Good morning. That is the whole
gospel. Elected by the Father, redeemed
by the Son, regenerated by the Holy Spirit. How could how could
our salvation be anything other than what we just sang? Secure,
secure. I'd like to ask you to turn with
me in your Bibles to Psalm 149. Psalm 149. Sometimes I am tempted to believe
that God just tolerates me for Christ's sake. Nothing could
be farther from the truth. And I hope the Lord will encourage
us this morning to see and to believe how much he actually
loves us. Let's pray together. Our merciful
Heavenly Father, we come before thy throne of
grace, thanking you that we are not only accepted in the beloved,
but that we have the assurance of your word that as you loved
him, so you love us. Lord, we pray that your Holy
Spirit would move our hearts this morning to believe what
you have declared in your word about your love for your children
and about all that you've done for them in redeeming them and
in keeping them and in taking pleasure in them. Thank you for
your word. Lord, bless it to our hearts.
Father, we pray for Caleb as he preaches in Pennsylvania this
morning and pray for the brethren there and for those who may be
there who do not know you. Lord, let your gospel be declared
with power and with grace and with simplicity. And Lord, use
it effectually. To save your sheep. We ask it
in Christ name. Amen. You have your Bibles open
with me to Psalm 149. Praise ye the Lord. It's not
just a command, but an admonition and encouragement. And the Lord
tells us why we have reason to praise him. Sing unto the Lord
a new song. When the Lord does a work of
grace in the heart, he makes The same old story as we sing,
new. His grace is new. The revelation
of his love is new, it's fresh. If we become bored with it, if
we become disinterested in it, if we think, well, I've heard
that so many times before, then we fear that perhaps we know
nothing of his grace, that the Lord would make it fresh. And
he does when this new beating heart that he gives to his children
is a living heart and it responds to the living word and to the
living spirit and this union that we have. in Christ is a
living union. The scripture calls us lively
stones or living stones that are made up together on that
foundation stone, Christ. And so I pray that the Lord will
make it so in our hearts that he will cause us to sing a new
song. It's the same old song. The truth
of the song is the same. It hasn't changed. but he makes
it new and he makes it fresh and never will it be so new as
when we sing it in glory. The book of Revelation, John
sees the church gathered together and he says that they are singing
a new song. Never will it be so fresh, never
will it be so glorious, never will it be so new when we sing
it in his presence. Right now we have We have a lot
of barriers, don't we, in our flesh and in our unbelief. But
here the Lord tells us, we sing unto the Lord a new song and
his praise in the congregation of the saints. The Lord causes us by His Spirit
to pray without ceasing. He reminds us every day of His
grace and of His glory and calls us to count for our sin and shows
us what the Lord has done in putting it away. And yet nothing
can compare to where two or three are gathered together in his
name. A live worship service where the gospel is being preached
and where God's people are all gathered together and their hearts
are united in praise. Look at verse two, let Israel
rejoice in him that made him. Oh, just as God fashioned Adam
from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils a
living soul, so the Lord fashions us in the new man from nothing. He makes something out of nothing
and he breathes into us life. And this is his work that let
Israel rejoice. The Lord's made us. We are his
people, the sheep of his pasture. He gets the praise and he gets
all the glory. Let the children of Zion be joyful
in their king. There are a lot of things in
this life that the Lord's ordained for us to go through that are
not pleasant. They're hard. They're painful. They bring about sadness and
sorrow and tears. And yet the Lord is telling us
here to rejoice in our King. We rejoice in knowing that whatever
He's ordained for us is not only right, but it's good. and he
will use it for his glory, and he will use it for our good.
