to Psalm 138. Last Wednesday night, we were
in Psalm 138 with the intention of looking at the whole Psalm.
That was my intention. But we ended up only looking
at verse 8. So Sunday morning we came back
to Psalm 138 with the intention of looking at the whole Psalm.
But I ended up only writing notes for verses 1 and 2. And I ended
up only preaching verse 1. So we're back in Psalm 138. And I've written some notes here.
We'll see how far we get. Whatever we look at, it's gonna
be good. Not because of me, but because of this psalm. It's just
good. I am actually so happy about
the fact that it's taking this long to go through this psalm.
I am really enjoying this. It is just so, so good. All right,
let me recap the path that we're following, okay? Verse eight
says, The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Are you tired of hearing that
yet? I am honestly not. I am not. That is the relief of my soul. That is the relief of my soul.
Our Lord said, you shall know the truth. You'll know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free. It will make you free. Knowing the truth of God's word,
and this is so, so critical. I couldn't help but think there
is some soul somewhere who really needs to hear this. Knowing the actual truth of God's
word. It does not bring a soul into
bondage. It does not bring a soul into
bondage. It brings freedom. It brings a soul into freedom. The truth of the gospel, it does
not bring God's people into bondage to the law. It does not bring bondage to
us because of the law. It only brings freedom. It only brings freedom. The gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ sets men and women free. Free from trying. Couldn't help
but think about a prisoner being set free. And then, you know, opening the
last gate, there you go. What are my restrictions? Well,
you're free. Well, how far can I go? Can I
go past the parking lot? You can go wherever you want.
You're free. You're free. The gospel sets men and women
free from bondage, free from the bondage of the law, free
from trying to obey the law, free from working and struggling
to perfect that which they cannot perfect. It sets us free from
the responsibility of trying to accomplish the impossible. And the reason is because Christ
accomplished what was impossible for us. What was impossible for
us, it wasn't impossible for him. So he accomplished it and
his accomplishment set us free. The poet said, I love this poem. Run, run, the law demands. You know, Romans 9 says it's
not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth. You know, this
is you better do this. You better do that. You better
not this. You better run, run. The law demands. But gives me
neither feet nor hands. The gospel bids me sweeter things.
Bids me fly and gives me wings. It sets me free. He set us free. If you know the truth, the truth
will make you free. All right? That's why verse 1
says, Psalm 138 verse 1, I will praise thee with my whole heart. Nothing shares the glory with
Christ. No one shares the credit with
Christ. He did all the work. He gets
all the praise. Verse one says, I will praise
thee with my whole heart before the gods. All those little G
gods, all those idols out there. Aren't you so glad you don't
worship an idol? Aren't you so glad that you don't
worship a false God? Aren't you so thankful for the
fact that you don't worship a false God? You say, well, wait a minute. How do we know we're not worshiping
a false God? If everybody else thinks they're
worshiping the true God, but they're not. Well, how do we
know we're worshiping the true God? How do we know we're not worshiping
false gods? Here's the answer. It's because
our God is God. That is the reason. That is the
reason we can know. Our God is in the heavens doing
whatever he wants to do. He is not standing at anybody's
heart's door begging anybody to do anything. Their rock is not like our rock.
Their lowercase r rock is not like our capital R rock. Because our rock is God. Our
rock is God. the Lord God, the sovereign God,
merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's
children unto the third and fourth generation. That means he's the
holy God. Just, holy, true. Verse one says, I will praise
thee with my whole heart. Before the gods will I sing praise
unto thee. All right now, verse two. It says, I will worship. I will worship because you perfected. I will praise because you perfected. I will worship because you have,
I will. I only love you because you love
me first. Verse two says, I will worship. That means bow down. That's what the word translates
to. Bow down. I will bow down. That makes my
heart smile because I will. I will. I will bow down. All of God's people can say that.
I will bow down in reverence. You know we reverence him. Does
it not just crawl you to hear men and women speak of him irreverently? Oh, we reverence him. I will
bow down in reverence. I will bow down in humility.
