Weapons of Worship

On March 13th of this year, Democratic Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island introduced H.R. 5, the “Equality Act” for consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill seeks to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to define and include

...Sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity among the prohibited categories of discrimination or segregation.

If this law is passed, it will be illegal to deny a man who identifies as a woman from using women’s locker rooms or restrooms. It would be illegal for athletic conferences to bar men from competing in women’s sports. Business owners like Jack Philips or Baronelle Stutzman would be prosecuted for refusing to provide cakes or flowers for same-sex weddings.

And as this legislation currently stands, it specifically prohibits any exemption for religious or conscience reasons. Section 1107 of the bill specifically states:

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 shall not provide a claim concerning, or a defense to a claim under, a covered title, or provide a basis for challenging the application or enforcement of a covered title.

Churches and individual Christians will not be able to claim religious freedom protections as a defense in court. A church that refuses to perform or host a gay wedding, or refuses to allow a biologically male individual to participate in female-only events, or that withholds (or withdraws) membership from someone engaging in open, unrepentant homosexual behavior, can be prosecuted under Federal anti-discrimination statues. Under this proposed law, churches that fail to comply can be stripped of their tax-exempt status, and would then owe taxes on all income and property (perhaps even including back taxes from the date of its incorporation.)

Make no mistake--this is nothing short of a full-frontal assault on Christianity in the United States. Under the guise of “equality”, this legislation is attempting not only to marginalize Biblical faith, but to overtly criminalize it. The Equality Act has already passed the House of Representatives, and has passed to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain future--at this point it does not appear to have enough support to pass.

But if it does, it will go to the President’s desk--and given his recent full-throated approval and support for the LGBTQ agenda--it is entirely possible that he will sign it. But even if that doesn’t happen, and the bill dies in the Senate, make no mistake--the same legislation, in one form or another, will be introduced again. And again, and again until it passes.

Now, the first thing that tends to come into our minds at a moment like this is that “this is why it’s so important to vote!” Maybe you’re making a mental note right now to call your congressman this week, or find a petition to sign, or some way of trying to make your voice of opposition heard. And surely all of those things are important--part of being a responsible citizen is to make use of all of these means to influence our political discourse in this country.

But if you really believe that the tools of democracy at your disposal in this country (the ballot box, petitions, phone calls and letters) are sufficient to deliver you from this kind of threat, you are badly mistaken at best and willfully ignorant at worst. Because using those “tools of democracy” require that you play by the rules, and the individuals that are seeking to criminalize Biblical faith in this country do not play by the rules.

There is no lie they will not tell, there is no deception they will not perform, there is no election they will not rig, no distortion or slander or accusation they will not employ to get what they want--and what they want is an end to any opposition to the sexual and moral revolution currently underway in our society. And for that to happen, Christian, you must be completely and permanently silenced.

And so what can we do? David lamented in

Psalm 11:3 ESV

if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

How can we fight against this kind of oppression, this kind of deceitful, unjust and relentless attack? Can we fight back? And if so, how?

As we turn to Psalm 43 this morning, we find the psalmist in a remarkably similar situation in his day--see if his song doesn’t sound familiar to you:

Psalm 43:1–2 ESV

Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me! For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

It’s likely that this psalm was written as kind of a “third verse” for Psalm 42, and that the unjust oppression the psalmist was facing was another one of those “breakers” that can wash over you and cast you down into spiritual despondency. He has been trusting God to deliver him, “seeking refuge” in Him against his enemies, but it feels like the opposition and oppression that is closing in on him means that God has pushed him outside the fortress wall and locked the gates behind him! “Why have you pushed me out? Why am I “mourning” (literally, “worn out, drained”) by this oppression?

So the psalmist has been where we are. Here is another one of the songs on the radio that we’re listening to this summer that seems to hit us right where we are. So what does the psalmist do in the midst of this oppression? Here he is, feeling like his back is against the wall and he doesn’t know what God is up to. His enemies are utterly “deceitful and unjust”, and will stop at nothing to destroy him. But what I want to show you this morning is that the psalmist’s response to this unjust oppression is not merely a “coping strategy” to get along under oppression or an “escape route” to run away from oppression--

This psalm is a battle plan for defeating unjust oppression!

What I aim to show you this morning is that the psalmist fought back against unjust oppression with the weapons of worship. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 remind us that

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 ESV

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

What I submit to you this morning, beloved, is that God’s people take up the weapons of worship against unjust oppression. That is the way God has ordained His church to conquer. There are at least three weapons that the psalmist employs here in Psalm 43--

Three weapons of worship that have “divine power to destroy strongholds”: The weapon of prayer, the weapon of faithfulness, and the weapon of praise.

