A Psalm Of Praise

Q: What does the Bible say about praising God?

The Bible instructs believers to praise God from the depths of their hearts for His greatness and mercy. The Bible emphasizes the importance of praising God as an integral part of the believer's life. Psalm 146, for instance, calls the faithful to praise the Lord and highlights His attributes, including His excellence and tender mercies. Praise is not merely an outward act; it originates from the soul and reflects a deep-rooted acknowledgment of God's goodness and mercy toward us. As believers, we are encouraged to praise Him for His righteousness, holiness, and the spiritual blessings He has given us, realizing that we owe everything to Him.

Q: Why is God's mercy important for Christians?

God's mercy is crucial for Christians as it signifies His compassion and forgiveness, which we do not deserve. God's mercy is central to the Christian faith, as it reflects His compassionate nature toward His followers. The Psalms illustrate that God has not treated us according to our sins, highlighting His gracious willingness to forgive and deliver us from judgment. Believers experience God's tender mercies daily—through sustenance, forgiveness, and unmerited grace. This mercy reminds us of our dependence on Him and encourages us to extend that same mercy to others, reflecting the character of Christ in our lives.

Q: How do we know election is true?

Election is affirmed in Scripture as God's sovereign choice of individuals for salvation through Christ before the foundation of the world. The doctrine of election is a significant aspect of sovereign grace theology, asserting that God has chosen particular individuals for salvation. This is seen in passages like Ephesians 1:4-5, which teach that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world for His purposes. The assurance of election provides believers with comfort and confidence in their salvation, knowing it does not depend on human effort but on God's sovereign will and purpose. Election underscores God's mercy; without His initiating choice, no one would be drawn to Christ, as we are by nature opposed to God.

Q: Why is trusting in God important for Christians?

Trusting in God is essential for Christians as it anchors their hope and reliance on His unchanging nature and promises. For Christians, trusting in God transforms their perspective on life and circumstances. Psalm 146 warns against placing trust in human beings or princes, reminding believers that only God is inherently trustworthy. His power, as Creator of heaven and earth, assures us that He can fulfill His promises and provide for our needs. This trust is not blind but is rooted in the truth of God’s character—His faithfulness, mercy, and righteousness. A firm reliance on God enables believers to face life's challenges with confidence, knowing that He is in control and will work everything for their good.

Q: What does the Bible say about God's righteousness?

The Bible teaches that God's righteousness is essential for salvation, as it is through Christ that believers receive the righteousness needed to stand before Him. God's righteousness is a central theme in Scripture, depicting His moral perfection and justice. It is essential for sinners, as the Bible teaches that without holiness, no one can see the Lord. Romans 3:22 emphasizes that righteousness is obtained through faith in Jesus Christ, highlighting that it is not our own merit that qualifies us but rather Christ's perfect obedience and sacrificial death. Believers are clothed in His righteousness, granting us access to God's presence and assuring us of our standing before Him. This divine righteousness is a profound reason for praise, as it assures us of our salvation and acceptance in God's sight.

