Equipping Eve: Joy to the World

The Need to Equip Women with Biblical Truth

Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus? Well, it's true there's no shortage of candy-coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women, No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies-only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name is Mike Abendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benziger, a friend of No Compromise Radio, and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

Scripture, the Bible, and the Purpose of the Show

Hello, ladies, and welcome to Equipping Eve. I'm your host, Erin Benziger, and this is the show that seeks to equip you with fruits of truth from God's Word. God's Word, Scripture, the Bible, 66 books, that's all there are, just 66, Old Testament, New Testament, God has spoken fully and finally in that Word.

That's what the show is about. That's what the show strives to focus on. So as I record this, it is the Christmas season, 2018. As you're listening to it, it's either right before Christmas, sorry about that, or it's after Christmas, and that's okay since we talk about Scripture, it's still relevant even if it's after Christmas.

But of course, because it's Christmastime, we have to think Christmassy, so we have to go along with that. And that's something I've done in previous shows. If you're newer to Equipping Eve, go to the website equippingeve .com or .org, they both take you to the same website, and check out the podcasts there.

So I've included all the previous podcasts on that website, and you can go back and listen to the archives. And you'll notice that there's usually a Christmas-themed episode or two this time of year, and I think we've touched on some really great topics in the few Christmas seasons that Equipping Eve has been in existence.

We've talked about Simeon and Anna, some Christmas carols, and just different things, and those are always really fun and interesting shows for me to prepare for, and so I hope that you ladies have enjoyed them as well, and listening to them.

So go ahead and take a listen. And in keeping with tradition, we're going to do a little Christmas theme here today as well. And I thought we would talk about Advent. Now, I'm not talking about Advent during the Christmas season, you know, where we kind of spend the days and weeks leading up to Christmas focusing on Christ's first Advent.

That's what this time of year is about. Nothing wrong with that. That's good. That's wonderful. I actually think the celebration of Advent specifically is really neat, and I think can be really important, and I think some of the lessons, even with Advent Wreath, are really good and really scriptural.

It kind of makes me sad that so many churches have phased that out. I don't really know the reason. I suppose it doesn't matter, but I think having a focus during this time of year as we lead up to the celebration of Christmas, a focus on Christ is really important, and there's so much you can do with that.

You can focus on all the prophecies throughout the Old Testament and how Jesus fulfilled them in His birth. You can take it a step further in how He fulfilled all those prophecies in His life and even His death and His resurrection.

Scripture is filled with this. I mean, we could do a, I don't know, five-year series on all the prophecies that Christ has already fulfilled and all of the prophecies that He will fulfill, and that's something that always strikes me this time of year is that fulfillment of prophecy.

How Christ so fulfilled, so perfectly fulfilled prophecy in His birth, in His life, in His death, in His resurrection. You know, things like, and we're familiar with so many of these, things like the prophecy of Micah in 5 .2 that indicates that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem.

You know, it kind of makes you wonder, like, why weren't more people waiting for this? You know, the King of the Jews is being born. It was really clearly stated in Scripture, and yet it was a very understated event.

And we're all familiar with the Christmas story, and I'm sure many of us are familiar with all of those prophecies, Isaiah 7 and the prophecy that He would be born of a virgin. And those titles in Isaiah 9 that are still part of the prophecy of who Jesus will be, aren't those titles amazing?

And they come to the forefront this time of year. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And you know, that's something else that you could even study during Advent is what do those titles mean, or what do the different names of Jesus mean?

You know, again, so many ways that you can focus your thoughts on Christ this season. And one of the things that I love most about this season is all of the Christmas carols. And I'm talking not Here Comes Santa Claus, I'm talking Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and even Away in the Manger, and O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, that's one of my favorites, and even others like In the Bleak Midwinter.

And I know that some people take issue with some of these carols, and I think we've talked about this in the past, because they're not, you know, 100 accurate. You know, Away in the Manger, No Crying He Makes, well, of course Jesus cried.

He was a baby. But that psalm is not evil because of that line. Mary, Did You Know? I think that's a beautiful psalm. People get all hot and bothered over that psalm. I've probably talked about this before, too, because it's a major pet peeve of mine.

