For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. That ties right into tonight's
message. Isn't that always the way? Turn
if you would to, actually turn first to Revelation chapter 5.
And then we'll go to Psalm 96 where we'll be tonight. The name
of the message is New Song, Old Story. New Song, Old Story. And all through the scriptures,
God's people are exhorted to sing praises to our great God. We just saw that over there in
1 Thessalonians 5. We're to sing praises to our
great God and King because, again, He alone is the only one worthy.
He's the only one worthy of our praise. He's the only one worthy
to be praised. And we are to sing of His greatness.
We're to sing of His greatness. We just sang of how He sought
us. We were wandering off. Every
time we sing that, I just think of where I was. And He sought
me. What a glorious song. It's wonderful.
It's absolutely wonderful. I know you weren't seeking Him
either, but He found you, didn't He? He found you who believe.
It's wonderful. And now, now that we're born
again by the Holy Spirit of God, We sing a new song, beloved.
See, these lips didn't used to praise the Lord before the Lord
saved us. But now, the believer has a song. We sing praise to our great God. We once at one time did not know
him, but now we know him. He's revealed himself to us. And He's revealed to us that
He's the God of all grace. He's revealed to us His sovereignty
over all things. He's revealed to us that He's
the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And He's revealed to us that
He is God alone, hasn't He? He's revealed that to us. We'll
look tonight in Psalm 96, and we'll see that we're to sing
praises to our great God. To our great God. And it's He alone who's made
the heaven and the earth, and we declare His glory to a lost
world, don't we? We declare His glory to a lost
world. Look in Revelation chapter 5 here. Now, we who are born
again by the Holy Spirit of God, again, we sing a new song, beloved.
We sing a new song. We sing a song of our Redeemer.
We sing a song of our Redeemer. This is Revelation chapter 5
verses 6 to 14. Look at this. And I beheld and
lo in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and in
the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain. having seven horns and seven
eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the
earth, a lamb. Oh, my. And he came and took
the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and
20 elders fell down before the lamb. having every one of them
harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers
of the saints. And they sang a new song. Oh, what did they say? They say,
thou art worthy, oh my, thou art worthy to take the book and
to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain, He's a lamb slain,
beloved. And remember, he's a lamb slain
from the foundation of the earth. Foundation of the world. Oh,
he was slain. And has redeemed us. Oh, this
is salvation song, beloved. Has redeemed us to God by thy
blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. and hast made us unto our God
kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld
and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne,
and the beasts, and the elders, and the number of them was 10,000
times 10,000, and thousands of thousands. That's a number that
no man can number. Isn't that wonderful? A number,
and a believer in Christ can say, I'm in that number. Glory be to God, I'm in that
number. All by His mercy and grace. Saying
with a loud voice, what are they saying? Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. He's the
only one worthy. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. and every creature which is in
heaven and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as
are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I say, and
blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth
upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. Beloved, we'll be singing, worthy
is the Lamb forever and ever. Ain't it glorious? We'll be singing to the one who
was slain for us, the one who redeemed our eternal souls. And
he, look at that, he sits upon the throne, what? Well, what's
a throne? That's where a person rules,
isn't it? That's where they rule. King sits on a throne. Forever
and ever, look at that. And our salvation's in Him. It's
in Him. It's in Christ. Our salvation's
eternal, beloved. It's eternal. And the four beasts
said, Amen. What else do you say? Amen. And the four and 20 elders fell
down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. Now let's turn to Psalm 96. And
we will see tonight that there are two ways in which we can
express our thanks and our praise to our great God. We'll see it
in this Psalm, which we will study tonight. There are many
ways in which man seek comfort in this world and yet get no relief. No relief. No relief from the things of
the world and no relief from fellow humans. And sometimes
grief can be overwhelming. And sometimes a believer suffers
in silence. with no comfort from friends,
but there's one who comforts us. There's one who sticks closer
than a brother, beloved. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are to think upon the
great things that our God hath done for us. You know why? Because it'll fill our mouths
with praise. It'll fill our mouths with praise
for our great God. Oh. And when we ponder and meditate
upon our great God and the wondrous things that He has done for us
in Christ, we will find our sorrow being
turned to joy. Our mourning to dancing, as the
scripture says. Our hearts and souls would be
lifted up from the cares and trials of this world, which are
real, and which we go through. Every believer goes through different
trials. Now, if we were to get together
and talk about our struggles and our trials, we would find
we go through a lot of similar things, beloved. And you know
who our worst enemy is? Amen. Ourselves. Our flesh. Our
flesh. You know, in religion, they like
to say, well, Satan made me do it. No, most probably, most of
the time, Brother Norm likes to say, about 80-90% it's your
flesh. We can get ourselves in a heap
of trouble. My. But when we think about what
Christ has done for us, Oh, when we lift our hearts up
in praise, and our lips in praise, and express our gratefulness
to our Lord for what He's done, it'll fill you with joy. It'll
fill you with joy. And we can express these in song
and praise, and we can express this in declaring the wondrous
works of God. So with that in mind, let us
read the whole psalm, and then we'll look at a few verses here.
