Go with me, if you would, back
to Psalm 96. Psalm 96, the first line of verse one says, Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song. I've titled this message a new song for a new year. A new song for a new year. That's what David is singing
in Psalm 96, a new song. And that's what we sing. That's what all of God's people
sing. We sing a new song. And before we sing this, we're
going to sing this by way of reading the psalm. But before
we sing this, I just want to point out that it's not new to
God. There is nothing new to God. Sing unto the Lord a new song.
There's nothing new to God. There's nothing new under the
sun. The song of the redeemed is actually
the old song. This new song is actually the
old song. It sings of the old paths wherein
is the good way. We all love the story of Brother
Bob Poncer. Those of you who were able to
meet Brother Bob Poncer in Danville, you met a dear man. And if you
didn't meet him there, you will soon meet him in glory. What
a sweet, sweet man. Just the smile on his face, it
just lit you up. But he came up to Brother Larry
Criss, who was about to stand up and preach one night, and
he said, Brother Larry came up and right before he stood up,
he whispered in his ear, he said, Brother Larry, do you have something
new and stale or old and fresh for us tonight? The Lord's song is actually the
ancient song It's the song from the beginning. But the problem for mankind is
men and women don't naturally know it. They don't know this
song. Man by nature does not know this song. This song has
to be revealed by God to men and women. All of God's people
have been taught this new song of God, new to them. And once he teaches it to all
of his people, they say, I've never heard that song before.
Once they really hear it, all of them say, I've never heard
that before. That's a new song to this wretched,
miserable flesh. I've been singing a different
song my whole life. I'm not going to sing that song
anymore. The song of this flesh. I have
a new song. God has taught me a new song
and I'm going to sing it to all the world because all the world
needs to know this song. All the world needs to know this
song. Verse one. Sing unto the Lord
a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. All the earth needs to know this
song. I wish all the earth knew this
song. One day real soon, we're all going to live on a new earth.
Would that be okay with everybody? No sin, no sorrow, nothing that man produces, no
ruin, no heartache. We're all going to stand on a
new earth and the whole earth is going to sing this song. Can't
wait for that moment. All the earth needs to know this
song. All the earth needs to sing this
song. I want to read 13 verses and
I want us to see and compare the difference in the old song
of man. and the new song of God. That's how we'll refer to the
old and the new. The old is the song of man. The new is the song
of God, and we're going to see that the theme of this new song
is to him be all the glory. That's the theme of the new song.
Verse one says, Oh, sing unto the Lord. A new song new to us,
newly revealed to God's people. Sing unto the Lord. all the earth. The old song of man's false religion
said, saying unto me, saying unto me, that's the old song
of man's flesh saying unto me saying unto who I am saying unto what I've done saying
unto what I'm going to do for God, for myself, for everybody
else. Sing unto me. That's the song
of man's idolatry. That's the song of man's flesh.
It's all about me. It's all about me. I wish men
and women could hear that and know that in the false religion
they sit under. I wish they could see that it's
all about us. That's what false religion is.
It's all about us. The subject matters are all about
us. The theme of their speeches that
they give, it's all about us. Man's idolatry, man's flesh,
it's all about me. If our religion has us looking
to our flesh, that's the old song. And that's the wrong song. That's the song of damnation.
That is the song of death. If we turn our eyes to the flesh,
we are turning our eyes to death. That's all you can see right
here is death. The song of life, the song of
deliverance, the song of hope. The song of hope is turn your
eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the song of hope. Sing to him, sing to him. Turn all your focus and all your
attention to him. That is something that false
religion knows nothing about. Turning everything to him, turning
completely to him. They say they do. They say they
do. They say they sing that song.
