Good morning. Let's all turn
together for our Scripture reading this morning to Psalm 145. Most of you know our pastor's
away this morning. He's preaching for David Pledger
down in Houston at their Bible conference. Him and Shirley's
down there, so we'll remember them when we pray. Psalm 145. I will extol thee, my God, O
King, and I will bless thy name forever and ever. Every day will
I bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation
shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty
acts. I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy
wondrous works, and men shall speak of the might of thy terrible
acts, and I will declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly
utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy
righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord
is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works shall praise thee,
O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak
of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power to make known
to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty
of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. The
Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that
be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee,
and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine
hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. The Lord
is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto all them
that call upon him. To all that call upon him in
truth, he will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. He also
will hear their cry and will save them. The Lord preserveth
all them that love him, but all the wicked will he destroy. My
mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh
bless his holy name forever and ever. I'm sure thankful for the
musicians in this congregation, aren't you? Always sing such good songs. I was thinking this morning that
the last time I preached, Brother Herman's sitting right there. So I don't want to be up here
before you trying to be clever or witty, but my message is this. Behold your God. I pray that
we'll see him high and lifted up this morning in the face of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The day's coming for every one
of us when we'll hear our last message, when we'll be here for
the last time. Who knows who might be next that
will go out into eternity to meet God. In one of the anxieties
of trying to preach, is being able to convey to you all what
God has laid on my heart. Sometimes those things that God
blesses us with are unutterable. There are not words to express
what God has taught us in our hearts. I was listening to a
message by Gabe this week, and he said he kind of expressed
the same sentiment. He said, I hope this message
comes out half as good as it went in. And that's what my hope
is this morning. Turn with me to Psalm 48. You know, I'm not interested
in a gospel of ifs and ands and buts or maybes, but the gospel
that is sure and certain and eternal when fixed by God in
all things being in Christ and in Him being yea and amen. I'm
not interested in a gospel where there are conditions to be met,
there are doubts and fears, but where there's certainty, eternal
certainty and safety, where I cannot be lost, where I must be saved. No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes. If you look in verse 14 of our
text, Psalm 48, this is where I want to start
and this is where I want to end. For this God is our God forever
and ever, and He will be our guide even unto death. Now, every man has a God. Every man has a God. He either
has a God that he's made up in his own mind, of his own imagination,
that he can manipulate. The atheist is his own God. He's made himself to be his God. The Scripture says their God
is their belly. But then there's the true and
living God, the one with whom we have to do. When Moses asked
Him, who shall I say that has sent me? I Am has sent thee. The great I Am. God is who He
is. And we are in His hands. and
we are subject to Him. So let's look tonight at this
God. This psalm tells us that this
God, what God is it talking about? Well, we find out in the psalm,
the preceding verses, who is this God that is our God, that
is our God forever and ever. In verse 1, first of all, the
Psalms is a blessed book in the Bible where we many times have
our thirsty souls fed. And it expresses oftentimes what
we are unable to express. There's many times in our lives
that we're just led to sigh or groan and moan. And then how
often does the reading of a psalm lift up our hearts and expresses
what's on our hearts? And we, in our hearts, exalt
praises unto our great God and King, and just bow before Him and thank
Him. But this psalm is ended up at the beginning by saying,
great is the Lord, and at the end, this God is our God forever
and ever. And I want to just go through
this psalm and hit on a few things. There's many places to stop and
dwell and consider very detailed things about it. But I want to
go through this psalm and hit on some highlights that I see
in this great psalm. But first of all, in verse 1,
great is the Lord. Now I would venture to say that
everyone here this morning said amen in their hearts. Amen. Great is the Lord. Where do we
begin with expounding on that and where do we end? How great
our God is. The word great, that's one of
these times when words cannot express. Great is not an adequate
word to express our God. it's insufficient to describe
our Lord. You see, He's infinitely great
in all aspects, beyond expression, and there's no limit to His greatness.
