Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and his
holy arm have gotten him the victory. That word is generally
translated salvation. The Lord hath made known his
salvation. His righteousness hath he openly
showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy
and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, all the earth. Make a loud noise. and rejoice
and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp,
with the harp and the voice of a song, with trumpets and sound
of cornet, make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord, the
King. Let the sea roar and the fullness
thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods
clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together
before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth. With righteousness
shall he judge the world and the people with equity. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that we might be
enabled By your spirit and by your grace. To enter into singing
this new song. Lord, that's the work of your
grace and we ask that you would give each. Person here the grace
to enter into singing this new song unto thee. Lord, we're so
thankful for who you are. We're so thankful that You're
God and beside me is none else. We're so thankful for the freeness
and the grace of your salvation. We're so thankful for the beauty
and the perfection of your son. We're so thankful for your gospel. And Lord, we pray that you'd
meet with us, meet each need here according to your will.
We pray for all your people wherever they meet together. And Lord,
we can't come into your presence without some awareness of our
sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing
for Christ's sake. Lord, those that are going through
physical troubles, mental troubles, we pray for your blessing upon
them. We're so glad you're the great
physician that you do all things well. Make Christ known to us for his
sake, in his name we pray, amen. Now something that you can't
miss about this psalm is the exuberant, joyful worship and
praise of this psalm. And it's my prayer that you and
I will be enabled to enter in jubilation of this song. Not force it, not try to manufacture
it, not try to produce an artificial everything's great. I'm not talking
about that at all. But I'm talking about a genuine
entering into the praise and the joy of this song. He says, oh, sing unto the Lord,
a new song. I love the hymn, and when in
scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song, will be the same old
story that I have loved so long. This is an event that I thought
about when I was thinking of singing this new song. Adoniah
Judson, he was an American missionary to Burma. He went to Burma. As a matter of fact, it was through
him going there that the Baptist missions had started. And he
was there for a long time. He was in prison twice for preaching
the gospel while he was there. One time for 17 full months.
And he was there for many years preaching the gospel. And he
finally comes back to the States. I think it might have been in
Philadelphia. I'm not real sure where it was. But he's going
to preach his first message after returning from Burma as a missionary. And he got up, and for about
15 minutes, he spoke of the glory of the cross of Jesus Christ. And he was visibly moved by this. People could see that. And then
he sat down. Didn't say anything about the
last 40 years in Burma. Didn't have a word to say. And
when he was going back to his lodging, there was a young man
with him, and the young man was very quiet. And he said, is something
wrong? He said, well, the people were
disappointed. Disappointed? I told them the
most wonderful story ever told. I told them the greatest thing
there is about the cross of Christ. What did they have to be disappointed
about? And he said, well, they wanted
to hear about you and your time in Burma. And he said, thank
God they didn't hear anything about me, but they heard about
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. I would hate to hear the Lord
say to me, I gave you an opportunity to speak of me and you spoke
of yourself. The new, new song. Now, whoever wrote this psalm,
it doesn't say, I believe it was David, but he says, Oh, sing
unto the Lord a new song. You know, the gospel is always
new. And it is new. It's like I've
never heard it before. It's so glorious. It meets my
need. That's why it's new. It's a new
song. It's not yesterday's news. It's
not old. Oh, when the gospel becomes old
to us and stale, something's wrong with us. And you know that
that's happened to you. That's happened to me. And when
that's the case, something's wrong with us because the gospel
is always new. And look what he says. Oh, sing
unto the Lord a new song. And here's the subject. For he
hath done marvelous things. He hath done. That's the subject
of the song he had done. Now, if you listen to most, I
guess what you'd call contemporary praise songs, worship songs,
they generally begin with these words, I will. I will worship
you. I will praise you. Will you now? Will you now? marvelous things he hath done. That is the subject of our singing. Think of the marvels of creation. When God brought the universe
into existence from nothing, the vastness of the universe,
the minutia and the complexity of the atom, God spake it into
existence. There was nothing. And all of
a sudden you had the galaxies and he knows all the stars by
name. He named them all. What wonders in his creation. What wonders in his providence
the marvelous things he hath done. Now, when we talk about
his providence, let me tell you what that means. That means everything
that happens is his will being done. Everything. He controls
everything. He said, are not two sparrows
sold for a farthing? Lynn and I were looking for some
sparrows outside our window yesterday. And I remember Lynn said, boy,
they're kind of nondescript looking. You know, they don't have the
beautiful collars that some other birds have. And we thought of
the scripture. Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing? And not one of them is forgotten
by your heavenly father. Everything, and this is how vast
this is. The stuff going through your
mind right now, he's in control of. What if it's sinful? Are you blaming him? No, but
I'm saying this, he's in control of everything and he always brings
good out of evil. That's the confidence we have. Whatever
it is he's doing, he always brings good out of evil. That's who
he is. He is in absolute control. And think of the wonders of salvation.
