Let's look at Psalm 33. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous,
for praise is comely for the upright. Praise the Lord with
heart. Sing unto Him with the psaltery
and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto Him a new song. Play
skillfully with a loud noise. For the word of the Lord is right,
and all His works are done in truth. He loveth righteousness
and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness
of the Lord. By the word of the Lord were
the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of
His mouth. He gathereth the waters of the
sea together as an heap. He layeth up the dead in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of Him. For he spake, and it was done.
He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord bringeth the counsel
of the heathen to naught. He maketh the devices of the
people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is
the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen
for his own inheritance. The Lord looketh from heaven,
he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation
he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their
hearts alike, he considereth all their works. There is no
king saved by the multitude of hosts. A mighty man is not delivered
by much strength. A horse is a vain thing for safety. Neither shall he deliver any
by his great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy,
to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord.
He is our help and our shield. For our hearts shall rejoice
in him because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Thy mercy,
O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in Thee. Now, of course, this psalm begins
with a glorious word, Rejoice in the Lord. And that's the place
really that the Lord has called His people to be. Rejoice in
the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. We have much to rejoice in. The
purpose of the preaching of the gospel is to cause God's people
to rejoice. Now, we're instructed by the
gospel. And one of the things that the
Scripture says is that when the Spirit of God is come, that He
will glorify Christ. But the Spirit is sent into the
world to convince men of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
And a man can only truly rejoice in
the Lord when he has first been convinced of the situation that
he's in. Now, a lot of people get caught
up in what they call rejoicing in the Lord because it's enjoyable. See, now rejoicing in the Lord
is enjoyable. But the reason that we rejoice
in the Lord is not so we can do something that's enjoyable.
I mean, you can do a lot of things that's enjoyable. You know, I
mean, you can have enjoyment going fishing, or you can have
enjoyment racing, or you can have enjoyment doing all sorts
of different things, hobbies and what not. You can enjoy those
things. That's not the reason that we
rejoice in the Lord. The rejoicing in the Lord that
is speaking of here is that which is done in light of what we know
ourselves to be by nature. Like we sang that song a moment
ago, and it reminds us what we really are. Now I think one of
the things that's missing from most preaching today, and I don't
mean to say these things to be critical, but I'm just an observer,
and what I see is wrong with most preaching today is that
it does not call men to remember what they are. By nature, it
kind of short-circuits it. It kind of wants to move past
that. It's kind of like, oh yeah, we know we're sinners, but...
You know, how much time should we spend on thinking about ourselves
as sinners? Not any more than we have to.
But you see, I believe this is a true thing. When the Spirit
of God comes upon a man, he'll have to think about it. He won't
be able to escape it. He'll know Himself to be a sinner.
It's not about, you know, me trying to get you to lament your
sin. The people of God hate their
sin. I mean, that's what the whole
seventh chapter of Romans is about. Paul said, you know, look,
I know what the truth is. I know what the way to go is. But what I find is that the thing
I want to do is the thing I don't do, and the thing that I want
to do I don't do. Or I didn't say that right, but
you know what I mean. You know what he said. He said,
I don't do the things I want to, and I do the things I don't
want to. Now why is that? That's because it's ten. But
you see, a wicked man, he wants to do wicked things, does he
not? I mean, apart from the grace
of God, all men will go their natural way. which is to go away
from God. See, men are not like in a neutral
position. They are going as hard as they
can in the other direction. And unless the Lord puts the
brakes on and snatches the motor out of the car, they will keep
on running right on down that same path. And so, when we talk
about rejoicing in the Lord, we must begin In our consideration,
there must be a consideration of the fact that we don't have
anything to rejoice in, in ourselves. There's not one good thing. There's
none good, no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. Now that's not really, I mean
a lot of people read that, but there's not a lot of people that
really believe that. You know, they say, oh well,
you know, there are some people that are seeking God. No, there
are people seeking religion. There are people seeking relief
from their troubles. There are all kinds of things
that people are seeking. And they may call it seeking
God. But the Scripture says there
is none, not one, that seeketh after God. The only way that
a man is caused to seek after God is for God to visit him and
transform his mind and heart. As he said to Nicodemus, except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He cannot do it. It is impossible. He can talk about it. You remember
in Pilgrim's Progress, talk with him. Man, he could talk about
anything. He could talk about doctrine.
He could tell you all kinds of stuff. I mean, he was up on it.
