picked all high songs. I was
thinking I should have got Eddie to do this. Go with me back to Psalm 100.
Psalm 100. I love this psalm so much. It blesses my heart every time
I read this. Don't you love Psalm 100? Let's start the message
by reading it again. Verse one 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. I have titled this message, Do These Seven Things. And yes, you heard me right. do these seven things. Psalm 100 gives us seven things
to do because it's done. Okay. This is how we're going to set
this up. This is how we will start it
out because it's already finished. The end of verse three says we
are his people. and the sheep of his pasture. He has saved us and called us
with a holy calling. Salvation is accomplished. Redemption
is complete. Therefore, let's do these seven
things. Because Christ finished the work
on Calvary's tree, let's do these seven things. Because verse five says the Lord
is good. His mercy is everlasting and
his truth endureth to all generations. Because of that, let's do these
seven things. Okay. Number one. Verse one says, make a joyful
noise unto the Lord. All ye lands. That's a happy
thing to do, isn't it? Make a joyful noise. You hear
people say, well, I can't sing very well, but I can make a joyful
noise. That may be so. We read that and we understand
that, don't we? Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord, all ye lands. Every word in that verse, I know
what it means. Or let me say it this way. I
know what that word is. Sometimes we read words in the
scripture and I look at it and I think, I don't even know what
that word is. I got to look that word up. But there's not one word in verse
one that when I read it, I'm not sure what that word is. We
know all these words, but studying this Psalm this time, I felt
led to look up this scriptural meanings and definitions of these
words and listen to this, okay? And listen to the whole thing.
Make a joyful noise means mar, M-A-R. We know what it is
to mar something. Mar, especially by breaking. Split the ears with sound in
triumph. That's what it means. Shout the
triumph of the Lord so powerfully it bursts the eardrum of everybody
who hears it. That powerfully, that loudly.
Emphasis on the word noise. That's what God told David to
do right here. That's what God told Isaiah to
do. Go to Isaiah 40. My brother just
read this in my study a moment ago. Isaiah 40. Verse nine says, O Zion that
bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O
Jerusalem that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with
strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say
unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. Behold, the Lord God
will come with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him." His work. His work is before him. What is his work? Verse 11 says,
he shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the
lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom. and shall
gently lead those that are with young. I love that. Those that
are with young get a special blessing from the Lord. Because he finished that work,
because he said, I must be about my father's business. And because
he finished the work of that business, the work of saving
his people from their sins. Number one, let's do this. Because
He did that, let's do this. Let's lift up the cry of the
finished work with all the strength that He has put within us. Let's
make a joyful, let's make the joyful noise. concerning the
glory of the Lord to every soul on this earth. When he comes
back, every soul on this earth is going to hear a voice lifted
up with strength. The moment he returns, he is
coming back, the scripture says, with a shout, with the conquering voice of
triumph. And he said, between now and
that day, you do the same. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord. Let's do that. Go back to Psalm 100. Verse one says, make a joyful
noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Here's number two. Serve the Lord. with gladness. Serve the Lord with gladness. I looked up the scriptural definition
of that one too. Serve the Lord with gladness
means enslave yourself. Desire to be a willing bondservant. Desire in heart to be a willing
bond servant. I showed you this recently, but
this is so wonderful. Let me show you again. Go to
Exodus 21. Exodus 21 verse 1 says, Now these
are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou
by an Hebrew servant six years he shall serve, and in the seventh
he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he
shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his
wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him
a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters, the wife and
her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself.
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife,
and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall
bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the
door, or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear
through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. Because of
everything that our Lord has done for us, because he is so
good, he's so merciful, so kind, so loving, let's say to him in
our hearts, Lord, to whom else can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. I want to stay with you forever.
I want to stay with you forever, even though you are keeping me
by your power. Even though the only reason I'm
even still here is because I'm being kept by the power of God,
I want to be kept by the power of God. I want to stay with you. I want to serve you in every
way that I can with gladness. We know that right now in our
flesh, we are unable to truly serve the Lord with the law. One of these days, we will. In
glory, we will. Right now, we are unable to serve
him with true obedience. We are unable to serve him with
righteousness. But Lord, in whatever way you
will allow us to, We desire to serve you with gladness,
with willingness. Willingness in our hearts because
you put that willingness there. Lord, you made us willing in
the day of your power and we're glad. That's how we want it to
be. Let's do that. Let's say that. Let's proclaim
this gospel with all the strength God will give us to do it. And
let's say to him, Lord, we desire to stay with you. Go with me
back to Psalm 100. Number three, the end of verse
two says, come before his presence with singing. Come before his
presence with singing. That means delight in his face. Delight in his face. Enter into
delightful communion with him face to face. What do we see when we see the
face of the Lord our God? Psalm 27 says we see his beauty. 2 Corinthians 4 says we see His
glory, the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4 also says we
see the light of the glorious gospel. Psalm 17 says we see
righteousness. When we look into His face, we
see righteousness. John 1 says we see the fullness
of grace and truth. You want to see God's grace? Look right into His face. You
want to see truth? Stare right into His face. Colossians 2 says we see Christ,
we see the Messiah, we see the fullness of the Godhead, Father,
Son, and Spirit in a body. We see Christ. Turn over to Colossians
1. Colossians 1 verse 12, it says, giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son. in whom we have redemption through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature." That's what
we see in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see the image
of the invisible God. Look with me at Hebrews 1. Hebrews chapter one. Verse one says, God, who at sundry
times and in divers manner spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
son. whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness
of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. We see the King on the throne.
