Draft transcript prepared from the recording and edited for readability. Audio proofreading is still pending; please refer to the recording for the spoken wording.
You're listening to Sunday Sermons at Asbury Chapel. If you've got your Bibles, or if you're using a Bible app, or if you want to take one of the few Bibles there, we actually have the page numbers printed inside the bulletin. You'll see there, 901 and 902. It's for Psalm 149. I'm going to read the whole Psalm. It's just nine verses. You can stand nine verses. So, Psalm 149. If you don't know where it is, you can just crack open the middle of the Bible, and you'll find Psalms very quickly.
Psalm 149. Hear the word of the Lord.
Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song. His praise in the assembly of His faithful people. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker. Let the people of Zion be glad in their King. Let them praise His name with dancing, and make music to Him with timbrel and harp. For the Lord takes delight in His people. He crowns the humble with victory. Let His faithful people rejoice in this honor, and sing for joy on their beds.
May the praise of God be in their mouths, and a double-edged sword in their hands, to inflict vengeance on the nations, and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all His faithful people. Praise the Lord. The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Some of y'all got nervous, and was wondering if I was reading the same psalm, didn't you?
You got through verse 5, and everything was fine, and then all of a sudden, it's like, did His pages stick together? Did He have to flip over, and He went to a different psalm? We went from praising God, and from the glory of their Maker, and being glad in their King, to praising God, and holding a sword. What happened? That's different.
It may seem different. It may seem a little off, but we're going to offer something this morning to you, and so let's start where it is that we need to start. The psalms that lead up to Psalm 149, okay, there's a collection here, or you're getting to the end of the book of Psalms. When you get to Psalm 150, that's it. It's over, and boy, it ends with a bang, quite literally, pardon the pun, because they're clanging cymbals, and they are praising God.
I mean, it's a holy raucous. It's something. It's holiness is what it is. They're probably hopping pews, but Psalm 149 is a little bit of that, and then all of a sudden, it's kind of, whoa, what was that? But the other psalms that lead up to that are full of praise, and they're full of encouragement. It's amazing to see. If you want to go back today, it's just really remarkable. Just start with 147 if you want. You don't have to read all the psalms.
There's 150 of them. But start with, you know, 146 or 147, and then make your way into 148, and then you'll make your way right to where we are for today. And Psalm 148 is beautiful. I'll start just reading a little bit of it. Psalm 148, the one behind what we just read. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights above. Praise Him, all His angels. Praise Him, all His heavenly hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon, and praise Him, all you shining stars.
Praise Him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the skies. And, I mean, it's everything. Everything, it's everything, especially everything way up here. It's all the big things, the stars and the moons and the heavenly hosts. But then if you keep reading 148, he talks about praising on the smallest level. Everything from the smallest creatures to the littlest of birds. He's doing the depths. He's going to the very top of the top and all the way down to the humblest and the smallest and the lowest.
I mean, I think you get the gist of 148. It's praise Him from the bottom up, from the top down. It's beautiful how the psalmist pulls out, how everything that has breath needs to praise the Lord.
149 is not much different. It starts well, doesn't it? Starts off similarly, calling for God's people to gather and to sing, to dance and to make that holy ruckus we were talking about. And the reason in 149 that they're praising God is because God is victorious.
So one of them is just talking about how grand He is and how wonderful and how majestic He is. 149 is a little bit more specific. It's talking about this victory. It's talking about the humble. Some of your translations may say the oppressed. And it's because the people of God have been humbled. They've been humbled by their circumstances. They've been oppressed by people who are around them. And the Lord has now delivered them. And they've seen that deliverance and they know that they are now victorious because He has won the victory.
And they're caught up in that. So for those five verses, you're feeling good. You're going, oh yeah, 148. It's the highest heavens and the lowest parts of earth. Praise His name. We get into 149 and it's our God is wonderful. He's victorious. We've been humbled and He's lifted us up. He is God. And I mean, everybody just seems good up until verse 6 starts.
I mean, verse 5, let His faithful people rejoice in this honor. What is the honor? The salvation that He has brought. The victory that He has won. It's just gorgeous, isn't it? Let His faithful people rejoice in this honor that He's done for us and sing for joy on their beds. One of the reasons why they were saying to sing for joy on the beds is that the bed tended to also be the mourning place as in grieving.
So there were times where you would lay upon your beds and you would pray for safety, but the bed was also the place that you went to in order to mourn. And so it's out of the mourning place, out of the grieving place, the place where you're sad, the place where it's hard, the place where the thoughts tend to find you and you weep over such things. Out of a weeping place, what are we supposed to do? What are we commanded to do?
