Psalm chapter 34. The title of
the message this morning is, A Determination of Praise. A
determination of praise. This title that is given us gives
us the time frame in which this psalm was written. It says a
psalm of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech
who drove him away and he departed. This psalm was written after
David was delivered of the Lord from Abimelech, who was the king
of the enemy, the Philistines. You remember, David was running
for his life. King Saul was chasing him through
the woods, and he didn't know where to go. But instead of waiting
on the response of the Lord, David took it upon himself and
his own reasoning to find shelter in the camp of the enemy. He
said, surely Saul will not be able to seek me in the camp of
the enemy. So he willingly goes out to the
Philistines. And when David realized what
he had done, he began to pretend to be like a madman. He began
to scribble on the wall of the gate and let spittle run down
his beard. And he mumbled and he acted like
a crazy man. Now surely David was wrong to
flee to the enemies of Israel, which he no doubt did because
of fear. But when he saw his error, David
pretended to be insane which surely brought reproach upon
the name of God." These Philistines, when they saw David, they said,
hey, is this the mighty man of God? Is this the man that slew
Goliath? Is this the man that those women
of Israel sang, Saul hath killed his thousands, and David his
ten thousands? This miserable madman, is this
the champion of Israel? He brought reproach upon the
upon God and his people. And yet despite his foolishness,
think of this, God still delivered David. God still delivered David in
spite of his fear and unbelief to appeal to the enemies of God
for refuge and yet God in great grace still delivered his servants.
Believer in Christ, is this not too often our case? That in fear, we run to our own
reasoning. We run too quickly. Because of
fear, we run seeking help, not from God, but from our enemies. Instead of seeking comfort and
solace in God, we seek comfort and solace in those enemies that
surround us. We are surely prone to lean on
the arm of flesh that cannot help us. Yet listen, our God
is rich in mercy. Have you not found him to be
rich in mercy? Have you not found him to deliver
you who are unworthy of deliverance? David was truly unworthy of any
deliverance. Yet God in mercy delivered him. He delivered him. How often has our God delivered
us who are unworthy of deliverance. And so then, therefore we like
David should not boast of our sin, nor display these sins as
badges of honor. But rather, let us do what David
does here. He determines to bless the Lord. He determines to bless God. He says in the very first verse,
I will bless the Lord. the Lord at all times. Now we know this, that the word
bless means not to add anything to God. David was not determined
to add anything to God because he couldn't. We don't add anything
to God by our blessing Him. What this means is David kneels. He said, I will continually kneel
before the Lord. I will continually praise my
God. This is his determination. And
should this not be our determination? And that's what I want us to
see first, a determination of David. A determination of David. And then you can see a call to
praise. He says, I will bless the Lord
at all times. His praise shall be continually
in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. And listen, the humble shall
hear and be glad. And then he calls the humble
to come with him in praising God. He says, oh, magnify the
Lord with me. Now look, I don't know if any
of you this morning are determined to praise God, but I am. I am. I am determined to praise God.
I am determined to give him glory. And I say to you, you who are
humble, you who are meek, You who are humbled by your sin,
I say come with me and let us magnify the Lord together. Let
us magnify the Lord together. So David is determining to praise
God. Now listen, praise is just becoming
of the saint. If you're a child of God, praise
is something that is attractive to you, and it just becomes you.
It becomes you. In Philippians 1, 27, it says,
Let our conversation be as becometh saints. Psalm 33, verse 1 says,
Praise is comely. It's beautiful to the upright. To those who believe on Jesus
Christ, praise is reasonable. That's just so. It's just reasonable
for me to determine to praise the Lord. It's reasonable. It is in our hearts and it's
our heart's desire to praise God in the beauty of His holy
persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And notice David said,
I will bless the Lord. How? Listen. His praise shall
continually be in my mouth. In other words, David said, I'm
not going to praise the Lord in silence. I'm not going to
praise the Lord in silence. I'm going to declare his praise. I'm going to speak of his praise.
Not in silence as some supposed to do. This is a new thing, I
guess, with people there. It's not new. Matter of fact,
the priest, that Catholic priest, Francis of Assisi, you remember
he said it's necessary to preach the gospel at all times and then
We should preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary,
use words. Now, that's not true. That's
not true. No man will ever be saved by
observing you. No man. Those foolish monks spend all
their life in silence, supposing they would be some beacon of
light to the lost. They saved no one. Their message saved no one. A silent message is not a message
at all. Friends, sinners are only saved
when they come to faith in Jesus Christ. How? How are sinners
saved? How is God praised? Through the
preaching of His Word. Go over to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10, verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Or how shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe on him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Elias saith, Lord, who hath
believed our report? So then, faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God. I was reading Mr. Pink earlier this week and he
made this comment about so-called apologists who are well-meaning,
he said. He said they say that God is
the divine creator and they use the analogy of some kind of Aborigine,
some kind of person in the jungle finds, stumbles upon a watch
and he looks at the watch and he realizes that the watch must
have had a maker. But do you realize this? There's
no way that that heathen could know the person or the personality
by looking at the watch of the Maker. He could know the Maker
by looking. He could know there is a Maker,
but he could not know the Maker unless the Maker revealed Himself. I'll tell you, men can look at
creation all they want to. They can watch Christians, and
they should. But they are never going to be saved apart from
hearing the voice of the Son of God. You will never be saved
apart from hearing His voice. You will never be saved apart
from the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, I
determine, I will bless the Lord continually. How? By preaching
His gospel, declaring His person. That's how. I'll praise Him. I'll praise Him. You go on and
praise Him without your words. I'll praise Him with my words.
