Selected Scriptures

August 25, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Jim Martin

The sermon starts at 15:40 in the audio file.

Or, Sinners in the Hand of a Good God

Selected Scriptures

August 18, 2019

Evening Service

Sean Higgins, Dave Light, Jim Martin, Jonathan Sarr

Zechariah 12:1-5

August 18, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Dave Light

The sermon starts at 15:10 in the audio file.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4

August 11, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Chris Martin

The sermon starts at 14:05 in the audio file.

Or, Clear Christianity in a World of Blur

Selected Scriptures

August 4, 2019

Evening Service

Dave Light

Psalm 20:1-9

August 4, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 15:50 in the audio file.

Or, The Liturgy of Preparation

Series: The Soundtrack of the Righteous

Psalm 19:1-14

July 28, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 16:05 in the audio file.

Or, The Exacting Nature of God’s Revelation

Series: The Soundtrack of the Righteous

A part of me has had more trouble preparing to pring (preach-sing) this psalm than any of the first eighteen. A number of you have told me that God uses the Psalms to give you encouragement, and a number of you have told me that you were really hoping that I would get to Psalm 19. Here were are.

Psalm 1 is unlike all the rest because it’s rare that someone can’t read the first chapter in a book. Psalm 51 might be the next well known because of David’s repentance, and Psalm 22 because Jesus quoted it from the cross. Psalm 23, of course, is the Lord as our shepherd, and Psalm 42 is as a deer pants for water. But Psalm 119, for its length, and Psalm 19, for its brief brilliance, are two songs about revelation that Bible people really take note of.

Psalm 19 celebrates God’s obvious, joyful, clear, and life-giving communication. We use the term “natural revelation” for the first part of the psalm and “special revelation” for the second part. While I like those names, as descriptions they may give a different impression than what David intended. I say that based on his written response in the final three verses, and even in light of his evaluation in verses 10-11. This is not an apologetics text, not first, and it is not a lesson on Bibliology or Torah, not primarily. It is a celebration that the LORD God is not hidden from us and a humble acknowledgment that we, down to our souls, cannot be hidden from him.

This is a song, hence To the Choirmaster, written by the Shepherd-Poet-King David, that is about the loud and sweet communication of God to men so that they can be blameless and acceptable in His sight. It is a psalm about the exacting, demanding nature of God’s revelation, a revelation that requires attentiveness, obedience, dependence, and joy.

There are three movements to the song. We’ll see God’s glorious handiwork in the heavens (verses 1-6), God’s perfect word to His people (verses 7-11), and God’s gracious sanctification in His servants (verses 12-14). We’ll see the skies-speaking and scorching, the Scriptures-which are sure and sweet, and the Spirit-who searches and sanctifies.

Glorious Words (verses 1-6)

More than a scientific observation, Psalm 19 opens with a supernatural big bang. An exclamation point would not be out of order.

The heavens declare the glory of God,

   and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

(verse 1)

The heavens and the sky above (or “expanse” NAS, “firmament” KJV) refer to the same thing, to the earth’s atmosphere and to the solar system beyond. They are loud and sustained, they declare and proclaim God’s mass of significance and His creative power. He “signs His work” (Donald Williams).

Day to day pours out speech,

   and night to night reveals knowledge.

(verse 2)

The communication that God gives rolls ever on; it does not quit, not that we need more than one day to get the point. As day fades to dusk gives way to dark and is overcome by light again in the morning, every hour of the day says something about Him. And it happens day to day, or day after day after week after century. Day taps Night on the should and says, “Your turn.” Sol and Luna rule for seasons and days and years (Genesis 1:14-19). Though the daylight gets emphasis starting in verse 4, there is an expanse visible through the dark.

The knowledge does not come audibly, not acoustically.

There is no speech, nor are there words,

   whose voice is not heard.

(verse 3)

This means that no matter what language a man speaks, he can hear and know the brilliance, and therefore by implication the existence, of God. There is immediate and ubiquitous translation. “Although a man could speak all languages, he[...]

Selected Scriptures

July 21, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Jonathan Sarr

The sermon starts at 14:50 in the audio file.

Psalm 18:20-50

July 14, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 17:55 in the audio file.

Or, Exalting in the God of Deliverance

Series: The Soundtrack of the Righteous

Life is hard, and then you sing about it. That’s not exactly how the saying goes, but it is the frequent minor theme of the Psalms. Many of these inspired poetic efforts teach God’s people which direction to moan in. Are you sick, slandered, attacked, or how about even guilty of sin? Select a song and go to God with it.

When I sit in the field as a shepherd and listen to the sheep, I hear a good number of Christians say that they get a good amount of comfort in tough times from the Psalms. Otherwise Bible-believing though not extremely concerned with the Old Testament Christians read the Psalms when life is hard. They appreciate David’s articulation of difficulty, his weeping, his cries for help, his emotive expressions of intention to trust the Lord. They are willing to say that they relate to David in many of these ways.

