How's everybody doing this morning? Would you turn to the 96th Psalm? Psalm 96. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord. You say that
three times now. Singing is important. Bless his name. Show forth his
salvation from day to day. declare his glory among the heathen. His wonders among all people. For the Lord is great and greatly
to be praised. He is to be feared above all
gods. For all the gods of the nations
are idols. but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before
him. Strength and beauty are in his
sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds
of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name. Bring an offering. and come into
his courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. Fear before him all the earth. Say among the heathen that the
Lord reigneth. The world also shall be established
that it shall not be moved. He shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice and let
the earth be glad. Let the sea roar and the fullness
thereof. Let the field be joyful and all
that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the
wood rejoice before the Lord, for he cometh. For he cometh
to judge the earth He shall judge the world with righteousness
and the people with his truth. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for who
you are. How we thank you for how this
psalm you inspired your servant to write down describes you. And Lord, we give thanks for
who you are. We ask that you would enable us to worship. We ask that you would be in our
midst. We ask that you would speak to each heart here according
to your will. Lord, we pray for your blessing
upon those of our number that are traveling and on vacation.
We pray for your keeping grace upon them. We pray for your Grace
to hear your gospel. We ask for the forgiveness and
cleansing of all sin. We ask for the spirit of worship. We ask that you would meet with
all your people wherever they meet together. And Lord, we we
pray for our leaders. We pray that you would guide
them in all things. We pray for our country. Lord,
we pray for the world. We we know that the world is
yours in the fullness thereof and you control everybody and
every event. And for that, we give thanks. Grant us your presence, in Christ's
name we pray, amen. Now when I was a kid at, I think it was in, I
don't know where I heard this song, but I remember it. It went like this, everybody
oughta know. Everybody oughta know, everybody
oughta know who Jesus is. And that's repeated, everybody
oughta know. Everybody ought to know. Everybody
ought to know who Jesus is. He's the lily of the valleys. Did we sing that in 13th Street?
Do you all remember that? Okay. He's the bright and morning star. He's the fairest of 10,000. Everybody
ought to know. And when I read this psalm, for
some reason, that came to my mind. I hadn't thought about
that in a long time and I thought everybody ought to know who this
Lord is that David is describing. Now he says, oh sing, verse one,
oh sing unto the Lord. A new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth,
sing unto the Lord. Bless his name, show forth his
salvation from day to day. Now just this thought of singing
unto the Lord in a new song. Now that doesn't mean it's changed. It was one thing and now you're
singing something else. It's talking about the newness
of this song. It's always new. Now you think
of hits that are number one. They don't stay number one, do
they? They become old. They become stale. No one is
interested in them anymore, but the gospel is always new. It's always fresh. It always
comes as news. It's not old news. I don't read
newspapers that are two or three days old. It's old news. It doesn't
interest me. I'm always interested in what's
new. And we're to sing unto the Lord.
When we're singing, remember this, we're singing to the Lord.
specials, any song we sing, we're singing unto the Lord. And may
the Lord enable us to always sing this new song. The gospel
is news. News. Something that really you'd
never ever heard before. It comes as such good news. That's what he's talking about.
And that's the way we're to sing. Sing unto the Lord this new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth.
And that is where I thought about that. Everybody ought to know.
Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Show forth. Bless his name. I think Paul put it this way.
Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. What a blessing that is to bless
the Lord. Now, we can't add to his blessedness. I realize that. but we can ascribe
blessing and glory and honor to him in our hearts, singing
unto the Lord. Bless the Lord. Show forth his salvation from
day to day. You know, that's what I wanna do
this morning. show forth his salvation. Now that show forth means a public
declaration. Make it known to everybody his
salvation. And the verse of scripture I
thought of when I thought of this is Matthew 121. Thou shalt
call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Now I want to show forth what
that means to everybody. You do too. Show forth His salvation
from day to day. His salvation, salvation to the
Lord. We show forth His salvation.
Salvation from sin by the blood of Christ. Salvation to be perfect
in heaven by His righteousness. Show forth His salvation from
day to day. Verse three, declare His glory
among the heathen. Now, what's a heathen? I remember my mom used to always
call us heathens, you know, little heathens, you know, when we were
kids, you know, but you probably heard the same thing yourself.
