Let's go back to that portion
of Scripture that he read to us from Psalm 95. Now, Psalm 95 ends with the rejection
of the gospel of grace by the Jewish people. Let me re-read
some of the verses that he just read. Look at verse 8. Harden
not your heart, as in the day of provocation, this is Psalm
95 verse 8, as in the day of provocation, in the day when
they contended with God, when they found fault with all that
God did to them, all of the things, the trials that God brought them
through, as in the day of temptation, troubling days for them in the
wilderness, they weren't happy with the things that God brought
into their lives. He says, when you were fathers,
they tempted me, they proved me, they saw my work. God says 40 years long was I
grieved with this generation. And I said, God said, it is a
people that do err in their heart. And they have not known my ways.
They knew about God, but they didn't know God. They knew about
His Word, but they didn't know His Word. They knew about His
ways, but they didn't know His ways. They didn't understand the way
of grace, the way of salvation by a substitute. They didn't
know that. And therefore God said in verse
11, unto whom I swear in my wrath that they should not enter into
rest. Oh, what a Awful judgment fell
upon the people of Israel because they wouldn't hear the Word of
God. They wouldn't believe the message that was set forth through
the various pictures and figures and emblems of Christ Jesus.
They were a rebellious people. They were a people who would
not believe God. By and large, there were a few
of them. But most of them were unbelievers. It reminds me of
a passage of Scripture in the book of Hebrews, and you don't
have to turn to this, it's chapter 4, verse 2. And it's what Paul
says. And he is, in that passage of
Scripture, in the previous chapter, Hebrews chapter three, he's talking,
he's speaking there about the people that provoked the Lord
to anger. And they wouldn't believe him. They wouldn't believe him. So
we read in Hebrews four and verse two, for unto us was the gospel
preached as well as unto them. Those people had the gospel preached
to them. the manna from heaven, the water
from the rock, the brazen serpent lifted up. That was a picture
of the gospel. It was a picture of the remedy
for sin. Moses said to the people who
had been bitten by the fiery serpents, look and live. Our
Lord Jesus used that illustration in John 3, speaking to Nicodemus. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
He said, I'm gonna be lifted up. Be lifted up to die, to satisfy
justice. And whoever looks to me, whoever
believes me will have eternal life. It's like Moses said, if
you look to the brazen serpent, you'll live. That's the remedy. Do you want to know the remedy
for your disease? The disease of sin? The remedy
for my disease? The remedy is in Christ Jesus
the Lord. Look to Him, the Great Physician.
Look to the only Savior. Look and live. There's life in
a look at the Savior. Look to Him. But these people wouldn't look
to Him. So Paul says, under us was the
gospel preached as well as under them, but the word that was preached
did not profit them, didn't do them any good. Was it the correct word? Yes. Was it God's word? Yes. But hearing the Word of God,
the Word of the Gospel, it did not do them any good. Is it doing
you any good? That's a good question. Is this
doing me any good? Preacher, I was here this morning.
Jim, I listened to you this morning. I'm listening to you again tonight.
That's great. Is it doing you any good? And here's what the apostle says.
It didn't do them any good. And the reason was because it
wasn't mixed with faith. They didn't believe. They didn't
believe. And because of that rejection, the gospel would go forth to
the Gentiles. There's a passage of Scripture
in Acts chapter 13. Paul goes preaching the gospel,
and the Jews gather to listen to him, and he rehearses the
history of our Lord Jesus, right down to his death, to his work
of redemption, to his exaltation. And the Jews said, Well, we'll
hear you again next Sabbath day. So he preached the next Sabbath
day. The next Saturday. And the reason
they met on Saturday, the reason Paul met on Saturday was because
that was the day the Jews met. And they heard the gospel again,
the gospel of grace that Paul preached not only to Jews but
to the Gentiles. And when the Jews found out there's
some Gentiles listening to this message, they said, we're not
gonna stand for this anymore. And we don't believe what you're
preaching. They got mad, they got upset, and they left. And the apostle Paul said, well,
since you don't wanna hear the message, I believe there's somebody
who will hear it. It's the Gentiles. And when the
Gentiles heard the message, they were glad. They were overjoyed.
