Serving the Lord With Gladness
A sermon
(No. 769)
Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, SEPTEMBER 8, 1867, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Serve the Lord with gladness."- Psalm 100:2.
MUCH of the sweetness of music lies in the ear to which it is
addressed. There are mysterious sweetnesses and unknown harmonies which
lurk, and the notes are detected only by the ear attuned to melody. The
most enchanting strain to one ear may be discord, itself, to another!
The wise man tells us that as vinegar is upon niter, so is he that
sings songs to a sad heart. The song in itself may embody the soul of
delight and yet it may be misery itself to the ear which is not in tune
with it. So is it with my text. It is a short, but inexpressibly sweet
stanza. "Serve the Lord with gladness," is a delightful sonnet to the
spiritual mind, but to the ungodly, the careless, the unspiritual, it
is flat and dull–the grinding of labor's wheel–and far other than a
verse from a cherub's harp.
The very first word is "serve." And the proud spirit of unregenerate
man kicks at that at once. "Serve!" says the man, "why should I be a
servant? I hate the yoke and I will not bow my neck." The lawless
spirit, fond of what it calls "free thought" and "free action," hates
the sound of the word "serve." "I will be my own master," says the
willful, wayward soul of the man who knows not what is meant by
obedience and has never drunk into the deep joy of submission to the
Lord. "Serve?" he says, "let those do so who are calves enough to bow
their necks, but as for me, I know no government but my own
ungovernable will."
But to the soul that has been subdued, delivered from the bondage of
its own self-dominion–the soul that is humble, teachable, weaned from
the world, and changed into a little child–the thought of service has
Heaven in it! For such a heart remembers that in the New Jerusalem they
serve God day and night, and it looks forward to perfect service as
being its perfect rest. Renewed minds accept "Ich dien"–"I serve," as
their motto and feel ennobled by it. The next word of our text, which
we may well call the golden canticle of labor, is even more distasteful
to the carnal mind. "Serve the Lord."
Men's hearts are naturally atheists–they will not endure the thought
of God. The most of men are careless and indifferent to their heavenly
King. They remember all things else except the God who made them. We
find them willing to serve their country, to serve science, literature,
art, trade–but as for serving God they will have none of it! The
spirit of this age is too much that of Pharaoh. "Who is the Lord that I
should obey His voice?" To the philosophical mind it seems to involve
an absurdity to serve a Being whom you cannot see, whose voice you
cannot hear, and whose existence is unfelt by the unspiritual,
unawakened mind!
Therefore the wise man turns upon his heels and says that he will serve
any other master sooner than serve the Lord. The man who has once
known–who has tasted that the Lord is gracious and been made to enter
into the Lord's Covenant of Mercy and has seen under what obligations
he is laid to the loving kindness and tender mercy of Jehovah–to such
a man the very thought of serving God is liberty! He delights to run in
the way of God's commandments, and the statutes of the Most High are to
him sweeter than honey, or the dropping of the honeycomb. "Serve the
Lord." "Ah," says the quickened spirit that has been made obedient by a
work of Divine Grace within, "would God I could always serve Him, and
never in thought, or word, or deed rebel against His gracious will." To
serve God is to reign! He who obeys the King of kings is himself a
king!
As for the next word of my text, which contains the rarest sweetness of
it, "Serve the Lord with gladness," this is a point to which the mere
carnal mind never did attain and never will! Any connection between
religion and gladness seems to the most of men to be very remote,
indeed. Many people attend to their "religion," as they call it, but it
is downright slavery. They go up to their place of worship because it
is a terrible necessity of custom that respectable people should
meet in certain fixed places each Sunday. But they are glad when the
service is short–exceedingly glad if it could be made so short as to
be omitted altogether!
They look upon their religious exercises as a tax which they pay to
God, or rather, as a tax which they pay to respectability–for we live
in a country where many many think it right to profess the Christian
faith. The worldly religionists' service has no gladness in it. "Serve
the Lord with gladness" seems, to the carnal mind, to be a perfect
monstrosity! And yet, mark you, this is the test between the genuine
and the hypocritical professor–by this one thing shall you know who it
is that fears God–and who it is that does but offer Him the empty
tribute of his lips.
