Sing Joyfully To The Sovereign - [Psalm 33]

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I would invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 33. We are going through our summer in the
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Psalms and one excursus in Ephesians series this summer.
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And tonight we're gonna be in Psalm 33. What can you gain from a song?
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What do you get out of a song? When you sing a song, do you get anything out of it?
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Does it mean anything to you? Does it do anything for you? Depends on what the words say.
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I'll go for that. Let me ask you this, what benefit is there in studying the lyrics of some unknown songwriter?
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Maybe none. But if it's an inspired word of God, perhaps a lot.
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What gain is there on focusing on lyrics that are thousands of years old?
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Same thing. When they talk about God, when they praise Him, when they recall His attributes, His greatness, there's great gain in it.
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There are so many questions that are answered inside the Psalms. Does God need to be defended? The answer is no.
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If God is sovereign, can He also be loving? I was having a conversation with Erickson about that very thing this afternoon.
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If God is truly sovereign, can He also be loving? I think the answer is yes.
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I think Scripture would tell us it's yes. I would think that this Psalm tonight is going to tell us yes.
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If God is just, can He also be fair? Yes. Why do we study songs that are thousands of years old?
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Because they are inspired by God. And His revelations to us about Himself are what we need to study.
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It's what we need to know. God gave them to us so we would rejoice in Him. If we love
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God, we can never know too much about Him, true or false. Well, you know, Jesus saves and that is enough for me.
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So just don't give me any of that theology stuff. I've said it many times.
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If you are a Christian, you are a theologian, why? Because you study the God who saved you. And I am here to tell you tonight,
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I guarantee you that for all of eternity, you will never cease being amazed by the
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God who saved you by learning more about Him. You will spend eternity in awe of God and His attributes.
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I'm going to read Psalm 33 and then we're going to walk through the passage. Sing for joy in the
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Lord, O you righteous ones. Praise is becoming to the upright.
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Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre. Sing praises to Him with a harp of 10 strings.
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Sing to Him a new song. Play skillfully with a shout of joy. For the word of the
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Lord is upright and all His work is done in faithfulness.
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He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the loving kindness of the
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Lord. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made. And by the breath of His mouth, all their hosts.
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He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps in storehouses.
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Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
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For He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.
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The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations. He frustrates the plans of the peoples.
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The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of His heart from generation to generation.
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Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.
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The Lord looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men.
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From His dwelling place, He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the heart of them all,
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He who understands all their works. The king is not saved by a mighty army.
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A warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory.
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Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the
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Lord is on those who fear Him. On those who hope for His loving kindness.
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To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.
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Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him because we trust in His holy name.
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Let your loving kindness, O Lord, be upon us according as we have hoped in you.
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Now tonight, I want to give you the same exhortation the writer of the psalm had.
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And he had one basic aim. One basic aim, and that was to praise
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God, to praise Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, for His creative power, for His sovereign work.
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In fact, he gave us, I broke it down to six commands that we are to praise
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God for His various attributes. First, in verses one to three, you must sing praise to Yahweh.
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You must sing praise to God, the God who is. Yahweh is the four -letter in the
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Hebrew alphabet name of God, the one that they will not pronounce. If you're reading through the
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Hebrew Bible, they will not pronounce it. In fact, they put vowel pointings in there to make it virtually unpronounceable, if that's a word.
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But this psalm, Psalm 33, is one of a handful of psalms that has no superscript.
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There's no introduction. There's no indication of who wrote it. We just have this, in fact, a lot of times, it's read together with Psalm 32.
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But instead, the psalmist simply bursts forth into a three -verse blast of encouragement.
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Verses one to three. I'm gonna read verse one. Sing for joy in the
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Lord, O you righteous ones. Now, this is not a suggestion. He's not saying, hey, you know what? If you feel like it, sing.
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It is a command. We are to rejoice in the Lord, all those who are tzaddik, righteous, and justified in the sight of God.
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That's what the Hebrew word means. It means not that you are inherently righteous, not that you do the right thing. It's that you have been justified in the sight of God.
