Good morning. Let's open this
service this morning with hymn number 70 from your hardback
hymnal, number 70. Holy, holy, holy. Let's all stand
together. Number 70. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy,
holy, merciful and mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Cherubim and seraphim, falling
down before thee, which wert, and art, and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons,
blessed Trinity. Please be seated. Good morning. Surely that hymn writer had Isaiah
chapter 6 in mind. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple. Filled the temple. Wasn't room for anything but
him. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings, and with
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto the other
and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole
earth is full of his glory. The whole earth is full of his
glory. But as we just sang, though the eye of sinful man thy glory
may not see, Lord has to make himself known to us. And he does
that when we come together to worship him. And that's our hope
this morning. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there I am in the midst of thee. I inhabit
the praise of my people. That's our, oh, what hope we
have that our God would be pleased to show himself to us. Let's
pray together. Our merciful heavenly father, surely thou alone art holy. And Lord, we confess to you that
we don't understand What all that means. But we know Lord
that you are other than we are. That you are the Lord. And that
you change not. Lord, we're so changing in our
thoughts and our actions and our attitudes. What hope and
comfort we have in knowing that we have a God? Who remains holy? and changes not. And therefore,
the sons of Jacob are not consumed. We do ask Lord that you would
send your spirit and power. We ask that you'd be pleased
to bless your word and reveal to us the glory of thy dear son. And enable us in these hours
to. To hang all the hopes of our
salvation. and of our lives on him. That he would be exalted and
glorified and lifted up and that you would draw us into him. For it's in his name we ask it. Amen. All right, we're going to be distracted
this morning with the smell of food, but I hope that the Lord
will feed our souls with his word. Will you turn with me in
your Bibles to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. Paul wrote in the book of Philippians
chapter 2, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, he knew that
he was God, he wasn't robbing from God by claiming to be God,
yet he made of himself no reputation and became a servant. Now that's
what our text is about this morning, the chief servant. And that word
no reputation is the word vanity. It means that he emptied himself. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ did on the cross. He emptied himself. He emptied
himself to his father. He emptied himself in service
to his people. And he made himself of no reputation. The word actually means vain.
You know the passage of scripture that says man at his very best
state is altogether vanity? We often quote that to say that
the best thing that we can do is vanity. And it is, and that's
true. But who was the man at his very
best state? It was the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he emptied himself. He became vanity. on the cross. He became a servant, emptied
himself of his glory, took on himself all the punishment for
the sins of all of God's people, satisfying God's demands for
his holy justice. Man at his very best state became
altogether vanity. Now, in our text in Mark chapter
10, and here's my encouragement, brethren. Servants are rarely
appreciated except by other servants. And the passage this morning
is encouraging us to follow the Lord Jesus Christ as the chief
servant And we're to do what we do as unto the Lord, not as
unto man. And so, I know that if you are
a servant, that you often feel
unappreciated. Well, the Lord knows what His
children do. May God give us the grace to
do what we do as unto the Lord. Verse 32 of Mark chapter 10,
and they were in the way going up to Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the scripture says, set his face like a flint towards
Jerusalem. He came into this world in order
to fulfill what was pictured all the way back there in Genesis
chapter 22, You remember when God told Abraham to take his
son, his only son, the son that he loved, and make him a burnt
offering and go up to the Mount Moriah? Well, Mount Moriah is
where the temple was built. And that's where the Lord Jesus
Christ is going. He is that temple. And Isaac was a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ and that ram that was caught in the thicket.
the substitute for Isaac. And so the Lord is fulfilling
that prophecy. He's going to Jerusalem in order
to accomplish the purpose that God gave Him before the foundation
of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.