Think of the wonders of God loving me before I had any existence.
Behold, I've loved you with an everlasting love. Now, I had, God knew me before
I was Had any existence. I had personality before him.
He loved me. Behold, I've loved you with an
everlasting love. Think of the Lord Jesus Christ
standing for you before time began as your covenant surety
and your covenant head and taking full responsibility for your
salvation. And when he did that, God looked
to him for everything, to you for nothing. Isn't that glorious? Isn't that wonderful? Think of
the wonders of God becoming a man. Becoming flesh, the incarnation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God became flesh. God in flesh,
the Lord Jesus Christ kept the law perfectly. He never sinned. Oh, perfect manhood. Perfect,
glorious humanity. The man, Christ Jesus. What marvels there is in His
obedience. What marvels there is in His
death. What He accomplished by His death. Now, me and you are
going to die before long. And it ain't going to be an accomplishment.
It'll say one thing about us. We're sinners. That's all it's
going to say. And I think of the saying, what
did he leave when he died? Everything. Everything. Nothing left. Our death could
not be called a marvel. It's a testimony that we're all
failures. But oh, his death. His death
accomplished the complete salvation of everybody he died for. His death made it to where I
stand before God without guilt, without sin, blameless, holy
in his sight. Now, you want to talk about the
marvelous things he has done. Isn't that the subject of our
new song, the marvelous things that he hath done. His right hand and his holy arm
hath gotten him the victory. And like I mentioned, the word
victory is the word that's generally translated salvation, salvations
of the Lord. And I love the way the psalmist
puts this out. The scriptures are always so
careful to ascribe all the glory to God. His right hand, the Lord
Jesus Christ, his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. Salvation
is of the Lord. Verse two, the Lord hath made
known his salvation. And once again, the subject of
the new song is the Lord making known his salvation. You see
salvation. tells us who He is. That's the purpose of salvation.
Salvation, God's salvation, the way God saves, tells us who He
is. And that's the glory of it. You
know, when you make a mistake with regarding salvation, how
God saves sinners, you're making a mistake and it's an evil mistake.
Don't think this is innocent. It's an evil mistake concerning
the character of the living God. Salvation tells us who God is. Election. When you begin with
salvation, you begin with election. All election says is God is God.
He controls everything. He's the God of election. That's
why we love election. It tells us who God is. He really
is God, not just in name, but in deed and in truth. What about Christ's redemptive
work? That shows God's wisdom in making
a way to be just and justify the ungodly. That's how he tells
us who he is. It demonstrates God's love. God
is love. It's a demonstration of his justice.
God will never let sin go unpunished. No sin. Oh, the glory of salvation. The Lord hath made known his
salvation. That's what he's doing right
now through his word. He's making known to us who he is through
his salvation. The Lord hath made known his
salvation. The second part of verse two,
his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen.
