The Praise of My Soul

Q: What does the Bible say about praising God?

The Bible emphasizes that praising God is a reflection of His worthiness and is essential for believers. The Bible affirms the importance of praising God throughout the Psalms, repeatedly calling on believers to worship Him with all their being. In Psalm 146, the psalmist starts with a direct command, 'Praise ye the Lord,' highlighting that it is not only right but pleasing to sing praises to God. This notion is echoed in various passages, emphasizing that praise is not merely a routine action but is rooted in the recognition of God's greatness and goodness. True worship stems from an inner desire, where our souls actively engage in acknowledging God's majesty and love.

Q: How do we know that praising God is important for Christians?

Praising God is central to the Christian faith as it acknowledges His holiness and grace. Praising God is not only a command but a natural response of the heart that recognizes His holiness, love, and redemptive work. As Christians, our worship is an expression of gratitude for God's electing grace, the redemptive sacrifice of Christ, and the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit. This is seen in how we are called to live in faith and love, which demonstrates an ongoing commitment to glorifying God in our daily lives. Ultimately, our praise reflects the reality of our salvation and the intimate relationship we share with our Creator.

Q: Why is it essential to worship in spirit and truth?

Worshiping in spirit and truth is vital because it ensures a genuine connection with God. Worshiping in spirit and truth, as mentioned in John 4:24, denotes that authentic worship must be both heartfelt and based on the true revelation of God’s word. If our worship is merely emotional without aligning with biblical truth, it fails to honor God as He desires. Conversely, worship that upholds true doctrine but lacks heartfelt devotion becomes lifeless and mechanical. Therefore, both aspects are necessary for effective worship; they serve to connect our hearts to God genuinely while adhering to who He is according to Scripture.

Q: What is the relationship between praise and the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit empowers believers to praise God authentically. The Holy Spirit plays a crucial role in enabling believers to engage in authentic worship. As the comforter and spirit of truth, He testifies about Christ and guides our hearts in praise. Without the intervention of the Spirit, we cannot truly appreciate the depths of God’s love and grace that fuel our worship. Romans 8 emphasizes that the Spirit helps us in our weakness, indicating that divine assistance is essential for us to engage in sincere praise. It is the Spirit that motivates and shapes our worship, drawing us closer to God’s heart.

It's good to see you and to be with you tonight. I don't know about you, but this is always a special time for me. Not just to preach the gospel. I adore preaching the gospel. But just a fellowship with you around the gospel. We understand what heaven is. That's what it is. It's centered around believers worshiping together the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it is. God has given us this as a foretaste, as a blessing, an encouragement, a time of refreshment, a time of encouragement. That's what these things are for.

I think that this generation has really lost the sense of what corporate worship really is and what it's about. And I think they miss the benefit of it. I do. I think that I'm glad that we have this means and those who are trapped and can't get out of where they're at This is a means for those that are sick and those who can't come. But I don't know. I think that everybody that can't fellowship misses out. I really do.

I think they just miss because the Lord is here in such a way that he's not anywhere else. Now, that's that's what he said. You know, I imagine we could fill the building if some popular person came. But yet every time we meet, the Lord God himself comes to be with us. I don't think there's any more important person than the Lord Jesus Christ to gather around. But he says that, I am with you where two or three are gathered together in my name.

I was talking with Gabe Stoniker, and he was recording He has a program they put on television and he records it and he was doing that for a little while. But I think he got one of his members to come and tape it because he needs, he said, I need a preacher. I mean, he's preaching to a camera. And he mentioned that text where two or three are gathered in my name. And it does, it makes it special. What to God that he wouldn't steal this in the heart of his people.

I'm so thankful to be here with you. It is a privilege. It is an honor. It is a blessing. And I ask you to pray for me as I preach to you tonight. I have done a lot of study on this and my May God help me to do what is in this text. I want to praise Him. I want to praise Him because He is worthy of praise. I want you to praise Him. But I know this, I want to praise Him myself. I want to praise Him myself.

May the Lord be gracious to give me liberty, as well as your liberty to praise the greatness of our God, the greatness of his person, the greatness of his salvation. Pray for those churches who are struggling without pastors. May God be gracious to give them men. after his own heart.

