Sunday Service 10/22/23 (Afternoon)

Just a reminder about our announcements, the Areopagus Forum is canceled and also the singles dinner is being held at Calvary Baptist Church in Santa Clara. Pastor Brian and I recently got to meet Pastor Darren or Derek, I'm blanking on his name, it's one of those two, at Calvary Baptist and they've been gracious enough to let us use their facilities.

So yeah, if you get to meet any of them you can thank them for helping us out in that way. Our call to worship this afternoon is from Psalm 118. Psalm 118, 28 says, You are my God and I will give thanks to you.

You are my God, I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for a steadfast love endures forever. Please turn to hymn number 226, Rejoice the Lord is King. Please turn in your Bible to Isaiah 33.

The Stability of Zion and the Security of God’s Kingdom

I'm going to be looking at passage at the end of Isaiah 33 today, beginning in verse 20. Please stand when you have that for the reading of God's Word. I'll go ahead and say that this passage I find hard to break up so after I sent information for the bulletin I decided we'll only go through halfway through verse 23 so we'll just be looking at those verses and we'll save what it says about pray and spoil for next time.

Isaiah 33 beginning in verse 20. Behold Zion the city of our appointed feasts your eyes will see Jerusalem an untroubled habitation an immovable tent whose stakes will never be plucked up nor will any of its cords be broken.

But there the Lord and Majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams where no galley with oars can go nor majestic ship can pass. For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our King.

He will save us. Your cords hang loose. They cannot hold the mast firm in its place or keep the sails spread out. Then pray and spoil in abundance will be divided. Even the lame will take the prey and no inhabitant will say I am sick.

The people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father we thank you for this passage here in Isaiah and the promises it gives us. We thank you for your majesty for your promises of stability and salvation in Jesus name we pray amen may seem sometimes in life that it feels like the only thing that is certain is uncertainty and the only thing that is stable is instability.

I don't know how often you feel like that feels often the case for me. But the truth is that God's kingdom the kingdom that he has founded in his church is a stable one. It is one that is described here as being a tent whose cords cannot be broken.

As we remind ourselves of this truth and as we look to this truth the way that Isaiah presents it here to us it should give us much cause for for assurance much cause for security much for peace. Even though the world is instable even though the situation around us may seem uncertain can give us reason for peace.

That we know that things are certain in the eyes of the Lord and that his kingdom is a stable kingdom no matter how it may appear to us in our own eyes of flesh. Beginning here in verse 20 it says. Behold Zion the city of our appointed feasts.

Zion is a city where the temple exists. Zion is the city where the feasts would happen. The religious feasts that would happen several times a year and all the worship would take place. And so Isaiah calls us to consider this city because it is where God is honored it is where his name dwells.

It's where he his favor is upon his people. And consider when he says this the previous verse had said or the previous passage in verse 17 had said your eyes will behold the king and his beauty. They will see a land that stretches afar.

So after having told us to consider this king that will give salvation to his people now we are to consider and behold the city the city where salvation lives. We were to consider Zion. Yet this is all very surprising in the context of Isaiah.

You know many things that happen in Isaiah are surprising because one time it appears that Isaiah is saying one thing and later it seems that he's saying the opposite. Consider the very beginning of Isaiah.

Isaiah 114 spoke of these feasts and it says. Your new moons and your sacrifice your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. Looking at people's false worship God is dissatisfied with their rituals.

He's dissatisfied with their worship. And Isaiah 29 1 it said. Ariel. Ariel speaking of Jerusalem speaking of Zion the city where David encamped add year to year let the feasts run their round. Yet I will distress.

Ariel there shall be moaning and lamentation and she shall be to me like an aerial meaning a furnace. So each of these times the Lord said that the feasts do nothing or worse they even anger him. So how can Isaiah tell the people to behold the city of the appointed feasts as some sort of security to the people.

The answer is that ultimately just as the patriarchs were looking forward to a city a greater city city whose builder and maker is the Lord. Isaiah tells us to look forward not just to this physical city which would ultimately be destroyed but tells us to look forward to a heavenly city whose builder and maker is the Lord.

