[0:00] We're going to read Psalm 76 together, if you would. Before we read the psalm, just let me kind of give you a little background. Do you know that every time, you know, God likes to be remembered.
[0:13] Now, you didn't hear that. God likes to be remembered. And so if you go through the Bible, Moses writes a song, Deborah writes a song, everybody likes to write songs. Because you never remember what a guy preaches, but you do remember what somebody sings.
[0:27] And so they write songs. And that's a great way. That's a good thing for us to use songs. And so psalms are the Israel's songbook.
[0:39] And they almost always are something that there's a truth that they won't remember. And we're not sure what exactly this psalm is written about. I'm going to take my guess, and we're going to go with my guess.
[0:51] And that is when Sennacherib comes against them, and there is no chance Israel can win. It is humanly impossible for Israel to win.
[1:03] And Sennacherib will make bold and wild claims. We'll read some of the verses so you know I'm telling the truth. Well, he'll make wild and boastful claims. There's no other God has been able to stand against me.
[1:16] Nobody else has been able to stop me. They got this king. His name is Hezekiah. And at this time in his life, he's really a great man. And Sennacherib's crowd even says stuff like, don't y'all let Hezekiah fool you.
[1:32] He'll try to get you to believe God can take care of you. But that's ridiculous. Nobody can stand in front of us. Just look at the size of our army. You guys are going down. And Hezekiah believes that God can deliver because God can deliver.
[1:47] Amen? And so Hezekiah does one of my favorite things in the entire Bible. It's one of my most beautiful favorite pictures. Hezekiah walks into God and he goes into his place of prayer there, the holy place to pray.
[2:01] And he just opens up the letter and lays it on the altar and says, hey, that's what he said. You need to read his letter. I don't think you like that letter.
[2:12] I want to see what you're going to do about it. And God says, I don't like the letter. Watch this. And they wake up the next morning and 185,000 of them wake up dead. And the battle's over.
[2:27] I don't know. That's what you call a pandemic or maybe a deathdemic because they were just dead. 185,000 soldiers were dead. And very likely this psalm is maybe written about that.
[2:40] It doesn't make it clear. It's just a good guess that that's what it's about. So as you read it, I want you to think like they're thinking. As we read the psalm, I want you to think like this. Boy, death was at the door.
[2:53] And we were going to be wiped out and we were going to be destroyed. And they had more guns and more horses and more ability. There was no way we could win.
[3:04] It's kind of like Israel right now with Hamas raining down fire on them. And, you know, it could look like at any moment they might be wiped out. And so far their defense is holding strong.
[3:17] And they were in trouble. And then God came through. And then the songwriter sat down and said, let me write a song about that. Let's don't ever forget how God delivered his people.
[3:31] One of the big dangers, I tried to preach that to you just a little bit last Sunday, is we forget what God's done for us. We tend to forget what God's done for us.
[3:41] You know, there was a day when you were a pretty, dirty, stinking, rotten, filthy-smelling, drunk and drug addict. And you had meth in you. And whatever it was you was doing.
[3:53] Or maybe it was a really fancy, nice-smelling businessman. But you were lost. And on your way to hell. And you smelled the fumes of hell itself on you. But God saved you and he changed you.
[4:04] Or maybe your marriage was in trouble and you were lost. And you were both selfish. And then God stepped in and God saved you and God changed you. And it'd be good to stop and say, let's write a song about that.
[4:16] It probably wouldn't be as good as the ones in the Bible because we're not that good as songwriters. But it ought to be good to just stop and say, boy, God's been good to me. It wouldn't be a bad thing to sing a song to your kids and say, kids, there was a time when sin was about to destroy your mom and dad.
[4:33] Sin was about to destroy me. But God stepped in and saved me. God did a work in my life. And I want God to be praised. So as we read it, I just want you to remember that's what's going on. I want you to remember they're going, whew, God's good.
[4:46] They'll be singing this. It'll be set to a tune. But we're not going to do that because I sing worse than Timmy ever dreamed of singing. But we're going to read it together. You ready? Psalm 676.1.
[4:57] I'll read one verse. You read the next. And we'll go through it. In Judah is God known. You just underline that. God is known.
[5:08] His name is great in Israel. Verse 2. There break he the arrows of the bow, the shield, the sword, and the battle.
