Psalm chapter 47 verses one and
two. The title of the message tonight
is clap and shout from the inside out. Clap and shout from the inside
out here. Let's read this together in Psalm
47 verse one and two. Oh, clap your hands. All ye people. Shout unto God with a voice of
triumph, for the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great King
over all the earth. In looking at this passage of
Scripture, I had read many accounts, many commentaries about this,
and some believe that this This psalm was written when David
came bearing the Ark of God back to Judah. He was taking the Ark
from Obed-Edom and as they were coming with the Ark of God, they
were singing and clapping and rejoicing. It was a great celebration. It was a great celebration. The
streets were lined with people and they were celebrating. The
ark of God had returned. The glory of God had returned. This is a great procession. And
so I believe that this passage of Scripture is best suited for
this account. Now, when David had brought this
ark back, he had brought this ark back with celebration, Because
the glory of the Lord had returned. The glory of the Lord was restored.
Now, before this, the Ark of the Covenant was lost. Go ahead and turn with me to
1 Samuel chapter 4. 1 Samuel chapter 4. And begin our reading in verse
19. Now, this is after the Ark of
the Lord was taken. They went up to battle with the
Philistines, and they brought the Ark out, and they shouted
and rejoiced, and the Ark and the Israel were defeated. And
this is the daughter of Phinehas, which was the high priest. And
her father-in-law was Eli, the prophet of God. And it says this,
and his daughter-in-law, Eli, Phinehas' wife, was with child
near to be delivered. And when she heard the tidings
that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and
her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed, and for
her pain came upon her, and about the time of her death, The woman
that stood by said unto her, Fear not, for thou hast born
a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it. And
she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory of the Lord
is departed from Israel, because the ark of God was taken. And because her father-in-law
and her husband And she said, the glory is departed from Israel,
for the ark of God is taken. You see, the ark of God was a
picture. It was a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was a type of God's glory. It was the place where God descended
and His presence was known. This was the only place that
God would meet with Israel. You see, in the Ark of the Covenant
was a picture of God's glory. God's glory of salvation in Jesus
Christ. Where is God's glory found? Where
is God's glory to be seen? The Scripture says, And God commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, giving
us the knowledge of the glory of God. Where? in the face of
Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus Christ is the
manifestation of God's glory. How it is that God can be just
and justify the ungodly. The ark was a symbol, a picture
of this. A type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when that ark was gone, they
knew this, there was no place to meet with God. There was no
place to meet with God. There was no great day of atonement because there was no ark. The
glory of the Lord had departed from Israel. Why did it depart? Because of
sin. Go back to verse 4, verse 3 of this chapter, chapter 4. And when the people were coming
to the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord
smitten us today before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant
of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that when it cometh among
us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemy. See, they
got whooped. They had come out and they had fought against the
Philistines and they were sinning. They were in wickedness and they
fought against the Philistines. They go, Oh, why did God leave
us? Why did God leave us? I'll tell
you what, let's get the ark down here. We'll get the ark down
here and then God will save us. Look what happened. Verse 4,
So the people sent to Shiloh that they might bring from thence
the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth
between the cherubims. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni
and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
Notice what they did when that ark came. And when the ark of
the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel with a great shout, so that the
earth rang." Man, that must have been a great shout. They must
have shouted with all their hearts. They must have shouted with great
joy. The ark was here. Everything
is going to be alright. They sang and they rejoiced because
the ark was near. And I'll tell you what, it made
the Philistines anxious, made them scared. They were afraid.
They had never heard anybody shout so much and give so much
singing and glory. They had never heard anything
like that before. They said, surely, surely the
gods are against us. But what happened? Israel was
defeated. Wait, they had the ark. They
shouted. They praised God. Why were they
defeated? The people rejoiced to see the
ark, but if you'll notice that their shoutings and rejoicings
ended in death. In death. Man by nature rejoices
in religious exercise, doesn't he? The natural man can clap
his hands and sing beautiful songs. Men may get excited to
think God's with them. Don't you see some of the places
that they just get all riled up and they're jumping feuds.