Turn back to Psalm 146. Psalm
146. I was sitting there thinking
as we were singing along with Mike. I don't know what all they
are doing in glory at this time in His presence. And that's very
real. But I do know they're praising
Him. We know that. We know that those who have gone
on to be with the Lord right now at this very time, they are
praising Him. And I hope He gives us a little
taste and ability to do that this evening. This psalm has
been on my mind for the last two or three days. I tried to
go back to Isaiah, but I couldn't get away from this. It's appropriate
that the last five chapters of the Psalms ends with these praises. Praise ye the Lord. They're called
the Hallelujah Psalms. Hallelujah. That's His name.
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Here's good
instruction right here. We have good instructions tonight
to do this. If we don't do anything else,
let us praise the Lord. I know that in this day that
word is so abused, but because it's abused doesn't mean we depart
from it. And it's not an empty phrase
that we use here. When we read this and when we
speak of praising the Lord, it's not an empty phrase like I hear
so much on TV when they just throw their hands up in the air
and then the preacher will say, well, just praise the Lord. You
know, that's so empty. They've so abused that. But there
is a real praise of God from the heart of a believer to Him
for all that He is and for all that He's done for us in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We praise Him in His excellence. We praise Him, listen, as He
is. Would you change God if you could? I would not want to change God
Almighty in any way, shape, or form. But I do want this. I want Him to change me. I want
Him to change me. I don't want a God. I do not
want a God that I can change. I do not want a God that I can
manipulate. We do enough of that with each
other. I want a God who remains the same yesterday, today, and
forever. I want a God who does His will among the armies of
heaven and among the heavens of the earth and none can stay
His hand or say unto Him, what are you doing? We praise Him
in His excellence. Who can be compared to our Lord
who has all power to execute His will? None can stay His hand. The Lord who is full of majesty
and glory, we praise Him as such. We praise Him as such. And then
we praise the Lord for His tender mercies. His mercies toward us
are tender mercies like that of a father to his children or
a mother to her children. Tender mercies. It says in Psalm
103, He hath not dealt with us after our sins. Boy, let that
sink down. Let this sink down. He has not
dealt with us after our sins. Nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities." Here we sit comfortably. We sit in a comfortable
building. We have comfortable homes. God has not dealt with us after
our sins. Nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. Some of them He has now. I read
to you Sunday that rich man who lifted up his eyes in torment.
That's very real. That's not trying to scare somebody.
That's very real. That's not a fairy tale to scare
someone. That's real. But here we sit under the gospel,
and God's given us faith in Christ. He's given us a good hope in
Christ, and we praise Him for it. We praise Him for it because
He's the one who's given it to us. We praise Him for His tender,
tender mercies. His mercies, David says in Psalm
23, follows us. He said it followed Him, and
I tell you this, it follows us, listen, all the days of our lives. God's mercy has been on my trail
since, I was going to say since the day I was born. It's been
on my trail before creation, before He created the heavens
and the earth. God's mercy was already after me. God's goodness,
you know the hedge that God has around you? I don't know all
about that, but I know some of it. Some of it is this, it's
His goodness and mercy. Satan said about Job, you've
hedged him about, I can't touch him. God's hedged him about with
His goodness and His mercy, just like He has us. And then we praise
Him in the beauty of His holiness. I'm glad that God's holy. I'm
glad our God is holy. There's none like unto our God.
Our God is holy. You know what that means? God
being holy, it ensures that He'll show mercy. God's holiness ensures
that He'll show mercy to us in Christ. That's what it ensures.
And then we praise Him for His election of us in Christ. Let
other men complain about election. I heard a man preaching the other
day. Wish I hadn't heard him. Because it makes you want to
combat that. Fighting against God's election. So glad that
God chose me in Christ. Jesus Christ was totally against
everything that I am by nature. He's holy. He's light. I was
darkness and sin and iniquity. And if He hadn't chose me, if
He hadn't chose you, we would not fall in love with Him. You
would not be attracted to Him. We would still find Him no beauty
that we should desire Him. We'd still find Him that way
if it were not for Him choosing us and calling us and bringing
us by His grace. I'm thankful, and I praise God. I praise God, and I have to say
we praise God for His election of grace, that He chose us in
Christ. I read this, and I believe it
was in Titus the other day. He says, you were not appointed
