Christian Living

The Essence of Gods Servant

by Thomas Kirkpatrick
07/08/21
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“Thus says the LORD, “Where is the certificate of divorce By which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, And for your transgressions your mother was sent away. “Why was there no man when I came? When I called, why was there none to answer? Is My hand so short that it cannot ransom? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke, I make the rivers a wilderness; Their fish stink for lack of water And die of thirst. “I clothe the heavens with blackness And make sackcloth their covering.” (Isaiah 50:1-3)

The children of Abraham, the Israelite people, were never the Holy Nation God had called them to be. They were to be a Priest nation that the world could see the righteous life through them and learn. They went through their cycles of godly living and sinful misbehavior. At times God would withdraw His grace, and as the times of desperation would come, they would realize their dependence upon God and repent. God loved them despite their misbehavior. God led them out of the bondage to the Egyptian Pharaoh to the gift of the Promised Land. It was not because they were righteous people worthy of a gift, but because God made a covenant with their father, Abraham. God is not only loving, but He is just, and His Word is true. “Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.” (Deuteronomy 9:6)

The Church of Jesus is as the Israelites were in that they are a stubborn people too. They have their moments of godly living and sinful behavior, just like the Jewish nation. We are all men and fall into the trap of our lustful desires of the things of this world. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Times have not changed from the beginning, and we are all stubborn people, as most have rejected God to go their own way, and others neglect God when it is inconvenient. Not so for the disciple Stephen, a minister of the people chosen by the Apostles. The Jewish leaders placed Stephen in a mock hearing, and he was to give testimony of His faith in Jesus Christ. Stephen, bold in his testimony, told the Jewish leaders the same as Moses many thousands of years before they were a stiff-necked people. “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.” (Acts 7:51)

The Prophet Isaiah was speaking to the Jewish people, but it is also a word for us. There are times when we feel disconnected from God. The Jewish people did as they were in exile in the Babylonian Empire. As we go through the trials and tribulation of being in exile to this world that we are now in, we can too. Some call out to God and ask, “Why have you allowed this to happen?” In the first three verses, we see God’s answer to His people. God is asking where is the certificate of divorce that proves He no longer loves His us. Or to whom has God sold His redeemed to? The truth is God has not abandoned us, neither has He sold us out. We are the ones who have committed adultery by our love affair with the world and the worldly way. God has not sold us, but we have bought into the world. We have invested our treasure in the world’s possessions and not in the Kingdom of God. Where is our heart? Is it in this temporal place we find ourselves or in the Kingdom that we are bound for? God has not separated Himself from us, but we have separated ourselves from Him by our sinful living.

I have had the privilege to have attended many Churches across this land. There have been a lot of good Bible teaching Churches that I have visited. There have been too many churches that have abandoned the Word of God to teach that good feeling message that none can be offended. They teach the prosperity message to fill the hearts with false hope through false doctrine. Jesus stands amid His Church and finds no man to convict His disciples of their disobedience to God’s Word. “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.” (Revelation 1:12-13) How can the Church equip the saints if they do not teach the Word of God?

The Lord God answers His own questions with the truth of His being. The hand of the Lord is not too short to reach down from Heaven and touch the repenting soul and redeem him by the blood of the Lamb. God is faithful and true to His purpose to reconcile man to Himself through Jesus Christ. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19) The heavens mourn the sin and disbelief of God’s people. “I clothe the heavens with blackness And make sackcloth their covering.”

“The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple. The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not disobedient Nor did I turn back.” (Isaiah 50:4-5)

The conversation now shifts from the words of God to the prophetic Messiah. Jesus is the Disciple of God the Father. Jesus takes the counsel of the Father every minute. It is the heart of wisdom for God, as King Solomon told us in the book of Proverbs. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) We are men and have finite minds and cannot begin to have the knowledge and the wisdom to use it without the understanding that the Lord God gives us. If we need wisdom, Pastor James tells us that God will give us wisdom if we ask Him. “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5) Because Jesus takes counsel with the Father, He speaks in the season that men are anxious.

Jesus is in deep fellowship with God continually as God awakens His ear that he may hear the word of God the Father. Have we asked Jesus to open our spiritual ears that we may hear the word of God? We should. The reverent fear of the Lord is the beginning of all knowledge, and He will give us the wisdom to use it. If we abide in Jesus the vine as a branch of His Kingdom, then we too can have this deep fellowship with the Father through His Son Jesus.

It comes with a cost of commitment—a commitment to become bondservants of Christ. Jesus was a Bond Servant to His Master, the Lord God Almighty. God opened the spiritual ears that He would hear the will of the Father. It was the purpose of Jesus to do the will of the Father who sent Him. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” (John 6:38)

“I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. For the Lord GOD helps Me, Therefore, I am not disgraced; Therefore, I have set My face like flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed. He who vindicates Me is near; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand up to each other; Who has a case against Me? Let him draw near to Me. Behold, the Lord GOD helps Me; Who is he who condemns Me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment; The moth will eat them.” (Isaiah 50:6-9)

The sufferings of Jesus were more than any mere man could have taken. His back was beaten to the point that the cat of nine tails ripped His skin off. (Mark 15:15) His face was beaten, and His beard plucked. (Luke 22:63-65) Jesus was mocked and spat upon. (Mark 15:19-20) Through all the sufferings of Jesus, His confidence in God His Father was unshakable. Jesus is the role model that our life should be fashioned after. The goal of the Christian is to grow spiritually into the image of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us in that path of our sanctification.

Yet we so often complain in the slightest bit of adversity. We pray for colds and stubbed toes. We pray for things that we want, knowing that our wants will never be satisfied. It’s too cold, and it’s too hot. It’s too bright, and it’s too dark. We are so easily offended when we should be praising God for the multitude of blessings He pours out upon us each day. It is a pitiful thing for a Christian to refuse to suffer in the light of the suffering of Jesus for us. Did Jesus ever stand up and say I have my rights? No, He relied on the truth that God would help Him.

Jesus was fully God, and He was fully a man. Like us, He had His moment of question. Most notable was on the eve of His crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus, where He prayed that God would let the cup of crucifixion pass from Him. Because of His obedience to the will of the Father, Jesus concluded the prayer in submission to God’s will. “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) How thankful we should be! Therefore Jesus said, I have set My face like flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed. With undoubting faith in His God and Father, Jesus went to the cross knowing that He would not be shamed.

“Who is among you that fears the LORD, That obeys the voice of His servant, That walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, Who encircle yourselves with firebrands, Walk in the light of your fire And among the brands you have set ablaze. This you will have from My hand: You will lie down in torment.” (Isaiah 50:10-11)

God asks a series of questions in these verses. “Who among you fears the LORD? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light?” The answer to the questions is the Messiah.

The Messiah guides His people into the path of light, into the truth of God’s Word. The follower of Jesus is to trust in Him and rely on God. It is not an easy path, but it is simple. Some may think the world is a positive place to be in, but in truth, it is not. If we kindle fires as Nadab and Abihu, then we are in the deceptive light. “Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.” (Leviticus 10:1) If the deceptive light is that light that we live by, then we will have torment at the hand of the Lord. If we as men trust in our own efforts instead of relying on the Lord, then our life will be filled with the deception of the evil one.

Thomas N Kirkpatrick

First Baptist Church of Durant, November 8, 2017