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Psalm 100
I've chosen Psalm 100 to minister today to your hearts and souls.
It is a quintessential Thanksgiving psalm. In fact, it is the only psalm that explicitly identifies itself as a, if you notice under the heading, a song of praise for the
Lord's faithfulness to His people, so it says, your Bible should say, a psalm of thanksgiving.
A psalm of thanksgiving. It was actually this psalm that our forefathers, the pilgrims, chose to praise
God with as they went through many tribulations and afflictions to make it to this land.
And as they set foot on this land, they chose Psalm 100 to praise God and give thanks to the
Lord. So it is a psalm of thanksgiving. Rightfully so.
And that it's for, it explains, number one, how to give thanks.
Second, it tells us why to give thanks. And third, last, it provides the best known invitation to give thanks.
Incredible amounts of worship are poured forth to give thanks to God. Incredible.
Amazing. Amazing grace. Flowing from this psalm, 100, for 3 ,000 years and more, we're diving in today to hear what
God has to say about thanksgiving. So please turn with me in your
Bible to Psalm 100. There are only five verses, but they are power -packed.
They are full, pregnant with truth. And I pray that the
Lord will help us be engaged to hear what He has to say to us in these five verses.
Actually, Brother Keith mentioned this in the opening last Lord's Day. It's a great opening as well, but there is so much that could be said.
And believe me, it's like Psalm 23. It's short, but it's so comprehensive.
It's so packed. There is absolutely no way, even within this hour, that I will exhaust all the truth that's poured forth in these five verses.
It's incredible. And that shows that it's not man's word. It's God's word.
This is the old 100th. The old 100th, as they said. And it's a song of praise for the
Lord's faithfulness to His people, as I've already said. A psalm of thanksgiving. So hear the word of the living
God, beginning with verse 1. And I'm reading from the
New King James Version this morning. Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who made us, and not we ourselves.
We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good, and His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.
Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful word that God has for us from Psalm 100.
The Westminster Catechism, as you well are familiar with, gives the very first question that comes to my mind here.
What is the chief end to man? A simple but profound question, and it has a simple and profound answer.
Man's chief end is to glorify
God, and to enjoy Him forever. This psalm pours forth this.
This is a psalm for every season, just not for one season. But it is a thanksgiving psalm.
Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Our very reason for being, the very reason that we exist, as you can see in Revelation, that God says we exist, is to praise
Him. Our reason for being, our purpose of our being, is to glorify
God, to worship God, is no doubt the single most important thing in our life as a child of God.
In his classic sermon, A. W. Tozer preached a sermon in which he preached the whole counsel of God, but I really believe, personally, as I've read
Tozer down through the years, he really had a heart to worship
God. Ravenhill said that as he knew him personally as a good friend, he said many times he would dismiss his secretary from any church business, and he would lock his door and just go into his study and just fall on his belly and worship
God for hours. What an example.
And you wonder why God used that man in his generation. The sermon he preached on was called
The Worship, The Missing Jewel of the Evangelical Church, and Tozer says this about worship.
He begins with a question in this particular section, and he says, Why did Christ come?
Why was He conceived? Why was He born? Why was
He crucified? Why did He rise again? Why is
He now at the right hand of the Father? And the answer to these questions is, as Tozer says, in order that He might make worshipers out of rebels.
In order that He might restore us again to the place of worship that we knew when we first were created.
End quote. And that is so true. This is what God has done in Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ, in redemption.
As Brother Keith read, Psalm 107, that's the story of redemption.
This is what God does in our fallenness, in our depravity, in being ruined from sin.
He restores us back in even a greater way than Adam and Eve were in the garden.
After Jesus made His glorious triumph at entry into Jerusalem in Luke 9, chapter 19, verse 37 through 40, as you well are familiar with, the
Gospel record says this, then as He was now drawing near the descent of the
Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise
God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying,
Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.
And in verse 39, has such a profound statement and a question with an answer that Jesus gives in a loving rebuke.
And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd and said, Teacher, rebuke your disciples.
And He answered and said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.
I love that. That's what's so profound. God will be praised.
And the Bible says in Psalm, I believe it's Psalm 50, chapter 50, that it's almost like the entire
Psalm is a rebuke, but there's one section at the end of it that says, but God that is glorified will be praised.