There is an old legend that when the Queen of Sheba came to see Solomon
she posed him with many difficulties, and, among the rest, placed
before him a vase of artificial flowers which were so skillfully made
that for awhile Solomon could not tell which of the two bouquets of
flowers were the handiwork of man until he bade them open the window
wide and watched to see to which the bees would fly. No bees or flies
would lodge upon the artificial, but only upon the genuine ones, for
there alone they discerned the mystic sweetness which dwells in the
secret aroma of the living bloom.
Even so, observe the worldling's religion–it is beautifully
constructed, well put together, it is everything to the eye that could
be expected–but no winged delights ever alight on it, no joyous
thoughts find honey there! As for the true Believer in Jesus, he serves
his God because he loves to serve Him! He assembles with the great
congregation because it is his delight to worship the Most High. To him
it is the greatest of all earthly joys and a foretaste of joys
celestial to serve the Lord with hands, and heart, and strength–and to
spend and be spent for His glory. May God's Grace bring us to know that
the text does not mock us, but that it is a thing which is practicable
to every Believer–that we can serve God with gladness, yes,
emphatically with gladness–with an overflowing pleasure unknown
elsewhere.
I ask you, before we go further, to let this be a point of judgment
with every hearer as to whether his soul finds joy in his religion or
not. Let each man enquire whether that which he professes to possess
ever causes him delight. With all our cares and sorrows, we who have
believed have learned to rejoice in the name of our God! But the
base-born professor dreads the majesty of Heaven, and feels no flames
of childlike love within his bosom. Like slaves, they fear the whip and
they know not the force of constraining love which rules within the
hearts of adopted and Heaven-born sons of God.
In our text, gladsome service is commended and commanded. We shall
first notice its secret springs. Then we will endeavor to track its
manifest streams. Then a word or two about its difficulties and some
other suggestions about its excellence. And then the conclusion.
Briefly on each point.
I. The gladsome service of God has ITS SECRET SPRINGS. These are too
many for me to mention them all, but the following may serve as a
sample. One main cause why the Believer serves God with gladness is
that he is free from the bondage of the Law. When the Believer serves
the Lord it is with no idea whatever of obtaining eternal life thereby.
He does not go up to public worship–he does not respect the
commandments of the Lord's House because he thinks that thereby he
shall escape from Hell or obtain Heaven.
Far from this! He knows that he is saved! He understands that through
faith in the Lord Jesus he has been delivered once and for all from the
penalty of all his sins–they are all forgiven–he is not afraid of the
consequences of them. They are blotted out forever. As for Heaven, he
knows that eternal life is his portion as the gift of Sovereign
Grace–he is secure of that. He is one with Jesus–nothing can separate
him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus his Lord, and full
well he knows that where Christ is, there shall Christ's servants
be–reigning with Him forever! Therefore the heir of Heaven serves his
Lord simply out of gratitude.
He has no salvation to gain, no Heaven to lose–all things are his by a
Covenant "ordered in all things and sure." And now, out of love to the
God who chose him and who gave so great a price for his redemption, he
desires to lay out himself entirely to his Master's service. O you who
are seeking salvation by the works of the Law, what a miserable life
yours must be! Why, you are haunted with the miserable foreboding that
unless you do this and that you will forfeit the good will of God and
perish! And you hope that if you diligently persevere in obedience, you
may perhaps obtain eternal life, though, alas, none of you dare to
pretend that you have attained it!
You toil and toil and toil, but you never get that which you toil
after, and you never will, for, "by the works of the Law there shall no
flesh living be justified." However holy or obedient you may be, good
works are not the way of salvation. And, as you cannot get to London
except by taking the road to London, although you may walk ever so
earnestly
in the wrong direction, so though you are ever so good and honest and
excellent, you never shall attain Heaven by these things, for this is
not the door of life. "Other foundation can no man lay than that is
laid, which is Jesus Christ."
