PAUL SERVED THE LORD
Acts 20: 18-24.
Holy means “other than." When the Lord reveals himself in a sinner that sinner beholds that God is “other than” what that sinner is. Isaiah said, “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.” He heard, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” Moses saw God’s glory, “The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.” Paul saw holy God when he saw Christ the Lord, “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6.) Isaiah said, “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.”
A sinner begins to serve the Lord with all humility of mind when Lord Jesus reveals that this holy God freely put away all his sin. “Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” Then all the sinner can do, all the sinner desires is to bow the knee in fear, in trembling, in reverence, in awe because he beholds the Wisdom and Power of God in Jesus Christ his Lord. From that day forward he serves the Lord. “And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped” (Exodus 34: 8.) Paul had his letters, was going his own way, but when he saw the Lord, “he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”
Humility serves the Lord as did Paul, "at all seasons…with many tears and trials…bound in the spirit…bonds and afflictions abide me but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."