And that is moving, okay. Psalm
100, it's only five verses, so I'm gonna read the whole thing. Verse one, make a joyful noise
unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord
He is God. It is He that hath made us, and
not we ourselves. We are His people, and the sheep
of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
and into His courts with praise, and be thankful unto Him, and
bless His name. For the Lord is good, His mercy
is everlasting, His truth endureth to all generations The very title up there says
this is a psalm of praise Yes, it is Yes, it is to be precise
I believe this is a psalm of instruction for worship and also
the reasons for worship of The Lord are given here It's that old story. What the
world doesn't understand is that the faith of God's elect is not
blind. We see by the eye of faith. We
do not see with our normal mortal sight. But we do see. We do see as through a glass
darkly. We don't see everything. All we see is what has been revealed
to us in His Word. Through His Spirit in our hearts
and in our heads, in our minds and in our understanding, we
have been given some things. There is a reason for the people
of God to praise God. Oh, the title of this is, He
hath made us. As a matter of fact, the faith
of God's elect is the farthest thing from blind faith that there
is. You want an example of blind
faith, I'll give it to you. Evolution. That's what it is. They're believing wholeheartedly
and totally in something that can never be proven. As a matter
of fact, there's direct evidence against it. There have things
been, there are things that have been and are continuing to be
and probably always will be suppressed. There are things I've read on
the internet and in newspapers and in magazines that once I've
read them and they seem to cast a little bit of doubt on this
sort of thing, they disappear. It's like magic. Anything that
goes against their thoughts about evolution disappears Gone like
the wind, but I'll tell you this this word endureth forever It starts off make a joyful noise
unto the Lord all ye lands Make a joyful noise That's actually
what it means. Now, I will point out that it
doesn't say make noise. It does say make a joyful noise.
The scriptures are plain. And it's not even a joyful noise
for a joyful noise's sake. It is to be unto the Lord. There's a reason for the joyful
noise. It's the Lord. This is the first instruction
of this psalm. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord. And it does say, who is to make
it? All ye lands. You look that up, it says the
whole earth. Now the whole earth doesn't know God. The whole earth
doesn't want to know God. But the whole earth should make
a joyful noise unto the Lord. He is the creator and the sustainer
of this universe. Of this earth and every single
thing that's on it. By Him do all things consist. Speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ. But I do want to point this out.
Believers do not take a vow of silence. OK? There are people who do. There
are people who do. This whole song is about making
noise, singing, come with praise, thankfulness. All of these things
in here are vocal. We are to praise God with our
lips, from our hearts, from our being. We are to make a joyful
noise unto the Lord. Why? He's the Lord. We'll get into why. But this
is vocal. We are to be serious. Because
one of the definitions of this word joyful is mirth. There's
nothing wrong with laughter. There's nothing wrong with it.
Joy in your heart can put laughter in your mouth. There are things that just make
me awfully happy that God has made in this world. But nothing
gives me joy like his son. We are to be serious about him,
and we are to be serious about his word. But that does not take
away from our joy. That should be our joy, that
we know him and make a joyful noise unto
him. Guess what? This also is not
a suggestion. This is a command. Make a joyful
noise. It doesn't say make one if you
want to. It says, make one. To the Lord all ye lands. And then it says, serve the Lord
with gladness. Come before his presence with
singing. The service of the Lord is not
to be grievous. It's to be glad. It's to be glad. That word means glee. Glee or
guess what? Joyfulness. It's a different
word but it means sort of the same thing. We're to make a joyful
noise and we're to serve with joy. Believers are to be glad of service
unto Him. In service to the Lord. I will make a comment here, because
sometimes you may not know what your service is, at least for
a while. Because your service is yours. My service is mine. But yours
is yours. I may not know what your service
is. And therefore, at times, I don't know what my service
is. And I can tell you this also, over the passage of time, your
service may change as you grow in the grace and the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does it say about a bishop
not to be a novice? You have to grow into that. I
remember the first time I stood up and did just a little Sunday
school class or something at Mabscot. And I did make the announcement. I said, I made the announcement. This was a long while back. I
told him, I said, I am a novice. Because at that time, I was.
I made the comment also that if you wanted to know what one
looked like, here I was. I'm not a novice anymore. By his
grace, by his work in me and through me, I'm not anymore.
But your service can change. It can expand and it might contract. It may narrow down to a focus.
