****AND CAN IT BE?

I had a brief conversation with a friend, one day, about the Gospel. Jack professed to be a Christian but there was no evidence of it in his speech, his actions, or his life. When I began to question him about his faith, he said, “Hey! You don’t have to worry about me.  I’m okay with God; I did that thing years ago.”

That “thing” he referred to was a one-time event in his life when someone talked him into repeating a prayer and accepting Jesus into his heart. 

And so he had no interest in hearing the gospel. He believed that he was a good person and that he had done all the things necessary to ensure his favor with God. Jack passed away shortly after that.

The question each of us should ask ourselves is, What part did I have in my salvation?  What did I do to merit forgiveness and eternal life? What good have I done that God should show favor toward me?

For those of us who are saved, the answer to all those questions is, “NOTHING.”  We were depraved. We were destitute. We were spiritually DEAD. There was nothing any of us could do to merit God's favor. There was no good that we could do to satisfy Him. 

The Good News of the Gospel is NOT that "God Loves You."  It's NOT that "He has a wonderful plan for your life."  It's NOT that "He is standing and knocking at the door of your heart” hoping that you might invite Him in.

So, what is the Gospel?  In summary, it starts with the bad news; we are all sinners worthy of God’s judgment and wrath, and there is nothing we can do to erase our sin or buy our pardon. We need a Savior. We need a Redeemer.

The good news is that Jesus is the only substitute in every aspect of a believer’s salvation. He lived a perfect, sinless life of obedience to His Father and He did it for us.  He died a horrible death on the cross and endured the wrath of His Father, for us. He was victorious over sin and death for us. Our only right response, then, is to turn from our sin and trust Him for our salvation.

AND CAN IT BE? Was written by Charles Wesley and it is one of our greatest Gospel Hymns. It starts with a series of introspective questions: Is Jesus’ blood of any concern to me? Am I the cause of His pain? Did I cause His death? And then, as though the lights suddenly came on, the songwriter asks, “What is this amazing love? How is it that You, my God, should die for ME?”

The whole plan of redemption was decreed, by God, the Father before we were even created. It was secured by the Son of God, who is our Substitute, while we were yet dead in sin.

And verse two tells us that Jesus, in an act of mercy and grace, left the glory that was His and humbled Himself to become a man. And He suffered a horrible death for the sins of His people. 

Verse three describes our miserable, helpless condition; we were bound in sin and spiritual darkness without hope until God intervened. He broke the chains that imprisoned our souls, He shed His Light in our hearts, and He rescued us from the penalty of sin and death.

Finally, verse four is the glorious Good News; There is now, no more condemnation for those who believe. Jesus paid the penalty for us. God’s justice is satisfied. He imputed His Son’s righteousness to our account and He gave us new life. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Rom. 5:8)

  

This hymn should humble us when we realize that there is nothing we have done or can do to merit God’s amazing love, forgiveness, and salvation. “(This) is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  (1 John 4:10)

The song doesn’t do much for our egos but it does magnify and glorify our Savior.

AMAZING LOVE!  HOW CAN IT BE THAT THOU, MY GOD SHOULDST DIE FOR ME?    

****SING PRAISE TO GOD WHO REIGNS ABOVE

SING PRAISE TO GOD WHO REIGNS ABOVE is a hymn that was written during a time of several converging events in church history.  

The Protestant Reformation started in Germany when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral.  That was in 1517, and just a few years later, by the time he died, the new Lutheran Church was strong and fervent and it was the dominant Christian force in Germany and throughout Europe.

Another contributing factor to the rise of Christianity in Northern Europe was the influence of the Bohemian-Moravian Brethren.  They were very zealous followers of John Huss, who, in 1415, had been burned at the stake because of his evangelical views.  The Brethren had migrated into Germany in search of religious freedom.

Then there was the Thirty Years War (1618-1648).  It was a miserable time of persecution for Christians in Germany.  The Roman Catholic Church was at war against Protestants throughout Europe.  The German population had been reduced from 16 million to 6 million people.

By the middle of the century (just about one hundred years after the death of Martin Luther) the Lutheran Church was still doctrinally sound but they had lost much of their zeal.  In those days, Philipp Jacob Spener became the pastor of a congregation in Frankfurt.  One of his earliest members and his most trusted friend and helper in the ministry, was a young attorney, Johann Jakob Schutz.