to wrath. Well, when I read this, it just struck me. You have not
been appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation. God has
not appointed you to wrath. You are not a vessel of wrath,
but a vessel of mercy. God could just have easily left
me and made me a vessel of wrath. But He made us a vessel of mercy.
And then we praise Him for all the spiritual blessings that
He's given us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Isn't it good to go somewhere, to show up someplace, and everything's
provided? You didn't have to bring a thing.
We don't have to bring one thing into God's presence in order
for Him to be pleased with us or to accept us. He provided
all of it, just like He did with Adam. Before He created Adam,
He made all things ready, didn't He? Everything in the Garden
of Eden was ready. Adam brought nothing into that
garden. He provided nothing in that garden. God provided all
of it. God made all of it. And then He made Adam. That's
what He's done for us in Christ. He provided us all our spiritual
blessings that we need to stand in His holy presence. We don't
produce any of it. We don't bring any of it. He
provided it all. And then we praise Him for providing
the lamb. Abraham's sons, Isaac said, Father,
where's the lamb? Here's the fire and here's the
wood. Where's the lamb? And Abraham, so taught of God, said, Son,
God will provide Himself the lamb. And He did. He provided
the lamb and He provided Himself as the lamb. And we praise Him
for the blood of that Lamb that washes us from all our sins. You know, we can cleanse ourselves
from a lot of things. We can get into dirt, a lot of
grease, you know, filth. We can get into a lot of things.
But we cannot, absolutely cannot cleanse ourselves from one sin.
We cannot cleanse ourselves from one sinful thought, let alone
a deed. We can't even cleanse ourselves
from the thought of sin. But His blood cleanses us, it
says in the Scripture, from all sin. No matter how deep the stain
goes, His blood cleanses us. Oh, is that not something to
praise Him over? Is that not something to lay down tonight
and just give thanks and praise unto God Almighty? And then we
praise Him for that righteousness that we so desperately need. Without holiness, no man shall
see the Lord. Without this righteousness, no
man, no man will stand in God's presence. And God Himself has
provided us with that righteousness that He demands. He provided
it in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we praise Him for it. We
praise Him for it. And then we praise Him for becoming
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Just think who became
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. The living God. Our Creator became a man. Our Creator took upon Himself
flesh. He took upon Himself a real human
soul. God did that. God Almighty did
that. And we praise Him for it. I needed
a man who knew no sin to take my place. before God Almighty
to take my judgment and represent me. And I have this man. We have this man in the man Christ
Jesus. And we praise God for him. We
thank Him for him. And we praise Him who rose again
from the dead and ascended on high and led captivity captive,
especially this captive. He loosed the prisoner. He set
the captive free. I'm looking at some people who
have literally been set free. We live in a country that we
make a lot of freedom, we make a lot out of this thing of freedom,
and I'm glad we do. But I'll tell you this, the only
person who is truly free in the full sense of that word are those
in Christ. They are truly free. One day
we'll really experience the full freedom of that. They are truly
free. And we praise Him for His intercessory
work for us. He intercedes for us. He prays
for us. I asked a man one time, this
is before I heard the gospel here, but I was religious. But
I was hearing something. I was beginning to hear it. In
reading the Scriptures, I was seeing some things and hearing
some things. And I realized, I remember asking this person
distinctly, I realized I need someone to pray for me more than
me. And I asked this person, I said,
do you think it's wrong to ask the Lord to pray for you? He
said, no, I don't. He intercedes for me. I realized
then that I needed somebody to pray for me that was far greater
than me. I need someone to pray for me
that's far greater than what you just prayed here, Frank.
We need someone who is seated at God's right hand calling upon
God for us, praying for us. And I thank Him for it. I praise Him for it. And then
we praise Him for faith, hope and love. You believe God? If you believe God, He gave it
to you. Do you love God? We love Him
because He what? He first loved us. He first loved
us. Do you have a hope? Do you really
have a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ? God gave it to you. A preacher didn't give it to
you? Your parents didn't give it to you? God gave this hope
to us. He gave this hope to us in Christ.
And then, listen, then we praise Him for the trials that keep
us running to Him. Oh, my goodness. We moan and
groan. I do. Let me speak about myself.
I moan and groan under just about everything. Trials come, whether
they're little ones or big ones. I moan and groan. But you know
