I pray that God be with us as
we study His Word. If you'll go back to your Psalm
111, go back in your Bibles to Psalm 111. The title of the message is, An Exhortation
and Determination of Praise. An Exhortation and Determination
of Praise. The psalmist here says in verse
1, Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my
whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. In this verse, the psalmist gives
both an exhortation and a determination. The first is an exhortation here
in the first part. Hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord. This is the exhortation the psalmist
gives to every one of us this morning. Praise ye the Lord. Now again, the word praise. What
does it mean? Praise is not necessarily just
a physical thing. It can incorporate physical activities,
but it is a matter of spiritual things. Praise is a very spiritual
thing, and what it means is to boast. To boast, or to give glory
unto. The root word would be to kneel
or to bow down before. Bow down and give glory, boast
ye in the Lord. To praise the Lord is not like,
men suppose, as some rock concert. You see men out there, and they're
in their concerts, and they're banging their head, or they're
jumping up and down, and shouting, and screaming, and, ah, the girls
are all going crazy. Now, that's not what praise is.
That's praising man. That has something to do with
boasting in man. It's not like these self-righteous
religious folks who jump around and babble and call it speaking
in tongues. That's not praising God. They are like the Pharisee. Most
religious men praise God like that Pharisee who stood in the
middle of the street. and began to pray out loud. And
he said, God, I thank Thee that Thou hast... I'm not like this
man or that man. They began to boast. That man,
that Pharisee, he prayed in the streets not to be heard of God,
but to be heard of men. If your praise outwardly is to
be heard of men, it's not praise to God. But you who are believers
in Christ, you who are saved by the grace of God, we praise
the Lord. The Lord. And we don't have any
purpose to call attention to ourselves. When I praise God,
I have no reason for you to look at me. I am here to praise Him. To praise God. To praise God
is just that. It is to God. Praise is to God. And not to men and not for men. I tell you, praise is not even
for yourself. Praise is not just so you can
feel good about yourself. Sometimes we think, well, I'm
not praising the Lord because I don't feel like I'm praising.
That has nothing to do with praise. Praise is not for you. Praise
belongs unto God. It belongs to Him. It's His. Glory belongs unto Me. God says, I will not share My,
what? My glory or My praise with another. I won't do it. Praise belongs
to God. And notice this word here, ye. Praise ye the Lord. I like the
King James Version because of this. Because it uses words,
and this word ye, everywhere in the King James Version, it
means personal, singular. It means you. Not you all, but
you individually, singularly, I exhort you personally to praise
the Lord. To praise the Lord. Don't wait for others to praise
Him. Don't wait for someone else to praise Him. Give praise to
the Lord. If we were to wait for the world
to praise and give glory to God, would we ever praise Him? No.
The world hates God. The world hates the Lord Jesus
Christ. I know that that's absurd to
the religious world, isn't it? When I say that, most of the
religious world say, what? You mean people don't hate God?
Jesus said the world hates Him. So yes, the world hates Him.
The world hates Him. So don't wait for the world to
praise God. You praise Him. Believer, even
now I exhort you to praise the Lord. Bow down right now. You
don't have to move a muscle. Bow down in your heart and praise
the Lord. Worship Him. When we sing together,
I know it's very difficult. I've been doing this now for
about seven years. I've been leading the singing
here. Talk about a difficult thing for me. I know this. I don't have a beautiful voice,
but I have to fight this every time. Because I'm really not
here to sing to you. I'm here to sing to God. I'm
here to sing praises to my God. And you, when you sing, it should
not be for others. It should be for God. It should
be to Him. I don't mean to be disrespectful
when I'm not looking at you when I'm singing, because I don't
want to be distracted. I need to be focused on praising
Him. I really do. And I know it's
difficult for us. The flesh gets in the way. But
when we sing, you should praise to God. You should sing to God.
