Archive for the Sermon Follow-Up Category
Jul 5
God, Praise, and the Nature of Christian Singing
In Sunday’s sermon, “A Both/And Kind of Praise: The Ingredients“, Ryan included a number of insightful and memorable quotes.
D.A. Carson on how to find excellent corporate worship, from Worship By the Book:
Although there are things that can be done to enhance corporate worship, there is a profound sense in which excellent worship cannot be attained merely by pursuing excellent worship. In the same way that, according to Jesus, you cannot find yourself until you lose yourself, so also you cannot find excellent corporate worship until you stop trying to find excellent corporate worship and pursue God himself. Despite the protestations, one sometimes wonders if we are beginning to worship worship rather than worship God. As a brother put it to me, it’s a bit like those who begin by admiring the sunset and soon begin to admire themselves admiring the sunset. This point is acknowledged in a praise chorus like “Let’s forget about ourselves, and magnify the Lord, and worship him.†The trouble is that after you have sung this repetitious chorus three of four times, you are no farther ahead. The way you forget about yourself is by focusing on God—not by singing about doing it, but by doing it.
Jonathan Edwards on the relationship of truth, affections, and expresion:
God glorifies Himself toward the creatures also in two ways: 1. By appearing to. . .their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself.
. . .God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart.
. . .I don’t think ministers are to be blamed for raising the affections of their hearers too high, if that which they are affected with be only that which is worthy of affection, and their affections are not raised beyond a proportion to their importance, or worthiness of affection. I should think [it is] my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with.
C.S. Lewis on the nature of praise, from Reflections on the Psalms:
When I first began to draw near to belief in God. . .I found a stumbling block in the demand so clamorously made by all religious people that we should ‘praise’ God; still more in the suggestion that God Himself demanded it. We all despise the man who demands continued assurance of his own virtue, intelligence or delightfulness.
. . .I did not see that it is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men. It is not of course the only way. But for many people at many times the ‘fair beauty of the Lord’ is revealed chiefly or only while they worship Him together. But the most obvious fact about praise. . .strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honour. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise. . .The world rings with praise — lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game — praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars.
. . .I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: ‘Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?’ The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about.
. . .I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with.
John Wesley on how we should sing together, from “Directions for Singing”, in Select Hymns, 1761:
Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a slight degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.
Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan.
Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy the harmony; but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.
Sing in time. Whatever time is sung be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it; but attend close to the leading voices, and move therewith as exactly as you can; and take care not to sing too slow. This drawling way naturally steals on all who are lazy; and it is high time to drive it out from us, and sing all our tunes just as quick as we did at first.
Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.
For an excellent sermon on the subject of singing in worship, listen to Ryan’s sermon, “Spirit-Filled Singing,” from Ephesians 5:14-20.
Jun 29
The Steadfast Love of the LORD Never Ceases
At Wednesday’s Lord’s Supper service, Ryan preached a sermon titled, “The Roots of God’s Love,” unfolding the riches of two Hebrew words found in Exodus 34:6. There, God gave Moses his long name, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
The pairing, translated, “steadfast love and faithfulness,” shows up all over the Bible. Below you’ll find a myriad of verses from the Psalms, the rest of the Old Testament, and the New Testament that pick up this pairing. For this reason, you might consider printing this post out and tucking it in your Bible for a few weeks.
But first, we should explore the meaning of “steadfast love” a little further. As Ryan said, in most cases English is adequate to convey of the meaning the original Old Testament Hebrew text. In this specific case, the word, hesed, translated, “steadfast love,” is more difficult. This is evident from the myriad of ways this word gets translated: lovingkindness, steadfast love, goodness, etc.
Ryan gathered a number of helpful lines from various writers to give us this definition of hesed:
Hesed is. . .God’s gracious character and exceptional commitment to his people, . . .an attitude of God which arises out of his relationship with his people. It means that he has bound Himself to his people. Hesed is outside the realm of duty, even though a promise to do hesed brings with it the idea of commitment. It is not merely an attitude or an emotion; it is an emotion that leads to an activity beneficial to the recipient. . .in the context of a deep and enduring commitment made by one who is able to render assistance to the other/needy party. That is to say, God’s hesed is the providential exercise of his power on behalf of the needy people with whom he has established a special relationship. It is a promise and assurance of future help and fellowship, that is characterized by permanence, constancy and reliability. It is primal, elemental, associated with God’s love, grace, and compassion. It is rooted in God himself. In short, it is simply who God is.*
The pairing of “steadfast love”  and “faithfulness” appears twenty-four times throughout the Psalms, clearly drawing from Exodus 34:6. Here they are:
Psalm 25:10  All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Psalm 26:3  For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.
Psalm 40:10-11  I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!
Psalm 57:3  He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
Psalm 57:10  For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
Psalm 61:7 Â May he be enthroned forever before God;Â appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!
Psalm 69:13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.
Psalm 85:10Â Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;Â righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Psalm 86:15  But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Psalm 88:11  Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Psalm 89:2  For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.â€
Psalm 89:14 Â Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;Â steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
Psalm 89:24  My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
Psalm 89:33  …but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness.
Psalm 92:2  …to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night…
Psalm 98:3  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.
Psalm 100:5  For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 103:8  The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Psalm 108:4 Â For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;Â your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Psalm 115:1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Psalm 117:2  For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!
Psalm 138:2 I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.
Psalm 145:8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Elsewhere in the Old Testament, “steadfast love” and “faithfulness” appear together from Genesis through the prophets:
Genesis 24:27  Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master.
Nehemiah 9:17  But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.
Isaiah 16:5  …then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness.
Hosea 2:19–20 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness.
