Open with me again to Psalm 145.
Psalm 145. I was going through some old
emails. And I read one that a brother sent to me quite a while back.
And after he signed his name, he wrote Psalm 145 verse three
under it. And I turned to it, and I read
it, and it just captivated me. This absolutely slew me in the
best way. I read it then, and then I studied
it, and then I bent over my notes, and I was thinking about it right
there, and I just read it right here. This is just, this has
encouraged me, it's caused me to really rejoice and say amen. And I pray the Lord, will descend
on us and let us really enter into this. Psalm 145 verse three,
it says, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and
his greatness is unsearchable. Don't you love that? That just
touches my heart. Amen. Greatly, greatness. Great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised. And his greatness is unsearchable. Amen. Oh, how happy that makes
me to hear that. That just makes me so happy to
hear that. Look at Psalm 147, verse five. I'm having you turn here because
that was a reference to verse three in our text. It says Psalm
147 verse five. Great is our Lord and of great
power. His understanding is infinite. Does that not thrill your heart
to hear that and know that? Great is our Lord. I love hearing and knowing that
He is our Lord. The Lord is our Lord. Verse 5 right here says, Great
is our Lord and of great power. Oh, if we could ever Learn that,
understand that, get a hold of that, believe that. Power that
cannot be fathomed. Power that cannot be fathomed. I adore how in the scripture
that centurion said, Lord, you just speak the word only. You
just speak the word only. We all have loved ones that we
pray God would save. Lord, speak the word only. You just speak the word, if you're
willing, you can save anybody. You know, William Jay came into
John Newton's office and said, I'll never despair of anybody
since God saved that old wretched, miserable sinner. And John Newton
said, I'll never despair of anybody since God saved me. Lord, save
me, save our loved ones. Our Lord's hand is not short
that it cannot save. Our Lord is of great power. He is of great, great power,
almighty power. Verse 5 right here says, His
understanding, His wisdom, His knowledge, His perfect will and
His perfect purpose in all things, His ordering of all things. I think about this life we live
on this earth, it seems to me, it feels to me like it's just
One piece of bad news after the next piece of bad news. But do
you know that that is all the perfect ordering of this all-powerful,
all-knowing God who loves us and is moving us down the absolute
perfect path to lead us to Jesus Christ. Just perfect. It says right here, his understanding
is infinite. It's infinity. It's just infinity. Amen. Amen. Last Sunday morning,
we looked at Psalm 146. It's a Psalm of praise. It's a Psalm of his praise. Tonight,
we're going to look at a Psalm of greatness. His greatness, look back at Psalm
145. Verse three says, great is the
Lord and greatly to be praised. And His greatness is unsearchable. Every time I read that, it's
like the Queen of Sheba. There's just no more spirit in
me. That's what the queen, she came to Solomon, she had questions
for Solomon, she wanted to hear from Solomon, and then once she
saw his greatness, there was, there's no more spirit in her. Great refers to his magnitude
and his extent, his magnitude. Great, the Lord is great. Greatly refers to his exceeding
worth. His value, His worthiness. He is worthy to be praised. And the word, when you look up
the definition of it, it means much. It means exceedingly much. The definition actually says
muchness. He is muchness. Great is His magnitude and extent. Greatly is His exceeding worth. And greatness refers to His mighty
acts, all of His majestic doings, His acts of majesty as the King,
as the King. Seeing this and entering into
this will cause us to say with David, if God would really let
us get a hold of this, we will say with David in verse one,
I will extol thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name forever
and ever. I'm looking so forward to that.
We do it now. I'm looking so forward to doing
that forever and ever. Extol means lift up. I will extol
thee, my God. That word means lift up. It means
exalt. Raise up on high, that's where
he deserves to be, because of his greatness. One of the things
that I enjoy the most about preaching is declaring the exaltation of
the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that's one of my favorite
components of preaching, is just declaring our Lord as he is,
high and lifted up. So high, so worthy, so lifted
up. I love how Philippians 2 says
that because our Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself for the salvation
of his people, bearing the sin of his people, I love how it
says, because he made himself of no reputation. One of these
days, we're going to see him in all of his greatness, all
of his glory. We're going to see his glory.
And there literally will be no more spirit in us. But he made himself this great
one. He made himself of no reputation. Who else would do that? Who else
would do that? Who else would come to this earth? The one who spoke space, galaxies. Oh, that's the dust of his feet.
Who else would come to this one little ball and let man treat
him and spit on him and cuss him and rebel against him? Who would allow man to do that? He humbled himself. He made himself
of no reputation. I mean the God of the universe. made himself of no reputation.