You know, I'd love for there to be a gospel preacher next to every home. That'd be wonderful, wouldn't it? People wouldn't have to move, people wouldn't have to leave their homes or families, but there's just not. There's just not many in this generation. But pray for those churches that are seeking one. May God give them one.

Let's go to him in prayer. Our gracious Father, we do come seeking praise, to magnify, to exalt, to declare from the heart the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Savior. It is our desire that you should be glorified, that you should be magnified through the preaching of Christ, that every heart would enter in to the greatness of your love and the greatness of his offering. I pray that you would be gracious to your church, your people, that you would fill their hearts with love and adoration, desire, that you would cause us, Father, to walk and live by faith that you would cause us to love one another. Father, you'd be gracious and forgive us our sins. And in the same breath, Father, we ask that you would give us forgiving and gracious hearts. Father, I do pray that you'd forgive us and lead us. We pray this in Christ's name, for his sake. Amen. Psalm 146. Psalm 146.

I'm going to look at verses 1 through 6, but I may touch on some of the last part of this if I have any time. You know, I probably won't. But that's why I didn't try to, you know, take too much, but we'll see. The psalmist here, I've read this to you before, but I'll read verse one. The psalmist begins this psalm with a hallelujah psalm. It's one of the hallelujah psalms.

He says, praise ye the Lord. Here is the desire of the psalmist, that you who hear his message should praise the Lord. If you look in the next psalm, he tells us why we should praise the Lord. He said, Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God, for it is pleasant, and praise is comely. He said, just right. That's what he's saying. It's just right to praise the Lord. He's worthy of praise. In fact, all praise belongs to Him. It's His.

It's His right. demand of his creatures praise and adoration and so he begins with this hallelujah I know people use that word and it becomes without meaning it just praise the Lord praise the Lord praise the Lord for this praise the Lord for I got a drink for McDonald's praise the Lord I mean it just there's no there's no depth to it there's no adoration in it There's no love in it. This should be something that's reverenced. Praise the Lord. With what? All that is within me. Bless His holy name. That's what it is to praise the Lord. You'll see this in a minute. To praise means to make clear. That's what it means. It means to make something. When God makes Himself clear, There is nothing but adoration. It begins this, but not only this, this is my point this evening, is not only praise, you praise the Lord. David doesn't just write, you praise the Lord.

He says this, praise the Lord, O my soul. One thing that David was interested in, he was interested in the praise of the congregation, but more importantly, he was interested that his own soul should praise the Lord. That's what I want to speak on this morning, the praise of my soul. I long for you to praise the Lord, but there's nothing greater I long for than I praise the Lord. personally, me, my soul, my soul.

The psalmist in great earnestness is speaking to himself. He is both confessing and desiring his heart would praise the Lord, not just with outward actions. He doesn't say praise the Lord with his hands, praise the Lord with his feet. He talks about the innermost part of him, His soul. Praise the Lord, oh my soul.

Scripture says bodily exercise profit little. He's talking about religion. He's not talking about push-ups and sit-ups. That's not what he's talking about. That does profit little, it does, it gives us some physical, but he's, in that text, he's not talking about physical exercise, he's talking about religious exercise. Religious exercise profited little, but godliness with contentment is great gain, he said.

There are many people who are going through the motions of religious praise. It becomes just another thing people do. They just get up, Sunday, well, time to go to church. Wednesday, time to go to church. It's a habit. It's not a bad habit. It's just, what good is that?

Many people are going through the motions of religion. A lot of churches deal in ceremonies. They want to get you involved. They want to get your body moving. Get you pumped up. So they'll do all kinds of ceremonies and rituals and they'll recite prayers and chant incantations. But all their entertainment is to stir the flesh. That's what they want to do. They want to stir the flesh. And they call that praise. They call that praise. They want to make a show. A show. It's not what David's talking about. I'm not talking about making a show. You can't see my soul.

