A Psalm of Thanksgiving

We'll praise God. It's a joy to worship. Let us turn to Psalm 100.

Here we have a psalm of thanksgiving, or you can call it a psalm of praise.

But it's preferably called a psalm of thanksgiving, and it is the only psalm in the collection to bear in this title.

It speaks of an invitation to the whole earth to know and to worship God. That's its focus.

G. Campbell Morgan says it is a jubilant with confidence for the whole earth as it contemplates the glory of that earth and when all its people are submitted to the reign of Jehovah.

And that's pretty much the backdrop of this wonderful psalm of praise, a psalm of thanksgiving.

So, hear the word of the Lord. Turn to the right chapter here.

Aren't you glad for God's word this morning? Five short verses, but believe me, it's loaded.

Just like Psalm 23, you have six verses. But so much truth is packed within these words.

Believe me, I will not finish. So, we're going to get and glean what we can.

Hear the word of the Lord. Verse 1. Make a joyful noise unto the

Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness, and come before His presence with singing.

Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves, for we are

His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.

Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the

Lord is good, and His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations.

May God richly bless His word this morning from our ears to our hearts.

Let's pray. Father, we come to You again, and we recognize, Lord, this is

Your word. This is Your holy word. May we be in submission to it.

There is nothing that compares to it. You even said in Your word,

Father, that You have exalted Your word above Your name. And You have exalted Your name so far above the heavens, it's beyond our imagination.

But yet, You have exalted Your word above Your name. Lord, that humbles us.

We tremble before it. We pay homage to it.

We submit to it. Help us, Lord, to love it more. Because when we love Your word, we love

You. Because You are the God of the word. And with Your word is Your character, and Your integrity, and everything that You are.

Thank You, Father, that You preserved it for us. That we may know You better and closer.

Father, may Your blessed spirit do its work. And may Your word be glorified in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen. This wonderful hymn of praise has so much in it.

It's neatly divided into two sections. Again, I'm just going to scratch the surface, and there's going to be a lot here.

But I'm going to go as rapid as I possibly can. First of all, there's a call to praise the

Lord. A call to praise the Lord in verses 1 -3. A, we are to praise the

Lord joyfully in verse 1. And then B, we are to serve the

Lord with gladness in verse 2A. And in verse 2B, we are to worship the

Lord with singing. And in D, we are to recognize the Lord as God for His mighty power in verse 3.

This whole psalm is a call to invitation. To come and praise and thank the Lord with gladness for His greatness and for His mighty power.

The second section is broken up in a call to thank the Lord. So, in the first three verses is a call to praise the

Lord. Then the second section of this is a call to thank the

Lord. First to praise the Lord, and then thank the Lord. In A, verses 4 -5, the first section, we are to enter into God's presence, that means

His gates, with thanksgiving. Verse 4A. Then, B, we are to enter into God's courts with praise, verse 4B.

And then C, we are to give thanks unto Him and bless His holy name in verse 4A.

Then this last verse basically answers the question, what do we thank

God for? This is really to the point. Isn't it amazing about God's word?

It's so direct. And it's piercing like a sword. But it tells exactly what we are to praise

God for. Notice, it's all about God's nature. One, we are to praise

God because the Lord is good. The Lord is good. Second, we are to praise the

Lord for His love endures forever. His love endures forever.

And third, we are to praise the Lord because of His truth,

His faithfulness, continues from generation to generation. So all three great facts are eternal and they are unchanging about God and who

God is. These are three reasons to thank and praise God that are not affected by our circumstances.

No matter what our circumstances are, we can thank God for this. We can thank

God that He is good. We can thank God that His love endures forever and ever.

And we can thank God because of His truthfulness and His faithfulness that endures from generation to generation.

Beloved, if we get a hold of that, it will change your life. It will change our life forever and ever on the face of this planet until we move on into glory to praise and thank

Him. Psalm 100 is a well -known psalm. And here it emphasizes that the universal nature of God's kingship is before us.

This psalm is a benediction to the series of all the psalms which are occupied with the

Lord's kingdom rule. We see that in the Word of God. And we also see which are in the chapters

Psalm 93 and Psalm 95 through Psalm 100. It speaks of His royalty.

It's a cluster of royal psalms. That's what it speaks of, royal psalms.

This, then, is an awesome benediction to praise

God, the King of all the earth. The King of kings, the

Lord of lords. And from the cord, I like to put it, from the cord of David's heart in which he was the sweet singer of Israel, a man of God after his own heart.

He was not perfect by no means, but he was a man of flesh. And he was a man that sinned many times.

And he repented of his sin, but he had a heart after God. He was inspired by the Holy Spirit in his praise and worship to the

King of glory here. And the full delightful praise of who

God is in thanksgiving and in praise. And He gave praise to the one who's worthy to receive glory and honor and power in thanksgiving.

