A beautiful picture of what service is! Service is always declared by what is done. Here, there was a wise woman and a house; and the house told what her work was. You do not see her; but you look at the house, and you see the wisdom of the woman who orders it.
The wise woman, in that sense, is an illustration of the assembly; I do not see the internal organisation of the assembly, but I see the effect of it. I see the house, and the ordering of the house tells of the mind of the Lord. It is said of the woman - that is, in ordinary circumstances - she should be a housekeeper. That does not mean a stayer at home, but she is one who really looks after the affairs of the house. She might stay at home always, and yet not mind the house. I have read this scripture because it gives you a picture of service, not that I am going to interpret it, or attempt it, but I will refer to one or two great characteristics connected with it.
In that sense it is a beautiful picture, because I look at what you do; not at what you assume to be. Your works are to praise you in the gate. "The fire shall, try every man's work" - not what the man thinks he is, or says he is, but "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is". I have no doubt, if the body, the assembly had been true to its organisation, the house would have been kept in order. If the internal machinery - if I may use the word - went on thoroughly right, that which is visible would be indicative of the harmony and order of the internal organisation. As with a clock; you do not see the machinery, but you see the effect of it, whether it is right or not, whether it keeps good time or not. What I see is properly called the house; what I do not see is the body, and that is the vital energy in the house; that which is in living association with the Head, and acts correspondingly to Him, and effects the result that is according to His pleasure. There are two great characteristic marks of this wise woman, and they sum up our own service; she fed and clothed her household: food and clothing.
Of course they are only emblems; but they answer to the action of divine grace in the perfect ministry of our blessed Lord. Of Him it is said, "No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ the assembly". The one is inward; the other is outward: food and warmth; the two things, as every one knows, that a babe requires. And no matter how great or wealthy a man is, two comforts are essential, namely, food and raiment; on these two things he is dependent: all his surroundings, without them, would be as nothing. The Lord nourishes us all, but I am not so sure that we all know the cherishing; we do not submit to it. "He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee", Psalm 81: 16. It is a great thing to get hold of principles; and the first great principle that I desire to bring before you, as describing true service, is that it is established in righteousness.
We are all the bondmen of Jesus Christ; simply accept that, and it will be a great help to you. Has Christ the right to you? to all yours? Yes; you are His slave. Paul delights to call himself bondslave. People in their natural amiability talk of the emancipation of slaves, but they carry it much farther, they emancipate themselves. There is a very great claim connected with being a slave. Your master has full right over you. All yours belongs to the Lord. If you are a slave, you cannot claim anything for yourself. Well, this is a great principle to get hold of, and you will never understand service till you do. Very often we act as if we thought we were volunteers, that we may serve or not, just as we please. Not at all! you are slaves and have no option. I shall be able to bring another reason for service presently, but I start with righteousness. If you are a slave, you have no right to do anything but at the dictation of your master.
"You are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body". He has bought us - therefore He is the Saviour of the body in that sense - and you ought to be glad He has, and the more you dwell on it, the more pleased you will be to be His slave. It would be a good answer to give to every one who asks, Why do you do so-and-so? I am doing it righteously, I am Christ's bondman to do His pleasure; not what I like, but what He likes. That is the first great principle. To establish this, I turn now to 1 Corinthians 7: 22-23, "He that is called in the Lord, being a servant" [slave] "is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men". It says in the previous verse, If a man can be made free, "use it rather". A private, or common soldier, sells himself for a period of time and cannot get free, but an officer can get free if he likes. I only refer to this because sometimes we hear, "I cannot get free". No: because you do not like to obtain your freedom at a great sacrifice. The first thing, and it is of paramount importance, is, that you are Christ's slave, you are bought with a price; as I have said, even your children do not belong to you. You should be glad that you are a slave, because He is such a wonderful Master.
I see where believers fail. They do not start with the fact, that they have a Master who has a full right over their whole life. It is not what you think you can spare Him, this or that. If you are honestly and fairly in His hands as His slave, you may be quite certain He will take much better care of you than you could take of yourself. In fact, as far as we can gather from Scripture, a saint does not suffer from want of food and clothing, except for service or chastening. As another has said, I never knew of anyone who was cast wholly on the Lord, reduced to actual want, except one who lived on nettles for three days, and he had been in prison for the Lord's service.
