Ben asked me where I was going
to preach from. I said, Psalm 100. He said, what? I said, Psalm 100. And we had
to spell it. I thought, I didn't know my accent
was that off. We had to spell it. So it is
P-S-A-L-M. No, P-S-A-L-M. That's what it
is. I only know how to spell it.
You know, when I went to North Carolina, almost, they're starting
on eight years now, but I went there and when I went through
the drive-through, I had to repeat it two to three times every time.
It took me a few times to realize it was my accent. I thought it
was them. I thought they were hiring people
who couldn't hear. But I finally realized it's me. And I've been down there going
on eight years, and I realize they're not having too much problem
with it now. They must, I must be starting to, my accent must
be changing a little bit. But anyway, Psalm 100, and that
was a blessing, Kevin. The Lord blessed you. I tell you how humbling it is,
Ben David was saying something about this today, that God that
God will use us, that God will use these clay pots. He has put
this treasure, this treasure of the gospel in earthen vessels
as humbling. And the older you get in preaching,
the more humbling it is. You realize, you realize, and
I said this to a pastor not long ago, we were talking. And we
were talking a little bit about young preachers, being younger
preachers. And one time I was. And I said,
one of the things that I had to learn, and I believe the Lord
taught me this, and it was, I went to the preacher school there
at Henry's back in 1980. But the number one thing I had
to learn first, I couldn't preach. God taught me I couldn't do it.
It doesn't matter how good the outline is. If God doesn't speak,
you can't preach. You can't preach. We need him. We depend on him. I don't depend
on my outline. Barnard said one time, I've got
my outline. I hope I don't have to use it. And I hope I don't
have to use it. I hope the Lord is pleased to
speak. I believe he spoke to us already.
I believe the Lord spoke. And I hope he does again one
more time tonight. If he does, we're at his mercy.
We are always at the mercy of God. The title of this psalm,
it's a psalm for the sheep. This is a psalm for the sheep,
the Lord's people. It's for you. You know, the Bible
overall is written to God's people. Paul said that these things,
the Old Testament, the types and the pictures, were written
as examples for our examples. They're written for us. We've
been looking through the Old Testament pictures and types.
And we just looked at Rahab the harlot. And we looked at how
the spies came to her house. and how she lied and she hid
them and then let them down from the window with a scarlet line,
scarlet line, scarlet cord, strong one, strong enough to let those
men down by. And they said, you put this line,
this scarlet line in the window, and when we come, your house
and everyone in the house will be saved. Now if they go outside
the house, that's not our problem, that's their problem. But the
first thing, in the house, you think, they didn't even realize
that the scriptures were being written and that God was giving
an example to us. That's for us. That scarlet line
coming down that window is Christ's blood. It's the atonement that
He made by His blood. And they were there at that period
of time, thousands of years ago, doing that. Did they realize
that? Did Abraham and Isaac realize,
going up on the mountain, that they were writing the Scriptures?
It's for us. These examples are... The whole
Word of God is for us. We ought to eat this book. We
ought to eat, drink, sleep this book. Now here in this psalm, we have
a call to worship. We have a call to sing unto the
Lord and to express our thankfulness. Kevin mentioned something about
being thankful. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you. He's passed by some,
but did not pass by me. I often think now, there's people
who've perished that's done less things than I've done, and yet
God's had mercy on me. Something to be thankful for
tonight, to be thankful. Of all the people on the earth,
we have more reason to be thankful than anybody. We should be thankful
whether we're having a good day or a bad day. Every day is God's
day, he's given to us, and we ought to be thankful. In all
things, give thanks. In all things. You have a heartache? Give thanks. You're rejoicing? Give thanks. Boy, if we can learn. We just need to learn that. That's when true worship happens,
when we really say it like Job. The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Thank God. We thank
him for it. We have in Christ more than we
can imagine. We cannot even begin to comprehend
the blessings, the glory, the immeasurable riches we have,
the durable riches we have in Jesus Christ. The second Bill
Gates dies or Warren Buffett dies, the second they die, they're
penniless. The second we die, we enter into
the full glory of those riches that we have in Jesus Christ. Those men, they've amassed fortunes,
but the second they perish, they die, they perish, and they're
penniless. Penniless. You're never gonna
see a U-Haul following a hearse. You ain't taking it with you.
