Back to Psalm 66. The writer
of this psalm starts out with make, and to make something is
to put effort in it, and it's to do it on purpose. Make a joyful noise unto God. Not just a joyful noise, but this joyful noise is to be
made unto God. It's to be given unto Him. It's showing Him our love and
affection and joy for what He's done for us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Make a joyful noise unto God,
all ye lands and all the earth. God has sent the gospel. He has
sent the gospel throughout all the earth, to Africa, Mexico,
here. Throughout the whole earth, the
gospel has gone. And men and women have been saved.
And I tell you what, this world has a reason to make a joyful
noise. Because one time it was pretty
much concentrated to the Jews, to Israel, that little nation.
But since our Lord died, it has gone throughout the world. Good
news. Good news for sinners. God has
spoken in mercy to sinners. He says, come and take of the
water of life freely. Oh, everyone that thirsteth. Cecil read that back in the study,
Isaiah 55. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come. You have no money, come. Isn't that good news? Good news. Like a joyful noise. over there. When I read this, I thought about
Cole and Madison. Vicki told them Saturday, she
told them Friday night, that was a little too early, but she
told them she was going to take them up to the hurricane park.
They had these big inflatables and it was all free and petting
zoo. It had a big to-do going up there.
They were dancing, jumping around, just looking at each other and
just making a joyful noise. They just heard some good news.
And all day Saturday, it was like, they just wanted to hear
it again. Are we going? Are we going? Are
we going? I mean, I told her, she told it too soon. And she
heard that all day. They were making a joyful noise
all day because they heard some good news. How much better news have we
heard? We get bogged down with life and troubles, and I know
that. I'm reading this today, and I thought, oh, I have something
to be joyful about. I have something to make a joyful
noise about. The salvation that I have in Christ, it's eternal. This has an end to it. This has
an end to it. But that has no end to it. That
has no end. So he says, make a joyful noise. It's something to rejoice in.
Our Lord cried on the cross. It's finished. That's something
to make a joyful noise about. We don't have to add to it. We just receive it. Receive it
by faith. And sing forth the honor, the
honor of His name. Let's sing forth who He is. We did this tonight. Let's sing
forth who He is, the honor of His name. The honor of His name
is His character. It's who He is. He's God. You notice in Psalm 67, I read to
you, He said in verse 6, Then shall the earth yield her increase
in God, Listen, even our own God, not just God or a God, our
God, and our God is the God of salvation, and our God is the
God of heaven and earth. He's the God of creation, and
He's our God, and He shall bless us. That's something to rejoice
in. That's something to make a joyful
noise about. It truly is. What he's saying here, sing forth
the honor of His name, put a tune. Put a tune to this joyful noise. Put a tune to it. Mike played
so pretty over there. And the singing was... Up here it sounds so good. You
can hear this room just really echoes. And the singing just
so... Put a tune to it. Put a tune to that joyful noise.
We have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, as Wayne even
prayed. We've been redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb. So let it be known. Let it be known that what we
have is something to rejoice in, something to be glad and
happy about. We have it. It's real. This is
real. He's redeemed us. Always let
it be known who we worship when we gather together here. When
anyone comes in this place, let's let it be known that we worship
the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate God, Emmanuel, God with us. And first, say unto God, we gather
here to worship Him. We gather here to praise Him.
We gather here to say unto Him, say unto God, how terrible art
thou in thy works. Recognize, always recognize,
and let us always recognize when we come together here When I
stand in this pulpit, let us always recognize the sovereignty
of God over all things. His sovereign right to do as
He will with whom He will. When I first heard the gospel,
that's the one thing that really, I mean, hit me. That's the one
thing that just hit me, is God is sovereign. He can do as He
will. He gives no account of any of
His matters. He can save whom he will, and
he can pass by whom he will, and be just in doing it. Say unto God, how terrible art
thou in thy works. Whatever happens in this life,
God is the first cause. Is he not? He's the first cause. But that word also means this.
