Christ the Servant

I'd like to bring before you tonight the Lord Jesus as the Servant, Servant in the past, the Servant in the present, and the Servant in the future. Let us turn first to Exodus chapter 21, where we read about the Hebrew Servant, who is a picture of the Lord Jesus. Exodus chapter 21, verse 2, If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself.

And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. Now in this Hebrew servant, we have surely brought before us our Lord Jesus Christ, the one in the past.

There is a verse in Hebrews 13, verse 8, that says, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever. So here we have the Christ of yesterday. We know that this Hebrew servant, after he served for six years, he was able to go out free.

But if he said, I don't want to go out free, then we read that in the fifth verse, I love my master, I love my wife, and my children. Notice now, there's three classes we may say there. I love my master, I love my wife, and I love my children.

Now we know that the Lord Jesus came into this world with one longing, burning desire, and that was to glorify his God and Father. Nothing was going to stop him. He came here to glorify God by laying down his life in order that God might deal with sin, and that God, who was insulted by man on account of his sin, might be glorified.

And cost what it might, the Lord Jesus was going to go to the cross. You know, one time when the Lord spoke, many of the disciples in the sixth chapter of John went back and walked no more with him. And then I like to think of that scene because it seems that the Lord turned to the twelve, looked upon those twelve apostles, and he said, will you also go away? As much as to say, if you do, that I'm going by myself.

I'm going to go onward. Nothing is going to stop me. Nothing is going to stop me.

I'm going to the cross. I'm going to glorify my Father. And so he says, I love my master.

Also, we find in the fifth chapter of Ephesians that Christ loved the church. Christ loved the church. I love my wife.

Oh, this, that church of his, that he came into the world, as we read, he gave himself. Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Well, that's a wonderful expression.

You can meditate on that word himself. It's so profitable and so helpful to see that he loved the church and he gave himself for it. Now, that's a wonderful thing to think of.

He gave himself. When you think of the power of God and the power of the Lord Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, to think that he could do nothing. We speak reverently, but give himself.

There was nothing more he could give and there was nothing else would do. He had to give himself. He loved the church and he gave himself for it.

Now, the third thing it says here, I love my children. Well, that would bring together a thought of you and me, each one of us. We can say, as the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2 and 20, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Those are the very words of the beloved Apostle Paul who wrote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God, the Son of God. He didn't say Christ loved me and gave himself for me. He said the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Now, each one of us tonight are included in that verse. You can say that and I can say that. The Son of God who loved me.

You can say that. The Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you. Do we really believe this? Is this a fact? Are these words true? The Lord Jesus not only loved his Father, but he also loved the Church.

And then it's narrowed down to you and to me. That personal love that Christ had. You know, there was just one of the 12 who seemed to understand that, and that was the Apostle John.

And you know, Peter told the Lord Jesus when he was here, he said, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Peter was ready, he said, to lay down his life for Christ. Willing to go to prison for him, he told the Lord he loved him.

And Peter had a fall. But John was the one who said, the Lord loves me. I'm the disciple whom Jesus loved.

And he didn't have a fall, did he? But you know, if we're occupied with our love for Christ, then we surely will stumble through this world. But if we're occupied with Christ's love for us, then the Lord will keep us happy and useful in his service. And so he loved his master, he loved his wife, and he loved his children.

And because of that, he was to serve forever. It tells us in the sixth verse that his master shall bring him unto the judges, he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awe, and he shall serve him forever. We see the blessed servant, the Lord Jesus, with his ear bore to that post, and he was there, one who lay down his life.

He didn't come into this world to be served. He came into this world to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So there we have the Lord Jesus in the past, the servant.

Now let's look in the 13th of John, and we'll see the Lord as the servant in the present. For the very one who died for us is now living for us. Very one who died for us on the cross of Calvary is now living for us.

You know, there was a young lady one day, she was in the Salvation Army, and she met an old Christian on the train. She didn't know he was a Christian, but she knew he was an old man. So she went to him and asked him this question, Are you saved? Well, he said to her, What do you mean? Am I saved? Do you mean am I saved in the past? Am I saved in the present? Or am I saved in the future? Well, the young girl didn't know what he was talking about.

She just knew about being saved. And so she said, I don't understand what you mean, sir. What do you mean? Well, he said, In the past he died for me, and he saved my precious soul.

