Psalm 108 this evening. Psalm
108 verse 1 of course. Oh God, my heart is fixed. I
will sing and give praise, even with my glory. My heart, David
says, is firmly established. O God, what a wonderful blessing
this is from God to have an established heart. Paul said in Hebrews 13
9, Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines,
for it is a good thing that the heart be established. with grace. This is what establishes the
heart, the word of God, the doctrine of God. This firmly established heart
is one that has believed the doctrine of grace, that the heart
be established with grace, and he's talking about doctrine.
Don't be carried about with diverse and strange doctrine, where it's
a blessing from God, it's a good thing. There are not that many
good things in this world, you know that? There are some good
things from God. This is one of them. A heart
established with grace in the sense of his doctrine, his teaching,
his truth. And don't miss the word heart
in our text or in the verse we just read in Hebrews. The word
heart because a person can be a staunch proponent of correct
doctrine. Which by the way is the Bible.
Not the commandments of men. The scriptures talk about those
who teach for doctrine the commandments of men. Matthew 15 9, but in
vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. People formulate doctrines. True
doctrine is not from the Bible. True doctrine is not based on
the Bible. True doctrine is the Bible. Always remember that. God never said anywhere be sure
and formulate your doctrine based on the Bible. Sound doctrine in scriptures
is called the doctrine of God our Savior. The doctrine of Christ
we saw recently in one of our studies. But many have learned
sound doctrine in their heads only to move on from it at some
point or to be tossed about by another wind because It was never
in their heart. They never embraced Christ and
his truth in their hearts by faith. Remember Paul said, knowledge
puffs up. If you fall in love with the
Savior, you'll be built up. Knowing some things and believing
on Christ are two different things. You may be able to recite much
of scripture, the Pharisees and scribes especially. could do
that, and even expound it, perhaps soundly. But is your heart fixed? David said, oh God, my heart
is fixed. I imagine Judas was able to preach
a pretty good message, or they would have kicked him out a long
time before he was ever revealed to be the devil that he was,
don't you think? But his heart was far from Christ, and he was,
as our Lord said, a devil from the beginning. To be firmly established
is to build your house on the rock, and that rock is Christ. You remember the parable our
Lord told, the one that built their house on the rock and the
one that built on the sand. Storms are coming. Build wisely. My hope is built on nothing less.
than Jesus' blood and righteousness, and everything else is less.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus'
name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
I will sing, he said after that, I will sing in praise. And listen,
that not only tells where my heart is established, if your
heart is established He said, oh God, my heart is established.
Where's his heart established? On God, on Christ, the rock. Because he wouldn't be singing
unto him and of him and praising him unless his heart was established
on him. But it also tells us why. It not only tells where my heart
is established, but acknowledges why. My heart is established. I'm going to have to sing praises
unto Him because He's the one who established me. He's the
one who fixed me. He's the one who planted me by
the rivers of living water. If your heart is fixed on Christ,
sing His praises because He made it so. And notice this last phrase. Even with my glory, when you do Whatever you do for
the Lord. And this comes up in scripture
quite a bit, doesn't it? I say this quite a bit, but you
notice I don't say anything that's not right in the text. By God's
grace, it's right there. Even with my glory, David said.
What does that mean? Well, the word means heavy. Well,
that's the root word that it's from. Heavy, weighty. And what he's saying here is
this, and whatever you do for the Lord, do it with your glory. It means to be purposeful and
earnest in your praise of Him, in your worship of Him, in everything
you do for Him. Give it your very, very best. And I know that our best isn't
anything, but I'll tell you this, our Lord is worthy of whatever
our best is. He's going to have to enable
us to worship Him at all. I understand that. Don't trifle with God, don't
fake it. Don't just halfway do anything for Him. He's worthy
of our glory, our best, our all. And let's give it to Him. Can't
half-heartedly praise him. And then David said in verse
2, Awake, psaltery and harp. I myself will awake early. We've talked about this too,
psaltery and harp. You know it takes time and commitment and a real desire to learn to
play a musical instrument. And this principle applies in
a lot of things. So if you can't play a musical
instrument, you're not left out of this. But what it shows is
the principle here is to just flat be determined to glorify
in some way. The Lord's gifted you somehow.
