Alright, good evening. Let's
look back at the end of the Psalms. Let's look at the next Psalm.
He read the 99th Psalm. Let's look at Psalm 100 this
evening. The 100th Psalm. And this is
a Psalm of thanksgiving. Of thanksgiving. It just seems fitting that we
should talk about Thanksgiving this evening, since everybody's
going to be giving thanks tomorrow, at least I hope everybody gives
thanks tomorrow. It is a day of thanksgiving,
and we give thanks to the Lord that we can meet together this
evening. We give thanks that we know Him, that one whom to
know is life everlasting. We give thanks that He's revealed
Himself to us. So, this is a great psalm, and
I know you've read this often. but it is a psalm that bears
repeating, and it is the 100th psalm. Actually, we should never
say this is chapter 100 in the psalms, for there are no chapters
in the psalms. Each one stands alone. So we'll look at this one, the
Psalm of Thanksgiving. It is said that this was a psalm
the Jews sang after their peace offerings. As you've studied,
I'm sure, in the book of Leviticus, the Lord gave different offerings
for Israel. The very basis of their worship,
that was the burnt offering. God said to them, if you're going
to worship me, You worship me at the brazen altar by means
of a burnt offering." Now, an Israelite, if they wanted to
worship the Lord, they could bring a bullock, they could bring
a sheep, they could bring a goat, or if they were very poor, they
could bring one of the fowl, that is a pigeon or a turtle
dove. depending on your income, how
much money you had. If you had a lot of money, you
brought a bullock. If you didn't have so much money,
you brought a sheep or a goat, or you brought one of the fowls
if you were one of the very poor. But whatever you brought, it
had to be the best. Because it pictured our Lord
Jesus, the bullock, The bullock was brought as an animal of strength. That's our Lord Jesus. Full of
strength. Full of power. Full of authority. He's great and glorious in all
that He does and He'll never be a failure because He has all
power to do the things that He came into the world to do and
to do everything that He's doing right now. He is the mighty bullock. He's full of strength. He's full
of power. He's full of authority. Therefore,
the Lord said, if you're going to bring an offering to Me, if
you're going to bring a burnt offering, you can bring a bullock,
because that sets forth My Son in His strength. Or you could
bring a sheep. That sets forth our Lord's lowliness. It sets forth His innocence.
He's the sinless one. In Him is no sin. He did no sin in this world. And then you could bring a goat.
That was an unusual sacrifice. Because we know the Lord has
His sheep and He has His goats. In the final judgment day, He'll
set the sheep on His right hand. These are the objects of His
love and His affection. Those that He saves with an everlasting
salvation, whereas the goats are those that are despised by
the Lord, those that are hated by the Lord, those who are unaccepted
by the Lord. the goats. So when we think of
the goats, we think of that which is unacceptable to God. That
which is rejected. Our Lord, in giving instructions
to the Israelites, He said, you can bring a goat. Well, in what
way does that picture our Lord Jesus? He's despised. He's rejected of men. And he's
associated with sinners. He made himself of no reputation. In fact, he took upon himself
the form of a servant. Yes, a sinless servant, but nevertheless
a servant, so that he looked as though he was just one of
the multitude. The Lord said you can bring a
goat. Or, you could bring one of the
fowls. That shows our Lord's meekness. And again, His lowliness. But
this was the very basis of their worship, wasn't it? Bringing
in a burnt offering to the brazen altar. The brazen altar was made
of shidom wood, overlaid with brass. so it could not be destroyed. And whenever an Israelite wanted
to worship the Lord, he brought this offering to God. He drew
near to the Lord, but only on the basis of this offering for
his sin. Now we know that God demanded
that the burnt offering be offered every day in the morning and
in the evening. But if an Israelite wanted to
worship God himself or herself, they brought one of these offerings.