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And this song, or this line here, sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones, practically begs to be written into a hymn.
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There is a Sunday morning sense of urgency to it, a first hymn kind of bam, pow to it.
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We should have a desire to join together in song for the great work of God in saving his people.
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Now, I don't know how you guys are. I know on Sunday morning, I come in here and my focus is always,
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I wanna put off everything. In fact, a few weeks ago when I was in Denver, and I just thought
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I'm sitting there and I'd been in the hospital and I just thought, you know what, this morning I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna go to church.
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And when I go there, all I wanna think about is worshiping Christ. I just wanna hear the word.
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I just wanna get beat up a little bit. And I just wanna think about the God who saved my soul and not about all the issues surrounding me.
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And so when I went, again, I do this every week. I try not to look around and see what everybody's doing, but I know that there are people who don't sing.
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And in the back of my mind, I'm almost like, how can you not sing? Maybe you don't sing well.
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I don't think I sing particularly well. That's not the point. The point isn't, you know, hey, if you have a really good voice,
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I mean, look at this verse here. Does it say, sing for joy in the Lord, O you who can carry a tune.
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O you who are great tenors, sopranos, altos, whatever, baritones, or as we used to say, baritones.
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It's not here. If you are positionally righteous, if you have been declared righteous by God, this is a command for you to sing for joy.
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How can you not wanna open up the hymnal and sing? What we did tonight, I'm stunned sometimes when
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I see people not singing. I think, well, maybe they're just not joyful. Maybe they're not positionally righteous.
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I don't know. Maybe there's some other burden. Maybe they have a sore throat. I don't know, but I don't get it.
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I don't understand it. This is a constant command throughout scripture. I'm gonna give you a few illustrations just to kind of give you an idea of what the
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Bible has to say about this. Psalm 28, verse seven. The Lord is my strength and shield.
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My heart trusts in him and I am helped. Therefore, my heart exults and with my song,
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I shall thank him. We sing because we are thanking God for what he has done for us.
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Our hearts ought to exult. We ought to rejoice in what he's done. Just as it says right here, how can you not sing for joy?
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Psalm 108, verses one to four. My heart is steadfast, O God. I will sing.
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I will sing praises. Listen to this. Even with my soul, with all of my being, with everything
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I am, I want to sing. Awake, harp and lyre. I will awaken the dawn.
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I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples and I will sing praises to you among the nations.
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I'm going to go out everywhere and sing to everyone who will listen about the greatness of God for what he has done in my life.
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Verse four, for your loving kindness is great above the heavens and your truth reaches to the skies.
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When we have a heart that really understands what has taken place in us, when we understand intellectually, when it has taken hold in us, we don't sit there and wonder, can
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I hit this note? What's the person sitting next to me going to think? Worse, what's the person in front of me going to think?
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We sing out not for anyone here, but for God, for God who saved us.
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We are showing our thankfulness to him. The New Testament, the church age, Colossians 3 .16.
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Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
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This is the constant theme of scripture, Old Testament, New Testament. And listen to this,
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Revelation 5 .9. This is what you're gonna be doing for all of eternity. And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
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I really don't care if you sing well or not. It's commanded in the Old Testament, the
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New Testament is what you are going to do forever in heaven, so get with the program. Sing, rejoice, think rightly about God.
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And I would almost even preface verse one was saying, you know what, before you come in here, before we start our service, clear your mind of everything else that's going on.
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Forget about your bills, forget about what's happening with your family, forget about the troubles you have at work, push off everything else and say, you know what, tonight, this morning, what have you,
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I am going to focus my worship, my attention on the God who saved me and I'm going to rejoice while I sing.
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I'm going to rejoice when I hear his word. I'm gonna rejoice through the whole thing because I cannot believe
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God would save me. Okay, moving on to verse one.
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Praise, praise, I can't believe I got saved. I wouldn't, I wouldn't save me.
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Verse one still, praise is becoming to the upright. The upright are those who are pleasing in God's sight.
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Why? Because what they do again, no, it's the same idea as it is those who have been accounted righteous, those who are made upright by him.
