The Concluding Doxology

Introduction and Prayer for Illumination

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, June 4, 2000, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I invite you to turn with me in your own Bibles to 1 Peter and chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5.

0:28 And I shall begin the reading halfway through verse 5. As we've noted in the last couple of weeks, this really is the beginning of a new paragraph of general exhortation to the people of God, scattered throughout those Roman provinces of Asia Minor, beginning verse 5 in the middle. Yes, all of you, gird yourselves with humility to serve one another, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves.

1:02 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you. Be sober, be watchful, your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walks about, seeking whom he may devour, whom withstands steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished, accomplished in your brethren who are in the world. And the God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ, after that you have suffered a little while, shall himself perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To him is the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1:59 By Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I account him, I have written unto you, I have written unto you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast therein. She that is in Babylon, elect together with you, salutes you. And so does Mark, my son.

2:20 Salute one another with a kiss of love. Peace be unto you all that are in Christ. Now let us again look to God, that he would, by his Spirit, do for us what only he can do, as Paul was conscious all of his apostolic ministry could not secure ongoing spiritual illumination for the Ephesians. He simply didn't write a letter and set forth the exceeding greatness of God's power in Christ, the riches of God's inheritance in his saints, and the power manifested.

2:57 He didn't simply write about them. He said, this is the thing for which I pray, that God will do a work of internal illumination, that you may know. And surely if the apostle didn't believe, his inspired writings could, without the illuminating ministry of the Spirit, do any good, what hope is there for us ordinary preachers? May God help us to go out of ourselves as we together seek his gracious aid and help.

3:23 Let us pray.

3:26 Our Father, we would confess again that we are so slow to unlearn the ways of creature confidence. And yet your word is clear. Here we remember the words of our Lord Jesus, Without me, you can do nothing. The flesh profits nothing.

3:46 We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as from ourselves. Oh Lord, we own our native blindness, our native dullness, our indisposition to receive the light of truth. Oh God, help us, we pray. May your Spirit be with us.

Grace Refines Nature, Not Obliterates It

4:07 May your Spirit so come and illuminate every mind, and so empower the one who seeks to open up the word, that together we may be conscious that you are here, ministering to us in the way that only you can minister. Come, we pray, oh God, as we wait in the expectation of faith, and in the posture of utter dependence. Amen. The man who for several years, sat in my lectures in the Trinity Ministerial Academy, will recognize what I'm going to say at the outset of our study in the scriptures this morning, and it is this, that one of the most vital principles of the Christian life, as well as of the Christian ministry, is that grace makes no war with nature, while engaging in a relentless warfare against sin. Grace is out to deal with sin, but not to neuter nature. Grace refines nature, elevates nature, purifies nature, but does not seek to obliterate nature.

5:30 And we see this principle very clearly manifested in the way in which the Apostle Peter brings this letter to a conclusion. Here he is writing, under the unique influence of the Holy Spirit that was present with the biblical authors, so that what they wrote are the very words of God, and yet, this letter is brought to a conclusion in the way that any formal letter written by any reasonably educated person in that part of the world, in that point of history, would have concluded his letter. And the reason I read the remainder of the chapter is because it's very evident that the letter itself concludes with verse 11 in this marvelous condensed doxology, to him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. And that in most of your Bibles you will not only find a paragraph division, but sometimes an extra line with no print to show that verses 10 through 14 are a spirit-inspired postscript, a kind of spirit-directed adaptation following the pattern of this type of letter writing in the first century of the Greco-Roman world. And in those verses we have the apostle making a summary statement concerning the letter in verse 12,

6:56 and then he adds standard epistolary greetings in verse 13 and 14a, and then he concludes with a benediction. And this is the kind of framework that you would have found. Now what does that say to us? It says that grace does not war against nature.

7:15 The Holy Spirit does not need to get our attention by causing Peter to write a letter in such a bizarre manner that it would jar the sensibilities of the average first century believer who would listen to that letter read in the assemblies and then would subsequently be able to read it as copies were made and distributed. So verses 10 and 11 are indeed the conclusion of the body of the letter. They are the capstone on the entire letter. Verses 12 to 14 are, as I've indicated, this that we may call a spirit-inspired postscript to the letter.

Recap of the Capstone Promise (1 Peter 5:10)

7:57 And in that capstone we have seen in verse 10 what I have called a most encouraging promise, and in verse 11 a most appropriate doxology. And for two Lord's Day mornings I sought to unpack verse 10 because almost every word is critical in appreciating this capstone promise given to these suffering saints by the Apostle Peter. We noted that he draws our attention to the author and to the executor of the promise before he gives the specifics of the promise. He's saying, in essence, Dear Saints of God in Asia Minor, the promise will only be as good as your present appreciation of the character of the God who gives it. And before I give the promise I want to point your eyes to Him. He is the God of all grace who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ. This God Himself shall fulfill the promise.

9:00 The author and executor, as we saw, is God Himself. God in His identity is the God of all grace. God in His activity is the God who's called us to His glory in Christ. And then we noted the context in which the promise applies.

9:18 The context is this presence, presence, period, of suffering. Most translations would give the impression that what God is going to do in the promise comes after the suffering. But as we saw in our study of this last Lord's Day know, the promise is fulfilled in the midst of the suffering. In the period of the suffering God is committed to everything He has pledged in this promise.

9:45 And then we looked at the substance of the promise itself. God Himself will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. And I read the brief quote from Hebert as I did at the conclusion of our study last Lord's Day. These four verbs are not to be regarded as redundant rhetoric.

10:06 There is an orderly development of thought. The first, that God will perfect, assured the readers that God would keep on perfecting His suffering children so that no crippling defect would remain in them. The remaining three verbs suggest different aspects of His work. God will supply believers with the needed support.

