Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 62 from your hardback hymnal. Number
62, crown him with many crowns. Let's all stand together. Number
62. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns, all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
who died for thee, and hail Him as thy matchless King through
all eternity. crown him the lord of love behold
his hands and side rich wounds yet visible above in beauty glorified
no angel in the can fully bear that sight. The downward bends
his wandering eye at mysteries so bright. ? Crown Him the Lord of life
? ? Who triumphed o'er the grave ? ? Who rose victorious to the
strife ? ? For those He came to save ? ? His glories now we
sing ? ? Who died and rose on high ? ? Who died eternal life
to bring ? And lives that death may die ? Crown Him the Lord
of heaven ? One with the Father known ? One with the Spirit through
Him given ? From yonder glorious throne To Thee be endless praise,
For Thou for us hast died. Be Thou, O Lord, through endless
days Adored and magnified. Please be seated. We could not have opened this
service with a more appropriate hymn. Thank you, Tom. I want
to try to bring a message on the deity of Christ. Crowning
him Lord. Our text is going to be found
in Psalm 100, but for our scripture reading will begin with Psalm
101. So if you'll turn with me in
your Bibles to Psalm 101. A Psalm of David. And all the
Psalms are not titled a Psalm of David. They're not all written
by David. The ones that are titled a Psalm of David are clearly,
clearly speaking, not of David, the man, but the son of David,
the God man, the God man. That's who, there's no way to
understand Psalm 101 in light of anyone else. Verse one, Psalm 101, I will
sing of mercy and judgment unto thee, O Lord, while I sing. I will behave myself wisely in
a perfect way. Oh, when wilt thou come unto
me? I will walk within my house with
a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before
my eyes. I hate the work of them that
turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. A
forward heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked
person. Whoso privately slandereth his
neighbor, him will I cut off. Him that hath a high look and
a proud heart will not I suffer. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful
of the land. that they may dwell with me.
And he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. He that worketh deceit shall
not dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not
tarry in my sight. I will early destroy all the
wicked of the land, that I may cut off all the wicked doers
from the city of the Lord. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time together. Our merciful heavenly Father,
we ask that you would, by the power, mercy, and grace of thy
Holy Spirit, cause us to to see Christ in
thy word. Lord, what a, what a glorious
picture of thy dear son. This psalm that we just read
is the perfect man, the man who loves righteousness and hates
iniquity. And therefore, Lord, you have,
you have given him a throne and a scepter to rule and to reign
You've given him all preeminence and we bow in worship. Lord, we pray that you would
enable us this hour to see more of Christ and to be brought into
a spirit of worship of him. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 352, 352, and let's all
stand again. 352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high, hide me, O my Savior, hide. ? Till the storm of life is past
? ? Safe into the haven guide ? ? O receive my soul at last
? ? Other refuge have I none ? ? Hangs my helpless soul on
thee ? Leva, leave me not alone. Fill this port and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed. All my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all on righteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenty as grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain art,
freely let me take of Thee. ? Spring thou up within my heart
? Rise to all eternity Please be seated. Psalm 100, verse three. Know ye that the Lord, he, Now, that's not saying God is
God. That's declaring clearly that
the Lord Jesus Christ is God. I have had several experiences
of late hearing people call into question the deity of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I was listening to the radio
yesterday and heard a man on there who was a professing atheist. And he said that he was a student
of philosophy and that he was open-minded and that he was an
intellectual and that he's come to the conclusion that there
is no God. And I thought, what a fool. What a fool, professing yourself
to be wise, you become a fool in your heart. It is the fool
that say, there is no God. The one thing that's most clear
in the scriptures is that Jesus is God. No other theme, no other
message is as clear as that. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And we beheld His glory as the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth,
