Psalm 111 begins with a phrase
that we find in many of the Psalms, and one which it is the duty
of all creation to perform. Yet it is that which no man can
perform except the Lord give him the ability to do so. Because a man can't do something
doesn't mitigate the fact that he must do something. You know,
a lot of people think that if a man is in a position of not
being able to do something, that you can't require him to do something.
But the Lord requires men to do things that they can't do. And who can bring a railing accusation
against him who decreed these things? And so it is. that the scripture says here
in Psalm 111, praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my
whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great,
sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is
honorable and glorious and his righteousness endureth forever. He hath made his wonderful works
to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. He hath given meat unto them
that fear him. He will ever be mindful of his
covenant. He hath showed his people the
power of his works that he may give them the heritage of the
heathen. The works of His hands are verity
and judgment and all His commandments are sure. They stand fast forever
and ever and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption
unto His people. He hath commanded His covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. A good understanding have all
they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. Now there
are many ways that men think of that term. Some think of it
as just a kind of a catchphrase. Well, praise the Lord. You often
hear people just say that without really any due consideration
of the Lord and His glory. And so in doing so, what is actually
something men ought to do becomes an exercise in vanity. It becomes
an exercise in taking the Lord's name in vain. Praise ye the Lord,
if you just say it in some kind of offhanded way, without due
consideration of who it is, that the Lord is. When David, as we
assume David wrote this psalm, when he wrote this psalm, his
mind was not just in just reiterating some phrase that men sometimes
say, but he was caught up in the beauty and the glory of praising
the name of God. What a privilege is given to
men to be able to praise the Lord. What a glorious thing. I believe all of the creation
of God praises the Lord. The trees of the field shall
clap their hands. I believe when wolves howl in
the middle of the night at the moon, unbeknownst to them, they're
praising God. I remember reading a little book
that John Bunyan had written for children, and one of the
illustrations that he gave in there was he said each time that
a chicken drinks water, that he lifts up his eyes to heaven
and gives thanks. Now I don't know if you've ever,
of course I grew up on a farm, and in fact we've raised chickens
by the thousands of them. And when chickens drink, they
have to hold their head up like that to let the water run down
their throat, otherwise they can't swallow. You know, little things like
that that you see in creation that God designed, and if he
enables us to see the glories of his creation and the things
that he has done that would bring glory to his name, things that
he's designed. Praise ye the Lord. I will praise
the Lord with my whole heart. in the assembly of the upright,
that is, among the saints. Who are the upright? Are they
upright because they're great moral examples and upstanding
citizens in the community? No, he's speaking of the assembly
of the saints. He's speaking of those who are
made upright. Job was an upright man, but he
was made upright by the Lord. Just like Noah was a preacher
of righteousness. Now why was Noah a preacher of
righteousness? Because the Lord chose Noah out
of all the people on earth. Just like He chose Abraham out
of all the people on the earth. When Abraham was not, we don't
have any record or knowledge that Abraham had any knowledge
of God or was seeking God in any way. But the Lord called
Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, and He brought him out according
to the good pleasure of His will. And so it is that the people
of the Lord are made upright by the work of God, and they
are called and considered to be righteous. Now, the saints
are righteous, and as Brother Al said, we are law keepers. We have kept the law perfectly. Now, some might say, well, wait
a minute, you've never done that. Well, I've never personally done
that, but I have one who has done that in my behalf, and I
am counted by the imputation of his righteousness to me as
one who has never broken the law of God. Now, that's a glorious
thing. You know, and only those who
are taught by the Lord can understand and know what it is to know themselves
to be sinners but yet know themselves to be righteous. See, that's
a glorious thing. I mean, a lot of people understand
the fact that they have sinned, that they are unrighteous. But
it's only by the grace of God as he enables a man to see what
Christ has performed in his behalf that he can have a peace and
joy in the understanding of Christ as his righteousness and that
he is made righteous in Christ. That's a glorious thing. See,
that's what the work of salvation is, is bringing God's people
out of darkness and into the light. and what a place that
is to stand. I will praise the Lord with my
whole heart in the assembly of the upright, that is, among the
saints of God, when I'm gathered together with them. I will praise
the Lord. But then he says something else,
and in the congregation, that is, in the greater expanse of
humanity, among all the people, not just in the assembly of the
upright, but among the congregation, that is, wherever I am. among
whoever I am there, I will praise the Lord. The scripture says,
let the redeemed of the Lord say so. May we praise the Lord. May we be a people that are known
as those who are, those who serve the Lord, who walk with the Lord,
