We come now to Psalm 96 this morning but I want us to read also the historical context for that Psalm found in First Chronicles chapter 13. So our scripture lesson is First Chronicles 16 and Psalm 96. Let us stand for prayer for the Holy Spirit's enlightenment and remain standing for the reading of the word of God. We thank you O Lord for being our God. We thank you for revealing revealing yourself and your will to us in the scriptures. We thank you Lord Jesus Christ for being our savior. We thank you Holy Spirit of God for being our regenerator and sanctifier and illuminator and we do pray that you would illumine our hearts and minds to behold wonderful things. out of this word and made this word mold us and shape us more in the image of christ in his name we pray a man first chronicle sixteen and they brought in the ark of god and placed it inside the tent which david had pitched for it and they offered bird offerings and peace offerings before god when david had finished offering the bird offerings and the peace offerings he blessed the people in the name of the lord And he distributed to everyone of Israel both man and woman to everyone a loaf of bread and a portion of meat and a raisin cake. And he appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the Ark of the Lord even to celebrate and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel. Asaph the chief and second to him Zechariah and J.L. Jemraimoth J.L. Matataya Eliab Benaiah. Obed-Edom and Jael with musical instruments, harps, lyres. Also Asaph played loud sounding cymbals. And Benaiah and Jehaziel, the priests, blew trumpets continually before the Ark of the Covenant of God. Then on that day, David first assigned Asaph and his relatives to give thanks to the Lord. O give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among all the peoples. Sing to him. Sing praises to him. Speak of all his wonders. Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his face continually. Remember his wonderful deeds which he has done. His marvels and the judgments from his mouth. O seed of Israel, his servants. Sons of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. Remember his covenant forever the word which he commanded to a thousand generations The covenant which he made with Abraham and his oath to Isaac He also confirmed it to Jacob for a statute to Israel as an everlasting covenant saying to you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance when they were only a few in number very few and strangers in it and they wandered about from nation to nation and from one kingdom to another people and He permitted no man to oppress them, and he reproved kings for their sake, saying, Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm. Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. Tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and joy are in his place. 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 before him. Worship the Lord in holy array. Tremble before him, all the earth. Indeed, the world is firmly established. It will not be moved. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice and let them say among the nations the Lord reigns. Let the sea roar and all it contains. Let the field exalt and all that is in it. Then the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord for he's coming to judge the earth. Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good. For his loving kindness is everlasting. Then say save us O God of our salvation and gather us and deliver us from the nations to give thanks to the holy name and glory in that praise. Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel from everlasting even to everlasting. Then all the people said Amen and praise the Lord. Psalm 96. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. Tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds 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 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 of His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in holy attire. Tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Indeed, the world is firmly established. It will not be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all it contains. Let the field exult and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord for he is coming. For he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. You may be seated. Exegesis is what a preacher does when he wrestles with the text of scripture he's going to preach on to try to determine the true meaning of that text. uh... the word exit jesus is made up of two greek words x means out of from which we get the word exit and that the other part of the word means to uh... draw out to pull out something so that it preachers responsibility is not to put into a text what he wants that text to say it is to draw out from that text what that texas saying and be faithful to it now some of the songs When it comes to studying them and preparing a sermon, you've got to pull and pull and pull to figure out what that psalm is getting at, and to find out what the meaning of that psalm is, and it takes a great amount of work. Not so with Psalm 96. Psalm 96, all you have to do is touch it, and then this elixir starts flowing out of Psalm 96, and you just hope you have enough containers to hold all of this precious liquid that's coming out of this psalm. So I pray that Psalm 96 will do for you what it did for me it has been called in many sermons the Great Commission of the Old Testament Psalm 96 the Great Commission of the Old Testament. Now what's the Great Commission. Well the Great Commission is found at least three places in the New Testament in Matthew 28 Jesus said all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me go therefore make the world's nations my disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father Son of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even to the end of the earth. And then in the last chapter of Mark, Mark says it a little differently. He says, go into all the creation, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And then in Acts 1.8, you see a restatement of it again where it says that Jesus said, you are witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. So you see this mandate in the New Testament that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to His church is to go into all the world with the gospel and make all the world's nations Christ's disciples. So you see why Psalm 96 is called the Great Commission of the Old Testament because those same themes are found there in Old Testament words that God's people are to declare to the nations the Lord reigns and are to call upon all the world's nations to come and believe in him and serve him and worship him. Now we read first Corinthians six first Chronicles sixteen to give you something of the historical setting of Psalm ninety six. I'm sure it was obvious that some Psalm ninety six was taken right out of a longer song that's found in first Corinthians first Chronicles