We're going to open this morning's
service with number one in the spiral handbook, and we'll sing
it a cappella. Let's all stand together. We have come into this place
to call upon His name and worship Him. We have come into this place
to call upon His name and worship Him. We have come into this place
to call upon His name and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. So forget about yourself, magnify
His name and worship Him. So forget about yourself, magnify
His name and worship Him. So forget about yourself, magnify
His name, and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. We are debtors to His grace,
the law's been satisfied, now worship Him. We are debtors to His grace,
the law's been satisfied, now worship Him. We are debtors to his grace. The law's been satisfied. Now worship Christ the Lord. Worship him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. We are chosen in His grace, redeemed
by His blood, now worship Him. We are chosen in His grace, redeemed
by His blood, now worship Him. We are chosen in His grace, Redeemed
by His blood, now worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. He is all our righteousness. I stand in Him complete. Now worship Him. He is all our righteousness,
I stand in Him complete, now worship Him. He is all our righteousness,
I stand in Him complete, Please be seated. I Asked Tom to lead
us in that hymn this first hour because The subject of our text in Psalm
95 is worship. Worship. We know that worship is a work of grace in the heart
and only if the Lord enables us will we be able to enter in
to true spiritual worship. That's our hope and that's our
prayer and That's what the Lord has called on us to do. Come, come, let us worship. I'm sure everyone knows by now
about our dear sister, Digna. She's gone home to be with the
Lord. We're so very thankful for her, and rejoice, and and
hope for her. Um, we didn't get the details
on the service until after the bulletin was printed. So an email
went out. Hopefully you received it. If
you didn't, uh, the funeral service will be at 11 30 this Friday. All faiths funeral home, which
is 49 oh one South Orange Avenue. just south of Gatlin, if you're
familiar with that part of town. 1130 this Friday. So I hope you
all will be there. There's a A brief word in your
bulletin that I think expresses all of our feelings about Digna
and the encouragement that she's been to us over these years.
Digna was the... Tricia and Digna were baptized
in Lake Seville at the same time. And we were still in our old
church. And I just started preaching
the gospel and before we had to leave there and Digna was. Was. Blessed to hear from God
the truth of the gospel right at the beginning and. Alright, you have your Bibles
open to Psalm 95. Let's go before the Lord and
ask his blessings on our time together. Oh, our merciful Heavenly Father,
How thankful we are that you've brought us once again to this
place. You've promised your presence. You've promised your spirit.
You've promised to reveal to us your glory. And to bring us
into a spirit of worship. Lord, how we? Have great hope
in the fulfillment of those promises. We ask now that you would. Open
our eyes. We pray that you would speak
to our hearts. We pray that you would reveal
to us the glory of thy dear son. Send your spirit in power. Reveal
the truth. Of the Gospel to us. And enable
us Lord. We plead that you would enable
us to worship. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Psalm 95 verse 10 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 pray with Psalms for the Lord is a great
God and a great king above all gods. 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 his hands formed 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,
as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, When your fathers
tempted me and proved me and saw my work, forty years long
was I grieved with this generation and said it is a people that
do air in their hearts and they have not known my ways. Unto whom I swear in my wrath
that they should not enter into my rest. Hebrews chapter 3 repeats some
of these verses in admonishing us to not be like those unbelieving
Israelites who had the gospel preached to them, but they did
not believe. And because of their lack of
faith, they did not enter in to rest. Worship is to be done in faith.
It's a work of grace in the heart whereby God enables us to bow,
bow down. The word worship in the Bible
is a conjunction of two words that one word is like, L-I-K-E,
and the other word is dog. Now, those of you that have a
faithful dog, know how your dog worships you when you come home. And nothing makes your dog happier
than to have your attention. And that's exactly what worship
is. We bow, we kiss the hand of our
king, and nothing pleases the child of God more than to be
in his presence and to be able to worship him. God created us to worship. I find people wondering what
we're here for. Well, there's why we're here.