Now, his righteousness. Don't ever forget the importance
of this phrase, the righteousness of God. This is what he makes
known, his righteousness. Now, that is a reference to the
righteousness of his character. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? We can count on that. His righteousness,
listen to this, his righteousness and condemnation. I don't know of anything that's
more difficult to think about, and I've said this ever since
I think I've been preaching, I don't know of anything that's
more difficult to think about than hell. Somebody being cast off, somebody
suffering the wrath of God eternally. But here's the point, he is righteous
in that. Not overly harsh, not overly
severe. He is righteous. And I can't enter in, I believe
that. I can't enter into the fact that
one of these days, if I see the closest one in my life cast into
hell, I'd say, righteous art thou, O God. Just and true are
thy ways, O King of saints. I can't enter into that now.
One day I will. Because I won't have this flesh
to deal with anymore. and I'll be perfectly conformed to his
image, but his righteousness is seen in condemnation, but
most especially, his righteousness is demonstrated in his salvation. Now, when I'm brought into heaven,
there's going to be one thing very clear. My righteousness,
and it's my righteousness, is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And I'm brought into heaven in
a way that exalts his righteousness, where he's righteous to bring
me into heaven. I'll be brought into heaven because
that's what I deserve, through the righteousness of Christ.
Now, this is what he has openly showed, his righteousness. Never forget this scripture.
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to
the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein in the gospel
is the righteousness of God revealed. Verse three. Remember, this is
his. Hymn of praise. He hath remembered
his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel." Now, who's
the house of Israel? The elect. He's not talking about that nation
of Israel. All of God's people are God's
true Israel. Scripture says he's not a Jew,
which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
circumcision which is in the flesh, but he is a Jew. which
is one inwardly, whose circumcision is of the heart, of the spirit,
not of the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Now,
that's the true Jew. That's Israel. All of God's people
are God's Israel, and he's remembered his covenant. Now, what scripture
comes to your mind? I bet some of you are thinking
about this, David's dying words. Although my house be not so with
God. That was a very sobering thing
for him to think about. His house was a mess. And it was all his fault and
he knew it. He knew it. God said the sword's never gonna
depart from your house. And he had one trouble after
another in his family, with his children. His house was a mess. And I have no doubt that what
he's principally speaking of is this house. This house. Although my house Be not so with
God yet. There's the difference. Yet. He hath made with me. This is what David's talking
about. He hath made with me an everlasting covenant. This is what he remembers. And
it's ordered in all things. And sure, it's absolutely sure.
And David said, this is all my salvation. And this is all my
desire. How do you fit in there? Can
you say that with David? This is all my salvation. This
is all my desire. He hath remembered his mercy,
his truth toward the house of Israel, all the ends of the earth. Now, don't miss that. All the
ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Literally,
yeah, you know what the ends of the earth are? The nothings.
The nothings. That's what that means. The nothings. Everyone that has nothing to
bring to the table, they have seen the salvation of God. You see, you're calling brethren.
However, not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty or
noble have been called, but God has chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the things that are mighty. And the
weak things of the world and the base things of the world
and the things which are nothing, that's the end of the earth.
Now, somebody says that doesn't make me feel very good about
myself. I mean, I need to have something to feel good about
myself. No, no, you don't. No, you don't. You can feel good
about this though. I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. Is that you? But Jesus Christ
is my all in all. All the ends of the earth, they
have seen the salvation of our God. Now, he says in verse four,
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth. Make a loud noise and rejoice.
Sing praises. Look at the exuberance of this.
Now, if I really look to Christ as my all in salvation, I can
be just as joyful as David is right here. And I am. I'm so
thankful that salvation is for the ends of the earth. I'm so
thankful that He makes himself known in his salvation. I'm so
thankful for his righteousness. Sing unto the Lord, verse five,
with the harp, with the harp and the voice of a song, with
trumpets and the sound of cornet, which is a ram's horn, make a
joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar. Don't you love the power of a
roaring sea when you hear it and you just just the roaring
of the sea. Let the sea roar and the fullness
thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Everybody ought
to rejoice in the Lord. He's worthy of praise. He's worthy
of worship because of who he is. Forget about yourself just
for a moment. That's hard to do, isn't it?