10:30 He will establish you so that they will not topple and fall. He will impart the needed strength so that they will not collapse. And He will set them on an immovable foundation so that they will not be swept away. Now it's clear that Peter's own heart and mind are filled with present spiritual light and heat as he writes the words of the promise.

The Concluding Doxology Passionately Issued (1 Peter 5:11)

10:57 Peter is not a talking head or a writing machine or robot when he wrote these words. When he wrote, The God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, having suffered a little, shall Himself perfect, establish strength and settle you. His own mind and spirit are so warmed from the friction of the truth He's conveying to others that He breaks out into doxology. To Him the dominion forever and ever.

11:29 Amen. You see, the doxology flows out of a full heart, a mind full of the light of God's truth, but a mind that is not filled with white light, but light that imparts heat to his heart and to his religious affections and passions so that he breaks out in this most appropriate concluding doxology. And as I attempt to open up verse 11 this morning, we'll do so under two heads. First of all, the concluding doxology passionately issued, and I will justify my use of the word passionately, the concluding doxology passionately issued, and then secondly, the concluding doxology personally ratified. That little four-letter word at the end is not a formal way of saying, Oh, by the way, the letter's ended. I fear many of us tack our amen onto our prayers. It's just a condensed verse and a verbal shorthand to say, By the way, if you couldn't get the idea, I'm done.

12:36 That's not what the amen is. Never was intended to be, and that's not what it was to Peter. The amen, as we shall see, was a concluding doxology personally ratified by the Apostle Peter. To him, the dominion forever and ever.

12:54 Amen! So be it. Let it be. I confess, I identify heart and soul with the whole drift and direction of that doxology.

13:05 Now, before we take up the text, I just have to say a word about how we are to translate it. Some of you have Bibles which say, To him is the dominion forever and ever. Amen! Some, to him the glory and dominion forever and ever.

13:25 Some of you may have a Greek text that would just cause you to render it. To him the dominion forever and no forever and ever. Now, what are we going to do with all of this? Well, first of all, there is no verb in the original, and if you have a good translation, whatever verb is inserted will be in italics.

13:45 The Greek text leads literally to him the dominion. Some put in to him is, to him be. I prefer to him is because back in chapter 4 and verse 11, in a little more expanded doxology, Peter uses the verb est in is, present tense of the verb to be. Note the end of verse 11, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the dominion forever and ever.

14:18 And secondly, because some of the manuscripts add the word glory, some don't have it, and some have the briefer description of eternity, unto the ages, of the ages, as is so often true in these matters, no clearly established doctrine is threatened with any of those translations, nor is any novel doctrine introduced by any of those translations. So you don't need to sit there nervously wondering, is my Bible not trustworthy? In these matters, where there are textual variants, no clearly established doctrine is ever threatened, no novel doctrine, is ever introduced. But it's my judgment, shared by responsible exegetes and commentators and students of the textual issues, that the most comfortable rendering and most likely what Peter wrote are the words to him that we would understand is the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Alright, with that matter behind us, come now to our first heading, the concluding doxology, passionately issued. Now we've got to start with the question, what is a doxology?

15:34 Pastor Martin, you've used the word doxology at least a dozen times already. Please, please, before we go on, what is a doxology? Well, a doxology is defined in the dictionary as a hymn of praise to God. And if we read the doxologies recorded in Scripture, those portions of the word of God in which the writer ascribes certain qualities to God, we are warranted to come up with this layman's definition that a doxology is a hymn or an impassioned expression of praise to God.

16:16 And it is unique in this. It is a word ascribing to God what is uniquely God's. In this passage we read, a hymn is the dominion. We are ascribing dominion as God's possession forever and forever.

16:36 In eulogy we speak well of God. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in the heavens.

16:51 That's eulogy. That's speaking well of God. But in doxology, we speak of God. We speak of God in terms of attributes and characteristics that He alone possesses.

17:03 Unto Him that sits upon the throne be glory and honor and power and majesty, etc. And when you read through the doxologies, there is not a one event that can be read if we have any sense of the significance of words in their connection and in their context, but that we could say of it, it is an impassioned expression of praise to God. Let's look at one of the more lengthy doxologies that is a specimen doxology. It is not unique.

17:37 It gathers to itself the flavor of all the doxologies. Revelation 5. Revelation 5, beginning in verse 11. And I saw and heard a voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying in whispered placid tones, Worthy is the Lamb that has been slain to receive the power and the riches and say, Pastor, stop it.

18:15 That's ridiculous. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Because the text says that they spoke with a great voice, worthy is the Lamb that has been slain to receive the power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing and every created thing which is in the heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things that are in them, heard I saying, unto him who sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb is the blessing and the honor and the glory and the dominion forever and ever.

18:51 And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the elders fell down in worship. Now I ask you, is there anything laid back and blase in this beautiful doxology to our God and to the Lamb upon the throne? And I challenge you, if you question that I am importing into doxology my own personality, I challenge you to read every formal doxology in the Bible and see if you can bleed out of it either the fact that it is ascribing something to God that is uniquely God's and it is being done in an impassioned way.

19:36 Therefore, I am giving this working definition of doxology as the impassioned expression of praise to God. That praise which focuses upon things that are unique to God and that are and joyfully and gladly ascribes them to God and to God alone. There is no laid back doxology and there is no reluctant doxology. No laid back, no reluctant.

20:10 Now then, let's look at this concluding doxology in verse 11. We'll ask three questions of it. Question one, to whom is it addressed? To whom is this doxology addressed?