At Johann's suggestion, Philipp Spener began to hold small group gatherings in homes for prayer meetings and Bible studies.  His preaching heavily emphasized the need for repentance and personal piety.  His discipleship moved his people from dead orthodox rituals to active personal faith and holy living.  That became the basis for the Pietistic revival movement in the Lutheran Churches in Germany.

One notable difference between traditional Lutheranism and the new Pietism was the active involvement of the laity in the church.  The regular gathering together of believers became a participatory time of worship rather than a spectator event conducted by the clergy.

(So, what was this thing called Pietism?  The root of the word is “pious” and if you are like me, you might be suspect of it.  That’s because the meanings of words change over time.  Our modern usage has negative connotations; it means to be characterized by a sanctimonious or hypocritical pretense of virtue or religious devotion.

But the classic definition means to have or show a genuine spirit of respect or reverence for God.)

As the father of the new Pietist movement, Philipp Spener outlined his Five Guiding Principles in a document titled “Pious Desires”.  Those included:

• The increased use of scripture.

• Lay participation in small groups, emphasizing prayer and Bible study.

• A balance of faith and actions.

• An emphasis on a pious clergy.

• Sermons that encourage an active faith.

Because of the movement’s new emphasis on hymns and congregational singing, rather than just Psalms only,  many new German hymns were written during those years.   It was pastor Spener’s friend, Johann Schutz, who authored five hymns including “SING PRAISE TO GOD WHO REIGNS ABOVE.” His inspiration for the hymn was Deut. 32:3, “For I proclaim the Name of the Lord: Ascribe greatness to our God.”

And that verse is exactly the model he used for each stanza of this hymn. 

Verse 1 proclaims the All-Powerful God of creation and Salvation.

Verse 2 proclaims the Ever-Present God who is our help and our peace.

Verse 3 proclaims the joy of knowing God.

Verse 4 proclaims that our God is Christ, the Lord.

There are two other verses that are not printed in most of our hymnbooks.  One of them proclaims the God Who never sleeps; He is always in control.  

The other proclaims the God of Mercy. 

Each proclamation, then, is followed by the same refrain: "To God, all praise and glory."    

****FAIREST LORD JESUS (Beautiful Savior)

For over forty years, from the late 1930s, the Breck Shampoo Co. enjoyed the longest-running and most successful campaign in advertising history. The centerpieces of the ads were the romanticized pastel portraits of over 300 girls and young ladies, which idealized the perfect, wholesome look of the American woman for several generations.

The iconic pictures of the Breck Girls blended feminine beauty with purity. They were all delicately portrayed with a subdued focus, soft halos of light, and warm colors. The artists did then, with oil pastels, what photographers do today with Photoshop. They portrayed their subjects with unblemished skin, smiles accented with bright, perfect teeth, and they all had beautiful, radiant hair. In short, the portraits were stunning; they seemed to leap off the pages of the magazines to command the attention of casual browsers. Everyone immediately recognized, and paused to gaze at, the Breck Girls.

Throughout the last 20 centuries, artists have portrayed Jesus in similar ways: the soft warm glow of a pleasant countenance, the halos, perfect features, blue eyes, a commanding stature, and that long, beautiful, glorious hair. In most illustrations and movie clips, whenever He is portrayed in a crowd, unlike Waldo, His image is immediately discerned; everyone recognizes Him. He stands taller, His robe is whiter, and His hair is longer. They have tried to portray Jesus like a Breck Girl. But no matter how skillful the artists, their best efforts produce nothing more than imaginary caricatures.  

The truth is, we don’t know anything about His physical appearance. In God’s wisdom, He didn’t give us a description. But there are some things we can presume from what we read in scripture.

We know that Jesus was a Middle Eastern man; not a blue-eyed, Northern, fair-skinned European man. And He didn’t have beautiful, long, soft hair; it was probably coarse, wiry, short, and dark. If we could obtain a real picture of Him, we would not recognize Him at all.

