We're turning to the psalm number 36. We'll read the psalm together. And as you turn there, we welcome you. Thank you for making the effort to come to the house of God this evening. And so we're reading this psalm together. I want to bring a few thoughts from the psalm as we meet around the word of God. So psalm number 36, and let's read from the opening verse. The transgression of the wicked saith within mine heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes, for he flatters himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. hath left off to be wise and to do good. He diviseth mischief upon his bed. He setteth himself in a way that is not good. He abhorreth not evil. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth into the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains. Thy judgments are a great deep O Lord, thy preservest man and beast, how excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust unto the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life, and in thy light shall we see light. O continue thy lovingkindness unto me that know thee, unto them that know thee, and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. There are the workers of iniquity fallen. They are cast down and shall not be able to rise. Amen. And we conclude our reading at the break or the end of the chapter number 36 here in the book of Psalms. While scholars view David as a triumphant soldier, others a talented musician, some a gifted writer, others an anointed king, an obedient son, a loyal citizen, a faithful friend. David simply saw himself as the servant of the Lord. This is what he calls himself. in the title of this 36th Psalm, to the chief musician, a Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. A servant is one who has voluntarily agreed to do someone else's bidding. Servants do not please themselves, but rather they are under the control, under the mastery of another. They are employed entirely by another to do their pleasure, and thus the servant's pleasure, is to be relinquished every christian is a servant of god let me repeat that every christian is a servant of god they are so first of all by purchase we read in first corinthians 6 verses 19 and 20 what know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy ghost which is in you which you have of god and ye are not your own For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? The language here in this 1 Corinthians 6 is the language of the slave market. Slaves were bought with a price, and so we have been brought with a price. The precious blood of Christ. And thereby we are then the servants of the Most High God. And so we are servants by purchase. We're servants by covenant. For whenever we became a Christian, we solemnly entered into a compact or a covenant with God to perform the duties of a servant so that we might then enjoy the privileges of a servant. Before we trusted in Christ, we were the servants or the slaves to sin. We were those who fulfilled the desires of our own flesh. We gratified ourselves. We pleased ourselves. But upon our conversion, we surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We took His yoke upon us and we submitted to His rule over us, agreeing to be subject to His will in everything. I was interested to read the remark of A.W. Pink. He said this, to serve the Lord, is not to do something for him as though we showed him a favor. but it is to render something onto him. It is to perceive his just requirement of me to his own absolute authority, to dedicate myself wholly onto him. It signifies that I take the place and honestly endeavor to discharge the obligations of a servant. And a servant is one who does as his master bids him, who seeks to please him and promote his interests. I have to ask myself the question, am I such a servant? Is it my aim in life to do as my master bids me? Do I in all parts of my life seek to please him and to promote only his interests? We're on this subject tonight of service. And so I want to ask a number of questions. Let's ask ourselves the question, how do we serve the Lord? David here is a servant of the Lord. And we wonder, how did he serve the Lord? I wonder, how do we serve the Lord? Do we serve him reluctantly? Or do we serve him joyfully? I'm reminded of those words of the Queen of Sheba. You know that she traveled a great distance in order to see Solomon. She had heard such great reports concerning him from a far land, but she herself comes to see for herself firsthand with regard to Solomon's reign. And she has something to say. She has something to say a lot about Solomon, but she has also something to say about Solomon's servants. Now, don't forget these were the servants of but a mere earthly king. And in 1 Kings 10, verse 8, this is what the Queen of Sheba says about the servants of King Solomon. are thy men happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom she saw on the faces of the servants of solomon how glad and how happy they were to serve an earthly king i wonder as people look at us When we serve the King of Kings, I wonder, do they say that we are His happy servants? Or do they say, there go the grumpy, miserable-looking, complaining servants of God? In Psalm 110, in the verse 2, we are exhorted to serve the Lord with gladness. With gladness. How do we serve the Lord? Let's ask another question. Are we serving the Lord daily? Or is our service for Him sporadic? Can we be depended upon in the work of God? Or is our