God we praise. David, this is
the psalm of David, begins in verse 1, Praise ye the Lord,
for it is good to sing praise unto our God, for it is pleasant
and praise is comely. David begins, Praise ye the Lord,
Jehovah, praise God our Savior. Well, we can stake the rest of
our time on that That's exactly what we ought
to be doing, praising Him. It's secondly what we're commanded
to do, praise Him. And thirdly, by God's grace,
that's what we want to do, to praise His name, to worship Him.
And nothing suits a believer more than praising our Savior.
It just suits a believer. It fits you. And it's good for
us. Not just to praise our Savior
individually, but it's good for us to come together and praise
our Savior. It looks beautiful. It sounds
beautiful. It's fitting. It fits you. And
it's an honor. You think about this now. It's
an honor to be able to praise someone as great as our Savior. That's an honor. That's not an
honor that's been given to everybody in this whole wide world. We're thankful, and that's just
as more reason to praise him. Now, in the rest of this psalm,
David gives us a number of reasons that we should praise the Lord.
And the first one is, we praise the Lord because he's the master
builder. Luke verse 2. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem.
He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. Now, that city over
there, Jerusalem, that thing's been torn down and rebuilt, I
don't know how many times, many times. And each time, whether
Jerusalem was being ransacked and destroyed or whether it was
being built back up, God was in charge of that. That happened
according to His purpose. But the reason we praise the
Lord is He is the builder of His church, a spiritual Jerusalem. And you know what? Once is enough. He only built His church one
time. torn down, because he'll never
be moved. And God's elect are the stones that build up his
church. Peter calls us living stones,
and we're put in the building by the master builder, where
it suits him, where it's best for his glory. It's what's best for the church,
for the living stones that are around us. He puts us there for
his glory, for our good, and the good of the church as a whole.
And I can tell you how the Lord builds his church by doing what
we're doing right now. He builds his church through
preaching. It's a slow process. Line upon line, precept upon
precept. That's how he builds his church.
And you think about How God builds his church, not like men would
build a house. Men choose the finest, most expensive
materials that they can find to build their house with. I
was watching this, I tried never, ever, ever to watch HGTV, it's
just great some of my mind like fingernails on a chalkboard,
but Jan was watching it the other day. And how these people are
picking these materials to do this remodel job, you know, they're
spending as much to remodel that room as my whole house costs
because the materials that they choose, you know, and it's expensive
looking. I mean, it's, it's impressive,
but that's how men build things with materials that somebody's
going to walk in and say, wow, look at this. God doesn't build
his church that way. God goes to the dung heap, that's
where he finds materials to build He finds them down at the dung
heap, and he does it that way so people will not be impressed
with the materials. They'll be impressed with the
power and the grace of the builder who chose them and made them
what they are and put them in his church so he gets the glory.
There is an article, if you haven't read it, on the back of Sunday's
bulletin by our pastor about how God takes things that are
broken, and that's what he uses to build his church, and it has
to be broken or God will never use it. He uses outcasts. And David knew something about
being an outcast. He was an outcast when he was
on the run from Saul. He was an outcast when he was
on the run from his son Absalom. He was an outcast. Well, how
is an outcast, how is someone that lives on the donkey, made
useful to be in the building of God? We'll look over in Ephesians
chapter 2. Now, wherefore remember, that ye being
in time past Gentiles in the flesh, ye were outcasts. Ye are
Gentiles in the flesh, ye are called uncircumcisioned by that
which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands. That
at that time ye were without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. by the blood of Christ. That's
how an outcast is made nigh to God, is through the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood that he shed for us when he became
an outcast. How did our Lord suffer? could be made not in God, be
made part of his building. We praise the Lord because he's
the master builder. Next in verse three, we praise
the Lord because he is the great physician. David says he healed
the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds. Look over at
Luke chapter four. This is our Lord's very first
recorded anyway. In Luke 4, verse 18, the Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. And he's
going to do that by preaching the acceptable year of the Lord. what no one else, not just could
do, but what no one else would do. Remember the old boy going
down the road, fell among thieves and they beat him and threw him
over in the ditch? Well, the priest came by, he wouldn't help
him. The Levite came by, he wouldn't help him. Neither one of them
could help him. They defiled themselves if they helped him.
The law of the ceremonies, religion is not going to help a sinner.
Christ does. too busy to show compassion to
the sick. We've got friends and loved ones
right now who are sick, bodily they're sick, they're hurting.
