Psalm 100v1-5 Motto Text

In this lecture, I'm going to give you a brief overview of what I'm going to talk about Let's continue to stand just for a moment with our eyes closed. Those verses come directly from Scripture and they summarize all that we stand for in the tabernum, all that the Christian Church historically has stood for down the centuries. Lord, if you marked our transgressions, if you had in view always our failures, then we would be so embarrassed before one another and so embarrassed before you.

But we thank you that you make it possible for the sin to be erased, the account having been paid by our Lord Jesus. And right now, as a company of your people, representing an even larger number of folk who look at the tab as being their church, their church family, we offer ourselves again to you here in the center of this town. We pray that our witness may be vibrant and vital.

Although there is a spirituality about which we're not ashamed, we ask that that spiritual commitment may also have repercussions and be of value to us fellow townspeople here in the center of the town and elsewhere. We dedicate our work amongst boys and girls to you. We dedicate to you our work amongst young people.

We dedicate to you the ministry of these shops and the profits that they make. We dedicate to you the work amongst young married women, the work that goes on amongst all the folk. We ask your blessings to be upon Koinonia and those two residential homes and pray, Lord, for you to use those ministries and bless those people.

We pray for those who make the tab possible in terms of its infrastructure, for our secretaries, for our administrator, for our elders, for our deacons, for our Sunday school teachers, for our youth leaders. We thank you for the eight or so people who are involved in some form of ministry here to keep the show on the road, so to speak. We ask, O Lord, that they may know the imparting of your spirit.

We pray for the vast sums of money that comes through this church and are applied elsewhere as well as here. We pray for projects in India and in Asia, generally, and in Africa. We pray for those of our tab family who are serving you in different parts of the world and ask your blessings to be upon them.

We pray, Lord, that you will give us a future and a hope. Although the past is something in which we glory and thank you, we ask that the future may yet be even more wonderful. We ask that in all our searching we may see you more clearly.

In all our dealing we may be more close to you. And in all that we see and in all that we cultivate, we ask that our friendship with you shall be the most precious thing in our lives. For Jesus' sake.

Amen. Remain standing and we'll sing the traditional hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. Is that 237? Just give me the number, someone, please.

237. We'll sing the first and the last verses of this hymn. Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.

Give your seat. And have your Bible open at the passage which was read to us earlier by our mayor. And let's read it ourselves together as a congregation.

For we want to impress upon you that fifth verse particularly, but the fifth verse cannot stand alone because the context is highly important too. It is one of the only psalms in which the inscription is actually given, the dedication that this is a psalm to preface worship. The Old Testament Hebrews, they were no killjoys.

They knew how to worship God. For them going to the temple, to the synagogue was not a dull performance at all. It wasn't a question of listening to someone chewing on cardboard.

When they went to church or the synagogues on their Saturdays, then they did so with joy in their hearts. They got something to thank God for. So let's read this out together.

Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us and we are His. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever.

His faithfulness continues through all generations. Keep your Bibles open there for a moment and just listen to these words. They're very precious.

They're written by a man who had hazarded his life for the sake of Jesus Christ. He was a Jew, but he dedicated himself in the service of non-Jews, of Gentiles. But occasionally he thought of the spiritual blessings that God had poured out towards his own people.

And this is what he had to say. Oh, the depths, oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out.

Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

Here is Paul. Here are the ancient Hebrews. And in front of them in their mind is the lavishness of God's grace.

And so what do they do? Well, what did you do? I mean, you've just gone through Christmas. Surely somebody gave you a present. If they didn't, have a word with me and we'll give you something afterwards.

So what did you do? You took up your pen or you've intended to do so. I mean, after you've heard Tim Saunders speak about resolutions this evening, you'll all rush to the telephone or get out your pens and you'll do the thing that is necessary, not the most vital thing this year. The most vital thing is your relationship with God.

But you will be courteous. You will say, thank you. And when the apostle is reflecting on the way that God has blessed the ancient Hebrews, he says, oh, the depths.

