May 21, 2023 - Sunday Service

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood iconAscension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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of Service 529
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A and B. You'll find that in the one of the inserts.
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We'll open it up. It's a two -pager there. That's not all that unusual. However, during the communion, if you look over in the
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Order of Service on the communion side, you'll see 540 A and B. That's on the reverse side of the insert.
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So as we come to that time in the communion, 540 A and B, or 540
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A, it says contus, is in your insert. So you'll look at that. The psalm of the week is the psalm of the month from last month, correct?
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Okay, recently a psalm of the month, Psalm 22. I'll have Alyssa play through that.
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Men, we have the Ten Commandments today. That is our longest section to pray through.
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It is my intent not to skip. So if the silence is uncomfortable for you, good.
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But I would like to make sure that a man prays for each of those particular sections.
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If you need to do a double duty, that's okay. So I just wanted to call for your attention there.
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So with that, I'll have Alyssa play there.
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We'll prepare our hearts, and then we will start our worship service.
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Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Here the
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Lord call you to worship through his word. Make a joyful shout to the Lord all you lands.
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Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know that the
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Lord, he is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
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Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name.
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For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and his truth endures to all generations.
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Let us pray. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
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You have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and your outstretched arm.
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Your invisible attributes, your eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen through what you have made.
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The heavens declare your glory. We praise you for your providence.
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You are the governor and sustainer of all things and you all things hold together and you live and move and have our being.
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You gave to all life and breath and all things. You work all things after the counsel of your own will.
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You have numbered even the hairs upon our heads. Not even a sparrow falls from a tree apart from your will.
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We praise you, our God, for these, your great works of creation and providence.
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But above all, we praise you for redemption. There is no other God besides you, no other savior, no other rock to whom the ends of the earth may turn to be saved.
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We rejoice that you so love the world that you gave your only begotten son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ, to be savior of the world. You gave your spirit to abide with us and in us, teaching us all things.
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May we have fellowship with you now, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We pray that you would be with us now.
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In Christ's name, amen. Please kneel as you are able for the corporate confession of sin.
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Let us join together in confessing our sins. O Father, we are gathered before you, maker of heaven and earth, whose chosen dwelling place, to confess that we have sinned.
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We have not even loved our neighbor as ourselves. In your mercy, deepen our sorrow for the wrong we have done and for the good we have left undone, so that we may hate our sin.
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Please stand for the assurance of pardon. As we had noted in our prayer, that the redemption of sin, we have no other savior but our
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God, no other rock to which we may turn to be saved. Hear this assurance of pardon.
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If you should mark, if you, God, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
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But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. Brothers and sisters in Christ, rejoice, your sins are forgiven.
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Amen. Please take up the Trinity hymnal and turn to our first hymn, hymn 290.
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Hail the day that sees him rise. Hymn 290. We are saying, who is seated, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the
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Lord erected in not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices.
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Therefore it is necessary that this one also have something to offer. For if we were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the coffee and shadow of the heavenly things.
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As Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, see that you make all things according to the pattern which you were shown on the mountain.
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But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
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For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, he says, behold, the days are coming, says the
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Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when
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I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the
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Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the
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Lord. I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts, and I will be their
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God and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor and none his brother, saying, know the
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Lord, for all shall know me. From the least of them to the greatest of them, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds, and I will remember them no more.
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In that, he says, a new covenant he has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
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This is the word of the Lord. Let us now join our voices together, confessing our common and ancient
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Christian faith in the singing of the Apostles' Creed. Your servants, our
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Savior, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, God forever.
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The Lord says, I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.
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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.
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You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Remember the
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Sabbath day to keep it holy. Honor your father and your mother.
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You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery.
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You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
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You shall not covet. You shall love the
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Lord your God with all your heart and soul, mind and strength. Finding ourselves in agreement with all these things, we join our voices together and say,
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Amen. Please stand and take up the insert once again and look for our
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Psalm of the month, the earth and its riches, Psalm 24, the earth and its riches.
