Boy, what a wonderful Savior
we have. I just want to give some greetings.
Brother Jay had talked to Brother Jim Byrd and was down seeing
his kids. Brother Jim sends greetings and
Sister Nancy. They want to tell you all they
love you and are thinking about you. And also talked to Brother
Tim James this week. He said to greet the saints. thinks the world of everyone
here, and also talked to Brother Gary Shepard too as well, just
briefly, because he was in the hospital at the time with Sister
Betty, she was getting a transfusion, and so he sent his love also. Today we'll be in Psalm 95. Psalm 95. Something I was pondering
this morning, I shared with Sunday school classes, is how here we
are, all of us today, gathered together. I had mentioned we're
from different states, different countries. Our grandparents
lived in different places. But all was planned and purposed
to have us here today to worship together. And it's not by chance
that any one of us are here. It's by God's decree that we're
here to hear the gospel proclaimed. And those of us who are saved,
that we're here to rejoice in our mighty Savior, in our mighty
Savior. Today we'll be looking at the
rock of our salvation. The rock of our salvation. Now, the Christian life is a
battle. It's a battle. It's not easy. It's a warfare. And in this battle, we're going
to get wounded. I remember talking to a preacher
a long time ago and he said, you know, sometimes you get a
gunshot wound, you get a knife wound or a sword wound, but it's
a battle. We go through this world and it is a constant life of
trial and tribulation. I'm reminded of what dear brother
Scott Richardson once said, and he said the Christian is either
in trouble, going into trouble, or coming out of trouble. That's
so true. That's so true. We have trials constantly, and
tribulations come our way, temptations come our way, These trials that come our way,
whether they be health-related or just life-related, they come. They come. And sometimes, as
I mentioned earlier this morning in Sunday School, sometimes we
feel like we're going to be crushed beneath that. I'll be honest with you, sometimes
I've felt like that. Oh, Lord, have mercy on me. Sometimes God feels far away,
but He's not. He's not. For the believer, He's
not. But thanks be to God, we have
a God, and we have a Savior who is mighty during all the times
that we walk through this world. He has promised to never leave
us, and to never forsake us, I ask you today, beloved of God,
are you troubled? Are you troubled and no one knows
it? Or are you troubled and some know it? But are you troubled?
Do you come here today with weight
upon you? Weight upon your shoulders? Do
you have unsaved loved ones, as I do, that you lift up to
the Lord in prayer and pray that God would save them? Pray that God would move in their
lives, if He so wills it? Do you just come here today with
trouble in your life? Trouble with a family member?
Maybe trouble with a friend. Maybe trouble with a job. Maybe trouble with a brother. Or sister in Christ. May God meet us today. May He
meet us here today in this service. May He be with us. May His presence
be felt with us. And may He minister to us through
His Word. I need it. And I know you do too. We're
all going through things. And may we look to our Savior.
May we look away from the trials. May we look away from the temptations.
And they bear down upon us. And may we just look to Christ. May our eyes be fixed upon Him. May our eyes be fixed upon Him.
May the troubles just fade away as we look to Christ. This is
an oasis for us. We come here, it's an oasis to
hear God's Word preached to us. To hear of our wonderful Savior
and what He's done for us. Oh, I need comfort, and I'm sure
all of you do too. So let us look to our God. He
is the God of all comfort. He's the God of all comfort.
Let's look at Psalm 95. We'll look at the first three
verses. Psalm 95. O come, let us sing unto the
Lord with intense happiness. Brother John, that fit right
in when you mentioned it. I looked that word up too, but it fits
right in. It's beautiful. Let us come. Let us sing unto the Lord. Let
us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us
come before His presence with thanksgiving. and make a joyful noise unto
Him with psalms. Why? For the Lord is a great
God. A great God. And a great King. Look it, above all gods, little
g. He is the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. In his hand are the deep places
of the earth. The strength of the hills is
his also. The sea is his, and he made it, and now his hands
form the dry land. Oh, come, let us worship and
bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our maker, for he is our God. And we are the people of his
pasture and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you will hear
his voice, harden not your heart, as in the day of provocation,
and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your
fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years
long was I grieved with this generation and said, it is the
people that do error in their heart, and they have not known
my ways until I in my wrath, that they should not enter into
my wrath." But we're going to focus on the first three verses.
Look at this. Oh, come, let us sing unto the
Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to
the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. Oh,
may there be a song in our heart today. For the Lord is a great God and
a great King. What a statement. What a declaration. There's no arguing with this.
