the Lord. My horn is exalted
in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine
enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none
holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee. Neither is
there any rock like our God. Speak no more exceeding proudly.
Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth. For the Lord is a
God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows
of the mighty men are broken, And they that stumbled are girded
with strength. They that were full have hired out themselves
for bread. And they that were hungry ceased,
so that the barren hath born seven. And she that hath many
children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth and maketh alive.
He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh
poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust. and lifteth up the
beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to
make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of
the earth are the Lord's, and he has set the world upon them.
He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall
be silent in darkness. For by strength shall no man
prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall
be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall he thunder
upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, And he
should give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his
anointed." You would turn to page one. Page
one. O worship the King, all glorious
above, And gratefully sing his power and his love. Our shield and defender, the
Ancient of Days, Pavillioned in splendor and girded with grace,
O tell of his might, O sing of his grace, Whose robe is the
light, whose canopy's face Is chariots of wrath, the deep thunderclouds
form, And dark is his path on the wings of the storm. By bountiful care, what done
can reside? It shines in the light. It springs from the hills. It descends to the plain. And sweetly distills in the dew
and the rain. Frail children of dust, and feeble
as frail, In thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail. Thy mercies, how tender, how
firm to the end, Our Maker, Defender, Let's turn over to page 62. 62. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but Awake, my soul, and sing Of Him
who died for thee, And hail Him as thy matchless King Through
all eternity. Crown Him the Lord of love, behold
His hand and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorious. No angel in the sky can fully
bear that sight. Downward bends his wandering
eye, At mysteries so bright. Crown him the Lord of life, Who
triumphed o'er the grave. Who rose victorious to the strife,
For those He came to save. His glories now we sing, Who
died and rose again, No life to bring, and lives that
death may die. Crown Him the Lord of Heaven,
one with the Father known, one with the Spirit to Him given
from yonder glorious throne. To Thee be endless praise, for
Thou pourest O Lord, through endless days,
adored and magnified. Let's open our Bibles now to
Psalm 95. Psalm 95. Oh, come, let us sing unto the
Lord. Let's make a joyful noise to
the rock of our salvation. Let's come before his presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For
the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. In his hand
are the deep places of the earth. The strength of the hills is
his also. The sea is his and he made it. His hands formed
the dry land. Oh, come, let us worship and
bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our maker, for he is our God, and we are the people of his
pasture and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you will hear
his voice, harden not your heart as in the provocation and as
in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers
tempted me, proved me and saw my work. Forty years long was
I grieved with this generation. Instead, it is people that do
err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. Unto
whom I swear my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest. Let's bow together in prayer. Our father, oh, how thankful
we are that you're God alone, that you're the king who rules,
that you're the rock of our salvation, that you are our maker, that
you are the great shepherd of your sheep. How thankful we are. And Father, how thankful we are
that you've given us this opportunity to worship you. You've given
us a time and we can meet together out of this world and to worship. And Father, I pray that you would
make this hour an hour of true worship. enable us to worship
you in spirit and in truth. Do not just go through the motions
of religion, but to worship. Father, speak through your word.
Speak to the hearts of your people. Let everything that we hear be
mixed with faith, believing the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're
thankful for this place that you've given to us and this family
of believers that you have called together Father, I pray your
richest blessing on each home, on each family, that you bless
us with your presence and your leadership in our homes. Cause
us to live our lives looking to, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. That this matter of worship not
just be something that we do when we come into this building,
but Father, enable us to live our lives as we go about fulfilling
all of our daily responsibilities. Enable us to live in such a way
that we're looking to Thee, depending upon Thee. Father, we pray a
blessing for Your people that You brought in the time of trouble
and trial. Those who need this great rock
to rest in, in a weary land. Those who are sick and brokenhearted
and in great turmoil, deep waters. Father, we pray for them. We
pray for Your hand of healing and comfort and direction. We
pray for young Johnson as he's there in the hospital. We pray
for Brandon that you'd undertaken a mighty way on their behalf
to heal and strengthen. We do give thanks for our upcoming
wedding and Father, I pray that you'd bless Isaac and Clara in
a very special way. Cause them to grow together in
all things together. to look to thee, give them love
and faith for thee, and cause them to grow in love one to another.
