Salvation! O the Joyful Sound (Hymn)

Salvation!  O the Joyful Sound!
Isaac Watts (1709)

Salvation! O the joyful sound!
What pleasure to our ears!
A sovereign balm for every wound,
A cordial for our fears.

Buried in sorrow and in sin,
And at hell’s dark door we lay;
But we arise by grace divine
To see a heavenly day.

Glory, honor, praise, and power,
Be unto the Lamb forever:
Jesus Christ is our Redeemer:
Hallelujah, Praise the Lord.

Salvation! let the echo fly
The spacious earth around;
While all the armies of the sky
Conspire to raise the sound!

Salvation! O Thou bleeding Lamb,
To Thee the praise belongs;
Salvation shall inspire our hearts,
And dwell upon our tongues.

And song that speaks of salvation should be a delight to the ears and heart of a Christian.  Isaac Watts was an English hymn writer who clearly loved and appreciated his salvation.  Singing and thinking about hymns like this one will help us to love and appreciate it as well!

Saturday Psalm (9)

I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.  I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.  When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.  for thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.

Psalm 9:1-4

Many of the Psalms deal with the theme of praising the Lord for His goodness to us.  In the first verse in this Psalm, the Psalmist says that he is going to praise the Lord with his whole heart.  Just thinking about that will give us plenty to consider today.

The Psalmist praised the Lord, which is what we should all be doing.  But he made it a point to say that he was praising the Lord with his whole heart.  How often are we guilty of praising the Lord halfheartedly?  How often are we guilty of praising the Lord sometimes and ignoring Him other times?

We need to praise the Lord with our whole hearts.  We need to praise the Lord all the time, every day and in every way.  We need to watch ourselves that we do not fail to praise the Lord for His goodness to us.  He has been good to us, hasn’t He?  If so, then we ought to be praising Him for it and letting others know!

Thinking Soberly

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every many that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. 

Romans 12:1-3

Verse three tells us (after telling us that we should not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think) that we need to “think soberly.”  The word “soberly” simply means “seriously.”  We need to be serious minded people.

Thinking soberly does not mean that we cannot have a sense of humor.  It does not mean that we cannot enjoy life or laugh.  But it does mean that we need to be serious about certain things, especially spiritual things.

We need to be serious about our walk with the Lord.  We need to be serious about telling others about Him and getting others to Him.  We need to be serious about living our lives in a way that honors Him.

We are sober and serious about these things because we understand what is at stake.  We understand that people are going to go either to Heaven or Hell.  We understand that all men are sinners and that the only way to be forgiven of all of our sins is to come to Jesus Christ for His mercy and grace.  Life is not just a big party or a joke.  There is life and death in the decisions that people make.

Understanding these things will help us to keep our minds sober and keep us right with the Lord Jesus.

Thinking of Ourselves

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every many that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. 

Romans 12:1-3

In verses one and two, we are admonished to present ourselves living sacrifices to God.  We are admonished to allow Him to make the decisions in our lives.  After telling us those things, we come to the third verse.  There, we are told that we, as Christians, are “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think…”

We aren’t supposed to think more highly of ourselves than we “ought to think.”  That might sound simple, but we are prideful creatures by nature.  It is our nature to be proud.  It is our nature to think highly of ourselves.  But God wants us to be humble and remember what we are.

We are vile sinners.  We are nothing in ourselves.  The only reason we are anything is the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is only through Him that we enjoy salvation and forgiveness.  Remembering those things will help us to think ourselves as we ought to think.  It will help us to keep our pride in check.

Really, the main point of life is to keep our eyes on Jesus and not on ourselves.  Doing that will help keep our opinions of ourselves in check!

 

Be Not Conformed

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

Romans 12:1-2

After telling us that we should present our bodies a living sacrifice in verse 1, Paul tells us how we can accomplish that in verse 2.  We are told to “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing our your mind.”

First, we need to not be conformed to this world.  When we become Christians, we need to stop living like the world lives.  The world lives in sin.  There are certain things that the world sees as being fine that a Christian knows are wrong.  There are places that the world goes that a Christian should not go and there are things that the world does that a Christian should not do.  We should not be conformed to the world.

Second, we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  When we become Christians, our whole way of thinking needs to change.  The only way that can happen is for us to constantly renew our minds.  Every day, we need to put the Lord Jesus in our minds.  We need to put the Bible in our minds.  The more we put the right things in our minds, the more the wrong things begin to get crowded out.  Every single day, we need to put the right things in our minds.

Most of the Christian life consists simply of moving closer to the Lord Jesus Christ and farther away from everything else.  How are we doing?  Which direction are we moving?

Our Reasonable Service

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:1

In this verse, Paul tells us that we should dedicate ourselves, our lives and our bodies to serving the Lord.  We should present ourselves as a “living sacrifice” to God.  Our whole lives should be surrendered to what He wants and not what we want.  As Christians, our lives should be all about Him, not all about ourselves.  He ends the verse with this: “…which is your reasonable service.”

Giving our entire lives to Lord seems like a huge thing.  Becoming a living sacrifice to Him seems to be a monumental task.  But Paul says that it is simply “our reasonable service.”

