2022 FIRE Midwest Regional Fellowship The Beauty of Christ (Session 1)

Well, we're ready to start. I hope you had a great time around the tables, it looked like you did.

It seems like every time we get together we do. That's what I love about our FIRE fellowship, it's just a great fellowship that we have.

So I want to welcome you as we start out tonight. I also want to point out that you would know it's the nursery, but that room, the nursery, it's the room right behind us here, is where a number of different ministries are set up.

You want to talk to those folks and their particular ministries. They're all going to be giving reports on their ministries here tomorrow, but there's resources there and I'd encourage you to go back and talk to the folks that are there.

Now, some of you have noticed that it's hard to get into LaRue if you're coming from the east, from Marion.

I don't know, have you noticed that? You haven't? Thank you,

Glenna. All these people are good, solid reform people, they don't want to show any emotion or answer any questions.

So you're saying it's not reform theology, it's technology.

Well, hey, if you're the old -fashioned type, there are directions right back there on the table.

All right? This is, this is, it'll work. It may be, yeah, it'll be around the detour.

Yeah, thanks, let me see. Oh, well maybe that is a detour. Pick it up or use your phone.

All right? Okay. I mean, if you have to, you can stay here tonight.

All right? No problem. All right, we want to start out with praising the

Lord and singing and one of our elders, Dan Jeffers, is going to come and lead us and let's sing together to the

Lord, shall we? Good evening.

Take your hymnals, if you will, and turn to 365. Holy Lord, you give us strength, help us go.

In this world, where 'er we go, ancient words will guide us home.

Ancient words ever true, teaching me and teaching you.

We have conquered all the darks. Oh, let the ancients rise.

Oh, we the faithful learn. Mark our cross, ancient faith.

May have died for this faith. Bear that cross, beating through death.

Ancient words changing me and changing you.

We have come with open hearts. Oh, let the ancient words impose.

Praise God. You may be seated. One of the ministries that are in the back there, or no, they've got a sheet in your folder, particular

Baptist Heritage books, have given us some books to give away.

So some of you are going to get a free book. All right? All right. So we want to know tonight who traveled the furthest.

All right. Wisconsin is here. Yeah. Wisconsin.

Anybody further than that? How far is Rogers City? Too far. Ron, I'm sure your pastor appreciates that.

All right. Anybody further than Wisconsin? With the detour.

That's right. That's right. All right. Brother Richard. Kansas City. Kansas City.

Oh, yeah. Steve. Steve. I'm sorry. That's all right. But he's really a local.

Yeah, that's right. He grew up just north of the river. And first time

I met Steve, he was a high school student, came wandering in here one Sunday. So there you go,

Steve. You look the same. All right.

All right. Well, our topic for tonight is the beauty of Christ in worship, and Pastor Dana Kidder is going to be bringing the word to us tonight.

Dana is a pastor of Redeemer Bible Church in Belfountain. Used to be

Logansville Community Church, but now they've moved to Belfountain. And I've known

Dana. I met Dana several years ago. Where are you, Dana? You're here somewhere, right?

There he is. When did we meet that first time? What year was that? 2007?

Maybe. Yeah. And so we kind of crossed paths. Then Dana came to Logansville Community Church, and he's been ministering there for a while.

Some of you remember at our last conference, Dana gave us the history of his church. They weren't part of FIRE back then, but now they're one of the

FIRE churches here. And so, Dana, how long have you been at? At the church?

Yeah. Ten and a half years. Ten and a half years. Okay. So the Lord saw fit to bring a church to life in that time, and Dana is a dear friend, and I appreciate the ministry he's going to have.

So, Dana, come and minister the word of God. Thanks, Tim.

Every time, even at church, when I say our new name,

I almost always say the wrong name. Our old name was

Logansville Community Church. We are now called Redemption Bible Church. Redeemer was already taken.

But I almost always say Reformation Bible Church, and then my elders look at me. What is it again?

Well, ultimately, we're going to make our way this evening to Psalm 96.

We're going to take a little bit of time to get there because, if I'm honest with you, it took me quite a while to wrap my mind around what we mean by the beauty of Christ in worship.