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Psalm of David, the earth is the Lord's in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.
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For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. Who may ascend into the hill of the
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Lord or who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.
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He shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the
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God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face.
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Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the
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King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the
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Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates, lift up you everlasting doors, and the
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King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts.
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He is the King of glory, Selah. Let us pray.
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Eternal God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, give us your Holy Spirit, who writes the preached word into our hearts.
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May we receive and believe it and be cheered and comforted by it throughout all eternity.
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Glorify your word in our hearts and make it so bright and warm that we might find pleasure in it.
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Through your Holy Spirit, that we might think what is right and by your power fulfill the word.
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For the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, we pray. Amen. Please be seated.
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Today is Ascension Sunday. It is that Sunday in the calendar of the church that we commemorate or remember the
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Ascension of our Lord Jesus to heaven. You may remember that the Ascension took place 40 days after the
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Resurrection. And in that time, Jesus continued his earthly ministry. And as we reviewed back on Easter Sunday, Resurrection Day, that he was seen by over 525 people of all various kinds during this 40 -day period.
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But on the Ascension Day, his earthly ministry came to a close. And this is recorded for us as a historical event in Acts 1, verses 6 -11.
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You remember the scene where the disciples are there talking with our Lord and asking him if now he were about to bring in the
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Kingdom of Israel, restore the Kingdom to Israel. And our Lord said that it was not for them to know the seasons, but the
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Father in his own authority. But then he said this to them, but you will receive power when the
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Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses or shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all
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Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now when he had spoken these things while they watched, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight.
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And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by in white apparel who said, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
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This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.
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This is the historical fact of the Ascension, but there are many important theological and doctrinal significance to the
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Ascension. And I'll just briefly review some of these. First is
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Christ's exaltation and glory. The Ascension signifies
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Jesus' exaltation and return to his heavenly glory. Through the
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Ascension, Jesus returns to the Father and resumes, assumes rather, his rightful place of authority and honor at God's right hand.
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Psalm 110 .1, the most often quoted or alluded to section in the
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New Testament from the Old Testament, says this, sit at my right hand. The Lord said to my
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Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. But it is also important, the
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Ascension, for ascribing to Christ divine authority and power.
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It emphasizes his divine authority and power. Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the
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Lord of lords. All authority on heaven and on earth and under the earth, all authority has been given to him.
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And he is now reigning and ruling over his creation. The Ascension symbolizes his reign and sovereignty over the universe.
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And we know that this was attested to several places, including our text here today.
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But also vividly in two other places. One of them is in Daniel 7, verses 13 and 14.
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And I, that is Daniel, was watching in the night visions and behold, one like the
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Son of Man. We must remember that that was our Lord's favorite designation for himself, the
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Son of Man. And when he was using that, he was referring to this very passage.
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And behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven, he came to the ancient of days, that is
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God the Father, and they brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve him.
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His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. And his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed.
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And if you remember this section of Daniel, in the first 12 verses, contains some fantastic images.
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Images of beasts and horns and boastful horns. And we may say that this is the heavenly view of what was transpiring in the
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Ascension. That this was in spiritual places and the powers and principalities.
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But we have in another place in scripture, this very moment attested to us, we might say, from an earthly point of view, and that is in Psalm 2.
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Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain? In that Daniel chapter, those beasts were setting themselves up, at least the boastful beasts with the horns.
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But now we see the manifestation on earth. Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain?
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And the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.
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Can you think of anything more boastful for man to say? That we could break the bonds and cast off the cords of the
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Almighty. But continuing, he who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision.
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Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.
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The son of man who received a dominion and glory in a kingdom is declared right here.
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I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. And I declare the decree.
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The Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.
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This is the very thing that we see in the ascension. This is the very account that Daniel saw and that David for us in Psalm 2 brought to us.
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Yeah, but this is something else that Revelation, the book of Revelation also speaks to. In Revelation 11, 15, then the seventh angel sounded and there were loud voices in the heavens saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our
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Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever.