The Lord is not too busy to have compassion on them. And sometimes,
a lot of times, our physical ailments don't get healed. I
mean, something's eventually going to kill us, just kill this
body. But the Lord always But now you have to be sick.
You have to know you're a sinner. What'd our Lord say? The whole
need not a physician. He's come to heal the brokenhearted. And if your soul is sick, you
will praise the Lord, the great physician who heals all your
wounds, binds up your heart, and makes you whole. You'll praise
him. But you're our physician. Not exactly like the physician
down there at the hospital. You know, you go down there in
the hospital and they treat you so gently and do what they can
to heal you. I'm grateful for their compassion
and their skill. But do you know the first thing
our great physician does with his patient? He takes his word
and breaks their heart. And whatever our problem, whatever,
you know, specific manifestation of sin or, you know, the problem
of our nature, it's all the same. But, you know, our Lord always
knows the cure. Always. I hate watching HGTV,
and it gets tired of me watching House. House guesses, you know,
and by the end of the hour, he usually guesses right. But he
has a lot of wrong guesses first. Our Lord, our Great Physician,
never guesses. He always knows the cure for
our sin. So we praise the Lord because
He's our great physician. Next, we praise the Lord because
He is the successful Savior. Our Savior did not come and attempt
to save just anyone who might someday accept Him. He came and
He saved, from their sins, His chosen people. And He doesn't
have any trouble remembering their names, or knowing where
they're at. He named them, and he put them
where they're at. Their names are written on his
heart. Look at verse 4. He telleth the number of the
stars. He calleth them all by their names. Now, you know, with
all of our modern technology and telescopes and stuff, they
put telescopes on satellites and stuff, trying to see out
further. With all that technology, man still can't count all the
stars, because we still can't see them all. God asked, because
he put them in their places, in their orbits. But now these
stars, you have to remember this, they always represent God's elect. Remember that night, clear night,
God took Abraham out and said, Abraham, count the stars if you
can. So shall thy seed be. The children of Abraham who have
the faith of Abraham, so shall thy seed be. Those stars represent
a number that no man can number, that's been saved by the blood It's an exact number of people. It's not just even an exact number
of people, it's an exact people. And we can't count them all.
But God has, and He knows each one by name. Now, that's what
theologians call limited atonement. And what that means is, Christ
our Savior died for an exact, particular people. He didn't
die for a binomial world, He died for an I want everyone that ever follows
on the sound of my voice to know this is the commandment of the
gospel. You come to Christ. You'll find out when you come
to Christ. You'll find out. You can't. Because
He was drawing you first. You come to Christ and you'll
find out He chose you a whole long time before you ever chose
Him. That's what you'll find out. Now the world may hate that. Maybe. It does hate that. But
believers, praise the Lord. for a particular redemption,
limited atonement. He saves his people from their
sin. Next, we praise the Lord because of how great he is. You
know, the primary reason we're to praise the Lord is simply
because of who he is for the first time. Great is our Lord
and of great power. His understanding is infinite.
Our Lord is great, both in power and wisdom. He knows exactly
what should be done. and He knows exactly how to do
it. We should never doubt the Lord's ability, His power, to
save any sinner. Because I don't care who they
are, how bad we think they are, true salvation is done in the
power of God and the wisdom of God. Now we can look at creation
and we can get some pretty impressive evidences of God's power, can't
we? Well, that power pales in comparison to the power it took
to save a sinner like me. Honestly, if you don't feel that
way about your sin, you don't know the Lord. It took the power
of God to put away our sin. It took the power of God to give
a dead sinner spiritual life. And even after the Lord saves
us, reveals Himself to us, you know it takes the power of God
to make us grow in grace. It takes the power of God to
make the grass grow, the trees grow. Try doing it without God.
It can't be done. It's the power of God that causes
His people to grow in grace and knowledge. That takes the power
of God. Next, David says, we praise the
Lord because He regards the meek and the lowly. Now, I'm so thankful. God is the opposite of meek.
It's the complete opposite. Men want to surround themselves
rich, famous, powerful people. We want to surround ourselves
with those kind of people, so much so that we don't even see
the homeless man by the wayside begging. But our Lord does. That's exactly who he sets his
eye on. If you don't believe me, ask
Blind Bart Maness. One day when you see him, you
ask him. He can tell you the Lord has his eye on that one
by the side of the road begging. That's what David says in verse
6, the Lord lifteth up the meat and he casteth the wicked down
to the ground. Now the meat, meat people, they know that they're nothing.
