Praising God's name. My. Psalm 9. Psalm 9. I had Brother Travis
read that Psalm so we could get right into the message, beloved.
Right into the message. We're going to look at the first
10 verses of this Psalm. It's the Psalm of David. He writes, I will praise thee,
O Lord, with my whole heart, in the first verse. I will show forth all thy marvelous
works. Let's read that again. I will praise thee, O Jehovah,
with my whole heart. That's a new heart, isn't it?
That's a new heart that hungers and thirsts after righteousness,
beloved. That's a new heart, being born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. I will show forth all thy marvelous
works. So David begins this song with
a holy resolution. He says, I will praise thee,
O Jehovah. You know what? We have much to
praise God for, don't we? We have much to praise God for.
And we see here that David vows that even if everyone else might
be silent, he will bless the Lord with his
whole heart. That's with all he is. That's all he is. And now there's no need for us
to wait for others to praise God, is there? Because there
are some who will never praise God. But God, as long as God
gives us breath, let us praise His name. Let us be thankful
that He's our shepherd, that He watches over us, that He's
with us all the time. And therefore, we as believers,
we are to delight in the God. We are to delight in our Savior,
delight in our Redeemer, delight in the things that He's done
for us. And we delight from a regenerated
heart. Now think, I was talking to Vicki
about this, this morning. Think of how much it's a privilege
to delight in the Lord. So many others in this world
have no delight in the Lord, none. Don't care about God, don't
care about anything about him, about nothing. And yet here we
are. the born-again blood-washed people
of God, the ones who at one time did not delight in the Lord are
now delighting in the Lord. That's a privilege, beloved. It's a privilege that not everyone
has. And how has it come to us? Only
by the grace of God, right? Only by the mercy of God. Nothing
we did to earn it. Nothing we did to merit it, God
just freely gives it. That's His grace and His mercy
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And then think of what a privilege
is that God accepts our praise from sinners such as me and you. He accepts our praise, beloved.
You know why? Because we're in Christ as believers. We're in Him. And he said, this
is my beloved son, and what? And whom I'm well pleased. So
all who are in Christ, he's pleased with us. And he's pleased with
our praise. I'll tell you what, I can't sing
very good, but I still praise the Lord. Right? Don't matter
what other people think about my voice, I'm going to give him
thanks. I'm going to praise him from my heart, right? I wish I could sing like the
ladies do. Their voices are beautiful and
they lift them up in praise. But we're going to lift our voice
up in praise too, aren't we? With them. With them. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. That's a gift that they've received
from God. It's wonderful. And they're using
it to glorify God. Wonderful. And we get to praise
the king of the universe. We're despects to him, and yet
he receives our praise. He receives our praise, beloved. Wonder of wonder, God accepts
our praise. What great grace is shown there.
What grace mercy is shown there. That God would accept us and
accept our praise. We who are but safe sinners.
And David, his praise is all given back to the Lord, isn't
it? That's who's worthy, beloved. See, we're not worthy to receive
praise, because we're just a bunch of sinners, right? Now, you may
get a blessing out of the message, and you may say, you know, I
got a blessing out of that, and that's wonderful. But let us
both say praise be to God. Praise be to hallelujah. That
the Holy Spirit, this is what I marvel at when you all say
that. I marvel at the Holy Spirit taking my words and blessing
your heart. That's incredible. But he does it, doesn't he? He
puts a message on my heart to proclaim to you, and then he
blesses it. Like Norm said, I'm just blowing
through the trumpet. Goes through that gospel trumpet,
and boom, it just blesses your soul by the power of the Holy
Spirit of God. I had someone a couple weeks
ago say, I felt like you were preaching
just to me. Well, the Lord put the message
on my heart. That's a message from Him. Isn't that incredible,
though, how that happens? I get the same thing when I listen
to the message. I'm like, that preacher's preaching to me. That
message was recorded for me. My oh my, isn't God gracious?
Isn't he wonderful? Isn't he so wonderful to us?
Oh, he's just amazing. So we may be grateful to the
one who tells us about him, but thanks be to God, our praise
goes to God. Our praise goes to God. We do
not praise man. Again, if a man's message brings
a blessing to us, we give glory to God, don't we? We may tell
him, hey, that was a blessing, but we're gonna give glory to
God, aren't we? Oh my. Remember, it's not the
man, it's the message, right? And the message comes from God. Some people get tied up in the
man. It's not the man. Man's just sent by God. And when
that man dies, God will send another preacher, if he wills.
