Ascension Presbyterian Lord's Day Worship

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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December 18, 2023

01:40: Good morning, my brothers and sisters in Christ. Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and from the
01:46: Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the corporate worship of our God. Please stand and hear
01:52: God call you to worship through his word from Isaiah 2. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the
02:03: Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow to it.
02:12: Many people shall come and say come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the
02:18: God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his paths.
02:24: For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
02:30: And he shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
02:40: Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
02:47: Oh, house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the
02:52: Lord. Let us worship God. Let us pray. Almighty Father, we praise you.
02:57: Oh God, we acknowledge you to be the Lord. All the earth worships you, the
03:03: Father everlasting. To you, all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers in it.
03:10: To you, cherubim and seraphim continually cry, holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts.
03:17: Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of your glory. The glorious company of the apostles praise you.
03:24: The good fellowship of the prophets praise you. The noble army of the martyrs praise you.
03:30: The holy church throughout all the world acknowledges you. The Father of an infinite majesty, your honorable true and only
03:38: Son. Also the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. You are the
03:44: King of glory, oh Christ. You are the everlasting Son of the Father.
03:50: When you took upon yourself to deliver man, you did not abhor the virgin's womb.
03:56: When you overcame the sharpness of death, you opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
04:03: You sit on the right hand of God in the glory of the Father. We believe that you will come to be our judge.
04:11: We therefore pray, help your servants whom you have redeemed with your precious blood.
04:17: Make them be numbered with your saints in glory everlasting. Oh Lord, save your people and bless your heritage.
04:26: Govern them and lift them up forever. Day by day we magnify you and we worship your name evermore, world without end.
04:35: Amen. Please make preparations for, or rather kneel as you are able for the corporate confession of sin.
04:47: As we've mentioned on several occasions, this time of a corporate confession of sin is something that can become rote.
04:54: And we can get caught up into just confessing sin, broadly speaking, without confessing sin more specifically.
05:08: And I pray now that as we are about to join our voices together confessing our sins, that we would do so not out of rote, but as out of humble thanksgiving for the
05:19: God who saves. Let us join together in confessing our sins. Almighty and merciful
05:26: God, we confess that we have sinned against you and one another in both our actions and our inactions.
05:35: We recognize that in Jesus our light has come. Yet how often we choose to walk in the shadows and ignore the light.
05:44: Gracious God, forgive our sins and remove from us the veil of darkness which shrouds our lives.
05:52: Illuminate us by your words so we may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory.
05:57: Amen. Please stand for the assurance of pardon. As we have just prayed, when we sin we walk in darkness, but when we confess our sins we walk in his glorious light.
06:10: Receive these words of comfort from God. If you should mark iniquities, oh Lord, who could stand?
06:17: But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. My brothers and sisters in Christ rejoice.
06:23: Your sins are forgiven. Amen. Please take up the Trinity hymnal and turn to hymn number 203,
06:33: Hark the Herald Angels Sing, a truly glorious hymn. Hymn 203,
06:39: Hark the Herald Angels Sing. ♪ Peace on the earth and sing ♪ ♪
07:22: Christ is born in Bethlehem ♪
09:17: Please take up the insert and look for our Psalm of the week, Psalm 52. The tune which we will be singing is the tune of the son of God goes forth to war.
09:29: Brother, any words of encouragement or instruction? All right,
09:50: Psalm 52, why boast of wrong? ♪ Keep the razor sharp from truth it goes astray ♪ ♪
10:14: You cherish evil more than good ♪ ♪
10:19: And falsehood more than right ♪ ♪ You cherish all devouring worth ♪ ♪
10:29: Your tongue invites delight ♪ ♪
10:35: Forever God will break you down ♪ ♪
11:01: Deny God his strength ♪ ♪
11:07: But his abundant, wealthy trust ♪ ♪
11:12: His knowledge gives him strength ♪ ♪
11:17: Alive within the house of God and like him...
12:00: ♪ Amen. Please remain standing for the reading of God's word from Revelation chapter four.
12:23: Revelation four. After this, I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven.
12:31: And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.
12:40: At once I was in the spirit and behold, the throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne.
12:47: And he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian. And around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.
12:57: Around the throne were 24 thrones and seated on the thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads.
13:07: From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder. And before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God.
13:19: And before the throne, there was as it were a sea of glass like crystal. And around the throne on each side of the throne are four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.
13:32: The first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, third living creature with the face of a man and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.
13:45: And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings are full of eyes all around and within.
13:53: And day and night they never cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.
14:03: And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.