that God sends those trials to cause us to run to Him, to cause
us to lean on Him. to cause us to call upon Him?
Do you know how little you'd really call upon God if He didn't
send us those trials? For some reason, I guess, just
in us, we don't call too much when the sun's shining, do we?
But boy, when the storms are coming over, oh, then we call. He knows how to make us call.
He knows how to make us call. And we praise Him for all the
losses and the crosses. You know why? Because really,
they're gain. Really, they're gain. If He takes something from
me, if the Lord takes something from me, it's really a gain. It's not a loss. It may be an
earthly loss, but it's a spiritual, heavenly gain if He takes it
from me, if it's necessary. Now you can see why He says,
Oh, praise you, Lord. Oh, my soul, He says. Oh, my
soul. You know, praise really begins
within. If it's real, it comes out. And
it's my soul, it's the very core of my being that praises God. It's not this outward thing of
throwing your hands up and carrying on. I can praise God and not
say a word. You can lay in your bed at night
and just lay there and just praise God as As loud as you can praise Him
and not say a word. As much as you can praise Him
and never have to say a word. Praise Him, O my soul, because
here's where it begins. Here's where real praise is.
It's in my soul. And here's His resolve. While
I live, will I praise the Lord. I will sing praises unto my God
while I have, listen, any being. As long as I'm able to move a
hair or a hand, while I have any being, I may be bed fast. Remember John Howson. We lived with him for four years.
That man praised the Lord. He praised the Lord. He couldn't
get up and do much. He couldn't walk around. He couldn't
do any of those things. But I tell you this, he could praise Him
while he had any being, and he's sure doing it now. He's doing
it now. While I live, he says, listen,
it says over in Isaiah 38. Look over in Isaiah 38. In Isaiah
38. While I live, he says, I'll praise
the Lord. Look in verse 17. Behold, for
peace, he said, I had great bitterness. But thou hast in love to my soul
delivered it from the pit of corruption. For thou hast cast
all my sins behind thy back. For the grave cannot praise thee,
death cannot celebrate thee, they that go down into the pit
cannot hope for thy truth." Now listen, verse 19, the living,
the living, I remember this so well, Jack Shanks preached from
this. Years ago, I can remember it so well. The living, he said,
the living, he shall praise thee as I do this day. Those who are
spiritually alive, those whom God has given life to, they are
the ones that praise thee. The dead don't praise thee. That's
what he's saying. He said, while I live, while
I live unto God, he said, I'll praise thee. While I have any being. Without
him, I wouldn't have any being. The Lord Jesus Christ made us. He created us for Himself. We
were not created for ourselves. He said you're bought with a
price. You're not your own. He not only created us, He made
us. He bought us. He bought us. And without Him, we would not
have any being or life at all whatsoever. It says in Colossians,
all things were made by Him and for Him. And this is something
that that I want to get a hold of. I was made, I was made for
the glory and praise of Jesus Christ. I wasn't made to just
go through this life and hit retirement and then wait. I've
got to be careful. Some of us retire, so when do
you die? That's not a good statement. But I just, I'm just saying that's,
you know, I've worked out here and people talk about wait until
they get to retirement. Want to get to retirement. Want
to get to retirement. I'm just, here's what we wait for. We're
waiting for him to come. I'm not really waiting for retirement.
I'm waiting for him to come. Now whether I'm 51 or 65 or 75
or 85, I'm waiting for him to come. Not waiting to just hurry
up and clock out and not have to go back there no more. Waiting
for Him to come. Now, He says here in verse 3,
Put not your trust in princes, nor in the Son of Man in whom
there is no help, there is no salvation. Put not your trust.
Now, you can trust men. You can trust one another. We
can trust one another. But we don't put our trust in
men We're in things. We put our trust
in God. There's a difference. You can
trust those seats. You're sitting on a monitor. You trust them.
You trust they're going to hold you. But we put our trust in
God. We put our trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that He doeth all things well, that all things
work out together for our good because He overrules and controls
all things. If I had to have one of you all
to do something for me, I'd trust you to do it. But I put my trust
in Him. He's the one who makes us faithful. I tell you, if it wasn't for
Him, we wouldn't be faithful at all. Put not your trust, he
says, do not put your trust and confidence in princes, those
who seem to be of a nobler and higher order than the common
man. He said, don't put your trust
in them. Don't put your trust in them.
He is just as fallen. He is just as depraved as any
son of Adam. Prince Harry and Prince, what's
that other one? Was it Williams? Prince Williams?
You know, they are just as depraved as I am. Actually, there's nothing
