You would open your Bibles with
me to Acts chapter 2. Acts, the second chapter. I talked with Deb Sparks last
night. Ed came through his surgery.
It was successful. But he said it was very, very
painful. But it was successful. And if
everything went well, he may get to come home today. If not,
hopefully tomorrow. So thankful for that good report. We'll begin our reading in verse
22 of Acts chapter two. We're gonna look this evening
at the Lord building his church. Here is a very clear example
of how the Lord does that. Acts two, verse 22. Ye men of
Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holding of it. For God speaketh concerning him,
or David speaketh concerning him. I foresaw the Lord always
before my face, for he is on my right hand that I should not
be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad.
Moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou will
not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer thine holy one
to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the
ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely
speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he's both dead and
buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore,
being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to
him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh,
he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He, seeing this
before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell or in the grave. Neither his flesh did see corruption.
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses.
Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed
forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended
into the heavens, but he sayeth himself, the Lord said unto my
Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that
God hath made that same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord
and Christ. Now, when they heard this, they
are pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest
of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter
said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is
unto you and to your children and to all that are far off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many
other words did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves
from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized. And the same day there were added
unto them about 3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul.
And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all
that believed were together and had all things common and sold
their possessions and goods and part of them to all men. as every
man had need. And they, continuing daily with
one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to
house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God, and having favor with all the people, and the
Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. All
right, Sean, you can lead us in some hymns. Okay, if you would, please turn
to song number 17, Come Thou Fount. Come thou fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon
it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to
arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God. He, to rescue me from danger,
interposed His precious blood. O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee. ? Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it ? ? Prone to leave the God I love ? ? Here's my heart, oh,
take and seal it ? ? Seal it for thy courts above ? Okay, and for our second song,
turn to page 464. I will praise him. When I saw the cleansing fountain
open wide for all my sin, I obeyed the Spirit's wooing when He said,
Will thou be clean? I will praise Him, I will praise
Him, praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye
people, for His blood can wash away each stain. Though the way seem straight
and narrow, All I claimed was swept away. My ambitions, plans,
and wishes at my feet in ashes lay. I will praise Him, I will praise
Him, praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye
people, for His blood can wash away each stain. Then God's fire upon the altar
of my heart was set aflame. I shall never cease to praise,
glory, glory to His name. I will praise Him, I will praise
Him, praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye
people, for His blood can wash away each stain. Blessed be the name of Jesus,
I'm so glad He took me in. He's forgiven my transgressions,
He has cleansed my heart from sin. I will praise Him, I will praise
Him, Praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye
people, For His blood can wash away each stain. Glory, glory to the Father, Glory,
glory to the Son. Glory, glory to the Spirit. Glory to the three in one. I will praise Him, I will praise
Him, praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye
people, for His blood can wash away each stain. Now if you would open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 147. Psalm 147. Praise ye the Lord, for it's
good to sing praises unto our God. For it's pleasant, and praise
is comely. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem.
He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken
in heart and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number
of the stars. He calleth them all by their
names. Great is our Lord and of great power. His understanding
is infinite. The Lord lifteth up the meek. He casteth the wicked down to
the ground. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praise
upon the harp and our God, who covereth the heaven with clouds,
who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon
the mountains. He giveth to the beast his food,
and to the young ravens which cry. He delighteth not in the
strength of the horse. He taketh not pleasure in the
legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them
that fear him, and those that hope in his mercy. Praise the
Lord, O Jerusalem, Praise thy God, O Zion, for he hath strengthened
the bars of thy gates. He hath blessed thy children
within thee. He maketh peace in thy borders
and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. He sendeth forth
his commandment upon earth. His word runneth very swiftly.
