Psalm 135. I want us to worship the Lord
tonight. That's what I want us to do.
I know that that's our intent every time we come here. But
sometimes we come dwelling on a need that we have. I consider
Wednesday night to be a night of comfort. This is a night to
get us over the hump of the week. A lot of times we come here dwelling
on with comfort that we need and help that we need. Tonight,
I just want to turn our eyes to him. We're just going to look
at him and focus on him. I want us to dwell on him and
I want us to see him as he is and worship him as he is for
who he is. Psalm 135 verse one says, praise
ye the Lord. That's what hallelujah means.
When we sing hallelujah, that means praise ye the Lord. And that's all I wanna do tonight.
Just praise Him and worship Him and lift Him up and exalt Him
to the place where He deserves to be. Verse 1 says, Praise ye
the LORD. Praise ye the name of the LORD. What is the name of the LORD?
What is His name? Well, His name is Jehovah, God. That's His name. He told Moses
that his name is I am, and that means God. I am God. He told Isaiah that his name is
Emmanuel. That means God with us. The angel told Mary that his
name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Call his name Jesus. for he shall
save his people from their sins. Emmanuel, God with us. The Apostle
Peter said, there is no other name given among men whereby
we must be saved. The Apostle Paul said, because
of the salvation that he accomplished for his people, he said, the
Father has given him a name that is above every name. And the Father said to all the
world, hear Him. Worship Him, praise Him. Verse one says, praise ye the
Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord. Praise Him, O ye servants of
the Lord. Ye that stand in the house of
the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, Praise the
Lord, for the Lord is good. That's a good thing to underline
in your Bible. The Lord is good. We're going to see His goodness
in the rest of this psalm. But just look at Psalm 136, the
next psalm over. Psalm 136 verse 1 says, O give
thanks unto the Lord, For he is good. That means because he
is good. And he is good because his mercy
endureth forever. Verse 2 says, O give thanks unto
the God of gods. Why? For his mercy endureth forever. O give thanks to the Lord of
lords. for His mercy endureth forever. To Him who alone doeth
great wonders, for His mercy endureth forever. To Him that
by wisdom made the heavens, for His mercy endureth forever. You
know, a lot of people believe you can lose your salvation.
Wouldn't you hate to believe that? Wouldn't you hate to believe
that? Think about it. You have all
that good news. God saved you. Now don't mess
it up. Just think about this. His mercy
endureth. If he ever had mercy, he will
always have mercy. His mercy endureth forever. You talk about good. You talk
about good. His mercy endureth forever. His mercy that he will have on
sinners. That mercy that covers our sin,
that's what it does, it covers our sin. You talk about good,
He takes that robe of righteousness and covers our sin, just wraps
us up in it. That mercy and that goodness
endures forever. This is what we say when the
Lord reveals these things to us and we see something, we say,
oh, our sin is so bad. That's what we say. Our sin is
so bad, the holy law of God cries, yeah, but the blood of Christ
is so good. It is so good. It is so clean.
It is so pure. It is so spotless. In His mercy,
He covered our sin in His own blood. And that covering will
last forever. Eternal redemption, that'll last
forever. Go back to Psalm 135. Verse 3 says, Praise the Lord,
for the Lord is good. Sing praises unto His name, for
it is pleasant. Just listen to this and see if
it sounds pleasant to you. This is what the scripture calls
Him, alright? This is what the scripture says
His name is. The Lord, our righteousness. That's what Jeremiah 23 said.
