Serving the Lord Fearfully
(A sermon preached by Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo at True Life Church on June 1, 2008)
Text: Joshua 24:14-15
We have been saved to serve the Lord. But can we really serve the Lord just like that? Is it so easy to serve the Lord? Actually it is not easy at all to serve the Lord even if we want to. See what Joshua told the people, “And Joshua said unto the people, “Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins” (Josh 24:19). Is it so easy to be the king’s butler? Is it so easy to be the Prime Minister’s personal secretary? And we want to be servants of the Most High God, the King of kings and Lord of lords? Who do we think we are? The greatest among the prophets—John the Baptiser—himself did not think he was at all worthy to untie even the shoe laces of the Lord (Mark 1:7).
Yes, the Bible talks a lot about serving the Lord, but before we can serve the Lord we mustpossess certain qualifications. I am not talking about paper qualifications or credentials, talents or skills, eloquence or intelligence. What does the Lord look for if we want to be His servant? The answer is in verse 14, “Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.”
So, how can we serve the Lord? If we want to serve the Lord, we can only do so if we serve Him:
Fearfully
Joshua told the people, “fear the LORD.” This is the first and foremost requirement: Fear the Lord. What does the word “fear” here mean? Please know that the word “fear” here does not just mean “reverence” or “respect,” it is much more than that. The word “fear” literally means what it means in the Scriptures, i.e. “to be afraid,” “to be frightened,” “to be terrified.” It is holy terror. Do we have such an attitude towards God? Do we truly fear Him? Today we have all kinds of false views about God—that God is like my buddy or my puppy. There are all kinds of warped and distorted views about God today—the romantic view, the superstitious view, the Hollywood view, the Superman view, the Santa Claus view, etc.
Who and what is our God and how should we approach Him? What is God? Do we know? Know that “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth” (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q4). I think the best picture of who God is and where we stand before Him is found in Isaiah 6:1-5, “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. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Do we fear God? If we fear God, we will truly know Him! How great and almighty He is, and how powerless and nothing we are! Once we fear God, we will know how to get right with Him—“Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” “Lord, I cannot save myself, please save me.” That is why the wise man of Proverbs tells us, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov 1:7); “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov 9:10).
If we want to serve God, we can, but first—be born again, be reconciled to God, make peace with Him. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). And in our Christian living, we must keep on fearing God. Only then can we serve Him. Let us not talk about serving the Lord in the church session, or fellowship groups, or camp committees, or some big project or activity; let us just talk about serving God every Lord’s Day when we come for worship. The Lord’s Day worship is a service. That is why we call the Lord’s Day worship, a worship service. What is our service like to Him every Lord’s Day? Do we fear Him when we come to Him? Do we truly fear the Lord—do we come late, do we come with our newspapers, do we come to get business contacts, do we come to catch up on our sleep, do we come for a free meal after service, do we come because of our friends, do we come to get some attention, do we come to be entertained, do we come for selfish reasons—it is all about I, me and myself, and nothing about God? That is why when we do not get the attention or entertainment we want, we get offended or upset and leave the church. When we give an offering to the Lord, do we think we are doing God a favour? If we fear the Lord, we would not think or feel like this.
If we want to serve the Lord, you must serve Him unconditionally. This leads us to our next point. We serve the Lord fearfully by serving Him:
In Sincerity
Joshua told the people to serve the Lord “in sincerity.” In other words, we must give to Him our 100% loyalty and commitment. God does not want half-hearted and double-minded service. What is not sincere is hypocritical. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and scribes who claimed to serve God, but were actually serving themselves, “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Matt 15:7-8). Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt 6:24). Those who are lukewarm, Jesus said, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Rev 3:15-16). The only way to be deserving of the Lord is to do as He says, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34). The Apostle Paul served the Lord sincerely, for he said, “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Gal 1:10).
God will never share His worship and glory with any other. That was why Joshua told the people, “put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD” (Josh 24:14). If we are double-minded or double-hearted in God’s service, we might become double- agents—adulterers and traitors, and no better than Judas Iscariot!
So we must make a choice, either we are for the Lord or against Him. Joshua said, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve” (Josh 24:15a). Why should “it seem evil” to the Israelites to serve the Lord? We need to understand the nature of man—how totally depraved and corrupted we are, what forgetful and ungrateful people we are. When we drink the water, we often forget its source; we bite the hand that feeds us. Such heinous acts of ingratitude and treachery are only too common in human society, especially in these last days of apostasy and immorality. Now that the Israelites are dwelling safely in the land, and are prosperous and comfortable, they are already beginning to forget the Lord!
How we must cultivate the good and godly virtue of remembrance. Let us always remember the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives, how He saved us out of darkness into His marvelous light. How our loving God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has indeed provided for all our needs. God forbid that we should ever forget Him, deny Him or betray Him. Unless we have such a perfect heart of loyalty and integrity, we cannot serve the Lord.
But sincerity is not enough, for some people can be sincere but sincerely wrong. That is why we need to serve the Lord:
In Truth
Joshua told the people to serve the Lord “in sincerity and in truth.” When we serve the Lord fearfully, we will want to serve Him according to His truth. What is truth? In this postmodern and agnostic age, no one knows what truth is any longer, and any dogmatic assertion of the truth is despised, and even attacked as heresy. Today, when you say white is white, black is black, that can be truth; when you say white is black and black is white, that can also be truth. Anything and everything can be true or truth. True can be false, false can be true. So what is truly or really truth? Jesus said that God’s Word is truth (John 17:17). God does not play hide and seek with us. He wants us to know for certain and for sure His truth, and He has revealed it in His Word—the Living Word who is Jesus Christ, and His Written Word which is the Holy Scriptures.
Those of us who believe on Him know the truth. John 8:31 says, “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” True Christians know how to worship and serve God sincerely and truthfully. Jesus said, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-34).
The Olympic Games are just round the corner, and those who compete must compete according to the rules or else they will be disqualified. In the same way, those who serve the Lord must serve Him according to His will and way, not ours, nor the world’s. We cannot serve the Lord if we do not fear Him and obey His commandments.
Many today are pressing us to deny God’s forever infallible and inerrant words, to deny that the Bible is extraordinarily preserved by “His singular care and providence” to the jot and tittle (Ps 12:6-7, Matt 5:18). We cannot deny the truth of the Verbal Plenary Inspiration and Verbal Plenary Preservation of the Holy Scriptures. We do not fear men, but only God. Once we compromise, we are finished—we have betrayed the Lord and denied His Word, yea even the words. Let us be loyal to God and Him alone, and we know we are on the right track as long as we base our faith on His words which is the Truth. “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4).
Let us serve the Lord fearfully by serving Him in sincerity and in truth. May the Lord help us to do His Will and glorify His Name.
