Alright, let's begin our service
opening our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42. I am delighted to see Mr. and especially Mrs. Isaac Floyd
here this evening back from their honeymoon. I can't tell you how
overjoyed that I am that Clara is here. I just can't tell you
how happy that makes me. And it is my sincere prayer that
we all would be a blessing to her as I know she will be to
us. I lost count of how many people from that congregation
in College Grove told me she would be a blessing to us. I
pray we would be to her. All right, Isaiah chapter 42.
We'll read the first 13 verses. Behold my servant whom I uphold,
mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth. I put my spirit upon
him. He should bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He should not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and a smoking flat shall he not quench. He
should bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail, nor
be discouraged, till he has set judgment in the earth, and the
isles shall wait for his law. Thus saith God the Lord. He that
created the heavens and stretched them out. He that spread forth
the earth and that which cometh out of it. He that giveth bread
unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein. I
the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine
hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people,
for a light of the Gentiles. To open the blind eyes, to bring
out the prisoners from the prison and then the sitting darkness
out of the prison house I am the Lord, that is my name, and
my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things
do I declare. Before they spring forth, I tell
you of them. Sing unto the Lord a new song,
and his praise from the end of the earth. Ye that go down to
the sea, and all that is therein, the isles and the inhabitants
thereof, Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their
voice. The villages that Kedar doth inhabit. Let the inhabitants
of the rock sing. Let them shout from the top of
the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord and declare
his praise in the islands. The Lord shall go forth as a
mighty man. He shall stir up jealousy like
a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar. He shall
prevail against his enemies. We'll end our reading there. Let's turn to page 32. Page 32. All praise to Him who reigns
above, in majesty supreme, Who gave His Son for man to die,
that He might man redeem. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. His name above all names shall
stand, Exalted more and more, At God the Father's own right
hand, Where angels host adore. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Redeemer, Savior, friend of man, Thou hast given Thy salvation's
plan, for Thou hast died for all. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. His name shall be the Counselor,
the mighty Prince of Peace, of all Earth's kingdoms conqueror,
whose reign shall never cease. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Let's turn back one page. Made
it kind of easy for you. One page to 30. Keep this theme. Blessing our
Lord. He alone is worthy. Bless the Lord and sing his praises. Bless the Lord now, oh my soul. Join the song all heaven raises,
Let the anthem loudly roll. Bless the Lord, O my soul, Bless
the Lord, O my soul, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that
is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord for love
victorious, love that conquered on the tree. For His grace, O
great and glorious, Blowing out from Calvary. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me bless
His holy name. Bless the Lord, He walks beside
me, and He lights the path before. Every need is now supplied me
from His bounteous heavenly store. Bless the Lord, O my soul, bless
the Lord. O my soul, bless the Lord. and all that is within me bless
his holy name. Bless the Lord for truth he's
given, for the word of prophecy that has drawn the veil from
heaven and revealed my destiny. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless
His holy name. Let's open our Bibles now to
Psalm 96. The 96th Psalm. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord
and bless his name. Show forth his salvation from
day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen,
his wonders among all people. For the Lord is great and greatly
to be praised. He is to be feared above all
gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord
made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before
him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give unto the
Lord, O ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and
strength. Give unto the Lord. the glory due unto his name.
Bring an offering and come into his courts. Oh, worship the Lord
in the beauty of holiness. Fear before him all the earth.
Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The world also
should be established that it shall not be moved. He shall
judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice and let
the earth be glad. Let the sea roar in the fullness
thereof. Let the field be joyful. and
all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the
wood rejoice before the Lord, for he cometh, for he cometh
to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with
righteousness and the people with his truth." Thank God for
his word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how can we begin to thank you
praise you, give you the glory that's due under your name for
enabling sinners such as we are, such as all of us here are, to
bow before your throne, to come accepted in the person of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and to be able, by your grace, to call
you our father. We say with David when we think
on such things, it's too great for me. We're filled with awe
and wonder that you would show such grace
to such rebels, that you'd send your son to bear our sin, to
suffer and die for the sin of your people, and that he'd put
it away by his sacrifice, that you'd send your spirit to give
life and faith and enable us to believe on Christ, to rest
in him, that you'd even send your gospel to us. Father, what
a blessing. We're thankful. And I ask that
you would not allow us to become complacent or take this glorious
privilege of public worship for granted. Father, bless us for
your namesake. Cause your word to continue to
go forth in power, and the power of your spirit from this place
to call out your sheep, to give life, to comfort and edify and
strengthen and feed your sheep. Father, how desperately we need
you. In this hour, Father, I pray you give us an hour of true worship
as your word is preached. Father, give us here a heart
of faith to believe it, to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Enable
us to leave here this evening rejoicing and resting in Christ
our Savior to sing a new song of grace from a new heart that
you give your people. Father, we thank you for the
many, many blessings of this life you've so freely bestowed
upon us. And we beg your forgiveness for the times that we murmur
and complain and find fault after all you've given us and all you've
done for us. Father, for those that you brought
into the time of trouble, we pray for them. We pray for your
hand of healing upon them, that you would, until such time as
you see fit to provide a way out, give them a special portion
of your presence. Comfort their hearts with your
presence. Father, we're thankful that you've brought Isaac and
Claire back home to us. We thank you that you brought
them together in marriage. And Father, I pray that your
richest blessing be upon this home. that you'd bless them with
love for you and love for one another. Father, I pray you'd
bless Isaac with much wisdom. Give him wisdom and a heart of
love that would lead his home as Christ leads his church, that
you'd give him wisdom to make it easy for Clara to be in submission
to him. Give them a long and happy life
together. Father, in the days that will
be dark and dreary and full of trouble, that it surely will
come. I pray that you cause them to, together, look to thee even
more fully, that you draw their hearts together even closer,
not that they be driven apart in trouble, but drawn together,
closer together in these things. Cause them to lean one upon the
other. All these things we ask, and the name which is above every
name, the name of Christ our Savior. For his glory we pray
and give thanks. When I saw the cleansing fountain Open wide for all my sins I obeyed
the Spirit's lulling, When He said, Will thou be clean? Sing the chorus with me. 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 seemed
straight and narrow, All I claimed was swept away. My ambitions, plans, and wishes
At my feet in ashes lay. Then God's fire upon the altar
of my heart was set aflame. I shall never cease to praise
Him. 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, Lord Jesus. I'm so glad He took me in. He's forgiven my transgressions. He has cleansed my heart from
sin. Glory, glory to the Father. Glory, glory to the Son. Glory, glory to the Spirit. the three in one. I will praise Him, I will praise
Him, praise the Lamb for sinners Give Him glory, all ye people,
For His blood can wash away each stain. Alright, let's open our Bibles
again now to Psalm 96. The title of the message this evening,
Sing a New Psalm. David wrote this psalm when the
Lord enabled him to bring back the ark from Jerusalem. Remember
the Philistines had captured it for some time and you can
read about this in 1 Chronicles chapter 16. The Lord enabled
David to bring the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. This
is the time he danced before the Lord. So the subject of this
psalm, the reason I point out when this psalm was written,
is so we know the subject of this psalm is singing the praises
of our Redeemer, who redeemed his people in the picture of
the blood that was sprinkled on that mercy seat on top of
the Ark of the Covenant. And it's good for us to see this,
since none of us are Jewish, that this is not just a psalm
for the nation Israel. This is what Spurgeon called
a missionary psalm. It calls on people from all different
nations to come worship the Lord and to sing this new song. You
know, the church is to preach the gospel everywhere the Lord
gives us an opportunity. We're to preach the gospel to
the lost every time, every place God would give us an opportunity.
And David says, sing unto the Lord all the earth. Let all of God's creatures sing
his praise. And that includes you and me.
No matter what everybody else in the world is doing, that includes
you and me. So David begins in verse 1, he
says, oh sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all
the earth. Now David says sing a new song.
Now you don't have to worry, we're not going to have to learn
a new song tonight. Because the only song that we have to sing
is the old, old song of redemption in Christ Jesus. The old, old
song of God's grace and mercy in Christ. We don't sing. any new subjects ever because
we'll never have a new revelation. The only subject we have to preach
and to sing about is Christ and him crucified. He's our only
subject. We don't have any new lyrics
or any new revelations, but as we grow in grace, we can sing
the glories of Christ with a new and a deeper understanding and
deeper appreciation If you look at Revelation chapter, hold your
finger there and look at Revelation chapter 14, the only people who
can, the whole world is told to sing this new song, but the
only people who can sing this song are believers who have a
new heart. Look at Revelation 14 verse three. And they sung as it were a new
song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders
and no man could learn that song. but the 144,000 which were redeemed
from the earth. The only people who can learn
this song are the redeemed, that God has given them a new heart.
