If you'll take your Bibles and
turn with me to Psalm 111. Psalm 111, the title of the message this morning is,
The Work of God. The Work of God. Jesus said, This is the work
of God, that you believe. on Jesus Christ whom he has sent."
This is the work of God. Faith, salvation is the work
of God. The psalmist here in our text
begins by an exhortation. Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my
whole heart. in the assembly of the upright
and in the congregation. All who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you who believe, you who are given faith by the work
of God, you are what the Scriptures call saved. We who have been quickened by
the Holy Ghost have been given the evidence of a spiritual life
In that we have faith to believe. Faith to trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. To believe that Jesus is all
our righteousness. To believe that Jesus Christ
is all our atonement. To believe that Jesus Christ
is all of our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, that
Christ is all in all. That is what it is to have faith.
It is to receive this truth. In order to receive, we must
have life, and this comes from God. We believe in the person. of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We believe that He is the Son
of God, and we know Him to be the Son of Man. Those who are
born again of the Spirit of God know that Jesus is God manifest
in the flesh. If you remember His conversation
with Martha, He said to Martha, the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth, he that liveth and believeth shall never die. Believest thou this? And what
was her confession? She said, I believe that thou
art the Christ, the Son of God. I believe Looking at that man,
Jesus, you know, she was looking at a man. She was looking at
this man standing in front of her saying, I am the resurrection. I am God. I'm the giver of life. I'm the sustainer of life. I'm
the creator of life." And she saw a man and she said, I believe
thou art the Christ. I believe that you're the one
Son of God. And I also know this, that you are the eternal Son
of God, that you are God manifest in the flesh. We who believe
know Him to be the Son of God and the Son of Man. This is our
confession. We believe in Jesus' office of
Christ. and His deity, His person. We
believe the eternal, immutable Son of God, that He is the immutable
Christ. Jesus, who was with God, the
Scripture tells us, was God. And God was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He was made flesh so that He
might be our near kinsman, Redeemer. You remember the whole story
of Ruth, how that she had come back and there was a man, Boaz,
who would have her, who would love her, who would take her
to be his bride. But there was a nearer kinsman
and he had to confront this nearer kinsman. That is a type of the
law, is a nearer kinsman to you and me. But the law could not
redeem us. The law could not save us. But
our Boaz, Jesus Christ who loved us, He Himself redeemed us and
bought us from our sins. Paid for them by His own blood. We believe this. We believe that we are saved
from all our sins. That Jesus Christ bore the guilt
of all our sins. That there is not one sin that
we have ever thought or committed, known or unknown, that Christ
Himself did not bear in His own body on the tree. And God executed
His eternal wrath and judgment upon His Son once and for all. And Christ said it is finished.
The justification had been accomplished. What had been purposed in eternity
was accomplished at Calvary. Jesus Christ saves us from our
sin. This I say to you who believe.
Praise ye the Lord. Notice this, that he says, praise
ye the Lord. Don't be so foolish as to think,
well, man, I wish somebody were here to hear that. I wish somebody
else come along and praise the Lord. I'm tired of praising the
Lord all by myself. I wish somebody come and praise
Him. No, praise ye personally, singular, the Lord. And I'll
worry about me. David said, you praise the Lord.
And I know I will praise the Lord with my whole heart. And
I'll praise Him in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.
I'll praise Him in front of saints and sinners. I'll praise Him
when it's in season and out of season. I will praise Him for
He is all my salvation. That's why I'll praise Him. That's
why I'll glorify His name. Salvation, friends, is a very
personal act of God toward the sinner. You remember the publican, he
asked in his prayer, Lord, be merciful to that Pharisee standing over
there praying thus with himself. Did he ask for that Pharisee?
