The Election of the Servant

Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; . . . . (Isaiah 42:1)

The Servant of the Lord is a called Man, a chosen vessel. The meaning of the term church is called-out , that is, called out from the world, from the nations of the earth. Each person who will ride with Christ in the Day of the Lord is first called, then chosen, then faithful. The calling of the Lord comes first (Revelation 17:14).

The scriptural concept of election, of calling, does not signify that no matter what we do, how faithfully we serve God, we have been assigned a predetermined destiny. The Scriptures teach clearly that each individual will be rewarded according to his own works (Revelation 22:12).

The record of the entire Scriptures plus our Christian experience inform us that many events and things in the world come about in response to our prayers or lack of them, our obedience or lack of it. We do not teach passivity, fatalism, or inevitability.

A spirit of inevitability has in some instances settled on the Christian people. The Antichrist is coming! We are going to be raptured! Why become too concerned about personal holiness, about overcoming sin and self-will, about the unifying and maturing of the Body of Christ, about making disciples from the people of the nations, teaching them to obey the Word of Christ, about our personal ministry? What is going to happen will happen. Why make the effort? We are saved by grace in any case!

The spirit of inevitability is the opposite of the admonitions and promises of the Scriptures. It has settled on the churches because of the lack of prayer, lack of faith, ignorance of the Scriptures, and love of the world.

The saints need to stir themselves and take hold of God in the present hour. It seems clear that God's people have been lured into deception concerning the role of the Church in the end-time.

We hope we have made clear our position concerning a fatalistic, passive, inevitable approach to the matters of God's Kingdom. Having done that, let us go on to discuss the Divine election of the Servant of the Lord.

The Scriptures teach, both in the Old Testament and the New, that God knows precisely what He is doing. He could have prevented the sin that took place in the garden of Eden. God is not bound by any thing, person, or spirit. God does what He will in the heavens and on the earth. No person or spirit can by any means hinder God or call Him to account for His behavior in any area.

God is God!

God is working in terms of His own purpose. His purpose is directing the course of history. If that were not the case it would not be possible for a person to prophesy of the future. We have the Book of Revelation that outlines for us the events of the future all the way to the new heaven and earth reign of Christ. Could that be possible if God did not have perfect knowledge and were not in control of all people, events, and things?

Abraham is the father of all true members of Christ. The Seed of Abraham is Christ - Head and Body. Abraham was a called-out man. Paul refers to the calling of Abraham when he teaches the meaning of the grace of God given to us under the new covenant. When we can see clearly the picture of Abraham being called out of Ur of the Chaldees and being made the father of many nations, then we can understand what it means to be saved by grace and not by works.

Archaeological findings suggest that Ur of the Chaldees was an important city of its day. Apparently there were many people living there. The Scriptures give no indication Abraham and his family were any different in behavior from the other citizens of Ur.

On what basis, then, did God call out Abraham and his family and assign such significance to them? Why was Abraham given the opportunity to become the father of all who believe in Christ? Why did the Lord promise Abraham that his Seed would be as the stars of the heaven for multitude, and then account him as righteous on the basis of his believing the promise of God?

The basis was, and yet is, the sovereign working of the Lord God among His creatures. When we can accept that the Lord saves us by His grace in a manner similar to His calling out of Abraham; that Divine grace operates in terms of election; that election works according to God's desires, will, and foreknowledge; then we can begin to grasp the principle that Israel always is a chosen nation; that each member of the Body of Christ, the Christian Church, the Wife of the Lamb, has been called out from the peoples of the world to be a person peculiarly God's own; that we have not chosen Christ but Christ indeed has chosen us (John 15:16).

This is why the Apostle Paul was so emphatic that the physical Jew is not necessarily the heir of Abraham. While the land and people of Israel are the only physical land and people that God has designated as belonging to Himself, it remains true that the Messianic inheritance always is by promise and cannot be given by physical birth. Christ is the only true Seed of Abraham. The members of Christ are revealed when the Spirit of God brings them to Christ.

The physical Israelites were removed from the Olive Tree, from Christ, after having sought the inheritance by the works of the Law in the wisdom and energy of the flesh, not by faith in God. The elect Gentiles have received Christ by faith in the promise of God. God has shown favor to the Gentiles in order to provoke Israel, His own chosen physical nation, to jealousy.

The Abrahamic inheritance always is by faith in the promise of God, according to God's election. If the inheritance came by our righteous endeavors we could boast of our own righteousness. But God has deemed all men to be in sin and unbelief in order that He may show mercy to those to whom He has chosen to show mercy. Let us, therefore, cease from our own works and press into the rest of God, into the perfect will of God, into the place of abiding in Christ.

Having grasped the principle of grace operating through election and through our faith in the promise of God, our task is to lay hold firmly upon the promise in order that we may press on toward our inheritance with every bit of our attention and energy.