And we know this set forth the sacrificial death of our Lord
Jesus. And that's the way we come to
God. Only by the blood. Only by the
sacrifice of Christ Jesus. But after they had offered this
burnt offering, then they offered what's known as the peace offering. It is said this Psalm 100, they
sang this after they offered their peace offering. But remember
this, all of the peace offerings that they offered were never
offered unless a burnt offering had been offered first. It was
never the other way around. They didn't offer a peace offering
first, and then a burnt offering. They offered the burnt offering.
That's the very basis of drawing near to God. And on the basis
of having offered that offering, then they offered a peace offering.
What did it signify? It signified peace had been made
with God. You see, our Lord Jesus, He offered
to God the sacrifice God demanded that would put away our sins. And therefore, we have peace
with God. In other words, there is no peace
unless there is a sacrifice. There is no peace for you and
me between us and a holy God. And you read in the Scriptures,
there are several times in Psalm 99, the Lord is holy. There can
be no peace between a fallen rebel and a holy God without
a sacrifice. But on the basis of a sacrifice
that's already been offered, we do have peace with God. In
fact, our Lord Jesus made peace by the very blood of His cross. So when the Israelites had offered
their burnt offering, whatever it was, then they offered their
peace offerings. And after they offered their
peace offerings, they sang this psalm. how joyful they were. Oh, how filled with gratitude
they were. For God had accepted the sacrifice. And then they had offered to
Him their peace offerings. And they rejoiced, knowing that
a holy God had been appeased, at least for a little while,
by that sacrifice. And every one of those set forth
our Lord's substitutionary work. And that's how we have peace
with God. There is no peace with God any
other way. He had to make the peace. He
had to establish peace. And listen, it has been made,
hasn't it? It has been made. It wasn't that
He had made an attempt to so that we'd have peace with God.
But He actually obtained it. The Scripture says in Hebrews
chapter 9, He obtained eternal redemption for us. It's ours. It's ours through Christ Jesus. And we have peace with God. And
on the basis of that peace, we sing this psalm. You know, tomorrow being Thanksgiving,
I do hope everybody expresses thanksgiving to God. We know
everybody doesn't. But there is a people in this
world that is a grateful people. There are some people in this
world whose hearts overflow with gratitude because we know our
God is satisfied with the death of His Son, and therefore He's
satisfied with us, because He died for us, and He arose for
us. Notice what the psalm says. Look
at verse 1. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord. Now, that doesn't mean make a
joyful racket. It doesn't mean, you know I've
had people say this, well, you know I can't sing preacher, but
I can make a joyful noise. In other words, I can, I may
sing off, out of tune or off key, but I'll just lift up my
voice and I'll sing every high it comes out. That's not what
the word means. It doesn't mean just sing loud.
And it doesn't mean just sing anyway, even though you can't
carry a tune. It has the meaning of shouting
with triumphant joy. Look up the word. Delightful
joy. The word noise signifies a glad
shout. such as loyal subjects give when
their king appears before them. It means shout to the Lord His
praise. In old times, whenever the king
took possession of his throne, And he walked up before the people
and he sat down. Then they made a glad noise,
a joyful noise unto the king, thankful that he was on the throne,
thankful that the kingdom was under his rule. This is what
the word means here. We're thankful the kingdoms of
the earth are under the authority of our Christ. He Himself has
earned the right to rule the world in righteousness and in
judgment by virtue of His successful work upon the cross. And our
King has gone back to glory. And He's been exalted. And we
make a joyful noise under the King who has been seated at the
right hand of the Majesty on High because He finished the
work the Father gave Him to do. Oh, how reassuring it is to us
that there sits in glory our King and He reigns, He governs
all things to fulfill His eternal purpose and for the good of all
of His people. He's gone back to glory and He
sat down and we make a joyful noise. We make a joyful noise. Watch it. Make a joyful noise. He doesn't ask us to, He commands
us to. And yet we're delighted to do
it. Aren't you delighted to make
a joyful noise unto the Lord? This is not a thing of drudgery.