One year, the issue was that people thought it was Worshipping Mary, to which I wanted to reply, and maybe did. Have you actually listened to the psalm or read the lyrics? It's not Worshipping Mary in any way, shape, or form, so your argument is silly.

It needs to go away. And then now, this year, the issue is, well, of course Mary knew. What a stupid question. Well, here's the thing. Mary knew who Jesus was, of course. We see that in her Magnificat.

I mean, in fact, let's take a look at it, ladies. I wasn't planning on doing this, but turn with me to Luke chapter 1. Let's take a look at this. Luke chapter 1, verse 46. And I'm actually reading today from the ESV.

So verse 46 says,. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.

He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

Those are the words of Mary. And she was obviously a very well-educated woman in her scriptures. She knew who this baby was, who was growing inside of her. There's no question about that. And in fact, a good resource to think about this a little bit further is John MacArthur's book, Twelve Extraordinary Women.

And he speaks about Mary there and just about how biblically literate she really was. And so that is always a chapter that I really appreciated. And so, you know, the issue of, well, Mary, did you know?

Of course she knew. So the psalmist is silly, blah, blah, blah. She couldn't have known the details. Of course she didn't know everything that Jesus would do. And just the way that that psalm, and I'm not here to defend it, but I think it's worth us considering.

Think about that psalm. And those of you who are mothers, think about that. You know, holding a baby, you know, your child is not perfect. You know, your child is not the son of God. Mary knew hers was.

And just the immensity of that, that the baby she was holding truly was the great I am. It, for me personally, that psalm really brings the incarnation into focus. And so I think we almost see an air of legalism and maybe pride and arrogance in some of these people that want to nitpick things like that in some of these Christmas carols.

You know, something else I'm seeing is, well, the angels didn't, they don't actually sing in the Bible. And all of our carols talk about angels singing. Listen, this is not a salvation issue. Let's enjoy these Christmas carols.

Because the reality is they have some really great theology in them. And the great thing about Christmas time is that unbelievers are much softer toward being exposed to that, whether they realize that or not.

And I love that the name of Jesus is proclaimed in stores and malls and on the radio, secular radio, in these psalms. And so I think it's really neat. And so coming back then to the word advent, that's talking about, when we talk about Jesus' first advent, we're talking about his first coming, the incarnation, what we celebrate at Christmas.

But the fact that we call this the first advent implies, doesn't it, that there must be a subsequent advent, at least one? Well, there is one. There is a second coming, a second advent of Jesus. And at Christmas time, I think it behooves us as Christians to not only focus on his first advent, but to also look ahead and look forward to that second coming, that second advent.

We look forward to so many things this time of year. Many, like I said, many of us enjoy this season or at least elements of it. But what better thing to look forward to than the second coming of Christ?

And of course, not just at Christmas, but all the time. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, right? How many of us say that daily? Usually because things aren't going the way we want them to. But in reality, we look around the world and we do think, we see the earth groaning, we're groaning.

And we think, oh, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Well, the good news is he is coming again, isn't he? And so I thought today we'd talk a little bit about how that weaves into Christmas in a very familiar way.

Jesus is coming again. There is a second advent. I know when we get into the eschatology discussion, we have differences of opinion. We have millennialism, post-millennialism, pre-millennialism. I'm actually not wanting to talk about that today.

I'm actually not referencing the rapture of the church. There are different opinions on that as well. I'm not here to wade into those waters because it's not necessary for this conversation. Because at the end of the day, all Christians affirm that Jesus Christ is coming again.

Correct? And in fact, in the Moody Handbook of Theology by Paul Enns, Enns writes in his chapter on eschatology, he says, although eschatology, the doctrine of last things, just to clarify, Enns writes in here, he says, although differing over details, the return of Christ is a doctrine that evangelicals hold in common.

It is a prominent doctrine in the scriptures. He says, being mentioned more than 300 times in the New Testament with entire chapters and even the majority of some books being given to the discussion of Christ's return.

