The name of the message is Praise
God's Power. Praise God's Power. Open your
Bible to Psalm 21. We'll read one verse for this message, which
will be verse 13. This is a Psalm of David, and
he writes here by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God in
verse 13 in the whole Psalm, in all the Psalms. He says, be
thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength. So will we sing
and praise thy power. Now, let we who are the redeemed
of the Lord think back on the fact that before we were born
again by the Holy Spirit of God and given faith to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, we had absolutely no desire to sing
praises unto God. Actually, it was probably one
of the last things that would have entered our minds. We had no desire to sing praises
to God the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. We had no desire
to thank Him for His goodness and His mercy. That was the last
thing on our minds, but what a mighty work the Lord has done. What a mighty work of grace our
great God has done for us and in us. As we who are the born-again,
blood-washed saints of God, now we love to sing praises to our
God. We love to sing to him and thank him in song for the wondrous
things that he's done. And this is true of all born-again
Baudouin saints. We love to sing and praise our
God for all his attributes. We praise him for the fact that
he is the one true living God. We praise him for the fact that
he's holy and righteous. And we marvel that God himself
who's overall has loved us with an everlasting love in Christ.
And we're not ashamed to mention our great God or proclaim God's
attributes. Rather, we rejoice in each of
his perfections, don't we? We've been showing our own imperfection
and we rejoice in the perfections of God. And David here mentions
God's power as the subject of praise. Subject of praise, let's
read that again. Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine
own strength. So will we sing and praise thy
power. My, praise our great God for
the fact that he is sovereign over everything. He has all power
over everything, visible and invisible. Things we see and
things we don't see. He has all power. There's never
been a time when our King isn't in power. Never. And there never will be, beloved.
There never will be. And David here mentions God's
power as a subject of praise. He marvels at the fact that our
great God is sovereign. I was thinking this today. Someone
said to me today, they said, well, the word sovereign's not
in the Bible. And so I was pondering that afterwards,
and I thought, well, Christ is called King of Kings, right?
What's a king? He's a sovereign, isn't he? Wow. The Bible tells us God's
sovereign, doesn't it? It sure does, beloved. It sure
does. Oh my. Now in our lives here,
we'll have times of mourning, but we see in this verse that
when we think about God's almighty power, it will cause us to sing. It'll cause us to sing praises
to his name. And our great God and King, beloved,
is our divine helper. Let us never forget that. God
is for us. Let us never forget that. God
is for us. He's for his people, right? Who will lay any charge to God's
elect? It's God to justify it. God's for us. He's our helper,
beloved. Let us ever remember that. So let us keep our hearts
and minds upon Christ. And you know what? Keeping our
hearts and minds upon Christ, which is something we have to
do all the time. As Jotaro once said, it's the
hardest thing for us to enter into the rest of Christ, which
is just looking at him. But when we do that, our hearts
will be filled with joy. and all the attributes of God
are fit and subjects to be praised and are to be celebrated by the
music of our hearts and our voices. When we observe a display of
his power in our lives, something happened this week with Vicki
and I, and we were praising God for what he did. It was amazing. At first, we didn't understand
what was happening, and then he worked it all out, and we
ended up praising his mighty name, didn't we, hon? It was
amazing. And He's so good. How many times
has that happened? Our souls return to joy. Oh my,
countless times. And so when we observe a display
of His power in our lives, we must exalt Him. We must praise
Him. We must give Him thanks. So marvel,
my dear brethren, at the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has
wrought out our deliverance from our sin all by Himself. and all by the shedding of His
precious blood on Calvary's cross. Therefore, because it is He alone
who has saved us, it is He alone who has redeemed us, right? It is He alone who has obtained
eternal salvation for us. Well, then He alone should have
all our praise, honor, and glory, right? Let's consider four questions
to praise God, or four reasons, I'm sorry. Let us consider four
reasons to praise God for His great power. Number one, God's
children praise Him for His converting power, for His converting power. We who are the redeemed of the
Lord praise our great God for His almighty converting power,
because if God the Holy Spirit had not regenerated us, given
us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we would never
have fled to Christ. We'd still be groping around
dead in trespasses and sins. Paul prayed for the believers
in Ephesus and requested that they might know what is the exceeding
greatness of his power. to usward who believe according
to the working of His mighty power. Beloved, the same power
that raised Christ from the grave is the same power that raises
us from our dead natural state. It's wondrous. Ephesians 1.20
says, which He wrought in Christ Jesus, when He raised Him from
the dead and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places.
Beloved, we come into this world spiritually dead in our sins.
