I'm thankful for that young man,
brother top lady. Lord gave him 38 years on this
earth and it was used mightily, wasn't it? Taught him some things.
He rejoiced. I hope this morning we can make
a joyful noise and that we can leave this pit of sin and worthlessness
that we call this world and all the cares of it and the things
we cling so tightly to and for a moment, I may preach for 30 minutes.
I hope Lord bless you for 30 seconds. That'd make for a good
week, wouldn't it? For a moment, we can revere his
works and just see what he's done. Here in Psalm 66, it's
not said that David wrote this, but he likely did, but any of
us could say these things and it kind of repeats itself a few
times. I want to focus more so on his
first few verses, verses one through seven. Psalm 66, verse one says, make a joyful
noise unto God, all ye lands, saying forth the honor of his
name. Make his praise glorious. Make a joyful noise. Do you know
that's one word in the original text? Make a joyful noise. One word. And you know what it
means? It means split the ears. Make a noise that'll just bust
people's eardrums. We call that hollering where
I'm from. Yell out from the belly button.
I mean, way down deep. Make a joyful noise. And you
know, to make, make, that's putting forth effort, isn't it? That's
not just showing up and laying there like a wet towel. That's
to put forth some effort. David said that in Psalm 103.1.
It says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that's within me.
Bless His holy name. Every fiber of my being split
the ears. And everybody, not just me, all
ye lands. Don't you think that the world
ought to, out of a debt of gratitude, thank Him? Really? I mean, do you think
that at all? People ought to praise him? That
he's worthy of being praised? I didn't even make it a sentence
in. I gotta tell you this. If somebody asked you, men or
you women, women wouldn't get as much trouble, men would, you
men, tell me about your wife. And you said, well, she's this
tall and she's got this color hair and her eyes are Yeah, her
eyes were this color. You gotta double check, you know.
And she reads this kind of book and, no, tell me about her. Tell
me something about her. Those are facts. Anybody can
tell you that. Well, it's her middle name. Yeah, the birth certificate can
tell you that. Tell me about her. If somebody
said, tell me about your God. Well, remember the scriptures
alone, faith alone, cross alone. Once saved, always saved, election.
Will we tell about a person? Will we tell facts that some
old piece of paper could tell you? Or do we tell about a person
we've dealt with? If we know him and we love him,
don't you want everybody to love him? Paul asked those women laborers
with him in the gospel, help them. I have some laborers that
are female, help them. I love them, you ought to love
them too. I want all the lands. Do you
want all the lands to hear this? If we do, we'll do everything
we can for it. To sang forth honor of his name, not our own,
not our own. We're not saved by any other
name. It's his name, but we sang forth honor of his name, his
name. Everybody and their brother wants
awards and accolades and recognition. Do you know what I've done for
this place? Do you know what I've given up? Do you know what
I've sacrificed? Do you know how many years I've dedicated to this, or I
founded this, and I started that, and it was hard? Why don't we
say forth the praises of His name? Why don't we say the Lord
did that? Because that's who did it, right?
Or are we just rebels against the Holy God still? We know better. We know better, that creation's
in us to know those things. This is joyful news, it says,
make his praise glorious, not man's praise glorious. Talk about
his name, talk about his praise, and make it glorious. That's
joyful and that's refreshing to hear about the Lord to poor,
needy sinners. Other people just, some old fella
drowning on, I can sleep right through it. Nodding off and rebelling
and fishing. I got some soccer tournaments
to go to this weekend. Important things. Needy sinners
want to hear about his name being praised. They do. Proverbs 25
says, as cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a
far country. Oh man, you ever been real thirsty
and drank water, not just water, but cold water? You can just
feel it go down you, can't you? And it wakes you up, and woo!
