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Nehemiah 2:1-20 - Don't Hesitate - Initiate, Investigate & Invigorate

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 8am worship service, 2006-10-08

Text: Nehemiah 2:1-20

Our messages for this quarter are based on the theme, 'Rise Up and Build.' This theme comes from the book of Nehemiah (2:20), which describes how God led the people of Israel in the task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. This event happened at a time when the captivity of the Jews had already come to an end. They were allowed to return to Israel to rebuild their nation. Many Jews had returned and they began to resettle in the villages in Israel. However, because of constant opposition from their enemies who lived around them, the progress of rebuilding the city of Jerusalem was greatly hindered, and the outer walls of the city were still in ruins. 

But in the year 445 BC, ninety-four years after the Jews were allowed to return, God raised up a man by the name of Nehemiah to do this work. Nehemiah was a high-ranking Jewish official who lived in the Royal Persian court. In last week's message, Elder Chin spoke from Nehemiah Chapter 1 which tells us that Nehemiah was saddened by the news he heard that the walls of Jerusalem were still in ruins. The Lord put a burden in his heart to pray for this need.

Now, in chapter 2 we see that after about 4 months, his prayers were finally answered when the Persian King gave him permission to go to Jerusalem. Nehemiah then came to Jerusalem, and after making a thorough survey of the walls at night, he gathered all the leaders of the Jews together to share with them his burden for building the walls. What he said to them challenged them so effectively that without any hesitation at all they all said with one voice, 'Let us rise up and build.' (2:18).

Dearly beloved, this is the kind of spirit we ought to have in the Lord's work today - We must have a strong resolve to commit ourselves to the work without hesitation or unnecessary delay. Today, the work is not just that of building facilities for God's use as in the Beulah project. Our work also involves building up the lives of people spiritually through evangelism, discipleship and missions. People who are saved from sin by trusting in Jesus Christ need to be moulded and shaped through the process of spiritual growth to take their place as 'lively stones' in God's building. There is really so much that needs to be done in God's kingdom, and all tht we have done thus far has only scratched the surface. 

And there should be no hesitation or delay in this work, because precious souls are perishing out there even as we sit here listening to this sermon. God wants us, His people today, to rise up and build His kingdom. In the same way that the Lord stirred up the hearts of the Jews through Nehemiah to work together to build the walls of Jerusalem, may God speak to us all through His Word to put our hands and hearts to His work promptly and diligently.

This morning as we study Nehemiah chapter 2, we want to learn 3 steps we ought to take to do the Lord's work well. The first step is to Initiate Prayerfully. The second step is to Investigate Carefully. And the third step is to Invigorate Hopefully.

I. Initiate Prayerfully (vv.1-8)

Nehemiah 2:1 'And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king.' Cf. 1:1 - Nehemiah 1:1 'And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year'. Nisan and Chisleu are 4 months apart. Now, you may ask: If Nehemiah had been so deeply moved to weep and pray about the broken state of Jerusalem, why then did he take 4 months to petition the King about it? The passage of Scripture does not provide any reason for the delay. Perhaps the King was away from the palace throughout all that time. Perhaps Nehemiah was not the only cupbearer in the Persian court, and he had to wait for his turn to serve wine to the King. Or perhaps Nehemiah was just waiting for the right moment to take action. This is not hesitation on his part, but wisdom. He certainly would not want to make his approach when Artaxerxes was not in the right frame of mind or spirit, for that would jeopardize his request.

The golden opportunity finally came unexpectedly when Nehemiah was serving the king. The king noticed that Nehemiah was not his usual self, and so he questioned him about this: 'Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.' According to verse 2 Nehemiah was 'very sore afraid' when he heard this. Why? According to ancient Persian records, regardless of one's personal problems, everyone in the royal court was expected to display a cheerful countenance in the King's presence. The slightest show of sadness before the King could arouse suspicions that one is unhappy with him and may now become a threat to him! Because of this Nehemiah had to do his best to conceal his sadness from Artaxerxes, the King. And he had managed to do this until this time. 

But by now after 4 months of praying, Nehemiah's burden for Jerusalem had become so great and intense that his sadness simply betrayed itself to the King. And when he was questioned by the king about his sadness, Nehemiah became extremely fearful that the King would imagine the worst about it. So he had no choice but to reveal the burden his heart fully to him. He said, 'Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?' (v.3)

Now what response do you think Nehemiah expected to receive from the King? Would he be indifferent, and advise him to refrain from being so downcast about the broken state of Jerusalem? Would the King just tell Nehemiah not to worry about the lost glories of the past, and to set his mind instead on all the superior comforts he was enjoying in the luxurious Persian court? Or would the King interpret Nehemiah's words as an indirect accusation against him, because according to Ezra 4:21 King Artaxerxes was the one who had earlier decreed the cessation of all building work on Jerusalem, because it had become notorious for rebellion against foreign kings?

Imagine how Nehemiah must have felt when the King responded in the most magnanimous way by asking him the question, 'For what dost thou make request?' In other words, 'What would you like me to do for you?' The king's heart was unusually favourable and tender toward Nehemiah. Without any hesitation he granted Nehemiah's request to be sent to Jerusalem and to rebuild it. And not only that, Artaxerxes also freely granted Nehemiah other things that he asked for letters to guarantee his safe passage to Jerusalem, and a good supply of timber for the walls and other structures in Jerusalem. There seemed to be no limit to the King's boundless generosity to him! What caused him to treat Nehemiah so favourably? After all, what Nehemiah desired here was basically a personal favour. It had nothing to do with the welfare of the Persian Empire, and the king was not obliged to grant his request.

Some would suggest that Nehemiah's strategic mention of 'his father's sepulchres' in v.3 may have been calculated to draw sympathy from the Persian King and pull at his heart strings. Others may say that the queen's presence which is mentioned in v.6 had something to do with it. Perhaps king Artaxerxes wanted to show his Queen how benevolent he can be. While all these may have helped, I would suggest that the main cause of the King's favourable response is found in something that Nehemiah did before the king - He prayed first before giving an answer (v.4). 

It was probably a very short silent prayer that Nehemiah made in his heart, in which he may have asked God to give him the wisdom and courage to say the right thing, and to give him favour in the sight of the King (cf. 1:11). But this prayer made all the difference! The Lord answered it immediately by moving the king's heart. As Proverbs 21:1 says 'The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.' Therefore God turned the heart of King Artaxerxes to grant the request in answer to Nehemiah's prayer.

This teaches us a very basic lesson: To do anything well, we must always seek God's help through prayer. Dearly beloved, how much do you depend on God to help you in your daily life? Do you always begin each day with prayer? Those of you who are working adults: Do you turn to God in prayer when you face a problem at your workplace? Those of you who are students: Do you pray in the exam hall before you begin to write your first word on the answer sheet? Those who drive on the road: How often do you pray for journeying mercies before turning the engine on? Let us learn to be like Nehemiah - always ready to utter a sincere prayer from the heart at any time, in any place, and in the midst of any activity, besides the regular times of prayer that you have set aside for the Lord.

Now, prayer is especially needful when we are doing any work for the Lord. This applies to every ministry of the church: Evangelism and missions, discipleship, spiritual growth, preaching and teaching ministries, and also in building projects like the Beulah project. Each of these works has its own unique set of needs and difficulties. But many have testified that things begin to change when they set their hearts to pray. They see God working in marvelous ways that they had never imagined. And so whenever you are involved in some new work for the Lord, please ensure that you initiate it prayerfully. Seek the Lord's help before doing anything else. That was what Nehemiah did, and the results were really encouraging, as he testifies in v.8 'And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.' 

After this Nehemiah immediately made all the preparations for the long 2-month journey to Jerusalem. And even as he traveled, he may have marveled at the perfect timing for his journey. You see, the month Chisleu when he first started to pray was around November. If his prayer had been answered then, Nehemiah would still have to wait until winter was over before he could travel to Jerusalem, as it would have been unsafe to travel during the cold winter season. 

But it turned out that the answer to his prayer came only 4 months later, in the month of Nisan, when the spring-time weather would be the most ideal for such a long and arduous journey. God's timing is always perfect! Returning to our text we now proceed to the second step we ought to take to do the Lord's work well:

II. Investigate Carefully (vv. 9-16)

When Nehemiah reached the end of that long journey, the news of his arrival soon spread throughout the land. The letters from the king which he presented identified him as a Persian official who was sent for the welfare of the Jews (v.10). This naturally aroused ill feelings among some enemies of the Jews. Two of them are named in v.10 'Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite.' Three days after he arrived, Nehemiah carried out a survey of the walls. He did this survey secretly by night when everyone was asleep, in order to avoid anyone's observation. 

In fact, according to v.12, he took only a few trusted men with him, and only one horse or mule to ride on, probably to minimize the noise. And as Nehemiah went around the city, he now saw for himself the terrible state of ruin that the walls of Jerusalem were in. He found that every part of it was broken down, and every gate had been burnt. It would not be an easy task to restore it to what it was before, because of the huge scale of the work, as well as the great extent of damage. This was certainly not something that he would be able to accomplish all by himself without the help of all the Jews who lived around Jerusalem.

The lesson that we can learn here from Nehemiah's example is to exercise great care and due diligence in doing the Lord's work. While we want the work to proceed quickly and not have any delays, we must not do things rashly. Knowing that there were people who might want to hinder the work he came to do, Nehemiah took the necessary precaution of telling no one about his intentions. He also did the survey thoroughly and personally so that he would be able to make all his plans with first hand rather than second hand information. Doing all this of course made things more difficult for himself. Imagine how tiring it must have been for Nehemiah to stay up all night to study the broken walls under the dim moonlight. But the results show that it was worth all the effort he had put in. The same thing applies to us in doing any work we do for the Lord today. In our zeal and excitement to advance God's Kingdom, we must not be rash or careless, for that is likely to bring failure. 

