A CALL TO PRAISE. One of my thoughts in preparing this message is
WHAT IS INVOLVED IN PRAISING GOD? Well, call on to praise
Him. What is involved? in praising
God, because what is involved in praising God is involved in
worshiping God. To praise God, one must be BORN
of God. The carnal mind CANNOT and WILL
NOT praise God, because praise comes from the HEART, and the carnal mind, the carnal
man, the natural man has no heart, he has no heart, no mind to praise
God. Here are a few things before
I get into this message, here are a few things involved in
praising God. First, it is to acknowledge His
EXISTENCE, God IS. THAT IS THE FIRST POINT OF WORSHIP,
IS THAT WE WORSHIP AND PRAISE THE GOD THAT IS, NOT THAT THERE
IS A GOD, BUT THE GOD THAT IS. THAT'S THE FIRST POINT, IS TO
ACKNOWLEDGE HIS EXISTENCE. SECONDLY, IT IS TO ACKNOWLEDGE
HIS GREATNESS. WHO IS COMPARED, HE SAID, LIKE
UNTO ME. over in Psalm 145 verse 3, Great
is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is
unsearchable. There is no searching out of
the greatness of God. We cannot exhaust that search.
Thirdly, it is to acknowledge His sovereignty and power over
all. God rules over all right now,
I mean not later but now, He does so now. It is to acknowledge
His holiness and majesty, glory. Fifthly, it is to acknowledge
His love and provision both physically and spiritually for us Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Give us, Lord, our daily bread. And we acknowledge this continually. This is what it is to praise
the Lord. And then sixthly and lastly, it is to acknowledge
His faithfulness and His mercy to us in Christ, His faithfulness
to His covenant, to Himself, His own nature, TO HIS PEOPLE,
TO US. GOD IS FAITHFUL, AND WE PRAISE
HIM FOR HIS FAITHFULNESS TO US AND TO THAT COVENANT HE MADE
WITH HIS SON JESUS CHRIST CONCERNING US. Have you ever sat down and
think that your name is in a covenant? That your name is written in
the Lamb's Book of Life? Your name. Your name. You who believe. Your name. is
written in the Lamb's Book of Life in Heaven, YOUR NAME. That's personal, isn't it? That's
personal. You write somebody's name, that's
personal. Now we have come to what are
called the HALLELUJAH PSALMS. God be praised! Praising God
from whom all blessings flow is what we do. and His PRAYER
SHALL HAVE NO END AMONG THE HEAVENLY HOSTS." It starts here right
now on this earth and it will continue throughout eternity. We will sing, TO GOD BE THE GLORY,
FOR GREAT THINGS HE HATH DONE. WORTHY IS THE LAMB. We know that
song being sung. WORTHY IS THE LAMB. Now Doug mentioned this, each psalm starts with, Praise
ye the Lord, and ends with, Praise ye the Lord. This psalm all the
way through Psalm 150. There are no requests in these
psalms. You know, we've gone through the psalms, and how many
requests have there been? I mean, you get over to Psalm
144, and there's a lot of requests. There's a lot of, Lord, help
me! Lord, save me! Lord, deliver
me! show up on my behalf and what a way for the Psalms to
end what a way for them to end in absolute praise it ends like
it's in heaven nothing but praise and honor and glory to the lord
god of heaven and earth now he says here in verse one praise
you the lord praise the lord oh my soul the psalmist calls
upon the and i got this from a writer I don?t know the man,
but it was in Spurgeon?s Treasure of David, and I liked what he
said. He says here, ?The psalmist calls
upon the noblest element of his being to exercise his noblest
function.? You know that?s what we were made for. We were made
to praise God. I?ll read you a scripture on
that in a minute. ?Praise is not without reason. And we are going to see some
of those reasons, but let me give you just a few right now.
And I gave a few of them to you already, but here are a few reasons. First of all, the BEING of God,
God IS, but it doesn?t stop there. It doesn?t stop there. God is
HOLY. God is JUST. God is LOVE. God is GRACIOUS. God is MERCIFUL.
