Psalm 116 will be in Psalm 116 this evening. Psalm 116, our exposition this evening will be at verse 12. We'll begin at verse 12 and we will go down to the end of verse 19. Psalm 116 beginning at verse 12 down to verse 19 will be the exposition of the I am your servant. Lord, I am your servant. Psalm 116, beginning at verse 1. Dear friends, the word of God says, I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompass me. The pains of Sheol lay hold on me. I suffer distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord. O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. When I was brought low, He saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believe, even when I slow, I am greatly afflicted. I said in my alarm, all mankind are liars. What shall I bring her to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord." Once this is the word of God, thanks be to God. Our gracious Father, thank you for this day. Father, thank you for your word. Your word is good. Your word is true. We pray, sanctify your people in the truth. Your word is truth. Thank you, Father, for continuing to work in your church. Lord Jesus, lead us now to submit to you, to yield to your kingship, to rest in your promises. O Spirit, please come and feed us. the same. In Psalm 116, as we've said, is a song of thanksgiving. The psalmist is leading the people of God, leading the assembly of God's people, the congregation, to give thanks, to praise the Lord. And the psalmist is reflecting on his own deliverance. He is reflecting and leading the people of God in every generation to ponder and think about our love for the Lord. and how that love blossoms, it's nurtured by the mercies of God, by seeing the Lord our God deliver, sustain, preserve, and keep. So in light of God's salvation, the response of the saint is worship, praise. Friends, remember, our worship grows in proportion to our knowledge of God and our love for God. The more we know of God's mercies to us of God grows and this affection deepens, so the overflow of this great love is worship. Friends, true biblical worship is not void of the truth, but it's fueled by the truth. And this truth-filled worship should set the heart ablaze. So friends, remember, the emotions are good. God made you to be a person who has affections. And those affections are meant to be trained and directed to God and His glory by the truth. And so the Solmist is directing us to worship the Lord, to grow in our love, by pondering His mighty works. His mighty works of salvation. His deliverance from present perils, from physical afflictions, but looking forward to the ultimate deliverance, which is the redemption of our soul, which comes in Christ Jesus. So looking at verse 12 of Psalm 116, the scripture said, what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? Verse 13, I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. The psalmist asked in verse 12 a rhetorical question. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? Dear friends, what can we give to God? In one respect, friends, He owns everything. The Scripture says the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. Dear ones, what can we give to God that does not already belong to Him? He owns everything and is worthy of all praise. And yet, friends, out of this new heart that God has given to us, the Spirit of God is leading the people of God to give praise to the Lord our God, to praise our Father in heaven, and to render Him thanksgiving." And so this rendering, this offering, is one of worship, one of praise, one of thanks. In verse 13, the psalmist describes for us what this sacrifice of praise looks like. I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. chalice full of drink. Friends, in the Old Testament, we see that on the sacrificial altar, there were drink offerings for it. We often think of the animal sacrifices. And remember, every time we see an animal sacrifice, we are reminded of the person and work of Christ. That animal on the altar is reminding us that God is holy, we are sinners, and we need a Savior. And God has appointed a perfect substitute that's better than dear son. But remember, part of the liturgy involved not only the flesh being burned on the bronze altar, but also wine and oil being poured on the altar itself. And so there was a sense of the light being poured out. And so we see, for example, the psalmist and other biblical authors speaking about their life being poured out In his letters, toward the end of his life, he said, my life is being poured out as a drink offering to God. And so, friends, we see the salvation of the Lord pictured here in verse 12, verse 13, as how the Lord is our Savior. He has provided for us a great salvation, ultimately in Christ. And so, as we remember our salvation that the Lord has given to us, the salvation we see ultimately in Christ, We also call on the name of the Lord. We worship Him. We come into His presence with thanksgiving. And the third, the psalm says, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people. So there's a congregational aspect to this thanksgiving. Dear friends, our thanksgiving, our worship, must