Well, good evening. It's great
to be here. And I trust as you see me here
and we speak about our wonderful Saviour and our amazing God,
that you might be reminded that I'm here to bear witness to Him,
but also I'm here in a sense as a representative of just a
little group of people down in Australia. And one of the things
that we've been envious of our American brothers is that they
can sit side by side like this and pastors can get together
and members of congregations can get together. And in all
of Australia, which is the size of continental US, there is us
in our town, 20 odd souls mostly, and three and a half hours down
the coast from us is another little group of three who heard
the gospel from Henry Mahan about 20 odd years ago and they have
been meeting together for 14 years now. And we long, we believe
as Paul did, that the Lord has many people in Australia. that
we covet your prayers for us and we just appreciate the opportunity
to be here. We especially appreciate the
opportunity to talk about the Lord Jesus with you. We feel
like a remnant. Ezekiel 11, 16 says, Therefore
say, Thus says the Lord God, Although I have cast them far
off among the heathen, although I have scattered them away in
the countries, Yet will I be to them a little sanctuary in
the countries where they shall come. We are here to raise up
our God who takes his people and gathers them together in
little sanctuaries. And we gather together to do
two things, aren't we? To praise our God to know who
he is and to see him high and lifted up, and then to see ourselves
as we really are, wrapped up in him, as we really are in our
flesh, as we really are sinners undeserving of mercy, but sinners
receiving grace from our amazing God. begins with praise. Salvation
ends with praise. Endless praise forevermore. If
you turn in your scriptures to Psalm 111, I'd just like us to think together
about our great God. This is the first of seven Psalms
which are known to the Jewish Church as the Grand Hallelujah. What a way it begins. Just let
me read it to you and then we'll just skip across the mountaintops
and you can go home and the Lord might show you many more things
than I'm able to show you this evening. But let's just read
this beautiful, beautiful psalm together. Psalm 111. Praise ye the Lord. I will praise
the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright
and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great,
sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is
honourable and glorious, and His righteousness endureth forever. He hath made His wonderful works
to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. He has given meat unto them that
fear Him. He will ever be mindful of His
covenant. He has showed His people the
power of His works, that He may give them the heritage of the
heathen. The works of His hands are verity
and judgment. All His commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever,
and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption unto his people. He hath commanded his covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. A good understanding have all
they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever. If you leave this building this
evening with wonderful pictures of the Lord Jesus and praises
to Him on your heart, He will have answered my prayer for you.
Let's just begin this wonderful psalm. Let's go through it. As
I said, we'll just skip over some of the mountaintops in here.
What a wonderful way to begin. Praise ye the Lord. I will praise
the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright
and in the congregation. What a way. What a great promise from God. He will create in his people
lips that praise him. And we praise him with hearts. So much of the religion is praising
God with all sorts of activities. and they encourage people to
be busy and busy and busy. God's people have a heart relationship
with God. Everything comes from his work
inside of us and it flows out naturally as water out of a spring. I'll praise the Lord with my
whole heart. And he'll praise him, says the
psalmist, in two particular places. I'll praise him in the assembly
of the upright and it may very well be a reference to those
family gatherings at the time of Passover. And I'll praise
him in the congregation. I'll praise him in that public
worship connected with the feast. One of the great things that
we have learnt and I'm sure You people have much more experience
of it. The longer our church goes on and the longer the Lord
is faithful to us and just comes and ministers to us, the thing
that we have found and the thing that the people of our church
would say universally is that we never knew that this would
happen in church. We didn't realise that God himself
would call us together. God himself would come and reveal
himself in his son through his word to us. And in that gathering
he gives all the gifts that all of those people need. Not just
gifts from people standing here behind pulpits. But you people
are gifts to each other. We need each other. My friend,
those Great Ascension gifts that the Lord speaks about in chapter
4 of Ephesians are really just the outworking of what God the
Father has promised. The place on this earth where
God the Father has promised to get glory for His Son is in the
Church. Meetings like this This is the
place where God Almighty has determined for His Son to be
praised. Ephesians 1.22 says, He put all
things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things,
all of this universe. He is head over all things to
the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills
all in all. What a remarkable statement from
our God. And then he says in Ephesians
3.21 To Him be glory in the church. God is glorified in the gathering
of His people together. And we are a group of people
You are a group of people, through represents another group of people,
gathered together by God. And it's this body that is nourished
and knit together by joints and ligaments and it grows with an
increase that is from God. This is the place. This is the
place where you grow. Because this is the place where
God gets glory. The doctrine of the Church has
been abused in our world, so so sadly. And like all things,
the problem is that the Church only exists where the Gospel
of free and sovereign grace, where the glory of God is revealed
in the face of the Saviour that Drew spoke to you about. That
sovereign, awesome God that this psalm speaks about. The works
of the Lord are great. They are great in their design. They are great in their size. Why is the universe as big as
it is? Why is this globe that God hangs
on nothing as big as it is? Why is there seemingly this ridiculous
amount of space between stars? Why can't we fathom how big it
is? Why can't we fathom how amazingly
intricate the little bits are? It's all a reflection of the
infiniteness and the glory and the greatness of our God. The
works of the Lord are great in design, in size, in number, in
excellence. They're great in little things.