He knew it. Today we have multitudes of people. They can tell you all kinds of
things about the Bible. Sometimes people can put you
to shame with how little you know about it. And they know
so much about it. But dear brethren, it is not
about knowing about the Bible. I mean, I hope you do know about
the Bible. You ought to be ashamed of yourself if you don't. But
what we need to know is not what the Bible is going to do for
us. What we need is a work of the
Spirit of God to show us what the Bible is talking about. You
know a man can read and study this Bible his whole life and
never have a clue as to what the Bible is talking about. I
mean, if a man does not see Christ from beginning to end in this
book, he has missed what the book is about. This book is not
a rule book. This book is not a book to help
you have a successful and happy life. It is about the glory of
Jesus Christ from beginning to end. Only the Spirit of God can
teach a man that. A man can't learn that. You can't go to school and find
that out. You can't go to church and find
that out. It's only as the Lord is pleased
to awaken you. But I said all of that to say
this, but oh, when the Spirit of God has come to a man and
He has taught him what He is by nature, and He has shown him
what Christ has done, In His behalf, what then can he do? But rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord
always. And again, I say rejoice. Dear
brethren, every day needs to be a day of rejoicing. Not rejoicing
in what you did, because you probably did some things you
shouldn't have done. And I know you didn't do some things you
ought to have done. That's not even got anything
to do with it. See, our rejoicing is in Jesus Christ. Our rejoicing
is in what He has accomplished. Our rejoicing is in His grace
and in His mercy and in His kindness which has been revealed to us.
Now, I don't know what He's revealed to this man over here. I don't
know what He's revealed to that man over here. I don't know.
I can't know. I don't know what He's going
to reveal. I don't know what He's going to withhold. But dear
brethren, I do know What He has shown to me in the Word of God,
the clarity that Jesus Christ is worthy to be praised and that
is the ground of our rejoicing, is what He has shown us about
Jesus Christ. And rejoice in the Lord, O ye
righteous. How did they get to be righteous?
Only one way, to be in Christ. See, our rejoicing is in Christ. Now, a man can't be rejoicing
in Christ unless he's in Christ. And how did he get in Christ?
He didn't put himself there, did he? No. It's the grace of God that put
him there. To rejoice in Christ. Rejoice
in the Lord. O ye righteous, how are you made
righteous by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ? And why should
you praise Him? He says right here, for praise
is comely for the upright. That is, it is fitting. That's
what comely means. Now they used to use a word that
is kind of antiquated terminology, but that used to be a word that
would be used perhaps to describe a woman's beauty. She's very
comely in contrast to the other word which is homely. But she's
very comely, that is she's beautiful. That is, that which praise is
beautiful for the people of God. Why? It's fitting to them. It
fits them. That's what they are. It would
be an unusual thing. It would be a strange thing.
It would be an impossible thing for one not to rejoice in Christ,
if he is one of Christ. I mean, would you think it would
be odd if you could have had division? that Isaiah did, when he saw
those angels around the throne of God seeking, not stopping
day and night, ceasing not to say, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God
Almighty, would it not have been a strange sight for him to have
looked and seen one of them sitting on the sideline over there? See,
praise is comely. The worship of the Holy One is
comely. It is fitting for those who are
called to it. And Brethren, He's called the
people of God to rejoice in the Lord. Why would we not? How can we not if we consider
Him. Praise the Lord with harp. Sing
unto Him with psaltery in an instrument of ten strings. Sing
unto Him with a new song. Play skillfully with a loud noise.
He said, Use everything you have. Now we know that in the Old Testament
worship, It was a pretty orchestrated type of arrangement. They had
the singers, and they had the singing men, and they had the
choirs, and they had the instruments of praise that they used in these
things. This was a glorious thing. Now
some would try to use this passage
of Scripture here to say, Well, that means then that we ought
to use these things all the time. I mean, that you can't praise
the Lord unless you've got the psaltery and the harp. I think
that's to miss the point of what he's saying here. He said, use
those things because they've been given to you. And brethren,
indeed, we ought to use every available means at our disposal
to praise and honor and magnify the Lord. But it's not the thing,
is it? Now, on that note, you'll notice
that there is not any prescription in the New Testament for any
of these things, is there? There's no example that anybody
ever used these things in the New Testament. Now, does that
mean they're wrong? I don't believe it does at all.
But what it does show us is that the worship of God is a matter
of the heart. It's not about these things.
And whenever things, whatever they may be, become to us a crutch
or a dependence, a thing that we cannot do without, that's
when the error creeps in. And so I don't believe there's
any prohibition in the Scripture in the use of musical instruments. in the New Testament, although
they're not even mentioned in the New Testament. I don't believe
the worship of God in the New Testament would prohibit the
use of musical instruments. But it certainly doesn't depend
on them, does it? I mean, and some people would
get mad at you if you said otherwise. These things are just things,
and the Lord certainly has given people gifts to make music. And that's a glorious thing.