For I give Isaac great wisdom, that he might lead his home wisely
and lovingly, in such a way that it would make it easy for Clara
to easily, lovingly, willingly submit to his rule. Make their
home an example, a picture of Christ and his bride. Now Father
again in this hour, we pray that you'd bless us. Bless us as we
look into your word. Don't leave us alone, but enable
us to see the Lord Jesus Christ in your word. It's in his precious
name we pray and give thanks. Where'er your people gather,
Lord, around the mercy seat, be pleased to grant your grace
and power. Some gather in a stately place,
Some in a modest home, But all who know pure love and grace
To worship Christ have come. A special favor we would seek
to worship in this place. Pour out your Spirit, flood our
souls with visions of your grace. and fill with power to preach
the word from God for us. Send forth the mighty gospel,
Lord, to every one of us. Yet we would not neglect to pray
for friends around the world, even for the little fox of saints
who worship Christ our Lord. who have no messengers of grace
and truth from God. Give them good pastors from your
heart. Provide their souls with food All saints are one around the
world, and those in heaven, too. The universal Church of God,
a glorious One great chosen family we gather
round God's throne. Redeemed and called by grace
divine to make His glory known. If you would, open your Bibles
with me again to Psalm 95. I titled the message this evening,
God Who is Worshipped. Now, God is to be worshipped. The Bible makes that as clear
as the noonday sun. And as always, my great concern
that we gather here together to worship. Would that be the
point of our meeting together? I don't want us to gather together
to prove our point, to prove our pet doctrine or whatever.
I don't want us to meet together trying to gain a larger following. I would love it if the Lord would
call out a bunch of his people, but that's not really our primary
goal. God is to be worshiped. God is
to be worshipped. We're not to worship an idol
of our own making. God is to be worshipped. And
in this Psalm 95, the psalmist gives us a description of the
God who is to be worshipped. Number one, he tells us this,
God who is worshipped is the rock of our salvation. Verse
one, he says, Oh, come, let us sing unto the Lord. Let's make
a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before
his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto
him with psalms. Now let us make a joyful noise
to the rock of our salvation. I suppose everybody in religion
thinks that their God is some sort of a rock, of some sort.
You know, they think their God could be a place to hide if they
find themselves in a time of trouble. But people who think
that exclusively, they think of their idol as a good luck
charm. You know, they can kind of rub and he'll be there when
they need him. But that's not our God. That's
not the God of this book. Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is the rock of our salvation. Look over at Isaiah chapter 32.
He is the rock in which we hide from God's wrath against our
sin. That's first and foremost. And He is also the rock in which
we hide from the trouble that we meet from within and from
without. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
rock, Isaiah 32 verse 2. And a man shall be as a hiding
place from the wind and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of
water and a dry place and as the shadow of a great rock in
a weary land. Our God is our rock. The Lord
Jesus Christ, we hide from God's wrath against our sin in Christ
our substitute. Weary sinners can find rest in
the Lord Jesus Christ. In the study, Brother Eric prayed,
it seems like this is a time of so many of God's people are
weary. Are you weary? Isaiah said there's
a place to rest. The Lord Jesus Christ is a great
rock in a weary land. Now, our rock is not some imaginary
figure. He's a man. He's the man. God became a man, the God man. And our rock is a man so that
he could be the substitute for his people who are sinful men. Now, I know most people in religion
are looking for a fire escape from hell. People get in trouble,
they get in whatever, all the various troubles of this life,
and they begin to look for some protection, some escape from
that trouble. But the Lord Jesus Christ is far more than that. Far more than that. Our sister
Hannah said, there's none beside thee. None can be compared to
thee. Neither is there any rock like our God. Our rock is not
like their rock. Our rock is the rock of ages. He gives life to his people. You know, idols are often made
out of rocks, aren't they? And that idol, if he's going
to get anything done, somebody else is going to have to do it
for him, isn't he? And they freely admit it. They say, you've got
to decide to accept it. You've got to decide to let him
into your heart. They freely admit he can't do
anything of himself. They say he's got no hands but
your hands, no feet but your feet, no mouth but your mouth.