You mean the Gospel's going to go forth to us? You mean you're
going to come preach to us? Do you mean to tell me we're
going to hear an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ preach to us? We're Gentile dogs. He said,
I'm going to preach to you. And they were overjoyed, and
the scripture says, and as many as were ordained to eternal life,
that's who believed. That's who believed. In the book of Romans, chapter
11, this is something the apostle goes into, that the Jews were,
because of their unbelief, God blinded them. and then he sent
the gospel to the Gentiles. You see, the Jews were under
the mistaken notion that the Word of God, the things of God,
the message of good news from God to sinners concerning Messiah
and his work of reconciliation that he would accomplish, They
were under the mistaken notion that this message is only for
the Jewish people, for the direct liberal lineage of Abraham. And they didn't want anybody
else involved. But what they didn't understand
was this, that God had chosen a people from every nation, kindred,
and tribe, and tongue to not only hear the gospel, but to
believe the gospel. And that upset them. That upset
them. And therefore the Lord sent the
gospel unto the Gentiles. You think of all those Jews who
died in the wilderness. We're talking about thousands
upon thousands of Jews who died. They were buried in unmarked
graves. Unbelievers. And they thought
since they could trace their lineage to Abraham, they'd be
all right. We're the children of God. No,
you're not the children of God. If you were the children of God,
you'd believe the Word of God. You'd bow to the authority of
God. They wouldn't hear the message.
So God sent the message to the Gentiles. And so God says here,
the last verse of Psalm 95, unto whom I swear in my wrath, you're
not going to enter into rest. You're not going to enter into
the promised land. You're not going to enter into
glory. You're not going to enter into that everlasting rest that
is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not going to enter
in. And then we get to Psalm 96. And Psalm 96, it naturally follows
Psalm 95. Because Psalm 96, this is the
theme. The gospel goes to the Gentiles. You see, Psalm 95, it wound up
by presenting to us the attitude of the Jews. And so then David,
who is the sweet psalmist of Israel, a Jew himself, he writes
this notifying them and all who would read this down through
the ages that would come, that God is gonna send the gospel
to the Gentiles. You see, we're heathen. To the
Jews, we were heathens. And in the Old Testament, we're
referred to that way. In fact, look here in Psalm 96. Look at verse 3. Now remember,
this is David, who is a Jew, writing. And he says, declare
his glory among the heathen. Who's that? The Gentiles. The
Jews wouldn't hear it. They weren't interested in a
Savior. They weren't interested in God's
salvation. So go tell the story of redeeming
grace to the heathen. Bless the name of God, the message
came to us heathens. And he says the same thing in
verse, look at verse number 10 of Psalm 96. Say among the heathen,
tell the Gentiles, tell them what the Jews didn't want to
hear. that the Lord reigneth. So really, Psalm 96, it's a song of praise in connection
with the gospel of God's free grace going forth to the Gentiles. And let me give you four things
very briefly as I touch on these verses here in Psalm 96. Number one, the first word is
sing. That is, sing unto the Lord. Verses one through six. Look
at verse one. He says, oh, sing unto the Lord. David writes this now. Oh, sing
unto the Lord a new song. He says, sing unto the Lord all
the earth. And then in verse two, sing unto
the Lord as a trilogy. singing to the Lord, singing
to the Lord, singing to the Lord. Why do you think he sets it forth
three times the same words? Don't you think this has something
to do with the Great Trinity? Singing praises to the Father? The author of salvation? That one who chose us unto salvation,
unto redemption. That one who set us apart for
his own glorious purpose to magnify his grace and magnify his son. Salvations of the Lord. Oh, sing
unto the Father a new song. And then sing unto the Lord,
sing unto the Son of God. Sing unto him of his Redeeming
work. Sing of His bloody death. Sing of Him who is our righteousness. Sing of Him who is our substitute. And then in verse two, sing unto
the Lord. Sing unto the Holy Spirit. He's
the one who directed our paths so that we would hear the truth
of how God saves sinners. He's the one who put us in a
pew or put us in front of a cassette tape or a CD or whatever it was. He's the one who arranged all
things and then sent forth the truth to us out of the lips of
a God called, God taught servant and it's the Spirit of God who
used that word and He worked inwardly in our hearts, singing
to the Holy Spirit, Oh, Holy Spirit, thank you for your grace
to me. Thank you for opening my blinded
eyes. Thank you for unstopping my ears. Thank you for taking away that
heart of stone and giving me a heart of flesh, a heart that's
sensitive to the very truth of God. He talks about singing unto the
Lord. We don't sing to men and we don't
sing about men. Nothing about us to sing about.
