All right, brethren, let's go
to Psalm 33. Psalm 33. When I began preparing today's
message, I had two goals I wanted to pursue. One, knowing this
would be the first Sunday in the new year, I wanted to preach
something that would focus our attention where our attention
needs to be focused all year long. And then remembering or
knowing that today we'll be remembering our Lord at His table, I realize that both these goals
involve the same thing. There's nothing, no one better
or that we should have our focus on than the very one we come
to the Lord's table to remember and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I want to try to turn you to Christ and get our attention
focused on Him this first Sunday of the new year. Remember the
Lord said, seek ye the kingdom of God and His righteousness
first. That means not first on a priority
list and then you got all the other things you really want
to do, but that means preeminently all the time. He's first no matter
what I'm doing. He's first. Everything else is
arranged around the Lord Jesus and for Him. And all the other
things, He said, will be added to you. Seek first Christ. So I want to look today, the
title of the message is, The Righteous Rejoicing in the Righteous. The Righteous Rejoicing in the
Righteous. We see here in verse 1, Psalm 33 1, it says, Rejoice
in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the
upright. The subject of the psalm is given
right away, Rejoice in the Lord. This is a psalm in which the
subject is rejoicing in the Lord, praising, glorifying the Lord. We see who's called to rejoice
in the Lord. O ye righteous. Only sinners
made righteous by the Lord Jesus Christ can truly rejoice in the
Lord. People that claim to be praising
and rejoicing the Lord, but they've done something to help the Lord
out, they're not really praising the Lord. But only a sinner made
righteous by Christ alone can truly praise the Lord. So this
is for the righteous, the upright, those made righteous and holy
by our Lord Jesus Christ. And we're told why we're to rejoice
in the Lord, for praise is comely for the upright. This is becoming
for us. We have everything, everything
we owe to God and to Christ. So we, praise is comely for those
made holy by Christ. So this is the righteous rejoicing
in the righteous. Those made righteous by Christ
rejoicing in the Lord our righteousness. Now we immediately turn to Christ
in these next two verses. Psalm 33.2 says, Praise the Lord
with harp, sing unto him with psaltery, an instrument of ten
strings, sing unto him a new song. play skillfully with a
loud voice. Somebody might say, well, how
does that turn us to Christ when that capital L-O-R-D is the Lord
God Jehovah? Well, you remember Scripture
says of Christ, in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When you see capital L-O-R-D,
it's good to know that means the Lord God Almighty. That's
Jehovah. That's who he's speaking of there. If you want to see the Lord Jehovah,
you want to see Him and understand who He is, you have to look to
Christ. He said, Colossians 1 and 15
said, Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God. We can't
see God, we don't know who God is, but we see the Lord Jesus.
We see Him and He's the image of the invisible God. He said,
He that has seen Me hath seen the Father. So, when we think
of capital L-O-R-D, Jehovah, look to Jehovah Jesus. Look to
the Lord Jesus. That's where you're going to
find out about the Lord, Jehovah. Another reason we're immediately
turned to Christ is because we're told here in verse 3, believers
are told to sing unto Him a new song. Every believer is made
new by Christ and we sing unto Him a new song. Go over to Revelation
5. Let's see what our new song is.
Revelation 5 verse 9. And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book, to open the seals thereof, for
Thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and has made
us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.
That's our song. That's our song. Our song is
concerning Christ Jesus, our Redeemer, and the full redemption
that He accomplished for His people. That's our song. Now,
every child of God has much reason to rejoice in our Lord. We have much reason to rejoice
in our Lord. And we have some reasons given
here in this text, about four or five reasons. Let me show
you some of these. First of all, we rejoice in His
Word and His works. Verse 4 says, Rejoice in the
Lord, because the word of the Lord is right, and all his works
are done in truth. He loveth righteousness and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness
of the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord, because
the word of the Lord is right. Psalm is said back in Psalm 12,
the words of the Lord are pure words. And silver tried in a
furnace of earth purified seven times. That would be pure silver,
wouldn't it? Silver been purified seven times. Well, that's comparing how pure
the Word of the Lord is. The Word of the Lord is right.