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This is not a future, far off thing. This has already happened and is being worked out in real time that we see today.
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To him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom. That all peoples and nations and languages should serve him and his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom, the one that shall not be destroyed.
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But the ascension also points to another thing and that is the heavenly intercession or the intercession activity of our
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Lord Jesus Christ as the great high priest and his ongoing intercession for his saints.
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This is spoken of in many places in scripture, but I will mention two. One, in Hebrews 7, 25, therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.
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But also in Romans 8, 34, who is he who condemns? It is
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Christ who died and furthermore is also risen who is even at the right hand of God who makes intercession for us.
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Although the Lord Jesus Christ may not be with us physically today, he is no less concerned for us and no less active on our behalf.
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Remember what John said in 1 John 2, 1 that we have an advocate with the
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Father, Jesus Christ the righteous and he is there now interceding for us.
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But the ascension also speaks to the promised return of Christ. The ascension carries with it the promise of Christ's second coming and we read that in this
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Acts passage when the angel said, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up to heaven?
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The same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will also come in like manner as you saw him go.
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Jesus ascended bodily and he will return bodily in like manner. The ascension is also important for it is the beginning of the commissioning of the church.
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With the ascension Jesus entrusted to the church his body, his people with the great commission.
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And you know that the great commission is given to us in Matthew 28, 18 -20 where we read this, and Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
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Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the
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Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.
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And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.
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We see a transition from Christ's physical presence in his ministry on earth and the responsibility handed to the church.
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His ministry has not ended. It has continued through us, his disciples, his body, the church.
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And through the church has been given the duty to spread the gospel throughout the whole world.
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As we read, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all
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Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The ascension also sets in motion the coming of the
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Holy Spirit with his gifts to the church. You remember that our
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Lord himself in John's gospel, commonly called the upper room discourse, promised that when he went from them that he would send another helper, the paraclete, the
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Holy Spirit. Some translations call him the comforter. But he doesn't come to say, oh, poor baby.
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Rather, the word comfort in its old term came from the Latin, cum forte, with strength.
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He comes to strengthen us, to help us, to give us the ability to carry out that gospel ministry which we have been given.
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But not only that, the Holy Spirit will come and convict the world of sin, showing the need for a savior, driving people to the gospel.
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And with this, he also comes not only to comfort, not only to convict, not only to instruct in righteousness, but also gives the means of instruction of righteousness.
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As Paul tells us in Ephesians that Jesus himself, through the Holy Spirit, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.
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These are the important things of the ascension. And our congregation itself bears witness to the power of the ascension and all that it stands for.
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We are ascension Presbyterian church, after all. So we, as we think on this topic of the ascension, we should remember his exaltation and glory, his divine authority and power, his heavenly intercession for the saints, his promise of his return, the great commission ministry that he has given to the church, and not the coming of the
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Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit has already come. All these things are bound up in this event and are even given to us in our text.
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I said today is Ascension Sunday. If you've been following along, this could be called Psalm 24 Sunday. Everything that we've done, all the hymns have been pointing to this very psalm.
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So let us go to our text now. Psalm 24 joins Psalm 2 and Daniel 7 as an
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Old Testament glimpse into the ascension. And it is very fitting for us to consider this text on this day as we commemorate the ascension.
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Some people believe that this particular psalm was composed either for or to be sung during the time when the
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Ark of the Covenant was brought up to Jerusalem. You remember the account given to us in 2
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Samuel 6, 12 -15. This is David's second attempt to bring the
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Ark into Jerusalem. And it was great ceremony and great pageantry and worship of God where they were sacrificing and singing and praising
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God. This was certainly a celebration that was akin to a triumphal entry that God represented in the
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Ark was coming once again to dwell to his people. Our psalm can be divided into three parts.