He tells us to look forward to feasts that happen not in a way where the Lord is dissatisfied them not in the way that increases the Lord's anger but to look forward to a worship where God is pleased by it.

He has attached his name to his people but the way he has done that in the new covenant is a sure way that does not rely on the obedience of the people but relies rather on the obedience of Jesus Christ.

And it is in him that our worship is found wholly acceptable to the Lord. Not like the worship of the Old Testament which relies on the which relies on the righteousness of the people themselves our righteousness being mediated by a perfect Savior relies on him.

So consider what it says in John 4 when Jesus speaks to the woman at the well God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth he said before that. But the hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the Father and Spirit and the truth it does not matter which particular mountain we worship on.

It is not like the time of Isaiah where God had set himself physically in a particular place or he had he had made his favor explicit in a physical location. Now through the work of Jesus Christ with the outpouring of the Spirit there is a ready acknowledgement in the New Testament that those who worship him worship him in spirit and in truth.

And he receives that worship because his presence is not limited to a particular physical temple but rather and coming and dwelling on earth in the incarnation. And then through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ sending his spirit he dwells in us so that our worship is acceptable for the Lord.

This is how we can look to Zion and feel a sense of security. Not because there is any any security found in a particular building any security found in a particular city physical city but in the kingdom that God has established and tied his name to there is a great security.

And so you can know one hundred percent that there is a great assurance in the Lord's goodness that can be had through worship because it is Jesus Christ himself that mediates that worship. Because the Zion that we have arrived at is a greater one than the physical Zion the nation of Israel had to enjoy.

This also should affect the way we think about worship. If our worship is acceptable because it's in spirit and in truth if our worship before God is mediated by Christ and he has supplied his spirit that we might in the right heart worship then what makes our worship successful.

It's not it's not us in the effort that we put into it but it is the work of the spirit in us. Rendering acceptable worship is to be mediated by the sun. So there are a lot of people who and I I grew up in a church that did a lot of this where people will try to make their worship more acceptable to God by just really putting a lot of into it you know.

And these are people who often you come across people who think their worship is more acceptable by the range of motions by the furrows number of furrows in your brow. Things like that yes a heart that desires to worship God will often become will become emotional in such a way that such things will happen.

But you cannot buy your own human effort supply the kind of emotion that is necessary to be pleasing to God. This is only something the spirit can do. Only the spirit can give you the kind of godly affections that are necessary to make your worship acceptable.

So do not think that just by supplying some human oomph into your worship that will make it more acceptable. Instead appeal to the spirit that he would transform your heart appeal to the spirit that he would through transforming your affections to be ones that that honor the Lord that desire the Lord that sense his presence in our gathering.

That these would be things that draw your heart higher towards heaven and offer true true worship that is acceptable before God. Now I hope I hope I'm being clear here. I'm not saying anything about a mode of worship.

I am saying that emotions themselves are not what is pleasing to the Lord is rather the spirit in our hearts producing godly emotions. So let us appeal to the spirit when we worship. You may hear my prayers often I ask the spirit to to guide our hearts and worship it is.

It is so necessary for worship to be acceptable to the Lord that it be guided by the spirit. He continues on your eyes will see Jerusalem an untroubled habitation an immovable tent whose stakes will never be plucked up nor will any of its cords be broken.

So it speaks of Zion speaks of Jerusalem and its permanence as an immovable tent. This is a surprising image for permanence. To speak of a tent usually you don't think of a tent as being an immovable building.

You think of a building being immovable. So why does he speak of it this way once again to appeal to the problem that's going on here is that people feel unstable. They feel like they're in the wilderness.

And we are people who are likewise in a sense in a wilderness. We are going about this earth that is not our home. We experience all kinds of trials we experience all kinds of difficulties that can make us feel not at peace as though we are.

