I'm going to be in the book of
the Psalms. I do want to thank your pastor
for the kind invitation to be here and to speak. And I want
to thank you for sharing your pastor just a short time ago
to come up and speak for us in the Dalles. I've shared with
him several times. If I didn't have him up there,
my church would fire me. They just love him. They love
your pastor. They love his preaching. And
they count this church as a very close sister church, or just
part of a family. This afternoon, Nancy and I are
traveling back to, headed in that direction. At one time,
I'd just drive 14 hours, get there, wore out. And we're having
some people, a couple from Apopka, Florida, that called up and Jennifer,
our daughter who goes to church with him, said, we're going to
be in the Dalles on Sunday. And I said, oh, we'll be in rescue. So I called up your pastor and
he so graciously moved my schedule so I could leave and we're going
to be in the Dalles on Sunday. And I just felt the need to be
there with those people coming that far. Not that I don't have
someone who could take my place and do as good a job. I just
wanted to be there. So you pray for us as we travel.
And we pray for our daughter and son-in-law down there in
Florida. They're expecting our first grandson. And I'll tell
my granddaughter, you're my favorite grandchild. She says, I'm your
only grandchild. It won't be long. She'll be my
favorite granddaughter and this will be my favorite grandson.
But we're looking forward to that. And if you want to see
a picture of that baby before it's born, you see me. I've got
one. Those 3D ultrasounds are just... If they'd had that one, my mother
was carrying me, she'd never had me. And I want to thank God for permitting
Mike and Juanita to be here. I pray that when I'm that age,
And in that health, I'll have the same interest to be up at
the sheep trough. I'm so thankful that God in His
everlasting eternal purpose sent a preacher by that knew the gospel. And he preached that gospel.
And God worked a work of grace in me. I'm thankful every day
for God's grace, for hearing the gospel. I'm thankful that
God interfered in my life. I'm glad that he sent the high
sheriff out and arrested me. I've never had great pleasure
in a police officer coming up behind me with that red, blue,
red, blue, red, blue, red, blue. Oh, just that is hard on me to
have that officer come up. You know, they could shut that
light off, but they won't. They want to embarrass you so
badly that you won't do it again. But when the Lord God Almighty
arrested me with the shackles on me and said, I look back and
say, thank you, oh God. Religion didn't do that. Religion
didn't arrest me. Works didn't arrest me. Righteousness
which cometh by the law didn't arrest me. But the grace of God
arrested me. Now I've got something to sing
about. Singing and making melody in
my heart. And I want to read just a portion here of the fourth
song The fourth Psalm. Notice the heading. To the chief musician on the
Neganoth. I hope I pronounced that correctly.
The Psalm of David. Hear me when I call, O God of
my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I
was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my
prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will
ye turn my glory into shame? How long will ye love vanity
and seek after leasing to see light? But know that the Lord
has set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear
when I call unto him. Stand in awe and sin not. Commune
with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness
and put your trust in the Lord. There be many that say, Who will
show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light
of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my
heart. more than the time that their corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace
and sleep, for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. Thou has put gladness in my heart."
Now, this psalm was dedicated to the chief musician. And the
chief musician, there's only one that that could reflect on.
The chief musician is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the conductor
of the orchestra. He's the chief musician. He's
the only one that can make us sing the songs of Zion. He's
the only one that can change our heart and cause us to sing
the songs of Zion, the chief musician. The chief musician
causes the sweet singing of Zion, and for good reason. And we're
going to look at a few verses about that. A preacher shared
with our church one time, God is the director, and the elect
are the actors, and everything else is props. Everything else is props. Another way of putting that is,
Joshua told a group of people, you're going to be hewers of
wood and drawers of water for Israel. Now, I didn't fly down
here this time, but I stopped at a gas station and got some
fuel, and there was a guy who loaded that fuel up for me there
in Oregon. Now, in California, you've got
to do your own, but someone put that fuel in that tank. He's
a hewer of wood and drawer of water for me to get here. He's
just a servant of God. He's just a prop. Now, God's
people, His elect, lost sheep and found sheep, they're the
actors. God's the conductor. He's the one in charge. He's
the director of all things. He says He knows the end from
the beginning. He's directing the church in all ages. He's directing the preacher of
the gospel to go to where the gospel needs to be preached,
and He's also directing the people who need to hear the gospel to
go where the gospel is preached. It's just a phenomena of God's
wonderful, marvelous grace that He would do that. Now when He
strikes a chord with our heart with the gospel of His free and
sovereign grace in Christ Jesus, when we find out that the work
is finished and that it is not ours, but it is His, and by His
grace He has caused us to submit to Him as Lord and Master, He
puts a song in our heart. And He's the chief musician.
I used to think that I could get up in front of someone...
