Let Them Ever Sing for Joy

Introduction

We have indeed come today to this place to come in to the august presence of an awesome God, the great I am. And it’s about that worship that I want to talk to you about today.

Why? Why should I worship? Why should I be here this morning? Why did you come? Got an interesting message from Christie appealing to the rest of us, and at least three of us saw it on the Decker Prairie member page of Facebook about Exodus 5, verse 3, and the statement that is made to Pharaoh that the Israelites were saying that we need to go out three days’ journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifice, lest he come upon us with pestilence and sword. And she was inquiring from the rest of us, would that really have happened? You know, because Pharaoh would not let them go, but if they’d gone out three days’ journey into the wilderness, or if they’d failed to do that would God have come upon them with pestilence and sword.

And can we use this verse? What’s where Christie was going? I love this. Can we use this verse to say, if you don’t worship, God’s going to come on you with pestilence and sword? We can use this verse to say you should attend the assemblies. Well, I don’t know of anybody that’s specifically received pestilence and sword for forsaking assemblies, but I just acknowledge to her that we should try instead to get people to see the need for worship. The joy of worship. Hopefully you’ve seen that today. The responsibility of worship among his people. And if we could somehow cultivate in people the want to worship. The attitude, I wouldn’t miss it. Because I understand what it is. Then we’ll be far more successful than guilting people.

1. Worship Is a Conduit and a Catalyst

You know what I’ve noticed? When you start talking about attendance and the need to attend assemblies, and people are convicted, yeah, I’m not doing like I should, and you guilt them into it. You know how long that lasts? Maybe a week. At best a month. Because you didn’t get them where you really need to get them. And that is to get it. What it’s really all about. So I’m going to suggest two things for you, very simply, that I’d like you to take with you two words that I will elaborate on in this lesson. Why do you need worship? Number one. Worship is a conduit. I like that word. Texas, it’s conduit. You need to do worship. Conduit. No. Conduit is something that facilitates something. It brings things together.

It provides electricity into our homes, which we like to use in abundance. Especially to make those air conditioners run. Conduit. How is worship a conduit? It brings us, ushers us into the presence of God and relationship with him. And that’s important. And I need it. And beyond that, the second word is catalyst. This is not an end in itself. It is a part of the end. It produces a result. It is a springboard. It promotes something in our lives. Worship is becoming to us. It exalts our very existence. It makes us better. It pushes and motivates us to be what our Creator desires for us. This is not just checking off a box every first day of the week on the Lord’s day. This is a catalyst for something more in your life.

And if this is all that it is, I did my duty on Sunday, I honored the God who created me, I’m done. Now I can go about doing whatever I want to do. Then you’ve missed it. You don’t get it. Conduit.

Catalyst. I want to take you briefly to Psalm 5 and four verses in particular that relate to this. I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. Now I know some of these passages are referencing a time when people would go to the temple for worship, a specific designated place, and we can come into the presence of God at any time in our lives as his children. So think larger than just a building here. I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before me. We learn something about God’s ways and our walking in his ways when we come together for worship.

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy. That’s it right there. The people of God are people who should ever sing for joy. Not out of duty and responsibility. Not because it’s our tradition. Not just going through the motions. Let them ever sing for joy. And spread your righteous protection over them that those who love your name may exalt. That they may exalt in you, a word that’s used often in Romans 5. For you bless the righteous, O Lord. You cover him with favor as with a shield. You see, this is the conduit that we described. So I want to take you to a Bible scene briefly from which we get three very important things about our worship. But before we do, I want to go to Ecclesiastes 5.

2. Guard Your Steps When You Go to God's House

Because there’s something very important here about approaching God in any way whatsoever. Guard your steps when you go to the house of God to draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools. Wouldn’t that be terrible if what we were doing here today represented the sacrifice of fools? May it not be so. For they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. You know, it can become something that we just take for granted to be in a place like this and to engage in these acts of worship. And it becomes very familiar. It’s our custom, it’s our habit. But there is a sense in which we are coming into the presence of God in a very special way today.

And it needs to be done with the proper reverence and respect for him. Do not be hasty to utter a word before God. For God, oh, this is the key. For God is in heaven. You are on earth. You need to recognize the vast awesome difference between where he is and who he is, and who you are and where you are. God, whether it be in this building or in our personal lives, should always be approached with reverence and care. Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 5. Now, let me give you a story that suggests this much. Isaiah chapter 6. We’re going to spend the rest of our time here this morning. We might mention some other passages, but I want us to look at Isaiah chapter 6.

It’s interesting that really Isaiah’s commission comes after an opening salvo in chapter 1 in particular, but moving through chapter 5. And then in chapter 6, in the year of King Isaiah’s death, Isaiah is privileged to get a glimpse of glory. And this has been a favorite of many students of the Bible, including myself, to read this text and to imagine it in our minds, because we are given a picture of something that Isaiah saw that I would love to experience myself. I know football is happening. And I guess next week is the NFL. And all the ladies are going, oh, it’s not this time of year again. And some of the guys really excited about their team. Well, not everybody. It’s already gone south. It doesn’t take long.

But really excited about football. You wouldn’t care about another game. If you could be present eternally in this picture of Isaiah 6. In the year of King Isaiah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted. With the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above him. Majestic, awesome, beautiful. Seraphim stood above him. Each having six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. I mean, this is an impressive picture. And one called out to another and said, Holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.

