I attended school in a day when
the reading of the Bible was allowed in a classroom. In the
first grade, we were taught to memorize certain scriptures like
Psalm 100. I remember specifically Psalm
23. Before I knew anything about
God, His holiness, His sovereignty, and all His other glorious attributes,
I could quote these psalms. six, seven years old. Psalm 100,
boy, I could just rip it off. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. But I knew nothing about Christ
truly being my shepherd and that in being my shepherd that I should
never want. I knew nothing about God being
the sovereign God of heaven and earth that provides all things
for His people so that they should not want for anything. I knew
the words, but I didn't know their meaning. Even now, sometimes
I wonder if I truly have entered into the wonderful truth that
He provides all things for me in Christ so that I shall never
want. Many times I don't act that way.
Those Scriptures specific says that He provides all our needs
according to His riches and glory in Christ. Philippians 4.19,
I often act like a faithless man, and acting like the people
of Israel, Lord, if you brought me out of Egypt to let me die
in the wilderness, God, help it not to be so. God, help me
to believe His Word. But even better, thinking on
Psalm 23 before we get into Psalm 100, when the psalm says, The
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Even more importantly,
He graciously takes away my wants, the things of this world that
I do not need. and would probably prove harmful
to me. I shall not want. He provides
all I need and He takes away the things that I don't need,
the desire for them. What a double grace that is. And now, and you've probably
heard people say this, I think I'm beginning to believe. I'll
say to you this morning, I think I'm beginning to believe. And
I think I see that by His grace, the things of this world have
grown strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. I pray
that I have. I pray that I'm learning that.
The things of this world, the things that used to bring so
much joy have lost their luster. They've grown strangely dim in
the light of this gospel that we believe. So I ask, is it so
with you? A chosen child of God shall not
want. I have learned, as I'm sure many
of you have, that memorizing that psalm, or any other psalm,
or any other passage of Scripture was no profit to me, but in understanding
it by divine revelation. It's a precious, precious gem
to the center, the safe center. We memorize something, we quote
it, we don't think about it much, and then all of a sudden God
divinely reveals the meaning of it to us. It's a gem, it's
precious, it's a treasure. So again, let me reiterate that
memorization of Scripture is of no spiritual benefit without
the divine revelation that only God can give. So before us here
in Psalm 100, we have five short verses that I memorized as a
young boy. Don't suppose I ever forgot them.
But to see the spiritual application, the spiritual meaning as they
relate to us and the Lord Jesus Christ, It's truly a blessing
that only God can give. So for a few moments this morning,
let us consider these five verses and ask God that He might be
pleased to show us Christ in them. Verse 1, a psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord all ye lands." Now the first thing that we should notice here
is that this is a psalm of praise. That's what it says, a psalm
of praise. Praise to who? The Lord. The
Lord Jesus Christ. If and when God Almighty reveals
to you the wonderful grace found in the person and work of Christ,
let me tell you what, You'll praise Him. I can assure you,
you'll praise Him. No wonder we're told to make
a joyful noise unto the Lord. God's people who He has revealed
Christ to are most truly joyful. When a sinner is caused to see
his depravity, made to see that salvation is and of and in the
Lord Jesus Christ, they'll be glad. They'll be joyful. They'll be happy. Psalm 511,
you don't have to turn back there. But let all those that put their
trust in thee rejoice. Let them never shout for joy
because thou defendest them. God Almighty defends us. Let
them also that love Thy Name be joyful in Thee. Psalm 35 9,
And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in
His salvation. That's why we make a joyful noise.
God's revealed to us what He's done for us in Christ. A child
of God should always be joyful in their redemption, even in
times of trouble. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians
7, 4, I'm filled with comfort. I'm exceedingly joyful in all
our tribulation. That's when you know God's done
something for you. When you can rejoice, be glad,
Absolutely. Praise God in the middle of a
trial. We are joyful and glad about our salvation. God's people
are. Now hold your place here and
turn with me to Psalm 21. I do want you to see this. Psalm
21, beginning in verse 1. The king shall joy in thy strength,
O Lord, and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice.
Why? Verse 2, Thou hast given him
his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of
his lips. For Thou preventest him with
the blessings of goodness, and Thou settest the crown of pure
gold on his head. He asked life of Thee, and Thou
gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever. His glory
is great in Thy salvation. Honor and majesty hast thou laid
upon him." Now, I thought about that. His glory is great, but
as great as his glory was and is, dear friends, it had its
greatness in God's salvation. The soul of a believer has no
joy but what it receives from the grace and salvation of God.