Everything the Lord spoke throughout sundry times and in different
manners when He spoke to men and they were writing the Old
Testament Scriptures, everything the Lord spoke was right. is right. He can't speak anything
but what is right. You and I can't speak anything
but what's wrong. He can't speak anything but what's
right. And when He gave us this written word, everything in this
book is right. If you go to the law of God,
the law of God is holy, just, and good. There is nothing wrong
with the law of God. When we get to glory, we won't
have to have that law of God. because we'll be righteous and
holy. We will be, we will live that
law perfectly. That's what heaven will be. When
everybody treats everybody like God's law says, treat one another. That'll be glory. There'll be
no sin then. It's good. There's nothing wrong
with it. And everything in the gospel, everything in the Psalms,
the prophets, everything in this book is right. Don't you stand
amazed? Don't it just... Sometimes I
just think it's amazing to me that the God that made everything,
the God of heaven and earth, gave little sinners like us His
written Word. And we have it right here in
written form. We can pick it up and we can
study it, we can read everything God says and know that what God
says Isn't that amazing? If you've never done it before,
this year, get you a King James translation and start studying
this book for one reason, looking for one thing, Christ. Start studying it looking for
Christ. If you read a psalm, start asking your question, how
does this show me Christ? Where is Christ in it? Let me
see Christ in it. Christ is the key to this book.
If you can see Christ, this book will open up to you and you'll
see what the book is about, because it's about Him. So I encourage
you, study this book looking for Christ, because the word
of the Lord is right. Now when you think of the word
of the Lord, Not only do you think of the written Word and
the spoken Word of the Lord, think of the Word made flesh. Go to John chapter 1. When you think of the Word, think
of the Word made flesh. John 1 verse 14. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth." Christ is the Word of the Lord. Christ
is the Word of the Lord. You think about this book, this
written Word, and everything God says, and everything God
said He would do, and all that Christ would accomplish, and
all the Law and the Prophets, everything that was typified,
everything that was foreshadowed. Christ is the Living Word who
came forth and accomplished it all. Who came forth and manifest. He is everything the written
Word spoke about. He fulfilled it all. He's the
Word, full of grace and truth. The only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. And our text says, and all His
works are done in truth. We rejoice not only because the
Word of the Lord is right, we rejoice because all His works
are done in truth. Look back up at John 1 and look
at verse 14. Now read that again. The Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.
The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Full of grace and truth. All
His works are truth. Look down at verse 17. The law
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. You see, you and I, if all we
ever had was the law of Moses, we wouldn't know a thing about
grace and truth. We wouldn't know a thing about it. The grace
and truth came by Christ. So we rejoice in the Lord because... And hold your place here, John.
I'm going to come back. We rejoice in the Lord because
His Word is right. Everything He says is right.
All His works are done in truth. And now look here in Psalm 33,
5. It's in Christ on the cross that
we behold that the Lord God loveth righteousness and judgment. Where
do we see that? He loves righteousness and judgment.
Everything he does is just and right. Where do we see that? We see it on the cross. When
Adam sinned, as I said to you this morning, we were in him.
All his posterity was in Adam. So when Adam sinned, we sinned. and death entered. So death passed
upon all men for that all have sinned, for that in Adam all
have sinned. Why did God impute sin to all
His people, all Adam's people? Why did He do that? Because God
is right and just. He loves righteousness and judgment. It was right to do it, wasn't
it? It was right to impute sin because we sinned in Adam. And
so He sent forth His Son. You know why His Son came forth?
You know why the world was made and why His Son came into this
world? Because God loves righteousness and judgment. That's why He came
forth. He came forth into this world
to show God loves righteousness and judgment. Go to Romans 3.