If there is anything we can learn from Scripture, it is that His physical appearance was unremarkable and unimportant. He was probably an average-looking Galilean Jew. He blended into the crowds. In fact, Judas had to point Jesus out to the soldiers who came to arrest Him. He didn’t have any unusual physical attractiveness. Isaiah prophesied that "He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him and no beauty that we should desire Him."

“No beauty that we should desire Him.” And yet, in this hymn, "FAIREST LORD JESUS," He is described as the most beautiful of all who have ever lived. So how can that be?

Well, Peter gave us a clue as to what is real, godly beauty, when he told us not to be overly concerned about our own outward attractiveness, but rather to "let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."

Did you catch that?  According to God, that inner beauty is very precious.

The word “fair,” occurs many times in the Old Testament and it means beautiful. It was used to describe both women and men. One of those references occurs in the Song of Solomon, The bridegroom says of his beloved: “You are all fair…there is no spot in you.”

Christ’s beauty was not in His physical appearance; it is in His holy character. This hymn is a devotional text focused on the “fairness” (or the beauty) of Jesus Christ as something of great value to be carefully treasured. He is more precious, more beautiful, and more glorious than anything else in the world. Jesus Christ is above everything. And regarding that kind of precious value, the Apostle Paul said, “I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”

****AS, WITH GLADNESS, MEN OF OLD

As, With Gladness, Men Of Old was written by William Dix in 1860. He had been bed bound with a serious illness for a long time.  One evening he got the idea for this hymn and he began to form the line on note paper. The following year, his finished song was published in a small collection of his own works, which had a very limited circulation. From there it made its way into more popular collections, and today it has become known throughout the world.

I mentioned, last week, that many of our Christmas traditions are biblically inaccurate or they are based on fantasies or legends.  Some of those legends have to do with the kings or wise men.  Our traditions assume there were three because of the three gifts mentioned in scripture; gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  And the wise men have even been given names, Melchior, Balthazar, and Caspar—but those are not found anywhere in scripture.

And we don't know that they were kings.  The Bible calls them Magi.  They were pagan priests who were considered, wise men (possibly astrologers) and they would have held powerful political positions in their eastern countries.  The unfounded assumption that they were kings comes from Isaiah’s prophecy, “Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isaiah 60:3). 

Another tradition Is that they visited Jesus in His manger bed at the time of His birth.  But scripture indicates otherwise; "When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11 And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him." Matt. 2:10-11

Bible scholars believe that He must have been about two years old by the time the wise men arrived.

In this song, Dix took that traditional departure from biblical accuracy where, in two phrases, he pictures the wise men at the manger.  That, however, doesn't diminish the theology or the value of this hymn; it just creates an unnecessary distraction.  For that reason, some authors have suggested a couple appropriate changes to those phrases, which we will use, for the sake of accuracy.  

There are two words that repeat several times --"As" and "So.” When you see the word, AS, you should look for the word, SO.  They are coupled to make comparisons between the recorded actions of the wise men and the appropriate applications for to us today.  In other words, as they did, So should we. 

In the first stanza, we see that the wise men were led to the Savior by the light of His star.   SO, like them, we also should be led to Him by the light of His Gospel; the Word of God.

In stanza 2, we see the wise men making their long, hurried journey to worship the Son of God.  SO, like them, we also should run to Him for mercy and joyfully worship Him because He Is worthy.

In stanza 3, the wise men gave costly gifts to Jesus.  SO, like them, we also should present ourselves, pure and holy, to Him.

There is a fifth verse that has been omitted from the text in some hymnbook.  I think that is unfortunate because it is a great song of praise and a joyful proclamation of our hope.  Here it is printed below:

In that glorious city bright, None shall need created light.

You, its Light, its Joy, its Crown; You, its Sun which goes not down.

There forever may we sing, Alleluias to our King!

****DOWN FROM HIS GLORY

DOWN FROM HIS GLORY is a song we usually only hear performed as a solo, mainly because of its wide range.  It is sung to the familiar tune of Edwardo Di Capua's, “’O Sole Mio.”  Or, if you are an Elvis Presley fan, you will recognize the melody of “It’s Now Or Never.”

 

I was surprised to discover that this song is not as contemporary as I thought.  It was written nearly 100 yrs. Ago, by William Booth-Clibborn, the grandson of William Booth who founded the Salvation Army.