Right? And here I have the same message
as the one before, if he's one of God's sent preachers. Right? And here, the same message, bless
your soul! Isn't it wonderful? My, oh my. My, oh my. God gets all the glory.
He gets all the glory, and that's what David's doing here. Look
at this, he says, I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart.
I will show forth all thy marvelous works. This is true praise here
before us, beloved. We're to be thankful to our great
God, aren't we? To our glorious God. And may
we let it be known. We sing praises to our God, may
we let it be known, right? is God opens the door, that's
the key. Don't try to open the door yourself, because I know
what happens. Boom, we can fall flat on our
face. But if God opens the door for you to tell someone about
the wonderful things of Christ, just tell them. Christ saved
my soul. He saved my soul. He's my everything. I'm going to praise him with
my whole heart. Oh my. Oftentimes we talk about
things of no consequences when we need to show forth our Lord's
grace. May we talk about His benefits?
Do you know the scripture says that we're daily loaded down
with benefits? Daily? Do you know the scripture
says that His mercies are what? New every morning? See, when Israel was going through
the wilderness, they couldn't eat yesterday's manna, could
they? But God always provided fresh
manna, didn't he? And that manna was sufficient
for the day, wasn't it? His mercies are new every morning,
beloved. And we just get up, I know, I
just get up casually in my day and start my day and I'm not
even thinking, I go make a pot of tea, but that tea was sent,
somebody made all that tea and sent it to the store and delivered
it and it came to my house and I pour it and I make a beautiful
cup of tea and I'm just, oh, I love tea. But I think of all the blessings
that made that come to me. Isn't that wonderful? Think of the farmer who raises
the chickens that lays the eggs. Brother Neil was a dairy farmer,
milk. Raising them cattle and taking
care of them and milking them. Milk goes to the stores and the
people, they don't think about that, right? When we're drinking
a glass of milk, we just drink a glass of milk. But all that
work behind it. All by God's providence though.
all by His providence, beloved. It's absolutely amazing. So we
have lots to praise God about. And let us, after public worship,
praise God for allowing us to hear the gospel. As Brother Travis said, for giving
us a place where we can come and worship our King. What a privilege! What a privilege! And may our hearts be filled
May our hearts be filled with praise because Christ has redeemed
our eternal souls. He's purchased our souls with
his blood, beloved. And now we understand that because
again, we're born again now of the Holy Spirit of God. Now we
have an understanding of things that we never had an understanding
of before. And now, now let us praise God
with our whole heart, beloved. Oh, it's wonderful. And we declare, it says here,
declare among the people his doings. We declare his marvelous
works of creation. We declare, though, his wonderful,
amazing work of salvation. A work of salvation and saving
sinners from their sins. And we declare his greatness,
don't we? If you get down in a day, start
thinking about our savior's greatness. It transcends anything we can
even think of, his greatness. My oh my, think of his holiness,
beloved. He's so holy that sin cannot
be in his presence, but in order to save his people who are a
bunch of sinners, right? That's what I am. top of my head
to the bottom of my shoe. In order to have us be in his
presence, he sends his Son, the Word of God, to save us from our sins. His only begotten Son. Called the Word of God, the demon
said, we know who you are, thou holy one of God. And they trembled. They were terrified. That's our
Savior. That's our shepherd, as Sister
Linda sang about. That's our shepherd. God in the
flesh come to save His people from
their sins. Perfect and holy like His Father. So let us think of His greatness.
Let us think of His holiness. Let us declare these things.
Let us declare what He's done for us. He's taken a sinner and
saved him by His grace, by the shedding of His precious blood,
of Christ's precious blood, given His life for us. because he loves us with an everlasting
love. And again, all by the power of
God, the Holy Spirit. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
I'm found, was blind, but now I see. All by the grace of God. all by the mercy of God. So think
of our sinfulness, think of our nothingness, right? In light
of all of God's creation, we're not even a speck. In light of
all His whole creation, all the universes out there, right? And yet He loves us, and He's
had mercy upon us, and His grace has been shown to us. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus. My. So we think of our sinfulness,
our nothingness, and then we think of his forgiveness of all
our sins. Are these not wondrous works? that we declare among the people. Our conversion. I once was dead
in sin, absolutely dead. Now I'm alive in Christ. I have
a new heart now that wants to praise God. The rebel has been turned into
a saint. And he couldn't turn himself
into that, could they? But God turned him into that.