It's staying here. It's staying here. The older I get, the more I see
the value of my relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the one thing needful. Christ is the one thing needful.
He truly is. We have in Christ the unsearchable
riches. We have in Christ a freedom that
we never had or can have in anything else. free from the curse of
the law. You know the curse of the law
is very real. You know God's law is very real. I know the
world thinks nothing of God's law. We see that now, especially
in our day and time, but God's law is very real and the curse
is very real. Nobody, no other curse is real. I don't care if it's a voodoo
curse, a pincushion, you know anything, have at it. Just have
a blast. You can throw all the voodoo
curses you want, but there is one curse that's gonna stick.
That's the curse of the law. And Jesus Christ took that for
a multitude of sinners that the Father gave Him. He took their
curse. It fell on Him. It fell on Him. And He has set His people free
at liberty. In liberty to worship. We have
freedom to worship God in spirit and in truth. We're not going
through a bunch of hocus pocus ceremonies We're worshiping God
in spirit and in truth. That's the only way God is worshiped,
no other way. There's no other way. And we
ought to make a joyful noise on purpose. Not just make a noise, but a
real joyful noise. You know, everyone whom I have
seen the Lord saves, I'm glad the Lord saved him. Did you ever
see anybody mad because God saved them? I had a friend who said
he wished God hadn't saved me. He did, because it separated
our friendship. I didn't go run with him no more.
He didn't make me mad. It didn't make me mad. I thank
God he saved me many years ago as a young person. There's no
greater blessing than to be saved as a young person. Your life
is lived out in service to God. I cannot express. Remember now
thy creator in the days of thy youth, for the evil days come
not. I don't know what knucklehead
said, the old ages, the golden years. It must have been somebody, just
some philosophical nitwit that made it. Because old age is not,
it's not the golden years. Do you know what Solomon called
them? Before the evil days come. Then he describes the decline
of the body. That's not golden. Those are
evil days. And all that God saved young
men and women in their youth, in their youth. Oh, that's such
a blessing. It's a priceless, priceless blessing
to be saved in youth. Verse one, make a joyful noise
unto the Lord all ye lands. A call goes out to all people
in all nations. God has a people in every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation under heaven. Under heaven. And all of those people are to
make a joyful noise. Make a joy, aren't you glad God
saved, glad to hear the gospel, glad to hear the glad tidings
of the gospel. You know God's people are a thankful
people. Show me someone that's unthankful
and I'll show you someone that's lost. They're lost, they don't
know Christ. The love of God has not been
shed abroad in the heart. They've never tasted that the Lord is
gracious. If a person does, they'll be thankful for the rest of their
lives. They'll be thankful. They really are. Not as thankful
as they ought to be. Nobody is. None of us are. We
don't love Christ as we ought to love Him. But thank God He
loves us with a perfect love, an everlasting love. You can
wear ours out, but you can't wear His out. He knew everything
about me before the creation of the world. I'll never do anything
in my life that'll take Him by surprise. Every sin that I'll
ever commit, If I live to be 90, they've already been taken
care of. I won't do anything. You know,
when David committed adultery, when he committed, then he had
Uriah killed. Did that take God by surprise?
You know what Nathan said? That God's already taken care
of. I'm paraphrasing. He said, you're the man. God's
put away your sin. He did that before the foundation
of the world. Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. God took care of my sins before creation. If not,
there wouldn't be any reason to even create all this. You
know, when the angels that fell, there's a whole multitude of
angels that are elect that didn't fall. God didn't let them fall. And there's a whole multitude
of sinners that fell in that and that God's gonna save. And
every last one of them are a bunch of rotten, no-good sinners. They
are. And so we have a reason to rejoice,
and God's grace is far-reaching. It's to all lands. It's to all
lands. And it's to all people. All types
of people. Rich, poor. educated, uneducated. It says on 1 Corinthians, now
you see your calling brethren, not many wise men, not many mighty,
not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world.
