I'm back to Psalm 105. The title of this message is
Nine Things Believers Are to Do. I'm going to give you nine
things that we are given to do here in these first few verses. Now, you can read the first several
verses of this psalm in 1 Chronicles chapter 16. This psalm, a good
portion of it, was written when the Ark was being brought back
from Obed-Edom. And David wrote this psalm word
for word for most of it in 1 Chronicles. And it's a history, and it's
really... When I got to reading this, I thought, my, this is
the history of God dealing with Israel, which is the type of
the Church. And you can see how God makes
this covenant with Abraham, and he protects Israel, he brings
Israel out of Egypt. It even says that in verse 25,
he turned their heart, the heart of the Egyptians, to hate his
people. It says God turned their heart to hate them. But I'm not
going to get into that, that's for next week. But He rules this
world. This chapter was such a blessing
to me because in reading it, I was seeing how God rules the
world for His elect, for us. I mean, everything that moves,
everything that exists, God rules it. for us, for the sake of His
elect. And you read that chapter, I
tell you, read it over and over several times and you'll see
things just jump out at you every time you read it. But tonight
I just want to deal with these first few verses. And the first
thing is this, in verse 1, Oh, give thanks unto the Lord. To give thanks. I want a thankful
heart. I want God to give me a thankful
heart. I was telling someone the other
day, I think it was my youngest son I was talking to, Jeremy.
I said, you know, when I read in the scriptures about a new
heart, a right spirit, I said, Lord, give me that. You know,
when I read these things, Lord, give me that. Give that to me
because I need it. I need it. And here it says,
oh, give thanks. And I think, Lord, give me a
thankful heart. Enable me to give you thanks
properly. Enable me to have a thankful
attitude all the time. I'm serious about this. I want
a thankful attitude all the time. A thankful person is truly a
happy person. You show me someone that's not
thankful, I'll show you someone that doesn't even know what happy
is. But thank, to be thankful. Oh, oh, he says, oh, give thanks. Give thanks continually. Give
it freely, hilariously, constantly, even in trials that he sends
on us. Thank the Lord for them. They are sent to conform us to
the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything God sends our way,
is to conform us to the image of his son. It says in 1 Thessalonians
5.18, in everything give thanks. But now listen, here's the key
to it. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. Whatever's going on with you,
whatever's going on with me, this is the will of God and I
give thanks. I give thanks. I give thanks
that I can give thanks. I thank the Lord that I do thank
Him. Then we give thanks to the Lord
for saving our souls. Think of what it is to be saved. This is something that's been
with me now for some time. It's just this impression, and
I believe it's of God, but it's a strong impression that the
Lord has saved me. I'm just astounded at that. I've
got family members the Lord has not saved. But the Lord has saved
me. I believe he has. Do I feel it? No. But I believe based on the
word of God he has saved me. And I give thanks for that. Paul
said all men have not faith. All men have not faith. Do you
have faith? God gave it to you. God saved
you. He saved you from sin, the very thing that separated you
from God, He saved you from it. He took it out of the way. He
took the problem out of the way. He took that very thing that
separates us from God and He put it out of the way. He took
care of my sin issue. He did that. And I thank Him
for it. And I thank Him that He saved
me from my sin and that He saved me from the power of Satan. Those
who are under the power of Satan do not know they are under the
power of Satan. They don't know that. The children of darkness
don't know they are under the power of Satan. They don't know
that. You don't know that until the
Lord saves you. It's not until He saves you from the power of
Satan you realize that you are under His power. You are doing
His bidding. Saved us from the power of Satan.
He's a very real... He's a very real person. He's
a very real spirit and evil. You know, nobody, world over,
world over, just mention the name of Satan and nobody thinks
of good, do they? They always think of evil because
he's the very embodiment of evil. And we've been saved from him,
his clutches. Saved from the curse of the law.
The law had a curse on us. Saved from the wrath to come.
Nobody can imagine that wrath. We can't comprehend such wrath
against sin. And we've been saved from it.