who desire to be found in the ways of the Lord. The works of
the Lord are great. That's a glorious thing. The
works of the Lord are great. Now we live in a day and age,
and of course this has always been true among religious men,
it is a function of religion to
try to get men to do great and mighty works. That's always the
emphasis. You need to be doing this and
you need to be doing that. But the Word of God, and as we
understand the things that the Lord would have us to walk in,
is not to be caught up in the consideration
of what works we are going to perform, but rather to be resting
and glorying in the works that He has done. See, there's a big
difference in a man doing things and a man rejoicing in what the
Lord has done in his behalf. That really is the difference
between religion and faith. Faith and religion sometimes
go against one another. Some men have what they call
faith, of course, which is no faith at all. But all of us are
religious by nature. Men love religion. Men gravitate
towards it. Even irreligion is a religion. See, men want to have a place
that they can be. I mean, even the atheists, they
want to be known as atheists. I mean, they're not content just
to go on through life. They want you to know. Oh, I
don't believe that stuff. That's just the way that it is.
Men are religious by nature. And so it's not unusual to find
religious gatherings of people and whatnot, but it is unusual
to find men whose total concern is to magnify the works of the
Lord. to magnify Him. He is the one
who has performed mighty works. And so we will praise Him. The works of the Lord are great,
sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. See, we have
pleasure in the works of God. All that the Lord has done, we're
glad for. We're happy. Now, we don't always
like the things that we're going through, but we can look at these
things from afar sometimes and say, thank the Lord. I mean,
look at your life. There's not a person in here
that has not had great disappointments in their life, that have not
done things that have just, as they think of them, it causes
them to cringe, and they think, why did I do that? And all of
those things, but yet, when we look at the fact that the Lord,
has brought us down the path that He would have us to be for
our good. And not all things in our life
have been good in themselves, but they've all worked together
to bring us to that place where the Lord would have us. These
are the works of God, and we will praise Him. You know, I
don't understand some of the things that have happened. But I do know this, when I look
at all the things that the Lord intends to do and does do among
His people, it's a glorious thing because He is constantly working
in them to bring them to the place He would have them to be.
And that causes us to praise Him. The works of God are great. And of course, that can nowhere
be seen any more clearly than in that which the Lord Jesus
Christ performed in our behalf as the Savior of sinners. He
came into the world with a purpose in mind. He didn't try to do
something. He didn't attempt to do something,
but he accomplished exactly what he set out to do. And the works
of God are great. sought out of all them that have
pleasure therein. Even if it means our destruction,
as Job said. Now this is the thing that would
be probably of great puzzlement to the average person who seeks
the Lord because they want the benefit that God gives. Job said,
though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. I mean, you see, that's
a man who's cast himself on the mercy of God. If he should destroy
me, he'd be right. What could we say? I mean, Lord,
though you slay us, we'll yet worship thee. We'll praise the
works of God because they're sought out by those that have
pleasure therein. You can't cause a man to have
pleasure in the works of God. But when a man has been given
pleasure in the works of God, you can't take away the blessing
that that is to him either. His work is honorable and glorious,
and his righteousness endureth forever. You know, men often
think of things they can accuse God of. I mean, I've had men
say, well, if God would do something like that, I wouldn't Worship
him. I wouldn't serve him. I wouldn't
serve a God like that. Well, you know, that's a foolish
statement because David said our God's in the heavens. He
hath none whatsoever he is pleased. And so it doesn't make any difference
if you approve of it or you like it. I mean, that's what the ninth
chapter of Romans, Paul anticipated the mindset of men to accuse
God of unrighteousness. He said, well, you created Pharaoh
to do these things. I mean, if all men go along and
do the things you tell them, how can you bring judgment upon
them? What did he say? Nay, but O man,
who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say
to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Brethren,
you know, I'm not sufficient for these things. And I'll be
the first to confess to you that oftentimes I find many things
that just, it doesn't seem right to me, but I fall back on this. There is a way which seemeth
right to men. But what's the scripture say
about it? He said, but the end thereof
are the ways of death. Brethren, we're not to be content
with what things seem right to us. but fall on our faces and
recognize that the way of the Lord is right whether we like
it or not. Even if it cuts to the very depths
of what we despise. You know, whenever it may, some
loved one may be taken from our midst. Yet the Lord does good
in all things. His work is honorable and glorious
and His righteousness endureth forever. In fact, that's really
the basis upon which our hope is built, is it not? That Jesus'
blood and righteousness is that which endures forever. Because
He is our great high priest. And without His righteousness,
we're done for. But it does endure forever. He hath made His wonderful works
to be remembered. Why'd the Lord create the world?