That is a gift. It's useful for the people of
God. Helpful. You know, it's helpful that somebody
can carry a tune. If you're going to sing, I mean,
singing has to have a tune. And we don't have to be opera
singers, but it is nice to have a tune And people can follow
along and have a tune. And sometimes I think that's
a good thing if it's, you know, it can be accompanied with music,
musical instruments. But it doesn't have to be because
I believe that the harp, the Lord's given every one of His
people a harp. You can play a harp. I believe
when you look in the Scripture, if you really study the word
harp in the Scripture, and especially as it is used in the book of
the Revelation, I believe the case can be made that the harp
that is spoken of is the voice. See, the Lord has given everybody
a voice. Everybody can't play a musical
instrument. Now I can fray them around a little bit on a guitar,
but I wouldn't call myself a musician by any chance, stretch of imagination. I can't play that. Some people
can sit down at a piano and they can just go at it like they're
made. It's part of them, you know.
Where'd they get that bell? God gave it to them. What'd He
give it to them for? I believe He gave it to them
unto His glory. Whatever the gift that He gives unto a man,
it's done to the glory of God. And it ought to be used unto
the glory of God. Absolutely. But you see, God
gave all of us a voice, did He not? And even if we can't carry
a tune in a bucket, the Scripture says that we are to make melody
in our hearts unto the Lord. And so we do sing unto the Lord. We rejoice. Sing unto Him a new
song. He says, sing unto Him a new
song. Now, we have books that have
songs. These songs are not new, are
they? I mean, the Gatsby hymnal and the Lord's hymnal both contain
hymns, or they were both compiled in about the early part of the
1800s. One of them in 1820-something and the other one in 1830-something,
I believe. But the songs that are in them
are sometimes even a hundred years older than that. So these
aren't new songs, are they? In respect of somebody sitting
down to compose. Now does this mean then that
we ought to, every time we sing, that we're going to sit down
and write out a new song? Is that what he means? No, you
see, you can sing that song, one of those songs there that
was written 300 years ago, and it can be a new song. Because
what it means is, it is not stale to you. It is fresh. It is that which expresses the
joy of your heart unto the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song.
Oh, what a glorious thing when the Lord gives us a new song
in the sense of a song that blesses us that we never have heard before.
But you see, you can sing the songs in that book and they can
be as those which you never heard before. Because I've sang, there
have been plenty of times when we've sung songs that we've sung
many times, but yet the Lord made it new to me. It became
a blessing to my soul that perhaps it wasn't in times past. So we
ought to sing unto the Lord a new song. He said, play skillfully
with a loud noise. Now, it's interesting that it
says, play skillfully. Now, Brother Al, he was bringing
it out and exactly what he said was exactly
true concerning the giving of the sacrifices, or that these
sacrifices were to be the best. They were to be without blemish.
Now, it is human nature, is it not, to look at the best and
say, well, you know, I hate to I hate to really give the best. You know, like when somebody's
house, of course, you don't do this anymore because everybody's
got insurance and nobody really is ever buying much when their
house burns down. I'm speaking in general terms.
It's not the same. But years ago, if somebody's
house burned down, I mean, they was in trouble. I mean, they
didn't have insurance. clothes and what not. And you
know the tendency of what people do is when somebody needs something,
what they'll do is go through their closet and they'll get
all the old stuff that they don't wear. And they think, oh man,
you know, I've done something, I really gave these clothes to
the thing. Well, that's just human nature.
And not bad. I mean, I'd rather somebody give
me an old wool outcoat than no coat at all if I was needing
one. So I'm not criticizing that aspect,
but that's the way people think, is it not? We won't actually
give them the best. I mean, you wouldn't go and just
get the thing that you like the best in your closet that you
enjoy wearing, you wouldn't take that off of the hanger and go
give it to them, would you? I mean, that's just not the way
we think. And so with these offerings, the Lord knows how men think.