This is not something we dread doing. This is not labor. This is a joyful employment. This is delightful work. Nobody
put a gun to our heads and said, well, you've got to go to church
tonight. You've got to sing the song. You've got to enter into
reading the Scripture. You must listen to the Word of
God as it's proclaimed. Oh no, this is delightful work,
isn't it? We're here because we want to
be. We're here because the Lord has redeemed us. And we want
to thank Him. We want to praise Him. We want
to meet together as a congregation and unite our hearts and unite
our minds and unite our voices in worship and praise and adoration
to our God. It's delightful work. Make a
joyful noise unto the Lord. Unto the Lord. He deserves it. He's worthy. And notice He says, make a joyful
noise unto the Lord all ye lands. In other words, not just Israel.
This is not just for the Jews. This is all ye lands. This is
both Jewish believers and Gentile believers as well. Let all the
people of God, and I'll tell you, He has a people from every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. elected unto salvation before
the world began, redeemed by the blood of the land, regenerated
by the Spirit of God, and He says to all of God's elect, He
says to all of God's people, make a joyful noise unto the
Lord, all ye lands. Let the islands praise the Lord
for His great work of salvation. Let us praise Him as the angels
did at His birth. They said, glory to God in the
highest and on earth peace, good will toward men. Let us bless
Him as those who loved Him did when He made His triumphant entry. They said, blessed be the King
that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory
in the highest. And the Pharisees said to those
who were singing his praises, you need to shut up. In fact,
they said to the Master, why don't you cause these people
to be quiet? He said, if they should be quiet,
I'll raise up stones to sing my praises. Stones to sing my
praises. At His ascension, we find His
disciples rejoicing in Him and worshipping Him. And at His second
coming, we'll still be worshipping Him and rejoicing in Him, making
a joyful noise unto Him. What are the saints in glory
doing right now? Do you know what they're doing? They're doing just exactly what
we're doing but to perfection. See, we rejoice in the Lord,
so are they. We're worshiping the Lord, so
are they. We delight ourselves in the Lord,
so are they. Only theirs is a sinless worship. Ours? You and I both know it's pretty
frail and pretty feeble. And we weep over the sinfulness
of our thanksgiving and our gratitude. But really, we're still singing
the same songs of Zion that they're singing in glory. You see, I
think a lot of people believe that there's going to be some
drastic difference between what we do on earth and what we do
in heaven. Listen. He that is just, let
him be just still. He that is righteous, let him
be righteous still. Those that sing of the blood
here will sing of the blood there. Those that love salvation by
grace here, they'll love salvation by grace there. There's not going
to be a big change in that sense. We'll have the same theme, the
same story, the same gospel, the same Christ, the same blood,
the same righteousness, the same grace. So make a joyful noise unto the
Lord. Worship Him. Bless His name,
all ye lands. Let our service to the Lord be
rendered with joy and gladness. Look at the second verse. He
says, serve the Lord, worship the Lord, reverence the Lord
with gladness. With gladness and come before
His presence with singing. that we don't come before the
Lord with a slavish fear? Under the spirit of bondage as
the Jews did under the old covenant? Let us joyfully serve Him. Not
in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the Spirit.
With spiritual joy and freedom as under the spirit of adoption.
Let us serve Him readily. and willingly and cheerfully. He's our Lord. He's our Redeemer. He's our Beloved. Therefore,
He's to be served. He's gracious and He's forgiving. Therefore, He's to be served
with gladness. With gladness. yourself in the Lord. What an honor it is to worship
Him. What a blessing it is to be able
to gather together. A group of fallen sinners, we
fell in Adam, and yet the Lord has lifted us up. He's lifted
us up from the miry clay. He set our feet on a rock. He
taught us the gospel. He didn't leave us in our darkness.
He didn't leave us in our deadness. He didn't leave us in our blindness.