He's great beyond all expression, beyond all imagination. He's greater than all. We read
in Psalm 145, we just read that a few minutes ago, verse 3 says,
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. And His greatness
is unsearchable. It's beyond our grasp. We can't search it out. We can't
find it out. In Psalm 150, we read, according
to His excellent greatness, His greatness is excellent. And we use this word, probably
overuse this word, When God is great, none else can be great,
but we use that word as if there's other greatness, but there's
not. We make comparisons in this world, and it's a measured greatness,
it's relative, but in regards to God, it's absolute. He alone
is great. The Lord alone is great, and
he's beyond compare. We read in Exodus 15, verse 11,
who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? and who is like
Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, and doing wonders. Truly our God is great. Think
of Him as great as you will. He's infinitely great beyond
that. Don't you just love to think on these things where you
just swallowed up in the vastness of God, the immenseness of God,
His person, and all his great and wonderful works. He's infinitely
great beyond all that we can think. Just what we can seize and comprehend
is great, but he's beyond what we can see and comprehend. He
filleth the universe. The universe is in God. He is
controlling the stars in heaven as they shine, and we see them
at night. We can't even reach those stars.
God is there. To the deepest depths of the
sea, there's organisms in the depths of the sea where it's
at its deepest point, which is, I think there's one place, it's
miles and miles, it's seven miles deep. There's actually organisms
in the bottom of that sea. moving around. God made that
organism, whatever it is, and he's there. He's everywhere. I mean, you can get lost in the
wonder of his greatness, his immense-ness. Just think of the
mass of humanity that's born and dies every day. God gives
life, God takes life, and he controls everything in between.
Every detail, every speck of dust every ray of sunshine, every
cloud, every drop of rain. It's God that sent it. He guides
it, purposed it. Oh my. And he's greatly to be
praised for all his wonderful works to the children of men.
And I think that carries some significance with it as we think
about this. He's not just to be praised,
he's greatly to be praised. He's greatly to be praised. And
the more we discover about God, the more he reveals to us of
himself, of his greatness, the more our hearts are prompted
to praise him. Oh my. But there is a great work
that's great beyond all other works. And we sing of that salvation. for his church that he elected
before time ever was. Think of this. I, who never had
a righteous thought, never committed a righteous act, I at this moment
stand before God righteous as God himself. the blessed truth of this Gospel.
And God brought it about. God purposed it and willed it
and provided for it for His people, those He chose before the foundation
of the world. And He did it on purpose, by
His purpose, and He accomplished it. Turn with me to 1 Peter. This is what thrills our souls. This work is beyond compare when
compared to his other works. If we read in 1 Peter 2, beginning
in verse 22, speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God
in the flesh, this is God, the blessed son of God, who is God. He says, who did no sin, neither
was guile found in his mouth. He came to this earth as a man,
and he did no sin. He was the perfect man, the only
perfect man that ever lived. And as our substitute, he did
no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was
reviled, he reviled not again. Why did he not respond to his
accusers? Because he was made sin and he
was guilty. That's the great work of substitution. The just dying for the unjust,
being made guilty that we might be made free. Who did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth. He couldn't defend himself.
He would not defend himself. He could have, but he didn't
because as our substitute, he deserved everything he got. When
he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. And I love this. Who his own
self, he did it himself. He bare our sins in his own body. on the tree, that we, being dead
to sins, should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye are healed. Here's what we contributed. For
ye, you're a sheep gone astray. You went astray. But you're now
returned. He's returned you to the shepherd
and bishop of your souls. If you look over there in chapter
3, in verse 18, the same book, 1 Peter 3.18, For Christ also
hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God. He brought us to God by His great
power, His purpose, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened
by the Spirit. That is the crowning work in God's greatest work, that
we be made righteous by the merit of His Son. And we sing the song,
victorious Lord, victorious Lord, God did not wait on me to make
a decision so he could move forward. This was purposed and fixed from
all eternity. God actually saves his people.
He saved his people. My only hope is not that God
will save me if I do this or that. My only hope is that God
has already saved me. That's my only hope. Men despise
election. Brethren, that's our only hope,
that God elected us unto salvation. And that's a sure hope. That's
a steadfast eternal hope that cannot be taken away because
I mentioned it earlier, I can't not be saved. I cannot be lost
because God has saved me. My, what peace there is in that.
