If you take your Bibles and turn
them to me, it's Psalm 135. Psalm 135, I've entitled
this message, Praise Ye the Lord. Let's read these first two verses
together. The Scripture says here, Praise
ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord.
Praise Him, O you servants of the Lord, you that stand in the
house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. This is the theme of this psalm. Matter of fact, this psalm is
called the Hallelujah Psalm because it begins with this phrase, Praise
ye the Lord, and in verse 21, it ends with this phrase, Praise
ye Now as believers in Christ, as servants of God, is there
any higher thing that we are called to do in this world? Praise
ye the Lord. Matter of fact, this is the purpose
of our being left here in this world, to praise the Lord. And when we get to glory, what
is going to be our work? What is going to be our anthem
in glory? It is going to be this, Praise
ye the Lord. And so I do pray that tonight
God would teach us to praise Him. Teach us. I'll tell you
this, there is nothing more wonderful than a teachable spirit. Lord,
give me a teachable spirit. Do I know how to praise Him?
I'll tell you this, even though we may know how to praise Him,
do we praise Him sufficiently? No. We want to praise Him more. Now this word praise, I want
you to understand this word praise has for its root, meaning, to
make something clear. To make someone clear. or rather to shine light upon
something or someone so as to reveal it to ourselves or others. Now this word praise also further
has the thought of revelation, celebration, boasting in what
is revealed, what is made plain. So basically the scripture here
says make plain the Lord. Make clear the Lord, the revelation
of the Lord, and in that revelation we boast in our God. We celebrate our God. And so even so, this is not for
all, but it is, says this, you servants of the Lord. We are
servants of the Lord, are exhorted We are commanded, we are encouraged
to give praise to the Lord. You who know the Lord, you know
His person. You know Him and He is the Trinity
of His persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Praise ye the Father. Praise
ye the Son. Praise ye the Holy Spirit. You who know the Lord, praise
Him in the trinity of His persons, in the manifestation of His power
and grace, you being made partakers of the divine nature, you alone
have the ability to praise Him. Only those who know God can praise
Him. Therefore He says, you servants
of the Lord, you that stand in the house of our God. You know
this, you are able to stand before God. Because of Christ, we know
this, we are able now to stand in the presence of God. We are
made holy by Jesus Christ. Now we know this, all men should
praise God. All men should praise Him. They
should celebrate His divine nature. They should declare and make
known His glories and greatness and goodness. All men should
worship God. Not according to their imagination.
This is how men worship God today. They worship God according to
what they think of God. That's not how you praise God.
You cannot praise God based on what you imagine Him to be. You must praise Him according
as God hath revealed Himself in Holy Scripture. And so as we praise the Lord,
we only praise Him according as He has revealed Himself. And yet we know this, that all
men by nature will not and cannot praise God because they do not
know Him. You cannot make clear something
you don't know. Isn't that right? Scott, I'll
tell you what, why don't you tell me about brain surgery?
I know you're a nurse, so you obviously know it all about brain
surgery. Well, you can't make plain what you don't know. And
so man by nature does not know God, therefore he cannot make
plain the nature of God, the character of God. Because he
does not know Him, he cannot make Him known to others. Men by nature cannot know God,
and therefore they cannot praise Him, they cannot reveal Him.
Go to 1 Corinthians. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse
6. Paul says, how be it we speak
wisdom among them that are perfect. When I preach the gospel, when
I praise God, when I make the Lord plain before your eyes,
this to you is wisdom. You understand it. When I declare
the sovereignty of God, the grace of God, the power of God, the
blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ, these things you know
because when I praise Him through the preaching of the Gospel,
it's wisdom to you. Yet, not the wisdom of the world, nor
the princes of the world that come to nothing. But we speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world unto our glory." This gospel
that we preach to the lost is a mystery. They don't understand. They have no clue. Why in the
world do you guys gather here to listen to this? Because we
know the gospel is the power of God. We know this, that the
gospel is how we praise Him. When we declare Him, when we
declare His Gospel, we are praising Him. But to them, it's a mystery.
They don't know it. They don't understand it. And
this wisdom was ordained before the world unto our glory, which
none of the princes of the world knew, for had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it
is written, I have not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into
the heart of man the things which God prepared for them that love
Him. In other words, you're not going to know God by what you
see. You're not going to know God by earthly wisdom that you
hear. Nothing earthly is going to reveal
God to you. You hear those idiots tell you,
I'm going to go out in nature and learn about God. You know
what you can learn about God in nature? You can learn this,
the wrath of God. You know what Paul says in Romans
chapter 1? He said, the wrath of God is
revealed. from heaven against all ungodliness
and then creation exposes that God is the creator and judge
of all things. That's what you can know. But
you know what you do with that knowledge? What men do with that?