And in the present, he's living for me. And day by day, he's bringing me through this world, and he's saved me from all kinds of trouble, all kinds of failure, all kinds of pitfalls. And thank God, he said, he's coming soon to take me out of this world.

He's going to save me from this world. Not only is he going to save me from the penalty of my sins, not only is he going to save me from the power of my sins, but he's going to save me from the presence of sin. And so in this 13th chapter, now we'll comment on the verses as we read them to save time.

The first verse, beautiful verse, isn't it? Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which are in the world. He loved them unto the end. And all of that verse we quoted in Hebrews 13, verse 8, brings before us the unchangeable person, the same yesterday and today and forever.

This verse brings before us the unchangeable love, the unchangeable love of Christ, never changes. And in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 17 and 18, we have brought before us the unchangeable home, forever with the Lord. How blessed the unchangeable person, the unchangeable love, and the unchangeable home in the glory.

Well, the Lord's love never ends. You know, your love and my love is tested and found wanting. But the Lord's love is never found wanting.

He loves with all his heart. And he loves to the very end. Oh, no matter how much we fail him, he never fails us.

His love is like his person. It's eternal. It never changes.

Well, in the second verse, "...and supper being ended, the devil hath now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and he was come from God, and went from God, went to God, he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded." What a servant this is.

When we think of who this person was, the creator, almighty, all-powerful, eternal, the very God himself in human form, and notice what he does. He rises from supper. He laid aside his garments.

He took a towel. He girded himself. He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet.

What a wonderful thing this is. What an array of things are mentioned here by the Spirit of God. For you and for me to lay hold of Jesus, the Son of God, down at the disciples' feet.

We can't imagine such a thing. Why, the men in this world would never do that. The leaders of this world, the politicians, the governors, and the politicians, the members of parliament, and of the country to the north, and the senate of this country.

You think of one of those men getting down and washing people's feet. They wouldn't be seen doing it. You couldn't pay them to do it.

They're too mighty and too high to do that. They're big men in the world. But here was the blessed Son of God, and he pours the water into a basin, and he had to get down.

He had to get down. In the 6th chapter of John, he said, I came down from heaven. But now in the 13th of John, he goes down to the disciples' feet.

Think of it. And we can just see the Lord as those men. He went from a disciple to a disciple.

He would take their feet in his hands and place them in the water and wash their feet, and then he would take them out of the water, and with a towel, he would gently and carefully dry each foot and put them down quietly on the ground again. What a picture this is of the Lord's present service for us. Now, just to go on further, notice it says in verse 6, Then cometh he to Simon Peter.

And Peter said unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Here's the man that everybody loves. Everybody loved this man, Simon Peter. You can't help loving him.

Surely he's the Jacob of the New Testament. What a heart Peter had for Christ. Criticized, people say, poor Peter.

Poor Peter. But Peter loved the Lord. And as he saw the Son of God, the one of whom he said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, down on his knees, girded with a towel and taking those feet of those disciples and washing them, he said, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Dost thou wash my feet? The man, the tradition tells us, was crucified upside down because he said, I'm not worthy to die where my Lord died.

Why, he was shocked. He was absolutely shocked that the Lord would do such a thing to him, to wash his feet. And he says, in the seventh verse, the Lord said, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.

Peter said unto him, thou shalt never wash my feet. Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.

Notice now, it doesn't say thou hast no part in me. But thou hast no part with me. That is to say, while Peter belonged to the Lord, and not forever, he was one of his sheep.

He was tried, you know, as wheat. The devil, Satan, desired to sift you as wheat. He was one of the wheat.

He belonged to the wheat. He was one of the Lord's people. But he said, if I don't wash your feet, then I can't go on with you.

I can't have, you can't have communion with me if your feet are soiled. And their feet did get soiled as they walked along with their sandals on, not like the shoes we have today. And so it was the custom that if somebody invites you to their house for supper, well, when you got to their house, having walked through the sand, they would, first of all, to make you comfortable, or after supper, they would wash your feet.

That was the custom. And so the Lord Jesus takes this place as a servant, and he stoops down to wash their feet. Now, we'll get the spiritual application in a moment, but notice what he says now.

Verse 9, Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith unto him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean everywhere. Now, understand in the New Translation, it says like this, He that is washed all over needeth not save to wash his feet.