He's done so much. And he has given appropriately. And here is the psalmist just seeing Psalm 100.

And he's got the Hebrews in mind and what God has done for the community of the Jews yesteryear. And he just fills in his heart with the emotion of gratitude. And he wants to say, thank you.

Thank you. The Jews, every 50 years, they had a year of jubilee. They canceled all debts.

Which would be an interesting proposition as far as our political parties are concerned as they run into an election and bring out their manifesto. How about a year for canceling debts? Particularly third world debts, which caused some of our African nations, our brothers and sisters there, to be in great difficulty. They canceled all debts and they thanked God because of his faithfulness to them for 50 years.

So, you see, what we're doing right now has some biblical precedent, only we're doubling up on it. We're thanking the Lord for what he's done in this tab over these past 100 years. I was saying to the mayor a little while ago that some of my older friends get very annoyed if I say of the tab, the tab is opposite the town hall.

You see, we got here first. The town hall is opposite the tab. And there was a tremendous gaffe as far as town planning was concerned.

Although it's not the responsibility of anyone today, because it happened yesterday, in putting buildings alongside the church. You see, the church should have stood on its own with at least 10, 20 feet gap on either side so that it could be frameworked in space. I once remember talking to the town surveyor and he said, you know, we regard the tabernacle building as being the jewel of Chapel Road.

What he meant was it is a reflection of the architecture of last century and it does justice to this particular road. It stood for 100 years. Designed by a man who designed nothing else.

This was the only building that he put up. But the most important thing about the tab is not the building, because, well, the building in and of itself, though useful, is not the church. The church are the people.

Thousands, tens of thousands, probably half a million, who have been here down the past 100 years and called it their own church family. It's that that makes this church special. Not the building, but the people.

And we're pausing and saying this year, particularly, thank you, Lord, for all those thousands of people. Some who came here with life in the balance. Some with great problems.

Some who felt that nobody cared and that there was no rhyme, no reason behind existence whatsoever. And over those years, some people in that category found a new meaning and a new purpose. We're saying thank you to the Lord for four ministries.

For the church is, if perhaps not unique, is unusual in the United Kingdom. Over 100 years, only four ministers, each having done quite a large number of years in their own personal ministry. We're thanking the Lord for that.

But you see, we're not just engaging in nostalgia. Nostalgia itself can leave you in a sort of tacky sentimentality. It's right to look to the past, but only so that you can gain buoyancy for the present and you can get a vision for the future.

His love in times past forbids me to think he'd leave me at last in trouble to sink. That's a hymn from the evangelical revival in the 18th century. They look to the past and they saw the faithfulness of God.

As the psalmist here looks to the past, and he too is grateful to the Lord for what has gone by in the centuries that are now in history. And as the psalmist capitalizes upon what they have known in terms of blessings, he gives you a sort of shorthand theological statement of why it is that Israel was as she was in those days. That statement remains true for the tab right now.

When the apostle Paul was reflecting on the goodness of God, he says, Oh the depths, now there are depths of emotion and meaning in our verse. For the Lord is good, and his love endures forever. Here is an inexhaustible fount, the Lord is good.

Here is an everlasting stream, his love ever broadening endures forever. Here is a fathomless ocean, his faithfulness continues through all generations. The Lord is good.

I'll tell you something, if you know what that simple statement means, then you comprehend the full message of the Bible. Because there is nothing that more succinctly expresses what the Bible teaches. The Lord is good.

And all other goodness that is attempted has to be measured against his goodness to define whether or not it really is what it purports to be. How is the Lord good? I open it three ways. The Lord is first of all good in what he is.

You remember how on one occasion Moses, who is a very interesting character in the Old Testament, on one occasion he puts a request up to God, and he says, Lord, I'll continue the second leg of ministry, but I want to know you. I want to know you more than I've known you for these last 20 odd years. Now God is always happy about that sort of bargain, and so he invites Moses to Mount Sinai, and there Moses hides in the crevice of a rock, and Moses is told by God that in a very special way the Lord will let himself go by.