What hope and assurance and joy No matter what happens, I can't
be lost. I must enter into glory to be
with my Savior for all eternity. All is well. All is well. That's
the gospel. In Mount Zion, it talks about in this psalm
of a great city, Mount Zion. Let's read on. Great is the Lord
and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain
of holiness. Mount Zion, the city of our God,
that's typical of the church. Christ being the head, Mount
Zion is the church, the church of God. Beautiful for situation. Look over just across the page
in Psalm 50 and verse 2. Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty, God hath shined. That's what he says about his
church. Because they're in Christ. And he sees his people and his
church in Christ. Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty, God hath shined. Beautiful for situation. Consider Christ makes every situation
beautiful. Consider life without Christ
versus life with Christ. Men without Christ, outside of
Christ, live day to day with situation that arises after situation. And it just gets worse and worse as time
goes on and life goes on. There's sickness, there's difficulties
with family and finances and situation after situation. And
then there's old age and health declining and sickness of soul
and mind and heart and fears and doubts and all the things
that the natural man deals with. And then finally comes death. and to face death without Christ. You talk about a situation. But
the believer, every situation is made beautiful. God has laid
out His path and He leads us. They sang a little bit ago, God
leads His dear children along. We're on the path to glory. And all that comes our way is
made beautiful by our Savior, our Redeemer, Him in whom we're
looking to and hoping in, trusting in. And the future gets brighter
and brighter as we get closer and closer to that day that Herman
just died and left us recently. What a day that will be. That's
a joyous, wonderful day. And that's the difference between
a man that's in Christ and a man outside of Christ. There's nothing
but a fearful looking for judgment for the man outside of Christ
whose sins are not covered, who must face God on his own merit,
and he'll be banished from the presence of God for all eternity.
Beautiful for situation, verse two, the joy of the whole earth
is Mount Zion. On the sides of the north, the
city of the great king. the joy of the whole earth. Look
over in Isaiah chapter 60 for a moment. Verse 14. The sons also of them that afflicted
thee shall come bending unto thee, and all they that despise
thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet, and
they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the
Holy One of Israel, whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated,
so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency,
a joy of many generations. The people of God are the joy
of the whole earth, and we spread the gospel message to generation
after generation, we're the joy of the whole earth. If it were
not Christ and His church in this world, there would be no
true joy in this world. There would be no true joy. Look over in Isaiah 40, verse
9. Here's what I said a little while
ago. Here's what Zion does. Here's
what the church of God does. Here's what God's people do.
Oh, Zion, that bringeth good tidings. We're bringing good
tidings. Get thee up into the high mountain.
Oh, Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings. And lift up your
voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say
unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God. That's what we cry. Behold, your God. Behold, the
Lord God will come with strong hand. And his arm shall rule
for him. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him. And he shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. Behold your God. Behold his Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we're doing today.
Behold your God, who doeth all things well. In verse 3, God is known in her
palaces for a refuge. In the city of God, in the church
of God, God is known in her palaces for a refuge. Look over a few
pages in Psalm 62. And verse 7 says, In God is my salvation. Where
is my salvation? It's in a person. It's not in
doing, it's in a person. In God is my salvation and my
glory. In God is the rock of my strength
and my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, ye
people. Pour out your heart before Him.
God is a refuge for us. Isn't that what we read over
here in our text in Psalm 48.3? God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. We know God in this place as
our refuge. We're hiding in Him. Oh my! And look over in Proverbs 18.
I love this scripture. Proverbs 18, verse 10. It says, the name of the Lord
is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it,
and it's safe. You think if God says we're safe,
that we're safe? We're safe as God can make us
safe. That's safe. Absolutely safe. And then look
at a text in Deuteronomy chapter 33. Beginning in verse 26. There is none like unto the God
of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in
his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms And he shall thrust out
the enemy from before thee and shall say, destroy them. Israel
then shall dwell in safety alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be
upon a land of corn and wine. Also, his heaven shall drop down
due. The eternal God is thy refuge. It's an eternal refuge. Oh, my. God is known in the palaces of
the city of God for a refuge. And then in verses four through
eight, it speaks of the church's enemies. And as they passed by
and saw the church and God's people, they marveled and were
troubled and were made to fear. Verse six says, fear took hold
upon them there and pain as of a woman in travail. Unbelievers, they see the protection
that God, by His mighty power, how He protects His church, that
our confidence is in God, our Savior, and we cannot be lost. And they're troubled. They're
made to fear. Their gospel gives place for
fear and doubt. because they are laying hold
upon something they've done, something they hope to do, some
part that they play in their salvation. Pain is of a woman
in travail, and God will destroy them by His mighty power. Look
over in Isaiah chapter 13. There's no safety outside of
Christ. Isaiah 13. We begin at verse
6. How ye, for the day of the Lord
is at hand, it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart
shall melt, and they shall be afraid. Pangs and sorrows shall
take hold of them. They shall be in pain as a woman
that travaileth. They shall be amazed one at another.
Their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh,
cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate,
and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." Oh my, outside
of Christ is nothing but judgment and destruction. I'm reminded
of that Scripture, if God be for us, who can be against us?