be not only private, but also corporate. Friends, part of the Part of the corporate worship of God's people ought to involve thanksgiving. It is good that we give thanks to God. It's good that we praise and worship Him. It's good that we pay our vows to the Lord. And dear friends, remember God takes vows seriously. Marital vows, whenever we swear an oath or make a promise, God takes that very seriously because He But, dear friends, in our own sinfulness, we often look for ways out of our promises, look for ways to get out of the commitments that we've made. But, friends, as we have been born again and reconciled to God through faith in His Son, as we've been brought near to God in Christ, what is being formed within us is Christ-like character. So the saint demonstrates in his worship, in the worship of as he worships with the people of God, but also as he himself serves the Lord, a fidelity to keep his vows, to keep his promises. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Dear friends, we see illustrations of that in the scriptures, where saints especially will make a vow, and they'll promise to give something to the Lord, to consecrate an offering for thanksgiving, these contributions, and God says that if we make a vow, we are to fulfill it. So, friends, we see that one response, the necessary response of the people of God to the verses of God in our salvation is to worship Him, to give Him thanks, and to keep our promises to Him. So dear ones, let me invite you, let me encourage you to examine your own heart. Let's examine our own hearts and see whether we have that same heart attitude of reference to God and of worship that is leading us and motivating us to keep our vows and to worship the Lord with a thankful heart. Verse 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. In verse 15, friends, we see the character of God. Dear friends, you're following Him. As believers, your Father treasures you. He treasures you. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the saints. Dear friends, when a saint dies, it is counted as something dear and precious. Their life is dear to God. The Lord loves His people. is not detached and disinterested. You don't serve a deity who is too disconnected from the world that he pays no mind to his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Friends, God takes the death of his saints seriously. On the one hand, God promises to avenge the blood of his saints. We see that, for example, in the book of Revelation, Martyrs are before the throne of God, and what do they say to God? They say, how long, O Lord, until you avenge our blood which has been shed upon the earth? And they were told to wait a little while longer. God will not delay forever. He will avenge his people. Precious inside the Lord is the death of his saints. So not only is God the avenger, Dear friends, the saints are those who believe, who hear the word of God, to believe the promises of God, and see those promises fulfilled in Christ Jesus. You are dear and precious to the Lord. So friends, these are promises we need to hold, because sometimes in our pain, in our distress, in our discomfort, sometimes we doubt the wisdom of God, but many times we doubt the love of God. If the Father really loved me, would he have put this circumstance in my life, this sickness or this pain? If the Father really loved me, would my life look like it does now? A text like this reminds us how God loves his people. They are precious in his sight, and even in death, he takes delight in them. What is the response to the grace of God, the mercy of God, the love of God? Well, verse 16, a commitment. We are resolved by the grace of God to once again serve him. Oh Lord, I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your mate, sir. You have loosed my bonds. Again, friends, this is the proper response of the believer. God has taken away our heart of stone. He has given to us our heart of flesh. Once we were hostile and rebellious against God. Once we would not submit to God's rule. But now, as we have been born again, we have new desires. We come under the rule of Christ. And we say, O Lord, I am your servant. I belong to you. Once again, we put ourselves upon the altar. I am your servant. I belong to you. I am your servant. Dear friends, we need to remember who we are in Christ. We belong to him. Body and soul, we are his beloved, treasured servants. Lord, I am your servant, the son of your raised servant. Dear friends, many of us have had godly mothers and grandmothers who have loved us and prayed for us and demonstrated godliness to us shared the word of truth with us. Dear friends, the psalmist is reflecting on a godly heritage that he has. And friends, this is something you can give God the glory for. Those faithful, godly women in our lives are mothers and grandmothers who have pointed us to the Lord. Lord, I am your servant, son of your maid servant, and you have loosed my bonds. Dear friends, the psalmist realizes that God has redeemed him. He makes known before the congregation and the watching world that God has freed him. That he has freedom in the Lord his God. Well