That is to say, speaking of the bath, when the person got a bath, they washed from head to foot. Well, that would speak to us of the precious blood of Christ that washes us forever from our sins, once and for all. Never again does the blood have to be applied.

The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin, once and forever. We're cleansed. Our sins are taken away, and God will remember them no more forever.

But as we walk through this defiling world, we do get defiled. How can we help it? The newspapers defile us, the stories in the press, the conversations that men have as we walk along the streets, everything we look at, the theater, the pictures that you pass by, and you see the signs, the advertisements, everything is defiled. The magazines, the ads in the magazines, everything is defiled into the Christian in this poor, wicked world.

And so we have to have our feet washed. But not like some teach, get saved over again, get saved on Sunday and lost on Monday and saved on Tuesday. No, the born-again believer becomes a child of God, born into the family, just as a child naturally is born into the father's house and the mother's house.

Well, you know, you can't disown that child. You could send that child over to the farthest point in this world, but that child is still yours. You can send it no matter where you send it.

That child still belongs to you because it was born. It has your life in its very body, your blood. So that child is yours.

You can change its name, but it's still your child. And so a poor sinner that receives the Lord Jesus Christ has the very life of God in their soul. And that's why the Lord Jesus said, they shall never perish.

The Christian, the believer, the born-again Christian can never be lost again. How blessed, what a wonderful truth in this world where there's so much error taught about these things. Now, we do know why this error is taught, because there's so much profession why everybody believes.

I'm sure if we went down the houses in Detroit and asked people, they'd all say they're Christians. Everybody says, unless they're a Jew, they would say, well, of course I'm a Christian. What do you think, I am a heathen? I'm a Christian just as much as you are.

But a Christian is a person who has Christ. A person who is born again with a brand new life from God. But we can get defiled in this world.

And so the Lord said, he that is washed or bathed all over needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean everywhere. And so the believer in Christ meets his Lord in self-judgment. How nice it is to meet the Lord in self-judgment.

Now, self-judgment perhaps is misunderstood, too. People think just to mutter off a few words about my failures is all we need. But self-judgment is really judging ourselves, not just the things we do.

For instance, if we lose our temper and fly into what they call a rage, you know, people say, well, they make excuses. They say, well, if you knew my father, what a bad temper he's got, you'd understand why I lose my temper. Because I was born that way.

Well, what's that? Is that self-judgment? No, that's self-excuse. That's excusing ourselves and blaming somebody else. But self-judgment is not only owning what we did to be wrong, but judging the source, the very channel, the very source of all the trouble.

And that is in here, the human heart. That is where the trouble comes. That's where our trouble comes from.

The Lord Jesus, in the seventh mark, he opened the heart and said, from within, out of the heart of man. So each one of us, we have a fallen nature. And that fallen nature that we have should be kept in the place of death.

The Apostle Paul said in that verse, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Paul saw himself crucified with Christ. He saw that old man, that old nature, he saw it placed in the place of judgment. God, you see, has put, oh dear friends, if we can get hold of this, and let's get hold of us, how wonderful that is to see that this old nature, this old Adam, this old life, that God is through with it.

So the unsaved man, he may give a 10 million dollars. Mr., the Ford family may give out, may give 50 million dollars to the poor. But if they're not born again, that means nothing to God.

Absolutely nothing. You can't accept it because everything that's connected with man and nature is marked with sin. And we can't expect God to accept sin so that we have to have a new life, God's own life.

And that's what the Christian is. He's a new man and he lives before God in Christ, accepted in the beloved. The old man is gone forever.

But this old life gets us into trouble, doesn't it? This old nature gets us into trouble. And we constantly have to cry to God to help us to keep that old Adam life in the place of death. And so here the Lord lives for us in the glory.

As we're down in this defiled world, there's a man in the glory. How wonderful that is. Not only did the Holy Spirit come down to earth to indwell us and to unite us to Christ in glory.

Think of it. God is here on earth, God the Spirit. But in Christianity, there's a man in heaven.

There's a real man in heaven and that man lives for us. He's the head of the church and we're the members of his body. He lives for us.

The very one that died for us now is our servant in heaven. He lives for us up there. He cleanses.

He restores it. Now, when a Christian gets away from the Lord, you know, a real Christian, they're never happy. No matter who the Christian is, a Christian who gets away from the Lord.