They're great in big things. And of course, we'll come in
a minute to the greatest of them all. But the next part of this
verse is fascinating. It says, the works of the Lord
are great They are sought out of all them that have pleasure
therein. Drew spoke a little while ago
about this book. The more we study this book,
and the more this book reveals, the more exciting this book is.
The more this book reveals to us of the Lord Jesus, the more
amazing he becomes. And then you turn a page and
he's more amazing again. and more amazing and more amazing
and we read other books and we get tired of them after a while.
You read this book and it's like holding up the Lord Jesus as
this most spectacular diamond and each time you turn it a little
bit there is this beautiful ray of light that comes out. Him
reflected to us and for God's children us reflected as we really
are in Him. I saw in one of your museums
the Hope Diamond, that really, really big and amazing rock. And it just sparkles, doesn't
it? You turn your head a little bit and there's just another
glimpse of it. God's works are great and they
are sought out of all them that have pleasure in them. They are
studied. This book is to be studied. We are to swim in it, not skim
over the top of it. We dig deep. and we find more
and more glorious things. They're studied. It means to
rub, to beat, as if you're getting grain out of a head of wheat,
by working it and grinding it, investigating it. And as the
scriptures here promise, they are sought out of all them that
have pleasure therein. These words point us to a living
word who is glorious. Verse 3, His work. You see, it's gone from plural. The word works in verse 2 and
in verse 4 and in verse 6 are in a sense reference to things
that are made. And when it comes to this one
work, His work is honourable and glorious. What work is the
psalmist talking about? There is just one work. One work by one man that is honourable
and glorious. Honourable to him and revealing
of his glory. It's the one thing that we want
to see happen, isn't it? Jesus to be raised up. The things
that he has done are honourable and glorious. And the things
that he has done are things that are but the outworking of his
character, his righteousness. What a wonderful freedom the
scriptures bring to us who have really, by the grace of God,
been caused to confront who we really are. It's wonderful, it's
a wonderful freedom to know that I have absolutely no righteousness
whatsoever. I have done no righteousness.
I will never do any righteousness. It's a great freedom that we
can be honest with ourselves and honest with others. I'm just
a sinner. Paul finished That remarkable
life, and he designates himself the chief of sinners. I don't
think he was playing games with words. I think he was just being
an honest man. His righteousness, his righteousness
endures, endureth forever. That is the place where God's
children find themselves at peace. His righteousness, right before
God, perfectly right before God, as holy before God as His dear
and darling Son. You probably know well those
verses in Jeremiah that calls describes our Lord, and it describes
Him as the Lord our Righteousness. Jeremiah 23.6 In His days Judah
will be saved, Israel will dwell in safety, and this is the name
by which He will be called the Lord our Righteousness. And then remarkably in chapter 33, in those days,
verse 16, Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell safely.
And this is a name by which she shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. That's my righteousness, brothers
and sisters. I trust it's yours. And I pray
that if you ever think that you have any of your own, the Lord
will come and strip it away from you. It's great to have none
of our own. It's wonderful to know His and
to have His. And Drew's stolen my thunder
in the next verse. Where the Lord says He has made
His wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord has caused His works
to be remembered. What are we doing in church?