14:18: They cast their crowns before the throne saying, worthy are you, our
14:24: Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created.
14:34: This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us continue our worship by confessing our common
14:43: Christian faith and the singing of the Apostles' Creed. ♪ His only begotten
15:03: Son, our Lord ♪ ♪ Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪
15:11: Born of, suffered under Pontius Pilate ♪ ♪
15:19: Was crucified dead and ascended into hell ♪ ♪
15:27: The third day he rose again from the dead ♪ ♪
15:32: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right arm ♪ ♪
15:46: To judge the living of the
15:52: Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ I believe the Holy Catholic Church ♪ ♪
15:59: The communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins ♪ ♪
16:05: The resurrection of the body and the last
16:13: King ♪ Please take up the
16:24: Trinity hymnal once more and turn to hymn 210, Silent Night, Holy Night, hymn 210.
19:48: Please now turn to hymn 214, Angels We Have Heard on High, 214.
19:55: ♪ We see thee ♪
22:33: Please now make preparations for the prayers of the people. Let us pray.
22:52: Oh God, holy desires, all good counsel and all just works, give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments, and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness through the merits of Jesus Christ, our
23:20: Savior, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, God forever, amen.
23:29: The Lord says, I am the Lord, your God. You shall have no other gods before me.
25:05: You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
25:33: You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. Remember the
26:15: Sabbath day to keep it holy. It's your law.
26:23: It's the truth.
26:59: I pray that we would be reminded of this today, Father, and that we would keep our Sabbath holy. In Jesus Christ's name, we pray, amen.
27:08: Honor your father and your mother. We incline our hearts to keep this, your law.
27:16: You've set our elders over us, you have authority over us.
27:26: You've set husbands to be the head of their wives and authority over them. You have set parents to be an authority over their children.
27:34: And we ask that you pour out grace, that you pour out mercy, that you pour out your spirit to incline our hearts to respect and honor those structures that you've woven into creation.
27:49: We pray, God, that in this way, we would live long on this earth as we live in Jesus.
27:55: In his name, amen. You shall not kill.
28:03: Mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this, your law. Make us protectors of life,
28:16: Lord God. Spare us not only from the heinous and grievous sin of murder and anger, as it is to be explained by Christ in the
28:25: Sermon on the Mount, but, Lord God, also that we would protect life and actively seek to prolong life in those around us.
28:34: Father God, make us those who hate the effects of sin and death, and Lord God, seek to prolong and encourage life in those around us.
28:45: Right thing to pray. You shall not commit adultery.
28:56: Keep this, your law. You shall not steal.
30:37: Keep this, your law. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
31:08: Keep this, your law. If the wise would speak the truth, the best about one another.
31:40: I think, Lord, of the children and the parents. God, make the parents of Ascension Presbyterian Church parents that tell the truth to their children.
31:51: Parents that don't lie to their children. Make us, God, parents who don't say that we will do something, and we don't do that thing.
31:59: Help us, Lord, to be faithful. Help us to speak the truth. And bless us in this way,
32:05: Lord. Make us a church that is of the truth, that is of the Lord Jesus Christ.
32:11: In his name we pray. You shall not covet. Mercy on us, incline our hearts.
32:21: Keep this, your law. You shall love the
33:02: Lord, your God, with all your heart and soul, mind and strength. Finding ourselves in agreement with all these things, we join our voices together and say amen.
34:08: Please stand and take up the insert once again and turn to our psalm of the month, psalm 96.
34:17: Ascribe unto the Lord, psalm 96. They shall not speak this word.
37:32: Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Psalms and find psalm 98, psalm 98.
37:54: This is God's holy and infallible word. Oh, sing to the
38:02: Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.
38:09: His right hand and his holy arm have gained him the victory.
38:16: The Lord has made known his salvation. His righteousness he has revealed in the sight of the nations.
38:28: He has remembered his mercy and his faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our
38:40: God. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
38:46: Break forth in song, rejoice and sing praises. Sing to the
38:52: Lord with a harp, with a harp and with the sound of a psalm. With trumpets and the sound of a horn, shout joyfully before the
39:02: Lord, the King. Let the sea roar in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell in it.
39:12: Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together before the
39:19: Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. With righteousness, he shall judge the world and the peoples with equity.
39:29: May the Lord be pleased with our consideration consideration of his most holy word.
39:35: Please pray with me. Oh Lord, I pray that you would grant joy to your people today.
39:50: That our hearts would be filled with gladness and this gladness would be exuberant.
39:59: That we would be readily willing and desiring to glorify your name through the deepest part of our hearts and outwardly with shouts of praise and singing with thanksgiving.
