Lord

A New Easter Hymn

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Here’s an Easter hymn in the tradition of Henry Van Dykes’ Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee and set to the tune of Beethovan’s Ode to Joy (9th Symphony)

Easter Hymn: “Joyful, Joyful, We Proclaim Thee“

Verse 1:
Joyful, joyful, we proclaim Thee,
Risen Lord, our King above;
From the grave Thou hast ascended,
Filling hearts with hope and love.

Verse 2:
Death and sin are now defeated,
By Thy cross and empty tomb;
Light and life are now completed,
In Thy resurrection’s bloom.

Verse 3:
Angels sing and saints are praising,
Heaven and earth resound with joy;
For our Savior, death displacing,
Lives forever, our great King.

Verse 4:
Thou art risen, Thou art reigning,
Lord of all, both great and small;
In Thy name, we are sustaining,
Hope of heaven, for one and all.

An Easter Poem

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In the dawn of Easter morn, we rise

With hearts reformed, we lift our eyes

The tomb is empty, the stone rolled away,

Christ our Savior, has conquered the day.

No works of ours could earn this grace

No law could meet God’s holy face

By faith alone, through Christ we’re freed

His blood, our ransom, meets every need

The cross once heavy with sin’s dark weight

Now stands as hope, our eternal gate

He bore the wrath, the curse undone

In Him, God’s justice and mercy won

Reborn in truth, we sing His name

Sovereign Lord, forever the same

From death to life, His Spirit calls

Redeemed, we worship, as grace enthralls

This Easter, let our souls proclaim

The Risen King, whose Word shall reign

In Christ alone, our hope is sure

Forever His, forever secure

40 Days of Praise — Day 33

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ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS’ NAME – Edward Perronet

All hail the power of Jesus’ name! Let angels prostrate fall

Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all, Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all

Let highborn seraphs tune the lyre and as they tune it, fall

Before His face who tunes their choir, and crown Him Lord of all, Before His face who tunes their choir, and crown Him Lord of all

Crown Him, ye morning stars of light who fixed this floating ball

Now hail the strength of Israel’s might, and crown Him Lord of all, Now hail the strength of Israel’s might, and crown Him Lord of all

Crown Him, ye martyrs of your God, who from His altar call

Extol the Stem of Jesse’s Rod, and crown Him Lord of all, Extol the Stem of Jesse’s Rod, and crown Him Lord of all

Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race, Ye ransomed from the fall

Hail Him who saves you by His grace and crown Him Lord of all, Hail Him who saves you by His grace and crown Him Lord of all

Hail Him, ye heirs of David’s line, whom David Lord did call

The God incarnate, Man divine, and crown Him Lord of all, The God incarnate, Man divine, and crown Him Lord of all

Sinners, whose love can ne’er forget the wormwood and the gall

Go spread your trophies at His feet, and crown Him Lord of all, Go spread your trophies at His feet, and crown Him Lord of all

Let every tribe and every tongue before Him prostrate fall

And shout in universal song the crowned Lord of all, And shout in universal song the crowned Lord of all

Oh, that with yonder sacred throng, We at His feet may fall

We’ll join the everlasting song, and crown Him Lord of all, We’ll join the everlasting song, and crown Him Lord of all

(John Rippon added final verse in 1787)

               What a magnificent tribute to our great King Jesus! Everything should praise His incomparable majesty, from angelic beings to repentant sinners. I love how we are swept away to the throne of God to see Jesus receive the honor and glory due Him.

               Edward Perronet leaves out no one in this great hymn. From the seraphim to human martyrs, to the chosen nation of Israel and the redeemed of every nationality, all have reason to praise and glorify Jesus Christ.

               As I reflect on this song, I must ask myself – do I praise Him as He deserves to be praised? Do I truly follow Him as a servant should his Master, his Lord? Do I truly magnify His name with my life, my witness?