No. He said, Lord, be merciful to
me, the sinner. We should ask for God's mercy
upon our own self, so that we our own self may praise God. Salvation is a very personal
act of God toward the sinner. It's never sought out by the
sinner. I never sought God. ever until
God came to me. I never sought out salvation
until salvation first was given to me. Nobody is ever looking
for God. The Scriptures tell us plainly
that there is none that seeketh after God. You could read it
in Romans chapter three. There's none righteous. No, not
one. None that understand it. There is none that seeketh after
God. None. Are you surprised that others
do not seek God in the way that you would? We shouldn't be. There's none that seek. I wasn't
seeking after God sitting in the church for years. I wasn't
seeking after God until God came to me. There's none that seek after
God. Lost men do not desire to go to hell. Isn't that a truth? Get a hundred kids in a room
and ask them if they want to go to hell. You may get one smart
aleck or two, but nobody wants to go to hell. A lost man can
desire to escape hell. A lost man can feel guilty. A
lost man can desire to be saved, but never can he know the salvation
of God by free grace. He'll always seek some measure
of glory. Man by nature will always want
some part in the work that belongs only to God. Now, some desire
a lot of glory. You'll see them in robes and
religious garb, and you'll see them with all the ornaments of
religion. You'll see them with all of the
idols on the wall and statues of gold. They want a lot of glory
for their work. Now, there are some who want
a little less. They just want to be accepted because of their
moral character. Well, God should accept me because
I'm a pretty good person. Now, I'm maybe not as good as
those religious people who do all that stuff, but I want some
glory for myself. And some want even less. Some
want, well, God's got to just accept my will. Now, I'll believe
everything God says if He'll just accept me because I accept
Him. All those people are lost. Salvation is in no way, in no
part at all, the work of man. Salvation is in no way and in
no part the work of man. Period. Salvation is all the
work of God alone. If you will ever stand before
God, holy and acceptable, it is because God did it all. God did it all. Over in Titus chapter 3, the scriptures are so plain. Titus chapter 3, it says, for
we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,
serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice, envy, hateful
and hating one another. But after I was seeking God,
then, is that what it says? What does it say? But after that,
the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared. toward men appeared, not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy
He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we should
be heirs according to the hope of eternal life." not by any
works which we have done. We are justified, saved completely
by the work of God. If salvation is all the work
of God, then the work of God upon the
sinner is never the result of the sinner's effort. It's never the result of the
sinner's effort. I say to every one of you, you
should avail yourselves every time the gospel is preached,
because this is the only means God's chosen to save sinners.
Plain and simple. This is the means. It pleased
God. I can't give you any other reason
as to why other than it gives glory to God and it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that belief. So
I tell you, avail yourself to the gospel at every opportunity. And if you avail yourself to
the gospel and by grace, God comes and saves you. It will
not be because of my preaching and it will not be because of
your great understanding of the gospel. We will receive none
of the glory if you are saved. It is because it is completely
the work of God. It is the work of God. Your birth
is the work of God. In pervenient grace, God prepared
the way for you to be here this morning. How did you come here?
Did you come here because someone made you? Maybe so, but God in
pervenient grace has brought you here. And if God gives you his word
and you are quickened today and you believe on Christ today,
that's the work of God. And you who believe, listen,
you who believe. If you believe, that's still
the work of God. It's still the work of God. If
I believe right now, today, and if I continue in faith until
this body is rotting in the ground, I know this, all my faith, all
my hope, and all my love have come directly as a result of
God's work upon my heart. And all the glory belongs to
God. All the glory belongs to God.
It is the grace of God that saves us. Now go to your text, and let us praise the Lord. Let
us praise the Lord who are troubled. Are you troubled? I tell you, I'm troubled by my
sins. I'm troubled by my thoughts.
I'm troubled by my disobedience. I'm troubled by many things. But if we are troubled, let us
find comfort and rest through this dry and weary land by seeing
the great work of God, that all my salvation rests in the hands
of God." The psalmist said, praise the
Lord, He said, the works of the Lord are great. Great. Let us for a moment think
of the greatness of God's salvation. If you think little of God's
salvation, you'll find little joy in it. If you think little of God's
work, you'll find little peace. But friends, we should think
of the greatness of God's salvation. The greatness of God's salvation. First of all, think about the
author of salvation. How great is our God? How great
is our God? Believer, consider the one who
purposed our salvation. The One who planned our salvation,
the One who obtained our salvation, and the One who keeps our salvation.
Consider Him. Consider His greatness. Consider
His power. Consider His majesty. Consider
His glory. Consider His honor. Consider
His holiness, His justice, His righteousness, His compassion.
How great are His attributes! How great! The same One who spoke the worlds
into existence, whose great wisdom is shown all around us, His power
in creation and design are all around us. We have these tulips growing
out here. Some only grow for a little while. I picked up one
of the leaves the other day and just started looking at the leaf
and the veins that go throughout that leaf and how I thought about
how the sun, how it receives its energy from the sun and the
rain and how it absorbs through the leaf. It's amazing! Simply
amazing! And it's one leaf. It's one small
creation of our God. Consider the vastness of the
heavens, how it expands and is still expanding. And they can't
explain that. It's vast beyond measure. You
can't measure it. You can't even count the stars
in the sky. How many times have men tried
and still failed to find the number of them? And yet our God
knows them by name. Knows them all by name. Psalm
104 says he had laid the foundations of the earth that it should not
be removed forever. I love that. Tell the global
warming people that God's laid the foundation, man
won't move it. God will move you. God will kill
all man if he wants to. But his earth ain't going anywhere.