And we give thanks to the Lord for all things temporal and spiritual. He's given us all our spiritual
blessings in Christ even before the world began. I've been given
all. You've been given all that you
need in Christ even before the world began. God took care of
that matter. I don't want to be like Gomer
who thought that her lovers left her her corn and her wine. No, the Lord has provided for
me even when I didn't know Him. The years I did not know Him,
He provided. He took care and I thank Him
for it. I thank Him. This is the daily attitude of
the redeemed. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord. Are you really, are you really,
am I really thankful to be here tonight? Am I really thankful
that I can open this book and I understand the gospel? I hear,
I hear the shepherd's voice. I hear God speaking through His
Word. I hear God speaking through His Word. This is not just a
book to me. I don't read this book as a book. I read this as
God's Word. This is God's letter to me. If I wrote you a letter, if someone
wrote me a letter this week and I got it and I read it and I've
read it three or four times, I'm going to write them back.
But that was a letter from them to me. And it meant something,
and it means something. This is God's letter to me. This
is God's letter to me. I want to saturate myself in
it. I want to saturate myself in it. Oh, give thanks unto the
Lord. Call upon His name. Come to the
throne of grace. Call upon Him. You know, Samuel said, God forbid
that I should sin against the Lord and cease Him to pray for
you, to call upon God for you. But this word call means to speak
loudly. It means to speak loudly as to
attract attention, as to shout, as to cry unto the Lord. David
said, Lord, hear me when I call. I just prayed. I didn't pray
for you to hear me. I prayed for God to hear me.
I want God to hear me. And I want Him to bless us tonight.
I want Him to send His Spirit and bless us and open our understanding
and enable us to truly worship Him tonight in spirit and truth
and forget about this world as much as possible and set our
minds and our hearts on things above for just a little while. At least for a little while.
But call upon His name. All prayer is directed to Him.
We don't pray, and you know this, to departed saints. You know,
the Catholics pray to these departed saints and Mary, we pray to the
Lord. Call upon His name, no other
name. There's no other name given to call on. There's no other
name given to use when we do call on Him. All prayer is directed
to Him. And call upon His name, listen,
frequently. As I get older, I find it more
embarrassing to me. I find it more shameful to me
how little I really call on the Lord. When you walk outside and you
look at the greatness, the vastness of the universe, our God made
that and we have access to Him at any time. And how little we
use of it. How little. Call upon Him frequently
and call upon Him fervently James said, the prayer of a righteous
man availeth much. Don't ever think, don't ever
think little of prayer. Someone say, say a little prayer.
Ain't no such thing as a little prayer. There's no such thing
as a little prayer when you're talking to God. And call with, listen, call with
expectancy. Do you really do that? Do you
really pray expecting? expecting God to answer your
prayer, expecting Him to do so. Listen to Hebrews 11, 6. But
without faith it is 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's a rewarder. He answers the
prayers of them that diligently seek Him. Then it says, call
upon His name, a name reveals a person. And when you think
of a person, you think of their attributes, don't you? You know,
if I think of any of you, I think there are certain things about
you that come to my mind. And so when we call upon His
name, His attributes, He's God of all grace, the God of all
comfort. All power belongs to Him. All authority belongs to
Him. He's holy. He's just. He's merciful. He's
gracious. When we call upon His name, we
call upon who He is. And when we call upon His name,
as it says here, it's evident we know who He is. We're not
calling upon a stranger. You know, I'm not calling on
a stranger. I'm calling on my Father. It's
my father. You know, I know my father that's
right now back home, you know, in West Virginia. I know my father. Well, how much more ought I to
know my heavenly father? I ought to know him way better
than I even do my earthly father. Call upon his name and listen. I've been thinking about this.
It's been on my mind. because it's in part of the message I
was going to bring this past weekend. Make sure the one on
whom you call is the right one. Make sure the one on whom you
call is the Jesus Christ of God's Word. Paul said they will come
preaching another Jesus, another gospel, another spirit. So when
we call on his name, it's the one that matches the person spoken
of in this book. Does it match him? from Genesis
to Revelation. Call upon Him and that name reveals
a person and that person is revealed in this book. Now after calling
on Him, then speak of His deeds. Do we really often, how often
do I really speak of His deeds? Listen, among the people. That's
not just us here, that's among the people everywhere we go.
