The Servant Fulfills the Purposes of God

Chapter IV. The Servant Fulfills the Purposes of God

This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise. (Isaiah 43:21)

God has some purposes of His own that He is pursuing. God is not plowing aimlessly on the face of the earth. The elements of the physical universe are not flying about randomly according to chance, especially not when those elements affect the people who have been called according to the eternal purposes of the Lord God of Heaven (Romans 8:28).

The hand of God is on mankind and all of nature. Not a sparrow plunges to the ground except that God knows every detail of the circumstances surrounding the fall.

The Church, the Body of Christ, is of special concern to God. The Lord has goals, purposes, outcomes toward which He is working. We Christians must understand that God does not exist for our pleasure; rather, we exist for His pleasure.

When we begin to grasp that God has goals toward which He is working in terms of His own desires we then are able to gain a true perspective concerning all that God is accomplishing through Christ.

God has placed His Word in the mouth of His Servant. He has covered His Servant in the shadow of His almighty hand. He has done so in order that He may accomplish His purposes: that the heavens may be planted with the Person and righteousness of Christ; that the foundations of the earth may be established on Christ; and that every one of God's elect may be reconciled totally to God through Christ in the bonds of love and complete trust.

It is the responsibility and task of the Servant of the Lord to accomplish these three goals. They are being pursued as the history of the Christian Church progresses and will be brought into tremendous power and glorification when Christ returns with His saints.

Every truly born-again believer, the individual who has been forgiven and touched with eternal life, is raised to God's right hand, as we have stated previously. The task of the Christian life is to maintain that which has been declared to be true of us. If we do not press forward after our initial experience of salvation we will lose what was given to us in Christ. This is the warning of the Book of Hebrews.

For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; (Hebrews 3:14)

The above verse means that our being saved depends on our pursuing our discipleship throughout our lifetime. The Israelites died in the wilderness because they did not continue joyously in faith in God and His Word.

The believers of today are left with the impression that all the promises of the Scriptures belong to them by the mere fact that they have read them and assented to them as being Divinely given.

Our being established in Heaven at the right hand of God is not only a statement of Scripture but also an experience (sometimes agonizing) of new birth. The Church must travail in birth until Christ is formed in us. There is a difference between being conceived and being born.

Death and life! Death and life! Every day of our pilgrimage (if we are abiding in Jesus) a part of our adamic personality is brought down to death and in its place is produced a part of the Divine Life of Christ. It is when Christ is fully formed in us that we truly are born again in the mature sense; and as Christ is born in us He is caught up to the right hand of the Father (compare Revelation 12:2-5).

The concept that we must follow the Lord carefully in order to maintain what we have been given, that we must take care that our name is not blotted out of the Book of Life, is largely being ignored today. Perhaps the greatest error of our time is the idea that one cannot lose what is given at the time of accepting Christ.

The teachers who reject the numerous passages that warn the believers of the need to live an overcoming life are leading Christ's lambs to destruction. Such teachers and preachers will not escape the wrath of God. They are false prophets (Hebrews 2:3; Revelation 3:5).

There were two cherubim overshadowing the Ark of the Covenant. One cherub represents the goodness of God. The other cherub represents the severity of God. When the Lord's ministers do not stress the severity of God as well as the goodness of God they are misrepresenting God and are false prophets. Satan still is maintaining, "Ye shall not surely die."

Who could estimate how many people from the time of the resurrection of Christ have been elevated to the right hand of God? Doubtless it is a large number. Every one of them who has maintained his position in Christ is there, hidden with Christ in God - high above every other creature in the universe.

God is planting the heavens with Christ, including those who are of Christ and in Christ.

When Jesus appears, those who are hidden in Him will appear in glory with Him. Then the foundations of the earth will be laid, which is the second task of the Servant of the Lord. The Kingdom of God will be set up on the earth as the reigning authority and power, and all the nations of the saved will be shepherded with a rod of iron wielded by Christ and His saints.

God's will shall be performed in the earth as today it is being performed at God's right hand in Heaven, by Christ, by the elect angels, by those who are abiding in Christ and in whom He also abides.

The third assignment is to say to Zion, "Thou art my people." One of the main concerns expressed in Isaiah, and in the other Prophets, is the restoration of Israel, including those who are Israelites by physical birth as well as the Gentiles who have been grafted on the one true Vine.

For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:24-28)

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40:9-11)

The above passage reveals that the Lord's elect, the Israel of God, will be ministered to when Christ returns. Notice also that part of Israel ministers to the other part: "Zion" and "Jerusalem" point "the cities of Judah" toward the Lord.

The Servant of the Lord is Israel but also ministers to Israel. The strong help the weaker come to know the Lord until all Israel has been reconciled perfectly to God through Christ (Hebrews 8:11).

The concept of a remnant of Israel bringing victory to the remainder of the nation can be observed in Gideon's three hundred, in the victory of David over Goliath, and in the mighty men of David who were more capable in battle than was true of the rest of the nation.

Jesus declared that His Apostles would judge Israel:

And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matthew 19:28)

Here we have part of the elect judging the remainder of the elect.