We are about to be swept in a tent that's about to be swept away by the wind. But he assures them that what they have is an immovable tent its stakes never plucked up nor any of its cords broken. Once again how can this be said of.

How can this be said of this temple while he does call the people of that era to look forward to the Lord restoring their worship. And this does indeed happen. It is the case that eventually the temple is destroyed and it's rebuilt and then destroyed again.

So ultimately this points forward not just to the temple that's there in Jerusalem but the temple that Christ has established by raising himself up from the dead. This is what it speaks of him. And John 2.

So Jesus answered them destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said it has taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days. But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

When therefore he was raised from the dead the disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. This is where your assurance comes from doesn't come from physical building but it comes from the temple that Christ has established his own body as he has raised himself up from the dead and as he has implanted his spirit in our hearts and in our gathering his work in our midst.

This is this is what is immovable. This kingdom is immovable. And another application for us. It is very frequent for Christians to bad mouth the church by saying that the church is in a very poor condition or or the they speak very poorly of Christ's bride.

Not that there's never any reason for concern there very often is but a lot of times the way people fret over the state of the church reflects an understanding of the church that is not quite biblical.

It's an understanding that thinks that the situation of the church is in people's hands rather than being in the Lord's hands himself having established an immovable kingdom now oftentimes there will be entities parading as the church that are not the church and there's much reason to be disgusted by that.

However in the way that you speak of the church and in the confidence that you have about the activities of the church have confidence in what the Lord has said here he has made an immovable tent. His kingdom is something immovable.

If you identify the church as something that can be shaken as something that can be torn down then you are not identifying it as the Lord's work. You're not identifying it as a heavenly kingdom. You're identifying it as an earthly kingdom.

Now it is the case that this this promise here is speaking of God's kingdom as a whole. It is not speaking of each individual local church. Local churches may be shaken. Local churches may fall apart.

But the kingdom that God has established in his universal church it is forever. And so do not be discouraged when you see difficulties in the local church do not do not fret in such a way to think that that is indicative of Christ's failure.

That is indicative of God's kingdom being shaken while it is a sad thing. Ultimately the health of the kingdom is in the Lord's hands. And he has made an immovable tent says. But there the Lord and Majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams where no galley with oars can go nor majestic ship can pass.

So it described it in two ways. One it's broad and two no ships can pass through it once again kind of a surprising contrast of images. A tent that is immovable a broad stream that no ships can pass through.

Once again two different things being said here. One God has made the city such that he is supplying everything that is needed to his people week by week. He supplies his people with his word. He supplies his people with his spirit with everything they need in order to survive.

And yet at the same time he is designed his city such that no enemies. This is speaking of warships here. And you can see that later in verse 23 when it describes the activity of these ships trying to attack that none of these ships can pass through.

So he's designed his his city both so that many resources can flow to it so that it can prosper and yet at the same time it is perfectly protected. This is what the has done. And so what this is caused for once again is for great security for great a great sense of peace and stability.

Even though visibly things may not look peaceful things may not look stable. There is no reason to to fret when the Lord has accomplished this through Jesus Christ. So he speaks of the activity of these ships in verse 23.

Your cords hang loose. They cannot hold the firm in its place or keep the sail spread out. So he's speaking of the enemy you imagine the enemy warship coming in thinking that it can attack Jerusalem. But then it's cords hang loose.

They cannot hold the mass firm in its place. They have no strength they have no stability themselves. And there's a contrast made here between between the city whose cords are immovable and the ship whose cords hang loose.

The same word is being used here. There's some translations that translate the second word is tackle because that's what you might call the ropes on a ship but that misses the point here that there's a comparison being made between the ropes on the tent that cannot be moved and the ropes on the ship that cannot be moved.

The ship represents the enemies and the enemy is unstable. Now how often do you look at the powers in the world and it appears that they are very strong peers that they are very secure. The kind of assaults that happen against the church the entities that assault the church the the world powers the ideology you know the very the different government institutions that that propose and perpetuate ungodly ideology all these things just seem so powerful so strong there's so many resources behind them.

