I remember very distinctly, as
if it was just last week or yesterday, the first time I fastened my
eyes upon verse one of Psalm 98, and I've never forgotten
it. Oh, singing to the Lord a new
song, for or because he had done marvelous things, marvelous things. his right hand and his holy arm
hath gotten him the victory. Saying a whole lot. The victory
we have in Christ Jesus. Now, I'm gonna entitle this message,
The Lord Has Done Marvelous Things, as it says right there. He had
done marvelous, marvelous things. And that's so. Our Lord has done
marvelous things, great things, superior things in the accomplishment
of our salvation. He has done marvelous things. He is doing marvelous things. And I'm quite confident that
He will continue to do marvelous things, great things, wonderful
things. As a matter of scriptural fact,
all that our Lord does is always marvelous, isn't it? Now hold
your place there and look at this scripture here. I wish all
the scriptures that I read had an impact like that one upon
me. Look at Psalm 118, Psalm 118. Maybe this verse will have an
impact upon you this evening. May you never forget it. Look at Psalm 118 talking about
marvelous things. Look at verse 21. I will praise
thee for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation. The
stone which the builders refuse is become the headstone of the
corner. He's the chief cornerstone. This
is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. Marvelous
things. This is the day which the Lord
hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. The marvelous things the Lord
has done for us. Now, look back at Psalm 98. And did you notice, right under
Psalm 98, where it has a title, it just says, look at it, A Psalm. You see it there? A Psalm. You know it's the only psalm
of 150 psalms where it says a psalm? You see that? A psalm. Now some have said that this
psalm, being a psalm, some have said that this psalm is the psalm
of psalms. For it does declare unto us the
holy victories that the Lord Jesus Christ has wrought out
by His right hand and His holy arm. And these victories that
has been wrought out by His person and His work, you know, He freely
gives all that He hath done, all that He had merited, He freely
gives that unto His people. We're justified freely by His
grace. That scripture that we often
read in Romans 8.32, God who spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely,
freely give us all things? We're justified freely by His
grace. The gospel is the free gift of
God. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. His right hand, His holy arm
has won the victory, has accomplished salvation for us. Again, this
is a gospel psalm. It's all about our Lord, Jesus
Christ, isn't it? About the victories of his redeeming
blood shed for us. About the victories of his righteousness
established for us. Now I quote these scriptures
all the time and I'm not going to say anything new. I'm not
going to say anything that you haven't already heard. You remember
that scripture in 1 Corinthians 15, thanks being to God who has
given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. But I
want you to turn and read this one right here. I often quote
this scripture, and I just, turn to Romans 8. I often quote this
scripture, we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. We're
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. But you know,
that's not the whole verse. Romans 8, look at verse 37. He says, nay, in all things. You see that? All things. Not
in some things, not in most things. In all things. In all things. That's a pretty comprehensive
statement, isn't it? In all things. We are more than
conquerors through Him that loved us, in all things. Thanks be
unto God who's given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, later on in the message,
I'll read you another passage of scripture from 2 Corinthians
2, verse 14, where it talks about that He always causes us to triumph
in Christ Jesus. Always not sometime not most
of time always always in Christ Jesus now Psalm 98 let's look
at it again Verse 1 saying Oh saying now we've seen this several
times in these last Psalms it talks about singing unto the
Lord and Oh, sing unto the Lord. And it mentions this new song.
You see that? Sing unto the Lord this new song. Now, believers delight to talk
about the Lord. They love to preach about the
Lord, to be a witness of the Lord. But believers also delight
to sing about the victories of the Lamb upon His throne. You know, this new song of redemption,
this new song of salvation is mentioned nine times, I count
them, nine times in the scripture. Let's look at a couple of them
here. Turn back to Psalm 33, we've
seen this before. Psalm 33, it's a new song. It's a new song of redemption. It's not the old song that's
stale and musty, it's the new song. It's always fresh and new. Psalm 33, look at verse three. Sing unto him a new song. Play skillfully with a loud noise,
for the word of the Lord is right, and all his works are done in
truth. Sing unto the Lord this new song. Turn over here to Psalm 40 for
a moment. Psalm 40, it mentions it again,
Psalm 40. Look at verse one, I waited patiently
for the Lord. He inclined unto me and heard
my cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the murray clay, set my feet upon a rock,
established my goings, and he put a new psalm in my mouth. Even praise unto our God, many
shall see it and fear and shall trust the Lord. He had put this
new song in our heart, in our mouth. Now, here's another place
where it's mentioned. Turn back to the Revelation.