[5:27] Selah. Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of the brave. The stout-hearted are spoiled. They have slept their sleep.
[5:38] And none of the men of might have found their hands. Thou. And I will be you, O God and Jacob. Though the chariot and the horse are passed to the midst.
[5:49] Thou. Even thou. You and you alone. Art to be feared. And who may stand in your sight when you get angry.
[6:00] When God arose to judgment. To save all the meek of the earth.
[6:13] Selah. vow and pray and pay unto the lord your god let all that be round about him bring presence to him unto him that ought to be feared i want you to go back with me before we pray and i just want you to underline some things in the chapter that i will hit on but i'll be flying through and you ought to remember them just underline this god is known they knew it was god see underline that they knew it was god sometimes you don't pay attention and don't realize it's god sometimes you have surgery and you think it's a skill of the doctor's hands or sometimes you go into some other thing and you don't give god credit for what god did and god can use medicine and god can use uh god can use doctors and god can use lawyers and and everything else god can do a work but it ought to be that god is known say amen god is known underline in that his name is great in israel and skip down if you into verse three i just want you to realize what they're saying they're underline break he you see god broke what do you break read the verse he broke their weapons he broke their air their aerial weapons the bow and he broke the shield their protection he broke the sword they're in close fighting he just broke the whole battle up god did it can you put a circle around that he break break he it says and skip down if you would to verse five the stout hearted are spoiled those proud boastful guys that came and said we're taking you out have instead of going home with what they stole are going home dead and losing it all and then look at what happened to them they slept the sleep look at that that's what happened and then uh they woke up dead and then it says and they couldn't find their hands they couldn't even figure out what to do and you go down if you would in verse six the chariot and the horse are cast into a deep sleep god put their tanks and their mobile their mobile weapons he put them to sleep and stop them go down if you would to verse eight the whole earth feared look at that the earth feared and was still because what happened on that day would scare anybody to death you know the atomic bomb stopped world war ii because it was terrifying they dropped one bomb and thousands upon thousands of people are killed and property is destroyed but it was a bomb these guys say we're here to attack you and we're going to bring down your god and a hundred and eighty five thousand of them the city of alpharetta is dead next morning they're dead and they said boy everybody got scared can you imagine it there was no gun there was no bomb there was no knife they just died and god saved the meek god saved in that verse nine he saved the meek of the earth in second kings chapter 18 and verse 13 you might make a note in your bible if you if you're if you got your paper bible open you're writing right there in second kings chapter 18 and verse 13 the king of assyria has come up against judah it's the 14th year of king hezekiah and sennacherib king of assyria came up against all the fenced cities of judah and he took them and the
[10:15] wicked king thought that he was a great king in verse 19 thus says the great king the king of assyria assyria so he sends word to himself when he talks he's the great king the great king of assyria and he mocks god in second kings chapter 18 and verse 19 he says what confidence is this wherein thou trust us what are you believing in what are you trusting in you see you look out there and you realize you're surrounded and your arm the enemy army is bigger than your army and so he said you say but i'm telling you they're vain words i have counsel and strength for war and he says now whom does on whom dost thou trust that you would dare to rebel against me who you trusting that you would dare to rebel against me in the second kings chapter 18 and verse 30 he said don't you let that hezekiah make you trust in the lord god of heaven don't you let him do it in second kings chapter 18 and verse 33 listen this bold saying he says have any of the gods of the nations delivered at all every country's got a god you jews have a god but so does every other country and no other god has been able to stop sennacherib of course you and i both know they're not gods there's only one god look at verse 35 which of the gods of all the gods of the countries have delivered them nobody's gods could stop sennacherib and see they looked at it as a challenge between this god and that god parentheses doesn't really belong in his message but that's exactly what's going on when you talk about spiritual warfare you see do you know that when they captured samson they took him to the house of their god and they mocked him in front of their god and they they mocked him in front of their god in their temple because they were saying our god beat the god of the israelites and god of the israelites is the true god and he will not be beaten and that's why samson will later be given the power to pull down the whole place and destroy everybody even as he's dying there and he says it's not gonna happen in the second kings chapter 19 boy you should read that beautiful passage of scripture hezekiah hezekiah prayed before the lord and in verse 16 he says to open lord thine eyes and see and hear the words of sennacherib which has sent him to reproach the living god if you had your bible you should underline to reproach the living god you see sennacherib