Joy to the World – Singing With Joy

Transcript

JRS 40
12/24/2023
Joy to the World – Singing for Joy
Selected Verses
Jesse Randolph

Well, it is a great joy to be back together this afternoon on Christmas Eve. If we haven’t met, I’m Jesse Randolph, the Pastor-Teacher here at Indian Hills. I just want to welcome you. And thank you for joining us here, on this special occasion. What beautiful songs we’ve already been privileged to sing. With this ensemble, this arrangement, just gorgeous.

Those last lyrics, “that sleeping child you’re holding is the great, I Am.” What magnificent truths are wrapped just into those few words. Just rich, powerful, packed with significance. And each of the lyrics of the songs that we’ve been singing thus far have all of these key truths, and these transcendent truths, rooted ultimately in the scripture about what that babe in the manger came to this world to do. And what I hope and I pray for everybody here this afternoon, is that the singing of these songs, not just this afternoon, but all the songs that we’ve been privileged to sing all throughout the month of December, has given you many reasons to pause. And to thank God, not only for the gifts under the tree and the gifts that you’ll open later or the gifts you’ve already opened or the gifts you’ll open tomorrow or the gifts you’ve been blessed with all year around, but for the gift of His Son. And specifically the birth of His Son. And not only the birth of His Son, but ultimately the death of His Son. Through which we now have, we who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, life, spiritual life, eternal life, and restored relationship with God.

See, everyone here sitting in this auditorium this afternoon bears the image of the living God. God created each and every one of us. And indeed, each and every person who’s ever been born into this world in His image. Genesis 1:27 says it this way, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him,” or them. And then here sadly a controversial statement today, it says “male and female He created them.” We have been created in God’s image. And part of being created in God’s image is that we have been created to worship the One in whose image we have been made. The reality is everyone on this planet ultimately worships something. Everybody here in this room, everybody here outside of Christ, outside the world, everyone worships something. For some it will be the idea of the perfect body. For some it will be that of the perfect spouse. For some it will be that of the perfect job. For some it will be that of the perfect child. But God didn’t create us to worship any of those things. Rather, He created us to worship Him. And one of the many outlets He has given us to do so, one of the many gifts He has given us to do so, is the ability to sing to Him and the ability to sing of Him. To open our mouths, like we’ve been doing this afternoon, to engage the larynx and the lungs and the diaphragm and to let it fly.

I was reminded of this very truth, how the singing of songs of praise to our great God is a gift from above, as James 1:17 puts it. Not too long ago, see, it was just a few years ago, that I was serving as an associate pastor out in California. And without getting too political here on Christmas Eve, at that time in California we were being told that a virus was sweeping the nation. And that this virus was going to be like the Black Plague, and hospitals were going to be at capacity, and morgues were going to fill up, and bodies would be piling in the street. The new Black Death was upon us. So now, toilet paper was flying off the shelves, and roads were empty, and schools were closed. And mass panic ensued, and the world came to a grinding halt. And you’ll recall, we were told, we were all told, unless you masked up and distanced and got at least three or four boosters, you obviously didn’t love people. You obviously were being selfish; you obviously wanted the whole human race to perish.

Well, it was during that same time out in the golden state that the governor of that state (I won’t mention his name, but I’m sure you’ve seen his glistening white smile, his slick-back hair, and you’ve heard of his presidential ambitions ever since.), this governor was telling churches, and he was telling the pastors who led those churches, and the Christians who were members of those churches, that not only did they need to stay home, and not only did they need to distance themselves when they did gather and did assemble, but that they needed to stop singing. No more singing, churches, because there are particles in the air, deadly droplets. Your vocal chords are like a machine gun, your tongues are like tomahawks, and your singing is basically an assassination attempt. I’m using hyperbole here; he didn’t use those words, but it was threat level ‘midnight’ around California at that time when the governor was telling churches not to sing.

And that was one of those monumental moments for us as a church, as a body of believers. We had to decide. Will we obey, will we comply? Are we going to keep on singing, as God’s word commands us to do? Are we going to muffle our mouths? Because the governor of our state has told us to stop singing.
Well, we chose to sing, we chose to disobey. And we issued a lengthy statement. I won’t read the whole thing. I’ll give you an excerpt here about why we chose the path we chose. I think it will be a benefit for us tonight.

We said, “We have mutually and humbly come to the conclusion that the time is now to publicly declare that we will no longer adhere to government standards, regulations, or requirements that in any way impede or otherwise interfere with the ability of our flock to worship and praise our great God . . . The church has one Head – the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is the sovereign Ruler over all matters pertaining to how the church worships, praises, gathers [and] assembles . . . His authority is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And [God the Father has] put all things in subjection under [Christ’s] feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:21-23). While civil authorities have the ability to set speed limits, to levy taxes, and to pass food safety regulations, no civil authority has the right to encroach upon . . . Jesus’ exclusive dominion over His church. A civil authority who seeks to ban the singing of congregational worship songs . . . is a civil authority who has overstepped his or her authority as he or she steps into territory reserved by the Chief Shepherd and His appointed under-shepherds (the pastors of the church).”

