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Exegeting the Hymns #53 - Come, Now is the Time to Worship

8/6/2018

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Come, Now is the Time to Worship
w/m - Brian Robert Doerksen, 2nd Verse - Bill Itzel 

Come, now is the time to worship
Come, now is the time to give your heart
Come, just as you are to worship
Come, just as you are before your God
Come

One day every tongue will confess You are God
One day every knee will bow
Still the greatest treasure remains for those
Who gladly choose You now

Boldly we approach the throne of grace
Humbly our knees to bow
Before the Sovereign One who first chose those 
Who gladly choose Him now

This is a simple little call to worship that we have sung a number of times. Come, now is the time to worship. Truly, it is never time NOT to worship, but this is usually speaking of a corporate worship setting. Come, now is the time to give your heart. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says that “Now is the day of salvation”. This seems to be a call to anyone who hasn’t fully obeyed the words of Jesus in Luke 14:33 (So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple), to do so and trust Him with their whole heart.  

Come, just as you are to worship. Lines like this are tricky. Yes, we don’t need to “clean ourselves up” before we come to Christ. We come to Him in repentance and He cleans us up; however, it has become a popular teaching by many in evangelicalism that coming to Christ does not require any change. Repentance, by its very nature, is a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction. We can’t continue in our sin AND be ready to worship. Sin puts a barrier in our fellowship with God. 1 Corinthians 11 speaks of an act of worship called the Lord’s Supper in which Paul warns, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” This is a pretty strong warning that worship of God is not a trivial thing. We can't change ourselves, but we do need to BE changed in order to worship rightly.

Come, just as you are before your God. Anytime in the Old Testament, when one came near God’s presence, it invoked a sense of awe. People would fall prostrate on the ground as dead men. They understood their unworthiness. We should too. In the New Testament, God took on flesh and was surrounded by people, both full of faith and the faithless, but the ones who truly worshiped, were the ones who had the sense of awe for being in the presence of the Son of God.

One day every tongue will confess You are God. One day every knee will bow. Still the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly choose You now. There is a line in our song, “Last man Standing” that says, “Some will bow in faithfulness, and others will in fear.” Yes, every knee will bow, but only those who have turned and trusted in Jesus, and have persevered until the end (Matthew 24:13), will receive the eternal reward.

Since this song only had one verse and 1 chorus, it seemed a bit repetitive to keep repeating the same 8 lines for 4 minutes, so I wrote a second verse: Boldly we approach the throne of grace. Humbly our knees to bow. I meant to show the two sides of our relationship with the Father in using the words “Boldly” and “Humbly”. Both are true. Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Yet, James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” God is our Father, and yet, God is also the Creator of the universe. He deserves all the glory and honor, but He loves His children and wants them to come into His presence.  

Before the Sovereign One who first chose those who gladly choose Him now. We choose God. There is no doubt about that in scripture. If we are to be saved from our sin, we must, in faith, “Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.” Even John 3:16, the most popular verse in the Bible, says that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. This is clear in scripture. We exercise the gift of faith at the point of our salvation. No one is saved apart from faith. However, the Bible is also clear that, long before we came along and exercised faith, “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” Ephesians 1. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 says, “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.” Ephesians 2:8 tells us that faith is a gift of God. So, as the familiar song says, “Oh, how I love Jesus, because He first loved me.” It is because He loved us, and saved us out of our sin, that we come to worship Him.

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    Author

    Bill Itzel has been a worship leader and singer/songwriter for over 30 years and is based in Westminster, MD.  His family tours and leads worship around the country.  Bill and his family attend Belcroft Bible Church in Bowie, MD.  This is a blog about congregational worship and the latest news in the The Itzel's ministry.

