TV: A Psalm of Greatness

Q: What does the Bible say about the greatness of God?

The Bible declares that God's greatness is unsearchable and worthy of praise. Psalm 145 emphasizes that great is the Lord, and His greatness is unsearchable. This unsearchable quality points to the infinite nature of God's power, wisdom, and majesty. Throughout Scripture, we see references to His greatness, such as in Psalm 147:5, which states that His understanding is infinite. The psalmist calls believers to extol and bless the Lord forever, recognizing that He is deserving of exaltation due to His exceeding worth and limitless power.

Q: How do we know God's greatness is true?

God's greatness is revealed through His mighty acts and His Word. God's greatness is not just an abstract concept; it is demonstrated through His mighty acts in history and His declaration in Scripture. The psalms frequently retell God's wondrous works, allowing us to see His holiness, righteousness, and compassion. As believers, we accept the authority of Scripture, which continually affirms God's greatness and provides accounts of His faithfulness. The repeated calls to worship and adoration found in psalms like Psalm 145 reinforce our assurance of God's majestic nature.

Q: Why is praising God important for Christians?

Praising God acknowledges His greatness and reminds us of His mercy and grace. Praising God is vital for Christians because it aligns our hearts and minds with the truth of who God is. As declared in Psalm 145, praising the Lord involves recognizing His unmatched greatness, power, and goodness. It is an act of worship that affirms our dependence on Him, reaffirms our faith in His promises, and fosters a spirit of gratitude. When we extol the Lord, we acknowledge His mercy and grace, which are essential to our salvation and daily living as His people.

Q: How does God's unsearchable greatness affect our understanding of Him?

God's unsearchable greatness signifies that we can never fully comprehend Him. The unsearchable greatness of God challenges our understanding and encourages humility. Psalm 145:3 states that His greatness is unsearchable, highlighting that no human effort can fully grasp the depths of God’s character or His works. This realization serves as a reminder that our knowledge of God is limited to what He has revealed. As we explore Scripture and reflect on God's works, we grow in awe and reverence rather than presumption, knowing that His wisdom and understanding far exceed our own.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, located at 2709 Rock Springs Road in Kingsport, Tennessee, would like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. For information and service times, visit www.ksgc.church. And now, Gabe Stoniker.

If you would like to follow along with me, I will be bringing a message to you today from Psalm 145. Psalm 145. We are going to look at the entire psalm, but we're going to focus on verse 3. Verse 3 is the reason why I wanted to come to this psalm. It says, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable."

And that's a wonderful verse. That is a wonderful verse. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. I truly love hearing that. It blesses my heart to hear that. Great, greatly, greatness. That's how our Lord is described. Great, greatly, in His greatness. Great is the Lord, greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable.

That makes me very happy to hear that. I hope it makes you very happy to hear those words. If you look at Psalm 147, verse five, it says, great is our Lord and of great power. His understanding is infinite. Great is our Lord and of great power. His understanding is infinite. Doesn't it thrill your heart to know that? Doesn't it thrill your heart to hear that? Great is our Lord. I love how that's worded.

Great is our Lord. He is the Lord of his people. God has a people. The Father chose a people, a particular people, and He gave those people to Christ to redeem. And every soul that God the Father chose and gave to Christ and Christ redeemed them, they can say, great is our Lord. Our Lord. The Lord is our Lord. the Lord of His people. Verse 5 right here says, Great is our Lord and of great power.

Great power. Power that cannot be fathomed. It's power that the human mind cannot fathom. It is almighty power. Think about this. It's power that has no limits. Think about that. It's power that has no limits. It's almighty power. There's no end to it, no stopping to it. Verse five says, and his understanding, his wisdom, his knowledge, his perfect will, his perfect purpose in all things, His ordering of all things. It says His understanding is infinite. His understanding and His wisdom is the same as His power. There's no limit to it. There's no limit to it. Think about that. It's infinite. It is infinite. There is a point where my understanding stops. Pick a subject, any subject you want to talk about. I may know a little bit about that subject. I may know a lot about that subject, but there's a point where it stops. Not with him.

It's infinite. His understanding is infinite. It just keeps going into infinity. That's amazing. That is amazing to me. I'd like for us to look at a psalm of greatness. That's what our subject matter here is. A psalm of His greatness. Our Lord's greatness. If you look back at Psalm 145, this is our text. Again, verse 3 says, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.

Every time that I read that, it's like what the scripture says about the Queen of Sheba. When she saw Solomon, you know, the Queen of Sheba came to ask questions of Solomon. She'd heard of his wisdom and his greatness. And when she came, she brought some gifts with her.

But it says when she saw Solomon and she saw all that he had and how pathetic her little gift was to him, And when she saw his ascent by which he ascended his throne and when she truly, truly gained a knowledge of him, it says there was no more spirit within her.

She just lost everything. There was nothing to say. She just was speechless. I think that's a good way to say it. She was just speechless. And when I read this, that's how I feel. When I really get a hold of our Lord in all of His glory, what can you say? What can you say to these things? It leaves us speechless. completely speechless. You know, man naturally brings the Lord down in his or her mind. Mankind has Him down, down. But once we get into God's Word and we see how high and lofty He is, what do you say? It's truly amazing. It says, great is the Lord in verse three.