They're so excited. They're running around and screaming
and falling out on the floor and they think, Oh, God is with
us. Oh, we're having such a great
revival. We're singing and praising God. God is with us. Let's just raise
our hands and wave them in the air. God is with us. The flesh is always pleased by
its senses. Sights and sounds and music always
appeal to the flesh. Always. The flesh may be pleased by the
sights and sounds of religion. And I'll tell you what, they
can sing so loud and do so much good that even the wicked tremble. The Pope runs down in his robes,
and even the wicked people say, oh, look at that holy man. Look
at all his beautiful things that he has unto God. Now, that's
a holy man, I'll tell you. See, even the wicked might be fooled. But now, instead of an ark of
the covenant, men have golden crosses, nice robes, beautiful
music, smells of incense. You see, men have all of these
things to excite the flesh. They have entertainment. They
have... I saw one church had a motorcycle
jump. Wow! What excitement! What excitement! It appeals to the natural man. Appeals the five senses. Instead of the ark, they have
paintings and entertainment and exercises of the flesh. But all
who clap their hands on the outside, it does not and will not save
them from their enemies. You can clap and you can rejoice
and you can have all the music and all of the beauty of religion.
You can have the beautiful buildings, the beautiful robes. You can
excite the masses. But that has no bearing on your
salvation. That has no effect with God. It cannot save. This outward show of religion
and rejoicing cannot save from the justice of God in eternal
damnation. It cannot. Israel was defeated and the presence
of the Lord was lost. Why? They had the ark, they had
the singing, what were they missing? Blood. There was no blood for
the atonement. It does not matter how you feel. It doesn't matter how excited
you may be. If you don't have the blood,
you're not worshiping God. You cannot serve God without
the blood. And so in every religion that
preaches salvation without blood, without the blood of Christ,
there is no cause to rejoice. They rejoice, but there's no
cause. Israel rejoiced, but was there
really a reason to rejoice? They got slaughtered just as
well without the ark as they had with the ark. because they
had no blood. They brought the offering of
Cain, a bloodless offering. You cannot worship God without
an offering, without blood. Scripture says without the shedding
of blood there is no remission of sins. People can bring their works
and religion and beauty and music and all those things, but without
Christ, it's no avail. Without the blood of Christ,
there is no victory. There's no reason to shout. All
such rejoicing is vain, and all such shouting and singing, no
matter how it appeals to the flesh, is evil. Do you mean those people out
there that are singing about Jesus? They're doing evil. If they have not the blood of
Christ, it's evil. If they have no sacrifice for
sins, it's evil. It's empty. Their worship, and I'll tell
you, it's beautiful, isn't it? Some of the things that they
have. Their music is beautiful. Now, there's nothing wrong with
beautiful music. I love it. But beautiful music without the
blood is of no avail. is of no avail. All who worship
God in spirit and in truth, we have great cause to rejoice tonight. If you worship God in spirit
and in truth, you have a great cause to clap your hands and
shout for joy. Why? We have blood. We have blood! We have an offering. An offering. The offering of
Christ. You see, true rejoicing doesn't
begin with the flesh, does it? It begins in the heart. You see,
this is where the blood is applied. It's applied to the heart. And
it's from the inside out that rejoicing comes. Not from the
outside in. Not from the outside in. You
see, you can feel religious without being religious. You can feel
religion without actually having true religion. You see, there's something must
be done in the heart of man before he can really rejoice. There
must be something done in the heart. Now, let's look at the
example of David. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 6. Second
Samuel chapter six. Now all this time, the ark had
been gone, but now that, uh, Saul is, is off the throne and
David is placed on the throne. So, uh, second Samuel chapter
six and begin our reading in verse 12. The scripture says, and it was
told the king saying the Lord had blessed the house of Obed-Edom
and all that pertaineth unto him because the ark of God. So
David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of
Obed-Edom and the house in the city of David with gladness.
And it was so that when they bear the ark of the Lord had
gone six paces, he sacrificed an oxen and a fat. You see the
difference here? Between having the ark before
it was gone, and now that David had brought it back, what was
here that wasn't there? Blood. They went just a few yards, and
every few yards they went, they sacrificed an offering. They sacrificed. This, in my
margin, it has 27 feet. Every 27 feet they stopped and
sacrificed an offering. Blood. They had blood. They had blood, therefore they
had rejoicing. Look at that next. And David
danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was girded
with an linted effort. And so David and all the house
of Israel brought the ark of the Lord with shouting and with
the sound of the trumpet. You see, the glory of God was
restored to Israel. And because of the blood, they
were able to rejoice. and see in type, in shadow, the
Lord Jesus Christ. They can see how it was that
God accepted them. How God was just and justified
the ungodly. They saw it in that picture.