               Oh, that we would always lift up high the name of Jesus. Our wonderful Savior, Redeemer and Friend. The Lord of all lords. The King of all kings. The One who left His throne in heaven to save a wretch like me. What a wonderful day it will be to stand before Him, and watch as He sits enthroned, ruling over the universe. May we never forget the suffering our Lord endured for us, the wormwood and the gall, as the hymn reads. Let us spread out before Him our lives, the good works we have done in His name so that others could see His saving and transforming power. Let us shout to all with ears that Jesus is Lord of all.

               What a scene in heaven, as those from Earth join those in Heaven and together we lift up the name of Jesus in praise and adulation. Let us start now and keep the song rolling through eternity.

All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain. Thank You, Lord Jesus – may all who draw breath seek to praise Your name. Draw us to Yourself so that we may praise You forever.

40 Days of Praise — Day 26

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THANK  YOU, LORD by Seth and Bessie Sykes

Some thank the Lord, For friends and home, For mercies sure and sweet

But I would praise Him, For His grace , prayer I would repeat

Thank you Lord, for saving my soul, Thank you Lord, for making me whole

Thank you Lord, for giving to me,Thy great salvation so rich and free

Some thank Him for the flowers that grow, Some for the stars that shine

My heart is filled with joy and praise, Because I know He’s mine

Thank you Lord, for saving my soul, Thank you Lord, for making me whole

Thank you Lord, for giving to me, Thy great salvation so rich and free

I trust in Him from day to day, I prove His saving grace

I’ll sing this song of praise to Him, Until I see His face

Thank you Lord, for saving my soul, Thank you Lord, for making me whole

Thank you Lord, for giving to me, Thy great salvation so rich and free

I like the simplicity of this hymn very much. I first learned this as a chorus in children’s Sunday School, and only recently became acquainted with the verses.

               While it is both right and appropriate to thank the Lord for the things He has done for us, greater still is thanking Him for just being who He is. He is a God of grace and while that is just one aspect of His character, it is definitely worthy to be praised.  Now, flowing from His grace, comes our salvation, as the chorus proclaims. That, too, is worthy of praise.

               It is this wonderful salvation that makes us whole. It brings us to life spiritually. It allows us to commune once again with our God. It allows us to learn of Him and brings joy and excitement to a life that was once dull and listless.

               I especially love the verse that says, “I prove His saving grace.” Yes, I do. If He can save me, He can save anyone. So often I run into people who think they are so bad, have done so much wrong, messed up their life so much, that they cannot be saved. They have lost hope. I simply open the Bible and show them people much worse than they, murderers, blasphemers, those demonically possessed, harlots, thieves and many more whom God called as His own.

               Until He returns for me, or calls me home to Him, I will continue to thank Him for His great salvation.

Thank you, Lord, for being who You are. Thank you for deciding to reach down and change my life through Your Holy Spirit. Thank you for Your Son, who paid my penalty and purchased salvation for me. What else have I to say, Lord, than “Thank you?”

A Foundational Truth

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Foundational Truths

Many times, whenever I preach or write on various subjects, someone will invariably say, “why don’t you just preach Jesus? No Old Testament stuff, just preach Jesus.” My answer to them? No one can know Jesus Christ as He really is if you only know Him as the Redeemer of the New Testament. We must preach Jesus as He truly is – all of Him – or we preach another Jesus than the Bible speaks of.

Jesus was Creator before He became Redeemer or Savior. He became our Savior dying on the cross and rising from the grave on the third day because of mankind’s sin. Much, if not all, of that sin is mankind’s rejection of God’s Word, the denial of Him being the Creator. One truly “preaches Christ” when he first of all preaches Him as Creator.

The great message of Christianity is that the just shall live by faith, speaking of them that believe, to the saving of the soul. But what is this saving, living faith? The faith of which Hebrews speaks of is outlined in chapter 11. It is the faith of Abel, offering an acceptable sacrifice. It is Enoch’s faith, pleasing God in obedience. It is Noah’s faith, believing and acting on God’s Word. It is the faith of Abraham, stepping out on God’s promises. But, first of all, it is foundational faith. It is the faith by which “we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear”, Hebrews 11:3.