friends, let us think. What does the Bible say brings bondage? Well clearly, sin itself is bondage. Remember Jesus was discussing with the Jews, and Jesus said something very striking. He said that he who commits sin is a slave to sin. You'll recall that the Jews were very upset with Jesus, and they said, whoa, whoa, whoa, Jesus, why are you saying that we will become free? We are children of Abraham, and we've never been enslaved to anybody. How can you say that we will become free? And Jesus said, as I stated, he who commits sin is a slave to sin. Slave does not abide in the house forever, but the Son abides forever. Therefore, if the Son has set you free, you will be free indeed. Jesus is saying, yes, O Jews, yes, O Gentiles, yes, people of first Baptist England, you, in one sense, may not be physically enslaved. You may not be chattel that's owned by another person. But spiritually speaking, we are, by nature, slaves to sin. rebellious spirit, and our rebellion against God from the heart. And we must be freed in Christ. We must be loosed from the bonds that bind us, from sin that enslaves us. And dear friends, remember that this enslavement to sin is of a very nefarious kind. Dear friends, we can have sympathy for the slave who finds himself forced against his will and to services. But friends, this servitude we have to sin, this bond service to iniquity, is according to our love. It's by what we want. We want sin, we love sin, we choose sin. And according to that sinful, wicked disposition, we find that we have forged the shackles of our own bond I also can say that we're slaves of the devil because our will is to do his will. We willfully, deliberately follow in his own rebellious footsteps. We're slaves to sin. We've made ourselves the willing slaves of the devil. We are also in bondage. Friends, we're held in the bonds of judgment. God has bound us under his wrath. And die committed to this as a judgment? I mean, you cannot escape unless by the mercies of God we are reconciled to Him in Christ. So friends, we will never understand the liberty that God promises to sinners as we are in the Gospel unless we understand how desperately in bondage we are to sin, to the evil one himself, and to the judgment of God. We can say, as the psalmist does, that what I am your servant, the son of your maid, servant, you have loosed my bonds. A Christian can say, I have been set free. I have been liberated from the guilt of my sin. I have been set free under Christ from the dominion of sin, the reign of sin, the power of the devil. I am free in Christ. Friends, there is liberty in Jesus. There is liberty that the Spirit brings for us, a liberty that doesn't lead to licentiousness and liberty and free-willing living, but it is a liberty that leads to joy and rest. Friends, you were made to find rest under Christ, to find liberty under your Savior. And once we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, like the psalmist, we can say, Lord, I'm your servant, and I want more than to serve under you, because you are a good master, you are a faithful one, and you are worthy of all praise. You have loosed my bonds. And dear friends, when we bear witness to the gospel, to our friends, neighbors, and families, we are preaching and proclaiming that there is liberty in Christ, a freedom that man cannot find in his sin, but a freedom that's found in having peace with God. and turning to trust in Jesus. Liberty under Christ. Again, the response of this gratitude is worship. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. Friends, what can we give to a God who has everything? We give to Him our own selves. We give Him thanks, we give Him praise, because He is worthy. And in worshiping Him, friends, we find our purpose for living. Dear friends of Westminster Confession of Faith, the first of the Catechism questions is what is man's chief end? And the answer is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And what these art puritan architects of this confession are trying to communicate to us is that we were made for the purpose of glorifying God. And in our worship of God, we will find our deepest satisfaction. Dear friends, maybe some of you have been to epic ball games or concerts. Those football games or basketball games where you see magnificent feats of sportsmanship. The running back who goes the whole length of the field to score the winning touchdown. The basketball player who does the slam dunk at the buzzer. the concert that is so amazing in the sound that it just rivets the soul. And what is our response when we see something beautiful, something awesome, something truly stupendous? We want to acknowledge it. We want to respond to it. And so we jump, we shout, we wave our hands in the air. Friends, that is because God made you and hard-wired us to respond to His glory and His holiness with worship and thanksgiving, and in worshiping our God, to feel and to enjoy with Him our most deepest satisfaction. Friends, you were made to be satisfied in God. You were made to be satisfied in the Lord. And so, friends, that's why we need the Word of God, we need the truth of God, we need these Gospel