sixteen. Now that was a very important time in the life of God's people. The Ark of the Covenant was moved by David to the city of Jerusalem for the first time where it stayed throughout the rest of Old Testament history. Now what's the Ark of the Covenant? You remember the tabernacle that God told Moses to build, this great tent, had two rooms in it. The first room was called the Holy Place that had various symbolic pieces of furniture in it. And the back room was called the Holy of Holies, the holiest place in all the earth for Israel in the Old Testament. and a big veil separated the two rooms. And the one piece of furniture in that back room was the Ark of the Covenant. It was a box, a square box covered in gold with two cherubim with outstretched wings covering the box with a solid gold plate on top of it where the blood that came from the sacrifices out in the courtyard was brought and it was sprinkled on that golden plate called the propitiatory. That means that here that the high priest who comes into the Holy of Holies once a year is saying that it's only by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that your wrath is turned away that peace is made with you and we approach you solely in terms of his sprinkled blood. That Ark of the Covenant had nothing to do with Indiana Jones. I mean, don't think anything mystical superstitious about the Ark of the Covenant. There wasn't a bunch of ghosts in it that came out, you know, if the wrong German opened it. But that the Ark of the Covenant was a very sacred and holy box. covered with gold that was viewed as the throne of God symbolically never I knew what the throne of God but it was it was the symbol of the throne of God and in that covenant arc of the covenant was eventually was the original Ten Commandments the two tablets of stone and then Aaron's rod that budded and that here God's throne rests upon his law which law in the box is covered by shed blood on top I mean there's all kinds of symbolism here but the point is this arc of the covenant was a symbol of God's lordship over his people it was a pledge of God's presence with his people It was a symbol to Israel that as they were faithful to him, God would prove to them to be a reconciled God. So the Ark of the Covenant was the most important piece of furniture in all the Old Testament. It eventually was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the church. Where is the Ark of the Covenant now? I have no idea. Fascinating study, but who knows? Maybe Ethiopia. But the point is this. The point is that the Ark of the Covenant had finally come to Jerusalem. A fascinating study is what happened to the Ark of the Covenant between the time it was made in the days of Moses and particularly in the United Kingdom under Saul and David. It went from place to place under King Saul and under King David in various cities in Israel itself. And then because of the superstitious Philistines who who identified the Ark of the Covenant as Israel's God stole it on one occasion and then God caused them to have all these terrible painful experiences so they wanted to get the Ark of the Covenant out of their midst. So it has a fascinating history until David brings it to Jerusalem. And that was a day of great rejoicing that was a very high important high moment in the history of Israel one of the most important to the two most important things King David did when Israel was at its height as the most powerful nation in all the Middle East. The first thing that he did was to make Jerusalem the capital city of this nation. and the second thing he did was to centralize the worship of israel by making it jerusalem the worship center of this entire nation and the arc of the covenant came to set is set in that in that city uh... sim making jerusalem a holy city the holiest city in all the world where people would have to come to that city to worship the one true and living god and that you remember that david son solomon God called him to build instead of the little tent that David built For this ark to live in for to build the majestic one of the great wonders of the world Solomon's temple so now this Psalm 96 is a part of a longer psalm that was sung in praising God that the ark of the covenant now finally has come to Jerusalem and Now I want us to look at First Chronicles 16 because there are some very important themes there that we must presuppose when we come to our Psalm 96. Notice the first 16 verses of the song that's sung there in First Chronicles 16. It is a song of praise and thanksgiving for the display of God's grace and the wonders of his might in Israel's behalf in making them a nation in redeeming them out of Egypt and now in unifying them in the worship of Almighty God. And then in verses 17 through 22 the focus of the whole psalm is on this eternal covenant that God made with his people separating them from all the peoples of the world to be his own. Now I want you to notice some verses because this is a great text to show you that the covenant God made with his people didn't pass off the scene. at the end of the Old Testament but continues to this day that's why we who are people of the reform faith are also called we call what we believe covenant theology because we believe that all of scripture is unified by common theme And that common theme is this covenant that God made with his people in Abraham that was not abrogated or done away with but that was brought to completion in the Lord Jesus Christ and every book of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in somewhere another. adds to our understanding of and appreciation of this bond of friendship. That's what the word covenant means. This bond of friendship, this covenant that God has made with his people. Now covenant theology sets over against a more popular way of interpreting the Old Testament that we find in most churches in the South. And that more popular way is called dispensationalism. That says that the Bible is divided in a series of eras and dispensations and it all depends upon what era or dispensation you live in as to how God is going to deal with you and what part of the Bible is authoritative in your life. So dispensationalism cuts up the Bible, destroys any real unity in it, drives a wedge between the Old Testament and New Testament, the Old Testament for the Jews, the New Testament for the church. But that's not what the Bible does. That's not what the Old Testament does. The Old Testament itself says that this bond of friendship, this covenant that God made with his people is forever. Notice the text. That's the great thing that you have to bear in mind now when we come to Psalm 96. It says in verse 15, Remember his covenant for ever the word which is parallel with covenant the word which he commanded to a thousand generations the covenant which he made with Abraham and his oath to Isaac. He also confirmed it to Jacob for a statute to Israel as an everlasting covenant. Now those those verses say three things about this bond of friendship that God has established