We make certain of our calling by following after Christ with singleness of heart and purpose. If we do this we will not fail to attain the inheritance. But if we are indifferent toward our election we may discover some day that God has given our place to another. Remember Esau!

Whenever we consider the life and testimony of one of God's heroes of faith, whether Jacob, Moses, Gideon, Samson, Elisha, John the Baptist, or Paul, we can see the grace of God working through election. The Scriptures are not a record of holy people seeking God. The Scriptures are a record of Almighty God reaching down from Heaven and calling out people according to His own purpose and grace.

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, (Hebrews 1:1)

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ before the world began, (II Timothy 1:9)

The Servant of the Lord is an elect Man, a chosen vessel. Every member of the Servant of the Lord was designated before the events of the first chapter of Genesis came into being. When we do the work of the Lord we do not just march forth, the results springing up through means of our own wisdom and energy. Rather we go out seeking the mind of the Spirit of God who, in turn, is working in terms of the will of the Father. Isn't this what the Book of Acts teaches us?

. . . And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (Acts 2:47)

Notice (verse above) that as the Apostles and the remainder of the church did the will of God, the Lord Himself added souls to their number - and He did so on a daily basis.

And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48)

The above verse reveals the role of God's sovereignty in the imparting of belief to hearers of the Word of God.

Notice also:

Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not {did not permit them}. (Acts 16:6,7)

For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. (Acts 18:10)

Consider the expression, "I have much people in this city."

The Christian Church consists of called-out saints. In the above passage we can observe that the Lord has people whom He has called and that He knows who they are and where they are: "I have much people in this city." God knows what He is doing.

The Servant of the Lord already is perfect and glorified in the sight of God. "Behold My Servant, whom I uphold." " Behold Him," God commands us, "because I have called Him in righteousness. I will hold His hand, and will keep Him, and give Him for a covenant of the people, for a light of the nations of the earth."

The glorification of the saints is in the past tense: "Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Romans 8:30).

God "calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Romans 4:17).

God never is confused. He knows exactly what He is doing with every person. God is in control of all people and all events. God is far greater than any of us can conceive at this time.

The Servant of the Lord is an elect Personage. Each member of the Servant of the Lord, of the Body of Christ, has been Divinely called to this office.

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (John 15:16)

For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: (I Corinthians 1:26)

It can be a help to our pursuit of Christ when we begin to understand the sovereignty of God in the building of the Kingdom of God. There is a plan. There is a design. God knows precisely what He is accomplishing with every creature in Heaven and on the earth, down to the smallest sparrow.

What is our part, then, if God is sovereign in the plan of redemption? Our part is to lay hold on that for which we have been grasped by Christ. God came to us when we were in the bondage of the devil and opened our eyes to the blood of the cross. God came to us. The Holy Spirit moved on us and we were convicted of sin. At that point we could have refused to repent. We could have hardened our heart. The choice was ours.

So it is with all points of growth along the way. Redemption always is an opportunity we can refuse or grasp. God initiates an outpouring of grace on us. The Holy Spirit brings an assigned portion to us. When the grace comes, the calling to a higher, better place in God, we can answer yes, or no. We consider the cost. We weigh the reward of Christ against our comforts and desires. We then cast all else aside and follow the will of Christ or else we cling to the things of the world.

Each believer chooses to lose his life in Christ or to save it in the world.

God constantly is challenging us and inviting us to a deeper relationship with Himself. Each day abiding in Christ becomes more demanding. We constantly are making up our mind, day by day, whether or not we wish to lay hold on the fullness of the grace of God.

Meanwhile the Spirit of Christ keeps on saying, "You are mine! You are mine!"

Many Christian people are wandering in the wilderness of confusion, unable to make up their mind concerning the pull of the Holy Spirit on them. Others are hardening their heart, being unwilling to go any further with God because of the death to self that is involved.

But the victorious saints, the conquerors, are wasting no time in indecision. They are pressing on! Pressing on! Pressing on! When God invites, they respond. They are insistent on attaining the fullness of the Glory of God. They go straight to the goal fixed in their heart.

There are two great dynamics involved in the formation of the Servant of the Lord. The first dynamic is the power and wisdom of God who reaches down and calls the individual into God's plan for his or her life. The second dynamic is the will of the believer as he keeps on choosing to grasp Christ, or else as he wanders in the wilderness of the world without being able to make any clear, stable decision with respect to the drawing of the Holy Spirit toward the holiness of God.

"A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." It is impossible for a person to remain in indecision and at the same time pursue God's highest plan for his life. We must make up our mind to perform the will of Christ. Christ will not wait forever for us to decide to forsake the world and follow Him.

There is power in the Word of God - unbelievably great, universal, galaxy-creating power. Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Almighty contains more power than we are able to comprehend.

God's Word is absolutely powerful, trustworthy, eternal. It cannot be changed by any other force. Everything God has proclaimed shall come to pass in its entirety.