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  • Home
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      • Pilgrim's Song >
        • Leaving the City of Destruction
        • The Time Is Short
        • Evangelist
        • It Would Be Me
        • The Wicket Gate
        • Miracle
        • This Is Life
        • Apollyon's Challenge
        • I Will Go (Vanity Fair)
        • Walking with Hopeful
        • Champion of the People (View from the Spyglass)
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        • Places
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      • Sweeter >
        • Christ Is Sweeter
        • With My Last Breath
        • I Have Seen The Lord (Job 42)
        • Oh My Soul
        • Sweet Are All Your Words To Me (Psalm 119)
        • Jesus Is Mine
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        • All My Ways Are Known To You
        • O Lord, My Rock And My Redeemer
        • Finish Strong
      • Timeless - Hymns of Bill & Karen Itzel >
        • Give Thanks to the Lord Our God
        • Year's End
        • Sovereign Ruler of the Skies
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        • I Am A Christian
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        • How Much More Glory
        • Mercy Rained Down
        • Step By Step
        • At The Cross (Love Ran Red)
        • He Is Risen, Hallelujah
        • Jesus Is Enough
        • There is Hope
        • Burn the Ships
        • Last Man Standing
        • This is Your Life
        • Dead Man Walking
        • Jerusalem
      • Gift of Faith >
        • You Amaze Me
        • I Got Saved
        • Gift of Faith
        • May The Peoples Praise You
        • Why Was I A Guest?
        • Lord, We Remember
        • A Mighty Fortress
        • His Love Runs Deep
        • Lord, Save Me From Me
        • Jesus, Thank You
        • Jerusalem
      • Hope >
        • Brethren We Have Met To Worship
        • Firm in the Faith
        • There is Hope (Siri's Song)
        • Lord, I Adore You
        • The Sovereign God of Love
        • The Solid Rock
        • He Will Hold Me Fast
        • Get To Work
        • Our Great God
        • At Calvary
        • I Will Sing of My Redeemer
        • Give Me Jesus
      • The Glorious Trial >
        • He is Risen Hallelujah
        • The Glorious Trial
        • Because You Love Me
        • Power of the Cross
        • How Firm a Foundation
        • Don't Be Afraid
        • Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
        • A Light In The Dark
        • Band of Brothers
        • Grace Greater than our Sin
      • XXV >
        • All Hail The Power
        • How Long?
        • Truth Is The Way
      • Sovereign >
        • Come Thou Fount
        • Almighty
        • In Christ Alone
        • At The Cross
        • All I Have Is Christ
        • Come As You Are
        • Amazing Grace
        • Behold Our God
        • Whom Shall I Fear
        • Sovereign
        • It Is Well
      • The New Life >
        • Burn The Ships
        • Draw The Line
        • Slow Fade
        • Thank You God For Saving Me
        • Miraculum
        • Jekyll & Hyde
        • Blessed Be Your Name
        • Believe
        • It Is Finished
        • The Gift
      • I Am A Christian >
        • When You Forgive
        • Write My Hurts In The Sand
        • I Am A Christian
        • But for the Grace of God Go I
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        • Saving My Best for First
        • Roots
        • Don't Water Down The Gospel
        • Defenders of the Faith
      • Live It Up >
        • Power and Might
        • Psalm 100
        • Plastic People
      • Revolutionary War >
        • Revolutionary War
        • Rebelling Against the Weather
        • Chained to a Lie
        • Always Singing
      • UP >
        • Power and Might
        • Step by Step
        • Love The Lord
        • I'd Rather Have Jesus
        • Psalm 100
        • When I Survey
        • You are There
        • Names
        • Let Everything That Hath Breath
        • Weak
      • Throwback >
        • The Hard Way
        • Mercy Rained Down
        • Free
        • Sweet Sacrifice
      • Mountain Climber >
        • Mountain Climber
        • Fly Free
        • Cries of the Forgotten
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        • Hide Me in Your Hand
        • Look to the One
        • Can You Hear Me Now?
        • Great is Thy Faithfulness
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        • Minute Man
        • Think On These Things
        • Do Hard Things
        • Break The Chain
        • Roll Call of Faith
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        • You are There
      • Flawed - 2007 >
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        • One of Those Days
        • Save Me From Myself
        • Create in Me a Clean Heart
        • An Inconvenient Truth
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        • I've Got No Problem With That
        • Jesus is Enough
        • Weak
        • Pray
      • Soldiers - 2006 >
        • This is Your Life
        • God is Still God
        • Soldier
        • Stand Up
        • Follow Me
        • Barbarians at the Gate
        • Forgotten
      • Guns Blazin' - 2005 >
        • Guns Blazin'
        • When the Rubber Meets the Road
        • Words of Love
      • It Takes a Family - 2004 >
        • A Closed Mouth Gathers No Foot
      • Return of the King - 2003 >
        • Return of the King
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      • Dedicated - 2002 >
        • The Last Days
      • Dead Man Walkin' - 2001 >
        • Dead Man Walkin'
      • Seasons - 2001 >
        • Blessed Be The Name
        • Another Year Is Dawning
      • The Test - 2000 >
        • This is Just a Test
      • 2 Natures >
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      • Beware of the Dogs >
        • Beware of the Dogs
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      • Praise Soup >
        • I Will Praise and Worship
        • It Mattered To This One
      • Play by Play >
        • This is my Son
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      • Christmas
      • The Live Experience >
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        • Hero
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        • Where the Soul Never Dies
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