And that's what he does for you and I, beloved. Remember that
Pharisee? God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He took me as that proud Pharisee
saying, I'm not like those other folks. I do all these things. You know what he did to me? He
turned me into that publican, beloved. I couldn't even lift
my head either, saying, oh God, please be merciful to me. I'm
such a sinner. And you show me that I am. Have
mercy on me, Lord. Save me by thy grace, if I will.
And he saved me. It's wondrous. He's done that
for every one of us. So let us declare his marvelous
works. Are these not marvelous works
which God's done? justification, sanctification,
redemption. My, these are wondrous works. They all come in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in heaven, we're going
to be praising the Lord. That's what we're going to be
doing. We're going to be singing, worthy is the Lamb. And I'll
tell you what, we'll all have wonderful voices then, right? Oh my, it'll be wonderful. I'll
tell you why. We'll be crying out and singing
to Him for saving us by His grace, by His perfect sin atoning work
on Calvary's cross. Now let's read verse two. He
says, I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to
thy name. Oh, most high. There it is. There's
His name. We're going to look at some of
His names later on. I'm going to sing praises to Jehovah. I'm
going to sing praises to Elohim. I'm going to sing praises to
Adonai. I'm going to sing praises to
the Lord. I'm going to sing praises to
Emmanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ, God with us. Look what it says, O thou most
high. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.
He's far above us, beloved. So far above us. And David here vows to rejoice
in the Lord daily. It's an ornament. Rejoicing is
an ornament of Christian character, beloved. We rejoice in the Lord. We who never rejoiced in Him
before, now we rejoice in Him. And God loves a cheerful giver,
whether it's gold, or money, or think of this, the gold of
our mouth. Praise. We give praise to Him
from our mouth, don't we? Right? Oh my. So let us ask ourselves, do we
daily rejoice in the Lord? Oh, that we might rejoice in
the Lord daily, because his mercies are new every morning. No matter what our position,
whether we're sick or hurting, whether we're in what we would
call good health or bad health, no matter what our standing is,
rich or poor, whether we have losses or gains,
let us keep rejoicing in the Lord. Let us keep joying in the
Lord, because he alone is worthy of our praises. David proclaims, I will sing
praise to thy name. He doesn't care what anyone else
will do, but he says, I'm going to praise. I'm going to praise
his name. Others will do what they will,
but I'm going to praise his name. And he doesn't mean this in a
haughty way, beloved. He doesn't mean this in a, well,
I'm going to praise God even if no one else does. He's not
talking like that. He's saying, I'm going to praise the Lord
because of the wonderful things he's done for me, right? With a humble spirit, not a haughty
spirit. See, the spirit of God will not
make us haughty. A haughty Christian is a contradiction. The Holy Spirit will make us
humble. And another thing too, now you
go to the far side and you say, well, if you think you're humble,
then you're not humble. I told you guys a story about
a long time ago, Vic drew me a picture of a lion when she
was here in Oregon and I was in Canada and she drew me this
picture of a lion. She goes, I drew this for you
and I called it meekness because you're meek. Well, I went around
telling my friends and people I work with, well, I'm meek. I tell you, I wasn't being meek. Oh, my fiancee made me a picture
and called it meekness because I'm meek. Oh, my gosh. See? See how we can get? Oh,
my goodness. Oh, beloved. No, it comes from
a humble heart, doesn't it? I'll sing praise to thy name,
O Most High. I'll sing songs of thankfulness,
inner thankfulness. No one else even has to hear
my words. But if I want to sing out, I'll sing out. Right? Inner thankfulness. Let our hearts
be filled with the songs which we sing here each day, too. I'll
tell you what, you want to get blessed during the day? Just
start singing some of the hymns we sing here. Have you ever just
by yourself? Or imagine Linda and Vicki and
the other ladies just saying they've got lots of songs they
can sing, but isn't it wonderful when you can do that because
it lifts your heart up? It lifts your heart up, beloved. It really
does. It lifts your heart up from the
things of this world. and sets our minds on that which is most
important, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Just little things
like that. If there's a melody in our heart,
let us praise God for His goodness to us. And I'll tell you what,
singing praises to the Lord in times of ease comes easily. But singing praises to the Lord