Careful investigation must first be done to understand what it will cost us in terms of time and resources. Our Lord Jesus Himself taught this principle in Luke 14:28-30. He said, 'For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.'

In the context of Luke 14, Christ was speaking about discipleship. When you made the commitment to follow Christ, did you count the cost? Did you take time to consider carefully what inconveniences and sacrifices you might have to bear as a follower of Christ? Besides discipleship, there is another area in which one must count the cost carefully before embarking on it, and that is marriage. Many couples rush into marriage blindly after a short courtship, without giving much thought to what they are committing themselves to. The result, as you probably know, is failed marriages which bring much sorrow and pain. If you are now contemplating marriage, please take time to think and pray carefully before you commit yourself to it. Marriage is a very serious matter in God's sight and it must never be taken lightly.

It always pays to count the cost and investigate carefully before we do anything. Nehemiah did that before he shared his plans with the leaders of the community, and the results were very encouraging. This brings us now to the final part of the chapter where we see the third step we ought to take in order to do the Lord's work well:

III. Invigorate Hopefully (vv.17-20)

When Nehemiah completed his careful investigation, he must have known that it was not going to be easy to motivate the leadership of the Jewish people to rebuild the walls of the city. This was not the first time that anyone had tried to do this. Several attempts had already been made since the time that the Jews returned from Captivity, but all of them had failed. They would need motivations that are strong enough to believe that they will succeed this time.

So Nehemiah gathered together all the local Jewish leaders and then challenged them in 2:17 & 18 'Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come and let us build the walls of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of God which was good upon me, as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me.' 

We see here that Nehemiah did not only have the desire to see God's work done, but he was able to effectively convince others to share this desire by laying out the whole case before them. Let us see how Nehemiah did this. Firstly he highlighted the urgency of the need 'see the distress that we are in' No one could dispute this point, since their city was obviously in a depressing state. As long as the city walls were in ruins, there was no security or safety against attacks. For this reason, many people did not want to live in the city. Secondly, he appealed to their desire to regain the honour they had lost among the Gentile nations 'that we be no more a reproach.' 

Thirdly, Nehemiah informed them of the favourable turn of events 'the hand of God which was good upon me.' He probably related how the king had noticed his sadness and how this had prompted the question that gave him the opportunity to make his request. The king's heart was then moved by God to grant what he asked. This shows that God had clearly given the 'green light' for this initiative, and He would therefore see them through the whole project. Fourthly, Nehemiah encouraged them with the pledge that the Persian king had made to him 'the king's words that he had spoken unto me.' This probably refers to the royal grant of building materials for their work. With these 4 strong appeals, Nehemiah urged them to build up the wall of Jerusalem.

You know, what the people really needed at that point in time was a man with vision and decisive leadership. And God had clearly given them such a man in Nehemiah. The result of his strong appeal was that the people responded decisively and without the least hesitation. They said in v.18, 'Let us rise up and build!' With such determination and resolution, their commitment was now sealed! 

Dearly beloved, just imagine what it would be like if we all had the same determination for the Lord's work as they had. If we really mean business in our commitment to God, the needs of His kingdom should be our concern as well. We would desire to do something about them. We would not be content just to sit and wait for something to happen. But instead, we would be taking the initiative to do something to meet those needs. We would have the same spirit as Nehemiah and the leaders who said 'Let us rise up and build.'

But when we commit ourselves to meeting the needs of God's kingdom, we may soon find that it is difficult, that it is demanding, and that it can be often quite discouraging, because of the hindrances and opposition we are bound to face. You can be sure that when you do God's work, there will always be difficulties and opposition. 

This was exactly what Nehemiah and the Jewish leaders faced, soon after they got started. V.19 'But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? Will ye rebel against the king?' The ones who are mentioned in this verse later gave plenty of opposition in various ways. They made false accusations against Nehemiah, and they even went as far as armed aggression. They certainly made the task of building the wall much more difficult than it already was. 

How could the people hope to build the wall, with such opposition against them? Only by depending on God to help them. This is the best hope we can have for our work. Nehemiah 2:19,20 'Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of Heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build.' A missionary to China named Hudson Taylor once said, 'God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply.' In other words, the success of God's work is always be guaranteed by God Himself. It is with this wonderful hope that we can rise up and build His kingdom - not only in the Beulah project, but in every Gospel endeavour of our church.

Dearly beloved, when we do this work, we must have constant dependence on Him to prosper us. God alone will see us through every seemingly impossible situation. God alone will provide us all the help we need. And God alone will assure our hearts of victory when we face opposition to His work. How greatly therefore, do we need to trust in Him. 

As we partake of the Lord's Supper this morning, may our hearts be invigorated with these words of hope. Just as the Jews had been invigorated by Nehemiah to rise up and build the broken walls of Jerusalem, let our hearts now be invigorated by our Lord Jesus to rise up and build the broken walls of His Church. Perhaps, for some us, the Lord may want you to rise up and rebuild the broken walls of your spiritual life. For since we have such a wonderful Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as our Nehemiah, we must now strengthen our hands for every good work that He wants us to do (v.18).

Nehemiah - Maintaining the House of God

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC Weekly, 2004-07-25

Text:

Nehemiah was a God-fearing Israelite who lived at the time when the Jews were returning back to Israel to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and re-establish the old order of godly administration and godly life that had existed before. The first 12 chapters of his book describes how he organised the rebuilding of the city walls of Jerusalem, and accomplished that feat with God's help in just 52 days, despite all kinds of opposition. 

In the midst of all these amazing developments, a great revival and reformation came about among the people through the preaching efforts of Ezra. Their spiritual lives were built up through the Word of God. Together with Nehemiah, Ezra was able to institute many reforms which the people gladly covenanted to perform. 

By the time the day came for them to dedicate the newly-built walls, the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants had at last attained their highest point of development. Except for the lack of a king, they had succeeded in restoring the old order and glory of the godly administration and life that they had when David ruled as king in Jerusalem. The city was restored and inhabited once more, since there was now a wall to protect them. The ordinances of worship at the Temple were restored and kept faithfully: the needs of the priests and Levites were met so that they could devote themselves fully to serving God in the Temple. The final verses of chapter 12 and first few verses of chapter 13 paint a bright picture of this restored order.

What the Israelites had now become can be likened to any church today that has succeeded in becoming everything that a church should be: where the Word of God is preached faithfully and every member is fully committed to the Lord, and where the various ministries of the church are growing well and reaping much fruit for God's Kingdom. Unfortunately with the passage of time, things often lose their original lustre and freshness, and signs of corruption begin to appear. 

"And before this Eliashib the priest, having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah: And he had prepared for him a great chamber, where aforetime they laid the meat offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of corn the new wine, and the oil, which was commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters; and the offerings of the priests." (Nehemiah 13:4,5)

All this happened during the time when Nehemiah had to be away from Jerusalem, to fulfill some official duties he had to the Persian king. A few years had passed by the time he was able to obtain permission to return to Jerusalem. When he came back, he was horrified to find that one of the big halls in the side of the Holy Temple had now been converted into a warehouse. And worse than that, it was a warehouse for storing household junk belonging to an idol-worshipping enemy of the Jews - an Ammonite named Tobiah, who had earlier tried to stop Nehemiah from rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem!

The Causes of Corruption

Corruption had crept in, and it was all because of a friendship that had developed between Tobiah and the priest who had been put in charge of the halls of God's Temple. Today we find a similar phenomenon when churches and seminaries are gradually led into compromising with the world and with unbelief, through those within their own ranks who develop a friendly and welcome attitude toward them. What should remain outside the church finds its way into it through someone who is within it. When corruption creeps in unnoticed because of a friendly compromise, it begins to eat away the strength and vitality of the church until it becomes an empty shell. How sad it is to see this happen to any church. 

Besides compromise, there is another way in which corruption may come to the House of God: Through neglect. This was another thing that Nehemiah found when he returned to Jerusalem: "And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them: for the Levites and the singers, that did the work, were fled every one to his field." (Nehemiah 13:10)

After all the initial excitement and fervour had died down and people had settled into the routine of life, they began to neglect the support of those who ministered at the Temple. When the Levites saw that their income was greatly affected, they naturally sought to find other sources of income by growing their own crops. Perhaps they adopted a noble attitude, "Well, if the people are not able to support us to do the Lord's work, then we will support ourselves, and continue to do the Lord's work at the same time." But the farming work gradually demanded more and more of their time, until they too began to neglect the Lord's work. And as the people saw the Levites becoming less and less involved in the Lord's work, they gave even less for their support. The situation became a vicious circle.

Neglect has probably crippled more church ministries, paralyzed more missions, and closed down more outreaches, than any other cause. There are two principle causes of neglect, and there are strong warnings against both of them in God�s Word. The first is plain forgetfulness, and the second is weariness. As the years of our lives come and go, we tend to forget the goodness God has shown to us, the blessings we have received from Him, and the deliverances He has effected for us. And as we serve the Lord constantly, there is always the danger of growing weary of service. We get tired of fighting against sin, because of battle-weariness. We get tired of doing good to others because we feel drained of strength to love them. Instead of seeing the need to recharge our strength and resolve to press on by looking to the Lord, we take the easy way out and just allow weariness to immobilize us: "How nice it is to rest and do nothing." But the Word of God says, "...let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." (Galatians 6:9)

The Need for Genuine Concern

Having looked at the corruption of God's House and its causes, let us now consider the remedy for it: Develop a concern for God's House. We should become as concerned as Nehemiah was when he returned to Jerusalem and saw what had happened while he was away. "But in all this time was not I at Jerusalem: for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon came I unto the king, and after certain days obtained I leave of the king: and I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. And it grieved me sore: therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber." (Nehemiah 13:6-8)

The first indication of Nehemiah's concern was his desire to make the long, arduous trip back to Jerusalem, which took three months of travel. The second indication was his reaction to the news that one of the rooms in the Temple had now become Tobiah's storeroom. Nehemiah was so disturbed by this news that he went to the Temple and cleared out the junk from the chamber. 

