Listen, if you would, to the following phrases I'm going to read to you three or four. And see if you can discern what it is that they share in common. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever. I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart, before the gods I will sing your praise. He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. Praise the Lord, O my soul, all my inmost being, praise His holy name. What are these words? What do these phrases share in common, brothers and sisters? Three things. Number one, they are all lyrics to songs. Number two, they have all been inspired by the Holy Spirit and three, there to be found on the pages of that ancient hymnal that is contained right within our Bibles, an inspired hymnal, the Book of Psalms. With those 150 chapters you can find just about everything set to music, wisdom, lament, theology, confession, comfort, joy, encouragement, hope, celebration throughout the years I have come to discover that Christians tend to make a beeline to the Book of Psalms when they find themselves discouraged, retired, or lonely, or betrayed, or in need of comfort, that it's most often to the Book of Psalms that they turn. One writer has said, only a Philistine could fail to love the Psalms. John Calvin said, Psalms are an anatomy of all the parts of the soul. You see every human emotion contained in that book. This is a secondary point, a side point beloved, but for my money, the Book of Psalms shows us what emotional wellness really is. You see the full gamut of every human emotion in the Book of Psalms. Most importantly, we must never forget that Jesus Christ himself was a singer of the Psalms. The Book of Hebrews tells us that. But for all of the diversity that is contained within its pages, there is one central theme in the Book of Psalms that appears over and over and over again. It predominates over against everything else. It is a theme that is made explicitly clear in the final chapter of this book. Let me simply read it to you. Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His acts of power. Praise Him for His surpassing greatness. Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet. Praise Him with the harp and the lyre. Praise Him with tambourine and dancing. Praise Him with the strings and flute. Praise Him with the clash of symbols. Praise Him with the resounding symbols. And just in case you have gotten this far through the Book of Psalms and you are still not clear as to what the principal theme of the book is, he concludes as it were with an exclamation point. Let everything that has breath, even if it be feeble breath, praise the Lord. You see my friends in the mind of the inspired hymn writer, praise is at the very essence of being alive. Even when there is life in its simplest form, mere breath, there is to be praise. There is to be joyful worship. And what do we sing in our own hymn, praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him, all that have life and breath come now with praises before Him. Let the amen sound from His people again, gladly for I, we adore Him, praise. My friends whether or not you have ever realized it is at the very essence of being, a human being. It is the purpose for which God has lent us our breath. But having said that, friends, you need to appreciate tonight the fact that praise is not merely something that God commands from us. It is not something only to be demanded, praise is more than that. And this is why what we have to say tonight is so important for our lives. And that is that praise can in a very real way be a barometer of our own personal spiritual vitality. And what is also true is that it can be a barometer of our vitality as a congregation, as a corporate all. You know this experience, don't you? And the hardest cold praise feels forced, doesn't it? When the affections have dimmed, when the passions have cooled, when the intimacy has waned, praise seems perfunctory. It seems cranked up to the contrary where there is true life and the fires of intimacy with God have been intentionally stoked, then heartfelt praise is always forthcoming. Beloved the single greatest contribution that you make to the worship that occurs in this place is your own individual worship that occurs all week long in your own personal life. That's what makes the difference. And when the heart is right, you see, praise doesn't need to be worked up, it doesn't need to be coerced, it doesn't need to be manipulated, it just needs an opportunity. And that is why I might add, since we've been speaking about revival in past weeks, this is why you see revivals are always scenes of great worship. If you study the history of the church, you discover that major spiritual awakenings in our country, the first great awakening and the early part of the second great awakening, were both attended with a great outpouring of fresh music, praise flows when the heart is full. And that's exactly what we see when we come to Nehemiah chapter 12. If you think about it for a moment, the people of Israel are a place that they have never before been in their lives ever. All that these people have ever known was the experience of being a captive group under the domination of a foreign ruler. For all of their growing up years, they had heard of this great king, David. They have heard of the glory days of the nation of Israel, but such was a thing in the past, such was only talk when the city of Jerusalem was the envy of the whole earth. To the contrary, the only monarch that these people had ever known was both foreign and oppressive. The only image of Jerusalem that was in the minds of these people was that of a city in ruins, broken