You would open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 148. Every time I go to Lexington,
to Todd's Road Grace Church, to preach there, Brother Nyvern
invariably introduces me and says, my only claim to fame is
that I'm Holly and Savannah's daddy. But we have some guests
here this evening I'll introduce the same way. All these ladies
over here, they're claimed to fame because they're Marvin Stoniker's
daughters and granddaughters. So y'all be sure to talk with
them after the service. And I'm delighted that Doris
Mahan is here with us. It's just a great, great privilege.
All right, Psalm 148. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye
the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise
ye him, all his angels. Praise ye him, all his hosts.
Praise ye him, sun and moon. Praise him, all you stars of
light. Praise him, the heavens of heavens and you waters that
be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the
Lord, for he commanded and they were created. He hath also established
them forever and ever. He hath made a decree which shall
not pass. Praise the Lord from the earth.
ye dragons in all deeps, fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy
wind fulfilling his word, mountains and all hills, fruitful trees
and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying
fowl, kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges
of the earth, both young men and maidens, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the
Lord, for his name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth
and heaven. He also exalted the horn of his
people, the praise of all his saints, even of the children
of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the Lord. You would turn to page 442, 442
in the great hymns of faith. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing all worth His wonderful
love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to His
holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard
His children. In His arms He carries them all
day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. We all rock our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus, who
bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful, deep,
and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals clouded with
Hosanna's ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, prophet
and priest and King. Christ is coming over the world
victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord
belong. Praise Him! Praise Him! Tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him! Praise Him! Ever in joyful song. Now over to 492. 492. I am so glad that our Father
in heaven tells of His love in the book He has given. Wonderful things in the Bible
I see. This is the dearest that Jesus
loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves
me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves
me. Jesus loves even me. Though I forget Him and wander
away, Still He doth love me wherever I stray. Back to His dear loving
arms would I flee, When I remember that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves
me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves
me. Jesus loves even me. Oh, if there's only one song
I can sing, When in His beauty I see the great King, This shall
my song in eternity be. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus
loves me! I am so glad that Jesus loves
me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves
me. Jesus loves even me. Let's open our Bibles now to
Psalm 92. Psalm 92. As you're turning,
let me tell you that this Sunday morning, brothers Dan Morgan
and Jonathan Tate will be bringing the messages. The Lord willing,
Janet and I will be away at our niece's high school graduation.
And please remember that Vacation Bible School starts one week
from today. And as often between now and
then as that comes to your mind, please be in much prayer. about
this week. It's been a long time since I
was a student in Bible school, but Janet and I were talking
earlier this week, how many things that we remember learning in
Bible school. This is an important week and
I hope you'll remember to pray for our children and for our
teachers that the Lord would bless us this week. All right,
Psalm 92. It's a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord. and to sing praises under thy
name, O Most High, to show forth thy loving kindness in the morning
and thy faithfulness every night, upon an instrument of 10 strings
and upon the psaltery, upon the harp with a solemn sound. For
thou, Lord, has made me glad through thy work. I will triumph
in the works of thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works,
and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not, Neither
does a fool understand this. When the wicked spring is the
grass and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is
that they should be destroyed forever. That's the only reason
they are raised up, that they would be destroyed forever. But
thou, Lord, are most high forevermore. For lo, thine enemies, O Lord,
for lo, thine enemies shall perish. All the workers of iniquity shall
be scattered. But my horn shalt thou exalt
like the horn of a unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh
oil. Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and
mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against
me. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall
grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They
shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They should be fat
and flourishing to show that the Lord is upright. He is my
rock and there is no unrighteousness in him." Let's bow together in
prayer. Our Father, we bow in thy courts
this evening. We bow in awe and in reverence
and in deep humility. We bow in thanksgiving and rejoicing
in our that sinful men and women such as we are can come before
the throne of grace and call you our father. How thankful
we are we can come and be heard, have our prayers, have our petition,
have our thanksgiving and our praise be heard in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, how we thank you. Father, I beg of thee that this
evening that you would give us an hour of true worship Enable
us to hear your gospel. Father, enable your gospel to
be preached. Enable me to rightly divide the
word of truth and preach the gospel in clarity, simplicity,
with a heart for your people and a heart of praise for thee.
