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All right, please take your Bibles go back to Psalm 9 This is the last some that I'll be preaching through and then from next Sunday We'll be starting a brand new book Which coincides pretty well a brand new book and then we'll be having our church anniversary as well. So Psalm 9 Psalm 9 the title of sermon comes from verse number 1 which says I will praise the Lord with my whole heart I will show forth all my marvelous works the title of sermon this morning is all thy marvelous works all Thy marvelous works. I'm going to be basically focusing on that last phrase Toward the end of the sermon more than the beginning So if we have a look at the first instruction that it says there. Well, it's not so much an instruction It's a commitment from the psalmist toward God. He says I will Praise thee. Oh Lord. Hey as believers as children of God We need to set this in our hearts a commitment to the Lord that we will praise the Lord Okay, and you say yeah, we do praise the Lord We do we'd come to church and we sing the psalms and and the praises and the hymns and we sing songs We praise the Lord and we thank him for all his answered prayers and we thank you for his salvation We do those things surely we do but notice the second part of that sentence. It says we've all my heart Okay, so we need to praise God we've all that we have in our hearts Okay with the fullness of our hearts and if we are familiar verse they're out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaker Then we're going to fully understand what it means to praise God. It's not just with all our hearts, but that translates through our mouth Okay, I know how much you praise God by what's coming out of your mouth. Okay now This is not the only time we're instructed to praise God with all our hearts We've all our whole heart. I'm just going to read to you very quickly Psalm 86 12 it says I will praise the Lord my God With all my heart and I will glorify thy name forevermore Okay So part of that praise Part of that glories to glory in his name is to praise him and in his name and the name that's given above every name As we saw last week is the name of Jesus Christ That is a name that we ought to praise that is a name that we ought to glory in okay Now many of these references are in the book of Psalms Why is that because the book of Psalms is the song book of the Bible? Okay a lot of these Psalms were actually songs that were sung by Instruments that were sung in the temple and God has given us a number of Psalms, you know If we didn't have our hymn books, you know, we could always just open the Bible and sing the Psalms now I don't know the best tunes to sing these Psalms, you know, there's a lot of people have put the Psalms to music I'm not really familiar with that many of them but this is one sure way that you can praise God by Reading the Psalms and praising God praising his name another reference is Psalm 111 Psalm 111 verse 1 it says praise ye the Lord I will praise the Lord with my whole heart and then it says this In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation Okay, so if you've ever wondered why is church why is singing involved in the church? You know, none of us you might say well not there's not many of us that have good voices And not many of us that have really beautiful voices to sing out loud It doesn't matter when to set it in our hearts as it says in Psalm 111 verse 1 that we will sing and praise God in the assembly of the the upright and Okay, that means this assembly right here ought to be an assembly of the upright Okay, this ought to be an assembly of God's people. Okay. We're not trying to make the church a place That's worldly. We're not trying to Make people come to our church because we're going to fill them with the world's entertainment We're not seeking for the unbeliever necessarily. Well, it's a beautiful thing if an unbeliever comes and visits our church We're not tailoring our church for the unbeliever our church is tailored for the upright it's tailored for the believer so they can hear the Word of God and grow and be more like the Lord Jesus Christ and You might say well, don't you care about the unbelievers? No That's why we go out and we knock the doors of the people of the unbelievers and give them a presentation of the gospel Okay, so our heart is for the unbeliever but church is for those that are upright in heart. Okay and in the congregation It's for all of us to set our hearts to praise him. Okay, please never undervalue the song service Please never undervalue your your your your praise to God, you know sing with all your heart I would like it if you would lose your voices when you'd sing, right? Sometimes I lose my voice as I song lead but it's a good thing. The Lord loves it He wants your whole heart to be put into the praise of God. I'll just read to you another one Psalm 138 Verse 1 Psalm 138 verse 1 it says I will praise thee with my whole heart Before the gods little little G by the way before the gods will I sing praise unto thee? Now this is why hey in a society that does not praise God in a society that has no fear of God We ought to praise Him we ought to thank him in public Okay, so that others around us can see that God still has a remnant of his people on this earth okay, and when it says little G gods what I think that's been referred to a people of high standing people of our that are powerful maybe the Politicians the leaders in this world because if you look at that Psalm later on we won't go into it But it talks about these kind of people and so that God's at God's people Praising God in in front of other people the lost as well. Okay Now I'm going to read to you a couple more passages Ephesians 5 19 an instruction That's being given to a church which says speaking to yourselves in Psalms Okay, so we're reading through the Psalms. We're studying the Psalms We ought to try to sing the Psalms and then it says and hymns which is why we have a collection of hymn books. Okay and spiritual songs Hey, listen You can't take all the music of the world and apply it to church and apply it to the praise of God You say why why can't we do that? Why can't I take you know heavy metal and rock it and rap and fill in the blanks and praise God Why can't we just take that kind of music and and put Christian words to it and sing praises to him like that? because the Bible says and Spiritual songs you see music is a spiritual Way of worship. Okay you and some songs Edify the spirits some things are spiritual in nature. They don't They don't some Gratify the flesh Okay, and a lot of the world's music All right A lot of the music of the world the rock and all those kind of things does not edify the spiritual man Okay, it edifies the flesh if God tells us that we ought to sing praises that are spiritual We need to make sure that the songs that we sing are spiritual in nature Okay, we need to make sure that the songs we sing as well are filled with doctrine. Okay? I don't want to I don't want to sing a song. That's that's hyper repetitive that has no