Our God's glory is great in the salvation of His people by Him
as our substitute and mediator. Does this cause you to make a
joyful noise? It should. There's a reason the
chosen child of God makes a joyful noise. And it's because the Lord
Jesus Christ has paid their sin debt that they could not pay. And He did so by becoming sin. Sin that he did not know. He
knew no sin. So that we could be perfectly
righteous in Him. That's divine substitution. as
we talked about this morning. And no wonder the psalmist went
on to say in verses 6 and 7 of here Psalm 21, look at it with
me. It says, For thou hast made him
most blessed forever. Thou hast made him exceedingly
glad with thy countenance. For the king entrusted in the
Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High, he shall not be
moved. I shall not be moved. You know
why? Because God's got His hand on
me. No man can pluck me out of His
hand. This is why we should always
make a joyful noise unto the Lord, because He is Lord and
His people's spiritual welfare is His chief desire. A joyful
noise now doesn't include complaining, doesn't include murmuring about
the will and providence of God. It simply rejoices that all things
That's two words that I've absolutely learned to love in the Scripture,
all things. He works all things after the
counsel of His will. He makes all things work together
for His people's good. To those who love the Lord, who
are they called according to His purpose. Romans 8, 28. Now
when we would trust in the Lord through the mercy of the Most
High, we shall never be moved. Psalm 16 says, I have set the
Lord always before me because He is at my right hand. I shall
not be moved. Oh, dear believer, may God help
us. I sincerely mean this. May He
help us to always make a joyful noise unto Him who loved us and
gave Himself for us. And that's exactly what He did.
Galatians 1-4 says, Who gave Himself for our sins. Did you
hear that? who gave Himself for our sins
that He might deliver us from this present evil world according
to the will of God and our Father. Make a joyful noise. In Galatians
2.20 the Apostle said, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now
live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me and what? Gave Himself for me. Make a joyful
noise. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Titus 2.14, who gave himself
for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify
unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Make a
joyful noise. Make a joyful noise. Back in
Psalm 100, verse 2. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with
singing. Because of all that God has done for us, we should
most definitely serve the Lord with gladness and come before
His presence with singing. Now again, let's not be too quick
to read over this verse. First we see that we are to serve
the Lord. Are you serving the Lord? You
ask yourself that question. Are you serving the Lord? Well,
what does it mean to serve the Lord? Turn with me to Joshua
25. Joshua is right after the book
of Deuteronomy. Chapter 25. I want you to see
this. Maybe it's Joshua 24. Let's see. Yes, it is. I'm sorry. It's Joshua
24, verse 13. God speaks in verse 13, and He
says, He said, I've given you a land for which you did not
labor, and cities which you built not. And you dwell in them, of
the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted, not do ye eat. And Joshua said in verse 14,
Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and
in truth. And put away the gods which your
father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and
serve ye the Lord. Make Him your everything. And verse 15, And if it seem
evil unto you to serve the Lord, Choose you this day whom you
serve. Those of you that are still indifferent
without Christ, choose you this day whom you will serve. This
could be your last. Whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods
of the Amorites and whose land you dwell. And Joshua said, but
as for me and my house, we will. Serve the Lord. Friends, we serve
God gladly because of His free, sovereign love to us in Christ.
We love Him because He first loved us. We could come before
His presence now with singing. There was a time we couldn't
come into His presence at all. We don't serve Him in a sense
that He needs anything from us. That's important now. Masters
had servants because they needed them. Employers have employees
because they have a need for help. They cannot do what needs
to be done without help. But that's not so with God. Not
so with the Lord God of heaven and earth. He does not need us
or anything. I want to read the NIV version
out of Acts 17.25 for you. It says, He is not served by
human hands. God's not served by human hands.
God's not served by human hands as though He needed anything,
since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. In Mark 10, verse 45, for even
the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to
give His life as a ransom for many. Now you put these two texts
together and the emphasis is on God giving to us when we serve. Does that make sense to you?
The emphasis is on God giving to us. So the kind of service
that makes God valuable and needful for us is the kind that serves
God by constantly receiving from God. You see what I'm saying?
Receiving and believing God is serving God. Men want to make
it into works. It's grace and grace alone. Peter, to prove this, Peter said
in 1 Peter 4, 11, If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles
of God. If any man minister, that means
serve. The word minister means serve.