Oh, turn it all to him. They say they sing that song,
but they don't. By nature, they know. No other song but the song
of sing unto me. Sing about me. Lord, teach us
the new song. Teach us the song of God. Teach
us the song of Christ. Verse one says, oh, sing unto
the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his
name. Show forth His salvation from
day to day. When a sinner learns the new
song, that sinner realizes this thing is all about His name. This is all about His name. This is not about my name at
all. There's no need to even mention
my name. John the Baptist had it right. They said, what's your
name? He said, what difference does
it make? I'm just a voice crying in the
wilderness, that's all. Showing forth the salvation in
and of Jesus Christ alone. Verse two ends by saying, show
forth his salvation from day to day. Show forth his salvation. The old song of man's flesh says,
you'd better do something to save yourself. The new song of God Almighty
says, Jesus Christ paid it all, all the debt you owed. Sin had
left a crimson stain, but he washed it white as snow, past
tense, over and done, finished, washed, washed it white as snow,
him alone. He did it by himself alone. Verse 3 says, Declare His glory
among the heathen, His wonders among all people. The old song
of man's wicked, evil, idolatrous flesh says, Me and Jesus have
a good thing going. I've decided to follow Jesus. I decided to give my heart to
Him, build my mansion next to His because we did this thing
together. You know, I used to teach guitar
lessons. I taught it in a very religious
town. And I cannot tell you how many
songs just like that were brought into me of people wanting to
learn these songs. I want to learn this song, build
my mansion next to Jesus. I don't teach that song. Well,
then I'm not taking lessons from you anymore. Okay. That old song of the flesh says
I am worthy to walk right through the gates of heaven side by side
with Jesus Christ. No, we're not. No, we are not. That's the old song of the deceived. The new song of the redeemed
says, thank God he had mercy on me. If somebody would have
brought me that song, I'd be happy to teach that song. Thank
God he had mercy on me. Thank God he chose to be gracious
to me. He alone is worthy. He alone
has all the glory. He alone deserves all the glory. He alone is all the glory. When we talk about the glory
of God, we're talking about Jesus Christ. He is the glory. Salvation
is Christ. The cross is Christ. Moses said,
show me your glory. And he said, my glory is my mercy
and my grace through the cross of your salvation. That hiding
place when the judgment of God passes by. My glory is my sovereignty
in choosing who I will be merciful and gracious to. My right in
choosing who I will do this for. My glory is in the fact that
my blood put away all your sin. and made you spotless and holy
and clean. That's my glory. And in hearing that song, all
of God's people say, Amen. Yeah, so be it. That's His glory.
Verse three, declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders
among all people. Verse four says, for the Lord
is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all
gods. The Lord is great. He is great
in every way, shape, and form. So great. And He is greatly to
be praised. He is worthy to be praised with
exceeding praise. Exceeding all praise. He is to be feared. He is to
be reverenced. He is to be worshipped with all
reverence. And all worship. Exceedingly above everything
and everyone it is. It's all under him. Can't you? Some of us have talked about
this many times before, but can you wait for the moment that
you can worship him? Completely. Can you wait for
that moment? When you sit in the congregate
congregation of glory, And you have an unlimited measure
of the spirit as he has. And you can truly, do you know
those moments, you ever have those little brief moments, they
last about that long, where like you get a hold of something and
it touches your heart and you're just like, wow. Can you wait
for the moment where that never goes away? You know that's never
gonna go away. I don't see how we'll get anything
done, we'll just be slain at all moments of time. Oh, he's worthy to be worshipped
and reverenced exceedingly, exceedingly. It's all unto him. It's all unto
him. Hannah and I got here early Sunday
night to set up the Lord's table. And the next person to walk in
was Brother Tony. He and I were doing the devotionals
for the service. And so he got here early too.
We were talking before the service about the fact that here we are
again. Here we are again. We were just
here Sunday morning and now here we are again. We could say the
same thing tonight. Here we are again. We were here all day on Sunday.
We devoted a whole day. Now here we are again. And the thing that we acknowledged,
and we had a moment to enter into, we were both, you know,
about to stand up and speak on behalf of God Almighty. And what we really entered into
and rejoiced in was the fact that We are here for Him. This is all about Him. This is
all about Him. That's a verse of the song that
is worthy to learn. That's a verse of this new song
that we do not want to leave out. This is all about Him. Most everybody, and I mean everybody,
and I understand it. Most everybody naturally thinks
I need to go to church for me. Think about that. Well, I need
to go to church for me. It'll be good for me. I want
to go to heaven, so that's where I need to be. Well, yeah, this
is where we need to be. And God's people greatly benefit
from being here. Hearing the gospel preached is
the means God uses to reveal this new song of Christ to his
people. But the reality is God has saved
his people. They're saved. They're saved. Some of them,
you know, at the Lord, Terry, some of them are not born yet.