deep doctrine The reason I love the hymns is because it's almost like you're reading the Bible I'm not saying that it even comes close to the Bible. Okay, but there are deep doctrines in here There's in fact there are doctrines that I've learned by by singing hymns and then I've read my Bible I'm like, oh hold on that's like the in that hymn, right? It's the hymn that kind of brought to my attention and then I read it through the Bible So well that yeah, that's in that hymn that I sung. Okay, so it's important that we have the right kind of music in this church Okay, and again, it's not the kind of music that's trying to bring in the lost world No, we're tailoring this church for God's people Okay And if that means that we don't grow into the hundreds like many of the other churches on the Sunshine Coast So be it, you know I'm more interested in pleasing the Lord and praising his name than I am about having a huge congregation Okay, now I hope God builds this church in due time and I believe he has I believe he is, you know But that's not my that's not my goal. Okay, it's Jesus that said he will build his church It's not my goal to do that. That's the goal of Jesus Christ Okay, as long as we make sure that we sing praise and do things in the right way Okay, now just read one more passage some nights. Sorry Psalm 59 verse 16 It says but I will sing of thy power Yay, I will sing aloud Okay, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning. It's the morning. It's Sunday morning Okay, I want us to be singing aloud. Okay, you know Kevin you don't want to hear my voice loud I do. Okay. I want to hear it because I know this is praises to God Alright, and I know that's what the Lord wants for thou has been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble It says so why is he singing praises out loud because he's seen God's hand in his life He's seen how God has delivered him from trials and troubles and that's why he's he's motivated The Psalmist here to sing aloud to sing louder and we ought to be singing aloud we ought to be singing the things of God aloud, all right, and And then of course back in Psalm 9 verse 1 I will show forth all thy marvelous works We're going to revisit this phrase at the end of the sermon toward the end of the sermon. Okay? now look at verse number 2 Psalm 9 verse 2 I will be glad and Rejoice in thee. I Will sing praise to thy name. Oh thou most high Okay. So what I want you to notice right there is that in this Psalm there are five I wills Okay, and and when you say I will do this you're making a commitment. Okay, you're telling God This is something that I'm going to do for you Lord. And then we saw already in verse 1 it says I will praise thee Okay, this is a decision we have to make this is a commitment that we need to make for the Lord It also says I will show forth all thy marvelous works Okay in verse 2 it says I will be glad You might say Kevin right now. I feel you know, I'm not I've not had the best week, you know, I'm feeling quite low I'm feeling downcast, you know Well, the Bible says here that you need to decide to be glad you need to just make a decision before God and say look God I will be glad it doesn't matter if I've had a hard week It doesn't matter if things aren't going according to plan and look that's life I mean life is not a bed of roses life will always bring its challenges We need to get used to it by now if we haven't already and just decide look it doesn't matter what happens I will be glad you know, this is a decision I will make and I'll make this commitment to the Lord because of what he's done for me This tool says I will sing praise. It's one thing to praise God and sometimes in conversation We praise God we thank God for what he's done. And again verse 2 says I will sing praise Okay, this is a commitment We will sing for you Lord and then if you look at verse 14 just drop down to verse 14 to last I will it says I will rejoice in thy salvation Okay, so if you say brother Kevin, you know, I have I have nothing to be joyful about you say I will be glad Well verse 14 I will rejoice in thy salvation Hey, that's something you can be glad about okay that you have your sins forgiven that they've been paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross Okay, and that you've been saved and that you'll never see hell You never see the lake of fire and that you can reign with Christ for all forever that you'll always be with Christ I mean, these are things worth rejoicing about right? These are things that we ought to commit to the Lord boy You know if things if things have gone really bad for you, you can always rejoice in his salvation Okay, because that will never be taken away. Okay, so my point is these I wills are decisions We must make okay. These are commitments that we need to make for the Lord. Okay verse number three When mine enemies are turned back they shall fall and perish at thy presence. I Love that statement. All right, whatever enemies you may have now, I don't really think I have that many enemies maybe Maybe my enemies look at me like my enemy bar to be honest with you If you said Kevin who are your enemies? I'm like, I don't know You know III I don't tend to get too upset even when people have done me wrong It just just I just as my nature. I don't really get so upset about it But I love the promise that it says look in the presence of God those enemies shall fall and perish Okay, so it's not me that has to always take up the battle many times It's just God's presence, right? And if I'm in the will of God if I'm serving the Lord and I'm Pleasing him and I'm trying to serve him with my whole heart and trying to praise him Then I know that at the presence of God my enemies are going to fail Anyway, now I'm reminded of what we preached about on what did I preach about on Wednesday? Okay of David and Goliath and if you remember David stood up against Goliath and defeated Goliath and then what happened once he defeated Goliath and cut off his head with Goliath sword The Philistines ran away they fled it's kind of that same thing there in verse three when my enemies are turned back They turned back but what happened as they fled the armies of the Lord the armies of Israel got together and they they pursued the Philistines and Destroyed many of them and that's what I'm kind of remind there is that the enemies, you know Someone like a David who stood up to Goliath then we saw the armies of the Lord going defeat those enemies Okay, and I would say at the presence of God because it's God it was God's army It was God's army on this earth that went and destroyed those Philistines, okay Let's look at verse four for thou has maintained my right hand and my cause Hey, look the Lord will defend you. Okay. He's going to maintain When it says my rights, what's it talking about? Is it is God always going to defend you no matter what even when you've done wrong? No, it says that thou has maintained my right it's kind of like saying my righteousness when I've done right God's going to maintain that for me. He's going to defend me when I've done