Psalm 100, p2 of 2

Q: What does the Bible say about the joy of serving the Lord?

The Bible calls for God's people to serve the Lord with gladness and joy, as expressed in Psalm 100. Psalm 100 exhorts believers to serve the Lord with gladness, emphasizing that such service should stem from joy rather than obligation. This joy is vital because it reflects the believer's relationship with God, fueled by understanding the grace they have received. The Psalm also calls all the earth to rejoice, indicating that the joy of serving is rooted in the recognition of God's goodness and merciful nature, which encourages a living faith and vibrant expression of worship.

Q: How do we experience joy in our Christian faith?

We experience joy by believing in Jesus Christ, as He fills us with joy and peace through the Holy Spirit. Joy in the Christian faith is fundamentally tied to belief in Jesus Christ. As Romans 15:13 states, God fills believers with joy and peace in believing, allowing them to abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. This joy is not dependent on circumstances but arises from the recognition of God's promises and faithfulness, which is vividly seen in Christ's sacrificial love for His people. Therefore, even in trials, Christians can experience profound joy through the assurance of their salvation and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.

Q: Why is knowing that the Lord is God important for believers?

Knowing that the Lord is God reinforces our faith and assurance in His sovereignty and goodness. Understanding that 'the Lord, He is God' is central to the believer's faith. It is not only a recognition of God's sovereignty but also a declaration of assurance in His providential care. Psalm 100:3 highlights that we are His people, created by Him and sustained by His grace. This knowledge fosters trust in God's ultimate plan and power, encouraging believers to lean on Him for salvation and guidance. Identifying God as our Creator and Shepherd shapes our approach to life, worship, and service, grounding us in the truth of our identity in Christ.

Q: What does it mean that we are the sheep of His pasture?

Being the sheep of His pasture signifies God's care and guidance over His people. The metaphor of believers as 'the sheep of His pasture' illustrates God's intimate relationship with His people. Just as a shepherd cares for and protects his sheep, God provides guidance, sustenance, and safety for His followers. This concept is foundational to understanding Jesus' role as the Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for His sheep (John 10:11). It emphasizes not only His protective nature but also the invitation to trust Him fully, acknowledging our need for His care and direction in our daily lives.

Q: How does God’s mercy contribute to our joy?

God's everlasting mercy is a source of joy, affirming His commitment to His people. God's mercy is a central theme in Scripture, emphasizing His steadfast love and faithfulness towards His people. Psalm 100:5 states, 'The Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting.' This unchanging mercy provides a profound basis for joy, as it assures believers of God's forgiving nature and His willingness to receive us, despite our failings. Experiencing God's mercy enables us to rejoice in the assurance of salvation and hope, creating a joyous response in worship and gratitude towards Him.

Psalm 100 and it's such a short psalm I'm going to read it again with you and then we will pick up where we left off last time. It says in verse 1, make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands and that's an exceeding loud noise he's talking about and all ye lands speaks of the the broad scope of God's grace that he has people throughout the world in every country, every kindred, every tongue, and every tribe. He says in verse two, serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, He is God.

It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations." So the psalm is calling for God's people to rejoice with the highest possible joy. And it's giving a reason for that. is calling for his people in all lands and is giving an exhortation to serve the Lord with gladness, not with drudgery, not with a sense of duty, but with a sense of joy, even though we would find it a joy to serve the Lord in our duty, if you want to speak of it that way, it should be done with joy. But he says, to serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with singing. So all these things show us the great joy we are to have in coming to the Lord. A lot of times we don't feel joyful. Maybe we don't ever feel this joyful.

But in that sense, we should view this Psalm as a prophecy that will be fulfilled in the Lord's people, in the Church of God, in the consummation of Christ's salvation. When the Lord says to his people to do something, then with that word comes the ability. He qualifies his people with his own word. And so we look to him again to give us the grace we need to do what he tells us his will is for us to do.