It's a declaration. For the Lord is a great God and
a great King above all. So the first point is God's people
sing unto the Lord. Oh, come let us sing unto the
Lord. Come now, saints of God. Let
us sing praises to our great King. The word Lord there in the Hebrew
is the self-existent One. Let us sing praises unto the
Self-existent One. We don't add anything to God. He is God. He is the Eternal Jehovah. He is the Lord our Righteousness. The very one who is the self-existent
one, the eternal Jehovah, became a man. We'll look at that later
on. Became a man. So let us sing unto the Lord. Let us worship and adore him. Let us sing to our Messiah, who
is Jehovah. Jesus Christ is God. Let us sing to the Lord God,
who is almighty. Does that not turn our mourning
into dancing? Does that not fill our hearts
with joy? We sing unto the Lord. We sing unto the King. Do not
our trials become sweet when we think of our blessed Redeemer? Oh, I need to fix my eyes on
Christ. Do we not find comfort and strength
in Christ? We don't find it in ourselves,
but we find it in Christ. We find comfort and strength
when we're going through a trial or a tribulation or a temptation.
Oh, He's my strength! The Lord, the self-existent One,
the One who dwells in eternity. Let us sing unto our Lord. Turn
with me, if you would, to Psalm 30. Oh, in our sorrow and our weakness, He is our strength. Loved of God, tried and tested,
let us sing unto our great Redeemer, the God who has done wondrous
and wonderful things for us. for us. Psalm 30, verses 10 to
12. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy
upon me. Is that not the sinner's cry? Have mercy upon me, Lord. Remember in the New Testament,
God, have mercy upon me, the sinner. That's the cry of every believer.
Lord, be thou my helper. Thou hast turned for me my mourning
into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth
and girded me with gladness. My sins are all forgiven in Christ. Every single one of them. I'm accepted and beloved
in Christ. I have an inheritance that's
incorruptible, undefiled, in heaven, in Christ. This is what every believer can
say. When God the Holy Spirit has
convicted us of sin and we repent and turn to Christ, does it not
turn our mourning into dancing? Do we not rejoice? I'm forgiven. To that end, it goes in Psalm
30, verse 12, to that end, that my glory may sing praise to Thee
and be not silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks
unto Thee forever. Oh, we sing unto the Lord, don't
we? We sing unto Him for what He's done for us. And sing, when
you sing unto the Lord, sing with thankful hearts. Let the
cares and worries of this world fade away. Sing unto our great Jehovah,
the great Redeemer, the great King. Here's an illustration
from the 1800s of singing unto the rock of our salvation. It
goes this way. It says, you know how the birds
stir up each other to sing? One bird in a cage will excite
its fellow, who looks at him and seems to say, you're not
outstripping me. You're not out singing. I will
sing with you. I'll sing with you. So all the
little minstrels quiver with a happiness of song and form
a choir of songsters. Hark how, and then think of this,
hark how the early morning of the spring is rendered musical
by the full orchestra of birds. One songster begins the tune
and the rest hasten to swell the music. Let us be like the blessed birds. Bless the Lord till you set the
fashion in others. Bless Him with you. The other
day I came out of the house, out of the parsonage. And as I was walking to the study,
the birds, they did, they seemed like a choir. They were just
singing. Just singing. Let us, beloved,
let us sing to our great God. And I don't just mean when we're
here. When we're at home, may our hearts be filled with gladness.
When we're at work, may our hearts be filled with gladness. When
we go through a trial or tribulation, may our hearts be filled with
gladness. May we sing unto the Lord. May our mourning be turned
into dancing. Oh, may we give him all the glory.
All the glory. Why should we sing? Because Jehovah
is our salvation. God is our salvation. God is
our shield and defender. God Almighty. Look at our text
continues. Let us make a joyful noise to
the rock of our salvation. Now some here who do not know
the Savior may ask, who is the rock? Who is that rock of salvation
you sing to? Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
chapter 44. Who is the rock of our salvation?
It's none other than God. Look at verse 3, actually 2 of
our text. Our text said, For the Lord is a great God. and
a great king above all gods. Our praise is to Jehovah. The
rock of our salvation is Jehovah, is Christ. Christ is God. And He is the one, look at our
text also says, and a great God above all gods, little g. And
in Isaiah 44, look at this. Our God is the one true God. And all others are false. All
of them. I don't care what man thinks
or what man does, all other gods are false. There is only one
God, and that's Jehovah. He who reigns. Look at Isaiah
44, starting in verse 8. Fear ye not, neither be afraid.