And they danced. They rejoiced and they shouted
and sang all the way to Judah, to the city of David. Now, when
David tried to bring this ark back the first time, you can
read this later, but in the first part of this, he tried to bring
that ark back his own way, didn't he? And you remember that he
put it on a new card, and they had celebrated, and Uzzah put
his hand out to steady the ark, and Uzzah died because he made
a breach on the ark. He touched it, and there was
no blood. There was no offering. And David was troubled, but now
then David read the Word. He knew that God would bless
Obed-Edom. He'll bless Israel. And so he
brought the ark back with blood. True rejoicing, therefore, comes
from the heart of one who has had the blood of Christ applied
to them. True rejoicing comes from the
inside of a man. True rejoicing comes from the
heart where Christ sits on the throne. True rejoicing. And all who believe on the Son
of God, all who believe on the Son of God, for all their salvation
have a great cause to shout. You have a great cause to rejoice.
You have a great cause to sing. When? Every day. Every minute.
Every second. Of every day you have, no matter
what happens, you have great cause to rejoice and sing. You don't have to wait for the
outward senses to be tingled. You can rejoice anywhere you
are. Because we have the blood of
Christ. We have the blood of Christ. The glory of God is restored
by our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I've got five things. I want to go through them quickly.
Five things that we as believers can rejoice in. Five things that
we can rejoice concerning our salvation. First of all, believer
rejoice in the triumph of God's election. You can rejoice in
the triumph of God's election. When David was coming back with
that ark, you know that they had defeated all their enemies. They had defeated all their enemies.
They were at peace when they brought that ark back. And they
were rejoicing because God had given them the victory. God had
given them the triumph over their enemies. Oh, clap your hands,
all ye people, and shout unto God with a voice of triumph. God's election has triumph. God
from all eternity, our Father, in sovereign, eternal, immutable
grace, chose us for Himself. Chose us to redeem us, to save
us, to keep us, to bring us to Himself. He had purposed this. He had purposed to do it. He
willed to do it. He willed. He purposed to give us to Christ
as our surety. He purposed that Christ's offering
would be successful. In 2 Samuel 7, David is given
a promise concerning Solomon, even before Solomon was born.
He said, I'll put your son on the throne and I'll establish
your throne forever. Now, he was talking about Solomon,
but he was mostly talking about Christ. the son of David. God had purposed that His throne
be forever, that He be successful. Believer, this should cause us
great joy and humility before God that He would choose us. David says, who am I? And what is my house? that you
have brought me hither to. Why did God choose you and pass
by others? Who am I? God did it because
he would do it. And there's no other reason.
We can rejoice in whatever God purpose is to do. It will be
done. It will be done. We can rejoice
because God's election is sure. God chose us not because of who
we are. Not because of what we could
do or would do for Him. But only by grace and love He
purposed our victory. He purposed our victory. Our triumph. There's never any rejoicing in
our works, is there? There's no victory there. Don't
look for it. You won't find it. You won't
find any comfort there. You'll find only comfort in this.
Salvation is of the Lord and it's from eternity. Second of
all, rejoice because Jesus has already accomplished our victory. He's accomplished it. He's finished
it. The work is done. We were as Israel without the
glory of the Lord. Born dead in sins, whereas by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death
passed upon all men, for all have sinned. We were all born
in sin, and every one of us was dead in sins, and God dealt with
us as He does all men in Adam. We were born dead. born spiritually dead. And if God purposed to save us,
He must also provide for us a Savior. And therefore, He sent Jesus
Christ, His Son, to triumph over our sins, to triumph over our
death, and to give us life. Jesus Christ came in to provide
righteousness that we could not provide for ourselves, and we
still could not provide for ourselves. Only Christ could provide the
righteousness we needed, and He did. He did. He provided all
the righteousness of God for us. Rejoice. Why is it that you
have any cause to not rejoice? If you have the righteousness
of God, what else do you need? Isn't that what God requires
of you? Is that not what God provided for you? Is that not
what Christ accomplished for you? Rejoice. Rejoice. Be glad. Rejoice, because Christ has satisfied
the law of God for us. The justice of God was against
us. The ordinance of God was against
us. But now, Christ has accomplished
our redemption. He has satisfied God's justice. There is no more justice against
us. There is no more condemnation
for us. Only acceptance. Only rejoicing left. There's
no need for fretting or fear or worry or concern. God, through
Christ, has provided a blood atonement. He has given us victory over
all principalities and powers. I like this picture when Joshua
was Joshua led Israel, they brought those kings down there, and they
laid them down on the ground, and Joshua put his foot on the
neck of that king to show that he had triumphed over that king.