That's a mighty poor God, isn't it? A mighty poor rock. But our
rock's not like their rock. Our rock does all of the work
of salvation for his people. And he gives life to his people
by being smitten for these. You know what's the difference,
the great difference between our rock and their rock? Our
rock was smitten. That's the difference. God's
people do have a place to hide. We do have a refuge in our rock.
People who worship an idol, they try to find a refuge in their
rock too, don't they? What's the difference? Our rock was
smitten. When Moses took his rod and he
struck that rock, what happened? Out came life-giving water. gushing
forth enough for three million people and all their animals.
In 1 Corinthians 10 verse 4, the apostle Paul said that rock,
that great rock, followed Israel through the wilderness. And Paul
said that rock was Christ. That rock was Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ was made sin for his people. And then he was smitten
with the rod of his father's justice. And God's elect have
life. God's elect have no fear of the
rod of God's justice. God's elect have no fear of the
sword of God's justice being plunged into our heart because
our rock was smitten for us. That sword of God's justice was
plunged into his heart in our place. And when Christ was smitten,
out flowed life-giving water and blood. Blood to justify,
water to sanctify. Our rock was smitten That's how
he is the rock of our salvation. And he is to be worshipped. He's to be worshipped. And David
here says our God is to be worshipped with a joyful noise. Well, shouldn't
he be? Shouldn't it be a joyful noise?
What makes you feel more joy than hearing Christ your substitute
was smitten for you? You're free. from God's wrath
against your sin, your substance, you already suffered it for you.
What makes you more full of joy than that? And David said he's
to be worshipped with thanksgiving. Well, that's an understatement.
Of course he should be worshipped with thanksgiving. He didn't
have to take our place, but he did. He did. What makes you more
thankful? that knowing Christ was crucified
as your substitute. You have life because he died
in your place. Oh, how thankful, joyful we ought
to be. And Christ, the smitten rock,
the rock of our salvation, that'll make his people come and worship
him. God who is worshiped is the rock
of our salvation. Number two, God who is worshiped
is the sovereign king who rules all things, verse three. For
the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. In his hand are the deep places
of the earth. The strength of the hills is his also. The sea
is his and he made it. In his hands formed the dry land.
Now, God's to be worshiped, David says, with a joyful noise. In
verse three or verse two, that's what he said, make a joyful noise.
And that phrase joyful noise means a loud, ear-splitting shout. It's a shout of triumph and it's
a shout of alarm. It's to be loud, ear-splitting.
And that's preaching the gospel, isn't it? Preaching the gospel
is a shout of triumph in Christ. Christ has saved His people from
their sins. He is the successful Savior.
It's a shout of triumph. And it's also a shout of alarm.
It's a shout of alarm to everyone who does not believe Him. Today,
you come to Him. Today, right now, you come to
Him. You know what Brother Parks told
us Sunday night about those cities of refuge? Don't delay. Don't
delay. Don't take a detour. Come right
now. That's a sound of alarm, of warning. It's a joyful noise. But now,
let's remember this. I don't think anybody here has
a problem with this, but let's always remember this. That doesn't
mean that when we worship, we're to make a fool out of ourselves,
acting a fool, jumping around and shouting and rolling around
and frothing at the mouth. God is to be worshiped with a
joyful noise, reverently, reverently. Reverence in worship is so important. You cannot have worship without
reverence, reverencing the king. Let's make a joyful noise. Absolutely. Let's make a joyful noise. Nobody
has any more right to be happy than God's people. But let's
be sure we remember we're worshiping the king. We're coming into the
courts of the king. Believers are God's children.
