[0:00] Psalm number 100. Psalm 100. Relatively short psalm, but yet a psalm that is filled with some wonderful thoughts.
[0:22] We'll just delve into a couple of those this evening. I'm grateful for Trent and for Greg to have the opportunity to go to Pastors Conference.
[0:34] When I pastored in Minnesota for 10 years, did new church work in South Dakota for 12. It was always a blessing for me to gather with other preachers. One place, 5,000 men gathered.
[0:49] And what an experience. The hymns that were sung by these men. The fellowship. The refreshing. And it's been a lot for Trent to become the pastor of this church.
[1:05] And I admire him greatly. God has blessed him. God has used him in our lives. My wife and I. We love to have the opportunity to come. We love the music.
[1:16] We love the fellowship. We love Trent. Great thing. Greg, what a young man. What a testimony. His ability to get up and address each of us.
[1:29] I just admire and I praise God for what he's accomplishing through these men. Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
[1:45] Serve the Lord with gladness. 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.
[2:00] We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise.
[2:12] Be thankful unto him and bless his name. For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting.
[2:24] And his truth endureth to all generations. Wonderful truths that are represented in the passage.
[2:37] There are seven different commands that are there. Make a joyful noise. Serve the Lord. Come into his presence with singing.
[2:48] Know God. Enter into his gates and courts with thanksgiving. Be thankful. Bless his name. Each of these commands demand a degree of spiritual maturity.
[3:07] It is not for babes in Christ. There are things here that babes can grow on. But you have to become a spiritually mature Christian to understand and to put into use some of these commands.
[3:22] The commands demand a degree of spiritual maturity. A vital part of spiritual maturity comes from verse number three.
[3:33] Know ye that the Lord he is God. And it carries on I think. Know ye it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves.
[3:50] Know ye we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Know ye that the Hebrew word for know is yada.
[4:07] Have you heard the phrase yada yada yada? I know I know I know it's Hebrew. The Hebrew word yada is used often today as a slang expression.
[4:26] It's a trivial, meaningless, uninteresting chatter. When you say oh yeah, yada yada yada. Years ago when our boys were just getting to a point of where we could feel like we could trust them to go with their friends.
[4:45] Not get in trouble. You have to trust your children at some point to let them go. To let them go on their own. To let them go with their friends.
[4:55] Remember who you are. You are a Christian.
[5:09] You represent Christ. You are a frick. You represent your mom and your dad. Remember who you are. And after you say that a few times.
[5:21] Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've heard it before. Yada yada yada. I hope that you never and I never get tired of hearing God's messages.
[5:35] And we come to the point where we say yada yada yada. I hear, I've heard over and over. The lesson that is there, it says, Know ye that the Lord, he is God.
[5:53] You need to have that knowledge. It takes maturity to come to the point where you can be able to say that I know that the Lord, he is God.
[6:06] And there's terms here. We talked about them when we did Psalm 95. There's several characteristics of Psalm 95 that carry over into Psalm 100. And we need to have a firm and knowledge of the meaning of the name of God, the names of God.
[6:23] Lord. Know ye that the Lord Jehovah, Yahweh, the self-existent God. He is the source of his own existence.
[6:35] Elohim, the plural of God. The plurality of God. Someone has called it the plural of majesty.
[6:46] I like that. He's the supreme God. He's the God of gods. So we have Lord God, Lord, the source Jehovah, the source of his own existence.
[6:59] The always existing God. It carries into the next understanding of that he is the everlasting God, the eternal God. Elohim, plural of God.
[7:15] Plural of majesty. Lord Jehovah, self-existent God. Always exists. The writer of Psalms said, Know ye that the Lord, he is God.
[7:30] How do you know who the Lord is if you don't know his name? If you don't know the understanding of his names? Jesus. So I'd like to invite you to go to Genesis chapter 1 for a moment.
[7:51] The very first verse. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Elohim. 27 times in chapter 1 of Genesis 1, chapter 1, 27 times Elohim is used.
[8:11] God created the heavens and the earth. The spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep. And God said over and over, the name God, Elohim.