In the covenant of grace, God purposed to give His Son as a
sacrifice to put away the sins of his people. And that's what
our Lord's doing. He says, he's going up to Jerusalem
and Jesus went before them. What a picture. They're following
behind the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only way that you and
I are gonna make it into glory is if Jesus goes before us. He's the forerunner. He's the
one who has to present himself for us in order for the father
to be able to accept us. Our works don't recommend us
to God, the Lord Jesus Christ recommends us to God. So the
Lord Jesus Christ here is going towards Jerusalem and this crowd
of people is following behind him. And they were amazed as
they followed and they were afraid. Now that's the attitude that
God strikes in the hearts of every one of his people. That's
what Isaiah, when Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high and lifted
up, holy, holy, holy, the seraphim were crying over him and what
was the first thing out of Isaiah's mouth? Woe is me, I'm undone,
I'm a man of unclean lips. I live among a people of unclean
lips. My eyes have seen the king, I'm amazed. I'm amazed. May God make us to be amazed
as we follow after the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that amazement,
there's also fear. There's the fear of God. The
unbeliever has no fear of God. Now, because we think of fear,
we think of that which puts us in bondage and the scripture
says, Perfect love casteth out fear. What is this fear of God?
The best definition I know of the fear of God is the absolute
terror that strikes one's heart when they consider standing in
the presence of a holy God without the Lord Jesus Christ as their
advocate. to stand in the presence of a
holy God without Christ as your advocate, as your sin bearer,
as the one who satisfied the demands of God's law. That strikes
my heart with terror and that's what drives me to place all the
hope of my salvation on Christ. That's the fear of God. Most
folks don't have anything, they have no idea what that means.
They think, I'll stand before God and I'll tell God when God
asks me, but Lord, I did many wonderful works in thy name.
I've been a good person. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, for I never knew you. I never knew you. You see, the
natural man knows nothing about the fear of God. Only the child
of God believes that he has to have a substitute. He has to have a righteous advocate
to plead his cause before God or he'll be sent away by God
into a devil's hell for all eternity. That's the fear of God. The fear
of God is what drives us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't
it? And he took again the 12 and
began to tell them what things should happen unto him. This
is amazing how obtuse, how dull of hearing these disciples are,
and yet we're just like them. We're just like them. We're like
the children of Israel in the wilderness, always vacillating
between faith and unbelief. Afterwards, the Lord, after the
resurrection, they understood these words. But these words
are so simple and so clear. They're not ambiguous. The Lord speaks in very plain
language. And I don't know what the disciples
must have been thinking. They must have been thinking,
well, he's giving us a parable now. You know, every heresy,
the scripture does use symbolic language. and by the Holy Spirit we understand
the meaning of that symbolic language and then the scripture
also uses literal language. Now what the Lord is going to
say here is not symbolic, it's literal. And every heresy that
has crept in to the church has been a result of men taking that
which is symbolic and translating it as literal and that which
is literal and making it symbolic. Every one of them. God give us
the grace to understand the language of scripture where God is using
word pictures to symbolize a spiritual truth and where God is speaking
very literally about something. Here he's about to speak literally
and the only thing I can assume is that these disciples were
thinking, well he must be speaking in a parable again and we can't
really understand what he means. No, he meant exactly what he
said. Look what he says. Behold, we
go up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ
is defined in the scriptures as the Son of God and the Son
of Man, fully God and fully man. Now, he's referring to himself
in his humanity because it is in his humanity that he's going
to die. It is in his humanity, in his
body, he's going to bear in this body of a man. He was made in
the likeness of sinful flesh, born of a woman, born under the
law to redeem those who are cursed by the law. So here the Lord
Jesus Christ is identifying himself in his humanity and saying, I'm
going to bear in my body your sins to satisfy the wrath of
God and the justice of God. So he says, the son of man shall
be delivered unto the chief priest and unto the scribes and they
shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles.
Is it exactly what they did? Out of jealousy of him and men
still hate Christ because they're jealous. They don't want to be stripped
naked. They don't want to be left without
any righteousness of their own. and that's exactly the reason
that the pharisees and the scribes hated christ that's the reason
that they wanted him that they wanted him crucified all a part
of god's purpose acts chapter two the you buy your wicked hands
crucified him but god for ordained that to be so they They delivered him to
the Gentiles, which is exactly what they did. They gave him
over to the Romans. The Jews did not have the legal
right to put Christ to death. According to them, they were
under the authority of the Romans, and in order for him to be put
to death, they had to appeal to the Romans, and that's exactly
what they did. And they shall mock him, and
shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill
him, and the third day he shall rise again." And that's exactly
what the Lord did. Out of jealousy, the Pharisees
took him, accused him falsely to the Romans. The Romans spit
upon him and scourged him and mocked him, hung him on a cross,
put him to death, And the third day he rose again. Now, in light
of what the Lord just told these disciples, here's why I'm so
amazed at whatever the disciples must have been thinking, because
right on the heels of that, and James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
came unto him saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest
do for us whatsoever we shall desire. Okay, what is it you want? What
is it you want? And he said unto them, what would
you that I should do for you? The Lord knew what they were
getting at. He knew their hearts, just like he knows yours and
just like he knows mine. He knows all our wicked motives.