and the Word which is God became flesh and dwelt among us. That's the mystery, isn't it? That God was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh. That the fullness of the Godhead
was in him bodily. The Lord, he is God. Don't you love that? Don't you
love just resting there? Why would you worship him if
he's not God? Why would we sing the hymns that
we just sang if the Lord Jesus Christ was not God? Why do you persecute me? He asked
this enemies for what good works. Do you persecute me? Not for
the good works, which you do, but because you being a man,
make yourself out to be God, his enemies knew what he was
claiming the Lord, the Lord, Jesus Christ. He is God. Look at the rest of that verse. It is He that hath made us. He's not just talking about physical
creation. Yes, in the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And when the Lord said, let there
be light, the Lord Jesus Christ was that light. And in Him was
life. And the life was the light of
the world. But here we're reminded also
that all creation, physical and spiritual is of God. There's no, just as God took
the dust of the earth and fashioned the body of Adam and breathed
life into his nostrils, so it is the Lord who is God. It is
he that made us and not we ourselves, not we ourselves. Turn to me to Romans chapter
one, Romans chapter one. God has made this glorious truth
known through creation and by conscience to all men. And in
order for someone to conclude that there is no God or that
Jesus is not God, they would have to deny the evidence that
the Lord has clearly laid out in creation and in conscience. Men will be responsible before
God for what they've done with the revelation that he's given
them. They're without excuse. The scripture's
clear on that. But the only way to know God,
savingly, and this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the
only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent, is through
the preaching of the gospel. The revelation of Christ cannot
be made to the heart simply by the evidence of God in creation
and the evidence of God in conscience. There has to be a special revelation
made through the preaching of the gospel to the hearts of God's
people. Look at verse 18 in Romans chapter,
well, we begin reading at verse, Well, verse 18, for the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. They've seen
the truth. They've heard the truth, but
they don't believe the truth. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God hath shown it unto them. So men have this nature of this
knowledge of God from nature, from creation, from birth. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. So the evidence of God is made
clear in creation, it's made clear in conscience and leaves
man without excuse because that when he knew God, he knew that
there was a God, they glorified him not as God. They refused
to bow, they refused to submit, they refused to worship. Neither
were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like corruptible man and to birds and four-footed
beasts and creeping things. Wherefore, God gave them up to
uncleanness." Now, that's what man does with the revelation
that God has made of himself. God's people who have been given
the revelation of Christ rejoice in worshiping God in the spirit,
rejoicing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in their
flesh. Go back with me to Psalm 100. Know ye that the Lord, he is
God. He is God. Being found in the form of God,
he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. The Lord Jesus
Christ did not consider himself to be a blasphemer by claiming
to be God. Why? Because he is God. He is God. Now, if a man claims to be God,
there's only three choices that you can come to. Either he is
deluded, he's out of his mind, he thinks he's God, and he's
not, which makes him a lunatic. Or he knows he's not God and
he's trying to perpetrate a lie, which makes him a liar. Or he
is God. There's no other choice, no other
option. And so let the world come to
their conclusions all they want or live in denial about the,
about the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, we worship him as God. Know ye that the Lord, he is
God. He is God. It is he that made
us. He made us physically and he
makes us spiritually. Not we ourselves. We are the
sheep of his pasture. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
4. 1 John chapter 4. This revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ as God
is made only in the word of God. and is only made known to the
hearts of God's people through the preaching of the gospel.
As Christ, he said, and I, if I be lifted up, will draw all
men to me. So it's Christ that we preach.
We preach Christ and him crucified. When Paul said, I profess to
know nothing among you save Christ and him crucified, he wasn't
saying that I don't, you know, there's nothing else that's really
important. He was saying there's nothing else. There's nothing
else. It's Christ and him crucified. That is the message of scripture. That's the message of the gospel.