This is, it says, I've lost my place. The faithful people rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds. From the bed where they grieve, they will now sing for joy. I mean, this is good news. And 6 starts well, doesn't it? May the praise of God be in their mouths. Yes, upon their beds where they grieve, they will do this. And now in their very mouths, they're going to praise God and a double-edged sword in their hands. That's terrifying.
How are we praising God and holding a double-edged sword as if we're ready for battle, as if we're ready for some sort of punishment? Isn't that what God does? But it says, and a double-edged sword in their hands to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, right? With like shackles.
Huh? When did this turn from joy and being renewed from the place of grief where you would bury your face into the pillow and now you flip over and shout for joy? But we're shouting for joy and praising God and holding a sword to inflict vengeance. What does this mean? I think you get the point.
Here's how I'll set it up for you. It's the burning question. Yes, I'm vamping.
To praise God is to not praise the world.
You see that distinction? Tamara sees where I'm going. She's okay when I point her out sometimes.
To praise God is to not praise the world. See, if you've got God on your lips, if you're singing His praises, you're not singing the praises of the world.
To sing the praises of the world would be to sing of the sinfulness. It would be to sing of the wickedness. It would be to celebrate all that's torn down. It would be to celebrate that which God has said is sinful. We can't praise such things. We have been called to praise God. Many of us in this room, we can and do praise God because the Holy Spirit has been deposited into our lives and into our hearts and we can't help it.
We can't help but praise. We can't help but be positive. Look for solutions. Build things. And honor God in who we are and what we do. We are servants of the Most High and we want to praise Him which means we don't have time to praise the world. I'm not going to get into the wickedness of the world. I'm not going to get into the sinfulness of the world. I can't get that dirt on my hands if my hands are called to be holy.
And so to praise God means to not praise the world or the way the world operates.
Now does that make it difficult for us who love God and praise God to live in this world? Well, yeah. It's really hard.
But that doesn't mean that we're not called to it. Anything worth doing is worth doing well and worth doing hard. If it's easy, it's no fun. You think it was easy to go to Calvary?
You think it was easy to carry the cross? You think it was easy to be on that cross and be mocked?
No.
But it was worth it. Wasn't it? Oh, for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. The Scriptures tell us.
And so why the sword? It's because the moment you choose to praise God is the moment that the world is coming after you. Why don't you accept me? Why won't you condone this?
Because I can't. I have a Lord. I have a Savior. I have a Master.
The moment you begin to praise God, there is no praising the world. And the world sees that and the world understands that. And what do they feel the moment you choose God over them and the wickedness and the sin that's there? They feel what? They feel cut. They feel that sword. They feel poked and prodded and stabbed and they're heartbroken over it. Only they're not broken over their sin. They're broken over not getting what they want.
There's a Scripture that helps us immensely. It's 2 Corinthians chapter 2. This is an interesting text. Some people struggle with it because they go, wow, this is just so interesting. I've never heard this. In Rome, and this was common in other cultures as well, but it was explicitly practiced in Rome. In Rome, when a king or when an emperor or a great general won a military victory, they packed everything up and they went home. They went home to celebrate. They went home to report to the emperor.
They went home to look the king in the eye and they said, the mission has been accomplished. Your people are victorious and there would be a victory train. It would be a great parade where the spoils of war were gathered together and they were loaded up to be put on display so that as you approach the city and the people saw all of the spoils of war and as they were marched through the city, you could look and you could see what it is that the great and mighty army had won for the honor of the king and along with the spoils of war and the great treasures that were gathered up were also the prisoners of war, those who were captured, who would be brought to justice because of their atrocities, because of their defiance, their denial and their wickedness and in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul says this in verse 14, but thanks be to God who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Him everywhere for we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing to the one we are an aroma that brings death to the other an aroma that brings life and who is equal to such a task.
Christ has won the victory and as He has paraded what it is that has happened when we proclaim His gift, when we proclaim His victory, there is a great aroma for those who know they have been saved, for those who know that they are part of this victory and they smell the incense that would have been cast in front and alongside and behind so that the victory train was not just a spectacle for the eyes but it was an aroma, a fragrance that would speak of the glory of this moment.
It was set aside as quite a procession and there were those who went, look at this, look at what has happened here and they are overcome with the glory of this moment. Then there were those who see this and they go, ah, I don't want to smell that.
I don't want that to be in front of me.
And these are those who are rejected. These are those that are rejected because they're the ones that reject it. These are the ones who are in denial and they've denied Him and so when they see this, they see the end of their attitudes, habits, proclivities, all of the things they've made part of their life. They don't want it to come to an end. What they want is to have what they want, what they've amassed, what they've put together and God is stripping these things away and He's saying, it is not your glory, it is my glory.