Some of us may feel that Nehemiah's act was a little too extreme. Perhaps he should have confronted the priest in charge of the Temple chambers and made him correct his error. Shouldn't he have exercised more diplomacy in handling this situation? After all, why should one get so upset over some household stuff dumped in the Temple? Perhaps he should have restrained himself.

All too often, God's people fail to be moved about things that should move them to action. What Nehemiah did was in fact done again in the Temple about 400 years later, but this time by One whose life and temperament was perfectly without blemish or sin: our Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ saw the money-changers and animal-sellers doing business in the Temple courts, he drove them out with a whip (John 2:13-17). Scripture records that He did this because He was consumed with zeal for God's House.

Dear Reader, how much concern do you have for God�s House? Can your concern be described as a consuming zeal? Does it matter to you if some danger comes along and threatens the life and testimony of the Church? Does it matter to you if church ministries are suffering from a lack of members who are willing to serve? Does it matter to you if the church treasuries are being depleted because the weekly offerings have dropped? Or are you just content to sit by and watch God's House being hurt, damaged and even destroyed?

Unless we have a true and genuine concern for the welfare of the Church which Christ purchased with His own life-blood, we would not at all be bothered to take needful steps to maintain its integrity and life. But if we really love the Lord Jesus Christ and His church, we would be more than willing to keep on maintaining its work, its witness, its ministry, and its fellowship with a dedicated spirit. 

The Desired Response

The account of Nehemiah's zeal for God's house ends on a happy note, with the things that were done for God's House. He caused the people to bring in their tithes so that the Levites would not need to grow their own crops any more. He also appointed faithful men to take charge of the treasuries, the Levites, and the distribution of gifts. All that was needed must be supplied. The House of God and the Work of God should not be made to suffer because of a lack of resources. 

In the same way, the needs of the Church and her ministries should be adequately supplied. Is there a lack of funds for the Lord's work to be done? Those who have the capacity to give, can give. Those who do not have this capacity can pray for the needs to be met. Is there a lack of faithful men and women to serve in the ministries of the Church? Let those who can offer themselves to serve delay no further.

Brethren, let us do all we can, while we are able, to maintain the Church and her God-given ministries, by preventing compromise and neglect from creeping in, and by having a true concern for God's House.

Esther 4:14 - For Such A Time As This

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 10:45am Service, 2005-02-20

Text: Esther 4:14

I. It is a Truth that Can Sustain and Strengthen Us.

For the past two Sundays, our messages have been focused on the subject of God's sovereignty. This is a very profound subject. It takes us into the realm of what the Apostle Paul calls 'The deep things of God' (1 Corinthians 2:10). But it also has very practical value for us. And it can make an important difference in our lives when it is applied properly.

For instance, devout, godly and wealthy farmer is told that all his oxen and asses have been destroyed by robbers; and not long after that, lightning destroys all his sheep and servants. As if those are not catastrophic enough, even all those who look after his camels are killed and his camels are carried off by bandits. Finally, information reaches him that all his grown up children are killed by a roof cave in. In another scenario, a godly father who has a family with 3 small children discovers that he is dying from cancer. What truth will sustain and strengthen the godly farmer and the godly father at such a time? Is there any hope? What can the pastor tell them to help them understand and cope with their distress? What supreme truth of God's Word can we appeal to that will bring hope and a measure of relief to them?

There is only one supreme truth that can do that - the sovereignty of God! This truth means that God is on the throne of the Universe, that He is controlling and directing all things, working all things after the counsel of His own perfect will. The sovereignty of God is a wonderful truth that sustains and strengthens us in the midst of all our trials. Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher said, 'There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God's Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all.' Jay E. Adams, the well known author on Christian counselling wrote, 'Knowing that God knows, that God cares, that God hears their prayers, and that God can and will act in His time and way to work even in this for good to His own . . . that, and nothing less than that conviction, can carry them through. And what that hope may be reduced to is: a confident assurance that God is sovereign.' 

II. It is a Truth That Should Humble Us.

God's sovereignty really exalts Him far above every boast or claim of human power and authority. Whenever we puny human beings do things, there are things that are within our control. For example if we plan to have a Gospel Sunday service, we can decide the time, the preacher and the people who are to be invited to come. We can go all out to publicise it and make the most detailed preparations, leaving no stone unturned.

But there are also things that are entirely beyond our control, e.g. the weather - a heavy downpour can wash all our plans away; The traffic conditions on that day - this may be so bad on that particular day that those who want to come cannot get to the place at all; And most of all, the choice of the people who are invited to come - this is totally beyond our control. All these things show us how restricted and limited we are - we must all accept the fact that we can only plan or do things within the existing parameters that limit us. We cannot do all that we please. 

In contrast to this, God faces no limitations at all in doing whatever pleases Him. Things like the weather, traffic conditions and even the will of man are fully beneath His control. The Bible tells us in Romans 8:28 'And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.' This verse tells us that God uses all things to work His perfect will for our lives. He can use people, places, natural situations and customs - even the most ordinary and insignificant things in our day to day life. These are all instruments in His hands at His disposal to preserve us, help us, sustain us, and provide for us.

God's Word tells us that He exercises His sovereignty ever over the wickedness of man. Psalm 76:10 tells us, 'Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.' One case in point is the role that Pontius Pilate and King Herod played in bringing our Lord Jesus Christ to die on the cross. The 4 gospels show that they acted according to their will and their own selfish purposes (e.g. Pontius Pilate gave in to the demands of the people, because he wanted to avoid a Jewish rebellion against him). Ant yet, whatever they did was all determined by God to accomplish His own eternal purpose. Let us look at Acts 4:26-28 'The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done.' Although what these people did was sinful and wicked, God in His sovereignty even used their evil deeds ultimately to accomplish His divine purpose. 

In last week's message, Elder Lim Teck Chye related to us how God disposed the evil plans of the brothers of Joseph who had sold him as a slave to some traders going to Egypt. When God marvelously raised him to the second highest position in the world at that time, Joseph was able to assure his brothers that it was not they who had sent him to Egypt, but God in His sovereignty who had done so. He said to them in Genesis 45:8 'So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and He hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.'

III. It is a Truth that Will Intrigue Us.

One book of the Bible that brings out the wonder of God's Sovereignty to accomplish His purposes better than any other book in the Bible, is the Book of Esther. This book is a very intriguing historical account of what happened to the Jews between 483 BC and 473 BC at the time when they lived under the Persian Empire. 

There the Jews were terribly oppressed by the cruel decree of Haman, an evil man who became the prime minister of the Persian Empire. Haman so proudly assumed that nothing could ever stop his plan to have all the Jews in the Persian Empire destroyed and slaughtered, because it was guaranteed by the sealed decree of the Persian king. But God skillfully ordered all circumstances to turn the tables on him, and in the end, Haman was hanged on his own gallows, and the Jews emerged from being an oppressed people, to being the most favoured people in the empire!

How did this happen? In a very intriguing manner. Firstly, through a very precise timing of events. Esther was made queen just at the right time to lead in thwarting Haman's evil plot. Actually, she would never have become queen if the existing Queen of Persia named Vashti had obeyed the king's command. But because Vashti was removed, there was a vacancy in the Persian court. And out of so many eligible women gathered together from every corner of the Persian empire, Esther was chosen to become the new queen. How did this happen?

Through a second means that God used, and that is: the personal choices or decisions of men. For some reason, The Persian King was so captivated by Esther's beauty that he immediately ended his search for a new queen when she was brought to him. But now that Esther was queen, there was one new problem - she was so cloistered up in the Persian palace, that she did not know what was really happening in the outside world. 

And even when Haman's cruel decree to exterminate the Jews was broadcast throughout the whole empire, Esther still did not know about it. And yet she was able to learn about the horrible decree. How did this happen?

Through a third means that God used, and that is: natural human relationships. It was Esther's close cousin, a Jew named Mordecai who came to inform her about the plight of her own people, but since he was dressed in ragged mourning clothes, he was not allowed to enter the palace. Because of their close relationship, Esther soon learned about Mordecai's mourning, and sent a messenger to find out what had happened. Through this, she was horrified to learn that her people were all condemned to die. 

It was then that Mordecai said those poignant words to his cousin in v.14, 'and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?' He said this to urge Esther to use her influence in the palace to help deliver her own people from destruction. But the odds were still clearly against Esther. Haman the wicked prime minister wielded far greater power in the palace than she did - so what would make the king want to listen to her and not to him? Now, despite all that, God's purpose triumphed once again. How did it happen?

This time God used three unrelated things that worked together in perfect synchrony ' a momentary bout of insomnia, a random selection of a government record, and Haman's own zeal to exact revenge on his personal enemy. On that fateful night, Haman decided that he would build a huge gallows to execute Mordecai and he would get the king's permission to hang him on it early the next morning. 

But on that same night, for unknown reasons, the king could not sleep at all, and so he tried to while away his time by having some past official Persian records read aloud to him. Lo and behold, the particular record that was read to him just happened to be the account of how Mordecai had saved his life from an assassination attempt some years back, and the king had somehow forgotten to reward him for this. Thus the king desperately wanted to have Mordecai honoured immediately. In comes Haman with clockwork precision, with the intention of asking for Mordecai's death, but before he could do so, he is tasked by the king to give Mordecai a very lavish public honouring instead!

With no opportunity now to carry out his own evil plans, Haman had to rush immediately after doing that, to attend a royal banquet with the king and queen, not knowing that his worst fears were about to be realized. At that banquet Queen Esther boldly exposed him as the one who had plotted to kill her people. As the King was shocked and deciding what to do, Haman's plans to hang Mordecai were revealed, and the gallows he had built stood as stark evidence.