But that's where I want to praise him from the core of my being. I want to praise him. These things profit in the flesh. They make people feel good about themselves and about their religion. But I want to tell you two things that are necessary for worship, two things that are necessary for praise. The spirit and the truth. Go to John chapter 4. Our Lord talks to this woman at the well. John chapter 4. And look at, she can be in verse 20. He said, you worship you know not what? Well that just speaks about this religious age, doesn't it?

They're hooping and hollering and raising their hands and shouting and hallelujah all over the place and yet you ask them who they're worshiping, they don't have a clue. They don't have a clue. You worship you know not what? We worship, we know what we worship. There's a group of these Samaritans, they were way off. And Jesus said, we know what we worship.

He's talking about the Jews. The Jews were the doctrinal side. But you know this, they both weren't worshiping, the Jews or the Samaritans. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers, see, he's dividing himself, the Jewish, the people who had knowledge and the people that hooped and hollered. He said they weren't real worshippers, but here are true worshippers.

True worshippers shall worship the Father, listen, in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. Spirit, if we're to worship, listen, if this is our desire tonight, praise the Lord, O my soul, then you must understand it must come by the Spirit and True. Both are necessary for praise.

Now, how can we tell? Listen, there's nothing, I mean, there's nothing I love more than to feel the presence of the Lord. I mean, do you not? I love it. When he feels like God is near. There's times that I want to shout. There's times that I want to sing. There's times where I just weep. There are times where my emotions come over me. I love that. Believers want that. But how do you know if that's real versus what the religious people are doing? They're crying. They're shouting. They're praising. They're singing. How do you know the difference? Listen. It must have these two things. It must be in spirit and in truth. Some try to worship with some type of spirit and they stir up their hearts to religious actions.

But listen, if there's no truth, it's not real. They can weep, they can cry, they can shout, they can sing. You know it's not the spirit of God if there's no truth. When somebody stands up after they do all of their praising, all of their shouting, if he stands up and preaches a freewill works religion, it's not the spirit of God. Because there's no truth. There's no gospel. There's no gospel.

And the opposite is true. Listen, if someone were to stand up and proclaim the truth very systematically, every time he stands up, wants to preach five points of Calvinism, A, B, C, D. But yet there is no spirit of love and faith for the gospel he preaches. I remember reading a book a long time ago, Martin Lloyd-Jones Preaching and Preachers, and this stuck out to me. He said, when a man preaches the gospel, he's got to have two things, light and heat.

Some people have a lot of light, and no heat. They got no love. It's just an academic thing. And some people have all this heat but no life. They don't understand what they just got. They're just out there running and they don't know where they're going. But we who praise the Lord both have to be present. We have to know whom we are praising and we have to love whom we're praising. It has to be some affection. It has to be a heart. So when we praise the Lord, both of these must be present.

So that's why we don't try to convert people to a system. I believe, I hold fast to the doctrines of grace. I hold fast to them because they're scriptural, not because they're quote Calvin's dog, whatever. They're gospel, it's the gospel. I hold fast to that. But I'm not trying to convert people to a system. I'm trying to point people to a person. Jesus Christ. I want people to believe on Christ. I want men to praise Christ. Not convert to a system.

And so the truth of God's salvation must be preached and there must be a heart of worship. Here's the truth. Here's the gospel that we preach. It's salvations of the Lord. That's the gospel. That's the truth. that stirs the spirit. That's the truth that brings out the love and the faith. Is this salvations of the Lord? It's just that's just the most freeing message. It's the most refreshing message. The salvation is completely of God.

The Jesus Christ came into the world to save his people from their sins, and the truth is he did it. This is the truth. We preach that Christ obtained righteousness. And that's what it says in Romans chapter 3 and verse 22. He says that he's obtained the righteousness of God by faith. Even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. That's what we preach. We preach that Christ has obtained redemption. What was that? Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. That's the truth. That's the truth.

And Jesus Christ, in truth, is raised from the dead and is now seated on the throne of God. He said as our high priest, He said in John chapter 17, Father, I have finished the work Thou has given me to do. He says, Thou has given me power over all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as Thou has given me. You see, our Lord Jesus Christ, this is the truth.