He took upon him the form of a servant. He was made in the
likeness of man and being found in fashion of a man. He humbled
himself and he became obedient to death, even the death of the
cross. And because of that, God our
Father has highly exalted him. Highly extolled him and given
him a name which is above every name. And to that we say, Amen. Amen. Let His name be the highest,
the greatest and the highest. Because Christ accomplished that
for His people, God the Father said, at the hearing of His name. And that happens right now. When
the Lord lets the hearts of His people truly hear His name, it
just is such a shame that His name is so common. Because for
God's people, at the hearing of his name, every time we hear
his great name, our knees bow and our tongues confess, he's
our Lord. That's our Lord. My Lord is the Lord, the great,
high, holy Lord God of heaven and earth. That's what our tongues
confess. That's what our knees do, the
knees of our heart. Because of who He is and what
He has done for sinners like us, we exalt and bless His holy
name. Verse one says, I will extol
Thee, my God, O King, my God, my King. And I will bless Thy name forever
and ever. Every day will I bless Thee.
And I will praise thy name forever and ever. Bless means kneel before,
bow before, and I love this definition of it. The word bless means to
adore, to adore, to have adoration, to adore. David said, because
of what you have done for me, every day will I adore you. The
end of verse one, I will bless thy name forever and ever. Every
day will I bless thee and I will praise thy name forever and ever.
Look with me at Psalm 103. Psalm 103 verse 1 says, bless
the Lord, adore the Lord, kneel before, bow before, give thanks
to, with great adoring. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all
thine iniquities. At the cross, at the cross where
I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away.
You remember when the Lord revealed, started to, I don't know when
the Lord truly opened my eyes, but do you remember when you
started getting a hold of what the cross means? You know, it's
not a symbol of goodness. It's not a symbol of the right
way, the good man as opposed to the evil man or the, It's
where burdens roll away. It's where burdens roll away.
Burdens over sin. You think about what am I going
to do about this sin? At the cross, at the cross where
I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away.
Why? It's because he forgave all my iniquities. He forgave
all my iniquities. Verse three, he healed all my
spiritual diseases. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases. Who redeemeth thy life from,
he redeemed my life from destruction. Who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with
good, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Oh, adore the
Lord. Adore the Lord for what He's
done. Verse 6, The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for
all that are oppressed. He made known His ways unto Moses,
His acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. We have a good God.
We have a wonderful God. He will not always chide, neither
will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy. Talk about a great God. What
makes Him so great? His great mercy. His mercy is
so great. New every morning. As the heaven is high above the
earth, verse 11, so great is his mercy toward them that fear
him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth
our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his
days are as grass as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place
thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, in his
righteousness unto children's children." Adore the Lord. Oh, adore the
Lord for his greatness to us and his merciful kindness to
us. And we do, don't we? We adore
him. Go back to Psalm 145. Verse 1
says, I will extol Thee, my God, O King, and I will bless Thy
name forever and ever. Every day will I bless Thee,
and I will praise Thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord,
and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. We will, by searching, never
find out God. Never. That is absolutely glorious
to me. That is so glorious. As eternity
continues, and it doesn't operate in time, But that's the only
way we can understand it. As eternity continues, we will
learn of him. And of our learning, there will
be no end. Never will we reach the point
where we say, I understand and know the fullness of his greatness. Never. We will forever stand in all
of Him and His greatness. We'll be in all of Him. And it's
because His greatness is unsearchable. Verse four says, one generation
shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty
acts. That's what we've been called
to do. Thank God that's what we've been called to do because
as long as this declaration continues generation to generation, I think
about this quite a bit and I was thinking about this for this
message. I'm preaching to you. But sometimes it dawns on me
how much I'm preaching to our children. If God continues here,
these children will be the future of this ministry and their children.
If God opens their eyes and has mercy on them. And that's what
we're doing here. That's why we're gathered here.
Generation to generation. And thank God that we're still
preaching this message and declaring this message generation to generation. Because as long as this declaration
continues, it means there's still mercy to be had. That's what
it means. Where the declaration of the
gospel of Christ is, there's mercy to be had. Where the gospel is, Mercy is. Therefore, verse five says, I
will speak of the glorious honor of that majesty and of that wonder,
wondrous work. Therefore, I'll keep speaking
of it. I'll keep declaring it by his grace. As long as there's
breath in me. David says right here. I'll tell
men and women how great things the Lord has done for me. The
wondrous works of the Lord, the wondrous works of Calvary, glorious
works, finished works, saving works, God's works. He said in verse five, I will
speak of the glorious honor and majesty of thy wondrous works. Verse six says, and men shall
speak of the might of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy
greatness. Thy, thy, thy. Men shall speak of the might
of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness. Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, unto thy name give all the glory.