That's the only hope of our salvation is to be brought by the spirit
of God to bow at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and worship
him as God. Now the very first, we ought
not to be surprised, that the very first denials of the gospel
had to do with the deity of Christ. And much of what John wrote in
1 John was to reaffirm who the Lord Jesus Christ is as God. And so he says in chapter 4 of
1st John, beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits,
whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone
out into the world. Hereby know ye the spirit of
God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh is of God. Now, This statement presupposes
some things. In order for the Lord Jesus Christ
to come in the flesh, then that means that he existed before
he was born. Before Abraham was, I am. Are you saying that you're older
than our father Abraham? I'm Abraham's creator. I'm the Lord who is God. And
Abraham, I made Abraham. He didn't make himself. And so
every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come, he is come,
he is the Christ. He's the savior of sinners. He's
the son of God. He's the sovereign one who came
in the flesh. And those who, that spirit, which
confesses that, makes that clear in light of all the gospel is
of God. It is of God. And every spirit
that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is not of God. This is the spirit of the antichrist. Now the spirit of antichrist
will give lip service to the deity of Christ. but they will
deny the very essence of deity by denying his sovereignty in
salvation, won't they? They'll deny the very essence
of deity by denying his power in salvation, his omnipotence. All power has been given unto
me in heaven and in earth. Um, man is without power when
we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.
So the, the, the spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is
come in the flesh, which is of God. Doesn't just say that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh, but it, it declares the meaning
of what that statement is that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh. that he's the he's the sovereign God. He's the one that
chose according to his own will and purpose. those whom he would
save. He's sovereign in that. I know
the father, we talk about the father being involved in election,
but the father didn't do anything without the son being involved.
And the son didn't do anything without the spirit being involved.
The triune Godhead, they're all working together in salvation
and the sovereignty of salvation. The Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
he is God. He's the one that made us, not
we ourselves. See, we didn't decide we were
gonna be saved one day, any more than we decided that we were
gonna be born one day. It just doesn't work that way.
God had to birth us into this world and God has to birth us
anew. That's what the Lord said to
Nicodemus. Nicodemus, you've got to be born again. How do I go back into my mother's
womb? I mean, this was a man of great knowledge and wisdom,
I suppose. Oh no, Nicodemus, you've got
to be born of the Spirit. And the same way you were born
of the flesh, you've got to be born of the Spirit. But that
which is of the flesh is flesh. But that which is of the Spirit
is the Spirit that giveth life. The flesh doesn't profit anything.
It was God that made us in the flesh, and it's God that makes
us in the Spirit. It's God that opens the eyes
of our understanding. It's God that unstops our ears.
It's God that gives us faith. It's the miracle of the new birth. The Lord, he is God. It is he
that made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Now here's what we, here's what
the problem is. People don't want to see themselves
as sheep. Sheep are dumb. Lord, I wouldn't know anything
about you if you didn't reveal yourself to me. I mean that people who, who, who
call into question the deity of Christ and pride themselves
and thinking that they're intellectuals and that they're philosophers
and that they're full of wisdom are fools. They're fools. But,
and so we come to that, Lord, if you didn't reveal it to me,
you're the one that has to make me to differ. You're the one
that has to reveal Christ to my heart. And if you didn't do
it, I'd be just as foolish as the rest of the world. Sheep are dependent. They can't
care for themselves. They can't provide for themselves.
They're in need of a shepherd, aren't they? That's why David
said, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want of anything. The Lord, he is God. I'm the
sheep of his pasture. It is he that made me. We did
not make ourselves. We did not make ourselves. I
told you about the Indian philosopher that I talked to some time ago
He taught philosophy in college and he told me, he said, he said,
I'm still struggling with the philosophical conundrum that
I struggled with when I was a student of philosophy in college many,
many years ago. And this was an older man. I
said, what is that? He said, well, it's the lifelong
question. Did God make us or did we make
God? And I thought, what a fool, what
a fool. It is the Lord. He is God. He is God. It is he that made
us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. And anybody that denies that
is denying the clear evidence of God in creation and in conscience. And if they deny the evidence
that God's given in his word, then they're without hope. They're
without hope. They will die without God and
spend eternity separated from him. As God, he is sovereign. He hath done whatsoever he wills. with the armies of heaven and
all the inhabitants of the earth. No man can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doeth thou? He's the potter, we're the clay. He has the sovereign right to
make out of the same lump of clay, some vessels of honor and
some of dishonor. Who are you, old man, to call
God into question? Oh, and we don't, do we? We rejoice
in knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ is sovereign. And we rejoice
in knowing it's the only God is sovereign nations can call
themselves sovereign all they want. They're not sovereign.