I. The Weapon of Prayer

We’ve already seen this first weapon, as the psalmist prays for vindication against his enemies:

Psalm 43:1 ESV

Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!

Before he does anything else, he prays for God to act. Beloved,

we can do more than just pray, but we cannot do anything more until we have prayed.

Turn with me to James 5--you know the passage. Page 1013 in the pew Bibles. James writes,

James 5:16–17 ESV

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

We often pass over that phrase that Elijah was “a man with a nature like ours”--a man like us. But if you think about it, you see that Elijah lived much of his life under the same kind of hostility and oppression that is so common today. In 1 Kings 19 we see him hiding in a cave, crying out to God,

1 Kings 19:10 ESV

He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

It’s not too difficult to imagine Elijah sitting there in that cave singing Psalm 43: “You are the God in whom I take refuge, why have You rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of my enemies?”

But what happened when he prayed?

God used Elijah’s prayers to grind his ungodly nation to a halt through a drought, and force a massive public confrontation between Baal and Yahweh

--and Baal went down hard! Beloved, Elijah met the unjust opposition he faced with the powerful prayers of a righteous man, and when we do the same, we take up a powerful weapon that will pull down every ungodly stronghold!

II. The Weapon of Faithfulness

Psalm 43 is a battle plan to fight the unjust oppression against us by taking up the weapons of worship. Take up the weapon of prayer, and take up the weapon of faithfulness. Look at verse 3:

Psalm 43:3 ESV

Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!

In the midst of the oppression and deceit and unjust opposition of his enemies,

The psalmist resolves to be guided by the light and truth of God.

It doesn’t matter what the world around him is doing, it doesn’t matter what pressure he is under or how much hatred he earns for himself, he will not abandon the light and truth of God.

Turn with me to Daniel 3 (p. 739). Another familiar story, and another time when God’s people were singing a lament of the unjust oppression against them. Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were young Jewish men who were taken from Israel by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who renamed them Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego--he tore their Jewish identity away from them and threatened them with death if they did not bow in worship to his idolatrous image of himself.

Once again, we can imagine these young guys (who would have grown up singing Psalm 43 just like Elijah had), “You are the God in whom we trust--why have you forsaken us to this ungodly nation of Babylon?” But see how they responded when Nebuchadnezzar threatened to throw them into the fiery furnace unless they worshipped him, saying “and who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands? (v. 15).

Look at their response starting in verse 16:

Daniel 3:16–18 ESV

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

They would not be pressured or cowed into breaking faith with the light and truth of God, even in the middle of a godless nation and a wicked, unjust king who held their very lives in his hands. They trusted that God could deliver them no matter how grave their peril--but even if He did not, they would not turn away from the light and truth of His word! They were willing to say, “Nebuchadnezzar, you can bind us, you can beat us, you can throw us into the furnace--and then you will have our cremated remains, but you will never have our obedience!

That kind of faithfulness is an act of worship because it shows a watching world that

God is worth the loss of any comfort, security or privilege that the world can give.

And there is nothing this world can threaten us with, nothing that it can take away from us that will take away the smallest trace of our eternal joy and peace and fullness in Him through Christ. When the Apostle Paul was “so utterly burdened beyond his strength that he despaired of life itself” (2 Corinthians 1:8) that he “felt that he had received on himself the sentence of death”, it was “to make him rely not on himself but on God, who RAISES THE DEAD!” (v. 9)!

Does it look like our rights as Christians in this country are dying? Does it look like the Church is on the verge of being snuffed out of existence? Does it seem like it will be impossible to live the Christian life in the coming years? You serve a God who raises the dead! G. K. Chesterton, in his book The Everlasting Man said it best:

Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.

Take up the weapon of faithfulness against ungodly oppression, Christian, do not flinch, do not be cowed, do not cower or hide this Light and Truth under a basket, because you serve a God who loves to bring resurrection out of death! So take up the weapon of faithfulness to the light and truth of God revealed in His Word!

III. The Weapon of Praise

We take up the weapon of prayer, we take up the weapon of faithfulness, and finally here in Psalm 43 we see the psalmist taking up the Weapon of Praise.

Psalm 43:4 ESV

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.

We don’t know for sure, because the psalmist is never named here, but I suspect that this was a psalm of David that he wrote for the Sons of Korah to sing. But the promise to “praise God with the lyre” is a clue that it might be David here, because David was known for playing the lyre (cp. 1 Sam. 16:23, where he played the lyre for Saul in his madness). And David (if that’s who it is) says he will praise God with the lyre “at the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy”.