God has announced:

. . . all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

"All things"! There is no exception. It requires faith to believe in the word all .

The condition is that we love God.

God calls people out of the world. Every true saint has been called out of the world by the Spirit of God.

The people of God, true Israel, always are a called-out nation. God chooses whom He will and calls them to approach unto Himself. God does the selecting.

God has a specific purpose. We have been called according to that purpose. God's purpose is in Christ. The fullness of God's purpose is known to no one other than God Himself. It is a design, a plan hidden in the mind of the Father. There are many parts of the plan that are a complete mystery to the angels. God is working all things according to the counsel of His own will.

What is the "good" for which all things are working together? The good consists of the fulfillment of the Divine promises concerning the Seed of Abraham. The promises include the fullness of fruitfulness, the fullness of dominion over the enemies of Christ, and the fullness of blessing for the nations of the earth.

Of even greater importance in the purpose of God is the creating of the fullness of the image of Christ in the brothers of Jesus.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be changed into the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29)

God possesses foreknowledge. He knows in advance what will take place. The time through which God is able to look ahead is so vast we humans can by no means conceive of it. To envision the events of thousands of years in the future is as nothing to God. The specificity of detail included in the Divine foreknowledge is another element we cannot comprehend. He numbers the hairs of our head.

God can see into the future at His will and in detail. God knows what is going to happen in the future concerning every creature, every thing, every environment in existence.

Christ remains unique, being the Word of God from the beginning. Now God is using Christ as the goal, the pattern, the standard of excellence. The Word of God has proceeded from the Father: there shall be "many sons" created in the image of Christ.

God will fulfill His part of the covenant. Unless the believer decides he has had enough pain, enough deferral of his desires, enough interference with his life, and removes himself from the program, the Word of God will work until there has occurred a perfect, complete transformation into the image of Christ.

Christ's brothers will be in His image, of His Substance, or else they will not be His brothers.

The promise is to whoever is willing to respond. The brothers of the Lord Jesus are not an exclusive group of exceptional Christians. To be in the image of Christ is the calling of every member of the Church of Christ, the Body of Christ, the Servant of the Lord.

We do not look to ourselves or trust in ourselves that we can do anything at all. We trust only in the Word of God to accomplish the purpose of God in us and through us.

Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)

He predestined. He called. He justified. He glorified.

This is the sovereign Word and work of God Almighty. Until we absorb deeply into our consciousness the sovereignty of God in the building of the Kingdom of God we cannot find the rest of abiding in Christ. God often works in a manner so contrary to our understanding of what is appropriate, necessary, and desirable that we worry continually concerning our personal welfare and the adequacy of the work of redemption in the earth.

The question keeps coming to us: "Can these bones live?" The only answer is: "O Lord God, thou knowest."

God knows what He is doing. God is in control. His response to the insane desire of people to cast off His restraints is to laugh. We may be fretting ourselves concerning wickedness but God is laughing.

God is not laughing at the misery of the prisoners of the earth. He understands every pain, every tear, every experience of terror, anguish, and futility. God cares about people, about His offspring in the earth. God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son for us.

But God laughs in derision at the rebellious kings and rulers of the earth, both the human rulers and the angelic rulers. Woe to the rulers of the earth when God ceases to laugh and begins to tread the winepress of His wrath! In that Day only our position in Christ will shield us from certain destruction.

We have been predestined for glory. We have been called to be saints (holy ones). We have been declared to be righteous. In the sight of God we have been glorified although we do not as yet see the state of glorification accomplished in us. But God sees us perfect and complete. This is why the Spirit of Christ exclaims, "Behold my servant"!

The Servant of the Lord already has been perfected in the mind of God.

We have been called, justified, and glorified according to the sovereign counsel of God's own will. Whether we come to actually experience glorification depends on our willingness to follow the Lord Jesus patiently in cross-carrying obedience, our willingness to cooperate with the Spirit of God as He produces holiness in us.

If we choose to live in the wisdom and appetites of the flesh we will die spiritually whether or not we have been predestined for eternal life. If we, on the other hand, sow to the Spirit of God, we will reap eternal life. Every believer in Christ is living either in the wisdom and appetites of the flesh or else in the Spirit of God.

If we yield to our fleshly nature we will receive the wages of sin, which is physical and spiritual death. But if we Christians follow on to know the Lord, then the reward of eternal resurrection life, of glorification in spirit, soul, and body, will be ours.

Each member of the Body of Christ has been predestined for glory, having been pronounced righteous by the Lord. If he works with the Holy Spirit in dying to the love of the world, in putting to death the deeds of the fleshly nature, and is willing to die the death of stern obedience to the will of God, he will be able to attain glorification.

• Death to the love of the world.
• Death to the appetites and lusts of the fleshly nature.
• Death to self-will, self-centeredness, and self-love.

When all has been completed he then is eligible for the fullness of the inheritance promised to the Seed of Abraham.