We're polluted and fallen. There's no song of gladness to
be sung about mankind. Ours by nature, it's a sad song,
isn't it? It's a very sad song. We're spiritually
dead. The only song we deserve to hear
sung and to be sung about us is a funeral dirge. That's all. It's a mournful song. Oh, our
dilemma. Oh, our awful condition. Full of rebellion, rejection,
wanderers, lost, no interest, idolaters. No, we don't sing
of man. We don't sing about our will.
We don't sing about our decision. We sing a new song to the Lord. What is this new song? It's the
new song of redemption. And it's a song that's ever new.
You read in Revelation chapter 5, also Revelation chapter 14,
the new song. In glory, saints of God sing
the new song. You say, well, that's the old
song, isn't it? It's the old song, but it's ever
new. And the word new presents the
idea of an excellent song, an unusual song. All sing the song
of salvation. It's so unusual. It's so unique. There's no other message like
the message of pure grace. Oh, lift up your voice. And if
you don't lift it up, literally lift up the voice of your heart
and praise to God. And David says, oh, sing unto
the Lord. Oh, sing unto the Lord. Oh, sing
unto the Lord. Who can keep quiet? Your heart
can't keep quiet before God? When you think of all He is and
all He's done for you, your heart has to sing. Somebody says, well,
I can't carry a tune. I couldn't carry a tune. It was
in a bucket. I couldn't carry a tune. Well, I'll tell you what,
sing from your heart. Sing with rejoicing to the Lord. You praise Him. Sing praise to
Him who said, I make all things new. He says, sing unto the Lord
a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth,
not only Jews but Gentiles. Who is the Lord? That's Christ
Jesus. Sing of Him. Sing as with one
heart. Sing as with one mind. He compels
the Gentiles. Join me in singing, He says. Will you not praise the Lord
for His goodness to you? Will you not utter from your
innermost being that thankfulness that He's so deserving of? Will
you not worship Him? Will you not sing of His creative
glories and His providential glories, His saving glories? He says, sing unto the Lord.
Oh, sing unto the Lord, He says there in the second verse. Bless
His name. It blesses me. It's our joyful
duty to bless the name of our Lord forever. That's a blissful
duty. It's an honor. You know, we think about coming
and attending service. And I'm thankful people come
and I welcome visitors, but you know, really, it's an honor to
come. It's an honor to be here. Tell you what, God could have
left us in darkness. We could be all wrapped up in
false religion tonight, whoop-de-dooing with everybody else and playing
religious games and having a good old time, thinking we're serving
Jesus. We went to a nice little trip. Nancy's sister had arranged for
us to go to a bluegrass singing. These five guys singing. They
were doing pretty good. Played some good picking and
singing and enjoyed it all. And then they decided to sing
one. Me and Jesus got a good thing going. And then one of the guys in the band,
he came over. And he was talking to us. He
said, you know, I can't get that song out of my mind. Me and Jesus
got a good thing going. I said, I can't get it out of
mine either. Oh my. That's not praising his name. I tell you to praise the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ is to speak of who he is. and tell of what he did when
he came. Tell of his exaltation right now. Notice he says there
in verse two, show forth his salvation from day to day. And I'll tell you from the beginning
of the day to the end of the day. Oh, may his salvation be
real to us. When the sun comes up in the
morning, When the rays of God's great sun begin to shine upon
us, may we be reminded that the light
of the glorious gospel of grace has shined in our hearts. Start
the day off that way. The best way to start your day
off is to remember what God's done for you. And then the best
way to end the day is to remember what He's done for you in Christ
Jesus. And then you can go to sleep,
don't have to worry. Just get restful, and you know
in your soul, if I wake up here in the morning, things will be