Father, give us an ear that would hear and a heart that would believe,
receive the things of Christ that we hear preached and give
us a time of refreshing. We've gathered together out of
a dry and a barren world where there is no life. There's no
water. There's no hope. Father, refresh
us tonight with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Enable
us to leave here this evening rejoicing in Him. Father, what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for your people who meet everywhere this evening, wherever
they are, Father, blessed. You know your people. You know
where they're at. Father, bless for your great namesake and for
the good of your people. Father, we couldn't begin to
thank you for all the blessings you've so freely bestowed upon
us. David said we can't count them.
We can't reckon them up in order, Father, but we do thank you. And we also freely admit that
in this life, while we're blessed beyond measure, we are a poor
and a needy people. Father, for those who are in
a time of trouble and trial, we pray for them. We pray for
your hand of comfort, that your presence be with them. We pray
especially for the Mahan family, Father, that you comfort their
hearts. While we rejoice that you've
called one of your children home, that those who are left missing
and miss his touch, his voice, his look, Father, comfort their
hearts, we pray. Father, we pray for this upcoming
week of the Bible School. We beseech thee, we beg thee
that you give us a time of blessing, that you bless our teachers as
they prepare, as they teach and bless our children as they come
to hear and to learn. Father, give them a ready mind. Give them a heart that you've
prepared to receive the things that you would have them be taught
in this upcoming week. Father again, We pray you'd bless
us. Bless us in this worship service. Give us a time where we can forget
about the thoughts and the cares and the worries of this life.
Let us praise thee. It won't be as you should be
praised, but Father, with what you've given us, let us praise
you. It's in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray
and give thanks. Amen. You know, we'll turn to 493.
I'd like you to help me. After I sing the verses, you
help me on the chorus, please. Since the Savior found me, pardon
all my sin. I have had the joy and living
hope within. Gone is all the shame and sorrow
of the past. They're underneath the precious
blood of Christ at last. Safe, safe, safe, I'm happy on
the way. Save, save, save, I love Him
more each day. Save, save, save, I know He's
mine each hour. He saves and keeps and sanctifies
me by His power. Since the Savior found me, all
to Him I owe. For His precious blood has washed
me white as snow. Now no condemnation, happy as
can be, I'm glad that Jesus justifies and sets me free. I'm happy on the way. Safe, safe, safe, I love him
more each day. Safe, safe, safe, I know he's
mine each hour. He saves and keeps and sanctifies
me by His power. Since the Savior found me, I
have perfect rest, Living in the realms of joy and happiness,
Leaning on my Savior, for that day when he shall come to catch
his waiting bride away. Safe, safe, safe, I'm happy on
the way. Save, save, save, I love him
more each day. Save, save, save, I know he's
mine each hour. He saves and keeps and sanctifies
me by his power. All right, let's open our Bibles
again, if you would, to Psalm 92. Psalm 92, titled the message
this evening. It's a good thing to praise the
Lord. That's what the psalmist tells
us in verse one. It's a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord and sing praises unto thy name, O Most High. It's good for us to give thanks
to the Lord at all times. in every situation. It's good
for us to praise the Lord in every situation, no matter where
it is that we find ourselves, whether we think it's good or
bad. After my dad's funeral, a friend
of mine who I had not seen in a number of years attended the
funeral, Henry and I preached that funeral. And he told me
that after he left the funeral, he called his wife. He says,
the first funeral I've ever been to. that I've left happy, not
sad. Well, I'd like to think the reason
for that is those who preached his funeral attempted to preach
the gospel and to praise the Lord, even in a time of sorrow. It's good for us to thank the
Lord, because when we say, thank you, Lord, we're reminded just
how good it is God's been to us. It's good for us to praise
the Lord. Because when we start to praise
the Lord, you'll find you can't stop it. Where's the stopping
point of that? We're reminded how glorious the
Lord is. A few years ago, I was waiting
to have a surgery on my back, and I was in so much pain, the
only way I could get any relief from that whatsoever was to lay
flat on my back on our hardwood floors. Mattress wouldn't do
them. I just laid on those hardwood
floors for weeks, waiting for surgery to come up. And I'd ask
Janet while I laid there if she would read scripture to me. And
we just did this for days, you know. And the first scripture
she picked to read me as I'm laying there on the floor is
Psalm 92. Now, I'd been doing a lot of praying,
laying there on my back. And to my shame, I will tell
you, may as well be honest, I don't recall a lot of Thanksgiving.