And right at that moment, Haman made the most fatal mistake of his life. While trying to approach Queen Esther to plead for his life, he very clumsily tripped and fell right on top of her. It really wasn't his day at all - because everything was clearly working against him. In the end, Haman was hanged on the very gallows that he had built to hang Mordecai. All that remained to be done after that was to neutralize his evil decree to exterminate the Jews. This was not difficult to do at all, since Mordecai now became the King's own natural choice for a new prime minister to replace the former one. That is the gist of the whole book of Esther.

Looking at all this, I am sure you all will agree with me that God's work in the story of Esther is really very intriguing. And what is really amazing about this whole account, is that there is no miraculous of supernatural intervention at all. In fact, the name of God is not found even once in all the 10 chapters of this book. For this reason, some scholars have even questioned if this book deserves to be in the Bible at all. And yet God's unseen hand was very evidently working to bring about the deliverance of His people. The book of Esther teaches a very important aspect of God's sovereignty, one which is important to every one of us today.

This mode of God's working in our lives without the use of any supernatural or miraculous means at all is called Providence. In Providence, God uses the most ordinary means like what we had just seen in the story of Esther - the precise timing of events, the choices and decisions made by men, human relationships, random selections, and even human follies and foibles. Someone once likened God's Providence to a stage production, in which God works entirely behind the scenes. He is not visible on stage as one of the actors, but He is evidently directing everything that happens on stage according to His own script. 

In an age when people are craving so much for miraculous visible manfestations of God's power, we need to realize that it requires much more skill and ingenuity to accomplish something through ordinary means than through using miraculous means. It is easy for God to work a miracle. It can be accomplished in just a moment, because of his unlimited power. He only has to say the word (e.g. 'Let there be light'). But to accomplish the same thing just by using ordinary means poses a greater challenge. It involves a great deal of careful planning and timing of many events and actions, to make them all fit together nicely and fall into place precisely. If just one little event or action falls a little out of place or goes 'out of synch,' the whole plan will fail! 

Providence can easily be compared to a very intricately and painstakingly woven tapestry. When you observe the intricacies of the complex design, you will marvel at how the One who made it had such tremendous wisdom, patience and ability to plan it and execute it! I think it would be right for us to conclude that God's working in Providence really brings much greater glory to Him than His working by means of miracles.

IV. It is a Truth that Should Challenge and Inspire Us.

We can be firmly challenged by the words that Mordecai spoke to Esther in 4:14 'For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?' 

These words form the crux of the whole book of Esther. They teach us of our personal involvement in the whole outworking of God's sovereignty. Dearly beloved, God's sovereignty is not just something to be studied, dissected, analysed and appreciated from the Scriptures or observed in history and world politics, but also something to be known and experienced personally by each and every one of us. It is a truth that must be applied to our own lives.

The words 'who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?' from Esther 4:14 should resonate in our minds whenever we wonder why God has placed us in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. Firstly they ought to give you a sense of destiny - that everything in your life has been carefully planned and mapped out by God to the very last detail, so you can fulfill your mission in life. And you ought to discern God's sovereign will for your life and seek to fulfill it. Perhaps it is His plan to use your life to make a difference in this world. 

Who knows that God may make you another Esther, or another Moses, or Daniel, or Martin Luther, or John Calvin. Everyone whom God has used to make a real difference in this world never ever imagined what their life would accomplish. And who knows what God plans to accomplish with your life?

Secondly the words of Esther 4:14 ought to inspire your praise of God and your testimony of His providence working in your life. When you are able to experience God's working all things together for good to them that love Him, you would want to praise Him more. Over the years at our Tuesday night prayer meeting, I have heard many glowing testimonies of Lifers who personally experienced the outworking of Providence in their lives. The detailed testimony usually shows how God provided whatever was needed at just the right place and at just the right time. 

A brother in our church once testified how his grandchild was born at just the right time - on the very day when his daughter's gynae returned back from overseas, and also after they had settled well into their new home. A sister in our church testified how the Lord granted her desire to come for Tuesday night prayer meeting, despite the fact that she has to teach night classes at a private school - somehow nobody enrolled for the course that was offered on Tuesday! Another brother testified how God preserved him from death from the tsunami waves when he drove along a stretch of road just half an hour before the destruction struck that road. 

And every time we are able to share such a testimony of providential deliverance or provision it brings the reality of God into our experience, and encourages us and others to trust Him much more. Dearly beloved, if you have experienced the providence of God working in your life, please do not keep it to yourself. Share it verbally or in writing, and give God all the praise for it, as it may help to make Him known to the world, as a God who is living, a God who is faithful to all His promises, and a God who is in sovereign control of all things, and worketh all things together for good to them that love Him, to them who are the called according to His purpose! 

Thirdly, the words of Esther 4:14 ought to boost your level of trust and confidence in God, anticipating that He who has begun such a work in your life, will most certainly perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). The sovereign God will see to it that His manifold purposes for His people will never fail. Whatever obstacles there may be, God is able to overcome them through the sure outworkings of His divine providence. And then turn your renewed trust and confidence into fervent prayer.

In the Book of Esther we have seen God's sovereignty working against insurmountable odds to deliver a whole nation from certain extinction. In world history we have witnessed God's sovereignty preserving that same nation against even greater odds, and Israel's resurrection to nationhood in 1948 stands as a testimony to that. What blessed hope and confidence this gives to us to face the seemingly insurmountable odds that we are facing today. 

Dearly beloved, whenever you find yourself lacking in faith, in hope or in inspiration to give praise to God, let your mind meditate on the sovereignty of God, and particularly on how it relates to you personally. And let faith, hope, and praise be stirred up in your hearts through the words of Esther 4:14 'who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?' May God bless these wonderful words to our lives, and for His glory.

Psalm 098 - Joy to the World

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at Life BPC Combined Christmas Praise Service, 2014-12-21

Text: Psalm 98

 For our opening hymn today we sang the familiar favourite, “Joy to the World.” This carol is so hugely popular that it is virtually a permanent feature in Christmas celebrations all over the world, even though it lacks the details that are found in other familiar carols, like the angels, the shepherds, the wise men from the East, Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph or the babe lying in a manger. The only line in it that is closely related to the events of Christmas is the first one – “Joy to the world, the Lord is come.” Despite that, it is still the most-published Christmas carol in North America, and it has even been praised as the most uplifting and most joyous of all carols.

But do you know that the lyric-writer of “Joy to the World” never intended it to be a Christmas carol at all? This song was actually a paraphrase of a psalm that should be sung the whole year round. When it was first published in 1719, it was part of a collection in which 138 psalms from the Book of Psalms were paraphrased.

At that time all the psalms of the Bible were already being sung regularly in church worship services, because the Psalter had been prescribed by the Protestant Reformers as the only songs that could be used for worship. The Psalter was nothing more than literal translations of the psalms set into poetic meter to make them easier to sing. But the problem with these metrical psalms is that they lacked the fullness of the revelation of Christ as found in the New Testament. Christ was mentioned only in the types and shadows which are found in some messianic psalms.  It was hard for Christians to use them to offer meaningful praise to God for sending His only begotten Son into the world to save sinners.

Then God placed a burden in the heart of a man named Isaac Watts to do something about this. Watts was talented at writing verses that rhyme – It just seemed to come naturally to him since young. He had grown up attending church services in which nothing but the metrical psalms were sung. He did not like them and felt that something must be done to improve them. However the Lord also called him to be a fulltime minister. And so for about 20 years he was quite busy in preaching and teaching God’s Word in a Nonconformist church.

When Watts was in his 40s his preaching load was reduced because of declining health. This was the opportune time when he embarked on his life-long dream to Christianise the psalms that the church used for worship. In paraphrasing them, Watts sought to imagine how King David would have written the psalms if he had lived a thousand years later, in the times of New Testament. Hence he published them in 1719 with the title, “The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and Applied to the Christian State and Worship.”

These include some very familiar hymns we sing: “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past” (which was based on Psalm 90); “Jesus Shall Reign Wher’er the Sun” (which was based on Psalm 72). When Watts came to Psalm 98 he decided to do the paraphrase of it in two parts. The first part was entitled, “Praise for the Gospel” and was based on the first 3 verses of Psalm 98. The second part was entitled “The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom” which was based on verses 4-9 of Psalm 98. As Isaac Watts meditated deeply on these 6 verses, those famous words of the carol flowed out from his mind to his pen – “Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare Him room and heaven and nature sing.” It is said that when Watts wrote this, he was sitting under his favourite tree in Abney Park, a quiet and scenic garden estate which belonged to his friends, the Abneys.

Of all the over 600 hymns and paraphrased psalms that Isaac Watts wrote in his life time, none have been used as often as this one. The words are so well-chosen to express how glad we ought to be about Christ’s coming. That is why in 1839 an American church musician named Lowell Mason sought to compose a tune which would do justice to the words of this song. Mason’s favourite composer was George Friedrich Handel, an 18th century contemporary of Isaac Watts. Mason borrowed some musical phrases from Handel’s Messiahfor his composition and that soon became the permanent tune for “Joy to the World, the Lord is Come.” That makes this carol so reminiscent of the majestic strains of Handel’s Messiah, which is also sung often at Christmas time.

This morning we want to learn from this carol, and specifically from the words of Scripture that inspired its writing. Let us turn our Bibles to Psalm 98. From this psalm we can learn lessons on how we should respond to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. You will notice that our Lord’s coming is mentioned in the last verse –“…for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.”But doesn’t this sound more like Christ’s second coming than His first coming? Didn’t Christ Himself say when He lived on earth, “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47)?

Why then do we sing this psalm at Christmas, which is about Christ’s first coming? Well, we need to understand that from the perspective of the OT prophets, the first coming and second coming of Christ were often seen together as one entire event even though they are actually thousands of years apart. For instance, we see this in Isaiah 9:6,7 – “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” This part of the prophecy was fulfilled at Christ’s first coming. But the next verse says: “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever...” This part of the prophecy has not been fulfilled yet – it awaits the time of Christ’s second coming when He will come from heaven as the mighty King of kings and Lord of lords to rule over the entire world and to establish His kingdom here on earth.

