If I was trying to do a complete
exposition of Isaiah, or even of these things
that they call the servant songs in Isaiah,
really we wouldn't have done very well so
far.
There's more to do, much more, than we've
already done.
And I find myself at this place often,
that as a result of meditating on scriptures
and opening them out in a gathering like
this, and knowing the things that God is
saying at the time.
Often things that we share with you, we
have heard perhaps five minutes earlier, perhaps an
hour earlier.
Sometimes we're hearing them at the same time
as you are hearing them.
And it just spreads and spreads and spreads,
and any kind of schedule you might have
had just has to go to the wind
because you just can't keep up with it.
And I nearly always find myself like this
in the last session, with so much to
say that there's no possibility of getting it
all together.
It's like the little story, you know the
dog or I'll do you the limerick about
the man from Japan.
There was a young man from Japan whose
poetry would never quite scan.
He said in my ear, the reason it's
clear is because I always try to get
too many words into the last line.
Well, I always try to get too many
words into the last line, but we'll see
how we do.
Even before we get to Isaiah, let's go
to Genesis chapter 1.
Genesis chapter 1, and the third day, that's
verse 9.
God said, let the waters under the heaven
be gathered together unto one place, and let
the dry land appear, and it was so.
And God called the dry land earth, and
the gathering together of the waters called he
seas, and God saw that it was good.
And God said, let the earth bring forth
grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit
tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed
is in itself upon the earth, and it
was so.
On the third day, which I think to
most of us will immediately begin to speak
about resurrection, on the third day God began
to speak about seed.
This was the first kind of created life
upon the earth.
And as God brings life into the earth,
even at this simplest level of the seed
of herbs or of trees, he builds into
his statement an unchangeable principle of life.
And the unchangeable principle of life is that
like must beget like.
Apple trees must always produce apple seeds.
It can't be any other way.
And the life that the Lord Jesus lived
upon the earth, he referred to it as
a seed.
And he said if the seed abides alone,
if it doesn't fall into the ground and
die, well it abides alone.
But if it falls into the ground and
die, then there's that possibility of that seed
to be reproduced again and again and again.
It's the same seed, it's the same life.
And we have been concentrating our thoughts on
this person that the prophet Isaiah speaks of,
by the Spirit, as the servant of Jehovah.
Well, the servant of Jehovah began his service
of God upon the earth.
Let's turn now briefly to Matthew's gospel.
If we really wanted to make a meal
of this, we really ought to go through
the whole of Mark's gospel.
Because Mark's gospel is the gospel of the
servant.
In Mark's gospel, right the way through, you
will see the servant of Jehovah at work,
step by step, stage by stage.
But we have just dipped from time to
time into Matthew.
And we spoke yesterday morning, I think it
was, about the time when the Lord Jesus
was poised to begin his vocation as the
servant of the Lord.
Ready to go into the land, to bring
effectively heaven's rule upon earth, the kingdom of
heaven, to make it manifest in his life.
And if we began to read just, I'll
read from verse 17 to pick up that
theme.
From that time, chapter 4, verse 17, from
that time Jesus began to preach and to
say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand.
And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee,
saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew
his brother, casting a net into the sea,
for they were fishers.
And he said unto them, follow me, and
I will make you fishers of men.
And they straightway left their nets and followed
him.
And going on from thence he saw other
two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and
John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee
their father, mending their nets.
And he called them, and they immediately left
the ship and their father, and followed him.
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in
their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and
all manner of disease among the people.
And his fame went throughout all Syria, and
they brought unto him all sick people that
were taken with dire diseases and torments, and
those which were possessed with demons, and those
which were lunatic, and those that had the
palsy.
And he healed them.
And they followed him great multitudes of people,
from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem,
and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan.
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into
a mountain.
It's one of those times again where you
must read past the end of the chapter
to get the flow of what's being said
here.
He had begun his ministry, he had begun
the fulfilling of his vocation as the servant
of the Lord.
And he begins to dispossess the land, that's
to say, take it away from those who
had wrongly possessed it.
To take it away from evil things, and
things which it crippled, and made it so
that it was not like heaven upon earth.
And the result of all this is tremendous
popularity.
Such popularity that you have multitudes, not just
one multitude, but I don't know how many
people there are in a multitude anyway.
But this is multitudes of people.
And you've got great multitudes of people, from
Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and
from Judea, and from beyond Jordan.
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into
a mountain.
When he was set, his disciples came to
him.
He withdraws himself from everything that is happening.
We can speculate, maybe to pray, maybe to
think, to meditate, to consider the things that
his father was speaking in his heart.
But his disciples follow him.
He didn't call them up to the mountain,
this was their own initiative.
He chose to go up into the mountain,
and they chose to follow him.
And when they had followed him up the
mountain, he began to speak.
I'll read chapter 5, verse 1.
Seeing the multitudes, he went up into a
mountain.
And when he was set, his disciples came
unto him.
And he opened his mouth and taught them,
saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
You see, that very first beatitude, as we
usually call them.
Beatitude, I think, is from the Latin, meaning
blessed.
Campbell Morgan, who was a very great Bible
teacher in the first half of this century,
this particular passage, this period, this event in
the life of the Lord Jesus, he didn't
call it the Beatitudes.
He gave it a title which I think
is much more expressive.
He called it the Manifesto of the Kingdom.
You know, when politicians are angling for your
vote, they produce a manifesto.
They say, this is the kind of society
we want to create.
This is the kind of country we're about
to bring into being.
If we have your support, this is what
we will do.
Jesus, on the mountain, separate from the multitudes,
with just ones and twos, just his immediate
inner circle of disciples, he gathers them around
him and he says to them, Blessed are
the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
He begins to describe a kingdom and the
characteristics of people who are part of that
kingdom that is different to anything that they
had imagined.
Down in the valleys, with the multitudes, tremendous
success, popularity, every miracle bringing more to come
and hear, constant rush, constant bustle.