Now, I'm talking about born-again Christian. I'm not talking about these people who say, yes, I'm a Christian, but they're not saved at all. I'm talking about a real born-again believer in the Lord Jesus.

If one of those kind of people say they're happy when they're away from the Lord, they're telling a lie. Absolutely impossible for a real Christian to be happy away from the Lord. We need to pray that prayer.

Lord, when I get away, if I get away, don't let me be happy. I remember meeting a Christian in a store. He had got away far from the Lord.

And I said, hello, John. And he nodded his head to me. And I said, are you happy? You know, he got the point.

And his conscience or something touched him because he said, I've never been happier in my life before. Well, as he left me, I thought there's one of two things. Either he's a liar or he's not saved at all.

Either he's telling me a deliberate lie or he's never been saved at all. Because a Christian away from the Lord can never really be happy again in this world. Oh, dear Christian, if you know the Lord Jesus, if you've tasted the Lord as gracious, you've lost your taste for this world.

And so there's nobody more miserable than a backsliding Christian. A man in the world without Christ at least has his pleasures of sin for a season. He can have what he calls a good time.

And the happy Christian can rejoice in the Lord. But the Christian who is backsliding is not happy with the Lord and he's not happy in the world. So he's just plain miserable.

And the Spirit of God works to bring us to that place of self-judgment. And the blessed Lord up on high, living for us, would bring us into that place of exercise and self-judgment. Oh, are you a Christian tonight? Are you a born-again believer in Christ? Are you going on with this world, its pleasures, its amusements, and all the sins of this world, mixing up with unsaved people? And you say, Sir, I'm not happy.

Well, how can you be happy? How can you be happy? The Lord Jesus in his prayer in John 17 twice said about his people, They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. You see, that's what the Lord said. Now, we're all willing to say, I'm sure even unsaved people would say, that Christ was not of this world.

He didn't belong to this world. They know that. The unsaved know that.

Well, do they know that you and I are not of the world? That's what Jesus said. The Lord said they're not of the world. Just as I'm not of the world, exactly the same.

How nice it is then as Christians to come to that place of self-judgment, to have the Lord wash our feet from the defilement of this poor world. You know, somebody has said we can't stop the birds flying over our heads, but we can stop the birds from making nests in our hair. That's a good expression, is that we can stop the birds from making nests in our hair.

And so here we have the Lord Jesus as the servant of this present time. The one who died for us is risen and now lives for us as a man in the glory. Oh, how blessed that is.

As a man, he was in this world. He knows what sorest trials mean, for he has felt the same. The sinless, holy, spotless, eternal Son of God, tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.

That one is the one who lives for us in the glory. Now, finally, in the third case, in the twelfth chapter of Luke, in the twelfth chapter of Luke, we'll read verse 32 first. The Lord is speaking to his own here in Luke 12, 32.

Notice how he addresses them. Fear not, little flock. Fear not, little flock.

Oh, how comparatively few there are in this world compared to the world's population, that belong to Christ. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have and give alms.

Provide yourselves bags which wax not old. A treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

What a wonderful verse that is. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Well, if our treasure is getting on in the world, why, our heart will be there too.

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. These are the words of Christ. Oh, how he knew exactly what to say at the moment.

How his word was with power. Then he says in the 35th verse, Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning. And ye yourselves, like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.

Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. Here's the Lord as the servant of the future.

The servant of the past, he died for us. The servant of the present, he lives for us. And here, the servant of the future, he's going to serve us.

I like to think of this in this way. If we were to go to Washington, we'll say, to the president's, to the White House, to have dinner with the president, you know he wouldn't serve us. You know that his wife wouldn't bring the meat out to the table, and go in and cut the pie, and put the ice cream on top.

You know that that wouldn't be a fitting for the president's wife, or the president either, or for the Queen of England. If we went to visit her in Buckingham Palace, I'm positive, she wouldn't set the table and say after to the children, well why don't you dry the dishes for me? That wouldn't be her place. She's too big for that.

And the president of this country, and the prime minister of Canada, they're too important for those kind of things. But the Lord of glory, the Son of God says, I will make you to sit down. You will sit down, and I'll come forth and serve you.

You see, he's the servant. He's made himself a servant forever. And so the blessed Lord is going to serve us.