in times of difficulty, it'll be hard, but you know what? It's
most beneficial to our souls. It really is. Because it gets
our mind off the circumstance that we're in, or whatever, and
it gets our mind on Christ. I think of that song, Abide With
Me. That song was written by a fellow
who died two weeks later. And when you read those words,
knowing that, it's absolutely incredible. He's asking the Lord
to abide with him, to be with him. when he goes through the
valley of the shadow of death. He knows his time is short. The
words in that song are absolutely beautiful when you read them
with that in mind. So may we sing praises to our
Lord in times of difficulty and in times of ease. There's a story
of a young man who was on a ship and it was feared that this ship
would go down in a storm. So he took out his guitar and
he sang these words. I found a friend, oh, such a
friend. He loved me ere I knew him. He drew me with the cords
of love, and thus he bound me to him. And round my heart still
closely entwine these ties which not can sever, for I am his and
he is mine forever and forever." You know what? The spirits of
those on board were uplifted, and that ship made it to safety
by the grace of God. My, oh, my. So let we who are the children
of God proclaim from our redeemed souls, yes, I will sing praise
to thy name, O thou most high. Now let's read verses three to
six. David speaks of the enemies of his soul here. Oh my, look at this. When mine
enemies are turned back, they fall and perish at thy presence. For thou hast maintained my right,
In my cause, thou saddest in the throne, judging right. Thou
hast rebuked the heathen. Thou hast destroyed the wicked.
Thou hast put out their name forever and ever. O thou enemy,
destructions are come to a perpetual end. And thou hast destroyed
cities. The memorial is perished with
them. My. Let us never forget if the Lord's
with us here, never leave us. And if the Lord's with us, and
here never leave us, then no enemy can overcome us, right?
That's why the scripture says that God before us, who can be
against us? Oh my. It is He who keeps us from falling,
right? It's God who keeps us from falling. It's He who does
that. It's He who maintains our lot,
beloved. in this life. Now we have a daily
struggle of just resting in Christ, don't we? Just resting in Him. And trusting in Him. But it's
Him who keeps us. It's Him who keeps us. Oh may
God give us strength to trust Him more and more and to praise
His name for His many blessings bestowed upon us. And He saves
us by Himself, doesn't He? He maintains our salvation by
Himself. And we have much comfort in that. But from these verses we just
read, we see that God rebukes before he destroys. But once
he fights with the wicked, he does not stop until they're utterly
destroyed. Mahayana, nothing to trifle with
God, I'll tell you that. He is not. He is no one, no one
to go to battle against. And it says their names are forgotten.
Their remembrance is put out forever. My. Take note of the word thou
in verses four and five. Take note of the word thou in
verses four and five. Look at that. For thou has maintained
my right and my cause. Thou saddest in the throne judging
right. Thou has rebuked the heathen.
Thou has destroyed the wicked. Thou has put out their name forever
and ever. God does this. My, oh my. So what do we see
here? We see that the battle's not
ours, but the battle is the Lord's, isn't it? It's the Lord's. And David's not saying it's me.
He's saying, but thou, Lord, wins all the battles. You win
all the battles, Lord. The almighty God wins them all.
Why? Well, because he's our deliverance. He's our refuge. He's our everything. He's our great God. And because
He's God, then our deliverance is sure, beloved. No matter what
we're going through, there's some times, I think we've all
went through times, you feel like, you just feel like everything's
closing against you. And all of a sudden, the sun
breaks out. And you're bathed in light. That's God taking care of us,
beloved. He does it. Power belongs to
the Lord. Here's a good illustration. One
day after an earthquake in San Francisco, a young boy was showing
a man through the rubble. And he said, you know, it took
man a long time to build all these things. He put up all this
stuff, but God tumbled it over in a minute. And the little boy He said, there's
no use for anyone to think that he can lick God. Is that not true? If he can tumble down a city
in a minute, in seconds, who are we but the little specks
that run around in those cities? My, he's no one to be messed
with, is he? He's no one. Aren't you thankful he's had
mercy on you? Oh, that's wonderful. So we see here, we've seen David
vow to praise God, and then we see the destructions of David's
enemies who are also the enemies of God. My, now let us look at verses
7 to 10, but we're going to look at these slowly here. Look at verses 7 and 8, beloved. But the Lord shall endure forever.
