Ascension Presbyterian Lord's Day Worship

And fire and water.

What? Here.

You can bring that over.

I don't have it right now.

Oh.

I'll bring it. I'll bring it.

I'll bring it. Can I have it? Can I have it? I'll bring it.

I'll bring it.

I'll bring it.

I'll bring it.

I'll bring it. I'll bring it. The Lord, he asked for the power of the nation and workers, but also the Lord for the universe and for the spirits.

We don't usually do announcements, but I wanted to first off say I know there are many guests coming today, and we want you to know that we are very glad that you're here, and I want you to feel absolutely comfortable and relaxed that you're here with us.

You are a guest, and you're honored among us, and we're very thankful that you're here with us. There are certain elements of liturgy that may seem foreign to you. Please just follow along. For instructions about the Lord's Supper, those are given on the back of the bulletin.

If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are welcome to come and partake with us. If you are unsure of that, you should not come. If your family is uncomfortable because you're members of another church coming, we understand.

That.

You're welcome to stay. Dad will serve you over there. Is that okay? Mark, we're going to serve him because of his issue. If anybody has any other special needs, please let us know. Let's take a moment and prepare our hearts for this great day of worship.

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the corporate worship of our great God. Please stand. Brethren, you have come to Mount Zion in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Come now, let us come into his presence and worship him. Please pray with me. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we, your people, hearken and hear and come when you call us. We are delighted to come into your presence.

O Lord, we pray that our worship would be pleasing and acceptable in your sight, and though we are frail and feeble in our efforts, we have a great mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that our worship is acceptable because of him, and in this we rejoice.

O Lord, strengthen and bless your people today, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

As you are able, please kneel for the corporate confession of sin. Let us now confess our sins in unison. Almighty Father, God of gods and Lord of lords, father to the fatherless,.

Husband to the mercy of the not-forgiven, we are without exceeding grace,.

Account our sins to Jesus' death, and amend our ways by the power of your glory. Resurrection. Please stand. What is utterly lost in our time is a sense of the majesty and holiness of God. And we have come into the presence of a holy God, so we are obligated to confess our sins.

But instead of shrieking away and running out the door, we have boldness because we have Christ and we have salvation in him. If you be in Christ, take great heart today, your sins are forgiven. Receive this, the assurance of pardon.

Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

O people of God, take heart today. If you be in Christ, your sins are forgiven.

Amen?

Amen.

Let us respond with great joyful singing, and number 32, take up the red hymnal and let us sing together, Great is Thy Faithfulness, number 32.

Insert, and in the right corner, there's a discrepancy in the bulletin.

We are singing 59 today, and we are a little bit familiar with this from last time. Follow along as you are able, Psalm 59.

Please remain standing for the reading of the word from the book of Revelation and chapter 12.

Revelation 12. Now a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then, being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.

And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.

And the dragon stood before the woman, who was ready to give birth, to devour her child as soon as it was born. She bore a male child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God in his throne.

Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her their 1 ,260 days. And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with a dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought.

But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives to death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath because he knows that he has a short time.

Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time.

From the presence of the serpent, so the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.

And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

We are a local church. We are a Presbyterian church, but we are part of the larger body of Christ, and that includes people who are not part of our denomination, people who have lived in the past, and Christians who will live in the future.

Therefore, we sing together the Apostles' Creed. Let us begin.

Please be seated.

The Covenant Baptism of Calvin Jacob Breno

Many of you have come here today for this purpose, to witness the covenant baptism of Calvin Jacob Breno. And we rejoice in this great occasion. I have a similar formula that I follow in baptisms. Today there is a minor departure only for the purpose of instruction and teaching.

Our Westminster standards have great things to say about the sacrament and covenant baptism in particular. So I want to review a couple of those things. And in just a moment, we're going to invite the Brenos to the front.

The first question to be answered is what is a sacrament? A sacrament is an holy ordinance instituted by Christ in his church to signify, seal, and exhibit unto those that are within the covenant of grace the benefits of his mediation to strengthen and increase their faith and all other graces, to oblige them to obedience, to testify and cherish their love, and communion with one another.

What are the parts of the sacrament? Well, there are two. The one, an outward and sensible sign used according to Christ's own appointment. The other, an inward and spiritual grace thereby signified. The outward sign today in baptism is the water.

How many sacraments have Christ instituted in his church in the New Testament? Under the New Testament, Christ hath instituted in his church only two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper. We celebrate the Lord's Supper here every week and this week both sacraments will be administered.

It's a great day for us. Well, question 165 is what is baptism? Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament wherein Christ hath ordained the washing with water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit to be a sign and seal of engrafting into himself, of remission of sins by his blood and regeneration by his Spirit, of adoption and resurrection unto everlasting life and whereby the parties baptized are solidly admitted into the visible church and enter into an open and professed engagement to be holy and only the Lord's.