He giveth snow like wool. He scattereth the hoarfrost like
ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels. Who can stand before
his cold? He sendeth out his word and melteth
them. He causeth his wind to blow and
the waters flow. He showeth his word unto Jacob,
his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt
so with any nation. And as for his judgments, they
have not known them. Praise ye the Lord. Thank God
for his word. Let's bow together. Our Father, we do bow before
you this evening and praise your matchless name. How we praise
you for your goodness, your grace, your mercy, your wisdom in providing
a just, full and free salvation in your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. A salvation that's all of your
work, all of your grace, all of your mercy, all of your calling,
all of your keeping, and none by our works. Father, how we
thank you, how we thank you for this free salvation. None of
us could work to earn any of it anyway. We're so thankful
that it's free, free in our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray
this evening that you would enable us to look into your word, to
see more of our Lord Jesus Christ, to see him saving and calling
and keeping his people, gathering his people, unto himself, keeping
them eternally safe in you. Father, enable us to see, enable
us to believe and rest in our Lord Jesus Christ, and enable
us from the heart to praise your matchless name. All the glory,
all the credit, all the worship, all the praise, all the adoration
belongs unto thee. Cause us to give it to you, and
not seek any of it for ourselves, but give it all to thee. Father,
thank you for this place that you've given to us, a place where
your gospel's preached, where your people meet together in
peace and unity and love. And Father, pray that it would
be so for many, many more years to come. We don't know if we'll
have tomorrow. We don't even know if we'll have
tonight. So in this hour, Father, make it so. Make this a house
of worship where you reveal yourself to your people. Father, for those
who are hurting and sick, we pray a special blessing for them.
You blessed us. You blessed your people beyond
measure, more than we could ever count. We could reckon up in
order more than we could ever understand, more than we could
ever thank you enough for. But in this flesh, we're a poor
and a needy people. And you told us to bring these
cares to thy feet. And Father, we pray you'd be
with your people, You brought in the time of trouble, those
who are sorrowing, sick, and hurting. We pray that you'd be
with Ed, cause him to have a recovery from this surgery quickly. We
pray that you'd be with Barb and Aaron. Father, reach down
and touch them and heal their bodies is our prayer. Comfort
the hearts of them and their loved ones until you see fit
to restore them. All these things we ask in that
name which is above every name. the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares I have already Tis grace hath brought me safe
thus far, and grace will bring me home. When we've been there
ten thousand years, bright shining as We've no less days to sing God's
praise than when we first begun. If you would open your Bibles
now again with me to Psalm 147. I've titled the message tonight,
Building God's Church. Now we're looking at what could
be called the Hallelujah Psalms. I don't know if anybody's ever
named them that or not, but it strikes me that each of these
last five psalms, all of them, begin and end with the Hallelujah. Translated in our Bibles, praise
ye the Lord. All of the psalms we've been
looking at here for several years have come to this head that culminated
here in praise. Praise ye the Lord. And our psalm
tonight deals with the Lord building and sustaining his church. The
Lord willing, we'll look at the first six verses this evening
and then the rest of the psalm next Wednesday evening. But the
psalm begins in praise. Look at verse one, Psalm 147.
Praise ye the Lord, for it's good to sing praises unto our
God. For it's pleasant, and praise
is comely. Praise ye the Lord. Now that's
a commandment to us, praise the Lord. But it's also the believer's
joy, isn't it, to be able to praise the Lord. Now all of God's
commandments are good for us, but we can see here, it certainly
is good for us to praise our God. It's only right that we
praise him. How often does David say in the
Psalms, he's greatly to be praised. The Lord's great, greatly to
be praised. He's only right to be praised.
And you know, there's nothing better for us to do. There's
nothing, no way better for us to occupy our time than praising
the Lord. And it's good for us. It's not just what we should
do. It's not just what the Lord is due because of who he is. Those things are true, but it's
good for us. It's good for us. Now I'm sure
there are many, many, many reasons, but four reasons immediately
came to my mind. Why it is good for us to praise
the Lord. Number one is this. It's good
for us to praise the Lord. Because when we're praising the
Lord, that establishes the right relationship between us and God.
The lesser always praises the greater. It just puts praising
God, praising His name, puts us down here in the dust right
where we belong, and puts Him on high. being praised where
he belongs. It establishes the right relationship. Number two,
it's good for us to praise the Lord because praising the Lord
puts us in the right frame of mind to worship. You know, we
praise the Lord. It reminds us how great God is
and how small we are. That puts us in mind to worship,
doesn't it? We praise the Lord. It reminds us how good and how
gracious God is and how sinful and needy we are. and He keeps
meeting the needs of His people. That puts you in the mind to
worship, wouldn't it? When we praise the Lord, it reminds us
our God is on the throne. And we bow before Him because
He's on the throne, but since He's on the throne, He's ruling
and reigning and everything in His creation follows what's happening
right on schedule because He's on the throne. Now that'll put
us in the mind to worship. Then here's the third thing.