And you see the church and what it's able to do. And it seems seems like the battle is rigged and it's rigged not in our favor but God gives us confidence that he has designed the city so that it has everything it needs and has perfect perfect protection from the enemy.

And this has been the case throughout the history of the church. It has always been the case that it looks like the church is in a poor weak condition and the enemies of God are far stronger are far greater.

But what has happened throughout history has not the church only grown and I'm not just talking about the numbers that you know different polling systems might use. Where if you say that you're a Christian you're a Christian.

I mean truly truly the number of people who believe the has increased in spread across the globe as the gospel has gone out to all the nations and so in any era if someone were to look at the situation and say this is not going to go well they would be shown wrong.

In every era the gospel has grown at the rate that God has chosen but it has grown over time so that it now has reached so many different lands and we pray for it to reach further lands knowing that it eventually will not thinking that there's no stream that can carry the resources there but God having his elect in every place designing his kingdom to spread throughout the whole world that those great broad rivers will reach even those places.

And consider this a warning to because he speaks in second person he says he switches the second person he says your cords hang loose. They cannot hold the mass firm in its place or keep the sales spread out.

You know he turns and he speaks to the enemy. A lot of times well not a lot of times if they put yourself in the other shoes. If you are a Christian today then maybe you are maybe you have a reason to maybe you are tempted to despair the state of the world state of the church.

There are many in the opposite position right there are part of the world. They laugh at the church because I think the world seems far stronger. Church seems very weak. Let this be a warning to every evil person who would think that.

Who would think that the church will ultimately fail. The answer is you might think that you're stable but your cords hang loose. You cannot keep your spit sales spread out. You cannot keep your mask upright.

In this this promise will come on the heads of every last one of Christ's enemies. You know considering your heart today where you stand. Whether you stand with the Lord whether you stand against him whether you feel secure and on what basis your security is.

It is not on the Lord and it is on yourself or on something else. It will fail you. It will ultimately fail you. And why is all this the case. First 22 which comes in the middle of this passage. You know the way this is broken up in different Bibles is it's a hard decision to figure out where to put the paragraph breaks so I'm not sure where exactly I would put them but I really consider 20 through 24 to be a unit because of this theme of cords.

You have an immovable tent whose cords cannot be broken. And you have the ship whose cords are definitely broken. But right here in the middle in that in the way that Hebrew poetry works with the chiasm with the the most central point being right in the middle.

Why. For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our King. He will save us. We can have all the security because of the Lord the speaks of Jesus Christ. He is our judge. He is our lawgiver.

He is our King. How is he our judge. He guides us. He produces right judgments. He leads us by his word. How is here a lawgiver. He has told us only what is just. These people in Isaiah's time live in a world with much injustice where there's bribery and corruption.

But God is just and he leads his people into justice. The Lord is our King. He fights the battles so that the enemy is certainly destroyed not out of our own strength but out of his. And all this takes place so that he will save his people.

You know this is a this is an important verse even in the founding of our country. Some of you may be aware because you may have heard me speak of this before. But the James Madison talked about this and others spoke of this too.

They decided in the early days of forming this country that because these different positions are held by the Lord it wouldn't be right for any one man to have all of them. So that's why our churches our church our country is broken into judicial legislative and executive.

Lord is our judge. That's judicial. Lord is our lawgiver legislative. Or is our King executive. He will save us. And so out of the recognition that these things are are held by the Lord and the vast weight of responsibility many decided that it would be right to break the government into three branches.

Now I'm not commenting on whether or not that's the right form of government or anything like that. What I'm saying is that many have recognized in the importance of this first how vast Christ rulership is and how good it is and how it cannot be duplicated by any one man.

Even multiple working together of course cannot do what Christ has done. But even that out of wisdom one might not want to hold such power that Christ wields in this way. And consider also the statement about Christ being King how it comes in the flow of this passage.