And that is the God of glory, the King of glory. And he knew how to thank God. He knew how to thank

God. And this was the triune God, by the way. And you can see this in the scriptures, that He's just not...

The scripture does say that the Lord is one, but He is one God in three persons. We know what the scripture teaches in this.

The God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that created all things. And by His will and His desire, they exist and they are created.

That's what the Word of God says. Now, most of Psalm 100 is a call to praise and worship.

And we're going to scratch the surface on that. But I pray that we get enough of it here that it really does work on our heart.

That really transforms our life because that's really what we need. We need to leave here from this little home.

Thank you, Ben and Hannah, for opening up your home for us to worship in. But we need to allow the

Word of God to take a hold of us and lay hold of us and to change us.

So here we have praise and worship and thanksgiving. You know, we can't do enough of that.

Praise, worship, and thanksgiving. Let's look at it. So, verse 3 and verse 5 gives us the very fixed reasons for that worship.

Psalm 100 is a descriptive manual of worship. That's what it gives us. It's a manual of worship.

And it's short and sweet. By the way, this is the psalm, Psalm 100, that the pilgrims and the

Puritans chose when they came and set foot on this land, the United States, years ago.

And I started to read that, but there was so much. If you look it up, there was so much afflictions and hardships and trials they went through.

Death. It was unbelievable. But when they set foot on this land,

America, this is the psalm that they chose. It was Psalm 100. The old 100s, they called it.

And they praised God. They fell on their faces, they fell on their knees, and they worshiped

God. And this is the short, wonderful psalm, a psalm that they sung to the

Lord when they came here. We are people of worship. God has created us to worship.

He has bought us off the slave market of sin and redeemed us for the purpose of worship.

What is the chief end of man? Is to enjoy God, to glorify

God, right? Glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That's the

Catechism, and that is based upon Scripture. We don't preach Catechism, but we do preach Scripture.

But the Catechism reflects what the Scripture says. And that's the purpose. Go back to Genesis. God made

Adam, He put him in the garden to have intimate fellowship with Him. And Adam was to worship

His God. And the Scripture says that God visited him in the cool of the day and had a relationship with him.

We know what broke that relationship. Sin came in and just totally put a wall up.

And man was run out of the garden. And since then, there's been a separation.

But the only one that can reconcile us is the Lord Jesus Christ, our God. And He has done that by the work of the cross.

So we're going to see. So we are people of worship. True worshipers that worship God in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of His holiness.

Psalm 30 verse 4 exhorts God's people to do what?

To sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.

His holiness is an attribute of attributes, by the way. This is what needs to be recovered in the church once again.

Psalm 27 verse 4 speaks of the beauty of the Lord. The beauty of the Lord in which is none other than the beauty of God's holiness.

You know, if there's any beauty that we need to see of God, it is His holiness. His holiness shines brighter because, and I like what

R .C. Sproul says, it's just not another attribute among God. It is

His very essence. If you notice in Scripture that the angels and the awful creatures that God created never say mercy, mercy, mercy.

God is merciful. Yes, He is. But they never say that continually. They never say love, love, love.

They never say faithful, faithful, faithful. You could point out all the attributes, but the one thing that they do say is holy, holy, holy is the

Lord God Almighty. There's a reason for that. He is the thrice holy

God. And this is what needs to be recovered among us today. The Puritan S. Carnot put it this way, and I love this quote,

Power is God's hand or His arm. Omniscience is His eye.

Mercy is His bowels, His compassions. Eternity is

His duration. But holiness is His beauty. That is so, so true.

And we need to capture that. According to 2 Chronicles 20, 21,

God appointed singers of Israel. God always has His singers, doesn't He? Let the redeemed of the

Lord say so. They did. They sung unto God. And this is what the Scripture says in 2

Chronicles 20, verse 21. That should praise, what?

The beauty of His holiness. God, that's the one thing.

The reason why God appointed singers was to praise the beauty of His holiness. And that's how

God brought deliverance to them, for them. Not only were they the covenant people, and God always keeps

His Word, because when He makes a covenant, God will keep it. Man's been unfaithful. God remains faithful always to His Word.

But God appointed singers for them. Why? The Holy Scripture says, when

He had consulted with the people, this is what the Word says, He appointed those who sang to the

Lord, and those who praised Him with His holy attire, as they went out before the army and said,

Give thanks to the Lord, for His loving kindness is everlasting. I'm going to have to really speak loud.

Heather is in competition against me here. We who are God's redeemed have a song of praise, don't we?

A song of praise and thanksgiving. Why? Because of His loving kindness. Why?

Because His loving kindness, His mercy endures forever. His hesed.

I think I pronounced that right. That's the Hebrew for mercy. His loving kindness. It's everlasting.

