Now, Psalm 66 is our study this
evening, and I'm entitling this message from the words found
in verse 16, if you want to take a peek over there for just a
moment, of what He has done for my soul. Think of it. Sin's forgiven. righteousness
imputed, justified freely by His grace in God's sight." Oh,
I tell you, we can go for a long time talking about what He hath
done for us. Now this is every believer's
testimony. It's not what we have done for
Him. You remember those found in Matthew 7, They came before
the Lord and said, we have done many wonderful works in thy name.
We've preached in your name. We've cast out demons in your
name. We have done, we have done, we have done. What's wrong with
that? It's not what he had done. Remember
what the Lord said to those people? Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. Depart from
me. You see, our testimony as believers
of God's sovereign and saving grace is not what we have done
for Him. Now it's telling, very telling
if you hear someone give their testimony as to what they say
and who they talk about. The believer's testimony is what
he has done for us. Now, I like this scripture. It's
one of my favorites. It's found in 2 Timothy 1.9.
Don't turn. Let me just see if I can quote
it. when Paul writes his last words back to young Timothy and
said, Timothy, now don't be ashamed of me. Paul was in prison when
he writes this. He said, I'm a prisoner of the
Lord. Don't be ashamed of me or of his gospel, for it is God
who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to God's own purpose. These two
words, purpose and grace. purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. Now,
that's my testimony. That's my testimony. Here's another
one of my favorite scriptures found in the Revelation chapter
1, I believe it is. When the redeemed in glory sing
praises unto the Lord, it's unto Him who loved us and washed us
from our sin in His own blood, to Him be all the honor and glory
both now and forever. You see, they there, even there,
they declare all that God has done for them in Christ. He loved
us. We didn't love Him first. We
love Him only because He first loved us. We didn't wash ourselves, He
washed us in the blood of the Lamb. The blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ God's Son cleanses us from all our sin. That's our testimony by His grace
and that's the story we love to tell. It's His story. All
of our salvation therefore is of the Lord. God never saved a sinner by accident. Every sinner God saves, he saves
by purpose and grace. You just didn't one day bump
into the gospel. The gospel just didn't, I'm talking
about the gospel of God's grace. You didn't come across that by
accident. You just didn't bump into it.
God crossed your path with the truth. and he broke your heart
with the truth and he revealed the truth under your heart therefore
when you hear somebody lie on God and preach another gospel
well you won't have that as the psalmist said to thy precept
I get understanding therefore I hate every false way now it's
right to hate what God hates it's right to hate that which
is contrary to God's truth all of our salvations of the Lord.
He is called the author of it, and He's the finisher of it.
Starts with Him, is accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ alone,
and has a glorious end in Him. What is the end of our salvation? To be predestinated and conformed
to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who doesn't want to be
like Christ? Who doesn't want to be predestinated to be conformed
to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ? Every believer does. Now, there's some people in religious
circles who would like to take that word out of God's Word.
You know, it's found in there four times. You've got to deal
with it or run from it. Believers rejoice in it. We rejoice
in it. in whom we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to him who works all things at
the counsel of his own will?" You see, our declaration, and
that's the difference, that's the difference, isn't it? Between
this ministry and those folks down here in the circle. Those folks down there in the
circle all talking about what they've done for Jesus. What sets this ministry apart?
It's not that we have some big-name preacher. I'm a nobody from nowhere. I'm a nobody from nowhere. What
sets this ministry apart is the message. It is not who is preaching
there. It is who is preached. I'm determined
and I think you folks are too. I'm determined, as the Apostle
Paul is, was, and still is, not to know anything among you but
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Christ crucified is all my pardon,
all my salvation. He put away my sin and brought
in an everlasting righteousness that He freely imputes to His
people. You see, I will declare What
he hath done for my soul. He's done all things. You remember
our study back in Psalm 57? Psalm 57. Do you remember that?
Turn over there for just a moment. That's just a few pages back.
