Turn with me to Psalm 95 again. Psalm 95, the Lord has, I believe,
caused me to realize just for a moment, I'm not going to presume
and say that I'm aware of this from here on out. enter into
things and then we forget things and the flesh is weak. But for
this particular moment, I do believe the Lord has allowed
me to realize that we have a lot to be thankful for. The Lord
has just really given me an awareness of that, a connection
to that. We have a lot to be thankful
for. This morning's message was Psalm 107. Oh, give thanks unto
the Lord. He's good. His mercy endures
forever. Well, this is not part two, but
this is second verse, same as the first. Once the Lord impressed my heart
with this, I just couldn't get away from it. Sometimes I tell
you that the Sunday night message is a time of reflection. I personally
consider the Bible study to be instruction, school, and then
the morning message to be declaration, and then Sunday night to be reflection,
and Wednesday night to be comfort. I have one focus on a Wednesday
night, comfort. I want comfort every time, I consider Sunday night to be
a time of reflection, and that's what I was experiencing whenever
I wrote these notes. I was reflecting, maybe not so
much in my mind with experiences, but maybe more so in my heart
just on how good our Lord has been to us in Christ. He has
been so good to us. So good to us, I can't help but
look around the room and see people I have known all my life. And he's just been so good to
us. He saved us and called us with
a holy calling, we read this this morning, one of my favorite
places to go. One of my favorite scriptures
to read, he saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our words, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And. As if that was not enough. And. He has stayed with us. He has
allowed us to stay with him. He saved us. He called us. And he has stayed with us. He has stayed by our side by
allowing us to stay by his side. He has led us through every step
of this life. He has carried us through every
trouble. He's comforted us through every
trial. And in thinking about that, the
first half of this psalm really spoke to my heart. It really
touched my heart. Just listen to this. Verse one
says, Oh come, let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful
noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and
a great king above all gods, little g gods. In his hand are
the deep places of the earth. The strength or the heights of
the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land. Oh, come, let us worship
and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord
our maker, for he is our God, And we are the sheep, we are
the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Doesn't that sound nice? Doesn't
that just sound nice? Doesn't that sound like green
pastures and still waters and the shade of a vine and a fig
tree? Now, I don't want to know anything
about the second half of this psalm. I don't want to know anything
about the experience of the second half of this psalm. Look at verse
seven. It goes on to say, today, if
you will hear his voice, harden not your heart as in the provocation,
that's when Israel provoked the Lord, the provoking, the provocation. And as in the day of temptation
in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me,
and saw my work, 40 years long was I grieved with this generation
and said, it is a people that do err in their heart, and they
have not known my ways, unto whom I swear in my wrath that
they should not enter into my rest. I swore in my wrath that
they should not enter into my rest. I know that by nature,
that's me. When I say I don't want to have
anything to do with that, I'm not saying that that's not me. That
is me. That's me. I know that in my
natural flesh, that's all I've done. That's all I've done. I know
that if he left me to myself, I would die in my sins. I know
that. I know that. That's what I deserve. That's all I've earned from him. That is all that I've earned
from him. But in my reflection, okay, this
is a time of reflection. And in my reflection, I'm reminded
that he saved us from that. That's what he saved us from.
That's what he called us from to himself with a holy calling. Thank God it was not according
to our works. He said that they grieved him
for 40 years. Well, this dead flesh has been
grieving him for 48 years. Thank God it's not according
to our works. But it was according to his own purpose and grace
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
You talk about a gift. For God so loved this sinful
world, this wretched world, he gave his only begotten son. His only begotten son. That makes my heart want to sing
and make a joyful noise to him. Verse one says, oh, come, let
us sing unto the Lord. Let us, if the Lord will allow
us to. Let's do it together. Let's do
this together. Oh, come, let us sing unto the
Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to
the rock of our salvation. The rock of our salvation. Don't
you love the sound of that? the rock of our salvation. Turn over to Psalm 61. Psalm
61, verse one. Hear my cry, O God, attend unto
my prayer. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto thee. That's where I am. I'm about to fall off the edge
of the earth. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter
for me, you've sheltered me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle
forever. I will trust in the covert of
thy wings. I need my rock, I need my rock. A vessel was wrecked one stormy
night off the coast of England. All were drowned except an Irish
boy. Because the waves swept him onto a great rock. In the morning, he was rescued.
