All right, brethren, take your
Bibles and turn to the book of the Psalms. Let's go to Psalm
149. Psalm 149. When I was preparing
this week's bulletin, I put in Psalm 149, and I was reading
the psalm. I like to read it each week. And the following phrase jumped
out at me in verse three where it says, let them praise his
name in the dance. And it struck me. What struck
me about that is I was reminded of something that an NFL owner
once said, Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys. And he once stated,
I think it was the middle of the season. This is some five
or six years ago. And he just was making the remark
that, Everybody just wants to get to the dance. We just want to do what we need
to do to get to the dance. And in his mind, I suppose it's
because then anything can happen once you get to the dance. You
might go to the Super Bowl and win it. But that's about where
the similarities end right there. And well, they don't even make
it that far. What struck me about what he said was the exclusivity
of the dance, meaning that not everyone goes to the dance. Some people go to the dance and
others don't go to the dance. But those whose joy and rejoicing,
whose praise is their God, They rejoice in the Lord and they're
made joyful and to dance because of the salvation of their God. And so they're filled with His
Spirit and filled with joy at the remembrance of their God
and what He has done for them. So that here in this life, having
His Spirit, We're made joyful as the Lord brings to our mind,
brings us to remember what he has done for us in free sovereign
grace and made us partakers of the fellowship of the saints. I'm reminded that the scriptures
say that we're surrounded about with so great a cloud of witnesses. And we're made partakers of the
dance, if you will, of the people of God who rejoice in their Lord,
who go through this life as many others, as everybody goes through
this life. And we have the same happenings,
if you will, in our lives, things that are joyful people, things
that are very sad and sorrowful to people. And yet we brethren,
by the grace of God are made to rejoice in the dance, even
now, even here, by the spirit and grace of God. And we shall
also be made partakers of that dance, if you will, when our
Lord comes to redeem his purchased possession and to take us home
to be forever with the Lord. And so I began to look more at
this psalm and what this psalm is, is a praise and a rejoicing
of our Redeemer. We praise our Lord. We praise
our God for his redemption of unworthy sinners like us who
could never get to the dance. We don't have the means or the
wherewithal to be made a partaker of the grace of our God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. But by His grace, we are partakers,
we are made partakers, and we praise His name in the dance. I've titled this message, Praise
Him in the Dance. Now, this psalm, it begins and
it ends in praise. It's all about stirring up the
people of God, reminding us of the blessing of our God in His
Son, Jesus Christ. So looking at verse 1, In verse
one, the psalmist says, Praise ye the Lord, sing unto the Lord
a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. So we're singing to the Lord
who is our glory. And it describes us as singing
a new song. A new song. Because the word
of our God, when we by his spirit, behold his salvation in his son
Jesus Christ, it's all new to us. We hear the gospel word with
a new ear. We hear the gospel in the new
man. We hear the newness of what we
didn't know before. We were in darkness. We were
in religion, perhaps, but we were in darkness to the grace
and glory of our God and what He's done for sinners in redeeming
them by His Son, Jesus Christ, not because we're worthy of it,
not because we've earned it with our works or been good people. We've done nothing to earn our
God's favor. but He's provided His Son freely,
and so by the Spirit, this Word comes to us in freshness, in
newness, so that we begin to hear something we've never heard
before. We sat in religion, we did our
works, we did what we were told to do in religion, but it was
all dead works. But now we hear of the grace
and glory of our God in his son, Jesus Christ. And so we begin
to sing the new song, the new song of redemption. We'll see
in the next hour, Lord willing, our Lord says in John 14 verse
20, he said, at that day, ye shall know, at that day ye shall
know. And that day that he speaks of
is the day of grace when he gives birth to his child of God, whom
he's chosen to be gracious to and to be merciful to. And so
in that day, when he gives us his spirit, then we'll know what
our God has done for us. then all things become new. Then, in that day, the darkness
becomes light, and the chains fall off, and the prison door
opens, and we are called and brought out of that prison of
bondage and darkness to the things of our God, and we worship our
God who saved us, who called us in grace and in mercy. in heaven, in the book of Revelations,
where we're given a view of that heavenly kingdom, where the saints
of God glorify and worship the Lord, we're told in Revelation
5 verses 9 and 10, as they're worshiping the Lord, we're told
that they sung a new song. a song of free redemption, a
song of full redemption, of complete salvation for us who are sinners
and are unworthy of God's mercy. They sung a new song saying,
thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast
made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on
the earth. And so we sing this new song
in the congregation of the saints. You that are the saints of God
are made saints of God, and you are gathered together and sing
praises and glory in your Lord and Savior. And so the child
of God we see is stirred up to give thanks to their God, to,
we're reminded here in the scriptures, here in the gospel of what our
God has done for us, so that we praise him for the salvation
that he shows to us, for the grace that he gives us, for his
mercy, for his teaching us. for making us to know what no
one knows except He reveal it to them. To know that our salvation
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Not for our sakes, not for our
sakes, but for His sake. It says in 1 Corinthians 1 verse
30 and 31, But of Him, of God, are ye in Christ Jesus, who is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
so that before Christ is come, and before we hear Him and see
Him by faith, we have no wisdom. We have no knowledge of God.