What is a heathen? A heathen is somebody that is
a non-Jew. A heathen is someone that is
not a believer. A heathen is a Gentile, the whole
Gentile world. And in the Old Testament, you
have the Jews and you have the heathen. You have the Jews and
you have the Gentiles. That was their mindset. And David
said, here's what the heathen need to hear. Here's what the
unbeliever needs to hear. Show forth his glory. That's
where we begin. We begin here. We don't try to
bring people up to this. We begin with this. God does
everything he does for his own glory. That's his purpose. That's
his agenda, to glorify himself. And we say that to the heathen.
Somebody thinks, well, maybe the heathen won't like that.
Who cares? This is our message. We declare to the heathen his
glory. Moses said, show me your glory.
God said, I'll make all my goodness pass before you. I'll proclaim
my name before you. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. That's God's glory. His goodness. Everything God does is good.
Do you believe that? Everything
he does is good. I don't have to understand why
he's doing it. I just know he's good and everything
he does is good. And I trust his character. He's good. Whatever
he does is good. When he proclaims his name, that's
talking about his attributes. That's the person behind the
name. When you know a person, you know their name, you think
of the attributes or the characteristics of that person behind the name.
God's glory is who he is. His name, his attributes, his
sovereign mercy. I will be merciful to whom I
will be merciful. Now, two things I want to say
about that. I will be merciful. God's merciful. God delights
in showing grace. And he does so to whom he will.
It's sovereign mercy. Nobody can say, well, you owe
this to me. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy. So he says,
declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders. Now that word wonders
is a verb. It's a verb. His wonders among all the peoples.
That's talking about the wonders of creation. To the heathen,
we say God created the universe. He made the heavens. To the heathen,
we say God rules products. He's controlling everybody, everything,
every event, all the time, and that includes you, heathen. And
I'm not saying that in a self-righteous way, I hope, but I'm saying that
God controls everybody all the time in absolute, complete control,
and there's not a time when he's not like that. And his wonders
of salvation. That's what we declare among
the heathen, his wonders of salvation. God chose a people to be saved. Christ came to represent those
people. And he took upon flesh. What
wonders! He kept the law perfectly, what wonders? He put away sin,
what wonders? By his death on the cross, he
was raised from the dead, what wonders? Complete salvation. Now that's our message to the
world. Verse four, four. The Lord is
great and greatly to be praised. His greatness is infinite. I
can't describe it sufficiently, nor can any other man. His greatness
is infinite. His largeness, his supremacy. For the Lord is great and greatly
to be praised. He is to be feared above all
gods. Now does that mean there are other gods? Pantheism? He's the top god and there's
gods under him. He's in control of all then? Well, he tells us
what he means in verse five. For all the gods of the nations
are idols. There's one God, the living God. He has no competition. They're
not lesser gods. There's one God. Everything else,
every man-made God is nothing more than an idol. And a God
that is not the God of this book, exactly as this book describes
him, he's an idol. man-made, the figment of man's
depraved imagination. All the gods of the nations are
idols, but the Lord made the heavens. He's the creator God. He made this creation. He created
this creation. He did it all. And he does everything
in the second creation. If you're saved, it's called
we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus and the good
works which God had before ordained that we should walk in them.
He's God. Verse six. Honor and majesty. Are before him, splendor are
before him. Jesus Christ is the brightness
of God's glory. And the express image of his
person. This is a description of Jesus
of Nazareth, the one born in Bethlehem. Honor and majesty,
splendor are before him. Strength and beauty are in his
sanctuary. Now, somebody says, where's his
sanctuary? Wherever he is. I mean, we think of it as limited
to the temple or someplace. His sanctuary is wherever he
is, which is everywhere. He is omnipresent. And what is ascribed to him,
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Now, the first thing
is strength, his omnipotence. God has the power to do anything
he wills to do, and it's not hard for him. It's not like he
has to strain. He's omnipotent. What would all
of his other attributes be without his omnipotence? They'd be nothing. Strength and beauty, and I have
no doubt that the beauty he's speaking of is the beauty of
holiness. Turn to Psalm 110. What does holy mean? Other. Separate. Separate. Other. Means he's not in any way like
me and you. Not in any way to any degree. He's separate. He's utterly unique. He stands alone. And look in Psalm 110 verse three.