service of an ad hoc nature? Are we serving Him at home as well as within the church? Christian service is the responsibility made, or sorry, the response made by a regenerate soul onto the Lordship of Christ. And that Lordship influences every sphere of our lives. We can serve the Lord home, in our place of employment, at school, because we are encouraged to do so in Holy Scripture. The Lordship of Christ, it influences every sphere of our lives, and therefore we are to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, there is labor to be done within God's work. That's why it's work. God's work, it's work. And God requires all of his servants to be workers, workers in his vineyard, employed in his glad and happy service. Let's ask another question. Is our service half-hearted? Whenever we have an opportunity to serve the Lord, do we give ourselves wholeheartedly to it? When we come to serve the Lord, is our attitude like this? Any old thing will do. any old thing will do. Or is our attitude, I'll not serve God with less than my all. You know, there's a lot of people involved in God's work and that's what they do. Any old thing does. Just any old thing does. I'll rustle up maybe a quick message. Any old thing will do. No one will know any different. Brethren and sisters, that's not the way we ought to serve the Lord. We ought to serve the Lord with our whole heart. In Joysha 22 verse 5, God's servant encouraged the people to serve the Lord with all their heart and with all their soul. Oh, that we would do so in our generation. Let us spend and be spent for God. For the night cometh when no man can work. It's all coming, brethren and sisters, the night's coming when all days of service will be gone, all opportunity over, and you'll maybe regret not serving your God and King. Let's ask another question. What motivates us to serve the Lord? Is it the public recognition from the leadership of the church? Is it the promotion of self? Is it the advancement of our own name? Or is it love for God? Is it a desire to see him glorified, to have his name exalted? These are just some questions as we think about service and being a servant. But as we think tonight about David as the servant of the Lord, as he deems himself here in the title, I want us to note a number of things that motivated David to serve his God. And as we look at these things, I trust that they will also motivate us as Christians to serve the Lord. Sadly, I fear that whenever we come to the summer months, it seems to be that we all kind of touch a button called holiday mode, and it just seems that we all kind of slip into it, and then the work of God gets picked up again in September. Not so. Not so, brethren and sisters. Our service for God must continue. We must give ourselves to the work of God. That's not to say that we can't have our holidays and our break, but we must not slip into holiday mode. And sadly, I believe that it's getting earlier and earlier in the year for some of God's people. I want us to notice a number of things. The first thing that convinced David to serve his God, that should convince us to serve our God, believe it or not, was the state of the ungodly. The state of the ungodly. You know, one of the things that dissuades people from serving the Lord is the people that God would have us to serve among. The kind of people that we come to meet in the opening four verses of the psalm. We read those verses again, just to remind you, the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, there's no fear of God before his eyes, for he flatters himself in his own eyes. Until his iniquity be found to be hateful, the words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has left off to be wise and to do good. He deviseth mischief upon his bed. He setteth himself in a way that is not good. He abhorreth not evil. No, certainly we live in a generation where there is a mark or there is a lack, sorry, of the fear of God. A generation that is marked by a lack of the fear of God. This is why the sinner can sin without any sense of guilt or shame over their actions. They have no fear of God. Mothers can murder their children in the womb, Homosexuals can pray it in their pride marches. Adulterers can sit in the work canteen and boast of their unfaithfulness to their married spouse, to their work colleagues. Murderers can stand in courtrooms without any sense of remorse over their actions because there is no fear of God before their eyes. You see, the fear of God is that which restrains the sinner with regard to their sin. It curbs their sin. It checks them when they are about to do that which is prohibited of God. But when there is no fear of God present in the life, then all kinds of wickedness and sin is committed by the sinner with impunity. And so we read here that there is no fear of God before their eyes. These are the people that God would have us to serve, to carry the gospel to. We also live in a world where many of its citizens have high opinions about themselves. These are people who we read in verse 2, they are people who flatter themselves in their own eyes. They have such a high opinion, such a high estimate on themselves that they overrate themselves. These are people who feel that they have no need, no need of God whatsoever in their lives. They convince themselves that they possess a righteousness of their own that really meets God's standard, and so they do not need God's perfect righteousness. They flatter themselves into thinking