Psalm 124: Like a Bird in the Bracken | Douglas Wilson

the text this morning is psalm 124 these are the words of god if it had not been the lord who was on our side now may israel say if it had not been the lord who was on our side when men rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us then the waters had overwhelmed us the stream had gone over our soul then the proud waters had gone over our soul blessed be the lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped our help is in the name of the lord who made heaven and earth our gracious god and father we thank you for your word we thank you for our savior the lord jesus we thank you for the spirit who brought us to him we thank you for his presence here with us today knitting us together in your word by your grace father i pray you bless us now because we ask in jesus name amen so i've been working through we were interrupted by the holiday season but i was working through this decade of psalms psalm 121 through 1 30 as we've been working our way through the entire psalter and so we are returning to that but when you consider the state our nation is currently in when you consider the peril that we're currently in and you reflect that this psalm came up in as the text for this lord's day as as a matter of happenstance purely by happenstance your conclusion needs to be that it's almost as though higher power we're at work this is a psalm for this moment this is a psalm for this hour this is a psalm for this time we have a lot going on this is a time of turmoil you've heard me say that before we're going we're heading into more turmoil i don't know who punted 2020 and 2021 but that is one wounded duck punt and and it's no telling which way it's going to bounce it could bounce any number of ways and we need to be aware of the fact that god has absolutely everything about it under control this is all by his design we serve a sovereign god and he's not just sovereign over the big things he's sovereign over the big things and over the little things and i want you to know even though this is a tumultuous time i want to i want to encourage you to believe that this is a time of tumultuous mercy this is a time of tumultuous mercy god has marked many of his people and and god knows how to reign god knows how to rain down hailstones and not get his people god knows how to to destroy egypt with all the israelites standing in the land of goshen looking out at egypt saying something like crikey whatever the hebrew for crying look at looking at that they say whoa what is god doing what is god doing but then god god loves to uh bring us right to the brink god loves to to test our faith because the israelites who saw israel destroy they saw egypt destroyed in that way saw egypt humbled in that way were then brought out of egypt and brought to the banks of the red sea and pharaoh right behind them and they thought well god destroyed egypt and i was going to do we're number two we were staying we were the nations of of the earth were standing in line and he was going to destroy egypt first and then his people no god delivers his people and god delivers his people according to a particular pattern and it's a pattern we see again and again in scripture and psalm 124 is a wonderful expression of that pattern if you see in this tumultuous time the wrath of god remember that the wrath of god like everything else that god does is beautiful the wrath of god in the book of revelation the wrath of god is kept remember in golden bowls god keeps his wrath in golden bowls god does everything right god does everything right and we need to trust him and he's given us this psalm and many other passages so that we might learn to trust him in 1582 in edinburgh an imprisoned minister named john durie was released from prison he was welcomed on the edge of town by several hundred of his friends probably parishioners as well and as they walked along that number soon swelled to several thousands so several hundred grew to several thousand escorting john durie into edinburgh somebody began to sing and it was psalm 124 and they all much moved sang it together in four parts just as we sang it a moment ago let israel now say in thankfulness one of the chief persecutors of the time was said to have been more alarmed by this spectacle than anything else he had seen in scotland which if you know the history of reformation scotland is saying something this was alarming this was a devastating thought god's people singing god's word and particularly this song let israel now say in thankfulness so what is the psalm about this is a psalm of gratitude and it's a psalm of gratitude for deliverance just at the at the right time and the psalm begins with a fragmented joy the psalm begins with a fragmented joy in verses one and two instead of trying some of the translations try to smooth it out but try reading it this way had it not been jehovah he was for us oh let israel say had it not been jehovah he who was for us when men rose against us we might you might want to frame those into complete sentences you might think an english teacher might red pen this because it's simply fragments of joy fragments of gratitude also remember when i used the name jehovah the covenant name for the the covenant name for the covenant god of israel was yahweh but nobody is exactly sure how even yahweh was pronounced and jehovah is simply the anglicized form of that name it's taking the vowels of adnai and combining them with yahweh yhwh had it not been jehovah the covenant god of israel the covenant keeping god the god who keeps covenant for a thousand generations had it not been jehovah he was for us oh let israel say had it not been jehovah he who was for us when men rose against us if jehovah had not been our deliverance we would have been gulped down and that right quick if job if jehovah had not been our deliverance we would have swallowed right up verse three the wrath of man would have burned us up right now also verse three the flood waters would have overwhelmed us and the stream would have drowned our soul verse 4 when those proud waters went over our soul verse 5. notice here that the water is proud water notice that the water is hotty water blessed be the name of jehovah who took us away from their ravening jaws verse six we escaped the way a bird would flash away from a broken snare verse seven how many dangers are described here these are multi he's coming at this situation from using every metaphor he can think of had it not been for yahweh we would have been swallowed burned drowned eaten and captured had it not been for jehovah god had it not been for almighty god we would have been swallowed burned drowned eaten and captured all of those things are bad but our help but our help verse 8 our help is in the name of the lord who made heaven and earth our help is in the name of the lord who made heaven and earth notice here how the doctrine of creation is full of comfort our help is in the name of the one who made everything our help is in the name of the god who created all things he he's going to deliver us from the egyptians because he made the egyptians he's going to deliver us from the floods because he's the creator of the floods he's going to deliver us from the fire because he is the one who invented fire he is the one who made heaven and earth and we are trusting in him our help is in the name of the one who made heaven and earth and reflect for a moment on how the teaching of evolution necessarily robs you of that comfort our help is in nothing much our help is in superstitious happenstance our help is in whatever happens our help is whatever evolves no our help is in the one who made heaven and earth god is the creator god the world is in the palm of his hands not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from his purpose and will not one hair can fall from your head he has it all under control what is happening in your life what is happening in our lives and what is happening to our country right now is god's exquisitely crafted plan god is doing every last one of these things on purpose and for a good purpose it is so and paul says this god brings us to the the point of despair god bring why does god bring us to the brink why does god have abraham standing there over isaac with the knife in in the air ready and then he delivers why does he deliver israel on the banks of the red sea and then he delivers why does he have david on one side of the mountain and saul pursuing him in the other and then he delivers why does he bring us all the way up to the brink and then deliver so that we might learn the lesson as paul put it that we serve a god who raises the dead we serve a god who raises the dead and we and he does this by delivering us right at the brink like he does with abraham he gets to that moment and he intervenes he delivers israel right at the right when pharaoh is about ready to catch them he delivers them at that point but remember he delivered the lord jesus three days after the nick of time right he delivered the lord jesus after the moment of deliverance had passed we serve a god who raises the dead god takes us up to the brink of disaster so that we could we can understand that even if it went all the way through the disaster he's still able to deliver our god is the savior god our god is the god who delivers this is the one who made heaven and earth and so consequently we have to trust in the one who raises the dead we trust in god whatever is coming this week and the ball could bounce any number of ways whatever is coming this week it's going to be tumultuous but you are the people of god so think of it as a tumultuous mercy this is going to be a tumultuous mercy we don't know which tumultuous mercy it's going to be but god is good all the time god is sovereign all the time god doesn't drop anything god doesn't ever the god doesn't ever handle the world in such a way whereas oops and then that's a bad thing when god breaks things into pieces it's so that he can show us his wisdom in putting the pieces back together as only he can do so consequently this psalm is given to us so that we might understand that this is how god works if we want to follow god we want to follow him as the god who does it this way when men rise against us this is this is when we needed jehovah's help right when men rose against us the key to understanding the long war that is human history is found in the first chapters of genesis in genesis 3 15 as god is pronouncing the curse on the serpent and we get the first glimmer of a messianic promise when god's talking to the devil when god's talking to the serpent serpent we get our first glimpse of christ in what god said to the serpent in genesis 3 15 as god is pronouncing that curse he declares a necessary and permanent antipathy between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent this is the way it is in human history the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent will never ever get along and if you are engaged in the effort some ecumenical effort to get the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent to get along that's not an evidence that you have discovered a third way that's evidence that you're going over to the side of the serpent that's what you're doing you're trafficking in lies the truth is god's god's truth is there is an antithesis from the beginning of history the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent if you say no no there's half god said no no that's that's serpent talk that's what the serpent says did god really say this this is the key to understanding this perpetual conflict that we see in this world this is the antithesis between up and down between white and black between righteousness and unrighteousness this is why the lord clashed with the brood of vipers when he found them running the temple jesus didn't find these people that he was opposed to ecclesiastically and he thought what's a good insult and he didn't reach into it he didn't have a book of handy insults and oh i know i'll call them snakes this is not what what what's a random insult that they won't like he's going back to the opening opening chapters of genesis he is saying you are of as he says in the gospel of john you were of your father the devil you say you're you say you're of abraham but if you were really of abraham there'd be more of a family resemblance don't you think you would look more like him if you were descended from him if you were spiritually a descendant of abraham wouldn't you look like abraham a little bit more no i see i do see a family resemblance what i see is that you look like your father the devil and when jesus calls them a brood of vipers when he said they graduated from bag of snake seminary he is not just trying to be insulting although i think he is trying to be and so i think he is insulting them i think he's but it's a biblically grounded insult he is saying you are of your father the devil you are saying that you're doing what you're doing in the name of god you're running this temple in his name and yet you've turned it into a den of thieves you've turned it into a den of robbers so in this life we are necessarily the church militant the tr in this life the church is necessarily the church militant we we can be the church triumphant we can be the church at peace in heaven but not until then if everything is calm and serene in every direction for many many years that's a sign that somebody has compromised so what so what god has promised to do through the seed of the woman christ we're we're taught very clearly in galatians that christ is that is the seed christ is the promised seed he also promises to do forever through everyone who is in christ in in romans 6 20 it says this and the god of peace shall bruise satan under your feet shortly the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you amen so christ crushes the head of the serpent and christ's heel is bruised in that crushing so christ is wounded in the crushing of satan but satan is destroyed satan is destroyed not only does christ destroy satan by means of his death burial and resurrection but he also destroys him down through history in his work through his body in other words we are the body of christ so christ crushes the head of the serpent again through the romans the god of peace notice the juxtaposition and the god of peace shall bruise the god of peace shall crush this is a godly peace this is a godly peace it's not an ungodly compromising peace it's a godly peace and it's accomplished by crushing the head of satan and so you christians are going to be instruments god's instruments in crushing the serpent's head so remember this antithesis the fact of an ongoing and necessary conflict here is a fact of life it's a fact of life it is why all the way through psalm 124 why the wicked want to swallow us why they want to burn us why they want to drown us why they want to devour us why do they want to do these things why do they hate us so much all we're trying to do is feed our family and drive on the right side of the road that's all i want to do i want to worship god on the lord's day and i'm i'm not a threat to anybody well if you're telling that i'm not a threat to anybody because i'm worshiping the lord on sunday you need to go back and revisit what god does through his people worshiping him on sunday what does he do he conquers the world he overthrows all the principalities and powers he throws them down he crushes their head this is what god is up to so remember this antithesis it's a fact of life it's not an indicator that something has gone wrong when all of a sudden someone you've worked with for months years at work you've always gotten along before but they start getting eggy and they start getting upset with you and and then they get angry with you and if you're a tender hearted christian you often you often will think what did i say what did i do i offended them i did something wrong no it's much more likely that you did something right and you did something right over time and it started to convict them the the light that you were shining was starting to shine into certain dirty areas of their life and they didn't like it in fact the indication goes the other way in luke 6 26 jesus says beware when all men speak well of you when everybody thinks you've got a grand and glorious testimony when everybody thinks you're when everybody out there when the pagan world thinks that you're the best christian ever you ought to say to yourself uh-oh uh-oh that's that's how they talk about false teachers that's how they talk about compromised christians jesus tells us that that's not automatically the case god can make you our enemies to be at peace with us and it's not you don't look at it for five minutes and conclude that you've compromised but jesus says to watch it watch it when everybody thinks you're wonderful guard yourself and then when he says when they're throwing every dead cat they can find at you what are you supposed to do in that day he says rejoice and be exceedingly glad in that day go around the corner and dance a little jig why because they lied about you now that's not the normal earthly reaction right when someone tells a lie about you when someone spreads the lie about you when someone gets half the town to believe that lie about you what does jesus say to do you know that last dance step you learned at the last ball do that rejoice in my presence don't do it in front of anybody they'll but before the lord before the lord rejoice that you it's a it is an honor to be dishonored that way it is a grace to be disgraced in that way and so consequently we should worry when everybody thinks it's glorious when everybody thinks it's wonderful so it's an indication if everybody thinks it's grand and glory so people think oh that church doesn't cause any trouble at all when when the secular state takes over and they give all the permits worship permits out to all the churches when the secular state takes over completely and they give out worship permits to all the churches you better be praying now that we don't qualify okay we should not qualify for that so these waters these waters that would drown you they're proud waters these waters are proud waters this means that they accuse you of being the proud one that's what pride does pride pride loves to project whatever it's doing on to the other right so proud water wants to drown you in accusation you're so full of yourself you're so obstinate you don't believe in science you don't believe in you you don't you're just an idiot so they accuse you of being the proud one and they don't offer arguments when they do this i've i've noticed a great deal of this as things have accelerated and things have gotten more demented in our culture i've i've seen somebody so let's say some christian online goes on to twitter someplace or facebook and says something outrageous like you know i don't think little boys can become little girls you know something out there i don't think little boys can become little girls our discourse has degenerated to the point where the there there will be a vicious pile on they'll die dog pile on this person and people will come in and they'll say what an idiot what a and then there'll be a gif of some grade b actress rolling her eyes you're just um you just you just assume that the argument has been made that they just assume the argument is made and they say don't you believe in science science has shown don't you believe in science why can't you submit to all the current authorities all the journals all the universities all the corporations all the important pooh boss they all say that a little boy can become a little girl but if this is science why didn't all of this start in the vet schools with them turning bulls into cows you know and augmenting our dairy production i mean money for nothing right just no the the reason they're not going to listen to you they're not going to listen to the response they're not and they're going to blow you off the water maroon and and you're and you're going to say glory to god that's what you need to say glory to god now in order to say glory to god you've got to still be here and in order to still be here you have to have been delivered so as i've reminded you before you must remember how much god loves cliffhangers god delights in last minute deliverance because there's no joy like the joy that follows a last minute deliverance if we like to think oh why doesn't god tell us give us sort of a five year out plan you know it's gonna look grim for a while and then after five years you know um the danger is gonna come in five years but i'm gonna give you all the resources you need at three years so you're gonna have everything mass and you're ready for the devil no he he brings you out to the to the very last minute and you don't look like a you know a medieval knight with the sword of the spirit and and the crusaders crossing your shield you feel like a 10 year old kid with a trash can lid and a wooden sword and and all your pinecone hand grenades and and you're out there on and you're out there on the edge and you're thinking and then the dragon comes and then the giant comes and you say oh why does god like this so much because he's done it all through history down through history this is what god does over and over and over and over again chesterton once put it marvelously the one perfectly divine thing the one glimpse of god's paradise given on earth is to fight a losing battle and not lose it that's the that's a glimpse of paradise and as chesterton well knew and as the scripture attests god has done this countless times through history god delivers right at the right time now it's wonderful because remember shadrach meshach and abednego when they were about to be thrown into the fiery furnace which they were they were thrown into the fire furnace and when they were thrown into the fiery furnace that had been heated up seven times more than it ought to have been burned up the men who threw them in the only thing that burned in there were their bonds the only thing that melted were the handcuffs and but i want you to note what they said before they before they knew the end of the story after they came out and they testified to nebuchadnezzar that that they served the living god as as by that point he well knew before they went in before they knew the end of the story remember when daniel was down in the lion's den in that same book when daniel was in the lion's stand he didn't have the book of daniel right all he had was lions right he didn't have the book of daniel he couldn't flip ahead like some of you do when you're reading a mystery novel you flip ahead the last couple of pages to see who's still alive right and you're cheating but that's a separate sermon for another that's a separate thing so daniel doesn't have the book of daniel he's just down there with the lions he's trusting god with the lions shadrach meshach and abednego didn't have the book of daniel either and so they said to the king our god the god of psalm 124 who can deliver from fire deliver from water deliver from wild beasts deliver from men who will swallow you our god can deliver us from all of this and they said that to the king our god is able to save us that's point one we have full confidence that god will do whatever he wants to do and god is able to save us point two even if he doesn't we're not gonna bow to your idol even if he doesn't we're not going to do it now what is that where does that come from this comes from what what we need to understand is that this is not a godly in uh uh christ-endorsed form of daydreaming this is faith all right i'll get to the daydreaming issue in a few moments now imagine a bird and a snare and how it flutters in the net in a desperate panic and then imagine that snare broken in other words the bird was already caught the bird it was already a lost cause it was already i'm already done for the bird is caught in the net and then imagine that snare broken and if you blink you're not going to be able to see the bird darting back to the bracken but you'll hear us all back there in a moment singing our hearts out and you haven't lived until you've heard birds singing psalm 124 delivered birds released birds escaped birds that's the that's the sensation that's the emotion that's what god wants us to feel singing psalm 124. let israel now say in thankfulness that if the lord had not our right maintained if god had not done this we would have been lost but he did it like he's done hundreds of times before god does this over and over and over again and he does it this way so that we might learn the lesson that we don't trust in ourselves as paul says but in god who raises the dead this is a universal psalm this is a universal psalm we're not given any particular circumstance that occasion the composition of it like we are frequent like frequently happens in the book of psalms when when god delivered me in this point and or when uh when i i saw this trouble or when this battle or this circumstance we're not given any hint really of what the occasion was so it's a universal song because the antithesis is a constant reality in this fallen world there have been many occasions where god's people have needed to sing it this song fits pretty much every generation this song fits somewhere in pretty much every godly story because the antithesis the antithesis is a constant reality there have been many occasions where we've wanted to sing it and there will be many more i don't think we're at i don't think we're two years out from the end of the world i think there are many many years to come in the history of this world and that means god's people people not yet born are going to get in desperate in into a desperate situation and they are going to think that everything is lost it's going to they're going to think oh where's god today you know i know god delivered abraham god delivered moses and god delivered daniel and god delivered those people back in 2021 but that's the old times that's the ancient times i don't think it happens now in my time in my day and what are they doing they're doing exactly the same thing that you're tempted to do right now this is a universal psalm suitable for every age we'd be hard-pressed to find a river in the world that did not at some point have the saints of god gathered on the banks of that river singing about their deliverance in this way whether we're talking about the ohio or the ganges or the tiber or the jordan or the tigris or the nile we can see that the proud waters were tamed and humbled proud water can be tamed and humbled but only by god right jesus is the one who can speak to the wind and the waves jesus is the one who can walk on the water jesus is the one who can look at the tumultuous oceans of the wrath of man and say peace be still and then they are and then god's people on the banks break into song wherever god's people have gone they have eventually had to deal with the fact that their soul was down among the lions and when god delivers as he loves to do he delivers us like we were daniel so let us trust him as though we were daniel let's trust him as daniel did without the book of daniel right you don't have daniel didn't have his book and you don't have yours your book is being written your chapter is being written now so you want to trust him in this chapter so that others in the future might read it so i don't know what moments of doubt or despair or confusion that john durie might have had when he was in prison outside edinburgh i don't know what he thought you know did he think it's all over for me now did he think it's all done did he anticipate walking into edinburgh singing psalm 124 with thousands of fellow saints is that what he thought is that how he thought his chapter was going to end maybe likely not but that's how it ended that's how the chapter went how's your chapter going to go your chapter is going to go marvelously as you trust in god as alfred edersheim once noted this psalm contains sweet doctrine concerning all of time the past the present and the future verse 1 verse 2 and verse 8. the lord was on our side that's past the snare is broken which is the present our help is in the name of the lord which is going to be true out to the end of the world meaning that it applies to every possible future the one who made heaven and earth that truth is always true and it will be true until time shall be no more so god was faithful to his people in the past he's faithful to his people now he's going to be faithful to his people all the way through human history and this and and in every moment when he is about to deliver his people his people are standing there saying to themselves i don't know i don't know yeah maybe it's happened a thousand times but this is surely different no there's nothing different about it at all the antithesis the collision between righteousness and unrighteousness always follows the same grooves it goes down the same pattern god's people get into trouble they are attacked they are insulted they are persecuted they are harassed and they come out of their slumbers they abandon they they abandon their idols they repent of their idolatries they confess their sins they realize that we need we need reformation like nobody's business we need to be a clean people confessing our sins we need to worship god in the beauty of holiness we need to be focused on him and then we stand up straight in god's presence worshiping him with unveiled face and then what does god do still we're all standing there in our lost cause what does god do he gives us a winning cause and you say well yeah how many empires have to go down how many empires have to go down before we we figure out that this is the plan how many christians got thrown to the lions how many christians got thrown to the lions by omni-competent persecuting rome over how many years they threw these christians to the lions these christians the lions these christians to the lions and then they kept doing it until rome fell rome fell we know we know about the christians we honor the christian martyrs if you're a student in history if you're getting your phd in in the history of this of the roman emperors you might be able to keep the their names straight you might be able to get again where you might and you as average christians might know one or two but you know they're you you know why you know their names you know why you know augusta the name of augustus because that's when jesus was born you know why you know when the name of tiberius that's when jesus was executed you know what you know why you know the name of pontius pilate how in the world i want to know here's a fundamental creed we say every week what is the name of a roman governor doing in the middle of our basic christian truth he suffered under pontius pilate why are christian kids going to be memorizing the name of a provincial roman governor to the end of the world because jesus christ was crucified when he was in charge and you know who's in charge now it's not pontius pilate it's not the roman empire it's not the principalities and powers of that day so what do we have the snare is broken which is the present the snare is broken which is the present our help is in the name of the lord which is the future so if you're alive and here with us now that means you were born for this time and because christ is constantly at the right hand of the father set your minds on the things which are above as it says in colossians 3 2. but it's not just an in an abstract or an inanimate thing that's at the right