I'm 149. I'll ask the Lord's blessing. Our God and our Father, Lord, we thank you for the ability and the privilege to be here today. Thank you for the heart to want to be here. Lord, we Have every reason to glory in you and praise you for the things you've done for us, so freely by your grace, all in your son. And then Lord, you came and revealed him in our heart. What blessing you have bestowed upon your people so freely, making us know that this salvation is sure Ordered by Christ, shared by Christ.

Lord, let us see him today again. Make it so we can behold him by faith this hour. Make the word burn in our heart, Lord. We ask you to do this for us, that we might be enabled to truly worship. We pray, Lord, You'd get all the glory, all the praise, and Lord, receive us in Christ alone. Forgive us our sin and our iniquity and our, just our fleshliness, and receive us, Lord, complete in your Son. It's in his name we ask it, amen. All right, brethren, Psalm 149.

We were here Thursday, so I want to preach on this again while it's somewhat fresh. And I didn't want to preach the last verses on Thursday because I wanted to deal with this just in one message because it's so important. But the Lord had given us reasons to praise him, declaring why we praise him. Just in my way of review, he said he taught us the new psalm. We sing the new song, the song of grace, the song of salvation by Christ alone.

He made us all of himself. He made us and he's our king. That's why we glory in him. Everything that will be in heaven will be what he made. Everything of us will be what he made. And right now he's the king of kings ruling everything for us. And then The amazing thing is we praise Him because He takes pleasure in His people. We're accepted in the Beloved. What we do now, by His grace working in us, what we do is accepted, though there's sin mixed with it. But it comes to God in His Son perfect, because Christ is our perfection.

And He's the one that beautifies us. He beautifies us with salvation, with the Lord Jesus, We're coming, in Isaiah 60, we're coming to some verses. I said capitalize that S, because that's Christ. And we're coming to some verses in Isaiah 60 where that salvation is a capital S. It's Christ. That's how he beautified us.

That's how he made us meek. He made us see everything Christ is and everything he did we couldn't do. That's not what we are by nature. And that's that humbleness that made us meek. so that we trust him. He did that. He beautifies us. He made us. Now, this may seem odd today, coming on the heels of that, but this is honor. This is honor God gives us. That's what I titled this, honor God gives us.

Let's begin in verse six. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgment written. We're gonna find in Isaiah 65, God said, he said, I will not remain silent. He said, I will recompense. He's written, he's written this. And he says, we're executing upon them the judgment written.

This honor have all his saints. This honor have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord. Does that sound a little strange coming after we see all these reasons we praise him? And then he says, we're executing vengeance and judgment, binding with iron the heathen. One way God has honored his church in this world I'm talking about right now, is to bind the heathen and to execute judgment upon them. We're going to see why this honor has been given to us, and we're going to see how it is that we do this. First of all, the weapon God's given us to use is the high things of God. the high things of God.

Look here, verse six, let the high praises of God be in their mouth. The italicized words are added, they're not in the original. Praises is a good word because throughout this psalm, that's what he's commanding his people to do, praise him. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, but the Septuagint translation reads, Let the high things of God be in their mouth. The Vulgate Latin translation says, let the exultations of God be in their mouth. Let the high and glorious attributes of God be in their mouth.

That's what we're to speak. We're to speak that God is holy. He's righteous. Everything he does is holy and righteous. We're to declare that God is love. He doesn't just love, he is love. And he loves with a holy love. Who he loves, he saves. His love is effectual saving love.

We're to declare his omnipotence. He's all powerful. All power belongs to him and it belongs to Christ. Our Lord Jesus is raised above all. and all powers he is in heaven, earth, all deep places. He's the one who rules the armies of heaven. He's the one who rules the inhabitants of the earth. Nobody can stop him and nobody can question him. This is our sovereign savior who rules all. He's omnipotent. That's the high things of God. That's the high praises of God we're to declare. We're to declare his omnipresence. God's with his people all the time.

I read that passage Thursday night from Revelation where it spoke of the lamb and his eyes and being the spirits, his spirits that go forth in all the earth. He's ever present. Wherever his people are, he's with us. He dwells in you, who he's called, and he's present. He walks among the candlesticks, his churches. Whether we go to the farthest, region of the world, he's there. David said, if I make my bed in hell, he's there.

He's present, omnipresent. He's omniscient. He knows everything. He knows all things. Everything is open before him. He knows all things. He knows the hearts of his people before he saved us and after he gives us a new heart. He knows the heart he gave. He knows his people, knows everything.

This is what we're to preach. We're to preach his glorious works. Preach his glorious works. That's what's to be in our mouth, the works of God. That's not what you hear religion preaching. They're preaching the works of man. We're to preach the works of God. We're to declare that where salvation began is with God, in the beginning God.