right. Okay, and my cause Thou set us in the throne judging right Okay now If your cause is righteous if you're seeking to serve him and you're doing things to please him You're doing the the righteous things that we see in the Bible. Then God will defend it Okay, and as asked of the church if we make sure that what we do is right is righteous Then God will defend our church. All right, and then but if your cause is wickedness You know, don't be surprised if he doesn't defend you and you know Don't be surprised if he actually goes on the offense against you Alright if he brings chastisement or if he allows trials and tribulations to come into your life To hopefully get you back on that right path. Okay, but notice the second part of verse 4 It says thou satest in the throne judging right What is the purpose of God's throne? Of course when you think about a throne we think about authority we think about power We think about God being lifted up But he uses his throne to judge right Now that doesn't mean that all God does is judge the righteous No When it says he judging when he's a judge and rights is that his judgments is always right His judgment is always righteous So whether he's judging what is right or whether if he's judging that which is evil or wicked His judgment is always right Okay, and God is a God that passes Judgments, all right never get to a point and I don't think we will as a church Alright, because even if I go soft, I know it's some of the men are gonna be like Kevin Come on, you know top of apples on you right never get to the point where you think God does not judge the wicked Okay, never get to the point where you think well God's just Tolerable tolerant to anything God allows anything to go, you know, God God allows Homosexual marriage or God allows, you know abortion is he's fine with these kind of things. No, he's not Alright, his judgments are always right. And if you're like, I don't know. I don't know how God judges work Just become familiar this book. Alright, this book is filled with the judgments of God This book is filled with telling us what is right and what is wrong Okay, and I don't need to tell you I don't need to come up with my personal reason to tell you why homosexuality or or other Wicked sins are wrong and should not be should be not be legalized You know like marriage and all those kind of things because the Word of God tells us I don't need to make that up All right, we just preach boldly what the Word of God says The Bible tells us in John 7 you guys might want to turn there keep your finger there turn to John 7 24 John 7 24 If God's judgment is right and he's given us his book so we know what his judgments are What do you think the expectation will be upon his people? What people say many times I say you you shouldn't judge right if you're judging you're you're you're you're in the wrong You know And yet we see that God is a God of judgment He's told us his judgment and where his people and he tells us to read his book So we become familiar with what is right and wrong. All right, so John 7 24 John 7 24 The Bible says judge not according to the appearance but judge Righteous judgment. Hey, are we commanded to judge are we commanded to make judgment calls? Yes, we are Okay, but are we are we to judge based on our own opinions? No, it says judge righteous Judgments, hey your judgments needs to be righteous when you decide to do something as a family, you know You're in a position you need to make a decision or someone's in sin and you need to decide Hey, is this wrong or maybe you're in sin? Maybe maybe you're doing something that's not pleasing the Lord You need to pass judgment upon yourself. You need to make sure that judgment is righteous Just like the judgment of God is righteous Okay, so we need to judge. Yes Righteously, how do we do that by knowing the Word of God? Okay, when you make a decision it ought to be built on the Word of God whether it's something that's clear black and white or Whether you're just taking principles from the Bible and then applying that to situations Of your life. Okay now drop down to John 5 30 Go back to chapters John 5 30 John 5 30 And remember Jesus Christ when he came on this earth he came and he set an example for us Okay, he was God. Yes. Okay, but he also came and set his example So we would follow after his steps and what does it say in John 5 30? He says I can of mine own self do nothing as I hear I judge and my judgment is just now before we keep reading Jesus says look I judge and my judgment is just that's like another way of saying it's righteous It's always correct. All right, but how did Jesus ensure that his judgment was just how did he make sure that? He was always righteous and perfect he says Continuing on it says because I seek not mine own will But the will of the Father which have sent me Okay, if you want your judgment to be just and righteous Then you need to stop seeking your own will on the matter and seek the will of the Father Okay, that's how we do it. And of course Jesus was God Of course if Jesus passed judgment of his of his own will it's going to be righteous and perfect anyway But he sets the example, right? It's not his own will that he's seeking but the will of God the will of the Father that he's seeking to do all right, and so You know if you don't read your Bible How will you know what the will of God is if you don't read your Bible? How will you know how to pass righteous and just judgment? Okay, if you don't read your Bible How will you know if me as the pastor is preaching something correct from behind the pulpit, you know? Every every person you hear you need to pass judgment. You ought to be passing judgment right now. You ought to be saying yes This is in the Word of God. Yes. This is correct, you know, and if it's correct, I say amen if you want, right? But at the same time you can't just accept any preacher. You can't just accept anybody that talks about Jesus You need to pass judgment and there are many many preachers that take advantage of the church congregation Because they don't know their Bibles and they'll just preach anything Okay Now that should not be the case. This is why our church is built on the Word of God Because it's not my will it's not my opinions So sometimes you'll get my opinions But hopefully it's an opinion based on the principles that we see of the Word of God And you need to make sure that you pass judgment of any preacher that you hear It doesn't matter if it's your favorite preacher and it's turned out to be awesome all this time No matter what sermon you hear. You always need to make sure that you measure it up compare it to the Word of God Okay Because at the end of day we all have the flesh You know, hopefully the preacher is filled with the Holy Ghost and they're preaching but sometimes they can preach out of the flesh It can happen. Okay Let's go back to Psalm 9 verse 5 Psalm 9 verse 5 The Bible says thou hast rebuked the heathen Thou hast destroyed the wicked thou hast put out their name forever and ever Hey, we already said that the judgment of God