Turn back to Psalm 117. Psalm 117. I thought, how can you preach
a long message on such a short portion of scripture? So I gotta
try to keep it within reason. You know, even if it's just one
verse, you cannot exhaust it. You really can't. You cannot
exhaust it. Not me. And I don't know anybody else
that could either. But we only have two verses here tonight.
And I titled this, A Call for Universal Praise of the Lord. A Call for Universal Praise of
the Lord. You know, Scriptures like, These
two scriptures here tell us, they tell us that God's mercy
extends far and wide. You know, when we think of God,
we need to think large. So often I tell myself, you're
thinking too human of God. You're thinking too human. You're
putting Him in a box. You thought I was, in Psalm 50,
you thought I was altogether like yourselves. And from time
to time, we are still guilty of it. We're still guilty. We ought to think large of God.
Look at the universe. Look at creation. Look at it. We ought to learn in our prayers
to ask large. We ought to. We ought to expect
great things of God, shouldn't we? We ought to expect great
things. And listen, sprinkled throughout
the Old Testament are Scriptures that tell us, that foretold of
God's salvation to us Gentiles. To us. This is for us. This is also a fulfillment of
the promise God made to Abraham when he said, through thy seed,
which is Christ, shall all nations be blessed. Sprinkled throughout
the Old Testament are all these prophecies of our salvation in
Christ, that you and I are included, that you and I are called to
praise God. We are a part of His Israel. We are the Israel of God. We
really are. Look over in Romans chapter 15.
Paul quotes this. I want you to just see where
Paul quotes this in Romans chapter 15. Look in verse 8. Now I say that Jesus Christ was
a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm
the promises made unto the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify
God for His mercy as it is written, For this cause I will confess
to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name. And again
he saith, Rejoice ye Gentiles with his people." You Gentiles,
you heathens, Rejoice with His people. And again, verse 11 is
the verse he quotes from this psalm. And again, Praise the
Lord, all ye Gentiles, and laud Him, all ye people. So Paul quotes from this. And
he's telling us that us Gentiles are called to join in the praises
of God with His people. because we are His people. Now
the good news of the gospel is sent throughout all the world,
and it's sent to all people, that is, all sorts of people. All sorts of people in all nations. When the angel came from heaven
at the birth of Christ, He said in Luke 2.14, glory to God in
the highest, in the highest, as high as you can imagine, glory
to God. And on earth, peace, goodwill
toward men. And we've enjoyed that, haven't
we? We've enjoyed peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we enjoy it right now. I
cannot put a price on what it is to have peace of conscience,
a peace of heart. If God has ever quickened you
and me, and he's made us to know what sin is, and he's made us
to know what the guilt of sin is, there's no price you can
put on peace. To be able to lay down at night,
to lay down and have a quiet conscience. Not an accusing conscience,
but a quiet one. made quiet by the blood of Christ. Now, underlying this here, Oh, praise the Lord, all
you nations, and praise Him, all you people. I thought of
this a little while ago. Underlying all this, it means
this, that the people and the nations will have to forsake
their idols. You know, when He tells all the
nations and all the people, And He's speaking here of His elect
throughout the world. You're going to have to forsake
your idols. You're going to have to lay them down. This is not
bring your gods and worship with us. This is why we can't. And I tell you, I'm not being
a jerk about this. I don't know any better word
to use. I'm not being a jerk about this,
but you can't gather with these other places that preach another
gospel. I'm not going to go to a place
and listen to somebody lie on God. You know, there's two reasons
I wanted to preach my dad's funeral. I wanted to do it in honor. It
was an honor to do it. The gospel he believed, and I
didn't want somebody standing up there lying on God. Lying
on God is lying on my dad. I said, Dad, I want that. I'm
not going to sit there and listen to it. I'm going to do it. So in this call to worship the
Lord from all nations, there's this underlying meaning that
you're going to have to lay down your idols, your false worship,
your false faith, your false hope. You've got to lay it all
down. And you come and bow before the
King of glory and worship Him, and trust Him and have confidence
in Him. Now he tells us here in verse 1, who we are to praise. He says, Oh, praise the Lord,
the self-existing One. And here the word praise means
to be boastful. It means to be boastful. I'm
standing up here tonight boasting on the Lord. It is my privilege
on Sunday and Thursday to get to stand here and brag on the
Lord Jesus Christ. I brag on who he is. I brag on
his person. I brag on his work. I brag on
his accomplishments. I brag on where he is. I boast.