We're having a remembrance service, aren't we? I'm reminding you
about my Saviour. And you, by being here, are reminding
me about my Saviour's successful works. He's made these wonderful
works. As the psalmist says in Psalm
72, 18, all of his works are wonderful. Does he do anything
else? Blessed be the Lord God, the
God of Israel, who only does wondrous things. And we don't
see them as wondrous, the problems with our sight, not with his
works. But they're done to be remembered. As Drew said, they crossed that
Jordan in flood time, 40 years of wandering in the desert, And
he takes them to that particular place, at that particular time,
the time of flood. He could have come there in the
time of drought, they could have walked over when the Jordan was
but a trickle. He takes them there when the
Jordan is in flood, so that his works would be remembered. When
they looked at those stones on the other side, they would see
that God is faithful. He promised Abraham 400 years
beforehand, they'll be back here. Your descendants are coming back
here, Abraham. This is your land. This land
doesn't belong to the Canaanites and the Philistines and all the
otherites. This is God's land and the inheritance for His people. He does His works to be remembered.
In Deuteronomy 4 there's just a wonderful verse, sometimes
we come to discuss things with atheists and they keep saying,
where's the evidence, where's the evidence? God is not worried
about giving them evidence. But there is, in history, a remarkable
amount of evidence. In Deuteronomy 4.32-39, and I
won't, 32-39, he really says to all of humanity that's ever
lived on this planet, he says, ask. Ask now concerning the days that
are past, which were before you, since the day God created the
earth. Go back to Adam's day, since the day God created man
on earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether
any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it
has been heard. Did any people ever hear the
voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you
heard and live? Or did God ever try and go and
take for himself a nation from the midst of another nation by
trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and
an outstretched arm, and by great terrors according to all that
the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown that you
might know that the Lord Himself is God, and there is none other
besides Him. God has done His works in history. History is His story, and He
has placed markers throughout the history of mankind, so that His works would be remembered. how sad the fall of man is. Isn't it extraordinary that we
who are made in God's image need to have God remind us over and
over again from Genesis to Revelation of who He is and who we are and
remind us again and again all through these scriptures they
just speak of the Lord Jesus coming in redeeming mercy, coming
as sovereign God to save his people. And we need to be reminded
and reminded and reminded. And we come twice a week to services
to be reminded and we pick up this book to be reminded. What
a shocking thing it is that we forget so easily. We forget so
quickly. We forget so consistently. The
wonderful works of our God. This Lord who is full of compassion. This Lord who is gracious. These people seek him out. They
search these scriptures. They rub them together to find
the gems. And they find the Lord is gracious. and full of compassion. And yet
we have to be reminded again and again and again. And it's
a good thing for us to be here to remember Him. He hath given
meat unto them that fear Him. He will ever be mindful of His
covenant. The meat here is a reference
So the commentators say, and it may well be right, it's a
reference to that paschal lamb that was to be eaten that night. That reminder that when God sees
the blood, when God sees the blood of his darling son, he
passes over his people. They are sheltered, they are
protected under the blood. He has given meat to them that
fear Him. Those that meet Him will reverence
Him. They will be in awe of Him. And they will really fear Him. As I told you earlier, we are
but a remnant in our part of the world. And you are nothing
much more than remnants in this part of the world. Our stories
are the same. But when I think back upon the
hundreds of people that we have spoken to over the last 10 or
15 years and said the Lord Jesus is amazingly glorious. He saved
his people, he really saved his people from their sins. He came
with a purpose, a purpose in eternity. He came because he
loved his people and he loved them purposely. He came because
He drew them because of his loving kindness towards them. He's forgiven
them freely. It's all of sovereign grace and
man is but the recipient. And we speak to people and you
think, surely when they hear this about our God, they'll be
dancing in the streets. They'll be like cars let loose
from the stalls. They'll be skipping down the
roads of Australia thinking about how wonderful our God is. And
remarkably they treat us as no doubt many of you can testify
they treat you. They cross the street to avoid
talking to you. And you are wondering why. You wonder why so often there's
such good news, such glorious news that puts man in a beautiful
