Ascension Presbyterian Lord's Day Worship

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the corporate worship of our God. Please stand. Oh Brethren, you have come to Mount Zion and to 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.

What a great privilege it is for us to ascend the holy hill of Zion. Let us take this privilege seriously and with joy let us sing and give thanks to our great God. Come now, let us worship him. Please pray with me.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we rejoice that you have made us your people. We rejoice that you are our God. We ask now, O Lord, that you would inhabit the praises of your people, that you would be hallowed here, and your name would be honored here, that you would be glorified.

And Lord, we ask also that your people would be nourished and strengthened to carry out the work of ministry you have given them to do. We ask that this worship service would be pleasing in your sight, through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

Please kneel if you're able.

For the confession of sin corporately. It is appropriate for us as we.

Approach our Holy God to be aware of our own sinfulness, so we confess together corporately. Let us join together now. God of love,.

It is your will that we should love not sufficiently, but that our affections continually turn away from you, from purity to lust, from freedom to slavery,.

From compassion to indifference.

Have mercy on us.

Your commandment is the joy. Inform us in the image of your loving Son,.

Jesus, that we may shine.

Before the world to your glory.

Please stand. We tremble in the presence of God and his holiness, but we also have reason for great hope and comfort because we have a Savior who is Christ Jesus, and he assures us of pardon. Receive this pardon now.

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

O people of God, take heart today. If you be in Christ, your sins are forgiven. Amen? Let us respond appropriately with giving glory and honor due to the one who has redeemed us. Let us sing number 295.

Crown him with many crowns.

Please take up the bulletin insert.

And find Psalm 57. Caleb, can you remind us of the tune, How Sweet and Awesome is the Place? We're singing the tune. Let us begin. Psalm 57. Please stand for, remain standing for the reading of the word from the book of Revelation and chapter 9.

The Fifth and Sixth Trumpets in Revelation 9

Revelation chapter 9. Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit, and he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace.

So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke, locusts came upon the earth, and to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days, men will seek death and will not find it.

They will desire to die, and death will flee from them. The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.

They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lion's teeth. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle.

They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things. Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.

So the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them, and thus I saw the horses in the vision.

Those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. And the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.

By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, having heads, and with them they do harm.

But the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk.

And they did not repent of their murders, or their sorceries, or their sexual immorality, or their thefts. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Please take up the hymnal and turn to number 164. O for a thousand tongues to sing. Number 100. I'm sorry, Apostles Creed. Thank you. Please, if I ever do that, shout out. You missed something. Let us confess our most holy faith in the singing of the Apostles Creed.

Let's begin.

I believe in.

And please take your hymnals and turn to number 164.

O.

For a thousand tongues to sing. We are few in number, but let us make the sound of a thousand tongues. Number 164.

Let us begin. Please make preparations.

Now for the prayers of the people. We have the Ten Commandments today, so I'm going to ask the men to be prepared to pray. There are a number of them even beyond Ten Commands to pray here and our prayers to the people, so please don't allow too much time to pass.

Let us now pray together in unison. O God, from whom come all 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 Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God forever.

Amen. The Lord says, I am the Lord, your God. You shall have no other gods before me.

Lord, have mercy.

On us. 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.

Lord, have mercy on us.

You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to.

Keep it holy. Honor your.

Father and your mother.

Lord, have mercy on us.

You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.

You shall not steal.

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet.

Mercy on us.

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and soul, mind and strength. Amen. Please stand and take up the insert and find the Psalm of the month. Psalm 138. Let us begin. Please remain standing and turn in your Bibles to the book of James in chapter 4.

I'm going to read the first 10 verses and I want to remind you that this is God's holy and infallible word. James chapter 4. Where do wars and fights come from among.

You?

Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war yet you do not have because you do not ask.

You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulterous is. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously but he gives more grace.

Therefore he says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded lament and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. May the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his most excellent word.

Please pray with me now. Oh Lord we ask that you would illumine our understanding not for our pride's sake that we might feel good about our intellect but that we might do your will.

Oh Lord.

I pray that you Christ would be our treasure.

And that.

Our great longing would be for communion with you and that we would be characterized by love for you and that would be manifested in our obedience.

And our.

Walking in your ways. Oh Holy Spirit I ask that you would pierce us through the heart that you would strike heavy blows upon us where we are sinning and erring against your will. But we also ask oh Lord that you would comfort us in our affliction that we would remember that we have a savior who is Christ the Lord.

In all.

This we pray oh Jesus that you would be glorified and it's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Please be seated. There is a wonderful rhythm that happens when you are preaching sequentially through books of the Bible but that rhythm gets thrown off when you are absent for a week and are preaching somewhere else.

The last time we were together when I was with you we considered James chapter 4 verses 1 through 4 and it was very convicting to realize that to have friendship with the world is to make ourselves opposite and hostile to be at enmity with God.