Make your boast. David said, I make my boast in
the Lord. Now we're all going to boast
about something, I guarantee you. You say, I don't boast about
anything. Oh yes you do. If you don't boast
in him, I guarantee you, and if I don't boast in him, I know
I'm going to boast in myself. But if He's our boast, then we've
got the right order. We've got it right. And that's
what this word means. It means to be boastful. Boastful
of Him. Boastful of Him. And we are told
to praise the Lord, and this implies a saving knowledge of
God. You can't praise someone you
don't know. You can't do that. It says in Hebrews 11, 6, But
without faith, It's impossible to please Him,
for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that
He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. He that
seeks Me with all his heart will find Me. That's a promise. But he that comes to God must
believe, first of all, that He is. The first thing we come to
know when the Lord saves us is this, God is. God is. Until He saved us, we did not
really believe. Now, we did not really believe
that He is. We didn't really believe that. We believe there
is a God. We believe that because that's
the way we were raised. You know, all of us, I'm sure
everybody here, we were not raised in an atheist home. We were raised
in religious homes. We grew up from a child believing
that there is a God. We believe that. But that's different
than believing the God that is. He that comes to God must believe
that He is. That's when God truly becomes
real to your soul. He's not someone you hear preached. He's real to you. God's real
to you. For the first time, God Almighty's
real. God is. We gave mental agreement
to it when we were, before we were brought to faith, before
we were brought to faith, we gave mental agreement to it,
but we didn't worship him. We didn't worship him. There's
no worship in that kind of faith. That's no different than the
faith of devils. They believe that he is, and
they tremble. They go further than we do. They tremble. Now, the question is this. Here's
the question I ask. Who is he? You know what that
blind man said? Who is he, Lord, that I might
believe? Who is he? You would think, you would think,
and this is how dead, spiritually dead we are, you would think
that we would be interested in knowing the God of creation,
the one who created us, the one who made us, the one who feeds
us every day. You would think we'd want to
know him. But man, and that's us too, before God saved us,
we want to know everything but Him, don't we? Science studies
everything but God. Isn't that amazing? Science studies,
it's like studying a footprint. I mean, you're down there looking
at the footprint, but you never pay attention to the person who
made the footprint. Isn't that foolish? That's so
foolish. I don't want to study a footprint. I want to study the feet of the
one that died for me. I listened to a good message
Bruce Crabtree preached here on the feet of Christ. I just
listened to that just driving home. It was so good. That's
what I want. I want to bow. I want to bow
to the feet, not the footprint, but to the feet that belong to
that one who hung on a cross and whose feet was pierced on
my behalf. Who is He? What's He like? What's God like? Well, we have
the answer in the Word of God. We have that answer. God's revealed
Himself in His Word. He's revealed Himself in the
person of His Son. I think it's very interesting,
and this is one of the reasons I wanted to go through the Gospel
of John. I love watching the Lord Jesus
Christ as I read through the Gospels, and I watch Him. I don't
just read, I watch Him. Because I'm watching God. I watch
how He handles sinners. I watch how He handles Pharisees.