We don't know how to please God or how to worship Him. Before
our God does this work for us, we're not righteous. Our righteousness
is filthy works, filthy rag righteousness. It's dirty. It's filthy. It's
not acceptable or pleasing to God. Before Christ has come,
we thought that we separated ourselves unto God. We thought
it was by our works and our looking to the law and our studying of
the word that made the difference in us and that brought us nearer
to God. But now we see, no, no. because
he loved us, he separated us unto the gospel to hear it, to
believe it, to be called by the grace of our God into the faith
of Jesus Christ. And we see by our God in the
Lord Jesus Christ that we have been purchased, redeemed by the
blood of the Lord. And so our glory ceases to be
in self and religion the man or woman glories in what they've
done to earn or to obtain favor with God. And they rejoice in
themselves. But if you rejoice in yourself
for what you've done for God, that's not right. That's not
according to the scriptures which tells us that salvation is of
the Lord. It's all of Him. Not only did
He frame it out, but He's the one who accomplishes all our
salvation from beginning to end, Alpha to Omega. All of it, even
our coming, our hearing, our believing, our walking by faith
in Him is all of His grace and mercy. And this is what we see
declared to us in the next verse, Psalm 149 verse 2. He says, let Israel rejoice in
Him that made Him. We are a made people. Let the
children of Zion be joyful in their King. So that what our
God is saying is that we are His creation. You that are the
people of God are our God's creation in Him. Now, many who profess
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they don't have a problem
with the fact that our God is our Creator. That He created
the heavens and the earth and all that is in the heavens and
the earth. We know that our God is the Creator. But when it comes to salvation,
so few understand that even our spiritual life, our spiritual
knowledge of Him, this new man in us is not our creation, but
it's His creation. so that everything is born of
Him, everything is created of our God. Our faith, our walk,
our works are all the creation of our Lord and Savior. If any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed
away, behold, all things are become new. Those things make
up the new song that we sing, giving our God all the thanks
and the praise, the honor, and the glory. We see this work of
grace over in 2 Peter. Turn to 2 Peter 1. Let's read the first three verses
in 2 Peter 1. The Apostle Peter writes, Simon
Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now here's the
first thing I want you to notice. He's writing to them that have
obtained like precious faith with us. so that you that believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you didn't have this faith. It wasn't
created by your flesh. You've obtained it. You've come
into possession of it, just like the apostles of the Lord Jesus
Christ came into possession of it. They've obtained it. It was
given to them through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ. And to those who've obtained
like precious faith, who were given the gift of faith, he says,
grace and peace be multiplied unto you. There's the exclusivity. There's the distinguishing grace.