It must have appeared to the disciples that
this really was it.
Triumphalism, everything gathering together, this is it.
This is the time that has been promised.
This is the time of the coming of
our Messiah.
This is it.
And he withdraws, and then when they come
to him, he begins to speak to them
of inequalities.
Not just these outer manifestations of healings and
miracles, but he begins to speak of the
inner essence of the kingdom.
And he says, these are the characteristics of
the people who are my subjects.
This is the kind of kingdom that I'm
going to bring in.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall
be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth.
I find it very interesting how people hate
these words.
I know they regard them as beautiful poetry
and the most profound teaching that has ever
been, but every now and again you'll touch
a raw nerve in people and they will
react very violently to these words of the
Lord Jesus.
I remember hearing someone, I think he was
a representative of the United Nations, who was
speaking only just a matter of months ago.
And he quoted part of this, and he
said, the meek will inherit the earth in
six-foot plots, he said.
Do you understand that?
In other words, the meek will not inherit
the earth.
What he was saying is, you'll have to
fight for it.
Otherwise, all you'll get is a grave space.
That's all you'll get.
Because that's all that happens to the grave,
to the meek.
Everyone walks over them.
They don't stand up for their own thing.
They hate it.
Kind of a hundred or so, a hundred
years ago, there was a man named Rudyard
Kipling.
I know that maybe some here quite like
Rudyard Kipling.
He wrote some very interesting stories and wrote
some interesting poems.
And he wrote one poem, which is probably
his most famous, called If.
And the whole purpose of that poem, really,
is to run counter to this Sermon on
the Mount and the Beatitudes.
That's why when you get to the very
end of it, he's saying, yours is the
earth and everything that's in it.
And what is more, you'll be a man,
my son.
He hated this.
He was very, he was passionately anti-evangelical,
Rudyard Kipling.
If you should read any of this stuff,
it might just be as well to remember
that.
If you ever read Kim, if you ever
read Kim, you'll find that each chapter begins
with a little verse, a verse of poetry
that he has written.
And in the first chapter of Kim, if
I can remember it, I'm not very good
at poetry.
I do appreciate poetry, but only if it's
got the pictures of Rupert above it to
explain what's actually happening.
Um, but this, this goes something like this.
It says, um, O ye who tread the
narrow way, Tofet lit to judgment day, Have
mercy on the heathen when they pray, At,
and I've forgotten where it was.
What he's talking about is, he believed that
the only reason that Christians lived their narrow
way and walked upon it was because it
was Tofet lit.
Now, Tofet is the valley of Hinnom or
Gehenna.
In other words, he was saying the only
reasons Christians lived their narrow lives is because
of fear of the flames.
He hated evangelicals.
He was raised by evangelicals in England.
And you get this thing, it comes out,
it comes out, this strong anti-Christian thing
all the way through.
They hate this.
The meek shall inherit the earth.
But this is the manifesto of the kingdom.
Not we are the champions, we are going
to ride all over the world and bring
everyone into line with us.
Not, no, the meek shall inherit the earth.
This is the manifesto of the kingdom.
This is the essence of the servant.
The reason I'm using essence is because this
is in the seed of the servant.
This is in the servant's heart.
This is how he is.
He said, take my yoke upon you and
learn of me for I am meek and
lowly in heart.
The world has never understood meekness.
It always confuses it with weakness.
Meekness is really amazing strength.
If someone has the right to do something
but for love's sake does not do that
thing, that is meekness.
Meekness is rights and privileges restrained for love's
sake.
That's what meekness is.
Moses was a very meek man, so the
scripture tells us.
Moses had great rights and privileges.
He had the power to do certain things,
but he was a meek man and he
did not use his power.
And when a person refuses to use their
power and refuses to use their rights for
love's sake, not for fear's sake, not because
they're cowards.
When we were asked this morning whether we
were all cowards, I wanted to protest, but
I was afraid.
Now I've put myself off.
Not for cowardice's sake, not out of something
servile or cringing that doesn't want to get
hurt, but someone who for love's sake knows
he has the right, knows he has the
power, has no fear, is willing to take
all the consequences, but then for love's sake
chooses not to exercise his rights.
That's meekness.
Jesus said, the meekness shall inherit the earth.
You see it in the servant of Jehovah.
Let me go back to chapter 42 of
Isaiah.
Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect,
in whom my soul delights, I have put
my spirit upon him.
Let's go back into the book of Numbers.
I hope I can find this.
I think it's Numbers 11.
Yes, it is.
Numbers 11.
I'll begin to read from verse 11.
And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast
thou afflicted thy servant?
And wherefore have I not found favour in
thy sight that thou layest the burden of
all this people upon me?
Have I conceived all this people?
Have I begotten them that thou shouldst say
to me, Carry them in thy bosom, as
a nursing father bears the sucking child unto
the land which thou swarest unto their fathers?
Whence should I have flesh to give unto
all this people?
For they weep unto me, saying, Give us
flesh that we may eat.
I am not able to bear all this
people alone, because it is too heavy for
me.
And if thou deal'st with me, kill me,
I pray thee, out of hand, for I
have not found favour in thy sight, and
let me not see my wretchedness.
And the Lord said to Moses, Gather unto
me seventy men of the elders of Israel,
whom thou knowest to be elders of the
people, and officers over them, and bring them
unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they
may stand there with thee.
And I will come down, and talk with
thee there, and I will take of the
Spirit which is upon thee, and write it
upon them.
And they shall bear the burden of the
people with thee, that thou bear it not
thyself alone.
I don't think we need to read on.
You can read on at your leisure in
this particular chapter and see how all this
worked out.
But can you see what's happening?
What is happening is that Moses is the
man of authority.
He is the man to whom God has
given power and authority and responsibility for the
people of Israel.
At the same time, in their experience, there
is a need for others to shoulder some
of this responsibility.
And what God is going to do is
He is going to delegate responsibility.
He is going to take of the power
and the responsibility that is on Moses and
He is going to put it onto others.