didn't come up and say i'm a better king than your king that would have been bad but it would have been a lot better for sennacherib if he'd have been a smart guy he'd have just left god out of the equation but he came in there and said my god's bigger than your god and he insulted the god of israel well now when a little piece of wood insults a real god who made wood when a little bitty god that somebody else has to carry around gets insulted he just rises up and that's what it says in the psalm he got angry and wiped them out second kings chapter 19 and verse 16 of a truth hezekiah says he's right god they've destroyed all the nations god every place he goes he just tears them up and wins verse 18 he cast all their gods into the fire he comes right into a town and he he and his army and they destroy everything then they go grab that guy's gods and they throw them in a fire but then he adds they are no gods
[14:20] underline that they were no gods they're not really gods they're fake gods they got demon junk behind them but they're just fake he said they are the work of men's hands they are wood and stone that's how they could destroy them the way sennacherib wins is his army is bigger than their army and their gods are worthless and his god is worthless but this time he has insulted a real god the living god the all-powerful god the god that can do something in verse 9 to 2 kings 19 34 god speaks i wish you underline this in your bible i will defend this city that's enough drop the mic let's go home hezekiah said god they're really saying you can't do anything about it god just goes i'll defend the city it's over and then he says why you'll defend the city would you underline that in your bible for my sake he said you don't insult me and get away with it you'll insult me and get away with it now you can insult baal you can insult buddha you can insult the 330 million gods they have in india but you don't insult the one true and the one and only god you don't insult him but then something just jumps off the page when i read it there i wish you'd notice it he said for my own sake and for my servant david's sake and i read that and i'm like glory to god i want to be like david do you realize what god said he said i won't let him get away with it and he said i'm not going to do it for you hezekiah and i'm not going to do it for israel hezekiah but i'm going to do it for me but i'm only going to do it for me i'm going to do it for david david was my man and i told david i'd keep his kingdom alive and i'll do it so in second kings chapter 19 and verse 35 we're getting to our psalm but you got to know why the song was written verse 35 he said it came to pass that night that the angel of the lord went out and smote in the camp of the assyrians 185,100 four score and five thousand and when they arose early in the morning all dead corpses it's a historical fact that in many battles throughout history when they used to siege cities and they would last a year and two and three years that people would die from dysentery and they would die from cholera and hepatitis and stuff like that because they were so long but it's unheard of that in one night 185,000 healthy people just fall dead 185,000 i don't know if you have any concept of what that means i don't know how if you if you could just do the multiplication it's like 1850 times as many people in this room i mean it's even more than that probably 18 18,500 times as many people's in this room because we ain't many he just wiped them out they just died and so the wicked king ran home second king chapter 19 and verse 36 sennacherib king of assyria departed and he went and dwelt at nineveh now you remember nineveh it's whenever you want to talk about jonah going to nineveh like greg did tonight there's nineveh right there it's a seat of a bunch of mean and bad people and it came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of his god named nishrok his sons smote him with a sword and killed him he stood against god he that could throw every other
[18:21] false god in the fire and burn them he that could boast of everything lost 185,000 men runs home in defeat goes in to ask his false god what happened and his sons drop him dead while he worships his false god god gave the victory god is famous in this psalm because he defeats the enemy and he breaks their arrows it is god and god alone that won the battle there is no other god like the god of israel and the whole world realizes that when god gets angry with sin everybody ought to be scared god's people can trust him go with me if you would to psalm 76 1 first thing we should write down somewhere is this we should display his greatness we should display his greatness in psalm 76 1 in judah is god known his name is great in israel in salem is his tabernacle and his dwelling place and that's where he broke all the enemy's weapons i want you to notice that in judah in the country in israel in the 10 tribes of the north and the two tribes in israel and in judah they all know who he is his name is his name is known his name is great but i wish just for the moment that you put a circle around the word in in verse 70 chapter 76 in verse 1 right before the word israel and before the word judah in judah is god known in israel is his name great that's like the saddest word in the verse you see every country had their god it's great that god's people know god and that god's people know that god is great but i would say what about the rest of the world it's great that tonight you and i are in this service and we got a bible open and we're going to read the bible and we've already had prayer and we believe in god and our children sang to god and and we sang to god and the spanish churches but we love god there's a whole world that has no idea that god who god is and god isn't great to them there's a whole world