You remember the statement in verse 10. God said that he would arise. It said he would burn down his enemies. And the question comes out who can dwell with the consuming fire. In verse 14 who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings.

The answer is someone who does what is righteous. And then who is this person. For 17 says your eyes will behold the king and his beauty. They will see a land that stretches afar. And now it speaks of that King again.

It says the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our King. He will save us. Who is this coming King who will rescue the people. Who can dwell with everlasting burning. Who is this King who will protect from all enemies.

It is the Lord. The Lord is King. Now how could that be. How could the throne of David be restored by God Almighty himself. The New Testament gives the answer. And the incarnation. God has come to dwell with man out of the seat of David.

God himself in flesh has come to save us. And the person of Jesus Christ he has produced the victory defeating the enemies establishing his kingdom. A kingdom full of stability a kingdom secure whose cords cannot be broken.

So when you look around and you see that it might appear bleak and the world might appear strong and the church might appear weak. Do not see things with eyes of faith rather or excuse me. Do not see things with eyes of the flesh but rather see them with eyes of faith and have peace.

Knowing that Christ is at work in his tent his kingdom is completely secure. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father thank you for this great stability and security that you have promised your people. We ask that you would give us.

I give us eyes of faith that we might embrace it more fully and we might live our lives in a with a sense of peace and joy knowing what you have accomplished in our accomplishing in Jesus name. Amen. All right.

Let's turn to hymn number 58. The Lord is King. Lift up thy voice. Begin our time in prayer with prayer of confession confessing anxiety and instability. Dear Heavenly Father we are people who often see you with eyes of flesh rather than eyes of faith.

We are people who are anxious and feel unstable and often are and ourselves unstable. But you are completely stable. You have established a stable kingdom and we thank you that you have provided that.

But we ask that you would forgive us for our anxiety about matters for doubting your promises for not resting and trusting as we ought. But we rest assured that you provide complete forgiveness. We rest assured that you have provided everything we need in Jesus Christ and that through those broad streams and rivers you send everything that your people needs.

You send a great prosperity. And we ask that you're as your kingdom expands as it goes further across the world. That you would give us a greater sense of your message a greater sense of the forgiveness that we have in Jesus Christ Lord.

Hear our prayer and please accept our statement of repentance. And please build in our heart and even greater repentance that we might trust.

You further in Jesus name. Amen. The as I said I had sent these notes for the.

Bulletin before deciding not to preach in the last verse and a half. So rather than this phrase which comes from the last the last verse and a half instead let us pray something very similar that that for the needs of individuals and families that they would enjoy the broad rivers of the Lord as it says in verse 21.

But there the Lord and majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and.

Streams John Birch. It will lead us in this prayer. Please pray with me father.

We do thank you the King that you have set over us. You are our lawgiver you are our judge you are our King and we can be secure father. And that you bear these offices to us in righteousness and in holiness through the work of Jesus.

We have one who can sympathize with us when we are weak. When we are tempted by all that is around us and that we can trust in because he has won all things for us. That the anxiety that we feel is needless because our King reigns.

Our King loves us and has given himself for us. We pray that mercy for our sister MJ in the coming days as she begins her new job. We thank you for providing for her father and we pray that you would strengthen her to do the works that you have put in front of her.

We pray for our brother Jesus as he still seeks employment. And as there are others father we think of our sister Quinn my brother Charles. And there are certainly more. We do pray father that you would provide for these out of the abundance that you have already secured for us.

We pray in that same line for our sister Sue. Father we thank you that your word is true when it reminds us that our tent as it's called will be destroyed. And yet we have a building. We have something that will not be destroyed that is safe for us.

We pray that you would bless our pastor and his wife with this remembrance. That you are establishing for them something that is permanent beyond what they can see and taste and touch. We pray father for ourselves.

That you would grant us to live together with that knowledge that when we see sin around us when we see sin inside of us we see the world against us and we see all that is around us. Father that is it opposed to you.

That we can dwell in safety. Because our bread is sure. Our water will not be taken from us. Though we may seem oppressed. We are not cast down. Though we are perplexed father we are not forsaken because we know our King.