And they sing this new song of grace from new motives. They sing this song from a heart
of thanksgiving, a heart of praise. They're not singing this trying
to earn something from God. They're singing in thanksgiving
and praise. And I tell you, the only people
who never tire of hearing this old, old song are God's people
who've been given a new heart. They never get tired of hearing
it anew every day. The word new, David uses here,
means fresh. We sing about our Savior with
fresh thanksgiving every day. Every day. From day unto day,
we're to sing of God's salvation. It's fresh every day. We're to
sing about God's forgiving our sin fresh every day, every minute
of every day, every second of every day. God's forgiveness
of our sin is fresh. And His salvation, His forgiveness
of our sin is fresh because of the blood of Christ. The blood
of Christ shed 2,000 years ago, shed before the Father, before
time began, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
is always fresh and powerful. to cleanse and to put away sin.
If our sin is forgiven and we're cleansed from our sin every day,
I believe we ought to praise him every day, don't you? Sing
this new song fresh every day. Only the gospel of Christ is
new every morning. Only the gospel of Christ, the
old, old story, only the gospel is new every morning. It's because
God's mercies are new every morning. His grace is new and it's sufficient
for every changing day. And those objects of God's grace
ought to sing it. Don't you reckon? Sing this new
song of His grace every day. And someone will say, I can't
sing. I don't have a good singing voice.
Let me tell you a story. This weekend we Jan and I got
to stay with Chris and Vicki Cunningham. Chris was telling
us how when they got married, he stood down there at the end
of the aisle playing his guitar and singing a love song to Vicki
as she walked down the aisle. And that bird reached and got
his guitar and started singing that song to Vicki. Same song
he sung how many years ago. And buddy, you should have seen
how they looked at one another. Oh my goodness. That song, how
many times have you heard that song? I mean, I couldn't even
tell you. It was brand new. It's brand new because their
love is new. It grows deeper and deeper and
deeper from all those years ago when they were first married.
It's new. And I watched him. Isaac, I thought
about taking a little video of it and sending it to you, so
you've got a few hours now to step up, but I didn't. But I thought,
I got to pick up my game here. I got to pick up my game. But
my problem is I can't sing. Now, I do sing love songs to
Janet. I sing, if you know the group
Alabama, I sing Alabama love songs to Janet, but only when
the stereo's turned up real loud. Because you know how I sound
good singing? When Randy Owen's singing louder. That's how I
sound good. I said all that to say this. Sing this new song
to the Lord. It doesn't matter if you can
sing well or not. Sing it from the heart. A heart
of thanksgiving and a heart of prayer. I got this from Brother
Henry. I believe it will help you. He
said, the Lord doesn't hear the cracking of my voice. He hears
the breaking of my heart. That song sung from a broken
heart is beautiful to our God. Then let's sing it from that
broken heart that God's given. This new song is always beautiful
to our God. because the subject of it is
his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our savior. And that's what David
has written in this song. And I want to give you three
reasons that we're to sing this new song. Number one, we sing
this new song of salvation in Christ because Christ has saved
us by a sacrifice. Verse two, sing unto the Lord,
bless his name, show forth his salvation from day to day. Now
David says, sing unto the Lord and bless his name because salvation
is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the apostle
Peter told us. He said, neither is there salvation
in any other for there's none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved other than this name, the
name of Christ alone. And the name of the Lord is important
because his name describes his glorious character. The greatest
glory of God is seen in how God saves sinners by his sovereign
mercy. David doesn't say it's our salvation,
does he? He says it's his salvation. This is God's salvation. It's
the salvation that God purposed. It's the salvation God purchased.
And it's the salvation that God applies. This is God's salvation. It's a work done by God. And
God told Moses what his greatest glory was. He told Moses, my
greatest glory is sovereign mercy to sinners, saving whom he will. And I listened to some Calvinists,
typically not the brethren that we hear preach, but I hear some
Calvinists speak sometimes. And it seems like they want a
glory in the fact that God would pass somebody by. That's not
the glory that God's talking about here. Any honest person
can understand why Almighty God would pass by a rebel who sinned
against Him. Any honest person can understand
why God would pass that person by. What we cannot understand
is God's greatest glory, that He'd show mercy to anybody. That's
God's greatest glory, that He would show mercy to the undeserving
and that He would save them Not just by waving a magic wand and
saying they're saved, but save them in justice by sacrificing
His darling Son to pay for their sin. That's glory. And if God ever
shows you Christ, if He's ever pleased to reveal Christ to your
heart, you're going to see all the glory of God. Because it's
all in Christ. How God saves sinners. Now I
know that God's glory is seen in creation. I tell Janet, it's
a sign that I'm getting old. As we drive around the country,
I stop and say, look at this, look how beautiful this is. They
used to irritate the life out of me. My dad would do that.