Kings can call themselves sovereigns all they want. They're not sovereign.
There's only one sovereign. There's only one who has total
power and control and authority over all things in heaven and
in earth and under the earth. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is the Lord. You know that the Lord, he is
God. It is he that made us and not
we ourselves. We are the people. We are his
people, the sheep of his pasture. You know, sheep, sheep are dumb.
Sheep are dependent. Sheep are dirty. They're dirty
animals. Uh, and they're defenseless.
They can't take care of themselves. You know, they, they, they're,
they're easy prey. And what do we say, Lord, that's
me. That's me. Or if you don't, if
you don't cleanse me of my sin, if you don't defend me from the
enemy, I've been. I've suffered the fiery darts
of Satan enough to know that, Lord, you're gonna have to give
me the shield of faith to quench those darts. You're gonna have
to enable me to look to Christ as my shepherd, because I'm just
a defenseless sheep out here. And that's why sheep flock together. And God's people flock together,
don't they? They rejoice in coming together. Why? Because it's their
support and their encouragement. in this world that's against
them in every way. The whole world is contrary to
us, isn't it? And us to the world. Paul said,
I'm crucified to the world and the world to me. There's nothing
in this world that I find supportive of my soul except Christ. And I've got to be with his people.
I've got to hear about him. As the Lord Jesus Christ being
God, he is immutable. He's immutable. I am the Lord and I change not. And therefore you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Don't we rejoice in knowing that
our God's immutable. You see, there's a whole lot
of folks that say Jesus is the Christ. He's the son of the living
God, but they deny the very essence of that when they say that, well,
you know, he might save and he might not. He's just, you know,
he'll kind of, he'll kind of go with the wind depending on
what man lets him do or doesn't let him do. And, and we know
that our God's immutable. He hasn't changed one bit. He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever. And what He declared
in eternity, He will fulfill in eternity. And everything that's
happened in time, He's already determined it in
eternity, hasn't He? It is the Lord. You know that
the Lord Jesus Christ, He is God. It is He that hath made
us. Our physical lives are dependent
upon Him. Michael, I know you love this
illustration that Maurice Montgomery gave. You've used it a few times
and it was a good simple illustration. where Maurice stood in this pulpit
and he took a deep breath and he said, what did I just do?
And you just breathed. You just breathe, that's right.
And the next breath you draw is dependent upon God. And the Lord cut your breath off
anytime he wants. And you might be able to go three
weeks without food and three days without water, but you're
not gonna last three minutes without air. God cuts off your
heir and he's going to cut off every one of our heirs, but one
day, isn't he? The Lord, he is God. It is he that made us and
it's he that sustains us. And just as he gives us physical
breath, he gives us spiritual breath. He had to breathe life
into the nostrils of Adam in the garden. He has to breathe
life into us. That, that, that, that valley
of dry bones, Ezekiel tells us about. Their bone came to bone
and sinew, and yet there was no life in them. And what did
the Lord say? Son of man, prophesy unto the
wind. Call upon the Spirit of God to
come and breathe life. And He did, and they lived. And how's that story end? Son
of man, this is the whole house of Israel. These are the people
of God. He is God. He is God. It is he that made
them and not we ourselves. He's got to, he's got to make
us physically. He's got to make us spiritually.
He's got to sustain us. He's got to keep us. He's got
to bring us. We, we, why? Because we're sheep.