It's the same song. Sing about the Redeemer, His
blood, His person, His sacrifice, His righteousness. In Revelation
chapter five, verse nine, And they sung a new song saying,
Revelation 5, 9, thou art worthy to take the book to open the
seals thereof for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by
thy blood out of every kindred, tongue, people and nation and
made us kings and priests unto our God. One other scripture,
Revelation 14, turn over there, 14, 3, 144,000 sang this song Their father's name is written
on their forehead and they sing this song. Verse 3 of Revelation
14, and they sung as it were a new song before the throne,
before the four beasts and the elders. No man could learn that
song. but the 144,000 which were redeemed
from the earth. No one can learn this song. That
song has to be put, we read in Psalm 4, that song of redemption
and grace has to be put in our heart by the Lord. And when he
puts that song, that new song of salvation by God's grace in
our heart, we love to sing about it. We love to sing about it.
This new song never grows old. It's about the new and living
way that we read about just a moment ago through Christ Jesus. It's
about the new covenant of grace that's ordered in all things
and is sure. It's about being made new creatures
in Christ Jesus. Everything about the gospel is
eternally new. And this word also means fresh. The gospel is fresh. It's fresh. Did you ever, when you were back,
when you were a kid, this is back, some of you young people
probably never have experienced this, but back when, Freddie,
when you were a kid and I was a kid, I mean back in the 50s,
back in the 60s, David, us older ones, you remember when mama
put that bread in the oven and you'd smell it all day? And when
mama got that bread out of the oven, it was fresh and you couldn't
wait to get a bite of it because it was fresh. You remember those
days? I can almost smell that bread
baking. It's fresh. That bread out of the oven is
never stale. It's fresh. It's new. It's new
bread. It's never soured. It's never
decayed. It's fresh, it's new, and it
tastes so good, doesn't it? It just tastes so good. The gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ to a believer is never stale, is it? It's ever
new, it's fresh. It's never sour, it's not a sour
message. The victories of Christ, that's
not sour. It never decays, does it? It's always new, it's always
fresh. It's never stale to the believer.
And you know what? It's never stale to the Lord
himself. It's ever new to him. Our God speaks from heaven and
said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. It's
fresh, it's new. To you who believe, he is precious. This gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the ancient gospel. Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
is as old as God. But it's ever new, isn't it? It's ever new, it's ever fresh.
We sing unto him who loved. You know, that's the song of
eternity. Unto him who loved us and washed
us from our sin in his own blood. He's given us the victory through
the Lord Jesus Christ. At the Lord's table, when the
Lord instituted the table, fulfilled that Passover lamb, he said,
this cup is a new, Testament in my blood which is shed for
you. It's new, new. We love to sing
about Christ because he has done as it says there, look what it
says in the text. Oh sing unto the Lord a new song for he hath
done marvelous things. We love to sing about the person
of Christ because he has indeed done marvelous things. He hath
done, notice carefully the words, We sing unto the Lord a new song
because He has done marvelous things. Who did it? The message
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is not what we must do
for the Lord. Our message is what He has done
for us. He's performed, you remember
back here in Psalm 57, turn back over there. It's what He hath
done for us. Psalm 57, look what it says.
I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all
things for me. He performs all things for me. One other scripture, find Isaiah.