And since you who go about to lay another foundation set yourselves in
opposition to God, you may build, but your building shall fall to the
ground. You may weave, but your garments shall turn to cobwebs. You may
toil and labor as in the fire, but you shall never obtain comfort by
your own doings. O miserable slaves! Your life is spent in bondage–you
shall never be fit to die–and now you know not what it is to live, for
living, you dread to die, and dying, you tremble to meet your Judge.
Nothing can cover a naked soul but the righteousness of our Lord Jesus!
You may go to church or the Meeting House. You may say prayers and read
your Bibles, and do what you will besides, but bond slaves you are and
you shall not be heirs of the promise–for what says the Scripture,
"Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman
shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." The child of God works
not for life, but from life–he does not work to be saved, he works
because he is saved. More zealously than the most earnest person who
trusts in works will the Believer serve, and so he will prove that no
power in all the world is more mighty than the force of love.
Not selfishly nor because of fear, but gratefully, joyfully, heartily,
out of true affection, the true servant of the Lord waits at his
Master's doors! Do you not see, then, how we can serve the Lord with
gladness? Because, when we make mistakes in serving God we know they
will not destroy us! Because, notwithstanding the thousand infirmities
and imperfections of our service, we know that Jesus washes all away in
His precious blood. When we sit down sometimes after a day's seeking to
honor God and deplore that we have so greatly failed in it, we do not
despair, for we know that the righteousness which covers us has not to
be spun by these fingers!
We rejoice that we are accepted not in ourselves, but in the Beloved,
and so we rise again and go once more to "serve the Lord with
gladness," because we are still His beloved, still dear to Him,
notwithstanding 10,000 slips, and flaws, and errors, and
mistakes–still in His Covenant–still saved. Another reason why the
Christian serves God with gladness is because he has a lively sense of
the contrast between his present service and his former slavery. What a
hard, cruel, Egyptian bondage was that out of which Jesus brought us!
We thought it liberty, but when our eyes were opened we found it to be
captivity itself, for we found that the wages of sin is death.
When sin became exceedingly sinful in our esteem, then we felt the iron
enter into our soul, and longed to break the chain. To serve the devil,
even when he gives us most of the sweets of sin, is intolerable bondage
to a sensible, awakened sinner. But to serve Christ, how pleasant, how
joyful! Do but look into the face of the black prince and you will see
reason enough to abhor him! But gaze into the eyes of Immanuel, the
Prince of princes, the fairest among ten thousand, and the altogether
lovely, and you will feel that if His service involved lying in a jail,
or burning at the stake, yet in comparison with the miseries of the
bondage of sin, His "ways are ways of pleasantness." Jesus is the
Master and Lord whom to obey is perfect peace. But Satan, the foul
tyrant, is one from whom we rejoice to have been delivered.
Moreover, the Believer's joy in the Lord's service springs from the
fact that he serves God from the instincts of his new nature. Every
nature has its instinct. If the Maker creates a bird, it is not painful
to that bird to fly, and no force is needed to make it take wing–its
instinct is to do so. For a fish to swim is no troublesome matter. That
element which might be very distasteful to the bird, is natural enough
and pleasing enough to the fish. Now, when God creates in His people a
spiritual nature, He puts into them impulsive, energetic instincts
which push them forward or restrain them as the case may be.
Take the case of the Well-Beloved, who is the pattern of all the
family. When He was but a Child, He was found in the temple hearing and
asking questions of the rabbis. And when His father and mother asked
Him how it was that He had left them, He said, "Do you not that I must
be about My Father's business? Did you not know that there was a
necessity laid upon Me–an uncontrollable impulse within Me which drove
Me forward to accomplish the will of Him that sent Me?" So, when you
see an earnest Christian working for God and you enquire why he is
earnest, he may well reply, "Do you not that I must be about my
Father's business?"
The genuine Christian, full of the love of God, cannot be an idler.
"Woe is unto me," says the Apostle, "if I preach not the Gospel." To
tell to others the love of God becomes to the faithful heart no arduous
service. Like Elihu, he can say, " I speak that I may be refreshed." I
know that some Christians do not find it so–it is because the love of
God in them has come to a low ebb, and the life of God is but feebly
within. But the vigorous healthy Christian must serve the
Lord, yes, and serve Him with gladness, too, because he is then obeying
the instincts of his nature and God has made our instincts, when we
follow them, to be pleasurable.
