Now let's take our Bible again
and let's turn to Psalm 147. He sendeth forth his commandment
upon the earth. Now he sends it. He sends it
on purpose, doesn't he? And when he sends forth his word,
his commandment upon the earth, it has a definite effect. His Word runneth very, very swiftly. That is, His Word gets the job
done. So I'm entitling the message,
The Word of the Lord Runs Swiftly. This Word can be defined and
also translated as His Word runs quickly, quickly, quickly. The Word of the Lord because
it's alive, it's a living word and most powerful, most effectual. Matter of fact in Hebrews we're
gonna see in chapter 4 that it's quick and powerful and sharper
than any two-edged sword. The Word of the Lord shall prosper,
shall never return unto Him void. What he speaks is done. What he says is accomplished. And that gives me great comfort.
All that God has promised will come to pass. His word cannot
fail. Again, this Psalm 147 begins
and ends like the last Psalm. Notice how it begins, Praise
ye the Lord. And how it ends in verse 20,
again he says, Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise Jehovah. Jehovah, God
our Savior, the eternal, everlasting, self-existent God who needs no
one, who is dependent upon no one, who is completely independent,
self-sufficient, most holy, most sovereign, eternal God. He certainly is worthy of worship. Worthy of honor from everlasting
to everlasting thou art God I like what he says in Isaiah repeatedly. You remember I am God Beside
me there is no other now God as he is And all of his majesty
and all of his glory God as he is pleased to reveal himself
in the word of the Lord God's people delight to honor Him. To praise Him. I'm embarrassed
and ashamed that I don't praise Him like I ought to. Don't worship
Him like I ought to. Don't exalt Him like I should.
Look at verse 1. Praise ye the Lord. Isn't that
our desire? In our heart? Truly? With the
right motive? With the right attitude? It is
good to sing praises unto our God. It is pleasant and praise
is comely. It is proper. It is right to
honor and to exalt and worship the Lord our God. To a believer
it's not a burden. It's not a burden. But it is
pleasant. It is delightful. And the word
comely means it is right. It is beautiful. It is suitable
to praise and honor the Lord at all times. I was standing
in line at a restaurant down in Lexington on Monday and there
was an older couple standing in line there waiting to fill
up their glass with some beverage and I turned to them and I said,
How are you folks doing today? And they looked at me, and the
old man said, we're blessed. We're blessed. I thought, boy,
that's a good response. He said, we're blessed, and then
he said, we've got nothing to complain about. I wish I could
have had some time to talk with him. We're blessed. That's a
good way to answer that question. How are you folks today? Oh, we're blessed. We're blessed. Truly God's people, truly God's
people can say that. We're blessed. We are blessed. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Now, I can't speak for
you, but I can speak for myself. I complain far too often. We're blessed. Believers desire
to honor our God in all things at all times, in all situations. I remember Brother Henry telling
a story about A.D. Muse and another preacher called,
his name was Josh Dravot. They had been somewhere preaching
in a meeting and had wrecked their car. I think I put this
in the bulletin several years ago. And they had a pretty severe
crash. Both of them injured. Somewhat
and they said one to another How you doing you okay and One
answer back to the other God is sovereign. We'll be thankful.
God is sovereign We'll be thankful. It's always good suitable and
Delightful to give all the glory to God alone for all of salvation
But what about his providence to? You know the steps of a good
man, you remember Psalm 37? The steps of a good man are ordered
of the Lord. Steps of the righteous are ordered
of the Lord. Believers owe everything they
have to the free favor and sovereign grace of God. His love, His mercy
to us, God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. We
are what we are we can say with the Apostle Paul by the grace
of God. One old writer said this, pay
him we cannot. Can't pay him. But praise him
and serve him we must. We will. Not only now but forever. Is the eternal occupation of
the believer in glory? Worthy as a lamb that was slain
to receive all honor and glory and blessing Bridget sings a
song often by Robert Mary McShane on how much I owe and one line
in that song goes That I will worship him then with with an
unsinning heart without sin Without saying we'll really love him
like we ought to praise him like he's worthy of But it begins
here and now doesn't it praising him? If you don't honor and worship
him now love him now he won't that day You see all we know
He taught us All we know he taught us All those who have heard and
learned of the Father come to Christ. He's taught us the gospel. All that we have, or all that
we are, He made us. He made us, not we ourselves.