He inhabits the praise of His people. God will be praised.
God will be glorified. After all, He created angels and angelic beings and creatures in heaven to glorify and to praise
Him for all eternity. Now, He makes man in His own image. Man falls. And yet, through Jesus Christ, man is restored to worship and glorify
God. All of creation is created to worship God and glorify God. You even have some of the
Psalms that says, even the trees of the fields will glorify God and clap their hands.
And Jesus, as we just read, said, if these do not praise
God, the stones immediately would cry out.
Psalm 100 is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving to God. It is a well -known psalm that emphasizes the universal nature of God's kingship.
The psalm is a benediction to the series of psalms which are occupied with the
Lord's kingdom rule, which are Psalm 93, Psalm 95. These all are packed together as clusters.
And through the psalms to 100 is a psalm of thanksgiving and praise to God.
You see, this is known as a cluster of royal psalms.
A cluster of royal psalms to God and thanksgiving and praise to God. The King, the
King of glory, comes from the cord of David's harp, the sweet singer of Israel, a man after God's own heart, inspired by the
Holy Spirit Himself, which praises God. His praise and worship to the
King of glory is full of delightful thanksgiving to the One who is worthy to receive glory and honor and praise and thanksgiving.
For He created all things by His will and by His desire. They exist, as the
Scripture says, and were created in revelation. Beloved, that's going to be our occupied position throughout all eternity as we praise the
One, the only One that is worthy to be praised. Most of the psalm of 100 is a call to praise and worship here and thanksgiving.
So let's look into this wonderful psalm. While verse 3 and verse 5 give to us the very reasons for that worship, psalm 100 is a descriptive manual,
I like to say, a manual on worship. This is why
God saves us again. To make us worshipers. To love
Him, to adore Him. For the Father seeks true worshipers.
True worshipers to worship Him in spirit and truth. And if we are not worshiping Him in spirit and truth, we are not worshiping
God acceptable. It must be in spirit and truth. And that's why we need the help of the
Holy Spirit that our worship would be acceptable to a most holy God through Jesus Christ, through the blood covenant.
Psalm 30 verse 4 exhorts God's people to sing unto the
Lord, O you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.
His holiness is the attribute of attributes.
Beloved, how many times throughout the entire Bible mentions that God is holy.
Just not holy, but that He's the most, most holy God. He is holy, holy, holy.
As R .C. Sproul said many, many times as he was here on this earth and teaching in His most wonderful way, exuberant, passionate.
He said it is the only attribute of God that is raised to the third degree. That should tell us something about God.
He is holy, holy, holy. His holiness is an attribute of attributes.
Psalm 27 verse 4 says this, It speaks of the beauty of the Lord, which is none other than the beauty of holiness.
That is God's beauty. Psalm 110 verse 3 says,
Your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power and in the beauties of holiness.
From the womb of the morning, you have due of your youth.
The Puritan Stephen Cronach put it this way, Power is God's hand or arm.
Omniscience, His eye. Mercy, His bowels. Eternity, His duration.
But His holiness is His beauty. Think of that. The beauty of the
Lord is His holiness. And Scripture exhorts us to worship Him in the beauty of His holiness.
That's why worship is so serious, isn't it? When we worship God, it's a very serious thing.
It's not a time for clowns and all this nonsense that the so -called
Church of the Tares is bringing about today. Making jokes of it. God is not the subject of joking.
All you have to do is ask Ananias and Sapphira about that. According to 2
Chronicles chapter 20 verse 21, God appointed singers of Israel that should praise
Him in the beauty of His holiness. So why did
God appoint singers for this? Verse 21 gives us the answer. And when they had consulted with the people,
He appointed those who should sing to the Lord and who should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and were saying, and what did they say?
Praise the Lord for His mercy endures forever. How many times is that repeated in Scripture?
And we heard this today from Psalm 107. Beloved, it's the battle song of the redeemed.
This is our battle song. What is that? Praise the Lord for His mercy endures forever.
Praise Him. Praise Him. Let everything that has breath praise Him. We have a song of praise of thanksgiving.
Why? Because God is merciful. God is full of love and kindness towards us.
He is everlasting. And only those who are redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb, washed in His blood, dressed in the clothes of the holy attire, symbolic of sacred setting apart, which is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, can worship
God acceptably. And only God's people truly knows what it means to worship
Him acceptably. So God accepts only worship that is dressed in the righteous attire of Jesus Christ.