That's me. That's me. There was a time I
didn't realize how foolish I was, but I do now. The weak things
of the world, there's a time I thought I was a strong young
man. A little germ puts you in bed. The germ will take you out. You know what David said? Lord,
teach me how frail I am that I may apply my heart unto wisdom.
Teach me to number my days, not my years. People think they've
got years to live. You don't have years to live,
it's days, it's moments. That's our life. Next time you
go out to the grave cemetery, next time you go cemetery, look
at the date on the tombstone. There's a date of birth, there's
a date they die, and there's a dash. You know what that dash
is? That's your life. That little
old dash is your life. That's how short your life is.
That's how short it is. You've got a date of birth and
a death, and you've got a little old bitty life that was lived
between them. Here's our attitude in verse
2. I've got to move on here. Serve the Lord with gladness. You're glad to be here. Are you glad to serve the Lord?
You're His servants, I'm His servant. We're all, all whom
God, we all serve Him, we know that. Satan serves the Lord,
do you know that? Someone said he's nothing more
than a pit bull on a chain. All things serve God. Everything
serves His eternal purpose. But we are His special servants.
We are His servants. I'm not my own, never have been
my own. I've never been my own. I thought I was at one time,
but I wasn't. I was a servant of darkness.
I was a slave to sin, and I was a slave to lust, and passion,
and a slave to Satan. Then the Lord saved me, and I'm
his servant, servant of righteousness now. Well, I'm glad to be his
servant. We've never been our own, and
we never will be. Never will be. But here's our
attitude in worship. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence with singing. That's what we've been singing.
And we come before his presence. He's real. You know, the scripture
says so many times in Psalms is sing unto the Lord. It doesn't
tell us to sing about him. It says sing to him. There's
a difference when you're singing about somebody or when you're
singing to somebody. If you're singing to someone,
they're real. They're before you and you're
standing there and you're singing before them. And where two or
three are gathered together in my name, they're mine in the
midst. When we sing, let us sing to Him and not just about Him. It's a big difference in the
way we sing. We sing to Him. Listen to this. In Deuteronomy
28, 45, 47. Moreover, all these curses shall
come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till
thou be destroyed, because thou hearkenest not unto the voice
of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes,
which he commanded thee. And they shall be upon thee for
a sign, and for a wonder, and upon thy seat forever. Listen. Because thou servest not the
Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for
the abundance of all things. They murmured all through the
wilderness. They complained every time they got, they complained
about the light didn't bother. They had free groceries and they
complained about it. It just, it wouldn't matter.
You know, one thing I've learned about complainers, they're just
complainers. And they always will be. You
just put them in that quick category. They're just gonna complain about
everything. And he said, I'm going to bring these curses upon
you because you didn't serve me with joyfulness and gladness
of heart for all that I've given you, you've done nothing but
complain. Serve the Lord with gladness and come before his
presence with singing. I've not met too many people
who like their jobs. I really haven't. I've not met
too many. I know one particular person
comes to my mind. She was making $150,000 a year,
and she was so upset, just hated to go to work every day. Just
complained about it. I thought, really? You want to
switch? I can take a lot for $150,000
a year. Complained, complained, complained. Oh. I've not met. You know, God's put us where
we are. God put me where I am, put you where you are, and we
are serving Him in His vineyard. We are in the Lord's vineyard.
The earth is the Lord's fullness thereof, and they who dwell therein. Psalm 24.1, this is His, and
we get to serve Him in it. And that's not even to mention
what's coming. That's not to mention, you know,
a lot of people get, they get into the book of Revelation,
they get hung up on Armageddon and the bark of the beast, and
you know what I get? I get to the last chapter, last
two chapters. There's gonna be a new heaven,
new earth, and there'll be no more sorrow, no more tears, no
more crying. I used to get stuck on that first
few verses. You know, you're wanting to know
about the bark of the beast and all that. That doesn't, I don't
mean any, that doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is
the end of the book. When I'm standing in glory on
that new earth with the redeemed in glory and worshiping the Lord
Jesus Christ, whom we speak of every week, we get to see. I
think of my pastor Henry. I think of him and others, Scott
and Maurice and these men. I think of them. They're with
him. I told David today we was talking.
