All right, brethren, Psalm 135,
verse one says, praise ye the Lord. Now this is a little different from the
last psalm. The last psalm said, bless ye
the Lord. This one says, praise ye the
Lord. Is there a difference between
blessing the Lord and praising the Lord? Well, blessing the
Lord means to kneel, to bow before Him and adore Him. It has more
to do with the heart, with the inward aspect of worship. You remember it said in the last
Psalm, it said, lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Lift
up your hands in the holy place. In the heart, that's the holy
place of His people. Lift up empty hands, hands of
adoration to Him from the heart. That's what blessing the Lord
is. You kneel before Him, you come with a spirit of humility
and reverence and bow and adore Him because He's given you a
heart to do that. And it ended with the Lord that
made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion. Christ made heaven
and earth. He's God and He blesses His people
and when He does, it's out of It's out of love for his people. He adores his people because
of what he's made us and his people adore him. This is what
bless you the Lord has to do with the heart that kneels before
the Lord and adores the Lord for what he's done for us and
it has to do with his love to us in blessing his people. Praise
you the Lord, praising the Lord, means boast in him. It means
glory in him. It means brag on him. Praising
the Lord is to boast in who he is, his person. It's giving him
the glory for all his works and for what he's done for his people.
We're gonna see this psalm speaks of his person, his name, and
it speaks of his works. Praising the Lord and blessing
the Lord go together for God's child. The psalm begins with,
praise ye the Lord, and we're going in with, bless the Lord. As we hear the gospel preached,
we hear the Lord praised, we hear Him gloried in, we hear
Him being bragged upon for who He is, His person and His works,
and as the Lord blesses us in the heart, then we bow in the
heart and we bless the Lord and we adore the Lord for what He's
done for us. They go together. because of what he does through
the gospel. Now tonight we're just gonna look at these first
four verses. This is the general command the Spirit gives to all
his people, praise you the Lord, glory in the Lord. But now the
first several verses we're gonna look at are speaking to his servants,
his preachers who stand in the congregation and proclaim the
word to his people. And the last several verses are
gonna speak to the whole house. to everybody in the house. So
this first word is particularly to the Lord's servants, particularly
to his preachers. Now, it includes everybody. As
you see, he's gonna give the same word to the whole congregation
at the end. But this is the Lord's clear
command concerning the message that his preachers are to preach.
This is what we're to do. When we stand in the pulpit,
we're to praise the Lord. We're to give Him all the glory
and honor and brag on Him and boast on Him and what His person,
His works, what He's done for His people. That's the command
of the Holy Spirit. That's what He's gonna make His
preacher do. Now, first of all, the Holy Spirit commands His
servants to praise the Lord Himself. Verse 1. Praise ye the name of
the Lord. Praise him, O ye servants of
the Lord. Ye that stand in the house of
the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Then he's gonna
command his servant to praise the Lord for his goodness. He
says, praise the Lord for the Lord is good. Sing praises unto
his name for it is pleasant. And then the Holy Spirit commands
his servant to praise the Lord for his grace toward his people.
Verse four, for the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself and
Israel for his peculiar treasure. We'll just look at those three
things tonight. Now first of all, the Spirit
of God commands his preacher to praise the Lord himself. He
says in verse one, praise ye the name of the Lord. That's
the Lord himself. Praise the name of the Lord.
Praise him, O you servants of the Lord. Ye that stand in the
house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. True
preaching is not preaching merely a system of doctrine. That's
not true preaching. True preaching is praising the
Lord himself, the name of the Lord. It's glorying in the Lord
himself, in the name of the Lord. I love the doctrine of election.
I love the doctrine of particular redemption, the irresistible
grace, everything this book teaches, I love the doctrine of God. But
I'm not trying to persuade you to believe a doctrine. You can
perish believing a doctrine. Believing a doctrine is not what
saves, it's the Lord that saves. I want you to believe the Lord.
I want you to trust the Lord himself and be blessed by the
Lord himself. Praise ye the name of the Lord,
praise him You servants of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the Lord Jehovah. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lord Jehovah in a man's body. That's who he is. When scripture
shows the Lord speak to a sinner, we know this. I've shown you
this many times. When the scripture shows us in
the Old Testament prior to Christ's coming, when the scripture shows
the Lord speaking to a man, to a child, one of his children. It's always the pre-incarnate
Lord Jesus Christ speaking. How do you know that? Because
scripture tells us there's one mediator between God and men,
and it's Christ Jesus. He's the one mediator. So God's
always, he's always been, Christ has always been the mediator,
and he's always dealt with his people through Christ the mediator. Now, it was the pre-incarnate
Lord Jesus that spoke to Moses in the burning bush. That's who
was speaking to Moses. I want you to go look at this,
Exodus 3. Exodus 3. And I just want you to hear what
he said. Exodus 3, 13. He's sending Moses to deliver
the children of Israel. In verse 13, Moses said, unto
God. You see that? He said unto God.