Dressed in His righteousness by faith alone to the praise and honor of His holiness.
That's the only really way we can come before a holy God and worship Him acceptably is being dressed in the righteousness of Christ.
Because our righteousness is filthy as filthy rags. Well, we look at Psalm 100 today and we had the manual of how to worship and praise
God, beloved, acceptably. Psalm 100 literally shouts
God's praise in these five wonderful verses.
And there has been thousands of books, beloved, written by good godly men, and I even would say the
Puritans, and they would agree with this statement. But that would encourage you and bless you and teach us how to worship
God. But let me say this in all due respect, none of them can even come close to this one chapter,
Psalm 100, with five verses that teaches us and instructs us of how and who to worship
God. Why? Because God is the speaker here. God is the speaker and this is
God's manual on worship. The most holy God, the almighty
God, the triune God, the eternal God. Notice in verse 1, worship is directed.
It's directed, directed unto who? The Lord, the Lord. Notice what it says, make a joyful shout to the
Lord. All you lands, explanation point.
Worship is always active. Verse 2, serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before His presence with singing. Worship is knowledgeable. Verse 3, know that the
Lord, He is God. It is He who has made us and not we ourselves. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Worship is thankful. Verse 4, enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him and bless His holy name, His name. Worship is justified.
Verse 5, the Lord is good and His mercy is everlasting and His truth endures to all generations.
So the psalm can be divided up into two sections. The first section is a call to praise, to worship the
Lord. So first we, as God's people, are to praise the
Lord joyfully. And second, we are to serve the Lord with gladness. Third, we are to come before His presence with singing.
And also we are to know, that's important, that the Lord is
God. For His mighty power and His deeds. Then the second section is a call to thank the
Lord. So it's first of all a call to praise the Lord, but it's also a call to thank the
Lord. And if verse 1 through 3 calls us into His presence to praise
Him joyfully with singing, then verse 4 and 5, God calls us to thank
Him for everlasting goodness and mercy. Those wonderful two attributes that stands out.
And notice David repeats that in Psalm 23, 6. Surely goodness and mercy shall, what?
Follow me. It follows me. It follows you. All the days of my life.
Not some of the days, but all the days. Isn't it wonderful? That goodness and mercy.
Many preachers have preached many messages on this. They call it the hounds of heaven. Goodness and mercy follows you, goes after you.
And then he says, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And it's not talking about the dwelling place here on earth.
He's talking about the heavenly dwelling place. Where He will soar with God and fly away and worship
God forever and ever. Just like you and I will one day. As our time here on this earth is just a dressing room for eternity.
Then we will soar into the eternal dwelling place to worship our
God forever and ever. So verse 1 through 3 gives us the invitation to worship. To call, to come, to worship and praise
Him. Then verse 4 and 5 tells us and instructs us why we worship
Him. Why we worship Him. Verse 1 and 2 tells us what to do.
1. What is it? What are we to do? Well, number 1. We're to make a joyful noise unto the
Lord. Number 2. Serve the Lord with gladness. 3. Come. There's an invitation.
Before His presence was singing. Verse 4 tells us where to go.
Where do we go? We go into His presence. Isn't that a wonderful place to go?
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. We go into the hiding place of God. Under the wings of God is pictured so beautifully as like a mother hen brooding and loving her little chicks.
The girls was over yesterday and one of them said, I think one of our hens is starting to brood.
And they said, oh boy, we can't wait to have little chickens. And I'm telling you what. These hens are very protective over their chicks.
And that's the way God is. He's protective over us, His very own. Under His wings we can trust.
Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing. Verse 4 tells us where to go.
Into His presence with thanksgiving and praise. Verse 3 and 5 tells us what to know.
What to know. What are we to know? Now listen to this carefully. This is such a wonderful truth.
1. Know that the Lord is God. 2. Know that it is
He who made us. 3. Know that we are His people. 4. Know that we are the sheep of His pasture.
5. Know that the Lord is good. 6. Know that His mercy is everlasting.
7. And know that His truth endures to all generations. That's the number of completion.
Know, know, know who He is.
Who we worship. Notice the simplicity of this call to worship. The depth and the wonder of it.