He added, You are hardly up to that yet; that is, we are not sufficiently devoted to be allowed to suffer the greater privations. Paul said, "In hunger and thirst", "in cold and nakedness". Well then, you start with the great fundamental principle, you are Christ's slave, bought with a price; and if you are an honest man you will carry it out in everything. People talk of fidelity, but do they begin with fidelity to Christ? If you are virtuous, "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her". If you are not right with Christ, be sure you are feeble elsewhere, and all the way down. If you are not right at the top, how can you be right anywhere else? How can you expect a child not straight to his father and mother, to be straight to his brothers and sisters? to be straight to you? It could not be. But is that all? No; He looks for you to be a trusty servant.
"The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her". Can there be anything more beautiful? Thus Abraham was called the friend of God. I know Christ is my friend; thank God, He is: but I often wish I could say, I knew I was His friend more definitely. "Henceforth", the Lord says, "I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you". He does not surrender His claim by giving the servant a higher position. Service, then, is established in righteousness. Now turn to Romans 12, and you will see another thing. Thank God, I was led in anywise to think of serving the Lord. The first thing that attracted my heart from my very youth was that I must serve the Lord.
I know very well how I have neglected it, and wavered from it; but the Lord never lets slip from you a real purpose of your heart; no matter how many years you may be, as it were, unattached, still He keeps it in mind, and as sure as possible, it will come, and this is an immense comfort to one's heart. Now in Romans 12 what do you find? That your body is to be a living sacrifice. Why? Look at the end of chapter 6. The old man, the flesh, is dispossessed. And who dispossessed him? Christ. And what then? "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions" [mercies] "of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice". It is your reasonable service, it is not a legal service. The body is the Lord's. I say, if you do not believe this, you will never understand service. But now I turn to another point, one of immense importance - where am I to begin? Here I am a servant; I know I am a slave of Christ, I know my body is His, and I see that for myself I must forsake all that I have, and I say, Now where am I to begin?
Well, it is of immense importance where you begin. I know very well if I look round at Christendom where they begin, and I know where the tendency of all our hearts is to begin. I thought in my younger days, that there was no way of serving the Lord but by being a clergyman, that I must go into the church, as the saying is. Now that is a right idea in itself, though I do not say it is rightly carried out. Some of you may wonder why I say that going into the church was a right idea, but if you read these verses, 4-5, they will explain it to you. Where do you begin then? With the body of Christ.
"For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another". You must begin there, begin at the top. You say, But I am Christ's servant. Yes, but you are a member of His body. We are speaking now, of what I may call the internal machinery - the works of a clock - that is, the organisation of the body which produces a result that is seen in the house. Just like the wise woman in Proverbs 31. If the woman went on wisely, the house was a beautiful exhibition of her ability - a great testimony. Consequently her husband was known in the gates. I do not dwell more upon this, still it is a great point to get hold of this fourth verse; I begin with the body, but I extend beyond it, "Do good unto all men, especially unto them that are of the household of faith". But you begin with the body, and it is a great thing to begin right. Every good gift is from above, and comes down. I do not, now, go any further than Romans, and I am speaking of where service begins. But now turn to Ephesians 4, and I come to another point in connection with service. Here, again, I find what the beginning is connected with - the assembly; the first thing is to walk worthy of the vocation. I am called to "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace"; that is the first thing. I hope I shall be able to make it clearer to you presently, that if you are in association with Christ, in His presence in the midst of His own, you will get light as to that which is nearest to His heart; but I say this with reference to service - as of one coming out from His presence to reflect Him here. The first service is, "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace". Or to take the figure of Proverbs 31, the wise woman must be in health, or she will never keep things in order. I do everything to contribute to her health, and that is "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace". Now I come to gifts for service, which Ephesians unfolds. In Romans we get more our responsibility than special gifts, that which is common to every one, "showing mercy with cheerfulness".