This is the one mediator who's God our savior. Moses said to
God, behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall
say unto them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you.
And they shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say
unto them? When they ask me who sent me?
And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me
unto you. Our Psalms says praise the name
of the Lord. And Moses said, whose name am
I gonna tell them I'm coming? He said, you tell them my name. I am that I am. Go with me to Colossians 115. I showed you that because I want
you to see this. Colossians 115. We don't praise the name of the
Lord, we go ahead and praise the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look
here, Colossians 115, because he is the Lord Jehovah. Colossians 115 says, Christ Jesus
is the image of the invisible God. You see that? He's the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature. That means he's the head of creation,
he's the head of all principality and power, and he's the head
of the body of the church. Now look at verse 18. At the
end it says, that in all things he might have the preeminence,
for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Now go to Colossians 2 and look
at verse 9. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That means God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Spirit is in the man Christ Jesus. He
is the Lord Jehovah in a body, the express image of God. And ye, you that have been called
by him, you're complete in him who is the head of all principality
and power. The Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah
in a body. He's head of all. Christ is head
of his church, and to you who he has called and revealed himself,
you're complete in him. You're complete in him. If you've
never believed on Christ, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ today.
Now the only way you're gonna do that is if he's speaking to
you now through this message and he calls you, then you'll
call on his name. Believe on him. You're going
to meet God. You're gonna meet him and we're
sinners. We cannot meet God and be accepted any other way than
through faith in the Lord Jesus. Believe on him. Believer, are
you troubled? You come to the Lord Jesus and
cast all your care on him and trust him. You don't have to
fight, you don't have to fuss, you don't have to wrangle, you
don't have to worry. Trust the Lord. He's the head of all principality. He's the great I am. He's the
Lord Jehovah. He's head over all and he's your
head and you're his body, members of his body. Now, we're going to praise the
name of the Lord. We're going to praise Him. We're
going to give the Lord Jesus who is God. We're giving Him
the glory. We're praising His name. We're
praising who He is, His person. Boasting and bragging in who
He is rather than boasting in ourselves and something about
ourselves. We brag on Him. He is everything to us. Now secondly,
look what the The Spirit of God commands the Lord's servant to
praise the name of the Lord for what that name means. Look, verse
three. Praise the Lord, for the Lord
is good. Sing praises unto his name, for
it is pleasant. Have you ever met someone who
is good? Have you ever met someone who
is good? Have you ever met somebody who
is only good? Have you ever met someone who
is always good? If he's revealed himself to you,
you have. You have. Only if he's revealed himself
to you. He's good, he's only good, he's
always good, and he only does good. Just makes sense to trust him,
don't it? Most mothers will say their child
is good, especially their son. Well, compared to other sons,
you can always find one that's worse. Man means good in comparison
to others. That's what we mean by good.
Now let me ask you, if you had a basket of rotten, shriveled
up apples, and they're all just rotten and shriveled and just
stinking apples. And you found one that's a little
less rotten and a little less shriveled, would you say, oh,
that's a good apple? No, they're all just rotten apples.
Well, that's what every fallen child of Adam is. We're all just
rotten apples. God alone is good. Scripture
says of all men, there's none that doeth good, no, not one.