You want to make a joyful noise. That's the same thing as this
good news from a far country. If we hear the Lord's people
rejoice in it, they do. That's good news. That's worthy
of making noise for and singing and praising God for, isn't it? If we'd have kept reading there
in 1 Timothy this morning, it says, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation. That means no matter what, you
accept it. Like him, two apostles told that fellow, they said,
you look at me. You got anything for me? Yeah, I got something
for you, look at me. Accept this. Bow to it, believe it, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. But don't you just
know it all, Paul? He said, of whom I'm chief. I'm
chief. He started out his sojourn thinking
he was a little bit better. He knew what he was, but he said,
I'm less all the apostles. And then he grew up and he said,
I'm less all the saints. And then he grew up some more
and he matured. He became an old believer, not a young babe
and not a young man. And he said, I'm the chief of
sinners. Well, that's going down. Yeah, it's growing in grace,
isn't it? That's a good thing. David said
that in Psalm 40, we looked at a few weeks ago, but I am poor
and I am needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. The Lord thinketh
upon me. Verse three, say unto God. That's one thing to say something
to people and write it down in a diary somewhere. God looks
on the heart. That's who we're dealing with.
Holy God on his throne. You speak to him. Well, I told
so-and-so. Don't matter if you told so-and-so. Gotta make us
honest before him. Say unto God, how terrible art
thou in thy works. How terrible thou art. Does that
mean he's mean and bad? No. Revered. Reverend. full of awe, awesome. That's what we say nowadays. All of your works are terrible. They're to be revered. Remember
grace? That's unmerited favor from our
view. It's earned. It's merited by Christ, isn't
it? That was his work. That's his working. That's his
doing. This is how terrible are thy works. How wonderful and
great are thy works. Go up to any child of God, and
you say, what you've done has just been magnificent. And I
said, well, thank you. I got up early this morning. No, I
said, Lord did it. What me? If there's anything
good to come of it, he did it. They'll praise his works, won't
they? His works. Do you know we're saved by works? That perk
you have? Now you with me, ain't you? We
are. We're saved by works, not of
our own. That law had to be fulfilled. He said, Matthew 5, thank not
that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm not
come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you that
heaven and earth pass, not one jot nor one tittle shall no wise
pass from the law till it be fulfilled. At all. You don't even know what the
law is. You don't know it. List them. What's that Levitical?
How many are there? 600 and uh... Okay, you got the
number right. Tell them to me. Sit down for
three hours, write them out in order, and then agree with it. I know people don't like building
codes. God's got some building codes in there. You better have
a railing on your roof. Don't you ever eat a medium-well steak.
You'll die and go to hell forever. That's who we're dealing with.
And this one came and fulfilled it. And he said, Lord looks on
his people and says, look, perfect, Bob, well done. You did perfect
your whole life, because he's seen Christ on you, that blood
on you, seen his work. He said, Matthew 11, come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. That's working. You're laboring. You're using
energy to accomplish a task. He said, stop. I'm just wore
out. No joke, quit working. and I'll
give you rest. How do you rest? When you stop
working. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Don't learn
catechisms and doctrines and you'll learn that. So that's
an easy way to eat that elephant one bite at a time. But learn
of me, for I'm meek and lowly in heart and you'll find rest
for your souls. My yoke is easy, my burden's light. Yoke fellows, as Paul says. Rest. Calm down. Lord's on his throne. Psalm 66, verse 3. Saying to
God, how terrible are thy works. Through the greatness of thy
power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. Through
your power, the greatness of your power, not some mediocre
power, this is the potentate, this is the authority, not an
authority, not a power, this is the power. Through his power
shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. Who's his enemies? Has it ever been you? You ain't gonna be his friend
till he shows you you're his enemy first. We were enemies. This is talking about us. And
he said, his people, we was enemies. They shall be submitted and they'll
submit themselves to you. To this be a blessing to you.
Turn Romans five. Romans five. Verse eight. But God commendeth his love towards
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than now being now
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
For if when we were enemies, do you hate God? How many enemies go to war? I
don't want to hear nothing from him or I want to attack him or
I want to do whatever. I went to church my whole life. I've
been saved my whole life, that's too long. John the Baptist had
the Holy Ghost from the womb. I ain't reading nobody else and
he's the greatest man born a woman, wasn't he? Enemies, for if while
we were yet enemies, when we were reconciled, we were reconciled
to God by the death of his son. Much more being reconciled, we
shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also
glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have
now received the atonement. We were enemies, and while we
were enemies, and while we were sinners, He loved us anyway.