The word terrible also means this. Admirable, how admirable
are thy works. Oh, you look at the work of God,
the handiwork of creation. You look at the work of God in
a believer to take an enemy, to take a sinful person and to
make them righteous and make them desire to worship Him. His work is admirable, admirable. And listen, through the greatness
of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
Now, we were enemies in our minds by wicked works at one time.
And by the power of His grace, by the power of His Spirit, He
made us willing. He made us willing in the day
of His power is what it says in Psalm 110. He made us willing
in the day of His power. And I'm glad he did. But I tell
you this, through the greatness of his power, he makes those
who are not willing to submit to him. There's nothing out of
control. That's what he's recognizing
here. There is nothing out of God's control. There is no one
out of God's control. Satan is not out of his control.
It's not he's over here, one hand fighting. God's over here
and we're going to see who wins. Christ said, it's finished. I
win. God's the winner. God's the winner. Through the greatness of thy
power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. He makes
everyone submit, willingly or unwillingly, but they submit.
They submit. And all the earth shall worship
thee. They shall sing unto thee. They
shall sing to thy name. They shall sing praise to thy
name. They shall make known thy name, just as we do here. We come together here each week,
and God has given us an understanding of the gospel. He's given us
a heart to worship Him with, and we come here and we sing
praise unto His name. The gospel is going to go throughout
all the earth. And people from every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue are going to worship the living God
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're going to worship
Him in spirit and in truth. They're going to worship Him
and acknowledge Him. He's going to see to it. He's
going to see to it. But now listen, all the earth,
right now there are people in every nation that worship Him.
But there's coming a day When there will be a new earth and
everyone, every single person on that new earth shall worship
Him. There won't be different denominations.
It won't be different. All will be one voice, one praise,
one song, and we'll all worship Him on that earth, on that new
earth. Now he says in verse 5, come
and see the works of God. Here's his word again, he's terrible.
He is terrible in his doings toward the children of men. Come and see the flood in Noah's
day. Can you begin to comprehend what
that had to have been like? The flood was something like,
what, 20 feet above the highest mountain? This whole world was
like a fishbowl. That's what it was like. It was
like a fishbowl. It just flooded the whole thing.
God did this. God did this. Come and see the
works of God. He's terrible in His doing toward
the children of men. Look at the Red Sea, the children
of Israel standing at the Red Sea, Pharaoh's army descending
upon them, and God parted that sea. And so many times throughout
the Old Testament, this is mentioned over and over and over about
Him parting the Red Sea and then going through on dry land. on dry land. What a sight! What a sight that had to have
been! When God parted that sea, and the children of Israel literally
walked across on dry land with a wall of water, however high
it was, whenever they went through, with a wall of water on each
side standing straight up. Can you imagine seeing that?
Amazing! It would have been just astounding!
To see that. The very way that he made for
them to escape from death became the death of their enemies. But now listen, the very way
that God has saved us in Christ crucified is also the death of
our enemy. Death. Those are amazing things to see. But the most amazing thing to
see is that one hanging on the cross. And what happened. What happened to him. And what
we have in him as a result of it. That's amazing. That's amazing. It says here in verse 6, He turned
the sea into dry land. And they went through the flood
on foot. on foot. There, now listen, there
did we rejoice in Him. This is David speaking, but he's
speaking about his ancestors. He's speaking about Moses and
the children of Israel when they left Egypt and they went through
on dry land. And he says there, he does not
say there they rejoiced in Him. There we rejoiced in Him. We
rejoiced in Him when they rejoiced in Him. We were in their lives. That's what he's saying. We were
united to them. We are one in Christ. We are
one. There we rejoiced in Him. What
a great deliverance they enjoyed that day when God parted the
Red Sea and delivered them from their enemies. My, my, my. Think about our deliverance.