The word great refers to his magnitude and his extent, great. And then it says greatly to be praised. Greatly refers to his exceeding worth, his value, his worthiness, He is worthy to be praised. He's worthy to be praised because of His value. It is much. It is exceeding much. When you look up that word in a concordance, it gives you a Bible definition of it, and I love it. It says muchness. That's the word that it uses, muchness. Great, greatly. Great is the Lord, greatly. And His greatness is unsearchable. The word greatness refers to His mighty acts, all of His majestic doings, the acts of His majesty.

Seeing this and entering into this, it'll cause us to say with David right here in verse 1, Psalm 145 verse 1, David said, I will extol thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name forever. I will extol thee, I'll bless thy name forever. Extol means lift up. It means exalt. It means raise up on high.

That's where our Lord deserves to be because of his greatness. That's where he deserves to be. I'd like to really make that clear today. In your mind, in your heart, when you think of this one who the world just calls Jesus, they just refer to him as Jesus, you remember in your mind and in your heart, this is the Lord God Almighty. This is the high king of heaven. You know, people say, make Jesus Lord or, you know, Jesus is king.

Well, let's not think of him like that. Let's, let's enter into his greatness. His loftiness. Great, great. When you think that you've got Him as high as He can go in your mind and heart, send Him infinitely higher than that. Extol Him. Extol Him. That's what David said. Lift Him up. Exalt Him. Raise Him up on high because that's where He deserves to be. That's where the Father has placed Him. The Father made Him to be Lord and Christ.

Oh, His greatness. I'm going to tell you that of all the things that I enjoy about preaching, this is what the Lord has called me to do. And of all the things that I enjoy about preaching, the one, the thing that I enjoy the most is declaring the greatness of the Lord, the high and loftiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, His exaltation. That's my favorite thing to preach. His exaltation. I love declaring Him as He is, high and lifted up.

I love how Philippians chapter 2 says that because the Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself, and I'm going to tell you, when you see how high and lofty He is, you enter into how far He humbled Himself. No man has ever humbled Himself like the high King of heaven did. And I love how it says, because the Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself for the salvation of his people, bearing the sin of his people. I love how it says, because he made himself of no reputation.

Think about that. Men of this earth, you know, they want to attain these prestigious levels and they want to be worshipped by men and praised by men. But our Lord Jesus Christ came to this world of men and told no one who he was. He did not lift up his voice in the streets and cry who he was. He made himself of no reputation. He took upon himself the form of a servant. That's what people knew him to be, a servant. And He was made in the likeness of man, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of His cross. And the Scripture says, Because of that, the Father has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. He has extolled Him, and His name is above every name. His place is above every place.

And to that, all of God's people say amen. Amen. Let His name be the highest, the greatest, and the highest. Because Christ accomplished that for His people, God the Father said, at the hearing of His name, every time His name is declared, at the hearing of His name, His great name, He said, let every knee bow and let every tongue confess that He is Lord. He is my Lord. The Lord is my Lord.

And that's what God's people do when they hear His name. That's what they do. They bow the great, high, holy Lord of heaven and earth. They bow. I pray that's me and you. I pray that we bow every time we hear His name. Our tongues confess that every time we hear His name. I pray the Lord will cause that to be so in us because of who He is and what He has done for sinners like us. I pray God would cause us to exalt and bless His holy name.

Verse one says, I will extol thee, my God, O King. My God, my King. And it goes on to say, I will bless thy name forever and ever. Verse two says, every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy name forever and ever. If you look with me at Psalm 103, back just a few psalms here to Psalm 103, verse one says, bless the Lord. Bless the Lord.

Do you know what that means? When you look it up, it means adore the Lord. That's what it means. Adore the Lord. Kneel before. Bow before. give thanks to with deep adoring. That's what it means. Adore him. Verse 1 says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Don't forget His benefits.

Verse 3 says, Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. That's amazing, isn't it? How great is that? He has forgiven all of the iniquities of His people. That means the sins, my sins, your sins, if we belong to Him, if the Father chose us and gave us to Christ, that's what He accomplished. He forgave all of our iniquities. We have sins that need to be forgiven, and that's what Christ did for us. He forgave our iniquities.

I love the song, At the Cross. It's in our hymnal, we sing the song, at the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, the light of forgiveness, the light of salvation, the light of redemption. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. That's so glorious.

Why did that burden roll away? It's because He forgave all my iniquities. That's why the burden just rolls away when God's people realize that Christ accomplished forgiveness. He did enough to forgive all our iniquities. Not just the past iniquities, but the sins we've yet to even commit. When Christ bore them on the cross of Calvary, all of our sins were future. and he put him away, he paid the debt for him.

He healed, verse three says, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. He healed all of the spiritual diseases of his people. And that healing is unto, that physical healing is unto an eternal healing. Once the Lord relieves one of his own from this world and calls that soul to glory, all diseases are gone. It's an eternal healing.