God is SLOW TO ANGER. These are reasons to praise God. We praise Him for loving us and
choosing us and sending His Son to die for us. I have family
members, religious up to here to the eyeballs, but they don't
believe this gospel. And why do I? Why me? Why you? Even so, Lord, it seemed good
in thy sight. That's why. And he says here, Oh, my soul,
I'm not to be a hypocrite telling you to praise the Lord while
my soul is on something else. What struck me with this with
this one and when he says oh my soul I catch myself preaching
to you week after week and I will say you and you and this you
and then I catch myself and I said no wait a minute I'm preaching
to me too It's not just you it's also me and David says to praise
you the Lord but oh my soul it's like he reminds himself if David
wrote this there's no name on these these four songs but many
believe David did but I'm not to be a hypocrite in this especially
being your pastor I'm to be the leader of praise here while I live while I live on
this earth This is something we need to get a hold of. I need
to get a hold of it. You need to get a hold of it. While I
live, while I live, will I praise the Lord? My life will be in
such a manner, it will be lived in such a manner, it will be
lived in praise to the Lord. I will sing praises unto my God. Will I have any being? MY WHOLE EXISTENCE IS CONSECRATED
TO THE LORD FOR TIME AND ETERNITY. HAVE I LEARNED THIS? I wrote
this in before coming out here. HAVE I LEARNED THIS? THAT MY
WHOLE EXISTENCE IS CONSECRATED TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. That
L-O-R-D there is Jehovah, that s the Lord Jesus Christ. I listen here in Isaiah 43 21
this people have I formed for myself they shall show forth
my praise they shall do it God's gonna see to it that his children
those him he formed for himself they shall show forth his praise
And I thank God I'm having a part in that. I'm glad, I thank God
I have a part in that. Without the Lord we wouldn't
have a being. While I live and while I have
a being, without Him I wouldn't have a being, I wouldn't exist. We exist because of Him and for
Him. Listen here to Colossians Chapter
1 verse 16-17, For by Him are all things created, that are
in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers. All things were created
by Him and for Him. And He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist, or are held together. John 1.3,
all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything
made that was made. I like what Paul said in Acts
17.28, for in Him we live and move and have our being. Now, what not to do and why,
in verse 3. PUT NOT YOUR TRUST IN PRINCES.
We are so prone to that, aren't we? We are so prone to put OUR
TRUST, OUR CONFIDENCE, AND OUR HOPE IN A MAN, nor in the Son
of Man, in whom there's no help. There's no help, not the kind
of help I need. HE CAN'T HELP ME IN THE AREA
I REALLY NEED IT SPIRITUALLY. I NEED LIFE. LIFE FROM THE DEAD. I NEED FORGIVENESS. I NEED MERCY. I NEED PARDON. I NEED JUSTIFICATION.
DO YOU KNOW ANY MAN ON THIS EARTH WHO CAN GO BEFORE GOD AND GET
THAT FOR YOU? NO. DON'T PUT YOUR TRUST IN ANY HUMAN
BEING, HERE'S WHY, THERE'S NO HELP IN HIM. Now, you know, we
trust one another to do things, but that's different than what
he's saying here. You know, I may trust you to,
you know, I trust Jane to take care of my dog. She comes over
and lets him out, and we feel very comfortable about it. But
that's not a trust here that he's speaking of, it's a trust
of your SOUL. It's a trust of your well-being
on this earth for time and eternity. There's no help in Him, He can't
even help Himself. The Scripture says His flesh
is grass, all flesh is grass. Would you invest in dying grass? This struck me, put not your
trust in princes. We just had an election. And I will admit, when Donald
Trump won the presidency, I felt at ease. I had an easy feeling
about it, that maybe the Lord's gonna continue this thing on. And then I read this. It's like
this, the Word of God brings us into focus, doesn't it? Don't
put your trust even in Him. HE CAN ONLY DO WHAT GOD ALLOWS
HIM TO DO! NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN THAT
GOD DOES NOT ALLOW TO DO! THIS IS THE LORD'S! THIS IS THE
LORD'S! I was reading in Daniel a few
weeks ago, and you can do it over in Revelation, you read
about this beast and this coming up out of the sea and it has
two heads and all this stuff. And I thought, you know, and
these represented kingdoms and kings and he's talking about, I thought all of this he's showing
us is what's going to happen. And he's controlling every bit
of it. You and I are watching the purpose of God develop. That's
what we're watching. So let's be careful because it's
in us. DON'T PUT YOUR TRUST AND CONFIDENCE
IN A MAN, PUT IT IN GOD. Put it in God. Don't put it in riches, don't
put it in princes, those who have a high office. Don't do
that. Here's something that I thought
of, and I thought this was sad. You could tell men and women
THAT THE GREAT PHYSICIAN CAN HEAL THEIR SOUL. SO LOOK TO HIM, AND IT HAS NO EFFECT ON THEM. IT HAS NO EFFECT ON THEM. TELL
THEM THAT A DOCTOR DOWN THE STREET CAN CURE CANCER, AND THEY'LL
FLOCK TO HIM, AND THEY'LL LOVE HIM, AND THEY'LL TELL EVERYBODY
ABOUT HIM. WHAT IF HE DOES CURE IT? I BET YOU STILL DIE. You're
still going to die. Put not your trust in princes.