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But that adjective becoming is very interesting because in the Hebrew, it describes what makes a woman attractive.
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And so the idea is that God finds beauty in the songs of praise that arise from his people, those songs that come from their heart, from their soul, with their very being when they praise him.
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He is pleased by this. It's the right thing to do.
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God commands it and he commends it. Praise is our, as it were, our appropriate clothing, our appropriate dress.
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It is what we ought to look to put on. Now I would ask as we look at verses two and three, since we don't have any
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New Testament teaching, and I came up with a new one here, a new one of the solos, solo piano.
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Since we don't have a new teaching that says, you know, piano only, organ only, keyboards only,
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I would say, I would argue this doesn't seem to be the Old Testament teaching either. Look, verse two, give thanks to the
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Lord with the lyre. What is a lyre? It's not an L -I -A -R, it's an L -Y -R -E for the tape.
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A lyre is a stringed instrument. It's a very basic one.
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Sing praises to him with a harp of 10 strings. So the idea, the Old Testament believers did not gather together and say, okay, this morning on the piano, there's nothing wrong with the piano, there's nothing wrong with an organ, but there's nothing wrong with a lyre or a harp of 10 strings either.
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The key is not the instrumentation, but the content. What should songs look like?
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Well, it's right there in verse two. Give thanks to the Lord. Listen, when we sing songs, how often do we hear something about thankfulness, about being thankful to him?
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There's even, you know, give thanks with a grateful heart, right? One of the songs that Charlie does in the morning. We also would do this in verse two, sing praises to him.
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In both cases, look, the direction is Godward. There's no, you know, there's no
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I in team, but there's also no I in God -centered worship. There is in worship, but that's neither here nor there.
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That's not my point. Stick to the point. Now, let me ask you another question.
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Do you suppose that when they were thinking about how to implement this psalm, they all just kind of filed into the synagogue, temple, tabernacle, wherever they were, they just kind of filed in glumly, the organist or the piano player mildly tickled the keys, and then the congregation faintly sang so as not to embarrass themselves before their neighbor?
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I think the idea is no. I think the overriding command is no.
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I think they sang with all their hearts just as we should. Verse three says, sing to him a new song.
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Sing to God a new song. Play skillfully with a shout of joy. Now, to me, the concept of singing a new song is a fascinating one, so fascinating that I actually learned how to do something new on my computer.
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I thought, this is really cool, and I'm gonna go through and search it on my computer.
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And a few verses here that I thought were very nice. Isaiah 42, I love the book of Isaiah.
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If you've been around me much, you know that. Isaiah 42 is one of the servant songs. It's where God announces a servant, and it's usually
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Jesus, although one of them is a man that he used, and the guy's name is escaping me right now, but he called to be the deliverer of Israel in a physical sense.
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But Isaiah 42, one of the servant songs of Isaiah, listen to verses nine to 13, when he's announcing this future redeemer of his people.
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Behold, the former things have come to pass. Now I declare new things. Before they spring forth,
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I proclaim them to you. That's telling us what? God says something is going to happen, and then he brings it to pass.
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Verse 10, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you islands and those who dwell on them.
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Let the wilderness and all its cities lift up their voices, the settlements where Kedar inhabits.
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Let the inhabitants of Selah sing aloud. Let them shout for joy from the tops of the mountains.
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Let them give glory to the Lord and declare his praise in the coastlands. The Lord will go forth like a warrior.
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He will arouse his zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout. Yes, he will raise a war cry.
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He will prevail against his enemies. They sing a new song, why? Because God is announcing anew his intent to send a savior for his people.
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Revelation five, verses two to nine. And I saw a strong angel, read this earlier, and I saw a strong angel, but I'm gonna read a little more of it.
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And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?
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And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it.
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And this is John writing, then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it.
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And one of the elders said to me, stop weeping. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.
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Verse six, and I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders, a lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
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And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. When he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
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Verse nine, and listen, and they sang a new song, saying, worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
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One writer describes it this way, a new song is the ever new freshness of the praise of God in his victorious kingship.