20:23 To Him, who is the Him? Well, obviously, it is the God who has just been set before us in verse 10. As Peter contemplates what he will say as a capstone promise to those suffering saints whose circumstances he obviously knew very well as we've worked through this letter and we've seen all of the areas in which these Christian pilgrims, these elect sojourners, there in those provinces of Asia Minor are afflicted and oppressed and are suffering and in the midst of all of that Peter is ministering to them, fulfilling the commission given by his Lord to feed his sheep and to feed his lambs and to shepherd his sheep, to strengthen his brethren. As Peter contemplates what this God, whom he's been speaking about all through the letter, who has made gracious provisions in Christ and gracious promises to his saints, as he thinks of this God, who himself will in all the realism of their circumstances commit himself to perfect, to establish, to strengthen and settle these believers, he says, what can I do in contemplating a God like this, this God of all grace who has not only called all of his own to share in his eternal glory but will keep them and in the midst of their suffering and their battering will keep them to perfect

21:52 and establish and strengthen and settle them. What can I do but attribute praise and honor to this God, to him, to him. It is God, not God in abstraction, but God particularly in terms of the promise he has just given. His contemplation of that promise was something he could not contain as a mere pastoral bit of knowledge to pass on.

22:17 It gripped his own soul afresh and feeling the heat of the very things he has said about God and what God will do, he wants to ascribe to this God dominion or power forever and forever. It could be that prior to writing verse 10, Peter himself fought back through the entire letter. Don't you do that when you're bringing letters to a conclusion that has some significance in them? They're not just a little chit-chat running commentary on what you did yesterday and the day before.

22:50 They're what you hope to do next week. It's a letter with purpose. And you're coming to the end and you say, now, what have I said? I have three letters sitting on my desk that Anne typed out for me on Friday.

23:01 And because they are letters of some importance, I didn't trust her to just send them out. I said, give me a draft of them. I want to read them Monday morning, soberly reflect, is that the way I want to close the letter? Looking back upon the content of the letter.

23:17 Remember, the Spirit of God did not bring the biblical writers into a mindless, semi-comatose state. No doubt Peter thought about what he had written and all that he had said about this God from chapter 1, verse 3 onward, who had begotten them again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away. All of the marvelous things. I hope you reread this once in a while and bring back the things we've studied together.

23:49 And now he says, the God who's done all of this, and the God who expects his children as faithful pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul, to be holy as he is holy, the God who expects his people to be alert and steadfast and resist the devil, this God is committed to keep his own till he brings them to glory, to him, to this God, not in theological abstraction, but in all the concreteness of his grace, of his grace and mercy and power toward his people. And what gripped me in my preparation was, you know, this letter, it breaks out in doxology, chapter 1 and verse 3, I'm sorry, in eulogy. No sooner does Peter give an ordinary, common, first century framework of greeting, it doesn't sign at the end like we do. It signs on the front end. So the minute you open your letter, you know who it's from.

24:48 You don't need to speed read down through and see who sent it to you. Right at the outset, ordinary greetings, but what are his first words? Verse 3 of chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus.

25:00 The letter begins in eulogy, speaking well of God, and it closes with doxology, so that the letter is bounded, we may say, by God and the vision of God, the greatness of God. And that's what he wants suffering saints to know about. Now get on the front of your phone and commiserate with one another about who had it the roughest with their unconverted husband last week, or who had the most difficult time with a very irascible, unkind, unreasonable master among the house slaves. But he wants their minds taken up with God, with what God has given them in Christ, what God has laid up for them in Christ.

25:42 And he wants to leave them not looking at their navels, but absorbed in their God. To him, be the dominion forever and forever. To whom is this doxology addressed? It is addressed to God.

25:57 And God in the concreteness of all that he has displayed God to be to his people in this letter. Second question, what is the specific focus of this doxology? Well, look at the text. To him be or is the dominion.

26:19 I believe the textual evidence for just the one word, not glory. It's there, no textual question in chapter 4 and verse 11. So we expounded that some months ago. But here he is ascribing to this great and glorious God, the dominion.

26:38 It is God's dominion, his power or might, the kratos of God that is the specific focus of this doxology. This is a word that is rendered in some settings as power or strength of his might. Ephesians 6, 10. In Luke 1, 51, it is the strength or the power of his arm.

27:04 One has defined it this way and this has been very helpful to me. It is the effectual might of God manifested in the actual work of redemption. It is the effective might of God manifested in the actual work of redemption. It is used six times in conjunction with doxology.

27:26 Six of its dozen usage in the New Testament are found in the area of doxology. This passage, 1 Timothy 6, 16, 1 Peter 4, 11, Jude 25, Revelation 1, 6, and 5, 13. Six of its twelve uses, that is, of the word kratos, might or power, effective might, manifested in the work of redemption, are nestled in doxologies. So that there is something about this characteristic of God in its redemptive action that has filled the vision of Peter as he thinks of pouring out his own soul and drawing the souls of his readers upward to focus all upon this great God. To him is the dominion, the might, the power, forever and ever. So we've asked the question, what is in focus? Who is the subject of the or the object of the doxology?

28:37 Now, third question, what is the duration of this doxology? For how long will this perspective obtain that we are going to be able to understand this concept of eternity? Well, if you find yourself getting mentally sluggish and you want something to force the wheels of your brain to move and to think, try to think about what you want to do in the present and the future. You see, in very words I've shown, I can't think, I've said past, present, future. I remember as a little boy lying on my bed at night and the words and the smoke of their torment forever and forever. And I would think a thousand years, ten thousand years, twenty thousand

30:06 years. And I remember saying, oh God, forever? Forever can't be forever. The thousands must eventually accumulate and there must be a terminus.

