Sunday Morning, November 15, 2020 AM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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November 16, 2020

Michael Dirrim Pastor of Sunnyside Baptist Church OKC "Praise the Lord for His Saving Presence" (Part 2) Psalm 114:1-8

04:54: Welcome to Sunnyside this morning, we're glad that you're here with us and if you're joining us on live stream, we're glad that you could join us that way as well.
05:04: Announcements to get started for this morning. Come back this evening for our evening service.
05:10: We will get to hear from Paul and Kathy Hulritz tonight, and then afterwards you can join us for some cookies and punch in the fellowship hall, but we're excited that they're here being able to share with us.
05:21: Because of that, there's not going to be any Christmas choir tonight, but that will pick up again next
05:28: Sunday evening. Our final verse for this week comes from the Psalms, Psalm 79 verse 9.
05:36: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name, and deliver us and purge away our sins for thy name's sake.
05:46: So good verse to memorize this week. Also a reminder, TAG on Wednesday.
05:53: There is a meal, but again because of social distancing limitations, that's only for the families who have kids in TAG, and then again because of that, we won't be having our
06:02: Thanksgiving dinner at the church this year, but we still have plenty of cause to give thanks and celebrate with our families this year.
06:12: Any other announcements that I'm missing? Yes sir? Are you good?
06:18: We're going to do a training session here at our location, first Saturday of December.
06:35: Is it the fifth? I can't remember. The first Saturday of December, we're going to have a training session here.
06:41: If you're interested in being a part of that, I believe Jan Brown's already been to one of their training sessions, so if you are interested to know what they'll be talking about and how they'll equip you for that, you can talk to Ms.
06:54: Jan about that as well. If you're interested in helping with that, they do need people to come out who have some extra time on their hands.
07:04: Not everybody who is out there is going to be really grounded biblically and all those kinds of things, but the point is their heart is in the right place and they want to be intervening.
07:15: When people show up with signs encouraging people to choose life, they show up with a mobile ultrasound vehicle right across the street, they show up and they offer to pray, they show up and they sing, and we're talking about 70 to 80 percent effectiveness about people choosing not.
07:39: Tuesday is kill day down at the abortion mill, so think about if you want to get involved and what time that you have.
07:47: And there's all sorts of opportunities for gospel witness, for evangelism, and calling people to trust in Christ.
07:55: So if you're interested in that, we'll be having a training session first Saturday of December.
08:01: Thanks. One more thing I forgot to mention. You may have seen it on your way in, but today's the last day that shoeboxes are being collected for Operation Christmas Child.
08:13: Can they bring one tonight if they still have one? Okay. You can, if you didn't have it this morning, you can bring that tonight and get that to Jill Smoot for those to go out.
08:24: All right. Well, we're going to prepare our hearts for worship and then after, Dwight will lead us in prayer.
09:50: Father, may we indeed prepare our hearts for worship, for that is why we've come.
10:02: That's why you brought us here. Father, would you help us to worship in spirit and in truth that your
10:25: Son would be lifted high and exalted, that we might remember your works, remember the words and the work of your
10:47: Son, the Lord Jesus, our Savior, who gave his life that we might have life, that it's a gift and that we can offer up to you our thanksgiving and show our gratefulness.
11:15: So help us to sing your praises. Help us to pray.
11:24: Help us to love one another, to be an encouragement one to another.
11:35: And may we be of one mind and one heart as we worship you this morning.
11:44: I thank you and I praise you for your Son, the Lord Jesus, and your grace so richly poured out upon us through your
11:55: Son. In his name I pray, amen. Would you stand with me for our call to worship?
12:13: This past week on Tuesday, the Holy Spirit convicted me of being angry at work and I had to confess my sin to the
12:27: Lord. He is faithful, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
12:38: So our passage this morning here is found in Psalms chapter 51. Many of you can probably quote this.
12:45: Those words are up on the screen for us. Read with me together, Psalms 51 verses 10 to 13.
12:52: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
12:59: Cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me.
13:05: Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with the willing spirit.
13:12: Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you.
13:19: Our first song this morning is Create in Me a Clean Heart. It's a little bit different tune than what
13:26: I've learned. I've learned the Keith Green version, but this second part of it has a little bit of similarity.
13:33: But if you don't know the melody, just listen and you'll catch on.
13:40: And we'll try to worship together, worship the Lord together. Create in me a clean heart.
13:57: CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART Be a clean heart.
14:15: Right spirit within me. Right spirit within me.
14:47: Presence, O Lord.
14:53: Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
15:03: Restore to me the joy of thy salvation.
15:12: Presence, O Lord. And renew a right spirit within me.
15:29: Create in me a clean heart, O Lord.