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Verses 1 and 2 glorifies the one only and true God, the
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Creator God and speaks of his universal dominion. Verses 3 -6 speaks of those who may commune with their covenant
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God. And verses 7 -10, that great and glorious victory parade, the ascent of our champion, the true redeemer into heaven.
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So let us take a look at the first two verses. Verses 1 and 2.
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The earth is the Lord's in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.
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For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
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This is nothing short but a breathtaking claim. The earth is the
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Lord's in all its fullness. This is nothing more than a straightforward statement that the entire world, all creatures in it, every square inch of this planet belong to our great and glorious God.
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He goes on to clarify even further in this first verse, the world and those who dwell therein.
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This word that is translated world means in Hebrew the inhabited places of the world.
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And so he means where people are. So when we say the earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell in, he's not only referring to the plants and the beasts and the birds and the fish and everything found in nature, trees and grass and so forth, but all the people who live in the world.
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All their institutions, all their governments, everything belong to the
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Lord our God. This is not the first time in scripture we see this and it's repeated several other places.
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I'll mention two in Deuteronomy 10, 14. I'm sorry, excuse me,
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Exodus 19, 5. Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine.
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This is Moses recording for us what God said to the people. If you keep my covenant, you will be my special treasure, the apple of my eye.
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For all the earth is mine and I have chosen you. This should give us a special comfort.
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But also he says this, or rather it says this in Psalm 89, 11. The heavens are yours, the earth also is yours, the world in all its fullness, for you have founded them.
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Well this theme right here, you have founded them, is picked up in our verse 2 where we read this, for he, that is
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God, has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
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Why is the earth the Lord's? Why do all animals, birds, fish, trees belong to the
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Lord? Why do all men, the world round, and all that is man's belong to the
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Lord? Simply put, because he made them. They are his.
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He is the creator God. We have this creation given to us in detail in Genesis 1.
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But also we have several other places. I'll call attention to Psalm 95, 5.
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I'm sorry, Psalm 95 verses 4 and 5. In his hands are the deep places of the earth.
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The heights of the hills are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
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In Psalm 100, our call to worship today, verse 3 says, Know that the Lord, he is
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God. It is he who has made us, and not we ourselves.
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We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Notice it says, and not we ourselves.
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That little brief little verse wipes aside evolution, where evolution teaches us that we, due to some power within us, can change and become anything we want.
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But not according to the Lord. It is he that has made us, and not we ourselves.
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Our Lord also himself testified to this when he spoke to Job in Job 38 .4.
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Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
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Our Lord himself says that he has laid the foundation of the earth and that he has made it all.
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But we also know that this was by the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Paul gives us in Colossians 1 .16, For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
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All things were created through him and for him. Think about that Daniel verse for a moment.
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When the Son of Man comes in the clouds to receive that things that he created, but also created them for himself.
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And not only that, not only
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Christ has lordship and kingship and authority over all these things, but through him he sustains all things.
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Through him all things consist. Paul gives us that right in the next verse in Colossians 17.
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This is nothing short but God's exhaustive sovereignty.
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It means all the fullness of the earth belongs to him. It means not only all the material items that you can see, rocks, hills, seas, lakes, rivers, cities, animals, plants and people, but this is also a claim to all thoughts and behavior of the people who live in it.
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It is an absolute claim, a total claim to absolute sovereignty.
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This is very important because when we think about the lordship of Jesus Christ, of God the
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Father giving all things to Christ, he has the sovereignty to do it.
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But let us go on in our text and take a look at verses 3 through 6.
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We read this. Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who may stand in his holy place?
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He who has clean hands and a pure heart. He who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.
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He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the
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God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face.
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Now that we have talked about the exhaustive sovereignty of our
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Lord, the fact that he has made all things for himself, a question comes.
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Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? That's a very good question.
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Who can lay claim to the ability to come into his presence and to stand before him?
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Since we are his creatures. And not only that, he says to stand in his holy place.
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In his holiness, not just his throne room, not only his hill. God's holy hill.
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This refers to Mount Zion here on earth, but also to God's heavenly throne room.
