If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me again to Psalm 100. Psalm 100. We'll be looking mainly at verse
1, but we shall go through this psalm. We will be mentioning
several verses in this psalm, but mainly, I couldn't get past
verse 1. I couldn't get past it, so we're
just going to stick with that one. The title of my message
this morning, A Command to Shout, to serve and to come. A command to shout, to serve
and to come. Let's read our text there in
verses 1 and 2. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before His presence with singing. Here we have in this
text a command. This is not an invitation. God
does not beg people. God commands. God has issued
a command. Make a joyful noise, serve me
with gladness, and come before my presence with singing. That's
a command of God. God commands these things of
everyone. He says, all ye lands, all people
everywhere, hear your God. He says, make a joyful noise
to me. Serve me with gladness. Come into my presence was singing
I was singing Even today it has been from old from the beginning
God has called men to declare his commands to all men everywhere
worship the Lord serve the Lord and come to the Lord and But
as we know, men that declare the commands of God to all men,
we know that there are men that will not come. There are men
that will not serve and there are men that will not shout for
joy to God. We know these things. They will
not do these things. Yes, but praise God, there are
some that God has called that will shout. for joy, that will
serve Him with gladness, and that will come gladly singing
into His presence. Praise God that there are some,
but we know that others will not come. Some may ask, well,
Pastor, if God is sovereign, and God has made a command, if
God declares all men to do these things, then why do men not follow the
commands of God? If God's sovereign, God commands,
why don't men do it? That's a legitimate question.
I don't doubt the legitimacy of that question. It is important.
Why will not men come? Why will they resist His will? Because there, my friend, is
a great difference between a command and a decree. What you're talking
about is a decree. When God decrees something, it
always comes to pass. But when God commands something,
it doesn't always have to come to pass. You see, when Adam sinned,
when our father in that garden sinned against God, you see,
Adam lost something. He lost the ability to obey God. But when Adam lost the ability
to obey God, did God lose His right to command? No. God did not lose His right to
command. Just because you cannot obey
God, does not mean God has lost His right to demand of every
one of us to do these things. He demands it of everyone. He
demands it of everyone. But when God decrees something,
it's altogether different. When God has purpose to do something,
there is nothing that can stand in His way. A decree is a commandment
that is accompanied with power. That's what a decree is. A command
is something God has a right to do and does as it is His priority,
His prerogative to do. But God doesn't always accompany
that command with power, does He? No, He doesn't. You see,
God commands, the Scripture says, every man to repent and believe
the Gospel. Doesn't He command that? God
commandeth everyone everywhere to repent. That means you. That
means me. Yet, not all men do it. The command is, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ alone and He will save you. He commands this
of all nations, make a joyful noise. Serve me with gladness. and come before my presence with
seeing." Those are commands. But my friends, you will not
nor cannot do these things unless God decrees. Unless God accompanies
that command to you personally with power. To all those that
God will give grace unto, they will hear this command and obey
it. They will. And they will obey it gladly. Gladly will they obey the commands
of God. Now, to all that believe on Jesus
Christ, to all that have been given life and faith in Christ
alone, will most gladly, humbly, and graciously, and gloriously,
first of all, shout unto the Lord. We will do this with all
of our hearts, and you won't have to drag me to do it. You
won't have to grab me by the head of the hair and drag me,
kicking and screaming, to shout before the Lord. No, I long to
do it. I long to do it. God's people
long to do this. They long to shout unto the Lord. Now, what is it to shout unto
the Lord? Is it just to yell or what? No, it has reference
to a king. Imagine a king. And He has just
come into the city. And He has by a mighty hand delivered
that city in a great battle. He has come back with blood on
His sword. And He has won the victory. And
the people are free! They're free! And the King comes
riding in on His horse. And what does the people do?