The same thing is true of Psalm 98 – It stands as an OT prophecy that anticipates the coming of Christ without making a distinction between His first coming and His second coming. With this understanding we shall now proceed to learn three lessons on our response to Christ’s coming:

1. Acknowledge His Right to be Your King (vv.6,9)

Verse 6 of our text says, “With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.”This is something we must never forget even in our response to His first coming when He is depicted as a little baby born in Bethlehem. Many today would gladly receive Christ thinking that He is only a harmless little infant who will make no strict demands on them. Isn’t that how He is depicted in all nativity scenes at Christmas time? Well, the truth is that Jesus is no longer a baby, no longer a child. He is the great almighty King who has the authority to demand your loyalty and obedience! This is therefore what we need to focus our thoughts on as we celebrate His birth, as expressed in the opening line of the carol – “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, Let earth receive her King.” In His birth as well as in the rest of His life on earth, we must see the supreme and sovereign right of the Lord Jesus Christ to be our King.

In fact, the Kingship of Christ stands right at the foreground of Matthew’s account of Christ’s birth. Matthew begins by tracing the genealogy of Jesus to the royal line of King David. Then he relates how the wise men from the east came to worship Him as the newborn King of the Jews. He records in detail the royal homage that Christ received from them in the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The important question that all of us have to consider this morning is: Have you received Christ as your King? Are you living in full submission to Him? If you are not, how can you celebrate His birth? How can you be singing carols of sincere praise and thanks that He is born, if you do not submit to His authority? Whenever you fail to take the King’s commandments seriously, you are in effect rebelling against Him! To celebrate His birth while your heart is rebelling against Him is not honouring to Him. It is actually mocking Him! That’s what it is.

So what should you do now? Acknowledge fully His right to be your Lord and King. Make sure that you submit to His rule. If there is any matter in your life that the Lord Jesus has been speaking to you about or warning you about through His Word, listen to Him. Jesus says, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24) Will you deny yourself and follow Him who is your King and your Lord? If this Christmas sees you consecrating your life afresh to Him, then it will truly be a blessed Christmas for you.

And so, as you celebrate Christmas this week, please do not get caught up with all the worldly revelry, merry-making, shopping and feasting, but acknowledge the right that Jesus has to be your King. Please ask yourself: “If I acknowledge that Christ is truly born to be King, is His Kingdom fully established in my own life? Is He ruling over my life, or am I still trying to rule my own life? Is everything in my life at His disposal, or do I still refuse to surrender every aspect of my life to Him – including my family life, my work life, my social life, and my personal life?”

That is our first lesson about our response to Christ’s coming. We now proceed to the second lesson which is:

II. Anticipate His Final Victory over Sin (vv.1-3)

This victory is mentioned in v.1 of our text – “…His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory.”What kind of victory is this? Well, the next verse explains – “the Lord hath made known His salvation.” It must be a victory of the salvation of sinners. This verse and the next also reveal that this salvation is made possible only through God’s righteousness and mercy: “His righteousness hath He openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered His mercy and His truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.”  (vv.2,3)

We notice also that the end of v.3 speaks of a time when all the ends of the earth (i.e. the Gentile nations) will have seen this salvation of God. This is  now being fulfilled through the Great Commission – Christ sends the Gospel through His witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth. With all these things considered, let me now ask you: What else can this salvation be, except the one that has been wrought on the cross by our Lord Jesus Christ? And what victory can verse 1 be talking about, than the victory that Christ has won over sin and all its results? This victory is expressed very well in the third stanza of our carol – “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.”

Since the time of Adam’s Fall, sin has been the root of all issues in this world. Every problem of life can be traced back to sin. Every heartache, worry and fear finds its ultimate source in sin. Sin has brought untold misery to our existence. The world we live in is awfully ravaged by sin. This year has seen the eruption of war in Gaza, the conflict in Ukraine which brought down an MAS plane, and the killing of thousands of people in Iraq, Syria and Sudan by militant extremists. The United Nations Children's Fund calls 2014 a devastating year of unspeakable brutality for children, reporting that as many as 15 million young people are caught in conflicts. Just this past week we heard of the deadly Taliban attack on a school in Pakistan where many children died.

Every Christmas we sing, “Peace on earth, goodwill to men.” But has there been any lasting peace on earth? No. Nations are still torn with constant disagreements, with strife, suspicion and pride. The fact is that no matter which human leader, nation or body of nations assumes control, terrorism, hacking of websites, violence, conflicts and wars still remain. The very best of human efforts can never produce the perfect world peace that people dream of. And even our very best efforts will utterly fail to bring all the nations of the world under one unified rule that will glorify God.

The only One who can do this is the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone has the power to bring about all the needed changes in this world. As expressed in the 4th stanza of our carol: “He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love.” Therefore we must earnestly pray for Christ to come soon to deliver this world from all its woes. “Come, Thou long expected Jesus. Come and subdue this world. Let Thy sovereign rule over all men be established. As the second Adam, regain now the earthly paradise that was lost by the first Adam.” 

We are not the only ones who long for Christ to do all this. The whole of Creation has also been waiting and yearning intensely for this. Romans 8:22 says, “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” It has been groaning and travailing under the horrible curse of sin ever since the Fall, and it has been waiting for Christ to come and bring an end to it.

That is why the psalmist says that when Christ finally comes, all nature will rejoice together with us. Verses 7 and 8 of our text tell us, “Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together.” We can just imagine all the sea creatures swimming with exuberant joy to welcome Christ when He comes. We can imagine every animal on earth leaping with excitement when their Maker arrives. O how they have waited so long to be delivered from the curse of sin! We can imagine the rivers, which are referred to as the floods in verse 8, gushing with delight in the valleys and breaking into loud applause at the waterfalls. And we can imagine the hills and mountains standing at attention to welcome nature’s deliverer!

If you think what I just said is too fanciful, remember what Jesus Himself said to the Pharisees during His triumphal entry into Jerusalem when they told Him to stop His disciples from shouting with joy. He said, “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19:40) The implication here is that man should always be at the forefront of rejoicing in the deliverance that Christ has wrought. His great victory over sin should mean so much to us, to that we simply cannot keep quiet about it.

And though we are now still waiting for His glorious return, we have already begun to taste the delights of salvation that Christ brings into our lives – We know the joy of having all our sins forgiven the moment we are saved because we are justified by His perfect righteousness. We experience the power to overcome the flesh through the Holy Spirit – and thus we can rejoice in our sanctification. We rejoice in the blessings we receive daily through answered prayers. Many of us also have the joy of seeing our loved ones and friends delivered from the power of darkness, as they respond to the Gospel of Christ.

But all these joys are really nothing compared to the unspeakable joy we will have when we see our beloved Lord Jesus face to face when He comes to take us Home. Then our expression of praise and thanks will know no bounds. We will pour out fountains of joyful gratitude and love to Him who has done marvelous things for us – the One whose right hand and holy arm has gotten Him the victory over sin, over death, and over all the forces of evil that have stood against us! How much do you look forward to that, dear friends? Does it thrill your soul to know that Christ’s final victory is coming?

If it does, please do not wait until then to praise Him. Why should you keep all the joy and gratitude in your heart from flowing out? Aren’t you happy that Christ has come to save you and that He will come again to deliver all things from the ravages of sin? This leads us to the third lesson we can learn about our response to Christ’s coming…

III. Accord Him the Best Praise You Can Give (vv.1,4-6)

You will notice that this is actually the main exhortation of the entire psalm. It begins with the words, “O singunto the Lord a new song.” It emerges again in vv.4-6: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.” This instructs us about the way we ought to praise the Lord in our worship – It should be done with much spirit. It may be understandable that we cannot sing with much spirit if the hymn is new and unfamiliar to us. But sometimes, even familiar hymns are not sung with much spirit. Why? Perhaps it is because we tend to regard everything that comes before the message merely as a formality we need to get past in order to get to the message which then becomes our main reason for attending the service. Actually, the entire worship service is important, not just the message alone.

We should put our utmost effort into our singing of hymns right from the time the service starts. Why? It is because v.1 says that the Lord has done marvelous things, and He surely deserves more praise than we can ever give to Him. And singing with much joy and fervency also helps the world to realise how awesomely great God’s grace and mercy must be, that such praise is given to Him. Our singing should inspire the unsaved to seek after Him. Wasn’t it the singing of the angels that inspired the shepherds to say to one another, “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us”? (Luke 2:15) And they then came with haste to see the newborn King. The singing of the angels had stirred up their hearts to the importance of this event that they could not even wait a few hours until morning came to go to Bethlehem.

And if the angels sang their praises with such unity of purpose and gladness of heart, should we not sing even better than them, since we human beings are the ones who have benefited most from the coming of Christ? We who are saved from sin have every reason to be making the most joyful noise unto the Lord. How can we not sing with more spirit, with more gladness, with more volume and in more melodious strains than all the angels?

When Christ comes, it is only right that we should exceed all other creatures and angels, in praising the LORD for His marvelous works! We should be leading the rest of creation in praising Him, just as the second stanza of our carol says, “Joy to the earth! The Saviour reigns; Let men their songs employ while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains repeat the sounding joy.”

I trust that all of us will offer our best praise to God from grateful hearts when we end this service with the closing hymn shortly. And let us sing with joy to the Lord not only at Christmas time, but every day of the year. Remember that “Joy to the World” was originally not a carol, but a psalm to praise God the whole year round. Let us therefore be ready to accord our best praises to the Lord throughout the year, acknowledging His right to be our King, and anticipating His final victory over sin. 

Job 10:1-3; 42:1-3 - Awakened from Resentment

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 8am service, 2000-07-23

Text: Job 10:1-3; 42:1-3

Resentment refers to having ill feelings against someone, usually for something that he has done, or has not done. Resentment damages all kinds of relationships. It brings about division and disunity among friends, disharmony among brethren in Christ (Hebrews 12:15 'Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;'). It can even cause disruption in the relationship of closely-knit family members (cf. Colossians 3:19,21 'Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them' Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.'). Thus resentment can turn a child against his parents, a husband against his wife, and even a man against his God. Yes, some have expressed resentment against God.