And you're putting your heart into it. You don't just sit down
and play a song on the piano. David didn't just sit down and
start plucking the harp and it sounded right. He committed himself
to that for the glory of God. And we have these psalms that
he sang on the harp and played and accompanied. And he said,
I'm going to wake up early. You get up early for that which
is important to you. You get up early to go to work
because you need to work. Sometimes I get up early and
go fishing. because I really like fishing. You're going to
get up early for whatever's important to you. You give your best to
that which is important to you, your glory. And so this is a
continuation of that thought you see. You get up early and
put your weight into it. Let it be a heavy, a weighty
thing to you to worship Him, to honor Him. It's my privilege
because of the way that God takes care of his church, because of
the arrangement that he's made here and everywhere and throughout
the ages, the way he's ordained that his church be fed and taught
by pastors. It's my privilege to be able
to get out of bed in the morning and go straight to the word of
God. I walk about 12 feet from my bed and I'm in God's word.
And that's what I do. What a wonderful privilege that
is. I don't have to drive anywhere. I don't have time to think about
anything else. I haven't even had breakfast yet. Vicki will
usually bring me something up at some point if I want it. But
I wake up and I sit down and I open the Word of God and I
begin to write. And God gives me some things. He teaches me. It's a blessed
time of communion and learning. It's just a wonderful thing.
And sometimes I'll even pick up my guitar like David did here
and sing something. As I was looking at this, I thought,
you know, I think I'll sing something just by myself. And I sang, Be
Still My Soul. The Lord is on Your Side. But I highly recommend that if
you're getting up in the morning in just enough time to go to
work, and that's what I used to do, Ricky can tell you this,
I'd get up 15 minutes before I had to leave for work. I could
get a shower and get dressed and get out the door and even
eat something. Boom, 15 minutes. I'd have made a good fireman,
I think. But if you're doing that, if
you're getting up just in time to get to work, I highly recommend
you get up a little bit earlier. And I'm not, I'm not giving myself
as an example here really. I don't have any choice now.
So I'm not, it's not, it's my privilege. But it's also my job. I get up
and do that. But if you're getting up just
in time to get to work, get up just a little bit early and start
your day in the word of God. I promise you, you won't regret
it. Pray. Get your mind set on the right
things. Get your mind thinking about what it's all about, because
it ain't all about the rat race. And this is what David is saying,
I'm going to wake up early and wake up sultry and hard. Let's
honor him today. And either way, the day is his,
isn't it? The day is his. Listen to what
David wrote in Psalm 118, 24. This is the day which the Lord
hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in
it. And listen, a lot of people quote that verse, but they don't
quote the next one. I know, you know, every time you quote a
verse, somebody, somebody says sometimes, you know, why didn't
you go a little further there? Well, if you want to be here
all night, I'll read all of it. But this is, this is an important
verse to this one. Let us rejoice and be glad in
it. Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord. When you're starting
your day, Lord, save me today. Save me today. I beseech thee,
send now prosperity. I should have had you turn there
and look at that. I'm going to read it all again. This is the
day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord. Oh Lord, I beseech thee,
send now prosperity. Isn't that a good prayer? This
is the day the Lord has made. And I want to rejoice in Him
all day when things are going my way and when things are going
not so much my way. And be glad in Him. And this
is my prayer this morning. Save me, Lord. Save me. Don't
let me fall, keep me. I beseech you, oh Lord, I beseech
you, send now prosperity. If I'm going to prosper in what
I do, and don't you want to do that? Do you go to work not to
prosper? And of course this isn't just
earthly prosperity, but it's that too. Don't we want that
from God? It comes from Him. I don't want
to not prosper in what I do, in anything I do. But of course,
it's more than that. It's spiritual prosperity. Cause
me, Lord, to prosper as your child in this world. Make me
a good servant. Cause me to prosper as your servant
in this world and in the doing of your will, whatever that may