I watch how He handles the situations. I watch Him. If you're going to describe God,
and I'm going to speak of His holiness here in a minute, but when we think of God, do we think
of meek and lowly? He said, I'm meek and lowly of
heart. God in Christ is meek and lowly. He's approachable. The most sinful
person on this earth, although we're all just equally sinful,
we're just not all outwardly equally sinful in the fact that
God does not allow us to all go to the same measure of depravity
openly. But inwardly, we're still all
equally depraved. We're equally depraved by nature. Now, I want to look at this thing
by holiness. God is to be praised as He is and for who He is. For who He is. Who is He? Well,
first of all, He's God. Secondly, He's holy. He's holy. And that being so, we are to
praise Him in His holiness. Aren't you glad God's holy? You
know the scripture says to give thanks at the remembrance of
His holiness? To give thanks at the remembrance
of that? I'm glad He's holy. Holiness is one attribute that
sets Him apart from all the others. It's the one attribute that sets
God apart from all the others. In this, there is none to compare
to Him. We have to start with God's holiness. We have to. All other attributes,
and I put this down, all other attributes are baptized into
His holiness. What do I mean by that? I mean
this, they are immersed. They are immersed into His holiness. And from here we can praise Him
and all His other attributes properly, because He's holy,
and we see Him as holy. If we don't see God as holy,
then all His other attributes will be misunderstood. You can't
understand Him. You can't understand Him. In
other words, look here, does God have all power? Is all power
His? Absolutely. Absolutely. But all His power is guided by
His holiness. It's guided by His holiness.
Now what does that mean? It means it will never be used
in a corrupt manner. Can you imagine if I had all
power and you had all power who are sinful? What if Satan had
all power? God's holiness ensures that His
power will never be used in a corrupt manner. It's always used in a
holy manner. God's power is always used for
good. And it's always used for our
good. God exercises His great power. And I tell you what, we've
never scratched the surface. We've not seen or scratched the
surface of the power of God. Can't even come close to it. It is guided by His holiness. And we know that it works for
our good. And it's by His power that all
things are maintained. They not only work for our good,
but they're maintained for our good. Whatever happened today, throughout
the world, actually was working for our good. God's maintaining
control. He maintains everything by His
power. And then when we speak of His
love, you know, Scripture says, God is love. Well, we know this,
that His love is a holy love. His love is a holy, there's no
sin in his love. There's a whole lot of sin in
ours. There's a whole lot of sin in it. One day we love, one
day we don't. You see, Adam and Eve, perfect
example. Loved her one day, the next day
he said, the woman you gave me. She's a real problem. This is the woman that God gave
him. It was a perfect woman. But after
they fell, boy, they got into it. And they've been getting
into it ever since. Our love in this life is not
perfect. Now listen, if the love of God
is shed abroad in the heart, there's real love there. There's
love that's not of this flesh. It's not of this flesh. We truly
love each other in Christ. And a husband and wife that's
in Christ, they love each other in Christ. It's a real genuine
love. But I tell you this, the love
that God has to us is a holy love. I wish I could put that into
words, but that's the best I could do. There's no sin in God's love. And because of who God is, and
because He's holy, we praise Him in all His attributes, because
they're all holy. They're all immersed into His
holiness. Now, it tells us here who are
to praise Him. All ye nations praise Him, all
ye people. Now, it says, O praise the Lord,
it means boastfully. Boastfully. Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed. We boast of our Lord. But here,
the word praise is different. It means to celebrate with a
loud voice. We praise Him boastfully and
we do it, here it says, with a loud voice. That's what it
means, with a loud voice. To celebrate, it means to celebrate
with a loud voice. You know, we have something to
celebrate. God has saved us from our sins. I thought about this
today when I was walking around the building here today. I thought
about this, I thought if we could see the souls of men and women as
they die, and they go before God. Do you realize what we would
see going up all day, every day? Do you know how many people die
a day? Do you know how many people die
a day? We have something to celebrate.
God has saved us from the wrath to come. God has saved us from
Himself. He saved us from ourselves, from the curse of the law. We've
been saved. We've been saved. We don't have
to be concerned of going up before God and then say, depart from
me, I never knew you. Praise God. Lord, praise your
holy name for that. Because I had nothing to do with
it. I had absolutely nothing to do with God saving me. He saved me without asking. Celebrate with a loud voice.
And this salvation, God's salvation, is to all people in all nations.
