If you will open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 138 Psalm 138 And look with me in verse one
of Psalm 138. Here David says, I will praise
thee with my whole heart. For our Bible study this morning,
I want us to consider this matter of praising the Lord. I want
to show us three reasons why we ought to praise the Lord.
And Psalm 138 will be our text. And I just said it in the prayer,
but I pray the Lord would truly enable us to worship and praise
him. I really do. Look with me at verse one again.
It says, I will praise thee with my whole heart. Before the gods
will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy
temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy
truth. For thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. The first reason we are to praise
our Lord is because God has magnified His Word above all His name. Now what does that mean? I'm
not going to pretend to sound like I know just what all that
means. That is so glorious to me. But I know this. Jesus Christ
is Himself the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is the Word.
He's the brightness of God's glory. God's glory is in the
face of Jesus Christ, and He's the express image of His person.
In Him, in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
I take that to mean God has magnified Christ above all his name. Now if he's been magnified above
all God's name, he's certainly been magnified above everything.
Everything. Christ is all. Christ is all. Turn over with me to Philippians
chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. And look at verse five. Paul writes, let this mind be
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion
as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, magnified him. and giving him a name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. God has magnified him
above everything. Christ is all. God has highly
exalted him and highly honored him and given him a name which
is above every name. Every knee is going to bow to
him and every tongue will confess that he's Lord. So here's my,
here's the unction, here's the exhortation. Let us praise him. If God has highly exalted him,
God has magnified him above everything, above all his name, let us praise
him. Let us praise him. Look back
at our text, Psalm 138. Like David, may we be determined
to praise God With our whole heart he said i'll praise you
with my whole heart before the little g gods will i sing praise
unto thee before? everything and everybody Lord
i'm gonna praise you Determined to praise you with all my heart
and you know this The lord jesus christ he deserves all our praise
Does he not you know we we give so many things our attention
I'll just be honest with you in studying for the message it
so many things so easily distract me You know it's it's shameful. I heard Gabe say a few weeks
ago You know he'll be sitting there and reading and reading
and he has nothing then it just occurs I haven't even asked for
I haven't even prayed Lord. Please help me I And if it's
even a struggle for God's servants to find His message, is it not
needful for us to be reminded to praise the Lord? Praise the
Lord. I pray that we would. He deserves
all the praise we could ever give Him and so much more. Let
us praise Him. He goes on to say in verse 1,
He said, will I sing praise unto thee. You know, these hymns of
praise that we sing. I can't sing, but I'm happy to
make a noise and pray that the Lord would cause it to be a joyful
noise unto him. You know, there's a lot of popular
songs that come out and we download them, put them on our phone,
listen to them. And my confession is that no matter how much I
like it, when it first comes out, eventually it gets old.
Do any of these hymns ever get old to us? These hymns of praise
to our God, they never get old, they're always fresh, they're
always new. Love singing hymns of praise unto my God. We can
tell just from these first two verses, David was determined
to praise God and he was determined to worship Him. He said in verse
two, I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name
for thy loving kindness and for thy truth. I pray God would give
us such a heart. I pray that he would give us
such a heart that would be filled with praise and worship for our
great Redeemer. And David said, I'll praise thy
name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth. God in loving
kindness. has revealed his truth unto us. He has revealed Christ, the truth,
in us. Aren't you glad? We all came forth from our mother's
womb speaking lies. We speak lies, believe lies,
tell lies about many things, but about God first and foremost.
God has revealed his truth unto us. How we ought to praise him
for that. It's so kind, so gracious. God
has loved us with an everlasting love and he's not left us alone
in the dark. Let us praise him. For thou hast
magnified thy word above all thy name. Christ is all. Let
us praise him. Now look with me at verse three.
David went on and said, in the day when I cried, thou answerest
me and strengthenest me with strength in my soul. All the
kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear
the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways
of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. The second reason we are to praise
our God is because he is so glorious. Christ is all and he is so glorious
infinitely glorious great is the glory of the Lord great is
the Magnificence the splendor the excellence of Christ Psalm
145 verse 3 says great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
and his greatness is unsearchable That means as great as we think
him and believe him to be He's far greater far greater Let us
praise him And he alone is glorious. He alone gets glory. All glory
must go to Christ. In Psalm 115, the psalmist said,
not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. Unto thy name alone, for thy
mercy and for thy truth's sake. Only Christ is worthy of any
glory. And he's worthy of all glory.
After all, it is he whom God has magnified above all his name.
You and I have nothing whereof to boast. You know, we all, first
of all, we all, the Lord, if the Lord has saved us, he brought
us out of this, but we're all surrounded by co-workers and
people in the world. We see a lot of religious boasting. And I'm not wanting to put anybody
down but myself because there's nothing more foolish than for
us or anybody to boast of our religion, our faith, baptism,
profession, whatever it is, devotion. There's no room for boasting.