I can tell you, (inside baseball here, because I’m the one who wrote those words), that there was a great deal of intentionality behind every single word and phrase of that statement. There was an over-arching conviction which drove everything we said in that statement. That as a group of shepherds, we held the conviction biblically, that Christ, not Caesar, is the head of the church. And another of our convictions, bringing it back to the topic ‘du jour’ for this evening on Christmas Eve, is that Christians sing. As an extension of the worship that we are called to give our great God, the One who has made us in His image, we sing. And not only that, we sing with joy in light of the great gift of salvation we’ve received through God sending His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world.

In case you’re new to Indians Hills [church] this afternoon, this very brief message, (I promise), is going to be the fifth and final installment of our “Joy to the World” Christmas series that I’ve been taking us through throughout December. And in this whole series we’ve been looking at the biblical concept of joy.
And we’ve seen what a joy-starved soul looks like over in Titus 3:3. We looked at the journey of one joy seeker, Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 2:1, and how he was on that unending hamster wheel of seeking happiness, but could never find it. We saw in 1 Peter 1 [verse 8] that we can as believers, if we truly trust in Jesus Christ, strive for joy. Even in the midst of, specifically, trials. (And for crackling voices or lost voices.) We saw this morning as we went through Luke 1, ninety four verses in Luke 1 and 2, how we’ve been supplied with joy through the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And then this afternoon on Christmas Eve we’ll wrap this up with this short message titled “Singing with Joy.” Where we’re going to see, as followers of Christ, as image bearers who were made to worship, as recipients of the greatest gift that’s ever been given, we are called to sing. And to sing with joy.

Now, I’m not going to go to a single text here this afternoon; I’m going to hang this brief message on a selection of different scriptures, some in the Old Testament, some in the New. We’ll start back in the Old Testament where we know that Moses and the children of Israel, they sang a song about deliverance from the Egyptians as the Red Sea was parted, in Exodus 15. I’ll just take one lyric for you, Exodus 15:11, where it says, this is a song, “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?” Then we move forward to the book of Judges, Judges 5, where there’s Barak and Deborah who sang a song following the destruction of the Canaanites in Judges 5:2-3. They sang, “Bless the Lord! Hear, O kings; give ear, O rulers! I – to the Lord, I will sing, I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

And of course, there’s the whole book of Psalms which really is a book of songs. The psalter has rightly been called “the divine songbook.” And in the Psalms, we see over and over, not only singing modeled, but singing communicated. And singing commanded and commanded with joy. We’re commanded to sing in the Psalms with joy. Here are a few examples for you. Psalms 5:11, it says: “But let all who take refuge in You be glad, let them ever sing for joy; and may You shelter them.” Psalm 9:2, it says, “I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.” Psalm 59:16 says: “I [will] shall joyfully sing of Your lovingkindness in the morning, for You have been my stronghold and a refuge in the day of my distress.” What’s being described in each of those Psalms is a reverent fear of the Lord mixed in with natural joy in the Lord which produces these worshipful songs of praise that are directed to the Lord.

We also see this worshipful partaking in song reflected, not only in the Old Testament, but we also see it in the New. When we get to the Gospel of Matthew and we see that after His final Passover meal with His twelve disciples our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 26:30 records before He went out to the Mount of Olives they sang a hymn. A hymn that likely was comprised of various Psalms assembled together. In the book of Acts, which is really the first volume of church history, Acts 16:25 records Paul and Silas, who are imprisoned in Philippi, “praying and singing hymns of praise to God,” with the prisoners around them listening to them. They were shackled, and yet singing. They were imprisoned, yet rejoicing. And note, they weren’t singing about themselves or how great they were. Not even requesting deliverance for themselves. They were singing words of praise to God, the very God who had appointed for them to be imprisoned, in that scenario. And then, this call and this command to sing carries forward into the church epistles and the church age. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” And then James 5:13 says: “Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.”

Now, if I can digress for just one minute. I mean that, a minute. Especially at this time of year our minds tend to get filled up with all sorts of imagery related to angels singing. We get ideas of angels singing from ornately decorated Christmas cards and Christmas themed artwork. Thanks to [speaker stumbles over the name] come on, Thomas Kincade. You can tell I’m an art guru. But we also see this idea of angels singing in Christmas carols, right? “Sing choirs of angels,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o’er the plains.” I’m not going to die on this hill, I’m not going to try to split the church over this, or raise my pitchfork over this. But I’m not sure that we have sufficient biblical evidence, for angels actually singing. We have biblical evidence of angels worshiping. And praising. And rejoicing. And speaking. And shouting. And even roaring. But there’s very little to indicate that angels sing. Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. Again, not dying on that hill this evening.