40:17: Lord, give this gift to us we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated.
40:28: The title of the message today is joy to the world. Joy to the world.
40:36: I have a four word thesis statement today that should help you think about the direction of the message and that is the
40:50: Lord is King. The Lord is King.
41:00: For those of you who need an outline to help organize your own attentiveness and thoughts,
41:07: I have three points for you to consider. First, all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our
41:15: God. That is found in verse three if you didn't catch all of that. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our
41:25: God. Second, shout joyfully before the
41:32: Lord, the King. That's found in verse six. Last phrase of verse six.
41:44: And finally, he is coming to judge the earth. That's found in verse nine.
41:52: He's coming to judge the earth. This is an enthronement psalm of victory.
42:03: There are royal psalms and there are enthronement psalms. In royal psalms, the idea of kingship is given but there's a little bit of a different nuance to enthronement psalms.
42:23: And in these enthronement psalms, we learn that the Lord is the
42:28: King. You say, well, yes, we know that. It's not very hard to see that.
42:39: Jehovah God is King. Yahweh is
42:45: King. Now, when I say that, that should cause you to have some questions in your mind.
42:55: The psalm is divided into three parts, three verses each.
43:03: And there are three tenses, past, present and future.
43:10: And there are three occasions given in these sections for praise.
43:17: I'm gonna give those to you now so that you can have an idea of where we're going.
43:23: First, we need to praise God for what He has done.
43:29: Praise for what the Lord has already done. Secondly, we need to praise
43:36: Him for what the Lord is doing. And third, we need to praise
43:44: Him for what He will do. Let's look at our text beginning at verse one.
43:57: Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. I don't remember much of my elementary and secondary education,
44:09: I have to confess. I doubt it was entirely solid. But one thing
44:16: I remember is an English teacher saying to me that we have to use exclamation points sparingly.
44:27: Your papers can't have all of these exclamation points in them. I'm here today to tell you that the exclamatory element of the
44:40: Christian life needs to be more pronounced. We need more of the exclamatory.
44:48: When we think of classic rhetoric, we're often in the Christian church thinking about indicatives and imperatives.
44:55: These are important. And churches are weak and usually indicative or imperative.
45:00: They're weak on one side or the other. They have doctrine without application or they have application without doctrine.
45:09: The church can also fail to be an exclamatory church.
45:17: The church can fail to have that sense of grandeur and exclamation.
45:26: We are buttoned up, we are reserved, we are held in check.
45:34: The Psalm is a call to praise. Praise is not bottled up, it's not held in check.
45:45: It is giving full vent to the emotions, the person's inner sense of the greatness and glory of God.
45:58: So you and I need to be more in the exclamatory mood.
46:06: Again at verse one, it's an exclamation point. So we should read it that way and we should sing it that way.
46:16: And Psalm 98 starts off with a call to sing to the Lord a new song.
46:25: There is a singing with this great zeal and fervency that happens when the people of God are confronted with the myriad of victories of God.
46:39: And so Psalm 98 is calling us to remember in the past, in the present and in the future, the great victories of our
46:48: God and we are to burst forth in singing. We're to be shouting our text.
46:57: We'll say, oh, sing to the Lord a new song.
47:06: For he has done marvelous things. There's a lot of dispute about what is the origin of the
47:17: Psalm? What's the occasion? One of the things we can almost be assured of is the
47:22: Exodus from Egypt being part of the background of Psalm 98.
47:31: But there's another element I want us to consider here. And that is since the beginning of God's dealing with man redemptively, there has been hundreds of occasions for the people of God to respond with exclamation, to hear the truth, to experience the salvation of their
47:57: God and to burst into song. For he has after all done many wondrous things.
48:11: Do you ever contemplate all the myriad ways that God has done marvelous things?
48:19: What about your own salvation? Mark recounted being a younger man and attending a party before his life in Christ.
48:28: Oh, Mark, how different things are now in Christ, brother. What wondrous things has he done?
48:38: He's given you a wife. He's given you children. He's forgiven you all of your sins.
48:45: You have dramatic cause for rejoicing. And we walk around moping and grumbling and complaining.
48:55: Our hearts should be full. So this theme of advent today is one of joy.
49:03: And when I was thinking about this, I say we all need a good kick in the rear end that we might have more joy, but it seems like it doesn't really work that way.
49:13: Burst forth in song, salvation has come. God has done it. He's done wondrous and marvelous things.
49:23: And then we have this summation of this idea, his right hand and his holy arm have gained him the victory.