Believer, you should sing and praise your God because He has
chosen you. Have you considered that? You should consider that daily
as a cause to praise Him. He chose you. Why is it that
you are here and your friends are not? Your family is not? Because they have no interest
in the things of God. Why is it you have an interest
in the things of God? Why is it that you believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ? It is because God has chosen
you. Christ has redeemed you. The
Holy Spirit has called you. To do what? To praise Him. to praise Him. Isn't that the
reason for our election and our redemption and our calling? That's
what it says in Ephesians chapter 2. It says, according as He had
chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestinated
us to be sons, according to the praise of the glory of His grace. Grace. I praise Him for His grace. You praise Him for His grace.
You personally, and don't worry about anybody else, you praise
Him. You praise Him. And second of all, the psalmist
here not only gives an exhortation, but a determination. Look at
that. He says, I will praise the Lord
with my whole heart. A determination. This morning
I exhort you to praise God. I exhort you to give honor to
the glory of God for His grace. But regardless of what you do,
I will praise the Lord. You see, I want you to praise
the Lord, but your praise or not praise has nothing to do
with my praise. I will praise the Lord. This is a determination. I will
praise the Lord. I will do it regardless of what
this world does. If I am the only one to praise
God for the glory of His grace, then I will be the only one to
praise Him for the glory of His grace. I know a lot of times
we feel like Elijah. Elijah felt alone. He said, Father,
just kill me. I'm the only one left. There's
nobody else. And God says, Son, I have 7,000
besides you that haven't bowed the knee to Baal. I have my own
elect, and I know where they are, and it's not your business
to know where they are. The business is you praise me. You give glory to me. And so
no matter what, we should determine ourselves regardless of what
men do. May God give us even now such
a determination. If you haven't had it before,
may God give it to you now. I will praise the Lord. I will
bow before God. And how do we bow before God?
With a willing and undivided heart. He said, with my whole
heart I will praise the Lord. With my whole heart. How should we praise Him? With
our whole heart. Now usually men begin praise
with the body. They begin with the body. Like the athletes, you know how
they warm up. They get their stretching in,
and they get their exercise, get a little warm up. And then
they get the body all pumped up. They get the energy flowing,
and then they say, I can pray. No. It has nothing to do with
bodily energy. You can be dead dog tired and
praise God. It has nothing to do with the
body. It has to do with the heart.
The heart, I told you at the beginning, praise is a spiritual
matter. It's not a carnal matter. It
is a spiritual thing. It's a spiritual transaction
between us and our God. Praise is from the heart. This is why lost men will not
praise God, even because their heart is dead. If you don't have
any inkling to praise God this morning, it's because you're
dead. You're dead. Lost men may give lip service,
and they do a lot of that. They say, Amen! Is that praising
the Lord just because you said Amen? Is it praising the Lord? You say, when somebody sneezes,
they say, God bless you. Were you being praising the Lord
there, just because you said God bless you? Or are you just
saying it because that's what normally you say, just like a,
you know, gesundheit? Same thing. That's not praising
the Lord just because you say it. People say, well, praise
Jesus. How many times have you heard that? Man, that gets on
my nerves. People just shouted out of nowhere, Praise Jesus!
What are they doing? They're calling attention to
themselves. They're not praising God. We don't praise God by calling attention
to ourselves. You see, we praise God from a
new heart. God must give us a new heart
to praise Him. Man by nature cannot and will
not praise God. How is it that you are able to
praise God? How is it that you are to lift
up your soul and heart to God in praise and thanksgiving and
joy and peace? How is that? Because God gave
you a heart to do it. He gave you a new heart. That's
part of the new covenant. Look at that in verse 5 of our
text. He says he will ever be mindful of his covenant. What
is his covenant? He says that my covenant, a new
covenant I will make with you. Not like the old covenant of
works which they break. He said I'll make a new covenant
with you and I'll forgive your iniquities and pardon your sins.
And he says I will give you a new heart. Isn't that part of the
new covenant? A new heart? Yes. A new heart
to do what? Praise Him. Praise comes from
a new heart, a resurrection from the dead. Anyone who thinks salvation
is simple, misunderstands salvation altogether. Salvation is not
simple, it's impossible. It's something that God alone
can do. He must raise you from the dead. That's what He did for me. That's
what He did for you who believe. It is a resurrection from the
dead. It's like Lazarus who was in the tomb. We were entombed
in our sins. We were enslaved to our sins.