He knows every thought before we think it. He does. And they said unto him, Grant
unto us that we may sit one on thy right hand and the other
on thy left hand in thy glory." Now right up to the time of the
ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ in Acts chapter 1 from the Mount
of Olives, the disciples were still thinking that the Lord
had come to set up an earthly kingdom. They didn't understand
that this kingdom was a spiritual kingdom. They didn't know what
the Lord was saying to pilot when he said, my kingdom's not
of this world. If my kingdom was of this world,
my disciples would fight. It's an earthly, it's a heavenly
kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. Remember on the Mount of Olives,
they said, Lord, is it time now for you to establish? They knew
something, something very significant was about to happen. They didn't
know the Lord was going to ascend right back up into glory. And
they're standing there gazing up into glory thinking, okay,
he must be coming right back. He must be coming right back.
And the angels came and said, oh man of Judea, why stand you
here gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which has been
taken up from you, he's gonna come again in like manner and
he is going to establish his eternal kingdom. But right now
you go back into Jerusalem and the Holy Ghost will come upon
you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria
and all those parts of the world. And it wasn't until Pentecost
when the Spirit of God came in power that the disciples really
understood what it was the Lord had accomplished. And now they
think, well, Lord, in your kingdom, James and John, we want to sit
on the right hand and on the left hand of your throne. What
about that? And Jesus said unto them, you
know not what you ask. You have no idea what you're
saying. Can you drink of the cup that
I drink of? Now what cup was he talking about? He was talking about the cup
of sin, the cup of God's wrath. The cup that he would drink from
on Calvary's cross when he was brought to cry, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? He was going to drink the bitter
dregs of that cup. He was going to drink damnation
dry. That's the cup that he asked
the Lord in the garden. Father, if there be any way this
cup can pass from me, let it be. Nevertheless, not my will,
but thy will be done. There was no other way. There
was no other way for sin to be put away other than the Lord
Jesus Christ drinking of that cup. And he asked them, he said,
are you able to drink of the cup that I'm gonna drink from?
Are you able to suffer the wrath of God like I'm gonna suffer
the wrath of God? You wanna sit at my right hand
and at my left, that's what it's gonna take. And be baptized with the baptism
that I'm baptized with, that's the baptism of fire. That's the
fiery wrath of God's justice that was going to fall from glory
when the heavens were blackened and the father forsook his son
and wrath was poured out in all its fury. I'm going to be immersed
in the fullness of God's wrath. Are you able? You want to sit
on my right hand, on my left hand? Are you able to do that? Listen, listen to the rest. And
they said, we can. And the Lord said, no, you can't,
but you will. We can. It reminds me of what
the Israelites said when Moses came down off of Mount Sinai
and he has the law of God. And he explains the law of God
to the people of Israel. And they said, we'll do it. We'll
do it. and Moses said you can't keep
God's law and he made a blood sacrifice. A blood sacrifice. The purpose of the law is not
to save. The purpose of the law is to
make sin utterly sinful. The purpose of the law is to
make us see our need for a blood sacrifice. And here the disciple
says we can. We can be about whatever you're
going to go through, we'll go through it. We'll go through it with
you. will not leave your side, kind
of like Peter. These others might deny you,
but not me. What did Peter do that night?
Three times denied him with cursing. Oh, we have much too high a view
of ourselves, don't we? These disciples certainly did.