There is not one in this room who could not practise that grace. Picking up a little child out of the gutter would be "showing mercy with cheerfulness". To prophesy is the first, and you might say the highest; but I would rather have the last without the first, than the first without the last; it would be a poor thing to be a prophet and not to show mercy with cheerfulness; and what makes it so beautiful is, that it is a service within the reach of everybody, even a child. A child with only one penny may go and give it to a needy person, and show mercy with cheerfulness. But in Ephesians I come to special gifts, and verse 12 shows what they are for: "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ". In Christendom they separate between the servant and the church, instead of making the church the actual common object of the servant. Here if I am an evangelist, I am working for the assembly as much as the teacher, but in another way. All have to do with the Lord, the Head, but they conspire to this one great end "the perfecting of the saints". As the apostle says, "I endure all things for the elect's sake" - they are prominent. If I am an evangelist, what am I looking for? I am searching the world round - sweeping the house diligently to find the silver piece, and not merely in order to find it, but when I have found it, to put it with the other nine. But how can you, if you do not know where the other nine are? But that is exactly what happens in Christendom, they do not know where they are. But in Matthew 13, what do I find? that those who drew the net also selected the fish, and put the good into vessels; that is not in heaven, but on earth. As Paul said, "I have planted". Here in Ephesians 4, the great point is, That special gifts are given from the Head, and not merely the service which is the duty of every man, as you get in 1 Corinthians 12,
"The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal". It is not given for yourself, it is given for the benefit of all; as lower down in this chapter, in verse 16, "compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part". If you are not acting in the Spirit, you are damaging the whole assembly; you may think the loss is only to yourself individually, but you are not an individual sufferer, you are making me suffer; I do not know how, but I am suffering from you because we are members of the one body. In connection with special gifts, it is an interesting question, though I cannot say much upon it, when a person gets a gift. I do not think that it is necessarily at conversion.
We know gifts were given after conversion. The apostle Paul was to be a minister and a witness of the things he had seen. His gift increased. But I want to bring before you that as the gift comes from Christ, it is not simply that you have the gift, but you must learn from Him the proper sphere for that gift; it must be in relation to Him. For instance, I take one whom we all speak of with honour, I mean Luther; I do not think, great as his gift was, that he was with the Lord in the midst of His own, that he knew Him there, so as to use his gift in relation to Christ's chief interest on earth. In fact, in one sense, no one does unless he is in association with Him. It is only there I can get true direction; how can I get it outside? I require to be in communion with my Lord in His circle of interest, if I would be directed and influenced by Him. I have no doubt there is a great deal more gift than is in exercise; but if you present your body a living sacrifice, your gift will come out. Many a one is hindered by other things which monopolise him instead of Christ, and the gift does not come out. The gift is from Christ, and if you are not upright to Christ, to whom will you be upright? If you are not faithful to God, I could not believe that you are faithful to anybody; and I have seen it over and over again amongst Christians. One passage of scripture is enough to settle the matter. I will quote now the Lord's words in John 20.
"As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you". They were sent out from that place. And I have a wonderful sense if I am working from the Head, of the circle of His interest; and it is His interest I seek. If I am an evangelist, well, I have my gift from Christ, and I find He has sent me for the assembly, though my work is to seek for lost souls in the world. I go for Christ, as an ambassador for Christ. Do you think that makes you a worse evangelist? No. I claim souls for Christ, I come from Christ I have my commission from Christ, and there is no place I get so established as to my gift as in the assembly. And I do not doubt at all that many a gifted person is not established in the Lord's presence. The case of Moses will illustrate my meaning. No doubt he knew he was called of God, but when did he come out in power, in the real sense that he was to act for God? Not till he saw the burning bush. And I believe that was what I may call his ordination; that is, that he got a peculiar knowledge of the Lord in that burning bush, and of His grace. This grace was to mark his ministry all the way through; and therefore the greatest blessing he could give, which he gave to Joseph, was "the blessing of him that dwelt in the bush". It was the same with Isaiah; but I put it to anyone who really understands that he has received anything from the Lord - where did you get that confirmed? Where did you get His mind about it? You must be in the Lord's presence, in His own circle, to apprehend His mind respecting your gift, because it is given "for the perfecting of the saints". It is not given for people to say, That man is a great preacher, not at all. You are Christ's servant, and you are appointed to the sphere of the service, as well as to the object of it. And what is the object? The perfecting of the saints. An evangelist? Yes; how could they be perfected if they were not converted? Then an evangelist is a very responsible person. Yes. Hence Paul, the one who had the greatest interest in the assembly, was the greatest evangelist that ever was upon this earth. Do not imagine they clash; they ought not; when they clash, it is because you are separating what God has joined together. And that is where Christendom is astray. The evangelical work is paramount, for results are looked for. You are not living by faith when you are dependent on results. The first temptation - see Luke 4 - is, use your means; act independently of God. The second is, accept a slice of the world. Then if you have any conscience you will want results before men, some evidence that God is on your behalf. If I have faith in God I do not want any evidence. If you depart from faith you will become worldly, and then you will seek results in order to prove that God is working with you. Next I look at Acts 13: 2. Here you find Saul and Barnabas in the assembly.
