The Servant of God

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"Your words have been harsh against Me," Says the Lord, "Yet you say, 'What have we spoken against You?' You have said, 'It is useless to serve God; What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, And that we have walked as mourners Before the Lord of hosts?

The book of Malachi is written to the Jews who were slack in their service to God in many ways. They left their service to idols, but they were by no means truly serving God. Their attitudes towards their service were negligent of who it was they were actually supposed to be serving! It seems to me that if God was not busy in serving them they would not be focused on serving God. They had a “what has God done for us lately” kind of attitude. It seems that they believed that God in some way owed them something because they were children of Abraham, because they went through religious rituals that had no meaning to them. In fact God owed them nothing.

We need to begin by asking ourselves some questions on how we view our service to God. Do we have the same attitude as the Israelites of old, thinking that God owes us because we are members of the church and assemble with the saints on Tuesdays and Sundays? Are we serving God just because of what we may get out of it? Is attending our assemblies all that our service to God entails? Do we have the proper attitude in our service, or do we look at our service as wearisome and unprofitable? These are the questions that we need to examine ourselves with and answer.

Every Christian should be a full-time servant of God. We see in the epistles of the New Testament that Paul, James, Jude, and Peter all referred to themselves as servants of the Lord.

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In , Paul states:

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God

Paul doesn’t call himself just a servant, but a bondservant . The Greek word Paul used in this verse for bondservant is {doulos}, which means a bondman; a man of servile condition, one who gives himself up wholly to another’s will; & to be devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interests; literally “a slave.”

Is this how we view ourselves in our relationship with God? Do we devote ourselves to Him instead of to ourselves, even when the service we need to do is not in our own best interests?

I believe that the hard part for us to swallow when it comes to being servants of God is to realize that as His servants, we are the property of someone else! In , Paul writes

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

The fact that we must all need to come to grips with is that we are not our own. We have been bought and paid for by the blood of Christ. We were in bondage to sin. Christ paid the ransom. We are His! We do not own ourselves.

In , believe Jesus says it best of what it means to be a servant:

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But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave-- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

Our Lord gives us the greatest example of what it means to be a servant of God and of men. In his life he served our God perfectly, and He served every single one of us by giving his life so we may become servants just like Him.

One of the more familiar prophecies about Christ in the Old Testament is , the prophecy of the suffering servant. But there are actually a few sections (4 in all) in the book of Isaiah that refer to Jesus as the servant of the Lord. Jesus’ ministry is described before it happened as a service to God and to us. I would like to look at these texts in the book of Isaiah to see the great example that we see of a Servant in Christ, and ways we can apply the characteristics of His service to our service of God and others.

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"Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged, Till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law." Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk on it: "I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.

We see in this text that Jesus was a servant that we need to “behold;” to look intently on. The King, the Messiah of God came as a servant. It wasn’t about Him. He gave up the glory of heaven in service to the Father and in service to you and me. We see here that this servant, Christ was to be one whom is upheld by the Lord and one in which the Lord greatly delights. He trusted in the Lord. He obeyed the Lord. In it is written the pleasure, or the will of the Lord prospered in the hand of Christ. He knew that if He walked in the path that the Father gave to Him that He would be upheld by the Lord. I believe the same is true for all of those who are the people of God that desire to be servants. If we are willing to behold the servant of God and follow in His steps, the Lord will delight in us and uphold us. If we make God’s will our delight, our joy, He will delight in us.

Within this text we see Jesus as being intimately led by the Father. The father is holding His hand, side by side with His Son in leading Him safely to His destination, to become a covenant to us, to become a light to the gentiles. He would bring union, breaking down the barrier of separation between Jew and Gentile, making them able to call one another brother. This might not have seemed possible to a Jew of that time, but the Lord whom is not a respecter of persons, was willing to help those who were even hated of the Jewish people. Our Lord, the great Servant, was willing to give light to those who were in need of it:

The 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 acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn

As servants following in the steps of Christ, is our focus on unity or division? Do we desire to be of one mind and one soul? If we are following the Servant of the Lord it will be. We as servants will reflect the light of Christ to others and to the lost. Also when it comes to sharing the gospel with those who are lost, are there any people that we think just won’t accept the gospel, and never share it with them? The Lord was willing to bring hope to prostitutes, tax collectors, adulterers, and murderers. We should not be a respecter of persons when it comes to who we will share the gospel with. Everyone should be given a chance to hear the gospel. A servant is willing to serve the lowest of the lowest, not just those who do things for them and those they look at as living good lives.