[8:22] Then you come to verse number 26. This was an interesting one. And God, Elohim, said, Let us make man in our image.
[8:37] What do you suppose that means? Let us make God in our image. After our likeness.
[8:54] And then in verse 27. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him.
[9:06] Male and female created he them. So verse 26.
[9:18] Let us make man in our image. In our likeness. And in verse 27. And God created him in his own image.
[9:30] We have the plural side of it. We have the single side of it. God is everything. He is all in all. He is the eternal God. The everlasting God.
[9:40] He is the God of gods. He is the God that is the plurality. I think that somewhat we see here. A picture of God the Father. God the Son.
[9:51] God the Spirit. The triunity. The Trinity. Let us make man in our image. I believe it is amazing that God.
[10:06] Dared. To share his image. With us. God cared enough.
[10:16] To share his image. With us. He did not make an animal. In his own image. He did not make a bird.
[10:27] In his own image. He did not make a tree. In his own image. And they were all perfect. They were all good. But God chose to make man. In his own image.
[10:40] In our image. As God the Father. God the Son. God the Spirit. We have been created. With his image. Powerful thing. God.
[10:50] In our image. In our image. When we look at the fact. That we need to know God. That you may know him. We need to reflect on his name.
[11:02] We need to know who he is. then you come to Genesis chapter 2 and in verse number 4 these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord Jehovah Yahweh God Elohim made the heaven and the earth the earth and the heavens Lord God Lord is now added that's Jehovah that's Yahweh that's the self-existent God the God who is a source of his own existence the God who is everlasting the same so we're taught early in the Bible the names of God Elohim the plural of God Jehovah Yahweh the self-existent God
[12:04] I think that that is something that the Hebrew people would have taught their children there's probably a lot of children that were three four five years old you could ask them in a Hebrew household that that knew the word who's Yahweh oh that's the self-existent God the source of his own existence they would have understood some things they would have had some meanings moms and dads would have taught their children the important meanings of the names of God there are lots of titles in the Old Testament that are of God I can't name or give them all to you tonight for time but let me read a few to you God is the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land Jonah 1 9 he is the God of all the earth Isaiah 54 5 he's the God of the hills 1 Kings 20 verse 28 he's the God of all flesh
[13:09] Jeremiah 32 27 he's the God of heaven Nehemiah 2 4 for the Lord your God is a God of gods and Lord of lords a great God a mighty and a terrible which regardeth not persons nor taketh reward Deuteronomy 10 17 God most high Psalm 57 2 God of eternity Isaiah 40 verse 28 God of justice Isaiah 30 18 God of certainty Isaiah 65 16 living God Jeremiah 10 10 the holy God 1 Samuel 6 20 I am the almighty God Genesis 17 1 I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob Exodus 3 6 he's the God of my salvation Psalm 18 46 he's the God of my righteousness Psalm 4 1 he's the God of my mercy Psalm 59 17 he is the God of my strength Psalm 43 and verse 2 he's God he is the Lord God he is Jehovah God it's a marvelous thing for us it's a wonderful thing we ought not say yada yada yada we ought to be able to say hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah he is our God he is our
[14:26] Lord he is our Jehovah so one of the things that we have to gain is the meaning of the words Lord and Jehovah back to Psalm 100 verse 3 know ye yada know ye that the Lord Jehovah he is God but one of the signs of maturity is that we can be able to say it is he that hath made us maturity is when we acknowledge that Jehovah God made me I did not make me I'm not my own boss it surprised my wife and I when our granddaughter was two years old came to visit us and she said you're not the boss of me oh whoa that was a little little harsh and
[15:34] I think that she might have learned that from Spongebob something came out you and I have to come to the point that no matter what happens in life I understand and I know that I am not my own and God can do with me as he pleases I am his he made me when you acknowledge that you are made by God then also you acknowledge that you are his people verse 3 we are his people and we acknowledge that we are the sheep of his pasture we belong to him by the divine right of creation but also by the divine right of redemption he made us and then he redeemed us bought us back shed his blood that we might be his twice his
[16:52] God when we understand that God made us there is a sanctity that is in the birth of every child every birth is the same and different at the same time identical twins are still different from each other we understand that it takes for there to be a birth a man and a woman it takes a mom and a dad every child has the DNA of his mother and of his father the family unit as we understand it has been affected by sin not all babies are born to husbands and wives but they are all made by
[17:54] God it does not matter I say this carefully it does matter but if a baby is born with birth defects or in rape or incest when the baby is born it's God's it's made in his image we have to come to a point of spiritual maturity in our minds of understanding of who God is God made me I am a creation of