They shout! They shout! Hooray! The victory is won! They shout
for joy. They shout for joy. The King
has come and He is victorious in battle. Now I'll tell you,
there are many kings of this earth that people wouldn't give
two cents to go in here to see. There were kings and there were
Caesars in Rome where they actually, listen to this, they had to throw
bread into the crowds to get people to yell for them. They
were so hated that they had to give out bread to the starving
so that they would scream for joy. And they weren't screaming
for the Caesar, they were screaming for the bread, but it gave the
appearance. You know, Herod, the one that went after Jesus
when he was a baby and killed all those little kids, he had
decreed this, that when he died, he would kill children so that
women would weep at his funeral. Because there was no one that
would weep for Herod. He was a mean, wretched man.
Everyone hated him. And he had to kill somebody to
get somebody to weep. You see, they would have shouted
for joy at his death. They would have shouted for joy.
You see, kings of this earth, they're not good. But we know
that the Lord Jesus Christ, our King, we know Him to be a great
King. We know Him to accomplish and
won the battle. Gladly shout for joy because
this King reigneth. Jesus Christ, He is on the throne
of God and He is reigning over all men right now. Talking about
some perilous things that are happening in our country. I don't
say anything against them because God has placed them there. Christ
is ruling over them and He'll do whatever He pleases with them.
Praise God for Him. Why? Because He is a righteous
King. You see, a King that's not righteous,
people would hate it. There's no love for a King who's
not righteous. Oh, but there's nothing greater
for a nation than a righteous King. Nothing. Nothing greater. And nothing causes the heart
of the people to shout for joy than to have a righteous ruler. And guess what we have? We have
a righteous king and he does all things well. Nothing he does
is wrong. Nothing. Nothing. He rules over
everything. King Jesus loves righteousness,
and there is none so righteous as our King. He is holy, He is
just, and therefore, as a King, all He has promised, He shall
fulfill. Talk about promises. This King
has made many promises. And you see, He loves righteousness,
which means He doesn't lie. You ever had somebody lie to
you? Somebody you thought was going to be there for you? Somebody
that promised and said, I'll be there for you! I'll always
be there for you! And the next minute you turn
around, they're gone. You see, they don't love righteousness.
They're a liar. But you know what? This man never
lies. And when he says, I will be with
you, he will be with you. They will never leave you nor
forsake you. Does that not cause your heart
to shout? It does if you know him. He is promised and all that
He has done is not by sleight of hand or in some dark corner
in a back room somewhere. He did everything openly and
righteously. He righteously, my friend, listen
to this believers, He righteously, God righteously imputed our sins
to Christ. Righteously. He bore our sins
in His own body on the tree righteously. And He bore them away so then
that God could be just and justify us righteously. Righteously. Not by the sleight of hand. He
didn't do it by sleight of hand. He did it right. You see, if
He swept our sins under the rug, they could always come back on
us. But because He did it righteously, they can never come back on us. God cannot demand twice payment
for our sins. Shout! He cannot expect the Savior
to pay for the sin and then demand of you. Shout! He has accomplished and won the
battle. He has won the battle righteously. And in this, He is worthy of
our shouts. God illustrates this by the year
of Jubilee. I want you to turn to Leviticus
chapter 25. Look over Leviticus chapter 25. You get a chance
to read this whole idea of the year of Jubilee, you'll be richly
blessed if you'll see it in the light of Christ. Leviticus chapter
25, let's just look at verses 9 and 10. God illustrating the
shout in the year of Jubilee, it says this, Then, in the 49th
year, then, Shalt thou cause the trumpet
of jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in
the day of atonement, shall you make the trumpet sound throughout
all your land." And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and
proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants
thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you. And you shall return every man
unto his possession. And you shall return every man
unto his family." The year of jubilee. This was in the 49th
year. Every 49 years. God had decreed this, declared
this to happen. He said in the 49th year, after
a specific day, what day was that? The Day of Atonement. After
the sins had been put away, He had said, make a shout, put a
trumpet throughout all the land, for the year of Jubilee has come. Now what is the year of Jubilee?
What is so special about this 50th year? Well, say you were
a person at that time in Jerusalem. You come on hard times. Your
possession, your family inheritance, the land that you were given
is now gone. You had to sell it just to eat.
And then times got so bad that that money ran out and you had
to sell your to be a slave to someone else.