(CLICK) "Listen, O coastlands, to Me, And take heed, you peoples from afar! The Lord has called Me from the womb; From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name. And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, And made Me a polished shaft; In His quiver He has hidden Me." "And He said to me, 'You are My servant, O Israel, In whom I will be glorified.' Then I said, 'I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; Yet surely my just reward is with the Lord, And my work with my God.' " "And now the Lord says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, And My God shall be My strength), Indeed He says, 'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.' " Thus says the Lord, The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, To Him whom man despises, To Him whom the nation abhors, To the Servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship, Because of the Lord who is faithful, The Holy One of Israel; And He has chosen You." Thus says the Lord: "In an acceptable time I have heard You, And in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You As a covenant to the people, To restore the earth, To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages; That You may say to the prisoners, 'Go forth,' To those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' "They shall feed along the roads, And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights. They shall neither hunger nor thirst, Neither heat nor sun shall strike them; For He who has mercy on them will lead them, Even by the springs of water He will guide them.

I really like verse 2:

And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, And made Me a polished shaft; In His quiver He has hidden Me."

This verse speaks of God’s servant as a concealed weapon, as one whom the enemies cannot see until it is too late! Jesus was the Lord’s weapon to defeat sin. The great concealed mystery was hidden for so much time, but at the perfect time, God revealed a mystery that the prophets and even angels wanted to know about:

how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: 6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel

The mystery of what the prophets spoke about was revealed to the Apostles so we may have the mystery revealed to us in the gospel. At the perfect time God played His hand. Even with the prophecies spoken about Jesus, No one could have imagined that His ministry would have been as it was. The Jews were expecting their messiah to be a glorious king, delivering them from the bondage of the Romans, but Jesus came as a Servant to give Himself for our spiritual bondage to sin so that the salvation of God could stretch to the ends of the earth. Jesus died in service to us so that we could be redeemed, bought by God to be His servants. What a great mystery that we have been given the opportunity to be revealed to us, and that we have the opportunity to share with others.

Jesus also shows us what our service of God should be focused on. In verse 3 Jesus is spoken of as a servant in whom God would be glorified. We see in Jesus’ life that He wanted only one thing, to glorify God.

This is also prophesied of in

To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The 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."

In our John study on Tuesday night, we saw a verse in that shows that Jesus’ focus in His teaching was not on Himself, but the Father:

He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.

A servant does not seek his own glory, but the glory of the Master.

We see in that Jesus’ wanting to glorify the father enabled Him to face the cross:

"Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again."

Jesus, in a time of distress, knowing what laid before Him in His suffering, made His focus glorifying God.

And just before this text where Jesus shows His focus of glorifying God, He tells us as servants to follow in His steps:

If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

Does that characterize our service to the Lord and to others? We need to follow in the Lord’s steps, desiring our service to bring glory to God, serving the Lord sacrificially. We need to daily give ourselves to God; daily being a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable service to Him.

I find it very interesting in Luke Chapter 17 that when the disciples asked the Lord to help them to increase their faith that He proceeded to tell them to be servants,

“which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'? 8 But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. 10 So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.”

Instead of expecting to be treated with special honor or thinking that we are owed something, we need to look at ourselves and our service to God with humility. Great faith lies in the heart of the one who realizes their place as a servant! We need to serve God because it is the reasonable thing to do as His people! Even if we were to do all that we have been commanded to do, all we can claim for ourselves is that we are unprofitable servants just doing what we should be doing.

We are not our own. We were bought at a price; therefore we need to glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which are God's ().”

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Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men. Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.