be for me. Help me to honor your son in all that I do today and
all that I say. This is how we ought to wake
up. The Lord made this day and he made it for me. This is his
day, but he's given it to me. to honor him. Save me Lord and
send prosperity. Bless me. Bless me in whatever
I do and may it be to your glory. I've given some thought and I
didn't know whether to say this tonight or not, but I want you
to tell me what you think about it at some point. I've thought
about maybe trying to record some 10 minute messages just
a video or audio or whatever and put them up and to help maybe
it'd be something you could watch it more just for 10 minutes let's
just get in the Word of God and study and just some thoughts
to get us started in the right direction every day and I may
do that pray about it with me and let me know what you think
about that But as I said, either way, I
think this is good. Early. Verse 3, I will praise thee,
O Lord, among the people, and I'll sing praises unto thee among
the nations. Not just here, not just in church,
and this is good here. Let's praise him together here.
among the people, but also among the nations, wherever we go. The woman at the well couldn't
contain herself, could she? She had to go tell somebody that
she just met the Savior. She said, come see a man that
told me all things ever I did. Is not this the Christ? That's
kind of what we do. The Lord reveals something to
us in the scriptures and Sometimes when you men read the scripture,
I can tell the Lord blessed that to your heart because of the
way you read it. And is not this the Christ? Is not this our Savior? Is not
this our Lord? She had to tell it. She praised
him among the people of the city where she lived. Verse four,
for thy mercy is great above the heavens and thy truth reacheth
unto the clouds the great mercy of God in Christ here it is now
mercy show me your glory Lord I'll cause all my goodness to
pass before you that I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy I don't know exactly what what
Moses saw that day. But I know he saw Christ because
I know who God's glory is. He's the brightness of God's
glory. And God shines the light of the knowledge of his glory
from the face of his son. And that's where God's mercy
is in his son. It is the great mercy, the great
mercy of God in Christ is the reason that I praise him with
my glory. The reason The glory is His. We praise Him with our glory,
but it redounds to His glory. The reason I praise Him tonight,
instead of cursing Him, is His mercy is great above the heavens. But also, it's the reason that
I have to praise Him. Because His mercy is great. It's
the reason I praise Him, and it's what I praise Him for, too.
for his great mercy. If there were a cure discovered
for the most horrible, terrible, hopeless of diseases, we'd want
everybody to know about it, wouldn't we? In every corner of the world.
We want them to know. Don't die needlessly. There's
a cure. His mercy is so great that even
that illustration pales. The mercy of God. Why will you
die? Why would you die in your sins?
Let him that's thirsty come. His mercy is so great that sinners
can be sons. Beggars can be made princes.
The dead brought to life. You can drink from the river
that flows from God's throne and every problem you have will
melt away. You say, oh Chris, I know the
Lord. I still have problems. Yeah,
we have troubles and we have difficulties. We won't lie about
that like religion does, you know. But is it really a problem
if your savior is at your side? Old John Newton wrote, prisons
would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with me there. Was
he just whistling Dixie when he wrote that? Or does that ring
a bell with you? Is that just a nice sentiment
or is Christ really our present help and comfort in trouble?
I see people have trouble and then you don't see them in the
worship. Because they have troubles. That's the time to come worship. Everything, when somebody's born,
we worship him. When somebody dies, we worship
him. When somebody's hurting, we worship him. When we're celebrating
something, we worship him. The story of how God can be just
and yet merciful to sinners demands to be told. It must be told. I believe that's part of the
reason why Paul said, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. I know God can make the rocks
cry out if that's what he wants to do. He doesn't need us. But
if he's given us a voice and he's revealed his son to us,
how can we not cry out? The demands to be told is too
great not to be told. His mercy is great and it's high
above the heavens. And we tell it plainly and boldly. My brother just prayed for me
that the Lord would give me plainness and boldness in my speaking.