And so we're able to rest in knowing that our God is absolutely
sovereign and whatever he does is right. And that we can bring
our sorrows, when he ordains for us to go through a difficult
time, we bring those sorrows to him. And we rejoice in him,
knowing that he brings the light and he brings darkness. He created
good and he creates evil. He's the Lord. And we find our
comfort and our rest in that glorious truth. Look at verse
three. Let them praise his name. That's
who we praise. We praise Him because of who
He is. And He's revealed His person
in His name. Your name is very important to
you, isn't it? You like to hear your name spoken,
don't you? And you like to protect the integrity
of your name. And if someone slanders your
name, you will defend that in order to protect the good name
that you have. How much more is that true of
him? His name describes who he is, and there are no faults and
no flaws and no imperfections. Everything about his name is
glorious, and we love speaking his name, and we love talking
about him and who he is and what he's done in order to in order
to save his people. So we praise his name in the
dance. And we let them sing praises
unto him with a timbrel and a harp. This praise is, turn back with
me. We looked at this a couple of
times recently, but turn back just one page to Psalm 147, verse
one. Praise ye the Lord, for it is
good, it's profitable. It's profitable. It's for our
good. to sing praises unto our God. It is pleasant, it's enjoyable,
it's sweet, and it's pleasant, and it is comely, it's beautiful,
and it's strong. And so this is the, that's the,
you know, that psalm, this song of praise begins in Psalm 145
and goes all the way through to Psalm 150. And so the Lord
has reminded us of what we have to, to praise him for. Now, I
want you to look at verse four, and this is where I want to spend
a few more minutes. Verse four, for the Lord taketh pleasure
in his people. He will beautify the meek with
salvation. And as I said in my introduction,
I often am tempted to think that perhaps God just tolerates me
for Christ's sake. But nothing can be further from
the truth. The Lord takes pleasure in his people. What child, what
child does not seek, if not crave, the approval of their parent?
And when they get it, and when they get it, oh, they enjoy it. And it only inspires them to
be a better child, does it not? and to seek more of that praise
and more of that approval. That's what I hope will happen
this morning. I hope the Lord will speak to our hearts and
show us that he takes pleasure in his people, in his children. He delights in them and that
we will that we will be encouraged and moved in the heart to want
to seek more and more of that. Look over in Psalm 147 at verse
10. Psalm 147, verse 10. What does he take pleasure in?
Well, the scripture says he delights not in the strength of the horse. And he taketh not pleasure in
the legs of man. Now in the Bible, the leg is
a picture of the strength of man. It's the strongest muscle
in your body. You can move more with your legs
than you can with your arms or anything else. And when you,
when Abraham had his servant put his hand under his thigh,
when he made a covenant to go get his son Isaac a bride. That was
a symbol of the strength of that covenant. And when we see the
Lord Jesus Christ riding victoriously on that white horse, where is
his name written? It's written on his thigh. King
of kings and Lord of lords. And so the leg, symbolically,
biblically speaking, is a picture of strength. But here the Lord
says, I don't take pleasure in the legs of man. I'm not taking
pleasure in you because of any of your strengths, because of
any of your abilities, because of any of your whatever, you know, whatever,
however you want to apply that. That's not what the Lord takes
pleasure in. He's not, he's not, you know,
we, we take pleasure in our children when they, when they show forth,
uh, responsibility and strength of character and, and obedience. We, we take, we, we take pleasure
in them for that reason, don't we? And the Lord saying, I'm
not taking pleasure in you because of something that I see in you.
It's not what I'm taking pleasure in. Look at the next verse, verse
11. The Lord taking pleasure in them
that fear him. Now that's a work of grace in the
heart. And the Lord's taking pleasure in what he's done in
making his children worship him and bow before him and depend
upon him for all their strengths. Lord, I've got no ability. I've got no strength in and of
myself. But you see, the fear of God is to come before him
and to confess our complete dependence upon him. Lord, I don't know
anything. I don't have anything. I can't
do anything. The strength of my legs are not
able to carry me. I'm dependent upon your strength
and your grace. I'm dependent upon the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ for all my justification before
God. For all my righteousness, I'm
dependent upon Christ to stand in my stead. For all my salvation
and all my surety. For the keeping of the law, I'm
dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ. I didn't keep God's law,
but he did. You see, the Lord takes pleasure
not in the legs of man, but he takes pleasure in them that fear
him. In those that have their hope
in his mercy. Lord, that's me. See, that's
what the Lord puts in the hearts of his children. a hope, a hope
that will not disappoint, a hope that is sure because God's mercy
does not fail. His mercy endureth forever, the
scripture says, and he delights in showing mercy. So he's delighting
in his children because he's made them dependent upon him.