Christ taught that his return would be a literal physical event, he writes. He would return in just the same way as the disciples had seen him depart. We see that in Acts 1, don't we? You know, Jesus rises, we have the resurrection, and then he's with the disciples and he's teaching for 40 days, and then he ascends into heaven and angels appear and say, you know, you're looking for the Christ, he will return just the same way that he has left you.

And so we have this promise of a literal physical return of Christ. And every Christian can agree on that, whether they are pre-mill, all-mill, or post-mill, rapture, no rapture, random timing of rapture, whatever.

There is a second coming of Christ. And for Christians, that is a joyous thing to be looking forward to. Isn't it? It should be. It should be. Sometimes you hear professing Christians who aren't looking forward to it.

They have so many things they want to see and do before Jesus returns, and I think they just don't understand the inheritance that is theirs if they've truly been saved in Christ Jesus. And, you know, that's a failure on the part of their church and their own personal study.

You know, we read the Bible. Who doesn't want Christ to return if they're a Christian and set the world right again? Now, when Christ came the first time in this first Advent that we celebrate at Christmas, he came to save, didn't he?

We know that. He came as a little baby, grew up, lived the life that we're supposed to live. If we wanted to earn our own way to heaven, we'd have to be perfect and perfectly live out God's law. And obey and keep his law.

And none of us does that. Not a one of us even comes close. So we can't do that. But Jesus can. Jesus did. Could. He did. Jesus was fully God and fully man. That's how he could keep the law. And because he was fully God and fully man, his blood was sufficient to atone for our sins, wasn't it?

So in the Old Testament, there were these sacrifices that were commanded by God. And yet the New Testament, in the book of Hebrews, we learn that the blood of bulls and goats, these animals, it cannot take away the sins of man.

Well, what's the point of these sacrifices? Well, the point of these sacrifices is to point to the ultimate sacrifice, who was Jesus Christ. Remember that John the Baptist said, really at the start of Jesus' public ministry, he sees Jesus and John the Baptist declares, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

That's really significant. Jesus, the Lamb of God, the perfect unblemished Lamb, who would be sacrificed for the sins of those who would believe. And because Jesus was fully God and fully man, his sacrifice was sufficient.

And we know that because he rose three days after his death, demonstrating that God accepted that sacrifice. And so in his first coming, Jesus fulfilled the scriptures and fulfilled all that is necessary for the salvation of men.

It is finished, he declared on the cross, because he had lived a life that we cannot live, but would need to, to save ourselves. He died the death that we deserve, because we can't live that life. Died the death that we deserve for the wrath of God that should have been ours, and said, it is finished, it is accomplished.

But when he comes again, he's not coming to save, is he? He's already done that, it is finished. So why is he returning? When he comes again, ladies, I think most of you know the answer to this. He's coming to judge.

It is a time of judgment, and he is the true judge, the righteous judge, the holy judge. Turn, ladies, in your Bibles to Revelation 19. Revelation 19, verse 11. John writes, the apostle John writes, then I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse.

The one sitting on it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire. And on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood. And the name by which he is called is the word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.

And he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Wow, literally every time I read those verses, I want to say, and usually do, say, wow, that is how Christ is returning. That's intense. And that's why we say that Jesus Christ, when he comes again in his second advent, he is coming to judge.

And that is a terrifying thing if you don't belong to him. But for Christians, it is a joyful thing. And as we go on in Revelation, we read about the millennial reign of Christ. And then we read how Satan is released.

And finally, ultimately defeated and cast into the lake of fire. We read about the great white throne judgment. We read about the new heavens and the new earth. We read about our promised eternity with Christ.

That's what his second coming means. That's what that ushers in. That's amazing. And that's like the best thing in the world to look forward to. And you know, Christians throughout the ages have been looking forward to Christ's return, haven't they?

The apostles thought he was coming right back. So he ascended in Acts, and they kind of thought he was coming right back. And obviously he didn't. But they persevered. They kept, that was, you know, their hope was in Christ and in his promises.

He had fulfilled prophecy perfectly in his birth, life, death, and resurrection. And so the prophecies that he would return again, including prophecies coming from his own lips, surely those would be fulfilled to the letter as well.