The instincts of the new nature, when we follow them, lead us into
service, and consequently there comes into our soul a pleasure unknown
to those who are not partakers of the regenerate nature. I have said
that to the Christian it is a delight to serve God, and so it is,
because it exercises in him those powers which yield delight. There is
always a delight in benevolence. Now, to tell our fellow sinners the
way of salvation is the exercise of the benevolence of our heart and
there must be pleasure in it. To serve God causes the exercise of
faith, and to exercise faith is one of the grandest pleasures to which
a mortal can attain.
Therefore to serve God with faith and confidence must be delightful!
Believing service is not the performance of a work naturally irksome to
us, to which we bring ourselves by effort. Christian service is the
doing of sacred duties which to our new nature are congenial
occupations–things in which we take our delights. Those grand old
builders who erected the famous cathedrals of the olden times, and laid
out so much time and skill in carving the ornaments and piling the
pinnacles–shall we pity them for having worked so hard? Far from it!
No pity did they require. Pity would be wasted on them. It was their
life's work. They were in their element when they were producing this
thing of beauty, or that specimen of wondrous art. And so with the
Christian. The service of God is not to him an employment from which he
would escape even if he could. No, he feels it to be an intense delight
and only wishes that he could be more perfectly taken up with it.
Another reason why the Christian is conscious of great gladness in
serving God is that he has a sense of honor with it. Did you ever
reflect how wondrous a condescension it is in God to allow a creature
to serve Him? "The cattle on a thousand hills are Mine," He says. "If I
were hungry, I would not tell you." He sits on His Throne and
establishes it by His own power. He has no dependence upon His
creatures. The greatest of spirits He has ever made are as nothing
before Him, and yet, look, He condescends to be served by us! Can I
give something to my Creator? Can I do a service to my Redeemer? May I
lay my humble tribute at His feet to whom all things belong?
Ah, then, how I am honored! It is an honor to receive from God, but a
greater honor still to be a donor to God. Man is put in a very high
place when God condescends to make him a co-worker with Himself in the
economy of Divine Grace, and accepts from His creature the homage of
his body and his soul. Now it is well known that every man will do work
which he feels to be an honor much more easily than that which he
thinks degrades him. There have been thousands of enterprises
undertaken by men when they have been put upon martial honor which they
never would have undertaken for mere fee or reward. Men have gone to
the cannon's mouth for the sake of glory. And shall the Christian be
altogether insensible to the motive of honor? Shall he not feel it to
be his greatest glory to serve his God? And will there not be from this
a stream of joy flowing over all our holy work?
Furthermore, the Believer, when he serves God, knows that his service
is not the highest place which he occupies. "I am a servant," he says,
"I am not ashamed of it–to serve God is royal dignity, but then I am
not altogether and alone a servant." Here is the Christian's joy–he
hears his Master say, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the
servant knows not what his lord does: but I have called you friends;
for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto
you." Then he recollects that beyond being a friend he is a child. The
spirit of adoption within him cries, Abba, Father. He looks upon the
Lord Jesus Christ as his elder Brother.
Yes, and beyond that, he hears from the sacred Book that he is married
unto Christ. Jesus has become his bridegroom, and he is the beloved
spouse! He understands that there is a union near and dear, vital and
matchless between him and his Master, so that Jesus is the Head, and he
is a member of the same body. Do you see how the thought that the
Believer is more than a servant enables him to do more than a servant
could do, and gives him a gladness in his service which the mere
servant cannot understand?
Again, there comes over the Christian's mind a gentle thought which in
his darkest moments yields him joy, namely, that Grace has promised a
reward. We are not to be rewarded for the merit of our works, but still
the Free Grace of God has promised that we shall not toil for nothing.
The diligent Christian looks for the time when he shall hear it said,
"Well done, good and faithful servant, enter you into the joy of your
Lord." He is "steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, forasmuch as he knows that his labor is not in vain in the Lord."