They take that which is known of God and they pervert it. They don't praise God. They can't. But how do you praise God? How
is it that you know how to praise God? How can you declare who
God is and what God has done? Look at this. But God hath revealed
it to us by His Spirit. And look down at the next verse.
Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of God. For this purpose, why has God
revealed it to us? Why has the Spirit of God been
given to us? That, here's the purpose, that
we might know the things which are freely given us of God. Which
things also, what? We make plain. We speak. What do we speak? We speak what
we know of God. And what we know of God is revealed
to us from God. This is how we praise Him. We
praise Him by expressing, preaching, declaring what great things God
has freely given us. That's what we do. So if you
want to praise Him, what do you do? Preach the Word. Preach the
Gospel. Declare the Gospel. And you are
what? Praising Him. You are praising
Him. This wisdom that we preach is
not to all men. It's only to those who have been
revealed of God that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That He came
down to save sinners. This was revealed to us. And listen, this was not just
a doctrine we grasped. It's not a doctrine we academically
understood. It's a doctrine we experienced.
When we say Christ came to save sinners, who are we talking about?
Sinners out there? No, this sinner. When God came
to save sinners, I know He came to save sinners because I am
one. And He saved this one. And therefore,
I can declare plainly to you that Jesus Christ came to the
world to save sinners. This is a mystery. The mystery
of God is revealed to us in Jesus Christ is this, how God can be
just and justify the ungodly. This is the mystery. This is
the enigma religion can't answer that only the spirit of God can
give us. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? No man can know this except the
Spirit of God reveal it to us. But God in grace is freely given
to His people His Spirit. And no natural man can, by learning
or religious experience, ever understand it. But it's foolishness
to them, even because they are spiritually discerned, dead.
But to us who have been saved by the grace of God, to us who
God has revealed Himself, this great salvation by Jesus' blood
and righteousness, let it be known to us. Let our hearts be
stirred to this great duty and privilege. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. First of
all, I know that there are five things here in this psalm concerning
praise. He gives us five things with
which we should praise the Lord for. First of all, He says this,
Praise the name of the Lord. That's the first thing, isn't
it? Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord. What does this mean? What is
it to praise the name of the Lord? Simply this, it is to praise
His attributes. It is to praise His character,
His person, and His work, His authority, His sovereignty, His
majesty, His dominion. It is to declare God as He declares
Himself. That's what it means to praise
His name. Praise His person. Praise this
about God. He is self-existent. You know, I say that, kind of
rolls off the tongue, like I actually know what I'm talking about.
You know, I don't know anything at all about self-existence.
Everything I know comes from something else. What an astounding
thing that God came from no one, that He is totally self-sufficient,
eternally existent. Praise God for His omnipotence. That He has all power. Again,
these things I'm grasping at because I've never experienced
all power. Can you tell me what that means? Can you describe
how much power that is? Can you measure it? You can't
measure omnipotence. Omniscience. He knows all things. He's omnipresent. He's immutable. I am the Lord. I change not. He's immutable. He's immutable. He's sovereign in all things
over all people. Believers in Christ, are we not
called the light of the world for this reason, that we should
express these things, that we should make these things plain?
You got this? God didn't say you shall be the
light of the world. You are. Well, I don't feel like
the light of the world. What doesn't matter? What does
that have to do with anything? You are the light of the world. And what is it that we, as the
light of the world, are to make plain? Isn't that what light
does? If this building were shut off and there were no light in
here, what would you do? If you walked about in this room,
you'd stumble. You wouldn't be able to see anything.
When you cut on the light, it reveals where the chairs are. And so it is, we are the light
of the world. What are we to do? As we praise God, we reveal
Him. We declare Him. We praise Him. Make Him plain. We are the light
of the world even because God has ordained that by our praise,
by our witness, and by our preaching, that Christ should call His people
and comfort His people. You're there in Corinthians,
if you go back to chapter 1, and you see this, Paul says,
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, what is
it? Foolishness. I'm telling you, why are we not
fooled? Because to them, it's foolishness. Invite someone to hear the gospel,
and they may come once, twice, then they'll start giving you
excuses. They're trying to be polite. They don't really want
to tell you exactly what they think. And so they say, well,
you know, I'm just not feeling well. Or, you know, my dog ate
the cat or something. You know, they're going to give
you excuses and you keep pestering them long enough and they're
going to tell you why. Because you're an idiot. That's what
they said. You're foolish for going out there. There's nothing
there. To them it's foolishness. And so we call it praise. What do they call it? Foolishness.