What do the scriptures say? For by grace are you saved through
faith. It's God's grace, the faith of
Christ that God puts in us, that God gives us. By grace are you
saved through faith, and that's not of ourselves, not of works,
lest any man should boast. It's the gift of God. Salvation
is the gift of God. And if Christ has saved us freely
by His grace, we do not want to boast, do we? We want to boast
of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Where is boasting
then? It is excluded. By what law of
works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Turn over with me to 1 Corinthians
1. And you can go ahead and put
a bookmark or a bulletin here. We're gonna come back to Corinthians. Look with me in 1 Corinthians
1 verse 20. This matter of boasting and God
getting all the glory. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 20 says,
where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach
Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the
Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and
the weakness of God is stronger than man. For you see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. That takes away all our boasting.
It's not because we're strong, it's not because we're mighty,
not because we're wise, look at verse 27, but God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty, and base things of the world and things which
are despised hath God chosen. Yea, and things which are not
to bring to naught things that are. Why would God do this? that no flesh should glory in
his presence. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, he's our wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. I
said I pray the Lord enable us to praise and worship him. Let
us glory in the Lord. You know, by nature, we all think
we're so wise, we're proud. Let us glory in Christ. He's
so glorious, brethren, so glorious. God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us glory in
him alone. Now keep your bookmark here in
Corinthians and look back at our text. In verse three, we see that David
was crying unto God. He was in a state of weakness
and tears. And I say, what a blessed place
to be. What a blessed place to be. You
know, we have 150 Psalms. These are songs of praise unto
God. And many of them have words like,
I lift up my eyes and I'm crying unto Thee, O Lord, and hearken
unto me, hear my cry. It is a great thing to be weak
spiritually. It's a great thing to have a
need and to be crying unto the Lord. Turn over to 2 Corinthians
chapter 12. Look with me, 2 Corinthians chapter
12, verse 7. The Lord had caught Paul up into
the third heavens and he saw things that weren't lawful for
man to utter. And here in verse 7 he says, lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of the revelations. There was
given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing
I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And
he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength
is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. And the very next verse, he says,
I'm become a fool in glory. Paul said, if anyone has whereof
to glory in the flesh, I'm more. And here he tells us, God forbid
that I should glory. God gave him a thorn in the flesh
to keep him from glorying, to keep him down, to lay him low.
And he says, you know what? I'm going to glory in my infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. When I'm weak,
then am I strong because Christ alone is my strength. I pray
that it would be so with us, that Christ alone is all our
strength. And look back in our text again, in verse four. All the kings of the earth, now
David was a king, just keep that in mind. All the kings of the
earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy
mouth. They shall sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is
the glory of the Lord. If God ever enables us to hear
the words of His mouth. If God ever speaks to us by His
word, you know what we're gonna do? We will praise Him. When we come here week in and
week out, and God is pleased to speak to us through the foolishness
of preaching, and we're enabled for just a moment to enter into
His word, to see Christ in His glory, and we praise Him for
it. We praise Him. If God ever speaks
to us, we will praise him and we will, like David, sing in
the ways of the Lord. For great is the glory of our
Lord. Now, for our third and final
reason, let us read verses six through eight. Though the Lord
be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. But the proud
he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine
hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall
save me. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the works of thine
own hands. The third reason I urge us to
rejoice and praise the Lord is because our God will never forsake
us. He will never forsake us. David
prayed, Lord forsake not the works of thine own hands. David
knew that he was the work of God's hands. Turn over with me
to 1 Samuel chapter 12. David said, Lord, You will perfect
that which concerneth me. He said, Thy mercy endureth forever. Lord, please don't forsake the
works of Your hands. He knew, by God's grace, that God had
begun a work in him. He was praying, Lord, I'm Your
work. Don't forsake me. Don't leave me. And look here
in 1 Samuel 12, verse 22. Samuel said, 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. Do you not love that? The Lord
will not forsake his people for his great name's sake. It pleased
the Lord to make you his people. Now I must say, how can I know
if I'm included in that? I have got to know. Because I
know this, it's not talking about everybody, we know that. How
can I know if I'm one of his people? And look back at our
text at verse six. Psalm 138 verse six says, though
the Lord be high and holy, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. But the proud he knoweth afar
off. Who are God's people? Who are those? Who are the works
of his hands? The lowly. You know, Christ said,
coming to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give
you rest. He said, learn of me. I am meek and lowly in heart.
And by God's grace, I trust that we have learned of him, that we are lowly. You know,
the lowly and the proud, It's a very distinct difference. God
has nothing. Christ will profit nothing. The self-righteous Pharisee.
Again, that's every one of us by nature. Self-righteous, no
need of God, no need of Christ. We boast of ourselves. We're
fine. That's all of us until God saves us by his grace. But
if God has saved us by his grace, no longer are we proud and haughty,
but we are lowly. What that means is Christ came
to save nobodies. I've met a lot of people that
are somebody, and the Lord has revealed unto me that Christ
didn't come for the somebodies. He's somebody. He's the only
somebody that ever has been. He's the great I am. You and
I are nothings. We're nobodies. And that's okay. In fact, that's wonderful. Christ
came to save sinners. He came not to call the righteous,
the self-righteous, those that see some good in them. He came
to save worthless, vile, wretched sinners. It's a good thing to
be a sinner. And you know what I mean by that.