Have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is
there a God beside me? Nay, there is no God. I know not any." And then he's
going to tell us here about idol-makers. Look at this in verse 9. They
that make a grave an image are all of them vanity, and their
delicate things shall not profit. and they are their own witness.
They see not, nor know that they may be ashamed. Who hath formed
a god or a molten, a graven image that is profitable for nothing?
These men are making merchandise, they're making money, manufacturing
these false idols. It was a craft in those days. Behold, all his fellows shall
be ashamed, and the workmen, they are of men. Let them all
be gathered together, let them stand up, yet they shall fear
and they shall be ashamed together. The smith with his tongs both
worketh in the coals and fashioneth it with hammers. They're fashioning
that idol into what in their mind they want it to be. and worketh it with the strength
of his arms. Yea, he is hungry, and his strength
faileth. He drinketh no water, and is
faint. The carpenter stretches out his rule. He maketh it out
with a line, and he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it
out with a compass." He's figuring out what he wants to do with
that piece of wood, or that gold, or informing it to what he wants
to form it to. and maketh it after the figure
of a man, according to the beauty of man, that it may remain in
the house. He heweth it him down cedars,
and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengthened for
himself among the trees of the forest. He planteth an ash, and
the rain doth nourish it. OK. So he goes and planted a
tree, and it's growing. And then shall it be for a man
to burn. For he will take thereof and
warm himself, yea, he kindleth it and baketh bread, yea, he
maketh a god and worshipeth it. So the very same wood that he
uses to heat and to eat with, right, because to cook his food,
he takes another part of that wood and makes a god. He makes
a dumb idol. He maketh a God and worshipeth. He falls down before, it's a
piece of wood. It was a tree out there. There's
nothing new under the sun, is there? People are still falling
down before idols. Just go into the stores and you
see them little statues of different folks. Or pictures people put
on their walls. He maketh a graven image, and
falleth down thereto. Look at this. He burneth part
of it in the fire to keep him warm. He's going to throw a log
on the fire, the very same part of a log that he built his idol
with. With part thereof he eateth flesh,
he roasteth roast, and is satisfied. Yea, he warmeth himself, and
saith, ah, I'm warm. I've seen the fire. And the residue thereof, he maketh
a God. The leftover stuff. This is man of his natural state,
and we would have been just like this guy if God hadn't saved
us. And some of us were. Even his grave and image, he
falleth down unto it, and worshipeth it, and prayeth unto it, and
sayeth, deliver me, for thou art my God. He says to the piece
of wood, deliver me, you're my God. It's a dumb idol. It's a piece of wood. It can't
do anything. Our God can do. Our God can move. They have not known nor understood,
for He hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see in their
hearts, that they cannot understand. O Beloved, if you're saved, praise
the mighty Savior, praise Jehovah, that He has given you eyes to
see and a heart to believe. And none considereth in his heart,
neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have
burned part of it in the fire." He doesn't even understand that
he's burned part of it in the fire and he's made a god. He doesn't even understand. Yea, also have I baked bread
upon the coals thereof, I have roasted flesh and eaten it, and
shall I then make the residue thereof an abomination?" It's
an abomination in the eyes of God. It's a false, dumb idol. Shall I fall down to the stalk
of a tree? He feedeth on ashes, the deceived
heart hath turned him aside. Folks just say, just let Jesus
into your heart. He gives us a new heart, beloved.
This heart is wicked, but He gives us a new heart to seek
Him. He cannot deliver his soul. Man
cannot deliver himself. If you're here and you're lost,
you cannot save yourself. You cannot deliver yourself. It's impossible. And we who have
saved, tried it. But God in His mercy revealed
to us that we could not save ourselves. He cannot deliver his soul nor
say, is there not a lie in my right hand? Remember these, O
Jacob and Israel, for thou art my servant. I have formed thee. Oh, what
a mighty God. I have formed thee. Thou art
my servant. O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten
of me. God will not forget his people.