15:43: Our next song is on page 262,
15:58: Holy, Holy, Holy. We'll sing all four verses. Holy, holy, holy.
16:16: Lord God, all my song shall rise to thee.
16:31: Holy, holy, holy.
16:37: Merciful and mighty. God in three persons.
16:48: Blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy.
17:00: All the saints adore thee. Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.
17:17: Cherubim and seraphim.
17:23: Falling down before thee.
17:29: Great words and art and evermore shall be.
17:40: Holy, holy, holy.
17:47: Though the darkness hide thee.
17:53: Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see.
18:03: Only thou art holy.
18:11: There is none beside thee.
18:17: Perfect in power, in love, and purity.
18:33: Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty.
18:46: All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.
18:56: Holy, holy, holy.
19:03: Merciful and mighty. God in three persons.
19:15: Blessed Trinity. If you have your
19:36: Bibles with you, I would encourage you to open to the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament.
19:42: Deuteronomy chapter 26. Be reading verses 1 through 19.
19:51: Deuteronomy chapter 26 verses 1 through 19. I'll be reading from the English Standard Version.
20:01: When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you harvest from your land that the
20:15: Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the
20:20: Lord your God will choose to make his name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him,
20:28: I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the
20:33: Lord swore to our fathers to give us. Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the
20:42: Lord your God. And you shall make response before the Lord your God. A wandering
20:48: Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a great nation.
20:57: He became a nation great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor.
21:07: Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
21:16: And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders.
21:25: And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
21:32: And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground which you, O Lord, have given me.
21:39: And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the
21:48: Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you and the Levite and the sojourner who is among you.
21:56: When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the
22:03: Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, then you shall say before the
22:11: Lord your God, I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover
22:18: I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me.
22:27: I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. I have not eaten of the tithe while I was in mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead.
22:41: I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me.
22:47: Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.
23:01: This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
23:11: You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice.
23:23: And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor, high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the
23:45: Lord your God, as he promised. Amen.
23:50: May the Lord bless the reading of his word this morning. Would you bow with me and pray? Lord, we thank you for your word.
24:01: And Lord, as we look back down the corridor of time, and we recall these words that were written millennia ago, but words that have a particular meaning for us as your redeemed people in Christ.
24:24: Lord, wherever you have planted us is a place that is holy to you, and you have called us to be a people set apart for your praise, and how grateful we are that in Christ we are indeed your treasured possession.
24:46: And Lord, as we, in this season of the year, as the National Day of Thanksgiving approaches, we are reminded,
24:56: Lord, that every good and perfect gift comes to us from your hand, that whatever we have that is good is not because we are good, but because you are good.
25:15: And in your goodness, you have granted these blessings to us for your glory, that we might give you thanks and give you praise.
25:29: So Lord, we pray today that you would help us to never take the blessings that we enjoy for granted.
25:39: But may we be quick to say it is because of the
25:44: Lord's goodness, because of his mercy, because of his steadfast love and faithfulness, that we enjoy all the blessings that we have in Christ Jesus, our
25:58: Lord. And so we give you glory and honor and praise and blessing this morning, in Jesus' name.
26:09: Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Amen. Thank you,
29:58: Kathy. That's tremendous. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Well, if you would, we'll continue our song service.
30:07: We'll turn. Well, there was a handout in the back. Hope you were able to pick that up as you walked in. We'll sing,
30:13: On Jordan's stormy banks I stand. In the
30:18: Old Testament, the Israelites stood on the banks of the Jordan River, ready to cross over into Canaan, the promised land.
30:27: But us as Christians, Christ has promised that he has gone before us to prepare a mansion, prepare a place for us in heaven.
30:37: And we will go and serve him forever and eternity. And each one of us is appointed unto man, wants to die.
30:49: And after this judgment, but because the Lord Jesus Christ, we have hope and victory and eternal life with him.
30:55: So sing with me together, On Jordan's stormy banks I stand. My possessions lie.
31:32: O 'er those wide -extended plains, shines one eternal name.
31:44: There God the Son forever reigns, and scatters night away.
31:55: I am bound, I am bound,
32:02: I am bound for the promised land. I am bound,
32:11: I am bound, I am bound for the promised land.
32:28: No chilling winds and our poisonous breath can reach that hell -full shore.
32:43: Sickness, sorrow, pain, and death are felt and feared no more.
32:55: When shall I reach that happy land, place, and be forever blessed?
33:07: When shall I see my Father's face, and in His bosom rest?
33:19: I am bound, I am bound,
33:24: I am bound, I am bound with a promise left.
33:32: I am bound, I am bound, I am bound, I am bound with a promise left.
33:44: I am bound for the promised land.
33:58: I am bound for the promised land.
