Psalms Mixtape, A Message to the World - Psalm 96

We're here to celebrate, right, We're here to celebrate the

birth of our Lord Jesus, and it is Christmas time.

So how I want to start is I want us

to start by looking at a Christmas story. Not the

movie we're going to look at. We're going to look

in Matthew chapter two. So if you have your Bible

with me or with you, go ahead and open that

up to Matthew chapter two.

We have bibles out in the lobby.

If you do not have one, please go grab once

so you can follow along with us. Normally we would

have it on the screen right here next to me,

but today we don't, so all the more reason go

grab a Bible. But I want to open up and

look at this it is We're going to see a

story also about those who are celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Matthew chapter two, verses one through eleven says, now, after

Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days

of Herod, the king Behold, wise men from the east

came to Jerusalem, saying, where is he who has been

born and king of the Jews. For we saw his

star when it rose and have come to worship him.

When Herod the King heard this, he was troubled, and

all Jerusalem with him, and assembling all the chief priests

in scribes of the people, he inquired of them where

the Christ was to be born.

They told him in Bethlehem of Judea.

For it is written by the Prophet, O you or

and you O Bethlehem, in the land of or Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.

For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd

my people Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly

and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared,

and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, go and search

diligently for the child, and when you have found him,

bring me word that I too may come and worship him.

After listening to.

The king, they went on their way and behold the

star that they had seen when it rose, went before

them until it came to rest over the place where

the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced

exceedingly with great joy, and going into the house, they

saw the child with Mary, his mother. They fell down

and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures. They offered him

gifts gold and frankinsense and myrrh. In this story, we

see three wise men who have come looking for the

one who is born, who is to be born to

be king of the Jews. But there's also something different

about this baby, something different about this baby who was

born to be king. And how do we know that, Well,

it's by the response.

Did you see what they wanted to do when they

did find this baby?

What they did do when they found this baby, they

worshiped him.

Now here's the deal.

My wife and I are expecting our fourth child pretty

much a month from now, okay, which we're really excited about.

But if any one of you show up on my

doorstep and start trying to worship our baby, I'm about

to tell you to sell your role.

Right.

That's not normal. That is not a normal thing. So

there's something different about this baby. There's something different about

this child, something that made him worthy of worship. There

have been many kings in history who have demanded worship.

There's many kings in history who have demanded worship. But

this baby hadn't demanded anything yet, and yet was recognized

by a small group of people for the King that

he truly is. So today we're going to be actually

breaking down a psalm that is a song that was

written a long time before this king ever showed up,

before this king was ever born.

And this song is going to.

Tell us who this king is and why he is

worthy to be worshiped. So, if you would turn with me,

we're gonna now flip to the middle ish of our Bible,

the Psalm ninety six. We're gonna read it, pray, and

go through it together. Psalm ninety six. This is God's word.

It says, Oh, sing to the Lord, a new song.

Sing to the Lord, all the earth, Sing to the Lord.

Bless his name, Tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among

all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly

to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols.

But the Lord made the heavens, splendor and majesty are

before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe

to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Ascribe to

the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the

Glory do his name, Bring an offering, and come into

his courts. Worship the Lord, and the splendor of holiness.

Tremble before him all the earth, say among the nations,

the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established. It shall

never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice.

Let the see roar and all that feels it. Let

the field exult and everything in it. Then shall all

the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord,

for he comes.

For he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples

in his faithfulness. Lord, as we open your word, as

we celebrate your birth, I just ask that your presence

would be here among us, that this word would not

return void, Lord God, it would be the seed to

ignite the faith in our hearts, to know you, to

see the beauty of who you are, and worship you.

In response, we thank you that you've You've brought us

here in this moment, and we give you all the

praise in Jesus name.

Everyone said amen.

So this is not just a Christmas Eve service, but

we as a church this past month have been going

through a series called the Psalms Mixtape. And in this series,

we're going through the various types of psalms that there

are to kind of give us an introduction to what

is in there, what kind of wealth and value and

wisdom can be found in there. We've looked at psalms

of thanksgiving, psalms of wisdom and praise and lament, where

we've seen real prayers and real songs cried out to

a real God, and we've seen how that we can

incorporate those into our own life. And now this week

we're going to be looking at a different type of psalm,

and that is a type type of psalm of kingship

or a royal psalm.

And this.

Psalms that are of kingship or royalty are primarily for

the purpose to declare that the Lord is the one

true King. And I've titled today's message a Message to

the World, and the reason I named it is because

this psalm is going to tell us three fundamental truths,

three fundamental reasons that the Lord is the only one

worthy of our praise, of worthy of our worship.