wonderful. And if all of a sudden during
my hours of sleeping, I happen to wake up at the throne of Christ
Jesus, That's even better. Salvation. Think of salvation. Show forth His salvation. Manifest
His salvation. Tell people of His salvation
from day to day, from the beginning of the day to the end of the
day. He says in verse 3, declare His glory. That's really the
theme of the psalm. Those three words, declare His
glory. was declaring, speak out, preach,
proclaim the glory of His person, the glory of His work. Go tell
the Gentiles the wonders of Christ Jesus and all that He's done
for you, all that He does for sinners. Declare His glory among
the heathen. To His glory is great. Moses
said, Lord, show me your glory. Show me your glory. God said,
I'll cause all my goodness to pass before you. I'll be gracious
to whom I'll be gracious. Now you declare his glory among
his wonders, the wonders of the riches of his grace to you. And he says, and here's the reason,
verse four, because the Lord is great. He's great. And He's greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all
gods, all the dung-heeled deities of the Gentiles. He's great. In verse 5 it says, For all the
gods of the nations, they're idols. And later in the Psalms,
David speaks of them. They have eyes, but they see
not. Ears have they, but they hear not. Hands have they, but
they handle not. He goes on and on about the uselessness
of idols. What are the idols of this world
compared to Him who is the very glory of God, Christ Jesus? Man, Lord, crush your idols. Isaiah even asks the question,
why do you pray to a God that can't save? And if you'll notice
in Isaiah, that's with a little G. It's not a capital G. Why do you bother to pray to
a little God that can't save anybody? All the gods of the
nations are idols. But the Lord made the heavens.
Did they make anything? Not only can the idols not make
anything, they had to be made. But on the other hand, our Savior,
He made the heavens. Look at the heavens. We was up
there in Virginia, and my sister-in-law lives up on a hill, overlooks
the mountains, and one of them, she owns a good bit of it. sitting
out there at night looking up in the sky. Man, who made all of that? You know,
around in the city, you can't see so many stars at night, but
you get out in the country where you don't have a lot of man-made
light, marvelous, isn't it? Oh, my. Who made all of that? Our Redeemer made all of those
things. He made the heavens. No wonder
He says then in verse 6, honor and majesty are before Him. And
the word majesty means dominion or power. Honor and power are
before Him. And strength and beauty are in
His sanctuary, in His church. He has all power. It's what he
said, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Now
you go preach the gospel. He says in verse seven, given
to the Lord. And this will start the second
point. It begins with the word give. Give, given to the Lord. First thing he says is in the
first six verses, sing unto the Lord. And then the second thing
he says is, given to the Lord. And watch this. Once again, it's
in a trilogy. Given to the Lord, O ye kindreds
of the people. Given to the Lord, glory and
strength. Given to the Lord, the glory
due unto His name. As you sing to Him, as you sing
of the Trinity, so give glory that is due to every person of
the Trinity. The Father who ordained your
salvation, O Father, thank you. A glory in your grace. Glory in the Son of God. Give
unto Him glory and strength. And give unto God the Holy Spirit,
the glory that is due unto His name. Give to Him. Give to Him. Not that He is in
need. Not that He needs anything that
we could give Him. He owns everything. But that
is due Him. He is deserving of worship. He is deserving of praise. He's
deserving of honor. Tell you what, He's deserving
of more than one hour a week. He's deserving of your all in
all. He says, given the Lord the glory
due in His name, verse 8. Bring an offering. And it's interesting,
that word offering means bring an unbloody offering. Now back in the Old Testament,
of course this is in the New Testament, but David is looking
toward the time of Christ's coming. He is preaching through this