Don't be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Don't be ashamed. That's what
Paul told Timothy. Don't be ashamed of me, his prisoner. Don't be
ashamed of the gospel. He said, I'd never be ashamed
of the gospel. Well, Peter said he wouldn't deny him either.
And he did. Make known, verbally speak, Make
known his deeds among the people. His deeds, listen, his deeds
of judgment. The Red Sea. That's his deeds,
isn't it? That's his deeds. He drowned
Pharaoh's army. He burned up Sodom and Gomorrah.
He did that. Those are his judgments. He did
that. The flood in Noah's day. Make these things known. And make known his deeds of mercy.
Pass him by the transgression of his people. He's not dealt
with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquity.
Every last one of us ought to be in hell. That's a fact. But we're not. Why? Because we
found grace in his sight. Like Noah. Noah found grace in
his sight and God put him in the ark. And some of you have
found grace in God's sight and he's put you in Christ. Put you
in there. Make that known. Salvation. Jonah says salvation is of the
Lord. Make that known. Make it known among the people.
Make it known. Don't leave out any of his deeds.
Make known his deeds publicly. Don't be afraid of it. Don't
be afraid to say the Lord did that. Don't be afraid to say
that. Don't be afraid to say, the Lord
is sovereign. He'll do as He will, with whom
He will, when He will. He'll save whom He will, He'll
have mercy on whom He'll have mercy, and whom He will, He'll
harden. Is that the truth? Make it known. The reason, one
of the reasons there's no fear of God in this country is because
from the pulpit they've made God into such a, this mushy,
mushy, lovey-dovey person that it just can't, you know, just
couldn't, He can't discipline you. God is God. He's a consuming fire. He still
is outside of Christ. And that's what I preach to the
lost. I don't preach to the lost, Christ loves you. I preach to
the lost, you're under the wrath of God, you better flee to Christ
for refuge. That's what I preach. You better
go to Him for refuge. If not, you're in deep, deep
trouble. Deep trouble. And then He says in verse 2,
sing unto Him. That's just what we did. Now,
we either did one of two things. We just sing a psalm, but we
really sing unto Him. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you. Thank you. Sing psalms unto Him. Put a joyful tune to your praise. Express the gratitude of your
heart in song. Not just in word only, but in
song. Express the gratitude of your
heart in a song. You know, we can be taught to
say thank you. You know, teach your kids to
say thank you and be polite. But it's one thing to say thank
you, it's another thing to experience what that is. It's another thing
to experience the gratitude of heart. And then it's another
experience to put it to a song. When you can really sing from
your heart the gratitude that you have for God saving you,
that's another level. That's another level. And I'll
tell you this too, singing is part of worship. It's a part
of worship. And we sing unto Him with understanding
of the one we're singing to. We sing unto the Lord. We sing
unto Him. You think they're singing to
Him right now in heaven? You think they're not rejoicing and
singing? Could you imagine hearing that whole host of heaven right
now and the angels, innumerable, innumerable company, innumerable
host, all singing in harmony, all singing to the tune of, their
hearts in tune to praising Him? Can you imagine that? And it
won't be very long and we'll be right there. I think of that
often, you know, I do, I think of it, I think, you know, Well,
I'm getting at the dying age. I'm sure not going to live as
long as I have lived. I know that. I'm not going to
live another 66. I don't want to live another 66. That's 66
years. You don't want 137 years. I don't want that. 132. Not in
this life, really. I'm serious about that. Not in
this life. I've thought about this, and
I know our times are in His hands. Our times are in His hands. But
I want to live as long as I can preach the gospel and be a witness
of Christ. And if I come to the place where
I can't do that, I pray the Lord take me home. Take me on home. Because that's where I want to
go. And now listen, sing unto Him, sing Psalms unto Him, and
talk ye of all His wondrous works. Now that's going to take up the
rest of your life, isn't it? If you want to talk of all His
wondrous works, that's an endless conversation. That's an endless conversation.