I didn't know to substitute teaching this last year. during some inclement
weather, and I was just waiting for the time when the band director
was going to be sick, because I was going to go in and say,
anybody can do this. All you need is that stick in
your hand. You can flop your arms around, and I just wanted
to see what happened. Well, God Almighty, has the conducting
stick in his hand, and he is directing all the sweet music
of Zion to our hearts and causing us to rejoice in the salvation
that he gives his people. Now turn with me, if you would,
forward to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah, the chief musician, causes
the sweet singing of Zion, and for good reason. He causes us
to sing for good reason. He causes a melody in our heart
for good reason. To be redeemed! causes sweet music in our heart. Oh, to know the grace of God.
Now here in the book of Isaiah, chapter 44, would you turn there
with me, verse 23. Isaiah 44, verse 23. There is
a chief musician, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has the conducting
stick in his hand, and because of what he has done for his church,
What He has done from eternity for His church, in the council
halls of eternity, in the covenant of grace, what He proposed to
do, and what He proposed to do, He will carry out. He has never
proposed to do anything that has not been carried out. He
has proposed to save His people from their sin. He has purposed
to save His people from their sin. And when He saves His people
from their sin, He takes them from darkness to light. He raises
them from the spiritual dead. And that's why we can sit around
the dinner table today and rejoice in God our salvation. He has put a song in our heart.
Isaiah 44 and verse 23, sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath
done it. We just get excited to find out
the Lord has done everything. He moved to get the gospel to
us, or He moved us. I've talked to people, they were
moved completely across the country. And they thought that they had
it all in their own hands. And find out, they were placed
in a place so they could hear the gospel. And another time,
they move a preacher clear across the country or clear across the
world. There's a bunch of people down
there in New Guinea that are thankful that someone came with
the gospel. Brother Donnie was telling me
about someone there at Cherokee, a Cherokee Indian who was about
ready to sing, and he said, you know, a lot of Indians are upset
with the white folks, but this one is thankful the white folk
came because they brought the gospel. God is gracious. I don't agree
with all that went on, but I'm so thankful that the Gospel got
to me, however it happened. Alright, it says there in Isaiah
44, verse 23, it says, Sing, O heavens, for the Lord hath
done it. Shout, ye lower parts of the earth. Break forth into
singing, ye mountains, O forests, and every tree therein. What? There's that little four-letter
word. Four. Four. I appreciate what Brother
Milton brought out about those little words that we run into.
They're so valuable. So important. He says, four,
the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and glorified Himself in Israel. I'll tell you what, if we can't
sit down over dinner today and rejoice that He has done something
for Jacob and done something for Israel, speaking about the
church, We have something to rejoice in every day. Now, we live in perilous times.
We could have said that 15 years ago too. We live in perilous
times. Lord Terry's another 15 years,
we're going to say, oh, we're in perilous times. Read Gil,
we're in perilous times. Read Hawker, we're in perilous
times. Read Asperger, we're in perilous times. Oh, the Gospel,
nobody's paying attention to it. God's calling out a few. And
you know what? When they sit down together at
the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, they worship Him and sing because
He's done something for Jacob. He's caused them to rejoice.
He causes them to sing. The chief musician strikes the
chord in our heart to rejoice in the glorious gospel of His
free and sovereign grace. Turn with me to the book of Isaiah
48. Isaiah 48 and verse 20. Isaiah 48 and verse 20. Go ye
forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of
sin declaring, tell this, Utter it even to the end of the earth,
say ye, the Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob." Oh man, the
church has been redeemed. It was in a horrible pit, in
a horrible mess, the fall. I cannot comprehend the fall. I know what happened, and I know
about total depravity, and I know what the Bible says, but I haven't
discovered the fullness of it yet. But God reached down in
the fullness of the total depravity of the church and reached down
and lifted them out. And you know what? When they
get on that solid rock, it says, He put a new song in our heart. Even praise unto God. We rejoice
in His great salvation. It bothers me when people who
say they know the grace of God don't have anything good to say
about it. He stirs our heart to sing about
it. And we may not say a word. Oh, to rejoice! I don't know
how many times I've been places and sit down with God's people
and say, do you want God to move these people along? Why? Same
conductor. Singing the same music. The sweet
songs of Zion. Rejoicing in the grace of God. Not in religion, but in the grace
of God. Turn with me to Isaiah 49 and
verse 13. Isaiah 49 and verse 13. Sing,
O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing,
O mountains... He said, everybody that knows
the Gospel of God's grace, sing about it in your hearts. Singing
and making melody in your hearts. It doesn't hurt to let it out
once in a while. Just rejoice in redemption. Rejoice in ransomedness. Rejoice in forgiveness. Rejoice in the Gospel, the Lord
Jesus Christ and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rejoice in His
sovereignty. Rejoice in His eternality. Rejoice in His holiness. Rejoice in His great gifts to
us. Rejoice in every spiritual gift
that we have in Christ Jesus. Rejoice in Him. Sing unto Him
in our heart in the night season. Sing unto Him as we're on the
job, driving down the road. Sing unto Him of His great love
wherewith He has loved us. Even while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Oh, how He interfered! How He
came and broke us up! How He came upon us! Sing about
that! For without that, we'd never
know Him. Oh, Isaiah 49, verse 13, sing,
O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth in singing, O
mountains, for the Lord hath comforted His people, and will
have mercy upon His afflicted. Oh, man, I come under that. I'm under that. What's it say? He hath comforted His people. There's a comfort that we get
in Christ Jesus that nothing else in this world can fulfill. And he's just sitting and singing
the sweet songs of Zion. The chief musician is in conducting
it. He's over it. He's got the message.