Turn over here to Psalm, you remember Psalm 100 verse 3? Know ye that the Lord, He is
God, it is He that made us, not we ourselves. We are His people
and the sheep of His pasture. He's made us trophies of His
grace. Psalm 103. Psalm 100 verse 3. He made us, not we ourselves.
He made us. Pay Him we cannot. Praise Him
and serve Him we will. Now and forever. All we know
He taught us, all we are, He made us, and all we have, He
gave it to us. He'd give it. He giveth. He giveth. Now look at verse 2. So it is
right, it is proper to praise and honor the Lord as we ought. Verse 2, the Lord does build
up. He does build up Jerusalem, a place that God designated for
worship. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem,
a place the Lord designated for his people to assemble, where
the temple was built, where the priest went about his role in
sacrifice. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem,
he gathereth together the outcast of Israel. The Lord does build
up his holy city. And I think here that we can
rightly use this typical city Jerusalem as the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He does build up his church,
doesn't he? He said, I'll build my church
in the gates of hell, shall not prevail against it. You remember
from the bulletin this last week, this was taken from a TV sermon,
a transcription that we worked on by Brother Mahan, One old preacher said this to
Brother Mahan years ago, he said, it's not amazing to me that the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ has continued these centuries
in spite of hatred, persecution, and trial. The blood of martyrs
is a seed of the church. What's amazing to me is the fact
that the church has survived such bad preaching. So many religious
con artists who claim to be friends of Christ but in truth are the
greatest enemies that the church has ever had. They're like the
old Pharisees. who sought self-glory, self-attention. But the church, by God's grace,
has survived. And then Brother Mahan asked
this question, why has it survived? How has it survived? I'll tell
you how and I'll tell you why. It has survived because it's
his church. He said, on this rock I'll build
my church in the gates of hell. All the subtlety, craftiness
of Satan cannot destroy it. Cannot prevail against it. It's
his church. He purposed it. He purchased
it. He has chosen it. He's established it. That's why
it must survive. It has survived. The Lord does
build up. He does build up. Not only that,
the second part of verse 2 is He gathers together the outcast
of Israel. He gathers together. Now let
me show you a few verses on that. He gathers out His covenant people,
the outcasts. Psalm 106. Turn over there. Psalm
106. Gathers together those who have
been outcasts. Psalm 106. Look at verse 47. Save us, O Lord, and gather us
from among the heathen to give thanks unto thy holy name and
to triumph in thy praise. To triumph in thy praise. He
gathers us together. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name. Turn to Isaiah 40. Where two
or three are gathered together in my name. He gathers us. He's
the good shepherd. He gathers us together. He builds
us up and then he gathers us together. In Isaiah 40 verse
11, he shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the
land with his arms and carry them in his bosom. And He shall
gently lead those that are with young. He gathers us out. He gathers us together by His
grace. The outcasts. It reminded me
of this story we're going to see in John 9. Turn over there. In John chapter 9. He gathers
together the outcasts. The blind man in John chapter
9 who was healed. When the Pharisees finally got
around to excommunicating him, in John 9, verse 33, the blind
man said, If this man, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, were
not of God, he could do nothing. The Lord had healed this blind
man. And they answered, that is, the
Pharisees said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sin,
sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. They had
communicated. They threw him out of the synagogue.
They threw him out of Judaism. And Jesus heard that they had
cast him out, and when he found him, he gathered him. He found him. He said unto him,
Dost thou believe on the Son of God? And he answered and said, Who
is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him,
Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe.
And he worshipped him. He gathered him, didn't he? He
was an outcast, excommunicated. And the Lord found him, gathered
him to himself. You know what the Lord does when
he crosses our path with the gospel? He finds those who are
Outcast and gathers them to to himself Not only does he gather
us, but look at verse 3 in Psalm 147. He healeth the Lord healeth
the broken in heart He binds up their wounds He gathers us
he builds us up and Then he heals our Wounds he heals the broken
heart You remember those seven names of Jehovah? Jehovah Jireh,
Jehovah Sidcanu. One of those seven names is Jehovah
Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. He's our great and wise
and glorious good physician. Turn over to Matthew 9. The Pharisees
complained that the Lord Jesus Christ went home with some publicans,
notorious, well-known sinners, and they said, why does your
master eat with such low people? In Matthew 9. Many publicans
and sinners came and sat down with him. Verse 10, Matthew 9. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? When Jesus heard that, he said,
they that behold, don't need a physician those who were sick
he heals the broken hearted go ye learn what that means I will
have mercy not sacrifice I'm not come to call the righteous
but sinners sinners sinners to repentance don't turn let me
just read this scripture to you from Isaiah 61 This recorded
in Luke 4, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he sent me to heal
the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captive, recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are bruised. The Lord does gather us out,
and he does heal us. Not only that, he binds up the
wounds. You see that back in the text?