He's raised from the dead and ruling all things. Now that's a truth. And he will gather all of his people, how? Through the power of the Spirit by the means of preaching. This is how he does it. This is how he'll do it. He swore, he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. They come, I will in no wise catch them out. This is what the truth is, that He's going to gather His people. He's going to save every one of them, and not one's going to be lost. And the means He chose is preaching. This is the truth. There's no other means.

God chose preaching. 1 Corinthians 1, 21, it says, by the foolishness of preaching. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And this is the means that the Spirit of God uses to give spiritual life and faith. And this is what it is, the Spirit. The truth is preached and the Spirit takes the truth and applies it to the heart of the sinner.

And then everything changes. Everything changes. You know, once I thought I could please God, When the Spirit met me, I knew this, I could not please God. Everything changed. I thought Christ was necessary, but I didn't know how necessary until the Spirit came. And when the Spirit came and showed me Christ, I knew this, He is the truth. And I'll tell you what, it stirred my heart to love Him. To praise Him. See, this gospel we preach is not academic. It's effectual, it's powerful. To who? To everyone that believeth. It's effectual, it's powerful. And so then we don't just preach this as an academic achievement, neither are we full of mindless emotions.

Therefore, when we praise the Lord, we praise Him in spirit and in truth. So those things are necessary if we want to praise the Lord. The Gospel is preached, and when it's preached in the power of the Spirit, it affects the soul, and the soul desires one thing, to praise Him.

To praise Him. Now the second thing is this. This praise that comes from the soul. He said, Praise the Lord, O my soul. because the Lord is worthy of all my praise, because He is great and greatly to be praised. When the gospel is preached, this is evident to me. God is great and greatly to be praised. Greatly to be praised.

And so when we praise God, when we praise Him from the soul, we praise Him in the Trinity of His persons. We praise Him, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When we think of praising the Lord, do you not think of praising the Father? Do you not think of the great love wherewith the Father loved us? The greatness of his electing love that he would choose us, the most unworthy of his creatures, the basis of his creatures, the worst of the worst, yet God chose us in love. Isn't that what it says?

According as the Father. Ephesians 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is Paul doing? He's praising the Father. Who has given us all spiritual blessings in heavenly places according as He had chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

And He purposed this. When you think of praising the Father, praising for this, He purposed that you should be holy. He decreed it. What has the Father decreed that won't come to pass? Name it. And yet, you that believe this is what you should praise Him, that He decreed you should be holy and without blame. And in love predestinated you unto the adoption of children. In love.

Can you measure the love of the father? Can you? How great is his love? Is that not worthy of praise from my soul? Praise the father for his great love. that He chose us not by any, we were no means lovely, and yet He chose us not based on any merit in us, but purpose to save us. Praise the Father, O my soul. Praise the Son. The one to whom the Father gave us, the Son graciously embraced every one the Father gave Him.

Just like Judah for Benjamin, right? Remember when Joseph said, hey, you need to go get Benjamin. And Jacob said, I'm not letting him go. Judah embraced him and said, I'll be sure of it. That's what our Lord Jesus did for us. He said, I'll be sure of it. I'll be the guarantee. I'll be the one responsible for this.

And in love he came into this world as a man so that he should taste death for us. You know what that entails? Not just his physical death. He didn't just taste physical death. He tasted the wrath of the living God. He tasted the punishment for our sins. And in great love He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Bless the Lord! Praise the Lord! Oh my soul! I was thinking of that verse earlier.

It said, For a good man some would dare to die. For a righteous man some might die. For a good man some would dare to die. But you take this in, that Christ died even while we were yet sinners. Can you imagine that kind of love? Listen, you might give your life for your children, but you will not give your life for somebody on death row. He did. He did. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and His death did what no other death could do. He satisfied God. He paid our debt in full.

Therefore, look at Hebrews 10. Look at Hebrews 10. It's one of my favorite passages. Hebrews 10. Notice this. Then said he, this is the son. He then said the son, lo, I come to do thy will. Oh God. What was the will of God? Hebrews 10 verse nine, Hebrews 10 verse nine. He said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Now, what is the will?

He taketh away the first that he may establish the second. That phrase there, taketh away, means to adopt. He adopted the law to himself. Why? So that he might slay it. The other definition of that word take away means adopt and slay. That's exactly what he did.