I said, Christ is our first aim. We want to see him and worship
him and glorify him. I said, but I think I'm going
to hug Henry, and I'm going to say thank you. Thank you for
telling me the truth. Thank you for being honest with
me. Thank you. I think, at least that's what
I think right now. I don't know what it'd be like
when it's over, but that's the way I think now. I'd love to
just hug him and thank him. Thank him for telling me the
truth. Thank the Lord for saving my
soul. Thank you for giving me a pastor that was faithful to
preach the gospel to me and to preach the gospel to me in love. To preach it to me in love. Scott Richardson gave us an example
one time. He said, there's two ways you
can feed chickens. You can take it and throw it
at them, and then you watch them scatter. Or you can just lay
it down. You can just lay it down, let
them come and get it and feed. You preach it in love, or you
can preach it harsh. Paul said, I preach the gospel
to you in love. Preach it in love. the same love
that Christ gave it to you. There's no greater honor than
to spend one's life serving the Lord, being his servant. I'm his bond slave, a willing
bond slave. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of life. I don't want to go anywhere.
I'm your servant. and come into his presence with
singing. We're in his presence and we're
glad to be here and we sing to him. And the worship that we
give unto him is spiritually intelligent worship. We're not
just throwing our hands up in the air and whoopee and a bunch
of junk and then leave and don't even know what happened. Know ye that the Lord, he is
God. You can't worship until you know
this. I've told the congregation back
home, I never feared God until I found out who He is. I never
had a right fear of God. I never had a right fear of God
until I learned that the Lord can save me or pass me by. He
doesn't have to save you. Ralph Barber said one time, He
might save you and He might not. That's when you have a right
fear of God, is when He's on the throne and you're on your
knees, and you're not on the throne, and Him begging you to
let Him save you. Know ye that the Lord, He's God,
it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are His
people and the sheep of His pasture. You can't worship someone you
don't know. Know ye that the Lord is God. True worship is
worshiping God as He's revealed Himself in His Word. In His Word. We do not have altars built to
the unknown God in case one shows up we haven't heard about. No,
there's one God. There's one God. The Lord thy
God is one God. And His name is Jesus Christ.
He's got a name. The Lord Jesus Christ. Jehovah
Jesus. Here's some things that we know
about him. If we're gonna worship him, here's some things we know.
First of all, that the Lord, that's capital L-O-R-D. That's
the self existing one, that's the one and only God. That the
Lord is God, the Lord Jesus Christ is God. He's God. I don't need a good man. I need
the God man. I need one who's truly God. Here's
a great, it was a great mystery to the disciples. But he said,
when the Holy Spirit comes, you'll understand these things. He said,
I came forth from the Father. He came forth from the Father
as God the Son. He said, and I go back to the
Father here in John 16. I go back to the Father. He came
forth as God the Son. He went back as a God man. He
came forth as God, very God. He went back as a man. God did. God did. Hanging on that cross
is God in human flesh. That's who is hanging on that
cross. That's why He can redeem us by His blood. You know what
He says in Acts 20, 28? You were purchased by the blood
of God. The church was purchased by the
blood of God. As God, He had no blood. As God,
very God. But as the God-man, as He took
upon Himself flesh, now He's got blood to offer. There's the
atonement. There it is. We know Him as the
Creator. All things are made by Him and
for Him. We were not... I wasn't made for myself, I was
made for Him. You were made for Him, whether
you believe or not. Whether you ever believe or not,
you're made for Him. You've been put into His hands. You're in
His hands. He's not in our hands, we're
in His hands. He's our Lord, He's our Savior,
and we learn this, that salvation, His salvation, is all of grace. This was impressed upon me not
long ago, so strongly. It just so strongly impressed
upon me that when I die, And I stand in glory, I stand on
that new earth, and I stand in glory, I have nothing to do with
it. I've known that for years. I've
known that since I was about 22, 23 years ago. I've known
that, but it was so impressed upon me, I have nothing, nothing,
zero to do with me being there. I have everything to do with
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God
the Father chose me, God the Son died for me, and the Holy
Spirit came and applied it. Regenerated me and applied the
blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ. The whole Trinity,
the whole Trinity involved in bringing me to glory. Christ being my surety is responsible
for me. Does that not give you comfort?