place of just being a beggar. Just being like that Syro-Phoenician
woman, sitting at the Master's feet underneath the table, taking
her place as a dog and waiting for crumbs, the crumbs of Sovereign
Mercy. And the one thing I keep thinking
as I try and sort of put all this together, the one thing
that is so consistently the case with these people that run away
is that They have a fear of man, but I see in them no fear of
God. The number, I cannot count how
many pastors, elders, Bible teachers we have gone to and said, you
are saying this about God. The Lord Jesus came to do his
best to save some people and will you pretty please do him
a favour by making his death a success. You are saying this
about our Saviour. You are blaspheming God. You
are standing behind a pulpit and blaspheming God. Will you
give careful thought? Those who fear God would fear doing
that to someone who has treated them so graciously. And yet what is the consistent
response of so many, is no fear of God, an awful fear of men, and an
awful fear of losing their righteousness. That they and God have done a
deal, where their activities have won their salvation. Fear
in God. You search it out in the scriptures
and you rub it out in the scriptures and you will see that it's a
consistent theme of people who meet God. They have been humbled
by Him. They know themselves and they
know Him and they fear Him. They reverence Him. They are in awe of Him and they
fear Him. He has given meat to them that
fear Him. He has given meat to these particular
people. He will be ever mindful of his
covenant. He will be mindful, he will have
his mind on his covenant. Just to make sure that you know
who he's talking about. The covenant, that eternal covenant,
that wonderful covenant between God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit that Drew talked about. That wonderful,
extraordinary covenant that was made in eternity, in which God
the Father took those who were his possession. He gave them
into the hands of his Son. They were betrothed to his Son. We were one with his Son in eternity. Just remember, there are two
wonderful verses I'd like you to lay on your hearts. Isaiah
42 verse 6 says, I the Lord have called you in righteousness,
and I will hold your hand. I will keep you, talking about
his dear son, I will keep and give you as a covenant to the
people. A covenant is an agreement. The covenant is a person, just
to make sure that we get it. God repeats it in Isaiah 49 verse
8. He says of his darling son, I
will preserve you and give you as a covenant to the people to
restore the earth and cause them to inherit the desolate heritages. The covenant is a covenant between
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. In those
early days as the Gospel came in power to our brothers and
sisters back there. The chapter of Ezekiel verse
36 is just one of many, many, many passages that speak of the
Old Covenant. I don't know how many times we
read this out to each other. Just let me read it to you and
just listen to the I wills. This is God, our Father, speaking.
For I will take you from among the nations, Ezekiel 36, 24. For I will take you from among
the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you
into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water
on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your
filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new
heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of
stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will
put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes
and you will keep my judgment and do them. When God says, I will, God's
children say, Amen. Do it as you have said, our Lord. The covenant is a covenant between
God the Father and God the Son. We are the beneficiaries of the
covenant. He made the covenant. He keeps
the covenant. He keeps the covenant in His
Son. Glorious Saviour, the secret
of the Lord is with them that fear Him and He will show them
His covenant. He will show this covenant, He
will reveal this covenant and God's children delight that in
that covenant God does it all. I will and they shall. God works in the hearts of his
people. God alone can reach into your
life and take that heart of stone, that cold hard heart of stone
and he can replace that with a heart of flesh, a heart that
is soft towards God, a heart that lives for God's glory. He does it. It's glorious. It's glorious for us to be in
that covenant. Verse 6. He has showed his people
the power of his works that he may give them the heritage of
the heathen. You see, he only reveals the
power of his works to his people. They don't see it. They don't
see it. Simply because God chooses not
to show them. And he lets them go their own
way. That he may give them the heritage
of the heathen. He will all come to us, brothers
and sisters. Don't envy the rich person down
the road. Don't envy them. Go to the temple
of God, the house of God, and know their end. You won't envy
them at all. The works of His hands are verity
and judgment. The works of His hands are faithful
and just. And all His commandments are
sure. Can you bear testimony to the
fact that God has never made a promise in this book to you
that has ever failed? How quickly we are to doubt Him. How remarkably faithful He is