For the courts of His are His. The gates are His. Notice within this psalm that the focus is on God and God alone.
Because He alone deserves and receives worship and praise and glory and honor.
And we see this in the doxologies in Revelation. There are different doxologies and you can look at them in Revelation.
But there's like a four -fold doxology. And then it eventually builds up to a seven -fold doxology.
That is a number of completion. Notice within this awesome psalm that the focus again is on God.
How do we know this? Because within this psalm, eight times, I count it, eight times.
You can check it out. Check me out, please. But I count it eight. The word
His appears speaking of God. Verse 2, come before His presence.
Verse 3, we are His people. Verse 3, and the sheep of His pasture.
Verse 4, His, enter into His gates. Verse 4, into His courts.
Verse 4, bless His name. Verse 5, His mercy is everlasting.
Verse 5, His truth endures to all generations. It's about Him, His.
It's His. So first, in the divine order commanded by God, God's people have a call to worship and praise
Him. Verse 1, make a joyful shout, a noise to the Lord. We are to shout joyfully unto
Him. God's people are to praise the Lord joyfully. This verse sets the tone for the psalm.
It calls God's people to shout for joy unto Yahweh. The Hebrew verb for make a joyful shout is a highly charged command for public praise.
The command is addressed not just to Israel, but to all the earth.
Notice that? All the earth. Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praise.
Psalm 98, verse 4. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praise.
The original word here in Hebrew signifies a glad shout.
Shout gladly unto the Lord. This is worship. Such a loyal subjects give when their king appears among them.
Shout joyfully. It's a shout to the Lord of loyalty and faithfulness.
Psalm 66, verse 1 says, Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth, calling for all the earth to praise the living
God. Psalm 95, verse 1, which is one of my most favorite psalms as well.
O come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
He is our rock. And as Paul says, Christ is that rock.
An invitation to come. Come. As Jesus gave that invitation in Matthew 11.
Come unto me, all you labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Rest for souls. Rest for your soul.
Worship God with tremendous energy, and all within you bless His holy name. As David said in Psalm 103.
One other example that we have, 1 Samuel 10, 24. Scripture says this,
After Israel wanted a king to be like other nations, Saul was chosen to be Israel's king.
God permitted it. As we heard today in the
Sunday school lesson about providence, God permitted it, gave the people their desires, so God permits it.
And the prophet Samuel said to all the people, Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen?
That there is no one like him among all the people. So the people shouted and said,
Long live the king. Long live the king. Or the original
Hebrew says it like this, May the king live. Sage Spurgeon says this about joyful worship.
Our happy God should be worshipped by a happy people. A cheerful spirit is in keeping with His nature.
His acts and gratitude which we should cherish for His mercies. In every land
Jehovah's goodness is seen. Therefore in every land should be praised. Here will the world be in the proper condition till with one unanimous shout it adores the only
God. O ye nations how long will you blindly reject Him?
Your golden age will never arrive till ye with all your hearts reverence
Him. End quote. Well said. Let's go to verse 2.
Serve the Lord. Not only are we to come before Him and shout before Him joyfully, but we also to serve the
Lord. Serve the Lord with gladness. That's the motive. With gladness.
Not sadness. Come before His presence with singing. He is our
Lord therefore He is to be served with joy. Scripture speaks much about joy.
With the same kind of joy as though we are bidding to a marriage feast of a celebration.
Not a funeral service. We are to come before His presence with thanksgiving.
Do you come before God in your quiet time with Him before Him and sing in His presence?
Do you sing His praises? That's a good way to enter into His presence is sing praises to Him.
Sing songs to Him. God sings over you. Scripture says that.
He sings over you. Isn't that amazing? The Almighty God of the universe sings over us little worms.
Wow. It's mind boggling isn't it? He is our
Creator. How much more should we as the creature come into His presence to sing before Him in which we are made in His image.
To love Him and adore Him and to worship Him. That's why He made us. To worship
Him and to enjoy Him forever. May we never get over this.
Next let's go to verse 3. Tells us what to know. Know what?
The text tells us. Know that the Lord He is God. It is
He who has made us and not we ourselves. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. And here are the reasons we are to be glad in the
Lord. First of all. The first reason I see here and observe is. That unlike the gods of the surrounding nations.