[18:56] God I am somebody special to God as much as I may at times get very depressed in life and very sad and sorrowful and wonder why are these things happening to me and why is this not working out the way that I thought I understand that God is the one that made me he is my Jehovah he is my everlasting God he is mine I belong to him David said the Lord is my shepherd double ownership there the Lord is my shepherd I am his sheep he is my shepherd I own him as my shepherd and as I own him as my shepherd I know that he's going to take care of me no matter what happens in life God made me I did not make myself to gain a little bit of understanding of how we are to pass this message along go to
[20:12] Deuteronomy chapter 6 with me Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 1 now these are the commandments the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God there's those words again there's that name Jehovah Elohim which the Lord your God commanded to teach you that you might do them in the land wherein you go to possess it that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee thou and thy son and thy son's son all the days of thy life that thy days may be prolonged hear therefore O Israel and observe to do it that it may be well with thee that ye may increase mightily as the
[21:18] Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey hear O Israel listen to what I'm about to say to you the Lord Jehovah our God Elohim is one Lord Jehovah the Lord our God is one Lord we read in Genesis where let us make man in our image let us make man like us in some respects and yet he is one one Lord one God the Lord our God is one Lord all in one complete verse five and thou shalt love thy the
[22:21] Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind that's a tough thing sometimes but it's a part of spiritual maturity it's a part of growth it's a part of coming to be able to say Lord I love you for who you are I love you for what you are I love you for your names I love you for putting me in your pasture thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy might and these words which I command you this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up you're to teach them diligently to your children
[23:25] I believe that that means that we are to teach them repetitiously regularly religiously rightly readily realistically reasonably reassuringly repeatedly reliably respectfully respectfully resolutely resourcefully you got all those teach them diligently to your children that they may know and you'll go over it and over it and over it teach them diligently line upon line precept upon precept here a little there a little keep on keep on you need to know it for yourself know you who you are know yourself who
[24:26] God is but make sure that you teach your children that they know these things it's important they need to understand and know who they are where they came from verse eight thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine head and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates and it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers to Abraham and Isaac and to Jacob to give thee goodly cities which thou buildest not and houses full of good things which thou fillest not and wells digged which thou diggest not and vineyards and olive trees which thou planted not when thou shalt have eaten and be full then beware lest you forget the
[25:28] Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage yada yada yada hear it all the time but there's a fear of the fact that we are all prone to forget prone to leave the God that we love look at a world that is not friendly to us brothers Sam talking about what's going on in Russia why would somebody want to take over another country dominate it hard to understand some of the things that go on in the world the ruthlessness so much death so much killing so much anti God yet we live in our country with so much prosperity we live in houses that probably we didn't build we drive cars that we did not make we plug into electricity we turn on the faucet for water we turn on air conditioning we have all these wonderful things but they aren't things that necessarily bring us closer to
[26:55] God they can become things that actually take us away from God used to be in the days gone by that the church was the gathering place where the saints the believers would all meet together it was kind of the center of the community but with the advance of the automobile people could go farther away from home stay away longer we are experiencing a time when people are beginning to lose they're beginning to forget who God is verse 12 lest then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt and from the house of bondage thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his name ye shall not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are around about you for the
[27:58] Lord thy God is a jealous God among you lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off the face of the earth ye shall not tempt test the Lord your God as ye tempted tested him in Massah ye shall diligently keep all the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes which he hath commanded thee and thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord swear unto thy fathers to cast out all thine enemies from before thee as the Lord hath spoken God doesn't want us to live in a world that is full of fear he would like to give us a place where there's peace and harmony you ever live in a house without a lock where you didn't lock your front door on our farm in