is righteous and just Some of that judgment means that he has to rebuke the heathen or destroy the wicked And these are attributes of God that people don't love people don't like this attributes of God but his judgment is right Okay, and to rebuke the heathen is to correct sharply. Hey, you know God Corrects very sharply the heathen. Okay heathen. Does that mean Gentile? I mean it can refer to a Gentile but more often it refers to someone that worships a false God or worships idols or whatever It doesn't worship the God of the Bible. Okay, so God rebukes the heathen He destroys the wicked and he calls us and says to put out their name forever and ever you know God has the ability to cause a wicked person to be destroyed and For their you know name to never be remembered anymore I mean the world must be filled with wicked people people that thought they would make a name for themselves That we probably don't even read about in the history books Because God saw fit. Hey, you're not you're not worth it. You're not worth to be remembered I'm going to make sure that your name is not remembered at all. I mean That's what the Bible says. Okay, and you might say but I know a lot of wicked people that we remember that You know documents if you're out history Well, yeah, you know, maybe God's allowed that for a certain reason but you know, God has the ability to make your name Forgotten okay to have no remembrance. No reputation, okay But also I think we can apply this to the book of life we can apply this to the book of life We can apply this spiritually. I'll just read to you from Revelation 3 5 the Bible says he that overcomer Talking about someone that has placed their faith on Christ it says the same shall be clothed in white raiment and I will not blot out his name at the book of life Hey, if you you're an overcomer if you're someone that's saved by Jesus Christ and his shed blood God promises that he will not blot out your name out of the book of life Okay, that is eternal security that is once saved always saved Once you've been forgiven you can ever lose it. It's it's forever. You know, you can live as a wicked Christian I mean, that's not a good thing. God will judge you God will chastise you on this earth But you'll be you're still forgiven because Jesus Christ has paid for all your sins Okay, but your name will not be blood out of the book of life And this is but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels Wow, that's gonna be an amazing time when Jesus Christ, you know we stand before God the Father and the angels in the host of heaven and Jesus says yep, you know Jason is one of mine, you know Callum. He's one of mine. Yep. I know him, you know Kevin Yep, here's one of mine Matthew and and you know, so on and so forth And he names all our names before God and before the angels that's gonna be a marvelous time Hey, that's that's the glory for me, you know, and we're thinking about The glory that we have is through Christ, okay Hey But this tells me this also tells me that the wicked Will have their names removed out of the book of life and I actually preached on this in Sydney I won't go through it now, but I have covered it with you before this is why I Believe I think the Bible is quite clear on this is that everybody's name Has been written at some point in the book of life because Jesus Christ is a lamb slain from the foundation of the world Okay, and that he's paid for his taste of death for every man. Okay, he's died for the sins of every man So it would make logical sense that the names of everybody when they were written in the book of life But you get to a point where you become reprobate or you die without receiving Christ you rejected Christ Then God's going to take out your name out of that book of life Okay, and that name of the wicked the name of the non-believer that they won't be remembered anymore. They're gone They're gone from God's eternal book. All right Psalm 9 verse 6 O thou enemy Destructions are come to a perpetual end and thou has destroyed cities. The memorial is perished with them Now that word perpetual there Anyone know that means? perpetual Never ends. Okay. So let's read that again. Destructions are come to a Never-ending end That's basically what it's saying Okay, so their end the end of the wicked of the end of the enemies will never end All right, their end will never end. All right. Now. This is a sad truth if someone is Does not believe on Jesus Christ if someone rejects the Lord and they're cast into hell and ultimately the lake of fire Their end will never end Okay, their end will never end they will never escape the lake of fire they will never escape hell Okay, their end is forever and that is how God destroys his enemies That is how that's how far God goes with destroying the wicked Okay, and it says and thou has destroyed cities. So this sounds like the enemies here Armies of the enemy and they're going around destroying different cities But then it says there their memorial is perished with them So even the destruction of the enemies that they've caused is not going to be remembered. Okay again, it's just talking about how Wicked people God will make it so nobody even remembers their name even the destruction Even how they've overcome different cities, you know in there in their path of glory None of that's going to be remembered. All right I mean again a lot of cities are buried deep in the earth You know because of the changes that are in the earth and all these kind of things and then you see archaeologists They dig up some old city or something and nobody knows really what it was or you know Who was the who was the king of that city or you know who overthrew this city? No one knows a lot of those names Okay, and if this world continues, you know, a lot of the wicked people of that we know today Their names aren't going to be remembered. Okay, and there's going to be new generations over and over again Hey, but we saw that God will never blot out our names at the book of life We're gonna be remembered forever. Jesus Christ is going to name us before the Father and before the holy angels Verse number seven, but the Lord shall endure forever He have prepared his throne for judgment there. We see again What is the purpose of his throne to sit there and be glorified? Yes, but is that all no to pass judgments? He's preparing his throne for judgment, but it says in the beginning, but the Lord shall endure forever So the enemies the wicked their names are going to be forgotten. They're going to come to an end They're going to come to an end they're going to have a perpetual end their ends never going to end But what's going to endure forever our Lord God? Hey So the best place to be is to be his child to be in his family to be in his will Because the Lord's going to endure forever, you know, Jesus is the beginning and the ending isn't he? Okay? besides that You know God will always be the Lord will always be that's his eternal nature Okay time Has no power over God. It's God that has power over time Okay, God is outside of time. Okay. God is the beginning and