Psalm 96, verse 1, O sing unto the Lord. A new song. The believer in Christ has a
new heart, born again by the Holy Spirit of God, and they
have a new song. Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is
the Lamb. It's He who's redeemed me. Look
at that. O sing unto the Lord a new song.
Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Remember out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation. Sing unto the Lord, bless his
name, show forth his salvation from day to day. Proclaim what
he's done. Declare his glory among the heathen.
And never forget we were among the heathen. So God called us
out. Now we're just saved sinners,
but we're still, we're set apart by him. Declare his glory among
the heathen, his wonders among all people. For the Lord is great
and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all
gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord
made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before
him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give unto the
Lord all you kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory
and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name. Bring an offering and come. into
His courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty
of His holiness. Fear before Him all the earth. Say among the heathen that the
Lord reigneth. He reigns. Scripture declares
that right there. He reigns. And we know His reign
is absolute, beloved. Absolute. The Lord reigneth. Our Savior reigneth, beloved.
Our Savior reigneth. The world also shall be established,
that it shall not be moved. He shall judge the people righteously.
Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad. Let the
sea roar in the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful in all
that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the
wood rejoice before the Lord, for He cometh. He cometh to judge
the earth. He shall judge the world with
righteousness and the people with his truth. So we see the psalmist here again
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. Never forget, whenever
we read scripture, it's by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
of God. Again, I know I keep stressing that, but we just need
to keep having that before us, that the scriptures are authored
by the Holy Spirit of God. Holy men wrote as they were moved
by the Holy Spirit of God. So the Holy Spirit exhorts God's
people to sing of the glory of the Lord and proclaim the glory
of the Lord. For the good things the Lord
hath done for us and the great things he has made known to us.
What did the Lord tell the Gadarene demoniac? He wanted to go with
the Lord, remember? And the Lord said, no, you go
and tell the people the great things that God has done for you. There
goes an evangelist. My, and you can be sure that he went and
told people the great things that God had done for him. He
told them. My. Look at verses one to three and
take note that the psalmist says in the first two verses, Sing
unto the Lord three times. Sing unto the Lord, sing to the
Lord, sing to the Lord. Three times. Oh, sing unto the
Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord, bless his name. Show forth his salvation
from day to day. Three times. Beloved, sing to
God the Father. Sing to God the Father. Give
him all the praise and glory. He's the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And give Him praise for planning
and purposing our salvation in eternity. And then give Him praise
for sending our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to accomplish that
salvation. Give Him praise and glory. Give
Him praise and glory. Sing unto the Son. Adore the
Lamb slain for you. Adore the Lamb slain for you,
which we looked at in Revelation chapter 5. Sing praises of adoration
for Him and for what He's done. The Lamb slain for you, for our
sin, for our sin. And with the eye of faith, kneel
at the cross and praise each wound that our Lord had. And magnify our great Redeemer,
beloved. magnify Him, as with the eye
of faith we see Him upon that cross dying for us. Dying for
us. And we see Him risen for our
justification, beloved. And now He's seated at the right
hand of the Father in glory, where He reigneth. He reigns. Praise His name. Oh, and He became
flesh for us. Give Him praise that He became
flesh for us, willingly. He willingly left heaven for
us to redeem us from our sins. To shed His precious blood. To
purchase our eternal souls. And then sing to the Holy Spirit
of God, the Great Comforter. Oh, who hath begotten us again
unto a lively hope. Praise Him for revealing the
Lord Jesus Christ to us. Praise Him for His regenerating
power. Praise Him for instructing us in the things of Christ and
having us grow in grace. Look at that. Sing to the Lord,
sing to the Lord, sing to the Lord. Sing to the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. Give Him praise. Give God all
the glory. And we see in this psalm that
the psalmist seems taken away with the greatness of God and
in his wondrous works that he breaks forth with praise to our
great God. Look at the first three verses
again. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. His heart's being
carried away as he contemplates the greatness of our God. Oh,
sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord, bless his name. Show forth his salvation
from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen,
his wonders among all people. The psalmist is just carried
away in adoration and praise for our great God. And we sing a new song, beloved.