Now, you know, there's all kinds of theories even among people
who believe God created the world as to why the Lord created the
world. I'm not gonna go into all of
them, but I'm gonna tell you what I believe the scripture
says the reason he created the world, for his glory. He created the world to demonstrate
to men the glory of his grace in the redemption of a people
which he chose in Christ from before the foundation of the
world. Now that is a glorious thing, dear brother. And it's
made more glorious when we understand the nature of man, and we understand
that there's nothing that compelled God to do anything. David said,
what is man? See, all of the great philosophers
and the great religious men of our day, they approach this business
with men as though from the standpoint of, well, you know, men are of
such great value. I mean, just like all these animals
in the world. You know, they tell us they're
all of such great value. I mean, if a snail is damaged
over here by some construction project, it's like we've got
to stop everything because this snail's been hurt, because these
snails are of such great value. No, this creation does not have
any value at all except that which God is pleased to give
it. And we have value and worth before Almighty God because He's
pleased to give it to us and make us worthy in His sight,
not because we're worthy of ourself. You know, our Constitution says
that we're endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights, and
I wouldn't get into an argument about that, but we don't actually,
and Brother Al said it this morning, we don't really have any rights.
We have privileges, and the Lord has given us certain privileges
as human beings, but we don't have any right to it. We can't
lay any claim to it because all of the creation is His. His wonderful
works, he made his wonderful works to be remembered. May we
praise that through the ages to come, he might be glorified
for that which he has done in our behalf. The Lord is gracious
and full of compassion. That can never be illustrated
more clearly than at Mount Calvary. Full of compassion. They hung
on the cross. And He said, Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do. He hath given meat unto them
that fear Him. he will ever be mindful of his
covenant. The Lord provides for his own,
even as he provides for all of creation, but yet he specifically
provides for those whom he loves, because they belong to him. He
has given meat unto them that fear him. He will ever be mindful
of his covenant. Now the fear of the Lord, as
in the end of this Psalm says, the fear of the Lord's beginning
of wisdom, In the Proverbs we read that the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge. How can a man have any comprehension
of God in a right fashion if he does not fear Him? See, I
mean, that's the first place that a man's brought. That's
the first place when Moses was brought to that burning bush. Fear came on him. Because the
Lord spoke to him from that bush. When John saw the Lord in the
book of the Revelation, he said, I fell at his feet as a dead
man. When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, he was humbled. When Daniel saw him, he said,
my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I fell down
before him as dead. He hath given meat to them that
fear Him. He will ever be mindful of His covenant. Now, some people
view a covenant as something that you can hold the Lord. It's
like I've heard men say, you can hold His feet to the fire.
You can't hold the Lord's feet to the fire. I mean, that's a
ridiculous concept. And the covenant that He makes
has nothing to do with some power that man has over God. because
the covenant was made with Abraham and his seed, not as of many,
but as of one. The covenant which the father
has made is made with the son and with his posterity, those
given that he gave to his son. That's a glorious thing. If you
pause and you consider that the covenant, now there are many
covenants spoken of in the scripture. There's indeed the covenant of
law that Brother Al was speaking about here that was made with
the house of Israel. But what does the scripture say?