I'm not even responsible for myself. That's relief. There's no greater relief than
realizing I ain't responsible for myself. Jesus Christ, God,
is responsible to bring me home and set me before God the Father
without blame and without blemish. That's his responsibility. I
have nothing to do with it. I'm there by grace. Grace. You know, it's funny how they
call it sovereign grace, but if it's grace, it can't be anything
else. That's like saying water's wet. I mean, it can't be anything
but wet if it's water. And if it's grace, it can't be
anything but sovereign. It's sovereign grace. And He
hath made us, and not we ourselves. He made us a new creation. You
know why you believe? Well, it's not because you and
I are smarter than anybody else. You believe because you can't
help it. God made you a believer. God made me a believer. I can't
help but believe. I can't. I'd have to lie and
say I don't, but I do. This means that he owns us lock,
stock, and barrel. That's right. God owns me and
everything about me. This body of mine, it's finally
dawned on me the reason I ought to take care of this body. It's
not to live longer. It's the temple of the Holy Spirit.
This body is God's body. It's not my body. It's mine as
far as using it, but is there anything that's yours? What do
you have that you didn't receive? You've received everything. The
reason to take care of yourself for the number one reason is
because it belongs to God. I don't litter. I don't throw
things out of the car and litter, not because I'm afraid of doing
fine. This is God's earth. This is my father's world. I'm
not going to trash it up. That's the reason I mow my yard.
Well, Johnny didn't mow it most of the time. Johnny and Tommy
mow it. I know we've got to take credit for something I don't
do, which is pretty common. Well, that's the reason why we
have such, you look, they keep that church, I mean, yard and
my yard, I mean, they, man, it looks immaculate. It's the Lord's. It's the Lord's. Listen, we are his people. We are his in a special way,
trophies of his grace. were trophies of his grace. I
said the other day, I had a lot of trophies from wrestling in
high school. I couldn't tell you where any of them are. They're
gone. Threw them away. I think Vicky threw them away on me. Because I asked her about them
the other day. She said, I don't know where they went. You know, you can read each other
after 48 years. Yeah, right. Yeah. But anyway, those are meaningless,
but you know His trophies are eternal, and we are going to
be displayed. Now I'm telling you, Ephesians
chapter 2, we're going to be displayed as trophies of the
grace of God forever and ever and ever. We are His people. Isaiah 43, 1, but now thus saith
the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed you, I bought you, you're mine,
you're a purchased people. I have called you by thy name,
thou art mine. You know it says that we are
created for his glory. 1 Peter 2.9, you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation. There is one holy nation on this
earth. There is. It's called the church, not America.