He loved the unlovable, and then the Father sent His Son to live
for Him, and to die for Him, and be raised again for Him. It was just Selah. You just sit
and think about that. That's something. You talk about
grace. That ain't a definition no more.
That's an act of a holy God. What a thought. Back in our text
there in Psalm 66, verse 3. Say unto God, Frightening. How awe-inspiring and reverend. How terrible are thy works. Through
the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves
unto thee. They submit themselves. Willingly. Willingly. Well, how are we going
to do that? Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power. when the Lord's power comes, His great power. If He
comes to us in power. Paul said, we preached that gospel.
I ain't a fool. I know we preached it in power
because you received it in power. We saw what happened. I can tell
the difference between a rooster and a dinosaur. I can tell the
difference between somebody that loves this gospel and is delighted
in Christ and somebody that don't. He said, it came to you in power.
And by His power, we're made willing. We willingly submit.
You accept the Lord. After he's accepted you in Christ,
of course you do. You accept his word, you believe
his word, you surrender, you rest. Ah, well now, now you get
to rest, now it's gotta be by his power. What's gonna settle
the mind and settle the body? He has to do it. Stop thinking
about stuff and calm down. I can't. He has to do that, don't
we? What a power. Amazing power. The power to save, the power
to keep, and the power to conform. Lord saved us, that's amazing.
Lord can keep his people, he won't lose one. That's terrible,
that's amazing. To be reverend, isn't it? And
he's gonna conform those people to the spirit and image. That's what they call the spitting
image. That's cause people talk too fast in Appalachia. The spirit
and the image of his darling son. Be made just like him. Everybody wants to go to heaven.
Everybody wants to get out from underneath the law. How many
people want to be made like Christ? I want to be without sin. I want
to think what he thinks. I want to like the things he
likes. I want to talk about what he wants to talk about, not what
I want to talk about. I want him to teach me, not me teach
him something. There's a difference. Chickens and dinosaurs, it's
plain, isn't it? Words mean things. What power. In Romans 1, Paul said, for I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. This is the true gospel.
Go read Galatians. There's another gospel that's
not another. And those two anothers are not the same word. There's
one that's wildly different, and you think it's pretty close.
Well, that's close. There's only a little bit of
leaven in it. How much leaven's enough? How much sin do you need
to have is okay for you to have on you and stand in front of
a holy God in judgment? A speck, a spot, a blemish? No, there's
one gospel. And Paul says, I'm not ashamed
of that gospel, Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it. That's good news in Christ. That's
power, buddy. That's power. We'd sing about
that, wouldn't we? William Cowper said, when this
poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave, then
in a nobler, sweeter song, I'll sing thy power to save. We know
this now. How you think we're gonna sing
then? If that's precious to us now, That's gonna be, you talk about
bliss, eternal bliss. This will be for eternity, did
you know that? Verse four says, all the earth shall worship thee,
shall sing unto thee, and they shall sing unto thy name, Selah. Take a pause, stop doing what
you're doing and think about that. Think about it. All the
earth will worship thee, they're all gonna sing unto you, they're
gonna sing to your name. That's gonna happen. That's eternity.
That's when this whole world's wrapped up and done. Revelation
21 says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven
and the first earth passed away. That stuff's gone. That stuff's
gone. Peter said, nevertheless, according to his promise, we
look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
That's the Lord our righteousness. And nothing but acts from a holy
natures in the whole place. That new heaven and that new
earth is going to sing to his name and split ears loud, real
loud. Have something worth singing
about. That's so for eternity for the
believer, but it's a C-list. You stop and think about that.