Children have constant access to our God. We have freedom to
come to him at all times. But let's never forget this.
We have freedom to come to him, but when we come to him, our
God, our Father's sitting on the throne. We better come accordingly. It's a throne. It's a throne
of grace. Yes, it's a throne of grace, where you may find
grace to help in time of need, but let's just remember it's
a king's throne. The sovereign sits upon it, and we ought to
approach him reverently. And David tells us our God is
the king who created the earth. He created the deep places. He created the seas. He created,
his hands formed the dry land. I love to think about our God
being the creator. But I believe there's a word
of comfort and a word of encouragement here. If our God's the creator,
it ought to stay into reason. He's the sovereign. He rules
over everything that happens in it. But there's a word of
comfort here, I believe, an encouragement for God's people. Our God created
the deep places. You know, we can't be so low
down, so low down in the earth that we've become so far away
from God that God cannot save us. No, in those low places,
our God rules. He rules in those low places
and His arm not shortened that it cannot save. And He created
the seas. Our God did that. He created
the seas. Whether we can't be in such deep places in such deep
waters that our God cannot comfort us while we're there. And he
can't deliver us when it pleases him to accomplish his purpose.
God's people can never be in so low down in such deep waters
that they'll perish or they'll fall away because our God rules
everywhere. And he will not allow that to
happen to his children. He's the sovereign. And I'm telling
you, nobody anywhere ever is going to worship until they worship
the sovereign who rules everything everywhere. A sovereign does
as he wills. And there's nothing we can do.
Nothing we can do about it. We can't change it. We can't
influence his will. He's going to do as he will.
And the only time we will ever worship is that we see we are
completely dependent upon God and His will to save us. And
He's the Sovereign. So whatever He does with me is
right. Nobody can argue against it.
There's no appeal. Whatever He does with me is right. He will
be right if He damns me and He'll be right if He saves me. That's
the Sovereign. God will still be God no matter
what He does with me. Now that's the Sovereign. That's
the only one we'll ever worship. Do you know that? That's the
only one we'll ever worship is the sovereign. If it's somebody
that we can bribe with our good works, if it's somebody that
we can act pitiful enough or sorry enough or good enough or
something to influence His will and get Him to do something for
us, then He's not sovereign. The only one we will ever worship
is the one We see we are in His hand to do with as He pleases. And if God will ever show us
that, we'll worship. We absolutely will worship. Worship
has to do with licking the Master's feet like a dog does. That's
worship. And a dog just licks the Master's
feet because that's the proper relationship between God Almighty
and a dead dog like me. That's why I ought to be found.
licking his feet. And I give you three examples
of that from scripture. You don't have to turn to this.
I'll turn to it. The first one, this is worship now, worshiping
the sovereign who does as he will with us. And the first one
is Nebuchadnezzar. After the Lord took his kingdom
and his reason away from him, made him live like an animal,
Nebuchadnezzar said, this is what I learned. At the end of
the days, when the sovereign gave me my mind back, at the
end of the days, he said, this is what I learned. I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me. And I know his understanding did return unto him, because
you know what he did now? He blessed the Most High. Before
he was blessing and praising himself, saying, look at this
great city. Now, he blessed the Most High. And he praised and
he honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion. And his kingdom is from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He doeth according to his will
in the army of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth, and
none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Nobody
has the right to ask him, what are you doing, why are you doing
it? He's the sovereign. At that same time, my reason
returned unto me, for the glory of my kingdom, my honor, my brightness
returned unto me, and my counselors and my Lord sought unto me, and
I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added
unto me. Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the
King of heaven, all whose works are truth and his ways judgment,
and those that walk in pride he's able to abase. Now, nobody
will ever worship until they worship that Lord Nebuchadnezzar
just described, the one until they acknowledge that he will
do with me as he pleases. He's got the right to obey me
and he's got the right to lift me up. That's the one I'll worship. The second example is in Matthew
chapter eight, that leper who came to our Lord. He is against
the law for this leper to come in public, to come around people,
to approach the Lord Jesus. But this man is in great trouble
and he came And he bowed before the Lord Jesus and said, Lord,
if you will, you make me clean. If you will. He worshipped him. This is so important. Scripture
says he worshipped him before he knew if the Lord healed him
or not. He didn't worship him because the Lord healed him.
