Well, it's an honor and a privilege to be able to preach God's Word here with you this morning.
So if you would, let's open up to Psalm chapter 18.
It's our sermon text this morning, Psalm chapter 18.
And when you've found it, we'll stand in honor of the reading of God's Word this morning.
Psalm chapter 18, to the choir master, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
He said, I love you, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation.
My stronghold.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
The cords of death encompassed me.
The torrents of destruction assailed me.
The cords of Sheol entangled me.
The snares of death confronted me.
In my distress, I called upon the Lord.
To my God, I cried for help.
From his temple, he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.
Then the earth reeled and rocked.
The foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked because he was angry.
Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth.
Glowing coals flamed forth from him.
He bowed the heavens and came down.
Thick darkness was under his feet.
He rode on a cherub and flew.
He came swiftly on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him.
Thick clouds, dark with water.
Out of the brightness before him, hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
And he sent out his arrows and scattered them.
He flashed forth lightnings and routed them.
Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
He sent from on high.
He took me.
He drew me out of many waters.
He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place.
He rescued me because he delighted in me.
The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness.
According to the cleanness of my hands, he rewarded me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all his rules were before me and his statutes I did not put away from me.
I was blameless before him, and I have kept myself from my guilt.
So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
With the merciful, you show yourself merciful.
With the blameless man, you show yourself blameless.
With the purified, you show yourself pure.
And with the crooked, you make yourself seem torturous.
For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.
For it is you who light my lamp.
The Lord my God lightens my darkness.
For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.
This God, his way is perfect.
The word of the Lord proves true.
He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
For who is God but the Lord?
And who is a rock except our God?
The God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless.
He made my feet like the feet of a deer, and set me secure on the heights.
He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me.
And your gentleness made me great.
You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip.
I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed.
I thrust them through so that they were not able to rise, and they fell under my feet.
For you equipped me with strength for the battle.
You made those who rise against me sink under me.
You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and those who hated me I destroyed.
They cried for help, but there was none to save.
They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.
I beat them fine as dust before the wind.
I cast them out like the mire of the streets.
You delivered me from strife with the people.
You made me the head of the nations.
People whom I had not known served me.
As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.
Foreigners came cringing to me.
Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses.
The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation.
The God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me, who delivered me from my enemies.
Yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me.
You rescued me from the man of violence.
For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing to your name.
Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.
And the word of the Lord proves true.
Let's pray once more.
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your word.
And we pray now as we receive it, as you deliver it to us, Father, by the power of your spirit,
would you convict those who need to be convicted?
And would you comfort those who need to be comforted?
Would you encourage those who need to be encouraged?
Would you convert those who need to be converted?
Father, in all of it, Lord, would you be honored and glorified, we pray in Christ's name.
Amen.
You may be seated.
Amen.
In 1999, Toy Story 2 hit the theaters.
And Mr. Potato Head saved the lives of three green aliens.
If you've seen the movie, you know the scene that I'm describing.
If not, you're going to have to imagine it as I describe it.
But this group of toys who can speak and interact and are friends
were driving a pizza delivery car from Pizza Planet to chase after their friends.
They took a sharp turn.
These three green aliens went out the window, but Mr. Potato Head thought and acted quickly,
reached out, grabbed them, pulled them back into the car,
which prompted the now famous line,
You have saved our lives.
We are eternally grateful.
And that phrase throughout the movie, if you're familiar with the movie,
sort of became a repeated chorus over and over and over again.
Anytime these three green aliens had the opportunity,
they wanted to express their eternal gratitude to Mr. Potato Head for saving their lives.
Every time they saw him, every time they were in his presence,
they repeated the chorus,
You have saved our lives.
We are eternally grateful.
Whether they meant it or not, I'm pretty sure they didn't mean it.
I think that they nailed the right response of somebody who has been saved.
Here in Psalm chapter 18, we see David responding to the salvation of the Lord.
We see the context here in this inscription above the psalm.
This is in every single psalm.
Sometimes we're left kind of guessing the context.
Psalm 18, it spells it out for us here in the inscription.