Today, in an amazing testimony of God's faithfulness and the keeping of his promises, Callan Jacob Breno is running into the ark of Jesus Christ. He's coming into the church. He could not himself come in.

He could not stand to be baptized and isn't this a beautiful picture of the gospel? We passively receive the grace of God and then we act in response to his gracious dealings with us. Even our faith is a gift of God.

So the baptism of babies is a beautiful picture of the gospel. Who is baptism to be administered unto? Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church and so strangers from the covenant of promise till they profess their faith in Christ in obedience to him.

But infants descending from parents either both or but one of them professing faith in Christ in obedience to him are in that respect within the covenant and to be baptized. The vast majority of you have been baptized and today I'm going to ask you to improve upon your baptism.

You can say, well, how do we do that? Well, our standards have some guidance for you. So this isn't just for Callan. There is another covenant renewal today for us in baptism. We remember our baptisms.

How is our baptism to be improved by us? The needful but much neglected duty of improving our baptism is to be performed by us all our life long. Especially in the time of temptation. And when we are present at the administration of it to others and that's where you are today but by serious and thankful consideration of the nature of it and of the ends for which Christ instituted it.

The privileges and benefits conferred and sealed thereby and our own solemn vow made therein by being humbled for our sinful defilement are falling short of and walking contrary to the grace of baptism in our engagements by growing up to assurance of pardon of sin and all the other blessings sealed to us in the sacrament by drawing strength from the death and resurrection of Christ into whom we are baptized for the mortifying of sin and the quickening of grace and by endeavoring to live by faith to have our conversation in holiness and righteousness as those that have therein given up their names to Christ and to walk in brotherly love as being baptized by the same spirit into one body.

Please pray with me now. O Lord, I pray for your blessing upon this joyous hour. I pray, O Lord, that Callan Jacob Breno a firstborn son who opened his mother's womb would be consecrated for your service all the days of his life.

That he would bear much fruit in his kingdom's service to you. That he'd be a blessing to his parents. That he would be a gift and an encouragement to the church. And that even now, Lord, you'd be preparing him to be a great husband and father that his children and his children after him would keep covenant as his parents have on this day.

We ask all of this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

I wanted to bring to mind one simple but very powerful verse of scripture that I'm going to ask the Brenos to come up. In Acts chapter 2, verse 39, Peter says, For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off as many as the Lord our God will call.

Brethren, I can attest today that the Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy and his grace has kept his covenant promises to me and to my family. My son Jacob has married in the Lord. He and his wife walk in faith.

We have every confidence that Cal in 2 will follow the example of his parents and be faithful followers of Jesus Christ so we joyfully invite them to come. I want to ask Pastor Carly to come. Come on this side of the rail.

Be careful on the steps. Let us do this. Congregation, you have within your bulletin a list of vows.

Jacob,.

Do you acknowledge your child's need of the cleansing blood of Jesus and the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit? Do you trust in God's covenant promises on their behalf?

Do you look.

In faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation as you do? Do you unreservedly dedicate your child to God and promise in humble reliance upon divine grace that you will endeavor to set before them Christ and his gospel?

Provide a godly example that you will pray with and for them and that you will teach Cal in the doctrines of your holy faith and that you will strive by all the means of God's appointment to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the congregation.

Members of the.

Ascension, we have duties and.

Responsibilities. We have to uphold our side of the covenant. And this child in the nurture and congregation of the Ascension as a church of church body undertake the responsibility. We do. Jacob, what is the Christian name of this child?

Allen Jacob. Jacob, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Father Mark, would you please pray?

Let us pray. Our gracious God and Father, we thank you for your covenantal faithfulness that we here are witnessing a natural bud on the olive tree. Praising you almighty God for your sovereign grace in Jesus Christ praying that the Lord will guide and protect this child that he will grow daily in the love and knowledge of Christ that he will serve God all his life and days for his glory and that he his parents rather will show wisdom, discernment and diligence as they seek to rear him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord that he will live so as to be a credit to his family and church.

We ask all these things trusting in the one who has begun this good work in him for we ask in his glorious name the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please take up the hymnal and turn to number 467. I'm going to ask you to stand now as we sing the wonderful grace of Jesus. 467. Please make preparations now for the prayers of the people. Our people, generally kneel in this time.

If you're unable to do that or not comfortable with that, it's fine. After this manner therefore pray.

Ye. I will be done.

On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen. Pray that we may glorify God in all that we do as we live and work in the creation that displays his power and be pleased to dispose all things to his own glory. Pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced.

Ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it and the kingdom of glory hastened. Pray that God for Christ's sake would freely pardon all our sins. We are encouraged to ask this because by his grace we are able from the heart to forgive others.

Pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

Our.