Psalm 57. We'll look at verse 2. I will cry unto
God most high, unto God that performeth all things for me. You mean to tell me, preacher,
There's nothing that I need do, bring, add, say, or work to merit
salvation. Lay your deadly doing down. Lay down. It would be an insult
to the Lord Jesus Christ to try to bring something and try to
paste that on to Him. It would be an insult, wouldn't
it? Here's his perfect, completed, glorious work of salvation, and
you say, well, you know, that's not enough. That's exactly what
the Judaizers said. Remember? Acts chapter 15? Paul
writes about it in Galatians. Those Judaizers said, you know
what? You know, Christ is just not
enough. We've got to be circumcised and
we've got to keep the law. in order to really be saved.
To be really spiritual and sanctified. You know, we've got to do these
things. My friend, that's another message. That's another gospel.
And those who promote it and preach it are messengers of Satan. They parade as angels of light,
but they have transformed themselves into the apostles of Christ.
They weren't sent of God. Well, how do you know they weren't
sent of God? Listen to their message. Their message doesn't
glorify Christ. It's not Christ-centered. It's
man-centered. Man-centered message. Now, if
I don't hurry along here, I'm not going to make it through
Psalm 66. But when I get talking about
the things that He has done for me, it's hard to be still. Because I love to tell the old,
old story of Christ and His, His blessed glory. Now let's
consider verse 1 and 2 for a moment. Make a joyful noise unto God,
all lands, all you people. Sing forth the honor of His name,
His name. The gospel is about the honor
of His name. The gospel is not about you. It's not about you. It's about
Him. Sing forth the honor of His name. Make His praise glorious. You see, the Gospel is about
Christ, His person, His work. God had given Him a name above
every name, that at that name every knee should bow, every
tongue should confess that He's Lord to the glory of God the
Father. Sing forth praises unto his name."
What a joyful sound the gospel is to a poor, needy, bankrupt,
guilty sinner. Oh, that's good news. That's
good news. As cool water to a thirsty soul,
so is good news from a far country. If you're out there in the desert,
dried up and bleached and parched and just so thirsty you can't
even open your mouth, just shut together, and someone comes along
with cool water and pours it in. Oh, how refreshing. That's what the gospel is to
a sinner. It's good news. This is a faithful
saying. This is worthy of all acceptation,
that the Lord Jesus Christ, He came to save sinners. You know,
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is made up of... Who's
it made up of? Sinners! The old songwriter said, the
sinner is a sacred thing. Joseph Hart, I believe it was.
The sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. What do I mean by that? You know,
most folks don't think they're sinners. I tell you what, if God ever
convinces you in your heart of what you are and who you are,
not what you've done, but who you are, what you are, Ignite
them of a broken heart. He saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit. Oh, sing forth the honor of His
name. The gospel is a joyful sound
to a poor and needy sinner. We've seen that in the book of
Psalms, Psalm 40. I am poor and needy, yet the
Lord thinketh upon me. Oh, what a blessed treasure we
have in Christ. in return it's a delightful thing
to worship Him and to sing forth praises unto His name as we read
in Revelation we sing that new song of grace worthy is the Lamb
that was slain to receive all honor, glory, blessing, power
both now and forever you see he's worthy of all honor and
praise is he not? therefore look what it says in
verse 3 say unto God Oh, say unto him, How terrible are thy
works? How tremendous are thy works? How great art thou in thy works? I'm going to shock you here.
But now listen to me before you hammer me. Salvation is by works. Did you know that? His work. Somebody had to honor the law.
Somebody had to put away sin. My substitute did. He did all
the work. I just rest. I rest in what he's
done. That's why the Lord said, come
unto me, all you who are going about your heavy laden labor.