with his people. first of all he says in verse 15 that this one covenant singular that God made with Abraham is to be remembered forever and not just for the duration of the Old Testament. Second it says this covenant that God has commanded to his people is to last a thousand generations this covenant verse 16 that he made with Abraham and then in verse 17 it is specifically called an everlasting covenant. Now how many millennia I have taken place since God made this covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12. A little over 3,000 years. Now, how long is a generation? A generation is about 20 years, long enough to be able to produce another generation. About 20 years. It says this covenant is going to be in effect for 1,000 generations. I didn't do good in math I made a D minus in math in college only because I was center first string center on the basketball team but I think that if a generation is 20 years and there's a thousand of them but it means 20,000 years you that went to Georgia Tech am I right 20,000 years it's just been a little over 3,000 since Abraham We got 17,000 years to go for the covenant made with Abrahams to still be in effect. You see, there is the point of this text. The point of this text is that it's a hymn of praise to God for this eternal bond of friendship that God has established. And of course, a thousand generation doesn't mean literally 20,000 years. It means forever. It's what the word thousand means, forever. So it's praising God for this eternal covenant. Now, with whom does this psalm in 1 Corinthians 16 say that the covenant is made? Well, it says originally it was made with just a handful of people in verse 19. These blood descendants of Abraham, they were only few in number, very few. They wandered around from nation to nation. But then when you get down to verse 16, This psalm becomes full of praise and glory. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. Tell of his glory among the nations. His wonderful deeds 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 idols but the Lord made the heavens splendid majesty etc. and so here all of the nations in verse 29 and following are called upon to worship the Lord God Almighty and to ascribe to him the glory due his name. So here you see already in the Old Testament in the early parts of the Old Testament the promise that this covenant this bond of friendship between godless people that's forever that eventually in the Old Testament included only a few number of blood descendants of Abraham is someday going to embrace the entire world and the participants in that bond of friendship are going to be peoples and families and nations from all over the world for at least 17,000 more years to come now that is the background Psalm 96 so let's go to Psalm 96 it takes that little piece that we just looked at starting with verse 23 it takes that little piece of 1st Chronicles 16 and makes that its very own Psalm and what's the point of Psalm 16 it is a revelation of God's heart a revelation of God's heart God's heart from the very beginning since the days of Abraham and before and from all eternity in another sense God's heart from the very beginning was for vast numbers of all kinds of people's nations and families globally to know and love and praise and worship him that's always been the plan always been the plan and that's always been on God's heart and God has made us as members of his covenant community God has made us for global purposes God has made you and me for something big We are not to leave out any nation, any people, any family in the presentation of the Gospel because someday all the families and peoples and nations of the world are going to be brought in to this great bond of friendship with the Living God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That we have a great mission in this world today. That's why it's called the Great Mission, Great Commission of the Old Testament. I was at a conference in Asheville the past couple, two or three days About 1800 people there and one of the speakers a friend of mine called Joel Beaky a great Dutch Presbyterian preacher. As a young man I told him we have something in common and that is we've both been defrocked and deposed from the ministry. That I was deposed from the ministry back in 1973 when I was in a liberal denomination and they didn't like people like me. But he was defrocked from a Dutch Calvinist congregation denomination because he dared to present the gospel to somebody. And dared to freely offer the gospel to a lost sinner because that denomination believes if God's going to save sinners he can do it himself and he doesn't need our help. And you see how ingrown the church has been through the years but the point of the Psalm is it's entirely different. You and I have been given made members of this covenant community to declare to everybody and not to leave anybody else out that this salvation can apply to them that someday all of the peoples of this world would be brought in to this family of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We see promises like that all the way back in Genesis thirty five verse eleven. where the Lord says after he renames Jacob Israel and it says thus he called him Israel and God also said to him I am God Almighty be fruitful and multiply a nation and a company of nations shall come forth from you and King shall come forth from you underneath that word company in Hebrew is the Hebrew word for church K A H A L Q A H A L QAHAL so here all the way back in Genesis to Israel God says I'm going to make a mighty church that's going to come not only from your loins but from nations all over the world and you remember what it says about Jesus in John 6 where he's called the bread of life in John 6 33 it does not say for the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to only a small group of ingrown Calvinists it says this for the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world Jesus had the world on his heart when he was dying on the cross he had a world of elect people from all tribes tongues and nations on his heart he came to fulfill Psalm 96 well now let's look at Psalm 96 it's divided into two sections and the connections beautiful The first 10 verses you see the gospel is for the world's nations and a gospel call for all the nations of the world. In verses 11 through 13 you see a gospel call for all inanimate creation to worship the Lord. So that the first 10 verses are addressed to all the world's nations. verses 11 through 13 a call addressed to the creation itself. Now in verses 1 through 10 you have two things. You have a specific litany of demands that the gospel makes on all the nations the world he says that in essence to the world's nations that if you're going to participate in this bond of friendship that got established with his people then there's a certain kind of response that god demands of you And that in Old Testament language he defines the nature of that response which the New Testament would say is faith, repentance, obedience. But all of these words, there's ten various demands, all of these words together amount to faith, repentance, and obedience. So let's see what is the demand the gospel places on the nations of the world if they are to experience salvation to be brought into the family of God. Verses 1 and the first part of verse 2. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. You see now he is not addressing Israel he is addressing all the earth in this song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord. Who is being addressed? All the earth. Everybody in the whole wide world down through all the generations of mankind for at least 17,000 more years What is being demanded of? the world's nations Not simply that they sing about the Lord, but that they sing to the Lord That is that they offer their praise and their worship to the Living God and to that God alone What is to be sung? by the nations of the world if they're going to expect to be adopted into God's family a new song but wait a minute Psalm 96 is not a new song Psalm 96 you see all the way back in first Chronicles 16 and then again and Chronicles was probably written by Ezra so Ezra knew this song This is an old song, probably written by Asaph or David. It is an old song, but in what sense is it new? It has a new application now. It's now praising God for the new and greater display of His mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ's global kingdom to come. It has a new purpose. It is a song addressed to the Lord with renewed faith and renewed love. It's new in that sense. that it has a new application a greater application and incomparable application in that now it's not talking about the arc being moved to Jerusalem it's talking about the establishment of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ to whom the arc pointed and then the other question we'd ask is who is to issue this demand who is to say to all the earth saying to the Lord and you'll be saved Only those who are singing can call others to sing. I mean if you were to say to somebody with a dull face monotonous voice bitterness coldness in you okay let's all stand up and sing joy to the world. everybody's going to be excited about singing joy to the world no only those who are singing joy to the world can call other people to sing that great song only those who know and sing the new song of Revelation 519 can call upon the world's nations to sing that song with any credibility What does Revelation 5 9 say and they sang a new song saying? Worthy art thou to take the book and to break its seals for thou was slain and its purchase for God with thy blood people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation and Thou has made them to be a kingdom of priests to our God and they will reign upon the earth You see the same thing that we find in Psalm 96. Here's a new song a song about the Lord Jesus Christ who governs history who administers all the various promises and curses of God from this great book to the various peoples of nations of history and who actually shed his blood on the cross to purchase for himself not every tribe, tongue, people, and nation but to purchase for himself a people out of and from every tribe, tongue, people upon the face of this earth. That if we're not singing that, if we don't believe that song, If that's not something that thrills our hearts that the Lord Jesus Christ purchased a people for himself out of all the nations of the world by shedding his blood and made us a kingdom of priests and we will reign with him forever and ever. If that doesn't cause us to sing then anything we say to anybody else about being a Christian and why they should become a Christian is not credible. It's just not believable. It will sound so shallow. So if you're going to tell other people that you're a Christian make sure you sing it. Make sure you're singing to the Lord if you want other people to sing to the Lord. Look at the second part of verse 2. It says the nations if they expect to be adopted into God's family must bless his name. Now to bless his name is to praise him for everything he is. Remember the name of God. That word name is so important. The word name applies to every way by which God has revealed himself to man and everything God has revealed about himself to man that the name of God caught the gist as it were I should say is a revelation of God's character and God's will. So when the nations of the world are called upon to bless his name they are to recognize that the only God there is the creator of the universe is a God who has revealed himself. And he has revealed himself not only in this creation but most especially in the Bible and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes I am asked by people, why do you choose to worship one of the ancient religious books when there were so many? I mean you had Hinduism, Buddhism. All these religions were formed before Christ. Why do you pick a revealed book from a little bunch of nomads called the Hebrews? Well, besides giving a bunch of other reasons, I say to them, there was no other revealed book. There was no religion in all of ancient history to claim to have a revelation from its God. There was no other revealed book. Hinduism, Buddhism, both atheistic. There is no God in either one of those. All the various other religions has these little gods that competed with each other, none of whom were competent to reveal their hearts and their minds. And when we as Christians say that we believe in the name of the Lord and we bless the name of the Lord, we're saying that our God is the only God there is and the only God who has revealed himself and his will to us. And therefore if these nations of the world are to bless the Lord and be saved and be members of this covenant community they must reject all of the gods they worship. That the repentance must be real and life wide. As one Pakistani told me with reference to a person who there used to be back in Atlanta Airport there used to be these Buddhists that had their little things they'd give away flowers and everything. Some little Pakistani Christian just got to America and went up to one of these Buddhists and he said, Are you a Christian? And the Buddhist looked at him and said, I am a Christian also. And the little naive Pakistani said, There is no also in the Christian gospel. And that's the message we we must say to the nations. You might get yourself killed. Somebody might walk away from you as being bigoted and intolerant. But to bless the Lord you must say you may bless no other God. But this God alone. Also in the second part of verse two it says to the nations now, now notice all the nations of the earth are commanded this, proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. That sounds awful New Testamenty doesn't it? proclaim, preach, announce, declare, glad tidings, good news, gospel of salvation and so here the nations of the world from day to day, permanently, perpetually are to proclaim and declare this gospel to others that