And in this case, it's to express the highest possible incomprehensible joy A joy that we perhaps have never known in this life, but joy that we have in some measure by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I say that it's by faith because that's the way we have joy. Joy doesn't come to us any other way than by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I mentioned this scripture last week. I'm going to turn to it. It's in Romans 15 and verse 13. He says, now the God of hope, The God of hope, this is the one who has given us an expectation, not like, well, I wish it would come to pass this way, but a certain expectation. This is the way it will be.

The God of hope, fill you, he says, to fill you with all joy and peace in believing. So all joy, all peace in believing. that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. So there we have the fact that joy and peace is going to be given by God through believing. And that joy and peace through believing is given to us. The faith, the joy, the hope, everything is given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, we ask God. We come to Him. I need you. I want you. My desire is to joy. in believing and to have this peace that comes from God to us in our hearts because of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is given to us because of Christ who died for us. Christ died for us because the Father, God the Father, gave his Son for us. And it was because God received from Him everything that He required to magnify His own holiness and righteousness and to fulfill His judgments on our behalf in the blood of His Son. And this is our salvation.

This is cause for the greatest possible joy. And this comes by believing. Therefore, when we don't feel joyful, we pray. When we don't feel like praying or we don't feel like these things, what do we do? We go to God's Word. Go to His Word. Read the words that God has given us that teach us why, that give us the reason, that give us an unshakable, unalterable, unassailable reason why we should be joyful. It's because of Christ. and this joy we experience through the power of the Holy Spirit. We experience salvation through the Holy Spirit, but the salvation that saves us is accomplished by Christ and it was determined by God the Father. All these things teach us that the holy, holy, holy, the triune God is the one who saves us and does what is our highest good, this joy and peace in believing.

All right, so he goes on, and I want to look at verse 3 of Psalm 100 now. It says, Know ye that the Lord he is God. And then he goes on to say, that it is he that hath made us, not we ourselves, we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. This is a reason for joy. And this is what he tells us to do. Know ye that the Lord, he is God.

The Lord he's talking about here, of course, is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But we know him in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't know God the Father except in Christ. We can't know the Holy Spirit unless the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us. So we know God in Christ. He's the revelation of the invisible God. He's the one who has made God known. God has spoken in his Son. That's the only way we know him. And so he says, know ye that the Lord is God. It means to know that Christ is God.

Now, I want to say a lot about this, but I want to get to that part about the sheep and the pasture. It turns out that near my house, just about a block from my house, the weeds grow and in the summertime they get very tall and very dry and they blow their seeds around and you can't walk through them without getting stickers and it's annoying.

The people who take care of the land, it's not part of my property, they hire a shepherd to bring their sheep to graze on the weeds. And so they've been near my house now for a couple of weeks chomping on the grass, and they graze them every spring to eliminate those weeds. And since the nights are warm here in my neighborhood this time of the year, I usually leave my bedroom window open to cool down our room.

And I don't think about it too much, but when the window was open and I was asleep, I didn't realize the sheep would be awake all night. So what happens when you're in a half-awake state of mind, And you hear something, your mind, at least mine does, it alters reality a little bit to explain why you're hearing this noise. And so one night, the other night, about a week ago, I heard these sheep.

They were bleeding all night long. And in my half-awake frame of mind, I thought, really thought, that I was hearing the sound of a baby or several babies crying, small children in distress. And I thought, as I lay there, that these little babies must be neglected somehow by their parents. Perhaps their parents were drug users or, you know, you imagine all sorts of things. And I was too tired to get up and do anything about it. But I was laying there thinking and actually praying, Lord, would you help those babies?

And then I realized, oh, it's the sheep. And so these lambs cry a lot. They're like little babies. They just cry and cry. And so they're like human babies in that way. And they cry throughout the night. And I was over there taking a video for my grandchildren so they could see these little lambs. and hear them crying on the video. And there was, at that time, there was one little sheep. He was black, pure black, and he was running along, bleeding, because apparently he couldn't find his mother. And he's just going along as sheep do, meh, meh, meh, meh, crying.

And so as I thought about this, I realized that these verses are teaching us God's great care for his people. He hears their cry. He hears their cry. The shepherd hears the cry of the sheep. And that cry in some way is an indication that the sheep are okay.