We're sheep. We're dumb, defenseless, dirty,
dependent sheep. And God's people rejoice. Here's the glorious truth. He's
omniscient. You see, if you got the right
shepherd, then you don't mind being a sheep. Because though
I'm dumb, he's omniscient. Though I'm defenseless, he's
sovereign and omnipotent. Though I'm Dirty and sinful,
he is holy and harmless and undefiled and separate from sinners. We've
got the right shepherd, don't we? You see, man, all men are
sheep, they just don't know it. And they go about trying to be
their own shepherd. But here's what God says, you
know, you know, the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is God. It is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are his people. I just want
to be his people, don't you? Not everybody's his people. You
know, all men are gods by creation and God reigns sovereign over
all men's lives. You know, men say, talk about
making Jesus Lord of their life. He already is. He already is,
whether you want him to be or not. The Lord Jesus Christ reigns
sovereign over every man. Let them raise their fist in
rebellion and say, we'll not have this man reign over us.
God has set his son, his king on his holy hill. Kiss the son. And that how Psalm
2 finishes, kiss the son lest he be angry. Lest he be angry. Oh, we bow willingly. The Lord's made us willing. He's
made us willing to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ and worship
him as God. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he that made us. and not
we ourselves. We're his people. We're the sheep
of his pasture. He possesses all power. He's
never changing. He's sovereign. He's omniscient. And we rejoice,
we rejoice in coming into his presence. Look, go back with
me to Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord all ye lands. Now I looked up this word, joyful
noise. It's a shout of victory, a shout of victory. And I was thinking about, I was
thinking about when David You can just see Saul and his army
hunkered down behind the rocks and trees, afraid of the Philistines
and particularly that great giant Goliath. And David went out and
said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that blasphemes our
God? Our God will give us the victory. And all of Saul's army was fearful
until Goliath fell like a big tree, didn't he? Can you just
see Saul, David's brethren, and the rest of the men? Scripture
says they chased the Philistines after that. David got the victory
for all of Israel, and now all of a sudden they shout victorious. I was thinking about when Joshua
brought the children of Israel across the Jordan, and they marched
around Jericho six days in a row. with the Ark of the Covenant
and the priest leading this procession around the city of Jericho. And
on the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times.
And the seventh time, Joshua said, shout, shout. Yeah, I never saw this before,
but I always thought, you know, parts of the wall fell down.
The scripture says that the whole city was surrounded by the army
of Israel. And each man walked straight
into the city for the entire wall fell flat to the ground,
flat to the ground. And Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ,
just like David got the victory over Goliath and over the Philistines. So our Joshua has brought the
walls down. And now he says, make a joyful
noise unto the Lord. Now, those who make the loudest noise
are generally those trying to impress those who are only able
to hear audibly. When the scripture says to make
a joyful noise unto the Lord, he's not talking about an outward
demonstration of enthusiasm like the children of Israel would
have had. He's talking about speaking to yourselves in Psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in
your heart to the Lord. Our God's not hard of hearing. He's not. We don't run around
trying to convince one another that we're making a joyful noise
unto the Lord. We're not trying to pretend to
act like Saul's army or Joshua's army bringing down Jericho. Those
are physical pictures of a spiritual truth that happens in the heart. In the heart. You make a joyful
noise in your heart unto the Lord. Those who are making the
loudest noise to the Lord are most often the quietest. Giving thanks always in all things
unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He knows the thoughts and the intents of our hearts. And if
he enables us to worship him, to worship him, we will be shouting
the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts in praise
and worship to God. Sing unto the Lord a new song
for he hath done marvelous things, his right hand and his holy arm
have gotten him the victory. The Lord Jesus Christ is victorious. Why? Because he's God. He's victorious
over sin. He's victorious over the grave. He's victorious over Satan. He's
victorious over hell. He's victorious over death. He's
gotten the victory. And we worship him in spirit. and in truth and in the heart. We're not interested in impressing
men that we're making a joyful noise unto the Lord. The noise we're making is unto
the Lord. It's unto the Lord and he's not
hard of hearing. And he's not impressed with outward
feigned things that men do in religion. He's looking at the
heart, isn't he? Speaking to yourselves in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs and making melody in your heart
to the Lord. and God give us the grace to
make a joyful noise unto the Lord. All ye lands, all men everywhere
are without excuse, all men everywhere are commanded of God to worship
and to repent and to believe. And because they've rejected
the revelation that God has made, they will stand before God I
thought about that man that I was listening to yesterday says an
atheist. And I wish I could have, wish I could have talked to him.