We sing salvation's song. And we sing to the Lord, the
Lamb who's redeemed us, the one who's over all of heaven and
earth. That's who we sing to. And what do we do? We declare
His glory, don't we? We declare His glory to the heathen.
We declare His glory to the lost. And let this come from us in
private conversations or in songs of worship. Show forth His salvation
from day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen,
His wonders among all people. Let the love you have for the
Redeemer flow forth in praise, beloved. Oh, let it flow forth
in praise. Glorify our great God. Contemplate
your redemption by the precious blood of Christ. Just contemplate
that. Meditate on it sometimes. And
I can tell you, You start thinking about the blood of Christ and
how it cleanses us from all our sin, and it won't be long that
you're singing glory to his name or you're rejoicing with a song
in praise to him for what he's done for you. It's incredible. It's absolutely incredible. Contemplate that we're now justified
before God by Christ alone. Contemplate these things. Meditate
just means think upon them. Just think upon them. Contemplate
them. There's all kinds of things we
contemplate in the day. Contemplate the glorious things
that God has done for you. Oh, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. Contemplate the fact that all
our sins are forgiven, that we stand before God totally pardoned. Never to be judged again. Contemplate
this wonderful salvation. Again, it'll fill your lips with
praise. And when the Lord wills and he opens the door, we tell
others, don't we, the great things he's done for us. Why? Not hard to do that when we start
contemplating these wondrous things, is it? And we want others
to know, don't we? We know that we can't make them
know. We know that. But we still want
to tell them the wondrous things our Lord done for us. Yeah. Because he's done them for us.
And we don't even deserve it. Oh, it's incredible. So contemplate these things.
Contemplate these things. Contemplate how the precious
blood of Christ has paid that which God demanded
for our souls. And give him all the glory. It'll
turn your lips, it'll turn your lips to praise him and give him
glory and honor. And contemplate the greatness
of our God, which is spoken of in verses four to six. Look at
this. The greatness of our God, look at this. For the Lord is
great. He's great. There's a statement,
there's no arguing about it. He's great. And the believer
can say amen, can't we? He's great. And we say he's greatly
to be, look it, and greatly to be praised. Oh my! He is to be feared above all
gods. For all the gods of the nations
are idols. Look at that. Look at that statement.
But the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before
Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Now look at
and marvel, beloved of God, at the incomparable greatness of
our God. in these verses. The incomparable
greatness of our God is bought forth. And take note that verse
4 notes why He's worthy of our praise. It says because He's
to be feared above all gods. So all those things that people
bow down to and fear, they're just dumb idols. But he's the one true and living
God, and he's to be feared above all gods. The fear of the Lord
is what? The beginning of knowledge. But
fools despise wisdom and instruction. Oh my. And again, that fear is
a reverent fear. It's a reverent fear. And why? Why is he to be feared?
Why is he to be feared above all gods? Well, look at verse
5. All the gods of the people are idols. Idols. Beloved of God, our great God
is infinitely superior to all gods, false gods. They are made
of wood and stone. They are powerless. They are
non-existent. It's a piece of rock, or a piece
of concrete, or a piece of cement, or a piece of wood. People make
idols out of all kinds of things, don't they? All kinds of things. But they are absolutely powerless.