Romans chapter 3 and verse 25. Well, you know, it's amazing
to me. We love to complain about our
government and our politicians and all this. And you know what
we're complaining about? They don't love righteousness
and judgment. They don't love righteousness and judgment. They
love taking the spoils and padding their pockets like preachers,
like those preachers. But here we have somebody whose
word is true, whose word is right, and all his works are truth,
and he loves righteousness and judgment. And He says He sent
forth His Son, Romans 3.25, whom God has sent forth to be a propitiation,
satisfaction through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins that have passed, for the putting
away of sins. He's declaring the righteousness of God in putting
away sins. through the forbearance of God,
to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness, that He might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Isaiah 59, 16 says, He saw that there was no man, and wondered
that there was no intercessor. Therefore His arm brought salvation
unto Him, and His righteousness sustained Him. You and I, could
never have solved this dilemma of how God could kill all His
people, execute all His people because the law demanded it.
How could He kill all His people and at the same time show all
His people mercy? How could He do that? We could
have never solved that question. Most people in this world, if
you ask them that question, still don't know how that question
could be solved. That was Darius' dilemma, you know. He loved Daniel.
And he had written out this word that anybody that was caught
praying unto their God and not praying to the king would have
to be thrown to the lions. And it was a trick from these
men that hated Daniel that got him to sign that. But once it
was signed in the law, it was the law. And so if the king is
going to be just, when they brought Daniel and said, we caught him
praying to his God instead of bowing to you, Darius loved Daniel. He walked
the floor all night long trying to figure out how am I going
to uphold this law and be just and show Daniel mercy. He could
not figure it out. There was no way he could do
it. I mean, he is going to have to
throw him to the lion's den. And that is why when he threw
him in there, Christ appeared. Because Christ is the way Daniel
could be thrown in the lion's den. and yet live. Christ. Christ is the way you and I could
be thrown into the teeth of that fierce lion called the justice
of God and be devoured by the justice of God and at the same
time God show us mercy. His law is upheld and mercy is
going forth. Christ is the only way. Christ
is the only way. And Christ loved righteousness
and judgment. Christ our Lord loves righteousness
and judgment. He came forth because He loves
righteousness and judgment. When the hour came to go to the
Garden of Gethsemane, He went there because He loves righteousness
and judgment. That's why when He was in an
agony, He prayed, Not my will, but Thy will be done, because
He loved righteousness and judgment. He went to that cross, He went
across that brook Kidron, and Peter pulled out that sword,
Peter is just like us. Just like us. When the Lord said,
watch and pray, Peter was sleeping. And when the Lord told him to
come on now, it's their hour, it's time to go forth, Peter
pulled out his sword, he's ready to fight. Isn't that us? When we ought to be watching
and praying, we're doing nothing. And when we ought to be doing
nothing, we're ready to pull our sword and take on the enemy. And because the Lord loved righteousness
and judgment, He said, put up your sword, Peter. Put it up. Don't you know I could summon,
I could call on my Father and He would send twelve legions
of angels now and spare me this. But righteousness must be fulfilled. Righteousness must be fulfilled.
And so He went forth and He bore the sin of His people because
He loved righteousness and judgment. He suffered on that cross in
darkness and alienated, forsaken of God because he loved righteousness
and judgment. He did all this because he loved
righteousness and he loved judgment. We're going to have to do something
about the heat, fellas. I don't know how to get this place settled. It's either too hot or too cold.
I think that unit is too big is what it is. It blows it and
gets it real hot. We've got two heater men in here.
Three of them. It blows it real hot and then
it cuts off and it freezes you to death before it comes back
on. I've got sensors out in here. I don't know how to fix it. So I'm fixing to burn you up
because I see everybody putting their coats on. So because he loved righteousness
and judgment, he went to that cross. He bore the sin of His
people. He bore the wrath of God in the
place of His people. And because God loves righteousness
and judgment, God was satisfied, God was pleased, He fulfilled
everything God sent Him to do, and God raised Him. He raised
Him. And this is what the Lord said.