Don't put your trust in a doctor, in a prince, or anything. Put
it in God, in the Lord. We're in the Son of Man, or any
man is what He's saying here. And the reason why, He says there's
no hell. He was born a mere mortal. He's born a mere mortal. He doesn't
know what's going to happen next. You want to trust somebody who
can't tell you what's going to happen the next minute? Or have
no control over the next minute? Why would you do that? Why would
I do that? Here's another reason to trust in the Lord. Or here's
another reason, I can't read my own writing, NOT to trust. Here's another reason NOT to
trust in men. Verse 4, because of His frailty. His breath goeth forth. He returns to His earth, and
in that very day His thoughts perish. Don't trust in man's... don't
do it. He's frail. He's frail. I got a story, I'm debating on
telling it, but I'm going to tell you this story. It's an
experience I had talking about trust. Not any man, not any man. I mean, even believers, we have
a trust with one another, but I trust the Lord, and you trust
the Lord. I'll fail you. Go through the
Scriptures and read how many of those who walked in ways that
pleased the Lord, but sooner or later they failed. Sooner
or later they failed on something. I was in business with a man,
a wealthy man. He came into business. I already
had the business, he came into business. And he wanted to invest
in it. He wanted to take the business
zip, I mean, from here to here. And I had told him I didn't think
we needed to do it because I said we can't afford it. We don't
have that kind of business. And he said, don't worry. He
said, don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. We borrowed about a million dollars. And he died. 56 years old. Died. Guess who got
left with that? I learned that lesson. Put not
your trust in it. Because listen, his breath goeth
forth. His breath, he's gonna die. If
he'd lived, he'd have taken care of him, but he didn't live. He
died. Man is, he's as frail as, if
he's a prince, he's as frail as anyone else. If he's a wealthy
man, he's as frail as anyone else. He's just as frail as anyone
else. Everyone is one. I want you to
listen to this. Of course, it means more to me
now than it did when I was young. Every person in this room and
on this earth, you are one breath away from eternity. One breath. His breath goeth forth. If he
doesn't draw it back, he's done. He's dead. Would you trust in something
so weak? When he dies, listen, when he
dies, everything he thought to do, good or bad, is over. It's over. I don't care if he had noble
thoughts. You know, I know what our President wants to do. He
has some noble thoughts. If he dies, those thoughts are
gone, and he's standing before God. LORD, MAKE MY THOUGHTS TO BE
OF YOU. Those are thoughts worth having.
And he returns to his earth, it's called his earth because
he made from it. You know, our bodies have all these minerals
in it, iron, zinc, magnesium, IT HAS ALL THESE TRACE MINERALS
IN OUR BODY BECAUSE OUR BODY CAME FROM THE EARTH! THAT?S WHY
IT HAS ALL THESE TRACE MINERALS IN IT! AND HE SAYS HE GOES BACK
TO HIS EARTH! ?Of dust thou art, and of this dust
shalt thou return.? Genesis 3.19. HIS FINAL THRONE! HIGH UP HE WAS, HIS FINAL THRONE
IS DUST! It s dust. But listen here, Not so with
God s children. Not so with God s children. When
their breath goes forth, they go to the glory to be absent
from the body and be present with the Lord. to be present with the Lord.