It's good for us to praise the Lord because praising the Lord
reminds us how thankful we really should be. When we praise the
Lord, one thing that should stick out to us is we praise the Lord,
we praise his name, we praise his attributes. Something that
ought to stick out to us is the Lord's opposite of us in every
way. We praise the Lord for his holiness.
Well, that just reminds us how unholy and how unrighteous we
are. We praise the Lord for his truth.
and just reminds us we're natural born liars. We love the truth,
or love a lie rather than the truth, that's our nature. When
we praise the Lord for his grace, for his mercy, we're reminded
we're needy sinners. When we praise the Lord for his
light, we're reminded we're darkness, we're children of darkness. When
we praise the Lord for his life, we're reminded we're born dead
in sin. When we praise the Lord for his
love, we're reminded that we're hateful, We're just hateful,
hating one another, we're unlovable. The Lord is the opposite of us
in every way, yet he's made himself our Lord, our God. He said, I'll
be their God and they'll be my people. He's made himself our
Redeemer. Even though we're the opposite
of him in every way, he's made himself our Redeemer to put away
the sins of his people. That makes me thankful, doesn't
you? And fourthly, it's good for us to praise the Lord Because
it reminds us how much we can trust him, how much we can rest
in him. I learned this to a degree, at any rate, a little
over a year ago, starting a little over a year ago. Buddy, when
you don't know how you're going to make it to the next minute,
I mean, your world's upside down. You're hurting. You're in pain. You don't know what's going on.
You know one thing that'll settle you, settle your heart? Praise
the Lord. When we praise Him, we're reminded
of who He is, and He'll just calm us down and cause us to
rest in Him. The Lord Jehovah is the Savior
of sinners. And He must, you know, there's
some things that Almighty God must do. One of them is this,
this is what He said, I must, I have other sheep, but you're
not of this fold. them also I must bring. He must find those sheep
that are lost and he must find them by himself, pick them up,
put them on his shoulders and carry them all the way home.
And when he gets there, they're all there. Not one of them's
missing. It has to be that way because he promised it. He promised
that he would be with his sheep in every storm. in every tear,
in every heartache, in every trial, in every dark night, he
promised, I'll be with you. When you go through the waters,
I'll be with you. When you pass through those fires, it won't
kindle upon you, I'll be with you. He promised, I'll never,
no never, no never, no never leave nor forsake my people.
He promised. He promised to give them grace
sufficient for everything he sends their way. He promised
to save them. He promised to keep them by His
righteousness, by His work, by His blood, and not by our works. That'll let you rest in Him.
That'll cause us to trust Him and rest in Him. Just praising
His name will do that for us. It's good for us. And praising
the Lord is pleasant. David says it's comely, it's
beautiful. There is something beautiful
about a person praising the Lord. There's something beautiful when
a congregation can get together and with one heart, with one
accord, with one mind, praise the Lord. That's beautiful. That's
comely. That's the way it ought to be.
It's pleasant. There's just nothing more pleasant for us to do than
to praise the Lord. There's nothing more pleasant
for us to hear than praising the Lord. What would you rather do about
this time in the evening? Turn on and watch the news, one
of those news channels? Or come here and hear somebody
praise the Lord? Which is better for you? Which
is more pleasant, huh? We're never more beautiful than
if the Lord will let us at least for a few moments, forget about
ourselves. Forget about trying to get everything
we can and get all the recognition and praise and build up things
for ourselves. We're never more beautiful. Lord,
let us forget ourselves and think on Him and praise His name. We
can't be more beautiful than that. That's what the Lord's
done for His people. Then Davis specifically starts
praising the Lord for how He builds His church. And God's
church is His people. God builds his church by calling
out his people, saving them, putting them in the place that
he has ordained for them in his body. And that's what I want
us to look at for a few more minutes here tonight. Number
one, David says, praise the Lord for gathering outcasts to himself. Verse two, the Lord doth build
up Jerusalem. He gathers together the outcasts
of Israel. Now Jerusalem is a picture of
God's people. It's where God dwells on earth.