And when God, the Holy Spirit quickens us and gave us life
in Christ, we marvel. So let we who are the redeemed
of the Lord praise our great God for his converting power,
his regenerating power. Number two, the second reason
for we who are the children of God to praise Christ is for his
keeping power. Not only did he save us and regenerate us, but beloved
he keeps us. We know, we know how easy it
would be in our hearts to wander, because we're prone to wander,
as the hymn writer wrote. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave
the God I love. But you know what? He keeps his
people by his almighty power. the same power that regenerated
you and me? It's the same power that keeps
us, beloved. 1 Peter 1.5 says about God's
people who are kept by the power of God through faith. Now, look
at that. God's people are kept believing. Why do you keep on believing
on Christ? Because God's keeping you believing on him. who are
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to
be revealed in the last time. Do we not all know of some that
started the race and turned back? And sometimes we who are the
redeemed of the Lord, we can wander. Oh, it's so easy for
us to wander astray. We could even be in church and
our hearts are far from God. Oh my. We're sheep, beloved. But you know what? The Lord will
always bring his sheep back. He'll not lose one of them. Praise
his mighty name for his keeping power. So marvel if you're one
of the born-again, blood-washed saints of God. It's only God
who has made us to differ, right? He's set us apart. He chose us
in Christ. He made us to differ from anybody
in our lives, in our past and current and in the future. who
do not know Christ. The only one who made us to differ
from them is God himself. And he keeps us. And we continue
to believe and follow Christ all because we're kept by the
power of God. So let we who are the redeemed
of the Lord therefore praise our great God for his keeping
power. Oh, it's wonderful. I'll tell
you why. God's children praise him for his Sikorean power. Oh
my, it says this in Hebrews 2.8. For in that he himself has suffered,
being tempted, he's able to succor them that are tempted. Oh, the
word succor, you know what it means? It means to help or relieve.
Beloved, he's able to help us. He's able to relieve us when
we're tempted. He was tempted just like we are,
yet without sin. He's the perfect, spotless, sinless
Lamb of God. Oh my! And He's able to help
us when we're tempted and when we're tried. We who are the redeemed
of the Lord, we can come, do you know we can come to the throne
of grace at any time? Any time. You can be driving
down the road, you can be grocery shopping, you can be working
on the job, and you can talk to Christ. No one has to know you're even
praying. Isn't that wonderful? As a matter of fact, you don't
want to tell people you are. Oh my. Let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy. Look
at that. What do we receive at the throne
of grace that's coming to Christ, coming to his throne of grace?
That we may obtain mercy. Oh, what mercy we find in Christ.
In grace to help when? In time of need. When are we
not in need? Beloved, when are we not in need?
I'm always in need, are you? I'm always in need. There's not
a time when I'm not in need. But isn't this wonderful? Hebrews
4.16, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that
we may obtain mercy and find help, find grace to help in time
of need. Oh, so the word sikor there means
to help or relief. Beloved, we can find help and
relief in Christ and Christ alone. So let we who are the redeemed
of the Lord therefore praise our great God for his helping
power, his relieving power, which we experience every day as we
are, do you know, we're daily loaded down with benefits. Daily
he's delivering us. Daily he's giving us help, beloved.
Daily he's relieving us. Because we're tempted daily,
aren't we? Oh yeah, we are. But praise God. for his securing
help, for his relieving and helping grace. The last point I'd like
us to consider for praising God is his transporting power. His transporting power, beloved.
God's children praise him for his transporting power. Listen
to this. 2 Corinthians 5.8. We are confident, I say, and
willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with
the Lord. Just as the angels carried Lazarus
to Abraham's bosom when he died, so we shall be transported at
death into the presence of the Lord beloved. Isn't that wonderful? Just like that. Listen to this,
1 Thessalonians 4, verses 16 to 18. For the Lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of an archangel,
and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise
first. Oh, those already in glory, their bodies will rise. But listen
to the one still on earth. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. Now, is this not comforting? So if we die
before he comes, we're gonna be with the Lord, just like that.
But if we're alive when he comes again, we're gonna be with the
Lord, just like that. Isn't that wonderful? So let
us praise God for his transport and power, that we who are the
redeemed of the Lord, then praise our great God for his transport
and power, And let we who are the redeemed of the Lord give
praise to our great God and King as we contemplate his great love
and power. Let us contemplate and sing praise
over the astonishing, everlasting love of God the Father, and given
His dear Son, and the astounding love of God in the Son, and coming
to redeem His people from their sins when He came to this earth
and shed His precious blood to save us from our sins. Never,
never, never did God display such love, wisdom, and grace
as in the redemption of His people by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so let we who are the redeemed praise Him. Praise His mighty
name. Amen and amen.