I'd like you to go back to Psalm
96 with me now. Psalm 96, as said, the title
of this message is A Song for All. In this psalm and other
psalms, the writer says, look at verse 1, Psalm 96, O sing
unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Verse 9, look at verse 9. Worship
the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before Him. All the earth. Our reason for being here every
time is not because it's Sunday, not because it's tradition, not
because it's expected of us to do. Our reason for being here
is to thank our God, to praise our God, meaning to give Him
all the glory and honor for everything we are and everything we have. To thank our Lord, to worship
Him in spirit, that means from the heart, and in truth. To call
upon Him. We come here to call upon Him.
We pray together. Prayer is a blessed thing. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. We call,
and we call privately, but this thing of prayer of the church
and God's people is very precious. We call upon the Lord. We come
here to hear His voice. We hope that He will speak to
us. We hope we can truly worship
the Lord in the beauty of holiness. That means not in outward form
or not in tradition or not in ceremony or not in habit or duty,
but from the heart, with the true hearts of thanksgiving and
praise and honor. What do we have that we have
not received? So we give Him all the glory. We come here to
praise Him, to thank Him. We come here to be taught. We
need to be taught. We need to learn. We need to exhort one another.
We need to build up one another on this most holy faith. I hope
we'll go out of here, if you're a believer. I hope we'll go out
of here believing more firmly than when we came. I hope you'll
go out of here more thankful than when you came. So, this
is a joyful song. There's not one thing negative
in here, except talking about the gods of the heathen. They're
just idols. But then it goes on. But this is a joyful thing. This is praise. This is thanksgiving,
like so many psalms are. The joy of the Lord is your strength.
Joy and gladness. Singing. I could have titled
this, Sing, Sing, Sing. Throughout the scriptures it
tells us that. Look at verse, well look over at Psalm 1. Oh,
there's so many. Just turn the page. Psalm 98.
Look here. Psalm 98, verse 1. Oh, sing unto
the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord. Psalm 101. I will sing of mercy and judgment
unto thee, O Lord, will I sing. Sing. In Psalm 150, and we said
the title was A Song for All to Sing. In Psalm 150, it says,
let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Why? Because he's the God in whose
hands your breath is. We have a brother right now in
a hospital from the church at Madisonville, a dear brother
that we know and love well. He's struggling to breathe. He's
on a machine. Now, you're not struggling to
breathe, are you right now? Why? Because God has blessed you to
be able to breathe. Why? Why does He give us breath? Why does He give anything breath? To praise Him. To give Him thanks. Let everything have breath. Praise
the Lord. Look back at Psalm 98. Look at
this. Here's the reason. Look at verse
2. Psalm 98, the Lord hath made
known his salvation, his righteousness hath he openly showed in the
sight of the heathen. Verse 4, so make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, all the earth. Make a loud noise, rejoice, and
sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with a harp,
with a harp, the voice of a psalm, with trumpets, and sound the
cornet. Make a joyful noise before the Lord the King. Someone says,
I can't sing. You can make a noise, can't you?
That's why we have breath. It really is. Scripture talks
about the world, the people in the world that don't know the
Lord, that aren't thankful, don't think on the Lord. Their mouths
are full of cursing and bitterness. The very breath that God gives
them, they curse His name with. Let that not be so of God's people. Sing. Praise Him with everything. Listen to this. I'll just turn
and read some of these for you for the sake of time. It's going
to be a short message, and I hope it's sweet. Psalm 148 says, Praise
the Lord, ye heavens. Praise the Lord, ye angels. Praise
the Lord, ye sun, moon, and stars, the waters. Let everything praise
Him. Down in verse 11 it says, The
kings, the people, the princes, the rulers, the judges, young
men and maidens, young and old, old men and children, let them
praise the name of the Lord, for His name is excellent, His
glory is above the earth and the heaven. Everyone in here. I was going to have you turn
to 1 Chronicles 25, but in that that story, David appointed singers
for the sanctuary, all right? And he appointed 288 singers,
12 from 12 tribes, and 288, so he says 244, my math's bad, but
there were others he appointed. Asaph and all these singers,
like John leads us in singing, and Jeanette in playing of the
hymn. on the piano, and so does Sally and Robin. But David appointed people to
do just that. That's what they were to do.