It may be that for the present he toils on and no one gives him a good
word–he sows the thankless flood and no harvest springs from the bread
cast upon the waters. But he can afford to wait–he has not measured
things by the narrow inch of time, but he has taken a broad eternity
into his consideration and he knows that the time shall come when those
that diligently serve on earth, by faith in Jesus Christ, shall
participate in the glories of the coming King and the bliss of the
eternal inheritance!
So the humble, trustful worker sets to his seal that God is true, and
goes on in his service, waiting upon his gracious Master–not with
despondency and timorous fear, but serving the Lord with gladness
evermore. I think I have thus shown you as well as I could, this
morning, the secret springs which sustain the Christian's gladness when
he is engaged in service.
II. Secondly, let us trace some of the MANIFEST STREAMS OF CHRISTIAN
SERVICE IN THEIR GLADNESS. Beloved, in the first place we should always
serve the Lord with gladness in the public assemblies of His people.
The more hypocritical people are, the more solemnly miserable their
outward aspect when at worship. As a general rule I believe that those
places of worship where it is thought to be wicked to ever have smiling
faces are dens of formalism where there is no life of God at all. I
know this–if you go through Continental Churches, perhaps two out of
three of the preachers are downright deists, or infidels of some class
or other–and you will find the most horribly sanctimonious faces, and
tones, and manners among clergymen–especially among the worst of them.
Not believing a word they say, they are obliged to pull as long a face
as possible to look as if they were in earnest, though they are not. I
like to see you coming up to this place not as if you were going to a
jail, but like children coming from school and going home to their
Father's house! Last Sunday week I was awakened at six o'clock, in the
Hartz mountains, by the cheerful notes of a trumpet playing a sweet
enlivening German air. It struck me that was a right fitting way to
begin Sunday–to wake up with music–to leave off sleep with a dream of
angels singing the songs of Heaven, and to begin the day by uniting in
their praise!
Let each Sunday always begin so–not with the dull solemn note of the
trombone, but with psaltery and harp with joyful sound. Alas, with many
the cry is–"Here's another dull day in which the Crystal Palace is
shut up, and all amusement denied us!" An English Sunday is called by
many a dull and dreary day! Ah, you miserable heathens! Well may you
speak so! It must be dreary to you–but to the genuine Christian–the
thought that the world's burden is laid aside, and that now he is to
commune with Heaven is as the sweet sound of the trumpet waking him to
a day of feasting and delight!
Then when we come up to the House of God what is there to make us sad?
Is there not everything to make us happy? Shall we sing the praises of
God dolorously, and imitate the worshippers of Moloch who serve him
with shrieks and groans? No! The God we adore is to be praised with
happy hearts, smiling faces, and joyful notes. And when we pray to Him
shall we be sorrowful? To pray to our Father–a child to spread his
needs before his father–can that be bondage? No, blessed be His name,
if there is a sweet place on earth, it is the Mercy Seat where earth
communes with Heaven!
And when we listen to the reading of the Word of God, or the preaching
of His Truths, shall that be a weariness? Yes, when we have no part or
lot in it! When it is like reading a will in which we have no legacy!
But if the Gospel is preached as our Gospel, the Gospel of our
salvation, and we have a share in it–what can so inspire our soul with
joy? Yes, let the bells of your heart ring merry peals on Sunday! O you
chosen seed, be glad, and of all the days in the week, look at the
first as the prime glory of all the feast days of the soul! Do not pull
the blinds down! Let the sun shine into the room more cheerily than on
weekdays. Your God is happy and would have you happy! And if all the
other six days you have to bear your burdens, yet, at least, cast them
aside on this Resurrection Day when you must not slumber in the grave
of sorrow!
Well, but by serving God we do not mean merely when we come to a place
of worship. For to us, in one sense, there are no places of worship.
All places are places of worship to a Christian! Wherever he is he
ought to be in a worshipping frame of mind. Brethren, when we serve God
at the family altar, let us try as parents to mix gladness with it. It
is a great mistake when the Christian parent makes the reading and
prayer in the family a dull monotonous work. Let us be cheerful and
happy at family worship. In your private devotions you should also
"Serve the Lord with gladness." When you get half an hour or more with
the Most High, ask Him to enable you to carry out that command of this
100th Psalm– "Serve the Lord with gladness."