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We saw this in Psalm 2 that we talked about just a moment ago. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.
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This is where God lives. This is his dwelling place. Psalm 3 says this. I cried to the
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Lord with my voice, and he heard me from his holy hill. And also we have this in Psalm 15, 1.
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Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill?
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But this is also where God is worshipped. Psalm 99, 9 tells us this.
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Exalt the Lord, our God, and worship at his holy hill. For the
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Lord, our God, is holy. Who is fit to come into his presence?
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Well, thankfully, David gives us the answer in the very next verse. Verse 4. He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.
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Clean hands speak of the purity of a person's outward actions.
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A pure heart refers to the purity of the inner man, the soul.
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One that is holy and undefiled, without any moral blemish. The inner life, the person's character, and the outer life, the person's action, must be pure and clean.
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Well, what does this mean? Well, it means without sin.
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Before we progress any further, I'll just make a quick aside here and take a moment to define sin.
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Many times in our Christian community, we use all sorts of terms, and we never really define them.
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We just mention them. As if with the reception of the Holy Spirit, we also get a dictionary of Christian terms that comes with us.
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I think it's helpful from time to time to consider those terms. So we'll do that today.
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So what is sin? Well, the Greek word that is often translated sin in the
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New Testament is harmartia. This comes from the world of archery, of bows and arrows, and it means to miss the mark.
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That you have a target in sight, you pull back on the bow, you release it, and you've missed the mark.
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Well, that doesn't sound so bad in one respect, right? At least maybe I hit the target.
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However, when it comes to God's law, when we talk about God's law,
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God requires something akin to hitting the bullseye each and every time.
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He requires total obedience to all of his laws. James 2 .10
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says this, For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point is guilty of it all.
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And this describes us quite well. Paul tells us in Romans 3 that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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It's okay, but what is sin? I think here our Westminster Shorter Catechism can come and give us some help.
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In question 14, which says, what is sin? It says, sin is any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God.
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Want of conformity means sins of omission. God says, do this, and you don't.
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Transgression of are sins of commission. God says, don't do this, and you do it.
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That covers just about everything. But when we think of sins of omission and sins of commission, we shouldn't be thinking of limited to physical actions only, but it extends to words spoken and even thoughts.
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So that the person who can't approach the Lord, the man without sin, sins of action, sins of thought, sins of commission, sins of omission, he must be completely pure.
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But not only that, there's more. In verse 4 we also read, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.
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This adds a little bit more clarity. And we all take for granted when we speak of sins, that we are talking about the one and true and living
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God. Or that all those we mention it to have a good understanding of what it is that God requires.
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But there are many false religions and practitioners of those false religions, or even some prideful folks may say, by their standards, they have clean hands and a pure heart.
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But the rest of verse 4 says this, that he has to never have lifted his soul to an idol, nor has spoken deceitfully.
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We must remember that anybody who says those types of things is speaking deceitfully.
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But also this, we have to remember that there are really only two religions on earth.
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You may have heard this before, and some people will say, there's the one true religion, and then there's works righteousness.
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The fact is, there's one true religion, and idolatry. So anyone who says that they have been able to do this, not only speaks deceitfully, but is an idolater.
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Unless you are worshiping the one and true God, through Jesus Christ his son, by the power of the
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Holy Spirit, you are an idolater. So who is the one that can ascend the hill of the
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Lord? One who has never veered from his serving the
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Lord our God in his full obedience. But what will happen to the man who can't ascend the hill of the
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Lord? David gives us this in our next verse. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the
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God of his salvation. What happens to the man who ascends the hill of the Lord? The one who can ascend the hill of the
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Lord into his presence? Who has clean hands and a pure heart? Who has never lifted up his soul to an idol, or sworn or spoken deceitfully?
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He receives blessing. This comes from the Hebrew word, which literally means prosperity.
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But it's bound up into it, means bounty of blessings. Not just a little bit of blessings, but a lot.