I know slavery is a far distant thing from what we experience
today, but really, in this day, a person that did not eat, he
would sell himself to another man so that his family could
eat. And he would be a slave to that man. And he would serve
that man. And he would serve that man for
a specific time. A specific time. The 49th year. Imagine you were sold into slavery,
lost everything you had, and all of a sudden you heard this
trumpet. You heard a trumpet sound, and
it was a loud noise. And someone yelled, it's the
year of Jubilee! would you no doubt, no doubt,
you would shout for joy. The year of Jubilee had come.
Why? Because at the year of Jubilee,
every man that lost their property got it back. Every man that was
sold into slavery was returned to his family. You see, it was
a day of gladness, a day of joy, the Jubilee. And they made a
shout. They made a shout. Believer,
was not this our plight? Were we not sold into sin and
enslaved to it? Were we not once haters of the
things of God? Have no interest in the things
of God? And now God has sent forth His command and His decree
followed it. His power came with it and we
live. We believe and we love Him and
we are set free by Christ. And what are we going to do?
Mope? A frown and a believer should
be opposite of each other. Really. A frowning face. People want to look around and
say, well, I'm holy. Look at me. I've got a sour face.
What is that? Shout! It's the year of Jubilee. Your Father has commanded it.
Shout unto me. Shout unto me with joy. This
is our case. It says, our inheritance were
lost by Adam and now it has been restored. How? By the blood of
Jesus Christ. You that are sinners, believe
on Christ and He shall restore your inheritance. This is the
50th year. This is the year of grace. And
I am shouting, I'm sounding the trumpet. All who hear, go to
Christ. And there's freedom, there's
joy, there's peace only in Christ, only in Christ. Notice that it
was the day of atonement, after the day of atonement, not before,
but only after the day of atonement, only after the blood was shed.
Is there any shouting to be done? You see, if you don't know Christ,
God commands you to shout, but you've got nothing to shout about. because you are enslaved in your
sins. But to all those that are enslaved,
I declare to you, Jesus Christ is the year of jubilee. He is
the one that set the captives free. Do you need to be set free? Turn to Christ. Turn to Christ. Look to Christ. That's what I
do. I constantly look to Christ as my reason for joy. The world will give you no reason
for joy. The things of this life will
give you nothing but pain and hurt. Don't look to Him. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. In Him, there's fullness of joy. Fullness of joy. This is the acceptable time.
Today is the day of grace. Boast not thyself of tomorrow.
Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." I'm sure those
people in Haiti thought they had a lot of plans, didn't they?
Didn't they have a lot of plans? I'm sure they had a lot of dreams.
I'm sure they had a lot of hopes. And then one day, God came in
an earthquake and took them all. 100,000 people plus dead. And they all thought they had
tomorrow. My friends, turn to Christ now. And for Christ has recovered
our inheritance, make a joyful noise. Second of all, serve the
Lord with gladness. We who believe on Christ, who
see He is our Jubilee, that His precious blood atoned for our
sins, service to Him. is not grievous. To serve Christ, to be the bondslave
of Christ, is altogether wonderful. Is there anything greater that
you could possibly ask for in this life than to serve Him?
Oh no. To us it is not grievous." 1
John 5, chapter 3 says, this is the love of God, that we keep
His commandments. Now, let me make this clear.
He's not talking about the Ten Commandments. It brings no joy,
loving the Ten Commandments. There's nothing there. Nothing
there but sin. What is He talking about? The
commandment of love. That's what He's talking about.
A new commandment Jesus said, I give you that you love one
another as I have loved you. Love the Father. Love Christ. In that, you see that the service
is not grievous. That's what he says. His commands
are not grievous to us. These commands are not grievous
to believers. Now, these used to be grievous.