A lot of praying, a lot of asking. Lord, take this pain away. Lord,
hurry this surgery up. But I don't really remember saying
thank you that often. Janet began to read this psalm
and the first words of it went right to my heart. It's a good
thing. Thank God. It's a good thing
for us. to praise his name. And I tell
you, that helped my attitude so much. And the Word of God
does that, doesn't it? The Word of God will do that.
This psalm reminded me, as Janet read it to me, I remember it.
Oh, I wanted to thank the Lord. I wanted to praise him. And I
want to give you six reasons here that I see in this psalm
to praise the Lord. Number one, we praise God for
his loving kindness. The psalmist says in Verse two,
to show forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness
every night. That word loving kindness means
mercy. It means pity. It means kindness. Well, how can we ever thank the
Lord enough? How can we thank him properly
for his loving kindness, his mercy, his pity, his kindness
to his sinful people? How can we ever praise the Lord
enough for his loving kindness that almighty God would set his
love on me? Somebody like me. How can we ever thank him enough
for that? How can we ever praise him enough for that? You know,
all of salvation hangs upon this, upon God's love for his people. In eternity, God elected a people
to say, He did that not because those people were any good, not
because those people were any better than anybody else. He
didn't look down through the telescope of time and see they
choose him, so he chose them first. No, there are sinful people. They're just the same as everybody
else in the fallen lump of Adam's grace. But God chose a people
to save. Because God has the capacity
to do what you and I can't do. He has the capacity to love sinners.
He chose to save some of them. And God loved a sinful people.
And He showed that love by putting those people in His Son. He always
saw those people in Christ. He never saw them in their own
works and their own deeds and everything about themselves.
He always saw them in Christ. And in the fullness of time,
God proved His love. He proved His love by sending
His Son into the world as a man to save those people who God
loves. God loved those people that he
chose to save so much. He gave his son to be the propitiation
for their sin. The father loves those people
so much. He sent his son to the tree. He made his son sin for
those people. He made all the sin of his people
to be on the Lord Jesus Christ. They became his sin. And then the father killed him
for it in justice, in a cursed death upon the tree as a sacrifice
for those people that he loves. And almighty God made those sinful
people to be righteous. By giving them the obedience
of Christ, by washing them in the blood of Christ that he crucified
for them as their substitute. That isn't love. The ocean's
dry. Isn't that right? Oh, there's
no clouds in the sky and the sparrow can't fly. If that isn't
love. Does that make you want to praise
God for his love, for his sinful people? It does me. But you know,
this word loving kindness also means to reprove. God loves his
people enough to correct them, to reprove them. Now that's going
to be painful for you and me. When he corrects us, that will
be painful, but I promise you it's good for us. It's just like
a parent spanking a child. The best possible teaching we
can do for our children is to spank them. It hurts, it's cause
of uproar, I know, but I'm telling you it's the best teaching there
is. I say that from the authority of God's word. I throw in my
own experience in that, but think after what it's worth. On the
authority of God's word, that's so. Our loving heavenly father
corrects his children when they err. But he does not cast them
out. He doesn't cast them out. He
doesn't cast them out because he cast out his son already as
their substitute when he turned his back on him at Calvary. So he corrects his children he
loved and he would never cast them out. That's pretty obvious. It's good for me to praise his
loving kindness. It's good for me to be reminded
of God's love for sinners like me. God's love for his people
is a soft pillow where we can lay our weary head in sleepless
nights. And you can just rest on that.