down walls, filthy and dusty and shattered, certainly not speaking of any kind of pride or glory that got it intended that city to be. But now we come to Nehemiah chapter 12 and it is all together different. Their homes have been rebuilt, the temple has been rebuilt, the walls around the city have been restored. There has been a major renewal in their relationship with the living God, chapter 8, 9 and 10 and in chapter 11, a tenth of the Jewish people now actually moved their homes into the city of Jerusalem to repopulate it. Everything now has converged at this one moment. It has all come together, got a smile upon his people once again. The restoration of the covenant community is now complete. And I'm sure we cannot begin to appreciate all the sensations that we're pulsating through their veins, surging through the hearts of these people. And you see, beloved, as a result of this, now the time has come for all of those sensations of gratitude and joy to be expressed in one massive coordinated expression of worship to God. And guess who it is that takes the lead? I love this guy. Nehemiah. He never ceases to amaze me. He's been a cup bear, a general contractor, a governor. We don't necessarily expect men like that to lead the people of God into worship, do we? But here he is. And he gets his partner, Ezra, and together they coordinate such an incredible scene of worship that God has seen fit to include it in his word so that it would never be forgotten. Friends, aren't you tired of perfunctory worship? Doesn't it leave such a ugly taste in your mouth? That is just going through the motions? Doesn't it burden you? Doesn't it grieve your heart when we're in the middle of worshiping? And the physical appearances of people would reveal that they would rather be anywhere else doing anything else, but what we're doing. You look at the average American Evangelical Church today. I have a chance to travel a little bit. And I think there are some universal friends that we tend to see all around us. Most of all, much of our music lacks substance. A great deal of our singing lacks enthusiasm. For my money, you know the most painful thing in the service of a typical American Evangelical Church is the reading of the scriptures. It's often done in such a way that it becomes obvious that the person reading them has never taken a moment to consider what they say. Our prayers say very little about the character of God. We do our prayers include confession of sin, certainly very little with regard to corporate confession of sin. And what's more, a great deal of our preaching, if there's anything that even resembles preaching tends to be very moralistic. This is what you must do. This is how you want to live. These are the six steps to bring you happiness in your life. Many years ago, Lynette's former pastor, a man by the name of A.W. Tozer, who was considered by many in his day to be a kind of prophetic figure made this observation. Worship, he said, is the missing jewel in the Evangelical Church, though dead he still speaks. Worship is the missing jewel. And so beloved, what I would like to do tonight is simply take a close look at this record of worship, this scene of worship, and as a result of working through the text, pose a couple of questions for, I think, that can prop us to give some fresh consideration to our own praise, to our own worship, both as a church and as individuals and perhaps even as families. Verse 27. At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of symbols, harps, and liars. Nehemiah and Ezra have it in their mind that it's time for worship, and it's time for worship in a big way. The reason why verse 27 tells us the wall has been completed. It is time to dedicate this wall for the building of a wall, merely the building of this structure, but as I've told you before, my friends, the erecting of this wall in Jerusalem served a much greater purpose than merely providing the people a protective barrier. The reconstructed wall was a powerfully, profoundly symbolic event indicating that the restoration of God's people, the covenant community was now complete. And in the epoch of the old covenant, it was common for the people of God when inaugurating the use of something religious purpose to dedicate it to God and His glory in this very special way. But beloved, they do not want this to be some little insignificant ceremony often a corner someplace. For all intents and purposes, what Ezra and Nehemiah are saying is this, after all that God has done for us, after His inexpressible displays of kindness, we need to exalt Him in a way that will not soon be forgotten. And so what do these two men do? They seek out the experts, those who were specialists in temple worship, the Levites, and so word goes out. All Levites report to Jerusalem immediately, verse 28. The singers also were brought together from the region around Jerusalem. This at the end of verse 29, for the singers had built villages for themselves around Jerusalem. Now this is a very interesting thing. When Jerusalem was a thriving city, it was the intention of things to have these temple musicians and singers living inside the walls of the city so that they are in close proximity to the temple. But as you know, the city has been in rubble for years, and so these musicians and singers build their homes outside of the circumference of the city close, but not within the city proper. Now beloved, I'm not sure what your translation says, but the Hebrew text in verse 28 reads, so the sons of the singers were assembled. If you have an NIV, it just says the singers, and that's right, it gets at the idea. But literally in Hebrew it is the sons of the