He speaks of it in terms of spirit
and of course it is the Holy Spirit
who comes to give power of this kind.
But it's really in terms of the Holy
Spirit that is upon Moses.
The unique anointing, if you want to use
that language, that Moses had in order to
enable him to be God's man in that
situation.
In order to equip him to be the
leader, the instructor, the judge, the counselor, the
lawgiver.
All these things that the Spirit of God
had made Moses to be, God says, I'm
going to take the spirit that's on you,
Moses, and share with you in your responsibility,
in your authority.
They will be as you are in these
terms.
Now, I hope you can see why I'm
pointing this out.
Because Jehovah says of this servant, Behold my
servant upon whom I have put my spirit.
He is the man under authority.
He is the man who is equipped and
empowered.
In the way that Moses was equipped to
carry out all God's will.
And Moses' word was law.
So now, the servant of Jehovah, God puts
his spirit upon him and he is equipped
to carry out all God's bidding.
And this man's word is law.
You know, don't you?
I'm sure we know that on more than
one occasion in the scriptures the early Christians
were very aware of the fact of a
certain prophecy that Moses had given.
Moses had given a prophecy in which he
had said that God would raise up from
among them, from among the brethren, another prophet
like me, Moses said.
God is going to do it again.
He's going to raise up a prophet like
me.
Or if you want to put some other
titles in, he's going to raise up a
mediator like me.
He's going to raise up a go-between
like me.
He's going to raise up someone who will
talk with God face to face like me.
He's going to raise up someone who will
have the word of God and bring it
to the people like me.
He's going to raise someone who will have
the spirit of God upon him, authorizing him,
giving him full power to do all that
he wants to do like me.
And the early Christians knew exactly who Moses
was speaking about when he said this, and
they used it in their witness with other
Jewish people.
Jesus was the one who God had raised
up.
And if you want to do this study
sometime, you may find it a very profitable
study to trace the parallels between the life
of Moses and the Lord Jesus.
I'll give you a starter for ten.
You know what happened to Moses when he
was just a babe?
They tried to destroy him.
The consequence of trying to destroy him was
that lots of other babies were destroyed, but
Moses was not destroyed.
Moses was in Egypt, and God called him
out of Egypt.
Now, you can make all these parallels yourself,
but it goes right the way through.
It's a thrilling study to go right the
way through, particularly if you come to Exodus
chapter 24, and you see Moses as the
mediator, receiving the Lord, going up into the
mountain, being covered with cloud, saying to the
eldest, Tarry here, and I'll come back to
you.
If you can't link all this together, well,
just work on it a little bit and
think, and I'm sure God will open it
up to you.
But Moses was a man with authority, and
there was the Spirit of God upon him
in a unique sense to equip, qualify, authorize
him to do all God's will.
Now, it says of the Lord Jesus in
Isaiah 42, I'll read it to get it
exactly right, Behold my servant, Behold my servant,
whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my
soul delights.
I have put my spirit upon him.
Can you see what I'm saying?
Can you see that in the way that
those 70 elders of Israel were the direct
representatives of Moses with his authority because his
spirit was upon them, so now the servant
of the Lord comes with direct responsibility because
the Spirit of God is upon him.
He is the commissioned one.
He is the authorized one.
This is what was happening when the Lord
Jesus stood by the River Jordan and the
Spirit of God came upon him in the
form of a dove and God said, this
is my son in whom I am well
pleased.
And this is the manifesto of his kingdom.
This is the characteristic of those who will
be in his kingdom.
When we were, just before we began the
earlier session, a brother came and sat against
me and began to talk a little bit
about some of the things I was saying
last night about genes and things and he's
a doctor so I was wondering whether I
was going to be put right, but I
think in the main it wasn't too far
off anyway.
These genes, these spiritual genes, these characteristics that
were in the Lord Jesus Christ, these are
caught up, they are distilled in his Spirit.
There is within his Spirit the essence of
all this life that was in him.
So many of the things that we shall
read concerning the servant of the Lord, if
we think about them, if we meditate on
these things, there will be areas of our
life where God will instruct us and teach
us the way in which we should live.
One of the questions that educationalists used to
like to talk about a lot, I don't
think they talk about it quite so much
now, was the question of whether it was
nature or nurture.
If any of you come from kind of
teaching backgrounds you'll know that this was really
quite an issue at one time.
I don't know whether it is now.
Nature means what you are to start off
with.
Nurture means what you can be developed into.
And different educationalists had different theories about this.
Some people would say, okay, you know, you
can test a child at nine and you
can decide on his IQ and whether he's
going to be a ballet dancer or an
engineer or something like this because it's all
in his nature.
And all you have to do if it's
in his nature is just provide the right
circumstances and it will happen.
And then there were another group of people
who said, no, we're all exactly the same
to start off with.
Each one of us is a potential ballet
dancer.
Obviously I wasn't in his class.
Every one of us is a potential ballet
dancer or engineer and all we need is
the right nurture.
If we receive the right kind of environment
and encouragement we will become that thing that's
necessary.
If you think just for a moment I
think you'll realise that any individual character, every
single one of us in the natural, what
we are, we are as a result of
our heredity and our environment and our reactions
to the combination of those two things.
Sounds very philosophical doesn't it always?
But the Lord says on occasion let nature
teach you and there are some things that
nature can teach us and what we are
in our character we are partly as a
result of our heredity partly as a result
of our environment partly as a result of
our response to our heredity and our environment.
I mentioned this home that I'm staying in
and we as well as the little girls
there's a baby there who's just I think
about four weeks old and one day he
was just lying in his crib and his
mum said just look at the way he's
lying.
He's lying with his hand over his face
so that's exactly how his dad sleeps.
Now I mean he hasn't learned this he
hasn't been watching there's just something that somehow
comes down in generations like this.
It's heredity.