that their own morality, their own religious activities are sufficient to bring them to heaven, and thus they need not God's salvation. And then they look at their wealth, and they look at their possessions, and they say, what need have I of God? Sure, I've got a lovely home. Nice car in the driveway. Holiday home. Maybe a few holidays every year. Maybe some of them even a speedboat. What need have I of God? They flatter themselves into believing that all that they need is wealth and riches. And certainly we live among a people like that. This world is also populated with those whose words, rather than being wholesome and true, are marked by sin and lies. We read there, the words of his mouth, verse 3, are iniquity and deceit. He is left off to be wise and to do good. Certainly truth has fallen in the streets today. Truth is a rare commodity these days. And even rarer is a man, a woman, who speaks the truth and who believes the truth. And as for being wise and doing good, well it appears that foolishness and doing that which is evil is really the order of the day. The all-consuming, the all-encompassing nature of the ungodly world in which we live is really set forth as David depicts a people there in verse four, who lie in their beds figuring out how best that they can defy God, and in so doing they establish a way that is evil and is not good. Beloved, what David pens here in the opening four verses of this psalm about the society in which he lived is a carbon copy, a carbon copy, of the society in which we live. Now why is that the case? Have we not advanced as a society from David's generation when he lived, when he walked in this world? Has society not advanced? Have we not got better schooling? higher standard of living, a greater appreciation of the world around us. We might have all of these things, but brethren and sisters, the problem of man hasn't changed. Men are still born in their sin, and they come to manifest that sin in all forms of wickedness and of iniquity. And so society today is as it has always been, corrupt, fallen, and sinful. But rather than throwing up his arms and throwing up his hands in despair and rending his garments, as he looked out into his society, David was stirred in his spirit to serve the Lord. When Paul preached at Antioch, he declared in Acts 13 verse 36 these words, for David, speaking about this man, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep and was laid onto his father's and saw corruption. You think about David's society. You think about our society. And what is it that dissuades people? What is it that keeps people back from serving What is it that keeps people from going out and evangelizing the lost? Well, they hold back, they pull back because the society in which we live is an ungodly society, but so was David's. It's a wicked society, preacher, but so was David's. It was a godless society, but so was David's. But David served his own generation because David was responsible for his generation. David isn't responsible for my generation. I'm not responsible for David's generation. I am responsible for this generation, and so are you, brethren and sisters. This is a generation, this is the age, this is a time in which God has placed us in his providence that we might serve the Lord. Now, are we doing that? Are we serving the Lord? The sinfulness of society did not dissuade him from serving God. Rather, now don't miss it, it persuaded him to serve the Lord. You think about Paul, when he went to Athens, and he saw all of those idols, and eventually he comes against that idol, he passes by the idol that has the inscription to the unknown God, and it says that Paul was stirred in his spirit. And what did he do? He went and he preached on Mars Hill. And he declared who this unknown God was. The God of the Bible, the God of creation, the God of redemption. He went into a godless society and into a godless city. And he proclaimed Jesus Christ. And brethren and sisters, that's what we do. That's what the Free Presbyterian Church does. If you want to go to another church that doesn't believe in evangelism, well, go ahead. This church believes in evangelism, the reaching of the lost, the going out into the highways and byways and compelling men and women to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, brethren and sisters, serving the Lord isn't easy these days. As we see a society that's drifting further and further away from biblical morality and the teaching of God's Word, we can find ourselves almost despairing, wondering if there's ever going to be a better day again that will come for the Church of Jesus Christ. And yet, brethren and sisters, even if we never see a better day, we are yet still to serve the Lord. This is our calling. This is our duty. This is our responsibility as Christians. How do we expect the ungodly world to change if we do not serve God by reaching the ungodly world with the gospel that will change society? It's time that the church of Jesus Christ got out of the trenches. And it's time that the Church of Jesus Christ march boldly and confidently into the battlefield that is the world to serve the God of heaven in a way that He deserves to be served. And we have had an opportunity this week to do that. Have you been serving the Lord? Remember what I said, preached a few weeks ago about this partnership that we have? It's one way in which you can serve the Lord. Have you been praying each night? Have you partnered with those who have