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And I think that's close. I think that gets us most of the way there, but I also think it has to do with finding new ways to express gratitude as our understanding of his work grows, as our understanding of God's work grows and is revealed to us.
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In the Isaiah passage, God had just revealed that the Messiah was coming. In Revelation, the realization that Jesus was worthy and able to open up the book no one else could open up caused a new song to be sung.
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Steve Lawson says this, a new song is a new occasion and a new impulse for expressing praise to God, a new impulse, something new that we've discovered and we just can't hold back, we have to sing a new song.
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So first you must sing to Yahweh, you must praise him in song.
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Secondly, you must praise Yahweh for his perfections, for his perfections, the things about him that are absolutely perfect.
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Verse four, Yahweh's word is trustworthy for the word of the Lord, the text says, is upright, just as those who are declared righteous are considered upright, it's that same
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Hebrew word. And the word of Yahweh, the Bible, the revelation that he has given us is filled with integrity, it is upright, it is true, it is not subject to deception, it cannot lead us astray.
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Practically speaking, this means we can and should rely on it because it reflects
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God himself. He cannot lie or lead us astray and neither can his word.
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And this is a critical, vital issue. We are surrounded by a world that says the
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Bible cannot be relied upon, that it has been corrupted, that it is filled with error.
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I mean, when you talk with unbelievers, what do they do? They almost immediately go and attack the Bible, why?
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Because if the Bible is true, then they're in big trouble. And so they will do anything to try to attack it.
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Had somebody this week tell me, well, you know, the Bible doesn't mention dinosaurs.
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And I said, well, that's arguable. And I gave him a couple citations about whether it did or it didn't,
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I mean, it's debatable. But then we also have to understand that the
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Bible was written after dinosaurs were gone.
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But here's the question, whether or not the
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Bible talks specifically about dinosaurs, does that make it true or false?
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Does it talk about duck -billed platypuses? I mean, I don't even know when the word dinosaurs came into being, but I don't think it was when the
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Old Testament was written. I don't think Moses was familiar with the Greek language. So, I mean, it's preposterous and the assaults come quickly because they don't wanna be accountable to the
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Bible. You dismiss the
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Bible, you dismiss God, and that strikes at the very heart of God. Think about this, and I've used this illustration before.
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I had a friend who was LDS, who was Mormon, and he said, you know, isn't it great that we have a prophet and so he knew
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I used to be Mormon. And he said, isn't it great, Steve, that we have a prophet in Salt Lake City who is able to communicate with God and tell us exactly what
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God would have us do? And I said, well, I said on the other hand, said
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I would argue that it's great that we have a God who gave us one book and has preserved it against all attacks for centuries.
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Said I think that's pretty great. You can have your God who is changing things and releasing updates and addendum and new revelation all the time, you can have that one because he's not real.
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Would God, the God who spoke the universe into existence, would he in effect put his name on a book that contains many errors?
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No, and any such thoughts are quickly rebutted by the next bit of this
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Psalm. Also in verse four, Yahweh is faithful and all his work is done in faithfulness.
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Is his word, is his revelation of himself not one of his works? Is it not
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God breathed, did he not give it to men that we might know him? Of course it is, of course that's right.
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And the concept here in verse four of faithfulness is one of steadfastness and fidelity. The Lord God, sovereign of the universe does not get wobbly in the knees so to speak, he doesn't kind of shudder and wonder about what's gonna come up next.
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He has said what is going to come to pass and he brings it to pass. Everything that happens is exactly what he has designed.
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He is faithful, he declares things and he brings them about. All of his work is done in faithfulness.
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Everything he does is faithful. Verse five,
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Yahweh is righteous. Text says he loves righteousness.
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In God's dealings, think about that, he loves righteousness. He is,
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I don't wanna say he's emotionally invested but it is something that he prizes. In God's dealings, what does that mean?
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It means he always does what is right. In fact, what God does and says, excuse me, defines what is right.
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You can have no right apart from God and that's made evident in the world that we live in.