Look at this. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgressions. This is the rock of my salvation
and you who believe and this is the very one who we praise
and we worship and we give all the glory and all the honor to
him because he has blotted out our transgressions And as a cloud
thy sins return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee. Oh, He's
redeemed His people from their sins. Sing, O ye heavens, for
the Lord hath done it. Shout, ye lower parts of the
earth. Break forth into singing with intense singing. Oh, with
gladness in our hearts. What has God done for us? He's
redeemed us. He's blotted out our transgressions. Shout, ye lower parts of the
earth. Break forth into singing, ye mountains. Oh, forest and
every tree therein. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob
and glorified Himself in Israel. Oh, our God is the King of kings,
and He is the Lord of lords. He is the true God who rules
in heaven above, and He is pleased to reveal Himself to His people,
sinners such as we are. He is pleased to reveal Himself
to us. to we who have believed and to
His sheep who will believe, He will reveal Himself. And He is
pleased to do that. Look at verse 3 again in Psalm
95. For the Lord is a great God and
a great King above all gods. Who is the rock of our salvation?
It is God. It is Christ. Turn, if you would,
to Exodus chapter 3, and then put your finger in John chapter
8, if you could. Who is our God? He is the Great
I Am. He is the King of kings. He is
the Lord of lords. God incarnate in the flesh. He is identified in Exodus as
the Great I Am. The Great I Am. Look at Exodus
chapter 3, verses 13 and 14. And Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, The God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they
shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am, the self-existent one. The self-existent One. I Am that I Am. And He said,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath
sent me unto you. Turn with me, if you would, to
John chapter 8. Who is the rock of our salvation?
The Great I Am, beloved. The Great I Am. Oh, this is wonderful. And our God is identified in
the Old Testament as the Great I Am. And look in the New Testament.
He is the Great I Am. John 8, verse 48, and we'll go to the end of the
passage. Then answered the Jews and said
unto him, speaking to Christ, Say we not well that thou art
a Samaritan and hast a devil? Jesus answered, I have not a
devil, but I honor my Father, and ye do dishonor me. And I seek not mine own glory,
but there is one that seeketh and judges. Verily, verily, I
say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death."
Never see death. Now, we're going to die physically,
but we won't die, those of us who believe in the second death.
Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast the
devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets And thou sayest, if
a man keep my saying, he shall never taste a death? Art thou greater than our father
Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead? Whom makest
thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honor myself,
my honor is nothing. It is my Father that honoreth
me, of whom ye say that he is your God. Yet, He hath not known
him, but I know him. And if I should say I know him
not, I shall be a liar like unto you. But I know him, and keepeth
saying, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he sought
and was glad." Oh, he's glad. Then said the Jews unto them,
Thou art not fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? And
remember what we read in Exodus, beloved? Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. He just declared who he was. This is the rock of our salvation.
God. incarnate in the flesh. This is who has redeemed His
people from their sins. The great I Am. Is it any wonder we sing praises
to Him? These Jews knew what He was saying,
too. Look, it said, Then took they up stones to cast at Him,
but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through
the midst of them, and so passed by. Oh, here is the rock of our
salvation. Let's go back to our text in
Psalm 95. O come, let us sing unto the
Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving and make a
joyful noise unto Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and
a great King above all gods. Let us make a joyful noise to
Him. There is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is no other salvation for His people other than Christ. None. None. He's the strength of our
salvation and we're saved from every one of our sins in Christ. It makes us shout for joy. I'm
forgiven. And think of this. It was decreed
in the councils of eternity that it would be so. And then it was wrought out by
our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. It was determined and
decreed in eternity that Christ would die for his people, and
it was wrought out by Christ on Calvary Street. He redeemed
his people from their sins. He purchased salvation by his
own precious blood for every single one of his elect. Every
one of them. And it is applied by the great
God, the Holy Spirit. So as I always say, the whole
Trinity is in action in the salvation of sinners. So is there any doubt that we
hasten to Him to sing Him praises? We wouldn't go anywhere else.
but to Him. We make a joyful noise to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and salvation is only in Christ, only in Him
alone. He came to do His Father's will,
and, beloved, He accomplished what He set out to do, to redeem
His people from their sins. Jesus is the Rock of Ages. And
think of this, here we are in 2016, and those of us who are
saved are rejoicing the same way as those who, in the New
Testament, rejoiced in Christ. The same rock, the same salvation,
the same Spirit. all in Christ and Him alone.
And He is a rock and a fortress against every enemy in this weary
land. This world is a weary land. But
remember, beloved of God, we're just pilgrimaging through. We're
just passing through. Our life is but a vapor through
this veil of tears that we go through. One day, with joy unspeakable,
we'll be in the presence of the great King. The rock of our salvation. The rock of our salvation. Look
at verse 2 in our text. It says, let us come before his
presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him
with psalms. Out of a redeemed heart, beloved,
out of a redeemed heart flows thanksgiving. Flows thanksgiving. Flows thankfulness. We look back
at how the Lord preserved us before we were even saved. Think
that. Think that, redeemed of God.