singers were assembled. Now why are we looking for the sons of the singers? I thought we were looking for the singers themselves, not the sons of the singers. Well, this is what we call a hebraism, a Hebrew way of referring to people who belong to a particular group. We read this all through the Bible. We just, I think, often take it for granted knowing what's intended to be communicated. For example, in the Old Testament, we read about a group called the sons of the prophets. It's not talking about the male children of the prophets. It's talking about the prophets themselves, that phrase son of, son of the prophets, son of the singers, son of God, that Hebrew phrase can be translated in the order of. So we read about a guy in the book of Acts who was called Barnabas, the son of encouragement. It didn't mean that his daddy was an encourager. It meant that he, by virtue of his own distinct giftedness, belonged to the order of encouragers. James and John were called sons of what? Thunder, it doesn't mean that their father was a, and it meant that they were thunderous men, you see? And right here, we read that Ezra and Nehemiah rounds up the sons of the singers. It was a way of referring to a group of people who possessed specific skills. In all probability, a professional guild or class of singers. Now why do I bother you with all of this? Because I don't want you to miss something, friends, that would be very easily overlooked. And that is this. This worship is not kind of some thrown together slip-shod, last-minute operation. There are some people who erroneously think that real Pious God-centered spiritual worship is always a spontaneous thing. That anything that speaks of work, labor, planning, preparation, diligence must reveal a kind of carnality, a kind of fleshliness, a dependence upon the arm of human strength. Beloved, I want to tell you something, good worship, weak in, weak out, weak in, weak out is always the consequence of diligent and painstaking effort. I submit to you moreover that there were hundreds of these singers. Moreover, they were not a phone call away. It meant going from village to village, banging on doors. Do any living singers live here? My guess is Ezra and Nehemiah were not doing this task. Ezra, after all, was the spiritual leader of the people. Nehemiah was the governor of these people, rather they had delegated the effort no doubt. My point is, again, it bespeaks of planning and forethought and administrative effort, worship like intimacy in a marriage is rarely an accident. It comes about as a consequence of diligent planning and preparation. Moreover, I find it interesting that Ezra and Nehemiah are men who know their limitations. And so they get people who are distinctly skilled at that task. But beloved, I want you to notice something even more important. And that is before one note is played, before one word is sung. There is something else that first takes place, takes precedence when these levitical musicians arrive in town, verse 30, when the priests and Levites had purified themselves ceremonially. They purified the people, the gates, and the wall. Now what would this ceremonial purification entail? It would involve the washing of their bodies. It would involve the washing of their clothing. It would involve abstaining from sexual intimacy. It would involve fasting and prayer. It would include the offering of a sin offering with the blood of that offering being sprinkled on the gates and on the walls of that city. Ceremonial purification was a vital part of Israel's worship. By the way, that's what the book of Leviticus is all about. But what purpose did all of that serve? Going through all of these motions externally and physically, beloved its purpose was to indelibly impress upon the minds of the people of Israel that because God is holy, holy, holy, He must never ever be approached in a flippant, cavalier or impure manner. The purification preceded the worship of God. Now here's the first question I would like to pose to you tonight, perhaps develop it a bit. When you come before God in worship, do you approach Him in an acceptable manner? When you come before God in worship, do you approach Him in an acceptable manner? Now what do I mean by this? Well do you recall the scene? That scene when God calls the prophet Isaiah into the ministry? First of all, what does God do? He gives to Isaiah his man a profound vision of the enthroned son of God, Jesus Christ. And what does Isaiah see? He sees the seraphim, those glorious angels calling out to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory. And in turn, what does that produce within Isaiah? Is me. I am ruined. I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. You see my friends, when God shows up, people do not burst into holy laughter. They fall to the ground in dreadful recognition of their own fallenness. But what I want you to see is that before God commissions Isaiah to the ministry, he does something very interesting to him. Then one of the serifs, one of the angels, flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar, with it he touched my mouth. Remember what he said? I'm a man of unclean lips. With it he touched my mouth and said, see, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atone for. It was symbolically illustrating the concept of atonement. Your sins have been dealt with. Then the text says, then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, here I am, send me. And he said, go and tell His people. Now friends, this is not some happenstance. This is not some kind of coincidental order here. There was a divine model set before us. And that is, before there can be spiritual