I will. I'll tell you. I'll tell you
the gospel. That's what we're here to do,
is to preach the gospel. Therefore, believer, let us not
be silent. Let us open our lips, not in
debate. I'm not here to debate this message. I don't debate with anyone. I
simply declare it. And if you, believer, are witnesses
of Christ, you should simply declare the gospel, not debate
it. And we don't do this in boasting
or pride. You see, I don't have anything
to boast in. I don't have anything to be proud
of. I'm a sinner just like you. My boast is in God. When I preach, I want to brag
on God, not on you. I'm not going to spend my time
telling you how good you are, how how you should have all this
sympathy for all of this. No, I'm going to tell you, I'm
going to brag on God, and I'm going to abase you. You know
why? Because that's what God does.
That's what God says. We don't make our boast in ourselves,
we make our boast in our God. I will boast of God my Savior. And as we speak of Christ our
Savior, let us praise and boast Let our boasts be continually
in our mouth. In other words, it's like you
take a morsel of food that's so delicious and you roll it
over your tongue, over and over and over. That's how we are to
preach the gospel. That's how it's to continually
be in our mouth. We should mold these things over
and over and over in our minds and hearts. David said, I will
bless the Lord I will bless the Lord. Let me go back to my text.
I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall be continually
in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. First of all, you should boast
in the attributes of God. You who are believers, you should
boast of His attributes. Consider the solitariness of
God. That's one of His attributes.
Consider that God always was. That God in eternity dwelt in
perfect happiness, contentment, all by Himself. In the Trinity
of His holy persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He is the
eternal self-existent One. There was none before Him. There
is none besides Him. He alone is God, and He needs
none of us. Do you get that? God does not
need you. God does not need you. God needs none of His creatures
to sustain Him. Nor can any of you add to God
anything. You know, my son adds a lot to
me. I'm proud of him. I am. There's
some things that he does, and I'm proud of him. And I'll tell
you, it adds to my glory as a father. If he's doing well, Then what
does that do? That adds to me. You and I, we
can be added to. And I can pat him on the back
and say, good job, son. Why? Because he adds to me. Do
you realize that we add nothing to God? That if you obey the
law of God in perfect obedience, God should not do anything for
you. He would owe you nothing. God is solitary. He is self-dependent. Behold, in the beginning, God. He always was. He never was created. And He never has an end. In the beginning God. God was
before all things and by Him were all things created. Everything
that was made was made by God. Everything. There is nothing
that is not made of God. This universe was made by His
spoken Word. God said, it was done. God said it was done. Consider
God was under no obligation to make anything. God didn't have
to make us. God didn't have to make this
world. Yet He did it out of His own sovereign will. I want you
to understand this about God. God does everything for His own
glory and according to His own will. That's what God does. Now
you that are lost hate that. Lost man hates that. That doesn't
make it any less so. God is God. Our God sitteth in the heaven,
and hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Therefore, O man, who
are you to reply against God? You who hate God, who are you
that you would shake your fist in the face of God? God has made us and not we ourselves. Therefore, listen, He owns you. Do you get that? God owns you. Now the kings of the earth and
the men of the world say, let us cast His cords from Him. Let
us break asunder His bands. I don't want God to rule over
me. Tough! God doesn't care about that. God doesn't care what you want,
only what he desires. And I tell you, he owns you.
He owns you. And whether you like it or not,
you are his servant. You are his slave. Did you get
that? You're his slave and you'll do his bidding. You'll do his
bidding. Even though God is worthy of
all praise, and because He owns all things and has created all
things, He is worthy of adoration of all His creatures. God deserves your praise. God deserves your perfect obedience. And all the praise of all men
of all time add nothing to him. Do you realize this? Even the
righteousness of the Son of God added nothing to God. It added nothing. Matter of fact,
it was his righteousness that he obtained. Isn't that what
the scripture says in Romans 3? Even the righteousness of
God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. The righteousness
of God is what he merited. There is no higher righteousness
than the righteousness of God. So therefore Christ, when he
obtained righteousness, he added nothing to God. Psalm 40 and verse 20... Isaiah
40 and verse 22 says this. Listen. It is He that sitteth
upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are
as grasshoppers. He stretcheth out the heavens
as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent
to dwell in. that bringeth princes to nothing,
he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity." Friends, our God is a solitary,
self-sufficient God who is worthy of your praise. Second of all,
I will bless the Lord my God because of His sovereign grace. Mold this over in your mind.