One thing we do know though -- and we know this from the plain revelation of the words on the pages of scripture -- is that God’s people sing. And one thing we do know is that, since Jesus Christ came into the world, what God’s people have always sung about is their relationship with God that they have through Jesus Christ. So, we were once starved for joy. We were once seeking joy like Solomon. We were once, and we can now, we can strive for joy as believers even in the most difficult of circumstances. And that’s because we have been supplied with joy as we saw this morning, a reality which causes us to sing with joy.

Now, I could end the message on that point. I’ve got my five ‘S’s alliteration’ checked. Now we’re done, off to our celebrations of Christmas we go. But I would be remiss if I did not put this question out there tonight before my time is up, as you find yourself sitting back here this evening in these comfortable chairs in this warm auditorium listening to these beautiful songs sung by these gifted singers. Are you right with God? Do you know without a shadow of a doubt where you would go if you didn’t survive to see Christmas morning tomorrow? Do you have belief? Do you have a saving relationship with God? Do you have a saving relationship through Jesus Christ? Have you put your faith in Him? If so, praise the Lord. Keep on singing with us. Keep on rejoicing. Because you have all the reason in the world to sing these songs and to sing them joyfully, right now at Christmas.

But if you’re here this evening as an unbeliever -- whether through your own admission or because Satan has blinded your eyes into deceiving you to thinking that you’re a Christian when in fact you’re not -- I have to tell you that without a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, all that we are doing here tonight, for you is cold ritual, it’s empty formalism, it’s soul-destroying legalism. And when you face your Maker one day, the One who created you in His image, who created you to worship Him -- the fact that you were extra nice to people at Christmas, or the fact that you dropped a few extra coins in the Salvation Army bucket outside of Target, or the fact that you gave your employees a nice Christmas bonus, or the fact that you came to church this afternoon, or the fact that you’re willing to sing Christmas carols with us, none of it is going to matter. The only thing that is going to matter on that last day as your body goes into the ground and your soul goes on is whether you have put your faith in Jesus Christ.

I’ve heard that one of the churches in town is hosting “The Grinch” for their Christmas Eve service tonight. It sounds epic to me. But that’s not the Christmas message that spiritually-comatose, asleep-at-the-wheel, spiritually-dead people who don’t know the Lord, need to hear. No. The Christmas message that you need to hear if you’re unsaved, if you don’t know the Lord, is not that God loves you and thinks that you’re so wonderful. Rather, the Christmas message that you need to hear. Is that you are a rebel and the One that you’ve rebelled against is a thrice-holy God. And this God is not a God who will overlook your rebellion forever. Instead, He’s a just God, and a righteous God, and a God who will one day punish you for each and every one of the sins you’ve committed. In the eternal fires of hell. And there, you’ll no longer be singing like we’re all doing tonight. Rather, you’ll be suffering. Facing the unending wrath and judgment of God. For all eternity.
I understand that what I’m saying now is kind of a downer. It sounds kind of harsh. I sound like the Grinch. Doesn’t sound very Christmassy. But I say this on the authority of God’s Word. And I say this in love.

If I’m describing you right now, what you need to do this Christmas is believe. Believe that God sent His Son into this world in an unfathomable act of love and grace and mercy. Believe that God sent His Son into this world ultimately to die. So that your sins might be forgiven. No matter how dark or how bleak or how awful or how unforgivable you might think your sins are. God sent His Son so that you might have eternal life. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” You need to believe not only that Christ died though. You need to believe that Christ rose. Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” So, believe in His death. Believe in His resurrection. Not only must you believe though, you must repent. You need to turn, in faith, from your wicked ways, whatever that looks like for you. And you need to commit from this day forward to living in accordance with the righteous standards that God has given His people to live by in His Word.

Don’t reject the greatest give that’s ever been given. Don’t reject the greatest gift that’s ever been offered in this world, in the history of the world. Through God sending His Son into this world on a mission to seek and to save that which was lost. But instead receive as a gift of grace this gift of salvation. As you repent and believe in Jesus Christ. And until you receive that gift, until you repent and believe, and I pray that you do, here’s the song that I truly believe ought to be etched in your mind. This is the song that you ought to be singing. These words come from David in his great psalm of repentance,
Psalm 51:14, where he says, “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.” If you’re not a follower of Jesus Christ this evening, you need deliverance as the Psalm says. Deliverance from your guilt and your sin and the wrath to come. It’ll only be then, after you’ve been delivered by believing in Jesus Christ that, as Psalm 51:14 says, your tongue can joyfully sing.

Speaking of singing, we have more singing to do this evening. I’m not sure if it will be Andrew or Robin at this point coming up next. But as I get ready to turn it over to one of these two men. I’m going to close with one of the stanzas from one of the songs we were singing this morning, “Good Christian Men Rejoice.”

“Good Christian men, rejoice with heart, and soul, and voice; now ye need not fear the grave: Peace! Peace! Jesus Christ was born to save! Calls you one, and calls you all, to gain His everlasting hall: Christ was born to save! Christ was born to save!”

Amen. Merry Christmas to you all.