And they come into his presence and they, well, they love him
because he first loved them. And what a loving union the Lord
Jesus has with his church. Why does the Lord take pleasure
in his people? Well, first and foremost, because
he loves them. You take pleasure in your children
because you love them. You take pleasure in a person
that you love. And a person that you love, they
can do no wrong. person that you don't love, you
might be tempted to nitpick everything they do and say. But love hideth
sin, doesn't it? Covers, the scripture says, a
multitude of sin. And so the Lord said, I have
loved you with an everlasting love. Now, you know, oftentimes
when I think of that passage of scripture, I think about how
the Lord has always loved his people because he's always viewed
them in Christ in eternity past. But that's not what that word
everlasting just refers to. The word everlasting, as we've
seen over and over again in the scripture, doesn't just refer
to eternal past, but it refers to eternity future. In other
words, the Lord's saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. There's nothing you can do to
fall out of my love. You know, we fall in love and
out of love with people all the time. Someone offends us hard
enough and we'll fall out of love with them. Marriage is in
with people falling out of love with one another, don't they?
And here's the Lord saying, I've loved you with an everlasting
love. There's nothing you can do to make me stop loving you. And someone hears that and say,
well, that's gonna give license to sin. Oh no, that's the one
thing that causes us to hate our sin the most. is to know
that he loves us with an everlasting love. This love is eternal and
that he's gonna keep loving us and keep drawing us with cords
of kindness into his presence. Does that not move your heart
as a child of God to want to please him? Here he says, look,
for the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. And if he takes
this kind of pleasure in us, does it not move our hearts to
want to know more and more of his pleasure? John put it like
this. Oh, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of
God. It does not appear what we shall be, but when we see
him, when he shall appear, we'll see him as he is be made like
him. What glorious love the father has shown towards his people.
That's why he takes pleasure in them. Never been a time he
hasn't loved his elect and nothing they can do to lose that love. Nothing. If that doesn't move the heart
to cause us to hate our sin and rejoice in the fact that our
heavenly father takes pleasure in us, here in his love, not that we
love God. We don't measure love by our
love for God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the
propitiation of our sins. This is the evidence of God's
love. The proof of it is that he sent
his son. He sent his son. There's the
proof of God's love. And here's the confidence that
we have. His love also is particular. This idea that God loves everybody
is just simply not true. If God loves the person who goes
to hell as much as he loves his own children, what kind of love
is that? Turn with me to Romans chapter
nine. And this is a quote from Malachi chapter one. We'll look
at that verse as well. But turn with me to Romans chapter
nine and look at verse 10. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the
children be not yet born, neither having done any good or evil
that the purpose of God, according to election might stand, not
of works, but of him that calleth, it is said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger as it is written, Jacob I have loved
and Esau I have hated. Now turn back with me to Malachi
chapter 1. Verse 1, the burden of the Word
of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. "'I have loved you,' saith the
Lord. "'Yet you say, wherein hast thou loved us? "'Was not
Esau Jacob's brother?' saith the Lord. "'Yet I loved Jacob,
and I hated Esau, "'and laid his mountain and his heritage
waste "'for the dragons of the wilderness. "'Whereas Edom saith,
we are impoverished, "'but we will return and build the desolate
places.' "'Thus saith the Lord of hosts. "'They shall build,
but I will throw it down. and they shall call them the
border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord
hath indignation forever." Here's our Lord saying, Esau, all his
descendants, all that they attempt to build, all that they attempt
to do in order to win my favor, will be turned into desolation.
Jacob, before he was born, before he had done anything good or
evil. There's evidence, you see. I
place my love on him. Now, if that's true of Jacob
before he was born and before he'd done anything good or evil,
is it not true of Jacob the rest of his life? Oh, this love that
God has. This is the reason why he takes
pleasure. You take pleasure in your children because you love
them. your grandchildren because you love them. Nothing delights
your soul, humanly speaking, more than when your children
arrive and your grandchildren are all sitting around and you're
able to enjoy their... If you, being evil, know how
to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall
your heavenly Father? Oh, we're comparing apples to
oranges here, aren't we? I mean, that's even a bad illustration.
I'm sorry, but to compare our love to His is no comparison. His love is everlasting. His
love is particular. Turn back with me to Romans chapter
9, because I want you to see, as the Lord continues this passage,
His love is sovereign. He has the sovereign right to
have mercy upon whom He will have mercy and to harden whom
He will harden. He's not moved by anything in
us to decide whether who He's going to love or who He's not
going to love. That's the way we act, don't we? We marry somebody
because there was something in that person that was attracted,
that we were attracted to. Has the Lord married us because
He saw something in His bride that He was attracted to? Well,
yes and no. Nothing in them that he was attracted
to. He takes no pleasure in the strength
of the legs of man, but he was attracted to what he did in them.