34:14: And our last song is on page 385, Near the Cross. Jesus, hear me, close their anxious mountain.
34:54: To our healing stream flows from Calvary's mountain.
35:07: Near the cross, near the cross, be my glory ever.
35:21: Is he our healing star?
36:04: Is his wings around me?
36:12: Near the cross, near the cross, be my glory ever.
36:26: My raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.
37:26: My raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.
37:49: Near the cross, a wide, trusty embankment.
38:21: Just beyond the river, my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.
39:51: Let's go to the Lord in prayer together. Father, we thank you that you are a good
40:06: God, full of truth and light and holiness. That you are righteous and just, compassionate, full of loving kindness.
40:20: You are a God of mercy. That you are not like a man who would lie or change or shift in your ways.
40:39: God, you are unchanging in your glory, steady in your goodness, unmoving in your purpose.
40:52: And you are in no way in orbit around us. We are utterly dependent upon you.
41:02: In you we live and move and have our being. It is by your grace, by your generosity, that we keep breathing, keep singing, keep rejoicing in you.
41:21: So we give you the praise today. And we ask that as we consider your glories, your praises recorded forever here in Psalm 114.
41:36: That we would join in, not only with our mouths but also from our hearts.
41:43: We would agree, we would be in full accord with this praise.
41:51: That in this light you would guide us as we look at your son Jesus Christ and his worthiness, his praiseworthiness.
42:01: That you would guide us, that you would comfort us, that you would equip us for every good work for your glory.
42:14: We pray all these things looking for these graces only in the name of your son Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased.
42:23: Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 114.
42:30: You'll be reading the Psalm for us again this morning. The title of the sermon is
42:36: Praise the Lord for His Saving Presence. Psalms 111 through 118 give us a multitude of reasons to praise the
42:45: Lord. We should never be at a loss of reason to praise the Lord.
42:50: We're given so many reasons in the Scriptures. And many of them are given right here in this small section of the
42:57: Psalms. And as we consider the poetic beauty of Psalm 114 and the historical events to which these words refer.
43:09: We are reminded of the saving presence of the Lord. And we are to give Him praise for that.
43:14: We are to praise the Lord for Him being involved. For Him directly intervening.
43:21: For not being far away and distant and just letting everything go and seeing how things play out.
43:28: But no, He's directly involved in the ups and downs and the to's and fro's of our world.
43:36: And as we've been looking at these Psalms, we're being told again and again to fear the Lord. To fear the
43:42: Lord. And to fear the Lord simply means that we think of everything. And by everything we mean everything.
43:48: That we think of everything in relationship to the providence of God and the salvation of God. The creation of God and the sovereignty of God.
43:57: That everything pertains to Him. And fearing the
44:02: Lord means living in conscious light of that. That that is the determining factor in every equation that we solve.
44:13: That that is the true center of gravity that constrains our thoughts and our behaviors.
44:24: The fear of the Lord. God -fearing folk are hallelujah folk.
44:33: God -fearing folk are not somber, dire, drag -your -face -in -the -gravel folk.
44:40: Because those who fear the Lord, they have the fountain of knowledge. The fountain of wisdom.
44:46: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. The beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord. To know
44:53: Christ, we have to fear the Lord if we're going to know Christ. The fear of the
44:58: Lord makes everything make sense in this world. We know why things are happening the way they're happening when we fear the
45:06: Lord. Beginning of wisdom, beginning of knowledge. And when we fear the Lord, we think of all the things He has done.
45:12: And all the ways in which He shows His goodness, His power, His character, His nature. And so God -fearing folk are hallelujah folk.
45:19: God -fearing folk are never without a reason to praise the Lord. And I think we see that in abundant evidence in these psalms.
45:30: So, I'm going to read Psalm 114 for us. And if you would please stand with me as I read this text. You're hearing the words of our
45:38: Savior Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit. Words born along in His prophet.
45:46: Holy words. This is the word of the Lord. When Israel went forth from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
45:54: Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea looked and fled.
46:02: But Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams.
46:08: The hills like lambs. What ails you,
46:13: O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back.
46:19: O mountains, that you skip like rams. O hills, like lambs.
46:27: Tremble, O earth, before the Lord, before the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of water.
46:40: This is the word of the Lord. Praise be to God. You may be seated. As we come back to Psalm 114, and if you've read ahead and looked at the other psalms, you'll notice that this is the one in the midst of the other ones that we do not have the word praise.
47:05: It's part of the great halal. It's part of the great hymn. It certainly is telling us to praise the
47:12: Lord, but we don't actually have the word in the text. So we're going to consider a little more today about how is it that those who are praising the
47:21: Lord, the Jews, as they sing the psalm together, in what way are they praising the
47:27: Lord? Last week, we talked about the ancient Syriac title. The ancient
47:33: Arabic title actually has hallelujah across the top of this psalm.