49:39: Well, there's another element to this I'd like to introduce. If you didn't know this, the song
49:46: Joy to the World is based on Psalm 98. That's why I chose that as the title.
49:52: But there is another portion of scripture that's familiar to us that interacts and I believe in a very profound way with Psalm 98.
50:02: I'd like you to turn with me to the book, the Gospel of Luke in chapter one.
50:11: The Gospel of Luke in chapter one. This section of scripture is most known for Mary's Magnificat or Mary's song.
50:27: But there's some elements in here that I want you to see that lead up to Mary's response, her hymn of praise that she offers in Luke chapter one.
50:42: So we'll start reading in Luke one verse 26. Now in the sixth month, the angel
50:49: Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was
50:57: Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was
51:03: Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, rejoice, highly favored one.
51:10: The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, exclamatory.
51:17: Then angel Gabriel appears to Mary and declares that you are blessed.
51:28: You're highly favored. The Lord is with you. Verse 29 says, when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was.
51:46: Then the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
51:52: Now here it is. When we say the Lord is King, we go, of course, pastor, the
52:00: Lord is King. I don't think we grasp the significance in the weightiness of that statement.
52:08: Covenant God is King. You see, I'm gonna give an explanation about this in a minute.
52:14: You don't understand how radically crazy this is in some ways. It's real, it's true, but this is crazy that God himself would be
52:26: King. Go back to Old Testament prophecy.
52:33: It seems that the people were always failing to get the message that God was their
52:39: King and they seem to separate God and his kingship as being a kind of ethereal kingship over all things.
52:48: It's kind of misty. It's in the ether. And Kings, that's something we can understand.
52:57: We can see a King seated on a throne. He goes out to war with his army. This is something that humanity can grasp.
53:06: I want you to see how pregnant with meaning this section is. Do not be afraid,
53:12: Mary. You've found favor with God. Verse 31. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name
53:25: Jesus. I want you to pay close attention to this next part.
53:35: Children, pay close attention now. He will be great and will be called the son of the highest.
53:48: And this would be, you remember, that the charge from the Jews about Jesus as a blasphemer would be that he would be the son of the most high.
54:01: Gabriel announces to Mary that this son to be named
54:08: Jesus is going to be the son of the highest and that the
54:13: Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. How exciting!
54:20: Mary, insignificant by all accounts, but she and her husband are part of the family of David.
54:32: A second Samuel 7 promise, maybe. Could this Jesus be the one who would sit on the throne of his father,
54:41: David? This is exhilarating. It's exciting, the heir to the throne. But it pales in comparison to what's going to be revealed next.
54:57: And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. I don't know if we can find it then, but in the time of the scripture in the
55:09: New Testament, you could go and visit the tomb of David or at least say this is where David's bones are buried.
55:18: How can there be a king who reigns over the house forever? He lives his life and he dies and there's another heir.
55:27: This is the last king. He's going to reign forever and ever and ever.
55:38: And of his kingdom, there will be no end. David's kingship ended.
55:47: Solomon's in all of its grandeur built the temple of God and his kingship ends.
55:55: But this king in his kingdom, there's never ever going to be an end to it.
56:04: Embedded here, not only do we have the incarnation, but we also have resurrection.
56:13: I don't know if Mary understands all of this since full import. Jesus is going to die, but his death is going to be our salvation.
56:26: His death is going to be the reconciliation of the created order. And all of those creatures who were created for communion with God, he's going to make all of that right in his death on the cross.
56:41: But he's not just going to be put into the tomb and face the corruption that every other king before him had faced, but he's going to be raised from the dead and his kingship upon his ascension into heaven is the beginning of a kingdom, a reign, a rule that will never end.
57:09: This is what a little peasant young lady found out one evening in Nazareth.
57:20: Verse 34, further evidence of the virgin birth. Then Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I do not know a man?
57:31: She has not been married. She has not had intimate relations with a man.
57:37: She has no way, earthly speaking of being pregnant. Angel gives her an answer.
57:42: He says, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you.
57:55: Therefore also that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
58:07: We are familiar with this story, but can we recover a little bit of the exhilaration, the excitement, the exclamation, what a profound, amazing moment in history this is.
58:20: There's only one incarnation. There's only one King of Kings and in time and in space, it's happening here before our eyes.
58:34: Verse 36, Mary's cousin. Now indeed,
58:40: Elizabeth, your relative has also conceived a son. This is the mother of John the
58:46: Baptist in her old age. This is now the sixth month for her who is called barren.
58:59: With God, nothing will be impossible. Mary responds in an exclamatory way.