He was attracted to the faith that he gave them, the love that
he put into their hearts. That's what he's a... Look at
Romans chapter 9 at verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? What do you mean Jacob I have
loved and Esau I've hated? That doesn't seem fair. I thought
God loved everybody. It's not what the Bible says. Is there unrighteousness with
God? Oh, perish the thought. That's what God forbid means.
Don't even go there. Don't even think. Don't even
have an idea that there perhaps could be something in God that's
not right. For he said to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showed mercy.
It's not in the strength of the legs of men that he takes pleasure
in. It's not of him that runs fast
enough to win the race. It's not of him that has the
most determined will. It's of God that show it mercy. God loves what God does. He loves
us effectually. He loves us effectually. Now
by that, what I mean is that when he loves us and reveals
his love to us in Christ, We love him in return. We love him
in return. Turn with me to first Corinthians
chapter 13. This. This union we have with Christ
is not just a. Legal matter. It's not just a
theological position. It's a real living union. And
the Lord, you know, oftentimes 1 Corinthians 13 is read perhaps
at weddings, or when I read it, I'm often thinking, you know,
well, yeah, that's the way I wanna love, but I don't. Actually,
it's a picture of His love. It's a picture of perfect love. And perfect love casteth out
fear. And so when we realize that this
is how much he loves us, we're moved to want to love him in
the same manner. Look at verse four. Charity,
love, suffereth long and is kind. It envieth not, it vaunteth not
itself. It is not puffed up. It does
not behave itself unseemly. It seeketh not her own. It's
not easily provoked. It thinketh no evil. It rejoiceth
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. It beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all
things. This love never fails. Never fails. This is the perfect
love of God. That love of God that's everlasting.
This is why he takes pleasure in his children, because he loves
them. He loves them with an everlasting
love. He loves them with a particular love. He loves them with an effectual
love. He loves them with an irresistible
love. Irresistible. Oh, you can't just
decide whether or not you're gonna let God love you. When he loves you, oh, he just... Well, turn with me to Ezekiel
chapter 16. Bert, you read this a week or
two ago when you did our call to worship. I love this passage
of scripture, Ezekiel 16, beginning at verse six. And when
I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood,
now here's a, here's a grossly deformed baby
that's been born and cast out into the field to die. Hasn't
been cleaned, hasn't been swaddled. The parents are ashamed and just
want to be rid of it. When I pass by thee, and what's
it a picture? It's a picture of you and me.
This is us, polluted in our own blood. I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen
great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned,
and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. And
when I pass by thee, and looked upon thee. Behold, thy time was
the time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered
thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine." And if you read the next four
or five verses, the Lord speaks of how he dresses his children
and his bride and makes her so beautiful and makes her comely
with his comeliness. And this is why he takes pleasure. He takes pleasure because the
father chose a people, a particular people. Yes, polluted in their
own blood, but he passed by them and he said unto them, Live,
for your day of love has come. Were they able to say, oh, no,
I don't want to live. No, I don't want to love God. No, no. When he puts in a new heart,
he causes his people to say exactly. Saul of Tarsus was breathing
out threatenings against the church, arresting and executing Christians. And God arrested him. Did he
have a choice about it? Did the Lord whisper in his ear
and say, Saul, don't you want to know me? Won't you give me
a chance to show you? No, he knocked him off his high
horse. A light shined from heaven. He
found himself in the dirt. And what was the first thing
out of his mouth when he found out who it was? Lord, what would
you have me to do? What would you have me to do?