Unto the Son, he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou
hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God,
even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above
Thy fellows. He raised Him to the right hand
of God, gave Him all power and authority, His head over His
church, because God loves righteousness. And because He puts a new heart
in us, you know what He makes His people? He makes us love
righteousness and judgment. So you know what we do? Listen
to this. They shall come and shall declare
His righteousness unto a people that shall be born that He hath
done this. You know what you'll do when
you love righteousness and judgment? You'll preach Christ's righteousness
and not man's righteousness. That's what we do because we
love righteousness and true judgment. We preach Christ's righteousness,
Christ's judgment. And all of this, brethren, there
in Psalm 33, verse 5, at the end he says, the earth is full
of the goodness of the Lord. All this is how the earth is
full of the goodness of the Lord. Because of what Christ has accomplished
for His people. This earth is full of goodness
toward His redeemed. That's who this earth is full
of goodness toward. It's toward His redeemed. Because
Christ has redeemed us. And everything that is taking
place in this earth right now is for His redeemed. And it's
full of goodness for His people. Everything. Go to Psalm 85. Don't
you see this? Psalm 85 verse 10. Look at this. Mercy and truth
are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. God's justice and God's mercy
are met in harmony. Now watch this. Truth shall spring
out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good, and our land shall
yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before
Him, and shall set us in the way of His steps. The earth is
full of His goodness. Not for everybody, but for His
people. The earth's full of His goodness. That's all the earth's full of
for us, for those Christ's redeemed. Only goodness. Only goodness.
Everything God's doing is goodness. Even when it appears bad to us,
it's goodness. So we rejoice. We're going to
start off this first Sunday of the New Year rejoicing in the
Lord, in His Word, because His Word is right and all His works
are truth. We rejoice in Him. Now secondly,
We rejoice in the Lord because He created us anew by His word,
just like He created the first creation by His word. He says
here, verse 6, By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,
and all the hosts of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathereth
the waters of the sea together as a heap. He layeth up the depth
in storehouses. Now who created that? Who was
it that did that? Who created that first heavens
and all the hosts of that heavens and created these seas of the
ocean and hedged them up where the oceans would be and put them
in the depths of the sea like storehouses and reserved them
there? Who did all that? Go with me to John 1 again. John
chapter 1. It says there, By the word of
the Lord were those heavens made. Now look here in John chapter
1. Look here in John 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word. Capital W, we're talking about
Christ now. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him.
Without Him was not anything made that was made. and in Him
was life, and the life was the light of men." Isn't that what
our text says? Psalm 33, 6, "...by the word of the Lord were the
heavens made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of His
mouth. He gathered the waters of the sea together as a heap,
and He laid up the depths in the storehouses." Well, go to
Isaiah 65, 17. The same way that Christ created
that first heaven and that first earth, He's creating a new heavens
and a new earth that is made up of His people. Isaiah 65,
17. He says, a new heavens and a new earth,
and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. Look at verse
18. Be ye glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing
and her people a joy. This is a new Jerusalem. This
is that heavenly Jerusalem that John saw coming down out of heaven,
adorned as a bride for her husband. This is Christ's people. When
it's all said and done, He will have created an entirely new
heavens and a new earth of His people. And it says, Peter said,
in this heaven and this earth is going to be dissolved in a
fervent heat. And all the elements and all
the works therein totally melted. And we'll be in a new heavens
and a new earth. And the heavenly host, I like how this, our psalm
here, he's telling us that he's telling the righteous, those
made righteous by the Lord, he's telling the righteous to rejoice
in the Lord our righteousness. And so when he talks about the
word of the Lord creating the heavens, that's all he talks
about. He don't talk about, he talks
about the heavens and the hosts of them. Because that's what
he's creating for us. He's creating for us a heaven,
a new heaven, a new heaven. And all that host that will be
there will be created by Him in righteousness and true holiness.