He said, come unto me, come unto me and rest. Rest. My yoke is easy, my burden
is light. How terrible art thou in thy
works. We're going to see when we get
over to Psalm 111. Psalm 111 tells us all about
His work. His work. Turn over there, Psalm
111. Psalm 111. Psalm 111. I can't transpose
this number. 111. I'm real good about doing
that. You probably know this. Switching
numbers around. Can't mess this one up. 1-1-1. Look what it says. Verse 1. Praise
ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart. Verse
1. In the assembly of the upright in the congregation. The works
of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure
therein. His work is honorable and glorious. His righteousness
endureth forever. He hath made His wonderful works
to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. Look at verse 6, "...he showed
his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage
of the heathen. The works of his hand are verity,
truth, and judgment. All of his commandments are sure,
they stand fast forever, done in truth and uprightness." You
see, it's all about his doing. You see, "...declare what he
hath done for our souls." fearful, tremendous are His works. His works. His works. His doing. Revelation 15, 3 declares,
great and marvelous are thy works. Oh Lord God, great and marvelous
are His works. How terrible are thou and thy
work through the greatness look at verse 3 through the greatness
of thy power the greatness of his power now it's just not that
he has power it's just not that he possesses some power or little
power this one who is God God who is really God he has the
greatness of all power it's just not that he's mighty he's almighty
to the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit."
They'll bow themselves unto thee. They'll give up. How great is
thy power! How great is thy power! Our God
possesses all power in heaven and earth. None can stand in
opposition to His power. None can stand up in front of
His power and say, no. None can stand before God and
say, uh-uh. All opposition melt into utter
insignificance before His power. He has almighty power. You see, thy people shall be
made willing in the day of His power. The gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the power of God Salvation, unto salvation
to everyone who believes. How do we believe? How do we
believe? We say, well sinners got to believe.
You don't want to make it sound like it's something you do. Do
you know what it says in Ephesians chapter 1? We believe according
to the working of His mighty power. That's how we believe. That's the only way we're going
to believe the truth, is by the working of His mighty power.
You see, He has all power in heaven and earth. All power in
heaven and earth. And that brings us to verse 4.
All the earth shall worship Thee, and sing unto Thee. They shall
sing to Thy name. I tell you, the only place where
a sinner will truly worship, worship, is at the throne of
the Almighty Sovereign God. That's the only place we'll worship.
Our God is no weakling. He's no peanut God. He's no impotent God. He is no
equal to us. God is God who is almighty and
before Him we bow. Before Him, because we bow before
Him by His mighty power, that brings us to this thing of worship,
worship, worship. All believers desire to worship
Him right now. That's why we've gathered this
evening. We've come here to worship Him. We've come here to preach
His gospel and to worship around the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now listen to this. True worship is not born of ignorance. We don't ignorantly worship God.
true worship in spirit and in truth he says in the scriptures
the father seeketh such to worship him in spirit and in truth true
worship is born not of ignorance but of truth but of truth true
worship is born of revelation of God it takes God to reveal
God and when God reveals himself unto your heart you'll say holy
and reverend is his name his name Now the idolaters in Paul's
day in the city known as Athens, they erected an idol unto an
unknown god. You know ignorant worship is
idolatry? Mark it down. We don't ignorantly
worship the unknown God. He has revealed himself unto
us through the word of truth, and because the word of truth
has led us to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is truth, therefore
we worship him in spirit and in truth. The Father seeketh
such to worship him that way. Our services are worship services. worship services, and that's
what every believer delights in. We delight to worship the
Lord. To worship Him. Now, look at
verse 5, come and see. Now come and see. Come and see. Come and see the works that we
have done. Oh, just come and see how much we've done for Jesus.
I'm making fun, but something, someone needs to make fun of
what's going on in the name of, in the name of God. It doesn't
say, come and see our works, come and see how many souls we
won for Jesus. They want us to come and see
our numbers. Come and see our numbers. Come and see how many
attend our ministry. Oh, we've got such a big crowd.
We have things for the young people, things for the old people,
the young couples. I mean, we have all these things.
That's what they say. They say, come and see all the
works that we have done. Look what we have done in the
name of God!" And the Lord said away with it. It's iniquity.