And they asked him, lad, didn't you tremble out there on the
rock during the night? And he said, sure I trembled.
But the rock didn't tremble one time all night long. Is that not our life? Are you
all trembling out there? Is anything making you tremble?
Sure, I'm trembling. And my rock's not trembling. Thank God for the rock. Thank
God for the rock. Verse two right here says, from
the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Thou hast been a shelter
for me and a strong tower from the enemy. That's a real reflection
for God's people. We may not have endured an actual
shipwreck, but our own way, we've spent some time in deep waters,
the deep waters of trouble. And in those moments, don't we
thank God for Jesus Christ, the rock. I was taught after the
message this morning, I was talking to so many in the hallway there
of how nobody wants trials. Do you want trials? Does anybody
say, Lord, would you please send me some trials? Nobody does.
But we all acknowledge that it's trials that drive us to him. If it were not for the trials,
if it was not for the trouble in the deep water, we wouldn't
be clinging to the rock. The rock that stands firm for
us, even in moments when we can't stand at all. There's moments
where we can't stand at all, but the rock is. Look back at
Psalm 95. Verse one says, Oh, come, let
us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to
the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with Psalms. That reminds me of Psalm 100
and I didn't pick out the songs tonight. The closing one, if
it is the one I picked out, then I picked out the closing song,
but I didn't pick out the rest of them. This must have reminded
Brother Eddie of Psalm 100 because we just sang the old hundredth,
I think they call it. All people that on earth do dwell.
That's exactly what this verse reminds me of. Turn just one
page, turn over to Psalm 100. It says, Make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with
singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is
God. It is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,
and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless
his name, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and
his truth endureth to all generations. What a happy gospel we have.
Our gospel is so happy. It is so happy. What a glorious
God with glorious news of a glorious salvation and a glorious eternity. Because Christ died, because
Christ shed His blood and gave His life to satisfy God's wrath
on the wickedness of our sin, because Christ did that for us,
we're going to get to enter into His gates with praise. We're going to get to enter into
His courts with thanksgiving. And we do that in prayer. We
do that now. We do that by faith. But I can't
help but think about the actual moment all the time. I think
about this actual moment all the time. There is going to come
a moment when the Lord is going to return. All through the Old
Testament, they said, He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. Be
ready. A virgin's going to conceive. And now those apostles said he
came. And now what we're telling everybody
is he's coming back. Be ready. He's coming back. He's
coming back. Well, one day he's coming back. And all of a sudden, everything
that we see by faith, we're about to see by sight. We're going
to be amazed the moment our eyes see this by sight. I think about
him returning. He's going to come back. He's
going to bring all of the heavenly angels with him. And he's going to gather his
elect to himself. And we're going to float. Just the same way that he, you
know, all the apostles gazing up into heaven, you know. That's
how we're going up. How he went up, that's how we're
going up. We're going to meet him in the air and he's going
to take us home to be with him. Can you? I mean, you can't even
enter into that moment. Not really, but it's going to
happen. And I can't help often, but just
think about the joy that's going to overwhelm us to see him and
to see his people. And we're just going to be ecstatic
looking at each other. Can you believe this? And I don't know how long it'll
take to get there. It won't matter if we're with
him. I don't care where we are, but I kind of hope it takes a
little while. Because I can envision us singing songs of redemption. I can just shouting with what
you know. Israel went out of Egypt with
the shout of a high hand. And that's going to be God's
people. We're going out of here with the shout of a high hand.