You see this all through the Psalms and Scripture. Only those that were clothed in holy attire, by the way, symbolic of sacred clothing, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, can worship

God acceptably. I believe that. Don't you? Only those who really know

Jesus Christ, and those who are dressed in the robe of Jesus' righteousness, can worship

God acceptably. No other way. God accepts only worship that is dressed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

To honor His holiness. Well, Psalm 100 is full of holy praise to our great

King. Psalm 100 shouts God's praise. Let me just give you some things I've noticed. Verse 1.

Worship is direct. It's very direct. Notice who's it directed unto?

Unto the Lord. Verses 1 and 2. Worship is active. Verse 3.

Worship is knowledgeable. Verse 4. Worship is thankful. Verse 5.

Worship is justified. You have it active, knowledgeable, thankful, and justified.

The first three verses of this wonderful psalm of praise and thanksgiving for God's faithfulness to His people gives to us an open invitation.

First, notice how God always begins. He always gives the invitation for people to come.

Come. This is the way God invites us to come before Him and to come into His presence.

To call to praise the Lord. And again, to praise Him joyfully, to serve the

Lord with gladness. We're to come before the Lord with singing. And this is important here.

To know. To know. There's education. There's knowledge that the

Lord, He is God for His mighty power and His deeds. Now, that kind of knowledge is the knowledge of the truth, of course.

Because a person can have a form of godliness, deny the power thereof. He can quote scripture.

The devil is one of the greatest theologians. By the way, the Puritan says, know this, that the devil is a better theologian than you are.

But the difference is, he has an evil heart. You don't see anything in scripture that Satan submits to the authority of the

Lord, does he? Actually, it's an opposition. He's in rebellion against God.

And he definitely does not have a heart of thanksgiving, does he? He has a heart of hate to slander

God. Opposite of that, God's people give thanks to the

Lord for all that He is, for His nature, for His goodness, for His mercy,

His loving kindness, His everlasting truth and dearest to our generation. So, if verse 1 through 3 calls us into the presence to praise

Him joyfully with singing, then verses 4 and 5 calls God's people to give thanks for Him, for His goodness and His compassion.

I love the way this chapter is really broken up in these five verses. It's so wonderful.

So, verses 1 through 3 gives us the invitation to worship, and verse 4 through 5 tells us why we will worship

Him, the why of worship. Psalm 100 actually gives us ways of worship.

Again, it could be broken up. Verses 1 and 2 tells us what to do.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. 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.

Don't you love this? It tells us what to do. Verse 4, where to go. Then verse 3 through 5 tells us what to know.

What we know helps us who we to worship. Who do we worship?

And John 4 speaks of that. Jesus says, we know, speak of the Jewish people, we know who we worship.

We know. We know this. The Lord is God. He has made us.

We are His people, if we're regenerated, and we are the sheep of His pasture.

Now, there's a lot to say, first of all, about a call to praise to the Lord, verses 1 through 3. Verses 1 through 3.

Let me read it once again, because here is the richness of this call to worship, to worship our

God. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. All ye lands.

A cheerfulness with all your hearts. All joyful noise. That means a shout unto the

Lord. All ye lands. God wants this to be known, in other words. Not to be silenced. You know, people are to hear us.

God's people are known by their singing and praising God. It's a repetition of Psalm 98 .4.

Psalm 98 .4 says, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. All ye earth. Make a loud noise.

Rejoice and praise. Sing praise. And the original word signifies a glad shout, such as a loyal subject's gift to their king appears among them.

A joyful shout means a shout of loyalty. It's a shout of homage.

Psalm 66 .1 says, Make a joyful shout to God all the earth. That's the invitation.

Then Psalm 95 .1 gives the invitation. O come, let us sing unto the

Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

An example of this is 1 Samuel 10 .24. After Saul was chosen to be king, the prophet

Samuel said to all the people, and listen to this, Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen?

That there is no one like him among all the people. And so the people shouted and said,

Long live the king. As the original Hebrew says, May the king live. So that's the way we are to shout for our king.

And when we do this, we shout and we say, Long live the king. Amen. Long live the king.

We are his subjects. Aren't you glad you're his subjects? And aren't you glad he picked you? That humbles us.

Spurgeon said this, O happy God should be worshiped by happy people. A cheerful spirit is in keeping with his nature, his acts, and the gratitude which we should cherish for his mercies.

In every land Jehovah's goodness is seen. Therefore in every land should be praised.

Nearer will the world be in its proper condition with an anonymous shout, it adores the only

God. O ye nations, how long will you yet be blindly reject him?

Your golden age will never arrive till ye with all your hearts revere him.

End quote. Well, next we see that we're to serve the Lord with gladness. Serve the

Lord with gladness. It is a glad homage paid with awful mirth, as one commentator said.

He is our Lord and therefore he is to be served. And we gladly serve him.

He is a gracious Lord and therefore to be served with joy and gladness. You see this all through the book of Acts as well.