where his name isn't great and he is not known god's people can never forget how much the world needs god christianity was never meant to be a personal religion i won't talk to you about religion that's a personal thing it was never meant to be personal it's personal in the fact that you get saved personally but it's the salvation of the entire world it's the salvation that everybody ought to hear it and here's the bad thing the truth is that when one army marches against another army yes people die but you know what the real problem about dying isn't dying it's where you go when you die did you ever consider the other day they were talking in ecuador about somebody getting hit and they saw somebody get hit and they saw somebody dying and you know what the real question is oh wasn't that terrible did you see how that car hit them did you see how they fell off that bridge did you see how they crashed that car did you see that sickness that took them what the real question is where'd they go forever the real question is where'd they go forever god gave his people peace salem look back if you would in verse two in salem in jerusalem in jerusalem in the city of peace and it's a peace that god gives but most people have no idea what it means to have peace with god or to have the peace of god so few people know about that god's people had seen his power god's people had seen god snatch victory from defeat today i know god's power i know that god has heard and answered my prayer i know i've prayed to god
[22:28] things and asked him to do stuff and god heard me and we could stand here and have the most wonderful fellowship meeting in the world we could stand up and we could go around the room and one by one we could all say let me brag on jesus he is great and he is known in vision baptist church and he is praised in vision baptist church and he is famous in vision baptist church but i can't read that without thinking about why don't we declare his greatness to the nations why can't somebody in ecuador know he's great why can't someone in africa know he's great they need to declare it go with me to psalm 76 4 number two we need to delight in this person look if you would psalm 76 4 thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey i want you to circle the word thou and i want you to realize what the psalmist is making the people sing he's making them saying that it is god that's glorious that it's god that's excellent that it's god that wrought the victory it's god it was god to give the victory they knew the person of god they knew the character of god you realize how beautiful that is when you can look at god and say god it's not our army god it's not our soldiers god it's not our weapons god it's not our strategery god it's you you are glorious god you are great god you are excellent god it's you the psalm you can't pray when you are there and 185 000 people are dead outside your city when your city was surrounded and there was literally no hope and you have nothing you could have done but just wait to die and then god killed 185 000 you go hope god you are great how great thou art how great thou art i'm afraid we don't think like that we forget where we were when he saved us we forget that he gave us the victory we forget that he raised up our family we forget that it wasn't long ago you were about to get a divorce we forget that it wasn't long ago someone in your family was physically in trouble and you prayed and god heard and god answered we forget that we think all of a sudden it was the doctors who did it or we think it was a medicine that did it or we think that we went to the christian counselor and he got us back together we think our personal discipline helped us overcome our problem we should know how glorious our god is he is awesome we ought to know that satan can't stand against him but then i asked myself the question again how many around the world have any idea how marvelous he is i don't even know who he is they have gods all around the world they have gods we're not the only country with a god but many countries think jesus is our god and their god is buddha or their god is somebody else they have gods it can really do nothing for them when you're in thailand you'll see young guys walking down the street they're monking for a while they're going to be a monk and after a certain amount of time they can quit being monks but they're making merit they're overcoming what they did in their last life and we ought to declare his greatness but we ought to delight in this person we ought to really say boy god is great go with me if you would to psalm 76 three psalm 76 three psalm 76 three we displayed his greatness and we delighted in his person now we declare his greatness look at psalm 76 seven thou even thou art to be feared if you have your bible
[26:33] open you should put a circle around thou and thou in fact is if you got your bible open going down to verse 8 and circle the word thou again and in verse 7 circle the word thy sight it see it is god thou oh god you you are to be feared now wait just a minute a little while ago they weren't afraid of god they were afraid of sennacherib and a bunch of soldiers a little bit ago i was afraid of the cancer a little bit ago i was afraid of the pandemic and i was afraid of covid a little bit ago i was afraid of the debt collector a little bit ago i was afraid of the health condition a little bit ago i was afraid of all this other stuff but now god's delivered me and so what he does is he stands back and said well let's tell them everybody what really happened here what really happened here oh god it was you oh god it was you but can i be honest with you we don't do much of that do we come on tell the truth as soon as we taste victory we get complacent and satisfied and proud and we forget god's people here are speaking to god