But I mentioned it last week. You gather together. You come and you listen. You
contribute what God has given to you. Your service is your
service. But here's the thing, whatever
it is, be glad in it. Be glad in it. It doesn't matter
whether you're a toe or a finger or a mouth or ears or eyes or
a hand or an elbow or a knee. It doesn't matter what part you
have in the body. What matters is you're in the
body. Be glad. He's put you where he wants you
to be at this time. In time, it may change. In time,
it may change. He's put Elizabeth as a mother
right now. You weren't a mother last year.
Happy Mother's Day, everybody. Things change. And it's the same
with the growth in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ as it is in life. As you grow, You will change
Like I said it may expand it may contract it doesn't matter
as long as it's his service Be glad in it But I can tell you where it starts
if you want to know I'll just read this psalms 122 in verse
1 the words of David said I Was glad When they said unto me, let us
go into the house of the Lord. This is where your service starts,
in the gathering together with the people of God. Here's where
you start. Are you glad to be here? That's
what I meant. Are you glad to be here? I'm
glad to be here every week. Sometimes I don't exactly enjoy
the process of getting here, depending upon traffic and how
many people try to run me off the road. Depending upon how
I can move my knee when I get out of bed in the morning. But when I get here, I am always
glad to be here. And this is where it starts for
every child. You want to gather together as
the people of God. with the people of God, yes,
but as the people of God. We're the church. We are the
church. We are His body and He's placed
us here because this is where He wants us. If He wanted us
somewhere else, we'd be somewhere else. And you may be as time
goes by. I may be as time goes by. I have
no plans, Ellen. But that doesn't mean anything
to God. I didn't have any plans to be up here doing this right
now, preaching. But here I am. That's by His grace. That's by
His power. And when He wants to, He'll take
me out of it. He put me in it. He can take
me out of it. It's His. By his grace, I will be glad
either way. But this is where you start.
Let us go unto the house of the Lord. Because the second part
of this verse says, serve the Lord with gladness. Come before
his presence with singing. First of all, come before his
presence. What did David say? I was glad. When they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. It is a glad thing
for me to hear the word of the Lord in the house of the Lord. The house that has been set aside,
house that is designated. The meeting yesterday, y'all
said it was really good. Is it good to hear the word of God
proclaimed? Does it matter who proclaims
it? It doesn't. We're all different. I can't preach like Walter. Walter
doesn't preach like me. Neither one of us preach like
Don Fortner. But is Christ preached? And are you glad to hear it?
Are you glad to hear of him? Because if you are, I can tell
you this. It's not natural. It's not natural. You're an aberration. Well, let
me qualify that. It's not natural unless you're
a child of God. Because you've got another nature.
You've got a new nature that this world doesn't have. This
world doesn't want. And it is natural for you and
for me to be glad to come to the house of the Lord, to come
into his presence and hear his word proclaimed. It is natural
for us, but not for anyone else. Because it starts with being
glad to come, and then we'll learn something else. Because when you show up, when
you come, God will teach you. Psalms 84 verse 10 says this
for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand I'd had rather
be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than to dwell in the
tents of wickedness What's that say about your service
it doesn't matter what your service is as long as your services in
him I'd rather I'd rather hold the door for other people, for
my God, than to live in the wickedness. The service of God is better
than the success of this world. Guaranteed. And it's not guaranteed
by me, it's guaranteed by God. The service of God is better
than the life that's in this world. And the service of God
is better than being of the world, because his people are said to
be in the world, but they're not of the world. And David wrote
that, that I would rather be a doorkeeper. I'd rather hold
the door and greet people. Work at Walmart, but for the
house of my Lord, for the house of my God, I'd rather be there. God will teach you that. When you come together. When
you come together. And it says this with singing. When you come before his presence,
sing. I talked about this a little bit
last week. Walter did on the radio. Singing is a command. Making melody in your heart. Singing praise to the Lord is
commanded. I'll qualify it that way and
guess what? This is one of those vocal things
God doesn't need our singing Our singing is for us God doesn't need anything from
us. He's commanded it that we would
sing forth his praises so that we would know his praises, that
we know him. It's given to us. It's given
to us to be able to praise him in song. And Walter's entirely
correct. It does matter the manner of
the singing and the manner and type of the music. You don't
want the music or the melody to detract or try and add to
the words of praise for God. It's the message that matters. It's always the message that
matters. Is the message the truth of God? That's the way you're to sing.