If they couldn't cry, it would be a problem. But because they do cry, then it shows that they're healthy and strong. My mom used to say, the baby is crying, it's good exercise. And it was true. It's good exercise for babies to cry, even though it's distressing.

You always want to make sure that they don't have a serious need, but the Lord knows his people. And what it says here is that we are to know that the Lord is God. The Lord Jesus Christ, he is God. He made us. We did not make ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. much more than an earthly shepherd who cares for his sheep. And they do, they do.

They're parked out there in their trailer or their truck or somewhere close by the sheep all the time. And they have a dog that looks like a sheep. It's the same color as a sheep and it's very faithful to watch over the sheep. If you walk by there, the dog immediately comes and barks at you and it's a little intimidating because it's a big dog. So this is something that you can know about just by observing these sheep. But God has recorded several things about sheep in scripture.

Number one, Jesus said, he came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, the lost sheep. In Luke chapter 15, and that's recorded in Matthew chapter 18 and Luke chapter 19, but in Luke 15, The Lord says that the Pharisees needed to be corrected, and with gentle but firm correction, He taught them, He told them the parables, the three parables, the first one of the lost sheep. He said there were a hundred sheep, one was lost, and the shepherd left the ninety and nine to go find the one sheep that was lost.

And when he found it, he put it on his shoulders and he carried it back to the fold. And when he got back to the fold, he rejoiced. And he said, this is speaking about what God rejoices, his gladness, God's response to his sheep returned to him by the Lord Jesus Christ. God himself, all of heaven rejoices over one sheep that is lost and found by the Lord Jesus Christ. This psalm, Psalm 100, is about making a joyful noise with inexpressibly loud joy and and gladness. God is telling us that we can rejoice because he rejoices and we ought to rejoice because he rejoices. He rejoices because his son has brought his people back to himself. Christ rejoices over his sheep.

Remember David when he was, when a lion and a bear came to take one lamb and he killed that lion and he killed that bear? He took his life into his hands. He was a faithful shepherd. The Lord Jesus Christ is infinitely more faithful. And he didn't just take hold of the beard of the lion and the bear and take the lamb out of that mouth. He laid his life down for his sheep. He's the good shepherd. He's the chief shepherd. He's the great shepherd.

He's the one who is the Lord and he's the shepherd of his people. And his relation to his people as a shepherd and his sheep is given in addition to all the other relations that God tells us he has towards his people. The Lord Jesus Christ is the brethren. He's the brother of his people. They are his brethren. They are his children. The ones that God has given him as God's children to bring back again. He's the surety of his people. He is the husband of his people. They are his congregation. They are his temple, his city.

But they are also called his sheep. And it shows us that the Lord is so much greater than his sheep. That relationship is a relationship of much greater. The shepherd is much greater than the sheep. But the shepherd spends all of his time with the sheep. He never leaves them, and he won't leave them.

The father has a people, his sheep, and he gave them to his son, just like Jesse, David's father, gave the responsibility to David to take care of the sheep. And so Jacob was a shepherd, Isaac was a shepherd, Abraham was a shepherd, all these men were shepherds. And it's to teach us this relationship Christ has to his people. God the Father has to his people the relationship of a shepherd to his sheep. A relationship of faithfulness, a relationship of tender care, a relationship of protection, a relationship of provision, Everything they need, they don't think about it. The shepherd makes sure they have it.

All of their enemies, they don't, their current, sheep are completely defenseless. When I walk by the sheep in our neighborhood, they run away from me even though they're behind a fence. They're afraid of the smallest little thing because they know they have no defense mechanism. Sheep are prey animals. They're subject to being eaten. They don't have a way of defending them. They have to have someone defend them from their enemies. This is us. We can't find our own food.

And sheep are ignorant animals. They don't know how to keep themselves from danger. You've seen those pictures of sheep getting into a hole like a rabbit with its legs stuck in the hole, can't get out. There's so many ways sheep get themselves into trouble, and the Lord describes sheep this way in Isaiah 53. We all, like sheep, have gone astray.