His name would be called the Lord, our righteousness, the
Lord, our perfection before God, the Lord, our good deeds. You
know, we say, I know I'm not perfect enough before God. I
know I'm not. I know I'm not doing the good
deeds that God requires of me. I read in this holy law what
he says he requires of man, and I know I'm not doing that. Well, see if you can find pleasantness
in this. Christ is our perfection before
God. Christ is our good deeds. We have good deeds before God. Christ is our good deeds. Christ is every good deed God
will ever require of us. The Lord is our righteousness. That's so pleasant to me. The
Lord is our peace. The Lord is our rest. The Lord
is our shepherd. The Lord is our healer. The Lord is our redeemer. The
Lord is our friend. That's pleasant. Verse 3 says,
Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praises unto His
name, for it's pleasant. Singing is pleasant and His name
is pleasant. Verse 4 says, For the Lord hath
chosen Jacob unto Himself. Who is Jacob? We let that roll
off the tongue. The Lord chose Jacob. Who is
Jacob? Jacob was the worthless, no good,
lying, cheating sinner. That's who Jacob was. Verse four
says, the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself and Israel for his
peculiar treasure. The Lord has chosen the sinner
for His peculiar treasure of all the things that heaven could
offer Him or earth could offer Him. The Lord chose sinners for
His peculiar treasure. He's chosen to call to Himself
sinners for a peculiar treasure. Yes. Verse 5 says, For I know
that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep
places. Did you know that God does whatever
He pleases? Do you know that? Not many people
do. Not many people do. You just
think about this. God does whatever He pleases. A God who cannot do whatever
He's pleased to do is not God. If He wants to but can't, He's
not God. If he's trying but needs help,
he's not God. If I have to let him, just think
about that. If I have to let him, he's not
God. God does whatever he pleases
and that's what the Lord has done. And that's reason to worship
him. That's reason to praise his name. Verse six is whatsoever the Lord
pleased that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and
all deep places. What did it please the Lord to
do? Whatever He was pleased to do, that's what He did. What
did it please Him to do? Very quickly, turn to a couple of
places with me. Go to 1 Samuel chapter 12. 1 Samuel chapter
12. First Samuel 12, verse 20. And Samuel said unto the people,
fear not, you have done all this wickedness. Every time I read
that, I pause and think about that. What an amazing statement.
Fear not, you've done all this wickedness. You're just so, so
wicked. Yet turn not aside from following
the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And turn
ye not aside, for then should you go after vain things which
cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. For the Lord will
not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it
hath pleased the Lord to make you His people. It pleased the
Lord to choose a people. The Lord has done whatever He
was pleased to do. What did it please Him to do?
It pleased Him to choose a people. And it pleased the Lord to choose
sinners to be those people. His particular people, His elect,
that peculiar treasure. All right, now turn with me to
Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 verse 10 says, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him, Christ. It pleased the Father to bruise
Christ. You know, why did Christ die on the cross?
Why did He die on the cross? because that's what it pleased
the Father for Him to do. The end of verse 6 says, the
Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all, all of His chosen
people. If we will get honest and if
we will look at ourselves, we will think, we will say, how
could God save me? If we get honest, if we really
get honest, we will think, how could God save me? How could
he not punish me for what I've done and what I am and what I
think? How could there be any hope for
me? Well, here's the answer. It pleased the Lord to punish
Christ instead of me. That's the answer. It pleased the Lord to punish
Christ for everything that I've done and everything that I am
and everything that I think. And it pleased the Lord to reward
me for everything that Christ has done. You think about everything
that the Lord Jesus Christ has done. He went about doing good. The Lord is good. He heals all
iniquities, every soul that comes to Him. He'll heal your diseases. He's so good. And it pleased
the Father to reward His people with all the good that Christ
has done. And it pleased the Lord to reward
Christ or punish Christ for all the evil and all the wickedness
that we have done. A total trading of places. That's
the only hope any sinner has before God. There's no hope in
trying to reform And here's what I want to say
about that. Do we, you know, just because salvation is not
in our obedience to the law, but in Christ's obedience to
the law, do we make void the law? God forbid. I'd rather somebody
try to reform. I'd rather somebody try to be
a good person. It's more pleasant. It's more, but there's no salvation
in it. There's no salvation in turning
up. People want to turn over a new leaf so they can be saved.
Well, that's not how men and women are saved. The only hope that any sinner
has before God is that it pleased the Lord to bruise Christ for
the sin of His people. That's the only hope. Now, for
the sake of time, we won't turn. We've turned to those before,
but there are many other verses that tell us what it pleased
the Lord to do. It says, it pleased the Lord
to put all fullness in Christ. That's what Colossians one says,
all fullness in him, all the fullness of everything. It's
in Christ. It's not in the church. It's
not in the preacher. It's in him. It says that it pleased the Lord
to save his people through the preaching of the gospel. Why
do we preach? God is sovereign. He has an elect. They're going
to be saying, why do we preach? Why do we preach? Please the
Lord by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Galatians
one says it pleased the Lord to reveal Christ, Paul said,
but when it pleased God, he revealed his son in me. With each one
of those, we can see If it pleased the Lord to do it, He did it.
