So comfort and turn if you would
to Psalm 95. Psalm 95. The name of the message
today is Rock of Our Salvation. Now the Christian life is a life
of great tribulation. Do you know that the only tribulation
we are ever faced is right here on this earth? Do you know that we go to the
land of no mores? When we pass away, we go to the
land of no mores. I was telling Zane I was going
to make a message on this. The land of no mores. No more
sorrow. No more sickness. No more pain. No more crying. No more tribulation. No more being without Christ
visually. He's with us all the time, isn't
He? But there we're going to see Him face to face. What a
day that'll be. What a time that'll be. And there'll
be no more sorrow forever. There'll be no more sickness
forever. There'll be no more weary bones
forever. No more colds and flus and The
things that ail us, no more beloved. We'll be rejoicing forever, seeing
the king face to face. All because of his great mercy
and his great grace. It's incredible. And the Christian
life, again, it's a life of battles. We battle with our sin, don't
we? We battle with our flesh. We have three enemies in this
world, the world, the flesh, and the devil, his believers. And the flesh is the worst. For me, anyways, it's the worst. And trials can come our way.
Some can be trials of the heart. Deep sorrow. Deep sorrow. Some can be trials of health,
where it just tries our bodies. My. Some can be just life-related.
Great trials, great mountains that we see. And we think, how? How am I ever going to overcome
this? You ever had that happen? Seen
an event in your life and you think, how am I going to get through this? Is this going to crush me? But you know, for the believer
in Christ, These things try us, but they never crush us. Now,
they might bring us low. They might bring us low, but
what do they do? They bring us low, so the only
place we have to look is Christ. He's our only solace. He's our
only hope. He's the only one we can turn
to. And thanks be to God, we have a wonderful, merciful Savior.
We have a Savior who's mighty in all the things that we go
through. I don't care how small it is or
how gigantic it is. He is mighty for us through it
all. And He's ordained these things
for us. You know why? That His power and His might
and His mercy and His glory might be manifested to you and I. My. And when we're down and we
have nothing and we're just weeping before the Lord. Oh, my. The balm of Gilead comes
to us. The love of God in Christ. And
he says, I'll never leave you. I'm with you forever. You're
one of my sheep. You're one of my sheep. And this is only for a season.
It's only for a season, beloved. My, you might come in here today. Are you troubled today? Beloved
God, have you come in here? Are you troubled? Are you? Are
you maybe troubled with something in your life or or trouble with
something within a family member? I'm sure all of us have something
going on in our lives. They give us some sorrow. Hmm. I have a friend of mine. Dear, dear friend. Raised his daughter in the Lord.
And because of political differences,
she went and talked to him for two years. In his heart, I get
on the phone with him and his heart is just broken, beloved. Just broken. My. But you know who his. His rock is. Is Christ. And Christ alone, so. You come
here with a weight on your shoulders. You have unsaved loved ones like
I do, too, and does that weigh upon you? You think about them
and pray that God would save them if it be as well. Maybe you come here with trouble
with a family member, or trouble with a friend, or maybe even
trouble at work. Trouble comes in a thousand different
faces, doesn't it? Well, I pray that we would leave
here today looking to Christ, rejoicing in what we have in
Christ, rejoicing in who He is. He's wondrous, beloved. He's
a wonderful, merciful Savior, and He can make, and I've experienced
this, and I know you've experienced this too, He can make the most
bitter trials sweet. Now, I'm a slow learner. That's why He has us keep going
through things, so we can just continuously go to Him, continuously
look to Him, and I'll tell you why. We are loved by Christ with
an everlasting love, an unchanging love, I'll tell you. It doesn't
change because of our circumstances. I remember when I was in religion,
I used to think God was mad at me. I used to think that God's
mad at me because I didn't do this or I didn't do that. Do
you know what I found out? When I found out in grace, it
just absolutely lifted my heart that God's not mad at me at all. that in Christ his wrath has
been appeased. And it's so for every single
one of us who are believers. Look at this in Psalm 95. Oh,
I pray this will be comfort. And I pray the Holy Spirit will
take these words of David and just comfort our souls. I know
I need comfort and I'm sure a lot of us do. And so let us look
to our God, who the scripture declares is the God of all comfort.