psalm to the Gentiles of that One who will come and who will
set things absolutely straight and save His people from their
sins. And He says, bring to this one, bring to our God an unbloody
offering. What would that be? Thanksgiving
and worship. And come into His courts. You know, back in the Old Testament
temple, they had the court of the Gentiles. The Jews could
go further into the temple. Not the Gentiles. No, you can't go any further
than the sign says. And David says to all of the
people of God, even Gentiles, come on into his court. Come
right on into the presence of God. Isn't that something? Us
heathens? We drink iniquity like water,
but we're saved by the grace of God, washed in the blood of
the Lord Jesus, robed in his righteousness. And he says, bring
an offering and come right into his court. You can go right into
the presence of God. What do you think about that? And so he says in verse nine,
oh, worship the Lord. and do so in the beauty of holiness. The beauty of holiness. Does that beauty, does that emanate
from you? Is this something, did you make
yourself beautifully holy? No. You see, our Lord Jesus,
He is our holiness. The beauty of holiness is what
we are in Christ Jesus. We got some silly songs in our
song book. More holiness give me. You know
that's in the song book. You ever heard that joke? More
holiness give me. You mean more than Christ? Or this one. Take time to be
holy. How do you do that? He is our holiness. And you see, in the Lord Jesus,
we're received by the Father even as He is. That's what we
need to grasp. You remember, Isaac calls one
of his boys, his elder son Esau, calls to him and says, I want
you to go out and make me some of that good venison. You know
how much I love that, Esau. He said, yes, dad, I know. He
said, I tell you, you go out there and you get a venison and
you fix it up just like I like it. And you bring it to me and
I'll eat it and I'm going to bless you. Rebekah, mom. Better be careful what you say,
mom's here. And Rebekah was listening. She
goes and tells Jacob, because Jacob was her favorite. She said,
your daddy, your daddy told your brother, your slightly elder
brother, he came out of the womb first, Esau did, about getting
that savory meat for him. She said, now here's what you
do, Jacob. I want you to go get two goats. Mom, that's not going to taste
like venison. Don't you worry about that. I'm a good cook.
And I know exactly the kind of food that your daddy likes. You
go get those goats and bring them to me. I'll take care of
everything. And so, of course, here goes
Esau out. He's got his bows and arrows,
bow and arrows, and he's going out. Guy's hunting camouflage
on whatever else, and he goes out hunting. And there's Jacob. He just goes over there to where
the goats are and gets a couple of goats. Mom, Rebecca, fixes
up a very tasty dish. She knows the kind of food Isaac
likes. What wife doesn't know her husband's
favorites. And then she said, now, I'm going
to get some of Esau's goodly apparel. Goodly apparel. Jacob, I'm going
to get that. I'm going to get it out of your
brother's closet. And I'm going to put that on
you. And then I'm gonna take some goat skin, because you know,
Jacob, you got smooth skin, but your brother's hairy. So I'm
gonna put goat hair on your hands and on your neck. And then you
go into your dad with the savory meat that I have prepared for
him. And so Jacob, He gets all dressed up in the garments of
Esau. He looks like Esau from afar. He feels like Esau. And he smells
like Esau. And Isaac says to him, when Jacob
comes in, Jacob says, I'm Esau. I'm ready for the blessing. And Isaac says the voice is the
voice of Jacob. Touched his hands, looked at
his clothes, and then he hugged him. He said, but the smell is
the smell of Esau. And he blessed him. Let me tell
you something. Our Lord has dressed us in the
garments of Christ Jesus. Goodly raiment. And bless the name of the Son
of God. The fragrance of His holiness
is upon us. And the Father hugs us. And He says, I know you're James
Ferguson Byrd, but you smell just like my son. You have same clothing as my
son. Welcome, son. That's the way
it is. You see? It's called the beauty of holiness.