And let Him be the subject of our conversation. Talk ye of
all His marvelous, wondrous works. His works are to be the subject
of our conversation, isn't it? This will be the subject of our
conversation. Turn over to Malachi 3. This scripture came to my mind
when I read that. Malachi 3, the last book of the
Old Testament, Verse 16, then they that feared the Lord spake
often one to another. What do you think they spoke
of? The Lord. The Lord. The wondrous works
of God. The wonders of His grace. The
fact that He saved them. Now I mean, as we grow older,
that ought to just astound us. That God saved us. Because there's
a whole lot of people that are not saved. Then they that feared
the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened, and he
heard it." He heard the conversation. You know Moses said one time
to the children of Israel, he heareth your murmuring. The Lord
heareth your murmuring, complaining. But he also hears our conversation
of him. He hears us speaking of him.
When you and I are standing together, and we're talking about the Lord,
and we're talking about the gospel, the Lord is hearing us. And listen,
and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance
was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that
thought upon his name. Meditated. Meditated upon his
name. Take time to do that. Take time
to meditate upon the name of the Lord. Take time to meditate
upon his person and your relationship to him. And they shall be mine,
saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.
I'll spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him.
Oh, talk ye of all his wondrous works, his wondrous works of
creation. You know, it's just like taking
a Grand Canyon. It just came to my mind when
I was thinking of these wondrous works. in creation. You know
the scientists and all them, they talk about the ice age and
how it dug out this hole and this and that. I know God is
a God of means, but I'm telling you something, God did that.
God did that. I thought today, I thought he
just took his finger and just carved out that canyon. If he
could walk on the wings of the wind, you think he can do that?
I think he can too. We ought to have much higher
thoughts of our God than we do. All of God's works are wondrous.
We have an inexhaustible subject to talk about, to talk about. You get together, you say, what
are we going to talk about? Well, let's talk about the Lord. Most don't know him enough to
talk about him. That's what's sad. That's what's real sad.
Everywhere we look, we see the wondrous works of God, whether
it be in creation, providence, especially in salvation. You
know you're a wondrous work of God. You really are. You are
a wondrous work of God. Talk of His judgments. Don't
be afraid to talk of His judgments. And glory ye in His holy name. Brag on Him. Boast of Him. My God did that. My God did that. You look at the moon and the
sun and the stars. My God put those in the heavens.
My God did that. When we glory in someone, we
glory in their attributes. Let us glory in this chief attribute
of God, His holy name. His holy name. His chief attribute
is holiness. It's the robe in which all His
other attributes are robed in. God's people are the only people
on earth that have someone truly to glory in. You know, people
will glory in this and that, this athlete or whatever achievements. We have one to glory in. Let
him that glory, glory in this, that he knoweth me. That's what
he says. That he understandeth and knoweth
me. We glory in God. We glory in the truth that God
is our God. Look at it in verse 7. He is
the Lord our God. Oh, happy people! How in the
world can we not be a happy people when God Almighty is our God?
Hm. Brag on Him. Boast about Him.
Boast of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we glory in that God is our
God. We're not ashamed to call Him our God. He's not ashamed
to call us His people. We glory in His salvation. We
glory in His redemption. We glory in His power to keep
us. We glory in His love. We glory in Him. He says here, and let the heart
of them rejoice that seek the Lord. You have a reason to rejoice. If you truly seek the Lord, you
have a reason to rejoice. First of all, that you're seeking
Him. Rarely do it. People don't seek the Lord. The
Lord has to move a man to seek Him. He has to move a woman to
seek Him. God has to do that. You wouldn't seek Him no more
than you'd seek a broken leg. He's got to move you to seek.