I can recall when I was about nine
or ten at home sitting by a coal
fire and the embers were kind of dying
away and I just sat by the not
too close to it in fact hardly close
enough to get any benefit from it but
I sat there with just one hand stretched
out towards it so that I could just
about feel the warmth of the glow on
my hand and my father came into the
room and I can remember the look of
surprise almost apprehension on his face and he
said why are you sitting like that?
And I said well it's just it's comfortable
just and he said my father used to
sit like that and his father died when
he was thirteen It's strange isn't it?
Just little bits of things that for no
apparent reason they are just locked in and
you see people you know I'm thinking of
someone now at Reading and he's a boy
I suppose about eleven or twelve and he
walks and he's his dad he's the walk
is exactly the same all the way through
just just exactly his dad in the way
that he walks I was at a funeral
my last surviving aunt just a couple of
weeks ago and I met there one of
my cousins that I haven't seen for years
and years and we were just sitting talking
about standing talking about something and he just
he just kind of stood with his legs
wide apart and his hands in his pockets
and he just tipped his head back and
he laughed about something and I thought I
can remember his dad doing that when I
was little just just little things you see
all kinds of little things apparently for no
purpose apart of heredity but we're not just
the victims of heredity you know well maybe
you don't know but some psychologists and things
like to examine twins that are separated at
birth and the reason they like to examine
them and to watch their lives is because
they like to try and see what the
difference is because particularly identical twins because these
are supposed to have the same heredity the
same genes all the rest of it but
if they're separated at birth and then to
see how things develop and they discover that
there are similarities but there are differences too
so there is heredity and there is environment
there is nature and there is nurture and
there is our response to our environment and
to our heredity we are not automatons we
are not just photocopies of the Lord Jesus
we're not just the same thing exactly reproduced
the essence is the same in the spirit
but our environment is different and all kinds
of other things are different and there are
aspects of his character which are in his
heredity which we receive in regeneration by that
seed I was reading when I was at
Tom's a little book about George Fox and
some of his letters and one of the
quaint expressions of George Fox you see it
I think even more in his diary is
he would meet people and maybe he'd pass
a little comment about what he'd discovered in
this person and then there's this little cryptic
comment and he will say and the seed
was in him it's a quaint little saying
what he was saying was he'd seen the
life of God in him manifest in different
kinds of ways that the seed was in
him the seed was in him if the
seed is in us the life of God
is in us he has sent us the
spirit of his son the spirit the law
of the spirit of the life that's in
Christ Jesus has freed us from the law
of sin and death the other heredity the
other spiritual genes we are freed from by
the coming in of the new law Moses
was a law giver wasn't he he went
up to God and he I said I
wasn't going to do this but I'm doing
it now he went up to God and
he received from God the law in order
to bring it down so that the people
should have it he was the mediator of
that particular covenant our Lord Jesus went up
too to receive a law but his law
wasn't written in tablets of stone his law
was distilled in the essence of the spirit
that he brought down and put into the
hearts of men and women he did exactly
what Moses did but on the inside not
on the outside he went up to God
like Moses went up to God he vanished
in the cloud like Moses vanished in the
cloud and he brought down this thing that
was the testimony of God that's what they
call the ark you know they called it
the ark of the testimony the testimony of
God in a restricted form the character of
God expressed in just a few words it
was the ark of the testimony well that
was just in pieces of stone written with
the finger of God but now God sends
his spirit to put into us into our
hearts into our beings into that inner me
a new law that's written still with the
finger of God or with the spirit of
God but not now in tablets of stone
but in the fleshly tables of our hearts
so that we know his will we have
that written into us I want to pick
out just a few things concerning the character
of the servant and aspect that the Lord
wants to make real in us let's take
to begin with Isaiah 42 and this section
I'll read from verse 17 oh no, I'll
read from verse 16 and I will bring
the blind by a way that they knew
not I will lead them in paths that
they have not known I will make darkness
light before them and crooked things straight these
things will I do unto them and not
forsake them they shall be turned back they
shall be greatly ashamed that trust in graven
images that say to the molten images you
are our gods and then it says this
hear ye deaf and look ye blind that
ye may see and then in verse 19
it says this who is blind but my
servant or deaf as my messenger that I
sent who is blind as he that is
perfect and blind as the servant of Jehovah
remarkable language isn't it who is as blind
as the servant of Jehovah who is as
deaf as the servant of Jehovah let's go
back to Isaiah chapter 11 and we'll just
pick out a verse which will really explain
what's being said here the Bible is the
best commentary on the Bible it's what John
Wesley's mother told him I think I think
it was what Charles Spurgeon had in mind
as well when on one occasion he remarked
that the Bible threw great light upon some
of the commentaries this is Isaiah chapter 11
there shall come forth a rod out of
the stem of Jesse and a branch shall
grow up out of his roots and the
spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him
the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit
of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge
and of the fear of the Lord and
shall make him of quick understanding in the
fear of the Lord and he shall not
judge according to the sight of his eyes
neither reprove according to the hearing of his
ears who is as deaf as my servant
who is as blind as my servant the
servant of Jehovah the Lord Jesus was not
going to live according to what his outward
senses received he wasn't going to make judgments
based upon visual or orderable things he was
going to make different kinds of judgments altogether
how about you and me if we have
within us the seed which is the servant
how do we judge or do we judge
at all let's go to the manifesto of
the kingdom for a moment to Matthew chapter
7 this
is the manifesto of the kingdom this is
how he lives this is how his servants
are to live I'll just remind us again
as we gather of that little phrase in
Psalm 22 which says the seed shall serve
him and the seed will continue to serve
God the life of God that is within
us if we allow that life to express
itself and we nurture it it will bring
forth all the full potential that's in it
here's the manifesto of the kingdom chapter 7
verse 1 judge not that ye be not
judged for with what judgment you judge you
shall be judged and with what measure you
measure it shall be measured to you again
and why beholdest thou the splinter that is
in thy brother's eye but considerest not the