Any meaningful faith for salvation must be founded on God’s special creation of all things. The saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is founded on creation. The very last reference to the gospel in the Bible is found in Revelation 14: 6-7: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”

The angel has the everlasting gospel and its message is for people to worship the One who made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of water. The gospel is much more than the cross and the resurrection, it also includes the coming kingdom and God’s great creation. Without creation, the gospel has no foundation and no logical end. The gospel is the good news that Jesus came to save who? Those who were made in God’s image on the earth and who are now marred by sin. What is the end purpose? So that mankind will live with God and enjoy Him forever in His Kingdom. Death first entered God’s finished creation when Adam sinned. Now that Christ is risen, the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is seeking to assure young Christians at Corinth of the validity of the gospel. He preached to them that which they had believed. In verses 3-11 Paul stresses the witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. In verses 12-19, Paul says, because Jesus rose from the grave it guarantees a future resurrection to all who have hope in Christ. But then, Paul goes further, In verses 20-28 he says that Jesus’ resurrection restores man’s lost estate, reverses the consequences of Adam’s sin, conquers all enemies of God and destroys death itself. In verses 29-34 Paul says this promise not only gives assurance of eternal life, but strength for godly living and triumph over persecutions and opposition. And then, in verses 35-49, Paul ties it all back to creation.

Everything is tied back to creation. Biological, physical, human – all aspects are discussed. Every individual creation of God has been designed with its own marvelous structure for its own divine purpose, as it pleased God to make it like He did. Since each individual creation is distinct it could not have “evolved” from any other.

I am so amazed at so-called Christians who accept as fact Christ’s resurrection from the dead but not the Genesis record of creation in 6 days. Jesus said, “from the beginning of creation God made them male and female,” speaking of mankind. Not after 18 billion years of cosmic history or 4 ½ billion years of earth’s evolution but on day 6.

Psalm 115:16 tells us the very purpose of earth’s creation was that it should be a home for the children of men. A person cannot believe Christ’s words and reject Moses’. Listen to Jesus in John 5:46-47, “For had you believed Moses, you would have believed Me, because He wrote of Me. But if you believe not his writings, how will you believe My words?” In the book of Revelation, Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.”

The Apostle Peter, not too long before his martyrdom, wrote a remarkably prophetic passage about the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Listen to the words of 2 Peter 3:3-6,

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? Since the fathers fell asleep all things glorifying God continue as they are from the beginning of creation.” For this they willingly are ignorant of – that by the Word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out and in the water; whereby the world that was then being overflowed by water perished.”

Scoffers arise, those who dismiss the Bible as fairy tales or myths, denying special creation. They replace sudden, special creation by God with uniformity and evolution. They willingly deny a universal flood. Anotherwords, they will deny the Genesis account of creation and the flood and in doing so deny the truth of John 1:3, 1:10 and Hebrews 1:2 which state that God created the world through Jesus Christ.

Creation is a non-negotiable doctrine. What a person believes about creation, about the origins of the earth and mankind, will influence what they believe about the meaning and purpose of life. So many of the great founding fathers of science knew this. Kepler, Galileo, Pascal, Newton, Boyle, Breuster, Faraday, Kelvin and others believed that they were glorifying God as they probed and discovered His marvelous works.

Understand this, belief in the Genesis account of creation is necessary for a correct understanding of who Jesus is as the Bible presents Him. To believe in another Jesus, one who did not create the world in 6 days, one who did not create man in His image, one who is not Lord over creation because you believe He was not the Creator, is to send yourself to hell.

Salvation is found in the Jesus of Holy Scripture, not the Jesus of one’s imagination. Salvation is found in believing in Jesus as He is presented in the Bible, not as we wish He was presented. He is either the Creator Lord or He isn’t. You cannot straddle the fence on this issue. The New Testament simply will not allow it. From the Gospels to the letters of Peter, Paul, and John, Jesus is clearly presented as the Creator Lord.

At the beginning, I said that many times I am asked, “Why don’t you just preach Jesus?” I do. I do preach Jesus. I preach Him creating the world in Genesis as part of the Godhead. I preach Him throughout the Old Testament sustaining the world He created. I preach Him in the New Testament redeeming the world He created. I preach Him in Revelation coming back to claim the world He created. What Jesus are you preaching?

