GOD WHOM WE SERVE

The Christian is a sinner who has been divinely favoured with faith to believe in the lord Jesus Christ unto salvation; this salvation brings deliverance from sin and condemnation and the bestowal of the gift of God which is eternal life, upon the believer. In the riches of God’s grace, the believer has in view to begin with and primarily the salvation of his soul. But accompanying and following this as a consequence according to the divine will, the believer is saved to serve God and his immediate Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. This is conspicuous in the history of believers both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Serving God obviously includes to begin with the following — confessing the Lord Jesus before men in the Church and the world. Christ declares that He will confess such before His Father which is in heaven. Then there is a life and conversation which becometh the gospel of Christ, in private and public, whereby there is manifested the marks of true godliness; and also a love to and a spiritual and diligent participation in the public and private exercises of God’s worship. Do these points exhaust the extent to which service to the Lord may be engaged in? Certainly not! It may be that some Christians think that if they profess Christ Jesus, live carefully and personally a Christian life and attend the House of God regularly, that this is all the service which the Lord may require of them. There are too many circumscribed and inactive Christians in the Church of Christ; and no wonder that Paul writes “Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” And the divine Master said before Paul’s day, “If any man serve me, let him follow me,” and “If any man follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” The statements: “Let him deny himself,” “Let him take up his cross,” and” Be not slothful,” and many similar injunctions in Holy Scripture, have great significance and relevance in the matter of serving the Lord here, in a world wherein the heavenly Master is greatly despised. And the Lord Jesus calls upon His people “to let their light so shine before men, that men may behold their good works, and glorify, their Father which is in heaven.”

Let us now glance at some of the ways in which God was served by those who were believers and feared Him, as recorded in the Word of God.

David as a youth when he came to visit his brethren in the camp of Israel, was urged in his heart to go out against Goliath. And when he did so, he said to the giant, “I am come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, Whom thou hast defied.” He slew Goliath and thus served the God of Israel and Israel. And Obadiah who was the governor of wicked King Ahab’s house and who feared the Lord greatly, took a hundred prophets and hid them in a cave and fed them. This was a practical and difficult service indeed rendered to the Lord’s prophets. Then, when Hezekiah desired Israel to once more keep the passover, he sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem. There was activity on his part with a view to the people attending upon what concerned the honour and worship of the Lord.

And when we come to the New Testament, therein is revealed the divine example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who went about everywhere doing good, among all kinds and classes of sinners, from the Pharisees to the publicans and harlots. He entered the Temple and the synagogues, but he also visited houses and went by the seaside and the mountain-side, bringing with Him everywhere the glad tidings of the gospel and His teaching regarding the Kingdom of God. In all this, as in His particular work of redemption, He was God’s righteous servant.

As to others, who loved the Lord Jesus and served Him in various ways, we may refer to a few. After Lazarus was raised from the dead, Jesus came to Bethany. There they made Him a supper: and Martha served. It appears that the holy Person, character and conversation of Jesus, did not forbid or declare out of place, the making of a supper for Him, and those present. Martha manifested her attachment to the Lord in all that she did in serving. Another form of service meets us in the case of the man of Gadara, out of whom Jesus cast the evil spirits. This man besought Jesus that he might be with Him. But Jesus commanded him: “Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee.” What did the delivered man actually do? He not only went to his house, but “published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him.” He served the Lord by witnessing to many others beyond his own family, as to the Lord’s mercy and power in his own experience. Then Paul, of course, served the Lord by especially preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ to sinners, as many others did. But where did he go with his gospel and teaching? Yes, into the synagogues. But also he made his way to the market daily to discuss the things of the kingdom with them that met with him at Athens, the city full of idols. Paul could say in the market, as in the ship during the storm, “Whose I am, and whom I serve.” And now, just one more illustration of service as unto the Lord. When Aquila and Priscilla heard Apollos teaching the things of the Lord, “They took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.” This wise service rendered to the Lord’s servant, was done as unto the Lord Himself and for the furtherance of the gospel Kingdom.

One may say that those cases, in certain aspects of them, belong to past ages. However, they do nevertheless reveal how God is to be served in distinctive ways, in addition to a personal and circumscribed conformity, by grace, to the whole duty of man, which is, to fear God and keep His commandments.

To serve God, may mean for the Christian a being brought into a very difficult and trying path of duty, constituting a trial of their faith, as in the experience of the three Hebrew children in Babylon whose words we quote, in part, as the heading of this article. Their duty to God was to refuse to bow down before the image of gold which Nebuchadnezzar had set up and to be prepared to be cast into the burning fiery furnace as a consequence. This was of course a striking and outstanding trial of faith in the service of God. Yet those godly men said to the king, “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King.” And they were cast into the furnace, although preserved and delivered. And Paul and Silas, in serving the divine Master, entered into the spiritually dark area of Philippi and suffered in their persons at the hands of the enemies of the Gospel. These god-fearing men did not lead a sheltered life. The three Hebrew children and Daniel were public servants of the State in Babylon and of course Paul and Silas were missionaries, carrying the glad tidings of “the way of salvation” to the regions beyond. This is still the clear and required duty devolving upon the Church of Christ and Christians, to concern themselves, in one way or another,with the task of bringing the word of the truth of the Gospel to those who are still sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. It is not of grace for the Christian to “sit back” and enjoy Gospel privileges, while remaining wholly indifferent as to whether the light of the Gospel reaches others or not. To serve God in respect of the “regions beyond” having the Gospel, may mean for some more thought upon appropriate Scriptures, more prayer, more giving of their temporal substance and even leaving their homes and friends. Serving God has meant for many of His people down through the ages, standing fast in defence of His holy Word and fundamental principles connected with His Church and Cause in the world. A seed shall serve Him; who shall not only believe in the Son of God unto salvation, but shall serve Him with an undivided heart and a willing mind.

Free Presbyterian Magazine

“O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds unto the people”.

Psalm 105: 1

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