God sovereignly chose who he would save. He didn't look to us. He didn't base it on any good in us or any evil in us. He didn't base it on anything in us. That the purpose of God according to election might stand not of him that willeth, but of God that shows mercy. We're to preach that God is justly merciful.

We deserve wrath. We deserve condemnation. That's what his people deserve. That's what all men deserve. That's what we have earned. God doesn't owe us a thing. You think about it. If you have a person who has treated you evil, spit in your face, said nasty things about you, do you not think in your own heart, I don't owe this person anything? God owes us nothing. So everything God does in saving us is God being merciful. It's God withholding from us what we have earned and what we deserve.

That's what we're to preach. We're to exalt his son. There's the high praise of God, his son. Exalt his son. Declare how his son is salvation, how he is the righteousness of his people. By one man's obedience shall many be saved. The Lord Jesus is the one. He's the holy one of Israel. He's the redeemer. He's the righteousness. He is eternal life. He is salvation.

He laid down his life for a particular people. When I stand here, I want to preach particular redemption, that Christ laid down his life for the elect. He said, I laid down my life for the sheep. I want to declare that he bore the sin of his people. His name is Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. And he did it by bearing our sin and bearing our curse and satisfying and honoring and magnifying God's holy law. And by that, he justified his people. He effectually, fully accomplished the justification of his people. And I wanna preach the irresistible grace of God. This is the high praise of God.

No sinner can believe God. No sinner has a will to believe God. No sinner has a will to seek God. Religion, false religion is just a dead sinner imagining a dead God who can't do anything but what the sinner does. If you listen to people talk about the God that they imagine God to be, he's no more powerful than the man. Man can't create an idol more powerful than him.

It's against our nature. God must irresistibly quicken us. He must call us. He must regenerate us. Christ must be formed in his people. It's the only way we have life. It's the only way we have spiritual discernment. And God never fails to do it. Christ said it's just like the wind that blows. You don't know when it's coming, where it's going. You can't stop it. That's the sovereign power of the Holy Spirit of God. He comes where he will, and he accomplishes the mission. He gives faith and repentance, and he keeps his people. We're kept by the power of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed, kept through faith. He has to keep us in faith, keep us believing.

And it's unto salvation ready. Nothing else to be done. Come, all things are ready. It's ready, finished by Christ. And it's ready to be revealed in the last time. And that's what's gonna happen. The Lord's gonna save every one of his people. We're gonna see Christ in all his fullness, all his glory. And we're gonna be just like him.

That's what God's saying here. Speak these high things of God. Speak of who God is and how God saves. Speak of who he saves, sinners incapable of doing a thing. Preach him high and preach sinners low. That's what we're to do. Listen, I wanna just give you some scriptures. And I'm gonna give you quite a few, because I want you to get this point. We are not supposed to be preaching man. We're not supposed to be preaching man's work. We're supposed to be preaching God's works.

Listen, Psalm 115.1, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. He's to get all the glory. He said, let the high praises of God be in your mouth. It's 1 Chronicles 16, 12. Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth.

Sing unto the Lord all the earth, show forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen, his marvelous work among all nations. For great is the Lord, greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the people are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Glory and honor are in his presence. Strength and gladness are in his place.

Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Declare he's the strength and power to save. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Psalm 911. Sing praises to the Lord which dwelleth in Zion. Declare among the people his doings. I love this. Go to Psalm 22. I want you to see this. This is that Psalm where our Lord cried out from the cross while he was forsaken of God.

Why hast thou forsaken me? You know why God forsook him? Listen to what Christ did. Who did Christ's glory in? Who did he give glory to? He gave it to God. Listen. He said, but thou art holy. That's why he was forsaken, because God's holy. He was bearing the sin of his people. Justice demanded he be forsaken.

But here's what I want you to see. Psalm 22, 31, after declaring all of that, I love this, listen to this. Let's read verse 30. A seed, a people, a chosen generation shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation, his people. Look, now what they shall do. They shall all come and shall declare his righteousness. That's what we preach. We declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. That's what we're to be preaching. That's what we're to be preaching. I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.

That's what David said. Now, this two-edged sword, back in Psalm 149, verse six, let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand. Now these two things, let the high praise of God be in your mouth and a two-edged sword in your hand, it's really one weapon, wielded at one time the same way, speaking of him, speaking of him. It's how we wield the two-edged sword we speak of Christ. We're his witnesses declaring what we know by his grace, declaring him, his work.

I want to turn to several scriptures here. I want you to go with me to 2 Corinthians 10. I think it is remarkable. I was talking to my sister about this yesterday. We got to Isaiah 60. Go to 2 Corinthians 10. We came to Isaiah 60 right when This war is going on in the Middle East. And that war is going on in the Middle East.