the ending. Okay? But it's I also like how it says he have prepared his throne for judgments Okay, because this is this is the side of God that we love. All right, I think we know that God Sometimes should chastise us should pass judgment upon us, but it says God prepares. Okay. He takes his time Okay, meaning that God is long-suffering God is merciful. We cover this before he gives us time to get things right He gives us time to say sorry to apologize to fix things Okay It's better that God will pass his judgment upon us as we're improving as we've noticed our own mistakes And we're choosing to make things things better. Okay. Hey, if we ever make mistakes You know take the criticism, you know, don't get angry at people that criticize you for making mistake. Take it. You deserve it All right, apologize and then fix it. These are the three things that we ought to be doing when we do wrong Okay, and then hopefully once God passes judgment, he's like, well you've already judged yourself. You're already making things better You know, so his judgment won't be as As harsh as it could be upon us as upon his people, okay But yeah, you know God prepares judgment he's long-suffering he's merciful he's not quick to pass judgment Okay, and again we spoke about this the wicked, you know, they think oh wow, why isn't God judge me? Why isn't God passing judgment was giving you time and if you choose to use that time to do more wickedness Then once God does judge you that judgments gonna be even harsher. Okay. It's going to be even harder upon you verse number eight and He shall judge the world in righteousness He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness Okay, and again God promises that he's going to judge. This is something you shall do Okay, you be patient with God saying why God why haven't you stepped in why haven't you stepped in now and make things right? Why haven't you destroyed the wicked be patient? God will do it. Okay, but notice what it says there It says that he shall judge the world in Righteousness again just reinforcing the fact that his judgment is just his judgment is always perfectly right Okay, and again we struggle with the thought of people going into hell especially if they're loved ones that we know that rejected Christ and That's hard for us to to absorb right, but we must understand that his judgment is right Okay, this is the right thing For people that reject Christ to die in their sins and go into hellfire. Okay? His judgment is just and always perfectly right but then notice that he says he shall minister judgment to the people in Uprightness, okay So not only by the way what that uprightness means is that God himself is righteous without any fault Okay, so not only does he pass judgment righteously But the reason he's able to do it perfectly and just and righteously is because he himself is up righteous He himself is righteous. He himself is perfect and pure Okay, and that's why his judgment can always be right and I think we can apply this to ourselves All right, if you You know and look none of us are perfect Okay, and the fact is because none of us are perfect our judgment is not always gonna be perfect Okay, that's just a reality But if we want our just judgment to be more right if we want it to be more aligned with the Lord Then we need to clean up our lives We need to try to live lives that are uprights The people can say hey this person is trying to live in accordance to the laws of God This person is trying to live in accordance to the commands of God If that's something you're striving to do then when you pass judgment, it's going to be more rights. It's going to be more just Okay, just it's going to naturally flow from you flow from you because you're in the will of God Now verse number nine the Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed a Refuge in times of trouble. Hey, what's a refuge? A refuge is a place of safety a place of protection All right remember On on Wednesday. We I preached on King Joash, right King Joash who was being a persecuted You know, his grandmother was trying to kill him as a one-year-old. Hey King Joash He found refuge he found refuge with his aunt and uncle in the temple of God Okay, it's a place of safety a place of protection a place where your enemy will not find you Okay, and the Bible says that the Lord will be our refuge. Okay, if you're going through troubles and difficulties Alright, where should you go? You ought to run like a refugee run for your life Where? To God. Okay. It says the Lord will be our refuge for the oppressed a refuge in times of trouble You know, we need to remember this because I think sometimes when we're struggling, you know, we are We go through tribulation or trials Maybe we seek the answer within ourselves Hey, but now we need to first just run to the Lord just run for his help Ask the Lord to help you ask the Lord to defend you ask the Lord to give you safety and protection Okay, that is our great God a great God that passes judgment. Okay that destroys the wicked Okay, he's got a strong hand against the enemies is the same God that has a strong hand to look after you to protect you To keep you safe. I mean which side of God you want to be on? The one who is destroying the enemy is destroying the wicked or the one that's protecting you Obviously you want to be in the refuge of God. Okay verse number 10 And they that know thy name Will will put their trust in thee For thou Lord has not forsaken them that seek thee. Hey God's not going to forsake you That's the promise the beautiful promise. I'll just go I'll read to you from Deuteronomy 31 verse 6 Be be strong And of a good courage fear not Nor be afraid of them for the Lord thy God Here it is that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee Hey, why can we be strong and courageous as believers? Why because the Lord will not fail us? Okay, he will he will always be with us He will never forsake us if we know his name the promises that we get from God are truly beautiful that we see in the bible Hey, we put our trust in him. We put our trust in the Lord Jesus and his perfect sacrifice Hey, then God will not forsake us. Okay again, once you're saved you're always saved Okay, and he'll always be there for you always be there ready to receive you into his arms verse 11 Sing praises to the Lord which dwelleth in Zion declare among the people his doings So In the old testament zion often referred to as jerusalem, right? And so it's basically talking about the people of israel Uh that kind that came to worship the lord at the temple. It says those people god's people will sing praises to the lord okay and declare among the people his doings so What I want to say to you even though we're not old testament saints Okay, even though we don't go into jerusalem into the temple to offer our our offerings We are people of zion Okay, and they say are you a zionist kevin? All right, I guess I am I guess i'm a biblical zionist Okay, i'm a biblical zionist and um, keep your finger there. Let's go to hebrews 12. Keep your finger there go to hebrews 12 22 