Cause this is why we're told him the very moment you draw your
last breath, you will no longer be an atheist. I guarantee it. You're not going
to be an atheist when you leave this room. It's an old man. I
was listening to he's up in his late seventies. And I thought
the moment you draw your last breath, you will not be an atheist.
You will know that the Lord, he is God. It is he that made
you and not we ourselves. We are his people, the sheep
of his pasture. You know, men say, are you going
to be so mindless and so simple that you're going to believe
everything that's in the Bible? Aren't you going to question?
The only people that are in their right mind are the people that
believe everything in this book. The only people that are in their
right mind are the people that believe God. People that don't believe, let
the pseudo intellectual pride himself all he wants and being
investigative and questioning and being intellectual and thinking
that he's calling, he's going to discern from himself. We rejoice
in saying truth, Lord. Here's the miracle. It's the
Lord that has to make us to believe that, doesn't it? We're not going
to come to that. We'll be just the same way if
the Lord doesn't. And when God makes you to be
a believer, you just believe everything that God says. Everything. You don't go through God's Word
and say, well, you know, I'm not sure about that. You say, Lord, I don't understand
it, but I know it's true. I know it's true. And we bow. Why? Because we're in the presence
of God. And just like that atheist is
going to every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that
Jesus is the Christ he's Lord to the glory of God. Some bow now willingly being
made willing by the power of God's spirit. Others will bow. when that rod of iron smites
them on the back of their knee and they're, you know, when the
scripture says that God's gonna make his enemies his footstool,
some will sit at his feet and some will be under his feet,
but all men will be at the feet of Christ. All men will be at
the feet of Christ. He's God. The Lord. He is God. It is he that made us, not we
ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Verse four, and I close. Enter
into his gates with thanksgiving. Oh, come, he made us, and he
made us willing, and he made us new, and he gave us a new
life, and he gave us a new heart, and he says, come. Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. The spirit and the
bride say, come. The veil's been rent. The Lord's
calling us to come into his presence, and he says, enter into his gates. He's calling us into the city
of God. He's calling us into heaven,
enter into his gates. You know, when John saw that
new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, it had 12 gates, three
on each side of the city, three pointing to the North, three
to the South, three to the East, three to the West. And the scripture
says, and all the gates were of one pearl. So the Lord's giving access for
all men to come from wherever their experiences are and whatever
their lives are. He's, you know, the, the, the
four corners of the earth, the Lord's got people of every tribe
and every nation, every tongue and every people. And, and yet
they all come through that one pearl of great price, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, I'm the gate. I'm the
gate. The robber and the thief comes
in another way. What are they doing? They're
robbing God of His glory. They're putting themselves on
the throne of God. They're denying Christ as God. And they try to
come in some other way. We would not dare try to come
into the Holy City any other way than through the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is God, knowing that He made us. We did not make ourselves. enter into his gates with thanksgiving,
thanksgiving, being thankful for all things. For this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. God's people are thankful
people. Even when things are not, we're
not going to the way they would want them to go. They know that it is the Lord
that is God. That he's sovereignly controlling
the circumstances of their lives. And in faith, in faith, they're
thankful. They are thankful. Lord, I know
you, I know you're in control of this. I know you have a purpose
in this. I know that your ultimate end is my salvation and your
glory. And I'm good with that. I'm good
with that. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise. People meet all over the world
and they feign religious worship, but you only worship a sovereign
God. You only worship a sovereign
God. Anything else is just pretending. But when you find yourself in
the presence of an absolute, immutable, omnipotent sovereign,
then you bow in worship and you seek his mercy, don't you? Enter
into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise.