30:19 And to my troubled spirit the words would come back forever and forever and forever. And so I said, I have to go to the grave and I have to go to the grave and I have to go to the grave and I have to go to confession and I have to go to confession like in the Bible that dispels the arc of the soul. You are in tire still and both both can fight with part who for some days To Him is the dominion not just manifested in your present experience of redemptive grace and in His commitment to do what He said He will do for you,

31:45 perfect you, establish you, strengthen and settle you, but that effective power that has brought you into the orbit of redemptive grace that surrounds you with this marvelous promise and provisions for the rest of your pilgrimage, that power will continue to be the focus of your admiration forever and forever.

32:14 Peter's overwhelmed with it. May God help us to be overwhelmed. To Him, the dominion, not an abstract concept in a series of lectures on the attributes of God, but this grace. Gracious God who's laid hold of us and is committed to bring us to glory that we might share in His eternal glory.

32:40 That's what He's called us to. And it is that to which He will bring us by gracious kratos, by power suffused with redemptive grace. Well, that's all I can say about the doxology. That's the concluding doxology.

The Concluding Doxology Personally Ratified: The Significance of 'Amen'

33:01 Passionately issued. But now consider with me, secondly, the concluding doxology personally ratified.

33:10 Personally ratified. I've already indicated that the word kratos rendered dominion and might is found in five other doxologies. And it's very interesting. If you were to study, and I hope some of you will, there are at least 13 formal doxologies.

33:29 Passages concerning which there's no debate that they are proper, formal, formal doxologies. Not mere eulogies speaking well of God, but attributing something to God that is only peculiar to God. There are at least 13 of them. And every one, without exception, ends with an amen.

33:49 There's no doxology that does not end with that doxology being personally ratified with an amen. Even when there are little mini doxologies that break out in the middle of the apostolic writing, and this is what struck me. I may have known it before, but I had forgotten it. That there are only three doxologies that are put at the end of epistles.

34:12 All the rest of the doxologies break out in the middle of them. And that's why I say the biblical writers were not machines. Brothers, it'd be the God and Father, and Peter's just some kind of an automaton. No, the truth is going through him, leaving deposits of its own light and warmth upon his own soul.

34:30 And that happens with the Apostle Paul. He is in the middle of proving that the Gentiles, living like scoundrels, are all under the wrath of God. And in the midst of all that muck and garbage, he breaks out into eulogy. Turn to Romans chapter 1.

34:45 It's a beautiful example of it. What's he dealing with here?

34:50 Why men need his gospel of grace. A gospel in which God holds out a righteousness from faith to faith. And why do they need it? Verse 18.

35:01 Verse 18. Verse 18. Verse 18. Verse 18.

35:01 Verse 18. Verse 18. Verse 18. Verse 18.

35:01 Verse 18. Verse 18. Verse 18. Verse 18.

35:01 Verse 18. Verse 18. Verse 18. Verse 18.

35:01 Verse 18. Verse 18. Verse 18. Verse 18.

35:01 God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. So, he's going to demonstrate God's wrath is upon men who are truth haters and truth suppressors. And in indicting them for being such, he says in verse 21, because that knowing God, they glorified him, not as God, neither gave thanks, but they were vain, became vain in their reasonings and their senseless heart was darkened. Verse 25.

35:31 Verse 25. Verse 25. Verse 25. Verse 25.

35:31 Verse 25. Verse 25. Verse 25. Verse 25.

35:31 Verse 25. Verse 25. Verse 25. Verse 25.

35:31 Verse 25. Verse 25. Verse 25. Verse 25.

35:31 Verse 25. Verse 25. Verse 25. Verse 25.

35:33 Verse 25. Verse 25. Verse 25. Verse 25.

35:34 Verse 25. And worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator. And as he thinks of this in the midst of all this muck and says, creator, he breaks out into doxology. Who is blessed forever.

35:47 Amen. Oh, I've got to come back to my subject. For this cause, God gave them up to vile passions. Do you see the blessed incongruity of a doxology in the midst of all that muck?

35:59 Because the apostle was not simply a writing. machine. He was a man to whom God was a vital living reality. And when he thinks that the glory of God is Creator, against the backdrop of what's happened to men who put down what they know about this God when looking at His creation, and he sees the contrast of what man should be and would have been had he not believed the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, as his mind is taken up with the glory of God as Creator, he breaks out in doxology, who is blessed forever. So be it, let it be, I affirm it with all of my being in the midst of all this muck. God is now what He has always been and ever shall be forever. Amen. You see, that's the theologian who is the passionate worshipper.

37:01 That's the theologian who is the passionate worshipper. That's the theologian who is the passionate worshipper. That's the theologian to whom God is not a concoction of abstract notions. He is this glorious being who captures the heart's affection and is praised even in that setting. So the Amen coming at the end of all these doxologies is very interesting. When the scholars sat down to translate the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures into Greek, most frequently when they came to the Hebrew word, Amin.

37:32 And all the uses of Amen or Amen or Amin are just transliterations of the Hebrew word. But what they did is they used Genota, let it be, let it be, let it be. They understood that the sense of the Amen was the affirmation of the one who speaks it or writes it. And it was not done, and here this brief quote that I found in Lenski from a CK, and I didn't look up to see who CK was, so I'll just tell you. CK said this. The Hebrew Amen compels us to examine the reason in each instance of its use, for it is far from being merely liturgical. It is not simply something stuck in for filler or to indicate a transition. Sometimes in my sermons I say now, and I'll say however, and I'm using those words to make transition into another field of thought or another category of thought. The Amen is not just stuck in as a liturgical reference point that something else is coming. It is not an expression of, I'm sorry, it is not, yes, an expression of

38:44 intellectual conviction, but of an exalted, God-praising conviction of faith. Placed at the end of doxologies, meaning truth, verity, this Amen is solemn, confessional, and in the nature of a sermon. A seal. Not the seal, that animal you see at the bronze suit. But a seal. That by which someone would attest the ownership of a thing. A statement is made about God. Made by someone inspired by the Spirit to make the statement, and yet to make it evident that this is not just a statement about God that is true in itself, but it is true for them. They add the Amen. So be it. Let it be.

