This is Psalm 148. Praise ye
the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise
ye Him, all His angels. Praise ye Him, all His hosts. Praise ye Him, sun and moon.
Praise Him, all ye stars of light. Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens
and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the
name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. He hath
also established them forever and ever. He hath made a decree
which shall not pass. Praise the Lord from the earth,
ye dragons and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and vapors, stormy
wind fulfilling his word, mountains and all hills, fruitful trees
and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying
fowl, kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges
of the earth, both young men and maidens, old men, and children. Let them praise the name of the
Lord, for His name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth
and heaven. He also exalteth the horn of
His people, the praise of all His saints, even of the children
of Israel, a people near unto Him. Praise ye the Lord." Scripture
says that He does all things according to the good pleasure
of His will. And there's none that can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? How many times have we questioned
something? Well, you know, Lord, why'd you
do that? Or this, that, or the other. I mean, men constantly,
they say, oh, you know, how could God do this? Or how could God
allow all those people to be killed over there in Ukraine
like that? How could it be? Well, if we really understood
the sinful and rebellious nature of men, we would wonder why he
has not snuffed out every life on earth. Well, see, men think
they have a right to live. The only reason that you have
life is because God gave it to you. He said, I kill and I make
a life. The Lord does all of these things.
And whether we can grasp that or not, it does not make any
difference because the God with whom we have to do is a great
and mighty God. He's not a God like the God of
the Philistines who could be set up in a temple somewhere
and people could go when they get ready and worship Him. Our
God is in the heavens. You see, he can't be worshiped
in temples made with hands. He can't be hewn out of stone.
We can't set up an idol of any kind, some form or thing that
we can look at and say, well, there he is. As he said to the
woman at the well, God is a spirit, and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit. and in truth. And apart from
His grace and mercy in giving unto men His Spirit, they cannot
worship Him aright. You can't devise. I mean, see,
men want to come up with a way to worship Him. Oh, we like that,
so we'll worship God this way. Or we'll do it like that. We
don't like this over here, so we'll do this. Well, it's not
up to men to decide how they will worship the Lord. It's up
to the Lord to determine how he will be worshipped. And the
one way that he will be worshipped is in the glorification of his
son, Jesus Christ, as the Lord of glory. When the disciples went up on
the Mount of Transfiguration and Moses and Elijah and the
Lord Jesus Christ, they saw in this vision And all of a sudden
Moses and Elijah disappeared and the Lord alone was standing
there. And a voice came from heaven
and said, this is my beloved son, hear ye him. This is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased. The Lord is pleased. The Father is pleased with the
Son. And the Son has come to do the will of the Father. What
a glorious thing. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye
the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights. Praise
Him, all His angels. Praise Him, all His hosts. It is amazing, is it not, that
men should instruct the angels to praise Him? But you see, these
are not simply the words of men. This is David that did indeed
write these words. But the Lord Jesus Christ gave
them to him. And so the Lord commands all
of his creation to praise him. We're not given any exceptions
to that. Even the angels. In Isaiah's
vision, he saw creatures that fly around the throne without
ceasing. crying, holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. What a glorious
vision that is, but dear brethren, is that one of those songs, I
believe it's, Dark and Thorny is the Desert.