It's settled. This world did not sin, and when
God comes again, this world will be here. It'll be replenished. It'll be relieved from the curse
that was placed on it because of our sin. But this world ain't
going nowhere. God established it. God set the
seasons. The sun and the moon has come
and gone day after day, faithful season after season. This is
the power of God that causes this. Man can't change this. Can't change the seasons. God
set them in order. Sun, moon and stars. Think of
the seasons that are constant and the greatness of God's provision
both for man and beast. Has God not provided for the
billions of billions and billions and billions of people that have
walked the face of His earth? He's provided for them over and
over and He still provides today, over and over, even for the blasphemers. Even for the heathen that blaspheme
His name, He provides for them. How great is our God? Well, how
much greater then is His wisdom in the salvation of sinners? I want us to think of how great
the thought is of how it is that God can be just and justify the
ungodly. The question that no man could
ever answer by any works religion. By any thought of man's imagination,
how great is His salvation? The salvation of God is great
in honor and glory. Look at your text. Verse 3, His
work. His work is honorable and glorious,
and His righteousness endureth forever. God is holy. God is holy and just. Therefore, God cannot save, God
cannot accept us unless We are as holy and righteous as God
Himself. God's work, in order to be great,
it must be honorable. It must be glorious. It can't
be done in a back room. It can't be done under the darkness
of night. God's work has to be done in
honor in the open. And God is holy. And if you are
to be saved, you must be as holy as God. God says, Be ye holy, even as
I am holy. Is that not clear enough? That's
plain. Simple. Cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things that are written in the book
of the law to do them. That's plain. How about this? The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. Is that plain? So God is holy,
and if anyone is to approach unto God, he must be holy. Because
God's work of salvation is an honorable thing. It is an honorable
thing and it must measure up to his glory. God cannot overlook
sin and be honorable. He cannot be righteous and overlook
his justice. He can't have mercy at the expense
of his righteousness. He cannot do it and be honorable. And so then salvation must be. If it is the work of God, it
must be honorable and righteous. Believers in Christ, listen to
me. Our salvation is honorable. In Isaiah chapter 42, it says
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ that He shall magnify the law
and make it honorable. Our hope is not in our own righteousness. Our hope is in the work of the
honorable Lord Jesus Christ who has obtained the righteousness
of God on our behalf. Second of all, the work of God
is great because it is one of a gracious God. Look at this
in verse 4. He hath made his wonderful works
to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. God, who would be just and holy,
as much as He is just and holy, He is also gracious and compassionate. He is also merciful. When he revealed himself to Moses,
is that not what he said first? He said, the Lord, the Lord,
gracious and merciful. He is gracious and merciful.
And in His eternal grace and love, God purposed to show His
compassion. Just as much as God determined
to show His justice, just as much as God is determined to
show His holiness, God is also determined to show everyone His
great compassion, His great mercy. And in eternal love, God justifies. of people. This is the work of God. Where
were you when God justified us? Believer, where were we when
God justified us? We were nowhere to be found. Nothing was here. It was just
God alone in Himself. God in love. God in mercy. Purpose to show His grace and
mercy toward us. And He justified us in eternity. He justified his elect people
by the covenant oath of his grace. But how can these two meet together?
How can God be holy and yet justify such sinners as we are? How is that possible that these
two meet? How can the great two attributes
of God of mercy and righteousness meet together? Behold, believer, the greatness
of God's wisdom, that they meet together only in one man, the
God-man, Jesus Christ. Remember, how soon do we forget the things
of God? When we leave, how much will
we not remember? It's my message. I prepared this. How much will I remember when
I walk out? We're like we leak. Our minds
are leaking constantly. Remember, his wonderful works
are to be remembered. We need to remember them. Remember
His gracious election that He chose us, not because of any
goodness in us. He didn't choose us because of
what we could add to Him. Isn't that how we choose people
to do things for us? We choose people so that they
can add something to us. We need help or we need this
and we need that so we get people that can do the job. God didn't
choose us because we could do the job. God chose us out of
sovereign mercy. Remember that. He chose us by His free grace
in Christ before the world began. Believer, we were the objects
of God's grace and compassion and were given to Christ Jesus,
who has always been the Lamb of God. He was always purposed to be
the Lamb of God. The Scripture says in Revelation
that He was as a Lamb slain from before the foundation of the
world. And as the Father loved us, so
the Son in love agreed to be our surety, to be our Redeemer. He agreed to be responsible for our salvation. Now, if that don't take a burden
off your shoulders, I don't know what will. If God the Holy Spirit would
just keep that in our minds, how the burdens would fly off
our shoulders. Christ said, I'll be responsible
for them. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out." Come to Christ. You who are weary, you
who are weary of sin, you who are burdened of trying to be
a... Stop trying to be a Christian! You can't be a Christian by trying. You are a Christian only by coming
to Christ alone. only by coming to Christ alone. Our salvation is great because
of God's grace that purposed it, planned it, accomplished
it. Go to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. And we know. We know. How many times somebody
asks you something and says, yeah, I know. I know that. Well, remember,
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified." Are not all those past tens?