He dwells in his people. That's God's church, his people. And praise the Lord, the Lord
builds his church. The Lord puts all of his people
into his body. The Lord does that. The Lord
does that. I was talking to Brother Todd
Nyberg yesterday. We were talking about occasionally
listening to messages that They're very bad. And Todd made this
statement. He says, sometimes it's good to listen to those
just so you know what not to say, just so you know what not
to say. And I hear a lot about, you know, programs people have
and, um, and I get invited to them, you know, to, to go get
me a, a doctor of divinity. I get invited to those things.
And, uh, I looked at one of the syllabuses or syllabi or whatever,
however you're saying that pretty, I don't know. And it was two
years worth of classes. And I kid you not, nine out of
10 of them were building a church. And they're not talking about
building a church, building God's people. They're talking about
building an organization. How to build it bigger. It's just
all psychology. You may as well go get a psychology
degree. Well, it's good to kind of look
over that kind of stuff so you know what not to say. Praise
the Lord, we don't have to build a church by going out and trying
to build numbers. That's not our job. Our job is
to preach the Gospel. Our job is to preach Christ.
Leave the building to God. The Lord builds His church. The
Lord calls out His people. And you just keep preaching the
Gospel. Don't use any means. When you go fishing, Gene, you
don't throw a bare hook in that water. You bait it. You hide
the hook. Don't be using bait. Don't be
hiding the hook. Just preach the bare Gospel. Promise you this, not one of
God's sheep will be missing. There's not gonna be a hole in
his church anywhere. The Lord adds to his church daily, such
as should be added. And I love who the Lord puts
in his church. Who is it that the Lord gathers
to himself? David says they're outcasts, outcasts. Well, that's a good term to describe
us, isn't it? How do God's people become outcasts?
Well, we became outcasts from God when Adam sinned. When God
thrust Adam out of the garden, you and me were thrust out in
him. We became outcasts, and Adam, we're thrust out of God's
presence. We're outcasts, and we cannot make our way back to
God. I don't care no matter how hard
you do it, no matter how hard you try, no matter how sincere
you are, we're outcasts, we cannot make our way back to God. There's
a mighty gap between us and God, and we can't build a bridge to
cross it. Can't do it. The first Adam made us outcasts
by his disobedience. So God gathers his people, those
outcasts, he gathers them back to him through the Lord Jesus
Christ, the second Adam. The first Adam made us outcasts,
didn't he? Christ the second Adam brings
his people back to God and he does it by his obedience, by
his righteousness and by his sacrifice for them. Now here's
amazing grace. Brady sung about amazing grace.
You want to hear amazing grace? Here's how Christ brought His
people back to the Father. He took their place. He took
their place. He became what they are. He became
an outcast for them. He took their sin. He was made
sin for His people. And when He was, His holy Father
cut Him off. He was an outcast. He became
an outcast for His people He suffered and died in their place
so that his people could be brought back to God and never separate
from him again. Substitution. He became an outcast
for us to bring his people back to God. Now, if you can't say
praise the Lord, that's something wrong, isn't it? There's something
wrong with you. Something wrong. God's people, I'll tell you what,
they're also outcasts in this world. The world is just not
all that impressed with them. It's not that impressed. But
you know, that's fine. Because God doesn't gather people
to himself that have talents, that have skills, that have pre-existing
possessions that would somehow make them useful to God. Like
God sees them so, ooh, I could use that, you know. No, they
don't have anything to contribute to God. They're outcasts to the
world. The world doesn't see any value in them. But that's
who God gathers to himself. They're outcasts. They're people
that aren't worth a thing. They're people that have no talents,
they have no possessions, they have no skills that you could
ever think you could use to glorify God, to contribute to God's kingdom.