Which covenant they did not keep. See, any covenant that God has
made with man that depends on man to do something is not of
any value in the long run. It wasn't meant to be. Because
when the Lord made this covenant, he wasn't surprised when the
nation of Israel didn't keep the commandments. He said, Brother
Al, I think pointed this out. He said, you're going to do this. Just like he said to Adam in
the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. He didn't
say, if you do, now I'm putting you on probation here, and if
you do this, this is going to happen. He said, when you do
it, this is going to happen. Because you see, the law is given
to teach men what they are by nature. I mean, when you look
at the law, it doesn't encourage you, or if it does, you're looking
at it wrongly. When you look at the law, it
causes you to say, Lord, help me. Lord, this is greater than
I can bear. I mean, if we're going to approach
the Lord in the covenant of law, we're done for already. It's
like that song we sang. Yeah, we sang it this morning,
didn't we, about Sinai, when I turned to Sinai. But Sinai said, there's a mountain,
no hiding place. There's nothing here for you.
You can't find any rest there. But he will ever be mindful of
his covenant, and his covenant is that he will redeem his people. What a glorious thing. I'm glad
that he is mindful of his covenant. He will not lose one whom the
Father has given him. He has showed his people the
power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the
heathen. I believe this has reference
primarily, or specifically, to the fact that when he brought
the nation of Israel out of Egypt and brought them into the Promised
Land, he gave them the inheritance of the heathen. In other words,
all these men, these heathen nations, they had labored for
hundreds of years, and they had planted these vineyards and these
olive groves, and they had this place. It was a land flowing
with milk and honey, and they had worked at this, and they
had labored, and they were thinking, you know, well, we're going to
pass this on to our children. But you see, the Lord, He designed
them to be His servants. to perform these tasks, to plant
these vineyards and do all of these things, not for their inheritance,
but for the inheritance of his people. And he gave his heritage,
the inheritance of the heathen. Even in the same fashion as when
you read in the second Psalm, and the Lord, he said, ask of
me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. He has. Because you see, the Lord has
a people out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue in the earth.
There are no doubt, even as we speak, people growing up under
heathenish religions and people whose heritage is completely
contrary to what we know and understand to be the truth, whom
the Lord has ordained to be brought to a place of understanding of
these things that Christ has done. He'll call His people.
That's what Peter, when he stood on the day of Pentecost and he
said, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. the Lord
will call His people to Himself. And some people say, oh, well,
we need to get busy and go and send a bunch of folks over there
so we can tell them about it. Well, listen, the Lord will send
His people to tell them. I mean, if you don't believe
that, I mean, here you've got an Ethiopian eunuch riding in
a chariot headed back to Ethiopia And he's riding along there in
his chair reading. And who's going to help him? He's wondering in his mind, well,
what does this mean? See, the quickening power of
the Spirit of God awakened him to have a desire to know about
these things, but he couldn't quite get it. What happened? The Lord sent
Philip right down there. Now Phillip, when he woke up
that morning, he wasn't saying, you know, I think I need to go
down here and see if I can find, I'm going to have me a chariot
ministry. And any chariots that come by,
I'm going to stop them and I'm going to You know, give them
a tract. Well, I'm not against giving
somebody a tract, but the point is the Lord calls these two things
to come together. A man seeking the Lord and a
man with a message from God. And if he did that to the Ethiopian
eunuch, he'll do that to every one of his children that he loves
with an everlasting love. And he'll not lose one of them,
because his works are great and mighty in the earth. The works
of his hand are verity and judgment. All his commandments are sure.