So I'll do my best to keep you with me tonight, but I need you to work hard at following me as well.

So that's my disclaimer at the beginning here. If you get confused, I told you to keep up.

The beauty of Christ in worship. I'm going to be honest again.

I don't think that way. I don't think of the beauty of Christ. When I think, if you were to ask me about Jesus, his beauty is not something that would come to mind.

It's not a word I would use to describe our Savior, but I think this says more about me than it does him.

See, when I think of beauty, I often just think in worldly terms, usually.

I think of something that looks beautiful. Maybe, if I'm pressed,

I might say, well, personality, too. I think of it mostly as a feminine trait.

Unless you're talking about a beautiful landscape or sunset. A beautiful wood grain in a piece of furniture.

Men are not beautiful, they're handsome, I would say. And besides, as the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?

And of course, you remember the prophecy of Isaiah, the prophecy of the Messiah. As Isaiah says in chapter 53,

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

But of course, and you've already picked up on this, I'm speaking purely as a man.

A man -centered point of view. And that's what the prophecy of Isaiah is talking about.

It's talking about the incarnate Christ. God, in the flesh, laid aside his glory, his majesty, and his beauty to take on the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of men.

And as a man, Jesus took on the commonness and the limitations of our humanity.

There was nothing, humanly speaking, extraordinary about him. In fact, in Scripture, Scripture tells us that at his crucifixion, sinful men so disfigured him, his physical appearance, that he wasn't even recognizable.

His appearance while he was on the cross was grotesque. And yet it is here that we glimpse his beauty.

In the late 1600s, an English Seventh -day Baptist named

Joseph Stennett, he first published a collection of hymns for the church with a typically puritanical title,

Hymns in Commemoration of the Sufferings of our Blessed Savior, Jesus Christ, composed for the celebration of his

Holy Supper. Hymns to be sung at communion. One such hymn was entitled,

Thy Loveliness I View. And the first verse goes like this,

O Prince of Peace, bless thou this board with those sweet smiles which angels cheer.

O give us peace and tell us, Lord, we're pardoned and accepted here. Commenting on that hymn, the theologian

Michael Hagen, he says this, he says, this experience of God's loving forgiveness at the table because of Christ's atoning death should also overwhelm the believer with wonder and lead to ardent rededication to Christ.

This communion hymn continues. Listen, for the beauty of Christ at the table.

Thou art all love, my dearest Lord, and thou art all lovely too.

Thy love I at thy table taste, thy loveliness I view.

Thy divine beauty veiled with flesh, thy enemies despise. Thy mangled body they did disdain and turn from thee their eyes.

But thou more lovely art to me for all that thou hast borne. Each cloud sets off thy luster more, thee all thy scars adorn.

Thy garments tinctured with thy blood, the best and noblest dye outshines the robes that princes wear, thy thorns their gems outvie.

That I may be all love to thee and all lovely like thee too. O cleanse me with thy precious blood and me thy beauty show.

My former vows I now renew. O Lord, as thou art mine, I freely give my heart to thee.

Forever I'll be thine. When we come to the table to proclaim the

Lord's death, when we come to proclaim the atonement for sins, we come to proclaim that Christ died for our sins.

We come to taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

We come to behold the beauty of Christ in worship. But it's not just limited to the table.

In fact, all of our worship is a beholding of the beauty, the loveliness, the splendor of Jesus Christ.

Listen to what David writes in the 27th Psalm about coming into the house of the Lord. Psalm 27 says this,

The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life.

Of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.

Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

One thing I have asked of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the

Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the

Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble.

He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me. And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy.

I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry.

Be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, Seek my face. My heart says to you,

Your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger.

O you who have been my help, cast me not off, forsake me not. O God of my salvation, for my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the

Lord will take me in. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.

Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me and they breathe out violence.

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage.

Wait for the Lord. The 27th Psalm basically contains all of the elements that we have when we call our people together to worship as the assembly of the saints, as the church of Jesus Christ.

It contains praise and prayer, confession and assurance of pardon, offerings and reminders of the promises of God.

