Psalm 146, we'll be looking at
verses 1 through 6. Let's read these together. The
Scripture says, Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live will I praise the
Lord. I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the Son of Man, in whom there is no help. His breath
goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. In that very day his
thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. which made heaven and earth and
the sea and all therein is, which keepeth truth forever." The title
of the message this morning is, A Proper Confession. A Proper
Confession. The psalmist here is giving us
a true confession of his heart. The true confession of every
believer's heart. is to praise the Lord. To praise the Lord. And this
first thing that we notice then is praise belongs only to God. Praise belongs only to the Lord. Now, the psalmist in great earnestness
is speaking not to the mass of people, not to the general public,
not to nations or kings. He is speaking to himself. He is speaking to himself. And
he is confessing both his desire and his heart. that the Lord should be praised,
not just with the outward actions or bodily exercise, but with
His whole being. He says, I will praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord, speaking
to Himself. O my soul, praise ye the Lord. And friends, bodily exercise,
the Scripture says, profiteth little. Speaking of religious
ceremony or religious works, now there are many people going
through the motions of religion. Some of you may be going through
the motions of religion. You come because this is where
you think you need to be. You come because this is something
that someone made you do. You come because you think this
is right or this is some way that you can earn favor with
God by your actions. Ceremonies and vain repetition
of prayers, outward exercise of emotion, stirred by fleshly
entertainment is empty and vain and not praise. That is not praise. To make a show of the flesh so
that others might think good of you is not praise. Some will try to worship in some
type of spiritual environment, and they stir their heart with
religious actions. Have you ever seen that? You've
seen people raising their hands and moving and crying, and, oh,
they're falling out all over the place. Yeah, they got some
kind of spirit. But the problem is, is there's
no truth in their preaching. There is no truth in what they're
preaching. They're preaching works, false
works and free will religion. It doesn't matter how spiritual
they may seem on the outside. They are not praising God. It doesn't matter. It's an exercise
of futility. It is utterly empty. Well, let
me tell you that the opposite is true. Some men may preach
the five points of Calvinism. They may preach the doctrines
of grace. They may preach what the Scripture
says. But yet they have no love or
affection for Christ. There's no spirit. There's no
spirit in their message. Their message is a systematic
checklist of academic things to do. It's no different than
the emotionalism. Jesus said, they that worship
God must worship in what? Spirit and truth. These two are both necessary. Necessary. You can't have one
without the other. You cannot praise God without
a spirit or love for God and a love for the truth. This salvation of God, that God
gives by His grace, He has purposed from all eternity. He in love
for His people. Can you not see His Spirit? Can
you not see His love and affection that was from the beginning?
That He chose us, not according to our works, not according to
who we are. He chose us because He would
set His love on us. Jesus Christ loved us in that
He has obtained our redemption. The Scripture tells us that while
we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. He, by his substitutionary death
on the cross, friends, has obtained my redemption. The work is finished. The work
is accomplished. And this message, this message
should stir our hearts with affection and love and praise to God every
time we hear it. It should stir us to a spirit
of love. I'm not saying that we have to
fall out in emotionalism. No, but it does stir our hearts. It does make us love Him more
to hear of His great love for us. And we will do this by the Spirit
of God through the preaching of the truth. This is the means
of praise. What we're doing here this morning
is the means by which God says we should praise Him. We should
sing praises unto God. When we sing, what are we singing
for? What is the purpose of our singing? Why do we spend so much time
and effort singing songs when we know ourselves that many of
us can't sing very well? But it doesn't matter, because
I'm not singing to you. I'm singing to God. And that's
what you should be doing. We should say within our soul,
praise the Lord, O my soul, and sing His praises. Why? Because He's worthy of praise. He's worthy of it. And friends, we do this especially
by the preaching of the gospel. You'll notice that this is the
center of worship. The center of our worship is
centered around not music, centered around the preaching of the gospel. Because this is the means by
which God saves sinners. I'll tell you what, to those
who perish, that is foolishness. How many of people that we know
believe that there is some other way sinners can be saved? That there's some other means
by which God uses to save sinners. You can search this book from
front to back and you will never find one who was not saved without
the preaching of the Word. Either by God directly or by
His prophets or by His men. And today, by those who are called
to preach the gospel. I'll tell you, no other means. It pleased God. It pleased God. Is that all we
need? Is that it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe? Yeah, that's
all we need. And when we preach, we preach
not just in spirit, but in truth. And it's this gospel seed that
saves. Turn over with me to 1 Peter.
