I thought in singing that song
how reversed it's going to be when we stand in glory. In that song, that last verse,
the bride eyes not her garment. What do we spend all the time
on and money on in this life when a couple are getting married?
It's the bride's garment. And she's the center of attention. But in that day, He is the center
of attention. It's totally reversed. He's the
center of attention. And we won't be eyeing our garment. We won't be worried about that.
We'll be eyeing, looking at the face of our Lord to see To see
Jesus Christ, the one we gather each week to hear of and to preach
and to read of and to sing. Not only sing of, but to sing
to. I hope we can really get that in our minds. We're not
singing of Him, we're singing to Him. It will make a difference
in the way we sing if we sing to Him and not just of Him. And
he even points this out, I think, in this verse. Make a joyful
noise unto God, not just about God. You know, we have gathered
here this evening to worship Him, to sing unto Him, and to
praise Him who is present in spirit. He's not way off in some
far distant place out there in the galaxy somewhere. He's in
you. He's in every one of us who believe
in His people. I titled this psalm a psalm of
gratitude. A psalm of gratitude. I know that if there is to be
true worship, I believe it starts with gratitude. If there's not
gratitude, there's not worship. You can just mark it down. There's
no worship where there's no gratitude to God for saving our souls. As a psalmist, and it doesn't
say who wrote this, many believe David did, but it doesn't say
who wrote it, but he says on a later end of this psalm, come
and let me tell you what he has done for my soul there in verse
16. Come and hear all you that fear
God, He's talking to God's people now. And I'll declare what he's
done for my soul. Let me tell you what God has
done for me. That's witnessing. That's what
witnessing is. It's just telling other sinners
what the Lord has done for you. Just like that lady, that woman
at the well. She went back to town and said,
come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. And they
went out to see him. Now, he starts out this psalm
with a call to worship. And this call to worship was
not just to them at that time, but it's to the church in all
times. And it's to all people throughout
this world whom the Lord has saved. He says, all ye lands. You know, when the Jews When
they read the Psalms, they ought to know by the Psalms that God
was going to save Gentiles as well as Jews. Because He speaks
of all the earth and all lands, that is all people of different
nations, tribes, and kindreds, and tongues. Let them all worship
God. God has a people all over this
earth. It's His. and you and I are to
make a joyful noise. I looked this up, this joyful
noise, and one of the meanings was this, splitting the ear. It is such a noise. It is such
a shout. You know when they went around
Jericho, what'd they do? They shouted and the walls came down.
And it has the meaning of make such a loud noise in praise that
it's just ear piercing. You go into a stadium, An athlete
makes a touchdown. What do they do? They shout.
You can't even hear yourself think. I've gone to professional
baseball games before, and I'm telling you, you can't hear yourself
think when that whole crowd gets... and that's just over a touchdown
or a home run. What about the salvation of our
soul? God has saved us from the wrath
to come. We have something to sing about.
Let us put our hearts into it, and it's a joyful noise. Glad
that the Lord chose us and called us and saved us. As you mentioned
in your prayer, He didn't leave us alone. If everybody in this community
believed the gospel, this place couldn't contain them. But look
at the empty seats. But God has a remnant. God has
a remnant in Spring Lake. A remnant. And here we are. And that's something to be joyful
about. And to make a joyful noise unto God. And we do it unto God.
And I tell you something else we make a joyful noise about.
Turn over to Psalm 103. I'm not going to say I'm going
to get down through 20 verses, but I want to get the message
that's in these verses. I do know that. Listen, let's read some of this
psalm in verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within
me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His benefits. Don't forget what God has done
for you, past and present and the future and the coming. Who
forgiveth all thine iniquities, He's forgiven all of them. Who
healeth all thy disease, spiritual diseases, and physical if you
have those and He heals them. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies. Who satisfies thy mouth with
good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. The
Lord executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
He made known His ways unto Moses, Has He not done that for you
and me? Has He not made known to us His ways, His ways of salvation,
His ways of dealing with us in Christ? Listen, He made known
His ways to Moses, His acts. They saw His acts, but not many
of them understood His ways. Not many of them saw His ways
of redemption, of saving, of dealing with His people. But
they saw His acts, they saw Him part the Red Sea, they saw that.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in
mercy. He will not always chide and He will keep His anger forever.