God, be merciful to me, the sinner, the difference between the proud
and the lowly. Lord, look what I've done. I'm
not like him. God, be merciful to me. I'm nothing. I'm nothing. Those are the works
of God's hands, the lowly. I believe that every child of
God can confess this. Lord, you can forget my works. We read in Matthew 7, many will
come to the Lord boasting of their works. And he'll say, I
never knew you. If we've been saved by grace,
we confess, Lord, throw our works away. Don't even acknowledge
them, but don't forsake your own. Don't forsake your own. Lord, I'm the work of your hands.
Don't forsake your own works. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
64. Isaiah chapter 64. Look at verse 6. Isaiah 64 6
says, but we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses,
all our works, are as filthy rags. We all do fade as a leaf,
and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. Lord, I'm
vile. Verse 7, and there's none that
calleth upon thy name. There's none that stirreth up
himself to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from
us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. But now, O
Lord, thou art our father. We are the clay, and thou our
potter, and we all are the work of thy hand. We are God's work. I love those three verses. Lord,
I'm nothing. All my works, my righteousnesses,
they're none. They're filthy rags. Lord, I never sought you. I never laid hold on you. I never
would have. But we're your work. We're thy
work. We are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. And our comfort in this is that
God will not forsake one of His own. The Lord will not forsake
His people. He will not forsake one of His
vessels of mercy aforeprepared unto glory. He won't do it. He
made us for His glory. Surely He will keep us and see
to it that we are in glory with our Savior forever. He will.
But here we're going to see the beauty of the gospel. Why God
will not forsake one of His own. Here's why. because the Lord
Jesus Christ was forsaken in our stead. We believe a substitution
gospel where Christ died, Christ did everything in our place.
He went to the cross so that we could go free. He was made sin to make us the
righteousness of God in him. He went down into the grave,
down into the pit, to bring us up into glory. He was forsaken. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He was forsaken of God, his Father,
so that we could be forgiven. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. That's good news. If that's not
good news to somebody, then I'm sorry. I have nothing for you. God has nothing for you. That's
the good news. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had
left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. That's
the gospel. Look at our text, verse seven. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine
hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall
save me. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever.
Forsake not the works of thine own hands. David lived a very troubled life. King Saul was always trying to
kill him. David had many enemies. All throughout
the Psalms, he wrote about, Lord, deliver me from the hands of
mine enemies. And the comfort is that in the midst of our troubles,
the Lord will revive us again. The Lord will revive us. The
Lord will save us. He is our Savior. That's what
he does. He saves. He's promised, and we know that
he is able to deliver us, and he will deliver us from every
single trial, every single trouble. He will. Paul said in Philippians
chapter one, he said, I'm confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. David said, the Lord will perfect
that which concerneth me. God began a work in us. We can
mark it down. He's gonna perform it. He will
finish that work. He will perfect it. Bob, I remember you preached
on this not long ago. God is for us. What a comfort. What a comfort. God is for us,
brethren. God performeth all things just
for us. And David knew by blessed experience,
perhaps not so blessed at the time of the experience, but afterwards,
the Lord made it a blessed experience to him. He taught him, David,
my grace is sufficient for you. Whatever it is. We go through
various trials in this life. I know I'm young and I'm not
gonna pretend I've been through anything. I know I haven't. But
I look around and I see people who have a little, a few that
have a little age on them. And I know you've been through
some trials. But I pray that God's taught
you it's okay. The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
My grace is sufficient for thee. You know, if the Lord enables
us to live with that in our heart, you know, maybe we'll just be
able to get through the day. My grace is sufficient for thee,
and not only the day, but our life, however many days we have.
My grace, what God sends us thorns in the, if we're his, he's gonna
send us some thorns. He's gonna send us some thorns that we might
lean only on Christ. That we might lean only on him
and glory in him alone. Lastly, David had said, thy mercy,
O Lord, endureth forever. What a comfort. I want to read
you part of a hymn that I love to sing. It thrills my soul. It says, love of Christ so freely
given, grace of God beyond degree, mercy higher than the heaven,
deeper than the deepest sea. We cannot measure the mercy of
God. It's so vast. It's so wonderful. It's so strong. God's mercy endureth. You think of something that endureth.
I just bought a new car battery. They said this should last you
five to six years. It's endurance is five to six years. God's mercy
lasts a lot longer than that. I've known people, Henry and
Doris, have been married a long time. Their marriage has endured
a long time. God's mercy will endure a lot
longer than that. God's mercy endureth forever. And the comfort
in that is that God's mercy has always been enough, and it will
always be enough for every single sinner who's relying fully on
it. God, be merciful to me. The Lord
will not forsake the works of his own hands. Praise his name.
Psalm 104.31 says, the glory of the Lord shall endure forever. The Lord shall rejoice in his
works. Christ is all. God's magnified
him above all his name. He is so glorious, infinitely
glorious. And one day we're going to behold
him in his glory. And he will never leave us nor forsake us.
What a comfort. Brethren, let us rejoice and
praise the Lord with our whole heart. All right, you're dismissed.