they themselves have embraced so that the psalmist is presupposing a time when all the nations of the world will share in the saving grace of God. And so now he calls upon them not only to believe the good news of salvation but to share that good news and to celebrate that good news themselves. One of the great blessings that I read recently about the history of missions is you know what nation has more missionaries than anybody else in the Middle East to Muslims. not the Americans not the British the Koreans the Korean church realizes its responsibility the gospel came to Korea Korea has been in a constant state of revival now ever since the early part of the twentieth century and now that nation sees its responsibility having multitudes of people there having embraced the gospel now see their responsibility to go into all the world and to proclaim the good news of salvation to other people. Verse three, the nations are told, tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples. This refers to the greatest display of God's glory in history. A display of glory far greater than anything anybody in the Old Testament ever saw. It is the when God appeared in Christ as the redeemer of all the world and as a result of that the nations are told in verses seven and eight a scribe to the Lord all families of the people's a scribe to the Lord glory and strength a scribe to the Lord the glory of his name. So here all the nations of the world now are called upon by God through his people. to give God and God alone the glory the praise the devotion that he's do which is word commands of us that there would be one rule and one form of religion only in all of the nations throughout the world you understand what what the what the purpose of this call to the nations is ascribed to Jehovah glory ascribed to the God of the Bible revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ the only God who was there ascribe him glory What he's saying is that there's coming a day when all of these nations the world this is God's goal for evangelism and for the Great Commission and for the work of the church that there will only be one religion among all the nations of the world. verse eight the last part bring offering or more literally bring a meal offering now since this is a messianic song that prophesies what would take place during the days of the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some people have taken that to mean that here is here that nations when they're converted to Christ are commanded to bring Old Testament offerings to the Lord. And so you have some brands of dispensationalism that believes that eventually, during the millennium, there's going to be the reinstitution of the whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament. Well, that's not the point here, of course. Not the point at all. Those were shadows that had a temporary purpose until Christ the substance came. And once he came, all those shadows passed off the scene. But here's the thing to bear in mind when you read these great prophecies. The Old Testament writers describe the renewal of of the church and the renewal of worship in Christ in words and symbols that were common and understandable in the age in which they lived they would take Old Testament phrases and Old Testament symbolism that Old Testament people understood to describe the renewal of the worship of God in the Lord Jesus Christ That doesn't mean that they're literally these offerings are literally to be applied but it means that that which they pointed to that which they symbolized. Has come in the Lord Jesus Christ now what is this meal offering there were a variety of offerings in the whole sacrificial system this one is a bloodless one. There were some offerings like the burnt offering that symbolized the fact that when you offer your animal to the Lord that's totally consumed in the flame that you're totally consecrating yourself to the living God. In this meal offering you would bring loaves of bread that you had made with the grain that you had grown and ground into meal and flour. And the point is of the meal offering is when you come before the Lord with a meal offering you not only offer to him yourself but you offer to him the work of your hands that you consecrate to the Lord all of your strength all of your energy all of your gifts in his service to the exclusion of devotion and service to any other God. And that's an essential part of worship when you come to worship the Lord today. A part of that worship is bringing what the meal offering symbolized and saying, Lord, having given to you myself, I now offer to you today the work of my hands, what I produce, what I live for, what I accomplish in my life. And the last part of verse eight says, not only to bring an offering, but bring an offering and come into his courts. Now we've seen that pre in previous songs will see it in in succeeding songs. That's a phrase for worship to enter into his courts with Thanksgiving means to enter into congregational worship symbolized in the tabernacle with the courts around the tabernacle later around the temple that it symbolizes the public congregational worship of the Lord now verse eight is addressed to the nations the world. and to the nations of the world down through history for seventeen thousand years it says bring an offering and come into his courts and worship publicly as nations the one true and living God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ assemble yourselves as nations with all of your citizens and all of your institutions in the courts of the one true God for public and national worship and to do that you have to leave all other gods in other words what you're calling the nations the world to do in the Great Commission the same thing Jesus said Jesus didn't say in Matthew 28 make solitary individuals here and there among the nations my disciples He said very literally in Greek, make the world's nations my disciples. Don't rest until you have brought the discipline and the power of the word of God to bear in the transformation of the nations themselves. In the entirety of their lives and in all of their institutions and in every aspect of their societies. It's not just individuals, it's whole nations that is the target. of the Great Commission and we see that here in the eighth verse of the ninety six chapter a song that the nations of the world are called upon not to be religiously neutral not to be tolerant of all religions and supportive of none not to legalize all religions there. They're called upon. If you want to be in God's covenant community and experience all the blessings of salvation then you as a nation must quit tolerating all other religions quit worshiping all other gods and as a nation gather in national worship to the living and true God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words nations the world United States You want to be saved. You want to be adopted into God's bond of friendship. You want all the blessings of being a adopted into God's