The Kingdom of God is arranged in levels of closeness to God as symbolized by the multitude, the seventy, the twelve, and then the three on the Mount of Transfiguration. God ranks people in His Kingdom according to His will.

It is the author's point of view that our own day is especially significant in terms of the rulers, the nobility of the Kingdom of God. We think it is time to "take" the Kingdom and that many of those who are willing to follow Jesus in the face of Antichrist and the lawlessness of the last days will be first in the Kingdom.

It may be true that even the holy priesthood of the first resurrection will be divided into the firstfruits to God and the Lamb who sit as judges on the spiritual thrones that govern the universe, and the remainder of the victorious saints who rule as kings on the earth.

We derive this concept from the wording of Revelation 20:4; and also from the dividing of David's mighty men into the "three," and then the "thirty"; and the dividing of the twelve into the "three" of the Mount of Transfiguration, and then the remaining nine Apostles.

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)

First the thrones and those who sat on them; and then the remainder of the victorious saints.

The second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation make a distinction between those who overcome and those who do not overcome. The Scriptures are clear, both in type and in direct teaching, that there are ranks in the Kingdom of God. There are the hundredfold, the sixtyfold, and the thirtyfold.

It may be possible that "his arm" that will rule for Him refers to the victorious saints, the overcomers, while the "lambs" are those who need assistance in order to grow in Christ (Isaiah 40:10,11).

We believe that God will use the victorious saints to bring His elect to glory, to the fullness of the perfection of the new Jerusalem.

O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. (Isaiah 54:11-13)

God yet will bless and restore His chosen people, both Jews and Gentiles, for they constitute the one Israel of God.

And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. (Joel 2:26,27)

It is true of each saint, as it is true of all Israel, that after he is called the Lord seeks to "slay" him, just as He sought to "slay" Moses (Exodus 4:24). But after a season of various tribulations and testings he arrives at the point where his warfare has been accomplished, his iniquity has been pardoned. Then the Lord comes and speaks words of comfort and encouragement to him. The years of sadness of his life have been completed and the Lord invites him to dwell forever in righteousness, peace, and joy with Himself.

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. (I Peter 5:10)

There does come an end to the Lord's controversy with us!

Paul also speaks of the restoration of Israel:

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion (out of the heavenly Zion - Hebrews 12:22) the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. (Romans 11:26,27)

The Lord Jesus and His victorious saints will appear and bring spiritual victory to Israel:

. . . and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. (Zechariah 14:5)

Looking at Isaiah 51:16 on the kingdom-wide scale we could say that the present age is devoted to planting the heavens.

The thousand-year Kingdom Age is to be occupied with laying the foundations of the earth. At the present time the earth is founded on the seas and floods (Psalms 24) and as a result is unstable. But God's intention is that the earth be established on Christ (Hebrews 11:10; 12:27).

It is our understanding that the thousand-year Kingdom Age will be concerned also with building up Zion, that is, with bringing to unity and maturity, to the fullness of the expression of Christ, all of God's Israel - His elect from the creation of the world. Zion will be reconciled completely to the Lord.

The new heaven and earth reign of Christ will be characterized by the presence of the glorified Zion. The perfected Jerusalem, the holy city, the Wife of the Lamb, will descend from Heaven in order that God may dwell among the nations of peoples whom He has created. Then it will be evident to all that the members of Zion indeed are God's people.

But even today we should attend to these three areas of responsibility as the Holy Spirit enables us. As we labor in the Lord's vineyard we find that God is still planting the heavens with new souls born again in Christ.

Our task is to perform the Lord's will in our own corrupt body in today's demonized environment so that in the future we may be entrusted with a body like that of the Lord Jesus and be allowed to participate in laying the foundations of the earth on Christ.

We are to keep on saying to the members of the Church, "You are God's people" so they will not become discouraged and begin to neglect their great inheritance in Christ.

The following are six of the specific purposes of God, purposes that will be fulfilled through the Servant of the Lord:

To bring forth sons of God, brothers of Christ, a wife for the Lamb, saints - each of whom is in the image of the Lord Jesus and filled with the Life of Jesus.

To establish a godly, creative, beneficial, and joyous rulership over the creation of God.

To fill every creature and thing in the heavens and on the earth with the Person of Christ, filling all with Him and centering all upon Him.

To create a living temple for God that eternally will be the visible expression of the invisible God.

To execute the judgment of God until all unrighteousness is destroyed out of the universe.

To display the heavenly Lampstand - Christ and His Body, the shining of the radiantly beautiful Light of God so that every corner of the creation is illuminated with the knowledge of the Person, way, and will of the Lord.

These are specific objectives of God that He will accomplish through Christ. We who are members of the Body of Christ are ourselves the fulfillment of the purposes of God in Christ, a "kind of firstfruits of his creatures" (James 1:18).

Let us therefore continue in patience while God brings to pass His purposes in the heavens and on the earth. Our destiny is glorious beyond our imagination. Let us not shrink back in fear or discouragement. Let us press forward to the will of God in Christ.