Yahweh is the Lord. He is God. He is the one true living
God as Jesus says. He is not the God of the dead. He is the God of the living. The second reason is.
It is He who has made us. He has made us. Do you ever stop and think about that when you.
Comb your hair and in the mirror and brush your teeth. And the purpose in which
God has made you. Your existence, your very existence. How your very being.
In Him we live and move and have our being in Him. That we are to love Him, to adore
Him, to extol Him, to worship Him. That is why He created us.
That we worship the one true living God. Intelligent, reasonable worship.
Not worship and ignorance. And that is what separates God's creation, man.
Different than the animal kingdom. They do not have the reason and the capacity to worship
God. As man does. And you know,
I believe. Brother Keith and I had this conversation a while back ago. You look at the birds.
You look at the animal kingdom. They pretty much do more. Now man has fallen.
In the fallen state. And they do more in commanding. And what God commands them to do than what men do.
How God must, it must grieve God to see. That His own created being.
Made in His image. On the sixth day. The crown of His creation has gone so low in sin.
And thrown the, so to speak, the analogy here. The gift of worship.
The harp, so to speak, into the mud. And cares not about the living God in whom
He came from. And yet the animal kingdom, the birds, the fowls of the air.
They obey God's command more than we do. In loving God. But God gives us the reasonable capacity to worship.
We ought to know that who we worship and why we worship. Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke this wonderful truth.
At the well of Jacob. In John chapter 4 verse 21 through 24.
Jesus saith unto the woman. The woman there at the well. Believe me, the hour is coming when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem.
Worship the Father and worship the Father. You worship, you know not what.
We know what we worship, Jesus said. For salvation is of the
Jews. Then He says, but the hour will come. And now is when the true worshipper shall worship the
Father in spirit and truth. For the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a spirit.
And they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. Well the third reason to know is that we are
His. We are His, what a wonderful reason. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Listen to Psalm 95 verse 6 and 7. Oh come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God and we are the people of His pasture.
And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice. And then
He goes on to say, harden not your heart. Don't harden your heart. Becomes a warning.
Beloved, this is celebrating our covenant keeping God. Psalm 33, 18 through 22 says this.
Behold Yahweh, the Lord's eye is on those who fear
Him. Fear Him. Do you fear God this morning? On those who hope in His loving kindness.
Do you hope in His loving kindness? To deliver their soul from death. To keep them alive in famine.
Our soul has waited for Yahweh. He is our help and our shield.
For our heart rejoices in Him. Because we have trusted in His holy name.
Let your loving kindness be on us. Yahweh, since we have hoped in you.
Wonderful. Well, let's go to the next section. The second section of this wonderful Psalm.
The scripture in this 100th Psalm is a call to give thanks to the
Lord. To give thanks to the Lord. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him and bless His name. That's the word of the Lord. It's a command.
Commands are reiterated. And for God, He is good.
We are to come before the Lord and worship to praise Him and for the beauty of His holiness, as I said earlier.
Now God tells us how to come before Him. Isn't that amazing? Nothing is left undone.
God brings out every detail. He tells us how to come before Him.
Let us remember how the prophet Isaiah gave the solemn warning and exhortation to the very religious people in Israel in his day.
In Isaiah chapter 1 verse 12, God speaks, When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand to tread my courts?
It's a question from God. God desired sacrifices but not from people.
Notice what He says. These here whom were very religious externally, they had a form of godliness but denied the power thereof.
They disobeyed God. They disobeyed His commandments. They rebelled against the commandments of the
Lord and mistreating others and regarded iniquity in their hearts.
To obey is better than sacrifice, the scripture says. God judges not only our external pious acts, beloved, but more importantly,
God judges the attitudes and motives of our hearts. He's the searcher of our hearts, the discerner of our hearts.
So what God is saying is, Don't come before me with your iniquity in your hearts.
Don't just come before me with lip service. And don't come before me spreading your hands unless they're holy.
And say, You're worshipping me with your heart and your heart, as Jesus said, is far from me.
Just lip service. And scripture says lip service is hypocrisy.
Such warnings that God gives. Isn't it amazing? God, again, does not leave out any detail how to come before Him.
Well, we should be washed and cleansed. Even though God hates such sacrifices like this,
God has a remedy. Isn't that wonderful? He has a remedy. Verse 16 -20,
God says this, Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doings.
