In peace I shall live forever
in my home In solitude I'll be Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught
me to say, It is well, it is well with me. It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. So say to Judah, No trial should
come Let this blest assurance come true That Christ hath regarded
my helpless state And hath shed His own love for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My friend, oh, the bliss of this
glorious day My sin not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more Praise the Lord, praise
the Lord O my soul It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And, Lord, haste the day when
my faith shall be tight. The clouds he will match as a
scroll. The trump shall resound and the
Lord shall descend. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. When the trumpet shall sound, those who know the joyful sound
now, the gospel sound, trumpet sound of the gospel, when that
great trumpet sounds, and Paul said, and it shall sound, it
will be a joyful sound such as never before. to the world a
horrifying, heart-stopping sound. But to believers, He is here. He is here. Psalm 111, and this
is the Lord we are praising today, attempting to. Psalm 111, reading
through the Psalms. This Psalm was Such a blessing
to me, I knew it would be to many of you. This is a psalm
or song of the great works of the Lord. A great psalm of the
great Lord and His great works. We couldn't study anything greater,
could we? It begins as nine other psalms
do. The last five Psalms begin and
end like this. Hallelujah. That's the Hebrew
for praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise to Jehovah. Hallelujah. Jehovah. Praise to Jehovah. Now one word of warning here
to all of us. Never use that word, hallelujah,
except in fear, in reverence, and worship to God, or else we
are guilty of taking His name in vain. The world likes that
word and uses it flippantly. Don't be guilty of that. Now
you know what the word means, hallelujah, praise ye the Lord."
That is, the God of Abraham. Praise. That's why we sung that
song a while ago. The Lord is Jehovah, the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Covenant God. Electing God. Choosing God. Covenant God. Unchanging
God. I am the God of Jacob, he said.
I change not. Jehovah. Praise ye. The Lord. Praise means exalt. Put none higher. Exalt. Praise
means honor. Give all honor to Him. Praise
means thank. All thank. Praise means worship. And He says, Praise ye. This
is a command to everyone. The last line of the last Psalm,
Psalm 150, says this, Let everything that hath breath praise ye the
Lord." Praise ye the Lord. Everything that hath breath.
If you have breath, you have cause to praise the Lord. Yea,
you're commanded. Everything. In Psalm 148.12 it
says, Young men and maidens, old men and children, This is
why we should tell our children, instruct our children, sing these
songs. Praise ye the Lord. Why? Not
trying to be cruel. Not trying to be mean. But God says, let them learn
the songs of Zion. Praise ye the Lord. If you have
breath, you're a human being. The God in whose hands your breath
is, he says, praise ye the Lord. Praise Him, extol Him, honor
Him. The psalmist says in verse 1,
I will, I will, by the will of God, by the grace of God, I will,
he says, praise the Lord with my whole heart. None of this
half-hearted worship for me, he says. Don't you get tired
of that in yourself? Don't you get tired of giving
mere lip service in these worship services? Don't you? Huh? Don't
you get tired of hearing the Word and your mind wandering?
We sing that hymn, Come Holy Spirit, heavenly love, come in
these poor hearts of ours. Kindle a flame of sacred love
and that shall kindle ours. Look how we grovel here below,
fond of these earthly toys. It goes on to say, In vain we
strive to tune our In vain we strive to writhe. Hosannas, praise
the Lord, languish on our tongues and our devotion. Is it so with
you? David says, by the grace of God,
I will praise Him with my whole heart. Because out of the heart
are the issues of life. And this thing of praise is from
the heart, not from the lips. Anybody can say, Hallelujah.
But oh, out of the abundance of a heart that truly thanks
God and worships God, you don't even have to say it, but you
can sure feel it. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
Praise the Lord. He says in verse 1, I will praise
the Lord in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation. Do we have to go to church to
praise the Lord? No. But if you are a member of
the church, you will assemble with the assembly in the congregation. This is the way it is. This is
the way it is. This is what God has ordained.