They're good for nothing. They're useless. That's what's
being bought forth here. So think of all the people. I
can think of one religion and billions of people around the
world and they bow to the statues, the statues that they bow to.
Nothing but worthless idols. Nothing but worthless, useless
idols. My. Praise God for those of us
he delivered. Two way. Oh my. Oh my. Worthless idols, powerless, non-existent,
just a piece of stone, good for nothing. Take note in verse five
that the true God is Jehovah. The true God is Jehovah. Look
at this. For all the gods of the nation are idols. They're
useless. Useless. But the Lord made the
heavens. There's the true God. There he
is. Oh, Jehovah Elohim. There He is. He made the heavens. And all we who have God-given
faith, we believe what this scripture declares, don't we? We believe
it. Now there was a time when I may
have looked at that and not believed it. Because I didn't believe
the God of the Bible. There's no me about it. There
was a time when I looked at this and I read Roy something tonight
there. I'm not gonna mention a whole
lot of it, but again, I mentioned a little bit this morning. Nobody,
you know, the God who loves everybody, well, people don't have a problem
with that. I was reading Roy an article,
and some little girl asked the Pope, well, if God loves everybody,
then why is there a hell? That's a good question, isn't
it? We know God doesn't love everybody,
doesn't he? But he loves his bride. He loves his bride. And what does a man, what does
a man have to do, or what does God have to do for a man to go
to hell? Brother Ron and I were talking about that last week.
Nothing. Just leave him alone. Right head along. What does he,
what does God have to do for a man to go to heaven? Everything. Everything. He does it all. From beginning to end, beloved.
So we praise his name, don't we? We praise the God. We know that if the Lord God
who made the heavens does not save us, then we'd never be saved.
But we know that if the Lord God who made the heavens and
the earth saves us, we are eternally saved, beloved. Isn't that wonderful
news? That's good news for sinners,
isn't it? That's awful good news for sinners. Oh my. For all the
gods in the nation are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Oh, He is infinitely superior
to all the false gods. And again, we who have God-given
faith believe what the scriptures declare because we've been taught
by God. We've been taught by God, he's
revealed himself to us and we've been taught by God that he did
it all according to his almighty will and purpose. It's incredible. And it never gets old for the
believer to hear these wonderful truths. Never does. Tell me the old story. I'm singing
a new song now, tell me the old story. Tell me the old story. Oh my. Note in verse 6 that honor
and majesty precede him and strength and beauty wait on him in his
sanctuary. John Knox comments that this
honor and beauty are his escort. Worship and magnificent the attendance
of his shrine. Let's read verse 6 again. Honor
and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his
sanctuary. The truth we In these verses, these verses we've been looking
at should cause the believer's heart to rejoice and to sing.
As we see by God-given faith just how superior our Lord is. As He is the one true God who
made all the heavens and made all the earth. And beloved, He
just spoke it into existence. And that same God who did that
is the lamb that we read about in Revelation chapter five that
was slain to redeem us, to purchase our eternal souls. Look to the night sky and be
in wonder and awe at the Lord's handiwork. Have you ever walked
outside and just looked up and it just take your breath away?
Just take your breath away. And that's just a little wee
part that we're looking at, beloved. Little part. John told me one
time, he said, he said, go out about 5 o'clock in the morning
in the summertime and just listen. It is the most spectacular thing.
The chorus of birds in the morning singing will give you chills. It's absolutely breathtaking. Spurgeon used to say they sing
praises unto our great God. He used to say that the waves,
after I read this, going to the ocean was never the same. He
used to say that the waves as they come crashing in, they clap
in adoration to the Lord. Just this constant clap. Praise
the Lord. Praise the Lord. I like looking
at that. He said, when the when you see
a tree waving in the wind, it's it's waving in adoration to the
Lord. This was just him looking at
nature and seeing all of creation. Praise God. It's incredible. And then look at what we see
every year here in the fall, what we're privileged to see
every year in the fall. The leaves changing. And the
beauty of it. The beauty of it. And it leaves
us in awe, doesn't it? And all that, all that beautiful
leaves changing and all, all comes by the power of God, beloved. It's he who brings the seasons.