Father taking encouragement and prayer from you alone in our prayers we praise you ascribing kingdom, power and glory to you and to testify of our desire and assurance to be heard we say together please stand for the singing of the psalm of the month.

Inside your bulletin it says be gracious unto me. Oh God this is the psalm of the month for the month of February for us. Just a moment now let us begin.

Please remain standing for.

The reading of the word from 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. This is God's authoritative sufficient inerrant and infallible word. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. For we know that if our earthly house this tent is destroyed we have a building from God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.

For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven if indeed having been clothed we shall not be found.

Naked.

For we who are in this tent groan being burdened not because we want to be unclothed but further clothed that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now he who has prepared us for this very thing is God who also has given us the spirit as a guarantee.

So we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith and not by sight. We are confident. Therefore we make it our aim whether present or absent to be well pleasing to him.

I want you to pay closer attention now because this verse figures prominently into the message.

For.

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad.

Knowing.

Therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men but we are well known to God and I also trust are well known in your consciences. For we do not commend ourselves again to you but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.

For if we are beside ourselves it is for God or if we are of sound mind it is for you. For the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus that if one died for all then all died and he died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves but for him who died for them and rose again.

Therefore from now on we will regard no one according to the flesh even though we have known Christ according to the flesh yet we have known him thus.

No longer.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold all things have become new. Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ.

And has.

Given us the ministry of reconciliation that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us.

We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Please pray with me now. Oh Lord we thank you for this great day.

We ask oh Holy Spirit that you would illumine our understanding that you would turn sinners back to yourself both believing today the ones who believe already and unbelieving that we might enjoy and bask and revel in the reconciliation that you have supplied in our Lord Jesus Christ.

We ask this all in his name. Amen. Please be seated. Chapter 5 would require about 5 to 7 sermons to cover it so we're not going to be covering all of that material and I'd like us to focus on just one.

Idea.

What Is Reconciliation?

There are many precious jewels that we could examine in the treasury of Christ. One of them is reconciliation to God. If you could imagine that I had a bag of diamonds in a black velvet arrangement and I pulled one of those diamonds up and picked it up and held it before you.

There are three questions that I'd like to answer at least partially. The first is very basically what is reconciliation. The second would be how are we reconciled to God. The third would be what should we do as those who have been reconciled.

The first thing I'd like us to consider today are a couple of certainties I have in my life experience. As you know some death because a friend of mine has recently died with his two children. I heard from a lady on Friday of a young man in his 40's who was never sick who got sick and was dead within a couple of days.

Wife and young children death is.

Certain.

Death is coming for us we are going to die. We have no promise of tomorrow any of us. There is a certainty of death it is coming that should give us some pause and live a sober circumspect life about the time that we have for the Lord.

Here.

But the second thing that's outlined and it's touched on in our text today that's really halting it is a terror to consider is that we are all going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. There is a certainty of death and a certainty of judgment.

The third thing.

To consider is the certainty of eternity after church. I asked my son Jameson about eternity. He'll give you a good answer about and explain it very well. I joke because who can put their arms around.

Eternity.

We live but a short time. We learned recently that life is but a vapor. And James.

Death is certain.

Judgment is certain eternity. Every one of us in our hearts it's ingrained in who we are in the created order of things we know. The little babies know there is an eternity God has written it on our hearts.

The most.

Compelling and burning question is how can I escape the judgment of God. How can I face eternity. How can I look at death and smile because of what's on the other side of that event of death. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

Brethren this book.

Is.

God's holy word. And it's funny the God that is revealed in this book in this God alone is the God that the atheists do not believe in. I think that's very interesting. They're okay with the other Gods.

This is the God that they are so adamant about not believing in and one of the reasons for that is in their natural mind they know there is accountability for everything that happens on this earth. Children you get away with transgressing.

The law.

Of your parents my mother and dad are here and they don't know all the bad things that I did. I hear reports my children have done lots of bad things that we didn't know about.

But.

The scrolls are laid open. Our God keeps perfect records. And all of our lives, our thoughts, our actions our inactions all of them are well documented. He knows it all. One of the things that happens when people come to church who are not part of church they think that we're looking down on them and we're judging them.

I have news for you the people of God of all people know the desperate nature of their condition. We are a bunch of sinners. The only difference between us and you if you're unbelieving is that we have run to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

That is it. That's the difference. Now we hopefully are walking in newness of life but there's no difference between us for all have sinned. The scripture says short of the glory of God, Jew, Gentile black, white, woman, man child sinners.

The Problem of Sin and Adam's Fall

Our first parents in the garden. This is very important. You may not like the economy of God, you've already seen it. There's a representative nature, there's a federal covenant federalism in our God and his dealings with people.

And you and I, our sinfulness is tied to our first father.

Adam.