Christ said there's none good but one, that's God. To say any
sinner is good is first of all to call God a liar, because he
said there are none good. And secondly, is to take the
glory that belongs to him as being the only one who is good. That glory belongs to him. God
alone is good. Praise the Lord, give all the
glory to God. to our Lord Jesus, for the Lord
is good. Sing praises unto his name, for
his name is pleasant. The Lord is not good by comparison. The Lord is good. Now think about
that. The Lord is good. The Lord is
goodness. He is good. God good is a person. The Lord is good. Good is a person. Good is the Lord Jesus. Sing
glory to his name, sing praises to his name, for his name is
pleasant. It means beautiful, sweet. Now,
why is this so important to declare his name? Here's why it's important. Psalm 910 says, they that know
thy name will put their trust in thee. They that know thy name
will put their trust in thee. It's because the name of the
Lord reveals his person his character, his attributes, his name declares
he is the salvation of his people. His name declares who he is,
how he's saved, that he is the salvation of his people. They
that know thy name will put their trust in thee. That's not a maybe,
they might do it. No, they will. They that know
his name will put their trust in him. When the Lord revealed
his name to Moses, when he said, I am that I am, I am that I am,
at the burning bush, when he did that, irresistibly, spontaneous,
this was the response, Moses made haste and bowed his head
to the earth and worshiped. That's what happens. They that
know his name will put their trust in him. Now, there's his
name that declares his person, there's his name that declares
who he is, Now you're not gonna find these words in our translation. These are the Hebrew from which
those words are translated. But the very first name that's
used of God in the scripture is Elohim. God preeminent, God
sovereign, God existing. The Bible doesn't prove God is.
The Bible simply begins by declaring God. Just declares his name in
the beginning, God. That's Elohim. He's the Lord,
he's Yahweh, he's Jehovah, he's the existing one. Here's another
name, El Yong, means God Most High. God Most High, none higher. God Most High. His name is El
Shaddai, that means God Most Powerful. El is God, Shaddai
is powerful. God Most Powerful. translated
the Lord God Almighty, none more powerful than God. His name is El Olam. El Olam,
forgive me, I'm not Hebrew. El Olam, well, wasn't born Hebrew. I am one spiritually, but not
naturally. El Olam, God everlasting. God everlasting, no beginning,
no ending, eternal, God everlasting. His name is Elkanah, Elkanah,
God jealous, Elkanah. Six times in the Bible, he's
called jealous. Jealous for his glory, jealous
for his people. He said in Exodus 34, 14, he
said, thou shalt worship no other God for the Lord whose name is
jealous. He's a jealous God. He said in
Zechariah 114, the angel that communed with me said to me,
cry thou saying, thus saith the Lord of hosts, I am jealous for
Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy. That's his people.
That's his elect. He's jealous for his people.
He's jealous for his glory, for his name, and he's jealous for
his people. His name, also there's names in the scripture that declares
what he does for his people and how he saves his people. Those
names we just looked at just describe him and his glorious
attributes, but here we're gonna talk about what he is to his
people. He's Jehovah Hasenu, and I don't know where they get
Hasenu from because really in the Hebrew it's Asa. It's A-A-S-A-H,
Asa, Jehovah Asa. It means the Lord our maker.
The Lord our maker. Psalm 95, six is where you find
this. It says, oh come, let us worship
and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord
our maker. Now, the Lord made all things. We saw in Colossians one there,
if you read it, it said Christ before all things and by Him
all things consist. He created everything by Him
and for Him. He did it. But now talk about
His people. He made us His people in eternity. God the Father did in His sovereign
grace when He chose us in Christ. He's our maker. He made us physically
in time when we were conceived in our mother's womb. He made
us spiritually in the new birth. That new man is made entirely
of God. Nothing of us. And he shall make
us perfect, body, soul, and spirit, when Christ presents us to the
Father in him, perfect and complete. He's our maker. He's Jehovah
Jireh. Isaac asked, where's the lamb
for a burnt offering, when him and Abraham were going up the
mountain? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. Don't you like how he said that?
God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. The lamb
God provided to take Isaac's place was a picture of God providing
himself in the person of his son, Christ Jesus, who took the
place of all God's elect. And when they had taken that
lamb and sacrificed it in place of Isaac, Abraham called the
name of that place Jehovah-Jireh. As it said to this day, in the
mount of the Lord it shall be seen. On Mount Calvary, it was
seen the Lord provided himself for a burnt offering in place
of his people. The Lord did that in Christ Jesus.
And in Mount Zion, it shall be seen in the day of judgment.
Everybody's gonna see that Christ is indeed the Lamb of God that
laid down his life for his people. And it's just gonna be like it
was with Moses and that burning bush. There's not anybody gonna
have to be forced to bow their knee when the name of the Lord
is declared. And that day, it's gonna be irresistible,
spontaneous. They're gonna make haste and
hit their face and confess he is who he is. And those that
meet him there without believing him now are gonna be cast out
into eternal darkness. He's Jehovah Sid Canoe, that's
the Lord our righteousness. Remember, Jeremiah said, the
Lord said, this is the name that he shall be called, the Lord
our righteousness, and this is the name she shall be called,
his elect bride, the Lord our righteousness. That means we
don't have any, we didn't produce any, he is the Lord our righteousness. He is our righteousness. When
you read the Ten Commandments, the Ten Commandments are a, They're in the letter declaring
who Christ is. That's the perfection our Lord
Jesus is. He is perfect righteousness.