We may not understand, but we can rest in his love. He's not
doing something harmful to his people. God's love for his people
is comfort for us in times of sorrow, in times of pain and
loss and uncertainty. Here's one thing you can count
on, God's love for his people, his loving kindness. Number two,
we praise God for his faithfulness. Verse two, to show forth thy
loving kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night. We praise the Lord for his loving
kindness in the morning, and we praise him for his faithfulness
at night. See, there's always a reason to praise the Lord,
isn't there? At the beginning of the day, at the end of the
day, and everything in between. We can praise the Lord for this,
that the salvation of his people depends on God's faithfulness,
not ours. Now, salvation is by grace through
faith. I am not diminishing the importance
of faith by any means. Not at all. Salvation is by grace
through faith. There is no salvation without
believing Christ. There is no salvation without
faith in Him. A rest and a dependence upon Christ to be everything
I need and everything God requires. And God the Holy Spirit gives
that faith to everyone God saves. But every child of God knows
this. We know this all too well, unfortunately, that sometimes
our faith is strong. And sometimes, and it seems to
us like most times, our faith is weak. Sometimes we think,
is it there at all? But the security of our salvation
does not depend upon our faithfulness. It does not depend upon the strength
of our faithfulness. We ought to be faithful all the
time. Our faith ought never diminish
because of the object of our faith. But now let's be honest. It's up and down and it's a sine
wave. Well, here's comfort for your
heart. Here's reason for you to praise the Lord. Salvation
depends upon the faithfulness of God. God will do what he promised
to do. Well, what did God promise to
do? Let me just give you a couple promises. God promised to save
his people by grace, through the substitutionary death of
his son, through the obedience of his son. And he's done it. When he said it is finished,
the promise was complete. God promised that he would call
all of his people to faith in Christ through the preaching
of the gospel. He promised to reveal Christ
to his people and in them. He promised to give them a heart
to believe Christ when they hear him preached. That is such an
encouragement to me to preach every chance I get because God
promised he's going to give his people a heart to believe. God
promised. And we've seen how many times
you've seen it happen. He keeps his word. God has promised to
preserve and to protect all of his people so that they cannot
lose their salvation. They can't do it by their weak
faith or their great sin. It'll always be in Christ, not
what they do or what they don't do. And God promised that he
will bring all of his people to glory and every last one of
them is either going to awake in glory in Christ likeness,
or if they're still here when Christ returns in a twinkling
of an eye, in a moment, they're going to be changed into the
likeness of Christ. How do you know all that's going
to happen? Well, because God's faithful. And since God is faithful,
the salvation of his people is certain. It's sure because of
who he is, because he's faithful that promised. and a weak, frail,
ever-changing sinner like me can praise God for that, for
His faithfulness that guarantees my redemption. I wish I was always
faithful, but I know I won't be, but God will. I can praise
Him for that, can't you? All right, number three, we praise
the Lord in music. Verse three, upon an instrument
of 10 strings, and upon the salt tree, upon the harp with a solemn
sound." Now you know all of creation sings the praises of God. The
birds sing, the wind in the trees, the crickets at night, they're
all singing the Creator's praise. Now if creation sings, which
has been made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by Adam's
Shouldn't God's people sing his praises? Oh, we should. Let me give you this about singing.
Now, there can be no doubt that the preaching of the gospel is
the most important part of any worship service. But don't fall
into this trap and think somehow that the song service is just
a time filler, you know? No. Singing is a very important
part of worship. It's all through God's word.
Most all of these Psalms were written to be sung. And none
of us are too important to sing. Every voice should join in singing
God's praises. That's why the songwriter Isaac
Watts said, let those refuse to sing who never knew our God.