Isaiah, you remember Isaiah 44? Isaiah 44, 21. Now, with this
thought, He hath done marvelous things. He's performed all things for
us. Isaiah 44, verse 22, I have blotted out as a thick cloud
thy transgression, and as a cloud thy sins, return unto me, for
I have redeemed thee. Sing, O heavens, for the Lord
hath done it. Who done it? The Lord hath done
it. Shout, ye lower parts of the
earth. Break forth in the singing, ye mountains, O forest, every
tree. Therein for the Lord hath redeemed
Jacob and glorified himself. He hath done it. The Lord hath
done it. Now our message and the message
of the gospel is not do. Our message and the gospel message
is done. Done. The false gospel and false
religion is full of what we must do for God to enable him to do
for us. That's not the gospel. The gospel
message of the Lord Jesus Christ declares that the work of salvation
is accomplished. That's what he said on Calvary
Street. He said, it is finished. It's done. He has obtained eternal
redemption for us. Now look at the text again, Psalm
98. You see why this verse caught my, I mean it just leaked out
at me. And when I, my mind went back
to that first time when I read this verse. And it impacted my
heart. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song, for he hath done marvelous, marvelous things. He hath done
marvelous things. What marvelous things has he
done? It mentions five things in this psalm. Five things. Now this is an outline. The last
several times I preached from this psalm, I didn't preach it
this way. But notice, for he hath done marvelous things, and
then there's not a period there. There's not even a semicolon
there. There's a colon there. That means
the things that follow are telling us what these marvelous things
are. Five things. Let me give them to you and we'll
go back and look at them. Christ has won the victory, number
one. Number two, He has made known
His salvation. Number three, His righteousness
has been revealed. Number four, He has remembered
His mercy and His truth. And the last one is found in
verse 9, marvelous things for he cometh to judge the earth
with righteousness shall he judge the world and his people with
equity, uprightness. Now let's look at those five
things and I'll give them to you in a brief way because we
could enlarge upon each of these. The first one is this. He had
done marvelous things, okay? His right hand and His holy arm
have gotten Him the victory. These are marvelous things. Christ
has won the victory. His holy arm, His holy power
has won the victory for us. Let me give you four things under
this one heading. Christ has won the victory over
sin. Now sin's hard to put away. I can't put away sin, you can't
put away sin. The blood of bulls and goats,
you reckon how many blood, how many blood offerings of animals
was shed on Jewish altar for thousands of years? and never
put away one sin. The blood of bulls and goats
cannot put away sin. Christ has won the victory over
sin by putting sin away. How was this done? Well, in Hebrews
9 it says, He appeared once in the end of the age to put away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. by the sacrifice of himself.
By the one offering he has perfected forever, them that are sanctified
through the one offering he made, that was Christ himself. So he's
won the victory over sin in the sacrifice of himself. So much so that God said, remember
we read it? He said, their sin and their
iniquity will I remember no more. Now that's a victory. That's
a complete, total eradication of the sin of God's covenant
people. John Owen, a Scottish preacher
years ago, 1600-something, he wrote a book, and the title of
the book was The Death of Death, The Death of Death in the Death
of Christ. And he made this statement. I
remember this one statement. It's a big book. But this one
thing I remember, sin committed suicide when it was put on Christ
Jesus. He put away our sin. It's the
death of death in the death of Christ because it's the death
of our sin. He put away sin. Christ has won the victory for
us. Aren't you glad? The blood of
Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses us from all sin. Christ has won
the victory over death. Remember from our study in Revelation,
I'm he that liveth and was dead. Behold, I'm alive forevermore. And he said, because I live,
you shall live. In 2 Timothy 1 verse 10, it says,
by his one offering, he has abolished death. He has abolished death. Death is a daughter of sin. Death
is the daughter of sin. When sin is finished, it brings
forth death. But our sin being put away by the Lord Jesus Christ
had changed the character of death for the believer. Death
to the believer is not punishment, it's promotion. Promotion. For me to live is Christ, to
die is what? gain. To be absent, vacated from
his body is to be present with the Lord. So Christ has won the
victory over sin. He's won the victory over death.