We have turned, every one, every one of us have turned to his own way, but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. This is how God brought his sheep back to himself. He laid our sins, our going astray, a defiant, perverse, crooked, sinful, going out of God's way in our own way.

He laid that on Christ, the shepherd. The shepherd for the sheep was slaughtered. The shepherd laid down his life for the sheep in order to save the sheep. And then having laid his life down for them, he goes to seek them. He sends his gospel to find them. He says in John 10, 16, other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, meaning the immediate disciples, them also I must bring, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.

There's no failing of this shepherd. So all these things are meant to endear the Lord Jesus Christ to us with the greatest bond of love and affection and thanksgiving. So like the sheep, instead of bleeding out of fear, and unrest we bleed out of gladness. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, not want any good thing." What a tender thing this is, that the Lord is our shepherd. So carefully he watches over his people, he will never leave them, never sleeps. Before any angel, as a hymn we recently were looking at says, before any angel could sing his praise, God determined to save sinful sheep, his people.

Now these things are all given to us to make the Lord Jesus Christ so dear to us. And like I said last time in this psalm, the first immediate reason that a sinner has to give this triumphant, ear-splitting, joyous praise to God is that He has saved me from my sins. The matter of salvation is my salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. But the second reason is that we see that the one who saved me is the Savior. So the greatness of the Savior exceeds the greatness of his salvation. He himself is my salvation. And this teaches us how certain our salvation is, how eternal, how secure our salvation is. And it also teaches us how great the character, the name of our savior is.

And these things are given to us to rejoice because the one who is our shepherd rules over all things with unlimited power to bring about his will, which is only holy, He will save us from our sins in a holy manner by the price of His own blood. This is what gives us cause for the greatest joy. And this joy in seeing who our Savior is enables us to have joy even in the trouble of life. In the trouble of life, we don't judge our Savior by our troubles, but we judge our troubles by the nature, the character, the faithfulness of our Savior. And that causes us to have great joy.

And then we see that the nature, the name, the fame of our Savior is just a reflection, an expression, an outshining of the majesty of God the Father. So we see our Father in our Savior. And all these things serve to cause us to see things as God sees them. His purpose to save, His work to save, and His glory in saving us is our assurance that He will save us to the uttermost. And so we see our Savior in every way, giving Himself for His sheep.

He gave His life, and having risen again from the dead, He now intercedes at God's right hand to bring about God's eternal will to save us to the uttermost. Now, this is all to the glory of God. This is all to the glory of God. This is why it gives us such great joy, that our salvation from our sins against God is done to the glory of God.

That's hard to get our hands on, isn't it? There's a hymn that I wanted to read to you, and it's by a man named John Kent. I know he lived a long time ago, in the 1700s, I think, maybe the 1600s, but he wrote this hymn. He's very skillful. And it says, great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. And here's the way the hymn goes.

He says, without dispute, to expand or free, great is the gospel mystery. God in Christ was reconciled to guilty man by sin defiled. Shall seraphs try the same to prove tis buried in eternal love, tis lost in this unfathomed sea, and swallowed up, great God, in thee? So the mystery is in God. Here, it's not only in God, but it's revealed in him.

It says, here the divine perfections meet. Mercy and truth each other greet. Justice and peace in Jesus see. Unite in sacred harmony. That's from Psalm 85. It says, great was the mystery of that grace that chose from Adam's fallen race 10,000,000 sons to praise its glories through eternal days. to praise God's grace. By man came death, sin, hell, and shame. By man the resurrection came. He bruised the subtle serpent's head and captive all his legions led. This is Christ, the second and last Adam. And then he says this. Listen to these words.

Great was the mystery, truly great, that hell's designs should hell defeat. But here eternal wisdom shined, for Satan wrought what God designed. Isn't that incredible? That Satan's design was Satan's defeat. And what Satan thought he would do in order to destroy Christ and his people was what God in his eternal wisdom determined. That's how God shined his greatness. This is our shepherd so that God turns the evil, our evil against Him, our sins against God, and Satan's evil design to show himself greater than our sin and Satan's wicked designs in order to bring about his eternal will to glorify himself through the blood of his Son so that in righteousness, in holiness, in wisdom, in justice, in judgment, and by grace, incomprehensible, he would save sinners for himself, and he would show himself greater than all of the enemy's devices, even our own sins against him.