I. Dealing with Resentment Against God

A. Resentment can Lead to Rebellion

And if one is not careful, that resentment can lead a person to rebel against God. When the Israelites were travelling in the wilderness, the hot and dusty environment and difficult rocky terrain provided the ideal conditions for much resentment to develop. The people resented having to eat manna everyday. Instead of nipping their resentment in the bud, the people chose to let it develop into sin and rebellion, and thus God punished them with a plague. And when the Israelites arrived at the border of Canaan, and received the evil report from the spies, they began to express resentment against God again.

This time they murmured that God had put them and their children in the danger of being destroyed by the Canaanites. Their resentment grew into a nationwide movement of disobedience against God. The awful result is that a whole generation of Israelites was denied entrance into the Promised Land and they died in the wilderness.

B. Jonah's Resentment

But there were also instances when a person's resentment against the Lord thankfully did not develop into rebellion or disobedience. We think of the prophet Jonah in chapter 4, sulking away and displeased with God, all because God had spared the people of Nineveh from destruction (Jonah 4:1-4) and not carried out the prophecy He gave to Jonah. And so he said, 'O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.'

Dearly beloved, have you ever said something like that? Do you know that suicidal intentions can sometimes be resentment in disguise? Contrary to what many think, the act of suicide is not against oneself alone. Others are affected, often tragically. Many times this is the deliberate intent - to make someone else feel that he is somehow responsible for one's death. Jonah's words 'it is better for me to die than to live' were an indirect accusation that by sparing the Ninevites God had robbed his own life of all meaning and value. He was clearly very upset with the Lord.

Dearly beloved, have you ever felt upset with God? Perhaps you may not have gone to the extent of being like Jonah, but rather, of feeling a little disappointed or dissatisfied with something that God had allowed to happen to you, e.g. taking home someone you love, or denying you the career opportunity you had wanted so much, or perhaps failing to provide you with a life partner while all your contemporaries are settling down in marriage. If these things are accompanied with a decline in your spiritual life, and decreasing service to God, these are sure signs that you are upset with the Lord. Have you ever questioned God or complained to Him about the things He does? If you have, you need to realize that all of these are actually just different forms of expressing your resentment or bitterness against God. You are then in a similar situation to Jonah sulking and wishing that God would take his life. And you are also in a similar situation to Job.

C. Job's Resentment

Whenever we think of Job, who lost everything that he had - his wealth, his possessions, his family, and even his health - we often think of his faith and patience. No matter had happened to him he never turned against God or denied Him. But in the latter chapters of the book we see that although Job was able to withstand successfully the temptation to deny God, he struggled a lot with God in his thoughts.

And he did eventually express some resentment against God for allowing the terrible misfortunes that befell him. We read this in the text of Job 10:1-3, and we can also see it in Job 7:11 where he said 'Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.'

D. How God Awakened Them from Resentment

But in both Job's and Jonah's situations, we see how God wonderfully resolved the resentment of His own dear children. In both cases, the Lord took the initiative to educate them out of their resentment. In Jonah's case, this took the form of a simple object lesson using a plant and a worm. Through this Jonah learnt that the root of his resentment was selfishness, and that compassion for the plight of sinners was the way out of it (Jonah 4:10,11). In Job's case, God used all the wonders of nature and of the animal world to teach him that the root of his resentment was ignorance, and that humble submission to God was the way out of it (Job 42:1-3).

Both Jonah and Job were awakened out of resentment. They were thus fully restored in their relationship with the Lord, and did not end up living in rebellion or disobedience to God, like the Israelites did in the wilderness. And if there is anyone here this morning whose relationship with God has been strained by ill feelings, resentment of bitterness, I pray that God will deal with you as He dealt with Job and Jonah, and awaken you out of resentment. Perhaps selfishness is the root your feelings of resentment, or perhaps it is ignorance. Whatever the cause, may you experience the joy of being fully restored to a close intimate relationship with God.

But perhaps for many in our midst the need may not be so much for restoration of their relationship with God, but for the restoration of their relationship with someone else. The Bible tells us, that we should not harbour any bitter feelings or resentment against anyone. Ephesians 4:31 'Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.' And thus we now turn our attention to:

I. Dealing With Resentment Against People

First we must consider:

A. The Causes of Resentment

1. Sins Committed Against Us

Resentment is what we feel not when we sin, but when someone sins against us. When we sin, the feelings we have are feelings of guilt. When someone does something against us, like spreading lies about us all over town, what we feel is not guilt but resentment.

2. Misunderstandings

Sometimes the feelings arise even when the things done against us did not take place at all, but are only imagined. We feel resentful toward someone for what he said, when in reality he never said it. It was only a rumour that we heard and we did not bother to verify it, and we become needlessly resentful. We expect some kind of apology, but it never comes, because there is nothing to apologise for. It is all just a plain misunderstanding.

One example of a misunderstanding in the Bible is recorded in Joshua 22:10-34 when the tribes of Israel who lived on the east built an altar at their border with the tribes on the west. The western tribes became indignant because they imagined that the eastern tribes were trying to establish their own center of worship instead of accepting the one that was already ordained by God at Shiloh. Thus they misunderstood the act of the eastern tribes thinking it was an act of blatant apostasy, and they prepared for war. Thankfully, civil war between the tribes was averted when a delegation was sent from the west to talk things over.

Only then did they discover that the altar was not at all meant to rival Shiloh but to be a witness for future generations that the eastern tribes have the right to worship the Lord at Shiloh, and should never be excluded from it. And so the truth behind the altar building turned out to be completely different from what was imagined. The same thing often happens in interpersonal conflicts - they often result from things that are only imagined, things that are just guessed or speculated.

B. Resolving Feelings of Resentment

1. Give Others the Benefit of the Doubt

Therefore, the first thing we need to do when feelings of resentment arise in us, is to give the person who has offended us the benefit of the doubt and seek to clarify the situation with him. If someone has sinned against you, go to that person and share why you feel the way you do about him. Be prepared to discover that you may be as much in the wrong as the other person, though you may feel that it is all his fault. Oftentimes the bad feelings that exist among Christians today are due to misunderstandings and a breakdown in communication.

Sometimes it is not easy to go to a person whom we think has done wrong to us because our feelings are hurt. It is so hard to bring ourselves to talk candidly to that person. And we choose rather to let our imagination run wild, which often leads to imagining the worst possible intentions against us!

When this happens it is easy to allow resentment to develop into sin. The Bible records how king Saul became very upset with David, all because he had heard his people singing 'Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.' (1 Samuel 18:7,8). When Saul heard this, he imagined that David wants to overthrow him. ('and what can he have more but the kingdom?') And Saul's resentment grew into an obsession to get rid of David

Let us not make the same mistake as King Saul. He should have given David the benefit of the doubt, and not imagined that He desired to take over his kingdom. Whenever you hear something that sounds like someone is making an affront against you, do not base your response on what you imagine, but on what you can verify by conferring directly and personally with him. Always give others the benefit of the doubt. 

2. Return Good for Evil

Now, the question comes, 'What if there is no misunderstanding at all, but genuine sin against us?' What do we do if someone has really mistreated us? Such a situation does not give us the right to feel resentful. The Bible never grants anyone the right to be resentful or worse still, to retaliate. Instead the Bible instructs us to respond to sins with love and forgiveness. Matthew 5:44 'do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you'

One of the best examples of dealing with resentment is found in the life of Joseph, the son of Jacob.

It all began with the way that his father treated him - giving him things that he did not give to the rest of his sons. Joseph's brothers became jealous. The situation became worse after the dreams that Joseph had, in which he saw them bowing down to him. They deeply resented this and plotted to kill him. But he was sold into Egyptian slavery instead.

And Joseph suffered for 12 years as a slave and later as a prisoner in Egypt because of what his brothers had done to him. He could easily have allowed resentment to fill his heart. But later on, when he became the prime minister of Egypt, his brothers came to him to find food during a famine, and they did not know that he was Joseph. At this point, he had the power to make them pay for what they had done to him. But instead of doing that he forgave his brothers. Just listen to what he said to them in Genesis 50:20,21 'But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.' Joseph sought to be reconciled to his brothers.

3. Seek Reconciliation

This example teaches us that when one a brother sins against another they should always seek to be reconciled. If your relationship with someone is strained, you must seek to mend the relationship. It is wrong to let it remain strained. Our Lord Jesus said that reconciliation with one another is a requirement for our offering of worship to be acceptable to God. In Matthew 5:23,24 'Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.'

In his epistle to the Philippians, the apostle Paul had to deal with a strained relationship that had developed between two Christian women in the church. We read about this in Philippians 4:2-3 'I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.' Here were two very committed Christians, named Euodias and Syntyche, who once worked closely together with Paul. Both of them were very dear to him. And they were both probably good friends before.

But some disagreement had arisen between them and they were now not even on talking terms with each other. The situation must have been quite noticeable and must have gone on for a long time, because the news even reached the apostle Paul, who was far away in a Roman prison. And in his letter to the church, Paul had to plead with both of them to be reconciled and even ask others to help bring them back together again. It would have been embarrassing to these two women to have their names read out publicly and heard by everyone in the church when the epistle was received and read. But it shows that such strained relationships between church members are not a trivial issue that can just be overlooked or ignored. The fact that the apostle Paul under the Holy Spirit's inspiration considered it to be important enough to deserve a mention in his letter, teaches us that we should always strive to mend our strained relationships.

And for reconciliation to be complete there must be a willingness to:

4. Forgive and Forget

I have heard people telling me, 'I can forgive him but I cannot forget what he has done to me.' The feelings of resentment still remain, and continue, even after all the apologies have been made and the whole matter has been dealt with at length. Somehow someone still finds it hard to bury the matter, and the ill-feelings keep erupting time and again and affecting the relationship.