Put it away. That's repentance. From before my eyes, cease to do evil.
Verse 17, learn to do good. Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Did not James say in James 1 .27 that this is pure religion and undefiled before God?
And then here, in verse 18, he says, Come now. When?
Now. Not tomorrow. Now. As scripture says,
Paul said, Today, now, is the day of salvation. Today is the day of salvation.
Come now. Come now. Let us reason together. Notice what
God says, reason together. Says the Lord, Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.
What a promise. Though they shall be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Verse 19, If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.
But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the
Lord has spoken. Wow. I don't know about you, but that really sobers me up to say,
Lord, when I come before your presence, help me to come with reverence and humility and brokenness before you.
To know that who you are, you are the great King of the universe, the King of kings, the
Lord of lords. And we are not to come in there before your presence flippantly and frivolously.
We must come before the courts of the Lord, clean and washed in the blood of the Lamb, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise.
Notice his gates, his courts. Oh, this is a sermon in itself, beloved.
Speaks of the temple of God, the very holy, sacred place of God himself.
Verse 5 sums it up. For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting.
His truth endures to all generations. Well, I'm going to try to land this plane.
We're heading toward our conclusion here. Great song of praise, worship, declares
God's goodness and mercy to all people that he alone is faithful, he is true.
That's what he says, right? Jesus said that of himself. He says, I'm true and faithful. Isn't that wonderful?
We have the mercy of God. He alone is faithful and true. And his common grace, isn't it amazing that God extends common grace to the nations?
Even now it extends special grace to his own people, the church, forever and ever, although this is a psalm, begins with explosion of praise, great celebration, and might, majesty, dominion, power, and sovereign power of the eternal creator.
The final verse here points us to God's goodness and grace. Mercy is everlasting.
Mercy that endures forever through time and eternity. He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, as Jesus said.
Know the way to God, right? Jesus said that. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one, no man comes unto the Father but by me, but through me.
The Lord is without question good, and his mercy and his grace most certainly endures through all generations because he's purposed before the foundation of the world to have a redeemed people for himself to worship him and to love him.
That's what it says in Ephesians. Ephesians 1. You see the verse to praise that the apostle
Paul gives in Ephesians 1.
Turn with me there if you like. I want to read it. Just a few verses. Notice how Paul talks about the redemption in Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father in verse 3 of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ just as he chose us in him.
When? Before the foundation of the world. We had nothing to do with that. That we should be holy, set apart, and without blame, before him in love, having predestined us, that means marked us out, to the adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
Why? Verse 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved.
In him we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence having made known to us the mystery of his will according to the good pleasure which he purposed in himself.
Again, he repeats that that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven which are in earth.
In him, in him also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory.
I can keep reading. It keeps building up, building up with praise to the praise of the glory of his grace to the praise of the glory of his grace.
It all points to the purpose the sacrificial offering of his one and only begotten son
Jesus Christ, God in his grace that he has purposed to reinstate and restore man's place of worship through the person and work of Jesus Christ and that is the only place that we are restored.
Amen? Is at the cross. We cannot have it outside of the cross of Christ.
The atonement. It is for all these reasons that the Gentile nations in Israel are jointly called upon to enter into his gates with thanksgiving in their heart to come before his courts with praise and to give thanks to him and to bless his holy name forever and ever.
Jew and Gentile are summoned to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to repent who has said the ultimate price for our sin has in himself the word of eternal life.
Keep in mind in the time of David when the song of thanksgiving in Psalm 100 was written it was worshippers of Israel who would process through the gates through the city of Jerusalem and go up to the temple of the
Lord with songs of praise on their lips and from their hearts but the veil of the temple has not been torn in two at that time.
From top to bottom signifies whoever will come to the worship at the feet of our
God and blessed Savior now it's torn. All can come.
God tore that veil in two from top to bottom. Isn't that wonderful?
Jew and Gentile young or old, male or female, black or white, bond or free are all invited and exhorted to come before him enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise and we can come before the
King of Glory. And oh we should come we should come the way he says to come come with reverence singing thanksgiving.
Everyone is summoned to give thanks to the Lord for his good and his mercy endures through all generations because Jesus Christ died to pay the price of our sins and give us eternal life in himself because he said he is that everlasting life.
