Go back with me, if you would,
to Psalm 95. Psalm 95. My prayer for tonight
is that we might all be able to do this together. Psalm 95
verse six. Oh, come let us worship and bow
down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our maker. That's all I want to do. That
is all I want to do. I was thinking about how the
apostle Paul said that his great concern was that men and women
might lose sight of the simplicity that is in Christ, the simplicity. And if the Lord God does not
do this for a sinner, it's impossible for a sinner to do this. With
man, it's impossible. But if he would enable us to
do this, there is nothing simpler than bowing down, kneeling down, Worshiping the Lord, our maker. And I just want to do that. I
pray that the Lord might just let us in our hearts. Bow before him, kneel before
him, worship him, just worship him. If we could do that. my soul would be fed. The songs
that we just sang, I really enjoyed those songs. And in my heart,
I was singing those words and I feel fed. If we can worship
Him, if we can really just for one brief moment shut down all
the distractions of life and the world and sin and the flesh. God's going to have to do it.
But if he will bring us together, sit us down, clothe us in his
spirit, put us in our right minds for just a second. then we'll
worship Him. Oh, we'll glorify Him. We will
thank Him for wearing that thorn crown on His brow and say, oh,
I love you. Every time I get a chance to
see that, I love you for wearing that crown on your brow. If we
can worship Him, if we really can bow down, we'll be fed. We will all be fed. Our souls
will be fed, our hearts will be happy. I pray we might all
walk out of here happy tonight. Fed and happy, full and happy. Just like Isaiah 55 says, let
thy soul delight itself in fatness. The word kneel in verse six means
delight. When you look up these words,
it was interesting to me. I get the concordance out and
look up these words and, and, uh, worship means bow down. He said, Oh, come let us worship
and bow down. Let us kneel. Worship, bow down,
kneel. Worship means bow down. Bow down means kneel. Kneel means adore, bless, delight
in. Let us adore Him. Let us bless
Him. Let us delight in Him. That's
what glory is gonna be. That's glory right now. Every time we're doing that,
we're in glory. Every time our hearts are Delighting in him. Nothing. I'm telling you, nothing
sounds better to me than that right there. Nothing sounds better. When I started preparing this
message that, uh, I was reading and that scripture grabbed me.
And, uh, I immediately thought that's Wednesday night's message.
And if the Lord would let me do that, I would be a happy man. Nothing sounds better than that.
I just want to adore him. I just want to delight in him. Adore, the word adore means to
deeply love and admire and desire. Delight means to take great pleasure
in. You know, a lot of people don't
take great pleasure in this. They don't take great pleasure
in the Word. They don't take pleasure in the
Word. They don't take pleasure in worship
and in bowing down. What a blessed people we are.
If we have been given the ability to adore Him and delight in Him,
Look with me if you would at Psalm 37. Psalm 37 verse 1 says,
fret not thyself because of evildoers. Neither be thou envious against
the workers of iniquity." And I just want to say that we all
fall into that category as much as anybody else. Don't fret over
what you see in yourself. That's what he's saying. For
they shall soon be cut down like the grass. Aren't you looking
forward to the day that this sinful flesh is cut down like
the grass? They'll be cut down like the
grass and withers the green herb. Verse three says, trust in the
Lord and do good. What is good? Trusting in the
Lord. So shalt thou dwell in the land
and verily thou shalt be fed. Verse four says, delight thyself
also in the Lord. Just delight in the Lord, just
trust him. delight in Him, and He shall
give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the
Lord." Just cast your all on Him. Trust also in Him. Verse 3, He said, trust Him.
Verse 5, He said, trust Him too. Trust also in Him. And He shall
bring it to pass. Verse six, and he shall bring
forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the
noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for him. Fret not thyself because of him
who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked
devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake
wrath, fret not thyself in any wise to do evil for evildoers
shall be cut off but those that wait upon the Lord they shall
inherit the earth for yet a little while and the wicked shall not
be yea thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall
not be Watch verse 11, but the meek shall inherit the earth
and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. He said, don't fret, just delight. Delight yourself in the Lord.
