Sermon for 10/26/2003
The Song of Glory
Introduction:
A. I remember as a young lad in the 6th grade going down to the pond and just sitting there after a bad day… It helped to soothe me. I didn’t pray but the sounds and smells and feels and sights soothed my troubled soul
WBTU:
A. In my study for the Fishers of Men series I came across an essay written by A. J. McClane called, “The Song of the Angler.” In this essay he examines why fishermen fish.
1. People fish for each others company, for the fellowship. Able to share in a common activity. People fish for the friendships.
2. Psychologists tell us that one reason why we enjoy fishing is because it is an escape. McClane says that it is an escape to reality. The sense of freedom that we enjoy in the outdoors is, after all, a normal reaction to a more rational environment.
3. He gives all of these explanations but this is the one I want us to focus on. Fishers fish to enjoy the music and the songs. Not ones that they sing but the song that arises from nature. He illustrates this with the story of Lord Fraser. McClane says, “Lord Fraser of Lonsdale is a friend of mine. He is a skilled fly-fisherman, and when last we visited together, he caught a 35 pound salmon which was the biggest in the camp for many weeks. What’s more I have heard him spellbind a roomful of strangers with tales of his life in South Africa. What does this matter? Well, Lord Fraser is totally blind. Both of his eyes were shot out in WW1. A profoundly intellectual man, Fraser has developed his others senses to a point that most of the people who sat with him that night had no idea that he was unable to see them. I don’t know if you have every tried wading (unaided) and fly-fishing a stream while blindfolded. I cannot do it, and I would probably lack the guts if I had to do it. Lord Fraser is the chairman of the board of a powerful retail business in England. His work is demanding and he enjoys going fishing to catch fish yes, but also to enjoy the song of the angler. He enjoys hearing all of the things around him: the changing tempos of deep and shallow water, the curling smack of a rapid against a bolder, even the roll or rise of a fish. His ear for the music of angling is incredibly keen.
B. Even if you have lived in a city all of your life with concrete always under your feet, you have heard the song of creation. When we are in the country just listen to all of the sounds?
C. Even if you have lived in a city all of your life you have seen the song of the glory of the Lord.
Thesis: What kind of song does creation sing and what kind of song are we going to sing?
For instances:
1. What kind of song does creation sing?
A. The song of the glory of God.
** Psalm 19:1-6, Introduction
1. David wrote these words and he was well acquainted with God’s two books. One being the Bible the other the book of Nature. Being a shepherd he knew the song of the glory of God.
2. The book of nature has three levels, heaven, earth and the sea
B. Heavens in Israelites mind was the sun, moon, and stars.
1. The moon is 50 times smaller than the earth. It bounces off light from the sun so that we can partially see at night. Without the moon we would have no tides. Without the tides a lot of ocean life would die.
2. The stars in the sky are other suns that are billions of miles away.
2. Meteorites, comets, and asteroids.
2. Planets.
2. These things give such unanswerable arguments for an intelligent, planning, and presiding Creator, that no unprejudiced person can remain unconvinced by them.
C. Firmament, skies
The atmosphere is where we live. Without it we would die. Other planets have atmospheres but ours is the only one with enough oxygen to support life as we know it. Our atmosphere also has enough water in it to support life.
B. Day after day; night after night.
1. Days and nights are but a fountain of speech filled with God’s praise.
2. Day bids us labor, night reminds us to prepare for our last home.
C. Vs. 4
1. Every man may hear the voices of the stars.
2. Sun, moon, and stars are God’s traveling preachers. Pictorial displays of God’s glory.
3. The heavens speak by their actions and operations.
4. No men living beneath the heavens (all of us) are beyond the bounds of the preaching of God’s greatest preachers.
D. Vs. 4b- 6
1. Sun is 166 times bigger than the earth. Perfect distance from earth to support life. It takes light from the sun to reach the earth in 8 minutes and 30 seconds.
2. No one is beyond the effects of the sun. All life on earth draws its energy from the Sun.
Psalm 104- Selected verses, earth and sea.