1 Peter. Chapter 1. And look at verse
22. It says, seeing you have purified
your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned
love of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart, fervently being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible seed. What's this seed by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. All flesh is grass,
and all the glory of man is as a flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower fadeth away. But the word of the Lord
endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. So how in the world does the
seed of the gospel, the incorruptible seed of the gospel, come to God's
people? Through the means of God's man,
God's preacher. And we hear the preaching of
the gospel. And friends, this this message
is so beautiful in itself. It's not the man. It's the message. It's not the man. It's the word. The word of God is beautiful
and comely to praise God. It's just comely. It's just right
to praise God when you hear this message. The message of his matchless,
unchangeable, immutable grace. The truth that Jesus Christ came
into the world to save sinners. We should praise God because
praise belongs to God. And we should praise God how
God said we should praise Him. You know, we shouldn't make up
our own means of praise. Well, I'm going to do it this
way. No, you're not. God says this is how He'll be
praised. By His gospel. Number two, praise is to come
from our own soul. We say in our souls, praise ye
the Lord, O my soul, because the Lord is worthy of our praise,
and He alone is greatly to be praised. Greatly. Well, how great is God to be
praised? Well, how great is God? How great is He? Well, that's
exactly how He is to be praised. And whatever you think of God's
greatness is infinitely greater. Whatever I think of God's greatness
is infinitely greater than I can possibly understand. His greatness. His greatness is infinite. And so He is greatly to be praised
by our own soul. And He's greatly to be praised
in His Trinity, the Trinity of His persons. God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One God, yet subsistent. Three persons in the blessed
Trinity. And every one have their part. Every one have their part in
our salvation, in our redemption, our calling. Every one of them
have their part of praise. Praise to the Father. His Father
says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. You know, I have not yet fully
understood what everlasting love is. I've not ever seen it. I
know this, I came to love Christ in time. We're creatures of time. But God says, I've loved you
from eternity and I'll love you to eternity. And because I loved you, I chose
you for myself. In love, I chose you not because
you were lovable. Not because you were great. I chose you even while you were
yet a sinner and unworthy of my love. Is that not worthy of praise?
I'll tell you what, you see somebody give a bum $10 on the side of
the street, you say, hey, that's a pretty good fella, he's just
giving his money. How much has God given? How much praise is
he worthy of? Everything you've got and more. God has chosen us by his sovereign
unmerited favor. And praise be to the Son for
whom He lovingly embraced us when the Father chose us. He
lovingly, voluntarily said, I will be their surety. I will redeem
them. They will be brought before You
holy and without blame. Christ said He would do this,
and in great love He has come and done this. To think that the Son of God
robed in His deity would robe Himself in humanity
is unthinkable. No religion in this world ever
thought of such, that God should come and tabernacle among us. And yet our Savior did that.
He endured the just and judgment of God when He had our sins imputed
to His precious body. Friends, I can't fathom the transaction
that took place between God the Son and God the Father on the
cross. I know this, that the righteous
Son of God bore the guilt of our sins. He bore the justice of God for
us. He bore our sins, get this, in
His own body on the tree. And yet He Himself, being the
righteous Son of God, bore our sins. He didn't collapse under
our sins like we would have. We would have suffered ten million
hails, and it would have never been enough. And yet Christ suffered,
upheld by His deity. And He finished the work. He hath put away our sins. I'll tell you what, that's only
as precious as we understand how sinful we are. That's only
precious if we understand what guilt He had to bear for us. And friends, the strength of
sin is the law, Paul says. And the sting of death is sin,
but thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through Christ
Jesus our Lord. Because there is no sin, friends,
praise God, there is no more law. There's no more jurisdiction
of the law. Christ hath made us free from
the law. Let me ask you this. If a man's
righteous, what does the law have to do with him? What does
the law have to do with the righteous man? Nothing. Nothing. He can do nothing but declare
His innocence. And friends, that's exactly what
the law of God does to us. It just declares that we are
innocent of all charges because Christ had put away our sins. And because there is no sin,
there is no condemnation. There is therefore now. When? Now. When? Now. And you can keep going. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, victory. Christ has given us the victory.