Look what the Lord said, and Jesus said unto them, You shall
indeed drink of the cup that I drink of, and with the baptism
that I am baptized withal, you shall be baptized. Now brethren,
there's my hope. There's your hope. Paul said
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, the life that I now live, in the
flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself for me." You see, the truth is that everyone
that the Lord Jesus Christ died for was in Him when He went to
Calvary's cross. You shall indeed drink of the
cup that I drink of. You shall indeed be baptized
with the baptism that I'm baptized with. You're going to do it in me. Union with the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's our only hope. If we're found outside of Christ,
then we have no hope of salvation. But what peace, what comfort
to know that when Christ died, I died. That's why Paul later
on when he was writing in Philippians he said, oh, that I might know
him and the fellowship of his suffering, the power of his resurrection. I've not yet apprehended that
which has apprehended me. But this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, I press towards the mark for
the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. That I might
understand more fully that I fellowshiped with Christ when He suffered.
That I went to the grave with Christ when He went to the grave.
That I died when He rose from the grave. I rose with Him. Now in this is particular redemption. Everyone that Christ did that
for is saved, is saved. He didn't make an offer of salvation,
he actually accomplished the salvation of God's elect when
he bore them in his body upon that tree. We died with him,
we were buried with him, we rose with him, we shall live with
him. And to suggest that Christ made
an offer of salvation for someone who's going to end up in hell
is to say that he failed in what he came to do. He came to save his people. You
shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people. And
he did save his people. There's our hope. Union with
Christ. fellowship with him. The Lord
is saying right here, you indeed. He didn't say well maybe you
will, maybe you won't, it depends on how you hang in there. You
indeed shall. I love that word shall. It doesn't
leave any room. It's not where you might or you
will or you can or maybe, you know, you shall indeed, a double
emphasis here placed on the surety of this salvation. You shall
indeed drink of the cup that I'm drinking of. You shall indeed
be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with. And that's your hope, that you'll
be sitting, they'll be sitting at the table, the wedding feast
of the lamb. And that's what the Lord's about
to say. But to sit on my right hand, on my left hand is not
mine to give, but it shall be given to them of whom it is prepared. Now what the Lord's saying here
is that the Father is the one who has elected those who are
going to be saved. He's the one who's elected them. Everyone who goes to glory is
going to be sitting on the right and the left hand of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's not degrees of rewards in heaven where some
are going to be sitting close to Him or some are going to be
way off in a cabin on the edge of glory. No, we're all going
to be surrounding the throne. We're all going to be sitting
at the table, every single one of us, for whom Christ died. Not one of my sheep will be lost.
What hope. What hope. Cast your care upon
Him. Trust Him for all your righteousness
before God. Trust Him for all your salvation.
He's accomplished what God requires. God elected the people, not me. I redeemed them. You see, God
did the choosing, Christ did the redeeming, and the Holy Spirit
does the regenerating. That's it. And all the Lord Jesus
Christ is saying here is that that's my father's choice. What
I'm doing is to successfully redeem everyone that my father
elected. And I'm going to do that. And
you're going to drink of the cup. And you're going to be baptized
with the baptism I'm baptized with, every one of you. And when the 10 heard it, now
we can identify with this, can't we? Oh, James and John were looking
for vainglory, weren't they? And in Philippians chapter 2,
the scripture says that strife and vainglory always go together. You show me strife between two
individuals and I'll show you somebody that's looking for vainglory.
Somebody that doesn't feel like they got the respect that they
deserved and they're angry over it. That's what James and John were
doing. They were wanting to be most respected and the other
disciples heard what James and John were doing and they got
angry. You can just hear it. Look at James and John. They
want to be right up there by the throne. Where's that going
to put us? But Jesus called them to him
and said unto them, You know that they which are accounted
to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and their
great ones exercise authority upon them. The way you're thinking
right now is the way the world thinks. It's the way the world
thinks. Power, prestige, popularity,
influence. but so shall it not be among
you. But whosoever will be great among
you shall be your minister. Now that word minister means
table waiter, table waiters. They're not very
highly respected, are they? I've never been, I've never worked,
maybe some of you I'm sure have worked as a waiter or waitress
in a restaurant. It's got to be a horrible job,
terrible, you know, especially when you're dealing with rude
customers, unappreciated, that don't tip. And if you've had that experience,
who's the one that understands? your your plight. Who's the one
that understands your feelings? The head waiter. He's gotten
that position because he suffered through all those experiences
with rude customers. And the head waiter understands. Nobody else might. That's what
the Lord is saying here. Well, look at the next verse.