plank that is in thine own eye that's
really the significance of all this or how
wilt thou say to thy brother let me
pull out the splinter out of thine eye
and behold a plank is in thine own
eye thou hypocrite first cast out the plank
out of thine own eye and then shalt
thou seek clearly to cast out the splinter
out of thy brother's eye give not that
which is holy unto the dogs neither cast
ye your pearls before swine lest they trample
them again under their feet and turn again
and rend you now the reason I went
on to that next verse verse six is
because if you're going to carry out the
instructions of verse six you're going to have
to make judgments you're going to have to
decide who are swine before which pearls must
not be cast so we've got a real
paradox on our hands here he says in
the same breath don't judge because if you
do judge this will be the consequences but
here he says make this judgment don't cast
your pearls before swine now are Christians to
judge or are they not to judge Paul
when he writes to the Christians at Corinth
on one occasion says what's the matter with
you that you can't judge between yourselves why
is it that you're having to go outside
the family of God and let others judge
and then writing to the same people Paul
says I don't judge anyone and I don't
think it's special of anyone's judgment he said
I don't even judge myself I'm not swayed
by the judgment of man's day the one
who judges me is the Lord now this
really seems like a recipe for utter confusion
do we judge or don't we judge what's
taking place here in the midst of all
this you are to never you are never
to judge anyone's motive you are not to
have this sensoriousness that is in some people
who can always see what's wrong I can
remember doing this in Sunday school a long
long time ago when I was teaching in
Sunday school and taking a big white bed
sheet and I suppose what that would be
six feet by six feet or something like
that and you put a black dot in
the middle of it and you say to
the children what can you see and they
say a black dot and no one says
a bed sheet no one says a great
big piece of white everyone says I can
see a little dot of black right in
the middle of it that is not discernment
which is a gift of the spirit that
is just the simple natural critical faculty of
men and women and you are not to
have it you are not to have it
you are not to judge he did not
judge have you noticed the kind of people
that he dealt with the one that we
had read to us this morning of the
woman who was a sinner and a woman
from the city if you put those two
statements together that she was from the city
and she was a sinner it's almost for
sure that it's a euphemistic way of saying
that this woman was off the streets and
that's why they said or that's why they
thought if he knew what kind of woman
this is he wouldn't allow this he had
no interest in what kind of woman it
was he wasn't judging according to the judgment
of his eyes or of his ears he
was listening to hearts and listening to responses
that had nothing to do with circumstances of
things we have within us a seed which
can operate like this if we will nurture
it we do we have within us a
seed that can work like this I recall
a few years ago being in India and
I was invited to go and speak at
the Loreto Convent which was a kind of
a Catholic institution and there were lots of
nuns there from the Loreto Order and there
were one or two priests who did the
kind of priestly functions and things for them
and there were one or two lay folk
as they called them I suppose there were
perhaps about twenty people and I have very
strong doctrinal problems with Catholicism not Catholics Catholicism
make a distinction between the two things and
I was in this meeting and I looked
around and I was supposed to be speaking
and I was talking to the Lord in
my heart and saying I don't really want
to be here I don't like this these
are the times when I probably some of
you have heard me say this is when
I quote Hardy not Thomas Hardy the other
one who said this is another fine mess
you've got me into and you're kind of
sitting and you think what am I doing
here there are all kinds of other people
who could be here and why am I
here and they give me a chorus sheet
and the chorus is there spread out and
on one side it says all over the
world the Spirit is moving and the next
chorus to it is Hail to the Virgin
of Lourdes and I'm saying Lord what am
I doing here and there was a little
conversation that went on in my heart between
the Lord and me and it went something
like this and I said Lord what am
I doing here and the Lord said can
you love these people and I said oh
yes no problem and he said do you
want to be a blessing to them and
I said oh yes and he said that's
how I feel that was the end of
the conversation it stopped as quickly as it
had begun that's how I feel there is
a love which does not keep accounts it
does not keep a score it doesn't say
now I remember you doing this to me
once before when people learn things in the
natural we learn by experience the baby that's
in the home wire he's learning by experience
he's learning that if he cries loud enough
he'll get fed he's learning all kinds of
things by experience he's adding one fact to
another fact and this is the way he
learns we are not to learn like this
in things of the spirit we're not to
learn like this in things of the spirit
we are not to learn to assess someone's
character by saying yes I remember he did
that and I remember he did this and
I remember he did this so he'll probably
do that so I better be on my
God against him now that's the way nature
works but we're not to work like that
God doesn't work like that God's heart is
enlarged love believes all things hopes all things
keeps no account of sin this is the
way he works God says that he will
remember our sins no more he doesn't actually
say I'll forget them that is a difference
forgetting is a failure it's something that isn't
working properly God has no failures he does
not forget he refuses to remember he refuses
to remember he says I will not remember
I remember hearing a story of a lady
there was a visiting creature who went to
a particular church and then he went again
some months after and he was talking to
a lady and he was asking this lady
how she was and she said oh we
was fine and he said I'm glad you're
better now because I remember the last time
you were here you'd been having some problems
in the church and people had been unkind
to you do you remember that and she
said no and he said well he said
you told me that this brother had said
this and this and this do you remember
that and she said no and he said
but you told me this and this and
this do you remember that and she said
no No, she said, in fact, are remembering
distinctly, deciding not to remember.
That's how God works.
Your sins and your iniquities I will remember
no more.
I will not call them to mind.
He makes a choice in this thing.
He's not forgetting anything.
He's making a choice.
You're not to have memories like elephants, as
they say.
You're to leave it.
You're not to judge.
This is the way the kingdom works.
Is this unreality?
Is this utterly impossible?
Or is this possible upon the earth?
Is it possible to live like he lived?
Is it possible to be like the servant
who doesn't judge according to what his eyes
see or what his ears hear?
Is it possible?
Please turn with me to John's Gospel, Chapter
6.
Sorry, John's Gospel, Chapter 5.
John's Gospel is the gospel that tells us
so much about the fellowship between the Father
and the Son.