Delight yourself in His righteousness, who is a person. Delight yourself
in His rest, who is a person. Delight yourself in His peace,
who is a person. Christ our righteousness, Christ
our rest, Christ our peace. The longer we go, the more that
that's gonna be proven to us. Christ is our righteousness.
This wicked flesh is good for nothing but to be cut down. This
evil doer right here needs to be cut down. This is the man who is prevailing, but he said the Lord's gonna
take care of him. And the Lord is our righteousness, the Lord
is our rest, the Lord is our peace. The righteousness that
he's given to us, the rest he earned for us, the peace he accomplished
with God, with sin, with judgment, with death, with our souls. He
did every bit of that with His blood. And He says, David says,
we all say, just adore it. Just adore it. Delight in it. Just delight in Him. Delight in His blood. Delight
in His work. Delight in His will. Delight
in who He is. Delight in what He did. Delight
in why He did it. That He might bring us to be
with Him. Look with me at Psalm 94, the psalm just before our
text here. You'll see why I'm reading this
in just a minute. Psalm 94 verse 1 says, Oh Lord God, to whom vengeance
belongeth. Oh God, to whom vengeance belongeth,
show thyself. Lift up thyself, thou judge of
the earth. Render a reward to the proud. Lord, how long shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked triumph? How long shall they utter and
speak hard things, and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? They break in pieces thy people,
O Lord, and afflict thine heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger
and murder the fatherless. Yet they say the Lord shall not
see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Understand ye
brutish among the people and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall
he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall
he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen,
shall he not correct? He that teacheth man knowledge,
shall he not know? The Lord knoweth the thoughts
of man, that they are vanity. How do you know all this, David?
How do you know that's the truth concerning man? How many times
has David said in this word, that's me. I know all this about
sinful man because I'm one of them. I'm a sinful man. Oh, how wicked I am. You think about Psalm 51. How
rebellious I am, how foolish. That's what David said about
himself. Oh, how foolish I was. If God did not show grace and
mercy to me through the blood of my savior, his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, I would have stayed right there in the hardness of
my rebellious, sinful heart against him. But this is what David said
in another Psalm. He said, I was a sheep going
astray, but though I was as a sheep going astray, he called me to
be one of his own. The Lord is my shepherd and I'm
not going to want. Bless the Lord for that. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his
holy name. Verse 12 right here, he said, Blessed is the man whom
the Lord chastenest. O Lord, and teachest him out
of thy law, that thou mayest give him rest from the days of
adversity until the pit be digged for the wicked. For the Lord
will not cast off his people Neither will he forsake his inheritance. You talk about something worth
adoring. The Lord will not cast off his
people. Neither will he forsake his inheritance.
He made a covenant and he's going to keep it. Verse 15, but judgment
shall return unto righteousness and all the upright in heart
shall follow it. Who will rise up for me against
the evildoers? Or who will stand up for me against
the workers of iniquity? Verse 17, he said, unless the
Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.
When I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy, oh Lord, help me up.
When I said my foot is slipping, I'm going down. He said, your
mercy is what was holding me up. Verse 19, in the multitude
of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul. David said, you chastened us,
you taught us, you gave us rest, you kept us, you didn't forsake
us, you brought judgment to us in righteousness, in Christ,
and you drew us to follow you. He said, you are our help. Your mercy has held us up and
your comfort has delighted our souls. Oh, come, let us worship
and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our maker. It's good news, good news, good
news, good news. All that bad news is about me.
It's about what I've done. All that good news is about him
and what he's done in spite of me. That verse that is our text,
that's about the only appropriate response that there is to seeing
these absolutely wonderful things that the Lord has done for us.