Let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in
all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise
in the men forever and ever. Amen. In simple words, that means
whosoever serves, let it be as one who serves by the strength
that God supplies. If we take any glory whatsoever
in it, if we get any notion in our own minds that we're doing
something for the service of God, I guarantee you, it will
wind up being a snare and causing us stumble. In order that in
everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, we serve
God as He enables us. We serve Him in believing Him. We serve God that Christ may
be glorified. And even our serving God is His
gift to us. Psalm 100. I'll try not to turn
you away from there again. Verse 3. You can probably quote
it without turning there. Know ye that the Lord He is God. It is He that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture. The most important revelation
to a saved sinner, the most important thing is found in this verse. We must be made to know that
the Lord Jesus Christ, He is God. He is God. Know ye that the Lord, He is
God. How many times have I read that
or quoted that? Know ye that the Lord, He is
God. Faithful mayest not we ourselves. Slow down. Prayfully read these
verses. Know you the Lord. He is God. He's the only living and true
God. He's infinitely perfect and holy
as we saw. He's totally self-existent. He's self-sufficient. He needs
nothing from no one. And He's the fountain of all
blessings. From Him, all blessings flow. He is God, not a man as
we are. He's an eternal spirit. He's
incomprehensible. He's independent. He's the first
cause and the last end of everything. Yet, He became a man. without sin to save men who were
nothing but sin. This is the greatest story ever
told. That God would become a man, take on flesh, become what we
were, to pay our sin debt in the perfect keeping of the law.
You see, the law condemned me. The law condemned you. It showed
us that we were unable to keep its strict and holy demands. But Christ, God in the flesh,
kept it for me. Don't make this harder than it
is. He kept it for me. This is a divine revelation that
we must know. Know you that the Lord, He is
God. Have you seen that Jesus Christ
is God? Has God revealed that to you?
It was God to whom we owed the great debt of sin, and it was
God that paid that great debt of sin in full for us. But men,
they fight against it because, well, I had to do something.
No, you couldn't do anything. Know ye that the Lord, He is
God. How do you know that the Lord
is God? Well, Matthew 1.23 says, Behold, a virgin shall be with
child and shall bring forth a son. We know who that is. the Lord
Jesus Christ, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which
being interpreted is God with us. Know ye the Lord, He is God. In John 10.30, the Lord Himself
said, I and my Father are one. Is that not clear enough to see?
Jesus Christ is God. It is He that has made us, not
we ourselves. What do we have to take glory
in? And John confirms this in the first three verses of John
1, 1-3. You know the verses. Let me read
them to you. In the beginning was the Word. That was Christ.
Christ is the Word. And the Word was with God. And
the Word was God. Jesus Christ, know ye that the
Lord, He is God. The same was in the beginning
with God. And all things, all things, all things were made
by Him. And He reiterates and says, without
Him was not anything made that was made. It was He that made
us, not we ourselves. We didn't make ourselves and
we didn't pull ourselves up from our fallen state by our self-righteous
bootstraps. I get so tired of hearing, well,
I pulled myself up by my bootstraps. No, you didn't. If you've been
lifted up at all, it was God that lifted you. It's He that's
made us, not we ourselves. Not we ourselves. God in Christ not only created
us, but He saved His people by His sovereign grace. You didn't
have anything to do with that, no more than you had to do with
being born. To any who feel that they've done something to merit,
earn, or deserve the life-giving power of redemption, read again
these words. It is He that has made us and
not we ourselves. That's not hard. That's not using
words we can't understand. He hath made us and not we ourselves. And because of this divine truth,
we must conclude with the last part of verse 3 which says that
we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. If God made us
and not we ourselves, we're His people. We're His sheep. The
Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Why? Because
I'm one of His sheep. And this again is the Gospel
message that gives all the glory to God. Now let me remind you,
I know you know this, but the true test of Gospel preaching
is that it never attributes anything to the glory or merit of man. If it does, it's not the Gospel. Don't give it an ear. If at any
point in time it says that you've got to do something, or that
you did something, or that you made a decision, or that you
did this, it's not the gospel. The gospel gives all the glory
to God. We serve Him gladly and rejoice
in knowing that He was and is the only one who can give the
sinner life eternal. And at the same time, glorify
God in the salvation of sinners and keeping His strict law perfectly
for His people. It is He that hath made us. Not
we ourselves. Salvations of the Lord. Period. It's not open for discussion.
It's not open for debate. It's a clear, simplistic teaching
of the Holy Bible. That's what this Bible teaches.