There's joy. It was contagious. There was a glad heart.

Not a melancholy one. Not one that was sour. A lot of these people that I've seen throughout the years of Christianity and a lot of times in the churches and I'm not trying to throw stones or anything but you've seen them.

I think to myself, you know, look like this lady just ate a lemon. She's so soured up.

Like that. And I'm thinking, put a smile on your face lady. You got a reason to smile and you got a reason to be happy because God has redeemed you.

You know, you think about what the world thinks about seeing people like that. Sour and always complaining and murmuring.

No wonder God hates murmuring. The opposite of that is thanksgiving and praise. That doesn't mean that we can't be real.

We have burdens as well. I'm not saying that. And there's times to weep and weep with those that weep, right?

But to be glad with those that are glad as well. But I'm talking about the face of the church and they should bear a gladness and a joy.

That's the way we should be because we've got a reason for it. Solomon says, come before his presence with singing.

Singing. Now, we're singing. We're practicing but we make a joyful noise, right?

And we're going to keep on singing. We'll try singing. We may not be the best singers but we're going to sing to the

Lord. And that's why we sing. We sing unto the Lord. We're to worship the Lord with singing.

With singing. That's part of it. It's not the only way we can worship God but that is a part of worship with singing.

We ought to worship to realize when we do worship the presence of God and be in conscience that the

Lord is always present. His presence is everything. He's here. And we never should forget that.

God is among us. His presence is here. And His presence is what really matters.

He's a very present help in times of trouble, Scripture says. We're also to recognize the

Lord is God for His mighty power. Know ye that the Lord is God, and the Lord He is

God and it is He that has made us and that not we ourselves. We are His people.

Isn't that beautiful? His people. The sheep of His pasture. And again, worship is to be intelligent not to be ignorant.

We ought to know why and who we worship. Jesus said this and I referred to it quickly a moment ago but John 4 verse 21 through 24

Jesus said unto her, the woman at the well, Believe me, Jesus said, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the

Father. Ye worship, ye know not what. Now she was outside of the covenant of God.

But we, speaking of the Jewish people, we know, we know what we worship for salvation is of the

Jews. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the

Father in spirit and truth. Isn't that a great revelation? For the Father seeketh such to worship

Him. God is the Spirit and they that worship Him must I love that. Jesus put that right there.

Must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

The only way we can worship God it must be a must. It must be in spirit and in truth.

So Psalm 95, 6 and 7 O come let us worship. 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.

And that's pretty much what the scripture says. Now I want you to notice something else here about this invitation to worship.

And this may conceal the wonder of it but for the courts are truly God's. His courts.

I think about this quite often. When we come into His courts no one rushes into the courts before a king.

You know you're going to have a strong rebuke coming to you. As a matter of fact,

Michael's right. You may just have your head taken off. It's not it's just such such disrespect to a king.

If someone did that it would enter their mind. Absolutely. We tread

His courts with reverence and respect. And when we come before His courts but it says here that we are to come before His courts with thanksgiving.

Notice what it says here. We're truly His. The gates are His. By the way, we're going to talk about the courts and the gates a little bit here.

Notice again with me that the old 100 is truly a psalm that's focused on God.

That's what I love about this. God and God alone. Now notice this with me.

Look at the verses with me. Eight times the word His appears.

His. Notice this. Verse 2. Come before His presence.

Verse 3. We are His people. Verse 3.

And the sheep of His pasture. Verse 4. Into His gates.

Verse 4. Into His courts. Verse 4. And bless

His name. Verse 5. His mercy is everlasting.

Verse 5. His truth endures to all generations. Now I don't know about you, that gives glory to God because it's all

His. His presence, His people, His pasture, His gates,

His courts, His name, His mercy, His truth. Praise God it's His.

And in verse 4, we are to enter His gates and His courts. Let's remember this solemn warning and exhortation for Isaiah 112.

And I set this before you because this is the proper way before we even come into His courts. When Isaiah spoke this, he was dealing with a very rebellious

Israel. A nation of Israel. And a hard hearted Israel. Very disobedient to the covenants of God.

And this is what he told them. And they were playing church by the way. And this is what he said. He said, when you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand to tread my courts.

He was giving the question there. Who has required you to tread my courts? And the prophet's warning to the people of God is not to come before the

Lord of hosts and the holy worship unless they are clean. Only then will worship be truly accepted.

So they had to come before, their hands had to be clean. They had to have clean hands.

And a pure heart. So keep in mind that the gates of God and the courts are God's. His gates are shut to the unclean.

It's shut out. How do we know this? This is not my word, this is God's word. Revelation 21, 27 says, and there shall no wise enter, listen to this, enter into it, talking about God's gates, and anything that defiles, neither whatsoever worketh an abomination, anything that's an abomination, the scriptures are very clear what those abominations are, and maketh a lie, but they which are written in the

Lamb's book of life. Those are the ones that has the rights to come.