Now, I don't know if the rulers know this, but the powers that are holding the purse strings and pulling the string, they know this. But they think everything Isaiah 60 says is carnal. They think it's speaking of political Israel. And so what we just read, Let this two-edged sword be in their hand. Take vengeance on the enemy. They think that's carnal. They think they're to do that. They're to kill everybody that's not a physical Jew. That's not what the book's talking about. The weapons are spiritual.

Look here, 2 Corinthians 10. It's God's Israel. It's God's people saved out of Jew and Gentile. And he gives us the gospel so we preach his works. And that's the weapon. The weapon is the praise of God. Did y'all see the, if you listen to the messages from Fairmont, when we were down there last weekend, Brother Gabe preached a passage on the power being of God, and he used that chapter, we've seen it several times, where the Lord told him, there were three enemies come up against him, and the Lord told him to go to the front, put the musicians on the front line, and let them just sing praise to God. Sing his high praises. That's our weapon. Exalting God in the preaching of this word. That's the weapon.

Look here, 2 Corinthians 10.3.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Our weapon is far more powerful than a carnal sword, Our weapon's mighty through God, by his power. Our text says, it's our honor to execute vengeance upon the heathen, punishments upon the people, to bind their kings with chains, their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgment written.

This is the honor of God's saints. Now listen, listen to what this weapon does as we preach Christ and his works. Listen to what God does through this message. Look here at 2 Corinthians 10, 5. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. When you have obeyed God by his grace, by preaching Christ and him crucified, by bearing witness of Christ, the power of God works that right there.

He casts down imaginations. These vain imaginations people have, exalting self and exalting the sinner over God, he casts that down. Every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, that's us by nature exalting every other thing against God, ourselves included. But then when he saves you, he makes you do what our Psalm says, you exalt him. You have the high praise of God in your mouth.

He says, and he brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. That means God sets your affection on Christ only so that you look to his obedience to be your righteousness. He brings all your thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ. He really, he does all these things he does upon the unbeliever in judgment, he does in his people by grace. He binds us to Christ and we want to be bound to him. He unites us to Christ inseparably. We can't be separated from him. He arrests us like he did Paul on the road to Damascus. And he binds us to Christ.

He takes revenge on all our disobedience, all our vain notion that our will saved us and our work saved us. That's all disobedience. And he makes you cast that away. He makes you have no confidence in your flesh. This is what the Lord does through this message. So go with me to Hebrews 4. So this two-edged sword, is not a literal sword, it's the gospel, it's the word of God.

Look here, Hebrews 4.12.

For the word of God, Hebrews 4.12, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

God makes us know the thought and intent of our vain heart by his word. We didn't even know our own heart. He makes you know everything I had my hope in was vanity. And he brings your thoughts and affection to Christ. But it's not us doing it. Look here now, Revelation 1. It's not us. It's not us. It's the Lord. Revelation 1. John was given a vision of Christ and of the churches. Listen to this right here, Revelation 1, 11. Well, let's go to verse nine.

I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, I was in the isle that's called Patmos, For the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia, He lists them there, and he said, verse 12, I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks as to churches, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one likened to the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and gird about the paps with a golden girdle.

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were as the flame of fire, and his feet like in a fine brass as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice was as the sounds of many waters. He had in his right hand seven stars. That's the angels of the church, his pastors. And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. Out of his mouth. And his countenance was as sun shining in its strength.

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead. Behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. I have the keys of hell and death. Well, that's what happens when that two-edged sword comes out of his mouth and he makes you behold him. He kills you. All your good that you thought was good, you fall dead just like John did. And at the same time, he reaches forth and lifts you up and lifts your new man to look to him only. That's what he does through this.

Look with me now over at Revelation 2.12.

Revelation 2.12. He said, to the angel of the church in Pergamos writes, These things saith he which hath a sharp sword with two edges. Verse 16, he says, repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against him with a sword of my mouth. Revelation 19. Verse 15. Well, let's begin. I want you to see the whole thing.

Verse 11, I saw heaven open, bowed a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he the judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself, and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. and the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

That's who we're talking about. The saints shall judge the world. That's what the scripture says. But right now in this life, right now in this life, the way we do this is by preaching Christ, bearing witness to Christ. Now, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Look at Hebrews 11. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. And the whole time he was building that ark, he was preaching Christ. That's what it is to be a preacher of righteousness. Christ is the righteousness. He preached Christ.

And for everybody that willingly rejected the gospel, rejected Christ, look what the scripture said. Hebrews 11, seven. By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. The judgment spoken of in our text, the vengeance spoken of in our text that we've been honored by God to execute upon the heathen is simply by preaching Christ and Him crucified.