It's called the church. There's one holy nation. It's
not over there in the Middle East. There's no holy ground
over there. There's not an ounce of holy
ground. I heard a man bragging here not long ago to YMCA. He
went over there, he's a preacher. He was bragging about how he
was baptized in the Jordan River. So, what's your point? It's no more pure. than the Cape Fear River, the
Ohio River, the Mississippi River, or any other river. It's the
river. There's a river that is pure,
but it's in glory, that flows from the throne of God. But he, boy, he took so much
stock in that. And we are, the sheep of his
pasture, see this is for the sheep. You know he never calls
his sheep goats. You never find in any other word
of God where he's turning goats into sheep. They're his sheep
and they've always been his sheep. Always. I can't explain this,
but he has loved me with an everlasting love and I've been his, his sheep
forever. I don't know, I can't explain
this. It's beyond me. Beyond me. But we're the sheep
of his pasture. He takes care of us. He takes
care of us. I said this to my wife. I said,
if the Lord takes me before he does you, he'll take care of
you. I said, your real husband will
take care of you. If you always look to your real husband, you'll
be all right. He's the real husband. You look
to him. He'll take care of those. He
said, I'll kill you, even to a whore of hair. I used to tell
him, Dickie Ford, come over here. I said, man, my hair's getting
gray. I was looking at Kevin. He's still dark. I'm thinking,
man, mine's the new Johnny's. I ain't whitewashed. He curious. The shepherd, you
know, we're not, really we're truly, we're not walking beside
him, he's carrying us, isn't he? What does he do with that
sheep? He puts it on his shoulders, what's he do? Carry it home.
The government's on his shoulder, all of his sheep are on his shoulder,
he's carrying us home right now. He's carrying us. And he watches
over us. I don't care how many locks you
got on the door, it's not gonna help you if he doesn't watch
over us. It's not gonna help. And the pasture is His. He leads
us in the green pasture. And those pastures are His Word. Oh, what rich pastures the Lord's
given us. Every day, when you get up, graze
in His Word. Graze in His Word before you
do anything else. He's given us green pastures. There's no dry weeds in this
book. Green pastures. And he works all things for our
eternal good, whether he's giving or whether he's taking. And it
says here, enter in with thanksgiving, enter his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him, bless his
name, but be thankful unto him. This is our attitude. This is
to be our attitude. These are things also that we
mature in. As we grow older in Christ, we
do mature in thankfulness. Paul said he learned in all things
to be content. It's a learned behavior. Contentment
is a learned behavior in Christ. We grow up spiritually in Christ.
We grow in thankfulness. I know we do, by God's grace.
But this is our attitude. Thankful. If we consider what
the Lord's done for us before we come here, we would come here
ready to worship. A thankful heart's ready to worship.
It is. And note the freeness of it here.
He says, enter in. Oh, just enter in. Enter in with
thankfulness and praise. And bless His name. Give Him
the glory. Give Him the glory. That's what
we're here for tonight. Give Him the glory. Are you thankful the Lord saved
you? I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy and whom I will out harden. And he may do it in the
same family and oftentimes does. For the Lord is good. I'm going
to close. The Lord's good. His mercy is everlasting and
his truth endures to all generations. Good is the character of God.
He's good. He's good whether he's laying
me in the dust or raising me up. He's good. Whether he's taking
Job's ten children or giving ten children back to him. He's
good. God's good. Circumstances never change the
character of God. They never change the character
of God. The Lord's good, he's good. His mercy's everlasting. His mercy's unchanging, it's
infinite. You know everything about God
is infinite. Unmeasurable. Everything about God's infinite.
And his truth endures forever. His truth endures to all generations. His truth. Here we are. 6,000 years. He said to see to the woman.
Gonna bruise the serpent's head. He said, no, build an ark. That
ark's Christ. Step by step by step, every generation
has had the truth since the fall. Every generation. Here we are,
6,000 years later, we got the truth. My soul. Lord, keep the truth here. Keep
the truth here. Don't take it for granted. Don't
take the mercy of God, the truth of God, the preaching of the
gospel, don't ever take it for granted. God is faithful to his word,
faithful to his son, faithful to his people, and when you and
I are gone from this earth, and in a little while, we will be. In a little while, we'll all
be gone. It's a very short time. We all have a shelf life. Go
to the grocery store, everything has a shelf life. We all have
a time. Time to be born, time to die.
And it's marked right down to the second. You can run and be
healthy and all you want, you'll be dying in an accident. But
it won't be an accident you died. But his truth will endure forever.
God, as long as God has sheep to bring into the fold, the gospel
will be preached until he says time shall be no more. Now we
have, we have much to be thankful for. Lord, let us be a thankful
people. All right.