Be thankful unto him and bless his name. Bless his name. His name is Jesus. He's the Lord. He's the glorious. I am the,
the, the, you know what that, what that term I am when, when
the Lord, when most God had not given, um, Abraham or Isaac or
Jacob or any of the children of Jacob for 400 years, his name,
they just knew him as God until Moses met the Lord at the burning
bush. And that was the Lord, that was Jesus Christ. He was
the bush that burned with the fiery wrath of God's judgment,
but was not consumed. Why? Because he's God. You can't
consume God. And Moses said, Lord, what am
I going to tell him? Who shall I say sent me? Tell
him I am. I am. I'm the self-existent one. I exist within myself. I'm not
like you in any way. I'm not created. I'm the creator. Always been. Always will be. I'm not dependent. I'm not derived. I'm not contingent on anything
or anybody. I'm not like you. I'm the shepherd. You're the sheep. I'm the potter. You're the clay. I'm God. And you're not. And God's people
say, amen, amen, Lord, I'm able to come into your gates with
Thanksgiving into your courts with praise. Be thankful unto
him. Bless his name. Why? Because the Lord is good. He's good. Why don't men come to Christ?
Why don't they come to him? Because they don't know that
he's good. If they knew that he was good,
they'd come. If they knew that all he had
for them was good, they'd come. If they knew that only he was
able to forgive them of their sins and give them righteousness
before God and justify them in the presence of God, that only
he was able to provide for them everything they needed in this
life and in the life to come, they would come. They would come. But God has to cause his goodness
to pass before them, doesn't he? And that's why we preach
the gospel. That's why we keep preaching
Christ, because this is the means by which God passes his goodness
before them. And our hope and prayer is that
the Lord will open the eyes of our understanding, cause us to
see the goodness of God, the goodness of Christ, and to believe,
Lord, you've got nothing for me but good. For the Lord is good, his mercy
is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations. And I was talking to a man recently,
he said, well, I, you know, I can know, I know when I go to a church,
whether it's right for me because of the way it makes me feel. And I told him, I said, you know,
feelings come and feelings go, feelings are deceiving. My only
warrant is the word of God. Nothing else is worth believing.
The question that you need to ask yourself is not, how does
it make me feel? The question you need to ask
yourself is, is it true? Is it true? That's the only thing
that matters. His truth endureth to all generations. Is he the truth? Is everything
he said true? Because if I know the truth,
I'm free, it doesn't matter how I feel, it doesn't matter what
is happening in my circumstances, I know the truth. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for revealing Christ
as God. And thank you for causing us
to rejoice in being the sheep of his pasture, in knowing that
we did not make ourselves. Lord, we pray that you would
cause us to come into your gates with thanksgiving and into your
courts with praise. And that you would reveal to
us. The glorious truth. Of thy dear son. And his finished
work of redemption. We ask it in his name. Amen. 143, let's stand together 143. Rejoice, the Lord is King, your
Lord and King adored. Rejoice, give thanks and sing,
and triumph evermore. Lift up your heart, lift up your
voice. Rejoice again, I say rejoice. Jesus the Savior reigns, the
God of truth and love. When he had purged our state,
he took his seat above. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again. I say rejoice. His kingdom cannot fail. He rules over earth and heaven. The keys of death and hell are
to our Jesus given. Lift up your heart lift up your
voice rejoice again I say rejoice rejoice in glorious hope our
Lord the judge shall come and take his servants up to their
eternal home Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again. I say rejoice.