Why this King is the only one worthy of our worship.

Now, when was the last time that you personally look

at your own life? When was the last time that

you sung a song to someone? When's the last time

you did that? Well, for most of us, that was

like five minutes ago. Okay, that was most of us.

But in general, outside of church, how often do we

sing songs to other people? Not singing songs for other

people like karaoke or playing in a band, but sing

songs to someone else? And I was trying to think

about this for myself, because other than to Jesus, the

only time that I sing songs to other people is

on their birthday. Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday to you.

Maybe you're a caroller. I'll give you that one. That

was the only other one I could think of. Merry

Christmas to you. Right, we have a couple of those

different examples. But in our psalm today, we're not only

told to sing a new song to the Lord, but

this whole psalm is an invitation, a command for the

whole earth to sing to the Lord. Why because great

is the Lord. Let's look at it. In our first

couple of verses, says, oh, sing to the Lord, a

new song, Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing

to the Lord, bless his name, Tell of his salvation

from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous works, among all the peoples.

We're gonna stop right there.

In this song, we're told to sing to the Lord,

to tell of his salvation, to declare his glory and

his marvelous works to the entire world.

His marvelous works. That's the tree outside.

That's the beautiful sunset you see when you're driving or

you're walked outside of Walmart.

Right, that's where they're at.

By the way, you can pay a lot of money

to go to a lot of nice places. You walk

outside of Walmart and you're getting the most amazing picture

you've ever se. That is just a fraction of his

marvelous works. What about the work that He's done in

your own life, on your own life. Who he's changed

you to be, the things he's set you free from.

You have a lot of things to share, a lot

of things to tell, a lot of things to proclaim,

and a lot of reasons to sing. And this psalm

was written to God's people to instruct them to tell

the world who God is, but not only that, but

to tell the world to sing and worship the Lord.

We see in verse four and five the reasons why.

Verse four says, for great is the Lord, and greatly

to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods.

He is and greatly to be praised, because he is

to be feared above all gods. Now does this mean

that God is just one god flexen on a bunch

of other gods?

Is that what it's talking about here? Well, it's not. No,

it's not exactly, Amen, sister.

Verse five tells us why he is greater and to

be feared among these so called gods.

Verse five and six.

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,

but the Lord made the heavens. The idols are worthless,

But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are

before him, Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. All

of the gods of the world are worthless idols. But

the Lord is the one true God because he is

the one Creator. He is the one Creator. When people

turn to idols, they're putting their trust in the created

rather than the Creator.

That needs to be understand.

When people put their faith or hope or trust in idols.

They're putting their hope and faith in something that has

been created rather than the creator. People worship blocks of wood,

shiny rocks, angels or demons, or maybe even themselves. All

of those things are things that have been created. All

of those things that I named, there's more. There's more

things out there. All those things rely on the one

true Creator for every breath and every fiber of their

matter to be held together every day. So if you

want to know what to do with that is, don't

put your trust in things that are just as reliant

as you are. Don't put your faith in things that

are just as reliant as you are. Is there is

one Lord, There's one creator who needs nothing and yet

gives everything. That's who we go to, That's who we

rely on. So we're to sing and tell of God's

greatness because he is the one true God. He is

the one true Creator. And we see the worst of

his hand and creation and marvel. He brings salvation to

his people and we rejoice from day today. Who is

like this God? And we can just stop right here.

Enough reasons, You got me enough reasons. I don't need

any more reasons he's the creator. These twos alone should

cause us to fall on our face and worship and

praise him for his greatness and his everlasting worthiness. And

not only that, but to also share and declare to

the world just how great our God is and how

worthy he is. But that's just our first reason. We

have two more, so we're gonna look at those. But

the first reason we can write down, we can kind

of summarize like this, The first reason that he is

worthy of our worship is he is the only creator

and savior. Next to the Psalmist once again tells the

people of the world to give God all the glory

that they do his name.

Let's look at it.

Verses seven through nine says, ascribe to the Lord, O

families of the people, Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory do his name, Bring

an offering, and come into his courts. Worship the Lord

and the splendor of holiness tremble before him all the earth. Now,

this word ascribe is to give or to give credit

for something. So the Psalmists tells the people of the

world to give God the credit, to give God the

glory that is due him, that it is to understand that.

Glory and strength belong to the Lord. It's his.