But those are the people that God gathers to himself and puts
into his body. And I'll tell you this, the people
who will say praise the Lord to that are sinners. They're worthless, no count,
no good, no talent, sinners. Now this is good news. You don't
have to make yourself good enough to get into God's kingdom. You
don't have to make yourself good enough for Christ to save you.
You don't have to make yourself good enough for Christ to accept
you. You have to be worthless for God to accept you. You have
to be dead for Christ to give you life. You have to not be
able to do anything for yourself for Christ to redeem you. We're
not the ones contributing to God now. If God's going to save
us, If we're going to be in God's kingdom, God's got to contribute
to us and make us fit, make us meet to be in his kingdom. And
that's what he does for his people when he gathers those outcasts
himself. He lays hold on that outcast and says, now you're
mine. And he pulls them into his bosom.
They're not outcasts anymore, are they? They'll never be separated
from him again. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
All right, secondly. Praise the Lord for how he heals
the broken hearted. Verse three says, he healeth
the broken in heart. He bindeth up their wounds. God's
people are broken. They're broken hearted and they're
just flat broken. They became broken in the fall.
They are bruised, they're battered, they're dead in the fall. And
they're broken. And I mean broken beyond repair. I mean, it's not something somebody
can tinker with and get back working again now. They're broken
beyond repair. Their heart is broken. It doesn't
work anymore. That heart is cold. It's dead. It's sinful. It's desperately
wicked. Who can know it? And here's how
God takes his people and puts them in his church. He heals
the brokenhearted. Here's how God heals the broken
hearted. He doesn't take that old heart of flesh and fix it
up now. He doesn't take that cold dead heart of stone and
somehow fix it up. No, God's going to take that
thing and throw it away. And he gives his people a new heart,
a brand new heart. He causes them to be born again.
And they have a living heart. They have a heart of faith and
love. The great physician comes and
he gives them a brand new heart. He gives his people a brand new
heart, a heart of faith, a heart of love. And not only is the
heart of God's people broken, but their bodies are dead, too.
Now, spiritually speaking, their bodies are covered with the oozing
wounds, the pus-filled sores of sin. And Christ the Good Samaritan
comes to his people. There they are. They're covered
with wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores. They haven't been mollified.
They haven't been bound up. It's too gross for anybody to
look at. The priest looks at him down there in the ditch,
dead, covered with all those wounds and bruises, the pus,
the scabs, the deadness. He says, I can't help him. The
law passes by, sees him down there in that ditch. Law says,
I can't help him. It's too late. They're a lost
cause. Christ the good Samaritan comes,
and he gets down in that ditch where they are, and he picks
them up. And he washes their wounds. He binds up all those
open wounds. He washes them. He binds them
up. He washes them and purifies them
in his precious blood. He purifies them with the wine
of his spirit. And the great physician makes
them whole. See, you don't have to heal yourself. You don't have to fix yourself
up. I know you're broken, but you don't have to fix yourself
up in order for God to save you. You come to God broken. The great
physician, up the brokenhearted. He heals their wounds. That's
what God does for his people. That's how he puts them in his
body. He heals them, makes them have life. So they belong in
his body. Oh, my soul. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. All right, here's
the third thing. Praise the Lord for his electing
love. Verse four, he telleth the number
of the stars. He calleth them all by their
names. Now I've been kinda looking recently
at the creation. And what David's talking about
here in verse four, those six days of creation, he's not talking
about that. He's not talking about those days of creation. There did come a, by our reckoning
of time, a day, a moment, when God hung those stars in space.
They weren't always there, and one day, God hung them all there.
And God knows where they're all at. I mean, he didn't just randomly
throw the stars out there, and there they are. No, he put them
all in place, just exactly where they're supposed to be, And there's
too many of them for us to count. God knows them. He knows them
all by name. I mean, it's not a hard thing
for him to do. Now that's true, but that's not
what David's talking about here. I'll show you that. If you look
in Genesis chapter 15, this is talking about these stars represent
God's elect here. Genesis chapter 15. Verse one. After these things,
the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying, fear
not Abram. I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what
will thou give me seeing I go childless? And the steward of
my house is this Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, behold, to me
thou has given no seed and lo one born of my house is mine
heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him saying,
this should not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth
out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought
him forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven and tell the
stars if they'll be able to number them. And he said unto him, so
shall thy seed be, thy spiritual seed. And he believed in the
Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now those
stars are a picture of God's elect. Now, the salvation of
God's people is not something that's left up to chance. You
know, somebody said, well, can't you kind of preach on election
a little less? Can't you not include that and
harp on that so much? Not if you're going to preach
Christ, you're not. Not if you're going to preach
grace, you're not. Not if you're going to preach God's salvation, you're
not. The salvation of God's people is not left up to chance. If
God didn't choose a people in his electing love, Salvation's
left up to chance, isn't it? Salvation's not left up to chance.