We found out that we had to wage war against our own sinful desires and that we had to take personal responsibility for our lives and acknowledge that our sin is our fault and our responsibility that we need to repent of it and draw close to God again.

Today we're going to consider verses 5 through 10 and the title of the message is Draw Near to God. Draw Near to God. It's really one of the bigger applications of this section that I'd like us to consider that title Draw Near to God.

For those of you who are taking notes I am really fixated on one simple point and it's found in the text of scripture in verse 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord.

Depending on how you count it there are 10 imperatives in our section and that's quite a lot for a short passage of scripture and there's a responsibility that we have to act upon the truth that we have received already in James.

You will remember that James desires that his hearers would possess and practice therefore genuine faith in Christ. This is really his objective and we learn that in part of doing this is we have to understand what the will of God is and we have to understand our natural proclivity and inclination to not do that will and to stoke affections of holiness in our own lives.

We need to be those who are feeding our spirits and starving the flesh. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. We have probably the most difficult to interpret verse in James in verse 5. There's not a lot of controversy in terms of exegesis in the book of James.

There is controversies that people have given to apply the truths of James but James is a very straight forward epistle. James chapter 4 verse 5 is a little difficult. Let's get into it. Let's look at verse 5 again.

Or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously. The unbeliever in his natural state of corruption who is at one with the world the very thing here James has just warned us against earlier in the chapter has a spirit of self-seeking and envy.

This is at the very heart of why he says there are wars and fights among you in James chapter 4 verse 1.

In.

Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 we learn that the thoughts and the intents of men's hearts are evil continually. Envy and self-interest is at the very heart of our sin nature and the controversy is the capitalization really of the word spirit.

As you know in the New Testament Pneuma is not capitalized for us in this way. The question has been is this the spirit that dwells in a man? A lot of modern commentators hold to that. Or is this properly translated to capitalize the spirit?

I believe that the capitalization of the spirit is the better of the two. This is not a big deal if you disagree with this. But I believe that what James is saying is we have a new spirit within us. We have a holy spirit within us that yearns jealously.

He seeks that we love holy things and we have an old man and the unbeliever has a heart of jealousy that yearns for worldliness that yearns for untoward pleasures that longs to do things which are at odds with God.

So for James to say this however we interpret it or understand it the reality is that for us who are in Christ we now ought to have a new desire to walk in faith and righteousness. If we love the world and we're characterized by the love for the world we are in danger of deceiving ourselves.

I don't think James is trying to kick people out of the church. I think he wants us as the Christian to say I don't want to be like the world that is at enmity with God. I don't want to be an enemy of God.

I don't want to be an adulterer or an adulteress when it comes to my relationship with God. And I think James is spurring us on to flee these things which are contrary to our new nature in Christ. The natural man has a jealous spirit within him.

The believer also has a spirit a holy spirit within him. Christians must recognize the folly of friendship with the world. Instead of feeding the lusts of the old man he feeds the holy desires of the new man.

The genuine believer is affected by better principles because he has a better spirit dwelling in at work within him. He too is jealous but his jealousy is for holiness and an unmixed singular devotion to God.

That seems to be consistent with James' message. He wants us to be those who are singularly devoted to our God. That we are not adding mixture of error and worldliness and sinful desires but we have a purity of devotion for our God and it's manifested in our obedience.

And now we get to.

Verse 6 and I love what verse 6 says to us. It opens with the statement but he gives more grace.

God.

In his redeeming love gives an abundance of grace to all who love him. Isn't that wonderful.

News?

We have been the enemies of God in our natural state and God has so loved us to draw him to himself and to make us alive and to give us a relationship with his son which as we learned this morning in Sunday school brings us into the very heart and love of the Trinity itself.

This is all God's doing and none of us would be saved left to our own devices. Our God has reached down and he has touched us and he has redeemed us from the pit. He has been so merciful and so gracious to save us his people and he gives this favor which is without merit so freely.

And that's what makes the rest of the message, the rest of our section so important. Oh the wonders of his grace. James is here offering us a proper response to grace and really isn't that part of the overarching theme?

The gospel of Christ has come to us and now what are we going to do? How are we going to live? How are we going to think in light of this gospel grace? Well he gives us a warning. There are a series of opposites given.

And this is terrifying to consider. We don't want to be on the wrong side of things here as we have already learned in chapter 4 and elsewhere in James. These are the different ways the world reacts to God and his truth versus the Christian.

The believer by definition is humble because he has come to God according to his grace and he's come empty handed. He knows his salvation is entirely of grace. The unbeliever by definition is proud. He is content with his self determination without God.

His judgment is sure and this part is hard.

God.

Resists the proud. What are we to do with our own pride because our new nature is a new nature of humility. God resists the proud. I don't want to be resisted by God. I don't want God coming against me.