It says,
This is to the choir master, the psalm of David, the servant of the Lord,
who addressed the words of this song to the Lord
on the day when the Lord rescued him from all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
If you were to flip back to 2 Samuel chapter 22,
you would find these same words written there right before the last words of David in 2 Samuel chapter 23.
This is the culmination of gratitude and worship and praise and thanksgiving to the Lord
that's overflowing from David's heart after all of his enemies have finally been defeated.
You remember last week, Psalm 17, what was David doing?
He was calling out to the Lord for deliverance.
Lord, save me.
Lord, hear me.
Lord, listen to my cry.
Lord, arise.
Subdue my enemies.
And now, Psalm chapter 18, we see the Lord has done it.
God has rescued him from all of his enemies.
So how will David respond?
Here's the big idea for us this morning.
The greater our salvation is, the louder our song ought to be.
The greater the salvation, the greater the response and gratitude and praise and thanksgiving ought to be.
And here's the connection with us, church.
We have received a great salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen?
We have been delivered and redeemed by the grace of God through the blood of Christ.
So how ought we respond to the Lord?
I want us to see four responses of the redeemed this morning.
This will be our outline.
If you're taking notes, try to make it easy for you to follow along.
Four responses of the redeemed this morning.
The first is we ought to respond with love.
Respond with love.
Look there to verse 1 with me.
David, he just lists off all of these descriptions of God.
My strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
You see the picture that he's painting here.
These are overflowing words of strength and stability.
God has been his security, his protection.
But I want you to notice it's not as if he's just describing something that he read about in a book
or something that he's seen from afar.
This is personal for David, isn't it?
God is his rock, his strength, his fortress, his deliverer, his God.
You can see how deeply and intimately personal this is for David.
He hasn't just witnessed God's work from afar.
He has experienced personally.
God has been this for him.
He called upon the name of the Lord who is worthy to be praised.
And he, he personally was saved from all of his enemies.
This is a testimony of personal salvation.
The Lord is not just strong.
He's my strength.
He's not just a rock, a fortress.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
He's been this for me.
You see that?
And what's his response?
As he rattles off these descriptions of God, it's not just academic knowledge.
His response is love.
He says, I love you, oh Lord, my strength.
I love you.
This is the right response of somebody who has been redeemed.
In fact, this is the sure sign that you have been redeemed by the Lord.
The sure sign that you have been redeemed, that you have experienced the personal salvation of God on your behalf, redeeming you, rescuing you,
is that your heart has been transformed and changed to love God, your Redeemer.
However, it's not just that you move on with your life and say, thank you, God, I appreciate that.
I'll live however I want to live now and go about my life.
You respond to the Lord with love.
This is what's happening here.
David has had his heart changed to love the Lord.
You know, one reason that David might respond like this is that he recognizes how much danger he was in apart from the grace of God.
Look there at verse 4.
He says,
The cords of death encompassed me.
The torrents of destruction assailed me.
The cords of Sheol entangled me.
The snares of death confronted me.
David recognizes this was not a small threat that's coming against David.
David understands that he was in danger.
This is life or death.
And so he calls upon the name of the Lord and from his temple, David says, he heard his voice.
And he brought redemption to David.
You know, if we find that we struggle to love the Lord as we ought,
maybe we need to remember the danger that we were in apart from him.
Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, we quoted this in our Sunday school class this morning.
Paul says we were dead in our trespasses and sins in which we once walked.
Not just near death.
Not just close to death.
But we were truly, totally, completely, absolutely, spiritually dead.
Destined for eternity apart from God.
Destined for the wrath of God against our sins.
Paul says we were children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
You and I, we were hell bound.
But God made us alive together with Christ.
And God raised us up together with Christ.
We need to see ourselves in these verses, verses 4 and 5, that death was upon us.
That we were children of wrath, but Christ tasted death for us.
Now, if you've received this salvation, our response to the Lord ought to be love.
I'll give you another example from Luke chapter 7.
Jesus was invited to go eat at a Pharisee's house, and so he went.
And it says that a woman knew that he was going.
It says that she was a sinful woman.
And she showed up there with a flask of ointment.
And she poured it all over his feet.