That's what Scripture declares about our God. Look at this,
we're just going to read the first three verses. Psalm 95.
O come let us sing unto Jehovah the Lord. Let us make a joyful
noise to the rock of our salvation. Now that statement is a fact.
Christ is the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For
the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. Again, the settings of the time
of the writing of the Bible, there's multiple gods. The Romans
have so many different gods. The Greeks have so many different
gods. All folks in that time, multiple gods, gods of groves,
gods of the water, just false gods. And here's David. He's worshiping the one true
God. And he says, Jehovah is a great God, the one God, the
true God, the living God. And he's a great king. Who's
he king over? Everything. Everything. Whether people believe
it or not. Let's look at verse one here.
We see that God's people sing unto the Lord. We sing unto the
Lord. Now this, I always marvel at
this because the scripture declares before the Lord saved us, before
we were born again, we were rebels. What a miracle that God takes
rebels and turns us into ones who praise
him now. turns us into ones who worship Him, turns us into ones
who now adore Him. And I'll tell you what, it's
not hard to get God's people to sing. And this isn't just
singing with your voice, this is singing in your heart. And I know we all have that who
are God's people. We may go through major trials,
but we have that little song in our heart, don't we? He's
so good. God is so good, he's so good
to me. Oh, he's so good, beloved, all
the time. All the time, he's so good to us. So come now, let
we who are the saints of God, let we who are the born-again
people of God, let us sing unto Jehovah. Well, what's Jehovah's
name mean? The self-existent one. The one
who has no beginning or end. The one who's loved us with an
everlasting love. The one who drew us with cords
of love. The one who sent his son to this
earth to save us from our sins by the shedding of his precious
blood, redeeming our eternal souls and obtaining eternal redemption
for us. The one who sent the Holy Spirit
to regenerate us and to give us an understanding of who he
is and of who his son is. And why His Son came? Because we're a bunch of sinners.
We need to be saved. What did He do? He obtained eternal
salvation for us. Where is He now? He's in glory,
seated at the right hand of the Father. Hallelujah. Christ died for sinners. He didn't come to heal those
who were whole. They already thought they were
good enough. Pharisees are, we don't need
him. We're not have this man rule over us. And I can't say
anything about that, because I was there at one point too.
And so were you. Not have this man rule over us.
I remember folks often say to me, and I am ashamed at what I did
before the Lord saved me. I am. But folks often say to
me, well, I got to live some life and enjoy
my life a little bit more and have some more fun. And my reply
to them is, I tried that. And it's only empty. The only true joy we have is
in Christ. The true joy comes from the Lord,
beloved, the Lord of glory. And he puts that in our heart.
Remember we saw in Galatians a few weeks ago, it's a work
of the spirit. Joy, love, peace. It's a work
of the Holy Spirit of God in us. We don't naturally, now we
can be joyful about circumstances and we can be joyful, but I'm
talking true joy. Joy knowing that all your sins
are forgiven, every single one of them. It just makes us want to shout.
It just makes us want to shout. Glory to God. So let us sing
unto the Messiah. Let us sing unto Jehovah, the
self-existent one. Let us sing praises unto the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness, our only righteousness
before God. Let us sing praises unto Him.
Oh my. And you know what the Lord does?
I've experienced this before. Proverbs says He turns our mourning
into dancing. Gives us joy. Even during times
of sorrow. How does that joy come about?
By looking to Him. By looking to Him. Brian, you
and I have talked about all the noise in the world. Oh, it's
so easy to get distracted. But when we look to Him, just
silence. All that stuff just fades away.
And we just look to Christ. Turn, if you would, to Psalm
30, verses 10 to 12. Our trials become sweet when
we think of our blessed Redeemer. And we find comfort and strength
in Christ, who is our great God. Both in times of weakness and
times of joy, times of sorrow, times when we're on the mountaintop.