You see someone glorious, that's God's to worship him the splendorfuliness,

to tremble before him. That is that the nations are

to give God the glory, that is, do his name

and worship him, for he is the glorious one and

he is the Holy One. What he's talking about here

is recognizing the value and worth of who God is,

and in light of those truths, to fall down and

worship him. We sing Happy Birthday to someone because it's

their birthday, and we give God the glory because it's

his glory, because he is the God of glory and

he is due all of the glory. Says to worship

Him in the splendor of holiness. And what that is

talking about is it's to come before him dressed in

holy attire, holy clothing, holy garb. That we are to

come worship this great God, not just because it's fitting

to do so, not just because it's the right thing

to do, but also we are to come worship before

Him in a fitting way, in a fitting manner. It's

really easy to come before the Lord looking like you

have it all together.

But the Lord knows your heart.

So how often do we get dressed up on the outside,

but we don't come before him in a fitting way

in our heart? Do we approach the Lord with a

fitting heart, a humble heart, or repentant heart, a heart

and need of him. We're in an unfitting way, arrogant,

self righteous, rebellious. We need to come before him in

a fitting manner. That, as the Lord is holy and blameless,

we are to come dressed in holy attire, fitting to

enter the presence of a holy God. And just at

the thought of this great, weighty, holy God, the nations

should tremble before it. It says that he is the

only God to be feared. And here it says we

are to come before him, and the nations should tremble.

Now why well, because God is so holy and so

righteous and we are not.

We're not.

We cannot stand face to face with him because He

is holy and righteous, but we're unholy.

We are unrighteous.

Our sin keeps us from the fullness of His presence,

because sin cannot stand in the presence of holiness. I've

heard it remarked, it's always kind of funny, but it's

also if you really think about it, it's kind of terrifying.

I've heard it remark to that the sun, the qualifier

in the sky, can burn your eyes out from.

Over ninety one million miles away.

And yet there's a sinful world that thinks they're going

to casually stroll into the presence of its holy maker.

That God is so righteous, and he's greater than anything

in creation. He's more holy, and the glory is his,

and that's what the second point is. The second point

is the Lord is holy and the glory is his.

That's why we're to worship him. That's why he's worthy

of our worship.

Now, finally we get to our last thing that we're

told about our great God, and it's the fact that

he reigns, that he is the king. Verse ten, say

among the nations, what the Lord reigns. Yes, the world

is established, it shall never be moved. He will judge

the peoples with equity. Say among the nations, that's what

we're told to do. The Lord reigns. That's what we

are to say. That is what we are to tell others.

The Lord reigns. That is that the Lord is king

over all creation, that he is the ruler and judge

of all creation. And here's the deal. We're Americans, right,

last I checked, I don't know probably most of us

in here right. So for us, this idea of a king,

we thought we dealt with that two hundred some years ago.

We don't know what to do with this king idea.

We're in the land of the free. We don't have

a king, we don't need a king. That's not completely true.

We do have a king, and he's the author who

established the world, and he is the one over and

the creator of all creation, and he reigns and he

will judge the world with justice. We can think of

kings and be put off by that idea. It does

make sense lots of different reasons for that. We have

lots of really, really, really bad examples of kings. We

have lots of people who try to make themselves kings.

They abuse the power that they have, the authority.

That they're given, which is terrible.

But when you have a king who uses his power

for good and for the benefit of his people, everyone's blessed.

The land's secure, the people can breathe.

But really, we may not like the idea of a

king because knowing that there is a True King out

there challenges the notion that I'm the king of my life,

challenges my individualistic notion that I am the king of

my life, and I don't like that.

I don't like that.

If I'm king of my own life, then that means

I am potentially an opposing king to the One True King.

And that's actually just our fundamental problem as human beings.

Since the beginning.

We were created in God's image, and he set us

in place to have dominion on the earth, to spread

his image, to spread his glory on the earth. And

it wasn't good enough for us. We said, that's really cool.

I basically get to be like a proxy king here

on earth. But I'm not God. I'd like to be God.

That's the seed I want. I don't want my station.

I want to be God. I want to be king

of the world. I want to be king of my life.

We rebelled against the One True King, and we fell

on the sin. That didn't just happen then, that happens now,

That happens with every decision we make.

Who am I letting rule it? We're not in application.

Yet to why so many of us struggle to submit

ourselves to God. Because it means giving up the control

that we think we have. I mean submitting myself to

the real ruler of my life. And I say this

because once again, as Americans, we think we're the gods

of our own lives. We think we're to live for ourselves,

create our own meaning prioritize us getting ours before the

lights go out. But really that just proves all the

more we're really not in control of everything. We're out

of rush to try and get mine before it's over

because we realize that we don't have any control over that.

So for some of us that we use that opportunity

to go like, well, I'm gonna do everything I can

while I'm alive, to do whatever I want to be

the ruler of my own life.