And when we call our people to worship each Lord's Day, as they come into the house of the

Lord, as they come to worship our God, to inquire in his temple, to gaze upon the beauty of the

Lord, we are pointing them at Christ. And I know that our prayer for all of us in here,

I'm assuming all of our prayer is that we would dwell in the house of the

Lord all of the days of our lives. I don't know about for each individual church represented here today, but often as we call our church to worship on the

Lord's Day, we go straight to the Psalms. Now, of course, there are other passages that direct our eyes and our hearts heavenward.

I sometimes like to find those verses in the New Testament especially that do this.

But the Psalms, as God's hymnal, are filled with calls to worship.

And so more often than not at our church, Redemption Bible Church, at our church, we'll begin our services with a reading that sounds something like this.

In fact, this is how we started yesterday. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song.

Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord. Bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day to day.

That's from Psalm 96. A little bit deeper into this particular Psalm.

It is said of the Lord who made the heavens, splendor and majesty are before him.

Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Do you remember what David said in the 27th

Psalm? One thing I have asked for that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the

Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

So what I thought we would do for the rest of our time together tonight is to take a deeper look at the call to worship the

Lord by gazing upon his beauty in the sanctuary from Psalm 96. Because this

Psalm highlights for us the call to worship, our motives for worshiping, and compels us to proclaim his beauty, that it is not fleeting or in vain.

So let's read Psalm 96, and then we're going to flip back to 1 Chronicles chapters 15 and 16 just for a little bit of background.

But we're going to start in Psalm 96. Oh, sing to the

Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.

For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the

Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Ascribe to the Lord, oh families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come into his courts.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble before him all the earth. Say among the nations, the

Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.

Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it.

Let the field exalt and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the

Lord, for he comes. For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Let's just stop and pray. Lord, as we consider the beauty of our savior,

I pray that you would impress on our hearts the glory of God. Help us to see and understand,

Lord, that you would give us ears to hear, eyes to see from your word exactly who this savior is that we worship.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Now, as I mentioned, 1

Chronicles chapters 15 and 16 give us a little bit of the background of this psalm and tell us of what could be considered the crowning moment of King David's career when he brought the

Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem. This was an important moment for David and the people of Israel because the

Ark stood as a representative really of God's own throne or more specifically as his footstool.

And if you remember, the Ark of the Covenant contained the tablets of the law as well as Samanah and Aaron's staff.

The Israelites carried the Ark everywhere they went, even into battle. It was of utmost importance to the people because God had said, as he was telling them exactly how to build it, he said in Exodus 25, verse 22,

There I will meet with you. And from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the

Ark of the Testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

The Ark of the Covenant was where God would meet with his people, where he would speak to them. And so it should come as no surprise that when

King David finally brought the Ark to Jerusalem after he had taken the city from the

Jebusites and established it essentially as the capital, it should come as no surprise that there was much rejoicing.

1 Chronicles, really at the end of chapter 15, describes it like this. Just flip over there for a second.

1 Chronicles chapter 15. Right at the very end, near the very end, verse 25.

So David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of thousands went to bring up the

Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed -Edom with rejoicing because God helped the

Levites who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. They sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.

David was clothed with a robe of fine linen and also were all of the Levites who were carrying the

Ark and the singers in Chaniah, the leader of the music of the singers. And David wore a linen ephod.

So all Israel brought up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord with shouting to the sound of the horn, trumpets and cymbals and made loud music on harps and lyres.

And then just a few verses later in chapter 16, verse 1, it says, And they brought in the

Ark of God and set it inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God.

When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the

Lord and distributed to all Israel, both men and women, to each a loaf of bread, a portion of meat and a cake of raisins.

And then he appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the Ark of the Lord to invoke, to thank and to praise the

Lord, the God of Israel. Asaph was the chief and second to him were Zechariah, Jael, Shemariah, Moth, Jehiel, Mattathiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Oded, Edom and Jael, who were to play harps and lyres.

Asaph was to sound the cymbals. And Benaiah and Jehaziel, the priests were to blow trumpets regularly before the

Ark of the Covenant of God. Then on that day, David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the

Lord by Asaph and his brothers. And what follows there, if you just kind of let your eyes run down through much of the rest of chapter 16, is a psalm essentially of praise and worship.