He binds up our wounds. You see, he's nine of them of
a broken heart, save as such be of a contrite spirit, the
Lord binds up our wounds. How does he do that? He was wounded for our transgression,
And by His stripes, we are healed. We are healed. Christ is our
great physician, wise physician, almighty physician, who has the
remedy for ruin. And the remedy is Himself. He
takes our sin to Himself. and He gives us His righteousness. He takes our infirmities unto
Himself, bearing our sin in His own body on the tree, and He
gives us His righteousness. That's the gospel. 2 Corinthians
5, 21. All of you know it, don't you?
Substitution and satisfaction. Taking our sin and giving us
His righteousness. By His stripes, we are healed. Healed. Healed. Eternally. Now
look at verse 4. in our text. The Lord telleth,
and that word telleth can also be rendered counteth. The Lord counteth the number
of the stars. You reckon what is the number
of the stars? How many stars do we have? A whole bunch. I can't count
them, they're infinite. Only the infinite God can count
infinity. He telleth, He counteth the number
of the stars. He created them all by the Word
of His power. And He calls them by their names.
He knows them. The Lord has perfect and distinct
knowledge of all that He has created. All the starry heavens
He knows and owns them as His creation. He knows them all. They're sustained by the Word
of His power. Likewise, the believer in Christ,
although they are described in the Revelation 10,000 times,
10,000 and thousands of the elect redeemed by the blood of Christ,
yet the Lord is intimately and eternally acquainted with all
His sheep. He made them. He created them,
they're His. The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. We're going to study in John
chapter 10 where it says He knows His sheep by name and He leads
them out. Hey Zacchaeus, come on down. I must abide at your house."
Lazarus, come forth. Matthew, follow me. He knows
His sheep by name. He's personally acquainted with
us. Before we ever knew Him, He knew
us. He told Jeremiah, before I formed
you in the womb, in the belly, I knew you and I ordained you
to be a prophet unto God. You know, that's comforting to
me. There may be a day in my life,
due to the frailty of the flesh and the sickness of the flesh,
that I might not even know my name or His name. But the comfort
of the believer is that he knows me. He knows me. He knows my name. He redeemed
me by His grace. Christ died for my sin. Great is the Lord, verse 5. Great
is our Lord. How great is He? There are not words to describe
His greatness. And of great power. Everything
about our Lord connected with Him is great. Great, great. You remember back in Psalm 145,
turn over there, verse 3, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be
praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. His greatness now. They talk about these puny, impotent
kings of the earth, Alexander the Great. What's Alexander the
Great compared to the Great Almighty God? Great is our Lord. and of great power. You know
the only place a sinner will truly worship is at the throne
of the Almighty God. Bow in reverence before the throne
of an Almighty Sovereign Holy God. Great is our Lord and of
great power. You know it takes great power
to save a great sinner with so great salvation that he has purpose. And his understanding What can
you save is understanding? Infinite. Great is our Lord. Everything connected with his
person, his work is great. His power is great. With God,
you see, remember the disciples asked that question? Who then
can be saved? With men, it is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. His power is great. He has great
power to save to the uttermost. His gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. His understanding, His wisdom,
His power is infinite beyond description. I often think of
this verse, don't turn, let me just read it to you. Over there
in Romans chapter 11, I quote it quite often or at least try
to, Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God, how unsearchable are his judgment and his way past
binding out." Great is the Lord and of great power. His understanding
has no number. Infinite. Infinite as God himself. Eternal as God himself. Now look
at verse 6. This great God, this great Lord,
who is of great power, He lifts us up. We sing often that song, He lifted
me, from sinking sand, He lifted me. Salvation is a lift. Ever need a lift? The Lord lifts up the meek. those who are humbled, humbled
by His grace. Now by nature we're not humble. God has to humble us or we're
proud and arrogant. The Lord lifts up those He humbles
and He casts the wicked down to the ground. When the meek
and those who are humbled by His grace convicted by the Holy
Spirit are laid low in the dust, the Lord doesn't leave them there.
Aren't you glad the Holy Spirit conviction doesn't last for years
and years and years and years and years? I mean, He convicts
us, He strips us, and strips us, but He doesn't leave us there.