He didn't leave us in our deafness. He ministered to our souls. He
used the word of the gospel. And by His Spirit, He quickened
us. He raised us up from the sleep
of death and made us alive. And now we worship Him and we
adore Him. All that we are and all that
we ever hoped to be, we owe to Him. Serve Him with gladness. With
gladness. And when you come before His
presence, do so with singing. Well, what is the song that we
sing? It's the song of redemption. It's the song of Miriam. It's
the song of Moses and of the children of Israel. It's the
song that the Lord brought us out of our bondage. The Lord
brought us out of our captivity. When we could do nothing to relieve
our misery, He came to our rescue. And He has saved us. He has raised
us up by the death of the Lamb, by the blood of the Lamb. He
has redeemed us and He says, when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And Moses and the children of
Israel, after they went out of Egypt, they sang to the Lord. So we
sing. We come before His presence with
singing. I'll tell you, we delight in
the service of the Lord and of the singing of His praises. And we do it, well, we do it voluntarily, don't
we? I'm not saying we have a free
will. But I'm saying, having been made willing in the day
of His power, we want to delight ourselves. We want to praise
Him. We want to honor Him. One writer
said, I read this today, he said, that obedience which is not voluntary
and from the heart, and which is not rendered according to
the truth, is disobedience. It's a good statement. Let me
read it again. That obedience which is not voluntary
and from the heart and rendered according to the truth is disobedience. We serve the Lord with cheerfulness from our hearts according to
the truth. I'll tell you, if a man doesn't
want to be in the military, and he has to be drafted, and then
when fighting erupts, he has to be forced into battle, you
wouldn't call him a patriot, would you? But that one who marches into
battle with flashing eyes and a beaming face, Saying, I fight
for the liberty that I hold dear. I fight for my country. That
man shows his true patriotism. We delightfully serve the Lord. We're glad to do it. Glad to
do it. One writer said, gladness and
cheerfulness is the remover of the difficulties. The service of the Lord is not
a drudgery. The psalmist put it this way,
I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of
the Lord. I was glad. I was glad. The people of the world think
that we're slaves to our religion. This is not slavery. This is
real freedom. This is real freedom. We're free
to worship the Lord. We've been set free. We were
in the cage and the Lord has not only opened the door, but
by His omnipotent, effectual hand, He's brought us forth into
the glorious liberty of the gospel. We sing His praises. We do so
gladly. Look at verse 3. Know ye that
the Lord, He is God. I like that. Know ye that the
Lord, He is God. Idols are not gods. Why, they
are the inventions of men's imaginations. But know that the Lord, Jehovah
Jesus, our Savior, He is God. Know... Know ye that the Lord
He is God. Ours is a worship of intelligence,
not ignorance. I know that it's just not what
you know, it is who you know. But it's also what you know about
the one who you do know. Isn't that right? It's not a
worship of ignorance. We know something about God,
as we read in the 99th Psalm, for He is holy. And in the light of His holiness,
we've been instructed what we are, of our own sinfulness, of
our own neediness, of our own unfitness to draw near to God. And we've been instructed concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, the necessity of His work of reconciliation. It isn't that we're experts on
God, but we're not ignorant of God either. Know ye, know ye that the Lord
is God. What is that the old Greek maxim
and about eight or maybe eight or nine or ten different Greek
philosophers accredited with saying this? Man, know thyself. I'll tell you what's much more
vital. Know thy God. And really, it's only as you
know your God that you will know yourself. It's only in the light
of who God is that we will see ourselves as being the needy
creatures that we are. So it says, know ye, know ye
that the Lord, He is God. The next phrase, it is He that
hath made us, not we ourselves. Well, we didn't make ourselves
physically, He made us physically. And we didn't make ourselves
spiritually either, He makes us spiritually. Or by grace are you saved through
faith? And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
We're God's creation. We've been made anew. We've been
made alive. By His grace. By His power. It is He that hath made us, and
not we ourselves. Look at the next expression.