The old writers of catechism taught our children well when
they framed the very first question, what is man's chief end? And the answer to that question,
to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. That's our purpose. That's why God created us. Why? Because God needed subjects to
praise him? No, because it was in God's loving
and gracious character to share his glory with us. Nothing, nothing pleases a child
of God more than to be brought into the presence of their creator
and to worship him. It's what the scripture teaches,
1 Corinthians 10, verse 31, whether you eat or whether you drink
or whatsoever you do, do it all to the glory of God. That's why we're here, to glorify
God and to enjoy him forever. And the pinnacle of glorifying
God is worship. It's private worship in the heart,
but it reaches a higher level of glory when it becomes public
worship of the church. I feel sad for those who only
have private worship. They've not had the opportunity
to enter in to a public worship service where God's people come
together, where they raise their voices in praise, and where God
has promised to make his presence known in a very special way. We've come to this place to worship
our God. The scripture says for of him
and through him and to him are all things to the glory of God. So he's the creator of all things,
of him, Through him, he's the sustainer of all things, and
to him, all things are made for his glory. And our greatest good
and our greatest happiness is his highest glory. It's what
we need more than anything else. Turn to me to Psalm, Isaiah,
I'm sorry, Isaiah chapter 60. Those who have no or very little
interest in attending public worship have never experienced
worship. They just haven't. We don't say
to our unbelieving friends, come worship with us. It's not possible
for them to worship. Come, meet a man who told me
everything I ever did. Is not this the Christ? Come
and listen to the gospel. But worship, once you've experienced
it, it's the one thing you can't do without. It's the one thing
you delight in more than anything else. Look at Isaiah chapter
60 at verse 21, the people also shall be all
righteous. Now we can't enter into the presence
of God apart from the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
God says the people will be made righteous. I'm going to impute
to them. I'm going to charge to their
account the perfect righteousness of my son and make them Make
them able to enter into my presence. Habakkuk said that God's eyes
are too pure to look upon wickedness. We have to be made righteous.
And, uh, and, and now the Lord's making this promise to all my
people found in Christ. accepted in the beloved are going
to enter into my presence and worship me because of his righteousness
become their righteousness. All my people, verse 21, shall
be all righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands that I may be
glorified. the trees of righteousness which
are the plantings of the Lord, the branch, the picture here
is that wild olive tree that's been grafted in to Israel, the Gentiles, and my
people shall be grafted in and I will be glorified for it's
my work of grace that accomplished this. How oftentimes We read
of God's people worshipping. Mephibosheth worshipped. What
would the king have to do with such a dead dog as I? The Syrophoenician
woman worshipped. Truth, Lord, that's what I am.
I'm a dog. But the dogs eat the crumbs that
come from the master's table. Caleb is a picture of the church,
Joshua is a type of Christ, all those who would not believe God
in the wilderness in the day of provocation, which we just
read about, died in the wilderness, who came into the promised land?
The only two men that were over 40 years old at the beginning,
or over 20 years old, Joshua, Jehovah saves, that's Christ,
and Caleb, a faithful dog. That's his church. That's his
church. Heard a story about a man who
was walking through the woods and found a dog that was caught
in a trap. And the dog was injured and scared
and couldn't get loose. And the man tried to approach
the dog, but the dog was vicious to defend itself against this
one who thought he was going to hurt him even further. All
the man wanted to do was let him go. So the man wisely found
a stick, a forked stick, and approached the dog slowly and
put the forked stick on the dog's neck and pinned him to the ground
while he reached down with his other hand and released the trap,
backed off away from the dog, and walked away. And while he
was walking, he heard a noise behind him. He looked back. And that dog, limping, was following
him. And after time, he got a little
closer and a little closer. And that dog never left the side
of that man the rest of that dog's life. Now that's what the Lord's done
for us. We were caught in a trap. The trap of sin. And we would
have died there. And the Lord pinned us to the
ground. When the Lord Jesus Christ died
on Calvary's cross, he satisfied the demands of God's law. He
fulfilled justice and God's Caleb's God's Caleb's. What did the Lord
say? My sheep, or we could say my dogs hear my voice and they
follow me. They follow me. God make us to be like a dog
worshipping not only our Creator but our Redeemer, our Redeemer. The first time that worship is
mentioned in the scripture is found in Genesis chapter 22 when
God told Abraham, take thy son, thine only son, the one whom
thou lovest and sacrifice him unto me. And Abraham Believing
God took Isaac and went to Moriah, Mount Moriah, which is what was
in Jerusalem. That was the future of Jerusalem.