Christ has won the victory over Satan. He has defeated the arch
enemy. Satan is under the absolute control
of our great God. and our great Savior. He, by
His one sacrifice, has defeated all principalities and powers. They all answer unto His dominion. Now here's the bottom line in
this. He's won the victory over all things. Our Lord has never
lost a fight. He's never lost a battle. He's
won the war. He's a mighty conqueror. He is
a mighty champion and believers are winners in Him. One of the
most comforting verses that I find in all of the book of Revelation
is Revelation 6 verse 2. He went forth conquering and
to conquer. He is a mighty conqueror. He's
never lost a battle. Now it says in 2 Corinthians,
turn over there, I told you we'd read that verse, remember? 2
Corinthians chapter 2, 2 Corinthians 2. Now thanks be unto God. Verse 14, you see it? 2 Corinthians
2, 14. Now thanks be unto God who always
causes us to triumph in Christ. Always. They in all things were
more than conquerors through Him that loved us." We have the
victory over sin, over death, over Satan, over the law that
was contrary to us and against us. The Lord Jesus Christ has
accomplished all things for us. Now how can we not praise His
name and sing, He has done marvelous things. That's number one. Now we could enlarge a lot upon
that. Here's the second thing. Look
at the text again. The Lord hath made known his
salvation. These again are the marvelous
things that he has done. He's won the victory and then
the Lord hath made known unto us what he has done. Notice,
the Lord hath made known his salvation. It's his to give,
is it not? He accomplished it. He accomplished
salvation by himself. And He makes this known unto
us. You see what it says there? The
Lord hath made known His salvation. Now by ourselves, left to ourselves
and our own thinking which is corrupted, our own thoughts which
are vain, we'll never know anything about the true way of salvation.
The Lord has to make this known unto us. The Lord has to reveal
this unto us. Now there's another scripture
that I quote all the time in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 where
it says that we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and
ourselves your servant for his sake. For God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, he commanded the light to shine
out of darkness. hath commanded that same light
to shine in our hearts that we might see the glorious person
of the Lord Jesus Christ." The glory of God shines in the face,
the glory of God shines in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the preaching of the
gospel, by the power of God the Holy Spirit, taking things of
Christ and showing them unto us, He makes us to know that
salvation is in the Savior. in Christ. Salvation is not in
a church, organization, a pool or a profession. Salvation is
in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is salvation. Christ himself
is salvation and he has to make himself known unto us. He's hid
these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto
his covenant children, babes he calls them. Salvation is a
revelation of Christ. in your heart, who He is. He
makes this known unto us, His glorious salvation. Down in the
last part of verse 3, all the ends of the earth have seen the
salvation of our God. Now what does that mean, all
the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God? The
Lord has a people scattered throughout all this earth, north, south, east, west, and
the Lord hath made known this salvation unto His covenant people
wherever they are living." All the ends of the earth. That's
why He told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature. The Lord has an elect out of
every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue, and people under heaven.
And He will make this salvation known unto them through the ministry
of the gospel, through the preaching of the gospel. Here's the third
thing. Again, he hath done marvelous things. His holy arm had gotten
the victory. The Lord had made known his salvation. Thirdly, His righteousness hath
He openly, and that word there openly means revealed, showed
in the sight of the heathen, and that's you and me by nature,
heathen, ungodly, infidels, idolaters by nature. He has showed His
righteousness accomplished and He reveals this also unto us. These are the marvelous things
that He has done. the marvelous things he has done.
His righteousness has been revealed unto us who are by nature infidels,
ungodly. We know now, now we know that
Christ Jesus is our Lord, that the Lord Jesus Christ is our
righteousness before God. We no longer go about to establish
a righteousness of our own. Rather, we are resting in the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lord our righteousness. We rest in Him. Blessed is the
man whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without work. Matter of fact,
He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He hath made known. This is a
marvelous thing. This is a marvelous thing. You
know there is a whole host of a multitude of religious people
who are trusting their own morality for righteousness. Now they are. They're duped by thinking that
their righteousness is affected by their morality, what they
do or do not do. because they're ignorant of God
and ignorant of the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. Therefore, they're going about
to establish one of their own hand. Let me just say a word
about morality. God's people strive to be upright
in character. in conversation and in conduct. They strive to be upright in
character, in conduct, in conversation. All the while knowing that our
character and our conduct in our conversation has nothing
to do with our justification before God. Nothing! Therefore we never trust our
morality for righteousness. We never run to the refuge of
our righteousness to find assurance. We always look unto the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, I've tried to make that
clear over the years. God's people, they want to glorify
God in their conduct and in their character and in their conversation.