Hebrews 12 22 So Sorry matt, but I am a zionist. There you go hebrews 12 22 hebrews 12 22 This is written to the believers the new testament believers hebrews 12 22 But ye are come unto mount zion We we've come to mount zion. What is it and unto the city of the living god the heavenly jerusalem To an innumerable company of angels guys our eternal destination Is zion and what is it? It's that heavenly, uh jerusalem It's the city of god that will descend from heaven when god creates a new heaven and the new earth. That'll be our place Okay, we are people that dwell in zion spiritually speaking Okay, and ultimately that's going to come in full fruition at the end of the millennium and then verse 23 If you say no, that's not for us. Kevin. That's for the jews verse 23 to the general assembly and church Of the firstborn which are written in heaven and to god the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect Hey, we ought to be biblical zionists. That is our home That is the place that we would want to be forever with the lord Okay, when there's no more sin when we have our resurrected bodies and we can sing praises to god, okay So you might say well, we're not children of of uh of earthly zion Well, we're children of heavenly zone how much better is heavenly zion than a piece of land on the earth? Okay, a piece of land that people are fighting over. It's not worth it Okay, the the real zion the heavenly zion is a free gift available to us through jesus christ And i'll get you to turn to revelation 14 revelation 14 verse 1 Because I was harping on the need for us to be praising and singing praises to god. All right singing praises to god Those that which dwell in zion which dwelt in zion as I said in psalm 9 1 look at revelation 14 verse 1 Revelation 14 verse 1 look at the consistency here Look at the consistency here. It says and I looked and lo a lamb who's the lamb jesus christ a lamb stood on the mount zion and with him and 144 000 Having his father's name written in their foreheads. Hey, what are they doing on mount zion? Verse two and I heard a voice from heaven As a voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder and I heard the voice of harpers Harping with their harps and they sang as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts And the elders and no man could learn that song but the 144 000 which were redeemed from the earth Hey Zion is a place of singing a place of playing instruments of singing praises to god. We see this Here in psalm and we see this all the way Ultimately pictured of the new zion the heavenly jerusalem with the lamb and the praises still being sung Get used to singing the praises of god is what i'm trying to tell you Okay, because you're going to be doing it for all eternity. Okay And hey with these 144 000, you know All right, go back to psalm 9 go back to psalm 9 verse 12 Psalm 9 verse 12 This is speaking of god it says when he maketh inquisition for blood He remembereth them He forgetteth not the cry of the humble Hey, we saw that god causes that the names of the wicked would not be remembered. They'd be forgotten Hey, but god says i'm not going to forget the cry of the humble It says when he maketh inquisition for blood hey the death of his saints The death of god's people does not go unnoticed. It says god makes inquisition Why he goes and inquires he finds that every detail of the death and suffering of his saints Okay. God does not leave any stone unturned when he's going to pass judgment for the death and suffering of his people Okay, now of course, you know we can say well, why does god have to make inquisition god knows all things I think what this is saying is it just highlights that god pays pays close attention to the death of his saints Okay, because sometimes we might see god's people suffering Dying, you know, maybe dying for their faith in some places in this world and we're like god. Why aren't you doing anything? God is passing inquisition. He's making inquisition. He's making sure that when he passes judgment He's got every piece of detail available to him to make the right decision Okay, and he will pass judgment. You will not forget the cry of the humble. All right God promises us that all our suffering it'll be dealt with at some point Okay, god will make sure that that judgment is passed righteously Verse 13 Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Consider my trouble, which I suffer of them that hate me. Thou hast lifted me up from the gates of death. So you see the psalmist here asking for mercy Consider my trouble. Hey, it's not just the blood like I said But the suffering the trouble of the saints that that god considers that god makes inquisition of All right, and it seems like this psalmist, I don't think it's a psalm of David. It could be a psalm of David It could be another psalmist, but it says that he was lifted up from the gates of death Okay Somehow this man was being persecuted to death Okay But the lord stepped in and delivered him out of that lifted him out of out of the gates of death And then verse 14 kind of goes together with that. It says that I may show forth All thy praise in the gates of the daughter of zion So if zion represents jerusalem, then a daughter of zion would represent another city In israel, okay So it seems like this psalmist was in some other area some other city and he was delivered out of these gates of the daughter of zion it says So And uh and then it says Because he was delivered from death. It says I will rejoice in thy salvation Okay, that's what we just read about now the context of this is obviously a physical salvation This guy was being persecuted to death He was delivered from that and then you can rejoice in the salvation that god has given him Okay. Now god has saved us from numerous things. I'm not even talking about our spiritual our needs Hey, but if we weren't without if we were without the lord if we did not know the commands and the laws of god I guarantee you you would have destroyed your life even more so you might say i've really destroyed my life somehow You know that by disobeying the lord. Hey, if we didn't have the words of god, you would have destroyed your life even more Okay. God has saved us from our sins God has saved us from a lot of destruction that we can have upon this earth Had we not turned to him and upheld his word and believed it Okay, but of course I said we can apply this to the salvation of our souls Hey, we ought to rejoice in that salvation That would be something that we can always praise god about something that can always lift our spirits Is knowing that the lord has saved us you might say well, I can't really think about times where god has saved me in this life Well god has saved you for all eternity that's even better. Okay, that's something that you can rejoice over look at verse 15 The heathen are sunk down in the pits that they made in the nets which they hid is their own foot taken So god often uses the evil devices that wicked men have created for their own downfall Okay their own downfall god often turns the table on the wicked