Think about our deliverance from the curse of the law, the power
of sin, The power of Satan, is that not far greater than what
they saw? Is that not a much greater reason
to rejoice? What he's done for us through
his blood and righteousness, we have been saved there at the
cross in Christ. We rejoiced in him. We rejoiced
in him. The writer speaks here, as I
said, as though he were present when this happened. And we can
say, in Christ crucified, there we rejoiced in Him, because we
were in Him. We were in Him. The cross of
Christ is always fresh with His people. It's as if it just happened. It's always fresh. When John
went to the third heaven, he said, I saw a lamb that stood
in the midst of the throne, as it had been slain, as if it just
happened. And then he says in verse 7,
after saying that, he says, he ruleth, God ruleth by his power
forever. That's good news to me. As we
go through this life, we go through these troubles and these heartaches,
And we see the world in turmoil. We know He ruleth. He's ruling. He's reigning right now. Right
now. We must understand that God's
rule is by His power, and that is forever. When you and I are
gone, God will still be ruling over all. Our children, our grandchildren,
children, children, God will still be ruling over all. That's
good news to me. That gives me some hope. That
gives me some hope for my grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so forth.
That's good news, because if He rules, He'll save. Sinners are going to be saved.
And I hope by His grace it's our children, and their children,
and their children. I hope so. His eyes, it says
here, His eyes behold the nations, and listen, His eyes behold the
nations all at the same time. All at the same time. Therefore,
let not the rebellious exalt themselves. He rules by His power
over all. He sees all. He knows all. So don't let the rebellious go
out here and exalt themselves as if they're getting away with
something. In His time, in God's time, He will bring every work
into judgment. Every work, every person into
judgment. Every thought. The Scripture
says every idle thought. Every idle thought. That's how
strict and that's how searching judgment is going to be. Even
an idle thought is going to be brought into judgment. Oh, bless our God. Oh, bless
Him. Worship Him. He deserves it,
ye people. And make the voice of His praise
to be heard, which holdeth our soul in life. and suffers not
our feet to be moved or taken away. I'm not holding on by my strength. He's holding me by His strength. He keeps me. We are kept by the
power of God through faith. He keeps us believing. But He
keeps us. He keeps us. And He holds our
soul in life. He's the preserver of life. He's
the preserver of it. I'm not alive because I'm healthy. I'm alive because He holds my
life and He keeps it. And when it's time, He'll take
it. He'll take it. For thou, O God,
hast proved us. You notice He gave God the praise
for His greatness. His sovereignty over all, His
power over all, His rule over all. He brings all this out.
And then He ascribes His trials, His afflictions, as being from God. As being from God. For thou,
O God, hast proved us Thou hast tried us as silver is tried."
Here's what he's saying, God, Thou art the author of my trials. Thou art the author of them.
You ordained them. You sent them. He proves us. He proves the genuineness of
our faith. Now, trials are either going
to run you away or run you to Christ. It'll do one or the other.
It will do one or the other. He will not have counterfeits
in glory. Sometimes, listen, sometimes
he tries his own as silver is tried. Now, you know how that's
tried? That is tried in fire. Fire. Painful. Painful. And the reason silver is tried
in fire, you know why it's tried in fire? To burn off the impurities. To burn off the dross. And I've
said this before, I brought it up some years ago in a message,
but working out at the shop, doing babbitt bearings. Babbitt
is an alloy. It's kind of like lead. Burn it. I mean, I get it up
to 800, 900 degrees. And I can have a pot of that.
And every time I heat that up to 800, 900 degrees, I have to
take a ladle and scrape the dross off of it every time. You would
think after doing it two or three times that there wouldn't be
any dross left, wouldn't you? And you clean it, you scrape
it off, and you get all that dross out of the way so you can
use that clean babbit. And then you can come back the
next day, heat that up to 900 degrees, and you'll have just
as much dross on that as you did the day before. You've got
to keep taking it and cleaning it off. And that's what he's
saying here. He's cleaning the dross off. You think, well, this
will clean me. No, you'll be tried again, and
it'll be dross again, and it'll have to be taken away again. That's what happens. In the furnace
of affliction, he tries us. And he does this to get rid of
his dross. And listen here. Thou broughtest. We didn't accidentally
walk into it. Sometimes we go into trials and
things that we didn't expect. I mean, we didn't see it coming.