He adopted it and he put it away forever. When you slay something, it's gone. It's gone. Can't ever bring it back. That's what he did with the law. He adopted it and he satisfied it forever removing it from us. Removing it from us. To establish what? The second.

Now this is the covenant that God made for us. That covenant that the Father said, I will that thou be holy and without blame before me, that you should be my sons. That's the covenant. And he established that covenant. He made that covenant effectual.

By the which will we are what? What are you? What are you? Sanctified. You are sanctified through your moral works. Is that what it says? That's what religion wants you to think. No, I'm sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. How many times? How many times have you been sanctified? Once. Once. And I didn't do it. I didn't have anything to do with it. It was the will of the Father and Jesus did it. He sanctified me.

Every priest standing daily, ministering, offered the same sacrifices, never take away sin. But this man, in contrast to the law, see the law could never remove sin. But this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sins forever, what did he do? He sat down. He finished, finished the work. He sat down in the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by his one offering he hath perfected forever. them that are sanctified. Them that are sanctified by the will of the Father and His death. He's perfected them.

That's you. Now that's a truth. Does that truth affect your soul? Does that truth stir your love? That's what He did for us. He removed the sting of death by removing sin. Removing sin. And believers, because there is no sin, there is now no condemnation.

Remember when Paul was struggling in Romans 7 with his flesh? You and I struggle with this, that old man of sin. He says, when I want to do good, evil is present with me. I can't do what I want to do. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Here it is. I thank God, I praise God through Jesus Christ. And the result, there is therefore now no condemnation. Now you say that every second of every day. There is therefore now. And there is therefore now what? No condemnation. There is no condemnation. Why? He took the law away. Made it. Satisfied it. Completely. Look at that in Romans. Look at that in Romans 8 with me. See how much of what he did. He removed the law by satisfying it. Romans chapter 8.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. Why? For the law of the spirit of life has made me free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, listen to what he did, condemned sin in the flesh. Whose flesh? Whose flesh did God condemn your sin in?

His flesh. that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, not after works. That's what he's saying by walking after the flesh. These religious men, they always walk after the flesh, trying to fix the flesh. We don't walk after the flesh. We walk after what? The Spirit. And the Spirit says what? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. We walk by the Spirit, not by the law. And so when Jesus Christ had finished his work, he told us what he did. He said, it's finished. What does that mean? It means it's done. What does that mean? It means it's finished. It means it's done. The work is done.

This is what stirs the soul of the believer. is the work of Jesus Christ. And the third one we praise is the Spirit. We praise the Father for His electing grace. We praise the Son for His redeeming grace. And we praise the Holy Spirit for His quickening power and grace. We who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ know this.

It was no mere act of will. I can't tell you how long I struggled with that when I learned that, that there was no amount of will that could make me believe. That struck me. I didn't know it, but the spirit was working on me even then. Because there was nothing I can do. But I knew this, if he didn't do it, I couldn't have it. And without my knowledge, I just resigned to just sit at his feet until he gave it to me. I didn't know what I was doing. It was the Spirit of God that put that in me.

And I know this, when I believed it was all Him, if you believe it's all Him, you will give no praise to your will. None. Any man runs around giving praise to his will, he's never experienced the power of the Spirit. That's not it. The power of the Spirit don't come by will. You don't get to split glory here. You don't get to split the praise. No. For by grace you are saved through faith and that what? Not of yourself. Faith is a gift of God and not of works. Why? Lest any man should brag or boast. We don't have anything to boast in. You believe you got anything to boast in? Why do you believe and so many don't? Why is it that this stirs your heart to praise and so many hate it? Why?

It is the power of the Spirit. When the power of the Spirit comes, A man cannot help but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We know this. It didn't come by any work of ourselves. It doesn't matter how sincere a man is without the power of the Spirit, he can't believe. But you that believe, isn't it astounding that it came to you? You weren't looking for it. No man seeks the Lord unless what? The Spirit of God gives him the ability to seek the Lord. And the amazing thing about the Spirit is this. How do you know it's the Spirit? Because the Spirit will never testify Himself.