And she wept as she wiped his feet with her hair.
And she kissed his feet.
And she anointed him.
And she wept and wept and wept.
And the Pharisees couldn't believe it.
And they looked and said, if Jesus knew how sinful this woman was,
he would never allow her to do that.
If he only knew who this was that was touching him and weeping over him and anointing his feet,
he would never allow that.
And listen to what he said.
He said to Simon, do you see this woman?
I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet.
But she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet.
You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.
Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven.
For she loved much.
But he who is forgiven little, loves little.
Those who have been forgiven much, love much.
Those who think that they have little to be forgiven of, will love little.
That's the first response of the redeemed, is love.
It's love that overflows from a heart that realizes how much forgiveness you need
and how much forgiveness has been freely given to you in Christ by the grace of God.
Response number two.
Second.
Respond with awe.
Verses 7 through 19 here.
David is describing the sheer power of what God has done for him.
He says, in his moment of desperation, he calls out to the Lord.
And look at this.
He says, the earth reeled and rocked.
The foundations of the mountains trembled and quaked.
Why?
Because God was angry.
This is earth-shaking cosmic power.
God is literally moving heaven and earth to come and rescue and help David.
He says, smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth.
Glowing coals flamed forth from him.
It's like David is looking up and imagining.
He's describing God like this big, powerful dragon.
And he says, he bowed the heavens and he came down.
And this large, powerful, angry God is now coming down swiftly on the wings of the wind.
And David, he describes God's power like a storm.
He says, he made darkness his covering.
His canopy around him.
Thick clouds.
Dark with water.
We've all seen thunderstorms forming off in the distance.
We're about to see some more this week.
And you look out up in the sky and you see the dark clouds starting to form.
And you see them coming together.
And you feel the rumble of thunder.
And you feel the atmosphere start to change.
And you know that storm is coming.
I better get inside.
David says, out of the brightness before him,
hailstones and coals of fire broke through this cloud.
This is no ordinary storm.
This is the storm of God's anger and God's wrath.
God's righteous anger.
His power and his wrath against the wicked.
And it's coming to David's aid.
David says in verse 13,
the Lord thundered in the heavens.
We had a storm the other night.
It woke me up at three in the morning with a thunder.
I thought the whole house was shaking.
I shot straight up in bed.
What's going on?
The Lord thundered in the heavens.
But this thundering is not the thundering of a storm.
It says this thundering is the voice of the Lord.
The Most High uttered His voice.
Hailstones and coals of fire.
The Lord speaks.
And what's the result?
As the enemies are scattered.
He flashes forth lightning.
And He routed them.
The very foundations of the world are laid bare at His rebuke.
This is David in awe.
The unbelievable power and strength of God.
There's an old song by Isaac Watts.
How sweet and awful is the place.
And we've sung it before.
How sweet and awful is the place with Christ within her doors.
While everlasting love displays the choicest of her stores.
It's a song about the church.
About the redeemed.
How sweet and awful is the place.
But that's awful like full of awe.
Not awful like bad.
We don't speak that way anymore.
Isaac Watts wrote how sweet and awful.
Full of awe is the church.
The church, the redeemed.
Those who have been saved.
The church is meant to be awful.
Okay?
You can go home and tell your friends this afternoon.
Church was awful this morning.
But you better clarify what you mean.
Because those two senses are completely different, aren't they?
Awful and awful.
God's power and his strength and his anger and his fury against sin is awful.
For those who are under his wrath.
It's terrible.
It's fearful.
But for us who are saved by the power of God.
From the wrath of God.
For us who have been redeemed by this great strength of God.
It ought to lead us to bow our knees in awe.
At what God has done.
And as great as his power and his might is to destroy those who rebel against him.
It is equally as great and as powerful and as strong towards you.
To protect those who take refuge in him.
This power of God is awful for rebels.
And it is awful for the redeemed.
And nowhere do we see this more clearly than at the cross of Christ.
Christian, as we consider the power of God at work.
That he's demonstrated in saving you, believer, at the cross.
What happened?
God poured out the fullness of his wrath against your sin.
God poured out the fullness of his fury and his anger and his power and his might that was meant for you.