Did it? It used to be grievous to us
to follow the commands of Christ. This is why men who have a profession
of faith, and there are some who have a profession of faith,
and you know what? I can't tell who they are. I
don't know. You know, I'm not one to tell who's who. I just
know this. There are men who have a profession
of faith, have a lot of leaves, but no fruit. And what this will
happen is, the worship of God is a struggle for them. It's
a struggle. This is why men who have a profession
of faith and do not possess Christ struggle to worship and serve
Him. I see men that grit their teeth
and bear through the worship service. Oh, they get all of
them. They muster up all their strength
to get up out of bed and they pump themselves up trying to
get them to go to church and then they get in their car and
they're pumping themselves up all the way and they get there
and they just get there and grit their teeth. Can't wait to get
through this because this is really hard. It's just tough
to sit here and to listen to this stuff. I know I got to do
it. I know it's a duty. So I got
to do it. They're gritting their teeth
through the church service and struggle in their seats, and
the message of grace is being preached all the while. They
struggle and try to get through like they're in the dentist's
chair. Nobody likes a dentist. Poor dentists, you know, they
get a bad rap. Because they hurt! You know,
it's painful to sit there in a dentist chair, and some people,
it's just like church, it's painful! It's a struggle! Oh man, I can't
wait till this stuff... I know I've got to have that
tooth removed, but, you know, I'm really not looking forward
to it. You know, I look forward to being here with you every
Sunday and Wednesday. You know, I have commands in
the Scripture that tell me as a pastor, woe is me if I preach
not the gospel. I know that. If a man has put
his hand to the plow and turn his back, he has no part with
me. I know that. But see, those commands are not
grievous. Why? Because I want to be here. I
want to serve Him and love Him and worship Him. That's not grievous
to me to say that. It's not grievous. I long to
be here. I love my wife. I do. I love her so much. Do you know what? The Scripture
commands me that I should love my wife. You know, is that grievous
to me? Do you have to put a set of rules
and regulations on my wall at the house saying, love your wife,
put her on a pedestal? You don't have to do all that
to me. Why? Because I love her. And you don't
have to tell me to come to church. I love to be here. You don't
have to tell me to read the Word of God. I love the Word of God.
I love Him. Love Him. Service is not grievous. It's not grievous. It's good. It's right. Is not Christ good to us? Has He not been gracious enough
to us that we would have to grit to serve Him? He's been very gracious to me.
Then let us serve Him with gladness, no matter the outward circumstances. Believers, I know service is
hard in the sense of everything goes against you. Everything's
going to go against you. The world hates you. Satan would
love nothing more than to ruin your testimony. And so he'll
use anything he can. He'll use family, he'll use friends,
he'll use anything. But that should not change the
disposition of our hearts in longing to serve. That should
not change anything. Inside, we should serve Him with
gladness. And serve Him in any way we can. illustrate this. Don Fortner
said this story one time. He was walking in the church
building and he noticed some ladies planting flowers in the
front. And he was noticing how beautiful the flowers were and
he walked by and he said, ladies, thank you for planting those.
That's just really beautiful. It just adds to the church. And
they said, well, Brother Don, we can't preach, but we can plant
flowers. And the same day, one of his
men was out mowing that big pasture. I don't know if you've seen that
pasture. They have a huge property. And he mowed that pasture for
him every week. And he got down and he looked out across the
pasture and that man come up and he said, Man, that is a great
job mowing. I appreciate that. And he said,
Brother Don, I can't preach, but I can mow the grass. whatsoever
thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might unto the Lord."
Whatever you find to do, do it and serve it with gladness. Whatever you can find to do for
each other, or whatever you can find to do for God's preacher,
or whatever you can find to do for God's house, do it with all
your heart. as service unto the Lord. It's
not grievous to these things, is it? It's not grievous to serve
Him. To serve the Lord is to do whatever
we can and whatever we have within our own hands to do. My friend, if our service is
to be done, let it be done in whatsoever our hearts find to
do unto the Lord. If you do something for each
other, don't have the motive of doing it for them, but do
it unto the Lord. If you give, give unto the Lord. If you work here, work here unto
the Lord. If you do something for me, do
it not for me, but for the Lord. Serve Him. Is He not worthy of
our service? Yes. He's worthy of much more
than I could ever provide for Him, that I could ever do for
Him, or that I could ever give Him. I know because of our sin there
are many obstacles to these services and worship. Yet let us who have
been set free, let us who have been given life, Serve Christ
freely. Freely. As freely as He gave
His life for us, so should we freely serve Him without any
grudging. Serve the Lord. That's His command.