And I stopped and thought about that a long time. That's going to
be the new heaven and new earth, isn't it? But I'll tell you what,
he talks about his enemy's son. That's going to be in that day
of judgment too. It is. All will bow before the King
of Kings. All. And the child of God would have
it no other way. Have it no other way. We'll know
that more perfectly then. But that's so. That's so. Paul
wrote to that church at Philippi and said that at the name of
Jesus, every knee should bow at things of heaven and things
of earth and things under the earth. And that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. to the glory. The Father purposed
all this. The Son performed it and purchased
everything. And the Holy Ghost came to us and proclaimed that
to us. We believed Him. We said, that's
right. That's so. Every knee is going to say that
to us now. But in that final day, every knee is going to bow.
Every tongue is going to confess. To know Him now and to confess
Him now in this lifetime, that's just proof of life. That's just
an earnest, that's a down payment. You know that now. Said in Romans
10, nine, if thou would confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shall believe in thine heart that God's raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved. There'll be many in that day
that'll say, Lord, Lord, I don't know you. You know how many good things
we did for you? That's their work, isn't it?
You know what we did for you? We cast out demons in your name.
He says, leave, depart from me. I know you're not, I love you
not. And then his people say, he said, you clothed me when
I was naked, you came and visited me in prison, I was in the hospital,
you gave me something to drink when I was thirsty. I said, when
did we see you ever do these things? He said, you done it
to the least of these, you done it to me. Confess in thine heart, thou
shalt be saved. The Lord looks on the heart.
We can trick men and women in this world, and we can say all
the right things and show up at the right time, be in the
right places, in the right uniform. God looks on the heart. and we can
be in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong uniform,
say the wrong things, and bless me God, he looks on the heart
and that's his heart. There's a new creation, he gave it. Look
at that, don't look at me. See, you gotta take some time,
you gotta pause. Don't rush through these things.
The only place a human will truly worship is at the throne of a
holy, powerful, sovereign Lord. You know sovereign's not in the
Bible. We know what it is though, don't
we? It has to do with reign. He rules, he reigns in the hearts
of people and in this land and everything else. People will
negotiate and they will bargain with someone that's like them.
But worship can only be done to one that's truly worthy. If
you don't know the one that's truly worthy, you ain't never
worshiped a day in your life. If you don't believe me, come
and see. Come and see. Book verse 5. Come and see! What? The works of God. Let me tell you about a man that
told me everything about me. You come hear him. Come listen
to him. And them men, they came, didn't
they? From Mount Harlot. She wouldn't much look at. Been
married so many times. Everybody knew her. And she said,
this, you just don't listen to me. You just come listen to him.
And they did. And they said, no, we came here
just cause of you. We liked you good enough or whatever. We didn't
have nothing going on that day. Pick a reason. But we've heard
him. Him. Now we believe. Now we believe. Come and see the works of God.
Not our works, his works. He is terrible, fearful, reverend
in his doings toward the children of men. What does he do towards
the children of man? Enemies. Born of Adam. Fallen. Unable and unwilling
to serve God, to bow to Him, to anything. What does he do
for them? Verse 6. He turned the sea into dry. And we went
through the flood on foot. There did we rejoice in Him.
We were surrounded. We ain't got there yet in Exodus,
but y'all know the story. There's a big mountain there
and an army coming. Pharaoh's army and all his chariots. Those
are the ones that move fast. and the sea, what did the Lord
do? He said, stay right there where I put you. And he parted
that sea, and it wasn't through, I thought that, I was walking
when I was thinking of this. If that was muddy, if you had
four feet of silt at the bottom of that thing, you couldn't walk
through it. I've been stuck in a mud for a lot of boots and
everything else. Dry ground, dry ground, even the evidence
of that sea is gone. You just walk through like it's
hard ground. He's done the exit, he brought his people out, didn't
he? That's a troubled sea. If we'd have kept reading, I
quoted you Revelation 21 earlier. I saw a new heaven, a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away
and there was no more sea. The sea's gone. What does that mean, troubled
sea? Isaiah 57 says, but the wicked are like a troubled sea
which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. Just churning
things up. That sea's gone. He's brought
us through that. We walk on dry ground. We're brought out. Exodus.