There's others who go, that's a heavy load.

I'm going to put that down and give this crown

to the one who it's due, the one who's worthy,

the one who actually I can now this is a

heavy crown. I can take it off, I can breathe.

He's in charge, He's in control. There is a true God,

there is a true King of life, and he bestows

blessings of life on all who call on him. Talk

about that good King. He's the King who benefits his people.

Because of this great truth and reality, there's not only

a call to tell the world that the Lord reigns,

but now there's also an invitation to all creation, to

all the world, to all the earth, to rejoice and

sing at the coming of this great King. See Verses

eleven through thirteen. Says let the heavens be glad, Let

the earth rejoice, Let the sea roar and all that

fills it, Let the field exult and everything in it.

Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for

joy before the Lord, for he comes.

For he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples

in his faithfulness. That is that all of creation is

to sing and rejoice, that the Great King is coming

to judge the earth. And what that is is to

set things right. Who knows that things are not right,

Go outside, turn on your phones. Things are not okay,

things are not right. My home right now is not okay.

But he is coming to judge the serious matters, to

call everything to account, to deal with sin and wickedness,

and bring justice to the world.

And I can't wait.

No, judge who makes bad decisions would be worthy of praise.

But God is a holy judge, the righteous judge whose

judgments are perfect, which is the third reason that he

is worthy of our worship. You can write the Lord reigns.

He is the king who will judge the world in righteousness.

I was thinking about it this morning that we live

in the year twenty twenty four. I see lots of

videos heard it from different places that yeah, we live

in this year. We have this number, but what is

this number four? Why do we have this number? Well,

this number is to represent or to count the days

since Christ was born. And I was thinking about it

because people have kind of used that evangelistically, kind of

funny in different ways.

People are like, oh, how do I know God reigns?

And they're like, what year is it? Why do we

count like that?

And it was interesting because I had this thought and

I was very curious if it was true, and I

looked it up. It was true, and I'm gonna share

it with you really quick. The little tangent. We count

with our current calendar system, but I was curious, how

did they count in the past. We have twenty twenty

four years so far under our belt. We're doing pretty

all right. What they do before that? What do other

cultures do well? Other cultures and especially prior to that.

One of the ways that they kept track of time

is that they did so by the reign of a king.

You actually see this all the time in your Bible,

and you'll read this if you read any history books

at all. During the reign of Blah blah blah in

his sixth year, blah blah blah happened, they would use

this notable person as the centerpieces as they would use

their rein when they were in charge, to remember dates,

to set their whole calendar and world around. And it's

very fascinating. We're doing the same exact thing. If there's

someone reigning right now, and so far he's got the

track record twenty.

Twenty four years. I've kind of a long time. It's

just a little bit of proof that he is currently reigning.

One hundred and sixty eight countries out of one hundred

and ninety five use this calendar.

By God's grace, before I die, there will be more.

But this is the message that God's people were to

bring to the world, and this is the message that

the Psalmist tells us to sing and declare that we

are to sing and worship the Lord because he's the

only creator and savior. That the Lord is holy and

the glory is his. The Lord reigns, and he is

the king who will judge the world in righteousness. And

this is the message that we are to bring to

the world. And I need the band to come up, please.

This is the message that we're to bring to the world.

This is a message that the apostle Paul brought to

the world when he walked through Athens and he saw

all their objects of worship. They were worshiping a god

they didn't even know, and he used it as this

awesome opportunity. Let's look at it really quick Acts seventeen.

So Paul, standing in the midst of the areopagus, said,

men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you

were very religious.

For I passed along.

For as I passed along and observed the objects of

your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription

to the unknown God, what therefore you worship as unknown?

This I proclaim to you, the God who made the

world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and Earth,

does not live in temples made by man, Nor is

he served by human hands, as though he needed anything,

since He himself gives to all mankind life and breath

and everything. And he made from one man every nation

of mankind to live on the face of the earth,

having determined a lot of periods and the boundaries of

their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps

feel their way toward him and find him. Yet He

is actually not far from each one of us, for

in Him we live and move and have our being,

as even some of your own poets have said, for

we are indeed His offspring being.

Then God's offspring.

We ought not to think that the Divine Being is

like a gold or silver or stone in image formed

by the art and imagination of man. The times of

endurance God overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere

to repent, because He has fixed the day on which

he will do what and this comes from our Psalms verse.

He will judge the world in righteousness.