Verse seven, they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great
goodness. and shall sing of thy righteousness,
thy goodness, thy grace, thy righteousness, which is all Christ,
all that's Christ, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
God's people speak of. Christ's everything, everything
Christ, our nothing. It's not our righteousness, it's
his. What does that mean? It means it's not our good deeds,
it's His. You know, people think, well,
I want to go to heaven, so I need to mow my neighbor's grass. That's
not what gets a man into heaven. It's not our righteousness, it's
His. It's not our sanctification, it's His. What does that mean?
That means I want to go to heaven, so I need to be a better person. It's not just do better things.
I need to be a better person. I need to be holier. I need to
stop thinking this stuff. We don't enter in based on our
holiness. We thank God we enter in based
on the holiness of Jesus Christ. That's a holy man. That is a
holy man. It's not our sanctification,
it's his. It's not our wisdom, it's his. People go to school
and go to school and go to school to learn theology and deity and
all of this stuff. It's not our wisdom, it's his.
He said, unless you become a babe, you're not even going to enter
in. Our Lord has hid these things from the wise and prudent and
revealed it to ignorant and unlearned men. It's not our redemption. That means payment, blood payment
for all of this sin we committed. It's his. It's all his. Everything is his. Verse eight
says the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger
and of great mercy. That's all of him. That's all
on the cross. Mercy just consumed the cross,
grace, mercy, love. And that's all his to show it
to whoever he's pleased to show it to. It's his. In the greatness of his majestic
kingship, he has the sovereign right to be gracious to whom
he will be gracious and to show merciful compassion to whom he
will show merciful compassion. He can do it to anybody he wants
to. And thanks be to Him, this is who He said He wanted to do
it for. Sinners. Sinners. He chose to show all
that to sinners. Verse 9 says, The Lord is good
to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. And He
is. That rain that came down this
afternoon, that fell on the just and the unjust. Caused His crops to grow and
that sun that shines. His goodness of His provision,
the sun, the rain, the things that are needed for physical
life, He extends it to this entire world. But He is eternally, mercifully
good to all of His chosen people. Verse 10 says, all thy work shall
praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. They
shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power
to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious
majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. He
said, all thy work shall praise thee. and thy saints shall bless
thee. And it's because of the greatness
of your kingship and your kingdom. Greatness. I cannot wait. By faith we see it. By faith
we believe it. I cannot wait to enter in with
these feet. Job said, I know with these eyes
I'm gonna see the Lord. With these feet I'm gonna enter
in. And I can't wait, we have a great king, a glorious king
with a glorious kingdom. He's great in who he is, he's
great in how he cares for his kingdom. Verse 14 says, the Lord
upholdeth all that fall and raiseth up all those that be bowed down
over sin. That's who the Lord upholds,
that's who the Lord raises up. The broken, the contrite, that's
who he hears, over sin. Verse 15, the eyes of all wait
upon thee and thou givest them their meat in due season. Everything
comes from him. He's the source of everything.
Verse 16, thou openest thy hand and satisfies the desire of every
living thing. And he does. It all comes from
his hand. Now, every verse in this psalm
really deserves a whole message. Every verse deserves a whole
message. But sincerely, we may need to
come back and look at these next few verses a little longer, spend
a little more time on them. Just think about this. Verse
17, the Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all
his works. That word holy means merciful,
bountiful. Verse 18, the Lord is nigh unto
all them that call upon him. You know, we call upon him truly
when we're in need. When we're not in need, it's
lip service. We wish it wasn't, but it is. But when we find ourselves
in deep trouble need, we start calling on Him. Here's His promise
to us. The great God who cannot lie. Look at verse 18. The Lord is
nigh unto all them that call upon Him. He said in Isaiah 45,
I'm sitting right beside you holding your hand. You don't
know it. It goes on to say to all them
that call upon him in truth. And that means sincerity, most
definitely, but more so than that, that means Christ. All
that call upon him in Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, verse
19, he will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. He will,
he also will hear their cry and will save them. He, He, He. He will fulfill the desire. He
will hear their cry. He will save them. Verse 20 says,
the Lord preserveth all them that love Him, but all the wicked
will He destroy. If we love Him, do we love Him?
If we love Him, it's because He first loved us. He gets the
credit and the glory. He first loved us. Verse 21 says,
my mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord. My mouth shall speak
the praise of the Lord. I pray that that my mouth never
stopped speaking that I prayed that that is never no longer
my message. Never. I pray that we praise
the Lord and honor the Lord and give greatness and glory to the
Lord from here on out. Verse 21 says, My mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless His holy
name forever and ever. To close, we'll circle back to
verse 3. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. Amen.