Now that's an extraordinary thing, and you can only put it in a sort of anthropocentric manner. I mean by that somebody passing by you. You see their form.

If they stare a little, you might be able to evaluate their personality. Now this, although it must have been far more wonderful than that, is what Moses is allowed in terms of a vision of God, and the Bible tells us that the glory of God passed by as Moses stuck in the rock, in the cleft of the rock, and you remember Augustus Toplady, a great Methodist of yesteryear, wrote a hymn having been inspired by this incident, Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me, Let Me Hide Myself in Thee. And when God went by, there was a proclamation of his goodness, and his faithfulness, and his patience.

God is good through and through. When I was a lad, my parents couldn't afford to take me to Worthing, so we went to Cleethorpes. Of the two, maybe Worthing marginally has got the head.

I don't know, I've got to say that this morning, haven't I? But what did I used to do in Cleethorpes? Well obviously I used to play in the sand and swim, and I used to buy some rock, Cleethorpes rock. Now Cleethorpes rock is quite interesting stuff, like Worthing rock. You break it, and you see the word Cleethorpes wherever you break the rock.

Not so? It's the same with Worthing rock, it's the same with Brighton rock. Wherever you break it, you see the imprint of the name of the resort. And don't you see, that's true of God.

Wherever you encounter him in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, what you get is an expression of his goodness, his name, what he is. He is a compassionate and gracious God. Through and through he is good.

And that's what our forebears believed as they founded this church. He's not only good in what he is, he's good in what he does. God is a perfectionist.

I'm very glad that the architects and those who dreamed up this building gave themselves to detail. I remember on one occasion when the old organ had to be taken out, for which we got quite a drumming, actually, locally, because the organ was quite a historic organ. And yet it had broken down, and it would have cost thousands of pounds, which just 20 years ago was an awful amount of money.

And so the organ had to go, and we put in this electric organ. And one old Worthing craftsman, he came to me in my vestry, as he was engaged in dismantling the organ, and he showed me a screw. And he was waxing eloquent about this screw.

And I thought, it's just an ordinary screw. I mean, I've seen many a screw, but I get so ecstatic about this screw. He said, look what's between the lips of the screw, the actual thread of the screw.

And there was wax. He said, those old craftsmen, when they actually put this organ in, when they built this building, they were so concerned that not even rust should come on the screws. So they dipped them in wax to facilitate ease of entry, and to preserve them.

If you look at this roof, it is a stunning roof. You've perhaps never spent a great amount of time looking at it. Who does? But when you do look up, it's an unusual roof.

In fact, today it's possibly unique. In other words, you couldn't put it in today. Why not? Well, it's seasoned timber, and the very way in which this roof has been suspended made it quite something when it was opened, when this church was opened just less than 100 years ago.

The architect was concerned about detail, with the net result today that there's a preservation order, and there's nothing we could do with this roof. There's nothing we could do as far as the interior of this sanctuary is concerned. Historic preservation order, and in some senses rightly so, because the building had as a goal on the part of the architect and the craftsman perfection.

God is good in what he is. God is good in what he does. When he created the world in six successive stages, he said at the end, it is good, it is good, it is good.

You remember? And I suggested when speaking on this a little while ago, when it got to the sixth day and man was created, it is very good. As though God had reached the height of his creative achievements. The Bible tells you that when God does something, he does it properly, Psalm 119 and verse 68.

And on one occasion Jesus is approached by someone who said to him, good master, and Jesus stops and says, why do you call me good? Now why does Jesus suddenly quibble over the adjective used as a compliment to describe him? Because he wants to make a theological point. You see, absolute goodness only flows from God. Absolute goodness.

And the psalmist here is saying the Lord is good. He is good in what he is. He is good in what he does.

