Lord's Day Worship - May 24, 2020

Worship Through Song and the Opening of Ephesians

Let's stand together.

Lord of all creation, of water, earth, and sky, the heavens are your tabernacle. Glory to the Lord on high. God of wonders beyond our galaxy, you are host to pleasure majesty.

You are holy.

Lord of heaven and earth, in the morning we'll celebrate the light. When I stumble in the darkness, we'll call your name by night. God of wonders beyond our galaxy,.

You are holy.

The universe declares your majesty. You are host to pleasure majesty. Hallelujah to the Lord of heaven and earth. Hallelujah to the Lord of heaven and earth. Hallelujah to the Lord of heaven and earth.

God of wonders beyond our galaxy,.

You are holy.

Precious Lord, reveal your heart to me. Father of the universe, declare your majesty.

You are holy.

Good morning and you may be seated. We're going to invite Brother Andy to come up now. We finished the book of Romans last week, so now he's going to take us starting through the book of Ephesians.

I just encourage us as we read through the book of Ephesians to so many great truths that are revealed to us in the book. The other thing I want to remind us this morning as we start to read through Ephesians is that so often in the Paul line letters as he writes to the churches that the apostle will open it up with great doctrinal truths and then as he moves through his letters to the churches, he then takes the practical approach of how to apply those doctrines.

So keep that in mind as we read through Ephesians, how Paul will lay out great doctrinal truths first in the beginning and then he'll apply them to us in our lives as we go through. So Ephesians 1 this morning.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestined us to the adoption as sons by Jesus Christ himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

To the praise of the glory of his grace by which he has made us accepted in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Which he had made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence.

Having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him.

In whom also we obtain an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will. That we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory.

In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed he was sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory.

Therefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints do not cease to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him.

The eyes of your understanding be enlightened. That you may know what is the hope of his calling and when all the riches of his glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power.

Which he worked in Christ whom he raised from the dead and seated at the right at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in the age to come but also not only in this age but also in that which is to come and has put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Amen. Praise the Lord.

Returning to Genesis and the Meaning of Corporate Worship

What a wonderful chapter. We're going to sing now. I sing the mighty power of God. This is a hymn that is well over 150 years old. It was actually written for children to teach them about the great works of God in creation and I chose this song this week because we are going back to Genesis this week.

We've taken a bit of a brief interlude because of all that was going on in the world and there were some things that I felt urged to preach on but now I'm thankful that we're going to go back to where we left off several weeks ago.

So today we're going to be back to Genesis and we're going to sing about the mighty power of God who made the mountains rise, who spread the flowing seas abroad and built the lofty skies. Let's stand.

I sing the mighty power of God that made the mountains rise, that spread the flowing seas abroad and built the lofty skies. I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day. The moon shines full at his command and all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord who filled the earth with food, who formed the creatures through the word and then pronounced them good. Lord, how thy wonders are displayed where 'er I turn my eye. If I survey the ground, I tread or gaze upon the sky.

There's not a plant or flower below but makes thy glories known and clouds arise and tempests flow by order from thy throne. While all that borrows life from thee is ever in thy care and everywhere that we can be thou, God, art present there.

Amen.

I know I didn't tell you brother beforehand but as our newly chosen deacon I'm going to have you pray for the offering today. We've been taking offering but we have been forgetting to pray for our offering and so I'm calling you out.

Would you mind if we all bow our heads? Would you just pray from where you are for our offering today?

Amen.

Thank you, brother. At this time we're going to have you come and deliver your offerings rather than sending the plate to you. We're going to invite you to come. There's two plates in the front. There's one by the front door back there and there's one by this back door.

So you're welcome to come as we sing the Revelation song.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Holy, holy is He. Sing a new song to Him who sits on Heaven's mercy seat. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty Who was and is and is to come With all creation I sing Praise to the King of Kings You are my everything And I will adore You.

Open rainbows of living color Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder Blessing and honor, strength and glory And power be to You the only wise King. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty Who was and is and is to come With all creation I sing Praise to the King of Kings You are my everything And I will adore You.

With wonder at the mention of Your name Jesus, Your name is power Breath and living water. Such a marvelous mystery. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty Who was and is and is to come With all creation I sing Praise to the King of Kings You are my everything And I will adore You.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty Who was and is and is to come With all creation I sing Praise to the King of Kings You are my everything And I will adore You.

Prayer for the Congregation and the Lord's Day

And you may be seated. I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Genesis. And we are in Genesis chapter 2. But before we get to our sermon I would like to lead us in a time of prayer.