And how is he gonna do it by a man

whom he has appointed. And of this he has given

assurance to all by raising him from the dead. That

this man that the Lord appointed, this man that was

raised from the dead is Jesus. And this psalm tells

us who the Lord is. It's telling us who Jesus is,

because Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is the one appointed

to judge the world in righteousness. Jesus is the one

that all creation sings for him to come.

We know this. It's Christmas time.

I pulled up Joy to the world because that's literally

what the song's about.

Joy to the world.

The Lord is come. Let earth receive her what King.

Let every heart prepare him. Room and heaven and nature

sing joy to the earth. The Savior reigns, let men

their songs employ while fields and floods, rocks, hills and

plains repeat the sounding joy. He rules the world with

truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories

of his righteousness and wonders of his love. Jesus is

the king who reigns. Jesus is the one whom glory

and worship are due. And Jesus is the Creator and

the Savior. That is why he is worthy of our worship.

That is why when the wise men saw that the

sign that the King was coming, they said, it's time

to go.

It's time to go find that guy because we need

to worship him.

They could only worship him they recognize who he was,

God in the flesh, Emmanuel, meaning God with us. He

is the one who was born to not only be

the King of the Jews, but born as the King

of kings and Lord of lords. He is the King

of Creation. And what's more, he is the king who

saves his people from their sins by living a perfect

life that we have not lived, and by dying in

our place for the death that.

We deserved for our sins.

This King of Creation took on flesh, was born as

a baby so that he could grow up to die.

And why for you?

He did so so that we can live, that he

could make us who are not holy.

Holy.

He made it so that where we couldn't come into

the presence of our creator, he has now made us reconciled,

so that we will one day be able to stand

face to face with our Holy Lord, dressed in holy attire,

covered by his blood, his perfect sacrifice that now clothes

us in righteousness, clothes us in holiness because it's not ours,

we don't have any it's his, and He's given it

to us. He made the only way for us to

be reconciled by dying on the cross for our sins.

But what's more is God raised him from the dead

to show that he has defeated death, and now Jesus

reigns on high until he makes his enemies his footstool.

So that's great news. Or he'll come once again to

judge the living and the dead on that day. Anyone

who has ever sinned been rebellion to him as the

true king will go to hell forever. Eternal punishment is

what the Bible says. But for anyone who's put their

faith and trust in Jesus and his finished work on

the cross will be saved from their sins and will

instead receive eternal life.

That is really really good news.

Judgment is either going to be on your head at

judgment day or on Jesus's head at the cross in

your place.

Scripture tells us how to be saved.

Romans ten nine through thirteen says, because if you confess

with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in

your heart that God raised him from the dead, you

will be saved. For what the heart is one believes

and is justified, and what the mouth, one confesses and

is saved. For the scripture says everyone who believes in

him will not be put to shame, for there is

no distinction between jew and Greek.

For the same Lord.

Is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who

call on him. For everyone who calls on the name

of the Lord will be saved. And this is the

message that we take to the world. This is the

wondrous works, the glories that we take to the world

as believers.

This is the hope that we bring.

That the One True Lord, Jesus Christ, the Creator, the Savior,

the Holy God, the reigning King of Kings, the Righteous Judge,

is worthy of our worship.

He is worthy of our praise.

So sing and worship him, give him the credit, do

and recognize him as the reigning King. And we need

this reminder as believers. We need this reminder as believers

because we get caught up in life. We need the

reminder as believers who get caught up in life that

Jesus is the most worthy of our attention and is

the most worthy of our life.

He is our King. He deserves our focus and our worship.

That all.

And that all of these amazing things that are true

about our Lord should be sung and shared with the world.

They're not just for us to be giddy about. There

are things that we get to share. So what needs

the change in your life to make it all about Jesus,

to worship him with everything in your life? How can

you make your life sing the truths of who God

is to a dying world in need of a life

giving savior. For those of you have yet to put

your faith in Jesus, it's time to raise your white

flag of king as king of your own life. Time

to put it up. I surrender and submit to the

One True King. You need to know the reason he

died was to save you from your sin, to save

you from your rebellion and shame. Your works cannot save

you in every area where you have fallen short of

the glory and law of God. Will be called to

account one day when Jesus comes to judge. Every need

will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord.

That's a fact. But you will either do so as

an enemy to the One True King who's about to

receive justice for your rebellion, or you will confess him

his lord as a son or Daughters of the Living God.

My hope and prayers that as we've marveled at these

works and the truth about who our Lord is, that

he's been calling you and drawing you, and that you

will put your faith in him, that you will know

him and receive eternal life. For this is the purpose

that our Savior was born John three point sixteen. For

God so loved the world that he gave his only son,

that whoever believes in him should not.

Pay, but have eternal life. Would you please stand