And Christ speaks to our heart and says, Lazarus, come forth. And what did we do? He called
us by name and we came forth. We came forth alive from the
dead with a new heart. Even praise unto our God. I told
you, the Pharisee, he stood, prayed, and he said, God, didn't
he? He said, thank God. God, I thank you. He used the
name of God. Was he praising God? No. Listen to what he said. I thank
you I'm not like this other man. I'm thankful I give. I'm thankful
I'm this. I, I, me, me. If your prayers include I, I,
me, me, then it's not praise. Praise comes from the heart and
it goes to God. Pharisee prayed thus with himself,
but that publican, when he prayed, what did he pray? He prayed from
the heart. He prayed, Lord, be merciful
to me, the sinner. This man had a new heart. He
knew what he was. He knew what he needed. He needed
mercy. He needed grace. He needed forgiveness. He needed a sacrifice that he
could not provide. And so who did he go to? He went
to the only one. Who could give it? He went to
God, confessing out of His heart that He was the sinner. A new
heart praises and seeks mercy and not merit. You come to God
on merit. How do you come to God? I didn't ask how the other person
comes to God. How do you come to God? Do you come by merit? when you come
in need of mercy. And the only ones who come in need
of mercy are those with a new heart. A new heart. A new heart
seeks mercy. And new mercy. And that mercy
comes. And we praise God for the quickened
heart. The heart of life. And we give
all the glory to God for salvation. Psalm 3 and verse 8. Salvation
belongs to who? Who does salvation belong to?
Does it belong to you? Is it yours? Do you take it because
it's yours? Or do you receive it because
it's God's that gives it? I have salvation because God
gave it. And I give no glory to myself
in receiving it. Truly, it's mine because He gave
it. But it belongs to Him, and we
praise Him for it. Now thirdly, where is this praise
given? Look at this. He not only gives
us exhortation, praise ye the Lord. He determines to praise
the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my
whole heart. Where? In the assembly of the upright. The first place the psalmist
says he will praise the Lord is where the people of God assemble. This word, assembly, it means
secret place. It means an intimate place. It's a special place. It's a
place where the upright, the righteous gather together to
do what? to praise. This is what the church
is. It is the assembly of the upright. The church is what he's talking
about. Where the saints of God gather
in the presence of Jesus Christ. Now, in our day, the church is
seen more as a social gathering. The church is a place where you
meet and greet people, or you show your piety. You show that
you're doing your religious duty by coming to church. But for
the most part, people have very little use for the church. They have very little use for
it. They can take it or leave it. They can come, eh, or not. Doesn't really matter. They may want to go, but if something
better comes up, they'll do that. This is not true with God's people.
This is just not true with God's people. The gathering of the
saints to hear the preaching of God's Word is the closest
thing to heaven on earth. This right now, what we're doing,
is the closest to heaven we'll ever get in this world. Right
now. Wherever God has sent His preacher
to declare the gospel of His free and sovereign grace, God's
people will come. They will be faithful to hear
it. They love to hear it because they love Jesus Christ. They love Jesus Christ. They love Him and they assemble
together to hear His Word because whenever His Word is preached,
He is there. That's why this is as close to
heaven as we'll get. Not because my voice is angelic.
Not because my sermon is waxing eloquent. Not because pearls
of wisdom drop from my lips. That's not why this is like heaven.