The ones that God has purchased with his own blood. Isn't that wonderful? So only the chosen people of God, a holy nation, a royal, a priesthood,

Peter called about that, those who have been called out of darkness into his marvelous light, shall praise his holiness.

They were the ones, they are the ones that will show forth God's praise. Those ones. Isaiah 35, 8 and 9 says,

I love this, oh I love this. A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness.

The unclean, listen to this, the unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others whosoever walks the road, although a fool shall not go astray.

Verse 9, and I love this. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it, and it shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.

Only those, beloved, only those who have been purchased and washed in the blood of the lamb of the

Lord Jesus Christ will be able to pass through the holy gates and the courts of God to worship and honor the king of glory, the father, the son, the holy spirit.

Only those that have been cleaned in the blood of the lamb have the rights to enter into this holy courts.

You know, I like what Raven Hewitt says. You know, if you've not been holy and cleaned up by the blood of Jesus, you're not going to like heaven because, because, that's exactly right, because heaven is a holy city, and it has holy angels, and it's going to have holy people because it has a holy

God. Everything about it is holy. That's our home, beloved. We're passing through.

We're strangers. This world is not our home, but in the process, we're dealing with the sin.

God's cleaning us up. The word of God is the agent. The blood of Jesus cleanses it, cleanses the sin out from us.

We're being sanctified. We go through the word of God, but it's the holy spirit, the holy spirit.

You know, J .C. Rowell said something that's a fact. He said, you can call it whatever spirit you want to, but if there's uncleanness going on there, he said, there's nothing holy there.

It's the holy spirit, and I've heard this so many times among the

Pentecostals, that, oh, that's a spirit. I said, yeah, it's a spirit, all right, but it sure wasn't the holy spirit.

I mean, if something erroneous and something spurious going on and something of the flesh and somebody's rolling around or jumping on the chandeliers, and I've seen it, beloved.

Yeah, but he got happy in God. I said, well, would Jesus do this? I mean, is it the holy spirit?

You could call it a spirit, but is it holy? Well, most of the time, it's not.

Well, the Bible has a lot to say about this invitation to enter into his gates for Thanksgiving, doesn't it?

Remember that this is an open invitation, a call to God's people, to the redeemed, but Jesus said this of this gate.

What did he say about this gate? It's not crooked. It's a straight gate. This gate is very straight, and it's very narrow.

And you know this. The more I walk this journey with the Lord Jesus, I see it getting more narrow, more narrow, and more narrow.

That's okay. But you know something? As to what the Lord said, Matthew 7, 13, and 14, the

Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said this. And I'm reading from the King James today. Enter ye at the straight, stenos, stenios, straight.

Now, you know what that means? From obstacles standing close about. The gate.

He said he entered into that straight gate. And then he says this.

For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction.

And what did he say? Many there be which go in thereat.

Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

That's sobering words, isn't it? But that's truth. And that's exactly this. Only two roads.

The broad gate, and then you have the straight gate.

And in Luke 13, 24, Luke gives us a little bit more description of what Jesus says about this in another word.

He says of the straight gate, he says, Strive to enter in at the straight gate.

For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

That's interesting, isn't it? Able. Well, they're not able. They can't, they're not capable within themselves.

Only God can bring them to that point. Only the redeemed of the

Lord will be permitted to enter. Only those that have been ransomed. Only those that have been elected.

The redeemed will praise Him throughout all eternity. Now listen to the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 10 verses 19 -23

Having therefore boldness, assurance, that means confidence, to enter into the holiest notice the word enter enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

By a new and living way which He hath consecrated for us through the veil that is to say

His flesh. Isn't that beautiful? This is all through Jesus. All through Jesus Christ, through His veil, through His flesh, through His blood.

Verse 21 And having a high priest over the house of God, the writer of Hebrews is speaking of Jesus here.

Hebrews 4 -14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens

Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession. Verse 22

Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Notice, the reason I'm bringing these references to light is notice the cleansing, notice the blood of Jesus, notice it has to happen, the blood of Christ has to do the cleaning and the purifying to even give us rights to come here before those holy gates and courts.

Let us hold fast, verse 23 the profession of our faith without wavering for He is faithful that promised.

So what does this have to do with all enter into His gates with thanksgiving and to His courts with praise?