HAPPY IS HE! Boy, that changes here now, doesn't
it? It's like, let's get back to
this note of praise. HAPPY IS HE THAT HATH THE GOD
OF JACOB FOR HIS HELP, WHOSE HOPE IS IN THE LORD. Let me read
that again. WHOSE HOPE IS IN THE LORD HIS
GOD. His God. HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY! IS HE WHO
HAS THE GOD OF JACOB FOR HIS HELP? HAPPY IS HE WHO IS POSSESSED
BY THE GOD OF JACOB. IT SAYS HERE THAT HATH, HE'S
POSSESSED, GOD IS HIS GOD. GOD IS MY GOD. THE GOD OF JACOB,
WHEN YOU TURN HIM OVER TO GENESIS, You have time this week, turn
over to Genesis and read about Jacob, and how God dealt with
him, and how God led him, and how God kept him, and God brought
him back to Bethel, and that's my God, that's your God, same
God, same God. Now why? Why is he happy to have
the God of Jacob for his help? BECAUSE THE GOD OF JACOB IS A
JUST GOD AND A SAVIOR! That's why. He's a just God and
He's a Savior. He is the God who justifies and
saves. He's the God who has the POWER
to save. He's the God of salvation. He's
the God of covenant. And I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. And He is the God of Covenant,
He made a covenant with Him. And this God of Jacob, happy
is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help. And then He speaks
of His POWER! This is the God of Jacob, this
is OUR God, and He speaks of His POWER! He is no weak God! He made Heaven and Earth, and
He made them just by SPEAKING! HE SPOKE THEM INTO EXISTENCE.
HE DIDN'T TAKE THINGS LIKE US, WE TAKE THINGS THAT ARE ALREADY
EXISTING AND WE PUT THEM TOGETHER AND WE MAKE SOMETHING. GOD TOOK
NOTHING AND CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE
EARTH. HE CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE
EARTH. BUT NOW HE DIDN'T MAKE ADAM OUT OF NOTHING, HE MADE
HIM OUT OF THE DUST OF THE EARTH. HE MADE HIM FROM THE DUST OF
THE EARTH. THIS SPEAKS OF HIS POWER WHICH
MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH THE SEA, THE GREAT SEA, THAT POWERFUL
SEA THAT'S JUST SWARMING WITH LIFE. HE MADE IT. AND ALL, HE SAYS, ALL THAT THEREIN
IS. AND HE KEEPS TRUTH FOREVER. You see, it all belongs to Him,
but which keepeth truth forever, or it could be read like this,
He is faithful and true forever, forever. Over in Revelation it said, Write
these words, for they are what? Faithful and true. Write them
down. He told John, Write them down.
for they are faithful and true. And He's the REASON we have the
TRUTH. He's the KEEPER of TRUTH. Think
about this wicked world. If it were possible, 6,000 years
have gone by, 6,000 years have gone by. If it were possible,
Satan and men together would destroy the Word of God. We wouldn't
have TRUTH. NO LIARS ARE GOING TO KEEP THE
TRUTH! LET GOD BE TRUE AND ALL MEN ARE LIARS! IT WOULDN'T BE
TRUTH, BUT WE HAVE THE TRUTH! AND OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN,
AS LONG AS THIS WORLD WILL STAND, WILL HAVE THE TRUTH! BECAUSE
GOD KEEPS IT! GOD KEEPS THE TRUTH! HE KEEPETH
THE TRUTH FOREVER! And this also shows His faithfulness
to His people, He keeps the truth forever! You've got it tonight. You've got the truth tonight.
You know why? God's faithful. And note here what the God of
Jacob does. You see, all these things here
have their spiritual application that I'm about to read to you.