But he put it on his own son in your place.
So that when you look and you behold the power of God is no longer awful for you.
It is a source of awe and wonder that God might do that for me.
This is what Paul prays for the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter 1.
Ephesians chapter 1.
He prays for this reason.
Because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints.
I do not cease to give thanks for you.
Remembering you in my prayers.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Father of glory.
May give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him.
Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.
That you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.
What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.
And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believed.
What kind of power?
According to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ.
When he raised him from the dead.
And seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.
Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.
And above every name that is named.
Not only in this age.
But also in the one to come.
Paul says he prays that you might grasp the power of God at work for you in Christ.
What kind of power?
The same power at work in the resurrection of Jesus himself.
That resurrection power is at work in you who believe.
Are you not in awe of the work of God?
That his power is no longer against us as we deserve.
It is now within us.
And behind us.
And for us.
By the grace of God in Christ.
Those who have received God's salvation ought to respond in awe.
And third.
Because it is God's work.
Third.
We ought to respond with credit.
Or glory.
In other words.
We ought to give credit where credit is due.
Give glory and honor where glory and honor are due.
This is going to be a larger section of this psalm.
I see it here in verses 16 through 42.
But here's the idea.
Whoever gets the credit gets the glory.
Whoever takes the credit gets the glory.
Glory.
So the question is.
Well who gets the credit for this work of salvation?
Who gets the glory for David's salvation?
And at first.
Verses 16 through 18.
David seems like he's saying God has done it.
He's sent from on high.
He took me.
He drew me out of many waters.
He's rescued me from my enemy.
Why?
Because they were too mighty for me.
God's done it.
But then you get to verse 19.
It says he rescued me because he delighted in me.
Now I've got to ask.
Well what does that mean?
What's the basis of God's delight in David?
And on the one hand.
Verses 20 through 27.
David is drawing a lot of attention to the fact that he's been pretty good.
You look there.
He says.
The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness.
According to the cleanliness.
The cleanness of my hands.
He rewarded me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord.
And have not acted wickedly.
And wickedly departed from my God.
All his rules were before me.
His statutes I did not put away from me.
I was blameless before him.
I kept myself from guilt.
So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness.
According to the cleanness of my hands.
In his sight.
So I have to ask.
Is this a case of God helps those who help themselves?
Is David saying that if you're good.
If you are righteous.
If you're blameless.
Then God will listen to your prayers.
He will save you.
He will reward you.
And we can't just dismiss that idea right away.
Because it sounds like it.
Doesn't it?
David says in verse 25.
With the merciful you show yourself merciful.
With the blameless man you show yourself.
Blameless.
With the purified you show yourself pure.
And with the crooked you make yourself seem torturous.
You save a humble people.
But the haughty you bring down.
Doesn't it sound like David is saying.
You be good.
God will be good to you.
You be bad.
God will be bad to you.
How do we understand this?
It is absolutely true.
Of course David acted in righteousness.
We spoke about that last week.
He was innocent in the case of Saul.
He was innocent in the case of Absalom.
But here's what we need to understand.
When you look closer at Psalm chapter 18.
You realize his righteousness is not the root of his salvation.
His righteousness is not the foundation of his relationship with God.
We ought to understand David speaking here as somebody who has already been brought into covenant relationship with the Lord.
Not because of his goodness.
But because of, we learned this term last week.
Because of the steadfast love and faithfulness of God.
This righteousness and blamelessness that David is talking about here is not the root of his relationship with God.
These are the fruits of being in right relationship with God.
God's relationship with David isn't because of David and his goodness.
If it were, David could take some of the credit.
But that's not how it works, is it?
We don't clean ourselves up and change our behavior and dust off our shoulders and improve ourselves.
And expect that on that basis, God will now receive me because of my self-improvement.
How does it work?
God takes ruined, dead, rebellious sinners.
People who are in the flesh who Romans 8, Paul says, cannot please God.
He takes children of wrath and he adopts them by his grace and makes them children of God through the gift of faith in Christ Jesus.
He saves us.
He gives us a new heart.
He works up good in us.
And that's his work completely by his grace.