47:39: I mean, it's not there, but it's there. People really are praising the Lord, even if the word isn't located there.
47:48: And I think it's helpful to understand why Psalm 114 shows up in the order that it does in this array of psalms.
47:58: You know, they organized hymn books long before we had hymn books. You look in the hymn book, and you have the hymns kind of associated with each other, similar themes and so on.
48:09: In the hymn book, where did we get that idea from? From the Psalter. From the psalms.
48:16: And what Psalm 114 is doing is in agreement with Psalm 113 and Psalm 115 and so on.
48:23: In Psalm 113, the worshipers of God are unapologetic to anybody else who may worship any other kind of God out there.
48:30: They just praise the name of the Lord, and they make clear that He's the only God out there. Who is like you,
48:37: O God? They call out. They are boasting in the Lord with no apologies to anybody else who worships idols and false gods.
48:47: They just champion the Lord and boast in Him. And Psalm 114 brings the historical backdrop to that kind of boast.
48:57: After all, look how He defeated the gods of the Egyptians. Look how He defeated the gods of the Canaanites and so on.
49:03: And look how the enemies packed up and ran before the presence of the
49:08: Lord. And you can hear the taunting in Psalm 114 as the worshipers of God rejoice in the retreat of the enemy.
49:17: And that is in agreement with Psalm 115, because by the time we get to Psalm 115, it's just out and out mockery of the idols.
49:28: And so, remembering that, we recognize that what's going on in Psalm 114 is the praise of the
49:36: Lord through the taunting of His defeated enemies. The praise of the
49:43: Lord through the taunting of His defeated enemies. Why are they defeated?
49:52: Because God shows up. Why do they run? Because God shows up.
49:57: We're praising His saving presence. We are to biblically identify and magnify the saving presence of God seen in His providential acts.
50:10: We began last week with verses 1 and 2, praising the Lord, for He makes us a people.
50:15: He shows up personally to make for Himself a people, to deliver them from captivity, to retain their holy special culture, to bring about the formation of the covenant that He had arranged with them.
50:34: He shows up and He makes for Himself a people. We praise the Lord for that. And now, verses 3 through 6, we are to praise the
50:40: Lord because He shows up. And when He shows up, what does He do? He shakes our world.
50:47: He shakes our world. Look at verses 3 through 6.
50:56: And really, just listen to verses 3 and 4 for a moment. The sea looked and fled.
51:03: The Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
51:10: And when the worshipers of the Lord ask the sea and the river, the mountains and the hills, why they're acting that way, the answer is given there in verse 7.
51:22: Tremble, O earth, before the Lord, before the
51:27: God of Jacob. He showed up. Therefore, He shakes the world.
51:35: Now, the terrain that we're talking about, the Red Sea and the Jordan River and the mountains and the hills, this is the terrain of Israel's exodus out of Egypt and conquest of Canaan.
51:47: That's what the Red Sea and the Jordan River and the mountains and the hills refer to. This is the terrain of the exodus and the conquest.
51:57: And the terrain, you notice, is personified and animated in these taunts.
52:04: And they are done so to magnify the Lord and also to stir His people up, to praise
52:10: Him for His powerful, saving presence in their deliverance story. Think of the
52:15: Red Sea and the Jordan River. These mark the beginning and the end of Israel's wilderness journey.
52:22: It began with the parting of the Red Sea and it ended with the parting of the Jordan River. Beginning and ending.
52:29: Those were borders, but they were actually barriers. Israel would never have made it through the
52:36: Red Sea or through the Jordan River had not God shown up, shook the world, parted the waters, and allowed
52:44: His people to go through. And the mountains and the hills, of course, trace the lay of the promised land.
52:52: The mountains on which the enemy might be fortified. Indeed, the hills, which would include the tells or the mounds upon which the cities were built upon.
53:04: This is just tracing the lay of the land of Canaan. This is all about how
53:11: God brought His people into His place, brought them into the land, the land that He had promised
53:17: Abraham's seed. We have to ask a question. Why does the
53:22: Holy Spirit, through His holy author, why does the Holy Spirit craft a cartoon?
53:31: This is a cartoon. Look at it. Sea and mountains are looking about, getting scared and running for their lives.
53:42: That's a cartoon. Rivers and hills are picking up their skirts and fleeing in terror.
53:51: So God's man, born along by God's Holy Spirit, is conveying humorous metaphors, but they have theological underpinnings.
54:01: The ones that Christ so desired to communicate. So we are to praise Him. We are to praise
54:07: God, but when He shows up, He shakes our world. And there's two hopeful confidences in this text that I want to talk about.