Well, it's been 2000 years now, and he still hasn't returned, but we still look forward to his return, don't we? We should. I'm sure you're all familiar with the Christmas carol, Joy to the World. And it's one of my favorites.

Although I have so many favorite Christmas carols. I don't know about you, but if you ask me what my favorite Christmas carol is, it kind of changes from year to year. I don't know. Because they're so good, so many of them.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing, the theology in that is phenomenal. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, you know, the promises that he would come. And just even the tunes, the music that goes along with these lyrics, it's just, it's such a great season.

I love Christmas carols, but Joy to the World is also one of my favorites. But did you know that that's not actually about Christmas? Think about it and look at the lyrics. Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her cane.

Let every heart prepare him room and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns, let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains repeat the sounding joy. No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground, he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love. That's not a Christmas song. Because this stuff hasn't all happened yet. These events have not all happened.

No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. That's, that's, I don't live in that world where there's no sin. I doubt that you do either. So it's not a Christmas song, but guess what?

It's about the second coming of Christ. So a little background on Joy to the World, and I have some helpful articles here that I'll link. If you do go to equippingeve .com and click on this podcast, you'll see some links to some helpful articles.

So Joy to the World was written by Isaac Watts. And there's a really helpful little article on the website of forestbaptistchurch .org. Full disclosure, I don't know anything else about this church. So I, you know, this is not an endorsement of the church.

I'm not saying it's good or bad. I am saying I like this article that they've posted there. And I'm not going to read the whole thing. But it starts out, it says, It is one of the most exuberant carols that we sing.

It is one of the most popular carols that we sing. It is also one of the most beloved carols that we sing. And yet, as you will learn today, it's not actually a carol at all. In fact, though we sing and treat it this way, it's not even a song about Christmas, at least not as its author intended.

The song in question is none other than Isaac Watts' famous work, Joy to the World. And then they give a little background on Isaac Watts. They really call him the father of English hymns because he penned a massive collection of over 750 hymns.

Now there's a short biography about Watts in the book series of A Long Line of Godly Men. It's written by Douglas Bond, I believe. I've not read it myself. I actually just ordered it just a few minutes before recording this.

So I'm anxious to read that. I think it'll be really good. But you know, this article gives a short little biography about Watts and just his love for poetry and music. And it goes on and it says that Watts published a work in 1719 that was a translation or rewriting of the Psalms for congregational singing.

The hymn book was entitled The Psalms of David, Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and Applied to the Christian State and Worship. That's the long title. In other words, Watts read the Old Testament in light of the New Testament and wrote his psalm book to explicitly point to the person and work of Christ.

I love that. In that collection, you will find Watts rewriting of Psalm 98. It is familiarly entitled Joy to the World. So did you know, ladies, that Joy to the World is based on Psalm 98? Psalm 98. All right.

Well, let's read it. Turn over in your Bibles. I've had you all over the place, haven't I? Luke, Revelation, Psalms, Psalm 98. The psalmist writes, O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.

His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Break forth into joy a song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and with the sound of melody.

With trumpets and the sound of the horn, make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity. It's kind of cool, isn't it, when you know the background of some of your favorite songs, when you realize that Joy to the World was really a rewrite of Psalm 98, not in a Eugene Peterson, the Message Bible kind of rewrite, but in order that people could sing the Psalms.

I think that's pretty cool. I think it's really, really neat. And I looked up a couple of commentaries on Psalm 98 and Matthew Henry, in his concise and accessible way, on the second half of the Psalm, he writes, the kingdom of Christ will be a blessing to the whole creation.

We expect his second coming to begin his glorious reign. Then shall heaven and earth rejoice and the joy of the redeemed shall be full. But sin and its dreadful effects will not be utterly done away till the Lord comes to judge the world in righteousness.

Seeing then that we look for such things, let us give diligence that we may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless, which of course we know, we can only be seen as without spot and blameless before the Lord if we are covered in Christ's righteousness and not any righteousness of our own.