And it says, one of the lines in that says, but methinks a
greater concert makes the heavens ring. And it is that song which
only the redeemed of God can sing. That's how the Lord will
be praised. He'll be praised in the magnification
of Jesus Christ as the savior of sinners. Not in the deeds
of men. Men think to bring their deeds
to the Lord. Lord, we've done so many great
things. The Lord said that in that final days that there will
be many who will say unto him, Lord, Lord, who shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven? And they'll say, well, Lord,
did we not do all these wonderful things? I mean, many of the things
you told us to do, didn't we do them? I mean, aren't we worthy
somehow to be received by you? And he said, I will say to them,
depart from me, I never knew you. Oh, what a blessing, dear
brethren, it is to be known by the Lord. The scripture says
that the Lord knoweth them that are his. He knows them. The Lord Jesus Christ said, my
sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow
me. And so it is the mercy of God
that causes a man to delight in the praises of God. Now you
can teach your children to praise the Lord, and you should. Why? Because they're commanded in
the Scripture to do so. You should teach your children
to praise the Lord. But the one thing you can't do is cause them
to love praising the Lord. But the mercy of God, the grace
of God can do so. And He can take those things
that you teach them by rote and He can cause them to be precious
to their soul. Oh, that the people of the earth
might praise Him even as the angels praise Him. All ye hosts
praise Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, all ye stars of light. Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens.
Now listen to this. Now this is surely a confounding
thing to the man who is a scientific mind. But it's not really confusing
if you believe what the scripture says about the creation. Now it says here, ye waters that
be above the heavens. What? Read that and think about
that a minute. The waters that be above the
heavens. Now there's a lot of explanations
people have given for that, and I'm of a simple mind, and so
I don't, I find that the simplest explanation is exactly what the
scripture says. The scripture says that the world
in which we live and those things that we can see are a, the Lord created a firmament. And he divided the firmament
from the waters that was above the firmament to the waters that
was below the firmament. Now here he says, ye waters that
be above the heavens. Now as far as the eye can see,
and the Hubble telescope is out there somewhere, but it's taking
all these pictures, and the scientists rightly marvel at the wondrous
things that they see and discover, or the Lord shows them. And they're
amazed at all of this thing. And so the concept, man, well
this just goes on and on and on. No, no. Dear brethren, we
live in a finite existence. There's nothing eternal about
anybody in here. Not at all. The only way that
any man will ever have eternal, an eternal existence is to be
given one in Jesus Christ who grants eternal life. Now, men
don't want to hear that because, see, it's a common concept that
men believe that they'll just live on somewhere forever. You
know, everybody's better off when they die. Well, not so according
to what Scripture says. You see, eternal life is a gift,
the gift of God. Man can't boast in it, he can't
gain it by some power that he has, but the grace of God is
pleased to give eternal life to as many as believe in his
name. That's what the scripture says.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. That's a glorious thing. Now,
how will a man believe? Can you talk him into it? See,
if you can talk a man into believing, then somebody else can come along
that's smarter than you and talk him out of it. But when God Almighty
is pleased to give a man the gift of faith, all hell cannot
turn that man aside. And he believes. And He has eternal life. He has
been given eternal life. All who believe. Because you
see, men don't believe by their own free will. They believe because
of the grace of God. According to the mercy of God. The gift of God. And so, This little thing that always
amazes me when I read about the waters that be above the heavens,
and I think of the vast knowledge that men think they have that's
really just like a thimble. What do we know? I mean, you
know, when the smartest man on earth dies, what happens to the
earth? Keeps right on going. just like somebody was never
even here. It doesn't even make any difference as far as men
are concerned. That's why Solomon said, Scripture
says, as the wisest man on earth, at least at that time, he said,
vanity of vanity is all is vanity. It's passing away, dear brethren.
We live our lives as a tale that is told, is what the psalmist
says. Our life is as a vapor. And apart from the grace of God,
that's all it will be. And so it is that the knowledge
of man is so limited, and I'm sure that there's plenty of great
philosophers and scientists who can tell us how impossible it
would be for there to be waters above the heavens. But I believe
there is because that's what the scripture says. Now how it
is, I don't have any idea. I can't draw you a picture of
it. I can't tell you how far it is. I can tell you you can't
ever get there. I can tell you that. But that's
what the scripture says. He hath also established them
forever. What? He established whatever
he desired to be established forever. Now keep in mind that
God is not surrounded by his creation. You know how when a man, he gathers
around all his children around him, and he says, look, here are my
children. Well, the Lord's not surrounded by his creation. No,
He surrounds His creation. See, underneath are the everlasting
arms, as Brother Al pointed out a moment ago. That's the place. You see, the Lord is surrounding
His creation. And the waters that be above
the heavens are surrounded by the Almighty God who made them. He hath established them forever.