service, there must first be purification from sin. Now, when did the design of the old covenant? That purification was external and it was ceremonial, wasn't it? It dealt with things like bodies and clothing and gates and walls. Why is it that we do not come to God this way any longer? Why is it that prior to moving into this building, we didn't sacrifice some kind of an animal and sprinkled a blood of that animal on the walls of this building? It's because the intention of all those old covenant purification ceremonies was to be prefigurative, anticipating you see a coming cleansing that would be actual, not ceremonial. It would be internal, not merely external, brought about by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. And so beloved, when I ask you the question this evening, when you come before God in worship, do you approach Him in an acceptable manner, what I mean by that is this, have you experienced spiritual purification by the blood of Jesus Christ? Because you see, though the covenantal structures are different, the principle is still timeless. You can must precede worship to say it positively. The only worship that is acceptable to God is that which comes from people who have been purified by is sun. So you see, friends, though there might be a non-Christian who perhaps would possess a wonderful voice or a non-Christian who might be a top flight instrumentalist. The bottom line where God is concerned is not musicianship, it is spiritual purification. Now, beloved, that's not to say that as Christians we cannot appreciate the gifts and talents that God gives to unbelievers. If there's anything that people like us need to recover in our day, it is a proper recovery of the doctrine of common grace. And so that I can listen to a singer like Placito Domingo and appreciate the gift that God has given to him, that I can listen to the playing, the expertise, the genius of a person like Wynton Marcellus, and I can give God praise for giving such a gift to a person like that. Just as I can give praise to God when I watch Kenneth Branagh play Hamlet or I watch Michael Jordan sail through the air with the basketball, no one else on the planet can do that kind of thing. Why is that? Because God gave something to him that he didn't give to everybody else. Our God is the God who is Lord over all. The dispenser of all good gifts and knowing that as I do, I don't have to be afraid from the benefits that are in front of me in the world. I don't have to hide. They can be fuel for praise. So a year ago or so my mom had eye surgery and as she explained to me a little bit about what was done. I was absolutely astounded at the human genius involved at what took place there. I can't fathom a human being with that kind of ability but God does give those gifts and I can worship God for them however there is a distinction isn't there. It is one thing for me is a Christian to appreciate those gifts and to praise God for them but it is another thing altogether to say that God readily receives the worship of a person who has not been spiritually cleansed by the purifying blood of Jesus Christ. Failing to see that beloved is to miss the single most elementary aspect of worship and that is worshipers must come before the living God acceptably. By the means of the cleansing work of Jesus Christ. When you come before God in worship do you approach him in an acceptable manner. Now watch this celebration continue verse 31. I have the leaders of Judah go up on top of the wall. I also assign two large choirs to give thanks. Your translation might say I also assign two great choirs. And that is fine but it may be misleading. The emphasis is not on their skill the emphasis here is on their size. These two choirs are enormous. Now beloved I won't bog you down with all of these names again. I won't bog you down with all of the directional details but let me summarize for you. Choir number one is led by Ezra. They climb up the staircase that takes them to a walkway that runs along the inner circumference of that wall and they proceed in a counter-clockwise direction. Choir number two is led by Ezra. They begin at the same place. They ascend the same staircase but when they get to the top of the wall they move in a clockwise direction. Now can you imagine all of this? Thousands and thousands of people perhaps singing all during this great procession moving along the top of the walls that they themselves had built as they recalled the taunts of sand ballot. Remember those? What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they begin to offer sacrifices? That's exactly what they were about to do. And what about his buddy Tobiah? Oh, what are those feeble Jews doing? If a fox jumped up that wall he would knock it to the ground. The fox, there are thousands of people standing on this wall singing praise to God. And then according to a predetermined plan now much like a marching band at a football game moving in great precision they all converge together at the temple, the spiritual center of the nation, verse 40. The two choirs that gave thanks, literally in Hebrew it says the two thanks-givings, it tells you what they were about the business of doing. The two thanks-givings then took their places in the house of God. Look at the end of verse 42. The choirs sang under the direction of Jezraha, he is perhaps the Levitical Choir Director, the Levitical Choir Master, who had coordinated this worship in such a way that in all probability the singing took place in an antifinal manner, choir number one would begin, choir number two would respond, choir number one would sing once again and choir number two would respond and back and