Thy people should be willing in the day of thy power. You
know when somebody's willing in the day of his power? And
this is so glorious, this is God's strength. I can't make
you willing. You can't make me willing. You know the old saying,
you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink?
God can make somebody willing. There's no power like that. God can actually make somebody
willing. Thy people shall be willing. In the day of thy power, in the
beauties of holiness, there it is, in the beauties of holiness,
from the womb of the morning, thou hast the dew of thy youth. Verse seven. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds
of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Now, can I? Give the Lord something he doesn't
already have. Can I give him glory? He wouldn't
have it unless I gave it to him. Of course not. Can I give him
strength? He wouldn't have this strength
unless I give it to him. No, obviously that's not the case.
When he says give unto the Lord glory and give unto the Lord
strength, what he's saying is in your heart, you personally
ascribe to the Lord glory. The glory of who He is. Ascribe unto Him strength. This is heart worship. This is
sanctifying the Lord God in your heart. What you do in your heart
is you acknowledge He has all glory. He's altogether glorious. He has all strength. He has all
power. You ascribe that. You give the
glory due to His name. What does the glory do to his
name? Now let's just talk about salvation. Let's talk about my
personal salvation, your personal salvation. In my salvation, in
me being saved, in me being brought to heaven, who gets the glory
for it? If you know yourself at all,
you know you get no glory and he gets all the glory. Amen?
You know that. Why did he elect you? Was it
because he saw you'd be better than somebody else? No, for his
own glory. Why did Jesus Christ die for
you? Was it because he saw you'd be better than somebody else
and you'd be able to help him out and spread his gospel better? No, he did so for his own glory. He gets all the glory in my redemption.
I can't take any credit in my regeneration. Who gets all the
glory? Am I regenerated because I did
something? Of course not. He gets ALL the
glory given to the Lord, the glory due unto His name. Bring
an offering and come into His courts. Now, don't miss this.
It doesn't say come into His courts. It says bring an offering
and come into His courts. That word is the same word used
with regard to Cain and Abel. Hadn't Abel come into God's presence
with an offering? And what was the offering? The
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't separate the person
and the offering. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by the which he obtained
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts.
Now every time I come into the presence of God, I better be
aware that the only way I can come is through the blood of
Christ. And I dare not come any other
way. I don't come on my own. I don't
come in my own name. I always come with this offering. He says, bring an offering and
come into his courts. Verse nine. Oh, Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. Fear before him all the earth.
Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Now, how am I supposed
to do that? How am I supposed to worship
the Lord in the beauty of holiness? Because holiness is, like I said,
it's other. It's separate. How can I personally
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness? Here's the answer. John chapter
four, verse 24 says, God is spirit and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit, in the Holy Spirit, with the holy nature
that he has given you in the new birth. they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth Philippians 3 3
says we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit
now in the spirit that doesn't mean simply We don't worship
him with all the smoke and mirrors and bells and whistles and candles
and big, giant cathedrals and stuff that would impress the
flesh. No, we have simple worship. We
don't have all these symbols. That's commendable, I suppose,
but that's not what worship in the spirit means. It's not talking
about the simplicity of your worship, but not having all the
gaudy trappings of religion. It's talking about worshiping
in the Holy Spirit. The only a natural man cannot
worship him. I've said this probably 20 times,
but I don't say to like when we do the TV broadcast, I don't
say come worship with us. I want you to come. I want you
to hear the gospel. I want you to be enabled to worship.
But worship is out of the hands of the natural man. God must
enable me to worship. So I don't say come worship with
us. I say come hear the gospel. I pray you do worship. I pray
the Lord does enable us to worship. But worship is in the Holy Spirit. Worship him in the beauty. And
I love this the beauty. The holiness of God is so beautiful.