But to us who are saved, we know this, it's the power of God.
Now how do you know that? You know that by experience, don't
you? You know that one day you were sitting there dead, and
someone was preaching, and God the Spirit took that word, applied
it to your heart, and you lived. And you know this, that if anyone
is going to be saved, it is through the preaching of the Gospel.
It is through the praise of God that they're going to be saved.
For it is written, I will destroy the wise and bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where's the wise? Where's the
scribe? Where's the disputer of this
world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? And
I tell you, they look at you as foolish, but how do you look
at them? How do you look at their wisdom? It's laughable, isn't it? They
can't even tell the difference between a man and a woman. I mean, that's just plain ignorance. But to them, they're wise. They're
wise. God said, I made foolish the
wisdom of this world. For after that, in the wisdom of God, the
world by wisdom knew not God. Listen, it pleased God by what
they call foolishness. The foolishness of preaching.
to save them that believe. And so let the Lord, as the Lord
tells us, His ministers, His people, we are called to preach
the Gospel, to call the lost and comfort and edify the saints. That's what we're doing. When
we praise the Lord, what are we doing? We are calling the
lost and comforting the saved by declaring God and His salvation
through Christ We are calling sinners to faith and calling
the faithful to comfort. Our Lord said this. Jesus said,
I am not come to call the righteous. Are there any righteous here?
Any self-righteous here? Well, you see, God's not talking
to you. Christ is not calling you. I
didn't come to call the righteous. Move over there. Get out of the
way. But who? Sinners. And I don't have any
sinners. Any sinners. Boy, he's talking
to you. I have come to call sinners to
repentance. And so as his preachers, what
do we do? By praising God, we call sinners. By declaring God's
character, His nature, His goodness. What are we doing? We're calling
sinners to Christ. And by the same gospel, we are
comforting His people. Comfort ye! Comfort ye, my people,
saith the Lord. Well, God, how are we to comfort
Him? Listen. Speak comfortably. Make plain. Tell them my gospel. Speak comfortably to them. Cry
unto Jerusalem and tell her this, her warfare is accomplished. For she hath received at the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. This is the cause of preaching. This is the cause of praise.
It is to declare the name of God, the work of God for the
calling of His people and the comfort of His people. Now secondly,
he says, praise the Lord for He is good. Look at this, verse
3. He said, praise the Lord for He is good. Now why do we praise
the Lord? Here's the answer, because He's
good. Because He's good. Now, it's
good to praise Him, but that's not why we praise Him. We praise
Him because He is good. Now, God is not good because
God does good things. This is how we look at men. We
say, if a man does good, we say, well, that's a good man. Now,
why do we say it? Because we judged him based on
what he did. Listen, God does good things
because God is essentially good. Therefore, all He does is what? Good. Good. God is good, infinitely good,
eternally good. Even because He is good, all
He does is good. And when I say He does good,
what I mean is this. Everything He does is perfect. Now, if you ever saw a man and
that man did everything and he didn't fail in anything, what
would you say about it? You'd say, man, that guy's good. What
about God? How good is God? God never fails
at anything. He's never lacking in anything. Everything He purposes to do,
He does. And everything He does is perfect
and good. Now consider His creation. I'm
not going to spend much time on this, but consider how good
His creation is. What was His highest creation?
Man. Man was His highest creation.
And even after the fall, do you not consider how our bodies are
made? How good they are? Even after
the fall? I mean, consider that our hands
are fit to work. Consider that Our bodies, how they're refreshed
after sleep. I mean, the things that God has
done for us. Consider the pleasures and goodness
God has given us with our eyes. Scott, you went out and saw nature,
God's nature, even this corrupt nature, how beautiful it is,
how glorious, how magnificent, majestic are the mountains. It's astounding how great and
good God's creation is. And we are to praise Him for
that. What about music? How music affects us? You know,
music can affect your mood. It can affect your thoughts.
And music is beautiful to our ears. It either makes us sad
or excites us. I mean, these things God has
made. And they're good. And we should
praise Him for them. But there's something greater
Something, the greatest display of God's goodness is not His
creation, but His mercy. That's the greatest display of
God's goodness is His mercy and grace. Go to Exodus chapter 33. Exodus chapter 33. In this chapter,
we look at verse 18. And here Moses is begging God.