forth and back and forth this thing would go. You know what excites me about all of this? It's that music is the heart, is it the very heart of this worship? The music that exalts the character and work of our God. My friends, there are people who in the makeup of a worship service will stress music to the exclusion of the declaration of the Word of God. However, there are an equal number of people no doubt who in the name of loving the Word of God will cheapen and lessen the importance of music among God's people. And the fact of the matter is you cannot open up your Bible and read it with any kind of seriousness and miss the importance of music in worship. It is all through the sacred text music appears in the earliest chapters of the book of Genesis. And it continues right through into the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, and you've heard me say this before, in which is contained more hymns than any other book in the Bible except for the book of Psalms. Fourteen hymns in the book of Revelation. Listen to the words of that old crusty reformer, Martin Luther. He says, next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise. The gift of language combined with the gift of song was given to man so that he should proclaim the Word of God through music. Man, that is good. Did you hear that? The gift of language combined with the gift of song was given to man that he should proclaim the Word of God through music. Someone else has said it this way, the Bible is God's gift to man, the hymnal is man's gift to God. Here's question number two. When you come before God in worship, do you recognize the priority of God honoring music at the risk of sounding bias? That is why every time it comes to my mind, I'm not ashamed to thank the musicians and singers that God has given to us here. I couldn't imagine meeting at this place week in and week out and week in and week out apart from those gifts and talents that God has given to these men and women. Moreover, dear friends, I think it's very important that we not view music as preparation for the preaching, that it's what we do to get ourselves in the mood for the Word of God. There are some people who feel that way. And do you know how I know that? It's because they regularly arrive at the service five minutes late. They wouldn't dare walk into the sermon five or ten minutes late, but they will consistently miss the opening hymn. Why? It's prepatory, man. Sermon hasn't started yet. And how about when somebody gets up to sing a meditative song or to play a meditative piece while the offering is being passed? Some people view that as a wonderful opportunity to get caught up with the person sitting next to them. And I love it when the people of God gather together for worship music is not filler. It is not something that makes for smooth transitions from the opening prayer to the Bible reading to the pastoral prayer and to the sermon. It is a vitally important aspect of our worship. Notice, beloved, verse 27, that there was vocal music. We're told that they were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving. Over in verse 42, we read of the two choirs that sang under the direction of Jezirahaya. Notice that there was instrumental music. Notice the variety of instruments. Verse 27, symbols, harps, and liars. Verse 35, priests with trumpets, praise be to God. Verse 36, it says, just musical instruments. Now friends, you know what? Sometimes it's wonderful when all of the instruments are playing. Sometimes it seems appropriate for only a piano to play, or for a guitar to play. And is it also not true that there are occasions when the intensity of our worship is most profoundly felt when the voices sing in a capella? I think that the Bible gives us a great deal of variety here and what we must always resist is the temptation of creating absolutes where there are none in the Bible. And so I grant to you that for every single one of you here, there may be personal preferences. I just like it when the piano plays. I like it when everybody plays. I like it better when there are no instrumentalists. That's great. You can appreciate that. You can enjoy it in so far as you hold those kinds of personal feelings with charity because the Bible does not give us absolutes at this point. When people prefer hymns, some people prefer choruses. What we must not allow the conversation to do is something exceedingly unfair like comparing the worst chorus to the best hymn. Well, what are you going to sing? Pass it on or can it be? The worst chorus to the best hymn? Because the fact of the matter is we can very easily flip a lot of that scenario because there are just as many lousy hymns. Something is not sanctified beloved because it was written in the 17th or 18th or 19th century you understand. Sing to the Lord a new song. It appears over and over and over again in the book of Psalms. New songs, new songs, reflecting in fresh ways, the greatness of God, the work of God and his work of salvation in our lives. 