A. Vs. 3- Clouds, produce rain and the ozone layer
B. Vs. 4- Winds, movement of air by hot and cold.
C. Fire
D. Vs. 5- Earth and its movement. Rotates around just right, night and day. Tilts on its axis so that we have different seasons.
E. Vs. 6-9- If the earth was flat, the water would cover everything.
F. Vs. 10- 18- He takes care of the animals and plants.
G. Read vs. 24- 30.
Summary- The heavens are telling the glory of God,
The firmament displaying the work of his hands;
Day unto day welleth forth speech,
Night unto night breatheth out knowledge.
There is another song rising up that is not the glory of the Lord. It is a song of something or someone else.
Romans 8:20-23- The song of Corruption
A. Subject to frustration???
1. Survival of the fittest
2. Death
3. Everything is winding down.
4. Everything is going toward a state of chaos, a state of decay.
B. By the will of the one who subjected it.
1. The fall
2. Satan and mankind suffered the penalty for sin. Pain in childbirth, hard backbreaking work, and death.
3. Not by its choice. It was the choice of man.
C. Glorious freedom.
1. No more survival of the fittest. Lion will lay down with the lamb. Healthy.
2. No more death
3. No more decay but everything is good.
4. Go back to the Garden. Man is the crown of creation and looks out for the good.
D. Groaning.
1. Earthquakes.
2. Volcanoes
3. Hurricanes
4. Tornadoes
5. Floods and drought
6. Extreme hot and cold
E. We groan.
1. Our bodies ache and cause pain.
2. We are fighting the battle of the “B’s”
3. The redemption of our bodies.
** Calvin Miller in his book the Singer talks about the World Hater who has been singing this song of corruption and death and suffering for years. The world has become accustomed to his song. It is so intoxicating and so normal. However, along comes the Troubadour who sings the Father’s Song or the Creation Song or the Star Song. His song causes the blind to see and the sick to be healed and the downtrodden to be happy. These two musicians continue to sing their songs and to affect the earth.
2. What kind of song are we going to sing?
A. We have no choice but to sign the song of corruption. We must do as our fathers have done. We are condemned.
B. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Through Jesus Christ, we can follow a different drummer. We need to respond to the song of the Troubadour, Jesus Christ, and follow that song.
C. In the Singer book, the Troubadour’s hand is smashed by the World Hater and he is not able to play. However, the Father heals his hand and he is able to play better and stronger than before. The smashing of the Troubadour’s hand and its healing is a beautiful portrayal of the pain and healing that is associated with Jesus, who brought healing to this sin-sick world through the Cross.
D. We can change from listening to the song of corruption to the song of the glory of God.
E. (Rom 1:20 NIV) For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
F. I am not going to listen to any song. I am going to play my own tune. Our tune is just the tune of the World Hater.
G. I want to have the song of the Christ in my heart. I want to have that song around me and in me and I no longer want to have the song of the World Hater.
H. Plan of salvation.
I. I don’t sing. We either give glory to God or we do not. We either sing the song of the redeemed or the song of corruption.
Conclusion:
A. Calvin Miller’s The Singer the last page says, “There was music all around them in the air. They sang the Star-Song, and far above the Crystal Chair, their music drifted outward into the universe.”
B. Think about eternity. One day the Star Singer will come back and everything will be changed.
C. We will be going home and we will give glory and honor to Jesus Christ. (Rev 15:2 NIV) And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name. They held harps given them by God(Rev 15:3 NIV) and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: "Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages.(Rev 15:4 NIV) Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."
D. The book of Zephaniah says that God will rejoice over us with singing. What kind of song will God sing to us? It is the song of his glory. We have seen glimpses of it in his Creation. We will have it in its pure form in heaven.
E. But the other side of this is the ones who do not follow or sing the song of the redeemed. Calvin Miller “The World Hater knew that when the course of time was done, the door would be put back upon the Canyon of the Damned, and he would be locked in with all of the discord of the Universe. And he would suffer with all of those he had taught to hate the Star Song.”
F. All of the glory of God removed. No beauty in the trees, no beauty in the sky, no beauty in the heavenly bodies. Only the song of the Damned. All glory is removed.