Jehovah shall endure forever. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever, right? He'll endure forever. He hath
prepared his throne for judgment. Judgment's coming. It's coming. It's sure. It's sure as the sun
rising and setting. Judgment's coming. He's prepared
his throne for judgment. And who's gonna sit on the throne
at the great white judgment? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's gonna
be sitting on that throne. Look at this, and he shall judge
the world in righteousness. He shall minister judgment to
the people in uprightness. My! We have a source of great joy
in verse 7 for the believer as the Lord endures forever. If
He endures forever, then my salvation in Him endures forever. Right? If He is eternal, then the salvation
that I have in Him is eternal. And the scripture says he obtained,
what, eternal redemption for us, didn't he? He obtained it for us, beloved.
So rejoice, you who have trusted your soul to Christ. Our Redeemer
is God incarnated in the flesh, the Lord of glory. And we see
here that he shall endure forever. This world's gonna roll up like
a scroll, isn't it? And there'll be a new heaven
and a new earth, and our Lord will still endure, beloved, See
men shake their fists at him and say all kinds, say, I don't
believe him. Ah, he laughs at them. He laughs at them. My. Think that shakes God up? God himself came to this world.
Satan tried to destroy him, didn't he? Couldn't touch him. Scripture says he had nothing
in him. He riled up all these people against him. It was all
planned and purposed by God that the salvation of God's people
would occur. My, my oh my. Our God is absolutely sovereign,
so rejoice. Have you trusted Christ? Rejoice.
You're trusting in the Lord of glory. You're trusting in God
in the flesh. And he not only has an enduring existence, but
he has an unchanging dominion. He is king of kings and lord
of lords, and that will never change, beloved. And that's the
one we're trusting. My. Again, as I mentioned in
Sunday school, what Marcus said. He has an unchanging dominion,
and he's in control of every speck in the universe. Every
speck in the universe. I'm telling you, there's not
a maverick molecule. There's not a molecule going,
I'm going to go over here. There's not an atom saying, I'm
going to go this way. It's all in his control. Everything. Not even a speck out of his control. My, that's our Savior. That's
the one who saved us from our sins, beloved. What a King. What a Savior. And yet, yet He
has mercy on a sinner like me? And like you? Wonder of wonders. That's amazing
grace. That's amazing grace. And he
sits on the throne eternally, beloved. He is the divine sovereign
king. Eternally. Eternally. And we see that his throne is
prepared for judgment. Look at this. And he shall judge
the world in righteousness. And he shall minister judgment
to the people in uprightness. Verse 8. It's set. Judgment is set, beloved. But
you know what? Now, I want you to rejoice if
you're a believer. You know why? Because we'll never be judged.
Because all of our sins were judged at Calvary's cross. And
there is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment, Romans 8, 1, no
judgment in the Greek to those who are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. That's God's truth there. That's
God's truth. And here he's talking about the
great white judgment throne. You know, heaven's judgment,
heaven's throne, judgment always flows from there. It's always
in uprightness. Always. Because God's holy. And in this great judgment here,
tears will not prevail anyone. Prayers will not be heard. Promises
are not admitted and repentance is too late. Now is the day of salvation.
Today, now is the day of salvation. This great white judgment throne,
repentance is too late. Riches and titles mean absolutely
nothing. See, people nowadays, you get
these people in upper areas, right, the elites and all that,
that will mean absolutely nothing at the great white judgment throne.
Nothing at all. Men will stand before God. Men
and women will stand before God as sinners. And the goats will be on the
one side and the sheep will be on the other, right? And the
only one who makes them differ is God. That's the only one making
them differ. And I'll tell you what, not one
idle word, not an idle thought shall be forgotten because the
great judge cannot be bribed. See, people think, well, I get
away with stuff here on this earth. No, you don't. No, you don't. God's people were in Christ,
thankfully. But for the unsaved who die in
their sins, they ain't getting away with nothing. Nothing at all. Because that judge is righteous. That judge cannot be bribed.
