Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 70. In your hardbacked hymnal,
hymn number 70, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. Let's all
stand together. Number 70. ? Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty
? ? Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee ? ? Holy,
holy, holy Lord God Almighty ? Merciful and mighty, God in
three Persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Cherubim and seraphim falling
down before thee, which wert and art and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name In earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons,
blessed Trinity. Please be seated. Good morning. I cannot sing that hymn without
thinking about Isaiah chapter six. When the Lord repeats himself,
and he often does in the scriptures, it's for the purpose of emphasis.
Often when you read the Psalms, one verse will be saying the
same thing as the previous verse in different words. But no place in the Bible that
I know of or any of the attributes or characters of God brought
to the third level of repetition except for his holiness. In Isaiah
chapter 6 it says in the year that King Uzziah died I also
saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train
filled the temple and above it stood the seraphims each one
had six wings and with Twain he covered his face and with
Twain he covered his feet in between he did fly, and one cried
unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. And the post of the door moved,
and the voice of him that cried, by the voice of him that cried,
and the house was filled with smoke. And then said I, woe is
me, I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and
I dwell in the midst of the people of unclean lips, for my eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the
seraphims with a hot coal from off the altar and touched my
lips and said, your sins are taken away. That's my hope this morning,
that the voice of the Lord will move the post that we are so
prone to lean against and that we'll find the Lord Jesus Christ
to be the only hope of our salvation, the only place of rest, our only
strength. If we do, we'll see something
of His holiness and we'll see something of our sinfulness. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 52, Psalm 52. We looked at this Psalm Wednesday
night and the last verse of this Psalm struck me and I felt like that
we just gave it a very cursory look Wednesday night. And so
I'd like to consider the last verse of Psalm 52 in a little
bit more detail. And I've titled this, The Cause
the cause of praise and faith, the cause. If we have some understanding
of the cause, then we can have some hope of the effect. And the Lord tells us what the
cause of faith and praise is in this one verse. Let's bow together and ask the
Lord's blessings. Lord, we are like Uzziah coming
before thy throne of grace, or like Isaiah in the year that
Uzziah died, coming before thy throne of grace, and hoping,
Lord, that in all the desperate circumstances of this world and
of our own sin and of our life that you would be pleased to
reveal Something of your holiness to our hearts and enable us in
this hour to bow in worship. Cause us Lord to acknowledge
our sin before the. And then we pray that you would
take one of those hot coals from off the altar. That altar where
the Lord Jesus Christ has been sacrificed for the sins. Of his
people. And that you would touch our
lips. That you would purge our sin. And enable us, Lord, to
find our rest and our hope in Thy dear Son. For it's in His
name we pray. Amen. Psalm 52, verse 9, I will praise Thee forever because,
because, What is the cause of praise? And he answers that question
when he says, for thou hast done it. Now that's the cause of praise. The cause of praise is what God
has done. And then he says in the latter
part of this verse, and I will wait on thy name. I will trust
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I will rest in him for
all my salvation. And the word for there. Is the
same idea that we have in the word because? Because. It is good. Before thy Saints. The cause of praise is what the
Lord has done. And the cause of faith. is because
he is good in our sights. He has made himself to be beautiful
in our eyes and giving us a desire for him. That's the cause. That's
the cause of praise and that is the cause of faith. Isaiah chapter 44 verse 28, the
Lord said to Cyrus, who was a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is my shepherd and shall perform
all my pleasure. The Lord Jesus, that's the word
done here, it's perform. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
shepherd. He is our shepherd, but he's
God's shepherd. And God said, he shall perform all my pleasure. He will do what I sent him to
do. And when you see what he's done,
you're gonna praise him because he has done it. Even saying to
Jerusalem, thou shalt be built and to the temple, thy foundation
shall be laid. So, The Lord's telling us in
Isaiah chapter 44 exactly what the Lord said to the disciples
when he asked them, whom do you say that I am? And Peter said,
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And the Lord
said back to Peter, blessed art thou Simon Barjona. Flesh and
blood did not reveal the son to you. You didn't come to this
conclusion on your own. You didn't figure it out. You
didn't study it. My father, which is in heaven has revealed the
son to you and upon this rock. I shall build my church and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The Lord has performed
the work of redemption and the Lord will perform the laying
of the foundation of his church. What is the cause of our praise? Well, what has the Lord done? What has he done that would cause
us to bow in worship and praise to him. And I have several answers
to that question. The first one is he has chosen
a people according to his own will and his own good pleasure
before time ever began. Now that's reason for praise,
isn't it? election is the reason for praise. For if God had not
according to His own will and purpose chosen a particular people,
no one would be saved. If God didn't choose us, we would
never ever believe on Him. We have reason to praise. Who
hath made thee to differ? We have reason to praise because
God was pleased to choose a particular people. The eternal covenant
of grace where the lamb was slain before the foundation of the
world and where the Lord Jesus Christ struck hands with his
father and became the surety of his people is our cause for
praise. God made a covenant with God
to save a particular people. Had that covenant not been made,
our covenants would not stand. The Lord made it clear in Isaiah
chapter 28, your covenant, your covenant, your promises shall
be disannulled. This covenant is the cause of
our praise. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of the Father. And then Paul Peter says, you
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him
who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Had
God not elected a particular people, no one would be saved. God's people understand that.