Verse four says, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfy thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Adore the Lord for that. That's what Psalm 103 is saying. Bless the Lord for all these things. adore Him. He's redeemed your life from destruction. He's crowned you with loving kindness, tender mercy.

This is what the Lord has done for His people. Verse 6 says, The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. Every soul who is low and captive and sorrowful in sin. He has executed righteousness for that soul, the soul that says, I cannot do good before God. All I am is a sinner. He's executed the righteousness that that soul needs. He's done that for that soul. And judgment for all that are oppressed, the soul that says, judge me, Lord, you deserve to judge me. Well, he did on the cross of Calvary. He took care of that for his people. It says, he made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins. He hath not dealt with us. For God's people, Christ was dealt with in the place of their sins. The Father dealt with Christ in the place of His people. So verse 9 says, He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. He rewarded Christ in our place. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." That's how far He has separated us from our sins. In Christ, He took them the opposite way. As far as the, if you went in a straight line, east to west, and you just kept going, that's how far our sins have been removed from us. Verse 13 says, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

That is great. I'm telling you, that's great. He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass." That's what life on this earth is. It's so short. The time of grass is just so short. It starts to grow, and we cut it down. That's all we do with grass is cut it down. And if it doesn't get cut down, it's here a little season, and then it dies, and it's over. It says, He knoweth our frame. In verse 14, He remembereth that we're dust. As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field. So he flourisheth, for the wind passeth over it, and it's gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. Fear Him and His greatness. and his righteousness is unto children's children." That is just such good news. David said, adore the Lord for that. Adore him for that, for his greatness to us, for his merciful kindness to us. If you would, if you're following along, go back to Psalm 145. Back in Psalm 145, verse one says, I will extol thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable."

It is unsearchable. We will, by searching, never find out God. Men and women both think that they have God figured out. We don't. We do not. We cannot, by our searching, find out God. The only thing that we can know of Him is what He has been pleased to reveal to us. But we will never expound the fullness of the Lord our God.

That's glorious to me. That is truly glorious. As eternity continues, we will learn of Him. Think about that. Eternity is forever. Eternity is eternal. And we will never come to a place where we stop learning about our God. Of His learning, there will be no end. No end whatsoever. We'll never get to the point where we say, okay, I know the fullness of God. Never. Never will it be said we will forever stand in all of His greatness. And it's because His greatness is unsearchable. It is unsearchable. Verse 4 says, And that's what we're doing right now. One generation declared it to us, and now we are declaring it to the next. That's what we've been called to do.

And I'm so thankful because as long as the declaration is declared, There's mercy to be had. There is mercy to be had. I'm so thankful. Verse 5 says, I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works. And by God's grace, That's what we will tell men and women. By His grace, we'll tell the great things that the Lord has done. Not us, not what we have done, but what He has done. The wondrous works of the Lord. The wondrous works of Calvary. The glorious, finished, saving works of Calvary.

Verse six. Men shall speak of the might of that terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness, thy terrible acts, thy greatness, not unto us, unto thy name. Verse seven. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness." Thy goodness. Thy righteousness. Thy grace.

It's all Christ. That's what God's people speak of. Christ. Christ's everything. Everything belongs to Him. Our righteousness is in Him. Our sanctification is in Him. Our wisdom is in Him. Our redemption is in Him. It's all Him. Verse 8, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. That's wonderful. Verse 9, it says, The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.

All thy works shall praise thee, and they do. O Lord, thy saints shall bless thee, and they do. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power. thy kingdom, thy power, to make known to the sons of men his mighty axe and the glorious majesty of his kingdom." It's his axe, his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. And thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

This message is all about him. The gospel is all about him. Verse 14 says, The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down over sin, over need of mercy. Verse 15 says, The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand and satisfyest the desire of every living thing. It all comes from you. Every good and perfect gift comes from you.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. And that's so. Everything that happens is of his hand. and everything that he does is righteous and holy. All of it. Verse 18 says, The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. And what glorious news that is. How wonderful is that?

He's near. You cry for mercy, you cry for salvation in the blood of Christ, and He will be near. He will be merciful. He will be. Verse 19 says, He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him. He also will hear their cry and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them that love Him, but all the wicked will He destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless His holy name forever and ever." And I pray that you and I both will be able to say, Amen. All glory and greatness be to Him. Amen.

You have been listening to a message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this message or to hear other messages of Sovereign Grace, you can call or write to the number and address on your screen or visit www.ksgc.church. Tune in at this same time next week for another message of God's free and sovereign grace.

TV: A Psalm of Greatness

What does the Bible say about the greatness of God?

How do we know God's greatness is true?

Why is praising God important for Christians?

How does God's unsearchable greatness affect our understanding of Him?

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TV: A Psalm of Greatness

What does the Bible say about the greatness of God?

How do we know God's greatness is true?

Why is praising God important for Christians?

How does God's unsearchable greatness affect our understanding of Him?

Sermon Transcript

About Gabe Stalnaker

Comments

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