It doesn't matter what tribe, a person from, what race, whatever. If God saves them, they have
reason to praise Him. And we praise... Listen, here's
the beauty of this. When he says, praise the Lord,
all nations and all peoples, where peoples mean tribes. And
he's going to save people out of every kindred, tribe, tongue,
and nation under heaven. But the beauty of this is this. It doesn't matter if we're here
or if we go to Mexico where there's a church or anywhere on this
earth. We can literally walk in and
sit down and fellowship and worship together. It doesn't have to
be here. I can go to Lexington or Virginia,
I mean, just all over the place, and I walk in and I'm brothers
and sisters, brothers and sisters in Christ. It doesn't matter
what nationality. You'd take over, was it at Papua
New Guinea where he is, Lance is? I mean, I couldn't speak
that language at all. But I tell you what, we have
a common faith. We may not have a common language,
but we have a common faith. We believe the same Lord. I could
go over there, and I'm telling you what, I'd feel uncomfortable
walking. If they just dropped me off in
that place, I'd feel uncomfortable. But if I walked into a building
where Lance is preaching, I'd feel comfortable. I'd feel safe. I'd feel safe. Outside there,
I'd feel like I'd be looking over my shoulder, but I tell
you what, I'd go into one of their homes where the Lord has
blessed and saved them, I'd feel comfortable. I'd feel safe. I'd
feel safe. Because this gospel is to all
people in all nations. God's going to save some out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation under heaven. And
I tell you, when I was reading that part of it, I wrote down
here, we are not to be Jonas. We're to be Paul, who went from
place to place to place. Would to God you were like me,
except for these bonds, he said to Agrippa. And he felt that
way toward everybody. He said, I'd count myself cursed
with Christ for my brethren if it would save them. I don't believe
there's a person in here who would say that. I don't believe
anybody in here would say, I would personally, seriously go to hell
if it would save my family. Would you? I don't want to ask
me that question. I'm telling you, that'd be hard.
But he meant it. He meant it. One of the things that I try
to keep in mind, and this keeps me from getting so caught up
with what goes on in the world, is this. This is my father's
world. All nations, all people, they're
all His. The earth is the Lord's, the
fullness thereof, and they who dwell therein, they're all His. And then he tells us why we are
to praise Him in verse 2. And there are two attributes
that are mentioned here that pretty much go together all the
time. They're like a chain. They're just coupled together
all the time. Look over in Psalm 25.10. In Psalm 25.10, "...all the paths of the Lord
are mercy and truth, unto such as keep His covenant and His
testimony. But all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth."
That's what Jesus speaks of here in verse 2 of Psalm 117. "...merciful
kindness, great toward us, and the truth of the Lord." Now turn
over to Psalm 57. I'm just going to show you a
few of these, how these two attributes are coupled together all the
time. In Psalm 57 in verse 10, For thy mercy is great unto the
heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. Look in Psalm 108. In Psalm 108, look in verse 4. Oh, I mean 109, sorry. For thy mercy
is great, in verse 4, Psalm 108, for thy mercy is great above
the heavens, and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. They are always
coupled together. God's mercy, it's called here
merciful kindness, and most other translations call it His loving
kindness. Either way. But here it's merciful
kindness is great. And I want you to notice this.
He's speaking to a particular people. He's speaking to a particular
people. Toward us. Toward us. That's who he's speaking to.
God's merciful kindness is great toward us. And this is why we sing amazing
grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. God's merciful kindness is great
and it's amazing. I'm amazed. The older I get,
the more amazed I am that God saved me. I'm telling you the
truth. The more amazed I am that God Almighty saved me. just like
a bran plucked from the fire. I was right there with the rest
of them in that fire. And God reached down, so to speak. God reached down and just lifted
me out of it. He lifted me out of the pit.
That's what it tells us in the scripture. He lifted me out of
that sewer. He lifted me out of the sewer. He lifted me out
of the pit, that pit of corruption I was in. And some of you, he
lifted you out of it. And he didn't ask if he could.