I heard a story many years ago dealing with this verse that has stayed with me through the years.  A pastor in one of the former Soviet countries had three daughters.  He was told to stop preaching, and, when he didn’t, the government cut out the tongues of his three daughters.  Years later, an American was visiting a church in that country and noticed 3 young women sitting on the front row, smiling and communicating with sign language.  They seemed to have the sweetest spirits about them, and the American asked the pastor about them.  The pastor told him the story about their father and the American was fascinated.  He asked the girls how they were able to go through that without becoming bitter.  Their simple response was: “it was our reasonable service.”

How often do we want to stop serving the Lord when we run into any minor hardship?  Someone is unkind to us and we are ready to stop serving Him.  Someone makes fun of us and we are ready to stop.  Living our lives for Him and giving our lives to Him might seem like a huge thing, but we need to remember that it really is our reasonable service.

A Living Sacrifice

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:1

The first several chapters of the book of Romans tell us what God has done for us.  They give us the plan and benefits of salvation and they tell us what the Saviour has done for us.  This verse tells us what we should do for the Lord.

We should “present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.”  He died for us and brought us salvation by grace through faith.  We should simply live for Him.

We should present our bodies as a living sacrifice.  But what does that mean?  Obviously we are not being told to actually sacrifice ourselves on an altar.  What we are being told to do is to simply give our lives to Him.  Whatever He wants us to do, that is what we should do.  Wherever He wants us to go, that is where we should go.  Our opinions no longer matter.  Our life should be about His desires, and not about our desires.

Presenting our bodies to Him as a “living sacrifice” means allowing Him to make the decisions about what we do with and in our bodies.  If we would truly live this way, we would sin far less, because He does not sin and He does not want us to sin.  If we have sacrificed our will to Him, we are going to do the things we wants and avoid the things He doesn’t want.

Too often, Christians want to control their own lives.  They want to live the way they want to live instead of presenting themselves as living sacrifices to God.  How are we doing today?  Have we presented our bodies as living sacrifices to God?  If we haven’t, today is a good day to start!

 

 

Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me (Hymn)

Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me
Edward Hopper (1871)

Jesus, Savior, pilot me
Over life’s tempestuous sea;
Unknown waves before me roll,
Hiding rock and treacherous shoal.
Chart and compass come from Thee;
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

While th’Apostles’ fragile bark
Struggled with the billows dark,
On the stormy Galilee,
Thou didst walk upon the sea;
And when they beheld Thy form,
Safe they glided through the storm.

Though the sea be smooth and bright,
Sparkling with the stars of night,
And my ship’s path be ablaze
With the light of halcyon days,
Still I know my need of Thee;
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

When the darkling heavens frown,
And the wrathful winds come down,
And the fierce waves, tossed on high,
Lash themselves against the sky,
Jesus, Savior, pilot me,
Over life’s tempestuous sea.

As a mother stills her child,
Thou canst hush the ocean wild;
Boisterous waves obey Thy will,
When Thou sayest to them, “Be still!”
Wondrous Sovereign of the sea,
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

When at last I near the shore,
And the fearful breakers roar
’Twixt me and the peaceful rest,
Then, while leaning on Thy breast,
May I hear Thee say to me,
“Fear not, I will pilot thee.”

As I mentioned last week, I have always enjoyed the sea and things associated with it, so I also enjoy this hymn, which was first published in the “The Sailor’s Magazine” in 1871.  Edward Hopper was involved in a ministry that ministered to sailors in New York City.  This is a great hymn for an actual sailor to sing, but it is also a great hymn for us who are not actual sailors to sing.  We need Jesus to pilot our lives, and keep us through the storms, which He has promised to do!

Saturday Psalm (8c)

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.  O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Psalm 8:3-9

After expressing his wonder at the glory of the Lord and the fact that the Lord has chosen to give man dominion over His creation, the Psalmist gives a list of some of the things that man is going to have dominion over.  Man is going to have dominion over the “fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth though the paths of the seas.”  Thinking about all of these things and thinking that the Lord has put man in charge of taking care of them is an incredible thought that the Psalmist gives us.

In the last verse of the Psalm, he repeats that the glory of creation is all due to the Lord: “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”  God may have given man dominion over His creation, but it is still HIS creation.  God still deserves and should receive all glory for all parts of creation.  What a wonderful and glorious God we serve!

 

Worship Him

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!  For who hath known the mind of the Lord?  or who hath been his counsellor?  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever.  Amen.

Romans 11:33-36

We have looked at this passage for two days and have looked at the fact that God is so much higher than we could ever even think of being.  God has infinitely more wisdom, knowledge and power than we could ever know.

The last verse of this passage and chapter gives us a thought that we can use to help ourselves worship Him: “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever.  Amen.”

It is important for us to remember that everything we have and enjoy comes from God and through God.  If we have health, it comes from God.  If we have strength, it comes from God.  If we have family or friends, they come directly from God.  If we have a Bible to read, it has come from God.  If we have eternal life, it is from God and through God.

We can look around at creation and see all that God has made.  The trees and the stars are His – there for His pleasure and created by Him.  No matter what we are or what we have, we have it from and through God.  Sometimes we tend to forget those things.  Sometimes we can let pride creep in and begin to think that we are the source of those good things in our lives.  But everything is from God and for God.

For those reasons, it is important that we say with Paul, “…to whom be glory for ever.  Amen.”