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I know an anarchist who was arguing for what was right and what was wrong and I'm going, are you crazy?
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What standard, you don't even believe, not only do you not believe in God, you don't believe in government having any authority or anyone having any authority.
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So how can you say what is right or wrong? It's absurd. But what
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God does and what he says defines what is right. His righteousness is an expression of his wisdom and conformity to his will.
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Easy to say. In other words, the righteousness of Yahweh, the righteousness of God is evident in his working all things according to the counsel of his will because his will is perfect and it is right.
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Everything that he does is right. Someone might well say, well, that's circular reasoning. You just said that everything he does is right and therefore he's righteous, okay?
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But what's true about God is that he is the ultimate standard, if we name any attribute, if we say love, what's our standard?
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God. If we say righteousness, what's our standard? God. If we say faithfulness, what's our standard?
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God. And on and on it goes. God is the ultimate standard, the ultimate measure of everything.
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He loves righteousness because it is one of his attributes. He loves all of his attributes because to do anything else would be sinful.
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He exercises all of his attributes all the time because anything else would be sinful.
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Now, isn't there comfort in knowing that God is righteous? In knowing that he will not and cannot sin, that he will not and cannot depart from that which is right?
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I think there is. Notice also in verse five that Yahweh is just.
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He loves righteousness and justice. God is just. Again, he defines what justice is.
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Does anyone doubt that on judgment day, we will all agree with all of his judgments? How could we not?
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If we were to sit there and say, well, I don't know about that one, Lord. That would be sin. He, again, sets the standard of perfection.
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He told us, be perfect even as I am perfect. He told us the standard.
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He revealed it to us in his word. He told us that one day he will judge us for not meeting his standard.
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He told us that he has given that judgment to his son, Jesus Christ. And he sent that son into this world to provide for us the means to meet his standard.
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Perfection. That's kind of a trick question. You've heard it many times.
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You know, do you have to be perfect to get into heaven? People say no. Well, the answer is yes. Well, I can never be perfect.
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Exactly. This is the gospel. The gospel is you are not perfect and God demands perfection and you cannot close that gap by yourself and God did it for you.
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God sent his son, Jesus Christ, into this world to live a perfect life. He never sinned.
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He never failed to perfectly obey. He died a death that he did not deserve on behalf of sinners who deserved it, like me.
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Then he rose on the third day and the God, the Father, exalted him to his right hand.
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He declared him, as it were, the son of God by virtue of the resurrection. And he commands,
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God commands today, every single sinner to love the son, to turn from self -reliance and to follow him.
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God is just. He will do exactly what is right. His justice demands that every single sin be punished and it will be.
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It absolutely will be. And the only question before us tonight is, will that sin be visited upon Jesus Christ on the cross or will it be visited on you in hell forever?
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God is justice. He loves justice. He loves righteousness. You say that's just the
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Old Testament. God, no. We could demonstrate over and over again in the New Testament, the same
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God. Also in verse five, Yahweh is endlessly merciful.
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He is endlessly merciful. The earth is full of the loving kindness of the
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Lord. That word, you go home and you type loving kindness into your computer on your word processor and you know what it's gonna underline in red and say, that's not a real word.
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You just need to click on that and say, add to dictionary because it is a real word and it is a great word.
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It is a biblical word. And frankly, I would not wanna live without this word.
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It is the Hebrew word hesed. And it's a kind of gracious faithfulness.
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You could call it grace, you could call it mercy, but I don't think that goes far enough. It is the everlasting loving mercy, kindness, marvelous grace of God.
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And it is a precious, precious concept. It is, you know, for shorthand, the
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Old Testament equivalent of grace, unmerited favor poured out endlessly on those in need.
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And what's really in focus here is the fact that the entire earth, all of creation, everything that we see is a testimony to the tender, permanent mercy of the
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Lord in creation. He didn't have to make the world the way it is. He didn't have to make it beautifully.
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He could have made it all black and white. Instead, we got technicolor and 3D and we have all these varieties and flavors and colors.
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And everywhere we look, there is evidence of our merciful creator.