Each week a different elder leads us in our time of prayer. So this week was my turn. And often I'm so anxious to get to the sermon I forget things I'm supposed to do and I'm supposed to pray. And so I want to take a step back.

But you can still be opening up your Bibles because we'll be there reading it in just a moment. We are certainly thankful for the opportunity to pray. I've been writing my Wednesday evening lessons and I'm several weeks ahead because of everything that happened with COVID and all that.

It gave me an opportunity to work a little ahead. I'm actually preparing lessons on the doctrine of the church which is after we finish the doctrine of salvation we're going to look at the doctrine of the church.

And what is the church? Why does it do what it does? How is it supposed to do the things that it does? One of the things that we often don't realize is that what we do on Sunday morning matters. And how we do it matters.

Worship is not a haphazard conglomeration of things that are thrown together at the last minute. But it is a time of sincerely prayed over and thought through moments that we're trying to bring together for what we call corporate worship.

And so we gather together for the main things which are praising God in song. God wants us to be a singing people. He gave a song to praise Him with. We gather together to read the Word and we have the Word of God and that's an amazing and important part of what we do.

In fact, the center of our whole worship service is centered around the study of what God has said. But another part that is often so neglected is the time for corporate prayer. Even though we do it, I think oftentimes we allow our minds to wander in these times.

And so I want to encourage you that yes, you are called to pray on your own. Yes, you are called to pray in your closet and without anyone watching. But you're also called to pray in community. You're called to pray as a church.

And so when we come together, we're praying as the church together, corporately. And I know that you have some things on your heart and on your mind that you want to pray for. I know I do. I know there's people in my life that I want to pray for.

I'd ask that you pray for my wife. I know that some of you may not know this, but pretty much everyone has known by now, my wife has experienced another miscarriage. And so she's at home today having had to go through this and is now hurting a lot.

And so we ask that you pray for her. I've told enough people, I don't feel like it's a secret anymore. We want to pray for Jack and Shirley. Shirley had to go out of town because her sister fell and broke her hip.

This is only weeks after having lost her husband in death. And now she's dealing with having broken her hip. And this is an elderly woman. And we know how difficult it can be for an elderly person to break such a vital part of their body.

And so we need to pray for them. We need to pray for Shirley who is now with her. The traveling back and forth. And I know we need to continue to pray for Sharon and Adam. I was thankful to get to see Sharon this week.

I was grateful to just get to share a few moments of talking with her and Adam. And I'm grateful that she's doing so well. I just want to pray that she continues to do well. So these are all things that are on my mind.

And I know there may be some things that I'm forgetting. I didn't write it down and bring it up here with me. I'll tell you one other thing. And I'm going to mention this more at the announcement time.

Tomorrow's Memorial Day. We're at a very unique time in our country where we're facing a lot of struggles that we've never faced before with freedoms. And there were a lot of churches in California that were excited they were going to go to church tomorrow because the president had given them the okay.

And then the Ninth Circuit Court of California said no. So all those churches that said they were going to meet, many of them are now not. Because the court said no. So, I mean, there's a lot going on in our world.

And there are men who have bled and died for the freedoms that we enjoy. And there are families that are hurting today because those men bled and died. And those women bled and died for those freedoms.

So we need to thank God for our freedom. And we need to pray for those families that are suffering loss. So there's a lot to pray for. So I'm going to give you a few minutes to pray on your own. And you'll just hear silence, which is such a valuable commodity anymore.

It's just that silent time. And then we'll pray together. So let's bow our heads. Our Father and our God, we are ever grateful to have the opportunity to come into your house to praise your name, to be reminded of the blessing of corporate worship, to be reminded of the things that we are called to do in corporate worship.

Lord, we are called to sing to you. We are called to pray to you. We are called to remind one another of what your word has said to us and to hear from you in your word. Lord, what a day it is. What a wonderful day Sunday is, O God.

What a wonderful day it is to call this day the Lord's Day. This is not our day. This is your day. And so we are thankful to get to have this day to worship you. We're thankful for sacred time, for important moments, for sacred duties.

Lord, we often think of our lives as so independent and so free. And yet, Lord, you have given us things to do. You have called us to good works. And one of those works is the gathering together with the saints to praise you as the body of Christ in the world, the local church.

When Jesus Christ was on the earth, he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And Lord, we have seen, we have seen down through the ages when it seemed as if hell was having its way, we have seen down through the ages where it seemed as if the church was waning in her power and in her influence.

And then there was revival. Lord, after the dark ages was the reformation. Out of the difficulty of coming into the United States, there was the great awakening. And Lord, even around the world as we are praying this morning, there are pockets of revival that are breaking out in places where the gospel had before now never even been heard.