He hath made a decree which shall not pass. Now, we hear a lot,
do we not, about global warming? That's the thing that's supposed
to cause everybody to just be in panic mode. Oh, my goodness
alive. Well, let me tell you something.
Now, I'm not up here trying to say that men should be irresponsible
with the things God has given them. No, we're to be wise stewards
of all that we have. But I can tell you this, the
sea will not rise one centimeter in height apart from the eternal
and everlasting decree of Almighty God to cause it to do so. And
not one thing that men are going to ever do is going to keep that
from occurring if the Lord is pleased to do it. You know, you
can do whatever you want to do, but it's not going to change
that because the scripture says the Lord has set the bounds of
them that they cannot pass now I don't know what that bound
is yet the sea might rise and swallow up New York oh my goodness
what a terrible thing that would be just think if California got
covered up with water or Florida for that matter I mean how terrible
would that be? and it may occur I don't know
But I know this, it won't occur apart from the predestined purpose
of Almighty God. Now that, when you get talking
about stuff like that, people start saying, well wait a minute
now, we didn't sign up for this. We don't believe that foolishness.
No. You know, men don't believe the
Word of God by nature. It's foolishness to them. The
Grace Gazette this week is on the absurdity of God. That's
the title. Now, is God absurd? No, God's
not absurd. But that's how men think. See,
the Scripture speaks of the foolishness of God. Well, does God have foolishness?
No. But men look at the things of
God and they think it's foolishness. But they can't change it. Can't
do anything about it. I'm glad they can't. I mean,
you know, if men could change the decree of God, which one
would you change? I mean, what would you want to
be different? Praise the Lord from the earth,
ye dragons, and all deeps. Are there such things as dragons?
Yeah, such things as dragons. They're not what men think of
as dragons, but there's dragons, whatever the psalmist was speaking
of here, some creature that might be known as a dragon. I guess
there's some place where they have those things they call Komodo
dragons, I guess. So dragons, all deeps, even those
dragons, they must praise the Lord. Fire and hail. Rain falls on the just and the
unjust. So does the hail, does it not?
Tears things up. What good does hail do? I don't
know. I'm not sure what a lot of things
do. I know this, that whatever they
do, they do because God ordained it to be so. And he causes all
things to work together for good to them who love God, who are
the called according to his purpose. Now you know in a lot of these
new Bible translations, they take that one word out, the. Now that's important. It doesn't
say that God calls all things to work together for good to
those who are called according to God's purpose. Now that doesn't,
if you understand the truth, that doesn't change it per se. But for a person seeking to know
what the calling of God is, it does change it. Because the called
are a particular people whom the Lord has chosen in Christ. according to the good pleasure
of his will. Now, there again, a lot of people don't like that.
You won't hear that preached on much in the world. I mean,
people that's preaching for donations, surely not gonna go and preach
it, are they? Because who's gonna donate to
somebody preaching something like that? You know, the great radio ministries, Send your cards and letters, and we'll tell you what you want
to hear. Fire and hail, snow and vapors,
stormy wind fulfilling his word. Mountains and all hills, fruitful
trees and all cedars, beasts, all cattle, creeping things and
flying fowl. Kings of the earth and all people,
princes and all judges of the earth. Should the President of the United
States praise the Lord? He should. Doesn't matter if
he's a Republican or a Democrat. Scripture says he ought to praise
the Lord. Why does a man get into public office? Because the
Lord put him there. Have we ever had a president
that everybody liked? No, there's always going to be
somebody that doesn't like what he does, isn't it? But you know
one thing that can't be changed is that God is pleased to put
the man there. He raises up kings according
to his good will and purpose. He turns the card of the king
whether or so ever he will. And what can men say? But one
thing is certain And that is that the Lord puts over men,
according to what the scripture says, the basest of men. See, everybody's trying to put
them, to elect somebody that's a good guy. We want the good
guy. Well, look, there is no good
guys. We can say this of assurity,
they're all crooks. Now, some of them are more crooks
than others. And a man might be a good leader
even though he's a crook. Being a crook doesn't make him
a good leader, but being a politician does in many cases make him to
be a crook. You know, it's just the way that
it is. But we shouldn't be surprised at that. And we shouldn't be
thinking, oh, well, if we could just get old so-and-so in here,
everything would straighten out. No. there will be just as many
problems regardless of who gets elected, they'll just be different.