I will bow down in fear. I will bow down in respect. I will gladly worship you. Why? Because you made me to do
so. God's people are willing in the
day of his power. God's people say, I will have
that man reign over me. Yes, I will. That God who is gracious, to
whom he will be gracious and merciful, to whom he will be
merciful, the God who picks and chooses and designs and orders
and purposes. Yes, I will have that man reign
over me. There's nothing I desire more. I want to. I will. Verse two says, I will worship
toward the holy temple. David said, I will worship facing
the holy temple. I will worship toward the holy
temple. The Jews had designated times
of worship and prayer that they observed. Three times a day,
morning, afternoon, evening. Every time they did it, every
single time they did it, no matter where they were at that moment,
I mean, Jews were in other countries, too. But every time they did
it, they faced toward the temple in Jerusalem. They did that on purpose to show
that is the object of our worship. That is the object. Why was the
tabernacle or the temple the object of their worship? What
was in that tabernacle? Well, the altar of sacrifice
was in that tabernacle. The ark of the covenant, the
promise of God's covenant was in that tabernacle. The mercy
seat on top of that ark was in that tabernacle. The redeeming blood of a lamb. They would go in and sprinkle
blood on that mercy seat and it stayed there. You think about
how covered in blood that thing was. The blood of a lamb was in there. Atonement was in there. Appeasement was in there. Satisfaction
for God was in there. God was satisfied in there. And
every time they worshipped, they made it clearly known. You know,
in the book of Daniel, the reason he was thrown into the lion's
den is because they caught him in his house with the window
open at his time of prayer facing toward Jerusalem. Every time they worshipped, they
made it very clearly known. That is the object of our worship. Read between the lines and hang
in here with me. Every time they worshiped, they
faced, they turned to, they made it very evidently clear, that
is the object of our worship. They weren't over here with that
being their object. That is the object of our worship. Every single time. Do you know that God's people
still do that very thing to this day? You know God's people still
do that very, did you know that we, Kingsport Sovereign Grace
Church, we still turn and face the object of our worship every
time we do it. I literally, when I was studying
this, I walked out of my office and I came up right here to this
pulpit, the lights were off, it was middle of the day. And
I got my GPS map out and found which direction Jerusalem
was and the temple inside it. And as it turns out, it's right
here, right in the crease of this trim. That's Jerusalem. That's where the temple is. So
if I bow my head on this pulpit to speak into this microphone
when I pray so that you can hear me, we would technically need
to turn the pulpit this way to, you know, worship toward
Jerusalem and the temple in Jerusalem. But we're not going to do that.
And do you know why we're not going to do that? That building
is not our holy place. Christ is our holy place. Christ
is our holy place. That is not the object of our
worship. That's not our holy land. Christ
is our holy land. But we still do the very same
thing that David was doing. What they had only in picture
and in type, we have in person. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment
of every single thing that the Old Testament pictured. Christ
is our altar. They needed an altar. Their life
depended on an altar. Well, Christ is our altar. Christ
is our sacrifice. Christ is our ark of covenant. You know, the law was kept in
that ark. Life was in that ark. Sustainment
was in that ark. That ark is Christ. Christ is
our mercy seat. God said, I'll meet with my people
right there, right there on the mercy seat where all that blood
has been spilled. Christ is our mercy seat. Christ
is our lamb. Christ is our blood. Christ is our temple. He is our
temple. Christ is all of it. Our worship
turns to him. We face him. We are looking to him. every
single time we worship. Every time. That's what all of God's people
do. That's what David said right here in verse 2. He said, I will
worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name For thy loving
kindness, for your grace, for your merciful grace, that his
mercy and his grace provided an altar. His mercy and his grace,
his goodness provided an ark. It provided a mercy seat. It
provided blood. It provided a lamb. I'll praise
you for your mercy and your grace in saving, in perfecting. Verse two says, and for that
truth, that's Christ. That's Christ. John 1 17 says
the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. He said, I will worship toward
your holy temple because of your grace and your truth. Christ. Christ. Verse two, I will worship
toward that holy temple and praise thy name. For thy lovingkindness
and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word." That's Christ. He is the word. He is the promise
of the word. David said, you've made a promise
that you cannot turn away from. Your name depends on it. Your
holiness depends on it. You must fulfill your promise
or you cannot be who you say you are. the holy and just God
of truth, the God who cannot lie. Let's read again what we
read last Sunday morning, what we closed with. Go over to Numbers
23. Numbers 23 verse 19, it says, God is not a man that he should
lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. He will not
change his mind. Hath he said and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he
not make it good? He said, if I've said it, I'll
do it. If I have said it, I'll do it. Sometimes I think we read
his promises in his word, and our lack of faith says, wouldn't
it be wonderful if that really did happen? We see some of these
promises, some of these things he says that he's going to do
for us, and we think, oh, I wish that was true. It would be so
wonderful. He said, if I said it, I'll do it. If I said it,
I will do it. Verse 19, God is not a man that
he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent.
Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and
shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He said,
my father has commanded me to bless. And He has blessed in
His will and purpose before time began. He blessed in His choosing of a people.
He blessed in His election of a people. He blessed in His foreknowledge,
in His everlasting love of a people. Before this world began, he blessed
on the cross of Calvary when he provided a lamb. The death
and the burial of Christ, he blessed in the resurrection and
the ascension of Christ. We were all raised and ascended
with him. All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places have been given to God's people in by and through the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 20 says, behold, I have
received commandment to bless and he hath blessed and I cannot
reverse it. Why? The holiness of my name
is on the line. The justice of my name is on
the line. I cannot go back on my word. That's our hope. That is our
hope of glory right there. He cannot go back. He is the
Lord. He changes not. Have you ever
heard somebody say, well, God changes all the time. God changed. God has never changed. That's
our hope. He said, I am the Lord. I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. That's the only reason why verse
21 says, He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen
perverseness in Israel. It's because he elected out of
the sons of Jacob the spiritual seed of Israel and he cannot
change his mind in who he wanted to save. He cannot change his
mind. In the same way, if you wanna
leave here, I'm done, basically, okay? So if you want to leave
here with some really good news to hold onto, hold onto this. In the same way that we could
never do anything to influence his decision to save us, okay? We cannot do anything to influence
Him to save us. We cannot be good enough. We
cannot be anything. We cannot do anything. That was
set in stone before the foundation of the world. The children not being born,
no good or bad having done that, the purpose of God according
to election might stand. We cannot do anything to influence
him in saving us. In the same way that that is
so, thank God, we will never do anything to influence him
to change his mind and condemn us. We will not. He chose his particular people
and they cannot be unchosen. By His death, He redeemed His
particular people and they cannot be unredeemed. Eternal redemption. Their sins are put away and they're
never going to be brought back. They're never going to be brought
back. Once this body is laid down and we go to be with Him,
not one sin will ever be brought back up. Never again. He has called his particular
people to himself and they cannot be turned away. He has promised to keep them
all the way to the end and they cannot be lost. He has perfected
them forever and they cannot be made imperfect. The end of verse 21 says, The
Lord, his God is with him. If God be for us, who can be
against us? The Lord, his God is with him
and the shout of a king is among them. That's just so wonderful. He has joined himself to his
people never to be separated again, never again. Now, let's
just close with this question and this thought, okay? What
does that kind of security, really think about this, really assess
your heart. What does that kind of security
produce in the heart of his people? That kind of security, what does
it produce in the heart of his people? Does it produce rebellion? Does it produce lawlessness? Does it produce a desire to dive
head first into the wickedness of sin? Well, I'm just a sinner
anyway, I might as well go ahead and do it. I've actually heard
a lot of people say that. That's not the conversation of
a saved person. It's not the conversation of
a person who has fallen in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. Security like this in Christ
produces love. It produces thankfulness, it
produces praise, it produces worship. That kind of security
in Christ, it will cause a redeemed child of God to say, I will worship
toward thy holy temple. The holy temple is his own body,
his own being. I'll worship toward thy holy
temple. and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy
truth. For Christ's sake, for Christ's
sake, in being who you are and doing what you've done, you've
magnified Christ above all your name. And for that, we're thankful. Amen.