They know they can't do anything. They know they're worth nothing.
That's what makes them meat. And it's the meat who are willing
to submit themselves to Christ. They submit themselves to the
rule of Christ and they submit themselves to the righteousness
of Christ. That's Paul's charge against his religious brethren.
They won't submit themselves to the righteousness of Christ,
but the meek will. A religious man won't, but a
meek person will. And the people who are proud
and strong in this world, they're proud and strong in their own
righteousness, so they won't submit themselves to the righteousness
of Christ. They're going to find out that
the Lord turns the way of this world upside down. The first
shall be last, and the last shall be first. That's wrong, Lord. told us in his Sermon on the
Mount, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
We praise the Lord because he regards the meek and lowly. Now,
David's been giving these reasons here to us to praise the Lord. And it looks to me like he's
writing these reasons down and it just overwhelms him. He just
is going to shout here. I hope you don't mind me telling
this story. Last Wednesday, after Mike sang
that song at the close of our service, Julie told me, she said,
there's enough Nazarene left. And I just wanted to shout. And
I did too. We get along good with David.
David, he just shouts here. He just gives these reasons.
He just says in verse 7, he said, sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving.
Sing praise upon the harp unto our God. We of all people who
have been made the people of the Lord should be known. for singing praises for Thanksgiving. We ought to be a thankful people.
The Lord's put a new song in our heart. We ought to be singing
it, shouldn't we? We really should. Well, after
David gives his shout here, he goes on with reasons to praise
the Lord, and he says, next we praise the Lord because of his
wisdom. Our Lord gives both creation
and spiritual Israel exactly what it needs. in order to have
life and to stay in balance. Now, every one of us loves a
sunny day. I mean, we love a sunny day.
When we left out here Sunday, it was sunny and it was beautiful.
Oh, everybody's going to enjoy this beautiful sunshine. We see
the weather forecast, it's supposed to be rainy tomorrow. We don't
like that rain. It just interferes with our activities.
You know, we want to get outside and soak up the sunshine. We
don't like those rainy days. And really, if it was left up
to us, we wouldn't have rainy days, and pretty soon we'd all
starve to death. Aren't we thankful? Our Lord
is much more wise than we are. Look at verse 8, "...who covereth
the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh
grass to grow upon the mountains." Our Lord is so majestic, He just
pulls clouds across the sky like we pull a curtain across the
window. He fills them with rain to fall
where he pulls them, and then he'll pull them somewhere else,
fill them with rain and fall somewhere else. Also, the grass
and crops and things can grow, so life has water to drink that
we need to live. Our Lord does that. He just draws
the clouds across the sky. We know that's true in the life
of a believer, too. No one will honestly tell you
they're looking forward to the next cloudy, rainy day of pride. No one's honest, I'll tell you
that. But you know, we would never grow without them. We really
wouldn't. David said, it's good for me
that I've been afflicted. It's good for me to have had
that cloudy, rainy day. Now, we can only say that afterward.
We look back on it in hindsight and see what that cloudy, rainy
day, what it did, how it caused me to grow and what it caused
me to learn. And we would never choose the clouds, but our Lord
knows exactly when to send them. And he has the wisdom to know
how much rain to put in, just enough. And we dread those dark
clouds, but I'm telling you, without them, we wouldn't grow.
And here's the key. If you want a blessing to pray
for, here's a blessing to pray for. The blessed man is the man
who can praise the Lord on a cloudy day. Because even in that cloudy day,
we have reason to praise our God. His nature hadn't changed. His character hadn't changed.
He still deserves to be praised, even on the cloudy day. So we
praise the Lord because of His wisdom. And we praise the Lord
because He provides for everything living. I mean, you think about
all the plants and the animals and the insects and the people
that are living on this planet right now. How many billions
of them are there? The Lord provides for all of them. I mean, from
the ants on the ground, to the whale in the sea, to you and
me. We go home and open up our refrigerator. He provides for
every living thing. Look at verse 9. He giveth to
the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. Now think
about all the wild beasts out in the forest. Why ain't that
deer you hunt? Just a wild beast out there.
You go out there and shoot that thing and bring it home for dinner.
