all the forms, all the demands of the law only serve to accentuate the evil conscience. That is what Paul makes so clear. Know that this Letter to Figulations was written before the Letter to the Romans. I think probably Paul, when he had written the Letter to the Galatians, said, I must write something more about this. And sent himself to write the Letter to the Romans which is a very great enlargement upon what is here. But the point is that the whole thing related to this conscience. I had not known sin but for the Lord. The Lord had said, Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. That very saying of that thing only gave me a bad conscience. Upset my conscience. And this whole system was only keeping my conscience alive. It wasn't saving me from an evil conscience. But grace has done that. Grace has put me onto an altogether different and new basis. And here the evil conscience is. It wasn't saving me from an evil conscience. But grace has done that. Grace has put me onto an altogether different and new basis. And here the evil conscience is dealt with. Yes, grace deals with the conscience, doesn't it? Wonderful word over against the bad conscience is the grace of God. I'm not staying with these things. But then we come again to this, the fourth thing. The meaning of the Holy Spirit. The meaning of the Holy Spirit. What does Paul say pre-eminently about the Holy Spirit here? Well, because you're sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit of Sonship. And Paul sets that over against servanthood. And there you see he gets right to the heart of this whole matter. We recognize that it's easy to do the difference between a servant and a son. We've got the secret of everything. A servant is one who simply does what he's told. He has to do what he's told. He is told that he must or he must not. And it's for him as a servant to obey that call, whether he likes it or not, whether he agrees with it or not. Whatever it may be, whatever may be his own reactions, he just cannot help himself. He's a servant. He has got to obey. He may be inwardly in positive revolt against the whole thing, but what can he do? A servant of those days, of course, a servant of day could give up his job and resign and go. That's how it is in our time. If you don't like anything, well, that's what you do. But you couldn't do that in Paul's day. A bond slave had no power of choice, whatever. He couldn't say, oh, I'm resigning. I'm going to find another master. He just couldn't do it. He just couldn't do it. He was bought by his soul and spirit. And he, being revolt as he might be with all his being, he could do nothing about it. He could not do anything. He just was the bond slave of this law. Well, that's a servant. What's a son? Well, if he is a son, the true meaning of a son, he delights to do it. There is the dynamic in him of love, the dynamic of love. He delights to do those things which are well-pleasing unto his father. And that very dynamic of love is the power in him to do it. He has another spirit. It's the spirit of sonship working in him, making it possible for him to respond to every requirement. That is the meaning of the Holy Spirit, you see, an inward power. And that of love, which makes everything possible. You know as well as I do that if you've got a mighty love for something, there's nothing impossible. Oh, that we had more of this love that does not irk, does not wait to have things pointed out, have our attention drawn to them, but is all the time alert and anxious and keen, watching to see what can be done. We need that spirit, don't we? One of the things that has impressed us so much on these two visits to the Far East, it's just so impressive. One would refer to it here by way of illustration and example, not by way of condemnation or criticism, but if it affects you that way, all right, it'd be quite good. But there you are, you go there, we have been. For instance, you take that great meeting hall in Taipei with an internal capacity of 1,600 and then provision made all around for so many more up to over 3,000. It's a great thing with its 2,000 panes of glass. And you can guess that that wants a lot of looking after, cleaning and caring for all the electricity, all the amplifiers and so much connected with even one center like that. After every meeting you see an army of men and women prepared and getting down to it, sweeping and cleaning and mopping up and seeing to everything, adjusting so that everything is in its place and clean and wholesome for the next meeting. And you look at these people doing that job. And as I have done, I have said about some fellow who looked a bit scruffy as he was doing the job, who is that brother? He is Major General so-and-so. Another little man getting down to it, really, with his working togs on, getting down to a dirty job. Well, who is that young brother? He is the Managing Director of the biggest textile factory on this island. And so you go. General, Colonel, Captain. But they're all getting to it. And one of these high officers has made it his business to clean those 2,000 panes of glass once every week. And what do they do? Well, before they start on the work, they meet together and pray and sing. They just pray all together, all this army of workers, and then they have a good sing and then they get to work. And it's all done in a spirit of joy like this. I say that's not bond slavery, that's sonship. The true spirit of sonship. Oh, we need more of that. We need more of that. That is the meaning of the Holy Spirit. You're not surprised that these people are radiant, and you're not surprised that the question is answered in their case, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Indeed, it is revealed there. Well, suffer that way of illustrating. It's very wholesome to have seen these things really working. They can work. They can work. This, then, is the meaning of the Spirit. That is what Paul is saying here. The meaning of Christ, the meaning of the Spirit, the real spirit of sonship. Satan is against that. Oh, Satan hates that. He'll try to break that up. He will try to spoil that, there's no doubt about it. He's against that. Well, that was the battle that Paul was in. Not with just Judaizers, but with this antagonist from the great enemy against a testimony of that kind. The real fruit of the cross. If Satan is thwarted along one line, he doesn't give up. He tries another. He tries another. You know, Satan is a great master of strategy, and one of his favorite