I mean, sometimes I wonder, well, somebody's not singing. Maybe
they don't even know what they sing about. But more than that, I
mean, that singing y'all and y'all sing so beautifully. So,
I mean, I'm, you know, I'm just, this needs to be said, but more
importantly than that, deeper than that, when we preach the
gospel, it ought to be done beautifully. Can you think of a more beautiful
subject? It ought to be done beautifully, shouldn't it? The
gospel. is majestic. It's majestic. It's the greatest story ever
told and it ought to be preached beautifully with majesty and
awe because of the subject. Now, you've heard it said many
times, every gospel preacher just has one strength that we
keep plucking and that's so the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our one
strength, our one message. But now that string is not like
if you had a violin that just had one string. I remember my
daughter Savannah when she was in middle school learning to
play the violin. And you know, you don't start
out just playing that thing, you know. They start out plucking. And she went plucking. I mean,
it's just like, if I hear that string plucked one more time,
I'm going to go mad. Well, that's not it. Don't anybody tell her
I said that. I shouldn't have said that. God's preachers just have one
string, but I'm telling you that string plays a lot of different
notes. There's a note for every attribute of God. There's a note
for every facet of the glory. Christ our Redeemer. And every
note's got to be played. We can't just pick out our pet
doctrine and always just pound. If you pick out your pet doctrine,
that's all you ever pluck, you're not plucking the one string of
Christ now. No, every note's got to be played, or we're not
preaching the gospel. So the gospel, when it's preached,
is a beautiful orchestra of all of God's attributes, which work
together to provide salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
gospel of our salvation is not a cut and dried lecture like
this is it and you better believe it or else. That's not preaching
the gospel. The gospel of our salvation is
a beautiful orchestra. It's a beautiful story that's
all about Christ. And it ought to be preached in
such a way that somebody will say, how can you not believe
something that's so beautiful? It's both true and it's beautiful. I can praise the Lord for such
a beautiful gospel, can't you? All right, here's the fourth
thing. We praise the Lord for all of
his works. Verse four says, for thou, Lord,
has made me glad through thy works. I will triumph in the
works of thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works,
and thy thoughts are very deep. Now look over Psalm 111. The
work of God, the work, the preeminent, premier work of God is the salvation
of his people. God's single most glorious work
is his work of mercy and grace in saving his people. And all
of God's other acts, All of his other works are all done to work
together to accomplish his work of redemption. Psalm 111 shows
us that so plainly. Verse three, the psalmist says
his work, singular, his work is honorable and glorious and
his righteousness endureth forever. The work of God in redemption
is honorable and it's glorious. The work of redemption is honorable. It honored every attribute of
God. It glorified every attribute
of God. At the same time, it's a righteous
work. It's done in truth. And in truth, this work of redemption
that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished made his people righteous. It's
honorable, it's glorious, and it's righteous. And all of God's
other works all work together. to accomplish God's work of redemption. And those works are great. They're great in wisdom, they're
great in mercy, they're great in grace. Look at verse 2. Now
the psalmist starts talking about works, plural. The works of the
Lord, they're great. Sought out of all them that have
pleasure therein. The works of the Lord are great.
And they bring His people great pleasure. Those works of God,
They're wonderful and their mercy to sinners and his people know
it. They recognize it. Verse four.
He has made his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is
gracious and full of compassion. God's people know and recognize
these works, his great works of mercy and in providence. in bringing his people to hear
the gospel and keeping his people alive until such time as they
hear the gospel. And then he keeps them by his
grace, by his power, by his works of providence. God's works are
powerful works in making his people willing in the day of
his power, making them willing to come to Christ. Verse six,
he has showed his people the power of his works. that he may
give them the heritage of the heathen. God's people see God's
power and they see God's goodness in raising up men to preach the
gospel, to spread the gospel all across this land. And then
he raises up people to believe it. He raises up people to support
it. He raises up people to rejoice
in it. All that happens by God's power, not by ours. And all God's
works are works that are done in truth. and righteousness. Do you know it's right? The work
of redemption is so honorable. It's so glorious. It's so righteous. It's right for God to save his
people. It's right for him to because
of what Christ has done for them and in them. Look at verse seven.
