When we gather to worship the Lord, when the call to worship is uttered, the Holy Spirit gathers us up, and ushers us all into the heavenly places where we then worship God in the name of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. We have not come to a mountain that can be touched, but rather to the heavenly mountain of Zion, the New Jerusalem. We have assembled with all the holy angels and the spirits of just men made perfect. Moreover, we are doing this with all the saints all over the earth, time zone after time zone, in successive waves. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the name of the Lord shall be praised.
There are two thoughts in this that should comfort us. The first is that, because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, in whom we all make our approach to God, we all do so as members of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. Before the throne of God, where all of us assemble every Lord’s Day, there are no denominations — just a multitude that no man can number. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We are to grow up into one unified perfect man in history precisely because this is already given to us in the heavenly realms.
The second encouragement is this. As we worship God in the heavenly realms, we are rising above the culture wars. This is not because those conflicts are now irrelevant, but rather this is our only successful way of fighting them. In our worship, we pray this: Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. We are engaged this morning in glorifying the name of Jesus Christ in heaven. As a result, we may then ask by faith for God to do the same on earth. As the name of Christ is glorified on earth, as it is in heaven, the kingdom is coming, the will of God is being done. It is the will of God to exalt the name of Jesus Christ.
As the name of Christ is exalted by God this way, the secularists who do not wish to honor the name of Christ discover they have no countermeasures for this. There have nothing available to them that can stop this. Be encouraged, and worship the Lord this morning.