It's so altogether glorious, beautiful. What a blessed privilege
to be able to have some appreciation of holiness and love holiness
through the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is our holiness. He says, worship the Lord in
the beauty of holiness. Fear before him. That fear that's
the beginning of wisdom, fear before him, all the earth. Now
verse 10, he gives us another thing to say among the heathen.
It says in verse three, declare his glory among the heathen.
And now it says, say among the heathen, the Lord reigneth. I
love that. Well, we need to kind of bring
this in the back door and kind of teach them slowly. No, right
off the bat, say among the heathen, the Lord reigneth. That's talking
about his absolute sovereignty. The Lord reigneth. Didn't say
he will reign. Didn't say he did reign. Says
he reigns right now. Say among the heathen, the Lord
reigneth. He is the cause of all things. He's the first cause of all things. He's the cause of causes. He
reigns in creation. He reigns in providence. He reigns
in salvation. You're in his hands. That's what
to say to the heathen. We don't apologize for this. We don't
try to ratchet down a little bit to keep from offending anybody.
No, we say the Lord reigneth. The world also shall be established
that it shall not be moved. Why? Because he reigns. He shall
judge the people righteously. Now, when I stand before God
in judgment, And God says, you're justified. It will be an act
of his righteousness because I will righteously deserve to
be saved because the righteousness of Jesus Christ is my righteousness
before God. And when he judges me, it will
be in righteousness. And if he sends somebody to hell,
it is absolute righteousness. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? Let's go on reading. Verse 11,
let the heavens rejoice. And let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar and the fullness
thereof. Let the field be joyful in all
that is therein. Now, the fact that the Lord reigns,
is that enough to make you rejoice? The fact that he judges with
absolute righteousness. Does that make you rejoice? There's
nothing unclean about this. There's nothing under the table. This is absolute righteousness. This is absolute sovereignty. Let the earth rejoice. Let the field be joyful and all
of its fairy and the inch of the trees of the wood rejoice. Now, what kind of language is
this? Some have suggested that the
field is the church and the trees of the wood are individual believers.
Is that what it means? Maybe, I don't know. I like the
thought of it, but every believer is called the tree of the Lord's
planting. That's found in the scripture several times, but
there is a reason to rejoice. Before the Lord, verse 13, for
he cometh. Now, he cometh. The Old Testament,
somebody's coming. The Gospels, he's come. The epistles, he's coming again. And twice it says, he cometh.
Well, this is talking about his first and second advent. His
first advent, he came. Why? To put away sin. That sin that you feel heavy
about, even right now, has been put away. It's gone. If you're in Him, if you're a
believer, you have no sin. He was manifested to take away
sin. That's why He came. He was manifested
to take away sin. That's what he did on Calvary's
tree. He took it away. He made it not to be. He put
it away. That's his first coming. His
second coming. For he cometh to judge the earth. Now when he comes the second
time, it will be as a mighty reigning king and judge. To judge the earth. He should judge the world with
righteousness. On judgment day, the righteousness
of Jesus Christ will be seen more clearly because we'll have
eyes to see it more clearly than any other time. When every believer
is brought into heaven, It'll be a thing of righteousness. Yes, mercy, yes, grace, but more
than anything else, righteousness, the very righteous character
of God will demand the salvation and the entrance of everybody
who's saved. And how his righteousness will be seen in damnation, and
right now it's hard. It's hard to think of somebody
going to hell eternally, isn't it? It's very difficult, and
I think it's so telling that Paul never used the word hell
once. He talked about damnation and
destruction, but the one who used this word the most is the
Lord himself. It's a terrible thing to think
about, but do you know on Judgment Day, on Judgment Day, When I
see men cast into hell, I won't be thinking, oh, God's too severe.
I'll be saying just and right is he in all that he does. Now, we can't really enter into
that right now because we still have something called the flesh.
But that flesh will be gone and we'll see everything from God's
perfect perspective. And we'll say righteous is he
in all that he does. He should judge the world with
righteousness and people with the truth, the truth of the gospel. I love the way the Lord said,
I am the truth. And he will judge the people,
his people, the people of God with the truth of the gospel. Truly, everybody ought to know
who he is, and may the Lord make that the very purpose of our
heart and mind and soul and strength, to make known to all the people
of the earth who he is.