Our joy is not from us, it's from Christ. Our peace is not
from anything we do, it's from Christ. The only reason we have
the peace that passes all understanding is because it comes from Christ.
Otherwise, we're a world of turmoil. Think about when the flash gets
the better of us, what happens? We're just like a tornado, aren't
we? Everything just starts spinning.
But when we look to Christ, as I said, Brian and I talked, it
just all gets... Remember what the Lord said about
them waves? Them waves, they were crashing.
That storm, that was a big storm. That was like a hurricane. It
was no little thunderstorm. when they were on the water there,
and the Lord came out and said, peace be still, and those apostles
said, what manner of man is this? Oh, he's God. And those, Tom,
you've probably been out, I remember as a kid going out sometimes
fishing early in the morning, and that water's like glass.
That's what happened. And that's what he does in our
lives too. You know, he stills the rebellious heart We have
such a rebellious heart by nature. And he comes in and says, peace,
be still. Oh my, what a great God. What
a mighty God is our Savior beloved. Look at this in Psalm 30 verses
10, 10 to 12. Oh, we find our strength, our
comfort in Christ. Look at this. Hear, O Lord, O
Jehovah, and have mercy upon me. Oh, he said, such mercy upon
me. Lord, be thou my helper. He's a helper that never goes
away. You ever had people helping you with a project or something?
I gotta go now. Lord, don't do that. He's ever
with us. All the time, beloved. All the
time. Look at this. Thou has turned
my mourning into dancing. Remember, David lost a child,
right? Thou hast turned my mourning
into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth
and girded me with what? Gladness. To the end, that my glory may
sing praise to thee and be not silent. Oh Lord, my God, I will give
thanks unto thee forever. And that's what we will do. We
give thanks unto him while we're here on this earth, don't we?
But you know, we're gonna give thanks to him forever. In glory,
we're gonna give him thanks for eternity. Oh, we'll be so grateful in heaven. When we really learn what sin
is all about, because I don't think we really totally understand
it, the sinfulness of sin right now. But oh, when we see our
Redeemer face to face, we see the marks on his hands and his
feet. Oh, what a great Redeemer is Jesus Christ, our Lord, beloved.
Come, beloved Saint of God. Tried and tested in this world,
let us sing unto our great Redeemer. Let us sing the great things
that He'd done for us. And our God's done wondrous things
for us. He saved us by His grace. He'd
given us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He honored
the law of God perfectly in our room and place. Magnified it. He died on Calvary's cross to
save us from our sins. Let the cares and whispers of
this world just fade away as we sing praises to our great
God and King. And let our hearts be carried
away with gladness. Jehovah is our King. Jehovah
is our Savior. Jehovah is our Redeemer. My,
my oh my. One day after a snowstorm we
had a few years back, I went outside to walk to church. The
church study and the birds. You ever hear them birds in the
morning? Oh my goodness. You know, I'm
not an early riser. One day I got up real early though
and I was walking to church. I think it was about 5.30 in
the morning. Couldn't sleep. And oh my goodness. They were just singing, these
birds. And especially in the spring
and the summer. You get up that early. And it's like a choir.
Who are they singing to? Spurgeon said, they're singing
unto the Lord. They're singing unto the Lord. Let us be like
the birds. Sing unto our King, beloved.
Sing praises unto our King. Now they don't toil, do they?
They don't do any work. We don't do any work for our
salvation, do we? He takes care of us. He feeds them. What's
he do? He takes care of us. He gives us everything we need.
Not everything we want, but everything we need. Oh, God's a good God. He's so good. He's so good. So
let us, let us sing in our hearts with gladness. Why? That Jehovah
is our God. That we know him. That he's revealed
himself to us. He hadn't revealed himself. There's
people we're going to see today, we're going to bump into all
week, who have no idea who the one true living God is. And here,
He's revealed Himself to you and I. All because it pleased
Him to do so. Because of His mercy and His
grace. And what's our prayer? Oh Lord, reveal Yourself to our
family members. Reveal Yourself to our friends.