He says, for whosoever of you will be chiefest shall be a servant
of all for even the son of man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. He didn't come to give his life
a ransom for everybody. He came to give his life a ransom
for many. And what the Lord is saying is
you follow me. You want glory? Let your glory, let your glory
come from God. Turn with me to that passage
in Philippians chapter two. I quoted part of it a moment
ago. Philippians two. We'll begin at verse one. If there be therefore any consolation
in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
Spirit, if any bowels of mercy. Now what's the Lord saying to
me and you? If there's any hope at all that
you're a child of God, if there's any hope at all that
you're a child of God, Fulfill ye my joy that you be
like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and
of one mind. If there's any chance at all
that you're a child of God, have this mind in you. Let nothing
be done through strife or vain glory. There it is. Isn't that
your experience? Whether it be Between husband
and wife, whether it be siblings or whether it be at work, whatever
it is, when you find strife, you're going to find vain glory.
Somebody willing to just put down their own glory, vain, empty
glory, empty glory. And that's what it is. Every
time we look to get glory to ourselves, it's just empty glory,
isn't it? Anytime we look to get glory
from man, it's just empty glory. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others
better than themselves. Now, I have a hard time doing
that. I have a hard time being more concerned. If this word
esteem means to be more concerned about others than you are about
yourself, I admit to you that I wake up
in the morning and think about myself. and I'm more concerned
about myself, but I tell you what I think this word means,
what I know it means. I cannot look at any other person
and not believe that I am in need of grace more than they
are. Not a single person. That's what
Paul meant when he said of whom I am chief. Christ, here's
a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Every believer who's come face
to face with the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ knows their
sin better than they know anybody else's and the only conclusion
they can come to is that I need grace more than anybody else.
Nobody's like me. Nobody's bad as I am. Nobody's
been given as many opportunities and as much light and as many
blessings as I've been given and remain as unbelieving as
I am. And to whom much is given, much is required. I believe myself
to be the chief of all sinners. Do you? I know you do. You're
a child of God, you do. And that's what it means to esteem
others more highly than yourselves. It doesn't mean that you're more
mindful of everybody else's needs, although we ought to be than
we are of ourselves. It means that you esteem them
as being more faithful than you are. Where does that come from? Does that come from you comparing
your life to their life? No. No, it comes from you standing
in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ all alone by yourself,
doesn't it? That's where it comes from. It's just like forgiveness.
Somebody says, well, I'm having a hard time forgiving. If you
try to drum up in your own heart a virtue, a character trait of
forgiveness by saying, well, I'm going to be a forgiving person,
it's not going to happen. Forgiveness is the natural, natural
consequence of being forgiven. Don't worry about how they offended
you and how much you need to forgive them and try to figure
out how you're going to forgive them. Just look at how much you've
offended the Lord and how much he's forgiven you and you'll
be a forgiving person. Look not every man on his own
things but every man on the things of others. Let this mind be in
you. Now here's the lesson that the
Lord's teaching the disciples over there in Mark chapter 10.
Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the form of God
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He knew he was
God. He wasn't robbing from God by claiming to be God. But He
emptied himself. He became the best man. He as
the best man became vain, became empty. He emptied himself, made
of himself of no reputation. and took upon him the form of
a servant, was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him and given him a name that is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. He was doing it for the Father.
He knew that man wasn't going to appreciate what he was doing.
They were going to spit upon him. They were going to kill
him. They were going to mock him.
But he knew that in the end the Father would glorify him. Now
let me have you turn with me to one more passage, Colossians
chapter 3. just over a couple pages from where you are, Colossians
chapter 3. Now in biblical times slavery was
a common practice. I suspect that half of the members
of every congregation were actually bond slaves. They weren't free
men or women. They were property, they belonged
to somebody. They've been marked and they
were subject to the commands. Some of them had good masters,
some of them had bad masters. But here now the Lord is going
to speak to those slaves and look what he says. Verse 22,
servants, that's the word bond slave. Can you imagine what it
would be like to live as a bond slave? Servants obey in all things your
masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers,
but in singleness of heart, fearing God for whatsoever you do, do
it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. Knowing that of
the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for
you serve the Lord Christ. Just keep being a giver. Do it
as unto the Lord, not as unto men. Do it for His glory, following
after the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the way He did it. All
right, let's take a break. Okay.