53:1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

This text is such a powerful text about service; it speaks for itself. This Servant, not thinking of Himself, but of us, allowed Himself to undergo extreme punishment; punishment to the point where this text states that He was marred almost to the point of not resembling a man so we could be healed. I can’t begin to imagine the excruciating pain that Jesus endured through His scourging and crucifixion. He would be despised and rejected by His own people so we could be accepted by God. He suffered injustice so God’s justice could be made manifest. He was stricken for our sins so we could be glorified along with Him.

This great text not only speaks about the suffering and the death of the servant, but of the life of the servant afterwards. Because of His willingness to suffer He would be glorified. The Lord would prolong His days.

Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

How can one who suffers such a terrible death be exalted and have His days prolonged? It happened when the suffering servant was raised out of His tomb. This servant was glorified by the Father.

What do we see here about being a servant to apply to our own lives? Those who are willing to humble themselves and to devote themselves to the Lord’s care and be servants will also be exalted! Those who are willing to make sacrifices for the kingdom of God’s sake will be rewarded. Is there sacrifice in our service?

(CLICK) "The Lord God has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away. I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. "For the Lord God will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed. He is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me. Surely the Lord God will help Me; Who is he who will condemn Me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment; The moth will eat them up. "Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness And has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord And rely upon his God.

Service begins with your ear ().

We see in this text the power in the words of the servant, but we also see that they were guided by an ear that was willing to listen and be obedient. A servant’s heart is open to God and truly trusts in Him.

Are we willing to hear what the Lord has to say? Are we willing to be instructed? That is where service begins. But unfortunately this simple fact is ignored greatly by many. If we are not willing to be instructed, to receive guidance and even rebuke at times, are we truly willing to be a servant? Are your ears to clogged up to allow the word of the Lord to reach your heart? We need to be careful as Christians, because sometimes the worst listeners are those who think they have great knowledge and have no need to be taught. A servant is always willing to listen to truth, always willing to be instructed.

Another point I would like to make about a servant from is in verses 6 & 7:

The Servant had a mission in which He would never be ashamed.

Even when the mission He was given placed Him in harm’s way, He was not ashamed to obey. How many of us have been ashamed at times for doing what is right? Or are any of us unwilling to put ourselves in a position where we may be ridiculed or humiliated?

We need to not be ashamed!!! We have such a powerful message to share with others if we are willing to commit our lives to the one who judges righteously.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Paul tells Timothy in to not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, but to share with him in suffering for the gospel’s sake. Let this be our reminder to not be ashamed because our reward is at stake!

Jesus says in For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.

In our servant text in , we see that when the Servant knows that the Lord is near, there is no need to fear. The servant is always aware of the presence of His God. Do we have that kind of awareness that the Master is always near? If we do we will find it hard to ever be ashamed, and will be bold in our service.

In , we are posed 3 questions that we need to examine ourselves with as servants of God:

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"Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness And has no light?

If we do not obey the voice of the greatest of Servants, Jesus, we have no hope. His word is the light for our path. We do not have to walk in darkness. We can choose this day to trust in the name of the Lord and to rely upon the God of heaven and His Servant that suffered and was glorified on our behalf.

Conclusion

What example do we follow in our service to God and others?

The example of the Israelites in the time of Malachi who said

“'It is useless to serve God; What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, And that we have walked as mourners Before the Lord of hosts?”

Do we consider it unprofitable to serve God?

Or do we come before the Lord with the proper attitude, just as the great Servant, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do we as the Lord have an ear to hear, a willingness to humble ourselves and to be devoted to the Lord, even at great cost. Do we have hearts that fear God and desire to glorify Him?

We need to examine ourselves and discern which of the two attitudes we truly have. Just one more text then the lesson is yours.

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Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, And the Lord listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the Lord And who meditate on His name. "They shall be Mine," says the Lord of hosts, "On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him." Then you shall again discern Between the righteous and the wicked, Between one who serves God And one who does not serve Him.

If there is anything we can do for you to make your service to God what it should be, why don’t you make your need known as we sing the song our brother has selected?