That's how it begins.
It says, we beheld his glory, the glory
as of an only begotten Son by the
sight of a Father.
And all the way through John's Gospel, you
have these expressions of fellowship and the harmony,
the union and the communion that was always
going on.
All these phrases that you know, things like,
I always do those things that please him.
I know, Father, that you always hear me.
I and the Father are one.
This is all John's Gospel.
John's Gospel is a gospel that's constantly speaking
of the relationship of the Father and the
Son.
And one of the hearts of it is
here in John, Chapter 5, where the Lord
Jesus is speaking to some Jews who had
begun by believing on him, but then didn't
like the things he told them, and now
are opposing him.
And where shall we read from?
Let me read from verse 17.
This is in the middle of it all,
but I think this is sufficient for us
to get the sense of it.
I'll go back to verse 16.
And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and
sought to slay him because he had done
these things on the Sabbath.
But Jesus answered them, My Father works hitherto,
and I work.
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill
him because he not only had broken the
Sabbath, but said also that God was his
Father, making himself equal with God.
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, the Son can
do nothing of himself but what he sees
the Father do.
For what things soever he does, that's the
Father, these also doeth the Son likewise.
That's the fulfillment of what we read in
Isaiah, Chapter 11, that he would not judge
according to the appearance of his eyes.
I can't do anything, he says, I'm not
working on that basis.
I'm not working from an accumulated knowledge or
the wisdom of the years or an ability
to diagnose this condition because I've seen it
before.
I'm not working like that.
I can do nothing unless I see my
Father doing it.
And what I see my Father doing, that's
what I do.
Verse 20, For the Father loves the Son
and shows him all things that himself doeth.
And he will show him greater works than
these that ye may marvel.
For as the Father raises up the dead
and quickens them, even so the Son quickens
whom he will.
For the Father judgeth no men, but hath
committed all judgment to the Son.
There are very serious implications that follow from
that verse.
If it is true that the Father judges
no men, but has committed all judgment to
the Son, it means every time you judge
someone, you are actually stealing the crown rights
of the Lord Jesus.
Do you follow that?
So, if it is true that he has
committed all judgment to the Son, every time
that you judge someone, you are going contrary
to this declaration of Scripture that all judgment
is in the hands of the Son.
There are some things that he will delegate
to you.
He will delegate ability to forgive to you.
He will delegate ability to refuse to remember
to you.
He will not delegate to you power to
judge.
He will keep it in his own hands.
And those are the only hands they are
safe in, because he knows all things.
And you only need to be missing one
little bit of information to come to a
completely wrong conclusion about what you are seeing.
He has all power.
He has all authority.
In the book of Revelation, John sees in
image the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb
who is upon the throne.
And he sees him with seven horns and
seven eyes.
He sees him in the place of power
and authority.
And he sees him in the imagery of
it.
He sees him with seven, which is the
number of completeness and perfection, fullness.
He sees him with seven eyes, that is
to say, with complete, full, perfect knowledge.
And he sees him with seven horns.
They are the symbols of power.
He sees him with complete, full, perfect power.
Now he is also the Lamb who is
upon the throne.
And God has committed judgment into the hands
of one who has all knowledge, who sees
everything, has all power, and is a bleeding
Lamb upon the throne, one who has laid
down his life for those he is going
to judge.
Now I think he is qualified to judge.
I am very happy for my judgment to
rest in his hands, because I know exactly
what he thinks about me.
Do you know it is impossible to judge
someone properly if you don't love them?
It is impossible to judge someone correctly if
you don't love them.
So if you don't love them, don't judge
them.
And if you do love them, you won't
judge them.
All judgment is committed into the hands of
the one who sits upon the throne.
The Father judges no man, but has committed
all judgment to the Son.
Can I just share something with you?
And in sharing this, I don't want to
be judgmental in sharing it.
There are times when I think, amongst us,
we are very quick to spot what isn't
right.
Very quick to notice something which is less
than the very best.
It's a form of judgment.
And if God doesn't deliver us from it,
it will destroy us.
It will destroy us.
It will destroy the assemblies we are parts
of.
It will destroy the wider fellowship of which
we are part.
If God does not deliver us from it,
it will destroy us.
Some of us, I trust all of us,
at times in our hearts, lift our hearts
to God in prayer for revival.
That God will do, He'll glorify His own
name and do something that He has not
done.
Will you turn with me to Isaiah 58?
These people prayed earnestly.
With fasting, they prayed.
Isaiah 58.
They didn't understand why God wasn't answering their
prayers.
Verse 3.
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou
seest not?
Wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and thou
takest no knowledge?
Can you see what their complaint is?
They're saying, God, haven't we done everything?
Haven't we prayed?
Haven't we fasted?
Haven't we afflicted ourselves?
What more do you want?
Here's the answer.
Behold, in the day of your fast, you
find pleasure and exact all your labors.
Behold, you fast for strife and debate and
to smite with the fist of wickedness.
You shall not fast as you do this
day to make your voice to be heard
on high.
Is it such a fast that I have
chosen?
A day for a man to afflict his
soul?
Is it to bow down his head as
a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes
under him?
Wilt thou call this a fast and an
acceptable day to the Lord?
Is not this the fast that I have
chosen?
To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo
heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go
free, and that ye break every yoke?
Is it not to deal thy bread to
the hungry, and that thou bring the poor
that are cast out to thy house, when
thou seest the naked that thou cover him?
Oh, brothers and sisters, do we?
If we see someone who has become exposed,
do we cover him?
Or do we draw attention to him?
Do we say to someone, you know what's
happened to so and so and so?
What do we do?
Do we cover or do we expose?
When thou seest the naked that thou cover
him, and that thou hide not thyself from
thine own flesh, do you shut yourself away?
General Booth, speaking sarcastically, perhaps, or cynically, but
trying to make a point, on one occasion
misquoted that passage in Galatians to some of
his young officers.
And he says, if you see a man
overtaken in a fort, you which are spiritual,
kick him while he's down.