Is the Son not worthy of our praise for what He has done for
us? Well, the Holy Spirit is worthy
of our praise that in love He came in our greatest time of
need. When was your greatest time of
need? When did you need God the most? Was it not when we were
convicted of our sins? Was it not when we were bare
before the justice of God? Naked and exposed before the
Holy God? Was it not then that we needed
God the most? Was it not then that the Spirit
of God came? He came. by the truth of the
gospel. He came by the preaching of the
gospel and worked in us, created in us a new nature that He does
not generate in anyone else but His people. Isn't that special? Isn't that love? The God of this world, His love
is cheap. His love is cheap. He loves everybody
and saves nobody. That's not love. Love is God
choosing us, God redeeming us, and God calling us by His grace,
by giving us life, giving us victory. That's love. Love actually works. It actually
does what it promises to do. And therefore, we should praise
the Holy Spirit of God who has given us life. Do you believe
this? Is this precious to your soul? Do you believe on the Son of
God? Have you bowed down for the mercy, seeking mercy from
Christ? Have you received forgiveness
at His hand? Have you heard of His grace that
says to your soul, fear not, nor be not afraid? Have you been redeemed from all
the guilt of your sins? Then we have reason to praise. We have reason to praise. Let us see this and constantly
see our need to praise our God. Now, I have family and friends
that I want to see saved. I hope that God, by His grace,
would save my children. I hope, by God's grace, that
He would save those in my family and those of my friends. But
friends, there's nothing in this world I can do for them to make
them praise God. The only one I should be concerned
with is me. Am I praising God? And not to worry about anyone
else. Not to worry if someone else
is not praising God. Am I? Is my soul praising Him? And I'll tell you this, we can't
be reminded of this enough. We can't be reminded of this
enough because we're like broken cisterns. How often do we hear
the gospel of God's grace and feel, oh, we could reach and
touch heaven, and the moment it's over, it starts leaking
out. And by the end of the day, somebody
come and ask you, hey, what was preached? Well, let me see. Why? It leaks out. It just goes
out faster than it can come in. This is why we need it constantly. This is why we should be there
at every opportunity to hear the gospel, because we need it.
We need it. Paul says, it is not grievous
for me to teach the same things unto you. We should be careful when these
things don't stir our hearts to praise. Because it's not the
message, it's us. Our heart becomes cold. Our heart,
our soul becomes proud. I give you a picture of this.
When kids were watching cartoons, they saw this duck that was shot
and he drank water and it ran out the holes. As fast as he
drank it, it ran out the holes. Can you identify with that? I
do. And I'm the one preaching. I can identify with that. I need
it. I need it constantly so that
I might set it before me and know that God is worthy of my
praise. Praise the Lord, O my soul, for
His mercies endureth forever. Number three, praise the Lord.
We must confess. We must determine to praise God
because God's praise is to be everlasting. Go back to your
text. Praise ye the Lord, praise ye
the Lord, O my soul, while I live will I praise the Lord. I will
sing praises unto my God while I have being. God is infinitely perfect and
worthy of infinite praise. How long are we to praise God?
I'll tell you this, I know my son this morning is asking, how
long are you going to praise God? I sure hope it's not long. But that's OK. Because God is
worthy to be praised for eternity. And you know what? If you don't
like worship now, heaven would be hell for you. Heaven would
be hell. Because in heaven, that's all
we do. That's all we do is praise God.