39:33 All of my soul and my affections and heart line up with the declaration about God. You get the sense of it now. And I challenge you, read through the doxologies and see, again and again and again, they conclude with the personal ratification of the one who writes or makes the doxology. Well, I've attempted to open up these few words under these headings. The conclusion, the concluding doxology passionately issued, and the concluding doxology personally ratified. And now I want you to come back to the text with me as we have time to make three, possibly four, as time permits, what to me are vital observations and applications of this doxology.

Observation 1: Reflexive Response to Doxology Reveals the Soul's State

40:24 And I would urge every one of you now to seek to gird up the loins of your mind. I'm going to make a statement, and I'm going to try to illustrate it, prove it from the scriptures. Here's the observation. Here's the observation that I want to make that's so critical.

40:39 Your reflexive response to passionate doxology is an incisive indication of the true state of your soul. Now, just stop for a minute. I'll repeat the words, and we'll go back and work through them. Your reflexive response. What is a reflexive response?

40:59 It's one you don't think about. It just happens. If in my peripheral vision I should see a wad of paper coming at me from this direction, from someone who thinks I'm...

41:07 I'm all wet and I ought to get out of the pulpit, I wouldn't stop and think, wad of paper's coming in from the right at so many hours. You must turn your head. You must duck. You must blink.

41:15 No. It'd be a reflex response. Reflex. Reflex.

41:18 You don't think about it. You don't plan it. You don't plot it. You don't calculate it.

41:22 You don't hypocritize reflexes, reflexive responses. They're just a natural response, all right? Now, what I'm saying is your reflective response, your reflexive response to passionate doxology, which has an importantさ у вас и внимание le subscribe, That is when you draw near to Peter writing, To him as the dominion forever and ever. When you draw near to that extended doxology you read the revelation five, all of the angels, all of the creatures, thousand upon ten thousand and elders falling down and all absorbed and carved and saying the him, Glory, dominion and power.

42:01 Your reflexive response to passionate doxology. is an incisive indication of the true state of your heart. You want to know where your heart is? Whether you are a true worshiper of God in Jesus Christ, or whether you still are an Adamic idolater, ask yourself what is your reflexive response to passionate doxology when you read it in the Bible.

42:32 How does your heart instinctively run out and say, Oh God, if I don't love you that way and admire you that way and adore you that way, Oh God, I want to draw me into the orbit of that passionate doxology. Now do you back off and say, What in the world are they all so excited about? Or it may be you get irritated. Let me illustrate.

43:01 Anyone who knows anything about the Northeast, and knows anything about sports in general, you know that for decades, Red Sox and Yankee fans ain't the closest of kissing buddies. For you who don't know it, Red Sox and Yankee fans are notoriously budding heads. Sometimes, it's a real budding head. I can remember as a little boy, and that's a long, long time ago, getting on the train and going in from Stanford, Connecticut to Yankee Stadium with my dad and sitting in the right field bleachers.

43:33 I saw Ted Williams. Yeah, yeah, you never saw him. I did. Yes.

43:39 Yeah, and a bunch of other names I could name. But oh, when the Red Sox came to Yankee Stadium, you were very conscious. If you had any sympathy for the Red Sox, my dad was reared up in New England. He was sympathetic.

43:51 He kept his enthusiasm very restrained. The safest thing to do was maybe tap his foot if Ted Williams hit one out, but not to stand up and cheer too much until he checked who was around him. Now, picture two guys that are working, in New York City. They take the train in, commute together.

44:08 One is a rabid Yankee fan. The other is a rabid Red Sox fan. But they never happened to have talked about baseball. For some reason, their rabidity went into remission when they got on the train.

44:21 But one day, one day, something is triggered. And the rabid Yankee fan begins to talk up and down about David Combs and Clemens. And all of a sudden, what happens? All of that residual, anti-Yankee feeling that's been in the heart of his traveling buddy is stirred up and brought to the surface.

44:40 And before you know it, they're almost at each other's throats by the time they get to the PATH station. Why? Because the true state of the heart of that Yankee fan and that Red Sox fan was revealed when someone got enthusiastic about the other team. As long as the other team wasn't the focus subject of discussion, they got on fine.

45:05 But once enthusiasm was manifested for one, the reflexive response of the emotions was one of positive irritation, if not outright anger. Now that's the principle. You see, you may sit here.

45:28 But let somebody, face-to-face with you, someone of your age, come up with a, a light and glow of genuine, not insincere faith, but genuine admiration of God. And let them start to talk to you about, isn't God great? Isn't it wonderful? What happens to you?

45:47 I'll tell you what happens to you. You're not only uncomfortable, you're irritated. You don't like it when people are absorbed with God. Why?

45:57 Because you're an idolater. And any absorption in the true God challenges the worship of your idols. Your idolaters, Yes, you're an idolater. Everyone sitting here is a worshiper.

46:09 You're passionately attached to some God. Either the true and the living God, or your own God.

46:18 Romans 1.25, Exchange the truth of God for lie. Not as an intellectual concept, but as a way of life. That's what the whole passage is about.

46:30 Worship and serve the creature more than the creator.

46:36 You will doxologize God. You will doxologize and eulogize people and things. You're not uncomfortable in these banal, God-dishonoring award shows. And I watched two or three minutes of them just to keep in touch with this generation.