[29:08] South Dakota once in a while my wife would hear my wife my mother I'm sorry mother would hear that little rumor that maybe there was somebody coming around and she'd get alarmed and she'd find a butter knife and she'd slide it between the door and the molding on the house a child could fall against the door and knock it open probably but it gave her a sense of security times when you did not worry about rolling up your windows and locking your doors if I asked you how many of you locked your doors in the church parking lot tonight when you came in just automatic you lock your doors why would you lock your doors in a church parking lot what are you afraid of it's our reality it is what we have right now God doesn't want it to be that way it's not what he would desire but it's what our reality is to live in a time when things aren't what they ought to be come back to the song again and that the tears the pain the sorrow the fear will all be gone how wonderful that will be for us so coming back to psalm 100 for a couple more moments just reflect on verse 3 let me read it again for you know ye yada that the lord he is god it is he that hath made us not we ourselves for we are his people and the sheep of his pasture and with that we come into his presence we enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him bless his name for the lord is good his mercy is everlasting his truth his truth endureth to all generations the lord is good what does that mean for us one wrote i had fainted unless i believed to see the goodness of the lord in the land the goodness of the lord there's a verse in romans that i haven't mastered the meaning of yet i'm not sure exactly how paul said the goodness of the lord leadeth thee to repentance when your child does something wrong and you know that you've got to take care of the issue and you talk to them and you decide that there's a point where there needs to be some punishment and your goal is that they will say i'm sorry we think of something that makes people feel sorry is pain i have a little pain to be able to realize what you did wrong that you did something bad and how does it work when paul said the goodness of the lord leadeth thee to repentance run that through your hopper for a while it's good meditation good meditation god in his goodness has made it possible for us that we can be made clean clear we don't have to
[33:09] live with guilt and sin all the rest of our lives some people have a hard time being able to confess their sin and admit guilt death i remember my son saying to me one time dad you're not going to make me cry you're not going to make me cry we had a little stick that was about as big around as this little stem not very big god said spare the rod and spoil the child is that important to you is that truth yeah foolishness is bound in the heart of a child but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him is that true or did god lie had a lady where we used to live she said i believe the bible entirely but i disagree with god on one thing spare the rod and spoil the child i don't believe that spanking a child is right one day went in the closet and there was that stick and i what's wrong i picked up that stick and rolled it over and written on the stick were the words i hate this stick i hate this stick someone has said that if you spank a child with your hand they associate the pain with you if you spank them with a stick they associate the pain with a stick the goodness of the lord leadeth thee to repentance you know i should have tried that out hey you did something really bad let's go down and get an ice cream cone sounds good the goodness of the lord leadeth thee to repentance hey i just had some drumstick ice cream you know you take a drumstick and you crush it up and make it into ice cream that was really good the goodness of the lord for the lord is good the lord is good say it with me the lord is good now say it the lord is good the lord is good his mercy is everlasting his mercy knows no end there's no limit to his mercy long suffering not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and lastly his truth endureth to all generations the truth lives on it can never die it can never die so tonight again just a simple psalm but a psalm that speaks of spiritual maturity you need to know yada that the lord he is god it is he that made it not we ourselves we are his people and the sheep of his
[37:09] pasture father father we give you thanks tonight for your word for its truth we thank you for who you are as our lord and as our god thank you for sharing yourself with us making us in your own image that we might enjoy eternal life in your presence absent from the body present with the lord for we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is thank you lord for giving to us the invitation to come for giving us the opportunity to repent to acknowledge that we are lost thank you father for giving to us jesus that he should take our sins deal with them once and for all with his shed blood that we might be fully clean thank you lord for all that you've done thank you for the blessings that are ours to to know you help us to know you more that i may know him and the power of his resurrection we desire to know you thank you lord for giving to us what knowledge we have in jesus name we pray amen