There's grace and peace for those who have obtained, been given
this gift of faith by their God. Verse 3 says, it's according,
this faith is according as His divine power hath given unto
us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Now, does
your faith pertain to your spiritual life? Does your faith pertain
to godliness? Absolutely! Faith is essential
to life and godliness in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And then how did we get it? It was given to us, all things,
everything, your faith included, is given to us by our God for
life and godliness in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the knowledge
of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, so that We
that believe and walk and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who
cry out to Him when we're in pain and in suffering, who thank
Him through the good times and the hard times, who are leaning
upon the breast of the Lord Jesus Christ because we have no strength
of ourself, this is all the workmanship, the product, the handiwork of
our God being made evident that you are a saint of His, that
you are a child of God, that He has called you, that He's
redeemed you with the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. If our
God was waiting for us to figure it out, and He was waiting for
us to change ourselves and to make a profession of faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, if He waited for us We would perish,
we would die in our sins because we'll never get it right. We'll
never come to our God in faith because why? I'm spiritually
dead in Adam. Naturally speaking, I have no
good works. I have nothing that makes me
accepted with my God. I have nothing to offer to Him
and to boast before Him of any goodness of my own heart or works
or hands or thoughts. It's all sin in myself. And so we are the workmanship
of God. We're the workmanship of our
Savior. As he says in Ephesians 2 10, we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. And so that hour in
which you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and every hour
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's all ordained, having
been appointed by your God, in which He is glorified for the
salvation He works in you, and the hope you now have in His
Son, Jesus Christ. Now this brings us to verse 3.
Psalm 149, verse 3. Let them praise his name in the
dance. Let them sing praises unto him
with the timbrel and the harp. So without the teaching of our
Lord for us, we are in darkness forever. We'd forever be in darkness. But the Lord reveals to us that
our believing and our hope our profession and calling upon Him.
It's all of His works. It's all of His grace. So that
brethren, you are called to the dance. if you will, you're called
to the dance, you're called into the fellowship of the saints,
you're brought into the congregation of the saints of God, where only
the saints of God are gathered in faith and hope and love of
their Lord, rejoicing and dancing in thankfulness and praise and
honor and glory of our Savior together. you are gathered and
called by your Lord because He fills you. He fills you by His
grace. And we see it's all of His free
sovereign grace that did this. Free because we didn't earn it
and sovereign declaring that He has full authority to reveal
to you the hope of the saints in his son so that you that believe
him may rest in your Lord and you may rejoice in your Lord
and give thanks to your Lord for what he's done for you. As
it says in 1st Thessalonians 2 verse 13 and 14 Paul says we're
bound to give thanks Always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. So how do I know? How do I know
if I am one of the chosen ones? How do I know that I've been
called to this hands of the saints wherein they rejoice in the salvation
of God? He says, verse 14, Whereunto
he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ, so that you who are called see the Lord
Jesus Christ by faith, that he is the salvation whom God has
sent for his people. And He's given me a hope and
a faith that looks to Him, believing that He is the righteousness
of God. And He's my righteousness, whereby
I'm clothed in righteousness, not in my own works by the law,
but in His faithfulness, in His salvation. And I stand before
God in a white robe, that is pleasing to the Father, that's
acceptable to Him because it's, I'm righteous in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so, when you believed, when you trusted
the Lord, it wasn't the result of your works, it wasn't the
result of your will, it's not the result of your flesh. When
you thought it was, you were terrified. And every time we
look at what we've done and we begin to look at ourselves and
what we're doing or not doing, we fear. We're afraid, especially
when you believe that it's by your doing that God had mercy
on you in the first place. Like so many who profess to believe
on Christ, they're trusting something that they have done and because
they got themselves saved, they're afraid when they see their work
slipping and when they see their zeal fading and when they see
their efforts as not being enough, they're made afraid because they
were looking to their works. But when we look to the work
of our Lord and Savior, Though we might see in this flesh sin
and unworthiness, when we look away from self, and we look to
the Son, and we see the preciousness of His blood, the faithfulness
of His work, and our God says to us, all who believe on Him
shall not be ashamed. You've obtained forgiveness with
your God in the Lord Jesus Christ, and when He brings that to our
hearts, and brings that to our remembrance. Then there's rejoicing
and joy and peace and fellowship with our God, all in the reconciliation
that's given to us freely in His Son, Jesus Christ. Because
the grace of God does not rest on your shoulders. The grace
of God is not resting on the things that you do or don't do,
on the things you say or don't say. It rests entirely on the
Son. and the Father's well pleased.
Isn't that a joy and a rejoicing? Isn't that a relieving of all
your burdens? To know that everything is secured
for your salvation, for your joy and inheritance in Christ. And there's no if. There's no
if tied to that that rests with you. It's all accomplished by
Christ. Believe Him. Rest right there.
Rejoice in your God. Dance, if you will. Just dance
in joy and thankfulness of what your Savior has done. This dance, it's a word that
is used to describe our salvation and the joy of our salvation.