46:51 And people going doogle and gaga over women dressed like harlots and waving and shaking their hands over us. And everyone praises them. Let someone stand up and say there's a great and glorious and awesome God. Nothing's awesome but God.

47:11 Nothing is marvelous but God. Kids, don't use that word awesome of people and things.

47:20 No person or thing is worthy of religious awe. Only God is.

47:28 You're very comfortable when your favorite rock star in your group is praised. Very comfortable. Why? You're an idolater, my friend.

47:39 And that's what irritates you when mom and dad in this determination that in their house, there's going to be worship and prayer and the reading of the Bible.

47:50 My dear friend,

47:52 that irritation one day will be over.

47:58 And God takes them to the place appointed for them.

48:02 Cast you into hell. There'll be no irritation with mom and dad. And with Sunday school teachers and preachers who try to point you away from your sin and unto Christ, you'll have the misery of your own willful rejection of God and light in Christ to be your miserable companions forever. And forever.

48:24 Proverbs 28, 4 states something so critical in this regard. They that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them. You see, there's no neutral ground. You either praise the wicked or you contend with them.

48:46 And the same is true of God.

48:51 You're either contending with him or you're doxologizing him. You either admire him and you love him or you hate him. Jesus said, No man can serve two masters. He either loves the one and hates the other or holds to the one and despises the other.

49:06 You cannot serve God and mammon, the God of money and things.

49:13 A doxology is a great evangelistic tool to help us to face honestly where we're at. I wonder if we could do this in some way that was absolutely honest and natural. If we were to say right now in the multitudes, what is the only purpose rule in the next five minutes. So-and-so and so-and-so and so.

49:38 And I'd name the top five rock stars and popular singers that are your world. And so you're gonna have half an hour to be with them. Shake their hand, get their autograph, ask them any questions you want. Does that excite you?

49:57 Man, I think if I said downstairs in the toddler nursery, Andy Pettit and Scott Brocious, and you name it. Your mind already got them?

50:16 You can have a half hour with them. Bring your own bat and they'll sign it. They'll give you one of their bats and sign it. You'd split.

50:24 And if I said all others who want to remain, we're going to seek to give ourselves to a half an hour of eulogy and of doxology. We're going to give ourselves to praising the great God of heaven and earth. What would you choose? Well, the other stuff is kid stuff.

50:44 Suppose I said to you, young ladies, I'm going to have a half a dozen godly, eligible men who are looking for wives.

50:56 You can interact with them. Get acquainted with them.

51:01 For a half an hour, eulogizing and doxologizing God. You think of the thing that is your idol. Ask yourself, my friend, how reflexive response to passionate doxology is an incisive indication of the true, true state of our hearts. Not only whether we're in or out of a state of grace, but listen to old Bishop Leighton.

51:27 What a marvelous insight he has. It can reveal a backslidden heart. Commenting on the doxology, parallel doxology in 4.11 of this letter.

51:38 This is what old Bishop Leighton said. Now the holy ardor of the apostles' affections taken with the mention of the glory of God carries into a doxology, as we term it, a rendering of glory. Right in the middle of his discourse, we often find the apostle Paul doing likewise. Poor and short-lived is the glory and grandeur of men.

52:00 Like themselves, it is a shadow and nothing. But this is solid and lasting. It is supreme and abides forever and ever. And the apostles, full of divine affections and admiring nothing but God, do delight in this and cannot refrain from this at any time in their discourse.

52:19 It is always sweet and seasonal. And they find it so. Now listen to his insight. And thus our spiritual minds, a word of this nature falls on them as a spark on some matter that readily takes fire.

52:34 They are straightway inflamed with it. But alas, to us how much it is otherwise. The mention of the praises and glory of our God is to our hearts as a spark falling either into a puddle of water and foul water too, or at least upon green lumber that much fire will not kindle. There is so much moisture of our remaining sin and corruptions that all dies out within us and we remain cold and dead.

53:11 What is your response when some of us who lead you in worship seek graciously and with the Bible to stir you up to be occupied and enthused about God? Is it they're saying enough of this already? I've heard this before.

53:30 Or is it that spark on dry tinder that says, yes Lord, that's what I've yearned for. That's what I've come for. Oh God, give me at least internally clapping hands at the thought that you are sovereign. What was your response to that psalm this morning?

53:51 Dear friends, don't play games. Our danger in this place is not liberalism.

53:59 It is an orthodoxy that's lost the passion of doxology.

54:07 And once you cease to be inflamed with God, then what God says is not quite that important about this, that, or the other.

54:18 You say, where'd you get that notion? Read Revelation chapter 2.

54:23 Orthodoxy, zeal, works, discipline was all there in the Ephesus church. What? What? What?

54:30 What? What? What? What?

54:30 What? What? What? What?

54:31 What? They'd lost the ardor of their first love.

Observation 2: The Relationship Between Theology and Doxology

54:38 Second observation. I've already hinted at it, and it'll be much briefer. The relationship between theology and doxology is vividly illustrated in this passage. Look back at the passage.

54:51 What gave birth to Peter's doxology? It was the rich, dense theology of verse 10. When you say, the God of all grace, That's rich theology. Who hath called us?

55:11 Rich theology. Unto his eternal glory. Rich theology.

55:18 Having suffered a little while. That's the whole theology of the overlapping of the ages. The now and the not yet. Rich theology.

55:27 And it's as Peter's mind is feeling the friction of that theology that it takes hold of him and gives birth to doxology. Beautiful illustration of the relationship. The theology has not done its work till it merges into doxology. And a doxology that has its roots in anything other than theology ain't worth nothing.