It's filthy rags in God's sight. And here's what the true child
of God declares. Come and see the works of God. Now, there's a stark contrast
there. Night and day. Death and life. Come and see the works of God.
He is terrible in His doing toward the children. Aren't you glad
that God is terrible? He's terrible. And I mean by
that not in a negative way. I mean that He is a tremendous
God. He is Almighty God. You can't
preach Him too high. You can't give Him too much honor
and glory. You can't exalt the Lord Jesus
Christ too high. I'd like to be guilty of it. Just charge me with that. He
said too much about the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll come and see the works
of God. He is tremendous in His doing toward The children of
men. Think of it. The Son of God became
the Son of Man that sons of men might be called sons of God. He's tremendous in his doing
toward the children of men. Who are the children of men?
Sinners, born in sin, shaping in iniquity. He is terrible. in his doing toward sinners. The salvation we have and we
enjoy in the Lord Jesus Christ is a tremendous salvation. A
tremendous salvation. Come and behold the works of
the Lord. Come and see. You remember the woman at the
well in John chapter 4? When the Lord dealt with her
in mercy? and sent her back to her community. Remember what
she said? Same thing. Come and see a man
who told me everything. He is terrible in his person.
He's tremendous in his person. He's terrible. Rolf Barnard used
to preach God in his absolute sovereignty. His absolute sovereignty
over all things, creation, providence, and salvation. And some young
whippersnapper came along and said, your God's a monster. You
know what old Rolf said? Get ready to meet a monster.
God is almighty God. This is a God that Paul, or whoever
the writer is, God the Holy Spirit, in Hebrews chapter 4, said this
is a God with whom we have to do. Have to do. He is terrible in his doing toward
the children of men. He saves us in such a glorious,
terrible way. In a tremendous way. He does
it in such a way to shut out all creature merit. One hundred
percent. Shoves it all aside. And said,
now look what I've done for you. Look what I've done for you.
That's what the woman at the well said. Come and see. Come
and see Him in His unchanging character. God never changes. We change all the time. We change
all the time. We get older. We get uglier. We change all the time. He never
changes. You see, our salvation is not
based upon whether we change or don't change. Because we change. Our salvation is based upon His
unchanging character. Based upon His unchanging purpose. His grace. He's unchanging in
His character. I can make good on that. He says
in Malachi 3.6, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons
of Jacob are not consumed. He's unchanging. Come and see
His unchanging character. Come and see His unfailing Word. He said, I've spoken it. I'll
bring it to pass. I've purposed it. Maybe it'll
come to pass. No, it shall be done. He works
all things after the counsel of His own will. Come and see
His unchanging character. Come and see His unfailing word. Come and see the success of His
work. Now I'm preaching at home to
the gospel according to Isaiah. And for the last two weeks I've
been trying to get to verse 4. And last week I brought a message
from Isaiah 42.1. And then today I used Isaiah
42, verse 2 and 3, and I intended to bring a message, a seven-point
message from verse 4, but never got there. Verse 4 of Isaiah
42, 4 is one of my favorite, favorite scriptures in the gospel
according to Isaiah. You know what it says? It says,
He shall not fail. Our God's not a failure. Now
that can't be said of us. We're failures. Mark it down. We were born failures. The Lord
Jesus Christ, He wasn't born a failure. He was born victorious. Where is He that's born King? That's what they said. That's
what the wise men said. They didn't say, where is he
that will be king one day or will be king in the millennium.
No, he was born king. He was king when he got here.
See, he's God incarnate. God manifest in flesh. He is
successful in his work. Write it down in bold letters
upon everything the Lord Jesus Christ has done in the way of
saving grace and write these words upon it. Success. victorious,
eternal, glorious. His works are glorious works. He's not a defeated, frustrated
reformer. He's a conquering, victorious
king. And you know what? We are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. Thanks be to God who's given
us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. So come and see!