Matter of fact, same place where the temple was later built. And
Abraham told his servants, you stay here at the bottom of the
mountain and the lad and I will go worship God. And we will return
unto you. And as they went up that mountain,
you remember Isaac said, Father, here's the fire and here's the
wood, but where's the sacrifice for the burnt offering? And what
did Abraham say to his son? Son, God will provide himself
a sacrifice. Abraham bound Isaac to the to
the altar and raise the knife to slay him in obedience to God. Must have believed that God was
going to raise him from the dead. He said, the lad and I were going
to go worship God. We're going to come back. We're
going to come back. And the Lord stopped him, didn't
he? What Abraham looked behind him and he found a ram stuck
in a thicket by its horns. What another picture, a picture
of Christ. The horn is a picture of strength
and the Lord Jesus Christ was caught in the thicket of our
sin on Calvary's cross and he became our substitute. And God,
Abraham, took that ram and put it on the altar and worshiped
God through the sacrifice of a slain animal, a slain lamb,
a blood sacrifice. That's the only way we're going
to worship God. We can say with the father of the faithful, the
one who believed God. We're going to go worship God.
We're going to worship Him with a blood sacrifice, and He's going
to provide Himself a sacrifice. And when Abraham said God will
provide Himself a sacrifice, there are three things in that,
isn't there? God's going to do the providing. God's going to
provide Himself. And God's going to make the provision
to himself. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
go to Calvary's cross to make an offering for you and me. He
went to the cross to offer himself to the Father. It's not that,
you know, here I am, won't you accept me? Oh, no. No. He offered himself to the Father,
and the Father accepted the sacrifice that Christ made. God saw the
travail of his soul, and God said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. We find the meaning of a word
in scripture to be most clear in its first use. It's called
the law of first mention. And wherever you take a word
that's in the Bible and find where it's used first, the context
of that gives the meaning of that word. And that's where the
word works. The lad and I are gonna go and
worship God, and we will come again. There's no worship apart from
a blood sacrifice. Men, men worship God in vain. They do. They make the commandments
of men. The Lord Jesus said, you honor
me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. You've made
the commandments of men, the means of worship. And you can't
come into the presence of God apart from faith in Christ. It's the only means that God
has provided. That woman at the well, you remember
in John chapter four? She wanted to debate with the
Lord about how to worship and where to worship and who to worship. And the Lord said, You worship
that which you know not. Salvation's of the Jews. You
worried about whether you should worship at Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem. The true worshiper, the true
worshiper worships God in spirit and in truth for such God seeketh
after. It doesn't mean that God's running
around looking for somebody that's willing to worship him in spirit
and in truth. It means that God makes us able to worship him
in spirit and in truth. He seeks us out and finds us
and puts into our hearts faith in Christ, enabling us to worship
him. Paul put it like this, he said,
we are the true circumcision. Circumcised in the heart by the
spirit of God, which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. We have no confidence in our
ability to worship God apart from the spirit of God. Matthew chapter 15, this people
draw nigh unto me with their mouths and honor me with their
lips but their hearts are far from me for in vain do they worship. In vain do they worship. Lord,
I don't want to. I don't want to fall into some
sort of religious pattern. People have lots of reasons for
coming to church. Some people come out of habit.