promises, so that our hearts are once again warned to give God thanks and to worship Him. So, dear ones, tonight, if you find your heart cold, has followed the Christ and has become something of an old hat, something that has become routine and rote, dear friends, if that's your case, if today or tomorrow you find your heart cold, let me urge you to come to the Word of God and to hear the Gospel. And ask the Spirit of God not only to proclaim these truths to you, but to bring them home to your heart, that you would feel in your soul, yes, I am a sinner who was enslaved to his sin and under the wrath of God, and I have been redeemed in Christ. And now I see God, and I behold Him with eyes of faith as my glorious Redeemer. And as we hear and see the glory of God, we'll find ourselves draw in there to worship Him and to join Him. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people, verse 18. In the courts of the house of the Lord, in the midst of Jerusalem, praise the Lord. Again, the psalmist declares that he will do for the Lord what he has promised. He will pay his vows. And he will be not just before the Lord Himself, but in the presence of all His people. Friends, part of our worship, again, just individual or private. In our own culture, dear ones, we have a very individualistic mindset. And that's very much what it means to be an American. Americans, historically, have been very individualistic. We go, we do our own thing, and we do it our own way. Other societies, other cultures are more communal in their approach to life. The Christian life, friends, is, on the one hand, private, insofar as that none of us can be saved by the faith of another. You and I cannot be redeemed by the faith of our parents or grandparents. We must be saved by our faith in Christ. It is by us clinging to Christ that we are redeemed. It is as we are united to Christ ourselves that our sin is removed and righteousness is counted to us. Salvation, therefore, in one And the primary respect is very private, one-to-one person. But when God redeems a sinner, when He plucks them as a ram from the fire, what does He do? But He bundles us together and brings us into a new family. Friends, the Christian life might begin individually, one-to-one, born again unto faith. But we're always brought into a family. We're always brought into a community. We're always brought to a people, to a local church where we can grow in our love for God. We can begin to exercise the gifts that the Spirit has given to us. And to endeavor to serve Christ in the world. And so, friends, we are to encourage one another. As we devote ourselves unto fidelity to Christ, we are encouraging one another to persevere The Psalmist is gathered with the people in Jerusalem, the Temple, to worship God in that holy place. Dear friends, remember that the Temple in Jerusalem very much was a witness to the watching world. The Temple was constructed and designed in such a way as to reflect in types and shadows and signs, the glory of the one true and living God. The God, the Lord of Israel, as the one creator, sustainer, and ruler of the world. And the worship going on in Jerusalem at that temple was to be a picture of the heavenly court. And what was being communicated in the liturgy was the promise of God. that He was redeeming sinners by His grace, that He would provide salvation for those who trusted Him, that that promised Son of Abraham, that promised Son of David was coming. And so as the people of God would gather at the temple for worship, they would hear these promises, and they would look by faith to God, and hear His Word, and trust Him. But the temple was that focal point of corporate worship because of all the gospel truth that was being communicated there. So as the people of God gathered together to hear the word of God, to respond in prayers, the psalmist concludes, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, He is worthy. Dear ones, we were made to worship God You were made to know Him, to love Him, and to adore Him. We can only truly begin to worship God as we have come to Christ. Let me urge you again to see Christ as your only mediator, to hold to Him, to ask the Spirit to come and to fuel our hearts. Father, thank you for your mercy to us in Christ. Thank you for the gospel. We pray that you continue to announce your promises to us. Lord, we pray that our minds would be filled with truth, that our hearts would be humble and contrite before you. Lord, you have freed us. We have literally under Christ, not to live for sin, but to live for righteousness, to live for your glory. Father, we pray that as we go out the street, as we go to the work that you've appointed for us at home, outside the home. Lord, we pray that we would be fueled by these truths to greater confidence in Thanksgiving. Father, let us find our joy in you, not in the things of this world, not in our possessions or our accomplishments or anything else, O God, but we pray, Lord, that we would find our greatest delight and satisfaction in you. For you are worthy, we pray, O God, and you are our Lord, our Redeemer, and so we worship you. Father, we glorify you.