I remember being down in one
of the Pueblos in Mexico, and they don't have a big grand piano.
They didn't have nothing. They had a fella on a guitar
that he could not carry a tune. He wasn't even close to the key
that it should have been on. Remember that? It was that way
in several places. But those people, they'd just
sing at the top of their lungs. People that lived in grass huts,
dirt floors. They'd come riding bicycles in
the back of a pickup truck and worship the Lord. And they'd
sing at the top of their lungs with big old smiles on their
brown faces. Oh my, aren't we a blessed people. Psalm 100. Psalm 100, Make a
joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with
gladness. Come before his presence with
singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is
God. It is he that hath made us, not
we ourselves. We are his people, sheep of his
pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving. and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless
his life for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and
his truth endureth to all generations. This is a psalm or a song. This was sung. We just sang it
in paraphrase. The old 100th it's called we
sang. A song of praise it says, a psalm
of thanksgiving, joy and rejoicing. That said, I hope we will not
be able to contain ourselves. Don't you look forward to someday
worshiping without restraints? Singing without being self-conscious?
In fact, singing so loud? He says in verse 1, make a joyful
noise unto the Lord. Oh, you lay it out. Make a joyful
noise. It says this seven times in Scripture. Look back at chapter
95. I wanted to preach from this. I just kept reading and got to
Psalm 100 and quit. It says in Psalm 95, Come, let
us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to
the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalm. Look at Psalm 98. Psalm 98, verse
4. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord, all the earth. Make a loud noise and rejoice
and sing praises. Verse 6. With trumpets and sound
the cornet. Make a joyful noise before the
Lord, the King. A noise. You know, man sings his cantatas
and has his choirs. And I must admit, I listen sometimes
to these choirs, like Handel's Messiah and all that. Sometimes
I get shivers up my... When we hear the heavenly choir,
when we're part of that heavenly choir, every voice perfect, everyone
in tune, in concert, that is in perfect union, in one accord,
singing at the top of our lungs, from the bottom of our heart,
one strain, one note, one key, middle C, singing to the praise
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What will that be like? We're
going to say nobody, we've never heard anything like this. Voices
is the sound of many waters. But you know, you don't have
to carry a tune for it to be music to our Lord. In fact, like
I said, these choirs and all that, those that don't know the
Lord, it doesn't matter how beautiful they may sound to man, it's noise
in God's ears. But the gospel itself, God's
Word, God's worship, worship of God out of the mouths of babes
and settlings, though they cannot carry a tune, is music to his
ears. It's well-pleasing to God. Well-pleasing. Psalm 89 says,
Blessed are they that know the joyful sound. The message of
God's absolute sovereignty and mercy and sovereign grace and
sovereign election and predestination is noise to man. But it's music
to the ears of God's people. It's purpose, it's pardon. We
read there in Ezra 3 that, oh, they were all so happy, they
were all so glad. Listen to this. And you could
just turn anywhere, you know that? Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
Put your finger down. But it says, he said, God, the
Lord, let those that put their trust in thee rejoice. Let them
ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them. Let them also
that love thy name be joyful in thee, for thou, Lord, will
bless the righteous. Who are the righteous? Those
in Christ. It's not a righteousness which
we perform, it's what Christ did for us. You know that? You know a few people know that?
We know that. Doctrine? No. It's our joy and
rejoicing that Christ is our righteousness. Thou wilt favor
them, as Scripture says, and compass Him as with a shield. Make a joyful noise. It says
over and over again. You know the story of Rahab the
harlot? Go back, if you haven't read
that in a while, in Joshua chapter 3, and keep reading on the whole
story, where the spies, two men, were sent by God to the house
of Harlot. And she knew God. She'd heard
of Him. She feared Him. She feared Joshua. She knew Joshua was coming, who's
Jesus Christ, coming to destroy that place. And she said to those
men, would you please have mercy on me, my father, my mother,
my house, my brethren? Would you have mercy upon us?
We fear you. Would you not destroy us with
this city? We know you're going to destroy
the city. Would you have mercy upon us? And those men, through
Joshua, by command of God, said, We will. Our life for your life.