Some people come because they they they think they're going
to earn points with God. If I go to church. Lord, I I
I want to come because you've given me the experience of worship. And you've caused me. to see
that that's my whole purpose, my life, is to worship God. Lord, enable us to worship, worship
you in spirit and worship you in truth. The unbeliever doesn't know anything
about this kind of worship. They, you remember when the Jews
brought the Apostle Paul before Festus in Acts chapter 24 and
accused him of being a rebel rouser, accused him of being
an insurrectionist, accused him of fighting against the Roman
government, and Paul responded by saying, I'm not guilty of
the accusations that they're making against me. This I confess. This is what I'm guilty of. that
after the way which they call heresy, so worship I God. They're calling what I do heresy.
Because I believe in Christ, I believe in the resurrection,
I'm coming into the presence of God based on the sole righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, they're calling that heresy. But this
is the means by which I worship the God of my fathers, believing
all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. Now notice in our text, go back
with me to Psalm 95. Oh how I hope the Lord will enable
us to worship. It's not going to be done by
some sort of outward demonstration of the flesh. It'll be the work of grace in
the heart giving us faith. to rest in Christ. That's what
our text said, doesn't it? Don't be like those Jews who
in the day of provocation, they provoked God. Why? Because they would not believe
God. That's what we just read in our
text. Go with me, hold your finger there and go with me to Hebrews
chapter three. Hebrews chapter three. This is the quote from Psalm
95. Look at verse 18. And to whom
swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them
that believed it not. They didn't believe God. You
see, faith is essential for worship. Lord, you're going to have to
give me faith to believe you if I'm going to worship you.
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Now, it wasn't just that they didn't enter into the promised
land, they didn't enter into God's rest. That's the point
that the Lord's making. Rest from our labors, rest from
the retribution of the law and the wrath of God. That's what
we need rest from. Let us therefore fear lest a
promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should
seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we
which have believed do enter into his rest, as he said, as
I have sworn in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest,
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Now that's the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.
That's when the work of redemption. The scripture says. Was finished. When God ordained it. When did
he ordain it in the covenant of grace before the world ever
began? The point is that our God, once
he, I know we're using language that
has to do with time and our God is outside of time, but I don't
know how else to speak. I don't know how else to speak.
Our God has ordained all things and what he purposed is done. It's done. Notice, go back with me to Psalm
95. Oh, calm. Let us sing. Private worship's important.
Oh, it is. And the Lord will draw us into
his presence, I pray, more often than we do. You experienced private worship.
You want to get alone with the Lord, go into your closet, but
public worship. Notice the, notice the pronoun,
the plural pronoun. Let us, let us. This is a, uh, on the first day
of the week, the disciples came together to break bread. They
continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and in fellowship
and in the breaking of bread and in prayer. We see the church
gathering together in the New Testament. What are they coming
together for? They're coming together for worship, for worship. The very name church, the very
name church means called out to an assembly. That's what it
means, to be called out to an assembly. We come to a place because this
is the place where the Lord promises to meet with us. This is the
place where he promises to manifest his grace and his glory through
the preaching of the gospel and through the worship of God's
people. Come, let us, let us sing together. You were there in Hebrews. Turn
with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Nothing, nothing holy about this
building. We sometimes refer to this as
a sanctuary, but it's not a sanctuary except when we're gathered together
in it. And when God's presence is here, that's what makes it,
that's what makes it special. Otherwise it's just brick and
mortar. But when God's people gather together for worship and
the Lord's pleased to speak, then this becomes a holy place. This becomes a holy place. Look,
look at Hebrews chapter 12 and we'll begin reading in verse
18. For you are not come unto a mount that may be touched.
You're not coming to something that you can touch. So while
we don't have invitations, we don't have a whaler's altar.