And what we have there in 1 Chronicles 16 is actually longer than Psalm 96, but it contains almost all of it.

Almost all of Psalm 96 can be found there in 1 Chronicles 16.

And so let's assume, just for the sake of argument tonight, because I think it's likely that Psalm 96 was written by King David when the most explicit and specific symbol of God's presence and the exact place from which

God speaks to His people was brought to Mount Zion. But hold up a minute.

Is the Ark of the Covenant really the best symbol of God's presence and the place from which

God speaks to His people? Is it the best way to view His beauty?

By looking at a gold -laden box with some cherubim on top that apparently is in a warehouse somewhere in the army's possession?

Hebrews 1, verses 1 to 3 tells us that there is someone better.

Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also

He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.

After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

So I would submit to you that Psalm 96 is a messianic psalm.

It points us at Christ. Martin Luther said of Psalm 96, he said, this is a prophecy concerning the kingdom of Christ and the spreading of the gospel over the whole world before every creature, which gospel will be a word of joy and thanksgiving, of peace, of rejoicing, and of continued sacrifice of praise.

So we could say this with Matthew Henry, another old, dead guy. Though this was sung at the translation of the

Ark, it looks further to the kingdom of Christ and is designed to celebrate the glories of that kingdom, especially the ascension of the

Gentiles to it. So how can this be? How can the Ark of the Covenant's arrival in Jerusalem be connected with Christ?

Well, according to the Old Testament, once the law was placed inside the box, the lid, which is called the mercy seat, closed the box.

So to put it simply and to skip a whole bunch of the

Old Testament, God knew that Israel would break his law, but also that he would be merciful and cover their lawbreaking to guard those who loved him from his wrath.

Ultimately, of course, this was achieved through the death of a substitute and the sprinkling of blood on the mercy seat on the

Day of Atonement. So we can say that the blood of the sacrifices stood between God and the broken law of God.

And now fast forward and bring your minds back to the table where we started. Because of Christ's shed blood, we can now meet with the

Lord in worship, just as the high priest used to meet with God before the ark.

And you know that there's a lot more there that I've skipped over, but we're still trying to get to Psalm 96 tonight.

Because of Christ's final atonement for sin in his own shed blood, when we are called to worship in his presence, we do so with awe and with wonder.

Because when the saints assemble, we are entering into our King's heavenly throne room.

And so we, as God's under -shepherds, as Christ's under -shepherds, we summon

God's people to praise the Lord in light of his present and his future reign because of who he is.

And we join with the heavenly choir proclaiming, worthy is the Lamb that was slain.

And our prayers for the people of God under our care is that we may dwell in the house of the

Lord all the days of our lives to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

Because splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

And this begins with the call to worship, to sing and declare. Okay, Psalm 96.

Call to worship. Just look at the first two verses again. Oh, sing to the

Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name.

Tell of his salvation from day to day. One of the joys of the church is that in this room we represent a variety of liturgies, a variety of orders of service.

Yeah, we all believe, for the most part, I would assume, we all believe the same things about preaching and prayer, about the public reading of Scripture, and even the sacraments, ordinances.

Yet in our agreement on these things it's likely that our liturgies are all slightly different.

But I'm guessing that we all call our people to sing. Do we not? Sing to the

Lord, all of you, young and old, in tune and off key, you with dirt under your fingernails and the mom who looks to be like 11 months pregnant.

Sing. Sing a new song. This idea of a new song, we see this in both the

Old and the New Testaments. It isn't an argument for fresh tunes, necessarily, because the emphasis is on the one whose mercies are new every morning.

Sing of God's fresh advances in redemption. Think of it as Moses led

God's people through the Red Sea, saving them. The first thing they did is found in Exodus chapter 15, verses 1 to 3.

Listen to this. And Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying,

I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider, he has thrown into the sea.

The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. This is my

God, and I will praise him. My Father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war.

The Lord is his name. Our songs, when we gather together, they can be called new because they've been adapted to a new purpose.