Exodus 33 and verse 18, Moses said, I beseech thee, show me
thy glory. Now notice God's answer. He said,
I will make my, what? Goodness pass before thee. Now what did Moses want to see?
His glory. What did God show him? His goodness.
You see here, God unites both together. His goodness and His
glory are in union. They're in union together. And
He said this, I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. He's going to make plain the
name of the Lord. Isn't that praising Lord? He
said, I'm going to praise myself. I'm going to praise myself. I'm
going to magnify myself before you. I'm going to magnify my
goodness. And here's my goodness. Here
it is. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. And He said, Thou
canst not see My face, for there shall no man see Me and live. That's the goodness of God, His
grace and His mercy. Behold, the goodness of God is
best displayed in His sovereign free grace towards sinners. Now
we know grace and mercy is only given to sinners. Isn't that
right? What in the world does a righteous
man need mercy for? What does a man who can merit
God's favor, what does he need grace for? You see, the only
people who need mercy are guilty sinners. Only ones who need grace
are those who cannot merit it. Man was created perfect, he was
in the best environment, he was upright, the best of God's creation,
best of the creation yielded its stores to him, and yet he
sinned. He defied God. When Adam sinned, what attribute
of God was displayed immediately? Justice. The first attribute
that God displayed to Adam was justice. In the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. And he died. The moment he ate,
he rightly deserved and received punishment. Justice of God was
displayed. But because God is good, He must
punish sin. Isn't that right? If God is good,
He must punish evil. Is it not good for God to punish
evil? Now in this world, in this situation, again, lost men call
evil good. Good, evil. They're backwards
on everything. They don't believe in punishment
anymore. They just don't. But every man knows this in his
heart. It's good for God to punish evil. It's good. Thus He displays His goodness
to Moses in that next chapter when He says, I will by no means
clear the guilty. God says, I will by no means
clear the guilty. So the question is, how can God
be merciful and just? God is good, therefore He is
just. But God says, My goodness is
best displayed in mercy. Now how can God be both? How can God be merciful and gracious
to guilty sinners, yet at the same time by no means clear the
guilty? Behold, then, the goodness of
God is only seen in the person and work of Christ. It's the
only place. It is the only place where mercy
and truth have met together, righteousness and peace can kiss
each other. It's the only place in the substitutionary
work of Jesus Christ, His Son. So then the goodness of God is
best displayed where? In Jesus Christ. That's where
the goodness of God is best displayed. In Exodus chapter 33, look at
verse 21 now. Verse 21, and God said, Behold. Now in order for him to see the
goodness, God's got to do something for him. Look at this. Behold,
there's a place by me. And thou shalt stand upon a rock,
and it shall come to pass when my glory passeth by, I will put
thee in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover thee with my
hand while I pass by. and I will take away mine hand,
and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen."
Believer in Christ. Listen. Praise God for His goodness
because Jesus Christ is that rock by which we may see the
glory and goodness of God. He is the rock. Remember what
Christ said about Himself? He said, Rock. I will build my church. And the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. God said this of
Christ. Behold, I lay inside a stone,
a tried stone, a precious corner stone. He that believeth shall not make
haste. You that are founded on Christ.
Anybody want to get off? You want to get off? I'm not
making haste. I'm not getting off this rock.
God founded me on this rock. God put me in Christ. He put
me in this rock by which I may now see the goodness and mercy
of God. And Christ is not only the foundation,
He's the refuge. He's the refuge. God said, I put you on a rock
and not just a rock, a cleft of the rock. And he said, I put
my hand over you. He put him in a cleft, and he
put his hand over him, and what happened? The justice of God
passed by. The glory of God that he could
not see, or he would die, passed by. Isn't that a picture of what
God did for us in Christ? He put us in Christ and covered
us up. And Christ then became our refuge. Our refuge. We were sinners by
nature. We could not come to God. We would not know God's goodness
except by His grace. And see Christ as our representative
was made to endure the wrath of God, the glory of God for
our sins. I have a picture on my piano
at home. Beautiful representation of a
refuge. This man, he's standing inside of this door of the lighthouse
and he's looking out. Got his hand in his pocket. Very
calm. Very calm. Looking out over the
sea. Smiling, probably. And behind him is, of course,
this massive lighthouse. But behind the lighthouse, there's
a huge Tsunami! A wave that's beating against
the lighthouse. Now how could He stand there
so calmly? How could He not be afraid? Simply
because He didn't see. He didn't look behind. He couldn't
see that. He didn't even know it was there. Don't you see this? That Jesus Christ, we have been
put in Christ. And Christ our Savior has endured
the wrath of God for all our sins. One person said this, he extinguished
the fires of Sinai with his blood. Justice of God could demand no
more of Christ than he endured. Another picture is the ark. Remember
Noah in the ark? The justice of God rained down
on the entire world. How is it that Noah and his family
were able to endure the justice and the wrath of God that rained
down on them? Why? The ark endured it for them. So then how can God be just and
justify the ungodly? Even because we were in Christ
and Christ endured the wrath of God for our sins. Justice
was paid. Justice was satisfied by the
death and the blood of Jesus Christ forever. I like in Hebrews chapter 9.