God loved the people. He's not gonna leave the salvation
of those people up to chance. God chose an exact number of
people to save. We couldn't count them anymore.
We can count the stars in space, but God chose an exact number
of people to save. Now, have you ever been someplace
that have a specific number of seats, a concert or something,
you know, And they tell you, we've got a specific number of
seats. It's first come, first served. All the seats are gonna
be filled, but maybe everybody wants to come, can't be. That's
not salvation. Salvation's not first come, first
served, and then, you know, all the seats of heaven are full,
and then, you know, God's successful. No, more than that, God chose
a specific people, a specific people to save. He chose them
by name. He chose them on purpose. He
chose those people before He ever hung the stars in space.
Before God created anything, He purposed their salvation. He chose them specifically by
name. And remember, He didn't leave
their salvation up to chance. No, God sent a Redeemer to redeem
them from their sins. And when Christ died, He died
for God's elect and only God's elect. He died with their names
on His heart. Just like that high priest of
old the names of the tribes of Israel on his breastplate. Christ
died for a people that God gave him. Just like that priest, he
was representing those 12 tribes. You can see he's on his breastplate.
Christ died for a specific people by name, by name. If you believe
Christ, Christ died for you. He died for you. Joyce, he died
for you. I mean, on purpose. And God's not going to leave
that to chance now. He's going to call those people out. He's
going to call them by name. Individually, on purpose. Abram,
leave your father's house and go to a place I'll tell you.
Matthew, follow me. I love reading that story. The
Lord's walking by Matthew, their seat of customs. Way it sounds
in scripture, the Lord said, Matthew, follow me. He didn't
pause. He didn't turn around and see if Matthew was following.
He said, Matthew, follow me. Matthew closed up his books and
got up and left. Matthew, follow me. Peter, follow
me. I'll make you a fisher of men.
Peter left those nets as they were and got up and followed
the Lord. Zacchaeus, come down. And he skedaddled down. Lazarus,
Come forth. And he came forth. Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? That was the end of that, wasn't
it? God calls his people by name, and every one of them come. And
you will too, if God calls you. You will not mistake he's calling
you to Christ. Praise God. He causes his sheep,
he calls them by name, causes them to come to him. And he does
it by his electing love. It's not because they're any
better than the rest of the lost sheep out there, because they're
not. It's by his electing love. He set his love upon them, and
he's going to have them. He's going to have them in his
body, in his church. That's every last one I've got
there. God's electing love. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Praise the Lord for his great power. Psalm 147, verse
5. Great is our Lord and of great
power. His understanding is infinite. Now this work of salvation, this
work of putting God's sinful people in his church and making
them holy, now that's a great work. That is a great work. It seems impossible. I mean,
if you really think about it, how's all this going to happen?
There's a lot of moving parts here. How's all this going to
happen? If we think about it with our pea brain, it seems
impossible. It just seems like there's so
many variables. It just seems to me very likely something is
going to fall through the cracks. And if anything can fall through
the cracks, this is what I can promise you, it's going to be
me. Am I not being pessimistic? That's just a fact of life. If
anything's going to fall through the cracks, it's going to be
me. Well, salvation does sound impossible. And it is impossible
with men. See, the reason it sounds impossible
to us is we start thinking what it is that we can do and people
like us can do. That's when salvation is impossible.
Salvation is impossible if it depends upon the arm of the flesh.