It's he was in control of all things. And we get to admire his handiwork.
We get to look and say, look what my Lord has done. I remember
one grace preacher said one time he was, he stopped at a gas station
up in the mountains near where he lived. And he got, the guy
started pumping his gas and some guy came over and the attendant
came over and started talking to him and he's just sitting
there pumping his gas and he's looking over at this little mountain.
And the guy says, how you doing? He goes, oh, I'm just admiring
my father's mountain. And he goes, your father's mountain?
He goes, I know who owns that land, and he's not your father.
He goes, no, no, my father owns that mountain. It's true. Everything we look at, he owns. It's all his. It's all his, beloved. He reigns. He rules, and he just
lets us live in this area. He just lets us live in the places
we're at. Isn't it wonderful? What a blessing He is to us.
Oh, what a blessing our great God is. So look at the night sky. Look
at the leaves as they're changing. Look at the sun and the moon.
How the sun rises every day and the moon comes out every night.
It's incredible. All ordered by our great God,
beloved. All ordered by Him. And you know, all these things
are a constant reminder that our great God is the one who
created all these things. Next time you see a sunset, you
think, my father has caused that to happen. My father has caused
that. He's allowed me the privilege
of seeing that beauty. Or when you see a sunset. Or
again, when you see the leaves change. It's incredible. It's all his doing, beloved.
You know, not even a sparrow falls to the ground. I love sparrows. They're one of my favorite birds.
Always have been. Don't know why, but they've always
been one of my favorite birds. And so I was thrilled when I
read in the scripture that not even one of them little sparrows fall
to the ground without Him knowing. Isn't that amazing? All ordered by
Him. The Lord reigneth. He reigns,
beloved. And this is the same God who
came and redeemed us from our sins. Oh, it's wondrous. So his handiwork is all around
us. He clothes the grass, he causes the rain to fall, and
the seasons to come and to pass. He does it all. So no wonder
the psalmist uses expressions like splendor and majesty and
strength. No wonder he does that. No wonder
he says about beauty, the beauty of the Lord in his work. It's
incredible. See, he's being taken away by
the greatness of our God. He's being taken away by the
greatness of our God. He's praising God in wonder and
love to the one who is only worthy of our praise. Turn to, if you would, 1 Corinthians
8. 1 Corinthians 8. We see the Apostle Paul bring
forth the same truth that's brought forth in this psalm that we're
studying tonight. Now in this portion, he's writing
to new Christians who have come out of a pagan culture, who've
come out of idol worship. And some of them were anxious
about the food that had been sacrificed to idols in pagan
temples. And then this food that was sacrificed
in pagan temples was then made available commercially for people
to purchase. And to be taken home and eaten,
and prepare a meal, and then to be eaten. And note what he
brings forth in verse 4, but we'll read verses 4 1 Corinthians chapter 8. Look at
this. As concerning thereof the eating
of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know
that an idol is nothing in the world. Look at that. Same statement as like we saw
over there. They're nothing. They have no
power. In that there is none other God but one. That's a very
similar statement to what we're studying over there in Psalm
96. For though there be many that are called gods, whether
in heaven or in earth, as there be gods many and lords many,
but to us there is but one God. There's one God. There's only
one. Notice those are all little g's, just like over in our text. But there's one God, the Father,
of whom are all things, and we in Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ,
by whom are all things, and we by Him. Oh my. Again, Paul says, we know there
in verse four, we know that an idol is nothing in the world,
and there is none other God but one. And what did the Lord Jesus
Christ say? I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. One way. One God. One God. Now, as I mentioned
this morning, there's nothing new under the sun, beloved. There's
nothing new under the sun. There's not. The idols of the
New Age pantheism are only a figment of people's vivid imagination. The gods people have cooked up
nowadays are the same as the gods of old. They're worthless
and useless. They can't do anything. They
can't do anything. Again, they're cooked up, I like
what Calvin said, they're cooked up by the idle factories of man's
heart. Natural man's heart is an idle
factory. We just pump them out, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop.
It's true. My. But the gods of the new age,
pantheism again are powerless, just as the, Suppose that gods
of the ancient days were nothing new under the sun, beloved. And
there's but one true god. One true god. Who we worship
and adore. Oh my. And again, what did we
look at this morning? Great is the mystery of godness.
God was manifest in the flesh. The one true god. The Word became
flesh and dwelt among us. He's the Lamb slain, as we saw
there in Revelation 5. And it's glorious. And He was
slain for our sins. All to take away our sins. The Apostle Peter wrote, and
there is salvation in no else. Neither is there salvation in
any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Acts
4.12. And that's narrow, isn't it? Neither is there salvation
in any other. Again, as we've seen there in
Psalm 96, all those idols, all the gods
of the nations are idols, worthless, pieces of stone. And Thomas, a disciple of the
Lord Jesus Christ, inquired about the way to heaven and Again,
the Lord said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man come unto the Father but
through me, but by me. So all these supposed gods that
people cook up are but figments of people's imagination. Because
there's only one true God. There's only one way to the Father. There's only one mediator between
God and man. There's only one lamb. And that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And only through Christ is God's
wrath and justice satisfied. Outside of Him, it falls upon
the sinner. It falls upon the sinner. And
beloved, our God is great and greatly to be praised. And He is beautiful to us, isn't
He? He is the fairest of 10,000 to our souls. Honor and majesty
are before Him, strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.
Now look at verses 7 to 10. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds
of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength Give
unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Bring an offering and
come into His courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty
of His holiness. Fear before Him all the earth.
Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The world also
shall be established and it shall not be moved. He shall judge
the people righteously. Righteously. Again, God's people
come from every kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation. And they sing a new song, thou
art worthy to take the book and to open the seals for thou was
slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred, tongue, people, and nation. Just as we read earlier. So we see then that all of God's
people are exhorted to sing praises through this psalm, sing praises
to our great God, to sing of His majesty, to sing of His greatness,
to sing of the wondrous things that He's done for us. And we
are to give God all the glory. He will not share His glory with
anyone. With anyone. We give Him all the glory. We
give Him the glory that's due His name. We give the glory,
let's do it, look at verse 8. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto His name. He is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He's the one who's redeemed us.
Give Him all the glory. Give Him the glory due His name. And we bring the sacrifice of
praise. It says there, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the
Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto His name. Bring an offering and come to
His courts. And we bring the offering of the sacrifice of
praise, don't we? We praise His mighty name. We
praise, we give Him all the glory. And He is the Lamb. He is the Lamb slain. He is the
Lamb provided by our great God for us. So let we who are the
redeemed give the Lord all the glory. Give the glory due to
His name, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, died as my substitute. Glory to His name. Glory. And He did it willingly. Is He not worthy of all our praise
when you contemplate that? When you just contemplate that,
He's worthy of all our praise, beloved. He's worthy of all our praise
just for who He is. But when we contemplate that,
He's redeemed us. He left heaven to come to this
world, despised and rejected by man. Didn't even have a place
to lay His head, beloved. What a Savior. What a Redeemer. Now the idea of worship is to
fall down before God's prostate, or bow down before Him. And the
word for fear is to tremble, trust, and wait carefully. We wait patiently, don't we?
What's the Scripture tell us? Be still and know that I am God.
Just wait. Wait on the Lord. That's the
hardest thing for us to do, isn't it? That's why we're constantly
reminded to do that. Because we just need to rest.
We just need to wait on the Lord. Wait upon Him. So it reinforces the idea of
worship as we are to be still again before our great God. We
are to have a humble attitude before our great God. We are
to approach Him in the spirit of deepest awe, beloved. And
we do, don't we? We do. And we know we have the
freedom and liberty to go and pray to Him, but all we come
before Him knowing that He's a holy and righteous God. And we give Him the glory due
His name, don't we? We give Him the glory due His
name. And we come before Him in reverence of worship, and
as we approach the throne of grace, we find grace and strength
in time of need. Cast all your care upon Him.
Why? Because He careth for you. He cares for His sheep a lot.
Every single one of them. There's not one that's not out
of His sight. Not one. So ponder and contemplate again
the glories of Christ in His kingdom. All divine perfections
are His, beloved. All spiritual, temporal, eternal
blessings for the believer are in Him. And we are His by virtue of His
Father's gift, and we are His by right of purchase. We are His by virtue of His Father's
gift. He chose us in eternity. to be
His bride, and then our Savior, the Lamb, remember what it said?