When you come into His presence, when we gather together to worship
Him, to make a joyful noise, to serve the Lord with gladness,
come before His presence with singing. It's for us. It's for us. It's to His glory. It's for His
glory. But it is for us. It's a comfort
to us to gather together, to know that we're not alone even
in this world. We're in it. We're not of it,
but we are in it. But that you gather together
with those who are like-minded with Christ, and you can sing
his songs, and you can hear his word preached, and you can come
into the prayer. Where two or three are gathered
together, there I am in the midst. He's here right now. He's here
right now. And we need to sing His praises. We need to speak His praises. We need to tell what thus saith
the Lord. Then we come to verse 3. Know ye that the Lord He is God. It is he that hath made us, and
not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Man, I like that verse. I like
that verse. Know ye that the Lord, he is
God. I'm gonna start off a little
bit with a negative because there are some. I know there's one
version out there. And what this one version says
is, acknowledge that Yahweh is God. I don't think that's quite
what this means. We are to acknowledge that God
is God, that Yahweh is God, the Lord is God. We are to acknowledge,
but that's not what this is saying. We are to make a joyful noise,
serve with gladness, we are to sing, there is our acknowledgement. before we get to it, before we
get to this verse. Here in this verse and in the
fifth verse also I believe we are told why we make a joyful
noise, why we serve God, why we come into his presence and
why we sing. This is the instruction of who
the Lord God is and we are to know it. In the Septuagint, Walter, the
Greek version of the Old Testament, genosko is the word there. And
in the Hebrew, the word is to know. Ye know the Lord, he is
God. This is a psalm of worship and
praise, but also instruction. And this is the instruction of
who the Lord God is and what he has done. Now, I will be What I want to say here, I don't
know if I can get this quite right, I even wrote part of it
down, but I don't know if I can, but I do want you to notice the
order here. See this starts off with make
a joyful noise, then it says serve the Lord with gladness,
come before His presence with singing, then it says ye know
that the Lord, He is God. But in this verse, knowing God,
Knowing the Lord that He is God comes before knowing that He
hath made us. We've got to know Him. Him. Our Savior is a person. Our Lord is a person. Our salvation
is a person. And you will know Him. And he tells us exactly why here. Why are we joyful? Why do we
make noise? Why do we serve? Why do we come
and why do we sing? He hath made us. It's that simple, and yet that
profound. Everything, as far as from our
perspective, our point of view, comes from this, in this life,
right here, right now, in time. Our salvation is just as sure
before the foundation of the world as it is now. But there
comes a time and a place. One of the songs I wrote down
for Elizabeth to do next week, Jesus is Our Great Salvation.
There's a verse in there that I really like. It says, free
election known by calling. Election is free. Election is
from before the foundation of the world. Our salvation began
before the foundation of the world and it began in the mind
of God and the word who was with God and the word was God. But
there comes a time when it comes down, right? He hath made us. This is separate from the rest
of the world. This is an us. This is not everyone. You are, it says, make a joyful
noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. But it says, he hath made us. Past tense. Because if you know
that the Lord, he is God, it's because he hath made you. This is because it is personal. God has made you if you know
him, but you are not alone because he made us Gather together He has made us
these are the instructions for the whole congregation We don't
have any secrets There are places where there are preachers who
say they believe this stuff, but they won't preach it Here
it is Here it is. He has made us This is why you
make a joyful noise unto the Lord. This is why you serve the
Lord with gladness. This is how you come before his
presence. He has made us. This knowledge is given to all
who he has made. Now, some know more than others,
certainly, but all know him. All know him. That's the whole
thing. What you know is nowhere near
as important as who you know. But who you know will tell you
what you know. How do you work that out in your
head? And I don't know if I could say that again. Not correctly? It's all right. Yeah, it's recorded.
Because what you know is only because of who you know. Yeah.
Yeah. And the world reveals to us every
day who they know. And it ain't him. It ain't, know
ye that the Lord, he is God. He hath made us. The world doesn't think that
he hath made us. The world thinks it made, he
made them. He did, but he didn't. Not in this context. Not in this
context. Because if he had made them,
they'd know him. He that is of God, heareth us. Guess what? That's the same us
in 1 John, in the New Testament, as the same us right here in
Psalm 100. He hath made us. All know him. He is God. He is the Lord. This is the explanation for how
we know this. You understand? That whole nature
or nurture question is out the window. We don't know him by nature.
We don't know him by nurture. We do not know him by education. Because you may have been brought
up in this. But that's not the same thing as knowing that the
Lord, he is God. It is not found by education.