From having been intended to celebrate the new mercy of the ark, finally coming up to Jerusalem to lead us to Christ coming and establishing his kingdom.

Think of that first Palm Sunday when the people proclaimed, as Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the

Lord, even the King of Israel. This means something deeper and richer to us even than it did to those saying those words then, doesn't it?

Sing all the earth. Sing everyone. Tell of his salvation. I love in the

New Testament how in Paul's letters, specifically in Ephesians and Colossians, he ties the work of the

Holy Spirit and the work of God's Holy Word together on this point. I'm going to mash these together.

He says this, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the

Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the

Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There in both Ephesians and in Colossians, he's talking about our corporate worship.

Sing. Sing truth with thankfulness toward God in the name of your Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Worship with melody. Praise him for his person and work for who he is and what he has done.

And then furthermore, we are called to worship our King with sermons.

Look at verse 3. Psalm 96, 3. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.

William Plummer, he calls this psalm a missionary hymn for all ages of the church.

Pastors, we are called to declare, to proclaim, to herald

God's glory. We are called to follow in the footsteps of those who went before us, even in the face of persecution and opposition.

Acts chapter 8, verses 1 to 4 says this, and actually it begins with, and Saul approved of his execution.

And then the next paragraph says, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem.

And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Devout men buried

Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. His salvation is his glory.

The gospel glorifies Jesus Christ and we are commanded, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word.

Why? Because faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

I'll jump ahead a little bit here in Psalm 96. We'll come back to the others in a minute.

Sometimes when we consider these things declaring his glory among the nations so when we consider missions and evangelism we forget that we're actually called to do these things in the assembly.

Look at verses 7 to 9. He says, Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the

Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory, do his name. Bring an offering, come into his courts.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble before him all the earth.

Back at the beginning of this psalm in the first couple of verses the worshipers are called to sing, sing, sing three times.

Now here we are called to ascribe, ascribe, ascribe which just doesn't have the same ring to it but it's just as important.

It means give credit where credit is due. David is calling us here to glorify the

Lord. Gather your family, bring an offering come into his courts and worship the

Lord. Glorify his holy name. We're going to come back to this in just a minute but the call to worship is a call to come together.

It's the assembly of the saints which is a beautiful thing. Rich Mullins wrote in his song

Here in America he says, and if I were a painter I do not know which I'd paint the calling of the ancient stars or assembling of the saints.

There's just so much beauty around us for just two eyes to see but everywhere I go I'm looking.

It's a call to give him his due and to do so in the splendor or the beauty of holiness.

For us this is nothing but a reflection of his beauty and if that wasn't enough this brings us to our motives for worship.

Our motives for worship. Now implied in the call to worship or maybe it's more than implied is the reason for worship.

His salvation, his glory, his marvelous works. We could preach, and probably some of the pastors in here have done this.

We could preach whole sermon series just on each of those things, right? But let's look closer at the motives that the psalmist gives us here in verses 4, 5, and 6.

Beginning with the fact that he is the God of gods. Look at just 4 and 5 to begin with.

Verse 4, for great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods for all the gods of the people are worthless idols but the

Lord made the heavens. The gods of this age are completely powerless yet we continue to submit to them.

But Yahweh, he is truly great. He is the creator of all things.

He called the ancient stars and assembled the saints. Spurgeon said he's not some petty deity presiding as the heathen imagined their gods to do over some one nation or one department of nature.

He's far greater than that. He is greatly to be praised. We cannot praise him too much.

We cannot praise him too often. We cannot praise him too zealously, too carefully, too joyfully.

And he is to be feared above all gods. Not in a superstitious way, the way the pagans live in fear of failing to appease their gods who might punish them at any moment by sending some sickness or some disaster.

No, for Yahweh's people, for the Lord's people, for Christ's people, the fear of the

Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Again, Spurgeon said holy fear is the beginning of the graces of God.

Fear of God is the blush upon the face of holiness, enhancing its beauty.

There's that word beauty again. The beauty of holiness, the splendor of holiness, our holiness, the holy lives that we live is really but a dim reflection of his beauty.

We worship, we come together with hearts sprinkled clean, we come in the splendor of holiness because of Christ's strength and beauty.

