HE SURELY COMES!

Election day evening, the whole world was assured that come the twenty-first of January, our present President will be inaugurated once more. Even though the official ballots were not counted his continuation in office is assured. Even though, the electors had yet to meet the first week of December, even though those ballots had not arrived in Washington for the new Congress to count, we are certain of the events to come. With all of those yet to be's on election night, the final outcome was and remains certain whether we like it or not!

By the same token, the world little notes or even anticipates the return of our Sovereign Lord and King Jesus Christ. And of His return, we may be even more certain than the mere reelection of an all to human president. In our psalm today, the first three verses are often understood as being prophetically complete long before the final completion at the end of the age.

Now, if you have difficulty with the implicit victory already accomplished and our admonition here to join in the celebration of that victory, let us consider how our understanding of salvation is similar. As I have told you many times, the New Testament phrasing for "being saved" should better be expressed with the Greek pluperfect sense used by Paul, who tells us that "we are having being saved." Far too many people think of salvation as having been accomplished in the recent past when they first experienced the new birth! Actually, the whole process was begun thousands of years before we were born, when the Father foreknew us in a saving relationship with Him in our own day.

Certainly, there is a past tense in all of this, in that we can realize what God has already accomplished, but there is also an anticipation of what God is yet to do in our lives as He prepares us for glory at the end of the present age. This present experience of being saved is sometimes difficult for us to accomplish with any confidence. Indeed, we are often frustrated in having no real sense of progress in sanctification. Continually and always we must come back to the cross to see the necessity of our being saved day by day.

As we look at the first three verses, we are called to "Sing to the Lord a new song" as we consider the marvelous things He has done to make our salvation certain. Our God is an action God, always working and doing those things that are necessary to bring us each and every one along on the path that He has marked out for us. When we sometimes doubt that our salvation is accomplished, we should take the challenge of the Apostle James to heart. Remember how the apostle challenges us to do the work of the Kingdom besides affirming the Kingdom in our heart.

Let me give you a more common example. Now I don't do a lot of marriage counseling, it is difficult and extremely time consuming. But, when I have no other choice I encourage both parties to the marriage contract to renew their marriage by doing something that they know their loved one appreciates. How do I know my loved one loves me? Is it because, I have carefully plucked off every petal of some romantic flower "she loves me, she loves me not"? If you do that be certain to count the petals before you begin so that you end up with the right thought! No, that is not the way to prove your love. For you men, it is to wipe your muddy feet before walking on the clean floor! For the ladies, perhaps a clean floor is possibly in order? While those are small things, doing the things expected and appreciated become proof of your love and concern for your other half in this life.

In the same way, we celebrate in worship the great deeds of our God in heaven because they prove His love, care and concern for us! In return, there are ample means for us to prove our love to Him. What did Jesus say to Peter when He restored Him to fellowship.? "Feed my sheep", in other words He expected Peter to do the work of the Kingdom. What would Jesus say to you this morning about your love for Him. "Do you love me?" Sing me a new song! "Do you love me?" Come to worship every week and prove your love! "Do you really love me?" Show me, and show the world around you that you really belong to me.

Worship is indeed the great indicative of where our hearts are focused! If the government would ever want to arrest the leading Christians in this country, where would they find them most easily? Sunday morning or evening in Church! I dare say, unless a real Christian is deathly sick, or exhausted and wrung out from service to their fellow man, they should be in Church on the Lord's Day. One of our leading Church planters in the PCA well understands who the most serious Christians are in his congregation. They are the ones who miss Sixty Minutes, on Sunday evening to go to evening worship. They are the ones who miss the Super Bowl for fellowship in Christ.

The Lord's Day worship in this psalm is something to really shout about as we see in the second three verses of our psalm. Here we see that our singing joyously before the Lord is to be accompanied with instruments. All of this is to be done before the Lord, the King, who is our very own God! And why do we do this? We get a valuable hint in our weekly purpose in the last three verses! Do you see the future in the description here? The sea, the world, the rivers and mountains and all they contain must sing before the coming judge. This event can be none other than when Christ returns in Glory at the end of the age.