Aren't you glad? Because we like sewer. We're
a bunch of sewer rats. I'm telling you, it's why the
gospel is so offensive, because it tells the truth on us. We're
a bunch of sewer rats. And God took this sewer rat and
made him a son. Isn't that something? Let me ask you a question. Does God owe any of us of Adam's race? Does He owe any
of us salvation? Did God save any of us because
He owed it to us? What He owed us is death. The wages of sin is death. That's
why Jesus Christ had to die on the cross. He had to receive
my wages. He received my wages on Calvary
Street. That's what he did. The wages
that was owed to me by divine justice, Jesus Christ received
them. That's a wage I don't want to
receive. But he did. He did. Now let's consider, just for
a minute or two here, let's consider the Lord's merciful kindness
to us. You know, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
4-7, he said, For who maketh thee to differ from another?
What are you different from the thief down the road? What are you different? What's
the difference? What's the difference between
somebody that's a murderer and me? What's the difference? Who
maketh thee to differ from another person? And what hast thou that
you did not receive? What do you have that you can
say, this is mine? I am a self-made man. I created
this business. I created this. Now, if you didn't receive it,
if thou didst not receive it, then why do you glory as if you
had not received it? But here's the question. Who
made you to differ? Are there lost ones in your family?
Who made the difference in that? Who made the difference between
you and the ones that's lost? God did. God did. We praise Him for choosing us
in Christ. He chose us. He said, you didn't
choose me, I chose you. Let's get it straight. He straightened
him out. You didn't choose me, I chose
you. We praise Him for redeeming us
from our sins, purchasing us and paying for our sins. Our
sins are paid for. We had a great debt and He paid
it off. We praise Him for our acceptance that we have in Him
by the Father. He has made us accepted in the
Beloved, and we praise Him for it. And we praise Him for raising
us from the dead. You know, from time to time,
I have the opportunity to talk to someone that's, they're usually
religious, but I have the opportunity to talk to them, and I realize
as I'm standing there talking to them, I can see it in their
eyes. They're dead. They don't get it. They don't
get a word I'm saying. It's just like, it's like there's
a wall there. They're dead. I realize I'm talking
to a dead person. A real dead person. Everything we have, God gave
it to us in merciful kindness. He did, he gave it to us in merciful
kindness and we can't praise him too much for it. And then
the next thing, and I'll wind it down, the next thing God's
given to us is the truth. My soul, how would you like to
be sitting here and somebody lying to you every week and then
you die and meet God with that lie? That's something to thank the
Lord for tonight before you go to bed. We have the truth. We have the truth in person.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. It says there in the Gospel of
John chapter 1, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. We have
the truth. We have it tonight. We have it. And this truth, This truth is
forever. It says it endures forever, which
is added by the translator to make it read better. It says
here, and the truth of the Lord forever. It's forever. It never changes, and it will
endure forever. It'll outlast us on this earth.
I've buried a lot of people, but the truth's still here. I
may end up burying every one of us, but the truth's still
here. I won't bury me. But the truth endures forever.
You look at this world, you turn the news on, and you know if
this country could, it'd get rid of true Christianity. But
it can't. And not until God removes it.
Not until God removes it. Because God's truth endures.
And I mean it's endured a lot, but it endures forever. Someone said once that it's amazing
that it's endured such bad preaching, but it endures forever. It'll
never change. What's true today will be true
tomorrow. You know, time has no effect
on truth. That's why the Bible doesn't change. The Bible doesn't
change. The Word of God does not change. We're not more educated and now
we have more light. No, we don't. The truth is the
truth. The Word of God is never outdated.
Period. And this being so, let's give
our time to knowing Him who is the truth and through whom mercy
and grace comes to us. Continually. Continually. You know, God is so merciful
to us that by his grace and mercy, we'll come back here again Sunday
and we'll have the truth again. We'll have the truth again. And
we'll have God's merciful kindness again. Until he takes us home. All right.