Because God has not ordained that men should trust in the
arm of the flesh, most especially his people. You know, I get real
concerned when people that supposedly claim to be believers get all
toked up and worried about the thing being that this particular
leader, we gotta have him in there. because he's going to
solve our problem. No, he's not going to solve our
problems. Jesus Christ alone can solve our problems. And the
problems of the world will be here when we're dead and gone,
but the glory of Christ will be forever. Princes, judges of the earth,
both young men and maidens, old men and children, How young or how old does a person
have to be to praise the Lord? You know, I used to think when
I was a kid that I'd look around and see the old people, what
I thought was old, most of them probably younger than I am now,
but I used to look at all them old people and I would think,
you know, they're really just praising the Lord. Because I
used to think, you know, that old people praised the Lord.
But now when I got to be old, I realized that apart from the
grace of God, man won't praise the Lord. He'll go down to his
grave cursing God, apart from the grace of God. He won't have
any consideration of the things of God. In fact, he'll grow even
more hard in his ways. I've talked to some men. aged
men, men with what we might say one foot in the grave. And they
had no more regard for, you know, the passing of their life than
anything. They just figured, you know,
that would be it. But the scripture says it's appointed unto men
once to die, and after this, the judgment. Now again, that's an inconvenient
truth, but it's nonetheless true. And so it is, young men, maidens,
old men, children. Children ought to praise the
Lord. Children ought to be taught to praise the Lord. Do they always
like to do that? I always tell people I had a
drug problem when I was a kid. And they say, well, what do you
mean? I say, well, my mama drug me to church every time the door
was open. And I didn't always want to go.
In fact, most time when I was there, I was looking out the
window and I couldn't wait till I could get out. But thanks be
unto God that I had a mother that taught
me that I ought to praise God. And so you can teach your children
to praise the Lord. They might not like it. They
might never like it. They might turn out to be the
biggest rebel on earth. But all men, young and old, children
and old men, ought to praise the Lord. Let them praise the
name of the Lord, for His name alone is excellent. His name alone is excellent.
alone. The scripture says that he dwells
in the light to which no man can approach. Now most people
think of God, do they not, as this old gentleman with a long
beard and he's sitting up here on the throne and he's got his
cane there and he's just waiting for people to come up to him
and talk to him. He's kind of lonesome. and he
wants people to do stuff, and he can't get people to do what
he wants them to do. Now that's kind of how people think of how
God is. But our God's in the heavens.
He's done whatsoever He has pleased. He's inapproachable. He dwells
in a light to which no man can approach. He only hath immortality. You see, the immortality of God
is that which separates between God and men. The holiness of
God is His immortality. The only reason that we have
life is because He gives it to us. He is the purveyor of life. He is life. The life is in Christ. Our life is in Christ. Oh, that
people ought to praise the Lord, for His name alone is excellent.
His glory is above the earth and the heaven, higher than the
heavens, the most glorious sight that men have ever seen. The
glory of God exceeds it. He also exalteth the horn of
His people. Now what is the horn of the Lord's
people? What is that? Have you got a
horn? The horn in the scripture is
a symbol of authority. In fact, if you look over here,
we just read about that not too long ago, I believe it was in
Psalm 132. He said, when the Lord was speaking
about Zion, He said, for the Lord hath chosen Zion, He hath
desired it for His habitation. This is my rest forever. Here
will I dwell. See, the Lord inhabits this eternity
and He dwells with the broken and the contrite of heart. What
a glorious thing. I will abundantly bless her provision.