Who fed it before you shot it? Not somebody's pet. Your dog
wouldn't let you shoot somebody's pet. It's a wild beast out in
the field. Who fed it? God did. And you
know what? He must be doing a real good
job, because look at the deer population. He provides. And he provides for the beast
in the field, and David specifically points out that the Lord feeds
the ravens. Now, when Janet teaches her Bible,
or her Sunday school class, talks to the kids about ravens, she
says, they're a dirty bird. And if she does, all the kids
think, oh, they're nothing. Yeah, they're a dirty bird. They're
ugly. This doesn't look like they have
any use whatsoever. And the Jews particularly despise
the raven. It's an unclean, ugly bird. And
those birds are mean. I mean, they just are mean. They
kick their young out of the nest. before they're able to fly, and
before they're able to fend for themselves. And they're down
there on the ground, crying for food, and their mother's out
there getting food for herself, Nina, and just completely ignoring
them. They're mean birds. How come they keep existing?
How come they haven't gone extinct? God feeds them. That's exactly
why. Our Lord knows all the stars
in space. And he knows that raven down
there on the ground, that baby raven crying for food. Our Lord
is so great that nothing is too great for him to be able to handle. And our Lord is so condescending,
nothing is too small for him to take care of either. That's
our Lord. And the blessing here is that
brute beast and that raven, that dirty bird, that unclean bird,
is us by nature. We're born with a nature that
hates God. We're born with a nature that just drinks iniquity like
water, loves to sin against Him. And one day, God gave you faith
to believe. And you came to Christ. And now,
you feed in the green pastures of His Word. Who fed you before
that? When you were a brute beast in
the field out there, who fed you then? God did. Provedient
grace. Grace before grace. And on these
dark, cloudy days, remember this, if the Lord feeds those brute
beasts of the field, and that raven, that unclean bird, will
he feed us, O ye of low faith? He will. Spurgeon said this,
I thought this was good, a bird in a cage, under human care,
is in more danger of lacking seed and water than the myriads
that fly in the open air, having no owner but God. And to prove
that that point's true, I can't tell you how many times in a
week I walk past our dog's dish. Dogs are out of water. Now, we
love those dogs. I mean, it's stupid. We love
those doggies. Now, they're out of water. They're
out of food. God feeds His people. He provides
for everything living. Next, we praise the Lord because
He's no respecter of persons. You know, you have to be somebody.
if you're going to get elected President of the United States.
I mean, you know, somebody just, you know, some common man can't
get elected President of the United States. You already have
to be a rich, influential person just to be able to have the money
to fund a campaign, much less get elected. And even mayors
of cities are the same way. I mean, it is ridiculous the
amount of money that they spend on these campaigns. You've got
to be somebody. But you know, you don't have to be somebody. to receive merit, favor, mercy,
and grace from God. As a matter of fact, you can't
be somebody. You have to be nobody. Look at
verse 10. He delighteth not in the strength
of the horse, he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord
taketh pleasure in them that fear him, and those that hope
in his mercy. The Lord is not impressed with
human strength, and he is not impressed with the things that
impress us. The Lord takes pleasure. You
think about this. Now, the Lord takes pleasure
in them that fear Him, that reference Him. Now, not that they're afraid
of Him, but that reference Him, that fear Him. He takes pleasure
in those that hope in His mercy, that trust in His mercy, that
believe His word. Don't you take pleasure when
somebody believes your word? When they say, your word's good
enough for me? How much more God? Somebody that
believes His Word, that trusts in Him. We fear the Lord. We reverence the Lord because
of His greatness. We hope in the Lord because of
His goodness and mercy. And that's a good omen. Now again,
I can see in my mind's eye, David's writing this psalm, you know,
and he's thinking about all these glorious attributes of our Savior.
And he just shouts again. But now, it's not just a random, Look at verse 12. Praise the
Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise thy God, O Zion! Now,
every creature should praise the Lord. Young man, woman, child,
plant, animal, every creature should praise the Lord. But they
don't. But the Church will. The Church
does praise the Lord. And you know why that is just
a fact that it won't change? Because you can't help it. God's
given you a new nature. And that nature, it's just, will
make you praise the Lord, just like the nature of a pig makes
it go wallow in the mud. The church has a new nature and
will praise the Lord. So we praise the Lord because
of His, God, His mercy to us. He gave you this nature. Next,
we praise the Lord because He's our shield and protection. Look
at verse 13. For He has strengthened the bars,
of thy gates." The Lord has put a hedge about His people. We
learn that in the book of Job. Satan said, well, you know, I
would, but I can't touch you. He put a hedge about it. And
the Lord's got that hedge around every one of His people. Nothing
can touch your body without the Lord's permission. Now, we know
the Lord gives permission from time to time, but nothing ever
can break through and touch your soul. Should the bars of your gates
be strengthened? How about the hand of God Almighty? Nothing can break through there
and touch your soul. We praise God for He is our shield
and protection. And we praise the Lord because
He is our Father. Look at the end of verse 13.