That's all we do is sing His praises. That's all we do is
love and worship Him forever. His praises should be forever. Well, if His praises should be
forever, doesn't that mean His praises should be continual in
our own life? If His praise exists forever,
then should not His praise in this little life that we have,
this short time that we've been given, Should we not praise Him
with everything we have, with everything we are, with our whole
being? We should praise Him. As long
as I live. I'll tell you this, when God
gives us life, it's from that moment on we begin to praise.
And God's people never cease to praise. They never cease to
praise. In other words, we live what
we believe. It's easy to say what you believe. But the scripture says, I know
whom I have believed, not what. What? That comes and goes. Who? That's forever. I know Jesus
Christ and I praise a person, a man. who loved me and gave
himself for me. And with this fruit, God brings
out the fruit of the Spirit. He said, let your light so shine
among men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
which is in heaven. Our good works have nothing to
do with our salvation, but if you have no good works, you have
no salvation. That's just telling it like God
says. James says, You show me your faith without your works.
I'll show you my faith by my works. Why? For our own glory? No, for the praise of our God. That's what we work for. That's
what we live for. The glory of the father. The greatest example of this
is our Lord Jesus Christ. I read this the other day concerning
the woman at the well. The scripture says he was wearied. It doesn't really ring true. I'm
just saying, wearied? He was tired? How can the Lord
God be tired? Because he never gave in to his
own needs. He only sought the needs of others. He only sought the praise and
glory of God all His life. Do you not think He could have
made those stones bread? Could you not thought that He
could have made the desert a field of water? Why would He ask this
woman for water? He could bring water out of the
sky. He could bring water out of the desert ground. Friends, he did nothing for himself. How do we glorify God? Do nothing
for yourself. Do everything for the glory of
God. As long as I live, is this your confession? As long as I
live, I will praise Him. I will praise Him. And I will
praise Him while I have being. How long are you going to have
being? How long will your being last?
Well, when we die, we're not going to stop being. We will
continue to be, and we will continue to praise the Lord our God. And lastly, we confess this,
that God's praise is not trusting in man, but Christ alone. Look at your text, he says, Put
not your trust in princes, nor in the Son of Man, in whom there
is no hell. His breath goeth forth, and He
returneth to His earth. In that day, in that very day,
His thoughts perish." You know what? I really don't care what
men think. I really don't. Because as soon
as their breath goes from their body, so does their thoughts
from their head. It doesn't really matter the
opinion of men. You see, I never want to give
you my opinion. I just want to tell you what
God says. Because my opinion don't mount
to a hill of beans. Nothing. It's God's word. The scripture said, Let God be
true and every man a liar. Let God be true and every man
a liar. There is no help for our souls
from men. Do not put your trust in any
man. Friends, I don't want you to
put your trust in me because you love me. I don't want you
to take my word for it. Here it is. Praise God. Praise Him, O my soul! He's worthy of our praise. I
point you to the only one you can rest your soul in, and that's
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the only one that gives
my soul joy. It's the only one that gives
my soul peace. You see, if I trust in you for
my peace, you're going to fail me. And if you trust in me for
your joy, I'm going to fail you. But Christ never failed one who
trusts in Him. Never. If we follow other men that have
not the gospel, Praise God, their gospel dies with them. I'm so
thankful for that. But everyone who trusts in the
God of Jacob, he says, happy is he that hath the God of Jacob.
Friends, when Jesus Christ was confronted about the resurrection,
He said, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
How long has Jacob been dead? Thousands of years. And yet He's
still the God of Jacob. And friends, He will forever
be our God. He will never leave us nor forsake
us. The Scripture says, even when
we believe not, He cannot deny Himself. Is that not something? He'll never deny us. He'll never
cast us out. If we come for forgiveness, we'll
receive exactly what we ask for, forgiveness, pardon, mercy, grace. It's those things you need. Ask
of the Father in my name and He'll give it. He'll give it. Whatever is good for you, that's
what God does for you. You know that? Whatever is happening
to you is good for you. Because God has eternally loved
us and gave himself for us. What more do we need that should
stir our hearts to praise him ourselves? I pray that God would
give us grace to do that. Mercy to praise him every day
of our life with everything we have. If the men come forward, we'll
have the Lord's table together this morning.