Paul said, seeing we have such hope, seeing how great God's
mercy is, we use great plainness of speech. And we don't mince
words. We're bold about it because we're
bold in him. I'm not confident in anything
that I know except what God said. You know what? I'd second guess
myself about everything else. But I know what God said by his
grace. I do. I know what he, I know what God,
I know what the message of this book is. And it has to be told. And so that's what David said
he was going to do. He said I'm going to use great plainness
of speech. Now if you're using plain speech, it stands to reason
that you're speaking. Didn't we see last, I believe
it was last week, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Say so. Let everything that hath breath,
have you got breath? Praise the Lord. Tell forth his
praise. Talk about his great mercy in
Christ. We must tell about Christ. His
great and mighty power to save. Paul said, seeing we have such
hope. You know what that such hope
is? I don't have a savior that's done all that he can do. My savior
today can save everybody in this room with a word. And he don't have to wait for
you to cooperate with him. He doesn't need you to make a
decision. He can decide it. And He will decide it. That's
the hope that we have. He's mighty to save. He doesn't
stand back and wait on anybody to save themselves. The shepherd didn't lose the
sheep and then stand there hoping it would find its way home. No,
He went after it. He still does. Let's be plain
about that. Our Savior is mighty to save.
He's God's son and he saves with a mighty arm. It's he that passes
by and says at the time of love. He said it was the time of love
and I said unto thee live. That's what you need. You don't
need to decide anything. You need for God's son to come
where you are and say live. And you know how he does that?
By the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The most despised and hopeless
are given life at his very command. Think about that when you pray.
He's mighty to save. He delights to show mercy. His
mercy is great. It's great in that it reaches
to the lowest and the most vile. It's great in that it doesn't
matter how far you are off. He reaches. and he'll bring you
home. It's great in that it has no
limit but what he himself puts upon him. His precious blood
is mighty to wash away our every stain before God. That's how
great his mercy is. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Look and live Look and live,
Moses said. Look and live. My brother, live. Look to Jesus Christ. Now and
live. That's how powerful he is. Be
thou exalted, O God. Verse 5, he said, above the heavens
and thy glory above all the earth. Be thou exalted for the greatness
of your mercy. This is exactly what has happened
and what shall happen. Christ has been exalted for his
great mercy. Turn to Philippians chapter two. Listen to David's prayer. Now
be thou exalted, O God. He's just been talking about
the greatness of the mercy of God in Christ. And he said, you
know, this one by whom God has shown mercy to sinners ought
to be lifted up. Be thou exalted above the heavens
and thy glory above all the earth. Listen to Philippians 2, 6. Who
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Now, what did we just
read? We read of the mercy of God right there. That's the greatness
of God's mercy right there that the Son of God came and gave
himself for wretched vile sinners like us. That's what mercy is.
All right. So what's going to be the result
of that? Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him. That's what
David just prayed. Oh, that he might be exalted
for having mercy on sinners. He is. He will be. He always
will be. And we're going to delight. There
is nothing that makes a saved sinner happier than to see his
Savior exalted. Remember what John the Baptist
said? Oh, they said, oh look, he's getting all the glory. John
said, that's exactly what I want. He's the bridegroom. I'm just
a friend of his. I'm just glad to be his friend.
He must increase. And I must decrease. I like it
like that. Not unto us, O Lord, wherefore
God hath also highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth. And people always talk about,
you know, when the world is over and we're at that great white
throne judgment and all that, everybody's going to be forced
to bow. Let's talk about this. Could you bow quick enough in
His presence right now? How long would it take you to
hit your knees before Him? His name is above everything.