59:10: Behold the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.
59:19: And the angel departed from her. I think there may be an application and a lesson there for us about how to respond to the glorious declarations of our
59:30: God. Let it be to me according to your word. It's a good response.
59:40: Verse 39, Mary arose in those days and went to the hill country with haste to a city of Judah, entered the house of Zacharias and greeted
59:50: Elizabeth. And it happened, this is one of those glorious moments in scripture when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb.
01:00:07: I don't think Elizabeth thought that this was disagreement with matzo balls that she ate the night before, do you?
01:00:16: She knew, it was evident to her that her son in her womb recognized the
01:00:24: King of Kings in his presence. He worshiped him. And she speaks out,
01:00:34: Elizabeth to Mary says, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
01:00:42: But why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
01:00:50: I want you to picture this moms. You're six months pregnant, your belly's big.
01:01:01: And the way we think of time and space, Elizabeth is in a position of honor over Mary.
01:01:11: She's an older woman to Mary. And she says, why this privilege that the woman who carries my
01:01:20: Lord and my savior would come into my house? We have to read these stories, these narratives with fresh eyes and be exhilarated and excited again for indeed as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
01:01:49: John the Baptist got it. You and I need to leap for joy.
01:01:59: We need to sing with joy. We need to shout with joy.
01:02:05: The King has come, Christ the Lord. That was introductory to the part
01:02:14: I wanted to get to. I'm going to try to pare this down to make it easier. I believe that Mary is so conversant with Psalm 98 on this occasion of the conception of the
01:02:28: Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings in her womb that her magnificat, her song is an echo back to the psalmist in Psalm 98.
01:02:43: Listen to what the psalmist says. What we just looked at.
01:02:49: Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, the voice, Psalm 98. The liturgy on the lips of the people of God for a very long time and every festival occasion when all the times they would recount the victories of their
01:03:05: God, they're singing by memory Psalm 98. Mary knows
01:03:12: Psalm 98. The psalmist, oh, sing to the
01:03:18: Lord a new song. What does Mary do? Look at verse 46.
01:03:25: She responds, my soul magnifies the Lord. She's composing a hymn.
01:03:34: New information, new revelation about the King of Kings has come and he's in her womb and she says, my soul magnifies the
01:03:43: Lord. The psalmist again says he hath done marvelous things.
01:04:00: Mary responds, verse 48, for he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant.
01:04:08: For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me.
01:04:19: The psalmist, he has done marvelous things. Mary, he that is mighty has done marvelous and great things in me.
01:04:33: The psalmist again, it's amazing how it follows.
01:04:41: With his own right hand and holy arm, he has gotten himself the victory.
01:04:50: Look at verse 51 of Luke 1. Mary, he hath showed strength with his arm and scattered the proud and the imagination of their hearts.
01:05:05: Mary today in her womb sees the victory of God unfolding in her own experience.
01:05:14: And it's not just for her, it's for the nations. The psalmist says the
01:05:26: Lord hath made known his salvation and his righteousness he has openly showed.
01:05:40: Mary says in verse 50, his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
01:05:53: The psalmist says he has remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel.
01:06:05: Down at verse 54 and verse 55. Mary, he has helped his servant
01:06:12: Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.
01:06:28: The news about the conception of Jesus in the womb of the
01:06:36: Virgin Mary is nothing short than the arrival of the promise of messianic expectation.
01:06:50: And it turns out the arrival of Jesus Christ in the flesh is even greater than they ever imagined.
01:07:03: Let's turn back to our text in Psalm 98. I wanna point out an observation to you really quickly about the last part of verse one.
01:07:24: I'm not going to be doing an exposition of each of the verses, but I want to point this out.
01:07:30: One of the things that I think happens to us is that we think of these words about God and his right hand in purely anthropomorphic terms.
01:07:46: It's almost like a simile for us. God is so powerful. It's like he has a strong right arm.
01:07:55: Our catechism tells us that God is a spirit. So it makes sense that he would speak to us in language, but how profound this
01:08:05: God who in scripture with his mighty outstretched arm delivers his people and with his fingers and the dexterity in his own hands, he orders the providence of all that happens.
01:08:19: Oh, what wonder should fill our hearts when we consider that God would have an arm.
01:08:27: Jesus had an arm. He had hands and he had feet. So the anthropomorphism of the past has now changed and it's kind of magnified in the reality that Jesus Christ has an outstretched arm and we know in him that we have gained the victory.