Perhaps some of us may still be having deep feelings of resentment for someone concerning things that took place a long time ago. Do you have still have bitter feelings toward someone even over something that has happened 10 or 20 years ago? There is one way you can tell: Bitterness remembers details. You can still remember every single word he said, his intonation and the inflection of every part of his voice. You know exactly what happened. Dearly beloved, if this describes you accurately, it means you that you have not fully dealt with your resentment yet.

If you realise this morning that there is still resentment in your heart against someone, then you must deal with it: Firstly you should Repent and Confess the bitterness to God. Someone may say, 'What do you mean confess? I am not the one who sinned. It was the other person who did.' Listen: while it is true that the other person sinned, you have also sinned by harbouring resentment in your heart against him. Resentment is never justified.

We are to forgive as well as forget. Acknowledge that you have sinned against God, and then ask the Lord to take away all your resentment.

Secondly, remember that if God has forgiven you all your sins, you must also forgive others. We always pray in the Lord's prayer 'Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us.' But how can we ask God to forgive our sins, and at the same time be unwilling to forgive others? Jesus said in Luke 17:3,4 'Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.' 

Sometimes it may not be easy to forgive. One may get so irritated with a brother's faults that he would refuse to forgive him. The usual reaction is: 'How could he do things like that? He's supposed to be a brother in Christ, a born again Christian!' We must understand that not all Christian brethren have reached the same level of sanctification. We need to be patient with one another's faults and offences.

Let us remember that God has not finished with us yet. If God is not patient with us, we would all have perished long ago. And our Lord wants us to do the same for others: to patiently keep on forgiving a brother, though he may sin against us and repent again and again. Let us read Matthew 18:21,22 'Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.'

As we come to the end of this morning's message, let us really commit ourselves now not to allow any resentment to dwell in our hearts - whether it is resentment against the Lord or against man. May the Lord grant you the willingness and power to put away the feelings of resentment from your heart.

Psalm 096:1-8 - Making God's Glory Known

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 10:45am Service, 2005-01-02

Text: Psalm 96:1-8

As today is the second day of 2005, it would be good for us to start the year by being reminded of the ultimate goal of our life. We humans are like precision instruments. Precision instruments can be effective only if they are calibrated correctly. And even when they are properly calibrated, they often need to be checked and recalibrated from time to time. This is because after prolonged use, they tend to lose their accuracy and precision - all the readings taken with them are wrong. As Christians we too need such recalibration with God's Word from time to time. Life is so full of distractions and diversions, that it is always so easy for us to lose sight of our ultimate purpose and goal for living. We then stray into paths that end up nowhere, and accomplish nothing. And worse still, we end up making a mess of everything!

So let us start the new year by getting ourselves recalibrated - to be restored to fulfilling precisely and accurately what we are created and saved for - our ultimate goal. Our church theme for last year dwelt on the first part of it - to know Christ. This year our church theme is all about the other part of our goal in life - and that is, to make Him known. Through the messages that will be preached this year, we will attempt to explore this theme of making Him known. And there are so many things we need to know about this. This morning we begin with a message on Making God's Glory Known. One passage of scripture that can help us understand this is Psalm 96. 

This psalm is all about how excellently great our God is and how He alone ought to be most highly extolled and praised by everyone and by everything that is able to glorify Him. We observe that this psalm is utterly theo-centric. No honour or glory is given to man at all. It is unlike what you will read and hear from the world today, which is very man-centred and extols self (e.g. Singapore Idol). But in this psalm there is not even the slightest hint of man's glory. It is all about glorifying God, and God alone. I would like to suggest that this is also what our life ought to be - theocentric. If your life has become less than theo-centric, then you need some recalibration to make God the centre of your life again.

You will also notice that there isn't any hint at all in this psalm of supplication or petition for oneself, it is all pure praise - this makes it clear that we ought to seek God for no other reason than the fact that He is God, worthy or our highest praises, not for anything that He does for us, but for who He is. Worship is all about giving to God, and our sole aim in worship is not to receive anything from God, but to give to Him the credit, honour and praise that He rightly deserves from us. 

In contrast to that, much of the worship that goes on in many places today is sensual in order to appeal to man's selfish motives of wanting to be favoured or blessed by God in some way. And when such favour or blessing does not come, some would feel short-changed or unhappy, wondering why God has not responded to all that they have done for Him. There are times I have heard some give a public testimony testify about how God helped them in a marvelous way, but the testimony is spoiled because they add to it that God's help came to them because they had been so good, so devoted and obedient and so diligent toward Him. This only encourages people to be devoted, obedient and diligent because of the personal advantages one can gain for doing these things.

If your attitude in worship, in prayer and in your devotion to God has degenerated to this level, then you need to have it recalibrated or restored to what it should be. So let us now study this psalm with the aim of understanding what it means to live a God-centred life (theocentric), a life that will truly make His glory known. If you look once again at Psalm 96 you will notice that it consists of two parts. The first part is v.1 to v.6 and the second is v.7-13. Both parts begin in a similar manner - with a three-fold call to praise God. In the first part the call repeats the phrase 'sing unto the Lord' three times and in the second part, the call repeats the phrase 'give unto the Lord' three times. This repetition is typical of Hebrew poetry, and is known as 'climactic parallelism.' It leads the listener upward to a climax by building up the idea in steps.

Besides having similar beginnings, you will also notice that both parts of this psalm have similar endings - endings which provide some specific grounds or motivation for heeding the respective calls. These are marked by the word 'for.' 'For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised' (v.4) and 'For He cometh to judge the earth' (v.13). The first part of the psalm speaks of the glory of God's works, while the second part speaks of the glory of God's reign. In this morning's message we will be studying only the first part of it to find out how we should make God's glory known, as revealed in all His mighty works. These works demonstrate just how great He is, what honour He deserves, and how God stands uniquely apart from every other god that is worshipped by man. Let us consider all the works of God that are named here:

I. In God's Work of Creation

Verse 5 says, 'For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.' This was of course the very first work of God that is known to man - Creation. And it displays God's eternal power and being so obviously and plainly that Romans 1:20 says that man has no excuse for not knowing God. ('For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse') 

Psalm 19:1 makes it very plain that 'The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.' Just think of the vastness and complexities of the whole universe with all its billions of planets, stars and galaxies moving through space in perfect timing, and be amazed at the awesome power that made them. 

Think also of the inner complexities and workings of your own body with its trillions of cells, and you will be just as amazed at the infinite wisdom that has made you, as the psalmist said in Psalm 139:14, 'I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.'

Dearly beloved, can you behold all the wonders of nature and not see the magnificent glory of God revealed in them? When you seek to bring the Gospel of salvation to others, these wonders of nature as found in God's creation serve as an excellent starting point in evangelism. Point out to them how every leaf, every flower, every plant, tree, every little insect and everything that has breath in it simply shouts to us 'Behold the infinite glory of the God who made me!' 

When you point this out to them, there will of course be some whowill disagree with you and attribute all these things to the wonders of evolution. Let me tell you this: Evolution theory is nothing but Satan's attempt to rob the almighty God of His glory in creation, and it needs to be refuted. And there are many good answers given by eminent scientists that refute evolution (Our church library has many good books to read on this, including the magazine 'Creation Ex Nihilo' published by the Institute of Creation Research) Now besides God's Work of Creation, there are also 

II. In God's Work of Miracles

This is mentioned in v.3 'Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people.' The word 'wonders' here refers to things that are extraordinary, supernormal or supernatural. They do not normally happen. This word is used in the book of Exodus to describe the ten plagues of Egypt (Exodus 3:20) and the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 15:11). It is used in the Book of Joshua to describe the drying up of the river Jordan when the Israelites needed to cross it (Joshua 3:5). To the Israelites, these wonders were clear manifestation of God's superiority over all other gods.

Each of the ten plagues of Egypt signalled a clear defeat of one of the gods of Egypt. For instance the Egyptians worshipped a god named Osiris, who is the god of the Nile river. In the first plague God turned the waters of the Nile into blood. In the second plague God used multitudes of frogs to overrun all the Egyptian households. This demonstrated His superiority over the Egyptian goddess named Hekt, whose symbol was a frog. The same thing was true of the rest of the plagues and they revealed that these Egyptian gods are just powerless idols who cannot work such great wonders like these. 

Another awesome demonstration of God's power was seen later on, at Mt Carmel, when the prophet Elijah encountered the prophets of the Canaanite idol called Baal. All the tiring efforts that the 450 prophets of Baal did from morning to evening to invoke Baal to consume their sacrifice availed nothing at all. But when Elijah offered up his sacrifice, and uttered a short prayer to the Living and True God, fire immediately came down from heaven and consumed not only the sacrifice but the stone altar of sacrifice as well. This powerful miracle turned the people of Israel back to worshipping God. 

There is no doubt that God has used miracles like these to make His glory known from time to time. The greatest of these were done by our Lord Jesus Christ who resurrected from the dead. And some would then ask if we still need miracles today to make His glory known. Today, we need not look for any more miracles from God. Jesus Himself said, 'An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign' (Matthew 12:39) because miracles became an end in itself, instead of a means to an end.

We only need to point people to the many miracles that He has already done and that are recorded in the Scriptures. They are sufficient to demonstrate God's power and glory. Besides that, the Scriptures glorify God in a way that no miracle can do - through the accurate fulfillment of all the prophecies God has given in it. The Bible's many fulfilled prophecies glorify God's omniscience. It demonstrates how God alone knows the end from the beginning and can reveal all future events with perfect accuracy. In the Christmas service we had here two weeks ago we have already seen how Jesus Christ fulfilled the prophecies of His birth given by God 700 years before it happened. 