He clothes us. He empties us, but He doesn't
leave us there. He fills us of His fullness. Have we all received grace for
grace? We read this scripture, James
chapter 4, God resisteth the proud, but he gives grace to
the humble. Lord, humble me. Humble me. Humble me in the dust. Humble me. A couple of scriptures
on that. Turn back to Psalm 138 verse
6. Though the Lord be high, yet
he hath respect unto the lowly, but the proud. God hates a proud
heart. The proud he knoweth afar off. The Lord lifts up his people
and casts those wicked men to the ground. Lord, we preached
in your name. Lord, we done these many miracles in your name. We
cast out demons in your name. Pride, pride. Remember what he
said? Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. I never loved
you. Oh, but that old sinner, broken
hearted, beggar before God, the Pharisee stood and prayed with
himself and bragged on himself, God, I thank you. I didn't do
this. I didn't do that. And the publican said, God be
merciful to me, the sinner. And God justified him. and left the Pharisee to his
proud, wicked heart, and cast them out." Now, what does that
lead the believer to? If the Lord's ever lifted you,
and healed you, and gathered you,
and called you by your name, well, you know, I might pray
once in a while. I might read His Word once in
a while. I might attend service occasionally. No, I tell you, we're indebted
to His grace. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praise upon the harp unto
our God. Boy, if anybody ought to be thankful,
it's God's people. everything give thanks for this
is a will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you who verse 8 and
9 who this great God he covers the heavens with clouds you know
one place in scripture I can't remember where it is but it says
the clouds are the dust of his feet who covers the heavens with
his clouds who prepares the rain for the earth He prepares the
rain, who maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains. Verse 9, He giveth to the beast
his food, to the young ravens a crown to him. The great God of Providence provides
for His creation, doesn't He? He sustains it by the Word of
His power. He upholds it by the Word of His power. How much more than this new creation? We are a new creation. Believers are created in Christ
Jesus. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. Now I want to consider those
four words and talk about not the old original creation, but
that new creation. That work of grace that God does
in our heart. He covers us with the robe of righteousness. He prepares us. Do you remember
in Matthew 25? Come ye enter into the kingdom
of the Lord prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
He covers us. He prepares us for glory. And then it says there, He makes
the grass to grow. What do you think about that
one? He causes us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he gives us food. He
gives us the finest wheat. He giveth to the beast the food
and to the young ravens which cry unto him. He gives us food. He gives us
the best. We have tasted that the Lord
is gracious. He's the bread of life. Now, verse 10 and 11, this is most
interesting here. He delighteth not in the strength
of a horse. He taketh not pleasure in the
legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them
that fear him and those that hope in his mercy. Now what pleases
the Lord? What pleases the Lord? I know
Kentucky is considered the horse country. They call Lexington,
Kentucky the horse capital of the world. We were driving out
of Lexington headed to Louisville on Monday and drove out through
Versailles on Versailles Road on Route 60. We passed horse
farm after horse farm after horse farm. A big fancy barn. Bridget looked at one of them
and said, is that a house? I said, no, that's a barn. I
mean, they built a nice barn. Why? Why do they do that? They
glory in horses, don't they? Men glory in the ability of a
horse to run a race, to win a race. Why they make so much of that
Kentucky Derby anyway? Just a little horse race. Bad
people come from all over the world. You know why? Fallen,
frail creatures, they delight in the strength of a horse. How
about God? Nothing to Him. Nothing to him
men also glory God doesn't take pleasure in the strength of a
horse. No, does he take pleasure in the legs of a man? What's
the legs of a man? Men fallen and frail also glory
in the strength of men great athletes They run they jump You know athletes in our day
are worshipped by fallen creatures baseball players, football players,
basketball players. None of these things impress
God. Not the strength of a horse, not the legs of a man. Now, men
glory in those things. I remember when I was in high
school and ran track, everybody talked about a man, boy, if he
could run a four-minute mile, that would really be something.
We would Oh, I tell you, if you could run a four minute mile.
Now, anymore, that's nothing. High school kids are doing that
now. We glory in those things. God
does not glory in those things that impress men, not at all.