01:08:50: Look at verse two. The Lord has made known his salvation. We could get into this with the
01:08:57: Magi. Gentiles from the East are coming and they recognize because of the signs and the star and the revelation of God that this
01:09:08: Jesus is the salvation of the nations. God's great works of victory have been done not in secret.
01:09:20: They've been done with a shout. They've been done with a loud song. Do you think the troops in Egypt who drowned in the
01:09:31: Red Sea would be able to testify to us that surely there is a God in Israel?
01:09:43: He's revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. And we think about the cross of Christ and hanging above the cross, the description of him and all of those four languages.
01:09:58: His salvation has been made known and can we see the promise of the future? It happens in time and space and isn't it true today?
01:10:08: Everyone in the four corners of the world, the Muslims, the pagans, the Buddhists, they know the name of Jesus.
01:10:15: And many of them are saved. His righteousness has been revealed in the nations.
01:10:28: All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our
01:10:33: God. It was true when the psalmist composed it, how much more so is it today? Well, now the middle section, which could be overlooked because it doesn't seem as theologically significant as the others, excepting the last part of verse six.
01:10:56: This is actually the heart of the psalm. This is the main point of Psalm 98.
01:11:06: We're called to joy today on this joy Advent Sunday. What does verse four say?
01:11:14: It says, shout joyfully to the
01:11:20: Lord, all the earth. Break forth in song, rejoice and sing praises.
01:11:33: The appropriate response to the Lord's salvific activity is effusive song and noise.
01:11:45: I appreciate what you said today, Mark, about us being curtailing the work and excesses of the spirit.
01:11:54: We've become the wine and cheese theology class of Christians, unmoved, speaking in museum tones, never bursting forth in praise because that wouldn't look decent in an order possibly.
01:12:18: The Lord through the psalmist commands us to shout joyfully, to break out in song and rejoice and sing praises.
01:12:30: And I'm not finding fault with you, but I wonder did your singing and praising this morning, did it measure up to the standard of Psalm 98, where you move deeply and profoundly to exult in praise?
01:12:47: There's a heart issue in view here. We need to be the kind of people who feel this, rooted in the truth and we express it actively, forcefully.
01:13:03: There's another element I wanna point out to you. And I think there's an artisanal excellence that should be found in our worship.
01:13:16: We need to become people who are skillful in the use of the harp and trumpets and the horn so far.
01:13:27: See, the highest essence of our being is a worshiping people really.
01:13:33: And it would seem that we would give great attention to the excellent worship of our
01:13:39: God. And we're grabbing the instrumentality that God has supplied. If there's something that can show forth his praise in this song,
01:13:48: I need to take up those instruments and with great skill and excellence, I need to play them for the
01:13:55: Lord. I wonder how many of us view our worship in this way, that the very best of us and our effort and attention is given to the worship of God.
01:14:16: Again, it ends this little inclusio with, shout joyfully before the
01:14:23: Lord, the King. Now, a question that I tried to introduce in the beginning is this, this speaking of royalty.
01:14:37: This is a kingly season in the life of the church. We are anticipating the arrival of the King liturgically on our calendars.
01:14:47: But this is the part I want you to grasp today. It says, shout joyfully before the
01:14:54: Lord, the King. This enthronement psalm obviously speaks of royalty.
01:15:01: It states clearly that the Lord is King and that his kingship does not merely reside in the heavenly realm.
01:15:11: This is a problem in the church today because a lot of our fellow Christians think that he's only the
01:15:17: King of heaven. The last day he gets to be King of the earth.
01:15:23: It would seem to me a proper understanding of the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnation of Christ, is the
01:15:31: King has come to reclaim his creation. He has come to reconcile the creature who was created for communion with God and that communion has been broken by sin and he comes and he reconciles them that they might have communion with him.
01:15:52: And what of his resurrection? And what of his ascension, which is testified by numerous witnesses?
01:16:02: Our God reigns and his name is Jesus Christ. He sits enthroned, not only reigning and ruling in heaven, but this very earth.
01:16:18: This is the purpose for which he came into the world. How could we say that he is not the
01:16:27: King? Well, the time is short.
01:16:32: Let me get through this next little section. We'll have a quick word of application. What you may not recognize in verse seven, there's a little hidden gem here.
01:16:45: We think maybe that the Lord is just recounting some creative creation things and applying this here through the psalmist.
01:16:54: But it says in verse seven, let the sea roar and all its fullness.
01:17:01: If you look through the pages of scripture, the most terrifying place in scripture is the deep sea.
01:17:13: It's analogous to hell in some cases. It is utterly related and connected to the idea of chaos.