Just drive, just get this going, you know. But certainly there's
some glory of God seen in creation, but not as clearly as in the
salvation of sinners. Isn't that right? Without a doubt,
you can see God's glory in Providence. How He rules the events of history. How He brings His people into
and out of a time of trouble. How He miraculously delivers
them. That's God's glory. But that
glory, and I'm thankful for it, is not nearly as great as God's
glory in saving sinners. God's blessings to His people.
come in many forms. There are too many for us to
count. God gives us health and families and jobs. He gives us
food and clothes and we're thankful for all those things. Shouldn't
be, shouldn't be. We wouldn't have any of them
if God didn't give them to us. But none of those things can possibly
compare to God's greatest blessing. Saving His people through the
sacrifice of His Son. That's the blessing we must have. We must have it. We must have
forgiveness of our sin. It's only found in the blood
of Christ. We must have righteousness. And the only place that's found
is in Christ's obedience to the law for us. We must have peace
with God. We must be accepted of God. And
the only way that's possible is in the blood of his cross.
We must have that. That's the greatest blessing
anybody, anywhere can ever have. Then let's be sure we tell folks
about it. Look at verse three. David says,
declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.
Let the heathen, let's tell them about God's salvation. Let's
tell them about God's glory in salvation. You know, we support
missionaries. But you know, you don't have
to go to foreign lands to preach to the heathen. The more missionaries
that I know and visit and have talked to, the more clearly I
see this. The only difference between people
in third world countries we would call heathen, the only difference
between them and us is language. You don't have to go to some
foreign country to preach to the heathen. Here they are right
here. I mean, they're in the tri-state area and this room's
full of them. Born heathen. Well, what a blessing
that God sent his gospel to those heathen to have it preached to. Isn't that a blessing? The salvation
of sinners, the salvation of the heathen declares God's glory. And I wish I could say how Great. How wonderful this is. The salvation
of a sinner is a wonder. It's a wonder. It's so great. It's so wonderful. It cannot
be understood by the human mind. The smartest minds in this world
cannot understand it. It can only be believed by faith. The salvation of sinners declares
God's glory. And I hope we never think of
the gospel as this cut and dried thing that only tells us the
technical details about how God saves his people. If that's the way we think of
the gospel, that's the way we present the gospel, we missed
it. The gospel is glorious. And when we think of it, when
we hear it preached, it ought to cause us awe and wonder. We ought to wonder why God would
save a sinner like me. That's too wonderful for this
mind to be able to comprehend. Now don't get me wrong, we must
have sound doctrine. We must be right, true doctrine. God will never save anybody apart
from the truth. Never. He'll never use a lie
to save anybody. We must have the truth. about
who God is, who Christ the Savior is and who we are. There can
be no salvation. But that truth must be preached
as a glorious truth that causes shock and awe. Just wonder that
God would save a sinner like me by sacrificing his son in
my place. Now if that doesn't fill you
with awe, nothing will. And if you can ever get tired
of hearing how God sacrificed his son so that you would be
saved, so that you would have life. If that ever gets old hat
to you, I'm fearful God hadn't given you a new heart. I'm fearful.
There isn't a better reason to sing this new song. It's salvation
in our Lord Jesus Christ. And you can't sing that song
unless you know him. But if you know Christ, you can't
sing another one, can you? All right, here's the second
thing. We sing this new song of Christ our Savior because
it's right to sing of Him. Verse 4. For the Lord is great
and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all
gods. Now, it's simply right for us to sing this new song.
It's simply right for us to worship the Lord because He is great
and greatly to be praised. I'm gonna give you another thing
I picked up from Brother Cunningham this weekend. I'll paraphrase
the way he began his message Sunday morning. Chris said, God
is to be worshipped. He's to be worshipped. In times
of trouble and trial, when we're sad. It's only right that we
worship God then. And God is to be worshipped when
we're happy and we're rejoicing too. It's only right that we
worship God then. God is to be worshipped when
a new baby is born into our family. It's only right. We're only right.