Let us worship Him. Let us bow down and let us kneel. Oh, come let us adore Him, Christ
the Lord. Look at our text here, Psalm
95, verse one says, Oh come, let us sing unto the
Lord. Let us make a joyful noise unto
the rock of our salvation. Let us make a joyful noise to
the rock of our salvation. I love that verse that says,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Let me rejoice in Him. When you need a sure foundation,
it sure is nice to see the rock that is higher than I. When the
billows are coming and you're overwhelmed, lead me to the rock
that's higher than I. That's that's the response of
an adoring, delighted heart. Let me rejoice. Let me make a
joyful noise to the rock of my salvation. Verse two says, let
us come before his presence with thanksgiving. and make a joyful
noise unto him with psalms. Let us give thanks. Let us sing
to him. You know, it's, I love singing. I love music. I love singing.
And I love the fact that the Lord created it. The Lord took part in it. And
heaven is filled with it. We're going to sing. We're going
to give it. We're going to give thanks for
all eternity. We are going to give thanks for
all eternity. Verse three says, for the Lord
is a great God and a great King above all gods. This is worthy
of, this is our adoration. He's a great God. We're going
to be saying that for all eternity. What a great Who is the great God? The great King is the great God. Who is the great King? Jesus
Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. Pilate, I love whenever he was
standing before Pilate in total control. You know, they laid
hands on him because that's what His counsel predetermined for
it to be done. They beat him and spit on him
and pulled his beard and struck him with a rod because that's
what his counsel predetermined for it to be done. That's what
he recorded in his word would be done. And he is standing there
being interrogated by Pilate and Pilate asked him, he said,
so are you a king then? And our Lord's response was,
you said it. Thou sayest it. I love Psalm 24, which cries
to the gates of heaven. You think about this. Psalm 24
cries to the gates of heaven. It says, lift up your heads,
O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the
King of glory shall come in. Be looking, be ready. Who is this King of Glory? The
Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, strong and mighty in battle,
He is the King of Glory. I don't know, I don't know if
we'll ever really do any adoring, any true, have any true adoration
down here in this sinful, hard, stale, ruined, wicked flesh,
but can you imagine in that day? seeing the King of Glory. I want
to watch Him. I want to adore Him and delight
in watching Him walk through the everlasting doors. I want
to delight in Him ascending to His throne. I want to watch Him
sit there. Whatever it is He does, it's going to be glorious. Oh come, let us adore Him. Let
us bless Him. Let us delight ourselves in Him.
Verse 3 right here says, For the Lord is a great God and a
great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places
of the earth. The strength of the hills is
His also. The sea is His and He made it. and his hands formed the dry
land. He made it, he owns it, it all
belongs to him. He made us, he owns us, we belong
to him. Verse six says, oh, come, let
us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our maker. For he is our God and we are
the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. He is
worthy of our love. He's worthy of our thankfulness.