they worship him because they know it was god that won the victory god's the only one with real power on the planet there's no one else with real power on the planet what will we do to get the message to the meek of the earth like these jews here what will we do to get people to hear about him read with me psalm 76 8 thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven the earth feared and was still they said you know god when we were in trouble there was nowhere else we could turn you brought judgment from heaven that's what happened i mean you just stop and think just a second just forget the preaching and discussing and just think about what happened i mean one minute you look out there you got a bunch of really tall guys with big swords and big spears and big shields and big armor on and whatever it is they're all sitting out there and when they walk they stomp those feet and it's obvious the ground shakes with the big army as it steps out there and the king steps out said no one has ever stood before us you're going down like everybody else goes down and then god spoke and boom 185 000 people were dead and the whole earth said wow you have any idea what the facebook twitter feed looked like that afternoon you have any idea how the gossip sheets ran with that message you're never going to believe this but the most massive army the world has ever assembled went up against those people and they didn't even attack they just died their god is a big god their god is an awesome god psalm 76 9 when god arose to judgment it was like it was like god just sitting over waiting he's over in the temple over in heaven just sitting there like y'all getting nervous yet oh i see them gathering all around you y'all gonna call on me today y'all gonna see if you can figure out what do yourselves and everybody's listening hezekiah's like i know he's up there i know he hears prayer i know he'll do something and you know hezekiah walks in and hezekiah tells god and god says all right you're dead battle over amen he's to be feared he's to be magnified we ought to tell the world about
[30:38] him did you know marching around every city on this planet marching around the borders of china today and india today marching around indonesia today and marching around thailand and taiwan and marching around england and march around the united states there's a demons of hell blinding eyes and stopping people from hearing and doing everything in their power to damn the whole world of hell to make mock of everything our god did and our god's sitting there going speak and i'll do something speak and i'll call preachers call on me and i'll send missionaries and we complacently forget but i know this he wants the whole world to be saved let's give him the dignity to his name look at psalm 76 2 you see what's going to happen is even all these mad men and all these ugly people and all these bad attitude people the day is coming when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess they'll do it whether they want to or whether they don't want to me and you're going to do it because we want to me and you're going to do it because we already got practice man we like doing it every day of our lives but in psalm 76 10 it says surely the wrath of man shall praise thee the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain god's going to stop it and even lost people are going to catch on to just can you not imagine what's going on all over the earth when the news spreads that zenechariah lost the battle and then people say well what happened how could that great army die to lose like that and they go we nobody knows he kept threatening their god and in one night 185 000 of them died you're kidding how'd they die did they poison the water did they use some kind of aerial disposal system to get garbage in their lungs how'd they die they just died the whole world goes wow i don't think i want to talk about that god i don't believe i want to attack that god see we ought to be giving him the dignity of his name if you go down in there in verse 11 he said pay what you promise pay what you promise go down a little bit further and say bring presence to him to the one that ought to be feared you don't need to fear sennacherib you don't need to fear a pandemic you don't need to fear inflation you don't need to fear whether or not china and taiwan are going to war you don't need to worry about what's happening in north korea you know what's who to fear we fear the god of heaven and we speak to him and he answers prayer and he moves god's people ought to do what said they do we ought to make our offerings we ought to offer our praise and our worship if he's god then how can we not worship him if he is god how can we not praise him if he's god how do we not do what he wants us to do but again i'll ask you a question how many of them will give him the dignity to his name they won't he'll just be the american god the european god the god of the white people oh they'll have no respect for him they don't know who he is they don't know how to honor him unless we go tell them i've been mocked to say that i find too much world evangelism in the bible i don't know how much you can find it's too much i don't know how you can read the bible when god wants everybody to know who he is and not think he wants everybody to know who he is god destroys his enemies look at verse 12 he shall cut off the spirit of princes he is terrible