The works of his hands are verity and judgment and all his commandments
are sure. And then these works of God are
eternal. The works of God that we see, what we call the works
of providence, the events of providence that we see unfolding
before us every day, all those works are, all those events are
is God's purpose being carried out. Now God's purpose isn't
changing. God doesn't see us do this. Oh,
well, I better do this and make this happen. So no, Every event
of history that's unfolding is just the unfolding of God's eternal
purpose, which he purposed in himself before the foundation
of the world. So none of these things are going
to change and cause God to cast his people away because they're
eternal works, verse eight. They stand fast forever and ever,
and they're done in truth and uprightness. The Lord's not going
to cast his people away. Now he's going to bring them
into And he's going to bring them out of many dangers, many
toils, many snares, but he's going to keep them by his grace.
He gives them his grace. He gives them his saving grace.
He gives them his calling grace where they're irresistibly called
to Christ. He gives his people keeping grace
where he keeps them by the power of his grace. And in the end,
he'll give them dying grace. And in their last breath, if
they could speak, this is what they'd say. God's kept me all
the way. All the way. See, salvation is
God's work alone. You know that? Salvation is God's
work alone. If you know that, I can tell
you why you know that. It's because God's done a work
of grace in your heart to make you know it. Because you couldn't
know it otherwise. Now look back in our text. Psalm
92, verse 6. A brutish man knoweth not, neither
doth a fool understand this. Now, this is what we are by nature.
I'm a brutish man, an ignorant man, a fool. By nature, I'm a
fool. So by nature, I can't see, I
can't understand God's work of redemption. I can't understand
all of his other works. working together to accomplish
this. I can't see that. I can't understand that. I could
be taught the ABCs of the gospel. I could be taught that. Matter
of fact, I was. I couldn't see it. I couldn't
understand it. I knew two plus two equaled four,
but I couldn't see it. I just. I could not. And one day I did. How'd that happen? God gave life. God gave a new nature. And now
I understand. And now I praise God for the
work of redemption in all his works that work together to work
redemption for me. Then fifthly, we praise the Lord
because he reigns forever. Verse seven. When the wicked
spring as the grass and when all the workers of iniquity do
flourish, it is that they should be destroyed forever. Now the
wicked spring up like grass. The wicked, they grow quickly. I mean, out of nowhere they grow
and they just grow everywhere. You don't have to plant them.
They just grow. Just like grass. Grass just grows
everywhere. It can grow in a crack in a sidewalk.
And it seems to us like the landscape is ever changing. Seems like
there's always new enemies popping up everywhere. Seems like there's
new issues to fight everywhere. The grass keeps growing everywhere,
doesn't it? The wicked. And that bothers
us. Oh, it bothers us. But you know,
it has absolutely no effect on God whatsoever. Because the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Always he reigns. His rules not
threatened in any way ever. Verse 8, but thou Lord are most
high forevermore. God rules on high forevermore. So the wicked are going to be
destroyed. That grass is going to be destroyed because God reigns
and he's going to destroy every enemy in his time. Now verses
10 and 11. These verses can only be our
Lord Jesus Christ speaking, the one who rules. This is him speaking,
verse 10. But my horn shalt thou exalt
like the horn of a unicorn. I should be anointed with fresh
oil. Now when the scripture talks about my horn, the horn is talking
about power, like the horn of the power in the horns of a boar,
a rhinoceros. Maybe the unicorn here means
a rhinoceros, you know, that one powerful horn. Well, none
of us have any power like that. We don't have any power like
that. So this can't be talking about us. It's got to be Christ
speaking, the one who has all power. And you know how he got
all power? The Father gave it to him. Our
Lord said in his great high priestly prayer, John 17, that the Father
had given him power over all flesh, not so that he would destroy
all flesh, but so that He should give eternal life to as many
as the Father has given. The Lord Jesus Christ has all
power to save His people through His perfect life, through His
obedience to the law, and through His death as their substitute.