This is amazing, isn't it? This gives rise to that joy in our hearts. When Jesus prayed to his father in John chapter 12, I want to read this to you. in John chapter 12. It shows us these same things, reasons for God's, for joy in the heart of a believer, the sheep of the Lord. He says in John chapter 12, Jesus said, Father, in his prayer, just before that, he says, now is my soul troubled.

What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. He was talking about the cross, his death. He's talking about taking the sins of his people. And with those sins being treated as the greatest sinner, reproached by men, shamefully reproached by men, evil, wicked men, who killed the Prince of Life, the Lord of Glory. And God, and he says, he goes on there, what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?

The Lord Jesus Christ would go through the worst because it was God's will and he would be brought through it triumphantly. Now, this is the same pattern that God does with his people. But here in our Savior, Christ did this and he says in John 12, 28, Father, this is his prayer. What did the Lord Jesus pray when he faced the greatest possible distress that anyone could ever imagine? Father, glorify thy name. Now that's a prayer, isn't it?

Then came there a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. When the Lord Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and came up out of the waters, the Spirit of God came down from heaven like a dove and landed, lit upon him. And a voice from heaven, God the Father, spoke and said, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. He was speaking about His great pleasure, His delight with His Son, because in His baptism, He was depicting what would happen when He underwent the baptism of divine wrath with the sins of His people, and would come up out of that baptism victorious, because He answered God for them, and God would be pleased in His holiness to raise Him with them from the dead.

And so also in Matthew 17, at the Mount of Transfiguration, when the disciples were with Jesus and his countenance was changed and his face and his clothes shined like the light. And you remember that Peter blunderingly said, Let's build a tabernacle here for you, Elijah and Moses, because they also appeared with him then and spoke of his decease, which he would accomplish. And then the voice of God, the father from heaven was heard saying, this is my beloved son, hear ye him. And then Moses and Elijah were taken away and all they could see was Jesus. So there, God the Father again glorified His Son because He was the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. And now we hear Him. We have Him. God has spoken in His Son.

And so also in John 12 when he's going to the cross and he's contemplating that, what his father would do, give him the cup of wrath to drink for his people having taken their sins upon him and standing before God to give an account they could never give but must give and he would give for them. And so he says, Father, glorify thy name. And God's response was, I have. In everything, every event, every word, everything Christ did, he was glorifying Christ and glorifying himself in his son. much more than when He went to the cross, God the Father glorified His Son and glorified Himself in His Son." So that you can read this over and over, but see in these words of the Father here, in response to Christ's prayer, I have and I will yet glorify it again. Now, take these words as a reason for joy.

God the Father has promised to glorify himself in the salvation of his people. He is going to be glorified. He has made them his people. They are his sheep of his pasture. He will not fail or his name, his fame, his honor as God would suffer loss. But he is not going to suffer loss. Not only is he not going to suffer loss, but he is given his word. He's made a promise. In fact, he made a promise in oath.

He swore by himself and his oath was given as a secondary consolation for us, not because he needed to make it more sure, but he said, in effect, you can be so confident that as God cannot change, he staked himself to fulfill his covenant promise to Christ, that he would save his people from their sins because Christ would lay down his life in obedience to God for them. And so he would be glorified. And so we see this throughout the scriptures.

When his people sinned against him and they were subject to his wrath, God himself interposed Christ by his blood in order to deliver them from their sins and show himself greater than their sins. And this is the theme of the gospel, isn't it? In Acts chapter 3, I stand amazed at these things, but in Acts 3 at the end of the chapter, the sermon that Peter preached to those men, those very men who crucified Christ, it ends in that chapter this way, unto you first, to you first, you who crucified the Lord of glory and Prince of life, unto you first, God having raised up his son Jesus, didn't send him to blast you and kill you, but he said, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. That's grace, isn't it?