They said, Here's the token. They said, Put this scarlet line
in the window. Bind it. This scarlet line. What's that? The blood of Jesus
Christ. And they said, When we see the scarlet line, We'll bring
you and everybody in that house under that scarlet line out and
you're going to Jerusalem and you're going to be with Joshua
forever. And they did. She waited and
waited and waited and waited. They didn't tell her when they
were coming back, but she waited. And that scarlet line was on
her house. Well, lo and behold, one day
in chapter 6 of Joshua, she heard a trumpet. Loud. Seven days. Every day. The first day she
heard, could it be? Second day, could it be? Seventh
day, sister, it's Him. And Jericho was saying, what's
that noise? Tell Him to stop. Rahab said,
no, play it louder. That's my salvation. Don't holler,
preacher. No, say it louder. Joshua said
there in chapter 6, he said, when you hear the trumpet, shout. He told them before that. He
said, it's all over. It's my city. I'm taking it.
He said, it's all over but the shouting. And when you hear that
seventh trumpet shout, I'm coming to take this place. And they went in, those two men
went in and brought Rahab the harlot out and all of her house
and everybody's under that scarlet line and took her to Jerusalem
and it says she's still there right now. Make a joyful noise. Hmm. Noise to the world. Noise,
music to our ears. All ye lands, verse 1. All ye
lands. God has a people chosen, redeemed
out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. Every kindred.
Have you ever thought about that? Every family. Every tribe. Every kindred of people. Heathen. He said, ask of me,
I'll give you the heathen. Well, there's this sorry bunch
down in eastern Kentucky named Fannin. They're from Carter County,
Kentucky. Anybody know where Carter County
is? Anybody but two people in here. Where is that? It's in the mountains. It's in
the cold country of Appalachia, isn't it? Poor, poor people. Uneducated people. Everybody
in Los Angeles and Miami and New York City scoffs at Carter
County, Kentucky. God said, that's my people. Can anything good come out of
Nazareth? Jesus Christ did. Can anything
good come out of Carter County? One of God's sons did. That's my people. Franklin County, Virginia. Where
in the world is that? Oh, He lands. God has a people
out of every type, kindred, family. Verse 2 says, Serve the Lord.
Oh, make a joyful noise if you know who He is. Serve the Lord
with gladness. Come before His presence with
singing. Serve the Lord with gladness. Why are we here today? What are we doing? What am I
doing? What are you doing? Why is this church here? Why
does this building stand? What are these walls about? Serving
the Lord, His cause, His glory, His honor. This building exists
for one reason. To serve the glory of our Lord.
To serve the preaching of the gospel. So that men might, like
the serpent on the pole. That's what this building is
all about. That's what this preacher is all about. To hold up Christ.
He said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto me. That's
what this place is all about. Serve His cause. Is there not
a cause? Yes, it's one. It's one. Christ and Him crucified. Serve
Him. We serve Him with our lips. We
serve Him with our tongues. We serve Him with our heart.
We serve Him with our messages. Serve Him with praise and thanksgiving. Come before His presence with
singing. With gladness. As the Lord made
you glad through His Word. Are you glad to be here? I was
glad when they said unto me, let's go to the house of the
Lord. There was a time I wasn't glad. And my mom and my dad said,
get up son, it's time to go. I wasn't glad. And now nobody has to wake me
up. The Lord wakes me up. And I get up glad to go. There was a young preacher in
the church in Ashland, he had a young son, and the boy was
just being honest. And the preacher, he wouldn't
say, we're going to church. He said, we're going to worship
the Lord. We're going to worship the Lord. That's what we're doing.
We're not going to church. You are the church. We're going
to worship the Lord. And Wesley, he woke his son up
one morning, said, Sonny Moore, he said, we're going to worship
the Lord this morning. Your boy, about five, he said, I don't
want to go worship the Lord this morning. He's being honest. I don't know what the Lord did
to that boy. You men haven't heard from him in years. But
I sure hope that someday he wakes up and says, I want to go worship
the Lord this morning. with gladness, gladly. I was
glad when they said, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, arrest that
man. Wake him up. Quicken him by my
power, by my gospel. Make him glad through my work. Make him glad to hear it. Make
him gladder than they that when their time of their corn and
their wine increase. David said, I has put gladness
in my heart. He said, thy loving kindness
is better than wine. Meaning, there's nothing I'd
rather do, David said, than be in God's house, with God's people,
making a joyful noise. How about you? I was talking to a preacher one
time. He said, you say you can't worship without singing? No,
you can't. Throw the book away. You can't. It's part of worship. It's not
an option. It's not advice. Number one, it's for the glory
of God. What are they doing right now in heaven? What are they
doing? Singing. Everything on earth, singing.