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And he will receive it liberally. His cup will not just be full, but it will overflow.
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In righteousness, he will be declared right and just, vindicated.
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And who will do this? His blessed Redeemer, his blessed Deliverer, the
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God of his salvation. All of these will come from his generous hands.
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Well, we still have a question, though. We now know who it is that would be qualified to ascend the hill of the
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Lord, and what they will receive when they get there. But who is it, exactly?
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Well, David gives us that in verses 7 through 10. But before we turn to this,
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I want to just give a little bit of information here of what this is describing. We don't really have this in our modern world anymore.
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In the old days, in the ancient times, cities had walls around them. And these walls were intended to keep people out.
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And these walls were not what we might picture from Old Westerns, like a palisade with logs driven into the ground.
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No, these walls would be very thick, 20, 30 feet thick. And throughout these walls, there would be gates for the ability to come out, to go out and come in.
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And some of these gates, as we have in Scripture, were used for very specific purposes, like the water gate was used to go get water, or the dung gate, which was to go take your manure outside.
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But there was always a main gate. And this main gate would be larger than the others, with huge wooden doors, sometimes covered with metal of some type.
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And oftentimes before that, there would be a gate that would be able to be dropped down quickly, which would be made of wood or metal.
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And it was designed to keep people out of the main gate. But it was also larger.
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And in the ancient world, when there was a great victory won by either the king or a general under his charge, there would be a victory parade.
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And these doors would be opened up. And the gates would be lifted up. And the general would proceed in to much pageantry and rejoicing.
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And that's what we have described for us right here, a victory parade.
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The closest we have today is a ticker tape parade, where they make a big mess in New York City.
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But that's not the victory parade that is given to us here. So let us take a look at verses 7 through 10.
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Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors.
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And the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty.
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The Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates. Lift up your everlasting doors.
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And the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts.
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He is the King of Glory. Note that it says, everlasting doors.
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Clearly, this is again pointing to heaven. This is the ancient, heavenly Jerusalem, where God himself dwells.
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So who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in the presence on his holy hill?
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David gives us the answer. It is the Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle.
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The Lord of hosts. You may notice that this word, Lord, is capitalized in your translation.
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This means that David is referring to the name of Yahweh, the covenant name of God.
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There is no doubt to whom he is referring to. But David's original hearers, and maybe even you yourself, may be saying, wait a minute.
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The Lord? Isn't he already in heaven? Why would he need to ascend the hill?
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And what victory is this referring to? Well, you're familiar with the statement that the
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New Testament was in the Old, concealed, and the Old Testament is in the
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New, revealed. And so we will go to answer these questions to the New Testament. To John 3, 13, where Jesus ourselves says this.
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No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, the
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Son of Man who is in heaven. Who is this King of Glory?
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It is the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. What is this scene depicting?
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It is depicting nothing less than the ascension of Christ, the
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Son of Man returning to heaven, the God -man's triumphal entry into heaven, to which we have sang about today.
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But what is the victory? What is the great victory that he had won? 1
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John 3, 8 gives us the description of the victory because it was his purpose. For this purpose, the
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Son of God was manifested. For this purpose, the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection.
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For this purpose that he might destroy the works of the devil. That he might destroy the works of the devil, which is sin.
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And the penalty due sin, death. But how did
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God, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, destroy the works of the devil?
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Well, Jesus defeated the devil by several things. And we'll go into those here.
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First of all was his sinless life. Those clean hands, pure heart, and no idolatry.
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And no deceit on his tongue. And we can see this, if you would turn with me just briefly, to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 4.
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Where we can see this in this gospel account that is very familiar to you.
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It's the temptation of Christ. So as I read through these things, we'll take a look at it here.
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We'll be taking a look at verses 1 through 11. Then Jesus was led by the
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Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, afterward he was hungry.
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And when the tempter came to him, he said, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.