[34:41] to the kings of the earth you see what happens is this word terrible here is like the word awesome when you walk into david's courtyard or solomon's courtyard joe solomon by the time it's over he's brought animals and monkeys and ostriches and silver is so plentiful it's like a rock to him and there's wealth there's lions and cheetahs and tigers all in his place there's soldiers standing up there he sits on a golden throne when you walk in that room you're like wow check out the great king when sennacherib walked up to hezekiah hezekiah sennacherib was like you better check out who the great king is when they sing the song they say yeah no king's great god's great princes princes die at his rebuke kings can be killed 185,000 people can die and the greatest people on the planet can you imagine what it would be like to be the president of the united states everywhere you walk people are just taking care of you everywhere you go there's a crowd around you take care of you move on doing everything for you boy you are awesome you got this awesome office that the whole world likes to look at and everybody knows boy whoo you big shots and the presidents of other countries and the kings of other countries but when those presidents and when those kings look up to god they go we thought we were awesome we thought we were something but buddy you are god and you are awesome and you are powerful and the word is found in verse 12 cut off that's kills puts out no one can stand before the god of the universe the kings of the earth will one day realize who he is they will see his majesty they will see his might and they will realize how puny they are before the king of kings and the lord of lords either the great or the small the rich or the poor can stand before god kings like sennacherib can yell and threaten but when it's all over they'll know beyond a doubt he is great god is great i back up to say to you tonight two things two things i wish you'd take home number one what a beautiful song they sang to remember how god delivered them what's your song when's the last time you told your children we were in trouble one time son y'all kids said let me tell you a story this is one of the times god answered prayer in our family i'd like to tell you a story about god answering prayer and your kids that are going wow dad god hears you wow that's our great god wow but we don't tell the stories we don't sing the songs we put up the plaques that say we're great on our me wall that's when i graduated high school that's when i graduated college and that's my honorary degree and that's where everybody thought i was something here's another one where they thought i was something that's a picture of me with the president your kid walks around and goes oh dad you're awesome when's the last time you sat down with your kids and said daddy's seen god work this is when i hurt this is how he helped this is when i needed him and this is how he came through and so when you grow up when you grow up the god who's always heard daddy's prayers will hear yours too
[38:41] if you'll trust him as your savior are you making god great at home that's a serious and genuine question from my heart god is known in israel god is great in judah or vice versa but is he at your house mama when do you set the kids down and tell them i think sometimes having been really poor was a blessing there are times my kids were sick there was nothing we could do they had high fevers we couldn't afford to take them to the doctor i'd walk into bed get on my knees beside their bed put my hands on them say god i have anything i can do i need you to bring that fever down i need you to take care of my kid and he did and tell you about times i couldn't pay the bills and i said god please move and he did i could tell you so many stories you're making god great and my last question is i believe you probably are i don't know that we could do a little more of it my next question is will they ever know he's great in ganda gana excuse me will they ever know he's great in pop in the beginning will we as a church take a step to make sure that he knows they know will we do more than we've ever done because i know a great god i know a sweet wonderful great god no matter how many times i fail him he just keeps on loving me he's not dissatisfied with me he's not displeased with me he loves me he loves you what a wonderful god they know nothing of him father in heaven would you move and work tonight would you bring honor and glory to your name god would you help us as parents to make a commitment to share your the stories of your power and your greatness from the bible and from our personal lives would you help us do that and then god would you help us pray for a lost world that's dying and going to hell without you with every head bowed and every eye closed i'm gonna be just as serious as i can i wish some dads and moms find a place to pray and say we don't make enough of god at our house we don't tell the stories of jesus enough at our house we don't tell the stories of how jesus has worked at our house like we should and i want to make a commitment tonight would you talk to him about that would you tell him you will would you tell him god i'm gonna brag on you more i'm gonna tell the stories i'm gonna make you known to make you famous would you do that tell him that and then would you pray for a lost world a lost world out there that's never heard the gospel has no chance unless we do something about it would you pray for them i wish a chinese dad could sit with his children and say let me tell you about our great god i wish that indian daddy could say i was bound in sin by idols but jesus came i wish we'd see our world make much of jesus let's pray let's ask god to work father god in heaven would you move tonight would you strengthen your people would you magnify your name would you show your power god do something i'll give you praise with every head bowed and every eye closed you can pray in your seat or you can come on forward and find a place to pray but i pray this psalm will make us go home and make much of jesus make much of jesus
[42:43] here and there around the world whenever you're through praying you can stand and sing with steven as he leads us in the song you