Reveal Yourself to our co-workers. That's our prayer, isn't it?
Don't ever stop praying for them until they breathe their last
breath. Just keep lifting them up. Just keep lifting them up. My, let us sing praises unto
our great God. Well, why should we sing? Why
should we sing unto Jehovah? Because he's our salvation. Jehovah's our salvation. Christ
is God in the flesh, right? He's Jehovah the Son. He's our
salvation. He came to this earth, lived
on this earth for 33 years in perfect obedience to God's holy
law. And because of that, we have
a righteousness that we're clothed in a perfect righteousness before
God. And then he went to that cross,
beloved. He went to that cross willingly. And they nailed his hands to
that cross. They nailed his feet to that
cross, beloved, and blood fell. And he was pierced in the side. And he had already cried, it
is finished. What a great act of love. And he redeemed us with his precious
blood. gave his life for us, that we
might live, that we might praise him in glory, that we might praise
him here on earth, because if he hadn't have done that, and
if we weren't born again of the Holy Spirit of God, we wouldn't
be praising him right now. You see how much of a miracle
this is? It's absolutely incredible. Oh, may our hearts sing with
gladness. Our text continues there. Let's read it again. Let's read our text again there. In Psalm 95. Oh, come, let us
sing unto the Lord Jehovah. Let us make a joyful noise to
who? The rock of our salvation. Oh, let us make a joyful noise. But you know, you guys already
know, because before Dave came and led Songs for Us, I was leading
songs, and I can't carry a tune. But you know what? I was making
a joyful noise unto the Lord. Right? And you all had a lot
of grace with me. But isn't it true? When we sing,
we don't sing to impress anyone else, do we? We sing to give
a joyful noise unto the Lord. Just sing it out. You ever find
yourself at home and you're on your own and you start singing
to the Lord? Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? My oh my. We didn't do that before we were
saved, did we? See, that springs out of a redeemed
heart. That springs out of a grateful heart for what the Lord's done
for us. And that's how we should be when
we sing here, too. We're just singing from a grateful heart,
aren't we? Oh, Lord, save me. Jehovah's my king. Jehovah's
my rock. Jehovah's my salvation. Oh, my. And think of this, too.
When we say Jehovah's our salvation, He willingly came to die. He
was a willing lamb. Right? Silent. Silent. The sinner's substitute. Absolutely silent. My oh my. And then the cries on the cross.
My. So he's the rock of our salvation. He's our great God. Turn with
me, if you would, to Isaiah chapter 44. We're going to read a portion
on Isaiah chapter 44 here. My, oh my. Look at this. It talks about our great God
here. Isaiah chapter 44. Who is our God? He's the great,
mighty, true, one, living God. That's who He is. And He saved
our souls. Hallelujah! Right? That's a great word. Whenever
you see praise ye the Lord in the scripture, that's hallelujah
in the Hebrew. Oh my. Not going to let some
charismatic sing or steal a wonderful word. Wonderful word in scripture. Oh my. Look at this, Isaiah 44
verses 15 to 23. Then shall it be for a man to
burn, for he will take thereof and warm himself. Yea, he kindleth
it and breaketh bread. Yea, he maketh it a god and worshipeth.