I'm sorry, Hebrews chapter 10. It says this, that those high
priests, they offered sacrifice daily that can never take away
sin. But this man, oh, there's a difference in this man. There's
a difference in this priest when he offered one sacrifice
for sin. He sat down. Not just anywhere. He sat down
on the right hand of God. And He expects something for
His work. He expects His enemies to be
made His footstools. For by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Should you not praise God for
Christ? Can you not see the goodness
of God in sending His Son to be the representative man for
us? That He by Christ reconciled
us to Himself? He didn't ask anything of you.
Demand anything of you. You couldn't provide anything.
He did it out of the goodness of His own heart. He loved us. and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And listen, so great it's not
just our sin, but the whole world. All His elect in the whole world
were saved by Him. Because God put us in Christ. But of God are you in Christ?
How are you in Christ? How do you get this to see God's
goodness? Listen, God put me here. There's no other reason for me
to be in here except God put me in there. And this is what
God did. He made Christ to be all my salvation,
all my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my sanctification, all my
redemption. It is the goodness of God then
that leadeth men to repentance. Isn't it? What's the goodness
of God? Jesus Christ is the display of
God's goodness. How God can be just and justify
the ungodly is only seen in His Son. So if we're to praise God
for His goodness, what are we praising Him for? We're praising
Him for His Son. We're declaring that Jesus Christ
is all our salvation. Behold the goodness of grace
of God, that sin is only begotten Son to suffer the wrath in the
place of the guilty. That only in Christ can God be
just and justify the ungodly. Have you been redeemed by His
blood? Have you seen the mercy? Have you experienced the mercy
and grace of God? Then what are we to do? Let us
praise Him for it. Make it plain. Declare it. to others. I'm not going to get to the rest
of them. I'm going to give you one more and I'll quit. Praise
God for His sovereign election. Praise God for His sovereign
election. You that have been seen the goodness of God, you
that are able to praise the goodness of God, don't you know this?
It is because of His sovereign election that you and I are able
to praise Him. Look at this in verse 4. Praise
Him, praise ye the Lord, for the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto
Himself, and Israel for his peculiar Now everyone that's seen the
goodness of God, we know this. We were not saved by accident. We didn't stumble into this.
This was by sovereign design. Sovereign purpose of God. This is called in Scripture the
election of grace or the purpose of God according to election. The election was pictured in
the Old Testament by God's choice of the nation of Israel. When
He says, Praise the Lord for the Lord hath chosen Jacob. Nationally,
that was true. God chose that people in Israel
for His peculiar people. But let me ask you this. Were
all of Israel saved? No. We know this. We know this plainly that many
of the Israelites who were children of Abraham died in their sin,
died in their unbelief. But you see, God used this nation
of Israel, Jacob and Israel, as a picture of His spiritual
Israel. His spiritual Israel. Jacob was
nothing more than a type. Go to Romans chapter 9. Romans
chapter 9. And look at verse 6. Romans chapter
9 verse 6. Now, Paul is saying, look, Israel
was given all the law, they were given all the prophets, and God
promised to save Israel. That's in the Scripture. All
Israel shall be saved. Now, Paul asks this question.
Because all Israel is not saved, listen, is the Word of God of
none effect? Has the Word of God failed? He
said, no, not as though the word of God had taken none effect.
Why, Paul? For they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they children. And then he gives examples. He
gives that of Isaac, but the best example that he gives is
that of Isaac's children. Both Isaac's children, Jacob
and Esau, were both seeds of Abraham. Both of them were seeds
of Isaac. Yet what do we read here? Look
down at this verse 11. For the children not yet being
born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. It was said to her, the elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. Now this religious generation, there
are few that praise God for His sovereign election. This is because
many are so deceived to believe salvation is not by the will
of God, but the will of man. Scriptures are clear, aren't
they? As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to
become the sons of God, which were born." Now, how were you
born? How is it you received Him? How is it that you were
able to praise the goodness of God that is in Jesus Christ?