Charles Spurgeon and his treasury of David, of course, that's his commentary on all of the Psalms. It's an amazing resource. So I recommend it to you. I commend it to you. And just an FYI, you can access, I think probably all of it online in some way, shape or form.

So I'm actually looking at the archives of spurgeon .org. So I'm at archive .spurgeon .org looking at the treasury of David from Psalm 98. And Spurgeon in his Spurgeon way, of course goes through verse by verse discussing his exposition of each verse of the Psalm.

And in the interest of time, I won't read all of this here to you because you can read it for yourself. And I'll actually link this as well, as well as Matthew Henry's commentary at the Equipping Eve site.

But I liked what Spurgeon wrote about verse nine. So just as a reminder, verse nine, the last verse of the Psalm says, well, I'll go to verse eight. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity. And so on this, that the Lord will come to judge the earth, Spurgeon writes, stiller music such as made the stars twinkle with their soft, kind eyes suited his first coming at Bethlehem.

But his second advent calls for trumpets, for he is a judge. And for all earth's acclamations, for he has put on his royal splendor. The rule of Christ is the joy of nature. All things bless his throne, yea, and the very coming of it.

As the dawn sets the earth weeping for joy at the rising of the sun, till the dew drops stand in her eyes, so should the approach of Jesus universal reign make all creation glad. I love that. Can I just say that that is really good writing.

As the dawn sets the earth weeping for joy at the rising of the sun till the dew drops stand in her eyes, so should the approach of Jesus universal reign make all creation glad. With righteousness shall he judge the world and the people with equity.

This is the joy of it. No tyrant and no weakling is he to oppress the good or to indulge the vain. His law is good, his action right, his government the embodiment of justice. If ever there was a thing to rejoice in upon this poor, travailing earth, it is the coming of such a deliverer, the ascension to the universal throne of such a governor.

All hail Jesus, all hail. Our soul faints with delight at the sound of this approaching chariots and can only cry, come quickly. Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus. Keebles or Keebles version, I'm mispronouncing this I'm sure, of the last four verses is so truly beautiful that we cannot deny our readers the luxury of perusing it.

So this is Spurgeon quoting this other commentator who was rewriting the last four verses of Psalm 98 rain out with horn and trumpet rain and shouts before the Lord, the King. Let ocean with his fullness swing and restless unison.

Earth's round and all the dwellers there, the mighty floods the burden bear and clap the hand in choral air, join every mountain loam. Tell out before the Lord that he is come the judge of earth to be, to judge the world in equity, do right to realm and throne.

And indeed that's what we sing about when we sing joy to the world. And it is fitting that we sing it at Christmas. Joy to the world that Christ came the first time and joy to the world that he will return just as he promised.

As Spurgeon said, his second advent calls for trumpets for he is a judge. The rule of Christ is the joy of nature. I definitely could not have said it better. I don't think anybody can say many things better than Spurgeon said them.

Anyway, so amen and amen to that. So at Christmas, ladies, we look forward to Christmas and we celebrate that first coming of Christ, that baby in a manger who grew up and died. Willingly, let me remind you that he did his whole life and death.

That was all done willingly out of obedience to his father and out of love for those whom the father had given him. And then as Christians, when he has been good enough to save us, we live in constant anticipation of his return, don't we?

We should. And that should make us eager to proclaim the realities of the gospel to others because he is coming to judge again. And that's only a good thing if you belong to him. And so we are to be busy proclaiming his gospel of grace and salvation.

And it also ought to help us in times of difficulty, in times of struggle. You know, we talked about at the beginning of the show, leaving one year behind and moving on to the next because all this junk has happened.

Well, all that stuff that happens, that burdens us, that makes life difficult, it should fade in light of who Christ is and in light of his promises. And perhaps the greatest of those promises is his return and everything that stems from that.

Joy to the world, indeed. Right? Okay, ladies, I think that's all I have for today. So until next time, until next year, get in your Bibles, get on your knees, and get equipped. Merry Christmas.

Closing Benediction and Show Sign-Off

In the garden, in an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women, No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies-only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name is Mike Abendroth and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's word.