And Lord, what a great thing it is to consider what it is that you are doing as the God who created all things, the one who made heaven and earth. You are bringing people to yourself. You are saving your elect.

And you will not lose one for whom Christ died. And so Lord, we have great confidence in you. We have great confidence in what you are doing and what you will do. And Lord, we know that you have promised that you will cause all things to work together for the good of those who love you and are called according to your purpose.

Therefore, we come to you today and we lay at your feet those who are hurting. Lord, there is great struggle and pain even in our midst. There are those who are battling loss. There are those who are battling sickness.

There are those who are caring for their family who have fallen and hurt themselves. And Lord, there are many others who, too numerous to name, are struggling with issues of the heart, issues of the mind.

And Lord, I pray to you, I pray your mercy be upon us. I pray, Lord, that day by day, every day, and step by step, you will lead us and that you will not let us wander. And Father, for those who are sick, we do pray for healing.

At the same time, knowing, God, that you are sovereign. And it is not always your will to heal, but it is always your will to do right by your people. So, Lord, give us confidence in your will. Give us confidence in your word.

Give us confidence in what you are doing in our midst. Lord, I believe that you are working here. I see you working in people's lives. I see you working in the struggling. I see you working in the pain.

I see you working in the prosperity. Lord, I see you working in all of it. Lord, I also see those who are resisting you. And I pray that you would break the hard hearts that resist you, Lord, and that you would open them up bare, and Lord, that you would give them a spirit of repentance.

And Lord, where my heart is resistant, I pray that you would give me a soft heart. Lord, I am thankful that you have called me here. I'm thankful for everyone that is here and that everyone that belongs to this church.

I pray that you'll continue to draw us closer to you. Lord, make our church a biblical church. Give us a desire to do what the Bible says to do, to trust in your word, to trust in your will. Lord, as we turn our attention now to the preaching of the word, I pray that you would keep me from error.

For, Lord, I am a fallible man and I am capable of preaching error, and I don't want to preach error for your sake and for the sake of your great name and for the sake of your people and for the sake of my conscience.

And Lord, I pray that you would open the hearts of the people today, especially, Lord, those who might be obstinate. Lord, open the hearts to hear the word. May your spirit be the teacher today. May I decrease and may Christ increase, and may the Holy Spirit of God be the one who applies the word of God to the hearts of God's people.

Lord, may it be. Lord, be with me as I preach in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Genesis 2:1-3 and God's Holiday

I am thankful this morning to be back in the book of Genesis. We have spent several months examining chapter 1. We have examined creation in that chapter. We have seen that it teaches that God created the world in six days.

On the first three days, God formed the world. He formed light and darkness on day one. He formed the sky and the seas on day two. And He formed dry ground and vegetation on day three. Those were the forming days.

And then on days four, five, and six, God spent filling that which He had formed. On day four, He filled the heavens with the light-bearing objects, the sun, the moon, and the stars. On day five, He filled the sky with birds, and He filled the sea with fish and other creatures.

On day six, He took that dry ground that He had made, and He created beasts to live on that ground. And He created man as the crowning achievement of His creation, man who would be the only one of His creation to be formed in the way that He was formed, the only one that would say that God breathed into him the breath of life, and the only one that it would say that bore God's image.

Then on day seven, God rested. And this is where we left off. And we spent several months breaking down chapter one, and we got sidetracked as soon as we did the first sermon in chapter two. So today we're picking up where we left off on the day that God rested.

And I want to remind you of something before we read the text. I want to remind you of what we learned in our last lesson, because I know it's been two months now, so I imagine many of you have maybe allowed it to go out of your mind.

But remember this. The last time we met and talked about verses one to three, we asked the question, why did God rest? And the answer is that God did not rest because He was fatigued, but God rested because He was finished.

God did not rest because He was tired. God rested because He was through. Creation, as God had established creation, had been completed, and therefore God rests. Let's stand and read the text. Genesis chapter two, beginning at verse one.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all of the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation. May God add His blessing to the reading and to the hearing of His word and write its eternal truths on our heart.

You may be seated. The title of today's message is God's Holiday. God's Holiday. The dictionary defines holiday as a day of festivity, a day of recreation, a day when no work is done. It's often interesting if you ever watch a film from over in Europe.

I sometimes will watch movies and it'll have someone speaking. And I remember as a kid I would hear somebody from overseas talk about going on holiday. And I didn't know what that meant. To them that means going on vacation.

And for me, I'd never heard it said that way. You know, when I was a kid, we didn't go on holiday. We went on vacation. But the idea was the same. It was the day that there was no work.

Right?

The reason why you go on vacation is you're getting away from it all.

Right?