But what if He's against us? Oh my, that's a fearful thing
to think about. You can read on in verse 7 of Psalm
48. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish
with an east wind. It's such an easy thing for God
to put to nothing the might and the strength of this world. It's
an easy thing. He just blows upon it, and it's
destroyed. In verse 8, as we've heard, so
have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of
our God, God will establish it forever. God will establish that
city. God established the city. It's
a city not made with hands. God will establish it forever. Eternal safety. A rock against
which the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Psalm 87
verse 5 says, And of Zion it shall be said, This and that
man was born in her, and the highest himself shall establish
her. The highest himself. God himself. He hath done it by himself, for
himself, and it's eternal, everlasting. And not one tittle of God's word
shall fail in what he has promised he will perform. He hath done
what he hath pleased in heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and who can say unto him, What doest thou? David said, God hath made with
me an everlasting covenant. It's ordered. God ordered it.
In all things, ensure. And not one for whom Christ died
shall ever be lost. We're talking about God who is
God. Not God who's trying to be God. Let me be Lord of your
life. This is God who is God. And not one for whom Christ died
will ever be lost. That gospel that says Christ
died for someone that winds up in hell, that's no gospel. Christ's death accomplished salvation
for his people. And they shall be saved. They'll
never be lost. And God's not waiting for their
cooperation or to meet a condition. He saved us outside of ourselves. He saved us against our will
with our full consent by making us willing in the day of His
power. God has all power. If He wants to save a man, that
man's going to be saved. If He purposed to save a man,
that man has been saved, let's say it that way. He is saved
and He cannot be lost. And that's our only hope, that
God has pitied me and given me His salvation and put me in His
Son before time ever was, so that I can never be lost. He
set His love upon me and brought me to know that. Now look in
verse 9. We have thought of thy lovingkindness,
O God, in the midst of thy temple. We're in the temple this morning.
This is the city of God, a local assembly of the city of God.
We're in the temple of God, and this is where God meets with
his people and speaks to them as they're gathered together
to read his word and to worship. And in that temple, we have thought
of thy lovingkindness. We've thought of how often have
we been led to think on his lovingkindness when we're hearing the word preached.
True religion is a thinking man's religion, isn't it? You know,
we can attend a service and not worship. Just being here is not
worship. But there can be no worship without
thought. Our Lord himself asked the Pharisees,
what think ye of Christ? What do you think about him?
What are your thoughts concerning him? In Proverbs 23, we read
that, for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. God looks upon
the heart. God sees your heart this morning.
And in the midst of thy temple, O God, we have thought of thy
lovingkindness. Oh, we've thought of that this
morning when we think about an eternity past, back before time
was, when we can't see back that far, but by faith we've been
led to believe, caused to believe by God and taught that He chose
us. Nothing in us to cause Him to
do anything for us. And we thought of that loving
kindness that caused God, wonder of wonders, that God would choose
me. Why? We thought of His loving
kindness in the midst of thy temple. And God's not worshipped
with men's hands, but where two or three are gathered together. studying his word, as we are
here in the worship service, and thinking on him. That's where
God is, speaking to your heart. Speaking to your heart. See,
God has no need of symbols and ceremonies, of crosses and cathedrals,
grand cathedrals. Boy, there's some big ones out
there, isn't there? Some beautiful buildings. God's not honored
in that. God's not worshiped because of
that. But he's honored and worshipped
in the hearts of these people as they think on him and consider
him. That's where he's worshipped.
And how pleasant are the thoughts when we do think of him? When
we're unable to, in quietness and solitude, to think on him, how
pleasant are those thoughts, aren't they, to the believer?
How pleasant are the thoughts of the bride for the bridegroom. There's nothing dreadful to think
about. It's all pleasant, joyful things. Knowing that he loves
us and protects us and we can never fall. We can never be lost. We've thought of our loving kindness,
his acts of kindness and loving kindness. Oh my. where it's worthy of thought
and it's beyond all thought. We can think of it all of our
lives, and it's new and fresh and joyful every time we just
stop and think, consider His loving kindness to His people.
How can we ever forget what the Lord's done for us? How can it
be? How can it be that God should
come as a man and die for me? God Himself laid down His life. And then in verse 10, according
to Thy name, O God, so is Thy praise unto the end of the earth. Thy right hand is full of righteousness. You know, when I read that yesterday,
it said His right hand was full of righteousness. And I'm reading
it today, and it says His right hand is full of righteousness.
It still is. God doesn't change. He's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. He's righteous in His judgment.