Don't tell me you're trying to be holy. You either are or you
are not holy. Christ Jesus is our holiness. Holiness is not the things that
you do. Now, we believe in godliness,
living a godly life, but true holiness is perfection, purity
before the eyes of an all-seeing God. It's not being partly holy. You're either holy or you're
not holy before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And
in Christ Jesus, we're holy. Partly, we're holy. It's called
the beauty of holiness. The beauty of holiness. And then
here's the third thing, reign. David says, tell people that
the Lord reigns. Check in verse 10, say among
the heathen and tell the heathen. And I know a lot of times they
don't wanna hear that the Lord reigns. Reign is the root word
of sovereign, sovereign. They don't wanna hear that, tell
them anyway. Tell them that he reigns. It
isn't that he's gonna reign or he wants to reign or he wants
to be your Lord, he is the Lord. Say among the heathen that the
Lord reigneth. The Latin version of this is
very interesting. The Vulgate. Literally it is, tell out among
the heathen that the Lord reigneth from a tree. Isn't that interesting? The Lord reigneth from a tree. What tree? Mount Calvary's tree. He reigns from the cross. That's
how He came to reign as the God-man, because He died for our sins
according to the Scriptures on a cross that God had purposed
from before the foundation of the world. He's the Lord. Tell them that the Lord reigns.
And I'm telling you, He reigns in creation, He reigns in providence,
and He reigns in grace. He reigns from the tree, or because
of the tree. Romans 14, 9. To this end, Christ
both died and arose and revived that He might be Lord both of
the dead and the living. He reigns. And then look, here's the last
thing. I'm gonna give you this. Verses 11 through 13, here's
a command to rejoice. At the end of verse 10, it says,
he shall judge the people righteously. That's the only way he can judge,
is righteously. In a way of consistency with
his law and justice. So let the heavens rejoice. Let
the earth be glad. Let the sea roar in the fullness
thereof. This is David writing. He writes
to the heathen, he writes to Gentiles, and he says, the Lord
reigns. He governs all things. Let the
heavens rejoice. Angels, rejoice! The Lord reigns. Saints of God who've gone on
to glory, rejoice. He reigns. Let the earth be glad. You who are the Lord's people,
be glad. He reigns. Don't worry about
stuff. Oh, the world's in such bad condition. He knows exactly the condition
it's in. You let him take care of all
the things that he's taking care of, you can't meddle in it anyway. That's his business. His ways
are too mysterious for us to even begin to commence to get
started to knowing how to do anything. The ways of God are
past finding out. Just sit back and watch. What's God doing? Whatever He's
pleased to do. And David calls on, he calls
on nature. Look at it. Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad. Let the
sea roar in the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful. and
all that therein, then shall all the trees of the woods rejoice."
All you trees rejoice! Rejoice in what? The Lord reigns! And we mope around in sadness,
full of anxiety. David says, all of creation,
wake up! Praise the Lord, He reigns. And
don't you sometimes feel like saying to yourself even, wake
up, stir up, what's the matter with you? Don't you know the
Lord reigns? Let everything rejoice, verse
13, before the Lord. For this reason, because he cometh,
he's coming. The language is not, He shall
come, but cometh means He's coming. He's coming. He's coming to judge
the earth in righteousness. He'll judge the world with righteousness
and His people with the truth of the gospel. He's coming. He told John, and this finishes
up the book of Revelation, Behold, I come quickly. I'm coming quickly,
he said. And I'll tell you, here's what
we all do. Stand on the tiptoes of faith. Will it be today? Oh, I hope it's today. I hope
it's tonight. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Say,
but there's so many people left who are unbelievers. All of his
people are going to be gathered in. Then he'll come back. Behold, I come quickly. And John
answered for all of us. Even so come, Lord Jesus. That's a message to the heathen.
It's a message to the Gentiles. I don't mind being called a heathen,
do you? I don't mind being called a sinner. Christ died for sinners. There's hope for sinners. He's
the savior of sinners. I sing a closing song, 63. Is the number, take the name
of Jesus with you. Take the name of Jesus with you.
Number 63, we'll sing all stands up. I've enjoyed singing this
song ever since I was a little boy. I guess I first learned
it when I was about six or seven years old.