Joel 2:13  For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
Jonah 4:2  You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Micah 7:18–20  Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
Then, in the New Testament, this pairing shows up in some surprisingly familiar places. The authors of the New Testament wrote in Koine Greek and carried over the meaning of these Hebrew words into words we translate, “grace” and “truth.”
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Hebrews 1:1–3, 2:17  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. . .He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. . .he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
The appearance of this pairing in John 1:14 is especially fascinating against the backdrop of the context of Exodus 34:6. God gave Moses his full name, “The LORD. . .abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” after Moses asked in 33:18, “Please show me your glory.” God would not do it, at least not for Moses, and not then.
But he has done it for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. For Christ is the radiance of God’s glory, and it is in the gracious salvation of sinners through Christ that God’s glory is most brightly seen and praised (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14).
For a rich meditation on the meaning of God’s hesed, consider reading Puritan, Edward Griffin’s, “The Tender Mercies of God.”
––––––
*Ryan compiled material from the following sources for an extended definition of hesed above.Â
- Gordon Clark, The word hesed in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993).
- Alphonso Groenewald, “Exodus, Psalms and Hebrews: A God Abounding in Steadfast Love (Ex 34:6)“ HTS 64 (2008) 1365-78.
- HJ Zobel, “hesed” in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, Vol. 5: 44-64.
Jun 26
The Praise of God, the Regulative Principle, and Self-Love
In Sunday’s sermon, “A Both/And Kind of Praise,” Ryan began a four-part mini-series on the subject of praise in the book of Psalms.
In his second point, Ryan said that praise is “Bible-formed and Bible-filled.” That is, as it concerns our corporate gatherings, the Bible directs the shape and the substance of our time together. Ryan referenced a theological term that has been used to express this principle since the time of the Reformation, called, “the regulative principle.” In short, the regulative principle says that in our corporate worship gatherings, we will only do what God has explicitly told us to do.
Here’s how the Westminster Confession of Faith puts it:
“The acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and is limited by his own revealed will, [thus,] he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, [with] any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture.â€
And so, when we gather at DSC, we do what Scripture commands. We read the Word together (1 Timothy 4:13), we hear the Word preached together (2 Timothy 4:2), we sing the Word together (Colossians 3:16), and we pray the Word together.
To the person off the street, this should sound quite boring. That’s understandable. We live in a culture characterized by narcissism. It’s the air we breathe. And that’s why we tether ourselves to Scripture, trusting God’s wisdom and the sufficiency of his Word to tell us what we need when we come together. And as we gather to do just these things each week, we find satisfaction in God and demonstrate to the world where the real wisdom and power and joy in life is – in God, his Gospel, and his Word.
But, of course, we don’t always get it right. In fact, sometimes God’s people get it quite wrong. In a recent broadcast of The White Horse Inn, “The Narcissism Epidemic,” Michael Horton explores how a self-love culture can and has infected our understanding of the nature of the Christian life and the church. Horton also includes a number of helpful links to articles and other related resources.
Jun 21
An Invitation and a Warning in Psalm 95
In Sunday’s sermon, “Oh Come! Today!,” Ryan unpacked Psalm 95, a psalm with both an invitation to praise God and a warning for failing to do so.
In verses 1-7a, God’s people are called to praise God with joyful singing (v1), but also by bowing down to him (v6). So, in this invitation we find that there are a diversity of proper responses to God. As Ryan said on Sunday, in this psalm, “there is rejoicing and reverence; gladness and gravity; it is full of wonder and weight; it should make us happy and humble; we should want to get loud and low.”
In verses 7b-11, we read a stern warning against unbelief from the example Israel in her unbelief and hardness of heart. He calls them to believe, “Today!” (7b). In Hebrews 3-4, the  author of Hebrews uses this warning to ground a similar exhortation to his readers. This warning, given to professing Christians, brings into focus the importance of continued believing for final salvation.
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,†that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.â€
–Hebrews 3:12-15
Did you notice the, “if,” in the second to last sentence of that quote? That’s a big “if.” We belong to Christ now, if we continue believing to the end.
This warning does not technically contract the popular saying, “once saved, always saved.” What it does say, however, is that a failure to continue believing will demonstrate that one has never truly believed in the first place. For that reason, what is often meant by, “once saved, always saved,” is somewhat misleading. There should be no comfort for the persistently unrepentant and unbelieving in any past profession or previous appearance of faith.
Several resources might be helpful to you in mining out the gems from this lofty text. In John Piper’s sermon, “Eternal Security is a Community Project,” he unpacks the implications of this warning for our assurance and for our life together as the church. And on that wonderful word, “Today!”, Charles Spurgeon delivered an entire sermon, available here. That God calls us to continue believing “today,” means that there is still time, for God is patient. And it also means that now is that time, for today is now, but tomorrow is not promised to us. For more messages from DSC on perseverance as a necessary fruit of true conversion, click here. For messages on assurance of salvation, click here.
Jun 11
The God-Centeredness of Sin
In yesterday’s sermon, “The Heart of the Gospel: What God Requires, God Provides,” we explored the wonder of God’s provision for us in the gospel. Through Christ, God provided for the payment of our sin and the righteousness that he requires for reconciliation with him.
Critical to grasping this as good news, is a proper understanding of the nature of our problem as sinners. For this, John Piper has a helpful definition of sin in his book, “Let the Nations be Glad!: The Supremacy of God in Missions.”
What is sin?
It is the glory of God not honored.
The holiness of God not reverenced.
The greatness of God not admired.
The power of God not praised.
The truth of God not sought.
The wisdom of God not esteemed.
The beauty of God not treasured.
The goodness of God not savored.
The faithfulness of God not trusted.
The commandments of God not obeyed.
The justice of God not respected.
The wrath of God not feared.
The grace of God not cherished.
The presence of God not prized.
The person of God not loved.That is sin.