55:53 It's just mere mindless enthusiasm. That's all. So when people come into meetings and they say, well, let's get stirred up to praise the Lord, and then the repetitive choruses start, and then the music that appeals to the carnal, the passions plays, and people begin to sway. What's happening?

56:12 They're being manipulated emotionally and psychologically. Nothing is being strained in their brains. Thinking large thoughts of God, of His truth, of His calling, of His eternal glory, of the overlapping of the ages. Peter's been dealing in the stuff of rich theology.

56:32 And it's that theology that caught fire and birthed his doxology. And, dear people of God, that's why we must never, never talk as though keen, perceptive, spirit grasp upon a rich theology is a matter of indifference. It must be a passion with us. For just as surely as theology has never come to its own right until it births doxology, I don't want to child doxology unless his mama is theon.

57:10 Theology. Theology and doxology wedded here in the mind and heart in the experience of the apostle. And I pray God in our minds and hearts. I've told people who say, well, did you find you lost any of your fire and your passion when you became reformed in your theology?

57:32 I love it when people ask me that question.

57:37 You've got a little bitty God. Sometimes does what He wants. Other times can't do what He wants because He's got to wait for man's permission. Somebody, somebody else's permission.

57:46 You can worship Him a little bit. But the God who sits in throne, who rules in the heavens and the earth, and He's even got the devil at the end of His chain. I tell you, that's a God who'll make you worship. That'll make you worship.

58:01 But oh, it's so easy to cling to the framework and the structure and to forget that all the theology is to birth doxology. The relationship between theology and doxology, vividly illustrated, and finally,

Observation 3: The True Significance and Use of 'Amen'

58:20 the true significance of the use of amen is clearly illustrated in this text. And you say, uh-oh, here goes Pastor Martin, one of his hobbies. Well, when God gives it to me right in the Bible, what can I do? The text ends with the word amen.

58:36 And as Lenski has quoted, whoever C.K. was, it is never liturgical. We say we believe in plenary verbal inspiration, that the Spirit of God is superintending the very words.

58:49 Why? Why is it that every doxology recorded in the Bible concludes with an amen? Is God saying something to us? I think He is.

58:58 He's telling us the word amen has great significance. It is a personal, particular, passionate affirmation that what is declared is indeed the state and condition and the desire and the perspective of my own heart and mind and soul. We've often referred to that passage in verse, Corinthians 14, 15, and 16, where Paul's sorting out this charismatic free-for-all and reasoning with the Corinthians why certain gifts should be exercised and not with what conditions. And one of his great concerns is that the corporate amen at the giving of thanks would be restrained if people couldn't understand.

59:40 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 16, If you bless with the Spirit, how shall He that fills the place of the unlearned say the amen at the giving of your thanks, seeing He doesn't know what you're saying? What's assumed in the text is that there was a corporate amen at the giving of thanks. Secondly, that people didn't do it mindlessly. Some fellow's sitting there trying to follow the prayer and this guy's speaking in a language he doesn't know and no one translates it.

60:05 He keeps his mouth shut. He said, I don't know what I want. I want to say amen to everything. I want to know what he's saying.

60:09 He said, how's he going to say his amen? The assumption is he will say it if he does understand. He won't say it if it doesn't express his heart.

60:20 Jerome, one of the church fathers could say at the conclusion of the public prayer, the united amen of the people sounded like a waterfall or a clap of thunder.

60:31 Ours at times sounds like the squeak of a dying man. Dear people,

60:38 we believe in corporate worship and corporate involvement. You're involved now as I preach. As I look over here, I can feel the eyes of people over here on me. I'm conscious they're there.

60:49 And when I turn here, I see someone wiggling there. You're active. You're receiving. You're giving something.

60:56 You give something to the preacher. When you listen, when your heart's being lifted up to God, that's engagement in corporate worship. Not everybody get up and say it's two cents and all go home with a head full of nonsense.

61:08 When you sing your psalms and your hymns, you're ministering one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And when those of us lead you in prayer, only once in the last ten years, I think, did you ever hear me say I in a prayer? And that was a few weeks ago when I broke down. I knew that I need to get hold of God to give me some composure.

61:28 I'm insulted when in public prayer people say, I, I, I. I feel like saying, go home and have your devotions. I'll have mine. We pray, we.

61:36 Why? We seek to be your mouthpiece, to express nothing that would not be the expression of your heart. That's why some of us take time to compose our prayers. We write out an outline.

61:50 We think them through Saturday night, early Sunday morning. Why? We want to be able to pray out the desires and the yearnings of God's people. And when we have sought to be your mouthpiece at the throne of grace, do we want your praises?

62:07 No. But we sure would love to know that we've expressed the confessions and the yearnings and the petitions of your heart.

62:19 You see where I'm going? The amen is God's divinely appointed means for you to say, yes, Lord, for so be it. Let it be. And I want to release the conscience of some of you dear women who've spoken to me, saying, the men around me don't vocalize an amen, and I don't want to be a pushy, bossy woman.

62:41 I say, there's no indication in the scriptures that the matter of the amen is to be sexually regulated. Public teaching is, but not the amen. And if God has to use you to shame your brethren like He used some women in Israel to shame the men and raise up the devils, then you say your amen as loud as is fitting until your husband takes you by the arm and says, sweetheart, you're being a little bit too ostentatious. Tone it down a little bit.

63:04 All right? There's nothing in the Bible that says you cannot. But now the flip side of that is this. What's appropriate for personal prayer with your wife?

63:13 When my wife and I pray together, all the way through the prayers, she will, hmm, hmm, yes, Lord, and I will do the same, that we're in this together. But in corporate prayer, that directs attention to yourself. If there's a lot of, personal, audible, hmm, hmm, yes, Lord, amen. You see, you now have become an individual and others are conscious of you as an individual.