He makes His people righteous. And His hand's still full of
righteousness. He's not depleted in the least. God is so far above
us, we have no comprehension. Oh, when we get to glory, what
a sight that will be. What a blessing that will be
to see him face to face. That great name, which is above
every name, this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God. That great God, the one greatly
to be praised. How can my praises ever find
end, we sing. My tongue shall praise him forevermore. And then in verse 11, let Mount
Zion rejoice. Let the church of God rejoice.
Let God's people rejoice and the daughters of Judah be glad
because of thy judgments. And I touched on that a minute
ago. His judgments are righteous judgments. They are right judgments.
And we rejoice that God has judged us in Christ. And there is no
judgment for the believer. And we rejoice in that great
judgment of God. where he has, through our substitute,
we've been judged and punished and our sin put away. And there's
no judgment for the believer. But we rejoice in this too, that
God righteously judges sin and the sinner. Sin deserves hell. We think it's an awful thing
that God sends men to hell. It's not. It's a good thing.
It's that God banishes sin, never to be heard from again, never
to trouble anyone again. God put an end to sin. Sin deserves
hell. Me as a sinner deserve hell.
I should go to hell and suffer eternally, eternally separated
from God. That's how bad sin is. We have no concept of what sin
is. We rejoice in that, that there's
coming a day where there'll be no more sin. Thank God for that. And He judges righteously. My, we rejoice in that. Thank
God there's coming a day when there'll be no sin. There'll
be no crying. There'll be no pain. There'll
be no hate. Well, we want to flee to Christ. If
you're outside of Christ or you don't know if God's chosen you
to salvation, what's the only thing you can do? It's flee to
Christ and cry for mercy. Then is your election made known.
Believing and trusting. That's our only hope. Just fall
down. Lord, if you don't save me, I
won't be saved. Lord, here's the cry of those
that have a need. never turned a deaf ear to one
that's come to the place that I have nothing to offer. Lord,
if I die without you, I deserve to go to hell, and I'll say amen
when you do. But I've heard there's a salvation
in another who died for sinners. Lord, I fall at his feet. Hear
my prayer. Hear my cry. Save me. Don't damn me. You could and
you should. But show me mercy. That's our
only hope. Come as a mercy beggar. I need
mercy. Let the church of God rejoice
and be glad. God has destroyed the enemy,
sin. He triumphed over sin. And he
tells his people, your warfare is accomplished. Your sin is
put away. and be glad for the judgments
of our God, for their righteous judgments. And he hath done all
things in righteousness, and he hath done all things well.
Now, let me wrap this up. I know I've been a little bit
long. Walk about Zion, verse 12, and
go round about her. Tell the towers thereof, mark
ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell
it to the generation coming or following. Walk about the church
of God, see her protections, see those solid brass walls,
those great towers of God's providing. The church is eternally safe.
Wonder at it. Walk about Zion and tell the
generations following that God has provided for his people and
protects them and keeps them safe in this walled city. The
Lord is my rock and my fortress. And those great truths which
fortify our souls against all that would harm us. And I'll
close with this, God's eternal purpose Who shall frustrate it? The everlasting covenant. Who
shall make it void? Where God the Father and God
the Son made a covenant one with another. And God the Father gave
God the Son a people. And He said, I'll die for those
people and I'll present them faultless before you. That great
eternal covenant is dependent, my salvation is dependent upon
that covenant. The promise that God made with
God. Not any promise that I make. the promise that God made with
God, and those in that covenant cannot be lost. And then we have
the promise in the oath whereby that by two immutable things
in which it was impossible for God to lie, who shall storm this
and do it harm? These towers and bulwarks of
that city includes the power of God, who is greater than God,
who shall defeat God, and the wisdom of God. Who shall outwit
God? Who's wiser than God? The presence
of God. God meets with his people. He's
present with them. Who shall deprive us of the presence
of God? The everlasting, unchangeable,
eternal word of God. Who shall remove it? Who shall
change it? It shall be forever. And all
around the church of God, Between God's people and destruction
is this, the full-flowing stream of the atoning blood of Christ.
God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass by. We're covered by
the blood. We sang it this morning. The
blood of Christ covers us. Oh me, this God is our God forever
and ever. In verse 14, forever and ever. It doesn't
just say forever. I believe that means forever
this way and forever that way. Always has been our God. And
He will be our God. He will guide us. He will lead
us. He will carry us. He will not forsake us, even
unto death. And then We will have arrived. We won't need to be led. We have
arrived where we were purposed to be from all eternity in glory
with our Savior.