I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will clothe also her
priest with salvation and her saints shall shout aloud for
joy. See, the people of God rejoice
in Him. They can't help it. Now, I'm
talking about, some people think if you can get people stirred
up in a bunch of foolishness, that that's somehow rejoicing
in the Lord. I'm talking about joy in the
God of our salvation, rejoicing in Christ Jesus who paid our
sin debt. That's the joy that we have,
that's the joy of the Lord that he gives to his people. But here's
what he says, there will I make the horn of David to bud. I have ordained a lamp for mine
anointing." So who is the horn of the Lord's people? He's the
one who has the authority. He's the one who John saw, who
came forth, and there was a book that was there, and it was sealed,
the scripture says. And it was written within and
without and on the back side. There wasn't anything else that
could be added to it. But it couldn't be opened. No
man or creature could come there and open that book, but He said
one prevailed to open that book. And He said it's the Lion of
the tribe of Judah, the Lord of glory. He has prevailed to
open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. Christ is
the one who has come forth to set forth the purpose of God
in the earth to redeem His people out of the earth, to give them
eternal life. and they shall never perish.
Now he said, he exalteth the horn of his people. See, Christ
is the one that's exalted. See, a lot of people think that
we need to preach in order to get men saved. Isn't that what
we hear? Oh, we need to get out your money,
come send us your money so we can go over here and we can preach
and men will get saved because we're preaching. No, dear brethren, We don't preach
to get men saved. Now by the glory and grace, according
to the glory and grace of God, He is pleased to save men through
the foolishness of preaching. But we don't preach in order
to save men. We preach in order to bring glory
to the name of Him who is the Savior of sinners. See, we want
to magnify Him. Now you won't find anywhere in
the Scripture where anybody preached in any other fashion. When Peter
stood on the day of Pentecost, what did he say? He didn't say,
we want you all to walk down the aisle at the close of the
meeting here. No, he declared the glory of Christ and the Spirit
of God moved upon men and they cried out, men and brethren,
what shall we do? See, that's what the preaching
of the gospel is, what it's for. To exalt the horn of the people
of God, the horn of the people of God, Jesus Christ, the praise
of all His saints. He's the one in whom all of our
joy is found. The praise of all His saints,
even of the children of Israel, a people near unto Him. Well, why are they near to him?
Are they near to him because they do everything right? No, they're near to him because
they're his people. See, your children will make
you ashamed from time to time. I made my mom and daddy ashamed
from time to time. That's just the nature of people. But though my children might
make me ashamed from some time, they're still my children. They're
near unto me, you see. They might not desire to be near
me, but they're always near me because I hold them in my heart. And the people of God are near
and dear unto him, known unto the Lord are all his people from
the beginning. See, the Lord Jesus Christ, when
He prayed, He said, Father, I pray for those whom Thou hast given
Me out of the world. I pray not for the world, but
for those whom Thou hast given Me. Thine they were, and Thou
hast given them to Me, that I should lose none. Oh, what a glorious
thing! The Lord Jesus said, All that
the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and him that cometh to
Me I will in no wise cast out. See, never has there ever been
a man who sought the mercy of God in Jesus Christ who was ever
turned away. Because that's the evidence when
a man is seeking Christ with his whole heart, when his heart's
broken for his sin and he sees Christ as the Savior and he's
crying out to Him for mercy, he's giving evidence of the fact
that the Lord holds him near. Because how else would he do
so? See, men don't by nature seek the Lord. There's none righteous,
no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God, the scripture says. Not any. A people near unto him praise
ye the Lord. May his name be praised forever
and ever. He's worthy.