That's His command. Number three, come. Come before
His presence with singing. Now believer, there was a time
that we could not nor would not come to God. But when God opened our eyes,
we asked the same question that David asked. David asked the question, who
shall ascend into your holy hill? Lord, if Thou markest iniquity,
who should stand?" I remember asking that question. I remember
seeing my sin and my guilt before God. And I asked, Lord, who in
the world could stand before such a holy God? And yet You
command me to come? You command me, with all my sin,
to come? How can I come and stand before
You? in your presence, much less singing,
much less singing. Yet we say we see that Christ
is the one who has clean hands and a pure heart. That's what
David's answer was. Who shall sin in the Holy Hill?
He that has clean hands and a pure heart. Who has clean hands? Anybody? Anybody have a pure heart? Only He did. And He ascended
into God's presence with His own blood. We could not. But yet He pleased God. And yet
we that believe Him are united to Him as a husband and a bride
are united and become one flesh, God says. So we too in Christ
as our husband and we are His bride. You know what? If I'm
accepted into any place, my wife is going to be accepted as well.
Otherwise, I don't want any part of it. You see, she is part of
me. And where I'm accepted, she's
accepted. Where Christ is accepted, so
is His bride. So is His bride. And Paul does
one better than that. He said, Christ is the head of
the body, the church. Now, I'll tell you what, wherever
my head is accepted, my body better be accepted. I mean, isn't
that foolish? Well, Bob, your head is accepted
over here, but your body has to stay over there. That's kind of foolish. So it
is with us. Christ is our head and wherever
He is, we are. Wherever my head goes, there's
my body following along. Wherever Christ is, there's His
church right with Him. We are accepted. Therefore, God
says to us who believe, come. Come into My very presence. Come into My very presence. We are accepted in the Beloved. God, by His Son, has purged us
from our sins. He bore them away and has taken
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us away by nailing
it to His cross. And they're gone. Everything,
every objection that we can come up with is gone. Every objection
that anybody else can come up with is gone. Who is He that
condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather He's risen again. And nobody condemned you. Nobody. Therefore, God says, if nobody
condemneth thee, like that woman exposed and He forgave her, Christ
said, where are those thine accusers? They were gone, and so are yours. Come. God says, come. God says, come to His believers.
So we as believers are commanded to come into His presence. Verse
4 of our text says, enter His gates with thanksgiving and His
courts with praise. Oh, the blessing that we are
able to come into the Holy of Holies. Think about that temple. On the outer edge was a court,
and that was a court of the Gentiles. That's where we belong, on the
outer side. We belong on the outer court. There was an inner court that
the Jews could go into, and they were a little bit closer. But
you see, they were not permitted into that first chamber of the
room called the Holy Place. Nobody was admitted but the priests. And only a small number of priests
were allowed in there. And then there was another room.
This was called the Holy of Holies. This is where God sat. This is
where God's presence was. And there was this big curtain
in front of that room and nobody could go in there but one man.
And he could only go in there one time with the blood. That's
it. But you see, when our Savior
Jesus Christ died, what He did by His death is He cut that curtain
in half And He'd take it out of the way. And the presence
of God is now accessible to you. I'm not talking about the outer
court. I'm not talking even about the Jews. I'm not talking even
about the holy place and the ordinances. I'm talking about
the very presence of God is accessible to you right now. You don't have to wait. God says come. Can you come? If you can, He
has decreed and given you power to come into His presence. How? By the blood of Christ.