We're so thankful. And God's to be worshipped when
one of our loved ones dies too. God gave life and he took it.
It's only right. He's worshipped, isn't it? And
then Chris said this, God's to be worshipped when nothing special
is going on, when there's nothing's going on. It's only right that
we worship God because of who he is. God is to be praised. There's nobody like him. There's
certainly no idols like him. God's the creator. Verse five. All the gods of the nations are
idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Our God created everything
that is. He created it. And he rules over
everything he created. Everything in his creation does
as he pleases. And nothing in his creation does
anything outside of his pleasure. And God's people love that. I mean, we love that. We love
to sing the praises of our Creator. He's our Creator physically and
spiritually. If you know Christ, it's because He's created a new
heart in you that knows Him, that believes Him. He's our Creator.
And God's people love to sing the praises of our King. God has no unwilling children
unwilling to bow to Him. No, it's all we willingly bow
to Him. And I tell you, one of the main
reasons I love, our God rules everything. Because He rules
everything to guarantee the salvation of His people. So that none of
them can possibly perish. I believe we can sing that, don't
you? Oh, we can. And you can't find an idol that
can do such a thing. Idols always need our help. But God doesn't. He does as He pleases. He does
His will, and I'm thankful His will is the salvation of His
people. That makes my heart sing. It's
only right that we sing to Him. Look at verse 7. David says,
Honor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are
in His sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds
of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and
strength. Now you know David here isn't
saying that we can do something to make God have glory and honor
and majesty. God has glory and honor and majesty
because that's His character. We can't give it to Him. It's
just His character. This is what David sang in this new song. Ascribe all glory and honor and
strength and majesty to Him. You say it all belongs to God. And sing it thankfully. Be thankful. God's people rejoice. Almighty
God has put His honor, His personal honor at stake concerning the
salvation of His people. God would lose all of His honor
and all of His majesty if just one of His elect perishes. But
He rules to ensure that doesn't happen. And we rejoice. God uses
His omnipotent power to save His people, to call His people
and to keep his people. And they can never perish, because
they're in the right hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the right hand of the power of God. And we rejoice, don't we? And we rejoice this is not a
one-way street. God does not use his power to
hold anybody against his will. He told his disciples, will you
also go away? But the door's open. This is
not a one-way street. He's not holding anybody against
their will. God uses His power. You know
what He does? He makes His people willing in
the day of His power. Willing to bow. Willing to cast
their soul, their all of it, on Christ alone. Willing to have
all their salvation in Christ and if it's not in Him, I'll
be damned. They're willing to do that. They're willing to have
Him be their King. to do with them as He will. They're willing. They won't leave
God and He won't leave them. He won't allow them to leave.
That's His power. Now look at verse 8. I believe
I have something here that will help you. Give unto the Lord
the glory due unto His name. Bring an offering and come into
His courts. I mean, we're talking about it
just right. We sing this new song because it's right to sing
of God our Savior. And David says here, give God
the glory due unto his name by bringing an offering. Now that
got my attention. I looked this word offering up
and it means what you think it means. It means a donation or
a gift. God is worshiped by our giving. He gives his people a
heart to give generously. This congregation gives generously. I thank God for you. What Dave is talking about here
is more than giving a gift of our money. Think about it. Have you ever put anything in
the offering that's worthy of God's glory? Have you ever given
anything that gives Him the glory that's due unto His name? If
you gave everything you have, it wouldn't give Him the glory
that's due His name, because everything you have, He already
gave you. So that's not what Dave is talking about here. meaning
of this word offering is sacrifice. Sacrifice. Now, here's the way
we give God the glory due unto his name. It's just one way.
The only way we can possibly give God the glory due unto his
name is to come to him through the blood offering, the blood
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. See, the way we give God the
glory due unto his matchless name is by declaring our faith,
our confidence in God's greatest glory. It's his salvation of
sinners through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that sacrifice saved God's people. It saved them lock, stock and
barrel. The Lord Jesus Christ did not die to give everybody
in Adam's race a chance to be saved, if they would accept it.
If that were true, where would God's glory be? Is there any
glory in a sacrifice offered for millions of people and untold
millions of people end up in hell? There's no glory in that
sacrifice, is there? I'll tell you how God receives
the glory, too, in his name. It's when we declare the sovereign,
successful, victorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He saved
his people from their sins. He did exactly what He came here
to do, not one whit less. And He's going to give His people
faith in Him through the preaching of the gospel that He sends to
them. They don't even have to go looking for it. He sends it
to them and He gives them faith to believe it. And then He's
going to keep every last one of them by His power to the end.