been going out? Did you give out the leaflets? Did you invite your family in? Oh, brethren and sisters, we must serve the Lord. He deserves to be served. Notice something else in the psalm that convinced David to serve his God. Namely, the God he served. The God he served. This convinced David to be a servant of God. He's going to serve the Lord. I don't know if you've ever had the misfortune of disliking your employer. Better not look down, see who's smiling. I could get you into trouble. But if you've ever taken a disliking to your employer, well, you know that it's very hard to serve them in your role as then an employee. But how different it is whenever you like your employer, when you love working for them, Oh my, the service you give them, it's a delightful service, isn't it? Not rogery, it's delightful to serve a good employer. You know, all ministers at times struggle to get God's people motivated to serve the Lord. Some bark at their congregations. Guilty as charged. Some put their people on a guilt trip. Guilty as charged. Some people play on people's emotions, tugging the heartstrings. Guilty as charged. But beloved, surely the best way to get God's people involved in serving the Lord is to remind them of the one they serve. In this psalm, David comes to reflect on the God he served. And as he does so, he begins to catalogs just some, some of God's perfections, his attributes. A contemplating, a meditating upon the very attributes of God caused this man to serve the Lord in his generation. And brethren and sisters, us meditating upon these things ought to rise us from our slothfulness to serve the Lord Christ. What are they? Let's look at them briefly. First of all, God's mercy. God's mercy. Psalm 36 verse 5, thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Mercy, you know well, is God not giving us what we deserve. And need I remind you what we deserve? We deserve to be cast into the lowest hell. We deserve to be shut out eternally from the presence of God, to endure the everlasting punishment that was due our sin. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, hath raised us up together and has made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The mercy we have received from the Lord is something that ought to motivate every Christian to serve the Lord. This is one of the things that motivated the Apostle Paul to serve the Lord. The recalling to his mind the mercy that he had received off the Lord. He wrote about that mercy when he comes to testify in 1 Timothy 1, verses 12 and 13. And I thank Jesus Christ our Lord. who hath enabled me, for he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy. That's why I serve him, because I obtained mercy. This was the great argument that Paul uses as he closes out his letter to the Christians in Rome as to why every Christian in that assembly ought to have been presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which was their reasonable service, and for them to do and find and do the good and perfect and acceptable will of God in their lives. What approach did Paul take in order to get that congregation stirred up to serve the Lord? He went down this particular road. He goes down the road of reminding them of the mercies of God. Let me read those words. I know you know them, Romans 12, 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, these mercies that I have presented in the previous chapters, in light of those mercies, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. God's mercy was the reason why they should devote themselves to serving the Lord, and so it should be for us. How quick we are to forget the mercy of God we have known and received in the gospel. In thankfulness to God for his mercy, we should seek to serve him in some way. David then speaks in verse 5 about God's faithfulness. that our unfaithfulness never alters and can never alter the faithfulness of God. How faithful God has been to us, faithful to His covenant, faithful to His promises, faithful to His being, faithful to all the dispositions of His providence. God's faithfulness is the foundation of our trust. and our confidence in Him, in faithfulness He never forgets, in faithfulness He never feels, in faithfulness He never falters, in faithfulness He never forsakes His redeemed people. In light of God's faithfulness to us, should we not then serve Him and serve Him faithfully? God requires such faithfulness among His people. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 2, Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. And God will come to recognize the faithfulness of all who serve him when they are welcomed into heaven. Those who were faithful will hear the words, well done thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the joy of our Lord. Let us, let us, brethren and sisters, when many are found to be unfaithful to the Lord in these days, let us be faithful in all things. And then he writes in verse 6 of God's righteousness and God's judgments. Thy righteousness is like great mountains. Thy judgments are a great deep. As we serve the Lord, we need to keep the truth of God, the truth of God being righteous before our minds. The writer to the Hebrews in Hebrews 6 verse 10 says, for God is not unrighteous. He's righteous. He's not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown towards His name in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. God is righteous and God in His righteousness will judge. He'll judge the sinner