Our Lord said this in John 15 verse 26. Look at what the Lord said about the Holy Spirit. John chapter 15. Look at verse 26. He said, but when the comforter is come. Whom I will send unto you from the father, even the spirit of truth. Oh, there it is again. Can't worship without truth. Can't worship without the spirit. He's both, isn't he? Spirit of truth. He said, which proceeded from the father. Listen to this. How are you going to know him? He will testify of me.

When the Spirit of God, you hear a man stand up and preach on the Holy Spirit and start talking about the Holy Spirit and only the Holy Spirit, listen to me, not the Spirit. The Spirit's not going to testify of Himself, He's going to testify of Christ. So when a man is preaching of Christ, guess who's doing that? That's the Spirit. The Spirit of God working in the hearts of men to preach Christ.

And so this evening, do you believe on the Son of God? Have you been made to bow before Christ to receive mercy and grace and forgiveness and pardon and peace and righteousness and redemption? This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and He is worthy of praise. He is worthy of praise. So when we say this, praise the Lord, O my soul. then you know what it is to praise the Lord. You praise Him in spirit and in truth, and this is the truth. We praise the Father for His electing grace. We praise the Son for His redeeming grace. And we praise the Spirit for His quickening grace.

And you know what? This is another work of the Spirit is keeping us. Why are you still here? You've heard this before. Why do you need to hear it again? Because the Spirit of God moves us. And I'll tell you this. We constantly need to praise Him. We constantly need to be commended to praise the Lord. Don't you need to be this commendation? Don't you need to be reminded of this? Well, you know why?

Because we're like leaky broken cisterns, it goes in, it fills us up, and then as soon as we leave, it goes right out. I don't know why it popped in my head, that little cartoon of Daffy Duck, you know, or something, and the hunter shoots him. And he says, you missed. And then he goes and grabs that water and drinks it. Then out the bullet holes comes all the water.

That's look like like us when we come to praise the Lord. We're so full of praise. And then as soon as we leave, he goes right out. That's why we need this commendation constantly. Praise the Lord. What? Oh, my soul. We don't need to be so much concerned about everybody else praising the Lord. We are concerned. I would love to see my children praise the Lord. I really would. I would love to see the Lord save them, but I can't make them. But what about myself? Don't I need to praise Him?

We need to constantly praise Him. So we who have been born by the grace and power of the Spirit We have this within ourselves to praise Him, to glorify Him, to magnify Him. And so then let us do this by the same means we received it the first time through the preaching of the Gospel. Isn't this how you receive this praise to begin with? Through preaching? This is the means by which God has chosen, and how should we praise Him if we fail to avail ourselves to the means?

This is how God chose to do it. So this evening, I hope and pray that we would say within our own souls, praise the Lord, O my soul. Now, quickly, I'm not gonna, I didn't get through verse one, told you I wasn't gonna get through these six verses. We'll just skim, go back to the top, go back to your text, look at this. How long we praise the Lord? How often?

David said, while I live will I praise the Lord. I will sing praises unto my God while I have been. The praise of the believer is never-ending. How are we to praise Him with our life? That's what he's saying. He said, I'm going to praise Him with my life. As long as I live, as long as I have been, I am going to praise Him. How do we do that? By faith and love. How do we live? That's another question. That's the way they ask it. How do I live in praise to God?

Well, His commandments to you and me are faith and love. Faith and love. Look at John, 1 John. Look at His commandment to you and me. 1 John, look at chapter 3. Now, the believer's rule of life is not the law. I told you just a minute ago Christ already removed the law, satisfied it. What is our rule of life? 1 John chapter 3 and look at verse 23, and this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment.

And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us. How do you know he lives in you? If we keep his commandments. What are his commandments? It is simply this, believe on his Son and love one another. So as long as we live, how do we live? in praise to God, how do you live?

Listen, I know this, we should do good works. There's nothing, somebody's hungry and the Lord moves you, feed him. Somebody needs clothes, God moves you, give it to him. Is that difficult? But you see, the difference between religion and what a believer does and good works is the religionist thinks it helps him to God.