They know, Lord, had you not chosen me, I never would have
chosen you. I praise you. I praise you for your electing
grace. What is it that the Lord has
done? I will praise thee forever because
thou hast done it. We would have no way of knowing
God had God not revealed himself to us. God who at sundry times
and in divers manners spake unto our fathers by the prophets hath
in these last days spoken unto us by his son. Had God not revealed
himself to us, this is what he's done. So we praise him for his
electing grace and we praise him for the revelation that he's
given in his word, in his written word and in his living word. The Lord Jesus Christ reveals
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You and I would have no way of
knowing God. We would have no way of figuring
out who he is or what it is he requires or what it is he's done
if he didn't tell us. And we praise him because we
have his word. Holy men of God wrote, they spoke
as the spirit of God moved upon them. This word is not by private
interpretation. This is the word of God. Lord, I praise thee because you've
been pleased to condescend from your heights in glory. That throne
that Isaiah saw was his throne of sovereignty, unthreatened,
independent, self-existent throne of omnipotent power. And he came off that throne and
revealed himself to us. That's reason to praise God.
We would have no way of knowing Him if He didn't open the eyes
of our understanding, if He didn't give us ears to hear, if He didn't
give us faith to believe. We would not know. God had to
come to where we were or where we are in order for us to know
anything about Him. That's reason for praise. The
whole world is trying to figure out who God is. God has to come
to us. Not only has he done it in election
and in revelation, but he's also done it in righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ has kept
the law for us. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. I have not come,
the Lord Jesus said, to destroy the law and the prophets, but
to fulfill it. We praise him because he has
satisfied the demands of God's holy law. That's the cause of
our praise. Lo, the Lord said, it is written
of me in the volume of the book. I have come to do thy will, O
God. You and I have never been able
to keep one of God's laws. The Lord Jesus Christ kept them
with all of his heart and all of his mind and all of his soul
all of the time. He was obedient even unto death. Yes, even the death of the cross,
whereby God has highly exalted him and given him a name above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess. We praise him. We praise him
for his righteousness. Paul said in Romans chapter 10,
I bear them record. I bear them record. They have
a zeal for God, but without knowledge, being ignorant of the righteousness
of God, they go about trying to establish their own righteousness
not knowing that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. That's man's natural state to
try to establish a righteousness with God. We praise God because
He is our righteousness. We praise Him because of election. We praise Him because of revelation. We praise Him because of righteousness. And fourthly, we praise him because
of redemption. Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter
33. Jeremiah chapter 33. Verse 14. Jeremiah is prophesying of what
the Lord Jesus Christ would do when he comes. And he says, behold,
the days come saith the Lord that I will perform that good
thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the
house of Judah. We praise him because he has
done what he promised he would do. He has performed the work
of redemption. When the Lord Jesus Christ bowed
his mighty head on Calvary's cross, he said, it is finished. It is finished. I have purchased
them with my precious blood, everything necessary for their
salvation I have performed. And we praise him because of
that. in those, look at verse 15, in
those days and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness
to grow up unto David and he shall execute judgment and righteousness
in the land. The Lord Jesus Christ executed
judgment in that he suffered the full wrath of God's justice
for the sins of his people that he bore in his body upon that
tree. He established perfect righteousness,
and that He pleased the Father in everything He did. In those
days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely,
and this is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord
our righteousness." Now in Jeremiah chapter 22, that same verse says,
and the name whereby He shall be called is the Lord our righteousness. So now as a result of the work
that the Lord Jesus Christ has performed he has given to us
his righteousness and God looks at his church and he says she
shall be called the Lord our righteousness. We praise him
because we have no righteousness of our own but we have a perfect
righteousness in him. This is the cause of our praise. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption,
to be redeemed, to be bought. We are justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a cause for praise when
we're brought to believe that he is a successful redeemer. He is a successful redeemer.