He deserves the credit.
A right understanding of the grace of God ought to lead us to recognize that any doing or any thinking or any willing or any working or any goodness that we might do for the glory of God comes from God, not from us.
It's his work.
It's as Paul says in Philippians.
It's God who works in you, Philippians, to will and to work for his good pleasure.
You hear that?
It's God who works in you to will and to work for his good pleasure.
We don't want to think this way.
Why?
Because in our pride, we want to hold on to some of the credit.
We want some of the glory.
You mean to tell me that the work that I do for God comes from God?
Yes, I do.
You mean to tell me that my own will to serve God and to follow him, that comes from God?
Yes, I do.
If God doesn't work in us that we might will and work for his good pleasure, we will never desire him.
And we will never work anything good for him.
It is all from him.
All of it.
That's exactly what David says here in verses 29 through 42.
I want you to look at the relationship here between David's work, God's work.
Okay?
Verse 29 through 32.
He says,
For by you I can run against a troop.
By my God I can leap over a wall.
That sounds like Olympic feats, don't they?
Leap over a wall.
Everybody look at David and say,
Man, you're strong.
What does he say?
By my God I can leap over a wall.
Verse 32.
The God who equipped me with strength.
Where did his strength come from?
From God.
The God who made my way blameless.
Where did David's blamelessness come from?
From God.
He made my feet like the feet of a deer.
And set me secure on the heights.
Where did his security and his safety come from?
It came from God.
He trains my hands for war.
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
Where did his power and his might come from?
From God.
You have given me the shield of your salvation.
Your right hand supported me.
Your gentleness made me great.
Don't you love that line?
Where did David's greatness come from?
From God.
From his gentleness.
You gave me a wide place for my steps under me.
My feet did not slip.
I pursued my enemies.
I overtook them.
I did not turn back until they were consumed.
David did that.
David went to war.
I thrust them through so that they were not able to rise.
They fell under my feet.
But who gets the credit?
Verse 39.
For you equipped me with strength for the battle.
You made those who rise against me sink under me.
You made my enemies turn their backs to me.
Those who hated me I destroyed.
They cried for help but there was none to save.
They cried to the Lord but he did not answer them.
I beat them fine as dust before the wind.
I cast them out like the mire of the streets.
This is something I did.
I was active.
I was involved.
I was there.
I was going to war.
I was fighting.
Verse 43.
You delivered me from strife with the people.
You did it.
This is what the song of the redeemed ought to sound like.
Whatever good we have in us is not from us.
Whatever we are that's pleasing to the Lord is not from us.
We ought to turn to the Lord and give credit where credit is due.
We simply cannot credit ourselves for our salvation.
We must not.
I walked an aisle.
I prayed a prayer.
I checked the box.
I chose him.
I decided to follow Jesus.
I made all these choices to honor God with my life and to clean myself up and to turn from sin and to pursue righteousness.
Praise God for all of that.
Keep growing.
Keep pursuing.
But realize all of this from beginning to end is God's work in you.
Long before it was yours.
This is Jonathan Edwards said.
You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.
You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin.
That made it necessary.
In other words, God gets the credit.
God gets the glory.
The truth is wherever you want to steal a little bit of the credit for yourself,
what you're actually doing is stealing a little bit of God's glory.
That rightly belongs to him.
Anything good in us is from him and it is through him and to him.
To him be the glory forever.
So what's the right response to a God like this?
Fourth, it's praise.
It's worship.
It's honor and glory.
Look there to verses 43 through 50.
David ends this psalm with this picture of global, worldwide praise of the nations.
He says,
You delivered me from strife with the people.
You made me the head of the nations.
People whom I had not known served me.
As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.
Foreigners came cringing to me.
Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses.
The Lord lives and blessed be my rock.
And exalted be the God of my salvation.
The God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me.
Who rescued me from my enemies.
Yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me.
You delivered me from the man of violence.
For this I will praise you, O Lord.
Among the nations.
And sing to your name.
Great salvation he brings to his king.
And shows steadfast love to his anointed.
To David and his offspring forever.
And this is a picture of worldwide, global kingship.