They would praise the Lord and the instruments and the harp
and play the guitar, banjo, whatever it is, to sing unto the Lord. And it said, well, turn with
me. 1 Chronicles 25. I want you to
see this. So everything, this is for everyone
to do. Sing, praise, and give thanks
unto the Lord. It's His due. It's what's due His name. 1 Chronicles
25. Look at this with me. This one
man named Heman, or He-man. You want to be a He-man? I mean a strong man? Be strong
in the faith. Give Him all the glory. for everything,
for your strength, for your health, for your family, for everything. Give him all the glory. Listen
to this. This man had fourteen sons and
three daughters, verse 5, all the sons of Heman, the king's
seer, in the words of God, to lift up the horn. And God gave
to Heman fourteen sons and three daughters. All these, this family
of his, were under the hands of their father. What for? What
did he have them doing? They were in the house of God
singing songs unto the Lord, and the house of the Lord with
cymbals and psalteries and harp for the service of the house
of God according to the king's order. This is what our God has
ordered. We've got young people learning
the instruments, even Josh back there. The Lord's given him a
gift to play the piano. And I pray, more than anything,
that the Lord will reveal Himself to him and them, and that they
will use that God-given talent for His glory and His honor.
There are so many who don't have fingers to do anything. And God has given them this gift. This is a song for everybody
to sing. Everybody. Go back to Psalm 96. So this
man, he had all his family in the house of God singing. You
say, but they don't know the Lord. Sing anyway. I was forced to sing when I was
young. I was forced to sing. And now
I'm glad. Because those songs that were
ingrained in my mind, in my heart, Later on in life, they came flooding
back into my heart, my soul. And they convicted me of my sin,
just like the gospel. So, in Psalm 96, sing unto the
Lord, all the earth. Verse 2, sing unto the Lord,
bless His name. Bless, that means bow in humble
adoration. And there proclaim, my God, how
great thou art. That's what blessed me, to bow
in humility, because God has given us everything, done everything
for us. What's his name? Exodus 34, he
says his name is merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness
and mercy. What's his name? Isaiah 96. Call his name Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
What's his name? His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless his name. While the world
and most people in it is cursing his name, have the name of God
on their lips in cursing and bitterness, let us bless his
name. and all that is within us. Bless
His holy name. Bless His name. Jesus Christ
our Lord. Verse 2, show forth His salvation
from day to day. The reason you're living right
now, the reason I'm living right now, is because God gave you
that life. The only reason you will continue to live is not
because of what you eat, or how you conduct yourself, or how
you do whatever you do to preserve your life. No, it's the Lord
alone that killeth or maketh alive. It's the Lord alone who
keeps us alive, keeps us breathing. And when the time comes, no matter
how many apparatuses, how many machines they have you hooked
to, they are not going to keep you living when the Lord says,
That's it. It'll be over. It'll be over. His salvation, what that means
is He's saving your life right now. What for? He's keeping you
living. What for? For His praise and
honor and glory. And His salvation, His greatest
salvation, is the salvation of souls. All souls are mine, He
said. The soul that sinneth will surely
die. But God made his son to be sin,
but he knew no sin, made his soul an offering for sin, and
put Christ through hell, not for everybody, but for some. Who? I don't know. I just know
he chose them. And here's how you know them.
They will give him all the honor and glory for their salvation. And when it's all over, They'll
be singing in glory of His honor, His glory, His praise, and His
great salvation to them in Jesus Christ our Lord. So is salvation. Verse 3, declare His glory among
the heathen. His glory. What's His glory? In Isaiah 43, again, It says, You are my people whom
I have chosen, that you might know me, that I am the Lord,
this is His glory, that He is God, there is no other. There
is nothing and no one in control of anything. There is nothing
and no one that has any power over anything. Scripture says
that all power is given unto the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven
and earth. Christ said, As thou hast given
Him power over all, flesh. That's his glory, he said. And
we ought to be giving him thanks for everything. It's in his hand.
That's his glory. What's his glory? Look at verse
3. His wonders. Declare His wonders among all
people. Verses 4 and 5. The Lord is great,
greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all
these gods that men worship. For all the gods of the nation
are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Are not the heavens
and the earth full of wonder? His wonders? Very few people
actually believe there is a God, and very few still believe that
God made the heavens and the earth. Most people believe in
some kind of ridiculous notion, some kind of far-fetched notion
that scientists try to perpetuate, that everything just happened
with a big bang, and now you have this glorious and wonderful
creation. By chance. Oh, no. It's by God. For thou hast created all things,
and for thy pleasure they are and were created. He's the Creator
of us. That's where you start. That's
where faith starts. The Creator. His wonders. The
wonders of His creation. The wonders. Heavens declare
His glory. The firmament showeth His handiwork.
Day under day utter the speech. Night under night showeth knowledge.
The sun, the moon, the stars, the skies, Only a fool could
look at this wonderful creation and say, well, it just happened.
No, it didn't just happen. God spoke and it came into existence. But the wonder of wonders, the
most wondrous thing of all, that God would be mindful of man. What is man that thou art mindful
of him, or would visit him? The wonder of wonders is that
God became a man, that God came to this earth. To live among
worms. To live among creatures that
would not give Him any glory whatsoever. Didn't like to think
on Him at all. Didn't even believe He is God. But God came to this earth to
reveal Himself to some of these rebel creatures. Some of these
unthankful creatures. What a wonder! What wonder! You know what His name is? I
quoted it to you. Isaiah 6. Wonderful! This is the most wonderful thing
of all his wonders. And wonder of wonders is, to
me, is that he revealed himself to me, to this prodigal son,
to this young rebel who didn't care about God for so long a
time. But God brought me in this place,
like you, and sat me down and told me, I am God. And from here on out, you're
mine, and you will give me all honor and all glory and all praise. You will come and be glad to
do so, to worship me. The wonder of wonder. You know,
the scripture says this, and our Lord quoted it. Behold, I
and the children which thou hast given me are for signs and wonders. David one time said, I'm a wonder
to myself. I'm glad you didn't know me.
How old am I? Forty years ago. Forty-five years
ago. I'm glad you didn't know me.
But then again, if you had, you would be amazed that I'm standing
here before you. You would be amazed. You would
think, what a wonderful thing. Oh, look at our text in Psalm
96. Honor and majesty are before
him. Strength and beauty are in his
sanctuary. Peter, turn with me to Revelation
5, real quickly, Revelation 5. I promise you this is going to
be a short message. You won't believe how short this
is going to be. You'll think it's wonderful. But I hope it
will be short and sweet. But Revelation 5, turn there
with me. Honor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty.
Here's what Simon Peter said. He said, we haven't made this
up. He said, this is no cunningly devised fable. We made known
unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
were eyewitnesses of His majesty. I've always hated to hear men
and women call kings and queens his or her majesty. There's one
to whom majesty belongs. The Lord Jesus Christ, because
He's the King. That's the title reserved for
a King. He's King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Look at this in
Revelation 5 verse 12. This is a number 10,000 times
10,000 and thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb
that was slain to receive power, meaning we ascribe to Him all
power. Not to anyone or anything. Everybody
in heaven right now knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that God
Almighty, that Christ gave every human being whatever ability
or power they have to do anything. Even the gnats. Power, riches, nobody attains
or obtains anything except it's from the Lord. The Lord maketh
rich and the Lord maketh poor. Wisdom? Nobody knows anything. Nobody
has a brain to think unless the Lord gives it to them. Strength? Let not the strong man glory
in his strength. You know what God hates more
than anything? Pride. In Proverbs 16 it says, six things
the Lord hates, seven are abomination to Him. The first thing is a
proud look. And those that know the Lord
and are zealous for His glory and jealous of His glory, they
hate it too. When you see a beautiful woman,
you know, looking like, ain't I something? When you see a strong
man, you know, touting his strength and all that. God hates that. Why? Because he gave them what
they have, everything. A man with great riches. Why
does he have that? Why is this man rich and this
man poor? Well, he worked real hard. Who gave him the body? Who gave him the mind? Who gave
him the strength? Besides, the reason he gave that
man riches is somehow or another, some of that riches is going
to be for the furtherance of the gospel. That's it. Wisdom, strength, honor, glory,
and blessing. Read it with me. Verse 13. Every
creature which is in heaven and on the earth, under the earth,
such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I say,
blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth
upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. What do you say to that? You
know, women can say amen. You do know that. In fact, we're
commanded to. Go back to Psalm 96. It says,
verse 7, Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people. Kindreds
of the people. We've got different kindreds
in here. You know God has a people out of every nation and kindred? How merciful is God to save somebody
out of every family? Isn't that amazing? Why would He save anybody? You
know, we all think our family is special. That's just not so. There are
no noble people on this earth. We didn't come from cavemen,
but we sure acted like it. Our ancestors. I'm Irish. Scotch-Irish. They were heathens. Heathen. People like to brag
about being Celtic and the Druids. They were idol worshippers. Ran
around naked. They did. There's nothing special
about our families, really. God has chosen a people out of
every family. Isn't that something? The old. There sits two. What mercy. Save one. There sits two. The
Huffs. The Hollins. The Torrances. The Pendries. The Andersons.
God saved one, let alone two, a husband and a wife. There's no greater blessing on
the top side of God's earth. If you're saved, if the Lord
has revealed Himself to you, let alone your wife or your children,
you ought to be singing louder than anybody in this place. You
know what? Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds
of the people, the glory and strength. Verse 8, give unto
the Lord the glory due unto his name. What is due unto man? What is man earned? The wages, Scripture says, of
our sin is death. We deserve, man is due for his
robbing God of his glory, for not thanking God. for using everything
that God has without giving Him thanks and taking credit for
it. That's what pride is. Man deserves
to be put to shame. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto His name. That's His name, the Lord. Bring
an offering and come unto His presence, His court. Bring an
offering. What do we bring? What do we
offer? What offering do we bring? Listen
carefully, okay? In Hebrews 10, Hebrews 10, of
which it summarizes the whole Old Testament, that there's only
one way you could approach unto God with an offering. One offering. One offering. What was it? The
blood of a lamb. What is that? Who is that? We just read about it in Revelation.
It's the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says, by
one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And the Holy Ghost is witness,
and it goes on to say, that we come into his presence by a new
and living way, through the veil, that is to say his flesh, we
have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus Christ. We come to God. We come here
today to worship God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through
the blood, through the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
don't bring anything we've done. We don't bring our works. No,
no. We come here by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We approach
this God saying that our greatest The reason for thanksgiving and
praise is that you would send your Son down here to die for
your people and to shed His precious blood for the remission of our
sin and accept us into your holy grace. Thank you, Lord. Thank
you. Some thank the Lord for friends
and home. Some thank Him for this and that
and the other. But the song says, I would thank Him for His grace. Salvation full and free. Salvation
by grace. He gives this to whom He wills. So it goes on to say, bring this
offering. Go back to the text. It says in Psalm 96, verse 8,
come into His court. Come. Come. Oh, worship the Lord
in the beauty of holiness. I've already said this. That
means that we come not – there's nothing more abominable to God
than to draw a nail over the lips when your heart's fired
from it. and just tradition or ceremony or because it's Sunday
or because, you know, somebody will be glad I'm here. You know,
we don't give anybody thanks for coming here to worship God.
You'll never hear this preacher say, thank you for coming here. We thank our God that He brought
us here. If He hadn't, we wouldn't be here. And if He hadn't given
us a heart to worship Him, we'd be doing it at a duty, at a ceremony,
at a... Like so many people. Oh, my. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. But the true holiness it speaks
of here is the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We worship
Him through Christ our holiness. Fear, verse 9. Fear. Fear before
Him. Oh, the earth. Fear. God is to
be feared among all people. Be had in reverence among His
Son. Verse 10. Say among the heathen that the
Lord reigneth." Back there he said, he said, declare His glory
among the heathen. If you don't have time or the
opportunity to say something to an unbeliever or your neighbor
or whoever it may be, if the opportunity doesn't arise for
you to speak the gospel to them, you can at least say something
about His sovereignty. When they start complaining about
the rain, At least we can say, thank God for the rain. When
they say something about this or that and the other, that this,
oh, how bad that is, you can at least say, no, God did that.
The Lord did that. What do you mean? What do I mean?
I mean the Lord rained it. That's what I mean. Say among
the heathen, God rains. That's His glory. And that's
our witness. That's our testimony. The world
has a God that's an idol that they've made up, that they think
just doesn't want any of this bad thing to happen, but it's
happening anyway. There's a God that's more powerful
than him called Satan, and he can't do anything with him. He's
doing all this bad stuff. You tell the heathen that that
God is in our God's hands. Tell them. You say you'll start
an argument. Good. Mad, sad, or glad. Tell them. Stay among the heathen. That's why we have bread. Verse 10 says, The world is established
that it shall not be moved. He's going to shake it one of
these days. But until then, it just keeps revolving. It just
keeps providing. And people worship the creature
rather than the Creator. Not God's people. We don't worship Mother Earth.
We worship our Father in Heaven. Not this Earth. This Earth doesn't
provide for us. God does. He sends the rain to
give the seed, to give bread to the eater. Our God. Say it among the heathen. It
says that He'll judge the people righteously. That means He'll
do what's right. He'll judge them in Christ. Get
their righteousness. Let the heavens rejoice. Here
it is. Let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar in the fullness
thereof. Let the field be joyful. All
that is therein, all the trees of the wood, clap your hands.
And I was going to have you turn to several scriptures. You can
turn for yourself. Isaiah 42, 44, 49, 53, it says
they break forth. They all break forth in singing. The trees clap their hands. Everything. But man, oh my, before the Lord. See, I can't sing. People, I'll
be embarrassed to sing. You ain't singing for people.
He's singing before the call. Do you hear me? Some of you can't sing, I've
heard you. But do you know Luciano Pavarotti,
is that his name? That opera singer? Are all these
rock singers, all these pop singers, all these people that God's given
breath, that are not given Him glory and honor, that all these
people idolize and bow before and millions go to hear them
sing, is noise in God's ears. It's an abomination to God. But
that one sinner saved by God's grace from the bottom of his
heart to the top of his lung, he doesn't know what middle C
is. And he's singing to the glory of God and the honor of his Lord
Jesus Christ, his music through God's ears. Beautiful. Beautiful. Before the Lord. Why? He's coming.
He's coming back. Aren't you glad? It says in Revelation,
the Amen says, even so, come quickly. Come quickly. But save our children first.
Save our spouses. Save our grandchildren. Save
our neighbors. Save someone first. Would you
please? He's coming. Verse 13. Yes, He
is. He came the first time. He's
coming again. Come to judge the earth. Different Jesus, and men are
talking about it. He's coming, He'll judge the world with righteousness.
How's that? And that man whom He hath ordained,
Jesus Christ. You'll either be in Him, like
Noah in that ark, or outside of Him. I pray God you'll be
found in Him. And the people with His truth. How do you come to God? What
way do you come to God? What do you believe about God,
about you, about salvation? Every one of God's people can
say this in truth, from the heart, with one word. Our salvation
is in Christ. He's the way, He's the truth,
and He's the life. Let's sing 442.