And all that heavenly host, they describe in Hebrews 12 as the
spirits of just men made perfect. And all that heavenly host, all
those spirits of just men made perfect, were born again, created
anew by Christ the Word, begetting us again by the Word of God,
by the Gospel. James 1.18 says, Of His own will
begat He us with the Word of truth. That we should be a kind
of first fruit of His creatures, of His creation. He begat us
with the Word of truth. The Word, Christ the Word, birthed
us anew, birthed us again spiritually by the Word of the Gospel. God
loves judgment and He loves righteousness. So you know what that means?
Everybody for whom Christ died, He justified us from our sins,
therefore everybody for whom He died Christ is going to send
the Gospel to them, the Word of the Lord by which we're begotten.
He's going to send the Gospel to them and Christ the Word shall
speak into their heart and He shall give them faith in Christ.
Because the justice of God demands it. Justice of God demands it. Peter said, we're born again
not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible. What's that? What's
the incorruptible seed? The next word says, by the capital
W, Word of God. By the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever, Christ the living Word. And he says then,
and this is the word, little word, which by the gospel is
preached unto you. You can't separate the capital
W word from the gospel little w word that we preach. This is how he pleased to do
it. He pleased to save through the foolishness of preaching
because he pleased to do it that way. He is going to bring to
nothing things that are. He is going to use foolish things,
foolish things to bring to nothing things that are, to stain the
pride of man. It's what God's doing. He's using
nothing that you and I and our proud sinful flesh would ever
use to save. He does not use what we would
use. He don't use the kind of men we'd use. Men who are proud and haughty
and arrogant reject God's messenger, that's the very messenger God
will use. The one that the majority of
men turn thumbs down on, that's the one God will use. Wasn't
it so with David? David was the last one, the last
resort was David. And nobody would have picked
David. And God said, I don't look at things the way men look
at things, I look on the heart. This is my king. Christ came
forth, how did he come forth? Didn't he come forth like men
thought he was coming forth? You know how men thought he was
coming forth? The way he's going to come back. And when men see
him coming back, I guarantee you what's going to happen. There's
going to be men that thought he was coming that way the first
time, they're going to think he's coming the first time. And then
they're going to recognize that he's already been here. This
is him. This was him that came lowly
riding on an ass's coat into Jerusalem, not on a big fine
mighty stallion. This is the one who came with
a bunch of ragtag fishermen with fish scales all over them because
they just got through skinning a bunch of fish. He didn't come with a bunch of
theologians and a bunch of scholars. He came with a bunch of fishermen.
He's going to take nobodies and nothings and a means that men
despise, a bloody cross and a preaching of a gospel and things men mock. And that's what he's going to
use to save his people. And Christ, He says here, He
gathered the waters of the seas together as a heap and He laid
up the deep in the storehouses. That's what He did for us in
sanctification. You just picture Him separating the seas from
the dry land. He totally separated them. And
He hedged up the seas. And He says here, He put them
in a deep place and all the deep places and preserved them like
in a storehouse. That's the Lord. That's what
He did for His people in sanctification. He totally separated His people
out. from all of the people. That's
what He does through this gospel, through the new birth. He calls
you out from among every nation, kindred, tribe, tongue and people
and He makes you His holy nation and He preserves you and keeps
you through this word. And He says, verse 8, He says,
Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of Him. Now that's a great definition
of fear right there. Fear of the Lord, stand in awe
of Him. That's what the fear of the Lord
is. Standing in awe of Him. Reverencing Him. Respecting Him
with just such awe for Him. When is a man going to do that?
When is a sinner going to do that? Let all the world do this.
This is what he's doing in all the world right now. This gospel
is going forth and he's calling out his people and he's going
to make all his elect scattered all over the world to have a
fear of the Lord and stand in awe of Him. When are they going
to do that? Verse 9 says, concerning that first creation, He spake
and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast. That's when
men are going to do it spiritually. When He speaks, when He commands
it, it's going to be done. They're going to stand fast.