You know, he doesn't say that.
Do you cover him?
Love covers.
It's instinctive.
It is instinctive for love to cover.
Make me speak to, can I say, husbands
or wives.
If there is something that is not the
highest in your partner, if you love your
partner, you're not going to tell anybody about
them.
My wife has all kinds of idiosyncrasies.
I have no intention of telling you about
any of them.
I've got to go home after this, anyway.
You wouldn't do it.
And God wouldn't do it.
And if God sees something that's wrong in
me, unless you have particular help that you
can get to me, he's not going to
talk to me about you.
He's not going to talk to you about
me.
He's not going to do it.
So, what you're getting is not discernment.
It's human critical faculties.
He won't do it.
When thou seest the naked, that thou cover
him, and that thou hide not thyself from
thine own flesh, then, verse 8, then shall
thy light break forth as the morning, and
thine health shall spring forth speedily, and thy
righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory
of the Lord shall be thy reward.
Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall
answer.
Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here
am I, if thou take away from thee,
from the midst of thee, the yoke, the
putting forth of the finger.
Can you see the picture of that?
He says, if you'll stop doing it, if
you will cover those who are naked.
Now, I'm not pleading for compromise.
I'm not saying that we should ignore sin.
I'm not saying that at all.
But if you see a brother that's overtaken
in a fault, you who are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness.
This is the manifesto of the kingdom.
This is how the servant worked.
Let me see if my eyes can just
drop on another verse or two.
Chapter 50 of Isaiah.
Another little testimony coming from the servant.
Isaiah 50 and verse 4.
The Lord hath given me the tongue of
the learned, that I should know how to
speak a word in season to him that
is weary.
That's the servant.
The Lord has given me the tongue of
the learned, that I should know how to
speak a word in season to him that's
weary.
I notice things that aren't there.
I notice it doesn't say so that you
can educate people, so that you can get
them so full of knowledge that they can
pass their GCSE with flying colours and New
Testament theology or New Covenant theology or Fellowship
theology.
I notice it speaks here about speaking a
word in season to him that's weary.
It's the whole tenor of his life, isn't
it?
It's the whole atmosphere of his life.
He will not break the bruised wreath.
He will not quench the smoking flax.
Now, he doesn't compromise.
That's not it.
But his whole attitude is so different.
Neither do I condemn thee, but go and
sin no more.
He doesn't pretend it doesn't happen.
In the story of the prodigal son, there's
an interesting thing that happens.
He goes away.
He spends his inheritance, wastes everything that the
father had given to him, and then when
it's all gone, he begins to have second
thoughts.
He comes to himself, and he decides that
he will acknowledge what he has done.
And he says, What I will do is
I will go, I will rise, I'll return
to my father, and I'll say to him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven and before
thee, and am no more worthy to be
called your son, but make me like one
of the hired servants.
And having made his resolution, he then begins
to carry it out.
He turns his back on the pigsty.
He starts the journey home.
While he's still yet a great way off,
his father sees him, comes running to him,
and when they meet, the son begins this
thing that he has rehearsed in his mind.
He knows what he's going to say, and
he begins it, but he doesn't get all
the way through it, if you notice.
He only gets part way through it because
he's interrupted.
This is how much he gets.
He says, Father, I've sinned against heaven and
before thee.
And the father wraps him up in a
great embrace, and he kisses him with the
stink of the pigsty still on him, and
he says, get the best robe, the ring
for his finger, shoes for his feet, kill
the fatted calf.
He was dead.
He's alive again.
He was lost, and he was found.
The story goes on.
As he was home, the elder brother heard
the noise of what was happening and protests.
And his protest is this.
He says, the father, I'm putting it into
different words to make a point.
He says, the father has received this man
back all too quickly.
What he should have done is insisted on
some kind of quarantine or something.
He should have insisted on some kind of
penance.
He should have insisted on some kind of
retribution.
He should not have done this.
He shouldn't have done it.
He sinned, and then he begins to uncover
the boy, his younger brother.
And he says, he's wasted your substance with
harlots and riotous living.
And I notice something about the father in
this story.
He never mentions sin.
The two brothers mention sin.
The younger brother mentions sin.
He acknowledges it.
I have sinned against thee.
The older brother mentions it.
He tries to remind the father.
And notice what the father says.
The father says, he was dead, and he's
alive again.
He was lost, and he's found.
The father will not enter into discussion concerning
the son, the sin of the younger son.
He will not enter into discussion with it.
He has already refused to remember it.
It's part of the paradox of God's workings
with us that while we are refusing to
acknowledge what we are, God in his love,
in his grace, will keep his finger on
the spot and make sure that we know
that what we have done has displeased him.
And as soon as we acknowledge it, he'll
never mention it again.
As soon as we acknowledge it, as soon
as we say, Father, I've sinned.
Well, it says it.
If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That's Tyndale's translation.
The Avey changed it to confess, which has
all kinds of ritualistic and Anglican connotations, but
the word is acknowledge.
It literally means saying the same thing as.
If you say the same thing as God,
if God puts his finger on something in
your life, you say the same thing as
God has said.
You acknowledge it.
You own up to it.
And the moment you own up to it,
that is the end of your responsibility in
it.
Just apportion responsibility in this verse, will you?
Just apportion responsibility in this verse.
Tell me who is supposed to do what?
If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
What's your responsibility in that?
Acknowledge our sins.
The rest is God's responsibility.
The rest is his.
It's the trigger that morally, if we can
use that, of God releases him to be
able to do all that was in his
heart.
To cleanse and forgive and to make new.
It goes on in verse 5, The Lord
has opened mine ear.
I was not, He wakens morning by morning.
He wakens mine ear to hear as one,
as the learned.
The Lord has opened mine ear.
That word opened is the word that in
Psalm 22 is translated pierced.
They pierced my hands and my feet.
And here it says, He has pierced my
ear.
Now, what do you think all that is
about?