And Adam fell in the garden. And you have that working against you and I have that working against me and then you couple that with all of our actual transgressions that we have to take responsibility for, we have ourselves committed these sins.

How can we escape. The righteous judge knows well today all of you. I want you to pay close attention and I want you to have one word bouncing around in your head for the rest of today and I hope the Lord brings it to remembrance many days into the future.

One word alone the whole of the message is this reconciliation reconciliation.

I want.

Reconciliation to be the thought the only thought you take away from us. So the first question that has to be answered is what is reconciliation.

I have a couple.

Of definitions somewhere reconciliation is the act.

Of.

Reconciling parties at variance. The parties at variance before us are the triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit their perfect holiness and righteousness, the perfect objective standard of the law of God as revealed in scripture in us.

To reconcile in the Greek literal sense is to call back into union. You and I were created for communion with God so the reconciliation that has to happen has to reunite us to God that we might commune with Him.

This is the very purpose for which we were.

Created, this is a.

Reconciliation that creates a calling back into this union and friendship those affections which have been.

Alienated.

To restore to us friendship or favor after this estrangement and to reconcile men or parties that have been at variance. In Romans chapter 5 it says. Therefore justice through one man, this is referring to Adam, that representation is very important.

If there's going to be reconciliation there has to be a representation. You're not going to be able to do this on your own, you have to have a representative. Adam, our first father, every one of us our first parents, Adam fell into sin and sin entered the world and death was introduced in the world through sin and death spread to all men.

The certainty of death is caused by Adam's sin. The reason we struggle to labor and to get along, it's so funny all of the societal ills are because of sin. Which politician ever talks about that every problem in your marriage in your family in this community, in this nation is attributable to sin.

Don't ever talk about it. Later in that same chapter it says. Adam who is a type of him referring to Christ who was to come. Christ brings something a free gift. It's not like the offense. For this is the language of scripture.

If by one man's offense many died much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ abounded to many. Therefore as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation.

Even so through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life. Now listen carefully children. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. Here it is so.

Also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. We are dead in Adam but we can be alive in Christ. God has set up a system of representation and we have a glorious representative the Lord Jesus Christ to take away our.

Sins.

Go back to our text now.

And.

I'm going to skip down to the latter portion of the chapter. Some encouragement for you who are in Christ today. Some things for you to hang on.

To if anyone.

Is in Christ he is a new creation. How wonderful it is that the creator of all things can refashion and.

Remake the crowning.

Achievement of his created order. For man if you are in Christ there has been an entire renovation of your life.

Imperfectly.

As it may be applied to bring at peace those who were at odds. And if you're a Christian he has given us the ministry of reconciliation. We have the obligation to tell every man woman and child about this glorious salvation in Christ.

The Church as Ambassador of Reconciliation

Many years ago there was a guy who had a job and he was the town.

Crier the town.

Crier would run to the city square and he would say you've seen it on the movies hear ye hear ye and give a message of some important news many times from the king. The church of Jesus Christ is the town crier to this lost world hear ye hear ye salvation has come in Christ with my family.

Some of them I don't know if all the kids were born. We went to a friend who was getting sworn in to the supreme court. It's a great thing. He can prosecute litigate cases before the supreme court.

And we went there.

And I saw a guy who actually is the sergeant at arms for the house of representatives and he does all the security and organizing for the supreme court justices and everyone else there in the capital at the state of the union address.

He bursts through the doors there's clamoring and there's talking. All the senators and the supreme court justices the cabinet they're all in session. They're all there. The door bursts open and the sergeant at arms comes out and he says ladies and gentlemen the president of the united states and this is the grand entrance.

And the president comes in and the people clap. The church is the town.

Crier the church.

Is the sergeant at arms.

We.

Burst the doors open and say I present to you ladies and gentlemen boys and girls the king of glory who takes away the sins of the world. That's what we do. We announce the good news of jesus christ.

We.

Have been given this privilege that we can tell men women children boys and girls that they can be reconciled to god. The question has to be asked how is this reconciliation accomplished. Look at verse 19.

It says that.

God was in christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them. Now this is a very powerful statement. What's happened on the cross. Is this. The king of glory an exemplary king.

He himself has gone to the front of the battle and he has vanquished the enemies of sin and death and satan. And he there on the cross reconciles the world to himself taking on the sins of all who would believe in him.

You see god's justice must be executed. You remember all those sins I told you he knows them all. There's going to be an accounting for them. This is the most loving message there is in the world. It's funny that we're called the most intolerant and all those things we have.

The most loving message in the world is that god reconciles sinners to himself in christ. You don't clean your life up. Christ cleans your life up. He does it out of his love and his mercy and grace. We contribute nothing.

He does it to the church. He's committed this word of reconciliation. Verse 21 said this is how it's accomplished. He made him who knew no.

Sin.

To be sin for us.

That.