OK. All right. Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me. To the book of Psalms. 98 Psalm 98. Psalm 98. I'd like to look at the first
three verses of this Scripture. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song, for He hath done marvelous things. His right hand and His
holy arm hath gotten Him the victory. The Lord hath made known
His salvation. His righteousness hath He openly
showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered His mercy
and His truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God." Let's pray together. Our Father, as we call upon You
this evening, we do so in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we ask You by Your mercy and grace, Lord, would You speak
to us in power. Lord, we ask You to help us to
worship tonight. Help us to hear. Help us to praise. Help us to rejoice. Help us to
be glad. Lord, we ask that You bless the
preaching and the hearing. And Lord, we pray for this church
down in Pipeville. Pray for Tom and the congregation
there. Pray that you would raise up
help in this hour of their need. Lord, we ask you to help them
even tonight as they're attempting to meet together and worship
and bless their time together. Pray for Aaron. During this time,
Dale and his wife. Lord, pray for those that are
in our midst that are afflicted. hurting and troubled. Lord, bless us here, we ask. I pray that You would sustain
us by Your grace and Your power. Thank You that You've kept us
to this moment. And we pray these things for
Christ's sake. Amen. Man comes forth from his mother's
womb singing a song of praise to himself. A song that is going to be sung
by the carnal man concerning his relationship before God is
a song of nothing more than arrogant pride. It echoes of self-righteousness
in every line. It's got man as its God. It crowns Him with nothing more
than praise, adoration. It's filled with His works. It's filled with His own worth
before God. being able to establish a righteousness
before God. The song of the carnal heart
makes man to be the author and finisher of his faith. And it portrays the God of all
creation as being nothing more than a beggar that is trying
to do the best that he can, trying to save somebody if they by their
own free will will allow him to." That's man's song. The psalmist says, oh, sing unto
the Lord a new song. This is a fresh, that's what
that means, new, a fresh song that's sung not unto man, but
it's sung to the Lord. It's a song that is taught to
the new heart by the Spirit of God because without a new heart,
there's no new song. This is the song of redemption.
That's that song that the four and twenty elders sing, casting
their crowns before the Lord And they sing, You're worthy. You're worthy to receive all
honor and glory and praise. You bought us. You bought us
off the slave market of the bondage of sin. We had no ability in ourselves
to do anything. The Lord said concerning those
that He sent to preach the gospel, He said they're going to speak
with a new tongue. Hebrews 10.20 reveals that believers
enter into the holiest, that is, the presence of Almighty
God by a new and living way, that is, by the virtue of the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, not by anything that I could
do, you could do, I desire to do, you desire to do by the virtue
of the grace of God. This is a new song, fresh, holy,
vibrant. We sing a new song and these
lyrics that we sing are not written. from the bondage of sin and Satan
itself. Here is what we sing. He hath done marvelous things. Now you think about the difference
in man by nature. And these words right here. This
is what man by nature says. I have done marvelous things.
What did the group that's going to stand before God in that day,
what are they going to say? The Lord said they were saved. We've cast out demons in your
name. We've preached in your name. We've done many marvelous, mighty works. This
is a new song. He hath done marvelous things. The word marvelous right there
is a word that can only be used concerning God Almighty because
it speaks of actions that are beyond the bounds of man. You cannot use that word right
there concerning a man. Not that word. He's done marvelous
things. It's things that with men are
impossible. You can't. He was conceived in a marvelous
way. Conceived by the Holy Ghost.
Now, whatever I can do is going to be tainted because of the
way I was conceived. I was conceived in sin. I came forth from my mother's
womb speaking lies. I'm a liar. I'm a liar against
God. I'm a liar concerning myself.
I don't really believe I'm that bad. He's done marvelous things. Secondly, he lived a marvelous
life. He was obedient in every word,
every thought, every deed. He said, I do only always those
things that please the Father. What man concerning the man Christ
Jesus walked in absolute obedience before God? He lived a marvelous
life. The man, the man, Christ Jesus,
he walked before God with not one infraction. Not one thought
of an infraction. Nothing. This is My beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. And His obedience is imputed
to those that believe. They've lived a marvelous life.
I'll tell you this. He died a marvelous death. There was the Lord Jesus Christ,
God's Lamb, hanging between heaven and earth by Himself. Do you know that
there has never been another man that has ever died alone?
He may have had Satan as his father, but he didn't die alone. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
tread the winepress of His wrath alone, by Himself. He died as
the substitute, the absolute substitute for a particularly
loved people that God had chosen from the foundation of the world.
And here He is, the Lamb. And by one sacrifice He hath
forever perfected. All of those that Almighty God
ever gave Him, those that believe, those that will come, Those that
hear, he died a marvelous death. Here was two thieves, one on
each side of him. I heard someone say one time
there was one dying in his sin, and there was one on the other
side dying to sin, and there was the Lord Jesus Christ dying
for sin. He died as no man ever died.
Marvelous death. He was risen in a marvelous resurrection. He said concerning His resurrection,
His death and resurrection, He said, I have the power to lay
down My life and I have the power to take it again. You know, that's
a marvelous thing. Here is God Almighty in human
flesh and He said, I lay down My life. You can't lay down your
life. You have no ability to will yourself
away. Just give up the ghost. Not as he did. And I can take
it back. He ascended marvelously into
heaven. Resurrected in the very body
in which he died. And let me tell you what's marvelous
about his ascension. He's seated right now. at the
right hand of the power of God. And that's the way that men are
going to see Him on the Day of Judgment, seated, ruling, reigning. There is a man in glory seated
on the throne of God. That's a marvelous ascension.