Every aspect of God's creative work was perfect. And even to this day, though this world bears the marks of sin, there is incredible beauty never beheld by human eye, but it delights the eye of God. The desert flower that is never seen.

The wild animal that never comes under the scrutiny of man. The Bible says that the whales frolic in the depths. The only description of anything frolicking in the Bible is the whale.

And God sees it. God is concerned. God is good in what he is and he does good in what he performs.

And what is more, God is good in what he gives. For the Lord is good. Good in what he gives.

I believe that close to the word goodness is the word generosity. In fact, it seems to me that a mean Christian is a contradiction in terms. Whenever you meet God on the pages of the Old Testament or in the New Testament, he is lavishing his blessings.

The Apostle Paul says he is rich in mercy. He gives and he gives and he gives again. And the day came when God not only gave the world in creation, he sent his son to perform the act of recreation.

He sent his best, his unsurpassable gift. You remember how I described that from the Greek language, you can't find a word that really befits what Paul wants to say when he speaks about the advent of Jesus into this scene. And so I suggested that you go to Hollywood, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

God gives because he is good in what he is, he is good in what he does, and he is good in what he bestows. And so here the psalmist speaks about this inexhaustible fount. The Lord is good.

Do you know just down the road there is a pub called The Fountain? Don't sweat too much, I have never been in it. Sometimes, however, I have mused on whether our forefathers did right in calling this place the tabernacle. Because the word tabernacle isn't well understood by everyone.

From time to time I've had letters addressed to the rabbi of wording tab. Maybe what we should have called it was The Fountain Fellowship. Because the idea of the fountain is a fountain that gushes up with life.

And here is David speaking of God and he says God's character is like this, it's a gushing fountain, his goodness pours forth. It's an inexhaustible fount. And when you have drunk of the goodness of God, the generosity of God, you want to be generous yourself.

I remember some years ago some minister in the town, who is no longer here, asking how we managed to get a large congregation. And he said I just cannot get my folk out on a Sunday night. He said the last time I got a full congregation on a Sunday night was when I invited the Catholic Bishop of Arendelle.

So I said well I'll put that in my file just in case I run out of ideas. One of the characteristics that should be part of wording tab is the generous way in which people not only come together in numbers to worship the Lord, but in the way that we give. Not just to him and his cause here, but abroad.

That's what our forebears achieved. That's what we're trying to achieve today. So when I was praying for the sort of tab diaspora a little while ago, I was praying in all reality.

I had in mind the scholarships that we're now funding in Asia and Africa. I have in mind the training center in India to which we made significant contribution. I have in mind what God has allowed us to do in the past.

Both in terms of mission, enterprise, and social work here in the town. But that's not enough. We have to continue.

Because if we are drinking from the fount of God's goodness which is inexhaustible, then we too have goodness and generosity which should be our characteristics, our reaction to what we receive from the Lord. Here is an inexhaustible fount. But moreover, I argue, here is an everlasting stream.

For the Lord is good. And his love endures forever. One of the great words of the Old Testament is the word keseth.

The word mercy. Why the old new translations of the Bible have shifted the word keseth and put in place the word love, I don't know. It seems to me that mercy is a very honorable word.

And how much we have needed the mercy of God. I appreciated the comments that were made at the beginning of this service. But you know, as I've said many a time here, and Tim and my colleagues agree with me on this, we're not a successful church.

You see, what we represent, Mr. Mayor and others, is just a collection of failed people. That's why we sang that modern song, although it was an old concept because it came from the New Testament. Only by grace can we enter.

Only by grace can we stand. It's the mercy of God that I cling to. For I know that there are things that I have done that are wrong.

I know the embarrassment I would feel in front of you, and you perhaps in front of me, if all that I had done, if all that you had done was known to one another. But the mercy of God shows us a God who opens His arms to prodigals, to failed people, and He says, come to Me. You see, the people who would not have anything to do with Jesus were the righteous.

And the Bible says it's not the righteous, inverted commas, that Jesus has come for. It's the sinners. The failed, failed people.