35 times the book of Psalms says, I will sing to the Lord. I will sing. I will sing. Let me ask you, beloved, in the most personal way possible. Are you singing praises to God? Are you singing? Are you singing with your families? Is that a regular part of your day singing? Are you singing praises in the car? If you would allow me to say this by way of personal testimony, my own devotional life took a quantum leap forward when I began to incorporate singing into my time with the Lord. And so when I step over into the nursery to do my quiet time each day, I take a hymn. I'll take the words to Connie's songs. I'll take our little chorus book. You just need to make sure that when you're singing to the Lord, no one but the Lord can hear you. I will never forget. I will never forget an experience several years ago. I'm much more careful now, but you probably know that the doors in our offices here are paper thin, which is probably the reason why most of you never come for counseling. So I always go into the nursery to do my quiet time where there's about three doors blocking my way to where the secretaries are at. And one time I got here early, and I was there in the nursery, and I'm not saying this to reflect any kind of piety in any way, shape, or form, but I was singing and I was singing blessed assurance, and I think I had my eyes closed and I had my hands raised and I was saying, this is my story, this is my song in full voice. And when I finished, I had this really weird feeling, and I opened my eyes and turned to the right and about four feet from me was an absolute stranger. Bob Waller had sent a friend of his to come and do some construction work on our building. I lock the doors now. I need that kind of privacy, beloved, because when I pray to keep my mind from wandering, I have to pray audibly. You sing with unbridled affection when you meet with God's people on the Lord's day. If you don't, beloved, there may be a reason for that, you see. Singing praise to God is an expression of a certain kind of heart. That's what we read here in verse 43, notice. It says, on that day, they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had done given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away. Have you ever been outside of a giant, athletic stadium and someone kicks a field goal? There's so many makes of touchdown or crack, so many hits a home run. And you hear this roar of the crowd blocks away. Well, that's the idea here, you see. But when I find very interesting, my friends, notice, look at it very carefully. Nehemi does not say that their singing was heard from afar. He says that their rejoicing could be heard from afar. You see, beloved, this kind of singing is a revelation of something else. Five times in this verse, we read the same Hebrew root word for joy, rejoicing. And on that day, they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy, literally in Hebrew that says, God made them rejoice with great joy. The women and children rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing could be heard. It was the joy that was evident joy at the work of God. When he tell you something, beloved, when somebody walks into this church on the Lord's day morning for the very first time and they sit down next to you and they hear you sing with the heart filled with joy, they don't say to themselves, oh my goodness, what a beautiful tenor voice he has. Oh, she has a lovely alto voice. It's the joy that gets communicated. I will never forget the profound impact this had on my life. The very first time I ever went to Sunday school. The girl across the street asked me if I wanted to write a bus to church. And so I went. This is why your children need to know unbelieving children. And I don't think that I will ever forget the sights and sounds of that first Sunday, beloved. As I walked into that children's church up these stairs, there was an old brown upright piano being played. It was terribly out of tune. Millie's story was leading the singing. You know my friend Bill's story? Is this his mom? And the only quality about Deer Millie's voice was that it was so loud it could cut through anything. And there were probably a hundred children in this room and I'll never forget the song they were singing. It was the very first song I ever heard in my life that had any kind of Christian content at all. I have a song that Jesus gave me, you know that song. It was sent from heaven above. There never was a sweeter melody, tis a melody of love. And then the next line they would milk it for all it's worth in my heart, their rings. I mean, we awfully would go, say. Now granted, it's not a mighty fortress is our God. It is an end can it be? It's not as theologically substantive as I might now prefer. And yet, beloved, I couldn't help but notice that some of the people singing those words were singing them with all of their might. And on my first Sunday in church, nine years old, it dawned on me. Some of these people really feel what they're singing. Let me ask you question three, when you come before God in worship, is it joy that predominates in your heart? Is it the joy that's evident? My friends, we live in the light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's why the early church started meaning on the first day of the week. And because of that, you see joy is to be the predominant disposition when we assemble. And when it doesn't, it is a surefire indication that something is a miss. You see, beloved, I at the risk of being unusually simplistic, let me say that this whole business of worship is a cumulative process. If there is no real singing, in all probabilities, because there is no real joy. And if there is no real joy, it is because the church itself has failed to give significant attention to the great works of God on its behalf. Nehemiah says, God gave us joy. Well, what did God do to give us joy? He doesn't need to spell that out now. He's just done that over the last 12 chapters. God brought them back from captivity. God financed the rebuilding of the temple. God brought Ezra to teach the law. God sent Nehemiah to rebuild the walls. God sent them a great spiritual awakening. Watch this now. A second exodus occurred. God delivered his people out of bondage and fully restored them into their land. My friends, when you read the record of Old Testament