any more royal flowing through their veins than my veins. They've
got the same blood. He is made of one blood, all
nations. He said, don't put your trust
in these princes who seem to be of a nobler character or something.
He said, they're just fallen men used of God. God put them
in that position. God could make you a king if
he wanted to. He could make anyone a king if he wants, if he wills. I hate to use that word, if he
wanted to. If he will to. Don't be fooled by men's appearance
or power or birth. Don't be fooled by it. That's
what he's saying. It's all depraved. It's all bad.
All of it is. If you put your trust in those
things, you're going to be disappointed. You're going to be disappointed.
And not in the Son of Man, as is any man. You know, I've never
met a prince someone who was actually supposed to be some
earthly prince, had some royalty about him. I've never met one,
but I've met some men I've had a lot of confidence in. I've
met men, but he says here, nor the son of man, that is any man,
he's saying it, do not put your trust, your confidence in any
man for salvation. Any man, any religious man, any
Social man, any man, don't do that. There's no salvation from
sin, death, and hell in any son of Adam. Not at all. When it comes to forgiveness
of sins, when it comes to pardon, when it comes to justification,
there's no help in any way, shape, or form in my parents or in my
preacher. It's only in Christ. The man
Christ Jesus. That's who you put your confidence
in. That's who you put your hope in. That's who you build your
hope and trust and confidence in. You know, trust is another
word for confidence. That's who you put your confidence
in. The Lord Jesus Christ. This belongs to Christ and Christ
only. And no one else. And here's the
reason why we don't do this. Here's why we don't do it. In
verse 4, His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, and
that day his thoughts perish. Oh, what weakness! Is there anything
really weaker than us? Is there anything weaker than
flesh? His breath, it says, goes forth.
You know how long your life is? It's one breath. It's just a
breath. It's just a breath. That's what
it is. We take one breath and we live. We let it out. We take
another breath. I tell you what, don't take it.
We'll be carrying you out of here tonight if you don't take
it. Take the strongest man in the world. The richest man in the world.
The most powerful man in the world. Put your hand over his
mouth and see how long he lives. Isn't that weak? Breath. Breath. So weak. Our life, Job said,
is but a vapor. That's all it is. And note where
he goes. To his earth. To his earth. It's called his earth because
he's made from the dirt of it. Boy, the Scripture is plain,
isn't it? The Scriptures don't talk about
man in flowery terms. It goes to his earth, what he
was made from. God did not make Adam from silver
or gold or precious stones. Adam, you were made from the
dirt of the ground. That's what he did. He made him
from the very dust of the ground. And the very ground that he was
brought from is going to swallow him up. The very earth that he
came from one day is going to open her mouth and swallow him
up. That's why you don't put your
trust and confidence in man. Man's not going to go to a palace.
Man's not going to the happy hunting ground. He's going to
wake up one day in torment. Those who are outside the ark.
Those who are outside of Christ. He's gone, he says, to his earth.
His breath goes forth and he's buried. I don't care what he's
done in his life, he's buried. And when this day happens, when
God lays him in the dirt, it says that very day his thoughts
perish. Whatever he's working on. Whatever
he was thinking about stops. It just stops. It's over. Oh how nothing those things become
which were once greatly thought of and sought after when the
earth swallows him up. God brings all thoughts and he
will bring all inventions of men to absolutely nothing when
He lays them in the ground, when He brings them back to nothing.
When He brings them, from dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt
return. If anyone, if any man or any
woman, if their hopes are in a man, I don't care if it's in
a man, if it's a preacher, or if it's a church, or what it's
in, if it's in anything but Christ, If it's in anything but the Lord
Jesus Christ, they're going to be greatly, greatly disappointed. But happy, now let's get on to
a better subject. You have to wade through this
muck and mire to get sometimes to the good news. Happy is he
that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope, now he's
getting to a hope, whose hope, whose expectation, is in the
Lord, He is God. Here is a real abiding happiness
now, if you really want real abiding happiness, if you want
real abiding hope and real abiding help, here it is, the God of
Jacob. He's very real, you know. The
God of Jacob. Why is this so? Because the God
of Jacob is the eternal God. If you'll remember back in Isaiah,
Nebo, those gods that they had made, the Babylonians had made,
he said, they're nothing. God said, I'm going to bring
them down. They're nothing. But the God of Jacob is the eternal
God. No one made Him. He made all. He made all. He is the God who
has all power to save. I read this. I believe it's over