He is blessed by children within thee. Now, it is our heart's prayer
that the Lord will have mercy on our children here. It's our
heart's prayer every day. And over the years, how many
times have we seen the Lord been merciful to our children? Well,
I can tell you this, the Lord has given life to and blessed
every child of God that's been born into His church. We are
the children of God. Now you think about that. We're
the children of God. And He has blessed us as a wise,
good father would. And nothing will ever harm the
soul of God's children. Satan can't get you. Our Lord's
crushed his head. The law can't get to you. The
law has no claim on you in Christ. Even death can't harm you because
our Lord took the sting of death away. And God has put his children
in a strong, safe city. Isn't that what we do for our
children? You know, we put them in car
seats and things where they're safe and protected. We, you know,
we watch them and how much more, how much of a better father is
our heavenly father? He's put his children in a strong,
safe city and we praise him for it. We praise the Lord next because
he is our peace. Look at verse 14. He maketh peace
in thy borders. In the church, there's peace.
There's peace with God, there's peace in the heart, and there's
peace with one another. Now, I know on this earth, from
time to time, that peace can be interrupted. And you know
what the cure for that is? Praising the Lord. Praising the
Lord together will cause peace in the church. Next, we praise
the Lord because he's the bread of life at the end of verse 14.
He filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. Not just any wheat,
the finest of wheat that makes the finest bread. Well, you know
that's Christ. He's the only Savior who truly
saves. Every other man-made Savior,
idea that men have come up with for a Savior to save, he doesn't
save. Christ saves. He's the only bread that truly
satisfies. Because every other so-called
bread men make up leaves something for you to eat. Next, we praise the Lord because
of the power of His Word. Verse 15, He sendeth forth His
commandment upon earth. His Word running very swiftly.
Now, you notice David said He sendeth forth His commandment
upon earth. He doesn't send out an idea for
men to run up the flagpole and see, you know, if somebody thinks
it's a good idea. He doesn't send out an invitation. The king
issues commandments. Look unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest." That's a commandment.
Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth for
I am God and there is none else. That's not a good idea. That's
a commandment. Look unto me. Well, how long
will it take until I have rest if I come to Him? How long will
it take for me to be saved if I look unto Him? Instantly. Instantly. Because His Word runs
very swiftly. Remember that leper that came
to the Lord? He said, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. And the Lord said, I will, and
touched him. And immediately, his leprosy
was cleansed. His word runs very swiftly. And
where the word of the King is, there's power. God speaks, and
it's done. Next, we praise the Lord, because
in his wisdom, just like the cloudy and rainy day, he gives
us exactly what we need. Look at verse 16. Now, I'm going to tell you right
up front, I hate snow. I mean, I hate it. It might be
pretty on a picture of some place that's far away from where I
am, but I hate snow being where I am. I hate it. It slows me
down. I'm not patient enough to be
slowed down. I just want to get up and go
to work the same way every day that I do and not be slowed down. I hate the scrunched up shoulders,
cold, you know, scraping the windshield and shoveling the
snow. Oh, I hate it. But I am amazed how necessary
snow is for this earth. Look over at Job 38. Our Lord
asked Job a good question. Job 38, verse 22. Job, hast thou entered into the
treasures of the snow, or hast thou seen the treasures of the
hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against
the day of battle and war? Job, you've entered into the
treasures of the snow. Now that's a whole lot more than
the snowflakes, all being individual, none of them being exactly alike.
That's a treasure of the snow, but it goes a whole lot deeper
than that. Much of the world's water supply comes from snow,
melt-off, run-off of snow. Now I don't like snow, but I
really like water, so I can see where snow is necessary. Here's
a treasure of the snow. You know how Eskimos keep warm?