And when God's pleased to wrap this thing up, you know what
He's going to do? He's going to present every last one of
them before the father and say they're all here. They're all
here. That's how we give God the glory
that's due unto his name. When we publicly confess that
the only way a sinner like me can be saved is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I am so sinful. I am so dead. I am so rebellious that the only
possible way that somebody like me could be saved is if the Father
chose me. He didn't leave it up to me,
He chose me. He set His love upon me. And God the Son died
for me. He made me righteous. He gave
me His obedience and He paid for my sin with His precious
blood. He gave His life to redeem me. And if the Holy Spirit came
and gave me life and faith in Christ, I'd be dead and never
believe Him unless the Spirit gave me life and faith. That's
the only way I could be saved. That confession gives the Lord
the glory that's due unto His name. As best it can be done
in this body. That's how we give the Lord the
glory due unto His name. And verse 9 is much the same
thing. He said, Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Fear before Him all the earth. Well, that got my attention too,
because how can I do anything in holiness? I mean, really,
how can I worship in holiness? I've never done anything holy. Well, the answer is in Christ. In Christ. We worship God in
holiness by coming to him through the blood offering, through the
blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is worshiped in the
beauty of holiness when we confess that Christ is all my holiness.
I've got none but him. That gives God all the honor
and all the glory. And the only way you can sing
that song, the only way you can know it's just right for me to
sing this new song and worship God is if you know Christ. And if you know him, you can't
sing another song, can you? Right, here's the third thing.
We sing this new song because Christ is our judge. Verse 10,
say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The world also
should be established that it should not be moved. He should
judge the people righteously. Now David, under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, wrote that verse, so we know he can't be
wrong, don't we? And he says, say among the heathen
that the Lord reigneth. You tell everybody, everywhere,
that God is sovereign in all things. Don't say it like you
can fit in with their false religion. Well, yes, God, the Lord reigneth.
He has a plan and everything. No, don't say it like that. You
say it like this. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. He's sovereign over all things. He saves whom He will, when He
will, and He passes by whom He will, and it's right either way. God saves whom He will. Christ didn't die to all the
sons of Adam, Christ died for His people. His elect that the
Father gave Him, and those people shall be saved, because the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. See, don't start out letting
them think, well, you know, man has a free will, and you can
believe just any old thing you want, you know, and you can do
something to get yourself saved, and then later on, try to teach
them who God is. It won't work. You're not doing anybody any
favors by compromising that way. Because nobody will be saved
until they know God. The true and the living God.
The God of their imagination won't cut it. So start out, David
says, by telling them the Lord reigneth. God's sovereign in
salvation. And this is good news. God has
established His people in Christ. They're established. They're
a new creation in Christ Jesus and they can never perish because
God's established them on Christ the rock. Isaiah said, let the
inhabitants of the rock sing. Who are the inhabitants of the
rock? Those that the Father has established in Christ. Now, if
you did something to establish yourself, I'm going to tell you
something, you shall surely perish. God will only accept God has
provided. And the only thing that will
be established is what God has done. The only house that will be established
is the house that God built. And if he didn't build a house,
we're laboring in vain if we try to build us one. The only
thing God will accept is what God has provided. And he has
sovereignly provided salvation for his people. Now tell the
heathen that. Let's start out there. God reigns. And he says also to tell the
heathen, that's you and me now. I'm not talking about everybody
out there. We're the heathen by nature. Tell the heathen,
the Lord is coming again. That's what he told his disciples.