You received Him. Well, of course you did. Could
you do anything else? No. We were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of men, but of God. We were born by the will of God.
And all who praise the Lord, who know His goodness, know this,
that salvation is of the Lord, that we by nature were haters
of God, dead in sins, and could not come to Christ. Jesus told us that, didn't He?
No man can come to Me except the Father which has sent Me
to draw him. Yet, His salvation, His salvation was never to be
based upon our marriage. Never to be based upon our works
or our will. But our salvation is based solely
according to the sovereign election and good pleasure and will of
God. Therefore what? We praise God
for His grace. His electing grace. Just as He
loved Jacob and hated Esau before they were born, before they had
done any good or evil, even so God loved us. Have you considered
His love? When did He start loving you? And because there was no beginning
of His love, friends, there is no end. God told us He said, listen,
I change not. This is how religion thinks of
God's love. Well, God hated me, and then all of a sudden, He
loved me. I did something, I accepted Jesus, and therefore, from that
time on, God's loved me. No, because God's love would
have changed. And God said, I don't change. He loved Jacob from eternity.
And when Jacob was created in the womb, guess what? He loved
him. And the reverse was true of Esau.
God always hated him. There was never a time God loved
Esau. Never. And see, I'm not surprised he
hated Esau. I'm surprised he loved Jacob. Because Jacob deserved hatred
just as much as Esau deserved hatred. But God loved us and chose us
to salvation by His grace. By His grace. 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13,
He said, We are bound to give thanks always to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, Because God had from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. You were chosen to salvation. Scott, was there any chance you're
going to miss this? Was there any hope that you were
just going to, oh, oops, I missed God? No. You were chosen to it. You were
ordained to it. Is this not reason to praise
God? Is this not reason to declare His sovereignty and majesty?
Yes. Praise God for His electing grace. You know, J.D. and I had that conversation so
many times. He just said that when I first came to that church,
you know, I sat out there and he played rock, paper, scissors
to see if he was going to come in. Him and Cook. He's out there
playing rock, paper, scissors. And somehow, I think Cook won. And they went in. And he said,
you know, what if I'd won? No chance. There was no chance. You were
going to miss it. And that night, the Lord spoke to JD. It was his time of love, friends.
He was not going to miss it. He was chosen to salvation. Listen,
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, Through
the work of the Spirit and through faith in Christ, we are saved. Now, which one of those did you
do? Did you do the sanctifying or did you do the faith? Nope.
Both of those were of the Spirit. The Spirit sanctified me, gave
me a new nature and gave me faith to trust in Christ. Whereunto
you are called by our Gospel unto the obtaining of the glory
You see, by us praising God, God used it at your appointed
time and sanctified you and gave you faith even as He had ordained
from eternity. There is no way you're going
to miss it. Listen, don't be discouraged when many will not
come. You know why many don't come?
Because God's not calling them. You listen, when God calls a
man, he's coming. And God will move heaven and
earth to bring him under the sound of the gospel. He'll use everything to bring
him under the sound of the gospel. Isn't that what Christ said?
All power is given unto me in heaven and earth, that I should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. God loved us. God saved us, and
then He called us. He chose us, He saved us, and
then He called us. Now what He said in 2 Timothy
1, He said, Who saved us and called us with an holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus, when? Before
the world began. We sing that song quite often,
My Lord, I did not choose You, for that could not be. This heart
would still refuse You had You not chosen me. You took the sin
that stained me. You cleansed and set me free.
Of old Thou hast ordained me that I should live to Thee. Praise
God for His sovereign election. Make it plain. Make it clear. You know, I've told you this
many times. The election is not complicated. It's not. It just simply means this. God
saved me on purpose. Now, whose purpose? Mine or His? His. His. Well, I got through two of them.
There are more. You read them yourself. Find
them in there. They're in there. Praise God
for His goodness. Praise His name. Praise His name. Praise His goodness. That's Christ.
And praise Him for His election. We have great cause to praise
Him, don't we? And what is it to praise Him? What have we learned
about praise? It is to make clear. It is to declare what God has
made known to us. Go you into all the world and
what? Preach the gospel. Praise the
Lord. Praise the Lord. I pray God give
us grace and opportunity to praise Him. To declare His word to others. We should. That's our business,
isn't it? I hope and God would greatly use the ministry here
to praise His name. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.