In the television religious broadcasting, which I was involved earlier on this morning, I was happy to answer one of the questions that was put my way on GMTV. The most important thing for which Christianity stands is the mercy and the pardon of God. That's the message that has to be preached.

His love endures forever. It is timeless in its span. Some years ago, it looked as though the small work on the Maybridge estate, one of the toughest estates in Worthing, the small work as far as the churches are concerned, would no longer exist.

The Maybridge Evangelical Church had got down to about 18 people. And I remember when being approached by folk who were present members who thought that the whole thing would run to seed, I remember taking an afternoon off, and I went where I often do my meditation, out on Sisbury Ring, at the top of Salvington Hill and Shanktonbury Ring. And I looked down, and I could see Worthing in my mind's eye, and I could see Maybridge.

And I was asking the Lord, don't let this work here. Don't let it be extinguished. Don't let it go out.

And suddenly, and I claim this very rarely in my experience, I saw not just a handful of people, I saw a church building flashing to my mind. And I prayed to the Lord there that in His grace, He would bring about in Maybridge a church which would meet the community. That's why we don't call it a church.

We call it the Maybridge Christian Fellowship. It would meet the needs of the community. And God in His grace has done that, and we're grateful.

But that's just part of what He's done yesteryear. We want Him to be doing things today. God's mercy is timeless.

It's timeless in its span. The Hebrew here means that you could take a telescope up to Shanktonbury Ring, and you look as far as you can one way, and then you take your telescope, and you look as far as you can the other way. And wherever you look, says the Bible, from the beginning to as far in the future as you can go, God will remain merciful.

His mercy is an everlasting stream. It is timeless in its span, and it is matchless in its quality. For the word goes on to say, of the mercy of God, it endures forever.

I have, of course, to tell you that the TAV can't withstand various shocks that might come. I mean, had it stopped a bomb during the war, which thank God it didn't, then presumably the whole place would have collapsed. We had very little damage.

And when we did modify the internal structure here some years ago by creating that foyer entry, one of the great difficulties was getting through walls which are 1 foot 6 inches thick. The TAV building was built to last, and the mercy of God is built to last. Timeless in its span, matchless in its quality.

David says the Lord is good, and his mercy endures forever. An inexhaustible fount, an everlasting stream, but finally a fathomless ocean. His faithfulness continues throughout all generations.

We have a lady who's not here this morning. She could have made it in any case because of the slippery surfaces. She's part of our membership, and she's the first member on the roll.

So her age must take away into the 90s. I think she's the only one who can remember the first pastor who still survives. Her name is Miss Marner.

And if you ask Miss Marner what her favorite hymn was, she would say, Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. I still remember Miss Marner cutting the ribbon of our new lounge, at least our improvised lounge, when we rebuilt or modified the church hall at the back some now, what, 18 years or so ago. Great is thy faithfulness.

That's her favorite hymn, and it enshrines what this verse is here speaking of, his faithfulness, the fidelity of God. It continues. Abide with me, fast falls the evening tide.

Remember how that famous hymn goes on. All thou who changest not, abide with me. You see, your manifestos will change.

I come from Sheffield, and I've just been reading another volume from the pen of Roy Hattersley, who's a politician I admire, not simply because he comes from Sheffield, but I just think that he's a man of integrity. But the manifesto of the Labor Party when I was a boy in Sheffield is completely different from what it is now. You see, there's change that goes with the manifesto of every political party.

Now, I want to tell you why I'm a preacher and not a politician. Because, you see, the manifesto of this church has never changed. I really mean that.

96 years ago when the church was opened, 100 years ago when it was constituted, our manifesto had already been written. It was written in this book. And down the centuries, and down the decades as far as this church is concerned, Christianity has preached the same manifesto.

What is that manifesto? That the sins and the mistakes of my life compounded and made large as the sins and the mistakes of humanity one glorious day were passed to the account of Jesus Christ. And a man or a woman who confesses that Jesus is Lord and Savior, who surrenders the driving wheel of their lives to Him, that man, that woman, appreciates something of, enters something into, enters into something of the faithfulness of God. This is a fact to be accepted.