Psalm 96, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord,
all of you. Sing unto the Lord. Good title of that would be sing,
sing, sing. Sing. Look at Psalm 98. Look at it. Verse 5. 98-4. Make a joyful noise unto
the Lord, all the earth. Make a loud noise. Rejoice and
sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with a harp,
with a harp, the voice of a song. Trumpets, sound the cornet. Make
a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar. The
sea is singing. The fullness thereof, the world,
they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands.
The floods are singing, clapping. The hills be joyful. The trees
are applauding our Lord. The birds wake up singing. How
much more should we sing? No, you can't worship the Lord
without singing. It's His glory. Sing unto the
Lord. Why are we singing? Oh, so much
going on in so-called worship. It's not unto the Lord. Brother Barnard was a man of
honesty. The Lord sent him, like John
the Baptist, to tear up religious playhouses. And he was in this
revival one time, and some young blonde-headed girl stood up with
her microphone like they do today, and she was just looking up like
that and all that, looking skyward and all that. And she had a pretty
voice, real pretty. And she quit, and Barnard got
up and said, that wasn't nothing but the flesh. And it is, isn't it? Sing unto
the Lord. If it's not unto the Lord, it's
noise to God's ears. If it is unto the Lord, if you
can't carry a tune, it's music to His ears. Let everything that
hath breath praise my Son, God said. Sing unto Him. Everything. Sing unto the Lord. Come before
His presence with singing. That's not an option. It's a
command. Who do you like to sing? You like to sing these hymns,
songs of Zion. You ever grow tired of it? Sing
a little of them. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound. Sing it. Amazing grace, how sweet
the sound. Sing! I once was lost, but now
I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. That's why we're here. How many times have we sung that
not under the law? It's not only glorifying to our
Lord, but it's good for us. He says, sing unto yourself.
Make melody in your own hearts. It's good for us. I've told you
this so many times because the scripture does. Sing, make melody
in your own hearts unto the Lord. It'll do you good. It's for God's
glory and it'll do you good. The joy of the Lord is our strength.
That's what it says. You know, sorrow and sadness
and unbelief and fear brings us down. Did you read the article
by my dad this morning? Read it. Read it. This world, unbelievers, the
world, everybody will bring you down. Oh, but God's Word, God's
Gospel will bring you up out of the miry clay, set your feet
on a rock, put a song in your heart. Sing. Serve Him. Sing. It will do you good. Do you good. Serve the Lord. Know ye, verse
3, know ye, do you know this, that the Lord is God? Do you
know how few people know that? Who does know that? His people
know that. They shall all be taught of God.
Everyone that heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me,
Christ, and great shall be the peace of His people. We know,
don't we? We know this is eternal life,
our Lord said, that they might know Thee, the only true God. Do you know how many scriptures
it says, God reigneth, Thy God reigneth, Thy God reigneth? Shout
it, He said. Lift up the voice with strength.