The song begins with the glorious mystery we sometimes call the Humiliation of Christ.  It is the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ as is explained in Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi,”...although He existed in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, (or held on to) but (He) emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”  

Think about that.  That little baby in the crib is God in human flesh and it is improper to consider His entrance into the world without understanding His purpose in coming.

What the shepherds saw that night, was the Sovereign King of Creation wrapped in filthy rags and lying in a dirty feeding trough.  He is the Righteous One of the Universe who opens His arms wide to wicked, sinful men. He is The Giver of Life, the One who IS Life, and He was born to die.  The One who made the Law; the One whose Word IS the Law, and the only One who ever kept the Law; the Judge of the world came to offer complete pardon and mercy to undeserving men. The Highest was utterly humiliated.  In Him, poverty becomes riches, tears become joy, death becomes life, trash becomes treasures, and sinners become saints.

The Christmas story, by itself, is incomplete.  In fact, it is meaningless and irrelevant without the Easter story. Paul’s revelation continues, “…Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” 

Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, lived a perfect and sinless life, died a horrible death on the cross, was buried and then, three days later He rose from the dead, according to the Scriptures. That is the message of the Gospel.  Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and perfectly satisfied God’s righteous justice.  Someone has summarized it like this: “I owed a debt I could not pay; He paid a debt He did not owe.”

In the third stanza, the writer makes a personal proclamation, “And Now I know Thou Art the Great I Am.” 

Because of who Christ is, and because of what He has done for us, He is worthy of our praise and worship.  And so, each stanza ends with this song of praise:

“O how I love Him!  How I adore Him! 

My breath, my sunshine, my all in all.

The Great Creator became my Savior,

And all God’s fullness dwelleth in Him!”

****A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD

Oct. 31 is the beginning of what we generally refer to as the HOLIDAY SEASON and I am intrigued by how the holidays line up on the calendar.

  

Halloween comes first and in actual dollars spent on decorations and entertainment, it has overshadowed Christmas as the biggest holiday of the year.  From a spiritual standpoint, Halloween is an appropriate holiday; the world is in darkness. That is our natural condition.  In fact, the Bible tells us that “men love the darkness because their deeds are evil” (John 3:19).  It also tells us that we are “dead in sin” (Eph. 2:1, Col. 2:13).  We are “of our father, the Devil” and have no knowledge of God so it is understandable that most people embrace or celebrate the holiday of darkness, superstition, and evil.   Unless and until the Spirit of God brings us light, we cannot know Him.

  

The next holiday on the calendar is Thanksgiving Day.  In 1621, the Pilgrims had just endured a terrible winter in which scores of children and adults had starved to death. They were discouraged and defeated and ready to return to England when God answered their prayers and another ship arrived with medical supplies, food, and just enough hope to encourage them to press on despite the adverse conditions.

Two years later William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, said, “Inasmuch as the Father has given us an abundant harvest and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish; and He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship Him according to the dictates of our own conscience; I now proclaim that on Thursday, Nov. 29, 1623, we will render thanksgiving to the Almighty God for all His blessings.”

Romans 2:4 says, “The goodness of God leads you to repentance.” We celebrate His goodness at Thanksgiving and the ultimate manifestation of God’s Goodness was the gift of His Son, the Light of the world, and we celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas time; the very next Holiday on our calendar.

St. Valentine's Day was named for a priest near Rome during the rule of Claudius II.  A few years before Claudius began persecuting Christians for not worshiping the Roman gods, war broke out in the Roman Empire and Claudius began drafting all the able-bodied men to go into battle.  Many of the men were reluctant to leave their families or their sweethearts.  So, to remedy that, Claudius ordered that there be no marriages and that all engagements were to be broken off immediately.

In addition to helping many Christians escape persecution, Valentine earned a reputation for being a friend of lovers by secretly performing Christian marriages in defiance of the Emperor's ban.  Claudius imprisoned him on Feb. 14, 270 A.D., and later had him beheaded because he would not renounce his faith.

Romans 5:8 tells us that “God demonstrated His love for us (the bride of Christ) in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  And He did that on the cross at Calvary, which brings us right up to Resurrection Day.

Spring is the season of new life.  Statistically, there are more babies born in the Spring than any other season.  There came a time when each of us was physically born into this world.   And, for Christians, there was another time when God caused His light to “shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Cor 4:6 ).  He gave us new life and we were Born Again.