63:35 But when your heart is being poured out and you just feel, I just got to say amen, and you let it build up, and at the end, when the brother who's leading in prayer, and may I say to my brethren, let your amen be like you really want it to be so.

63:50 Don't let your amen peter out as though you're half apologetic for your prayer. We ask these mercies through our Lord Jesus, Christ, what do I say to my own prayer? So be it, Lord, amen. I'm not going to say it that loud, but that's all that's going to be in our hearts.

64:09 Oh, you say that's your person. My friend, please, don't shove this off on my personality.

64:15 Grace does not war with nature. And nature is such that if we speak in soft, subdued tones, it generally indicates a lack of enthusiasm concerning what we say. When an opportunity is there, someone comes, and says, is your wife a virtuous woman? Yes.

64:33 What did you say? Yes.

64:36 Sir, my wife is a virtuous woman. Take her to the bank. Right? You're glad to affirm something that you feel with your soul.

64:49 Brethren, do we believe we're laying hold of God, and that when two of us agree on earth is touching wax, what we ask that shall be done of our Father? Now, if someone has waffled all over the place and prayed a bunch of nonsense, let your son, silence be your rebuke of his nonsense.

65:06 But if indeed your heart is run out, affirm it, not as some kind of a cheering contest for the one who leads, but as an expression, as Peter did. To him the dominion forever and ever. So be it. I believe my own words.

65:26 I hope your heart coalesces with me.

65:31 Is that just straining at mass? I don't think so, folks. You have every right, every reason, having every right, if you can from the scriptures, come and say, Pastor Matt, I believe you overstrained the case. You'll be my friend.

65:44 There's no one here who can say that whenever they came with the Bible to help me know God's way better, that you found me anything other than pliable before this book. You come. But if the principles that we've been seeking to articulate have validity, then I don't care what we're used to. I'm all the time learning to do things, living with my wife, according to knowledge that I ain't never done before.

66:12 Just this week, wrestling through some things together. I got insights about elements in our communication. Well, I gotta do some things I ain't been doing. And I gotta stop doing some things I have been doing.

66:26 At this age, yes. God's grace doesn't leave you when you hit 66.

66:33 All right? Well, my temperament, temperament, shmemperment.

66:39 How shall he that is unlearned say the amen? It's by giving of thanks, seeing he knows not what you say. Do you know what has been said? Then say your amen.

66:47 Reserve temperament or not.

66:50 Don't get your nose stuck on yourself. We're a body when we worship. We're a body when we praise. We're a body when we pray.

66:58 And we should be a body. That if Jerome came back from the dead, he said their amen sounded like a waterfall or like a clap of thunder. What does that do to the unconverted who come in? Everything's so staid and subdued around here.

67:12 No banners and no balloons and no trumpets and no stands. Bands with mics on them and group singers and praise bands and bongo drums and who knows what. And everything looks so staid and sterile.

67:26 And then someone stands up and says, we shall sing. And then they hear a people who pour out their hearts in praise to God. And when they come to the amen at the end of the song, I'm really going to get personal. Do you know why I never walk to the front while you're singing the amen?

67:44 But I stay here until the amen is done. That's not an accident. That's a conviction. I'm still engaged in the worship of God, not transitioning to the next thing when I come to the pulpit.

67:56 You say, you are persnickety. Yes, I am. This is God's worship. This is God's worship.

68:03 Do I believe what I sang? God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. Plants His footstep in the sea and rides upon the storm. You fearful saints, fresh courage take.

68:16 The clouds you so much dread are big, big with blessing, big with mercy and shall break in blessing on your head. Do I believe that? Amen. Help us, dear people.

68:27 Do we believe it? Amen. Let's sing it like we believed it.

68:35 That's not playing on your emotions. That's appealing to your judgment.

68:40 And that we won't be at the mercy of old patterns and temperament and all the rest. But the word of God will encompass us. Well, I say, this passage gives us a wonderful example of the truth and significance and use of the amen. I better be done.

Conclusion and Call to Conversion

68:59 God help us that we will be a people whose love of Christ and of our great and glorious God will be such that when we contemplate as Peter did, who He is and what He's done, our grasp upon this amazing promise will lead into fitting doxology. And for you who have no doxology, because you are not because you have no God who is the true God, I beg you, this day, go to that God through Christ. Seek His mercy for being a wretched idolater. True conversion is God's mighty work, turning idolaters into worshipers.

69:43 That's what true conversion is. If you get soundly converted, God will change you from an idolater into a worshiper who will love doxology and who will long that heart and mind can flow out with the words of Peter to Him. So this great God is the dominion, the power, forever and forever. Amen.

70:11 Let's pray.

70:17 Our Father, we're so thankful that You've given us the Scriptures, this blessed book that is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. And we pray that You will bless the Word that we've considered this morning. Any treatment of it, application of it, that has had the mixture of the clay of our own thoughts or foolishness, bring to naught. Whatever has been an accurate exposition and a valid application, bring it home to our hearts.

70:51 Lord, if there are controversies with You, may they be resolved in our hearts, in Your presence, by the power of Your Spirit. We pray that You will make us more and more a doxologized and a doxologized and a doxologizing people, a people who are enthused about the privilege of praising and magnifying You. We ask that when we read Your Word like Peter, we will find ourselves beginning with eulogy and ending with doxology and finding in between all that is necessary for all of our needs. Seal then Your Word to our hearts.

71:31 Forgive our sins of the sanctuary, our hearts, our heartless praise, our mindless praise. O God, have dealings with us, we pray. Thank You for Your Word, for Your presence. Dismiss us with Your blessing resting upon us, we plead in Jesus' name.

71:49 Amen. Amen.