We don't, we don't put something physical for men to do in order
to worship. For you have not come to a mount
that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor with blackness,
nor with darkness, nor with tempest." Now what mountain is he talking
about? He's not talking about Mount Sinai. You're not going
to come to God by keeping the law. You're not going to come
to God by something that you do. You'll come to God by something
that's already been done. The sound of trumpet and the
voice of words, which voice that they heard and treated that the
words should not be spoken to them anymore. Well, they were
so afraid that they told Moses, they said, Moses, you go talk
to God for us. We don't want to hear any more
of this. For they could not endure that
which was commanded and you can't either. You can't endure the law. You can't go to that mountain. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. So what's the Lord say? You're
not going to come to God by coming to the law. You're not going
to come to God by some physical means. But, you are come unto
Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn, which was written in heaven,
and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men,
made perfect. And to Jesus, the mediator of
a new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better
things than that of Abel. Abel's sacrifice was but a type. Abel made a sacrifice of a blood
offering before God and it was pointing to the fulfillment of
that blood sacrifice even as Abraham's was when he went on
the mountain with Isaac. This sacrifice were coming to
Christ coming unto you. You know what the Lord said?
Come unto me. Come unto me. We don't come to
a doctrine. We come to this place because this is the place where
he's promised to meet with us. But he says, come unto me. All
ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. My burden
is light, my yoke is easy. I've already met the demands
of God's law. I've already satisfied his holy
justice through the shedding of my blood. Learn of me. Learn of me. Is that what the
Lord said? He is able to save to the uttermost
them that come to God by him. He's able to say we're only able
to come into the presence of God by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what did Peter say? As newborn
babes crave after, desire the sincere milk of the word of God
that you might grow thereby if so be that you have tasted of that heavenly gift Christ
to whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men
but chosen of God and precious precious Come. Come, the Lord's calling us to
come. Our warrant for coming is his command to come. Say,
well, how do I come? Just like you are, without one
plea. But that the Lord Jesus Christ
died for me. That's my only hope. The only
way I can come. Nothing in my hand do I bring,
only to His cross do I cling. Come, let us sing unto the Lord,
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Everything
else in this world is shifting sand. The Lord Jesus Christ,
He only wants a rock. That's why He said, man build
his house on the sand, when the storms come, the house is gonna
fall. But if you build your house on a rock, let the winds blow,
let the rains fall, that house will not fall. It will stand. Christ, the cornerstone, the
rock which the builders rejected, God has made to be the head of
the corner, hasn't he? That's what the Lord said to
Peter when Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living
God. What'd the Lord say? Peter, you've been blessed of
God. You didn't come to that conclusion on your own. My heavenly
father, which is in heaven, has made this known unto you. What
now? That I am the Christ, the son
of the living God, the anointed one, the one who has come to
redeem God's people. And upon this rock, I will build
my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Nothing's gonna tear that church down. Let us come before his presence.
That's what we're coming. When we gather together to worship,
we join our voices together in singing hymns We're we're we're. We're listening right now. We're
gathered together before the audience of one. We're listening for his voice,
Lord speak. Or speak through your word. I
don't want to hear just the voice of a man. I want to hear the
voice of God. I want him to enable me to worship. come before His presence with
thanksgiving. One of the ways I know if I'm
worshiping is God's given me a thankful heart. I mean thankful
for all things. I believe that all things work
together for good for them that love God and those that are called
according to His purpose. He said, be thankful for all things,
for all things of the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. God gives His people a thankful spirit when they worship, regardless
of their circumstances, they're able to be thankful for the forgiveness
of their sin and the saving of their soul. What else is important? For the Lord is a great God and
a great king. He is our God. We are the people
of his pasture. Verse seven and the sheep of
his hand today. If you will hear his voice, The
Lord is calling on us to hear and this book, this book, the
word of God concludes with this statement, the spirit and the
bride. That's the spirit of God and
the church say, come let him who hear us say come and let
him who is a thirst come. And the very last verse, come
Lord Jesus, even now, come, come. All right, let's take a break.