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But he answered and said, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
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Then the devil took him up into the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him,
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If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
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Jesus said to him, It is written, Again, you shall not tempt the
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Lord your God. Again the devil took him up on an exceeding high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
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And he said to him, All these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.
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Then Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the
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Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered.
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This is a microcosm of the work that Christ had done. First, we have to note that this temptation, this account of the temptation of our
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Lord, is a comparison between Adam, our first federal head, our first representative, compared to Christ, the second
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Adam. So let's take a look a little closer at that. Where was Adam when he was tempted?
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Well, he was in a garden, amply supplied, well fed, and he was not alone.
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But Christ was in the wilderness, a desert.
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He had not eaten in 40 days, and he was alone. Adam was tempted to eat, and he ate.
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Christ was tempted not only to eat, but to convert stones into bread to eat, and he did not.
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Adam was tempted to disobey the word of God, and he did. Christ was tempted to disobey the word of God, to cast himself off, and he did not.
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Adam was tempted to turn his back on God, commit idolatry and spiritual adultery, and he did.
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Christ was tempted to turn his back on God, commit idolatry, and he did not.
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Notice also that Christ was tempted to conceive sin.
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That would have negated a pure heart. Commit sin, which would have negated clean hands, to bow down and worship the devil, which would have been idolatry.
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And also Christ refuted the devil by quoting scripture. This is very important for us to know to do, too.
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But by quoting the word of God, no deceit was found in his tongue.
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And not only on that day, but every day before the temptation, and every day after the temptation,
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Christ was completely obedient to God. But not only in his life, but also in his suffering of death at the hands of the chief priests, the scribes and Pharisees, the
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Romans and the people, all according to the sure plan of God. Just at that point where the devil, the people, and all those who were raging and considering a vain thing, when all of them thought they had
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Jesus right where they wanted him, Paul tells us in 1
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Corinthians 2 .8 that if the rulers of this world had known, of this age had known, the devil and the fallen angels and the powers and principalities in the spiritual realm and the nations, if they had known that when they went to crucify the
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Lord Jesus Christ, it would be to their own defeat, that it would cut the ground completely out from underneath them.
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If they had known that, Paul says, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
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So it was not only his sinless life, not only his death on the cross, but also his victory that was secured and underscored by the resurrection.
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And we've recently considered that resurrection back on Easter Sunday. But we must remember what
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Paul wrote about the resurrection, that by the resurrection he wrote in Romans 1 that Jesus was declared to be the
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Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
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The fact that he was able to pay for his sins was confirmed by the resurrection.
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And how do we know that this victory was complete? It was declared with power by the
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Holy Spirit when Christ was raised from the dead. Hebrews 2 .14
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says this, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
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Our Lord defeated the devil. Oh, death, where is your victory? Remembering that the power of death, that is, the devil, was defeated.
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Oh, grave, where is your sting? Not only was the devil defeated, but death itself was defeated.
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What was this great victory? What is this great victory? It is destruction of the works of the devil and breaking of the bond of sin.
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That may be good, you may be saying. That's good. I can see where Jesus would qualify to ascend the hill of the
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Lord. But what about us? How do we partake in this?
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And are we mentioned in this text? Well, let's first take a look and see how we would qualify.
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And I think that the qualification for us to partake in this victory with our
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Lord Jesus Christ is seen in baptism. If you will turn with me once again to another place in Scripture, to Romans 6 .3
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-11. Paul writes this, Or do you not know that many of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
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Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, and that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
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Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, and that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
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For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.
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Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
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In our baptism, that is what signifies our participation with him in his death, but also in his resurrection.
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It points to what some call the great transaction. Our sins for his righteousness.
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Our sins are given to him, and he carries them to the cross. And what do we get in return? His clean hands, his pure heart, his sinless life.
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That's what we get. And that's how it qualifies us to participate.
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We know that this is all by faith. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 .8,
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that great verse, for by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
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In that section of scripture, Paul gives us an adequate and accurate description of us.
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We have dirty hands, impure hearts, we're filthy idolaters, and we're blasphemous.
