Psalm 96:1-13, Isaiah 4:2-6, 1 John 3:1-8, Matthew 24:23-31.
A). THE GREATER CANTATA.
Psalm 96:1-13.
Psalms 93-100 are sometimes known as the “enthronement” Psalms. Yet this is not the enthronement of any earthly king (Psalm 93:1; Psalm 97:1; Psalm 99:1). Many of the words of this particular Psalm (Psalm 96) make their first appearance at the instalment of the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of the presence of the LORD, in Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 16:23-33).
1. Creation.
The Psalmist exhorts the earth to sing a new song to the LORD (Psalm 96:1). What is that new song? It is an acknowledgement that “the LORD reigns” (Psalm 96:10).
That acknowledgement is based retrospectively in the realities of the creation (Psalm 96:5), to which the heavens already testify (Psalm 19:1-3). It is based in our present salvation (Psalm 96:2). And it is based in the anticipation of the coming of the LORD to judge the earth (Psalm 96:13).
Man has plunged the earth into chaos through sin (Genesis 3:17-19). Significantly, then, it is the creation which groans for deliverance (Romans 8:19-22). The Psalmist exhorts the creation to praise in faith - rather than waiting for favourable circumstances - and creation ultimately rejoices (Psalm 96:11-12).
The earth is instructed to declare the glory of the LORD to the nations, and His wonders among all peoples (Psalm 96:3). The fulfilment of this command is what leaves men - even those who have never heard of our Lord Jesus Christ -without excuse (Romans 1:18-20). What an incentive to the church to join creation in the task of evangelism (Romans 10:14-15)!
2. The Glory of the LORD.
The Psalmist declares the greatness of the LORD (Psalm 96:4). He is to be revered above all other “gods” because the so-called “gods” of the peoples are nothing but dumb idols (Psalm 96:5). It is the LORD who made the heavens (this is still being addressed to the earth): and He alone is attended by the attributes of Honour and Majesty, Strength and Beauty (Psalm 96:6).
The Psalmist exhorts all families of the peoples, all clans, to ascribe to the LORD the glory and honour due to His name (Psalm 96:7-8). This was perhaps partially fulfilled when the Gospel went forth from Jerusalem after Pentecost (Acts 1:8), but the prophets envisage all nations one day coming to Jerusalem to worship the LORD (Isaiah 2:2-3; Micah 4:1-2; Zechariah 14:16). The earth is again exhorted to worship the LORD, this time in the splendour of His holiness (Psalm 96:9).
3. The Righteous Judgment of the LORD.
We have already noticed that the central message of this Psalm, as with all the enthronement Psalms, is that “the LORD reigns” (Psalm 96:10). It is He who has established the earth (cf. Psalm 93:1), and it is He who is coming in judgement of the children of men (Acts 17:30-31). Finally, the heavens and the seas, and the fields and the trees, join the earth in their joyful song of praise (Psalm 96:11-12) - and all because of the true and righteous judgement of our God (Psalm 96:13 - cf. Revelation 19:1-2).
4. Worship Changes Things.
When Paul and Silas were wrongfully imprisoned in Philippi - beaten and bruised for preaching the gospel - we do not read that they complained and murmured, but that at midnight they prayed and sang praises to God. This is in keeping with Paul’s own teaching (Philippians 4:4). Then there was an earthquake and, to cut a long story short, their fortitude helped bring the keeper of the prison from the brink of suicide into the joy of the Lord (Acts 16:25-34).
As we leave the joyful sound of Creation’s harmonious praise, we are reminded that worship changes things.
B). A GLORIOUS FUTURE.
Isaiah 4:2-6.
ISAIAH 4:2. “In that day” is the same expression as is used in the preceding chapters (cf. Isaiah 2:11-12; Isaiah 2:17; Isaiah 2:20). There it speaks of the desperation of both men (cf. Isaiah 3:6-7), and women (cf. Isaiah 3:18; Isaiah 4:1) under the judgment of the LORD. But our compassionate LORD tempers His judgments with mercy, and ISAIAH 4:2 introduces the Messiah under the motif of “the branch of the LORD (cf. Isaiah 11:1).
“The branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious.” Beautiful in His Person as the divine man. Glorious in the accomplishment of our salvation through His humiliation and death, resurrection and ascension, exaltation, and the advancement of the gospel.
“The fruit of the earth (shall be) excellent and comely.” In His incarnation, Messiah became ‘the seed of the woman’ (cf. Genesis 3:15). He was seen to “excellent” in His Person as the Son of God (cf. Hebrews 1:4; Psalm 76:4; Hebrews 8:6). There is a “comeliness,” an attractiveness about His Person as both God and man – but only “for them that are escaped of Israel” (i.e. those who have put their trust in Jesus as the only Saviour of sinners).
ISAIAH 4:3. Those who are “left in Zion, (that) remain in Jerusalem” are the same as those who “escaped” (at the end of ISAIAH 4:2). The church is in view here, the citizens of the new Jerusalem who “shall be called holy” (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 1:4). These are the ones who are “written among the living,” who are ‘ordained unto eternal life’ (cf. Acts 13:48); whose names are written in ‘a book of remembrance’ (cf. Malachi 3:16), even ‘the Lamb’s book of life’ (cf. Revelation 21:27).