He worshipped him because he recognized this is the Sovereign
and there's not one question in my mind about your power to
heal me. This is what I want to know.
Will you? Would you have mercy and make
me whole, make me clean? I can't do anything to deserve
you saving me. I can't do anything to get you
to do it. But I can beg you. I can beg
you to save me. I can recognize the proper relationship
between you and me and beg you to save me. Lord, if you will,
you make me clean. And nobody will ever worship
the Lord until they beg for mercy, knowing He doesn't have to give
it to me. He didn't have to show mercy on me just because I begged
for it. You don't have to. No. Mercy is His to give and
His to withhold. And nobody will worship until
they worship that God. And the third one is the Syrophoenician
woman in Matthew chapter 15. She came seeking help from the
Lord, healing for her daughter. And the Lord, confronted her
with her sin, with her nature. He called her a dog. It's not
right, he said, for me to take the children's bread and cast
it to dogs. He confronted her with his sovereign
right. First thing he did was ignore
her. He didn't even have to hear her. He confronted her with his
sovereign right to even choose whether he's going to hear her
or not. And he confronted her with his sovereign right to save
his elect and only His elect. He said to a Gentile woman, I'm
not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That poor woman was confronted
with her nature. She was confronted with the sovereignty
of the Savior. She was confronted with God's
sovereign electing grace. There was nothing she could do
to get Him to do anything for her. She was completely helpless. And when she was completely helpless
with no other options, you know, scripture says, then she came
and worshiped him saying, Lord, help me, Lord, help me. Oh, help
me. And nobody will ever worship
until they see they're helpless. They deserve to be cast into
hell, but they're going to beg for mercy from the sovereign.
Nobody will ever worship until God shows them they're powerless
to do anything to save themselves. And the Lord has all the power.
A big part of worship is just confessing the truth of the situation. It's confessing our dependence
upon the Lord. We're dependent on God to choose
us. We're dependent on God to redeem
us. We're dependent on God to call
us. We're dependent on God to give us life and faith. We're
dependent upon God to teach us. We're dependent on God to keep
us and to present us faultless before His Father's throne. Confessing
that dependence is worshiping the King. See, true worship doesn't
have anything to do with me, with what I've done. True worship
has to do with him and who he is, what he's doing. True worship
doesn't have anything to do with where I am or where I'm going.
True worship has to do with where he is. That's worship. All right, thirdly,
God who is worshiped is our maker. Verse six, David says, oh, come,
let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our maker. Look over in Acts chapter 17.
The Lord is our maker. He made us, not we ourselves. He's the one who gave us life.
He's the one who sustains our life. And we should worship him. He ought to be worshiped. He's
the giver of life. And a lot of people worship,
but they know not what. And this is what the apostle
Paul found when he came to Athens and all these idols and this
worship of idols going on. In verse 22, Paul's sitting and
talking to them. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill and said, you men of Athens, I perceive that in
all things you're too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the
unknown God. They had idols to the God of
the sun, the God of the moon, the God of the stars, the God
of the harvest, the God of the rain, the God of winter, all
these idols. And they said, in case we missed
one, Because there's one we don't know. Here's going to be our
idol, our statue to the unknown God, whom you ignorantly worship. Him declare I unto you. Here He is, God that made the
world and all things therein. Seeing He's Lord of heaven and
earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is He
worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything.
He doesn't need anything from us. Seeing He's the one that
giveth to all life and breath in all things. This is the one
who made us. And hath made of one blood all
nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth. And he's
the one that hath determined the times before appointed and
the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord. If happily they might feel after
him and find him, though he be not very far from every one of
us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As certain
also of your own prophets have said, for we are also his offspring. We're his offspring. He's the
one that gives us life. In him we live and move and have
our being. God is our maker. It's God who's given us life. Then he ought to be worshipped,
shouldn't he? He ought to be. And how is he to be worshipped?