Lift it up. Say what? Behold your God. Now more than ever, Listen, Nebuchadnezzar
said it. He found out. His understanding
returned to him. He said, I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, his kingdom from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth
are repeated as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? That's the God that we worship. Aren't you glad? He is God. Over in Revelation it says that
people thanked God that He took to Himself that power and glory
and honor to reign, and it said the nations were angry. They didn't like it. But His
people, redeemed out of every nation, they loved to have it
so. They're so thankful. See, this
relieves us from all our fears, all our doubts, and all our worries. There is no God, Christ said,
Jesus Christ said, God said, there is no God with me. Little
G. There's nobody has reigned over
anything, not one single thing upon this earth. There's no one,
no God, no ruler, nothing but from me. I reign. Aren't you glad? Now, that ought
to make you lie down and sleep at night. That ought to make
you shout for joy if you know Him. Oh, man. He's a God. Verse 3 said, He's
made us and not we ourselves. He made us. He's our Creator. Oh, we're fearfully and wonderfully
made, aren't we? Do you not see that? Do you not
clearly see that? Why can't man see it? Huh? He's blind. God has hid these
things. How many doctors, how many physicians,
how many scientists, how many of these so-called scholars know
and believe that God made the heavens and the earth? That in
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth? And that
same God is Jesus Christ, because without Him was not anything
made. How many believe that? Do you? She's hid these things
from the wise and prudent. Revealed unto babes. Doesn't
say not any. Says not many. Some do. Luke, the beloved physician,
knew. The beloved physician was blessed to walk with God on earth. He saw His glory. Our God is He that hath made
us. That means He owns us. That means He owns us. That means
He reigns and rules over us. He can do with us as He will.
That's fine with me. Because He's too kind to do wrong.
He's too wise to do ill and too loving to hurt His people at
all. He hath made us, and not we ourselves. That not only means Creator,
but it means He hath begotten us of His own will, hath He begotten
us with the Word of Truth. People talk about free will and
accepting Jesus. No, no, no, no, no. God's people
don't talk about that. They say of His own will hath
He begotten us. It's He that hath made us His
people. It pleased the Lord to make you His people. We don't
decide to become His people. He makes us His people. Not we
ourselves. We're His people. Look at verse
3. We're His people. We belong to
Him. He said you're not your own.
You're bought with a price. I urge you to read that article
by my father. I hope every church, every person,
every believer reads it. and heeds it. We're not of this
world. We don't belong here. We're passing
through. Strangers and sojourners. We're
not of it. Don't think like it. Don't believe like they believe.
We're His people. God's people. Israel. Passing
through. Not taken up with the affairs
of this life. Not worried about who's elected
king. We know who is king. That's right. We're his people.
My dad in a message along these lines said that people, you know,
traveling through, they weren't so worried about, you know, the
things that were going on in a particular town or, you know,
the decor or this and that and the others. So they were passing
through. They weren't taken up with those things, just passing
through. They're His people. The sheep of His pasture, verse
3. The sheep of His pasture. Oh, the Lord is my shepherd.
The Lord Jehovah. The Lord God. Merciful. Gracious. The Lord Jesus Christ is my shepherd. What's that mean? It means you're
a sheep. What's a sheep? Dumb, ignorant,
helpless, prone to wander, Prayed every predator, stinking, vile
sheep. Like one of you said, if I'm
a sheep, I'm a black sheep. Well, brothers and sisters, every
one of us were until He washed us. Shepherds dip all their sheep. We're the sheep of His pasture.
What's His pasture? He maketh us to lie down in green
pasture. Restores our soul. Leads us beside
the still water. This is His pasture. You know,
I thought about this. Sheep are born in the pasture. They live in the pasture. They
eat on the pasture. They lie down in the pasture.
And you'll find one day lying dead in the pasture. And that's us. That's us. God's word, God's church. Verse
4, enter into his gates, his gates with thanksgiving. His gates, the gates of the Lord.
You know the Lord loved the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings
of Jacob. What's that? Right here. Right
here. This is, that door back there
is the sheep gate. Did you enter this place with
thanksgiving? With joy this morning? With anticipation? You prayed
for the shepherd? If you did, you'd be blessed.
Come in hungry and thirsty. Enter in His gates with thanksgiving.
Are you thankful to be here? You'll give thanks when you leave.
Thanksgiving. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving. Enter into His courts with praise. You remember this proverb that says in chapter
8, it says, is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates,
waiting at the post of my doors." Sitting, waiting, watching on
a word from the Lord. There's a sister in here, I text
everybody, 50 people, and I hear from about 6. One sister said
to me, I'm looking very much forward for what the Lord has
in store for us today. I guarantee you that person will
go away blessed. Guarantee you. Enter with thanksgiving,
with praise. Be thankful unto Him. Bless His
name. The world is cursing His name.