When we read about these men who crucified Christ, we're supposed to identify with them as them. The old hymn says, ah, dearest Jesus, I, it was, denied thee. I crucified thee. That's what these words are teaching God's people. You were the one who crucified the Lord of glory.

And God has sent his son. He sent his son, having raised him up now and exalted him and enthroned him. and exalting Him as the Savior who gave His life. He sent Him now to bless you and turning you from your iniquities. That is grace. That's reason for joy, isn't it? That shows us the nature of God's will and character, His great fame, His name, His honor.

So that like the woman whose daughter was gravestly vexed by a devil and coming to Jesus said, my daughter is gravestly vexed with the devil. And he said, nothing. And the disciples said, send her away. She's bothering us. And then he said, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As if to say, you're not one of them. You're not the elect. And she says, help, Lord. She came and worshiped him. Help me, Lord.

She kept pleading because she, in all of that importunity, she was relying on the nature, the will, the mind, the character, the fame of his name on Christ. She knew that as the masters allow the children's crumbs to fall for the little dogs under the table, so she, as a little dog, one of the master's little dogs could stay there and he would allow the crumbs to fall. And that would be sufficient. His bread, himself given for us, for our life, that would be enough. And so she kept pleading with him, importunately.

And this is showing us that as God's sheep, we bleat, we cry, at night, all the day, and the Lord is the one we're pleading with. And we know, we know with certainty, this is our God. And that's why he says in verse 3, Know ye that the Lord, He is God. What a great cause for joy that is. The Lord is God. Now, think about these words. Notice these words, He is God. Know that He is God.

Faith, God-given faith. We don't have it, do we? We weren't born with faith in Christ. No one was born that way. That which is of the flesh is flesh. Jesus said the flesh profits nothing. The natural man has no understanding, doesn't seek God, is unrighteous, is none good. His mind is enmity, hostile against God. The natural man can't see and can't know the things of God. So no one has faith naturally. Faith is a gift from God. But to know that Christ is God is God's gift that reveals him to be God from scripture with this God-given faith. And so faith is knowing that He is God.

In 1 John chapter 5 it says that whoever is born of God knows that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Christ, says it with the mouth because this is in their heart, he is born of God. I'm not saying it exactly like, let me read it to you from 1 John chapter 5. Yes, 1 John 5 verse 1. He says this. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.

And everyone that loves him that beget loveth him also that is begotten of him. So to know that Jesus is the Christ, that he came into the world, means that he is God. He came, he was sent. Before he came, he was, he was always the Christ, always God's chosen, God's anointed, the one who would save his people from their sins. He's the salvation of God. And so to know that Jesus is God is a gift from God, a gift of faith.

Faith is knowing that Christ is become my salvation This is another aspect of faith if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't just believe that he is God We believe that he is God and that as God he has become my salvation Isaiah 12 says Let me read that to you also in Isaiah chapter 12 He says in verse 1 And in that day thou shalt say, every believer says this, O Lord, I will praise thee. Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also is become my salvation.

And we know that that's what Simeon said when he lifted up the baby Jesus in his arms. He said, my eyes have seen thy salvation. This is God. This is our salvation. So that's the other aspect of faith. This is saving faith. God reveals himself. He convinces us that Christ is God and is our salvation. And faith is also coming to Christ. If we truly understand and believe the gospel, then we come to Christ to save us.

We come in prayer. We come in our heart. We come trusting. We come with understanding that this is what God has said in his word. And I, as a sinner, have no other hope. unless Christ saves me. So we come to Christ to be saved by Him. We come and ask Him to do His will, knowing that His will is to save sinners.

As we say, I am a sinner and I have no claims. I can't influence, I can't motivate you to save me. You have to save me out of your will, by your power, in holiness and righteousness, in judgments. You who are my judge must answer your judgment to God for me.

