Let all the nations be glad. The Lord is God, and He is extending His reign to the uttermost parts of the earth. Since He is doing this, just as He promised, we cannot by our sins and compromises keep it from happening. But our sins and compromises can keep us from exulting in the glory of it, and participating in the blessing of it.
We cannot make the kingdom of God lose. But we can fall away from that kingdom, improving it by the apostasy. In other words, we can lose, and if we separate from the love of God in Christ, we will lose. Now for the elect, nothing can separate them—neither height, depth, power, principality, or any other created thing. But covenant members who love the world can fall away, and they do. They find the world and its baubles enticing.
You are assembled before God this morning as baptized believers in His Son. You are offering up prayers to Him. You will hear His Word declared to you. You will approach His Table, which He has graciously set for you. You are invited to sit down. But here is the dilemma.
If you are baptized, you are commanded to come. You must come. You may not shrink back or hesitate. But if you are living in unconfessed sin, you dare not approach. God is a jealous God, and does not permit you to eat from two tables at once. You cannot eat here and at the table the world sets. But, if you are baptized, you must eat here. Refraining is not an option, and is a great disobedience.
This means that there is only one thing you may do—repent of your desires for the other table. Turn away from it with loathing. Drop your sin. You must choose between the tables, and God has declared in your baptism what that choice must be. Here is bread and wine, set for you. There, at the table of the world, there is all manner of filth disguised as food. God has pointed the way for you. Come, humble yourself. Come, and eat. Come, and drink.