Sunday, December 19, 2010
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours. The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
for he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the waters.
The Earth is His, the Lord has won the battle for the Earth,
The Lord has defeated the enemies—sin, death, and the devil,
They will no longer win the day,
They will no longer possess God’s people.
Because of what Christ did on the cross,
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.
God declares the battlefield to be in His hands.
Psalm 24 begins with this declaration of victory:
The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
Psalm 24 begins with declaring God’s ownership, possession of the whole Earth,
It’s like a king in battle declaring that victory is His.
And so,
Since God is our King,
Since God is our Lord,
And since God is declaring victory, declaring that the Earth is still His,
Well, then, we can declare,
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.
God created the Earth and everything in it,
But evil forces of sin, death, and the devil threatened to take away God’s Earth,
Threatened to take away God’s people and places,
Threatened to destroy what God had made,
And so God sent His Son, God sent Jesus to win victory for Him.
God sent Jesus to defeat sin, death, and the devil,
God sent Jesus to once and for all time defeat evil,
So that we can shout out the words of Psalm 24,
Shout out those opening words,
Not just as a notice of the facts,
Not just as stating what was true in Genesis,
what was true at the beginning of the world,
This is more than declaring that God created the Earth.
This is declaring that God is victorious,
That the Earth is His,
That everything in it is His,
That the Earth is the Lord’s possession,
That God has victory over sin, death, and the devil,
That nothing can wrest the Earth out of His grasp,
That we are the Lord’s,
That He has declared victory for us,
That we are His people.
But perhaps we’re not sure what this means for us.
Perhaps we’re not entirely sure that we’re a part of that winning team.
We see that God has declared victory over sin, death, and the devil,
And we find ourselves asking, “Can we be a part of that?
Can we be a part of the victory?
Can we be there in that number?
Can we be there when the saints go marching in?
Can we come with You on your victory march, O Lord?”
And the answer comes back in Psalm 24:
Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?
Who may stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false.
The answer is clear that those who are clean and pure,
Those who are without sin are the ones who are victorious with the Lord,
The ones who don’t worship false gods,
Those are the ones who are part of the winning team,
Those are the ones who are marching with God in victory.
And when we hear that answer,
We cry, “Oh, no! I’m not clean,
I’m sinful,
I don’t always respect the Lord.
What will happen to me as the Lord goes marching to victory?
I don’t always trust in the Lord above all things.
Will I not be in that number?
Will I not go marching in with the saints?”
And then the answer comes back:
He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from God his Savior.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, O God of Jacob.
This is what we trust in,
This is where we gain our confidence,
Not that we have always been clean and pure of heart,
Not that we have always trusted in the Lord above all things;
No, when we consider those things, we have to confess our sins,
Have to confess that we have failed to keep God’s ways.
But where our trust is,
What we trust in,
What we rejoice in,
Is that God blesses us,
That God will give us His righteousness.
We are a part of that number,
We’ll go marching in with the saints,
We’ll go up in victory with the Lord,
Because God has given us His righteousness,
Has covered us with the cleanness and purity of Jesus,
Has given us the true nature of Jesus,
Has made us to be righteous and holy in His sight.
And so that’s why we can say that God’s victory is ours.
That’s why we can rejoice that the Lord is going forward in victory.
That’s why we can say:
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.
We are part of God’s winning team,
We are part of God reclaiming the Earth,
We are part of God renewing the Earth,
We are part of God’s grand plan to restore His people.
Jesus took the field through His death and resurrection,
Jesus took the battlefield,
Jesus took the victory,
And He did this to share it with God’s people,
Did this to bring us with Him in that victory.
“Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Today you will be with me in victory over sin, death, and the devil.
The field is the Lord’s. The field is ours.
The battlefield is the Lord’s. The battlefield is ours.
The victory is the Lord’s. The victory is ours.
And so here comes the Lord,
Here comes Jesus to be born at Christmas, born to bring that victory,
And so in the Advent spirit,
We realize that in Jesus the Lord is drawing close,
Drawing close to His victory,
And so in the Advent spirit,
We hear the words of Psalm 24,
Hear them as words about the approaching baby in Bethlehem:
Lift up your heads, O you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
the LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is he, this King of glory?
The LORD Almighty—
he is the King of glory.
Lift up your heads, look to the sky, look to the Bethlehem star,
Who is this One born to Mary, born in Bethlehem?
He is the Lord Almighty, He is the King of glory,
He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One,
He is the One born to bring about victory,
He is the One born to reclaim the Earth,
He is the One who will win the battle.
So then Advent is preparation to celebrate the victory of our Lord,
The victory that began when Jesus was born,
The victory that Jesus brought by His life, death, and resurrection,
The victory that Jesus had over sin, death, and the devil,
The victory that Jesus shares with us, so that we can say,
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.
But we can also hear these words of Psalm 24,
Hear these words in the Advent spirit,
The spirit of waiting for Christ to come again,
The spirit of Christ bringing final victory over sin, death, and the devil.
In that spirit of the Second Advent, hear these words again:
Lift up your heads, O you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
the LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is he, this King of glory?
The LORD Almighty—
he is the King of glory.
Lift up your gates, lift up the gates of the Earth,
Pull back the skies, pull back the clouds,
Pull back the heavens and reveal Jesus coming again,
Jesus coming with all of His glory and power,
Jesus coming again to bring about final victory over sin, death, and the devil,
To bring about the destruction of evil,
To bring an end to the dying,
To bring an end to all those things which drag us away from the Father,
Lift up your gates, lift up the gates of the Earth,
Reveal Jesus coming again in His Second Advent,
Reveal Jesus coming to rescue His people, to take us to Himself forever,
Reveal Jesus coming to His people and giving us these words to say:
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.
So declare victory with me today,
Rejoice in the Lord’s victory today,
See that His victory is your victory.
We sing words about His final victory,
We’re not just saying that Earth is His because He made it a long time ago,
We’re saying that the Earth is His because He reclaimed it by the cross,
We’re saying that the Earth and everything in it is His because He won,
He has the victory.
He has given that victory to you.
He has given that victory to all of the people around you.
He has given that victory to all people.
He has given tremendous, incredible, eternal victory
to all people who believe in His Name.
Look up, lift up your heads, and watch for the victorious Lord to come.
Live your lives with your eyes to the skies.
Live your lives with your eyes to the skies
Expecting victory,
Expecting the glorious Lord to come and bring His victory to us,
Expecting the victorious Lord to come and bring us to be with Him forever.
Look up, lift up your heads, and sing with all your might.
Sing that
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.
And that’s what we’ll sing now,
Those are the words of victory that we’ll sing in a final stanza of the hymn of the day,
We’ll sing:
Christ Jesus, Lord and Savior, come,
I open wide my heart, your home.
Oh, enter with your radiant grace,
On my life’s pattern shine your face,
And let your Holy Spirit guide
To gracious vistas rich and wide.
Our God, we praise your name,
Forevermore the same.
Look up, lift up your heads, and sing.
Look up, lift up your heads and sing that
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.