Only by the blood of Christ can one come. And because of His
blood, we have full assurance that He hears our prayers. When
you pray, He hears you. There's not a line with God. You know, if you wanted to talk
to me, I imagine you'd have to form a line. Because I can only
hear one person at a time. God is not such one that is limited. He hears all of His people all
the time. And when you pray, you are ushered
into the very presence of God. And my friends, the very presence
of God to those who are outside of Christ is a very scary thing. I do not wish to be in that group. That is a scary thing. Moses,
who knew God and heard God personally, said that his knees began to
shake when he was in the presence of God. My friend, when you ever
see the holiness of God in His presence, you'll know it. You
won't have to guess. But God says to His people, you
come without fear. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Come at a moment's instance. Come by the blood. But come with
singing. Come with singing. For our Savior
has accomplished all our needs. He is all our joy. Is there anyone
that has any trouble? Is there trouble anywhere? Have
you trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? If you have those, my friends, God
says, come to Me. Take all of your cares and lay
them down at the feet of God. And my friends, you will go away
always singing. Why? Cast all your cares on Him,
for He careth for you. There's another ETH word. What
does that mean? Present perfect tense. He cared,
He is caring, and He shall care for you. He's always caring for
you. He is our refuge, our rock, and
our fortress. He is our God. And my friends,
how foolish is it for us to bear our own burdens when God says,
come? God, all strength. Us, no strength. It's kind of a no-brainer. Give
it to the One with all strength. Give it to Him. Why? He cares for you. He undertakes
every cause that you have as His own. Many times we like to go to other
people, go to ourselves before we go to God, and that's just
foolish. Go to God first. Skip the others and go to God
first. Why? He commands you to. He says
come. Come unto Me." It's foolish for
us. Believers, let us come and lay
our heavy hearts before the Lord and we will leave singing. God
hears our cries and He will answer us. I like Horatius Bonnard's
song. I read it the other day. He says,
Yes for me, for me He careth with a brother's tender care.
Yes with me, with me He shareth every burden, every fear. Yes, or me, or me he watcheth,
ceaseless watcheth night and day. Yes, in me, even in me he
snatcheth from the perils of the way." How many times has
there been a mountain in front of us and either God moved the
mountain or He moved us? Whichever. But He moved. God has always been gracious.
And lastly and hurriedly, the psalmist here gives us a reason.
Every one of you, listen. There's a reason why you should
follow the commands of God. There's a reason why you should
do these commands and obey them. Look at that in verse 5. Verse
5 of our text. 4. Because the Lord is good. The Lord is good. How is it that we may count on
these blessings? The Lord is good. The Lord is
good. How may we obtain great joy to
shout such gladness of service and privileges to come singing? How can we have this? How can
we obey this? Because the Lord is good. The
Lord is good. My friend, He does all things
well. Remember those trials and temptations just talked about?
You know who did that? God did that. If you have trials and troubles,
know this, God brought them to you. They're not by accident,
didn't take Him by surprise. We've recently experienced, and
I know you've seen this as I talked about earlier, the thing in Haiti.
where hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Who do you
suppose did that? False prophets will try to blame
it on Satan or somebody else. My friend, God did that. Does that detract from God's
goodness at all? Because He did that? Because
of the trials that God has brought in your life and my life, is
God any less good because He did these things? Absolutely
not. God is still good. Obey Him. Obey Him. He's good. He's good. God did this. He said, see now I, even I am
He. And there is no God with me.
There's no other God there. I'm God. I kill and I make a
life. I wound and I heal. God does
all things and He does all things well. No matter if you can see
it or not, my dear believer, hold fast. God is good no matter
what. God is good no matter what. Believer,
make a joyful noise. Serve the Lord with gladness
and come into His presence, for He is good. And number two, His
mercy is forever. There will never be a time that
He will not show you mercy. You that are believers, there
will never be a time that His mercy will be slack. It's always
good. Even when you can't see it. Even
when you think the thing that's happening to you is evil. God
is meaning it for your good. Because His mercy is forever. It endures forever. So when that
thing comes, my friend, let us bow down and see that God is
good. And that His mercy is still enduring. No matter what. His mercy is
enduring. And number lastly, he said, believe
for this reason, his word endureth to all generations, his truth. In this book are the promises
of God. In this book, you will find All
who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, He will save you to the
uttermost. His truth endureth forever. Is that not a reason to shout? Is that not a reason to serve
with gladness? Is that not a reason to come
at every opportunity and embrace the feet of Jesus Christ? Yes. It's reason enough for me. It's reason enough for me. Shout,
serve, and come. Our Lord's command. I pray that
He would give some here that don't grace. And I pray that
He would even give me grace to continue to do that. Without
His grace, we can do nothing. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.