And then they will have their moment to hear the gospel and
they'll, you know, but they're saved. They're all saved. And in his time, they each hear
about it. And then he gives them faith
and they believe it. And then he gathers them together
with the rest of the saints and they thank him for it. And that's
what we're doing here. We're thanking Him for it. We're
here to worship Him. We're here to praise Him for
what He's done. This is not unto us. This is
unto Him. This is not unto us. It's unto
Him. That's the new song. That's the song that God puts
in the heart. And on the tongue of all of his
people, I realize now that this is unto him. This is not unto
me. It's all unto him. Verse four
says, for the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is
to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations
are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. That old song of
the flesh cries, Won't you help him? That's what the old song
says. Won't you help him? He needs
you. He has no hands but your hands.
The new song cries, look around. Do you not see creation? What do you mean he has no hands
but your hands? The heavens declare his handiwork. Verse six says, honor and majesty
are before him. Strength and beauty are in his
sanctuary. Honor and majesty. This is the
king we're talking about. Strength. This is God almighty. We're talking about beauty. This is Jesus Christ. We're talking
about the altogether lovely one. Verse 7 says, give unto the Lord,
O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and
strength. I love this one. I love this
verse. Listen to the difference in the old song and the new song.
The old song says, give unto the Lord. Give him your heart. Won't you
give him your heart? Come on now. Give him your heart. Give him your life. Won't you
give him your life? Give him your tithe. Give him
your good works. Give him your decision. Give
him your give him your give him your that's the old song. The
new song of God Almighty says give him. His own glory. Give him his own strength. How can I give him his own glory
and his own strength? You can't. You can just acknowledge
that He has it. You can just ascribe to Him what
is already His. Greatness, glory, strength. That's the new song. That's the
new song. Verse 8, give unto the Lord the
glory due unto His name. Bring an offering and come into
His courts. Down at the cross where my Savior
died, down where for cleansing from sin I cried, thereto my
heart was the blood-applied glory to His name. ascribe glory to
His name. No other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. As I stand here and preach
right now, is there any other name for me to mention for salvation
than Jesus Christ? No other name. There is no other
name. That's the only sacrifice offering
we can give to Him, the offering of thanksgiving. The old song of the flesh says,
what are you going to sacrifice for God? It's time for you to
get in your fireplace and get some of those ashes and put a
dot right there, and you're going to have to make some sacrifices
for God. That's the old song of the flesh. The new song of the redeemed
cries, thank you, Lord, for everything you sacrificed for me. It's not
what I'm going to sacrifice for you. It's what you sacrificed
for me. Verse nine says, Oh, worship
the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before him all the earth. The old song of man's wicked
flesh says, God does not demand holiness. God is fine with your
sin. There's nothing to fear. You
have the beauty of, of your great buildings. You have the beauty of all your
idolatrous images, all of the stained glass and all of the
this and all of that. You got the beauty of all those
robes that you wear and the beauty of all that music that you play.
You're fine. All the beauty of your man loved
false religion, you're fine. That's the old song. That's a
lie. That old song is a song of lies.
The new song is the song of truth. And it says, God will only be
worshipped in the beauty of holiness. The only thing beautiful to God
is holiness. You know, when we built this
building, we tried as hard as we could to make it as beautiful
as we could. And I think it's beautiful. But God is not impressed with
this building. I really do think this is beautiful. God doesn't. He's not impressed with this.
The only thing beautiful is holiness. Holiness. The new song of truth says God
is so angry with your sin in holy justice. He laid that sin
on his own son and he poured out wrath and vengeance. All
the wrath and vengeance of heaven on him and only because of him
and only because of the holy vengeance he suffered. You have
nothing to fear. Only because holiness has been
satisfied in Christ. You have nothing to fear. That's the new song. Verse 10
says, Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The world
also shall be established that it shall not be moved. He shall
judge the people righteously. You know what the old wicked
song of man's ignorance says? It says, God is not sovereign. He does not reign. Man controls
his own destiny because everything in this world
is left up to chance. You know what the new holy song
of God's truth says? Verse 11, let the heavens rejoice
and let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar and the fullness
thereof. Let the field be joyful and all
that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the
wood rejoice before the Lord. For he cometh, for he cometh
to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with
righteousness and the people with his truth. What does that
mean? What does that say? It's saying
God is sovereign. Man controls nothing and everything
is going to go according to his purpose in all things. The purpose of him who has ordered
all things in righteousness and truth. The righteousness and
truth of Christ himself. That is a good song. I want that
to be my song. That's a song to start the year
with and I pray God will teach it to us. May God teach all of
us the new song of all the glory being to God alone for everything
he's done in the person of Christ. Amen. Stand together with me.