No one goes on vacation and gets a job. You go on vacation to take a...

I don't want to say...

Brother Mike is so funny because he works so hard. And, yes, you're going to be an object lesson in today's message, just so you know. I didn't clear it with you, but with a smile on your face, I'm assuming it's going to be okay.

But, no, but even you, brother, you go on a cruise. You don't expect to work.

Right?

You might want to be the captain of the ship, but you expect somebody else to do the work for you when you go on holiday. The idea is you're ceasing with your normal routine. You're ceasing with your normal schedule.

The word holiday, as you probably know, comes from the combination of the words holy day. Holiday is just the English derivative of the word holy day. It is a day that is set apart. It is a day that is dedicated.

It is a day that is consecrated. In the simplest terms, the word holy means different. In fact, I would encourage you to remember that when we talk about the attributes of Almighty God, the one attribute that should always challenge us is the holiness of God.

People think God is like us. God is not like us. The Bible clearly says God is not like man. He is different. He is unique. He is holy. He is, as R .C. Sproul said, he is other. Everything else is different than he.

Everything else is other than God. God is holy. God is unique. He says in Isaiah 46, I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. So when you refer to something as holy, what you're referring, you're saying it's not like the other ones.

God is holy. He's not like anyone else. And God has the power to make things holy. God has the power to make things special. We call it holy communion.

Why?

Because this bread and cup is different than all the rest of the bread and cup that we eat all week long.

Right?

And so when we talk about things that are holy, sometimes we use the word sanctify. To sanctify means to set apart. To set apart something for God's purposes. We're making it different. We're making it holy.

We're setting it apart and making it unique. So when we talk about a holiday, we're talking about a day that is different. And we celebrate holidays all year long. For many of us in the Christian church, there are two great holidays of the year.

And what's interesting, it's Christmas and Easter, as you know. What's interesting about those two holidays is they're not biblical holidays. The Bible doesn't command us to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

And there's really no example in the Bible of anyone celebrating the birth of Jesus. I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm just saying it's not something that we see in the Bible. The Bible tells us about the birth of Jesus, but we don't see the early church having an annual Christmas celebration.

And the other thing would be we celebrate Resurrection Sunday. Which is sometimes referred to as Easter. But actually, in the early church, they didn't celebrate that once a year. But the whole reason why the church gathered on the first day of the week, every week, was because every Sunday was the Lord's Day.

Every Sunday was Resurrection Day. The whole reason for gathering on the first day of the week was because Jesus rose from the first day of the week. In fact, part of what I'm going to talk about, and probably going to be next week because there's no way I'm going to get to it today, I'm going to talk about why we should worship on Sunday.

Because some people look at Genesis 2 and verse 3 and they say, because God sanctified the seventh day, which is not Sunday. Some people look at that and they say, we should still be celebrating Saturday.

You've heard of the Seventh-day Adventists? Did you know that Ellen G. White, the woman most responsible for the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist church herself, a false prophetess, said that the mark of the true church was worshiping on Saturday and the mark of the false church was to worship on Sunday.

The mark of the beast is the worshiping on Sunday. So I do want to challenge that, and I realize we're getting a little bit away from the text here, but I think it's important because this is the first holiday in the Bible, y 'all.

Think about it. In fact, this is the first time the word holy is used. We've gone through the whole first chapter of Genesis. The word holy has not been used. We are now in chapter 2 and the word holy is used.

And you might think that because God is holy, the first time the word holy is used, it would be used to apply to God, but it's not. The first time the word holy is used, it's used to apply to a day, the day that God rested.

It says in the text, in verse 3, God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. In his book, Holiness of God, Dr. R .C. Sproul made a good point. I remember reading this years ago and it really stuck out to me because, and by the way, if you've never read the Holiness of God, I got a copy for you.

I keep copies of it to give you because it's such a wonderful book. The Holiness of God by R .C. Sproul is required reading. Everybody should read it. But in the book, he talks about the idea of holy space and holy time.

And he talks about how God, throughout the Bible, makes certain places holy by his presence. You remember what happened when Moses saw the burning bush? What did God say to Moses? Take your sandals from off your feet, for the ground upon which you stand is holy ground.

Why? Because I'm there. God is there and so that ground was holy. What did they call the temple? The holy place. What did they call the interior of the temple that only was allowed to go into once a year and you could only go if you were the high priest and you could only go after several things that you had to do to prepare yourself to go into?

It was called the holy of holies or the most holy place. So God has set apart places and he's sanctified them and he's made them holy. God has also set apart holy times. Think about the Old Covenant. Think about all of those feasts and festivals.