He's not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according
to our iniquities. He dealt with our Lord after
our sins and rewarded Him according to our iniquities. For as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward
them that fear Him. As far as the East is from the
West, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear Him. For He knoweth our frame, He remembers that we are
dust. Now, if that doesn't make you
want to sing with a joyful heart, nothing will. And He says here
in verse 2, Sing forth the honor, The honor of His name, there's
no name that has honor attached to it like the name of God. What an honorable name. I'll
tell you another honorable name. Sons of God. Sons of God. Through Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, we are sons of God. What an honor. Sing forth the
honor of His name and make His praise glorious. Celebrate it. Celebrate the name of God in
song and music. Put a tune to it, that's what
he's saying. Put a tune to it. That's why he gave it to the
chief musician. Put a tune to this. We've been redeemed by
the blood of the Lamb, and so let's sing forth the honor of
the one who redeemed us. Let it be known who it is we
worship. Let it be known who it is we love. Not just in these
walls, but out there. Out there. He's redeemed us from
all our iniquities. And say unto God, this is to
recognize in prayer, is to recognize God's hand in all that happens. In all that
happens. Someone said to a lady one time,
her son had died, and her preacher said to her, the devil did that. He said, the devil did that.
He said, God wouldn't do that. Oh yes, he did. Oh yes, he did. God killed him. Not a sparrow falls to the ground
without your heavenly Father. Say unto God, how terrible art
thou in thy works, There's a part of God I don't
want to deal with. I do recognize it. And I give
Him the glory for His terrible works as much as I do His gracious
work. Always recognize His sovereign
right over all. And no matter how terrible the
act, whether it's in nature, or whether it's a disease, or
whether it's killing a multitude of people, it's God's act. It's God's act. Now, He uses
means and He rules and He overrules. You know, when that tsunami came
through here several years ago and wiped out thousands of people,
that's a terrible act. I mean, that's the terrible act
of God. That's what He's saying. Say unto God, saying to God,
how terrible art thou in thy works. Don't be afraid to ascribe
even the terrible acts to God Almighty. See, religion, especially
Arminianism, they don't want to do that. They have God doing
all the good, and they say Satan does all the evil, but now listen,
it all belongs to Him. He's the first cause of all things,
is He not? He's the first cause. That's
why men and women don't have any fear of God today, because
coming out of the pulpit, it's just, God loves everybody. He
wouldn't do that. Oh yes, He will. And the ones
He does it to, they deserve it. They deserve it. God never does
anything to a man or woman they don't deserve. And what He does to us in Christ,
we get because He deserves it. Jesus Christ deserves it, and
we get the benefit of it. We are forgiven for Christ's
sake. I'm not forgiven for my sake. I'm forgiven for Christ's
sake. That's what the Scripture says.
So let us not be afraid to ascribe even the terrible acts to God. He said, I kill and I make alive. You know, when those twin towers
came down, Everyone died in that situation, was appointed to die
in that situation. That's the God this world will
want to hear about, but that's who God is. Say unto God, recognize unto
God his hand in everything in this world that goes on, everything. And He says here, "...through
the greatness of thy power shall thy enemies submit themselves
unto thee." You see, God has His enemies, but none can prevail
against Him. God's power is not borrowed power. It's not delegated power. You
and I have delegated power. We have, like He said to Pilate, you have no power at
all against me except it be given you from above. And the same
is said about anyone who tries to do anything to us, his children. They have no power except it
be given to them from above. That's all. But God's power is
not delegated. God's power is God's power. He
is power. Power doesn't exist apart from
God. He says here, through the greatness of thy power, Pharaoh
said, I will not let them go. You want to bet on that? He sends
him a plague, and he says, I'll let them go. Then he changes
his mind. I'm not letting them go. I tell you this, he's not
going to let them go until God gives all the plagues he's purposed
to give. And you and I, his children, get to read about it. Israel
got to see his acts. Moses saw his ways. But Israel
and those who believed, they understood it like Joshua and
Caleb. But through the greatness of
his power shall thy enemies submit themselves unto thee. And the
meaning of it is this. They will submit themselves but
not willingly. Pharaoh finally let Israel go
but not willingly. He never bowed to the Lord. He let him go because he was
like, if I don't let him go, none of these plagues are going
to stop. And they're not going to stop. So he let him go. But it was an unwilling, unwilling
submission. And that's what it means. That's
what he means. And he says here in verse 4, all the earth shall
worship thee. It's his. It's his. China, they can try to keep the
gospel out of there. North Korea, they can try to
keep the gospel out of there. But you know, from time to time
on our sermon audio, there are people from North Korea, there'll
be one or two from North Korea listen. There'll be some from
those countries that hate the gospel, but there's some that'll
listen. Why? Because he says, all the
earth shall worship thee. God's got a people all over this
earth and they're going to worship. He said to his disciples and
to Peter, he said to Peter, the gates of hell shall not prevail
against thee. It's not going to keep the gospel out. It can't
keep the gospel out when God sends it. Not when he sends it. The gospel is going to go through
all the earth, and people from every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation are going to worship the living God through Christ
our Mediator. And when that last one hears
the gospel, and God saves that last one, this is going to wind
up. There's nothing else left to
be done. Christ said it's finished. He finished redemption. He's
now just calling His bride, putting her together, so to speak. The
body of Christ is being completed, being put together. And when
that last member is brought in, this is over. This is over. But let all the earth worship
Him. Now he says in verse 5, the works of God. He is terrible
in his doing towards the children of men." See, they don't want
to read that. False religions don't want to
read that. No, they don't want to see that side of God. They
can't get people to make decisions Come and see the works of God.