Oh, are we serving him down here? And notice what he says here. In verse 37, verse 36, Like unto man that wait for their Lord. Verse 37, when he cometh shall find watching.

And then over the page in verse 43, Blessed is that servant whom is Lord, when he cometh shall find so doing. So we have waiting, and watching, and doing. Isn't that nice? What a wonderful thing that is.

Not only to be waiting for the Lord, but watching for the Lord. In the meantime, serving the Lord, waiting for the Lord, doing for the Lord. Oh, dear Christians, how few there are that really serve the Lord.

Are you serving the Lord? Are you serving the Lord? In the systems where many of us came, there were a certain group of men that were what they called the Lord's servants. You know who I mean. The clergy.

They were what we call the servants. We were only the laity. We were not fit to preach.

We couldn't stand up and preach. Why, as one said to a dear old servant of the Lord, have you been to college? When he finished preaching and used very bad grammar, he said, have you been to college? And he said, no, but thank God I've been to Calvary. I've been to Calvary.

Oh, how better to go to Calvary than to go to college. How better to be God's man who's been to Calvary and seen the Son of God suffer, and bleed, and die, and have your heart warmed and won for Christ. And so he said, doing.

Are we serving the Lord? But no such a thing among those gathered to the Lord's name as a certain class of men. No such a thing. We're all the Lord's servants.

Every one of us. Brothers and sisters, young and old are called to serve the Lord. And he's worthy.

And I understand the word serve also means worship. And you know, worship comes before service. Worship is enjoying the Lord's presence.

The illustration is being given in connection with the Niagara Falls, the water pouring down, showing the love and the grace of God pouring down to us from the heavens. And then that mist from the falls going up again. Speaking of worship, coming down the love of God, and then the worship of our hearts going back again up to him in the glory.

And so this is what we have here. Not only waiting for the Lord, but watching for the Lord. I'm sure you've all heard the story.

We've enjoyed it so much about the people. These women were waiting for their husband someplace on the coast of England. They were coming back in their fishing boats.

And they were down waiting for their husbands on the shore. But one of them, one of the wives remained in the house. And when her husband came into the house, she said to him, My dear, I've been waiting for you.

Yes, he said. But some of the other women were not only waiting. They were watching for their husbands.

They were waiting and watching. Oh, beloved, are you and I not only waiting for Christ? But are we watching for Christ? And in the meantime, are we doing? He is the servant. He has indeed given his life for us.

And as the risen Christ, he still lives above to serve us day by day. The Lord has served you today. And the Lord has served me today.

He's been so gracious to us and so kind to us. And he showered his blessings on us. And you know, the danger is in Canada and the United States, for we who are Christian, I talk about the Lord's people, to take these blessings as a matter of course, to say like the unsaved, the careless.

Well, this is a day of prosperity, a day of good luck in this country, they call it. Oh, do we talk like that? No, we should not. It's the hand of a gracious God that reaches down to feed us, and to clothe us, and to bless us.

And when we see our children growing up healthy and strong, do we say, well, I'm not like the other people. You know, they've had a lot of bad luck in their life and so on. That's what the world says.

But the Christian doesn't talk like that. We give the Lord the glory. The one who lives for us on high, who takes care of us, and takes care of our children, how good to be able to say that everything comes from the hand of God.

He opens his hand, and he liberally feeds us, and provides for us, and he lives for us, beloved. And then, as I mentioned a moment ago, that very one is coming for us. Isn't that blessed? Isn't that a wonderful thing? In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 16, I think it is, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and so on.

While the Lord could easily send Gabriel, I'm sure that Gabriel and Michael would be honored to come into the air and meet the Lord's people, and usher them into the Lord's presence. We were brought through that door into our Father's house, and there in the Father's house above, the Savior waiting for us to receive us. I'm sure those angels would be glad to do that.

But the Lord says, no, I must go myself. I'm going to meet them not in the heavens. I'm going to meet them in the air.

You see, the meeting place is in the air, beloved. I like to think of it this way. The meeting place is not in the world.

No, we're not of the world. We don't belong to the world. And the Lord's not going to come down to the world to receive us.

He's going to meet us in the air, away from this defiled world. He's going to meet us in the air. He himself is going to lead us into the Father's house.

So tonight we've had before us the person of Christ, the servant of the past, the servant of the present, and the servant of the future, Jesus Christ. The same yesterday, and today, and forever.