Now that's what is wrong with man's free will religion. Man's
free will religion where Some fella dressed up like a preacher,
standing behind the Bible. He uses it as a prop. He doesn't
say what the Bible says. He uses it as a prop to make
himself look holy. And tries to talk people into
doing something for God. Tries to talk people into making a
decision. Trying to talk people into walking an aisle. Trying
to talk people into acting better and saying that's salvation.
It all depends upon the arm of the flesh. Every last bit of
it depends upon the arm of the flesh. And that kind of quote
unquote salvation is going to fail every single time. because it's built on sinking
sand. So if you look at salvation through man's will, man's ability,
it's impossible. It's just utterly impossible.
But look at Matthew chapter 19. With God, it is impossible with
men, but with God, all things are possible. And everybody here can quote
that. With men, this is impossible.
With God, all things are possible. Well, our Lord made that statement
He's talking specifically about the salvation of his people.
Let's look at Matthew 19, beginning in verse 16. And behold, one
came and said unto him, good master, what good things shall
I do that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, why
callest thou me good? There's none good but one, that
is God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. If you obey the law, you'll have
life. He saith unto him, which? The Lord in his infinite wisdom
didn't just say all of them, did he? He just dealt with this
man, right where he was. Jesus said, thou shalt do no
murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother,
and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The young man saith
unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up, What
lack I yet? Now I'm just pretty sure outwardly,
this man had kept all of these laws. I bet you you wouldn't
find anybody that knew this man say he broke any of those laws.
I'm confident of it. But with man's ability, righteousness
and salvation is impossible. And he knew it. He knew it. That's why he asked what, he
knew he's lacking something. That's why he asked, I've kept
all these things, but I'm lacking something. Our Lord's getting
ready to tell him what it is. Verse 21, Jesus said unto him,
if that will be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give
it to the poor and thou shall have treasure in heaven and come
follow me. But when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, verily I say unto you that a
rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again,
I say unto you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed,
saying, who then can be saved? Now, if you're depending upon
the arm of the flesh, you're depending on a person to make
themselves righteous and good enough for God to accept them
and God to save them, That's the question you'll ask. Who
then can be saved? Nobody. Verse 26, but Jesus beheld
them and said unto them, with men, this is impossible, but
with God, all things are possible. Now who can be saved? It's not
the person who's righteous in his own works. It's not the person
who's made himself good enough for God to accept him. Who can
be saved? The person who has no righteousness.
who has no works to recommend himself to God, who has absolutely
no worth in himself, who must entirely depend upon Christ to
do all of the saving for him. That's the person who can be
saved, and God will do it. With God, all things are possible. Now, the salvation of God's elect,
you read that and you make it sound like, well, it's just possible.
The salvation of God's elect is not just possible. It's sure. It's sure. You know why? The salvation of God's elect
is sure because of the power of God. He cannot fail. The power of God to save his
people. They'll all be saved. The power
of God to call his people where they're irresistibly called to
Christ. He calls them and they come running
willingly. That's God's power. God's power. His infinite power
to keep his people. No man can pluck them out of
my hand. And his power to glorify them. Not one of them will be
missing in glory. Father, here are the children.
I and the children which you've given me. They're all here because
of God's saving power. Oh, praise the Lord. This thing
does not depend on my power or your power. If it did, we'd quit,
wouldn't we? We would quit. This thing depends
upon the power of God. We can rest in it. All right,
here's the fifth thing. Praise the Lord for lifting up
the meek. Back in our text, Psalm 147, verse six. The Lord lifteth
up the meek. Casteth the wicked down to the
ground. Now the meek are the poor and the needy. They're poor,
they're meek. They can't pay anything to improve
their situation. If they could, they wouldn't
be in this fix. They can't pay anything to make it any better.
And here's the thing about the meek. They know they don't deserve
any better. They don't deserve any better.
What they know they deserve is God's wrath. If God had damned
them, they couldn't argue with God for doing it. He'd be right
to do it. That's the meek. Well, how'd they get in this
shape? Well, the meek, they lost everything in Adam. and they
haven't been able to do any better on their own than Adam did. I
mean, it didn't matter that they're in Adam, but if we were on our
own, we wouldn't do any better than Adam anyway. The meek, they
can't climb their way back to God. They're down here in the
pit and they cannot climb their way back to God. They have no
ability. So if they're gonna come out
of there, God's gonna have to reach down and lift them out.