We're going to be following him, singing songs of redemption,
marching to Zion. And then as we arrive, there
it is, the holy city of God. And as we arrive, we come into
this heavenly city that has eternal foundations. We're going to hear
somebody on the other side, Michael the archangel or somebody cry,
open the gates. The Lord of glory is coming in. All his people are coming in
with him. Does that make you thankful? That makes me so happy and just
so thankful. As we enter into that glorious
kingdom, not only are we shouting with praise, but all the angels
All the cherubims, all the seraphims, everything that has breath is
thanking God. That's what they're doing. Thanking Him, blessing Him for
His goodness and His everlasting mercy on the children of men. Verse four right here says, enter
into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless
his name for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and
his truth endureth to all generations. We have a lot to be thankful
for. We have a lot to be thankful for. All right, go ahead and
go back to Psalm 95. Verse one, oh come let us sing
unto the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms for
the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. Who is the great God? The great
king is. Who is the great king? The Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus of Nazareth is. I love how above his cross an
inscription was written and it said, this is the king of the
Jews. And those Pharisees told Pilate,
you erase that and you write, he said he was the king. And
Pilate said, nope. What I've written, I've written.
This is the king. This is the king of glory, the
one who is the sovereign, the owner, the controller of everything. This is him. Verse four says
in his hand are the deep places of the earth. The strength or the heights of
the hills is his also doesn't matter how deep you can go or
how high you can go. The sea is his. And he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land. He made it all. It's all
his. He owns all of it because he
made it. He made it. It all belongs to
him. It's his to do with as he pleases
because he made it. And do you know what? He made us. He made us. He owns us. We belong to him.
He can do with us as he pleases. He can do with us as he pleases. So verse six says, Oh, come,
let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our maker. Don't you want to do that? Don't
you want to do that? The word I think it's interesting
about this verse, but the word worship means, when you look
it up, it means bow down. That's the translation, the definition. And then when you look up bow
down, it means kneel. And then when you look up the
word kneel, it means adore, bless, delight in, adore him, bless
him, delight in him. Why? Verse seven says, for. He is our God and we are the
people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. He's our God. Again, like we said this morning,
he he's our maker. He could have done anything with
us he wanted to do with us. He could do anything, but he
chose to be good. The only reason we have a gospel
is because he chose to be good. He chose to be loving. He chose
to be merciful. He chose to be kind. He chose
to be our shepherd. He chose for us to be sheep in
his pasture. He chose to lead us and feed
us and protect us. And for that, we're thankful. For that, we're thankful. We
have so much to be thankful for. We have so much reason to worship. You know why we're here tonight?
To worship. That's why we're here. We have
so much reason to be here. We have so much reason to worship,
so much reason to bow down and kneel and to adore and bless
and glory in and delight in our God, our King, our Savior. And that's what we're going to
spend eternity doing. If you enjoy You know, we're
so, the flesh is so weak. The flesh is so weak. But sometimes
in a service we have these just little blips of moments of real
enjoyment in what we're doing. And if you have those little
moments, one of these days it's gonna be an unending moment.
You know that joy that overwhelms you? One of these days it's gonna
be an unending overwhelming, over overwhelmment, whatever,
you come up with a word. That's what eternity is going
to be. It's going to be wonderful, wonderful worship. In closing,
go to Revelation 7. Revelation 7 verse 9, it says,
after this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could
number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood
before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes
and palms in their hands. They stood before the throne,
that's where the king sits. They stood before the lamb, that's
where the, that's the sacrifice. Verse 10, And they cried with
a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon
the throne, God, King, and unto the Lamb, Savior. God, King,
Savior. Verse 11, And all the angels
stood round about the throne, and about the elders, and the
four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces. That means they bowed down. Oh,
come, let us bow down. He goes on to say, and worshiped
God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving
and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever,
amen. And one of the elders answered
saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes
and whence came they? And I said unto him, sir, thou
knowest. And he said to me, these are
they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore
are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night
in his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne
shall dwell among them, and they shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat. For the lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them. and shall lead them. You know, shepherds lead lambs. Well, our lamb is going to feed
us and lead us unto living fountains of waters. And God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes. That promise is so wonderful,
isn't it? We have a lot to be thankful
for. We have a lot to be thankful for. O come, let us sing unto
the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.