But then the Christian's service for God lasts all the day long! The
genuine Christian knows that he can serve God as much in the shop as he
can in the Meeting House. He knows that the service of God can be
carried on in the farmyard and market–while he is buying and
selling–quite as well as in singing and praying. Should not we do our
business much better if we looked upon it in that light? Would it not
be a happy thing if, regarding all our work as serving God, we went
about it with gladness? Perhaps your work is very hard. Well, be not an
eye-servant, or a man-pleaser, but with singleness of heart serve God
in that work and you will perform it with gladness.
Perhaps your situation is one in which your toil is very arduous.
Consider that God has put you there. If you cannot see a door of
removal, accept what God has given, and accepting it from a Father's
hand you will be able to serve Him with gladness. That is a real
religion which goes with us through all the acts of daily life! That is
a sham religion which only shows itself when a man is on his knees. A
few days ago, in the mountains, we went down in a valley to see a
wonderful waterfall, a marvelous sheet of water precipitating itself
from lofty rocks. And there sat our German friends by scores
contemplating it and reverently admiring its sublimities.
As I looked at the cascade, the thought struck me it was rather too
orderly to be altogether what it professed to be. And looking on, I
noticed that the floods which poured down from the rocks had suddenly
diminished, as if the supply of the liquid element was exhausted. Truly
so, we found that this wonderful waterfall was played three or four
hours a day, and was an artificial wonder! I walked away feeling
wonderfully taken in, coming to see a cascade of a kind that was played
three hours a day!
And there is plenty of religion of that sort! It is not genuine–it is
played three hours a day, or so many hours a week. At certain set
times, if you catch the man right, he will be very gracious and godly.
But if you stumble in when he is immersed in all the cares of the world
you find he is all a sham. O Beloved, let our religion show itself
throughout the whole of life! Let us go about our business with a holy
gladness because we are serving the Lord! Let us be diligent in
business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord and putting gladness into
the whole thing! Above all, let gladness sparkle in all those actions
which we feel called upon to perform for our Master's service.
Dear Sunday school teachers, make the Sunday happy, and your children
happy by serving the Lord with gladness! City missionaries and Bible
women, do not go round your districts as though you were undertakers'
men, but go there with gladness, serving the Lord! Preacher, throw your
soul into your work! Do whatever you undertake to do for the Master
with a soul flashing with fire! Look upon it not as bondage, but joy,
and serve the Lord in it with a sacred alacrity and delight! Thus I
have tried to show some of the manifest streams of the Christian's
delight.
III. But, now, somebody says, "It is much easier to say this than to
practice it, and though it may be very easy, indeed, to tell us to
serve the Lord with gladness, does the preacher himself always find it
easy to do so?" Well, this is not the place for him to make
confessions, but he is quite prepared to admit that it is not always
easy to serve God with glad-ness–if it were, we should not need to be
told to do it!
But on account of THE DIFFICULTY OF IT, we are, therefore, more often
bid to be happy. "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again," says the
Apostle, "I say, Rejoice." If he had felt it would be easy, it was
sufficient to tell us once, but the repetition shows the difficulty.
Our inbred sin–is not that enough, when we serve God, to make us do it
with the bitter cry, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me?"
Yes, but we shall be delivered! I thank God, through Christ our Lord we
shall be delivered from the bondage of our corruption!
Let us not think so much about the disease as about the remedy while we
sigh over infirmities! Let us bless God that there is a way of glorying
in infirmities because the power of Christ will be manifested there.
Let us serve God in infirmities with the glad thought that we shall not
always be imperfect, but by-and-by shall be in the glory of our Master,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing! Outward trials, again–how
hard it is to serve God with gladness when one is losing an estate, or
when the cupboard is bare–or when there is scarcely money to provide
the children with clothes! Yet the Christian does not live upon what he
sees alone–he knows there is a secret strength, a secret Helper–and
he knows how to go to God in times of outward trouble and cast his care
upon Him who cares for him.
Have you ever read, "All things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose?" Does
not that lantern show a light over your dark path? Beloved, may the
Holy Spirit enable you to go on serving God with gladness even though
the fig tree should not blossom, and though there should be no herd in
the stall. "Yes, but," says another, "It is difficult to serve God with
gladness when placed in the midst of the ungodly."