Paul says he's not worshipped with men's hands. He's worshipped
in spirit. and in truth. He's not worshipped
from the outward motions of religion. God is worshipped from the heart,
from the heart. And you know what that tells
me? If God's worshipped from the
heart, the only people who will ever worship God, our maker,
is the people to whom God has given a new heart. God's got
to make, he's got to create in us a new heart before we can
ever worship him. See, God has an elect people,
people he chose to save, but those people are born dead in
sin. And there's not one thing in
this world they can do to make themselves live. They're dead.
And we're dependent on God, the Holy Spirit, to make us live,
to give us life. God gives life and breath to
all things. That's true physically. And that's
true spiritually. We're dependent upon the Lord
to give us a new heart, to cause us to be born again. You must
be born again. Isn't that what the Savior said?
You must be. But we can't make ourselves be
born again. So we're dependent on God, our maker, to give us
life, to create in us life. And David tells us we're to kneel.
We're to bow down before the Lord, our maker. Lying before
the Lord in quiet reference and waiting on Him. That's worship. That's worship. That's a whole
lot different than the whoop-dee-doo. Brother Henry used to say the
whoop-dee-doo, show of the flesh, show of the flesh. You know,
Bridget Harding transcribes those messages that he would preach. And she says, sometimes it's
hard to know how to spell those words. She says, how do you spell
whoop-dee-doo? Whoop-dee-doo. The whoop-dee-doo, show of the
flesh. Whether it's Pentecostalism or whether it's you know, with
monks chanting and doing all the things to make the flesh
feel good? I don't see one bit of worship from that, from God's
Word. Not one. Worship is quiet kneeling before
the Lord and waiting on Him, our Maker, to do as He will. That's worship. And if we realize
God's our Maker, that's when we'll start to worship Him. All
right, here's the fourth thing. God who is worshiped is our shepherd. Verse 7, for he is our God and
we're the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Now,
a big part of true worship, like I said, is confessing the proper
relationship between God and me. I'm just an ignorant sheep. Now, by God's grace, I'm his
sheep. His sheep are his elect. By God's
grace, I'm his sheep. But I'm telling you, I'm an ignorant
sheep. I'm going the wrong way and I cannot find my way back.
I must have the good shepherd come where I am and find me,
pick me up and carry me home on his shoulders. I've got to
have that because I'm an ignorant sheep. I'm a dirty sheep. I need Christ, the great shepherd
of his sheep to wash me clean in his blood. By God's grace,
I am one of His sheep. But I've been born with a nature
that will not come unto Him that I might have life. I need Christ,
the Good Shepherd, to powerfully, irresistibly call me by my name
so that I'll come and follow Him. I'm God's sheep. I know that. But I've broken
God's law. There's a price on my head. God's
law has a price on my head. And this is what I must have.
I must have Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, lay down
his life for me. Or else God's justice is going
to demand the penalty from my hand. I'm a defenseless sheep. I need Christ, the good shepherd,
to protect me from the wolves. I'm an ignorant sheep. I need
Christ the Good Shepherd to lead me in the way which I should
go. Not only do I need Him to protect me from the wolves, I
need Him to protect me from myself. I need Him to use His rod and
His staff to comfort me and keep me from straying off where I'm
going someplace I might not go. I am a sinful, unrighteous sheep. I need Christ, the great shepherd,
to lead me in paths of righteousness for his namesake and make me
righteous in him. That's what I must have. And if you're God's sheep, you're
going to find this to be so. You will often be a hungry and
a thirsty sheep. Well, when you're hungry and
you're thirsty, what do you need? I need Christ, my shepherd, to
lead me in those green pastures of His Word, and I need Him to
make me lie down in them." What does that tell you about our
nature? We're hungry. We're hungry. We need to be feeding
upon God's Word, yet we need our shepherd to make us stop
and lie down in those green pastures. We need Him. We need Him to lead
us beside the still waters, to bring us to the waters of life,
and make us drink. He's got to make us so thirsty
that we will come unto him and drink. I'm his sheep. By God's
grace, I am his sheep. And worship is confessing our
need of the shepherd, not thinking I can go out here on my own.