He's highly exalted and His people adore Him and rejoice that He's
on the throne. John says, I saw a throne and
there was one sitting on it like unto the Son of God. The Lamb
was sitting on the throne. And his praises go up. We rejoice
to see him. Now his enemies, when he said,
you're going to see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand
of the majesty, they spit on him. When he said that to his enemies.
But when we think about the fact that King Jesus is on the throne
of this universe, there is nothing that delights our soul any more
than that. Can you think of anything better than that? The one that
loved you enough to give himself for you rules everything. And that every tongue should
confess. Can we confess it tonight by God's grace? Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of his father, God. Thank God. that he brought us to his feet,
rejoicing in his sovereign mercy. Verse six, that thy beloved may
be saved. Oh, look at this. He's exalted. Why? Why has God given his son a name
above every name? and exalted him to the very pinnacle
of heaven, the very throne of heaven. Why has he done that? So that those that he loves might
be saved. Everything that God does is for
the glory of his son, the exaltation and preeminence of his son, and
that his beloved might be delivered. Everything he does. The sun came
up this morning and it will go down tonight that his loved ones
might be saved. You mark it down. He was and is exalted because
he's great in mercy. We saw that this verse 5 is bracketed
by The cause and the result. It's because of His mercy. Because
of His greatness, His powerful, almighty, invincible mercy in
Christ. In sending His Son to be the
propitiation for the sins of His people. But also, He's exalted
because of that, because He's great in mercy. But also He is
exalted that He might show mercy. God the father put his son the
Lord Jesus Christ in the position of great authority ultimate authority
Made him Lord of all of all things. He said all things are delivered
unto me That he might have mercy on those
that the father gave him John 17 1 I ought to have you turn
there, but I'm through let me just just look I'll read it maybe
twice listen to this these words spake Jesus and and lifted up
his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son that thy son
may also glorify thee. As thou has given him power,
authority over all flesh. Why? Can you tell me why? That thy beloved may be delivered. that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. God put his son on the throne. Mercy now, mercy, send him to
the cross. But also put him on the throne,
set him on high, highly exalted, that he should give eternal life
to his beloved ones. And this is life eternal. How
does he do that? that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent. You can't know God without knowing
his Son. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me, in any sense. And so through this means what
Paul called the foolishness of preaching, because to this world
the preaching of Christ is foolishness. But it's by these means that
God has ordained to save those that believe. To save those whom
he loves and gives faith in his son. The Lord Jesus Christ was
born a baby in a manger, but he's not in the manger now. He's
not. He was born king. Even when he
was in that manger, he was king. And now he is the royal king
of God's kingdom with all authority and discretion. And it's his
prerogative to save or not. He it is that passes by a crowd
and says to one sinner, will thou be made whole? And even
when that sinner ain't got the good sense to say yes, he still
makes him whole. Is that what happened to you?
That's exactly what happened to me. God's right hand, did
you see that in the text? Saved with your right hand. You
know who that is? Power Christ the wisdom of God
and Christ the what Paul said the power of God the right hand
is symbolic of power Save me by your son Save my children
save my loved ones God give us grace to speak of your great
mercy in Christ and by those means save with your right hand
the Lord Jesus Christ Our Lord Jesus Christ took that little
damsel by the hand And said, Damsel, I say unto
thee, arise. And she lived, and the Lord said,
give her something to eat. Oh God, thou whose very name,
Jesus, means you shall save. Save our children. Save our grandchildren with your
right hand. The right hand of your power.
Who's he gonna save? His beloved. His son and all those who are
found in him. Jacob have I loved. That's salvation. Because this is love that defines
what love is. When God loves you now. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us. He said of us in eternity just
like he did Jacob, Linda have I loved, Jimmy have I loved. Herein is love that he loved
us and sent his son. He saved us with his right hand.
to be the propitiation for our sins. That's what salvation looks
like. God sending his son to be my sin offering. Thank God for his great mercy.
May he give us grace to talk about it. Let's pray together.