Stand fast in Christ with an awe in God. So, you know what
would make me rejoice? If Christ spoke and commanded
and it was done and He made some lost sinner that He redeemed
to stand in awe of Him with a fear of God in their heart. That would
cause me to rejoice. I would rejoice and I'd be so
happy in that. I'd be really happy in that if it was one of
mine. I'd be happy though if it was one of yours too. I would. I'd be happy if it was somebody
we didn't even know. I would. We rejoice that Christ is the
creator of everything made, but we especially rejoice that He
created us anew in righteousness and sanctification. He makes
us fear Him. He separated us out and He preserves
us. That's what we rejoice in. See, I thought this was a perfect
psalm for a first Sunday because it won't be very long and we're
going to hit troubles and trials and we're going to start fretting
and murmuring, you know, and maybe it'll just be because it's
too cold too long. And then as soon as it gets hot,
we'll be fretting because it's too hot. Murmuring, you know. Have
you all noticed that? We can't be satisfied. But, here
are some things we can rejoice in. Scripture says rejoice always.
Here are some things we can rejoice in. First of all, the word of
the Lord. His words are right and all His works are done in
truth. Secondly, we can rejoice just like He created that heavenly
host. He created all His people anew
and He sanctifies us just like He separated the sea from the
dry land. And then look at this third thing, we rejoice because
His counsel stands forever. What He purposes from eternity,
His counsel, it stands forever. Look here, Psalm 33.10, The Lord
bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nothing. He makes the devices
of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations. Aren't we thankful for this,
believer? Because you know there's a whole lot of times when we'd
have been carried away with the devices of the wicked. Our own
devices being number one. But God wouldn't permit it because
the counsel of the Lord is going to stand. He won't allow His
people to be carried away with the devices of the wicked. Christ
will bring it to nothing. Now Christ here, we talked about
the counsel of the Lord. Christ is the whole counsel of
the Lord. You want to preach the whole counsel of the Lord?
Preach Christ. How do I know that? Because the scripture says,
all the promises of God, all the counsel of God are yes and
amen in Christ Jesus. He's all the counsel of God.
He's called, the counsel is covenant. He's called in Isaiah, the covenant.
God said, I'm going to give you for the covenant. He is the counsel
of God. You want to see God's promise?
He's Christ. God's covenant? Christ. God's
counsel? It's Christ. God first trusted
Christ. That's what Ephesians 1 says.
God first trusted Christ in covenant, in counsel with Him. And so Christ
comes forth and He works all things after the counsel of His
own will. That's what God does. That's
what Christ does. Christ upholds all things by
the word of His power. Hebrews 1.3 says. What word is
that? Is that just His bare, just bare efficient word of speaking? Well, yes it is, but more than
that, it's that word of counsel. It's that word of everlasting
covenant. He promised the Father to bring
Him a people. And Peter said the one reason this world's held
in store right now and not burned up like it's going to be is because
God's not willing that any of His people perish, but that they
all come to repentance. And Christ entered counsel with
the Father and promised that they would all be brought to
repentance. That's why this world's held
in store right now. Christ is upholding Him by that
covenant word of His power. So we rejoice, brethren, with
full assurance in and by Christ because the counsel of the Lord
standeth forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations. God won't ever lose one for whom
Christ died. He says, in the dispensation
of the fullness of times, He shall gather together in one
all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in
earth. When you read all things, Like in Colossians, he says that
a lot. All things, all things in heaven, all things in earth.
He is talking about his people. All things. He is going to gather
together in one all things, all his people in Christ, whether
they be in heaven or whether they be on earth. He is going
to gather them all in him, in whom also we have obtained an
inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him.
He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. So we
rejoice. His counsel is going to stand.