Come and see! his tremendous doings gives us
an example here in verse 6 he turned the sea into a dry land and they went through the flood
on foot there did we rejoice in him now when the Israel The
nation was delivered from Egyptian bondage of over 400 years. And
they stood on the bank of the Red Sea, and Moses declared unto
them, Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And God
parted the ocean, parted the sea, and they went through on
dry land. When they got all the way across,
the enemies were destroyed. Now, do you reckon, for a moment,
that they stood on yonder shore and said, Well, look what we've
done. Oh, look what we've done. Oh, man, we parted the water. That's ridiculous, isn't it?
And yet, that is exactly what's going on in Pope's today. They
talk about, look what we have done. He turned the sea into
dry land. Therefore, we rejoice in Him. Verse 7, He ruled by His power
forever. You see, His power is not temporary.
He rules. He ruleth. He ruleth. Get a hold
of that word, ruleth. Now somebody rules this universe.
It's not man. It's God. Who created the universe? We didn't. In the beginning,
God created heaven and the earth. He ruleth. He ruleth. He ruleth. What does it mean
that he rules? That means he has the absolute
sovereign right authority to do as he will, with whom he will,
when he will, for his own glory. He ruleth by power. He ruleth. He is the sovereign. He is the
sovereign Lord. That is, you know the word sovereign
or sovereignty is not in the scripture. But the truth of it is, the root
of the word is reign. God reigns and rules by His power. And it's not temporarily. Look
at verse 7. Forever. Forever. Forever. He rules. He rules. He rules. He rules. His eyes behold, because he rules. Let not the rebellious, therefore,
exalt themselves. He rules in omnipotence, all
power, and he rules by omniscience. He knows all things. He knows our thoughts are far
off. That scares the hypocrite to
death. But his people say in verse 8, O bless our God, ye
people, make the voice of his praise to be heard, which holdeth
our soul. I like this verse. Bless our
God, ye people, make the voice of his praise to be heard. What
is the voice of his praise? I tell you, it's the gospel of
the glory of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
voice of his praise. Let it be heard. Don't try to hide the gospel. We put a sign on the front of
this building that declares exactly what we preach. Sovereign grace. Sovereign grace. That is, God
will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will heal
heart. Don't hold back with that. Don't try to remove the offense
of the cross to try to smooth the ruffled feathers of some
self-righteous religious Muck, preach the gospel. Tell you,
when you try to take the offense off, you remove the power. You
remove the power. Oh, bless our God, ye people. Make the voice of his praise.
Let's sound it forth. Let's do everything we can to
preach the gospel. Let's exhaust all of our resources
to preach the gospel. Let us spend everything we have,
all of our time, our energy, our desires. Let us go and preach
the gospel. You know, that's the charge that
God has given unto us. Go unto the world, all the world,
and preach the gospel to every creature. That's the last words
that Paul wrote to Timothy, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ who shall judge the living and the dead at his appearing,
preach the word, preach the word, preach Christ, preach Christ,
preach Christ. You can't improve upon what God
provided. You can't improve upon this message,
just declare it, just declare it. which holdeth this gospel, this
gospel, the gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, this gospel
holdeth our soul in life. What holds us? What holds us? The gospel holds us. What holds
us here together as a group of believers? What holds us here
together? What binds our heart together?
What brings us together? What holds us together as believers? The gospel of God's grace. That's
what holds us together. That's what binds our heart together. What holds our soul in life and
he suffers not our feet to be moved. Remember in Jude, the
little book of Jude, Where it says, He able to keep us from
falling and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy. To Him be all honor and glory
both now and forever. He holds our soul in life and
He will not suffer our feet to be moved. Verse 10, For thou,
O God, hast proved us, and hast tried us as Silver has tried.
Saving faith will be tried. Saving faith will be proven.
Not to produce faith. Trials don't produce faith. Trials
prove it. Whether it's real or phony. Thou, O God, hast proved us. Thou hast tried us. Where do these trials come from?