Well, I haven't got the time to go
into it, but just read around the story
of the giving of the law from Exodus
chapter 20.
I think it's probably in chapter 20 or
chapter 21.
And you'll hear a story of what was
to happen to someone who was a slave
but had the right to be free.
He had the right to be free.
He'd come to the end of his period
of service or his master had released him
in some way and he was now able
to go free.
But if he chose, he could plainly say,
there had to be no doubt about this,
he could plainly say, I love my master.
I will not go out free.
And if he plainly said that that was
the way he wanted to live his life,
they took the slave and they took him
by the ear, I suppose, and they put
his ear on the wooden door post and
they pushed a nail through it.
I'm using the word nail for a purpose.
They pushed a nail through it.
They pierced his ear as a way of
saying really that this man's ear belongs to
his master forever.
You know, the one who has your ear
has you.
Who do you listen to?
The one who has your ear has you.
This is a man saying, I don't want
to be my own.
I don't want to exercise my rights.
I don't want to go out free.
I love my master.
So they put this brand in his ear.
They pierced him as a way of saying
that for the whole of his life upon
the earth, he would belong to somebody else.
He would not please himself.
He would not do his own thing.
He would be someone else's servant.
The Lord hath pierced my ear.
I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
When they finally pierced his hands, it was
just the outward expression of something that had
always been.
He'd lived a pierced life.
His whole life had been pierced.
He'd always been at somebody else's will.
You know, if you crucify someone, your hands
can no longer do what you want to
do and your feet can no longer go
where you want to go.
You are utterly at the mercy of someone
else's will.
But he chose that.
And all through his life, he lived it
at the mercy of someone else's will.
And there is a seed in us which
can take the same path.
You can use, you can walk this way
if you will.
If you will.
That we should show forth the praises of
his name.
That all that intention that was in the
seed is now passed on through those who
have the seed.
So that they may be equipped to be
what God intended us to be.
But it's both nature and nurture.
It's both heredity and the choices concerning your
environment.
He will not impose this upon you.
If you would be my disciple, you take
up your cross.
He didn't say you're going to get this
whether you like it or not.
He said, if you would be my disciple,
you must make these choices.
There is in us by a new seed,
a new instinct, a new ability to live
in an entirely different way to the way
that we have ever lived our lives.
If we will live in that way, we'll
know the blessing of God upon us.
I'm just looking for a verse of Scripture
if my eye drops on it.
Verse 20 of chapter 59.
Chapter 59, verse 20.
Let's go back a verse, shall we?
And pick up this verse as well.
So shall they fear the name of the
Lord from the west, and his glory from
the rising of the sun.
When the enemy shall come in like a
flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall raise,
lift up a standard against him.
And the Redeemer shall come to Zion.
And unto them that turn from transgression in
Jacob, saith the Lord.
As for me, it is God speaking, this
is my covenant with them, saith the Lord.
My spirit that is upon thee, and my
words which I have put in thy mouth,
shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor
out of the mouth of thy seed, nor
out of the mouth of thy seed's seed,
saith the Lord.
From henceforth and forever.
The generation of Jesus Christ.
A new generation, born of the same seed,
living the same life, glorifying the same Father.
Not a pipe dream, not an impossible thing
just to wish for, but something that God
has made gloriously possible by his Spirit within
our hearts.
Let's pray.
The Lord Jesus said something that's very key
about judging.
Later on in John's Gospel, chapter 5, we
didn't get to it, but he just said
this.
He said, I judge, and my judgment is
just because I seek not my own will.
When he made his judgments, he wasn't judging
in a way which set him above somebody.
He wasn't judging in a way that made
him feel superior.
He wasn't conscious of his own thing in
it.
It wasn't his own will he sought.
It was the will of him that sent
him.
If the Lord is speaking to our hearts,
brothers and sisters, let's just hear what God
is saying.
Let's hear what the Spirit of God is
saying to the churches.
And if there's been in the pattern of
our life uncoverings and the pointing of the
finger and judgings, well, if we confess our
sin, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sin and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.
It's the work of a moment to acknowledge
what God is saying in your heart.
It's the word of a moment to say
the same thing as He is saying.
And it's the work of a moment to
clear it entirely by the one who says,
your sins and your iniquities I will remember
no more.
He won't hold it against you.
O Lord, we do lift our hearts to
You.
Lord, in our weariness, Lord, sometimes we may
lift our hearts and we may say, who
is sufficient for these things?
Who can live this kind of life?
But our sufficiency is of God.
And You have given to us exceeding great
and precious promises.
And You have made all grace available to
us.
And You have given us all things that
pertain to life and godliness.
And You have, and You have, and You
have.
And if we will, Lord, we shall fulfill
all Your will.
I do pray, Lord, that in the accumulation
of all our knowledge, help us, Lord, not
to get puffed up by it all.
Pierce it, Lord.
If it's being puffed up, pierce it.
Bring it down with a big bang, if
need be.
But just pierce everything that gets puffed up.
Pierce it, Lord, and let us be real.
And enable us, as You will, to live
this life which glorifies You.
O God, Lord, this ability to surrender every
right, to live the pierced life that claims
nothing for itself, but says, I'm another's.
I cannot go where I would have gone.
Another's will, another life.
O Lord, Lord, Father,
glorify Your Son.
This seed which will serve You, Lord, let
it flourish.
Let it spring into all its ripe fruitfulness.
Let men see it.
Let them taste it.
Let them taste the consequences of this life,
Lord, and know that there's something different from
all the tarnished, tawdry, spoiled things that they've
spent their days on.
Let them know that there's another realm, another
kingdom, another seed, another God whose hands are
pierced and open and stretched out to them.
O Lord, O Lord, we would please Thee,
Lord, but not ourselves.
This life, Lord, that we have come to
love, that was laid down for us, let
it spring up to the glory of God.
Let all the promises of God in Him
be yea.
And amen to the glory of God by
us, Lord, even by us.
Amen.