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter nine, Hebrews chapter nine. Verse 12, neither by the blood
of goats and calves but by his own blood he entered in once
into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us. See, the work of redemption was
an eternal work. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ
is called the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the
world. It was already determined of God. And he had to obtain
that redemption by the sacrifice of himself once and for all.
And the Lord Jesus Christ did that. And now what David's saying
in Psalm 52, I will praise thee because of what thou hast done. because of what thou hast done
in election, because of what thou hast done in revelation,
because of what thou hast done in righteousness, because of
what thou hast done in redemption. Lord, you did it. You did it. I know you've heard me use this
illustration before, but I'll use it again. All man-made religion,
every one of them, every single false gospel that there is in
the world, is determined or the salvation is determined by something
that you do. Something that you do. And the
difference between the false gospel and the true gospel is
the difference between D.O. and D.O.N.E. And David is saying
here in this psalm, I will praise thee because of what thou hast
done. Not because of what I do. You
see, praise is not determined by Our state of mind is not determined
by our personality or by our attitude at a particular time
or by anything that we do, by any decision that we make or
by any feelings that we have. It's based, it's caused by what
he has done, what he has done. It's also caused by what he has
done in justification. No man is justified by the works
of the law in the sight of God, for the just shall live by faith. If we're going to be justified
before God, turn with me to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter
2. This is a precious, precious
truth. One to hang the hopes of all
of your salvation on. Knowing, you know this, a man
is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. There's our justification before
God. If you have any other translation other than the King James, your
Bible is going to say, by your faith in Jesus Christ. We are
justified before God by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we which
have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by
the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for no
flesh can be justified by the works of the law. were justified before God by
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. What are you saying,
Pastor? I'm saying that all of God's
elect were justified in the Lord Jesus Christ by His work of redemption,
by His perfect righteousness, by His justification of the law
of God before you were ever born. before you were ever born. When
the Lord Jesus Christ ascended back into glory, the scripture
says, God said of Christ, He said, My word will not return
unto me void. It will accomplish the purpose
for which I sent it. Now what was the purpose for
which God sent His Son? He tells us. You shall call His
name Jesus for He shall save His people, He was sent on a
mission of salvation. And when He ascended back into
glory, He took with Him the names of those for whom He lived and
died. And He ever lives to make intercession for them. Our justification
is in Christ. It's not based on a decision
that we make. It's based on His faithfulness
to the Father. And David says, I have cause
to praise Him for what He has done. What He has done. We have cause to praise Him for
what He has done in regeneration. He has to make us willing in
the day of His power. He has to open the eyes of our
understanding. He has to take out the heart of stone and put
in a heart of flesh. He has to make us to believe. He has to
turn us. It's what he told Nicodemus.
He said, Nicodemus, you can't see the kingdom of God unless
you're born again. You've got to be born of the
spirit. And we praise him for the new birth. Lord, had you
not arrested me on my rebellion against you, If you not stopped
me in my tracks like you did Saul of Tarsus, had you not knocked
me off my high horse, had you not shined a light from heaven,
had you not spoke to me, had you not called me to yourself,
I wouldn't have come. I'd have no hope. The work of
regeneration is a work of grace, for by grace are you saved through
faith in that not of yourself. It's not of yourself, it's a
gift of God. David said, I have cause to praise Him. You see,
if these things aren't true, then why praise Him? Why not
praise yourself? If your law-keeping has anything
to do with your righteousness before God, then pat yourself
on the back. If your decision-making has anything
to do with your new birth, then pat yourself on the back. This
word praise means to give Him all the glory and all the honor.
It means to bow before Him as the one who is holy, holy, holy,
the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth is filled with
His glory. That's what it means to praise
Him. We can't take any credit for any of this. We can't take
any credit for election. We can't take any credit for
revelation. We can't take any credit for
righteousness. We can't take any credit for
redemption. We can't take any credit for
justification. We can't take any credit for
our new birth. And we can't take any credit
for our sanctification. Paul said in Philippians chapter
1 verse 6, I am confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you, and that work was begun at the
new birth, he that hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. I have cause to praise thee because
of what thou hast done. Lord, if you don't keep me, I'll
fall away. We're going to be looking at
Judas in the next hour for just a moment. And we remember what
the disciples said when the Lord said, one of you among me is
going to, what'd they say? Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I? Every child of God knows that
if God doesn't keep them, they'll do just what Judas did. said of Abraham in Romans chapter
4, he staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief but was
as strong in faith giving God the glory. That's what faith
is. Faith gives to God all the glory. And people think, well, Abraham
was strong in faith. Well, the way up is down. Strength
comes by weakness. Paul said, when I am weak, then
I am strong, for his strength is made perfect in my weakness.