And then this is a description of every one of God's children. This is a description of every
one of us who believes. And this also applies to the
Lord Jesus Christ who is the Lord, Jehovah. And it's interesting,
I thought about this today when we read down through this. Our Lord did this through the
Gospels. He fed 5,000. He gave sight to
the blind. He raised the dead. He gave speech
and hearing and sight. You know why? He's Jehovah. He's the one being spoken of
here. But now this has a spiritual application. This is spiritual
application. First of all, He's our VINDICATOR. You know, we don't vindicate
ourselves, do we? We're not to. Vengeance, He said,
belongs to me. I'll repay, says the Lord. which
executes judgment for the oppressed. God's children are oppressed
in this world, but in time, the Lord will deliver and execute
judgment on their behalf. He'll do it! He'll do it! I had a man one time, he was
oppressing me in a workplace, and he got fired. Not because
of what he was doing to me, but he got fired. And my problem
was gone. The Lord will let that go on
so long. It will serve His purpose concerning
you. But boy, when He executes judgment
on your behalf, you don't want to be on the other end of that.
And then He is our PROVIDER which giveth food to the hungry. You
hungry tonight? Did you come hungry? Did you come hungry? He says here He'll feed you if
you came hungry. Give us food to the hungry. The
Lord feeds the whole world every day, we know that. We know that. But He specially feeds His children
with the bread from heaven, the manna. Brethren, God's given
us manna tonight. He's given us His Word. And His
Word is Christ, you can t separate Him. Blessed are they which hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Have you really ever hungered
and thirsted after righteousness? Let me put it this way, have
you ever really hungered and thirsted to be right with God? To be right with God. to really
hunger for that. That's the hunger and thirst
after righteousness, and you shall be filled, you shall be
filled. And then He's our Liberator,
the Lord looseth the prisoners. He sets the captive free, free
from condemnation. THERE IS THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION
TO THEM WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS. NO CONDEMNATION! Boy, I tell
you what now, put that on your refrigerator. Romans 8.1 FREE FROM SATAN! You say, now,
Satan molests us sometimes only by permission. But here, listen,
there is a difference between being tempted by Satan and being
owned by Satan. HE DOESN'T OWN ME NO MORE. HE'S
NOT MY MASTER UNTIL I BELIEVE SATAN OWNED ME IN THIS WORLD.
ALTHOUGH I WAS IN CHRIST IN THAT COVENANT, YET BY MY EXPERIENCE
HE OWNED ME. HE OWNED ME. I WAS UNDER THE
SPIRIT OF DARKNESS AND I LIKE SOME DARK STUFF. I LIKE SOME
DARK THINGS, WHICH I HATE NOW. I HATE. Free from the curse of the law,
which at one time meant nothing to me. It meant nothing more
to me than breaking the traffic laws, you know, driving over
the speed limit. Does that bother you? Driving over the speed limit
doesn't bother anybody in this room. If it did, you'd be one miserable
person because you'd do it every day. You're either going under
the speed limit or you're going over it before you get out of that
car. FREE FROM THE RAINING POWER OF
SIN! SIN SHALL NOT RAIN OVER YOU,
because you are not under the law, you are under grace. It
does have that raining power over you. I don't know your lives,
I don't know your background, but I know some that are not
here, I know that sin really rained over them. But no more, no more. And then he's our physician.
He's our physician. Well, I thank God this is one
physician that doesn't fail us. You know, the insurance plan we have, Aetna,
they're not going to cover us anymore with where to wake me
and all that stuff. So we've got to get another,
we've got to get all new doctors. We're going to find other physicians.
And I read this today and I thought, thank God I don't have to find
another physician of my soul. Thank God that I don't have to
worry about getting a letter saying they're not going to cover
me. He's not going to cover me. No, he's the great physician.
The Lord opened up the eyes of the blind. You got eye problem,
go to him. You want to see? LORD LET ME
SEE! As the prophet said, LORD OPEN HIS EYES! He can open the
eyes of the blind. I ask the Lord more now than
ever, make yourself known to me, let me know you. I want to
have fellowship with you, I want to walk with you. I never thought
so much like that when I was young as I do now when I'm old. I want to know If you can be
known, I want to know you. Paul said, Oh, that I might know
him. I want to know him more than I do. I was working on an
article today. I don't know if I'll put it in
the bulletin or not, but it's the title of it. I titled it,
I am satisfied, I am not satisfied. I am satisfied with Christ. I'm
not going to go all through it, but all that He has done, I'm
not satisfied with my knowledge of Him. I'm not satisfied with
my faith. I'm not satisfied with my love
of Him. I want to love Him more. I'm not satisfied with my fellowship.