He maketh it a graven image and falleth down thereunto. So man
will go, cut down a tree. Right? Cut down a tree. Put some of that tree away for
warmth. put some of that tree away for cooking, and they pick
what they think is the choicest thing and they take it to some
man to make an idol and bow down before it. What does that show
us? That shows us our utter depravity
in our natural state. Because the tree didn't change
any form, did it? Even after the idol worshipper
or idol maker worked on it, it's still just a chunk of wood, isn't
it? Oh, but supposedly now it's got
something special. See, and that was the times during
biblical times. That was the times when all this
was happening. Now look at it. He says, he burneth part thereof
in the fire, with part thereof he eateth flesh. So he uses part
of the wood to eat. Cooking his meal. He roasteth
roast and is satisfied. He's like, oh, that's a good
meal. That was a really good meal. Good steak. Yea, he warmeth
himself. Then he even uses it to keep
warm, keep his family warm. and say, aha, I am warm. I've
seen the fire. And the residue thereof, he maketh
a god. Look at that. That's how depraved we are in
our natural state. Now, it may not just be a god
of wood. It may be a god of stone or a pitcher. You ever see Wild
Bill Hickok, those pitchers of Christ with the long hair? Johnny
Bell calls it Wild Bill Hickok. That's not Christ. That's not
Christ at all. My, oh my. People bow down to
that stuff though. When I was young, there was crosses
in every room. And then my mom had a bunch of
statues on her, they're just idols on her dresser. They're
just idols, that's all they are. Just a bunch of idols made of
plaster. My, oh my. And then look at this. So he
uses part to cook his meal, uses part to warm his house, then
he picks the residue, he takes it to the idol maker, makes a
god out of it, and then what does he do? Look at this. He prays to it and says, deliver
me for thou art my god. It's a piece of wood. The molecules in the wood here
have not changed in the wood here or the wood here, have they? I remember being at Brother Neil's
place. I'll never forget this, Neil.
You said this. He said, see that birch tree there? It's always
been a birch tree. And all it does is produce birch
tree. And then he said, the seed of its own kind. But it's a tree,
right? It's never changed being a tree.
It's never become a flower. It's a tree. So that wood is still wood there,
it's still wood there, it's still wood, and then he's saying to
the wood, oh, deliver me wood. Because he's put some name on
it, it's still wood. Again, it shows our, and I'm
not saying that in a condescending way because I used to, I was,
you know what I was caught up into. And it's just idol worship. That's
all it is. But again, it shows our utter
depravity. Then look at verse 18. They have not known nor understood,
for He hath shut their eyes that they cannot see. That's our natural
state. We cannot see the true and living God. We are so depraved
that we think that a thing that we make out of wood or stone
can deliver us. and their hearts that they cannot
understand. So that's our natural state. And none considereth in his heart,
neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have
burned part of it in the fire. See, they don't even have the
understanding, right, to say, well, I burned part of this tree
in the fire. Also, I have break bread upon the coals thereof.
I have roasted flesh and eaten it. And shall I make the residue
thereof an abomination? That's what it is. It's an abomination
before God. And I'll tell you what, when
you realize that the things that you used to pray to and worship
is an abomination, your whole world just crumbles. That's what
happened to me. My whole world just, the foundation of lies,
as Brother Henry says, just absolutely fell into the ground. And then you get mad because
you were lied to and because you fell for it. My oh my. Shall I fall down to the stock
of a tree, he says? He feedeth on the ashes, a deceived
heart hath now turned him aside. See, the heart is desperately
wicked. Heart is desperately wicked. That he cannot deliver
his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? Now here
we go, verse 21. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel,
for thou art my servant. You were there once. But you're
my servant. You're my servant. Oh, this is
wonderful. This is wonderful. Isaiah 44,
21. I have formed thee. Thou art
my servant. Look at the possessive words
here, beloved. These are all possessive words. Oh, Israel,
thou shall not be forgotten of me. Now, who's the true Israel
of God? God's people, right? Look at
this. It just gets even better. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgressions. They're gone. Blotted out. And as a cloud thy sins. Return
unto me, for I have redeemed thee. I purchased you. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord,
that's Jehovah again, hath done it. Shout, ye lower parts of
the earth. Break forth into singing, ye
mountains. O forest and every tree therein, for the Lord hath
redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel. My, that's what he's done. Our God beloved is the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is the one true God who rules
over everything, over everything in heaven. And it pleases him
to reveal himself to sinners such as we. It pleases him to do that. He
didn't have to, did he? He could have left us groping
in the dark. what he says. Look again. Let's read those
possessive words again, just real quick. Verse 21. Remember
these, O Jacob and Israel, for thou art my servant. You're mine. That's what he says
to every one of his people. You're mine. You've always been
mine. You didn't know it, but you've
been mine from eternity in Christ. Oh my. I have formed thee. He's our
creator. Thou art my servant. And we're willing servants, aren't
we? We're willing. We willingly serve the Lord.