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The world is filled with his loving kindness. I have to move kind of quickly.
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Number three, you must praise Yahweh as the creator and sovereign over all.
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Verse six, notice that Yahweh is the only creator. By the word of the
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Lord, the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth, all their host. He created the expanse of the heavens, all the stars, everything by the word of his mouth.
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And this is an affirmation of the power of God to create ex nihilo, which is
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Latin and just fancy term, it means out of nothing. And that's exactly what this verse says. He just did what?
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By the word of the Lord, he just spoke everything into existence. He didn't recreate what was already there.
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He spoke and everything leapt into existence. And this is a key evangelism tool and challenge.
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You will encounter as you witness all kinds of questions. For example, how can anyone believe in Noah's Ark?
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That's just not possible. Well, it depends again, depends on what kind of God you believe in. When you believe in a
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God that created everything by just speaking into existence, and in fact, as we will see, upholds everything by the word, by his word.
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It's not so hard to see how Noah's Ark is possible. What about the Council of Nicaea?
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What about the things that they took out of the Bible? Again, what kind of God do you believe in? Do you believe in a
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God who spoke? This is a killer. When you understand that God spoke everything into existence, there is nothing that is outside of his power.
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This is a very powerful God. Notice also that creation didn't struggle, didn't fight it, didn't put up any resistance, for he spoke and it was done.
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He commanded and it stood fast. Everything stayed. I mean, it's like, you know, we just wish life would be this easy.
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We wish we could just say something and it would just happen and it would always stay that way. And it doesn't work that way for us. But God is
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God and we are not. And it's by his word that everything came into being and it remains so,
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Colossians 117 tells us. Yahweh created everything out of nothing. Yahweh is also sovereign over creation.
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Look at verse seven. He gathers the water of the sea together as a heap.
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He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Now this language is just fascinating.
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Just for a moment, I want you to think, and I'm sure probably most of you know this little fact here.
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What percentage of the world is covered in water? How much?
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Three quarters. It's very close. Two thirds. If we take three quarters and two thirds and we kind of average them out,
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I think we're right about there. 71%, you know, with global warming, it's probably gone down a little bit, but 71%.
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Now, this one might be a little trickier, although somebody might know it here. What's the total volume of water in the world in cubic kilometers?
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Sure, because, you know, I went to a British site, therefore I got, you know, cubic kilometers, or as we like to say, kilometers.
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It is 1 .4 billion cubic kilometers.
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That's a lot of water. So when you think about that big mass of water, you go, what does that have to do with anything
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I'm about to tell you? When you think about how much water there is in the entire world, and yet, what does this language here in verse seven make us think?
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It's almost like God just kind of handles this water, this huge amount of water, like it's a little handful of Play -Doh.
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And that's how it is. What we think of as immense and enormous and beyond comprehension,
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I mean, what is 1 .4 billion cubic kilometers? I don't even know how much, that's just a lot of water.
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That's more than I want in my backyard. That's a lot of water, and yet God just, what does it say?
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It says he gathers it up together as a heap. He lays up the deeps and storehouses. I mean, he just kind of rearranges water.
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He does whatever he wants. It is his universe. He is in complete control over creation.
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He does whatever he wants with it. Also notice that Yahweh is sovereign over the earth.
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Verse eight, let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
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Now we think, oh, fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's not the kind of fear here. This fear is not the fear of wisdom or beginning of wisdom.
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It is the fear of dread, of awe of the only living God, the only God who is actually able to exercise power.
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I mean, it is interesting when you, if you study Middle Eastern mythology, they all have their own creation myths.
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They have a lot of different things going on, but there is no one, no one, not even in the literature that is even remotely comparable to God.
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He stands above all, and I'll tell you, that made no small enemies of the people around them.
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Now you say, well, or maybe you're thinking, well, you know what? Certainly God can't be sovereign over everything. Certainly there are things that are out of his control.
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What happens, you know, for example, if a country develops a nuclear weapon and wants to wipe out Israel, what then?
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Well, I would just refer you to verse 10. The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations.