We pray in the light of the Word of Daniel. It would be those who know their King would display strength. Those who know their King would take action. Because we know our God reigns. We pray that you'd help us to live by faith and not by sight.

And we pray that that day might come soon when we can live by sight. When our King comes to take us and to himself and all evil is removed. We pray that you'd come quickly Lord Jesus amen.

All right before we pray for our own church let us let me go ahead and read a letter from another church in the fire Association. This is Calvary Bible Church in Rogers Missouri. We thank the Lord for his faithfulness to us over the past year bring us through some hard trials.

So a few prayer requests. One we are proposing a significant change in our missionary support to take effect next year replacing two of our missionaries. And we have supported a wrap for around 30 years who have not been like-minded with us for some time with two new missionaries who are please pray for peace understanding and unity in this decision to one of our deacons and his wife.

John and Brenda recently lost a daughter who was found dead in her apartment in Seattle. They labored for many days to share the gospel with her and got her help from addictions and they have been walking through a dark valley.

Three pray that God would provide the encouragement and help we need. After a hard summer of having our Calvinistic doctrine publicly attacked by another church while at the same time we were in the midst of walking through a church discipline process in it with an outspoken individual who has been publicly causing dissension over our sovereign grace teaching and practice for many years.

Through this the individual left the church and another couple left. At the same time it has caused some tension with a few others who have remained with us but are close to that individual. Pray for wisdom and grace as we continue to deal with this.

All right. So several things there let's pray for this church and for our own church and specifically that our cords would not be broken was Calvary Bible.

Church in Rogers Missouri. Yes let's pray Lord indeed we know that your church.

Under many attacks by various different means whether it be from the inside by means of dissension discord transgression or from the outside by scoffers and those who would try to trample on the most precious name of Jesus.

We ask Lord that you'd be with your church this church in particular that was mentioned by pastor Conley. We pray Lord for deacons who have lost a daughter. We pray father for healing in their family.

Lord that you would shelter them under your wings that they would have a sense of your calming influence and direction and spirit during this most difficult time of tragedy. Lord we do think of those suffering as a result of the discord and dissension among the ranks of the brothers.

There we pray Lord for the peace of your people and for the elders and pastors as we approach the colder winter months rainier season. We pray God that you would make clear to us how we best approach the times ahead in regard to our fellowship our meetings our ministries and how to navigate our fellowships even in the tent.

Lord we pray God for your provision father that you would open your hand and satisfy the need of every level every living thing especially towards your people and your Saints. Lord we thank you that the Lord Yahweh Jehovah is indeed our lawgiver he is our judge and he is our King.

He is the true and proper head of the church of this people the true covenant community of God. We ask Lord that we would render to you that which is due to you namely your most holy and precious worship.

Father we do ask again even now that the cords of your church would not be broken that the gates of Hades should not overcome it and that the name of the Lord our God shall be raised up and at the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ should be the very banner by which the.

Nation streamed to. We pray this in Jesus name Amen now as we pray for our rulers.

And for the salvation of the world let us pray that the Lord would save them as.

Their King Lord we lift up to you in prayer the West African nation of.

Senegal and we thank you God that you have caused your gospel to reach the people of the capital of Senegal the city of Dakar and Lord you know that you have caused this city 25 of the population of Senegal to have a number of faithful churches and so we thank you God that the people from every people group in this nation Senegal is represented in Dakar and is able to learn the gospel from Christians and churches in in this region.

So we ask Lord that you send missionaries and faithful Christians to these outlying areas outside of Dakar some of which are completely lacking in a church or local Christian assembly. Please send the light of your son to these areas and especially to Senegalese people groups that are hostile or indifferent to hearing the good news of your son Lord Jesus Christ.

We ask especially Lord that you give courage to the Christians of Dakar to enter these remote and hostile areas for the good of the souls of your elect in these regions so that your light would shine brightly into the hearts of people who don't who don't know you.