Is that not already done? If you're a believer in Christ,
you know it's already been done. We know. We know all things work
together for our good because it's all been done. God did it
all. He predestinated us. He called
us. He purposed to conform us to
His Son. He justified us. And He glorified
us. Do you feel glorified? I don't
feel glorified. I am! You feel justified? Nobody asks
you if you feel justified. Those who believe are justified. When you were called, it wasn't
by telephone. It wasn't by an audible voice. You were called. You were called by God, and this
purposed from eternity, that you should be conformed to His
Son. Psalm 85, 10, Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. What's the truth? The truth is
we deserve hell. The truth is we deserve no mercy. The truth is we are sinners,
rebels, haters of God. That's the truth. And God is
just and must punish sin. That's the truth. But how can
mercy and truth meet together? Well, mercy is for the undeserving,
isn't it? Any undeserving? Any unworthy sinners? Because
that's who mercy is for. If you deserve mercy, it's not
mercy. Where do these things meet together?
They meet together only in the Son of God. They meet together
only by His righteousness and blood. And the believer cries,
show us mercy, O Lord, and grant unto us salvation. That's my
constant plea. Show me mercy. Lord, I need mercy. Today, show me Christ. Show me
again the Lord who is the one that has obtained my mercy in
my place." The only place these two can meet is in the substitutionary
work of Jesus Christ. And see the greatness of the
work of God in its revelation. Go back to your text. It says the Lord is gracious
and full of compassion. He hath given meat to them that
fear Him. He will ever be mindful of His
covenant. He hath showed His people the
power of His works that He may give unto them the heritage of
the heathen. Has God showed you His work? That's personal. Has God revealed Himself to you
through His gospel? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Every one of you know about Him.
But do you know Him? Has He revealed Himself to you?
Has He shown His power in giving you life and faith to believe? Has God given you a new heart?
The things of God are not entertaining to the flesh, are
they? The things of God are not entertaining
to the flesh. And unless God gives us a hope,
a heart, there's no hope of us ever desiring the things of God. Righteousness. Peace, joy, contentment,
acceptance with God. These are things God's people
desire. We desire these things. And this
is the work of God alone in revelation. This is a miracle of the Holy
Spirit. Do you believe on the Son of
God alone? then see the greatness of this.
The works of his hands are verity and judgment. All his commandments
are sure. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you may have this hope that your salvation is sure. Settle. Finished. Accomplished. Done. I don't know
how many other words I can use. Over. The victory has been accomplished. The warfare is over. Christ has won. Christ has won. Salvation accomplished. And God
says that his works are sure. Now, if you have something to
do with this, you've got some room for doubt. You got something to do with
this? Any part of this yours? Because if it is, you've got
a lot of room for doubt. But see, my salvation is the
work of His hands and not my own. His hands. The work of His hands. We are
His workmanship. We are His skilled craftsmanship
created in Christ Jesus. Faith in Christ is rooted in
grace, and it is the evidence of God's grace. Not rooted in
itself. It is rooted in the faith of
Jesus Christ. Don't root your faith in your
faith. It'll fail you every time. Root
your faith in the faith of Christ. He alone was faithful. He alone
was righteous. And His faith and His righteousness
are accounted as mine. They're mine. His blood redeemed. Not your
sacrifices. Not your fulfilling of your duties
as members of this church. That adds nothing to your salvation. It is all the work of God. And because of this, our salvation
is completely and absolutely sure. David said in his last words,
he says that he has made an everlasting covenant with me ordered. I like
that. Ordered. My life doesn't seem
to be ordered in anything. It seems to be chaos. But my
covenant, the covenant he made for me is ordered in all things
and sure. Though my house be not so with
God, though my house seem to be in a disarray, I know this,
all my salvation is ordered of God. It is worked of God. It
is sure and steadfast and cannot be moved by time or eternity,
by demons or by men. Nothing can move my salvation. What then is the result of such
a work? They stand fast forever. They
are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption to His people.
He hath commanded His covenant forever. Holy and reverend is
His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. A good understanding have all
they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever."
If God has done the work, this will be the result. Praise. Praise. Praise. God is worthy of our praise. Do not think for one minute,
well, my praise is not good enough. If it is, that's simply unbelief
in the work of God. Our praise is acceptable. Not because you did it, but because
our praise is even the work of God. Do you give thanks? Do you have
this? Do you have any peace at all? Do you have hope at all? Do you have contentment? This
is the work of God. Give praise. Give thanks. Offer
the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving unto God. When? Continually. Continually. Because His work is great. Is it not great? It is great. And I'm so thankful
for his great work to me. I will praise the Lord among
the upright and among sinners. Will you? We should praise him together.
Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.