ISAIAH 4:4. It is remarkable that the LORD Himself should commit Himself to wash away “the filth of the daughters of Zion” (cf. Isaiah 3:16-24) and purge “the blood of Jerusalem” (cf. Psalm 106:38). This is accomplished “by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.” The filth is washed away as with the baptism of repentance, whilst the blood must be purged by the fiery blast of God’s breath, or Spirit (cf. Matthew 3:11).
ISAIAH 4:5. “The LORD” [the God who created all things in the beginning (cf. Genesis 1:1)], will now “create” upon His own “dwelling place” (cf. Exodus 15:17) and the “assemblies” of His people (cf. Hebrews 12:22-23), a “defence” (or ‘covering’) of “glory.” This consists of “a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night” (cf. Exodus 13:21; Numbers 9:15; Isaiah 6:4), and represents the manifestation of the glory of the LORD upon the church in all ages (cf. Ephesians 2:20-21).
ISAIAH 4:6. “There shall be a tabernacle.” Jesus, ‘the Word’ became flesh and (literally) ‘tabernacled’ amongst us (cf. John 1:14). He is the One who will cover us from the “heat,” our place of “refuge,” our security from the “storms” of life. The prophet Isaiah carries these metaphors over into the praise of Isaiah 25:4.
C). THE CHRISTIAN AND SIN.
1 John 3:1-8.
“Behold,” says John. Pause for thought and reflection. For it is indeed a wonderful demonstration of God's love that “we” should be called the sons of God (1 JOHN 3:1).
This was not what we deserved, but as we know from other Scriptures, it was ‘while we were yet sinners’ that Christ died for us (cf. Romans 5:8). This is addressed to Christians, of course: we who “were” sinners, but who are now ‘made righteous’ by the blood of Jesus (cf. Romans 5:19). The prodigal son desired to be restored to his father as a servant (cf. Luke 15:18-19), but when we come to God through the Lord Jesus Christ we are brought into all the privileges of son-ship.
Yet these privileges also carry responsibility (cf. 1 John 3:13).
Fathers and brothers have been known to bury an empty coffin in a gesture of rejection when a member of their family becomes a believer. Peer pressure is exerted against the new convert by former friends. Even employers use their economic advantage to try to extinguish the light of the new Christian.
The fact of the matter is that society feels threatened by the Christ within us. The world hates us because it hated Jesus first (cf. John 15:18-19). The world “knows us not, because it knew Him not” (1 JOHN 3:1).
Those who are beloved of Christ “are” the sons of God (1 JOHN 3:2).
Upon self-examination we may not feel as if we are sons of God, but the Christian does not live by his feelings. It may not look to ourselves that we are any such thing, but the whole creation awaits the manifestation of the sons of God (cf. Romans 8:19). What we are, and whose we are will not be fully evident until the Lord returns for His own.
Then we shall see Him as He is – not as he was, despised, rejected, mutilated and crucified, but as the risen conquering glorified Saviour. Then we shall be transformed, and fully conformed to His image.
Meantime, however, we are not to be idle. We have been made holy by Christ, but we are also to pursue holiness (1 JOHN 3:3). The work of sanctification, which is God's work for sure, requires our participation (cf. Philippians 2:12-13).
So what is to be the Christian's relationship to sin? Strictly speaking, he should not have such a relationship (1 JOHN 3:4-5).
What is being spoken of here is the practise or habit of sin. Christ has borne away our sin in His death upon the Cross, so how shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein? (cf. Romans 6:2).
This is not to say that Christians do not fall into sin (cf. 1 John 1:8-10; 1 John 2:1-2). However, such a falling out with God is also a falling out of our true character.
This is seen in the “whosoever” of 1 JOHN 3:6. Everyone who abides in Him is of such a character that sin is alien to them. This is not speaking of an elite few, but of all Christians. For all the faults evident in the churches to whom Paul, for example, wrote, they were still addressed as saints in Christ Jesus. We are the sanctified ones, but it is still yet to appear what we shall be (1 JOHN 3:2).
Conversely, a habit of sin betrays a lack of abiding familiarity with Jesus (1 JOHN 3:6). There are times when our sins should lead us to examine whether we are really what we say we are, or whether we have been deceiving ourselves all along.
I like the familiar touch of John, who refers to his congregation as little children in danger of being led astray (1 JOHN 3:7).
A tree is known by its fruit (cf. Matthew 12:33). The apostle speaks first of the practise of righteousness, which proves our righteousness and our identification with the righteousness of Christ (1 JOHN 3:7); then of the habitual sinfulness of the sinner, who is identified thereby with the devil (1 JOHN 3:8). The devil's habit has been to sin from the very beginning, but the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
D). THE RETURN OF THE SON OF MAN.
Matthew 24:23-31.
Jesus here warns us against the danger of false Christs and false prophets. Even the very elect of God might be deceived, He says, "if it were possible" (Matthew 24:24).
Well, how shall the second coming of Christ be known? Will it be with stealth and with secrecy? No, but it will be very suddenly, and very openly: "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall the coming of the son of man be" (Matthew 24:27).
The Second Advent will be as dramatic as it is sudden. The forces of nature will be shaken, and there shall be signs and wonders in the sky. After all, this is the day for which the whole of creation groans and travails together until now!
When He comes, it will be with the voice of the archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet. It will be "on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matthew 24:30). It will not be a secret.
The tribes of the earth may well mourn at His presence, but He will send His angels to gather together His own elect people from the four corners of the earth. Take courage, dear Christian!