 

 

Security, not Possibility

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One of the most reassuring facets of our Lord  Jesus Christ is, to me, His ability to secure our salvation. We serve a God who not only can save, but who actually does so. The gospels abound with such wonderful statements such as Mt. 1:21, ” And you (Mary) shall bring forth a son and younshall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins” and Mt. 18:4 “For the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.” How wonderful is the phrase He shall save” – not just He will make salvation possible, but that He is actively going to save His people.

The fact that He not only loved us first, when we did not love Him, coupled with the truth that He saves us precisely because we cannot save ourselves is staggering. Left to ourselves, we would not come to Christ even if we could. Thankfully, He came to seek and save us. He calls us and bids us to come, follow Him just as He called the disciples. He draws us to Himself, saving us from this corrupt generation.

It is not just that He died to secure the possibility of salvation for those who would believe,  but that He died to save those to whom He gives the faith to believe on Him. My eternal destiny is secure because He chose me and for that I thank Him. On my own, I could not have and would not have chosen Him. Truly, our Lord is the God of salvation.

What the Story of Lazarus Teaches us About Salvation

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One of Ta Ethne’s most popular articles was  “What the Virgin Birth Teaches Us About Salvation”, from the introduction of our book, Dominoes: A Dynamic Commentary on Jude.  Today we will supplement that by focusing on Lazarus. You know the story – Lazarus, friend of Jesus, has died and been in the tomb for some days. Jesus appears on the scene and commands him to come out of the grave, which he does, alive and well (John chapter 11). This story, as powerful and compelling as it is, also teaches us something about salvation.

Lazarus is dead. Stone cold dead. Four days dead. He was as dead physically as we are spiritually. Ephesians 2:1 tells us that everyone is dead spiritually and in need of a spiritual resurrection. Dead people cannot do anything. I have pastored over 20 years, worked for 3 years at a funeral home and have been a chaplain for 3 different hospice organizations. I know dead people. I have been around hundreds of them. Dead people don’t do anything except decompose. They cannot heap themselves. Spiritually dead people cannot help themselves either. Just as Lazarus was unaware of life, those spiritually dead are unaware of spiritual life.

Lazarus was commanded to come alive by Jesus. The Spirit of God drew him back to life. Those who are spiritually dead need God’s Spirit to draw them back to life. They need the Spirit to breathe on them and impart new life. Lazarus was bound in grave clothes. They weighed him down. He needed to be freed by someone else. So do we. We need the command of Jesus to have everything that weighs us down removed. Only God’s Spirit can grant life and freedom. It was for this Jesus came – to set the captives free, to heal the broken-hearted and give sight to the blind. Not just physically, but spiritually as well.

Lazarus teaches us that we are totally dependent on Jesus saving us. We cannot save ourselves – we are spiritually dead. We cannot see the blessed Savior to go to Him. We are as blind and bound as Lazarus in a dark tomb wrapped up like a mummy. We have to have Jesus call our name. His sheep, those He calls, will hear His voice. The Spirit will grant them new life, replace their heart of stone with a new heart. The Spirit grants them faith to believe on Jesus, the ability to repent of their sins and the power to live as a Christian from then on.

Just as people were amazed and astounded at Lazarus, transformed from a corpse to a walking, talking, laughing, living man again, they will be just as astounded and amazed to see a sinner, a reprobate changed into a son of God.

That’s a lesson from Lazarus. May we learn from it and share it with those who have never heard of our amazing Lord.

The Unveiling of Jesus Christ, Part 1

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The podcast of Revelation, chapter 1, has now been posted on the podcast page. This series will continue to be posted on a weekly (more or less) timetable. Please, listen and enjoy this new teaching resource from Ta Ethne

Weekly Photo Challenge – Love

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This picture combines my two loves. In this photo there is my wife, sitting in Narnia with Aslan looking over her shoulder. I love my Lord Jesus and I love my wife. Since I believe He gave her to me, I love a shot that puts the two together.

aslan