The nations are coming together to worship the king.
The nations are coming together in obedience and submission.
God delivered David the king.
He exalted David and honored him.
And now David the king honors and praises and extols.
And gives credit and glory to God in the presence of the nations.
He's a witness to the nations of the glory of God.
And here, as we close.
We need to see how David is pointing us forwards.
To a true and better king.
You see the promise here?
Verse 50.
Great salvation he brings to his king.
And shows steadfast love to his anointed.
To David and his offspring forever.
David here is pointing us forwards.
Looking ahead in the pages of history.
To how the promises that God has made to him will be fulfilled.
In the one day coming true son of David.
True forever king.
Whose kingdom will have no end.
He's pointing us forwards towards the ways the Lord has shown his steadfast love to him and his offspring forever.
That is, Jesus Christ.
In fact, all of this psalm points us forwards to him.
Christ Jesus is our shield and our salvation.
Any who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
That might be you this morning.
As you hear of this great salvation.
You might hear these words and say, I want that.
Call upon the name of the Lord and you too will be saved.
It's Christ alone who was totally blameless.
Totally righteous.
These words that David prays, answer me according to my cleanliness, can only truly be prayed by the words of Christ.
Christ alone is totally pure.
Totally righteous.
Totally humble.
And we are counted righteous in him.
It's Christ who, like David, went down to the pit of death.
But he went further and deeper than David ever did and truly tasted death.
And yet the Lord answered his call and raised him triumphant from the grave.
It's Christ who ascended on high and who equips the church for the task that he calls us to.
It's Christ who equips the church for the work of ministry.
Who sends forth his spirit and gifts us for every task he calls us to do.
It's Christ who will come again in vengeance and in fury and in power to judge the earth.
And that day will be an awful day for all who rebel against him.
But a day of awe and wonder and joy and triumph and worship for those who love his appearing.
It's Christ who delivers us from all our enemies.
He is our refuge and strength.
It is Christ who is the offspring of David.
The head of the nations.
Who Paul says in Philippians 2,
In the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth.
And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
It's the glory of God the Father.
This is where all things are headed, church.
I watch the Olympics at night and I see the nations coming together.
I dream about what that day will be like when the nations gather together.
Not in competition.
But in praise.
And honor.
To give glory to the sun.
We see that parade of the nations come through.
See, here's the church in Angola.
Here's the church in Iraq.
Here's the church in South Carolina.
Here's the church in Allendale.
Here's all the redeemed from every tribe and tongue and nation.
Coming forth, streaming in to give glory and honor to the king.
John saw that.
He wrote about it in Revelation chapter 7.
He said,
And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures.
And they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God.
Saying,
Amen.
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.
That's where we're headed, church.
This is what God has purchased for us through the blood of His Son.
This is the hope of those who have been redeemed.
This is the future joy of those who have been brought into relationship with God.
By His grace and power through the blood of His Son.
And here's where I want to bring it to a close.
Those who have tasted this salvation,
sing this song right now.
This is the song of the redeemed now and forevermore.
Glory and might and power and honor and thanksgiving.
Be to God and to the Lamb.
So as we close, I'll ask you,
is this the song of your heart?
Does your heart rejoice in what God has done for you in Christ?
Are you praising Him and loving Him and in awe of what He's done and giving Him the glory and the credit and the honor and the praise that He's due?
Are you doing it in the sight of the nations that they might see what salvation God has brought you and give honor and glory to the Son?
Have you experienced the salvation of God?
And if not, what keeps you from coming to Him right now?
If you have,
let your heart sing
and worship
to Him
and in love
and in awe
and in glory
and in praise for what He's done for you in Christ.
Let's pray.
Lord, we praise You for the gift of salvation
that none of us deserve.
Father, it's only by Your grace.
Lord, what power and what might You've worked for us in Christ.
Lord, that we might be counted alive and righteous in You.
That we might be adopted into Your family as sons and daughters of God.
God, we thank You that we have been buried with Him in baptism
and raised to walk in newness of life.
We thank You for that resurrection power that's at work in us who believe.
And we pray, Father, that our hearts would sing Your praises, Lord.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.