And only the saints of God have been called to the dance and
are in the dance and going through the experience of the dance with
all the saints of God. walking by faith, believing and
trusting him. Though we go through hardships,
right? Your house, you were telling
me, brother, was pelted by big hail and just knocked off chunks
and pieces and water got in there and did damage to other things
and destroyed some of the crops in your garden and what a mess
was made. But that's not your inheritance. That's not your hope. You're
God. your salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. All your sins are
put away. There's your joy and rejoicing. And there's your hope and your
glory in Him. Israel was being pursued by Egypt
when they were coming out in the Exodus. In Exodus chapter
15, we're told that their way was blocked by the Red Sea. They
couldn't go any further, and they couldn't escape. Even if
they could go further, they were never going to outrun the horses
and the chariots of the Egyptian army. But of who do we read was
destroyed? Was it the Egyptians or the Israelites? Because looking at it with fleshly
eyes, we would presume that Israel, the children of Israel, with
their women and children and their elderly and the men that
they had, would have been destroyed by the army of Egypt. But instead,
we're told in verse 19 that their song, which they sung, was the
horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen
into the sea. And the Lord brought again the
waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel went
on dry land in the midst of the sea, so that we so that the children
of God went through the sea of God's wrath untouched. But Pharaoh, when he tried to
come unto God in his might and fury and power, he was destroyed
by the wrath of God. And so who was rejoicing and
dancing and singing on the other side? Who was there in the dance?
Pharaoh? And Egypt? And the army? No. They were drowning under the
wrath of God in the blackness of the sea. But the people of
God were safely on the other side, safely on the shore. And
they rejoiced and danced in what their God had done for them. And so it says, Miriam, the prophetess,
the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand. And all the women
went out after her with timbrels and with dances. with dances. And Miriam answered
them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.
The horse and his rider hath dethroned into the sea. And that's the song of the redeemed. We weren't there in Egypt physically,
but we were delivered from our enemies and those who would destroy
us and bring us into the blackness of the sea of God's wrath. But
we have been delivered untouched by the blood of Christ so that
we are made to rejoice and dance with singing and joy and gladness
for what our God has done for us. And so with this knowledge
that the King of all is our God and our Savior, you know, you
might think, that we would be cold or arrogant or cocky in
our ways and be cruel because we think that we have everything.
But instead, we see that our God, he's our salvation. He's our sanctification. We're
not keeping ourselves, but rather our God adorns his people with
a spirit of meekness. and a spirit of quietness before
their Lord, and a thankfulness for what he's done. And that
we see in verse four, Psalm 149, verse four. For the Lord taketh
pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with
salvation. And so we see there that our
God is keeping us. No, we're not arrogant. No, we're
not hurting others. who as of yet do not believe,
know we're out declaring patiently, joyfully, lovingly of what our
God does for sinners. Because our God beautifies his
people with a spirit of meekness. You know, over in 1 Peter 3,
you read of Peter writing to the wife, and he encourages the
wife to adorn herself, not with outward beauty, but with a right spirit, a spirit of quietness
and meekness. I'll read it. and says who's
adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair
or braiding the hair and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel
but let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is
not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which
is in the sight of God of great price." And so this meekness
is described as an ornament. And those words aren't only for
women and brides, it's for the bride of Christ. So that our
adorning isn't with outward works of religion that are just dead
phony works, but the ornament of His grace, a quiet and meek
spirit. And that's in the sight of our
God of great price. And so we don't hope in our fleshly
works. We hope in the grace of our God
and what He's done for us and how He's teaching us and how
He delivers us from our wicked ways and our foolish ways and
our foolish boasting of self to boast in our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Then he says in verse five, let
the saints be joyful in glory, let them sing aloud upon their
beds. Now the saints glory is the Lord
Jesus Christ and it speaks of a bed. When is the time that
we typically lay down in a bed? It's in times of darkness. It's
in a dark time. That's typically when most people
lay down in their bed in the darkness. Or when they're sick,
when they're not well, then they lay down in the bed. And so we
have this dancing and we have this bed. being mentioned, and
these are seasons. All these have a place in the
life of the believer. These are seasons. Sometimes
there's great joy and rejoicing, and other times there's darkness
and there's sickness, and we feel ill and really down because
of the difficulties that we're going through. where the Lord
humbles us and brings us to see our need of him and makes us
to know our sorrow. And sometimes we feel afraid
and we're uncomfortable with ourselves or what we've done
and what we think or feel. But what he's showing us is that
in all seasons, good or bad, in times of light, in times of
darkness, in times of triumph, in times of seeming defeat. In all these things our God says,
Rejoice in Me. Give thanks to Me. Trust me,
I've not changed in my feelings towards you. Nothing's changed
with your inheritance, with all that I've given to you in the
Son. Nothing's changed, no matter how you or I feel about it, no
matter how strong or how weak we are, because salvation is
all freely given in grace through His Son, Jesus Christ. And so he says, let them sing.