The Lamb what? Slay Him. Slay Him. Purchased us. We're His by right of purchase.
So therefore, the psalmist exhorts God's people to proclaim who
Jesus is, and how sure and certain and how eternal His kingdom is.
He's the one true God. So let we who are the redeemed
of the Lord proclaim that the Lord reigns. Let us just proclaim
it. He reigns. There's no debate in it. You
don't have to argue with folks. Just give them the scripture.
The Lord reigns, period. He reigns. It's not up for debate. Just like God made the heaven
and the earth. It's not up for debate. He spoke it into existence. He did it. And so let us praise our great
Lord. Let us praise Him and proclaim
that He reigns and that He is in absolute control and the world
is established by Him and shall not be moved until that great
day when He burns it all up. But that's all according to His
will and decree too. I talked to my son one time about
global warming. I said, there will be a global
warming one day. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to burn all
up. It is. Oh, my. It will. Remember, I have sworn by myself,
the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not
return. that unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall
confess, so swear that God's word goes forth with power, beloved. It goes forth with power. And
it will not return unto our Lord void. So we proclaim the greatness
of our God, don't we? And then we see in this psalm,
the earnest exhortation of the psalmist to proclaim again the
glory of our great God, the greatness of our great God, the wondrous
things that he's done for us. Now let's look at the last three
verses. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad. Let
the sea roar in the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful
and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the
wood rejoice before the Lord, for He cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with
righteousness, and the people with His truth. Our Lord is coming
back. As certain as the sun rises,
our Lord is coming back. No man knows the hour or the
day, but He's coming back. He is. He's coming back as a
judge. as a judge, and he shall judge
the world with righteousness. Who's our righteousness? Christ. Oh my. Praise God, we who are
his people are clothed in his righteousness, eh? Oh my. We see in these verses here that
the soul of the inspired writer is so lifted up and taken away
again in praising our great God. that He even calls upon the inanimate
parts of the creation to join and celebrate in the glorious
King Messiah's praises. Give Him all the praise. The
heavens, the earth, the sea, its fullness, the fields, the
trees, of the wood, all show the glories of our Creator. All
show the glories of our great God. Brother Neil, you get to
see that all the time. The great and the glories of
our Creator. And the whole creation groaneth
by reason of the fall, so in redemption everything shall bear
a part in the holy joy. In the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the good news is a gospel of wonders, beloved. It's a gospel
of wonders. It deals with our sins in a most
wonderful way, because it presents to us a wonderful
Savior. We can't deal with our sins on
our own, can we? But the good news of the gospel
is Christ died for sinners. He died for sinners. And the
gospel tells us of his wonderful, complex person, as we saw this
morning. Great is the mystery of God. God was manifest in the flesh
to save his people from their sins. It's incredible. And the gospel points to Christ's
wonderful atonement. It takes the blackest sinner
and makes him or her wonderfully clean. Wider than snow, beloved. Wider than snow. Oh, the wonders
of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ Jesus. It far exceeds
the wonders of nature that we see. And there are no miracles so
matchless in wonder as the miracles of grace in the heart of a man
or a woman being born again by the Holy Spirit of God and being
granted faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to our
great God. Heavenly Father, again, we thank
you for allowing us by thy providence to gather here tonight. Again,
we don't ever take it for granted, Lord, that you allow us to hear
a message from thy word when so many others around us
have no care, no care, and yet you brought us here by thy mercy,
by thy grace, by thy sovereign almighty power. And Lord Jesus,
it was planned and purposed in eternity to be so. And that just
leaves us in awe as believers. It leaves us in awe that you
would have mercy upon us, that you would love us with an everlasting
love, that you would leave heaven and come to this world to redeem
us from our sins. Oh, Lord, let our lips be filled
with praise for thee, for God, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. May we sing to thee, Lord, worthy is the Lamb, worthy
is the Lamb, because it's you who's redeemed us. and you alone
are worthy of our praise, in Jesus' name, amen.