We willingly serve. We don't want to be in the world
and serve the world anymore or the devil or the flesh. We want
to serve Jehovah now, right? And I love this. Return to me,
for I have redeemed thee. God redeemed us, beloved. Jehovah's
redeemed us from all our sins. He blotted out all our sins,
all our transgressions. They are gone, beloved. Oh, my. What a mighty Savior. You know, He's going to get every
one of His sheep. There's not going to be one lost.
Look at Psalm 95, verse 3. For the Lord is a great God and
a great King above all gods. Now, remember what we read in
Isaiah there, as opposed to all those gods of wood and stone,
little G's? He's the great God. He's the
one true living God. There's no one else like him.
His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.
He's so far above us, beloved, so far above us. Oh my. So who's the rock of our salvation?
Jehovah. Jehovah is the rock of our salvation. Oh my. And this great God spoken
of in our text, he humbled himself. He humbled himself and became
a man. He was sent by the Father to come to this sin-cursed world.
My. You remember, he'd been here
before. Did he not walk with Adam? in
the garden? Did he not appear to Joshua as
a warrior? Did he not appear to Abraham
as a sojourner? Oh, but he's here now as the
God-man. He's here as Jesus Christ, God
incarnate in the flesh. Turn, if you would, to Exodus
chapter Oh, our God, He's a great God. He's a king. And He became
a man. Jesus Christ, God incarnated
in the flesh. Now, how was He identified in
Exodus? How did He identify Himself to
His people? He said to Moses, tell them what?
I am sent you. I am. Oh, my. Look at this, in Exodus chapter
3, verses 13 to 14. And Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, The God of your fathers has sent me unto you. And they
shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? You hear me say this all the
time, but this portion of scripture is outstanding, as all scripture
is. But look at this. And God said
unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent you. Now turn to John chapter 8. John
chapter 8. So keep in mind right there,
who sent him? I am. The great I am. Oh, so he's identified there
in the Old Testament, right there, as the great I Am. John chapter
8, the one who is the rock of our salvation, the one who is
God incarnated in the flesh, is here speaking. Look at this
in John chapter 8 verses 48 to 59. Then answered the Jews and
said unto him, say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and
has a devil? Jesus answered, I have not a
devil, but I honor my father and ye do dishonor me. Verse 50, and I seek not mine
own glory. See, he didn't come here to establish
a kingdom. He came here to glorify God the
Father, didn't he? He came here to save his people
from their sins. In doing that, he glorified God. There is one
that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, truly, truly,
I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see
death. Then said the Jews unto him, now we know that thou hast
a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets,
and thou sayest, if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste
of death. See, they didn't have any clue
who's talking to them. No clue. And we'd have been in
the same boat, in our natural state, sitting there. And thou,
verse 53, art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is
dead, and the prophets are dead? Whom makest thou thyself? Who
do you think you are? This is what they're saying to
him. Who do you think you are? Jesus answered, if I honor myself,
my honor's nothing. It is my father that honoreth
me, of whom you say, he's your God. Oh, you say my father's
your God, but look what he says. You have not known him, but I
know him. How does he know him? Well, he
proceeded from the Father. He was one with the Father in
eternity. The Father sent him into this
world, right, to save us. He knows the Father. He knows
the Holy Spirit. He's God incarnate in the flesh.
He's the second person of the Trinity. He says, I know him,
and if I should say I know him not, I shall be a liar like you. Oh my goodness. He just flat
out said, you're a bunch of liars. And he says, and if I deny that
I know the father, I'll be a liar just like you. But I know him and keep his saying. Now look at this. Oh, look at
this, beloved. Your father, could you imagine,
could you imagine, let's set this here. Could you imagine,
here we are, we're sitting there, we're amongst them all. if we
were Jewish folks and we would be amongst all them, they're
listening. And he says this statement. You talk about knock the socks
off of people. He says, your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day. He was filled with joy to see
my day. And he saw it. By faith, he looked
to Christ, didn't he? See, remember, he's the promised
Messiah. He's the Messiah sent by God to save his people from
their sins. They thought the Messiah was going to come and
set up an earthly kingdom. His kingdom is spiritual, beloved.