This is a commandment, isn't it? Let them praise Him in the
assembly of the upright. Or that is, those who stand upright. You know, man is on all fours. The world is out there groveling
on all fours like beasts, living for nothing but meat and drink
and so forth. But those whom God has made upright,
that is, things that are higher, things
that are nobler, those whom He has caused to stand on two feet
like He created man in the beginning and look upward to God, the upright,
those in Christ, They will be praising Him in the assembly,
in the congregation. God has ordained this. God has
ordained it, and it's the joy of His people, this thing of
assembling together. I'll give you a few reasons why
God ordained this, assembling together for His praise and His
worship. God gets more glory the more
voices that are joined together in praising him. Yeah, you can
be out there on your own praising God with your own voice, but
the more voices together, the more glory he gets, right? And
another thing, it's the nature of sheep to gather together. Sheep are what you call a gregarious
animal. All clean animals that were on
the ark were those that were in a flock. All clean animals
flock together. They must have one another. It's
the nature of a sheep to huddle with other sheep, to feed with
sheep. And that's the nature of God's
people. If you're a sheep, you love to gather together with
the saints at the river and sing His praises. And heaven is a
congregation. Heaven is a congregation, a great
gathering of people whom God Almighty has gathered from every
nation, tongue, people under heaven. God has gathered them
together in one big family or congregated them to do what? One thing. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. And if you love
that here, if you love this gathering, this assembly of the saints,
If you do, you're going to love it there. And you're going to
be able to do it from the heart, truly, a perfect heart. See Him
as He is and praise Him as you ought. Those who forsake it here
say, let us not forsake the assembly of ourselves together as the
manner of some is. How could someone not meet when
God's being honored? How could they not? Those who
forsake it here will be forsaken there. Praise ye the Lord in
the assembly of the saints. The saints are meeting together
to praise the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll be there by the grace of
God. Praise ye the Lord. Because, and here's why we praise
the Lord. Verse 2, the works of the Lord
are great. That's why we meet to praise
Him. This is what we praise him for. God's works are great. How great thou art, O Lord my
God! When I in awesome wonder consider
all the works, that's the original, works thy hands have made. The
works of the Lord are great. Now God's works are many and
so great that they cannot, like David said, be reckoned up in
order. God's works cannot. Were we to
start now and begin to try to catalog and reckon up all the
works of God, we would be here forever. Well, that's what we're
going to be doing in glory, you see, forever, praising His work. And the half has never been told
here, never will be, but here's just a few. Okay? We'll just give you a small reckoning
of the works of God. The Lord's work of creation.
The Lord's works, His works of providence, are great. God's
creation, that's what we sung about. Verse 2 says, "...sought
out of all them that have pleasure therein." Those that love the
Lord's works have pleasure in them. They think upon them. They
look into the Lord's works. The works of creation are great. God is our great Creator. And what he has done is great. You know, I thought about this.
God's people do not call nature, nature. Certainly don't call
it our mother, do we? Our father is the one that created
it, nor do we call it nature, but we call it what? Creation. thereby affirming that our Creator,
that these things were created by our Creator. We're not nature
lovers. We're God lovers who love His
creation, what He's done. There's a difference, isn't there?
They're God's works. Over in Psalm 8, David wrote
this blessed psalm, Psalm 8. He said, When I consider thy
heavens, See, they're here. Thy heaven and the work of thy
fingers. Can't you see the great work
of God in this vast creation? The work of thy fingers, the
moon and the stars which thou hast ordained. Scripture says,
he telleth the stars, he knoweth a number of them, he calleth
them by name. How many stars are there? Great, vast number, which no
man can number. Well, God has, and He's named
them all. That's our great God. Our great
God. Psalm 19, verse 1 says this,
it says, The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament
showeth His handy work, the works of His hand. Oh, the works of
God's hand. All these things are the works
of our great Creator and greatly display His greatness. All that He works together, Romans
8, 28 says, all things work together. Our great God is working all
things together for good to them, His people, that love God. They know His power, it says. Them that love God who are called
according to His purpose. And all these works of providence,
our great God providing, everything necessary for life and for God,
sustaining us, keeping us, keeping us, leading us. Everyone in here,
we spend our lives as a tale that's been told. Would you go
with me to Deuteronomy 8? Deuteronomy 8. We spend our lives
as a tale that is told. You see, all things are written
concerning us in the book of life. Our tale, and it's our
story, and someday it will be told. Don't you love to look
at the stories of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and so forth,
all the way the Lord dealt with them and led them and provided
for them to bring them where they were? We have a story. The
providence of our God toward us is great, leading, guiding,
protecting, restraining, keeping, directing. We need every now
and then just stop and think, consider where we came from and
all those things along the way. I believe if we did, we'd see
more and more of His great works of providence to us. But look
here at Deuteronomy 8, verse 2. all the way which the Lord thy
God led thee these forty years in the wilderness." Why? To humble
you. And to prove thee to know what
was in your heart. All the way. We sing that song,
don't we? All the way my Savior leads me. Nancy, someday we're
going to be able to sing from the bottom of our hearts and
the top of our lungs. Oh, the great works of my God
in bringing me to this place. Left to myself. But God. The great works of our God. Go
back to Psalm 111. The works of our Lord are great.