family as a nation. Then repent of religious pluralism and religious neutrality. As long as the sacred cow of the United States of America is the freedom of religion. all religions so that in this country you have the legal protection of the government to worship the God of your choice as long as America believes that it has no future neither the Republicans nor the Democrats nor anybody else can save them from the consequences of their idolatry God says to all the earth you want to be a part of this covenant family dedicate yourself to me and come into my courts as a nation and worship me and me alone verse 9 worship the Lord in holy attire Now there are several ways of translating that phrase. Worship the Lord in holy attire. It can say worship the Lord in the splendor or beauty of holiness. Or it can mean worship the Lord in the beauty of the temple. The word worship there in Hebrew means to bow down so that worship is an act of submission. Nations of the world, you want to get in on God's favors and God's blessings, bow down in submission to him and serve and worship him alone. In the beauty of his temple in Old Testament times there was one place where everybody had to come to worship God. And that was the temple in Jerusalem. Originally remember the temple was put there by David that became the temple in Jerusalem. That was the center of the world. That was the most holy place in all the world. That's where the world had to come to worship. Well that temple was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he and his church are said to be the temple of God in the New Testament. so that now if any of the nations the world are to be saved and have their sins forgiven and to live under God's blessing they must come into the temple they must come to Christ and they must come into his church just like they had to go to the literal temple in the Old Testament that temples gone now Christ and his church is the temple the one and only place in all the world where God is to be known and if the nations the world to be saved They are to come into the beauty of that temple with reverence solemnity all adoration submission worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness is probably the most familiar translation of that text every Sunday morning every time this church meets something beautiful happens in this less than beautiful building and what makes what happens here so splendorous and so beautiful the holiness of the God who comes to meet us in worship the sanctity and holiness of the ordinances of worship themselves and the holiness that defines the character of the worshipers what is holiness when it applies to us consecration of God the desire to live by his law and to separate ourselves from the contaminations of this evil world that you are you a holy people you worship the Lord in the beauty of holy attire Verse nine worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness tremble before him all the earth tremble before his face is what it says literally we and all nations should prostrate ourselves as suppliants before him whenever we consider his awesome majesty to tremble before the presence of God because we love him Now you know most Christianity doesn't think anything about that at all you go to most churches today and the worship service is very casual. It's very people are overly familiar with God. Everything is upbeat everything is just so happy and so superficial and so easy. And you want to be of course seeker friendly. You want to make sure that no matter how wicked a person is who comes in his room he feels at home. He feels comfortable. So you want the worship service to sort of be like you did, you know, and where our smoking jackets are, should I say robes and slippers and things like that and have a good time, just sort of chilling out in worship. So this world knows very little about coming to church and trembling before the face of God. Because you who love him know who that God is. because of his glory and his majesty you tremble before this God whom you love all the earth is called upon by the gospel of Christ to turn from all other religions and all other forms of worship and to present themselves in their entirety wholly and only to the service and worship of of the Lord God Jehovah incarnate in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when they understand who God really is they'll tremble before him. You don't tremble before the gods of other religions. You don't tremble before the off-brands of Christianity and the less than biblical expressions of Christianity all around where God's just a good friend or your great-granddaddy. You don't tremble before such a God. but the living and true God you tremble before. And you know the Bible does prophesy in various places that there is coming a time when the kingdoms and peoples of the earth will reject all other forms of worship and all other religions and give themselves to the worship of God in fear and trembling. Let me read one place to you for you Isaiah 66 verses 18 through 20 and verse 23. Listen Isaiah 66 18 through 20 and verse 23. for I know their works and their thoughts the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues and they shall come and see my glory and I will set a sign among them and will send survivors from them to the nations to the distant coast lands that have neither heard my fame nor seen my glory and they will declare my glory they will declare my glory among the nations then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the Lord to my holy mountain Jerusalem says the Lord and it shall be from new moon to new moon and from Sabbath the Sabbath for seventeen thousand years that all mankind will come all mankind will come and bow down before me says the Lord You say, well, Joe, there's just one little problem. I don't see it. I see a few here and there. I see in my lifetime a minority of those who believe in true and mixed Christian religion. So where is all this mankind from Sabbath to Sabbath that's going to bow down before the Lord? Where is all that? Well, I'm with you. I mean, I don't see it either. But you and I must not walk by sight but by faith we're not to judge how we're going to look at life in the future in terms of what we see but what God has revealed. And God says there is coming a time on this earth from Sabbath the Sabbath when all mankind shall come and bow to worship me. Now the question I ask you is you do you have the faith to believe that God's able to do what he promises. Remember remember how the verse started for I know their works and their thoughts the time is coming Together all nations and tongues and they shall come and see my glory. Can you say that just as automatically there's coming a time when they all mankind shall come and worship the living God Verse 24 then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations is a grain offering to the Lord to my holy mount in Jerusalem says the Lord And it shall be from new moon to new moon from Sabbath to Sabbath. All mankind will come and bow down before me. You know when Isaiah wrote these words in the 66 chapter he may have been thinking of Psalm 96 it's so similar. It teaches us that the Great Commission will be successful. And that through a faithful church there will be a day. Empowered by the Holy Spirit. when the world's nations will become Christ's disciples. Verse 10. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Indeed, the world is firmly established. It will not be moved. Here you see the message of the gospel. That is to be declared to the nations and declared by the nations. Very simple one. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. So here you see the focus of the gospel, the only gospel that's able to save individuals and nations is the sovereignty of God. And the sovereignty of God's grace. God does whatever he pleases. Nobody can hold back his hand and keep him from accomplishing whatever he wants to accomplish. Whatever he's planned he will do. He has foreordained everything that comes to pass. God's grace is so sovereign and so almighty that God's grace saves whomever God pleases. He said, I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion and I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I am the Lord that does all these things. That's the message of salvation. Not man has a free will and God's got to do everything he can to try to manipulate man to cooperate with him. The message of the gospel is the Lord reigns. God is a sovereign God. Isaiah verse chapter 40 says this Get yourself on a high mountain old Zion bearer of good news Lift up your voice mightily old Jerusalem bearer of good news lift it up. Do not fear say to the cities of Judah Here's your God So there's the message the message to the world the message the nations are to believe and to proclaim is that God is a sovereign God. What's the message the church needs to turn a whore into a bride. We've got a whore today. Excuse me for using those words those are biblical words. The church must change from that to being a bride. How do you do it? By the church once again believing the gospel that made her in the first place. What is that gospel? Behold your God and your God reigns and you must bow before him in total submission. Then in these first ten verses we have a description of the character of God. which is the basis of these demands placed upon the world. Let me just hurry through them. First part of verse four. For great for means here's why you should do these things. Here's why you should sing a new song. Here's why you should bring a grain offering. Here's why you should bow down before him. Here's why you should enter your court. His court. Here's why you should turn from all other religions to worship the one true and living God in Christ for great is the Lord. And greatly is to be praised. Now, let me put in a modern idiomatic phrase. Don't take this word literally. This is an idiomatic phrase. You don't take idiomatic phrases literally. When it says, great is the Lord, you know how to say it? God is incredible. Now, God is not incredible. But God is incredible. He's incomparable. He's the only God there is worthy of universal praise. Now if we're to call upon the Lord of the world to believe in God because God is the incomparable God and God is great. What does that mean for us. That means that in every age we who are God's covenant people are called upon to maintain an intense conflict with all false religions and superstitions that feel the whole earth. You understand that the whole world has conspired together to believe a lie. And is everywhere we turn suppressing the truth and unrighteousness and everywhere we go in the presentation of the gospel. It's not an easy thing. That's why people come to church and never come back. That's why people here that you talk to and present the gospel to leave you as a friend or get mad at you as a family member. Because we're at war. These people are blindly committed to a lie that they know is a lie. And you and I are to expose that lie to them. as we are to call them out of darkness into God's light. Verse 4, the last part. God is to be feared above all gods. Verse 5. Why? For all the gods of the peoples are idols. The word idol means literally in Hebrew nothings, nonexistence. Here's why you should turn from all the idols that men worship. They're nonexistence. But God has brought everything into existence. There's the great contrast. Idols are nothing. All the religions of the world can't do a thing for you, but God created everything that exists. He made the heavens. Verse 6. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. The psalmist is saying that we cannot know God until we believe that he is of incomparable glory, majesty, beauty splendor and majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his sanctuary when you believe that you tremble before him you stand in all before him and so I ask you before we go on does the God most American Christians serve look like the God of Psalm 96 When they think of their God they think of a God in splendor and majesty and strength and beauty. Or do they think of a God they can maneuver. That's not really concerned about their sins. Now the last verses of this psalm are beautiful are beautiful verses. Let me read them again. Verses 11 through 13. let the heavens be glad let the earth rejoice let the sea roar and all it contains let the field exalt and all that's in it then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord for he is coming for he is coming to judge the earth he will judge the world in righteousness and the people's in his faithfulness now after having called all of the world's nations to worship the Lord now he's calling in metaphorical language He's calling upon all inanimate creation to worship the Lord. He's saying mountains, fields, sea, everything in the sea, trees of the forest, rejoice, sing, bow in worship and gratitude and joy before the living God for He is coming. For He is coming to judge the earth. and he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness." So here you have a call, a beautiful call. Creation, mountains, rejoice that the nations of the world are going to be saved. That God's going to come to save them. and it's certain that they are notice the phrase in verse 12 you have a command in a statement let the field exalt and all that is in it then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy in other words there's coming a time metaphorically when this will be the description of every mountain every tree on this earth it will be singing God's praises that all the nations have been brought to submission to him who is the judge of all the earth Now this idea of field singing and mountain singing and tree singing, this is something that Isaiah picked up and used over and over again. Let me just read some of his prophecies in terms of Psalm 96. Isaiah 61, 11. And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. In the spring when you plant your flowers, you plant your vegetables, and as you're watching those