Whatever it pleased Him to do, He did it. All right, go with
me back to Psalm 135. Verse 5 says, For I know that
the Lord is great and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven and in earth, in the
seas, and all deep places." Everything that happens, He's the one who
has done it. And I can't explain that, but
we can believe it by the faith He's given. Everything that happens,
he's the one who has done it. We need to give credit where
the credit is due. We need to give glory where the
glory is due. It doesn't matter whether we're
talking about heaven or earth or the sea or any deep place. Everything that happens, he's
the one who has done it. Nothing happens outside of his
control. Nothing happens without His permission. Nothing. Verse 7 says, He causeth
the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He maketh
lightnings for the rain. He bringeth the wind out of His
treasuries. Hurricanes, tornadoes. He does
all that. Verse eight says, he's the one
who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast. All that death that happened,
he did that. In Deuteronomy 32, he said, I
kill and I make alive. I wound, I heal, I'm the one
who does all these things. Verse nine says, who sent tokens
and wonders in the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon
all his servants. All those plagues that came,
all those pestilences and diseases that came. He said, I did that.
Verse 10, who smoked great nations and slew mighty kings. Think
about that wording, smoked, slew. kings and nations of people. The Lord said, I did that. Verse
11, Sion, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all
the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave their land for inheritance unto
Israel his people. He said, I took land from the
enemy and I gave it to my people. I did that. Took it away from
them. And I gave it to them. I did
that. Reading this will cause us to
realize that we're dealing with God here. We're dealing with
God, the true and living God. When it talks about all these
other gods it's about to mention, that's man's imagination. That's
a God that man has made up and he says, well, I think God is
like this. So he forms him a God first in
his mind and then with his hands. And seeing that there's one true
and living God, that's what will strike fear. But that realization
causes God's people to say this in return. Verse 13, thy name,
O Lord, endureth forever, and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout
all generations. It'll cause all of God's people
to say, we bow, we worship, we praise. Verse 14 says, for the
Lord will judge His people, and He did in Christ. He did in Himself. For the Lord will judge his people
and he will repent himself concerning his servants. That word repent
means to sigh, to breathe heavily, to console oneself. It means
to go. The Lord will console himself
concerning his servants. Verse 15 says, the idols of the
heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. The
work of men's hands. I don't want a God that is the
work of my hands. Do you? A God that is at the mercy of
what I'm going to do with it. or what I'm gonna make of it,
that God can't help me. And that's the God that's being
preached to men and women. What are you gonna do with Jesus? Well, does it matter at that
point? That God can't help me. If that's my God, then it means
I'm gonna have to help myself. What do you mean, what am I gonna
do with him? That's me helping myself. It means I'm my own God is what
it means. And that won't do anybody any
good. I need a God who I am in His hands. That's what I need.
I need a God who I am in His hands. And I need a God, honestly,
this is what Gabe Stoniker needs. I need a God who will mold me
and fashion me after whatever He wants me to be. That's what
I need. I need a God who can make me
to be whatever He wants me to be. If He tells me, this is what
I want you to be, I can't be that on my own. So I need a God
who can make me to be whatever He wants me to be. Verse 15 says,
the idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of
men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear
not. Neither is there any breath in
their mouth." And you'll hear some go on to
say, you know, they have no hands but your hands. However you want
to word that. They'll fashion hands, but they
have not hands. And what this means is they're
dead. They are dead. They are dead. Verse 18 says,
they that make them are like unto them. So is everyone that
trusteth in them. They're dead, dead in trespasses
and sins. We need a living God. We need a living God, one who
can quicken us and make us alive like He is. That's what we need. And that's exactly what we have
in Jesus Christ, our Savior. We have the only living God that
there is. He is the God of heaven and earth. And more personally, He is the
God of me and He's the God of you. He is the God whose sovereign
hand everything is in. And we're in it by means of salvation and by
means of good, if He has given us the eyes of faith to see Him
as He is. I will, by God's grace, never
get to a place where I'm tired of telling men and women, this
is how you can know you belong to Him. This is where your comfort
can come from. We are in His sovereign hands
for salvation and mercy and good, if He has given us eyes to see
Him as He is, and a heart to bow before Him for who He is,
and a heart to love Him for who He is. Verse 19 says, Bless the Lord,
O house of Israel. Bless the Lord, O house of Aaron. Bless the Lord, O house of Levi. Ye that fear the Lord, bless
the Lord. Blessed be the Lord, out of Zion,
which dwelleth at Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. All glory
and praise to the Lamb that was slain, who has borne all our
sins and has cleansed every stain. Hallelujah, thine the glory.
Hallelujah, amen. Praise ye the Lord.