Uh to protect his people to protect god's people, okay Now, uh, look at verse, uh, 16. This goes well with verse 15. It says the lord is known By the judgment, which he executed The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands He gave on sellar so If if you ever see wicked people fall in their own pits You know, they come up with some device to persecute god's people They come up with some way to try to destroy others and then you see them fall in their own traps They fall by their own sword if you will then, you know in verse 16 It says that the lord is known by the judgment, which he executed. Okay So again, if you see wicked people fall by their own sword You know, it was god that stepped in and caused that to happen. God is known by that kind of judgment. Okay? That's basically what it says there now verse 17 The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget god Ah hell Right, how many churches don't even want to talk about hell? They're too afraid to mention hell Okay The bible's clear that god sends the wicked into hell And i've heard people say no, you don't understand god is loving god will never send anyone to hell They send themselves to hell. No god is the one that turns the wicked into hell. He's the one that does it Okay, it's his call at the end of the day when those that have rejected christ Uh stand before the lord in judgment. He's going to be the one that takes them and casts them into hell The hand of the lord. Okay, it's his doing Okay. Yes, it is their own doing as well. You know, they've done it to themselves, but it's god that steps in and does it Okay And um, of course You know, let me just read to you Familiar passages to you. You don't need to turn there. John 3 16 for god. So loved the world That he gave his only begotten son. That's jesus christ That who so believeth in him? Shall not perish not perish where not perish in hell, but have ever Last in life. Hey god has come to give us everlasting life He does not seek he has no pleasure in people perishing. That's not his plan Okay, that's why he sent jesus christ to come and die on the cross Okay He does not want the wicked in hell Okay, he wants them saved But should they choose to reject christ? That's going to be the ultimate destination verse 18. It says he that believeth on him The one that believes on jesus is not condemned Okay, you're not going to pass through condemnation If you believe on jesus christ And then it says but he that believeth not The one that does not believe on christ is condemned already. Why? Because he have not believed in the name of the only begotten son of god Okay Why does god send people to hell? Ultimately Ultimately, it's because they rejected jesus christ You know, we're all deserving of hell we're all deserving of it because we've all sinned Okay, but what sends them to hell ultimately is it's because they've not believed on the lord jesus christ Okay John 3 36 says he that believeth on the son hath Everlasting life if you've believed on jesus christ You have right now You don't have to wait for it. You have it right now Everlasting life which means he can never die spiritually speaking, okay And he that believeth not the son shall not see life but the wrath of god abideth on him Guys, this is the message we need to take to our community to believe on the lord jesus christ Ah, aren't you inviting them to church? Yeah, we'll invite them to church Okay, but them coming to church is not going to save them Yes, you know we'll answer their questions if we have time Okay, but answering their questions on secondary doctrines are not going to save them What's going to save our community is the preaching of the gospel is for them to believe on the lord jesus christ It's not their ability to turn from sins that's going to save them. Okay, it's not coming to our church It's going to save them. It's not getting baptized that's going to save them Okay, it's not cleaning up their life and turning a new leaf that's going to save them it's believing on the lord jesus christ 100 with their whole hearts. That's what's going to deliver the people from hell You guys are in psalm 9 right psalm 9 verse 18 for the needy shall not always be forgotten The expectation of the poor shall not perish, uh shall not perish forever so Uh, you know god does not forget the poor and needy. Okay, you may go through this life as poor as needy Okay, you might never be the richest, you know, the most well-off and the most things Hey god will always provide for your needs if you're god's people and you have needs if you're poor God will provide for you. Okay, you set the kingdom of god first and his righteousness And all these things shall be added unto you the bible says right all these things your clothing your food The need the needs you have to get through life. God will always provide the very base things to get you through life Okay, god's not forget but look matthew 5-3. I'll just read to you quickly matthew 5-3 the words of jesus christ. He says Blessed are the poor in spirit Hey, if you're poor god says you're blessed say why why is that blessed? For theirs is the kingdom of heaven Hey, listen, if you're a child of god if you're saved, but you go through this life poor You're blessed because yours is the kingdom of heaven. You can be poor on this earth But if you're a child of god, you have the riches of heaven for all eternity That's why you're blessed. Okay, you're more blessed than the richest most powerful man on this earth If they reject christ, okay, because it's temporal they won't be remembered they'll be cast into hell But you will endure with god forever in christ Look at verse 19 arise. Oh lord, let no man. Let not man prevail Let the heathen be judged in thy sight okay, so So Yeah, just you got the sama saying let not man prevail so, uh, the the desire of a righteous man Is that wickedness will come to an end at some point that they will not prevail? Okay, they'll come to a sharp end and that god will judge righteously, you know, even yes the judgment of hell Even the judgment of hellfire god will judge, uh, righteously and verse 20 Verse 20 it says put them in fear. Oh lord Hey those that are not believers in christ. We want them in fear That the nations may know themselves to be but men again back to soul winning Our goal is to put a bit of fear of god into the hearts of the people Okay, so they know that they are but men. Hey, they are you're just a man. You cannot save yourself Okay, you cannot acquire eternal life on your own Okay, so it is our desire to put some fear of god into them Okay, if you did not have a fear of god, you would never have believed on the lord. Jesus christ Because you think you can do it on your own Okay, and how many people do we knock on and they'll say she'll be right i'll be fine You know, i'm i'm good. I'm good enough. I think i'm going to heaven. I'm pretty sure I am because i'm a good person Hey, they're lacking a fear of god these people okay, so when we take the bible and we show them that they're sinners Okay, and sinners are deserving of hell it ought to put