3. Exalt the Exalted

And the foundations of the thresholds tremble at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. That’s the short version of what Isaiah was taking in. What can we learn about that part of the vision in relation to our worship and what this is all about? The why of this. May it always be about this. How do we get the most out of worship? How do we generate zest, enthusiasm, and desire? Number one, we understand that we are here to exalt the exalted. So often we come into this building and immediately our thoughts turn to people and the aforementioned games and all the other things that are going on in life, and it becomes one huge distraction. And rightfully so, to some extent, we are here to interrelate as God’s people, to be brethren toward one another, to stimulate one another unto love and good deeds.

I mean, we are here to cultivate relationships with those who are like-minded in Christ. And so this coming together, the embraces, the greetings, the conversations that unfold are all a part of being a body of people.

But we must keep in the forefront of our minds that this is foremost about this. Foremost. Exalt the exalted. And one of the things that you see in Isaiah chapter 6 is this important point. That God’s presence overwhelms the scene. God is huge. God is large. God is lofty. This whole scene, it is about the presence of God. Everything is attending to Him. How big is God? Far bigger than you can picture or paint in your mind. When you think about God, as you thought about God this morning, did you, as we worshiped? Did you try in some way to cultivate a mental image or think about these songs that we’re singing, bringing them to heaven, upward in the presence of this awesome God? Maybe Isaiah 6 helps us here to envision something like this as we worship.

Do you ever just drive along? And I tend to do it on Sunday mornings. I don’t know, there’s something about driving up 249 on the highway.

It’s me and the Wiggingtons, the Frasiers, and the Wheelers and the Harrises, and we’re always jockeying for position, and Thad always wins. But there’s just a few of us driving up 249, and I’m just looking around. A lot of times it’s a sunny Sunday morning, and I see all these billowy clouds. When you look into the clouds, do you ever think about them as God’s chariot?

Son of man coming on a cloud. That’s Daniel 7 imagery. Think of how powerful and big and large. How big is God? Consider the vastness of the universe. And he is outside of it in some sense. He’s in the spirit realm. He attends and manages it all. It’s all under his authority. He is sovereign. He is great over all. And the Psalms are continually telling us about the greatness of God. We are here today to exalt the exalted, and God’s presence overwhelms the scene. Number two.

4. Cleansing Comes From the Presence of God

Isaiah 6 and verse 5. Then I said, Isaiah’s taking all this in. -oh.

Woe is me. For I am ruined. Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. Cleansing comes from the presence of God. And he touched my mouth with it, and he said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven. God is telling us way back when you’re going to need me to rectify the problem of your sin. I can fix what is broken. I can make you whole. I can allow you into my presence.

I can bring you Isaiah. Now, I’ll just say Isaiah was better than most. If we’re going to do some comparisons, compare Isaiah to the rest of Israel in his time. He was better than most. And Isaiah could have said, I’m better than most of these other Israelites. But Isaiah saw something we need to see. What Isaiah saw was, I have no right.

This is so much greater than me. So much more perfect than me. Wait a minute. Are you telling me I don’t have a right to be here today?

Not without God, you don’t.

5. Determined in Holiness: Here Am I, Send Me

It doesn’t matter how many classes I’ve taught or sermons I’ve preached or how much biblical knowledge I’ve accumulated or how many people I’ve served or how many sacrifices I’ve made, I don’t deserve to be here. The Lord has dealt wondrously with me. And then finally, I read verse 8. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? God prepares Isaiah for holiness. What does it mean that God is holy? Holy, uttered three times the intensity of holiness. What does it mean that God is holy? God is totally other, is what it means. God is totally separate. He is untainted by any evil at all. He is good in his essence and his core from eternity.

He is over all.

What he asked of us when he cleanses us as he cleansed Isaiah is he asked for us to pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, the Hebrew writer says in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 4. I have been set apart for special and important and sacred purposes in the service of God. This is why we struggle in our lives. This is why we succumb to temptation. This is why we find it so difficult to be a Christian at times because we do not see ourselves as instruments of holiness. I’ve been set apart.

Conform to the former lusts which were yours when you weren’t very smart, Peter says. Conform to the former lusts which are yours in your ignorance, he says. No more. No longer conform to that. But be holy in all your behavior. As God is holy.

And there’s provision for that. I don’t deserve to be here. God can still use me. He can put me to special purposes and use. And so how do you respond to that? You volunteer is what you do. You say, like Isaiah did.

I’ll do it. Here am I, send me. You need me to show up and worship? Here I am. Send me. You need me to do a hard thing? Sign me up. I’m on the dotted line right here. Me. You need me to rebuke someone who’s lost their way and need someone to care about them and rescue them. I’ll do it.

Conclusion

I’ll do the hard thing. So you’re no longer, well, Sunday morning, guess I’ll go to worship. Guess I’ll attend among the saints of Decker Bray. No. You see, when you exalt the exalted and appreciate the privilege and you’re determined in holiness, you say, here I am. Here I am. Sin. Me. Let us serve God acceptably with gratitude and reverence. Knowing that our God is a consuming fire. I love the context of that. In Hebrews chapter 12, the Israelites were afraid of the mountain. It quaked, it trembled, the voice of God. It scared them. Moses, you go deal with God. We’re scared of him. He says, that’s, we don’t have to, we can approach the throne of God boldly. We don’t have to fear and cower like they did.

He has granted us access, bold access to his throne, and we have a sympathizing high priest. We have come to Mount Zion. Do not refuse him who is speaking. He goes on to say in Hebrews 12, verse 25 and following. But know who he is. And know who you are. Know how privileged you are to be able to serve in His cause. Finally, let them ever sing with joy. Are you gloriously engaged in the praise and service of the awesome God and King Jesus Christ? Can we assist you? Let’s stand and sing.