His faithfulness continues. His word remains exactly the same. Politicians come and go.

Societies change. But the message of God remains the same. Church worship patterns, they change.

The way you do things change. When I was here 25 years ago, do you know how they baptized people? At least the ladies? They all wore white gowns. Fair enough.

They had white headgear. And God bless us, they even wore white gloves. Even 25 years ago, I did wonder what gloves had got to do with a baptismal sacrament.

But let that go. It didn't really matter. That was the cosmetic.

What hasn't changed is what baptism stands for. And we're still baptizing people today. We're still praising the Lord today.

We're still preaching from His word today. His faithfulness continues, and it continues throughout all generations, which means to say that though 100 years have gone by, the best you can still anticipate, because that same God who was there in the past will be with us in the present and on into the future. So this morning, we've not just engaged in nostalgia, though I have brought to you as best I can this study from this psalm, which looks to the past.

Our God is an inexhaustible fount. The Lord is good. Our God's mercy is an everlasting stream.

His love endures forever. Our God has, as it were, a fathomless ocean of faithfulness, which we have looked at in yesteryear. But what about now? What about tomorrow? What new things can we be doing for the Lord? What further churches ought we to be planting out? What more philanthropic activity ought we to be engaged in? The future is as bright as the promises of God.

The word which applied to worthy citizens 100 years ago still applies today. The gospel is still the same. We've land that we need to buy.

We've more buildings that we need to put up. We've more projects in which we are to be involved. I won't be with you throughout this next century, probably not even until this next decade, but the work will go on as it was passed on from Pastor Crouch to Reverend Atwood to Reverend Land and to myself and those who've worked alongside me these years.

So the work will go on. The vision is still with us. There's more to do.

And the vision is as realizable as the personality of God that is unquestioned. As the personality of God remains a constant, the Lord is good. He has been incredibly good to this church.

This church has become something of a legend in some areas. The Lord has been good. Give him the credit.

Give him the honor. Give him the glory. His love has endured down the decades.

His faithfulness has continued. But there's a lot more still to do, and we need your help, and we need your prayers, and we need your commitment as we serve God as Christian citizens opposite the town hall in the center of Worthing. Let's stand.

And in a moment we'll sing Hymn 631. Father, we offer ourselves again to you. Take us, we pray, warts and all.

Enable us to love you more dearly, see you more clearly, and follow you more nearly. And bless all those who try to follow within the Christian ethic and do things which are pleasing to you. But may the power of the gospel be the energy whereby the ethic of Christianity can be applied.

Bless this town. Bless this county. And continue in your grace, not because we deserve it, to bless this church.

Amen. 631, a new hymn, modern hymn that is. Tell of my soul, the greatness of the Lord.

Tell of my soul, the greatness of the Lord. Come now, Lord, and sing with my spirits the strength of truth, the glory of His truth. With one God and Savior shall my hope be true.

Tell of my soul, the greatness of His name. Faithful, rich, and holy, His love on earth and on the sea shows for eternity. Tell of my soul, the greatness of His name.

Faithful, rich, and holy, His love on earth and on the sea shows for eternity. Tell of my soul, the greatness of His name. Tell of my soul, the glory of His name.

After my prayer, our organist will continue to play. Just allow the Mayor and Mayoress to leave first, please. And then we hope we might see you again this evening.

Father, we thank you for this time of reflection and taking stock and peering into the future. We ask that you'll continue now to be with all of us here. Bless every family.

Be with Jo Maycock especially as she sets off from here and then this afternoon as we listen to more of what Anna has in mind and this evening as we commission her to a further bout of service in Latin America. So be with her. And now may the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rest and remain with each one of us always.

And all God's people said? Amen. And the uninhibited saints said? Amen. Thanks for coming.

God bless you. Bye-bye.