Faith is a complete admission of your own inability, of your
own weakness. Faith is not pulling yourself
up by your bootstraps or standing head and shoulders above everybody
else. Faith is humility. Faith is submission. Faith is
dependence. Abraham was completely dependent
upon God. And then he goes on to say, and
being fully persuaded, fully persuaded that he which hath
promised will perform it. He will perform it. David said,
I have caused the praise because of what thou hast done, done. And my last point is, Something
that most people think, well, that hasn't been done yet for
me. But it has. It has. It's glorification. It's going to heaven. And the scripture makes it clear
that that work's already done. It's already done. Romans chapter
8 makes it clear All that he hath predestinated, that's the
election. He hath called, that's regeneration. And all that he hath called,
he hath justified. And all that he hath justified,
he hath glorified. Hath glorified. You see, All
the blessings of God are in the heavenlies in Christ right now. I'm going to make a statement.
Most of you have heard me make this before. And you just think
about it. This is beyond our comprehension,
but it's true. When a believer takes their last
breath and enters into glory, they're going to discover that
they've always been there. All the foolishness that men have about heaven, going to heaven
and being reunited with loved ones and all, you know, that's not the way it is. We're
already glorified. We're in the heavenlies, in Christ
Jesus right now. And some of you say, well, it's
as if we were. No, it's as if we were here. It's as if we were here. If there's
anything that's a figment of our imagination, it's our existence
here. Not there. That's sure. It's already done. God's people
are already glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ. And David said, I have cause
to praise thee. I have cause to praise thee for
what thou hast done. Has he done that? If he has, we will find ourselves
praising him. Oh, there's so much more in this
verse and I'm afraid I've used up all my time, but let's go
back to the verse for just a moment and see if I can summarize the
last part of this. I titled this, The Cause of Praise
and The Cause of Faith. I will wait on thy name for it
is good, for it is good. I heard someone say recently
that young people need to set their goals high and work hard
to achieve all that they can so that when they get old, They
can look back at their life and have some sense of accomplishment. Well, I am old and I look back
at my life and I have no sense of accomplishment. And when you
get old, if you're honest, you're going to look back at your life
and have no sense of accomplishment, if you're honest. I know young
people, like I said a few weeks ago, young people, we start out
as pioneers and we end up as survivors, don't we? You know,
that's just the way life is. That's the way it is. That being said, there is something,
there is something that gives the believer hope. great hope,
great encouragement, not looking back over the accomplishments
of their lives, but looking at what the Lord has done and looking
at who He is. Look, I will wait on thy name
for it is good. It is good. The only thing that
I see in my life that's good is what God has done in enabling
me to look to, rest in, believe on, and love the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the only thing that's good. That's why Solomon, at the end
of his life, he said, I've tried everything. He was the king of
Israel. You think, well, there's a man
that's accomplished something. And he tells us, he tells us. In Ecclesiastes, he says, I've
indulged myself in wine, women, and wealth. He covers everything
that you would think that a man could indulge himself in. And
he says, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Everybody wants to feel like,
well, my life is counted for something. You know what? Not going to be
long after we're gone, nobody's even going to remember us. Nobody's even going to remember
us. That's not what life is about. Life is not about trying to count
for something, making an impression on the world. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way. I am the truth and I am the life. He is our life. Life is bound
up in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we don't have Him, we've got
nothing. If we've got Him, we've got everything. Everything. I will wait on thy name. You hear somebody's name, somebody
that you love, you hear their name spoken, you don't think
about where they're from or what they've done or spelling their
name properly, you think about that person that you love. That's
what a name represents. And we hear the name Jesus and
people speak it with such disrespect, disregard, using
the name of the Lord vainly. But oh, when we hear his name,
we know that he's a successful savior. You call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people. He is that glorious I am that
spoke to Moses at the burning bush. Jehovah, I am. I am the bread of life. I am
the gate to the sheepfold. I am the resurrection and the
life. I will wait on thy name. That's
faith. Waiting on him is faith. I will
wait on thy name, for it is good. And I would say it is the only
thing that's good. But I'm not just saying that,
he said that. He said that. Good master, what
can I do to inherit eternal life? Why callest thou me good? There
is none good but God. It's none good but God. We have
cause to praise his name because he's the only thing good in our
lives. Only thing good. When men measure
goodness, all they're doing is comparing bad to bad and coming
to some conclusion of the lesser of two evils. But in God's estimation
of goodness, there's only one thing that's good. There's only
one that's good. David said, I have cause to praise
thy name because it is good. It's good. Let's take a break. Okay.