Great. God's greatest work. Now here's
God's work of creation. And providence, works of works,
notice it says works, God's works are great. God's works of creation
and providence and so forth to us are great, but God's greatest
work, singular, verse 3, His work. is honorable. That is for His
honor. And glorious, completely for
His glory. Now, we're going to talk about
something great. And boy, the half has never been
told of this. But now, we're going to try to reckon up something
of this work, this great work of redemption Paul wrote so great
salvation. This work. It says, the works
of the Lord, and then it says, the work. His work is honorable. The works of the Lord all go
together in this one work. This one work. This work of salvation. You see, here, O Israel, here,
the Lord our God is one God, right? But He's three persons. Three persons. God the Father,
The Lord our God. God the Son. The Lord Jesus Christ. God the Holy Spirit. The Lord,
yes, Holy Spirit. These three are one. Each one
has a work. Each one does their work in this
salvation. The works of the triune God. But it's one work. These three
are one in this work of salvation. Verse 2 says, sought out of all
them that have pleasure therein. Sought out. Psalm 70 says, let
such as love thy salvation. Say continually, the Lord be
magnified. Sought out. Sought out of all
them that love his salvation. This great work. The world gathers
together quite often. To admire man's works, be it
art, be it music, be it theater, or whatever. God's people gather
together whenever possible to admire God's great work of redemption. Every time. To them there's nothing
greater. To a sinner, the sound of mercy,
there's nothing greater. I love beautiful music. I really
do. There are many songs, even modern
songs, that I like. But these old songs of redemption,
I love. I do. I love them. The songs
of redemption. They that have pleasure therein
seek them out. The greatest work of all. And
nothing is greater to God's people than this work of redemption.
Here's the works of the Trinity, the triune God. The works of
the Trinity, that is one work of salvation. God Almighty, God
the Father, chose a people. Yes, elected a people. What a
great thing. He didn't have to. He shouldn't
have. They didn't deserve it. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great electing love wherewith He loved them, chose them before
the foundation of the world. Chosen. God Almighty chose a
people. Over in Isaiah, He said, You
have I chosen. You have I chosen this people
that are assembled that you might know Me. Jehovah, I have chosen
you. My, my. I have chosen you. God
the Son, God Almighty, in this work of salvation, chose a people
and gave them to His Son in a covenant. in a purpose, in a plan, the
old writers call it a scheme, a purpose, a covenant, an agreement,
a pact, a letter, a book, a covenant. And gave them to his son and
said, these people are going to be sinners and they're going
to have to be redeemed, saved from their sin. Go, son, go.
And he says, I'll go. And the Son came to this earth
to redeem them. Redeem them from the law, redeem
them from sins. Look at verses 3 through 5 together. Verses 4 and 5, He made His wonderful
works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. He hath given meat unto them
that fear Him. He will ever be mindful of His
covenant. See, God Almighty chose these
persons and gave them to His Son, and He came down here. The
Son, the Lord our Righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ, He came
down here. His work, verse 3, is honorable.