His day of love had come. The Lord said unto him, live,
and he lived. And so it is, the love of God
is irresistible. It's irresistible. You have, you have your Bible
still open to Ezekiel 16. Let me show you verse 14, because
this Look at verse 14 in Ezekiel 16. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness,
which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. Oh, one day, one day, The Lord
is going to parade his bride before all of creation and show
all of creation the trophy of his grace. The Lord Jesus Christ
is saying here, I've got a trophy bride. I've got a trophy bride,
and I'm going to parade her because I've made her comely with my
comeliness, and I've loved her with an everlasting love, and
I've loved her in a way that was irresistible. I've loved
her in a way that's effectual. And look at the, go back with
me to our text in Psalm 149. Look at the second part of this
verse. The Lord taketh pleasure in his
people. Child of God, the Lord's not
tolerating you for Christ's sake. The Lord truly loves you. He
truly loves you. He's loved you with an everlasting
love. He takes pleasure in his children. And the child who has
the approval of his parent just wants more of that. Nothing comforts
him, nothing makes him more obedient, nothing makes him more happy
than to have the approval of his parent. And so it is in our
relationship with the Lord, I've taken pleasure in my children. Look at the second part. He will
beautify the meek with salvation. Now that's what we just read
in Ezekiel 16, 14. He makes them beautiful with
his comeliness, with his beauty. So that as he is, so are we right
now in this world. God looks at his children, he
sees his son. And as much as he loves his son,
he loves those that are found in him. in the same manner, in
the same way. Turn with me to that passage,
1 John 4. 1 John 4. Look with me at verse 17. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. This is
what I've been trying to say. How can my love be made perfect?
And how can I have boldness? How can I have confidence in
the day of judgment that I'll be able to stand in the presence
of God? For as he is, so are we in this world. There it is. Therefore, there is no fear in
love. The law gendereth fear. That's
what the law does. What we're doing here is we're
preaching grace. We're preaching pure, free, sovereign grace. Nothing about God's love that
looks at our obedience and our law keeping. This is the thing
that gives us boldness. This is the thing that moves
our hearts. The law gendereth fear. If God
only loves me when I'm obedient to Him, if God only approves
of me like what I do with my children when they're obedient, then, you know, I'm in constant
fear. I've got to try to do better
and keep the law better in order to win His favor. And that's
what the Lord's saying, no, no, you've already got my favor.
You've already got it. Christ got it for you. And as
I loved him, I love you. And this perfect love casteth
out fear. As I said Wednesday night, fear
is a powerful motivation, but there's one motivation that's
a whole lot more powerful than fear, and it's love. It's love. And that's what the Lord's saying
here. Oh, there's such liberty in love. There's such freedom
in love. There's such grace in love. Perfect love casteth out fear,
because fear, look at verse 18, because fear hath torment. He
that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because
he first loved us. We do love Him because He loved
us. Effectually, irresistibly, eternally,
particularly, He loved us. And we love Him because of that. And so our verse says, that he
will beautify the meek with salvation. He beautifies them by putting
the love of Christ in their heart. And he beautifies them by giving
them faith. You remember when our Lord was
asked to attend a meal at a Pharisee's house by the name of Simon? And
a notorious sinner, a woman, obviously a woman of great sinful
renown in that town, came into the place where our Lord was
and she broke open an alabaster jar and she began to weep and
dry his feet with her tears. And that's the passage where
the Lord said, they that are forgiven much, love much. They
that are forgiving little, love little. And he rebuked Simon. He said, Simon, I came into your
house. You didn't have anybody here to wash my feet. This woman
has not ceased to wash my feet with her tears. You have no one
to anoint me with oil. She has broken open an alabaster
jar and anointed me with this oil. And then he looked at that
woman and he said, thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. Thy faith has saved thee. Go
in peace. Now, technically speaking, faith
does not save us as a first cause. Your faith did not keep the law.
Christ kept the law. Your faith did not die on Calvary's
cross. Christ died on Calvary's cross.
Your faith did not raise from the dead. Christ raised from
the dead. Your faith did not ascend into glory. Christ ascended
into glory. Christ is seated at the right
hand of God. Christ is the first cause of our salvation. So why
did the Lord say, thy faith hath saved thee? Faith, true saving faith. honors
the Lord Jesus Christ in salvation. He gives all praise and all glory
and all credit to him. It takes no credit to itself.
This woman had nothing to boast of. The scripture says she was
a great sinner. Everybody knew what kind of life
she lived. And yet the Lord said, she wasn't
trying to boast in anything. She was honoring Christ. She was glorying in Him. She
was looking to Him and putting her hope and her faith in Him. Where'd she get that faith? God gave her that faith. And
God honors faith because faith honors Christ. It gives all the
glory and praise to Christ. And so when the Lord said, he
taketh pleasure in his people and he beautifies the meek with
salvation, what he's saying there is that he makes his people meek
and beautiful with the grace of love and faith. Oh, and how he rejoices, how
he rejoices in his children. If that, if this glorious truth
does not move the heart to want to love him, worship him, believe
him, obey him, follow him, then we know nothing about the love
of God. Amen. Let's take a break.