This is like heaven because the Savior is here. He said, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the
midst of them. He is here this morning because
He promised to be here. And whether you feel His presence
or not, that makes no difference. He's here. Wherever His Word
is preached, He's with us. He's here with us. And that's
reason enough for God's people to be here. Now if you're here
to hear me, I know you're disappointed. I know that. Spurgeon said if
a man were condemned to hear his own sermons, it would be
a horrible condemnation. That would be a horrible thing
for a man to have to listen to his own sermons. I understand
that. But I hope you're not here to
hear me. I hope the reason you come is because He's come. That's
a reason to come, isn't it? That's a reason to be here. That's
a reason to praise Him because Jesus is here. How many of you suppose if I
had a big name in music would come? How many of you suppose
if I put out a billboard there and said, nice, whatever band
you like. I mean, just name it. And this
place, we couldn't get them, we couldn't fit them all in this
place, could we? You ask for a movie star or some sports hero,
and I mean, this place would be packed. All of our friends
and neighbors would love to socialize with us because we would know
somebody that knew somebody. They would all love to come.
But what is it when you tell them Jesus will be here? I know
a man in this congregation tells his wife the whole everyday.
She said, why do you go? Because Christ is there. And
she just laughs. She thinks it's comical. Thinks he's joking. We're not
joking. Christ is here. If I tell people that Jesus will
be in this place, Jesus Christ and Him crucified is what will
be preached. How many do you suppose will
come? The same number who always comes. The same ones who always
come. The ones who heard His voice.
The ones who believe that to be true. They're the ones who
come. And they praise God here in the
assembly of the saints. Where two or three are gathered,
there I am in the midst. And those who believe will come
and praise Him. Is this the reason you've come?
Because He's here? To praise Him who has come to
be in your midst? Now, if I can find my scripture.
Zephaniah, chapter 3. It's Habakkuk and Zephaniah,
and then Haggai, if that helps. Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse
14. It says, Seeing, O daughter of
Zion, shout, O Israel. Be glad and rejoice with all
the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. Why? The Lord hath taken away
thy judgments. He hath cast out thine enemy,
the King of Israel. Even the Lord is in the midst
of thee. Thou shalt not see evil anymore.
Why do we sing? Why do we praise? Because God's
in our midst. God's in our midst. This is why
we come and praise Him in the assembly of the upright. Now
secondly, He says in the congregation. He says not only in the assembly
of the upright, but in the congregation. What does this mean? This is
a mixture. In other words, He's saying,
I'm going to praise you in the house of God with God's people,
and I will praise Him outside of the house of God. I will praise
Him among those that hate Him. When we're gathered together,
we're kind of emboldened, aren't we? I love it to be gathered
with you and I talk boldly. We talk boldly together. But
how we talk together is how we should talk out there. I should praise Him the same
out there as I praise Him in here. Praise Him from the heart. Praise
Him in all my actions, in all my deeds, in all the things I
do should be done unto Him. For His glory, for His honor. Praise Him among those who hate
Him. Over in Isaiah chapter 40 and
verse 9, the scripture says, O Zion, that bringest good tidings. It's not the gospel good tidings. Is the gospel not good news? It is good news. To who? To sinners. To sinners. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. That Jesus Christ came into the
world to save who? Sinners. That's good news. To
sinners. Now you should take that message
out there. When I preach to you, am I not
preaching to sinners? This church is for sinners. Because
Christ came to save sinners. And so when your conversation
is out there, Christ came to save sinners. Christ came to
save sinners. He said, get you up. He said,
bring good tidings. Get you up into a high mountain,
O Jerusalem, that bring us good tidings. Lift up thy voice with
strength. Lift it up and be not afraid. Isn't that the reason why our
witness is so small? Because we're afraid. We're afraid
we might not have the right words. We're afraid we might not have
the right phrase. Really? Are we trusting our phrases? Our ability to do anything? How
about just glorify God and let God do His business? That's His
business. to make the word effectual. Praise
the Lord in the congregation and in the house of God and in
the world. Believer, why did God not receive
us up into glory when we first believed? Isn't everything done? Aren't
you complete in Christ? Scripture says you are complete
in Him. He says He hath perfected us, them that are sanctified
by His death on the cross. If we're perfected, if we have
the righteousness of God, why is it that you're still here?
Because God still has a people in this world. When God has called
His last, then we'll all go to heaven. We'll all go to glory.