He did it in honor to God's law. He did it in honor to God. His
work is glorious. He did it for the glory of God,
for the glorification of His people. Oh, the Lord is gracious. The grace of God is in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is full of compassion.
The compassionate God. The God of all compassion. How
do we know? Because God was made flesh and
dwelt among us. God became a man. Jesus Christ. The God of all compassion. Touched
with the feeling of our infirmity. Tempted in all points like as
we are yet without sin. Made in the likeness of sinful
flesh, but without sin. Able to succor. Tempted in all
points. Able to succor. He says meat. He's given meat
to them that fear Him. Christ said, My body is meat
indeed. In other words, He's given a
sacrifice to sinners. A lamb. Every man must have a
lamb to go to this holy God. Those that fear Him. Those that
know Him. Holy. He's given them meat. a sacrifice,
savory meat such as the Father loved, like old Jacob's store. And he says he'll ever be mindful,
verse 5, of his covenant. Why? God Almighty is ever mindful
of his covenant because right there beside him sits his Son,
the representative of his people. Nor will He let us forget. See,
Christ came and saved us from our sin, redeemed His people
from their sin by being made sin for them, and brought in
an everlasting righteousness. His righteousness, it said, endureth
forever. Verse 4, you see that? Verse
3, His righteousness endureth forever. Christ came down here
and worked out a robe, made a robe to cover naked sinners such as
will never wear out. The prodigal son, the father,
called for the best robe to be put on him, didn't he? Put on
him. Didn't offer it to him. He says,
put it on him. The best robe. What robe is that? One that was without seam and
one that will not wear out. One that fits Him perfectly.
He's naked, put the best robe on Him. And this robe is Christ
and His righteousness. Isn't it? Don't you find that
this gospel fits you perfectly? Huh? This gospel of sovereign,
electing grace, eternal mercy. Huh? Grace, I mean 100% grace
without works, your work. Doesn't it fit you perfectly?
And it will never wear out. Once you put it on, you keep
wearing it, and like an old coat, it gets more comfortable the
older you get. And shod with the gospel of peace,
those shoes will never wear out. You can walk all your days, walk
by faith in this gospel of Christ, and they'll never wear out. And
then you'll die by faith. Yeah, bring the best robe. His
righteousness that endureth forever. And He's meat? Meat indeed. He'll
ever be mindful of His covenant. That's because He's gracious
and full of compassion. And look at verse 4. Here's the
work of the Holy Spirit. Verse 4, He hath made His wonderful
works to be remembered. See, God the Father chose His
people. God the Son came to redeem them.
That's His work. Redeemed them. And having finished
the work, He went and sat down. The only priest who ever sat
down. His work was finished. Sat down. He redeemed His people.
He brought in this everlasting righteousness. Well, then God
the Father sends His Holy Spirit, says to the Spirit, Go. I have
a people. They have blood on them. That's
how you know them. Set them apart. Sanctify them
by the gospel. Call them out from every tribe,
kindred, nation by this gospel. Call them out. Justify them by
faith. Bring them in. Bring them into
the assembly. Bring them in. Teach them who
I am. They'll all be taught of God.
Point them to Christ. Give them repentance. Give them
faith. Create a new creature in Christ
Jesus. Give them a new heart, a new
spirit, new eyes, new ears, new tongue. New hands, new feet. Make a new creature in Christ.
Teach them the gospel. Cause them to grow in grace and
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then teach them again. Remind them. Keep reminding them
over and over again. They are forgetful like children
are. Remind them. He did these things to be remembered. Wednesday night we are going
to partake of the Lord's Table. A blessed service for believers. And our Lord said, this do in
remembrance of me. He did these things to be remembered. And God's people always, by the
Holy Spirit, remember. Because He takes the things of
Christ and brings them to remembrance. Brings them to remember. And
look at verse 6. It says, He has showed His people
the power of His Word. His people. How were you saved? How were you saved, Stan Anderson?