Think of before you were saved and how God even preserved you
then. Kept you. He knew who you were. He knows
every single one of His sheep. Sister, you sang about the lost
sheep. He knew we were out there. And He came. And He saves and rescues His
people from their sins. Let us come before His presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. Oh, let us come before His presence
here today. Those of us who have been redeemed
with the precious blood of the Lamb, and be thankful. Let us
leave this place with thankful and grateful hearts. And he did not leave us where
we were. And it's not hard for us to mumble
or complain or murmur, is it? It's not. It's not hard for us
at all. We get anxious. I know I do. We worry about things. We get
stressed out. In religion, and this is a funny,
the first time I heard a grace preacher, I was amazed, number
one, that he called himself a sinner. Because in religion, I didn't
hear a lot of that. I was a sinner, and I was, you
know, but I didn't hear a lot of the preacher himself saying
that. But since the Lord has shown me grace and saved me,
and I've talked to other grace preachers, too, and other grace
believers, we all go through the same. And we're real about
it. We don't hide it. We struggle.
We struggle, every single one of us. And if we got together
and talked about the things we struggle with, we would find
they're very common among us. We struggle all with the same
things. But we look to Christ. We look
to the rock of our salvation. He's our hope. We look above
the trials and tribulations and we look to Him. We look to Him. We come before the Lord with
reverence. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 4. We come
before the Lord with reverence, but we also come before the Lord
with thanksgiving. With thanksgiving. And we only find this joy in
the Lord. Hebrews 4, verses 14 to 16. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest, and that is Christ, the great I Am, that has passed
into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast
our profession. We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. Christ never
sinned, but he was tempted like we are, but yet without sin. Perfect, spotless, no sin or
blemish, none at all. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Now, we don't come boldly before
the throne on our own. We come boldly before the throne
in Christ. That's the only way we can approach
the throne. There's no other way. Look at
verse 3 in our text, in Psalm 95, back to that. For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods, so let us ponder, let us ponder
God's majesty. His majesty? and his greatness. Scripture says here, he is a
great God. He is the only God, but he's
a great God. And a great king, he's a king.
He's a king. Above all gods, liturgy, above
all those idols and all the manufactured things of man's minds, he's a
great God and a great king. Think of this too. Potentates
of the earth have vanished before him. They just vanish. Think
of the great empires that have arisen. The Roman Empire, the
Greek Empires, the Babylonian Empires. Gone, beloved. But Christ is still upon the
throne. He's still the King. He is a
great God and a great King above all gods. He is all supremacy. He is the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords. And think of this vast world
that we live upon. in the vast universe that we're
in. He spoke the world and He spoke
the universe into existence. He spoke and the world assumed
existence. This is God. This is God. Turn, if you would, to Colossians
chapter 1 again. Our God created all the mountains,
all this earth, the vast seas, the universe, space, eternity. He created it all. But our God, the great God who
did all this is great in His goodness too. He's great in His power. And He's great in His mercy.
He's great in His mercy. And He's great in His glory.
That's why we give it all to Him. He's Jehovah. He's the Supreme Power. He is
the Maker and the Great King, in whose
hands are all the things of the earth. He is the Upholder and
the Preserver and the Sustainer of all things. Look at Colossians
1, verses 16 and 17. For by Him, Christ, were all things created that
are in heaven, all things in heaven, and that are in earth, visible
and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And He is
before all things. And by Him, all things consist. The very reason we're breathing
today is because of God's mercy. And He gives us this very breath
to breathe. Turn, if you would, to John chapter
1. By Him, all things consist, Colossians
told us. Look at John 1. In the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. This is Christ. The same was in the beginning
with God. Remember our text, he's a great God and a great
king. Remember Colossians, he made all things by the word of
his power. All things were made by him, and without him was not
anything made that was made. I ask you today, beloved of God,
and what we've looked at, is this not reason for us to be
joyful? Oh, to be joyful. And to sing
a song of praise to our blessed Redeemer. Our blessed Redeemer. And this week, when trials and
troubles come because they will, we know they will. Let us keep our eyes fixed upon
our great King. And let us also know that what
we go through is ordained by Him. He said, I'll never leave. This is our great God. This is our great Savior. The
Lord Jehovah. God incarnate in the flesh. A great God. And a great King. He is the one true God. And for all who believe, He is
the rock of our salvation.