When we look into the face of Jesus Christ, we see the King,
we see the Redeemer, the one who by himself purged our sins. We see our Redeemer. When we look into the face of
Jesus Christ, sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer. With His blood,
He purchased me. I'm so glad for that. He bought
me. On the cross, He sealed my pardon, paid my debt, and set
me free. Come before His presence with
singing. Go back to Psalm 100. Number four, verse three, it says, know ye
that the Lord, he is God. This is something to do right
here. 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. That's something I wish the whole
world did. I wish the whole world knew that. That's something that
God's people do know. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. He is the God. He is our God. And how do we know that? Honestly,
how do we know that? We know it because we did not
create ourselves. Did anybody here create themselves?
You create yourself. I did not create myself. We do not belong to ourselves.
We are not living in our own pasture. He is the creator. He is the purchaser. We are bought
with a price. and everything here is His. That's how we know He is God.
That's how we know. Look at Psalm 95. Verse six. Oh, come, let us worship and
bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our maker, because everything is ordered and sure concerning
us. Our creation, our salvation,
our glorification, it's all ordered and sure. And because of that,
we can know that he is God and we can bow before him and rest
right there. We can just rest, just rest,
just know that he is God. and rest, right there. Look at
Psalm 46. Psalm 46 verse 1, it says, God
is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore
will not we fear. Though the earth be removed and
though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though
the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof, there is a river, the streams
whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the
tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she
shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that
right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms
were moved, he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of
Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath
made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto
the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow and cutteth
the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among
the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts
is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. That's good, isn't it? Because
everything with him is finished, it's secure. That's something
we can do. And we can do that with all of
our might. We can labor to do that. We can
labor to enter into that rest. We can labor to be still. We can be still with all of our
might. Be still and just know that he
is God. I pray the Lord would give us
the ability to do that. Just be still. And know that
he's God. Go back to Psalm 100. Number five, verse four. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise. Enter into his gates and into
his courts. That means enter into his door. Come in and go out freely. That's
what it translates. Come in and go out freely. It means be free. Be free. In, by, through Christ the door. Christ the gate of the city. I can just read this. This is
Revelation 21. It says, John saw in verse 10, Revelation
21 verse 10, he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and
high mountain and showed me that great city, holy Jerusalem, descending
out of heaven from God. He showed me the city. And he
said in verse 22, I saw no temple therein for the Lord God Almighty
and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need
of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory
of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And
the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light
of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor
into it. And the gates of it shall not
be shut at all by day. I love the thought of that. their security within and without. The gates of it shall not be
shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. And
they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it,
and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life. You know what eternity
is gonna be? Freedom. That's what it's gonna
be. Freedom with Christ, freedom
in Christ. Psalm 24 cried, open the gates
and the king of glory shall come in. And then it never said, okay,
now close the gates again. Open them wide open and then
let everything be free. Let everything be free. That's
what the cross did for God's people. It set them free, free
indeed. Psalm 100 verse 4 goes on to say, be thankful unto him. Be thankful unto him because
of everything that he's done, be thankful unto him. What else
can we be? Thanks be to God for his unspeakable
gift. The gift of himself, he gave
himself. He gave everything, including
himself. Everything that he did was for
the good of his people, everything. Everything that is is for the
good of his people. So in everything, let's give
thanks. I wanna remember to do that more.
Do you feel like you thank the Lord enough for all of His goodness
to you? I want to do that more. I mean,
this is really something to do. These are things to do. That's the only thing that we
can do. That's the only thing we can give to Him is thanks. The end of verse four says, be
thankful unto him, and this is number seven, the last one, it
says, and bless his name. Bless his name. You know what
the word bless means, at least in this instance? It means adore. That's what it translates to,
adore his name. Adore his name. His name is his
character. His name is his reputation. His
name is his glory. His name is who he is. Adore
who he is. And we do, don't we? We do. All that thrills our soul is
the Lord Jesus. He is more than life to us and
the fairest of 10,000 in our blessed Lord we sing. Because
of who he is, because of what he's done for us. Number one,
we declare the glory of his gospel with strength. Number two, we
willingly desire to belong to him. You know what we say? Please make me to be a puppet
on your string. Please. That's all I want to
be. Number three, we find all of
our delight in the face of Jesus Christ. All of it. Number four,
we bow and rest in the fact that he is God because of everything
he's done. Let's do this. Just rest in the,
just know that the Lord is God and rest right there. Number
five, we come to him for all of our free entrance into glory. He is the gate. He is the door. Nobody comes but by him. Number
six, we thank him for that free entrance. We thank him for everything.
And number seven, we'll spend the rest of our days here, we'll
spend the rest of eternity adoring Him. That's what we do here,
that's what we're gonna do there. We're gonna spend our time adoring
Him for everything that He is, to us and for us. Verse five
says, for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His
truth endureth to all generations. Hallelujah, praise the Lord.