I hate it. Don't you? Does it hurt your
ears? Does it prick your heart? Oh,
bless His name. It hurts my ears and hurts my
heart to hear my Lord's name more than it would in Him to
call my wife's name. Call my mother's name. Call my
wife's name. Don't call my Lord's name like
this. Who made us to differ? You see? That's why we ought
to be shouting. That's why. Oh, bless His holy
name. He's revealed. He's put in me
the fear of His name. Why? Why should we bless His
name? Why should we be thankful unto
Him? Why should we come here with thanksgiving? Why should
we praise Him? Why should we sing unto Him?
Verse 5, The Lord is good. He's so good. Isn't He? One of our sisters working in
a flower shop for years and was telling one of her fellow employees
how the Lord had been good to her. And that woman said to her,
He ain't done nothing for me. Well, I'm here to tell you He's
done everything for me. The Lord's good. How good? He spared this damnable
soul from hell, made all His goodness pass before me, declared
His name unto me, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious.
He sovereignly loved me and chose me and had mercy upon me and
sent the gospel to me and sat me down and stopped my wild career
blasphemy out of my mouth, put praise in my heart. Oh, He's
so good. His mercy. Only God's people sing of His
mercy. David, one Psalm, Psalm 126,
I believe it is. Psalm 136 says it 26 times, every single verse. His mercy endures forever. The
world says, that's noise. No, it's not. It's glorious. You don't have to keep saying
that. God's people say, yes, keep saying it. It's redundant. No, it's redemption. His mercy. He said the Lord's mercy is that
we're not consumed. His mercy. That means He spared
us. Why? Because He spared not His only
Son. The world says, I don't need
mercy. Oh yes, you do. His tender mercies over all His
work. The Lord is good unto all. His tender mercies over all His
work. If we live a second on this earth in rejection of God
and without thanking God, it's mercy. Barnard used to say, anything
inside of hell is mercy. His mercy is everlasting. Aren't
you glad? We're going to be sinners till
the day we die. The thing we need more than anything
from the hands of our God is mercy. And he's so merciful. And he said, I will show mercy. and it endureth forever. And
the last line, and you know how often it talks about mercy and
truth, mercy and truth, mercy and truth, mercy and truth? Read
it. Do a word study. Mercy and truth are meant together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. It's all made
in heaven. Mercy and truth. It's of the Lord's mercy that
we're not consumed. Why? Truth came. Christ came. Truth. See, God is a God of mercy,
but He's a covenant God. He's just God, by no means clearly
guilty. Well, how can a just God justify
a sinner? How can a holy God pardon guilty
sinners? Here's the truth. Jesus Christ
came. The just for the unjust. The
righteous for the unrighteous. Made sin, we might be made righteous. God laid on Him iniquity of us
all. Covered us in His righteousness. Truth. That's the truth. And
God is a covenant God. God said this. This is the truth. This is the gospel. So help me
God. That God gave to Jesus Christ a sorry, no good, worthless black
family. And He said, you go down there
and you save every one of them. Say, do what I require of them. Do it all. They can't do it.
Pay the penalty for their sins. Go to Calvary's tree and be made
a curse for them. Blot out the handwriting of ordinances
against them. I've got to forsake you so I
won't forsake them. Will you do it? He said, I'll
do it. God said, if you do it, if you do this, I will never
charge them with one sin. I'll put away every sin from
their remembrance. I'll blot out everything that's
against them. If you do this, if you cover
them in your own blood, I'm a true God and I will not Find one sin
upon my people, I will bring them all into glory. If you do
this for them, Christ said, I'll do it. Did he? Hanging on Calvary's
tree, he said, it's finished. He made an end of transgressions.
The death of death. Stung itself to death when it
stung Christ. And he put away sin. Did he do
it? It's blasphemy to say he didn't. It's blasphemy to say
he did try it. He attempted. No, this is God's
people's cause for shouting and rejoicing. He did it. He finished
it. He accomplished it. And there
is no sin on God's people. That's the truth. That's the
truth. God will spare every single person
that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the truth. The
God of truth in that gospel has been to all generations. Same
gospel. Same gospel. The Abel herd, Adam
herd, always is irrevocable. This is the truth. Salvation
is in Jesus Christ. 100%. Okay. Let's sing.