in the psalm I opened up with. In verse 5 of Psalm 147, great
is our Lord and of great power. His understanding is infinite,
unsearchable. But His power to save is infinite. It's great and infinite, unsearchable. When He says to those dry bones,
Live! What happened? Every last one
of them lived. Every last one of them stood
up, it said, and became an exceeding great army. Now, I could have
stood out there all day long and said, live, and nothing would
happen. But God just speaks one time in power and says, live,
and they lived. And that's exactly what happens
when God saves a sinner. He speaks in power of the gospel
and He says, live. And that sinner lives. He's God. He's God of all power. And He's the God that justifies.
You know, there's not one person, not anything else or anyone else
that can justify you but God who's judge of all. And He can
do it and still be God. He can be a just God and a Savior
through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
can do that. And He's God and beside Him there's
none else. And listen, His thoughts of me,
David said this in one place, that His thoughts of us could
not be reckoned up in order. And His thoughts of me shall
not perish. My thoughts, When I die or the
natural man dies, our thoughts as far as this earth and all
these things going on, they perish, they stop. His thoughts of me
never perish. His thoughts of me never stop. They are never, and this is,
you can't comprehend this. His thoughts of me, his thoughts
of everyone, his children are never interrupted. They're never
even interrupted. his thoughts of his children.
I mean not just collectively, but individually. Individually,
they are uninterrupted thoughts of his children. We can't even
think of our own children like that. As much as we love our
children, we cannot think upon them with an uninterrupted thought. But he does. He does. And those whose hope is in the
Lord his God will never be put to shame. They'll never be found guilty
in that day. You won't be found guilty. The God of Jacob never
changes. That's why he said you sons of
Jacob are not consumed. It's not because I straightened
up. I do enough, believe me, I do enough to still be consumed. There's enough combustible stuff
in me to burn me up every day. But he says, because I don't
change. My love to you, my mercy to you,
my unfailing mercy to you, my goodness to you changes not.
And when this man dies, when this man dies in the Lord, and
we've seen some do it, listen, he doesn't go to his earth, he
goes to his God. He goes to his God. He doesn't
go to his earth, he goes to his God. And look here at his power
in verse 6, and I'll move along here. "...which made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that therein is, which keepeth truth
forever." Just in case you doubt anything, just in case you have
a little glimmer of a doubt, that He can pull you through
this. He says this, He made heaven
and earth. You think you're a challenge
for God? Look what He made. Look what
He made. He made heaven and earth. And
all that there is in it, and that includes me. He made me
too. You know, this is how the prophets
of old spoke of God. They always identified Him, always
identified Him as the Creator. Always identified Him as the
One who created heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein
is. The One who made all of this, He says, is God and He's our
God. He's our God. He has the power
to execute His will. He's no mere man at all whose
thoughts perish, but He's one who will establish His counsel
and do all His good pleasure. He has the power to do it. He
made heaven and earth. It's all His. If the God you
hope in did not make all this, then He's no God at all. But if He made all of this, He's
God. He's God. And he says here, "...which
keepeth truth forever." It's impossible for God to lie. Scripture tells us this. Has
He not said, and shall He not do it? Did He not say, come unto
Me, all you that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest?
Shall He not do it? He'll do it. He cannot lie. None of His promises can fail. He keepeth truth forever. When you and I are gone, in a
little while, You and I will be gone. The truth will still
be here. Why? Because He keeps it. And
He's given it to us as stewards over it, and we preach the gospel,
and we contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.
But I'm telling you this, it's God who keeps it. We're really
just weak vessels. We're clay pots. Clay pots, cracked
ones at that. But He keeps truth forever. When
our grandchildren and children grow up, our confidence is this,
He keeps the truth. And by His mercy He'll bring
it and bring them under the sound of it and they'll hear it and
He'll grant them faith. Our confidence is that He'll
keep the truth, which executes judgment for the oppressed, which
gives food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners.
We do suffer in this world. We are oppressed, but He assures
us this, that He will do right. He said, He will do right. He
will deliver His children out of trouble. He'll bring the oppressors
into trouble. He'll deliver us out of it and
them into it. And He says here, which giveth food to the hungry.
I know this. If you came here hungry tonight,