And you know what he did then? He let all the other people put
their foot on the neck of that king. That's what Christ has
done. He's put His foot on the neck
of our sins. He's put His foot on the neck
of Satan! And you know what He's done?
He's allowed us to put our foot on it. We have triumphed in Him. When He died, we died. When He
rose again, we rose in Him. And He sits on the throne and
we sit on the throne in Him. We should rejoice. He has triumphed
and we have triumphed in Him. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. And God cannot demand twice payment. Isn't that great? God's not going
to demand my sin of me because He's already demanded it of Christ
and He paid it. He paid for all our sin. All
our sin. All our sin. He has redeemed us by His blood.
Believer, rejoice because God has called you. I'll tell you what, all that's
academic until this point. All that's just academic until
God does this. He's called us to life. Not only has he purposed and
accomplished our life for us, he's given it to us. Jesus said, Father, glorify thy
son. that thy son may glorify thee
and give eternal life to as many as you've given him. And he gives it. He gives it. Praise God, he has given us life. I'm so thankful that I can rejoice
in this message. I'm so thankful I can enter into
it. I'm so thankful it makes my heart glad. I don't need anything
else. I don't need all of the other
things to make me happy. I need this. I need Him. He causes us to rejoice. That's life. That's faith in
Christ, is to rejoice. We were brought from the dead
to life. And He has set us free. We who are blind, we now see. People around us say, what are
you looking at? Man, if you could see it. If
God just give you sight to see it. Oh, you're just being arrogant. No, no. God gave it. God gave it. And we praise God for it. Number
four, rejoice, because our God reigns. Our God reigns. Look at your text again. Oh,
clap your hands. All you people. Shout unto God
with the voice of triumph. That's the voice of our salvation. For the Lord God, for the Lord
Most High is terrible. He is a great king over all the
earth. Our God reigns. Because we have all of this joy
in our heart does not mean that we will have joy all around us. That's not what it's saying.
You can have a tear in your eye and have peace in your heart. You can be plagued with sorrow
and sickness, but you can also have joy in your heart. We are surrounded by reasons
to despair, aren't we? We always find that the joys
of this flesh don't last very long. I appreciate them. I know I do. When I see my children,
I'm rejoicing. I have wonderful times with them
and I have wonderful times with you. But these things are fleeting,
aren't they? They pass. We're rejoicing now
and being together, but we'll separate and we'll go our separate
ways. And that little joy will go away
for a while until we come back. We may be cumbered down with
great sorrow and fears, but rejoicing this, our God reigneth. And whatever it is you have,
He gives it. Whatever you have now is what
you need. You don't need anything else.
Otherwise, you'd have it. God does always everything for
your good, because it's tied to His glory. Whatever's for
your good is for His glory, and whatever's for His glory is for
your good. And our God will accomplish it.
He reigneth. He reigneth. The Lord Most High is terrible. That doesn't sound good, does
it? Which should sound good to us.
It may not sound good and it should not sound good to those
people who are outside of Christ. Because the same sword that is
terrible to them protects us. The same sword. The same sword. God protects us and keeps us. Because he is the most high.
I like this. None can resist the power or
stand before his vengeance. Yet as these terrors are wielded
on the behalf of his subjects, they are fit reasons for rejoicing. They're fit reasons for rejoicing.
Lastly, rejoice, believer, because our God is a great king. Our
God is a good king. Our form of government is probably
the best that men can do. But it's still not really that
good, is it? You know, the best form of government
is a benevolent monarch. That's the best form of government.
And that's the government Christ has established. He's not only
a monarch. Now, a monarch is not the best.
But a loving monarch. One that can intercede for us.
One that can protect us. One that can provide for us.
And one that is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Let me ask you this. Do you believe
the president or any president has been in touch with our infirmities? I know they have their own problems,
but their problems, I'm sure, are a different set of problems
than we have. You see, but Jesus Christ became
one of us. Not only one of us, He became
the lowest among us. Is that not something? Jesus
said, He that is least in the kingdom of heaven shall be the
greatest. He was talking about Himself. He was made the least
among us. And He suffered the most. Whatever suffering you have,
our Lord has experienced a hundredfold more. He knows. He knows your hurts. He's a great King. Rejoice. Your King loves you. He will protect you. He has provided
for you righteousness and an offering that you could not provide
for yourselves. That should give us cause to
rejoice no matter what happens in this life. I pray that God
would give us hearts of rejoicing, not hearts of murmuring, complaining. I know we have enough of that, but focus on Christ and you'll
find great cause to rejoice. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.