54:16: The first one is this, that our enemies flee. When God shows up, He shakes the world. What does that mean? It means our enemies flee.
54:23: And that's what these personifications are referring to.
54:29: Remember that the story being told here, when the Israelites leave Egypt and then go through the wilderness and then go through the
54:36: Jordan River and you have all these mountains and hills running away. Now this is a story about military maneuvers.
54:46: This is a story about warfare. All manner of battles were fought in the traversing of this geography.
54:58: This is about warfare. But it was not simply physical warfare, material warfare.
55:08: It always had a spiritual context. God is the one who waged war upon Egypt and defeated that nation and their chariots and their
55:18: Pharaoh and their gods. And when was that victory made resoundingly complete? At the
55:24: Red Sea, when God showed up, He parted the sea for His people to go through and then closed it on top of their enemies.
55:32: And God waged war on the tribes of Canaan through His people's obedience. They never really did anything in particular that gave themselves victory other than just obeying the
55:44: Lord's instructions. And when they obeyed His instructions, He won the battles for them time and time again.
55:50: Hail stones and hornets. God just took out the Canaanites, drove them out of the land, giving
55:56: His people the victory. And so the
56:01: Red Sea is said to look and to flee. Well, who looks and then flees? It's an army.
56:08: The Red Sea is personified as an army which, assessing the overwhelming strength of the opposing force, loses courage and then flees the battlefield.
56:17: Also, the Jordan River is said to be surrounded or driven back, turned back.
56:23: That's a military language. It's the same language used about what happened at Jericho, that the
56:29: Jordan River is driven back, as if the Jordan River was fighting with the people of God and then lost the battle.
56:40: Psalm 77, 16 says, The waters saw you, oh God. Isn't that strange?
56:47: The waters saw you. They were in anguish. The deeps also trembled.
56:55: That's poetic language. It's a metaphor. The waters are personified as the enemies of God.
57:02: But when you consider the history of Israel, that makes a lot of sense. They associated their enemies with bodies of water.
57:09: The Nile and the Red Sea reminded them of the Egyptians, the Mediterranean or the Great Sea to the west, is what vomited the
57:16: Philistines upon the coastland. The Philistines were a Phoenician seafaring tribe. Assyria's capital,
57:23: Nineveh, was on the banks of the Tigris. Babylon on the banks of the Euphrates. The Gentile nations, the
57:31: Gentile empires, Babylon, Medo -Persia, Greece, Rome, are beasts which come out of the sea in Daniel chapter 7.
57:43: And the Gentile nations, the Canaanite tribes, trusted in their false gods and very often expressed their trust associated with bodies of water.
57:53: And where did they worship their false gods, by the way? On the mountains and on the hills.
57:59: They would establish their shrines. They would put their gods, and there they would offer up sacrifices to their false gods.
58:06: On the mountains and upon the hills. And so you see, the military conflict between Israel and the
58:13: Gentiles was ever cast in spiritual terms. The trust that the Gentiles had in their gods, in their deified waters, and the people of God trusting in the
58:26: Lord to conquer them. It was always about which gods or really which
58:31: God would prevail. And you may remember in 1 Samuel 17, the trash talk between David and Goliath prior to slung stone and glorious beheading.
58:42: It was not really trash talk. It was God talk. Which God was the true
58:48: God? Was it Dagon of the Philistines or was it Yahweh of Israel? Who is the real
58:54: God? Who would show victory and prove their mettle? But it was really about who was the real
59:00: God. So mountains and hills, of course, are like the rivers. They could define a battleground, but it wasn't really just about military maneuvers.
59:10: These were worship centers. And look at the rams trotting up the side of the mountains. Have you ever seen that?
59:16: A video of the rams just hopping, skipping up the side of a rock -faced mountain.
59:25: Seemingly unfrightened in the least. And then lambs frolicking and jumping about on green hills.
59:34: And notice what the poet does. The mountains themselves are skipping like rams to get away.
59:41: The hills themselves are like little lambs making way and scattering before some kind of wild beast.
59:49: Look at them run. The taunt, you see, is hollered at the backsides of the retreating idolaters.
59:55: What ails you? Why are you running? Where are you going?
01:00:02: That's what the Israelites are doing in this song. They are rejoicing in the victory of God and the power of God, and they're yelling taunts at the backsides of the idolaters.
01:00:13: Isn't that what Moses and Miriam did when they got across the Red Sea in the wake of victory?
01:00:19: They praised the Lord, and they mocked the false gods.
01:00:28: So God showed up. Think about that one example, just the Red Sea. God had delivered them out of Egypt, brought them across the
01:00:37: Sinai wilderness. They were hemmed in by cliffs on either side.
