Sermon Manuscript

Glory of God to the Nations ~ 20230625 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

06/25 The Glory of God to the Nations (Psalm 96); Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20230625_psalm-96.mp3

Today I want to talk about what we call missions; bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who don’t yet believe, to those who may have never heard, to the nations, to the world. I invite you to look with me today at Psalm 96

Psalm 96:1 Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! 2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. 3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! 4 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens. 6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength! 8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! 9 Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! 10 Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.” 11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; 12 let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy 13 before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Declare His Glory

Psalm 96 verse 3 describes the missionary message; and notice it is a message, a word, something spoken, proclaimed, truth declared. It’s not primarily a debate or an argument, not sharing an opinion but announcing something; it is declaring objective truth. The New Testament word is [εὐαγγελίζω] from which we get ‘evangelize’; to announce good news.

Content: His Glory

This declaration has content. What is the content of the declaration we are to be making? Declare his glory. The content of our message is a person, it is all about God; specifically his glory.

What is the glory of God? Glory is the shining forth of the brilliance of who he is; his nature and character. This Psalm describes his glory as (3) ‘his marvelous works’, (4) his greatness, that he is to be feared, (5) his creativity, (6) his splendor, majesty, strength, and beauty, (7) his glory and strength, (8) the glory of a great king, (9) splendor of holiness, (10-13) his rule, his unchanging permanence, his justice, righteousness, and faithfulness. He is worthy of worship from all of his creation. His presence elicits joy. God is glorious beyond comparison.

Declare his glory, tell of his marvelous works. When you witness glory, whether it is the awesome power of a tsunami or the stunning beauty of a sunset, it stirs something in you and you need to share the experience, you need others to know. You need to tell someone. Declare his glory.

Context: Among the Nations

The mission mandate is to declare a message; the content of that message is his glory; the context is among the nations; among all the peoples. God’s glory is not a regional glory, not a domestic glory. His is a global glory, an all creation glory, and so the message of his glory must be proclaimed among all the peoples, among all nations. His supremacy must be proclaimed to nations with kings and tyrants, prime ministers and presidents. Daniel was sent to Babylon as an ambassador to the king to declare that ‘the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will’ (Dan.4:17, 25, 32; 5:21).

[globe] Keep in mind, from a Jerusalem perspective, we are the ends of the earth. The good news of the glory of God has reached even here, even to us. But it must not stop with us. Declare his glory among the nations, among all the peoples.

Sing Sing Sing

But Psalm 96 doesn’t start with verse 3; it starts with verse 1. So we need to back up. It starts with singing;

Psalm 96:1 Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! 2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.

Sing, sing, sing. The missionary mandate flows out of a song. One of the things we do when we gather as a church is to sing together. Singing is a powerful way to express emotion about a shared experience. At a ball game we sing the national anthem. At a concert we sing a song that resonates with our experience. As the people of God, we gather to sing to the Lord, because his mercies are new every morning. We sing to the Lord and bless his name because of who he is; he character stirs our affections like a sunset stirs our sense of beauty; like a tsunami elicits a deep sense of awe at its raw destructive power. Powerful experiences overflow into song.

Tell of His Salvation

Tell of his salvation from day to day. Salvation, because God is more attractive than the most magnificent sunrise, because God’s wrath is fiercer than the mightiest tsunami, because his grace is so glorious that wraps undeserving sinners in his infinite love to protect us from his own fierce wrath at great cost to himself.

God’s glory is declared most eloquently in the gospel, that

1 Timothy 1:15 ...that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

1 John 4:9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Have you experienced his salvation? If you have, your heart will overflow with joy in the Lord for your salvation, and you will want to tell of his salvation from day to day. We gather to sing of our salvation and praise his glorious name, because our hearts need to sing. We need to tell. We have experienced God and his salvation, and so we sing.

Worship fuels missions. The telling, the singing, the declaring must flow out of an experience of God as God, and God as rescuer. We sing because we know him. We sing because we know him. We tell of his salvation because salvation belongs to the Lord. It is his unique and exclusive domain. O God, awaken our dead hearts to rejoice in your salvation!

The Why of Worship

Verses 4 and 5 answer the why of missions, both positively and negatively. Why do we declare his glory among the nations? Because YHWH is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. We declare his glory because he is worth praising. He is praiseworthy. So many sales people promise the moon from a product that is average at best. We praise God because God’s very being elicits praise. To be exposed to the living God is to fall on our faces in awe and wonder. He is more terrible, more awesome, more to be feared than any other superhero or supernatural being, good or evil.

This is the negative; we declare his glory because the things the nations worship as gods are worthless nothings. They are empty, vain, powerless, compared to the living God who spoke the universe into existence. This sounds offensive, especially if you are someone who worships one of these worthless gods. But this is constructively offensive. ‘You are being a fool; stop being a fool; there is a better way.’ Stop worshiping worthless things; worship the living God. This is what Paul and Barnabas told the idolaters at Lystra

Acts 14:15 ‘...we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.’

This may sound offensive, but isn’t it infinitely more offensive to the Creator of all things to

Romans 1:25 ...exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

The good news demands not only embracing the one true God as your greatest treasure; it also requires turning away from every worthless thing that once held your affections.

This is selling all you have out of joy so you can buy the field that contains the greatest treasure (Mt.13:44). This is giving up all of your accumulated nothings to gain everything. Because

Psalm 96:6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Pursue splendor. Pursue majesty. Pursue strength. Pursue beauty. All of this is found in him. As Psalm 16:11 tells us

Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

We declare his glory among the nations to expose the counterfeit and call people to embrace the authentic. We declare his glory among all the peoples, because he alone is truly glorious. Only in him will my soul be satisfied.

Ascribe, Ascribe, Ascribe

So because we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, out of the overflow of our experience with God in salvation, we sing and then we say; we delight and then we declare his glory. And then we call people to:

Psalm 96:7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength! 8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! 9 Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!

We sing, sing, sing; so that the nations will see and ascribe, ascribe, ascribe. So they will see God for who he truly is and give him the glory that is his. Missions flows out of our worship, and it results in worship. The motive of missions is worship, and the goal of missions is worship. Missions pursues the vision that one day:

Revelation 7:9 ...behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Joy at the Coming of the LORD

This Psalm ends with a celebration of God’s justice and the joy of all creation at the coming of YHWH.

Psalm 96:10 Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”

God’s just and certain rule is in contrast to the instability and injustice of the nations. God’s good rule is something to say ‘yes’ about.

Psalm 96:11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; 12 let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy 13 before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.

The climax and crescendo of missions goes beyond nations and peoples to all creation; heavens and earth, sea, field, trees, all declaring his glory at the long anticipated coming of their King.

At his first coming, Jesus said to the skeptical Pharisees seeking to squelch his worship;

Luke 19:40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

This may be what Romans 8 is talking about;

Romans 8:19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. ... 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

So…

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2023.06.25 Sermon Notes

Psalm 96; The Glory of God to the Nations

Declare: a message

Romans 10:13-15

Content: his glory

Psalm 96:1-13

Context: among the nations

Daniel 4:17, 25, 32; 5:21

The missionary mandate flows out of a song

Psalm 96:1-2

Tell of his salvation; the glory of God in the gospel

1 Timothy 1:15; 1 John 4:9-10

The Why of Worship:

positive: because YHWH is worthy

negative: because the gods are worthless

Acts 14:15; Romans 1:25; Matthew 13:44; Psalm 16:11

Missions flows out of worship and results in worship

Revelation 7:9-10

The climax of worship; all creation rejoices!

Luke 19:40; Romans 8:19-22

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org