01:17:23: And if you've ever been out far away from the shore, deep sea fishing and a storm crops up and the waves go really high, you would say, surely this is the most terrifying place in the world.
01:17:38: There's nothing like it. But here the psalmist says, let the sea roar and the chaos is transformed into a festal choir.
01:17:56: The sea which is formerly chaotic and tumultuous and dangerous is now submitted and conforming and coming in worship to God.
01:18:06: It's very beautiful and picturesque. The chaotic sea, the roaring sea, which destroys and kills is now turned to be a choir that echoes the praises of our
01:18:20: God. We're also called to roar in praise with it, the world and those who dwell in it.
01:18:36: Another image, the flooding, side breaching river.
01:18:45: Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together before the
01:18:53: Lord. And this of course speaks to the creation's longing and yearning for the revealing of the children of God that they too might be restored to their creator.
01:19:06: This morning, very early in the morning, I was on my backpack. We live on a very small lake.
01:19:15: I was looking off toward the lake. The wind was howling.
01:19:21: It was raining. And I saw a duck with her ducklings and they couldn't have been happier.
01:19:33: It was surprising. The little kids were like playing. Those ducks in their inability to get wet with their fancy feathers that God gave them, they sing praises to our
01:19:50: God. They say, we love the wind and the rain and we can swim in the pond. This is wonderful.
01:19:59: Think about the cheetah running 60 miles an hour and he's just blasting through all the juke moves of the antelope and he catches the antelope.
01:20:15: He was created for this very purpose. God gave him those lightning fast wheels to catch antelope.
01:20:28: I think also children that when you hear the birds sing, it's background noise to us, but those birds even, they sing to the
01:20:39: Lord. He created with them with those beautiful voices. We need to stop and ponder and appreciate what the
01:20:47: Lord has done in his creation with all this info.
01:20:53: So further cause for our rejoicing and we can say we understand that the created order longs for the revealing of the sons of God.
01:21:05: And if all of these promises have come true thus far, isn't it assured that every member of the elect will be redeemed and on the last day, the created order will be restored and heaven will come down and earth will be ascended and we will be living with the king.
01:21:28: We have absolute confidence that he's coming to judge the earth.
01:21:36: Elizabeth knew, crazy. She knew that her
01:21:41: God, her salvation was in the womb of the
01:21:46: Virgin Mary, her relative. And the life sinlessly, the perfect ministry of work and word, obedience, the keeping of the 10 commandments, which we could not, we prayed through.
01:22:06: I hope you recognized again that you do not keep those perfectly, but Jesus did.
01:22:17: And that righteousness has now been conferred upon the people of God. Surely we should respond shouting joyfully, praising him earnestly, that his name might be glorified in all the earth.
01:22:36: We have to ask God today. We have to ask the Holy Spirit to give us the burning desire to shout the praises of our
01:22:45: God, that we would have hearts so given to Christ that we burst forth in singing.
01:22:53: We don't have time, but if you need something to do for the Sabbath afternoon, read Ezra chapter three.
01:23:01: This context is that they're laying the foundation stone of the rebuilt temple. And they began, the priests began to lead them in singing with instruments and the people shout and scream and sing so heartily that they could be heard far, far away.
01:23:19: I wonder if the people who walk by us on a Sunday morning, if they could hear our voices, are we bound by an improper view of indicatives and imperatives to not have the exclamatory.
01:23:35: Sometimes we need to burst out in song and sing and praise him for his glory.
01:23:46: How can Yahweh be the king? This isn't anthropomorphic.
01:23:56: This isn't theory. This is practice. How does this happen?
01:24:03: It can only happen through the conquering Messiah, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
01:24:10: How can God himself occupy the throne of David on earth and occupy the throne in heaven?
01:24:18: It can only happen. It happens in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. And brethren, every person who's ever lived will say and confess that Jesus Christ is king.
01:24:35: Everyone, believing and unbelieving, his vindication, his victory is assured.
01:24:45: Quickly, a couple of words of application. I wonder how many of us are singing new songs to the
01:24:58: Lord for the wonders he has done. Take some time today with your family and rejoice in all the blessings that have been showered upon you and shout joyfully to the
01:25:12: Lord in response. You should rejoice today.
01:25:19: The Lord has made known his salvation to the ends of the earth. And guess what?
01:25:25: That grace and mercy has landed upon you. You rejoice because Christ the
01:25:33: King has saved you and redeemed you and reconciled you and brought you back to your purpose that you might have communion with God.
01:25:44: Be filled with hope, peace, joy, and love today for our
01:25:53: Lord, our King is coming to judge the earth. And even now he reigns and rules in righteousness.