Well, you know how you were saved, don't you? You took the power
of God to save you, didn't you? Well, how will you be kept? Well,
you know how you'll be kept. Kept by the power of God, don't
you? What is the power of God, Stan Anderson? Christ, the wisdom
of God, and the power of God. All His people know. Don't they? He'll show His people the power
of His work. Oh, listen to this. Did I write
it down? Oh, He said, where is it? Oh, where is it? Thou, Lord, hast made me glad
through Thy work. I will triumph in the works of
Thy hands. If I am saved, You save me. If
I am kept, You keep me. If I get to glory, You have to
get me there. All thy people know the power
of thy works. We're saved by power. Not by
ours, but by His. And Christ is that power. The gospel. I know what the power
of God is. It's the preaching of the gospel.
Because it was the same power that brought this young prodigal
to Christ. And therefore I don't use any
other means. Any other tricks and schemes and gimmicks and
so forth. None of that. I know what the power of God
is. The power of His Word. The power of His Gospel. The
same arrow that pierced my heart as a young rebel will pierce
another. I know it. So I'm shooting. Shooting these
arrows. That adventure. It's up to the
God of the Holy Spirit. It's His work to bring that arrow
home to His elect. There you are. He'll find them. He'll find them. Yes, He will.
You can't hide from God. Thank God. It's His power. The works of His hands. His power. And look at verse 6. It says
that He may give them the heritage of the heathen. Oh, my. Just as the Lord drove out the
heathen, remember the Israelites were coming into the promised
land and He drove out the heathen. He passed by millions of people. This is election. He passed by
millions. Not that they were innocent. They were guilty. Well, so were
the Israelites. But it was of the Lord's mercy,
as you said, to choose them. But He passed by millions and
brought them in and gave these undeserving people this heritage. That's us. That's us. How many has He passed
by electing favor of you. Oh, my. That's his work, that's
his glory, that's his honor. Verse seven, the works of his
hands are verity. Verity. That word means faithful. You can trust what he's done. You can trust what he's done.
You can't trust anything else. Don't do it. Don't lean on the
arm of the flesh or to your own understanding. Don't go to Egypt
for strength. The horse is a vain thing for
safety. Christ is not. Verity. That means trustworthy,
faithful. This is a faithful Savior. And
it's in judgment, according to God's infinite judgment, wisdom,
the works of His hands. Oh, how marvelous or great. And
His commandments. Oh, Brother John Davis and I,
one of our favorite verses is, Thou hast given commandment to
save me." You see, where the word of a
king is, there's power. He gives a command, it's going
to happen. It's sure. You can't stop it.
When God said, let there be light, nobody could stop it, did it?
King David, when he said, go down and fetch Mephibosheth,
go down and fetch Mephibosheth, a cripple. Well, what if Mephibosheth's
not willing to come? What if he doesn't want to come?
Are you kidding? You know who I am? King. Greatest king on earth. You know
who he is? A cripple. I said, get him. Oh, Mephibosheth was glad, wasn't
he? For fetching grace. Fetch him. He came. He came. And God made him willing. In
the day of His power, oh my, sure, His commandments are sure.
When He gives commandment, and they're very... Robin, what He
says here, you can trust Him, you can believe Him. When God
says, look unto Me and be you saved, look and you'll be saved. When God says, call on Me, call
on the name of the Lord, whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ
shall be saved. But what? His commandments are
sure. Sure, they stand fast. Forever,
O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. He that cometh to me,
and all that the Father giveth me shall I will in no wise, under
any circumstance, for any reason, ever cast them out. Isn't that great? Isn't that
great? The works of the Lord are great.
His commandment stands Sure, they stand fast forever. Verse
8, they're done in truth. You see, He does this according
to His justice, according to His truth, according to His Word.
God is just and yet justifier. How? In Christ. In Christ. And uprightness. His uprightness. Look at verse
9. See, we're praising the Lord
here. That's what we're doing. I'm not talking about anybody
else, am I? We're not giving anyone any glory for anything
but Him. That's what this whole psalm
is about. Him. Unto Him that loved us, chose
us, loved us, washed us, redeemed us, called us, brought us, sanctified
us. Unto Him. He sent redemption
unto His people. His people were like Gomer. who
sold herself unto sin like a harlot, sold her body, mind, soul, and
strength to anybody to take it for the cheapest bidder. But God, but Jesus Christ, our
great Hosea, came where we were on that auction block. Who will
have this woman? Nobody. He says, I will. What
do you pay? Everything. Everything. He gave Himself. Sent redemption
unto His people. He's commanded His covenant.