And he takes the sons of men and makes them the sons of God. We have pride, and some people
do. Some people hate their parents, but somebody has some good parents
and respectable mothers and fathers. You take pride in who your parents
were. It's like, you know whose child I am? That's nothing. He takes a son of me and makes
them sons of God. He says, you're my children. In the verse six, there did we
rejoice in him. When we're brought through. When
everything seems impossible, it's impossible with me. God,
all things possible. When we're brought through, we're
brought out. There, we'll rejoice in him. There. Verse seven, he
rules by his power forever. This isn't a king that It's going
to get 100 years out of, maybe 110 years out of, or 75 years
out of. No, he ruled forever. He's on
his throne. His eyes behold the nations, all nations. Let not
the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah. Stop. Think about that. This power He has, He rules by
His power forever. Forever. We say that all the
time. I wish the Lord would make that effectual in our hearts.
God's on His throne. Nothing gets past Him. Nobody's
sneaking up on Him and pulling one over on Him. He's on His
throne. If something comes to pass, it's for His glory and
our good. Preacher years ago, his son was
killed in a war. He was well known in that town
and he had enemies all through there too. Somebody came to him
and they said, when your son died, where was your God? And the Lord gave him words,
looked him dead in the eye. You know what he said? Some of
y'all have heard this before. He said the same place he was when
his son died, on his throne. That's true, isn't it? Where
was God when God turned his back on God? On his determinant counsel, on
his high holy command, sitting right there on his throne. Everything
was right there for his glory. Nebuchadnezzar was brought to
see that, that everything comes to pass by his power and his
purpose, and it's for his glory and our good. That's when his
right mind returned to him. He said in Daniel 4, 34, At the
end of my days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven,
and my understanding returned to me. And I blessed the Most
High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose
dominion is an everlasting dominion. And his kingdom from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth, are reputed as
nothing, nothing. Well, I like so-and-so. They're
nothing, because I've seen him. and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? Nobody can let God. They don't
know God if they think they can let God. None can keep him from
it. We're going to pray until he
stops doing it. You're going to bow, is what you're going to do. He says, at the same time, my
reason returned to me. My pure mind was stirred. That's
when I was in my right mind, seeing him on his throne. This
is gonna be proved to the child of God. We got a little bit of time.
This is the hard part, okay? Like, will you be saved? Well,
I want faith to believe God. Well, if he gives you faith to
believe him, he's gonna prove that he gave it to you and it
ain't your doing. It's gonna be hard, I'm gonna tell you that.
The road ahead is rough, and that's right for me to tell you.
I have to warn people. The Lord said that. Troubles
and tribulations coming. That's going to happen. It's
so. Look at verse 8. Psalm 66 verse
8. Oh bless our God you people and
make the voice of his praise to be heard which holdeth our
soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved. For thou,
O God, hast proved us, thou hast tried us, as silver is tried."
How do you try silver? How do you make silver pure?
Well, you get it real hot. And then that dross rises to
the top, all the impurities, and you scrape it off. I worked
there at a machine shop for a while for John Chapman, and they have
Babbitt. It's an alloy, soft metal. You heat it up by 800,
900 degrees, it turns to liquid, and they make these bearings
and things. But when you heat that metal up, that dross comes
to the top. You throw some stuff in there,
and it clings to it, and it rises to the top, and you scrape it off. And
you can let it cool back down and cover it. You could seal
it, hermetically seal it. And you know what happened the
next day when you heat that back up? Dross is going to come up. Like it's
a never-ending pit. It just keeps coming out. The
Lord's brought us through these things, and He's proved us. If
He gives faith to believe Him, He's going to prove it. He's
going to show you it's His faith, not something you mustered up.