Well it has much much, not only His courts but it's the

Holy of Holies and to the Holy of Holies itself are thrown open by a new and living way and that's through Christ by the blood of Jesus not the blood of goats and the blood of animals those sacrifices which are only symbols

Jesus is the reality those are types and shadows Jesus, we have access through Jesus and only through Jesus because He says

He is the door in John 10, He is the way, He is the truth, He is the life, no one comes to the

Father but by Him, but by the blood of Jesus we have access and we have and we are welcome to come

God wants us to come and it's not it's not this cause enough to praise and give thanksgiving to God you think of it for a second in and of ourselves we can't do this and when we come to God in prayer we just can't say, who would dare say and who would have the audacity to say,

God I'm coming to you by my all my good works of righteousness God right there,

His ears is shut down from that because who has enough good works to come before Him actually our good works is what filthy rags that's the way

God sees it and that's the way it is we don't have an option about it our good works, all of man's attempts to be good is filthy rags filthy, dirty dirty, dingy, rags before a holy

God, well would He enter into God's gates in His presence with thanksgiving in our hearts, no wonder that the prophet

Jonah cried out after learning his lesson, boy didn't he learn a lesson in the belly of the fish

Jonah 2 9, listen to what he said here, but I will sacrifice unto thee, listen to what he said the voice of thanksgiving

I'm going to sacrifice the voice of thanksgiving, he was in the belly of the fish the original says sea monster but it was probably a whale and I will pay that which

I have vowed he learned his lesson that was a disciplinary process that God did in that moment and then he says this salvation is of the

Lord you know as soon as he said that, read the scriptures, right then the fish vomited it out

Ravenhill said that was the first submarine that transported this prophet he was going in the opposite direction

God did all the work in one in one fish and He commanded the fish to swallow up Jonah and in three days and three nights, it's amazing this man lived through that but he was praying it was like God was disciplining him and while He was disciplining him,

He was transporting him to exactly where he needed to go that's God, isn't it? and God knew exactly what

He was doing I believe that what all the saints will be saying throughout all eternity,

Revelation 7 -12 listen to this, in the end and all through eternity, we might as well learn how to praise

God here and now, because and we just can't do it within ourselves it's the Holy Spirit that gives us the compassion, our new hearts to do this and listen to what the

Word of God says saying Amen, this is in the eternity blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our

God forever and ever, Amen notice that's a, you see the doxologies but in that doxology right there in Revelation 7 -12 it is a seven -fold doxology a number of perfection is a perfect praise seven -fold, blessing glory, wisdom thanksgiving, honor power might and I probably missed one there but it is a seven -fold doxology the psalmist says in Psalm 66 -13,

I will go into thy house with burnt offerings, I will pay thee my vows, this was a covenant of faithfulness, a commitment that is to give to the

Lord, Psalm 116 -17 and 19 says I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and I will call upon the name of the

Lord verse 18, I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people in the courts of the

Lord's house in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem praise ye the Lord so we're to enter into God's gates, right, his presence with thanksgiving, we're to enter his courts his holy of holies with praise we're also to give thanks unto him and to bless his holy name what does it say about blessing?

Psalm 103 -1 a psalm of David, bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name, we're to bless to bless him, to bless him and to bless him so much time

I got left, it's almost gone, I gotta hurry I'm gonna skip a little bit here, there's a lot that says about know that the

Lord is God, you know that's an important word, let me just say a little bit here, in the sense of experiencing and being completely assured of this truth the truth about what?

Well, the truth is that the Lord, he is God know that the

Lord, he is God notice verse 3, that's what he's saying, know ye that the

Lord he is God, it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves we are his people and the sheep of his pasture remember in 1

Kings chapter 18, with that great great challenge of Mount Carmel remember that? It was actually it was really not a challenge at all, because you had

Baal, a false God, and then you had the Lord, and the winner, according to Elijah the prophet, would be

God, of course and Elijah was the spokesman, of course, he's the man of God, he came on the scene and he actually said that the

God that answers by fire, let him be God, well we know who won, right? The God of heaven and earth, and if you read

Elijah's prayer, it was just a short prayer, it wasn't this long Oh God and how great you are and you know, he didn't go on and on about it, he just said a short prayer and the next thing you know, then it says then the fire of the

Lord fell so what happened after that? All the people says, the

Lord is God, the Bible says it fell on their faces, can you imagine the scene? I mean, here they are and it came night time it wasn't day time it was night and you know how fire lights up at night and then from heaven, all this fire comes down and just consumes the sacrifice and the

Bible says, it consumed the rock it consumed the sacrifice, it consumed the water it consumed everything and all the people just fell down on their faces and said, no the

Lord he is God the Lord is God that's marvelous that's what it's saying the

Psalm is saying the Lord is God, there's none other it is he that has made us, not we ourselves shall not the creature reverence its maker shall not the created dust of the earth look up to the maker say

God Lord you're awesome you're king

Christians recognize the origin of the very being and take no honor in themselves for that being they are in him we move and have our being because of him,

Psalm 119 .73 says, thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments

Psalm 139 .13 for thou hast possessed my reins, my heart the innermost being of my heart you have possessed it thou hast covered me in my mother's womb

God is the creator verse 14, I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous are thy works and that my soul, listen to this knoweth right well,