Don't you love that? Verse 8. Isn't this great? He's
commanded His covenant forever. He's ever mindful of His covenant.
He'll never forget His covenant. Jacob. Jacob, look at you. Here in the
end. Jacob, look at you. You're still
doing some of the things that you did when you were just a
boy. What's wrong with you, Jacob?
You're a sinner, aren't you? You're just a worm, aren't you,
Jacob? Fear not, thou worm, Jacob. Jacob, you've forgotten everything
I taught you, haven't you, Jacob? But I haven't forgotten, Jacob. I haven't forgotten all that
I said I would do concerning you. There are times when you
forget me, I can't forget you. There are times when you leave
me, but I cannot leave you. There are times when you don't
think on me, I cannot. and not think on the object of
my love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
I'll draw you all the way to the end. See, I'm the God of
Jacob, he said. I've changed not. My covenant
doesn't change. My Word doesn't change. God never
changes His plans. But He made it before the world
began. And if you're in it, you're in it. And that won't change. Isn't that great? Isn't that
great? His covenant forever. This is
why we call Him reverend. No man deserves the title Holy
Father. That's why he said, Christ said,
God in human flesh said, call no man your father. No man begat
you. No man spiritually gave birth
to you. There's one that's your Father.
They've begotten of God. Call Him. You're holy. Call Him
the Righteous, Right Reverend, Holy Father, Lord Jesus Christ. Call Him that. Don't call any
man that. Reverend. Reverend means respect. Reverend means fear. Reverend
means be in awe of. We're not to be in awe of any
man save the Godly man. You see, he deserves this title. At the end of all these things,
in consideration of our great Lord and His great works, doesn't
he and he alone deserve this title? Holy Father. John, He's the only one we confess
our sins to. He's the only one we bow the
knee to. He's the only one that we worship and kiss His thing. He's our Holy Father. He's the
Reverend Lord Jesus Christ. I know men have ignorantly used
this term, but they're wrong. And people still call me this,
and I cringe, but I try to tell them. Oh, Brother, oh, Mr. Clinton up there, he won't, not
Bill, Clinton Tosh, he calls me reverend. He won't quit calling
me that. I told him, don't call me that.
I told him why. He keeps calling me that. Well,
nothing I can do about it. But I won't sign my name as much
as lies within me, because holy and reverend is his name. See,
this is the fear of the Lord. We're not to fear any man. David
said, whom shall I fear? Of what shall I be afraid? The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You begin to fear
God, you won't fear anyone else, anything else. He is our High
Potentate. He's the one that reigns and
rules. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And
it continues. God's people are united in their
fear of Him and never stop fearing Him. A good understanding. And that says in the margin,
good success. Yeah, you fear the Lord, that's
the beginning of saving wisdom and you'll have good success.
By the grace of God, it will have a good end with you. Great
success. Oh my, a good understanding. And God gives all His people
this understanding. And that word is in italics,
isn't it? Scripture talks about obedience
to the gospel. That's what this is speaking
of, believing the gospel, keeping His commandments. That's laying
hold of Christ and the gospel, the truth, not willing to let
go. Keep. That's what the word keep always
means. And do, yes, that walk according
to His Word. Well, His praise. Endureth forever. If you found
anything great in this, if you take pleasure in these things,
if you'd like to look into it a little more, sought out of
all them that take pleasure, We're going to meet again on
Wednesday. Same thing. And if you take great
pleasure therein and find reason in your heart to praise the Lord,
to say, Hallelujah, then it's going to continue forever. You're
going to continue forever. You're going to be with the saints
forever. Singing hallelujah. I can't wait to hear that. Can
you? I've never heard it before like it ought to be. Okay. Brother Gabe, come and lead us
in a closing hymn. What number? 449. To God be the glory. Praise the Lord is the chorus. 449, let's stand. Sing the first and last verse.