He's got to draw you. You're seeking Him, but He's
drawing you. You're seeking, He's drawing. Oh, let the heart Remove all
hindrances. Listen, you know, Paul told Timothy,
he said, shun every appearance of evil. We ought, as believers,
remove all hindrances, everything that hinders us from knowing
Christ, from studying Christ, from worshiping Christ, from
getting to know Him, as Paul said in Ephesians, that you might
know God, that as you're understanding being enlightened, we ought to
remove all hindrances that stand between us in growing in grace
and in knowledge of Jesus Christ. Whatever it is, whatever it is,
remove it. It's like when I used to run
this one business for this gentleman, maybe wasn't much of a gentleman,
but I would run a business for him, and one of the things he
told me And it stuck with me. He said, remove all excuses to
fail. He said, remove all excuses to
fail. And that stuck with me. Remove all excuses to fail here
spiritually. Remove yourself from those things
that hinder you from growing in grace and in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Remove them. Remove them. We have a promise here that those
who seek the Lord with all their hearts will find him. That's
what he tells us in the scriptures. Seek the Lord, he says, seek
me with all your heart and you'll find me. And here's something to rejoice
in it, is saved. God has saved you. Rejoice in
that. If you can't rejoice in anything
tonight, if you're having a hard time finding anything to rejoice
in, rejoice in this, the Lord has saved you. It is well with
my soul. It is well with my soul. And
seek the Lord in his strength. Seek the Lord in his strength.
I'm not numbering these, but there are nine things given here.
Seek the Lord in his strength. First of all, seek his presence.
Seek his fellowship. Now, you know, when you seek
something, you pursue it. Don't you? You pursue it. You
don't just lift something up and say, well, it's not there,
and you give it up. You give yourself to it. He says here, seek his presence,
his fellowship, seek to know him more and more, as Paul wrote
in Philippians 3, or that I might know him in the power of his
resurrection, in the fellowship of his sufferings, or that I
might know him. Someone said, here is the sure
road to happiness, seeking the Lord. He that loves silver shall
not be satisfied with silver, Solomon said. If you're seeking
money, it'll never make you happy. It can't do it. It can't do it.
The only thing that can really satisfy the soul is the one who
made it. It's the one who made it. He's
the only one. Seek the Lord, and listen, seek
His strength. At no time are we able to go
in the energy of this flesh, are we? That's what Paul told
the Galatians. He said, you don't start out
in the spirit and end up being perfected by the flesh. Galatians 3, paraphrasing. At no time are we able to do
this in the energy of His flesh. We seek the Lord, we seek His
strength for service. I need His strength to do this.
I need His strength to do this week after week, after week,
after week, after week. We seek Him in trials. We seek
His strength to go through trials. Paul wrote in Philippians 4,
I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. I can't
go through this. I can't bear this. Oh, yes, you can. If He
strengthens you, you can. Depends on where your strength
is. You know, Peter walked on water for a little bit, took
a few steps until he started looking at the winds and the
waves, but until then, but when he was looking at the Lord, he
was walking on water, a real man walking on water. And notice here, seek the Lord
in His strength. We seek Him first, then His strength. We find Him first. And then seek
His face evermore continually. Don't stop seeking. This is something
you don't stop. You don't stop seeking the Lord.
This seeking is lifelong. He says evermore, evermore, and
more, and more, and more. We ought to be seeking the Lord
more as we grow older than when we were younger. Really. If not, we've got a problem.
There's a serious problem. If we're not seeking Him more
now than when we began, there's a serious problem. And remember
in verse 5, remember his marvelous works that he hath done. Take
time to remember. Take time to reflect. Take time
to sit down, turn off the TV, turn off social media, turn off
all that junk. Sit down and think upon the Lord.
Think upon Him. This is what this psalm is all
about. It's remembering. It's a history lesson of how
God took Israel and led them through and made them his people.