But he's telling them right here, he said, oh, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. And he saw it. And he was what?
He's glad. Oh, he's so thankful. He's taken
out of idol worship, too, remember? He came out of Ur. Caldees, he's
not a worshipper, beloved. Then said the Jews unto them,
Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Here we go, here we go. I love, this is, oh, this is
a wonderful verse. Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Oh, you talk about sending shockwaves
through that crowd. He has just announced that He
is the great I Am. He has just put it right out
there. Before Abraham was, I Am. Moses says, who shall I say sent
me? I Am. Who was talking to Moses? That was a Christophany. That
was Christ. The second person of the Trinity.
Oh, the Word of God. What's their, what's their, you
think that they just start rejoicing, right? What's their man, natural
man's response? They took up stones to cast at
him, but Jesus hid himself and went on the way out of the temple,
going through the midst of them, and so passed by. It was not
his time to offer himself up for a sacrifice. And they surely
weren't gonna, they surely weren't gonna kill him. He gave his life
willingly at the cross. Oh my. Let's go back to our text
there. So those Jews knew what he was
saying. He says, he just declared who I am. I'm the great I am. That's our King. That's our Savior.
That's our Redeemer. That's the rock of our salvation.
The great I am. The one who parted the Red Sea. The one who spoke the world into
existence. That's our Redeemer, beloved.
The Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Paul writes, Paul
writes, who shall bring any charge to God's elect? Can anyone charge
us? We're in Christ. We're in Christ. It's God that justifies. We're
justified by God, by the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate in
the flesh. Let's go back and read our text
there in Psalm 95 verses 1 to 3. O come, let us sing unto the
Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving and make a
joyful noise unto Him with psalms. So let us sing songs unto Him,
songs of praise. For the Lord is a great God and
a great King above all gods. Let us make a joyful noise unto
our king this day. Let us praise him for what he's
done. Driving home, let's just praise the Lord for what he's
done for us. In our hearts, let us praise the Lord this week
as we go about our daily lives. And I ask you, who can estimate
salvation? Who can estimate the worth of
salvation? It's incredible. We've been saved from all our
sins. And not just you and I, brothers and sisters, but all
the elect of all the ages. My, oh my. To be saved from all our sins,
every one of them, it makes us want to shout for joy, doesn't
it? It's wonderful that not one of our sins is chargeable against
us. It's all being paid for by the
great sacrifice, by the great substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And think on this, it was decreed
from eternity that he would be our substitute. That he would
be our Passover lamb. And we didn't even know it. Were we involved in that? Nope. Nope. Were we involved in our
first birth? Nope. Why do we think we'd be
involved in our second birth then? Right? who are born again
by the power and will of God, the Holy Spirit. Oh my, so let
us rejoice. Let us hasten unto his presence.
Let us sing songs unto the Lord, no matter what we're going through.
May God, now I know it weighs us down when we go through things,
but may God give us a joyful song in our hearts. May he give
us the ability to sing praises to him. And may he bring to remembrance
the great things that Christ has done for us, the salvation
in and through him alone, that he purchased us with his precious
blood. that God the Father chose us in Christ in eternity. The
Holy Spirit regenerates us. These are wondrous acts of a
mighty, almighty God, the one true living God. My, and salvation
again is only in Christ. God planned it, God purposed
it, God executed it. It's all Him, salvations of the
Lord. And in Christ is a fountain open
for sin and uncleanness, for sinners to come and be dipped
in that fountain, the fountain of His blood. So we say, sinner
friend, if you do not know Christ, flee to Him. Come to Him. He's the only hope. And we are
but saved sinners who, by the grace and mercy of God, have
fled to Christ, fled to He who is our city of refuge. fled that he was the only savior
of sinners. And as we pilgrim through this
world, my oh my, my oh my, we pilgrims through this world and
we go through things. But again, he's ever with us.