This is the way we come. We come to Christ. That's what faith does. And in John chapter six, it goes through this over and over. He's the bread from heaven. We come to him to take from him our life, the life that God gives because of his blood, because of his broken body. John 6, I encourage you to read through that, especially from verses 29 through verse 69. And faith is looking to Christ. We look to Him who is as God, as our Savior. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. And faith is also seeing Christ.

Let me read this verse to you in Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews 11 says in verse 11, through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised. You see what faith does? Faith is not looking inward. Faith is looking to Him who promised and judging Him to be faithful to do what He said.

Lord, do as You have said. Do according to Your name. According to your will by your power according to your righteousness According to your holiness in judgments, but in grace and in mercy towards me a sinner Save me for your namesake. That's what it means.

But in in verse 13 of Hebrews 11 notice he says These all died in faith now. He's gonna really expand on He's going to give us a definition of faith. Listen, he says, these all died in faith, not having received the promises. They didn't get what was promised in this life. But here's the way they lived. But having seen them, That's the first aspect of faith. It's the spiritual sight.

It's the perception of spiritual understanding. It's seeing that what God has said with the understanding, this is what it means. Christ is all, for example. So he says, having seen them, they saw them, afar off, the promises, and were persuaded of them. That's the second aspect of faith. It's a God-given, confident persuasion that what God has said concerning Christ is the way things are. Not what I see in myself, but what God has said is true in Christ.

That's faith. It's seeing, it's persuasion. They were persuaded of them and they embraced them. That means they trusted. They were cleaving to the promise that God made because that was what they were depending on. They were trusting. They were embracing it. They received what God promised would be done as true.

And then he says, and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth because God-given sight with persuasion and trust in Christ causes us to confess, yeah, I'm not a citizen of this world. I'm part of a kingdom that is not of this world. I've been translated from darkness and the rule of darkness to light to the rule of God's Son. God has qualified me through in Christ to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light from Colossians chapter 1 verse 12.

So this is what faith is and this is what he's saying here. Know ye that the Lord is God. This is saying, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is all these things. And so I wanted to say this about that. Notice how he says this in Psalm 100, verse three.

It is he that has made us and not we ourselves. So he's not talking about being created so much from the dust, although that is true. We did not create ourselves from the dust of the earth. In the beginning, God made us out of the dirt. He made us out of the dust. But in spiritual creation, God made us out of the ruin of our death in sins. And that creation by God, the first one was by the power of His word. He gave power. to that unformed mass when he formed out of the dust of the ground, Adam and his people with him, with Adam. But in Christ, he formed us in him.

We are new creatures. We're new creation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2 says that we were children of wrath even as others, that we were all these things. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. But even when we were that way, I'm turning there to read it to you. He says in Ephesians 2, he says, but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive, quickened us together with Christ, so that, notice our life is not something that's independent of, but with Christ, he's our life.

He raised, we were raised with Christ, By grace you are saved and has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He's speaking about something we don't experience, something that we can't say in experience is done, but something that is as certain and true as God is God. That in the ages to come, notice in the ages to come, what is God going to do? He's going to show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness, toward us through Christ Jesus. This is God's unspeakable grace in the gift of his son, raising us from the deadness of our sins to life and seated at God's right hand with the Lord Jesus Christ. For by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And if you take that verse, with Romans 11 and verse 5 and 6, which say, if it is by grace, then is it no more of works. You have to conclude without any shadow of a doubt that God is saying that the faith you have was created and given to you by God. You did not create this spiritual life. You did not create the faith which is that breathing out, that drinking in, that eating of Christ that comes from seeing Him with persuasion and embracing Him and confessing Christ is the Lord.

God has raised Him from the dead and this in His resurrection is my righteousness and justification and my life. That's what Romans chapter 10 verse 9 is talking about. That if we confess with the mouth of Lord Jesus and believe in our heart, God has raised him from the dead. It's saying in his resurrection, God has justified me from all my sins. He has forgiven me. That's my only hope. And God has done this. And so this is God's doing.

The life, the faith, our spiritual being is God's creation. And He created us by Christ going to the cross. And so we didn't create ourselves. Therefore, we can't maintain our life. God has to do it. We don't bring our life to that consummate end that God is going to glorify himself by.