and upon their, sing aloud, upon their beds. And so we see that
in every season, our God says, trust me, rejoice in me. give
thanks and praise my name because I've given you everything in
the sun. And so Paul writes in first Thessalonians
5 16 through 18 rejoice evermore pray without ceasing in everything
give thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning
you in everything you may praise him even when you're not very
proud of something that you've done in everything. Give him
thanks, be humbled under his hand, but give him thanks. And thank him for what he's bringing
you through. And it's a great comfort to do
that. It's a great comfort to just
be thankful when the Lord gives us thanksgiving. And so he's
encouraging us with this psalm, come to me in all things, good
times and bad, come to me and praise my name, rejoice in me.
Verse six, let the high praises of God be in their mouth and
a two-edged sword in their hand. And what he's saying here is
that our warfare is not carnal. It's not carnal, it's spiritual. As Paul said, the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds. And so, our Lord is described
in Revelation 1 verse 16 as having a sharp two-edged sword coming
out of his mouth. And so the picture here is that
this is our weapon, the gospel. And it's not used to hurt or
harm, but to preach and declare the truth of our God and his
son, Jesus Christ. That's how we go forward. I've
read that this psalm was used by wicked kingdoms who claim
to believe on Christ and to justify their persecution and destroying
of peoples in other lands. I'll read verses seven through
nine. It says, to execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments
upon the people, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles
with fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgment written,
this honor have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord. But this
isn't speaking of a physical conquering and a physical destroying
of our enemies that we do. We're in the day of grace in
which the covenant of our God's grace has been established in
the blood of Jesus Christ. And it's Christ that conquers
the wayfaring heart. It's Christ that conquers his
enemies, including us, which we were when he subdued us with
grace and mercy. And so we preach the gospel of
our Savior. And Paul tells us how this is
worked out. 2 Corinthians 2, 14-16, Now thanks
be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and
maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every
place. For we are unto God a sweet saver
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the
one, we are the saver of death unto death, and to the other,
the saver of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these
things? And so, brethren, that's what
we're called to do. Preach the gospel, and our God
will determine how that that word of His grace is heard. It'll either be a saver of grace
to them that are His, or a saver of death to them who are cast
out and have no part in Him, have no part in that dance. But
I pray that this psalm rejoices your heart and makes you glad. No matter what you're going through,
no matter what you feel, no matter what you see or don't see, trust
the Lord. Trust your God. Rejoice in Him. Give Him thanks. Come to Him
with praise. And it's a real joy. He gives
us that inheritance in His Son, Jesus Christ. So, amen. All right,
brethren, let's pray, and then we'll be dismissed for 15 minutes.
Our gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your grace. We thank
you for the mercy that you show to us in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we're unworthy to be in
the midst of your saints. We're unworthy to be counted
among your people and numbered with them. But Lord, none of
us is worthy. None of us has earned this part
in the dance. None of us has earned a right
to be here. Rather, Christ has earned and
obtained all our rights. And He's done everything so that
we are His people. And He calls us to the dance
and gives us everything necessary in which to be partakers of the
dance and to rejoice and be glad and to praise your name and to
give you thanks without worry and without fear of retribution. But Lord, that everything has
been established in the blood of Christ and we're thankful
for that. And ask that you continue to help us to see your grace
and your mercy and to comfort us in Christ. It's in his name
we pray and give thanks. And Lord, we also pray for our
brethren who have suffered damages, those who are suffering illnesses,
those who are suffering difficulties in their mind and in their heart,
Lord, help us, help them to be comforted by you and help us
to be a comfort to them as well. And Lord, help us to love one
another, and to lean on one another, and to be helpers of one another's
joy. It's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen.