I go back to Psalm 111. Brother Gabe and I texted back and forth about what
we were preaching from tonight. I told him, he said, well, I
sure hope the congregation praises him tonight. I asked him what
he was preaching on. He said, what we will do until
he comes from 1 Thessalonians 5. One of the last verses says,
under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we're
doing. We're going to praise Him, I
hope. This song is full of praise to
our God for who He is, for what He's done, what He did and what
He does for His people. And there's so many Psalms that
begin and end with praise the Lord, don't they? That's the
first line, praise ye the Lord. It's hallelujah is what that
is. Praise to Jehovah, praise the Lord. Look at Psalm 112,
praise ye the Lord. Psalm 113, praise ye the Lord. The last five Psalms begin and
end that way. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye
the Lord. Over 24 times in the Psalms alone,
it's written, praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise means honor. Give Him all the honor, all the
glory. David said, I will praise Him
because He's worthy to be praised. He's worthy. Turn to Revelation
5 with me. We're just going to go down through
these verses a little bit and then come back to verse 1 where
we'll dwell. The verse that really stuck out
to me, made me want to bring this. Revelation 5. And the last
psalm says, Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Everyone in glory right now,
as I speak, is praising the Lord. And it will never end. In Revelation
5, look at verse 9, they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy
to take the book, to open the seals thereof, for Thou was slain
and has redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred
and tongue and people and nation. That's what David is going to
talk about. He sent redemption. It made us unto our God kings
and priests, we shall reign on the earth. And there were 10,000
times, 10,000 verse 12 saying with a loud voice, worthy is
the lamb that was slain to receive power, riches, wisdom, and strength,
and honor, and glory, and blessing in every creature. which is in
heaven, on the earth, and under the earth, such as 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. Praise ye the Lord. That's what
they are doing, so that's what we need to be doing. Praise ye
the Lord. It says, praise ye the Lord. You. Who me? Yeah, you. Do you have any reason to praise
the Lord? My, my. David says, I will. He says, I will praise the Lord.
That's not pride or presumption. It's a heart that's full of thanksgiving. I will praise the Lord. And by
God's grace, I will too. You know, We often say of someone who,
someone's bragging on someone, we say they're singing his praises.
He sure was singing your praises. Don't you love to sing his praises? Don't you ever get tired of singing
these hymns of praise? That's what they are. distinguishes
the songs of Zion, the songs of God's people, and the Psalms
from all this other stuff that goes by the name of gospel music
today. It really is about His praise
and honor and glory. They really are. They really
are. So David says, I will. I'll praise
the Lord. Listen to this. Psalm 146. David
says this in Psalm 146. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the
Lord, O my soul. He says, While I live, will I
praise the Lord. While I live, I will praise the
Lord. I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. At the beginning of the plague,
they told us we couldn't sing. And I quoted this to you. While
I live, I'm going to sing His praises. And every time we meet,
we're going to sing His praises. David says, I will. I will. With my whole heart. With my
whole heart. Not a half-hearted attempt. Not
drawing near with the lips. Our Lord said, this people draw
near with their lips. Their heart is far from me. Lord,
don't let me do this half-heartedly. I am ashamed how, you know, we
sing these songs by rote or by repetition so often. We need
to catch ourselves. No, do it with the whole heart.
Verse 1, in the assembly of the upright. I'll do this, he said,
in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation. We've got
to come back to that and deal with it. Why should we praise
the Lord? Verse 2, the works of the Lord.
The works of the Lord are great. God's creation is great. It's marvelous, isn't it? Amazing. His creation is amazing. God's providence. Oh, how the
Lord has provided for us. We sing that song, and the Scripture
says, Greatly to be prayed. They sing that song, How Great
Thou Art. Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder consider all the worlds or works Thy hands have made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder. The universe He made. How great Thou art. The great
works of the Lord. They're great. I sought out,
verse 2, of all them that have pleasure therein. That is, meditated
upon. and considered, and looked into,
and he's praised for all these works. The world is blind. Man doesn't even believe there
is a God. And man is blind to the hand
of God and the works of God. But God's people see His hand
in everything, don't they? They see His glory. The whole
earth is full of His glory. John Chapman in his message,
many remind me, he talked about one of the greatest wonders God
ever created was a gnat. It has a brain, a circulatory
system, some kind of heart that beats. A gnat? That's our Godhead. That's our God. His works are
great. His works sought out of all them. We have pleasure in
them. Verse 3, His work. Is that different? It's something
else. His greatest work is verse 9. He sent redemption. In that same
psalm we sing, And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing,
sent Him to die. I scarce can take it in. And
on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to
take away my sin. How great Thou art. His work
is honorable. It's His honor and His glory
and His righteousness. David can't hardly write a song
without mentioning God's righteousness. His righteousness. Endureth forever. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
what Christ provided for us will be forever? See, Adam and Eve
had a righteousness. Didn't they? They lost it. They fell. Why? Because it was
theirs. And the one we have, are you
with me? The one we have was given to us, imputed to us, imparted
to us. It's His righteousness. It's
forever. You understand that? Sure you
do. That's good, isn't it? Many people don't like to claim
original sin, you know. Don't give me the blame for what
Adam did, okay? I'm not talking about God's people.
You know better than that. But that's what a lot of people
say. People say, I don't believe man is born in sin. I can't take
the blame for what Adam did. All right. Then you can't take
what Christ did. Because in Adam, many are made
sinners. In Christ, made righteous. Verse
four, he hath made his wonderful works to be remembered, his works
of creation and providence, and his work of redemption, especially
salvation. Our Lord said that to his disciples
right before he went to the cross. He said, this do in remembrance
of me. Don't forget. Forget many things,
but don't forget this, what I've done for you. what I've done
for you. I love the story of Jill's mother,
Ellen. We went to see her. Nancy, you
remember going to see Ellen? And she didn't know my name.
She didn't know any of us. But I asked her what the gospel
was. She said, Jesus Christ in Him crucified. That's all you
need to remember. That's all we need to remember.
Be remembered, the Lord is gracious. Oh my, why are His works so great? Why did He send Redemption? Because
He's gracious. That's right. The Lord is gracious
and full of compassion. Full of compassion. My, my. Verse 5 says, He hath given.
The Lord giveth. Grace means give, gift. He hath
given and given and given more grace. He's the great giver. You know what we are? The receiver. And it's by grace. We didn't earn it. We didn't
merit it. We didn't deserve it. So He gives
everything He does just because He does. Because He's gracious.
The answer's in Himself. The reason's in Himself. He's
gracious. He's full of compassion. He's
compassionate. Fail not. They're new every morning. Every morning. Aren't you glad?
Because our God doesn't change. It says, He hath given meat unto
them that fear Him. Psalm 104, go back there, it's
not very far. He hath given meat. You see,
our Lord provides for every living thing. There's so many psalms
that speak of His works of creation, how that He feeds all. And our Lord Jesus Christ said
that too. If you consider despairers, They
don't sow. They don't reap. Your Heavenly
Father feeds them. There's not one of them He didn't
feed. You know how many sparrows He got? You know how many starlings? Starlings? You know, there were
two starlings on our bird feeder. Man, I'd fill that thing up and
it's gone in 24 hours. The squirrels were on it and
the starlings were on it. And I went to run them away and
said, Mandy said, don't you like black birds? And it pricked my
heart. So now I let the starlings have
all they want to. Let them have all they want to. But the Lord provides for all. If there's not a bird feeder
on the planet Earth, the Lord's going to feed them. Look at verse... I love this. He talks about the
whale, verse 26. There's that Leviathan. He's
made to play. Why'd the Lord make the whale?
So he could watch him play. You know, we had poodles and
little doggies. He spent a whole chapter in Job
talking about the whale. You know how much food a whale
eats? One whale? Two and a half tons of fish every
day. One whale. How many whales are
there? Well, who feeds them? Who provides
all that? Look at it. Verse 27, "...they
all wait on Thee." You give them their meat. In due season, that
thou givest them, they gather. Thou openest thy hand and they're
filled with good. Even the whales get full. Isn't
that something? Down in verse 34, it says, My
meditation at the end shall be sweet. Be sweet. You know, we
are like our Lord. The Lord has given us meat to
eat that the world doesn't know there of. You know? We are. The disciples didn't
understand that at first. They did. Later, they didn't.
He's given us meat to eat. And you know what He said this
meat was? He said, My body is meat indeed. Now you tell me,
what's the most enjoyable food that you like to eat. Is there
anything quite like this gospel? Nothing. Nothing. You have given
us meat. Go back to the text. Them that
fear Him, this is for them that fear Him, He will ever be mindful
of His covenant. Oh, the mercies of the covenant
God. He will ever be mindful. You saw in 107, we love that,
how it says, they forget, they forget. Psalm 106, they forget.
But it says, He remembered for them. He remembered the covenant
He made. He will never forget. Never forget. The covenant that He made with
His Son, with the Holy Spirit concerning His people. Ordered
in all things and sure. This is all my salvation. In
the earth. That covenant that God made concerning
me. It's not up to me. Isn't that good news? Covenant
ordered, signed and sealed. He showed his people, verse 6,
the power of his works. His people. As we said, God's
people see his works of creation, they see his works of providence,
they see his wonderful work of redemption, the most glorious
work of all. He showed this to his people.
In one psalm, which one is it? I forget, but he talks about
all the things the Lord has done for His people. And one of the
last things, it says He's made known His ways to Jacob. He showed
His Word to Jacob. It's the greatest work of all,
isn't it? The power, the power of His work. You know, we know, all the saints
know, we're saved by His power. We're kept by His power. We see that. We look back on
our lives, how the Lord has spared us, kept us from certain death
and destruction. We look back on that. We didn't
know it at the time. We do now, don't we? And even today, we
see it, don't we? Over and over again. But we're
mostly, we bless the Lord, we praise His name through the power
of His Word, the power of His blood. There's power in the blood. Wonder-working power in the blood
of the Lamb. Yes, there's power. We sing that
song, don't we? Worthy to be sung. The power
of the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us, direct us, keep
us, subdue us. The power of the Gospel. The
Gospel is the power of God and salvation. That's why we do what
we do here and nothing else. We know what the power of God
is. And verse 6 says, that he may give them the heritage of
the heathen, his people. He gives them the heritage of
the heathen. The Lord displaced or removed all those Habats,
Hittites, Perizzites and so on and so forth to bring his people
in to the promised land. The Jebusites, remember the Jebusites
said they can't come in here. Nevertheless, David took it. See, that's my city. That's for
my people. You know, we have a new heaven
and a new earth waiting on us. He's prepared us a place. He's
prepared us a new earth that the people of this world have
no part of. The people of this world pretty much have this world,
don't they? Right now. Well, they can have
it. Because the one we're going to
have, this one won't even be remembered or come to mind. It
will so far out exceed the glory of the former that this won't
even come to mind. So let them have this world.
It's tarnished, isn't it? It sure is. Verse 7 and 8, the
works of His hands are verity and judgment. All His commandments
are sure. Truth and judgment are justice. Truth and justice are righteousness. Don't you love all these psalms? You know this psalm, Psalm 85?
Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth. Righteousness shall look down from heaven. The Lord will
give that which is good. Righteousness shall go before
Him and set us in the way of His death. Isn't that wonderful? His truth, His justice, His righteousness. Verse 7, all His commandments
are sure. What the Lord commands He does. He does. Every word. He said,
Heaven and earth will pass away, but not one word of mine shall
fail. Not one. Aren't you glad? Man proposes,
but God disposes. You know, there's a verse that
I didn't deal with in John 12. I had planned on it, but, you
know, time went by and we went on to the next chapter. But the
very last verse of John 12, the Lord said this, the Lord Jesus
Christ said it. He says, the Lord gave me a commandment,
verse 49, that I should say what I should speak. He says, I know
that His commandment, He said this is His commandment, life
everlasting. He said that His commandment
is life everlasting. You know why you're saved? God
gave commandment. Thou hast given commandment to
save man. One day God said, Almighty love,
arrest that man. Fetch him. That's what the Lord
did. He gave the command like the king, David, on the throne.
And one day, every one of us, the Lord said to command, fetch
him. Bring him to me. He'll sit at
my table as one of the king's sons. That's where Mephibosheth is
right now. Don't you love that? His commandment
is sure. Sure. Because He's our surety.
They stand fast. Verse 8. The works of the Lord,
truth, judgment, commandments. They stand fast forever. They're
done in truth and uprightness. They stand fast forever. His mercy endureth forever. His
love endureth forever. His covenant endureth forever.
Because our God doesn't change. Verse 9, He sent redemption unto
His people. He has commanded His covenant
forever. Holy and reverent is His name.
He sent redemption to His people. You know what this redemption,
the name of it is? Jesus Christ. He's the Redeemer. That's how He sent redemption.
He sent His Son. He sent His Son. And He commanded
His covenant forever because Christ is the head of that covenant.
And He's the one that, the testator of the covenant. Listen to Isaiah
42. Isaiah 42 says this of His righteous
service. I put my spirit upon Him. He'll
bring forth judgment to the Gentile. He shall not fail being discouraged.
He says, I've called thee in righteousness. I'll hold thine
hand. I will keep thee and give thee, I'll give thee, I'll give
you for a covenant of the people. He is the covenant. See, the
covenant's not a book written per se, but it's a person. Did
not our Lord say, I've engraved your name on the palms of my
hands. Christ is the covenant. See,
the covenant all depends on Him. He's the head of the covenant.
He's the second Adam. It's a wonderful thought. Wonderful
thought. Second Adam. The first Adam failed
terribly. Plunged us all into sin. The
second Adam did not fail. raised us all to glory. The first
Adam, we all became naked. The second Adam, we're clothed
forever in His righteousness, as He wrote. The first Adam,
we all became sinful. The second Adam, we all become
righteous forever. The first Adam, we're all full
of sorrow. The second Adam, we're going
to be full of joy. The first Adam, we all groan. The second
Adam is going to make us laugh. The first Adam, all die. But in Christ, we're made alive. We're going to live forever.
That's the commandment. Life everlasting. I give unto
them eternal life, Christ said, and they'll never perish. Who?
Those who believe Him. Those who trust Him. Holy and
Reverend is His name. Don't you like that? Holy, holy,
holy. Holy Father, holy Son, and holy
Spirit. Holy and reverent is His name. Reverent. That means to be feared. His name is to be feared. His
name is to be had in reverence. His name is above every other. His name is to be exalted. His
name is to be revered, respected, honored, extolled, used only
in praise, honor, thanksgiving, glory, and worship. That's His
name. That's what God's people do too, without exception. David
said that. Unite my heart to fear thy name. Holy and reverent is his name.
That's why no preacher of the gospel will take that in front
of his name. Holy and reverent is his name. I may quote this three or four
times, but Psalm 89, verse 7 says it. This is something to be remembered. Psalm 89, verse 7. God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all
them that are about Him. God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence reverence
of all them that are about Him. And He is. They are. This is the thing. Scripture is clear. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And God's people grow
in grace and the knowledge of Christ and wisdom. They grow
in that wisdom. So that means they fear Him more
and more. And never stop fearing. Never. If anything, they fear Him more. Now, go back to verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. How many times does it say that
in the Scripture? A good understanding have all they that do His commandment.
What's that mean? It means what it says. Why would
we dare explain that away? Our Lord says, if you know these
things, happy are you if you do. He said, he that hath my
commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. Right? Mary said, whatever he sayeth,
do it. Do it. His praise endureth forever. Forever. Now go back to verse
one. We'll dwell here just a few more
minutes, okay? This is the verse that drew me
to this and so many scriptures that talk about the congregation,
the assembly. I began to think about this congregation
and other assemblies or congregations. The word congregation is not
in the New Testament. The word church is. Okay? Church is not in the Old, but
church is in the New. Congregation is what the word
is in the Old Testament. Okay? Congregation. And all of
God's people are a member of this congregation. You are, I
am, I hope, I pray. Congregation. Several times in
the Scriptures it talks about the congregation. Sometimes it
says congregations. And many times it talks about
the great congregation. That means all of them put together,
end to end, the great congregation. And over in Revelation 7, it
talks about a great number which no man can number. They were
singing praise to Him. That's the great congregation. I want to be there. Don't you? Well, until then, I want to be
here. Don't you? I will praise Him,
David says, in the assembly. That's where I'm going to be,
he said. And in the congregation. You know where you'd find David?
In the congregation. In the congregation. That's where
I want to be. Psalm 26. Go back there real
quickly. Psalm 26. So many, so many scriptures. So many. But Psalm 26, look at
verse 4. This is David writing under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. He says, I have not sat with
vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I hate the
congregation of evildoers. There's a congregation of evildoers.
There's so-called churches all over the land, congregations,
assemblies all over the land, call themselves churches. Most
of it's evil. It is. It's flesh. It's for man's
glory, isn't it? You know it is. It sickens you
to see it. It's an abomination to God. Have
you watched any of these holy rollers on YouTube or whatever? It's demonic. And that's under
the name of the Holy Ghost. They're making a mockery. of
God and the Holy Spirit, a mockery. No wonder the world is laughing
at God and the religion. David says, I hate it. I'm not
going to be there. He won't find me with those people.
They may have a countywide prayer meeting, but I'm not going to
be there because we don't pray to the same God. And I don't
want to be associated with those God mockers. Do you? Is that too hard? David said
this. I will not sit with the wicked. Verse 8, he says, Lord, I love
the habitation of thy house, the place where thine honor dwells.
That's where I will be. Not where man's will is honored,
where God's will is honored. Verse 12, he says, my foot standeth
in an even place. That means a straight place,
a fixed place. in the congregations when I bless
the Lord. Congregations, assembly of the
saints. That's where I'll be found, David
said, and me too. By God's grace, me too. How do
you know the difference? We've already been talking about
it. How do you know the difference between a congregation of the
evil and a congregation of the righteous? Of the saints, the
assembly of the saints. How do you know? How do you know?
Well, the name congregation means to be gathered or assembled.
Okay? Every single person in God's
church, in God's congregation, knows why they're there. They
were gathered. They were called. They were chosen,
elect according to the four knowledge of God. Every single one of them
knows. They that are with Him, Revelation
says, are the called and the chosen. They all know that. We
wouldn't be here if He hadn't chosen us. We didn't do it like
I told you Sunday. Nobody ever asked me to accept
Jesus. My pastor, not one time, ever said that. Won't you let
him into your heart? Never was I asked anything. I
was told something. I was just told the truth. You
know what happened? A knife in my heart brought me
to my knees. And I came. I wasn't invited. I never was invited down front. Won't you come down front and
give your heart? Never! I said, buddy, I came. I came
to cry. We gathered. Here's another verse
of scripture that we quoted when they told us back in 2020 we
couldn't gather. I remember distinctly quoting
this to you. First meeting, they said we couldn't
gather. I said, the mighty God has spoken. The rising of the
sun, the going down of the sand. He says, gather my saints together.
Unto me. Those who have made a covenant
with me by second commandment. Forsake not the assembly of yourselves
to gather. Gather. No matter what. No matter
what anybody says. No matter who, what, or where,
how. We're not going to stop. Gather. The Lord commanded it. Gather. Gather with the saints
at the river. The river of God's mercy. They're
gathered. They all know it. Called, chosen.
They praise Him for His sovereign, electing, gathering. Blessed
is the man whom Thou choosest and causes to approach unto Thee.
Or we wouldn't do it. We wouldn't be here. And He keeps
gathering instead. He keeps calling. Here's another
thing. We've already looked at this.
Fear and reverence. This is how you know the difference.
Let me quote it again. God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints. We had in reverence of all that
is about him. Greatly to be feared. Let everything
that we say, everything that we do be in reverence. Every song we sing be in reverence. This is called a house of prayer.
A house of worship, a house of praise, and it needs to be from
the heart. God says He looks for those who
worship Him in spirit and truth. Spirit and truth. From the heart,
not flesh. Most of what goes on in religion
today is flesh. And these spiritual religious
cheerleaders trying to pump people up into some kind of fleshly
feeling, and they act like demons. That's flesh. God's not worshipped
with flesh. He's worshipped in the Spirit.
And what? Truth. That's the next point. Truth. Truth. The truth is always
heard. The truth. The word of truth. The gospel. Christ is the truth. In His assembly, that's what
you're going to hear. The truth. How often? Every time. Every time. Listen, this is our Lord, but
it's also David. He said, I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. I have not refrained my lips,
Lord thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. That's what you're going to hear
in the great congregation. and congregations, every little
church assembly that God has here and there, you're going
to hear righteousness, God's righteousness, Christ's righteousness.
You're going to hear the truth, truth as it is in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the gospel. You know where the first time
that the word congregation is used? Exodus 12. He said to Moses, speak to all
the congregation. That's the first time the word
is used. Speak to all these that I've assembled. All my people.
Israel. That's his people there. His
chosen. Speak to all of them. What did he say in Exodus 12?
What is Exodus 12 all about? The Lamb. Tell them all. You're here for
one reason and you're going out for one reason. The Lamb. Every
man, every house, a lamb. Every congregation, a lamb. Don't
start it with water, roast with fire. A lamb. A lamb. That's the first use of that
word. Is this God's congregation right here? Yes, it is. I say that without reservation,
without hesitation. Are you a member of it? I believe you are. See, all of
God's people have one Lord, one faith, one gospel, one thing
needful, one desire. They're all one. They're all
one. They're sheep. They're sheep. Have you ever thought about the
name sheep? It's both one and plural. Goats
aren't. You can't be a sheep and not
have sheep. You understand? You can be a
goat out there on the side of the hill eating tin cans. You
don't say, look at that goat. Look at all that goat. No, you
say, look at those sheep. What's that mean? They're together.
They congregate. That's the nature of the animal. They have to. That's the way
the Lord made them. They have to. They're gathered
together. They're one. Well, here's how they become
sheep. The Lord owns them. The Lord bought them. The Lord
gave them to Christ. And all His sheep, He calls them
by name. He calls them into the fold. They're led. They're fed. They're defended. They're saved.
They're kept by the Savior. All the sheep flock together
where? Around the shepherd. They know Him, He knows them.
They're in the fold. Flock, together, it means to
be fond of each other. You need each other. Sheep. Well, to be a sheep, you're in
the fold. You need each other. And God's
sheep, if they're not in the fold, I'll tell you where they
have wound up. In a ditch. Or else they'd be there. But
you know what? If they're sheep, you know what's
going to happen? The shepherd's going to go after them. and bring
them back. Every time. You can't be sheep
without sheep. You understand? We're not one.
We're one. Isn't that amazing? Like fish. Fish. How many? My, my. Fish. Congregation. Congregation. Called, chosen,
he said, and faithful. Faithful. David said, that's
where I'm going to be. By the grace of God, that's where
I'm going to be. He said, my foot standeth in
an even place, a fixed place. My heart is fixed, he said. Grounded,
settled, established. Thy foot standeth in an even,
straight gate. Straight, that's what that meant. Martin Luther, here I stand.
I'm not going anywhere. By God's grace. It's in the congregation. Now bless the Lord. Bless God,
thank God for this congregation. Thank God for His congregations
everywhere, all over the land. And thank God, and I can't wait
to get in that great congregation. The sooner the better. But until then, we're just going
to praise Him. All right, stand with me.