We are His people. Oh, I like that. We are His people. He'll never forget His people. We used to say, back in Virginia,
of our family, we'd say, now that's my people there. That's
my people. And the Lord says, you're my
people. You're my people. In fact, Christ
Jesus came into the world to save His people from their sins. We're His people. Well, how did
we ever come to be His people? Well, by covenant grace, we're
His people. By the fact that He paid the
price of our redemption, we're His people. He bought us. We're
His people in that He regenerated us. And we're His people by the
voluntary faith that He gave us. We're His people. And what's
this? And the sheep of His pasture.
We're His sheep. And if we're his sheep, that
means he's the shepherd. He's our shepherd. The sheep of his pasture, which
means he feeds us. He nourishes us. He takes care of every need that
we have. There is no need that you as a child of God have, but
what the shepherd doesn't take care of. Long ago before the world was
made, He made provision for every need you would ever have. We are His people. The sheep
of His pasture. Now all of that being so, look
at the next phrase. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving. When you draw near to the Lord,
do so with thanksgiving. And into His courts you do so
with praise. And by the way, when you do enter
into His courts and when you do enter into His gates, you
can do so boldly. You know what it says in Hebrews
chapter 4? Come boldly to the throne of
grace. Be thankful unto Him. Be thankful
unto Him. Bless His name. I remember when Nancy's daddy, he would lead us in prayer at
the dinner table every Sunday. And he would say, I have more
blessings than one man can give thanks for. I have more blessings than one
man can give thanks for." Isn't that your testimony too? We used
to sing that song years ago, count your many blessings, name
them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God has done. Can you ever list them all? No you can't, because you have
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And you
know what? You were blessed with those before
the world was made in Christ Jesus. And the fact that God has given
Him to you and to me, means that we have everything because He
is the reservoir of every good thing that God can ever give
a sinner. And so the Apostle Paul says,
thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. If you have Christ Jesus,
you got everything that God Almighty can give to any sinner. That's why there are not different
degrees of heaven, different levels of glory, because we all
have Christ Jesus. And having Christ Jesus, we have
all things. Bless His name. Eulogize His
name. Look at verse 5. For, or here's the reason, the
Lord is good. The Lord is good. Every once in a while, somebody
will ask me to pray for somebody in the family who's sick. And
the Lord will be pleased to raise them up. They'll give me a phone
call or maybe I'll call them. I'll see them in church service
and they'll say, oh preacher, the Lord healed my dad. The Lord
sure is good. Yes he is. But he's always good. He's good when he heals. He's good when he doesn't heal.
Isn't that right? Oh Lord, pray that the Lord will
spare my loved one from death. And the Lord raises him up and
says, the Lord's so good, Yep, He's good when He raises
them up from the verge of death. But He's also good when death
comes a-calling. He's always good. Because you
see, the Lord can be nothing but good. He is good. Everything He does is good because
He is good. The Lord is good. He's always
good. Well, what about His mercy? Well, it's everlasting. Never
had a beginning, will never have an end. It will never cease. Well, what about His truth? What
about His Word? What about His Gospel? This Gospel
that we love? This Gospel that God has set
deep within us, so that we know the Gospel, and we embrace the
Gospel, and we love the Gospel of sovereign grace, of substitution
and satisfaction? The Gospel of the sin offering? The Gospel of effectual grace? What about this Gospel? Wonder
how long it will last? Well, it will endure to all generations. In other words, it will never
cease to be. Because God has a people in this
world. And this gospel that we preach
tonight, if there is a next generation, if there are more people to be
born and grow up in this world, That truth will endure to that
generation. And if that generation, if that
one begats another generation and time goes on, God's truth
will endure to that generation as well, won't it? This truth
will endure to all generations because the Lord has His people
and they must hear the truth. They must be confronted with
this gospel. And not only must they be, they
will be. They will be. Be thankful. Be thankful. Give thanksgiving. Oh, how good
the Lord is. Oh, how merciful He is to us. And this gospel, it will endure
When you and I are dead and gone, this gospel will keep on going. It will. The Lord said, of the
heaven and the earth, He said, it will pass away. But not My
Word. It just keeps on enduring. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. Alright, let's sing a closing
song. What number have you got?