Look at verse 11, but here's what he takes pleasure in. The
Lord takes pleasure and delights in them that fear him." Now this is not a slavish fear. This is a fear of reverence,
a fear of awe before the throne of His Majesty who is great in
power, infinite in understanding, whose hope, whose hope is in His mercy. Not in our works, Not in our
doing. Our hope is in His mercy. He delights to show mercy. God
takes pleasure in those that fear Him. The Lord takes pleasure, as I
read to you earlier in Psalm 149 verse 4, the Lord take His
pleasure in His people. Remember what He said of the
Lord Jesus? This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
God is only pleased with us as He sees us and loves us in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord takes pleasure of them
in them that fear Him and we do by His grace with reverence
and godly fear and those that hope in His mercy not our works.
Now this is not This hoping in His mercy is not
in a generic and general way, but rather in God's mercy revealed
in Christ Jesus. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy. He healed us. It's of the Lord's mercy that
we're not concerned. One old writer said this, they
fear for their sinners. They hope for God is merciful. They fear Him for He is great.
They hope in Him for He is good. Their fear sobers their hope. Their hope brightens their fear. God takes pleasure in them both
in their trembling and in their rejoicing. We do fear Him because
we believe Him. We honor Him. And we do hope
in Him. We have a good hope through grace,
don't we? He is our hope. Christ says that in 1 Timothy
chapter 1. Christ our hope. He's our hope. Now, again, here's this chorus.
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. Praise thy God, O Zion. For He hath strengthened the
bars of thy gates, He's our strength. The gates of hell shall not prevail.
We read earlier. He hath blessed thy children
within thee. Now notice, within thee. Salvation in Christ Jesus. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. He has blessed thy children within
thee. All spiritual blessings are in
Christ Jesus. Oh that I may win Christ and
be found in Him. He maketh peace. He makes peace
within thy borders. How did He make peace? He made
peace for us with His own blood. And He fills us with the finest
wheat. He gives us the best. He doesn't
give us the leftovers. He gives us the best. He gave
us Himself. He fills us with the finest of
wheat and then it says He sends forth His commandment. The gospel wheat that He gives
us has no chaff of human merit mixed within it. It's pure free
grace. Verse 15, the Lord sends forth
His Word, the Gospel truth with expected results. His Word will
not return unto Him void. In the preaching of the Gospel,
we go preaching by His commandment. That's what He commanded us to
do. Go into all the world and preach the Gospel. And the Lord
is pleased to bless what He has commanded us to do. Now He'll
bless the preaching of the Word. Preaching of Christ. He has ordered
it and ordained it. He sent forth His commandment,
His gospel upon the earth. It's His gospel, He'll bless
it. His Word runs very swiftly. You know what it runs swiftly
unto? His elect. He has a target. And the Word
goes swiftly to that target, and it never misses. He giveth
snow like wool, He scatters the hoarfrost, he catches forth the
ice, his ice like morsels, who can stand before his cold? He
sends out his word and he melts them and causes the wind to blow
and the waters to flow." Now, the snow, the frost, the ice.
The Lord can easily command them to come and just as easily command
them to melt. The Lord brings the south wind
to blow upon the snow and the frost and they melt away. We
can also make a gospel application here, can't we? The hard, cold,
frosty, icy-hearted, stony-hearted sinner is easily melted by the
wind of the Holy Spirit. He makes us to flow down before
Him before his throne of grace, begging for mercy. You remember
from Song of Solomon chapter 4? Awake, O north wind, and come,
south wind, blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow
out. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruit. The wind here is a type and picture
of the Holy Spirit. When he sends that wind of the
Holy Spirit, the icy-hearted sinner melts before his presence. He showed his word, revealed
his word, his truth, verse 19, unto Jacob and his statutes unto
Israel. He passed by the Philistines,
the Amalekites, the Hittites, and all the other iths, and chose
Israel. He hath not dealt so with any
other nation, Not like he did with national Israel, the sons
of Jacob. The Lord reveals this gospel
and sends this gospel to whom He will. He sends His Word, His
statues to His covenant people, sons of Jacob. And they are blessed. He hath not dealt so with any
other people. Verse 20, As for his judgments,
other people They have not known His Word, His truth, His statutes. They have not known them. But
His people do. His people do. All this serves,
this national Israel, sons of Abraham, all that serves as a
true picture of spiritual Israel, His elect, His church. 1 Samuel 12 says, "...the Lord
will not forsake His people for His great namesake, because it
pleased the Lord to make you His people." The Israel of God, the spiritual
Israel of God, His elect, are chosen by His electing grace,
redeemed by His precious blood, represented by the great high
priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He reveals Himself exclusively
unto them. You see, he sends out his word.
Now, here's the chorus again. Verse 20, the last line, now
praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Believers
do, here and now, and forever, forevermore.