I know it God's people knows not might, but knows the psalmist was absolutely truthfully sure of his creator well know that God is in himself and what he is to you, knowledge is the mother of devotion by the way and of all obedience we gotta have that knowledge of the truth know, consider apply it, and then you will be more close and constant and more inward and serious in the worship to the

Lord, know, so let us know seven things here, and I like to point out very quickly,

I'm not going to get to all of them know that the Lord, he is God one, the only living and true

God, that he is a perfect being, self -existent self -sufficient and the fountain of all life, that God himself is self -sustaining he's

God, he doesn't need us, he's self -sufficient, that's humbling isn't it?

yes second, know that the Lord is our creator and it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves, and we do not and we could not make ourselves, could we?

it is God's prerogative to be his own cause our being is derived and depending all on him, third know that, therefore that the

Lord is our rightful owner he is the rightful owner one of the translations here, by altering one of the letters of the

Hebrew read it, he made us and he is we are, or to him we belong, that's the original, by both readings together we learn because God made us and not we ourselves therefore we are not our own, but his fourth, know that he is our sovereign ruler we are his people, his subjects, and he is our prince and our governor, and he gives his law, which is his word, his moral agents and he will call us to account one day for all that we do in his name, we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ no one will escape that that makes me tremble verse 5 know that he is the

Lord he is a bountiful benefactor he's faithful, he gives, and he gives and gives again, we are not only his sheep whom we are entitled, but sheep of his pasture, his pasture it's his pasture whom he takes care of us he is a gracious provider, amen he's

Jehovah John, he always takes care of us seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added unto you

Jesus said, don't have to worry about it he said don't worry about it Jesus basically said you get focused on the king, and his righteousness, and his kingdom and you take care of all the rest of the needs, no problem not with God, the great shepherd of the sheep, scripture says the chief shepherd, the good shepherd the great shepherd that's all there in the scriptures well, know that the

Lord he is God of infinite mercy this is 6, loving kindness good, and the

Lord is good, therefore doeth good and his mercy endures from everlasting to everlasting, and 7 know that he is a

God of truth and faithfulness, his truth endureth to all generations and not one word of his shall fall to the ground, or be revoked not one will fail him what

Luther said Ezekiel 34 30 and 31, thus shall they know, speaking of God's people, they shall know that I the

Lord their God am with thee and that they, even the house of Israel are my people, saith the

Lord God and ye, my flock, the flock of my pastors are men, and I am your

God saith the Lord God he also, and through the apostle

Paul in Ephesians 2 10, for we are his workmanship created, now listen to this,

I love this created in Christ Jesus unto good works now, notice, you're not saved by good works, but you are created unto good works

Jesus said that that's how they will glorify God is unto your good works, by your good works your fruits, something has to shift actually, that's what the book of James is all about is showing forth the faith that works, not, see it's a follow up of regeneration and faith those are the things see, regeneration is always first, always then the fruit follows the good works follow and that's all he's saying we're unto good works, which

God hath before ordained, chosen that we should walk in them, it proves something doesn't it, it says you are, this is the way you are you're not saved by it but it's, it's

Jesus said that, he said a lot about fruit he said the fruit's known, the tree's known by the fruit, it's bad or it's good, there's nothing in between is it, you got good fruit or you got bad fruit so here, the word workmanship and what

Paul is saying here is is that we get the we get the poem a piece of literary workmanship before time began

God designed us to be conformed into the image of his dear son before time think of that before you were thought, before we had existence,

God already had you in mind, to be his workmanship to be into the image, to be conformed into the image of his dear son

Romans 8 .29 that's chapter and verse Paul could therefore say to the Philippians and then he says

I am confident of this very thing that he who hath began the good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ let me close real quickly

I told you I wouldn't even get finished this but I've got to wrap this up go with me to Matthew chapter 26 and I want to conclude with this and I think if I said anything, this right here, everything that Psalm 100 points to this why?

because of our Lord Jesus Christ remember when he instituted the

Lord's Supper Matthew 26 .26 that's an easy, two easy numbers to remember if you go to 26 .26

you see that the Lord's Supper is instituted by Jesus himself and keep in mind

Jesus eats the Passover with his disciples here if you look before that Judas basically he agrees to betray

Jesus in verses 14 then one of the twelve called

Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priest unto the chief priest see he's already gone and said unto them what will you give me

I will deliver him unto you and that they coveted they made a covenant with him for thirty pieces of silver wow and from that time he saw opportunity to betray now he comes back now notice verse 17,

I'm backing up a little bit here but now the first day of the feast of the unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus saying unto him where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the

Passover ask what we're going to have the Passover the Passover meal and he said go into the city such a man and say unto him the master saith that my time is at hand

I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples verse 19 the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them they obeyed and they made ready the

Passover, they prepared everything and verse 20 now when the evening was come he sat down with the twelve this is very intimate isn't it and as they did eat he said verily