And what is exciting is that there are still many prophecies of the Bible that are being fulfilled and will be fulfilled. Prophecies of end-time events like the restoration of the nation of Israel in 1948 (cf. Ezekiel 37), the worldwide preaching of the Gospel, the increase of wars, rumours of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes (Matthew 24:6-8,14). The devastation that was caused by last Sunday's earthquake is part of the fulfillment of this prophecy.

There is nothing like this to be found in any other religious writing purported to be divine revelation than the Bible, for there is no other god who can do anything like this. And thus the phenomenon of Bible prophecy, just like all God's miracles, brings out the truth given in v.3,4 of our text 'Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people. For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: He is to be feared above all gods.'

Dearly beloved, let us boldly declare all these wonders of God to the world today. By doing this, we are making His glory known. And while we do that, let us also declare another great work of God that reveals His glory, one which is mentioned in v.2

III. In God's Work of Salvation

'Sing unto the LORD, bless His name; shew forth His salvation from day to day.' The exact nature of God's work of salvation is not mentioned here, but it may be a general reference to all instances when God saved His people, e.g. bring the Israelites out of Egypt in the time of Moses, and delivering them oppressive forces during the time of the Judges.

God sometimes works such acts of salvation without the use of any miracles, but simply through the ordering of events and circumstances. One excellent example can be found in the book of Esther - a book that does not even mention God at all - it records how the Jewish race was saved from being exterminated while they were in the Persian Empire. Despite being helpless against Haman, the wicked and powerful prime minister, the Israelites were providentially saved and the perpetrator was executed. To me, such a deliverance without the use of miracles brings even more glory to God that those He effects with miracles. And yet, many who experience such deliverances rob God of the glory by attributing their salvation to luck or chance.

In the past week you may have heard or read of some who escaped death from the deadly tsunami waves. And you may have noticed that the majority who were interviewed attributed their salvation to being 'lucky' although a few did say 'thank God'. Dearly beloved, if you want to make God's glory known do not attribute any deliverance or blessing you receive to luck, but be sure to give Him the credit for every deliverance you experience in life. Let others know that you have a mighty God who is able to save those who have put their trust in Him.

Through such a testimony, you not only give God the glory that is due unto His name (v.8), but you may also bring others to experience God's greater work of salvation - salvation from eternal death and hell, through Christ. Yes, God's greatest work of salvation was accomplished about 2,000 years ago on the cross where Jesus died. And this is one salvation that we should never cease to praise the Lord for and tell others about! As v.2 says, we ought to 'shew forth His salvation from day to day.'

Now all these works of salvation reveal one aspect of God's glory that is not obvious in the other works of God. His works of salvation glorify His mercy and grace. This is because the ones who are saved are sinners, who do not deserve salvation at all. They are not saved because of they are better than others, but because God is so gracious and merciful to them. God chose to save them, despite their unworthiness. 

This was true of the Israelites that God delivered from Egypt - they were also sinners like the Egyptians (that is why the tenth plague would also have affected them if they had not trusted in God's provision of salvation through the blood of the Passover Lamb). It is true of our salvation from sin and from eternal death (Ephesians 2:8 'For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God'). 

And it is also true of our nation being spared from the deadly waves that has taken over 144,000 lives this past week. If not for God's great mercy to us, we too would have perished like all of them. We Singaporeans should not think that we are morally better than the nations that have suffered such awful devastation and loss. We are as much deserving of God's judgment as any other nation in the world. And perhaps we are more deserving of judgement now, with the increasing laxity of moral values and increased materialism. It is only undeserved grace that has spared our nation from being judged severely by God.

Such grace ought to make us thankful to God for sparing us. Should we not show how grateful we are for this grace now by making it known? Perhaps this may be the very reason why God has mercifully spared us thus far from all the earthquakes, floods and typhoons that have ravaged so many parts of the world last year - so that we may not take His grace for granted, but make it known freely and widely to all who are still outside God's kingdom. They need to receive the Gospel and be saved.

Dearly beloved, perhaps it would be good for us to take this terrible catastrophe that has affected Asia as a wake up call from God to us all - a wake up call to change our ways, to repent of our sins, and live our lives differently now - so that our lives will henceforth be more God-centred, and so that we may be more fervent in our devotion to Him to make His glory known. And we have already seen this morning that how God has revealed His glory in all His Works - His works of Creation, Miracles and most of all, our Salvation. Dearly beloved, let us resolve to be good witnesses to these works of God, declaring them boldly to the unsaved. 

Some of us here may not mind bearing witness to God's wonderful works when we are together with fellow believers, since we know that they will fully agree with us. But here in this psalm, we are told to 'declare His glory among the heathen.' That refers to the unsaved. There are Christians who would not speak a word about God at all when they are with their non-Christian friends or colleagues, thinking that it would offend them or bring a hostile response from them. But by refusing to witness to them they are only doing them a grave disfavour, they are also refusing to submit to God's authority.

We cannot claim to be God-centred people unless we fully submit to His rule over us. We can see God's right to rule our life in vv.7,8. Here we notice that instead of using the phrase 'sing unto the Lord' as he did at the beginning of the psalm, the writer changes to 'give unto the Lord.' This phrase denotes submission to God rather than just giving praise to God. Giving unto the Lord, implies submission to His sovereign will over your life, even when it does not agree with your own will and desires. Dearly beloved, will you submit to the Lord's will for you today? Will you give Him the glory that is due unto His name? Will you live God-centred lives and make Him known to those who are around you? 

Let us think of how our Lord Jesus Christ Himself lived and died to make God's glory known, and how He yielded His will to do the Father's will saying, 'Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.' (Luke 22:42) May we listen to the voice of God speaking to us today saying, 'My child, give Me first place in your heart. Make a firm commitment to do My will and not your will. And make My glory known to all.'

  1. Psalm 095 - The Names of God: Jehovah Hoseenu
  2. Psalm 091 - Experiencing God's Comfort
  3. Psalm 090:12 - Redeeming Our Time Wisely
  4. Psalm 090:12 - Learning to Number Your Days

Subcategories

Gospel in Dialect

Do you face a language barrier when trying to witness for Christ to dialect-speaking relatives? Or do you need to polish up your Mandarin in order to share the Gospel with your Mandarin-speaking friends? This Gospel toolkit will help you to learn how to share the Gospel in Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew.

There are 15 lessons covering the various topics in gospel presentation. Each lesson consists of a set of phrases, written in English, Chinese characters and Hanyu Pinyin.

To hear the proper pronunciation of the phrase, click on the respective plugin associated with each phrase. When the phrase is read for you, you should repeat it aloud. You can keep on playing back the phrase and repeating it aloud until you have mastered the phrase. Then go on to the next phrase in the lesson.

As you learn to speak new phrases, keep on reviewing the ones that you have learnt. Finally, test yourself to see if you can say the following in Mandarin / dialect aloud: 

Family

Introduction

Why a family resource page?  It has been often said that the family is the most important institution in the nation.  But never has this sentiment been as greatly emphasized in our history as a nation than now in recent times.  Indeed, the family is the most important institution because it is the first environment to which every person is exposed; it is the primary influence of a person, especially in his early formative years.  And failure of the family to influence and mould the child positively has contributed to the moral and ethical breakdown of societies.  Even the expert opinions of sociologists and psychologists point to the truth of this statement.  Counselors and mental health workers increasingly have to rely on Family Therapy to deal with the problems of the clients, seeing as how many adult conflicts and problems are actually conflicts and problems not resolved in youth within the family.  Of course, it is not surprising to find such delinquency and immaturity in the world.  And sadly, it is not surprising to find such worldliness and worldly problems in the church, as families capitulate their God-given rights.  More than ever, there is need for a family resource page, where families can be encouraged and taught to raise up Godly homes and to revive the Covenant family.  

And one of the main emphases of this resource page is on the subject and discipline of Family Worship.  According to the Westminster Directory of Family Worship, we are told that “BESIDES the publick worship in congregations, mercifully established in this land in great purity, it is expedient and necessary that secret worship of each person alone, and private worship of families, be pressed and set up; that, with national reformation, the profession and power of godliness, both personal and domestick, be advanced.”  Herein, it is suggested that national and ecclesiastical revival finds its genesis in the home.  And this is biblical. 

The theological foundations of family worship is in Deuteronomy 4:9,10 where believers are told to “keep thy soul diligently…[and to]…teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.” 

It is also in Deuteronomy 6:4-7 where the words which God had commanded believers should be taught diligently to their children, that they should “talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”  The chief Christian educators of our children are their parents, who have been given this sacred duty.

Psalm 78:2-7 also teaches this, especially when it says regarding the law “which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.” 

According to Dr Joel Beeke, “Every church desires growth. Surprisingly few churches, however, seek to promote internal church growth by stressing the need to raise children in covenantal truth. Few seriously grapple with why many adolescents become nominal members with mere notional faith or abandon evangelical truth for unbiblical doctrine and modes of worship. I believe one major reason for this failure is the lack of stress upon family worship. In many churches and homes family worship is an optional thing, or at most a superficial exercise such as a brief table grace before meals. Consequently, many children grow up with no experience or impression of Christian faith and worship as a daily reality.”

“Would we see revival among our children? Let us remember that God often uses the restoration of family worship to usher in church revival. For example, the 1677 church covenant of the Puritan congregation in Dorchester, Massachusetts, included the commitment ‘to reform our families, engaging ourselves to a conscientious care to set before us and to maintain the worship of God in them; and to walk in our houses with perfect hearts in a faithful discharge of all domestic duties, educating, instructing, and charging our children and households to keep the ways of the Lord.’”

Douglas Kelly says that “Family religion, which depends not a little on the household head daily leading the family before God in worship, is one of the most powerful structures that the covenant-keeping God has given for the expansion of redemption through the generations, so that countless multitudes may be brought into communion with and worship” of God. 

So may these resources help all Lifers to build up their families in the fear and admonition of the Lord; that Family Worship would not be an optional exercise but a time of day and activity well-sought after by Godly parents and children.  Amen.

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