That angel said, what are you standing there gawking up in
the sky for? The same Jesus. coming again. The one you saw
sin, He's coming again. And He's coming again to judge
the people in righteousness. Now, this is another one of those
truths that can be preached in the wrong attitude. We're not
telling anybody this to scare them. No, because you can't scare
anybody into, you know, threatening them and, you know, making some
sort of profession of faith. If you do that, it's just a shelter
in a storm. It'll never hold. We tell this
glorious truth. Christ is coming again to judge
the world in righteousness. We tell that truth to comfort
the hearts of God's people. This is a comforting truth. Christ
is coming again and He's going to judge the people in righteousness. That ought to make our hearts
burst out in singing this new song of God's grace and redemption
in Christ Jesus. Now think about it and make good
on this. Here we all sit. and our sinful flesh. And I know
we've got some idea of how sinful and how guilty we are before
God. We don't see it all. Some old preacher said one time,
God won't let us see all of it. If he let us see all of it, we'd
all go crazy. We'd be in asylum somewhere. But we've got a pretty
good idea. Some idea of our sin and our
guilt before God. Christ is coming to judge. Now those two statements are
both true. How do you find comfort for your soul? There's none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. If Christ is your only hope and
he's your only comfort, then you have a good hope. The Lord
Jesus Christ died for the sin of his people and he put their
sin away with his precious blood. And our Savior said that the
Father has given all judgment into the hand of the Son. The
Father will judge no man, the Son will judge every man. Well,
if the Lord Jesus Christ is your judge, and He's your only hope,
you know Him, here's your comfort. Nobody knows better than Him
you're innocent of all charges, because He's the one that made
you innocent. If Christ is your judge, nobody knows better than
him, your sin debt has already been paid, because he paid it
with his precious blood. He's going to say, not guilty,
not guilty. Well, then not only is there
no fear of judgment for God's people, God's people can say,
even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Finish the work
that you started. And take me out of this body
of sin. Take me out of this world of
sin. Make me like Christ and let me
be with Him. Let me be with Him where I can
sing this song in perfect time, perfect harmony. You can sing that song. You can
sing that song with no fear of judgment. Christ is your judge. He's your savior and your judge.
Now David ends just like he began, telling all the creation to rejoice
in Christ and to sing his praises. Verse 11, he says, let the heavens
rejoice. Let the earth be glad. Let the
sea roar in the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful in all
that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the
wood rejoice before the Lord. For he cometh, for he cometh
to judge the earth He should judge the world with righteousness
and the people with His truth. Now, all of God's creation sings
the praises of God. I don't think about the birds.
If a bird sings the praises of God, I certainly should. Don't you
think? All of creation, the mountains
and the valleys, the lakes and the rivers and the streams, Both
the cloud and the sunshine sings God's praises. Just look how
beautiful God made them. They're just all there to be
seen, telling us of God's glory. Yet, in Romans chapter 8, you
know what the Apostle Paul tells us? That while creation is singing
God's praises, the Apostle says that the creation groans and
travails together in pain, waiting for Christ to return. waiting
for the manifestation of the sons of God. When Christ returns,
God's people will be made manifest. Now why is creation groaning? Paul tells us because it was
made subject to vanity. Creation was made subject to
death. The animals die, the trees die, plants die, everything dies
in nature. Because of Adam's sin. Adam's
sin caused the ground to be cursed. It caused the ground to start
bringing forth thorns and thistles. Things started dying. All because
of Adam's sin. I think about these earthquakes
out west. That's just creation groaning and prevailing. Just, oh, waiting for the manifestation
of the sons of God. When will I be free from all
this sin and God's creation? Well, we know when Christ returns,
his people are going to be set free from sin. Those who have
died are going to be resurrected in perfect body. Those who remain
will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, caught up into the
sky with the Savior, forever free from sin. And when that
happens, you know who else is going to be set free from sin?
This creation. That will be the day creation's
been waiting for, for so far it's been 6,000 years. Creation's
been waiting for that day. Creation will be free from the
effects of sin. God's going to make a new heaven
and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. There's going
to be no more sin. There's going to be no more earthquakes,
no more floods, no more tornadoes, no more wildfires. Creation will
be free from sin. And that is where God's people
are going to live for eternity. rejoicing, doing what we heard
over there in Revelation 14, singing this new, new song with
a perfect heart and a perfect lip. I know we don't have a perfect
heart. We don't have perfect mouths
right now, but by God's grace, we know the words, don't we? I hope God will enable us to
start singing it now. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this glorious song, a new song of redemption in Christ
Jesus. Father, I pray that you would
put this song in our hearts, that you'd give us here a broken
heart that could sing with the glory due unto the name of our
Savior, ascribing to him all of our salvation, all of our
hope, all of our joy, and all of our peace. Father, I pray
you'd bless your word. Bless it to the hearts of your
people. Cause your word that has been preached to penetrate,
to penetrate our minds, to penetrate all of our doubts and worries
and fears and thoughts of the day. And let your word nest in
our hearts that we might leave here rejoicing in Christ our
Savior. And that we might wake up tomorrow
morning like the birds wake up singing, enable us to wake up
singing this new, new song of redemption in Christ Jesus with
a grateful and a thankful heart. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ of his glory. We pray.