He's gonna have to lift them from the dunghill of sin and
restore to them everything that they lost in Adam. And that's
what he does in Christ. He tells them about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when they hear, they believe. They believe him. And through
union with Christ, they had everything restored to them, but better
than what Adam lost. I don't know if you could say
Adam had a righteousness, he had a purity, but he could lose
it, couldn't he? You can't lose the righteousness
of Christ, it's perfect. Adam was accepted of God, but
he could lose it. If you're in Christ, you'll always
be accepted in a beloved. It's better, what we have in
Christ is so much better than what we lost in Adam. God's people
hear and they believe. Our Lord, when he came, said,
blessed are the meek. Maybe the most famous message
ever preached Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the
earth. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. God's elect are going to inherit
everything. These meek ones, they're going
to inherit everything because God's going to give it to them
freely. He makes them sons of God, heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. And they inherit it all, not
because they deserve it because they inherit it because it's
given to them freely. Oh, praise the Lord. You do not
have to earn your keep. Christ did that for you. Now,
the Lord is so good. The Lord is so gracious. You
can't state too strongly. The Lord is good. The Lord is
gracious. But listen, this is also true.
You can't state this too strongly either. Don't presume on God's
mercy and grace. By definition, mercy and grace
are undeserved. So don't presume upon it. The
Lord is merciful. He's gracious. But don't ever
forget this. He's also just. He's just in
everything that he does. Everything that he does is holy.
He accepts his people because he made them holy in Christ.
He brings them into his bosom because he made them holy and
righteous in Christ. But the wicked, he casts down
to the ground. Now that's not being mean. That's just giving them what
they deserve. That's just God being just. God gives everybody
exactly what they deserve. Exactly. No more, no less. God gives his people what Christ
deserves. See, if you made that statement,
God gives everybody exactly what they deserve, said amen, song,
sang a song, we go home, you'd be a little worried. But I want
to explain this statement. God gives everyone exactly what
they deserve. God gives his people exactly
what Christ earned for them, what he deserves by his righteousness
and by his obedience, by his sacrifice unto death. And God
gives the wicked exactly what their sin deserves and no more
and no less. That's just, that's holy. Praise
the Lord. He has mercy on somebody. He has mercy on his people. Am I one of his people? Are you
one of his people? You know how to find out? Go
to God and beg for mercy. Go to him and beg for mercy.
You'll find out soon enough. You'll find out soon enough.
That's how God builds his church. And how I beg of God that he'd
reach down tonight and lift us up. Lift us up. Lift us up from
the dunghill of our sin. Lift us up from the dung heap
and dust and filth of this world. How many of you came in here
tonight just dragging? I mean, it's tough being out there in
the world, isn't it? Oh, God, lift us up. Encourage our heart. Trust Christ. Encourage our heart.
Adam, maybe give us enough to make it to Sunday. Maybe you
would. Maybe you would. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, oh, how we thank
you for your mercy and your grace. How we thank you how you build
your church. That by your infinite power,
love, mercy, and grace, you call all of your outcasts to you. You put us in Christ to bring
us back. Father, how we thank you. How we praise your matchless
name. Father, I pray you bless your
word. Bless your word tonight to your glory so your people
from the heart could truly go home singing praise the Lord.
And let us remember, chew on these things tomorrow. Let's
go back out of the world and remember the Christ, the Savior
that we heard preached and from the heart sing praise the Lord.
Father, reach down, touch your people, reveal yourself to us,
we pray. First in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, for his glory and his sake we pray. Shawn,
come lead us in a closing hymn if you would. Okay, if you would
please stand and turn to song number 255, Blessed Assurance. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Pull out a foretaste of glory
divine. Heir of salvation, Purchase of
God. Born of His Spirit, washed in
His blood. This is my story, this is my
song, Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst
on my sight. Angels descending ring from above. echoes of mercy, whispers of
love. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at
rest. I and my Savior am happy and
blessed. Watching and waiting, looking
above. Filled with His goodness, lost
in His love. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. This is my story, this is my
song, Praising my Savior all the day long.