"As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them". This occurred in the assembly. I have no doubt that we have failed here much. We have too little connected the assembly with service. I am quite certain the better we understand the Lord in the midst of His assembly, the better we shall understand the character of the service we should render, and the time for it. It is in the assembly I see Him in His own circle, in the things which belong to Him, and there it is I understand my proper relation to Him. I lay a stress upon it. Here are these men, Barnabas and Saul, highly gifted, but where did they get a right direction for their service? In the assembly. The Holy Spirit is the Person who is acting for Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the only means by which the communication can be made. He says,
"Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them". A passage I will not leave out in this connection is 1 Timothy 4: 14: "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery". The presbytery means the elders. It was as much as saying, We all go with you. I desire to get your heart into the sense that if I want to get right direction from the Lord, it is in the assembly I am to get it. It is not a question of gift. I get the gift absolutely from the Lord, but He directs me in relation to His own. I do not think we understand the assembly, and the presence of the Lord sufficiently. The presence of the Lord now introduces us into the holiest. "I went into the sanctuary of God" does not mean His presence in your own room; the antitype of that is the assembly. I do not think we have a sufficient idea of the wonderful nature of the assembly. I meet the Lord in the midst of His own; I never have His presence in the same way in my own room as in the assembly. The truth I have learned in my own room, comes out in a much fuller way in the assembly. The next thing I would speak of is, How do I know the right thing to do? That is a very crucial question with every one, and ought to be - indeed there is never progress where there is not exercise, and the more exercise the better.
I am the Lord's servant; I desire to know the right thing to do. I turn to the end of Luke 10, a familiar passage, about Martha and Mary. The question is, Is it the opportunity that is to direct me as to my service? or, is it the Lord who is to direct me? I know you will say the Lord. Here are Martha and Mary, two sisters, and Martha says, a great Guest has come to the house, the occasion indicates to me that I should provide for Him. Well, she is cumbered about much serving, and that is always the case when I am occupied about my own line of things. It was the human idea; and there is nothing we suffer from more than from the human idea. Mary sits at the Lord's feet and hears His word, and the Lord says of her: "One thing is needful, and Mary has chosen that good part". Not "better part", which is the popular way of reading it, and shows how little it is understood. She had chosen that good part, the right thing; she is learning the mind of the Lord. And I do not see how you can have a right idea of what the Lord would like, if you are not in His company. It is not looking for a text. No doubt the Lord meets the faith of the child in this way. But you cannot know His mind unless you are beside Him. As I am sitting at His feet, listening to His word, I get wisdom from Him and I come from Him. It is not the occasion that directs you, if you are really with the Lord, He will lead you aright. It is a wonderful thing - here am I left in the scene of the man who does not understand one thing about God, and I have to carry out everything according to God! If I were quite clear of the man contrary to God, there would not be the difficulty; but my thwarted will is constantly going out or popping up to do this or that. No; it was not direction with Martha, and Martha's way is the way generally service is done. "One thing is needful". What was needful? She studies Me. We all know what it is to be exercised about service - shall I go and visit this person? shall I do this or that? Surely it is not right to be indolent, but activity in itself is nothing.
"The way of the righteous shall be made plain"; it does not say, 'the way of the active'; but there is a great difference between the way of the righteous and the way of the slothful. Saints in general are occupied with the occasion. I desire to press that it is not the occasion which is to direct me; it is the Lord. I consult Him. It is a great thing to be able to stand waiting for orders. What greater favour can there be than to be employed by the Lord? The servants of the crown are the highest men in the country; what can be greater than to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ? And I have no doubt the Lord would rather I did some little thing in concert with Him than do some of the finest works done today apart from Him. Next, and it is a very cheering thing and I often feel it a great comfort, that the very highest service is that which is most pleasing to the one who loves Christ.