I say unto you that one of you shall betray me and they were exceedingly sorrowful began every one of them, every one of them saying to him

Lord is it I now that says something about the human heart doesn't it come on every one of them was saying they didn't trust their hearts they knew that their hearts were wicked and in verse 23 he answered and said

Jesus was specific here he said he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish the same shall betray me the son of man goeth as it is written of him and woe unto that man by whom the son of man is betrayed it had been good for that man if he had not been born boy that's some powerful words verse 25 then

Judas which betrayed him answered said master it is I and notice what Jesus says and he said unto him thou hast said now the

Lord suffers instituted right in the midst of this he knew who would betray him in the midst of all this

Jesus was to fulfill his father's commandment to go to the cross he knew this in the midst of such sorrow he's being betrayed by one of his very own and yet he eats he takes the bread you see the scene that our master is going through here you see there had to be agonizing pain in his heart of the one who even would betray him in verse 26 and as they were eating

Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to the disciples and he said take ye this is my body and then he took the cup and gave what thanks this is this is the master he gives thanks and he gave it to them see the words there he gave thanks and he gave it to them that's the way we're to be beloved drink ye all of it he said this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for their missions and sins and then

I love this don't you love this but I say unto you I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when

I drink it new with you and my father's kingdom beloved is coming Jesus is going to serve us

I don't know about you it's beyond me I'm not worthy of this

I should be in hell now this is what

I love this is what I'm getting to in verse 30 and when they had sung a hymn they went out in the mount of oz

Jesus knew everything that was about to happen in the midst of betrayal and hurt and sorrow and yet he had a battle he had a song of praise and by the way you know what song of praise it was the

Hallel and the Hallel was based upon Psalm 118 and you can almost hear the sweet singer of Israel himself now place yourself there he's about to be betrayed he's going to the cross to suffer a violent act of crucifixion and he's going to die for his own and yet they sung a hymn a

Psalm Psalm 118 is a Hallel this was the battle hymn of all

Psalm 118 is a Psalm of Thanksgiving it's similar to Psalm 100 but notice what he says

O give thanks unto the Lord you can almost hear Jesus singing this for he is good because his mercy endured forever let

Israel now say that his mercy endured forever I can't put a tune to it but put an

Israeli tune to it let the house of air now say that his mercy endured forever let them now that fear the

Lord say that his mercy endured forever I called upon the Lord in distress the Lord answered me and set me in a large place the

Lord is on my side I will not fear what can man do unto me the

Lord taketh my part with them that help me therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me it is better to trust in the

Lord than to put confidence in man it is better to trust in the Lord than to put the confidence in princes all nations compassed me about in the name of the

Lord I would destroy them they compassed me about yea they compassed me about but in the name of the

Lord I would destroy them they compassed me about like bees they are quenched as the fires of thorns for in the name of the

Lord I would destroy them that thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall, but the Lord helped me."

Now, can you picture Jesus singing this with his disciples? As he set his face like a flint and went to the cross, the

Lord is my strength and song has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of righteousness, and the right hand of the

Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. I shall not die, but live, declared the works of the

Lord. The Lord had chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death.

Open me, listen to this, open to me the gates of righteousness, and I will go into them, and I will praise the

Lord. This gate of the Lord into the righteous shall enter, and I will praise thee, for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

Now, notice this, the stone which the builders refused to become the head, the stone of the corner.

We know who that is talking about. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the

Lord. We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. God is the Lord, which hath showed his light.

Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, I will praise thee.

Thou art my God, I will exalt thee. Notice what he says, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever.

And there you have pretty much what Jesus and his disciples sung before he went to the cross.

I want you to think of this, no matter what is before you today, before me, how terrible and how bad our circumstances are, it does not compare to what

Jesus was about to endure. And yet he sung that praise unto his

God. Huh, he was God in the flesh after all. But he was, as a man, full of the

Holy Spirit. What was he doing? Singing unto the Father. Setting that example before his disciples.

God's people is like that. You know, you sing a praise song like this in the midst of death or tragedy, people look at you and say, you, who in the world, this man's from another world.

That's the way they should look at it. Keep that before you and it will encourage you.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time within this hour. Lord, your word says everything.

May we truly praise you. May we surely, truly give thanks unto you because we've got so much to be thankful for.

Lord, there's been so many down through the years that's given thanks unto you, even in the midst of the most horrifying tragedies that's beyond our comprehension.

Great losses and crosses. But the one great example we have before us is our

Lord Jesus Christ. Before he went to the cross and was hung, suspended there between two thieves and gave everything he had for our salvation.

And yet, before he went, your son, your one and only son, sung a hymn, a praise, a song to you.

May we do so. May we do it to worship you and to praise and to glorify you and the beauty of your holiness.

And we give you thanks because you are good, Lord. You are good.