to His word. Perfectly faithful. All His commandments
assure all the works at His hands. All that He does is done in perfect
faithfulness. All that He does is done in perfect
justice. Just wait. and you will see his
faithfulness. You will see him verifying his
word in your life and in his works that you see happening
around you. These commandments, verse 8,
they stand fast forever and ever. They are established, in fact
the word means that they are buttressed, buttressed by the
very person of God himself. They never fail. They are supported
by his power. They are done in truth and uprightness. They are done in perfect truthfulness,
perfect faithfulness to his character. All that God does, all that he
ever can do is just reflect the character of who he is. He sent redemption unto all the
world. If they will believe. Who did
he send redemption to? This is just one of the hundreds
and hundreds of verses in the scriptures that point to the
fact that he has come as a redeemer of his people. Just look at it. He sent redemption unto His people. And why did He do it? He's done
it because of covenant love and covenant grace and covenant mercies. He has commanded His covenant
forever. That's why He sent redemption
to His people. He loved them in eternity. He loved them on this earth. As a man he walked this earth
as we did. Touched with the feeling of our
infirmity. Tempted as we are and yet without
sin. He walked this earth for those
33 years to weave a robe of perfect righteousness before his father. Perfect holy righteousness. Perfect righteousness perfectly
fitted to dwell with glory in heaven. That was his work. And then he came to that time
where he became the thing that horrified himself. In that garden,
as he sweated blood, he wasn't fearful of the Romans. He wasn't
fearful of those nails. He knew the holiness of His Father. He knew that when sin, the sins
of us, His people were laid on Him, God must take the sword
of divine holy justice. And He must, when He finds sin
on His Son, He must slay His Son. He hath redeemed us, the
scriptures say. He hath redeemed us from our
enemies. He has redeemed us from Satan. He has redeemed us from sin. He has redeemed us from this
world that entices us. He hath redeemed us from that
sword of God's holy justice, that broken law, Galatians 3.13,
He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made
a curse for us. And then remarkably, they sing
in heaven. He hath redeemed us, Revelation
5.9, He hath redeemed us to God. Redemption had a purpose. Redemption had a purpose in eternity. Redemption had a purpose on the
cross. Redemption has a purpose into
the future. He's redeemed us to God. He's paid that price. He's brought
us out. We belong to Him. And He's done
it because of His covenant mercies. And He's done it that His name
would be seen to be holy. and reverend. His name would
be held up as awesome and glorious. This is our great God. This is
our great Saviour. This is the great salvation that
our Lord Jesus has won for his people. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all
they that do his commandments. I've spoken a little earlier
about the fear of the Lord. Isaiah 33 verse 6 says that the
fear of the Lord is his treasure. The fear of the Lord is a treasure. It's a gift from God. It's something
to be treasured. awesome holy reverence for his
name. A good understanding have all
they that do his commandments. Anyone here done his commandments
lately? Anyone here done them to the
satisfaction of God? Brothers and sisters in the Lord
Jesus standing before you is someone who has done absolutely
everything that God requires. Absolutely everything. How does
Romans 8 put it? For what the law could not do
in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. On account of sin he condemns
sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law, God's
righteous requirement of God's law might be fulfilled in us
who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. You see the law slayed us when
it slayed our dear son, when it slayed his dear son. Paul
described himself as a dead man, dead with Christ. The law can't
touch a dead man, for I have been crucified with Christ. It
is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me." See Paul wouldn't as a sinner and
Paul couldn't set aside the grace of God as he says, for if righteousness
comes through the law then Christ died in vain. Righteousness is
his to give Which is why this psalm finishes so beautifully. It's a psalm of praise. Christian
life begins with praise as this psalm does. Praise ye the Lord. And then we finish. His praise endureth forever. His praise goes on forever. He's being praised right now
in heaven, isn't he? He's going to be praised in a
little while when he comes back. And all of this world will see
him and his people will delight in his coming back. And all of
our time, that endless time in that new creation, we will see
him as he really is. And we'll see each other as we
really is and we'll see this creation, this new creation through
eyes that are not stained and polluted by sin. And every little
thing and every person we see will just reflect the glory of
our great God and our great Saviour. Praise ye the Lord.