That judge will be the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
17. You know, Christ is the righteous
savior of his people. I've been wanting to preach on
this portion here in Acts chapter 17. Lord willing, down the road
I'll do a message on it. This is just an incredible portion
of scripture here. They all are, aren't they? You
know, you hear me say that all the time. They all are. They all are. Scripture's
amazing. Look at this. Paul is at Athens. Mars Hill. Now the men of Athens,
they would gather at Mars Hill and they would speak about different
things. And here's Paul, a door has been
opened by God for Paul to proclaim the gospel at Mars Hill among
the heathen. Look at this. Acts 17, starting
in verse 22, we'll go to verse 31. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill and said, you men of Athens, I love this line,
I perceive that in all you are too superstitious. You know,
there's a lot of superstitious people in this world. I have
two black cats. They cross my path every day
about a hundred times. And they're wonderful. They're
absolutely wonderful little kittens. Or not little kittens, they're
cats now. But they're just wonderful. And
he says here, I perceive you are all, all things you are too
superstitious. Religious folks, people in the
world, are superstitious. I remember when I was a young
man, I used to do things in a certain way, because I didn't want anything
to be changed, because hockey players, I love hockey, but they
are some of the most superstitious people in the world. They tie
their skates the same time every time, or they've got all these
routines, even getting off the ice, you watch them, the same
guys get off at the same time. They're just superstitious. But
here, he's talking about religious things and he says, I perceive
that in all things you are too superstitious. For as I pass
by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription,
to the unknown God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship. Him declare
I unto you. So Paul's now going to declare
the unknown God. God, that made the world and
all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelt not in temples made with hands. Neither is worship with
man's hands as things he needed anything, seeing he giveth to
all life and breath in all things, and hath made of one blood all
nations. See, we're all the same. One blood. to dwell on the face
of the earth, and have determined the times before appointed, and
the bounds and the habitation, that they should seek the Lord.
And if happily they might feel after him and find him, though
he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live and
move and have our being, as certain also of your own poet said, for
we are also his offspring. For as much, then, as we are
the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead
is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's
device. In the times of ignorance, God
winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent,
because he hath appointed a day, look at this, in which he will
judge the world in righteousness. That's what we just read about.
There's going to be a great judgment. By that man, that's being Christ,
look, whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men, in that he raised him from the dead. Look at that.
We have assurance of salvation because God raised Christ from
the grave, beloved. It's absolutely wonderful, isn't
it? That's wonderful. That's absolutely wonderful.
So I ask you, where do you stand in this judgment? Are you in
Christ by God's mercy, or are you outside of Christ, where
you will answer for every one of your sins? Only those in Christ will avoid
this judgment, because Christ has borne the sins of His people
on Calvary's cross, and then they look to Him by faith. God-given
faith is the only Savior from their sins. And I'll tell you
this, now here's something to rejoice about as a believer.
This judgment will not touch you if you are found in Christ.
It'll not touch you. It'll not touch you. That's good,
isn't it? That means we don't get what
we deserve. It won't touch us if we're found
in Christ. You know why? Because we're clothed in His imputed
righteousness. But for those outside of Christ,
God's judgment, it'll fall upon them, and they will be cast into
hell forever. Now let's read verses nine and
10, where we see that Christ is the only refuge of his people.
He's our refuge. He's the refuge of the born-again,
blood-washed people of God. In the day of trouble, in the
day of ease, in the day of difficulty, He's our refuge, beloved. Says in verse 9 and 10, the Lord
also, that's Jehovah, will be a refuge for the oppressed, a
refuge in times of trouble. And they that know thy name will
put their trust in thee, for thou has, thou Lord has not forsaken
them that seek thee. So again, we see here in verse
10, it brought up about thy name, God's name. My. So let us desire to know
more about the attributes and the character of God. Let us desire to learn more about
him. Faith is an intelligent grace,
beloved. There can be knowledge without
faith, yet there can be no faith without knowledge of God, because
he reveals himself to us. to his people. Paul said to Timothy,
I know whom I have believed. And that's true of every believer,
right? We know who we've trusted, and that's Christ. A person may
be devout in religion, but if they're ignorant of God and die
in their sins, they'll be damned. Many religions are like that.