He's worthy of our adoration. He's worthy of all of our adoring
of him because he is our God. He is the God who saved us. He saved us from ourselves. You
just think about that for one minute. He saved us from ourselves. He saved us from our blatant
disobedience, all of our sin against Him. And then not only
did He save us, but He became the shepherd over us to lead
us and to feed us and to keep us, protect us. What a great God, great King
and a great God. Now, from this point on these
remaining words, these are the words of our Lord's command to
his people, which command commandment they broke. We broke which command. All right. This is what we broke. Verse seven goes on to say, this
is the Lord speaking today. If you will hear his voice, harden,
not your heart. This is what makes everything
worth such worthy of adoration, such worthy of praise, such worthy
of glory. And he said, harden, not your
heart. As in the provocation, that time of provoking. And as
in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers
tempted me, proved me and saw my work 40 years long was I grieved
with this generation and said, it is a people that do air in
their heart and they have not known my ways. Who does that
sound like? He's describing. Ered in their heart, not known
my ways, verse 11, unto whom I swear in my wrath that they
should not enter into my rest. You know what the wages of sin
is? Death, being cast out. You know what Christ did for
us? He died for us. He was cast out, separated from
God. David is saying, and all of God's
people say, had the Lord not been merciful to us. All we have
to do is just look at one commandment from Him. He said, don't harden
your heart. Don't err from my ways. That's all we've done. That's all I have done is harden
my heart. Tempted Him, provoked Him, erred
from His way. Oh, if the Lord had not been
merciful to us, had the Lord not helped us and been gracious
to us. And had he not judged us in his
own righteousness, judged us in Christ. I read that. I know we all do. We read that
and we think I'm condemned. I'm condemned. Had he judged
us in our own work? our own sin, we would have been
just like every other soul that's gonna go down to the pit. Thank
God for the rock of our salvation. Thank God for the blood of our
savior, our shepherd, our king. Let's just worship him. Let's
bow down before Him. Let's adore Him. Let's delight
ourselves in Him. Him. If we're going to adore
Him, then it all has to be about Him. All has to be about Him. We know He's the Savior, but
why is He our Savior? Because Christ came. When those angels announced His
birth, they said, unto you is born this day a Savior. Glory to God in the highest.
Praise, honor. We know He is the King, but why
is He our King? Because Christ came. Those wise
men, they came saying, where is he that is born king, born
into this world, our king? We've come to adore him, bow
down to him, and that's what they came to do, isn't it? Adore
him, bow down and worship him. We know that he is the shepherd,
but why is he our shepherd? It's because Christ came. He came to be our sacrificed
lamb so that we could be his sheep. Behold, adore, bow down
before, worship the great shepherd who made himself to be the Lamb
of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. Verse six says,
oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before
the Lord, our maker. For He is our God and we are
the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. I know
I quote this quite often, but to me, this is adoring. This
is adoring. I love that song or that poem
or whatever it is that says, could we with ink the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment
made? Were every stalk on earth a quill? and every man a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the
whole, though stretched from sky to sky." Just adoring, adoration,
praise, worship. This adoring, this adoration,
this deep love and desire that we have to bow down before Him
and worship Him. If we have that desire right
now, if God has given that desire to us right now, we're going
to carry that with us for all eternity. We'll have it for all
eternity. Go with me if you would to Revelation
chapter 7. Revelation 7, verse 9, after this I beheld in low a
great multitude which no man could of all nations and kindreds
and people and tongues stood before the throne and before
the Lamb." The throne and the Lamb, the King and the sacrifice. Clothed with white robes and
palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice saying, salvation
to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb.
God, King, Savior. Verse 11, and all the angels
stood round about the throne and about the elders and the
four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped
God. They fell down on their faces.
They bowed down. and worshiped God. Verse 12,
saying, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and
honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever,
amen. And one of the elders answered,
saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes?
And whence came they? And I said unto him, sir, thou
knowest. And he said to me, these are
they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore,
and I love that word right there, therefore, because of the blood
of that Lamb, because of that washing and that cleansing and
everything Christ did for them. Verse 15 says, therefore, are
they before the throne of God. And they serve Him day and night
in His temple because He did that for them. That's what made
them worthy and acceptable to even be before the throne of
God. And because He did that for them,
they love Him so much and they adore Him so much, they don't
want to leave the throne of God. They want to stand before the
throne day and night, worshiping Him, worshiping Him. And that adoration is never going
to go away. They're going to bow down, they're going to kneel,
they're going to worship Him forever. Verse 15 goes on to
say, And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more. Neither shall the sun light on
them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto
living fountains of water, and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes." Honestly, this is the only response I know to
have to all that. Oh come, let us worship, and
bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker. May the Lord
let us do that. May the Lord let us do that in
heart, soul, and every fiber of our being as often as He'll
let us do that. Now, I know that the traditional
time to sing this song is over, but I believe this is about the
most appropriate song to end with. Stand with me, if you would,
and turn to hymn number 100.