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He frustrates the plans of the peoples. People, governments, you know, have plans.
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They lay them out. Militaries have plans, and God ultimately decides what will happen and what will not happen, and nothing is going to happen outside of his plan.
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The greatest military power on the face of the earth during the time of the prophet
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Isaiah was Assyria, led by Sennacherib, and they were fearsome.
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I mean, we went to London several years ago, and they had these pictures, not really pictures.
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They were kind of cut into caves, and of course the British stole everything and took it back to London. But they had these reliefs, these massive reliefs that showed the
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Assyrians doing horrible things to people. I mean, just terrifying things to people, and they had quite a reputation in the ancient world, and they were marching on Jerusalem, and certainly
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Israel or Judah at that point. Judah was no match for the Assyrians, not by themselves.
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Isaiah 37, verses 33 to 37 describe what happens next. Therefore, thus says the
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Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he will not come to the city or shoot an arrow there, and he will not come up before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it.
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By the way, and that's what they would do. The Assyrians would come and they would set up a siege, and they would basically starve you out.
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And if that didn't work, they would then, and they would demand your surrender, and if none of those things worked, then they would go in and they would kill and decimate everyone in there.
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Verse 34, the Lord continuing says, by the way that he came, talking about Sennacherib, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city declares the
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Lord, for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake, and for my servant
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David's sake, because he'd made a promise to David. Verse 36, even though David was dead, long dead.
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Verse 36, then the angel of the Lord, who is the pre -incarnate Christ. Now I could prove that with other verses, but suffice it to say, then the angel of the
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Lord went out and struck 185 ,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. Struck means killed them.
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And when men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead. Verse 37, so Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and returned home and lived in Nineveh.
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He nullifies the council of nations. He frustrates their plans.
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Yahweh alone determines what will happen. Verse 11, the council of the Lord stands forever.
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The plans of his heart from generation to generation. God doesn't have a plan B. He doesn't look at the situation, and I have no idea what to do.
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He doesn't have great big charts and exigencies, and what do I do if this happens or that happens?
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What's plan C and option D and subparagraph E? He doesn't have any of that stuff.
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What comfort would there be in a God who is subject to conditions on the ground, as they say in the military vernacular?
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I'll do what I think based on the conditions on the ground. God doesn't have to do that. What good is a
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God who can only do his best and the rest is up to you? My friends, that is not the
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God of the Bible. So how long will his plans rule and reign over the earth?
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It tells us right there, the council of the Lord stands forever. And if you look up forever in the
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Hebrew, it is the word olam, and it means, and this is pretty shocking, forever.
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There is no end to it. His plan for beginning to end will take place.
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That's what it means to be sovereign over everything. Number four, you must praise
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Yahweh as ruler over all affairs of man. We'll move a little faster here.
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Yahweh is sovereign over selecting his people. Verse 12, blessed is the nation whose God is the
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Lord, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. Now consider for a moment this thought,
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God selects a people as an inheritance, as his inheritance, and then they reject him.
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So he has to pick another inheritance. It can't happen.
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That's one of the great things about the promises to Israel and why I believe they will be fulfilled. God has chosen that people for his inheritance and he will have them.
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If it was dependent upon the chosen people, if God was subject to the whims and the vagaries of human beings, and he was really counting on a mighty nation, or if he needed someone who would really be strong and not be moved, he would have chosen
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Egypt. He would have chosen anyone. He would have chosen Assyria. He would not have chosen Israel. They weren't many.
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They weren't mighty. They were nothing. Why did he choose Israel? So that he might receive the glory.
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Furthermore, Yahweh knows everything in every man's heart. Let me say that again. Yahweh knows everything in every man's heart.
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Verse 13, the Lord looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men.
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From his dwelling place, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the heart of them all.
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He who understands all their works. You get the idea that he knows all.
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He is fully aware of all the sons of men, all the inhabitants of earth, all their plans, everything that they're doing.
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Nothing is hidden from his sight. No deed is hidden from his sight. He is not fooled. He doesn't miss anything.