It is only found by revelation It is only found because He hath
made you The only way to know the Lord he is God is by creation
His creation To bring forth Make to accomplish
to act with effect. That's what that word means he
hath made us God acted with effect There's an effect on you if God
made you There's an effect in you if God made you And that glorious isn't that
wonderful That's what this word means It
is His creation of His people. And this creation has results.
This creation has an effect. The making comes first, even
when we don't know it. Even when we don't know it. Can you know him and not know
for sure that he made you? Yeah. You can. When you start
out, you might have thought you had something to do with it.
We are that depraved, Mason. We are that depraved. You understand? Because the next statement says,
here it is in Psalms. Old Testament. Now, this psalm
is attributed to David by other sources. is not here, but it
sounds like David to me, for what I know. But it says, know
ye that the Lord, he is God, it is he that hath made us, and
what? And not we ourselves. Why does he put that in there?
Because we are depraved enough to think we had something to
do with it. This is education right here. This is instruction. This is, thus saith the Lord
through this psalmist, right here. And you know the funny thing
is, I read this, and I read it out loud here to you guys, and
I'm talking about it, and then you stop and you think, there
are people, and I mean really, really religious people, who
wonder where we get this stuff from. Weird that weird doctrine
Walter you part of a cult aren't you? They think we're preaching some
new weird doctrine. It's right here in Psalms 100.
It's back in Genesis 1 Genesis 3 It's all throughout the scriptures
They suspect that people who preach the sovereign grace of
God to be part of a new cult And no no no we are not I mean, at best, we could be
part of an old cult. It's right here in the Old Testament,
OK? That's the best. That's the worst,
whatever you want to call about it. But our doctrine, what we
teach, what we preach here, to us is known as the scriptures.
This Bible right here. And I'm going to tell you something. I don't care what version you
have. There's truth enough in it to see it if you'll read it.
But they'll read it and they won't believe it. Why? Because
he hath not made them. The difference is not in us.
The difference is in who made you. Because he talks about Jacob,
then he talks about Israel. Jacob was the one who started,
but he made Israel. Understand I didn't choose you
because you were the most numerous of people what did he say no?
No, I chose you because you were the fewest and matter of fact
you were none before God made Israel There were no people of God until
God made him a people of God He has made us and not we ourselves The truth is everywhere in the
Old Testament and the New Testament And here David plainly excludes
the work of those created, why? From the creation itself. And from the creation of themselves. Our doctrine comes directly from
the word of God. And so does our life. It comes
from God. He hath made us. And not we ourselves. Our knowing the Lord, He is God,
is not of ourselves. Our serving the Lord with gladness,
our making a joyful noise, our coming before His presence with
singing, is not of ourselves. Because I don't want to leave
anything out. He is the author and the finisher of faith. And faith is a fruit of the spirit. Got nothing to do with man other
than it's given to a man. When he hath made us. He hath
made us. He hath made us. We do these things not of ourselves
but of him. And then it says, we are his
people. But actually, that we are, you
can leave out. It's in italics there. Because
that is basically, I think, a continuation of this thought. It is he that
hath made us, and not we ourselves, his people. Understand? That's the description of who
the us is. In the little statement before
that, the phrase before that. This is the us, his people. He's
not talking about the world, just in case you weren't sure.