The language of resisting is God and think of this children is setting himself in his battle array against them. Can there be a greater disgrace than for God to proclaim a man a rebel, an enemy, a traitor to his crown and his dignity.

And then for God to proceed against him as such. The proud man resists God. It's a characteristic of the unbeliever and I believe this is James' method. He says essentially this is what unbelievers do.

They are proud in their heart and they are resisted by God. You as Christians don't you be proud now. It's contrary to your new nature in Christ. The proud man in his understanding resists.

The.

Truth that God gives. He resists the law of God which we just prayed through. Summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments. In his passions he resists the providence of God. It is no wonder therefore that God would set himself against the proud.

Christian, we are.

All in a big war against pride. When we are proud we are acting like unbelievers. This should cause us to pause and say I don't want to act like an unbeliever. I want to be a faithful Christian, man, woman, or child.

We must resist the pride in our hearts. The believer has been saved from his soul damning pride and the question has to be asked why would we ever return to it? This is the very substance of what we've been saved from and I believe this is the admonition of James to spur us on in the right direction.

We can't go back there because we've been delivered from it. The Christian must flee worldliness and pride because they're so contrary to his new nature. It actually goes against the Holy Spirit which now dwells within.

Worldliness and pride are watermarks of the unbeliever. They are authenticators of unbelief. You and I must continually repent of our pride. We are to resist our pride and be humble toward God. The stage is being set.

The second part of 6b says but God gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. There is a hermeneutical key here that this is the driving force behind this section. God is eager to give his grace to the humble and the humble are those who have willingly and joyfully received his grace.

Verse 7 says therefore submit to God. God gives grace. Verse 6 says he gives more grace but pride brings disgrace. Isn't this a cruel irony? Because doesn't pride seek after honor ultimately? It can be internal.

I have news for you. There can be some very humble and very sweet little old ladies who look so beautiful and tender and mild and humble on the outside but inwardly they are riddled with pride. This is a matter of the heart.

It's not only external. It's primarily internal. We say oh that man is so humble. In his heart he may be exceedingly prideful and haughty in spirit. So each of us has to ask the question am I prideful and oh Lord would you reveal to us all the myriad of ways in which we are prideful that we might repent and turn away from these things.

What a cruel irony. The proud man is seeking after honor and he brings disgrace upon himself. Verse 7 one of these very powerful simple imperatives therefore submit to God. It's a very basic command. The whole Christian man must be wholly submitted to God.

The Christian must forsake that friendship with the world which is characterized by envy and pride and which is so self evident in unrighteous men and he needs to be characterized by submission. Don't resist God.

Submit to him. The righteous humble man submits to the truths of God whereas the proud man doesn't. He submits to the laws of God as we outlined before. The proud man doesn't. He submits to the providence of God which the proud man does not.

We believe very strongly that Christ is king and if Christ is king then we are his noble subjects. Isn't it very basic to say that we ought to submit to him? He's the king. He's the righteous one. He's the one who has saved us.

He's the one who has loved us. Doesn't it follow then that we ought to submit to him? We are now slaves of righteousness. We have been transformed by his grace. It is fitting that the king's subjects would subject themselves and be submissive to their God.

And children, don't be misled. Submission to our God and humility yields only blessings.

In the end.

All of us have tried haven't we? Say I'm going to go get it for myself. In the end it leads to chastisement or worse judgment. But those who are humble in the sight of the Lord will be lifted up. Therefore, submit to God and in our human nature our rebellion cries out but I don't want to submit.

We have to think better thoughts and recognize that to submit to God is the path of blessing and joy and thanksgiving and peace and hope. There's so much good to be gained from submission to God. The next imperative here.

Is.

Resist the devil. The proud man resists God. The opposite. The righteous man resists the devil. How did Christ resist the devil and his temptation in the wilderness? Let's turn really quickly to Luke chapter 4.

I want to read verses 1 -13.

This is the temptation of Jesus.

By.

The devil. This is immediately after the baptism of Jesus and it's a very important time. We have the voice of God crying out from heaven saying this is my son in whom I am well pleased and Jesus is now about to commence his earthly ministry.

This is that moment and now he's driven by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. Chapter 4 verse 1. Then Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness being tempted for 40 days by the devil and in those days he ate nothing.

And.

Afterward when they had ended he was hungry and the devil said to him if you are the son of God command this stone to become.

Bread but Jesus.

Answered him saying it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by the very by every word of God. Children this is a great illustration to us about how we combat three great enemies the world the flesh and the devil.

We combat it with scripture we quote and recite we memorize scripture that we can combat these great three fronts of this spiritual war of which the devil is a prominent one. Jesus says I'm not going to be tempted to perform a miracle for my own comfort to.

Prove.