When we read about the “altar of God” in the Psalms and elsewhere in the Old Testament, it is hard for us to understand the associations it would have to the typical member of God’s covenant people at that time. The word “altar” here literally means “the place of slaughter”, or “where the channels have been cut” (because of the flow of blood).

The altar in the Old Testament was a horrifying place of death--a grisly, bloody reminder of God’s hatred for sin and of our guilt before Him. It was a place that you would look upon with trembling and fear--because you knew that that bull or goat that was quivering in its death-spasms there on that altar should be you. It was not a place where it was natural to praise; it was a place of horror and graphic violence. But

David could praise God at the altar because he knew that it represented the atonement for his sins before God!

And that praise, that joy in the shadow of death, that confident hope in the place of judgment is a powerful weapon to pull down ungodly strongholds of oppression--Jesus Himself said as much in Matthew 16. Turn there with me (p. 822). Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (v. 15), and Peter confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” And Jesus answers, (v. 17), “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Christian, do not miss this! When Peter confessed Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God, the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Jesus says that He would build His church on that confession, and the gates of Hell itself would not be able to withstand the power of that confession!

Jesus made this statement in Caesarea Philippi, which was the traditional site (according to its ancient Canaanite inhabitants) of a cave that led to Sheol, the underworld. And Jesus stood there with His disciples and told them that when they confessed Him as God in the flesh, the Savior of the world, all of the defenses of Hell would crumble before them!

Christian--what did you come here this morning to do? Was it not to confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ? To praise Him for delivering you from the penalty and power of your sin? That He has taken away the wrath of God from you and has given you a song of praise? Do you not sit here gazing over my shoulder at the lights in the pattern of a Cross, the most grisly, horrifying method of execution by torture ever devised--and do you not rejoice in it, because it should have been you up there?! Do we not take the bread and the cup to remember His death, do we not immerse each other in water to celebrate the death of ourselves to sin and being raised with Him? Beloved,

Everything we do in worship is in one way or another a celebration at the place of slaughter!

Everything we do here is a rejoicing at the altar of God for His deliverance of us through Christ! And when we come here week by week to worship we are carrying out an assault against the gates of Hell itself that it cannot withstand!

We may be threatened by deceitful and unjust enemies with unjust and oppressive legislation that will destroy religious freedoms that we have had for 243 years, but we take up the weapon of prayer that is powerful to bring an ungodly nation to its knees and force a reckoning with the God of Heaven! We may be standing on the brink of a fiery furnace, threatened by godless rulers who want to see us eliminated, but we take up the weapon of faithfulness to Jesus Christ, the Light of the World and the Way and the Truth and the Life! The Church of Jesus Christ is the Church of the Resurrected One--and that means that all of the voices gleefully predicting the death of Christianity have no idea what they are saying! Because in Christ, every death is followed by a resurrection in power!

So Christian, take up these weapons of worship! Take up the weapon of prayer--pray for vindication in the midst of an ungodly nation, pray for the downfall of every argument and lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. Take up the weapon of faithfulness--that no matter the threat, no matter the opposition, you will not abandon the Light and Truth of God revealed in Christ. Even if you are the last person on the planet that cries out against our nation’s perverted sexual rebellion and bloody violence against the unborn, even if you are the only one left who calls for the kings of the earth to

Psalm 2:12 ESV

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Even if it means the loss of your job, your home, your church building, your freedom.

And as long as we are able, beloved, let us commit ourselves to coming to this place every week to take up these weapons of praise--the pulpit, the hymnal, the bread and the cup, the baptismal tank--so that we may confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ and proclaiming His atonement for our sins and the sins of the world! And by His grace and in His power, our weekly gathered worship will resound from this little country church to the halls of ungodly power and influence, and they will hear it, and tremble! The gates of Hell cannot withstand our weapons of worship! So pray, remain faithful, and fill your mouth and your heart with songs of praise to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

Where in your life have you felt “worn out” because of the lies our culture tells about Christians? How can this psalm give you a pattern for praying when those unjust accusations come your way?

How have you been pressured to distance yourself from God’s Word in your public life? If God is your “exceeding joy”, how does that help you stand firm?

If our worship is a “weapon to tear down strongholds and lofty arguments” that “the gates of Hell cannot withstand”, then how should you conduct yourself when you gather for worship with other believers? What kind of attitude should characterize your praise?

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