He who you can add nothing to has purpose to save some. He's purpose to save some men. Behold, from eternity, even before
the world was made, God dwelt alone and out of His own sovereign
will set His love and affection on some that He would create. These are called the elect of
God. These Beloved, these are the
Beloved of the Father. They were like Jacob who was
the chosen seed from which Christ came. Go over to Romans 9 and
see God's sovereign eternal election as it is seen on Jacob. So it is with all His chosen
people. Romans 9, for the children, being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of Him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve
the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Before these men were born, before
they were in the womb of their mother, before they had done
any good or evil, God said, I will love Jacob and I will hate Esau. This is sovereign election. This
is election. that God has set his love on
some and hated others. Not according to what they've
done, but according to his own sovereign will. And Jacob, was he born any different
than Esau? Matter of fact, they were twins
for a reason. I like this analogy because they
were twins. They were born of the same father. They were in
the womb of the same mother. They both came out sinners. They were sinners. Yet Jacob was saved and Esau
was not. Because we know this, that God
chose Jacob and hated Esau. Even so, I declare unto you that
God, in his own sovereign, eternal decree, purposed to save some
of Adam's fallen race, even before the fall of man. Before there was ever a sin,
God purposed to save a people. To save a people before there
was ever sin. God says this, remember the former
things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God
and there is none like me. There's the solitariness of God.
He said, I'm alone. There ain't nobody with me. There
ain't nobody that affects my decision but myself. I'll choose
what I want to do and I'll do what I want to do. Declaring
the end at the beginning. Do you know this? That all things
in time were decreed from eternity. This does away with all chance
and happenstance, luck. This does away with all of that
garbage. There's no ifs in the mind of God. God said, declaring the end at
the beginning, from ancient times the things were not yet done,
saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
I'll do all my pleasure. Therefore, he who has chose,
he who decreed to save some, he also purposed to save them
by a covenant. Our God is a covenant God. He declares himself in a word
to be a covenant God. These chosen vessels of mercy
were purposed of God to be holy. But I tell you this, they were
not holy by their birth. They're not made holy by their
merit. Because all of the elect were
born in sin. Born sinners, incapable and unwilling
to be holy. Yet even before their fall and
sin, God in a covenant of grace gave them to Jesus Christ, His
Son. Do you see where salvation begins?
Where does salvation begin? Does it begin here? Does it begin
when you believe? Is that when salvation begins?
No. Salvation began in eternity with God alone in a covenant
that God made with Himself for His people. For His people. In a covenant of grace, God the
Father loved His elect and gave them to His Son. In other words,
in that covenant, Jesus said, I will be responsible for them. I will be responsible for saving
all that you have chosen. He accepted their total responsibility. The word in Scripture for that
is surety. Surety. Jesus lifted his hand
to God and said, I swear, I swear by my own self, I'll bring everyone
you give me. I swear I'll be responsible for
all their salvation. Go over to Hebrews and see it.
Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 22. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. The word testament is the word
covenant. The word covenant. Jesus was made a surety of a
better covenant than the law. What was the covenant of the
law? The covenant of the law was do this and live. disobey and die. It was a covenant
of works. But Jesus was made before the
world began. He was made a surety, a guarantee
of a better covenant, a covenant of grace. Now, Moses was a mediator
of law, a covenant of works, which was completely dependent
upon the obedience of man, which we all have broken. How foolishly men spend all their
time and days laboring in religious exercise, in ceremony and vain
obedience to the law, hewing out for themselves broken cisterns
that can hold no water, Where these works cannot mend the broken
law. You realize no matter what you
do, how hard you try, you cannot mend the broken law. You cannot
do it. You cannot glue it together by
your obedience. But Jesus is the mediator, the
surety of a better covenant, not of works. This is it. This is the message of God's
grace and mercy. This is the gospel message. He
has made a surety of a covenant of free grace. Free grace. Without works. Without works. Romans chapter 3, it says in
verse 19, it says, Now we know that whatsoever things the law
saith, that saith to them that are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may become guilty
before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law
is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God... Listen, without the law. without the law is manifest,
witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, listen, which was by the faith of Jesus Christ. You see, that's what he said
he'd do. When he lifted his hand, he swore. He said, I'll be the
righteousness of the saints. I'll be the atonement of the
saints. I'll secure all their salvation. Behold the Son of God in whom
I boast this morning, for he has not only agreed to be the
representative of his people, but he has already accomplished
what he swore to do. He's already done it. He took upon Him flesh, He was
made a man, and as a man He humbled Himself and became obedient even
to the death of the cross. See, the Son of God became a
man that He should fulfill righteousness for His elect. Oh, praise God
and boast of Him who has obtained perfect, spotless righteousness. for all His people whose names
were written in that covenant of grace. Praise the Son of God
and boast of Him, seeing that He, in order to honor the covenant
of grace, must have laid down His life." A very serious thing. When He swore
to be the covenant surety. I say when, that's just a, that's
because I have no way to say it, because it was from all eternity.