He's terrible in His doing toward the children of men." Wouldn't
it be something if the teacher in the school of history, the
history class teacher, if he or she stood up in the morning
and opened up the history book and said, let's see what God
did back in 1800 or back in 1700. Let's see what God did. When they talk about all these
wars, let's see what God did in history. Not what men have
done, but what God has done. Come and see. When you look at the past, look
at it through the Scriptures. That's what I'm saying. Look
at it through the Scriptures. It's the act of God. And listen,
come and see the works of God. He's terrible. He's terrible
in His doings toward the children of men. Take them back to the
flood. How many millions were probably
living at that time? Eight souls were saved. God drowned
the rest of them. Look at the Red Sea. God parted
the Red Sea, and Israel, His people, His elect, went through
on dry ground. They walked across. And when
they got across, Pharaoh changed his mind, and he's like, I'm
going to go get them. I ain't going to let them go.
Well, unbeknownst to him, in his ignorance, he's walking into
his grave that God dug for him. God made His grave there. And
when He and His army attempted to go across after they got in
there, what happened? He drowned every one of them.
Every last one of them. There's a real good picture here
of our sins. There's a great picture here
of our sins. Being delivered on the other side, being delivered
into glory and all our sins, are gone, drowned, cast into
the depths of the sea, gone. Oh, he's terrible in his doing
toward the children of men. Turn over to Isaiah 43. Let me
show you something. Now listen here, because he'll
talk about passing through the water and the fire here in a
minute. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob,
and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed
thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou
pass through the waters, I'll be with thee, and through the
rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through
the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior, I gave Egypt. I drowned Egypt. He said, I gave Egypt for thy
ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. I destroyed these nations
for you. That's right, God'll kill a nation
for His elect. Since thou was precious in my
sight, thou has been honorable, I have loved thee, therefore,
listen, will I give men for thee and people for thy life. Oh, come and see the works of
God. He's terrible in His doing toward the children of men. The
very way that He made for them to escape death, Israel, became
the death of His enemies. It says in 2 Corinthians 2, 14-16,
that the preaching of the gospel is a savor of life and the life
to some, and a savor of what? Death unto death to some. The very way that God has saved
us in Christ will also be the ruin of all His enemies and our
enemies. He says He turned the sea into
dry land. He did that. He did that by His
power. They went through the flood on
foot. There did we rejoice in Him.
There! This psalmist is speaking as
if He were there. You know what? The church is
the body of Christ. She's one body. It's one body. He's the head, we are the body.
And as the church, we've experienced these things. You know, my dad
can talk about what he went through. Well, you know what he went through,
and he's my dad, and I can connect with that through him. And we
connect with these things that God has done through Christ,
who has done all of them. He's the one doing it, or has
done it and doing it, and still will do it. He turned the sea
into dry land. And they went through the flood
on foot. And right there did we rejoice
in Him. Our deliverance, listen, our deliverance from the curse
of the law, the power of sin, self and Satan is far greater
deliverance than what they went through in the Red Sea. How much
more do we have to rejoice in? There, there shall we rejoice. Through His blood and righteousness
we've been saved. There at the cross, there at
the cross, we rejoice in Him. Abraham rejoiced to see his day. He said he saw it and was glad.
The whole church of God meets at the cross. And there we rejoice
in Him. We are rejoicing and praising
the same God that Abraham rejoiced and praised, that Enoch rejoiced
and praised, and Abel rejoiced and praised. We are right there
with Him. We are right there with Him.
In tune with Him. At the cross. At the cross. There did we rejoice in Him. The church is one and has always
been one. We're not divided into old and
new. The church is one in Christ. Now we have the Old Testament
and the New Testament, but now the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is one church. It's one body. And the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ is always fresh with His people All the time. All the time. As if it just happened. And he says there in verse 7,
And he ruleth by his power forever. Can that be said of anybody else?
Where are the leaders of this world? Where's Pharaoh? Where
are all those kings at? They're all gone. But God rules by His power forever. He rules and He reigns and nobody
can change that. And here I wrote comfort, I wrote
comfort out by this verse. His eyes behold the nations, Let's bring the Bible into the
present. Let's think of it in the present.