But I don’t remember ever hearing any Christian say that he relates to David when he wins. This isn’t to say that a claim to relate in some ways requires that a man relate in every way, of course not. Unlike David, we are not Jews, we are not kings, most of us have not been fugitives of our home state, nor have we killed a lion or bear with our bare hands, or committed adultery from palace rooftop ogling.

Yet we almost instinctively relate to his sad songs, and I believe we ought to learn how to hear, and match, the pitch of his glad songs, his triumph songs, as well. Psalm 18 is one of those victory psalms.

We are also watching for the ways in which this desire to win, and celebration of winning, are not that of a hypocrite. Look at the attitude of the man when he hasn’t won yet, consider the nature of the One to whom he looks for help, note what he expects to spend of himself in the process, and then see his response when the battle is finished.

Last Lord’s Day we considered the first two sections of the song. David expressed his affection for the Beloved Rock (verses 1-3), and for the Epic Rescuer (verses 4-19). Who knew that we’d get a little taste of the earth reeling and rocking, of the earth quaking (verse 7) so close to home?

This morning we have three more sections of the song, the Righteous Rewarder (verses 20-29), the Epic Sponsor (verses 30-45), and the Blessed Rock (verses 46-50). There’s a lot of song here to cover, but it’s a good song.

The Righteous Rewarder (verses 20-29)

David’s beliefs here cause the Sola Fide crowd some theological heartburn. What exactly is he claiming?

He begins in verse 20, and bookends it in verse 24, with a declaration of his righteousness, the second statement more bold than the first. Initially he claims that The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness and then finishes with the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness. The “dealing” and the “rewarding” are parallel; they are different ways of saying the same thing. The LORD rewarded him for keeping his hands clean, twice (verses 20, 24).

Who can claim to be righteous before God? “There is none who does good,” also written by David, twice in Psalm 14, verses 1 and 3. There is “not even one.” And this is true, but it is not the only thing that is true. It can also be true that men obey God, keep their hands clean, and do what He says.

So David says, I have kept the ways of the LORD, all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me. David didn’t do good on his own, he did good because he trusted God’s word to tell him what was good, and so he could say in this battle that he was blameless before God. (For the very nervous, note verse 32 when David says how he got to be blameless.) This is why David had confidence. He feared the LORD, and gave[...]

Psalm 18:1-19

July 7, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 16:25 in the audio file.

Or, Exalting in the God of Deliverance

Series: The Soundtrack of the Righteous

In Jonathan Edwards’ treatise, The Religious Affections, which is, in my estimation at least, his most important work, he introduces the “greatest advantage” the devil has in his battle against Christ.

It is by the mixture of counterfeit religion with true, not discerned and distinguished, that the devil has had his greatest advantage against the cause and kingdom of Christ all along hitherto. (17)

There have always been hypocrites, posers, and abusers of God’s grace among those who are truly humble and faithful recipients of God’s grace. This is not new, and it affects a number of areas, not just in identifying who belongs to the church, but also in considering how the church lives in the world.

One of those areas is the desire to succeed. I believe that many Christians have seen the desire for success/prosperity abused and so have come to conclude that any and every desire to win must necessarily be wrong, worldly, ungodly. But there is more to distinguish than simply between those who want to succeed and those who are resigned to suffer. That is too simple, too surface.

Many Christians have become afraid of prosperity. And, have men become preoccupied with the world to their eternal danger? Of course (Matthew 13:22). Has materialism even happened in the name of Jesus? Sadly, yes. But as usual, there is more than one way to disobey.

We have to look at more than what a person wants. We also have to consider:

What is their attitude when they haven’t won yet?

What is the nature of the Help they look to?

What are their expectations for personal expenditure in the process?

What is their response when it is over?

I say all of this because Psalm 18 is a song of triumph. In Psalm 17 David prayed for vindication; he was singing in the middle of his need. In Psalm 18, as we’ll see by the end, the vindication has come through great victory. In the song we see David’s attitude (he submitted to God), we see David’s understanding of the nature of his help in God (God is not a candy dispenser), we see David’s effort and sacrifices (he got his armor sweaty and his sword bloody by God’s strength), and we see David’s response (he gave all the credit to God). The inspired song is a worship song about winning, and we should learn how to sing it.

I mean, what if we…won? Or is winning not for us? Does God not give victory to His people anymore? Maybe He will vindicate us, but really, He’s going to vindicate His name, and we’re only going to participate in that after we’re dead, so basically we probably shouldn’t worship like David here in Psalm 18…?

We’ve transferred the fear. We shouldn’t fear prosperity, we should fear God. He is the source of victory, and He is the purveyor of vengeance. Remembering both of those parts protects us from errors on either extreme. So the question is not whether we should desire prosperity at all, it is whether we desire prosperity from a position of integrity or hypocrisy? It is appropriate to desire deliverance from distress, and it is appropriate to praise the Deliverer when He delivers.

This is the context of the Psalm, as the heading reveals. The heading is on the longer side of those in the Psalter.

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:

When a Psalm has a heading it was probably written by the arranger of the Psalter, and because this contains so many details, we can assume that the arranger knew his facts. These details were known because this song had its public release near the end of David’s life. It doesn’t mean [...]