So let us all shout joyfully to the Lord and serve him in gladness. Let us come before him with joyful singing and know that the
Lord himself is God Almighty who has made us and not we ourselves to praise his holy name that by grace through faith alone we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Let us enter into his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise and let us give thanks to him for his good his mercy and his loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting his faithfulness endures throughout all generations.
This is worship. And may we also not forget we come unto the
Lord Jesus Christ because his yoke is easy and his burdens light. I love that verse, don't you?
We can pull away from this depressed evil world in which we are in and yes, that's the reality of it it's full of sickness and sin and heartache but God has given us this great gift of worship to love him and come away from that and to fall on our faces before him but I wouldn't know what to do if I couldn't do that.
Perish? Yes, we would perish. Aren't you glad what the scripture says?
Come to the waters hoe everyone that thirsts come to the waters. Isaiah 55
You who have no money come and eat yes, come and buy wine and milk without money without price draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you but we must come by the
Spirit's help he helps us to come unto him because his yoke is easy his burden is light he didn't say he didn't have a burden he gives us his burden but it's light makes me think of what
Thomas A. Kempis says bear the cross patiently and in the end the cross will bear you it will carry you makes me think of Matthew Henry that was once attacked by thieves and robbed his person this is a wonderful story and it literally happened to him he wrote these words in his diary and it exemplifies praise and thanksgiving literally thanksgiving to God that we could give thanks in everything
I didn't say for everything but in everything in that whatever you're going through today you can give
God thanks and find something to give thanks to God for for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you what happened?
Matthew Henry said let me be thankful after he was robbed and he gives four reasons to give thankful and I thought wow this is so profound he says
I was never robbed before the first reason second is although they took my purse they didn't take my life third reason is although they took my all my purse my wallet basically we would interpret it today it wasn't much and fourth is and I love this fourth reason let me be thankful because it was
I who was robbed and not I who did the robbing that's grace I thought this man just pulled out that verse let us give thanks in everything we are to give thanks unto
God and God has given us again the manual of giving thanks and praise and worship to Him because God is faithful to His people
He's faithful and remember what Paul said even though when we're not faithful He remains faithful I was telling
Felicity on the way here this morning you can be sure of this we change and we need to change for the better and change faith to faith and glory to glory as God's people but no matter what happens we do change and things will change and eventually as time goes by change and change is all about us but there's one thing
I said Felicity don't never forget God is the same yesterday, today and forever
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever and we can know that this great
God this great Christ this wonderful Holy Spirit the triune
God never changes from everlasting to everlasting He's God He's immutable
He never changes and I mentioned to her
I said God was the same God as He was billions of years before the earth even began
He will be the same God billions of years in the future we have a great
God to worship Amen and to give God the thanks and the praise make a joyful shout to the
Lord all you lands and serve the Lord with gladness come before His presence with singing know that the
Lord He is God it is He who has made us not we ourselves we are
His people aren't you glad that's a reason to be shout to God and give thanks and the sheep of His pasture so enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise be thankful to Him and bless
His name for the Lord is good His mercy is everlasting
His compassion and His truth endures to all generations praise
His name please bow with me in prayer Our Father in heaven we thank
You for Your wonderful word Your word as Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away but Your word will not the grass withers the flower fades but Your word endures forever heaven and earth passing away but Your word shall never pass away praise
You Lord we thank You Lord we thank You for providing the most wonderful glorious unspeakable gift of all the perfect sacrifice for our sin our
Redeemer our Savior our Lord Jesus Christ the Lamb of God that was wrapped in the manger of a feeding trough that came from glory and humbled
Himself who took away our sin on the cross and dresses us in His righteousness of faith alone
Lord You're so wonderful You're so worthy of all praise and thanksgiving glory and honor
Lord our hearts cannot soar enough Lord we pray that You would enlarge our hearts that we would have a capacity large enough to praise
You as we should as Lord we're so small and yet You are to be glorified thank
You Father for You alone are a faithful God a covenant keeping God who keeps
Your promises and fulfills them and You have done that through Your great mercy towards us in Jesus Christ a mercy that endures forever so we praise
You Father and we praise You and praise You and praise
You and we give You thanks for You alone are worthy as be true of us just not on one time of the year but in all seasons in all seasons of the year to give thanks to You for Your mercy endures forever in Jesus name