There are things that I can say, I did not see this coming. But
he did. He did. Thou broughtest us into
the net. Did he not know where the net
was? Cole says that to me so many
times I'll do something wrong. He says, Papa, didn't you know
that? Didn't you know that? Did he not know where the net
was? Thou laidest affliction upon
our loins. Afflictions. Thou hast called
men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through
water. The trials spoken of here are
severe. They are severe. But He did this
not to destroy us. He didn't do that to destroy
us. Listen. But to bring us out into a wealthy
place. As he said over in Deuteronomy
6, he brought us out that he might bring us in. All these
trials and all this affliction and the fire, all these things
that God brings upon us, he does it to bring us into glory. He's
purifying unto himself a holy people. And he says here, after saying
this, look at the attitude. Look at the attitude of the psalmist
here. Look at the attitude of David. After saying that God
brought him into afflictions, you brought him into the net,
you laid the afflictions upon our lawns, you brought us into
the fire. Look at this attitude. I will go into thy house with
burnt offerings. That's an attitude of worship. This is what happens when a believer
is truly brought into these hardships. The end result is this. It brings
you to true worship. I don't know that we really,
really worship God until we are at our wit's end. And then we
do. And then we worship. I will go into thy house with
burnt offerings. That means he's not going to
bring any of it back. He's going to give it all on
the altar. If it's burnt, it's burnt up. What he gives, it's
like, I give it all here. The worship, the praise, and
the glory, and all that he's given, it's yours. It's belongs
to God. I will pay thee my vows, which
I vowed, he said, when I was in trouble. And he paid them. Which my lips have uttered, and
my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble. I will go before
God with a sacrifice of praise and plead the sacrifice of Christ
for the propitiation of my sins. That's what I'm going to do.
That's what you're going to do. When he brings us through these
things, this is going to be the end result. It's going to be
true worship. True worship. I will offer unto thee burnt
sacrifices of fatlings. That's the best of the best. I've got to pull out the sick
ones. He's going to offer the best. The fatlings with the incense
of rams. I will offer bullocks with goats. I will offer that which God has
appointed. What has God appointed? I should
say who? Christ. We come before Him in
Christ's name. We come worshiping Him through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, Jesus Christ is my burnt
offering. He's my burnt offering. He's all that we have to bring
unto God. Then it says in verse 16, come
and hear. See, He said first, come and see. Now He says, come
and hear. All you that fear God, and I
will declare what He has done for my soul. He's redeemed it. He's cleansed it. He's saved
it. He made me whole. He made me
fit for heaven. This is what He's done for my
soul. Come and hear. Oh, come and hear
of the mercy of God. You know, in verse 5, it was
come and see the works of God, His terrible works among the
children of men, His doings. But here it's come and hear.
Come and hear. Come and hear of the mercy of God, the grace
of God. Hear what He's done for us in Christ. Come in here. Come
in here. I cried unto him with my mouth,
and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me. He will not hear a hypocrite.
That's what he's saying. He will not hear a hypocrite.
If there's some choice sin that I want to keep and not let go,
He will not hear me. He will not hear me. He doesn't
hear the hypocrite. The heart and the tongue must
be one in this matter of praise. Must be. But verily God hath
heard me, which shows that He did not regard any iniquity.
Made a clean sweep of it. Go read Psalm 51. David made
a clean sweep of it. He attended to my prayer. He attended to my prayer. I reckon
if there's anything I could ask for, it'd be that. Lord, attend
to my prayer. Hear me when I call. O thou that
hear'st prayer, cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares
for you, even when you can't tell it. He does. Blessed be
God which hath not turned away my prayer. Oh, I tell you, He's
not turned it away. He's not done that. Nor His mercy
from me. What a blessing it is to be heard
by God and to always have His mercy.