So the best of men have found. They have hung their harps upon the
willows sometimes. How could they sing the Lord's song in a strange
land? If you cannot sing His song, yet, let me tell you, go on in His
work. If you cannot touch the harp strings, yet still serve Him and
by-and-by the Lord who gives you Grace to serve, will give you Divine
Grace to sing! Though you are not a stranger, yet you are a stranger
with your God–He is with you, and you are a sojourner with Him! Though
in the midst of the ungodly you walk as in a furnace–yet when the
three holy children were in the fire there was a Fourth with them–and
so there is One with you like unto the Son of God!
Brethren, we are not to take up those duties which we think to be easy
and to leave those we think to be difficult. The more difficult the
command of God may seem to be, the more earnestly must we set ourselves
to carry it out by Divine aid. The text, "Serve the Lord with
gladness," may seem to be very difficult to those of a gloomy
temperament, or depressed spirit, or those who are under trying
circumstances, but, O Beloved, we can do all things through Christ who
strengthens us! What sense says is impossible, faith accomplishes!
Therefore let us lift up our hearts and say, "Heavenly Father, help us
to serve You with gladness according to Your command.
IV. In the last place, there is much EXCELLENCE in cheerful service. Is
it possible that when we serve God with gladness, we thereby escape
many fatherly chastisements which otherwise might come upon us? I was
reading, reading with some degree of fear, in the 28th chapter of
Deuteronomy, at the 47th verse, these words, "Because you served not
the Lord your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the
abundance of all things; therefore shall you serve your enemies which
the Lord shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in
nakedness, and in need of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron
upon your neck."
I was wondering whether if we receive God's mercies and do not serve
Him joyfully, it may not be more than probable that He will withdraw
His hand of mercy for awhile, and make us smart under the hand of
chastisement till we humble ourselves before Him. Let us serve God with
gladness while we have health and strength–we may soon be on the sick
bed. Let us be glad to have anything to give to His cause–we may be
reduced to poverty and have no place where to lay our heads. While we
have the power to serve God let us do it with gladness, being thankful
that we are enabled to do it, or else it may be, seeing we prove
unworthy of those things, He may make the sky to be covered with clouds
and send us dark days and bitter seasons.
Do you not think, too, that when Christians serve God with gladness,
they derive many benefits themselves? Does not the Lord water those who
water others? Is it not the way with Him, when He sees us diligent in
service, to give us greater comforts? We are not under the economy of
Law, as I have said before, but still we are under the paternal economy
of God's House. Just as we do with our own children, if we see them
obedient, we are apt to give them much more than we should do if they
were constantly seeking to have their own way and their own will. No
father uses the rod from choice–he only uses it if driven to it.
So is it with us. If we, as dear children, bring forth much fruit unto
God, we shall have much boldness in prayer and much communion with
God–and a thousand blessings which otherwise we might not receive
shall be ours! Besides, Beloved, does not our God deserve to be served
with gladness? Oh, when we get to Heaven if we could have regrets,
would not this be one–that we had not served Him better? When we
served the world, some of us, we used to do it very heartily. When some
of you were in the devil's service, what bold soldiers you were!
Nothing was too hot or too heavy in his cause.
And shall we serve Christ with less zeal than men serve the great enemy
of souls? Our Master deserves to have the best love, the warmest
confidence, the most stern perseverance, the utmost self-denial–let us
seek to give Him these and to give them with a cheerful heart! Besides,
if we would do good to our fellow men, we must serve God with gladness.
I believe thousands of young people are kept from considering the
Gospel by the gloom of some professors. I know that the world
constantly makes this its excuse for not being religious–that if it
began to think of God it would have to give up its happiness. O
Christians, I would have your faces so gleam with the light of Heaven
that even the ungodly, if they care not for your secret life, may love
the manifest joy that springs from it!
Many a young woman has been led to think of Christ by the holy
cheerfulness of a godly mother. There is no doubt that Christian
servants have often been the wedge, in the hand of God, to break a way
for the Gospel into ungodly families by their holy, cheerful conduct.