He has all power over all flesh so that He can give life to as
many as the Father has given. And He calls them to come to
Him. And when He calls, They'll come
running. That's why here we never, ever
give an altar call. Never. If I have any idea somebody's
wrestling with this matter of confessing Christ, I'd never
say a word to them. Don't have to. If God calls them,
they'll come. They'll come. He has power over
all flesh to make His people come to Him begging for mercy
willingly. He'll make them want to. And
he also has power to destroy his enemies. Look at verse 11.
Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears
shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. Now,
you and I just ought not ever speak this way. In this life,
we ought never speak this way. It should be our desire and our
prayer to see our enemies saved. not eternally destroyed. It should
be our desire to see that God be merciful to them, just like
He was to us. But this is the Savior speaking,
and He will see all of His enemies destroyed. When it's time, He'll
be the one to do it. He'll do it because He has all
power. He has all power as a Savior, and He has all power as judge
and ruler too. And when He judges, He'll give
every person exactly what they deserve. He'll give the wicked
exactly what they've earned by their sin. That's what they deserve.
And he'll give his people exactly what they deserve. Because of
what Christ turned for them. Now, I can praise God for that,
can't you? For his eternal reign. It's his crown rights to raise
up his people and to destroy his enemies. And the eternal
king would see fit to show mercy to a wretch like me. That makes
me want to praise him. All right, here's the last thing. We praise the Lord because the
Lord made the difference between the righteous and the wicked.
Verse 12. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree.
He should grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted
in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our
God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They should
be fat and flourishing. Now remember, the wicked up here
were described as grass, and that's what all flesh is, isn't
it? Grass. That's the cry of the evangelist. All flesh is
grass. And grass flourishes for a short time, and then it withers,
and it's cut down, and it dies. Flowers do the same thing. They,
oh, they're so beautiful for a little while, go out of town
and come back, and they're not water. Well, it was so beautiful. When
we left out of town, come back, it's so ugly. Janet and I went
up to Amish country a couple weeks ago, and she had these
beautiful, I don't even know what kind of flowers they were,
I just know they were white and they were really pretty. And we came back, and
I'm telling you, they were just like that, just dead in just
a couple days. That's this flesh. Oh, it might
flourish for a while. Like that. They'll just be fit
for the burning. That's the flesh, the wicked.
But God's people are described as trees, palm trees, cedar trees. Now, there is a great big difference
between grass and trees. Who made the difference? That's the question. Did the
grass make the difference by deciding to become a tree? Or
did God make the difference? Well, you know the answer to
that. What did the Lord tell Moses at the first Passover?
He said, Moses, this is what I'm going to do, that you may
know how the Lord does put a difference between the Egyptians and the
Israelites. God made the difference. God
is the one who makes the difference between the saved and the lost.
God's the one that makes a difference between the fool and the wise
man. God's the one that makes the difference between the grass
and the trees. He made the difference by his
electing grace, by his sovereign grace. And you see the difference
between the saved and the lost. If you look at the difference
between grass and trees, grass grows for a little while, doesn't
it? But then it's cut down. Trees live for years. And God's
trees, his trees are God's people. You know why those trees flourish?
Because God's taken care of them. He's planted them in his courts. He's fed them the gospel. He's
taken care of them. That's why they flourish. Grass
just grows out in the wild. You don't have to do anything
for grass and weeds to start growing. And that's our sinful
flesh. It grows out in the wild. Just
the wild nature just grows in us. We're a wild asses cult.