They come from the hand of our loving Father. and they're sent
our way to prove us Peter calls them precious trials precious
trials thou brought us us into the net thou laid afflictions
upon our loins thou has caused men to ride over our heads we
went through the fire through the water but thou brought us
us out into a safe place is his grace sufficient for the
trial God says it is. God says it is. His grace is
sufficient for every trial, for every heartache, for every need
that we have, He's able to meet all our need according to His
riches in glory through Christ Jesus. Look at verse 13. I'll go into thy house. I'll
go into thy house." You remember what David said? I was glad when
they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. I
will go into thy house. Why does the believer desire
to go into that place that dedicated to the preaching of the gospel?
To hear of Him. To hear what He has done for
us. I will go into the house of the Lord with burnt offerings
and I'll pay thee what I owe you. What do we owe God? Everything. everything, worship, adoration,
exaltation, we owe him everything. Which my lips have uttered, my
mouth has spoken, when I was in trouble, I'll offer unto thee
burnt sacrifices of fatlings, the best. Incense of rams will I offer,
bullocks with goats. Let us never come before God
without a divinely appointed, God-given, accepted burnt offering. I'm not talking about going out
here and getting you a lamb. I'm talking about looking to
the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away our sin. He takes it away by bearing our
sin in His own body on the tree. Not with the blood of bulls and
goats, but with his own blood he obtained eternal redemption
for us. Let us make sure that we only
glory in Christ and him crucified. Let us make sure we approach
God only through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Now come and hear, verse 16.
Before come and see, now come and hear, all you that fear God. all you that believe God. And
I will declare, I will declare, what He hath done for my soul."
Come and see, come and hear. Two things. Come and see, come
and hear. Now we get most of our information through the eye
gate or the ear gate. Is that right? I like what one
old boy said, I never learned anything by talking. Let us be swift to hear, slow
to speak. We get all of our information
through the eye gate and the ear gate. We either read it or
hear it. You see, faith comes by hearing,
hearing by the Word of God. Through the hearing of the Word,
blessed by the power of God the Holy Spirit, we see the Lord
in His Word by God-given faith. And seeing Him, we fear God,
believe Him, and we declare to others what He has done for our
soul. That's exactly what the Lord told the wild gathering
to do. Go home to your family and tell
them how great thing God hath done. Who did he meet that day? He met God. Who crossed his path? God Almighty. Was it a chance
happening? Did the Lord cross His path just
by chance, luck, fate? Oh no! This was ordained before
the foundation of the world. And God crossed His path and
saved Him by His terrible works. By His tremendous doing. Tell
how great thing the Lord had done for you. The Father in choosing
us and blessing us all, spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in
Christ Jesus. This is the outline from Ephesians chapter 1. You
should be very familiar with it. The Father choosing us in
that blessed covenant of grace and giving us unto the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see the Lord Jesus Christ
is the elect of God. We are chosen in Him. We declare
not only what the Father has done for us, but what Christ
has done for us as He obtained for us eternal redemption with
His own blood. It's in whom we have redemption,
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin according
to the riches of His grace. It says that three times when
it talks about all that the Father has done in choosing us. predestinating
us, being accepted in the Beloved, and then He says, all to the
praise of the glory of His grace. And then when it talks about
the work of the Son in whom we have redemption through His blood,
we have the forgiveness of sin, through the riches of His grace,
all to the praise of the glory of His grace. And then when it
thirdly talks about the work of the Holy Spirit, how He has
called us from darkness to life, translated us out of the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of God, dear Son, and then it
says it's all to the praise of the glory of His grace. You see the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm belaboring this point on
purpose. It's declaring what God hath
done for us. Have you got it? Do you see the
difference? Is there a difference what we
preach here and what's preached out yonder down in the circle
and other places? There is a difference. There is a big difference. I'm
committed to this gospel. I think you folks are too. And we declare what God has done
for us.