I will be lifted up and these are those who have lifted themselves up and God has humbled them to the place to where now they're gritting their teeth. Now where have we heard that before? Jesus in the Gospels often talks about hell. He talks about hell a lot. And He talks about how those who are wicked are thrown out where there will be what? Two things. Weeping and gnashing of teeth. Sorrow on the one side and anger on the other. When's the last time you saw somebody gnash their teeth?
When their teeth are like this and they're grinding their teeth together and they're gnashing those teeth because they're mad, because they're unsatisfied. God.
This is a hard word. I get it. But God calls His people to sing His praise and that praise will be a double-edged sword that no matter which way you swing it, it will cut at those who will not put the glory of God above all else. And there comes a judgment upon them in the end. And even when Jesus is lifted high, even when He's won the victory for you and for me, they will not receive it.
And that is terrible.
We want such an aroma. To be an aroma that would light up their senses. And I don't just mean the senses of eyes and ears but would bring them to their senses.
That they would know what we know. That they would see what we see. That they would smell what we smell. And that it would be something that is pleasing. Something that touches the heart and moves it to a new place, to a better place, to a deeper place. Something that doesn't have anything to do with all of this.
When we look at the communion table as we work towards that now and we see the gorgeous cups and the grandeur that is here. This isn't about having expensive wares or beautiful cups. This is about making sure that we give God all the honor and glory and praise that if we are going to put His precious blood in a receptacle that we would make sure that you knew that what's in there is precious.
Before the cross He was a humble carpenter who came in to preach and to teach and to love and to heal. But on the other side of the cross He is the King who will return in victory. And these are cups worthy of a King and the King takes His own blood puts it in the cup and offers it to you and to me and we don't deserve it. We have been wicked. We have smelled the beautiful fruit that has been won that He has produced and some of us maybe we've just turned on the inside.
Maybe we've watched the world turn on the inside because God threatens. He threatens what we have and how we feel and what we do and we don't want to change but guess what if you don't change you don't walk through the gates unless a man be born again.
Y'all ever heard people say well I was born this way.
Make sure you look at them next time and say yeah well Jesus said you got to be born again. When you were born into this old sinful world guess what you were born sinful. It's time for you to be born from that which is sinless. It's time for you to be born again.
And we have so many people who think oh well I've given my heart to Jesus. Have you?
I'm going to meddle now. There's a spiritual experience that goes along with the intellectual understanding about what Jesus has done.
We read in Bible study this week Luke chapter 5 and chapter 6 a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit. And if there's bad fruit that's inside that life then that fruit needs to be dealt with and Jesus says in John 15 that if you are part of the vine and you are the branches you'll bear good fruit. But if you're not a part of the vine and you're not bearing good fruit what's he going to do?
He's going to trim it off.
What's the lesson? Don't get trimmed.
It's the one time I'm going to look at you and say you better leave those crepe myrtles alone as long as they're connected to good soil. as long as they're willing to serve the Lord and serve his people. As long as they're ready to put the glory of God above their own glory and serve him and no one else.
I want to be a part of the victory train that celebrates Christ's sacrifice and what he has done for you and for me. That's the train I want to be a part of and I want to make sure that when that train passes me when I smell that incense when I look at the spoils of war that my heart is set on fire for a God who is victorious and that is when I will praise when it will just escape from my mouth because I can't contain it.
And if you think I'm too riled up today if you think that I'm a little dramatic or whatever go back and read Psalm 149 they're dancing. I hadn't even cut a rug this morning.
I think my cousin and my kids don't really know what that means. They were like what does that mean? It means dance. Oh you did know that? Good. Good. You're an old soul. You know it's like David said I have not even begun to defile myself when it comes to dancing before the ark. It's time to let loose.
It's time. And when those old naysayers look and they go ah let them make their sounds. Invite them to dance. Let them know you don't have to stand over there. You can come over here and join in this. This is you too. This is for you. This is for you too.
But if they choose if they choose to continue to look down on the fragrance of what Christ has done well keep dancing. Keep dancing. You've got a Lord to celebrate. And don't let this world keep you from celebrating Jesus. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God as we come before the table we are not worthy.
We may know you we may love you but Lord we know that we are not worthy.
This is a holy sacrifice.
And yet at the same time Lord you offer yourself to us. You make yourself available to us. and so Lord as we now finish prepping this table we ask Lord that you would finish prepping our hearts to receive what's on this table. Help us God in the midst of a world that wants to silence us. Help us to sing louder. Help us to dance harder. Help us Lord as we desire to be a delight in your eyes. It's in Jesus name we pray.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