Talk of religion by all manner of means, but above all, live religion,
and let your re-
ligion be cheerful! Let the world see that you serve a good Master! Do
not go about slandering the King of Zion and say He starves His people
and makes them of a sad countenance.
When the four young men in Babylon would not defile themselves with the
King's meat: "And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my
lord the king who has appointed your meat and your drink: for why
should he see your faces worse than the children which are of your
sort? Then shall you make me endanger my head to the king." But they
put it to the test, and said, "Let our countenances be looked upon
before you, and the countenances of the children that eat of the
portion of the king's meat: and as you see, deal with your servants. So
he consented to them in this matter, and tested them ten days. And at
the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in
flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's
meat." We will put it to the test, too. We will try if our joy is not
greater than the worldling's. We will stand foot to foot with them and
see the result.
Now, Beloved, we have come to a conclusion, but I must have two or
three last words. Beware of being like those speculative Christians who
do not serve God at all, but are content to play games of puzzles with
the Bible. It seems to be the genius of some professors, nowadays, to
take up with explaining prophecies, or finding out novel
interpretations of the types while they forget to do good to the people
among whom they dwell. Let me warn you against that. The life of the
Christian should be service, not speculation.
If you have time and leisure, addict yourselves to the pursuit of
knowledge in the Word of God and despise not prophecies. Give a fair
place to everything, but still always understand that all the
speculations in the world, all the understandings of prophecy in the
world are not worth the snapping of a finger compared to bringing forth
fruit unto righteousness in the feeding of Christ's sheep and lambs!
That is the business of Christ's Shepherds. Our business is to save
souls!
Brethren, you will hear me expounding the Revelation one day, that is,
when there is not another of the elect to save! When all the chosen are
saved, we will preach upon the deep mysteries of Daniel and Ezekiel,
but so long as souls are unsaved, we mean to keep to the plain
Gospel–Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the simple Gospel of Jesus.
Take this home with you, you who are so fond of knotty points–serve
the Lord, and give up your star-gazing! And if you want gladness, you
will find it there–you will not find it in your endless genealogies,
and looking into the future!
There are other professors, too, who will do anything rather than serve
God. The little service they do is done as slovenly as possible, and
they are always unhappy. They want a comforting ministry! They want to
hold on to the promises! My dear Brother, it is most probable what you
want is neither. You need to serve God, for there is gladness! If some
of you were to take a class in a Sunday school, you would soon find
your spirits revive. Some of you dyspeptic Christians who find the
Sunday drag heavily, if you were to go up into that alley or court to
visit sick folks, you would find your hearts grow glad. Only try it,
now, and give us a report! And if you do not find it a pleasant thing,
I am much mistaken.
Our last word shall be a rehearsal of the text, "Serve the Lord with
gladness." Do not let us get to be like Martha, who complained because
she served alone. Suppose we do? The fewer men, the greater honor! And
if Mary will not serve the Master as we wish that she should, yet as
she sits at the feet of Christ we will thank God that there are
diversities of operations–but the same Lord! We will not get gloomy in
spirit because we are not all serving God in one direction. Let us
serve God with gladness, not like the elder brother in the parable, who
said, "Lo, these many years did I serve you, neither transgressed I at
any time your commandment: and yet you never gave me a kid, that I
might make merry with my friends."
Why had not the father given him a kid that he might make merry?
Because he had never asked him! So if you and I have been at work in
heaviness for years, like the elder brother, let us ask the Father to
let us have a feast, too. And the surest way to get it is to go out
into the fields and see if you cannot find some poor wandering
Brother–for if you do get a feast, it will be when the prodigal comes
home! The pith and marrow of what I have to say is, do not sleep away
the few hours of this mortal life but be up and diligent in the cause
of Jesus Christ, and be glad in it! Be glad, if you are saved
yourselves, that you are called to be the means of saving others!
And so with holy service let us begin a new period of time, and go on
till God shall take us up to serve Him with perfect gladness where they
see His face, and never sin, but from the rivers of His Grace, drink
endless pleasures!
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The Water of Life
A sermon