for their ungodliness. But in righteousness, He will also reward His saints who have served Him. Rest assured, when the day of judgment takes place, God will give all that which is their righteous due. Acts 17, 31, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. His rewards will be righteously dispensed, not getting more than they deserve, none getting more than they deserve, none getting less than they deserve, none getting who do not deserve. God will dispense His rewards righteously. And so David, he thinks of God's righteousness and judgment. And then in verse seven, he speaks about God's loving kindness. I'm told that if you look up that word loving kindness in a Bible concordance, you will see that this word is only ever used of God, exclusively of God. It's never applied to any of his creatures. Not to angels, not to man. He never speaks of the loving kindness of man. Only ever of the loving kindness of God. What a motivation to serve the Lord. The loving kindness of God. In loving kindness, the hymn writer said, in loving kindness Jesus came. My soul in mercy to reclaim. From the depths of sin and shame, Through grace he lifted me. Is that not a motivation to serve the Lord? That you have experienced God's loving kindness? That he has showered his loving kindness upon you? Does that not stir us to serve him? Believers are motivated and governed and ruled by the love of God in Christ. How good it would be for us to remember that the believer's rule of life, it's not the law of God. with its threats and its judgments and its wrath, but rather it's the love of God, the love of God. This is what governs our lives. God loved me, and therefore I serve him. I am his servant. I have experienced his loving kindness. The final brief thought, I want you to think that convince David to serve the Lord was the recompense that was promised to him. Looking ahead, David remarked that those who had come to trust under the shadow of God's wings, verse 8 and 9, he says, they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house. Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures, for with thee is the fountain of life, and in light shall we see light. Don't have time to develop the thought tonight, but needless to say that God recompenses his servants with four things. satisfaction, joy, life, and light. Now, we might well come to enjoy these things in this world. We will most certainly enjoy them in the world that is yet to come. God does reward His servants who faithfully serve Him. That we can be in no doubt about. And so, What awaits us in heaven? What's awaiting us in heaven? I know this. Whatever is waiting for me in heaven, I will be most undeserving of it. For all I have done is my duty. Whatever reward is awaiting me, I am most undeserving of it. Just to be there, just to see His face, just to be before His throne, just to be in His presence, it'll be reward enough. There was also the recompense Or can I say part of the believer's recompense? Maybe you don't think about this with regard to the believer's recompense, but another part of the believer's reward is a destruction of our enemies. And we read that in the verse 12, there are the workers of iniquity fallen. They are cast down and shall not be able to rise. That's part of our reward. God dealing with our enemies, the destruction of our enemies. David was a servant of Jehovah. We are his servants. Oh, that God would stir our hearts to serve him in these days. For if we don't, who will? Who will serve him? Let's remember the ungodly world needs reached with the gospel. Let's consider and let a consideration of God's mercy, his faithfulness, his righteousness, his judgment, his loving kindness, and let's remember and let's consider that the reward that awaits us that awaits every faithful servant of God as we think upon these things, as we meditate, as we consider these things, may they stir us, may they spur us on to labor for the master until the race is run and the crown is won. David, the servant of the Lord, Jehovah, May God help us to prize the position that He has now put us in. We are His servants. May we gladly, readily, voluntarily serve the Master, play our part, and see His work advance and progress even in these days. May the Lord bless His word to our hearts. Let's bow our heads in prayer briefly. O God, we pray that we might take the challenge to heart, that the Lord will have challenged our hearts, not the preacher. We leave that all with thee, Lord, we commit. O God, the great need of the work of God, ever needing workers, ever needing helpers, ever needing prayers, those who support, those who sit in the pew, those who invite family and friends under the sound of the gospel, Oh, there's a place, there's something for us to do, something for us to do. You recognize it, by this call us all to the work. Oh, may we labor for thee and serve thee gladly and joyfully, and may we serve thee faithfully. May we serve thee daily, day by day, not just in God's work. There's a service here, yes, but there's service in the home, service in our community, service in our place of employment, Ye serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, help us to remember that we serve not this church. We serve Jesus Christ. And what a happy, glad service it is. Oh, put joy and gladness into our service, we pray, Lord. Help us not to grumble and complain. Lord, help us, Lord, we pray, to be joyful. And may we serve the Lord with gladness. We offer prayer.