True worship is saying, I need my shepherd and rejoice in him
and everything he's done for his people. And then here's the
last thing. God, who is worship, can only
be worshiped in faith. At the end of verse seven, he
says, today, if you will hear his voice, are not your heart
as in the provocation, as in the day of temptation in the
wilderness, when your father's tempted me, proved me and saw
my work. 40 years long was I agreed with
this generation and said, it's a people that do air in their
heart and they've not known my ways and whom I swear in my wrath
that they should not enter into my rest. Now the children of
Israel, you know the story. They came out of Egypt, slaves. God let them out free. They came
to the edge of the land that God had promised to give them.
God promised Abraham 400 years ago, I'm gonna give your people
this land. And they came right to the edge of it. Just looked
across the river, there it was. And during that trip from Egypt
to the promised land, they'd seen God's word. They'd seen
him destroy the Egyptian army to Red Sea. They'd seen him provide
manna and quail for them. They had plenty to eat, didn't
have to work a bit to get it. They saw water come from the
smitten rock. During that time, they received
God's law. They received the priesthood.
They received the tabernacle. They built the tabernacle. They
had the tabernacle. That tabernacle that we study
in Bible school and in adult classes we've studied, we've
got that model of the tabernacle. They had the real McCoy. They
had the real thing. God's presence dwelt in their
midst. They had that. They saw that.
And they followed that cloudy pillar everywhere it went. And
that cloudy pillar led them to the edge of the promised land,
just like God told them to do. And they sent in 12 spies to
go search out the land. And the spies came back. And
they said, brethren, the land's just like God told us it'd be.
God says the land flowing with milk and honey. It is. Oh, it
is. They said you ought to see the
land. It's unbelievable. But 10 of those spies said it's
land flowing with milk and honey, but we can't take it. The people
there are too strong for us. Many of them are giants. They're
walled cities. They're so strong we can't take
them. The walls you stand up at the bottom of, you can't see
the top of them. We can't take those cities. The
Lord can't give us the land. That's what they told their brethren.
And this is what they said. They said, let's go back to Egypt
and see if they'll let us be their slaves again. And all the people agreed with
what scripture calls an evil report. They didn't believe God,
they believed those spies. But two of the spies, Joshua
and Caleb, they said, don't you listen to them, we can take the
land. And they said, you know why we
can take the land? God's given it into our hands, we can take
it. And Joshua told him, you believe in this evil report?
He told him that's unbelief. This thing of not believing God,
believing this evil report. Joshua told him it's rebellion. It's not ignorance. It's not
what you just don't know no better. It's rebellion. Unbelief, not
believing God is rebellion. But the people would not believe
God. They wouldn't listen to Joshua and Caleb. And the Lord
would not let them enter the land of rest. because of their
unbelief. Those spies spent 40 days searching
out the land. And God said, you're going to
spend one year in the wilderness for every day those spies spend
in the land. 40 years you're going to spend
wandering in the wilderness, unable to enter the land of rest
because of unbelief, because of unbelief. And everyone from
20 years old and up is going to die in the wilderness because
of unbelief. And everybody 19 years old and
younger is going to enter the land of promise with Joshua and
Caleb. And those who would enter in
are going to enter the land by grace through faith. There's
a picture here of this. They're going to enter the land
by grace through faith. When the people believe that
evil report, God told Moses, you stand over there. I'm going
to destroy the entire nation. I'm going to destroy every last
one of them. Even those who are younger than 20 years old. But
Moses interceded for the people. It's a great picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He interceded for the people.
And God said, all right, everybody under 20 years old, I'll spare.
And I'll allow them to enter the land of promise. Isn't that
grace? I ask, isn't that grace? God said, I'm going to kill them.