"If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am there shall also my servant be". Can there be anything more attractive? Everyone can understand what it is to be a friend, though you are a servant. Numbers 18: 2: "And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness". Every one of us is a Levite as well as a priest. We are priests, but the priest is inside with God; and it is remarkable that when the priests were consecrated, there is not a word about anything outside: it is all inside with God; I was very much struck with this. What is the priest when he comes out? The Levite; and the Levite had plenty to do. See the Kohathite, and what the range of his service was - from the ark of the covenant to the altar outside. He could not say he took up one part and left the other. The Levites had the pins and the bars, the boards and all the rest; they had to get material agency to come in and carry them, but they all had a service and were joined with the priests. I bring this in to show that your Levitical service ought to answer to your priestly service; you ought to come from communion, you ought to come outside from inside. I look now at another subject, and that is, the moral influence of the person who serves. Luke 11: 36:
"If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light". You are called to be lights in the world. The servant must be a reflection of the truth he presents. Someone has remarked, If you have not a good report, even of those who are without you cannot stand up boldly where you are defective. That is the practical meaning of the breastplate of righteousness. People could say to Peter, You denied the Lord. Yes; but I am not doing it now; I have on the breastplate of righteousness. And you cannot stand boldly otherwise. It is an immense thing for a servant to be in himself morally descriptive of what he presents. You get this presented by the apostle in the Philippians. "Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do". It was not only what they had heard, but what they had seen. I cannot think of anything more beautiful. Thus there is a moral weight about a person, he is characteristic of what he presents. It is beautifully set forth in Peter's epistle - even an ungodly husband can be won by the chaste conversation of the wife.
No doubt we should have a great deal more effect upon people, our families, and so forth, if there were more of the moral weight of divine grace about us; that is, in our manner of life. Paul says to Timothy, 1 Timothy 4: 12, "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in purity". He was to be an example. See how Christendom takes it up; Christendom enjoins upon a person a certain dress to show the sacredness of his office. Why should I not have that morally? Why should I not have that divine weight about me, that I should not require a mere external garb to command respect? The next thing I turn to is the manner you ought to have to those whom you serve - a manner which I think is very much neglected. It is not only what you are in yourself, but what you are to those you serve.
There is a greater thing than gift, and that is love - it is the nature of Christ. "Yet show I unto you a more excellent way", 1 Corinthians 12: 31. I see very often, a person who has not much gift, but who has love, that he surpasses the more gifted in service. Everyone may have love. I visit a sick person, and I feel that five minutes is as much as that person can bear. I do not think of myself at all and all that I could say; I might pour out a volume, but I am thinking of him. It is a consideration for him, I am losing sight of myself. Read 1 Thessalonians 2: 3-8 "For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. "For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness: nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.
"But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: so being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us".
See what a servant Paul was. Again, 2 Thessalonians 3: 7 "For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you". There is another quality of the servant that I will bring before you, that I may show you the apostle's character. It sums up the character of a servant. 2 Corinthians 12: 15:
"I will gladly spend and be spent for you". That is the right principle; that gives you the character. The only other point I will bring before you tonight is the reward for service. Turn to 1 sJohn 2: 28 . "And not be ashamed before him at his coming". That was as the servant in relation to them; it was not that they would be ashamed. It is the same idea as that of the apostle Paul: "My joy and crown". "Ye are our glory and joy". It is a very solemn subject, because if I am not acting with the Lord, my service is cumbering, and will not count at all.
"The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is". "For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad". There is only one verse more that I will quote: 2 John 8,
"Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward". That is, there should be no lack. I need not add more, but I commend to you the scripture I began with. It is a wonderful blessing to walk in thorough devotedness to Christ's interest.
The virtuous woman had only one thought, and the heart of her husband did safely trust in her. She was thinking entirely of his interests, and whether she sought her food from afar, or bought a field, or whatever she did, it was all for this purpose, and therefore it was, that her husband was known in the gates. She sought wool and flax, and worked willingly with her hands. She began with the raw material, then she spun and wove it, and finally sold it to the merchants. And the characteristic of her own manner of life was beautiful, her clothing was strength and honour, and the way in which she spoke was a wonderful mark of wisdom: "She openeth her mouth with wisdom"; that shows her heart is full of it. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh". Very often we say, a wise person closes his mouth with wisdom, or he may say a wise thing before he shuts it; but it is a great thing to hear a person open his mouth with wisdom. The Lord lead our hearts to understand how blessed it is to belong to Him. We do belong to the Lord; He has His interests on the earth, and we are to be occupied with His interests, and may He use us for His interests, for His name's sake.