Simply by preaching this gospel. That's it. No man is the same after hearing the gospel preached. No man is the same after hearing the gospel preached. He may think he's the same, but no man's the same. Listen, either God saves, giving a new heart, a new spirit, faith in Christ, repentance from all our vain dead works and our vain idols. Either God does that by grace through this gospel and saves a man, or this very same word of the gospel condemns a man, binds him in iron fetters, executes judgment and vengeance upon him, reserves him for the day of judgment. Now that's so, look with me, 2 Corinthians 2. I tell you, you know, the Lord said he doesn't bless a false preacher. He said they won't profit this people. They ran, but I didn't send them. They won't profit this people.

And he said through Ezekiel, he said, son of a man, I made you a watchman. And he said, you preach this word that I give you, the word out of my mouth, you preach it. And if you warn a wicked man and he turns from his wickedness by God's grace, he said, that man will be saved, he said, and you're free, you're free from his blood, you told him. He said, but if you tell him and he doesn't turn, he said, that man will be condemned, but you're free from him, you told him. He said, but if you don't tell him, If you don't preach Christ to this man and he perishes, he'll perish. But I'm gonna require his blood at your hand.

That's serious. That's what his preachers take that serious and his people do. But I'll tell you something, right now online, everybody is a theologian. We ought to be very careful speaking something about God's word to eternity-bound sinners. Because if we have not told them the truth, if we've led them astray, ooh, that's bad. It's one thing to copy and paste something a faithful preacher wrote, but we be careful putting our own words there and expounding upon God's word.

That's just a serious, serious thing. Look here, God's either gonna save with this gospel, or he's going down with it. These two things are happening every time the gospel goes forth. It never returns void. These two things are happening every time. Right now, this is happening. Look here, 2 Corinthians 2, and look at verse 14.

Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ. and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place, always, all the time, he said, for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish.

To the one we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life, and who is sufficient for these things? For we're not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. Here's our sufficiency, chapter three, verse five. Not that we're sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiencies of God. He made us his preacher. And listen, he's made you his witness. If you have an opportunity to speak of him, speak of him. But make sure you speak what this word says.

Make sure you give him all the glory. and the sinner none. But this word's not going to return void. God always accomplishes this through his gospel. Listen, that sinner who rejects Christ, if you believe it's all of God's grace, we can't glory in anything. He intervened, he interrupted us, and he gave us a new spirit and faith and brought us to Christ. It's all of him.

But that person who doesn't believe is absolutely responsible for his unbelief. He doesn't have the ability to believe unless God gives him grace. Somebody say, well, I shouldn't be held accountable if I don't have the ability. God wouldn't ask you to do something you can't do. Yeah, that's what he does. He declares, believe on me, but you can't do it unless he gives you grace to do it. If you can't pay your light bill, is the light company going to say, oh, well, You didn't have the ability to do it, so we just let you go.

No, your inability doesn't negate your responsibility, and that's so with everybody. What should that do? If God blesses that message, what will that do to a person? That'll make you hit your face and start begging God, Lord, do not pass me by. While on others thou call, and please don't pass me by. But that person that rejects him, it's all his fault. If we're saved, it's all God's grace, all God's glory. If we reject him, there's nobody to blame but ourselves. The heavens declare his handiwork. The creation declares him. We're without excuse.

So I'm telling you, I pray God as you come into this house and you sit down here, get here early, you can't walk in and just sit down and worship. God has to make you worship. Well, that's gonna be the message next week out of Luke 6. God has to make you worship. You can't do it by yourself.

Come in, sit down, get prepared. This is serious. Christ is the one preaching here. He's speaking. If you knew Christ Jesus was gonna be standing right there today and he's gonna preach a message to you, would you be here and be ready? Well, he's here. He said where he's in his preaching, where his gospel's going forth, he's present. And it's only one, he's the only one that can make it effectual in us.

You get where he is and you sit down and you listen and you be prepared and you beg him, Lord, let me worship. Give me grace to worship. It's the word to keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. We need the Lord Jesus.

We need his word more than we need bread on our table. This is the children's bread. And you're never gonna hear a message preached by a faithful servant of God that returns void. It's either gonna save us or damn us. That's serious business. That oughta make us, that oughta make us just be at Christ's feet like Mary, sitting there just, nothing distracting. I wanna hear him. I gotta hear him.

I pray, Lord, make that so. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for saving your people by your grace. Lord, what an awesome honor you have bestowed upon your people to preach Christ's name crucified. Make us faithful, Lord. Make us speak the word. Make us study the word. Make us speak your word in truth. And Lord, be merciful to us. Call your lost sheep and keep us by this same word, Lord. In Christ's name we pray, amen.