They deserve to die. But because you interceded for them, Moses,
I'll let them enter the land. That's grace. Sinners are saved
by grace, through faith. Joshua and Caleb entered the
land too, by faith, because they believed God. And you know why
they believed God and those 10 other spies didn't? God's grace.
God graciously gave them faith. Salvation is by grace through
faith. And I'll tell you this, I didn't
tell that whole story of Israel to, uh, trying to find the right word,
just, you know, be mad at Israel. Get everybody thinking how awful
those people, you know, are and just downgrade them. Brethren, Whatever it was, the children
of Israel saw in the wilderness, saw as they left Egypt and saw
in that time till they came to the edge of the promised land
is nothing compared to what this congregation has seen for years
and years and years. They saw a picture. That's all
they saw. What they saw at the Red Sea
was a picture. That's all it was, a picture.
What they saw in the tabernacle was a picture. What they saw
in God's law, God's law being given from Sinai, that's just
a picture. We've had the person preach to
us, most of us for nearly all our lives. Do we believe God? The psalmist
says today, believe him. Today, if Israel perished in
the wilderness, if they wouldn't believe the picture, what do
you reckon would be right for God to do to us not believing
this gospel after the fulfillment of all these things? See, the
Lord can only be worshiped by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And faith is not just believe
in anything we want to. I see this on TV all the time.
You know, I mean, I feel I'm broken hearted for these people,
you see. Floods come through or tornadoes or something and
just destroy everything they have. I mean, and there they
stand. There used to be a house on this lot. Now there's nothing.
And they say, well, my faith will get me through. Well, faith
in what? I mean, we don't trust in our
faith now. No, we trust the Savior. Faith is not even saying, well,
I believe God has a plan. Matter of fact, God don't have
a plan. God has a purpose. God has a
purpose. But faith is in a person. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith is not just believing anything I want to about God. Faith is
believing the record in this book that God's given us. The
salvation is in His Son. Now you believe Him. Faith says,
I believe. I believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ is all it takes to save me. I can't understand all the
hows and wherefores of how he did it or why he did it for me,
but this is what I believe. The Lord Jesus Christ is all
it takes to save me. Christ's obedience to the law
is the only righteousness that I need. The blood of Christ's
sacrifice is all I need to put away my sin and make me righteous. God can only be worshipped in
faith. and worship is honoring God. Well, can you think of anything
that honors God more than believing in Him? I mean, really, can you?
Can you think of anything that honors God more than believing
His Son, than hearing preaching, the preaching of Christ and Him
crucified? And if I think I've got to do something to make salvation
effectual for me, that's not faith. That's not faith in the
God of this book. That's not faith in Christ. If
I believe, The salvation is something I've got to do. I'm in rebellion
against God. Just as surely as the children
of Israel were, because that's not believing in God. But if
God gives us faith in Christ, we'll worship Him. And we'll
want to make a joyful noise. We won't be able to help but
make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. The rock that
was smitten for us. If God gives us faith in Christ,
we will willingly, lovingly bow. before God, our King. We'll kneel
before God, our maker. And God gives us faith in Christ.
We will lovingly and willingly follow Christ, our shepherd.
We'll do it lovingly and willingly. Oh, God, give us faith in him.
Enable us to worship him. He worthy of being worshiped
in me. God, help us to do it. All right, let's bow in prayer. Our God, how we thank How we
thank you for giving us this opportunity to meet together
and to worship you. And Father, I pray that you take
your word and cause it to go forth in the power of your spirit,
to bring glory to your name, to reveal to your people here
the proper relationship between us and God, God upon the throne,
us in the dust, and cause us there from the dust to worship
him, to make a joyful noise, to the rock of our salvation,
our king, our maker, our shepherd. And Father, let us, let each
one here this evening, leave here this evening with a gift
from your mighty hand of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, believing
him, resting him, and by faith, worshiping him, trusting him
and him alone. It's in his blessed name that
we pray and give thanks.