Catholicism are proofs of this. And they like to keep the people
in darkness. And they like to make the people
have to go to a priest. Beloved, we go right to Christ,
our high priest. He opened the veil for us to
enter in, didn't He? And that's for all sinners who
come to Him. We go right to Him. My. Notice in verse 10, notice how
sweet these words are. for the people of God. And they
shall know thy name, and they that know thy name will put their
trust in thee. For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken
them that seek thee." And this is not that they know the name
simply is Jehovah or God. No, they know about his attributes. They know about who he is. Now,
what's in a name? A lot. There's a lot in a name.
We're identified by our names, aren't we? We're identified by
our names. So what all is in the name of
the Lord? What all is in that name, that name, the name of
the Lord, the name of Jehovah? Well, here are a few names to
comfort us, beloved. Number one, Jehovah Jireh. The
Lord will provide. That was a name given by Abraham
to the place where he had sacrificed a ram provided by God instead
of his son, and the Lord provided a substitute, so rejoice, beloved
God. God has provided a lamb for his
people, and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. What's all that's
in that name? Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord, our
banner. The Lord, our banner. The name
Moses gave to the altar which he built to show the defeat of
the Amorites by Israel, by Joshua at Rephidim. God is shown here
as the Lord who leads us against the enemy. He goes before us,
right? We must rally around him as the
army gathers around the banner. What's in the name? In that name,
Jehovah Raphi, the Lord that heals. Oh, he's healed our stripes,
hasn't he? Oh, the word heal, it means to mend as a garment,
to cure a diseased person, to help. Beloved, he's healed us
from our sins, hasn't he? Oh, what's in that name? Jehovah
Shalom, the Lord our peace. The Lord our peace. He is the personal peace giver,
beloved. He's the great peacemaker. And this was a name given by
Gideon to the altar he built at Ophir, alluding to the words
spoken by the Lord, peace be unto you, or peace be unto thee,
Judges 6, 23 and 24. And the secret of peace is reliance
on Jehovah. We just trust in him, don't we?
That's the secret of peace for our believer, just resting in
Christ. We're not peacemakers, we're peacetakers. He gives us
peace, beloved. He gives us peace. We have peace with God in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. So we must give up trying to
make peace with God. People say, well, I made my peace
with God. Well, that ain't peace. If you've
made it, that ain't peace. Peace with God is in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. That's the only way you
can have peace, not by anything we do. What's all in that name
spoken of in our text? Jehovah-Ra, the Lord is my shepherd. All that shepherds were to their
flocks and more God is to his people. What's all in this name? Jehovah-Sekinu, the Lord, our
righteousness. This name God reveals. This name
reveals God's imputed righteousness in meeting our personal obligations
and requirements to himself. It all comes to us in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel had no righteousness,
so God revealed himself to her as all her righteousness. And
they must have, they must have, they must have his righteousness.
And Christ is all our righteousness, isn't he? He's all our righteousness.
What's all in that name? Jehovah sabbath. Jehovah of hosts. The general meaning of this term
is that our Lord is omnipotent, all-knowing, all-powerful. This has to do with His sovereignty,
His dominion over all the world. What's all in this name? Jehovah
Shema. The Lord is present. You know,
he's present right now. He said, where two or three gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Oh, it's
wonderful. He's with us, beloved, all the
time. What's in that name? Jehovah
Elyon. The Lord Most High. He sits on
his throne, high and lifted up. Again, this speaks of his sovereignty,
beloved, over all things. What's in that name? Jehovah
Melchizedek, the Lord that sanctified thee. God Christ is all our sanctification,
beloved. He's everything to us. He's everything
to us. He is the God who separates from
sin Those whom He saves, He separates them from sin to themselves.
That's what He's done for us, beloved. And God's people now know Jehovah,
our righteousness, Jehovah Sikinu. And we know His name and we put
our trust in Him, don't we? And for those who trust these
names of Christ, These names of God, He is precious. He's precious. We may never have heard of them
before conversion, and you know what? I didn't hear of any of
them, except for the Lord's my shepherd. And I didn't even know
what that meant. But I never heard of all those
names of God before the Lord saved me. Didn't have any interest
in them. But now, Now these names are
so precious, because they bring forth the attributes of our great
God, the character of our great God. And these are all names
of Christ, beloved. All names of Christ. These names
bring forth, again, the attributes of God. And by the word attributes,
it's meant to be as properties or characteristics of our great
God.