Sometimes I think we think too often of this all being in the
past and this not being connected with where we live. It's very present. It's very
present. His eyes behold the nations. He sees what's going on in every
nation. He's directing and controlling
all things. Listen here, let not the rebellious
exalt themselves. Oh, let them not. Let them not
the rebellious right now that are just causing so much trouble.
Don't exalt yourself. God's got you under His thumb.
I promise you, God's got you under His thumb. Let me show you what's happening
over in Genesis 15. This is mentioned a couple of
times or so in the Scripture. I want to read this to you. Let
me find it here. Let me see where I want to start
reading. Look in verse 13. And he, that
is God, said to Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall
be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve
them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And
also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards
shall they come out with great substance. Thou shalt go to thy
fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again,
for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." So how long will God allow such
rebellion to go on? until they feel that measure
of iniquity. So they come to that point where
God says, no further. But He's going to let them get
to that point. Just like He says here, in the fourth generation
they will come out for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
But when it's full, when they have filled it up, then I'll
deal with them and I'll bring Israel out. then I'll deal with
them. Just like Sodom and Gomorrah,
it had become a very wicked city, very wicked. But God allowed
it to go to that certain point, and then He said, now I'm going
to burn you up. Now judgment's coming. Judgment's
coming. And His eyes behold the nations,
He says, don't let the rebellious exalt themselves. It's not like
they've got the power now. No, God still has the power.
He still has the power. But when they've reached that
measure of iniquity, that's when He'll bring judgment. And only
He knows when that is. And we trust Him. We trust Him. We trust Him to deal with it.
He has all the power to see to it that those who are rebellious,
sooner or later, he's gonna bring them down. He's gonna bring them
down. But here's what you and I do.
Here's what you and I do. Oh, bless our God. Ye people,
ye Gentiles, make the voice of his praise to be heard once again.
Bless our God. Bless him. Praise his name. When
you consider these things, consider this, He's your God. When you
consider how terrible He is toward the children of men, consider
this, He's your God, and toward you, how great is His grace! How great is the grace of God
toward you! After I graduated from high school,
I had a very close friend of mine that was killed in a car
wreck. He didn't believe the gospel. He didn't believe anything.
He was out partying all night. God's terrible act toward him
and His grace toward me. He deserved it. I didn't. I didn't. I deserved what he got. But I
end up getting what Christ deserves. I got what He had, what He deserved. Oh, bless our God, you people. Make the voice of His praise
to be heard, which holdeth our soul in life, or to read it like
this, who putteth our soul in life. In other words, he's speaking
here of eternal life. But we can consider it like this.
Who holds our soul in life, nothing can take it. One day, going back to Ashland,
a truck driver went by me, just... I mean, he scared me. He just
flew by me. And it just hit me how many ways
and how easy it is to die. I thought, how many ways it is
you can die? There are so many ways, and it's
so easy. The only reason is because God
has not taken my life. He's not taken it from me. He's
not called me out. There's just so many things that
can take our life if God didn't hold our life. But here He's
speaking of eternal life. Our life is hid with Christ in
God. He holds our soul in life, and
He suffers not our feet to be moved, to fall away, Yeah, I
tell you what, if we could fall away, we would. If we could leave
God, every one of us would. We wouldn't be here tonight. Sometimes you've got to fight
it to be here anyway. You've got to fight yourself. There's
always something coming up, tired, you know, whatever. I know. I know. But He suffers on our
feet to be moved and slip and fall off the rock. and apostatize,
He keeps us. He keeps us. I'm not alive because I'm healthy.
I'm alive because God's given me life and He hasn't called
me out of this world yet. And I have eternal life because
God's given it to me in Jesus Christ. That's why I have it. For thou, O God, hast proved
us, thou hast tried us as silvers tried. I'm going to pick up here
next week. I'm going to just pick up here
because now he's going to turn to the trials that God puts on
us. He said, you've proved us. You've tried us. The silver is
tried. I don't want to just hurry up
over these verses. Because some of God's children
are tried heavenly. And some are yet to be tried
heavily. And He's the one who does it. He's the one who refines
us. And I can say this, and I say
this for myself, and I can say this for every believer here.
I want to know the genuineness of my faith. I want to know I
believe God. I don't want to be fooled. I don't want to be
fooled. I don't want to die, stand before
God and hear Him say, depart from me, I never knew you. I
never knew you. But I can tell you this, tried
faith will never leave. If it's of God, it will not leave. It'll cling to him more and more
and more. But I want to deal with that
next week. I don't want to just hurry through
this.