worship, I encourage you to do this. You will see that in terms of the themes that are part of Old Testament worship, the people of God repeatedly returned to two themes. Number one, the deliverance of the people of God out of Egypt, the first exodus, and the deliverance of the people of God out of Babylon, the second exodus. In both instances, for the purpose of establishing a group of people who would serve God, so much of Old Testament worship is a response to those two great acts of deliverance. But beloved, there is a third exodus that the first two foreshadow. The ultimate deliverance of the people of God from the bondage of sin and death and hell. And my friends, this is the very language that is used all over the New Testament, perhaps most profoundly in the opening of the book of Revelation. John says to him who loves us and has freed us, hear that deliverance language, from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priest to serve his God and Father, to him be glory and power forever and ever. Why was there worship filled with joy? God had given them great joy. It was the recollection of God's great work of deliverance, and why should our worship be filled with great joy because of the recollection of God's greater work of deliverance, because a third exodus says he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the sun he loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Here is question four. When you come before God in worship, do you regularly recall God's saving work? Now my friends, I wholeheartedly assert tonight that at the end of the day, the people who are most responsible for this are people like me, and now, and Bob, and Connie as she writes this music, not believe that we have ever had an authentic worship service unless the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ has been at the heart of our worship. That's what defines our worship to be Christian and not merely Jewish. I'll tell you why Christians are cold today. I'll tell you why Christians are apathetic today. I'll tell you why Christians are so dispassionate today. It's because week after week after week goes by and they don't hear enough gospel to fill a thimble, but beloved, it is the gospel that sets everything right. We had a living illustration of that very thing this morning. It is the gospel that centers everything we do. It is the gospel that brings equilibrium. It is the gospel that keeps us from all of our silly, nonsensical tangents, and let me tell you something, my friends, unless I am an extreme anomaly as a Christian, it is the gospel that still inflames the hearts of people who know and love Jesus Christ. When the gospel is preached in the power of the Spirit of God, Christians don't yon. It's as though they're saved all over again. Why are these people so filled with joy in their worship because God has displayed His mighty hand to save? Why should our worship be even more exuberant because in a far greater way God has displayed His mighty hand on our behalf? Beloved worship ought never to be the missing jewel. Let me simply read and we're finished.
Then I saw a lamb. Looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne and circled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne, and when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang a new song. You are worthy to take the scroll into open its seals because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people in nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth. Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands and 10,000 times, 10,000. They encircled the throne into living creatures and the elders in a loud voice they sang, worthy is the lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them singing to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever, the four living creatures said, Amen, and the elders fell down and worshipped. It ought never to be the missing Jew. Let's pray, shall we? Father of all people, we have reason to be joy-filled. Of all people we have reason to sin, and I give you praise and thanks, O Lord and God, for the gifted men and women that you have given to us. I thank you, O Lord and God, for Connie and Diane, for Bob and for Grey and for Tyrell and for Todd. I give you thanks, O Lord and God, for these dear sisters and brothers who sing each week, Kimmy and Barbara and Cheryl and Mike and Lord their others. I thank you for them. I can't imagine what worship would be like around here without these gifts that you have given to us
and yet they are not performers as it were they are the cheerleaders encouraging us as the performers to worship you, you who are the audience when we assemble here. Father, I pray that you would fill our worship with joy because our hearts would be weakly gripped by the beauties of the gospel.
Father, we realize that there are times for seriousness and sombreness. We realize that there are times for quiet and times, even in Nehemiah chapter 9, for great confession and contrition. But Father, we live in the light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are experiencers of the third Exodus, the greater and ultimate Exodus, of all people when we gather together at this place. We ought to be filled with the greatest and most heartfelt joy. Oh, Father, help us put to death all apathetic worship, all the thargic complacent going through the motions kind of worship. And may we give ourselves to you, O God, with unbounded joy. You deserve it. I may people who walk in through these doors and sit down with us, perhaps leave amazed at the joy they see among us. I ask these things in the great name of Jesus, our Savior and King. Amen.