01:00:44: Pharaoh, again, rebelled against God. He had his army out chasing them.
01:00:51: God brings his people up to the banks of the Red Sea. They're trapped. They can't go to the right, they can't go to the left, they can't go forward, they can't go back.
01:00:59: What happens? God shows up, and an enclosing cloud, a black cloud, covers and gives light to his people and darkness to the
01:01:11: Egyptians and keeps them separate all night long. He parts the Red Sea. His people cross safely on dry ground, and then when it's time and his people have been safely brought to the other side, he lets the
01:01:29: Egyptians through, and when they're right in the middle of the Red Sea, he takes the wheels off their chariots.
01:01:38: Their charge grounds to a halt, and then the waters come closing over them.
01:01:46: God showed up. He saved his people. He shook the world. He brought down the biggest empire in that ancient world.
01:01:55: Egypt goes down, the world's superpower of the day, Egypt goes down, the
01:02:01: Red Sea just parts, and his people are saved. Well, God has shown up in even bigger ways than that.
01:02:11: In particular, God the Son took upon human flesh and shook the world.
01:02:19: Born of a virgin, born under the law, God showed up, shook the world, and turned back our enemies, forgiving sin, bearing the curse, owning death, stomping
01:02:33: Satan. Think about how this worked. The stars arranged themselves for his birth, or he arranged the stars for his son's birth.
01:02:45: The heavens parted at Christ's baptism. The sea stood still at his word.
01:02:51: Earthquakes rocked the countryside at his death, cracking open the tombs, and when
01:02:56: Christ was raised, the dead came forth and saluted the victorious king. And did he not say to that mountain, be cast into the sea?
01:03:05: And it was so, when he came personally in judgment in AD 70. What happens?
01:03:11: When he shows up, by his saving presence, he shakes our world, he defeats our enemies, and he causes the old to pass away, bringing in new things.
01:03:21: And so we say, praise the Lord. We say, hallelujah. Has he shaken your world?
01:03:32: Has he shaken your world? Has he broken you loose from the chains of sin?
01:03:38: Has he uprooted your bitterness? Has he flipped your relationships? Has he made a mess of all your self -centered plans?
01:03:48: I mean, don't seek to save your life in the presence of this saving Lord. Die to self.
01:03:54: Take up your cross. Follow him. Be shook. Be blessed in the wake of his victory.
01:04:03: You know, when people started following Christ, the complaint was what? Those who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
01:04:13: Why did the world get turned upside down in the first century? Because God showed up.
01:04:23: And why should we live in fear of Christ's enemies? Why? Why not taunt them instead?
01:04:30: Why not mock the gods of the going? Ridicule the so -called wisdom of the self -contradicting sages?
01:04:36: Praise the Lord by putting down the lofty speculations raised up against the knowledge of God.
01:04:42: Bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and include holy taunting as part of the walk of faith.
01:04:50: You should not be impressed at all with the enemies of Christ. At all.
01:04:59: Well, God shows up and he saves. He turns back our enemies and the old passes away.
01:05:05: That's the second theme here. Think about the parting of the Red Sea. It was a transition out of the old into the new.
01:05:11: From slavery in Egypt to serving the Lord in the shadow of Sinai. The parting of the
01:05:16: Jordan River was a passing away of the old and a bringing in of the new. They moved from wilderness, swandering to the possession of the promised land.
01:05:23: They moved from manna to milk and honey. They moved from Moses to Joshua.
01:05:31: And think also in the defeat of these Canaanite cities and fortresses, the mountains and the hills.
01:05:39: That was a transition out of the old into the new as well. From the conflict to fill the land and subdue it into the peace of a victorious rest.
01:05:49: A move from David to the son of David. A move from the mobile tabernacle to the permanent temple.
01:05:57: Passing away of old to bring in the new. That's what God does when he shakes our world.
01:06:07: Sea and river in our text. Mountain and hill all shaken. Removing the old to make way for the new.
01:06:14: God does this by showing up and his saving presence shakes our world.
01:06:19: The old passes away. The old new things have come. Let every valley be lifted up, the prophets say.
01:06:25: Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain be laid low. Let the rough ground be made a plain and the rugged terrain a broad valley.
01:06:34: Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together. All the land will be changed into a plain but Jerusalem will rise.
01:06:43: We have not come to a mountain that can be touched. We have not come to things that can be shaken. We have come to a mountain called
01:06:51: Mount Zion. A kingdom which cannot be shaken. So let us show gratitude. Let us praise the
01:06:58: Lord. A kingdom which cannot be shaken. The old is shaken and swept away but the new comes in with the saving presence of our
01:07:07: Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we'll never be shaken in him. Though he turns the world upside down, though he undoes the pride of men, he saves sinners and renews us in the image of his
01:07:20: God and not even death can shake us for the presence of Christ is with us. Think about this crossing of the
01:07:27: Jordan River. This is a passing away of the old for the new. How can we forget that there's a transition coming?