He's got the tune. He's got the words. He's got
the meter. He's got all those things, which I don't know a
thing about in real life, but I know about in spiritual life. I don't know what the little
things on that page mean. I'm glad somebody can read them.
But when it comes to grace, I'm beginning to understand a little
bit. He saves sinners. He saves sinners, of whom I'm
chief. He saves sinners. Book of Isaiah
51. Chief musician. Leading the singing. Isaiah 51 verse 11. The scripture
says, therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return and
come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be
upon their head, and they shall obtain gladness and joy, and
sorrow and mourning shall flee away. See, hallelujah. Now we mourn over things. But
oh, when it comes to our relationship to God, there's no mourning anymore.
Oh, He's brought us the sweet peace of Zion. He's not angry
with us anymore. And we're not enmity with Him.
He has brought a peace that passeth all understanding. We're invited
into His presence. Come boldly to the throne of
grace. Bring your requests unto Him.
He has knowledge of what you have needed before you asked.
This is our God. This is the one that has control
over this world and control over you and control over the church.
And He's got His conducting stick saying, Sing the sweet songs
of Solomon. And you know what? He doesn't
have to force it out of us. He just produces it out of us
because of His grace. Isaiah 55. Would you turn there
with me? Isaiah 55, verse 6. Isaiah 55, verse 6. I heard someone say, I don't know
where I'd be if it hadn't been for the grace of God. Man, I
don't want to go there. Where would we have been? Isaiah 55, verse 6. Seek ye the
Lord while He may be found. Call ye upon Him while He is
near. Oh, I say, flee to Christ. Come
to Christ. Go to Christ. Hear Him. Come. Let the wicked forsake
his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return
unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him. And to our God,
for He will abundantly pardon. Some more singing material. He
will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." It
troubles me when people understand God. God says, My thoughts are not
your thoughts. And we're thankful. We don't
want a God we can understand. We want a God high and lifted
up. We want a salvation that comes
from on high. We want a blessing from heaven. and not from this earth. And
then it goes on, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts. For as the rain cometh down,
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth
the earth, and maketh it to bring forth and bud, that it may give
seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word
that goeth forth out of my mouth. This is worth singing over. It
shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish, that's
what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing wherein do I sin
it. For ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall
break forth before ye were seen, and all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come
forth the fir tree. Instead of the briar shall come
up the myrtle tree. and it shall be in the Lord for
a name and for an everlasting sign, and it shall not be cut
off." I like how God deals with sin completely. And I like how God causes His
people to bring forth works. Not for our salvation, but because
we are saved. We are His workmanship. Oh, the
myrtle tree. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. Oh, the fir tree. The myrtle
tree. The thorn is put away. Shoot is put away. And He causes
His people, the church, to bring forth works after His kind. It's not ours. We can't boast
it. It's His. One other passage in the Psalms,
Psalm 40. I love this. I love this. This is what God does. His check-off
list. This is His check-off list. I
waited patiently for the Lord and He inclined unto me and heard
my cry. Alright. He brought me up also
out of that horrible pit. Been there? Then you can sing
about being out. Been in a horrible pit? Then
you sing about being out. That's that prison of sin. I could relate to that man that
Brother Milton was talking about that was pardoned. We had a life sentence, and to
hear it pardoned. There's not one that's ever been
pardoned. in the church of the living God that will not fall
down on His face and say, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty,
guilty, guilty, all charges. I'm guilty of all charges. There's no way in this world
I deserve to go to heaven. And there's no way in this world
I don't deserve to go to hell. I'm guilty, but I heard pardon.
Pardon. He lifted me out of a horrible...
He brought me also out of a horrible pit, out of a miry clay. Stuck. Stuck. Set my feet on
a rock. Oh, He put me on Christ. That
rock that followed Him in the wilderness. That rock. Solid
rock. Foundation rock. And established
my goings in verse 3. And that put a new song in my
mouth. Even praise unto our God, many
shall see it and fear it, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed
is that man that maketh the Lord his trust." Now, there's only
one that can actually fulfill that on his own. That's Christ. But all in Christ get to do it
because of Christ. Everyone in Christ gets to do
that. Blessed is the man that maketh
the Lord his trust. One of the requirements of the
law is to love the Lord God with all your heart and all your soul
and all your mind and all and all and all. And we flunked.
But He did and we can in Him. And that's the only place. We
can only love Him in Him. Blessed is the man that maketh
the Lord his trust and respecteth not the proud, for such shall
turn aside from lies. Oh my! He hath put a new song
in my mouth, even praises unto our God.