He glorifies himself by his creation. He's glorified in his own work. We are his workmanship. We didn't work ourselves into this place. God did it, and so we're looking to Him to do what He started. He's going to finish what He began in us. It's God who is at work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. This is our hope. This is the reason for joy. We didn't make ourselves. He made us. We didn't make ourselves His people. He made us His people in covenant.

That's what he's talking about in Psalm 100, verse 3. This covenant was an everlasting covenant. In Hebrews chapter 13, when he speaks of Christ as the shepherd, notice, and we as his sheep, notice how he puts it in Hebrews 11, I mean chapter 13 and verse 20.

He says, Ah, now the God of peace, I'm taking it from memory before I actually get there. He says, now the God of peace, notice, the God of peace, he's the one who established peace. He made peace in the blood of Christ. That brought again from the dead, this is the proof that he made peace in his blood.

Our Lord Jesus, he brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus. This is a resurrection, we confess and believe in our heart. that great shepherd of the sheep through, he brought him from the dead, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. We are the Lord's sheep by the will of God. by his electing choice of us in Christ, giving us to Christ as our shepherd, we his sheep, Christ laying his life down for us as his sheep to bring us to God. Then calling us from his exalted throne in glory through the gospel to bring us as lost sheep to himself back to the fold and heaven. All of heaven rejoicing because the Lord has found his sheep and brought them to himself again. And he's saying here, this was an everlasting covenant made in Christ's blood. And he goes on in chapter 13, verse 21 of Hebrews. Him, the God of peace, make you perfect in every good work to do his will. You see, this is God's work. working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

There's the glorify yourself. Father, glorify yourself. He did. He glorified himself, himself in Christ, his son. All right. Well, we've run out of time here, but let me just mention the last verse here in passing. He says, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise, be thankful to him and bless his name. Notice, bless his name, bless who he is. Thanksgiving, praise, thankfulness to him. For the Lord is good. Through all these things we see the Lord is good. His mercy, isn't that what sheep find so sweet? Their constant food is the mercy of God in Christ. His mercy is everlasting. He's faithful, He doesn't waver, no shadow of turning, no failure, no relenting, no taking back.

That which is given to us in Christ was given to us in Christ before the world began. And that which was given before the world began will be most certainly given to us. The kingdom that God the Father prepared for you before the foundation of the world, Jesus said in Matthew 25. So his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations.

Here we are in this generation, at this time, And God's faithfulness to his own mercy has brought the gospel of Christ to us. So that even we now who are nothing, and I'm speaking of myself with a personal acquaintance with myself, who have nothing, have nothing to offer, nothing to benefit, nothing to profit God, am a recipient of his provision, His constant care and need of His constant feeding me daily with Christ. I stand in utter need with nothing to bring and nothing to offer but what God has offered and given in His Son. Now that's what God is saying here about His people. Make a joyful noise to the Lord. His mercy is everlasting. His truth endures to all generation. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to call his people to himself and save them in truth, in righteousness, according to what he said in his word.

Let's pray. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Help us by your grace. Reveal the gladness of your heavenly truth, the Lord Jesus Christ, to us in our hearts and cause us to confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, who for the sheep was offered that he might bring us to God in fulfillment of the everlasting covenant and bring us to himself with great joy In heaven and in our hearts, give us this grace today, we pray. Help us to meditate on what you have said, your goodness, your faithfulness, your promises, your precious blood, and where you are now in triumphant reign over all things for your people. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Psalm 100, p2 of 2

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the joy of serving the Lord?

How do we experience joy in our Christian faith?

Why is knowing that the Lord is God important for believers?

What does it mean that we are the sheep of His pasture?

How does God’s mercy contribute to our joy?

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Psalm 100, p2 of 2

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the joy of serving the Lord?

How do we experience joy in our Christian faith?

Why is knowing that the Lord is God important for believers?

What does it mean that we are the sheep of His pasture?

How does God’s mercy contribute to our joy?

Sermon Transcript

About Rick Warta

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