He hath made us, not we ourselves, his people. This is the definition. This
is the exclusion. This is the inclusion. This is
the way God works. He hath made us what? His people. He hath made us his people. The
negative is that everyone is not his people. And there's no
reason to think you are unless he has made you in time. Free
election known by calling. You may be. I don't know. That's
of no debate right now because there's no way to debate it one
way or the other. There's nothing to debate about,
but free election is known by calling. He hath made us his
people in time, in place, and we serve. We make a joyful noise. We come. See now, if you don't
fit that description, you've got no reason to think he hath
made you yet. That's just the way it is. These
are the commands. And just because it's in the
Old Testament doesn't make it, oh, well, we can forget about
it. No. No. The word of God has not changed. God has not changed since the
beginning. If you are to know Him, know
the Lord, that He is God, He has to make you. He has to make
you His people. and he will make you in time. He promised that as much as he
promised us Christ. The promise is no less. If he
only said it once, that's all you really need. That's the question. How many times does God have
to say something? Well, once is all. But luckily,
not luckily, he knows us. He says it over and over and
over again. They wonder where we get this
doctrine. I see this doctrine everywhere in this book. And
I'm going to tell you something, once you've seen it, you can't
help but not, you're going to see it over and over and over
again in different places. I don't remember, you know, I've
looked at this and I thought this was a good verse, but then
I look at it now and I see all this stuff and I wonder where
all this came from. He hath made us. and not we ourselves. It comes from Him. We are His
people now as we live on this earth. Not of this world, but
in this world. Those who know that the Lord,
He is God. They're His people. That's the
only people that can claim it. And those who know, those who
are His people, are His people because He made them. Those who
know the Lord who is God are to know they are His people. He's not going to leave you out
there wandering. You may be alone for a while. You may think you're
all by yourself. You're not. Because the Holy
Spirit that's going to be in you is with you. But you may
think you're alone. You may feel isolated for a while. But you will know that the Lord,
he is God. And that he has made us and not
we ourselves his people. He has promised to reveal himself
to his people. I thank thee, Lord, that thou
hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent. But, and,
actually not but, and, and hath revealed them unto babes. Why are you a babe? He just made
you. He just made you. Free election, known by calling,
is a privilege. Divine. I like that. I like that. And then it says the sheep of
his pasture and the sheep of his pasture. We're his people
and we're his sheep. And the sheep of his pasture. Those who know are the sheep
of his pasture. They're not lost sheep. He's
not talking about lost sheep here. There are lost sheep. But that's not what we're talking
about here. We're talking about those who know the Lord. He is God. They are the sheep
of his pasture. He goes on. It's time for me
to stop here. He goes on. Enter into his gates
with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless
His name, for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and
His truth endureth to all generation. Enter into His gates and into
His courts. I'm going to make this quick. Those who know the Lord, He is
God. are told to enter. Enter his gates, not anybody
else's. His gates. Now you stop and you
think for a minute what gates are for. Gates are usually made
to keep some people out. But you're told to enter into
his gates. It's, I'm sorry, no I'm not sorry. This is the way it is. This is
the word of God. Our God is exclusionary. He is particular about who he
lets through his gates. He's only letting through his
gates his people. That's it. And if you enter into
his gate, guess what? You've entered into his courtyard.
I like that. I like that. And the only way
into his courtyard is through his gate. And His gates are the only gates
that matter. You must be born from above to
see the Kingdom of God. You must be born of water and
the Spirit to what? To enter His gates. His gates. And I do believe that
is the washing of regeneration and the renewing of your mind
by the spirit. That's what life comes. Christ reveals himself
to the believer. And they do believe. They are
given faith. And the Holy Spirit comes and
indwells. And guess what? We enter his courtyard through
his gate. Why? Because we're his people. We're the sheep of his pasture.
Sheep need to be taken care of. Sheep need to be fed. Sheep need
to be led where they can feed. Who's in charge of all that?
Not me. Not you. The good shepherd. We enter his gates and into his
courtyard. Where is it? I marked it here. Well, I've already had it marked.
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach
unto thee that There's a purpose for this there's a purpose that
he may dwell in thy courts As his people he has given us
a place to live and And it's not this earth we're talking
about. It's in his courts. Our life is hid with Christ in
God. Earl used to quote that all the
time, and I still like it. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of what? Thy holy temple. The Lord is deserving of all
praise. And the Lord is worthy of all
praise. For the Lord is good, His mercy
is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations. The Lord of all the earth does
right. He's good. You understand? His making of us is good. I gotta say it. His not making
of others is good. It don't matter whether I understand
it or I like it or not. Whatever he does is right. Whatever he does is good. I am very glad that he has made
me one of his people. right now, right here. His mercy is everlasting? Well
in this context, guess what that means? If He's made you, He's
never going to unmake you. I like that. I like that. His mercy is everlasting. He will not renege on His mercy. no matter what you do, no matter
what you do, no matter what you think, no matter what you don't
do, His mercy is everlasting. The question is, is it His mercy? Because this psalm here uses
the word us in its description and that's because it is true
of all believers. What we have to answer is, is
this true of me? This is where it comes down to.
Do you know him? Do you trust him? Do you love
him? Do you want to make a joyful
noise? Do you want to serve the Lord with gladness? Do you want
to sing? Do you want to praise him? Do
you want to enter his gates into his courtyard? Be thankful unto him and bless
his name. I hope you do. I hope I do. I want to. Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful
for this time, this place. Lord, be with Walter as he stands
here to preach your word to us. Give us the understanding, the
grace we need. to grow in grace and knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We'll give you all the honor
and the glory because it is yours and always has been. In Christ's
name we pray, amen.