He did swore this. Therefore the scriptures describe
him as a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. In the mind's eye of God, this
thing was done from eternity. It was finished. The work was
finished in eternity, decreed in eternity, brought to pass
in time, and it will be done. It will be done, even as God
has decreed it. Jesus Christ offered His blood
sacrifice, not the blood of bulls and goats, which were only a
picture and type, but He offered His own spotless blood. Jesus
truly was the spotless Lamb of God and yet God imputed our sins
to Him and He suffered the full weight of God's wrath for all
His elect. What a lie is universal atonement. It is a blight and a stain on
the Word of God to say that Jesus Christ died for all men without
exception. He did not. He died for all those
that the Father gave Him. Jesus said, Of all which the
Father hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up
again at the last day. Jesus was sent into this world
to preach, and He has sent His people, He has sent His Holy
Spirit into the world now to call forth His children to give
them life. And to do this, He has sent His
men to preach this gospel and boast of Jesus Christ. And the success of this gospel
is sure. It's sure. Those whom God chose and Christ
redeemed, the Holy Spirit will come at the appointed time and
they will believe. They will believe and be saved. This is no empty promise. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's not
an empty promise. That's a promise from the all-sufficient,
sovereign God. Believe. It's a promise of God who cannot
fail. And this salvation I boast of
by the Son of God cannot fail. And every one that believeth
on Jesus Christ by our gospel through the power of the Holy
Spirit shall not fail to quicken, to redeem, and to give
faith. Listen, the gospel in Revelation
it said the Spirit and the Bride say come. The Spirit is the power
of salvation, but it is the means of the bride that God uses to
call. The church says, I will bless
the Lord. I will praise God continually
with my mouth. My soul shall make my boast in
the Lord. And this is the heart of everyone
who is called. I will bless the Lord. I don't know about you. I will. His praise shall be continually
in my mouth. I will declare God. I will declare him in the trinity
of his persons. I will declare his sovereignty.
I will declare that salvation is of God and not of man. This is the determination of
the church to preach the gospel And we do not care if anyone
else will hear or praise him, but we will, even because he
has humbled our hearts. Back in his text, he said, who's
going to hear this praise? He said this, my soul shall make
her boast in the Lord. Listen, the humble shall hear
and be glad. Who's going to hear the humble?
The proud sinner will not hear. Mind, he doesn't need Christ. It's fine without Christ. Only
the sinner will hear. Only the complete sinner will
hear. One who has no place else to
go. One who has no other hope. If you've got someplace else
to go, you won't come to Christ. You see, God must hem us in. Hedge our way with thorns so
that we have no place else to go. It's then the sinner looks
up and sees the glorious God of salvation. This is the determination of
the church, and this blessing only comes to the humble. Are
you such a sinner as without hope, as without life, as without
true saving faith in Christ? Then hear the gospel of my mouth
and the meditation of my soul. Cast thy soul only on Jesus Christ
and throw away everything else. Throw away all other hopes, all
other dreams, and cast yourself completely on His mercy. And
you know what you'll find? You'll find you are one of the
elect. You'll find that you are one
loved of God from eternity. You'll find that the blood of
Christ was shed for your sins. You'll find that His resurrection
was for you to justify you before God. And He will come again and
receive us unto Himself. Throw away everything. Stop trying
to get saved and believe. That's the most foolish thing.
You need to get saved. Well, how do I get saved? My
son was telling me about this thing, a poster he saw, Steps
to Salvation. Do this, then do this, then do
this, then do this, and then pretty soon, you know, the steps
gets the dead gum big and everybody gets tired of trying to follow.
No. There's no step. Fall down. Don't try to climb up. Fall down. in the beloved Son of God, and
you will be saved. You will be saved. Therefore,
you who believe, magnify the Lord with me. Magnify. Why do you come here? Because
you desire to magnify Christ. You desire to love Him and to
serve Him. But don't we need to be reminded,
magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together. This is why God made the local
church, so that we might magnify the Lord together. Is He not worthy of this? Has
He not delivered us from all our sins? We who are the most
unworthy, and yet He heard us. He hears us, even because He loves us. And
I love Him because He first loved me. Pray God will bless this to your
hearts.