hand of the father it's not the things it's not immaterial things it's the lord jesus at the right hand of the father set your minds on christ and he will bestow on you exactly what you need for this moment christ will give to you what you need for this moment and this is the thing i said earlier that i was going to get back to this point about daydreaming we're not we're not telling you to to buy into marx's taunt against the christian faith where we uh we have the opiate of the masses all we have to do is things are bad for us now we're being persecuted now so we're going to believe in uh happy things for us later after we all die pie in the sky when we die by and by in the sweet by and by everything will be better and that we daydream about that so that we won't have to confront evil or oppression or wickedness now that would be daydreaming and what marx thought we were doing that would be a problem that would be but that's not what we're doing we're setting our minds not on a a sweet paradise for us where somebody's going to bring us refreshing drinks and and peeled grapes what we're doing is we're setting our minds on the lord jesus christ who's at the right hand of all the almighty and what is he doing from that position of authority and power he's ruling the world he's changing the world he's transforming the world and so we set our minds on christ we set our minds on christ and that is transformative that is it's transformative in your life it's transformative in the in the experience of your family it's transformative in the life of this congregation and it transforms the world so set your minds on christ the king of the nations set your minds on christ who rules over the nations of men remember in the great commission all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me and let me mess with the nations as i please let me shake them i'm going to shake them so that what cannot be shaken may remain i'm going to break them into pieces so that i can put the pieces back together the way i want to and you are my servants trust me again trust me i know how to do this i've done it countless times before and so set your minds on christ and he will give you exactly what you need for this moment and unless i miss the mark that gift available to you now will be the triadic outpouring of faith courage and joy faith courage and joy what's set before you on this table it's the bread of faith courage and joy what what are you going to drink in a moment faith courage and joy what have you been listening to faith courage and joy god wants his people to conquer in this way our father in heaven we're very grateful for your word i pray that you'd be with us as we seek to internalize it in the right way i pray that you would help us to understand what we need to understand help us to be strengthened and what needs to be strengthened father i pray that we would meet the challenges that are before us in a way that glorifies and honors you and blesses us your people father as we pray we would lift up the words that jesus taught us to pray saying you cannot drink the cup of the lord and the cup of demons you cannot partake of the table of the lord and the table of demons first corinthians 10 21 this warning comes following paul's sweeping appraisal of old israel who had been baptized in the cloud and in the sea who ate spiritual food and drank spiritual drink in the wilderness but then they fell in the wilderness because they were idolaters they grumbled and complained about god's provision and craved evil things and paul says that in that condition even when they were offering sacrifices to god they were actually sacrificing to demons this really is the table of the lord regardless of who comes and how they come but paul says precisely because that is the case the lord can be provoked to jealousy and he can leave you to your idols one of the ways god deals with hypocrites is by handing them over to their sins how does that happen james says that friendship with the world is enmity with god anyone who wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of god and he continues and says therefore submit to god resist the devil and he will flee from you do you want to be free from every demon do you want to resist the devil in such a way that he will run away from you do you want to scare all the evil away then you must submit to god completely and the lord of the rings gandalf says bilbo must leave the ring of power behind before leaving to go to rivendell and after some great struggle bilbo agrees to leave the ring behind but he doesn't actually rid himself of the ring and so gandalf has to remind him that he still has the ring so many christians know that they must give up their sin and then they struggle mightily with the idea of that and then occasionally come to the conclusion that yes they really must be done with it and then they mistake that resolution for real peace but no you really must put it down lay it down and walk away that is submission to god and when you do that the devil will flee from you so as you come to this table this morning do not merely agree with god that your sin must go commit to doing whatever needs to be done to actually rid yourself of it and come and welcome to jesus christ and the night in which he was betrayed jesus took bread and gave thanks so let's give thanks together our god and father we thank you that when jesus was broken on the cross all of the strength and power we needed to be broken out of the prison cells of our sin was provided for us and so we thank you and we praise you for that deliverance in jesus name amen christianity is a religion it's all about giants and dragons the bible is full of giants and dragons this world is full of giants and dragons why is that for us to fight so that we might have things that are too big for us to handle so that we might have psalms like this to sing from the top of our lungs when he delivers us so go now with the blessing of your god to face your giants and dragons now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us to him be glory in the church by christ jesus to all generations forever and ever amen you

Channel: Christ Church

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Id: Rd3PA7s2aQ4

Length: 43min 27sec (2607 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 19 2021