The believer does it because he's already accepted. I'm not doing it for righteousness. I'm doing it because I've been made righteous. I'm not doing it to be accepted. I do it because I am accepted. And so as we live, how do we live? We live by faith, trusting, believing. I think Job was a great example of faith.

When he lost every evidence, God loved it. Now, he had every evidence that God loved him, right? He was wealthy, he had a nice family. I mean, all the blessings God poured out on this man, everybody knew that God loved him. But when God took everything away, there was no evidence God loved him.

He still trusted, he still believed. So how are we to praise God in this life? Simply by trusting his son, no matter what. No matter what takes place. Believing on his son. His wife said, why don't you just curse God and die? He said, shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and not evil? He said, I'll trust him, though he slay me. Isn't that an example of faith? This is how we praise him in our lives. by trusting him. And secondly, we praise him by love. Love for one another. Is this a suggestion that you love me?

Is it? What if I offend you? What if I hurt your feelings? What if I do something horrible to you? Does that give you any right not to love me? We praise him by loving and forgiving one another. Now how are you to forgive me and how am I to forgive you? Listen to these words. Even as he forgives us for Christ's sake. Now, is there any reason we should not love and forgive one another? Tell me one. Name a reason. Name a reason. Every reason is selfish. Every reason is selfish.

If we're to love and to praise our God, we should love one another. How much? As He loved us. As He loved us. So how long we do this? David said, as long as I have been, when are you going to stop having been? Well, even when you die, you're going to have been. I'm not going to stop praising him even after I die. I'm going to have been. And notice this, I'm a close here, he said, don't don't trust in me. He said, don't put your trust in princes and in men who have no power to help you.

We praise God by not trusting the thoughts and opinions of men. We do not praise God by trusting what somebody thinks or what somebody else feels. What do we trust? We trust the word of God. We trust the word of God. We believe only on the word of God.

I got this at Luther had said this. He said, feelings come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God and not else is worth believing. Though all my heart should feel condemned for one sweet token, there is no greater than my There is one greater than my heart, whose word cannot be broken. I'll trust the word of God, unchanging never, till body and soul are severed. For all things shall pass away, but the word of God shall endure forever.

How do we praise him? We praise him by trusting his word, not the opinions of men. You know what he just says in this text? He says, when a man dies, so does his thoughts. How many people come and say, well, I think God is like this. Well, immediately when he dies, he finds out. His thoughts die.

What does it care what I think or what my opinion is? We don't set preachers above anybody else. Why? We're men. I only bring you the authority, the only authority I have is this book. I don't have an opinion. You don't want my opinion. And so we don't trust men. We praise God by trusting God, trusting his word.

I know I got plenty more, but I ain't got time. I'm just gonna have to, maybe I'll get to it later, I don't know, Lord willing. But I sure hope the Lord will give us hearts of praise, don't you? Do you want that? I do. I want both. I want spirit and truth. I want to worship Him in spirit and truth. I want to know the truth and that truth will so affect my soul that I love Him and believe Him and serve Him. I want to do it with all my life, with all my heart, with all my soul.

I want to praise and adore Him and I do that by believing Him, by loving the brethren. We praise Him. We magnify Him. We magnify him not trusting men, but trusting wholly in his word, leaning not to our own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

May God help me to praise him in my very soul. Let's stand and be dismissed and pray. Heavenly Father, be merciful and gracious that you would give us such hearts of praise and adoration. I thank you for your electing grace and Christ-redeeming grace and the Spirit's quickening grace. I thank you. praise you for it. All glory and praise belong to you. Give me the power of the spirit that I might, with all my heart and all my soul, to lead and love and serve you. We confess we have no power to do this ourselves as we go away I know this will leak out of us. I pray that you'd feel us again, according to your grace. In Jesus' name. You didn't know you'd come here.

The Praise of My Soul

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about praising God?

How do we know that praising God is important for Christians?

Why is it essential to worship in spirit and truth?

What is the relationship between praise and the Holy Spirit?

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About Fred Evans

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The Praise of My Soul

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about praising God?

How do we know that praising God is important for Christians?

Why is it essential to worship in spirit and truth?

What is the relationship between praise and the Holy Spirit?

Sermon Transcript

About Fred Evans

Comments

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