And then fourthly, look at this. We rejoice that through the grace
of God in Christ, the Lord has made us His holy nation. The
Lord has made us His holy nation by His grace. Look at verse 12.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom
He has chosen for His own inheritance. There's only one nation that's
ever been, there's only one nation that's ever been whose God is
the Lord, and it ain't the United States of America. Sure not. This country wasn't even founded
worshiping the true and living God. It's not God. I mean, it's not America. The
one holy nation whose nation is God is His holy nation, His
elect people, the Israel of God. Who are they? Look right there.
The people He has chosen for His own inheritance. That's who
they are. And not that nation over there in the sand. That's
the children of Israel. We're talking about the Israel
of God. God's elect. Go to 1 Peter 2. Let me show
you this. 1 Peter 2. This is what all God's
elect are. The holy nation. 1 Peter 2.9. You are a chosen generation. That means a chosen race. a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. A peculiar people, that
means a treasure. Why did he make us that? Why
did he make us a holy nation? That you should do just what
our psalm commands us to do, that you should show forth the
praises of him who's called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light. That's why he did it, to praise him. rejoice in Him
because we are of a nation, believe it, God's saints, we are of a
nation whose God is the Lord, the holy nation of Israel, God's
Israel. We're blessed, we're happy, full
of rejoicing and praise in the Lord. We're the nations whose
God is the Lord. We're citizens of heavenly, holy
Canaan, heavenly Jerusalem. We're the people whom He's chosen,
not by anything in us, simply because He would. We're people
who God, now look at this, has chosen for His own inheritance. That's what peculiar treasure
means. We're His own inheritance. That's one of the most marvelous
truths revealed in Scripture. We're God's inheritance. God
took poor sinners and made us His inheritance, His peculiar
treasure. Now, what does that mean? First
of all, it means an inheritance is obtained through death. God's
inheritance is obtained and secured by Christ laying down His life
for us. Go home and read Hebrews Hebrews 9, for this cause He
is the mediator of the New Testament by reason of death. He might
be the mediator of the New Testament. And then an inheritance denotes
perpetuity, where it airs forever. The Lord will not cast off His
people, neither will He forsake His inheritance. And then three,
an inheritance is a possession. That's something you enter into
and you enjoy and you delight in. Acts 20.28 says, where the
church of God which he purchased with his own blood. That's secure,
brethren. That's secure. I love the fact
that he's my inheritance. But I feel more secure knowing
I'm his inheritance. Don't you? He purchased us. He bought us with the blood of
his own son. He's going to have us. We're in his inheritance.
Here's the fifth thing. We rejoice that the Lord in Christ
is our shield and our help. Now look at this, Psalm 33, 13.
The Lord looketh from heaven, he beholdeth all the sons of
men, from the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants
of the earth, he fashioneth their hearts alike, he considereth
all their works. Now remember this, believer,
this is something that will help you. You're starting out a new
year, we're all excited, this is something that's going to
help us here real fast. The same Lord Jesus who walked
this earth and laid down His life is now seated at God's right
hand with all power over all as the head over all things to
His church. That means He fills all in all. And it says here, He looks from
heaven and He beholds all the sons of men. That means He got
His eye on His elect as well as the reprobate. And the Scripture
says, the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the
evil and the good. So all the scheming and all the
intents of the hearts which none know but men, men know it in
their own hearts, God knows it better than they know it. He
knows the scheming and all the intents that are in their hearts.
His eye upon the ways of man, He sees all his goings, there's
no darkness, no shadow of death where the workers of iniquity
may hide themselves. And they consider not in their
hearts that I remember all their wickedness, God said. Now their
own doings have beset them about, they are before my face. So when
you are wronged by men, you are wronged by men and you feel like
nobody sees the injustice and nobody is doing anything about
it or whatever. Don't think you got to take matters
into your own hands and rise up and try to do something to
take vengeance. The Lord sees it. The Lord knows
it. Therefore, judge nothing before
the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light
the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels
of the hearts, and then shall every elect child of God have
praise of God." He knows. He's going to take vengeance.