Salvations of the Lord. That's what Jonah said when he
ran from the Lord. He got on a ship going the opposite
direction that God told him to go. God brought up a storm. Jonah had a Enough sense to at
least say, if you'll throw me overboard, because they drew
straws and he lost. But the casting of the whole
thing is in the Lord's hand. And they threw him overboard
and the Lord prepared the fish. And three days in the belly of
that big fish, whale, whatever it was, God threw him up on the
shore and the first thing that came out of his mouth was salvation
of the Lord. Have you seen that? If you're
one of God's chosen, you have. You've seen that it had nothing
to do with you. That it was God who did the saving. You did the sinning. And no wonder
our Lord reasonably asked this question in Matthew 20. He says,
is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? Is it
my right for me to do what I will with my own? Is thine eye evil
because I am good? Now, do we see that it's God's
sovereign right to do what He will with who belongs to Him? Do we see that as evil? There
are some that do. Well, that's not fair. And they
see it as evil. Doing what he will with his own.
Oh, that's good. Let me tell you, if you're one
of his, you'll say it's good. It is good for his chosen. It's
good for God's glory. Because he causes all things
to work together for good. It's good. It's not evil. Men and women better stop trusting
in a God that needs man's approval or permission to do something.
We better trust the true Christ who does what he will with his
own. Though my father was but a man,
I knew that as his son he was all about doing me good. It didn't
take me long to realize that. He was all about doing me good.
How much more true is that with Christ? Is it not lawful for
me to do what I will with those who belong to me? He loves us
with an everlasting love. I've made you mine. I've brought
you to my step. Oh my! And it's right and lawful
for Christ to do what He willed with His own according to the
divine purpose of God and for the good of His people. Verse
4, enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts
with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless
His name. That's been the theme of this
psalm. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Serve the Lord with
gladness. Come into His presence with singing.
Be thankful. Be thankful to Him and bless
His name. Again, the thought that We who
have sinned against God only can now in Christ enter into
His presence. When we by grace see that, we
will always enter into His gates with thanksgiving. There was
a time when we could not approach God's throne. Only in Christ
are we able to. So now we enter into His gates
with Thanksgiving. God has given us far more blessings
than we've ever thanked Him for. I can assure you that. I'm reminded of a little story
that I once heard talking about Thanksgiving. A little girl sat
down to eat dinner with her family and she looked at the leftovers
and she said, hey, wait a minute. He said, we thank God for this
last night. Well, I say that to remind you
just because we thank God for something once doesn't mean that
we cannot thank Him for it again and again and again. Come into
His gates with thanksgiving. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving.
Thank God. Thank Him every opportunity you
have. We should always come into His
gates, His presence with thanksgiving. Are you? Now let me ask you.
Those of you that profess to believe Christ, are you truly
thankful for all that the Lord has done for you? Are you? I pray that you are. And thank
Him and thank Him again and again and again. And verse 5, for the
Lord is good. The Lord is good. His mercy is
everlasting. It lasts forever. He will never
run out for His people. And His truth endureth to all
generations. Oh, Lord, help us to remember
that You're a good God. For the Lord is good, His mercy
is everlasting. Infinite mercy and goodness.
The Lord is good and therefore He does nothing but good to His
people. His mercy is everlasting to His
chosen vessels of mercy. God is a God of infallible truth. Those who worship God will worship
Him in spirit and in truth. His truth is infallible, friends. His truth endures and endures
and endures to all generations. You think about this. God has
reserved His Word, this truth, this book you hold in your lap
for thousands of years. And He'll continue to do so until
the last elect of God is saved through the preaching of the
Gospel. And when one day we're in glory, His truth will still
endure. And to sit at the feet of Christ,
hear the great things that He had done for us. Have you heard
His truth? Seriously. Examine yourself. Have you heard His truth? Have
you seen that God is good and that His mercy endures forever?
Have you seen your need of Christ as your substituted Savior? Have
you truly seen it? Have you seen that He's not obligated
to save you? Have you seen that He has mercy
and compassion on whom He will? And whom He will, He hardens?
Do you desire His mercy? If you truly do, then He'll give
it, for His mercy still endures. The reason many don't have the
mercy of God, they don't desire it. Do you desire His mercy? If you do, ask for it. Oh, I
wish I could convey how serious this matter is. I wish I could. No wonder the writer of Hebrews
said, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him.
The Lord preached the same message. I am the way, I am the truth
and the life. The apostles said, He is the way, He is the truth
and the life. And for thousands of years now, today, I'm telling
you, He is the way, the truth and the life. Do you desire mercy? Have you heard? Do you see? If
any man has ears to hear, let him hear.