You don't have to do anything to make somebody wild. But God
takes his trees and plants them in His garden. They're not out
there in the wild. He plants them right where He'd have them
be, in His garden. See, it's in His courts, in His
garden, for His pleasure. They belong to Him. That's why
He plants them there. That's where they're taken care
of. They're not there by accident. They're there because God planted
them there. And they grow because He watches over them. Now, grass
can grow. thick and lush. But you know,
grass isn't good for anything but a lawn. I mean, I still say
I'd like to put artificial turf on my yard. I mean, it wouldn't
look any different. It'd probably look better. But
trees are different. Palm trees grow, and they grow
fruit that hangs on them. They're good for people. God's
trees do that. They bear fruit, the fruit of
the Spirit. They're good for people, good
for the other people around them. Grass will grow green for a little
while, but then it withers and it dies. Palm trees, I wonder
how long do palm trees, I've never seen a dying palm tree.
I mean, they all look just, I mean, they live for a hundred years,
I don't know. But God's people are like palm trees. Even in
old age, when the grass, the flesh is the weakest, the fat
and flourishing, they're still full of sap. They're still full
of the life of Christ. God's grace grows sweeter. The longer we live, it grows
sweeter. Not more sour. It doesn't lose its edge. It
grows sweeter. And then grass doesn't have any
strength at all. Grass will just lean whichever way the wind's
blowing. I mean, there's no strength to it at all. Now trees, they
might bend a little bit, but they don't go anywhere. Their
limbs might move a little bit, but those trunks seldom move
very much. That's God's people. His trees. They stand fast. They stand fast in the gospel. They stand fast in the grace
of God. And they refuse to compromise. Even if it would be sweet to
the flesh, they refuse to compromise. because God keeps them by his
grace, not because they're so special. You know why they don't
leave? Because God keeps them by his
grace. They're his trees. The psalmist also talks about
God's people like the cedars of Lebanon, tall, stately, strong,
unmovable cedars made strong by God's grace. And that's exactly
the way they're going to stay until one day that mighty oak
is falling. But till then, they're going to stand for. And when
that mighty oak has fallen, it's not that the tree failed somehow. All that means is God took them
home. God took them home. Now that's what God's people
are by His grace. I believe I can praise God for
that, don't you? The only reason that I stay planted by the waters
of God's grace, by Christ the living water, is God made the
difference. He chose me, He bought me, He
called me, He gave me life, and He keeps me. I believe that's
worthy of praise, don't you? And that's why God's done all
this, that we praise Him. Look at verse 15, to show that
the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no
unrighteousness in Him. Oh, I pray God will give us a
heart They would praise him. You know, praising the Lord is
not just acting, acting a fool. If I did that, believe me, I
would look foolish and you all know it. And all that would be
is in an effort to impress you. But if we're going to praise,
praise the Lord in a way that impress him is from the heart,
isn't it? I pray God give us a heart that
praises him. I know this, he's worthy of it,
isn't he? Let's bow together in prayer.
Our Father, how we thank you for your word. Father, I pray
that you would give us a heart that would praise you. How we
thank you for your great work of redemption and all of your
works working together to accomplish your purpose of the redemption
of your people through the person and the work of Christ our Savior. Father, give us a heart that
would see these things, have some understanding of these things,
Be in awe at the majesty of your love and your pity and your kindness
and your faithfulness to your people that guarantees their
salvation. Give us a heart that would praise
you as you ought to be praised. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ for his glory. We pray and give thanks. Let's stand and sing 456, 456.
Let's just sing 1, 3, and 4. Verses 1, 3, and 4. So precious is Jesus, my Savior,
my King, His praise all the day long with rapture I sing. To Him in my weakness or strength
I can cling, For He is so precious to me. For He is so precious to me. For He is so precious to me. Heaven below my Redeemer to know,
For He is so precious to me. I stand on the mountain of blessing
at last No cloud in the heavens, a shadow to cast His smile is
upon me, the valley is fast For He is so precious to me so precious to me. Oh, he is so precious to me. Is heaven below my Redeemer to
know? For He is so precious to me. I praise Him because He appointed
a place Where someday through faith in His wonderful grace
I know I shall see Him, shall look on His face For He is so
precious to me For He is so precious to me. For He is so precious to me. Is heaven below my Redeemer to
know For He is so precious to me