things spring up and responding positively to the rain and the sunshine and you're tilling the garden, let that remind you that someday we are going to see God causing righteousness to sprout and praise. to grow and to blossom before all nations Isaiah 49 13 shout for joy oh heavens and rejoice over earth break forth in the joyful shouting old mountains for the Lord has comforted at his people and sometimes the prophecies of the future will be put in past tense to impress you with the certainty their fulfillment And he's saying, for the Lord will comfort his people in the Lord Jesus Christ with salvation and will have compassion on his afflicted. Isaiah 35 verses 1 and 2, the wilderness and the desert will be glad and the desert will rejoice and blossom like the crocus. It will blossom profusely and rejoice with rejoicing and shouts of joy. They will see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Wouldn't it be great to live in such an earth? Isaiah 44 23 shout for joy oh heavens for the Lord has done it shout joyfully you lower parts of the earth break forth into a shout of joy you mountains Oh forest and every tree in it for the Lord has redeemed Jacob and in Israel he shows forth his glory So the point is that all the conversion of the nations of the world and the worshiping of God by all the nations the world will affect the entire creation that the entire creation will rejoice when it sees the completion of salvation of all the peoples of the earth. Turn with me to Isaiah 11 Isaiah 11 And it says this in verse six. Now, what am I showing you? I'm showing you that when the nations of the earth are brought to faith in Christ, it's going to impact the entire creation. Everything's going to be different. That's already begun embryonically. Verse six. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little boy will lead them, and the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and the nursing child will play with the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Then it will come about in that day that the nations will resort to the root of Jesse. who will stand as a signal for the people's and his resting place will be glorious now that's a messianic prophecy it says life on this planet is going to be transformed in every aspect international peace the restoration of Edenic conditions when the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord is proclaimed high and low and the nations are brought to faith in Christ but there's even a greater fulfillment creation will be affected by redemption and that greater fulfillment is in Romans 8 verse 19 for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God for the creation was subjected to futility not of its own will but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself also would be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God for we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains not of death but the pains of childbirth together until now the whole creation yearns and longs and groans for that day When all of God's people from all of the nations of the world, which people have been purchased by the blood of Christ, will be completely and totally saved, physically, spiritually, socially, and the whole universe will be perfected. That's the vision. That's the hope. That's the promise of Psalm 96. Now let me conclude by just saying two things. One, remember what Psalm 96 is. It is a missionary psalm for all ages of the church. Psalm 96 is the Great Commission in Old Testament language. Why are you in the church? What did God save you to do? What's your mission? What's your role in this world? You should see it as global. find out what your party is as a church as individuals don't be so focused on yourself and your own problems and our own problems that we forget that we're on a global mission and that our responsibility is to make sure that the good news of salvation is proclaimed in every nation every people every language on the face of this globe and that every one of us who are in covenant with God and who are members of God's covenant community and who experience this salvation by grace and who know what it is to give themselves to Christ and to be purchased by Christ's blood. Every single one of us have a role to play in the conversion of the nations and peoples and tribes of this world. Have you figured yours out yet? Have you figured out what the role of this church is in taking the gospel to the nations not just local communities not just the state not just the nation but to the world. God has used us as a church in dramatic ways in presenting the gospel to peoples and nations and kingdoms all over this world. Are you playing your part. What are you doing I'm talking about praying I'm talking about money I'm talking about taking an interest in I'm talking about some way something you and your family can do to get involved read missionary letters bring people into your home that aren't Christians having for dinner witness to them participate in the various works and missions of the church. We have a bunch of great tracks and book booklets that the church bought for you and tonight this afternoon we'll have them on a table out there take take a few don't take a bunch each but take some of each and then give them away to people then buy your own. And here's my last word. If this is by William Plummer if a redeemed sinner should keep silent on redemption he would be a monster if you're a redeemed sinner and you never talk about redemption you're a monster Why? Why? Well, I mean, you have been redeemed from the consequences of your sin and from a hell to which you deserve to go. You know that sin does have consequences. You know that people who are not redeemed, who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, are going to go to hell. And by God's grace, not because of any merit on your part, he saved you. and when you look around at all your friends and families and everybody else that you know that's lost and you keep your mouth shut and you never say anything to anybody about wait a minute wait a minute you keep the direction you're going now you're going to hell you're a monster so I pray that Psalm 96 would make us appreciate our role in God's scheme of things and that God would use everyone our church and every one of us Toward that day when all the earth. Shall sing the new song. Let us pray. Lord we do rejoice in this. Great song that we've just studied. We thank you for its truth we thank you for your faithfulness to what you have spoken. We thank you that you've taste we caused us to taste the reality of this song in our own lives. And now Lord we pray that you would bless us as a church as individuals and all the churches in our little adomination. As well as the other churches of the world. To see our responsibility. Into proclaiming the good news of salvation to all the world's nations until that day comes when the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. For Jesus' sake. Amen. Let us rededicate ourselves to the