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He doesn't, obviously, take a nap. He doesn't go on vacation. He knows everything and is tuned in all the time.
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And by the way, that phrase there, knows well, means he has the ability to discern far beyond the exterior actions or appearances.
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God is not mocked. He can't be duped. He can't be fooled. He knows everything.
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Yahweh alone can save. Verse 16, the king is not saved by a mighty army. A warrior is not delivered by great strength.
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A horse is a false hope for victory, nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.
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Now this is physically obvious. We just saw an example of that. Sennacherib, God can destroy an army.
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The mightiest horse or the greatest warrior ever cannot provide the slightest hope against the sovereign
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God of the universe. Spiritually, of course, we look at it and we go, well,
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I wouldn't wanna rely on anything other than God. Why would I?
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I could have a mighty army. That's not gonna save me. I could have a warrior. That's not gonna save me. I need
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God. Number five, you must praise Yahweh for his provision for his people.
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Verses 18 and 19, behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope for his loving kindness to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive, excuse me, in famine.
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Yahweh takes special note and care on those upon whom he has set his affection, those who fear him, those whom he has caused not to rely on their own strength for deliverance, but on his mercy, his loving kindness, his grace alone.
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And I don't think there's a greater illustration in all the Bible than Samson of someone who had to be saved by grace alone.
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He's in Hebrews 11, the hall of faith. How did he get there? During his entire life, he relied upon his physical strength, strength that the
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Lord gave him with a promise that he would obey the Nazarite vow. Yet at the very end, what does he say?
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When he's being held prisoner by the Philistines and when his strength is gone, everything is gone, then
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Samson called to the Lord and said, oh Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time.
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It was the only time he ever put that phrase together, oh Lord God, where he acknowledged
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God as the sovereign. Please remember me, he said, please strengthen me just this time.
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And it's the same with every believer. We spend our lives relying before Christ on ourselves, on our own strength, comparing ourselves to others, determining by our own standards that we're not really that bad.
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And yet in one moment, as with Samson, God removes the scales from our eyes and we see what
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Samson saw, although he was blinded. Apart from the grace of God, we stand before a holy
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God condemned, before a righteous God without any hope. Samson did not know the name of Christ, but he knew his work,
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Samson's works were utterly worthless to save him. And he casts himself completely upon God.
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Sixth, you must praise Yahweh for his immutable love. Verses 20 to 22, our soul waits for the
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Lord. He is our help and our shield, for our heart rejoices in him because we trust in his holy name.
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Let your loving kindness, oh Lord, be upon us according as we have hoped in you.
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And this is the cry of every soul born to a new and living hope, of everyone who is born again.
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When God sets his affection upon you, your heart rejoices from trust in self, we turn into trusting in his holy name.
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And his name represents his person, all that he is, everything that is true about him, his perfections, his attributes.
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We've come full circle, our hearts are full with what? Joy over who he is.
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What would we wanna do at that point besides sing praises to him, declare his praises to everyone that we meet?
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And that is the point of this Psalm. We wanna declare his greatness, his goodness.
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You must sing praise to Yahweh. You must praise Yahweh for his perfections. You must praise
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Yahweh as the creator and sovereign over all. You must praise Yahweh as ruler over all affairs of man.
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You must praise Yahweh for his provision for his people. And you must praise Yahweh for his immutable love.
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Let's pray. Our father, what a joy, what a thrill that you would give us a new heart, a love for you, that you would take us who were not righteous and give us righteousness.
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You would take us who were not upright and make us upright.
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Father, you have given us so much. You have told us so much about yourself.
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So many things, so many attributes, so many truths about you. Father, we could spend and will spend eternity doing just that, praising you for all that is true about you.
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I pray that you would put a song, a new song in our hearts as we consider all the great things that you have done on our behalf.
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Would you give us a new resolve whenever we are in the house of the
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Lord, when we are gathered to worship you? Would you let us do so with a full heart, a heart filled with joy, with our souls completely and entirely focused upon you and your goodness and greatness?
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Father, your kindness, your loving kindness toward us, loving kindness that would never fail.