Remember his marvelous works of grace, which he's done for
you and in you. Remember that. Every believer
is a marvelous work of God. You know that? Every one of us
who believe, we are a marvelous work of God. Ephesians 2 10 for we are his
workmanship We are his workmanship Created in Christ Jesus under
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them And then listen, it's it is the
memory of his marvelous works that makes our time here sweeter
and bearable Well, our minds are set upon
him it makes it sweeter and When the trials come, it makes it
bearable. And let us use our memories for God's glory. Now
you know and I know, we can sit around and we can remember bad
things. Things we don't need to be remembering. Talk about
things we don't, well it's what I used to do. It doesn't matter
what I used to be. Christ died for what I used to
be. Christ died for me. He died for my sins. And that
old nature still wants to drag them back up. I don't need to
drag those things back up which put the Lord to death, which
He died for. But I tell you what I do need
to do, I need to sit down and use my memory for God's glory
to reflect upon Him. You know, you go home tonight,
I go home tonight, just take a little time and reflect upon
God's mercy on you today. Here you are. You're not in a
hospital bed, you're here. You're not suffering suffering.
I've been seeing some suffering. You're not suffering like that. Reflect upon that. David said, Lord teach me how
frail I am. Remind me how frail I am. And listen, remember his marvelous
works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of
his mouth. Judgments of his mouth. All those judgments he brought
on Egypt, which is brought out in here, I think, or there's
several of them brought out in his psalm. He brings out these judgments. God spoke and they happened.
The flies and the frogs and the blood, or the death of the firstborn. I mean, God spoke judgment. He spoke judgment. Let's not
shy away from the judgments of His mouth. Let's not be afraid to say, listen,
let's not be afraid to say God did that. You know, here's something
that's jumped out at me today. You know, we can say that God
drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea, what's that, two, 4,000
years ago, something like, several thousand years ago. Everybody
goes, yeah, that's what the Bible says. You know, they really don't
think nothing of it, do they? I mean, it's history. It's history. You know, we can say that God
burned up Sodom and Gomorrah. And it's like, people are just
not that affected by it. But now when I say, God brought
down those towers and killed those 3,000 people in it. Uh-oh. I just brought it in the present
day. I just brought God into the present. You think those
3,000 people died by accident? You think their number wasn't
up? Their time wasn't up? You know how many of them met,
I don't know whether, those that are saved, those that are lost,
God knows, all right? God knows. But I tell you what, their time
was in God's hands. And the way they died was in
God's hands. Now, now you got problems. They don't care if
you talk about the Red Sea. You don't care if you talk about
Noah and the ark. But when you go to New York City
right now, and you say, God did that. You say, God brought that
down. You know what the scripture says?
God said in the scripture, is there trouble in the city, and
I haven't done it. He calls it evil. He says there's
evil in the city, which is trouble. He brought judgment. He brought
judgment. Here, just a few years ago, we
had that tsunami over in Japan or somewhere over in there. It
swept out and just killed a lot of people. God did that. You
know, we can't, we can't be, we got to speak of the judgments
of His mouth. God did that. God did that. Nobody
dies by accident. They die in them, but they don't
die because of an accident. You see, when we bring God into
the present, that's where you're going to feel the wrath of man.
They don't care if you leave God back in history. But when
you bring Him into today, and His sovereign rule today, and
Him handling today, now you're going to find out who hates God. Same God. He brought those towers down.
God's a God of means. Now He's either permissive will,
directive will, secret will, but it's the Lord's will. It's the Lord's will. Let's speak of God in the present
tense. Let's not just always keep pointing back there. Let's
do that, but let's say the same God that did that, He also did
this. And He's my God. He's my God. And then, listen, He gives us
the ones He's speaking to, and I close. O ye seed of Abraham,
His servant, His promising, not all Israel is Israel. But the
promise seen, his servant, ye children of Jacob, his elect,
his chosen. The children of the promise,
the elect of God. Now we're going to get to look at that Lord willing
next week. We're going to see God's dealings
with Abraham and Israel and how He brought them about, how He
led them through and how He handled Egypt and how He reproved kings
for their sakes. He said, touch not mine anointing,
do my prophets no harm. He suffered no man to do them
wrong. He called for a famine on the land and break the staff
of bread. He did all of that. He put Joseph in place so he
could put Israel there. I mean, it's a picture of Christ.
I mean, we're going to preach the gospel from it, but that's
an interesting song. That's an interesting song. These
are nine things. These are nine things that believers
are to do.