How's that going to be? Through fiery trials. through
fiery trials. That's when a rubber meets the
road. That's hard messages, hard truths, hard providence, whatever
it is. And I mean, rip your heart out
of your chest, wet your pillow, your couch is soaking wet, shave
your head, put sackcloth and ashes on it, hit the ground,
and you're either going to worship him or curse him. And if we worship
him, we'll say he did it. It's his power. Now that's, I
won't believe him. And he's going to prove to me,
I believe him, if he's made me believe him. That it's his doing. I'm going to warn you ahead of
time. It's going to hurt, but you're going to see him. You'll be all
right. It's going to be okay. Thou broughtest us into the net,
verse 11. Thou hast laidest afflictions upon our loins. Thou hast caused
men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through
water. We've been through it. Some of
y'all have been through it. Some of y'all is going through it right now.
Burning flames of trials and feel like you're just covered
with waves and men and chariots just pounding on top of your
head. But thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. You
brought us out, Lord, just like you did Egypt through that sea.
You brought us out of this to a wealthy place. Wealthy place. Where are all them riches found?
All them blessings found in him? You brought us to cross feet,
Lord. That's the wealthiest place in the universe or whatever's
bigger than that. I don't know. That's it. Ain't nothing more
valuable than that, is there? You brought us through all that
to bring us right to you. That one writer said, some go
through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire.
Not everybody's trial is the same. It's like a thumbprint.
The Lord tailor-made every trial that we go through just for His
child. Ain't nothin' wrong with it. It's perfect. He's too wise
and too holy and too pure and too powerful for it to go any
other way than he purposed. It's tailor-made for his child.
Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through
the fire, but all through the blood. Some through great sorrow,
but God gives a song in the night season and all the day long. He leads his little children
along. He did this. He did it. Verse 13. I will go
into thy house with burnt offerings. I will pay thee my vows, which
my lips have uttered and my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble.
I'll go to where your people gather, Lord, and I'm going to
sacrifice burnt offerings." What's that? The lips? What comes out
of your mouth? You just say something right,
the mouth speaks as the heart is. I'll tell you everything
you've given to me, all your words. I will offer unto thee
burnt sacrifices of fatlings with the incense of rams. I will
offer bullocks with goats, Selah. Come in here. Come in here. He says, keeps repeating. You
go through it and you come out of it. If you're going to live
longer, I'll tell you it's going to happen again. We'll be doing
real good, and we'll forget the Lord. We'll be real comfortable,
and He'll make us uncomfortable. And then we'll get disturbed,
and He'll comfort us. Come and hear, all you that fear
God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul. And
we go through that several times. I can tell you what His word
says, and I can tell you what He done for me. I don't know
how it's gonna come to pass. I don't know how He's gonna make
this happen. But if you're His, you'll see Him high and lifted
up at the end of it, and you'll thank Him. You would think. You say, that's impossible. Yeah,
well, man, it is. I'll tell you. I cried unto him
with my mouth, verse 17, and he was extolled with my tongue.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But
verily God hath heard me, and he hath attended to the voice
of my prayer. Blessed be God. which hath not turned away my
prayer, nor his mercies from me. Bless him. He's merciful. Remember what I said last hour?
Mercy. We didn't get what we did deserve.
He hasn't turned that away. He's changed not. He's the Lord
our God who changes not, and that's why us sons of Jacob aren't
consumed. I told you before, I forget sometimes. You get to reading things, and
this is a song. This is a song, they sang this.
Wouldn't that be a good song to sing? The Lord makes us truly
sing it. It'd be a blessing, wouldn't
it? Let's pray again. Father, bring your people to
the feet of Christ. Lord, make all praise him. We
know that day of judgment will come and now we can't bear the
thoughts of it. We'll magnify his name. sing
his praises and the good things, good works that he's done, Lord.
Thank you for revealing this gospel to us now. Thank you for
revealing Christ in us and make us sing his praises. Give us
the ability, be powerful in your people, Lord, to tell them what
good things the Lord's done for us. Tell them what Christ has
done for us and who we were when he did it. Enemies, unable, unwilling. Lord and do everything just as
you said you would. Because of Christ and his glory, we ask
these things. Amen.