Psalm 100

Christ in the Psalms • Sermon • Submitted 4 months ago • Presented 4 months ago

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Introduction

Have you heard make a joyful noise brother or sister unto the Lord. What they really are saying is you can’t sing, so would you kindly sit in the back pew.

This joyful noise we will speak of today is not the noise of a member who can’t sing, but rather the calling of the bride of Christ to truly sing, to be a people that worship Him.

The greatest calling in the Christian life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. This is what the Westminister Confession of Faith Catechism teaches children of God; “what is the chief end of man?” It is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Friends you were not created to be a people who just attend Church on Sunday and leave your Christian faith at the door.

Yet so often this is the case with many Christians and a growing case among Pastors. Yet the scriptures call us to worship and to live out our Christian life with a joyful praise to the Lord and to serve Him.

The question we will ask today is how has Jesus created me to be worshiper of God? What disciplines can I put into my life to live this out?

In order to answer these questions I must go slightly out of order with our passage today; keeping in mind this is poetry and not a letter.

Enter His Courts: Christ gives access to the Holy of Holies v4

Enter His gates and His Courts. The temple was indeed a beautiful place where God’s dwelling was with His people, but it was also a place with temporal sacrifices and a reminder that the final atonement has not been recieved.

There were parts of the temple, specifically behind the curtain of the temple that the common man was not able to go, only the Priest of the day of atonement.

What we understand about this section of the Psalm is indeed God has invited Israel into His courts with Praise. What a great invitation.

That thou sin is with Israel he invited them to the courts with praise; and yes offerings were to be given for sin and peace with God.

In the New Covenant where we are today we are invited to the same, but now we are being invited to a feast because the temple is not needed. The dwelling place of God because of Christ is now with man.

Revelation 21:3 ESV

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

You are are in Christ, Christ being the final atonement to please the Father are now invited to be with God eternally. That starts the moment Christ called you which is very well before the day of you being born again. He has chosen you before time, Predestined you unto election. What a beautiful invitation you have before you to enter His courts with praise.

God’s dwelling place is with man, no longer confined to a temple because now the atonement is paid in full. God does not have to hide himself from sinners, because He who is God came in the flesh to die for sinners.

Know God Verse 3

The calling then is if you are known by God, if His dwelling place is with man, then you may know God.

Other religions like Islam have the five Pillars to which if done they maybe able to enter Heaven, but still unsure.

The Jewish religion is still caught up in the shadows of the Old Covenant and are rejecting Christ every sabbath they hear His word read. Therefore are condemn until repentance and stuck in their lawful obedience in hopes of heaven.

Mormons are trying to become gods and enter a heaven to which they if there were obedient will reign over. Mormons Absuing the name of Jesus to make themselves god.

The you have eastern religions trying to make peace with themselves by works to enter Nirvana or at least come back as something worthwhile.

None of these religions know God or have the assurance they can know God. They are stuck in the cycle of works and fear.

But you Christian can know God, because of what Jesus has done for you upon the cross.

Steps in knowing God

Because we have a relationship with God we can grow in our knowledge and walk with Him.

Practical steps to do such:

A. Be in the word of God, mediate upon His word. We spoke of this in Psalm 1. So many Christians go daily, weeks, I have known Christians to go years without ever opening the word of God.

Friends’ if your not in the word of God, it’s like going weeks, without food. Eventually your body dies in roughly a months time without psychical food. Your soul is most likely dead to the things of God too unless for your election in Him, He keeps you. Which if your not in the word, there maybe a reason to examine your faith and salvation.

Why would a Christian not want to know God? If God has written 66 books for us to know Him we should desire strongly to be in the word.

B. Prayer

“ Prayer is breathing in the very presence of Heaven and Praise is breathing it out again.” Charles Spurgeon

Christian prayer is our connection with the triune God. This perhaps outside of being in the word is difficult for a child of God.

10 years I got married and a family friend by the name of Allen was a mentor to me. He gave me this book Practicing His Presence.

This book was about a Monk who in the hallways doing chores around the monastery would say a simply prayer every hour to draw him to the Lord and would just end up talking with God through out the day.

He built the discipline of prayer in his life.

While I wish I could tell you prayer will come easy, it will not. It will require of you patience, silence, and being in His word. If you set up times of your day to pray, or use prayers of the saints to guide you then do so. It is a discipline but the more you do it you end breathing in heaven and breathing out praises.

Knowing leads to Mission V2.

As you begin to know God, you begin to serve the Lord among His people and those that are lost. A stagnant Christian and church is a Christian that needs to practice the disciplines of knowing God and then will serving the Lord with gladness come.

Service or the great commission comes both in word and deed. One of the ways we will do this at Waughtown Baptist is through our countiuned ministry to shut ins and now our awareness of serving the undeserved often those without homes in our community.

I’m becoming more aware of the needs of Waughtown and her cultural make up. We are living right in the middle of a great place to serve the Lord by loving our neighbors.

The homeless care packages are just one way we can as a collective church work together to serve our neighbors. Or just down the road in the senior living apartments, stepping in their lives seeing where we can serve which can be as simple as bringing some of the breakfast leftovers from church.

Do so always giving the peace of Christ.

This is how Christ has called us to serve Him, by the giving of the gospel which is at the end of Matthew 28 and listen to these word of Jesus Matthew 25:31-41

Matthew 25:31–41 ESV

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Serve the Lord with gladness. This again can only come when you know the Lord, or it will done out of religious duty which is not worth anything.

The Lord is good therefore make a joyful noise. 1 and 5

The Lord’s love is great and endures forever. Christ has redeemed you and the faithfulness of God who gives salvation which is to know God and enjoy God shall be passed from generation to generation.

Therefore beloved children of God make a joyful noise to the Lord. For you are created to worship and glorify God.