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I shall show —

I. WHAT IS THAT SERVICE OF GOD WHICH IS THE BUSINESS OF THOSE WHO ARE THE LORD'S.

1. As to the matter of it. This is as wide and broad as is the broad law of God; therefore serving God and keeping His commandments are joined together.

(1) There is salvation work and generation work.

(a)  Salvation work (Philippians 2:12).

(b)  Generation work (Acts 13:36; Galatians 6:10).

(2) There is an external and internal service —

(a) A service with the outward man (1 Corinthians 6:20). Our ears must be employed to hear His Word, our eyes to read it, our tongues to speak to Him in prayer and praise; to speak of Him and for Him to men; our hands and all our members to act for Him in the world.

(b) Internal service (John 4:24). This is the soul of religion, and the chief part in the service of God, without which the other is but a lifeless, unacceptable carcase (Philippians 3:3).

(3) There is stated service and continual service.

(a) Stated. The least you can do is to pay thy homage to Him by thyself in the morning, when He gives thee a new day; and at evening, when thou art to enter into the darkness of the night. And if yourselves be the Lord's you will also devote your houses to Him, and pay Him your homage in a family capacity (Joshua 24:15). And then there is the Lord's weekly service on His own day (Psalm 26:8).

(b) Continual. A Christian must never be out of His Master's work, he serves God in the intervals of duties as well as in duties. Hence we are ordered to pray always, and not to faint.

(4) There is doing-service and suffering-service.

(a)  Doing. The Lord calls His people to act for Him (Acts 9:6; Luke 6:46).

(b)  Suffering (Philippians 2:17; Luke 9:23).

(5) There is ordinary and extraordinary service of all the kinds before named.

(a)  Ordinary. There are pieces of work which are every day's task, as the bearing of ordinary trials (Luke 9:23), and doing of the ordinary duties of religion.

(b)  Extraordinary, which God only sometimes calls His people to in holy providence (Genesis 22).

2. As to the manner of it. And unless it be performed in the right manner, God will not account it service to Him, though ever so costly.

(1) We must perform it in obedience to, and under the sense of the commandment of God (Colossians 3:17; Psalm 119:6).

(2) Aim at His honour and glory in it (1 Corinthians 10:31).

(3) Serve God out of love to Him (Hebrews 6:10; Colossians 3:23).

(4) In faith (Romans 14:23; Hebrews 11:6). And there is a three-fold faith required here.

(a)  The faith of God's command, requiring the duty (Romans 14:23).

(b)  The faith of the promise of strength for the duty.

(c)  The faith of acceptance through Christ.

II. WHAT IS TO MAKE GOD'S SERVICE OUR BUSINESS, or when a person may be said to be thus employed.

1. God's service is His grand design in the world; He may have many works on the wheel, but this is the chief one (Psalm 27:4). But how may a person know whether this is so? I answer —

(1) What is it thou seekest to obtain with the greatest eagerness and concern? (Psalm 4:6, 7).

(2) What is that the miscarrying in which lies nearest the heart?

(3) When God's service and other things come in competition, which of those must yield in thy practice?

2. That he serves God with the whole man (1 Corinthians 6:20). He not only lends his hand to the work, as a person would do who passes by accidentally, but sets his heart to it as a person whose business it is.

3. He serves Him in all things — that is, whatever be his business to which he is called, he strives to act in it as serving the Lord (Psalm 116:18; Proverbs 3:6; Colossians 3:17). But how may a person serve the Lord in managing his worldly affairs? Answer:

(1)  Act from a sense of the command (1 Corinthians 7:24).

(2)  Depend on Him for direction (Proverbs 3:6).

(3)  Depend on Him for success (Psalm 127:1).

(4)  Acquiesce in His disposing of you as may best suit your spiritual interest.

(5)  Deal with men as if you were under God's eye.

(6)  Be moderate in your pursuits (1 Corinthians 7:29, 30).

(7)  Be suitably affected with the dispensations of Providence as they fall out to you.

4. He scruples at no piece of service which God puts in his hand, but makes conscience of universal obedience (Psalm 112:6).

5. He is constant and persevering in the service of God (Psalm 119:112). They are constant in two respects.

(1) In that they do not give over His work, laying it down and taking it up when they please. They do not serve Him by fits and starts, but labour to go on evenly in their way (Psalm 116:8).

(2) They never change masters again (Hebrews 10:39).

(T. Boston, D. D.)

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KJV: For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,

WEB: For there stood by me this night an angel, belonging to the God whose I am and whom I serve,