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But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love for which he loved us, made us alive together with Christ.
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Yes, this is the act of the sovereign God that we read about in verses 1 and 2 of our song.
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It is by faith that we partake in this, and that by living by faith, and seeking the
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Lord with all of our hearts, and leaning not on our own understanding. But let us see if we are included in this text.
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So back to Psalm 24. You may have noticed
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I skipped verse 6, and it's to there I draw your attention.
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Verse 6 reads, This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face.
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We have to recognize that in the Bible, when the word Jacob is used, it could mean several things.
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One, the man Jacob. That's pretty obvious. Two, it could mean
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Israel, the nation. Remember, Jacob's new name that God gave him was Israel, and that referred to Israel, the nation, the people of God.
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And that's you, the new Israel, the Israel of God. So when we read this, and this is
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Jacob, the Israel of God, the people of God.
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It is that generation who seek him, who seek your face.
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There we are, right here in this Psalm. Not only can we partake in this victory, not only can we ascend the hill of the
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Lord and stand in God's presence because of our faith through Jesus Christ, that we would seek him earnestly.
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We would seek his face. So in this Psalm, we see all aspects of that great victory.
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We see the incarnation, Christ's virgin birth in sinless life.
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We see the crucifixion, Christ's vicarious death upon the cross for our sins.
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We see the resurrection, the validation of Christ as victor, confirming the great victory over sin, the devil in death.
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But we also see the ascension, the consummation of that great victory. And in this, we can truly join our voices with Paul and say, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Father, we thank you,
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O Lord, for your word, for this sure word given us today that we look at and we see the commemoration and remembrance of that day of ascension when you,
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Lord Jesus, return to the Father and now sit at his right hand, interceding for us and reigning.
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We pray that you, Lord Holy Spirit, who came from the Father and the
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Son after this event and dwell in us, that you would give us the grace and the strength to seek your face, to seek you with our whole hearts and with our bodies and our spirit.
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We ask these things in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord, our great champion, the victor.
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Amen. Let us now continue our worship through the presentation of tithes and offerings.
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Please stand and let us pray. Our gracious God and Father, we thank you,
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O Lord, that you have given us many, many blessings, that we who are able to stand in your presence and ascend your hill have been given prosperity and our cup truly overflows.
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We thank you, Father, for this time in our worship. This is an act of worship that we may return to you and for your service, a portion of what you have given us.
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We ask you, Father, that as we do so, that we would do so cheerfully. And we pray also for those who utilize these gifts, for the furtherance of your kingdom in this local area to where we worship and gather.
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We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Let us now join our voices together and give glory to God the
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Father by the singing of the Gloria Patri. That we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you,
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O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, Everlasting God, because you sent your beloved
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Son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life, that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may, without shame or fear, rejoice to behold his appearing.
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Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and singing.
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Mercy gave your only Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption, who made there, by his one oblation of himself, once offered a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, and it institute, and in his holy gospel, to command us to continue a perpetual memory of that, his precious death, until his coming again.
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Hear us, O merciful Father. We beseech you and grant that we, receiving these your creatures of bread and wine, according to your
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Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ's holy institution and remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most blessed body and blood.
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We ask this in Christ's name. In a night in which our
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Lord was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying,
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Take, eat, this is my body. Likewise, after supper, he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying,
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This is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.
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As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
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Therefore, we proclaim the faith. Let us pray together.
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We do not presume to come to this your table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies.
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We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same
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Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, sow thee the flesh of your dear
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Son, Jesus Christ, and the drink of his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.
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Amen. Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us, the gifts of God for the people of God, for your
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Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are living members of the body of your
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Son and heirs of your eternal kingdom. And, O Lord, grant us this other benefit, that you will never allow us to forget these things, but having them imprinted on our hearts, may we grow and increase daily in the faith which is at work in every good deed.
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And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our
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Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory now and forever.
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Amen. Please stand. Lord of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, even
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Jesus Christ, our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.