In fact, every law, all 600 plus laws, it's showing us he's the
Lord our righteousness. He's the Lord our righteousness.
He's Jehovah-im-kadesh, the Lord that doth sanctify you. I'm gonna
send you these notes sometime next week and you can look up
these scriptures up. I have them all written down.
But he's the Lord M. Kadesh, the Lord that doth sanctify
you. Just like he's the Lord our righteousness
and we didn't produce it or have any, he's the Lord our holiness
and we didn't produce it and we didn't have any. He's the
Lord that sanctified you. He's Jehovah Rapha, the Lord
that healeth thee. When he created a new man in
us, He didn't make a man that was a little sick. He created
a whole man, holy man, the Lord that healeth thee. And when he
gets done, when he has raised us complete, we're gonna be completely,
totally, thoroughly healed. This old man of sin is gonna
be put away. He's the Lord that healeth thee.
Right now, when you're physically, if you're physically ill and
you're healed, he's the Lord that healeth thee. And if you
spiritually, when you're cast down and troubled and you can't
believe and you're just overcome with unbelief, he's the Lord
that healeth thee. He's Jehovah Shalom, the Lord
our peace. Christ made peace with God for
his people. We couldn't do it. Men will say,
I'm gonna make my peace with God. You can't. I can't. The Lord did, the Lord made peace
with God for his people, and he comes and makes you to be
at peace with God. He's the peacemaker. He's Jehovah
Rea, the Lord our shepherd. You've been, you were a sheep
going astray, now you've been returned to the bishop and shepherd
of our souls. He's shepherding our souls. He's
shepherding our body too and everything about it, but He's
shepherding our soul. He's going to save us in spirit
and in truth. And He's leading us and guiding
us into the green pastures and through the valleys and He's
making His mountains a way. And we saw in Isaiah 49, He's
doing all this to exalt His high ways before us and show us He
is the one way. He's our shepherd. He's Jehovah
Shema. The Lord is there. The Lord showed
Ezekiel a city. The city of God. The kingdom
of God. The church of God. It's his people.
He showed him that city. And he showed John the same city.
New Jerusalem. And it said, And the name of
the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there. Jehovah
Shema. The Lord is there. Wherever he's
assembled his people, that's his promise. The Lord is there.
Wherever his people are, those that he dwells in, he said, I'll
always abide in you. I'll never forsake you. The Lord
is there. And wherever he's brought his people together, the Lord
is there. He's Jehovah Nissi. Because of all these other names,
he's Jehovah Nissi, the Lord, our banner. We saw that Sunday.
We preach him. That's what the Holy Spirit's
telling us in this psalm. Give him all the glory, praise
him. Praise him, declare his name.
The name of the Lord's revealed. One place, it's revealed in his
express image, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where his name's
revealed. The angel told Joseph, his name shall be called Jesus.
You know why his name's Jesus? It means savior, that's why.
His name should be called Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sin. No maybes about it. It's certain. Christ is Adonai. He's the Lord. He's our master who rules everything. They that know thy name will
put their trust in thee. They will. And when you know
his name, when he's revealed his name to you, you're gonna
call on his name. And this is his promise. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You see,
we're saved by his name. His name is who he is. His name
is all his works, everything. His name is salvation. And they that call on his name,
whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Neither
is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under
heaven whereby we must be saved. Christ said, when the spirits
come, he'll speak of me. And this is why the spirit of
God commands his servant, his preacher, right here in this
psalm, praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praises to
his name, for his name is pleasant. It's beautiful. It's sweet. Now, let's look at this last
thing here. The Spirit of God commands this preacher to praise
the Lord for his grace toward his people. Praise his name for
his grace toward his people. This is why, to you who he's
called, this is why his name is good and pleasant to you right
here. This is why his name is so good to you, so pleasant to
you. Verse four, for the Lord hath
chosen Jacob unto himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. Now you know this, but for the
sake of those that might hear this that don't know it, this
is not speaking of simply the man Jacob and the political nation
of Israel. Jacob, the man, was an elect
child of God, but that's who this speaks of. It speaks of
God's elect out of every kindred and family on this earth that
he, not every family, but his elect that he calls out from
him, and it's speaking of his elect that he calls out from
every nation in the earth. That's Jacob and that's Israel. God's no respecter of persons.