On the third day of the fourth month of the this and the that at dawn. You think God cares about time? It seems as if he does to make such a strong point that you're going to do it this way and you're going to do it at this time.

And this time for you will be a holy time. And I just find it very interesting that the very first thing that God identifies as holy in the Bible is time. He makes a day and he sanctifies that day to himself.

Now, I want to mention this. The question of the idea of a sacred day is hotly debated. And I've just mentioned I'm going to preach on this in the weeks to come or at least next week at least. But I want to mention this is not something that is easily agreed upon by people.

Last year I did a debate. I did a debate on, well it wasn't this chancel, it was the old chancel, but we did a debate on the chancel. And Rob Hamm and I debated, is Sunday the Christian Sabbath? He said it was, I said it wasn't.

But you know what? I've gotten several letters and emails since that. Not one of them, not one of them dealt with the issue that we were addressing. We were addressing whether or not Sunday should be treated like a Sabbath or not.

I say no, he says yes. But you know what every letter and every message and every email and every comment I've ever gotten about that was? You're both wrong because you shouldn't be worshipping on Sunday.

You should be worshipping on Saturday. That's always the issue. Every time, I can show you all the emails I've received, all the comments on Facebook, all the comments on YouTube. You're both wrong because you're worshipping on Sunday and not on Saturday.

I hope to show you next week, and maybe I'm just enticing you to come back, but I hope to show you next week that we should worship on Sunday. This is the Lord's Day. This is the day we're called to worship in the New Covenant Church.

Now, having said that, I want to talk today about the Sabbath, the day God created this holy day. And I want to talk about three things regarding this day that are important for believers to understand.

Number one, I'll give you all three and then I'll go through them. Number one, by God establishing a seventh day of rest, He was establishing a pattern of work and rest which is necessary for human flourishing.

God was establishing a pattern of work and rest which is necessary for human flourishing. That's number one. Number two, God will later use this pattern for work and rest as the sign of the covenant He makes with Moses at Mount Sinai.

So God establishes a pattern. He then later uses that pattern to sign or signify His covenant. Did you know the Sabbath was the sign of the covenant God gave to Moses? I'm going to show you that today.

But the third thing, and the thing that I hope you never forget, is that the reason for this day of rest is it looks forward to the true rest that we have in Jesus Christ. That's the whole point. So even though it's a pattern, and it does give us a pattern, and even though it's a symbol of the covenant that God gave to Moses, the real and true fulfillment of this day of rest is it looks forward to our rest in Christ.

Jesus said, "...Come unto Me, all ye who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.". So that's the three points for today. I know they're kind of long points, but let's go to the first one. By establishing a day of rest, God establishes a pattern of work and rest that is good or necessary for man's flourishing.

God is the reason we have a seven-day week. God is the reason we have a seven-day week. Because in essence, if you think about it, seven days is really arbitrary from our perspective. There's nothing in the celestial bodies, and there's nothing in the seasons, that would cause us to mark seven days as anything particular.

If you think about it, we mark days by the sun, or by our turning. The sun goes up, the sun comes down, we mark our days by the sun. We mark our months by the moon. And we mark our years by the seasons.

So every other type of thing that we mark time with has a celestial or a seasonal purpose. But not the week. The week does not have a purpose. In fact, the week has no corresponding cycle at all. Yet we know, by the very nature of experience, that the seven-day week seems to fit perfect man's pattern for rest and work.

In fact, most jobs follow the seven-day-a-week cycle, and everyone, in general, will get at least one day off in those weeks. Lest your Mike call you, and that's what I was going to say, I was going to bring you up later.

But Mike is the hardest worker I know, and I say that to an encouragement to you, brother. You're a very hard worker, and I appreciate how hard you work. But I want to tell you something. There have been societies down through the ages that have tried to change the seven-day work pattern.

In fact, I'll give you an example. During the French Revolution, there was an attempt to switch to what was known as the decimal system of time. Here's what it was. This happened, and it was based on the idea of tens.

Why tens? Because most of our numbers are based on tens. We have ten fingers, ten toes. During the French Revolution, there was an attempt to switch to the decimal system of time, which was known as the rational calendar.

Here's how it worked, based on tens. A day had ten hours. Every hour had 100 minutes, and every minute had 100 seconds. A month was divided into three ten-day weeks. They attempted to make this work, and they did force it upon the people.

And it lasted less than two decades. It lasted 17 years, and they could not make it continue to work. It did not. It would not work. And so they fell back to the standard of a seven-day pattern of work and rest.

Consider this for a moment. God does not need to rest, but we do. Men need to labor. And when I say that, I mean mankind, men and women. We all need to labor. And we all need to rest. We should not get overly consumed with either resting or working.