01:26:07: I intended to do this last week with a different song. I wrote it in my notes. Again, I'm not forgetting today.
01:26:13: I'm gonna ask you to take up your hymnal and stand. And this will be the final application of the message today.
01:26:26: Sometimes we have to be coached. We need to shout and we need to sing and we need to praise and we need to exalt and we need to exclaim.
01:26:37: But now I want you to turn to number 195. And I don't know if we were lackluster before, but now let's do justice to the song that this is based on.
01:26:53: Let us from our bowels, praise the most worthy name that there is, the
01:27:00: Lord Jesus Christ. Let us shout to the nations that our God reigns. Let's sing joy to the world together.
01:27:07: Let us begin. ♪ Joy to the world ♪ ♪
01:27:29: Christianity ♪ ♪ Christianity ♪ ♪ Rocks will ♪ ♪
01:28:01: Revealed ♪ ♪ The sound revealed ♪
01:29:17: Please be seated. Oh Lord, we thank you for this day.
01:29:26: And we thank you for the kick in the backside that causes us to shout joyfully to you, to sing, to have hearts that are white hot for God.
01:29:41: Oh Lord, give us those hearts we pray. In Jesus name, amen.
01:29:49: We now come to the time of our worship service where we perform an act of service to our
01:29:57: God in the giving of tithes and offerings. Please stand and let's pray together.
01:30:39: Oh Lord, we thank you for the lives that you've given us.
01:30:45: Lord, we grumble and complain. We see a lot of lack, but Lord, we know that we have super abundance in you.
01:30:55: And I pray that you'd give us greater hearts of thanksgiving and worship and obedience.
01:31:01: We consider the great things you have done. And oh Lord, we ask that these tithes and offerings would be used for the continuing advance of your kingdom to the making of disciples and to teach them all that you've commanded.
01:31:18: Oh Lord, help us to call the nations to worship, repentance, and obedience.
01:31:24: We ask this in Jesus name. Let's continue our time of worship, the singing of the
01:31:37: Gloria Patri. And let's try to up the intensity again in our singing of this very familiar doxology.
01:31:45: Let's begin. ♪ Glory be to the Father ♪
01:32:28: Thanks to the Lord. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you, oh
01:32:40: Holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God. Because you sent your beloved son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life.
01:32:53: That when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.
01:33:03: Therefore with the angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name evermore praising you and singing.
01:33:15: Hang on one second. Magnify your glorious name.
01:33:24: The Sanctus is the hymn of victory. Embedded in our liturgy is this very spirit of Mary's Magnificat.
01:33:33: It's here, it's been here. Let us sing the Sanctus, the Lord. ♪
01:33:39: Holy, holy ♪ Recognize that a significant part of the incarnation is that you would give your body and your blood for the salvation of your people.
01:35:21: And oh Lord, we thank you that you have condescended both in the incarnation and in the sacraments to give us earthy and tangible things.
01:35:31: And we thank you for the creaturely elements of bread and wine, which convey to us the real presence of Jesus Christ our
01:35:40: Lord crucified for us. We glorify your name in this.
01:35:48: It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Our Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, take, eat, this is my body.
01:36:27: Likewise, he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
01:36:32: Drink from it all of you. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the
01:36:39: Lord's death until he comes. Therefore we proclaim the faith.
01:36:47: Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Let's approach the table now in sincerity and humility, but also great confidence.
01:36:56: Let's recite these words together. We do not presume to come to this your table, oh merciful, but in your manifold and great mercies.
01:37:10: We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same
01:37:17: Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear son,
01:37:25: Jesus Christ, and to drink of his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our souls washed through his most precious blood and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us, amen.
01:37:42: Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the peace.
01:37:49: The gifts of God for you, the people of God. Thanks be to the Lord. Praise to our victorious king, who has washed us in his blood.
01:38:38: Praise we him who's loved. Let's now make this prayer of commitment together.
01:47:32: Almighty and everliving God, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of your son, our savior,
01:47:43: Jesus Christ. And for ushering us in these holy mysteries, that we are living members of the body of your son and heirs of your eternal kingdom.
01:47:55: And O Lord, grant us this other benefit, that you will never allow us to forget these things, but having them imprinted on our hearts, may we grow and increase daily in the faith which is at work in every good deed.
01:48:10: And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our
01:48:18: Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, we honor and glory now and forever.
01:48:25: Amen. Please stand. Praise God.
01:49:02: Receive the blessing now. The Lord bless you and keep you.
01:49:08: The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
01:49:14: The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and grant you peace.