But until then, we are here for this purpose, to praise God and
be used of Him. Isn't that wonderful that we
can be used of our Father? God has His people that He must
call by our witness, by the gospel which we preach. To the world,
preaching is foolishness. But to us, it is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Therefore, praise
God Praise God, even among the heathen. May God give us such
boldness to proclaim His name among the lost, so that He may
call out His people. Now then, the next thing. What
is the cause of our praise? Look at verse 2. The works of
the Lord are great. This is the message. This is
the cause of all our praise, the works of God. Now this truly
could mean the work of creation, couldn't it? The work of creation
is great. You know the work of creation
tells everyone there is a God? Even those fools who believe
in evolution or the atheists, they can look at this stuff and
they can see that this took a Creator. That doesn't take a genius. They
know there's a God. They know it. They know God's powerful and
they know He has a right to rule over His creation. But creation,
the work of creation, though splendid and glorious, that speaks
daily to us that there is a God, it cannot tell us who God is
or what He requires. It can't tell us that. In other
words, creation cannot save men. The natural man is very religious
himself and makes a God much like himself, a God that is easily
appeased by his works. The religion of this age we live
in is such a... they praise such a God who is
all-loving but has no power. The religious of this world praise
a God who has a plan for your life, but the poor deer, he just
can't do anything without you. The men of this age call their
God Jesus. They say He was crucified for
all men without exception, that His blood was shed for all men,
but His blood really can't do them any good unless they make
a decision for Him. One of these false prophets said
of their God that there were two games being played at the
cross. One, the Roman soldiers gambling for the robe of Jesus,
and Jesus gambling for the souls of men. And I tell you what,
that God does not deserve any praise. I do not praise such
a God as that. This is not praise, this is blasphemy. Blasphemy. This work of salvation
does not praise God, but leaves the praise of salvation to the
free will of man. I praise no such God who made
salvation possible. I praise a God who actually accomplished
salvation. My God accomplished His work,
and His work is great. His work is a matter of His own
sovereign mercy. His work begins in eternity. And in eternity, God the Father
chose a people for Himself. God the Father loved a people
from eternity for Himself and gave them to His Son. And Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, agreed in the covenant of grace to receive
those people and to be their representative. And in the work
of this great and glorious salvation, Jesus Christ, the God of heaven,
came down to be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. In mythology, isn't it always
that men become gods? Isn't that the way it works?
Usually a man's half-god or half-man. And no, this is not the way it
was. God came down to be a man. And He was a whole man. He wasn't part God, part man.
He was whole God and whole man. For what purpose? Why would God
condescend to be a man? So that He should die in your
stead. That He should die for your sins.
It says that His work is honorable and glorious, and His righteousness
endures forever. See, God sent His Son to represent
all of His elect. and He willingly took on Himself
the form of a man, the nature of a man, so that He should die
and offer Himself to God without spot, and that God should impute your
sin to Him. God's work is honorable. This is why I praise God, because
His work's not shady. His work is without change, immutable. It's unchangeable. It's not shady,
without verity. His work has imputed our sins to His own
blessed Son. And Jesus Christ paid the debt
for all our sins. And what do you and I receive
because of this? Righteousness. Righteousness. Absolute perfect righteousness. The works of God are great. sought
out of all them that had pleasure therein. We didn't seek God,
but He sought us and found us and gave us life. Forgave us of all our sins through
faith in His Son. Do you have pleasure in this? Those who are sought and found
of God seek these things out. I'll tell you what. The things
of God are deep. And the deeper we go into these
things, the richer they become. The richer they become. And the
more we see of our sinfulness and Christ's righteousness, the
more we will praise Him. Praise Him. Believer, you should
praise Him. You should remember His work.
He has made His wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is
gracious and full of compassion. Is this not clear in the work
of His grace? Therefore, believer, you praise
Him. I will praise Him. I'm determined
to praise Him with my whole heart. Why? Because He has saved me. He has redeemed me. And He is
worthy of all my praise. All praise. May God bless this
to your hearts. This stand will be dismissed
in prayer.