But we never look to that. in any measure at all for a justifying
righteousness before God because he says the best we have, David,
is vanity. The best we have is nothing but
filthy rags in his sight. But sadly, there are so many
people that are going about to establish a righteousness of
their own doing And because they think they do or don't do certain
things, and that, what is that saying? That means if righteousness
comes by my morality, then Christ is dead in vain. That's what
that's saying. That scheme of salvation is nothing
but a clever disguise of Satan who is called a minister of righteousness. And it's nothing but works. plain
and simple. But He has made known and openly
shown unto us His righteousness, the Lord our righteousness. That's what He teaches us. These
are marvelous things. These are marvelous things. Something
else, here's the fourth thing. He remembered, not that God forgets, But he
hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward somebody. His mercy, God is merciful. And
his mercy is according to his truth. He doesn't show mercy
at the expense of his truth. He hath remembered his mercy
and his truth toward the house of Israel, his elect. His chosen, His covenant people.
He hath remembered His mercy, His truth. Now, there's a prayer
in Habakkuk chapter 3. We've read it before. And the
prophet prayed there in Habakkuk chapter 3. Read it sometime.
It's a very inspiring prayer. And he prays this way, Lord,
in Your wrath, remember mercy. In Your wrath, remember mercy. This is a marvelous and glorious
thing. This is a marvelous and glorious
thing the Lord had done. The Lord chose mercy unto sinners,
but not at the expense of His holy truth, not at the expense
of His holy justice. You remember we studied, turn
back to Psalm 85. And that's the marvelous thing
of the gospel. How God can be just and justify
the ungodly. How he can be a just God and
Savior. Not at the expense of his holy
truth and yet show mercy. Psalm 85 verse 10. Mercy and
truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. All the attributes of God are
in glorious harmony in Christ Jesus crucified. Truth shall
spring out of the earth. Righteousness shall look down
from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good and we
shall yield in an increase. And our land shall yield in increase. Righteousness shall go before
him and shall set us in the way of his steps. It is only through
Christ crucified that our holy God is both a merciful, loving
father and a just and holy God. He saves sinners not at the expense
of His justice. It's only through Christ and
Him crucified that God can be just and the justifier of the
ungodly. Now here's the last one, verse
9. Before the Lord, He comes to judge the earth. He comes
to judge with righteousness. Shall we judge the world in righteousness
and the people with equity? He cometh to judge with righteousness. The Lord hath appointed a day
in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. The standard of judgment is the
Lord Jesus Christ. All judgment is relative to him.
The Father judges, no man committed all judgment under the Son. Now
here's my point. Those in the Lord Jesus Christ,
there's no condemnation. Our sins have been righteously
judged and put away through Christ Jesus. No condemnation to those
in Christ Jesus. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justify. Who is
he that condemneth? It's Christ who has died, yea
rather, risen again, who is even at the right hand of God. Those
in the Lord Jesus Christ, no condemnation. Those not one with
Him, nothing but eternal condemnation. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on them. Now look at verse four, five,
six, and seven and verse eight for the closing statement. Let's put it that way. Make a
joyful noise unto the Lord. Make a loud noise. Rejoice and
sing. Sing unto the Lord with a harp.
with the voice of a psalm, with a trumpet, this whole orchestra
here. A trumpet and a cornet, that's
a horn, both of them are horns. Make a joyful noise before the
Lord, He's the King. Let the sea roar, 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. Let all, and here's the point. We're to rejoice in the Lord
always. Again, I say rejoice. Let all
the chords of your heart, the harp, the trumpet, the cornet,
the roar of the sea, the clap, the floods, let all the chords
of your heart be in unison praise to our great Lord. Now, look at one scripture, the
last psalm, the last psalm, Psalm 150, look at verse six, the last
verse of the last psalm. Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Let all the chords of your heart,
the orchestra of your heart being made new in Christ Jesus, Let
it rejoice and be glad, joyful, as it says there in verse nine,
before the Lord.