Here's the verses we sing. Sing unto the Lord a new song.
He hath done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm
hath gotten Him the victory. All other works done. All other means, all other
merits except His are excluded. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is by the grace of God. Deliverance from sin, deliverance
from the curse of sin, deliverance from the curse of the law for
His people is His victory. That's the first verse. Second
verse, the Lord hath made known His salvation. How? By the appearance of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Word was made flesh. Jehovah, the Lord, the capital
L-O-R-D, Jehovah hath made known His salvation. You think about
the marvelous grace of God that the Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world. God in the likeness of sinful flesh,
yet without sin. God has been pleased to make
known to His people by His Spirit His salvation. Salvation is a
person. Salvation is the Lord. I am the
way. I am the way. I am the truth.
I am the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Me. Man could have never discovered God's salvation for himself."
Flesh and blood, Peter didn't reveal that to you. My Father
which is in heaven. How would you ever have known?
You tell me what man would have ever come up with a marvelous
truth of the gospel of free grace. God chose a people before the
foundation of the world and chose them in a surety that loved them
everlastingly, stood for them everlastingly. justified Him
everlastingly, based totally that He was the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. You tell me what man that thought
entered into? To those that believe not. That's
foolishness. That God is sovereign? That God
chooses? That God is the determining God
of all, electing grace? No, no, no. foolishness, His
righteousness hath He openly showed in the sight of the heathen."
Nations is what that word, heathen, means. Nations. Out of every
part of this world, in every generation, God's got a people
beloved. Every place, every nook, every
cranny, every tribe, Every town. These are not going to be left
in the blindness of their own foolishness to continue in the
darkness of unbelief. This is the song of the redeemed. His righteousness. His righteousness. His righteousness. Not mine. I don't stand this evening in
my own righteousness. Boy, I'm glad for that. I don't
stand here this evening by the grace of God, saved by the grace
of God. I do not stand here on my own
works. I do not stand here before you,
a redeemed sinner, by my own merit. I stand here totally on
the merit of God's Son. God's grace, God's choice, God's
pleasure, God's purpose, God's will. Salvation is of the Lord. Here's the third verse that we
sing. He hath remembered His mercy
and His truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God. He's remembered. You know, whenever I see myself,
oh, inconsistent. And this is every day. Whenever
I see myself not as faithful as I realize that I
ought to be, and if I can realize it, How much unfaithfulness must
there truly be in me? But to stop and think that He
has remembered His mercy and His truth toward
His people. Ever mindful of an everlasting
covenant. Not mindful because of my thoughts,
my work. Mindful for the sake of His Son. Listen to Luke 1, 68-72. Let
me read this to you. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for He has visited and redeemed His people and hath raised up
a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David,
as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been
since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy
promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant."
He hath remembered His mercy, His kindness, His faithfulness
by raising up the Lord Jesus Christ. He's remembered mercy. I cannot help but think about
that thief on the cross. Lord, remember me. Lord, would
you remember me? Would you remember me in mercy?
He's remembered His mercy and His truth. He's kept His promise. I'll never
forsake you. I'll never leave you. I'm embarrassed to think how
many times in my heart I've left Him. That's an embarrassing
thought. It's an embarrassing thought
to think about how many times in my prayer I've been wayward. How inconsistent that I've been. How flippant I've been with hearing. Isn't it embarrassing to think
how many times our minds have wandered since we've sat in this
message over the last 25 minutes and thought, where has our mind
been? at so much of what we've heard
right now. Mine has. And I'm sitting here
talking, and my mind has wandered. He has remembered His mercy and
His truth toward the house of Israel. I'll tell you who that
is. I'll tell you who that is. You
remember when Jacob was wrestling with a man. And the day began
to break. And the Lord who wrestled with
Jacob said, Let me go. And Jacob said, I can't. I won't. Not unless you bless me. He asked
him his name. What's your name? He said, Jacob. Liar. Trickster. Huckster. Surplanter. He said, Not anymore. You'll be called Israel. Prince
with God. He has remembered His mercy and
His truth toward the house of Israel all just like Jacob. Those
that He chose to show mercy to. Stop as we end right now before
we eat of the Lord's Supper. Stop and think of this blessed
song Here is the song. He has done marvelous things. His right hand, His holy arm
hath gotten Him the victory. The Lord hath made known His
salvation. His righteousness hath He openly
showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered His mercy
and His truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation. of our God, the elect out of
every nation and kindred and tribe and tongue. They've seen
it. They've perceived it. The salvation
of our God, the deliverance. And you that believe this evening,
do you know what? You sing this song. You that
believe, you don't sing a song of praise to yourself. I know
you don't. You don't sing that. You don't
say, my mighty hand has gotten me the victory. You do not say,
my righteousness has earned me the right to stand before God. That thought makes you sick. That verse of a song will turn
your stomach. But you know what you admit?
I used to sing it. I sang it one time, but not anymore. There's a new song in my heart
because He's given me a new heart. May the Lord bless these few
words to our understanding and cause us to behold Him who is
altogether wonderful and marvelous and gracious and merciful to
His people. Amen. I'm going to ask the men
if they'd come. Let's receive the Lord's table.