things is to push things to extremes. Now, he seeks to push this legalistic thing to an extreme. That's what he's done. Now he is thwarted along that line, Paul wins the battle, there's no doubt about it. What is the next line of attack on the path of the enemy? Very well, then. You won't have the law, then don't have any law. Don't have any law. Discard all law. You're no longer under law, you're under grace, you can do as you like. Just behave as you like. Just carry on as you like. You may, you must know no limitations, no restrictions. Any kind of restriction is law. Repudiate it. Go to the other extreme. License instead of law. I believe that if Paul were alive today, he would be just as vehement against this as he was against the other. For here is a work of Satan indeed. You see, if Satan cannot bind by the law and change the whole nature of things in that way, he will seek to dismiss all law and make us wholly lawless. But remember that this letter is the letter, if of the liberty of the spirit, it is the letter of the government of the spirit. We are only free when we are governed. We sing a hymn about that sometimes, don't we? Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free. A paradox, but how true, how true. You're not free when you're giving way to license. Taking liberty that far. Oh no, this letter to the Galatians and the letter to the Romans and the letter to the Hebrews are not documents of lawlessness. Even if they do set aside the whole of the Jewish system, they do not introduce a regime of lawlessness. But they most clearly bring in the life and government in the Holy Spirit. Remember, no man, no woman who is really governed by the Holy Spirit, who is living a life in the Spirit, will infringe any divine principle. Indeed, a life governed by the Holy Spirit will be more meticulously careful about spiritual principles. Yes, that's quite true. You see, the change, the change is not in the law. That's where a great mistake has been made. The change is not in the law at all. Christ crucified doesn't alter the law. Christ himself does not alter the law. The Holy Spirit does not alter the law. The change is not in the law, the change is in the man. The change is in the man. Grace does not say that you may now, now because you're not under law, murder and get away with it. You can steal now. Doesn't matter, you're not under law. You can commit adultery now, you're not under law. You can be covetous now, you're not under law. Grace doesn't say that, because you're horrified at the suggestion. But carry that, carry that right through to everything and anything of divine principles. And remember that the Lord Moses is only the embodiment of divine principles. See, now the Lord Jesus took up that and he said, Moses said, Moses said, thou shalt not murder. I say to you, that if you hate your brother, you've already murdered him. You're a murderer. If you hate him, without taking any step to kill him, you're already a murderer in your heart. It's the principle, you see, of the thing. Moses said, thou shalt not commit adultery. I say to you, you've only got to look like that. And you've done it, you're it, you're it. This is terribly certain. No, no, no. Christ, the Holy Spirit, the cross doesn't change the nature of the law, the principle of the law. It changes the man. It changes the man. That is how the law is lifted from us, because we become changed people. The Spirit who keeps the law has now entered into us. And by the Spirit, if we walk in the Spirit, we do not fulfill the lust of the flesh. See, it's the changed person, isn't it? So grace does not say, you're not under the law, therefore you do not keep the Sabbath. You need not observe the Sabbath. You have got to recognize, we've got to recognize, dear friends, that the Sabbath is the embodiment of a principle. It's not a day. It's not a day. It's a principle. It is the principle upon which God has constituted the creation that there must be a period of rest in every realm for something new, for something new. In all nature, there has to be a period of rest in order that there should be something new. In our bodies, there has to be a period of rest that there may be something new. In spiritual matters, too, in spiritual service, there has to be a rest, a period of rest, in which the Lord can speak and give us something new. It's a principle of the Sabbath. It's not a day. But even there, you see, even there, the Lord has very graciously made it possible for many to have a day, even a day, a week still, in which to let other things go and to keep it sacred for the Lord for spiritual renewal. Well, you see what I mean? It's the principle that matters, not the outward form. Nothing changes the principle. The principles of all divine laws are abiding. They are never abrogated, never set aside, never nullified. They still hold good, these principles. Jesus went behind the code and put his finger on the principle of every part of the code. And he said, you may not be governed now, ruled by an outward system of thou shalt and thou shalt not, but you're ruled by the Holy Spirit who will serve those things. Same Spirit. I say again that the Spirit is the Spirit of holiness. No one who lives in the Spirit, therefore, will do unholy things persistently, habitually. Be unholy. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love. No one who lives in the Spirit will have any other but a spirit of love, will observe the laws of love, will violate love. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, of truth. No one who lives in and by the Spirit will be untruthful in any sense. And untruthfulness covers a vast ground, doesn't it? Not only saying things that are not true, but oh how much there is that is not absolutely true and real and genuine and honest and transparent. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. The man or woman who lives in the Spirit will be a man or a woman of truth. A true one who is real. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom. Those who live in the Spirit will have a divine wisdom governing their lives. You see, it's life in the Spirit through the cross that is here in you. The crucified man, the crucified woman who walks and lives in the Spirit is the man or the woman or the assembly or the church to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed. We want to know the power of God, God with us, God for us. And it must be like this. Cross our ground, the Spirit our life, walking, living as sons of God.