01:07:35: One of death into life. Absent from the body, present with the
01:07:40: Lord. And though our flesh be shaken, our souls are anchored in Christ within the veil.
01:07:48: This is what the preacher in Hebrews was saying. There remains a Sabbath rest for those who are in Christ.
01:07:55: There remains a Sabbath rest for those who are in Christ. The true Yeshua who succeeds Moses, who fulfills the law and unfailingly brings the people of God into everlasting fellowship with God.
01:08:09: Can you have confidence that though the world be shaken around you, indeed if your heart and flesh may fail, do you have confidence that Jesus Christ will remain the strength of your heart and your portion forever?
01:08:25: Is it indeed the case that when you pass through the Jordan, when you cross to the other side, that Christ will be with you?
01:08:34: Let's read about it, shall we? Let's go back to Joshua chapter 3. The writer of the
01:08:42: Hebrews knew what he was doing, talking about the Yeshua, the Yahshua, who replaces
01:08:47: Moses, takes over from Moses. And what does he do? He brings people into God's rest.
01:08:53: They cross over the Jordan. Rather, they cross through the
01:08:58: Jordan. That's a Sabbath rest remaining for us, all who are in Christ.
01:09:06: Let's watch what happens in this text. Joshua 3 verse 7. The Lord said to Joshua, This day
01:09:13: I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you.
01:09:19: You shall moreover command the priests who are carrying the Ark of the Covenant, saying,
01:09:26: When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan. Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, Come here and hear the words of the
01:09:35: Lord your God. Joshua said, By this you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will assuredly dispossess from before you the
01:09:42: Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite. Now watch this.
01:09:50: Behold, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the
01:09:58: Jordan. Now then take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe.
01:10:05: It shall come about when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the Ark of the Lord, the
01:10:11: Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan. The waters of the Jordan will be cut off, and the waters which are flowing down from above will stand up in one heap.
01:10:25: So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant before the people, and when those who carried the
01:10:30: Ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the Ark were dipped in the edge of the water, for the
01:10:36: Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest, the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city which is beside Zarethon.
01:10:48: And those who were flowing down toward the sea of the Araba, the salt sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho.
01:10:56: And the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the
01:11:02: Jordan, while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the
01:11:09: Jordan. So the Ark goes in first into the
01:11:16: Jordan, and then the Ark of the Covenant remains there in the middle of the
01:11:23: Jordan, while all the people of God cross over on dry ground to the other side.
01:11:35: So it is, when you cross that Jordan into your rest, when you pass through the waters,
01:11:43: Christ will be with you. He is the Ark of the
01:11:49: Covenant. He carries the Covenant in his body and in his blood. He bears the
01:11:55: Covenant in his own body. When you pass through the waters,
01:12:00: Christ will be with you. The river will not overflow you, but watch, the waters will be heaped up, and you will cross safely on dry ground.
01:12:10: In this valley of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil, for Christ, the
01:12:16: Ark of the Covenant, your good shepherd, will be with you. He's with you.
01:12:22: When your world gets shaken, and your heart and your flesh fail, Christ is still with you.
01:12:29: You will pass through safely. Now, notice, the praise of your life is what will be your peace in death.
01:12:40: So if your praise is not weighty and glorious, you will be swept away. The praise of your life will be your peace in death.
01:12:51: The praise of your life cannot be your children and your many grandchildren. The praise of your life cannot be that you have lived a pleasant life.
01:12:58: The praise of your life cannot be that you have known many nice, holy people. The praise of your life must be
01:13:07: Christ, for only he will be your peace in death. Praise him abundantly in the now, and abide with him peaceably in the not yet.
01:13:17: One last thought in this psalm is that he grants us life. Trimble, O earth, verses 7 and 8.
01:13:24: Trimble, O earth, before the Lord, before the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of water.
01:13:33: Trimble, O earth, the whole earth, all people must revere, fear, trimble before one
01:13:40: God. Why? Because the earth is the
01:13:45: Lord's in all that it contains, the world and those who dwell in it. So everybody must worship the one
01:13:52: God. And he has given all the nations to Christ, and all authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth.
01:14:00: And it is the compassion of Christ which will lead nations and will guide them to springs of water.
01:14:06: He will bring them from afar, men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. And we gather where?
01:14:12: To the throne. Ever notice that the throne has one street made of clear gold, and this one street in the middle of it has the river of life.