Now look at this. That means a believer doesn't have to strive
and use all the sinful means that men use to try to provide
for ourselves and get ahead in this life. We don't have to do
any of that. Look at this, verse 16. There's no king saved by
the multitude of a host. A mighty man is not delivered
by much strength. A horse is a vain thing for safety.
Neither shall he deliver anybody's great strength. Now sinner, you
that don't believe God, you hear this. You're not going to be
saved by your strength. In this life, you're not going
to be saved by your strength. You're surely not going to be
saved in the life to come by your strength. Every false refuge
that men take refuge in, that think they're going to have acceptance
with God, is a vain thing. You can understand, like, back
in that day, a horse was, that was a mighty thing. That was
like a mighty weapon, an army's mighty weapon. Now, to us today,
a horse doesn't look that mighty. It looked like a vain thing to
us. We got tanks and airplanes and all that stuff. You trusting
your works is like trusting a horse going up against a bunch of tanks
or planes or whatever. It's just that vanity. It is
vain. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only refuge for sinners. You cannot be saved apart from
Him. Now look at this now. Believer,
rejoice in this now. Verse 18, Behold, the eye of
the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His
mercy. Now think on this truth. Every single child of God in
this room is always constantly the chief focus of the eye of
the Lord, always. You and I can't enter into that
because if we're focusing on one of our children, we can't
focus on the others. The Lord is all-seeing. Every single child is His focus
just like that's the only child He's got. And that's all the
time. The Psalm just before this said
He guides us with His eye. He's constantly looking over
His people. So, that means, brethren, this is why. Look here, verse
19, "...to deliver their soul from death, to keep them alive
in famine." That's what He promises to do, that's what He's doing,
watching over His people. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
on the cross, He suffered that darkness, He suffered that cruel
death, He suffered that wrath of God on the cross, and He justified
His people. Let me tell you this, the blood
of Christ is too precious and the glory of God is too precious
for Him to lose one of His people. So He watches, you know when
you have a treasure, He just said we're His inheritance. When
you have a treasure, a peculiar treasure, you're going to watch
over that treasure. If everything else is burning
down in the house, you're going to make sure that treasure doesn't
burn down with it. You're going to get that treasure.
Well, His people are His treasure and He will not allow His treasure
to perish. He's going to keep us alive in
the famine. Christ is our bread. He's going
to keep us alive right here, right now, when there's a famine
of spiritual bread all around us. He's going to keep us feeding
on Christ the bread. And so therefore we can know
that any other physical bread you're going to need, He's going
to provide that too. And then look at this. He's going
to do it because we trust Him to do it. You say, well, are
you going to do it because I trust Him to do it? Yeah. Because He
won't allow anybody who believes on Him to be ashamed or confounded
for believing on Him. Look at this. Psalm 33 20. Our
soul waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.
Because our heart shall rejoice in Him because we've trusted
in His holy name. Go to Psalm 69. I'm going to
wind it up. Psalm 69. And look at verse 6. This is
Christ's prayer. This is an intercession for His
people. Psalm 69 verse 6. Let not them that wait on thee,
O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Let not those that
seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. And because that's what he intercedes
and prays to God. Scripture says, Israel shall
be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You shall
not be ashamed nor confounded, world without end. You'll never
be ashamed or confounded. You can trust a lot of things
in this life and be ashamed that you ever trusted them. A whole
lot of things. I bought a car one time. I trusted
everything they wrote about it, everything that Popular Mechanics
said about it. It was a piece of junk. I mean
a piece of junk. I was ashamed I trusted what
they said. You'll never be ashamed for trusting
the Lord, ever. He won't allow it. He won't allow
it. So here is our prayer for the new year. Verse 22. Let thy
mercy, O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in thee. Aren't these
good reasons to rejoice in Him? These are good reasons to sing
His praise and rejoice in the Lord. Alright. Now every believer
that trusts Christ, that rejoices in Him, that trusts Him as your
only hope, we are going to observe now the Lord's table. Brother
Kevin, could you and Brother Ben, can you all pass these elements
out?