By building a house out of snow. Now, you build a house out of
snow to keep you warm from the cold and snow outside? Only God
could make something that does that. Only God. Snow, actually,
when it falls, makes the ground warmer, keeps it warmer. You
know, the air temperature is colder than the snow, so the
snow keeps the ground warmer so it doesn't freeze deeper and
deeper and deeper and damage root systems and so forth. It
makes it. Snow keeps the ground warm, and
who would have thought such a thing? Snow is called the poor man's
fertilizer. It brings nitrogen down to the
ground that the snow doesn't, or the earth doesn't get very
many other ways. And it brings moisture to the ground. You know,
the old timers say that one day of snow is better than five days
of rain. And they actually, the ancients
called the snow woolly water. And especially in late snow,
in the early spring, greens everything up more than expensive fertilizer. It almost, almost, makes you
want to say, let it snow. Almost, but not quite. But even
though I don't want it to snow, I can see God's wisdom in it.
Can you? Now spiritually, there's winter,
isn't there? And there's times of snow. And
times like right now, seems like we're in a blizzard, doesn't
it? Seems like it. It must be necessary, or God
wouldn't send it. It's as necessary to us as the
snow is to the earth. And the cold represents God's
law. It's the cold, stiff, unyielding
north wind. And to stay out in it long enough,
you're like the legalist who becomes cold and hard. Well,
who can stand before God's law? Who can stand before His cold?
No one. No one except Christ. But when
is it coldest? At night. That's when it gets
coldest. And all the Lord has to do to leave us cold and lifeless
is leave us in the dark without the presence of his Son, the
Son of Righteousness. And we praise the Lord because
he does not leave his people in the cold, dark winter forever. Look at verse 18. Back here in
our text. Verse 18. He causes this wind to blow and
the waters flow. Now this is the way we're born.
Cold, dead, lifeless. But in regeneration, God gives
warmth and light and life. And He doesn't melt our old heart
like He melts the snow or an ice in spring. God gives a new
heart. And that's what's going on out
here in the picture we have in spring right now. Life, all this
pollen and allergies and stuff is coming from the new life.
is springing out. That's what God does. He gives
a new heart, new life. But even after God gives a new
heart and new life, a believer has times of cold and indifferent
attitude, and we're dull, and we're lifeless, and we hate it,
but if we're honest, now that happens. And in those times,
even hearing the gospel preached, doesn't seem to affect us, and
it bothers us, and it's just God's trouble. And then one Sunday,
or one Wednesday, we hear, we're refreshed, there's life, we're
excited, there's joy, we've been fed. Well, what happened? Was
the preacher just in a real good voice that morning? No. God sent forth His Word. He blew like the Spirit, the
wind that bloweth where it listens. No man can tell where it's coming
from, where it's going. And the heart's warmed and blessed
because God sent forth His Word and the power of the Spirit.
And we praise the Lord because He doesn't leave us in winter
forever. Next, we praise the Lord because He's given us His
Word. Verse 19, He showed His Word unto Jacob, His statutes
and His judgments unto Israel. The Lord showed us his word. He didn't just give the man the
ability to print this book, and then we just figured it out of
our own intellect and wisdom. God showed us his word. It must
be revealed. Just like Christ, he must be
revealed. No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and
he to whomsoever what the Son will reveal. He must be revealed. And the Lord's done that for
His people. He's given us His Word. He showed us His Word. He showed us His Son, the Incarnate
Lord. And last, we praise the Lord
of election. We praise the Lord for His electing
love. Verse 20, He hath not dealt so
with any nation. And as for His judgments, they
have not known them. Praise ye the Lord. I love the
God of election. I'm so thankful for the God of
election. Because if choosing God was left
up to me and my free will, I never would have chosen. I would have
chosen hell and death rather than come and beg Him for mercy.
And you would have to, every son of Adam, the same way, if
it wasn't for the God of election that set His affection on us,
that caused Him to give us a new heart, give us faith in Christ,
and cause us to run to Him and be found in Him. Now, God doesn't
do that for everybody. It's dealt this way with everybody,
with every nation. But He has with you. He has with
His people. He hasn't let you go the way
of the world. He'll let many go that way. Why
is that way of destruction? Many there be to find Him, but
not His shield. The world, they don't know the
Lord. They don't know His word. They
don't know His ways. They don't know His judgment. And they don't
know Him because He didn't deal with them like He did with you
in mercy. He reveals Christ to us, and
He reveals Christ in us. That gives God the glory, and
makes the believer even more thankful, doesn't it? We're a
thankful people. Praise ye the Lord. Alright,
Lord bless you.