01:14:21: And in the middle of this one river and this one street and this one throne is the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
01:14:30: The nations. What does that mean? It means there's one God, there's one Savior, one salvation, one throne, one way, one river of life for all mankind.
01:14:41: There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. There is only one person who can be your
01:14:47: Savior. All people must revere one God, which necessarily means then that all people must drink from one rock.
01:14:55: Tremble, O earth, before the Lord, before the God of Jacob. Look, he turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of water.
01:15:02: Well, we just got seeing how he shakes the world by parting seas and parting rivers and sending mountains and hills scurrying.
01:15:10: But not only that, he can turn the rocks into the water. Tremble, O earth.
01:15:19: The Lord, the God of Jacob, is to be feared by the whole earth because he is the one who turned the rock into a pool of water, who turns the flint into a fountain of water.
01:15:28: Exodus 17, 5 -6. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the
01:15:36: Nile. Go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the... Look, he showed up.
01:15:41: I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb. And you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it that the people may drink.
01:15:50: Strike the rock. Water will come out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
01:15:58: God showed up to grant us life, to give us life.
01:16:07: He grants life to those dying of thirst. He does so for all of his people in the New Covenant.
01:16:12: For the rock is Christ. 1
01:16:18: Corinthians 10 -4. I didn't make that up. Paul says the rock is
01:16:23: Christ. So we all drink the same spiritual drink, drinking from a spiritual rock, present with us.
01:16:29: The rock is Christ. Anybody who drinks any other kind of water will thirst again.
01:16:35: But he who drinks of the water that Christ will give him will never thirst. But the water that he gives will become a well of water, springing up to eternal life.
01:16:44: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Christ and drink. Let him come to Christ and drink.
01:16:50: He who believes in Jesus, the Scriptures say, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.
01:16:56: He's talking about the Holy Spirit. By his saving presence indwelling us through the gift of the
01:17:02: Holy Spirit, we are made alive, kept alive, made full of life. Praise the
01:17:08: Lord. He personally shows up and grants us life. Praise the
01:17:13: Lord who makes our hearts of flint pour forth springs of living water. Grace upon grace.
01:17:25: Isaiah and Revelation say this. Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. Let the one who wishes take the water of life without money and without cost.
01:17:35: Praise the Lord. By his saving presence, he makes for himself a people. He shakes our world, and he grants us life.
01:17:42: We have so many reasons to praise the Lord, to sing our hallelujahs. Let's pray together.
01:17:48: Father, we do praise you. We praise your Son. We praise your Spirit. We praise you, our
01:17:55: God, three in one. We give you praise for you have, by your saving presence, saved us and shaken our world and supplied our every need.
01:18:06: I pray for those here who have no praise in their hearts because they have not yet drunk from the rock which is
01:18:15: Christ. And I pray that you would change things in their lives, that you would personally show up there and make the change.
01:18:22: And, Father, please remind us as we go forth from this place and through these days that we are never without reason to give you praise.
01:18:34: We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you stand with me for our song of benediction?
01:18:54: Our song is going to be on page 460, All the Way My Savior Leads Me. I'd like to read just a few of the words from this song first.
01:19:07: All the way. Well, first of all, I say this. You may be going through a trial. You may be going through a rough year.
01:19:16: You may be going. The Lord knows what you're going through. This person wrote this song as a message for you.
01:19:26: All the way my Savior leads me, cheers each whining path I tread, gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the living bread.
01:19:37: Also, all the way my Savior leads me, what have I to ask beside?
01:19:43: Can I doubt his tender mercy, who through life has been my guide? And I hope this is your song.
01:19:51: This, my song through endless ages, Jesus led me all the way. Sing with me together.
01:20:05: All the way my Savior leads me, what have
01:20:11: I to ask beside? Can I doubt his tender mercy, who through life has been my guide?
01:20:21: Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, here my faith in him to dwell.
01:20:30: For I know whatever you call me, Jesus, do with all things well.
01:20:38: For I know whatever you call me, Jesus, do with all things well.
01:20:46: All the way my Savior leads me, cheers each whining path
01:20:56: I tread, gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the living bread.
01:21:05: Though my weary steps they falter, and my soul a thirsty beer,
01:21:13: Gushing from the rock before me, O, a spring of joy
01:21:20: I see. Gushing from the rock before me,
01:21:27: O, a spring of joy I see. All the way my
01:21:36: Savior leads me, O, the fullness of his love, perfect rest to me is promised in my
01:21:47: Father's house above. With my spirit glowed immortal, wings did fly to realms of day.
01:21:59: This my song to endless ages, Jesus led me all the way.
01:22:08: This my song to endless ages, Jesus led me all the way.
01:22:24: O may the love of the Father, and the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.