The law is unassailable. You know, who could overturn
the law? The Lord Jesus Christ said, I didn't come to overturn
the law. He said, I came to fulfill the law. Which he did, because
he kept the law in every jot and tittle. Every little, minor
thing. He did, completely. They stand
fast forever, the Lord's, the law. What is it? You know, when
I was growing up, I was taught that the Lord Jesus Christ paid
for all sin, but there's only one sin left, and that's the
sin of unbelief. And every man is up to them to
believe, and if they don't believe, they're going to die for unbelief,
not because of their sin. Well, that's not true. The Lord
judges sin. When men are cast into the lake
of fire, It's going to be because they have sinned. They have disregarded
the commandments of God. Because they didn't have consideration
of these things. Because some of them have not
heard the truth of God. But because they haven't heard
the truth of God spoken in as we would speak it today, doesn't
mean that they have not sinned against God in their heart. You
see, the sin of men is not unbelief. I mean, that's not the totality
of the sin of men. That is a sinful thing if a man
doesn't believe. I mean, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. If you disregard that, most certainly
you've disregarded the Word of God, the commandments of God. But that's not the sin, the only
sin that you have. You have sin from the beginning. Wickedness is bound in the heart
of a child. They go astray as soon as they're
born, speaking lies. Anybody that's ever had children
knows it's true. Grandchildren, that's a different
thing. But the Lord is pleased to bring
his people to the place where he wants them to be, to show
them what he would have them to know, and to know that the
Word of God stands fast. and that his law cannot be overturned. You can't go to the law of God
and say, well, we can leave this part out. No, you can't leave
it out. Now, I believe this, a lot of
times people don't understand the application and the reason
for why these laws were given. And there can be a misunderstanding
of those things, but I mean, when the Lord said something,
it means what it means. He sent redemption unto his people. He hath commanded his covenant
forever because his covenant is covenant of redemption, is
it not? Forever holy and reverend is his name. Now here's a little
pet peeve of mine. Now anybody can read this. It says holy and reverend is
his name. It says holy and reverend is
his name. It means revered. It means holy,
set apart. Now why on earth would anybody
ever refer to a man in this world, a sinful man, by the title of
reverend? Now, some people say, oh, well,
you're nitpicking. People don't mean that. Well,
I don't care what they mean. I'm saying what the scripture
says, holy and reverend is his name. Don't call somebody reverend. I mean, that's the thing. It irritates me more than anything.
And I've had people sometimes, from time to time, my name somehow,
for whatever reason, be put in the paper, and they would put
that. And I call the newspaper up and say, don't put that in
front of my name. And at a funeral home, they always
want to do that. And I have to tell them, don't
put that in there. Because I don't want my, brethren, his name is
to be revered. There's not the name, no man's
name's to be revered. It don't make a difference who
it is. Now we think of men of earthly accomplishments that
they've done, but brethren, no man is to be revered. Because
he, God alone, is worthy of that praise. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all
they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever. Fear of the Lord's beginning
of wisdom. And only the Lord can give a
man wisdom. Solomon was a man, the scripture
says, was wiser than all the other men of the earth, at least
at the time. But I believe, unfortunately,
the wisdom of Solomon was primarily in natural things. Now he had
some spiritual wisdom and understanding and hopefully he had, the Lord
gave him repentance before he came to his end. I don't know,
you know, about Solomon because he did turn aside. Scripture
says he turned aside and then he worshiped other gods and did
those things which shows the faultiness of the wisdom of men. Now Solomon's the wisest of all
men And yet he turned aside and worshiped other gods. I mean, how much wisdom did he
really have? I'm talking about true wisdom.
Because you see, the scripture says the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom. In other words, a man cannot
be a wise man who is not in fear of God. Our God is a consuming
fire. We do trouble before him. A good
understanding have all they that do his commandments, his praise
endureth forever. Oh, that the Lord might give
us a heart to keep his law, to walk in his ways, in his precepts.
What are his precepts? The Pharisees asked him. He said,
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with
all thy soul, with all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy neighbors
thyself. Now if a man has done these things, he has kept the
whole law, according to what the scripture says. Now, if he
has offended in one point of that, if you have not loved the
Lord with all your heart, and you have not loved your neighbor
as yourself, then guess what? You've offended in the whole
thing too. And so we know that in ourselves, we have no hope. in our keeping of the law. But our hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. We dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. His praise endureth forever. There's one name that's gonna
be praised throughout eternity. It's that name which is above
every name. It's that name which is given
among men, the only name given among men under heaven, whereby
we must be saved, the name of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a glorious
Savior He is. And He saves all that come to
Him.