Something to the devil. There's a humility in this even isn't there. This is the king of glory this is the agent of creation this is the one who holds it all together. This is the highest one. He could have stopped him right there but in his humility showing us the kind of people we should be being filled with the spirit he says you shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God.

And the devil taking him up on a high mountain showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him all this authority I will give you and their glory. For this has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I wish.

Therefore if you will worship before me all will be yours.

And.

Jesus answered and said to him get behind me Satan.

For.

It is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. And he brought him to Jerusalem to set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him if you are the son of God throw yourself down from here.

For it is written he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you and in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered and said to him it has been said you shall not tempt the Lord your God.

Now when the devil had ended.

Every temptation he departed from him until an opportune time. James has given us we can turn back there. Similar council. Resist the.

Devil and he will flee from you the enemy.

Can only be resisted when you are submitted to God. The world and the flesh can also be resisted but they will not be resisted unless you are submitted to God. What's so painfully obvious with this when we consider our own lives.

That rebellious part of us raises up wells up within us. Why in our folly in our utter stupidity do we fail to submit to God. Why do we give the enemy or the world which we've just learned in chapter 4 our own flesh.

Why do we make an occasion an entree for sin to creep.

In as we learned recently.

We have to have holy affections. We have to love the things of God. And as you were praying through the 10 commandments you should have been praying these are treasures for my soul. God is not excluding any good gift from me.

These words are treasures to my soul. This is life and godliness and health and salvation here. But we say I want to be angry with my neighbor I want to be able to murder him in my heart as Chad prayed.

But we want to look upon a woman lustfully want to cherish that and hang on to that when there's nothing good there for us. Well what can we do. This is why I've entitled the message today draw near to God.

Take a look at verse 8. How are we. To demonstrate our humble submissiveness to him. We need to draw near. The formerly rebellious heart now transformed by Christ must bow in the presence of God. There have already been several ways in which we have been given opportunity and occasion to draw near to God.

We were called to worship.

Here.

Our liturgy is very good for this we are are called before the tribunal of God and his holiness and we confess we're honest we have to take responsibility for our real sin. And he declares back to us you are reconciled you are forgiven and my dear son Christ draw near to me come and worship me come into my presence in the fullness of joy.

If we draw near to God he will draw near to us brethren. The unbeliever has no communion with God and is drawn away and enticed by his own desires.

But.

You who are in Christ have been brought near. We come boldly into his presence in our humility because we're doing it because of Christ. We look upon Christ and says if he saves us. If he is our high priest.

We can draw near. We can come with great boldness to God. Why is worship. So why is it drudgery to us. Some of you are sitting wondering when this is going to end so you can go to lunch. We don't love the means of grace that God has supplied.

Think about some of the other ways that God has made provision for us to draw near to him. We can draw near to him in our private devotional and worship life. We can open the scripture together as a family.

Think about our corporate worship gathering which we're enjoying today. What about prayer. Prayer is a drawing near to God and we're distracted. We can't even finish our prayers. This is so hard for us because we have so much going on.

We open the word of God. Do we see it as the gift that it is. Do we meditate on it day and night. As the righteous man of Psalm 1 what about the Lord's supper. Do you draw near to God in the supper. What about in your obedience and in your love and service to others.

When we do it to the least of these we do it to Christ himself. God has given us dozens of ways to draw near to him. And when God seems far away let it be known today without any question. The reason he's far away is because we have left him.

He's not left.

Us.

He cannot deny himself he has entered into a blood covenant with us. Those cold feelings of devotion and religion are not anything but us drifting.

Away. So James commands.

Us.

To draw near every spiritual discipline every Christian duty becomes an occasion to draw nigh unto God. Well I've got a few more imperatives to cover and then we'll be finished here. Consider verse 8 the second part cleanse your hands.

This language is found throughout.

Scripture and.

I believe Mitch even prayed for this in our time before the service he who comes to God must have clean hands and a pure.

Heart and in 1st Timothy.

Chapter 2. Paul calls all who are in Christ to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting. The hands were symbols of a man's livelihood and therefore his life. To lift our hands up to the lord is to lift our lives.

Up to him my life.

Is yours. Oh lord my hands are clean. I don't shed innocent blood. I'm purging actively every defilement that is within me because my life is yours and so James is calling his people to cleanse their hands.

It's a very significant posture of worship and prayer and praise. We lift holy hands he calls us to purify our hearts. This is a warning against double-mindedness. As we've already learned the genuine believer has a singular purpose and that is to please God.

Is that your singular purpose or has pride entered in. And finally we have to accept God's providence and respond appropriately yesterday.

Was.

Very sad we attended a wedding excuse me a funeral for a 12 year old boy.

And.

We have to understand the time the place that we.

Are we should be.

The most joyful and merry and mirth filled people on the.

Planet.

But there is a season for everything and yesterday was not the time for people to make off color jokes about dying. For example James is telling us that we have to accept God's providence and respond appropriately.