He'll never leave us nor forsake us. He's always, always there. And it's hard for us not to mumble
and complain, isn't it? Yeah? Let's just be honest, right?
It's hard for us not to mumble and complain about things. It's
natural for us to do that, even after we're saved. But when we
start to think about these things, about our God is a great king,
our God is the rock of our salvation, our God purpose and plans all
things in our lives, it starts to stop us mumbling. and start us rejoicing in what
He's done for us, in the great deliverances that He's done time
and time and time again for us. My, oh my. And think of this too. He has
supremacy over all things. There's no, as one preacher said,
there's no maverick molecule. There's no molecule going, I'm
gonna do my own thing. Every single molecule, every
single atom, every single thing is all controlled by the Lord.
And it's working out for our good and for His glory. Even the things that are happening
in our lives. Remember, we're being conformed to the image
of the Son, right? He's conforming us to Himself.
And He has all supremacy. He's King of kings and Lord of
lords. And I know I need to remind myself of that. I was talking
to our dear brother the other day, and he said, well, you know,
we need to hear the gospel over and over and over again, because
we forget so much. And we do. We forget the mercies. We get busy in our lives and
we forget the mercies of God. Let us remember, let us sing
praises even within ourselves of our great God. And we see
a mighty motive in verse three for us to praise God. Look at
verse three again. Here's a mighty motive for us
to praise God in our hearts. For the Lord is a great God.
He's the one true living God. and a great king above all gods. That's who he is. This is a statement
of fact. It's not up for debate. This
is who he is. Remember the wood and all that, and then they fashion
a god. That's just wood still. The scripture here is declaring
the fact that our Lord is a great God. He's the great God, isn't
he? And all those other gods are
just little Gs. Look at this. And a great God
above all gods. He's above all those things that
men worship. All those things that men make
idols of. He's above them all. And He's redeemed us. He saved
us from our sins because of His great love for us. And think of this, everything
in the land, everything in the sea, everything in the sky bows
to Him. Bows to Him. I remember when I was in religion
and I had the thought that the devil controlled
the weather and all this and he brought all these storms and
all that and all these things. That's just a bunch of baloney. God is in charge of everything. You know, when I found out who
the true God was, my whole world just changed. Is it so for you? And then it makes us, the more
we learn about how He is absolutely supreme and how He is absolutely
sovereign, the more comfort it gives us, the more rest we have,
as we know that it is He who keeps us. It's He who has redeemed
us. The Lord is a great God, a great
King. above all God. So let us rejoice
in this truth that's been brought forth before us today. Let us
rejoice that there's nothing visible or invisible that our
God doesn't control. Turn, if you would, to Colossians
chapter 1. We're going to close with this. Colossians chapter
1. Remember, remember that in the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And all things,
all things, I'm not talking about anything missing, all things
All things were made by him, and without him was not anything
made that was made. He's in full control. Look at
this, Colossians 1, verses 16 and 17. This is our God. This is our upholder. This is
our preserver. This is our redeemer. This is
our king. For by him, being Christ, were
all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible
and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers. All things were created by him
and for him, and he is before all things. He has the preeminence,
and by him all things consist. Beloved, our king, Our God is
the great God. Our King is the great King. Glory to His name. Heavenly Father,
oh, we're so thankful, so grateful that you have allowed us to gather
together, Lord, to be here and to look into your word. Oh, we
see such instruction in your word, Lord, and it makes our
hearts rejoice that we can be going through times of trials
and troubles and sorrows You know how you comfort us, how
you comfort us with the balm of Gilead, knowing that you are
ever with us, that you are our Savior, our Redeemer, and that
you are King of kings and Lord of lords, ruler of everything,
and in all things you have the preeminence. Praise you, praise
you for saving our souls, Lord Jesus. Praise you, Father, for
sending the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem us, to save us from
our sins, and praise you, Holy Spirit, for regenerating us and
also teaching us the things of Christ, revealing Christ to us.
We'd never know Him unless you did that. Glory to you, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name.