a bit of fear on them Okay, that's our goal to put a bit of fear of god Now I want to bring you back to verse number one. Look at verse number one psalm 9 verse 1 Now that we've gone through the whole psalm it says I will show forth All thy marvelous works Now you might say what are the marvelous works? What are the marvelous works a lot of people will think? of the good things Right of all the blessings of god or the mercy of god look verse number four You know the works of his love verse number four is that god will maintain our cause Right verse number nine is that he's a refuge for the oppressed Verse number 10 that he will not forsake his people verse 13 that is merciful God 14 is that he's a god of salvation and verse 18 is that he's a provider for the poor and needy Okay, when we want to show forth the works of god, we often think about these good things that we see about in the bible But is that all the works of god? What did it say? In verse one I will show forth all All thy marvelous works all of it Okay, what's verse three about that the enemies will perish verse five that the wicked will be destroyed Verse six that there's no memorial for the wicked Verse 15 that the heathen will sink and sink into their own pits and verse 17 that the wicked will be thrown into hell Hey these works are also marvelous works of god You can't just go the good and ignore the bad Well, it's not bad. It's righteous. It's it's right Okay The marvelous works that we ought to show forth the marvelous works all of it that we need to preach about Are all these things hey the good things of god, you know his love, but we also need to preach his wrath We need to preach his hatred. We need to preach his anger This is the true god. Okay, the true god is that he's got an amazing love Okay, and it's such an amazing love that he sent jesus christ But he's also a god full of wrath And if we're going to do this accurately if we're going to show forth all his marvelous works, then it's both these things Okay God judging the wicked destroying the wicked and casting him into hell the bible calls this marvelous works Okay, marvelous works Second timothy 4 2 Second timothy 4 2 i'll just read it to you you guys turn to acts 20 you guys turn to acts 20 Turn to acts 20 and i'll reach you from second timothy 4 2 The bible says these are instructions for pastors instructions for preachers. It says preach the word You say why do you have so many scriptures in the bible because we're instructed to preach the word Hey, it doesn't say preach kevin's opinions Okay, it doesn't say preach things that you want to hear necessarily It says preach the word be instant in season and out of season Reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine Why in season or out of season? It doesn't matter You know if we preach things that are not accepted by the world today. We still need to preach it if it's out of season Okay, we preach the things that are in season That's people things that people want to hear and the things that are out of season things that people don't want to hear We still have to preach the word Okay, we can't ignore the bible And then it says in verse three why why is this so important that we make sure we're a church that preaches the word Because it says in verse three for the time will come When they will not endure sound doctrine and after their own lust shall they heap to themselves? teachers having itching ears And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables I would say to you that time has come Okay, we are in a time when people are wanting preaching that will ticker their itching ears Someone will come and scratch your ears and it'll feel good. Hey, they want to feel good sermons all the time They want to know how god loves them You know all the time how god's not going to pass judgment on their wickedness how god's is going to continue Being long suffering god's is going to continue being merciful on this whole world How you can be as wicked and as sinful as you want to be and god just loves it, you know, god's no Okay, that is not sound doctrine And this is why it's my desire to preach through the bible chapter by chapter because i'm not going to be able to skip things And i'm trying my best to go verse by verse. Okay. I don't know all the verses I don't know what they all mean Okay But I just do my best that god has given me see fit to preach through things chapter by chapter Because this is one way to ensure that we preach the whole word. Okay, you guys are in in acts 20 to acts 20 26 acts 20 26 Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am purer from the blood of all men Why Was he pure from the blood of all men? He says in verse 27 for I have not shunned to declare unto you All the counsel of god All of us all of it must be preached Okay I'm not trying to avoid passages Sometimes i've i've turned to something Like i'm going chapter by chapter i'm like I have no idea what that means. Like I I wish I could avoid it Okay, but when I don't really understand then i'm going to read it again read again Maybe compare other passages until I have something to tell you because I want to preach all the counsel of god Hey, this is the right thing to do. I don't want to have the blood of any man upon me Okay, I don't have the blended blood of any man upon me So I want to be in this way preaching the whole counsel of god verse 28 Verse 28 take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock Over the which the holy ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of god Hey, what am I going to feed you with all the counsel in season out of season the whole word? Even the stuff that's not pleasant to our ears. All right, which he have purchased with his own blood And look at verse 29 For I know this the reason I do this the reason why the whole word needs to be preached For I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock Hey, how do we make sure that the that the wolves if because they will come in the bubble says I know this That after my departing shall grievous wolves entering among you okay, so The way we overcome the wolves is to preach the whole word of god That's how we do it Because at some point the wolf's going to come in they're not going to like the fact that as a church We preach the whole word of god. They're either going to leave Okay, or when they try to cause problems They're not going to be able to harm us because we stand true on what the word of god says We have a strong foundation in the word of god. All right So, you know, it's said there in psalm 91. I will show forth all thy marvelous works Okay, and then in psalm 9 11 it said at the end declare among the people his doings Hey, we need to declare we need to show All of the doings of god all of the works of god and all his works are marvelous Okay, even when he judges and destroys the wicked Those are his marvelous works And of course the most important message guys going out there preaching the gospel of the lord jesus christ That is an amazing marvelous work of his love. All right, that is just as important. Let's pray