I can fellowship with Him more. When Paul said, All that I might
know Him, it's not just even more knowledge, but it's more
fellowship. John said in 1 John, I write these things to you that
you may have fellowship with the Father. I don't want to just
KNOW some things about God and about Christ, I want to FELLOWSHIP
with Him, the REAL! Do you? And then He is our COMFORTER.
The Lord raises them that are bowed down. You bow down, go
to Him. Your heart heavy? Go to Him and
keep going to Him until He lightens the load. And He is our BENEFACTOR, the
LORD LOVES THE RIGHTEOUS! And because of that, He has given
us all these blessings. We have all that we have in Christ
because the Lord loves us. What He does for the righteous,
what God does for you, is out of love. Whether He's giving
to you or taking from you, or taking from you, it's out of
love. Never, ever, ever any other reason. He's never punishing
you. He punished His Son. So whatever
He's doing to me is out of love. I can't comprehend that, but
I can believe it. and He s our Preserver. The Lord
preserveth the strangers. We re strangers here. If He didn
t preserve us, Satan and men would kill us. They would kill
us. They would WIPE THE CHURCH OFF
THE FACE OF THIS EARTH. But the Lord preserves us and
He preserves us in ENEMY TERRITORY. Nobody HATES GOD like Satan in
this world. They hate God. Thou preparest a table before
me. Where? In the presence of mine enemies.
That?s what He?s doing tonight. He?s prepared a table for us
right in the presence of all the enemies around here that
hate the Gospel. And right here you?re getting
to feast. And He?s our sustainer HE RELIEVETH THE FATHERLESS AND
THE WIDOW. I THOUGHT OF THAT SCRIPTURE SITTING
HERE WHEN I WAS THINKING ABOUT THIS VERSE. DAVID SAID, WHEN
MY MOTHER AND MY FATHER FORSAKE ME, THE LORD WILL TAKE ME UP. THEYLL TAKE ME UP. MY MOTHER
AND FATHER IS GONE. BUT THE LORD HAS BEEN CARRYING
ME, WELL, EVER SINCE I WAS, EVEN BEFORE I WAS BORN, BUT HES BEEN
since I was born. The word RELIEVE here, I was
trying to figure out the best way to handle this verse, but
I looked this up on Relieve, and this fits. To free from a
burden, to give aid or help to. To set free from an obligation,
CONDITION OR RESTRICTION, to EASE OF A BURDEN, WRONG OR OPPRESSION
BY JUDICIAL OR LEGISLATIVE INTERPOSITION. THE LORD RELIEVETH THE FATHERLESS. You know, in the church, back
in the book of Acts, they made provisions for widows sixty years
and older. They were to take care of them.
They were to look after But the way of the wicked he
turneth upside down. You know, all that he does for
his children are mentioned above. But when it comes to the wicked,
one thing is mentioned that he does to them, he turns THEIR
WAY, THEIR WAY, their way of thinking. THEIR WAY OF THINKING OF GOD,
OF CHRIST, OF SALVATION, HE TURNS IT UPSIDE DOWN. LORD WE PREACHED
IN YOUR NAME, WE CAST OUT DEVILS IN YOUR NAME, WE'VE DONE MANY
MIGHTY WORKS IN YOUR NAME. HE SAYS DEPART FROM ME, I NEVER
KNEW YOU. THAT'S TURNING THEIR WAY UPSIDE DOWN. Psalm 1. You know it says that
the righteous are like trees planted by the waters, but he
says in verse 4 and through 6, The ungodly are not so, but are
like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly
shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation
of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish. If Christ is not your way, you're
going to turn it upside down. And as He said here, you're going
to perish. Well, people don't just don't
believe that, do they? You do. It takes God. Now, it takes the
power of God to bring a sinner to believing. Isn't that something?
God who cannot lie. He takes the power of God to
bring us to where we will believe Him. Praise God! Praise God! And what do we say? I wish we
would all just say it together,