So when we consider the beauty of Christ in worship, I'm convinced that a big part of that is his holiness, his purity.

So overwhelming is the splendor and majesty of God on his throne that Isaiah chapter 6 tells us that angels cover their faces.

Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary, both above and below, in his very presence.

Isaiah, again, he was so distraught at his holiness as he saw and he heard, holy, holy, holy is the

Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke and I said, woe is me for I am lost.

For I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king, the

Lord of hosts. For us, when we call his people to worship, we're calling them into his courts.

We're calling them into his sanctuary to behold his beauty, his holiness, his majesty, his love, his salvation.

The whole earth is filled with his glory. We're calling them to experience his strength.

He is our rock. He is our strong tower. He is to be feared above all gods for he is creator.

He made the heavens come before him with trembling. And furthermore, his beauty is not fleeting.

His beauty is not in vain. Our God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

And so we are compelled to proclaim. We are compelled to let it be told. Let it be told.

Verse 10. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established.

It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad.

Let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exalt and everything in it.

Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord. For he comes.

For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Let it be told. Let it be told that Jesus is king. Jesus is king.

The world is established by the word of his power. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God.

And so what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. Put it this way.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not and will not ever overcome it.

Despite the evil that we see all around us every day. Despite the fact that that we can easily describe we can easily describe what we see all around us as being as Paul does in Romans.

Filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetous, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Despite that, despite that description of our world today we are called to point out the beauty of Christ to his people.

To call those under our care to keep your eyes fixed firmly on our sovereign righteous judge who has assured us come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

So many of our burdens are so heavy and they don't they don't just disappear when we come to Christ.

When we call our people to worship we are calling the woman who weeps for her daughter who continues to choose evil, abusive boyfriends.

When we call our people to worship we're calling a

Christian husband and father who just can't kick his pornography habit and is ashamed to ask for help.

When we call our people to worship we're calling sinners who have failed throughout the week to love the

Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, mind and strength and failed to love our neighbors as ourselves.

And we need these reminders that he will judge in righteousness and faithfulness and also that for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin to be sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

When we call our people to worship we are calling on them to gaze upon the beauty of the

Lord and to inquire in his temple and to hear his pardon. The Lord the

Lord is merciful and gracious he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

He will not always chide nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins nor repay us according to our iniquities for as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And so when we come into his temple when we come together we call our people to sing splendor and majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his sanctuary and we call our people to look to Jesus.

Pray with me. Father keep our eyes on Jesus give us strength

Lord that we may remain steadfast. Lord it's my prayer this week that as we come together that we would rest not just for a couple of days away a couple of days with friends but that we would rest in the finished work of Christ because we know that as we call our people to worship we also have failed we have failed to love the

Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength we also have failed to love our neighbor as ourself even if just in our hearts and minds but thanks be to God that Christ has kept that for us that his righteousness is granted to us thanks be to God that Jesus Christ sits on the throne that strength and beauty the beauty of holiness the splendor of majesty are in his sanctuary.

Father I pray that you would transform us to be like Christ our eyes fixed upon him and we pray these things in Jesus name

Amen. Thank you

Dana. Off to a good start tonight. Part of our fire fellowship of course is the preaching that we hear and just the delight it is to hear men of God bring the word of God to us and of course there's the fellowship part and so for as much time as you want we're going to meet in the back there's desserts waiting for you and have some time together so let's stand shall we and let me pray and then you can just go through and start eating.

Father we're thankful for our brother tonight who has extolled for us the beauty of Jesus and the necessity of worshiping him and the delight of worshiping him.

God tonight I pray that we would think on these things as these words were read to us as Dana preached the word to us we were struck by these many descriptions of the beauty of Jesus and we must confess that we do not look enough at them so I pray that you would help us to think about these things and to contemplate them and to challenge ourselves to look to Jesus more.

Father help us to see his beauty in our fellowship that he is with us as we encourage one another that the grace of God is ministered to each other through familiar faces and voices.

I pray that even tonight and as we proceed through the next few days that you administer your grace to us as we fellowship together.