That means he does not save anyone because they are of a certain
family in this earth. He doesn't save for that reason.
Even if your natural father was Jacob, God doesn't save just
because your father was Jacob. Nor does he save anybody because
they're of one political nation in this earth. Even if you were
born in the nation of Israel. And I've said these things and
as soon as I get home somebody will send me an email, oh he's
being anti-Semitical. No I'm not, I'm being anti-giving
man any glory, that's what I'm being. Salvation by grace. God saves
by grace. All by grace. You go back before
Israel existed. Every child of Adam fell in Adam
and became guilty. You did. You're guilty before
God. In yourself, in Adam, you're
guilty. And we were conceived in sin
in our mother's womb. So we come into this world guilty,
and sinners who could not and would not believe the true God.
We couldn't do anything else, that's it. We couldn't do a thing
about it. Salvation's got to be by grace. Whomfore God foreknew
is who he chose, who he ordained, who he elected. It doesn't mean
he foreknew who would believe on him. Why then does it say
he predestinated us to believe? If he saw you was gonna believe,
why would he have predestinated you to believe? No, it means
who he foreknew, he ordained, he chose, he elected to save. Go with me now to Romans 9.6.
I just want to read two passages from Romans and I'm going to
show you this. Romans 9.6 says, It's not as though the word of
God have taken an effect. Why did some of the people in
Israel believe? Verse 6 says, They are not all
Israel which are of Israel. You get a hold of what that means
and you'll get you get what grace is about. Just because they live
in Israel don't mean they're the Israel of God. Neither because
they're the seed of Abraham are they all children. I said it
don't matter if just because you have one nation or just because
you have one family. Neither because they're the seed
of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called, that is, they, here's the point, they which are the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of God,
but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. It's
the children God promised to save, God chose. That's who's
counted as his children. For this is the word of promise,
at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not
only this, but when Rebecca also is conceived by one, even by
our father Isaac, the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
to her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it's written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. He said to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. God is sovereign. That means
God can save who he will, and God can pass by who he will.
That's God's sovereign right. He's God. Now, that's what he's
saying in our psalm. Next time, well, you know what
we're gonna see next time? Next time our psalm tells us this.
Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in
earth, in the seas and all deep places. God can save who he will
and pass by who he will. Now, before he created this world,
God chose who he would save. and chose them in Christ Jesus,
and He did a sovereign, free grace, not based on anything
in us. And Christ came and He laid down
His life for the elect alone, and He accomplished our redemption. and God will send the gospel
to each one of them and the Holy Spirit will regenerate each one
and give them faith in Christ and Christ will keep us and one
day present us without fault before the Father and the whole
thing from eternity throughout time to eternity will all have
been by the grace of God. Now here's the conclusion, Romans
11, look at verse one. I say then, Romans 11 one, Hath
God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God
hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. You see that? Who he elected? What? Know ye not what scripture says
of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
Lord, they've killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars, and
I'm left alone and they seek my life. If everybody in Israel
is Israel, who did that? Who was it that killed the prophets
and dig down the altars so that Elias thought he's the only one
left? Who did that? That was sons of Abraham, people
born in political Israel, who God had not chosen to save and
therefore had not revealed himself to. Not everybody in Israel is
Israel, are they? But look here, but what said
the answer of God to him? I have reserved to myself 7,000
men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. That's
God's elect, that's who he chose to save. That's who he reserved
to himself, that's who he'll reveal himself to. So here's
the good news. Verse five, even so at this present
time also, there's a remnant according to the election of
grace. A remnant. A remnant, just a few. But it's
according to the election of grace. And if it's by grace,
it's no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if
it be of works, it's no more grace, otherwise work is no more
work. What then? Israel, natural Israel. hath not obtained that which
he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest
were blinded. Now that's the word of God. Some
preachers say, I can't preach that. I can't preach that. Our folks won't hear that. They'd
put me out right away if I preach that. Well, that's what most
preachers will say. But the preacher, the spirit
of God speaking in, He don't have a choice. He don't
want a choice. God's taking the choices away.
He believes God. And so He's going to do what
the Spirit commands Him to do. Psalm 135 verse 1. Praise ye
the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord.
Praise Him, O ye servants of the Lord. Ye that stand in the
house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, praise
the Lord, for the Lord is good. sing praises unto his name for
it's pleasant. For the Lord has chosen Jacob
to himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. Amen. I say amen. All right, Brother
Greg.