But forget about yourself just for a moment. Is he worthy of
worship without reference to anything about you? He is. And that's the joyful noise we
make. Let the floods clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together. I love to think of the floods
clapping their hands. Clapping their hands in exaltation at
who the Lord is. Now, I've been in services where
after I've preached, people start clapping their hands,
believe it or not. I've been in several services like, you
don't believe that. Do you know that when that happens,
I feel like a thunderbolt's gonna come down and strike me. Clapping
your hands at the preacher? But here's one who we can clap
our hands for, the Lord. Somebody said, do you wanna start
clapping? The floods do. The floods do. I just, I personally,
I don't, I wouldn't feel comfortable with everybody, you know, all
like, I don't know what to say about it. I just know I don't
feel comfortable with it, but I feel comfortable with the floods and
the hills clapping their hands in joy at the Lord. Let the floods
clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together,
the creation before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth
with righteousness, shall he judge the people or the world
and the people with Equity, now there's three things pointed
out in this final verse. He comes to judge the earth. There is so much injustice in
the earth. I want you to think about that. Think about the wars. One nation
trying to destroy another nation to take what's theirs. You think of the evils of racism. One ethnicity thinking itself
to be superior to another ethnicity and trying to rule over them
and trying to press their thumb down upon them. You think of
the corruption of government. You think of the greed that controls
business. You think of the abusing of people,
the crime, the perversion, the wickedness of man. Not one sin will go unpunished. There's never been one sin that
has not been punished, either in that person or in the substitute. There will be no sin that goes
unpunished. Aren't you glad the Lord rules
and reigns and he's going to do right? Shall not the judge
of the earth do right? We have this. The earth is going
to be judged. And look what it says in verse.
Nine, again, there's a distinction made with righteousness shall
he judge the world and the people with equity. Now notice the distinction
between the world and the people. There's the world and there's
the people. Who are the people? Well, the
people of God. There's the world that has no
love for God and there are the people of God. I'll be to them
of God, they shall be to me a people. Matthew 121 says, Thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And there's the world and there's
the people. I want to be in that group, the
people, don't you? The people of God, I want to
be one of his. Now he shall judge the world
and the people. with equity. Now notice, they're
both judged with equity. He's going to give the world,
every unbeliever, exactly what they deserve. Perfect equity,
the perfect judgment, the perfect righteousness of Christ. Nobody
is going to get by with anything He's going to judge the world
with perfect equity, perfect justice, perfect righteousness.
You know what? He's going to judge his people
with perfect equity, perfect justice, and perfect righteousness. You see, when I'm brought into
heaven, you know why I'm going to be
brought into heaven? Because I'm justified. What does it mean
to be justified? It means to be without sin. It means to be without guilt.
It means to stand before God having never committed a sin
ever. You see, Christ, in a way that
honored the justice of God, put away my sin. It's gone. I don't
have it. I'm gonna enter into heaven as
one who has never sinned. Now, when I hear and I. Preachers talk about. There'll
be a different degrees of glory in heaven based upon how well
you did here on Earth. I guess there's going to be some
50 room mansions and then some shacks down at the bottom. That's
so contrary to the gospel. When I enter into heaven, I'm
going to enter into heaven as one who's never sinned. So will
everybody else that's in heaven. We're one in Christ Jesus. There's
no competition. I'm not going to be in heaven
either looking up somebody thinking, well, I wish I would live like
them or looking down at somebody. I did better than them. That's
foolishness. Everybody that's in heaven has
the same righteousness, the righteousness and the merits of Jesus Christ. He will judge the world and the
people with perfect equity. Now this is a reason to have
this joy. It's not something I gotta try
to manufacture. It's not an artificial joy. It's
the joy of knowing that I am complete and every other believer
is complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing lacking, a reason
for joy.