Salvation Belongs to Our God: The Song of the Saints

Revelation 7:9-17 (see previous post) is set in the throne room of heaven. The song of the innumerable host standing before the throne of God and in front of the Lamb is unpacked phrase by phrase in Christopher J. H. Wright's Salvation Belongs to Our God: Celebrating the Bible's Central Story (IVP, 2007). I have reviewed this book here and highly recommend it to you. Here's how Wright introduces this text:

The grande finale of any great work of music is usually very moving, as in an opera or the great music and dance sequences of traditional cultures. The closing song or climactic chorus or final dance of a great musical drama usually ends in thunderous applause as the audience feels that the performance has delivered the message of the whole work. As you leave the concert hall or theater or village square, you will hear people humming those last tunes. Sometimes you can't get them out of your head for days. Even in cultures where music and drama take the form of local village art forms, without the need for concert halls and theaters, there is emotional power in the words and music that express the grand themes of life and death, struggle, victory, and hope. Human beings in cultures all over the world turn to music, movement, song and drama whenever they wrestle with the really big things that go beyond merely rational analysis.

The Bible ends with a climactic final chorus. The whole of creation will sing it, and it sums up the message of the whole Bible story.... It is not a long song, but it sums up a very long story. It is a song we will not want to get out of our heads, or our hearts, for all eternity. Here it is, form John's vision in Revelation 7:9-10:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb." [NIV]

This is worth singing this weekend, even in light of Reformation Day!

Salvation Belongs to Our God: The Song of the Saints

All Saints Day and Baxter's Sants' Rest

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I am preparing for another preaching opportunity this coming Lord's Day, which according to the Church Year happens to be All Saints Day. In light of this occasion, I have decided to preach a sermon based upon four texts found in one of the common lectionaries. The texts are as follows:

Revelation 7:9-17
Psalm 34:1-10, 22
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12

Studying and meditating upon the messages of these texts and seeking a way to weave them together into one sermon is proving to be a rich blessing. Along with studying these texts of scripture, I am doing some reading in Richard Baxter's The Saints' Everlasting Rest. (This work was first published in 1650. My copy was printed in the early 1800's, however it is still in print. It can be read online here. Christian Focus has recently reprinted it, and it can be purchased from Westminster Bookstore.)

According to the Prefatory Note,

The Saints' Rest is deservedly esteemed one of the most valuable parts of his practical works. He wrote it when he was far from home, without any book to consult but his Bible, and in such an ill state of health as to be in continual expectation of death for many months; and therefore, merely for his own use, he fixed his thoughts on this heavenly subject, "which," says he, "hath more benefited me than all the studies of my life." At this time he could be little more than thirty years old. He afterwards preached over the subject in his weekly lecture at Kidderminster, and in 1650 published it; indeed it appears to have been the first that ever he published of all his practical writings.

Of particular interest to me, in light of my current studies, is Baxter's third chapter titled "The Excellencies of the Saints' Rest." I heartily recommend this chapter to you! The texts listed above fit very well with Baxter's thoughts in this chapter. For your consideration, here is his outline:

1. It is the purchased possession;
2. [It is] A free gift;
3. [It is] Peculiar to saints;
4. [It is] An association with saints and angels;
5. It derives its joys immediately from God himself;
6. It will be seasonable;
7. [It will be] Suitable;
8. [It will be] Perfect, without sin and suffering;
9. And [It will be] everlasting.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven ~ Matt. 5:12
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure ~ 1 John 3:3
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints ~ Psalm 116:15

Our home church observes All Saints Day by remembering (not worshiping or praying to) those from our communion who have preceded us into Eternal Rest during the previous year. Remembering that I am a member of the body of Christ which is made up of many members from all ages, giving thought to Christ's faithfulness to those whom he has redeemed with his own blood, and considering the eternal reward awaiting all who have been cleansed by his blood is a wonderful exercise for corporate worship. If you will be observing All Saints Day this Sunday, remember the saints particularly for who they are in Christ. And even more so, consider the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who is their reward. As John saw them in his vision of the great throne room of heaven, "they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on his throne will shelter them with his presence" Revelation 7:15.

All Saints Day and Baxter's Sants' Rest

The Mystery of Marriage

This evening I was thumbing through John Piper's Desiring God and spent a few moments rereading his chapter entitled "Marriage: A Matrix for Christian Hedonism." Weddings are fun (BTW: Congratulations to Tim & Doris Ashcraft on the marriage of their daughter, Diane), but, more so, they are also excellent occasions for those who are already married to soberly re-consider the mystery of marital union. I'd like to share a few excellent thoughts from Piper's Desiring God.

Ephesians 5:22-33

Wives and Husbands

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Piper:

The mystery is this: God did not create the union of Christ and the church after the pattern of human marriage; just the reverse! He created human marriage on the pattern of Christ's relation to the church.

...marriage is a mystery--it contains and conceals a meaning far greater than what we see on the outside. God created man male and female, and ordained marriage so that the eternal covenant relationship between Christ and his church would be imaged forth in the marriage union. As Geoffrey Bromiley has written, "As God made man in his own image, so he made marriage in the image of his own eternal marriage with his people."

...It is not enough to say that each spouse should pursue his or her own joy in the joy of the other. It is also important to say husbands and wives should consciously copy the relationship God intended for Christ and the church. (178)

...As each pursues joy in the joy of the other and fulfills a God-ordained role, the mystery of marriage as a parable of Christ and the church becomes manifest for his great glory and for our great joy. (184)

The Mystery of Marriage

Caesar and His Books

It is said of Caesar, that 'he had greater care of his books than of his royal robes,' for swimming through the waters to escape his enemies, he carried his books in his hand above the waters, but lost his robes. Ah, what are Caesar's books to God's books? Well, remember this, that one day, yea, one hour spent in the study of truth, or spreading abroad of truth, will yield the soul more comfort and profit than many thousand years spent in the study and spreading abroad of corrupt and vain opinions, that have their rise from hell, and not from heaven, from the god of this world and not form the God that shall at last judge this world, and all the corrupt opinions of men.

(Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. First published 1652. Reprinted, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1984, p. 95)

Here are a few (late) references to this anecdote:

(Henry George Liddell, The Life of Julius Caesar, Sheldon, 1860, p. 194)

In a desperate contest which the Egyptians had commenced, with the intention of mastering the Romans on the side of the harbour, Caesar himself had a narrow escape. He had to throw himself from a sinking vessel into the water, and to escape by swimming. We read that, with a sword between his teeth, and with some valuable papers in his left, he made use of his right hand in propelling himself to a place of safety. It is probable that his purple cloak, worn always on the day of battle, was thrown away, and secured by the Alexandrians, who hung it up as a trophy in one of their temples. Caesar could afford to allow his enemies to indulge in such harmless boasts.

(John Williams, The Life of Julius Caesar, G. Routledge, 1854, p. 334)

Caesar, anticipating this danger, leaped over into the sea and swam to the ship. He had some papers in his hand at the time--plans perhaps of the works which he was assailing. These he held above the water with his left hand, while he swam with the right. And to save his purple cloak or mantle, the emblem of his imperial dignity, which he supposed the enemy would eagerly seek to obtain as a trophy, he seized it by a corner between his teeth, and drew it after him through the water as he swam toward the galley. The boat which he thus escaped from soon after went down, with all on board.

(Jacob Abbot, The History of Julius Caesar, Harper, 1899, p. 207)

Thos. Brooks drew his quote from a Latin source. If you know which source this is, please let me know. Thanks.

Caesar and His Books