He made men. So He knows how men are. He said,
a ram, a bullet without spot, without
blemish, the very best. With that same thing thought
in mind, he says, here, play skillfully. Don't just do what
you're going to do haphazardly. Put some effort into it. I mean,
may it be the thing that is the best to you. You want to get
it perfect. You want your worship unto the
Lord to be perfect, not just, We'll do it this way or we'll
do it that way. But he said, play skillfully
and with a loud noise. Why did he say that? So that
it might be heard. What if everybody just whispered
when they sang? We wouldn't be singing, would
we? Singing is meant to be done with
a loud voice. Now, Linda gets mad at me a lot
of times because when she gets in the truck, if I'm listening
to the radio or something, I'll have it turned up where I can
hear it. And I know somebody outside the truck probably can
hear it too. But I won't be able to hear it. I mean, if I'm going
to listen to it, I won't be able to hear it. I hate going somewhere
and they've got this music playing, you know, real softly in the
background. And it might be something I'm wanting to listen to, but
I can't hardly hear it. I mean, you know, I want to hear
it if I'm going to have it. I mean, the Lord said, play skillfully
with a loud noise. He said, do it with exuberance. I mean, when you put the cymbals
together, put them together. Don't just tap them. I mean,
do it. So that's what the Lord says
about rejoicing in Him. You know, sometimes it's almost
like we're afraid that somebody might hear us. Well, that's the
whole point. You know, the whole point of praising God is praise
unto God, but it's to lift up the brethren. Brethren, the praise of the Lord is the
strength of God's people. And when God's people worship
Him in one accord, why do we come together? To encourage one
another. I mean, we could stay at home
and sing praises unto God. You can sing praises unto God
anywhere. But you have the opportunity
from time to time to come together with God's people, and that's
the time to lift up our voices together and praise Him, together
with our whole heart. For the Word of the Lord is right,
and all His works are done in truth." Now that's pretty self-explanatory. But yet, a man by nature, he
doesn't necessarily believe that because he questions some of
the things. that God does. Well, I don't
know, you know, that just doesn't seem right to me. I mean, why
would God do this? Those words ought not to ever
be in your vocabulary. It ought to be praise God that
He did do this. Now, it might not be something
that I really like. And I might make my complaint
before the Lord. But I should not. I am going to say I won't, but
I hope I don't. And you shouldn't. And you should
hope you don't. Is ever expressed any complaint
about anything God has done to anybody else. If you have a complaint,
make it unto the Lord. But we praise Him for what He's
done. The Word of the Lord is right.
Whatever He has spoken is truth. Whether I like it or whether
I don't, whatever God says is right. Now some people say God
will always do right. Well, God will always be right,
and He will always do right because He's God. But He doesn't have
to follow some pattern or standard. I've heard people say, well,
if God did that, He'd be in violation of this or that. How foolish
is such a line of reasoning? Brethren, you cannot find any
place in the Scripture or any place or ground to stand to question
anything that God would do or bring any kind of accusation
against Him. Who art thou, O man? that replies
against God. Now what can you say? Shall the thing formed say to
him that made it, why hast thou made me thus? I mean, who can
say? I mean, some people say, well,
you know, that's just not right for God to save some people and
not save others. Who are thou, man? You need to
just be thankful that He has shown you the truth, that He
has opened your eyes to see Christ as the Savior of sinners, because
multitudes will perish without that knowledge. All His works are done in truth.
That is, they are true. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Me. Now, the Grace Gazette this week
And on that note, I would encourage you to read the Grace Gazette. You know, I write the Grace Gazette
because the Lord gives it to me. I believe He gives it to
me. I don't know where it would come from otherwise because I
haven't got sense enough to write anything. But the subject of the Grace Gazette
this week is Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. Without controversy. Now, there
is no controversy when it comes to the truth of God. Now, you
know, people can argue about anything, can't they? But all
the controversy that exists, it just exists because of the
weakness of man's understanding. It doesn't exist because there
is some flaw in the truth of God. I mean, the truth is the
truth, and it will stand forever. The truth of God is without controversy. There's no argument against it. Now, men, you know, they say,
well, then of course as we go on in this psalm, I believe it's
going to touch on these things concerning creation. Men will
argue about Well, you don't ever need to enter into any kind of
an argument with anybody about whether or not God created the
world. If somebody goes and gets to
talking about that it evolved or whatever, let them go on.
Just testify to what you know to be the truth. Don't argue
with them. They can't see it. How do you see it? How do you
know that the Lord created the world? How do you know it? Because God in mercy has given
you faith to believe that that is true. By faith we understand
that the things which we see were created out of those things
which did not appear. That's the only way you know
it. You can't prove it to somebody. You can go build an ark, and
I'm not criticizing this. It's fine. But if the thought
process is that you're going to build this ark and you're
going to get all these people to come in here and everybody's
going to say, man, we believe God created the world. We believe
that God put Noah on this ark. Then you're barking up the wrong
tree. Now something like that, a man can go in there and he
can learn a lot of things and the children of God will be blessed
by it. Why? Because they believe it.
The man that doesn't believe it, it's just something to him.
I mean, it's whatever. God's truth, it stands. He loveth righteousness and judgment.
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, as far as we can
go today. But, you know, we are a blessed people. I mean, why
wouldn't we spend our lives rejoicing in the goodness of God? I mean, there's plenty of things to complain
about, but you know the only things you've got to complain
about is because you thought it ought to have been a different
way. I mean, if you break your leg, the only reason that you're
not praising God for breaking your leg is because you thought
you shouldn't have broke your leg. Isn't that the truth? I mean,
whatever happens to us that we don't like is because we didn't
think it should have happened to us. But brethren, when a man
learns that he is in the hand of God and whatever the Lord
does is right and good, and whether it causes me the deepest pain
or the highest of joys, we will rejoice in the Lord. It is He
that hath made us, and not we ourselves. Oh, that we might
be called to praise Him, most of all, for His grace and mercy
in revealing Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners, and showing
us that we are sinners of the highest order.