Next on our American calendar, is Independence Day when we celebrate our liberties which were secured by those who made great sacrifices for our political freedoms. Likewise, Christ sacrificed His life to free us from the bondage of sin and death. “If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). That’s real freedom worth celebrating.

Finally, we come all the way back to Halloween, but we who are Christians, no longer lurk in that darkness.  “The Light of the world has shined in our hearts.”  We walk in the Light and have no fear of death because Christ has triumphed over sin, death, Satan.

Oct. 31 is one of the most important dates on the church calendar.  It is Reformation Day; the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the Wittenberg Cathedral door.  After 600 years of worldwide spiritual darkness (the Dark Ages) when most men were illiterate and very few had access to the written Word of God, Martin Luther and a host of other reformers, ushered in the Renaissance by shining the Light of God’s Truth into a world of superstition and darkness.

Martin Luther wrote A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD, based on Psalm 46.  The hymn, sometimes called the Battle Hymn of the Reformation, is a celebration of the sovereign power of God over all the earthly and spiritual forces of darkness, and of the sure hope we have in Him because of our Savior, Jesus Christ who is the Light of the world. 

****GUIDELINES FOR CHURCH MUSIC

I am a simple man.  I was not trained or experienced in leading my congregation in singing; it is not my gift.  But I served in the position of song leader for nearly ten years because there was no one else to do it.

That position of song leader was mine, not to grasp firmly but to hold carefully in trust with open hands. Any man whom God would send our way and was qualified, willing, and available, could assume that responsibility from me without objection.  In the meantime, I took that ministry seriously. 

Over the years I assembled this guide to remind me of my ministry responsibilities according to my understanding of scripture. And now I gladly offer it here for your own edification.

GUIDELINES FOR CHURCH MUSIC

• Sing songs people know. The important thing is that people sing songs of praises and thanksgiving to God; that is a scriptural commandment. And it is hard to do if they don’t know the songs.  When you introduce new songs, do it sparingly and then repeat them several times over a few weeks until they become familiar.

• Sing in comfortable keys.  Your job is not to show off your vocal range (or vocal gymnastics).  If it is too high, too low, or in challenging intervals, your congregation will not sing.

• Sing to celebrate the power, glory, and salvation of God.  There are good personal and relational songs of testimony or sentiments that may be appropriate in certain situations but, for the most part, worship is NOT about how warm and fuzzy you feel; it is about bowing down in humble awe of the power and glory of God.  Sing His praises, sing about His attributes and sing about His mercy and grace.

• Serve your people.  This might seem like a no-brainer but a legitimate worship service provides people with what they need; not what they want. 

• Saturate them with the Word of God.   Support your song choices with biblical references to God’s Word.   He has assembled your congregation in your presence for only a few minutes each week and they don’t need junk food.  They need spiritual meat and music can be a useful vehicle to deliver it to them.  Make sure that your song choices are substantive and rich in scripture.

• Don’t sing songs with humanistic philosophies or heretical theology.  I once read a comment that asked, “If your music doesn’t preach, why sing it?”  The fact of the matter is that ALL music preaches.  The problem is that so many Christians learn so much false doctrine from spiritually anemic, or downright stupid, popular contemporary music in church and on Christian radio.  It takes wisdom and discernment to examine all the lyrics in light of Scripture.  If necessary, you may have to make some corrective changes to the lyrics or, better yet, throw them out entirely.  Just do it because you are no less accountable than is your pastor when it comes to preaching or teaching false doctrine.

• Don’t draw attention to yourself.  It’s not about you (or your “worship team”).   Someone has suggested that, if worship teams were required to sing from behind a curtain, there would be no more worship teams.    Entertainment is not an element of  worship and the musical portion of your ministry is not your turn to perform.  And no one wants to hear your overly dramatic, rehearsed praises and prayers.  Do not use your music ministry as your outlet for creativity at the expense of the centrality of the Gospel.  I once had a pastor who had a small plaque on his pulpit, engrave with these words, “Sirs, we would see Jesus.”  It was fixed there to remind him (and anyone else he allowed to share his pulpit) that his responsibility was always and only to point men to Jesus.