He'll feed you. He'll feed those who are hungry.
Those who are hungry and thirst after righteousness, He said,
they shall be filled. The Lord looseth the prisoners.
Men, Satan, and religion loose no one. Once they get you in their clutches,
they're not going to let you go. They loose no one. But whom the Lord sets free,
that man, that woman is free indeed. He looses the prisoners,
and He looses them from sin. He looses them from the curse
of the law, the thing that holds them in prison. He loses them
from Satan. He loses them from themselves.
God says, set him free. I have found a ransom in my son. Set him free. Let this prisoner
go free. I found a ransom. The Lord opened
up the eyes of the blind. Who gave you sight? The Lord said, Peter, who do
men say that I am? Some say, well, you're a prophet.
Some say you're Elijah. Some John the Baptist. Some this,
some that. He said, who do you say I am? He said, direct to
Christ, the Son of the living God. He said, Peter, flesh and
blood didn't reveal this to you. My Father which is in heaven
revealed this to you. He revealed it. He gives sight
to the blind. He's the one that does it. The
Lord raises them that are bowed down with sin and sorrow and
guilt. He's the one who who raises them
up in Christ. He's the one who gives them sight
and enables them to behold the Lamb of God which takes away
the sin of the world. And enables them to stand up
again. Enables them to bow down with
all this guilt and shame. If you know what it is, you know
what I'm talking about. Bow down with it. And enables you to look
to Christ. And He enables you to find some
relief in Him. The Lord preserveth the stranger.
He relieveth the fatherless and the widow. But the way of the
wicked, He turns upside down. He's the one who preserves the
strangers. That's what we were. Strangers from the covenants
of promise. Strangers from God. Strangers. But not no more. Now
He says you're fellow citizens and saints of the household of
God. He preserved us. He preserved us in Christ before
the world began. He's preserved us strangers.
Now we're strangers to the world, but we're not strangers to Him.
He relieves the fatherless, and you know how He relieves them?
He relieves them with this truth. You're not fatherless, and you're
not a widow no more. I'm your father, and I'm your
husband. I tell you, with the truth of
it. But the wicked, he turns upside down. They think they're
going the right way. Isn't that sad? Isn't that sad? They honestly believe they're
going the right way. Only to find out, when it's over
with, they was on the wrong road. The road that they are on is
broad and easy to travel. It's warm and smooth because
many Many have gone that way before. Surely, they think, surely so
many can't be so wrong. But they are. That's why it's
a broad road. There's many on it. It says this in Job 620. Sometimes
you get time to write this down. You go back and look at it. They
will be confounded because they had hoped. When they die, I mean, the Lord
said they'll stand there and they're going to say, we preached
in your name. We cast out devils in your name. We did many mighty
works in your name. He's going to say, depart from
me. I never knew you. And they're going to stand there
confounded because they had hoped that they was all right. They
had hoped in their works. They had hoped in their own righteousness.
And then when they stood before him, they were confounded because
he says, depart from me. I never knew you. A terrible thing. But here in
verse 10, I close. The Lord shall reign forever,
even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord.
This is the greatest news that I could give to God's children,
to Zion. The Lord reigneth forever. We
can leave here tonight with some comfort. We can leave here tonight
with some joy, with some praise on our hearts? It's because the
Lord reigneth forever. No overthrow of His power. No
end to His glorious Kingdom. There's an end to this. You know
that. Even those who don't know the
Gospel, they're constantly looking to the end. They know they're
going to die. They know there's an end. But
there's no end to this one. Can you imagine what it will
be? To be somewhere, to be in such glory, in such majesty,
and to know there'll never be an end to that. Have you ever
enjoyed something so much you wish the day would just stop?
There have been a few times I've enjoyed something so much I wish
it could just go on and on. The Lord reigns forever, no end
to His glorious kingdom. Is this not worth praising Him
over? Is not what we've heard tonight worth singing praises
unto Him?

A Psalm Of Praise

What does the Bible say about praising God?

Why is God's mercy important for Christians?

How do we know election is true?

Why is trusting in God important for Christians?

What does the Bible say about God's righteousness?

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A Psalm Of Praise

What does the Bible say about praising God?

Why is God's mercy important for Christians?

How do we know election is true?

Why is trusting in God important for Christians?

What does the Bible say about God's righteousness?

Sermon Transcript

About John Chapman

Comments

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